Emotionally Connected to Games?

Yep. It happens. Crazy right? Twenty years ago (give or take several), gaming was about getting a frog across a traffic-infested highway or destroying an alien threat singlehandedly. Times have changed.

Gaming has become much more than that.

I recently picked up Final Fantasy VIII, and I love it. Yes, I love the gameplay, but it's more than just that. The game's characters are more or less living, breathing humans.

They're people. People you relate to. People you somehow develop an emotional connection to.

Call me crazy (you wouldn't be the first), but it's an impressive feat for game makers to pull off the presentation of characters that gamers end up feeling for. Truth be told, it's something filmmakers and novelists strive for but are not always (or even close) able to obtain.

I'm not looking to over-praise game makers, but I find the things they do impressive. I am talking about that crazy emotional connection to fictional characters, though.

Being able to feel connected to a fictitious being, feeling as though you have gone through the same things as that character... well... I find it crazy, anyway.

I also think it's a powerful means for learning. Obviously, I'm not talking about learning language or arithmetic or anything like that. Still, through fictitious interactions it is possible to see where certain behavioral/relational traits can lead.

Take, for example, Squall of Final Fantasy VIII. He is a very caught up in his own version of the world, dependent on nobody, convinced that he can do it all by himself. Though I think myself pretty capable of viewing the world as it is, I can understand and relate to the "depend on nobody" mentality presented here. Being one of those guys who tends to think things through, I'm aware of the problems this mentality has (particularly in the challenge it presents to getting close to others relationally), but here in the game these problems are brought to light again.

And they demand (at least of me, an attentive player who can easily relate to the character) I rethink my own behaviors. I would call that learning.

I would call that an impressive impact for a game to make, and it's far from the only game to do so, but I'll save my stories of how certain games have shaped me for another time.

Until then, I bid thee farewell.


-Kenny Yeager (kenny@revolve21.com)

The Power of Appeal

I'd love to write a long blog post about how powerful product appeal is. By "product appeal," I mean any quality that makes an item or experience seem desirable. It's definitely a subjective matter. Anyway, I'd love to write a long, detailed reflection on this, but I just wrapped up a long theology post, and I'd hate for you to try and read two long posts in a single day. That would be... overwhelming to say the least.

Especially if you take my wordy rhetoric into consideration.

Still, I do have this to say. Thanks to Goozex, I finally picked up Final Fantasy VIII... a game that is now ten years old. So far, I'm rather liking it, but here's the thing.

I bought it because of its soundtrack.

It's no secret that I revere Nobuo Uematsu (who has been responsible for the majority of soundtracks for Final Fantasy games as well as a slew of others) as one of the most powerful composers around today and my personal favorite. I actually heard part of the soundtrack years ago, and I have loved it ever since.

It's actually what got me to actually try out the Final Fantasy series a couple of years ago, and I'm glad it did as the games are pretty solid. Still, I'm getting away from my point.

The appeal of the music, a relatively small but integral part of a game, was enough to sell me on a complete package.

Which makes me think of the broader issue of marketing/product appeal. How many movies have I seen solely on the fact of how much "style it oozed with"? Well, that may be limited to 300 and The Spirit, but that's really not the point.

The point is that appeal is ridiculously powerful. Yes, it's key to marketing, but is there more to the story?

I think that there may be.

I've been criticized as shallow for my stance of "if something doesn't appeal to me, I don't care how 'good' it is; I won't spend any time on it." Maybe that is shallow, or maybe I actually have a point here.

Life is too short to spend time on things you don't like.

Sadly, I feel I must qualify this, but I wish people would just read into my words what I consider a given. I'm not speaking of moral matters or matters of other necessity. I'm not saying "don't like telling the truth? Just lie when you feel like it." I'm not saying "don't like showing your respect for your leaders? Flip 'em the bird and do what you want."

I am saying that there's too much to see, too much to do, to be spending time on things that are of no particular interest or necessary merit.

For example, I'm a huge fan of The Godfather. It's one of my favorite films of all time. It's also critically revered. Still, if it holds no appeal to you, don't waste your hours of time watching it.

Appeal is powerful stuff. I wonder how it can be used for the pursuit of good.


Kenny Yeager (kenny@revolve21.com)

Living With No Regrets

Life is too short to live with regrets. At least, that's what Zak and I determined in a conversation earlier this week. Thing is, it's true.

Think about it. Americans live maybe 80 years on average? I don't actually know the number, but that'll work for conversation. 80 years may seem like a long time if you're counting down to something, but when you reason that it's the span of your earthly existence, it suddenly becomes a very small number.

Even at 22, I realize "I've already lived a quarter of my life, and what have I to show for it?"

