Hello everyone, and welcome to our first Speak Up! This is my way of thanking those of you who keep coming back to the site, keep commenting, and just generally stay involved. Once a week (probably on Fridays) I’m going to make sure I’ve seen all the comments posted this week, and pick a few of the ones that I think are the most insightful, funny, or that I just like personally. At some point we’ll have to develop a picture for these posts. For now, though, hit read more and let’s get this community appreciation feature started!

In response to my post about Jesse Schell’s DICE 2010 speech, Brad writes:

This man has set off something that I had been thinking about for a while. What next for video games? I mean they are pretty as hell these days and the good ones can immerse you more than an epic poem made into a mediocre god of war knock-off ever could.

No amount of advertising in the world could have sold me on that game when I saw Dante almost exactly mimicking movements of our red paint doused and bone dusted anti-hero Kratos. But you know what? I still found my way into the game. I still needed to see it. I needed to feel what some of the reviewers felt when they received these objects that totally sold them into the fold of the Divine Comedy. The advertising for that game set up a massive event for the release.

Now imagine if the same amount of passion was put into EVERYTHING. Jesse Schell may have put some views into a dramatic array of point systems, but ill be damned if he didn’t drive home some of the fundamental points of the human mind and how it works. We are competitive. To the very freaking core. We subconsciously want to be the best at everything. It does not matter if that thing you are competing for is the worlds best card shuffler. You want to look for the perfect bridge with each shuffle. You can show your friends. You can be BETTER than your friends. And you laugh but if you could you would.

And if you are able to find a way as an educator or for the sake of the conversation the Advertising Executive could unlock the most basic of urges then they will sell billions and billions of units of whatever the advertiser is advertising from toothpaste to work and studious achievement. I believe that What Mr. Schell is saying very close to true. And that is both fantastic and fucking terrifying. It screams digital communism and Rings true to something Mr. George Orwell may have published. But from the perspective of Mr. Schell it has a chance to encourage human beings to be more than bottom scrapers of the universe who wont even get up to eat unless there are double incentives.

This is just me. I would love to talk about it. I will be posting this exact post in the forums. If you wanna talk lets break in the message boards and chat it up.

Really nice commentary on a number of things, especially the competitive nature of humans. Good read! Only one more for this first week, as most comments have been super short. This one is from Serge, on Mr. Origami’s celebratory 11,111 Cave Story review (with soundtrack!):

The Cave Story Gods have been appeased…

It made me smile. After all, who doesn’t love Cave Story?

So a special thanks goes out to Brad, Serge, and everyone else who has commented this week. Showing us your writing talent through comments is a great way to get noticed as a potential journalistic asset to the TAGJ team, so: want to be featured next week? Start writing some awesome comments!

DISCLAIMER: Any and all comments featured in posts appearing on The Astringent Gaming Journal do not necessarily reflect the opinions of TAGJ or its staff. “Speak Up!” posts are intended to highlight the community.