Come See THE GAME OVERTHINKER at MAGFEST 2014!

Hey guys! Just a quick FYI: I will be at MAGFest from Jan 2nd to Jan 5th this year, and should you see me on the floor your invited to come up and say hello (unless, y'know, you can tell I'm in the middle of something like or phonecall or whatever.)

Officially, I'm scheduled (you can see the whole MAGFest Schedule Map HERE) to appear at four panels on what they call the "MAGES" circuit:

"THE POLITICS OF GAMING" (Friday 1pm-2pm)

"ARE AAA STUDIOS STILL CREATIVELY RELEVANT" (Saturday 11:30am-12:30pm)

"PROMOTING GOOD GAMING COMMUNITY" (Saturday 5:30pm-6:30pm)

"GAMES AS A NARRATIVE MEDIUM" (8:30pm-9:30pm)

I'm also planning to bring copies of SMB3: BRICK BY BRICK with me to sell (probably cash only, but we'll see how my Square Reader is working) and sign on request, for anyone whose interested.

Look forward to seeing folks there!

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YEAR END SPECIAL

Here's some lightheartedness for the end of the year, and a nice lil' announcement about the actual Episode 90: ASK IVAN is back, and anyone so inclined can start submitting questions in the Intense Debate comments below this post. I'll crosspost a YouTube version later in the week and comments under that will also be considered; but this is the primary spot. Happy Holidays!

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Everyone Is Better At Selling XBox One Than Microsoft

Microsoft and Sony are both basically running with the same theme for their Now-Gen console advertising: People in their mid-20s/early-30s being blinked into live-action versions of game scenarios. They're all pretty-much the same in one other regard, too - most of the "This could be you having this much fun!" audience-identification characters are overwhelmingly young white dudes.

Certainly nothing wrong with that, but at a point where console manufacturing and game development are both getting so expensive that it's likely a mathematical impossibility for anyone to continue growing in this business without actively seeking to grown their consumer base outside the traditional "archetypal gamer" paradigm it'd be nice to see Sony or Microsoft show (through ad-casting) that they're at least thinking about broader groups of people who might enjoy their games.

So I was really psyched to come home about an hour ago and catch the midpoint of this commercial, in which the "escape into gaming" involves a Dead Rising/Left 4 Dead type zombie scenario. It's exactly like all the others, except this time the central figure is... a black woman. Yeah. In a video-game ad. As "The Gamer," instead of as "the girlfriend" or "the person who'll use this more as a media-hub." How refreshing! How novel! How forward-looking! How very much unlike what you expect of XBox advertising...



...how bloody-perfect that it's NOT actually an XBox commercial, but rather a McDonald's commercial advertising a promo with XBox prizes.

Wanna know the secret - as in, the secret to why McDonald's is suddenly (and effortlessly!) "better" about gamer diversity than actual game companies are? Simple: Because McDonald's (whatever else you may think of them) thinks hard and thinks BIG. When McDonald's thinks "people we think we can make into customers," they're thinking of everybody on the damn planet.

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Only a Game

Will there be a new episode - or a new OVERBYTES - before the New Year? I dunno - anyone got any extra hours in the day to spare? (Working on it, though - seriously.) Until then, here's a gift for the Holidays.

This being "GOTY Season," a lot of people are angry at this or that swath of Games Journalism. Well, take heart, kiddies - whatever Games Journalism may or may not be... at least you're not dealing with Sports Journalism.

Happy Holidays.

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Super Mario 3D World: Reviewed

(Oh, by the way, have we all seen the NEW EPISODE?)

So, the secret is out: THE ESCAPIST let me try my hand at game reviews for SUPER MARIO 3D WORLD. You can find the full text-review HERE, below is the very purty video supplement The Escapist's video guys helpfully put together using my less-than-purty vocals:

The Escapist : Reviews : Super Mario 3D World Review

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EPISODE 89: "GHOSTS BUSTED"

A few days overdue. Couldn't be helped, but I hope you find it worth the wait:

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Just A Test

Because Twitter is weird about animated-gifs, here's a short lo-res FX test for some new Storm Trooper/Putty Patrol type guys for upcoming episodes. At this point, they don't have official names. 

Incidentally, something that's not fun? Making reflective-surface work on a greenscreen set. Hence why the guys in the rear have more a flatter matte-finish on their non-faces (foreground guy was shot far enough from the screen to not reflect it directly.

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The Infamous She

Me and The Most Dangerous Woman In Video-Games, shortly before a presentation (hers) in Boston. Hat-tip to my friend Monica for snapping the photo:

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EPISODE 88 RE-POSTED (for comments error)

NOTE: Re-posted b/c Blogger's shitty interface somehow allowed some individual to post comments using the blogger system, which wiped-out the VASTLY superior Intense Debate comments. I apologize to anyone whose commenting was lost, and invite them to re-post.

Yes, about a week overdue. In my defense, shooting included a bunch of stuff that should (theoretically) get the next one done much sooner.

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EPISODE 87: GTAV Is Not A Satire (*Probably)

Yes, about a week overdue. In my defense, shooting included a bunch of stuff that should (theoretically) get the next one done much sooner.

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Escapist Expo LiveStream

Hey folks. Escape to The Movies should be up in the regular place and time later today, though I'll be otherwise engaged to post it here on the blog(s). Either way, here's the live-stream of the main panel theater from The Escapist Expo.



My appearance schedule as of now looks like this (all times EST):

3pm Friday - Q&A
9am Saturday - "I'M MAD ABOUT X"
10:30am Saturday - PS4/WiiU/XBox speculation/debate
12pm Saturday - BIG PICTURE QUIZ SHOW
3pm Saturday - Q&A
4:30pm Saturday - NO RIGHT ANSWER Escapists Debate
6:30pm Saturday - COSPLAY CONTEST (I'm a judge)
1:30pm Sunday - Top 5 Geek Movies of 2013
3pm Sunday - Q&A

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Big Picture: MEMORIUM

Hiroshi Yamauchi, 1927 - 2013

The Escapist : The Big Picture : Memorium

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End Of An Epoch

Hiroshi Yamauchi, the former president of Nintendo, has passed away at the age of 85. Video-Games have lost their Walt Disney.

The importance of this man to the gaming industry cannot be overstated. He was the one who decided to change his family company's direction away from traditional toys and playing cards toward electronics and ultimately video games. He made the decision to branch out into American and European markets. This was the man who tapped then-unknown Shigeru Miyamoto to create what would become Donkey Kong.

This was the man who willed home video gaming back into existence as a viable worldwide business when it was all but dead. It's neither exaggeration nor hyperbole to suggest that the entirety of modern video-gaming - everything from the first Game & Watch titles and every single thing that came after - was built on the foundation he laid. More incredible still, he remained in charge of the company all the way into 2002 and had an active role in all major company decisions well into the GameCube era. It's impossible to imagine what this industry would've looked like without him... or if it would even have existed at all.

Gomeifuku wo inorimasu, Yamauchi-sama.

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REMINDER!

This is happening TODAY. Come on out and say hi :)

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Call of Duty: Ghosts (Single-Player Trailer)

As near as can be discerned from this reveal trailer, the story of "CALL OF DUTY: GHOSTS" goes like this: Astronauts with machine guns take over a satellite-based weapon and use it to bomb America into "I Am Legend"-level ruin in advance of a ground invasion; which is opposed by a team of heroes - and their trusty dog - who've all adopted the signature look of a previous COD game's popular masked-hero "Ghost."

Okay. I'm paying attention now.





One of my ongoing issues with previous COD titles has been the disconnect between their sensibilities (dumb as a bag of hammers and cartoonishly militaristic in the vein of Michael Bay) and their narrative/presentation (winkingly "realistic" and sombre in the vein of John Philip Sousa.) This one appears to have addressed these concerns rather adequately: If you're going to be dumb (spoiler: This is going to be dumb) you might as well be Astronauts With Machine Guns dumb.

