Not enough time for good and why Kaos studios closed

I have been doing this blog now since February (sorry for the recent infrequence of posting.... will resume 4 to 6 posts a week very soon as my schedule clears a bit) and in easily 66% of my posts I talk about the hard fact that the average gamer is not the 12 year old boy with negligent parents, or the college frat kid wasting $50k a year to get drunk and make bad decisions, but rather the average age of a gamer is 34. (Side Note: I link to that report so often but it is relevant in most every point I try and haphazardly make!)

Here is the thing though with people who are all grown up; they have outside obligations. Most of us have jobs, lives, etc and we don't have the 40 hours a week to game like many of us used to. Problem is with the lack of free time, the leisure activities we do engage in need to be as worthwhile as possible. Getting to my point....

Publisher THQ recently shut down Kaos Studios. Despite decent sales, the poor precieved quality of recently released FPS Homefront ended up being the final release from the New York based studio.

How did everyone not see this coming?

Saying the FPS market is saturated right now is like saying there are a few polygons in the models for Crysis 2. Thing is that the core demographic for these games, the "34 year old's", don't have enough time to play every FPS that comes out. We are going to only get the best titles that all of our friends are getting. We want new ideas that make the interactive medium more enticing. You can't just say "well we have an awesome story!" That only works in books and movies; it takes more to carry a game (see this post).

Right now the FPS war is dominated by the Battlefields, the Call of Duties, and the Halo's. Unless you are willing to spend millions of dollars and throw as much top notch talent as you got, you can not compete with a standard FPS. If you are clever you can try something completely different (upcoming post on why Left 4 Dead is the best FPS series in the last 4 years), but ultimately AAA publishers are not willing to put enough eggs in one basket and really take a risk on a product.

The video game industry needs to realize that the business model of good makes more money than great will not propel them to profitability. What I am really trying to say is that if I can only play one new game every couple months it's not going to be good. It's not even going to be great. I, and the core demographic whom I represent, only have time for the best.

How many layoff's from Valve have we ever read about? Even Blizzard?

I don't have time tonight but I really want to expand on this idea with my thoughts on publisher Kalypso, with whom I am very torn.

Duke Nukem (and the videogame industry) is Sexist, and another Post About Marketing

I read this amazingly well written article on Kotaku scribed by Lydia Heitman. It was all about how terribly Duke Nukem was marketed, and it isn't a surprise because the project is a failure in every way. It really is the zenith of how the video game industry does not understand it's customer base at all.

Stay with me!

Bethesda is stupid because they are wasting money on marketing for the already hyped up sequel to The Elder Scrolls Oblivion, Skyrim. Like all good PC master race out there I can not wait until November when this game comes out and would get a second mortgage on my house for the privilege to play it. I'm already sold. The demographic that Skyrim appeals to is me. We know the game is coming, and we will pay full price on release day.

Seeing ad's for Skyrim on sites like The Escapist is like watching an advertisement for the Next Food Network Star during an airing of the show; I'm already watching. You don't need to waste time and money getting my attention.

When Valve spent millions of dollars to air a television commercial for Portal 2 what was in the video? Was it Glados? Was it Chell? Nope! It was two adorable robots hugging. Why you may ask? Because Valve knows that people like me are already going to purchase the game no matter what they do, so they want to get my wife to buy it. They wanted to advertise to another demographic who wasn't already predisposed to having a favorable view.

Advertising a game like Duke Nukem is tough. Most people old enough to remember the original (ME!) have long outgrown the mechanics and spirit of the game. People who are younger and into FPS's are curious. The people you want to market to are the people who wouldn't normally purchase your game, but might be interested. You don't need to market sex to young men because hey; it's what they (we) will flock to like flies on stink.

