{"id":58248,"date":"2018-10-29T04:49:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T04:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/news\/329514"},"modified":"2018-10-29T04:49:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T04:49:00","slug":"video-game-deep-cuts-killing-sims-redeeming-deus-exs-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2018\/10\/29\/video-game-deep-cuts-killing-sims-redeeming-deus-exs-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"Video Game Deep Cuts: Killing Sims, Redeeming Deus Ex’s Tools"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra\u0092s community.
The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company. <\/small><\/i><\/strong> <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"[Video Game Deep Cuts is\u00a0a weekly newsletter<\/a>\u00a0from video game industry ‘watcher’\u00a0Simon Carless<\/a>\u00a0(GDC, Gamasutra co-runner), rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend.<\/em><\/p>\n

This week’s highlights include a morbid\u00a0piece on killing in-game characters in The Sims series, a plethora of writing around the launch of Red Dead Redemption 2, and an interview on\u00a0the tools used to make the classic Deus Ex, among many others.<\/p>\n

Well, that was a week – with a certain little cowboy game launching, and a whole bunch of discussion around its size, realism, and the human toil that went into completing it. I know that the creators of the Westworld reboot have said that the original Red Dead Redemption was\u00a0an inspiration for the new series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But it seems like RDR2 has almost as many ethical quandaries around it as an actual\u00a0robot-filled theme park? (And I can’t believe nobody has compared The Man In Black to the Housers on Twitter yet – get to it, ye cynics!)<\/p>\n

Until next time…

\n–\u00a0Simon<\/a>, curator.]<\/em><\/p>\n

——————<\/p>\n

Exploring Helplessness in Games with Bury Me, My Love<\/a>\u00a0(Florent Maurin \/ GDC \/ YouTube – VIDEO)<\/em>
“In this 2018 GDC talk, The Pixel Hunt’s Florent Maurin explains how he tried to confront players with a feeling of helplessness through a series of design choices in [the smartphone ‘text messaging adventure game about Nour, a Syrian migrant trying to find her way to Europe’]\u00a0Bury Me, My Love.”<\/p>\n

Reclaiming video games\u2019 queer past before it\u00a0disappears<\/a>\u00a0(Adrienne Shaw \/ The Conversation – ARTICLE)<\/em>
“For 30 years, GLAAD, a\u00a0leading advocate for LGBTQ visibility\u00a0in the media, has honored TV shows that positively represent LGBTQ people \u2013 and along the way has expanded its attention to\u00a0include other genres, such as English language film, journalism, theater and Spanish language media. The 2019 GLAAD Media Awards will, for the first time, recognize\u00a0video games with LGBTQ characters.”<\/p>\n

Getting into the games industry<\/a>\u00a0(People Make Games \/ YouTube – VIDEO)<\/em>
“Given that we’re called People Make Games, it only felt right to tell this particular story from a real person’s perspective. [SIMON’S NOTE: this is excellent, and a bit surprising, and has really good animation too.]”<\/p>\n

To All The Sims I\u2019ve Killed Before<\/a>\u00a0(Jillian Capewell \/ Huffington Post – ARTICLE)<\/em>
“Mortimer Goth settles in to one of the 15 wicker chairs that have suddenly appeared by his lit fireplace. He feels strangely compelled to sit and remain seated, as if guided by an unseen hand, even as the room he\u2019s in grows curiously hotter and hotter. Before he knows it, the chairs around him burst into pixelated flames.”<\/p>\n

Inside Rockstar Games’ Culture Of Crunch<\/a>\u00a0(Jason Schreier \/ Kotaku – ARTICLE)<\/em>
“In the final year of development on\u00a0Red Dead Redemption 2, the upcoming Western game, the top directors decided to add black bars to the top and bottom of every non-interactive cutscene in hopes of making those scenes feel more cinematic, like an old-school cowboy film. Everyone agreed it was the right creative move, but there was a catch: It would add weeks of work to many people\u2019s schedules.”<\/p>\n

Classic Tools Retrospective: The tools that built Deus Ex, with Chris Norden<\/a>\u00a0(David Lightbown \/ Gamasutra Blogs – ARTICLE)<\/em>
“In recent years, retrospectives of classic games have been well received at GDC, but there have been very few stories about classic game tools.\u00a0The first two articles in this series have featured\u00a0John Romero (about the TEd Editor)<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Tim Sweeney (about the Unreal Editor)<\/a>.\u00a0For the third article, I am very happy and honored to speak with\u00a0Chris Norden\u00a0about\u00a0the tools that were developed to create the landmark FPS \/ RPG hybrid, Deus Ex.”<\/p>\n

