On the Paper Trail: Halo Encyclopedia

Welcome back to the paper trail, and in this installment we are going to look at something a tad fanboyish. Halo Encyclopedia is a over sized book on everything in the Halo universe, if one would not assume otherwise. This is going to appeal to many people who are fans of the series, however in a unique twist I am not a big fan of Halo, this series had game play that simply didn't appeal to me and I can not consider myself a fan, therefore this review is going to come from an unbiased opinion as one could get.

So the book is going to talk about the Halo universe, and it will go into detail about it. However many books like this often cater towards what we call "Gandalf Girthers." Originating in the Lord of the Ring series and has collectively carried over to any other sorts of fan base, the process of justifying various details using logic and facts presented in the works that may or may not be vital to the plot.

For example if you ever attempted to figure out how fast a speeder bike was on Endor by attempting to calculate the speed it would take to crack the average stormtrooper's helmet; have postulated the terminal velocity of a "little pony" as Rarity falls towards the Earth to determine how high cloudsdale was above the surface; or have ever attempted to calculate who would win in a race around the world between Superman and the Flash, then you have practiced the art of Gandalf Girthing.

Now the good news is that this book does not cater itself solely to these fans, there is information that one would need to answer various questions in the Halo universe, however the bulk of this book is told in a sudo-narritive as a historical tome that would be used as a reference for the UNMC historians. It goes into great detail into the story line describing various quotes from the game, what each mission was in the campaign and how it relates to the overall war, and separates itself between the various games without outright telling which vehicle came from which game.

Now you might be asking yourself that this is all fine and dandy, a look on halopedia can get me any bit of information that I would need to have on the series so what is the real motivation on me getting this book to place on my coffee table? Well the answer to that is simple, the artwork displayed is absolutely amazing.

I am serious you would think they would go with the graphics of the various games for the majority of the book, however I can say you have a mix of sketch work, full color paintings, computer graphics, and original art. For the vast majority of the time with this title I kept being bewildered at the various art in the background looking for the attention to detail the artist took to recreate the graphics of the game with various moods they were trying to emulate.

This book has all the information fans would like and brings enough to the table that a non fans can grab towards. Not a must own in my book, but worth seeking out to at least look at the amazing artwork and get a solid history of the Halo campaign without have any of the 4th wall being broken as you go and read it. Until next time finish the fight or at least that chapter in the next book.

On the Paper Trail: Confessions of the Game Doctor

Hello everyone and welcome back to the trail in this installment we are going to talk about a pivotal book in my personal life, Confessions of the Game Doctor. A book that I reread and received a new opinion on since I read it last two years ago. Now first off the name is something important, he is the co-father of video game journalism.

This person was credited for being the first person to use the screenshot in a video game review, yes he was in the game reviewing business that far back. He got the Oddessey 2 because he thought it would fair better then the VCS, and he was at CES back in the mid 70s. To say his work on Electronic Games was not pivotal is something of a lie to any gamer today.

Now when I first read this book I came away with the impression that the gaming coverage was vastly improved then what it once was back in the 90s. Bill talks about how he would use a phone and a Rolodex to contact PR reps to get information to add to a story off of a press release that was given to achieve a better story and how he would go to great lengths to have sketch artists and even translators go and read off Japanese player guides to simply go and get information for making modern guides.

Two years ago I thought with the advent of the Internet and my naive nature that we would learn from all of the boils of the past and overall become better then we once were. So two years later do I have the same opinion on the video game journalism market as a whole? Not even close, I actually believed we regressed in the journalism aspect of gaming media to be more of a glorified fans with access role then an active journalism.

This is going to take me a bit to explain.

Some of you may know I once was a review/reporter for the site blisteredthumbs.net and although the editor in chief did not see eye to eye with what I presented with as far as news stories went I had a wild month and a half to discover news on an almost daily basis on top of reviewing new games that were being released on steam.

There was a pivotal contention I had and it was my use of press releases, I tended to use them a lot. My rationale was simple, what better place to go and discover news then to read the PR statements given from the people behind the games themselves? Add some research to check on facts and compare to other stories at the time, plus a dash of opinions and leave it open for the reader to interpret. I was actually doing the same thing as what Bill did in the 70s but with email instead.

