What is that second picture? Well, I just recently learned that it is called the "Sonic Hedgehog" gene. This gene in mammals has to do with "organogenesis" which is the growth of digits on your limbs....apparently it is also important in controlling division of stem cells and has been implicated in some development of cancers....
So yeah! Even the scientific community plays videogames! For more information on this, you can check out the wikipedia page at:
Some clinicians and scientists criticize giving genes frivolous or quirky names, calling it inappropriate that patients with "a serious illness or disability are told that they or their child have a mutation in a gene such as Sonic hedgehog.
Anyway, gotta get back to work! Hope to have one of my I Game, Therefore I Am blog posts in the near future.....(I was really busy on Easter :D)
Now that I'm all sobered up from my pre-lim celebrations, its time for my next installment of this weekly blog. Seeing how its the anniversary and birthday of the most awesome piece of the interwebs this weekend, I decided to discuss...
My Adventures in Videogame Media
For every hobby, there exist magazines that cover the latest trends in said hobby. I always think its cool when you browse someone's magazine racks and see their subscriptions of Outdoors or Cross-stiching Weekly....it really gives you a glimpse into the hobbies of someone without even having to ask, "Soooo....what do you like to do for fun?" For that reason, I proudly display my Game Informers on their rightful place....on top of my toilet bowl. <.< (You gotta read something!!)
I remember when I was younger, I totally had a subscription to Nintendo Power....the most awesomely biased and self-promoting magazine out there. Whenever those came in the mail, I would read it cover to cover, and tear out those folded up posters...One that I remember proudly displaying in my room was the overworld map for Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. I also remember buying tons of Tips and Tricks magazine, while not as fun as Nintendo Power was to me, was a great resource whenever I rented different games from the nearby Blockbuster. Once more systems started coming out, I found it necessary to upgrade my magazines a bit.....seeing as there were awesome games coming out for non-Nintendo systems, and I really wanted to read about them....I traded in my NP for GamePro....
First issue....I hear Gumby tried to sue them :P
However, lets fast forward a bit....the world is older now, and instead of Tips and Tricks, people can get any information free of charge using a google search or Gamefaqs.com. As such, the Videogame journalism started to evolve and place lots of resources towards online efforts....I used to read IGN.com a lot. Don't know exactly why I visited that site more than gamespot.com (which I still, to this day have to think about when I say them name, so I dont say GameSTOP....two similar names....completely different businesses!) I wonder, if 2 years ago, these websites and magazines knew that they were all going to pale in comparison to the new era of online videogame "journalism".
Enter Destructoid. I honestly found this site cause someone had linked me to "videogame-related demotivational posters" for which an article had been written...I then started to peruse the site and found how down-to-earth the writing staff was. "Journalism" is placed in those quotations, due to Jim Sterling's insecurities being called a games journalist. The writing staff of Destructoid are biased, write about random topics, and are certainly a breath of fresh air from the corporate tones of other sites (IGN). Everytime I read an article on Dtoid, I know that its the true feelings of the editor...not scared to put themselves out there.....and knowing full well that the comments might be FLOODED with critiques or naysaying. Reading an article on this site is like talking to your close groups of friends about games....agree or disagree, its understood that you both LOVE games.
These human beings are my heroes....
And what other site has this community? Our members travel miles to play games together, write songs about games for the site, make awesome hats and T-shirts (I'm serious Rio! Send me one!! :-P), and generally are members of a family, the Dtoid Army, always ready to have a good time. This community blog system, that took a while to implement, was WELL worth it, cause I feel like its just expanded the voice that we have on this internets....I'm serious, the tubes that run Destructoid must be freaking LARGE TUBES for all the information exchanges that go on here.
The Dtoid Army....MAN, we work-out!
Who knows what the future will bring to videogame media? Whatever it is though, its hard to imagine it being much better than this.
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And with that, I'd just like to (AGAIN!) wish Niero a happy birthday, and congratulate Dtoid for being around for 2 years....Thanks to everyone on the Cblogs and Forums for being the coolest group of people around. Special thanks to Dexter, ceark, Charlie, Azereki, topgear, Dyson, Chad and Hamza for being so awesome when I met you guys and reminding me of how lucky I am to be a part of this epic piece of the internet!
