Cough Cough

This is the worst day ever. All week I've had a serious flu, have fallen behind on work, will miss the weekend's Halloween parties and to make matters worse, I've got to MOVE TO A NEW APARTMENT this Sunday, which means instead of resting I have to get my house packed up.

Life is hard. It's only a little bit harder than Demon's Souls, praise for which forms the spine of my latest Kotaku feature. If you want to make me feel better you can a. pray and b. read the article. It includes a really fun anecdote from the game's producer about how getting stranded in the snow with a lot of other drivers inspired the idea for the game's multiplayer.

So read it, and send me healing thoughts! I'm totally a Black Phantom over here and I need to be resurrected!

Hopefully when I'm well I can explain a little better why I'm so interested in meaningful challenges in games right now. Or maybe you can discuss in the comments and arrive at a definition of "meaningful challenge" on your own.

Assume The Party Escort Submission Position

It's my birthday!

Since none of you have any control over whether or not the Yankees get to the World Series, what you can give me is to keep yourselves entertained and talk amongst yourselves until after the weekend, because between the anniversary of my existence and CMJ, I -- now let's be honest here -- am not likely to be sober for even a New York minute until then.

Thanks for making my life great, SVGL readers.

Small Bites

When making yesterday's "I'm so busy" excuses rationalizations for not posting frequently, I forgot to mention something else cool: I'll also be contributing some reviews to AV Club's Sawbuck Gamer section, where we look at smaller titles, many of them indie or off-the-beaten-path, that can be had for less than $10. I recently wrote for the section about Tyler Glaliel's IndieCade Gameplay Award winner Closure, which pretty much blew my mind. The agility of bite-sized, brilliantly-simple approaches to game design even as megabucks and mega-values continue marching on in the traditional console space never ceases to amaze. I'm glad we have both approaches.

On the same topic, Gamasutra had an interview yesterday with the co-founders of Odd Gentlemen, creators of upcoming, buzzworthy XBLA title The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom. Cool dudes -- you should read the whole thing, but this bit stands out to me when I think of Closure:

"It's like they get really impactful in 10 seconds, whereas you might play a Final Fantasy game, and you don't give a shit until the eighth hour mark. That's when it really connects to you. Who needs that? Exactly like you said, you can make a poignant, small experience that gets to the core of what you want to feel and experience it. It's wonderful."

True that. Oh, we also had an interview I did yesterday with a guy from the Need For Speed games. The only "car game" I like is Midnight Club Los Angeles, but I didn't realize that the guys who do the physics in the Need For Speed series -- recent ones, at least -- get to go try the cars out all day on a closed circuit track with help from pro racers, so they know how it's supposed to look, sound and feel for players. Now that's gotta be a fun job.

In other news, some of you who follow me on Twitter may have seen me mention Kill Screen, the swank new gaming mag being assembled by some of the writers I respect most, in gaming or anywhere. Some of you might have even helped donate for Kill Screen's fundraising (thank you!) and secured yourself a copy.

Now, you can read a little more about the folks behind the project. I'm kicking in a small piece for the magazine too, which is probably news to my editor. Hey, Chris? When I said "this morning" I meant, like, Australia time or something. It's coming, cross my heart! I'm almost done!

Reviving For The Fight

Thanks for being so patient with the somewhat sparse posting schedule lately. Been so busy -- but hopefully with stuff you'll like.

First up: I have fallen into a black hole, my friends -- my waking free time (ha ha) has been devoured lately by Atlus and From Software's Demon's Souls. This surprises me, since I'd never expect, given my usual tastes, to fall in love with a hardcore dungeon slog.

Of course, that's not all it is. Demon's Souls confronts an issue on which I've staunchly whined for about a year now -- the obsessive design focus on accessible games gradually eating away at opportunities for engagement by removing the kinds of challenges that help us grow. No, a game like this is not for everyone, but as I said only recently, it doesn't need to be. What it offers is a polished, brilliantly-plotted and precise experience for a player whose brain likes to be itched in that way.

How, you ask? Well, onto item two: I've started reviewing for the Onion's AV Club, and for my first full-length review, I aimed to isolate what's so pleasurable about this title. Give it a read, and if you're a Demon's Souls fan (or non-fan), have at the comments to share your feelings on it.

If you think my experience with the pleasantly-unkind Demon's Souls vindicates what I suppose you could interpret as Nintendo fatigue on my part in recent months, however, you'd be wrong.

Last week I went to a hotel in Manhattan with some other journos to talk to Miyamoto about New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and I came

away impressed -- both with the game, which I didn't want to put down, and with the company's stubborn adherence to its philosophies even when they seem bafflingly out-of-step with current trends.

As you know, I'm not a big multiplayer gamer. I've historically disliked even local multiple-player free-for-alls, even Smash Bros. and Mario Kart. But lately, when I have non-gamer friends over, guess what we do? We play Super Mario World together, and that's more fun for us than any online multiplayer experience, any cutting edge anything -- we had an okay time with Beatles Rock Band, and then we went back to Virtual Console.

(Speaking of, Beatles Rock Band is only having an okay time itself, but MTV seems happy as long as it beats Activision).

Succinctly put, New Super Mario Bros. Wii is an update on what we loved about the SNES era, while its multiplayer focus adds an entirely new angle on things. Read how Miyamoto explained it -- his consistent ability to understand what's fun about video games even when it's tough to isolate in succinct design logic is why he's where he is today, and why Nintendo keeps surprising us. For yet more Miyamoto, read his interview with Popular Mechanics, wherein he explains why Mario is a plumber with a big nose (something I always wanted to ask).

