Game Of The Year!

So, we've done it again this year -- done a mammoth staff top ten games at Gamasutra. Please check it out!

My "personal favorite" game of the year is Bayonetta. It was inventive, interesting and well-executed. I'm pleased that it seems to be based on a strange vision, not on a "what will sell" market-research parade (as far as that goes, they probably got to 'naked chick' and then stopped).

I'm pretty sure most of the games in that top list will get sequels of some kind; some have announced them already, even. But as impressed as I am with the number one game, I feel kind of done with its world and its conventions. As it is there's no way I put as much time into our number seven game as I did into its predecessor.

But the idea of a Bayonetta 2, which seems possible although unannounced, of course, makes me excited. I would be eager to see what they'd expand on or polish more or deepen. In fact, just writing the blurb in the top ten made me want to go and put Bayonetta on again. That emotion means something to me.

It's strange. I feel that we've never seen such a dense crop of excellent and diverse games as we have in 2010 (although 2008 stands out in my memory). And yet I am at something of a loss to really feel much for any of them. They've sown no permanent furrows in my memory. I'm simultaneously impressed and disengaged.

Maybe because I'm well-installed in my career now and am trained to be less fan, more observer? I dunno. The idea that "something's missing" from the world of the AAA blockbuster isn't new. In fact, I don't think that there's anything "missing" this year, per se. Like, it's great. I just didn't fall in love this year.

Anyway. In case you didn't see it, earlier this year I wrote about how crazy bad-ass Bayonetta is a really cool game character in spite of -- no, because she's hypersexy-unreal. Oh, yeah, and while I'm thinking about that piece?

Tsk, oh, Leigh Alexander, you'll say anything to pander to your majority-male readership, won't you? No, fuck off. That was just one of the reactions to an article I cared about this year that made me realize that I am not interested in reactions to my articles.

Of course you're allowed to disagree with things I write or even insult me. Free country. I just don't have to care that you're doing that. You might have noticed the comments on SVGL are off. That decision has come at the expense of my traffic, but I don't really mind. I would rather enjoy what I do again.

I am pleased that people can no longer register their immediate, unconsidered reactions to everything I say. I hope this will also encourage people to distill out issues that are actually meaningful to them and discuss them in their own online spaces. If one really has something one feels one needs to say to me or about me, there's email, which I reserve the right not to read nor to respond to.

I am very grateful to you for your readership; should it be your holiday I hope you have a safe and happy one with your dear ones, and should it not be your holiday, I hope you at least get some downtime because of the other holidayers.

Fight!

So, you saw this lawsuit, right? I feel like at least one of the people whose name appears in the complaint has diligently studied this article of mine.

I'm no lawyer, but it looks like the people who are in the deepest 'ish' are West and Zampella, if Activision turns out to be able to prove any of this. And I am told little off-the-record anecdotes by people who would know that seem to suggest that the behavior on their part -- specifically as concerns being difficult to Activision and Treyarch -- is at least plausible.

I have seen Jason West in person only once in my life; it was at Bungie's Halo Reach booth, where he was shuttling in to see a private demo.

But, you know, I don't know. Numerous lines in these legal documents are redacted, primarily to protect EA, according to the notes on them, but Activision is promising to try to get that information unsealed. Surely all of the facts remain to be determined by a court. It's unseemly for a member of the press to armchair-speculate. But you guys can do that all you want!

ANYWAY. Tension between Activision and EA has been brewing for some time and becomes increasingly uglier. This is the ugliest yet. So! It's time to choose your sides. Who is the evillest empire?!

Renowned academic, designer and satirist Ian Bogost, of Cow Clicker fame, is offering Facebook users the opportunity to show, via bovine demonstration, which side you support in this battle royale. Do you work best in an environment of "pessimism and fear", or do you like "a mean BBQ"? Which of these two execs really got the horns put on him when West and Zampella Respawned?

"Today we settle disputes in the courtroom or the boardroom," said Bogost, speaking exclusively to SVGL. "But in different times men clicked to the death to resolve their differences. Thanks to the power of the Web, once again we can let the people decide! Click your cow to victory! Click it for democracy and truth and justice! Click!"

