Worth Reading: 08/25/2014

When I play Diablo III on my PlayStation 4, I can tell it's a good game. It's been beautifully adapted to a controller, as though it was always meant for consoles. But after 70 hours of Divinity, I need a break.

I cannot stand to look at loot anymore.

Part of the reason I'm always willing to give new games a shot, even if I don't end up liking them, is avoiding burnout. Though Divinity and Diablo 3 differ in significant ways--one is real-time action, the other is turn-based--both have an emphasis on loot.

To recalibrate, I'm playing other kinds of games. One day, it was Unrest, a conversation-focused adventure about an ancient Indian kingdom dealing with a lengthy drought. Another, it was Eidolon, an exploratory story game giving me some Proteus vibes. (Vinny and Alex looked at it recently.)

You Should Read These

• "'Mobile's 'One Game Wonder' Problem" by Tadgh Kelly

There are some really smart criticisms of the mobile market presented in Tadgh Kelly's piece, and they're miles away from the usual conversations we have about smartphones games. It's not about free-to-play. Instead, Kelly points out the inability for developers to successfully build upon a hit video game, preventing many from sticking around. Angry Birds is an exception to the rule. There is no Candy Crush Saga 2, if there was, and few would care. Mobile does not inspire loyal players or customers. Not only that, but Apple and Google have done a poor job at allowing communities to build around mobile games. This was an article where I was nodding my head the whole way through.

"We often say that games are a hit driven business, but the reality is games are a franchise driven business. When physical retailers dominated the landscape, the continued success of the franchise was all about selling boxes, and often still is. A big publisher like EA or Activision spends a lot of cash and effort ensuring that their biggest games are able to be annualized because they know the value that franchises can bring. It’s rare that a game arrives from nowhere and sells 10m copies cold, but over a few releases and building of brand and intellectual property (as well as good games), momentum leads to greater and greater success."

• "The King and His Objects" by Matthew Burns

"Power to the players," "by gamers, for gamers," and other slogans are designed to make a certain kind of person feel good. I'm one of those people. You're probably one of those people. But Matthew Burns has taken a closer look at the philosophy of "gamer," and I come away feeling pretty gross about the whole affair. In the context of what's happened in the last few days, it feels especially pertinent. Underlying his essay is the importance of having a range of voices to ensure we're getting new perspectives. We can't always trust ourselves. (Note: Try to think of this article in the grand scheme of things--big picture. It's not meant as a personal attack on anyone, but a broader consideration of what the underlying effects of heavily marketing to a specific demographic are.)

"We tend to say the problem lies with 'gamers.' Consider how successful and widespread “gamer” is as an identity despite the fact that it hardly means anything at all. The reason the gamer identity has become so laden with bad connotations--misogyny, Doritos--is because the identity itself doesn’t really matter except for one crucial aspect: the buying of games. As long as “gamer” means someone who spends money, preferably a lot of money, on products that are produced by the game industry, the rest of that identity is left undefined. There’s no incentive for the largest groups that do things around games to attempt to define gaming as, say, something that makes you interesting, or as a noble pursuit. Anything anyone knows about “gamers” is just that they purchase games.

I want to talk about a certain kind of good customer. As a group they are an important source of revenue. Since 'gamer' doesn’t mean anything, I will call them 'consumer-kings' (the gendered term is intentional). Central to the notion of the consumer-king is the purity of his agency to make decisions about what to choose to experience. We could imagine him in front of a table brimming with a stunning variety of exquisite foods, much more than he could possibly eat in one sitting. He looks at each of them, enjoying their shapes and colors, imagining what they will taste like. There are many aspects to consider, so he is surrounded by a group of people whose job it is to talk about the dishes, to tell the stories behind them, and otherwise add new dimensions to his aesthetic reverie. His advisors are educated and opinionated, and he suspects some of them might secretly look down on him. But at the same time, he revels in their attention and in the notion of having his own, equally valid opinion to contrast with theirs. At the end of the discussion– which has taken all day– they always defer to him. After all, his own critical thought is the highest and most important faculty in his choice of repast (even if that process leads him to conclusions that are overwhelmingly similar to everyone around him)."

