Stand by your man

Welcome to the “Stand by Your Man” issue…

Stand by your man
And show the world you love him
Keep giving all the love you can
Stand by your man

From “Stand by your man” by Tammy Wynette

No, we haven’t suddenly taken a liking to Tammy Wynette here at No Prisoners, No Mercy. I only say “suddenly” because anyone who knows us knows that Fran doesn’t like country music at all and Julie only has a “hankering” for select songs.  The title as well as the lyrics of the song certainly fit today’s entry in our exploration of the virtual worlds of gaming.

First up on the list is a man you may or may not know – some may know him by his first name. That man is, or course, Dante Alighieri.  Mr. Alighieri is, of course, the much maligned and famous Italian poet of the late 13^th early/14^th centuries. I say “much maligned” of course, not because of his work “The Divine Comedy.”  No, rather I refer to Electronic Arts (EA) and their attempt to turn one third of it, the Inferno, into a hack and slash video game.  For a look at the game by someone who has actually laid eyes, and hands, on the game go over to Arstechnica.com and read Ben Kuchera’s review entitled “Poet, I beg you… give me strength: Dante’s Inferno demo” (available here) Our opinion of the game is, as our long time readers and listeners know,  is based on the pathetic way EA has marketed the game. It is nice to know that the game lives down to the reputation afforded by its marketing. Here is an excerpt:

“Turning the Divine Comedy into a hack-and-slash game feels almost like satire, and has given the game publicity it wouldn’t have enjoyed if the name were anything else. There is no subtlety on display here; we’re painting in some very broad strokes when it comes to converting the story into video game form. It’s time to kill some skeletons and save your topless girlfriend, bro.” – Ben Kuchera for Arstechnica.com

And if there were any room for doubt, consider the following from the same article:

“Dante doesn’t come up with a single original idea. As I said before, everything is executed well: the graphics are attractive, the animated cut scenes are depraved and eye-catching, and the controls are nice and tight. That just makes this a high class rip-off though, instead of a shoddy one.” – Ben Kuchera for Arstechnica.com

Next up…Tiger Woods

We will be the first to admit that no one here at No Prisoners No Mercy is a fan of golfing (although Julie has played a golfing game or two in her time). Still, the talk of the town these days seems to be Tiger Woods.  Now we are the first to admit that there are two sides to every story. However, as the talk around the water cooler gets louder and longer on the subject of  everyone’s favorite Tiger (aside from perhaps Tony the Tiger) we came upon an interesting article over at gamepolitics.com entitled “How much longer can EA stand by Tiger?” (available here)

National Editor for Forbes Magazine, Michael Ozanian, had this to say on his blog site (via Game Politics):

“Sponsors like Gillette and Electronic Arts are going to drop Tiger Woods regardless of what they are saying now. Near term, Tiger is done as a corporate pitchman. Fallout: companies that throw big money at athletes are going to do a lot of research on them to make sure they are not phony (or make risk-adverse decisions based on information they do have) and funnel their endorsement dough at popular athletes whose image will not blow up.” – Michael Oznian, “Tiger’s Troubles: The Winners” (Available here)

No matter what the future brings one thing is for certain, if Tiger Woods is no longer to be the pitchman for Electronic Arts his spot on the cover of the videogame box will take some big shoes (or in this case golf bag) to fill.

Next up…Dr. Richard Bartle

Now this part isn’t a matter of a pitchman that EA may not stand by, or a poet that EA may besmirch. This is simply about an interesting post over at Virtual Cultures entitled “Winter in Cyberspace” (available here)

While we found the comparison of “lag” to be the virtual equivalent of cyberspace weather, that is not what caught our eye.  Here is the paragraph to which we were drawn:

“We sometimes lament that cyberspace is not the wild, abstract mathematical, gravity-free landscape that Gibson envisioned when he first coined the term. Yet I believe that people need grounding, both literally and figuratively. The need a ground to stand on, an orienting horizon in the distance, something familiar to hold on to, even if “familiar” means imaginary creatures such as elves and orcs that have been absorbed into the collective imagination, or the physical and cultural properties of the “real world, such as gravity, weather, and Christmas!” -  “Gamegrrrl”

The reason this caught our eye is that it is one of the subjects we discussed with Dr. Richard Bartle when he was on our show.  (Parts of which, lamentably, never made the show due to the quality of the recording).  The “Gibson” referred to here is, of course, William Gibson, one of the favorite authors of our own Julie Whitefeather.

Since Dr. Bartle appeared on the show we have given a great deal of thought to what he said both on and off air. We wonder how much grounding those who populate the virtual and gaming worlds of the internet really do need?  Why, for example does “up” have to be “up”? There really is no need for it when creating virtual worlds, other than, as the article suggests, giving the human mind something to which it can relate.  Still, it brings us back to the same place we always reach when we contemplate the discussion we had with Dr. Bartle on the subject – if there are to be advances in the way virtual and gaming worlds are created we here at No Prisoners, No Mercy feel the place they are most likely to come from are the independent game development studios.

See you online,

The No Prisoners, No Mercy Team

SIDE NOTE: Heard and breakfast…