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This blog is closed since June 30th, 2009, until further notice. I now blog over at the TAG (Technoculture, Art and Games) blog. My posts are also syndicated on the RELIQ Network.
03/07/09
12:40:04 
The End of the Line
Categories: News, 145 wordsSend feedback •This blog is going to take a break. Until further notice, I will be blogging my game studies musings and info over at the Technoculture, Art and Games blog @ http://www.tag.hexagram.ca/?page_id=219. Please adjust your bookmarks accordingly. Also, this may be the occasion to visit and/or sign up at the RELIQ (Réseau d'Études Ludologiques Interdisciplinaire du Québec) (http://grou.ps/relq), where my postings will be aggregated along with many other game studies blogs.
As a tentative last post for a long while, I'll simply announce that my 8-Bit Metal album RE:Discoveries has been remastered and is now available for download. Just head to the Melomania section to listen to the songs or download the thing. Happy gaming and "See you next mission", as the blonde bounty hunter from one of my favorite franchises would say.
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01/06/09
20:23:35
Rock, Paper, and Cut It Out, Will You?
Categories: Game Studies, 565 words2 feedbacks •Another day, another forum topic on the World of Warcraft boards making a comparison with Rock, Paper, Scissors. OK, I didn't provide a link because I didn't really check the forums to find that. But there's a zillion topics a day on this subject over there. The basic argument usually goes like this:
OMG I went to this battleground the other day with my 70 warrior, and a mage just three-shotted me!
Yeah well, I'm rock and you're scissor. Big deal huh?
The problem I have with that is not that it's false per se - but it is..."inexact". Yes, Mages are long-range killers, and a Frost mage can chill the target with his Frost Bolts, slow down his movement speed, blink away, etc., which makes the warrior - a close-range killing machine - unable to reach him to hack him to pieces. Rock beats scissors. But there's a lot more going on, because if the warrior manages to sneak behind the mage from around a wall, or if the mage is attempting a long-cast-time spell and the warrior manages to use his Charge to rush up to him, he's going to murder him really quickly. (Back in the 1.x days, they could get one-shotted, if memory serves me.) Scissors beat rock?
The best way to illustrate that is with the Rogue and Warlock. The Warlock - which, as one funny forumer aptly said in his forum signature, "Warlocks are like big fucking scissors that can cut through rocks" - is a spellcaster class that, broadly defined, does ranged damage-over-time and places debuffs to weaken targets. However the Warlock can use one of six minions that fight alongside him, emulating different classes. So it's basically nothing much on its own, but can call upon a little scissor, a little rock, or a little paper to help him out. Suddenly the RPS analogy doesn't hold so well. My own character, a Paladin, can beat a Warlock unless that Warlock uses the Fel Hunter minion, whose powers are tailor-made to counter my modes of operation.
The Rogue is a more interesting, and simpler, example. Basically, if he manages to sneak up on anything, it's dead. This is a bit hyperbolic, but the nature of his special powers allows it to stunlock something - that is, pile up effects that all cause stuns which effectively locks the player into a stun loop while he is butchering the opponent. If the Rogue gets detected, however, his odds of survival are pretty low. This urges us to consider the context of the fight - another huge factor is what's going on around. If the target of the Rogue gets healed while being stunlocked by a Priest, Druid or Paladin hanging around and survives through the stunlock, then the Rogue has one or two tricks to try to run, but is most probably going to end up dead.
Context is brought about as soon as a game deals with depictions of navigable space. Rock/paper/scissors is a game where one makes a choice and that's it. Any game with spatial navigation implies maneuvering that affect the odds of success. Multiplayer is another feature that complicates the equation. And special powers that require skill and adaptability from the player is the last bit that makes WoW, and many other games, nothing like Rock, Paper, Scissors. So cut out the analogy already!
15/05/09
14:39:35
The Duke Got Nuked (for real!)
