I avoid politics on this blog, but the doofus we have for a president just won’t shut up. So, if talking to hostile nations is appeasement, then Bush has indicted his administration because it has negotiated with
Yes, Bush has ‘appeased’ almost all of the countries in the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. [then, again, the Bush family knows something about working with the Nazis.]
I have created a translated version of building planning tool for My Life as King. It’s an interactive Flash tool that allows you to rotate and drop buildings found in the game and its add-on packs to a map of the kingdom.
One of the problems with My Life as King is that it is deep enough that it really needs documentation. You know about morale spheres . . . what they do for you and how to get them? Did you know you can send more than one adventurer on a behest, even if you don’t yet have the ability to form parties? Or that once you hire an adventurer, she’s yours for life? What happens to families when you destroy their house? Did you know you can boost the morale of adventurers before and after a behest?
Phoenix177 on gamefaqs has assembled one FAQ: it’s good though there are still other topics that could be covered. Still, so far, it’s the best that we have.
One thing is that you need to read those adventurer reports to see why the adventurers keep dying or if there’s some other problem.
But aside from community efforts, I think the documentation is a potential issue. I don’t know think online help should consume that much space, which is indeed limited for Wiiware games.
Game manuals have already gone the way of great album cover art.
Update: Goldhorizon has created a ‘pay & play’ FAQ which describes the content of the add-on impacts with some useful details.
As i mentioned ealier, My Life as King is a good wiiware game: after the kids went to bed, I became really addicted, as the days passed quickly and I worked to improve the adventurers’ skills and to build up my elementite supply [to create more buildings].
The add-on content for My Life as King is available through the game itself, not the shopping channel. So, if you want to see the available content, you can check the Square Enix site. You have to unlock the new content to use it, so getting the add-ons sooner than later is probably a good idea. I think the Triple Race and Dungeon packs look like the best ones: I think the city would more interesting to have more races that are better at certain skills. If you bought everything, you’ll spend $16 on additional content for the game, making the total game cost $31.
Last night, we violated gaming and tv night [only on Tuesdays and Fridays] so that we could play some Wiiware. Overall, I think the access, performance, and presentation was very good, although I ran into errors three times before downloading one of the games successfully. But I expect that with launches, and it was not really a big issue. I find that I still prefer the Wii menus and shopping access over the 360’s, which I have experienced performance issues with, too.
The main difference that I see is that the 360 presents new content much more ‘in your face’ thanks to the 2-3 ad spaces on their multiple ‘menu blades.’ On the Wii, you have to go looking for new content, but I get tired of having things shoved in my face [hey, you know what I mean]. However, I think the 360 is better in terms of, once you find a game, the info and download are together whereas on the Wii, the game info is in the Nintendo Channel, separate from the Shopping Channel [although there is a link in the Nintendo Channel to purchase the game].
Now, the games . . . .
Final Fantasy: My Life as King--I know people complain about the initial cost and all the downloadable content, but overall, I’m impressed with the depth of just the basic game. True, like many FF games, it’s a slow start, but I have more to control than i expected for a small, downloadable game. To be honest, even though it’s a hybrid game, it’s probably the best RPG on the Wii or at least the best Wii-specific RPG [which I don’t know that Fire Emblem really is]. I like the change of perspective. However, my six-year-old daughter wants to know why we can’t play as a girl-king. [Actually, my kids somewhat played along with me, and they definitely picked up some vocabulary, like diminutive and monarch. See? Justify it as educational entertainment.]
Plus, I know this is a Garth moment [’Did you ever find Bugs Bunny attractive when he put on a dress and played girl bunny?’], but Chime is kinda . . . hot.
Defend Your Castle–This game was a major hit. It’s an easy concept, easy controls . . . just really, really well done for a casual game. The kids easily jumped into the game [ah that more multiplayer games aren’t this easy], and the action was frantic, keeping us all in a frenzy of figure flinging. My son kept talking about how great this game is, even this morning at breakfast. And the art style worked far better than I expected.
