Ossu! I have-a returned. After completing what was considered by many to be the nastiest crunch period in memory at EA, we did Ship The Damn Game, and I accepted my 2 weeks paid vacation recovery time with relish.
The game in question was Lord of the Rings: The Third Age--That's the RPG one. Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth is the RTS one made by the Command & Conquer guys down in Los Angeles. Anyway, Tycho at Penny Arcade seems to be looking forward to it, which made my me and my co-workers smile. I believe it's coming out on November 2nd, so after you vote, kindly consider checking it out.
Enough of shameless plugging. Now is time for issues! Pirate/Monkey/Ninja/Robot memes: will they attach themselves to the generation of 18-35 year-olds (tail-end of GenX, front end of the Millenials, plus the Wedgies) and grow old and passe with them, or will they remain free-floating over the world of young-adult pop culture? Discuss.
They will if they remain pertinent and entertaining. We grew up with Teenage Mutant Ninjas and Darkwater Pirates, Dread Pirate Roberts and Stealth Assassins.
If the next generation has compelling ninjas and pirates, too, then of course they'll have pirate vs. ninja conflicts to go along with them.
Posted by: skye | 10/19/2004 at 12:50 PM
Pirate/Monkey/Ninja/Robot memes! That's a novel idea. You know, a lot of people have told me I need to get into meme theory... but I think I have a good enough grasp of the subject to see what you're getting at, ClockworkGrue.
It is tempting to say they will remain free-floating in our society. After all, the Pirates of the Caribbean, George of the Jungle, and Robbie the Robot are rather dated, but remain recurring media images that relate and likely contribute to the memes one might identify as Pirates, Monkeys, and Robots. (Nothing came to mind for ninjas.) It may be that the humor value of these things will be the enduring quality, in which case more media involving them in mixed quantities or changing attitude may be in our future.
That's a guess, though. I, for one, can't say for sure what would happen. Nostalgia in contemporary American culture -- and perhaps in many more places than America -- is a quirky and interesting topic. Rather than let myself blab about it, I'm very interested to hear what others think.
Posted by: Ross | 10/19/2004 at 02:33 PM
Are you directly referring to Atomic Sock Monkey's line of Monkey Ninja Pirate Robot games? Or are they just free-floating examples of the broader theme you're getting at?
(They're pretty fun games, btw. At least the basic freebie one -- check it out!)
Posted by: Jens Alfke | 10/20/2004 at 05:20 PM
Congratulations on getting the game shipped. It looks like it will be a good one as well...
To the topic at hand, it seems as if the ninja is less relevant in contemporary culture, but I think it's been replaced by random psuedo-kung fu action. With the dramatic increase in movies and other media using wire fu, perhaps the new ninjas are characters like Neo, action directors/fight choreographers like Wu Ping, and actors like Jet Li.
Posted by: chris | 10/21/2004 at 03:38 AM
Were you at PAX? Are you the fellow who perhaps pitched the Pirate/Monkey/Ninja/Robot ideas?
Posted by: different chris | 10/25/2004 at 08:53 AM
Dude! don't ever put Neo and Ninja in the same sentence.
Sorry.
Continue on...
Posted by: Conscientious Objector | 10/25/2004 at 12:30 PM