Infinite Lives

Exploring the value of games-as-iconography in art, literature, and popular culture

I am not telling you this to depress you: I really like watching Numb3rs on Friday nights. Maybe you already knew that—I know I’ve mentioned it before—but here is my real secret. Every once in a while, I actually like to stay parked on the sofa and also catch the latest episode of Ghost Whisperer, starring Jennifer Love Hewitt. As the Ghost Whisperer, Hewitt helps ghosts confront their loose ends before the transition to the afterlife. The television show is perfectly sincere and humorlessly campy, a spectacular cross between Medium and Touched by an Angel.

Reasons to watch episodes of Ghost Whisperer with any interest whatsoever: Jay Mohr is good; there’s an amazing episode with Nikki Cox; I’m trying to think of one more reason to edit in, but I can’t. And for the first couple seasons, every scene was shot strategically so that Hewitt’s hips were never visible (there’s a drinking game in there somewhere).

But set your Tivos for this Friday’s October 17 episode, “Ghost in the Machine”!

In reading various synopses, I have gleaned that a “ghost” is luring girls to a gaming “social networking website”. The trouble all starts when the main character checks out “Virtual Life” on the computer and a ghost “avatar” flies out of the monitor. Later, during another visit to “Virtual Life,” the main character’s “avatar” gets into a physical fight with the ghost’s “avatar.” The main character begins her investigation, and she meets someone named Ned on “Virtual Life” to “play DDR.”

I cannot wait for this episode. I especially like the supernaturally-tinged Dateline plot, designed to confirm everything my mom believes about the internet. It all reminds me of the time I begged my friend, whose own mom was the head writer for a popular daytime soap opera, to tell someone to rewrite a script that boasted a “hacking into an email” “using a Virus” subplot.

If you enjoy “Ghost in the Machine,” you might also like other movies with similar horror themes of “help! The game is too real!” I recommend How to Make a Monster, Stay Alive, and St. John’s Wort, all of which are piss-poor. Then, of course, there’s always Emilio Estevez’s fine turn in the “Bishop of Battle” segment in 1983’s Nightmares.

Any other Halloween suggestions?

I thought we struck a deal, here, you guys. I’d periodically mention that Defcon is the greatest game ever made, and then when the time came, we’d all pick up copies of Multiwinia. Right? So why aren’t you playing Multiwinia?

Perhaps you are waiting for Darwinia+ to be released for XBLA later this year (edit: sometime next year)? Understandable! Perhaps you don’t have a PC to play Multiwinia on? I’m right there with you, cowboy. But maybe—no offense—you didn’t know the game had come out?

Kieron over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun chanced upon Chris Delay’s lengthy missive over at the Introversion forums. A big part of the problem, Delay notes, is a profound lack of coverage:

It’s been three weeks since we launched Multiwinia, and today Metacritic shows four reviews (the minimum required for a metacritic average) for the first time since game launch. By comparison, Defcon had nearly thirty metacritic reviews within a week of launch. Of the reviews we have arranged with websites and magazines, less than 20% of them have been published at this time. One british games magazine has declined to review Multiwinia at all—ever.

With that said, I made this hip and attention-getting banner. Do with it as you will.

The Multiwinia demo is available as a free PC download, here. Tell your friends!

• Rock, Paper, Shotgun – Introversion Speak Out: Play Our Bloody Demo
• Introversion Forums – Save Multiwinia

As of Monday, October 13, the 2008 Nobel prizewinners have all been named! I was surprised and delighted when, tonight, as I skimmed the Nobel Foundation’s official website, I spied an entire category dedicated to flash games. Totaling 16 in all, each game has been designed to both edutain and infotate (Sorry, Ray).

The subjects of chemistry, physics, medicine, literature, and peace offer three games each. There is also one game currently listed under “economics,” intended to teach the fundamentals of national and international trade. In playing the Lord of the Flies game, I realized that—despite its being my favorite allegory when I was 14—I was only able to match the character Piggy to his eyeglasses. Sigh.

• Nobelprize.org – Educational Games: Recommended Games

8-Bit Art Found in Philly at the Northstar Bar

Cross Stitch Joystick, by John Freeborn

Garden of 8-Bit Delights, by Vox Anon

Every Time You Emulate, Doc Remixes a Meme, by Doctor Popular

...but I just couldn’t help myself.

(Your politics may vary.)

• Current – Candidates as…

Yesterday, GamePolitics pointed to an interesting blog-rant titled “Department of Bad Ideas: Teaching reading through video games,” written by one Miss Self-Important. (That’s her nom de blogge, by the way—no one is being snarky here.)

What follows is just one brick in the wall MSI posted yesterday:

So this brings us to video games as a means of encouraging reading. There is no logical connection between these two activities—in my experience, the only activity that video game playing encourages is more video game playing. This is not inherently evil (just mostly), but neither is it going to achieve the stated end. But! also! “some educational experts suggest that video games still stimulate reading in blogs and strategy guides for players.” And nothings instills lifelong literary habits like video game strategy guides. ... Again, I have to wonder—how excited should we about every line of text a child reads? Is it an achievement that a child can establish basic communication with his peers, which is essentially what a message board allows, and which is completely different from understanding literature? Are food labels the next big literary thing?

