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I am Not a Womanizer

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As a quick aside before the metafiction*, my lawyers have obligated that I mention the following:

SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: This post has been known to cause cancer in laboratory Cuccos. This post may not be good for your health and contains the chemical mockery dramatica, which can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, prolonged sickness, and blindness. Please read with caution.

That said, if you’re convinced this post may be right for you, enjoy.

* Metafiction (noun) – Fiction, especially fanfiction, that physically breaks the rules and laws governing the world were the fiction takes place and transcends into the “real world” (also known as breaking the fourth wall), mixing elements from the real world and the fictional world into one. Not to be confused with A/U (alternate universe).

~~~

It was Saturday night, and the last remnants of the sunlight soon would be fading from view. It was going to be the perfect night, Link knew. Most of his friends from high school would soon be over for the end of the year party, and they were going to set off the night with a bang. Link looked through the rooms of his home, and saw that everything was in order. The food was on the table, the decorations were up, and the TV was tuned to Rauru Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve.

With everything in order, and it still being fifteen minutes shy of six o’clock, Link found himself with nothing left to do. It had been a long time since that had happened considering all of the tests that had been shoved upon him in the last days of school before the break, the last-minute Christmas shopping, and the oodles of holiday meals he had been forced to attend with family. With a moment finally just to himself, Link bounded upstairs to his room and flipped on the computer, booting up with the famous Door of Time XP operating system. In a moment, Link was into his E-mail, and to his horror, what should have been the perfect night slowly began to unravel.

“‘Hey Link,’” Link said, reading the mail aloud. It was from Darunia, one of his good friends, and ironically one of only two other guys Link had bothered to invite to the party. Most of the other guys at school were boring chaps with very little to say, and they tended to repeat themselves whenever Link spoke to them, as if speaking down to Link as though he couldn’t understand. It drove Link crazy.

Link continued reading, this time in silence. “I’m writing to let you know that I can’t make it tonight. The other Link, you know, the third grader I’m mentoring in Big Gorons Big Zoras program? Well, his family invited me over for New Year’s, so I can’t make it tonight. But that’s not why I’m writing, really.

“Are you aware that the kids at school are saying things about you behind your back? None of our friends, so don’t jump to conclusions, but you know the random people in the hallways who stare at us as we pass by in the halls? It’s them. They’ve made an entire website about you… and all of us! It’s crazy! I thought I would point you to some of them. Read this one here; it’s the ‘best’ one of the lot …”

Link was horrified by the information, but it was far from what he should have felt. He followed the link to the website Darunia had mentioned, and lo and behold, the atrocity of a story about himself appeared before his eyes. There it was in the text; someone had indeed written about him, as well as several of his friends, but Link was the “star” here. Oh he was quite the star, appearing to be the role of a complete moron with a penchant for the ladies. He looked at the other links, and they went from bad to worse. In each one of the sultry fictions, Link managed to seduce this woman or that woman, sometimes failing to do so because of obvious inexperience, sometimes succeeding in achieving the only goal his mind could possibly have, to get into some girl’s pants. It made Link want to bleed at the eyes, and his stomach lurched at the accusations.

“Hello!? Li-iiiink!?” came a sing-songy voice. Link finally pulled away from the computer screen and turned to see his best friend Zelda standing in the doorway. Link looked at the clock briefly; five minutes to six, early as usual. She could always be counted on for that primness and promptness; she was always a harsh stickler to the rules of societal etiquette. It was hardly a surprise that she was wearing the clothes a businessman would wear; formality was big with her. “Here I come, expecting to find a party, and what do I find? You stuck on the computer like some nerd!” Her tone was jovial and hardly accusatory, yet it managed to get on Link’s nerves regardless, and his face darkened visibly, a fact Zelda managed to notice. “Oh c’mon, I was joking, and you should know that. Let’s head downstairs and get this party started.”

“It’s too late. The night is completely ruined.”

“Whatever are you talking about, Link? Yesterday you were so eager to have this thing, and now look…”

“Just take a look, Zel.” Link scooted over on his chair, offering Zelda half of the seat.

