Bob Blauschild Responds To My Open Letter!

[You may recall I recently wrote an open letter to the designer of a couple obscure adventure games that used to make me pound my little fist against the Apple IIe's keyboard in frustration in my childhood, at the same time they formed my earliest and best nostalgic memories of gaming. Thanks to the magic of the internet, my letter reached former Sirius Software designer Bob Blauschild, who's given me permission to publish his response in its unedited entirety. This is one of the coolest things that has ever happened in my career.]

Dear Leigh,

It was quite a shock, seeing your open letter to me. Hard to believe, but the number of letters sent to me by hot young babes (assuming that that’s your picture) has declined significantly over the past several decades. I was initially hesitant to respond. Your letter is so well written that any response I might offer could seem nearly illiterate in comparison. But you’re the pro in this field and I’m but an historical footnote, so with that in mind, here goes –

I’m touched that you fondly remember spending day after day hacking away at my games. I can’t apologize for making them too hard for a six-year-old. The target audience was approximately 10 or 12 to 40, and one goal was to make the puzzles difficult enough to make the game last a week or more to justify the price, without being so difficult as to drive the player to go postal (especially when my name was on the product and my address was in the phonebook).

I take it from the tone of your letter that your claims of suffering “childhood damage” and being “traumatized for life” at the hands of my code are somewhat exaggerated to show your commitment to the intensity with which you attacked the games. If they in any way led to developing a passion for thinking through challenges, then I’ll take just a little credit.

There is one section of your letter that does require a response. You list several Sirius Software games -- Critical Mass, Escape from Rungistan, Kabul Spy, Blade of Blackpool, and Gruds in Space – and state that you are unsure about whether I was responsible for of all of those. I was not. The first two were mine, the second two were written by Tim Wilson, and the third I can’t recall much about now. As for your research that told you that Sirius Software’s adventure game titles were merely poor clones of Sierra’s Hi-Res Adventures, everyone’s entitled to their opinion, no matter how horribly wrong it is.

In the early 80’s I was interested in finding out why computer games were so expensive. Must be something there to justify the price, so I plunked down my $40 for “The Princess and the Wizard.” I was quickly hooked, and blew through all the graphic adventure games that were available. But there weren’t many, so thereafter I decided to try writing one myself as a hobby. But I didn’t want to just duplicate what was currently available. “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” with its non-stop action was a big deal then. What if I were to insert action sequences and moments of possible panic into my graphic adventure game? And how about adding some humor? That’s what I did, and the result was something new that outsold all of the Sierra games for a few months.

I wrote a second game, then went back to concentrating on designing chips in Silicon Valley, and then your letter showed up 26 years later.

Thank you for the jolt of nostalgia. Your writing style is terrific, and your success as a writer is well deserved.

Best Regards,

Bob Blauschild

[Bonus Material: Bob directed me to a site where, also thanks to the magic of the internet, Escape From Rungistan is playable -- as are Critical Mass and likely a host of other amazing things. I still keep dying, but I'll conquer it yet!

Thank you for everything, Bob!]

What Do You Call A Legit Pirate Bay?

You heard the news -- and I asked Twitter (if you don't follow me, c'mon already!) what the new name for Pirate Bay should be now that they've gone on the up-and-up.

hazy_m@leighalexander We-Probably-No-Longer-Need-To-Keep-The-Lawyers-At Bay.

Grey1986@leighalexander How about Legitimate Businessman Bay? Or I Can't Believe It's Not Napster?

Deadson@leighalexander How about "The Offically Sanctioned Privateer Bay."

MarkLucherini@leighalexander Nothing-To-See-Here Bay? Completely-Safe Bay? Your-Health-Is-Assured-Here Bay?

unangbangkay@leighalexander Public Pool

thequalia@leighalexander "still-haven't-deleted-that-bookmark-yet bay"?

EvilSpants@leighalexander 'totally legit, but monitored to hell sea man bay'

joel_haddock@leighalexander "Upstanding Traders Harbor" or "The Port of Legality" Both much more dignified.

OptimusDeadpool@leighalexander: calling it "Micheal Bay" would require awesome explosions!

OptimusDeadpool@leighalexander:how about Buccaneer bay? Or something innocent: Greg Bay.

Reetesh@leighalexander Marine Bay? Pie rate cake? Or a subtitle "Conflict free"? :P

cheshster@leighalexander The Privateer Bay

GameCouch@leighalexander #piratebaynamechange Monkey Islandabout 2 hours ago from web in reply to leighalexander

arconic@leighalexander "Pyrite Bay"about 2 hours ago from DestroyTwitter in reply to leighalexander

GrumpyOwl@leighalexander The Somalian Software Liberation Front!

jonfingas@leighalexander Obvious suggestion: The Privateer Bay.

LudoMVH@leighalexander actually that should be Largely *Legitimate* Lagoon. Ooh also: "Bona Fide Bay". "Honest Harbour". There's probably more :)about 2 hours ago from web

JulianSpillane@leighalexander Totally Scrupulous Brigand Docking Port

darabidduckie@leighalexander Merchant Marine Bay, or Coldbay (for selling out)

In Defense Of The Classic Controller

You guys may have noticed that last week, I was especially interested in how you felt about accessibility. I worried about Nintendo's potential to damage the medium by over-doing boundary-busting, and I polled you on how ready you were to ditch button-mashing for gesture-based gaming.

There's been a method to my madness, and this is it. My feature at Kotaku this month picks some of the industry's great brains to make the assertion that there is plenty of value left -- culturally, emotionally and simply in terms of gameplay -- in the hand-held, button-equipped controller.

There are a lot of things I don't want to let go of. Read the feature and let me know what you think.

SVGL Needs You!

Hi SVGL readers! Many of you saw my Tweet last week asking about the ways you used to play pretend about video games with your friends as kids, and I've gotten some great responses from you guys.