So, overall, Wiiware is a big hit in our house, and it’s entrenched the Wii as the top console in our house. But it’s also leading to a surfeit of games.
I picked up Boom Blox [which everyone in my house keeps calling ‘Bloom blox’], and I have to say that it’s quite the hit. [ar ar] The kids kept playing it yesterday, and in spite of my doubts, the gameplay is varied–from the Jenga-like removal of blocks from a stock to shooting to making things explode. Plus, there are different environments for those actions to somewhat alter the gameplay.
My six-year-old daughter some of the gameplay faster than my eight-year-old son, so the game definitely appeals to young kids. [They played it for three hours yesterday as I recovered from getting home from San Francisco at 3 am. We had to prey them away to eat.]
The kids jumped into the level-editor pretty quickly and easily, which is much more varied and easier to use than the Smash Brothers Brawl editor. In fact, with the test button, the level editing turned into a kind of game itself, as the kids tried to find ways to build a level that kept the chickens from getting wiped out by the dogs. I think there’s high appeal in creating a level that uses a couple of well placed actions to create an entertaining sequence of events [as shown in the demo level ‘cow trap’], thanks to the different types of blocks and objects in the game. You can trade levels by sending them to people on your friends list [and please feel free to add me if you want to send your levels to someone . . . my wii code is in the contact area on the right]. But I wouldn’t be surprised if someone finds a way to share them via downloads and the MicroSD card.
I think my major complaint is that it has a little too much content that is locked: the only way three of us could play at the same time was to play the party sampler. But this is a small complaint. The kids had difficulty moving the camera, but they aren’t unsuccessful, just a little slow to get the camera where they want it: they would often spin the camera too quickly.
Without a doubt, I think Boom Blox rivals any Nintendo game that is entertaining to a mix of ages and gamers. Kids and newbies can play and have fun, but folks who understand angles, weights, and physics can play with more strategy. [I personally enjoyed the level in which you knocked over blocks that flew into multiplier regions, followed by the shuffle-board type of levels.]
I was never drawn to the Raving Rabbids game, and I think my kids enjoyed talking about rabbids more than playing it. At times, Boom Blox reminds me of it, but I personally find Blox more entertaining.
One of the things that pulled me into usenet, the web and, years later, blogs was coming across interesting people and ideas. But one of the downsides of RSS feeds and sites like netvibes is that it is easy to check your favorite blogs and sites . . . and not much else. At least, I have found it to be so.
So, when I come across a site like gewgaw, well, I realize what I miss by limiting myself to just a few regular sites. You see, I think it’s great to see a blogger and gamer [working on a Ph.D. in computer science no less] who thinks that a hello kitty mmo is pretty cool.
These sorts of things remind me of a friend who’s passionate about fetishes as an idea for games. Fetishism can take many forms other than sexual, but it is significantly different from a niche market, largely because of the passion of the fetish and the object or nature of the fetish. For example, one sexual fetish is seeing women walk into water, like a swimming pool. [See? not all sexual fetishes are gross or distrubingly weird.] The idea is that people have these passions that aren’t widespread, but if you create something that appeals to a particular fetish, you’ll more than a specialized market but an audience that will ravish your products.
Now, none of these sites have anything to do with fetishes, but, just as I find it enjoyable to come across interests that are quite different from mine, I think it would just as interesting to find fetish games, passions that are wholly different from my own, passions that I might cock my head at. Fetish games don’t have to be sexually oriented, but I think my friend’s point is a good one because I think we’d come up with games that aren’t the usual . . . not just in terms of content but even objectives and gameplay.
Until I see such games, hello kitty online and bus driver will do.
I’m going to say something that’s pretty obvious: Stan Lee is an ass.
I don’t dismiss what talent Lee had, but he continues to take sole credit for creating the core Marvel comic characters, a claim that has been substantially debunked. In fact, in the new Iron Man movie, the credits include Lee, Larry Lieber, and Don Heck. It’s well established that the artists, especially Kirby and Steve Ditko, actually plotted and detailed the comic story.
