Pezen

Same here, though reading it I realized I wouldn’t mind getting them so I hit the subscibe button just in case this was a one time fluke.

Definitely both. I played Stranded Deep a week straight to escape a stress related panic attack that signaled I was on the verge of a complete burn out. I also play games to recharge, switch my mind off slightly and be somewhere else if I have been very social or if there's been a lot at work. However, other times I just play for a few hours just to enjoy a good story or have a good time in general without really escaping anything.

I lost all of that some years ago, partially because my brother and I spent less time hanging out playing couch co-op like we did on the 360 and finding a game we both want to play together online is not always a great fit. Most of my old IRL friends stopped gaming with the exception of the occassional single player thing. Also, me and my brother are both fairly introverted so at times us playing online co-op becomes almost like playing with an AI that sometimes talks, we need that in-room thing to really start joking around while playing I think. I had a brief group that I played CoD and Battlefield with from work but they also exclusively played that and I found myself less eager to join them partially because I found myself playing worse with them than by myself but also there was never a meet up time scheduled so it was self-invitation to groups and I find myself being somewhat too anxious to jump in, it reminds me of cold calling someone on the phone, I have this weird anxiety that I'm bothering people.

It's all very unfortunate because I do really dig cooperative games and I probably secretly really want a group to play those games with.

Ghost of Tsushima seems like a really interesting lighting rod in regards to the whole discourse around games and cultural appropriation. Because the knee-jerk reaction from folks in the west seems to clash to heavily against reactions from Japan, just look at the reactions to the flute performance by Cornelius Boots from E3 in regards to this game. A master of the intstrument, taught by Japanse grand masters of it, wearing a traditional outfit. I read an article on the kimono and cultural appropriation and it had a few choice quotes;

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"There are people who are truly offended by cultural appropriation and their feelings are completely valid, but in Japanese culture, it just doesn't work the same way," said Manami Okazaki, a Tokyo-based fashion and culture writer. "(The Japanese) are really trying to share Japanese culture, so it's very, very different to a minority culture that feels like they've had something stolen from them."

"Two imperial powers adopting one another's aesthetics without severing the ties to the originator is quite a different thing from a party with more power surreptitiously borrowing from a marginalized group. This may explain why, today, many in Japan are generally unfazed by foreigners' decision to wear kimono."

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Which is why for me, while I can appreciate the underlying point of the discussion surrounding cultural appropriation, it sometimes feel like the folks most vocal about it end up being in some way just colonial in their perspective and treat other cultures with a weird form of paternalism. Working under the assumption that 'the west' is always dominant and 'the east' is always marginalized.

I want to be clear though that if there's someone from Japan taking issue with the things these quotes are saying they're not taking issue with, that's obviously completely valid. And, one can't ignore the fact that someone born and living in Japan might feel completely different from someone from Japan or with Japanese heritage living in the west and actually by definition being a minority and potentially marginalized.

That all aside, I do generally agree that this whole thing seem like a win-win that in some aspects probably has more to do with calculated tourism economy than culture. Even if those things are intertwined as well.

I want a Suikoden sequel in the graphic style of the first two (but yes I'm hoping the spiritual successor from the folks that used to work on Suikoden turns out well). I want a sequel to Alan Wake but without combat and just a surreal adventure of an author set to some awesome tunes by Old Gods of Asgard. A modern take and sequel to the Blade Runner point and click adventure game. And a sequel to an old Danish PC game called Blackout.

@csl316:I don't think one could recreate Twisted Metal these days. The magic of those early games were 90s edgy industrial metal-esque 'darkness'. They would either need to make it actually sinister and bordering on serious or it would be campy as all hell and cartoony. I don't have faith in people these days trying to recreate something in today's sensibilities and not completely butcher it.

@facelessvixen: Am I reading that last picture wrong or do they think that Dante is actually fitting in with the Fight Club picture? And not, like, looking very much like all those previous "is not" pictures? Because if that's the case that is utterly hilarious.

I can't speak to the game, as I haven't played it, so I'll just answer your general question. I think we're well past having bad people in fiction just be bad because they're bad. Especially if we're talking media directed at adults. Lack of depth reinforces the assumption that peple are bad by nature and not something anyone can become given the right (or perhaps wrong) circumstances or chain of events. But it also makes them a lot less interesting because if someones motivation to do bad is just 'because I'm bad and I want to do bad' then it's lacking some substantial meaning. If we can empathize with where someone's bad behavior stems from, we will also understand their motivation while simultaneously disagree with their action or point of view, they become a more interesting presence in the game. I also think it's healthy to understand and deconstruct why certain people become abusive and discuss that, even in media, as I think we all don't want people to be abusive. So there's value to not just make an abuser into a boogeyman but a person that has an experience that made them into who they are.

Ken, because he has an air of a dude that listens to heay metal while surfing. Also, arguably the best stage theme.

I have probably an almost equal measure of nostalgia for both, though maybe Daytona a tad more because I was younger playing that in the arcades and that theme song still gives me a childish glee of reminicing to days of just sitting in one of those Daytona machines pretending to play.

Though real answer; why bother? I would rather see new stuff than old names slapped on new games that could probably stand on their own legs.

I rarely do this and I’m sorry if this cost people their jobs. But; lol. Everything aside from the potential tech for Stadia has rubbed me the wrong way and I’m not at all surprised. Either they go subscription or they’ll eventually shut that stuff down, I just don’t see its viability otherwise.

Alan Wake was a real inspiration for me as well and I found myself pulled deep into that game for a variety of reasons. For me, horror wasn't the main attraction but rather the sense of tragedy of loss and the philosophical surreal world as it intertwines between reality and his fiction. When I was younger I did write a bit of poetry here and there while I also had these grand ideas of being a Swedish Hunter S. Thompson. But like you something about Alan Wake opened my eyes to the idea of writing longer form for real. Funnily enough, it would take until I was in my later 30s (last year, more specifically) to actually get the urge to write something more than short stories largely thanks to listening to Stephen King's book on writing and listening to a couple of his books. Still, as someone that has a hard time finding books interesting, Alan Wake was what really opened up my curiosity for books outside of science books and Hunter S. Thompson.

I find it really inspiring also to hear your approach to writing as I am still in that phase where I find it hard to throw out an idea that isn't working because I am a bit too married to what I have already written, but I'm practicing. I'll check out your work!