Double Agent
More letters about your favorite mad bastard - April 20, 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. No, not Peter Gabriel. Don't say we didn't warn you.

I'd like to take a moment to remember my dear, departed headphones. I purchased them nearly a year ago and they've been with me ever since, through some major events and several thousand miles of travel. Alas, they recently started to exhibit signs of shorting, such that one of the ear beads would only output sound if the wire was bent at an odd angle. When they get to that point, there's nothing to do but put them down. Still, they served me well, lasting longer than any other pair of headphones I've ever had... and even in death, they gave me something to rant about in the intro, just as they did when they were alive. I'll miss you, guys.

Onward.

Just how many times has Nintendo screwed us?
My first reaction to this whole mess was "Why havn't they fired this guy yet?". But I've been thinking about it today. Alot. Because English is a boring boring class.

My conclusion's were that Nintendo is facing one of two realities:

1: N64 Sucked and they ALMOST got it handed to them in the SNES erae. N's Facing a Market loss that its never face before (3 systems) in the TV console race. On the other hand, its facing an actual BETTER saturation than the NES in the GBA. I mean, come on. Pokemon wave or no, this thing look awesome. </nostalgia>

But the Gamecube is facing knowledgeable gamers who bought the N64 shearly out of respect to its predacessors. The games for it were good...when and if they came out. I myself, even though I'm a Nintendo whore, probably wont' get a GC Till next year. (Moving sucks.) If Nintendo's wisened up and figured out that by the time their system comes out 18 mil. will have PS2's and god knows how many fanboys will be waiting for an Xbox then good for them I say. The GC doesn't have the those nifty little extra ensentive's like DVD playback a-la-PS2(Xbox), and launching another unsuccesful console at the price of producing GBAs (which fly off the shevle's) would be a mistake. Why take a drink when you can have the bottle, neh?

#2: (This is the one i'm leaning more towards)

But also, you have to ask yourself: Just how many times has Nintendo SCREWED US? I mean, come on. Propaganda, LYING, CUTTING RELEASE QUOTA'S TO GENERATE HYPE, the retarded censoreship of unsignifigant things(FF4), anounceing games that never get released, to name a few. They've already cut the number of GBA's to 500,000. That probably goes as no surprise since the Japanese launch last month though, but I digress. The point is that the Big N has gone out of its way before to PISS US OFF so that we take notice and care of some of its products, or to ensure they sell. If you've ever read "Game Over" you know what i'm talking about.

And I quote: "At the time, we were doing what we did at Mr. Yamauchi's direction, and it all made a great deal of sense, and we had a heck of alot of fun doing it...at the time it seemed like the correct buisness discision"
Howard Lincoln, Refering to pissing on Sony off in and tailspining the playstation into existance.

When you remember, he's the person who basically started Gaming as we know it, you have to love the man. I guess Ihave faith in what he's doing, but not in the practice. Oh well, I guess i'd have to be a Japanese buisness man to understand.

This turned out alot longer than I thought it would, sorry. -Xell-

I'd forgotten about that little maneuver, but you're right, this kind of messing around has long been a Nintendo hallmark. In fact, as some level you could attribute a lot of Yamauchi's anger to the fact that he never got over living in the NES era, where companies had to kowtow to the big N or else. At least, that's how I've interpreted the N64. The Cube was supposed to be Nintendo's chance to turn all that around, and it may still... I'm waiting for E3 to make any definite decisions. For now, it's enough to say that this kind of stunt shouldn't have been that unexpected.

Enjoy him while he's still around
I just have to talk about Yamauchi for a moment. Legendary outspoken CEO? At it again? How many times has he made these statements everyone hates? I can remember two times. The "No Square EVER" thing, and now this. And I seem to recall that sometime after the prior, Square delayed the production of the last two Wonderswan Color FF remakes just to try to get back on his good side(wasn't there something like that? I looked around for the story, but didn't find it anywhere). Then this.

(RPGamer news story from early march)
"Digicube, the Squaresoft-owned Japanese videogame retailer, has reportedly begun selling Nintendo software for the first time ever." ... "The decision to market Nintendo software is undoubtedly an indication of further effort on Square's part to obtain a better standing with Nintendo."

It's not hard to see who has the advantage here. Hiroshi Yamauchi seems to be much smarter than he sounds.

