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. All of a sudden, there shined a shiny demon.... in the middle of the road. Don't say we didn't warn you.

I abhor FAFSA forms. But of course we're not here today to pore over my grievances with the world - we're here to listen to me pore over yours!

So let's do it!

Know what? I can't fully explain the GCN phenomenon... A few of the GIA staffers figured it was because the "NGC" had been trademarked by someone else, forcing Nintendo to take "GCN" in order to keep the all-important Nintendo in the abbreviation. IGN did a piece on this quite awhile back, though, which suggests otherwise. We may never know.

Articles from the Lost & Found

I got my copy of the European version of Shenmue II today... haven't played too much yet, but just in case anyone was still holding out 'cause of that PAL-thing, it works just fine on my (modded) Dreamcast and normal NTSC TV. For ordering UK games, I've had good luck with Special Reserve (special-reserve.co.uk), which has it in stock and has cheap international shipping. -Anson Erin, I know console wars have been done to death in DA, but I thought everybody should read this bit on it by the Brunching Shuttlecocks (http://brunching.com/features/consolefaqk.html). Their stuff is always clever, but this particular piece is a thoroughly scholarly and didactic analysis of systematic demographic trends...NAHHHH, but it DOES talk about the demon powers of marketing and how the Dreamcast got sucked down to hell! This is the best take on what gamers can really expect this holiday season; it's all in "arterial spray" and beating up "irate people from around the world." -Colin

Just thought some of you may appreciate hearing these entirely unrelated odds & ends. News isn't really my thing, but purveying joy and happiness is, so what the hell, thought I. The Brunching Shuttlecocks bit is amusing enough to warrant sharing.

Confusion in the depths of Mordor

Hi, DA Mehlos. Huzzah indeed, and thanks for the thinking-outside-the-box topic. I suppose the gaming subject foremost in MY mind at the moment is Lord of the Rings, the movie being only a few weeks away and video games following not far behind. As far as I know, the only console game based on LOTR will be for the X-Box (may it's circuits crackle and fuse). This plus the fact that, from all accounts, it's not being handled at all well places an unnatural load of worry on my mind. I think the game developers handling the development are in danger of becoming overconfident from the both the lack of console competition and the abundance of unca' Bill's bank accounts. A game on a next generation console based on perhaps the greatest fantasy series to date could be seriously amazing, but I fear it is not to be. ... Huh, that really turned out to be more of a pointless rant than a topic, but feel free to use whatever thought-provoking bits and bobs you can salvage. HUZZAH! Atae Taka - His hate is real, but his name is not

I'm not even going to pretend to know what exactly is going on with the LotR license - I was too badly scarred by the SNES era attempt at making Tolkien's trilogy into a game to pay much attention this time around, especially seeing as how the next foray would undoubtedly be based not on the books, but the movies. And we all know how movie licenses (always excepting the beloved Goldeneye) tend to fare in making the leap to gamedom.

Last I knew, Sierra had acquired the rights from Tolkien Enterprises for games based on the Lord of the Rings novels, but the effort was hopelessly bogged down in delays and, later, a legal battle with TE. EA, meanwhile, was negotiating for the rights to the New Line Cinema films.

So I'm confused, myself, and doubtful we'll be seeing games worthy of Tolkien's legendary work any time soon. If anyone would care to set me straight on the current state of affairs with all the LotR licenses out there, I'd welcome and appreciate it.

Bitch-slapped

Hi Erin, Here's a topic I've often thought about: the roles of female characters in games. Some games feature interesting, intelligent and strong female characters (FF6 comes to mind) but too many games feature weak, two-dimensional female characters. I personally find it frustrating when a game has a great many more male than female playable characters (such as Xenogears). Of course, most game developers, as well as players, are male. But I think that many male gamers, like me, enjoy playing female characters just as much as male ones - and I'm not talking about Lara Croft. One scene in FF7 stands out in my mind as a sad day for female game characters everywhere. Clearly, Tifa is the physically strongest character in the game. The proof? She does just about as much damage with a pair of gloves as Cloud does with a sword that's around the size of his entire body. But in one scene, Tifa and one of the female bad-guys (I forgot her name) get into a slapping match. That's right, Tifa, who can clobber giant monsters with a measly pair of gloves, is for some reason reduced to face-slapping. Why? I guess that's just what happens when two women fight. Anyway, I found this scene to be rather poorly conceived. I'm hoping for more games in the future that maintain a balance between male and female characters, and portray female characters with some intelligence. Those are often the games I enjoy the most. Thanks for reading. -David

That ridiculous slap-happy catfight in FFVII never really sat all that well with me, either. It's vaguely amusing, yes, but completely implausible in light of Tifa's monstrous strength. Scarlet would've been catapulted off the Sister Ray and into the sea with the first blow.

