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Roundtable Discussion: Pushing the Envelope on Sex and Nudity

Relatively recently Grand Theft Auto news made waves by showing a full frontal male nudity scene. Now, this is hardly the first time a human being, male or female, has been shown nekkid in a game. You can at least go back as far as the reprehensible Custer's Revenge for the Atari to find a digital representation of male genitals. The question is, do we really need this sort of thing in a video game?

Posted Mar 20 2009, 04:30 PM by Amber Ahlborn with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: sex, amber ahlborn, cole stryker, joe keiser, roundtable discussion, nudity

Roundtable Discussion: Genre Design Evolution

Roundtable Discussion takes the intrepid 61FPS blogging team and pits it against itself in the search for deeper truth. The moderator for today is Derrick Sanskrit.

Hey kids, I think it's time for another roundtable chat. I've actually been wanting to ask this of you guys for a few weeks now, because I've noticed that lately I've been playing a lot of games I never would have even considered playing as a kid. Am I alone in this or are we all doing it?

What sorts of games are you playing now that you didn't play during what I assume was the glorious childhood heyday of gaming we all experienced? What sorts of games did you play then that you don't now? Have our tastes changed or have we merely opened/closed ourselves to certain experiences? What is fundamentally different about how these games are made now and how has overall design changed over time, affecting us as game consumers?

I know that's a bit of a loaded series of questions, so I'll kick things off.

I pretty much never played racing games as a kid. As a lifelong urban New Yorker, I never romanticized the concept of driving a car and have veered away from it for as long as I've been able. My college roommates pressured me into playing Gran Turismo, but it was Need For Speed Underground that made me a convert.

Posted Mar 09 2009, 09:00 AM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 2 comment(s)

Filed under: derrick sanskrit, need for speed, shmup, cole stryker, bioware, burnout paradise, joe keiser, guilty gear, roundtable discussion, design, genre

Roundtable Discussion: The Relevance of Japanese RPGs

Roundtable Discussion takes the intrepid 61FPS blogging team and pits it against itself in the search for deeper truth. The moderator for today is Bob Mackey.

This week’s conversation deals with the mythical and possibly endangered beast known as the Japanese RPG. The genre really seems to be suffering during this generation, for two major reasons: 1.) escalating development costs due to the new necessity of high-polygon, HD resources and 2.) developers’ inability to combat the most damning problems of the genre. Over the past few years, we’ve seen quite a few JRPGs hitting the shelves that feel half-finished at best; and even when a fully-realized JRPG comes along, I worry that the absolutely abysmal pacing the genre is infamous for will end up sucking all the fun out of what could be a fantastic game. To start us off, I have two basic questions: 1.) What does the genre need to do to become interesting again, and 2.) what do you think it will do?

On a side note, the only RPGs I’ve been interested in lately have been ports of remakes of classics. Is this a sign that the genre is becoming antiquated and only accessible to those (admittedly, quite a few at this point) with an understanding of its unique grammar?

Posted Feb 13 2009, 03:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 9 comment(s)

Filed under: john constantine, final fantasy, rpg, japan, chrono trigger, cole stryker, square-enix, dragon quest, square, jrpg, bob mackey, mother, squaresoft, joe keiser, roundtable discussion

Facts and Figures: Why Do Gamers Care So Much about Sales Charts?

I got to thinking today about why gamers keep such a close eye on sales figures. In a completely unscientific experiment, I determined that Kotaku dedicated just under 200 posts last month to sales figures. Comments for these posts generally range from 50-100, so obviously some people care about sales figures enough to argue about them in an online forum.

We at 61FPS haven't made much of an effort to keep our readers updated on sales figures, as there are plenty of other places that do. We are men and women of overwhelming spiritual integrity. As John argued in December, there is a time to talk about sales, when astronomical numbers threaten to bring about tectonic shifts in the industry. But for the most part, why are people so hung up on sales figures?

I think part of it is laziness. On a slow news day, NPD numbers allow bloggers to phone in a quick and easy post that requires almost no creative input and is guaranteed to piss a few people off. A quick copy and paste job does the trick. I think this is especially true when bloggers resort to regional sales figures. Why do most readers care about how Gears of War 2 is doing in England? If I were English I don't think this would particularly interest me anyway.

Posted Feb 05 2009, 11:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 5 comment(s)

Filed under: kotaku, npd, cole stryker, de blob, sales, gears of war 2, roundtable discussion, fanboys

Roundtable Discussion: Where is the Handheld Version of Console Wars?

Roundtable Discussion takes the intrepid 61FPS blogging team and pits it against itself in the search for deeper truth. The moderator for today is Joe Keiser.

Towards the end of the last roundtable, the topic swerved off-course into a discussion of the existence or nonexistence of handheld wars. I thought that the fact that question came up was interesting, because no matter how you parse it handheld fanboy battles seem to lack the vigor of their console cousins.

Which brings us to the question: do people have less of an emotional attachment to their portable systems compared to their TV-tethered ones? A different kind of emotional investment? Why do you think this could (or could not) be the case?

Posted Jan 30 2009, 03:00 PM by Joe Keiser with | with no comments

Filed under: game boy, derrick sanskrit, amber ahlborn, cole stryker, iphone, bob mackey, nintendo 64, joe keiser, roundtable discussion, pokemon stadium

Roundtable Discussion: The Fandom Phenomenon Part 3

Continued from Part 2...

Posted Jan 23 2009, 03:30 PM by Amber Ahlborn with | with no comments

Filed under: derrick sanskrit, amber ahlborn, cole stryker, fandom, bob mackey, nadia oxford, John constaninte, roundtable discussion

Roundtable Discussion: The Fandom Phenomenon Part 2

Continued from Part 1...

Posted Jan 23 2009, 03:00 PM by Amber Ahlborn with | with no comments

Filed under: derrick sanskrit, amber ahlborn, cole stryker, fandom, bob mackey, nadia oxford, John constaninte, roundtable discussion

Roundtable Discussion: The Fandom Phenomenon Part 1

Have you ever been a fan girl/boy? I certainly used to be a Nintendo fangirl during the 16-bit era but steadily grew out of such blind loyalties as I aged and picked up other game consoles. I do remember casting the occasional disparaging remark at Sega and yet I also used to play a friend's Genesis on occasion and he was always wanting to rent RPGs for my SNES. Naturally I felt I had the superior system and recommended he trade in his Genesis for one, but Sega directed insults aside, I don't recall tearing into him personally for his choice. Is fandom viciousness worse today than it ever was in the past? Ben Dutka at PSX Extreme, in an article he posted last month, seems to think hating has steadily been on the rise and fans have been raging with greater than ever intensity. Such tribalistic behavior has been an interest to me for a while now, but rather than dive into this topic alone, I thought I'd invite the rest of the 61 FPS crew to come along for the ride.

Welcome to what I hope will be the first in an on running series of roundtable discussions, where I and my fellow bloggers will take turns presenting all manner of game related subjects, from the serious to the silly, and examine their whys and wherefores. Join us today for a look at the phenomenon of fandom and whether or not we think such favoritism is pulling fans down into the dark side of fanaticism.

Posted Jan 23 2009, 01:00 PM by Amber Ahlborn with | with no comments

Filed under: derrick sanskrit, amber ahlborn, cole stryker, fandom, bob mackey, nadia oxford, joe keiser, John constaninte, roundtable discussion

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.