06.06.08
Posted by Varies at 9:31 pm in games
Perhaps you’ve heard the claims that games such as Resident Evil 5 and Pokemon are rife with racism. If you have, skip to the next paragraph. If not, here’s the quick and dirty. Resident Evil 5 is a game where you fight zombies. Up until now, the zombies have been the reanimated corpses of generic white folk. In this installment, however, the zombies are African. The controversy extends beyond the fact that the player’s avatar is a white man who shoots hordes of [black] corpses. There is also the feeling that the characterization of the people of Africa as mindless heathens is racist. I hope my summation of the issue has been objective because I don’t want to get into this issue here. Pokemon was also accused of racism when a children’s book author wrote an article stating that the pokemon Jynx was a racist caricature of black people based on the classic black-face depiction.
One thing that I want to say is that games like NBA live are far more racist (and intentionally so) than both RE5 and Pokemon were purported to be. The games are actually quite hilarious in their attempts to appeal to a certain (black adolescent) demographic. The soundtracks are packed with hip hop and they glamourise a certain lifestyle that is the crux of race inequality — seriously, check out titles like NBA Ballers or NBA Street, and decide for yourself if these games don’t paint a rather unflattering picture of black culture. All of this is intentional, too. Because they’re trying to target a demographic that identifies with this sort of thing, and the best way to appeal to them is to use stereotypes to resonate with them. If you thought that the big-lipped, dark-skinned Jynx was meant to make fun of black people, I’d like for you to realise that the games that I mentioned do a much better job of making black culture seem like a joke.
Okay, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, here’s what I really wanted to talk about.
I want there to be a game that is undeniably racist. Indeed, a game that is ABOUT racism. A game where you start out as a black child growing up and having to deal with racism as you try to grow up and achieve success. You would have to face the real dilemmas that many black children face as they grow up. You can focus on academics and play the game in a comparatively boring way that alienates you from many of your black peers while providing you with a relatively safe and stable way to make progress. Alternatively, you can engage in delinquency and goof off. This side of the game would be more like GTA, providing you with excitement and action. Throughout the game, you would encounter injustices that attempt to block you from making your way forward. I think it could be a good game while also being an enlightening experience. The game would factor in everything from the lightness or darkness of your skin, the neighborhood that you grow up in, the level of your parents’ education, your family structure, and more. It would be a hard game, one where the player might sometimes wonder what the point of it all is and call the game unfair. What he might not realise is that millions of real people feel the same way about their lives.
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04.02.08
Posted by Varies at 4:10 pm in games
Let’s say there are 4 index cards in front of you. Each one has a letter written on one side and a number on the other. The ones that you see have the following written on the visible sides:
[ A ] [ D ] [ 4 ] [ 7 ]
Then, you are told the following rule: If a card has a vowel on one side, there must be an even number on the other side.
1) What is the minimum number of cards that you have to turn over to determine if this rule is true?
2) Which card(s) do you have to check to ascertain if the rule is true?
Answers under the fold.
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11.30.07
Posted by Bowman at 5:32 am in games
Ed, Richard, what the hell? Have you guys NEVER even fucking heard of 8-ball pool?
I know you guys are the experts when it comes to videogames - you’ve seen how I am with that. My skills, or lack therof, are not in question here. What is in question is whether or not you guys have ever turned off Wii Play, gone to fuckin’ Main Event or a retirement home or some shit, and actually seen a POOL TABLE. IN REAL LIFE. OH MY GOD. CAPITALS.
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11.29.07
Posted by Bowman at 2:53 am in "reality", review, games
A while back, my status on Facebook was as follows:
Michael is contemplating the existential aspects of tetris.
Regardless as to whether or not my use of the term existential is properly placed or not, a lot of people were confused by this one, and wondered what I meant by this little term here. What are the existential aspects of Tetris? How can a rather simple little game with, you know, squares, be so crazily important to my worldview?
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11.23.07
Posted by squidink at 11:55 pm in illustration, Pokemon, rock, guitar, cartoons, games
HOLY CARP
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11.03.07
Posted by Varies at 1:35 pm in games
Perusing the seedy underbelly of the gaming blog comment pages, it is clear to me that the definition of a hardcore gamer is variable depending on whom you ask. This is a problem only because everyone goes around arguing all the time because they can’t seem to agree on what exactly a hardcore gamer is. In this article, I intend to explore current definitions that are held by the manifold gamers out there. In addition, I will seek to redefine the term so that it is a more salient and less subjective description. Read on, people. Read on. Read the rest of this entry »
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09.28.07
Posted by squidink at 4:46 pm in illustration, media, games
A World In Conflict! War is coming home. An exciting prospect! I’m excited. I’m excited that I might die.
On a completely unrelated note:
I can’t tell if I drew a boy or a girl. Seriously, what? Someone clear this up for me.
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09.13.07
Posted by squidink at 7:41 pm in Pokemon, rock, guitar, cartoons, games
Harmonix and Game Freak should totally hook up.
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09.11.07
Posted by Varies at 1:56 pm in games
If you’re looking for something to do to take your mind off the monotony of the day, I have a flash game that can make your hours magically vanish. The name of the game is bloxorz (lame, I know), and the premise is simple. You have a 2×1x1 block that you have to drop into a 1×1 square-shaped hole. Add in some interesting gameplay mechanics, and you have yourself a puzzle that will amuse, bemuse, and confuse you for hours on end.
Bloxorz [Albino Black Sheep via Kotaku]
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