Editor's Note Letters to the Editor Staff Page

ALSO: EDITOR’S NOTE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR STAFF PAGE What we didn’t know is how hard it captures so much about the value of would be to get anything at all from games in general, not only in times of Ubisoft. There’s a reason no one knows crisis, but their value to us as people. anything about Ubisoft - they don’t talk The best Escapist article by far, in my I remember the days we were to journalists. I’m not complaining; I’m In Response to “Escaping Katrina” opinion. I teach a course on games at a brainstorming ideas for the current really just not sure what to make of it. In from The Escapist Forum: I didn’t university, and I’ll shove this in their editorial calendar. We were going a world of people, businesses, countries want to read this article. As someone not collective stockings next week. through our Seekrit Process of Editorial all spending as much time clamoring physically touched by Katrina, I’ve been Calendar Making, with the obligatory about the good things they do as they able to put aside detailed examination of - wolvesevolve calls for scotch and cigars, as well as a spend actually doing them, a silent one what the survivors must have felt/feel or whiteboard in my office covered with screams louder than the rest. experienced. Lara Crigger did a In Response to “Escaping Katrina” scrawled … words, if you can call them masterful job in crafting an article that from The Escapist Forum: Excellent that, which likely made sense only to And so we scrounged what we could draws the reader in, and in a few short article. I would only add that the useless those in the room. from Ubisoft games, our memories and paragraphs makes you feel what she nature of escapism in a society or the dark corners of the internet (yes, we saw, and actually care about the people community in crisis is also a matter of As we went back through them to go there so you don’t have to) in order she is describing. I was very touched by distance and immediacy. Those in New narrow down the topics into something to bring you “Ubisoft: Ubi, Uber, Uni.” the story -- for the story of the Orleans still dealing with Katrina’s resembling an order with a purpose, we Spanner, good lad that he is, took on the experience, certainly, but more by her aftermath, and perhaps even New came across Ubisoft. We paused. Several task of profiling Ubisoft and came back gentle and thoughtful reflections on Yorkers now five years after the event, said, “Why?” Well, because they’re huge. with a great read and some interesting human nature. George’s seeming may find simple escapist fare rather trite, They’ve been around forever and who conclusions. Joe Blancato spoke with an indifference to his warped Magic cards but in the rest of the country, simple and doesn’t own at least one Ubisoft title? ex-Frag Doll to get the real scoop of the and poster, and how they only represent easy entertainments gained a great deal And, well, I don’t know anything about Ubi-sponsored gaming clan. And Jim something that truly is permanent, of popularity. The same of Astaire/Rogers them. How does that happen? Who is Rossignol waxes a bit philosophical about struck a chord with me that is still musicals during the great depression. Ubisoft, anyway? underrated Beyond Good & Evil, which I resonating. Kudos to Lara, and please I’m wary of the “comfort food” theory to now want to go and play. Find these publish more of her work! explain everything, but it makes sense Our interest was piqued, and so, hoping articles and more in this week’s issue of that when a threat is immediate and we weren’t cats, we ran with the The Escapist. - kvivian obvious escapism is unimportant, but curiosity. We began looking for one of when a threat is abstract and distant our stars to write a profile of this prolific Cheers, In Response to “Escaping Katrina” (terrorism, economic depression) people giant that lived in shadows. We knew it from The Escapist Forum: An would be hard (Sorry, Spanner!). incredible piece of writing; the writer find their world worrisome, and use study videogames want to make them. search engines and therefore searching entertainment as some form of relief. While sure, if I got offered a job as a = a game. Just because you spent half game designer I would have to think the time searching does not - weinerjew about it, but that isn’t my primary goal. automatically make searching a game. In Response to “Immersion Realistically, the author is also tapping meh... I’m finding it difficult to argue my Unexplained” from The Escapist into a debate that, hopefully, has already point... because I see where you are Forum: Simply said, I don’t quite died. I’m past the narratology and coming from and that is clouding what I subscribe to narratology/ludology ludology debate and I think most people want to say. dichotomy, I guess it’s all about personal are as well -- at least the people I talked preferences. In the first type of games, to at said DiGRA conference in - guided1 the immersion comes from the thrill of Vancouver last year were. Murray’s imagining your story and setting your keynote was practically the only paper own goals and then fulfilling them, in the that mentioned the “N” and “L” words. second type you enjoy unfolding the story made up by someone else. Both Yes, narratology and ludology don’t things can be equally enjoyable in their contribute to making better games, but own way. they aren’t meant to and yes narratology and ludology are pointless meandering - WanderingTaoist debates, which is why they have largely died down. In Response to “Immersion Unexplained” from The Escapist - jccalhoun Forum: Get those feet back on the ground, people. In Response to “Not With a Bang, But a Click” from The Escapist - dejanzie Forum: What the hell are you talking about? In Response to “Immersion Unexplained” from The Escapist It’s a good read and an interesting article Forum: The article seems to be but how do you go from id Software to premised on the assumption that we who computers to CD-ROMs to internet to It’s not often that an editor comes to small, cancerous and filled with the same you and asks for something so, when repeated, empty webpage surrounded by Russ (the new guy at The Escapist who a billion different banner advertisements. pulls the strings to make the writers dance) approached me with a hole in his Who the hell is Ubisoft? It’s like some schedule, I felt quite flattered. kind of personality black hole; compressing a galaxy of individuality into And the assignment was - I chose to a dimensionless, cross-platform assume - a simple one. Write a company singularity so dense that no personal profile on Ubisoft. Naturally, I waved a information can escape its vast event Spanner flag in one hand and blew my horizon. (Everything I know, I learned own trumpet with the other. from Star Trek.) Has it grown too big to support an individual identity, or has it “No problem,” said I, confident in my become the worst kind of soulless ability to hack out a few thousand words byproduct of a passionless corporate of romanticized eulogy. “Ubisoft is vast, mind? It started life purely as a publisher and certain to be steeped in glorious in France, so could it be possible Ubisoft history – ‘twill be but the work of a was born as a peddler of another’s couple of hours. The best thing about an imagination, feeding on the commercial assignment like this is that nothing – creativity of bedroom programmers with nothing at all – can go wrong.” As you no discernable spirit of its own? can guess, I was off to a good start. Maybe. Well, I poured my afternoon rum and ginger and set about making good on my It’s equally possible that Ubisoft pours its bold promises of uncovering the gargantuan resources into making humanity cowering behind the veils of games rather than painting a high gloss one of Europe’s biggest game public veneer; promising revolution upon developers. Eight hours later, with eyes revolution until its back catalogue is a so square I could dress them in vortex of downwardly spiraling dungarees and take them to a barn anticlimaxes. All I had were theories dance, I came to realize the internet is and the kind of questions no public relations manager worth his salt would • Ubisoft gets its name, and therefore which also rents out games. I came answer candidly. (presumably) its founding philosophy, away with anything and everything from the word "ubiquity." proudly bearing the Ubisoft logo. I did uncover a few tenuous facts, I suppose. • A guillemot is a sea bird found in the After an hour or two of playing - err, northern Atlantic and Pacific waters. (I research - the lines that I had been • Ubisoft was founded in 1986 in France don’t know what flavor it is, though.) looking for, between which I hoped to by the five Guillemot brothers as a read the story of a world class software computer game distributor. Good An impressive, self-made legacy of hard developer, began to appear. business tactics soon led to U.K., graft and competent management. German and U.S. divisions and working Trouble is, none of this stuff is especially It seems the identity of Ubisoft is lightly relationships with Sierra On-Line, EA, unheard of in the industry or, for that etched across their entire back Microprose and a whole load more.

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