But I need more, so here's the deal: When you were a wee game fan, did you used to play video game-related imaginary games about the stuff you were playing? Search drain pipes for Mario, hold Mortal Kombat matches at recess, fight over who got to be Ryu? Attach to certain objects, toys or places because they reminded you of video game levels? Did you write books, draw comics, et cetera? Did games give you weird ideas about how the world works? (What? You mean there are no turtles in the sewers?) If video games inspired your childhood play and lots of happy memories and silly stories, I need 'em.

Email leighalexander1 at gmail dot com with subject heading GAMING CHILDHOOD and share some of your memories, will you? Come on, I showed you my embarrassing emo Phantasy Star II novelization from third grade.

Even further, I'm interested in how those memories of play shape your relationship to games today. Are any console titles that launch today that immediately evoke young memories of playing previous installments Back In The Day? Learn anything about games or yourselves? Does your current station in life -- job, leisure time, relationship with kids -- have any relationship to the way you imagined play as a kid?

This is for an article, so if you write in, please include how you want to be cited. Responses from working game developers and journalists are especially welcome -- you can use your full name, part of it, your company name, your internet handle, or be wholly anonymous, really, whatever you'd like. Link this inquiry to your friends, reblog, retweet, whatever you like, spread the word!

Thank you as always for supporting the stuff I do, and hopefully you'll dig the result.

Women Audiences, Women Characters

In my writing, I've always really preferred not to be pegged as a "woman in games". My philosophy's always been that the way to confront gender barriers is to stop drawing lines, and that's why I've always strongly aimed to be "person writing about games who is, among other things, female," rather than to really stress the whole grrl-power thing. I realize this attitude of mine sometimes disappoints women out there who'd prefer that I use my position for some kind of advocacy, but that's not really how I am.

At the same time, though, being that I'm a woman, my perspective can't be any other than "a woman's perspective," and people often ask me to contribute that. More and more, I've felt that maybe it's been naive of me to simply pretend a lack of diversity will go away if me and others like me "just do our best", so I've been happy to talk more on female-specific issues when it seems relevant and constructive.

That's why I am SO over the moon to have gotten a chance to work with Daniel Floyd on his latest animated short -- if you're not familiar with his Zero Punctuation-inspired, fun and smart video analyses of various video game issues, check them out. He and I collaborated on the script to his latest video on "Video Games and the Female Audience," and I am especially happy because it is the first time I have ever received a cartoon doppelganger! Here it is:



In a happy coincidence in timing, I was also asked by a nice pair of English gents with lovely soothing voices to appear on the latest Digital Cowboys podcast, where we enjoy an in-depth discussion on how female characters are represented inside video games. I had fun with this one, so please give it a listen ....especially if your only podcast experience with me to date has been GiantBomb. :)

Thanks MJ

Should you wish for a video game-themed way to remember the King of Pop, I recommend the soundtrack to his utterly peculiar Genesis game, Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. 16-bit covers of all of his hits? Awesome.

Here it is [via Mediafire]. Thanks to the numerous Twitter friends who pointed me to a good link.

In related news, Hardcasual reminds my colleagues not to be douches about somebody's death on Twitter, MTV's Russ Frushtick finds an old commercial for Moonwalker, and remembers that he was in Space Channel 5, too.

Accessibility, Accessibility, Accessibility

We had a record 576 votes on the latest SVGL poll -- thank you to all who participated. Yes, even those who whined about the absence of a more moderate option. I think obviously everyone understands that no single input solution is likely to supplant all others, and which you prefer depends on the kind of game it is and blah blah blah -- the poll was intended to find out what general attitude toward control schemes you most closely align with.

As much attention as was paid to Sony and Microsoft's gesture-based motion control reveals at E3, those of you who are super-duper gung-ho about them are in a surprisingly distinct minority. Only 5 percent of you are ready to ditch your controllers.

About a third of you, or 33 percent, like the idea of motion control, but want to keep something in hand. There's been a lot of suspicion on whether gameplay can maintain the same level of depth as we're used to without a button of some kind. Perhaps the tactile aspect of gaming is important to us on an abstract level, too (expect more on this from me soon).

Given how widely successful Nintendo is in the current generation, it's also surprising that nearly half of you still want very little to do with waggle. The opinion that motion control is a "gimmick" or fad that will pass on our way back to more traditional schemes is a popular one, but I didn't realize how much so -- 45 percent of you are sick of waving your arms around and just want to push buttons.

15 percent of you don't care about control innovations or lack thereof. I am not in that 15 percent -- I've been fascinated lately by ideas of accessibility and the concept of controller-as-entry-point to the gaming world. The shape that entry point takes will have major and wide-ranging reverberations in the social, cultural -- and, of course, business landscape -- of the gaming world, in terms of who the audience is and what kind of games are being developed for that audience.

We've already seen it happen with the Wii -- Nintendo's power of change has been pretty absolute so far. I actually wonder if that's entirely a good thing, and my latest Gamaustra editorial analyzes that question in the context of Miyamoto's newly-patented "automated walkthrough" code that Nintendo will start implementing starting with New Super Mario Bros.

What I find most puzzling about it is that Miyamoto has noticed that current design schemes aren't compelling enough to help players solve problems in games nor to encourage them to persist and complete games -- and the father of modern game design's response is to implement a mechanic that skips design solutions altogether.

Just... let the game play itself? Rubs me the wrong way. Give my article a read and then let me know what you think: Can Nintendo take accessibility too far?

And a new poll is up! This time, I want to gauge your nostalgia level. Did you find you were more emotional about games as a child, when everything was simpler? Or are you able to connect more deeply now that the medium -- and you -- have grown up? Have you maintained the same attachment level over the years? Or maybe you think "caring" about games or feeling attached to 'em is silly. Vote, vote vote in the sidebar!

