Trouble’s a-brewing

A fun thing some friends and I do when we’re hanging out, and we’re not sure where to eat, is to pick a competitive game with a lot of characters, assign a restaurant to each one, and play (or watch) a round, and let the winner determine where we go. The first game we did this with was Overwatch, but lately we’ve been setting up 32-man AI tournaments in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It’s actually a really clever idea, and a lot of fun…until Diddy Kong wins, and we end up at Taco Bell. It took a little longer than usual, but Taco Bell is doing what Taco Bell always does to me. Which brings us to today’s word.

fulminating, adj. – volatile or explosive

Learned from: Diablo II (PC, Mac)

Developed by Blizzard North

Published by Blizzard Entertainment (2000)

Diablo II improved upon a lot from the original game. Though I missed some of the more random elements from its predecessor (shrines with mysterious names, whose effects were unknown until you activated them, quests that wouldn’t show up in every playthrough, etc.), the sheer variety of new material made up for it. One of these additions came in the form of offensive potions: green for poison, and orange for explodey-types (including fulminating potions).

These were kinda neat in the early game, as they gave even melee-focused characters a source of elemental damage, but there were only a couple “levels” of each type of potion, and they didn’t scale with your character’s level. So, as the enemies you faced kept getting stronger, the damage inflicted by these potions became less and less useful, until it became a pain to find them in item drops. A cool idea, but ultimately one that wasn’t used to its fullest potential, so that it might’ve been more than a novelty.

fulminating

Don’t let the screenshot fool you; fulminating potions would be hard-pressed to cause that kind of carnage in the early game. In the later stages, you’d be lucky to give the monsters a sunburn.

In sticking with a theme…

It would appear I still have an ax to grind, after that last post, but this time around, I’ll strive to make the entry more about the game, than the real world.

mendacious, adj. – relating to deception, falsehood, or divergence from the truth

Learned from: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (on damn near every platform since the XBox 360 and Playstation 3)

Developed by Bethesda Game Studios

Published by Bethesda Softworks (2011)

There are a lot of books scattered throughout the realm of Skyrim, and most of the words this game taught me came from a series of tales about the dark elf, Barenziah. There are plenty of other stories to be found, but for whatever reason, the writers decided to be the most verbose in talking about this particular elf. Mentions of mendacious caravans seeking to avoid paying tolls, or chary subjects, distrustful of their new rulers abound in the history of this character whom (to the best of my knowledge), you never actually meet in the game.

When you think about it, it’s odd that Skyrim gets as much praise as it does for being so “deep,” when so much of its lore breaks a cardinal rule of storytelling. e.g. telling, instead of showing. We’re (largely) well past the era of the text adventure, and video games are an inherently visual medium; we could very feasibly be seeing these events instead of killing our eyes, squinting at chapters of raw text in a virtual book, on a TV screen across the room (or a monitor on our desk). It’s like an audiobook presented in Morse Code: it really doesn’t take advantage of what the format has to offer.

skyrim

Skyrim: 10th Anniversary Edition, coming soon to a graphing calculator near you!

Perhaps the most important post I’ll make.

I originally started this project, because I was tired of video games being blamed for social ills, and I wanted to show that if anything, they can enrich people’s lives, not degrade them. This past weekend, there were not one, but two mass shootings, within a span of 24 hours. Once again, we’ve got politicians (specifically, Republican, Kevin McCarthy) blaming video games, instead of the obvious problem that it’s easier to get a gun than a driver’s license. Or a passport. Or a liquor license for a restaurant. Or…you get the point. But it’s easier to blame video games–and do nothing about the problem–than it is to pull away from the teat of gun lobby donations and actually try to fix things. Which brings us to today’s word.

guile, noun – manipulative cunning, deceit, duplicity

Learned from: Street Fighter II (Arcade, and pretty much every console released since the ’90s)

Developed by Capcom

Published by Capcom (1991)

Looking back, I have to wonder if it was an intentional move on Capcom’s part, to name one of the American characters in Street Fighter II after a term that essentially means “untrustworthy”. Guile is an Air Force major, best known for his sonic boom ranged attack. He’s a character I never gravitated toward, but he’s got his fans.

