Asian horror & a bad case of advertising

Asian horror
Last night i watched "the grudge", i URGE you to watch it, its a japanese horror film done so fantastically it chills me to think about it. No it's not a gory film, even in the slightest, films such as the Saw series and pretty much everything out of america thinks someone has to be dismembered in order to scare its audience. Japanese, heck, asian filmmakers in general have worked out that the things we DONT see can be horrifying!

Think: what would chill you more, seeing an alien running full pelt at you tentacles waving about, slime dripping from its fangs as the violins go eek! eek! eek! or being alone in your house, catching a glimpse of a ghoulish figure, eyes filled with hatred and malice, when you spot it you whip around to find nothing there as a cold finger whips down your spine.

Of course, the first example is american horror, based around shock tactics; things that jump out at you and evoke a fight or flight response, but theres only so many times this can work on you before you become desensitized and you can predict when something will jump out and which of the cast will get killed first (probably the least attractive one). The second example is asian horror, a psychological approach that makes you wonder if you actually saw what you did, you doubt yourself and you find yourself looking for the evil thing in dark corners of the screen, when the evil thing appears onscreen you will only see it for a flash, your mind fills in the parts you dont see and you dont want to go to the bathroom as its night time and the hallway light isnt on!

Ok i skewed off a bit there, im describing my own experience watching the grudge. i dont get that with american films, im not about to believe that in the bathroom is an axe wielding maniac with chainsaws for legs, but my mind tells me it's entirely possible i just saw something move in the shadows or that the bump i heard from the attic isnt natural. Asian horror gets into your brain, it's efective at making your imagination run away with you, which is kinda sneaky as the film itself only does half the work!

Now of course, im not going to say westerners cannot do it too, or that asian filmmakers dont make gory films as this is just not true (battle royale for example is a bit gory, nothing compared to saw, and is another all time classic!) you may remember a film called "the blair witch project" i know many people that HATED it, thought it was pathetic as it was made with a videocamera and there wasnt a monster. What was SPECTACULAR about that film was the sounds, the story, the gritty realism it portrayed. students go into the woods to investigate the blair witch myth, certain they wouldnt find anything but they did it anyway. during the nights they hear terrifying sounds, they find signs of people in their campsite, and the film climaxes with an amazing scene: seeing one of the students standing in the corner of an abandoned house as the girl with the camera screams his name and the camera is knocked to the floor. what happened!? whos there? YOU DONT KNOW! brilliant cinema! My point is that films like this are rare in the west, the asian horror genre however seems to be saturated with them.
Note: maybe asian film lovers are fed up with them and think Alien vs predator is a fantastic film. i pity them.

American re-release
Now heres an interesting point, the grudge was released here in the west with some well known actors including Buffy's Sarah Michelle Gellar. It has its pros and cons, on the plus side it was set in japan and directed by the original director Takashi Shimizu, on the downside 70% of the cast were american for some reason, ruining the whole point of setting it in japan and the main character has a boyfriend called Doug! ("Doug?" thatas not a name synonymous with a psychologuical horror, Doug is the name of some asshole in a teen slasher flick.) When compared to the original it is less eerie as the spirits are onscreen a lot more and as the picture quality is higher due to hollywood budgeting the film has less of that grainy realism which added to the atmosphere. Oddly though the story is a lot more concise: when the grudge came out it was actually the 3rd in a series, so when it was re released in america the plot was summarized and made easier to understand without having seen the past iterations. Overall the american grudge IS worth seeing, but not if you are a fan of the original japanese version, the way its been westernised will stick out like an axe in your back


A bad case of advertising
Ok we're here in the main thrust of the blog, advertising. Having watched through some asian horror films i was surprised to see that there is a videogame based on the grudge available on the Wii (yes, you knew this was about videogames didnt you?) intrigued i looked at a trailer for the game and i was chilled to the bone!

They took a great concept for a game and made it look Pathetic! there would be something to a game that has you tormented by spirits and unsure of what you see and hear (there is a game on wii called "the calling" i think, and that was very scary even though there were no monsters) this trailer however talks about scoring! points arent important in a horror title! it has ALWAYS been about the experience, the story, what YOU felt playing it. Grading it seems arbitrary as you might be frightened but you will be told you did poorly at the end of it, and encouraged to do it again to do better this time around? The trailer even has the ridiculous idea of showing you the players! during one scene something or other onscreen makes these people jump and they flail their arms about jovially, one man even put his hand on his chest as to say "ooh! that scared the living daylights out of me, that did" Why did the people advertising this game feel the need to show players getting scared? we could make out that it is a scary game, and them getting frightened and spazzing out only brings to light once more the pathetic scoring system they crowbarred into the game.

your point?

