new tables

I'm not sure if I should avoid the consumer narrative that led me to the actions which I would like to describe. I've been playing a lot of simulated pinball on the Xbox 360 for about a year now. The tables come in packs of 4 and many are sold singly. I finally bought the older table pack today when it went on sale. I've played their trial versions for a while now, but I'm such a pinball fan at this point that I had to jump on the opportunity even though I'll have to borrow the $5 from December's gaming budget.
The tables I've played since January are a new breed. Zen studios has drawn their lines as to what physical qualities of the tables should be emulated, and what should be innovated upon due to the abilities of a videogame simulation. The tables are far too expensive to make in real life and feature animated toys, but for the most part, the game's mechanics are all based on what can be done to a steel ball on a wooden playfield. The difference in economic models from physical tables also has affected game design. These digital simulations of pinball don't become popular by quickly robbing your coins with casino-house advantages. The design intent seems to be to reward new players quickly with significant events that are obviously triggered by the player. The games are meant to be more empowering.
This older pack, however, contains most of the artifacts from the physical-inspirations. Thirsty outlanes, subtle game modes, and difficult targets dominate the experience. These are the things I have been able to notice from my 1 minute demo-versions. It wasn't until I purchased the tables and committed to learning them that I found their idiosyncratic pleasures.
Initially stubborn, Xtreme seems like a shallow playfield due to its obtusely divided playfield. Most shots seem to bump dud spots unsatisfactorily. This was really off-putting to me, especially because it felt that there wasn't much else to do but enter the upper playfield for brief moments of not nearing the drain. But when I was able to give it time in the full version I found that most of those seemingly useless targets initiate a trigger in a lower hole that begins the main mission type.
Xtreme is themed as a skater-culture table. A hip-hop synthesizer plays a track as dudes rap on it. The table is covered in a colorful graffitti theme and toys men take slack postures on the playfield which doubles as a doll-house skatepark. You as the player are an enthusiast of the skateboard and are testing your abilities in competitions. The main mode is initiated by shooting 7 basic, unsatisfying targets that spell "airwalk" Once you have "proven yourself" by nailing these basic shots, you can begin a competition my shooting the ball into an "entry ticket" hole. In a way, it feels that those initial target shots are a way to qualify for the competition. Once you have entered the competition, you are presented with a few lit ramps and are instructed to do the mandatory "tricks" in a limited amount of time, but to then embellish with a few additional shots of your choosing immediately afterword. This task seems so reflective of what I imagine a skate-competition would be like. I love the way Zen Studios expresses their chosen themes by painting the targets in context and then requiring a protocol of shots that seem to mimic the process which it represents. It's a neat perspective on both the them and on pinball itself.
The Zen tables are full of these kinds of inspired representations. It's so neat to me.

videogame movies

Now that I've seen Terminator 2, I realize what a good videogame movie is like. It's a matter of pacing and acrobatics.
Step Up 3 was such a great videogame movie. It follows predictable plot points and creates a set of assumptions that seem so positive and capable to me. It's a struggle to expalin what I mean by videogame movie. Simply put, I felt like I was playing a videogame as I watched that movie.
So maybe I should say "If you haven't played a deep videogame, you can watch Step Up 3 and see what it feels like" The 3-d might be necessary.

Maximize benefit

"efficiency" has a connotation of dry-mouthed banality;
"Maximize Reward" or "Maximize benefit" sounds more fun.

Maximize benefit by means of fun.

During the trip to Boston I handed out like 23 zines. It's possible that those people will read this; That layer of association is a bonus. The experience of handing out zines is definitely increasing my capability in social interaction and dissemination of my procedural rhetoric. Passing out zines in a hip city is just one new and exciting experience of which i want to maximize the benefit by having a good time.

I think I'd like to go ahead and start a list of recent experiences that I would like to maximize the benefit of through fun activities:
-walking around a moist thaw city and being amazed that people are always around.
-attempting to fathom the population density of Boston and the exponential complexity when I begin to think about the idiosyncratic lives of Boston's citizens.
-Considering how much more applicable modern art is in a city setting.
-Enthusiastically exploring the concepts and designs of a city which produces economic benefit and integrates with a mammalian ecosystem.
-Exploring the demand for arcades and possible satisfications of that demand.
-Accepting and understanding the influence of setting context when observing graffiti and other arts.
-Getting my city on.
-Loving a field of naturally occurring crudités.
-Making a videogame called "city-jogger" where you get multipliers for not stopping and you have to dodge pedestrians, avoid cars, time cross-walks, and the setting is super interesting. Fully crafted pedestrians that you can learn about and observe, but are encouraged not to do so with automated reward systems for speed and distance.
-Developing and disseminating my concepts of gamer community.

gysin speed

Life obsession can often appear as a death obsession. Thinking of the difference between them. Thinking of one necessitates thinking of the other.

Living people can manipulate and manifest things in the material realm. Dead people cannot. That is the main difference.

Though life often lasts long enough that one may become desensitized to the potential they may branch at any given circumstance, it is a timed level and limited.


This is an excerpt from an interview in Core Loop magazine (September 2010):

Douglas Quimmel: What were your reasons for basing the game off of the movie "naked lunch" rather than the book.

Curtis Booth: They are similar in name alone. The only reason we would have wanted to do a game based on the book would be because we wanted some sort of street cred with a non-existent literati player-base. The book just makes me feel bad. I haven't even read it, but I've seen enough to know that it is seeping evil. The movie however, was extremely inspirational. It had a certain paranoia that seems more like something I need to get through than something I am putting other people through needlessly. The confusion involved in communications with Interpol and Control are completely plastic, but don't seem baseless. As a game designer, I saw something programmable, but ambiguous enough for real imaginative engagement by the player who is subconsciously trying to make sense of it all. Plus I've always wanted to go to Morocco.

sweet music

I'm gonna start adding links to comments that I make on other blogs.
http://sexyvideogameland.blogspot.com/2009/09/music-sweet-music.html

accept them

 

mail came

extra leverage

initial high

inca dove