Live From Hurricane Irene

Hi everybody -- sadly, I'm not at PAX like EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY GAMING FRIENDS. I'm coming to you live from a "Zone B Hurricane Bunker" at the border of Bushwick, Brooklyn. The picture you see above you depicts the eerie cast the sky here had yesterday evening, before the inclement weather descended.

...Not an actual bunker. I'm just at home at 3:40 AM watching all-night Irene reports with my cats, Zelda and Yorda. I only had enough duct tape for one window, so I'm going to try not to exhaust my flashlight battery by using the light to play with the cats, who seem entirely unconcerned.

Actually, there's not much to be concerned about just yet; so far there's just been an intense amount of rain, since the brunt of the hurricane won't hit for a few more hours yet. I'm pretty safe where I am, but I'm kind of a disaster fetishist -- check out my Thought Catalog piece on thoughts about the hurricane.

Since the last time I've updated, kind of a lot has happened; I went to MA to visit some video game developers (and my parents!), so here's interview 1, 2 and 3 from my trip to Irrational. The main reason I went to MA will soon be unveiled!

I've done a couple of editorials at Gamasutra, too. I'm ambivalent in the truest sense of the word about the extent to which I've been sucked into Facebook games. Initially I meant to do some research for my monthly Edge column -- by the way, the current print issue features a piece I wrote on what I perceive to be a disconnect between games critics and the average players, and thanks to those of you who've shot some feedback my way on Twitter about that.

But anyway, yeah, I decided to play some Facebook games, and gradually my wall and my notifications list are being overtaken by game spam. It's driving me crazy, and yet I'm still logging into the stupid things every day. I had thought The Sims Social might be a little different, or a little smarter, but it's kind of the worst offender yet. You can read my Gamasutra analysis for details.

If you are of an industry mind, I've got a couple of things for you: Fellow Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris feels the "revolving door", in his words, of executives at Atari is concerning, and I spoke to the company's latest mobile and digital executive hires about their hopes for the future of the venerated brand. Second, what's former Microsoft Games Studios VP Shane Kim doing these days? You got questions, I got answers!

Some of y'all might be playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution, but of my favorite things I'm doing these days is continuing my letter series with my pal Kirk Hamilton (fairly-newly of Kotaku staff!) about the original Deus Ex. I assume all core PC gamers will have a coronary when I say my persistent impression of it is "eh, it's not Metal Gear Solid." But if you pay even a little attention to this blog, you know I'm almost irrationally fangirlish in regards to MGS, so hopefully you can forgive me.

More seriously, I get why everyone loved Deus Ex so much. It's so, so smart, and I'm having a lot of fun with it. If you aren't up-ons, please enjoy The Deus Ex letters part one, two and three.

When Kirk and I did The FF7 Letters at Paste, one of the conclusions at which we mutually arrived is that sometimes stylization is more immersive than what's passing for "realism" these days. Now that it's au courant to do remakes, HD re-releases and the like of beloved games, I've thought about how pushing for lifelike graphics and "realism" can actually make some games ultimately alienating because they don't age well.

If you happen to be a NYLON Guys subscriber, or to see one on the newsstand, please take a look -- I edit the games section, and have kinda quietly been doing so for the better part of 2011. I just finished assembling NYLON Guys' October/November issue. Uh... did you realize how many major, major games are coming out around then? Here's a fun game: Count how many of them are third in their series.

I went to Capcom's Fight Club in New York, where I hung with Hip Hop Gamer and saw ladies dressed as Phoenix and Felicia. Vs. Tekken plays so, so well, for someone like me who's hardly hardcore about fighters. People take fighting games quite seriously, you realize. There was a line around the block to attend the event; a pair of limo drivers on the next corner asked me what all of those men were waiting for. Because it was in the Chelsea neighborhood, they thought it was a gay lifestyle event and approached me to find out what a woman could possibly be doing there. Wince.