And about the gamecube at E3, I'll just point out something. Yamauchi's words were:
"We(plural) may even have to(an undesirable possibility) consider(very much open for debate) pigeonholing the sale of GameCube" Not, as some people seem to think "I will personally see to it that you never get your hands on the GameCube, you worthless drones! Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go stand on my head for a week."

In fact, looking at the statement, there isn't even anything there that suggests any of it was his idea in the first place.

In any case, he'll probably be dead before long. Who will we harass then?

Kristian Bjorkan, just ranting

The thing is, Yamauchi's not just some flunky - he's the bloody CEO of the company, and in the business world, the CEO is the decider of all things... especially when he's talking to the media.

What's more, you've got to up that sentence in the context of the rest of his statement: all this depends on the E3 reception. And that's just stupid. E3 is a media event, a great place to get exposure and position your product, but it's a long, long way from the whole ball game. If the E3 show doesn't go well, that just means they've got an uphill battle to sell the system to the market, it doesn't mean they should take their ball away and go home.

Metaphors: mixed fine, just the way you like 'em.

What the women want, the women get
I've never written here before, so I might as well try, right?

As a female gamer, and one that's been around for years, I have to say that homosexuality and transgender shouldn't be as big as an issue as people are starting to make of it these days. First off, those girly, "bishonen" characters (which the term bishonen doesn't just apply to effeminate young males, but to ATTRACTIVE young males in general...get it right) have been in video games for years. Just pull out all those old SNES and Genessis games, namely rpgs, that we all played so dearly, and you'll either a) be shocked or b) kicking yourself in the head for not noticing then. Ah, isn't youth great?

What I don't like about this is that it's becoming an issue now that more women gamers are coming out of the woodwork. Sure, it's okay to girls to play games now as it was opposed to then when I was a closet gamer, but as soon as we women see a male that's attractive, which just by design it usually is the "effeminate" one, it's a bad thing. And I put "effeminate" in quotes because most of the time, those so-called gay looking characters aren't feminine at all as far as looks or nature (except for Kuja...but he's Kuja), they just happen to have longer hair. It's true. Take characters like Sephiroth, Sydney, or even Vega (who I remember used to be considered cool by guy gamers until this pointless trend of disgust started recently). Aside from his ridiculously long hair, Sepiroth looks masculine. Hell, he's more way masculine looking than Cloud and Vincent, yet no one seems to complain about him. Or Sydney. Yes, he has somewhat longer hair, but his build and facial features are very male. Maybe he's not built like a bodybuilder, but he looks like any lanky skater boy.

Back to what I'm getting at, what's wrong with having a male protagonist/antagonist that's pleasing to the eye for women? We play games too, you know? In fact, you'd probably be pretty damned surprised how many of those Squaresoft games that are actually bought up by high school and college aged women, or how many of us like sitting down and playing Resident Evil for an hour or two. Just as men are getting spooked by the apparent new trend with male characters, just imagine how women felt for years. I almost never buy gaming mags just because there's usually this huge, bad 3D rendering of Lara Croft on the covers (in impractical clothing I might point out. Who the hell runs around in the Arctic in Daisy Dukes?). Or what about that no one cares that Tifa's hanging out her clothes and her constant pantyshots when she attacks? And this is coming from an openly bisexual woman. It's been embarrassing to look at and degrading for women for over a decade now, and yet men have the audacity to start complaining about Ashley Riot's buttocks and also very impartical clothing instead. What kind of sense does that make? None whatsoever.

So, I say either you guys need to start complaining about scantily clad women too, or shut the hell about visually pleasing men. Either way, it's time for the masses to realize there is more to gaming audiences than just hormonal teen guys.

And of course, sex sells. That's why Ashley's ass is exposed.

Lea Johnson, who convinced that Squaresoft's target audience is....women.

I disagree with this in that I think a lot of guys have been somewhat put off by needless cheesecake situations and characters in video games as of late. I want to take my games seriously (at least, the games that want to be taken seriously) and it seems silly to have a fighting character running around in high heels and a miniskirt. Yeah, what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, and if that means across-the-board toning down of the fetish gear in Vagrant Story, so be it.

At the same time, I think you've got a point as to Square's target audience. Guys have been the core game market for a long time, and that's probably not going to change; for the most part, they'll buy a Final Fantasy game no matter what. Women are a smaller market, but still potentially huge - think about how much business Titanic did, and ask yourself how far off that story was from the romantic plots in nearly any RPG. Thus we see the guys become more attractive and the plots get a bit more gushy... and that's ok, from my standpoint, as long as the characterization and the game worlds stay interesting.

