Worth Reading: 02/28/2014

woo!

I like watching Isaac. Spelunky is great, but can get tedious since the biggest variation is levels and a couple items. Isaac can be completely different in every run, with a ton of different items interacting to mix everything up (along with different bosses causing you to change your approach).

People are gonna complain... but people complain on Giant Bomb all the time.

Most of the things TotalBiscuit talks about in his video on relativism in games critique are exceedingly obvious, but he does a great job of eloquently getting the point across. He even brings up some things I hadn't really considered, yet were also obvious now that I think about it. Good video.

Been waiting all day, haha. Thank you

Interesting read. I didn't know the Stanley Parable gentleman was going through that.

Jason Schreier shouldn't be talking about how hard it is to be a JRPG fan in public. He ran a panel at PAX last year that was more or less a public damnation of anyone that didn't agree with his specific tastes in regards to Final Fantasy, up to and including talking down the other panelists when they disagreed with him. If he's going to write such an article, then he shouldn't be putting on fucking circuses that seem more or less meant to shame those that disagree with him.

Only, wait, this is the same guy that helped push the public to rail against a Vietnamese indie developer over fucking Mario pipes and who also started a spat with the character designer of Dragon's Crown, only to turn the tongue-in-cheek response he got into an even more absurd story.

People that ask what's wrong with game journalism? It's people like Schreier.

Vaati Vidya is insanely hot

Interesting Schreier article on JRPGs, and matches what I find every time I dive back into them. Was I missing things as a kid, or is it a modern development that every JRPG has to have disturbingly pervy moments and female characters in outfits such that you don't want your friends or family to find out what's in the game? I'm literally embarrassed to be playing JRPGs in public these days. I don't recall any of that nonsense in older Square games I loved back on the SNES.

Even Bravely Default, a game I'm loving for the combat and job systems, has many cringeworthy, creepy moments and fanservice outfits that make me glad I'm playing the game on a 3DS where nobody else can see what I'm looking at. And this was a game that was apparently even creepier in Japan and had characters "aged up" for American release. Likewise I can see picking up Lightning Returns just to play around with the job customization system, but it comes along with this baggage of playing fanservice dress-up with the main character in the numerous scantily clad outfits they've created for her.

E: forum hiccup

I thought it was just me. I don't know why but Isaac makes my stomach sour. It's just gross. I hope the next game is FTL. Now that is a game with some sudden brutal disasters.

Really? There are people that "can't" look at the Binding of Isaac? Really? It's one thing to dislike the artstyle but some folks act like this game actually offends them which seems crazy to me.

So basically, Wrenden thought an award would make him feel better about himself, and it didn't? I'm honestly trying to see if I get what he's saying.

Also, Zoe's comment about jealously is more than likely some self-talk made public in an attempt to....I don't know, exactly. I highly doubt she has completely conquered jealousy from every cropping up again.

Is it okay to share other interesting pieces in the comments here? I thought I just posted this, but the forum seems to have eaten it or something. Anyway, there's a surprisingly powerful piece by Leigh Alexander (of Gamasutra) about learning to play Netrunner (a card game originally designed by the same guy who created Magic.) Sounds sort of dry, but it turns out to be a really quite heartfelt look at why we play games and what mastery of them really means to us (or her.) Since it's a card game it may be outside the normal realm of video-type game news, but I think it's worth a read either way.

'Here is a thing about games: They write you and rewrite you, like the flecked arm of a dot-matrix printer, inking your image in one stroke after another, there to be read. People love Dark Souls because it helps us answer a question about ourselves: What are we made of, if everything is bleak and futile? Finishing that game is more than just finishing a game: It’s proving to ourselves we have what it takes to whittle down, claw away, gnaw to the marrow of futility and surpass it. Once you’ve learned that, you can’t unlearn it. You’ve changed.'

That Dark Souls 2 Q&A has me so amped

I guess that guy doesn't remember what the input lag was like in Dark Souls when the game first launched.

@abendlaender: I can't find any other instance of the word "can't" on the page, so I assume you're referring to the phrase, "can't stand to watch the game". If so, I think you might be taking that phrase a bit too literally.

