This article is why I had Sinistar on my mind. I actually have been discussing this issue of co-operation and antagonism between the game and the player in a class recently and introduced this topic through Anna Anthropy's clever little game, Lesbian Spider Queens of Mars, and, of course, Sinistar:
“Beware, I Live”: The Voice of Antagonism, The Voice of the Arcade
The trick (I believe at least) to learning an accent is to focus on and then practice a phrase or several words that contain enough vowels to get the vibe of the sounds of the language (learning an Irish accent is as easy as mastering two words "Jesus," that is "JAY-sus," and "potato," that is "puh-TAY-toe," some sense of the proper inflection also required).
I was watching an episode of Behind the Music years ago about Garbage. I had never been able to pull off a Scottish accent, then Shirley uttered the above phrase, which I was just taken with as some sort of beautifully violent poetic statement (have no idea what the full context was). I began repeating it regularly, and soon enough, I finally could do the accent.
Bend me. Break me.
All art is useless.
Sarra says this article is meh. Then again, she's heard me complain about this subject any number of times.
However, it's something I have never put into writing. No one will notice, but I grow bored of sensitivity.
I want punk back, and if that means I have to align myself with Oscar Wilde, so be it. Better company than most.
The New Puritanism, or, Some Troubling Tendencies in Video Game Criticism
Decent guy.
Always wear the happy face.
The written word is a lie.
Indeed, the truth is in tautology:
I could be wrong.
I could be right.
Forever and ever. Amen.
On how limiting a medium allows us to see its fundamentals more clearly:
The Blind Swordsman Teaches How to See Video Games More Clearly
Yes, it is an assumption on my part that the song "Seven" is being sung by a seven-year-old, but everything she has to say is too true and too noble that I can't help but think that she is seven.
Tinkerbell is, by the way, the hero of Peter Pan. Peter Pan himself is a putz.
Not sure why this has been a topic of interest to me of late, the kinds of physical representation that arise in video games, but it is the third article that I've written related to issues like it in the last several months.
Playing with the Pieces: Hearthstone and the Physical Pleasures of Play
Discussed ritual in regards to gaming in my class last week. I was mostly talking about the repetition and cycles present in The Path and what they signify in terms of storytelling and folklore.
All of this led to some similar thoughts and observations on Year Walk, which is a game literally predicated on following a process of ritual. Still not sure if my thoughts are a bit of an overreach, then again, I always find myself more willing to forgive an overreach than an "underreach." Underreaching is dull and unexceptional. Overreaching at least provokes ideas.
Better to be wrong with a little flair.