Yet, Lee continues to take the sole credit, and the news media goes along. Take this story in USA Today:
At 85, Marvel superhero creator Stan Lee is hardly spending his senior years waxing nostalgic about how he createdSpider-Man, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four and two heroes hitting the big screen this summer: Iron Man (burning up theaters now) and The Incredible Hulk (opening June 13).
“Virtually every major character that I createdat Marvel is being turned into movies,” Lee says in his POW! Entertainment offices. “When I go to the theater to see these, I’m able to just sit there and enjoy the movies without thinking, ‘Hey, I created that.’ “
Stan doesn’t acknowledge that Jack Kirby co-created most of those characters, a man who’s imagination is obvious from his later stint at DC where he single-handedly created one of the most interesting and deep parts of the DC universe, one that, in fact, really turned the DC universe on its head with all of its implications.
What’s bad, too, is that my son pointed out Stan Lee’s cameo in the Iron Man movie, “Dad! It’s Stan Lee!” Needless to say, I’ve got a lot of re-education to do, but the shame of it is that Lee is doing the same Orwellian tactics that he used in the 70s, erasing all other collaborators. And for many new fans, they’re associating these characters with Lee’s imagination.
It’s not that I’m a Jack Kirby fanatic, but too many great talents have lost out on the recognition [and often money] that they deserve. Kirby was no smooth talker, which is probably one reason Stan was able to grab an abundance of credit for the Marvel Age. Now, the fact is that Lee had probably more business sense than Kirby, who, according to the biography King of Comics, was in a rough patch of finding work before signing on to work again with Stan Lee at Timely > Atlas > Marvel comics.
The first issue of the ‘marvel age’ of comics was the Fantastic Four 1 which appeared in November 1961, followed by Tales to Astonish 22 in January 1962 [first appearance of ant-man/Henry Pym] and then by the Hulk in May 1962. Spider-Man didn’t appear for the first time until August 1962 in Amazing Fantasy 15.
Now, consider that, in 1957, Jack Kirby created a team of heroes called the Challengers of the Unknown, a foursome that survived an aircraft crash. Now, while they didn’t have superpowers, you have some basic similarities to the Fantastic Four origins: a foursome that survived a spaceship accident. Both teams then faced fantastic enemies and monsters.
So, do you really think Stan Lee created the Fantastic Four all by himself and that Kirby ‘just’ drew Stan’s ideas?
And let’s face facts: the Marvel Age didn’t start until Jack Kirby arrived, even though Stan Lee had been there all along at Timely/Atlas/Marvel.
Other comic book fans have articulated better arguments than this of Kirby’s significant contributions to all the properties now coming to film. But my point is to point out to those unfamiliar with Jack Kirby just likely it is that he and not Stan Lee probably has better claim of creator.
First, I think this ensures that Nintendo will be nerfing the ‘Twilight Hack’ as soon as they can. The downside is that this hack was a way to play homebrew on the Wii. I don’t think Nintendo was going to ignore this hack anyway, but I think this bit of piracy makes their acting on it sooner rather than later.
Second, if Nintendo doesn’t nerf this hack, then I think this threatens Nintendo’s WiiWare channel. These are relatively cheap games to begin with, but I guess $5-15 is too much for some people. If Nintendo doesn’t act, I can see publishers and developers being wary of Wiiware where the margins aren’t that great anyway, more than likely.
Okay, how about this: win one of 8 iTouchDS cards by reviewing a DS game, DS homebrew, DS hardware, a movie or book over at moonbook project. See their site for contest details. So, if you don’t have the hardware for using DS homebrew, here’s your chance . . . except you may, uh, you know, need homebrew hardware to write the reviews.