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TGO Returns To YouTube

Okay, so, firstly: Most recent episode was a Top Ten of Generation 7 Countdown. Did you watch it? Watch it.

Secondly: I've decided to start putting old(er) episodes back up on YouTube, promotionally. The show is still going to live on Blip, and new episodes will make their debut there. But after a month or so, they'll hit YT for the sake of promotion and also because I know some folks have issues accessing the Blip player.

Episodes 78 through 86 went up today, find links after the jump. Also, don't forget: I'll be appearing in person this Saturday (9/14) at ACAM/FunSpot in New Hampshire from noon to 3pm to sell and sign copies of "Brick-By-Brick," so if you're in the New England area please feel free to swing by - if you've never been to ACAM, it's pretty incredible.

Here are the nine episodes that went up today, in case you missed any:

EPISODE 78: "PRESS-PLAYED"
"Dorito-Gate" episode, plus a recap of the show up to that point and introduction of Mr. Phibb.

EPISODE 79: "IN PRAISE OF CLONES"
Different types of "originality" in game design, return of PyroThinker and CryoThinker.

EPISODE 80: "COLLECT CALLING"
Classic Compilations that don't exist, but should. Introduction of Dr. Beardo.

EPISODE 81: "LET THIS BE THE END"
The need for a One Console Future, argued. Return of NecroThinker.

EPISODE 82: "NEVER GROW OLD"
David Cage and Warren Spector's controversial DICE 2013 DICE lectures, disputed.

EPISODE 83: "THE NEXT CRASH"
The near-inevitability of a second Game Industry Crash. Also: NecroThinker vs. RoboThinker, debut of PlasmaThinker.

EPISODE 84: "STARVING ARTISTS"
A polite swipe at self-styled auteur developers. OmegaThinker defeats RoboThinker.

EPISODE 85: "REFL3CTIONS"
E3 2013 and the XBoxOne, recapped for posterity. RetroThinker arrested.

EPISODE 86: "STOP TALKING TO ME ABOUT LUDONARRATIVE DISSONANCE"
Title kind of says it all. OverThinker and Ivan under house arrest.

(NOTE: Due to the way YouTube's uploads work, the "play all" option will not play all episodes in order.)

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EPISODE 87: "Top Ten Games of Generation 7"

And now here we are. It's the end of a generation, which means it's time for a Completely Meaningless Top Ten List!

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Dickwolf'd (UPDATED)

(Post moved from original location to allow for commenting)

So, I feel like I need to write this stuff down. And since the situation is still fluid and "evolving" (read: a clusterfuck) it's probably best that it be a blog post as opposed to an episode of this or that show. Plus, since there's no guarantee I won't say something stupid, this way it's all on me and not on any of my employers or partners.


That second part is one of the main reasons why the most recent Penny Arcade/PAX blowup is the mess that it is: The section of gamer-culture (sidebar: folks, we're all still on the same page that using the word "culture" alongside gamer/geek/etc and talking about various nerd-substrata as though they were akin religious or national identities was supposed to be mostly tongue-in-cheek... right?) where PA exists is built around this strange dynamic where fans, journalists, "celebrities," developers and companies are all thrown into a single space and the power structure changes from scenario to scenario. What makes PAX infuriating is also what makes it "work" - it's an independent gaming fan convention that's just big and visible enough that major companies show up to make/break news, but it's also just self-aware enough of it's own humble origins (the whole thing has grown out of fandom for a three-panel webcomic) to still feel mostly like a fan con and not a tradeshow (even though it kind of is, at this point.) At it's best, PAX feels still feels like a counterpoint to the likes of E3, a space wherein the giants of the industry go to genuflect and beg attention from their audience instead of the other way around.

That's the positive side of PAX (and PAXEast, and PAXAus), and it's not the only positive attached to the brand: The comic is funny, the two guys who run it (Jerry "Tycho" Holkins and Mike "Gabe" Krahulik) are talented and they're "Child's Play" charity arm does a tremendous amount of genuine good. (Full disclosure: I have not worked with Penny Arcade professionally myself, but I am connected professionally and friendwise to many folks in the business who are.)

The negative side, though - at least from where I sit - is that the same symbolic refusal to "mature" beyond a certain point that informs gaming/geek/fandom's more charming facets is also what causes an increasing number of it's more obnoxious issues. There's a point at which a "leader" in fandom needs to drop the "what, a leader? ME!?" ironic-naivety and actually assume a certain amount of responsibility... and not everyone is ready for it when it happens to them.

Maybe we should start from the beginning.

You can read an exhaustive breakdown of what this whole mess has been about HERE, but the gist of it goes like this: About three years ago, Penny Arcade did a strip about a game using "rescue slaves from a horrible dungeon" as the pretext for a fetch-quest, which involved one slave describing his predicament as including "being raped to sleep by The Dickwolves." To me, it was worth a chuckle - a cute (if obvious) observation of what we're irritatingly asked to call "ludonarrative dissonance" (read: "when game mechanics are silly/horrifying in a narrative context) mixed with clever wordplay, basically PA's entire forte.

And then what happened next... happened next.

As is the case with 90% of "big" things that happen around Penny Arcade, at first it seemed like they were only involved by virtue of their own visibility and relative tangibility (compared to larger entities in gaming, I mean.) At the time, the casual overuse of "rape" as an offhand term for dominance in gaming (online multiplayer especially) was a big heated topic of debate, and while I don't doubt that the (at first) handful of activists and bloggers who got on PA's "case" about the comic (summary of charges: using rape as part of a punchline is insensitive to rape-survivors) were sincere I do think it's plausible that there was a certain amount of "shoot the biggest, most attention-getting target, not necessarily the most-guilty target" thinking in effect.

Either way, it became a "thing" on the internet; placing PA in the always-awkward position (for a self-described pop-satirist, anyway) of being the type of "gamer-sphere news of the day" they existed to make jokes about. So they responded... and that's when everything went straight to fucking hell.

I want to be clear here: I care about Free Speech. Comedy is comedy, you have the right to joke about anything, etc etc. As far as I'm concerned there was nothing wrong with the original "Dickwolves" strip; and while it's both wrong and pointless to tell someone they don't have a "right" to be offended... in my opinion it's more than perfectly clear that the strip was was making fun of absurdity in game design (and, more specifically, the "_____Wolf/Bear/Hawk/Dragon" naming-convention for fantasy monsters) - not making fun of rape or rape-victims. So not only would I say Penny Arcade did nothing wrong in the original strip, I'd say a lot of early detractors stepped over the line in accusing them of having various unsavory political/social/personal views (agendas, even!) based on what was in my estimation a mis-reading of a comic strip. And if that had been the end of it, then this would be a story that nobody remembers about that one time when a bunch of misdirected outrage landed on the two goofballs who make Penny Arcade.

But that wasn't where it ended.

There's an old saying: "When all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail." Well, all Penny Arcade had was a webcomic and a default stance of "There's nothing wrong with games and gamers, fuck you, stop picking on us!" self-righteousness (born, it's important to note, of the very real persecution of the medium and it's fans by censorship advocates, hack lawyers and the Religious Right in the 80s and 90s) expressed as smug satire. And so that's how they chose to respond to the blowup, with a follow-up strip featuring a glib non-apology and lots of eyerolling at the very idea that joking about rape somehow contributed to the "it's no big deal" undercurrent at the heart of what's called "the rape culture."