…and I’m finding it hard to stay on-topic with game-Guile, as opposed to why I chose the word guile this time around. I try not to be overly political on here, but I can’t ignore this subject–it’s the reason this blog exists, after all. Numerous studies have been conducted on whether video games lead to real-life violence, and the results keep coming back the same: they don’t.

But those studies appeal to logic, which the politicians and public figures who keep pushing for making video games a scapegoat don’t care about. They care about emotional appeals, because when objective reality fails you, what else do you have? I mean, who cares if all the evidence shows that violent themes in games are about as “dangerous” as violent themes in movies, or rock music, or D&D, or “provocative” literature–little Billy turned to a life of crime, because he played Grand Theft Auto! So, fine. Let’s go with a personal anecdote, designed to pluck at the heartstrings, and lull to sleep the mind’s critical thinking faculties. I’m good at games; I can play this one, too.

I’ve been gaming since I was about five years old, when I got a hand-me-down Intellivision from one of my cousins. Primitive though it is by today’s standards, there were still plenty of games that included depictions of violence: from killing other humanoid-looking programs with frisbees in Tron: Deadly Discs, to fighting monsters in Tower of Doom, to punching out other human players in Boxing, I was exposed to virtual violence young. And it never really stopped. From the bare-knuckle brawls of Street Fighter II, to the spine-ripping finishing moves of Mortal Kombat; from blowing away demons with a shotgun in the original Doom, to feeding them their own hearts in the 2016 remake; from 20-player kill streaks online in Unreal Tournament 2004, to endless nights murdering people to protect checkpoints in Overwatch, I have bathed in enough virtual blood to fill an ocean, and taken enough virtual lives (both AI and from human players) to build a mountain range. By the “reasoning” of people like Kevin McCarthy, after decades of constant exposure to this, I should be one of history’s greatest monsters.

I have never even thrown a punch at someone.

I was bullied throughout most of my school-age years, because I was the quiet, pale, skinny kid with terrible social anxiety, who preferred to be left alone with books. I don’t want to get into the details of my home life at that time, but suffice it to say that it wasn’t a walk in the park either, and contributed strongly to my anxiety and awkwardness at school. Looking back through the lens of recent history, I’d be considered a prime candidate to shoot up my school.

And after Columbine happened, that’s exactly how people started to treat me. Here I was, the spitting image of one of the pale, skinny, loner kids who liked violent video games, and killed a bunch of their classmates. Almost overnight, the bullying stopped. People who noticed me in the hall tended to move out of the way. I’m pretty sure even some of the teachers were looking at me differently. You might think this would’ve come as something of a relief, but it didn’t. In some ways, it was worse than what came before, because I was no longer being called names out in the open–instead, people were thinking much worse things about me, and my imagination was left to fill the void of everything they weren’t saying.

So, I just kept on going more or less as I normally did, but even less sure of how to go about interacting with the people around me. Being a source of fear for everyone around you is only empowering to a sociopath; when it happened to me, it stung in a way I didn’t know was possible.

The fact that nothing has changed, either in legislation or in the common narrative in the twenty years–TWENTY YEARS–that followed stings even worse. My virtual body counts have risen to countless numbers, across hundreds of games, and I’ve still never physically harmed a soul. As these mass shootings keep happening (and keep happening, and keep happening…) at schools, movie theaters, festivals, night clubs, and on, and on, I’ve found my sense of shock and horror is steadily turning to frustration and incredulity. Because for more than half my life, something I love has repeatedly been named as a scapegoat, because those in power are too cowardly, lazy, and complacent to confront the actual problem, and people keep dying because nothing is being done. The common thread in all these killings isn’t video games, any more than previous atrocities were the result of violent movies, or D&D, or any other convenient counterculture pariah du jour. The common thread is unstable people having easy access to guns–often with modifications that serve no defensible purpose aside from the intent to commit mass murder. It’s not rocket science, you unconscionable, Congressional fuckwits.