What magazines did/do you subscribe to? Do you have any favorites? How did you guys learn about Destructoid? I cant wait to hear from you all in the comments!
Today's entry will be pretty short, due to the fact that I have the biggest exam of my life this Wednesday. I am taking my graduate school preliminary exam, where I stand in front of 3 professors, and answer (or attempt to answer) any question that they throw at me.....
Anyway, I want to talk briefly about videogames in the movies!
Videogames in Hollywood!
Now, I'm not going to discuss Videogame Movies like Podtoid did recently, (which they did an excellent job as always) but am going to recall a couple of movies where videogames were either a part of the plot or just a character trait. Sometimes, it seems like Hollywood doesnt do its research concerning videogames. Alot of the times, the details are something that would never stand out to the average person, but being a gamer, they make me groan in discontent. Things of that nature might include the person on camera using a Nintendo controller while the screen is playing Sonic! One example in mind comes from Charlie's Angels...(yes I saw it.....girls that kick ass = win). There is one scene where Drew Barrymore is knocking on the glass door in nothing but a sheet, and there are two kids in the room enjoying a fun 2-player game....only the camera angle changes, and you see them in the middle of a FF8 battle sequence! (Even imdb.com lists it as a factual error! W00t!)
That is an example of a minor flaw that makes me sad....Hollywood isn't all bad though. I may be looking back on this movie with "retro-goggles" as it were, but one of my favorite movies to prominently feature videogames is Surf Ninjas (!). In this movie, Ernie Reyes, Jr and company, go to an island to save it from the rule of a hilariously oppressive ruler, Leslie Nielsen. During the course of the movie, one of the brothers discovers that his Sega Game Gear is actually displaying the events that are occuring in real life, and that he even has some control over some of them! I remember thinking how awesome that would be if I had that power, only to realize that due to the insanely short battery life of the Game Gear, I probably wouldnt have time to do anything substantial :P Anyway, from what I read on Wikipedia, Sega had a partnership with New Line to help fund the movie and developed the game at the same time, which ended up being the first movie-based videogame that preceded the opening of the movie.
More recently, a movie that prominently featured videogames was Stay Alive, with Malcolm of Malcolm in the Middle fame. It had to do with a game that a group of friends played, with the only catch being that if they died in the game, they died that way in real life. I don't remember much details about the movie, but I just HAD to rent it seeing as how important videogames were to the plot. I do remember that as far as horror movies go, it wasnt that great, but as far as how much attention they placed on the videogame aspect of the movie, I was impressed. Each player had his own avatar and they would actually show in-game footage of the character running around fighting monsters in a mansion, RE style. It turns out that CliffyB was the videogame consultant for this movie, which I also find sort of impressive.
Anyway, moral of the story is that sometimes Hollywood doesnt seem to care about the portrayal of games in their movies, but every so often, they can go out of their way to make sure things are more true to real life....I can only assume, that with the consistent growing popularity of gaming, more and more movie studios/directors will take note, and make sure that, regardless of how little a role videogames play in their movie, they at least do a little bit of research first.
So with that, what movies do you all recall either feature videogames prominently, or even just in passing that you enjoyed/hated? (I know I didnt touch the Wizard...that would take lots of time, but feel free to talk about it :D) Do you think Hollywood will try to be more accurate in terms of portraying games in their movies/shows? What do you think of the videogame-movie tie-ins?
Can't wait to hear from some of the members of the Dtoid community! I'll be sure to let you know how my pre-lim goes...Wish me LUCK!
I’m glad that a couple of you read and commented on my last blog! It was very interesting to read other people’s perspective on being a lifetime gamer, and it was great to see that many of you feel the same about being a gamer as I do. My topic of discussion this week is going to involve two loves of mine…..videogames and music!
