Over Comic Con, I volunteered the use of my apartment as crash pad for UK games journo, Rock Paper Shotgun magnate, comic book author and occasional trailer-fetishizing buddy Kieron Gillen. It was pretty awesome, since he was one of my heroes and now we're friends and blah blah.
We went out to drinks. A lot of drinks. And we got the brilliant idea to record a podcast together while in the sauce. Don't ask me whose idea this was. Don't ask me why I encouraged him to put it On The Internet. Man, don't even ask me what I talk about in this thing -- I can't remember. I should probably listen to it before I recommend that other people do, but I'm kinda too scared.
Wait, why am I recommending it? I'm not. I say nothing of substance and make an ass of myself, most likely. All hate mail can be sent to the email address on the right-hand sidebar.
And here goes my integrity and "reputation"! Go!
Incidentally, Gillen was at Comic Con with artist Jamie McKelvie because they do a comic book series together called Phonogram. It's about British people with musical magic powers. No, seriously, though, it's really awesome, and I got him to sign my copy! If you like comics, music, British people, Gillen (duh) or any one of the above, you should buy it.
By the way, I would like to disclaim that all persons consuming alcohol should be of legal age according to their national laws, should drink responsibly, should not drive while intoxicated and should not record podcasts.
26 comments:
looking forward to listen to it, the running order reads like fun:
"Leigh tries to get Kieron in trouble with his girlfriend", "Kieron proves that he isn’t mature enough for this conversation. Leigh soldiers on.", "We are incredibly mean to Matt Kumar." and my favorite: "Sick things Leigh does with the Sims."
So gotta listen to it right now and turn green of envy for not having an amazing conversation of videogames... while being drunk.
Hey, that was actually one of the more entertaining podcasts I've listened to. And I don't mean entertaining like a car crash. There were some interesting ideas about expressions of fantasy in there - not what you'd expect to hear from a raving drunk. I've never heard anyone mount a *convincing* defence of the animalistic-fetish-thing before. You even stopped Kieron from telling toilet jokes for, like, several minutes. Kudos!
Unfortunately I followed it by listening to A Life Well Wasted, which was kind of like watching a YouTube clip of amateur backyard wrestlers followed by Enter The Dragon.
That's the longest I've ever gone without making a poo-based gag.
KG
Please don't make a poo-based gag, they taste terrible.
Oh god now I'm doing it!
Hehehehehe! You said "doing it".
KG
Heheheheh, yeah. We're keeping things classy here at Sexy Videogameland.
Oh by the way Leigh, Snow Crash is by Neal Stephenson, not William Gibson. Anyone would think you didn't research the offhand comments you make on drunken podcasts.
I know that :( Was talking 'em separately, as part of the same OMG INTERNET BLADE RUNNER FUTURE mythos.
Ahh ok, sorry. It makes sense when you put it like that. It's all basically "the future that was cooler than the actual future has turned out to be".
Yes, basically, and "the future that hasn't happened yet so don't use a few current-era technologies as an excuse to pretend you are living in your fantasy novel."
Hilarious explication of the Red Alert 3 trailer Leigh. You and Keiron have a nice interplay. You should do a few more comic pieces like that in the future.
http://xkcd.com/471/
I like drunk ppl :) They are much more truthful/themselves then if they are not drunk.
Very... entertaining. I certainly got a laugh out of it, and there were at least a few insightful comments.
Thinking about Gibson and futures... I recently tried Neuromancer and sighed at his concept of a large volume of memory. That and the actually writing was pretty awful, in my opinion.
If I might return an xkcd link in kind: http://xkcd.com/323/
@SVGL
So if realistic Barbie characters getting it on in an MMO weirds you out, how about realistic Barbie characters shooting the shit out each other?
And lol @ personally kicking a yiffer's ass comments.
Re: this notion that gamers don't realize that games generally have flimsy narrative and then are all 'wtf?!' when the movies based on those games are awful.
It's part of the work of a good adaptation to pick a form and make changes necessary that are appropriate to the medium. As an example, Naked Lunch is pretty much unfilmable if you try to do it verbatim, but Cronenberg makes a decent go of it by constructing something that is narratively not very much like the book at all, but still captures the mood/feel/essence of it.
I think when gamers are upset about a video game movie being awful, they aren't saying 'that game was awesome film material, how could they mess it up!?' they're more saying, 'why do book adaptations get better writers who know what works in film and what doesn't while all we get is someone who tries to recapitulate plot points/action sequences from the game'
And now my day is complete! Very entertaining podcast and probably the most intelligent *drunk* podcast ive ever heard :P. I need to get a few friends to listen to your points on furry's and Neko-girls...
This is great.
You make a good drunk. Nice one! =)
I've never understood furries either. Getting turned on by animals or mascots is weird. Getting turned on by a sexy girl wearing cat ears is something entirely different. That's up there with sexy nurse or lab assistant. ;)
On a more serious note, remarkably coherent podcast considering the alcamholic beveleges involved. =)
First off, I just wanted to say that if you were as intoxicated as you kept exclaiming during the podcast, I'm truly impressed - the knowledge and convincing arguments you gave really show off your conviction about your profession and chosen subject matter.
Second, I kept wondering what exactly you were drinking... there were some ominous "glug-glug-glugs" when KG was pouring more drinks.