Dead Cells in Japan – an encounter at TGS 2018<\/a>\u00a0(Archipel \/ YouTube – VIDEO)<\/em>
“For our last encounter from TGS 2018, we met with S\u00e9bastien B\u00e9nard, Thomas Vasseur and Gwena\u00ebl Mass\u00e9 from the Motion Twin team to discuss the development story, their influences behind their acclaimed roguelike game: Dead Cells, along with their views on Japanese games.”<\/p>\n

Red Dead Redemption 2 and the problems with creative work<\/a>\u00a0(Will Partin \/ The Outline – ARTICLE)<\/em>
“One reason the video game industry gets away with \u201ccrunch\u201d is that we tend to have a higher tolerance for long hours in creative industries because we believe that its workers are doing what they love (and\u00a0given<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0number<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0stories<\/a>\u00a0we\u00a0have<\/a>\u00a0about the\u00a0sacrifices<\/a>\u00a0art supposedly\u00a0demands<\/a>, we may even expect it). But, like so many things in culture industries, these are simply exaggerated versions of broader phenomena: namely the expectation that we should find \u201cmeaning\u201d in our work. [SIMON’S NOTE: see also\u00a0The human cost of Red Dead Redemption 2<\/a>\u00a0over at Eurogamer.]”<\/p>\n

Mike Sellers of “Sims 2” on Community and Real Life Faith<\/a>\u00a0(Humans Of Gaming podcast \/ Libsyn – PODCAST)<\/em>
“Mike Sellers has a “career swamp” that flows through nearly every game genre. Starting off with a desire to be a neurosurgeon, Mike’s career path would instead lead him to be a software engineer and interface designer. In the 90’s he founded, along with his brother,\u00a0Archetype Interactive which would develop the first 3D MMO\u00a0Meridian 59.\u00a0He would go on to work with Will Wright on\u00a0The Sims 2, do extensive work with DARPA on AI, and finally settle down to be head of the University of Indiana’s Game Design program.”<\/p>\n

It started as an online gaming prank. Then it turned deadly<\/a>\u00a0(Brendan Koerner \/ Wired – ARTICLE)<\/em>
“As she spoke at length about her rage and anguish, Finch conspicuously failed to mention the nihilistic Angeleno who has been widely vilified for his role in her son\u2019s death. She goes out of her way to avoid letting this young man\u2019s name cross her lips, even though he has become a global symbol of all that\u2019s rotten in gaming culture.”<\/p>\n

Red Dead Redemption 2: The\u00a0Kotaku\u00a0Review<\/a>\u00a0(Kirk Hamilton \/ Kotaku – ARTICLE)<\/em>
“From tip to tail,\u00a0Red Dead Redemption 2\u00a0is a profound, glorious downer. It is the rare blockbuster video game that seeks to move players not through empowering gameplay and jubilant heroics, but by relentlessly forcing them to confront decay and despair. It has no heroes, only flawed men and women fighting viciously to survive in a world that seems destined to destroy them. [SIMON’S NOTE: I hope Kotaku finds a way through its\u00a0unfortunate corporate situation<\/a>, because work like this is transcendent.]”<\/p>\n

How Mega Man 11’s Levels Do More With Less<\/a>\u00a0(Mark Brown \/ Game Maker’s Toolkit \/ YouTube – VIDEO)<\/em>
“After looking at level design in Mario, Donkey Kong, and Rayman, it\u2019s time to see how the blue bomber\u2019s stages work – by taking a look at the levels in Mega Man 11.”<\/p>\n

The legal status of loot boxes around the world, and what’s next in the debate<\/a>\u00a0(T.J. Hafer \/ PC Gamer – ARTICLE)<\/em>
“The most intense criticism of loot boxes\u2014which offer randomized rewards, often for real money\u2014came late last year, and was especially stoked by Star Wars Battlefront 2’s subsequently-revised progression system. The conversation has cooled a little since then, with net neutrality regulations and industry working conditions taking center stage, but the the issue is far from resolved.”<\/p>\n