If You Click It, It Will Play

These Crowdfunding Projects Look Pretty Cool

• Slap .45 is a tremendously fun "slap" game. Trust me, I've played it. It's great.
• Jeff Cannata and Anthony Carboni have a terrific new podcast series, We Have Concerns.
• Vagante seems like it's riffing on Spelunky, but with classes, magic, and other elements.
• Gryphon Knight Epic is a 2D shoot-'em-up in a world without many shoot-'em-ups.
• Ray's the Dead was being developed in Chicago, but they moved to Texas. I forgive them.

Tweets That Make You Go "Hmmmmmm"

Oh, And This Other Stuff

• Patricia Hernandez spoke with her 15-year-old sister about Kim Kardashian: Hollywood.
• GB user Marino has started a thread with original EverQuest players sharing old war stories.
• M. Joshua Cauller looks at his playthrough of Valiant Hearts from the perspective of Jesus Christ.
• Javy Gawtlney explores the bonds players make with characters in Mass Effect and Fire Emblem.
• Jessica Contrera reports on the struggles of starting a video game conference.
• Kirk Hamilton spent two weeks playing Elite: Dangerous with an Oculus, and came back with stories.
• Brendan Keogh breaks down what makes P.T. work as a piece of horror.
• Chris Plante has issues with Battlefield Hardline's portrayal of the police, in light of recent events.
• Hatsuu, production coordinator at XSEED, writes about backlash to a translation in Akiba's Trip.
• Sven Grudenberg, Jens Hansegard report on the influx of women players entering games.
• Fumiaki Shiraishi isn't so sure about the "fail early" philosophy that you often hear about.
• Toby McCasker has a long conversation with Far Cry 3 writer Jeffrey Yohalem very late at night.
• Clickhole finally weighs in on whether anime is for jerks or not.
• Chris Sullentrop writes about the forgotten female video game pioneers.
• GB user KoolAid works on free-to-play games, and has come back with lessons from the front lines.

Cheers, Patrick! Keeping me amused for some time as ever.

That Brock Lesnar tweet is golden.

I always cringe at the word "gamer". I don't really self-identify like that. Instead I'll say "I play a lot of games." or something along those lines. I don't know that there needs to be a word for someone that plays a lot of games. "Movie buff" always seems a little pejorative, and I never hear someone call themselves a "reader". I dunno man labels are weird.

Gamer is a word for people that don't identify as nerds. This is just teenager shit.

Movie buff usually connotes someone who watches lots of good movies, or ones that aren't necessarily as mainstream. Gamer usually applies to more mainstream games.

Patrick mentions problems that have been occuring lately in the gaming community, as he did on the AM show Friday, and once again says nothing about what the news is. I'm not sure why the news guy always seems to allude to news, without telling us what's going on. If he's our source of news, and we're not all hanging out online waiting to see what sort of new abuse is going on, we still don't know, after several visits from Patrick.

It's very clear Giantbomb does NOT Want to get involved in the whole affair (Might be from higherups, might just be their own decision) and I don't think pointing it out is going to help anything.

To the article at hand, I've also always been curious about the term "Gamer" Which is an odd thing to identify yourself as. I recognize that I am a "Gamer" as are most of the people who visit Giantbomb, most likely, but I don't call myself a "Book reader" or "TV watcher" so I'm not sure why Gamer is treated so differently.

Labels such as "gamer" prove, yet again, that they are meaningless and do more harm than good. They achieve nothing but perpetuate this closed "boys club" idea, and only help create frustrating problems within society because of those who try to fit into these labels and resent anyone who they perceive as "outsiders". It is a pretty big symptom of how much society, and a considerable number of people involved in games need to grow up if this medium is to be taken seriously.

We all know what it's about, come on now. And he was way more specific on the podcast.

I don't see what's wrong with "gamer." I mean, the word sounds kind of stupid but it makes sense that people use the label. To be a gamer you have to buy an expensive console or pc and buy expensive games. Games are also pretty long so you have to spend a lot of time playing them. You have to go out of your way to spend a lot of time and money.

The other forms of entertainment aren't really the same. Everyone grows up watching tv and movies.