If Duke Nukem was really a good game they would go after the second largest demographic in our indusrty (women over 25!!!!! Its true!!!!). Let's not also forget that the largest group who consumes video games is men over 25 and the second largest is women of the same age range. We have careers, spouses, often kids (yikes!), we have mortgages, life insurance, and real world problems. We aren't college kids or teenagers. We don't care what our parents think about games. When Duke Nukem 3D came out we were 11 to 15. Now we are in our late 20's to 40's. We don't care about digital boobs, we care about a fun escape from our normal, mundane lives. We want a mature plot, a well realized world, and a story that can make sense. That doesn't mean it can't be full of dick and fart jokes, but that won't be enough to make a successful experience.

Problem is the game is crap, so they thought they could pull a fast one on "hardcore" gamers and throw a fastball by us. When a game is actively marketed towards me (the apex of the largest consumer demographics for video games, see previous paragraph) it makes me very wary, because I know what games I like. I know what sequels are good and which are crap, I know what new IP's look awesome. I'm too savvy for box art blurbs. If you aren't marketing towards a new demographic to whom you can expand your userbase, and instead are solely focused on who should be your bread and butter it is indicative of a big ol' desperate move.

That is clearly what the king has become.....

Epic Fail.

Silent Hill Book of Memories and Skyrim

Two completely different games I know.

Take a journey with me if you would please!

Joystiq reported that there will be an upcoming entry in the Silent Hill franchise entitled Book of Memories that will be predominantly a multiplayer experience. As I have mentioned before this will be an epic fail. Ultimately this move really encapsulates what is wrong with the AAA game industry.

A lot of publishers and developers see Intellectual Properties as brands to be exploited rather than living, breathing universes that are specific works of art.

It is what I will refer to as the Guitar Hero effect. Something is popular, so lets push the shit out of it rather than take the time to develop the property into something that evolves and is continually exciting. Silent Hill 2 was so good that even 10 years later just the name will help a game sell well. It has brand recognition. Multiplayer games sell well too so if we combine a brand name with popular mechanics it should be a hit right?

This is indicative of what the AAA industry does wrong, but it must be doing something right? Right?!?!

Of course it does! I can't remember or find where I read it, but I saw that some lead on Skyrim said "we just want to make the most awesome, giant RPG" (paraphrasing). That attitude, right there, is how you make the big bucks. Take your time (within reason of course) to make the best product you can. It's how Blizzard did is, how Id did it, how Valve did it, and why all of those companies continue to be profitable when Activision and EA are laying people off and closing studios left and right.

AAA games will always be great if the people with the money, talent, and resources recognize the power they have to create brilliant art rather than analyze trends and imitate and not innovate. If you are going to spend $20 to $30 million on a game, why not commit those kind of resources to creating the best product you can? If you do there will always be plenty of "me's" to throw our disposable income at you (and we will be happy to do so).

Next time why Nintendo is stupid (short answer Wii U) .

Portal 2 Sorta Review Part 1

There is so much to discuss. From the Potato Sack to the ARG to the actual game, we have a lot of ground to cover that will come in a few posts. I took yesterday (Tuesday) off from work with the express purpose of being able to finish Portal 2 this morning. I am happy to report that after 6.9 hours of some of the most amazing game play and storytelling I have finished my first run through and it is the only one of three brandy new games I have purchased this year that I have actually finished.

Now in the almost 3 months I have been doing this blog I have never really write a "review" and I really don't intend on talking just about the game and assigning it a numerical value. There are a lot of other avenues to go for reviews and I am under no delusion that I can compete with professional game critics. What I am going to do is hit you with a wall of text containing my thoughts about the game and what it represents. I am going to go in to this assuming that you are familiar with the first Portal and that you have little to no knowledge beyond the marketing of the second. If you aren't sure if you should buy the game do it and thank me later. Anyways here we go!

Portal 2 is exactly what we would expect from a developer that so clearly understands what makes video games different and special as a medium. While it certainly acknowledges what people liked and what made the first Portal as brilliant as it was, Portal 2 is certainly a sequel in every sense of the word. It effectively expands on the mythology, takes the game in exciting new directions, and takes the high's higher and the lows, well, there really aren't many.

