How Can A Game Be Subversive?

What makes for a subversive game? Borut Pfeifer tackles the question with aplomb over at GameSetWatch, looking at games from Portal to Blacksite: Area 51 to establish the various ways in which games currently convey 'subversive' messages of many stripes:

Is the "insincere choice" (telling the player they have no choice while they actually do) the best means we have to present a subversive message? If we are locked into a rule system by the nature of the game's code we can never change the system, what would be the ultimate extent in this regard? Making a game that allows the players to create their own rules, would almost seem to devolve very quickly into art-piece.

The resulting experience might have something profound to say about the abstract notions of games as a subversive medium, but would it lack enough direction/focus to be captivating in the slightest, and therefore possibly unable to be profound or meaningful to an individual?

I don't really look towards my games for 'subversive' material (having plenty of daring literature bumping around my shelves, sometimes I just want to get away), but Pfeifer provides some food for thought on how a variety games get their point across.

How Can A Game Be Subversive? [GameSetWatch]

Aussie University *Really* Loves Portal

Microsoft Rejected Portal For XBLA

I'd love to sell Portal on Xbox live. [But] the platform holders aren't doing that right now. There's a size limit and all kinds of other things.

Do We Need Boutique Developers?

Michael Abbott has another little thought provoking post over at the Brainy Gamer on whether or not we need 'boutique' developers — just like the heavies of the film industry have divisions that deal in 'boutique' titles:

Portal is a boutique studio project. Valve could have made it bigger, longer, and splashier and unveiled it as their NEXT BIG IP. Or they could have simply bought the team and plowed all those great ideas into the next edition of Half-Life. Instead, they made a game that was just the size it needed to be with just the amount of attention it required.

We need more boutique developers. I believe there is a vital market for such games and an enthusiastic community of gamers hungry for such experiences. Not every game requires a 3-year $100 million development and marketing effort. And there's something to be said for allowing gamers to discover a game and push it forward ourselves. This was a big part of Portal's success, in my view, packed as it was into The Orange Box with much bigger and more recognizable titles.

I'd venture a 'yes, that would be nice'; the question is, would more studios be willing to follow the Orange Box path?

Do we need boutique developers? [The Brainy Gamer]

I swear to God, that's what this looks like. See, Kirby, that pinkish blob in the middle, vaguely phocomelic appendages, with smiling eyes ... and what looks like three members of The Last Family around him. That's a Kirby-Robotron mashup.

Or it's a cake for reader Blue Cheez's birthday, and his friends were too self conscious to provide the Safeway with art samples, so they did the decoration themselves Lifeinthefridge sent the photo of the yummy-looking carrot cake, describing it as a "combination of Olimar & pikmin (Brawl) and Portal," but admitting the visuals didn't go very well.

Either way, I want a slice. But only if it's 100 percent lard icing.

[Thanks to Lifeinthefridge!]

In typical Valve tradition, it won't be Portal with different colours. I think that when you hit something like that, you have two choices: you can quickly replicate it and stick it out there - do the opportunistic thing and cash in on it; or you can do the crazy thing like we did after Half-Life was so successful and go off and try and say, 'Okay, that was revolutionary, so its successor has to be equally as revolutionary.

Egg Contest Winner

The GlaDOS Cosplay Video Endurance Challenge

How long can you tolerate this monologue without cringing or fast forwarding? I lasted about 8 seconds before my by-proxy embarrassment got the better of me. That's better than my mechanical bull record! Okay, without the crusty old curmudgeon attitude, this is some solid Portal cosplay, with some fantastic touches. Gotta give kudos for the ability to lug a massive cake around a convention hall all day, too. Anyone seen better pics from SakuraCon 2008 that might show this off better?

Thanks for the tip, Rebecca!

Is there more to the design of Portal's end-game boss GlaDOS than previously thought? Game-ism weighs in with its own spoiler-filled theory on why the loopy and sentient computer puts protagonist Chell through such an intense series of tasks in order to ultimately reach her; that is, to kill her, freeing her from her literal and figurative bondage as Aperture Science's maniacal mainframe. It's a fascinating hypothesis that's worth a look, if not only for the sadomasochistic fan-art that accompanies it.

Given Valve's propensity for abstracting the typical storytelling structure out of the game experience, it wouldn't surprise us one bit if GlaDOS were conditioning Chell as a sort of suicide machine. Thoughts?

Still Alive? She's Free. [Game-Ism]

Portal's Power: A Narrative Critique

Emily Short, the interactive fiction designer/author, has an interesting look at Portal's story from the perspective of someone who does IF. I always like reading critiques from people who are engaged in the 'gaming' world, though perhaps not in the way we're expecting. It's a thoughtful look at what went right, what went wrong, and maybe why people were so excited about it:

... What we get is maybe a story that's not so much the standard cliché about an AI that gets out of control, but instead about the idea that any AI created would necessarily be emotionally broken, because it would be constructed with killswitches, designed to be disposable, or at least crippled so that it could not threaten the more important human life. If the AI had any urge towards friendship or companionship, that urge would be stifled and perverted by the fact that those around it have absolved themselves ("ethicists agree...") in advance for killing it if necessary.

That's a sad and interesting story, but Portal stops short of completely telling it

She also critiques some aspects of gameplay. It's another take on a game we all know about from a different perspective.

Still Alive [Emily Short's Interactive Fiction]

No this isn't an early April Fool's joke. Harmonix, MTV Games and Valve have teamed up to release Portal endsong Still Alive on Rock Band tomorrow for free. That's free for the Xbox 360 and free for the Playstation 3.

"While the cake may be a lie, the free download of "Still Alive" is confirmed truth," said Greg LoPiccolo, VP of product development at Harmonix. "'Still Alive' is an awesome song that brings together great gaming and great music. We've teamed up with Valve to deliver a free download of "Still Alive" as a "thank you" to our fans for their incredible support."

"Rock Band has lit the industry on fire by opening a new market for cooperative musical gaming," said Doug Lombardi, VP of marketing at Valve. "We're delighted Harmonix has selected the track for inclusion in the growing library of tracks available for this phenomenal title."

With the suspicious timing I actually emailed the publisher's back just to make sure they weren't pulling a fast one, but they say it's 100 percent true.

Can't wait to play it again.

Portal-Themed DS Is Case Of Wrong System, Right Idea

Shorter Games Are The New Black

They're constantly referring at Valve to people who really think a lot about games and play games, and many of my adult friends never, ever finish games anymore. Like, they don't finish them. We just thought it would be nice to have a game where, if you play it, you probably will finish it, unless you just don't like it.

The "Moe" Portal Companion Cutie

The Weighted Companion Cube is not supposed to make people cry, but it most certainly did back in late December, when Valve's official plushies sold out within 24 hours of going on sale. We did not hate Valve for this. We were patient. We bided our time. Oh the biding we have done! Now said biding has paid off, as a fresh shipment of Weighted Companion Cubes have shown up at Valve's store, both in plushie and fuzzy dice formats. Both are available for $29.95, and both will more than likely be sold out within days, if not sooner. Aperture Science takes no responsibility for customers trampled to death in the ensuing rush.

The Valve Store [Valve - Thanks Everyone!]