Things you may have missed...that you shouldn't have

I've been away from the blog for far too long once more. I have so many things to talk about, but for some reason I found myself in the mood to write about this particular topic today. While those of you who check in now and then may not be - "gamers", I hope that if you feel the tug of curiosity, and do wish to pick up a game, that this post may help narrow down your choices.

It has been a turbulent few years for the gaming industry, companies have shut down while others have seen profits rivaling major film studios. Big producers, such as EA, are finally seeing backlash for their abuse of the gaming community - success has been migrating towards the smaller companies - even one man projects.

During such a time, there are a few titles that stand out among their competition, and that probably flew right under the mainstream radar. These titles may have lacked advertising, been small projects, or just somehow have been overlooked - but they are all nearly guaranteed (at least by myself) to please a wide audience. The order in which I'll be talking about these titles is irrelevant (it would take me eons to arrange these by how much I enjoyed them).


                          1.

                                                                                                         

I know, I know - if you are in any way tapped into gaming you've heard about this title. Journey is a downloadable game for the Playstation 3, and is one of the past year's most highly awarded titles. Without even discussing game play, this title is simply beautiful to just...watch.

Like I said, beautiful. The music (the soundtrack is available on iTunes and I highly recommend it) is some of the best I've heard for a media title in decades.

The actual game itself could be classified as a third person adventure title. You explore a vast desert either alone, or with the company of a random person from the internet. This person cannot speak to you in any way, except for one. The other player (or yourself) can communicate by pressing a button and chirping. You can charge this harmonic greeting up and even boost your ally's ability to float through the air.

When I first got my hands on Journey I expected great things, but was unprepared for just how amazing it actually was. I don't think there are many other ways to have such a consistently positive experience with people you don't know on internet enabled games.

                           2.

I've had a half finished blog about this title all on its own sitting on my blogger dashboard for months. Asura's Wrath (for Xbox 360 and PS3) contends on a regular basis for my favorite game of all time. 

If you are at all a fan of the epic (the mindbogglingly epic more like) then you may want to give this title a try. Asura's Wrath is a third person action title, expect extreme amounts of the following; punches that destroy planets, giant fleets of spaceships, demigods, gods, fighting on the moon against a guy with a sword that extends to be longer than the radius of the Earth, and punching rhinos. There is much more, but like I said earlier - I'll post an entire blog entry about Asura's Wrath soon.

I cannot stress just how great this game can be if you just sit back and roll with it. The writing is stellar and the characters are unforgettable as well, something you normally wouldn't expect from such a strange game.

   
                  3.

Mark of the Ninja,  another surprising sleeper hit. Widely regarded as the best stealth game to come out in recent time, this downloadable title has everything a would-be ninja could ask for. Dangling from ledges by chains and assassinate hapless guards, slipping into the shadows to avoid detection by a motion sensing laser beam, blowing up giant towers through subterfuge - great fun all and all.

Fluid game play, beautiful two-dimensional animation, and fantastic pacing set this game apart from many of the AAA titles to come out this year. I may not be a ninja, but this game is as close to being one as I've felt.

                  4.

For those seeking a more tactical approach FTL (Faster Than Light) is something you will crave. Have you ever wanted to pilot your own star-ship while on the run from a rebel fleet? Everyone has, don't lie.

The style in which the game is portrayed is simple to say the least, but don't let that speak for the depth of this indie title. With numerous types of ships, upgrades, crew members, and galaxies to explore - this seemingly tiny game just never ends.

Controlling crew members aboard your vessel as you wage interstellar battle is nothing short of addicting. The challenge is nothing to scoff at either, before I survived my first run I had run through an entire graveyard of ships.

                   5.

For those moments when you and your friends want to sit down, cooperate, and then perform heart-pounding robberies and movie-style getaways. Most first-person shooters these days have devolved into the same thing - run down hallway, shoot guys, set piece, checkpoint - rinse and repeat. Payday however offers up tantalizing bits of strategy with multiple approaches to each different heist.

For a cheap price-tag this game is an absolute blast to play with friends. The level of difficulty is balanced just enough to challenge you and keep you coming back. Leveling up your character into a more effective member of the squad only adds more re-playability as well.

