Friday’s Random Five 7-30-2010

Friday’s Random Five is my attempt to showcase some pretty cool videogame related stuff that I’ve found on the internet. This can range from cool articles, random videos, to small downloadable games. These won’t always relate to what’s currently going on in the world or in the gaming industry, but in most cases I’m sure they will.

As I get older it seems as though I have a stronger desire to preserve my life. I find myself hoarding images of people I’ve met and regret not taking more pictures. One of these days, I’ll buy a decent camera.

While we may not think it with each image we take, we create starting points for memories, ones that we’re hoping our brains can finish for us. Enough so, to remember the experience, to come as close as we can to relive it.

Gamers out there are trying to preserve the experiences we value and are struggling with it. Due to technological and IP ownership related realities, some of our experiences will be lost and already have been. Giant Bomb has a feature called “The Matrix Online: Not Like This,” that attempts to capture the final weeks of The Matrix Online. The feature’s finale concludes with the servers shutting down, literally forever. Forever is a long time.

Giant Bomb’s The Matrix Online – Not Like This Finale

This week’s Random Five relates to the preservation of gaming culture.

1. The Difficulties of Preservation:

Over at Destructoid, Conrad Zimmerman writes an article on a new paper published in the International Journal of Digital Curation, highlighting the diffulties of preserving digital entertainment.

“Games are unique in that, even if a lost and forgotten game should be discovered decades from now, it’s entirely possible that nobody will ever be able to experience it.” – Zimmerman

Read More…

Since movies lack interaction, a movie can always be ported to a new format, but the best games always utilize their specific format well. No More Heroes on the Wii is an example of a game that just wouldn’t be the same without a sexy seductive voice edging you forward through the mic on your controller.

2. Tribute to Street Fighter

Games, like every other form of artistic expression, are digested differently by different people. Quality fan art has a way of showing a common interpretation of a character, but also a specific artist’s interpretation and style, creating a unique re-imagining. Kotaku posted this image by Deviant Artist Fenryk, Stroll Around Vigrid, which I thought did an excellent job of portraying Bayonetta’s and Cereza’s confident personalities. Lacking however, the ferocity of Amaterasu.

This is why my number 2 is the Tribute to Street Fighter posted by Hongkiat.com for showing 55 alternate perspectives on the iconic characters we’ve all come to love.

3. Lara Croft get’s a street and Sid Meier a holiday.

Between our gaming and our press, I think it’s easy to lose track of the fact that not a lot of people get excited by the same things that we do, but it’s always nice when a game gets recognized by the general public. Because it means games are making an impact on more then just us. Even if we lose our abilities to play another Tomb Raider or Civilization, they have left fragments on our everyday life.

Lara Croft Way

Civilization V Day

4. GameSpite.Net

GameSpite.Net is a site the focuses on video game criticism maintained and run by Jeremy Parish. He helps compile video game related articles into quarterly and yearly books that go over a variety of topics. These articles help one remember the era in which games are released, but also remind us why we loved or hated those games. Each Quarterly issue revolves on a different theme and while I only own 2 of the six available books, I’ve found them both to be retardedly engaging. So if you see yourself doing anything in which you’ll have time to read you should check out the page, check out some of the work, and buy a few books. These books are filled with articles that will make you smile and remind you why you game to begin with.

5. Street Fighter is like chess.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, from Inception, tries for a second to explain the complexity of Street Fighter 2 to Jimmy Fallon. Comparing it to a fast classic game of chess. I don’t think he gets through, but he tries.

Link to the video because I seem to have problems embedding videos on here. 

Capcom Unity Post

Those are your Random Five. My website can be found at LoadedConsole.com