Categories: News, 138 wordsSend feedback •Well, what a disappointment. 3D Realms has been closed down, which means that all development on Duke Nukem Forever has been halted...forever. Not that there was any sort of sustained development effort going around, from what I gather; but still, a single bored guy's extended coffee breaks, when totalled over the course of twelve years, could have amounted to something. I was expecting a DaiKatana. Or at least something unremarkable. But no, nothing. Well, at least my song based on Duke Nukem Forever just took on a whole new meaning. I may be the only person to have written a song about a game that doesn't exist. Or does it not exist? Is there not an imagined game floating around in our heads, of something ultra-cheesy, Dukey to the extreme, with aliens and imagined weapons and levels?
14/04/09
10:42:23
Penser après la tombée de la nuit / Thinking After Dark: Programme
Categories: Game Studies, 85 wordsSend feedback •Les détails du programme pour le colloque international bilingue "Penser après la tombée de la nuit: Bienvenue dans le monde des jeux vidéo d'horreur", qui se tiendra à Montréal du 23 au 25 avril 2009, sont maintenant en ligne sur le site web. Et l'affiche est également prête à être vue!
The details of the conference programme for Thinking After Dark: Welcome to the World of Horror Video Games are now available on the conference website. And the poster is up for views too!
10/03/09
05:12:53
Découverte, Radio-Canada, 15 mars: Cyberdépendance
Categories: News, 397 words3 feedbacks •J'ai une opinion assez haute de Découverte en général. Je suis par contre plutôt inquiet du reportage qui nous sera proposé dimanche prochain, sur entre autres "la cyberdépendance". Phénomène intéressant qu'il convient tout-à-fait de traiter, d'ailleurs. Là ou mes orteils se raidissent, c'est lorsque j'entends dans la publicité pour le reportage, après avoir vu des images de Facebook, de poker en ligne ou d'autres sites web, "rien cependant n'égale les jeux en ligne massivement multijoueurs. Ils s'appellent World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, ...". Qu'on vulgarise la problématique de la dépendance aux jeux en ligne, je veux bien. Mais qu'on mette Call of Duty avec WoW? Le problème de dépendance sera t-il vraiment le même entre ces jeux de genres bien différents? J'ai soudainement peur d'entendre parler de dépendance au poker en ligne et que ce soit mis sur le même pied que la dépendance à World of Warcraft, ou qu'on nous montre des images de violence hors-contexte tirées d'un FPS pour horrifier le téléspectateur.
J'espère seulement que Découverte ne va pas faire un Fifth Estate d'elle-même... (tel que dénoncé ici, ici et là, entre autres...)
MISE À JOUR: J'ai vu le reportage hier. Ouf! Ma confiance en Découverte est réitérée. On a précisé que plus que le jeu lui-même, c'est la création d'un réseau social et des pairs qu'on finit par "ne pas vouloir laisser tomber" qui serait à l'origine de la dépendance; on a aussi établi que la dépendance ne se mesure pas seulement en nombre d'heures passées à jouer mais aussi dans le rapport entretenu avec le jeu. Enfin, une chercheure en psychologie à l'UQÀM a aussi mentionné que le seul protocole de recherche dont on disposait présentement était un copié-collé de celui du jeu pathologique - clairement inadéquat et présenté comme tel dans le reportage puisque la notion de gain présente dans les jeux de hasard n'a pas d'équivalent réel dans les jeux en ligne. Bref, je tire mon chapeau à l'équipe qui a réalisé ce reportage. Enfin, du journalisme de qualité qui couvre le monde du jeu vidéo de façon honnête et sérieuse. À une ère nouvelle...santé!
09/03/09
08:04:44
Programme & "After Dark"
Categories: Genres, News, Game Studies, 139 wordsSend feedback •Une courte mise à jour bilingue pour vous mentionner la mise en ligne du programme pour le colloque Penser après la tombée de la nuit: Bienvenue dans le monde des jeux vidéo d'horreur. Vous trouverez par ailleurs sur le site la chanson thème officielle du colloque, appelée "After Dark", avec voix et paroles gracieuseté de l'auteur. Quelqu'un sait combien de colloques académiques ont eu leur propre chanson thème?