Recently, downloadable content was released - however this time with a crowd pleasing twist. As long as one person owns the content, they can host it and anyone can play it - even if they themselves don't own the DLC. If you have a few friends (up to three, including yourself) and want to use a little brain power in your FPS - pick up Payday.

                     6.

Chivalry was an impulse buy. I was browsing the new arrivals in Steam and just happened to land on it - and after watching a few seconds of combat I immediately picked it up. Epic first person sword-fights, what more do I need to say? Maybe that there are multiple classes? Each that level up - unlocking new weapons and gear? A button that makes you scream in bloodthirsty rage?

All of these things are real.

If you happen to be around my age and played the Jedi-Knights games you'll be instantly at home here. Fights are intense games of patient striking, and waiting for someone to make a mistake - or tire out. If all else fails, just jam on the Z key and scream a bunch.

 Hopefully these give you a few ideas if you've hit a lull in your gaming. All of these provide fun game play that can be enjoyed in short bursts or lengthy play-throughs. I'll continue the list another time, but I'll leave you with these for now. At the moment I have something else to play...

 

In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream...For Your Money Back. (Pt. 2)

The public flogging of Aliens: Colonial Marines will continue in earnest. We have only scratched the surface of how terrible it truly is, in order to convey this I am forced to compare it to its "competition" (though in the end Colonial Marines never really showed up to the fight). I know I shouldn't be surprised, hedging your bets on a licensed title is not something I'd recommend - but there was tangible proof of this game's potential. No need to pontificate further, let's see just how well Colonial Marines stacks up to another recent sci-fi horror title.

Now if you have played Dead Space 3 you know just how one sided this comparison is. For starters I cannot for the life of me actually remember the protagonist's  name from Colonial Marines - Isaac Clarke however, is a name I won't forget.

 

  

I purchased Dead Space 3 out of boredom. When I saw what I thought the franchise had turned into I decided I no longer wanted a part. The addition of co-op irked me - the feeling of being alone fighting Necromorphs in a pitch black hallway is hard to maintain with two people playing (atleast I thought).  When the game came out I ignored it for a while thinking that it was going the way of Resident Evil - stumbling clumsily into being an action movie.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

Being the third title in any series (look at Aliens 3 after all) is often a burden too heavy for most titles to carry. Going up against a completely new IP from a great studio like Gearbox, I thought Colonial Marines would be the superior game - honestly. It didn't have to borrow from Aliens to be Aliens, it was Aliens. Boom, three in one sentence.

Dead Space however, was an idea recently formed and one that had obvious influences from such sci-fi hits as Aliens. Here lies its greatest strength however, Dead Space did not have to conform to anything, there were no limitations of where they could go with the game. They did not have to pay over-zealous fan service to their audience - and thus Dead Space evolved into a game that easily makes my top ten list - survival horror or not. 

Enough talk, let's see some action. I'll give Aliens the first punch. Feel free to watch as much as you want, you are not forced to endure all thirty three agonizing minutes. Oh, and uh if you happen to actually care, there may be a few minor spoilers as this is the third mission.

Hoo boy, wasn't that a blast? Everything about this game feels sterile - it is impossible for something to be emotionally effecting if it is impossible for it to connect with someone. Nothing about this game feels the way Aliens felt. The art style is a mess of multiple studios jamming together their finished products - it all feels so safe, so Nintendo 64.

Luckily the Aliens video game franchise knows how to take a punch. Once again, watch as much as you'd like - and beware possible spoilers for those wishing to play. There are a few moments when part of the development team talk about the game as well.

I told you that it wasn't a fair fight didn't I? Dead Space as a whole has done nothing but grow since the first in the series arrived on store shelves. All in all, I can't complain about any of these titles. This may only be my opinion, but I enjoyed each title as much if not more than the last - co-op and all.

The artists behind this franchise have done a masterful job at creating and maintaining atmosphere through three titles. Every corridor feels like it was hand crafted down to the smallest chip of paint. Everything pulls the player further into the experience, so much so that before you know it you'll find your heart rate rising to a fever pitch.

Long story short -

It wasn't a fair fight. When your game is put together by people who look like they actually care about what is being shipped you automatically win. I'm not saying the teams behind Colonial Marines were trying to make a bad game - I just get the feeling that their hearts, all three or four studio's worth, were simply not in it.