An Appreciation of Videogame Music
When the majority of people (non-gamers) hear the term “videogame music”, I feel there are two responses. The completely uneducated in this genre merely question the existence of actual songs/score in a videogame, believing that videogame music is merely a combination of “bleeps” and “bloops” with an occasional “insert Pac-man death sound here”. I don’t believe its entirely their fault….the media usually portrays someone playing a game of ANY type while being accompanied by these sounds. (The way the media portrays games in general is a good topic….maybe next week!)
However, there are a good number of non-gamers that upon hearing that term think about actual videogame music…most often the Mario melody or Tetris music comes to mind. In my opinion, songs such as those are a great example to what videogame music is and should be. Classically, videogame music has consisted of catchy tunes that remind a person of the game they played. For example, when I hear that Mario tune, I immediately think of Level 1-1, and how that first goomba you kill was merely the start of your bloodthirsty quest to save the Princess (I wonder how many goombas you end up killing in that game….I also wonder how many I’ve killed in the span of my gaming career!)
However, recently videogame music has evolved to be so much more. Nowadays, whole scores are orchestrated and performed with precision by some of the best musicians. And I believe that is one facet of videogame music that is not as well appreciated by the non-gaming community. Take Videogames Live for instance. I went to one of the first national tours when it went through Houston. It was very interesting to see the dichotomy of people in attendence. On the one hand, of course, you had the gamers, some of us trying to dress well for a symphony event, and others in full cosplay, or wearing Red Mage hats. (Does not compare to a Dolphin Hat though…..hey Rio! Since I plugged your hat in my blog can I get a free one? :P)
DO WANT!!
On the other hand, you had the older generation, who had bought season tickets to the symphony, and probably realized that they paid money for these damn tickets, might as well go….I still remember seeing these older couples, looking around at us gamers in amazement, wondering what we were doing at the symphony playing Guitar Hero in the outside lobby.
The great thing about it, though, was once the concert started, these two groups of people were enjoying the exact same music! ….Videogame music is COMPLETELY WORTHY of great symphonic performances….more and more, the arts institutions are realizing this and not becoming hesitant at performing events such as VGL and Dear Friends (also amazing).
Go to the next one you can....its a disservice to yourself if you dont!
And luckily, the increased production value of videogame music is not detracting from the original goal…..to remind us of the fun we had while playing. Not only are the videogame scores doing that, they are also adding emotion to the games. Recently there was a cblog by mix for the Tragic Hero contest, which was about Aeris.
Aeris, as I mentioned in the comments, was quite possibly my first love :-P. She was my favorite character in FF7 and I constantly kept her in my party. (If you need a spoiler warning, I honestly don’t know what to say to you) When she is killed in the middle of the game, I was seriously crushed…and the beautiful music that Nobuo Uematsu orchestrated fit my emotions perfectly. I honestly teared up a little and went through the stages of grief during the following FMV. Denial, Anger, Acceptance, etc… all those occurred in my head, accompanied by its own soundtrack. At Dear Friends, hearing that song being performed reminded me feel a rush of all those emotions I felt during that time….which regardless of whether the score is a piece by Bach or Uematsu, is the definition of EPIC WIN in music.
.....*tear!!* Why did you have to leave me! *tear*
So, anyway, if ever someone mentions off hand how childish videogames are, or how lame the music is, direct them secretly to music from Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, Secret of Mana, or even Halo (really awesome performed live) and educate them. Cause we are sitting on a gold mine of amazing music that should not be kept to ourselves :)
Discussion times!
Do you guys have any videogame scores that you absolutely love? Have you ever heard people downplay the idea of videogame music? What are some experience you have that will forever be tied to a certain song or piece? Have you guys experienced an awesome VGL or Dear Friends concert (if not you SO should….now…..go…..I’ll wait)? How was it? (especially you guys that just got back from it!)
With that, I’ll see everyone around on the comments and c-blogs!
Hey all! I’ve decided that I want to contribute to this awesome community in anyway I can, so I thought I could start by posting regularly on the c-blogs. Since I can’t draw or do any art like many of the awesome people here, and I kinda suck at writing reviews for games (of which there exists many blogs already), I decided to take my blog to a more editorial direction. At the moment, I plan to have a weekly column about a topic that involves games in some fashion, that may cause people to think about things they haven’t thought about before. My first entry into this foray of editorial writing is below…I hope you enjoy it!