People's reaction to the Binding of Isaac has been so bizarre. So damn sensitive.

Great stuff as always, but your use of "randomness" irks me.

The mechanics are what's keeping me interested, balanced with the randomness approach to items...the random approach to items or the randomness of the approach to items would be correct.

Not trying to be a dick (although some will see it that way). Straight up...proof reading helps and the grammatical mistakes that consistently show up in this feature would be avoided with a quick read through. Professional writers should take 5 minutes to read what they write and I don't think that is a crazy assertion. Again, not trying to be a prick but the two consistent things about this feature are that it is great and there are usually numerous grammatical errors. Proof reading demonstrates respect for the process and the audience. I totally understand that you are busy, but the lack of any editorial process for this feature is annoying as to me.

I was surprised when he was nominated for Good Games Writing.

Lightning Returns doesn't require you to dress up in anythinjg scanty at any point. Beyond the initial defaults, there is only one outfit in the entire game that you're required to wear for plot reasons, and it's not anything scanty in any way, either. The outfits come in numerous styles, and if you don't want to run around with Lightning dressed in the scantier outfits, you're never required to do so.

And as I said before, Schreier is a goddamn joke. He's proven time and again that he's a prat, and the thing he should be most embarrassed about are the words that escape his own mouth.

I don't really play many J-RPGs, but personally, the only reason why I would be embarrassed is because it's the cool thing to hate on them. I like all 3 Final Fantasy XIII games; even though I can't really argue against some of the common criticisms (the incredible linearity of XIII, the nonsensical plot of XIII-2, etc.), I still enjoyed them, admittedly for the gameplay more than anything else.

The only thing I knew about Jason was the whole thing regarding Dragon's Crown, but now I have even more reason not to trust anything he says.

we just entered...the offended zone

I still need to get into Binding of Isaac, which is the only reason I'm not watching your videos. Sorry. :(

When DayZ first came out, I wondered if the game might not be better with some other kind of monster, such as dinosaurs or whatevs. So I am actually super excited about that ARMA T Rex, because fuck yeah. I'm not expecting much in the way of modding, but it's the thought that counts.

He goes into more depth in the paragraphs above the strip, but my basic understanding is he found himself the subject of very sudden, intense, overwhelming public exposure and demand, and while the awards were saying nice things, they were perpetuating the trigger for his anxiety. I thought he did a rather good job of addressing the issue (that the Stanley guy is a good writer is perhaps not surprising, I suppose).

@hailinel: Aren't outfits attached to abilities and character customization such that I would want to use them? And really, it's not a matter of it being required or not. It's that a main feature of the game is dressing up the stoic, badass main character in all manner of goofy, revealing outfits. The creators all but admitted that dressing up Lightning in fanservice clothing was part of their goal.

And it's by no means limited to that game. Tales of Xillia, as Schreier mentions, has the main female character walk around in a straps, a miniskirt, and a tube top. I only played that after my wife and kid went to bed, and even then I was embarrassed by it. Bravely Default has an extremely creepy pageant scene and job and cosmetic outfits that are all manner of weird for characters that were originally designed to be below legal age.

Really, it's fine if people want that sort of fanservice in their games. But same as Schreier, it puts me off games that otherwise have very interesting, strategic combat systems, and makes it so I'm embarrassed to play them in public. I don't recall these things that are now standard for JRPGs being present in any of the classic JRPGs of yore.

I've never really thought about it, but yeah it's true. Even Persona 4: The Golden has a bit of this in the game. If I really think about it, most JRPGs I've played in recent years has some weird obsession with having some random fanservice in it that isn't required at all. Seriously, the girls are cute enough as they're designed, you don't need to make it creepy by adding in all of these scantily clad outfits and other such things.

I think a big reason that this stuff was omitted out of classic JRPGs from the 90s was due to two things. The graphics were severely limited, so they really couldn't show it much, and back then the whole 'moe' thing that has taken hold of modern anime/manga really hadn't taken off yet. Seriously, it's a trend nowadays in anime to make the girls appear as young as possible that wasn't present back then, I have NO idea what brought it on, but it really sucks.

