lol

[icycalm]

And beyond the fact that half the threads are practically retarded, the other half are about mainstream trash. And keep in mind that these guys see themselves as "the avant-guard of game criticism". "The descendants of the proud IC tradition." Etc. etc.

And 9 times out of 10 they talk about whatever is on 1UP's frontpage lol. For a dozen pages at a time.

The rest of the time they are trying to "interpret" some indie hipster bullshit like Braid.

Here's another lol, Braid:

http://www.braid-game.com/

I mean I don't know, perhaps the game itself may not be so bad, but look at that fuckin' tagline!

[JoshF]

I find the charges of Recap's Luddism to be pretty lol as well, mainly because it ignores many factors. For one, a different design ideology was prevalent during 2D's dominance, one that included challenge and a form of re-playability based on actually re-playing the game to acquire mastery rather than an unlockable oversized bowtie to trot around in. And for every possibility the z-axis brings it also takes away, a simple concept but maybe difficult for someone still insulated with 32-bit marketing strategies to wrap their heads around. But hey if they want look at someone who would automatically prefer Chess (one of the finest examples of 2D game design) over Tak and the Power of Juju as a Luddite, well whatever I guess. :D

[dire51]

Hey dude, welcome. Sorry for banning your friend, who helped you out so much with your site, but he basically told us that playing games for score cannot possibly be fun (see here), and that level of stupidity is not tolerated around these parts.

Ah, I'd actually not even planned to comment on that, as I feel that it's between you guys and him. I wasn't here for it, so I don't feel it's my place to comment.

But I thank you for the welcome. :)

On another note, you might want to remove this comment from the frontpage of your site:

Great games have never had to be high-tech to be high-fun.

http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/opcfg/

All great games were considered high-tech for their time. Electronic gaming itself is high-tech, and it relies, at least partly, on high technology to exist, and to evolve.

You might also want to read this:

http://insomnia.ac/commentary/why_hardware_matters/

I understand your point about that quote completely, but I'm going to leave it up for two reasons: first, it's a quote that I nicked from an old Namco Museum ad that I thought was appropriate for the site (along with that bit on the main page that ends with "...there was fun", aside from my updating the bit number to 128). So it's nothing I personally came up with, but I've always liked the quotes and the ads they came from. The other reason is that I don't have access to the site anymore since it went archive-only (it's on Kurt's account). Besides, it's been that way for almost two years now, and I don't want to ask to make any changes. I prefer leaving it alone, as a time capsule, if you will.

[icycalm]

Ah, I'd actually not even planned to comment on that, as I feel that it's between you guys and him. I wasn't here for it, so I don't feel it's my place to comment.

Well, I was not there for World War II, but I can still comment on it! But that lol has been exhausted anyway, so the less said about it the better I guess. (Kurt Kulata I mean, not World War II. World War II is a lol that will never be exhausted.)

I understand your point about that quote completely, but I'm going to leave it up for two reasons: first, it's a quote that I nicked from an old Namco Museum ad that I thought was appropriate for the site (along with that bit on the main page that ends with "...there was fun", aside from my updating the bit number to 128). So it's nothing I personally came up with, but I've always liked the quotes and the ads they came from. The other reason is that I don't have access to the site anymore since it went archive-only (it's on Kurt's account). Besides, it's been that way for almost two years now, and I don't want to ask to make any changes. I prefer leaving it alone, as a time capsule, if you will.

Very sensible reasons! Most people would have just told me to go fuck myself. And, in part at least, that wouldn't have been too unreasonable a response either.

[dire51]

Well, I was not there for World War II, but I can still comment on it! But that lol has been exhausted anyway, so the less said about it the better I guess. (Kurt Kulata I mean, not World War II. World War II is a lol that will never be exhausted.)

Now if we were talking about WW2, I may actually have quite a bit to say! But as far as what happened with Kurt, I'd just prefer to stay out of it.

Very sensible reasons! Most people would have just told me to go fuck myself. And, in part at least, that wouldn't have been too unreasonable a response either.

Nah. During the course of the OPCFG's run, I'd get questions/requests/whatever else that truly did warrant a "go fuck yourself" response, and this wasn't one of them. Your request was pretty unique, actually... no one has ever brought the quotes up to me before. No one seems to have recognized them, either. At least no one ever told me they did.

[CosMind]

I find it pretty interesting that 90% of those at SB who criticize Recap's article have forum avatars that typify the very art direction that he's praising. And as for comments such as this:

So wait, his argument is that old Japanese developers were forced to use a cartoony-style, and that because of that they absolutely should not have sequels or remakes in a more realistic style? That really doesn't seem to follow.

The only thing that doesn't seem to follow is you, dear author. The way I understand the article, Recap is stating that it's ridiculous to take something that was developed with a purposeful art direction and "re-envision" it with considerably less vision. And doing so with such shallow intentions as trying to penetrate a more fickle audience is just flat out inconsiderate. Imagine if the "new Disney" decided to re-imagine Mickey Mouse for today's audience. Wait, on second thought, save your sanity and don't imagine that.

[icycalm]

http://www.google.com/cse?cx=0000724309 ... &sa=search

lol

one day I'll get around to fixing all those

[CosMind]

@icy

I like your review of Furu Furu Park the best. Gameplay is written thirteen times (give or take) :wink: The spelling of the term actually doesn't bother me at all. It's just become one of those colloquialisms that I'm bound to accept for the sake of communicating with a huge number of people. What bugs me is the lack of a common application of the term. It's become this sort of nebulous concept that each individual has his/her own "definition" of - depending on how educated they are on the concept of the individual, unique components of a video game.

