Penny Arcade: An Alternative Media?

I’ve been reading Penny Arcade for as long as I can remember, so when I decided to review a media source that I felt was both alternative and revolutionary to the modern gaming industry it wasn’t until I actually went to investigate the site itself that I realized how perfect it was for the assignment; aside from perhaps choosing PvP Online there is no better way to showcase the raw power of the media as there can be with this simple online comic.

The first comic ever released by the duo of Tycho and Gabe appeared in 1998 on http://www.penny-arcade.com/ featuring a short three panel joke revolving around downloading times. It would be the start of a long road not only for the two gamers, but also for the gaming industry in general. When you take a look at a typical entertainment medium you find that there are generally multiple outlets to showcase it, but what we take for granted is the time and risk that as involved in attempting to generate a community. In our more modern gaming generation concepts such as web comics are normal, in fact its not spectacular or unique to have one. However there was a point in time when few to no such comics existed, when the only sort of panel that ever was readable were either in your Sunday newspaper or political next to long winded articles about important figures screwing up in some way. It would take years for people to really catch on and see the importance in web comics, and even today their existence is taken for granted.

Penny-arcade is a source of biased information about games in a time and place where we’ve come to no longer trust our reviewers. This is not to say that they’re perfect, nor that they’re experts in gaming and should have their word taken as gold, however this is to say that we can always expect them to give an honest review. Viewers are given a humorous comic related to the gaming (and sometimes the real world too) but in addition are given links that will direct you to the sources that provided the comic, as well as other information they find pertinent or interesting. For an industry that relies mainly on word of mouth this sort of press is critical, and something they give on a near regular basis. You don’t need to like them or agree with them to understand that they’ve made their point and it (or at least their comic version) will reverberate throughout an entire community.

And here would lie the critical part: what defines the gaming community? After all, if their targeted audience is simply people who play videogames its really hard to gain a sense of population or financial strength. Most of the time people consider gamers to be young teenagers and that conception isn’t entirely incorrect, however as more time goes on a smaller and smaller gap is starting to form. Take for example the Wii which sold 24.45 million units worldwide since its creation (774,123 units compared to 232,421 in a single month in Japan). With approximately six billion people currently on the planet earth that means that close to .4% of the earth and growing owns this single product. By aggressively advertising to not only the young child in every household, but also to the mother, father, and grandparents targeting an entire family, not just a single age demographic is where Nintendo has succeeded in a way that no other gaming developer has currently be able to secure victory. And as the general audience of a gaming console grows so does the demand for knowledge about not only the product but its competitors grows, after all what American today purchases an item without first considering product alternatives? Penny-Arcade has captured a market that most advertisers would kill for, one that is receptive, active and willing to participate in a community they feel they connected with. And in fact, this is something that has already been taken advantage of in a positive light.

Child’s Play, Penny-Arcades organizational charity was created in 2003 in order to give aid to children who less fortunate during the holiday season. Featuring the help of 100,000 ‘gamers’, 45 hospitals around the globe, and the medium of a single comic website as their means of communication over one million three hundred dollars worth of game related toys (including videogames, systems, and cash donations) were collected and distributed throughout the world. And its not as if major corporations have failed to recognize this sort of community driven importance, as many donate themselves to funds such as Child's Play as well as maintain written contact with the authors of the site. In fact it’s the start of these communities that has really pushed other major retailers to become much more intimate with their gamers demand for accurate and unbiased information. Playstations news portion of the site offers disclaimer that proudly tells visitors that they’re keeping a promise to us by releasing articles written by private media companies in the game industry. The best sources, simply for us.

The fact of the matter is that mainstream media requires smaller run independents to keep buying and enjoying their products in order to survive, but in the gaming industry its taken one step further. Word of mouth can crush a game even if its presale (copies of the product purchased or put on hold before release) is strong, which is why honest reviewers are so valuable. They keep companies in check and begging for good reviews just the same as they keep the sites that bring them the criticism they need running for as long as possible. It forces companies to behave better and reminds them that their advertisement heavy tilted reviewers are slowly losing power to people who genuinely understand not only how the gaming industry functions but also what’s expected of its consumers. This isn't something that a lot of reviewers can claim they have power over, yet it’s a fact that Penny Arcade doesn’t even bother addressing. They just do what they want, and so far its turned out just fine.