The turning point I had was a story I received from a contact in Australia (the Internet was world wide when I checked last) for a story that involved a 3 day event where students would learn the fundamentals of game design as well as have fun workshops in a 72 hour no sleep event. I was given the press release on a silver platter and was told that I had first access to this story. HOLY SHIT! An exclusive that was awesome, I was actually doing journalism at this point!

However since at the time I was on a writing probation I couldn't actually publish the story so I talked to a fellow site writer to see if he could get the okay from the EiC to run with the story, granted I knew it wasn't the best thing to report on at the time, but this was fresh news that I thought we could drum up as a "look at us we are truly covering the world's news."

Then it was rejected, did not even take 5 minutes to get that, stating that the material in the story was not relevant to the site.

I was just flabbergasted but kept pushing forward to try to find more and more unique stories from outside markets and uncover gold that was not being covered by the large sites like Destructoid or Kotaku. Sure enough it happened, by proxy no less, that I was let go from writing duties from the site and did not have a chance to plead my case or return. Ultimately what did me in was several mistakes done on my part on formatting, my inexperience on news writing, and the content of the stories I brought to the table.

I believe the term used was "too fresh." He wanted me to link the source to another news site and then post it to the site adding a dash of me. Which is okay however what will it take for you to then visit their site and stop looking at the original site? This is where I have to sigh is disbelief that truly the whole online journalism when it comes to gaming is having select individuals experience the actual product, get the scoops, and generate the incite and then pass the story around over and over again adding opinions that have no foundation on the original story itself.

Sorry for that tangent there, but looking back at my experiences I was trying to be the 70s reporters like Bill was doing when the industry is simply less of a formal journalist and now more of a character driven environmental. I prefer the former myself, but as many sites out there appeal to the latter and they are doing much much better.

This review did not include about the much the book did it? Well since I have already wrote a review of the book before it was difficult to simply retread on my opinion two years ago, however all the wiser I can tell you the stories mentioned here are a must if you want to be a games journalist. To remember the trials and tribulations that came from the early news days and how the industry changed in the 90s. Also Bill provides some interesting input into various court cases in the 90s and went 3 for 3 for the clients who hired his services.

In short if you are interested in gaming at its very early days from the perspective of a journalist/comic book writer at the time, this is an excellent read and highly recommend this title to you. Also it gives hope to people like me that there are still people out there that care enough to look for pockets of gaming journalism that are willing to act more professional then fan.

Off the Beaten Path: Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks

Hello everyone welcome to...well we are not on the trail per say just merely off the beaten path. This will contain books that do not have a direct interaction with gaming however can easily be tied into them. It may sound confusing right now but when I talk about Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks you will get a better idea.

This book at its core is a chronicle of a midlife crisis and one man's journey to figure out his fantasy desires in the real world. It started with a D&D obsession as a teenager, and then college came and vowed never to play it again...until he turned 40. As with many people at that age people tend to think if they chose the right decision when they were younger and through a series of events find his old D&D books. To figure out where his fantasy urges lay in the real world he sets off for an adventure to discover the fantasy side of people.

This book goes into a modern D&D game session, a reunion of old D&D players, LARPs, Dragon*Con, Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) areas, Wizardrock (i.e Harry and the Potters), and yes even fantasy video games with the focus on WoW. Through this journey he talks about various reasons of escape as a means to cope with reality, and even going as far as trying to find a proper balance between the fantasy world and the real world.

Now if you have been following these reviews you know a title I have done earlier was Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal and the various themes of explaining how escapism is used to deal with real world issues on a person hit home in an unscientific manner. Jane uses the escape to allow us to achieve more then what we believe we can in reality with Fantasy Freaks argues that we escape to make reality simpler to manage and easier to control.

Both people are correct for vastly different reasons, I wonder if Fantasy Freaks went ahead and read Reality is Broken if he would agree with Jane's viewpoint or stick with his own.

As for the video game point of view he does talk about being addicted to video games, even talks to a self help survivor of it. Although the addict argues that video games are evil he simply states at the end that he was really into self help tapes, thus indirectly saying that it might not be video games but the addict within a person that latches on to a particular vice and rolls with it.

In the end he came to a realization where he realizes the true meaning of imagination and dreams, it is not to simply live in a fantasy land instead of reality. We escape or use our imagination in order to create. I believe he hit the nail right on the head with this, as imagination allow us to make world or things that we know do not exist and them into a somewhat tangible reality for people to interact with, some people take it to the extreme and actually try to immerse themselves into their fantasy 24 hours a day but as Jane pointed out in her book doing it for more then 3 hours a day is unhealthy for anyone to do.