My point is that a brilliant concept for a game when advertised so abysmally doesnt make me want to buy it, ill admit some of the blame goes to the developer for making a scoring system but for the marketers to focus on it like it's a positive thing and even show people playing it (not hardcore gamers ill expect) makes it seem very lighthearted, that is is only a game and you arent getting involved in the experience, which is not the message you want to get across.

When advertising Kinect for the xbox 360 the players were the focus as they were doing something unique: playing a videogame without a controller (we'll ignore the fact sony got there years before) this was fitting and showcases what needs to be, the grudge on wii however was ignoring it's story and setrting completely in the advertising. Fans of the movies (who im guerssing this is aimed at) want to know why we're in the cursed house, what we must do, when in the series it is set or if it is a stand alone storyline. as gamers we want to know if it controlls well, if the visual and audio quality is good, if it has replayability or will always be the same experience. neither of those groups im certain asked for a horror title that grades you on whether you jump at the scary bits or not.


Moving on

Well thats my rant on horror. This christmas i recognized that i would never feel the christmas spirit like i did when i was a child so i went for a nightmare inducing one, this way i can feel something this holiday season other that the crushing disappointment that father christmas didnt get me a big bag of cash again.

I might do a piece on horror games, there have been many over the years, some of which are more terrifying than you could imagine. I may even play the game of the grudge but at the moment im looking forward to dead space 2, at least viceral games know what to give their fans.

Sensitive content in videogames and sexual diversity in gaming ♥

Sensitive content in videogames and
sexual diversity in gaming
♥

After watching extra credits' sexual diversity in gaming video on the escapists' website i have decided to take up blogging. I have had strong views about gaming as a media for a long time and would like to make them known, so here goes.

for starters i urge you to watch that particular episode of extra credits here:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2520-Sexual-Diversity

this way we're all on the same page, if you have time read some of the comments people have posted as they have raised some points ill be touching on in this blog.

Ok for starters, i am in agreement with the people at extra credits, i see gaming as a budding art form, there have been a variety of marvellous titles made over the years by teams of skilled artists, unfortunately these have flew under many people's radars as they were not aware of them or see gaming solely as entertainment or solely for children/loners this needs to stop.

There is a lot of stigma attatched to being a gamer that is not attatched to being a movie/ music lover or avid novel reader, and these mediums have been through similar scrutiny and have managed to overcome them as the years have gone by. For example elvis was accused of corrupting the youth of the 50s, harry potter books were burned in america for encouraging witchcraft and there have been countless books banned for their content, one of the most popular being catcher in the rye by J.D. Salinger

(you may have noticed i am reiterating some points mentioned in previous extra credits episodes, i am aware of this and am doing so to set the context.)

Now, if i may bring up some recent cases of sensitive content in videogames we can begin discerning between the public perception of videogames and the actuality of these cases. There are of course cases when designers will have taken something "too far" including content of an explicit violent or sexual nature, but for many cases the public uproar caused has been  misled or blown out of proportion.

Case 1: Mass Effect
Sexual content

Mass effect is a futuristic role playing game for the Xbox 360 set in a fictional universe inhabited by a number of races including humans. You play as "commander shepard", a member of the human "alliance" (a military organization) who has been called in to investigate attacks on a human colony and eventually must fight to save the races of the galaxy from a deadly threat. You can create and shape commander shepard as you see fit, make them male or female and choose how they react to multiple situations. You can try to solve conflicts with diplomacy or brute force, you may act in an evil fashion should you choose or be a paradigm of morality, this makes the player think more about their actions as every choice they make has a consequence.