Oh yeah, and go play Dead Space. Start at the beginning if you have to, but I can't recommend it more.

In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream...For Your Money Back.

Once upon a time, there was a young boy. He grew up playing video games, watching movies, and reading books - losing himself in foreign worlds. One day, his mother would approach him about a watching a movie. This was not an uncommon occurrence, but he was skeptical - not all of these viewings movies he ended up enjoying. However, when something like Indiana Jones was introduced these forays into film classics were (obviously) worth every second.

On this most auspicious of days the film chosen was one that would ring through a genre this certain boy loved. The entire idea of space and what could possibly even be out in that ever expansive darkness was something that crossed his mind more than few times. Science fiction was a constant staple, in any and all forms - but I digress.

That's right, Aliens. One of my favorite films of all time, and what I still consider to be James Cameron's masterpiece. Even though it is a sequel (the original being Alien, another great movie), it holds the rare accolade of being better than the original. If you have yet to see this for some reason, I am actually asking you to drop whatever you are doing, go find a copy - it's 2013, just work it out - and watch it.

I could spend all day talking about this movie, but I'm going to move on. More importantly, Aliens is a franchise that has been ripe for a video game conversion since its inception. Many attempts have been made, some of them even considered good - but more often than not they were garbage.

When I was at last year's E3 there was a booth I couldn't wait to see. Gearbox Software, a truly talented studio (they are behind the Borderlands titles), had a booth set up for their upcoming release of Aliens: Colonial Marines. A game that finally promised to be the experience fans of the movie were looking for. After a beautiful demo and unimaginable amounts of hype the game itself hit store shelves on February 12th - and I couldn't have been more excited. I pre-purchased the game on Steam a few days before hand and pre-installed everything so that I could immediately play at midnight. The game unlocked and I prepared myself for hours of tense, terrifying sci-fi action.

Pretty cool right? That's the demo, the unfinished product. It could only possibly go up from there, right? Right?

No sir. What I, the consumer, was treated to is displayed above in agonizing detail. This title could possibly be the biggest disappointment I have suffered as a gamer. Dramatic, I know. Some of us really like Aliens.

What we are left with are a few simple questions that no one is answering.

1. What happened? 

Well, from what I have read from various news sources a few things occurred. The beautiful demo we were shown was indeed created by Gearbox Software, and it is just as good as it looks. Gearbox as an entity, however, only put in about a quarter of what was in the final game. When the game loads we are shown the usual logos - Sega, 20th Century Fox, Gearbox....and then a list of other smaller development studious. 

Gearbox outsourced much of the game to these smaller studios, the result was a disjointed and unfinished nightmare. This leads us to our next question.

2. How is this legal?

I'm not sure to be honest, I've heard a few people ask the same question. How can it be possible to show someone a game, and then sell them something with the same title that is obviously not what was shown. If I were to go to a car dealership and purchase a car - only to find that the people who sold me the car in the first place had replaced the engine with a sack of shit while I was sleeping, you would find yourself in the situation I and many other gamers are in.

Not to harp on Steam, but they won't issue refunds for the title if it is installed on your computer. This poses a problem for those of us that pre-purchased and installed the title after seeing the gameplay demo.

Imagine if you had payed one hundred and forty dollars for the collector's edition of this title. I'm still fuming over the loss of fifty dollars myself.

This does, however, opens the door for smaller games that fill the niche this supposed "game of the year contender" was going to occupy. For example...

Natural Selection 2 - an indie game that looks like it was made by a team one hundred times bigger than the more than four studious that worked on Colonial Marines. A game that is exponentially more thought-out, well executed, immersive, and only twenty five dollars at that.

Larger publishers are, luckily, killing themselves off with such horrible choices that one day, we will be left with only wonderfully put together titles made by people who actually throw themselves into its development. Gone will be the days of hundreds of people jammed into an office building making rocks for a game whose title they don't even know.

....and stop making Aliens games.

Who needs a map?

No way. A new blog post? That's right folks, it hasn't been half a year and I'm back. I'm hoping that if I can wedge a block of writing time into my rotation more often it will become a regular thing. I actually have quite a few different things I want to talk about, and I'm already going to change the rules I set in in place last post - I'm kind of a rebel, people say that about me. I wear leather jackets and play by my own rules.

