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TIM ROGERS: you know, i've always not liked the title of that magazine
TIM ROGERS: 'Animerica'
TIM ROGERS: I mean, anime is a Japanese word for an English word
TIM ROGERS: so 'Animerica' is an Americanized compound of an English word and a Japanese word for an English word?
TIM ROGERS: How fucked up is that?
CHRIS KOHLER: Right
CHRIS KOHLER: I don't know, I've long since stopped thinking about it
TIM ROGERS: Good idea.
CHRIS KOHLER: Eventually you just start taking words for granted.
CHRIS KOHLER: Like, remember how screwed up "Playstation" used to sound?
CHRIS KOHLER: How we thought NOTHING with such a stupid name could succeed?
TIM ROGERS: It sounded pretty fucked-up.
TIM ROGERS: You know Sony of America wanted to call it the 'GameMan,' right?
CHRIS KOHLER: Really?
TIM ROGERS: I mean, that sucks some ass
TIM ROGERS: And they wanted to make it BLACK
TIM ROGERS: Instead of 'GAY GRAY'
TIM ROGERS: They wanted it to be TOUGH and MATURE
TIM ROGERS: Shit
TIM ROGERS: This maturity shit in videogames
TIM ROGERS: It's shit
CHRIS KOHLER: You know, once people realize that all you need is content
TIM ROGERS: 60 minutes did a piece on mature videogames tonight
TIM ROGERS: Someone tipped me off on it
TIM ROGERS: I watched it, and sat MORTIFIED
TIM ROGERS: I got an email:
TIM ROGERS: 'Watch 60 minutes tonight,' it said.
CHRIS KOHLER: I can only imagine how stupid it was.
TIM ROGERS: I was thinking of writing something about it
TIM ROGERS: It was about BMX XXX
TIM ROGERS: They . . .
TIM ROGERS: Had a Bill Gates interview
TIM ROGERS: Bill Gates playing BMX XXX. Saying how the Xbox was the only system that had the unedited version of the game.
TIM ROGERS: It was . . . horrifying
CHRIS KOHLER: If they didn't interview Denis Dyack, they missed the point entirely
CHRIS KOHLER: That's close
TIM ROGERS: They interviewed Will Wright.
TIM ROGERS: They cut between images of games:
'Hollywood-like action-adventures'
(GTA: Vice)
'Photo-realistic sports games'
(Tiger Woods)
'Violent first-person shooters'
(FUCKING METROID PRIME)
CHRIS KOHLER: Kill me.
TIM ROGERS: 'These are the games people over seventeen are buying.'
TIM ROGERS: They then interviewed some EA bitch
TIM ROGERS: The reporter, Bob Simon -- respectable guy
TIM ROGERS: Told the EA dude about his favorite movie. He saw it when he was a kid. Something about John Wayne landing on Iwo Jima. How he left the theatre and ran for an hour, just because he was so engorged with excitement. (my words, not his) So yeah, he ran with excitement So he said to this EA guy:
'Can you recreate THAT with a videogame?'
And EA d00dy says, 'Yes.'
And Bob Simon says, 'Well, show me.'
And EA d00dy goes:
'Let me show you James Bond 007 Nightfire.'
. . .
WUT
TEH
FUK?
CHRIS KOHLER: Why is anybody asking EA anything about anything?
TIM ROGERS: Well
TIM ROGERS: According to the 60 minutes piece
TIM ROGERS: "One out of four games sold is manufactured by Electronic Arts."
TIM ROGERS: So that seals that one
TIM ROGERS: shit
TIM ROGERS: this is some good linking material
CHRIS KOHLER: GREG FISCHBACH: Very close, you know, it's all that suspension of disbelief. If you can walk by a monitor and watch one of our games and can't tell if you're watching a real baseball game or you're watching a virtual baseball game, then we have succeeded at our job.
BOB SIMON: How far are we away from that?
GREG FISCHBACH: Three or four years.
CHRIS KOHLER: Yeah, right, Greg. You're three or four years away from bankruptcy
TIM ROGERS: Acclaim. You heard about their stock price drop, eh?
TIM ROGERS: On 180-day delisting warning?
CHRIS KOHLER: Yeah
TIM ROGERS: First GameCube, then NASDAQ, then hopefully the world.
CHRIS KOHLER: Cute
TIM ROGERS: You know what I find interesting, is the Cowboy Bebop Spike avatar.
TIM ROGERS: Did Spike Spiegel compile this transcript?
TIM ROGERS: Watching this story, I was filled with . . . well. Everyone was so businesslike. I remembered the way the teachers talked at the conversational English schools in Japan. "I got a level-G-6 coming in this morning. God, I don't need this before my support staff shift appointment in Meguro." I was like a hero in a movie or something, all like, "They're PEOPLE, man." It was great shit.
TIM ROGERS: It's all about CONTENT, man. These people don't recognize the need for CONTENT. I liked what Dyack had to say about the games industry now finally opened up for people with genuine interest in content.
CHRIS KOHLER: Tim, you're talking weird. Are you really planning on submitting this IM conversation as an article?
TIM ROGERS: not an article -- just a small piece
TIM ROGERS: see, i was watching this thing on TV
CHRIS KOHLER: Well shit then: "Why, I agree, Timothy. Content is quite an important part of video games."
TIM ROGERS: and eating this lemon water ice
TIM ROGERS: and thinking of writing something
TIM ROGERS: AHEM
TIM ROGERS: (you know, i've already cut and pasted and de-timestamped this whole thing -- even changed our screen names to TIM ROGERS and CHRIS KOHLER, in all caps like that; it's gr00vy)
TIM ROGERS: Content is important, yeah.
