this, this and this

Tuesday morning, I had just woken up and I decide to check out Destructoid to start off my day. Scrolling casually while glancing at headers and reading blurbs, I try to see every news post I had missed while a slumber then something catches my eye. “Persona 3 Portable Announced, adds new character”. For a second, I have to register this and then quickly click on the story. Reading it, I discover that one of my favorite games is coming to the PSP and adding the ability to play as a female. I literally am overcome with joy! I was throwing the idea of buying a PSP since persona one is coming out but now I am practically sold! The whole day I have a much better mood knowing this little tidbit of news. I try to imagine what will change with this new female character and what else could be added!

I have already mentioned that P3 was one of my favorite games of all time. I had first gamefly’d it and loved it so much I bought a copy and proceeded to waste 120 hours of my life playing through it. The copy is sitting with the rest of my games next to my wii. There is nothing wrong with it, no scratches, and no problems with it playing on my PS3. So why should I be so excited for this remake? Why when I am perfectly able to play the game right now, am I eagerly anticipating it’s release even willing to put down two hundred plus dollars to buy a system to play a game I already own? This got me thinking about remakes. How is it that I and other gamers can get so excited for something like this? Looking at the comments for the initial announcements I wasn’t the only one excited. A few commenters I know had played the game too because I had talked to them about the game. So knowing I’m not alone, why is it exactly that we as gamers are so eager to get excited about remakes. I think there are four main reasons for this phenomenon: replacement, additions, renewed relevance, reliability and reimagining.


Let us first start off with the two most understandable reasons, replacements and additions. Replacements is a very simple concept, the remake is able to replace the original of the game. Whether the disc is broke, the Nintendo seems to refuse to play Adventure Island or you had a nasty habit of selling all your game once the next generation came about; remakes allow you the convenient access to a game from yester year with a cheaper price tag than tracking down the original most of the time. One example I can bring up is the recently re-released Marvel Vs Capcom 2. I own MVC2 for the Dreamcast, but I had two problems. The disc had a nasty gash on the label side of the disc and a replacement on the Dreamcast would have cost me upwards of $70. Luckily since it came out on XBLA, I was able to snatch it up for $15 and start playing! As a cool bonus it also had online play! Which of course falls under the idea of an addition, Persona 3 Portable is probably most exciting because I get the chance to play through the eyes of a female character. As long as the additions do not seriously hamper the original core of the game, I can think of no reason having additions to a beloved game not exciting anyone.



Renewed relevance is something that appeals to people who were huge fans of the first offering. When a remake comes out a lot of new people will be experiencing it for the very first time, and suddenly the game that you had loved for ages is cool and exciting to talk about again. I’ve noticed talking to other gamers that the window to talk about new stuff isn’t very large and if you don’t share an interest in the same game it probably won’t be brought up. I would get a lot more interesting conversations talking about Shadow Complex in IRC than Jet Set Radio Future. There may be a person who likes JSRF and we could talk about that for a bit but Shadow Complex would most likely draw a much bigger response leading to more people to talk to. I imagine if something like Earthbound was released on virtual console, I would be so happy that there would be more people eager to discuss one of my favorite games of all times. The feeling of renewed relevance is probably never the sole component in exciting some one about a remake but does contribute to a small part of it.

Remakes can also be tantalizing is the fact that they are reliable purchases, meaning you know it’s going to be good. When a game receives a remake it most likely was popular and is a safe investment for the publisher, which usually translates to it’s a game that was really fun. People complain that it seems like gamers get more excited for a remake than a brand new IP, while it would be stupid to flat out ignore the new IP, I think it is reasonable to be a bit more excited for a remake. If it’s something you played you know what exactly you are getting. Let me put it this way knowing how Mirror’s Edge turned out would you have rather had that or a remade Skate or Die? Even though Mirror’s Edge was a exciting new idea it turned out to be not so great but a remade pseudo 3d skate or die sounds great, WHERE IS IT EA?