To be fair, youth really is limiting when it comes to having milestone accomplishments to claim, so it wouldn't really make sense to panic about the idea of "I've got over twenty years behind me, and I still haven't cured cancer" or whatever a huge accomplishment would be for you. Youth is primarily a time for developing into a responsible, capable adult. It's not until that point that great feats are likely to be even remotely feasible.

But then, assume that you've thought about this, the shortness of life and the lack of things you can claim to have done. It would be easy to get caught up in the "I should haves" of the past. The problem is that time spent dwelling on those regrets take time away from doing other things, giving you even more to regret in the future.

"I should have danced more." "I shouldn't have been so worried about that." "I should have asked her out." Whatever "I should have" things you can come up with imply regret. Don't get caught up in that, though. It doesn't do any good.

Real quick, though, I'm not advocating disregard of moral regret, or even healthy guilt, for those things have a purpose. I'm talking about things that are not particularly moral issues in themselves, like the examples I gave a second ago.

To be honest, though I've been talking about not regretting things you have or haven't done, there's something bigger that I want you to see. Sure, I guess you could say that "shrugging off regret effectively sees to it you don't live with regret." The thing is, that's not easy to do, and there's a better solution.

Live in such a way that you have nothing to regret. Within the bounds of morality and godliness, take those chances, go for the things you want. Leave yourself no reason to look back and say "I should have done something." Dance more. Don't worry so much about what you can't control. Ask that girl out.

No, I don't promise that risks will yield the rewards you want all the time. I don't promise that you won't want to kick yourself for not thinking through some of the things you'll do. I do tell you, though, that living with the realization of foolishness for things poorly executed is far superior to having a life that is hardly lived. Mistakes can be learned from and future attempts can be refined for a greater probability of success. Inaction teaches nothing.

Life is too short to live with regrets. Take those chances and pursue the things you want. Give yourself no reason to look back on the past with regret.


For His glory,
-Kenny Yeager (kenny@revolve21.com)

When Things Don't Work

Some of you know me pretty well. Some of you know how much of a rabid Street Fighter fan I am. Some of you know that I take it quite seriously as a competitive medium. Some of you even know that I have set out to build my own custom arcade stick to improve my game.

I started on this project two months ago. Around the same time that Street Fighter IV came out.

Along with five million other people.

I ordered the arcade parts themselves (the buttons and sticks) from a two-man operation, LizardLick Amusements. Great shop. Great people. Good prices. Problem is, a two-man operation isn't ready to handle a massive influx of orders like they were hit with when SFIV had mad hype.

So, it took nearly two weeks to get the necessary parts to make my stick happen. I did work prior to that, like acquiring the brains of the arcade stick, soldering up connections, getting the layout in order for the physical housing, and so on. Still, I just had a bunch of money in parts all over without what it took to put it all together.

Today, I recived my parts. I had to do more work on the housing and some final wiring, but it was finally finished!

Except for the part about it not working. In the process of trying to install tons of parts in a small space, a number of soldered joints came undone. This was bad as it was. Worse is that I don't even have a soldering iron that works, so I can't fix it until I get one. Still, I tried to press on. Continued hooking up what I could.

Plugged it into my 360 after getting it all connected.

Three buttons (of eight) work. The stick itself doesn't even work. I now have a host of troubleshooting to do... and all the hype building up to having a stick to use (allowing me to play Street Fighter and other games seriously again) has been shattered.

So, I could sit and pout and rage about all of this. That'd be a really sad excuse for a staff blog, though.

On the other hand, I could shrug this off as something that went wrong and press on. Yeah. It sucks when things don't go the way I want them to, but it's not the end of the world.

I'll just have to work on this project some more. Do more research. Keep working through trial and error where necessary. The world didn't end. There's still tomorrow to look forward to.

I think we could all benefit from adopting this view in life more often. Life's too short to get hung up in the things that don't go as planned.

Care to join me in this admittedly optimistic view?


For His glory,
Kenny Yeager (kenny@revolve21.com)

A Brief History of Metal

Throughout the 1970’s, rock music had become something of a cultural icon. Bands like Led Zeppelin and The Who were rocking the world. However, something had been forming in the genre, something which would unfold to be its own style. This style would be known as Heavy Metal.

As you have probably noticed by my history channel-esque intro, my blog is about metal music, and all the history behind its formation. This blog entry will delve into the formation of the genre; the sub-genre’s associated with it, and the bands that made notable contributions. Without further ado, let us begin.

