Applied Indifference

OK, so I didn’t get my name on too many machines. Made the daily list on Joust, with a paltry 38k or so. Got owned by the Robotron machine. Actually did OK on Star Wars. Tempest still kicks my ass, and I still go back for more.

Got some more stuff for the Intellivision. Didn’t get some of the rarer carts - $100 for Diner? Thank you, no. If willingness to buy things at that price is the mark of the “true” collector, then I’ll stay a wannabe.

In any case, I spent more money than I should have on things that I don’t need.

Which is kinda the point. (although I intend to play all of these, I don’t think I’d ever touch a cart that I paid $100 for).

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Writing from the hotel room. Full day today. Hit the vendors, made some good scores. Got an original Arcadia Supercharger for the Atari 2600. Very cool. Also added a few boxed games to the Intellivision collection.

Got myself into a Halo2 tournament. As expected, I got owned. Hard. Match had 6 people on independent XBoxen, wired LAN-party style. Match is race to 25. I only got 4 kills. Had fun anyhow.

They have a slightly larger selection of classic arcade machines this year. Going back tomorrow to see if there’s any new games to be had. Also need to get my name up on a few more of those arcade machines.

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Jack Thompson’s at it again. Threatening to sue (or attack, depending upon the story and the time of day) anyone that dares question his intentions or sanity.

Jack holds himself out as some important moral arbiter of society, single-handedly fighting off the hordes of evil that are the Video Game Industry.

He honestly believes that video games like “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” are murder simulators, because one psychopath who shot up a police station told him so. He thinks that second-rate Leonardo DiCaprio movies make kids slaughter gymnasiums full of students.

This man is clearly not living on the same plane of reality as you and I.

First, he has no concept of mathematics. If he did, he’d realize that one person going nuts and blaming a game that sold many millions of copies is not exactly gonna pass the laugh test for causality.

He also doesn’t seem to understand the difference between a properly controlled study and a bogus PR stunt. He claims that there are all sorts of studies that show a definitive link between video game exposure and violent behavior in young persons. Never mind that the studies he cites weren’t controlled for mental disorders, nor were they controlled for much of anything else. And the ones that I’ve read seem to ask the kids how they “felt” after playing a game, and didn’t actually see if they were more criminally inclined.

He also has a poor grasp on statistics. I’ve not seen one analysis of youth crime that shows an increase in violent crime among children since the advent of video games. And given how much more media attention crime gets, and how much more trivial a thing it takes to be accused of a violent crime, that’s no mean feat.

Simply put, the man is so full of shit that he cannot help spewing it out of his mouth in continuous streams.

Jack, shut your mouth and crawl back under your rock. We are bigger than you, smarter than you, and we have better lawyers than you. If you continue to fuck with us, you WILL be destroyed. And I’m not talking about merely being embarrassed on the national stage by losing in court. You’ll lose the one thing that makes your miserable existence possible - your law license.

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The fallout has begun.

Electronic Arts (EA) inked a deal with the NFL to be the sole producer of licensed NFL video games for the next five years. They followed this up with Arena Football and ESPN. In the middle of this, the NBA told EA to get bent.

This week, Take Two Interactive signed a 7-year exclusive deal with Major League Baseball.

The response thus far: Sega has sold their sports division to Take Two, and bailed on sports games entirely.

Why is this a bad thing, you ask? After all, you say, won’t everyone make more money on these deals? That’s as may be, but guess what happens? There’s no competition. Absent competition, EA and Take Two are free to release absolute shit games to the market, and there’s fuck-all anyone can do about it.

What? Madden 2007 is the most ass-biting game ever? Guess What? Nobody else can make a football game that uses the teams, players, play books, arenas, or anything else that is part of the NFL. And if you aren’t playing NFL football, what’s the point?

This kind of exclusivity destroys innovation. EA had a similar deal with Porsche. They released one game, Need for Speed, Porsche Unleashed. The game was mediocre at best. But, since EA held all the licensing rights, there are no Porsches in any other video games. What this means is that when it says on the back of Gran Turismo 3 (which is the best car simulator ever written) where it says “all the top auto manufacturers”, it’s not quite correct - because there’s one missing.