Now I'm left wondering if Patrick gets the real joke of that tweet, because holy shit that tweet is the best.

I think Burns is right on in seeing that all "gamer" really means is "someone who buys games." The rest of the label is largely this vague thing that can connote anything from the outdated basement dweller stereotype, to being a super fan, to simply playing them at all semi-regularly, to the image of the Mountain Dew Doritos bro, to the desperately angry internet commenter who finds comfort in redressing the order of things one rant post at a time. It can essentially represent anything from the best to the worst of what it can mean to play games and a lot of it is a product of projection onto it from people who don't play games, people who market games, and people who play them.

Unfortunately I think the rest of Burns article is merely okay. Nothing that quite approaches as strong an observation as the first paragraph quoted here.

Seriously, not one mention of the Fine young capitalists and their crowdfunded gamejam?

@patrickklepek Just so you know, you misspelt Brendan Keogh. Awesome piece as usual, though.

I weep for the future. There are far more important things teens could be paying attention to than any Kardashian or a brand new iPhone. It's no wonder old white men are making all the decisions and laws for women and non-white's.

I come away feeling pretty gross about the whole affair.

The only thing I feel gross about is being hit in the face with this bullshit every corner I walk around. I guess I would say I identify as a gamer, in the sense that a reader is a person who buys books (for the purpose of reading).

What introspective naval gazing am I missing out on that keeps me from seeing the misogyny in my involvement as a gamer? I look through my games purchased and played the last 6 months: Dark Souls 2, Starbound, Pikmin 3, Super Mario 3D World and a piss tons of Dota 2 hats. I don't feel it, that nagging conviction everyone seems to have about supporting the industry, like I'm collectively manifesting all respect for women in the craft and holding it underwater.

According to The King and His Objects, I don't even have to buy the "wrong" games to be a part of the problem. I'm still perpetuating the same ugly machine that hangs over every forum topic about recent events which must not be named.

It's honestly full stop madness from beginning to end. Full objectivity isn't the goal (or even possible I agree), but a certain level of objectivity SHOULD be sought after. This includes at the very least the ability to look past whatever relationship a writer might have with a developer and judging the game by it's own merits (whether that includes reviews, press coverage, whatever). And this goes from the indie scene, all the way up to AAA game studios plastering ads next to those "objective" reviews.

I really like you Patrick and often respect your opinion, but I think the people using terms like "misogynerds" need to take a heavy dose of your introspection and reflect on it before they come demonizing the "sheeple" who don't understand.

Deep existential anxiety when I realise that I'm stuffing Doritos into my face while reading this.

You feel good when you see things like "gamer grub" and "gamer fuel" or whatever?

I am not a gamer; I don't even exist on the same plane as self described "gamers". If you ask me if I like video games I will say yes, if you ask me what are my hobbies I will say "I like video games" or "I play video games". I was fine with being referred to as a "gamer", but the events of the last few weeks (more like the last few years) have really soured me on it.

If the ignorant people who harass, attack, belittle, and besmirch anyone with an opposing perspective consider themselves "gamers", then I am going to distance myself as far away from that term (and them) as possible. I am not a gamer, I am a person who happens to like video games. And they can have the fucking term as far as I'm concerned. If they want to stand for a corporately constructed label built on headshots and dorito dust then more power to them. I, simply, refuse to be lumped in with those un-empathetic monsters.

The elephant in the room is eating my cheetos.

" In the context of what's happened in the last few days, it feels especially pertinent."

Uhh... what happened in the last few days? I was kinda busy with real life.

And catching up on old Super Replay episodes.

I read the Matthew Burns article and it just seems like someone realized that the games industry is an entertainment market where people exchange the product of their labour for entertainment products. Rather than an exclusive-yet-inclusive club for all my friends and everyone who I'm cool with and if you're not one of us then get out. It's an industry where people create things to attempt to entertain people who want to be entertained in that specific manner.

That Chris Plante article is not very well researched or thought out. And I'm all crazy about police overreach and I don't like anything that's happening in Ferguson, but Chris Plante's article wouldn't pass a laugh test in a critical environment. He mischaracterizes how Battlefield games actually work because he cares more about the narrative of his story than he does about whether it's true or not.

