Showing posts with label Video Games. Show all posts

Catch 'em All

      If you live in the U.S., and are acquainted with more than three people under the age of 40, you are probably aware of the Pokémon GO craze.  Or maybe not, because they've mysteriously disappeared, and aren't answering your calls or texts.  Now you know why: Pokémon GO.  It's a game on a smart phone.  And apparently, it turns people into zombies.

Borrowed from: http://crazzfiles.com/pokemon-for-a-brain-dead-culture-will-pokemon-go-be-used-to-catch-us-all/
      Ok, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but not by much.
According to an article in The Washington Times, in the last few days a significant number of people have been playing Pokémon GO at the Holocaust Museum.  Which begs a lot of questions, more even more raised eyebrows. 
      I'm not playing this game, because I've never been into Pokémon, and I don't own a smart phone.  (Waits for readers to recover from their faint of astonishment.)  But a number of my friends - and my therapy patients - are playing.  So I'm getting a contact buzz, so to speak.  I'm also getting emails from my agency directors specifically asking the therapists to get to the office early and catch the various critters in and around our building.
      Yes, that's right: a mental health therapy building has had strangers entering the lobby, trying to enter the rooms, and circling the building (which is posted with "no trespassing" signs) trying to catch imaginary critters on their phone. AND taking augmented reality photos of these spaces to show off which little goombas* they're catching.  This is pretty distressing for clients who have been, say, stalked in the past.  Or are seeking therapy without anybody knowing.  Or...fill in the blank.  In any event, I never thought I could get an official email at work instructing us to play video games for the sake of maintaining client confidentiality.  Then again, that's one of the reasons why I love being a psychotherapist: there's always something new.
      Nintendo has it's U.S. headquarters only a few miles away, in Redmond, WA.  I wonder how many Pokémon are wandering the halls in their building?  I vote we all take our phones there and find out!
Maybe there's a really awesome Pokémon gym in there!  Go, hoards of game zombies!  Go and swarm!
      Other news: today is National French Fry Day.  I've been debating long and hard over the best way to celebrate.  Steak cut?  Shoe string?  Curly fries?  Waffle cut?  If only I could catch 'em all!



*Yes, I know that goombas are from Mario Bros.  It's still Nintendo, and the it's a fun word.  So hush.

Resident Evil: The Raging Debate--how YOU can be on our podcast

      If you've been listening to Shadows on the Sound, then you may have heard me mention that my husband insisted that I defeat Resident Evil 4 before we could get married. I think he was joking (I hope he was joking), but it was moot point because I loved the game, and completed it accordingly. You may wonder why the man was so fixated on this particular task. Was he that obsessed? Was it a gender-reversed contemporary version of a fairy tale ultimatum? Was he buying himself time, maybe hoping I wouldn't finish the game?
      The only video game console I'd owned up to that point was a Super Nintendo, and the only game I'd ever played to completion was Mario Bros. 2.* There was a long stretch of no video games, then a weird work situation where I was thrown into playing Mario Kart for the N64 almost every day. I got pretty damn good. Then, another long, barren stretch. To my video game obsessed significant other, this presented a big concern: how could he know that I would support his passion, if I was so out of touch? I understood--after all, if he hadn't liked eating the food I make (one of my passions), I wouldn't have wanted to marry him! So the whole RE4 thing was a test of compatibility...and also one of taste.


  
vs.





   I didn't realize then that I would be sucked into one of the most intense zombie debates of our time: the Resident Evil Game vs. Movie clash. People feel passionately about this! Resident Evil is a franchise owned entirely by Capcom, so at the end of the day all the pennies fall into the same coffer. But from my experience, the people who enjoy every aspect of said franchise equally are few and far between.
      I won't go into a lot of history here, since Shadows on the Sound does intend to do an entire Resident Evil podcast later this summer. Let me summarize by saying the video games came first, with the original game for the PlayStation in 1996. The concept was simple: a deadly virus was killing people and turning them into zombies. It turned out that a pharmaceutical company called the Umbrella Corporation had actually manufactured this "T-virus" to be used for military purposes. Enter a gazillion and one plot twists over the next several games, with kick-ass cops, back-stabbing teammates, creepy settings, and one unforgettable red dress. 
      And people liked it so much, Capcom decided to branch out. The first Resident Evil movie was released in 2002. It was considered a cinematic success, and has spawned four live-action and two CGI sequels. Apparently, there will be one more (final?) RE film coming out in 2016, but we'll see.
      So here's the thing: the movies and the video games don't follow the same plot line. Although they feature many of the same characters, the movies spin off into their own world, with only the T-virus in common. So which is better? Which is more entertaining? Which is scarier? Because - much as with Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - when it comes to story lines, there can be only one.**
      There's no doubt which camp I'm in, Scorpios are loyal to a fault and I'm a wimp when it comes to scary movies, so video games all the way, baby! Plus, I'm sorry, but from what little I've seen, the movies totally screwed up the Woman in the Red Dress. According to my husband, the movies aren't canon--and the fact that Wikipedia defines the movies as "non-canonical" suggests most people agree. And when it comes to zombies, I find way more satisfaction in taking out los Ganados with a good sniper rifle headshot than I do in watching scantily clad action heroines perform unreal acrobatics.

      So what do YOU think? Milla Jovovich all the way? Can't get enough of D.C. Douglas saying "the Mansion Incident?" Love seeing that post-apocalypse Vegas? Wish they hadn't changed the Jill Valentine's voice? Maybe you think people should just shut up and enjoy them both...or maybe you think Silent Hill has them all licked. Alright: convince me. Give me your two cents, and you can be as silly or scientific in your reasoning as you want. You can lay it out by commenting on this post, or you can email me at zdgladstone (at) gmail. When Shadows on the Sound does the Resident Evil podcast later this summer, we will tally people's opinions, quote their responses, and ask our favorite contributors to be guests on the show. Deadline for relevant comments is August 15th, 2015.

      One final thing should be mentioned. In addition to the movies and games, there have been comic books, novels, and a world of merch around the RE franchise. This includes a deck building card game, which first came out in 2010. I have played it a couple times, and frankly loved the damn thing. Which is interesting, because it includes characters, villains, weapons, and locations from both the movies and the video games. Is this the bridge of peace to connect the two camps? We shall see.
I'm not happy until I have the Hand Cannon.
      

P.S. - Sunday is National Strawberry Shortcake Day. Go to your farmer's market, get some berries, and do the right thing. And if the fact that I just finished a blog post about a zombie franchise with a statement about fruit desserts doesn't qualify me as an eccentric, I don't know what will.


*I still love that game.

**Yeah, that's right--I just used an anime series as a point if comparison for a live-action movie & video game franchise, using the famous tagline from Highlander. And I stand by it.

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