March 26, 2009
Beyond Good, Beyond Evil
[I'm surprisingly busy with work for this time of year -- thankfully -- so here's another reprint: In My Day #106, originally published in The Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, Issue #106, July 2006]
If you’ve been playing along with the OPM home game (that is, our staggeringly awesome podcast — tune in at radiopm.1up.com today! [Edit: :( ]), you know that a few of us here have been bitten by the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion bug. So I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about why this game is so compelling. I mean, sure, it’s enormous, and sure, it’s real purty, but we’ve seen other big, beautiful games that haven’t captivated our interest (and that of millions of other players) like Oblivion has. But I think I figured out what that special something is that keeps people talking about the game: freedom.
Now, “freedom” is a buzzword that’s been thrown around since GTA3 made “sandbox” games the Hip New Thing. But consider what that means in the context of GTA: You can be a bad guy…or you can be a really bad guy. I mean, you can follow along the main story and steal cars and carry out hits and whatnot, or you can do all that plus run down pedestrians and beat grandmothers over the heads with baseball bats. What you can’t do is be a hero. (Well, you can be a goody-goody, law-abiding citizen, but that pretty much entails walking down the sidewalk and looking at architecture. Not exactly the most entertaining experience.)
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posted on March 26, 2009 at 5:57pm
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March 10, 2009
A Ziff-trospective, Part III: Oakbrook Terrors
West of Chicago, there’s a spot where interstates 294, 290, and 88 all come together. Just west of that interchange, on I-88, is a toll plaza. If you look to the south as you’re driving by, you’ll see an extended-stay corporate hotel. And behind that hotel you’ll see a low, sprawling orange building with a glass canopy over the entrance.
If I were to estimate the amount of time I spent in that building…well, let’s do it now. I went to work there every day for almost four years. Call it 7500 normal working hours. Now add an extra 40 to 60 hours a month to account for deadlines, for around 44 months. Yeah, that’s about what I expected: ten thousand hours is a pretty fair estimate. To do that all at once you’d have to work for about 14 months straight. Without stopping to sleep.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not complaining. Some of my fondest memories happened in and around that building. I made some dear friends. I learned some important lessons. I met my wife during this time. I laughed a lot. I ate some really spectacular take-out.
But you stay in any place long enough, you’re gonna get a little crazy.
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posted on March 10, 2009 at 5:06pm
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March 6, 2009
New-style Music-Games Column
Wanted to note two quick things:
Thing the First: My weekly column about music games is up over at Green Pixels. We did something a little different this time, reorganizing the column as a collection of links to let you dig into the catalogs of the different artists. I think you’ll find it more useful than previous columns.
And Thing the Second: Don’t worry, fans of office-related destruction, I’m still working on the Ziff-trospective, Part III — I had some things that needed tending to over this past week, but I’m planning to have it up over the weekend or early next week. Thanks for your patience.
posted on March 6, 2009 at 4:14pm
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February 26, 2009
New Review: Korg DS-10
Ah, I thought I’d posted about this one when it went up, but apparently I didn’t. Green Pixels posted my Korg DS-10 review earlier this month; it’s a nifty little gadget that’s all about turning a portable game machine into a full-fledged musical instrument. Go have a look if the idea of near-limitless musical twiddling interests you.
posted on February 26, 2009 at 5:17pm
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February 20, 2009
A Ziff-trospective, Part II: Mere Anarchy
When last we spoke, I promised to tell you some dirty little secrets about the Bad Old Days of EGM, OPM, and assorted magazines, in their original home in Lombard, Illinois. And I have no intention of shirking my duties.
But trying to hang these all together in some sort of coherent narrative would a.) take way too long, and b.) probably not make any sense anyway. There was a lot going on, as you’ll see, and if I were to try to hem everything up all pretty it would probably come off as some sort of fevered drug-dream. So instead, let’s peek in on some memorable moments, some iconic people, things, and events that represented that whole heady, smelly time.
