Double Agent
Flu shot who? - January 11, 2001 - Chris Jones

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. Note to self: check in to snow plow driver as alternate career. Don't say we didn't warn you.

I've developed a theory over the past year that any kind of illness or disease is the analog of some specific crime. Those of you unlucky enough to have a close friend or relative go through some sort of terminal disease know exactly why they're like capital crimes, for example. And while I'm sure there are any number of comparisons that could be made between stuff like arson and degenerative palsy, the most that many people ever have to go through is the occasional theft (cold) or robbery (broken bone).

So having this mental construct over the past week has helpfully allowed me to understand exactly what was happening even as it happened; namely, that I was beaten up, my lunch money taken, kicked around some, spat on, rolled through dog crap, jumped up and down on for a while, and had some curse words shaved in my head for good measure. None of which made the flu any more pleasant to suffer through, but at least it made my intermittent bouts of delirium extra colorful.

Enough bellyaching. (Really. I'm so sick of puking I could... well, you know.) Ed did a seriously bang up job whilst I was gone, so major kudos to him for that. And that's all I got for now, so...

Onward.

Just call me the Walkin' Dude...
Chris,

You never backed away from anything in your life! Now fight! Fight! Fiiiight!

I would make a Resident Evil reference here, but The Stand just works so much better. So, how's Captain Tripps treatin' ya?

Speaking of which, there was a perfect opportunity for some game company or another to make a nifty virus fighting game based off the book, but no one took it? I wonder why. (and if your rolling your eyes and slapping your forehead by this point, please keep in mind that this letter is chock full of salty sarcasm goodness).

But, to make a short letter even shorter, glad to have you back.

-Banjax, hoping to be part of the one percent.

A "virus fighting game"? What exactly are you thinking about here: do you get to pilot a lone white blood cell against a superflu virus, or is it more of a post-apocalyptic 2D street fighter thing? (Randall Flagg Vs. Tom Cullen! Round One! Fight!)

No thanks on both counts - The Stand has the kind of truly epic quality that most RPGs don't even come close to touching, and it'd be a mortal sin to turn it into anything but an RPG. Just think of it - a modern day RPG without the slapstick of Earthbound or the psychobabble of Megami Tensei... a chance to make shotgun rounds really count for something for once. My god, it'd be beautiful.

Of course, you have a far better chance of actually surviving Captain Trips than of such a game ever happening, but it's nice to dream, as always.

Staring generic female model #103!
Well this isn't really about gaming but it is an interesting question. What would happen to Hollywood if movie stars are replaced with cheaper CG stars? Actually this is probably more of a question of when, not if. CG technology in ten years will probably be at a point where it will be relatively cheap and easy to create a totally realistic image. My impression is that the Actors won't really like this. But really I don't see how the old star system will be able to stick around. Anyway, do you have any insights?

--
BeerGoggles_FromMARS
Daniel Kaszor
Who really dislikes the Hollywood star system.

You know, I honestly don't care one way or another about live actors staying or going. Most of them are far more annoying than they're worth, on-screen or off, but it's not like their antics can't be avoided with a little effort.

On the other hand, I would like to avoid having game characters tied up in the same kind of crap that movie stars seem to be. When you think about it, there's a big advantage in having a game character be just a game character - they don't get involved in failed marriages, bad sitcoms, drug busts, they just do their thing in the game and that's it. On some level it probably is easier for me to believe in a character if I know I won't see that character spewing out inane chitchat on Letterman a few days later. Leave celebrity to the celebrities.

Rage, Raven, for everlasting harmony!
CJ,

Eh. I haven't seen as much pride and arrogance in a letters column since...well...Drew stopped doing weekdays. I can see you guys' enthusiasm for being the best and all, but bashing fan sites relentlessly is pretty low, even for you. I cannot recall RPGamer ever claiming to be an primarily news-related site. Their main focus is not on the mainstream market anyway, and that's pretty obvious from the title of the site itself. Its allure is to the hardcore RPG audience, and the majority of hardcore RPG players enjoy at least some Japanese culture, hence the pen-names, anime references, and other such mannerisms. I also find it humorous that Ed cannot fathom the possibility that someone might contribute to a website just for the hell of it. He wants the GIA on his résumé? That's fucking fantastic, but I don't read this column or his for it's journalistic merit, I read it because it's fun. That's it, period.

I love you guys to death, but it gets pretty sad when Ed, and by extension the whole of GIA, an independent and respectable journalistic website, feels that it has to prove to itself that's it's better than a fan site that isn't even in the same league. That's like The Wall Street Journal writing an article bashing Reader's Digest for being "unprofessional". Two totally different publications that focus on two different groups of readers. Same thing here.

In other words: next time, pick on somebody your own size. I could care less that you guys are some kind of "rivals", you went down the path of journalism, they of media/fan content. And after seeing the GIA's art section un-updated for almost a month, I'm not wondering why Ed didn't bother to draw any other parallels between the two sites.

-Red Raven, not really wanting to put this on his résumé

I've already written a huge rant as to my feelings on GIA vs. RPGamer, and why I won't get further into it. However, I don't think it's unreasonable for Ed to get involved with the argument for a couple of reasons. First off, he's far more closely involved with news and content than I am, which means defining what we are and how we differ from others is something he has to do as part of his job here. Second, while we definitely appreciate you thinking that we're leaps and bounds ahead of the competition (we agree!) RPGamer is without a doubt our nearest competition, and we get compared to them by a huge number of people all the time.