Who wants to see some photoshop art? No one? Awesome, here is some photoshop art.

My classes this quarter are almost entirely upper level drawing courses, no small feat for someone like me. This assignment comes from Background Design and Layout - for our midterm assignments we had to create two compositions - one of a castle that invokes fear and one of a desolate radar station in the tundra. Above (obviously) is the castle. I'm actually pretty proud of how it came out, I'm positive a seasoned environment artist and photoshop expert could tear it apart in half a second - but for my first real drawn environment, I'm happy.

Aaaaaaand there's the snowy radar station environment. Snow is extremely hard, coming from a writing background the aspects of value and composition are still things I'm getting used to. I am going to plug some of the videos I watched however for those that are interested in this type of thing. Feng! His free tutorials are amazing, he breaks everything down to understandable language for someone who isn't a veteran. My success on these two drawings owes much to what I learned from his tutorials.

Glad that's over? Me too, let's talk about some games. I couldn't really think of a game I've played lately that I haven't liked. My play time has become so limited that I don't really have time to waste on games that suck. If I'm not pulled in from the get go then we've got problems.

First and foremost, a game that is close to my heart - which is strange. PvP (player vs. player) isn't something I often enjoy. That was before I joined the League.

 League of Legends, the free to play game that has recently risen to the lofty heights of success. Riot Games knocked one out of the park with this title. For a game that focuses completely on a simple team vs team concept they added just enough depth to make it playable for...well forever. Riot employees frequent the boards and try to interact with the community as much as possible, contests are held, and tournaments are live streamed - this is a company that does it right.

The game has a few modes, but I'll talk about the one I play almost exclusively to give you an idea of how a normal game would be played. At the start of each game, each team is composed of five team members. You go back and forth picking Champions (the character you get to play as) until everyone has chosen their preferred character.

There are an absolute ton of different characters to choose from, many falling into different categories (such as ranged physical damage, beefy tanks to absorb pain for allies, and support players that are all about augmenting their team to put them at peak performance) and all with interesting lore.

The story team is nothing short of amazing, something I feel is sadly overlooked. Each character has an interesting background and the world that they inhabit truly feels alive.

Back to gameplay before I go off on another tangent. Each team of five is tasked with destroying the other team's Nexus (main base). The map is split up so that there are three main paths that go out from each base and lead to the other team's side of the map. These paths are lined with defensive structures that (with the help of timed waves of AI minions spawning) your champions need to break down before they can move in and deal the final blow to the teams Nexus.

Being free to play is another huge draw. There are different rotations of free champions each week that you can try out and see if you enjoy. As you play you also accumulate points known as IP (influence points) which after you save up a certain amount you can use them to have the privilege of "owning" a champion and being able to play them whenever you wish.

Each champion also has skins that change their cosmetic appearance, add new particles, and all sorts of fun flashy things. These skins do not affect how the character plays at all, they are purely appearance based and can also only be purchased with real money - boom business model. No one is actually ever forced to spend a penny on the game, yet here I sit with nearly every champion owned and more skins than I would ever care to admit.

Check it out though, if you are into strategy type games that rely on teamwork it could very well be for you. I'll report back in within a day or two I'm sure. See you then.

A New Beginning

Oh, hey internet. How's things?

 It has been a while since I posted here, mostly due to being absorbed in work - but I'd like to make this page far more active in the future. Instead of a random post on random topics, you'll begin to notice a shift in the things I'll be talking about. I love Game Art, and I want to be able to talk about it more.

 For those of you that don't know me, I'm a writer turned video game artist based in the Santa Monica area. As of today I'm still a fledgling game artist, with most of my days going into learning and producing things for a portfolio in order to graduate from my program. Books and video games were my first true loves as a child, and I want to create emotionally impacting games on par with some of our most revered literature and cinema.

 Video games are an extremely powerful tool, instead of weaving words together and hoping your reader can visualize what you wish them to, they allow you to literally create the world you see in your head from scratch - and then let people experience it.

 Anyways, let's continue. Whenever I post I'd like to share some of my work - even if it's awful. I want to get used to people viewing what I create and dealing with those that don't like it. I'm sure some of what I throw onto this blog will be pretty hilarious...for you. If I can manage to get some of my drawn work up here I will - I don't function well in the world of Fine Art quite yet as I'm sure you'll notice.