You may or may not have caught a recent piece I did that touched on this topic, but what I said there bears repeating here i.e. the hammer/nail metaphor: Not all criticism is the same, and you can't respond to all critics the same way. Merciless mockery of, say, Jack Thompson or Pat Robertson? Perfect marriage of weapon and target: Assholes, vile subhumans for whom no (rhetorical) attack should be out of bounds. Fuck those guys, and fuck the twin forces of hack-legalism and religious conservatism that spawned them - bad responses coming from a bad place. Light `em up. But using those same "weapons" on criticism coming from, say, feminist, civil-rights or sociological perspectives - i.e. schools of thought that are at least foundationally correct and fighting on the side of progress (if not always in the best ways)? No, wrong response. Just because all you have is a hammer doesn't make them nails.

But Penny Arcade used their hammer, and the backlash against them got (predictably) bigger. So did a backlash to the backlash from PA fans and the growing, vocal segment of gaming/geek culture that had been infected by the knee-jerk toxicity of "Men's Rights Activism." As we've seen with the rise of the Tea Party in the U.S., any space that had up until recently been dominated by white/heterosexual/males tends to sprout a version of this nonsense when that power-dynamic seems threatened by "change;" and in the less than savory corners of gamer fandom the "Dickwolves Issue" became a symbol of their cause: Yet another vanguard of the culture "under siege" by the Forces of Feminism, who of course wanted to "destroy" Penny Arcade just like they wanted to "destroy" everything else they loved.

I should stress that I don't intend to conflate Mike or Jerry (or Robert Khoo, the business-face of the PA machine) with the awful folks who jumped so stridently to their defense. I don't know them personally (we've "met," briefly, but not in any kind of real conversational sense) and I have no real sense of their respective views or outlook on anything other than the game and pop-culture stuff they joke about in their strips. I've never heard anything second hand that would lead me to conclude that they aren't generally decent guys, and if nothing else their "public face" as two guys who still haven't totally wrapped their heads around what they've built. In other words, when all this was unfolding and their constant refrain was that they didn't quite see what the big issue was, I believed them... and I think that was the problem.

What happened next was the "will someone please protect these guys from themselves??" moment of the affair. The fact that being "pro-Dickwolves" had become a rallying-cry for anti-feminist bullies across the interweb had been lost on one or both of the PA duo - evidently all they saw was another mass-rallying of support from their fans against yet another bunch of buzzkills. So they did what you do in this business: They made merchandise, in this case "Dickwolves" mock team-jerseys.

This was the point where even a lot of the games media that were inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt had to throw up their hands in exasperation: Did they really not grasp that - however off-base they might have found the original criticism to be - that by now they'd stumbled across the line from defending their material to giving horrible people looking to bully rape-survivors (and those sympathetic to the same) into not voicing their objections an officially-endorsed banner to rally around. Ultimately, the outcry about this was enough to get the shirts pulled, with PA making a concerted public effort to tell their fans to drop it and to distance themselves from the darker stuff that others were spouting in their names and in general make nice.

Eventually things died down... or rather, they died down on that specific front while the PA crew got in trouble for different things; mostly but not exclusively Krahulik, who can't seem to help but get into these fights usually in the context of going way the hell overboard at even the mere suggestion that he might've said something insensitive. (Sidebar: People tend to assume comedians and humorists must have really thick skins. They are incredibly incorrect in that assumption.)

In any case, 90% of that happened 2 or 3 years ago. But now it's back, because PAX Prime 2013 was this past weekend and someone thought it was a good idea to make "blunt honesty" a topic during Mike and Jerry's annual Q&A stage show and Mike decided to "get off his chest" that he's still sore about pulling the Dickwolves merchandise and considers it a mistake. The footage of this is out there. A lot of people claim this was met with huge applause from the attendees, and maybe it was - but what I hear on the tape sounds more like an awkward, uncomfortable buzz followed by one or two guys giving a "WHOOOO!!!" and then more joining in. Either way, what's more interesting is watching Holkins and Khoo in the unmistakable posture and expressions of a drunk-and-misbehaving person's relative cycling through their practiced rationalizations for later.

Thing is, the gaming landscape has changed a lot in three years. The initial blowup over Dickwolves started a discussion not only about "rape jokes" in comedy but also about the marginalization/"othering" of women and LGBT persons in the community and harrassment on the convention circuit, and things have moved in positive directions like the "Cosplay Is Not Consent" movement. THE biggest thing happening in game press/commentary right now is "Tropes vs. Women." PAX itself has even been good about this - ironically, one of the big stories this year before Mike ressurected this issue was the big reception for several feminism and bullying themed panels. Now? Increasingly prominent people and entities in the industry and community are saying they might have to reevaluate their participation in future events.

A hard lesson to learn in life is that you can be 100% "in the right" about something and still lose, because life isn't fair. An even harder lesson to learn is that you can be right about something only to have it be negated by the wrongness of your reaction. Speaking as one internet-humorist about another, I sympathized (and still do, to whatever extent it matters) with Penny Arcade about the reaction to the initial strip. I can even sympathize with their desire to say "fuck you!" in response, the first time. Having your words misinterpreted to mean something horrible you didn't intend and the subsequent accusations that come with it is an AWFUL experience for a person in a creative enterprise, since it's a personal attack ("you're a rape-apologist!!!") wrapped around a professional criticism ("You told this joke poorly.")

So yeah, even if it's not generally how I handle this stuff, I totally get the compulsion to lash out. What I don't get is continuing to do it (and I'm talking about the shirts and such) after it's been demonstrated that this is A.) now bigger than you and your joke and B.) that whether they misread your comic strip or not, you don't "battle" rape-survivors and women's rights activists the way you battle some asshole lawyer from Florida because they're not the same guys. Doing so makes you the bad guy even if you started out "right," and bringing it up again - unprovoked! - when the vast majority of your "enemy" had moved on... that really makes you The Bad Guy even if you are not, in fact, a bad guy.

Why did he do it? That's what I keep coming back to. The issue was a memory for most. People were moving on. Things had "worked out" as best they can in these situations: He and his strip had survived, a lot of the people who'd raised initial objections had parlayed their visibility in positive directions, things had grown - or had seemed to. Why dredge this up again. Like I've said, I don't know the guy. Everything I've heard about him from folks who do would suggest he's a good person/husband/father/friend/etc. What was he thinking? He has literally nothing to gain from this but a fight... and maybe that's it.

I'm not looking to psychoanalyze Mike Krahulik or anyone else from Penny Arcade, though, because I don't know them as people and that wouldn't be fair. But what I'm comfortable positing that, from a spectator's position, their problem appears to be the same that afflicts too much of broader geek/game culture: I don't think they've quite figured out how to inhabit a world where they aren't in a constant state of war-readiness - a world where they (and their fans) are no longer the besieged underdogs beset by powerful attackers.

In many respects, Penny Arcade is a victim of it's own success: The very fact that they've been able to build a comfortable livelihood, a mini media-empire and a convention circuit on the scale of PAX puts to lie the idea of video-games as still being this niche, "insider" secret-club of absurd codes and contradictions and "Gabe & Tycho" as just being a pair of overgrown kids playing games and goofing off. Sorry, fellas, but you won - gaming is mainstream culture and you are the public faces of a not-insubstantial business in mainstream culture. As such, Penny Arcade the strip is kind of a relic; a leftover from a bygone era where gaming was an outsider "culture" in need of vigilance and defense, a time when Jack Thompson stalked the Earth and the biting, relentless sarcasm of this particular webcomic was one of the key weapons in undermining him. Essentially, Penny Arcade's reasons for being were to make gamers feel like they "belonged" to something and to slap around gaming's powerful enemies... and neither of those things are really "problems" anymore.