Female characters seem to be getting more prolific, certainly, but by my reckoning games' portrayal of them hasn't gotten a whole lot better, as I think we established in the ICO/feminism gauntlet. Yes, you could say Rinoa has more emotional fortitude than the rest of FFVIII's wildly dysfunctional cast, but she's a lamentably weak fighter (although the Junction system does allow you to enhance your characters to the point where it's pretty much irrelevant). And Tifa, despite her preternatural ability to heft and piledrive the likes of Ruby Weapon, is crippled by her emotional dependance on Cloud.

It kinda sucks.

Frustrated

How about the most frustrating video game moment? For me it is either the vine puzzle in Lufia 2 or trying to get that friggin cat in Wild Arms 2. Efrate

Frustrating? FFIX's Ozma. I knew the bastard had an assortment of valuable items to steal so I simply couldn't just kill it before I'd gotten them all. In fact, the first time I successfully killed it I hadn't yet stolen its Robe of Lords and I reset the game. It probably took me 10 or more attempts to satisfactorily steal everything and survive the battle.

Gladiators of the game industry

I thought it was interesting how you said that Sega would be uniting people... I've been reading online a lot, following the newest console wars. I've switched "camps" many times, swinging wildly from GameCube, to PS2, to finally settling on the X Box. I've read...entirely too much. What's so surprising, the verocity of attacks against people from another "camp". People cussing and swearing each other out, taking personal vendettas against certain chatters. I think if these people met in person, they'd bite, kick, and claw each other to death! PC users are the funny as well. (You'll all be dead, PC will still be here) They go on probably the worst about all the techno-jargon. (Did you see that video? Those polys weren't even Anti-Alaised! Oh, and the textures! The textures! No 3d explosions! Those were sprites!) So I guess what I'm saying is...not so much who's going to win or lose...but are we all losing in the end? Are such negative attitudes against other consoles, developers, or even genres of games hurting how people precieve video games...or the experience itself entirely? -Terminator "Why can't we all just....get along?"

I've always seen the console wars as a driving force behind the advancement of video gaming, myself. Without the brutal competition and the bitter rivalry, we'd end up with a heap of mediocre games and markedly fewer genres to choose from.

Also starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and James Van Der Beek as Biggs & Wedge

Okay, here's my idea for a Friday topic: With the videogame industry being thrust further and further into that sickening realm of the "mainstream," what really does the future hold? Used to be only a certain sect of people gave a damn what SEGA was doing; now, we have TV ads depicting hip kids shredding on their Xboxes or something. Is that a good sign? Or does this mean our favorite escapist pastime is bound for mediocrity, much like mainstream movies and music? In 20 years, will gamers have to go to Indie stores to find gems like ICO and GTA3 because the only things at Best Buy are the sequels to Eggs of Steel and games starring Freddie Prinze Jr.? And as a side-note...a question to anyone who's finished MGS2: What the hell? Cheers ~ Pikafoo, in desparate need of a psynergy crystal or two...

I've fretted over this more than I care to admit. As one of the jaded older set that have been around since the Intellivision, I've frequently slammed the industry for its "selling-out" and attempting to appeal to a more mainstream audience, mostly because it endangers my own misguided feelings of "hardcore" specialness.

I think "going mainstream" is, to a degree, a necessary evil. When games were programmed by a handful of geeks back in the 80s, fewer copies had to be sold in order to cover your ass, production cost-wise. But with today's massive ensembles of programmers, artists, composers, voice talent, et al., covering your ass means convincing a considerably larger chunk of consumers to buy your game. Ultimately, though, I think this can lead to much higher quality titles.

I'm conflicted in regards to the whole issue. Part of me was glad to see the RPGs that followed in the wake of FFVII get the visual polish that so many other genres were already enjoying thanks to a broadening consumer base. Another part was frothing at the mouth, snarling "sell-out!" and damning Square to hell for letting outsiders into my world.

As for Freddie Prinze Jr... Christ, I hope not, but seeing as how FFX stars Meg Ryan, who knows.

Squall vs. Benedick

Erin - Since Nich was less than enthusiastic about my "integrating games into school projects" idea on Friday, I'll have to move on to something a little more interesting ... well, at least something that I've never seen any discussion on: battle graphics. Everyone loves them, but nobody seems to want to talk about them, as if they were too base, too petty for us sophisticated, intellectual gamers to dwell on. Well, it's time to break free of that oppressive mould! What spells effects are most original? What attacks are best choreographed? How long can an animation be before it starts to hinder gameplay? For instance, compare "Dark Matter" from Chrono Trigger and "Eden" from FF8. The former has some nice spinning triangles, with a simple 3D effect, showing good abstract imagery under the confines of limited graphics hardware. Two thumbs up! The latter is about 85 seconds of arbritrary, almost boring animation - it's long only for the sake of being long. A visual atrocity, pure and simple (this is not to say that long animations can't be good - Ifrit from FF7 and FF8 works well). ... okay, if you don't like that, then go back to the first idea, and tell us all about the time you wrote your sixty-page thesis on why Matsuno is a more important storyteller than Shakespeare, Dante and Chaucer combined. -CS-

I'm feeling particularly philanthropic today, so I'm gonna address both your ideas.

