Unlimited Detail, and the possibly return to regular postings

It seems that it has been around a half a year since my last post. Needless to say, I need to be far my frequent. That’s why I have agreed to do a post around once a week and at the very least whenever I beat another videogame, or force my self to eat hamburger helper (I don’t care what you might say, that “food” is nasty).

Just this week I beat Deadly Premonition (great game), and yesterday I just beat Final Fantasy XIII (*head desk*). I’m contemplating doing a review on one of them, but at the same time I have so little to say that has not already been said on them that I would come off as one of many bloggers and reviews who enjoy beating the dead horses that are these two games. Anyway, I will try to be more diligent on posting for now on.

Anyway, to the actual post now…

A few days ago, I was show a video of the “Unlimited Detail” engine by Euclideon.

Now, I know very little about how 3D modeling works, but the tech over all seems to be plausible or at the very least the company seems to be legitimate. From what I can find on them, it seems that they have received significant grant funds from the Australian Government, which to me suggests that these guys are at least one step above the common “internet hoaxer” and “viral promoter”.

And another thing is that a lot of the people claiming it not real seem to not be doing very good research on the company itself. Its early videos are easy to find, and they themselves note that this tech is not a new way of rendering something, but just a more efficient way to do it. Clearly though, there has to be some down side to this tech, which they clearly are not mentioning, and that both makes me curious and dubious at the same time.

I’m not saying everything that I could about this, trust me that would end up being a five paged, rambling essay, I do find this intriguing and, for the moment, I am keeping an open mind.

Video Games cause the Florida School Board Shooting

If any of you reading have not heard, there was this shooting in a Florida school board meeting, and I guess it was kind of a big deal.



Look at the heroics of th……wait a second. Did I just see what I thought I saw?

Scratch that, I take back what I said in my earlier post. I was trying to reason with the fact that most commercial videogames are a repetitive and violent medium, devoid of any artistic originality, and thus they needed to diversify to be accepted by larger communities. I now hate larger communities, because they totally suck.

It’s funny how the mass media, lawyers, and psychologists will pick at videogames, saying how they cause violence, and connecting even the smallest things to find a link and yet seem to almost refuse do it to movies. The silliest example of this came from the Virginia Tech shooting, where by because the gun man used a Glock hand gun he must have been an avid player of counter-strike, a game set in the real world, a world where Glock hand guns are guns and a world where guns kill people. Even so, I have only heard passing comments on this guy, who painted a red V, a reoccurring symbol from V for Vendetta comic books. Heck, actually, ignoring small forum posts, I have actually have not seen anyone connect this shooting to the comic book, and only one news cast said his symbol was “similar” to the movie. I hope that by similar, they mean exactly the same.

This just goes to show how biased our news is, and how anything that we do is impressionable. While it is silly to say that videogames do not merit the capacity to cause violence in people, the act of blaming violence on videogames and not on comic books and movies, where in this case we can see what this gun man was clearly inspired from, is just silly. I mean, look at this clip from the movie based on the comic book and tell me it did not give him some pointers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TLD3Z6sJWA

They keep talking about the heroisim, but the real story here is why did he do it? Why did he bother spray that symbol on the wall? was he a Fan of V for Vendetta? Even with this HUGE connection, I have yet to hear anyone talk about how movies and comic books need comprehensive censorship laws, how we are a disgusting and violent culture, or how we need to prevent the carrying or concealed hand guns or just outlawing guns in general. Perhaps it’s because the shooter was an older man. Funny thing is though, if it were a kid who was to do the shooting, I bet they would try to blame the non-existent V for Vendetta Videogame.

how the new California video game ban could be a good thing, and how we are all over reacting

As many of you may already know, EMA v. California/Schwarzenegger is finally being heard by the Supreme Court, and now the gamers of the internet are aflame. Many point to the ridiculousness of the case, noting that out of all the laws pertaining to the very same subject, and with all of them being shot down in local and state courts, how is it that this one made it all the way to the national level? Others speak prophecies of doom, saying a censorship law of this nature will reduce the videogame industry to simple children games like Kinectimals and Bejeweled, losing what little artistic merit videogames have, and placing forever out of reach true artistic expression. Others still note the similarity that this law has to the Comics Code Authority, and foresee that the passing of the new law will have similar effects on videogames that the Comics Code Authority had on comic books.

I want it to be known that I hate censorship of any kind. It pains me to see when certain books are not allowed in schools because they stand as a perceived threat against society and the normal way of life, I hate it when lines in other wise great films are changed for the mere fact that they go against the majorities view on a hot button topic, and I hate it when television shows self censor themselves by ignoring the meat of the issue and instead take the easy road around it as to avoid conflict. But I also have to ask, how bad can such a law be? Is there no chance that nothing will come from this, that it will prove to be nothing less than detrimental to videogames overall? As of now I’m torn; only a few weeks ago I would have agreed that the videogame law were a bad thing, but as of lately I am starting to see things differently.