Unfortunately, it seems as though PA - like most of "geek culture," is either unwilling or unable to recognize it's own victory... indeed, it's own supremacy. When a sense of ostracism and victimhood are seen as being vital to your own sense of self; the realization that the power dynamic might have shifted in your favor can be incredibly jarring: "I am a nerd. Nerds are victims. If I have the power I am no longer a victim... does that mean I am also no longer a nerd? And if so, what am I?" And the even more troubling implication that having become "The Man" means you might be capable of having the same negative effect on others as the previous "The Man" had on you? It's not hard to imagine being personally affronted and defensive about that. Christianity, for example, was the most powerful cultural force in the Western World for centuries... but it's orthodoxy is still grounded in a sense of victimhood over the martyrdom of it's namesake and the (relatively brief) period where it was a persecuted minority religion in Rome.

Basically, this latest nonsense from PAX is unfortunate, but it's indicative of a bigger problem in this "culture" - we need, at long last, to grow up. Not about what we're into but the way we're willing to conduct ourselves. The notion of cons as a vacation from proper behavior in addition to being a trip to a space concentrated around your interests needs to go away, for one thing, and so does the idea that "we" the conventional majority of geek culture (or the culture itself) need to be playing hard-defense at all times.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: We won. We're in charge. We're The Man now, and it is our obligation to make ourselves worthy of not being toppled. Instead of hyperventilating about some New Gestapo coming to confiscate our unapproved books every time someone says we might've crossed the line in a joke, we should be bending over backwards to be more inclusive, more inviting and more safe space friendly to more diverse fellow travelers - not in the least because the sooner we do the sooner we'll have authentic moral high-ground for "defending" ourselves when we really are wrongly-accused of this or that transgression.

So where does this leave us? I know a few people, already, who are looking to bow out of the PAX scene for one reason or another related to this mess. At this time, I'm not necessarily looking to make that jump. For one thing, it's a reality of business that PAXEast is an unprecedented networking opportunity for me in the gaming business that I don't otherwise have access to because I don't live in NY, LA, Seattle or Japan. For another thing, it's a place where I see friends and colleagues I don't otherwise get to see - that's honestly the more important one, and if any number of my friends came to me and said "we're not doing PAX this year, would you consider not doing it as well in solidarity" I would be pretty likely to say yes.

But me, speaking only for myself, I don't see the "help" that I'd be doing by not going just on my own. This isn't like "Chic-Fil-A" thing, where the idea is to hit the bottom line of a company because it was giving it's money to a political cause. Penny Arcade isn't a political organization, and the only thing not going would really do is remove my meager financial contribution not only from the one guy who keeps screwing up but also from all the other largely guiltless people involved. I also understand, however, that I say that from a place of privilege - if I saw someone walking around PAX in one of those ill-concieved Dickwolves jerseys, I might think they were assholes... but it would never cross my mind that the person wearing it is looking at me and thinking that I'm less than human, or a target. And while I know for a fact that PAX organizers work really hard to make it a safe and fun space, I absolutely get people who don't feel like it is and won't go because of that.

It's a shame, though, because a lot of the people bowing out will inevitably be the sort of people who can affect change for the better. The one absolute good at the heart of PAX is that it really is very much not "about" Mike and Jerry, or Gabe and Tycho, or the comic in general - it's a fan convention through and through, and they've been consistently willing to greenlight panels and events that run seperate or even counter to their own views and issues. Holding a panel about a hot-button issue at PAX potentially puts your opinion in front of fans who might not otherwise have listened and industry pros who can help amplify you. Opting not to do so to basically say "not cool" to a one of the figureheads would be - I stress, TO ME - perhaps not the best alignment of priorities.

I don't know where else to go with this. The whole situation is unfortunate, and the "point" isn't really much more complicated than the plea that maybe we could all try to be a little nicer to one another? Maybe not go looking to start new fights or dredge up old ones? Maybe understand that having personal pride in yourself and your interests doesn't mean you ignore opportunity (or need) for self-improvement? I don't know about you, but from where I sat the convention circuit got better when we started to regard hygiene and social-skills as being more important than we had. "Nerd culture" is getting better the more sexually, racially, culturally and politically diverse it gets - and I hate seeing it take steps backwards, fairly or not.

I also don't know if anyone from or related to Penny Arcade will read this. I doubt it, but we know some of the same people so who knows. If they should happen to, though, my message would be as follows: Whether or not you ever planned to be "more than" a pair of happy-go-lucky cartoonists, you are. You're figureheads in this industry and community, what you say - even flippantly - carries weight, has repercussions and matters. And if you want to keep being the public-faces of your own empire you need to start acknowledging and respecting the responsibility that comes with that kind of power - yes, even if it's less "fun" as a result. And Mike, specifically? I don't know you, but I get the sense we might come from the same place in a lot of respects and based on that I'd offer this: Get some help. Not in the "something is wrong with you" sense, but in the "it might help to talk about this stuff" sense. Take it from me - a persistent feeling of persecution (which is the only thing I can imagine being "behind" this seemingly compulsive need to take a combative "come at me" stance) is usually a symptom of other things that just aren't good to let fester.

And that's what I've got to say about that. Let's all try to be better.

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Dickwolf'd

UPDATE: Someone or something managed to trigger the design flaw that makes this post use Blogger's shitty commenting engine rather than Intense Debate. I've locked those comments (because Blogger makes troll-policing next to impossible) and moved the text to a new location HERE.

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Big Picture: "In Defense of Booth Babes (Sort Of)"

Relevant

The Escapist : The Big Picture : In Defense of "Booth Babes" (sort of)

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ACAM Book Event Update

The American Classic Arcade Museum has posted an official press-release page about the Brick-By-Brick signing event on 9/14. Readers of this blog already likely know the details, but it still trips me out that I'm going to hold an event there so yeah you bet I'm going to post about it.

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OVERBYTES: "Don't Censor Me!!!"

After an unplanned/overlong hiatus, OVERBYTES is back with some thoughts on the evolving debate about game censorship - and why it has a lot more evolving yet to do:

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A Note On Ads & Promotions

I just wanted to address a few few issues that some have voiced concerned about vis-a-vi advertising - specifically advertising on this blog and my own promotion of my book and other projects. Those who've had such concerns, please hit the jump for more. Those who don't care, wait just a moment because a new (and overdue) "OverBytes" episode will be going up right above this one shortly after it's posted.

Okay, firstly to the issue of on-site ads. It's been brought to my attention that the infamous "For Male Gamers Only" ads have been popping up in the rotation on this blog. Rest assured that I'm as annoyed by this as you are, that I did not ask for them to be present and that as soon as I have the means to do so I plan to block them from re-appearing further. For now, I apologize to anyone who was offended by their presence.

Why not block them right now? Well, the issue is that this blog uses a Google Adsense partnership in order to display ads as unobtrusively as possible. The way that works is that I effectively "sell" specific empty spaces on the site to Google, who in turn provide the ad content. For the most part, these ads not only change (ideally) each time the page is re-loaded, but which ads appear are often influenced by the browsing-history of the individual person logging on. As such, in order to blacklist an individual ad or an entire advertiser, I need to first see the ad trigger for me and then follow it back to it's source in order to get the correct URL for a complete block.

As of yet, I haven't been able to grab that code because the offending ads have not been triggering for my browsing in a manner condusive to reaching the source (no, just looking up the company's site has not done the trick) but I'm working to resolve this. If any fellow adsense participants out there have dealt with these ads already themselves, I more than welcome them to post the relevant info here.

Now, as to my book:

I appreciate that some folks have become tired with promotions for either the sale of "Brick-By-Brick" or a public-appearance book signing appearing so frequently on the blogs and at the tail-end of my various series. I'll be honest - I don't necessary grasp why some are so bent out of shape about them (I wanted them to be as skippable as possible, which is why they're both at the very end and just part of the clip rather than some kind of hyperlinked/unskippable thing) - but I'm sympathetic to both the "I don't want to see ads" and "I've seen this advertised too often" positions. I understand this, I only ask that readers also to understand my end of the situation.

