In response to “By the Book” from The Escapist Forum: As an English major and someone who’s followed the trends of literature, it strikes me after reading this article that the world of gaming is going through radical changes, and since no one views it as an art form yet, there isn’t a whole lot of people willing to analyze all of this. I want to praise Tom for this reason: he has presented an albeit very brief history of interactive art.
As pointed out, there has been a shift from detailed rules to context sensitivity. This trend has greatly shifted the way videogames are played, and it’s almost like the split between pre- and post-modernism literature.
But then again, I’ve been drinking too much tonight and this is neither the time nor place. So let me just surmise by saying good job Tom, and keep looking at the evolution of this fledgling art form.
A very nice article that I’m forced to disagree with, for various reasons. I will always consider the “slower” method of doing things on pen and paper greatly superior to digital imitations because a computer and a number generator will never match the innovation of your friends or dungeon master or the experience it provides.
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In response to “Albert’s Arcade” from The Escapist Forum: I would love to live near Keystone II. I will say that all my interactions with the Street Fighter community have been extremely positive, even though I’m only talking about the online players I encounter on SSF2THD Remix.
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In response to “Making It Work: Game Accessibility” from The Escapist Forum: Good essay, I read about these kinds of issues but I’ve never seen it explained in-depth. You might have better luck arguing the case towards game developers instead of controller developers. Control schemes change from game to game, so any attempts at making a one-handed controller are going to fall flat as soon as someone releases a game that doesn’t mesh with its setup. It’s not like anyone was shoulder aiming in their game heavily until Gears, for example.
The best solution, to me, seems to be just requiring developers to make every button mappable. As in, every button. If we made it so pressing start shoulder-aimed and left trigger was start, would you be able to play it better? The nice thing about this is that everyone wins this way, since every player will enjoy this option.
Still impressed you can get through Ninja Gaiden 2 without blocking…
Yeah, I see ZERO reason for not making controls user definable, I seem to remember just about every ZX Spectrum game managing it in 48k, how can they not fit the option into 4.7gb?
Maybe someone should take it to the ‘European Court of Human Rights’ and say the games inflicting on your human right to play it as they can’t play one handed, far worse cases have been brought and won, and it’d actually be a good thing for the moderately disabled community.
Actually I’d rather not get legally involved, but just an extra couple of hours work during development to make your game more accessible to EVERYONE, surely that’s gotta be worth more than designing ANOTHER funny hat for the create a character page?
I admit I still want more hats too tho.
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In response to “High Scores for Hope” from The Escapist Forum: Good read, though I could’ve sworn Desert Bus raised more than 22k…I thought it was in the 70,000’s?
Anyway, I would absolutely love to be in a charity such as this, it sounds like a lot of fun. No doubt if I could find a group to work with I’d be doing this, too. Thanks go out to the “Speed Gamers”.
This article was really inspiring. While I do some charity work every year, this motivates me to think more and more outside the box with fundraising. Fantastic article, and sounds like some great people having some fun for a good cause.
I would like to add that this is a tremendous way to get younger generations involved in helping their community and that rocks!
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In response to “Preserving Our Playable Past” from The Escapist Forum: It’s amazing how many of us have had similar experiences. I can’t believe I abandoned all my old books, games, magazines, manuals. What was I thinking? I needed the space, and I wanted the small amount of money I could get, but it wasn’t worth it. I could still have an enormous treasure trove of nostalgia to look through, and even if that’s all it was, that would be more than enough. I’m a fool.
And so, of course, that’s where GOG and what not come in. Maybe we’ll eventually see these services expand to new heights. GOG, for one, is really doing what it can and getting better and better. It will be a while before it can replace the treasure trove I threw blindly away, but I don’t think anything can do that.
I remember the sense of loss I felt when I heard that my brother had garage-sold our Atari 2600, ColecoVision, and all the games. It seemed like such a big deal.
And yet, my Sega Genesis sits in the basement gathering dust, hasn’t seen the light of day in years.
Interesting related note, though: just this month, I bought both the Namco Arcade Museum and the Sonic Genesis Collection for the Xbox 360, two collections of older games. And I’ve noticed that the Wii has releases of older stuff as well (I think they just released some Commodore 64 games). Just goes to show there is a market, and at least a couple publishers have noticed.