 So, without further ado - here is my first real sculpt in Zbrush (for those of you not savvy with game artist lingo - Zbrush is basically a 3d artists wet dream - those cool trolls from the Lord of the Rings movies were created using Zbrush if that helps). I had to create a basic concrete pillar, nothing special. I did however go a little overboard and, with some advice from my more experienced roommate, was able to put this together.

 I'll add something else next time I post, perhaps some of my digital backgrounds I've had to paint - oh boy. Next up: I want to start talking about a game I like and a game I despise every time I post. Not only because I think it'll be funny to rail on some terrible games, but to also practice digging into some of the finer aspects of game design for those that are interested.

However, I'm just a person with an opinion. Feel free to disagree. Keep in mind, these are in no way comparisons - if they turn into that, I'll let you know.

 The Good - TERA

Oh god an MMO already. I know, I know. Regardless of what you say though, TERA is stunning. The environments alone are enough reason to give it a shot, and that's without considering the combat system in place. Instead of the usual stand still and wail on a rat until it's dead combat style, TERA forces you into active combat. Enemy attacks can be dodged and blocked in real time, lending a much more visceral edge. The different races and classes all feel distinct and relevant, and I am completely able to lose myself in the world around me. Instead of groaning aloud when I'm given another quest to go kill 5..whatevers - I smile. I smile, because instead of standing in front of an alligator and hitting the number 2 a few times - I'll be out with my greatsword leaving a swathe of dead creatures behind me, that's how it feels at least.

Weapons, armor, and characters all feel like they have real weight and power behind them. When an Aman Lancer plows into you, your character looks like they feel it. Strikes have to connect to do any damage, so sitting back and spamming is no longer an option - at least if you want to hit anything.

I'm not far into the game itself, I have been rotating between a few different characters while trying to get a feel for which class I like the most. Though, if I had to pick right now it would definitely be the Slayer. Light armor with a greatsword, risk vs. reward, sign me up.

 If you want to play an MMO that doesn't feed you the same old experience, then TERA will feel like a breath of fresh air. We'll see how it stands up to the test of time, hopefully it sticks around long enough for me to experience some of the end game content. I'll talk about this more later when I can get some more play time in, but so far I'm enjoying my time with it.

The Bad -  Dead Island

This sentence is hard for me to say, much less type. Dead Island is the most fun I've had with a terrible game. Does that make sense? The first half of the game is fun. Good old fashioned zombie maiming fun. You and your buddies get to run around a beautiful tropic environment, picking up stuff, and killing zombies with it - awesome.

BAM! Welcome to the sewers. You just got lost for two hours in a brown tunnel full of zombies. It was fun the first time we ran through it. The second time we got lost, almost irreversibly lost. Every corner was an undead filled brick wall, the door we needed simply did not seem to exist. When we finally made it out and moved on into the jungle the game took a nose dive.

Level design stayed as sloppy and unpolished as the sewers were. Everything looked rough. In fact, the entire last chapter of a game is a bunch of corridors packed with undead that are meant to lengthen the experience. By this point we ran by every single zombie in order to get to the end of the game. How did such a fun experience go so horribly wrong?

Besides the myriad of bugs the launch of the game was fraught with (one being a bug that disabled multiplayer, a big deal in a multiplayer game), everything besides hitting zombies with blunt objects was boring. The player characters are forgettable at best. The story and dialogue are not better, and they both degrade as the experience progresses.

Beautiful resorts become the same grey prison hallways over and over again. I'm glad the game made the money it did - they deserve another shot. I believe that the experience is there, I remember it vividly. Hopefully they can refocus and make the game they really want, with a timetable that doesn't limit them so creatively towards the end.

----

I think I'll end this post here for now. I'll be updating this more regularly now, so if you enjoyed reading - I hope to see you around.

Of Souls and Struggles

Sorry for the extremely long departure from blogging. I know all one of you lost sleep over where I had went.

My time was completely devoured by gigantic project after gigantic project. Nonetheless, I escape to the other side with more to talk about. My recent battles with deadlines and overall work to do have left me with less time to the things I really love doing. For one, playing video games.

I'm usually fairly on top of all new releases that I am interested in. In normal times midnight releases, and two day play sessions of titles I was excited about were common. Times have changed however, there sits a stack of five games I have yet to beat. Some more than a month or two old.