I think that battle animation can be precisely as long as Bahamut ZERO before it starts to hinder gameplay. And that's a stretch; an extreme, high-end limit. My favorite Square summons have always been those in the vein of ChocoMog - short, sweet, and to the point.

Eden is an atrocity I don't think anyone would dare defend, and I resent your even mentioning Ifrit in the same sentence.

As far as games in our schools....

Off the top of my head, I can only recall two instances where I based an academic project on something game-related. One was a short personal narrative for a collegiate communication skills class wherein I detailed heading into the Shinra Mansion from a first person perspective and saved my ass in the final few sentences as I was called away from the PSX for pizza. The other was a hand-rendered type sampler for Typography 1 where I pretty much just filled a page with the names of FF characters in a variety of meaningfully juxtaposed fonts.

Heir apparent... or not

Erin, I know I wrote in about this before, but my letter wasn't printed last time, and I'm really curious what people think about this. In light of Square's recent financial losses and their incredibly sparse lineup of games that are coming soon (in Japan theres FFXI and Kingdom Hearts, anything else?), do you think Square can hold on to their position as ruler of RPGs? Games like Xenosaga, Suikoden III, and Star Ocean 3 seem to have a lot of potential. These games seem to push aside those days of just a year or two ago when no rpg in existence could touch the graphical quality of Square games. Now I think Square has a lot of competition coming its way. So, if the future is the fall of Square, who will take their place, if anyone? What would gaming be like if all we get from Square is Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts and their sequals? I personally miss the company that produced all of my favorite games, but it seems the future will make the transition an easy one. Kirk B.

Xenosaga, Suikoden III and Star Ocean 3 may have potential dripping from every orifice, but with the possible exception of Xenosaga, few current RPGs "touch the graphical quality of Square games." Square brought the RPG to a much wider user base in North America, and I think the Final Fantasy name has left an impression not soon forgotten. Additionally, Kingdom Hearts will undoubtedly hold a distinct cross-demographic allure, bringer young gamers (and dare I say more young female gamers?) into the fold with it's myriad Disney characters, while at the same time attracting we older consumers with its FF heritage.

They may be reeling from the FF:SW fiasco, but I don't think we have to worry about their choosing an heir just yet.

Chivalry loves company

Erin, A distressed member at a message boards which I frequent posted this earlier today: Help me make my dad see reason! See, for Christmas, both my sister and I wanted a Playstation2. We mainly play RPGs, especially Square RPGs, and we wanted a console with a DVD player so we could watch my DVDs on a TV for once. It's a pretty good price around here now, so we thought it would be a good idea to ask for one for Christmas. But now my dad's gotten the brilliant idea of convincing both my sister and idea to get an XBox instead. All he cares about are bragging about the stats on it, and about how it's "5 times as powerful as a ps2." He plans on buying the XBox for us now. Does anyone have any good arguments or links about why the ps2 is better then the XBox? Save me from the XBox! Anyway, I think this would make a good DA debate. I think that a large-ish part of the reason why the Dreamcast failed was because people looked at the PS2 and said 'that's more powerful'. Certainly it was at least a factor in the failure, but what I'd be curious to know is, how big a factor? It probably depends a lot on how the mainstream media report on the consoles - if they emphasize the meaningless processor numbers or the actual games. Also, if you could include in your discussion why the PS2 is a much better choice for his daughters (which it clearly is - their favourite games are RPGs, and there are tonnes of good RPGs coming out on the PS2 and hardly any, if any at all, on the Xbox), then I could post a link to the letters page here, and get her to show it to her dad - there's probably a good chance it'll convince him, as long as it isn't too damning of his ignorance. What's really horrible though, is that really there's no clear winner in terms of which next-gen console is more powerful; they each have their own strengths and weaknesses. The Xbox, though, has the biggest (albeit mostly meaningless) numbers on paper which could give it an unmerited advantage. Paulo

Helluva noble cause. I'll take it.

Closing Comments:

Yes, yes, yes. It's the beaten-to-death console wars debate all over again, but we've a higher purpose this time than idle bickering. Whether you're a Sony whore, an Xbox fanboy or a 'Cube fanatic, you have to agree that some systems just simply aren't for some people. And an Xbox for a family of young RPG players...? You don't really want to have the Christmas morn tears of two young women on your hands, do you?

Yeah, I thought not.

Get justifying.

-Erin Mehlos, the holiday spirit incarnate