Resale Value?

It's been a recent trend amongst the next generation of consoles to release older games, in the same sense that car companies attempt to reinvent the 'classics.' The goal is to capture the nostalgia of older gamers while at the same time drawing younger gamers to mediums that defined modern gaming. The best example of this is the Wii and its Virtual Console, much of its initial selling points boiled down to the ability to play older games at a much lower cost. And while there are many choice words to be said to a company that attempts to sell you the same product twice Virtual Console is a bargain compared to what else is being offered.

Nintendo and its hand held juggernaut the DS takes a different approach when it comes to releasing previously created games. Gunning for both older titles with a very active and heavy fan base (Chrono Trigger) as well as releasing games previously unreleased outside of Japan (FF3) these older titles are resold with minor (to major) graphical updates and (when applicable) English translation. But are these games worth their new 40.00 USD price? While it is nice to play through older games again, I don't know if there is a justification for charging full price on a game that has not only already been created but is simply being ported. Maybe there are some things tuned, some graphical upgrades, maybe new never before seen cut scenes...but isn't that completely undermining the work previously done by these men and women who on some level pushed hard to invent and individualize the gaming industry? It seems like a cruel joke in a sense, since the games can't really get any better then they first were.

Unorthodox Marketing, Does it Work?

Searching for advertisements to review for class I stumbled across the following image, designed by David Krulik the image below is one of a set of three made to showcase the Toyota Prius in a different light...


Working with the caption "At Least He Owns a Prius" the idea is to capture a series of people doing acts that are normally considered not-so-good. Its obviously going to capture some attention but really at what cost? I can think of a lot of commercials that try to catch a particular market by using methods that are typically over the top, and while these sorts of things would of failed a few years ago in today's society I feel our generation (and upcoming ones) are particularly receptive to this unusual brand loyalty. For example, the Nutri-Grain 'Feel Great' commercial that was released a few years back:



The advertisements collectively don't show me anything about the cars performance, or even what the health bar consists of. But they succeed on another level, getting me to connect with them on a positive note. There's yet to be a Nutri-Grain bar that I've seen that hasn't reminded me of the commercial, and while perhaps it's yet to change my buying attitude I can think of plenty of other products that have. For example, my purchase of the Zune was based largely off the fact that it was not an Ipod and my knowledge of the product came from it's product 'showcase' within Penny-Arcade. This isn't to say that normal advertisements don't get me to investigate things, however product placement has become something much greater then most people think. Its a way for us to connect to both what we're watching, and how we live our lives, I feel that a step above that is this new form of 'shock' advertisement. It connects to our humor generationally, and becomes water cooler material. Perhaps Toyota is hardly thrilled with this representation of their vehicle, but you can bet a lot of people love it. And things that're loved, people look into in depth.

The Joker: A Dark Complexity

A lot of head bashing as far as 'how the Joker is supposed to be' is put to rest by a few differences. As a kid I grew up used to the happy go lucky version of the character, who would combat you with acid flowers and a giant wooden mallet that flew out of a pen...The Joker never made sense, he was a villain purely for being a villain.

Evil for the sake of being Evil is boring. And that's what every sort of Saturday day morning cartoon villain is, they're a bad guy because they want to be. What will they do when they have all those riches? What will they gain once they've dominated the world? These questions are never answered...and for a good reason. If they were, that would be the end of it. I love these Batman movies because the villains have a point. Yes, mobsters and thugs still exist but the main character bad guys have more to them. In the last film we had a group of people dedicated to wiping any society off the face of the earth if it happened to become corrupt. In their minds they were the good guys, and that's what a real villain is...someone who see their cause not as 'evil' or as 'greedy' but rather as the cure. Its in that difference I feel that Batman Begins looks like a miserable failure in comparison to The Dark Knight.