The Mysterious Appeal Of Ueda's Worlds

After we all ooh-ed and aah-ed at the E3 video for Team ICO's new project, The Last Guardian -- which a majority of (super unscientific) SVGL poll respondents said was a PS3-seller -- many of you weighed in on the community discussion as we tried to answer one question: What, exactly, makes that game seem so good, when most of us are in agreement that it's nearly impossible to tell much about a game from its early trailer?

The answer proved to be elusive. It's pretty hard to pin down what about it makes many of us not just enthusiastic, but emotional -- and mulling it over prompted lots of you to extend the question not only to Last Guardian, but to the rest of Ueda's oeuvre, ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, too.

Well, Let's Not Overthink Things

"The emotional response thing shouldn't be a surprise," commented John Scott Tynes. "It's a trailer, just like that for a movie, and trailers have long been crafted to elicit an emotional response." I agree with him -- in fact, the heavily-rehearsed and manipulatively-crafted marketing act behind not only E3 trailers, but pre-launch hype in general is something I keep complaining about.

And many of you join Penny Arcade in the humored prediction that neither adorable little boy nor adorable flying kitty-thing ("The Giant Man-Eating Eagle Toriko," says RedSwirl; Simurgh or Simargl, asserts Technomancer) can possibly survive until the end of the game -- indicating that lots of you are finding the emotionality a bit forced or predictable.

But I'm insisting on the analysis because we've all agreed for years that there's something special about these Ueda games, and maybe we can refine our wishes for other games if we can pin down what it is.

A Boy And His Alien

One primary issue many of you raised is how the game presents a relationship between a person and a monster. Fred Zeleny notes that using a giant animal instead of a human companion keeps it appealingly clear of "uncanny valley" territory.

JV points out the pairing is a familiar play on the "boy and his alien" trope that's touched us through the years: See also E.T, Neverending Story, most of the works of Hayao Miyazaki, and any other of about a million fantasy stories and comedic pairings that've seen a human bond with a non-human for friendship and adventure. Lewis Denby describes "an overflowing sense of childlike adventure in the face of something tremendously alien."

But even this theme is a variation on one that's still more common -- simpler than "boy and his alien" is "boy and his dog," a key nostalgia trigger and a simple part of childhood for many. Mike Schiller says the quiet, intuitive pairing between a kid and an animal as "protection and companion... [will] remind you of the one...thing, when you were a kid, that you could talk to and trust unconditionally."

Of course, ICO has a similar central theme -- Yorda may be in the shape of a young woman, but to call her a "human girl" sells her short. She's an ethereal, otherworldly creature, and much of the charm in the pairing and the much-lauded hand-holding relies on just how different she is from the little horned boy, from the fact they don't speak the same language to the charming height disparity between hero and "princess." And as for Colossus, I've heard many, many people say they loved that horse more than they've ever loved any other video game companion, be it man or cube.

The Story Of The Space

These unlikely companionships seem to juxtapose nicely with the sort of environments Ueda tends to present: looming, expansive, preternatural and lonesome. They often feature detailed, subtle patterns and architecture that imply tribal or spiritual ruins; they make players wonder what kind of places they must once have been, enforcing the idea of abandonment and decay.

Exploring such intimidatingly solitary, sad spaces must only enhance the player's sense of attachment to a companion. Many of you agreed with commenter Mike Grove's assertion that "even when you're in a completely desolate place, you never really feel isolated."

Another element these games --and this trailer -- share is that all of the gameplay is very visual and very kinetic. Reflecting on his own childhood, Ueda has said he was "interested in things that moved." As with ICO and Colossus, Last Guardian seems to depend on the interaction of two living things with the environment and with one another, compelling the eye. Combine this with another key trait -- the absence of dialogue or overt narration -- and the player can't help but engage his or her imagination to fill in the blanks.

As commenter Mike Grove puts it: "It sort of transforms the player into a reader-figure in the best traditions of post-modern authors, giving them a degree of authorship without demanding that they use all of it. The Last Guardian trailer really embodied this sort of storytelling - we're given a few snapshots of a relationship and almost no explicit information about it."

Why They Work

There's always lot of blab and blah about player-directed narrative, the perils of enforcing authorship, storytelling via gameplay, and all kinds of haute concepts that writers and designers alike dither around with without ever really nailing it down.

But ICO and Colossus have been hauled out time and time again as scions of our medium because -- silently, of course -- they've hit key markers through just a few overt, but deceptively complex design choices that make player imagination the priority.

This is one reason Portal is also probably permanently on the cultural short list of Ideal Games, by the way. Although in a completely different way, it uses the environment to engage and encourage the player to imagine the story beyond the surface.

No Art From A Vacuum

And I'd like to point out that Portal was done with the contribution of people who would've been creative writers whether or not it was in games, and Ueda would have been an artist in some other medium if not this one, further nailing home the need for cross-disciplinary game designers. We've got way too many games designed by people whose primary hobby in life was Dungeons and Dragons or strategy board games -- yeah, yeah, I know, go ahead and add your obligatory comment defending the artistic value of these pursuits as if we aren't suffering from an excess of their influence.

Anyway. One more reason the Last Guardian trailer made us all so happy: It shows that this game has the key traits to suggest Team ICO can do it again. Hallelujah.

Thanks to everyone for your contributions, thoughtful comments and participation in the discussion! You guys are the best, and all of you are cleverer by far than one of me.

Ooh, bonus: Images are all via this high-res Last Guardian screenshot gallery from Offworld.

Poll Results!

I was interested to see that the winning response, with 32% of the votes, to the latest ongoing SVGL poll seems to favor the idea of The Last Guardian as PlayStation 3-seller -- even with no price cut. Of course, the poll can't calculate how many among those with that opinion are existing PS3 owners and fans.

26% of you think even a title that desirable isn't enough to drive PS3 purchases at $399, and 21% of you think it won't make much of a difference. 19% of respondents had no idea what they were being asked about, so to jog your memory, here's the E3 trailer for the latest game from the team behind ICO and Shadow of the Colossus.