My biggest beef with this game is probably the source engine. While the game looks on par with current gen graphics, there are loading screens about every 5 minutes. The loading goes by pretty quick, but then again I played on a reasonably beefy gaming PC. There is nothing more immersion breaking than "please hold while we load the next smidge of game play." Seriously though, at least give us a little more variety with the loading screens. There are 4 based on where you are in the progression of the game and none are all that different. Come on Valve! You polish every other corner of this game to a mirror shine! At least remind me that the space bar is to jump, or that Aperture science says something silly.

With that said this game is as close to perfection as our medium sits right now. In the just under 7 hours it took me to play through the single player campaign it never once felt like there was any padding, or that an area or sequence was added to pad out the game play length. Every single second, every texture, and every corner of the level design is so meticulously well planned out and perfectly timed that it should set a new standard for production values in AAA studios. Valve hasn't been above said padding in the past, but every single second of the game is chock full of the amazing dialogue we have grown to expect from the budding franchise.

I would definitely compare the single player campaign a lot to the single player campaign of the first CODMW. It is incredibly well polished and thought out and the apex of what linear FP gameplay should be. It is atmospheric, the voice acting is really top notch, and it takes the quality over quantity approach.

I absolutely loved the puzzles. This time around there is little emphasis on twitch, timing based execution and a lot more focus on thinking your way through almost every situation. The puzzles are just hard enough to give one pause for thought, but not too hard where it will make you rage quit. It is always satisfying to finally find the solution, even though there is generally one right way to solve a problem.

I made the mistake at glancing at the Metacritic user review scores after about an hour in and there were three main complaints I read that I would like to address.

First: The game is an expansion pack. This is plain ol' silly. Yes it is still in the source engine, but there is no doubt in my mind that this game is a sequel. We are not looking at Left 4 Dead to Left 4 Dead 2 here, we are looking at a brilliant script, an amazing arc, a new feel and tone, and a greatly expanded universe. This isn't a map pack.

Second: *SPOILER WARNING SORT OF BUT NOT REALLY* it had a stupid cliffhanger ending that clearly just paves the way for another sequel. Without wanting to talk about the ending I really have to disagree with this statement completely. While we weren't exactly treated to a crazy plot twist, it really wasn't much of a cliffhanger. What the ending did do to perfection is achieve that artistic expression that I find so appealing; once again I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.Thirdly there is the DLC issue. Valve, at least on the PC version, has implemented an in game store where you can purchase new gestures and visual mod's for your robot avatars for the cooperative campaign (I will hopefully be tackling that with a friend this weekend). Every "mod" is approximately $2.49 for simply a small visual update to the game. This is absolutely ridiculous and a little offensive. In Valve's Team Fortress 2 the whole hat thing doesn't bother me because the game itself, despite being essentially being priced incredibly reasonably has seen years of continued expansions, free maps, game play upgrades, and support. The way I see the hats and DLC in TF2 is that it is asking for optional donations for the continued support and development. Nothing wrong with that. For day one with a game that is AAA with AAA pricing; it is a little insulting.

Bottom line what Portal 2 achieves is absolutely amazing. It is an extremely polished AAA puzzle game that is not focused on violence in any meaningful way. While there are turrets that shoot bullets at you, the shooting is an obstacle ad not a core mechanic. If Portal 2 can prove to other major publishers that you can take a risk and a new subject matter and build a successful AAA franchise around NOT killing people it is an absolute win.

For science.

Is Valve the new Activision??

Well of course not, but I have had a very interesting argument this morning about Valve's role as a developer with my friend equating them more to a publisher with evil corporation like tendencies.

It could be argued that the only original IP ever actually created by Valve is the Half Life franchise. Everything else they have ever put out have pretty much been mod's on their source engine, or of the original Half Life (which as I recall was developed on Quake 3 technology but I really don't feel like doing the research this morning). Team Fortress, Day of Defeat, Left 4 Dead, my beloved Portal, all started as mod's or indy project's before getting "swallowed" up by the evil, rich, corporate entity that is Valve. One could (and has) argued that this is akin to a large corporation buying up a lot of small business to merge them into the corporate bureaucratic fold. Has Valve evolved into a publisher/distributor rather than a developer?

