hexington

I’m just about to embark on my first game-review of 2010 - Bayonetta.

I’ve been looking forward to this game for a crazy-long time, so I’m psyched immerse myself in its ridiculous, over-the-top awesomeness. Obviously I won’t go into too much detail just yet - but for those of you who don’t know, Bayonetta is a sassy-ass witch who can travel between dimensions, packs guns in her stilettos and wears a ‘living’ outfit made out of her own hair (that is still also somehow attached to her head).

Hello, awesome. And I mentioned the shoes…?

Bayonetta Pistol Heels

Totally insane.

As I’ve been describing her rather ‘creative’ outfit to friends in my anticipation to play (or rather, lack of outfit as is sometimes the case), I’m often hit with the question of my thoughts on ‘the way women are portrayed in games’.

As a female in this industry I am of course aware that it’s somewhat male-dominated. I only have to look around the table at any work-related or even social get-together to see that I’m often the only ‘lady’ present. But in both capacities I’m never treated in any way differently - because as soon as I open my mouth and all the ‘geek’ starts gushing out, it’s clear that there’s no reason to.

This carries over into my views and opinions on game-design. They’re not gender-specific.

Remember the drama that erupted over the size of Lara Croft’s chest? She was deemed an “inaccurate portrayal of women” and “objectifying”. Yawn. It’s a video game. Games are presented to us as fantasy, stylised, even a form of art. It’s not always meant to be viewed a realistic representation - and personally, I’m just not offended. The more stylised - the better, imo - creative art and sensational character design pulls me in and makes me wonder what that character’s capabilities might be in combat. Sure, okay - maybe guys may also be wondering what her other ‘capabilities’ may involve - lol, but that hardly concerns me.

I enjoy playing strong, female characters. From what I’ve heard - Bayonetta kicks some serious ass - and looks ridiculously awesome doing it. I don’t feel like it’s ‘objectifying’ or ‘offensive’ - I just think it’s freaking cool. You know what would offend me? Weepy female game characters always portrayed as damsels. Bayonetta and her sexy, sometimes-naked, pistol-heeled pwnage?

Bring it on.

Besides. How is designing female characters to look like Bayonetta any different from designing male characters to look like this?

God of War

Where are the sexist claims over his totally epic biceps? Lol.

I wasn’t sure what to expect out of Game Jam.

When we were told about the event as part of the whole ‘The 80s Are Back’ exhibition, I was worried that it would be turned into something a bit gimmickey.
Au contraire. The results of the weekend were a veritable hotpot of creativity and innovation.

Being that I was born in 1985, I didn’t experience a lot of the 80s in general - let alone what it had to offer on the gaming front. Nevertheless, as you start to develop an appreciation for something, you find yourself delving into its roots - there’s something quite thrilling about experiencing things retrospectively and trying to understand the foundations upon which they were built.

There were some great talks given by some well-sourced speakers. Steve Wang (one of the founders of Micro Forte, and has been deving since the 80s) presented a mind-boggling visual example of graphical capacity of a Commodore 64 vs. today’s gaming platforms. He took a current game character, complete with colour-grading, light and shadow, tone, etc - and tried to see just how much of that could have fit on a C64 - the result was an eye and an ear. AN EYE AND AN EAR, PEOPLE. That’s crazy. And it wasn’t even that long ago.

Nick Montfort (MIT Professor and author of ‘Racing the Beam’) spoke fondly about the popularity of text-based RPGs - which is something that holds a special place in my heart. I think the funny thing about the discovery of the ‘MUD’ I used to play, is… that I didn’t actually know what it was when I found it. Like I said - 1985. I was barely out of the womb when MUDding was gaining popularity. Who knew they’s still be around, decades later…?

Gods only know what I was searching when I came across Lensmoor (port number: 3500), but being an avid fantasy reader I was thoroughly intrigued. Not knowing what a ‘MUD’ was, I asked my best friend’s older brother (a cave-dwelling software developer who emerged from his humming room of PCs only for the occasional meal or cigarette), if he could tell me what it was. He simply said, “You don’t want to get involved with MUDs, Steph”, and shut the door.

MUD cap

(note: this is not a screencap from Lensmoor)

Naturally this left me even more intrigued, and with a shrug I clicked on the ‘play now’ link - from which a little java telnet applet opened up, and I began to follow the newbie prompts into character creation.

Cut to me - a month later - well and truly addicted to this game to the point where I have adjusted my sleeping habits to suit American time-zones - which, as I’m sure you can imagine… was causing problems considering I was 16 and in highschool. I fell asleep in class almost daily. But damn it - I was an elf warrior and a clan leader embroiled in a gruesome and bloody race-war!

To this day, I have never encountered a game that has been as powerful and completely affecting from a role-playing perspective as this MUD. With all the graphical prowess of today’s epic character design and cinematic cut-scenes… nothing has matched the thrill of fellow gamers armed with their own literary wordcraft - collectively weaving their own plot-lines and dialogue in this richly-detailed, text-based fantasy setting.

It’s like we were all collectively writing a book. And even though there were no graphics al all… I could see that world so vividly…

I’m now considering going back and re-attempting some tabletop gaming. I’ve tried a few campaigns with a few different groups - but nothing that really lasted past a few sessions. Really, though. D&D created a foundation for the system of hit-points and damage now used in many PC and console games. It’s left me more inclined to give tabletop another go, if anything just to get a better grasp of how this approach to combat really originated.

Retrospectively exploring games is much like a love of old movies from the 40s. We have so much more available to us now, by way of technology - equipment, editing, CGI etc… but there’s just something about the way they did things back then that cannot be replicated. There is a certain simplicity that we don’t see in film or game design anymore - it seems to be all about the biggest, the loudest, the most intense. Films like Avatar and games like Uncharted 2 - both spectacular in every way - and fine examples of what can be achieved with today’s resources.

But I still love watching Judy Garland and Fred Astaire hoof it out in Easter Parade - while indulging in a game of Pacman every so often - to remind me of the fact that things started out so simple - and yet were still considered spectacular in their time.

FYI - one of my favourite games designed at the Game Jam weekend is called ‘Gnilley’ - which is ‘Yelling’ backwards. You’ll see why, when you watch this demo video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYPwYfbi8jA

Gnilley can be downloaded for free, here.