Love the One You’re With

To the Editor: This is in response to “It’s All Their Fault” by Shawn Williams. I highly resent his opinion on what gamers really want … We don’t want a lone button which causes a sound crotch kicking with a big breasted, trampoline jumping woman in the background. Please. If Shawn had any real knowledge of what gamers want, he would know that we would much rather press that button and have someone get kicked in the crotch in the background while seeing an “in yo’ face” close up of the well endowed woman bouncing gleefully. It’s called research man! Try it!

-Guy Karpensky

To the Editor: Are you sure you aren’t paid lots of money by Second Life because most of yours issues basically advertise how fine this game is. Your magazine is very, very good. Consistent weekly updates, Professional photography, well written articles and clever navigation which because of the last two factors makes people read it in a magazine like style which is so hard to create on the internet.

I’ve read maybe five issues now and Second Life keeps getting high mentions in the articles, not the advertising.

I respect this online magazine for its professional production and excellent articles. Stay impartial.

-Rob

From the Blog: [Re: “Balancing Your Second Life” by Pat Miller] I’m sitting here wondering why I didn’t subscribe to Second Life after your first article. It’s probably the same reason that keeps me in finance instead of going back to school to study game design – instead of my previous bachelors degree in philosophy. Perhaps I am simply daunted by the task of learning to design and feel safer simply going through the motions of creation in a game like WoW or SWG. Yet I still have an itch to implement my own ideas and creations in one of the virtual worlds I inhabit, be that Battlefield 2, WoW, or CivIV. It’s that very same itch that makes me want to leave my job and try to learn game design. I suppose what I’m saying is I hope SL will scratch it for me.

At the same time it amazes me that so many gamers believe creation of content should be on the shoulders of the initial designers. I was reading a forum on gamespot regarding Will Wright’s Spore and a whole bunch of people kept posting that it was lazy and unfair for a greedy corporation to rely on the people who paid them for content. I honestly never believed that anyone could be so ill informed. Its a love of such things that brings about some of the greatest content games have ever had – a love evident in those people who choose to take the time to develop content without ever being paid; artists.

Thanks to all of you out there. Hope to join your ranks one day,

-Nick

From the Blog: [Re: “Reimagining Challenge,” by Patrick Dugan] Do I agree or don’t I?

I am not really sure. Are gamers the problem? Maybe, but I am not exactly who gamers are any more or at least which gamers you are referring to. I do know one thing, though. While I didn’t pre-order a 360 (mainly due to lack of funds) I would have simply because of the promise held in games such as Lost Odyssey, Mass Effect, Too Human, etc. and not because of those oh-so-dazzling Xbox ports. Secondly, the reason I have not purchased 2-D games such as Castlevania in years is simply because I do not have fun with or get any other kind of enjoyable stimulus from those sorts of games anymore. Still, I am intensely irritated by people buying an endless amount of sequels, unimaginative movie games and all the imitator titles in between.

As for all this paedic vs. ludic… stuff (:p), I have heard a wide variety of arguments supporting either side. On the one hand paidea can be extremely liberating while aslo being frustratingly aimless. On the other hand overly ludic games can very limiting even if they feel more focused.

I do, however, intensely love the idea of socially challenging games. They are something I look for constantly and almost never find. I am tired of plowing through endless seas of baddies just for the heck of it. I need something much more compelling. It is that I don’t like a good sports game or other because I really do. The problem is that I am being more than satisfied as far as those sort of games are concerned and being completely starved of the sort of games that make me say, “Damn, I didn’t think of it that way before,” or even make any kind of social or artistic statement at all. I am not sure if that is the key to widening games’ appeal, seeing as such fare in other mediums is limited to their various independent industries in favor of pretty ‘splosions or their equivalents. I could be wrong there though.

-Olumide Edu