Actually, you don’t. You can use a DS emulator. Another one not listed at that is no$gba which emulates GBA and NDS. Feel free to peruse my list of DS homebrew games to find a game to review indepth. There’s at least half a dozen pong clones I have tried. Actually, there are games that deserve much fuller reviews, like a touch of war which has been updated recently.
A couple of months ago, Michael Fitch railed against piracy as one of the reasons his company Iron Lore shut its doors. Some folks in forums, like digg, called Fitch out on such claims of the effects of piracy with responses like the following:
At the same time, though, you can’t blame piracy for the closure of a game company. Piracy is a part of the game culture. How many people get CD keys off the Internet within 5 minutes of doing a Google search? How many people are using emulators and torrent files to play all of the latest games? It is unavoidable and must be taken into account at every level.
Yet, Crytek swears off PC development for the same reasons. Call of Duty 4 is claiming lower than expected sales because of piracy.
I have no doubt that piracy is a part of PC game culture. I was a primarily a pc gamer for over 15 years. Heck, I’ve worked in high tech most of my professional life, and I’ve known software engineers that played pirated games, which struck me as a kind of cannibalism. [Many of whom are die-hard, free-market conservatives.]
I think closures and platform abstinence might be the kind of extreme responses that might get PC gamers’ attention and get them to stop playing pirated games. Unfortunately, I’ve heard the various explanations and excuses, from “I’m just demoing it” to “oh they make enough money anyway.”
Having business plans that compensate for piracy and developing new anti-pirating technology really aren’t the answers. Pirating is too easily accessible. Even consoles aren’t immune to it. As soon as companies start planning for piracy, they aren’t just accepting it but are tacitly endorsing it. Yet, they have no choice . . . other than jump the rat-infested ship. According to one study, Americans pirate the least . . . . stealing nearly $1 for every $4 sold.
And today we find a Republican Party chairman is a software pirate. Needless to say, gizmodo is stupid for warning GTA IV pirates.
Technological solutions and business plans don’t change people’s assumptions of rights and notions of entitlement. That is the problem and is what has to change.
Personally, I think game companies ought to put out cracked versions of the game that infest PCs with the 10 worst worms and trojans.
Update: It will be interesting to see how well mid-session games like battlefield hereoes and Quake Live work in the U.S. If people play just the free part of the game without the micro transactions, I doubt they’ll do much. Plus, the graphics will be taking a step backwards.
Rob Liefeld is probably one of the most hated comic book artists . . . and for some good reasons. Unfortunately, comic books have had their share of bad artists . . . Sal Buscema was dreadful later in his career. And Ron Frenz’s work turned me away from many a book, although I picked up the original black suit Spider-Man issues. Overall, today, it seems that we have much better artists in comics . . . or at least better stylists. Joe Madureira is an artist today that I find particularly bad, probably deserving of a ‘worst drawings’ treatment. But Rob draws a bit of ire because of stories of how he had an ego, especially after co-founding Image comics.
Liefield’s comic sins
Personally, I don’t find Liefeld interesting or relevant. And reading about his latest project is confirming that. You see, he’s putting Biblical prophecies to comic book form. Badly, it seems. Not Jack Chick bad. But Buddy Jesus bad. Rob is the guy who brought us superhero, fightin’ Jesus who takes on the Greek gods in Godyssey.
It reminds me of an artist I saw years ago that drew Jesus as a wrestler and body builder.
Endtimes comics - an idea whose time has come . . . and gone
Rob explains how he came up with the idea for his new comic:
The origin of the book goes back two summers ago to August 2006 when I attended a Biblical Prophecy seminar at my church. Phil [Hotsenpiller] was speaking on the prophecies in Ezekiel and Revelation and I have always been a pretty avid student of the Bible and the prophecies of the End Times are of particular interest to me.
During Phil’s first seminar he covered in depth the removal of the United States from the world stage and by no means was this the first time I had heard this revelation but it was by far the most compelling version I’d ever heard.
