Katamari Creator Aims For Real Playgrounds

Takahashi, the apparently insanely lovable creator of the insanely popular Katamari games, wants to make real playgrounds down the road:

"In 10 years time, I am not going to be making games any more. I would like to create a playground for children. A normal playground is flat but I want an undulating one, with bumps."

-- Takahashi Will 'Quit Games for Playgrounds'

Sweet.

Spector's Clarification

"You don't think the GTA team could rock hard on something that didn't involve criminal behavior? Wouldn't you love to see them try? That's what I was saying. Well, that and the fact that it's worth our while to examine what our content says about us--as a medium and as contributors to our culture. But that's a longer discussion for another time...

"Look, as an individual and as a player, I'm tired of so-called 'violent video games'--not because I think they cause real-world violence (I don't believe that for one second), but because the 'edgy,' 'violent' routine is getting so dull...

"I'm tired of urban crime, alien invasion, war stories and orc-killing. I'm tired of most every game having to be the equivalent of a summer blockbuster movie. I'm tired of always having to solve game problems with a gun or a spear or a fireball (and not having to deal with the consequences of such a solution). I don't mind that we make games like that--I mind that the mainstream of console and PC games (apologies to Will Wright and the entire Nintendo DS lineup!) consists of almost nothing but that.

"Where's our Lost? Our CSI? Our Law & Order? Our West Wing? Our Seinfeld? Our musical Buffy episode? Okay, maybe those last two are a bit beyond our capabilities. But the others are within our grasp if we would only try, and if we could find someone to fund and truly support the not-insubstantial effort involved.

-- Warren Spector [gamespot]

Part of me agrees with this ... but isn't it enough that Rockstar has made the "playground" or "free roam" concept work so well that others can learn from it? Sure, some are cheap knock-offs ... but others are simply brilliant. Take Simpsons: Hit & Run or Mercenaries as examples. Rockstar isn't stopping anyone from making the game industry's version of Lost ... I just don't think we should knock them for not doing it themselves.

Sure, I want to see more innovative and interesting games. Course, San Andreas was fairly interesting by industry standards. While some in gamedev might bitch and moan about the urban aspects of the game ... it's still a great game, and a best-selling one at that. In terms of the market, someone has to come out with something that's compelling.

I think the industry needs to stop using Rockstar as an excuse for everything. It's not Rockstar's fault this country has a moral stick up it's ass. It's not Rockstar's fault that cinematique is the fasion for games these days. It's not Rockstar's fault that big budget games take fewer risks. Yes, all these things are true ... but invoking Grand Theft Auto is a) a magnet for nutcases like Thompson ... a fact Warren just learned ... and b) overfull with redudant and useless controversy as it is.

So maybe the next time someone wants to get the industry to think about originality, leaving GTA out of the discussion might be a good way to start.

Interactivity ... to a fault?

This quote, via Gamasutra, of CliffyB's ... which in turn is via Corvus (who apparently has way more time to write these days than myself and is therefore my nominee to win NaNoWriMo), which was actually prompted by Patrick's comment ... which .... *takes breath* ... is this:

The fundamental problem with making an interactive narrative is like – how would you make Lethal Weapon 2, the buddy cop movie - if in the first scene Danny Glover turns to Mel Gibson and shoots him in the head? Never underestimate the ability of the user to undermine the narrative you're trying to tell. You have to allow for every single scenario. You're empowering the user's ability to make the game look stupid, essentially.

To which my highly elucidated response would be: sort of.

Let me explain. Right now in the interactive fiction I'm writing, the playable character is with his mother (she, in fact, rides on your back for most of this chapter). Now the mother will be a fairly central character through the whole story. So if you decide to strangle her at the first scene, you wouldn't be able to finish the story.

However, it's not really a problem. See, this is all Valve's fault. The concept of a tabula rasa character is interesting, but in reality just doesn't work. Gordon Freeman is not you. You are playing a character named Gordon Freeman, and are therefore bound to the kind of character boundaries of Freeman. You can't shoot an innocent person trying to help you in Half-Life 2 because Gordon would never do that.

The allure of tabula rasa exists primarily in first person shooters because of, well, the first person. That's the narrative I. You are right in the driver's seat. Interactive fiction generally uses second person, so there is the chance for the narrative to contradict your actions. It will tell you that strangling your mother might sound like a good idea, but you'd never actually do it.

