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61 Frames Per Second

Yahtzee Kills the Entire World

Posted by John Constantine



You thought we were going to stop bringing up topics of rampant, unapologetic, dumb, and brutish violence after this morning’s post, didn’t you? Nope. Brutish violence is, like it or not, a deep fount of inspiration for media of all types. Just look at the Greek epics, the work of Francois Rabelais, all five acts of Titus Andronicus, all ten billion variations on CSI/Law & Order, and 30 Minute Meals with Rachel Ray. Videogames are obviously no exception. While I haven’t worked out the math perfectly yet – 61 Frames Per Second will have the exclusive once I’ve completed the equation – my calculations seem to indicate that some 99.9% of videogames involve destroying stuff. Shooting, stomping, cutting, nudging repeatedly. Even the most seemingly innocuous interactive pursuit finds catharsis in decimation. How does one beat Tetris? You make the blocks disappear. Unadulterated violence is good fun in games, as illustrated by this week’s Zero Punctuation over at The Escapist. Yahtzee’s subject is the four-year-old first-person shooter Painkiller and man does the guy like that game. But he’s right, how do you argue with a gun that shoots both lightning and shuriken?


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Comments

Luke said:

What's going to be interesting is the Painkiller sales stats for this week (it's available on Steam, and thus to everyone).  The popularity of Zero Punctuation is unquestionable, and events like the mega-lineup at the Melbourne talk he gave back it up - but if people buy stuff on his say-so he'll never want for hardware or software again.  Plus all the inevitable loser-wannabes screaming "Sellout!"

Me?  Probably gonna give it a try - I have it on good authority the game is pretty fun.

May 23, 2008 11:34 AM

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about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Hooksexup, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia's prized possession is a certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.


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