Play Cow Clicker, pick either Bobby Kowtick or John Riccowtiello and show your support. On Facebook. Which is about being social and sharing your feelings on things, right?

PS: Cow Clicker was named one of 2010's top 10 Cult Hits on today's Gamasutra top five by GD Mag editor Brandon Sheffield.

PPS: This cowfight may or may not have been my idea

'Virtual Reality'

I received an interesting press release and I had several reactions to it, but rather than say anything I decided I'd just post it whole here and see what you guys thought. I opened the comments for you.

Virtual Worlds Pioneer Brings Fiancée Back From The Dead In Virtual Reality

Hollywood, CA – December 21, 2010 – Virtual worlds pioneer, Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs, has revealed that he has brought his fiancé back from the dead as an avatar, and part of the launch of his latest virtual destination, the new Club NEVERDIE. The controversial entrepreneur believes that virtual reality will be the means by which humanity transcends death itself, and has taken the first step towards this with the inclusion of the avatar representing his late fiancée, Tina Leiu, who passed away suddenly in 2005. Two weeks ago Jacobs made worldwide headlines with the sale of the first Club NEVERDIE, based on a virtual asteroid, for a new world record $635,000 USD.

One of the stunning central locations found at the new Club NEVERDIE is the exotic Tiki beach resort with private houses and ‘The Island Girl Spa’ dedicated to Tina Leiu, who was known in the online gaming world as the avatar, ‘Island Girl’. Jacobs explains how he has kept Tina’s spirit alive in his new virtual destination. “Tina was a beautiful Samoan Princess and, in addition to her career as a singer and actress, was also a licensed therapist and healer. One of her unfulfilled dreams was to open a Spa in American Samoa where her family was from. By creating ‘The Island Girl Spa" at Club NEVERDIE, I'm able to in some way fulfil her last ambition. We've also created an Avatar in her likeness and she automatically revives anyone who dies gaming on the island, bringing another level of meaning to the name Club NEVERDIE. For me the return of Island Girl at the new Polynesian Club NEVERDIE brings everything full circle and represents an important statement to the online community and the world; that virtual reality is the place where we can transcend death, perhaps not on a literal level right now, but very possibly in the future. I plan to continue to lay the foundation for that future with the virtual worlds developed by NEVERDIE Studios.”

Tina Leiu was a popular singer, actress and gamer in her own right. In 2004 she narrowly survived a sudden attack of myacarditis brought on by the flu. During her convalescence she spent many hours as Island Girl inside the virtual Entropia Universe. When she passed away suddenly in February 2005 as a result of complications stemming from the myacarditis, MindArk, the developers of the Entropia Universe built a virtual memorial inside the world to allow the gaming community to pay their respects. In a touching effort to keep Tina's memory alive, Jacobs would occasionally allow their son, Taliesin, to log the Island Girl avatar online to play inside the virtual world. However, the developers finally requested the avatar be retired, so reluctantly Jacobs logged Island Girl out for the final time at Club NEVERDIE in 2007. He comments, “I was very disheartened to shut her avatar down in the first place. I feel like virtual reality is ultimately a place where we can live forever. It really went against my hopes and beliefs for its future to have to retire Tina's avatar and face the incredibly painful death process for a second time. Now both I and our son Taliesin can feel close to Tina once again, knowing her avatar is there waiting for us every time we go online and visit Club NEVERDIE. It’s actually a beautiful tribute to her that she would have loved.” Taliesin agrees, stating, “I think it’s awesome. It feels really good to see the avatar because it feels like my Mom is still there playing the game.”

The new and improved Club NEVERDIE gaming destination cost over a million dollars to develop and is this time located on NEXT Island, a free to play, virtual tropical island paradise where time travel is the main attraction and the focal point of a real cash economy where players can buy, sell and profit from the trade of virtual goods for real cash, with an exchange rate fixed to the US Dollar. Users can visit a range of incredible virtual environments and can of course, visit the Island Girl Spa, safe in the knowledge that should they die in the game, Island Girl herself will always be there to revive them.

