gaming

The Scoreboard

/ James Fadeley / Leave a comment

My first draft for our anthology is complete, but I have to craft a new draft and make several improvements. It will be an arduous process, but will be more a matter of extending than rewriting. Only one scene (to my knowledge) requires tremendous effort. I also have a few drafts to review.

Aside from this, I have two more stories to work on, both for Cruentus Libri. One is for the surgical anthology, while the other is an extensive rewrite for the War is Hell anth.

In truth, I cannot wait to be free of the Bolthole anthology. Although rewarding and I’m learning a lot, I’m also spending time chasing other writers down, bogged with edits and taking on a horde of other responsibilities that I’ve taken for granted. I have increased respect for the role of editor and publisher.

I’ve been thinking about a certain detail when it comes to awesome action and adventure movies. A little detail I call NITMA, or “Necessity is the mother of awesome.”

See, what I love and can’t get enough of in games and books and movies are these one-of-a-kind situations. I’m not talking about something as grand as, “Save the world” but wild moments you don’t do again.

For example, in the original Metal Gear Solid, there was the torture scene and the rappelling game. Gears of War had an interesting segment where you looked for light sources in order to ward off the bat like creatures that ate your flesh. In Dead Space 2 when Isaac launches himself towards the Sprawl and you have to guide him through space. Or in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past where you had to try and figure your way around the other world, despite being changed into a rabbit and cannot defend yourself.

When you think about that formula, is it any wonder how the Avengers did so well? You have several fleshed out heroes, each of which had their own movie. And the sheer impact of what was happening forced them to work together. So unorthodox, so out of the ordinary from the usual super hero stuff, it’s no wonder it took third place on the highest grossing movie list.

What makes these moments so amazing and huge is the fact that they cannot be easily reproduced. That your character was so desperate that they were forced to do something unexpected and dangerous and you get to control them through it. I don’t want to watch a cut scene where my characters straddles a bomb on its way down! I want to actively guide the bomb! Just like in Dr. Strangelove.

I suddenly realize that this was kind of what made games like Final Fantasy XI so popular years after. Events. Events with friends. We stuck together through rough Burning Circle Notorious Monsters and garrison events. We hung together during the invasion of Aht Urghan. There was so much end game stuff, it’s no wonder people clung to the game years after its release.

Unforgettable events are where it’s at. That’s the wild ride we should be looking to build in our movies, games and books.

Farewell Nintendo Power

/ James Fadeley / Leave a comment

Everyone who had an NES knew of Nintendo Power. The yellow and red titled magazine with its often amazing cover art, packed with news and strategy guides, unbelievably colorful designs. It was so much to look at, so much to read. It was entertaining as it was informative.

When I looked at Nintendo Power and compared it to every other magazine that ever passed my hands, all I could think was, “This is what magazines should be like.”

After 24 years of business, the closing of Nintendo Power is a big deal. As December is the last issue of Nintendo Power, writers at gaming sites are chiming in on the impact the magazine had on their lives. Not so much about recent successes by the magazine, but in the victories of the past.

The artwork was probably my favorite part about the gaming magazine. Nintendo Power took the extra effort to either create their own artwork or use colored artwork from the game itself.

The gamer’s guide for the original Final Fantasy was one of my favorite, as was that for Final Fantasy III (we now know as the sixth title). In the former, several pieces of new art were developed, with western style fantasy settings.

For the latter of the two, general acceptance of Japanese style fantasy artwork was more widespread in the mid 90s, resulting in my first exposure to the work of Yoshitaka Amano. That’s right, the gaming magazine helped expand cultural knowledge.

Another aspect that surprised me was the intense effort at creating solid strategy guides. Nintendo Power really set the standard for writing them, with everything from character analysis to monster glossaries, maps, battle tactics and strategy. They found everything you wanted to know. Almost all future gaming guides emulated Nintendo Power‘s informative approach to writing strategy guides.

And then there were the comics.

The earliest ones were comedy pieces involving Nester, the Nintendo Power mascot. But during the SNES age, we started to see some real comic book style pieces. These included The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past by Shotaro Ishinomori and Super Metroid. Now that was some serious entertainment value.

The Nintendo Power that I remember is long, long gone. The internet revolutionized everything. Why bother with magazines when GameFAQs and individual game wikias can help with strategy? Why bother subscribing when sites like IGN offer the news and reviews?

But as nostalgic as I am, it’s just one of those things from one’s childhood they cannot really have back. All that remains are the memories.

Fresh and Dirty

/ James Fadeley / Leave a comment

I believe I have contracted a very small case of otitis externa, better known as swimmer’s ear. Normally, this occurs in swimming pools, where the chlorinated water just results in the discomfort of water in the ear canal.  However, ocean water is no where near as clean.

I’ve never had an illness quite like it. On the first day came some swelling in my ear. It was not visible, but I could not close my jaw all the way on my left side. Hearing in my ear was a bit difficult. It ached a little at times and made me dizzy, a result of balance impairment. On the second day, the dizziness and swelling were gone and I could close my jaw again. However, I felt nausea and just “ick.” On the third day, these symptoms were gone and replaced with a swollen and stuffed nose. Whether this is allergies or some expansion of the sickness, I cannot say.

Today, my nose is mostly clear and I only have some mild scratchiness in my throat. I’ve never had an illness as transitional as this was. But I feel relatively fine now.

If you haven’t heard of The Trenches yet, consider yourself informed. Created by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade, and Scott Kurtz of Player vs. Player, The Trenches tells its tales via a fictional comic combined with small true-as-far-as-word-of-mouth-goes stories from anonymous QA testers. I’ve no doubt that some stories are embellish and a few might out-and-out false, but the fact that people are taking the time to report so many of them is telling of legitimate problems in the industry. 

Calling attention to these issues is probably the best remedy however. As more people discover that there isn’t much glamor in QA testing for video games, fewer people will be willing to do it. A smaller labor pool will give more power to testers. And although I doubt they can hope for much in the way of increased pay, they can (and should) try to request on-site job skill courses during non-crunch times. This would increase their value and pave the way to better careers, whether at their current company or the next.

The experiences QA folk are facing can be grueling. The least we can do is help give them something they can take from it that will improve their life for the long term. I mean, besides the bitter cynicism…