So I’ve finally managed to crawl out of my self-induced Pokémon coma after beating Black (White? Which version did you have?) a few times and finally playing with a grass starter that is actually worth the effort for the first time since Bulbasaur.  Realizing that I had to write an article at some point in my lifetime, I decided that my weeks of isolation up in my wilderness retreat in Colorado huddled over my DS and having Bulbapedia opened up on my  iPad should actually go towards something (other than contributing to my obvious sex appeal). Realizing that writing an article on Pokémon MUST at some point contain a pun utilizing or implying the word “evolution,” I have decided to take a look back on the oh…(searching Wikipedia)  15 years of Pokémon (look it up) and talk about how the series has… changed over the course of what is essentially my entire lifetime.

Pokémon Red and Blue-

These two didn’t change S$%# about Pokémon.

(more…)

My childhood was essentially Highlander

When I was nine years old, I got sent to the principal’s office for giving a lunch room lady the finger.  The funny thing was, though, that I had no idea what the hell the finger meant, all that I knew was that it was “bad” and that it made all of the other kids around me laugh when I did it.  So when the lady in the office started yelling at me, watching me tear up in confusion she eventually just asked straight out “Do you have any idea what that finger means?”  And I, being a nine-year-old, with snot running down my nose and tears and everything, managed to choke out a single word, “No.”  And the lady freezes.

You have never seen the atmosphere in a room change so quickly.  The lady goes from screaming-her-ass-off mad to just terrified at the prospect of having to explain to some nine-year-old why the finger was just calling him the devil incarnate.  And at the sight of this dramatic change, my natural curiosity was perked, so I asked her, “what does it mean?”  And she, of course, gets super defensive and stupid, giving me these half-assed answers and shit, telling me to ask my parents, and the only thing that she can tell me about the meaning is that it has something to do with a doctor.

Now, you may be asking me at this point,  “Quinn?  What the hell does that stupid story have to do with anything?”  And I’ll tell you.  When I was nine years old I was more violent and angry and more inappropriate and disrespectful than I have ever been since; in fact I’ve calmed down remarkably as I’ve grown older.  When I was in third grade, I got in-school suspension for hitting a kid, and before that I had to take some anger management classes and crap from the school, lest I become some kind of delinquent, and you know the thing about my anger and my ‘violence’ was that I did not freaking game at the time.

(more…)

There used to be a point in the past where any new videogame was a wonder to behold. We lived in a time where the industry was infantile and big name companies like Bungie, Valve, and Bioware were just getting their legs underneath them. Games like Half Life, Mario Brothers, and Sonic were brand new and the mystique shrouding their development was as thick as it was interesting. We no longer live in those times. Sequels run the industry and the emphasis has shifted towards serving the masses rather

Is this what we want?

than being innovative or forward thinking about new IPs, because, let’s be honest, that isn’t where the money is at anymore. The money is in a new type of business model, one that the industries main publishers Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard have cemented into the minds of old and new developers alike: the Call of Duty model.

Let’s look for a moment at the film industry that currently exists in Hollywood (and to an even greater extent in Bollywood). We have a system in which directors and producers are rewarded for timeliness and mass appeal. Quality isn’t, and can’t possibly be the focus of their films. This is the reason we get a new Alien vs. Predators movie every year, regardless of how much the last filmed flopped. It doesn’t stop there though, look at Nicholas Cage movies. They come out every year, but they are always bad and always a disappointment, but they always make enough money to fund the next. The correlation I’m drawing to draw here is that Call of Duty (and of course any series that follow their business model) is the Nicholas Cage of the videogame industry.

The point here is not to try and discount the influence of the Call of Duty business model, but to bring awareness of the damage it is doing to the industry. A good way to show just how bad this business model can be is to look at the current state of the Sonic Team and their mangled and filthy child Sonic the Hedgehog. The Sonic Team opted to release as many Sonic games as they possible could in the hope that sacrificing development time and polishing for sheer numbers would turn around a higher profit, and in most cases it did. The question is of course, when was the last time a Sonic game was ever game of the year, or even remembered for having any effect on the forward movement of the industry? This is at the core of the problem with the business model that Call of Duty has created; it isn’t a breeding ground for innovation or creativity, but of fiscal success.

(more…)

Trash?

My favorite TV shows are all scripted shows with a sense of serialization to them.  I enjoy, Madmen and Breaking Bad and Dexter and a whole bunch of others.  Because of my love of the artsier more sophisticated television experiences I tend to look down on reality TV show’s like Survivor and Jersey Shore, I can’t really say that I watch these programs or that I know much about them but their very existence causes me to look down upon those that watch these programs.  To me these programs and in turn those that watch them are lower than me are worse, and as I sit at my computer typing this article I can’t help but think how disappointed I am in my self for thinking this way and being like this.

You see I talk a big game about how open minded I am about things like sexuality and race and all that other stuff that I support but I can’t really say that I’m very open minded towards the other side.  In fact I’m very close minded when it comes to certain things like reality TV or hardcore right-wing Christianity.  And while I may not share the same views as the people who enjoy or believe in the things that I do not believe in that does not give me the right to look down upon them and call them trash.  I didn’t grow up like they did, I haven’t gone through the same experiences that they have, for I all know the only thing separating someone’s own opinion from my own is that I wasn’t in the room as them at a certain time.

(more…)