Favorite Video Game Antagonist

            I have not been posting nearly enough this year and I want to steer back from that.  To that end I have found a 30-day blog challenge and will be writing out entries, hopefully I can get all thirty days without any breaks, and if I manage to do that (since August has 31 days) I will think of an additional entry to write about.  I have done a 30-day challenge before, it for movies, but that was a while back, feel free to read those too if you like.

            Today is day 7 and the topic is “Favorite Video Game Antagonist”.

            I still feel unnerved hearing the voice of this character because in many ways it is the best example of bad research, toward a bad end, and without regard for those the research is done upon.

            “This was a triumph,” the voice said.  “I’m making a note here: Huge Success.”  Generally considered to be the biggest surprise hit and instant classic so far this century (not just in games, but I would argue fiction in general) “Portal” is the story of a young woman in a testing facility sent thru a series of tests to measure the effectiveness of a new gun that manipulates wormholes, but all the observation areas are empty, and the cold voice over the intercom is obviously that of a computer with a tenuous grip on how to speak to humans, only the promise of cake as a reward for surviving the gamut of deadly tests is what it offers in motivation.  And if there is anything you know from being on the internet it is this fucking meme: The Cake is a Lie.

I prefer savory dishes anyway.

            That voice is GLaDOS a giant supercomputer left in charge of the testing facility after some hinted at but never fully illuminated incident.  The manufacturing facilities at its disposal allow for the creation and placement of turrets, missile launchers, and neuro toxins.  GLaDOS’ nature is left more ambiguous until the second game, and while it does offer some more fleshing out of the insane and the evil business that led to the creation of such a device, I do not feel those explanations do anything to diminish the machine’s menace.  A bad beginning doesn’t make horrifying conduct toward your victims any less horrifying.

            Deeper than just the story, is the metaphor of what she represents, she is creating a game with the goal to kill the player thru endless trials, she is making the video game you are playing.  You are playing a game that HATES YOU.  And that is hilarious.

This game started out as a princess fleeing a demon.

            GLaDOS makes it onto a lot of lists on line and was #1 on two of the lists I found.  “Portal” is a game that managed to win the lottery for having a unique and amazing game mechanic in the portals themselves.  It had visual personality.  It had humor.  And it had GLaDOS as the antagonist.  It is a must play game.  If I were not already talking about it so much hear I would have put the game under the “A Game Everyone Should Play” blog entry coming later this month.  If you haven’t played it, keep in mind it is inexpensive on Steam, you can play thru the whole thing in about 4-6 hours, and if you like it the sequel is much larger in the range of 20-30 hours and has more of everything the first had to offer.

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Future of Video Games

            I would like to make a prediction right now about the future of one of my favorite hobbies, Video Games.  The next gaming system, be it the Playstation 4, Xbox 720, or the Super Wii Cube Virtual Revolution, will be as different from the current disk utilizing and motion control tom-foolery as the current generation is from the Cartridge utilizing systems of years long forgotten.

            My prediction is this: Video Game consoles will stop using game disks.  No more having to go to Game Stop, Best Buy, or Wal Mart to pick up the latest title, they will all be streamed to a large hard drive found in the system utilizing the Web connection you have.  This will give you what you want more or less on demand.  The game companies will sell new hard drives, but really they won't have to.  You will have an online account which will keep track of what games you have purchased and if you ever delete a game from your hard drive for space you can just download it again at any time from the internet, you essentially will be purchasing the right to play a game at any point you wish, forever.

            What in the world makes me say such a ridiculous portent?  Many things, not the least of which being that it already exists and is insanely profitable, efficient, and well liked by gamers all over the world.

            Currently there are services that do this very thing, and you have used them recently to rub yourself off with the pleasurable thoughts of nostalgia, and to add on fresh content to a title that was of particular interest to you.

            The Playstation network allows you access to movies, news, international multiplayer, and more importantly, downloadable content that takes the form of classic games and extra levels, weapons, maps, and just pointless bullshit like clothing all without having to leave your chair to get a new game disk.  Wii has the virtual store, again a source of news, multiplayer (which is balls), and classic games.  XBLA is the best of them as they get you to pay them for the pleasure of playing "Halo" against racist fat kids in Michigan, while downloading classic games.  All of them allow you to download independent titles that showcase new game mechanics, art styles, stories, and other risky ventures that major studios wouldn't put out for fear of loosing money.

            And forget those titans of industry, lets look at Gametap, the Netflix of games, allowing you to stream titles for a monthly fee, which is fucking awesome, at least in theory, my internet connection couldn't handle it I'm sure.  And there is also Onlive, the new system which much like a cable box allows access to games on demand using their own library.  And there is the mach daddy of services, "Steam" which is produced by Valve, makers of "Left 4 Dead", "Portal", and "Half-Life"; Steam has allowed the company to become the go to in online content acquisition for the PC, and I wouldn't be surprised if Valve did the reverse of Sega and moved into Hardware production, creating a system just for the utilization of the Steam network.

            Also, World of Warcraft, and the entire MMO style of play.  Or if you are really interested in throwing out internet related content, lets look at the huge number of flash games on Newgrounds.com, or the staggering number of bullshit available in any given ap-store for tiny little touch screens.  Oh, and Farmville.

            Why in the world would these companies do this?  Abandoning a business model that is tried and true?  Simple: they are getting screwed over by the retail system, and the used game marketplace.  Currently Gamestop is of the practice of buying back games and selling them at a discount, none of that second sale money goes back to the holders of the IP's, none of the coders, none of the development teams, none of the companies who made the games see any of that money.  Gamestop is making a killing as a fucking pawn shop, and none of that money is going toward the creation of new IP's and game technology.  The worst part, Walmart and Best Buy are planning on opening up a used game market themselves, using their superior store placement and technological culture to steal away Gamestop's customers (assuming of course that Best Buy just doesn't buy out Gamestop and use them as the front for this circle jerk).

            The only way to keep money flowing to companies like Double Fine, Bioware, Valve, and Bethesda, the real producers of what we want, is to cut out the retail companies altogether.  And they should.  Retail companies produce nothing, they fence the goods produced by others with a mark up, and pay employees very little.  They are fostering a dystopian future of a Libertarian ideal gone mad.

            I personally do not buy used games.  And in general I dissuade others from buying them.  Other people tell me that a used copy is cheaper but just as good, but fail to realize that it would be cheaper still if we just bought stuff direct from the creators rather than through a middle man who currently offers less and less.  I dream of a world in which we can buy things instantly, play them, and go back to working on creating things for others to instantly buy, be it entertaining junk, food, or clothes, or anything, rather than living in a world where we are all paid tiny amounts working shitty retail jobs, and have to buy used and repacked stuff because it is the only thing we can afford.