The Joker might not of laughed a lot for real, but you felt his humor. You felt his excitement and glee when Batman slammed his face into a desk, when he was dangling at the edge of the building, every punch thrown at him the Joker loved. What he was out to win wasn't fame or glory, he was out there to drag everyone down to his level. To prove that no one in Gotham was a symbol of hope, that they were all humans and humans are just as terrible as one another. Perhaps Bruce Wayne is the exception to the rule, but at what cost does he maintain being Batman? He can have no real friends (aside Alfred), no family, barely any loved ones and even those happiest moments of his life are often time tainted with sorrow. He doesn't live as a human, but rather pours every aspect of his life (and business) into maintaining an ideal so that the ordinary people CAN live ordinary and safe lives. Its the absence of self sacrifice that makes the Jokers punch lines, the fact that he actively kills his own men as well as sets civilians on one another. In that sense I felt his laughter throughout the entire film. No amount of 'hahaha' could ever make up for the loss of that sort of anarchy.

Warhammer Online: A Mythic Blunder or Steps to Progress?

When it comes to Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG's) things have changed far from what humble beginnings they emerged from. From simple tools used to connect other players with similar interests to the redefinition of mass communication, MMORPGs have come to affect every aspect of our society. Once played strictly by gamers the narrow generations of 'young people' that defined the start of console gaming have slowly begun to affect the online variants. In short more than just kids are playing. Many young men and women growing into professional occupations are starting to show up more and more in gaming communities (particularly though not exclusively in the case of MMOs), and as the second generation of online gaming comes to a close and waves in the third with games such as Age of Conan, fans are pushing for a much more responsive (and responsible) game developer than ever before.

Players are starting to understand exactly what they should expect from developing companies, and one particular developer might be failing to meet expectations before the game is even released. EA Mythic (developer of Dark Age of Camelot and the upcoming Warhammer: Age of Reckoning) released an interview with their own Vice President Mark Jacobs to overview the upcoming changes being made to their online world. A smaller developer than most others are used to dealing with, it was this company that GamesWorkshop decided to entrust with the creation of an online variant using arguably the most popular tabletop game in the world: Warhammer. Their notoriety for stability as well as fantastic customer support and receptive player feedback had no doubt played in their favor.

And so it was a little surprising when EA Mythic announced that they would be undoing a change meant to reflect their convergence into EA by reclaiming Mythic Entertainment as their development name. “I think that this is a wonderful example of how things at EA are changing,” Jacobs stated in his interview explaining that part of this name change shows off that developers can be part of a union but still keep their individuality and freedoms. Coupled with the fact Jacobs had initially stated in 2006 that EA would not interfere with the future of Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, many reservations about the two joining were pushed aside, instead celebrating what seemed to be Mythic Entertainment’s chance to really shine out with a larger budget.

Two companies merging is generally a sign of additional services to come for consumers. For example, in the case of AOL and Time Warner the idea is that more media capabilities would attract more customers and secure a larger Internet base. However in the case of game developers a convergence has a different meaning, implying that a larger developer will offer a smaller team more funding in hopes that both parties will be able to make more money. The parent company then makes the choice to let the absorbed developer continue to run their own show or to intervene and change things for what they feel is better. The latter is sadly more often the case and for a lot of games it shows. Both Everquest 2 and Vanguard both had their gameplay radically changed by Sony, Vanguard now suffering from an extreme loss of players to the point where shutting down their servers could become reality. However the motivation for EA's new policy remained unclear for the next twenty-four hours as fans were left wondering why such a clear show of faith to let Mythic keep their independent name would be brought up in such an exclusive interview.

It wasn't until the second part of their interview was released that the real concerns were addressed by Mythic, the addition of Punkbuster (an online anti-cheat program) as well as the temporary removal of four major world cities and the additional removal of four classes for an undetermined (possibly permanent) amount of time. “We wanted to make our Capital Cities the best cities in any MMO. We think we’re doing that, but it came at a price and that price is that the other cities aren’t going in the game right now," Jacob states. However many players are having an issue with the rapid change of a product many have already paid for.

The idea of preordering isn't new to the gaming community, but exactly what defines the 'terms' of a preorder is something that gamers are having a hard time defining. Many customers are misunderstanding that what they're buying is in fact the final product of developers, something that's subject to change in the alpha and beta periods of game testing. Even still, that has not stopped the gaming community from raising a lot of questions on the subject despite assurances from Mythic that all is for the best. Arguing that taking the time to ensure that their game is running with the highest amount of quality achievable to say whether or not the temporary removal of content will really bring a significant change to a game is difficult to say. Due to the limited amount of players allowed to test the game at any point in time all fans have to go on for now is the word of the developers, as the real stress test won't occur until the games release.

