Apples & Jewel-Encrusted Crowns

So I'm pretty ticked that Chrono Trigger won't be in the Smithsonian exhibit exploring the artistic significance of video games in popular culture. And that instead, A Link To The Past will be presented in its place... Even though Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, Wind Waker and the original NES Zelda will all be there as well.

I was afraid that Call of Duty fanboys would spam the votes in their favour, so I guess I should be grateful it didn't come to that. But we're talking about my favourite video game here. It doesn't mean what's going to be there when this exhibit happens will be bad, in fact it's a pretty swell lineup on display. I'm not saying people should have only voted for MY favourites instead of theirs. Dems the breaks, I get that. I can still be pissed off about it.

One suggestion for why this happened was supplied to me by a fellow at deviantArt:

Well, Earthbound really deserved a place, but I think ALTTP deserves the place over Chrono Trigger in the art department which was the judging point. CT is one of the best games of all time, but I do think ALTTP is better looking and was more of a break-through in graphics and art direction.

Arts In Media

The National Endowment for the Arts now recognizes "Interactive Media" as a potential recipient for a grant, among other things. If you're okay with it not making a profit, and if you think it will benefit the public from an artistic standpoint, you can now apply your game about those farting lesbian trolls or whatever horrible thing you're working on in your spare time.

Weirdo.

I imagine it will be a lot tougher to convince them that a video game application will be more deserving over say, short films, documentaries, songs, sculptures and all the rest of the other, more established fields. That said, here's a legally recognized institution acknowledging the artistic potential of video games.

I was going to end this post by saying "Eat that, Roger!", but um... he can't.


You win this round, Ebert. BUT I'LL BE BACK!

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~A.H.

Alphaland

Isn't it funny how the AAA games with the multi-million dollar pixel-buffer high-dynamic range-rendering bullshit have less to say than a game where you play as a blue rectangle?

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~A.H.

Art of Video Games Winners

It's a big list. Not a bad representation of the medium. I won't spoil the whole thing here, but here's what you need to know:

Better Late Than Never

I am amazed it's taken this long for a game developer to show the Humans vs. Orc conflict so common in fantasy settings from the Orc's perspective. Really, I thought we'd be there by the PSX era at least.

Also, Mass Effect 3's been delayed. Delays aren't the end of the world for me, unless it gets so ridiculous and out hand that it becomes a mark of shame in the industry(See: Duke Nukem Forever, Half-Life Episode 3). At the very least, it looks like Bioware might have learned a lesson from Dragon Age 2's one-year development cycle.

Maybe not THE lesson, but a lesson.

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~A.H.

Grizzly Slash

It seems "Closure" is a common theme today. Bin Laden's dead, and now we know why the bosses in Mega Man X5 were named after Guns 'N Roses members.(No, he didn't name them). An actress named Alyson Court was asked by her husband, who was apparently in charge of localizing the game, to name the 8 Mavericks. I think it's funny how the guy asked her to name those characters, then got mad at her when people didn't think it was so funny. Maybe that's why he's listed as her ex-husband.

Also, dudes, she was the main character in "Big Comfy Couch"! The Big Comfy Couch gal named the bosses of Mega Man X5!

This is the world I live in. I think I'll stick around for a while.

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~A.H.

Allied Star Police

Make-A-Wish and Popcap Games helped a 9-year old Leukemia patient accomplish more in his life than I have at 24. It probably doesn't help that by sheer coincidence I was listening to: "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" while watching it. ಥ_ಥ


But seriously though, games will turn us all into murderers and stuff lololololoololo

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~A.H.