State Of The Blog: SNAFU

The old saying about "when it rains, it pours," has never been truer over the course of the last year.  In some respects, it's been the worst year of my life, and that's saying quite a bit compared to some previous title holders.  For the couple dozen people who've been reading the blog, I figured it was worth explaining why things have been so...quiet lately.

Rant: No Pot of Gold

Whilst browsing around aimlessly, I stumbled upon a news piece on Movieweb bringing up the existence of a film adaptation of Tom Clancy's novel Rainbow Six and the possible casting of Ryan Reynolds as John Clark.  As this is very early in the pre-production process (they don't even have a script yet), this shouldn't be cause for concern.  And yet, I foresee disaster on the wind.

After-Action Report: Destiny 2 "Beta"

When you've got at least one Destiny streamer following your Twitter feed, it can be surmised that they like (or at least find mildly amusing) your thoughts on a game which they devote a considerable amount of time to playing.  So it is with some trepidation that I wanted to talk about my experiences with the Destiny 2 beta that came out earlier this week for PS4 players.  And lemme tell you, folks, it's not going to be mountains of joy slathered in buckets of praise gravy.

Random Access Mutterings: Light In The Abyss

All over game news sites like Gamesradar and Kotaku, there's been an interview making the rounds that director Luke Smith over at Bungie is admitting that the team didn't know what the hell the vaguely named force known as The Darkness was in Destiny.  Smith is quoted thusly:

"So, I think that at a point, just totally candidly? We had no idea what it was. Straight up. We had no clue."

Analysis: Winning E3 2017

Since the start of the Console Wars, there has been an unspoken element to the Electronic Entertainment Expo.  The idea that there is some great contest between the titans of the industry for the hearts and minds of the gaming community, where there can be only one true victor to chart the course of gaming for the next year.  As it has been for the past fifteen years or so, that contest has been between Sony and Microsoft.  And while E3 is still going on for the rest of this week, the great contest has already been decided.

Rant: Phoenix Security Cosplay

Just a couple of days after the Manchester bombing attack in the UK at an Ariana Grande concert, another incident came close to happening right here in my home town.  A man at the Phoenix Comic Con was arrested after purportedly taking pictures of police officers and posting them online with threats of violence against the cops.  The individual in question was taken into custody with several knives, three handguns, and a shotgun.  Information, naturally, is dribbling out bit by bit, leaving us with far more questions than answers right at the moment.  And the newest episode of "Security Theater" has come out.

Reaction Shot: Destiny 2 Gameplay Reveal

Bungie has just finished their Destiny 2 "gameplay" reveal on Twitch, and they've managed to cram a lot of information into a one hour presentation.  Some of it is mildly interesting.  Some of it is earth-shattering.  Some of it is . . .problematic.

Update: Persona 5 Streaming Restrictions Eased, Not Removed

As reported by Kotaku yesterday, ATLUS has finally started to get the idea that their recent restrictions on streaming for Persona 5 were not terribly well thought out.  They have not, however, completely removed those restrictions.  Instead, they have simply pushed the limit for how far into the game one can stream up to about the start of the final act.  As part of their press release regarding this change, ATLUS addressed the hostile tone of their previous restrictions:

"We also want to apologize to those of you who saw the previous guidelines blog post as threatening. We want to be transparent about what we do, and the reason we released the guidelines was to give streamers the right information up front. It was never our intention to threaten people with copyright strikes, but we clearly chose the wrong tone for how to communicate this."

This doesn't change much in the way of the larger problems pointed out in my earlier rant, but it is a vague sort of progress.

Rant: We Need The Jedi

I'm just going to say it: I'm gonna be that nerd.

Ben Kuchera over at Polygon put up a piece a few days back entitled "Luke is right: The Jedi SHOULD be abolished."  It was in response to the closing shot of the teaser trailer for Episode VIII, The Last Jedi, where Luke Skywalker stands stoically looking back (presumably at his latest apprentice) and tells them, "It's time for the Jedi to end."  Kuchera's piece then goes on to explain why it is a good thing, ending with a fine print disclaimer stating he firmly believes the political principles behind the piece, but still looks forward to plenty of buttkicking in a galaxy far, far away.

Allow me to poke holes in Kuchera's poorly described theses.

Rant: Persona Non Grata

You know that a developer or publisher has blown straight past "stupid" and gone to "potato" when they start dictating what people can and cannot talk about, write about, or (in these modern times) stream about with regards to a game.  Japanese publisher ATLUS has officially gone potato.  A note on their site about streaming restrictions for Persona 5 was mentioned on Kotaku very recently, indicating their willingness to use DMCA takedown notices and YouTube copyright strikes for any streamers who presented their playthrough past a certain point in the game.

Rant: Destiny 2 "Revealed"

The Destiny 2 reveal trailer came out today, after the "Last Call" teaser a couple days earlier.  Having watched it a few times, I'm oddly unimpressed by the effort.

Rant: Chicks Dig Giant Robots

Occasionally, one will roam random websites and find the weirdest stuff.  A recent roaming adventure led to this piece on Futurism.com which proclaimed the death of giant robots and mecha as a viable weapons platform of the future.  My naturally contrarian nature was not impressed with their conclusions.  In point of fact, the author seemed more interested in declaring the idea to be dead rather than thinking seriously about how it could be made to work.  So, let's hear the opposite view, that there is not merely a possible future for mecha, but a plausible one.

Lorecast: Destiny - Age of Triumph/Destiny 2

This may become a new feature, so feel free to comment on it.  This particular sort of feature goes into the addition of lore into a game and what hints it might be making for future content.  Since there's a live stream coming up on March 8th introducing the next (and probably final) live event, I figured this would be a perfect time to cogitate on what may be in store for players of Destiny, specifically relating to some lore and an item that was picked up during "The Dawning" live event.

