As I promised in my last post, this is the post I mentioned regarding some debates I've been having with professors and students at UAT in regards to some of our game ideas and the weak points of the ESRB. In particular, this involves the AO rating, but I'm getting ahead of myself here.

As many of my older readers probably know, I'm attending UAT with the goal of getting a design job in the game industry one day. I have made detailed design documents for some of my numerous ideas. This includes TONS of brainstorming and random ideas I've written down regarding the extensive lore of a mature fantasy series I would like to see adapted into a long-running game franchise one day. I'm starting to ramble, but the basic idea is that our professors encourage us to share such lore and documents with them and other students to debate and discuss design concepts with.

There is one thing that continually gets in the way of my fantasy lore: The ESRB. To be perfectly blunt, there is just no way in HELL any of these games could get away with anything below an AO rating in their current form. I would be fine with this personally; much of the lore I've written is most certainly NOT aimed at kids. It is a mature fantasy series aimed at adult gamers; children have no business playing it. Frankly, I feel that we are at the point where there is a significantly large enough audience of gamers over 18 that a high budget, well-designed AO game (And by AO I don't mean Japanese schoolgirl tentacle rape sim) can still do very well without access to the under 17 audience.

The problem is that the AO rating is effectively a ban. We might as well just drop the rating altogether because there is pretty much NO WAY to sell AO games outside of a dedicated website. Consoles won't allow it. Retailers won't stock it. Even digital distribution services won't touch it. To developers everywhere, I must say this:

Shame on you.

People in the industry rant all day and night about how games are NOT mere "toys" and are instead relevant forms of interactive entertainment. If this is the case, then WHY are we shunning the rating geared specifically towards adults? Because it normally relates to porn? Well, newsflash: The ESRB is so inconsistent that non-pornographic games sometimes get smacked with the AO rating. Remember Manhunt 2? Besides, what is actually wrong with porn games? We always try to compare our medium to film, but one of the biggest differences is that filmmakers aren't shy about exploring sexuality, or even making porn in the form of straight-to-DVD movies. Sure, most might find it distasteful, but it is a perfectly legitimate form of entertainment with a large potential audience.

One thing that we as an industry need to do to help overcome the "games are toys" stigma is to more aggressively support our AO rating. Porn games aren't the only games that occasionally get slapped with an AO rating, after all. If we better support our AO and, to a lesser extent, M, ratings, and better rationalize them then we can finally prove to the ignorant masses that games ARE. NOT. JUST. FOR. KIDS! There are games for kids, teens, and adults, and people need to realize this. The fact that there is absolutely no support whatsoever for the AO rating is just further helping the argument that games are only for kids or teens.

Some final notes. For one, I bet many of you are curious about just what in my lore could be worthy of an AO. Yes, I do intend on exploring sexuality (Of both the hetero and homo varieties) to a much greater extent in the games set in this fantasy setting, and not as simple titillation like so many other games. Many games that explore sex do it solely as titillation and nothing more. In reality, sex is a natural, important and deep part of the human experience, and I don't think game designers are using sex nearly to the potential they could to make realistic and meaningful relationships and characters.

One example is using sex as a means of further develop a character's personality. It is my belief that HOW a person approaches sex or their preferences on the subject can say a lot about their character.

Likewise, for another example, the vampires in my series are...well...a far cry from your Twilight sparkly pre-teen magnets. In my lore, vampires are more like an allegory for rape (Not quite original but fresh in this day and age...). When you think about it, vampires ARE akin to a sexual predator, and as such the vampires I have written about are more "sexualized," and not in the "OMIGOD HUNKY GUY!!" way of Twilight. My vampire characters are much...creepier...than your typical vampire in pop culture, acting more like a deranged rapist than those...things...in Twilight. With bisexual tendencies, just because they weren't creepy enough.

On a less creepy subject, the various faeries, nature spirits, dryads, etc. and some of the more "primal" races like centaurs, satyrs, and so on. I really want them to appear completely nude, as I have them written in the lore. No, it isn't out of some sort of "lol boobies" logic either. It is because I think it enhances their natural beauty and helps emphasis the fact that they are "natural" beings. When you think about it, why would a forest spirit run around with clothes? The Greeks and other cultures used this simple yet elegant technique in their art of nature spirits, and I think it does a lot to enhance the concept that they are creatures of nature.

But then that all backfires because, in America, there is no such thing as "non-sexual," "artistic," or "nudity for the sake of beauty." It is always some dirty, sinful, ugly, sexual thing. -_-

So, I've been neglecting my blog and tracked blogs lately, mostly out of lack of time. Finals for one of my classes were last week, plus MW2 came out last Tuesday. I'm finally starting to slow down a bit on MW2...I actually haven't played it in two days. Guess I sorta burned myself out on it, but I'm about to go play again.

I haven't read anything in over a week because I want to finish The Black Company before I start anything else. The third omnibus is on my Christmas list, so I can't go buy that, and the fourth omnibus doesn't come out until early next year. As a result I've been forcing myself to slowly work my way through the second omnibus, however tempting it might be to read into the early hours of the morning.

Me and my friends hate my cousin. The bastard seems to have the damnedest luck when opening packs for any game with random boosters. He pulled one of the "loot" cards in his first pack of the World of Warcraft card game. (Quick explanation: The "loot" cards are super rare cards that have a scratch off code on them that gives you special and unique in-game items for WoW).

