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GameSpite Journal Issue 9
Fall 2011: Games, Mortality, and Other Musings

Now available in print through Blurb.com. Choose from a somewhat reasonably priced paperback edition or a bank-breaking hardback edition that justifies its expense by pulling double-duty as a blunt weapon capable of stunning or maiming a man.

As an experiment, these books are also available in Blurb's brand new color format. This book was laid out with color images but isn't optimized for a full-color format, and its length means these color editions are incredibly expensive. I don't recommend buying the color versions! But they're here if you want them, both the painfully pricey paperback and the heart-stoppingly high-cost hardback. Seriously, though -- caveat emptor.

As with all issues of GameSpite Quarterly, this book is published on demand and will never go out of print. You can purchase this and all other GameSpite volumes at Blurb's GameSpite store. Enjoy!

"I grow old, I grow old...."

Like the eponymous lector of T.S. Eliott's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," I grow old. I was never much for beach walks with my pantlegs rolled up, though, and peaches rank among my least favorite fruit. That wraps up the existential dilemmas, anyway. Even so, I've found myself thinking about my inevitable aging of late. My face is lined, I often wear ties, people don't card me when I buy wine; it's all really quite tragic.

And since I work with video games day in and day out, these grim musings sometimes overlap with thoughts on games and game design, which is what led to the opening volley of articles in this latest edition of GameSpite Journal; the question of where games overlap with mortality formed an unintended but unquestionable pattern in my writing. I'm not the only one, though, which makes for a somewhat bleak lead-in this time around.

Don't worry, though -- death is but the beginning of GSJ9, and things grow rapidly more cheerful from there. If I could apply that power to life, I'd either be rich, or Mork from Ork.

Jeremy Parish
July 18, 2011

In This Issue

Conquering Death by Jeremy Parish
A Lonelier Silent Hill by Jeremy Signor
Big Daddy Dearest | BioShock 2: Raising Eleanor Lamb by Justin Hoeger
Perfection Through Death | Demon's Souls by Matt Williams
"I Feel... Young" | What Games Can Learn from Star Trek II by Jeremy Parish
Lighthearted Darkness | Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha Vs. King Abaddon by Jeremy Signor
Murder, Mystery and History on the Orient Express | The Last Express by Wesley Fenlon
Ultimate Perspective | The Lesson of Ultimate Ghosts 'N Goblins - or - Respect Amidst Hatred by Jeremy Parish
Let the Giants Rest Their Shoulders by Jake Alley
Time to Hunt | Alien Vs. Predator and the Soul of the Beat 'em Up Genre by Mike Zeller
Tales of Legendia by Andrew Bentley
Valkyria Chronicles | Taking the Middle Ground by Ben Elgin
Coffee Break | EarthBound Saga's Jeff Benson by Brad Allison
Welcome to the World | Phantasy Star Online by Matt Williams
Arctic MUD | The Life and Death of the Group Dynamic by Jeremy Signor
The Dark Designs of Digital Distribution by Jake Alley
alti 'tude | Air Zonk by Mike Zeller
"Nobody has ever cleared this stage" | The Story of Strider by Jeremy Parish
The Failure of Sakura Wars in the West by Thomas Nickel
The Proto-Shooters of Steve Cartwright by Ben Langberg
Crisis Core and the Redemption of Final Fantasy VII by Jeremy Parish
"Yo PlayStation, I'm real happy for you and I'mma let you finish, but the Nintendo 64 was the best console of all time... of all time!" by Alex Reo
'Nobi Nobi Boy | Shinobi by Marc Host
Chaos Vs. Constraint by Jake Alley
Video & Arcade Top 10 | Where Canadians Played Games and Televised Their Shame by Nadia Oxford
Super Effective | Why Mass Effect is Better Than Mass Effect 2 by Mike Zeller
Paz Tecum | How Metal Gear Made Peace with Portables by Jeremy Parish
Stressing Out the O.C.D. Kids by Jake Alley and Philip Armstrong
How I Fell in and out of Love with Rock Band by Alex Reo
Stacked in Your Favor | Mac Gaming with HyperCard by Ben Elgin
Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII by Aaron Littleton
Foresight Forgotten | The Defanging of Video Games by Jake Alley
The Loudest Unsung Hero | Sound Design in Games by Jeremy Signor
Lessons in Level Design by Justin Fairchild
Unimpeachable | What Makes Super Princess Peach a Better Mario Game Than New Super Mario Bros.? by Jeremy Parish

Please note that all content is identical in both paperback and hardcover editions.

Staff Roll

Nadia Oxford (Video & Arcade Top 10) is excited for Letter Time.

Justin Hoeger (Big Daddy Dearest) wants to take the ears off, but he can't.

Marc Host's ('Nobi Nobi Boy) sequel was so forgettable that it doesn't even warrant a mention.

Jake Alley (Stressing Out the O.C.D. Kids, etc.) drops an item you need to unlock the best ending if defeated within 20 turns, but only 2% of the time.

put Ben Elgin (Stacked in Your Favor) into line 12 of Bylines. put Bylines into field MainText of card (number of cards) - 1.

Aaron Littleton (Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII) keeps himself going by imagining a juicy plum.

Andrew Bentley (Tales of Legendia) is the King of Textbox Mountain.

Matt Williams (Demon's Souls, etc.) has invaded your game!

Ben Langberg (The Proto-Shooters of Steve Cartwright)is the token Atari kid.

Jeremy Signor (Shattered Expectations, etc.) needs to fill his waterskin so he won't die of thirst.

Jeremy Parish (Ultimate Perspective, etc.) looked into the death star. Then he died.

Justin Fairchild (Lessons in Level Design) was born that way.

Alex Reo (How I Fell In and Out of Love with Rock Band, etc.) can make the jump on Koopa Troopa Beach without using a mushroom.

Layouts, edits, cover and photography by Jeremy Parish.
Copy edits: Alex Decherd
All issue text available for free (eventually) at www.gamespite.net. Come talk about video games, personal issues, and grotesque fan art at GameSpite's forum, Talking Time.

GameSpite Journal 9 Copyright Indicia: The images reproduced in this volume are printed under the banner of fair use as supplemental visuals to support critical writing. Our words belong to us, but we make no claim to the works and images in question. They belong to.....

As usual, most images in this volume have been sourced from the following sites, with explicit permission of the site owners and curators: Hardcore Gaming 101 (http://hg101.kontek.net); The Video Game Musuem (http://www.vgmuseum.com); and the Let�s Play Archive (http://www.lparchive.org). Cover image includes photography sourced from Wikipedia and used under the Creative Commons License (photo by Flickr user mistagregory).