Episode 60 - Indie Game Stand

Do you love games? What about indie games? What about paying what you want for fantastic indie games? Well we've got the site for you!

 

This week, we chat with Matt Cangialosi and Mike Gnade with Indie Game Stand. Every four days the Indie Game Stand offers a new game and you pay what you want for four days. Listen to the episode to hear more about their community and the dynamic indie game market.

We'd love to hear your feedback about the show. Leave your comments here, follow us on Twitter, or "Like" us on Facebook. Keep an eye out for some free codes from Indie Game Stand!

Until next time, game on!

Regina & Rhonda 

Episode 60

Episode 58 - LARPers Brandes and Rabbit

Before I get to the write up for this week's episode, I'd just like to take a moment and send some positive thoughts to the people of Boston. The bombings after the Boston Marathon were horrific. If you are able, please consider donating blood in your city. Find a Red Cross center near you. 

RabbitBrandes

This week we interview married gamers, LARPers, and game industry vets Brandes and Rabbit. They share some really fantastic stories of acceptance and engagement from their LARPing community. To learn more about the LARPs they participate in, check out Rule of 3 Productions, the game they run, Dust to Dust, and Eclipse. Brandes and Rabbit are also active bloggers so make sure to checkout their articles as well. 

Make sure to follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page! 

Until next time, game on!

Regina & Rhonda

Episode 58

Violence as a Game's Promotional Prop: Shocking Novelty or Repulsive Exploitation?

Dead Island Riptide - This box is pretty tame compared to the Zombie Bait Edition.I like horror driven games a lot. Resident Evil 4 and Dead Space 2 are two of my favorites, and the terror is a big factor. I can handle the massive gore, I can deal with the barrels of blood being spilt. However, I've never been keen on promotional materials that cross the line into violent sensationalism. For example, this piece (violent acts follow! The squeamish should not click!). I got this "lovely" render of hero Leon S. Kennedy being ripped apart by one of the chainsaw maniacs in the game on a poster with the Resident Evil 4 strategy guide. Needless to say, I was disturbed by it greatly. Why would I want a massive shot of Leon being cut in twine by Dr. Salvatore (maniac's name) tacked to my wall? I don't want that to actually happen in the game! That's counter-intuitive! Not to mention gross!

With that in mind, seeing the UK Dead Island Riptide "Zombie Bait" edition (pictured at this link, which, again, is NSFW and violent) caused a similar yet more chilling reaction. For those wondering what the issue is without wishing to click, it is of a decapitated, dismembered bust of a woman in a Union Jack bikini top that is included as the key gimmick of the package. It is apparently meant to be a "satire" of the Venus De Milo statue, and from what I've read and seen in screenshots, it's quite in line with the bloodletting shenanigans that occur within the world of Dead Island. I haven't played the first, so this article will go off of my reactions to the bust itself.

I don't believe you play DIR as a woman in a bikini; from what I saw, the playable women are not clothed in revealing swimwear and, for all I know, could be rather good designs (although Purma, one of the two women, had a "Feminist Whore" bonus that was mistakenly left in the code for the first game; the developer and publisher were adamant that it was one particular person who created the sexist definition. Make of that what you will). So one may never have the Leon dilemma I posited above ever occur in Dead Island Riptide. Still, it comes across as rather crass and tasteless to me to give out imaginary corpses as promotional items, particularly ones rendered like this. Now, I'd have similar reservations if they had a nude male torso (or Speedo-covered crotch, to make it a more apt comparison) versus a female's barely covered one, too. I will quickly admit that I think that the deliberate choice to use one of the bikini-wearing women for the bust is sexist; I have seen other female zombies wearing more clothes than that in the game's screens. This bust, simply put, is a faceless set of boobs minus any identification or personality. Those were literally cut away, leaving the piece with a macabre aesthetic. Also, said breasts noticeably lack any bit of damage or blood, which is highly suspect. What other purpose could this bust serve beyond misogynic exploitation?