@deathpooky: You know what is very funny ... people critizie these games ad infinitum for the scantly clad women etc , but for god sakes what about the whole bikini industry in the US and the wrold? They are more scandtidly dressed in real life bikinis than in games so give me break.

The outfits do affect stats, and many do come with pre-set abilities. However, there are so many outfits in the game and so many ways to assign abilities among them (particularly given that you can have up to three set as your active schemata to swap between during battle), you can pretty much customize how you want to play (and look) as you see fit. I spent 95% of my first playthrough with the Summoner Yuna (FFX costume) garb as one of my active schemata because it comes with a powerful all-element spell pre-set and a high magic stat. But I also ran around dressed as a red mage for nearly the same length of time (because I both liked the abilities and the look) and used my third slot for various samurai and warrior garbs for more physical attack focus. Could I have run around with Lightning dressed in skimpier attire? Yes, but I chose not to. I was never forced to do so at any point, nor did I at any time feel embarrassed by the game I was playing or how I was playing it.

And though the developers did design outfits with fanservice in mind, I'm not going to chastise them for it. Lightning is among my favorite Final Fantasy protagonists; I deeply enjoy her story in Lightning Returns. I never felt that the sillier outfits detracted from that because, again, I was never forced to use them. It's a game that let's people get what they want out of it, whether that be playing for the story, or dressing up in goofy outfits, or trying to create the most overpowered schemata builds they can in an effort to break the game.

Again, there is nothing embarrassing about any of that. If Schreier is put off by that notion, that's his problem; not the game's, not the developer's, and certainly not the other players'. He is a person that offends easily. It happened here, it happened with Dragon's Crown. And you know, there's a simple response to that. If he finds the aesthetics of character design in a game not to his taste, no one is forcing him to play these games. But he also shouldn't be shocked or dismayed by the fact that other people don't feel the same as he does.

I mean, I find Final Fantasy X-2 one of the worst games in the franchise. The outfits have a little something to do with that (the gunner Yuna outfit was a shock to the system the first time I saw it), but my issue with that game ultimately isn't the aesthetics. It's that its story and scenarios are incredibly dumb, I wasn't particularly fond of the combat system, and the requirements for attaining 100% completion are agonizing in their design. But would I be embarrassed to be seen playing it? No.

And as for the classic RPGs of yore, maybe Schreier, as huge a fan of Final Fantasy VI as he is, forgot what some of the ladies actually wear in that game:

This is essentially a unitard and tights. Keep in mind that she is runs around kicking people's asses in battle while wearing this.

@deathpooky: I've beaten Lightning Returns, and I found that I would use only a handful of the dozens of Garbs. I mostly stuck with Equilibrium/Cyber Jumpsuit, SOLDIER 1st Class, and one of 4 magic-focused ones (Ignition, Watery Chorus, Electronica, Woodland Walker) that I would swap whenever I needed a particular element for an area or a boss; the only scantily one among those is Watery Chorus.

Heck, even going through all the Garbs I've gotten (I have most of them), I don't see a lot of questionable attire. There's Watery Chorus, Witching Hour, Mist Wizard, Rhapsody in Rose, Carnival Crusher, Amazon Warrior, Nightmare, and Miqo'te Dress. That's 8 Garbs out of the 67 I have that I can see someone be uncomfortable with using.

Here's the full list of Garbs: http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Lightning_Returns:_Final_Fantasy_XIII_Garbs

@aetheldod: It's the context for many. If you talk to women in real life, you can't do much in a bikini. You can barely swim. Most girls I know won't dive, for example, while wearing a bikini because the top will fly off. So all these games that feature women in scant bikini battle-wear are just dumb. The fact that it clearly only exists for the most loser-ish titillation possible makes it a dumb that isn't even entertaining.

@hailinel: That is his problem with the games. It's also my problem with them. I find the fanservice and creepy scenes off-putting and weird such that it would be awkward to play through when others are around, especially because it's non-optional for a lot of games. It's not anyone else's problem, and you obviously don't take issue with it, which is fine, but he expresses part of why modern JRPGs have gone off the rails for me.

