Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of the participants and the moderator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. The giant robot arm doesn't kill people, dang it. Don't say we didn't warn you.

In case you were curious, I'm writing this intro while seated in an small auditorium here on the UIUC campus, watching various teams of undergrads demo their final projects for the x86 class I've been TAing.

A good number of these projects ended up being games of various types - everything from simple 2D games that wouldn't have looked out of place on the Apple II, to fairly sophisticated 3D stuff that I don't think the PSX could render. And all this has been written without the benefit of C, or even a decent debugger in many cases.

So at this point I'd like to make a statement, and an observation. First off, these guys (and gals) have been working their asses off for two or more weeks to generate these things, and even in the less spectacular cases, they've done a pretty damn good job. I'm seriously impressed by all of them, so kudos.

And second, I really wish I'd been able to make some kind of video documentary about what's been going on here, so that I could put it on the site and show some of you would-be game designers what you'd be getting into. Real game designers have some problems these guys don't have, but they've also got some advantages (like time), so it's probably a decent comparison, all things considered. And if you could see some of the hell these kids've been through I doubt becoming the next Miyamoto would be so attractive... but for the sake of the next generation of gaming, perhaps it's best that some of you remain ignorant.

Onward.

I genuinely enjoy playing games, fast or slow, but when I'm done I usually think better of the games that have taken me a longer time to play. Weird as it sounds, I think you need to develop a relationship with games - characters need to seem like real people, and plot points need to take on their own importance. If you're pacing yourself through a good game, you're likely mulling over the latest narrative twist during work hours, thinking over what's happened so far and guessing about what happened next. In other words, you're becoming involved with the game.

On the other hand, if you've just started a game 20 hours ago and you're already halfway through, I don't think events have the same kind of chance to make an impact. A minor character might be introduced, developed, and killed off between the times you stop to grab a bite to eat, so how well are you going to remember those events as a result?

Not a lot to say about this, except that I got a whole bunch of people telling me the exact same thing. Second play-throughs rarely work for me since there's no plot left to discover, and the extras usually aren't that interesting, but I gotta admit it's a way to get your money's worth out of a game.

Putting aside your comments about Christmas for a moment, I'll point out that you don't get to take sick days in college. Have you ever seen Ray Liota's explanation of Paul Sorvino's relationship with the restaurant owner in "Goodfellas"? Professors are kinda like that: "You broke your leg? I don't care, give me the homework." "Your car broke down? Screw you, give me the term paper." Etc. And those are real emergencies, so fake ones just won't fly.

And as for the Christmas comment... well, any serious Christian will just shrug it off. And as for the rest, your casual bigotry cancels out some of their casual bigotry, to my way of thinking, so it's cool.

Seconded. And Balmafulma was basically there to exhibit how Delita's treachery did (and did not) work. Make of that what you will.

Incidnetally, this is how a letter mentioning PC games should work - describe something about them and relate it to console games. The only problem I can see is that it'd likely work better for more ambient music than more direct music - better for Vagrant Story type stuff than various compositions in FFT (Trisection -> Ovelia's Lament, frex), in other words. Still, I'd love to see them integrate it into RPGs.

I could have finished Zelda, Skies of Arcadia, FF9 and every other RPG released this year if I didn't spend 2-3 hours a night writing this column. HINT HINT. (No, I don't want to stop writing it, just pointing something out.) But your spoiler concern is a good one - it's why I rushed through Vagrant Story. (Well, that and because VS kicked ass.)

And I didn't invite everyone to write in about RPG evolution, that was Drew. Two different people, remember?

A final valid point in this discussion - that unfortunately, we don't always have the luxury of picking out how things are gonna happen. We play what we can, when we can, and some games will just suck you in more than others, no two ways about it. Good call, person whose name I am ignoring lest it trigger one of my recent policy decisions.

If only. But for most people reading this column, there's a big, fat break coming up when we can OD on games to our heart's content. (Or, if you're a college student, even space them out a bit.) Just hang in there, dude.

Closing Comments:

My gut reaction is to go for a frivolous topic tomorrow, but I can't think of one. So instead, try this on for size: what do you think of how female characters in games are portrayed? In general, are they as fully realized as the male characters, or are they put in there to fill the roles of "T&A" and "helpless victim"? (Leading question? What leading question?) What improvements do you want to see, or are things fine the way they stand? Tell me, because otherwise I'll be forced to talk about headphone design some more. Later.

-Chris Jones, could never have programmed that tank game thing