I've been pretty open and clear about this, but just to reiterate: I'm not one of the internet personalities for whom this is a hobby, a student project or supplement income - This is my entire job right now. Escape to The Movies, Big Picture, Game OverThinker, OverBytes and all their attendant separate profit-streams are my sole source of income. I'm not looking for sympathy there. These are time-consuming jobs, but they're also fun jobs and while I don't earn nearly as much as I would in an office job, or in retail, or construction I'm doing alright for myself. Still, the economy is the economy and every little bit helps.

I'm not going to get into hard numbers here, but these are the facts re: "Brick-By-Brick." Nobody paid me to write it. I didn't get a contract, there was no down-payment, I didn't use a Kickstarter. I wrote the initial manuscript, then I shopped the pitch around until I secured an arrangement I liked the look of with a publisher who would handle the editing, formatting, online-sales, shipping, warehousing, etc. However, the actual costs of printing the first run of physical copies was paid for by me. Period.

That wasn't, I stress, the only option - sharing the expense with the publisher was also a possibility, and while that would have provided a "cushion" should the book turn out to not be success it also would've meant a lower overall profit for me if it did end up selling well (it also would've potentially delayed the release, which I didn't want either.) I decided to roll the dice on "this will work out." My only "insurance" move was to have a portion of the first run of physical copies sent to me while the majority went to the publisher. My allocation (though, since I paid for them I can always ask for more) roughly evened-out to the number I'd need to sell (at regular price) to cover the initial printing cost, the idea being that if worst came to worst and nobody bought any copies online I could maybe eventually break-even selling these on the convention circuit.

As it turns out, I was selling the book's appeal a bit short: Again, without getting into specific numbers, between copies sold at SGC 2013 and the subsequent online-profits, I actually made all of my initial investment back (and then some) in roughly the first week and a half of sales. Never in a million years did I expect a response like that - in fact I'd been steeling myself for exactly the opposite - and I remain awestruck and grateful to all my fans and readers for making it possible. Basically, this project that I took a total leap on with no assurance of succeeding was in fact a success (and a profitable one) right out of the gate; and thank you so much to everyone who bought a copy - I can only hope you find it worthy of your money and time.

Now, on the one hand, that means I probably won't be keeping a full-scale ad blitz going for much longer because, frankly, it's not necessary. There will continue to be mentions on this site and I'll keep the post-credits ads on relevant videos where appropriate, and I'll tweet about it, but the P.T. Barnum routine won't be needed; and as glad as many of you will be too hear that rest assured I'm much gladder.

On the other hand... the remainder my overly-cautious "insurance" allocation of physical copies (cut roughly in-half by SGC and the event at Comicazi) is still taking up space in my apartment. And since the Escapist Expo is still aways off (and since I don't know what the "rules" are for selling at PAXEast - though I can confirm that copies will be at Fangamer's booth at PAX Prime) I figured setting up some potentially high-turnout signing events would be as good a way as any to move some of that inventory - especially when ACAM said they were interested, I've wanted to do some kind of event there for years.

So... yeah. Basically, I overestimated how much in-person selling I needed to do on my own, but I'd still like to move that inventory all the same hence the signing events. And when those crop up, yes, I'm going to promote them. But if things keep going the way they've been going (i.e. very well) the ad-blitzes for those won't be nearly as frequent going forward as well. Again, I appreciate the "broken record" aspect of promoting this project, but this is a business for me and sometimes that entails advertising.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging.

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Book Signing Event: September 14th at THE AMERICAN CLASSIC ARCADE MUSEUM!

So, then, the cat is out of the bag.

On September 14th, I'll be appearing at the American Classic Arcade Museum at Funspot in Weirs Beach (Laconia), New Hampshire to sell and sign copies of "SMB3: Brick-By-Brick."

If you'll be in the area, I'd love to see you swing by and check it out - not just to see me, but because this place is amazing - one of the ultimate landmarks for fans of Golden Age gaming. Funspot is a massive family-entertainment complex, current holder of the Guinness record for world's largest arcade, and along with games they also have bowling, restaurants, redemption-games, etc - plus, it's in the neighborhood of Weirs Beach on Lake Winnepesaukee, so there's an actual beach, water-slides, go-karts and other great places to hang right nearby. To my fans/readers with children: Imagine a rural, more parent-friendly Chuck-E-Cheese's the size of an indoor mall - it's really pretty incredible.

ACAM itself takes up the Funspot complex's third floor, and houses over 300 classic games including many ultra-rare machines you won't see anywhere else. I could not be more excited for this to be happening here.

You can find Funspot/ACAM at 579 Endicott St North (Rt 3) Laconia, NH 03246 I'll be there on September 14th from 12pm to 3pm. Supplies of the book are limited and not garaunteed, all dates/times subject to change. Watch this space for more details.

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Brilliant

THIS is parody done right. Watch all the way through. Starts out as a clever if surface-level send-up of the most common critiques of "Tropes vs Women," (factual flubs, overly-obscure reference points, etc) then morphs into... well, you'll see:

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Tropes vs. Women Part III is now up

Ugh. This goes up just as I'm on my way out the door. Here's the embed, commentary to follow when I watch the damn thing - though I'm most interested to see/hear where she falls on "ironic" sexism:


REMINDER: Spam, abuse of other commenters and/or hate-speech WILL result in comment-deletion and IP Bans.

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EPISODE 86: "Stop Talking To Me About Ludonarrative Dissonance"

NEW EPISODE! Title kinda says it all, really...

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GAME OVERTHINKER BOOK SIGNING ANNOUNCEMENT!

OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:

I can now confirm that I will be appearing at COMICAZI in Somerville Massachusetts (407 Highland Ave Somerville MA 02144, I believe Davis Square is the closest MBTA stop) to sell and autograph copies of my book "Super Mario Bros. 3 - Brick By Brick" (also still available online in print and ebook formats exclusively through Fangamer.net) from 11am to 2pm ET on Saturday July 27th.

I will also, of course, happily sign any copies that were purchased previously or really anything else you were to bring up (within reason.) The books themselves will cost $8.00 US, supplies are limited. 

This will be the first time the book has been available for in-person sales and/or signing since SGC. I'm working on a few other (local) events for similar setups, but this will be the first - plus, Comicazi is a great local business and deserves the attention. Hope to see some of you there!

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Review of "Brick by Brick"

As far as I know, this piece in Tech News Daily is the first major-publication review of my book (yes, I've seen the article on "Play 4 Real," which is a parody site.) Reviewer is Marshall Honorof, who - full disclosure - is a colleague and friend, but is also a fair guy and a pro.

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BUY MY BOOK

(Note: Re-post to correct a coding error possibly caused by troublemaking in the comments section, my apologies for comments that were lost. If there was a comment you had made previously that you want to make again, please do not hesitate to re-post it here)

You can now buy you're very own copy (in print or ebook) of "SUPER MARIO BROS 3: BRICK BY BRICK" from Fangamer. So, please, won't you kindly think about doing so?

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Rad Raygun

I downloaded indie title "Rad Raygun" off XBLA a while back on a whim and wound up playing through the whole shebang right then and there because it was so insanely awesome, and was delighted to meet it's creators here at SGC. Seriously, this is a great indie game.

Basic pitch: It's Mega Man, but as a gung-ho Reagan-era/anti-Soviet propaganda lark... for the original GameBoy. Sticks to the premise and the aesthetic admirably, and the soundtrack is fantastic. So let's help them get on Steam Greenlight, huh?

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SGC 2013 Day One

Fine fine day at the con yesterday. Moved a lot of books, shook a lot of hands, met a lot of great fans. Got to re-connect with pals Jim Sterling, Lisa Foiles, Brentalfloss and Andre "The Black Nerd;" spent some quality time with the ScrewAttack crew and had a killer evening panel with Matt and the Game Theory guys.