Zelda sighed yet took Link’s generous offer, staring at the stories that had been written about Link. She read through them silently, without uttering a word, her passiveness almost agitating. She would pass through page after page of it, finishing each without comment. Finally after finishing, she merely shrugged her shoulders. “So?”

“What do you mean, ‘So?’” Link said loudly, his anger rising. “They’re making up stories about me!”

“Whoop-de-doo. Who cares about what everyone else thinks, Link? It’s not like anyone else matters! You’re a senior in high school, for Nayru’s sake! You’re telling me you’re still worried about what the other kids think about you?”

“No!”

“Then act like it.”

“But, but…”

Thankfully, Link was saved another scolding from Zelda, for at that moment, the rest of his friends had arrived and were already noisily bounding their way up the stairs. Within moments, Ruto, Malon, Ganondorf, and Navi were all in Link’s room, oohing mockingly about Link and Zelda being in the same room together, to which Zelda gave a stiff cold shoulder.

“HEY, guys!” Navi had said in a high-pitched squeal. “So LISTEN, you two have just got to get back together and get married some day! Come on, show us a little kiss, huh huh huh?” Zelda and Link just rolled their eyes in unison and, once again, annoyed Navi’s suggestion.

Wondering what was keeping them occupied in front of the computer, Link pointed them to the stories.

“Ahahaha!” cried Ganondorf as he read them. “That is hilarious! You’re a womanizer, Link!”

“I am not a womanizer!” Link said defensively.

“Oh that’s a bunch of bull, Link!” Ganondorf said. His voice calmed down slightly, the laughter gone, but he was still visibly amused. “Almost all of your friends are girls! And you’ve dated a good several of them! Of course everyone is going to think that!”

“But it’s not tr—”

“Oh Din,” Malon suddenly muttered, her eyes glued to the screen. “I’m in here too. Look at this one.” She pointed to a new window on the screen, showing list of stories written depicting her as a selfish woman who was nearly constantly green with envy. “I’m not like this at all!” she said. “I don’t get jealous whatsoever! Especially not over Link! What are these people talking about!?”

“We’re all in here,” realized Navi, who was already reading another window that Malon had made for her. “And apparently I’m some annoying nag… and oh stars… I have a crush on Link too. I mean…” she quickly backpedaled, “here… in the story… Link… marriage… thing…” In an instant she ran out of the room and into the bathroom.

“And I’m a pompous and arrogant jerk apparently,” said Ruto in a blatant huff. “The nerve of them doing that. I’m going to tell Mumsy and Dadsy when I get home, and they’ll take care of those nasty baby-heads for me. Hmph!”

“Look here, Ganny,” Link suddenly said, almost having a good time now that other people were getting razzed on as well. Ganondorf, so far, had been paying no attention to what had been going on, still humoured over the stories about Link. However, in a moment, his ears were perched on Link’s every word. “Here’s some really bad story about you being this complete bully, bossing everyone around. He doesn’t do any of that, does he, guys?”

“You shut up!” he said, and in lightning movement, Ganondorf shoved Link off the chair to read the story. “That is a complete crock! How dare those morons write that stuff about me! They will pay for having done that… oh yes they will.”

“Honestly,” Zelda piped in once more, her voice still admonishing in tone, “I don’t see why you care. It’s complete and utter nonsense. Just blow those guys off.”

“I think you’ll think differently, princess,” Ganondorf said, “when you see that they’ve called you some transvestite male who is into guy-love. Oh man, that one just isn’t right… My eyes…”

“WHAT!?” Zelda stormed once again to the computer, reading the latest story. “For the love of Nayru, what does it matter that I dressed up for Halloween as a guy for seven years in a row!? And I don’t exactly like wearing a dress either, so who would dare have the gall to call me a boy!? That’s it, guys, we’re all going to take them down. Right now. We have names, we have a school directory… those guys are going to pay. Let’s go get them!”

“Right!” they all cried, at least everyone except Link and Malon. Suddenly, it was Zelda leading the charge, leading the lot down the stairs and out the door, as if she were guiding a host of heroes onwards to some sort of gallant quest to defeat the six monsters who had taken over their lives.

Link and Malon watched blankly as everyone else left the house in a frenzied rage. Honestly, it was New Year’s Eve, and they were supposed to be celebrating. Stunned into silence, the barely moved a muscle for the better part of a minute, still coming to grips with the grim events of the evening.

Finally, Link shrugged, deciding it wasn’t worth complaining about. He looked over to Malon, a smile coming to his lips. “So… Mal… you want to go make out?”

Malon turned to Link, and a sly smile came to her lips as well. Finally, Zelda, no longer will you be able to tell me you know Link better because you went out with him a long time ago! “Okay, I’m game.”

“Well then, babe, come to Linky-bear.”

