https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drPBIiuSWso
We blame everything when we suck at games: lag, the controller, bad framerates- but here’s a fun fact: your brain is built to be terrible at video games and everything is usually your own fault.
A must read that hits close to home. Ben Kuchera, Polygon:
If I had to make a T-shirt for myself in the same theme as the silly one from E3 — and we’ve joked about this around the office — it would say something like “15 Percent Gamer.” That sounds about right. I play games for work, and I write about them and talk to the people who make them. I love them, but they’re one thing in a group of things I love. Not the biggest thing.
I sit on calls about financial results and have long conversations with people in the industry about what’s going on and why. When I close my laptop at the end of the day, I get to help take care of my five kids, and we do homework, watch movies, go out, make food. I may fly something, I may spend time with my wife, I may read a book. Most nights I don’t play video games for fun, but when I do I love it.
I know of one gaming company in Los Angeles that had a stated goal of turning over 15 percent of its workforce every year. The reasoning behind such a policy was that productivity shoots up when you hire smart, hungry kids fresh out of school and work them to death. Attrition was inevitable under such conditions, but that was okay, because the company’s needs outweighed those of the worker. Did it work? Sure, maybe. To a point. But if you ask me, that kind of thinking is not just misguided, it is immoral. At Pixar, I have made it known that we must always have the flexibility to recognize and support the need for balance in all of our employees’ lives. While all of us believed in that principle—and had from the beginning—Toy Story 2 helped me see how those beliefs could get pushed aside in the face of immediate pressures.
Already, just playing a few minutes of Journey on PlayStation 4, I’m reminded that the moment-to-moment playing of the game is not as mystical as the memory of it as a complete thing. That the first time I meet another player in the game is never going to match the joyous original. The nice feeling of the wind is just an echo of that last section of the game, that wraps it all up so satisfactorily.
I often tell myself that I will take another trip through the work of art that is Journey. After all, the experience only lasts roughly one-and-a-half hours. However, every time I sit down to try, I’m unable to launch the game for the same reasons Campbell discusses. I do listen to Austin Wintory’s fantastic, Grammy-nominated soundtrack frequently and I think it is enough for me to relive the majesty and memory of Journey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcEO77xw20I
It’s actually more fascinating to watch the way that different fighters’ complicated Ultra moves spread out, unobscured, across the stage. If you just want to see what the martial arts style of your favorite character looks like without the game’s normal careful cutting, you can click over to YouTube, where they’re separated out with bookmarks.
I was just telling a colleague how much I wish I had learned 3D modeling and animation. This video drives my longing home.
On the topic of Street Fighter, take a few minutes to enjoy Pete Holmes’ star-studded and hilarious Street Fighter: Red Tape. Kumail Nanjiani’s Dhalsim is tremendous.