(As you read the rest of this post, you should take note, that I am not examining EMA v. California specifically or law itself in any great depth. I am also not going to be pointing out the double standard; that vulgar and violent films, books, music, and works of art are ok, but that violent games are bad. It’s not going to mention how the law is based upon the Miller Test, where they simply replaced the word’s “work” and “profanity” with the words “videogames” and “violence”, or the fact that the Miller test itself is controversial because of how it places the duty of finding works obscene into the always ambiguous hands of “Mr. Average Citizen”, among other reasons. I already know, you don’t need to tell me.)

It was about three weeks ago when I was thinking of ideas that I could use for this post, a post where I would yell and complain about the evils of the California law, with hopes that it would contain some constructive facts that maybe the Supreme Court would read and ultimately force them to strike down this law. It was at this same time that I attended a lecture at a local college on the history of film. I have always been a sucker for movies, and so I went to hear what the speaker had to say. He talked about how film got its start, with Sallie Gardner at a Gallop and the Roundhay Garden Scene, onward. Eventually he got to the 1960’s, and talked briefly on censorship in films. As he did though, he seemed to have an almost positive look upon them. When he had finished talking I asked him if he thought if censorship had a positive effect on films. He said they did.

His argument was that the barriers and limits they place forced directors to think creatively to get their point across. He quickly cited the film Notorious and its scene where the couple kisses for almost 3 minutes, side stepping the rule preventing a kiss that lasts longer than 30 seconds by having them nibble on one another of talk every three seconds.



In a way, this scene is almost a more passionate romantic moment than most that we have in films today, which is odd when you consider that we don’t have to abide by a 30-second rule, and have full access to depict sexual encounters. I thought then, that perhaps this could help video games, which if you look at the entire medium as a whole, are fairly shallow when compared to literally any other art form. Basically, it seems that censorship forces creativity.

I know, people argue that the Comics Code Authority killed comics with its strict censorship rules, but I disagree with that for two reasons. The first is that the comics started dying off because people did not buy them, which was a result from the negative press they received at the time and not from the fact that they could not depict drug use or evil/stupid cops. Secondly, they were killed off because they were not creative. Yeah, that’s right, I just said the Stan Lee was not creative. There were probably a number of ways to get around their censors, similar to what Alfred Hitchcock did in Notorious, yet they kept making the same boring stories, aimed at children, over and over again. Perhaps, if they tried to appeal to a different market, comics could be a far more mature medium. It also important to remember that in 1971, Stan Lee just took the Comics Code Authority stamp off of a comic in order to get it published, so arguing that it had any effect aside from creating bad press for comic books is insane. There has been little press coverage on the current videogame law that will prevent minors from buying violent games, minus a few blurbs on the occasional news channel and comedy show; a far cry from what we saw when the Comics Code Authority was being instated.

If videogames want to survive, they need to get creative, they need to find new ways to tell stories, and they need to diversify. Games have basically been telling the same story for the last 20 years, with minor changes. Yes, I know that there is X and Y game and that game that may mix things up a bit, but we must remember that X and Y does not make up the whole alphabet. There is a literal flood of titles that are made up of nothing more than garbage plots, poor controls, boring game play, annoying characters, retarded dialogue, and repetitive settings. Sure, a censor imposed on games, or anything, is bad. I don’t deny that, but in this case it also has the potential to make games more mature. It’s also important to remember that games have a wider range of appeal than say comic books, that they take in much more money now than movies, and so a “Videogame Code Authority” will have a hard time making the millions of people from all ages think that game are bad. The Internet is a helpful tool as well, allowing for easy distribution and easy access to information for those who bother to look. Another key point is that Indie games, as far as I know, would not be under the thumb of the California law. It’s even possible that it may even command a bigger market for indie games by drawing more attention to them in a world where game retails are controlled. We should also remember that most censorship laws, if they pass, are not permanent. The court case Joseph Burstyn Inc. vs. Wilson, for example, removed censorship in film under an argument supported by both the 1st and 14th amendments.

Hopefully this will be a wake up call to the game industry. It seems that this time they may get out unscathed, but next time they may not be so lucky. They are going to need to diversify, find new ways to bring in more adult and mature audiences without all of the explosions and violence. I have serious doubts that the Supreme Court will rule against videogames, seeing as how they do not have a history on supporting censorship, but a future case and even this one, has the potential of leaning the other way. Better games that appeal to a wider audience, with a more artistic nature can help ensure that something like this will never occur again. Any way, that’s about all I have to say on that subject, and I hope that this post will provide some food for thought for those like me, who are fiercely against any form of censorship.