Ultimately, though, it's the principle of the thing. It's a gore-soaked showcase of human flesh (no matter the sex or gender) that has been torn apart and chewed up; the end results of which are exquisitely rendered in plastic meant to showcase in a collection of gaming memorabilia. In fact, Deep Silver wanted it to be a "striking conversation piece" according to Eurogamer. However, what's most surprising about this whole situation is how Deep Silver handled it. They unleashed their announcement, sat briefly on their laurels (save dev member Maurice Tan, who felt compelled to add more fuel to the fire by using a crude euphemism for a penis in regards to the sex of the bust in a poor attempt at lightening the mood), and then issued an apology within 24 hours. Yep. Here's the official line:

A statement on the Zombie Bait Edition:

We deeply apologize for any offense caused by the Dead Island Riptide “Zombie Bait Edition”, the collector’s edition announced for Europe and Australia. Like many gaming companies, Deep Silver has many offices in different countries, which is why sometimes different versions of Collector’s Editions come into being for North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

For the limited run of the Zombie Bait Edition for Europe and Australia, a decision was made to include a gruesome statue of a zombie torso, which was cut up like many of our fans had done to the undead enemies in the original Dead Island.

We sincerely regret this choice. We are collecting feedback continuously from the Dead Island community, as well as the international gaming community at large, for ongoing internal meetings with Deep Silver's entire international team today. For now, we want to reiterate to the community, fans and industry how deeply sorry we are, and that we are committed to making sure this will never happen again.

Key things to take away from this: 1) No reference to the statue's cancelation and/or replacement, 2) No gender or sex pronouns relating to the "zombie torso", 3) This sort of thing will never happen again. But this one will! To that end, they did succeed at creating some conversation, I suppose. I am compelled to ask Deep Silver, why this? Why not a figure or bust of one of the cast members? Why not a diorama of a pivotal scene in the game? Why would you select a headless, armless pair of breasts so viscerally depicted?

Just to be clear, I'm not calling for censorship or anything. I think this is an appalling and absolutely terrible idea that managed to be manufactured. However, it made it this far; Deep Silver ought to just embrace their poor decision making and run with it. Their apology was remarkably half-hearted and didn't really address anything at all beyond a very pale attempt of an appeal to not judge them too harshly. Now is not the time to wallow in self-pity and ask for forgiveness. That time has passed. This morbid thing exists; now live up to it.

So, to sum up, this horrific concept of over-the-top, offensively violent depiction is most certainly not for me. If EA issued a Dead Space 3 CE with Isaac's torso issued in a similar fashion, I wouldn't buy it. And I really LIKE that series. It's just too much, and it's another footnote in the continuing saga of over-the-top violence driving our industry. Utilizing such imagery, even in a game dripping with blood and guts, in such an exploitative fashion to market a product just feels wrong to me.

I will now turn the microphone to you. What do you think of Dead Island Riptide's zombie bust, or any other promotional materials relying heavily on violence and gore as pieces of household decoration? Am I overreacting? Let me know in the comments!

Heartache, Heartbreak: The PR Disaster Of Ni no Kuni

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the Angry FanbaseBefore starting, I do not intend to consistently talk about recent events in my articles here at Game on Girl, as much as this and my forthcoming article seem to suggest. I've just felt inspired (and in this case, as it directly relates to me, frustrated) about the industry's ineptness as of late.

Anyway! This is a personal tale, one that chronicles my attempt to own Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch's Wizard's Edition. As you may presume by my word choice, I am one of the many unfortunate people who lost out on getting their copy of the CE, although the reasoning varies from most others. Let's begin in September of last year. It is the 3rd of that month, and I am perusing some gaming site somewhere. I had forgotten all about the Wizard's Edition, the Ninostarter campaign, and had anticipated picking up the game's standard printing sometime in 2013. However, I spotted that Namco had extended the pre-order date for their CE until September 3rd in order to allow more people a chance to add a second gift, a Wizard's Coin, to the goodies being offered. At the time, I imagined that I would have the $100 or so needed to purchase the game in Christmas and Birthday money by the 22nd of January, so I placed an order for it. Afterwards I noticed that the order would be fulfilled by Digital River. Even then, I had heard little praise for DR. Still, I felt like it would be impossible to have my order messed up; I could even send the package to my PO Box! Nowhere did I see an indicator that such an act would end up forfeiting my CE, much less holding up my order. Other sites tell you that PO Boxes are unacceptable if they don't want to deal with UPS or FedEx delivering items to the Post Office; why wouldn't Namco?