Next week, I'll be at Call of Duty XP. I've never been to such a large-scale event around a single franchise. It should be exciting. Shout out if you're going too, and say hi if you see me! You know the world of the FPS isn't my natural habitat, so I've no idea what to expect.

You can imagine I'm a little tired. I'm half-hoping the power goes out this weekend so I can tell everybody I owe Monday deadlines to that I simply couldn't. Maybe I shouldn't say that in public. Oops.

Finally, thanks to Allan Offal for making an MP3 of DBZ's Launch saying "WELL HELLO", as I'd hoped someone would in my last post.

[Today's Good Song: 'Marquee Moon,' Television (my fave storm jam!)]

WELL HELLO!

Had this boyfriend once I lived with who played a concerning number of Dragonball Z video games -- you know, the hybrid fighting/RPG ones. I mean, not that I didn't watch them. Like, a lot, to where whenever I am writing a new blog post, or whenever I'm talking to folks I haven't seen in a long time, I have this urge to go, 'WELL HELLO!' in the voice of Launch.

She was running the shop in one of those games... I think it was Budokai Tenkaichi 3... or maybe it was like, some equipment upgrade station... dang man, I dunno. But when you went in she was all WELL HELLO, and so, yeah. Cred points if any commenters can find a clip of that voice audio for me.

(UPDATE: Here is is! Thank you, OffalAl, for making this for us!)

So. Well, hello -- sorry I've been MIA from SVGL a little bit, but I've taken on some longer-term articles (which, like fruit, will bear slowly, stay tuned!) and had my hands full, and when I'm not doing that, I've been traveling. I'm coming to you live from midnight on Cape Cod, where my parents live.

I was raised here in MA, where summer meant Atlantic Ocean, the cold salted stone that borders it, and all of the shellfish that were dashed on its shores. This time of year, I love to visit whenever I've got time; this weekend we visited the Edward Gorey House, swam on a private beach in Yarmouth, ate lobster (favorite food, if I had to pick) -- working vacation, I suppose.

Personal junk aside, the last time we talked, I had been getting ready to stage the Bad Bitches exhibit's opening at Babycastles' Williamsburg locale, and I am happy to report it went lovely. Motherboard covered the proceedings here, and at Kotaku this month, I used my column to address some of the response to the exhibit and, loosely, the reasons I wanted to stage it.

Related to challenging norms, Brandon Sheffield talks to BioWare Montreal's Manveer Heir (friend of mine; I'm sometimes called "Womanveer") about diversity in game characters, I talk to Metanet's brilliant Mare Sheppard about Toronto's Difference Engine Initiative, and interview Starhawk's senior producer at Sony on inclusiveness.

Finally, my bro Kirk Hamilton (who works at Big K now, whoa) writes on the "Mass Effect beauty pageant" that took place to much controversy on Facebook. As a mixed race woman with pretty non-traditional features I can identify with folks who are tired of media ideals that don't look like them, but how I feel about Blonde FemShep is two things: One, lovely blonde women have probably had enough of being told they can't possibly be smart or admirable, so piss off; and two, please stop saying "FemShep." It drives me crazy.

Or, like, I guess, go ahead. I'm pretty not-into Mass Effect, so you guys have fun. I presume most of you guys like Mass Effect for the same reasons I like Twilight: trope-heavy pair bonding in the environment of beloved fantasy cliches where it's fun to laugh at yourself, or, at the very least, to laugh at yourself while secretly being kind of serious about it. Pair bonding is quintessential. I wrote about it here.

Preceding article has nothing to do with video games, bee-tee-dubs. You know how important I think it is that we enjoy things that have nothing to do with video games. Like music! So if you're on Spotify, please add this 1990S MUSIC PLAYLIST, entitled "liquid television," an enormous 11-hour trip back to an era when flannel wasn't ironic. You're welcome.

[Today's Good Song: Broken Water, 'Peripheral Star']