Gamers Have Teh Stupid
One of the most exasperating situations a games writer can find themselves in is being cornered into telling a non-gamer what they do for a living. If you’re lucky, that particular relation will pretend to be interested or play dead. If you’re less lucky, they’ll ward you off with the sign of the Cross and hiss about a documentary they saw about video games corrupting kids.
And sometimes you just get insulted on national radio, which is what happened to Joseph Staten, the author of Halo: Contact Harvest.
Radio personality(?) Chana Joffe-Walt interviewed Staten for the purpose of…I’m not sure, actually. For the pleasure of saying things like:
“Isn’t gaming all just shoot’em up? Why do you need story?”
“Which brings me to another frank and ridiculous question, ‘Do gamers read?’” (I don’t know about the rest of you, but I buy books because the binding glue is delicious.)
“Geeks, you’re dealing with geeks.” (In response to Staten’s statement about dealing with a savvy audience.)
I know this story applies to Halo 3 novels, but it’s a good example of how the Forces of Evil care what system you pledge allegiance to. Be vigilant, child.
What? There are stories in games now!? Ridiculous! What are you crazy kids going to do next? Put cream in a donut? How delightfully extravagant! That’s almost as silly as putting an airbag in a car! An airbag! Cars can’t breathe! Delightfully absurd!
While I do feel offended by this so-called radio personality, I don’t have much respect for Halo novels.
http://www.fpsrantings.com/2008/01/02/a-quick-review-of-halo-the-flood/
Mike – The Flood is absolutly dreadful, but it’s really the only book that is. All the others are very worth reading.
Hey, you’re all forgetting the greatest game-related literature of all time: The Worlds of Power books. Yeah!
@Trygon
Good to hear. ;) Now if I could just find the others…
Wait, would the story make any sense if I skipped a book or three?
Nadia: I still have Nija Gaiden floating around here somewhere. To the ninja in everyone’s dad, right. Amusingly enough, that’s the only one I own because that’s the only one Solid Sharkey didn’t do a full synopsis of.
Mike: Well, yes. As self-contained stories, they do okay (Haven’t read contact harvest, but it’s a prequel, so one would assume it’s okay on it’s own), but there’s a lot more to be gained by reading them in order. For example, for the difference between SPARTAN-II and SPARTAN-III to really hit home, it helps to be aquainted with the training of the former (Fall of Reach) to really get the impact of ‘lowering standards’ (Ghosts of Onyx)