Bobby's Blog Posts

I'm in the second year of my Master's program in which I'm fortunate enough to get to study games with some really smart people (both professors and students). I had been stressing because I had spent all this time in the program and still had no idea what to write my thesis about. Obviously it was going to deal with games, but nothing was really jumping out at me. So I sat with a pad of paper and brainstormed all the topics I had been thinking about.  It included things like humor in games, the abstract avatar, the circle/sphere in gaming, and how to make engaging games about serious topics. None of those really excited me, though.

I thought back on a paper I wrote last semester on The Darkness and was reminded that my culminating seminar paper during my undergrad work dealt with the city in film noir. So I pitched the idea of doing research related to the city in the video game to my advisor and she encouraged me to roll with it. I'll kick things off with books on architecture and urban spaces while compiling a list of games I think are representative of the myriad of city-based titles. I hope to find out the following things: how cities are represented in games, how these representations reflect our culture, the influences of popular media on design, and the narrative and gameplay affordances of the city space. I'm starting off broadly so that I may find a more interesting question to turn into my thesis.

It's going to be a damn lot of work, but I'm up for the challenge. I may be drawing on the wisdom of crowds to help with my research so stay tuned!

Low Score Episode 04 "Kevin is Smug"

Hanging out at the Jersey shore, Bobby is joined by Kevin and Jimmy of the Virtual Fools to discuss their recent gaming habits and talk about their history with the boardwalks of New Jersey, including the trip they took that day to Seaside Heights to play classic arcade games.

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Low Score Episode 05 "A Very Braidy Podcast"

J's back! And what does that mean? It means we get to discuss potato chips and beer. Oh, and some video games too, I suppose.

Newsflash: J LOVES POINTS. Tune in to hear him talk about his misadventures with Avatar: The Last Airbender and Madden 06.

Though we've played a few demos and some Geometry Wars 2, this week is really all about Braid. With about 40 minutes of the podcast dedicated to one game, we discuss both gameplay and narrative. Don't want spoilers because you're going to play Braid soon? That's okay! We give fair warning in the course of the podcast for when we're going to discuss potential spoilers for the rest of the show.

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Low Score Episode 06 "Make it Work"

Not even the start of classes can stop Bobby from beating a game and buying three others. And now that he's finished with Mass Effect he and J can finally discuss it! Meanwhile J has an interesting cerebral response to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare being that it's the first FPS he's played where he's really out to kill real looking humans in war. Is this an untapped area of game design and story?

But be not discouraged, for Bobby wants to go to war with everybody in Civilization Revolution and blast off to space where he can kill alien dudes in Galaga Legions.

J's come back around on Bionic Commando: Rearmed and explains why not liking the game probably means you're doing it wrong.

What other adventures await our heroes? No idea! But you should listen anyway.

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So I started up a new game blog for both school and as a compliment to a project that has kind of fallen by the wayside. For my first post I talk about Galaga Legions and explain not only why I enjoy it but why it fits squarely in the Galaga tradition. Read it, won't you?

27 Years Later: How Galaga Legions Fits In

Since the close of this year's Electronic Triple people have been speculating that we might not see an E3 next year. Having moved back from Santa Monica to its old home, the differences between the E3 of two years ago and today were quite different landscapes. There were criticisms that the invite-only attendee list (mostly press) took away the exciting atmosphere and left the place feeling empty.

It of course begs the question of who the E3 audience is. Should those of us sitting at home reading blog updates about games being shown care if there are no booth babes? Isn't E3 really supposed to be a way for companies to spread the word about their games? If the less hectic environment encourages people who thought about sitting it out to go because they'll actually get hands-on time without wasting all day, isn't that better for the fans?

There was no banner up in the hall this year telling attendees they'd "see you next year." A number of big companies have pulled out of the ESA, citing its existence as unnecessary in the current business climate. GDC has become more of a trade-show (which I feel is bad), PAX has roused a lot of the fanboy enthusiasm, and TGS and Leipzig are just like E3 abroad. Does the E3 Media & Business Summit still have a place in the world?

I say yes. It's not going to be the same as before by any means, but I think it's good for the gaming press to have a place to just check out a lot of games and report on that to their audiences. We've really come to expect the Jobs Keynote--big announcements and "one more thing". But we should shy away from this. We are all enthusiastic about games and love to hear about big stuff. But we shouldn't be disappointed in what we don't hear about.

We want Nintendo to announce a new DS redesign but then are pissed when we spend money on the third piece of hardware that does the same thing. Console and handheld redesigns are nothing new. I have all three versions of the Genesis plus the Sega CD contraption and the 32X dongle. I have a GameBoy and a GameBoy pocket. I have a GBA Can't Fuckin' See and an SP. We want to hear about consoles and top-notch games because these are the biggest announcements a company can make. But it's bad, I tell you! Because for every big title there are 50 minor games and at least a handful of those are going to be as fun as the next Metal Gear Solid.

I hope E3 comes back with more presenters next year. Let them fill the halls with more games, not more hype. And I hope the journalists get to cover all these games with more depth as a result.

And thus my challenge goes out to you: disband with your sense of entitlement but retain your enthusiasm. We're game lovers, not conduits of marketing.