I'm even sold on the "Super Guide" in practice, which I found a terrible idea in concept. Nintendo has found ways to make even playthrough-guide movies tickle the hardcore in us, and somehow manages to make a strong case for its oft-questioned position on things like user friendliness, online multiplayer, downloadable content and more. Read that one, too!

Funny, but when I visited Nintendo in the same week I'd been obsessing on Demon's Souls, I expected almost comical diametric opposites, and instead I found common threads. Hopefully I'll get to write more on this stuff very soon.

Except I'm not budging on Bowser's Inside Story. I do not want to know the story of Bowser's insides; it's a matter of principle, now.

Digital Days

At Gamasutra today, I talked to Direct2Drive guy Jamie Berger for a really fascinating look at just how quickly digital distribution has grown up. It's amazing how fast it's happening; when you think about it, it was really only yesterday that full-size downloadable games were just a way publishers could try to put some extra legs on their catalog titles. It's affected the casual space, too -- it's hard to even recall now that PopCap used to be just a portal.

Of course, how far we are off from that mythical day when no one buys games at retail anymore is still an unanswered question (assuming we'll ever even get there!), and cloud computing and streaming services on the horizon put an extra smudge on our crystal ball.

But much of the response to my article from Gamasutra commenters is aimed at GameStop, and how so many people hope it'll just disappear.

Do you have any GameStop horror stories? Everyone does, but I mean... I go there anyway. 'Cause I'm lazy. If you're a hater, do you have experiential reasons for disliking the retailer, or is it just a Big Evil Corporation, which is Mean?

And how do you buy your games? I've started a new sidebar poll to gauge how prevalent certain distro methods are for you all, because my attempt to stage a massively-attended Metroid-versus-Vania supremacy poll fell pretty flat. Not even 300 votes? Y'all have let me down.

The final result was 176 votes for Super Metroid, 119 for SotN, but you don't care, do you. You don't care at all! Excuse me, I've got a pillow to sob into for a while.

Okay, I'm all right now. Bonus digital distro material from our network: GamerBytes' Ryan Langley shrewdly points out ten things PlayStation Network needs to clean up before it can compete with XBLA from a storefront perspective. My usage of both services, personally, is pretty equal, but I've still gotta agree with him.

If You're Not Having Fun, Play Something Else

"If a player's not having fun, that might mean there's something wrong with the game. But it also might mean the player's simply playing the wrong game. Let's use design innovation to make them the right games, instead of trying to fix what ain't broke.

As we look to the future, let's refine the traditions of our past, not regret them as design flaws just because they're frustrating to more moderate audiences. Those big babies should just go play Wii Fit or something."

Yeah. Yeah!! Go read my new Gamasutra editorial today, ya big babies. Because I'm kidding. Kinda.

Agree? See also Can Nintendo Take 'Accessibility' Too Far? and In Defense Of The Classic Controller.

Writing About Games Does Not Make You A Games Journalist

"I know the line behind us is long. There is an army of bloggers and tweeters ready to step into our roles. No one is questioning their enthusiasm or passion for the medium. But these people still need experience; they need seasoning; they need to grow up. We need adults filling these roles, not inchoate 20-somethings anxious to declare that Modern Warfare 2 has 'the best graphics ever.'

At a time when games are growing up, when the medium is getting more sophisticated and adult, we are losing our most sophisticated and adult critics. We are losing our most articulate voices."

-- Scott Jones, 'It's Hard Out There for a Game Journalist'

[This is also why I correct people when they try to call me a 'veteran.' Doing something long enough to earn a full-time job does not a veteran make.]

Don't Even Play

[lookin' good, hottie]

Sometimes I wish "people in the real world" were more interested in video games, so that I could talk about 'em with them. Other times, I wish they'd never talk about them ever-ever.

I've developed a case-in-point: It seems people are more impressed or excited to hear what I do for a living than they were two or three years ago. The checkout girl at the drugstore next door, for example, gleefully revealed she is a Sims fanatic, on seeing me wear the MySims hoodie I practically live in. This kind of thing makes me feel good.

A lot of times, though, for some reason people (mostly dudes) decide to react to learning about my work by threatening, good-naturedly if enviously, to beat me at video games, or by asserting they play more video games than I do ("you actually play them?" is the stupidest question you could probably ask someone who tells you "I write about video games," but I get it a lot).

And I'm all, pssh, Kid. Don't even.

And he'll be all, "okay, fine, what's your favorite video game, like, ever?" (yes, there is a script, because this happens fairly often)

So I'll go, like, "Symphony of the Night or Metal Gear Solid 3."

And the dude will never know what Symphony of the Night is, and so I'll be all, "c'mon, kiddo, you're trying to step up to me and you've never heard of one of the greatest games ever made?" Because, like, y'know, me and MGS 3, we could have a debate about that (or you could, and I'll plug my ears or ignore you, but it could be done, let's say) but SotN's pretty quintessential.

So who's more obnoxious: The random bartender who says he can P\X/n me at every video game because he (slow, polite applause) beat Halo 2? (P.S., is he being sexist, or does competitive testosterone crop up when "regular people" discuss video games, no matter who with?)

Or me, for my tch, puh-lease, you never heard of Katamari Damacy response?

What're your experiences with the weird line between "us" and "them?" Are you annoyed that I keep calling them "people in the real world?" What're we, then?

By the way, that bartender probably could kick my ass at Halo. I play a lot of video games, but am not, to be quite honest, notably good at too many of 'em. But let's not tell him that, huh?