Welcome back! Summer is slowly crawling towards its inevitable heat death but we’re still here to bring you what’s what.
This week we look at how undervalued digital entertainment and products are when compared to more contemporary forms of media. Before I ramble on about how great I think Final Fantasy VI is, I present others who support my views on the game. Speaking of older games, what steps should we take to ensure the preservation of these games for future generations? This question is contextualized by Star Wars and the lack of preservation for the original releases of the films. And finally we look at The Last of Us and how much of a selfish bastard Joel is.
And as always, here’s to another good week. Cheers!
Amazon’s Twitch Acquisition Shows Games are Still Cultural Underachievers
I’ve previously mentioned that YouTube, Twitch, and the gaming industry as a whole is largely undervalued compared to their more traditional contemporary counterparts – TV, Movies, and Music. This is made even more evident by Amazon’s purchase of Twitch forroughly $1 billion, which at first seems like a fair price for an online streaming service. But when you get down to the number you’ll find that the number is lower than it should be. Twitch draws in more weekly viewers than most television stations, even more people watch Twitch than Game of Thrones and CNN.
YouTube draws in even more viewers, yet when you look at the money floating around for content creators and advertising it isn’t where it should be. Quality entertainment is coming from both services, but major financial institutions have yet to figure out how to properly monetizing it through advertising or if it is even worth it at all. PewDiePie – who sits at the top of the mountain – makes a whopping $4 million a year, and individual videos from this week have over 3 million views. Many networks would kill for those ratings on any of their shows.
However, the above average YouTuber – over one million hits a video – can barely pull in enough revenue to pay for rent, and it has only gotten worse since YouTube changed their revenue policies. Many have had to turn to voluntary Patreon, KickStarter, and a Subscription services to help raise the money necessary to bring the quality of content that they’ve been providing. Perhaps it would help if more mainstream people and press started to think of Twitch and YouTube as entertainment Networks like Netflix instead of online gaming services.
It is important to note that most online content is undervalued and many people don’t want to pay for content they consume regularly, this has led to a decline in quality of online publications (Kotaku, Huffington Post, etc.) as they struggle to raise revenue through clicks. This is one of the many issues we face as our economy transitions further into a digital one, and perhaps that is because the internet has created a culture of free content. Since the internet is basically unregulated when it comes to the distribution of intellectual property, it is easy to find outlets for free content that would otherwise cost you money.
And with what has happened over the last few weeks with internet hate, we have to ask ourselves as a culture: are we ready for the spotlight?
The most compelling Final Fantasy death isn’t the one everybody talks about
And he Sat laughing atop his Throne, Seemingly a god, The delicate balance had been Broken, precious Order crumbled, and all Hope vanished.
Final Fantasy VI is one of the rare monumental games that shifts expectations and perspectives of those who play them. It complexities have been lost and revisited over the years since it first was release in 1994, as videogames were undergoing a transition from cartage based games to the more powerful CD Rom based. And before Final Fantasy VII introduced RPGs to a larger audience on the PlayStation, Final Fantasy VI on the SNES broke new grounds and laid the foundation for complexity in the ways we tell stories in games.
Everyone has their own personal experiences with VI that they hold dear, and as the game is filled with so many memorable moments it is often that two friends will not have the same cherished memories. From the Opera House to the Final Battle thegame continues to be analyzed. Its large and complex cast of characters explored as they faced the living god Kefka, the destroyer of order and breaker of the world.
Final Fantasy VI pulls a bait and switch with the main villain, and while Kefka is definitely one of the bad guys, he is originally thought of as a lesser pawn in the larger plans of Emperor Gestahl. This narrative device is common place now in games, but back then it surprised a lot of players when Kefka destroyed the world and the game continued for another 15 hours. To me, Kefka is the ultimate Final Fantasy villain and since then the franchise has been chasing his shadow ever since.
I always love hearing about other people’s experience with a game that I consider to be one of the best ever made. John Teti’s experiences with Shadow and his death are a great read on this long holiday weekend.