---
A quick bilingual update to let you all know that the conference programme for the Thinking After Dark: Welcome to the World of Horror Games conference has been put online. Also, there's a nifty official conference theme song available, titled "After Dark", with vocals and lyrics by yours truly. Now a quick question: how many academic conferences have had their own theme song before?
22/02/09
10:24:26
Cohérence diégétique et mondes possibles
Categories: Storytelling, Fiction, Narration, General Theory, 979 words1 feedback •Sur son blog, Simon Dor se livre à une petite analyse du donjon du château d'Hyrule dans Zelda: A Link to the Past.
Il explique que la lanterne, nécessaire pour progresser dans l'obscurité du donjon, peut être trouvée à trois endroits différents. Je n'avais jamais su que la lanterne pouvait être obtenue ailleurs que dans la maison...en fait, je pense que je l'ai déjà su, mais l'avais oublié. Enfin bref. Sa réflexion sur les mondes possibles et la diégèse du jeu est en lien avec une réflexion que j'entretiens depuis quelques temps sur Illusion of Gaia. En ayant battu le vampire de l'île Mu, le joueur doit désamorcer une bombe qui menace la vie d'un de ses amis. Le jeu lui demande lequel des deux fils il veut couper pour désamorcer la bombe: le fil rouge ou le bleu? En fin de compte, n'importe lequel des deux est "le bon" et la bombe s'arrête peu importe.Ceci, et l'exemple de la lanterne que Simon donne, démontre une des forces du jeu vidéo, mais de façon plus large, de toute simulation: la cohérence de l'univers diégétique n'est pas obligatoire, tant et aussi longtemps que chacun des mondes possibles engendrés est cohérent de façon interne. Par "univers diégétique", j'entends l'ensemble de tous les mondes possibles. Dans l'exemple d'Illusion of Gaia, sur le point de la bombe, il y en a deux: un monde dans lequel le fil bleu est le bon, et un monde dans lequel le fil rouge est le bon. Dans A Link to the Past, il y en a 3: un dans lequel Link et son oncle ont une lanterne dans leur maison, un dans lequel quelqu'un a placé une lanterne dans un coffre situé dans un souterrain secret pour entrer au château, et un dans lequel la princesse Zelda a été capturée mais on a eu la décence de lui laisser une lanterne dans sa cellule. Ces mondes sont mutuellement contradictoires: que peut-on dire du monde de Zelda pris indépendamment d'une partie donnée? Trois des coffres du jeu peuvent contenir à la fois un roupi ou une lanterne. Dans Illusion of Gaia, on ne peut pas dire lequel est "le bon" fil; les deux le sont, dépendamment du choix du joueur.
Cette dynamique n'a rien de nouveau, et souligne une fois de plus la parenté des jeux vidéo avec les jeux de rôle sur table. Tout maître de jeu minimalement expérimenté a déjà triché sur son scénario. Si je prévois que les joueurs devront explorer un donjon et auront besoin d'une lanterne magique qu'ils trouveront dans la maison d'un brigand, mais que pour une raison ou une autre les joueurs A) évitent la confrontation avec le brigand; B) ne fouillent pas sa maison; C) font à leur tête et se lancent dans le donjon de toute façon, je peux contrevenir à mon scénario sans aucun problème, et ce, de diverses façons: par exemple, s'ils ont évité la rencontre, le brigand pourrait les embusquer à l'entrée du donjon; s'ils l'ont tué mais pas fouillé sa maison, ils pourraient rencontrer un autre brigand de sa bande qui, lui, possède la lanterne; enfin, le donjon pourrait bien ne pas être plongé dans l'obscurité du tout! Alors que j'aurai en tête plusieurs mondes possibles incohérents les uns avec les autres (dans un rapport intertextuel, donc), le monde que je livrerai aux joueurs sera, lui, cohérent, puisque les joueurs n'auront pas eu accès aux autres mondes que j'ai imaginés auparavant.