guile-sfiv

This is Guile. Guile is a major in the Air Force who fights terrorists with his bare fists, and has theme music that goes with everything. Guile doesn’t actually exist, but he still manages to somehow be a better American and human being than the useless, craven shitbag “representatives” we have in Congress, who refuse to actually do anything to keep their citizens safe. Be like Guile. Stand up for what’s right, in whatever way you can. Even if it’s just through an exasperated post on a blog with double-digit followers.

Right in front of my eyes

Ever have one of those moments where you suddenly discover there’s a specific term for something you’ve been aware of for years? It happened to me, just the other day.

hypermetropia, noun – farsightedness

Learned from: Crossing Souls (PS4, Mac, PC, Switch)

Developed by Fourattic

Published by Devolver Digital (2018)

It’s been about twenty years since I was diagnosed with being farsighted, but I honestly don’t think I’ve ever heard the technical term for the condition until now. Maybe the optometrist didn’t want to worry young me with an imposing-sounding medical term like that, or something. The world will never know.

As for its usage in the game, first, a bit of backstory. Crossing Souls is an attempt to cash in on the ’80s nostalgia sparked by pop culture phenomena like Stranger Things and Ready Player One, and it’s…not as successful. It starts off okay, with a freak storm knocking out power in a small, suburban town during summer vacation, and in the midst of it all, a group of friends stumbles across a magical artifact. But then the cracks start to show.

It’s as if the folks at Fourattic felt they needed to reference all of the 1980s, often times directly and without purpose. Shady government types have cordoned off a house to try and steal back the artifact–time for an E.T. reference! Simon was a thing in the ’80s, so we need to work that in–no, it doesn’t need to make sense that you have to beat an undead bus driver at a game of it…or that when you win, an inexplicable machine pours lava on him–it needs to be there! And of course, there’s a reclusive Chinese pawn shop owner, straight out of Gremlins. Which brings us to today’s word.

The pawn broker is in possession of a key that he won’t give up, so you need to steal it from him. In order to do that, you need to distract him with increasingly absurd requests for things you ostensibly do want to buy, so that he’ll disappear into the back long enough for you to swipe the key. One of those things is, well…I’ll let the screenshot speak for itself.

hypermetropia

It’s not often I catch a shot of one of these words in the wild, so to speak.

Totally not a political statement

It’s Independence Day, and as such, I found myself presented with a variety of words I could feature, from words about empire-building, or rulers, or even just related to how bloody hot it is. In the end, I chose…

braggadocio noun – The annoying and/or overblown talk of someone trying to come across as braver than they truly are.

Learned from: Shin Megami Tensei IV (3DS)

Developed by Atlus

Published by Atlus (2013)

Toward the end of the game (at least, along the path I took), you run into a demon named Akira, who wants you to help him take over Tokyo. However, the old adage “the smaller the dog, the louder its bark” definitely applies here, as you quickly discover this guy is a terrible coward. The rest of your party even comments on his braggadocio, the first time this guy hides behind you, and expects you to fight his battles for him. Because those are exactly the qualities we all want in a leader, right?

Or, you know, ordering a military parade with tanks rolling down city streets, when the greatest risk you’ve ever put yourself in is swinging a nine iron. Things like that.

akira

At least Akira’s got good hair.