Well of course not. They are a beautiful and effective amalgamation of every entity in our little world.

Valve have an uncanny knack for spotting and snatching up epic level talent. They see really brilliant developers and give them jobs and resources based on their idea's more than a resume. Valve has about every luxury in the development world and isn't constrained by a third party publisher demanding results and immediate profitability; setting deadlines and awarding bonuses on Metacritic scores. What Valve seems to do is give smart people access to more talent, better technology, and lots of money to create the greatest experiences available. I don't see that as being evil at all; I see it as fantastic practices for both us, the consumers, as well as any investors for Valve as a developer of software.

Why isn't every company in the video games industry like this? Well it's not easy to pull of and maintain. It's not "standard" play (for all my like minded SC2 fans out there). The only other company who was sort of running on this business model was Stardock, and well they made some decisions that brought them away from the whole publisher/developer/middleware thing.

Long story short Valve is great for our industry, is always thinking forward, and has created a great counter-business model to the Activisions and EA's of the world.

Now is Portal 2 available early?! If it is working today is gonna suck!!

Portal 2 Lab Rat is brilliant art, Valve is amazing at marketing and Here's Why

Spoiler warning! Another games are art rant incoming! Well that's not entirely true; in this case it's marketing is art. Hear me out on this one!

For me it is easy to gauge what I perceive to be good art because I have a very easy litmus test; did it place me in an uncomfortable emotional state? Whether it is the one rom com I can actually tolerate (Love Actually), a stupid movie like Dumb and Dumber or Jackass, or something truly brilliant like Gataca the common theme throughout all of the movies is that they push your emotions around like a pinball. When I play or watch a Starcraft 2 match I always feel my heart rate rise, I feel warmer, and I can feel the adrenaline start to pump. All signs of brilliant art.

I adore the contrast in tone between the Aperture Science investment ad's and the recently released Lab Rat comic. Both marketing vehicles are incredibly entertaining separately, but when taken together as a mass of propaganda for Valve's imminently released opus it could be the most effective communication of tone and theme I have ever been witness too. They are also damn well made. It is the tonal shift between comical and dark as hell; but still a little of each emotion in the other (much like a yin yang) that is really amazing. You have the uncomfortable humor of the investment videos and the dark experience of the comic.

It really seems to me that Valve is not afraid to market a new idea to the masses. It is really exciting they are not only putting out an FPS that isn't about soldiers shooting soldiers, and really isn't about shooting anyone at all, but that they are marketing it to the Madden and CODBLOPS masses (whom many of us PC Master Race look down upon and rightly so =P).

How is it that Valve, a company without a marketing department or firm, can come up with arguably the greatest campaign video game kind has ever seen and the best EA and Visceral can do is this?

Market more to me dammit!

In this blog I talk a lot about core video game demographics. To bring it up again the largest group of consumers of "video games" is men aged 25 to 40. The next largest group of consumers is women of the same age range. Teenagers and children are not the largest consumer base. This being the case then why aren't more games marketed to the most people (especially seeing as though my disposable income is probably a lot higher than those of 12 year old's).

I've bitched plenty about the marketing I hate, but let me talk about the marketing I love. Valve (spoiler warning: fanboy praise incoming) has done such an amazing job marketing Portal 2. Portal already has a huge installed fan base of core nerds, but Valve is clearly trying to expand their audience without alienating said core (ie me, the male aged 25 to 40). I see the TV spot all the time, the youtube investment opportunity video's are hilarious, the robots are cute, and all of the market accurately represents the pitch black humor of Portal.



Throughout the entire campaign Valve isn't insulting my family, bringing in aging rock stars, or resorting to breaking the 4th wall of their universe. They are just accurately representing their game and it's refreshing.