C'est là indiscutablement une force dont les jeux vidéo peuvent tirer profit. Cette force peut être exploitée de diverses façons par les scénaristes et designers. Ils ne sont pas tenus d'offrir un univers diégétique syncrétique, mais peuvent exploiter toutes les possibilités de variation sans se limiter à la construction classique et à l'impératif de cohérence qui régule les autres médias traditionnels construits sur le mode du récit. En clair: la simulation ajoute une couche supplémentaire, la variabilité propre aux labyrinthes multicursifs (dixit Espen Aarseth, 1997: Cybertext). Faire l'expérience d'un roman ou d'un film, c'est faire l'expérience d'un objet fini dont l'auteur a tracé un parcours à travers un fouillis d'idées et de possibilités:
This formulation places the opposition between database and narrative in a new light, thus redefining our concept of narrative. The "user" of a narrative is traversing a database, following links between its records as established by the database's creator. An interactive narrative (which can be also called "hyper-narrative" in an analogy with hypertext) can then be understood as the sum of multiple trajectories through a database. A traditional linear narrative is one, among many other possible trajectories; i.e. a particular choice made within a hyper-narrative. Just as a traditional cultural object can now be seen as a particular case of a new media object (i.e., a new media object which only has one interface), traditional linear narrative can be seen as a particular case of a hyper-narrative.
(Lev Manovich, "Database as a Genre of New Media")
Cette couche supplémentaire (celle du système génératif, réservé à l'auteur dans les expériences linéaires) n'est pas régie par les mêmes règles que la couche d'expérience directe, celle des différentes manifestations du système. La dernière doit être cohérente à l'interne, la première n'a aucune obligation de la sorte. Si l'on accepte le postulat que le jeu vidéo est une simulation, il convient de poursuivre le raisonnemment: la simulation n'est pas un récit, mais une machine à engendrer des récits.
28/11/08
17:09:28
Narration in the Video Game - Master's thesis published
Categories: Storytelling, Fiction, Narration, Game Studies, 147 wordsSend feedback •The English translation of my master's thesis has just been published by VDM Verlag, as part of their print-on-demand series. The full title reads Narration in the Video Game. An Apologia of Interactive Storytelling, and an Apology to Cut-Scene Lovers. I didn't get the choice to not put up a subtitle, so I did my best to come up with one. In the end I kind of like it. It is indeed a defense of interactive storytelling, but not going the cut-scenes way.
The book is available pretty much all around the web (for instance, http://www.amazon.com/Narration-Video-Game-Dominic-Arsenault/dp/3639091396/), but the price is likely to prohibit some serious distribution. You could always request that your local university library buy a copy. Rest assured, the full text in PDF format is staying on this here website, so there's no need to get into a download frenzy.
12/11/08
06:24:02
CFP: International Conference on Horror Video Games
Categories: News, Game Studies, 778 words1 feedback •This call for papers has been around the web quite a lot since we sent it out, but yours truly finally updates his blog to include it. As I am part of the organizing committee, let me also address a few questions we received so far. Think of it as an unofficial FAQ:
1) Yes, we will accept and expect proposals from people in the industry, not just academics.
2) There is no discipline restrictions, we seek an interdisciplinary conference focused on a given object (horror video games). Psychology, anthropology, sociology, biology, film studies, art history, literature, media studies, game design, architecture, computer science, physics or mathematics even, and any other discipline I did not think of, are all welcome to apply.
3) The conference being bilingual means we accept proposals and communications that are either in English or French. It does not mean that people have to write/speak/translate in both languages.-----
Thinking After Dark: Welcome to the World of Horror Video Games
Montreal, April 23-25, 2009The research group Ludiciné from the University of Montreal, in collaboration with the Research Group on the Creation and Formation of Cinematographic and Theatrical Institutions (GRAFICS) from the University of Montreal and the NT2 Laboratory on Hypermedia Art and Literature from the University of Quebec in Montreal, solicits your
proposals for the bilingual (French/English) international conference titled «Thinking after Dark: Welcome to the World of Horror Video Games». This conference will be held in Montreal (Quebec, Canada) from April 23 to 25, 2009.Call for papers
As fear is the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind (Lovecraft), human beings have always taken a malicious pleasure in frightening themselves. If literature and cinema were and still represent good means for the expression of horror, nowadays, the experience of fear is as intense in video games.
