Acid for Blood

Metroid Director Yoshio Sakamoto Profiled on MDb

Yoshio Sakamoto, Director of the the majority of Nintendo-developed Metroid games, will speak at the Game Developers Conference this year. Sakamoto also happens to be the Director of my favourite Metroid game, and the game that (if pressed) I might call my favourite game of all time: Super Metroid.

The Metroid Database has an extensive feature article about Yoshio Sakamoto:

Sakamoto has become a kind of enigmatic director at Nintendo to outsiders, being overshadowed by the work of Miyamoto and Miyamoto's apprentice, Eiji Aonuma (Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess). In some cases, Sakamoto's role has been overlooked or underemphasized and credited to Gumpei Yokoi, who served mainly as the producer or supervisor of Sakamoto's games rather than as a creative director. So Sakamoto is Nintendo's 'other' director, one of the most creative men in the company, yet also one of the least known, considering his body of work. As such, he has not been as widely sought out by the press, but his recent work with Other M is likely to change that, catapulting him into the spotlight.

The in-depth article details Sakamoto's many years of experience at Nintendo, design philosophies and approaches, and discusses the background of Super Metroid's development. It's a really interesting read, particularly since Sakamoto is not as high profile a creative director as other Nintendo luminaries.

[Read]

Mirror's Edge: Burdened by Words

A recent GameSetWatch post, "Design Diversions: The Video Game as a Picture Book", by Andrew Vanden Bossche discussed how Mirror's Edge could have been a stronger game overall, art even, had it not been for the tacked-on plot:

There is more emotion in a half second of Mirror’s Edge gameplay than in its entire script. While it's disappointing that the dialogue couldn’t live up to the standards of the art direction and gameplay, this is DICE’s success, not their failure. Faith’s movements are highly detailed, from the impact of landing to blur of acceleration, and it is these little details that bring the exhilaration, panic, tension, and joy of flying from rooftop to rooftop to life. This wordless story was the real Mirror’s Edge.

I noted in my review of Mirror's Edge that the environment, the city, was a prominent 'character' in the game, and I think the urban landscape and environmental details contribute to a story told through game play. Mirror's Edge, when I wasn't screaming at its frustratingly difficult game play, delivered a particularly immersive experience. All the details of that game world, conveyed in Faith's breathing, the sensation of running and jumping, the background chatter on the radio, posters displayed on the walls—provided a more compelling and emotive experience than the narrative itself.

This paragraph gave me pause for thought:

Faith herself was supposed to be a bold step forward for heroines; tasteful, independent, and not overly sexualized. While she is these things, she is ultimately just built out of less offensive stereotypes rather than the depth of real person. Her somewhat irrationally violent personality is, disappointingly, all too common in videogame heroines. Again, Mirror’s Edge seems to step forward only with its visuals: Faith’s character design is far more revolutionary than her personality.

Faith is indeed "tasteful, independent, and not overly sexualized", but is Faith "built out of less offensive stereotypes"? I'd argue that the charactacterisation of Faith having an "irrationally violent personality" as an example of a common trait amongst videogame heroines isn't entirely inaccurate. I feel that the majority of videogame protagonists, male or female, seem to have "irrationally violent" personalities. To specifically call out videogame heroines and citing Faith as an example of this obscures this key point.

The article goes on to critique Faith as a character, stating that she lacks iconic status and is not memorable, which I completely agree with. Faith is not a very deep character. Whilst she has a driving motivation in the game, unfortunately it falls into tired story modes: her sister is in danger, and Faith must go save her. Whilst Mirror's Edge is quite unusual in that we have a woman saving another woman, bypassing the disturbingly common videogame trope of a man saving a woman, it is still something we've all played before.

Getting back to the main point, while Mirror's Edge disappointed on the writing and the character side, the incredible game play (apart from the unforgiving design and crushing difficulty) and art direction are unique in games.

Sakura-Con 2009

Sakura-Con took place last weekend, from 10 - 12 April in Seattle. I took a bunch of pictures, and met up with some friends.

I didn't buy anything. I wasn't even remotely tempted to buy anything. I haven't been watching much anime in recent years, and a lot of the merchandise was related to anime that I'm not familiar with. These days I try to be selective about the merchandise I purchase, not just because I'm trying to watch my expenses, but after two long-distance relocations, as well as a slight shift in attitude away from the collector mentality, I just feel less inclined to accumulate a lot of the stuff I would have bought in a heartbeat five or ten years ago.

I didn't even recognise half the costumes at the con. Sometimes I wonder whether I should keep going to anime conventions, given the fact that I'm out of touch with what's popular these days.

There were several anime series that were well-represented in terms of cosplayers, and they decided to take group photos.

This is the Bleach group:

This is the Pokemon group:

I do really like seeing people dressed up in costumes. This is one of my favourite parts about attending fandom conventions, and I think anime cons are amongst the best in terms of quality and quantity of cosplayers. I certainly think that the calibre of costumes at Sakura-Con outshone the cosplay at Emerald City ComiCon 2009. In general, I think that anime cons are much better places to go if you're interested in looking at people dressed-up in costume, than comic book, science fiction, or gaming conventions. Fewer people at the other types of fandom conventions seem to dress-up, but I am biased since I've been attending anime cons for a very long time so I'm most familiar with the culture there.

