Jun 30, 11:34 am
After three amazing years, we have decided it’s time for Frag Dolls UK to take a rest. It has been a wonderful experience for the three of us, but as time moves on so do we and we all now feel it’s time to head off on some new adventures. We’ve driven tanks, interviewed personal heroes, broken world records, and had the opportunity to go behind the scenes of some of the greatest games ever made. Most importantly, we’ve also met some wonderful people: you. We’d like to thank you for your overwhelming support and friendship over the years, and hope that you’ll continue to support our American sisters over at fragdolls.com. We appreciate your understanding at this time, and - as always - wish you all the best.
Jun 25, 8:37 am
In the big bad world of self projection, it is very important that we come across as we mean to. In a networking meeting we may want to highlight our skills. Show that we are ambitious and highly achieving, yet approachable. In other situations modesty, compassion and intellectualism may be favoured. One word can change how people see you, or in my recent case it was two words.
I was mid conversation when my hobbies came up, and I of course placed ‘online gaming’ quite high on my ‘things I like to do’ scale. But I had never really thought about what ‘online gaming’ actually means to people.
I guess I would approach the situation with a response such as ‘Oh really, what do you play?’ But this may not be the norm. Some associate online gaming with weapons and war fanatics, people who want to sit at home and blow stuff up whilst generally yelling some obscenity. Others simply jump to the conclusion that all online games are MMORPGs. You say the fateful two words and they no longer know how to respond to you, least you begin to tell them about your current skill level or start an argument about the virtues of being a Mage.
There is one dimension to all this that I had completely overlooked, and that was the new and ever growing area of online gambling. It’s not for the weak, it’s not for the pretty, but it is for all who hail to party bingo and poker. I had not considered that casually saying I play games online would drop me into the category of gambling maniacs and wanna be millionaires. A level-up loving elf warrior I could have handled. A mini war crusader on a quest to rid the world of evil I could have almost wanted to be. But an online poker player I am not.
I do not mean to make fun of any of these online possibilities. I know that many enjoy them and dabble in more than one area. I also realise that my current idea of party poker is as shallow as the view I hate others for having, and thus I really should give it a go and break my own boundaries. However, from now on I shall stick to merely telling new people that I like games and let them do the questioning from there, instead of seeding assumptions into their crazy little minds!
Jun 16, 9:45 pm
What do you do on a lovely weekend when the sun is shining? Go check out some military planes, of course!
Last week I headed over to RAF Cosford. I’m generally clueless about flying machines - it’s also seen as a bit of a “boy’s thing.” Which was all the more reason for me to go!
Most of the planes were from World War II or the Cold War, and ranged from test planes (like the mysterious TSR 2) to the well reknowned Spitfire (Cosford holds the oldest one in the world, y’know.)
There were helicopters, jet engines, missiles - even a selection of mascots, including a penguin used for company in World War II. Did you know that your average fighter pilot had a life expectancy of just three weeks in the air back then? No wonder they turned to some cuddly friends to buck their spirits up.
The Cold War in particular made for grim learning. When you think how close we were to nuclear war, it’s very scary to look back on. I hope we never have to encounter a period like that again.
Overall, as I am not a life-long fan of planes, it was hard for me to see these - granted, magnificent works of engineering - as anything more than killing machines. Seeing the WWII Ohka (otherwise known as the “Cherry Blossom"), was particuarly humbling. It was used mostly like a glider plane, with a missile in the front - essentially a one way trip for the pilot.
And whilst I now feel a little wiser in my technical know-how of these amazing flying beasts, there are few words wiser than those of H.G. Wells - “If we don’t end war, war will end us.”
Jun 10, 5:02 pm
Recently I came across a poll asking for your favourite generation of video games. Was it the 4th generation (SNES, Megadrive), 5th generation (N64, Playstation, Sega Saturn), 6th generation (Gamecube, PS2, Xbox, Dreamcast), or the current generation (Wii, PS3, Xbox 360)? Or perhaps a different generation entirely?
My personal favourite came in at a measly 14% of the vote, second to last. Yup, I’m part of the generation commonly referred to as the “16 bit era” – the 4th generation. And let me tell you why I think it’s the best gaming generation of all time.
