Bring set-ups + whatever games you want to play.<br>
Until the ability to edit spoiler tags gets fixed, I will post new info here.<br><br>Toryuken 2 coming to you across the border May 4th and 5th. Make plans if you intend on making the trip to Toronto~<br>
<div style=“font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;”><font face=“Arial, Verdana” size=“2”><span style=“line-height: normal;”>Full bars, 0 time outs:</span></font></div><div style=“font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;”><span style=“font-size: small;”><br></span></div><div style=“font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;”><span style=“font-size: small;”>https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BEKoCUgCcAA8e2z.jpg</span><br></div>
Does everyone have their rides set up?
<P>I’m going to start a Kickstarter with a goal of $200,000.00.</P>
<P>I’m not happy with the way I move.<BR><BR>I need some new frames and sprites in my life.</P>
<P>I wanna be like Bob.<BR><BR><BR></P>
<P>Question of the day:<BR><BR>Do you have to be a Japanophile to truly understand video games?<BR><BR>Does being immersed in video game culture/knowledge inadvertently make you a passive observer of Japanese culture?<BR><BR>Considering that Western-developed games are finally gaining truly international recognition, do they give insight into Western culture in the same way that Japanese games do into their own?</P>
<P>and<BR><BR>Why do Euroshmups have to suck always?</P>
answering this question is what my entire life has led up to oh my god.<br><br>Okay, real talk. I’ll probably come back to this answer a few times throughout the day and edit it, because it’s a pretty interesting question.<br><br>You’ve got a few big questions here, so let’s tackle them one by one.<br><br>“Do you have to be a Japanophile to truly understand video games?”<br><br>The glib answer is no, you don’t. There are plenty of video games that don’t come from Japan, and obviously you don’t have to be a Japanophile to understand those. Looking past the glibness, let’s rephrase your question to be “Do you have to be a Japanophile to truly understand Japanese video games?” For the purpose of this discussion, let’s define a Japanese video game as something that comes from a primarily Japanese developer, as opposed to a video game that’s set in Japan. Vanquish is a Japanese video game. Okami is a Japanese video game. The Resident Evil franchise (or Biohazard, since we’re being Japanophiles right now) are all Japanese video games. Assassin’s Creed is not; Deus Ex is not; Borderlands is not. I think that’s a fair and easy distinction to draw. <br><br>So do you have to be a Japanophile to truly understand a game from a Japanese developer? I’m inclined to say that in general, the answer is no. Most video games don’t carry super heavy social messages or social commentary; those that do tend to address issues which are more human as opposed to cultural. For a simple proof of that, let’s examine the setting of some video games! Biohazard is set in Racoon City, USA; RE2 some mansion outside Racoon City, USA. I don’t know where RE3 is set, but it’s totally in the USA. RE4 is set in what’s clearly not-Spain. RE5 is set in Africa. I haven’t played RE6 yet but it’s set mostly in the USA, I think. REvelations is set on a boat, and don’t you ever forget that. None of those settings are in Japan. To the extent that RE carries some sort of social message (Pharmaceutical conglomerates are bad? Fuck, I dunno), it clearly can’t be something that’s intrinsically tied to Japan because Japan doesn’t feature anywhere in the games. <br><br>Same issue with Vanquish. Same issue with Metal Gear Solid. The MGS franchise is actually a great example of this; no matter what you want to say about the games, it’s hard to argue that Kojima isn’t pushing some sort of message with them. And yet, if you had to be Japanese to truly understand the message, why aren’t any of the games set in Japan? <br><br>The obvious argument against that is to say that “Being Japanese (or a Japanophile) gives you some different perspective on events, even those which aren’t inherently tied to Japanese culture, and that different perspective is crucial to truly understanding the message of the game”. I’m not Japanese, so I can’t argue that I’m entirely qualified to refute that argument. I did major in this shit in college, so that at least gives me a little more credibility than Joe Blow off the street. Let’s look at it this way, though. If you’re arguing that a message can only be truly understood by a small subset of the potential audience, then you’re either arguing that a) the creator is too incompetent to phrase his message in a way that’s understandable by everybody or b) the creator is maliciously withholding the message from the vast majority of his audience". So if you’re really arguing that only Japanophiles can truly understand the message of the game, I guess I’d like you to show me the game and then tell me whether the director is stupid or an asshole.<br><br>Your second question is a bit more interesting. Does being immersed in video game culture / knowledge inadvertently make you a passive observer of Japanese culture?<br><br>Here, I’m going to argue unequivocally yes. It absolutely does. Games from Japanese developers are a product of Japanese culture, and so they have to reflect that culture in some way. Just like how consuming Japanese cinema teaches you about Japanese culture and reading Japanese novels teaches you about Japanese culture, playing Japanese video games is going to expose you to some aspect of Japanese culture. It might not be a broad aspect of it, and it’s certainly a culture that’s been put through a lens (and so if you want to draw any conclusions from this exposure, you’re going to have to take that lens into account) but to argue that video games are somehow utterly divorced from the culture that the developers came from (and thus, utterly divorced from the developers themselves) seems like a bankrupt argument with no merit behind it; you’re essentially arguing that the creation of a video game is an entirely mechanical process with no human creativity at all.