Interactive homosexuals
CJ,

The chance of a video game having an openly gay main character is approximately zero, unless by some crazy 3rd party start-up. And if they did, they wouldn't sell very many copies. I understand everyone has a right to do what they want and live their life, and express themselves their own way. Conventional media mirrors this view: shows like "Ellen", "Normal, Ohio", and "Will and Grace." Those are, however, from PASSIVE mediums. Video games are a whole other animal, in the fact that they are INTERACTIVE.

I'm not longer watching John Goodman ruin his career, I'M ruining my career. I'm being taken out of my normal setting and being superimposed in a gay simulation. Sadly, I don't think the best story in the world could rectify (uh, pardon the pun) this displacement.

Example: On the most basic level, I can relate with Cloud because he is a guy, like me. He likes Aeris and was pissed off when she died (as did I). We can relate, despite his frequent psychotic episodes (well, maybe there too...). But if Cloud was gay, and the entire 1st disc was bonding Cloud and Barret together, I couldn't relate. It'd be awkward, and I have no desire to pay $50 and give up 40+ hours for an awkward-playing game.

Besides, do you really think any developer would (could) handle it in a serious and mature manner in the first place? I rest my case.

-Red Raven

That's a rather thorny statement, but a true one, for the most part. While I still say that game characters aren't proper avatars of the player, the player is, in many cases, more closely identified with the hero than in a movie or book. And while it'd be nice to argue that all good stories should be universal in their appeal, that's not really the case. I'm not a big fan of Jane Austen, because I can't stand her frothy female characters and little of importance seems to be going on in any of her novels. But by the same token, I don't expect my sister to get hyped up about Neal Stephenson and his uber-nerd protagonists.

Still, those are a subset of narrative possibilities - there should be at least a few possibilities, where either the story's good enough so that you don't care about, or even empathize with, a gay hero, or the gay hero's love interest is only a subset of the total plot. I'm skeptical that anybody would be able to pull it off, but I wouldn't rule it out entirely before I'd seen it.

Ransom
The flap over drama-queen Yamauchi's "threat" to can the GameCube project if it fares poorly at E3 next month makes me think of televangelists who proclaim that if you don't send them money *right now*, God will "call them back."

It never seems to work with the televangelists- they still prowl the UHF and cable channels in bountiful numbers. So ,I don't think we really have anything to fear from the good Rev. Yamauchi.-big squirrel

I think that's kind of an 80's thing, as far as televangelists go, but good analogy. You know, I always suspected Yamauchi had a god-complex...

More yaoi
Well, about yaoi:

Yeah, women like yaoi because it breaks our gender roles and it gives us lots of good looking guys to watch at once. However, there's not that much violence/humiliation in the stuff I read, and most of the time it goes right back into the gender role thing - women are, as a group, a *lot* more afraid of sexual violence than men are. Of course, when you spend most of your life being warned that rape is a constant threat, it's impossible not to be. (Yes, rape is a real threat - but my rant on that subject would consume entire columns.)

Now to my real point. I *like* Cait Sith. Cait is fun to play, his limit break Dice is extremely useful when you first get him (and Slots, later, is fairly good though I still prefer Dice), and he has an interesting backstory and tie-in to the rest of the game. (I also happen to adore Reeve, who is one of the more interesting characters in the game, much more so than say, Tifa, who turned into a wuss.) Chu Chu I loathed, but Chu Chu was never even remotely useful.

Kallah

Eh, Cait was somewhat of an exception for the reason you mention above - he's more than an out of context cartoon character who shows up for no good reason. Chu Chu, on the other hand, was just... wrong. Him and all other comic cartoon characters popping up in otherwise serious RPGs should be mass exterminated... although that kind of ethnic cleansing might make for a serious RPG in and of itself.