We as customers and consumers of video games lose when these kinds of exclusive deals get signed. Video games allow us to live fantasies. I could never be a quarterback in the NFL, I’m too old, and besides, I have the physical coordination of a great dane on acid. But I can put a disc in my Gamecube and I’m Tom Brady. There are precious few places in the US where I could drive a car at 200 miles an hour, and even if I could afford to get to those places, I can’t afford the car! But thanks to Polyphony Digital and Sony, I can drive a Panoz into a wall, and not lose the rest of my life’s earnings in the process.

Imagine if Sony signed an exclusive deal with Panoz, and then decided to give the GT series to a bunch of amateur developers because they didn’t want to pay Polyphony any more? We’d be left with the choice of a game that bites ass, or no game at all.

I know which choice I’d pick (hint, I don’t like games that suck). I doubt most people would do the same, however. And the end result of this is that EA has no incentive to keep Madden to the standards that they did before, with Visual Concepts, 989, and others nipping at their heels.

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Attempted Review!

Katamari Damacy - Namco 2004.

I’ll begin at the end. Buy this game.

Forget all the reviews and commentary on “those quirky Japanese”. This game has the qualities that make any game great. And it’s refreshing to see someone with the testicular fortitude to actually release one onto an unsuspecting U.S. market eager for YAFPS or Tale of Death Killer 43. I like sequels as much as the next guy, but how about something unique?

The premise is simple: roll everything you can into a ball. That’s where the simplicity ends. There is a level of nuance in this game that even the most seasoned politician could not begin to articulate. See, as you roll stuff up into your Katamari, it gets bigger, allowing you to pick up bigger things. Plus, there’s a time limit in each level, as well as a size or item count goal.

And that’s when it hits you: this game is not like anything you have ever played before. This game, like so few others, is why I love video games. No long-winded story lines, no item you needed to pick up three missions ago to complete the current objective. No repeated battles that do nothing for you except collect “experience”. One goal, that’s all. Simplicity.

And no attempt (other than the text) to “Americanize” the experience. They left the Japanese music in the game. I applaud any effort to keep the artist’s intentions intact, and I hope this trend catches on. The music was quite obviously written for the game, and even though I can’t understand a word of it, it is absolutely perfect. I promise you, the music will be stuck in your head for days on end after playing this game for even a few hours.

The graphics are crisp, but the artwork is intentionally blocky. The only character that shows any real animation is yours. Everyone else moves like a little wooden toy. Which is, of course, perfect.

The control scheme is unique - using only the two analog sticks to roll the ball around, and a couple shoulder buttons to control the camera. After a few minutes of playing, you honestly can’t imagine any other way to roll a Katamari.

The sound effects are also spot on. Roll into a cat and you get a “meow”. Bounce off of a wall, and you hear (and feel) a “thud”.

This game is to the current stagnant video game industry what Pac-Man (another Namco game, by the way) was to the Yet Another Space Shooter industry in 1980. A short, sharp, kick to the head that spawned a new age of possibility for video games. Let’s hope that the rest of the industry is paying attention this time.

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Oh. My. God.

Doom 3. Incredible. No words.

Thank you Carmack.

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Nintendo DS.

You know you want it.

I couldn’t figure out for the life of me how they were going to do dual screens in a handheld and make it sensible. I didn’t know how they were going to go up against Sony and the PSP. I made the mistake of underestimating Nintendo.

As incredibly cool as the Game Boy Advance SP was, this is that much cooler. The idea of two stacked screens, and hardware 3D capabilities somewhere between a Nintendo 64 and a Gamecube - amazing. Wonder what it will have for battery life.

The DS also does wireless networking - no more link cable across the aisle on the plane!

I can’t wait. I’ll probably be buying one the first day it’s out. I’m such a shill.

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SNK has been running the King of Fighters series since ‘94. I saw one once, but didn’t toss a quarter its way. Then I played KoF ‘98 in MAME. Wow. I was always hooked on Street Fighter II (I always lost, but I was hooked anyway). Then there was Mortal Kombat. And then everything went 3-D. But SNK kept plugging away with their 2-D King of Fighters. I picked up the KoF 2000/2001 for PlayStation 2 today. I’m happy to say that I’m hooked. I’ll be picking up KoF 2003 when it hits in August.

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Welcome to the first post from the road for Applied Indifference! Coming to you (sort-of) live from the (now closed) convention floor of the PhillyClassic5 Classic Video Game event. It’s nice to see young people come to these things and enjoy the games I grew up with as much as I enjoyed them. Highlights:
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