TODAY: I'll be at the official Game OverThinker panel at 1pm, then on a YouTube/web-video panel at 7:30pm, hopefully able to move the rest of these books in the interim. If you're here and I haven't seen you yet, by all means keep a look out :)

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SGC 2013: Day Zero

SGC hasn't even officially begun yet, but I've already gotten to meet lot's of great fans and colleagues. This is going to be a good one, I can feel it.

Regarding my book: I can happily announce that copies of "Super Mario Bros. 3: Brick-By-Brick" (available online soon exclusively from Fangamer.net) will be available for purchase at the ScrewAttack booth in the Dealer Room starting tomorrow (note: cash only). Some fans have already purchased copies from me "in the wild," and if you see me around lugging a briefcase or boxes chances are I've got some and I'd be happy to sell you a copy providing I have the cash onhand to make change; so please don't hesitate to ask.

In addition, I will hopefully be able to sell some copies (supply-contingent, obviously) before and after my panels and possibly also during the autograph session, so keep an eye out for that. I'll likely be re-stocking the booth as needed and to the degree that I am able (supplies are limited) so check back and watch my twitter feed (@the_moviebob) in the event of selling-out. The response to this has been overwhelmingly positive, and if it ends up that I simply didn't bring enough with me (again, online sales coming soon to Fangamer.net) well... there are worse problems for an author to have.

Stay tuned for updates, and if you're here for the con I look forward to seeing you later today :)

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Game OverThinker SGC Schedule

About to head for the airport now, so hit the jump for details:

So here's where and when I'm scheduled to be places during SGC2013. I'm planning to always have copies of The Book on me for sale while I'm on the floor, though it also looks like it'll have some space at the ScrewAttack sales booth as well, and I'm looking to do some selling before/after my panels and during autograph sessions if at all possible; so those looking keep a look out.

FRIDAY 6/21:
2:00 PM Game OverThinker Autograph Session (Autograph Area Landmark B&C)
9:30 PM "OverThinking It" Panel with Matthew from GameTheory and others (Main Stage 2 Landmark D)

SATURDAY 6/22:
1:00 PM THE GAME OVERTHINKER RETURNS solo/Q&A panel (Main Stage 2 Landmark D)
7:30 PM Gaming On YouTube panel with GameTheory and others (Panel Room 3 Cumberland K&L)

SUNDAY 6/23:
Nothing officially scheduled, but you never know :)

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EPISODE 85: "REFL3CTION"

With apologies for the wait, here's your obligatory E3-reaction episode.


NOTE: Due to Microsoft deciding to renege on pretty-much all of the terrible stuff they were threatening to do literally as I was putting the finishing touches on this episode for export, the pre-credits business is a little longer than usual to accommodate the explanation that yes, I know that the situation has changed somewhat and the rationale for why I've left the critical content in the show for posterity.

Some of you may also see an extra mid-roll ad before the opening credits, which I don't "love" doing but felt was allowable given the running time.

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XBOX 180

BREAKING: Microsoft has opted to drastically reverse-course on several key issues surrounding the XBox One. Online checks, used game restrictions and regional restrictions have been removed and will no longer be part of the system.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a video or two to frantically re-edit. Microsoft: Even when they do something I like, they still screw me...

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The Book Is Imminent

The first printing has been completed on my first book, "Super Mario Bros. 3: Brick By Brick." Very exciting.

The book will be available for sale online likely sometime in the coming week (exact date TBD) exclusively through Fangamer.net (there will be an e-book version as well) although I will be bringing a limited number of physical copies to SGC next weekend to be sold in person (and signed, if that be your bag) pretty-much whenever I've got a free moment to do so and also during/after my designated panel/autograph times.

At this time, those are the only two ways to purchase the book currently slated, and unfortunately I am not able to ship/sell copies over the web myself. However, I'm also working on putting together some local sales-events here in the Boston area and will make the dates/locations of those available as I get them. If you happen to BE the proprietor of a Boston area gaming/book/etc establishment and are interested in discussing hosting a selling/signing event please hit me up in the comments below.

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Mega Man Lives

I am INSANELY busy today, so I'll be putting more detailed E3 stuff up at a later date. Suffice it to say: Microsoft "lost" by being shockingly (even for Microsoft) tone-deaf and anti-consumer (having the "big story" of your presser be a rape-joke certainly didn't help) Sony "won" by basically announcing their plans to do things that we really ought to expect/demand of console makers to begin with, Nintendo showed up to a video-game show to sell video-games - what a novel approach.

Short version: New Yoshi's Island, new Donkey Kong, Wonderful 101 still looks appropriately titled and 3D multiplayer Mario with Peach as a playable character for the first time in 25 years (and also you can turn into a cat now.)

Oh, and this...



Oh, so THAT'S how fucking awesome next-gen Mega Man could be if Capcom didn't have their head up their ass.

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Winning

So, in case you didn't hear, Sony won the "XBox One vs Playstation 4" part of E3 (which basically means E3, but Nintendo hasn't had their non-press conference press conference yet and *I* still care, okay?)

The PS4 will not block used games, will not require an online connection, and will launch with a pricepoint $100.00 US below Microsoft's console. Oh, and also Kingdom Hearts III.

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Spring Gamers

Is this brilliant? Yes, this is brilliant.

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"Tropes Vs Women" Releases Episode 2

Oh hey, look at that:

I'm on my way to work right now, so I'll be watching in-full and commenting further later. For now, have at it:

UPDATE 1: Work was canceled, video watched, comments below the jump:

UPDATE 2: Some vengeful asshats have (apparently) gotten the clip taken down by exploiting YouTube's draconian TOS. A written transcript is still available HERE. Obviously, as soon as I see where it goes back up, I'll repost. People with mirrored links are welcome to post them in the comments until then.





So, then...

In many ways, I feel like this episode was a really solid reaction to the "where's the new substance?" critiques of the first one - much more in depth, much more focused on the "why is this problematic?" aspects, etc. Everything from 22:35 on, in particular, should serve as an answer to the "misandry is just as bad!!!" fools; laying out how patriarchy is also disempowering to men.

Honestly, though? I actually feel like she wasn't hard enough on some of this; particularly the "The bad guy corrupted me and you must kill me to set me free!" thing. What gets glossed-over so often with the Damsel in Distress thing is that the original context of "Save The Princess!" fairytales was rescuing women from having their virginity stolen (via rape or otherwise) by parties who did not have the proper claim on such in an era where virginity was inextricably tied to marriageability and thus the entirey of female worth. "Kill me, I'm a monster!" in other words being a modernization of "Kill me, I am a 'ruined' woman!" It's a fantasy-ization of honor-killing, basically, and that's pretty fucking pernicious.

P.S. Comments will remain enabled on this post until such time as people prove themselves incapable of behaving like grownups. Abusive/trolling comments will be deleted at the discretion of me. People with an issue about the YouTube video itself not having comments are advised to click here and then go get some sunlight.

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OVERBYTES on XBOX ONE

XBox? None.

ALSO: newest episode of the main series is HERE if you missed it.

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EPISODE 84: "Starving Artists"

New Episode is NOW PLAYING on Blip!

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Come See ME at SGC2013!

ScrewAttack.com's gaming con, SGC, is returning June 21 - 23 of this year and I'll be a guest: Doing some panels, hanging out and I'm hoping to have a supply of books to sell and/or signby then as well.

Registration is still open, and if you do it through THIS LINK you'll be directly supporting me and The Game OverThinker series. So... think about doing that, please :)

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Got This Covered (UPDATED!)

As you might have read previously, I wrote a book and it's coming out soon through the fine folks at Fangamer.net. I still unfortunately don't have a set date date of publication to announce, but I can now officially reveal that we'll be publishing it under the title "SUPER MARIO BROS. 3: BRICK-BY-BRICK", and here on your right you can see the cover-art that the fine folks at Fangamer put together for it.