Copyright Law Just Got Better for Video Game History<\/a>\u00a0(Ian Birnbaum & Matthew Gault \/ Motherboard – ARTICLE)<\/em>
“A new ruling from the Librarian of Congress is good news for video game preservation. In an 85-page ruling that\u00a0covered everything from electronic aircraft controls to farm equipment diagnostic software<\/a>, the Librarian of Congress carved out fair use exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) for video games and software in general. These exemptions will make it easier for archivists to save historic video games and for museums to share that cultural history with the public.”<\/p>\n

A Video Game Shows the True Colors of Ancient Greece<\/a>\u00a0(Zachary Small \/ Hyperallergic – ARTICLE)<\/em>
“Still, the consensus of\u00a0#ACademicOdyssey\u00a0historians is that\u00a0Odyssey captures the monumentality of objects in the Ancient World while preserving elements of the culture largely forgotten in mainstream depictions. Temples are not always sterling marble palaces, but rightly include elements of wood and metal.”<\/p>\n

Driven to distraction: Why do open-world racers have the worst plots in\u00a0gaming?<\/a>\u00a0(John Walker \/ RockPaperShotgun – ARTICLE)<\/em>
“The plot of Horizon 4 goes like this: You\u2019re some race driver who does quite well in a couple of races… This success is met with incredulous astonishment, your abilities recognised as signs of the second coming of MotorChrist, so someone clearly suggests you as a stunt driver for a movie that\u2019s filming nearby.\u00a0 [SIMON’S NOTE: This is rantier than the articles we normally run, but having just played Forza Horizon 4 too, which is GREAT, but does indeed have a pretty insipid plot, I thought it was an interesting point. Maybe these games are meant to have ‘ambient plot’?]”<\/p>\n

Team Fortress 2: A Boo-rief History of Scream Fortress<\/a>\u00a0(Ozzie Mejia \/ Shacknews – ARTICLE)<\/em>
“Halloween is almost here and that means more and more games are kicking off their spooky holiday-themed events. There’s Overwatch, Rocket League, Killing Floor 2, Guild Wars 2, and The Elder Scrolls Online, just to name a few games. But there’s one game that was among the first to embrace the Halloween holiday and continues to do so to this day. That game is Team Fortress 2, Valve’s beloved team-based shooter.”<\/p>\n

Game Developers Give Advice On How To Make Their Industry a Better Place<\/a>\u00a0(Patrick Klepek \/ Waypoint – ARTICLE)<\/em>
“The answers varied, but shared a common theme: buy and enjoy the games built by them, even if you come to realize the circumstances they were developed may have been harmful. \u201cI would prefer someone just play whatever they want and then vote for folks who will lead the way on progressive, future of work issues,\u201d said Campo Santo (Firewatch) co-founder Sean Vanaman, who previously worked at Telltale Games.”<\/p>\n

Red Dead Redemption 2: The inside story of the most lifelike video game ever<\/a>\u00a0(Sam White \/ GQ – ARTICLE)<\/em>
“Houser isn\u2019t even sure how his and Sam\u2019s jobs intersect anymore, but he loves working alongside his brother. It’s a family thing, a brotherly thing \u2013 something that clearly helped define Rockstar\u2019s cultish, insular attitude \u2013 but the bond is important to Houser considering the drama that they’ve attracted over the years.”<\/p>\n

A week away from Fortnite feels like forever<\/a>\u00a0(Andrew Webster \/ The Verge – ARTICLE)<\/em>
“When I last played\u00a0Fortnite, the latest major addition was\u00a0a vehicle that let you ram through walls and launch players in the air<\/a>. That was 10 days ago \u2014 and so much has been added since. The major shift has been the Halloween \u201cFortnitemares\u201d event, which\u00a0has filled the island with shambling monsters<\/a>.”

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

——————<\/p>\n

[REMINDER: you can sign up to receive this newsletter every weekend at\u00a0tinyletter.com\/vgdeepcuts<\/a>\u00a0– we crosspost to Gamasutra later on Sunday, but get it first via newsletter! Story tips and comments can be emailed to [email\u00a0protected]<\/a> MINI-DISCLOSURE: Simon is one of the organizers of GDC and Gamasutra & an advisor to indie publisher No More Robots, so you may sometimes see links from those entities in his picks. Or not!]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra\u0092s community.The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company. [Video Game Deep Cuts is\u00a0a weekly newsletter\u00a0from video game industry ‘watcher’\u00a0Simon Carless\u00a0(GDC, Gamasutra co-runner), rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}