lepos book launch & show - nov 11th (toronto)

[sh4dow]

a co-worker will be hosting an event next week which i think could be of interest to arcade gamers.

the book is about lepos, a character that among other things appeared in a non-playable (yes, this part should be stressed, nobody should go there expecting to actually play it!) demo for an arcade game that never went into production.

full promotional text:
"In 1995 Koyama Games built a prototype arcade machine that never went into full production. The 32-bit Lepos side-scroller was made strictly for promotional purposes, this demo has never been made public... Until now.

On November 11th, Magic Pony will unveil a lost arcade classic. Displayed on loan for three days will be the original arcade cabinet along with a game demo, dead stock fliers and a special series of level artwork.

Finally, to coincide with this event is the launch of Diego Bergia's Lepos bible. A 65 page book documenting the entire project's history from street-art to video games."


details about the event and lepos: http://www.whereislepos.com/

[undamned]

Guess my brain just stops at the "arcade games you can't play" part
-ud

[Udderdude]

You aren't fooling anyone with the, "OMG LOST ARCADE GAME" thing. Obvious marketing ploy is obvious.

[renardqueenston]

lighten up, it just looks like it's all for fun's sake! from the street art to the concept art to the faux-arcade end product, it looks like it's just overall a fun project that people will be able to dig. i think it's something that fans of multi-media (not multimedia) art will enjoy.

[sh4dow]

thanks!

and yeah (as i already said), i thought it might be fun for some people to just look at. even if you don't like it enough to buy his book...

and commenting on how this is just "obvious marketing" or "shameless promotion" makes about as much as sense as e.g. confronting bands who play for free in the streets, complaining to the organizers of nuit blanche or asking microsoft/sony/etc. to take their demo stations everywhere down. because it's all just "obvious marketing", right? so why enjoy a free, nice thing - if it's to promote something, it's gotta be bad, right?

[Thjodbjorn]

It's hard to tell sometimes as the line between marketing and art gets blurred a lot more lately. Artists using the tactics of advertizers, etc.

It took me the teeniest bit of digging to realize this was for art rather than straigh-up commerce.

I think given the demographics here, a thing claiming to be a lost arcade game is going to automatically set off some BS detectors too.

[Udderdude]

I didn't really want to do this, but there is just so much BS in this post.

and commenting on how this is just "obvious marketing" or "shameless promotion" makes about as much as sense as e.g. confronting bands who play for free in the streets

I don't see street bands posting on random forums telling them to go visit them at Spadina station.

complaining to the organizers of nuit blanche

Nuit Blance is a HUGE event that takes up tons of space. They are mostly non-interactive art (unlike video games). Furthermore, it's never had any sort of "omg lost art" gimmick slapped on their promotions of it.

or asking microsoft/sony/etc. to take their demo stations everywhere down.

You can't compare MS/Sony console kiosks, which are in Gamestop, etc. and have playable demos on them, to a video of a game. At the same time, I never said anything about "taking anything down". You (or whoever you're promotion for) can run their video on Queen St. all day for all I care.

I am assuming that at some point the game will actually be released for some price tag. If not, well, it seems he's definitely trying to sell something at some point. So don't go acting like this is non-commercial.

[jonny5]

I didn't really want to do this, but there is just so much BS in this post.

and commenting on how this is just "obvious marketing" or "shameless promotion" makes about as much as sense as e.g. confronting bands who play for free in the streets

I don't see street bands posting on random forums telling them to go visit them at Spadina station.

complaining to the organizers of nuit blanche

Nuit Blance is a HUGE event that takes up tons of space. They are mostly non-interactive art (unlike video games). Furthermore, it's never had any sort of "omg lost art" gimmick slapped on their promotions of it.

or asking microsoft/sony/etc. to take their demo stations everywhere down.

You can't compare MS/Sony console kiosks, which are in Gamestop, etc. and have playable demos on them, to a video of a game. At the same time, I never said anything about "taking anything down". You (or whoever you're promotion for) can run their video on Queen St. all day for all I care.

I am assuming that at some point the game will actually be released for some price tag. If not, well, it seems he's definitely trying to sell something at some point. So don't go acting like this is non-commercial.

I feel I should say something because this is bothering me.

First off, udderdude, you know sh4dow, so I really don't understand why you are being so mean. This is not a 'random' post on a 'random' forum; he is a member here, was before this post, and he knows a few members here from attending my meets, you being one of those people. So he thought to share this 'arcade related' info with the people he knows in Toronto who are into arcades. What a bastard!!