The severity of this seemingly minute detail hit me like a sack of bricks. Gone are the days of full days where I had no obligations. When all I had to worry about was traveling to the kitchen to feed myself in between sessions of an engrossing game. I am left with less time to pack time into games that do not interest me. In order to truly enjoy the time I have with games today the experience must be comprised of pure distilled awesome.

When you only have an hour to play, you don't want to half-assedly play a game you don't care about. The other day I found myself with about three hours of pure free-time. A rare commodity. With something akin to childlike glee I approached my stack of new games.

What to do, what to do. Catherine was a fun game, not extremely deep, but fun. Deus Ex: Human Revolution was a game I had a love hate relationship with, today it was still hate - I moved on. I remembered enjoying the first Gears of War so much that purchasing the third installment of the title was a no brainer, yet here I am only two chapters completed in the story with no interest remaining. If only there was something to look forward to. Something deep, involving, challenging, and beautifully well crafted. If only...oh wait. That's right.





The first blog entry I ever wrote was about Demons Souls - the spiritual predecessor of Dark Souls.

When I speak of a world that punishes both the evil and the good that inhabit it - I am most likely describing a world much like that of Demons Souls.

Some may view the video above as something that would put them off of a title. However, when I see the words - Prepare To Die - flash brazenly across the screen I cannot help but become excited. Demons Souls does not accept you into its world with open arms. You are weak, alone, and in constant mortal peril. Nearly every human, animal, or twisted demon wants nothing but to stop your heart from beating - and they will succeed.

Castle battlements are riddled with holes for you to plunge through, arrows snap out of traps placed in walls or floors, monumental stone boulders tumble down staircases, the very ground beneath your feet poisons you, and you cannot pause. You can only afford yourself a moment to breathe after coming out alive on the other side of a grueling fight.

Any moment you spend not taking this game seriously will punish you. You will learn your place it says as you laugh at the tiny rat creeping toward you. You will learn to use caution it says as the tiny rat leaps upon your character and digs its fangs in. You will learn to start ALLLL THE WAY THE FUCK OVER it laughs as that goddamn rat has just infected you with a horrible plague. You scramble through your inventory drinking potions and eating entire flowers whole trying to stop the slow decay of your flesh. Nothing works, you don't have the right item. You panic and sprint towards what you believe to be the end of the stage. The smell of your decomposing skin is the least of your worries as you sprint across a rickety rope bridge into the waiting arms of some mutated monstrosity with a club the size of a street sign. You cry out and raise your shield. The blow is devastating. You can nearly imagine all of the bones in your right arm crunching, the club shows no regard for your carefully looted armor. You cartwheel over the edge of the bridge and plunge to your death amid the bones of other fools.

Start over.



As you travel through the worlds of these two games you collect souls from fallen enemies. You use these to augment your own soul, thus making your stronger. They are integral for you to progress and when you die, you lose them all. You can pick some up if you can fight your way back to where you met your demise. Sometimes this is not possible and they are simply gone.

I miss these aspects of older games. How would you rise after a knight the size of a skyscraper steps on you? You wouldn't, you're dead holmes.

Now I am filled tense excitement, even if I only have an hour to play, Dark Souls will bring its A game. I can't wait.

The punishing aspect of this game is what makes the experience what it is. Every environment is tailor made to fill you with despair - but afford just enough hope to keep you trudging on.

There are few feelings like hacking your way through a stage and reaching the Arch Demon guarding the way to the next area. You give yourself five minutes to compose yourself. Are all of your current armor choices the best? Is there something you can equip or use that may give you an advantage? Do I have to? Do I really have to go in there?

Yes. Yes you do, and more often than not you'll be greeted by something close to this.



And then you're gonna die again and have to re-do everything.

This is serious business, and if you manage to come out on top against one of the bosses you feel like a certified badass.

All the while, as you drag your battered and broken body through whatever horror filled landscape you are trapped in, other players are able to leave spectral messages on the ground that you can read. Nothing fills you with dread like walking up to a huge door and seeing some sort of red arcane text emblazoning the ground. You approach and the only thing it says is, "Good Luck." Wonderful. What you are saying is that the likelihood of this next room being filled with treasure and hugs is pretty low, am I right?