And I think there's a vast difference between the character designs of FFIV/VI and the modern ones, both in tone and in style. But I suppose if the SNES characters would have ended up creepy had they had more graphical power available, then I can only be happy they didn't have that power.

The thing is, I don't think it's fair to simply call them creepy, not because they aren't, if you find them that way, but when people call something creepy as though it's a statement of fact, it can (inadvertantly or not) serve as an attack on those that don't see it that way. When Schreier hosted that Final Fantasy panel last year, his attitude was condescending to the extreme; he's obviously not a fan of Final Fantasy XIII, but he actively got in the way of any comment by another panelist that he disagreed with. It wasn't the (absurdly named, in retrospect) "Final Fantasy Funtime Hour" it was billed as, but more or less Schreier's bully-pulpit to praise aspects of Final Fantasy he loves while condemning what he hated (more or less Final Fantasy XIII specifically). And the tone he took seemed to cast anyone that disagreed with him on that point as being incompetent.

If anything was an embarrassment, it was sitting through that panel and listening to Schreier enjoy the sound of his own voice. The only good thing to come out of it was deciding to leave early to get in line for the Hideki Kamiya panel on The Wonderful 101.

Well, I've never seen any of his panels, so I'm not going to defend him on that. I also liked a lot of FFXIII, even if Vanille was annoying and the combat system was terribly paced out. My main frustration comes from the fact that I feel like the interesting combat systems they're developing are being held back by the other aspects of the games, a complaint I've had with a lot of JRPGs these days.

And whether the games are "creepy" or not I'm sure is a matter of personal taste and cultural differences as opposed to anything objective. For me it's just whether I'd be willing to play the game with my family around - most recent JRPGs I've played have failed that test for the reasons I've noted, and they all have parts that make me cringe even if I'm playing alone. Others could have no problem with it, and maybe I wouldn't have a problem with it 15 years ago, but now it bothers me and puts me off the games.

I'm not a big fan of what I have seen out of Binding of Isaac so far. I mean, it looks perfectly serviceable as a game, but the aesthetic and the tone just isn't really appealing at all. Not all games are for everyone.

I don't understand that JRPG article. Do people play JRPGs in public ever? Why would you be embarrassed to play a game where a woman might wear a weird outfit? Did you design this outfit, or something? Why is that more embarrassing than playing something like, oh, I don't know, Grand Theft Auto V, where the boxart has a skimpily clad bikini-girl and dudes who murder people for fun?

I guess what I'm saying is, if you're embarrassed by "pervy" scenes in things you do in your spare time, someone needs to get the Puritanism beaten out of them. I mean, jeez. It's a video game, not a sex shop. What about sex scenes in movies? Do those creep you out too? I can understand if it's little kids or something dressed provocatively - maybe - if they sexually objectify those kids - but otherwise? Relax!

@deathpooky: I will ask this thoug ... do you see Game of thrones or any other such shows with you wife? (Obviously not around yer kids) Arent those much more uncorfotabble that some make belive "not real" avatar.

But still the article is terrible and that guy is just looking for click bait rather than real journalism. Altho peole in comment there have proven civilized and disagreed with him in elocuent manner.

And that's all totally fine. I don't want you to think something you don't believe. I'm just tired of people like Schreier seemingly trying to shame others over what amount to differences in taste. His writing and his panels are not constructive. When Kotaku had to backtrack on the whole Flappy Bird fiasco that was of Schreier's making, it was Stephen Totilo that wrote the article and informed others of Schreier's regret, rather than Schreier himself. The fact that he couldn't do something as simple as say "I'm sorry" in an article of his own writing attached to his Kotaku byline is more shameful than any costume in an RPG.

When Ryan mistakenly uttered an offensive slur on a livestream, he owned up to it and apologized to everyone in his own words. As much as I respected him before that, I respected him even more after for his honesty and his regret. But Schreier will never earn that level of respect from me.

I think it's important that he does bring up some obvious things, considering the size of his audience. A huge portion of the internet (or maybe just a vocal minority, it's hard to tell sometimes) doesn't have a grasp on some of the simple concepts he describes. He's pretty good at getting his points across, I'm glad he did the video, too.

