Futuresonic Gamesounds

The unique thing about games is you interact with them?

Bull huckey! I can cross out the words in a book, write notes in its margins, underline it, chuck it across the room, reluctantly pick it up, decide to skip to the end. It might mean something very different on a re-read; after my great grandfrog died, in the rain by a train or when I have become 20 or 40, or after my cousin read it and thought my favorite character was the most annoying and then I spit in his socks out of revenge.

Yes, but you play with games, that sir, is the key!

Bull huckey. I play with the ideas I get from books, I play with playlists on a iPod while doing homework, I play with my roommate when he's trying to relax and I put ob ear-destroying Guitar Vader, I watch people play with repeating and editing movies in different ways. Play is a broad concept.

Okay, but you are passive in other forms of entertainment. Maybe you are, you unwashed, unthinking, beer-guzzling philistine! My mind is a fire and the fireworks are my reaction. You can do it too, you've got one that's just as capable as mine -- you just might not be conscious of how much you're using it. You're reacting to how plausible the plot is, you're covering your eyes at the gore, throwing spoons in the theater revival, repeating the lines to your friends or singing impromptu in the shower. These are not passive reactions.

Ah, but the work doesn't change. Fundamentally, on a physical level, no. But the perception of it can and perception is a great chunk of reality.

I think you can say whether we are reacting, interacting or playing with whatever we are witnessing, consuming, ignoring or absorbing, it becomes slightly like a relationship. I think many people say this in a smart-lady-with-a-an-accent-giving-a-speech way. ("Our relationship has changed and that's what I wanted to represent in this exhibit.")

So I don't think it's the reactions, play or interaction, its the way we form a relationship with a game in our language and thinking. I've often thought this was curious. "That game cheats!" claims a player who falls into a pit.

"This game is a bastard!" say countless Souls series players.

"Oh come on, just a little bit more," someone bargains near the finish line.

"I tried to work with it, but I wasn't getting anywhere," says somebody who doesn't get all the hype.

"I am in love with your eyes -- cross that -- this level/character."

It might be my imagination, but I feel like I hear more personification of the work itself within a game then I do with other forms of narrative, entertainment or amusement design. Whenever I hear the same types of relationship-sounding sentences in other works, they are usually in reference to the creators or the people who like them.

I think this is a hint. I feel like people often are making a mistake when they say that games are different every time you play them because other, more static works can be too, whether they are a different edition, remix or language of the same work, or because the person or approach to experiencing them is different. However, I get the strange sensation the longer I spend with a game, the more I feel its analogous to interacting with an animate being.

I know my favorite books well and I can remember when I just met them. I can compare them in relationship terms, of course. But when I reflect on my favorite games, I feel a much stronger connection to the analogy. Devilish Brain Training is a game I've spent a lot of time with. There was an awkward phase where I didn't know it very well, or wasn't sure I wanted to get to know it better. Then as we became friends, I found all sorts of new things about it. Slowly I got used to its quirks. There were unexpected realizations that I can look back on through my daily repetitious play. I got addicted to one part of it and for a while that's all I could see. Then I slowly came back around to see the whole picture again. Sometimes after an extended absence, I would learn to appreciate its quirky delights. Sometimes I got annoyed by the things it would do; things I knew very well it would do, but tolerated them anyway.

If I try to make this same comparison to a book, it breaks in several places. Something I would potentially read every day like a book of great quotes, a religious text or poem book, something like that doesn't give me the same unexpected realizations because it does not remember like a game does, it does not vary significantly like a game does, and most importantly it does not offer a different emotional reaction based on chance. The closest part to a relationship is getting caught up on one extraordinary aspect and then pulling out to see a big picture. The awkwardness could be compared to getting used to prose, but because it doesn't throw back fail states, rewards, positive or negative reinforcement based on my input, feedback refusal or encouragement, it is far less like a blossoming relationship.

I can get used to an artist's quirks or a director's quirks, but in this case I'm often reacting to the creator, not the work itself and the quirks tend to be much more varied among the users. Everyone always says an aspect of Spielberg's works is sentimentality. People say Miyamoto's works are often light and happy. But I am not reacting to Miyamoto's quirks when I say "damn you, Mario," when I fail to line up the turtle guys to get 1UPs. I am reacting to something a little more like a relationship. I set up an expectation by initiating contact and manipulating something. It reacted. I continued along with my plans. It didn't work out. Can you really say you're doing the same thing when you get confused by the chronology of a Quentin Tarantino plot? I think you could say its a relationship to the extent that you can take on the role of someone grading or evaluating something else, like a teacher reading a student's paper or a friend offering advice. But I don't think you can say our relationships with those other mediums change as quickly, vary as much, or veer into desperate corners as drunkenly as game relationships do.

