PAX East Roundup
An image for a G4 story I didn't get to use...
PAX East is literally 15 minutes away from my house outside Boston. I can't always justify heading out to Seattle for PAX Prime, although this year I am tempted by the prospect of doing panels there, but PAX East is always a no-brainer.
This year I wrote three pieces for G4, about Fallout: New Vegas and the process of designing its downloadable content, the balance between story and mechanics in video games, and the challenge of popularizing eSports in the United States.
I only did one other article from the show, for PocketGamer.biz, just a quick interview with James Schultz, the Community Coordinator for mobile developer Halfbrick Studios. If I ever get to Australia, I'd love to visit these guys. Incidentally, this roundup post is up so late after the event because I was waiting for this interview piece to be published!
There's one other thing I have to show you from PAX East, and that's some video of the "Stuff Your Criticism! I Want a Review!" panel I moderated, which was a real thrill.
Video Games vs. Tabletop Wargames
Normandy, 1944: 2. Panzer Division (right) vs. British Commandos (left)
This post exists mostly to create a space for some pictures of a recent game of Flames of War, a tabletop wargame set during World War II. I have a few friends who might be interested in seeing what the game looks like while it's being played, and I don't really have anywhere else to post them!
But I also realized, through the course of playing this game, why it is that I love video games so much better than card, tabletop, or board games: predictability of systems. Video games are a truer test of skill, in my mind, than these other kinds of games, and so they play into my competitive spirit much more closely.
Read on for neat pictures of World War II miniatures, and/or some of my thoughts along these lines.
The Many Ways We’re Not Discussing Mass Effect 3
Human comprehension of story isn't all cognitive. That's the lesson taught to us by how humanity constructs myth. There are certain narrative constructions we all understand and they are there for a reason, because they work by speaking to who we are as human beings and what we need from our stories.
BioWare has curb-stomped those psychological narrative underpinnings with the end of Mass Effect 3. It's no wonder pundits have lumped everyone upset about the ending into the same bucket as the extreme haters who are demanding a new ending out of BioWare. Anyone who is really upset about the ending, but doesn't understand or cannot elucidate why, probably does sound like a raving lunatic to someone else who doesn't get it or doesn't care.
When someone says "I demand a new ending to Mass Effect 3!" what they really mean is "This ending has disappointed me deeply," and that could feed constructively into a discussion of what happened to make them feel that way, which is a discussion about narrative construction.
It bothers me that discussion hasn't taken place yet within the pages of the outlets which are meant to hold the authoritative, critical voices about video games. It bothers me even more that it may never take place within the pages of those outlets. Mass Effect 3 is a watershed moment in many ways. One of them is demonstrating the limitations of our traditional methods for talking about video games.
GDC Coverage Roundup
I'm planning on writing about my overall takeaway from GDC 2012 for my First Person column this week, but it was a much better event the second time around (GDC 2011 was my first GDC). The same thing happened with E3 - round one was mostly chaos and learning, round two was about getting some good networking accomplished and getting real work done. Here's everything I wrote from the conference (that isn't under embargo):
Today’s Kerfluffle: RipTen Game Journos Ad
If web addresses could use quotation marks, VideoGameJournalismJobs.com would be an excellent candidate. The word job fairly implies payment, and most of the listings on VGJJ.com are volunteer gigs. It's easy to tease the site but I have cited it as a place where people hoping to get experience in games journalism should absolutely go to try and find their first position somewhere. It's how I got hooked up with a website called Game Kudos which got me into my first E3, and my first GDC, and my first Penny Arcade Expos as press, and allowed me to conduct a ton of networking which has paid off big over time.
I never noticed before that VGJJ.com labels itself as "jobs for freelance game journalists." I definitely see that through a different lens now than I would have around the time I hooked up with Game Kudos. I can't imagine any of the freelance game journalists I am friendly or acquainted with going to VGJJ.com to look for work. The listings have always seemed quite clearly meant for beginners. They are positions to be graduated out of. But then this ad from indie site RipTen.com was brought to my attention via that wonderful source of endless kerfluffling known as Twitter.
The RipTen.com ad cites a degree in Journalism, Communications or Broadcast Media, or appropriate education/experience combo, and a portfolio of work as prerequisites for applying. For all intents and purposes it reads like a legitimate job advertisement...only it's a volunteer gig. The kerfluffle was best expressed in the statement "This is what's wrong with video game journalism," but that's entirely incorrect. I can't get worked up over RipTen throwing that ad out there because I can't imagine anyone taking them up on it. If that ad were a problem, it would be an immediately self-correcting one.