ENDS

Online Gaming Continues To Suck

"Developers and publishers have not come up with more interesting ways to play together online. Online games continue to suck. It’s generally... melees, bad behavior and poor matchmaking. There are more ways to play together.”

--Billy Pidgeon, " The Year In Review: Game Biz Analysts On The Worst Happenings Of 2010"

I FIND FIREFOX

[this is my kitten, yorda -- thanks to my friend @facepaintz for the 'yorda firefox meme']


[Today's Good Song: Foxes In Fiction, 'School Night']

JASPER HALE

Have you seen this video yet, about Rockstar's facial motion capture work for L.A. Noire? It's like nothing I've ever seen before, even in tech demos. I mean, games have gotten ever more graphically and technically sophisticated with every passing year, so I suppose I ought not to be surprised that this kind of thing is possible.

At the same time, I watch this and I feel unprepared; a little quiver of panic swells and I want to know quick, are we ready for this? I notice that the acting isn't excellent. For the first time watching footage of a video game, I visually notice the acting, not "the animation." I don't know how much to blame the actor, either -- maybe they have to exaggerate facial movements for the sake of the rigging.

This is a really interesting question: Do we want games to be so real that we can critique the actor performances? Have we ever had to consider this issue before? Will the Oscars ever consider "best actor in an interactive entertainment piece"?

I disliked Heavy Rain for a few reasons, but primarily was that it cleaved so close to real -- while failing enough to be unsettling. Doofy, stilted expressions, motions, on otherwise lifelike beings. It was a schism that made me uncomfortable. What am I going to do about L.A. Noire?

Of course, things can be absurd and still be desirable. There's just, y'know, a 'way to do it'. ... Damn, anyway... this is my article on how 'Twilight' is better than 'real life'...

Currently feeling like I want some vampire bro to carry me away to a snow mountain... at first I thought I was 'team Edward' then when I watched 'Twilight Eclipse' I felt like I might be 'team Jacob'... couldn't decide, watched 'Eclipse' again and then went 'I'm totally team Jasper Hale'.

You can add that to my nonexistent Wikipedia page: 'videogame journalist Leigh Alexander has declined to take sides in the Edward v Jacob fight, expressing 'strong affinity' for Jacob but then deferring by expressing publicly [via her blog] that she prefers Jasper Hale'

'lvml', Merry Xmas...


[Today's Good Song: Robyn, 'Call Your Girlfriend']

Haute Of Breath

If you haven't had enough retrospectives yet, Slate is doing its year-end conversation between prominent critics on games. It's one of my favorite features generally (oh-em-gee so flippin' stoked to have participated last year). This year, in addition to Slate's MC Chris Suellentrop, there is my friend Tom Bissell, NYT's Seth Schiesel and a dude with whom I confess to being totes unfamiliar, and they seem to be having a good conversation.

As I type this they seem to be debating how seriously to take video games; Schiesel likes Call of Duty: Black Ops best and says that it's fine for games just to be fun; Bissell says fun is not the point, that Black Ops is cynical and that Schiesel's favorite of last year, Dragon Age, is "boner-killing" (yes, thank you).

I have to side with Tom here. I definitely think Seth has a point about a contingent of haute critics so desperate to be taken seriously and/or for games to be treated like "art" that they elect to see depth where fallows lie; in last year's roundup I think I chided my friend Jamin for weighing Uncharted's Drake, whom I see as a fairly basic action-hero construct, a knockoff of Indiana Jones, as, like, a meaningful protagonist (despite me finding the franchise to be one of the finest-crafted couple of games we currently have to hold up). I cringe at my own past blogitorials, where I whipped a few poignant play moments into frenzies of gravitas (no, I will not point them out).

Seth says we should just be past that, and if we like blowing things up in Black Ops, it's cool to just admit it, like the millions and millions of people who've bought the game. Games are accepted now, so we no longer really have to worry about their souls. Just like what you like!