The roots of metal are somewhat vague, and many people are claimed to have started it. For instance, some say that Led Zeppelin laid the groundwork for it, while others say it was Deep Purple with their album Machine Head. However, what everyone DOES agree on is that the fathers of metal became known when they released their eponymous debut album. The band was called Black Sabbath. Their debut album featured a graveyard and the band members were famous for wearing accessories commonly associated with the occult. It was their second release which hit solid ground though, with cutting hits like “Paranoid” and “Iron Man.” In 1974, Judas Priest came onto the scene and began going heavier than Black Sabbath did. After their successes, other bands blasted onto the scene, including Ozzy Osbourne’s solo project, and glam metal bands such as Motely Crue and Twisted Sister.

The 1980’s brought on mass amounts of what was termed “Hair Metal” (Because band members had very long hair). However, the biggest development for metal came in early 1981 when Lars Ulrich posted a wanted ad in the local newspaper asking for musicians to jam with. James Hetfield answered the call, and Metallica was born. They proceeded to hire Ron McGovney and Dave Mustaine. (Who would later form Megadeth) When Mustaine’s alcohol addiction became severe, he was fired and met with David Ellefson and Kerry King (Who incidentally, was working on forming his own band, Slayer at the time), and formed Megadeth in 1983. Meanwhile, in New York, Scott Ian and Danny Lilker formed a band they named Anthrax. At the same time, Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman had formed Slayer. By 1983, these bands had popularized what became known as Thrash Metal, and all four are hailed as the “Big Four” of the genre. Thrash played an important role in advancing metal, influencing later incarnations of metal, and even influencing some non-metal music. One example is Mark Tremonti, formerly of the band Creed, who has cited Metallica as one of his biggest influences. Another example is Chad Kroeger and Ryan peake of Nickelback have said that two of their favorite bands are Megadeth and Metallica.

While Thrash became popular in the 80’s, one Thrash band had a direct hand in advancing the genre of metal. Slayer was unique from the other Thrash bands because of their down-tuned riffs, bloody, graphic imagery, and the growling vocals. The next phase of metal was a split, and it all started with Death Metal. The band considered to be the progenitors of Death Metal, was called Death, and was founded by the “Father of Death Metal,” Chuck Schuldiner. As one person put it, “Death metal utilizes the speed and aggression of both thrash and hardcore, fused with lyrics preoccupied with Z-grade slasher movie violence and Satanism.” Death Metal soon formed its own subgenre’s such as Black Metal, (And its Christian equivalent, Unblack Metal) as well as Doom Metal, Gothic Metal, and Power Metal. One of the more famous (Or infamous, rather) Black Metal scenes was located in Norway. Norwegian Black Metal had its own underground, and as one person put it, “It makes Marylyn Manson seem like a Catholic Priest.” For instance, the infamous band Mayhem has a dark and grisly past. The vocalist (who nicknamed himself Dead) shot himself in the bands cabin with a shotgun. He left a note simply saying, “Please excuse the blood.” When the guitarist (Whose nickname was Euronymous) found Dead, he took pictures of his corpse before calling the police, and even made a necklace out of fragments of Dead’s skull. Later, Euronymous got into a fight with a member of a rival band, (The nickname for this fellow was Count Grishnackh) and Euronymous ended up getting stabbed 23 times.

By the early 90’s, Grunge music had begun to overtake metal in popularity, and metal went, for the most part, underground. During the 90’s, two up and coming sub-genre were beginning to take hold. Progressive Metal, popularized by bands like Dream Theater and No Fate, took its cues from both Thrash and Progressive Rock, and gathered an underground following. The other genre, was one popularized by Alice in Chains and Jane’s Addiction, which was Alternative Metal.
In the late 90’s, fusion genre’s were forming. Influenced by the success of bands like Rage Against the Machine, band were successfully fusing Metal and Rap music to create the genre known as Nu Metal. Some of the bands driving this movement were Korn, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, and Disturbed. Some of the other bands who followed this movement were Linkin Park, Godsmack, Staind, and P.O.D. While Rap-Metal was establishing itself, other bands revolutionized metal. One of these was System of a Down, who hit big with their sophomore album, Toxicity.

The newest trends in metal have been fusions, but of a different type. Bands such as Bullet for my Valentine, Avenged Sevenfold, Killswitch Engage, All That Remains, and Atreyu had revolutionized Metalcore, which fused metal with Hardcore Punk. The other players in this fold are bands such as Children of Bodom, Still Remains, Underoath, Trivium, and Haste the Day.

As a closing note, metal has been around for quite some time. It is no longer at the forefront of music, as it once was, but it shows no signs of stopping. The genre has had a lasting impact on music thus far, and shows no signs of ceasing to do so.


P.S. Stay tuned for some vintage album reviews by yours truly!

-Travis Martin (travis@revolve21.com)