Acid for Blood

Avatar Pics: PlayStation Home Open Beta

2008-12-11T23:20:33-08:00

I popped into the Home open beta for a bit. It took absolutely ages to connect.

I liked the avatar customisation. It was a lot easier than Second Life. The options are really good. You can make different body types and sizes and there are many skin colours, though you don't get sliders for the skin colours as you do with all the other body appearance options.

Here are pictures of my avatar at her Harbour Studio flat:

It's a corner balcony, which I am sure she is pleased by. See how she surveys her kingdom so smugly:

This little harbour would be why it's called the Harbour Studio:

See how she enjoys the fresh sea air!

These screen shots don't do it justice, because it's really very pretty. I do like my little corner of the PlayStation Network, even if it's a little sparse.

I briefly visited the Uncharted bar or tavern or whatever it was. It was all right. It reminded me of Second Life, but a little prettier and easier to move around in because of the control pad. However, because I don't have a keyboard, I would find it hard to communicate with others if that's what I chose to do so. Most of the people in the room were having uninteresting text conversations and really annoying voice conversations. If I do hang out in Home more, I'm going to turn voice chat off, because I really don't want to deal with any of the anonymous online bullshit ("OMG R U A GIRL???"). I kind of just want to decorate my home, which I guess may be the whole point.

Parkour and Gender

2008-12-08T20:20:18-08:00

I'm still playing Mirror's Edge. Free time has not been so readily available. Another reason for my slow progress is that I'm masochistically attempting to complete the game without firing a weapon. I also really suck at platformers, and a first-person platformer is even more difficult for me. Mirror's Edge is not nearly as frustrating a platformer as Castlevania: The Adventure for the GameBoy, which is one of the most difficult, frustrating, and unforgiving platformers I have ever played, but Mirror's Edge at times skirts the same level of frustration. I'm sticking with it because I really like the game.

The design team of Mirror's Edge drew a lot of inspiration from practitioners of parkour, an activity which stresses practicality and efficiency, and challenges traceuses (women) and traceurs (men) to get from one point to another in the quickest and most efficient way possible.

Today, I read an article called, "Parkour: Issues of Gender" which discusses gender issues in parkour culture. The article begins by stating that parkour culture, which is a gender-neutral activity and espouses a philosophy of universality, is male-dominated and has become masculinised:

...the image of Parkour has heavily coincided with conceptions of Western masculine heteronormative behaviour. While the media is largely at fault for this, the Parkour community has also played a role.
...it is important to note that almost all male bodies portrayed in the mass media of Parkour have been spectacularized.
It is often said that competition is a natural and inherent trait to the human species, and one can find intense competitiveness when looking at anything from football to dance to placement in a symphony. While this is true, direct competition is culturally engendered as masculine, despite the sex of the parties involved.

The article then goes on to discuss participation in parkour by women, in a section that echoes many an industry article regarding how many women work in the videogame industry:

It goes without saying that because few women get involved in the discipline, even fewer step up to play a leadership role. Yes, there are a few scattered here and there, who work largely under the radar for whatever reason. Ultimately, without female representation, less women will be inclined to become involved.

It discusses the differences between male and female bodies and how this may affect interest in parkour by women. Many women interested in parkour erroneously believe that they will build up muscle mass equivalent to men if they get involved in the activity; they are concerned about looking too masculine. Objectification of women in parkour culture, also something that we experience in the games industry (and everywhere else, really) was also touched upon:

Traceuse or not, women are rendered cultural spectacles. So much of “femininity” is derived in appearance, in making up what is “femininity.” It is when we see this that we understand that gender is a cultural fiction, because a woman must assert her femininity on the outside.

Quite simply, when it is spectacularized, the value of Parkour as a whole is diminished. All we do and all we have worked for, in a single instant, is trivialized into obscurity and meaningless cultural babble.

The concern for traceuses is that they will be initially and immediately spectacularized, and in a completely different manner than traceurs. This is often, in popular culture, referred to as “objectification.”

The author states that parkour is an activity for both sexes, all genders, all people, and for it to have such a masculine culture and to be so male-dominated goes against those principles, therefore practitioners should have more awareness of gender issues gender equality within the discipline.

I thought the article was quite interesting and a good read.