There are loads more photos in the Flickr photoset I created.

Wintersday Calendar

The Wintersday Calendar is the Guild Wars version of an Advent Calendar. There's a new piece of fan-created artwork each day from December 1st - 24th.

[Via the Guild Wars LiveJournal Community]

Guild Wars Galleries on Flickr

Whenever I take screen shots from Guild Wars, I put them up on my Flickr page. Many of them have been compiled into photosets. I have collected all of the photosets and they can be found in my Guild Wars gallery collection.

Some highlights from the current photosets:

From the Travels in Tyria set:

From the set depicting the Ascension of my first Guild Wars character:

From the first Wintersday celebration in 2005:

From a set which contains random screen shots of my characters:

From Halloween 2006 (I missed Halloween 2005, which is why there are no pictures from that):

From Wintersday 2006:

From Canthan New Year 2007:

From the Guild Wars: Eye of the North set:

You might notice that the newer shots are in wide screen. I got a wide screen monitor in December 2006.

Meme: Box Art That Makes Me Want to Play

100LittleDolls tagged me to do the following.

This question was originally posted on Yudhishthira's Dice:

Ladies, what RPG covers (or interiors) have you seen that involve a woman in the art that make you say, "I want to play that" or, just as good "I want to play her". Or that make you feel like it is a game you could like, or be included in by a group of guys you'd never met and whose maturity you didn't neccisarily know?

Tekanji turned it into a meme for women gamers.

Meme Rules:

1. Copy the text of the original challenge from Yudhishthira's Dice and give a proper link attribution.
2. Copy these rules exactly (including any links).
3. Find images of game covers (interiors are okay, too) that make you want to play the game. Any kind of game -- video game, card game, tabletop RPG, etc -- is fine. Post them and include a short (or long) explanation on why the image makes/made you want to play the game.
4. The original challenge is about finding out what women think about how game art is marketed and therefore it is targeted at women. I'd like to keep it that way, please.
5. You can tag as many or as few people as you want. You do not need to be tagged to participate in the meme.
6. When you make your post, please post the link on this thread so we can all see what others have said.

My response to the meme is the Japanese and European cover for Ico.

 Without knowing anything about the game, I was drawn to this cover because it was just so different from everything else on the shelves. The art style has a surreal quality, very different from the rest. You don't know what or who "Ico" is. All you see are two people running towards (or away?) from something. Towering structures dominate the picture and dwarf the pair. A vast, indistinct landscape surrounds them. They seem completely alone. One of the characters, wielding a sword, pulls another character along by the hand. The person behind the sword-carrier is taller. It looks a bit feminine, and I would think the viewer, if they had not already turned the box over to read the description, would think it is a female. The one with the sword, seems male but you can't really tell.

The original question asked respondents to cite covers depicting women which made them want to play the game. Although the character that the viewer thinks is female is in the position of less agency and less physical power (it is following the other one, who wields the sword), this fact did not turn me away. The overall presentation of the game does not depict a sexualised and objectified image of woman nor an ideal, testosterone-dripping image of a man. Ico's cover shows two people on a presumably perilous journey. There's a story behind this image, and this intrigued me.

I had seen the European cover just after the game's release in shops, whilst I was living in the UK. I did not buy a PlayStation 2 until early 2005. As many know, Ico is one of the most critically-acclaimed games released for the PS2. Unfortunately, I played the less-developed, bonus-free, and in some parts less-challenging, North American version (complete with a different and horribly ugly cover). I like to think that the bits that were left out of the North American version do not detract from the experience. Ico is one of my favourite games.

Typically, I would be more attracted to a game if it portrayed a woman on the cover who is shown to be competent and strong. I would be turned off if the women on the cover are sexualised and objectified. Ico doesn't have that. Although we are used to seeing the gender roles as displayed by the characters on the cover of Ico, neither character appears objectified or that they were created to fulfill some sort of fantasy.

A Metroid Valentine

Some nerd gave me this:

 [More cards at VGCats]

ConceptArt.org

ConceptArt.org has loads of fabulous pictures of concept art from lots of different videogames. If you have time, take a look. I could spend a whole day just looking at all the artists' galleries.

Fun trivia fact: the icon I use for forums and stuff on the internets is cropped from a piece of concept art from Metroid Prime. You have to have a certain completion rate to unlock the galleries in the game to see it. This piece was created by Andrew Jones, one of the founders of ConceptArt.org.

[Guild Wars Factions concept art]

[Guild Wars Nightfall concept art]

[Thanks to Bigwig for sending in the link!]

Celebrity Mii Contest Results at Kottke.org

The winner may surprise you. There are some great submissions, so click on through for the pictures.

[Read]

Mii Envy

I want to make Miis and celebrity Miis on a Wii.

I want a Mii Parade in my Wii. Something about these traveling Miis really intrigues me. The Mii Channel isn't even a game as such, but it's really fun to play around with.

Things I need before I can possibly think about buying a Wii:

• Wii in more colours; black if possible
• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
• More games that aren't gimmicky or rushed
• To save up some money :P

[Wii-volution's Create-a-Mii]

[Mii Channel]

[Some Mii Suggestions]

[Celebrity Mii Contest via Cathode Tan]