Tonight in the Deathmatch ring, we've got very little in the way of actual information, and a hell of a lot of flaming goin' on. | Napalm and professionalism | First I would like to apologize for complaining about politenesswith an impolite mail. That was definitely not the smartest wayto make my point. The main reason I wrote that mail is because I think GIA is a greatsite. Allow me to explain what I mean by that.Mocking those who critizise you, whether they deserve it or not, isan amateur mistake I have seen in many short-lived magazines,net based and not. And by that I don't mean to say I think GIAwill be short-lived. Your site is great and I hope it has along and successful net-life. I mailed a complaint, which I rarely do, because your answer toNekoLeo seemed at odds to the professionality found elsewhereat GIA. As for the sexism charge, it was definitely not my intention to saythat you should answer girls' mails politely because they are girls.I didn't explain myself correctly because, well, I was so annoyedwhen I saw you mock her right after talking about wanting tobroaden the appeal of the industry. However...now that you mention it, you might be onto something there!If to attract someone you treat them better... And better is not equal... Discrimination may be the answer?! ;) Alejandro Lopez Ruiz |
First things first, on the subject of professionalism. GIA is a fair up-and-up organization by and large, and certainly so in our coverage of news. We don't rush about and report every time a new writer is assigned to the FF Movie script (this happens once a week), or report unfounded rumors that Seiken Densetsu 4 has been completed for Dreamcast, and Sega just won't release it unless FF9 is made DC-exclusive (I was sent that one as a news tip.) We don't do rumormongering, and we we post inaccurate information, we post a retraction and an explanation. The professional lines blur in the sand when you reach this end of the wading pool, though. Is it amateurish and a mistake to be caustic and snarky in a letters column? Well, on one hand that sort of thing doesn't seem to preclude success. PSMOnline's Jay Boor and PC Accelerator magazine both did extremely well, and they never shied away from going for the throat. Moreover, on a purely personal note, I'm glad I'm not very professional in writing this column. To quote one reader, I never hesitate to lay the smack down on someone. I make snide remarks and bad jokes, I discuss my personal life, and all sorts of stuff that you're not going to see in Time magazine anytime soon, and I like it that way. Moreover, my readers generally seem to like it that way, too - people I've seriously taken to task in the column have complimented me on being irreverent. Whatever I'm doing, it seems to be appealing to someone. And the moment GIA goes completely professional, where I need to worry about offending market demographics and all that, I'll be gone like a bat out of hell. I play hardball in here, and I'm not about to stop. If you can't handle the concept of being beaned when you're wrong, then find yourself a golf course. | Wild times | This e-mail is in response to that Zero16 bastard, who seems to think heknows all about RPG games and gamers in general. You are indeed a newbie.I'm not saying I'm not, but my first RPG was Final Fantasy for the NES. I gotit when I was about eight years old. I'm sixteen now, an RPG freak, veryathletic, and my voice is probably deeper than yours. That's why your writing skills suck, which explains why your letter fellapart in the middle. I think that instead of trying to insult RPGers you needto invest that Tactics 2 money into a Composition book or something. Another good and easy-to-read letter from the Spider.
Hey, Mr. Milligan, venerable master of the.. well, nevermind the praise. On to the letter. I was deeply offended by Alejandro Lopez Ruiz and ZER016, who wrote in to complain about talking down to girls and how they hated Wild ARMs, respectively. For the former, I agree with you totally, that talking prettily to a girl just because she's a girl is sexist. That's like saying, "You can't hit me because I'm a girl." Last time I checked, most people hit anyone who pissed them off, male OR female. As for the latter.. well, I just can't understand it. It's not the fact that ZER016 hates Wild ARMs. I personally really liked the game, but I well know that there are many people out there who can't stand it. The reason I was offended was that he felt the desparate need to insert a random snipe at us "oldies" and "RPG freaks." It just warms my heart to know that someone hates me because I've been playing RPGs for several years. Another thing I might add: Notice how in his very first sentence, he asserts his opinion that [he thinks] Wild ARMs sucks. That's all well and good, everyone has their own opinion. But let's go on down to his second paragraph, and we see that, in a mocking and insulting tone, he liberally attacks everyone who was "bitching" about Final Fantasy VII. Then he happily turns back around, and gets back on topic, which happens to be bitching about Wild ARMs. Pardon me, but... don't those people who dislike FF7 have as much of a right to dislike it as ZER016 has hating Wild ARMs. Personally, I loved both games, but it makes me angry to see other people asserting that their opinion is the only one that counts. Not only that, but being incoherent in their accusations. Please, criticism is fine, but people need to think a little bit before they flame. Apologies if I have angered anyone in this letter. -Matt Blackie