For now much is speculation as details of their two remaining cities as well as Realm vs Realm (RvR) content remains to be mostly undisclosed, but that has yet to stop Mythic from releasing more news explaining both their decision as well as future updates to the gameplay. In fact four more interviews have been released within three days of their content changing announcement further explaining the changes and why they are beneficial to their community, a good sign for a company that many are saying have lost control of their initial product. However if there was to be any indicator that things were going smoothly, the amount of fans still eagerly awaiting the release of the game is the greatest proof of all. "I don't understand the decision on the classes, a lot of them were very popular and sounded great, but I trust Mythic to make the right decisions in their development cycle. They've given me no reason not to, since, you know, I haven't played the game yet,” states one game enthusiast, and his feelings are certainly shared amongst a very large and growing new community of sophisticated gamers.

Rape Proof Condom

"KLEINMOND, South Africa (Reuters) - A South African inventor unveiled a new anti-rape female condom on Wednesday that hooks onto an attacker’s penis and aims to cut one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the world.Nothing has ever been done to help a woman so that she does not get raped and I thought it was high time,” Sonette Ehlers, 57, said of the “rapex,” a device worn like a tampon that has sparked controversy in a country used to daily reports of violent crime."

That's just a snippet of a larger article showcasing this new device meant to latch onto an inserted penis and (in theory) discourage rape against women. It's not detailed exactly how this creation is inserted, however it is explained that the removal of said condom requires surgical assistance.

Now while I am all for the prevention of rape I don't really see how this device (named rapex) will actually help in the long run. Considering that rape is really something that is unpredictable, women would be forced to wear this device 24/7 in order to gain complete safety. And what about in the security of your own home? Things like this don't help society, but rather do more harm. There's no telling what I would do if someone (or something) cut into my genitals, anything from cringe to perhaps seek vengeance would be on the list...Which it seems rapex is set prime to inspire. I'm not so sure about Africa, but I can say that within the United States I feel the best route we could take as a society to combat rape would be to give women more political outlets in order to fight back. The dramatic increase in rape awareness is a major help for victims, as well as law based routes you can take to ensure that the punished get punished. I don't feel there is any other punishment greater then a societal shun, and there are many installations in place that help us track and stay aware of dangerous individuals in our community. Child molesters for example cannot live within a particular range of a school, or any institution or shop where children frequent. In addition sites ranging from the simple (http://www.criminal-records.us.com/) to the very complex (http://www.registeredoffenderslist.org/) making it impossible for these people to hide, or be able to function in a normal society is the key.

Now obviously there is a fine line here that must be seen, that being what constitutes as rape. A seventeen year old girl and an eighteen year old guy messing around for the first time as boyfriend and girlfriend is legally no different then a forty year old man and a fourteen year old girl...or vice versa when it comes to gender. Having a judge and jury educated and understanding enough to recognize differences between a case of rape and a harmless route of self discovery is much harder then it seems, especially since consent from both parties might not mean much of anything. All in all this device solves none of these problems, instead looking to see immediate retribution. It's sad to see something like this created, because all it really does is inspire more immediate hate while at the same time creating a more 'intelligent' rapist. After all, does this condom even help against sodomy? Eventually someone will figure out that perhaps its best to test the waters before diving in, which will lead to a whole new level of tragedy.

Art in motion?

Although perhaps a bit violent, I've always enjoyed the amount of growing detail that the already gritty and dark 'shooter' genre has been receiving as of late.

21 Years of Imaginary History

It's difficult to really imagine a large portion of my life without gaming involved. As both an artistic medium and a form of political expression I've been lucky enough to have been raised in the greatest generation of expression. I didn't much care for a detailed storyline, or extensive look into society when I first started. Games ranging from Pong to Mario have all served the universal purpose of entertainment but much like every other art form that humanity has ever been exposed to over time it has evolved into something much more. Like painting, fashion, and film before it games have been subject to all sorts of censorship that people will find anywhere from absurd to appropriate. And just like those other forms of expression (whom also started quite simply as a venue for personal amusement or indulgence) it has had its radical changes on the way society has become built. The easiest example of this can be the Wii, who has not only interjected itself into almost every household across the world but also capture an entire generation of people previously disconnected by technological gaps (the elderly) but there are many other radical examples within the genre that continue to raise the bar, and raise some questions, as to what exactly qualifies as a game.