It's interesting that DICE decided to go with a female protagonist in Mirror's Edge, given that parkour culture is so male-dominated, but not so surprising considering their goal:

We’ve spent time in developing Faith. And the important thing for us was that she was human, that she was more real.
We really wanted to get away from the typical portrayal of women in games, that they’re all just kind of tits and ass in a steel bikini. We wanted her to look athletic and fit and strong [enough] that she could do the things that she’s doing.

I for one am glad that DICE chose to have a female lead in the game, and made the decision to depict Faith in a more realistic and far less sexualised and objectified way as compared to other female videogame protagonists. Hurrah for DICE!

[Read via Iris Gaming Network]

Interview: David W. Lloyd, Director, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Official Soundtrack

2008-12-01T20:21:20-08:00

On 25 November, Capcom released Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix on the PlayStation Network for the PS3 and Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360. The official soundtrack of the game was released on the videogame community, OverClocked ReMix, a community of fans who rearrange classic videogame music and make their creations available for all the world to hear. The project to create the official soundtrack to high-profile commercial release like Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix was a huge achievement for the videogame music remixer community. One of the Directors for the album and the founder of OverClocked ReMix, David W. Lloyd, also known as djpretzel, was kind enough to take some time out of his day for a short email interview to briefly discuss OverClocked ReMix's first commercial endeavour.

How did you get involved with Capcom?

We put out an album of Street Fighter II ReMixes several years ago and Capcom stumbled across that and contacted the project Director, Shael Riley, who contacted me. They were originally gonna hire someone to do the soundtrack, but apparently it was taking too long, and they liked the existing mixes from our album just as much, so they figured it was a no-brainer.

How much freedom did Capcom give to rearrange their original themes?

Capcom didn't make us color between the lines too much in terms of actual arrangements, but each stage theme had to be two minutes long, which meant trimming out a lot of interpretive, original solo stuff and going for the "meat" of the arrangement -- stuff that was easily identifiable. In Jose's case he had hip-hop tracks with rap vocals, and he had to cut the vocals because they were too distracting in-game, but the backing tracks work really well regardless. I'd say, based on what would be expected for a game like this, that Capcom gave us a pretty impressive degree of artistic control.

Are there any themes you're particularly curious about in terms of how hardcore Street Fighter fans will respond?

Well, I think certain tracks -- Ken in particular - have had a pretty universally positive reception, where others have been more "controversial"... whenever you try to work in hip-hop or reggaeton or jazz, you'll always run up against more friction than with rock or techno, but I feel like each artist's approach really makes sense for the stage. Vega (claw) always had a bit of a hip-hop vibe going on, DeeJay clearly is in Jamaica so the reggae-ish vibe was appropriate, and Balrog (boxer) in Vegas... Just had to be jazzed up. We might have been able to put together tracks that more people were okay with, but I'd rather have strong reactions -- both positive and negative -- while preserving what OC ReMix is all about, embracing multiple styles.

This is the first commercial collaboration for OverClocked ReMix. What hopes to you have for the future for more commercial releases?

We're open to anything and everything. I'd love to work with Capcom again, as they seem the most interested in community outreach of this nature, but I could easily see other companies catching on as well. There's a lot of space to explore, with Xbox Live and PSN, where indie and downloadable games can take more risks, which might be more appropriate. Of course, if you ask me, we've got plenty of ReMixers who'd do a perfectly fine job scoring the next blockbuster.

Who is your favourite Street Fighter and why?

I'm gonna be boring and say Ken. He's meat-and-potatoes, sure, but he's living the life, and he takes bright yellow hair and bushy, dark eyebrows and somehow makes that contrast work. There's a ReMix on our site called "The Ken Song," and once you hear it, you never really think of Ken the same way again.

Finally, what is one of your favourite themes on the album and why?

AE & Prozax put together a mean version of Ken's theme that was used for the title screen, but I actually like AE's take on Blanka even better. The first time through the melody, it's straightforward, but later on he plays with the intervals in some really cool ways, keeping it recognizable but really exploring the tune. Great stuff.

Thank you very much for your time, David.

The entire official soundtrack to Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, made entirely by hardcore videogame fans, is available for free download on OverClocked ReMix.