I could blame the rain and laziness, but even those wouldn't explain why I'm challenged to describe just what it is that I -- and obviously, a lot of others -- find so compelling about this particular trailer, or in general the thematic style associated with Team ICO's games. It goes beyond "it's pretty" -- a bit hard to put one's finger on, isn't it? But at E3 I spoke to many people who actually reported an intense emotional response at this video.

How does it make you guys feel, and what emotional cues and imagery do you think are specifically successful in evoking this response? Feel free to chime in if you just don't get the positive reception and you kinda hate it, too.

And if you're also lazy, just answer me this: What do you call the flying animal in there? My vote's for "baby gryphon," like Penny Arcade suggests -- and like many, I'm taking bets on how long the cute little-big guy can stay alive in the game.

Finally, we had 523 respondents on the latest poll, and I'd like to encourage even more of you to vote in the new one. Check it out in the sidebar!

Zelda Devours Game Informer

She apparently has a voracious appetite for news, previews and reviews. Who says print's dead?

[Previous fluffy cat pictures: Zelda loves the Weighted Companion Cube; Zelda is a Sega fan.]

Pondering An Effort At Exercise Software

As the "women 20-30" demographic goes, I'm an odd bird. My video game habits more closely resemble an adult male's rather than the "adult woman" demographic, and while I'm certifiably girly -- yeah, I easily fall for anti-aging skincare infomercials and read "women's interest" magazines to shut my brain off -- I've never been the type to be sold on so-called "lifestyle products."

I never tried Wii Fit largely because I had no interest in the Balance Board. In fact, in recent months my preferences have been trending more and more toward traditional control schemes; I'm waggle-fatigued and prefer DS games with button layouts where I don't have to use the stylus. So my assertion that the whole "get in shape with Wii" angle was entirely a gimmick is based entirely in ignorance -- at least, as far a the game aspect is concerned.

But as a Woman In America, people have been marketing me miracle solutions for my thinness, health and beauty ever since I was like eight years old. We ladies have been promised we can lose weight without trying, look young thanks to skin cream, attract men through key behavioral strategies, have nail polish that doesn't chip, have smooth legs without shaving, have all our wishes granted if we just read this book, take these caplets, try green tea, hoodia, Acai, teabags on our eyes, avocado in our hair, cocoa butter, this device, that device, this surgery, this exercise program, this diet plan, and whatever Oprah tells us to do this week.

So really, the reason I tuned out Wii Fit, My Fitness Coach and their ilk is not because I'm disinterested in them as video games. It's because I've developed a built-in noise filter for anything that promises me lifestyle improvement, or meaningful changes in my health that are "fun and easy" -- even though they overlap, intriguingly, with my chosen profession.

I still don't have a Balance Board, and I don't plan on getting one; I really, really do not want my video games to tell me my weight, first up. Aside from that, I'll explain in a future blog post why, as exciting as new interfaces are, I like to sit down and push buttons while gaming, thanks very much. But I've had a review copy of EA Sports Active lying around here, which doesn't use the Board, and I'm figuring on giving it a shot.

I'm in decent shape, but while I was in acting school I was absolutely a fitness nut -- with no gimmicks. I ran 30 miles a week, did strength training, yoga and sure as hell drank and smoked a lot less than I do these days. I'm still somewhat active and in okay shape, but I kind of miss how fitness used to be one of my hobbies before I developed a job that made me sit on my butt and type all day.

Granted, I no longer have the kind of time I did as a student, and that kind of regimen is neither possible nor necessary in the lifestyle I have now. But it makes me look at EA Sports Active, a fitness Wii title that comes with all the peripherals I need, as a possible happy medium between work, play and health.

I'm super, super skeptical, both of my own committment to fitness (I am not very disciplined anymore) and of a video game's potential to support my goals, but we'll see. I am the target audience, after all.

So maybe I'll try it. Y'know, when I feel like getting up.

As an aside, last year I was totally dared to try and quit smoking with My Stop Smoking Coach. I was too chicken (probably because I suspected it might work).

And finally, I must stress I mean no offense whatsoever to the many-many males who are likely giving Wii Fit, EA Sports Active and such a fair shake. Obviously it's not a girls-only product, I'm simply referring to what the software publishers clearly consider to be their primary target audience from a marketing standpoint.

An Open Letter To Mr. Bob Blauschild, Formerly Of Sirius Software

[no. what i need is to bash my face against the keys a few more times, perhaps try typing some curse words.]

Dear Mr. Blauschild,

As you may have realized from my blog and body of work widely available on the Internet, I am a video game journalist. I was tonight the recipient of a sudden electroshock of nostalgia, during which I suddenly remembered that you, sir, are the source of my fear of elevators.

You see, Mr. Blauschild, I am actually the heir to my father's consumer technology journalism mantle. My father covered a variety of home entertainment products including what were at the time fairly newly-invented items including the home personal computer, the home videocasette player, and the home video game console. As a result, I was raised with plenty of access to press review copies of just about every Apple II and Commodore 64 game ever developed, and that, sir, includes your portfolio of work as a designer of text games accompanied by graphics published under the marquee of Sirius Software.

Mr. Blauschild, you developed quite a few excellent products which stumped me mightily -- I was only five or six years old at the time, and precocious but not especially freakish, please understand. So it was that your titles Critical Mass and Escape From Rungistan came to form one of the earliest gaming palettes that I can to this day recall. So did Kabul Spy, Blade of Blackpoole and Gruds In Space, but I am unsure whether you are the one to whom I can assign responsibility for these titles.

