Daily News Spin — March 26, 2001 (Monday)

Movies made from games

Myvideogames.com has an article looking at past, present, and future movies that have been made from video games or else have a video game theme.

The string of bad game-themed films the Nineties produced is no coincidence. There's a fundamental problem with the genre: A hero won't hold a moviegoer's attention for a couple hours unless they have a real, credible human personality. But how many videogame characters have *any* personality? Or, at least a personality that extends beyond running, jumping and getting high on giant mushrooms?

Into the asses of the damned and some Sims stuff

Flak magazine busts on Diablo 2. The author has a love/hate relationship with the game.

Despite the occasional boneheaded detail, the game also has some stylish flourishes. For example, Diablo II's "hell" is inhabited by trapped souls. These dull reddish forms lie chained to infernal stalagmites, writhing in torment. Their bodies bring a sinister motion to hell's sprawling vistas, as they struggle for release from their imprisonment.

You can also kick them. For treasure.

That's right. You can send a mailed boot right into the asses of the damned, knocking them out and producing random goodies ranging from magical potions to enchanted armor. But look out! They can also be booby-trapped.

Flak also has an amusing look at The Sims, in which the author's wife has created a Sims family that mirrors his own family.

These creepy intimations of Sims imitating my life keep occurring. "You know, I've created Sean with as close to your personality I could," Beth said one day, a line which sounded to me like a stone-cold presage to something I didn't want to hear. "I find it funny whenever Sean has to study up on his mechanical skills, his fun goes way down." And it's true; it's agony for Sim-me to get a mechanical "point" (a quantifiable increase in my aptitude in that particular skill). Not that there's any direct bearing [he links to his English degree from Wisconsin at this point] on my life to correspond to this.

Pikachu, I ban you!

Pokemon has been banned in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia's Higher Committee for Scientific Research and Islamic Law � highest religious authority in the country � has banned all Pokemon related material. Pikachu and co are "morally objectionable" and "a bad influence" on children, it has alleged.

That's from Computer and Video Games. It seems that its' objectionable on three grounds. 1) It uses imagery that's similar to a Cross, Star of David, and something that the Freemasons use. 2) It promotes gambling. And 3) It promotes the Theory of Evolution.

Death to the Minotaur, part 2

Salon's second part to this expose of Wizards of the Coast is now online. The success of Pokemon may have been the final blow to Wizard's creative spirit.

The Pok�mon card game was a bigger success than Magic, and Wizards rode the trend with the joyless dedication of a guy building the world's largest ball of string. There was nothing creative, charming, admirable or innovative in Pok�mon except that it parted small children from their money with brutal efficiency. It inexplicably featured the dramatic story of cockfighting monsters who lived in your pants, and in Japan early episodes of the fast-paced cartoon series even caused seizures in epileptics. The entire thing was grotesque. Wizards' complicity was a sad affirmation of just how mainstream and uninspired the company had become.

You can read part 2 here.

Evil Ed, God of Videogames

Evil Ed hits on woman in bar, telling her about the transcendent experience that is videogaming.

"I'm going to give you my home number," he says. "You're going to come over, and I'm going to show you things and places that you've never seen before."

Evil Ed strikes out.

Evil Ed is the self-proclaimed "God of Video Games." She is the fourth woman Evil Ed has really liked tonight. Evil Ed acts like he's 22, looks 28, and is top secretly 39. Evil Ed claims he is worth $5.3 million, yet says he has trouble paying the rent on his one-bedroom Mesa apartment. A drunken Evil Ed will readily tell you the retail value of his gold jewelry and claim he is an angel sent by God.

Wow -- really nice article on the Phoenix New Times. Read this one, and mamas, don't let your children grow up to be Evil Eds.

3am

CNET's News.com has an interesting roundup of some of the roundtable discussions that took place at GDC. Wil Wright had a brilliant insight into what it may take for more games to begin to appeal to women. From the article:

The bulk of the people making games are men, doing things that appeal to them. He [Wright] attributed the cross-gender appeal of "The Sims" to having an almost equal mix of men and women working on the game.

"I don' think there's a magic game design formula to appeal to women," he said. "The only way it's going to turn around is when you get more women in game design."

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