LucasH

In my last post I wrote of my mounting frustration, nay, mounting fury, at gamers being given less in gaming, in terms of content and value, for the past little while. Well, as a result of that, I attempted to go out and find two games that were unique, high quality, and held an intrinsic high value, which could be based on numerous different aspects. The two that stood out were a brand new one, and one that's a little older but I never got around to playing.

I will start with the slightly older one, Drawn to Life. Whilst this game didn't get the greatest score, you will notice on IGN that the average reader rating is a little higher than the press rating. I believe this is because this game will have had slight appeal for some, and great appeal for others. I am somewhere in the middle, but my SO for instance, really enjoys that aspect which I think was the draw-back for many a reviewer, the creation aspect. She played Animal Crossing primarily to make little outfits for her sprite. I picked it up today because of two reasons, one, IGN listed Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter as runner up best platformer at E3, and two, seeing as it has been out a while now, it was quite cheap, so I thought why not? I have only had time to load it up and play a few minutes, so far I have drawn a planet and a forest. Even as someone who is more interested in the platforming, world overview game-play aspects, I still find this fun. I can just imagine the fun someone like my SO is going to have with it.

The other game I picked up today is brand spanking new. The Legend of Starfy, which scored quite well and made the Editor's Choice list over on IGN. Stafy is a very cute, very 'Japanese' little platformer, and Mr Starfy himself is set to become Nintendo's next big mascot. Platformers aren't actually my first, or even second probably, choice for games. Sure I like them, but I am more of an RPG fan. But every so often, you can't beat picking up a game and just pelting through a few levels. Of course, the really, really good platformers are right up there with my all time favorite games, Super Mario World is up on that list, and it pretty much defines the platformer genre. I have only had a chance to load this one up for a couple of minutes, and what I saw was very bright and fun looking. I think children will go absolutely crazy for this game. I am interested to see how it goes, as I know Nintendo's pulled out some amazing games in their time, and if they think this little star fish could be a new major mascot, then I bet their is some merit to this game.

I don't feel like having any LOTRO down-time right now, but I don't have a choice. You see, servers are down for maintenance today, so I have to wait. I have to be patient. I have to find something else to do in my regular gaming time because the servers need to be rebooted. But... I don't want to wait, and to tell the truth, I feel like being petty about it.

I know the servers needed to go down for a while, everything needs a break, an oil change, a fresh coat of paint, I do understand that. But whilst on some days I am perfectly mature and understanding about that, there are other days like today where two hours where I had scheduled to play and now I cannot play is more than a small bother, it is irritating, frustrating, and downright inconvenient. And we all know that I should never be inconvenienced, right?

Okay I think I have gotten my baby rant out of my system now. I knew that the servers needed a good reboot because, really, there are some ongoing issues at the moment that I heartily look forward to being resolved. For one, earlier today I am running around, doing my own thing, when I can't move. I can look around and see others moving, but I am stuck. My SO tells me from her computer room that she too is stuck, and then she tries logging out and back in whilst I wait in-game. I then see a message in my chat box that I had lost connection to the chat server, I waited longer whilst my SO was unsuccessfully trying to log back in and eventually saw the message that the connection had been re-established. It's hard to know with any certainty if that was LOTRO or my ISP crapping itself, as the latter is a substantial option.

The other issue that is positively irksome is mobs - that's a gamer word for the AI controlled foes you kill - becoming confused when you are attacking them. This is shown by a stylized question mark symbol above the enemy's head. You can't hurt the enemy when they are like this, and they can't hurt you. This leads you to get close to the creature in order to break the confusion, and they still don't come out of it. So you start running off to do whatever it was you were doing in the first place, but oh no, now that Warg isn't confused, and now he's wailing on you! It is funny, if annoying, and I hope it was fixed. Now I'm going to go play LOTRO.

As a follow on from my previous article, where I state that games are now a medium of entertainment for adults as well as children, I would like to look into the evolutionary steps gaming can take in the future.

Gaming has grown up. No longer are we faced with the same Good versus Evil dichotomy that Super Mario Bros brought us in the '80s, no, games have grown from there. Today's games give us gritty characters with morally ambiguous choices. We can play as the paladin like bastion of goodness, the everyday person who is by and large neutral, or the dark self-serving villain, we now have the choice. Games are accommodating more and more complex characters and narratives, and gamers are thrilled with this new era of realism.

There are those, such as Roger Ebert, who believe gaming will never be an art form , that it's very nature precludes it from gaining the title of art, but many other respected authors, artists, game developers, and game players, disagree with great vehemence. Gaming is becoming widely accepted as an art form, with exhibitions of concept art now taking place, and serious academic work being put into defining why some video games should be considered art .

Whilst the stigma of games being for children lives on, gaming as an art form can't really get into the air and soar. If game developers are held back from certain content , that is already acceptable in literature and film, then how can this medium compete on a level playing ground? We have read about the darker side of the human nature for the past few centuries, look at Matthew Gregory Lewis's The Monk as but one such example. And yet, could you imagine the outcry should anyone try to include Lewis's often grotesque actions of Ambrosio in a game? Well a game in this day and age, Custer's Revenge will always baffle me as to how that got through.

I find the denouncement of adult content in games often reminds me of that Simpsons episode where the statue of David comes to Springfield museum and the censor group that Marge started because of cartoon violence goes mad with trying to ban the statue for being 'indecent'.

Film, comics, and animation are among the most recent additions to the world of fine art , and it occurs to me that all of these mediums had to fight for their place in the fine art pantheon, gaming is the newest, but we can be sure it won't be the last.