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From: dre <drell...@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: alt.games.video.fps,alt.games.video.shooters,alt.games.video.xbox,talk.politics.libertarian,alt.politics.libertarian
Subject: Re: Improving/Exalting/Simplifying Videogames with The Gold 45 
	Revolver /Ideas Have Consequences/Moral Premise Technology:
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:14:04 -0800 (PST)
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On Nov 10, 12:23=A0pm, dre <drell...@gmail.com> wrote:
> =A0 =A0 As I begin preproduction on a pretty narrative-based game, I find
> myself referring to Steve Gaynor's quote:
>
> =A0 =A0 [url]Video games are not a traditional storytelling medium per se=
.
> The player is an agent of chaos, making the medium ill-equipped to
> convey a pre-authored narrative with anywhere near the effectiveness
> of books or film.[/url]
>
> Yes--such philosophies have held games back.
>
> In real life, we are all agents of chaos.
>
> And yet, epic, exalted stories emerge time and again in real life,
> because of life's moral premises and epic mythological reality, which
> are strangely absent from games. Truth is stranger than fiction!
>
> Think about the true story of King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans
> battling for epic idealism and freedom.
>
> Think about Sir William Wallace battling for freedom and epic
> idealism.
>
> Think about the Founding Fathers writing for and then battling for
> epic freedom--rendering classical ideals real in both word and deed.
>
> In all the above cases; epic, classical story emerged alongside
> romance and profound meaning. Narratives far greater and more engaging
> than those found in GTA/bioshock/Fallout naturally emerged, and became
> legends as they were told over and over.
>
> The stories today's fanboys tell are, "I killed a hooker lolz! and
> then pwn3d giant vaginas and nipples in dante's inferno ! lolz!! epic
> narrative sux and boox r giant walls of t3xt!" And then the fanbmas
> tell tragic stories of massive layoffs and the closure of EGM which
> gave that vast contingent seeking epic story the middle finger.
>
> 300/William Wallace/the Founding Fathers were united by the same
> classical, epic, exalted ideals of freedom; which are nowhere to be
> found in the fanboys/fanmbas favorite games--Fallout & GTA3.
>
> By introducing classical ideals (thegold45 revolver(TM)/ideas have
> consequences/moral premise technologies) into the center and
> circumference of the game's AI, novel forms of gaming will exalt the
> industry with billions of dollars in revenue.
>
> As games get more and more graphically realistic, why not make them
> more life-like on a spiritual, narrative, moral, and romantic level?
>
> Basically this article could be applied to the entire industry which
> is shedding billions in market cap and thousands of jobs.
>
> Over the past several years, I would pick up major gaming magazines
> (EGM/Play/Edge) and turn straight to the letters section--the letters
> from the readers/avid gamers.
>
> Invariably, there would be writers stating that they were looking for
> games with more exalted narrative, epic story, and meaning.
>
> And the fanboy/fanmba editorial staff would often be both
> condescending and dismissive, basically giving them the middle finger
> in telling them to shut up and go back to their single-mom's basement
> to play Fallout/GTA and shoot cops and hookers and women in metallic
> bras, as really, GTA is all about the family, really, and living
> morally, with profound ideas that have profound consequences; and
> epic, exalted meanings for the greater culture.
>
> And then, a few short months later, after giving the finger to the
> reader/consumer/yearner for art and narrative, EGM went under.
>
> CASE STUDY #1: The Epic Failure of Dante's Inferno: The Epic Price of
> Ignoring Epic Story and Placing Dante's Beloved, Incorruptible
> Beatrice in Hell, and Playing up the Giant Nipples/Vaginas/Baby-
> Killing for The Vocal Fanboys
>
> In one fell-swoop, EA blew several opportunities to exalt both
> classical culture and their bottom line. Mired in the "debauch the
> culture/currency and deconstruct the Greats" that so dominates our
> culture, EA approached Dante's Divine Comedy from a hateful, arrogant,
> fanboyish angle; instead of from a loving, manly, humble one.
>
> So EA goes and slaps the name Dante's Inferno on a God of War Mod,
> basically giving the middle finger to Dante's art, life, love, poetry,
> religion, soul, and spirit, casting his beloved, incorruptible
> Beatrcie in hell, and recasting Dante the poet and scholar as a buff,
> world-wrestling-federation champion. And this is the result--a quickly
> forgettable #eafailsuck, generic, been-there-done-that-but-better-the-
> first-time-around game:
>
> http://www.gamersdailynews.com/article-... ferno.html
>
> =A0 =A0 What can be said for Dante=92s Inferno? Well, it is definitely a
> complete rip-off of God of War, so it has that going for it. Oh, and
> it probably would have been better just to have made the game about a
> random crusader diving through the many layers of Hell and claiming
> inspiration to the literary classic. Now it just enrages anyone with
> an appreciation for those long forgotten =93book=94 things your ancestors
> used to read. You know, back when paper was used by everyone and not
> just bureaucrats behind the times.
>
> =A0 =A0 Truth be told the game wasn=92t really all that thrilling. In fac=
