Not yet irrelevant

So I know it’s a bit on the late side, but The Force Unleashed finally made it into the family repitoire. We have a passel of gamers in the family, granted not everyone prefers the same games, but we all watch, and kibitz.  Oh * man* do we kibitz.  We made the decision early on that all media had to be a public event, and so have kept all the computers and videos in the living room, where everyone can access it and everyone is allowed to offer advice and help one another out. 

Stay with me, the backstory makes sense eventually.

My youngest son, known to teh Interwebs as Thing03, just touched 4 1/2 and has spent his time recently trying to finish Lego Star Wars #1.    So I know he groks the gaming environment and the kind of puzzle solving process commonly used in games.

Nevertheless, I was surprised when he picked up the controller for Force Unleashed and polished off the first mission like he’d been working on it for weeks.

YES!  My child is a game playing GENIUS!  Somebody call MENSA!

Then he turns to me and says “Mom this is just like Lego: StarWars”

Good Lord, he was right.
Don’t get me wrong, overall, Force Unleashed is a much more complex game, you have the ability to modify your characters, you have the ability to add bonuses or change gear to give you an advantage in different types of terrain or for different mission set, and, of course, Force Unleashed has a custom storyline (and some kissing) but the basic game play elements are remarkably similar.

Both games have the standard 3rd person action game camera and movement sets (walk, ,jump, attack, use (the Force).  Both games are action puzzlers, granted Lego StarWars is a side-scroller and Force Unleashed is in the round, but getting through any level requires you to attack enemies, solve physical puzzles in both the platformer-y sense of “how do I get way way up there” as well as the, “what do i need to open this door” sense.

The levels are short, clearly defined, and even the boss battles follow the same paradigm of “you have to kill this thing more than once to beat it”.  In fact the games are so similar in logic that a 4 year old is able to parse the similarities and use them to his advantage to kick the a** (for at least one level anyway) of s game he’s never seen before.

God help his P.E. Teacher :)

I just got back from a weekend camping trip and am hip-deep into the neverending pile of laundry that these sorts of “group” trips involve.  Just me and my kids, heck, they can wear the same shirt for three days, but go with a group of families you know and interact with on a regular basis and, hey, better have fresh shorts and socks for *every* day you are out in a tent.

Which brings me to the subject of towels.

Like any platinum level card-carrying geek, the first thing that pops into my head when staring at the pile of unwashed beach towels is, “always remember where your towel is”.  The second thing that pops into my head is “wait, they had the wrong towels in the movie”.  Referring of course to the recent 2005 Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (as opposed to the metric oodle of other variations on the IP).

See, growing up near the ocean, we have these amazing beach towels.  Beach towels so large and luxurious you could potentially have sex on them, on the beach, and still not get sand in the works (so to speak).  So when the term “towel” shows up anywhere, this is the first type of towel that comes to mind.  This is, in fact, the *perfect* kind of towel for travel, big enough to serve as a blanket if you end up sleeping in the back of a lorry, thick enough to dry off three kids, a spouse and the family dog if you get stuck in the rain, tough enough to allow you to sunbathe on a field of broken glass, were you to be so unfortunate to be stuck in such a place.  So, to me, naturally, if you need to know where your towel is, this is the towel you are going to be looking for.

But in the movie they had these panzy-a** little hotel towels.  The kind you don’t feel bad about stealing because they are so chintzy and small that you’d be better of with a box of Kleenex and a wet-nap.  Okay, yes, they are portable, easy to stuff in a pocket, carrying a towel of this stripe around with you is most certainly a touch more on the side of the ludicrous than carrying something that might genuinely have purpose.

Which then brings me to preconceptions and misconceptions, and more particularly whether or not these things can ruin a game experience.  Advertising and product development have been aware of these kinds of things for a long time.  McDonalds, for example, puts mustard on their cheeze burgers in certain parts of the US, and in other places they may or may not use those nasty little diced onions.  In games we see “import” versions of games that can include different content than you might have in a US release (should the game in question actually have a US release).

With the market for games seemingly heading for a separation into ponderous, multi-year development AAA titles and smaller, nimbler, fast-release mobile/web titles, I’m starting to wonder if it might be an interesting move to regionalize these smaller games.  Release one version of Castle Crashers in west Texas, but a slightly different version in NYC for example.  Similar things are being done.  As a current example, the new DrWho game is only available in the UK, and you’re blocked from downloading it if you live elsewhere.  (Yes, yes, I KNOW you can get your hands on it by other, slightly more nefarious means, but I’m taking a “high-road” approach here).

The question, I guess, would be in how you target the specific differences.  McDonalds knows (through focus group testing and trial and error) that BBQ sauce A fits the tastes of the Deep South better than BBQ sauce B.  Is it even possible to target games in such a specific manner, or does the historically more “global” nature of games mean that we’ve already begun to homogenize the gaming community to the point where these kinds of local differences are simply not worth the effort?

There have been more than enough reboots lately, don’t you think?  Not that I have a problem with rebooting a franchise per-se, but from a creative POV, they’re taking away funding from stuff that might tell a new story.  Right?  Or not?

Like half the planet, I eagerly lined up to see Star Wars Episode 1.  I even went to the trouble of camping out overnight for a ticket to one of the earliest showings (being young at the time and still in ownership of an all-weather sleeping bag).  Granted, I didn’t feel quite as outraged at JarJar as everyone else (I have a high tolerance for that kind of nuttery, it’s a gift) but it wasn’t *my* Star Wars, it didn’t quite engender the same spark that the first one had.  I was…  well, not quite disappointed, because by that time in my life I was well aware that most things you remember from being a kid aren’t as cool as you remember, and I just wrote it off as the same sort of nostalgic near-miss.

But then I saw the reaction of my best friends girlfriends son, 10 years old at the time.

He was in awe.  Of everything.  The whole da** movie.  Then he went back and saw the “first” three.  We spent about a month hearing  “And did you know that Boba Fett did this…  Did you know Anakin can do this…  Did you know…”

I just recently saw another, similar reaction with my own kids, when I brought home the newest GCI of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  What went before, the shortcomings that may or may not have been there went unnoticed.  The legacy was hidden and for my kids it was a fresh, new experience.

And now there’s another new rash of “Reboots” on the horizon.  I’m rather excited about a couple of them, kindof “meh” about others.  Thing is, I think I’m going to hold my opinion.  I’m already biased, one way or another, and there’s no point in wrecking the fun for someone.  These reboots, these new takes on an older story, they’re not *for* me.  They’re for a new group of moviegoers, a new audience.  If the new guys are excited, if these reboots breathe new life into a franchise I knew and loved (even if I hate the redo) then who am I to pee in everyone elses Cheerios?