[Excalibur] FW: EVA game event at Harvard!! (long)

[John C. Watson]

------ Forwarded Message
> From: "Christine Schilling" <cschilli at email.smith.edu>
> Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2003 19:38:27 -0500
> To: <ssffs at yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: [SSFFS] EVA game event at Harvard!!
> 
> Heyas, all!:
> 
> 
> CHECK THIS OUT!!!!
> 
> 
> EVENT: Playing new Evangelion-2 game on PS2, hanging, fun!
> 
> Date: anytime between Wed (11/26) - Sun (11/30).
> 
> Location: Harvard Campus, Lowell House, in Junior Common Room
> 
> Contact info: Tony,  (513) 382-0209
> 
> Accomodations: FREE lodging with Harvard students right on campus!
> 
> Pay: FREE!
> 
> Details about the game (written by Jason):
> 
> A few years back, the Anime production house Gainax came out with their
> classic work 'Evangelion'.  Those of you who haven't seen Eva don't want
> spoilers and those of you who have don't need them, so I won't go into
> detail, but this series was incredibly popular and despite the
> controversial ending is considered one of the seminal works of the anime
> industry, and cemented director Hideki Anno's name as one of the
> greats.
> Our story now takes a quick turn.
> 
> A few years back (but several years after Eva came out), video game
> production house Alfasystem (fairly popular in Japan but their games
> rarely make the jump to these shores) creates a 'world-simulation game'
> called Gunparade March.  A sleeper hit, Gunparade March combined
> high-school simulation with robot combat in a freestyle game that was
> completely new in it's implementation.  The plot of the game was as
> follows:  50 years after an alternate history where monsters invaded
> during WW2, most of the earth has fallen to this attack, Japan being one
> of the few places still surviving.  After Japan is successfully invaded
> by the creatures, Japan's government drafts all high-schoolers in an
> attempt to buy enough time for a counterstrike, knowing full well that
> they are effectively sentencing an entire generation to death.  You play
> one of these children.
> 
> Neither a hero nor a brave person, as this school student you recieve a
> super-brief military training and form a specialist platoon which is
> mobilized at hot spots to defend critical territory in support function.
> Your classmates thus are all members of the platoon, from fellow troops
> (you are one of three mecha pilots, there are also scouts and other on
> field troops) to maintainence staff, to NCOs and communications
> officers.  Your normal day to day life involves interacting with them
> while occasionally being scrambled into combat.
> 
> There are no NPCs in the game.  Every other student in the game (also
> your teachers and the platoon pet) is effectively another PC running on
> AI, having the same powers as you (indeed, you can change jobs,becoming
> support staff or an officer if you so choose and have the strings to
> pull).  So social interaction becomes incredibly organic and fluid.
> For example:  Making friends with your support crew is good, because if
> they like you they will spend their free hours tuning your equipment
> (since they don't want you to die); if they hate you they'll barely lift
> a finger to support you.  Or perhaps you'd prefer to be a gang leader,
> and assult all the students you don't like?  Or you can play the game as
> a dating game, but be careful; the other characters don't like it if
> they find you flirting (indeed, one of them will even kill you if she
> finds you've been unfaithful).  The game is in fact so robust that you
> can play as several different characters after playing through once (one
> of the characters, for example, has a sock obsession, and his game
> allows you to collect all the character's socks through trading and
> relationship management, a cross between fun social modeling and
> downright creepiness). The mecha combat is also incredibly deep, using
> chained command strings to set up motion through turns.  The combat is
> realistic, with damage being incredibly powerful and injury reducing
> performance immediately, and with troops on both sides retreating upon
> taking heavy casualties (e.g. 10% of total troop strength), and death is
> all too permenant.  All these factors made Gunparade March incredibly
> succssful (the mediocre anime it spawned gives you only a glimpse of
> what the game is possible of; the worst sin of the anime is simply not
> living up to the source material).
> 
> 
> Well, that was long, wasn't it?  So that sounds like a fun
> game. But what was Gainax and Hideki Anno doing all this time?
> 
