Comic-Con '09 - “ Like mechs? TAKE A COURSE ON OPERATING A TANK IN THE ARMY!”

Jeana, my friend Gabe, and I decided to go to Friday’s events at the New York Comic-Con. I had never been before, but it didn't take long to acclimate to the arid, occasionally smelly atmosphere of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and its localized greenhouse gasses created by energetic Cosplayers.

Navigating through a labyrinth of separate cabinets of wonders, we passed mercenaries strapping patrons into modified dentist chairs to play F.E.A.R. 2, free brands being given out at the EA booth, and numerous warrens populated by baying and garish otaku. We waded through hentai peddlers accepting crumpled bills from trembling forms of human gelatin, and an imposing, surreptitious Riddick replica breaking character to happily sign a G4TV release form. I hope it went something like this: “ So, why are you here today, Riddick?” “ Where there’s desperation, there’s opportunity. . . It’s a gig.” Quite a sight to say the least.

But the main motivation for me was to see the Vs. Mode Live panel with Ken Levine, Todd Howard, and N’Gai Croal and Stephen Totilo presiding. You can look at a list of hastily written facts mixed in with a healthy helping of generalizations and misconceptions about what Levine and Howard said at Totilo’s Multiplayer blog. I would like to give my impression of certain things both men said that I think either became misconstrued or were conveniently ignored in these frantically typed responses:

I think even Totilo’s update to what was originally posted about how Levine is “Not interested in multiplayer space” misses the point. What Levine said was not only that he hasn’t thought about multiplayer for much of his career, but that recently he has been thinking about it, just not in the Call of Duty sense. He’s not interested in occupying that space because Infinity Ward and some other developers have that part of the market cornered, and whether he genuinely wants to or not, anything he could design that attempts to penetrate that market would just be white noise and a commercial casualty by FPS firing squad. He did rather subtly mention that his next project occupies a separate multiplayer real estate, that it’s a different breed of multiplayer experience entirely. This is when I got excited, sweaty, and possibly by some definitions, aroused. Rather shamefully I removed my long-sleeve shirt and exposed my Rapture shirt underneath that I was starting to feel lame for wearing.

Something else left out of that post was an interesting thing Todd Howard said about achievements in Fallout 3. It turns out that achievements don’t just simply provide the means to chastise and smite friends remotely, they also help Bethesda. They actually compile comprehensive data of every achievement earned for every player and monitor their play styles based on them. Big Brother Todd also added that according to this data, 80% of players had good karma, which was a surprise to him, myself, and my cannibalistic, enterprising wastelander alter ego.

Also, when asked what their favorite games of the year were, Levine only gave his recorded answer of “King’s Bounty” after repeatedly asking N’Gai if he could say “Fallout 3”. The request was repeatedly denied. Howard did ask, with some degree of sincerity if he could also pick Fallout 3 as his favorite game of the year. Once that was vetoed, he mentioned GTA IV and Call of Duty 4 as his two favorites. Howard also said that he likes going to bed after beating another WWII game and screaming at his unamused wife, " Woo! The Americans won again!"

Todd and N'Gai taking pictures. Stephen and Ken fashionably late.

Other Highlights (in no particular order):

• A lonely sentry sitting idly by at the vacant US Army booth.
• Touching Ken Levine for the second time and talking with him for the third. Big Boy Ken (yes, we’re at that point in our relationship now) introduced Gabe and I to his wife and friend. Mentioning that we just got through playing Dark Athena, he asked how it was and I gave him my thoughts. I also added that they had a big, lumbering Riddick impersonator over at the booth who silently prowled and shifted through the players. He said that was actually him, I just couldn’t tell because he had his goggles on.
• A long, menacing staredown with Tycho.
• Meeting the disgruntled actor who played Chewbacca. He told us at his empty booth, without once making eye contact, that it would be $25 for a single autograph. We declined. Instead, we settled on a roaming Chewbacca who was in costume and willing to do a free photo op.
• Playing Assault on Dark Athena and Mad World

Regrets:

• Not bringing my bottle cap-filled Fallout 3 lunchbox for Todd Howard and Emil Pagliarulo to sign.
• Not playing the Ghostbusters videogame.
• Not fondling N'Gai's extroardinary dreads when I had the chance
• Not using the bathroom while I was there. Wait. . . that was probably a good thing. Who knows the variety of costumed penises I could have been exposed to.
  

Pictures from Gabe's phone:

N'Gai (left), Levine the Great, Howard the Hobbit, and the Green Lantern (right).

Chewy (left) and Gabe (right) share a warm embrace.

A rather rotund troop of Ghostbusters.