Worth Reading: 07/27/12

I would like to know if Toby Gard was merely observing the misogynist nature of the player-character relationship in Tomb Raider or if he was endorsing it. I hope it's the former

That 38 Studios article was fucking rough to read, man. He went in with the best of intentions, but it takes more than intentions to make it happen. I really do hope everything turns out alright for both Schilling and the former 38 Studios employees.

Priceless Amesia video. I got freaked out just watching it. I couldn't even get through the demo...

The dude who did the Portal 2 Speedrun has been streaming himself 'practicing' on twitch.tv for the post couple of weeks. I would stop by, I usually have no interest in speedruns but the way he did it was really entertaining.

Thanks Patrick, I love this feature.

Seriously fuck Metacritic! I sometimes wonder if they are payed to select which reviews to post. It makes no sense that Avengers has a 69 there, but a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes. I know RT has more that contribute...but to be nearly 30 points different seems off. It is bullshit that the industry leaders see it as a credible source for criticism!

Oh hey nice to see Fotonica on the site in some small way. It's my favorite podcast-listening game.

Man, that 38 Studios article was a hard read. It's like watching someone go out and fulfill his dream and failing in the most horrific way possible. The never waving attitude of "we'll eventually win, no matter what happens" definitely clouded a lot of business decisions that was made, and the Rhode Island governor bashing on them definitely didn't help out with their publishing deals. Fantastic read though. Hopefully those affected by the closing are compensated in the near future.

@Brodehouse said:

So I read that 38 article. Started off ready to be like "Man, fuck Curt Schilling. What a dope." but by the end. As a man who has made mistakes in my life that I can't fix, the end of that article made me sympathize. That's not 'cackle as I ruin these peoples lives, go back to my money vault wuaha' that's... that's 1929 Wall Street everything-I've-ever-done-is-over harrowing. That's accidentally running someone over with your car because you were distracted. That's virtually Catholic levels of guilt and self-loathing. Man.

Project Copernicus is the scariest game of this year. Because helpless grief and regret is a far more horrifying and adult subject matter than fucking monsters trying to eat you.

I was the exact opposite. I fucking hated the guy by the end, although I came in with a sympathetic mind. Best intentions and a never-say-die, winning attitude? Fuck that, peoples lives are on the line, his charming personality quirks and charisma don't mean shit to me. People put so much emphasis on intentions, but they don't mean shit when the guy had no business even starting up a company like that.

Oh man, that Amnesia video is fantastic.

This is rapidly becoming one of my most-looked-forward-to features on GB, and the only one that's text based.

Amnesia reaction videos are priceless.

@felakuti4life said:

I would like to know if Toby Gard was merely observing the misogynist nature of the player-character relationship in Tomb Raider or if he was endorsing it. I hope it's the former

I was wondering this as well. What it seems like is he was trying for something along the lines of what ICO did with Yorda, but the player is in actual control of the character being protected. I don't think he was misogynistic, or at least not intentionally, but was more trying to explore what he saw as a want to protect female characters by male players. It seems to me that he went about it the wrong way because Laura is already an extremely capable character (more so than a lot of video game characters before or since), so the only reason for protecting her was because of her gender.

Protecting a character is subject matter that has been explored quite well in some games. I feel as though the player has to have an avatar in the world besides the one that they are trying to protect, and that the character being protected should have a legitimate reason for being protected. I think the The Walking Dead game has done this amazingly with Clem, and to a lesser extent Duck.

That Lara Croft thing is so spot on. When given a choice I always play female characters. Make them look like I'd want real girls to look, like somebody I'd date. Very attractive, basically. It makes perfect sense for a player to want to protect a character he makes that way, I mean, it's our girlfriends, yall.

This is like a magazine wich i read from beginning till end, and then backwords.

Thanks for all these tips Patrick!

With the music I was absolutely sure that Fotonica game was a Mizuguchi joint. Might give that a go. Loving these features by the way Patrick, you the man.

@TatsurouXIII said:

That Lara Croft thing is so spot on. When given a choice I always play female characters. Make them look like I'd want real girls to look, like somebody I'd date. Very attractive, basically. It makes perfect sense for a player to want to protect a character he makes that way, I mean, it's our girlfriends, yall.

I NEED TO PROTECT CHUN-LI'S LIFE BAR SO HARD AHHHHHHHHHHHH

Great feature as always Patrick. I just finished Oddworld Stranger's Wrath a couple of weeks ago and I'm with you in that I can't believe I didn't play it on Xbox. Fantastic game and holds up amazingly well. Also that twist, my god

I'm now watching every single Amnesia Reactions video I can find. Check out the ones in the description of the one Patrick posted!

For October is everyone on staff going to do a recorded experience of Slender? I would love to see their reactions.

@Patrick, I love you and support everything you do, but it's definitely y'all, not ya'll.

Always like these collections of bits of news that GB might not have covered in their own articles yet are something to look at as they might have been missed over.