On a completely unrelated note, that song in Ridiculous Glitching is badass.

@generic_username said:

The YouTube audience doesn't have a grasp on a lot of things, so it's definitely great he went over things that are very obvious to us.

I'm not a fan of watching the little indie challenge games, but seems like others enjoy it. I'd be interested in seeing you playing a fighting game and getting involved with a community... maybe take it to EVO, lol.

I never thought The Binding of Isaac was supposed to be "funny" or appealing at all. It is weird though, because it sort of touches on serious themes, but is also cartoony, and also has meme-based items. Not really sure what to think of it, but you'd have to be kind of a weirdo to find the game's aesthetic appealing at all. I think it's a great game though and enjoy watching it.

@abendlaender said:

BoI was designed to offend. Especially Edmund McMillen's parents. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-06-29-the-binding-of-edmund-mcmillen

I'm definitely one of those not watching Bindin' with Scoops because of the game's content. It's just gross and dumb and not interesting to me in the slightest. I did give it a shot with the first video, but not even Patrick could get me into it. Hopefully once he finishes with it his next foray will be more appealing.

That's a really great interview, very interesting. Thank you for pointing it out!

After reinstalling The Binding of Isaac, I still really don't much care for that aesthetic and tone. I like my games to have a lot less blood, poop, and child abuse in them normally. The gameplay is solid enough, but in the grand pantheon of Rougelikelikelikes I'd still much rather play FTL.

As for JRPGs, I don't necessarily think most of them have any more baggage than any other niche genre of video game (in general). Sure, there's usually some cringe-inducing stuff, either from blatant pandering or the cultural divide, but I think Schreier is overstating the burden of liking games with some caveats. There are plenty of games with dumb, embarrassing shit in them, and even if JRPGs might proportionally have more, I still can name plenty of other games I'd rather not have my parents walk in on as I am playing.

Yea, that was always my problem with it; there's a severe conflict of tone in the game that just makes it feel.. strange. The creator is obviously very talented, but slapping tired memes into his work is only compromising what could become a deep and profound experience. I felt the same with Super Meat Boy really.

I still enjoyed both games a lot, but I did feel just a little bit embarrassed playing them at times.

Dang. @patrickklepek have you read this? It's fascinating. Will make your future Bindings much more enjoyable, I think. McMillen even touches a little on dealing with the onslaught of fan input/criticisms.

I hope you stick with Isaac for a bit. It may be a bit slow and hard to get into, but after you get past that hump, you'll get addicted. I had it for months and barely played 1 hour of it. Finally watched a couple Nothernlion videos, saw how some things work and just got way into it. I now have 116 hours on record via Steam, and that has all been in the last 3 months.

I feel like I can kind of offer some insight here from my experiences as a musician. I personally didn't go into music seeking validation of my abilities or a fanbase and when I got both of those things it was very sudden. It can be a MASSIVE shock to the system to have people telling you your art is really good, and that can totally lead to negative fallout for the artist, purely because it's often something artists aren't used to hearing on such a mass scale. Some people take it well, some people like to bathe in that limelight, and some just freak out when that kind of attention gets thrown their way. It's not really a rational response. But, humans are very adaptive creatures. I eventually got over suddenly having an active fanbase listening to my music and now if anything I have to remind myself how damn weird it is that this is the case because I kind of just stopped noticing. I'm hoping this guy has a similar experience and is able to adapt and endure all the same.

As for The Binding of Isaac, I'm one of those weirdo's who thinks everything about that game is high fucking art. Just as comedy is useful as a tool to breakdown barriers about taboo subjects through laughter, the macabre can do much the same. I'm reminded of the scene from Natural Born Killers where Mickey Knox is being interviewed by Wayne Gale and Mickey asks "You can't escape your own shadow, can you Wayne?" Pee, poo, guts, blood, death and religious madness are all things nearly all of us will experience at some point and I think The Binding of Isaac tackles these things very well simply by making light of them. If you embrace it's macabre aesthetic for what it is and try and see the fun in it then you might break down some mental barrierso f your own. :)