ok so new format for the finals: we’re going to have a week to make impassioned and sincere arguments for which game you think should win the tournament and then vote on quality of posts rather than the games themselves! if you don’t feel like doing so i dont really feel like stopping you from just voting for whatever game you like more anyways even if maybe the other side has better arguments so this is really more of a suggestion than anything. but yes voting will commence on monday!! so i hope that presents ppl with enough time to write what they want to write.
hmmm i have yet to compile mine and other people’s favorite posts from the various threads we have had on this tournament but pls feel free to post em here! i’ll be posting some of my favs shortly.
One game is about murdering embarrassing looking monsters ripped from the notebook of a hateful pubescent dweeb who’s too much of a chicken to shoot up their school and the other’s the greatest game ever made so I think this is a slam dunk here, really think you gotta vote for Katamari Damacy.
The other day I learned I had a neighbor named Jon Romero and you know I wouldn’t have made the prior post if I was likely to meet that Gamedev God in the flesh
But the real deal doesn’t spell his first name with an h so fuck it, vote for Katamari
What if I make a passionate argument about it being silly to randomly change the voting criteria for the final round in a several months long deal rather than just use said criteria for the next thing of these we do?
Sorry, been in a cranky mood all day but I really do find that to be a perplexing idea.
So should I be making an impassioned plea for Katamari or should it be for Wizard of Wor or New Zealand Story or whatever else because the sky’s the limit?
It’s worth remembering that Katamari Damacy is a much more violent game than Doom. Does that count for it or against it?
You are jamming people and animals against sharp metal and fire, likely suffocating any living thing you pick up early on that’s not impaled or otherwise killed on impact. Any survivors live only a few additional minutes before being shot into space.
I was gonna say it all works out cuz they’re all part of the cosmos but it turns out those weirdo kids just say I FEEL THE COSMOS, not I AM THE COSMOS and I have spent decades wondering if Takahashi was into Big Star for no good reason.
This isn’t entirely my fault okay, I played the import first, I played it day one, I probably got some iffy translation from The Magic Box or Mad Man’s Cafe or some shit.
Doom was the sufficiently improved incremental upgrade to Wolf3D, whereas Katamari was a bolt from the blue. Like Ol’ Dirty Bastard, there is no father to it’s style.
The only criticism I could level at Katamari’s nomination is that the slightly tweaked sequel is better (that’s where my original vote went), but in this case maybe you could say the same thing about Doom, so that’s totally a moot point.
And on the topic of legacy I know some folks who’d consider Duke3D as besting Doom at its own game, but no one is going to go to bat for The Wonderful End of the World or American McGee’s Grimm (itself on the Doom family tree) as obsoleting Katamari.
Katamari is something I was obsessed with as a young teen. I rolled around for a week straight getting faster times and making bigger stars. Then I reached the end of what I could do, but my obsession remained. The only thing I could do with that energy was share it with other people. That feels like the true magic of the game. It has a viral power that just infects people with curiosity and joy. Obviously, Doom has its own viral power, but the audience for it is constrained. I could show Katamari to basically anyone and it would grab their attention. It’s a game that makes me want to create things for an audience. It makes me want to surprise people and create works that communicate.
The standout thing about this matchup is that both of these games are ones I would happily pick up and play on any day for the rest of my life. Both are perfect objects that don’t decay with time. Hard to choose!!
But the vibe of Katamari (uncanny, joyful, cynical, mathematical) is in my Top 5 List Of Things I Cherish In Media, and it’s vanishingly rare. Doom is great but lots of things are Badass.
Also the sequel is more cynical, even if it’s a better game objectively, and it throws off the balance. I love a game that is never improved upon, even by its direct descendants. Katamari All The Way Baby!!
Katamari perhaps touches upon more things that make a great game than any other in the list. It literally rolls it all up into one.
Doom is pretty good but I’ve met very few people who were really charmed by it. It’s important, undeniable, but if it lacks anything it’s the spirit of games outside a particular funnel. Katamari could stand in a museum alongside Go, Playing Cards, Ludo, an NES, or Twister and still be the most attractive item on display to a random bystander.
i like Katamari a lot but you’re talking about a game with Doom with such a vast influence and reach that revolutionized user content and still keeps being the base for a lot of things that have nothing to do with the original years later. Doom is a game one of its creators actually went back and made a free episode for like 25 years later. when does that ever happen? especially when you’re talking about one of the most successful games of all-time. Doom kinda exists outside the usual rules and metrics for success - it’s been remarkably open from the beginning in a way that set the standard as far as what people expect for modding capabilities in the future for the PC, and its continued existence depends on a community of super devoted people. yet i also think the original games contain pieces of all the directions people would take them in. they’re kind of so enigmatic and multifaceted - they look different depending on what angle you want to look at them. the core of Doom is kind of so rock solid.
Katamari is a nice game and honestly one of my favorites but it’s a closed experience, built ontop of a delicate balance. it depends upon the tone of the writing, visuals, and music a lot. all the twee obnoxious cutesy indie games of the recent moment that are influenced by it don’t get a lot of what makes it work. and the experience is a little bit one-dimensional. i find Doom to be a lot more sturdy and flexible in that way.