~~~

Remember kids, only you can prevent fanfiction fires.

Tri The Force, Luke

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With the exception of the Four Swords series and the more tangential Zelda games (like Awakening and Majora), the centre of the Zelda universe—the common bond (aside from Link) that ties everything together—of course, is the Triforce. You’ve got three sacred equilateral triangles of pure gold, but that’s not the big part of it.

Zelda Movie… Not Currently Being Planned

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The following image appeared on the website of Club Nintendo, the source that reported in the previous weeks that Nintendo was planning an upcoming Zelda movie in addition to a Metroid one:

“In our November issue, in the Dr. Mario section, due to a misinterpretation we said that Reggie had mentioned that Nintendo would be working on a Zelda movie, which is totally FALSE. It should have said the following:

While Nintendo is working on a Metroid movie, there are currently no plans for a Zelda or Mario film as of now.

Club Nintendo assumes this mistake in its entirely.”

Sorry guys, apparently it was a misunderstanding on Club Nintendo’s part. The error may have gotten our hopes up, but we can still hope for the success of the Metroid movie, and a probable Zelda movie being announced after that.

A Few Quick Notes

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First, it’s come to my attention that Zelda Genesis was hacked into this month. Not only that, but the hacker managed to gain access to the webmaster’s E-mail and IM accounts. Also, I’ve heard that an administrator had his account on his forums compromised at The Hylia. I believe that in both cases there was no content was lost and that everything is now under control, which is good. It does, however, serve as a warning for all fans, webmasters especially, to make sure that their passwords are not easily guessable. It’s recommended to have a password of at least 8 characters that includes uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters (provided they’re allowed). It may be a hassle, but it makes good sense.

Second, I’ve set up a mailing list for Zelda Blog. Whenever a new post goes up, you’ll be mailed about it. You don’t even have to be registered at Zelda Blog to sign up! All you need is an E-mail address. Just go ahead and put your E-mail address in in the box on the main page, and then once you confirm your E-mail address, you’ll be receiving our updates.

Zelda Cartoon – Don’t Hate It

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I don’t know about you but I was very excited when DiC, in conjunction with Shout! Factory, announced the release of the collectors edition DVD of the Zelda Cartoon. For years we’ve had to put up with shoddy, poor resolution videos and fake DVDs plus uAV Corporation’s staggered random episode releases. Finally the longtime fans of this series are getting what they deserve. Personally I can’t wait for my copy to arrive and I’ve already heard from some of my American friends that it’s been cleaned up very nicely indeed. Finally it means I can have a good quality section about the cartoon on my site with decent screenshots and media clips.

However what really gets to me is how many Zelda fans seem to hate this representation of Zelda. On so many sites it gets a small, but pathetic mention, slating it and only commenting on what ‘poor quality’ or how ‘dumb’ it is. I’ve even seen some people say they wish that it hadn’t been made. Some people just dismiss it and state that it’s not canon and act like it doesn’t exist, like some unpleasant memory that has to be buried and forgotten about. And fair enough. It wasn’t the best quality cartoon ever produced, but it IS a piece of Zelda history and I don’t think it entirely deserves the vicious slating that a lot of fans give it.