Current internet research informs me that indeed Sirius Software's adventure titles were merely poor clones of what Sierra titled at the time its "Hi-Res Adventures," but my young mind knew no difference, and I'll have you know that Escape From Rungistan challenged me for years. That action sequence with the skis? I even consulted my uncle, a ski aficionado, for advice on how commands like LEAN RIGHT and LEAN LEFT might correspond to actual skiing, but all I ever ended up with was a face full of splinters (via text, naturally). I once had a dream I arrived at the animated cannibals that I saw in the game's manual -- and bragged to my friends that I indeed passed the ski sequence -- but in truth, it was a dream only.

Although my young days were filled with fantasies of triumph, I never did beat any of your games, Mr. Blauschild. I was only six years old.

However, my particular bone to pick with you hinges on the odd title Critical Mass, which as I'm certain you recall begins in an office in which the word LITHIUM is written on the wall to inform the player of a password for later use. Why should a six-year-old know the meaning of the word LITHIUM, Mr. Blauschild? Well, I knew it not, but what really took its place beneath my skin was the "action sequence" that followed the player character's exiting his office via text command.

As I'm sure you cannot not have forgotten, almost immediately upon opening gameplay, the player is placed in a plummeting elevator, and if the player does not type "JUMP" at the precisely-timed correct moment (followed, of course, by the seminal 'Return' key), the player will die -- after being informed that one's elbows and knees have switched places, or perhaps it was the hips and shoulders, or other such gruesome penalty.

Mr. Blauschild, I was six years old, and it took me months -- I jest not, months, sir -- of repeated attempts before I fundamentally understood the idea of action gameplay timing. I did pass that point in your game, indeed I did. I arrived at the airport and bestowed the flower upon the Hare Krishna (I had no idea, of course, what Krishnas were). I took the plane to France where I was delighted by your clever street names such as "Rue La Chat" and "Rue La Pig" -- and was then immediately frustrated by the key in the drain pipe, the flooding streets.

But to this day, Mr. Blauschild, every time I enter an elevator in my normative adult life -- I am now twenty-something, sir -- I recall your game, Critical Mass, and wonder whether, should the elevator plummet, my upper and lower joints will trade places if I do not JUMP at precisely the assigned moment. My body temperature perceptibly lowers, and every time -- every time I enter an elevator, Mr. Blauschild, and I a New York resident! -- I prepare myself to JUMP. I am traumatized, and it is your fault.

This means, Mr. Blauschild, formerly of Sirius Software, developer of the games that formed my childhood sustenance, that I shall never forget you. And this means, in addition to having traumatized me for life, you taught me action gameplay timing, sir. Not only were there the skis in Escape From Rungistan, but there was that hellacious "call Gidget" waterski sequence in Critical Mass. What is with you and skis, dear sir? I know not -- but I concede, here and now, that you helped create me as I am.

Today I am a game journalist, Mr. Blauschild. And you taught me not only my terror of elevators and my comprehension of action gameplay timing, but my love of the intellectual interactive puzzle, my yen for banging my head against the steep wall of frustration, my asbsolute addiction to outwitting the sadistic logic of a game designer.

Certainly, you are not sole among my earliest mentors; I must thank early Origin Systems veteran Dallas Snell for Ring Quest, Phillip and Bob Hess for the insanely ruthless Death in the Caribbean, of course, the Williamses Ken and Roberta (because before King's Quest, there were Mystery House and The Dark Crystal, of course). And slightly later, I owe my gratitude to Al Lowe for teaching me, by way of Leisure Suit Larry, what a "prophylactic" is at the age of eight or so (yes, precocious, intellectual independence, hallelujah)!

But perhaps against all odds, Mr. Blauschild, I loved and loathed alike your titles first and best. Thank you, in both highest esteem and admiration, and in good-natured frustration, bitterness and childhood damage, for my passion and for my livelihood. All that exists to be read with my name beneath the headline was born in part of you.

Sincerely yours,

Leigh Alexander
News Director, Gamasutra
Proprietress, Sexy Videogameland
leighalexander1 at gmail dot com

PS: To all gentlemen and women herein named, I forever adore you, genuinely.

Banner Whoring

I've received numerous requests to change the header image owing to the fact that pretty much nobody considers Big Boss as sexy as I do. I'll change it at some point myself, but I am lazy, so if you have an interest in getting it swapped in a timely fashion and you have a few minutes free for some shoopan, please send me a new one! SVGL lives and dies on the skillz of its readers.

Usually banner requests get a lot of replies, and I tend to toss up the first one I get that I really like -- and I'm also a little bit picky, so to be honest, I can't guarantee that you won't be spending your time fruitlessly, but ones I use get credit, links and pimpage, plus big fat internet hearts.

Width should be 650 x 250, must say either "Sexy Videogameland" or "SVGL," and must be related to video games. Timely images related to current releases are favorable but not required. Risque is okay -- we're going for sexy, after all -- NSFW is not. PNG format preferred!

If not, you must gaze into the original soldier's Outer Heavenly eyes eye for god knows how long! Fine by me! Either that, or I GASP re-use one of the billions I've already used.

[UPDATE: I'm into Bayonetta right now, so I loved this one by Jean-Marie "Pilote.de.Ciel" Scheid -- although everything everyone submitted today was freaking fantastic and has been saved for future use. Thanks so much to everyone, and please check out Pilote.de.Ciel's blog, full of thoughts on games and awesome game-related art.]

No Winners, No Losers

I had fun at E3, although given I was there to do mostly industry-focused coverage, I kind of scheduled myself pretty intensely and got surprisingly little time to actually play any video games. So now that it's over, it's time for the usual post-event discussion: What were the "best" games on the floor? Which platform-holder "won"?

...How the hell is anyone supposed to answer that?

As exciting as the event was and as keyed up as I got about a lot of the things I saw from a consumer standpoint, I've got to agree with Mitch Krpata's healthy pragmatism. I mean, sulking through the entire week's presentations because it's all so manufactured is no fun. But at the same time, when I'm asked (and please, stop asking me, I'm a bit tired right now!) some of these "best of E3" type questions, I find myself coming up short.