Third, KG's a twat. John Walker's mum and "You're going to make them hard," both made me laugh out loud in the workplace.
Aside from being by Neal Stephenson, surely you're aware that Snow Crash is parody. Snow Crash and The Diamond Age or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer together are Neal Stephenson taking the piss out of William Gibson and his imitators.
While we're at it
1) Yes, Xbox 360 does have "hentai" achievements.
http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game/chaos-head-noah/achievements/
Let's ignore the fact that the original Chaos head game has no 18+ content. But yes, completely against the spirit of the joke, I am offering an explanation.
2) If you were interested in YMK. Family Project, being released by Peach Princess, is written by same person as YMK. It's about family "and stuff". (replace "and stuff" with your choice of drama, discovery and uhhhhh non-incest) It's not out and it's been stalled forever because they're waiting for enough Preorders to make sure they turn a profit on that game. Hint hint.
3) IN ADDITION the freeware Visual Novel market is also substantial. Like Narcissu http://narcissu.insani.org/ or brass restoration http://yandere.gray7.com/?p=64 and god forbid OMGWTFOTL http://at2006.haeleth.net/game.php?id=5
About terminal illness, musical romance and MANLY GENUFLECTION in order.
4) My Leigh Alexander fanfiction would feature Santa Claus, Sigmund Freud and transgender Winston Churchill. It will be then be adopted into a blockbuster, award winning movie.
5) Did you say that no sites reviewed any eroge seriously? Well, recently what can only be described as a "glut" of blogs reviewing them in Japanese has comes out http://www.erogereview.com/ and associated links for details. Kiddies, the site is 18+. Note that they review mostly Japanese only ones because... well the ones localized to English are 100 Amorous Cherry Professors to one Kana Little Sister and there are only 400 titles localized.
You also spoke of essentially viewing fetishes from an objective standpoint. The Mou Yamete! blog especially focuses on that exact appeal.
6) There's a semi substantial fan translation community for Visual Novels out there.
Your deconstruction of stock eroge fetishes is super insightful and interesting. You mentioned the east vs. west, suggestive vs. face-value interpretation in sexual imagery, and it reminded me of a piece I'd once read about those very same qualities separating Asian and American horror films - that Asian horror often takes an airy and symbolic approach to such strong subjects as fear, death, and "The Killer," while American horror tends to be exacting and visceral. (Which is not to say symbolic equates to deep - I've seen enough Japanese, Korean, Chinese, & Thai horror flicks to tell you their their plots are just as flimsy!)
To give a concrete example, the American "Killer" usually has a super precise background story and is a solidly menacing figure, scary because as soon as it reaches you it will overpower you. The Japanese "Killer" usually came into being, and acts, via unexplained means, and is a childlike or just intangible figure, scary because it takes away your own control over something personal. Direct interpretation of death vs. indirect interpretation of death.
Back to the point: there is a close connection to sex & death / ecstasy & fear, and how people - or cultures - interpret it and react to it. Like you mentioned, sexual imagery in Japan is a tad less apalling because, even when it's explicit, it's at least interpreted as a step removed. I think it's very telling that for almost the last decade, American cinema has had this obsession with recreating Asian horror cinema (I call it an obsession and not a trend because I don't think these remakes are commercially successful enough to warrant their churning-out), and yet they can never do so without making the script little more exacting; a little more visceral. There is that natural, cultural disconnect when it comes to processing horror films and when it comes to processing sex games.
BUT HEY I SPENT TOO MUCH TIME SHOOTING HORROR FILMS IN HIGH SCHOOL SO HHHHENYWAY
(AND SOME OF THEM ARE ALSO ON YOUTUBE UNDER MY REAL NAME WHICH CAN BE FOUND QUITE EASILY ON AN EARLIER SVGL POST BUT HHHHEY HOO)
I think I've written more than enough here now except excellent-fabulous podcast A+++ would listen again
Although, to ride the above Anonymous' GENUFLECT train, might I also suggest looking up Katawa Shoujo? It's an in-progress American creation that sort of takes YMK's theme of tragic girls, nigh-damaged yet still endearing past fault, and pushes that to one extreme: each of KS's girls are actually physically disabled in some way. But it doesn't specifically fetishize that point, and I think that's important - like a typical eroge, the fetishy part comes from personality stereotypes like The Assertive One or The Maternal One; albeit beneath a face-value appearance of disability (which, as is often the case with real life, does not neccessarily mean "not able").
There's nothing to play yet, and probably won't be for a long time, but I think the idea itself is really very intriguing: firstly, a game deeply rooted in fantasized romance actually exploring relationships with people who are explicitly and expressly imperfect; and secondly, a game that does attempt to relate the player to a demographic that is still subject to some degree of prejudice. So take a look at that.
So, in other news, I think I will never have to register for my own blog. Instead I'll just link people to my long-as-fuck comments in yours. Cheers.
Very nice podcast ... my favorite one thus far, I might say.
You sound so relaxed and happy throughout the affair. But you're making good points too.
You are surprisingly coherent when drunk. If you hadn't been loudly announcing your level of inebriation, I would have just assumed it was a regular podcast :-P
I believe there's a rule in there somewhere about no drinking and boning, too.
But then where's the fun?!
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