Almost every time he opens a Magic booster it contains either stuff he wants/needs or valuable cards that can be sold for a nice chunk of cash. And now that he is into Monsterpocalypse he seems to be pulling ONLY the monsters and units he needs to play his faction of choice, the Planet Eaters. Or valuable units everyone else is more than willing to trade for. Bastard. Of the two monster boosters I've opened, one contained a monster I already had TWO (Thus making it useless to me because you can only use one of the same monster at a time and this particular faction isn't overly popular among the group I play with) of via trades and starter sets and the other was for a faction I neither want to play nor can I use because it isn't a faction that is "allied" with my factions of choice. It is like he never gets junk rares!!

In non-geek terms, my cousin is a lucky little **** when it comes to collectable card/miniature games.

I have something else I'll blog about later on this week. It involves some debates we have been having in my classes while discussing some of our game ideas and the weak points of the ESRB.

Finally, a real WTF moment from a few weeks back. It is a perfect example of why you should never make ignorant, baseless accusations because it just makes you look like a fantastic ass.

Me and a bunch of friends all went to see The Men Who Stare at Goats the night it came out. Me and three of the guys went to get the drinks and snacks after we picked out seats while the girls held the seats for us. We were in the line chatting when a woman of around her mid-40s came up to us and spat at our feet before going on a long, aimless, and nonsensical rant about how "our kind is bringing about the downfall of society" and that "our kind is the reason why God is going to destroy the world in 2012" and how "she is glad that she didn't bring her children because we are a disgusting and horrible influence on their pure and innocent minds." My friends and I (And everyone else in the vicinity) were all staring at the woman with completely dumbfounded faces. What the bollocks is this woman going on about? We honestly didn't know. One of my friends asked her what in the Nine Hells she was rambling about and she responded with "Don't act all innocent you fa****s. God hates f**s and you're all going to Hell, especially since there are four of you in a single relationship!"

How this woman jumped to the conclusion that the four of us were homosexual swingers I'll never know, but with the sort of timing that only happens once in a blue moon one of my friends got a text. He loudly proclaimed "Oh, sorry, that was our girlfriends. They are wondering why we are taking so long getting the snacks." The woman gets all red and huffy and yells "Well, I still say you are all ****ING FA****S that deserve to BURN IN HELL for your sinful sexual perversion!" before storming off.

Faith in humanity is now further into the negatives.

First, I just HAVE to make a snarky comment about this little gem recently said by a spokesman for Activision:

"In [calendar year] 2010, Activision Publishing is expected to release strong, innovative new titles," Activision Publishing president Mike Griffith told analysts. "The diversified lineup will include titles based on the best selling franchises including Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, Shrek, [and] Spider-Man."

"Innovative new titles?" "Diverse lineup?" Have the people working at Activision become delusional to the point of retardation? How is releasing new titles in your two most saturated franchises, indeed two of the ONLY franchises you EVER support anymore, and some crappy half-hearted movie tie-ins either innovative or diverse? The next Guitar Hero games will be EXACTLY like EVERY SINGLE GAME ever made in the franchise: A new collection of random songs that should be a ****ing DLC pack released as a brand new $60 game. Likewise the next Call of Duty is going to be made by Treyarch, which means it will be nothing more than a $60 mod of MW2 reskinned into a new setting.

Ugh...It seems like every time someone from Activision opens their mouth they say something that is a total wallbanger.

Now, the point of this post. It is a rant involving Magic: The Gathering. If you don't know anything about Magic, chances are you won't understand anything beyond this point.

So when I got back into Magic about a month ago I sold off some of the more valuable rares I don't use to get some extra cash to buy boosters from the newer sets I missed. One card was Dark Depths, a nonbasic land from Coldsnap. I never cared for the set; I bought a single fat pack from it and ended up pulling the only cards that I really cared about getting in those first few boosters, so I never bought anything else from the set.

Anyway, Dark Depths is one of those cards that is awesome in a flashy yet totally useless sort of way. It is a land that produces no mana. It's only purpose is that it can summon an uber-powerful creature, but it takes a crapton of mana and turns, to the point that 9.9 out of 10 games the battle will be over by the time you finally actually summon the creature. See, the land comes into play with 10 ice counters on it, and it takes 3 generic mana to remove just one counter. When there are no more counters on the land, you sacrifice it and get a massive 20/20 legendary Avatar that is indestructible and has flying. But, it takes 30 mana to actually summon it.

I always thought it was an awesome, albeit completely useless card. I decided to sell my only copy at the local hobby shop for $7 (It was only worth about $10 at the most at the time).

Well...A bit over a week ago some genius at a tournament used a combo to summon the 20/20 avatar for no mana and as early as turn THREE. He did this by using the Vampire Hexmage, an uncommon new card that came out in the most recent set. By using the Hexmage's sacrifice ability he can remove all of Dark Depths' ice counters and get the creature it summons for basically free. Or, if you count the Hexmage's mana cost, for only two black.

Suddenly, demand for Dark Depths has SKYROCKETED. The hobby shop owner ended up selling my very copy of Dark Depths for $60. The days following this combo surfacing on the Internet the card was selling for HUNDREDS on eBay. Things are slowing down now, but you can still find the card going for $25-$50 on eBay.

Had I just waited a few more weeks I could have sold this card for A LOT more money! DAMMIT!! gnu53netbye5ntrnrtj46nebhghr45uy3nhebhtehnjrsmjntbhebhtnetjem5netbh I HATE it when junk rares I've gotten rid of for a low price suddenly become a LOT more useful and worth tons of money because of a new set!

Now...I'm waiting for the set that suddenly makes the king of junk rares, One With Nothing, worth craploads of cash. I pulled FIVE of that bastard when I collected Saviors!