‘Journey’ Made a Convincing Case That Video Games Could Be Art

‘Journey’ Made a Convincing Case That Video Games Could Be Art

To borrow internet parlance for a moment, Journey is a video game designed to hit you right in the feels. You play as an androgynous character dressed in a sweeping red robe, dwarfed by stark landscapes of sand and snow. Pushing the PlayStation controller’s left analog stick, you move forward, slowly at first, and then, later in the game, with exuberant speed, as if you’re surfing. Most of the time you’re alone, but if you’re lucky, you’ll come across another figure, its silhouette fluttering in the distance. You might travel together for a few minutes and then part ways, or perhaps you’ll reach the end of the game in one another’s company. Regardless, this time will feel almost miraculous—a chance encounter at the very edge of the world.

The game’s setting gleams with flecks of Gustav Klimt gold while a single towering mountain dominates the horizon. The game is called Journey for a reason, and its deliberately allegorical story curves toward tragedy, as if this is the fate awaiting us all. Unlike most games, you die only once. Rather than a cheap metaphor for failure, it’s something heavier—a crescendo, an act of self-annihilation.

Now, it’s widely accepted that games can move us in ways similar to novels, movies, or music, but in March 2012, when Journey came out on PS3, this simply wasn’t the case. Sure, there were the works of Fumito Ueda, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus—stark, artful games of the aughts from Japan that tugged more on the heartstrings than the itchy trigger finger. So too had the rise of independent games from 2008 onward given birth to a slew of newly personal titles such as Braid. Journey, however, felt different—a video game with levels, an avatar, and enemies, but that, mechanically, eschewed almost all else to focus entirely on movement. The game had cutscenes, but these were reserved for establishing shots of glinting sand rather than moments of genuine dramatic thrust. What Journey achieved—which few, if any, video games had before—was giving you a lump in your throat while you actually interacted with it. This was a big deal.

In this way, Journey helped crystallize the idea that video games could and should be more. In 2007 and 2010, respectively, Bioshock and Red Dead Redemption, games with knotty philosophical questions at their violent cores, had pushed the blockbuster shooter and open-world adventure into newly grown-up territory. But these were also time-consuming experiences that asked you to sink tens of hours into them to get to their narrative payoffs. Journey, by comparison, could be finished in 90 minutes, the length of a film. Certain kids, myself included, grew up convinced of video games’ artistic merit but lacked a work to express this conviction succinctly. Journey was the perfect title to convert churlish nonbelievers—our parents, for example.

I wasn’t the only one who felt this way. Gregorios Kythreotis, the lead designer of 2021 indie breakout hit Sable, remembers it like this, too.

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Bowser faces 10 years in jail, $4.5M in damages in Nintendo piracy case

Bowser faces 10 years in jail, .5M in damages in Nintendo piracy case

Nintendo has won a major victory in a case against 52-year-old Canadian Gary Browser, a member of hacking group Team-Xecuter who was arrested in 2020. Bowser, better known as GaryOPA online, plead guilty to two counts: “conspiracy to circumvent technological measures and to traffic in circumvention devices” alongside other members of Team-Xecuter, and “trafficking in circumvention devices,” as laid out in a plea agreement filed on October 28 and obtained by Torrentfreak. He now faces a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison for each count.

Nintendo has become increasingly aggressive over the last several years in pursuing ROM websites and hardware hackers who make it possible to run pirated software on the Switch. Team-Xecuter was behind a custom firmware called SX OS, which it sold through a network of resellers—a controversial for-profit enterprise, considering most custom firmware development is free and open source.

Nintendo went after resellers first and has already won some cases, but the case against Team-Xecuter got the US Justice Department involved. Bowser, who bears no relation to improbably named Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser, was indicted alongside other Team-Xecuter members Max Louran, who was arrested in Canada and has yet to be extradited, and Yuanning Chen, who remains at large. Bowser was arrested in the Dominican Republic and extradited to the US to face 11 felony counts, including wire fraud and money laundering.

As laid out in the plea agreement, the government made the case that “while the enterprise attempted to cloak its illegal activity with a purported desire to support homebrew enthusiasts who wanted to design their own games, the predominant and primary design of the enterprise’s products was teo allow purchasers to play pirated ROMs.” The plea agreement states that Bowser ran the website maxconsole.com, which hosted information about Team-Xecuter’s products, and that the team “created and supported ROM libraries of games that could be used by the enterprise’s customers.”

Some of the resellers also sold custom firmware bundled with packages of ROMs, which seems like a sure way to blow any deniability about customers purchasing your product for the sake of piracy. Likewise, Team-Xecuter required users to pay an additional license to play “backups” of their games, fuel for the government’s claim that Team-Xecuter sold its devices first and foremost for the sake of piracy.

The US government claims Team-Xecuter earned “at least tens of millions of dollars” from selling SX OS devices, while Bowser himself estimated he earned $320,000 from running maxconsole.com and collecting advertising revenue. After pleading guilty, Bowser has been ordered to pay $4.5 million in restitution to Nintendo.

Bowser still faces sentencing that will determine his prison term, but that won’t necessarily be the end of his legal troubles. He’s facing another suit from Nintendo itself, filed earlier this year, for further damages—though unless he has an actual castle filled with gold coins, $4.5 million seems like it may already take a lifetime to pay off. 

https://www.pcgamer.com/bowser-faces-10-years-in-jail-and-dollar45-million-in-damages-in-nintendo-piracy-case/…

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