That’s right. The game made me kill my loved enemy-friend. This makes some sense in a game about the bitter obligations real people had to endure on the warfront, but maybe the real problem here is that enemy-love is just laid out for me like an outfit to just put on?

If you’re going to create a context for players to serve and affirm their enemies, that action needs to be the player’s choice. The concept of loving an enemy requires self-sacrificial vulnerability. That is, if we’re gonna go by what Jesus seemed to really mean by loving your enemies.

I actually just played through that sequence last night, and it made me recall stories of all the strange ceasefires and odd moments of humanity that played out; the Christmas day ceasefire, machine gunners on both sides allowing (and sometimes not allowing) small crews of the opposing side to travel through no man's land, and collect corpses and the wounded. Those gunners might have let someone pass on Monday just to kill them in a routine exercise the next day. It's part of the mindless, numbing, arbitrary nightmare that was the Great War.

But of course, since it's not an idea this person had, it's terrible and proves the developers are not being ethical with the stories they tell. When I used to read fiction or even non-fiction, and then consider different ways events could have gone, things I might have found more interesting, what-if scenarios and the like; I would save them and write them into my own stories. This is a pretty common tact. People who watched the Matrix and had other ideas for slow-motion martial-arts gun-fights made their own stories featuring their own imagination, inspired by something else. We don't do that anymore. Now we say that other people's failure to have written the story the way we would have written it is proof of their moral or intellectual failures.

But as the father of two daughters, I worry that games, for all their promise, are not always welcoming to young women. During a trip this month to a retro arcade in New Hampshire, my older child, who just turned 4, told me she wanted to be the kidnapped damsel in one of the games we played together. If she were 10 or 12 years older, I might strain to explain why she cannot play a female killer in the next Assassin’s Creed game, due out this fall. Or maybe I wouldn’t, because she would be smart enough to figure out that the creators of these games are signaling that girls don’t belong in their treehouse.

Yep. Failure to have written their games the way I would have written it means that adult professionals of many races, genders, religions, orientations, and everything else, working in an adult industry that is entirely focused around creating products people want... it means they are abusive little boys keeping people out of their treehouse. Stop talking down to other people, games journalists, and maybe people wouldn't think of you as a threatening clique-ish establishment.

Only 22 percent of the people who make video games are women, according to a recent survey by the International Game Developers Association. That’s abysmal, but it’s also a rapid and drastic improvement, a near doubling from five years ago.

Only 11% of the people working as human resources professionals are men. Is that abysmal? Are you ready to judge everyone working in all business capacities for creating a culture that apparently prevents men from appearing in human resources capacities? Would you look at the gender ratios of human resources business school graduates and concur that men are making their own choices to follow other fields? Or would you look at a culture which tells men that they can't be human resources professionals through subtle conditioning and criticize that? If we're going to look at an equality of results and demand that it be perfectly even, independent of the choices people make, then I would like a human resources job right now please. Those are lucrative positions that most people who are not upper-middle class would be interested in. It certainly can't be due to male decisions that there are less men in business, because a majority of the work force is women and unemployment is higher for men per capita in my country. Thank you for the job. I deserved it?

I felt gross about wading in through the never ending barrage of metaphors in hope of finding some sort of central point I could latch onto. Instead I came away with the newfound knowledge that apparently I am simultaneously defined and limited by the very act of purchasing games. You've been judged before you've even made a choice because even getting this far implicates you in some sort of not clearly defined crime that is very clearly vile in it's nature.

Writing that talks about specific problems in very general terms and ends up being about nothing at all.

Also, what's with that incredibly aggressive anime quiz? I get that it's supposed to be satire, but jeez. You don't have to be a dick about it. Seems to me like the only jerks are the haters. Not that I'm a particularly big anime fan.

@paulunga: The website that anime quiz is on is a joke website run by The Onion.

Geez Phil Spencer doesn't know how to pronounce Reggie's name.

Games are getting so complicated to control.

I miss Worth Playing. Need my indie game fix!

@mooseymcman: Yes. I acknowledged as much. I'm not quite sure what the intent is, though. Making fun of people who like anime or people who get annoyed at anime?

