An interesting conclusion about myself: with a few notable exceptions, I'm starting to enjoy video game politics more than I do the games themselves. There was a time when I was a serious console and PC gamer, back in late grade school I guess. Of course, this was a different time for games, but I was right in there. I still play a lot now, and I have a PS2, one of the current top-of-the-line systems, but its not the same. I mainly play RPGs, which are more often than not a nice little escape more than anything else. But I still keep up with the news, and I find it absolutely enthralling. By reading the Gamespy article about the 25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming and the similar article at Something Awful I have just come to have a lot of perspective on the history of the gaming industry over the last three decades or so. Its absolutely enthralling, far more interesting than any video game I've played in some time, though not as enjoyable I suppose.

I hit upon a metaphor while reading these articles that seemed really interesting to me. These companies and their interaction is just like the concept of have of Medieval kingdoms, from a certain perspective. They have their major players, like Shigeru Miyamoto to name an almost Arthurian figure, they sometimes work as allies but also have their fights, which are handled in today's world as lawsuits more often than not.

I have this idea that there are two kinds of stories, two kinds of narratives that can be told. Stories about people, that can deal with relationships and emotions and the intensity of individuality, and stories on a grander scale, that deal with the movements of peoples and the progress of nations that sacrifices emotional intimacy for being able to address different issues effectively, issues that cannot be adequately grappled from a single character's perspective, so to speak. I have soft spots for both these types of stories, but I've found that I am better at the first kind. Being the introvert that I am, introspection and character development comes naturally to me. I can write scenes and dialogue in a single pass, no problem. I've always wanted to write a fictionalized history, which I've always kind of hoped would be a plot for an RPG at some point because it would be just a story with no relevance or signifcant themes to speak, of some imaginary continent in a medieval kind of setting, with different countries with different temperaments all their own, and the interactions between them. Kings and generals would be significant figures in this kind of story, giants among men that I haven't been able to create in any realistic way in my deeply personal and occasionally poignant stories that have constituted the majority of my narrative fare up to this point. Its something that I've had in my head for years, long before I had any desire to be a writing.

I can see those kinds of characters in the story of the gaming industry. I mentioned Miyamoto, the man behind Donkey Kong, Mario, and Zelda, just to name a few, but there are others. But more so than the actual people representing these kinds of roles, I can see the companies themselves personafied into compelling characters in their own right. Nintendo, a fledgeling Japanese company in the early 80's, is spurned by then-gaming giant Atari for the North American distribution of the Nintendo Family Computer, or Famicom. In 1984, after Atari's bubble has burst in the first crash in the gaming industry (precipitated by the first boom in the gaming industry) Nintendo distributes their own modest console and almost immediately becomes a powerhouse. A decade later, Nintendo breaks off deals with Sony to create a CD add-on to the SNES to work with competitor Phillips, a project which never develops. On the other hand, Sony takes the work that had already been done and uses it to create the Playstation, which has since become a more powerful force in the industry than Nintendo.

"Time flows like a river... and history repeats."

  posted by Matthew @ 4:09 AM

 
I have come to the chilling conclusion that I am, without question, going to be heading back to Kansas City it a week and a half. I am not only not looking forward to the two months I'll spend in the land of my youth and under the roof of my esteemed parentage, I am in fact dreading it a great deal. It will be trial, without question. I want to spend the next two months here, hanging out with my Bloomington friends. But that got the parental veto, and since I am still financially dependent, that makes me dependent in pretty much every other sense of the word. If only there were a way to extricate myself from this situation, but I see no apparent solution that is readily available. Patience comes in handy at this point, as that is what I must rely on for the time being. I can only work under the assumption that things will eventually improve.

"I am a message in a bottle, sailing along on the deep blue sea, waiting for some foreign shore, ready for something to be." ~James Taylor, Boatman

  posted by Matthew @ 10:50 AM

 
To paraphrase the Daily Show:

A republican senator said, "I find that people are too often hiding behind the first amendment."

John Stewart's response: "Maybe it's because they're being shot at by people who are hiding behind the second amendment."

Brilliant.

  posted by Matthew @ 6:49 PM

 
"If one is lucky, one has the luxury of becoming totally immersed in an artistic project, letting almost all other lthigns go by the wayside - family, friends, students, colleagues, food, bills, correspondence, neatness, books, music, movies, shopping,and sleep, to give a few examples. The house becomes a pigsty, the kids a bit starved for affection, weight goes down, friends wonder where you are... Fortunately, this monomaniacal state will be transitory, but it seems absolutely necessary, at least in my own case, for the emergence of that overarching frame of mind that allows the project to take on a true unity of purpose and style." - Douglas R. Hofstadter, Le Ton beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language

I haven't had the chance to do this in quite some time. Its an incredibly enjoyable experience and something that I am beginning to speculate may be at least somewhat essential to my well-being. I need to do something along these lines in the immediate future. To quote a favorite musician of mine: "Do something!"

And, on an unrelated topic, to quote a favorite video game of mine: "Welcome to die!" and "I am Magneto, master of magnet!"

  posted by Matthew @ 3:11 PM