For example, fans complain a lot about how Link and Zelda are portrayed in the show. At the point in time when that cartoon was made, Link and Zelda were only a bunch of pixels anyway. They had no real back story other than the game manuals, nothing that defined their personalities. The cartoon, along with the accompanying Valiant comics and the Nintendo adventure game books allowed us to expand on our favorite duo a little more and enjoy further adventures Hyrule.

Okay, so Link is a bit of a jackass. His incessant chasing of Zelda and his trademark phrase of ‘Excuuuuse me, Princess’ is infamous and to be honest, if I look at most fifteen year old boys, the majority of them do act stupid and immature like that. Link is a hero, but of course, he’s still a young teen. Of course he’s going to act like one! And in typical 80s style, you nearly always had a character like that. Zelda’s portrayal was very strong – she was no damsel in distress at all, probably a tribute to other strong female characters of the 80s like She-Ra or Cheetarah from the Thundercats. She could hold her own with the Triforce and that magic bow of hers and you rarely saw her in a dress. And if Ganon loses points for not being scary and comedic; well again, look at 80’s cartoon villains. The vast majority of them were extremely camp and laughable – Mumm-Ra from Thundercats or Skeletor from He-Man anyone? Even Bowser, I recall, was pretty camp, although he used to scare me in the Super Mario Brothers games. I’m pretty sure Spryte was probably the inspiration for Link gaining a faerie friend in OoT and all the links were there to the games, especially regarding items and locations. A lot of the monsters starred in the various episodes and we got to see many of the items such as the magic ring, boomerang and the whistle.

It is also wide of the mark for fans to claim that this characterization on Link is ‘wrong’. Link has rarely had any personality whatsoever in the games. He is a blank canvas with little emotion or feelings who doesn’t speak or offer his opinion unless prompted. Because of this he becomes whoever the gamer wants him to be. DiC’s portrayal is only the idea of the writers who did the cartoon storylines and to be honest, because the trend for the way the characters act is similarly expressed in the books and comics Nintendo of America must have given some express permission for this. You may not like how Link is shown as a character, but it is no means incorrect. It is simply the writer’s idea.

If Nintendo hadn’t agreed with this, Zelda being their intellectual properly, if they thought it would ruin the brand, then why did they allow firms like DiC and Valiant to give their spin on the series? They were made to promote the games, much like the Super Mario Bros Super show was, or Pokémon did. True the show was sadly cancelled after only 13 episodes, but it doesn’t make it bad. It actually had a lot of potential but it was DiC’s choice to end it. Personally I think it was superior to the Mario Bros Super Show but then that’s just my opinion.

Another thing is that lot of people moan about the poor quality animation but if you look closer it’s not all that bad and a lot of the backdrops are very beautifully illustrated. Compare it to many other popular western cartoons from that period and the animation is no worse than any other show. You have to remember that at the time animation wasn’t as advanced as it is now and not only that, such a show would have had a very low budget; it was just a kid’s cartoon after all. Fans whine on and on about how they want to see an anime cartoon but in hindsight, was Pokémon really all that great? No, it wasn’t.

My real point is though, without the Zelda cartoon, me and my sister, and many other people, would not be massive Zelda fans today. Those so-called ‘stupid’ cartoons inspired me to write fanfiction for the first time ever, when I was just 12 or 13 years old. If I hadn’t watched that cartoon by chance one day during the school holidays, Adventure of Link would just have been another game that I enjoyed but didn’t really expand on. Because I saw that cartoon, Link and Zelda came alive for me, and I wanted to keep having more adventures in Hyrule, simply by writing about it.

That to me, is very important. Without that cartoon, I would not have sat down with Kirsty and written all those fanfictions that so many people have enjoyed over the years. There are so many game series that we loved more than Zelda, such as Ultima. But we didn’t sit down and write about them. We wrote about Zelda. And it was all because of the cartoon. Not because of the game. The game has never inspired me in the way the cartoons, comics and books did. My idea of Link, Zelda, Ganon and Hyrule all grew and expanded from this show. Of course future games would add to our creativity but go down to the very basic bones and it’s obvious from where the inspiration came from.

