The USS Quad Damage

There has been a recent kerfuffle about the PS3 version of FFXIII looking superior to the 360 version.

Before I go on my diatribe I’d like to take this time to ask people why on earth they bother with the Wii and the 360 as products. The Wii has pretty much no games for it, and the ones it does have carry an air of “Casual gameplay” strong enough that you have to hold your breath while switching the console on. The 360, on the other hand, needs you to hold your breath because otherwise it will break down. Granted, some people have 360s because their friends have 360s, but then you gotta pay the fairly hefty $90 odd every year for what is a glorified IM client.

I’m not a PS3 fanboy. I’ve heard them talk and they’re irritating. I am literally asking the question. I mean, if you see a bunch of strident heterosexuals walk into a gay bar every night you gotta ask yourself “what the hell is in that gay bar that is so appealing?”. Ironically I’m talking about the 360 here. The Wii is a write-off and we all know it (except Zelda, I guess?).

OK back to the multi-platform angry typing – First let’s define “multi-platform” as the 360 and the PS3, and optionally the PC. Any game that’s released for the Wii also is probably not worth playing. The reason is simple: Developing games for multiple platforms is really hard, and each platform is a challenge (except the PC. Man the PC is so awesome). While the PS3 and 360 are difficult for developers, overall the rough quality of the platforms is similar, so the same resources (art, sounds, etc) can be used for both platforms. The Wii is comparatively so underpowered that if you were to release the same game on the Wii, the PS3 / 360 versions would look terrible or someone would have to re-do all the art for the Wii. The significantly different control scheme also means the game would need to be re-designed to some extent.

You’d also have to keep in mind that Wii gamers probably fell on their heads as children. I kid. I love you non-gamer types. Ultimately, you’re all procreating so… you know… good for you…

So, despite the fact that both the 360 and PS3 (and PCs! But we all know PCs are awesome under all circumstances, so let’s not worry about them any more) have the ability to chew through the same resources, the ideologies behind them are as different as… well… as different as capitalism and communism. The short-form way of thinking about the differences are “lighting looks better on a PS3 but textures look better on a 360”. However, the real difference really comes down to the developers themselves. Often, American developers will think of, and develop for, the 360. This means that the power of the PS3 will often remain untapped, and the PS3 version will look slightly worse. A Japanese developer, however, will often think of, and develop for, the PS3, which means the power of the 360 will go untapped.

The differences are minor, but enough that certain parts which are glorious under one console (and this isn’t necessarily a graphics thing, but more of a moment in gaming thing) will be merely interesting in the other. Considering how hard it is to make a game, period, I think it’s quite an achievement to get a glorious moment on one console. I think people who have the other console should feel glad that they got to play the game at all, given the number of mediocre games and console exclusives.

At the end of the day, they call them consoles because you all have to console yourselves with the fact that a PC is the real home of gaming.

Newsweek describes an interesting archeological site which has been interpreted as a “religious site” which predates farming, cities, etc. In an interesting twist, the theory is that religion necessitated farming and cities, because temples were essentially immovable, as opposed to farming and cities naturally forming religion.

There are some aspects of this which I agree with — I believe the monuments came first. What I disagree with is that there is a diety or religion involved. I believe these people weren’t making man in the image of god, rather man in the image of a giant robot.

First, I would like to explain what I mean by Giant Robot, because it is mostly metaphorical (“mostly” in the sense that a physical Giant Robot is a metaphorical Giant Robot, but a metaphorical Giant Robot is not necessarily a physical Giant Robot). I see this as an infra-meme, that is, an idea that pervades the minds of most Engineerey types, even though it may be at a subliminal level. A lot of technical people will express their desire to build a “Giant Robot” or a “Giant Robot Army”. They’re probably not talking about literal Giant Robots here (but sometimes they are, like I said before).

They are talking about… the term that best describes it, at least… is their magnum opus. There is a thing that we are reaching for, and it’s something that we will create, and it will be awesome. Awesome is an overused term, so let me stress that it is a thing that we will make and people will be in Awe. The desire is within us as individuals. We can only stretch so far, and the goal we’re after will never be reached. As far as we’re concerned, it is infinitely far away, way too hard, but something with enough reality that we can try and reach for it. We keep getting better and better, and our work is improved over time, and we see that, but still we reach.

This is not a religious thing, it is us reaching, searching, for our best. Sometimes interesting things happen — this crazy goal we set ourselves, we sometimes actually reach it, or even exceed it. It’s crazy because it’s almost technically impossible to reach this crazy goal, but it also makes sense because the goal is also badly defined and doesn’t really make sense. This can happen individually, but can also happen in teams.

We’re social creatures. It makes perfect sense that I would build my giant robot and you would build your giant robot, and even though they’re different giant robots, we’re inspired by the fact that we’re both doing our best to make giant robots. Because we’re just playing here, we could actually link our projects together. This would happen naturally and organically. Let’s say I just draw on rocks and you keep stacking rocks on top of one another. I could draw on a rock and give it to you and you could stack a rock on top of it.

Then something really cool happens — You both realise that you’ve built something outside of your idea of what “Giant Robot” means. And this real “Giant Robot” is something that is more beautiful than your mind could have imagined on it’s own. This exceeds your dream. Needless to say, you’re going to high five your neanderthal friend and basically hang out at that spot for the rest of your life, telling anyone who will listen that you did that shit. Everyone can appreciate it, at least from a “hey let’s meet at the place where those dudes did that thing” perspective.

That necessitates farming and cities. Eventually people start having power struggles and the weak ones invent religion. God is really just a Giant Robot.