I am not the biggest fan of that line of thinking, because it embraces the idea we want a furtherance of the medium of gaming just so that we can be "accepted" or "feel cool" (the main idea of my column in Kill Screen Issue Zero), when I think some of us just want to see how far games can go, want them to be richer and more inclusive.

Either way. Black Ops is a spiritually dead piece of work, and I don't want to reward that. And that's all beside the point: Even if games, or just some games, were just for fun, Black Ops isn't that fun.

I think there's a fair lot of people so desperate not to take games seriously that they see "fun"where there isn't any.

Ultimately, when intelligent people get together to discuss their favorite games, the conversation turns out similar: Why do we play? What's good and valuable about this game versus that? What are our values as critics? I'm not always prepared for these debates, especially as I think the people involved won't always agree. I get tired just reading the back-and-forth. So tired! That's why when people want to ask me what's my game of the year I blurt it out and then I wander off so I don't have to discuss it.

Oh, yeah, my game of the year. Not time for that yet. But! The developer of my game of the year is listed in my colleague's article today on 2010's best developers. Actually, there are two developers listed in here whose games could top my list, but I am trying to work out where to draw the line between "the best" and "my favorite", which I am not convinced are the same. Sometimes I think it matters and sometimes I don't.

[today's good song: galleries + foxes in fiction, 'borders']

Awwwww

I love holiday card time. This De Blob one is especially nice -- THQ's putting some effort in this year, I've heard, as Kotaku got a cake and Destructoid's has Mr. Destructoid in it.

It's a damn good thing no one sent me any cake. I am getting an early start on my New Year's resolutions for health, and oh my god I am weak in the knees when I see fondant.

Bites

We're continuing Gamasutra's end-of-year retrospectives, and today I kick in the top five controversies of 2010. Do the thing where you try to guess em before you click on them and go see how many you got right. Because, you know, if you picked something different from me, you're wrong, naturally.

I stick up for a friend in this Bitmob piece, and I also have some things to say about Twilight, of all things. Such a fundamentally useless and vulnerable heroine appeals to so many people for a reason -- when sexism is escapism for the modern feminist? I dunno, man.

Please accept my apologies: I haven't done Today's Good Song on here for a while. To make up for it, have an entire music mix from me, my second Fall-season mix, download here.

Finally, here's actual gameplay for Catherine.

ONE Music Post -- My Favorite Albums & Songs Of 2010

Indulge me, willya? These are just 'my favorites', things I loved most/listened to most, I am not a 'music critic' and dunno what is 'the best'.

my top 20 albums
20. four tet - there is love in you
19. twin sister - color your life 
18. woods - echo lake
17. perfume genius -- learning
16. mountain man - made the harbor
15. amen dunes - murder dull mind
14. junip - fields
13. royal baths - litanies
12. warpaint - the fool
11. green gerry - odd tymes
10. the bitters -- east general
9. cloud nothings -- turning on
8. white denim -- last day of summer
7. art museums -- rough frame
6. ariel pink's haunted graffiti -- before today
5. herbcraft -- herbcraft discovers the bitter water of agartha
4. deerhunter -- halcyon digest
3. tame impala -- innerspeaker
2. white fence -- white fence
1. joanna newsom -- have one on me


my top 10 songs (that aren't on any of those records):
10. born stoked -- wet illustrated
9. no way -- pepepiano
8. pure -- blackbird blackbird
7. take it all -- omnivore
6. marathon -- tennis
5. wolf pyramid -- night manager
4. lately (deuxieme) -- memoryhouse
3. horchata -- vampire weekend (embarrassing, but the most-played does not lie)
2. fingertips -- holy spirits x gem club
1. lawn knives -- GOBBLE GOBBLE

i left out obvious stuff like kanye on purpose. also, compilations and stuff don't "count" but boy did carissa's wierd's long-awaited 'they'll only miss you when you leave' get a lot of play here too.

back to regularly-scheduled videogame programming!

Hairy Palms

The refrain about how tacky and misrepresentative the Spike VGAs are is so prevalent now that I can't believe anyone still asks me what I think of the VGAs or did I watch them or blah blah blah. But miraculously people still ask; I haven't responded in a structured way since 2008, so it's a good thing Jeff Green played appropriate complainant this year, saying what I would have said if I felt it'd make a difference.