So in short, I think we do have some things to thank the cartoon for. I think fans should sit back and enjoy this piece of Zelda history. Not criticize and dismiss it. It is, after all, Zelda to me. I’ll never view the characters any other way.

The Underground Gamers Surface

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Nintendo DS owners should beware. There is a virus going around targeting DS units.
Now let’s step back a moment. There aren’t many people out there who truly really be affected by this disturbing news… at least, yet. Unless you own a DS and unless you take part in the homebrew/hacking realm, Trojan DS Brick

A Little Bit of Malon by My Side…

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<off -topic>
Of all the things that Zelda Blog was supposed to be, the last thing that I expected it to be was the inspiration for another website. What mayhem have I unleased now?
</off-topic>

Ocarina of Time is perhaps the most loved of all the Zelda series. For a lot of people, it remains the pinnacle of the entire series, the best that Miyamoto & Co. have so far provided. The bulk of the fanfiction that you find out on the web has its roots embedded in Ocarina, and most discussion of history has to include the game somewhere. It’s a general truthhood, a lot like Godwin’s Law, that the longer an online discussion about Zelda becomes, the greater the chances that Ocarina is bound to come up at some point.

The reasons that this game surpassed its predecessors—and overachieved its descendants—are so numerous that it would be virtually impossible to cover them all in a single blog post. Let’s face it; Ocarina was much different than its previous incarnations, and not just because of the 3-D world, either. Most of the reasons have a little bit to do with how much “disk space” they physically had. On the Nintendo 64, Nintendo had a little bit of breathing room (with regards to cartridge sizes) to really expand Hyrule as we knew it. They had the ability to put in a lot of story elements in-game (rather than within the manual) that were largely missing from the earlier Zeldas. Text was an expensive commodity before those days; it’s why we never found out in A Link to the Past that “Zelda is your… …” destiny, and it’s no wonder the original Legend of Zelda had such comments like “EASTMOST PENINSULA IS SECRET”. (At least we can say that it had better English that Zero Wing. Could you imagine it otherwise? The old man would be spouting off, “EAST LAND ARE TREASURE HAPPY”!)

But the advent of expanded text didn’t just bring about gallant strides in plot. Finally, for the first time, we had massive leaps in characterization of the NPCs. Before Ocarina, the only characters that truly were dynamic entities were Sahasrahla from A Link to the Past and Marin from Link’s Awakening, and some wouldn’t even count the first since technically he mostly only gave hints via telepathy. When Ocarina of Time came to the forefront, suddenly things were much different. You had tons of notable (and named!) characters, each with a very distinct personality. Most of the characters that were fleshed out were of the female variety, and it didn’t take the fans long to notice this, either. We can only be thankful Lou Bega didn’t come out with his smash hit a year earlier or all we’d ever have heard on the forums would be:

A little bit of Saria in my life
A little bit of Malon by my side
A little bit of Zelda is all I need
A little bit of Impa is what I see
A little bit of Fado in the sun
A little bit of Nabooru all night long
A little bit of Ruto here I am
A little bit of you makes me your man.

When fans weren’t having Link be the Don Juan with all the girls, the rest were arguing senselessly over who the best person for Link was. I actually remember a long time ago fighting in the trenches of the United Sageshipper Army. (That’s Link/Zelda, for those who haven’t heard the term.) Our enemies were the Ranchshipper’s Contingent (Link/Malon), and the ground in between was no man’s land, the place where explosive posts blew up, argumentative rockets were launched, and insults made out of barbed wire rested. Occasionally, you had a third party come in, ready to conquer the world, and for a single blessed moment, the two sides would sign a hasty peace accord, completely decimate the newcomer, and then North and South Vietnam were at it again.