What I’m about to say here definitely does not reflect the views of the others who post here, which is the point of having them here in the first place. Even so, I just wanted to get that out of the way because most of what I’m about to say will not be too popular among anyone.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So this year’s E3 is at an end. I must admit, I saw a lot that peaked my interests, and overall, it looks like many fun games will be produced for both this year and the next. Even so, I can’t help but feel that most everything presented illustrates that games are moving in a trend that will not be beneficial for them, at least as an art form. In general, I was just disappointed by what was shown.

To be fair, I came into this with a sore attitude. There really was nothing that I was looking forward to, and as such there was probably very little that they could show me that would have changed my opinion. Even so, the whole event seemed devoid of life or energy. From where I am standing, it looked like a giant pissing contest, with everyone trying to outdo one another by copying or falling on old tactics. You had Sony copying Nintendo’s motion controller, Microsoft copying Sony with their overly sophisticated Eye Toy, there was Sony copying Xbox Live, and lastly there was Nintendo who cashed in on the 3-D obsession, followed by their usual bag of tricks (Zelda, Mario: insert random sport here).

Now, if you could not tell, I’m one of those art freaks who believe that videogames can have a more mature side if we are willing to develop one. While, you may not agree with me, you have to ask yourself how new systems, such as the Kinect and Nintendo 3DS, will further develop and advance games as a whole. The answer is they won’t. As we saw from the Nintendo Wii, innovative consoles do not result in innovative games. They do not make games more mature, often doing just the opposite, and they are almost always plagued with trash software. Another problem with them actually stems from the developers themselves. Often, it seems, they do not understand how to work with the new tech, and as such they adapt the new system to old designs.

An example of this would be how everyone is talking about playing First Person Shooters on the Kinect. That system really is not well suited for such a game, similar to how a controller pad is not well suited to play strategy games. While it can be done, as we saw with games such as Brutal Legend and Halo Wars, they did not perform as well as similar titles built on the PC. If developers were willing to make new or modified game genres that fit the new systems, then we might be better off. The sad thing is, Microsoft, Sony, and even Nintendo probably know this, and they don’t care. It’s all less about the art and more about being different, appearing cool, and at the end of the day, selling more systems than the others.

I suppose right now, I’m yelling about how an entire industry has worked and operated for longer than I have been alive, and I know that most of what I want to see is more or less a giant pipe dream, but would still appreciate to see some original content created and supported for the sake of art, and not for the sake of sales. For instance, Nintendo showed off the “new” Golden Eye 007 game, a title that I would hardly even call a remake. We need to understand, as a group, that by endorsing such titles, we are by default endorsing lazy developers. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why people like Roger Ebert refuse to acknowledge the potential that games have as an art.

I suppose that’s all I really have to say, though greatly shortened from its original length. I am fully aware that most of you will disagree with what I just said, just don’t call me out on not providing enough examples. This original entry had nearly five pages of examples, and I hope that I am being nice by cutting it down to just this.

New Music from Mandalorian!!!!!

This is an excerpt from a much much longer song called "Exar Kun" by my solo project "Mandalorian"

Yes, the awesome new music made by me: seniormeld (also known as Mandalorian)

I used heavy phasers to make a sound similar to the blasters and the ending like 3 seconds was me trying to make a lightsaber sound.

Gun boots....

Do I hear Final Fantasy XVI?

Stookey Dookey..the second

Poor depleting oceans...

The Little Tree

Story time, children! Tonight we will be reading the tale of the happy little tree. During a session with Google's new Wave product, a couple of colleagues of mine and I ended up writing this three-part epic trilogy (redundancy!). What follows is a voyage into madness, and is not for the faint of heart.

Image copywritten by whoever owns the Charlie Brown Christmas special now. ABC?

~The Little Tree: Part 1~

Written by Brickmaster3000

Once upon a time there was a tree who always dreamed that someday he would become a piece of paper. His friends all made fun of him, "Who wants to be a filthy piece of paper," they would say.

The little tree just ignored them. He knew that paper was a glorious thing. Paper was what held knowledge. Paper is what allowed written language to come to be. Surely there could be no better thing to be.

One day a lumberjack stopped to eat his lunch by the little tree and heard him daydreaming about being paper. "I could help you with that," said the lumberjack. The little tree was thrilled when he heard that and gladly agreed with the lumberjack.

As the lumberjack took his axe to the little tree it screamed in pain, "Oh my god! The pain! It hurts so much!" The lumberjack ignored the little trees screams and kept going. He then ground the little trees lifeless corpse into a pulp and finally turned it into paper.

