A round-up of last month’s community musings
Before this year’s E3 conference, there were a bunch of major leaks of the announcements expected in the show. Particularly affected was Bandai Namco who had all of its surprise announcements revealed. The effectiveness of these leakers and their accuracy have no doubt prompted companies like Nintendo to pre-emptively threaten leakers with legal action.
This entire situation has prompted a debate about the value of leaks, the place of video game journalism, and on companies like Nintendo overstepping their bounds and bullying these “poor” leakers. I already expressed my opinion on the legality of Nintendo charging leakers in court. It is my opinion that Nintendo and other companies could absolutely win in court, although the ensuing case would probably cause some reputational damage to the company.
This blog is not about the legality of leaks, but about the ethics of leaking and maybe even reporting on leaks.
First, let us tackle the argument about this just being part of game journalism. The definition of journalism is the “reporting on recent events that happened”. Of course, that involves uncovering what happened and attempting to reach the truth. What is explicitly stated in most definitions of the word is that journalism reports on transpired events in the best interest of the population.
Is this the case for video game conference leaks? It is neither a reporting of transpired events nor is it an investigation of something critical to the population.
What it is, in fact, is entertainment journalism and yellow paper news. Something that peddles on rumors, hearsay, and thrives in exposing the personal information of corporations and people. The fact is, surprise reveals in E3 and other such conferences generate a lot of enthusiasm from gamers. A huge element of that enthusiasm is the elements of surprise. To generate all that hype, real people are working in development and publishing to craft that message. Real people dedicated time and effort to craft that Banjoo & Kazooie reveal.
I think the calm reception to the Dragon Quest Hero reveal compared to Banjo Kazooie was due to the heavy leaking of that character
In one fell swoop, a leak can destroy the hard work of many individuals. It can also destroy real moments of gladness that wouldn’t otherwise have happened for fans of the game or company.
In this instance, it doesn’t matter about the legality of the leaks or the validity of this type of journalism. It doesn’t matter that there are some gamers who do not appreciate a surprise or do not care if something is spoiled for them. As long as the fact remains that there are those who care about surprises and that there are hard people at work creating those surprises, I think to spoil that work is unethical behavior. No one would debate the ethics of coming over and tripping a waiter, or deleting a writer’s essay. No one would debate the ethics of publishing someone’s unfinished presentation.
I don’t see why there is even a debate here. The hard work of real men and women is being destroyed through these leaks, and the potential experiences of real gamers are being ruined.
- One of the more natural and highly critical games to potentially feature in this BoB prompt was Olli Olli, and Shoggoth2588 obliged with this blog.
- Sharukurusu, the author of this month’s prompt, answers his own request for blogs with one that talks about early 2000s game, Riptide GP: Renegade, an exciting looking title that features some cool futuristic water jet skis.
- Truly, there are fewer games with as many EXTREME activities as LaTerry details in this excellent blog about Final Fantasy VII. The remake can only hope of being this EXTREME.
This was a genuine moment of excitement and joy
- The first blog features the character Zer0 from Borderlands 2.
- Continuing with the same game, the next blog features Gaige.
S- Coming back with his Traveler in Playtime review series, Kerrik52 reviews one of the best Tales games, the glorious Tales of Eternia.
S- And here is chapter 2 of the adventure story.
Why ruin the work of these guys
S- In this personal blog, Xeo shares with us events of his life where he learned to accept himself for what he is. He is adamant that there is always light at the end of the tunnel, especially when you have close people guiding you to it.
S- Silva Blaine explains a few things about meditation and how it helps in coping with stress.
I- Also, check MeanderBot’s sticker making initiative. They look cool, so give him a visit.
T– After some initial hostility in a lawsuit between the creators and publishers of Star Control, Joel Peterson is happy that the dispute was resolved amicably enough, with some good will offerings at the end for good measure.
The real faces of excited gamers
D- Continuing to suggest additions to Smash, ABowlOfCereal suggests some menu additions as well.
M- Philsphindings continues his series in exploring the possible musical influences of some famous video game tunes:
- The first blog in the month continues where the last blog in May ended; by showcasing further video game tunes that utilize the “chromatic aftermath” musical technique, such as tunes from Turrican 2 and Mega Man 4.
- Unsurprisingly, the epic tune you get after finishing Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts is similar to the epic scores of movies like Ivanhoe.
- Here, Phil features the haunting “Life” track from the excellent Chrono Cross soundtrack which reminds him of the song “Mountain Men” by Jethro Tull. Honestly, I hear the resemblance, but think the tune is still more similar to “Schala’s Theme” from Chrono Trigger.
- Going into lesser-known JRPG series, Treasure of the Rudras which was composed by Ryuji Sasai of SaGa fame, look at the similar vibe between prog rock song “The Search” by Cathedral and “The Quest for Rudra Mines” (minus the vocals of course).
- In this blog, Phil takes on one of Nobuo Uematsu’s best soundtracks. Specifically, talking about “Terra’s Theme” from Final Fantasy VI which is my own favorite video game song. It moves me to tears nearly every time I hear it.
- In contrast to Final Fantasy VI’s score, I am the least familiar with Final Fantasy III’s soundtrack. Here, you can see the influence of the “Crystal Tower” theme.
- Then we go right back to Final Fantasy VI with another theme that I like very much, “Shadow’s Theme”.
- Here, this blog features some tune from Battletoads.
- And, as a final blog of the month, we get this amazing tune, “Yearning for Love”, from Treasure Hunter G which is clearly influenced by flamenco music and the classical roots of that music.
R- Sapato 64 may have spent too much time in the “gaming zone”.
The leak of the latest Tales game ruined the experience for both fans and producers of the game
To celebrate the recap of the entire month, give a hand to the following bloggers:
Topsauced Bloggers:
Comments of the Week and Band of Bloggers Team of This Month:
Be Lucky
Blog Count: 64