Phil is an excellent orator, I mean he is a minister for cryin’ out loud, but he is also one of the most in depth, well researched individuals I’ve ever experienced. After the first service I ran up to him, introduced myself and told him that we needed to create a graphic novel series around his teachings. He had no idea what I was talking about but we met up a few days later and started creating the graphic novel series.
I’m not a christian, but I grew up one, so I find this idea of a kick-ass Jesus disconcerting because it seems to me a misunderstanding of Jesus. Yes, the Bible has its share of violence, incest, and slavery. But does it glorify these behaviors? Liefeld’s Armageddon Now seems reminiscent of Hal Lindsey and Rambo. Go read the summaries for the series and for the first graphic novel. It’s bad writing that people will buy just because it’s Christian, much like the Left Behind series.
I don’t care that someone is making a Christian graphic novel. I’m not a buddhist, but I enjoyed Osamu Tezuka’s multivolume Buddha, which has its share of violence, rape and sex but keeps in perspectdive, I think, with the buddha’s message. I think a kindred treatment of Jesus would be good, too. But I find that the fascination with Israel and endtimes theology seems disturbingly popular. Politically I have a problem with my government identifying any other nation’s interests as our own, whether it’s Israel, England, or whomever. Anyone has read about WWI to any degree understands the basis of my concern. It’s one thing to have allies. It’s another to have a crush on another country. And to me, this is typical of most endtimes theology, a perverted crush on Israel as the center of their salvation.
I don’t know if Liefeld’s comic is similar to Blumenthal’s video, but to be honest, I don’t care. I don’t think Liefeld has the creative skins on the wall to show that he’s capable of doing anything more than a bad action-oriented story that happens to have a Christian theme.
If Grand Theft Auto IV is about making choices, then I choose not to play it.
As a game, it appears to have to have great ’sandbox’ gameplay with a good, robust story [something I’m not sure Oblivion has].
But everything that is enjoyable is not necessarily healthy or good for you, but these are personal choices, not definite classifications. I put GTA IV in the class of things like fatty foods, alcohol, and porn, which are all things that people can enjoy but that I think everyone moderates to their own accord. Each of us makes our determination of what is a healthy consumption of each.
I think that we are products of what we consume, but it’s not a direct cause-and-effect. I have no fear of being anything like Niko after playing GTA IV. But such entertainment does have an effect. For example, my wife and I enjoy action movies, and we have enjoyed violent movies such as The Godfather, 3:10 to Yuma, and Casino Royale. But, a few years back, we watched a very violent scifi movie that wasn’t really bad but just made us both realize we were tired of the violence. It didn’t make us feel good afterwards. Since then, we’ve been selective about the action movies we watch. It’s not a matter of sticking our heads in the sand: we’re very aware of how violent people can be, but that doesn’t mean embracing it and glorifying it.
GTA is not a game that I think will entertain me. Will it darken my soul? I have no idea, though I doubt it. Most gamers have limits, things that they will and won’t play. Some won’t certain genres. Some won’t play games by certain publishers. These are often limits of what their tastes and likes. But I think it’s worth having other limits, too. I play my share of violent games, but often, there’s a point other than the indulgence of bad behaviors. Too many games involve ‘killing’ on some level or another, and I think that ‘killing’ as a way of solving problems is itself a problem. And GTA IV embraces it too much for my tastes. [I have played GTA games before, though not to completion.]
This opinion doesn’t make me Jack Thompson because I’m not the least interested in banning the game or claiming some antecedence to violent crimes. I’m not even interested in persuading others not to play it. If anything, I’d ask my fellow gamers this question: as long as a game is well executed, is there nothing you wouldn’t play as a matter of principle? If someone, for example, published a game in which you leveled your character by raping people or abusing kids and it were actually a well done game, would you play it? For me, GTA IV is such a game.
Besides, if you’ve played No More Heroes, you might have some contempt for games likes GTA IV. I realize GTA mocks part of our society in its own right, but not enough to change what I think of the game as a whole.
* intentional reference to Little Steven’s ‘Sun City.’
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