All in all a book I can highly recommend if you ever dreamed about Harry Potter, Tolkien or even the fantasy genre itself. It gives a great perspective on how to balance the adult life with your inner child and has valuable advice to anyone who has the same issue the author has in this.

On the Paper Trail: Mega Man MegaMix Vol. 1

Welcome back to the trail partners and for this installment we are going to talk about Manga. You know Manga, its the Japanese comic Book where you need to read it backwards in order to read it properly. All kidding aside I have nothing wrong with manga, except that the majority of them are serialized so much that to do a proper review requires me to take out a loan to afford it all. So from the jump I am only talking about Volume 1 of mangas unless otherwise specified.

Now for Mega Man MegaMix it is a series created by Hitoshi Argiga and published by Udon. Udon has been known for taking Capcom licensed mangas and treating them with respect. Simply holding the art to the original form, leaving more then enough translation notes, and keeping everything as close to the original as possible. In short, this is a good publisher if these books are up your alley.

Now the book is actually comprised of three unique stories using the various characters from Mega Man 1,2 and 3 to great effect. The first story covers Mega Man 1 where Dr. Wily takes over the robots created by Dr. Light (Right if you are from Japan) and attempts to take over the world. Rock, a service robot demands to become a combat robot to save the humans and Light reluctantly does so. By happenstance Rock discovers the powers of coping abilities and uses them to defeat the various foes and defeats Wily before a cunning escape.

Story two has a more terrorist plot involved as Wily's own creations are used to launch giant skull satellites into orbit to destroy the world and have robot reign supreme. I won't spoil the ending of this one but needless to say Item 2 makes a great cameo in this story.

Story three has Wily recreating Yellow Devil from the original Mega Man but this time Wily's robots are working with Mega Man trying to stop Yellow Devil from causing more harm then good. The ending is bittersweet and reminds you that not all stories have to be used in cannon in order to be effective.

The art and attention to detail is amazing, various minor characters are used to great effect on being general goons and the action fits with the series itself. All the robot masters act appropriately and designed authentically to the various chibi incarnations that you have seen. The ending of the stories do include various character profiles to give you more information on each robot master that was presented in the story and a humorous message from the author detailing some changes he made to the story to make it work better.

All in all if you are a fan of the original Mega Man games give this a look through, currently there are three volumes available with a GigaMix being rumored as well.

On The Paper Trail: Reality is Broken

Howdy partners welcome back to the Paper Trail and in this installment we are going to look at the popular book by Jane McGonigal called Reality is Broken. Jane has recently spoken at GDC, PAX East 2011, has had her TED Talk gain notoriety and been on the Colbert Report.

Jane has been a big proponent on getting more games into gamers hands. Yes she wants gaming to save the world, if you think about it we have been gaming for over 10,000 hours, thats about the same amount of time that we have been in school since the 5th grade (barring perfect attendance). We are master gamers and to think that it is a waste of time is nothing more of being closed minded to the world.

This book talks about games, even going as far as describing the gaming lexicon to people of non gamers. How do you go and explain the "epic win" to a non-gamer who does no understand gaming itself? Jane not only manages to do this, but also talk about various games she has created to go and fix reality.

Reality is boring, dull and has no real motivation to go and achieve something. Gaming allows us to go and achieve something great every single time we play something, why not make the games entertaining, fun, and be a cause of us trying to go and fix the problems with reality? By simply curtailing games to real world scenarios and leaving open ended answers we can collaborate with people all over the world to go and solve problems in our everyday lives.

I totally agree with this theory, however there is one big hurtle that she does not address, and that is the gamers willingness to go and participate in these ventures. Almost all of the examples she mention are ARGs (Alternative Reality Games) where by the game and reality have a common plane of existence to interact with one another. Now there have been ARGs in the past (see Perplex City) where it flopped due to the lack of participation from gamers as a whole. The fact is when something like Find the Future comes along and when I tell people about it I get an overwhelming "meh."

Gaming has many facets, some people like to stick to their FPS, RPGs, or even D&D campaigns. However to consider yourself a true gamer, you need to be willing to play ANY game of any capacity. Once you get to your gaming life as an elder game player then you can benefit from the things McGonigal talk about.

