tiles … Put it on a computer, and click life in the past few years, due in part, to games *sigh*) and has been playing on they’re reshuffled and rebuilt. the internet. And, as you can guess from consoles since before I could walk. One our cover, Joe Blancato speaks to Matt of my favorite opponents to go head to This issue is not exactly about retro The second thing is a bit more complex. Soell, the creator of Stubbs the Zombie: head with is one of my friend’s girlfriend. games. Despite the name, “Groovy Art, media and entertainment are often Rebel without a Pulse, a great game She routinely whoops the hell out of me Games,” we aren’t going to wax poetic produced in reaction to the times. Wars, smacking heavily of ‘60s zombie movies, at Soul Calibur 3 and a few other games, about all of our childhood favorites. economies and politics are reflected in but with something to say. Find these yet when I try to convince stubborn male Sure, there will be a little of that, but the art and entertainment of a people. articles and more in this week’s issue of customers at my store that female mostly we’re looking at retro themes and Part of this is “painting what we know,” The Escapist. gamers do exist, they are left unswayed. designs, and the games that literally reflecting the world around us. I am glad to finally have a website/ezine demonstrate those. But part of this is attempting to make Cheers, to send them to. Thanks for writing an sense of the world around us, and to It sounds a little esoteric, but it’s there make a connection with others trying to and games aren’t the only media or art make sense of the world around us. A to do it. Take fashion: Every 20 to 30 theme or idea re-emerging in media years, some variants of the same style suggests that there’s still a need to are in fashion – haven’t you noticed the dissect and understand, whether pant legs inside women’s boots of late? because time has allowed a new And this a few short years after everyone perspective or because the issue has was wearing boot cut pants, flared at the crept up again. bottom specifically to fitoutside boots. Games are no different than any other That’s right, we’re heading back to the To the Editor: I just read my first issue art medium in returning to old ideas. 80s. Pull out your teal and hot pink. of The Escapist and I have to say that I And this is not a bad thing. Hence, the am very impressed by it. You have subject of this week’s issue, “Groovy This recycling of old material and ideas certainly gained a new reader from now Games.” Russ Pitts debuts this week and accomplishes two things. The first thing, on, and I intend to encourage my friends discusses his need to deal with “preteen revisiting old ideas with fresh eyes. They to check it out as well. were good ideas once, they’re probably thanatos” from growing up during the Cold War in America and how games still good ideas, especially when new A little bit of background on me: I’m a helped. Also new this week is Richard tech is applied. Take computer white male age 20 (i.e. the target Aihoshi, sharing one of his favorite mahjongg. It’s based on an old game, a demographic of most game developers) pastimes and how it got a new lease on good game, but there are just so many who works for a GameStop (formerly EB excellent publication and please keep it To the Editor: The women in gaming age of 20 on the other hand.. but oh well up! features were all brilliant. I really you can’t have everything! -D.C. enjoyed the magazine issue, it was great to have acknowledgement that we play Thanks for the articles! To the Editor: First things first: You for once. I play Guild Wars and the “Girls -Cat “Glory POA” D guys do a great job writing The don’t exist on teh interweb!!!1” article Escapist. So good, in fact, that if you was pretty much spot on. And funny. took a look around the office here at LDA Games and noticed that we all have two A few other girls and I formed a Diablo 2 monitors on our desks, you’d be led to (Open + Closed Dueling) clan, the first believe that the primary purpose for our (and I think the only) all female D2 clan second monitors is to showcase your back in 2000 after meeting through an magazine. online community. At the time we had a) Lesbian comments b) You are not girls With that out of the way, I wanted to let comments c) You are boys pretending to you know that I don’t find your RSS feed be fat lesbian comments (these were very useful. The reason for this is that I interesting) d) You are girls and must use Thunderbird as my RSS aggregator, therefore suck or have someone else and it only displays the first page of each fight your battles for you comments e) article, making me open it in Firefox if I You might be girls, but not hot girls want to read the rest of it. But I’m not comments. Recently some of us got writing to complain; I’m writing to let accused of “cyber-sexing” (I kid thee you know that I’ve come up with a not) our way up to admin positions in a solution. If you subscribe to this feed, web forum. The clan is called POA each article will be displayed in one (Pieces of Ass) and still going pretty page, with all your beautiful formatting strong despite ridicule online and deaths, in tact. I admit it’s a bit of a hack, but it divorces, kids and marriages offline. It’s works. So if anybody else complains cool, and all the men on our home about your RSS feed, feel free to pass it gaming communities are respectful and on. appreciate we have our place there Cheers, because we’ve earned it. Boys under the -Rick Yorgason Retro eventually gives way to parody. gaming. Of course, the first thing I ask Think about it. The latest ‘80s movement him is when Stubbs the Zombie was born. is about to fall flat on its face because no one can pop his pink polo shirt’s collar “Wideload began life in early 2003,” he for much longer than a year before tells me. “The initial incarnation realizing how stupid it looks. The words consisted of three people - Alexander “disco is back!” are a punch line, but 15 Seropian, Mark Bernal and myself. We years ago, they sent people in search of had a lot of conference calls because we designer bell bottoms. The transition didn’t have office space yet, and Alex from serious high fashion to giggle- was still spending a lot of time at home inducing is just part of the underlying tending to his just-born first child. We’d cultural understanding that you can’t go been kicking a bunch of ideas around but home again. Despite the cyclical nature we hadn’t come up with anything we of western culture, entropy finds a home really liked yet. After one conference call in too many hearts to let us repeat on a Saturday morning, during which we ourselves verbatim, and no throwback in all shot down each other’s ideas, I was the world evades a comic gaze for pacing around trying to will a good idea very long. into existence. Nothing was coming, so I gave up and took a shower. That’s when But what about when someone creates a the raw idea for Stubbs came to me. I throwback complemented by a wink and seem to have most of my good ideas in a nudge? How can you make fun of retro the shower or in the car. Aspiring writers when it’s already making fun of itself? should drive and bathe often.” Stubbs the Zombie: Rebel without a Pulse dared me to answer that very If you’re unfamiliar with Stubbs, here’s question when I put on my fedora and some perspective. It’s 1959. All of the popped the CD into my Xbox last October. outlandish advances promised in those corny “the future is now!” type videos I was able to get in touch with have been delivered by Andrew Monday, Wideload’s Matt Soell, Stubbs’ creator, and they’re all available for everyone to and talk game design, specifically retro enjoy in his newly created future city, Punchbowl. Robots take on menial tasks For the next few hours, hilarity ensues, usually performed by the working class, as Stubbs romps through Punchbowl, the police force’s numbers rival that of a turning its citizens into a zombie horde fascist state, and the elite special ops that takes on the U.S. Army in the team charged with protecting Andrew game’s final stages. Somewhere in the Monday and his mother doubles as a middle, Stubbs gets into a dance off with profane barbershop quartet - it’s Joseph the chief of police, and later develops a McCarthy’s wet dream. But there’s a love interest with one of Punchbowl’s problem. Punchbowl is built on the celebrities.