<br><br>Your third question is essentially a followup to the second question, but flipped the other way. Again, I would argue that the answer is unequivocally yes; I think the games that American studios put out reflect, in some way, Western Culture; if somebody wanted to analyze Western culture based on our video game output, they could certainly do that (and they’d probably draw some interesting conclusions). Just like before, it requires learning how the lens of the media affects the message, and I’m certainly not aware of any scholarly departments that are trying to do this, but video games are a relatively young medium compared to something like Books or Film. In thirty years, I don’t think it’s at all unlikely that colleges will have classes on the cultural implications of Japanese Video games, or American video games. <br><br>re your fourth question:<br>man i don’t even know what separates a good shmup from the bad. the quality of the porn they show you when you complete a level? the prettiness of the patterns the bullets make? maybe euroshmups are missing that ~BURNING SAMURAI SPIRIT~<br>
<P>If it helps. . .<BR><BR>What I meant by the first question is that really the explosion of video games’ influence/popularity happened in the arcades and on the home consoles of the 80s and 90s . . .both of which, it could be argued, were dominated by Japanese companies.<BR><BR>So, having a medium that owed it’s massive growth and influence almost entirely to one nation/culture early on, can that influence still be felt today in the games being made now? And what exactly would constitute a Japanese ‘influence’ if there is one? <BR><BR>Had the video game boom of the last 3-4 decades been primarily dominated by the West, how might video games have developed differently?</P>
Sup scrubs u ready for saturday?!
So i assume everyone here has theirdustbowlrides and carpools set up?
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<P>Follow-up:<BR><BR>Original director of Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls stated that one of the reasons that those games feature such minimal plot exposition and emphasize exploration is due to his experience as a child in trying to read Western fairy tales with his own very limited understanding of English.</P>
<P>He had to dig very hard to figure out plots and in the instances where he could not understand at all, he would just imagine what would happen.<BR><BR>the Souls games are heavily influenced by Western Medieval fantasy, the Japanization of Western Medieval fantasy (ie Berserk), old PC dungeon crawlers/rogue-likes which are considered ‘West’ style games, and Western fairy tales.<BR><BR>However, the reason they are so well-made and so aesthetically well-realized is because of the Directors own unique reading and misreading of old European lore due to him being Japanese.</P>
<P>Misreading/misunderstanding as a form of cultural influence in game design/development?</P>
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<P>EDIT: MGS as a misreading of Western politics and militarization?</P>
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<div class=“QuoteText”><a href="/profile/65079/GarbageBear">GarbageBear</a> wrote: <a href="/discussion/comment/8011414#Comment_8011414" class=“QuoteLink”><span class=“ArrowLink”>»</span></a><br>
EDIT: MGS as a misreading of Western politics and militarization?<br></div>
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You’re thinking of Metal Wolf Chaos.
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<DIV class=QuoteAuthor><A href="/profile/68783/Linker">Linker</A> said:</DIV>
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<DIV class=QuoteText><A href="/profile/65079/GarbageBear">GarbageBear</A> wrote: <A class=QuoteLink href="/discussion/comment/8011414#Comment_8011414"><SPAN class=ArrowLink>»</SPAN></A><BR>EDIT: MGS as a misreading of Western politics and militarization?<BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>You’re thinking of Metal Wolf Chaos. </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>One thing they need in this new SRK Forumz<BR><BR>a ‘Horrified’ button.<BR><BR>. . .cuz that’s what your comment did to me.<BR></P>
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<div class=“QuoteAuthor”><a href="/profile/65079/GarbageBear">GarbageBear</a> said:</div>Misreading/misunderstanding as a form of cultural influence in game design/development?<div class=“QuoteText”>
<p>EDIT: MGS as a misreading of Western politics and militarization?</p></div>
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<br>When Ninja Theory made DmC they got their cultural influence from Futurama.<br>
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<div class=“QuoteText”><a href="/profile/65079/GarbageBear">GarbageBear</a> said:<p>One thing they need in this new SRK Forumz<br><br>a ‘Horrified’ button.<br><br>. . .cuz that’s what your comment did to me.<br></p></div>
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Nah, see, they were using missiles as a metaphor for lobbyists.<br>
Lol it always comes back to Demon Souls wutb Wasim
We’re all allowed at least one Kevin Bacon.
Beginning the Grand Summer Internship Search. Any of you cats looking for a software development intern this summer? Wasim, I remember I talked to you about it earlier; what’s your company’s name again?<br>