The Star Wars George Lucas Doesn’t Want You To See
People take their Star Wars seriously, and for almost 20 years there has been a concentrated effort to prevent you from watching the movie. No, instead you’ve been forced to watch an elaborate forgery that looks almost like the real thing, but you can see the flaws when you get close to it. Its true as it is almost next to impossible to find a legal copy of the original 1977 theatrical release version. In fact, the National Film Registry does not even have a copy as George Lucas refused to authorize the release of the original versions.
Leave it to the internet to find a way as fans have congregated to online forums and websites to share and preserve what few copies are left, and they are even making a new “De-specialized” version of the films. But these films will exist in a legal grey area and with Disney now the legal owner of the original films it is left to them to decide the future. The academy and film history recognize the original 1977 release as one of the most iconic films in history, yet there is no public preservation of these works. This could leave future generations to never experience the original films the same way they can watch Casablanca or Citizen Kane.
As the videogame industry ages, we should be asking questions about historic preservation. Sure it is easy with physical copies of games, but the older ones are hard to come by and expensive when found. Sure many games have been ported to the digital market, and that is fine as it stands. But what if these digital marketplaces are shut down? Where will these games go?
Furthermore, games like World of Warcraft have evolved dramatically over time, and as it stands there is no legal way to experience the original release of World of Warcraft. Games like the original Star Wars MMO have had their servers completely shut off to never be seen again. That is sad in its own way, as many people have fond memories of these and many more.
What do you think? Should there be a National Games Registry to preserve these games for future generations?
Save the Girl, Save the World
Uh, Spoilers or something
The ending of The Last of Us is different for a lot of people, as they interpret the events surrounding Ellie’s rescue differently. As the credits rolled I sat there in disbelief as at that moment I knew how horrible my actions were. I could have put the controller down to stop it, but I didn’t and I kept on killing. I was selfish, and I couldn’t lose another one. Not again, not this time. So I pulled the triggers and killed those innocent people to satisfy my own desires, and go against the will of Ellie.
Even before she asked what happened, she knew. It was then that she died on the inside and I could see it on her face, and I knew then too. I finally realized what everyone had been saying during the game, that Joel was the monster. One to be feared more than the spore infected creatures that lurked in the basements of our forgotten cities.
I couldn’t sleep that night, and it lingered with me for days as I thought about what I had done over the entire game; the horrible acts of violence and selfishness. Joel isn’t a person; he’s just something that is trying to survive for no other reason than to survive. By all rights he should have killed himself a long time ago, but he lingered for one reason or another; hurting those around him.
The experiences of The Last of Us felt much like my time with Spec Ops: The Line, as both critique player agency and actions in regards to violence in videogames. Spec Ops: The Line was famously dissected in Killing is Harmless, a fantastic book about the genre of military shooters and violence.
How did you react to the ending of The Last of Us? If you were given the choice over Ellies life, which one would you choose knowing her wishes? Virginia Roby’s interpretation is a great read, and it puts perspective on someone who originally sided with Joel but has since realized how horrible he is.
Visual Stimulation
Why Games Are The New R&D
Why Most Games Tell Bad Stories
EpicNameBro – Bloodborne Gamescom Demo Analysis
Comment Hate – Mag Fest 12 Panel – “Don’t Read the Comments”
Extra Study Material
The Feminist Frequency’s Anita Sarkeesian’s latest video has gone viral, and in the wake of the Zoe Quinn events of the last few weeks it too has been met with internet hostilities. Here are two interesting reads that should help shed some perspective light on the topic, and that it’s not all about clamping down on male gamers fun. “Stop ruining my escapist fantasies, Sarkeesian haters” and “Anita Sarkeesian’s Latest Video is Important and a Must Watch”
Science is ever evolving, and new discoveries (or the lack there of) have forced us to take a critical look at some of our model theories about the way the Universe works. Inform yourself, “Radical New Theory Could Kill the Multiverse Hypothesis”
I love Don’t Starve, and what better way to starve to death than with friends? There is a new free expansion coming for the PC version next month that adds a multiplayer element to what was originally a solitary experience. “Don’t Starve Together is for people who ‘just want to watch their friends burn”
A humorous look at what a potential shortage of my family would be like, in “The Kale Diaries.”
Brian Kale
@brianwkale
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