FROMFROM ‘94‘94 TOTO INFINITY:INFINITY: MYMY EDUCATIONEDUCATION BEFOREBEFORE HALOHALO byby JimJim RossignolRossignol byby PatPat MillerMiller >>READREAD GAMEGAME by Allen Varney PPLANESCAPE:LANESCAPE: TORMENTTORMENT byby ChrisChris DahlenDahlen Wrecking Crew came with my original did not extend beyond the span of one insight into the world of interactive To the editor: I have really been Nintendo Entertainment System. Most octave, and cannot keep the smile from fiction. Jim Rossignol discusses the enjoying my weekly reads of The buyers got Super Mario Brothers, but my face. importance of the past in the future of Escapist. And, more often than not, mine came with everyone’s favorite gaming. Please enjoy these articles and feelings of anger, sadness, resigned brothers wearing their construction What is it about that first game that more in this week’s issue of The apathy and a healthy bit of righteous worker hats, making their way through captures one’s imagination? Sure, Escapist. fury accompany those reads as well. puzzles of demolition, avoiding monsters Wrecking Crew was not the first game I That is not a bad thing, however, as they called Gotcha Wrenches and hiding from had ever played – I participated in my Cheers, all stem from well written articles by Spike, the Foreman. I took on the role of share of Pong tournaments and Pac-Man talented and insightful writers who Mario, climbing this ladder, banging that could make even me like yellow. challenge me to think in new directions door with the hammer, waiting for the Something about the simplicity of and look at the industry as it is, instead purple Gotcha to follow me, then hammering away at a concrete wall, of how I wish it were. Even when I smashing the pillar at the exact moment satisfying crunching noise and all, until it remain opposed to their arguments, I to trap him under an orange barrel. crumbled was captivating enough to park have a better foundation on which to itself in my memory and prompt me to stand than before my opinions were Sounds extremely simple, dull even, mention Wrecking Crew in nearly every challenged. when compared to the sensory discussion on classic games. extravaganza of today’s video game What primarily prompted me to write to world. But it provided endless hours of Speaking of discussion on classic games you was Max Steele’s exceptional article entertainment for me, enough that when – we have an entire issue of that for you “It’s All Real to Me.” My high appraisal is the catchy, repetitive tune came through this week. Pat Miller debuts in The not garnered due to the arguments in the television, even my dog groaned and Escapist this week with an interesting the article matching many of my own moseyed out of the room in what might read about Bungie’s original masterpiece, opinions, which too often becomes the qualify as a doggie-huff. Even now, I can and foundation for future work, criteria people use in judging editorial clearly recall the music, which certainly Marathon. Allen Varney returns with an writing. Instead, it made me think about the issues under examination from a fresh and thought-provoking perspective. Indeed, I frequently rant to friends, To the editor: I continue to enjoy quantify the effect any media consumed To the editor: The Escapist is just what much to their chagrin, I’m sure, about watching the growth of The Escapist, in dedicated chunks may have on the I’ve been wanting — I’ve always the influence of marketing on various both in size and in reach. However, I was behaviors of their more hardcore preferred the look of magazines to the forms of art, particularly games and disappointed by the short “News Bit” participants. To date, all causal look of Web pages, but dislike the movies. Usually, after somehow fitting regarding gaming violence in Issue #5. relationships appear to be anecdotal, physical clutter they produce. Your site’s in a caustic barrage against consoles, I For such a contentious and current topic, attempts to link the latest hot button a soup that eats like a meal, as it were end up leveling my wrath on the mass an entire issue could be dedicated to this issues within the constraints of sound- — the ease of access offered by the consumer, start muttering about the discussion alone, instead of adding a byte delivery – a constraint you are not Internet with the design sensibility of a state of humanity, and give up in a datapoint of questionable relevance. bound by. print magazine. I salute you. And I’ll be resigned huff. Mr. Steele’s enlightening back for more. article, however, gave me some food for First, Asheron’s Call 2 is extremely tame As a result, I felt this bit did a disservice thought, fuel for the fire, and added a by