Bottom line is I think Valve has successfully executed a campaign that appeals to me, would appeal to younger children, and parents who are looking for a game for said children that doesn't involved soldiers shooting stuff.

PS. One more turn......
One more turn......
One more turn......
One more turn......
One more turn......
One more turn......
One more turn......
One more turn......
One more turn......
One more turn......
One more turn......

Portal 2 is Coming in 2 weeks!

In 2 weeks we will finally receive the highly anticipated sequel to the most important game to come out in the last 4 years. That game of course is Portal 2. I don't think a single, rational person had a bad thing to say about Portal. It was to the point, it was brilliantly written, and, in my opinion, is the first video game in history to reach that artistic emotional impact where I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the end. Any video game (or any artistic meidum) that can be that emotionally confusing and impactful is absolutely brilliant. Portal is the shinning epitome of how to take a cool, unique concept and make it so god damned effective that years later we are all still running around proclaiming that the cake is a lie and humming still alive.

Being the internet troll that I am I feel obligated to mention that there is certainly a lot that could go wrong with Portal 2. One of the most important elements of the first was its brevity; the game never felt padded or wore out it's welcome. Because of it's short length every single inch of every level was perfect, every line of, well, monologue was so meticulously well written, and the ebb and flow of the game was so well paced and thought out that there was never a single point that felt like filler (for instance Highway 17). With Portal 2 there is now 2 full length campains (8 hours each) and the biggest question I have is can they fill 16 hours with as much brilliant writing, pacing, and mechanics as they could just 3?

There have been a lot of game play demo videos, ads, and other media released for Portal 2 and from it all the game looks absolutely spectacular. It really goes to show what Valve does better than anyone; use the meidum of video games to tell stories that would not work as movies, books, musical theater, etc.

I love BioWare, and as I have ranted about frequently in this blog, I am even loving the clearly rushed and half-assed Dragon Age 2. They are a great developer, but they are not the best because their games would work almost as well as movies. Dialogue is a big mechanic and common theme throughout BioWare games and, while immensly fun to watch and navigate the conversation pie, we are not as immersed as we are in, say, Left 4 Dead. In Left 4 Dead there is very little "dialogue" and the story is told soley through brilliant level design. It is why Left 4 Dead would be a lousy movie, but works VERY well as a video game.

I'm getting a little rambly here, but bottom line is Valve is really the only AAA company that is really pushing the boundaries of the FPS. Crysis 2 may look brilliant, but it is still soldiers running around shooting soldiers. Homefront may have sold very well, but it is still soldiers running around shooting soldiers. Halo, CODBLOPS, etc.... Soldiers running around shooting other soldiers. Same base mechanics. Only Valve really shows that fantastic (and profitable) AAA games can be made if you take risks and push the boundries of the genre.

/Rant

Gamestop buys Impulse from Stardock!

The big news over the weekend is that retail giant Gamestop has purchased digital retail venue Impulse from Stardock for an undisclosed sum. Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock has released a statement, but this FAQ sums in up pretty well. I think this is an absolutely fantastic move for consumers, for Brad's company, and for Gamestop. Take the long journey through the wall of text with me if you please!

Quick side note: I'm not sure if this post is interesting or not so please let me know what you think in the comments if you could! Thanks!

Let's face it; digital distribution is the future of PC games. You don't need a fancy advanced economics degree to see that the retail video game market will start rapidly declining in the near future. It will never go away as long as there are grandma's with christmas and birthday gifts to purchase, but us "savy" consumers have already pretty much completely switched to digital for our PC purchases and many have even started with digital for their consoles.

Console digital distribution is another whole can of worms, but let's focus on why Stardock selling and Gamestop buying is a good thing.