The basic way to do that with a first person perspective would be to have the character initiate an inner monologue. Point a gun at a helpful character and pull the trigger, you hear the main character say. "I wouldn't do that." (or something better written). However, thanks to Valve, everyone's convinced that main character dialogue is somehow intrusive. Which is, imho, bunk.

San Andreas Sweeps London Awards

While the American side of the pond can't seem to attack Rockstar enough, the Londoners are a bit more sympathetic to the best-selling Grand Theft Auto series:

As well as being named Ultimate Game of Year, it won for best PlayStation 2 game, best soundtrack and best hero and villain for its main characters.

"Having achieved such popularity with gamers and spawning a whole slew of imitators, it's no surprise to see GTA: San Andreas pick up such an impressive haul of awards," said, James Ashton-Tyler of the magazine publishing group, Future.

I realized the other day that Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City and San Andreas are some of the few games within a franchise that I've played pretty much from beginning to end ... and an awful great deal of exploring and side missions in the middle. And that's from the day of purchase on, not picking it up later or anything. Sure, that also recently includes Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 ... but those were much shorter outings. Timewise the only other games that share that kind of attention span would be Ocarina of Time and the original Zork.

Though come to think of it ... I don't know if I ever did finish Zork...

Steve Meretzky Catch-Up

I completely missed the fact that over Halloween, Gamasutra posted one of their "catch-up" features on Steve Meretzky, known to many as the man partially responsible for tormenting them with the insidious puzzles of the Hitchiker's Guide text adventure. What's the man up to now?

In July of this year Meretzky left WorldWinner to join Floodgate Entertainment, though he's still involved with WorldWinner as a Games Advisor. "I thought it would be a fun next step for me," he said. "Floodgate’s mission is to become the 'Pixar of mobile gaming,' doing the most high-end and high-quality games in the space, with a particular focus on multiplayer gaming." Meretzky is currently working on a project code-named Swashbuckler.

-- Playing Catch-Up: Infocom's Steve Meretzky

I'm starting to research a bunch of indie text adventures now, so seeing his name still around was something of a treat.

Xbox 360 Live Arcade Preview

Should you be one of the few people on the planet able to get your hands on a 360, Talk Xbox has a preview of the arcade portion of the Xbox Live service:

The games on XBLA (Xbox Live Arcade) run the gamut from heavily revamped coin-op games to original indie titles and everything else in between. And when I say coin-op, I don’t mean Bubble Bobble. I’m talking Smash TV, ported from the original ROM code with updated sprites and Xbox Live multiplayer. I’m talking the original Gauntlet, again ported from the original ROM code, and again with Xbox Live multiplayer. I’m talking games from studios such as Ubisoft, Midway, and EA, all of which have submitted game concepts for approval.

-- Hands-On Preview: Xbox Live Arcade

It also mentions that for the first time in the industry, an indie title is available at launch for a major console. Congrats to Marble Blast Ultra for getting in one the ground floor.

Amazon 360 Bundles Are $1,000

According to Gizmodo, Amazon has 4 Xbox 360 bundles all costing $1,000. Seriously? There's really a lot of people willing to throw down a grand for a game console? Is this savvy upselling or a gross miscalculation? Considering the mumblevine has Microsoft creating a shortage at launch and a new rumor that Apple might sue them for iPod infringement, this could be one of the bumpiest launchiest ever.

Thompson Removes Self

Apparently Thompson has elected to remove himself. He says he did this voluntarily and under no pressure, but a blind man can see the writing on the wall here. He did the math and realized he could save face by shooting his own foot rather than be taken out to the woodshed.

Course, this probably means he'll have more time to rant and rave in front of cameras. Hopefully his "Pearl Harbor 2" will get tossed soon and he'll have to wait for Bully's release before he has new material.

Saving King's Quest

A while back I got an email from Matt of the Save King's Quest IX! project. You may or may not have heard about this via a couple other blogs, but in short:

Our goal here is simple: the release of King's Quest IX: Every Cloak Has A Silver Lining.

King's Quest IX was a fan game that had been in the works since 2002. It was being made by fans for fans, and was going to be made available to all as a free download. Unfortunately, Vivendi Universal Games, which owns the rights to King's Quest, has recently issued a cease and desist letter to the fans making the game -- essentially shutting it down.