t,
> it was a little bit irritating and just a tad sickening. A number of
> buttons can be used for different attacks, yet somehow I always found
> myself pulling off the same combo that ended with me stabbing into the
> ground with a bone scythe. It felt like the only way to win was to
> simply button mash without any real plan in mind. . . .
>
> =A0 =A0 . . .The combat to Dante=92s Inferno isn=92t terrible, but it isn=
=92t
> great either. It=92s just another action game trying to be God of War.
> The story may be good if you could care less about the literary
> origins. The artwork goes from being generic to outright disturbing
> and disgusting. EA can use as much controversial marketing tactics as
> they wish, but there is a very small audience for this game. It will
> have its fans, most certainly, but weeks after this game has been
> released it will become forgotten.
>
> =A0 =A0 Thank God.
>
> --http://www.gamersdailynews.com/article-2169-HandsOn-with-Dantes-
> Inferno.html
>
> All those hours, upon hours wasted in debauching art and losing EA's
> investor's cash. All those hours, upon hours spent ignoring the story
> and focusing on mere, fleeting marketing gimmicks, placing Aristotle's
> spectacle first and his story dead last, thusly inverting the order of
> Aristotle's Poetics, and harassing booth babes:
>
> http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DrElliot... w_Gold.php
>
> I reached out to Jonathan Knight regarding how theGold45 Revolver /
> Ideas Have Consequences / Moral Premise technologies could exalt not
> only Dante's Inferno, but his entire company, but he was pre-dedicated
> to debauching Dante's Divine Work, ignoring the fundamental precepts
> of the divine, epic narrative, and losing market cap.
>
> And that's where the epic advantage lies. In all their epic EA
> arrogance they are forgetting that which matters most in art--the soul
> and spirit, and thus story.
>
> CASE STUDY # 2: EGM MAGAZINE'S FAIL
>
> What an opportunity EGM had! When they received letters from readers
> demanding profundity, poetry, and epic meaning in their games, they
> could have run with it! They could have become the flagship
> publication of the renaissance, while rallying game companies and
> developers who exalted epic narrative in their games, carving out a
> vast new market for games! If only!
>
> But instead, because EGM magazine gave the exalted consumer the middle
> finger, they are now defunct. EA's fanboyish/fanmbaish Dante's Inferno
> is taking EA down the same EGM road to financial hell, giant vaginas,
> nipples, and babby killing all. But that's what you get for placing
> Beatrice in Hell.
>
> I predicted this in my patent application, citing EGM's flippant,
> arrogant, fanboyish response to an honest gamer seeking exaltation,
> story, enlightenment in their games. What did they do? EGM told him to
> shut up and go back to his mom's basement and play GTA.
>
> FROM:http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2009/0017886.html
>
> PRIOR ART AND ADVANTAGES OF PRESENT INVENTION
> There is a vast demand for deeper, more intellectual video games that
> is generally opposed throughout the industry. Many designers are weak
> minded like the Storm Troopers in Star Wars, and thus they believe
> hiring and killing prostitutes constitutes exalted story, as the
> fiatocracy's Death Star commands them to believe. Many will defend
> their hiring and killing prostitutes by the fact that one doesn't have
> to in the open-ended world, but then it GTA is not truly an open-ended
> world wherein one cannot take a prostitute to church, nor even speak
> words of exalted wisdom to her that might save her soul, nor give her
> a copy of Dante's Inferno nor Homer's Odyssey to exalt her soul. While
> developers, publishers, and insiders constantly hype the storytelling
> in games so as to sound cool and push product for mere monetary
> profit, the young can see that the emperor is wearing no clothes. In
> EGM's letter of the month, a reader expresses the rising generation's
> demand by writing:
>
> EGM Letter of The Month:
>
> =93As I grew up, videogames grew up with me. I started playing games
> like Donkey Kong and Carnival on the ColecoVision before I could read,
> and Nintendo's Mario title were a staple of my early childhood. As I
> got older, I saw the storytlines and gameplay mechanics become more
> intricate and engaging. When I went through my rebellious and bitchy
> teenage years, so did videogames. And as I grew and matured, so did
> the subject matter of the games themselves.
>
> Now that I'm 22, more things are vying for my time and attention such
> as work, college, women, drinking, and lamenting over my long-gone and
> simpler childhood. Needless to say, if I'm going to devote 20-plus
> hours of my life to completing a game, it had better be well worth it.
> And to me personally, a game well worth it is one I can take something
> away from on an intellectual level. For example, a game that makes me
> question my own existence, or the war in Iraq, or the increasing
> diconnectedness of our modern high-tech lives would be the holy grail
> of gaming to me. What are the chances that gaming will finally grow
> once more and develop a social and political conscience?=97Eric
> Staskiewicz, summer, 2008 EGM
>
> EGM answers =93The answers are pretty damn good. Games are more and more
> frequently making =93statements=94 about society and ...
>
> read more =BB