Let’s start with the Cone of Violence. It’s as good a place to start as any. Now, enough has been said about this device that I’m not going to waste much time describing it except in the simplest terms: It was a full-size traffic cone, heavy as these things are, positioned appropriately next to the Blitz machine… Oh, I haven’t told you about the Blitz machine? Yeah, we had an NFL Blitz arcade machine in the office, positioned directly in front of the main door so that you couldn’t possibly miss it. “Oh, I was just heading down to the break room for a soda, but I guess I could squeeze in one game.” It’s a wonder we ever got any work done. It would be like if you could play games of party poker all day at your workplace. Anyway, games of Blitz could get pretty heated, thanks largely to what has been variously called “CPU assist,” “rubberband AI,” and “bullshit.” See, what happened was, as soon as one player opened up a big lead, the game would start causing him to fumble the ball, throw interceptions, miss easy passes — pretty much do everything but trip over his own shoelaces. This made some people angry.
But it made Crispin Boyer positively livid.
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posted on February 20, 2009 at 10:20am
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February 18, 2009
How to Kill the Videogame Industry
Host a multimillion-dollar event filled with “glamour, sizzle, and excitement” in the middle of the worst economy since the Great Depression, when half the people who would normally be covering it have been laid off.
Oh well. We had a pretty good run, didn’t we?
posted on February 18, 2009 at 10:50am
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A Ziff-trospective, Part I: The Lombardening
In my most recent post over at 1UP, I started musing a bit about some of the good times I had in my ten-and-a-half years at Ziff Davis Media. With EGM having closed just shy of its 20-year anniversary, there’s a lot of this going around, I understand. Shoe and Crispin did plenty, in written and verbal form; Mielke wrote The Compleat Milkography, Vols. I – XXIV; Greg Sewart rebutted with a different perspective; and C.J. reposted some classic musings of his own. And that’s just a small sampling.
Look, I never claimed to be a trend-setter.
The thing is, I’ve noticed some gaps in others’ accounts. Some gaps that need filling. And by God, I’m just the man to do it.
Plus, I have pictures. Incriminating pictures.
And so, I present to you the first in a four-part series: A Ziff-trospective, Part I: The Lombardening.
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Pretty much any story anyone tells about Lombard includes mention of it being the most suburbiest of suburbs. And oh dear lord, it is. (Or at least, it was the last time I was there.) But do you think that mattered to a 22-year-old kid, fresh out of college, new to Chicago, and starting his first day of work at a videogame magazine? No. No, it did not.
It was June 24, 1996. A bit more than a month previous, in anticipation of moving from my hometown of Cleveland to Chicago, I had answered an ad in the Chicago Tribune for “Writer / Game Player” with a resume (thin) and writing samples (laughable). Both, I learned later, had been promptly lost, but my cover letter had stuck around on someone’s desk long enough to make some sort of impression. So I got asked in for an interview, impressed the hell out of everyone by showing up in a tie, and found myself reporting for work at the offices of Sendai Media the following Monday.
Let me tell you what I saw the first time I walked into this place. You drive up on the outside to a very plain, very institutional-looking, brown-brick building. Three floors, darkish windows — pretty much the epitome of the anonymous late-20th-Century office building. (Come to think of it, here: see for yourself.) You open the doors into a modest, tiled lobby, facing a bit of ugly abstract art that’s inexplicably blocked off with velvet ropes. You go up an open stairway to the second floor. Straight ahead is Reception, but if we’re going to EGM (and we are), we’ll turn left. Swipe your card and open the door.
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posted on February 18, 2009 at 9:22am
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February 16, 2009
Stop Pollinating Yourselves
Attention game journalists:
Can we stop overselling Flower please? Yes, it’s a lovely little game. Yes, it does a lot of interesting things with control. Yes, it has wonderful atmosphere and a nice message. But how about we let players discover these things for themselves? Do we really need to engage in a Most Embarrassing Hyperbole contest every time we talk about the game?
