Team ICO - The "Games As Art" Episode

Fanthropological

Guest

Nick Suttner

Independent writer/designer/consultant. Ex-@Oculus/@PlayStation/1UP/EGM. Comics @deftruetales! Podcasts @thespelunkyshow @goinganalogshow!

• Nick Suttner - the website
• Shadow of the Colossus by Nick Suttner – Boss Fight Books
• Nick Suttner (@nsuttner) on Twitter
• The Last Guardian: An Extraordinary Story: Future Press, Nick Suttner: 9783869930794: Amazon.com: Books
• The Spelunky Showlike

What happens when you find yourself in a beautiful world as a silent protagonist and a non-verbal story? You might end up getting into a “games as art” discussion with a special guest Nick! We’re talking about fans of the works of Team ICO (i.e. ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, The Last Guardian)!

Fortunately, we have Nick Suttner, author of the Boss Fight Books book on the subject to help us out!

Episode Outline

Fandom Facts

History and Origins:

> Team Ico was a Japanese video game development studio led by game designer Fumito Ueda. It was part of Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Studio’s Product Development Department #1, and had developed the games Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, both for the PlayStation 2. The team was also initially responsible for The Last Guardian before Ueda’s departure in 2011 and the formation of a new company taking over development in 2014. Their games are usually characterized by minimalist storytelling and gameplay, an atmospheric use of bloom and high dynamic range rendering (HDR) lighting, and use of fictional languages. Their products are frequently cited as examples of video games as an art form. > > — Wikipedia - Team Ico

Search Data:

Based on worldwide search data, it looks like the biggest peaks of interest in the games has already passed. Shadow of the Colossus is by far the most popular of the games and has had spikes in interest around October 2005 (its release date) and again in February 2018 (remake of the original). Interest in The Last Guardian similarly spikes around its release date: December 2016.

The top ten countries, by search volume, are as follows for the different games:

• Shadow of the Colossus: Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Japan, Argentina, El Salvador, Canada, Uruguay, Mexico, Spain (United States is 11th)
• The Last Guardian: Chile, Brazil, Canada, United Kingdom, Spain, Norway, Puerto Rico, Portugal, United States, New Zealand

Famous Last Words: Last Episode

G: Were fans thrilled to have the game featured in Adam Sandler’s Rain over me?

T: What are the odds of any of the Team Ico characters showing up in the new Smash?

Z: Is there a fan-made concept album where each track represents one of the Colossi you fight in the game?

Alicia: Do you like games?

Main Discussion

Topics covered in this episode: TBD

Spotlight: Nomad Colossus (Youtube)

> Shadow of the Colossus first came out in 2005. Since then, millions of people have played the beloved PS2 game, driven by its lonesome charm, moved by its mysterious ending. But one man never stopped playing, as a result, he’s found stuff that the game’s creators never intended anyone to see. > > The player in question is Michael Lambert, and he’s been excavating Shadow of the Colossus for the last four years on his Nomad Colossus YouTube channel. He’s used glitches, external software exploits, and excursions into the bowels of SOTC’s game code to extensively map the hidden places, unused ideas and unheard music tucked away in the game’s hidden corners. With the hours he’s spent inside the game, it’s entirely possible that Lambert—along with the secret hunters Dark0ssX, Pikol, WWWArea who mentored him—might know Shadow of the Colossus better than lead creator Fumito Ueda and the other men and women who created it. > — Kotaku - Meet the Hacker Who’s Spent Six Years Inside Shadow Of The Colossus

Famous Last Words

Our chance (and yours, if you’re watching on twitch.tv/thenickscast) to have some (in)famous last words about next week’s topic before we’ve done any prep work! Next week, we’ll be talking about the fans and fandom of Halo!

T: How much of the fandom is non-competitive or curative?

G: Did the Halo series draw any inspiration from Starship Troopers?

Z: Is the Halo franchise set up to keep going even though there are no new games on the horizon? Do fans move on after a certain age?

Nick: What’s up with that talking plant?

Where can you find us?

Pretty much everything we do is something/thenickscast, but in specific…

• If you’re looking for this podcast (Fanthropological), you can find it at Fanthropological.com or on different podcatchers including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and many others!
• You can join us for the live recording of the podcasts and participate (or catch us when we’re playing some games) at twitch.tv/thenickscast
• Keep up-to-date with our latest goings-on on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, all @thenickscast
• We also occasionally create extra content about fandom including convention coverage and interviews on YouTube.com/thenickscast
• We have some fine merchandise available at shop.thenickscast.com (and we’d love your support!)
• If all else fails, you can email us: [e-mail]

What is “Fanthropological”?

Every week, Fanthropological delivers over an hour of fandom-related “fanalysis” covering a different fandom every week and giving you hard data, history, special guests, and, of course, speculation!

We cover topics spanning the gamut of anime, manga, comics, video games, comics, movies, books, television, and, in general, geek culture.

Credits

• Ending: ReMix: Shadow of the Colossus "Trico Flies" by Kevin Penkin from http://ocremix.org used under ocremix.org content policy
• All other music and sound for this week’s episode were provided by Nick Green!

Links

• Wikipedia - Team Ico
• Google Trends - Shadow of the Colossus, The Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection, The Last Guardian
• Wikipedia - Shadow of the Colossus
• Wikipedia - Shadow of the Colossus (2018 video game)
• Wikipedia - The Last Guardian
• YouTube - Nomad Colossus
• Kotaku - Meet the Hacker Who's Spent Six Years Inside Shadow Of The Colossus
• Dichtung Digital - "Play, Memory": Shadow of the Colossus and Cognitive Workouts
• Kotaku - Why Fumito Ueda Thinks Game Development Is Like Writing Hip Hop Lyrics
• Quora - How is The Last Guardian and Ico Related to Shadow of the Colossus?
• r/ShadowoftheColossus - About to Play Again for the First Time Since I Was About 16. I Absolutely Loved this Game as a Kid
• r/ShadowoftheColossus - I Wasn't Told You Could Play as Some Sort of Howitzer Cannon!
• r/ShadowoftheColossus - Just Beat this Game for the First Time. Thoughts Etc Inside
• r/ShadowoftheColossus - Theory About Sword of Dormin
• r/ShadowoftheColossus - This Game Broke My Heart and I Loved It.
• r/ShadowoftheColossus - This Whole Game is About Ambition. I've Given Up Everything in My Life and Before I Did That, I Remember Playing this Game for the First Time.
• r/ShadowoftheColossus - Why Does This Game Get Such High Scores?
• Semantic Scholar - The Tragedy of Betrayal: How the Design of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Elicits Emotion
• Youtube - SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS RAP | Zarcort FT. Proyecto Éskhata
• Youtube - SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS SONG - "Sacrifice" by Ode to Entropy

Chapters

1. Introduction (00:00:00)

2. Opening Theme (00:00:08)

3. Fandom Facts (00:02:14)

4. Main Discussion (00:06:17)

5. Spotlight (00:51:29)

6. Plugs (00:55:23)

7. Famous Last Words (01:00:33)

8. Bloopers (01:09:11)