The basic premise is a "novelized let's-play." I've re-played SMB3 (my favorite game and my unscientifically-chosen candidate Greatest Game Ever Made) and chronicled not only every step of the journey (along with corresponding noteworthy events of my real life during the months-long experience) but analyzed each and every graphical, sound and narrative element encountered along the journey for their aesthetic, historical and cultural details. Also included: A history of the "Super Mario Bros." franchise and a separate account of my own personal history as a fan, student and critic of this series in particular and video games as a whole.

More details to follow - YES, we're planning an E-Book. Stay tuned.

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EARTHBOUND Finally Returns

Today's Nintendo Direct announced a lot, including a new 3DS Zelda that's a direct sequel to "Link to The Past," but The Internet has spoken and the big news is that SNES cult-classic "Earthbound" is finally getting a release to the WiiU Virtual Console:

By the way, have you seen our new episode yet?

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We Are Alright

For those of you who don't know, this whole operation is based out of Boston. So I just wanted to give a quick head's-up that yes, it's true that two (so far) explosions - apparently now confirmed to be bombs of some type - have exploded at the Boston Marathon. I was nowhere near the incident today, and thus far none of my family/friends are confirmed to have been in the area and are not among the injured.

Those looking to help the victims of this senseless tragedy are asked to make donations to the Red Cross and/or to give blood.

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Everything About This Is Awesome

People thought "Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon" was an April Fools joke, but it turned out to be a real thing - an "expansion" (though it'll be sold as a standalone item - $14.99US for about an 8 hour campaign - that does not require a copy of FC3 to play) that takes the puuuuuurty game engine that FC3 used to render hyper-realistic jungle environments to instead render a neon-infused scifi/action game with an aesthetic somewhere between mid-80s B-movie and NES-era action game (think Power Blade, Strider, etc) blown up into a 3D FPS.


Yeah. I like this. Let's have more expansions on the line of this (and more smaller, non-budget-buster-pricing titles too) now that "zombie mode" has more or less played itself out.

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EPISODE 83: "The Next Crash"

UPDATE: Re-posted because of an Intense Debate error in the previous posting caused comment threads to disappear. With apologies for the inconvenience, anyone looking to continue an interupted conversation is welcome to do so here.

Finally, here's the new episode. Ivan takes over the hosting duties for this one, and he's got some thoughts about the likelihood of an impending Second Games Industry Crash.

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Canned "Gritty FPS Reboot" of Mega Man SHOCKINGLY Only Looks About 1/3 as Shitty as You'd Expect

Polygon has a great piece up looking at a previously-unknown project - ultimately canceled by Capcom - wherein a bunch of ex-"Metroid Prime" developers (a game series which The Internet has decided, in absence of any factual evidence, that I "hate") attempt to reboot Mega Man (okay, technically "Mega Man X") into a gritty first-person shooter. And yes, there's video...

...Yeah. The story itself is a pretty fascinating look at Capcom wasting presumably good sums of money on a game they never seemed all that sure about and the devs sound sincere, but the Proof of Concept vids look about like you'd expect. I especially like how the "big get" of Adi Granov redesigning the character literally looks like a fanboy-photoshop of Granov's Iron Man armor tinted blue with a Mega Man helmet stuck on it. Still, one supposes I should be thankful that should this have ever actually happened they opted to use a few colors beyond rust and mud.

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EPISODE 83: "The Next Crash"

Finally, here's the new episode. Ivan takes over the hosting duties for this one, and he's got some thoughts about the likelihood of an impending Second Games Industry Crash.


UPDATE: ABOUT THE COMMENTS SECTION:Okay. I have no idea what happened to the comments here. For some reason, the Intense Debate comment threads sometimes get randomly dropped from this particular blog. What I THINK is happening is that somehow people are accessing and using the old Blogger comment-system (which you still shouldn't be able to do, but if it wasn't buggy as hell it wouldn't be Blogger...) and that cause the ID thread to disappear. I'm sorry about this and I know it sucks for anyone who was in the midst of conversation via ID. I will be re-posting this episode in a new ID-enabled thread for anyone who wishes to continue with it.

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Infinity

Just this moment finished "Bioshock Infinite." Yes, it's as good as you've heard. Play. Play now.

At this point I've only got one immediate "clever" observation, but in the interest of not spoiling ANYTHING even vaguely or by accident I'll put it after the jump:


"Oh, you've got just ONE big-idea theoretical-scifi concept built into your narrative to justify the video-gamey parts of your video-game? That's really cute." - Bioshock Infinite, talking to the Assassin's Creed series.

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MGS5 Trailer

Hey, remember that "Phantom Pain" thing that everyone immediately knew was "Metal Gear Solid 5" but they wouldn't come out and say was "Metal Gear Solid 5?"

Well, it's "Metal Gear Solid 5."

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The Book

If you were at Escapist Movie Night at PAXEast this past weekend (or you caught an earlier reveal during the Desert Bus charity event) you already know about this, but for everyone else it would seem the cat is out of the bag...

So! I'm writing a book. Or, rather, I've written a book and - barring any unforseen disaster - it will be coming out soon. It's a book about video games, and is being developed with (and will be sold exclusively online through) fangamer. If I had to describe it as anything it would be a book of game criticism; though not of a kind I've found anywhere else.

Further details (all of which are, it goes without saying, wholly subject to change) after the jump...

At this time the book itself doesn't have a title I can officially announce or cover-art, but the main text of the thing has been written. My "big idea" was to take the longform "scene-by-scene" (or shot-by-shot) analysis often applied to book-length criticism of movies or plays to gaming by, essentially, novelizing a "Let's Play."

The approach: I would play all the way through a classic game - every level, every enemy, every item, the whole experience - and analyze everything about it as I went: The mechanics, the layouts, the art-design of the sprites, the aesthetics of the backgrounds, the music, the known history of the production, cultural references and context, etc. In addition, since it's my position that the effect our moods outside of gaming effect the interactivity of the medium and vice-versa, the "narrative" of playing the game would be intercut with the "narrative" of what was going on in my life during the play-through.

I chose "Super Mario Bros. 3" to be the subject, mainly because it's my favorite game but also because it's the best possible candidate: A classic game, part of the most famous series in the entire medium, lengthy, linear and enduringly popular enough that a sizable portion of a prospective readership would be familiar with it. It ultimately took on a greater significance, though, as the initial play-through itself wound up coinciding with my preparations for moving out of the home I'd grown up in - in other words, playing this game in the house I'd first fallen in love with it for the last time.

So... yeah, this is "labor of love" stuff. But I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't proud of the idea that - to my knowledge, at least - this kind of in-depth analysis hasn't been done at this scale for a single game. For good measure, it also includes a history of the franchise and my own personal history with it.

At this time, all I can say about release dates is that we're angling to have it available within the next few months (my goal is to have some copies ready to sell in-person at SGC - fingers crossed) but I'll be updating here as more information re: dates, cost, title, etc is made ready for public reveal. I'm nervous but excited about the whole process... I just hope enough of you folks A.) give it a shot and B.) like what you find.

Stay tuned for more details.

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WOO-OO!

Holy shit. As far as game announcements go, it'll be REALLY hard for the rest of PAXEast to top this. WayForward? You are the hope of us all.

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Off To PAXEast

I'm officially en-route to the weekend at PAXEast folks, so if you're there feel free to say hi and if not follow my Twitter @the_moviebob in case I say or see something interesting while there. If you're at the show, check me out at the Escapist Movie Night panel on Saturday 3/23 at 9:00pm in the Merman Theater.

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SUPPLEMENTAL: "I'm Sorry (But EA Should Be Sorrier)"

So, then.