We spend a lot of time saying "video games aren't like this" and yet the stereotypes persist. Maybe video games are like this, and we're a vocal minority. Isn't that a terrifying thought?

This fascinating New Yorker profile of Shigeru Miyamoto may not tell you anything much you fans don't already know about Nintendo's heart and soul, but the tone and word choices are illuminating: The article illustrates the bizarre paradox between the seriousness of people who make games and the way they're generally perceived by others, with the product an inscrutable plain lying in between.

For the most part, the piece refrains from judgment, but does contain one particularly damning quote: "The best analogue for [video games'] combined disreputability and ubiquity may be masturbation." And if you don't know where the author gets that, and if your instinct is to splutter and argue and ignore what elements of our business and culture might have led him to that conclusion, you're in denial.

So what's the big deal about the Spike VGAs and aren't I excited about the marketing-coordinated super-reveals of pre-rendered cinematic trailers of games that are at least a year away and aren't I so happy we're getting any mainstream celebration at all? Tch.

It's a marketing blitz; it's an advertising show. But can't we sell the scale, scope and excitement of new video games without being like this about it?

Also, to throw levity on the concept of Being A Total Douche, reflection on this parody "GDC commercial" that Mega64 did last year might be in order. It never stops being funny.

Finally, for other, bigger disappointments in the game industry's year, check out my colleague's retrospective today. On Friday, I contributed a piece on 2010's biggest surprises, and the picture is very cute.

Trends Of The Year

So every year at Gamasutra we do these retrospective lists about everything. Like, everything. We'll be doing one every day or so from now til year end. Today, I contributed a Top 5 Major Trends Of 2010 list, so feel free to check that out, if you're into it.

Sexy Jerks

If I go on Twitter or read blog comments or engage with strangers from the internet for too long, I become annoyed and depressed. So I set about a new game of Fable 3 last night, resolving to be the biggest asshole Albion had ever seen. Like, I was just gonna pretty much kill shit, I said to myself. I was gonna have like five wives living in hovels and wear mad tattoos and belch on everyone.

It wasn't just that I was feeling sort of irritable and wanted to expunge some anger. I mean, Fable 3 provides for me to be pretty much as big of a chicken-kicking scumbag as I want, so it's not like it's even real rule-breaking. It's more I've never been very good at playing the bad guy in games. I want everything to come out nice. I care what people think.

When I'm looking at some happy video game villager, I just don't have it in me to do the wrong thing. I've watched friends playing Fallout 3 blowing away innocent folk and their two-headed cows with a sort of envious glee, but with a vague anxiety in my gut. It's not I want to be a goody-goody; I think moral ambiguity makes interesting characters.

It's just I kind of want to make a really bad mess of my gameworlds and laugh about it and not take it seriously. I wish I could say it's because of really compelling design that I'm never able to do it, but no. I'm just hard-wired to be a good girl. I think that's why people really like Grand Theft Auto games so very much: There's no good-guy option. Messing the world up is what there is to do.

I mean, we'll see. I don't have to shoot a housewife in the face in order to be a really big jerk, so I might still be able to achieve my dreams.

Speaking of wanting everything to look nice, I'm for some reason preoccupied with how my hero looks. I futz around with his hair and outfits until I think he looks "sexy." I can't really tell what drives my character-creation decisions most of the time; sometimes I go with an intangible "tone" that suits what I hope to get out of the story, others I make people I'm attracted to, or sometimes I develop an idea of a character and then assign looks that go with.

But I do notice there's a strong correlation for me, when I'm playing a game that requires me to make my own hero, between physical attraction and character admiration. I don't want a bad-looking person. I have to stare at them for hours. I'm objectifying them like paper dolls. Is that what male game designers do when they're creating sexy female heroines -- you know, the kind we have so much trouble with? Kinda scary thought.