When January finally rolled around, I was getting excited. You see, I am a massive Ghibli fan. In America, Studio Ghibli releases tend to come out with little fanfare, so I was thrilled about being able to finally own something of note! However, the 22nd went by and I received no notice from Namco. The 23rd was similarly silent. I profusely checked my e-mail, my order status at Namco's page (which is very unhelpful), and GameFAQs' boards to see what was going on. The news wasn't welcome. Digital River had mistakenly opened up additional pre-orders the preceding week, which led to immense disappointment for those fans hoping to get a late crack at the CE. In the wake of that mix-up, the company had to sort through and decipher the shipment history for each order. The extra orders must have created significant chaos, because it took many people two more days to be informed of the status of their order. However, that wasn't the worst of it. People were getting orders canceled for a myriad of reasons beyond the mix-up. Some Ebay client in Canada ended up with over 200 copies of the CE to scalp at ridiculous prices (supposedly). Many news outlets were jumping on the reporting bandwagon, and Namco had mostly stayed mum on the matter, only stating that a $20 ClubNamco voucher would be offered to those who had their orders canceled. It wasn't pretty.

As the 24th concluded, I decided I should see what was going on with mine. I e-mailed Digital River wondering what the status of my order was. Perhaps I should have kept my mouth shut. That evening, I am informed that my shipping address is invalid, and that my order has been canceled. Here's the exact response I received:

Thank you for your purchase of NAMCO BANDAI's Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch™ - Wizard's Edition. Regretfully, we must inform you that the shipping address you entered was invalid. As a result, we were unable to fulfill your order. You will receive an official order cancellation notice within 24-48 hours. If you purchased by using PayPal, rest assured you will receive a full refund. Please expect it to appear in your account within 5-7 days.
 
While we can't replace your order for the Wizard's Edition, we hope that you will accept this one-time-use coupon code for $20 off (valid through March 31, 2013) on any item from clubNAMCO. Please feel free to shop today for one of your favorite NAMCO BANDAI games or pre-order Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 3. We are confident your next experience
with us will be a good one.

I was, in the Maya sense, defeated. I was not very happy, nor was my wife. I e-mailed Namco:

I have received your e-mail in regards to my Ni no Kuni order # (blank). It is a little hard for me to believe that I was not informed that my shipping address would be considered invalid until today, and that my order will be cancelled because of that. I found no notification on your website upon placing my order that PO Boxes would not be acceptable shipping locations. I find that instead of asking me for a revised address you would instead cancel my order as incredibly unprofessional and would like to hope that, if I provide you with a street address in this e-mail, that you will reconsider shipping my order. If at all possible, please ship my order to:
 
(my address)
 
If this is impossible, I am gravely disappointed and will no longer make purchases from you or from your distributor. I will take the $120 or so that you could be making from completing my order (which I expect to be refunded to me if my order is to stay cancelled) and spend it elsewhere at places capable of fulfilling what I would imagine was a simple transaction. I hope you will reconsider and ship me what originally was a treat to myself for my 30th birthday.

To which they replied:

Thank you for contacting the Namco Bandai US Online Store.
 
Digital River would like to express our sincere apologies for the problems that you had ordering NAMCO BANDAI’s Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch™ – Wizard’s Edition. Your order was cancelled because we were unable to ship to the address provided.
 
Unfortunately we are unable to replace your order at this time. Since you were one of the first people to place your pre-order with us, we have taken down your information and will be contacting you back if we are able to locate additional stock to complete your purchase.
 
As an apology, we will also be sending you a $20 off coupon good through March 31, 2013 for any item at the online store. This will come in a separate email and if you do not receive it in the next 24-48 hours, please check your junk and spam folders.

Sincerely,

Jessica W.
Namco Bandai US Online Store
Customer Service
namcobandai.en.cs@digitalriver.com

I have received said coupon, and Namco's statement Friday that fans who lost out on the Wizard's Edition will also net a strategy guide does provide more solace, but I do feel that I have been cheated. The order history STILL shows my order is in processing, although I have not been charged. I have yet to hear about the strategy guide offer, although I do have my address corrected in their system, so perhaps I may actually get the damn thing now.

