Ludogistics & The Irrational Thought Patterns Of A Great Many Things

Months ago, Warren Spector spoke of a Disney Game he was working on within Junction Point Studios. There was talk of something grand, something unique; perhaps even dipping into the fantasy realm of Steam-punk. On the second week of October, Epic Mickey was revealed...on the Nintendo Wii. And now this . Truly, I feel troubled that something epic may find its way exclusively on this console. Especially in light that the original plan was to make it, as it is said in circles dark and deep withing the industry, "Current Gen". Already, Vanillaware's Muramasa: The Demon Blade and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom have found a home solely on the Big N's platform, and this seems to be happening for financial reasons. The Wii has been the number one console on the market for a while now (besides Nintendo's other cashcow, the DS), and it is a sound business plan on the part of developpers and Nintendo to keep some titles exclusive. Yeah, I can roll with that. But why go from one v...

I've just realized Heroes don't really wish to win. They are not in it for the glory or for the First place prize. I'm talking about real heroes here. Superman and Batman type stuff. The guys and girls that don't take a bow after saving a kid, and the kind of people that feel even villains should have their little piece of paradise. That rather small epiphany comes as I am trying to write next week's radio show. We already did one about villains, in which Jim , Schmoo and I discussed how great bad guys make games worth playing; and how they have evolved over the years, becoming more complex and allowing game narrative to grow into Novel-league size. The natural thing was to proceed to the other end of the spectrum. Although don't take this literally...villains and heroes are RARELY at the ultimate opposing end of one simple spectrum: the grey zone is where awesomeness in "Good Guys Vs. Bad Guys" relationship really lives. All of this has very l...