I must say I totally agree with Zero16 about that crap-ass Wild Arms. Iinitally bought it as an apatiser before the the main feast (FF7). Itwas sooooooooo.... easy. And the enemys were increadibly unoriginal,mean it was the same creatures over and over, but with differentcolours. Ooooooooo! The music was pretty good though, and the battlesystem was great too. But ultimately, yeah it totally sucked. And thisis from a seasoned RPGer. I think I lost my RPG virginity back in thedays of FF1 and Ultima. But....er...uhhh why are we talking about an oldass game? pAul |
Bastards, agreements, and arrogance, oh my! I said my piece on Wild Arms yesterday, but these three letters summed up reader response to Zero16's letter pretty accurately. Man, and to think I almost posted a letter making fun of Drakkhen instead of Zero16's. Something tells me that people wouldn't be at each others' throats over that particular gem... | War in the sun | For 3 years now, a select group of friends and I have been amassingevidence against one J. Mazza, AKA Agent J, for being a Square Obsessee.Your recent "121 Signs You're Obsessed with Square" has brought ourinvestigation to a boiling point, as we actually sat this monster down andmade him confess to each and every one of the points which applied to him.Not only did over 50 signs directly relate to him, but the freak went as farto write "good idea" by a large number of them. If we as normal,God-fearing human beings do not stop his tyrannical lust for Squaresoftproducts, where will the madness end? I urge each and every one of you toreevaluate yourself based on this list, and if necessary, end your ownlives.. for the good of us all. Sebastian Enguidanos |
... um, I guess I shouldn't mention that I bought myself a Squall necklace, huh? Whoopsie. | Heads up to Sega | "According to the representative, the toys will be released approximatelyone month prior to the North American release of Final Fantasy VIII. And thedate of the toys' release? August. Should the report hold true, this wouldmean Square's RPG is scheduled for a September release." -www.gaming-intelligence.com A head on battle with Dreamcast, eh? Sony's really got the ace-in-the-holeit needs to try to stay in first when a whole new contender rides in hertank (err, don't misinterpret that). I propose a plan to Sega that will atleast keep them alive. Among so-called "hard-core gamers", Sega is a word of failure, of evil, ofmediocrity. On the other hand, gamers who first starting playing videogameswith Playstation haven't even HEARD of the name Sega. Do you see where I'mgoing at? Squaresoft has its Final Fantasy 8 ready to kick ass. If you didn't notice,FF7 was (marketing wise, not during the actual making of the game) aimed atJoe Shmoe market. The fancy FMV, no mention of which where not pre-rendered,enhanced higher resolution than the actual game, etc. Sony knew that"hard-core" gamers would buy the game regardless of the commercials. So,blah blah blah, Square sells a million FF7s in the US alone, half the peoplewho bought it never played an RPG in his or her life, they plug the CD in,gasp! You can't move when you fight! There's so much text! Geez Lord! Tothese Joe Shmoes, Final Fantasy will now ring "eww.. fighting sucks in FF"in their heads. Square EA will probably simply aim FF8 at the same peoplewho bought FF7 (Yeah, even Joe Shmoe who hated it). Well, they won't be attracted to Final Fantasy, what will they buy thisfall? Dreamcast!! Okay, Sega, listen up. Most hardware companies aim at hard-core gamers at ahardware launch, and that is perfectly understandable... in most situations.The hard-core gamer will spread word of mouth to the casual gamer,third-party developers will love when the hard-core gamer buys 5 gameseverytime they walk into EB, the world is at peace. However, "hard-core" (orat least anyone who's heard about Sega's reputation) gamers WILL (Iguareentee you that) be turned off by Sega. So, my whole point is, take arisk, market Dreamcast at Joe Shmoe at launch, I heard that Sega willstart marketing our favorite Cinnabun in May.. in gaming magazines. Listen,Sega, you can't initially win back the gamers that frown upon you! Bytargeting at the casual gamer, you automatically have a chance of winningthe war! Thrid-party developers will flourish! Profits will soar! And theinteresting thing is, Casual gamers will pass the word on to hard-coregamers. Now wouldn't that be the day? Oh yeah, by the way, by no means is this a demand, just saying my two cents. -Clyde Hudman, signing off... |
This is an interesting point. I've criticized the Dreamcast launch in the past, but Clyde hits on a crucial point here: Sega doesn't seem to be moving towards hitting casual gamers at all. Magazine coverage is great, but it only reaches a small percentage of the gaming market, no matter how prolific the magazine. I have no doubt that Square's advertising of FF7 on TV helped sales. I have no doubt that Nintendo advertises on MTV regularly for the same reason. TV is the broadest-band advertising medium going, and Sega needs to take advantage of it, or they're going to get in trouble, and you know, it's never too early to start plugging. They've got a system, they've got game footage, and they aren't building excitement for it. And that's a disaster in the making. I hope Sega proves Clyde and I wrong. I hope they blitz the market with advertising and screenshots and action, and make Dreamcast a household name. But as it stands right now, a relatively skimpy six months from launch, they're an unkown quantity to most of the continent, and that's gotta change. | Shooting the breeze | Hiya, Allan. The OPM issue with the Shadow Madness demo is March 1999 andhas Silent Hill on the cover. Hope you can find it. Oh yeah, I also had the oppurtunity to play the Shadow Madness demo. All Ican say is I HOPE its a very early version of the actual game. Its prettybad, man. The graphics are... strange, the music is not so good, the battlesare disoriented, the camera angles are pitiful, the list goes on. On thebright side, the dialogue was fresh and witty. This is a demo, so there's a chance it might be improved before it'srelease, but who knows. I would be really interested in seeing your take onit, so hurry to your local newstand and GET OPM! -Agent J