I hate being asked what I thought of a trailer. Um, it's a trailer? It looks cool, of course, what else am I supposed to say? And I hate the "biggest disappointment" question even more. How'm I supposed to be disappointed by a game that didn't even come out yet, or by the revelation of some technology or other that's at tightest minimum three years away?

In my opinion, it's simply too early to judge with the information we're given. Even if we're watching a gameplay demo and it looks fairly meh or fairly typical, a meh-typical game could still turn out to be glorious, stupid fun once you get your hands on it (no one expected Crackdown to be as awesome as it was -- in spite of flaws -- right?)

And even if you're getting hands on with something that has an awesome game mechanic that looks visually good, and you play an entire level, that still gives you no insight on what the macro view of the experience is. Games can live and die on their pacing, and you just can't get a feel for that in a booth demo.

And when it comes to Microsoft versus Sony versus Nintendo, it's even more of a big question mark. The tech they showed is hardly imminent, firstly, and secondly, who "wins" depends on the implementation. Announcements of first-party exclusives are always cool, but again, you're even less likely to be able to tell if it's a real value add based on just an announcement and teaser.

I tended to say I liked Sony's presentation best, just in accordance with my own tastes as a player, but there are so many variables that you'd be hard-pressed to get me to say what, if any, advantage the PS3 now has. In fact, from a business perspective I'm still putting my vote in the Microsoft corner until the day comes that hardware install bases start to shift. Who knows what'll happen?

And I'm only comparing Sony to Microsoft and neither to Nintendo, because Nintendo is obviously going to keep cornering the same market it has been. Whether either of the next-gens can tap into Nintendo's dominant mainstream is an essential unanswered question, so all one can really do is mull who's winning mindshare in the core market. And mindshare helps, but it ain't gonna feed anyone's kids.

Am I saying E3 is pointless then, like many do? No way (although I do understand their argument). Even though I pretty much loathe hype-speak, I think the volume and spectacle is important for industry PR. And even though I think that it's useless to the press when we just regurgitate it all blindly, I do think there's the opportunity to do useful coverage and pick out interesting trends. For me, I learn a lot from the audience response -- a lot of what I write and don't write, and look at versus overlook, depends on what the community reactions are.

Just don't ask me to pick a winner. Sure, I'm more interested or optimistic about some of the games I saw than others, but that's entirely an expression of personal enthusiasm, and not any kind of qualified opinion on whether or not something's likely to be "good." It's the same kind of challenge writers (and readers!) have with "preview"-type coverage, and I can't tell you how many times during E3 week I was glad to be mainly a trade writer and not the sort that writes previews.

Anyway. My opinion -- and that's all it is -- is that E3 isn't pointless, but using it to determine what is and isn't a game-changer is.

So rather than ask you, "which of the Big Three won E3," I'll ask you which presentation interested you the most, and rather than ask you which was the "best game" slated for the coming year, I'll ask you which you're the most excited about. Fair?

Oh, and if you need refreshment, we've rounded up our major coverage at Gamasutra, from the press conferences to the platform-holders to the major publishers. Take a look!

Welcome To Hell

The blogs I consider to be SVGL's "neighbors in spirit" -- Michael Abbott, Chris Dahlen, Mitch Krpata, Iroquois Pliskin, Corvus Elrod, L.B. Jeffries, Duncan Fyfe, to name just a few, are written by folks with whom I share a key motivation: to elevate the discussion around games. While I don't think any of us begrudges our audience games that are just for fun, we also seem to share a desire to see games that are more than that, even while we look at what's out there to see if we can see things in more nuance.

So while I can't speak for everyone or anything, I'd say we're the group most likely to have collectively groaned at the adrenaline-and-testosterone-ization of The Divine Comedy as rendered by EA's Visceral Games with Dante's Inferno. The slim hope that we'd see a thought-provoking video game allegory on sin, suicide, revenge and redemption quickly dissipated when we learned the titular soul-seeker would be recast as a scythe-wielding Crusader out to rescue Beatrice from a pervy Lucifer. Wha?

Anyway, since I'm usually accused of taking myself too seriously, it might surprise you that while I'm reserving judgment for now on whether or not Dante's Inferno is a "good" game -- I only saw a brief demo -- I don't really mind the generous liberties with the source material. Yeah, y'know? It's okay. After seeing the game I explained at Gamasutra why I think it's okay if it doesn't aim that high. For a counterpoint, check out Brian Crecente's impressions: he says the liberties taken with the adaptation "threaten to deflate the experience."

And for a much more elaborate counterpoint, I highly recommend you visit First Wall Rebate, the smart folks with whom I did a (wholly sober and thoughtful!!!) podcast a few weeks ago. It's a bit lengthy -- this coming from me -- but this is the kind of thorough, thoughtful analysis my neighbors and I really love to dig into, so if you've got some time and a chin to stroke, you should definitely give it a read.

It also makes me think a little bit about who the audience for a game like this is really meant to be. Is it terribly cynical of me to say "the core market's just not that smart," and "at least now they'll have heard of the poem?"

In a similar vein, this user comment on the Dante's Inferno official site keeps cracking me up: "I legitimately have a tattoo of Dante's Inferno on my triceps. I was wonderin if there is any type of help I can get with obtaining the game."

You could probably legitimately obtain one at retail when it comes out, bro. Also PICS PLZ.

[UPDATE: If you missed it in the comments section, my Gamasutra colleague and Idle Thumbs maestro Chris Remo has also weighed in, and expands on it a bit at his blog.]

Ubisoft Has A Crystal Ball!

[cue zelda fortune teller tune, hum along]

Remember when Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot was telling everybody to start getting ready for new hardware, at a time when everyone else -- analysts and people like EA boss John Riccitiello -- were saying to hang in for a long console cycle?

