Life Through The Pixel Glass-01/16/2013

efore I start the latest Life Through The Pixel Glass, I have some opinions I need to catapult off my chest. They’re heavy and hard, so get ready.

Yesterday treated everyone to some ugly controversy, didn’t it? I expressed my opinions earlier on my personal Twitter and yeah, I may have some peculiar points to make regarding the subject, but bear with what I have to say before you choose to angrily comment.

Do I take offense to the Zombie harlot resin statue? Absolutely, but only because of the context and the purpose of the statue’s existence is the main reason why, and maybe not so much the statue itself. To elaborate, I’m angry towards the manner in which the bust came to be: a shallow marketing device created from nothing more than a tasteless attempt to infuse the theme of the source software it promotes into a sculpt of sexually provocative torso of a mutilated woman, and with cleavage conveniently kept intact.

In another outlet like the venue of modern art from artists such as Danny Dickblood, David Choe, or Alex Pardee, this kind of portrayal isn’t far from out of the ordinary. I’ve seen more "controversial" pieces made, but overall, this statue isn’t art -- it’s garbage.

Why is it garbage? Because it’s an incentive to sell a video game at a higher price, and it’s insulting that Publishers and PR thinks that exploiting sexual objectification of the female body is appealing to consumers, and that this is what sells to the general demographic that is the video game community. So no, the statue isn’t art, and never will be. The portrayal of sex in any aspect has always been a tricky social rope of Do’s and Don’ts, and mistakes happen when we tread this kind of territory. I just hope similar topics in the future won’t be as egregious as this fucking statue since, you know, the industry IS better than what was shown recently, and hopefully took notes on how not repeat this sort of insensitive blunder again.

Anyway, on to the feature, hope you folks enjoy it.

 

It’s really surprising that we haven’t heard of this site earlier, but it’s a sanctioned website from Namco Bandai that has a huge selection of their classic series embodied into cartoon videos and web comics. The comics aren’t in house, either. They’re all worked on by famous web comic artists familiar with source material like video games. Dax Gordine, Scott Kurtz, and so many other artists take time from their own comics to contribute to all of these stories based on Namco’s franchises like Dig-Dug, Klonoa and others.

Nearly every Namco franchise is represented, so you can even find comics about Bravoman and Wonder Momo. Yeah, you read right, they have their own comics too. Check out the site here.

Some cool videos -- yeah, why not. The video “Super Mario Beads 3” is one of the few YouTube videos that showcases its labor of love within seconds of it playing. Marcus and Hannes Knutsson animated the iconic characters of Super Mario Bros. in their Super Mario World incarnations of pixelated sprites through the use of perler beads to animate a charming stop-motion film of Mario doing what he does best in the real world. The video is a short clips but it’s a blast from start to finish and faithfully recreates the imaginative scenario of what it would be like if the little plumber hopped around our very real world, check it out

Again, another example of a YouTube video that showcases some really enchanting visuals, YouTube user rickonami reimagines the famed intro of the SNES classic Star Fox with High Definition visuals and model work that would some professional and experienced graphic engineering to shame with its detail and fidelity. The video is more or less a tribute dedicated to the users favorite game and nothing more but who knows, the demand for this kind of treatment for the Star Fox series is in high demand and may need a fan’s touch if Nintendo isn’t going to anything with their iconic series on their newest HD console. Only time will tell.

Enjoy the clip in the meantime.

This week’s freeware offering is a real treat, in the vein of The Humble Bundle and Indie Royale, we’re getting another batch of indie games, but this batch isn’t any ordinary batch, they’re all free! That’s right, it’s The Free Bundle! In this list, you’ll see such titles as; Abobo’s Big Adventure (review hitting the site later this week), Nitronic Rush, Ascension, Celestial Mechanica, and IMSCARED. Below are gameplay clips from each game and if you like what you see then you can download them FOR FREE at thefreebundle.com and enjoy it firsthand.

If Sex is one side the touchy subject coin in the realm of video games then the argument that games are art is definitely the other end of the pence. Though everyone involved in the argument is quickly takes their stance for the camp they support, there’s no denying from either end that the screenshots of vistas and various other scenes from several different video games on Dead End Thrills aren’t absolutely mesmerizing. One author’s vision to use capture tools and imaging software to snapshot real-time, in-engine photos of the subject in question with the highest possible resolution, some of the pictures are just fantastic, get ready to lose yourself, flipping through hour and hours of archived posts.

A fascinating blog that’s easily become my favorite to make LTTPG, Retro-Video Gaming is one of those rare kind of blogs that gets stumbled upon by those are fortunate enough to come across and quickly finds itself making home in your RSS Subscriptions of bookmarks. As the name would suggest, the blog is dedicated to the retro aspect of video game culture but the writer Heidi AKA StopXwhispering is both a meticulous and educated collector that manages to captivate through insightful writing and striking photography that really captures the charm of the subject matter. You can check out individual collections, reviews, and a slew of other posts as Heidi makes it a point to update semi-weekly (hey we’re all busy, we’re the last people to judge!)

Comments

[DeadPixels]

It really blows my mind just how that foot-tall piece of resin has gotten so many people so riled up. Honestly, the bust is plenty distasteful, for sure, but it's no worse than the myriad of other similarly sexualized and mutilated bits of foam-rubber you find at any costume shop during the Halloween season. Dead Island is, first and foremost, a horror title. That said, I dare you to find one beach-themed horror flick that doesn't capitalize on the gory trinity of blood, brains, and boobs. This isn't about misogynistic marketers taking out their sadistic aggressions on female gamers through grotesque manifestations of cheap resin and paint, it's a gory novelty item to accompany an equally macabre game. Nothing more.

Let's be serious here. When Record of Agarest War was released alongside that ridiculous mouspad featuring a pair of pendulous breasts, everyone rolled their eyes and called it a day. The same goes with those creepy body pillows we've seen packed with Team Ninja games in the past. Suddenly, a horror game uses a similarly crude bonus item to market to fans and suddenly it's a marketing travesty? Would this have somehow been better if it were a hunky lifeguard's severed, speedo-clad hindquarters rendered in statuesque splendor?

I'm not trying to be crass, I just feel that Techland has received entirely too much flack for doing something that is not at unusual in this industry. Horror and sex are a pairing that have been around since the first babysitters got their comeuppance from a masked murder in the slasher flicks of old. It's crude and base, but so is the genre. Would I put something like this in my office? Absolutely not. But I don't think any marketer should have to deal with the maelstrom of fire and brimstone Techland received yesterday over something so commonplace. Besides, how could a all those Silent Hill Nurse cosplayers be wrong.