In the making of this series, March has basically been a gigantic non-starter. A blizzard scuttled at least two weeks of shooting, then another storm and subsequent ceaseless wind/rain pushed it further - serves me right, I guess. So, since I obviously won't be getting any work done on this front with PAXEast going on this weekend; I sat down and flipped on the camera early this morning (like 3:00am or so) to do a quickie "hey, sorry, here's what's up" vlog that wound up being a little rambling (unscripted) and eventually turned into a minor rant about EA, SimCity and the state of the industry. Decided to give it a semi-edit and upload, but don't worry - this sort of "tired-looking man talking to camera" motif won't become the norm around here.

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D&D Arcade Games Coming to XBLA/PSN

Well, whaddaya know? Capcom decided to do something decent for retro-gaming; broken clocks and all that: Their two classic (and somewhat rare) "Dungeons & Dragons" beat-em-ups - "Tower of Doom" and Shadow over Mystara" are coming to XBLA/PSN. Supposedly, this will be "officially unveiled" at PAXEast. It's being called a port, which I hopefully assume means it will be the original games with the original graphics - not another "HD remake" disaster like "Turtles In Time Re-Shelled".

Good show, Capcom... sure would be nice to have a WiiU* port with off-TV play, though. Just sayin.





*Yes, peanut gallery, that would be your cue to remind me that I am biased Nintendo fanboy and that it would be stupid to put these on WiiU because nobody cares about the WiiU which is a good thing because now the combined forces of nostalgia, filthy casuals and Japan can stop ruining gaming. Don't let me down, kids.

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OVERBYTES on Tropes vs. Women

Now available for viewing by all, an overall appraisal on the first episode of "Tropes vs. Women in Video Games" and it's attendant controversies.


P.S. People who continue to insist on harping about production costs are directed to THIS post.

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Tropes vs. Women launches first episode (UPDATED!)

Oh hey, remember that kickstarted webseries that people freaked out about because a woman was talking out of turn about man things, then decided it was actually a "scam" that would never actually come out when that didn't convince people that she was the antichrist?

Well, it came out. Here's a link. I'll chime back in later with what I actually thought of it.

UPDATE II: The newest episode of "OverBytes" is a thorough "review" of the show. All audiences can watch it right now.



UPDATE I: At the suggestion of user "Nixou," I'm re-posting (with corrections) my response to one of the more consistent issues people seem to have re: the cost of producing a show like this (aka "how does THIS cost $150,000??) as follows:

Here's the thing: I (and I'm speaking strictly of my self-produced/funded stuff like TGO and American Bob here, not the Escapist gigs) and others working on the YouTube/Blip series side of this medium are generally A.) Making this stuff FOR the amateur/indie circuit and B.) using primarily materials we already have or can be "donated" either by ourselves or aquaintances. In my specific case, I'm not outputting OR shooting in HD, the shows themselves are not of "broadcast caliber" and I don't pay professional wages to the people who help out. If I did, the INCREDIBLY low-ball $6,000 pricetag she originally set (don't forget: the donations were so HUGE because people kept donating as a "screw you" to her detractors) would MAYBE cover 2 - 3 average-scale TGO episodes, tops.

I've noticed that people in general have a skewed view of what independent video/film production actually costs because a lot of guys on the indie/fanfilm scene (no, I won't be naming names) like to brag about how low their production budget is - the problem being that A LOT of the time these are guys who have "day jobs" in the professional film/video business and thus access to equipment and facilities that they would otherwise be paying substantial sums to rent or lease; or they don't include what they would normally charge a client for their services in their own productions, OR they have friends in similar circumstances who are "donating" their time/services and not listing what that would cost on a real job. For example: If "Game OverThinker" had the EXACT same schedule and final-quality but I was paying real industry-standard fees and wages for locations, facilities and crew; $10,000 would be a low-ball estimate for every episode.

 Having watched the video itself: She's shooting and outputting in HD/broadcast-quality (this has clearly been designed for classroom/seminar presentation moreso than the web video) and most the MASSIVE amount of game footage looks to have been captured from either original sources (I'm assuming MAME or download-service copies for the retro stuff) - which requires both expensive equipment and the expense of the systems and games themselves. Also, I don't know if she does her own graphics and animation, but her transitions all look like original work; and even if she did do them herself the "going rate" for that kind of work can get pretty damn high especially if you plan to buy or license it in perpuity. 

 ALSO: I don't know what else she does for a regular living, but I DO know the relative man-hours of putting a project like this together and they are substantial - thusly, if the ONLY thing all the Kickstarter money did was pay her bills and living-expenses (via supplmental income) while she cut down on her regular paying work so that she could free up the time to actually play/record the games, write the script and make the video I'm frankly perplexed that she ever somehow thought a paltry sum like $6,000 was going to cover it. She's currently operating out of San Fransisco, one of the most expensive places to live - even modestly - in the United States; so when you factor all that in... trust me, the expenses for this kind of production are much more substantial than most would imagine.

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Sterling on Cage

Not that I ever thought I'd have performed the definitive "takedown" of David Cage; but if I or anyone else HAD harbored any pretense toward doing so we must now concede that Jim Sterling has now definitively taken the crown on that one:

The Escapist : Jimquisition : Emotions, Polygons, and Ellen Page

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"OVERBYTES" Takes On The PS4

Playstation 4 has been announced. Underwhelmed? You could say that.

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Glenn Beck: Video-Games Responsible For Sandy Hook Massacre

Oh, fudge.

(Hey, while you're hear, have you watched our new episode yet?)

Y'know, for awhile there I was a little worried that the American right-wing might've been doing something very smart in regards to their relationship with video-games. While it's not a perfect alignment, it's my observation that the worst aspects of gaming culture right now - centered, as these things tend to be, around the multiplayer-shooter genre - line up pretty well with The Right's most poisonous elements: Misogyny, angry-white-man paranoia plus the attendant homophobia plus "Men's Rights" lunacy that goes with it and, of course, worship of (but complete lack of respect for) the gun culture.

So when I saw things like Ollie North pimping "Call of Duty," my worry was: "Oh great, they've figured it out. They'll never regain footing in the rest of the entertainment industry; but gaming having any kind of ideological bent is such a nascent thing that they could easily slip in and claim this medium for their own without much resistance - and the only thing worse than the bro-gamers dominating the market would bro-gamers as a voting bloc."

Fortunately, The Right has demonstrated rather completely that they prize the short-term financial and electoral gains they get from being the obedient lapdogs of the gun industry FAR more than they do their long-term relevance as a political force; and so they've enthusiastically jumped onto the "Guns Don't Kill People, Violent Video-Games Kill People!" bandwagon - anything to prevent gun manufacturers' from losing business. In the latest salvo: Glenn Beck, preaching the "medical facts" of the Great Desensitization Lie:

Well, that was unpleasant. Hey, why not watch some Shameless Self-Promotion to wash your brain out?

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EPISODE 82: "Never Grow Old"

The recent East Coast blizzard slowed production a little bit, but the show must go on! Here, The OverThinker responds to Warren Spector and David Cage's controversial DICE lectures:

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Nintenception

It sounds like a backhanded compliment, but really the "Mario & Luigi" RPG series (Superstar Saga, Partners in Time and Bowser's Inside Story, thus far) for portables have probably been the story/humor highpoint for Nintendo franchises for the better part of the last decade. Sharp, funny, self-aware, perfectly balancing sincere "quiet awe," unobtrusive fanservice and a knowing self-awareness. The first 3DS installment has now been announced as "Mario & Luigi: Dream Team," with the now-standard alt-dimension storyline taking place partially in the realm of Luigi's dream...



Dream-world, eh? Hm...

Nintendo? I don't ask for much - which is good, since you're kind of the opposite of generous when it comes to this stuf... But if Wart (the dream-world heavy from the U.S. SMB2) turned up here in some capacity it would make me just about the happiest boy in the world. Bonus points if he brings Mouser, Triclyde, Fryguy, Clawgrip or any combination thereof with him.

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