Keepalive and Articles That Didn't Make It

I decided to take a break from TWEWY today. With just over two weeks to PAX, I knew I needed to put up or shut up on my art projects. Thanks to some gentle encouragement, I decided to have the Bully shirt made. Considering the 360 and PS3 versions came out this year, this is probably the last PAX it will be at all relevant for. I also spent some time pulling together assets for a Blaster Master shirt but ultimately had to concede that there wasn't time to make something I'd be happy with. That kind of sucks as it's Blaster Master's 20th birthday this year. Ah well.

There's a notepad full of article ideas I never get around to developing. Every time I pick up the pages and try to think about the subjects more in depth, nothing new comes of it. It makes me feel stupid for having no new thoughts and guilty for never letting the ideas see the light of day. So here they are.

Location. Location. Location.
It matters in real estate. It matters in games. (Although technically I'm talking more about atmosphere than just setting.) A cheerful and vacuous game is easier to get into than an unpleasant and rewarding one. The poster children for this phenomenon are Just Cause and BioShock. Just Cause is not a good game. But the tropical vistas and feeling of freedom make it easy to pop back in and just wander. BioShock, a far superior game, is set in a place that I never want to return to. I've tried to pick it up and get into it again, trying different tactics and weapons than I used before, but it feels like returning to a murder scene. In the real world, I've been to Auschwitz. It's horrifying. But the violence there is over now. Every time I go back to Rapture, it starts happening again, and I just want to get out. Is it just that nostalgia and horror don't mix?


Perfection
I love games that give me the chance to strive for perfection, to keep it just out of my grasp but close enough that I know I could reach it. I played AudioSurf and Crimson Sea 2 on easy settings, not because I didn't want a challenge, but because I wanted that challenge to be perfection, not survival. It's a lucky thing when I find a game that gives me that opportunity. So many games add in cheap hits to give the impression of challenge instead of tough but fair gameplay.


Tough But Fair
Fairness in games is largely about feedback. Did I have enough information to choose? In a fighting game, that usually means moves have a wind up phase. In strategy games, it's more about how data is presented. Regardless, fairness is about putting enough information and control in the players' hands that they feel their choices make the difference between success and failure. It's really easy to screw up.