In The Habit

So, a report that aired on the BBC about "video game addicts" is basically bullshit, right? I didn't see it, but that's what everyone seems to be saying. Of course, "everyone" would get their panties in a bunch any time it's implied that video games are anything less than a perfect, virtuous and ideal use of one hundred percent of your time. That's why John Walker's RPS piece, being fairly measured, is my favorite response to the documentary.

Of course, even the largest and noblest of media outlets can't resist a sensational angle, which is why the "games addiction" phenomenon can be so exciting to folks like the BBC. In the '90s, it was all about "internet addiction", remember? However, it's more than sensationalism that makes the angle a little problematic. It's that video games are here getting stuck into a larger social problem: The psychiatrizing (allow me to use a made-up word) of everything, and the excessive abuse of clinical terms to explain away coping difficulties or to compartmentalize larger life problems into their own individual symptoms and syndromes.

Think about how many times you've used clinical terms over the past few years. You're addicted to True Blood; you're "a little OCD" about doing your dishes, you're "depressed" about your sports team losing, you're "having a panic attack" about running late to work. Of course, in the vast majority of cases, you are not actually. You're exaggerating. Maybe because every other nightly news ad is a prescription drug commercial, making the idea of widespread disease frighteningly normal. Maybe because your world is so crowded with the noise of social media and awareness of mass culture that you feel you need to use hyperbole to be heard.

Who knows. But when we talk about "addiction" to non-chemical things, there's a very significant difference between "a person is unable to stop repeating a behavior because they suffer extreme emotional and/or physical stress when they try" and "a person refuses to stop repeating a behavior and denies it is harming them." The former is addiction. The latter is someone who's just failing to develop as a human.

The type of people in this documentary, people who play 20 hours a day of WoW until their relatives become concerned, are not addicts. They're just losers. And if they didn't have WoW, they'd probably be doing something else to the unhealthy exclusion of all else.

That being said, I continue to be alarmed by some gamers' refusal to even examine their play habits. Defensively, they claim, "would people be complaining if I read books for 20 hours a day? What about film buffs who spend all their time on movies?" People would probably be complaining, yes. But guess what: Game designers create compulsion loops on purpose. They want you to feel invested in goals and satisfied by achieving them. That's not inherently harmful, but maybe it is to vulnerable people?

News flash: The metric of an online game's success is how many hours people are spending playing. Engagement metrics are how projects get funded and remain commercially viable. It is in the designer's best interest to make sure you stay playing, that you keep coming back. Again, that's not to say "people are designing addiction" or "making games people will want to return to and enjoy for long periods is wrong." It's just to say that it's irresponsible to ignore this fact, if you want to have a reasoned say in any "addiction" conversation.

So maybe "game addiction" is an of-yet unsubstantiated concept. But those defensive gamers aren't doing anyone any favors by vehemently rationalizing the fact they push buttons all day to the exclusion of all else. They just make normal gamers look bad.

People die in Chinese internet cafes, of exhaustion or starvation, bottles of pee under their desk. What's going on there? We're going to have to have good answers to these questions as games become a bigger and bigger part of society, so I hope auto-apologists develop an interest in being ready.

[Since people complained in comments: I should probably clarify that I am not categorizing psychological addiction as people who are losers that just don't do anything else with their lives.

I'm saying that psychological addiction is an actual problem, not just people who don't see anything better to do with themselves than play video games and refuse to try. There are plenty of people who have legitimate psychological dependencies on games or other behaviors.

But let's look closely at the issue instead of just calling someone with no life an "addict." The over-diagnosing of American society leads a lot of people to complain that they are "addicts" as an excuse to make a developmental failure or laziness into a real problem. A large number of people would rather claim they have a "condition" than deal with life; it's like when people are dangerously obese in the absence of a medical cause and, shrugging, blame their genes without addressing their diet.

the thing i'm saying here is that psychological addiction to games is likely to be a genuine issue that is not able to be correctly examined because of all the people who use clinical addiction as an excuse for their failure to nurture an emotional life, and because of all the people who are so defensive about their focus on games that they don't want to look at or talk about the issue. if you are an addict or have known one, as i have, this is what should offend you, the aimless firing of the word into an important discussion.]