-- savekqix.org

I've written in the past about how tenuous doing mods or fan work of commercial property can be for people. To their credit, they knew all of this walking in and these guys show much more understanding of IP and copyright law than your average mod team. Normally I'd be commenting on how "inspired by" or "clone" works are much safer, but these guys have an answer to that:

Also, it doesn't matter that the game was going to be free. Just because you don’t charge money for something doesn't mean you aren’t infringing on someone else's copyright.

The game would have to be changed to such an extent that it is no longer recognizable as a King's Quest game. The game makers don't want to do that for two reasons:

1) It would require a tremendous amount of work. Months and months of work.

2) It would no longer be a King's Quest game, and that was the whole point in the first place.

The best thing we can do is appeal to Vivendi to reach an agreement with the makers of the game, so it can continue legally. Please visit our website and email Vivendi if you'd like to help.

-- Save King's Quest Forums

OK, you got me there. The only other out I could see would be parody, although I can only imagine that might require a massive, potentially complete, rewrite as well. So really the only avenue is to appeal to Vivendi.

Now, the King's Quest series is near and dear to my heart. Heck, I made out with one of my first girlfriends while that game was on in the background (yes, I am that dorky). They were pioneering games with tremendous design value. So here's what I will be emailing to Vivendi:

Dear Vivendi,

I am writing on behalf of the effort to save the fan work King's Quest IX: Every Cloak Has A Silver Lining. I am a long time gamer, modder and programmer. I completely understand the need to protect your license and copyright, even for games for which you may not have any current plans to develop. It is not only your right, but your responsibility to maintain control over the use of the King's Quest series.

However, I would ask that you re-examine this particular case. Clearly this project is being done by serious fans who want to do the license justice. They are being as mindful as to respect the property as much as they are being respectful of your rights to the franchise. They have no commercial ambitions for the game, and while I completely understand that by itself that does grant any privilege to use an intellectual property - it might be an advantage for you.

For instance, you might note the change LucasArts recently took with the Unreal Tournament 2004 mod Troopers. Instead of shutting the mod down, they developed a relationship which allowed LucasArts to control aspects of the mod including it's distrubition. In return, the project got better production assets and turned into a much better game. Even though though Troopers could have potentially competed with future titles like Star Wars Battlefront, the game instead simply helped emboldened a fan base and had no visible impact on sales.

In this case, allowing King's Quest IX to be public would only aid the franchise's visibility at very little, if any, cost to Vivendi. I'm certain that the team would be open to negotiation at this point if there were specific concerns that Vivendi wished to express. Allowing free downloads for such games has been a long standing method to extend the vitality of a license, and it would be a shame to see King's Quest lose it's vitality by being shelved.

I hope you see your way to give this work a chance to be played.

Thanks for your time,

Joshua Birk
Gamer

Will BatJack Be Removed?

Right now, all signs probably lead to yes. While this has been widely reported, Joystiq does a fine job of summing things up. The best part, I think is:

Judge James Moore is reviewing the requested revocation of Thompson’s license to practice law in Alabama, taken the stacks of press releases Blank Rome submitted as evidence into consideration. Thompson defended himself by reminded Moore he had told Thompson “after the criminal trial to ‘have at it,’” to which Moore reportedly replied “your ‘have at it’ and my ‘have at it’ are not the same.”

Oh, snap. Just more evidence that Thompson's only real talent is soundbites. Course, if he gets disbarred somewhere, it will be easier to convince the mainstream media that he's not a reliable "expert" of any field.

My guess is that he will be removed from the trial. Moore has shown a lack of patience when it comes to Thompson's antics. By all accounts, BatJack came close to being in contempt during the last Devin Moore trial with his continued public comments. Since he's clearly not showing any remorse or indication of slowing down with the civil trial, I'd be almost surprised if he was allowed to stay with the case.

Course, shortly thereafter the case will probably be thrown out for the groundless waste of time it is anyway. The prosecution has very little evidence and the defense has little things like the First Amendment.