All in all this is a fascination book on where games need to go in order to change the lives of mankind. We have the technology and know the techniques to execute them, all we need to do now is remove the stereotype of games being nonproductive and actually a benefit to the society as a whole. Once we achieve this anything is possible to be solved in the context of the game.

On the Paper Trail: Masters of Doom

Howdy partners welcome back to the trail, in this stop we have ourselves a geek classic here. Masters of Doom tells the tale of John Carmack and John Romero, how they once started as lowly programmers trying to push the edge of technology and somehow changed the entire culture of gaming for better or worse.

This story is madly fascinating by being brutally honest about the Johns and their rise to power. Carmack is a self motivated nerd who just wants to hammer out the code to get the job done, Romero is an experimental jackass that takes no solace in anyone else's emotions. These people are in essences uncaring pompous pricks that are really good at computers, they do the things their way and everyone hates them because of it. However at the end of the day there is still a passion that you can not deny from them.

This book is blunt, in the same manner as the Johns and pulls no punches with foul language and tells it like it was. It includes great mini biops on various people you know (American McGee and the ID Mom were among my favorites) as well as incorporate the culture at the time as well. One fact that I found hilarious was that one day after the US government forced the ESRB to come into existence Doom was released to the public via shareware.

It also tells you that both together managed a rise and fall for the glory that was Doom and Quake I, and how they were apart made Ion Storm and Id crash from its mighty perch. The various business dealings would make you head tilt upon how Eidos managed to put up with all the nonsense that Romero was cooking, or how in the world no one thought Carmack was a terrible business owner and not just a hard worker.

This book is a time capsule about early computer gaming, the excitement of having two people and a bastion of friends pushing computer hardware to the absolute maximum and creating the games that they wanted to have created and making a boat load of money using unorthodox methods. The book does not sugar coat anything it simply tells it like it was and excepts you to be mature enough to think it is awesome or just question why Microsoft would allow a Giant Vaginal door to take place with the members of Gwar hitting people with dildos (yes that actually happened).

If you grew up in the 90s this will be a blast from the past that you will love to revisit, if you are wondering where trolling started it also tells you that as well, or if you wondered how two people with no business skills managed to finance an empire based around video game it talks about that as well. A must read if you are a gamer to find the zenith into FPS that is still tried and true to this day.

On the Paper Trail: Gamers...in the library?

Howdy gamers, welcome to the first stop on the trail and in this installment we are going to talk about video games and libraries. Sure you may think that these two things would not go hand in hand with one another however recently studies have shown that this can be a power house mix to attract teenagers and children to the hallowed book hall.

So the goal of this book is simple: get more people to the library and have video games to be one of those "services" that are made available to the patrons. Eli Neiburger is both a librarian and a gamer and has seen his hobby become a major success in his district and has the plan to make it a success for your own.

Now as you might imagination the core of this book is not for "gamers" but rather librarians who may or may not know about video games. Therefore several parts of this book address things like which games you should look into, what consoles you may want to get, what cabling is required to set up an event and the logistics of the event to attract people into coming.

As a facilitator it does an amazing job into breaking down the various aspects of planning of the tournament season at your library, from convincing a person who does not think video games belong in the library to using your budget to get the most bang for your buck. It breaks things done into simple terms and tells even the non technologist how to pull an event like this off and keep the gamers coming in.

As a gamer the biggest takeaway from this is the tournament system they use to ensure that no one would be bored at the event. As well as how the rules need to be both structured enough to be understood and flexible enough to change on the fly in case an issue arises. This in combination with how to set up a room for a tourney comes into play if you were wanting to set up one at a convention, your basement, or in another public space. This is a great guide to ensure you get the maximum amount of fun from the experienced player to the novice.

All in all this book was made for librarians, as it was published by the ALA directly. Yes the American Library Association has published a book on how to create video game tournaments at your local library to encourage gamers to come. If that alone does not tell you that libraries are not cool I am not sure what will. If you are an adult that wants to run a tournament to attract people to come and keep coming back to your public venue this is right up your alley.

As for a gamer this is something you may want to skip since it deals with more of an open venue management rather then the nuts and bolts on setting up ways to get the clan structure set. Plus since it is an ALA book the price point of this one is $50. Which in my opinion is way too much for you to go and purchase this title, my best suggestion is to check this out at your local library (heck my library had it on its shelves for me to go and check out) take some notes and return when finished. You can check out the book on Amazon which provides you with a nice Kindle version for those reading on the electronic device.