Pop-culture

Second Skin is a 2008 documentary by Juan Carlos Piñeiro Escoriaza about MMO players' "second skin"—their avatars and virtual life. While looking at those into titles like World of Warcraft, EverQuest, Second Life, and others, MMO players' lives seem like an easy target for humor, Second Skin manages to avoid that.

Recently released Half-Life concept art is rumored to belong to the very long-awaited Half-Life 2: Episode 3. The Internet briefly caught fire before the denials came down from Valve. Going by Dorkly's Half-Life spoof, whenever a sequel to the episodic games does come, Gordon Freeman is likely to remain a silent character.

Extra Credit now examines the Augmented Reality Game genre. This genre appears to be the furthest out of reach given the technological requirements and costs needed to create seamless experiences. Should someone get their head around those limitations—and I guess wearable technology becomes a thing—it has great potential to blur the line between gaming and the real world.

Bastion made a name for itself thanks to its beautiful aesthetic and the use of a narrator. But what other games could benefit from someone giving essentially a play-by-play of the action on the screen? Dorkly tries it with just a few popular franchises.

Alternate Reality Games and Augmented Reality Games both fall under the acronym of ARG, but are actually quite different. Extra Credit takes a quick look at the Alternate Reality Game half of that genre of games—and yes you can argue that they are games. Perhaps it is because they are unfamiliar to the public and save for a few great examples like Microsoft/Bungie's I Love Bees or Electronic Arts' Majestic, they have been largely untouched by many in the games industry.

This fan film is called Aperture: Lab Ratt and made by Synthetic PictureHaus. It is based on the Valve comic called Lab Rat. Lab Rat told the story of an Aperture scientist named Doug Rattman, who apparently was one of the only survivors after GLaDOS's take over. Rattman was responsible for placing Chell (heroine of Portal) at the top of the list of test subject candidates that GLaDOS was to use and he also provided clues and warnings "behind the walls" of the Test Chambers for Chell to follow. Truly an important man whose story had to be told.

Thanks to an Xbox 360 port, Minecraft has finally gotten into the eager hands of creative console gamers. But as creative as they may be, they have a ways to go to match what PC gamers have been creating (and posting) since Minecraft was in beta. A perfect example of this is this recreation of the steampunk city of Midgar from Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII. Minecraft forums user CJ_Campbell has unveiled his labor of love (along with some of his other non-Final Fantasy VII works) for our admiration and envy.

Lincoln Ruchti's Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade is a documentary focused on the 80's heyday of arcades, and a great companion piece to The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. It focuses on Twin Galaxies' founder Walter Day, and many of the infamous players from that era that make appearances in King of Kong.

Extra Credit looks at the latest gaming trend: crowdfunding. It's not quite a household term but going by Twitter, press releases and gaming news coverage in general, it's getting there. Crowdfunding takes money from ordinary people in exchange for, say, a copy of the game or seeing a digital version of that person somewhere in the game. Right now Kickstarter is the company on everyone's lips but it isn't the only game in town. IndieGoGo, RocketHub, ulule and the newly formed Gambitious are all out there trying to help someone create that sequel to TIE Fighter or Star Tropics.

Most who have dared venture online with a microphone and an ear-piece can attest to just how awful things are out there. Maybe it has always been that way, but is only noticeable now with the accessibility of the Internet and the explosion of online gaming. Whatever the reason, it is clear that we need a solution because it has gotten pretty ugly. It's not just dumb kids being dumb kids, its adults (mostly male) that believe an Internet connection gives them the right to be horrible human beings.

The guys at Extra Credit have suggested an interesting solution to the problem and one that I'd like to see implemented in some form by a Microsoft, Blizzard or whomever runs an online gaming service or game where all sorts of horrible interactions are known to occur. Kudos to Extra Credits for doing this episode.

Parental discretion is advised!