Well, naturally these new possibilities for input tech mean they're both right, in a way, and I just talked to Ubisoft North America president Laurent Detoc about the company's prescience about the future and what it sees on the horizon. Hint, the fact it bought Sin City and 300 special effects studio Hybride back in 2008 has something to do with it.

Ubi made no secret of its cross-media plans during its briefing, of course (I only listened to it on a livestream and zoned out during the James Cameron Show), so I was happy to have the opportunity to ask Detoc a little bit more about what they have in mind for the future. Check it out!

Incidentally, what do you think of Ubi's product pipeline here at E3? I'm not accustomed to paying all that much attention to their games in past years -- with a few exceptions, they're either building casual brands (wise, and they do it well, but I'm not the target audience) or making shooters (and I wouldn't know if they're nice ones, because I don't often play them).

But in recent years, I've been really into some of the stuff they've been trying from a design standpoint with Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia and stuff, even if I'm not convinced they had it precisely right in either of those games. And like I've said in nearly every blog post, Splinter Cell: Conviction is one of the most popular games at E3, and I don't seem to be the only one who thinks so.

I've got another blog post in the works about why I think it's pretty nearly impossible to judge a game from the glimpses we're given at E3 -- too premature. But while it's too early to bank on anything concrete, I do have to say I was pretty impressed with the company's booth this year. At least to the eye, the stuff they've got in the works looks to be of blisteringly high quality (as are a good number of slates this year!) I'll definitely be paying more attention to Ubi from here on out.

Anyhow, in this interview, Detoc visualizes a future where the film is the tie-in product, and the game is the lead -- and to keep one from being a knock-off or cash-in opportunity, Ubisoft believes in integrating tech, assets and production from the get-go, and that's why it's getting a headstart now. What do you think of the idea?

Party Crashin'

We've got a team on the ground here at E3, and each of us has been concentrating on different things. Wait, before I go on, high praise for my colleagues Kris Graft, Chris Remo, Christian Nutt and Brandon Sheffield, who are not only awesome to work with, but have been doing great stuff here. Special thanks to our excellent overlord Simon Carless for looking after us all, and to TinyCartridge/GameSetWatch's Eric Caoili, who's been kind and diligent enough to help us with the news stories we miss while we're in briefings and meetings.

Since like most sites we attack E3 as a team, there've been plenty of things I haven't had a chance to see, and among those is Nintendo. Its booth is enormous and virtually dominates the show floor (where can I get a fluffy white carpet like that?) but I didn't go to its briefing and I haven't had the chance to see much of its stuff firsthand.

I've been concentrating on Microsoft and Sony, mostly, and their big reveals, among them the gesture-based control schemes they each unveiled. One thing I've heard in conversations here and on other internet forums is the idea that the two are "late to the party," so to speak, in the motion control department.

When Wii launched, people called its control scheme a gimmick -- but it turns out that "gimmick" enabled an entirely new audience of gamers, created an unprecedented userbase, and built revenue opportunities that've sustained the industry through an economic decline. In her interview with Christian Nutt, Nintendo's Denise Kaigler talks about starting the trend, and about how the company hasn't forgotten the core.

Now, of course the other two want in. Is it too late, though?

One common criticism against Nintendo is that no software developers can do significantly well on Wii except for Nintendo. This might be true if we're talking about the gamer audience -- what core franchise can do better on Wii than Mario, Metroid and Zelda? But visualize a universe where Nintendo owned only the platform, and a third-party owned those franchises. We wouldn't be having this conversation, necessarily (and so married are the spirit and design philosophy of those franchises to the feel and spirit of Nintendo's hardware tech that it's almost a moot point).

There are third-party successes on Wii. They're just not on your radar. Take-Two has top-seller Carnival Games, and Electronic Arts has had its best Wii launch to date with EA Sports Active just recently. All the casual and kids games you tune out during briefings are the kind of things that sell on Nintendo platforms, as well if not better than the things we can't wait to hear about and buy.

The general opinion seems to be that Microsoft's Natal is more useful to a wider audience than Sony's (I interviewed Sony about its motion control scheme and this idea of a core-versus-casual divide here). That may mean that Microsoft's concept is better positioned for success than Sony's.

Again, though -- there's already an all-audiences-oriented control scheme that works. It's rocketed Nintendo to the lead position in the platform wars. Is it too late for anyone else to compete? What do you think?

No More Sparks On Podcasts

Lots of you asked me to go on Giant Bomb's podcast, so I did -- I would recommend skipping through me on it, though. I'm listening to it being pretty horrified at my blabbing on drunk/exhausted/wired/too loudly. Yikes, sorry everyone ;_; (and special sorry to the Giant Bomb team, srsly was just not aware of myself)

[apt comic is by artist natalie dee]

E3 2009, Day 2, 3, Sony, Wow, Brain Hurts

So, obviously I got busy and got behind on E3 blogging. If you've been following me on Twitter you should be up to speed, but before I flee the convention center for my hotel to collapse briefly before getting plastered, I wanted to drop you some quick links!

You saw my roundup/analysis of Microsoft's briefing yesterday -- I did one for Sony, too. Short version: I liked Sony's presentation better. Watching Microsoft's, I had plenty of moments of "that's interesting," or "that looks cool." Watching Sony's, I had tons of moments of "I want that."

The press section did cheer a lot during Sony's briefing, and it made me wonder. You wouldn't see film critics hollering and cheering at Cannes, would you? (Maybe you would; I wouldn't know, I've never been). There's an idea among the games press that we should be reporters; we should be objective. We shouldn't be fanboys.

But when it was announced that Kojima is making a sequel to MGS3 that covers Big Boss establishing Outer Heaven, I squealed. Out loud. Not because I meant to; I couldn't help it. This is precisely the game I have always wanted (well, I wanted it on console, but hey, I'll take it).