What gets me is the sudden dearth of Wizard's Editions. Namco wanted any and all intrigued fans to order, which would drive up the Ni no Kuni Ninostarter to get more gifts. The remarkable disappearance of stock available is really irritating, considering that some people who ordered last week DID get a copy. Of course, now I'm in limbo waiting to hear from Digital River if they magically found a copy to send my way, which I do not anticipate, but the possibility is still there! So, I can't go and spend my money elsewhere until I get some clarity.

The sad thing is, I have pretty much lost my interest in Ni no Kuni. It was a game I had high hopes and a lot of excitement for, but now I don't know if I really care anymore. This whole experience left me apathetic about something I really, REALLY wanted to play. That's what hurts most.

You've heard my tragic tale; have you had similar experiences with online shopping? Were you affected by this fiasco? Let us know what you think in the comments!

The Baffling Conundrum about Women on Game Boxes

Bioshock Infinite: Aiming for Bros

Last month saw an interesting controversy for two different box art reveals. One was for Bioshock Infinite, the third game in the franchise and the first to leave the world of Rapture behind for a new locale, the skybound city of Columbia. For those who are not in the know, the game stars two characters; Booker DeWitt, a former Pendleton agent, and Elizabeth, a young woman who has been held against her will in Columbia for twelve years. Both are vital components to the plot, yet only one makes it to the front of the box. According to Ken Levine, creative director at Irrational Games, this decision was made to attract "frat boys" ignorant of the franchise. The prior two games, featuring Big Daddies and Little Sisters, the two most recognizable enemies from Rapture prominently on their boxes, failed to accomplish that task. Levine goes on to state that this box is not for the fanbase; he knows that they will be automatically intrigued by the latest chapter. However, the key thing to note is that DeWitt alone serves this purpose. Elizabeth is relegated to the back of the box, as a means to further entice an unknowing bro into giving it a shot, next to the the flying city and an example of the game's bestiary. In short, she is downplayed into secondary status. Levine explains the box's philosophy as such:

“We had to make that tradeoff in terms of where we were spending our marketing dollars. By the time you get to the store, or see an ad, the Bioshock fan knows about the game. The money we’re spending on PR, the conversations with games journalists — that’s for the fans. For the people who aren’t informed, that’s who the box art is for.”

Of course, not everyone sees it that way. The Last of Us: Aiming for EqualityNaughty Dog, for instance, has had to fight against Sony's marketing teams for their interpretation for creative vision. The Last of Us, the team's latest game, also stars two characters, one male and one female; Joel, a hardened survivor of the fungal infection that has ravaged the planet, and Ellie, a 14-year-old who has been safely confined to a quarantined zone until the events of the game begin. Looking at the box, you see both of these characters boldly at the front, with Ellie taking the foreground. Unlike Bioshock Infinite, which felt compelled to strip its female lead Elizabeth from the front, Naughty Dog wants gamers to know about Ellie and how important she is to the overall image the game is pushing. According to lead writer and creative director Neil Druckmann:

“I believe there’s a misconception that if you put a girl or a woman on the cover, the game will sell less. I know I’ve been in discussions where we’ve been asked to push Ellie to the back and everyone at Naughty Dog just flat-out refused.”

Levine did not mention this apparent stigma about women in his reasoning, but I have a feeling Take 2's marketing team argued this point and managed to convince the team at Irrational to put Elizabeth on the back, to the detriment of us gamers in moving closer towards equality among the sexes. Perhaps if more publishers took a stand and put women (and I do not mean scantily clad fanservice-driven women) on their covers, perhaps the tables would turn and these claims that women on boxes translate to poor sales would crumble to dust.

I have an example of such a situation! XSEED Games released Mistwalker's The Last Story last July, and it turned out to be the company's most successful title to date. This is astounding, because it was released on the Wii, a console that was truly on its way out by the time the game was released. Also, the game was released on a system that generally lacked the depth of the genre that would have provided a strong fanbase eager to add another title to their collection. One could argue that the influence of fangroup Operation Rainfall aided the game's cause significantly, or that its director, Final Fantasy alum Hironobu Sakaguchi, had an impact. One thing is for certain, though; the game's special edition box and standard edition cover featured heroine Calista:

Now, granted, RPG fans are quite different from FPS/action fans in terms of what they seek out from marketing materials. Still, that shouldn't mean that women can't play a role in selling a game, especially if she's integral to the story the game is trying to tell.