The controversy stems from the relationships you can develop with your crew members, who consist of humans and humanoid aliens. As you become closer to them you can discover more about their personal historty and side stories separate from the main game, and should you wish you may eventually develop a physical relationship with that crew member. I would like to point out the extent of these scenes is in no way explicit and is done in context and very tastefully and is only possible with 3 characters in the game. Watch this video for an example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-58E7Iuzt0

when the media caught wind of this content they branded the game a "sex simulator" and a political blogger known as Mike McCullough wrote in his blog:

"Mass Effect can be customized to sodomize whatever, whomever, however, the game player wishes," and "with its ‘over the net’ capabilities virtual orgasmic rape is just the push of a button away."

Although exposed as baseless, his views sparked a lot of letters written to the games developers, demanding the game not be released as well as numerous defaming articles on the national news and resulting in the game recieving 18+ ratings in countries such as singapore.

This infuriates me as it was obvious the man had never played the game or was ever going to give it a chance, but was willing to accuse the gaming industry of being perverse at the drop of a hat.

Case 2: Resident Evil 5
Racism

Resident evil 5 is a horror genre videogame, the series originally featured zombies (the walking dead) as the main enemies, which various survivors had to fend off in order to survive. Since resident evil 4 the main enemies of the game have been "las plagas", humans transformed into savage monsters by a parasite. Resident evil 5 sees Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar fending off such monsters in various fictional locations in africa.

Controversey stemmed from the fact the protagonists were white people killing native black africans. Kym Platt, a journalist wrote on her blog:

"This is problematic on so many levels, including the depiction of Black people as inhuman savages, the killing of Black people by a white man in military clothing, and the fact that this video game is marketed to children and young adults. Start them young...fearing, hating, and destroying Black people."

I will start off by pointing out that the black people in the game were portrayed as savages not because of their way of life or beliefs or colour of their skin, but because the umbrella corporation (which is a corporation experimenting with bioweapons for use in times of war) infected them on purpose with the parisite which forces them into a murderous rage. I will also note on a personal level i felt no joy in killing black people and was very aware that i was infact killing inhuman monsters in the context of the game's story.

This accusation recieved a lot of publicity, some people supported it but gamers were quick to point out some facts, the least of which being that the company making it was Capcom, a japanese company. In japan the views on black people are the same as anyone else, there isnt the predjudice, there was no black slavery. The japanese simply pointed out that in africa, there are a lot of dark skinned people, so to exclude them from a game set in africa would be ridiculous. they have different racial sensibilities and i doubt very much there was any evil intent.

response
Now these examples don't represent a large portion of games, but are very typical of the type of hype aimed at controversial games, 99% of the time when a game recieves criticism it is ill founded or comes from someone who hasnt played the game in question and often is not a gamer at all! now im not an art lover so i wont begin to say whether or not a painting is any good, i can offer my opinion on it, saying whether it is pleasing to the eye but im not about to say that it is bad for a FACT like these politicians and journalists do. they say a game is disgusting and violent or lewd and racisst, with no artistic value and without any kind of moral context and in my eyes thats wrong.


i fully support the fact children should NOT be playing games like call of duty or grand theft auto without learning the reasoning or context, if they dont understand why soldiers fight or why a man may turn to a life of crime it paints a bad picture. War is not fun and crime should be frowned upon but when experienced in a safe environment they can be an interesting insight into another way of looking at things. i have seen enough videogames to know i would not like to be shot at and i know crime doesnt pay, you cant just slap a bandage on a gunshot wound and you cant murder someone then spray your car another colour so the police cant find you. i may write more on kids and games in future, as its something i feel strongly about


so please, people don't be so quick to judge, common sense tells us companies dont set out to offend people, gamers must enjoy these games in order to want to buy them, noone wants to play a game that they find distasteful. many may require a pinch of salt, but you should know what you like and don't like, if you dont like horror dont buy "Saw: the game" if you dont like board games dont buy "monopoly" and if you dont want to kill germans dont buy a world war II shooter. you have the power to choose what you play and what you let your children play, dont expect developers to stop making them if you dont like it! nut allergy sufferers don't ask supermarkets to stop selling nuts, they simply ask that they are told if nuts are in their food, it should be clear what you are getting in a videogame and it is.


Sexual diversity in games:


now for a word on sexual diversity in videogames. Now i believe gaming has some truly memorable characters, from solid snake of the metal gear solid games to the prince from the katamari games to wander, the semi mute (he says only one word as far as im aware) protagonist of shadow of the colossus and they dont really push the boundaries of sexual diversity. Snake might take a glance at a naughty poster a soldier has pinned to their locker, or peek at the leading lady's chest that she has so obviously on display (im looking at you eva) but he doesnt let his emotions get in the way of the mission (except for a freudian complex he has with "the boss", his mentor and hero who defects to the russians in metal gear solid 3 and crops up again in peace walker) so of course context is important.


