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Visiting the Village: Episode 2

Visiting the Village: Episode 2

We burst forth with show two!  Featuring The Rock, Ian calling someone an “idiot” and even more arguments about Change 4 Life.

Links for this episode:

Worlds.com suing various people – via Massively

Dark Forces Retrospective – via Eurogamer

The Big, Fat Question – via Eurogamer

Blu-ray forever! – via Joystiq

GTA Chinatown Wars review – via Eurogamer

How indie video games helped bridge the culture gap – via Gamasutra

Bob’s Game campaign was viral – via Destructoid

New Sega Megadrive – via CVG

Alpha Protocol Trailer – via Gametrailers

The Rock bashes Doom – via MTV

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 10:44 am and is filed under Podcast. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

11 Responses to “Visiting the Village: Episode 2”

  1. Shivoa:

    § March 18th, 2009 at 1:25 pm

    Can’t believe you didn’t like Videodrome. As I first watched it as a kid I can’t be that objective about it but I think it still kind of stands up as a cohesive narrative from both the perspective of a normal reality and one where Videodrome really exists (possibly even from the potential perspective of if Videodrome really does shape the world and not just the main character’s mind and the man/machine really happens). I still kinda enjoy the call to arms against video nasties and general TV over-consumption coming from something that is now generally scheduled for the over-consumers and fans of the more extreme visuals.

    On a Cronenberg follow-up recommendation I’d say check out Naked Lunch, which is a rather nice adaptation of the book by William S. Burroughs. It takes surprisingly little from the actual text and still comes up with something to get your teeth into without the painful metal bite of a normal tenuous adaptation of an original book.

  2. Paul:

    § March 18th, 2009 at 1:39 pm

    Heh, I actually really enjoyed it! That may not have come across when I was talking about it: I just don’t think I’d recommend it to a general audience. I think it stands up more as an episodic “nightmare” rather than as a more linear narrative – even if you looked at it quite literally I’d say that the motivations of the characters aren’t really that consistent and don’t make a great deal of sense. That doesn’t have to be a criticism at all, and it’s not, because the focus of the movie isn’t on characterisation. Obviously there’s a lot of visual fireworks which are awesome, and I do think there’s some content in there, but I certainly wouldn’t call it a profound movie. Again, not a criticism. I will definitely check out Naked Lunch at some point – another famous one that I haven’t seen yet.

  3. Wrongfire:

    § March 18th, 2009 at 5:59 pm

    Have to agree with Paul on the gaming thing, there’s no reason why I have to put up with my dad and step mom glaring at me when I play games because they receive very VERY negative news about gaming from various articles they read.

    They read articles that say “KILL KILLED A PERSON OVER GTA 4!” or something, that is absolutely biased in every way, makes no attempt to defend gaming, and doesn’t bring up the fact that if someone killed someone over a game, they are insane.
    They don’t say that, so people like my dad and step mom totally believe that gaming is a “Drug” and that It will make me go crazy one day.

    The general media loves to call out gaming, but why?
    I mean, games are just as much art as anything.
    In fact, I like to call it the ultimate form of art.
    It combines 2d art, 3d art, literary art, and musical art, AND makes it interactive.

    It deserves much more respect then its getting.

  4. Paul:

    § March 18th, 2009 at 6:15 pm

    Wrongfire, loads of people have tried to argue really elaborately about the games-as-art issue and you just said:

    “It combines 2d art, 3d art, literary art, and musical art, AND makes it interactive.”

    You’re completely right – there’s just no answer to that for the other side of that debate – just none.

    On the “unhealthy” issue:

    Obviously the industry has to own up to the problems it’s creating – lots of kids use gaming as an emotional crutch and as a surrogate for physical activity, both of which are wrong and equally damaging. The problem is that you’ll just alienate gamers and the games industry by taking an “anti-smoking” approach to campaigning. You’ll definitely alienate kids: yes, the campaign is targeted at parents, but kids will react by seeing ALL criticism of gaming as unreasonable, if 90% of criticism of gaming is…unreasonable.

  5. Wrongfire:

    § March 18th, 2009 at 6:41 pm

    Hmm I suppose, I dont see that here though, all of my gamer friends are all fit and pretty much in shape, usually working out twice a day and still play games.

    So I tend to forget, thats usually not how it is.
    and to some degree I can see where some people take that route, afterall when you take a real look at the world its pretty pathetic.. so you need a little time to pretend your somewhere less depressing. but I suppose people overdue it.

    Its all WoWs fault I say!
    I never saw the WoW craze, but most of my family did. I never really understood =/

    I got to level 30 and got sooo bored with it.
    But I know from WoW that people play games way to much.. Id see my family on close to all day sometimes..

  6. Paul:

    § March 18th, 2009 at 7:20 pm

    I think it’s best to blame most of society’s shortcomings on WOW.

  7. Xeno:

    § March 19th, 2009 at 1:29 am

    I agree, WoW is nothing special.

  8. Alex:

    § March 19th, 2009 at 10:12 am

    I wrote such a long reply and it all got lost because of not putting my email in. GRRR.

    KEY POINTS FROM MY DELETED POST:

    1) Ian’s opening gambit is delivered to a HIGH STANDARD.

    2) it’s sad that so much litigation surrounds areas of gaming that the law clearly doesn’t understand properly.

    3) Paul gets the ‘best person to talk about the rock ever’ award.

    4) Gaming needs differentiation by the press and even in its own press. Music and films don’t get a net respect. I mean, for instance, if you go to Cannes and say I love films with Japanese schoolgirls jumping in front of trains by the dozen, slow glam rock songs by what looks like a Japanese version of kiss, and subliminal pop music death impetus, then you’ll be sent home. TRUST ME. Okay I am talking about just ‘suicide circle’ there, but you know.

    Games vary wildly. I’d say much more widely than music or films. Different dimensions such as graphics, plot (if any), game play and even things like technological restrictions hit home much harder. Basically what I’m saying is OneChanabra’s bikini samurais don’t deserve the same respect as Mass Effect, and The Witcher cant be put on the same platform as the wii’s ATROCIOUS Target: Terror (http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/869/869335p1.html). I think until more specific focus is on what the consensus is on genres of games for instance, gaming wont get the push it deserves into cultural recognition. High art in gaming will always be dragged down by the quagmire of absurdity until people are considering it further than just ‘GAMES’.

  9. Paul:

    § March 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am

    @Xeno – the backlash begins…

    @Malakian –

    1.) He really sounded excited.

    2.) Gaming is just big business – I’m sure much weirder industries suffer from the same problems.

    3.) I’d like to thank my family.

    4.) I don’t really know what you’re talking about but I want to see / hear “suicide circle”.

    Yeah I do see the problem with a homogenised “GAMES”: it’s very difficult for people to process. I think Hardingham is leaning towards annexing casual games, for example, to their own corner of the map completely. Personally I just think we need ways of commenting on games that are more “boundary sensitive”, rather than putting up huge walls between genres. If that makes any sense whatsoever. Also, I’m pretty sure I’m agreeing with you.

  10. Alex:

    § March 19th, 2009 at 11:23 am

    I think it could seriously be a point of academic investigation. No really, I do.

  11. Ian:

    § March 19th, 2009 at 11:35 am

    I think in a lot of ways that’s why these “mini-experiences” like The Path, (Granny In) The Graveyard, and so on, could really help – non-gamers can be shown that gaming can be really about something else.