Music, these days can often have a lot more of this kind of dynamic. You can take on a lot more varied roles as its appreciator, remixer, editor in your list of tracks, cutting out the intro you hate, and it implies mastery of a sort. You have to build a certain amount of knowledge with the medium and how it works if your going to remix it, post a Youtube music video, or even just convert the format on your computer or do things like crop it or adjust the decibel playback or equalizer. Adjusting various settings on your TV so you get whatever effect you might like doesn't quite cut it. Writing parodies of book sections or doing off the wall things with your webcam is close, but not the same, because often there is a gap between the book and movie and your new idea, whereas with music, the two are very close together in a way that I think resembles games.

Many people say the pacing is off in games, but I think they are wrong. Games, instead have things like tempo, rhythm, beat, breakdown, choruses, refrains and everybody can interact with music on a level where others can easily evaluate how skilled they are. This doesn't seem to happen very much with books or movies. People don't often congratulate you on your skilled reproduction of When Harry, Met Sally or The Grapes of Wrath. They do? What on earth do you for a living? Anyway, I guess reciting poetry or being able to act out a few lines is close, but notice how both bring sound and musical concepts into it?

But there are still limits to how we can form a relationship with music. I kind of doubt anyone has ever said of a music track, "I swear, if it does that one more time, I give up today!" That's something we say of animate beings when they do something that annoys us, because we know they can stop, but more importantly we know have some sort of agency that hopefully make them stop. Have you ever threatened to The Black Eyed Peas to stop saying "Immabe" and put some real lyrics into their song the next time it plays at your supermarket? You do? Well then, you have unique relationships don't you.

So no, I don't think the unique thing about games is that your interact with them. I think the unique thing about games is that our interactions with them form more complex relationships than some other forms of amusement and edification.

Don't Open the Box: Tamagon Has Sinned, He Must Repent

I've done it! I've figured out Devil World!

Alas!

Tamagon, the main character is a creature that has been Left Behind. This happened because he committed the sin of gluttony. He loves sunny-side-up eggs. But because he did not repent to the Lord Jesus like the too-fat-to-walk riders of electronic chariots, he did not proceed to the Great Bacon Party in the Sky on the day of rapture.

Now he's stuck on Earth, which is infested with demons. Unbeknownst to Tamagon, the Devil controls his life! Tamagon must take control by finding the Lord (who grants the power to breathe fire to thy enemies via Holy Halitosis) and eating the blissful white leftover souls of people zapped away on the day of reckoning. (The real Light Souls starts here!)

The solitary eye is for cruising hot guys.

Speaking of enemies, notice how the only inhabitants left are Tamagon, demons and pink creatures? Pink? I think we all know what that means: God doesn't let gay people enter the Kingdom of Heaven! Want proof? Once confronted by the fires of the Lord, the gay people burn away into delicious eggs, obviously because of the deposit of excess reproductive material that has built up in their butts!

So after Tamagon finds enlightenment by devouring the souls of the righteous like some Walmart CEO, he must learn to piece together fragments of the Bible ripped apart by the demons and bring them to the Holy Church (aka McDonalds) where all the righteous convene with their unemployment dollars to in Bible Studies surrounded by healthy family food. There, Tamagon can learn to say, "Jesus, ba-ba, ba-ba-ba, I'm lovin' it!"

Struttin' in sexy red underwear!

 Once he does that, of course the Devil (who also is obviously gay because he wears  red hot pants) gets turned into a bat like all the characters in such popular demonic  witchcraft books like Twilight and leaves poor Tamagon alone.

 Alas! Every time Tamagon manages to banish Satan from his mind, he succumbs to the  temptations of the tree of knowledge and instead of being born again, eats his green  extra life. Thus the cycle of death and rebirth begins anew, sometimes with Tamagon  being squished by his own narrow view points and sin, until he learns the way of the  Lord.

 Gosh! When they say Miyamoto is a genius, they really mean it!

Don't Open the Box: Rumor Has It

"Hya hya hya!"

If you're like me and the sound of rumors is like the sound of an irritating pop star -- something you don't want to be subjected to, but get curious about when you are -- then I've got a big one for you! Hya hya hya!

Hundreds of years ago there were apparently two feuding brothers in the hoodskank ghetto of South Kakariko. These two brothers wouldn't speak to each other until a shiny green hero blew down their walls. Then it was said that the two brothers reconciled. But shortly after their reconciliation the shiny green hero was said to set sail for new lands to polish his prowess. Hya hya hya!

Unfortunately, it would seem that younger brother had a thing for the hero. The elder brother, feeling pity for his sibling's unrequited love, sought out a suitable replacement companion for him. Well, he couldn't just go around asking people if they enjoyed male flesh instruments, so they say he got really good at ferreting out rumors. Hya hya hya!

Eventually, his brother moved away and became a hermit. Word has it that as the family line continued, the elder brother's rumor savvy was inherited and passed on to each generation as the Hero of Rumors. Sometimes, for one reason or another, a member of the rumor family takes residence in a cave just like the hermity younger brother. I hear there's someone like that in Northern Hyrule, where the bumpkins live. If you're clever, you might be able to meet him, but he's kind of in the forest. Hya hya hya! 