CG: Spaghetti Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino

2008-11-28T19:29:37-08:00

A friend of mine from graduate school is visiting for the Thanksgiving holiday. For our evening meals, I've decided to use Cooking Guide: Can't Decide What to Eat? to help me. Tonight's meal was Spaghetti Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino, which is described as "a simple spaghetti dish made with garlic, red chillies, and olive oil." We combined this with a salad and it made for a light, but filling meal.

The verdict: "Mm, good!"

Earlier this week, Nintendo thoughtfully sent me an email informing me that the North American version of Cooking Guide: Can't Decide What to Eat? would be released on 24 November. Nintendo changed the title to Personal Trainer: Cooking. I had a look around the official site, and from the videos and screen shots, the game seems pretty much the same, apart from regional differences, such as an American interactive chef replacing the British one from Cooking Guide.

If you're a North American reader who's been following my culinary attempts, and are curious about this game, but didn't want to import it like I did, you should definitely check out Personal Trainer: Cooking. At this very moment, Personal Trainer: Cooking is on sale at Amazon.com. The regular price is $19.99 and it's marked down to only $9.95 $4.95.

On a sidenote, has anyone seen Nintendo's Amazon.com-powered hub for buying Nintendo DS games online? It's part of their "I Play For Me" website, targeted to non-gamers and women, judging from the photos on the web page.

TypePad Connect

2008-11-23T20:43:52-08:00

For the past few weeks, I had been looking into a new commenting system for my blog because it was difficult to track lengthy conversations.

I'd had good experiences with Disqus as a commenter on a few blogs. Although Disqus advertises that bloggers can use it on TypePad, what they didn't reveal -- until I tried to install it -- is that it only works with the TypePad Pro pricing plan and higher.

Next, I tried IntenseDebate. Whilst not as popular as Disqus, IntenseDebate has many of the same features. I got as far as installing it onto my TypePad blog, but ran into a problem. I was supposed to be able to have all my old comments appear natively in TypePad, and entries posted after I installed IntenseDebate would feature the new commenting system. I wanted to keep my old comments. Unfortunately this didn't work. What happened is that IntenseDebate just appeared over all comments, making it appear as if no one had replied to my old posts. I asked for help at their GetSatisfaction customer support page, however no assistance came. I decided to uninstall it because it wasn't working as advertised. After reading around, I discovered that getting IntenseDebate to install on a TypePad Plus blog was an imperfect hack rather than true integration.

By good fortune, SixApart released TypePad Connect BETA several days ago. TypePad Connect has some of the same features that Disqus and IntenseDebate have, like comment threading, user pictures, and user profiles. SixApart integrated TypeKey profiles into TypePad connect, so if you already have a TypeKey profile, it has evolved into a TypePad profile. Everyone can sign up for a free TypePad profile (here's mine), regardless of your blogging platform and whether you blog or not. This is exactly like IntenseDebate and Disqus, where you can create a commenter profile. Like Disqus and IntenseDebate, bloggers can use TypePad Connect on their blogs to help manage their comments, regardless of whether you have a Movable Type or TypePad blog.

Disqus and IntenseDebate are the more established commenting systems, so they do have more robust basic moderation features as well as flashier bells and whistles that TypePad Connect lacks -- such as comment statistics, reputation systems, comment voting/rating, comment flagging (for appropriateness), video comments (Disqus), widgets that display information about a blog's commenters, and better integration with other social networking platforms. IntenseDebate, in particular, has a ton of moderation features that I would find very useful if TypePad Connect had them. I think that the TypePad profiles could be more aesthetically pleasing. The profiles on Disqus and IntenseDebate just feel more Web 2.0.

I installed TypePad Connect on my blog, and I'm very pleased with it so far. I'm just as pleased that I have a native commenting system that allows me to keep all my old comments and makes conversations easier to follow. TypePad Connect is still in beta, so there are probably a few minor issues, but I've had few problems with it, and the initial problems I did have were quickly solved by the SixApart team.

I hope SixApart takes some cues from Disqus and IntenseDebate and decides to integrate many more features that are essential to commenting systems (IP blacklisting, email blacklisting, word filters), as well as of the more social network-y features.

EDIT - 24 November 2008: So apparently I can ban IP addresses and words in TypePad Connect. However, it doesn't let you ban email addresses. It would also be nice, for those blogs that publish comments without moderation, for there to be an option to hold comments in moderation depending on IP address, number of links, email address, and key words.