As a random example:

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2007/08/21/bioshock_gameplay_review/1

NOTE: BioShock is a big game. So big, we’ve decided to cover it in two separate reviews – one based on the gameplay experience and story, one based on technical performance and hardware breakdown. This is the gameplay review, based on the Xbox 360 version (though content is identical and we have played both). It’s spoiler-free though, so have no fear.

Right in the preface, this cat eludes to the fact that he considers gameplay and story to be related to one another (since he's lumping them together into the same 1/2 of the review coverage). There are plenty of other folks who would never consider attaching the way a game plays with the execution of the narrative/scenario. The spectrum of application for the term in question spreads so far and wide that it's rendered nearly useless as a tool for communicating about video games.

Oh well, I guess it's better than the utter confusion of the term "game design".

[Jedah]

Removing gameplay will not be easy Icy. You need to exchange it with a phrase rather than a word, resulting heavy editing. Too much time and effort if you ask me. I think that ignoring the word completely from now on is already very difficult so don't bother with editing old articles.

[icycalm]

Removing gameplay will not be easy Icy. You need to exchange it with a phrase rather than a word, resulting heavy editing.

Most of those instances of the word 'gameplay' are in the forum, which means they were not written by me so I won't be changing them. A few others, such as in the Furu Furu Park review, were intentional, so I won't have to change those either. It's only about a dozen or so pages that need to be edited, and indeed in most of those cases it is simply a question of substituting 'gameplay' with either 'game' or 'mechanics'. I know what I am saying: I have to do this all the time when I edit other people's reviews and articles.

I think that ignoring the word completely from now on is already very difficult

It is the easiest thing in the world. Once you decide to stop bullshiting people and get down to the business of discussing why a game works or why it doesn't, you discover that you never have to use it again.

Another lol:

http://www.google.com/cse?cx=0000724309 ... &sa=search

[JoshF]

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=19511

I was cracking myself up here. Spadgy takes the gold medal though. :D

[icycalm]

Yeah, I saw that. I was thinking whether I should link myself or not...

By the way, this had me in stitches:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=19510

Any idea whose account that is?

[JoshF]

I think that was Rob getting pissed at a member named "Rob." for putting a period on the end of a username that was taken and cluttering the shmups chat with youtube links.

Here's another one.
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=19505

[icycalm]

I am currently lolling at this blog:

http://www.omgnintendo.com/

It's sponsored by LamePro too. At least it has less traffic than Insomnia (they: 220,000 on Alexa, Insomnia: 129,000). Sometimes, there is some justice in this world.

Also funny is that on the sidebar they link Select Button and Racketboy among their lollerific "sources". Sources of what? -- is the question.

[taidan]

My guess is the "sources" will be where they find game analysis articles and info on obscure game releases to link to. And of course, they will have to add plenty of snarky commentary to it so its is slightly more than a copy-paste job.

Those "OMG" sites are one of the more blatant recent attempts at making a diggable, clickable source of fluffy non-content. They have a whole section just for making lists, with the title "When we list, the world listens". Seriously? First time I read one of their lists it had no comments.

The sad thing is it will probably work eventually. Quite a revelation for me, that article.

[icycalm]

Yeah, it's true. As long as they update more frequently than me, they will eventually pass me in traffic...

[icycalm]

lols for the whole family:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=19590

The whole thread is worth every second you'll spend reading it. Choice quote:

Good news for Icycalm, you can own shotguns in Japan!

Bad news, you aren't allowed them to shoot people who don't understand Wittgenstein with them. Only skeet shooting and other sporting uses allowed.

And when you are done with that thread, here is part II:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=19624

[Macaw]

Hell yeah

[taidan]

The second link was frustrating. These are users on a niche website who know how most mainstream game writers react to shooters. And yet there they are endlessly chattering for that long about what IGN has to say.

You would think that by now they would just ignore the site and its scores. You would think they would leave a lot of things alone. And they don't. I think they must all thrive on drama, because they keep generating it.

[icycalm]

The second link was frustrating.

You mean the first one.

These are users on a niche website who know how most mainstream game writers react to shooters. And yet there they are endlessly chattering for that long about what IGN has to say.

And many of them are even defending IGN!

The moral of the story is: Niche website or not, you can't hide stupidity.

[taidan]

The second link was frustrating.

You mean the first one.

You're right. So frustrating that they made so little sense that I wasn't how sure how to comment on it.

[icycalm]

I am lolling my ass off with comments like this from Shmups:

People are too often slander and ridicule people on internet forums… It is get real bad with high brow attitude here. These highbrow people are look down on people who do not share their taste, visions, and opinion on anything and are attack to those who oppose them. People here are come from around the world and are grow up in different culture and are bring up different than the next person. With understanding, people can learn, accept and apprecitate other fellows feelings and views. Know that everyone is have different feelings on many things and accept and understand that, rather than try to change them with a hand of force. No one like to have thing like a political party or a religion shoved upon them…

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... &start=150

Let's all love each other and respect each other's tastes and preferences! Let's put an end to all this strife and learn to LOVE each other, as brothers and sisters! All praise the Lord Jesus, brothers, amen! 5/5

[JoshF]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartan_X_2

Even though Japanese literacy skills are not required to play the actual game, the literacy skills are needed to intepret the story behind the action and the fantasy violence. There stages involving city streets, subways, and other exotic locations.

[icycalm]

The Escapist: Editor's Note: Through the Looking Glass

This is what passes for an editorial in a specialist gaming website these days.

[JoshF]

I read the Fei Long and Justin Wong piece yesterday. Complete shit sprinkled with NGJ signatures such as opening the article with a food product that happened to be in the authors mouth at the time.