Best of Miiverse: 12/28

Yes, thank you, Peter.

Hello, and welcome to another edition of Best of Miiverse. Today we take a look at the Final Fantasy community. What sights shall we see when we delve into the minds of those who would pay 500 yen for an RPG released 26 years ago in this very same month? Peter, be a good lad, and fetch the doctor a chestnut.

Our first post comes from Hirotarou:

"Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but in elements like the dramatic scenario, the fact that your party doesn't line up to walk around, that the battle scenes are looked on from above the player's viewpoint, the comparatively somewhat friendly menu screen, and more, I can feel something like FF's obstinate rebellion against DQ, like they were saying, 'Well, one way or another I'm going to bare my teeth at you!' If not for DQ, perhaps FF never would have been born; if not for DQ, perhaps FF would not have become this big of a hit series. I can feel it in my bones, FF is what it is because DQ was there."

And then in his next post: "Putting that aside, the 'Why is it like this?' feel of the menu screen is pretty amazing. Looking at its friendliness, it's at a level that just makes you want to use 'kun' or 'san' or 'tan.' It might be interesting to make it into a character."

And this is the reply:

Menu-kun: "Poison!? Not cool, dude!"

 Moving on, we have this rather delightful specimen from Sho-imo:

I am...Super Monk!

This requires some explanation. I believe in English, Final Fantasy's Black Belt character is known as the Master when he undergoes a class change. In Japanese, he is a Monk and becomes a Super Monk at class change. Yes, that's right, Super Monk.

Not enough anime references for you? Well then, take this, courtesy of Maru:

Galaxy Express came out way before Final Fantasy. An influence?

If you don't know who that is on the left, why he's the captain of Galaxy Express 999! See, take a look:

Hmmm. No similarities at all.

Peter, my pain medication! Ahem, for our final specimen, I give you this excellent observation from Shun:

"Enemies that resemble human beings sure do have a lot of gold!"

Great Scott! I had never considered that before! Sticklers for detail, that rascally Square was!

That's enough for one day. Now Peter, wheel me into the spa, I need to soak.

Tasting the Feast: Excave

A donut fell on my mom and crushed her, so I decided to try a game! This time, I went for Excave, a recently distributed new action RPG on the Japanese e-shop by Mechanic Arms, the lovely people known for the incredibly unique DSiware RPG The Enigmatic Mini-Games, a scrumptious little treat that combined Wario Ware with a dungeon RPG.

The dungeon is getting unruly! The king is restless! Mercenaries seek fame! Off to the dungeons, my lads!

As I set foot in the dungeon, I notice two things: 1) I'm not in 3D, what's up with that? I haven't been a two-dimensional oaf since I used to look down on women, only be interested in sports and pick on gay people! 2) I must have eaten too much of Aunt Harriet's black sugar pumpkin pie because I move like molasses.

Suddenly, a voice echoes from the heavens: "Equip some armor, you blinkin' idiot!" Ah! I see, choosing to equip various things in 3 armor slots from the 16 item slots below that I prepared before I delved inside (did you catch all that?) lets me to choose whether I want to focus on high hit points, high attack or faster movement speed! Interesting! I can also equip one weapon and one item, magic spell or shield to use, though I have to be careful, because the shields and weapons were made amateur blacksmiths and they deteriorate. Furthermore, the bottom screen is used very well to throw away useless items in a trash bin, re-equip different things, and drag potions to your mouth to drink them.

"Do your inventory chores or no successful dungeon exploration for you!" "But ma!" "No buts! I bought you that touch screen to make it easier and more fun, I expect you to use it!"

Whoa nelly! That thunder magic spell was the business! I just let Zeus's lightning rip, and attracted all the slimes to the slaughter as they walked right into a stationary bolt of patented electrical nightmare! It was like cooking Lima beans and green jelly beans using with a mounted taser.

Hmmm, there are lots of keys. All sorts of different colors. This is one of those situations where you have to be careful how much you take, and what you keep, huh? Just then, the voice from the heavens echoes again: "Press and hold the X button in your heart to conjure a magic rune that will transport you back to town." Ah ha! So this is one of those thrift store dungeons where they expect you to go back to town to discard items regularly and manage your inventory that way. That's why my mom named me Excave! It's that whole balancing exploration with escape mechanic!

The voice thunders again, "And read my diary notes, you nincompoop!" Hmm, I do have a lot of pieces of parchment in my inventory. Oh look, they contain hints and directions from the Diary of the Dungeon God, how helpful, yet politely unobtrusive! No tutorials here!

Well, I've only delved into the dungeon for 15 minutes, but already I've traveled multiple floors, accessed a dangerous trap room where I was ambushed by slimes, discovered the satisfying clunk and clash of two distinct types of weapons with their own animations and the need to manage your inventory between two different characters who can equip different things.

I think this dungeon has potential! Let's keep going!