some New Games Journalism

This started as kind of a joke, but then almost two weeks passed and I started getting really nervous about finishing it, so I'm just stopping.



I spent the Christmas vacation of my second year of college at home playing Phantasy Star Online. I had a standing appointment with Zack, from 10 p.m. until he fell asleep. Zack played as a big robot, named ED-209 after the Robocop character. Zack's big robot was popular enough; after a cheater destroyed his character, he created a different huge robot called Capt. FatFat who attracted even more friends. I used my real name, but chose a female avatar with spiky blue hair. I chose the character type because I wanted someone who could use magic and a wide variety of weapons; I ended up getting a lot of free items and offers to team up, as well as other miscellaneous propositions. I never figured out what all those (ostensible) guys thought they were going to get in exchange for their Double Sabers and Crazy Tunes. Was I going to engage in some sexy PSO lobby chat? Was I going to make a symbol chat of his name and my name with a heart drawn around them? Or was I to... seek physical contact outside of the game world? Needless to say, I never encouraged this kind of behavior, but if somebody really wanted me to have some of their duped weapons, I took them. All I ever did to encourage these guys was walk around in the lobby asking if they'd seen Capt. FatFat.

Sometimes we wouldn't even make it down to a level. We'd stand around in the lobby for hours chatting. I'm certain that this is not uncommon in multiplayer games, especially those that put an emphasis on teamwork, like most MMOs-- eventually, the camaraderie that gets pushed on you supercedes the actual goals of the game. In my case, since my teammate was already my best friend, I didn't need much of a push. Sometimes I felt like fighting monsters got in the way of trying to type.

Oh, as sort of an aside, I should probably describe the game for people who haven't played it. PSO is a prettier 3D Diablo set in space, a third-person dungeon crawling game with online play for teams of up to four. The main gameplay involves killing room after room full of monsters and finding items of varying rarity. Each level ends with a dramatic boss fight set to fucking amazing music. There are also sidequests that you can voluntarily take for extra money, experience, and items. In the online game, players meet in lobbies before teaming up. In later versions, some lobbies are set up for a game called Lobby Ball. There is no evidence of anyone playing Lobby Ball ever.

A couple of days after we started playing online, Zack hooked up a second TV in his room so he could watch Star Trek and The Twilight Zone while we played. He eventually met another player who did the same thing, and on nights when I was offline the two of them would hang out in the lobby and watch TV together.

So much of my enjoyment of PSO is tied up in the circumstances. Often the best part of a game is something personal that is not designed or included by the developers; Super Smash Bros. Melee, for example, was nowhere near as good as the original Nintendo 64 game-- despite being objectively improved in every measurable quantity-- because I was not a college freshman in a dorm full of gamers when Melee came out. The best quality of the original was that people living nearby always wanted to play it. I forget things like this when sequels to my favorite series are announced.

Phantasy Star Universe looks great. The art is beautiful, the graphics look great (for a PS2 game), and Sonic Team's emphasis on the single-player story is promising. But Zack no longer has internet access in his apartment, and besides that he has discovered Grand Theft Auto in a big way. Zack is a feature that will not be included in this new game, and is no doubt the feature that made PSO one of my favorite games ever. Inevitably most of the time spent on PSU online will be attempts to recapture the feeling of playing PSO with Zack. I hope that, at least, the new game is as good as the original, in terms of the gameplay aspects that Sega has control over. If you pick up the PS2 version when it comes out, you should look for me online. I'll be looking for new PS buddies to go with the new game.

I won't be hard to find. Just go into any lobby and ask for Capt. FatFat.