originalgman

To the guy who let us join his Cards Against Humanity game while waiting for the Giant Bomb panel: I think I had more fun playing that game than I did at the panel itself. The guy who sang all of Kanye West's "Power" and got the line singing too was awesome, as well. Giant Bombers are the funniest dudes around.

By the way, if anyone has a pic of me dressed up as Persona 4's Charlie Tunoku I'd love to see em!

@deadly_polo said:

That's why an internet poll is almost certain to be infinitely unrepresentative: people who hate EA are more than likely to already be on the internet looking to vent their frustration, people angry with the Bank of America very possibly have neither the time nor money to go on the internet and vote in such a vacuous and inconsequential poll.

Only 13 hours left to reserve a ticket. If you're going to PAX East this year and have even the slightest inkling to see this movie, now's the time!

All the previous suggestions, starting with TWEWY. I will also suggest both Advance Wars games if you want some strategy, or Devil Survivor if you want strategy mixed with RPG.

The greatest success of this thread is that it's driven people to play TWEWY. One of the greatest games ever made, handheld or not.

Ok, it's not really AT PAX East since it's at a movie theatre and the expo will be over, but still! If you're sticking around Sunday night, or you just live near Boston, the best thing to do after the convention center doors close would be to come see this movie! Matthew Razak, Andres Bolivar and Jonathan Holmes will be there to talk about the movie and give away free games and prizes. Tickets are only $9, and the movie itself is supposed to be the best, funniest video game movie ever (until Phoenix Wright, of course).

If you don't know what The FP is, here's a Kotaku reviewand Flixist review, or search for a trailer on Youtube. I don't want to link to one because it might contain partial nudity, but trust me when I say it looks hilarious and awesome. How could anything that combines Dance Dance Revolution and gang warfare not be?

Please reserve a ticket now, and tell your friends. If you're already coming to PAX East, why not see the funniest new movie that pertains to your hobby with 100 other people who will also get the jokes?

Reserve here: http://tugg.com/events/332#.T3DnL9VoKin

@rebgav said:

@OriginalGman said:

Since you're being lazy, I'll just throw some words into your mouth for good measure: You're saying all artists should be starving. Any game that makes a lot of money was obviously cultivated with only that purpose in mind. Money is the root of all evil.

Arguing with yourself is, at least, efficient.

Money may be evil and perhaps artists should starve but neither of those points are really relevant. It would be more honest to say that making a videogame is an expensive proposition and that the possible return on investment is a deciding factor as to how many people work on a game and for how long, regardless of whether those resources will allow the game to reach its full potential. You can look at that as a cynical or pessimistic perspective but I think that it's a useful counter-balance to the hype and the idealized representations of what is an expensive and trivial product. I don't buy any videogame (or other entertainment product) expecting an artistic tour-de-force, I would be very disappointed most of the time if that was the case. Instead, I go in hoping for competent craftsmanship and I'm pleasantly surprised if I get that. If I get more than that, I'm delighted. I don't think that devalues the medium.

The points you make are valid and I don't disagree with them, but you're still making a broad, general statement about a medium based on the most garish, expensive examples it has to offer. It sounds like the only games you buy are the ones that get television advertising and tons of preview coverage, because there are plenty of games that don't get made with only their investors in mind. Lots of developers, be they indie or niche, just want to break even so that they can continue making the games they want to make. Look at Cave Story. It's the pinnacle of 2D platformer design, and it took one dude five years to make. He wasn't trying to make a game for anyone but himself and fans of the genre, and it rightfully earned him fame and some fortune.

I have friends who share your view about the state of games as a business, and like I said to them, even if there was another major gaming crash, and all the big publishers went under, I wouldn't really care all too much. The people making the games that matter the most to me wouldn't be affected.

If you want to just view games as a business or a time-killer, then that's all they will ever be to you. But for others, they are much more, and not even an economic crash can completely stop them at this point. There are too many people out there who think the way I do, designers and players alike.