Not only that, it is possible for players that have died to invade your dimension in search of your physical form. You may be mid battle with some horrible fire vomiting demon when the words "A Black Phantom Has Entered Your World" appear forbiddingly across your screen. At this point the invading player enters the beginning of your stage. You have time to choose where you will meet in combat, so the defending player has a small advantage. You steel yourself as a smokey red ghost creeps toward you bearing a giant great sword.

At this point it becomes a battle of keeping your cool. The first player who makes a mistake will most likely be instantly killed. If the invading player wins, you die and lose your body - becoming a spirit. He returns to life in his own world, back in peak physical form.

I could go on for hours, but this game has been on my mind for months now.

State of the game

I'm a nerd. A really big nerd.

Ever since I can remember I have taken a shine to things that get you pushed over in the hallways of middle school. Books, video games, not playing football, you name it I was all about it.

It's strange to think that the most formative years of my life were spent on a little game called Everquest. Now now, I can feel you snicker from here, let's not be hasty. High school is a scary place, mostly for one reason. At that age, I cared about how people viewed me. I believe it is safe to say that most people care about their reputations in the social murder pens of high school.

I had friends, I spent most of my time with the "stoner" kids (as many of them were friends from my previous school). I didn't really have anything in common with them at the time, it was just a place where I could duck down and not be noticed. I played soccer every year, and was generally a nice guy. However, come the weekend I would get invited to a party at so and so's house and would always say that I'd be there - with no intention of actually going.

Something about standing around a house watching people drink didn't appeal to me. I'm not sure what it was, oh wait yeah I do. It was fucking boring. OMGz Stephany is totally having a party at her place cuz her parentz are out of town! Oh boy! Count me in! I can't wait to watch douchebags in wife-beaters drink Coor's and attempt to hit some skanky popular girl ass.

So no, I did not go. I stayed home. I sat alone in my computer room with the lights dimmed, a 12 pack of Coke, and had some of the best years of my life.

It sounds ridiculous, I know. Believe me, I'm sure I was the poster child of the falsities of video game addiction and social malaise, but that couldn't have been farther from the truth.

While you were pretending to like Miller Lite and hoping someone would ask you to prom I was discovering who I was, and making some of the longest lasting friendships I will ever have. Not to mention killing gods.



I'm not belittling how you spent high-school. I'm sure it was great. The point I'm trying to make is that I wish everyone was self aware enough at that age to be who they actually were. I was ridiculed, pushed around, made fun of, and roughed up. It was really bad my freshman year of high school, but eventually I realized in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter. Not one fucking bit. Why? I had somewhere safe to go, an entire world where people like that didn't exist.

Sure, some of my fondest memories take place in a world that was not real. The experiences, however, were real. Not to mention the friendships I created while spending time in Norrath. I met one of my best friends on EQ about 12 years ago, and we still have not met in person. Yet we talk every day and still play games on a daily basis.

Neither am I condoning spending all of your time indoors, everyone needs to be healthy. I do not advocate spending your entire life indoors, the real world has plenty to offer in the way of adventure. Though, if you do not feel called towards such things, don't fake it. Let the geek flag fly, you'll be better off for it.

I did not mean for this to turn into a public service announcement, but it seems to have taken a turn in that direction. I'm also becoming so overwhelmingly nostalgic that I had to start playing Limp Bizkit in the background. That's some old school shit.

The point is, the gaming world was once a safe haven for people like me. Nearly everyone you played with was like you - you had something in common. A kindred spirit perhaps. I know there are still people out there who remember how to properly clear a beach head in The Plane of Fear, who know how hard it was to finish your Epic quests, and who used to stay awake till the sun crept over the horizon while they were shopping in The Bazaar.

They were good times, times that could not last forever. For all good things come to an end, and the sanctity of video games is one of those things. You cry out, why! What has changed?

It's really quite simple. The great portcullis that separated our world from the mundane was ripped asunder. You stormed our streets and razed our carefully built towers. Our peace was shattered, you made our world your own. Since then we have had to eke out and existence among the rocks and charred remains of our world.

The very people who used to point at us and declare us losers now share our virtual space. You raid with us, collect gear with us, and inhabit our guilds. You corrupt, twist, break, and destroy a world we held as sacred.