Role models
Hey Chris,

The idea of gay and lesbian couples in RPGS, or games in general, is one I agree with whole-heartedly. Considering a good deal of games have a straight, strong, caucasian male as the lead hero and a sometimes frail though sometimes tough as nails straight white female as the lead heroine, a change would be nice for this 20 year old gay gamer. The letter about British leathermen as villians gave me a chuckle, but sometimes there are balancing heroes, at least that looked like the direction in Final Fantasy 6. Sabin is gay, I'm sure of it, but because he's such a tough fighter, no one would say it, despite the fact that he somewhat says it himself.

a) He does not try to hit on any of the female characters.
b) His best move is called the "Bum Rush"
c) Just read his dialogue during Gau's makeover scene
d) At the very beginning, he refers to himself as a "Bear". Bears are, for those who don't know, the subculture of gay men who are usually bigger and more hirsuite than say your run of the mill Will And Grace screaming queen. Think James Gandolfini in The Mexican.

It's a small step, but it's a start. I doubt there's been a stronger ensemble since FF6 so there's been a bit of character diversity lacking (except in FF9), so until Square decides to use more characters as leads again, I guess I'll be stuck with the emaciated, hetero waifs saving the world. I'm sure there'd be quite a few more young gamers who could accept themselves more readily if they had some VG heroes. All we'd need is some decent VG writing that wouldn't make it the central one and only theme to a character. Hmm...

*picks up pen, starts writing a story*
Anyone know how to code? ;)

-Steve Curtis

I think this ties back into the subtext discussion from yesterday - I don't think Sabin's gay, but it's not said either way, and there is some supporting detail to that effect. ("Bum's rush" generally refers to getting the crap beat out of you, but in addition to all the other ways Edgar and Sabin differ from each other, it'd be interesting if Edgar's brother was gay.) And even if, as Red Raven suggests, a lot of guys might not be able to relate to such a protagonist, not everything needs to be done with the majority in mind.

Sane thoughts made out of insane components
Hey Chris

I've already sent a letter that's off topic for today and now I'm sending another.

Reason? I like spending time typing things that will never get posted.

I don't think Yamauchi is crazy. His comments do indeed sound crazy, but I think that's the whole point.

Yamauchi is so confident about the Gamecube that he feels comfortable making a statement about shelving it based on reaction.

He knows astounded press and gamers attending E3 will want one the second games are revealed.

Is there a threat that Gamecube will be shelved? Yes. Why? Because this recent statement might not be crazy, but unfortunately, Yamauchi is. He's probably looking at Sega's new path and thinking that Nintendo would do even better as a software maker.

Did I just contradict myself? You bet. That's the point of this letter. One word, let alone a sentence, can carry very different meanings.

Graeme

The problem is, Nintendo's in-house software development has always been strongly tied in with their hardware. In fact, it's been remarked more than a few times that the N64 was designed specifically for one game: Mario 64. You're right that Yamauchi might be thinking pure hardware's the way to go, but I don't see Miyamoto adapting all that well to being just another superstar developer on the PS2.

Happiness is a warm flame
Hey Chris,

Sorry this is late, but it just sorta popped into my head after reading the past couple columns..

"Hi, I'm Chris Jones, and I run the Double Agent letters column at The GIA. It is a column dedicated to the discussion of current games (usually puzzle, RPG and strategy genres) and gaming issues, such as Yamauchi's plot to drive Nintendo fans insane, or the up coming Final Fantasy X. But I'm not going to discuss any of that. I'm going to throw out any semblance of gaming out the window, and talk about *reading* in my column, yep, that's right. Screw games! Let's discuss the current illiteracy rate in America! Woo Hoo! Yeah! Howare poverty and illiteracy rates related in urban areas? Don't forget, I want your essays on why the current social air is sometimes called the "post-literate era" and the "literate era." Be sure to include references from the past 30 years and how leisure time has defined the time spent on reading. Oh, and uh... throw in 2 video game names (preferably sports titles) hidden in the text for extra credit, and a cookie. Due Friday!"

Well, that was rather long winded, but don't take any offense, you must be the only letters columnist I know to discuss literacy reports in a gaming column... and actually have the discussion *relate to video games... relevantly!*....and I love ya for it. Keep up the work, and feel free to call me a poopie head and ban me from the letters column for my flame.

-- Brian W.

Always good to know that my bizarre tangents are being appreciated in some small way... makes this whole job worthwhile, really...

*sniff*... excuse me, I've got something in my eye...

Closing Comments:

So E3 will have the Gamecube, the GBA, the X-Box, the first evidence of Sega's multi-platform stuff, and the first round of really good games on the PS2. What's most interesting to you? Tell Drew. Catch you Monday.

-Chris Jones, the last, best hope for peace

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Tell Drew why you're hyped about E3, and he'll point and laugh that he gets to see it and you don't.
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