Theescapist 086.Pdf
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
This week, Mur Lafferty returns to That explains the fast moving forward It’s a greedy game company’s smart discuss the rising number of game and cutting off anything left behind move to allow autonomy for the design degree programs with various tactic (“we don’t need anything that developers, since that will produce best We hear from a lot of people on a weekly industry insiders. Newcomer Blake doesn’t make us money”), as well as the games which will establish a base for basis wishing to write for the magazine. Schreurs shares the trials of an indie clinging to the Genesis system (“it made success (and thus - money) in the long Some just like the magazine’s style and game designer trying to get noticed by a us more money than any other attempt, run (think franchises), it’s too bad they want to be involved. Sometimes, they’ve publisher. Sara Grimes explores a so we must try and milk it for all it’s didn’t think of others - customers and 3d already looked at our editorial calendar potential outcome of child-focused worth”) and expensive(-ity of) add-ons. party developers - more. and have an issue in particular for which advergaming: datamining. Erin Hoffman they’d like to write. And some come jumps in to give the history and explain - shadowbird forward with fully fleshed out pitches or the importance of those in the bright T- articles, great ideas, but not at all shirts at GDC, the Conference In response to “Uwe Boll and the related to our calendar. Associates. And Kieron Gillen addresses German Tax Code” from The Escapist the oft-maligned, rarely understood Forum: The fact that game company’s It is these orphan articles that cause us Super Columbine Massacre RPG. Find continue to agree to let Boll make these the most difficulty. You see, we’re these articles and more in this week’s movies must also demonstrate the huge suckers for a great article, but we have The Escapist. amount of payoffs going on behind the designed, and love, our editorial scenes. Let’s face it: if you’re a small- calendar. It is the foundation upon which Cheers, time development studio struggling to the whole of The Escapist is built. make it, it’s got to be pretty tempting to However, we have learned in our first accept a large sum of money from Boll’s year of publishing The Escapist that company. Plus, it’s publicity for the sometimes it is best to have a little game, no matter how much the movie flexibility built into the mix. ends up sucking. I mean, does anyone actually think Postal will be anything but It is this need for flexibility that has a trainwreck? brought forth the recurring Editor’s In response to “What’s in a Name?” Choice issues you’ll find scattered from The Escapist Forum: I probably - Quintin Stone throughout the calendar. These issues know even less about marketing than are literally a mix of some of our favorite the author, but it seems to me very In response to “All Hail Sonic!” from Homeless Articles over the last few apparent that the reason of Sega’s The Escapist Forum: Sonic is odd for months – and this one is no exception. troubles is the good ol’ greed. me. I loved the fast movement that came from the Genesis games, but I was told you to use your favorite copy SNES kid back then, so I didn’t play it program to copy your characters. If your much. The first time I really got into it party wiped in the game, they were was Sonic Adventure 2: Battle for the dead. Your latest game save loaded up Gamecube. Initially, I was “is this what with a party or corpses. Now, you could Sonic turned into”? But as I played, I revive them by creating another found that it was fun, at least when I character, getting enough gold, and then was playing as Sonic(or Shadow). Alot of taking each one to the temple, but it the game, though, I got the thoughts wasn’t easy or fun. It did, however, “why did they bother with this”? With the make things much more tense during big story, I felt that they were trying to battles, especially when you realized that make things too epic. With the it had been a while since your last backup. gameplay, I felt that they were trying to do too much. It seemed like the it’s hard to say what the ‘right’ solution developers went into this trying to create is here, but something that would bring the biggest game ever, without the time that level of risk/reward/punishment or resources to pull it off. Everything felt back seems to be the place to start. like it could’ve been done better, and everything else felt like the game was - Boucaner better off without it. When I got the game, I was assuming I was going to get a new(from my perspective) Sonic game. What I got was a half-assed attempt at something more. - Meophist In response to “Killjoy” from The Escapist Forum: Anyone else remember the ‘good ol days’? On the original Bard’s Tale (C64), the manual You suspect that if Danny Ledonne knew peak as 2006 turned into 2007, when it what the fallout would be from uploading was forcibly ejected from the Slamdance his 23 MB RPG Maker-constructed game Guerrilla Gamemaker Competition, after to his website in 2005 … well, he’d have being selected for the shortlist of finalists just gone ahead and done it anyway. You by the panel. This precipitated a walkout don’t make a game called Super of a sizeable proportion of other Columbine Massacre RPG! if you’re that contestants - an act of solidarity. worried about getting attention. With so many issues, it’s difficult to know In literate circles, it’s probably the most what to think about Super Columbine controversial game of recent years. To Massacre RPG! mention it is to beget an argument. In the mainstream, despite some sporadic Let’s see if we can do anything about that. coverage, it’s barely a blip for a variety of obvious reasons. As an indie game, it’s Is there any place for a subject like not popular. As a freeware game, there’s this in a videogame? no money to be had from ambulance- There’s a mass of films and books on chasing lawyers. But where a game as Columbine, whether directly about the castigated as Bully was generally events or exploring it through thinly veiled defended by gamers who knew the mass analogues. Why is one cultural form media was misunderstanding a game allowed to comment on a tragedy and built on a sound premise, SCMRPG another one not? It’s clear by the strength doesn’t have it that easy. It’s constructed of the reaction that the mere idea of a in a primitive videogame engine, taking game that places you in the shoes of the form of an old-school RPG. Its subject murderers provokes powerful emotions. matter remains a highly charged issue. It’s widely rejected on either the charge The outrage comes from a couple places. of bad taste or bad craft, often both. First, games are for children. Ergo, a game of a serious event must, by its Well over a year after its initial release, very nature, trivialize it. More it’s still being talked about, growing ever sophisticated positions argue that it’s the more infamous. Its notoriety reached a act of becoming Klebold and Harris, the perpetrators of the massacre, glamorizes the art theorist Andre Breton quote, “The what they did. A book doesn’t ask you to purest surrealistic act would be to go Should SCMRPG have been kicked pull the trigger and make you complicit. into a crowd and fire at random,” out of Slamdance? The former argument can be rejected by retraces Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold’s This is a question that confuses the simply restating the truism that not all final morning. One calls the other; they issue. Of course, Slamdance can invite or games are for kids. The latter argument meet up; they record a final video. They kick out whoever they want from their makes the assumption that if you’re place two homemade propane bombs in award. It’s their award, and cries of pulling the trigger, you’ll find it a canteen and set the timer for lunch, censorship are simply misplaced. The enjoyable. In actual fact, this is simply then retire to the hill overlooking the game exists, and will continue to exist, untrue. SCMRPG is as uncomfortable as school and wait for the bombs to go off. no matter what Slamdance decided. gaming gets. They don’t. The game then proceeds into The real question is credibility. Removing In regard to Columbine, I’d actually a more combat-orientated RPG, where a selected finalist purely because of its argue to the contrary on games’ the boys tool up with weaponry from the subject, for whatever reason, makes it suitability. In fact, the computer game trunk of their car and move through the difficult to take the organization may be the most appropriate medium to school, confronting groups of student seriously. Not selecting something to explore the situation. After all, it was the stereotypes - Preppy Girl, Nerdy Girl, avoid controversy is one thing. Backing pair’s favored one.