While this could technically fall under the idea of an addition, I am going to keep it separate. Reimaging is basically giving the original game a graphics overhaul, video games tend to progress faster than any other medium. The visual’s of games a scant six years ago are even a bit lack luster by today’s standards. Since we are only just now having realistic graphics and are minds are no longer filling in spot the graphics can’t a game getting new graphics will likely be an increasingly common thing. For me I see two different types of reimaging that are possible. Games that are redone graphically due to the low quality of graphics in the time period they were released and games that are redone simply for the sake of vanity. While a Final Fantasy VII remake doesn’t actually exist there is a good reason while people were flipping out when that PS3 tech demo was showing. Anyone who has had the chance to play through seven recently knows that while the core game play is still amazing, the graphics are so dated and the 3d models so poor that it is almost laughable when you sit and actually look at the characters. A new set graphics wouldn’t improve the game but it would make it easier to look at. An example of vanity would be the HD 8/16-bit game mock-ups. Does Super Mario World really need a graphical boost, of course not, it looks perfectly fine the way it is. But damn if it don’t look fucking gorgeous with HD sprites.

I know that some people are critical of gamers for getting really excited about a remake and then barely noticing something new and original. I don’t really think that it’s entirely their fault. Hopefully the reasons above should give some insight as to why we tend to do that. If a new IP is up to snuff we’ll know about it and hopefully that word of mouth we cause will help it a long. I just don’t think remakes should take blame for a new IP failing. You wouldn’t necessarily blame a DVD of a new movie failing because Rocky just got released on Blu-ray, would you?

(Contains major spoilers for Mother 3)



A materialistic mindset is ingrained in todays gamer. No matter what type of game we are playing it is always a good thing to have everything, all the money, all the summons, all the weapons and all the powerups. Since the early days of eating that one piece of fruit for more points to getting those one hundred coins for an extra life, games taught that the more you get and the more have the better you’ll be.

The only time we have to pause and get rid of things is to discard them when they are no longer of use to us or the game has set in place a limited amount of things you can have at once. There are however some games that go against the grain and try to teach against this idea of materialistic thought. I would like to highlight two games that are anti-materialism in two very different ways.

The first game I would like to bring up in Katamari Damacay. While this game would seem to personify the ideas of materialistic thought it actually tries to show what materialism can lead to. The goal of Katamari is to gather as much as you can and as fast as you can, absolutely everything is obtainable if you have the right sized katamari.

So how can a game like this be anti-materialism? Katamari actually has a message against capitalism and by association materialism; eventually you are supposed to realize the pointlessness of your task. You never have enough in Katmari, it’s just trying to get one thing after another, stopping nowhere eventually rolling up the earth or even the solar system. Collecting more and more lead you no where in the game and you were just doing it for the sake of it. Unfortunately this message was lost on almost of all us until the creator had to say something; it seems he made our pointless task to damn fun for us to notice anything wrong with it.



While Katamari takes the direct approach of trying to create a contrast by directly showing anti-materialism through gameplay, Mother 3 seeks to exemplify this through its story. Mother 3 takes place on Tazmily Island, a small island in the middle of the ocean with a peaceful village. Residents enjoy a simple life with one another in a tropical paradise. One day a shady salesman starts peddling a new item called the happiness box. The islanders soon become obsessed with the happiness box waiting to do nothing but bask in its glory and to get the newest a lasted model of it. Unable to cope with their island life because their obsession demands the latest and greatest they move to new pork city (not a typo, a parody of New York) to be at the forefront technology. Their obsession leads them to leave a paradise to a grimy city all for the sake materialism. To have as much as the can and the newest they can. It is important to realize that although happiness boxes look like television sets or computer monitors, the creator left them intentionally ambiguous as they could be a stand in for anything we become obsessed with.