Gaming has a bad rep when it comes to sex in games thanks to lara croft, duke nukem, playboy the mansion and the dead or alive series, painting it as a hetero-oriented closed minded medium where women have to be scantily clad and men have to be schwarzenegger clones. shining through the muck are gems like the persona series (covered very well in extra credits' video) and the valkyria chronicles. other games are aware of it but it is not a focus (such as the sims games and fable, where you can start a relationship with either sex with no difference between them in terms of gameplay)



Valkyria chronicles is a game set in the fictional country of gallia, a very european-style country in the fictional continent of "europa" set during the "second europan war" ok the setting is paper thin, world war 2 with a new coat of paint, and pain is very fitting, the game looks stunningly like a watercolour in motion, take a look:


http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/article/866/866142/valkyria-chronicles-20080411040153763_640w.jpg


nice, huh? well without going into too much detail, the game touches on some VERY serious subjects throughout, despite its colorful appearance. Throughout the story youll find racism, prejudice, genocide and murder as well as sexuality. Each of the members of your squad is unique, they have likes and dislikes, allergies and sexual preferences. But what does this have to do with the game? during the firefights your characters act like real people, they rely on eachother to aid them, if they should be next to someone they like they will be more enthusiastic and fight harder, if they have a dust allergy deploying them in the desert might be a bad move, so you need to think about your squad memers as actual people, not faceless cannon fodder. This is something this game achieves remarkably well and seeing one of your men/women fall in battle is a sorrowful experience, especially when their name appears in the register of the dead.


Now when it comes to sexuality and romance i found this game charming, one character "Ted ustinov" fancies both men and women so is a real showoff in the battlefield, trying to impress both the men and women in his squad with his heroics. "Jann walker" is a delightfully feminine man with a fetish for muscle-y men and develops a crush on "Largo potter" one of the games main characters and heavy weapons expert, this is hinted at multiple times in the story, with jann saying how dreamy largo is, and largo going red. These instances, along with fitting dialogue ingame, make you see each and every character as a unique person and causes you care more about your squad members. All of this makes for one fantastically involving and touching game, sexuality is not core to the game but i wouldnt have it any other way, and the choice to not ignore that aspect of people's personality is one i applaud.


reading the comments on that particular extra credits video i came across many people asking why we should care if someone is straight or gay, that it is pointless and has no place in games. i'll agree that certain games have no place for it but to say that no game has a place for sexuality is seriously wrong. in a first person shooter your character is usually a faceless nameless nonentity as you are meant to believe you are the character so they act however you want them to, but in role playing games, strategy games, even third person shooters you are very aware that YOU are not the character, you are controlling someone else or even have to step into their shoes and BE them so to leave out certain parts of them because you dont see the point is... pointless. What would be the reason in making a character that shares the same views and likes the same things you do? all novels and films would be soo dreary, and i personally play games for an escape from my life, not to just live it on a screen. 

so i believe we have to have sexual diversity in games, to bring characters to life. the game doesnt have to be ABOUT sexuality but to ignore it sounds too much like sexual repression to me. there is a place for it and it is important.



THATS IT!
Thats all for this blog, yes its wordy and might be sketchy in places (i didnt draft this) but hey thats what it's like inside my head. i hope to do more in the coming days, its almost christmas so i have to do something to take my mind off the fact theres no santa.
Dil

What to expect

Hello there,

thanks for taking the time to read my blog,
in the upcoming weeks im going to be writing blogs about various subjects, i've taken various people's advice and im gonna write my views on things important to me and look forward to people contributing.

Facebook isnt really the place for discussions, mostly due to character limits, but also as i get the impression people don't want to hear it, so if you're here i take it you do.

as a heads up, ill mainly be writing about videogames and my life in general, as im a serious gamer that's going to be the main focus. Ill be writing reviews on titles, speculating about unreleased games as well as retro reviews and hopes for the industry in general, im sure ill be commenting on motion controls and 3d gaming.

thanks for reading, hope to see you guys soon

dil