One of the main things I was hoping to get out of E3 was a reinvigoration of my enthusiasm for games themselves. Y'know, they've become work to me; I've felt a little bored and jaded, disinterested in playing new titles, primarily focused on the work of being an industry reporter. That I no longer felt like a gamer in recent months has been a big source of concern to me -- I really feared losing touch with the things that my audience longs for, cares about, gets angry about, excited about, emotional about.

So yeah. I cheered during Sony's conference (and probably a little bit during Microsoft's, too. Splinter Cell: Conviction looks rad) -- and I'm glad I felt the urge to. I don't think that being a fan must preclude me from being a qualified writer -- just because something's personal to me doesn't mean I can't be objective alongside it. In fact, I think being a fan is a necessary component of being able to write effectively for an audience of people interested in games.

Other industries can have their poker faces. I'm having fun here.

Anyway, that was yesterday, and today, I got to talk to a couple of Sony execs about some of the more interesting things from their briefings. Worldwide Studios North America head Scott Rohde talked to me about the company's internal developers and why first-party strength is important to the platform. He also talked LBP and Mod Nation as the first two phases of a broader strategy to build a user-generated toybox genre on the PS3.

Hardware marketing boss John Koller talked to me about going digital with the PSP Go and how the dual download-versus-UMD idea works. I asked Koller what most of you brought up via Twitter -- what's with that price point? Check out my coverage to see what he said.

Hideo Kojima said E3 needs big announcements in order to really work, so he dropped no fewer than four new title announcements. Two of them were the Metal Gears you've already heard of, one online coin-op arcade Metal Gear that will start in Japan and then aim overseas (though I'm skeptical Konami can really launch arcades in the U.S. and Europe in any kind of visible way) -- and then he announced he's supporting Spanish studio MercurySteam on the next Castlevania. Where was IGA? No idea.

They also showed the Silent Hill re-up for Wii, and it made me really, really excited about it. It's not a "Wii-make," thank god, and even "remake" isn't quite the right word. It's a combat-less reimagining that looks really clever, and they've clearly put a great deal of effort in prioritizing emotional horror in the way it's designed.

I've done some other things today and yesterday, interviews and stuff I've yet to write up, so this is just some of my E3 stuff so far. Hit up Gamasutra regularly for your wide-ranging news and analysis! I still recommend Kotaku for up-to-the-minute details and showfloor experiences, and I know the Destructoid army is doing some clever stuff, too.

By the way, this how hardcore Kotaku's staff is: Mike Fahey is ill, half his face is paralyzed, and in Konami's conference his wireless card did not work -- so he liveblogged the entire thing using only his iPhone. That, my friends, is a flippin' soldier.

E3 2009, Day 1: Microsoft, Microsoft, Microsoft

[steven spielberg talks about making games more 'approachable' by removing controllers]

As a longtime core gamer accustomed to a certain kind of culture and feel to my hobby, I was one of those who strongly resisted and resented Microsoft's entry into the console market. They stumbled in a bit ignorantly at first, didn't they? The face they showed the consumer was aggressive and obnoxiously fratboyish; behind the scenes, they were your regular plodding Big Corporate Blue Chip.

To me, first a Sega loyalist and then a PlayStation devotee, they just didn't fit in. In the era of Japanese design dominance, the console that had the FMV-driven RPGs and pretty thinkpieces was the only one worth considering. I never even bought a first-gen Xbox, on principle.

I gave the company like, five years before they gave up on running a hardware platform for video games. When the Xbox 360 came out with an avalanche of hardware failures, I was even more certain that the big Western company with the smug attitude wouldn't make it.

As a journalist, I had to learn to see the merits and shortcomings in all the current platforms, of course, and as an industry-watcher, I slowly began to come around to the wisdom of the company's strategy when I saw the strength of Xbox Live, even though I'm not a multiplayer gamer or even remotely social about gaming.

As a consumer, I found myself electing the platform more and more over the past year or so, being more willing to choose the platform for the major releases I buy on a case by case basis, rather than defaulting to PS3 on principle.

I love my PS3. And hey, I'll always have Final Fantasy to make me feel like it's worth it -- oh, wait, no. Well, okay, Metal Gear Solid.

Not anymore[*].

[an 'alert!' noise heralds the arrival of kojima on microsoft's stage.]

You know I just wrote an article about vaunted hype and slick talk and how I wish companies would leave all that at home so that they could quit disappointing us. Microsoft brings the brag, of course; they always have, and they always will, worse than either of its platform rivals. I went into their briefing with pragmatic cynicism and subtle irritation at the company's bravado. I came out stunned.

As a writer, an industry watcher and a gamer, I have to say that I was more genuinely excited, impressed and enthusiastic about Microsoft's E3 press conference than anything I've seen in a long time. Doubtless you've heard by now about Project Natal -- even still largely in an imperfect prototype phase, Molyneux's concept video of what might be possible down the line with tech like that made my hair stand up on end.

When Microsoft entered the console space, I didn't like the idea that they'd try change the paradigm, the culture, tone and language of my beloved medium as I knew it. I was skeptical that they could. Like many of you, I was also the sort to feel an initial, irrational jerk of resentment when Nintendo did that a few years ago with the Wii.

But things've changed. Much of what the company showed today made my hands shake a little bit at the idea of what the future for games could hold. Part of this is due to the blistering quality of the third-party titles they showed -- I didn't think I'd be into Splinter Cell: Conviction at all, but it looks really amazing! I mean, what I'm saying is I was genuinely impressed, even with a little bit of nostalgic diassociation thinking of "the old days."

I rounded up the important events of Microsoft's press conference and what they might mean over at Gamasutra -- and I'll ask you guys the same question that I heard on everyone's lips as I exited the briefing theater.

What can Sony do, now?

[*still not letting go of wild theory that xbox 360 gets raiden game, ps3 gets big boss game, we'll see tomorrow]