@bvilleneuve said:

I am all the way in on Knock Knock. Those Ice-Pick Lodge guys have never delivered a game that I haven't enjoyed. They're fucked up (not in the "dead baby joke" way, more like a really distorted guitar chord) and weird and some of the most punkasfuck things coming out of the video game industry.

In other Kickstarter news, Castle Story started kickstarting today and hit its goal within hours. It's a sure thing now; take a look and buy in if you're interested. $15 will eventually get you the game that I personally wish Minecraft would have been, sort of a building management game mixed with an RTS and garnished with a totally hot art style.

I really need to get around to playing Pathologic. Heard great stories about it from Eurogamer and RPS.

For some reason i couldn't read the entire "End Game" article. Knowing the way it ends and just finding out how the money was being spent and how much inexperience and too much enthusiasm, ambition, and expectation was being put into making Project Copernicus that it was not matching up with the realities of running a business. I mean there were good intentions but expectations should have been tempered and that should have matched with how the company was managed and with how the game was being developed.

That Half Life 2 mod article was awful

Great reads from the articles you featured here. Can't wait for next week!

Really liking this feature. Good work Patrick! Lots to read.

Just played through Warbler's Nest.....instant desire to download more text adventures.

crap

If you read the Kick-starter legal crap. These kick-starters are under no law/contract to actually do what they say with your money. You are basically paying/donating to a promise.

I just wonder how long till "The massive kick-starter scam" Where someone basically comes up with a great idea, gets approved, gets millions in donations then disappears. Honestly I think the Ouya or whatever the hell it's called is going to be the one. People really expect them to man that console in under a year? Do they even have a factory yet to pump out the box? I don't think so.

@patrickklepek That knock-knock game is from the guys that did Cargo: Quest For Gravity. If you haven't played it, at least go and watch the amazing Quick-Look.

Nice Article keep them coming!

Pretty done with the horror schtick.

@patrickklepek

Crap Patrick! You keep sharing these crazy sites like nightmare mode and I might not come back! jk, jk. Seriously, love that article. I'm not sure if I entirely believe Fernando when he says the inmates all blamed their victims. In the states Death Row inmates are universally better behaved.

I've only read the Max Payne 3 article so far but goddamn was it good. One of my best friends lives in João Pessoa and hearing her take on things is really interesting. Her family is what we would consider middle-class, but because of such the huge gap, "middle-class" means something completely different. She and her family can just barely afford college money, but their maid? It costs nothing. It would barely make a difference in their finances. Everyone has a maid and she knows guys who literally do not know how to make toast because of it. She has talked to me about the favela raids she's seen on the news. Her mother has even donated volunteered time to help clean them up. Apparently it's just as bad as we see in Max Payne 3, if not worse.

The End Game was an interesting read (if somewhat an excpected explanation) thank you Patrick

Holy crap that video, fuck Amnesia. Bought it on the Steam sale for some stupid reason, but there's no way I'm gonna play it, I think.

@Raethen said:

@felakuti4life said:

I would like to know if Toby Gard was merely observing the misogynist nature of the player-character relationship in Tomb Raider or if he was endorsing it. I hope it's the former

I was wondering this as well. What it seems like is he was trying for something along the lines of what ICO did with Yorda, but the player is in actual control of the character being protected. I don't think he was misogynistic, or at least not intentionally, but was more trying to explore what he saw as a want to protect female characters by male players. It seems to me that he went about it the wrong way because Laura is already an extremely capable character (more so than a lot of video game characters before or since), so the only reason for protecting her was because of her gender.

Protecting a character is subject matter that has been explored quite well in some games. I feel as though the player has to have an avatar in the world besides the one that they are trying to protect, and that the character being protected should have a legitimate reason for being protected. I think the The Walking Dead game has done this amazingly with Clem, and to a lesser extent Duck.

It definitely sounded like he was observing it. The Street Fighter anecdote makes sense in a 'teenagers would prefer to look at pretty ladies' way, but I'm not sure the 'protect' response he noticed was actually there, simply because it doesn't make sense if players are using these characters for brutal combat. Still, I don't think he's supporting the Tomb Raider protect/destroy responses; he seemed more surprised than anything else. Although they do put that whole 'Protect Lara!' PR dust up from a while back in a damning perspective for us because the comments, while offensively patronizing to gamers, were based on actual observation. To have male player's overwhelming response to a female character be a binary 'Defend Her Virtue/ Tear Her Down' reaction is embarrassingly Freudian.

I haven't played Amnesia yet, but that video was pretty hilarious!

"Ever wondered what it'd belike to play Max Payne 3 if you lived in São Paulo? "It's crazy, I've been asking myslef that question since the day I finished the game... Thank you Patrick!