> Anno has done a number of live action works in recent years, branching
> out into different fields of expression.  Apparently this game caught
> his eye (and in all honesty, it's hard not to see the Eva parallels in
> the game; even the giant robots turn out to be more organic than one
> expects).  We haven't heard from Anno in awhile.  What has he been up
> to?
> 
> About a month ago a new video game title was announced (there were
> hints before this, but the real release of info started last month).
> That game's title?  Evangelion 2.  Alfasystem, specificially the staff
> behind Gunparade March, has teamed up with Anno to create a
> 'world-simulation game' based on Evangelion.  The game allows you to
> play as several of the Children, and possibly as Gendou, Misato, Kaji
> (and Kaoru and Touji are confirmed as available characters, if not
> protagonists.  Unclear if you can play as them, but scenes of Touji and
> Kaoru piloting Evas on the side of good have been circulated).  The idea
> of the game is simple:  "What if YOU could control the protagonist of
> Eva, and alter the series according to your choices?"
> 
> To say the game is similar to Gunparade March is a bit unfair, but the
> basics are clearly modeled after it; AIs control the other characters
> while you control one of them.  As you make choices in the game their
> actions and choices change as well, and relationship levels alter.  New
> to this game is the "Anno AI", an attempt to "reproduce Director Anno's
> creative genius in the game.  When you alter the flow of the game, not
> only does this effect the other characters but the combined new choices
> of you and the other AIs is calculated by the Anno AI, which then
> reorganizes and changes events in the story to create a NEW, yet VIBRANT
> and ENGAGING storyline for the Eva universe."  In plainspeak:  there are
> new endings and storylines as a result of your actions, and they won't
> be less fun than the original.  At least, that's what we've been
> promised.
> 
> There are three relationship levels in the game, Familial love,
> Fraternal love, and Romantic love.  Fer example:  in classic Eva, Misato
> clearly feels a Familial love tie to Shinji.  Touji develops a Fraternal
> love tie to Shinji, and Rei develops a Romantic love tie to Shinji
> (touched with Familial).  In this game, you can apparently create
> relationships across the board as you wish.
> 
> While they don't come right out and say it, the quote on the website is
> roughly like this:  "You can create ties with characters that didn't
> exist in the series.  Even if those ties seem unnatural to you or I,
> there are no 'taboos' in the universe of Eva 2."  On a webpage featuring
> nothing but screenshots of Shinji talking to Kaoru and Touji. Don't
> worry guys, I'm sure it's reprocical.
> 
> In any case, the game practically guarantees new storylines and endings
> for Eva.  To quote:  "That is why the 2.  That is why it is 'Evangelion
> 2'."
> 
> Intrigued, Eva fans?  But there's a catch.  The game is in Japanese.
> It hasn't been announced for release in the US, no one has picked it up,
> no Eva games have yet to make it stateside, and the game features 35,000
> words, all voiced.  Translation would be a massive undertaking.
> 
> "So how can I enjoy this miracle of game design, this new masterpiece,
> this epoch-making moment in Eva history?"  That's where I come in.
> 
> I've already preordered the game.
> 
> It comes out the 20th; I should have it a few days late (depending on
> how speedy UPS decides '2 day' means). I'm going to have a big event
> where I sit down with the game for the first time in a public setting (a
> JCR somewhere, I'm guessing), and we play through for as long as people
> can stand to stay.  Naturally, I'll be doing a running translation.
> 
> You too can enjoy this game; detailed info re: location and time will
> be announced once I have this game in my hot little hands.
> 
> In short:  Eva 2 is awesomer than awesome.  It's coming soon. I'll get
> it, and if you want you too can experience this 'sequel' to Eva. Whee!
> 
> Need a bit more?  Here's a link to the promotional video:
> 
> http://www.bandaigames.channel.or.jp/list/eva2/mov.html
> 
> 
> I hope I've got you interested, I'll try to make the event as fun as
> possible.  We'll see what happens.    Eva2!!!
> 
> --Jason Morrow
> P.S.:  Eva2!!!
> 
> That's about it!  So yeah, Jason is MAD into it! Good for him! Chrissy
> and I will try going down on Sat, but I hope other people can come,
> too!
> 
> - Kathy

------ End of Forwarded Message

--
Ciao,
     John

John C. Watson
World Otakunization Project, Amherst Division

<http://admin.engr.wisc.edu/IT/netiq.cfm>