This started off as comment to Yojimbo's post regarding the controversy over the header pic on this front page story. Obviously it was much too long for a comment, and I doubt few will read through it even as a blog. But I hope that you'll read it through to the end before throwing in comments on either side of the debate.

I want to point out a couple of things. First, Rev. Anthony's avatar had nothing to do with this photo. It was a cap of Takeshi Kitano (a Japanese man not Vietnamese, and one of my biggest heroes, incidentally) from the film Sonatine. (I had incorrectly put Hana-Bi originally, which Takeshi corrected me on. Whoops. The bizarre bit being that Sonatine is my favorite Takeshi film. Director idol fail!) Also he was shooting himself in the head.

Second, the guy in the photo isn't about to be shot. It's not about violence looming in the future. He is dying as that shutter is closing. There's no exit wound yet because the bullet hasn't exited his skull yet. It's much more disturbing than simply a man about to die or even being dead. We've seen dead bodies. But it's rare to see an actual person losing his/her life.

I'm actually a little shocked by some of these comments. The ones referencing the offended as whiners/sissies/babies. It really shows how far towards desensitization we have come in this world. What these people are saying is that violent death happens, so we should be subjected to it at every part of our lives, and if someone resists then they are in denial. If a person gets offended by that image it is because some people put a value on human life. That photo was not from a videogame. That is a person who was alive when the button on the camera's button was pressed and was lifeless before the shutter reopened. Not everyone is so terribly desensitized/unempathetic.

But, I haven't heard from any offended people in this forum. So, you're not even speaking to the people commenting here. The dissenters are those who are saying that the use of the photo was in bad taste. The argument has been made that killing and death will be portrayed in the game. But fake deaths by data and computer generated images.

And just because an event is portrayed in a game, is it a good idea to display it's real-life equivalent when talking about the game? I'm currently replaying God of War. This topic reminds me that I had to kill hundreds of little puppies before they transformed into giant demon dogs. As such, would it have been okay to show real photos of puppies that were abused and beaten to death; broken and torn apart? Is that not bad taste?

Those that are claiming the use of the header photo was in bad taste, are saying that it's use serves no purpose other than to shock. The article does not discuss the horrors of war. It does not touch upon violence at all. Nothing about it was relevent at all to subject matter. The point of the article was to talk about the rumor of a videogame's setting and that there was a casting call. There was no specific relation that would warrant the use of such a affecting photo.

A few have said since that the point of it must have been to promote discussion about the horrors of war. That's a weak argument considering that it was never brought up in the text. If we're to applaud someone for being so bold as to talk about these issues, than those to be applauded should be the "sissies/whiners/babies" who brought to the attention that this photo's use was controversial.

Finally, the bitterness toward Destructoid over what is being portrayed as "censorship", I also wish to tackle that. The photo was changed. That wasn't censorship. It was a judgement call. I'm sure that the editors discussed this matter and took the views of all involved into view. They did what they thought was responsible. I know for a fact that if that photo were relevent the context of the article it would still be attached to it as we speak. The Destructoid editorial crew are amazing when it concerns the free-speech of the editors and the community. I've talked to the head robot himself about his concerns regarding free speech and the community. I know that it is not a matter he takes lightly. That Yojimbo's article still stands untouched at this very moment, every photo intact, is a testament to that very fact. I'm sure that the question was reaised, the community's arguments on both sides were taken into account, and that Matt had the deciding vote on what to do with photo in the end. The offended people were able to have their say. It was taken into consideration. A decision was made based upon the facts of the event. This was true Freedon of Speech at work. Not censorship at all.

Since I've long since crossed the tl;dr divide, I'll put this comment (now blog) out of it's misery. I'll leave simply reaffirming that I was not offended by the pic. My initial thoughts were "Really?!" and I would have just left them there and moved on. The only thin that I was offended by was the cries of a few desensitized people who feel the need to push their views of the value of a human life onto others and insult them while doing it. I've never been a fan of intolerance. And in this case, it really makes you wonder what a life playing games can do to you.

Hey, everybody. I'm really sorry about the double-pimping here. Sometime around the weekend, the Where the Wild Things Are photo shoot over at Tomopop made it onto Digg: http://digg.com/d317cvW. It would be a huge help if you could digg it up to give the site a bit more exposure. It hasn't gone popular yet, but with your help I don't think it's far off. Thanks for your help. I hope you enjoy some of these unused shots.

The header pic above is another shot from the campfire scene that turned out great. I love how Aaron's head in the foreground forms that amazing silhouette against the fire and other figures.



I used a similar shot in the final piece that worked much better narratively, but I love this shot more. I love the level of detail Moishe and how the other figures are peeking out around him. Max seems to be jumping out of his head.



This was another (drastically different) angle from a photo used in the final post. I think it turned out completely adorable.



This was one of my favorite photos in the whole shoot. I didn't use it because I wanted the fire-scene to be about the group playing together. I'm so in love with the deep shadows taking over so much of his face as well as how much the line detail pops.

Truth be told that Tom (Ruffo, one of my best friends and photographer) didn't think any of the fire pics were going to turn out all that well. I had the poor guy lying down on the ground on a very cold Michigan night shooting for over an hour on that sequence just reassuring him that it was going to work.

I've got a c-blog over at Tomopop that also pimps the entry on Digg. It contains even more photos, so give it a look if you'd like to see more shots. Thanks again for your help!

Special thanks to Y0j1mb0 for showcasing the site in this weekend's c-blog recaps. You're a class act in everyway (except maybe when you deal out a late, post-victory hit in Street Fighter IV)!