And in one important area, that comparison is legit. You said earlier that RPGamer was targeted towards the hard core fans, and you're right, but so are we... or at least, I have trouble figuring out who else would be interested in the RPG minutia we publish every day. The truth is that RPGamer and the GIA represent two fundamentally different ways of being a hard core gamer, and while you can certainly take a live and let live approach to the whole thing, there's gonna be an element that's constantly fighting to validate why it's right and the other approach is wrong. Which is part of what being a gamer is all about in the first place, when you think about it.

I'm going to write the best letter ever
Chris,

For this letter, I'm going to stray off topic and write five pages on a subject that has nothing to do with what the column has dealt with for the past three months.

I'm going to slam at major gaming sites like IGN and Daily Radar despite that having been done thousands of millions of billions of times, and I'm going to smugly hint that I'm the wittiest bastard this side of the Lifestream for casually making a Final Fantasy 7 reference in the middle of it.

What's more, I think I'll float content from Seanbaby.com, Old Man Murray, Penny Arcade, and Toastyfrog Jump! despite the well-known fact that you - or staff members around you - frequent on a daily basis, if not simply to read the archived material.

I'll use poor grammaticals and spellping due to my letter being typed in a hurried fashion, and randomly place parenthesis in between phrases like "ff9 sux" and "shout outs to kerri! hi Kerri!" for no discernable reason. I'll even use my snazzy Hotmail formatting to add stationary, italics, and whatever random crap I can click on in between gulps of Pixy Stix and Capri-Sun.

And even moreso, I'm also going to hint at the fact that gaming is *more* than just the CDs and the gameplay and the graphics and the sounds. I'll debate with myself over whether or not Banjo and Kazooie have that special magic that Squall and Vivi own. Surely when this letter gets printed I'll be the most popular kid at PS111 Junior High!

And I'm even going to bitch at you for not getting printed. You bastard.

Cedric Henry
http://lobstaboy.tripod.com

Not a lot to say in response, except I've never really understood these numbered public schools. It just seems too damn regimented - you can't come up with a name, so you go with a number, and stick on an abbreviation that makes it sound like you go to school at a zip code or PO Box. Honestly, how difficult is it to swipe the name of some dead white guy, or, in these more enlightened times, the name of some dead African-American or Hispanic individual? Even if I'd never heard of the person in question, I'd still far rather be able to say a name than dredge yet another number out of my already over-numerated brain.

Non sequiturs. Never leave home without them.

Redbook ain't the problem
And old interview bit was brought up yesterday concerning Uematsu's low sound quality. However, I don't think that was what we as gaming music listeners are collectively disappointed about. In that interview, he explained why he didn't use Redbook audio, streamed from the disc. Not using that it easily understandable: neither does Mitsuda, Shimomura, etc. He didn't say anything about higher quality sound samples for use with the sound card, though. That shouldn't affect loading much at all.

Joshua Slone

I had the same thought myself yesterday. At this point, the questions seems a bit moot though, since FF9's soundtrack sounds pretty good to me, sound quality-wise, and those bits that do fall back on bleeps and bloops can legitimately be chalked up as nostalgia, this time around.

Change the world, man!
Chris,

Welcome back from the flu. A lot of the letters in yesterday's column said that mainstream journalism don't care for video games. I agree. So fix it.

The oldest of the "old guard" game players out there are in their mid 20s. Most of us are a few years younger about to enter or just entered college. Those of you who want to fix this media problem, become the "enemy." Become Journalism majors or Mass Com when you go into college. Learn about the process, get educated and then get hired by the mainstream media. Then write the reviews yourselves. This is our opportunity to change everything. Don't just complain about it, start changing it! Do to the video game journalism industry what the last generation did to E-Business!!

As for talking a lot about anime in the reviews etc., stop it. I love anime, I mean look at my signature at the bottom, but it just doesn't help the cause, whatever THAT is.

SSJPabs,
who changed his major from nothing to something and regrets it already (-_-)

To be fair, I'd say just about all of us here on staff do already practice what we preach. I've had game reviews published in the Daily Texan (a college paper, but one of the best in the country) and once got the New Orleans Times-Picayune to do a story on Street Fighter II. I know that there are a couple of other staffers out there with similar records, and we're all moving journalism closer to where we'd like it just by making the site what it is.

But that's us - it's kinda unreasonable to suggest that you should personally have to go out and fix something just because you see a problem with it. Gaming will never be more than a hobby for most people, and that's fine, because there is more important stuff out there. For those who do get more involved with it, I'm sure most would far rather make games than write about them. And it doesn't matter how good a writer you are - no paper in the world will make a full-time position equivalent to book critic or movie critic until it becomes bloody obvious to everyone how important games are. Which is happening, but it'll still be a while before we have a gaming equivalent of Elvis Mitchell or something.

Closing Comments:

Sorry this is so late, but I'm still a little lethargic. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Free topic day tomorrow, see you then. Adios.

-Chris Jones, betrayed by his immune system

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