(Happpiness box seen at top right)

You may say there’s nothing wrong with being slightly materialistic, and that is true. It’s practically the American dream to start from nothing and build your way to the top eventually having all your desires comes true. Consider this though; if we take the happiness boxes in Mother 3 and replace them with video games I think we begin to see the creator’s message more clearly. Most of us would admit to being slightly interested in games more than the average person or average gamer. It seems like we always want more, perhaps it’s due to the way most games are or because of today’s culture but we are always looking forward to that next new game. Once it does get released we are satisfied until something else catches our eye or we become bored of it. This isn’t something that we need to specifically stop doing, more so I think it’s something we should think over more. Do we really need the special edition or to have a game day one? Is it bad that nearly every month there’s something else you feel you need to buy? I could never answer these questions but I hope that games like these and others like it would start taking a serious look at this semi-culture of materialistic thought that has arisen in gaming to somewhat a larger degree than other mediums.

So here's my E3 2009 predictions

Let's start out with what will be talked about at e3 probably this




and all the companies will want to talk about this



specifically on the nintendo side they'll talk about that thing above, who's they well...



him



and unfortunately her



I would put money on him too

On the microsoft side you have



Him, talking about



and this



however you can expect sony to be yammering on about



this thing



yup that too

hitting a little closer to home



this guy


and they will all be at this



Ok, that's it.........I'm hungry

Before I start please direct yout attention to this commercial for The Wheelman.



I know that this is old but I've wanted to do this for months and can finally get around to it.Do you notice anything about this commercial? It doesn't feel quite right does it? It feels like this is some advertisement for a movie and not a video game. But what is it exactly that causes this commercial to seem so out of place? If you notice this commercial chooses to focus on aspects that you normally see in movie trailers. For example it decides to show video of explosions and other typical movie like flare. If you are advertising a video game wouldn't you want to see the main character atleast jumping out from the explosion instead of just showing the explosion by itself? But the most obvious thing in the trailer that stands out is Vin Diesal. It is clear the publisher wanted to draw players in with Vin but is this something we should be worried about?The video decides to start by panning to the game's main protagonist, Milo Burick. Milo is Vin Diesal in ever way because he was based off of him, this is something strange. You cannot look at Milo and not think of the actor behind him, this is nothing new especially considering the chronicles of Riddick games. But I feel that was a different situation, Riddick was already established as Vin Diesal while Milo was forced to be like him.

Another potential problem that arises is dissociation with the character. In most action type games is it is common to either feel as though you are the character or you are temporarily stepping into the shoes of the character. With someone like Vin Diesal it would be impossible to imagine yourself as him and for the stepping into the shoes part, it would not seem real enough. The escapism aspect of this game is lost with you thinking of Vin and not Milo or you during the course of the game.

It no secret that video games are as popular as movies even outselling them sometimes. I'm surprised this trend hasn't really take off yet but doesn't seem odd that not to many actors have yet attempted to capitalize on games more. Ignoring movie games because they tend to focus on the story or character instead of the actor. The Wheelman presents a perhaps look into the future to games. How often are we going to start seeing games that are built up around the actor instead of the other way around. Boom Blox was made by Steven Speilberg, despite this it seemed to fail to capture the game sales but still publishers are beginning to look at celebrity attachments more and more. Littlebigplanet had Stephen Fry doing the narrative. Beyonce and the rhythm heaven commercials too, she may not appear in the game but don't you think that the game may moved more copies is she had applied vocals to the game? It has yet to be proven that celebrity attachment increases interest any a game but consider for a moment if it did? It would no doubt be the new hotness in the game industry right after the quick time event tangent. "Need a little more spice to your game?Throw in a celebrity or two to give it that much needed broad appeal!"

People often complain about games becoming a bit too hollywood or mainstream but it will get much worse if celebrities start making appearances in the game just for the sake of it. I'm fine with celebrities in games but The Wheelman feels like it was made to be a controllable Vin Diesal action movie. The creator must have realized because half way through development they decided to just be direct with their intentions and just announce a Wheelman movie based off of the game. While it is too early to tell if this trend picks up it would be wise to be caution of new games that promise celebrities, or else you may have Ashton Kutcher in the next Final Fantasy and NO ONE want that to happen.

