“Morality” and storylines driven by players’ choices have seemingly become all the rage in videogames these days. A convention that used to be limited to, traditionally, the realm of western RPGs (Bioware’s Baldur’s Gate series were my first exposure to the idea of being “good or evil” in my young gaming career), with the continual bleeding together of genres you will probably find yourself confronted with moral choices in Unreal Tournament 2k10. However, the novelty of “moral choices” is quickly wearing off, as, with most innovations, the industry’s trend for “me-too” has lead to a lot of cut-and-dry, simplistic renditions of morality. So, for the first edition of a new series of posts called “Thinking About Games,” I’d like to explore the problem of morality in games. What’s being done right, what’s being done wrong, and what could lead to innovations for its usage in games?

Two warnings before the jump: First of all, since I’ll be talking about specific instances of games, there will be spoilers (sometimes major) within this post. I’ll be sure to introduce the game I’m speaking of before throwing out plot points, but be aware that even recent games (such as inFAMOUS) are fair game here. Last, but not least: tl;dr. Read more

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Rumors of the demise of EGM and the sale of 1UP.com to various suitors have floated around the interwebs for awhile, but now, unfortunately, it has come to pass: 1UP.com has been officially bought out by UGO, resulting in a enormous rash of firings. Many other blogs have covered this event well, so instead of just copy-pasting their hard work for the sake of site-hits or content, I’ll merely link to three stories that I feel are most pertinent. Said links and my personal feelings on the 1UP “fallout” after the jump. Just a warning: it’s pretty long.
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Well, ok, second best. The best video game related trade I ever made was when I traded my cousin Will a bunch of beanie babies for his Dreamcast. I almost feel bad for swindling him so hard. But, this is about my second best trade ever, which was trading in Fable 2 straight up for Grand Theft Auto IV. Because, even though I made a 2-hour round-trip to get Fable 2 at midnight, stayed up ‘til 7 A.M. playing it, and let it consume my life for about two weeks, I have now come to loathe Fable 2. It has nothing to do with the game’s genre or any of the technical aspects of the game (its control scheme, meh graphics, HORRENDOUS load times, etc.); from a technical aspect I pretty much enjoyed the game. No, my main beef with Fable 2 is how it fails so utterly and completely at one of its highly promised intangible features: the ability to emotionally engage a player.

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Y’know, it’s funny; I grew up in a world where gamers the world over scoffed at Mac’s complete inability to play video games. After all, your nerd machismo rating is directly correlated with how well your machine can play the latest games and up until recently, Mac just didn’t have what it took to be a major gaming platform.

Of course, with the rise of the iPod and an increasing population of hipsters and graphic artists buying up Apple’s sleek little machines, game developers are, more and more, seeing Mac as a pretty attractive platform to produce for. Most specifically, I’m talking about the iPhone and the iPod touch.

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Dear Japan,

I just don’t understand your lack of interest in the Xbox 360. No, really, I don’t see how you can deny a console that offers exactly the kinds of games that have classically piqued the interest of Japanese gamers. Just off the top of my head I can think of Eternal Sonata, Blue Dragon, and Lost Odyssey, not to mention Tales of Vesperia, which is coming to the 360 in a few months, too. That’s four solid JRPG titles that are currently exclusive to Microsoft’s system. Of course, Square Enix is releasing Final Fantasy XIII everywhere except the glorious nation of Nippon, but that’s only because you guys hate is so much.
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The console wars, where the scarring battlefield of two or more different factions of gaming zealots identify themselves under a unified corporate banner in the hopes that their choice of gaming machinery will somehow be the one saving grace of their identity. I am a veteran of many of the original console wars, the worst one in my memory was the one that occurred between Sega and Nintendo back in the early 1990s when it was Super NES vs. Genesis for the “king of 16-bit” crown. It is only through the wisdom that I have gained in my 25 years of gaming that I know now how wrong these idiotic battles are.
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For those of you who recall, you may remember a post back in October we did that covered Kotaku’s take on game reviews. It is a very good read and I highly recommend you run through it, beings that it’s one of the few places that have taken on the notion that gaming reviews nowadays frankly suck. But most importantly, if you look in the comments of our post, you will see that I mentioned I would touch on this subject myself once I got around to writing. And here we are.

Game reviews and ratings have always been a funny thing. At the individual level? Well if you give any one person internet access he/she will instantly spew pretentious as though they’re an editor for Pitchfork, with a handy bookmark to Dictionary.com and Microsoft Word open to check for synonyms. When the ability to publish some sort of art, whether it be writing, music, imagery, video, etc., becomes cheap and accessible enough for the masses to get a hold of, you can expect some low quality material. A case of “yeah, it’s great they can do it, but they shouldn’t.”

However, at the professional level, there isn’t any source out there that I can say I can trust with one grain of salt any more than the everyday blogger. The review and evaluation process from these sources, which are supposedly reputable, are typically inconsistent from title to title, lacking in a fair review based on full completion of the game, biased towards their advertiser’s preference, focused too much on technical individualities such as graphics/sound/online, or ‘aided’ by large yet completely meaningless scores.

Hit the jump for my take on these problems, and if I feel like posting them, solutions.

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I was level grinding the other night in Call of Duty 4 multiplayer, and I started to wonder about how important custom playlists are in video games to me and the the average player. I then started to think about what the other people on my team might be listening to while gaming, or if they had everything shut off to listen solely to what was going on in-game. My head began to spin thinking about all of the different permutations.Since the advent of surround sound in gaming, programmers have done their best to immerse the player in ambient sound. One of the best players I’ve ever multiplayer-ed with uses his surround sound setup to find enemy locations in the game. That’s a brilliant idea and all, but for someone like me who plays games primarily to relax, it’s a bit overkill.

Me being a connoisseur of music, I find most games soundtracks added on. The sole exception I have to this is in JRPGs, where the music is very appropriate for each section of the game and is meant as an aid to the action on-screen. There have been times that I was known to be listening to The Mars Volta while playing Oblivion, but then again I can only speak on my own habits. Generally I won’t turn on my own music when gaming, but if its multiplayer, a bunch of level grinding, or my 2nd or 3rd play through of a game, all bets are off.

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There has always been controversy around the video game ratings system (and movies too). Many people disagree with the ratings games are given, or games have to be censored to reach a desirable rating, or retailers get busted for not being strict enough when it comes to who they sell the games to. Whether it’s a senator, the ESRB themselves, or more likely the infamous Jack Thompson, there is always enough blame being sent around.

But it seems that among the many groups that can help prevent children from accessing content meant for older and more mature audiences, there is one that is continually left off the hook and forgotten: the parents.

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Since their inception, video games have been challenging people to be ‘better’ each game they play, whether it be score based or by only giving you so many chances to finish a level. Let’s face it; there is absolutely no point to a game where you have no chance of dying. But on the same token any game designer that makes a game that has no regard for this precious balancing act is an asshole (I’m looking at you, makers of Battletoads).

Come with me today on a journey on the morbid side of video gaming, a topic that allows you to conquer the one fear that all of us have, and the one thing in this life that’s inevitable, death. Some comical, some gruesome, all of them thought provoking and always entertaining. See you after the jump.
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