Hypothetical Games: "Destiny" Killer

Not too long ago, I came across this video discussing why Destiny always seemed to be dying out as far as active players.  It made several good points and got me thinking about how one might go about actually crafting a Destiny-killer, a game that has roughly similar mechanics but is done in a more effective fashion.  I know some folks will point to Warframe and Tom Clancy's The Division as already extant games which do this, but I'm not entirely convinced of that (both games had problems enough on their own).  Keep in mind that this is going to be more of a mechanical discussion than one about setting and lore.  As it happens, I enjoy the story elements behind Destiny for the most part.  My beefs with the game are some of the questionable design choices Bungie has made.

After-Action Report: Ghost Recon Wildlands Open Beta

After running around for four days in Itacua and Montuyoc, I can claim that my missions to defeat elements of the Santa Blanca cartel were successful.  However, just as no battle plan survives the battle, there were some snags along the way which tempered the successes.

Rant: Toys In The Attic

In retrospect, I may have gone a little overboard on the whole Skylanders thing.  I have a very large collection of the figures at this point, though I did swear off them cold turkey after Superchargers came out.  And Trap Team pretty much guaranteed I wasn't coming back.  I had done the same with Disney Infinity 2.0, though I had picked up at least one starter for that.  You may ask why I'm bringing this up, and it's mainly as a preface to the point at hand.  Disney's games division has declared that they're getting out of producing their own games, which means Infinity (all three versions) will have their servers shut down on March 3rd.  All of the user-generated content will no longer be available for download.  Multiplayer games will be impossible.  To turn a phrase, Disney is taking all of the players' toys and going home.

Rant: Steam Stoplight

Valve recently announced that they were terminating their "Steam Greenlight" program, where people vote to add games to Steam, and will be replaced with a "Steam Direct" program, where devs pay an as yet to be determined fee to have their product be on the store.  Naturally, this is pissing everybody off on both sides of the debate.  Let's take a quick look at their positions, shall we?

Random Access Mutterings: Silicon Hells - Anime Set In Game Worlds

The last few years has seen the rise of a highly specific sub-genre of anime, the "trapped in an MMORPG" series.  While it's true that .hack has been around for a while, and the progenitor of the concept can safely be presumed to be Tron, no less than four anime over the past few years have come out, and that's just the ones that have been produced.  Apparently, the conceit has been reaching a saturation point in Japanese media circles, as evidenced by a restriction on the genre in a writing contest.   As an anime fan, I've been enjoying these series.  However, I've been enjoying them in spite of their game-like elements.  The writer in me likes the characters and storylines.  But the gamer in me just shakes his head and goes, "What the hell?"  I thought I'd take a look at some of the recent series that have come out and dissect some of their underlying "games."

Inkwell: Game-To-Movie Adaptations

Dark Horizons, a site which covers news on the film, television, and (increasingly) video game industries, recently reported that the film version of Tom Clancy's The Division was still in the works and recently had director Sean Gaghan attached to the project.  Gaghan's best known work was the movie Syriana, a Middle East political thriller told from multiple perspectives which made George Clooney go fat for the role and probably helped Alexander Siddig (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) stay going as an actor.  There is, of course, incredible noise over this.  Lots of hand waving and fist pumping and name dropping.  "Look at all these stars we've got!" is basically the message of every press release at virtually every stage of the production.

Rant: SolidEarth

Some years back, I attended a breakfast briefing at E3 regarding what was heralded as the next wave in video games: a streaming service called OnLive.  The premise was simple enough to grasp.  OnLive would stream a game through "the cloud" to any device, computer or otherwise, and let you play anytime and anywhere.  In theory, you could play Crysis 2 even if you didn't have a great video card, or Grand Theft Auto IV on a tablet.

Deus est Apparatus: World Building Basics

It's not a stretch to say that 2016 feels like The Grim Reaper was desperate to book new talent for his variety show and wasn't being terribly picky.  The Christmas weekend and the days immediately following saw the deaths of George Michael (singer), Carrie Fisher (actress and writer), and Richard Adams (writer).  For me, it was particularly eerie having gone to see Rogue One on Sunday and coming home to read Carrie Fisher had suffered a heart attack on a flight out of London.

Rant: Burnouts

(Yeah, yeah, I know, I've been slacking.  In my defense, a canister of See's Toffee-ettes and binge watching Preacher and Game of Thrones does tend to eat up one's time, however much fun it might be.)

Over the last few weeks, Bungie has been running an event in Destiny to close out the year called "The Dawning."  It was largely notable for the Sparrow Racing League activity which was introduced originally in 2015.  This one was rather longer than the first go-round.  Yet at the same time, it didn't feel like much of an improvement.  So a couple of new tracks were added.  Big deal.  New armor pieces?  Just another day that ends in "y" as far as I can tell.  "But you can recover these pieces at a kiosk!" The shapes, yes, but if they're discarded, the replacement pieces will be low powered crap, which in turn inhibits the rewards from the races.  "But we've got holiday armor!"  Yeah, holiday armor which you would have to be insanely lucky to get all the pieces for if all you're doing is the event activities.  Granted, there are some people who probably did just that.  But how many of the others did so by spending a bunch of money to make sure they got it?  Just as a basis for comparison, I still haven't gotten the Desolate Gauntlets for my Hunter toon after getting Radiant Treasure boxes two or three times a week for months before this, without paying extra silver.  So you can perhaps understand my skepticism and my deeply abiding frustration with the RNGesus.