ello, Regarding yesterday's letter about Shadow Madness...the cover on OPM is pterodactyl chasing a man in Silent Hill. It's the March 1999 issue, there's an excellent Syphon Filter demo in there as well. Some thoughts on Shadow Madness: This game has a very distinctive 'Secret of Evermore' feel. This game is gonna turn out only average, for one BIG reason. It's trying to be 'Anti- FFVII', rather than its own original game. Just from playing the demo, you can sense the developers read quite a few FFVII reviews, and have attempted to correct every complaint about that game. A couple examples: Summoned monsters create a 30 second long animation that you have to sit through even after having watched it 50 times. Shadow Madness solution: Summoned monsters are FMV clips right in the battle and you can end the clip at any time by pressing start. Another problem, a seperate experience/gold screen after battle with annoying loading time. Solution: No seperate screen, just a couple numbers in black space while loading the world map after battle. Normally you would think these changes would be great, but this game is subpar as of now, and I predict there will little improvement in the final version. The battle system is cluttered, confusing, and the polygonal characters look like a 1st or 2nd gen PS game. The music is also very drab. Despite the fact that supposedly the developers are different than Secret of Evermore/Square USA, it still feels much like that game. On the positive side, the pre-rendered backgrounds are excellent, the random battles are avoidable at times, and the world map is really unique. Why is it that US developed console games (especially RPGs) have this distinct below-average feel to them? I had much hope for this game,(and for Crave) but after this demo, it doesn't look good! Keep up the decent work on the column... /PTrudeau/ |
For the record, I'm picking up the OPM issue tomorrow, and will hopefully be getting my PSX repaired at the same time, so I'll be able to weigh in on Shadow Madness at that time. The one good point of all letters about it, I should point out, is that the dialogue is generally regarded to be excellent. This, at least, gives me hope that Jade Cocoon will have a great translation for its US release. | The reasonable person of the day | Howdy. I would tend to disagree with your comment about being more polite to girls being discrimination. I personally think that the world could use a lot more chivalry. Sure, if someone writes in and really deserves to be ripped apart, do it. I really didn't see anything wrong with your response to NekoLeo's letter (of course you could be a bit more polite all the time, but I doubt that's gonna happen soon :), but don't think it's wrong to, say, open a door for a girl that you wouldn't open for a guy. If I was on a date, I wouldn't want my date opening doors for me; the guy is supposed to do that. Sorry if I seem a little old fashioned, but that's how I feel. -Arpad Korossy |
Yeah, well your mother is a- Whoa, sorry, the mass of flames and anger in the column today kinda got me on a napalm kinda roll. :) Anyhow, I respect your opinion to a point, and the world would probably be a better place if everyone was like you. Just remember that chivalry should equate to kindness, not condescension, and everything is keen. But you know that already. I sort of question whether chivalry really applies in a forum like this, though. This is an area of text and ideas, and it sort of de-genders everything. I, as the letters guy, think that total equality of opinions and people is the key thing around here. Respect is as it's earned by the opinions you express. I'm not chivalrous by nature or action, personally, but I respect your views, and I hope you can respect my decision to pursue hardline equality. You're a reasonable guy, Arpad. I don't always agree with you, but I always see how I could.
Closing comments A nice, bitter, nasty column today. Hoo-hah. Lots of anger, lots of resentment, lots of flaming and arrogance. Ahhhhh... some things never change. I know I'm going to catch hell for a lot of the things I said in today's column, especially the first part. But really, this is the gladitorial arena of the opinion world, where ideas and beliefs fight to the death, and words cut deep. Double Agent is not, and never will be for the faint of heart. It's not a shrine dedicated to the glorification of me, it's not a quick Q&A session. It's the intestines and the digestive juices of GIA. Most of you are quite cozy already, so sit back and get cozy, because there's cool stuff on the way. I've been here three months, and I've only started to get busy... - The Double Agent | | | |