I’ve been living life, like I play Risk

You may have noticed that I dropped off the face of the Earth, recently, after the spate of live tweets I did for E3 (and I never did get to the Nintendo Direct, or PC Gaming Show). In the time since, I’ve found myself pulled in all sorts of directions at once, both at work and at home. They’re not all bad by any means, and a sizable portion of them, I brought upon myself, but between contemplating going for a promotion at work, learning an unfamiliar tabletop RPG so I could join a game a friend was setting up, trying to get people together for my own game I want to run, diving headfirst into my backlog of books and games, and finding a surprising number of evening events, I’ve spread myself thin. Which, in a roundabout way, brings me to today’s word.

druthers, noun – One’s leanings or preferences toward a subject.

Learned from: Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon (Playstation 2)

Developed by Atlus

Published by Atlus (2008)

First off, yes, that’s the full title of the game. Whereas most of the Shin Megami Tensei (MegaTen for short) titles have turn-based combat, the Devil Summoner series set itself apart by being more action-oriented. It takes some getting used to, trying to manage the demons you’ve summoned on the battlefield, while keeping your own character alive, but it really grew on me, the more I played this series. And the action isn’t all that set it apart from its contemporaries.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen another RPG set in 1920s Japan, let alone one whose story features underground insect people, a talking cat who used to be your human partner, demons, and a spunky female reporter who gets caught up in the middle of it all. Throw in an amazing soundtrack, and a plot that tackles surprisingly deep subjects such as tradition vs. modernity, sacrifice, and self-preservation and you’ll start to understand why Atlus is one of my favorite game developers of all time.

As for the word of the day, at one point the protagonist gets asked what his druthers are, regarding one of the plot points. Choices matter in this game, and depending on how you approach things, you’ll get different endings–another hallmark of the MegaTen franchise as a whole. And to tie this all in to the intro, I need to consider what my druthers are, and narrow my focus regarding all the stuff I have going on. Because I know from (extensive) experience what happens when I keep myself spread too thin for too long, in Risk. But hey, realization is the first step and all that, right? See you next time!

devil_summoner_2

Writing buddy

As I type this, my cat is curled up on the back of the couch near my head, snoring. This entry goes out to her.

grimalkin, noun – A domestic cat–particularly, an old female cat.

Learned from: BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger (Playstation 3, Arcade, XBox 360)

Developed by Arc System Works

Published by Aksys Games (2008)

For fighting games, the BlazBlue series has always had a rather fleshed out story mode. Granted, after a couple entries, it stops making much sense, but it certainly is deep. A lot of the characters have extensive backstories that color their interactions with one another. Ragna and Jin are extreme examples of feuding siblings, Litchi and Arakune were lovers back when Arakune was still human (at least, in Litchi’s eyes), and the once-great hero, Hakumen (who’s now a living suit of armor), hates the mad scientist, Kokonoe. Kokonoe also happens to be a catgirl (because, Japan), which has earned her the derisive nickname of “Grimalkin” from Hakumen. He doesn’t seem to hate any of the other cat-people in the game though, so at least he’s not a racist.

kokonoe

I should point out that Kokonoe has a split tail, technically making her a nekomata: a Japanese mythological creature that’s essentially a house cat that’s lived for a very long time. So, maybe she’s older than she looks.

Even a cold can be good for something

As the title suggests, I’m sick right now. Have been, for about half a week or so, with a very irritating head cold. It started with my throat hurting, and my voice dropping an octave, then only coming out as a croaky whisper, like a mummy that just woke up after a millennium-long nap in the desert sun. It’s since migrated (somewhat) from my throat to my nose, and if you compressed all the tissues I’ve used back into solid wood, you could probably build, if not a house, then at least a garden shed. All of which brings us to today’s word.

phlegm, noun – The buildup of thick mucous in the respiratory passages.

Learned from: Xenophobe (Atari 7800, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Arcade, Atari 2600, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Lynx, NES, ZX Spectrum)

Developed by Bally Midway

Published by Bally Midway (1987)

Xenophobe was, at its heart, a ripoff of Aliens. It’s a side-scrolling action game, where you have to travel from space station to space station, clearing each one of an alien infestation before the self-destruct sequence counts down. All in all, it’s a decently fun game, with a good variety of weapons and monsters–from little ones that just crawl along, to ones that roll into balls, to the big ones that spit phlegm at you from a distance.

