There has always been a sort of gamer/developer pride regarding game genres, pride which made people blindly dive into arguments trying to decide for example whether an FPS can be considered a better or a more valuable game than an RPG. Pointless discussions really because there is no way to compare the two without doing a great injustice to one of them – it’s like comparing apples with oranges while stating from the start that the color orange is a must have for every decent fruit.

This kind of arguments have been going on for years, decades even, but not without beneficial results. That’s because when trying to decide which one is better and why, people … More

Don’t take my word for it, look around you: regardless of your field of interest, there are more people tossing around opinions then there are those with original ideas. And that’s not bad, it’s actually quite good. We fought so hard and for so many years for freedom of speech it would be a shame not to exercise it just because any individual with a brain the size of peanut can benefit from it also. The internet boosted our voices to a super power level and now everyone with a keyboard and a decent ISP can share his thoughts with the world. There are no more age, gender or race boundaries we need to overcome in order to be heard. We tore those walls down brick by brick or all at once with a large enough quantity of dynamite and now we are enjoying the infinite possibilities provided by such freedom. Hurray for us! … More

I wanted to tackle this subject in writing for quite a while, but I just couldn’t find the spark to trigger it. That was until Friday evening when I stumbled upon a press release about a Yoga game being launched for Wii at the end of the month. No surprise here, I’m used to seeing all sort of BS being released for Wii and called video games. But the text emphasized on how you can relax your body, calm your mind and achieve physical and inner balance right in your living room. For me that last part triggered an episode of nervous laughter, muscles spasms and the urge to smash something. First, because I was already in my living room, calm, relaxed and balanced until that piece of news came and ruined it for me. Second, because I consider that all forms of physical exercises should have nothing to do with electronics such a TVs and plastic white boxes that dare to call themselves gaming consoles … More

Can’t live with them and … actually we can live without them, but it’s like living without chocolate: sure, you don’t miss it for a while, but then you start having blackouts, the neighborhood pets start disappearing with no explanation, you notice you unknowingly bought a chainsaw and that you suddenly feel attracted by the full moon. So let’s just leave the cutscene where they are for now, at least until I finish with this tiny text-pill and then you can do whatever you wish with them.

Cutscenes appeared as a by-product of some game-developer’s need to tell us more of the stage on which his characters perform, about their emotions and needs, about the story and about some other things we never actually care about. … More

Regardless of the area in which one might conduct an analysis, the conclusion will always be the same: things evolve. They get stronger, wiser, they expand or contract depending on the needs, but whatever happens, every little change results in a step forward, a step closer to a better version of its previous self.

This applies to games also, so comparing the game industry from ten or fifteen years ago and its products with the current one can only lead to one conclusion in my opinion: things are whole lot better than they used to be. But that doesn’t seem to be the general opinion as I have not once and also recently heard that the old games, the classics, are clearly superior to the mélange of mainstreamed ideas we are currently playing. … More

At a first glance it would appear that you could easily extrapolate this into a matter of how much cynical juice flows into one’s body and that’s not really that far from the truth. As a simple equation, Profit is the amount gained minus the original investment and taxes. Profit is also the name of a god that is worshiped by most CEOs and that requires constant and painful sacrifices on altars such as marketing, quality control and last but not least, Progress. Why Progress? Because this little bundle of joy usually comes to life in the shape of a cute little furry animal we generally like to call “an Idea”. … More

The eternal war, with fanatic supporters on each side, each more convinced than the other of the eternal and obvious supremacy of the favored platform. Whenever they clash, gamers of all shapes, sizes and skills rally under one banner or the other, endless streams of binary blood flow in rivers and forums moderators have nervous breakdowns. …Why? I mean, apart from our probably natural and most certainly healthy need to argue over every single little thing, why do we do it? What supports this conflict and what exactly generated it? … More