TIM ROGERS: I like what the BMX XXX guy says about The Sopranos.
TIM ROGERS: The most Bob Simon can come back with is "In The Sopranos, it's Tony going to the strip club. In BMX Triple-X, it's you going to the strip club."
CHRIS KOHLER: Who the fucking fuck cares.
TIM ROGERS: See, there's that CONTENT thing again. The "M" logo can go ahead and say "Mature Content." That's using the word "Content" too loosely. That's not "CONTENT" that's just bullshit thrown into the game to appeal to people UNDER the recommended age.
CHRIS KOHLER: I mean, this is the stupidest attempt at reporting I've ever seen. Reporters who know nothing about video games decide to find out, so they go ask the only people in the world who know less.
CHRIS KOHLER: If they didn't interview Denis Dyack for this piece, then they're not worth their shit. I should have their fucking job.
TIM ROGERS: Yes. And by "people," we mean Acclaim employees.
TIM ROGERS: Some people see Denis Dyack as immature, though.
TIM ROGERS: Since he makes games for Nintendo.
TIM ROGERS: . . .
TIM ROGERS: (AHEM)
TIM ROGERS: Anyway.
TIM ROGERS: In The Sopranos, Tony goes to a strip club BECAUSE.
TIM ROGERS: He has a reason. He meets people there.
CHRIS KOHLER: Well, they're wrong. You have to talk to this guy and let him tell you all about how they meticulously researched 2000 years of history to make the game perfectly accurate.
CHRIS KOHLER: I mean, that's mature content for mature people.
TIM ROGERS: In BMX XXX, you go to a strip club just because the game wants to reward you for being an asshole.
TIM ROGERS: Is that any lesson for our children?
TIM ROGERS: Denis Dyack knows his shit.
CHRIS KOHLER: Not like some people I could name: Bob Simon or Greg Fischbach
TIM ROGERS: And I really hope what he says about "people with content" is right.
TIM ROGERS: These game people on this 60 Minutes piece are not people with content.
TIM ROGERS: Who's the EA Guy?
TIM ROGERS: The one who showed off Nightfire?
CHRIS KOHLER: I believe it is. I think if you look at any medium, it's gone through the same growing pains as video games.
TIM ROGERS: You should have heard him talk.
CHRIS KOHLER: I mean, hell, it was only a few hundred years ago that theater was considered a base, low, dirty form of entertainment.
TIM ROGERS: You could have sworn he was reading right off this transcript.
TIM ROGERS: Reciting things like a businessman.
TIM ROGERS: He doesn't care about content.
CHRIS KOHLER: Maybe they realized that Bob was asking a shit-tarded question to the very wrong person.
TIM ROGERS: What's the first thing Bill Gates says?
TIM ROGERS: About GOD-DAMNED money.
CHRIS KOHLER: "Eight or nine billion dollars..."
CHRIS KOHLER: Of which you see WHAT, Bill? WHAT?
CHRIS KOHLER: Did they ask him how he lost TWO BILLION already?
TIM ROGERS: BOB SIMON: Dollars … what kind of dollar figure are we looking at for video games today? What's the magnitude?
BILL GATES: In the order of seven or eight billion.
TIM ROGERS: Is that the first thing we care about?
CHRIS KOHLER: no.
TIM ROGERS: I mean, in order to get the American viewing public interested, is that what we have to do?
CHRIS KOHLER: It does make an impact, and it's important for the layperson to understand.
TIM ROGERS: Mention the MONEY?
CHRIS KOHLER: Money's one of the first things I mentioned in my Fulbright proposal.
TIM ROGERS: Why not say, "Games these days kick ass. Look at Metroid Prime. Look at Eternal Darkness"?
CHRIS KOHLER: It gets people's attention. It says, "look... this is not bullshit."
TIM ROGERS: As James Bond said in "007 Nightfire," "INTERESHTING."
TIM ROGERS: So to show people you mean business, you have to show them that business means money?
CHRIS KOHLER: I think it does shock people into realizing that video games are not just a little silly industry.
TIM ROGERS: I mean, I care deeply about eating food every day; that doesn't mean it earns me money.
TIM ROGERS: Ah.
TIM ROGERS: Well, yeah
TIM ROGERS: "Videogames mean business," basically.
CHRIS KOHLER: It shows how much our economy actually depends on video games, crazy as that sounds.
TIM ROGERS: And E3 is "Where business becomes fun"?
TIM ROGERS: Well, forget about the way the commoners refer to videogames.
TIM ROGERS: Let's talk l33t here.
CHRIS KOHLER: It shows that the future of the games industry, and of the medium, is something that concerns a lot of Americans, not just little kids and geeks.
TIM ROGERS: In the videogame industry, it occurs to me, there are people like the EA d00dy who loves him some "Nightfire" . . .
TIM ROGERS: The businessmen who recite statistics and say "Awesome graphics" like it's an objectivity.
TIM ROGERS: And the tech people.
TIM ROGERS: Who talk constantly about software and hardware upgrades.
TIM ROGERS: Who begin all their sentences with "Bigger," "Faster," or "OMFG."
TIM ROGERS: So, if videogame companies in America are made up of these two types of people . . .
TIM ROGERS: We have money-grubbers and tech-junkies.
TIM ROGERS: So that means the tech-junkies are motivated by the money-grubbers' promises.
TIM ROGERS: And the money-grubbers plan to make more money by showcasing . . . "photo-real graphics and surround sound"?
TIM ROGERS: Does it matter what these graphics DEPICT?
TIM ROGERS: Does it matter what the Hollywood voice actors are SAYING?
TIM ROGERS: If Denis Dyack's forecast that content is the future of videogames is true -- well.
TIM ROGERS: That'll be good.
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