Today as I was pulling out of my driveway, I got t-bone’d by a pickup truck. Miraculously the truck hit the backseat on the driver’s side and not me. The back was completely caved in and if I had been going a little slower I probably would not be here right now. I know, “I could of have almost died and I didn’t”, is lame and I should just STFUAJPG! But it really made me think of how much certain things mean to me and I keeping thinking of you guys.

I started coming to Dtoid after finding a link to RFGO on gonintendo.com. At this time in my life I was very depressed and seemed like my life was utterly pointless. But every Tuesday a brand new RFGO would warm my heart and make me have faith in my only life (I am completely serious). Eventually, I started reading destructoid regularly. It was no more than just another site that might get a story posted before Kotaku or IGN and that’s all it was for awhile. Sure I would comment on stories and maybe, much to my delight, get a question answered on Retroforce but I never really became a part of the community. Despite, this just by commenting Destructoid did something amazing. It made me proud to be a gamer for once, I used feel so bad when I would read other websites and look at the absolute clusterfuck that is video game consumers. Every petty fanboy war just made me so freaking ashamed because I thought deep down I was like that. I only saw these kinds of people when I wanted to engage in conversation about games so what else was I suppose to believe? I realized that Destructoid was something different. The posts had personality; the comments were rarely fan boyish and if they were it was usually started by a new person. I can’t remember when but eventually I dropped IGN and then turned around and dropped Kotaku after they posted a “Guide to furries” article. From then on out it was just Destructoid for all my gaming news and occasionally gonintendo if I need a bit more esoteric news.




I was bored one day and I decided for whatever reason to figure out exactly what Dtoid IRC was. This one event changed everything for me and my relationship with Destructoid. IRC was my gateway drug to being a true part of the Destructoid community. I just wandered in one day and started chatting and I made friends fast. It was going pretty normal when it comes to a chatroom, I would just hang out and talk a little bit but there was never anything to separate from other places like IGN or Gamefaqs. IRC was the first time I ever bought something for people I only knew online. I picked up L4D just because of that hype in that room and love playing it with them. Then the day IRC will never forget occurred (see here and here). The fact that Dtoid was the place for me was reaffirmed and again I dove deeper.

I dove deeper with things like twitter, gmail and skype. Destructoid is no longer contained on Destructoid.com. Whenever I get online I usually have a ton of tweets from people that I just have to read. Destructoid officially became a part of my life. While on the subject of twitter, I would just like to mention the thing that separated this website as the true gaming website, the staff. Before Destructoid I would get so excited when Crecente would respond to my comment or something. I thought I was the coolest to be able to talk to someone internet famous like him (I know GIGANTIC NERD). Dtoid is different in the you feel like the editor are actually people. There doing this for the same reason you want to do it, because they like games. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked to Aerox or Ben about something. I can swear I talk to Stella Wong about every single day. I know for a fact I’ve at least talked once to every person on staff besides Rey I think.

I have so many more memories I could share, the EPIC april fools day skype party with step up 2. (Calling mandi a whore is such a joy). The AMAZINGLY PERFECT Stella Wong buying me a book at the Cherry Blossom Festival. I seriously can not tell you how much I love her for that and because she is like the best person ever. Destructoid just keeps getting better and better for me all the time. I even going to meet another community member for the first time this Saturday, but I can’t know because my car is totaled. Even still, nothing can compare to the orgy that will be PAX 2009 and I seriously am counting down the days to that.

I’m sorry if this post is a little scatterbrained or whatever because I am still hurting and not thinking straight a little from that crash. I just felt I had to tell all of you this while I was thinking about it and it was still on my heart. You are the best people ever Destructoid. The saying “Come to Destructoid, get your life changed” Is still to this day completely true. My life is this best it’s ever been and a big part of that was all from you Destructoid. I don’t care how big you get or how much you change in the future, As long as the spirit that started and keeps this going every day is still there. I will never leave. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3.