Here, I’ll help. Here’s a handy list for anyone planning to review, blog about, or otherwise cover the game:
Things Flower Does Not Do
- Redefines gaming forever
- Cures cancer
- Justifies, on its own, the purchase of a PlayStation 3
- Reverses global warming
- Personally fellates the player
- Magically turns your significant other into a gamer
- Rescues us from the post-holiday lull
- Saves the whales
- Feeds the hungry
- Allows you to stop considering other games for Game of the Year
- Sticks it to The Man
- Helps you clean your apartment, you filthy troll
- Brings about peace in the Middle East
- Takes the place of real flowers for your loved one
- Makes you any smarter, hipper, or more attractive
- Loves you
Things Flower Does
- Kills a couple hours in a soothing, and yet thought-provoking, fashion
- Surprises the player…if you people will let it
Thank you for your attention.
posted on February 16, 2009 at 3:25pm
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February 9, 2009
A Brief History of Internet Gaming
[While trying to help one of my nieces with a school project, I dug up the bit I contributed to EGM's award-winning Future of Videogames piece from early 2007. But after looking at it again, I realized they had to cut my Brief History of Internet Gaming sidebar down quite a bit to fit it into the mag. This is the original version.]
1969 – The first ARPANET link is created, building the first strand in what would eventually become the Internet.
1978 - The first multi-user dungeon (MUD) is created. Little more than a customizable chatroom, the MUD is nevertheless the predecessor to today’s MMORPGs.
1985 - Quantum Computer Services launches Quantum Link, an online hub for the Commodore 64, featuring simple multiplayer board games. The service is later renamed America Online.
1991 - Neverwinter Nights, the first MMORPG with graphics, is launched on AOL. It costs $6 an hour to play. Its server capacity: 50 players.
1996 - Quake is released, shortly followed by QuakeWorld, a client for playing the game over the Internet. The era of the online FPS is born.
1997 - Ultima Online is launched. 100,000 subscribers sign up within the first six months, only to be brutally PKed and have their boats stolen.
1998 - The Dreamcast is released in Japan, becoming the first game console to launch with a built-in modem. Also, the last.
1999 - EverQuest and Asheron’s Call are launched, completing (with UO) the unholy triumvirate that has strongly influenced MMORPGs to this day.
2002 - Xbox Live is launched on the original Xbox, setting new standards for communication both in-game (with standardized voice chat) and cross-game (with a unified login and friend list). PS2 and Gamecube also debut online functionality, but neither approaches XBL in popularity.
2003 - EverQuest is ported to PS2 in the form of EverQuest Online Adventures. The gaming world notices, yawns, and goes back to hunting for new Final Fantasy XI screens.
2004 - Halo 2 is released, featuring one of the most popular online components in any console game. Within the next two years over half a billion games of Halo 2 will be played online. Also this year: World of Warcraft launches. You may have heard of it.
2006 - PS3 and Wii are launched. Xbox Live takes note of the systems’ respective online offerings, heaves a sigh of relief, and returns to lounging on its jewel-encrusted throne.
2007 - Halo 3 launches. A crippled Internet limps along under the strain of a few million players all getting online at the same time.
2008 - “Internet2″ is completed, offering researchers and universities 100 Gbps transfer speeds.
2009 - Debut of 100-Gbps streaming porn.
2010 - Most metropolitan areas now offer free Wi-Fi within city limits. All that shared bandwidth makes users nostalgic for the dial-up days.
2029 - The Internet, now self-aware, sends a T-800 back in time to kill Sarah Connor.
2050 - Humans move to an internet-only existence, uploading their brains to permanently live in the electronic world.
2112 - Attention, all planets of the Solar Federation: We have assumed control.
posted on February 9, 2009 at 1:17pm
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January 14, 2009
Selling Out
Not too long ago, the New York Times ran an article about the rise of music licensing. It’s an interesting article, and it makes a lot of good points about the growing importance of licensing to musicians’ careers. I imagine if you thought about it you’d probably agree that a well-chosen commercial can make a big impact on a musician’s career these days. Just think of any recent Apple commercial: Would Feist be enjoying the popularity she currently has if Apple hadn’t used “1 2 3 4″ to relaunch the Nano? Somehow I doubt it. I imagine, at least, that she probably wouldn’t have been on Sesame Street.
So I agree with the article up to a point. But then the author starts dishing out gems like this one:
What happens to the music itself when the way to build a career shifts from recording songs that ordinary listeners want to buy to making music that marketers can use? That creates pressure, subtle but genuine, for music to recede: to embrace the element of vacancy that makes a good soundtrack so unobtrusive, to edit a lyric to be less specific or private, to leave blanks for the image or message the music now serves.
I’m sorry, Mr. Pareles, but that is just so very much bullshit.
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posted on January 14, 2009 at 3:55pm
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