My Top Videogame Characters

Today Eliot over at Massively posted an article asking for our favourite NPCs from Guild Wars. This got me thinking, which characters from any game have really impacted upon my life as a gamer? I've played thousands of hours-worth of games over the years - of all genres - and there are few characters which I can name which really stick with me. Ones which populate the gaming world which exists in my brain. So, after a lot of thought (and I mean a lot, this was tough!) I've compiled a list (in no particular order); some goodies, some baddies and some guys sitting on the fence:

Sonic the Hedgehog

First and foremost, Sonic is my quintessential childhood video game character. This is kind of odd because as a character in the early games he wasn't really developed that much; and whenever the developers tried to build a story around him they right royally messed it up. Perhaps this is why he was such a good character, there was very little pretense of a story (and I'm strictly talking Sonic 1 and 2 here). The gameplay was just so much fun and the little du-dummm sound when you hit a spike with no rings left sending Sonic flying out of screen with a look of hurt surprise on his face was so disappointing that I became pretty much obsessed with the guy.
One of my earliest gaming memories is unwrapping my Sega Megadrive when I was just a wee lad; sitting on the end of my parents bed and playing it (I didn't have a telly in my room, although I think it was mainly so my dad could play it whilst lounging in bed after a night shift). Apparently, I would sit with my legs hanging over the edge and physically run in mid air to try to make the little blue guy go faster on the screen. Sonic is my childhood - and he's a billion times better than Mario any day.


Cloud

Most Final Fantasy fans will cite Final Fantasy VII as the best in the series (Unless they are thick rimmed, cheque shirt wearing skinny jeaners who will insist its FFII or something. Or, oddly, if you're the Girl and you think it's FFVIII). Cloud was the silent protagonist; the deeply troubled, deeply pixelated, blonde super-soldier was my company through one of my first RPG forays. What was compelling about Cloud was that to my understanding (and I was still pretty young at this time, probably 14ish) he was a bit of a dunce, he had little understanding of girls, could do little to argue back and was at the mercy of whatever terrible things the army and Shinra had instilled into him. Yet he trudged along, uncovering deeply disturbing backstories to his past and his family. He was a trooper dammit!
At the time of playing I was quite confused about his relationship with Sephiroth, Zack and Jenova. For a long time (until a recent play through) I had thought that Jenova was somehow Cloud's Mother, and Sephiroth his brother - kinda shows how easily even I was duped by Sephiroth!
When I was playing FFVII as a child, I got incredibly caught up in the story - I was terrified of Jenova as some sort of indescribable Eldritch Horror, and equally scared of Sephiroth as a ruthless madman. Cloud was my guide through this troubling game, across immense and beautiful landscapes, and through complex relationships.


GLaDoS

Finally, I hear you say - one from after the millennium! I know, I know... and GLaDoS truly deserves to be in this list. She is the epitome of evil. Deceitful, merciless, witty, omnipotent and down right insane - she is the main antagonist of Portal.
GLaDOS stands for Genetic Lifeform and Disc Operating System, in the early parts of the game she acts as your guide and tester for a number of portal challenges. As the game wears on, you notice her little glitches become gradually more and more manic; you can break into back parts of the facility and see warning messages from previous testees: "The cake is a lie!" and she continuously promises you a party if you continue to follow her instructions. Ultimately, GLaDOS does invite you to the final party; where there will be cake. Unfortunately, she seems to be holding the party at the bottom of a furnace, and as you slowly descend towards a rather grisly end it becomes apparent that she isn't the friendly robot-buddy you probably never thought she was.
Without the brilliant writing and the expert voice work by Ellen McLain that the Valve team employed with GLaDOS she could have easily been just another antagonist; just another insane robot bent on destruction. Instead she becomes a lurking nightmare, constantly trying to fry you, dissolve you in acid or blow you up with missiles. She is a haunting apparition, an all seeing eye which can at once make you laugh and the next forcing you to "euthanize" your companion cube in the "emergency intelligence incinerator". She is pure evil - and she's got a lovely singing voice.