Personally, I'd love to see Jack get sued himself. Had someone spent more time and money developing his "game concept", I'd think they could get fraud charges on him. $10,000 isn't a prize purse you can just joke about. His comments about Sony bringing about the next "Pearl Harbor" I think borders on racial intolerance (try telling your co-worker of German descent that he's about to go all Holocaust and see how long it takes to get served). And of course while I think gamers sending the man death threats is stupid, I think continually inciting and insulting them makes it pretty unsurprising.

Death By Caffiene

How much coffee would it take to kill you?

Myself, over 80 cups. I think I'm safe for now.

Sakkara Episode 2

The second episode of the BBC's flash adventure game Death in Sakkara, is up today.

Oh, Warren

GamePolitics portrays Warren Spector's recent remarks about Rockstar as "breaking the ranks".

Honestly, nothing could be further from the truth. Seriously, you'd have to have your head in the sand not to notice that everyone and their dog likes to kick Rockstar whenever they get the chance. Heck, when GamePolitics first noted it they even left out Warren's comments about the brilliant design used in GTA.

Which really seems odd. That Warren would be so self-contradictory, not that GamePolitics took another chance to bash GTA. Here is an industry demanding that bigger studios worry more about mechanics than flair, worry about creative properties rather than plundering licensed IP, and build more innovative games with the potential for mass appeal.

Rockstar does all that with the GTA series ... but now the industry also wants all of that as long as it isn't too violent. Free-roam good ... hookers bad ... or something like that.

Now I'm a Warren Spector fanboy. Always have been, always will be. But c'mon, Warren. I killed a great number of people in your games. I sniped people from afar, I chopped down entire police squads, I stabbed people in the back and hid the bodies. So why is Rockstar so bad, but you're not? BatJack is trumpeting Warren's comments as proof that the industry knows Rockstar has gone too far .... but let's face it: Thompson would gladly put Warren himself on the stand as a defendant as much as a witness.

Rockstar has made an innovative, genre-bending, best-selling series. While all the industry heads in the world can shake at dismay, the fact is that the consumer public has already judged the content to be not just tolerable, but entertaining. The only people making a case against Rockstar are the ones trying to take some kind of moral high ground ... a ground that the market simply doesn't agree with.

NaNo, Week 1

So it's now the Monday after NaNo began. I'm still in no shape to worry about word count, which isn't exactly a good sign to "winning" the contest.

Yet, I realized this morning that there is an advantage to interactive lit. Expansion doesn't necessarily take place along a linear plot, since the player more or less controls the pace and direction of the narrative. Last year, word count was all about new scenes chained together ... and to add a new scene I needed some kind of cohesion to stick it to the rest of the story. Here, I can just add a new location. Expanding the fictional world, as it were, expands the word count (and the size of the "novel").

Course, I still spent like two hours on Saturday working around one stupid bug. The framework has gotten a little more complicated in that some functions are called twice for specific reasons ... so if I don't keep track of timing I can easily confuse myself.

Not that confusing myself ever took much effort...

A History Of Violence

We saw A History Of Violence on Saturday. It's a hard movie to wrap much of anything around. If someone came up to me and said, "I'm going to see a movie this weekend, what would you recommend?" ... it's not what would jump to mind. It's not a particularly fun movie, nor is it overly poignant or emotional. It's an extremely tense and at times incredible violent movie.

Truth is, on it's own, Cronenberg's latest would probably have more than a few people scratching their heads. Fans of some of his earlier work will wonder where the allusions to insects or surrealism went. People expecting a wham bam action flick will be outright bewildered.

That, I think, is Cronenberg's aim. Actually I had heard a great NPR feature on the movie a week or so before it's release about this angle. Cronenberg didn't want a comfortable movie, he wanted something that would be a dark reflection of American action films. In a normal action movie, the protaganist would be glorified and praised for his violent acts ... but in A History Of Violence, it's a central point for fear and loathing.

Compare this movie to A Long Kiss Goodnight, where Geena Davis plays a soccer mom who has forgotten her assassin ways. There the possibility of a mommy being a killer is seen as kinda cool, but Cronenberg puts a grim focus on death and the people capable of dealing it out.

So I don't necessarily recommend the movie ... except that I think everyone should watch it. You might not have the best time, but it may give a unique perspective on how violent media works.

It would be fascinating to see someone pull of a video game in this same vein. Despite it's attempt to be an indictment of violence, I'm positive our currently climate would be too nearsighted to grasp that and only focus on the presentation of gore itself.