While academia has been studying horrific literature and films for a few decades, such an interest for the videoludic side of horror has not, until now, showed up. Yet, since the cinematic staging of fear in Alone in the Dark in 1992, the Survival Horror has become a prolific genre offering a wide selection of significant games such as the Resident
Evil, Silent Hill and Fatal Frame series. Because it is at the crossroads of diverse cultural heritages and the latest technological developments, and because it exhibits the ins and outs of the matrix that governs all but a few games (spatial navigation and survival), horror video games require a deeper study.This international conference wishes to study horror video games (not necessarily labeled survival horror) from an eclectic range of critical and theoretical perspectives. It aims to fill a gap in game studies between general theory and analysis of particular genres and games.
Possible Topics
Here are some examples of relevant themes we wish to explore in this conference:Historical approach
- Origins and history of horror video games
- Impact of the technological evolution on horror video gamesTheoretical approach
- Simulation of horror, fear, terror
- Narratives and themes of horror video gamesTransmedial approach
- Transmedial study of horror video games (Games/Films/Literature)
- Remediation in films, literature and video gamesSocio-cultural approach
- Transnational analysis of horror video games (United States/Japan)
- Social and cultural meanings of horror video games
- Horror video games and censorshipAnalytical approach
- Aesthetics of horror video games (lighting, sound, editing, 1st/3rd person perspective)
- Study of specific games or series (Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil, Fatal Frame, etc.)The organizing committee remains open to proposals that respect the general spirit of this call for papers.
Please submit your proposals no later than January 15, 2009 at the following e-mail address: [thinking.after.dark@ca.inter.net]. Acceptance and rejection notifications will be sent by the beginning of February.
Your proposal must include:
1. The title of your paper and an abstract (no more that 500 words).
2. Your academic status, your institutional affiliation, your department and your contact information (mailing address, telephone number, fax number and e-mail address)
3. A short biography underlining your work related to the themes of the conference (no more than 250 words).A selection of papers will be published in a special issue of Loading…, the journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association.
For further information, please visit our website: [http://conference2009.ludicine.ca].
Organizing committee:
Bernard Perron, Conference Head, Associate Professor, Department of Art History and Film Studies, University of Montreal
Martin Picard, coordinator, research group Ludicine, University of Montreal
Richard Bégin, Invited Professor in Film Studies, Literatures Departement, Laval University.
Carl Therrien, research group Ludicine, University of Montreal
Dominic Arsenault, research group Ludicine, University of Montreal
Guillaume Roux-Girard, research group Ludicine, University of Montreal
05/11/08
15:11:41
FF7, 10 years earlier
Categories: Video Games, 192 wordsSend feedback •I just found out about an unofficial Final Fantasy VII version for the NES. Yes. The NES. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_VII_(Famicom):
Final Fantasy VII (Chinese: 最终幻想7 ZuiZhongHuanXiang 7) is a China-exclusive unofficial, unlicensed, remake of the 1997 console role playing game Final Fantasy VII, originally developed by Square for the PlayStation. The two-dimensional "port" was developed and published by the Chinese company ShenZhen Nanjing Technology (深圳市南晶科技有限公司 ShenZhenShi NanJing LiKe YouXianGongSi) for the Famicom console.
Shocking. Apparently they developed equivalent systems to account for Materia, items, etc. They retained the whole storyline, except for some side-quests and optional characters. Some songs and graphics are ripped from other games and compressed. This is mind-numbing.
This is closely related to "Demakes" that went over a few months back. My favorite has got to be Shadow of the Colossus on Atari 2600. [UPDATE: A friend just told me this is actually for the TRS-80. That's funny, because I was actually thinking that the game probably transgressed the usual Atari 2600 rule of symmetrical representation, a trick used to save on runtime memory/display.] Hold me closer, Giant Dancer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3fWBQcuplQ