~The Little Tree: Part Deux~

Written by Expendable Sith

Finally, the pain began to subside. Bit by bit, the little tree began to retain feeling, first at his core, and slowly in his extremeties. But, something was wrong, something felt different...he felt somehow bigger. No, he thought, not bigger, I don't feel like there's more of me. I feel as though I'm more...spread out. As he was pondering this quandary, suddenly his senses were flooded with light, and he heard footsteps.

"Mr. Capone, it is my honor to present to you your new store of counterfeit currency. Inspect it, please, and you will find that it is nothing less than a work of art."

Mr. Capone? Counterfeit currency? What illegal things could possibly be going on here? Suddenly the little tree felt part of him move, become displaced. As someone was ruffling through a part of him, the little tree began to laugh.

"You're tickling me, stop!" The ruffling stopped, and he felt the displaced portion of himself drop to the cold floor.

"What the hell's goin' on here, Frankie? You'se guys tryin' to pull a trick on me or somethin'?" a man said as he started to chuckle. "Well, you got me. Now, let's go purchase ourselves some booze, eh?"

"Um, Mr. Capone, sir, I assure you this is no trick. I'm the happy little tree, and I'm so glad to meet you!" the happy little tree said joyfully, "I think I must be paper now, and I want to know...what manner of knowledge is written on me? Am I a science book? Will you read me and be my friend?"

"The joke's up, Frankie. You get your boys out of here and let's spend dis money. It was funny for a moment, but I'm gettin' tired o' dis."

There was a shuffling sound, and the other man said, nervously, "I'm afraid that voice is right. This is no joke, Mr. Capone. Frankly I don't know what's going on, but I know I don't like this one bit. Maybe this is a sign, sir, a sign of what we are doing is wrong. This money may be tainted with our wrongdoings...sir, what are you doing?!"

The happy little tree began to feel wet all over, and a cool liquid splashed all around his extended body. "Ha ha, stop! If you get yourbooks wet, Mr. Capone, the print will get all smudgy! Hee hee!" the happy little tree said in between laughs.

"No, my little friend, we ain't gonna read ya. Frankie, a match, if you would?"

"But, sir, with that much gasoline you'll burn the whole building down!"

"Dis building ain't worth my piece o' mind, Frankie. Give me a damn match!...Thank you, Frankie."

There was a small scritch, and then only pain. Pain worse than the pain of being cut down from his forest, pain worse than anything the little tree could have ever imagined. Along with the pain was an intense, blinding light. The little tree shouted in agony, begging his new friend Mr. Capone to make the pain stop, but there came no answer. Again, the little tree was ignored, and again the sweet, blissful darkness came.

~The Little Tree: Part Three~

Written by DukeofDummies

The building began to burn with the money and the abandoned warehouse burned to the ground, "but fire is never an end, but really a beginning to things" -quote from a really crappy forest video. From the ashes arose grass, that insects could scramble between, flowers to make the land beautiful, and in the middle of all this wonder and beauty of creation arose a sapling.

"Son of a $#@%!" said the sapling

... Now in nature, you get a variety of kindred souls, each is unique in their own way. The flowers with their petals blowing in the breeze, spreading their scents throughout the area. The grass, being harvested by gang members, who roll it up into cylindrical cigarettes and smoke it until they see pretty colors, and the sapling.

"if I ever see that son of a @#$& I'm going to fall over on him"

... swearing at the idyllic scenery.

"you call this idyllic? I'm in the middle of a marijuana patch!"

"dude... I think the trees are talking to us man! I'm freakin out!" said one of the gang members... so when life brings you lemons you make lemonade-

"so does that mean when life gives you pot you smoke a joint and sell a little on the side? I wanted to be paper! I wanted to be a book!"

... *ahem* It was a sapling with high hopes, high dreams, yet a very low height at such a young age. It was a sapling that wanted book smarts, not street smarts.

"yeah"

It couldn't take such a meager existence of being a marijuana marker

"YEAH!"

He decided to end it right there and take his own life

"GRRR- GRAAAA"

too bad he was a sapling, and saplings can't move. As we can see he wasn't a very smart sapling either

"you son of a @#$&!"

So as the years grew on he grew bigger and bigger and his cursing grew louder and louder, making the pot stash easier and easier to find, and less and less of a secret until finally the police got wind of it. It was the largest stash that was ever found in drug history, the mayor awarded him the key to the city and placed him in the central park. As the years went by the key eventually fell off and no one was ever quite sure of where he was after that. But rumor has it that if you head into the park at night wearing plaid and hold an axe you can hear, just barely, a sound that sounds a lot like...

"Bastard"

The End