Many of you know that for nearly two months, I've been writing daily over at Destructoid's sister-site tomopop.com where I work with a crew of amazingly talented folks bringing news and stories about the toys and figures industry. The first thing that I decided that I wanted to do was a photo feature on my Where the Wild Things Are figures that would coincide with the film's release. With the valuable photographic assistance of Thomas Ruffo, one of my best friends, we've been working on this goal in the time since.



Short story long, today's the day and a few hours ago the story went live. I've done a lot of things that I'm incredibly proud of and this piece stands with every last one of them. I've wanted to share it with everyone that I care about and that includes the whole of the community. The photos in this blog are some unused shots from the post. If you like these, you're going to love how the final shots came out.



So enough with my ramblings, here's the link: http://tomopop.com/show-and-tell-the-wild-rumpus-begins-9263.phtml. I hope that you'll enjoy it.



"Tom, give me a cigarette. If I fall and break my neck, I'll have wished that I'd had one. And at least I'll die in my dtoid shirt!"

Special thanks to Y0j1mb0 for some great ideas in terms of presentation, and to Colette for the perfect music to inspire the writing. You guys are incredible!

It feels like ages since I've drawn/written a blog for Destructoid. For the last month I've been working lots and lots and lots of overtime. So, things have been busy with that. Which I'm hoping will finally end with this week. Then I'll be able to see a bit more free time, be able to play more video games, and hopefully read and write more about them as well.

In addition to all of that, the big news is that for the last two weeks, I've been writing over at Tomopop! I've been hired on to join the great team of toy-loving editors at the greatest site for toy enthusiasts on the planet. In my short time there, I have learned a lot, and have added a tiny bit of my own self-deprecating flavor to the mix. If you've never been over to Destructoid's sister-site, I invite you to give it a look. If you're one of the three people that enjoy my writing (my mom's one, and I'm sure that there's got to be at least two others), then rest assured that I manage to put some good old Haxan-style into nearly everything that I write there. The only difference is that at Tomopop, I'm going by my real name: Jason Millward.

Writing for Modern Method is kind of a dream come true, and this has been an exciting couple of weeks for me. This does not mean that I'll be disappearing from dtoid (sorry to disappoint). I fully intend to be as much a part of this site as I always have. Dtoid is my home. I love this place and all of you guys. I love flexing my weak-as-hell artistic skills here. Haxan is dtoid for life. I'm also writing a ton over there, now. That's all that's changed.

If you're interested, I wrote my first c-blog to serve as kind of an introduction there. I also wrote a feature interview with Canadian artist ImaginaryThomas that I'm pretty proud of. Until next time. Which should be soon, because I've been meaning to finish up that unpublished art series.

Hey everybody. I've spent the last 12 hours putting together an entry for this week's shirt.woot derby. If you've got a woot account, please vote for my design if you feel it's your jam. I would love to own one of these, and I hope that you would, too.

The theme this week is "School" so I put together an homage to arcade brawlers and The Breakfast Club. Please let me know what you think, but most importantly, give me a vote!

Thanks, everyone!

(Higher Resolution Version is in the gallery below.)

Do you recall the very first time you saw Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (yes, saw the movie. Not read the book. I'm going for a visual here. [Just so we're absolutely clear, we're going Gene Wilder!])? Do you recollect sitting through the lame songs of the first act (DO NOT defend against this. "Cheer Up, Charlie" was the worst travesty in film since the death of Basil Rathbone) and waiting an eternity for the factory visit? Do you remember the amazement that you felt when that tiny/huge door swung open, revealing an awe-inspiring array of edible scenery? I recently had a similar event hit me with that same level of childlike wonder. I had the uncommon privilege of peeking behind the scenes of Takeshi's Little BIG Planet creations.

Takeshi's Sackboy on the set of his third level, Sackburger(TM).

I recently began anew work on LBP levels of my own (re-inspired by my playthrough of Takeshi's latest level: Sackburger[TM]). This past weekend I put in a ton of time into it. Wanting to show it off my progress, I went straight to the greatest level designer in Dtoid history. After taking a tour and talking a bit of shop, he invited me to his pod to take a tour of some of the things that he was working on. What do you say to something like that, aside from "Who do I have to kill?"


Haxan's Ico-themed Sackboy visits Sackburger(TM).

I'm not going to ruin anything that he's putting together by divulging any specifics. What I will say is that I toured a new level that is nearing completion (which is every bit as great as what he's come up with up till now), I also got a peek at something we all remember from our childhood being recreated in LBP-form with fantastic results so far (Remember the dude that built the working calculator in LBP? Amateur by comparison).

Beyond that, though, was one of the coolest things ever. Takeshi has levels that are essentially warehouses of unused ideas. You enter the level, and you're immediately hit by cool device after cool device. Many things were created for levels, but ultimately didn't fit, or were inspirations that he's hasn't incorporated into a stage yet. It's like a garage where he tinkers and perfects a contraption before moving it out to it's final destination. An inventors workshop in a virtual realm. I can't even describe how impressive this all was to see.


Takeshi's evil mastermind terrorizes the Sackville Shop n' Drop.

If you own a PS3 and don't yet own Little BIG Planet, you're doing yourself a major disservice. If you've got both and haven't checked out Takeshi's levels, then you're seriously selling yourself short on this whole existence thing. Get on it, now. Do a community search for "johanhin", add him to your "hearted" creators and be sure to heart up his levels if (rather when) you've enjoyed them. And keep an eye out for more. I've seen the things that he's cooking up, and you're in for some serious surprises!


Takeshi and his first level: Destructoid.

If you've not seen them already, check out Takeshi's posts regarding his two of his previously released levels: Destructoid and Sackburger(TM). Also, check out his excellent tutorial for building your own Little BIG Planet levels.