Twenty one years ago, before I was even able to comprehend most of my surroundings a game called Metal Gear was created. Its highlight was a tactical gameplay, a different take on gaming back in the day which was just beginning to branch out into various other mediums. Followed by two other games, Snakes Revenge and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake was one of the first set of 'series' games that would follow a far more serious trend then other producers at the time would be considering. A game deep rooted in reality the Metal Gear franchise would take off as an iconic piece of gaming history with the release of Metal Gear Solid, a PlayStation release that would show a very different aspect of the gaming world. A very important chronological history was taking place within this imaginary world, one that crossed over into current events and mingled ourselves into what can be safely call a conspiracy theory. One that has only just recently, twenty one years after the release of the first game, has come to an end in Metal Gear Solid 4.

The importance of the series to me is obvious, but a lot of people don't share the same viewpoint. In order to explain some of this, a bit of background is necessary. Set to follow the story of an ex-infiltration expert codenamed Solid Snake the story covers a group of militarily deep rooted individuals who set out the make the world a better place. Moving both forward and backwards through time as each game progresses we learn of a group called the Patriots, a devoted organizations of men and women who seek to control the flow of the worlds information in order to promote peace. Some means violent, others more subtle we move with Snake and every character he meets as the plot unfolds to reveal unusual allies and enemies that come up along the way. Dealing with more heavy handed issues such as cloning and nuclear weapons development while at the same time addressing the possible issues of the Internet, information control, gene manipulation and the battleground shifts constantly between Southern Africa, Central Asia, Alaska, Manhattan, to the Middle East all the while making each location dated by real world conflicts occurring at that time.

But the driving force behind the series isn't the political views that are interjected but rather how the whole package is presented. Shattering the concept of a game being simply something to pushed through Hideo Kojima (the director of the Metal Gear series) the heavily detailed storyline isn't simply delivered in text, but acted and preformed much like a movie would be. As technology has improved over time, so has the games delivery of its plot ranging from cut scenes involving highly choreographed fight sequences to interactive segments that allow the player themselves to feel as if they're making a large portion of the decisions to influence the game. Avoiding the term 'reaction time' for gaming (this term would be much better suited to games such as God of War or the more recent games in the Resident Evil series) the final installment in the game goes so far as to show you sequences of your allied struggles while you're attempting to keep them safe. This idea of dragging an emotional value out of the player is something that will become paramount to the future of gaming, something that goes far past the realm of brand loyalty. Much like Star Wars was able to become such a successful series because of the natural pull we felt towards its characters games today have begun to rely on a much more storyline fueled gaming experience rather then more simple touch-and-go gameplay promoted by franchises such as Super Mario Bros. Even games that project a large majority of their sales to come from multiplayer (or sandbox) sales have begun to set a more serious set of standards, Halo 3 and Grand Theft Auto 4 would be most notable examples.

It's this new set of standards that continues to push forward a genre known for mindless amusement into something far more sophisticated then could of ever been imagined even only ten years ago. Now this is not to be said that storyline has always been absent from gaming, certainly RPGs have built their foundation upon heavy storyline combined with intuitive gameplay...however to see this trend push (and push hard) into other genres is refreshing and something that my hobbyist generation should keep a very close eye on.

Haunting and Poetic

I've decided to give this Blog concept a genuine 'shot', and so it'll start with this:





Produced by an individual named James Houston the work itself was created for a Radiohead contest (however was finished too late to be an entry). It's really difficult for me to say exactly why I found the whole experience, from the minute long loading sequence to the finality in ending, so touching. I don't consider myself too sentimental a guy, however I do feel that everything does have a bit of life to it. Even the mechanical things in our time, we grow attached to. Some people simply regard these pieces of our prior technology as garbage, however at one point these technological giants were the cornerstone of our industrial evolution. Take away anything so simple as a keyboard, or even reduce the size of someones monitor and suddenly they're living in a very different world. Maybe they have the natural capacity to adapt, but does that mean that they will? Or will they even accept it? I don't believe so.