One of the many amazing things our 26th president Teddy Roosevelt was very well known for was introducing the very first anti-trust laws into American culture. It is a pretty widely held opinion that monopolies are good for no one (except those who hold them) and that having no competition in a marketplace is scary for a few reasons. First there is no reason to be better or advance. If you have no fear of losing your grip on the market why try and waste money on new features or advancing your market? You are getting the income anyways because hey! Where else they gonna go? It is also bad because the monopoly can dictate price. If you want the product you will pay because hey? Where else ya gonna go? These kind of tactics certainly explain why diamonds are so expensive.

Valve are currently dominating the marketplace with Steam and for now it is a great thing. Steam has manageable DRM and low costs for developers, and it brings us consumers so much convieniance it is crazy to think we ever purchased games another way. Sure it certainly isn't perfect, but it is really damn close. It will always be this way as long as Valve has the threat of a usurper; ie another distributor like Impulse. So far Valve does nothing but right by it's customers and fear of losing them will keep them in line.

Stardock kind of started Impulse by accident. The have been using their own methods for digital distribution for years and it made sense from a business standpoint to make some extra cash over it. The important part of this sale though is that Stardock as a company decided it wanted to define it's identity as a developer of software and games, and not a retailer. When a company has one sector that represents the bulk of it's income then of course that department is going to get the most focus. That is why we never saw Starcraft Ghost from Blizzard (RIP Nova).

Stardock want's to focus on what they are really passionate about; making REALLY nerdy PC exclusive strategy games that are so complex and with such a hgh bar of entry that no one but the best of the best PC master race will dare to venture in (ie me). Their last game Elemental: War of Magic was kid of a disaster to say the least. I did purchase and play it about 5 months after release and a few patches and while functional, it wasn't that fun. It certainly had a lot of potentail, but the bulk of the mechanics and game play elements were clearly rushed and not well planned out or executed. It clearly wasn't the company's main focus and it showed. I have a feeling that Wardell and crew were not happy about that and didn't like the way they were going, so they changed things. They wanted to release "Starcraft Ghost" and not focus on "WoW" (yeah that analogy is a bit of a stretch but I think it works).

Gamestop is a retialer. They know retail. They also know that physical stores are on the decline (see above). They will be much more passionate about really expanding impulse and becoming viable competition for Steam because they need to to survive. They have no choice but to take a piece of the digital marketplace because I am assuming that they enjoy making money and feeding their families.

I think we will see a lot of changes to Impulse in the coming year. First, and certainly least I definitely a level of DRM implemented that doesn't exist with Impulse right now. From a publishers standpoint this may be a sticking point for more AAA titles being put up for sale on Impulse (not that there aren't plenty). What else will we see? I certainly have no idea but we do know that Gamestop is coming for Valve and for all of us PC peeps that is certainly a good thing.

Valve will continue to make Steam the best, and I think they will work harder because now they have a real retailer who will be clawing at their throats. Gamestop know's that their future really depends on this purchase and I really believe they will be hungrier for our PC dollars. I certainly don't plan as of now to switch to impulse, but I am excited that they will certainly keep Valve on their toes.

PAX East 2011 Day 1

Well day one was quite amazing as to be expected. I did skip the keynote speech for reasons I already went over (and will prolly do a follow up to that soon anyways). Let's start with a few highlights for me.

[Quick side note, the pictures look like ass because they were taken with my phone camera. Taking a real camera today to get some MUCH better pics]

First off, I am happy to report that I am starting to think I was wrong about 38 Studios and Kingdoms of Amalur. Now full disclosure; I did get the shake Curt Schilling's hand, and as a huge RedSox fan, that is kind of awe inspiring. I didn't get any pictures though much to my chagrin. Anyways, the game looked reasonably solid, considering the gameplay demo we got was a pre-alpha build. One thing that really impressed me about Curt's attitude is that he is fully aware that KoA is not breaking any new ground as a fantasy RPG, but he wants it to be the absolute best. He is going for the Die-Hard effect (topic of a future post). The game right now looks an awful lot like Fable to me with more of a focus on fast paced, combo driven combat. To be honest the demo looked like a hell of a lot of fun, with really fast paced and visceral combat, beautiful visuals, and an interface that seemed very streamlined and functional, yet potentially as deep as many hardcore RPG nerds demand. Of course he is going to have some stiff competition in 2011.