Mhenlo

With all the characters in Guild Wars, you might think it strange that I choose a henchman as my favourite character from the first game. However, Mhenlo is one of the very few characters who has been central to the plot from day 1 (except for Gwen, but who wants to choose her?). I believe that in the series he is the paragon of good: where Rurik was a bit of a douche, Kormir almost caused the Nightfall, Togo gets himself killed, Keiran has a hissy fit and Gwen's a bitch - he's always just and true, faithful and hard working (I mean, he even runs WoH in EotN; making him a decent healer!).
When I have Mhenlo with me on missions (whether as a henchmen or an NPC ally) I know I've got a decent monk at my back, even if he does lag a bit behind in Vizunah Sq.
I also sympathise with him. He's just a strapping young man in his prime, and when he travels to Cantha with Cynn he gets nothing but greif just because he has a couple of female friends.. whu-tssssh! I can't imagine what it must be like when they get back to their top floor flat at Lion's Arch - "Honey, do you think we could have drake kebobs for tea tonight?" "NO! *RODGORT'S INVOCATION!!!"*" "ok...".
I hope that when GW2 comes around, Mhenlo is suitably honoured and remembered as a constant and unfailing companion.

Can Video Games be Art?

Over the past few days I've come across a number of blogs which have broached this subject. Its the kind of argument which brings up a vitriolic rage in many a gamer and comments on the subject can go into the thousands (see Roger Ebert's post here). I plant my feet firmly in the "games can be art" camp.

Unfortunately, it comes down to that all-to-often carted out stumbling block - definition. I view art as an interpretation. RightGamer at DominantGenes (RG falls firmly on the opposite side to me, agreeing with Roger Ebert in his assertion that games can never be art) states the following:

Professional painters, musicians and cartoonists are all considered artists regardless of the quality of their pieces and no one would try to dispute this. Now professional game designers and developers are not generally associated with being artists but if the final product truly is a piece of art like some gamers claim, then why not label these people as such?

I argued that whilst these above named professions are largely considered artists, I cannot make the same sweeping generalisation about their work. Justin Bieber is most definitely a musical artist, but I would not say his work is art. *Swoosh* That was the sound of a thousand angry tweenage girls all partaking in a sharp intake of breath. I'm also fairly sure that there are a significant number of people who would not consider Tracey Emin's work art, or Jackson Pollock, or Michael Jackson, or Banksy, etc etc. What it boils down to, is that art is an interpretation.

Its a wishy-washy Postmodern argument I know, and as Social Scientist I'm loathed to bring it out. But when applied to a medium such as art it is hard to ignore. I don't think you could cite a piece of work which can be universally and objectively called "art" - there is no essential element which exists which pushes a piece from "object" to "art". I could rant on about signifier and signified, perception, consensus, habitus, Bourdieu, Foucault, Baudrillard, Magritte, ceci n'est pas une pipe... But ultimately you cannot ignore that each and every image we see in this world, however critically acclaimed, is seen through our eyes, and each and every image is then interpreted by our brains - it is changed and twisted and then out pops a conclusion. Whether that conclusion is that it's art or not is not objective, it is wholly subjective.

Of course, that means that Ebert and RG are entirely correct - to them gaming cannot be art - their definition doesn't allow it. But to me, gaming can be and is art - Portal is art, Amnesia: The Dark Descent is art, Half-Life 2 is art, heck... Final Fantasy VII is art - these games speak to me on a visceral level, they evoke emotions through characters and visuals which far outstrip the vast majority of paintings and films.

The other option is that art has some existence which is external to those actors involved in its creation. That it somehow pre-exists interpretation. I just cannot bend my brain to consider that there exists anything in our society which has not been created by the people who exist and have existed within it. There is no society external to the actor. So, there is no art external to the actor. Art is something which sits deep within our soul; it is for no-one else to decide on our behalf.

Cross Platform Portal 2 for the PS3!