I know it was phlegm and not acid, because the instruction manual (remember those?) said so. As a kid of about seven or eight, I of course knew the term “snot,” but I knew “mucous” as well; phlegm was new to me, though. So much so, that I thought this weird amalgamation of letters was a typo (which weren’t really uncommon in manuals at the time). So, I asked my father–pronouncing the word wrong, I’m sure–and boom, I had a new entry in my burgeoning vocabulary. As well as a hilarious mental image of a hulking alien beast killing your character by covering them in snot. (Hilarious to seven-year-old me, at least.)

Fun fact: Xenophobe also taught me a bit of the Greek alphabet, as each station was Alpha, Beta, Gamma, etc. I won’t be including those as entries here, since they’re just letters, not full-fledged words, but I think it’s neat that this simple run & gun shooter taught me so many varied things.

xenophobe

Hideous alien hellbeasts–you know, for kids!

Happy Mothers’ Day

It’s not often that I encounter words (or themes) directly related to motherhood in games, so for today, I decided to do the next best thing, and post a word I learned from a game where one of the main antagonists is simply called Mother.

pertinacious, adj. – Obsessively or maddeningly persistent.

Learned from: Iconoclasts (PS4, Mac, PC, Switch, Vita)

Developed by Konjak / Joakim Sandberg

Published by Bifrost Entertainment

On the surface, Iconoclasts appears to be a fairly straightforward platformer with some interesting mechanics, light Metroidvania elements, and some really nice pixel art. Once you get into it, though, you’ll find a story about religious totalitarianism, oppression, backstabbing, sacrifice, and people clinging to their own ideals, no matter the cost. This includes the main character of Robin, an unlicensed mechanic in a world where all technology is controlled by the ruling elite. (At one point, one of the antagonists refers to her as the “pertinacious heroine of House Four,” hence today’s word.)

All in all, Iconoclasts handily lives up to its name (an iconoclast is sort of an anarchist–someone who works to tear down established belief systems or institutions. Yay, two-fer!). It’s a little rough around the edges, and a couple sections are a bit frustrating, but it’s a good game overall, with some boss fights that feel like they came straight out of a Treasure game. Oh, and (to the best of my knowledge), it was entirely developed and the music was composed solely by one man: Joakim Sandberg. Considering how well Iconoclasts came together, that’s quite a noteworthy feat.

iconoclasts

Such a bright, happy game, where assuredly nothing tragic will happen.

A not-so-reasonable facsimile

In my job, I work with money, and every so often I come across a situation that isn’t entirely…on the level. It’s been happening significantly more, lately, and with the increased frequency has come a dip in the quality of the attempted fraud. Really, some of these fake checks are almost laughable. But the situation did prompt me to pick today’s word.

ersatz, adj. – fake, not genuine; an imitation (of generally lesser quality).

Learned from: Shin Megami Tensei IV (3DS)

Developed by Atlus

Published by Atlus USA (2013)

Shin Megami Tensei IV is an odd game, with a world that is by turns high fantasy, and near-future cyberpunk. The sci-fi portion has most of the trappings you’d expect from a modern dystopia: oppression, cynicism, crime, and black markets, galore. Even the bars can only offer up ersatz refreshments, because all the real stuff is so hard to come by.

I’m being deliberately vague on the details of the setting beyond this, because I feel like I may have already given spoilers. And really, this is a game that deserves to be played with as fresh eyes as possible. As with all games in the MegaTen series, it deals with some pretty heavy themes, and does so in such an unflinching manner, that it’s rare to see other games even try to imitate this particular approach.

smtiv

Not to be confused with Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse, which is (I gather) an entirely different game…that I really do need to play at some point.