The Importance of Being a Gamer
Recently, I have been thinking about how the above phrase applies to me. This has led me to understand that no matter how far I get in my professional career, I must never forget who I am….a gamer. I hope that by sharing my thoughts on this topic, I can stimulate discussion about what being a gamer means to everyone else in this awesome community.
First some background about me. I am currently attending the University of California at Berkeley as a graduate student. By the end of these 4-5 years, I will (hopefully) have attained a PhD in organic chemistry, with the hopes of being a college professor. Recently, I’ve realized that this is a pretty big deal. I’m not alone either. Many of you out there are either into your professional career or just starting out in college, assuming that the end is far off…..(Well, it comes faster than you know :P)
In graduate school, there is a lot of pressure to work hard. Any time you aren’t in a lab or reading papers and journals to study feels like wasted time (like now). You always feel like you should be doing more since there is sooooo much to learn. However I’ve come to the realization that being true to myself, essentially taking time to play games and be among those that share my same interests, is very important to maintaining my sanity.
Most definitely ME
The reason I started thinking about this was due to how happy I felt at the NARP and the day after. I was honestly on Cloud Nine, as if I had just been asked out by someone I really liked. And in fact, that’s what happened….being completely accepted by the Dtoid community so easily felt really good! Being able to play and talk about videogames all night with those who shared similar interests was a great feeling. And before that Saturday, its been so hard to do so….the gamer in me has had to be tucked away, only to come out on Sundays, which is my only real day off of the week. :(
But you know what…IM A GAMER, DAMMIT! I’ve been playing games since the NES and haven’t looked back since. YES, I get excited when a new Nintendo game is announced. YES, I check the videogame news sites more than I check my chemistry journals. YES, I have had crushes on pixilated characters before. And finally YES, I will continue to play games until the day I die.
I WILL be one of these in the future....any bets on which one?
Because instead of being a chemist who plays games on the side, I am a gamer, who does chemistry to make money used to buy MORE games :-P. I fully expect that some time in the future, I will have to reschedule giving an exam as a college professor, due to the fact that Super Mario Something is coming out that Friday, and hell if I’m gonna miss picking it up first thing. I’ll probably even see some of my students in line.
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Anyway, with that, I bring this topic up for discussion. What jobs do you guys have/plan to have? Do ever feel any pressure to set aside gaming because of anything? If not, how do you think you would take it if you did? Do you feel happiest when you are around other gamers? Are you going to play games until you are way old, and raise your kids on classic videogames instead of the classic literature? Or do you feel it is something you will eventually outgrow?
I’d love to hear what you guys think about this matter….anyway until next time.
I just got back to my apartment from the NARP party last night, and I wanted to say that the community we have on Destructoid is something very special....I had a GREAT time hanging out with other people who share the same love of gaming as I do.
I want to thank all the Dtoid members who were there for being a great group of people to hang out with! Dexter, Charlie, Husky, ceark, and I played Rock Band till about 4:00 in the morning and it was pretty much the BEST NIGHT EVER!
Dyson and Hamza, you guys know how to throw a rocking party! Hope to meet everyone again in the near future.....possibly at PAX!
Myself:
I am a chemistry graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley. I have been playing videogames since as long as I can remember! My past favorite games include Secret of Mana, the Resident Evil series (Jill is SUCH as master of unlocking), FFVII, Smash Bros Melee, and many others.
I've definitely gone through phases in my gaming "career". I used to LOVE fighting games in the time of Tekken Tag and Marvel vs Capcom II (my favorite fighting game), but now I find myself drawn to the more story driven games, and very recently, the music games....:)
Current games I'm playing:
Phoenix Wright series
Replaying Mass Effect
ROCK BAND!
Super Mario Galaxy (I beat it already, but havent gotten all the stars)
Anyway.....Hope to get to know many of you here on Destructoid! Feel free to shoot me a friend invite, ESPECIALLY to play Rock Band (and maybe Halo 3 depending on my mood)