Since then, I’ve grown up… a little bit. And I’ve learned from my mistaken ways. No longer is Malon the hated gal that she used to be. In fact, I see a lot of who I am embodied within Malon: passionate and dedicated worker, loyal and caring friend, idle dreamer, and a believer in true love. (Anyone who makes fun of me for that will get a nice one of these: ) You don’t even need to go all the way to the manga to see it (although it’s much more prevalent there).

But seriously, why is there all the hatred towards all the “competition” in the game? I will admit, not every girl is the ideal match for every fan. Even Miyamoto, perfect as he is, isn’t that perfect. Though I like Nabooru as a character, I certainly don’t see myself marrying a Nabooru lookalike; nevertheless, I’ve come to respect Nabooru as a character (and the entire Gerudo race as a whole, as well). Each character that has come to have a strong personality in the Zelda series, I think, has his or her definite good points and moments. Even Ganondorf has redeemed himself largely from his monologue at the end of Wind Waker. We can argue whether Zelda and Malon is a better love interest for Link until the cows come to Lon Lon Ranch, but with Link being rather secretive of his own emotions, with thousands of potential characterizations for Link, can there honestly ever be a distinct winner?

While shipping wars have long been a mainstay of the modern Zelda community and have been a small force in keeping the community active and interested, I think the time to bury the hatchet is long overdue. It’s not that we shouldn’t ever debate the issue, but I think all of us need to find out that it isn’t bad to have “a little bit of Malon by our sides.”

Musical Encounters of the Third Kind

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A fan of both The Grand Adventures and Zelda Blog wrote me the other day asking me if I could talk a little bit about sites hosting some really nice Zelda music for you to enjoy. It really was a good article idea because it’s a branch of Zelda that is usually rarely seen within the Zelda community, even more so because I draw uncountable amounts of inspiration from video game music. This may sound rather nerdy or geeky of me, but I hardly listen to any of music on the radio these days; rather, almost exclusively I listen to about 45 hours’ worth of video game soundtracks and remixes ranging from Super Mario Bros. to Halo, spanning The Legend of Zelda in all its forms.

If you’ve ever even heard of the Video Game Pianist, you might just know what I’m talking about, and you’ll definitely know that there are some gifted people out there. (If you haven’t heard of him yet, then why are you still reading this article? Go there now and watch his stuff; he’s really good!) Let me tell you, I played piano for eight years, complete with private lessons and all, and this guy could beat me blindfolded in a musical duel to the death, quite literally as well. (Yes, he can play blindfolded. And backwards. I’m scared to see what this guy could do were he to be the next secret character in Super Smash Bros.) This guy has performed at E³ (Electronics Entertainment Expo) this past year, and he played for the Penny Arcade Expo as well.

If piano solos aren’t your cup of tea, then perhaps you should be heading over to the very popular OverClocked Remix and the slightly less well-known VGMix. These two sites are dedicated to mixing up the original soundtracks of virtually every video game every created, in turn transforming them into something absolutely unfamiliar yet surprisingly familiar at the same time. My library of MP3s from these two websites could easily clock in at bigger than two CDs themselves, and I haven’t full explored their sites yet! One of the advantages of these sites is that there are thousands of artists performing these remixes, and so you have music from all walks of life. (There’s the Gerudo Valley theme as a R&B song, the Ocarina shop theme played by a Hawaiian street band, and the battle music from Super Mario Bros. 3 in jazz, just to name a few.) There are a few misses here, just to warn you, but it’s a very good resources for those of you who love the music in video games.

One of the best homebrew projects within the Zelda community for this has been Zelda Music, formerly known as ZREO (Zelda REOrchestrated). This may look a lot like OCRemix and VGMix at first, but they’re very different. Zelda Music is not about remixing songs but just orchestrating (or reorchestrating) the songs within the Zelda series. Imagine the songs from Link’s Awakening translated from the beep-like soundtracks of the Game Boy into a full orchestra environment; that’s what we’re talking about here. The project will never be complete to reorchestrate every song, but there are a good number there to pull. The fair weathered warning about this site is that this site will likely close its doors at the end of the year, so if you’re interested in this music, you’ll want to get there very soon.

