I love that whacky Red Alert series sense of humor:

Check out this link :)

http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/22213

P.S. Pssst, Colin, how do we make avatars for Blogspot?

Future Article Everybody Will Love to Hate

By this winter break, I am going to finish an article about the utility of playing computer games for fun. There is some reading I have to do and discussions I have to have before I write it though. 

Here are the current themes of the article:

1. The importance of managing time well.

2. The polemic against hedonism (we call it fun).

3. The apology for fun.

4. Conclusion: We must stop playing games by ourselves solely for fun. Single-player games played solely for fun must be played with others.

I expect a lot of loving hate from bloggers. Bring it on.

Gaming as Art...Literally

This summer, I had the opportunity to attend the opening night of the I Am 8-bit art gallery in LA. Being the gamer that I am, I was excited about attending. Here was an art show dedicated to exploring the cultural significance of video games. Sadly, the actual event was a complete intellectual disappointment.

Let me just say, that I was in no way disappointed with the actual aesthetic nature of most of the artwork. If I had $600 burning a hole in my pocket, I would've bought this Zelda painting immediately. My problem was with the messages the art was trying to convey. Specifically, it was the lack of messages the art was conveying that made the show unsatisfying.

I Am 8-bit was nothing more than a pop art show. That is not to say that pop art in general is some type of vile entity that should be avoided like the plague. But, was it too much to ask that the art says something more than, "Hey remember Earthworm Jim? Well check out this painting!"


The art seemed to say nothing about gaming culture at all. It would've been nice to have seen art that made the audience think about how we game, or challenge the way we think about video games. Instead, all it did was take the viewer on an expedition of nostalgia without ever exploring what made the games so memorable or thought provoking in the first place.

Perhaps the worst part of the gallery was how some art reeked of what I'd like to call, "we're mature now!" art. CAUTION: The next few pictures are slightly NSFW. Don't look at these at work if you like your job.
The only thing this piece says to me is, "Hey we're so mature we're going to make a painting of a topless Princess Peach with tattoos. That's what mature art is, right?" It just feels like the artists being displayed were trying too hard to show that gaming was another form of artistic expression. The problem was that most of the artists failed to capture what exactly made gaming such a unique medium in the first place.

I'm not even going to justify this one with a critique.

Of course there was at least one piece that did appear to say something about gaming:


It's a simple piece. A faceless woman with a game of Tetris being played inside her mind. Compared to most of the other artwork, this piece said a lot about how gaming relates to our everyday life. We constantly try to make meaning of life and organize our experiences much in the same way as we organize tetrominoes in Tetris. However, there's always a risk at overfilling our minds with too much information. Needless to say, at least this painting got me thinking.

There was also a DJ at the event doing live synthesizing with a game boy that I thought was a nice touch. I'll go over that whenever I decide to write about music and gaming.

Despite the fact that I came away from the event disenchanted, I don't regret attending. If anything, I think the I Am 8-bit exhibit is a decent starting point for presenting the importance of video games. However, in order for that to happen, the people who submit art to the exhibit need to focus more on what gaming means for them as opposed to nostalgic pop art. If we want gaming to be considered as a true art form, then the art that is derived from it needs to actually say something about gaming. There's just something wrong with an art exhibit when the free Mega Man 9 box art posters say more about gaming than the actual art on display.

An Introduction of Sorts

Hello and welcome to the blog! What is this blog about you ask? Consider it a metaphorical proving grounds if you will. Proving grounds for two guys trying to perfect their writing skills in the hope that one day they will become full-fledged gaming journalists.

Yes, this is indeed a gaming blog. However, we hope to do things a bit differently around here.

Rather than focus only on gaming news and reviews, our goal is to provide articles and editorials about the ever-expanding world of gaming. We hope to discuss everything from gaming culture to gaming as art to deep philosophical discussions on game design. Whether it be console, PC, tabletop, or live action, we here at Stage Zero feel that gaming is an important social and cultural phenomenon that merits conversation.

Who exactly are we though? Well, allow us to introduce ourselves:

My name is Colin Wheelock (profile name: Satchamobob). I am a third year student at UC San Diego. I'm currently looking at future career options in the gaming industry. Journalism is obviously one area I'm interested in, but I'm also fascinated by the academic field of game studies. I've spent the past few months working as an undergraduate researcher for a game studies group on campus. Among my colleagues was Noah Wardrip-Fruin who writes for the blog Grand Text Auto. Click the link on right side of the page to check it out.

NOW FOR PAUL:

Hello minions! I'm Paul, and I agree with everything Colin said:

In fact, Colin is not just a third year at UCSD - I too am a third year at UCSD. And I am planning to write in the gaming world as well.

So, fellow gamers, enjoy everything we spew onto you because gaming is amazing and that's what will fly from our mouths, onto our keyboards, and into Stage Zero.

And definitely, if you see opportunities to improve our writing, spew back at us. Make it classy.

Since both Paul and I consider this practice for becoming game journalists, we encourage any and all comments and critiques of our writing style. After all, we can't expect to improve our writing if we don't know what's wrong with it in the first place. So feel free to offer your opinion on anything we say or write on this blog.

Because we're students we can't promise a concrete update schedule, but we will try our damnedest to post as often as possible. I suggest you bookmark this blog or subscribe to our RSS feed if you want to see the latest article we've written.

I think I've let this post go on for long enough. The U.S.S Stage Zero has officially set sail. We hope you enjoy your stay with us. We know you have a choice when it comes to gaming blogs, and we're glad you've chosen us as your game blog stop. Until next time!