I did spend some time in the expo hall as well checking out all the booths and what some AAA and indie developers had to offer and I am sorry to say there is really nothing new to report. Gears of War 3 looks an awful lot like GOW2, Battlefield 3 looks an awful like like BF2BC, COD, and all the rest of the military shooters to the point I couldn't discern (and I am sure it will sell accordingly), BioWare had a short playable version of TOR that looked exactly like it does in all the videos, and Bethesda had a multiplayer build of Brink for people to play that, once again, looks an awful lot like other online shooters on the market. Lots of fun to check everything out, but no new revelations.

On the floor I really enjoyed the Kingston booth, where they had EGiNcontroL playing Starcraft 2 against challengers from the crowd while being cast live by professional shoutcaster Day[9]. I have to say it is really exciting to be there, surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd, watching high(er) level live matches. There was one game when the challenger got almost all of his army blown up by blings and just hearing the crowd holler and jeer was almost reminiscent of any professional sporting event I have been to. It really makes me want to pursue my thought of getting a small, local tournament up and running (more to come on that).

Regardless there was a lot of gaming, a lot of Magic the Gathering, a lot of great booths and great sights, and I got to meet a lot of amazing people already. Day 2, here we come!!

A School Shooter Sim, Grotesque Art, and Gaming

Yesterday I read a very disturbing interview on The Escapist about a small independant team making a mod of Half Life 2. The game will simulate a school shooting ala the horrible Colombine massacre and the VT massacre as well. It really got me thinking about Grotesque works; most specifically what constitutes Grotesque art and what is just plain disgusting. Take a journey with me if you will.

Dictionary.com offers some definitions for the word Grotesque:

1. Odd or unnatural in shape, appearance, or character; fantastically ugly or absurd; Bizare

2. Fantastic in the shaping and combination of forms, as in decorative work combining incongruous human and animal figures with scrolls, foliage, etc.

In any sort of media there exists Grotesque art that moves to make us uncomfortable and attempts to push us to think about the societal norms and taboos we have adopted as our nature. Some of my favorite movies, tv shows, and especially musical theater (yeah I love it, whatever) I would definitely classify as Grotesque. Sin City and Pulp Fiction, Dexter, Sweeny Todd, all some of my favorite artistic works on a screen or a stage that are bizarre distortions of every day existence.

Can a potential school shooting game be considered as Grotesque art?

It's a really tough position to consider. As much as I would never ever download a mod like this it does beg the question about it's merits. As much as I abhor the attitude of the studio and the direction of the game, did I not just post last week about wanting video games to take on tougher and more mature subject matter above the war shooter? This is certainly a mature and difficult subject.

When I first read the interview last night I was pretty horrified that anyone could take the attitude that the developer has adopted. That any interactive media we consume should not provoke, but rather allow our reflexes to take over our minds. I think that attitude with anything is pretty sick. The creator of this mod's objective clearly isn't to create art in the noblest sense. He isn't out to make a point out of any irony, or send a clear message. He is out for laughs and specifically mindless fun. Does this disqualify him as an artist or his work as art?

I think it is his attitude that I find most offensive. To be honest I would really enjoy a thoughtful, mature artist to tackle the idea of a school shooter game. If someone wanted to communicate a message of desperation and isolation so severe that it would cause the protagonist (antagonist) to lash out violently, or to create a social commentary of some sort I would probably support that. I really am a fan of truly Grotesque that serves to push us out of our comfort zones and challenge us. I really wish this was along those lines, but I definitely believe any art is a reflection of the artist's soul and artistic vision (not to be too cheesy, crunchy) and there is clearly no vision behind this work aside from for shits and giggles by the developers own admission. That, I would argue, is the difference between Grotesque and just plain gross.