That Matthew Burns piece is pretty grating to me. Given the situation he's reacting to, I can understand being frustrated at "gamer culture," but resorting to calling the customers spoiled manbabies (in so many five-dollar words) because they care about the quality of the things they buy, and worry about the integrity of the news and advice they receive, seems like a weak deflection.

Therefore the unaccountable anger brought to the fore by suspicions of bias, review score guarantees, and other sinister, mostly-imagined deals is so strong not because it results in a deviation from the platonic review ideal, but because it violates the sacred consumption space in which the consumer-king seeks to exist.

Oh, you mean "trust?" You're right, suspicions of bias do violate consumer trust. Putting it that way wouldn't make everyone sound like assholes though.

The actual problem is that such suspicions can easily get overblown (and often for messed-up, outside reasons, as we have seen). But that conspiracy-minded approach isn't a "gamer" thing. It's human nature.

My 19 year old little sister is a huuuuge fighting game fan, her main character that she has put hundreds and hundreds of hours and mastered is Nightmare from Soul Caliber...I know what your thinking " bu but, shes a girl, shouldn't it be from skull girls?" No, and you wanna know why? because she is NOT her gender, she is NOT her sexuality. She's smart enough to realize that pixel orientation on a screen in the form of the male or female form does not represent her.

I went out and bought some Doritos after reading this. I'm tired of the internet slandering the good name of Doritos. Everyone needs to look past the dumb promotions they get involved with and just recognize once and for all that Doritos are fucking delicious.

This is the real critical issue in games journalism today.

I mean, it's alright to heap scorn on Mountain Dew, because Mountain Dew is very clearly God's punishment for an evil world, and the board of directors at Mountain Dew are soulless husks infused with the malevolent spirit of the wicked Shartan... but Cool Ranch Doritos are absolutely unimpeachable and if anyone wants to talk shit on Cool Ranch Doritos they can see me at the jungle gym at 3:30.

My 19 year old little sister is a huuuuge fighting game fan, her main character that she has put hundreds and hundreds of hours and mastered is Nightmare from Soul Caliber...I know what your thinking " bu but, shes a girl, shouldn't it be from skull girls?" No, and you wanna know why? because she is NOT her gender, she is NOT her sexuality. She's smart enough to realize that pixel orientation on a screen in the form of the male or female form does not represent her.

My favorite fighting game character is a metaphysical polyamorous mascot bear with a male pronoun and an androgynous expression, whose human form is a shiny bishonen boy complete with sparkles. My second favorite fighting game character is a lady special forces soldier in a leotard who is a de-brainwashed clone and seems very proud of her glutes, so to speak. And my third is Albert Wesker.

German Suplex should never be a weak grapple, especially for Paul Heyman's client BROOOOOOCK LESNAR.

As always an enjoyable assortment of stuff I'd likely never find on the itnernet.

Villifying the term 'gamer' with stereotypes of misogyny and racism makes about as much sense as drawing the conclusion that people who buy cars are alcoholics because some of them drink and drive.

Cross promotion between games and snack foods isn't all too crazy. Is McDonalds inherently scummy for cross promoting Disney films?

Women are laughably underrepresented in many forms of media, that said video games is one of the worst and it's really disappointing the general lack of female characters in games in terms of both quantity and quality.

Great article Patrick, also I miss that Halo 3 Mountain Dew (loved the taste)

I used to really like Doritos, but I'm not so much a fan anymore. There's something about chips with lots of flavored powder stuff on them anymore that kind of disgusts me after a few. Mind you, I will drink the shit out of some diet Mountain Dew because I'm not a complete monster.

Wait, what happened over the last few days? @patrickklepek should really include a link when referencing something outside the article.

"Gamer" has always seemed like some weird marketing term. It's a vague label that doesn't really mean anything but is used to convey some kind of marketing demographic in advertising. I'm sure anyone who identifies themselves as a "gamer" heard it first in some advertising campaign for a game but embraced it as a kind of "I'm proud to like games" moniker. Like any label though, people will eventually just use it to alienate people they don't think fit in with what they perceive the term to mean. I don't see it as being remotely beneficial to anyone. No one is making games for "gamers". People make games for other people. There is no one taste in games that identifies you as being more legitimately into video games than anyone else. Any game worth it's salt should be designed as though this is the first time a person has picked up a game. That doesn't mean making things super easy or "casual". It just requires conveying information in smart and intuitive ways that neither alienates people new to games or those who have played others.