So I read this, and instinctively, I think this woman is kidding. After all, she wears glasses. Also, she identifies as a Chicagoan who now lives in a new city. Her punctuation is so Lewis Carroll. She is obviously very likable. She also belies, in her blogroll sidebar, an interest in casual gaming—how can I not assume that we are cut from the same cloth?

Moreover, she notes elsewhere that, just this September, she was reading Children’s Literature: A Reader’s History. Why, this summer, I was reading a different history of children’s literature, Minders of Make-Believe (thanks, Seth)! So while I would ordinarily pay this blog entry no further thought, I am, instead, helplessly furious.

I underscore MSI’s interest in children’s lit because, in her rant, she hints at having a broader suspicion of edutainment on the whole: she isn’t just skeptical of software targeted at youth, but also at mainstream children’s books and, I can only assume, various other media. And this is so frustrating, because we share a real interest—how best to cultivate children’s literacy and enthusiasm for learning—but, clearly, we approach this from completely opposing vantages.

Rather than deconstructing this blogger’s argument (which I assume she wrote for her own writerly satisfaction, and not to engage the entire GamePolitics readership), I will simply confront it with:

My Favorite Software and Edutainment Titles That Promote Literacy

Storybook Weaver (MECC, 1992)

It’s a computer game in which you seldom read, only write.

Maybe this is a strange place to begin a list about literacy, but alas, Storybook Weaver is the first game I played on our very first family computer. To be fair, this ‘game’ was nothing more than blank pages to type into, along with an enormous catalogue of clip art. But the clip art was populated with archetypes from folk- and fairy- tales, ready to be graphically remixed, mashed up, and ultimately, written about. Storybook Weaver was like magnetic poetry for elementary school kids. This was perhaps, in my quest to write the Great American Novel, my most prodigious era.

This summer, my friend Chris and I went, along with our friend A.J., to Video Games New York. I browsed the glass case full of Virtual Boy games, then beelined to the counter to ask, in a breathy stage whisper, “Hey, hi. Do you have that Japanese Virtual Boy game? The first-person shooter that is based on Lovecraft? The one where you shoot fish-people?” No, they did not have that game.

Of this event, my friend Chris writes,

I immediately called bullshit on her, since things that awesome just don’t exist, ever.

Then I googled it.

Turns out she was totally not making it up. It’s called “Insmouse no Yakata” (Innsmouth Mansion) and was a first person shooter.

So now you know: the legend is true. The ill-fated Virtual Boy did, indeed, have exactly one 3D first-person shooter, and it took place in Innsmouth, and in it, you actually shot freaky fish people. Except for the time I insisted Mary Tyler Moore had briefly served in the Senate, I have never lost a bet.

Chris found Insmouse no Yakata’s entry at Planet Virtual Boy, here. In addition to a review, they’ve got plenty of screen captures, and even a couple videos, which are available for download.

I filched one of said downloadables and, since none of us may ever pony up the US$80 Insmouse goes for, I have embedded two whole minutes of spoilers, below:

I really want to buy and play this game. For $10.

• Bohemian Gamer – Who Says There are No Good Lovecraft Games?
• Planet Virtual Boy – Insmouse no Yakata game overview

I get the feeling TGS is probably about to happen, because a disproportionate number of people I know are suddenly in Japan.

I am a total sucker for photoblogs, and Chris Kohler’s Tokyo blog does not disappoint. Below, I’ve pasted the photo that made me laugh like a 10-year old. In it, Chris—ordinarily an upstanding citizen—is poking a giant Game Boy, which itself is clearly labeled “Do Not Touch” and “Do Not Photograph.”

I love the sense of extremely restrained defiance this photo imparts.

• Game Life – Dear Akihabara: You’re Doing It Wrong

So what’s up with this Cave Story thing for WiiWare? Didn’t Patrick Klepek call it his #1 Nintendo Fall Summit game pick?

Here is almost everything you need to know: Cave Story is a freeware, “Metroidvania” -style platformer. It’s been out for awhile, so you don’t have to wait to play it (ahem). The original PC version has been ported to Mac, to Linux, and perhaps most notably, to PSP. One guy lovingly translated Cave Story into English for the rest of us. People really like Cave Story.

As for its development for Wii, why, everything you want to know about Cave Story is over at Tiny Cartridge:

• The Cave Story port is being developed by Nicalis, Inc.
• Word in the grapevine is, Cave Story for Wii will probably use the very English translation you remember from the freeware game’s language patch
• Cave Story for Wii features all new musical arrangements by Yann van der Cruyssen
• Cave Story’s official site is now live!

Now you are all caught up. With these talking points, you can discuss Cave Story with your friends like a pro!

...if you live here in the Bay Area, I mean. And I totally understand if you’re busy. But if you are anywhere near the Haight on Saturday night, you could pop on by Giant Robot—the one here in San Francisco, not the hip LA one—and check out art by heavy-hitting art bigwigs (David Horvath) and unsung heroes (Martin Cendreda). I mean, only if you’re up for it.

• GRSF