Yes please, thank you and goodnight. Nice work Valve, I am always torn about which platform to buy games on as it limits the people I can interact with in the game world (so, buying an MMO on the PS3 would be difficult to interact with people due to the lack of a keyboard), but with the new release of Portal 2, all players will be able to interact with players on PS3, Mac and PCs and it doesn't matter which platform they're playing on. Awesome.

Full story can be found at wired.co.uk juuuuuuuuuuuuuuust here.


Picture from http://cdni.wired.co.uk/620x413/o_r/portal2.jpg on www.wired.co.uk/

Plus, if you buy the PS3 version you'll be able to download a free PC/Mac version through Steam. Even.Freaking.Better.
Its another example of how Valve is one of the most community-savvy developers out there. Kudos Portal 2 team, ku-freaking-dos.

Gaming in 2011 Part 1

There will be a bucketload of posts like this across the web as this year comes to a close, and I'm hoping to get mine in nice and early! Set up shop and see what everyone else thinks. I thought I'd tackle Gaming in its many and varied guises in this post, and say what I am looking forward to over the next year or so. I'm splitting this into two parts, one for Video Games, one for Alternate Reality Games. Here goes:

Video Games
I really don't like the name "video games", it feels like the term "movies" - do we really need to define the film by the fact that the pictures are moving? However, no other term seems to fit "computer games" doesn't really cover consoles, jumpy-shooty-flippymajigg doesn't match either. So, video games it is. For me there are 3 exciting events (and one honourable mention):

Anywho, 2011 is a pretty big year for me. There are a number of titles on the horizon which get my juices flowing and to start off I think I'll go with Portal 2. Ho momma, Portal is a beast of a game - its funny, clever, witty, frustrating, mind bending, disturbing, scary and most importantly it is a whole troughload of fun.

Spicy! I cannot wait to see what GLaDOS (not sure if the capitalisation is correct here!) has in store as she informs us over the end credits of the first game (through song) that she is "I'm doing science and I'm still alive". If you haven't been HERE, then do so, and then tremble in fear at the last scene.

[EDIT=07/12/10] Originally watched this with the sound off - having watched it with sound I now realise that the voice is Stephen Bloody Merchant! First Danny Wallace in Assassin's Creed 2/Brotherhood and now this! Big few years for British comedians! My money would be on Harry Hill voicing the lord of the Sith in Star Wars: The Old Republic[/EDIT]

[EDIT 2=07/12/10]Oh, and Stephen Fry in Fable III[/EDIT]

Secondly, we have Batman: Arkham City. Arkham Asylum was one of the first games I got for the PS3 this year and I played it through in about a week. It was a game that just felt like all the little bits just worked, the combat was fluid and fun (particularly slowing down the final punch on a badguy just to watch his jaw break) the scenery was wacky enough to be almost Kilmer era Batman, but also dark and brooding enough to stick to the canon, and Batman himself was suitably gadget-filled to make the game varied and interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience (even if it was somewhat let down by a final boss fight which could have been competantly completed by a blind 3 fingered sloth who'd just woken up).
I love games like this, quirky, a little scary, with a tongue in cheek way of approaching violence and horror. Fun. Can't wait for the next installment.

Thirdly and most importantly: Guild Wars 2. Guild Wars has been my almost constant companion now for about 5 years, I love this game, I love the lore, the combat, the characters and storylines, its awesome. Guild Wars 2 is shaping up to be awesome on a whole other scale. I'm hesitant about the persistant world (the only other foray I've had into persistent world MMOs is Aion, and, well, it wasn't good!), nonetheless, I'm squeeing with delight knowing its coming at some point next year. ANet are holding their cards characteristically close to their chest re: release date, but most people are predicting first/second quarter 2011.
I won't go on about it too much here as I could talk for hours, but I will make a post nearer the release date and when we have a little bit more info.

Honourable mention: American McGee's Alice: Madness Returns. One of my quite early gaming loves was the prequal to this game. It was downright scary on a fundamental level, not just jumpy and gory, but it was more like that time in the park in Amsterdam when I had a whooooole spacecake to myself and I fell into a Dali painting - it was kinda like that. I am looking forward to where they go from there.