The article on the closing of 38 studios is an excellent read. I feel really bad for Schilling, even though he clearly had no idea what he was getting into and made bad business decisions. Its unfortunate because he seemed like he was very nice to his employees (too nice) and is a great guy who just wanted to run a fun company that made awesome games. And the fact that he wanted to make tons of money to be able to start an autism foundation is also heartbreaking. Its too bad he wasn't more careful with the money. If he had just taken it slow and started out with 3 or 4 smaller games before going for the mmo maybe things could have turned out better. Its shocking to hear that a guy as famous as him, who had $90 million says he can't afford to pay his employees the $1.5 million owed. It must feel terrible to lose all that money that he worked hard to earn throughout his baseball career. Sad story, but I hope people learn from his mistakes.

@Goldanas said:

@Scotto: It's not that the headers are there, it's how they read:

Hey, You Should Play This

Something about the style it's written in and the fact that it outright tells me what I should be playing/listening to/watching is entirely pretentious and hipster. It's a buzzword, I know, and it is often thrown around with little regard to its meaning, but that's the tone I get when I read it.

It's bothered me from the beginning, but like I said: it's probably just my own personal anus devastation, so don't pay it too much mind.

This is one of the dumbest things I have ever read. I'll take your advice and not mind it too much.

The more stuff I read from Jonathan Blow, the more I hate him. iOS programs are buggy as hell and crash all the time.

@avidwriter said:

If you read the Kick-starter legal crap. These kick-starters are under no law/contract to actually do what they say with your money. You are basically paying/donating to a promise.

I just wonder how long till "The massive kick-starter scam" Where someone basically comes up with a great idea, gets approved, gets millions in donations then disappears. Honestly I think the Ouya or whatever the hell it's called is going to be the one. People really expect them to man that console in under a year? Do they even have a factory yet to pump out the box? I don't think so.

consider it a love offering

Nice

I end up reading all of these each week you post them. Thanks you.

@MarkWahlberg said:

@Raethen said:

@felakuti4life said:

I would like to know if Toby Gard was merely observing the misogynist nature of the player-character relationship in Tomb Raider or if he was endorsing it. I hope it's the former

I was wondering this as well. What it seems like is he was trying for something along the lines of what ICO did with Yorda, but the player is in actual control of the character being protected. I don't think he was misogynistic, or at least not intentionally, but was more trying to explore what he saw as a want to protect female characters by male players. It seems to me that he went about it the wrong way because Laura is already an extremely capable character (more so than a lot of video game characters before or since), so the only reason for protecting her was because of her gender.

Protecting a character is subject matter that has been explored quite well in some games. I feel as though the player has to have an avatar in the world besides the one that they are trying to protect, and that the character being protected should have a legitimate reason for being protected. I think the The Walking Dead game has done this amazingly with Clem, and to a lesser extent Duck.

It definitely sounded like he was observing it. The Street Fighter anecdote makes sense in a 'teenagers would prefer to look at pretty ladies' way, but I'm not sure the 'protect' response he noticed was actually there, simply because it doesn't make sense if players are using these characters for brutal combat. Still, I don't think he's supporting the Tomb Raider protect/destroy responses; he seemed more surprised than anything else. Although they do put that whole 'Protect Lara!' PR dust up from a while back in a damning perspective for us because the comments, while offensively patronizing to gamers, were based on actual observation. To have male player's overwhelming response to a female character be a binary 'Defend Her Virtue/ Tear Her Down' reaction is embarrassingly Freudian.

I agree, and in context, video games were a much younger medium then, in their ambitions and their audiences. Add this to the single-blind nature of focus testing and you could imagine how males may act on their most basic impulses. Regardless, I hope the new game reflects the maturation of the medium. Thanks for the thoughtful comments!

@Brendan said:

@Brodehouse said:

So I read that 38 article. Started off ready to be like "Man, fuck Curt Schilling. What a dope." but by the end. As a man who has made mistakes in my life that I can't fix, the end of that article made me sympathize. That's not 'cackle as I ruin these peoples lives, go back to my money vault wuaha' that's... that's 1929 Wall Street everything-I've-ever-done-is-over harrowing. That's accidentally running someone over with your car because you were distracted. That's virtually Catholic levels of guilt and self-loathing. Man.

Project Copernicus is the scariest game of this year. Because helpless grief and regret is a far more horrifying and adult subject matter than fucking monsters trying to eat you.

I was the exact opposite. I fucking hated the guy by the end, although I came in with a sympathetic mind. Best intentions and a never-say-die, winning attitude? Fuck that, peoples lives are on the line, his charming personality quirks and charisma don't mean shit to me. People put so much emphasis on intentions, but they don't mean shit when the guy had no business even starting up a company like that.

Exactly how I feel.

that amnesia video was good stuff :-)

BTW, you can download demo / buy Fotonica here: http://www.fotonica-game.com/.

It's five bucks, and it plays like Mirror's Edge on drugs. Definitely worth a try.

Why were people pestering the Slender creator? I think I missed something.