No one is truly to blame, but I like to place the burden upon Halo. Thanks Master Chief, I'm super glad that now when I log onto Xbox live to play a game there is a 99% chance some shitcock frat boy is on the other end of a sniper rifle calling me a queer.

Whatever, fine. You can have the First Person Shooters - they aren't really my bag anyways, but no - you wanted more. You were not content with your testosterone filled gunfights. More always more. Now the hallowed ground of the MMO has become your territory as well. You may not admit it in public, but many of you invaded at the advent of World of Warcraft - the great harbinger of doom for massively multiplayer games.

What changed, why has gaming become so mainstream? Don't get me wrong, I'm elated to see an industry I am so in tune with blossom and grow. I love that new blood is being introduced, but with every transfusion there are some cells bent only on destruction.

Games became easy. Pure and simple. When I started Everquest at the precocious age of 11 there was no forgiveness in the virtual realm. Death carried a penalty. Hours of work spent on leveling your character were lost. I reached the maximum level of EQ not days, weeks or months after I started - but YEARS. The character I had crafted had become an extension of myself, and I still answer to his name to this day when talking to old friends who knew me then.

I have not played EQ since I was about 18, but it still sticks with me as a golden age. The game was hard, people were afraid of it, and to succeed you needed devoted friends who would help you. Time was the chief resource needed to succeed in this world, and I was committed.

Enter present day gaming, what does dying in a game like WoW cause? Nothing. You lose the tiniest fraction of in game currency repairing your gear. How terrifying. Now anyone with two usable hands can wander around being a dick bag with no fear of reprisal.

The advent of Player vs. Player in the online world also changed things. Now, not only can said dick bag generally do whatever he pleases - but he can now kill you, sit on your body, and murder you over and over and over and OVER AND OVER AND OVER until he gets bored. Wonderful. Now we can't escape being bullied in a virtual environment. Good.

I'd like to quote the gentlemen of Penny Arcade when I say - normal person + internet anonymity = fucking tool. Every shithead in the world now knows they have a microphone where they can spout whatever the fuck they want into cyberspace and feel like a tough guy. Respect (which was even sometimes hard to find in the golden years) has all but died out.

This is not so much a rant as it is a lament. A dirge I hum under my breath every time some prick spams a general chat channel with whatever garbage is rolling around in his or her excuse for a brain. Courtesy and respect are things of the past. Today, we trade in the currency of bravado and cruelty. The bigger the asshole you are, the more powerful you become. Those who stop to help those in need are trampled into the dirt by the power hungry masses. There is no time to aid others, only yourself. Go ahead, steal that item off of the boss you and twenty other people you don't know just spent an hour killing. You won't ever see them again right? It's just a stupid game right? Right?

We need to reclaim the ways of the past. The worlds we spend our time relaxing in need to be made safe once more. This is why I am here. One way or another I will create a place that tries to minimize the corrupt and rewards the honorable. A place where those seeking the easy path filled with lying, cheating, and stealing will not be comfortable.

A place that punishes. Not only the unjust, but the just. Life is not easy, life is a struggle. Overcoming trouble is one of the most satisfying things a person can do. Those with steadfast friends, and who are willing to band together for each other will succeed. The maverick douche bags of present day will weep when they can't blaze through content in under a week.

Will it sell? Probably not. As a race we enjoy being spoon fed, but as I write this I know there are many of you out there like me. People who enjoy the camaraderie, people who still talk to their so called "fake internet" friends. People who remember the friends that took you on your first raid. Who let you into your first guild meeting. Who passed on that new piece of gear just because they knew you needed it more than they. Who sat with you for hours every single day to make sure you got the item you needed.

These are the people I miss the most. In recent days they have become rare, some of them even jaded and twisted to fit into the current state of mind. They have started playing the "game".

There are those of us who remember. Those of us who know that it wasn't about "playing a computer game". It was about forging relationships through hardship and toil. About being part of something that we all loved and that we could share with each other. About exploring distant worlds with people you trusted with your life. It was wonderful, and sadly it is over. I know I will never reclaim that same feeling, but if I can draw those emotions out of one person with the games I will make then I will know I lived my life well.

This all got serious quickly. Next time I'll try not to wax philosophic and stick to something more humorous, but this seemed important at the time.