the standards of violence in video to the debate, adding a reference point -JH little to my usually dwindling hope for games. While it includes combat as a which would not stand up to any serious the future of gaming. central feature, a much better example scrutiny. A better handling of the subject To the editor: I love The Escapist - of obsession-inducing immersive violence would involve a conscientious overview great articles, good formatting and If there are smart folks out there in the would be Guild Wars, World of Warcraft of the history of media and violence, wonderful insight. I have a suggestion/ industry reading the words of the smart Battlegrounds, or, even more so, games perhaps culminating in an objective request - repost/reprint the web page in folks at your magazine, even this from outside the genre, be they Real- summary from representatives of both a mobile format friendly manner. Call it, grizzled old gamer is willing to be patient time Strategy or First-person Shooter. sides of the debate. www.escapistmagazine.com/mobile. and look forward to what the future may I’ve tried to read the escapist on my bring, ranting all the while, of course. Second, research to date hints that -Darniaq Treo, and it’s more than a little bit violent behavior can be linked to much difficult. -Greg Gursky more invested time than two hours per To the editor: Nice website, but you day. Fourteen hours a week is considered seriously need to do something about -Tawnya Carr To the editor: Excellent content and almost “casual” by gaming standards, an your layout. It’s a real pain to read. great read. But badly presented. Please amount of time leaving much more left Granted it looks nice and flashy but I’d To the editor: Great design, great have the font size enjoyable to read or over to fair grounding in the “reality” of rather have good content (which you articles. Arresting and engaging. the site code flexible to scale. employment, families, etc. already have) in a nice, simple, readable Thanks. format (see http://www.slashdot.org) -jt Third, no mention is made of local -d conditions, cultural background, nor the -Pratik Patel decades of attempts to qualify and Imagine, if you will, a first-person shooter game. Imagine it set in a science fiction world where humanity is on the verge of extinction from mysterious alien forces; imagine that it is beautifully rendered in the level design and complemented by a compelling storyline, and imagine that it is loaded with exotic alien weaponry that you can unleash on your friends and enemies in adversarial and cooperative multiplayer games alike. Not too hard to picture, right? Now - and here’s the tricky part - imagine this game as having been released eleven years ago. Is that a bit more difficult to envision? It shouldn’t be, because you, as the kind of classy, educated gamer - you know, the kind who reads magazines that are distributed exclusively in PDF format - that you are, should have already played Bungie’s Marathon trilogy back during the formative years of the FPS. Right now, Bungie’s Halo 2 is a phenomenon that has won critical acclaim, sold over $125 million in its first day of sales, and perhaps most significantly, drawn in the Average Joe to the wonderful world of online multiplayer gaming via XBox Live. Anyone who wishes to understand this success would do well to investigate its roots in Marathon on the Macintosh. Marathon’s game design has left its Shotgun, and the trusty old SPNKR mark, not only in Halo, but also in the rocket launcher (which lives on in Halo). genre as a whole. While the rest of the The multiplayer action, with game modes industry was collectively soiling like King of the Hill and Kill the Guy with themselves over Doom’s gritty texture the Ball instead of just boring old maps and the totally awesome BFG deathmatch, was the LAN party staple 9000, the Bungie folks were quietly for Mac gamers well into the Quake III pioneering FPS development with things Arena era. And the plot, which put you in like secondary fire modes, objective- the shoes of a cybernetically enhanced based missions instead of red keys and Security Officer, left you at the mercy of blue doors, plots that aren’t mind- a somewhat psychotic AI in a war numbingly boring, and so on. The fact between human and alien, and narrated that Marathon’s gameplay remains fresh everything to you by way of strategically and modern even now stands as a placed computer terminals; Marathon’s testament to its pioneering game design storyline has a sublime perfection in its (or a depressing indicator of the video progress from straightforward alien- game industry’s stagnation, if your cup is killing in Marathon and Marathon 2 to a half empty).