Lessons in Videogame Design from Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood
For the next couple weeks you can watch Serigio Leone'sTrilogy,
including Fistful of Dollars and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly in
HD:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Di14jpI-Tchs

Around 15 minutes into A fistful of Dollars comes a showdown wherein
for the first time in the history of film, the gun is shown in the
same screen as the people falling. The shot/camera angle is from
behind the gun, just like a First Person Shooter, or more
particularly, a Third Person Shooter!

In the film Eastwood plays the role of God/Thor/Moses/Odysseus/Zeus.
He reunites the family, slays all the outlaws by using the gold to
play them off one-another, and leaves the gold behind in the end. For
he is after that higher wealth--not mere money nor hooker-killing nor
car jacking nor innocent civilian killing nor meaningless body counts--
but epic Justice--the spiritual force and exalted payoff propelling
all classic dramatic art and deep narrative.

And it is exactly this form of payoff that games are currently
lacking, and which the Gold 45 Revolver technology will exalt. For at
the end, Eastwood reappears in the midst of lightning and thunder
(dynamite), and from his Colt 45 issues Zeus's lightning and Moses'/
Thor's thunder during the final showdown, in which he uses the outlaw
Ramone's arrogance regaridng the power and aim of his Rifle, over
theat of a Colt .45, against Ramone.

Games came of age in an era where massive corporations funded fanboys/
fanmbas/feminsit deconstructionsts to shout down and rage against the
classical, epic ideals of Thor/Zeus/God/Moses; as well as the epic
justice in Homer's Odyssey during Aristotle's third act, and to cast
Dante's incorruptible Beatrice in hell. For while Eastwood leaves the
gold behind and reunites the family, the feminist fanboy fiatorcacy
has destroyed fatherhood and the family and taken the gold. And the
Gold 45 Revolver / Ideas Have Consequences / Moral Premise
technologies capitalize on their misguided omission and lust for base
welath, presenting the first open-ended game created wherein only
those doing the moral thing can wield the gold 45 revolver in the end
to its fullest potential, and witness it shooting Zeus's/Thor's
lightning, bringing on down Moses's Thunder.

Enjoy A Fistful of Dollars, and think about how its epic precepts
could exalt games!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Di14jpI-Tchs

Not only did Sergio Leone's blockbuster films break Eastwood as an
international star, but they were also the film school which shaped
Eastwood, leading to his epic career as an actor and director capable
of exalting the Aristotlean third act as few others.

And what is the favorite film of the writer behind multi-oscar-winning
Braveheart? The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Surely there is something for narrative designers to learn in these
films, as well as from Homer's Odyssey, Dante's Inferno, and the Judeo-
Christian Epics which influenced the Italian director Sergio Leone,
who grew up immersed in the Greek, Roman, and Biblical texts. The fact
that the GTA/EA fanboys/fanmbas rejected and continue to send forth
fanboys top reject such epic works has left billions in opportunity on
the table for smart/nimble narrative designers.