For those of you interested in really pushing the limits on music, how about a concert? Video Games Live is a concern spreading throughout the US and Canada over the course of the next month and a bit with video game music live on stage by a full orchestra. I personally am planning on going to the Columbus show with a few of my good friends, and it promises to be a blast. For those of you who aren’t into the whole concert thing, they’ve got CDs and videos for sale so that you can enjoy the experience straight from home. For those of you still unsure, there’s a preview trailer on their website that will give you a feel about what it’s all about. If that doesn’t sell you, Elijah Wood (you know, Frodo?) gives it his thumbs up!

The music of video games is a very powerful element, an element that largely gets overlooked. I believe it was said once that the best video game music will always go completely unnoticed by the player because bad music will be picked out right away as being disharmonious to the rest of the game. Music, while it isn’t the biggest portion of the gaming experience, is still a big thing, and there are some good songs out there that stand out and deserve notice.

Zelda Movie?

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It’s near impossible to go to any Zelda message board in existence and not see a few topics about this. Opinions are always so mixed and varying that it’s hard to gauge the general attitude toward the idea of a Zelda-based movie being made. But I firmly believe that making a Zelda movie

Video Games Live Cancelled

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I’m going to disable comments on this article because there really isn’t a great deal of profitable discussion that can come from it; I think the news stands for itself.

In a previous article, I mentioned about the Video Games Live concert that was going to occur all across the country. Unfortunately, in a recent press release, the concert has been cancelled in all cities except Seattle and Vancouver. The cause for the cancellation is a result from low ticket sales for most of their engagements.

I don’t know about you, but I’m a little disappointed to see this happen. To hear in person the Zelda theme (amongst many others!) on stage would have been a dream come true. I was really looking forward to the Columbus showing of VGL, but seeing as how I can’t cast Din’s Something-or-Other to change that, well, I’ve accepted it for what it is. They have, however, promised next year to make a run for it again, and there are ways that you can help to make it happen in 2006.

Tommy Tallarico, co-creator of VGL, says this on their website:

I would like to use everyone’s passion here today to help support the future of video game concerts everywhere. YES… Please tell us how disappointed you are because you were looking forward to this… YES… Please explain how important a concert like this is to everyone. We will use that information to show the promoters, local markets, cities, venues, etc… that people DO want to see this and they DO care. Right now a lot of the people who are putting on these events are thinking that people aren’t as interested in hearing this stuff as we all know they are.

Exactly. Video games haven’t become “mainstream” yet; it’s growing, but it’s not there yet. Just as with the animé crowd, we’re still a subculture, a clique within our national identities. A lot of this has been helped along by the aging of video gamers. It’s because of the size of our clique that movies such as Tomb Raider, et al, have been created, but so far each attempt to leap into the mainstream has so far fallen short of the inevitable goal. (It’s precisely because of this why Miyamoto is trying to do the very same thing with the Revolution controller, bringing video games to the forefront of our cultures.) The notion of the mainstream world accepting a video game concert is no less a task than that of creating a successful movie based upon a video game.

What we can do, however, to slowly cross this bridge is to show our support for this. For those of you who really wanted to attend one of their concerts, I encourage you to write VGL at info@videogameslive.com and give them your support for trying to make this goal happen. Let them know that you’re interested in their idea, that you would attend a concert in the future if you had the chance. However, make sure you’re sincere about this. Don’t do this just because I’m asking you; only do this if you really want to see this happen. I don’t mean to champion a cause by any means; I merely think that, given the chance to build hype about it, given another chance at this, this could really be a force to be reckoned with one of these days, especially considering the number of gamers that there are out there today.

Maybe, just maybe, next year I’ll get my concert in Columbus, and I hope that you get the chance to attend one near you as well. Until then, we gamers have a lot of work to do to allow this to push ahead once more and make it a reality.