@rebgav said:

@OriginalGman said:

@rebgav said:

@Kierkegaard said:

@rebgav: Are you a believer that nothing should be taken seriously and games are just a part of that truth, or that games in particular should never be taken seriously but other media should be?

I think that neither publishers nor reviewers take them seriously from any perspective other than their sales potential. While there are obviously exceptions it seems to be true of most. I think that videogames have a level of merit similar to movies and airport novels, enjoyable but ultimately worthless.

Wait, you're lumping the entire medium of film in with airport novels? Wha-huh? What movies have you watched?

So that leaves, what, music and books as the only legitimate means of expressing deeper meaning than "shoot that guy"?

Can't all music be reduced down to songs about either love or drugs?

If you only play the major, big-budget releases coming out of both Japan and the US, then I can kind of understand your view about videogames. And sadly, that's the only slice of gaming that a lot of people will ever see, so it makes sense when shitheads like Roger Ebert think that the best our medium has to offer is Halo and Dark Souls (he's not wrong about Dark Souls, though).

But shit man, did you even play Bastion? Did you not pick up on how the ending you chose can help you understand how you deal with tragedy? Did you not feel any emotions other than mild enjoyment during the entire course of that game? If so, then I'm not sure why you play video games.

You're welcome to add music or literature or any other medium which you could feasibly append with the words "industry" or "business." There are exceptionally good games and exceptionally bad ones but by far the larger portion of the market is made up of uninteresting, unambitious drek - and the same is true of other entertainment mediums.

I was going to mirror your post by having two paragraphs of assumptions and rhetorical questions at the end but I'm not feeling it right now.

Since you're being lazy, I'll just throw some words into your mouth for good measure: You're saying all artists should be starving. Any game that makes a lot of money was obviously cultivated with only that purpose in mind. Money is the root of all evil.

I can totally understand your cynical, depressing view of the world, given the state it's in. I just find it such a downer that you'd let it color your opinion of absolutely all forms of expression. You're obviously well-educated and enjoy games to some degree, so I'm really just trying to help you to realize that your pessimism is going to poison your enjoyment of everything in life. Yeah, there are plenty of Twilights and Transformers and Black Eyed Peas and Call of Duties out there, but saying that they de-value their entire medium when mixed with original and captivating works, and that their critics can't tell the difference, is incredibly short-sighted.

@rebgav said:

@Kierkegaard said:

@rebgav: Are you a believer that nothing should be taken seriously and games are just a part of that truth, or that games in particular should never be taken seriously but other media should be?

I think that neither publishers nor reviewers take them seriously from any perspective other than their sales potential. While there are obviously exceptions it seems to be true of most. I think that videogames have a level of merit similar to movies and airport novels, enjoyable but ultimately worthless.

Wait, you're lumping the entire medium of film in with airport novels? Wha-huh? What movies have you watched?

So that leaves, what, music and books as the only legitimate means of expressing deeper meaning than "shoot that guy"?

Can't all music be reduced down to songs about either love or drugs?

If you only play the major, big-budget releases coming out of both Japan and the US, then I can kind of understand your view about videogames. And sadly, that's the only slice of gaming that a lot of people will ever see, so it makes sense when shitheads like Roger Ebert think that the best our medium has to offer is Halo and Dark Souls (he's not wrong about Dark Souls, though).

But shit man, did you even play Bastion? Did you not pick up on how the ending you chose can help you understand how you deal with tragedy? Did you not feel any emotions other than mild enjoyment during the entire course of that game? If so, then I'm not sure why you play video games.

I returned mine because it's been two weeks and I still can't import my face. I waited, I had most of the important stuff already spoiled for me thanks to the internet and coworkers, and at this point I'm so disgusted with everything surrounding this game that I just don't want to play it anymore. I'll probably borrow it from somebody like I did with Mass Effect 2. At least this time I'll have access to the full game.

Don't worry, they'll still get some money from me when I buy the story DLC.