That is completely untrue.

Gamer merely means someone who plays games.

The thing that bothers me these days is this whole movement to change the meaning of words because people don't know how to use them properly.

I mean if you're eating healthily and properly, Doritos probably should disgust you. But if you've skipped breakfast and you've got a can of Coke Zero next to you, Zesty Doritos are just the thing for noon on a Monday.

You know what, that's actually like super-true. As much as I want Cool Ranch dust laced into drugs, it's really hard to just relax and eat a chip now without feeling like a bloated piece of shit within 10 minutes. That might just be the grease inherent to making chips but I'd be interested to try a Doritos with half as much dust on the chips. I want a nice corn chip crunch with a hint of flavor, not an overwhelming chemical taste.

I agree. The huge support this IndieGoGo project got from 4chan, only to be hacked and disrupted by a different party is a big deal. Hell, 4chan rallying behind a purely pro-feminist idea goes against what I know about 4chan. At least I would think it's big news, seeing how the gamejam is a pro-feminism gamejam designed to get more women into game development. It's a sad state of affairs when a legitimate case of news cannot be talked about because of one aspect of the news, which I cannot even say anything about in fear of getting this comment removed. Heck, I might have said too much already.

Anyway, hope the Fine Young Capitalists get the gamejam going, even after the hacking setting them back.

The SMW song says it all: Jeff is an asshole.

Say whatever the fuck you want. If they delete it so be it, but don't let people controls your thoughts.

Eh, you're missing the point here buddy. This goes back to when men played women's roles in theater, or Mickey Rooney's role in Breakfast at Tiffany's etc. It is not about being a victim sir, it is about girls and women having avatars and role models they can relate and look up to as fellow women. Yes, they can have men and that's fine, just like a guy can have a woman as a role model or whatever, but it is not the same. It's about creating a space in which women can be seen for who that are and can be on a legitimate level that is free from the connotation of men and male characters. There is no "victim" of any sort.

@cornbredx: the meaning of words changing because "people don't understand them" is literally the history of every language on Earth. So... don't let it bother you, will drive yourself crazy :D

Honestly, I left it as it is to ensure the post would stay. The IndieGoGo project is the important thing to get out there. Here is a link as well. I haven't been able to donate myself yet, have to see how I sit after next paycheck.
And while I feel everything around it is important to be aware of, I'd rather leave it at that for now. It does feel kinda weird though, being afraid of getting your forum post about a pro-feminist project deleted, when pro-feminism is pushed at us from every gaming news source...
Anyway, go check out the project. I really want that first game. A Theme Hospital/Dungeon Keeper where you build a haunted house? Sign me up!

To clear things up for people who don't understand:

There an accusation coming from The Fine Young Capitalists that Zoe Quinn essentially attacked their competing game jam, and accused them of being scammers. Apparently she used twitter to ruin their game jam and got them kicked off indie go go. Meanwhile, they claim that they couldn't get an answer out of her what they are doing wrong or why she considers their game jam to be a scam.

They also claim to have reached out to the gaming press many times, and every time they're turned away because the press instantly sides with Zoe, or says that they refuse to cover the topic. Total Biscuit re-tweeted to raise awareness for them, so either he's using incredibly poor judgement, or Zoe is.

This could be Zoe protecting people from a scam, or it could be her trying to eliminate the competition, or it could all be a big misunderstanding, but no one in the press will touch it, and it has absolutely nothing to with any sort of personal issue.

For a quick recap instead of a somewhat lengthy video, see this image.

@geraltitude: You're most certainly right. As a writer it will still most likely drive me crazy haha

I don't think the only way for women to self-actualize themselves is to 'create a space free of the connotation of men'. Women can be seen for who they are by being who they are. Men can be seen for who they are by being who they are.

What we're getting here is "I'm not that, so stop telling stories about that".