What James Huston has done can be seen as merely a gimmick, or simply the novelty of someone who has too much spare time (or is just naturally too creative and thus needs an outlet to express this), but I feel this is cutting the work done here far shorter then it deserves. I feel this is a wonderful reminder of where we came from, and how everything that we create in this world is subject to multiple views and purposes. Perhaps when we begin to lose our usefulness in this modern society we can be so lucky as to personify ourselves with enough force and emotion as these outdated pieces of machinery were able to.

Points For Consideration: Newspaper Format

The Stovall text addresses that some individuals believe that the Inverted scheme is actually outdated due to the speed and currency of other news outlets, specifically radio and television broadcasts are able to actually produce stories at a much faster rate thus filling the newspapers nitche. I feel that in theory this might work, and it could be percieved that the newspaper might serve more of a public purpose if they gave more detailed articles.

I don't really feel this is accurate however, since the difference between the three media formats are actually made irrelevant when you consider the fact that advertisement comes into play. While the newspaper is only confined by the amount of advertisement space they sell in order to cut down on cost, television and radio are still limited to the guidelines set to them. They only have a limited amount of time already taken up by commericals in which they must cover the rest of their stories. In the case of radio the Top 40 controls what is being played when and how the news will be cycled (on popular music stations), and in order to make sure their listenership is constantly informed many of their stories are repeated to ensure that their audience is given the proper coverage. Television has the same restrictions having to show both commericals as well as report their stories in a particular order, and while channels such as CNN attempt to circumvent this issue by having a streaming billboard at the bottom of the screen with a steady update of information they are still limited by the programming time allotted. That means that the only difference between the three medias (without considering company and coverage differences) is the format that they deliver the news: print or broadcast.

At that point people can decide for themselves which they prefer.

Wahhh

So sitting in class just now I realized that I did what would be blog number three completely wrong, lucky for me I actually read newspapers so I might actually be able to get away with this. Looking at the Inverted Pyramid format I find that it heavilly influences exactly how I read papers...generally skipping a large bulk of the center story because of the lack of relevant facts. Due to the size of a newspaper and the amount of information that can be fit I tend to read the first few paragraphs in order to get names, dates, times and important information...this holds true far more in the New York Times then it does with Journal News or Daily News since the other two (in my opinion) are more gossip related then the others. Using these shorthanded facts I find it a lot easier to do my own personal research into the subjects or news events at hand.
Another example I've found is news media on television while the stories are not written in the same format as a newspaper they're still delivered in the same fashion, since time is a pressurepoint for channel based news they're almosted forced into this pyramid format of news. Who, what, where, when are often explained within the first few minutes (paragraphs) but why is often left out for larger editorial pieces. Magazines will often times cover a much larger multipage story on the subject (if its important enough to the journalist) but often times dont follow the same format as a newspaper or television broadcast. It's this distribution of information that links together the entire genre of news that newspapers fall into, and the key similarities that keep me from relying on them as my sole (or even major) source of information.

An early entry

I'm finding it hard to really grasp the point of a blog for someone like myself. I suppose for this class its core is supposed to represent a means for analyzing us all as writers, and for the outside world it could be another tool for us to be noticed by the people, but to me that idea seems just a realistic as a fantasy sports pickup. Kids dropping out of high school on the hopes that some NBA talent scout will just rip them off the street and thrust them into stardom.

That being said I see blogs have even less relevance then usual in my particular field of study, advertisement and marketing. Particularly in the video game media, many of the most important 'advertisements' come not from major sales or a pre-order numbers but rather from popular review. IGN, Gamefaqs, and Gamespot really corner the market in online gaming journalism. I really do need to look into whats expected of writers for the gaming world, and where exactly I can fit myself into the equation.

A Late Entry

Its been a trip so far attempting to complete my research on the project, whats confusing me is the conflict of opinion and fact I've been hitting between official police reports and what the town ledger editor has been telling me. Looking out to see exactly if pedestrian safety is a major concern, I first spoke to the editor of a local newspaper The New Canaan Times and after a good few hours of talking to one another about local problems I stepped away from our conversation under the impression that the lives of local citizens in New Canaan and eminent danger from vehicular accidents. Police reports however have informed me otherwise, telling me that only two accidents have ever happened in the last few years...not even any other reported of dangerous driving have come in.

This will obviously take a bit more time to look into, particularly since I've invested a larger portion of my past few days into the subject.