The 16 bit era was a time of magic, dominated by two gaming powerhouses – Nintendo and Sega. Sony were a tiny spec on the horizon, and cartridge was king. Sure, you had the TurboGrafx and the NeoGeo, but any gamer worth their salt knew consoles were all about the SNES and Megadrive. I was fortunate (and unusual) in that I owned both systems, but remaining neutral in preference was not an option. School playground chat was dominated by Sonic vs. Mario. Phantasy Star vs. Final Fantasy. No casual gaming demographic. No mucking about. You were a gamer or you weren’t. You loved Sega or Nintendo.
Not only was being a gamer more hardcore, but the consoles themselves were too. You could throw your Megadrive or SNES into a den full of angry, frothing rhinos and they still wouldn’t break down and stop working. None of that RROD nonsense. Even pads were almost indestructible – apart from a lethal coca cola spillage, of course.
It was also a golden age for video gaming magazines. SuperPlay. Mean Machines. MEGA. A magazine called MEGA – how cool can you get?
The era also spawned the first (and arguably last) decent videogaming television program – GamesMaster. When it was perfectly acceptable for men to wear bandanas and Butlin’s jackets. Hands up who would have swapped their sibling for a golden joystick? ME! ME!
And, of course, there were the games themselves. The 16-bit era brought us such classics as:
Sonic the Hedgehog , Mortal Kombat, Zelda: A Link to the Past (the only Zelda game I’ve ever loved), Street Fighter II, Gunstar Heroes, Chrono Trigger (criminally unreleased in Europe), UniRally, Doom, F-Zero, Earthworm Jim, Ecco the Dolphin, Shining Force and Kid Chameleon.
... I could go on. And I will! Skitchin’, Theme Park, Rocket Knight Adventures, StarWing, Super Mario Kart, Micro Machines, Revenge of Shinobi, Toejam & Earl, and er… Zool.
It may be a long time ago, but the excitement in remembering these things makes me feel as though it was yesterday. These are the things that created my favourite gaming generation. What’s yours?
Jun 07, 1:31 pm
I have very mixed feelings about game to movie crossovers. There hasn’t been a single game that’s made a genuinely successful movie. Some have had financial success - Resident Evil produced a trilogy of movies. That just doesn’t happen if each doesn’t do well enough at the box office. Tomb Raider also produced a sequel, and Silent Hill did well at the box office too (with a sequel confirmed and in the making.) All of these films though were critical disasters, getting incredibly bad ratings and reviews across the world. So why should gamers care?
Well for me the problem with these poor quality movies is that I feel they reflect badly on me personally. A lot of gamers including myself would dearly love to show non gaming friends, relatives and acquaintances just why we are so in love with our hobby, and what it is that draws us in. They can’t help but see simplistic interactive cartoons. I recently spoke with Game Screen Writer, Rob Yescombe, who said whenever his father came into his room he’d say “Are you shooting more monsters in corridors again?” Rob explained “It’s not about shooting monsters in corridors. It’s about why you are shooting monsters in corridors.” That’s what many gamers hope a movie based on a game can show our non gaming friends, but when they fail to show the incredible drama we experience, it’s more than disappointing - it’s an embarrassment.
Last year I was absolutely blown away by the incredible story and cinematic style of Bioshock. With the movie announced, directed by Gore Verbinski famed for his work on the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and being written by Screen Writer John Logan (who penned films such as Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, The Aviator and Star Trek Nemesis) I certainly think the project is being taken seriously. My concern though isn’t so much about feeling embarrassed by it turning out badly, but that it may ruin my unsullied view of the game if the film turns out to be a bit naff. Equally the Prince of Persia movie has every chance at success with Jake Gyllenhaal starring, Harry Potter Director Mike Newall in charge, and the script written by the Prince’s creator himself - Jordan Mechner - yet I still fear that my Prince, the Prince I’ve come to know over the last 20 years, is going to be warped and changed and taken from me.
I suppose it’s no different than how people feel about their favourite books getting the big screen treatment, yet I find they are given far more reverence than any game to movie adaptation. I’ll just have to make a decision whether to see the movie when Bioshock comes out in my local cinema but as Andrew Ryan says “We all make choices but in the end our choices make us.”