He is not 'selling' anything; he is announcing an event a friend is having. That is all. Why you feel the need to deconstruct his posts and feel you simply 'have to' set him straight is beyond me. He has done nothing wrong here.

So just let me get all this straight: he posts info about 'an art show/ book release' that is semi-arcade related(whether you agree or not) and gives a bit of background about it, offers a link to the artists page and invites those interested to attend.

Seriously man.....come on

[undamned]

a co-worker will be hosting an event next week which i think could be of interest to arcade gamers.

the book is about lepos, a character that among other things appeared in a non-playable demo for an arcade game that never went into production.

I guess I'm still at a loss as to why anyone would want to go to this (I'm being objective, not intentionally mean). If the character were well known from a comic book or appeared in some form of media which would have garnered some fandom, I could totally understand. This "Hey, check out something you've never seen and you can't experience! You can even buy a book about something you don't care about!" pitch has zero draw.

In short, my gripe is not with your event, it's with your pitch. I imagine there is away to gain interest in this without the false premise of automatic interest in a character we have never seen featured in a game we can not play.
-ud

[sh4dow]

first off: it's not my event. i know exactly one detail more about it than anybody here does and i haven't even seen the book yet.

i probably just should've recommended it without mentioning my really very loose connection to it. like one recommends any event/game/movie/whatever to other people. but naive me - back when i posted it, i didn't see a reason for that. i've gotten to know plenty of gamers in my life who are rather open-minded and fun-loving and enjoy wacky/spoofy kind of things. never would i have imagined reactions like these.
i mean... it's not like there haven't been any positive ones (and i appreciate them very much, thanks!) but i simply expected the people who aren't interested to just ignore it...


@ undamned:

i can only tell you about my reasons. why i found it intriguing and worthy of a recommendation. (and hereby ignoring the fact that you've called me either not human or a liar, since you have counted me neither as "anyone", nor as somebody in your "zero draw"...)
the first thing i saw about this whole project was the flyer with the cab on it. i thought "that's a nice design but i wonder whether that cab really exists or whether it's just a mockup for the flyer" and before i read anything more or looked on the website, i asked him about that and he said that it will be there. that alone impressed me enough to want to go there because i think doing a design for an arcade cab and actually painting the whole thing alone is worth seeing to me. sure, big companies do it every day but he is just one guy who has done it basically for fun.
then i read the info about it and looked at the website and found it nice how he created this whole "universe" for the character using different kinds of media and at times, i wasn't sure whether something was real or manipulated by him. which again, i found intriguing. i also didn't know (and still don't to some extent) what the origins of this whole thing are and what did come before the book and what because of it. i suppose it would be the ultimate joke if there really wasn't a book but i doubt that
and all of that reminded me of wacky ideas friends and myself would come up from time to time that are somehow related to games or movies but we never really take them seriously enough to actually go through with them. and for somebody to think of something like that and actually doing it - that's simply great fun and something to be admired to me.
lastly, i simply like the design of the little guy.

now, if you're not even remotely interested in spoofs or anything like that (it doesn't even really matter whether one considers it "art" or not, although i suppose people who appreciate art will be more open to such concepts), then i suppose you won't be able to identify with what i've explained above - and that's ok. not everybody has to. i didn't assume that there would be hundreds of gamers swarming towards the magic pony on that day.

i just know i am always very pissed when i hear about some interesting event after it already happened because nobody bothered to tell me (and in fact, i would love to know whenever there are gaming-related events going on in toronto... i can always not go. but i cannot choose if i don't know about them) and that's why when something that i find interesting comes along, i tend to recommend it to people with similar interests.


@ Udderdude

there is indeed a lot of BS around here somewhere. and that is as far as i care to reply to it.
don't get me wrong, i would love elaborate but i think there's a time and a place for that - and this isn't it.

[Udderdude]

i've gotten to know plenty of gamers in my life who are rather open-minded and fun-loving and enjoy wacky/spoofy kind of things. never would i have imagined reactions like these.

On a forum like this that gets hit with advertisements/self promoters/viral marketing somewhat often, it's not really much of a surprise. You really should have been more open and up-front about exactly what it was you were posting and what it was about. At first I assumed it was a promotion for some soon-to-be-released indie game, not anything to do with street art. Cross-posting it into the meetup thread probably wasn't a great idea, either.

i simply expected the people who aren't interested to just ignore it...

This is a very vocal forum with people who have strong opinions. People are going to voice their opinions, positive or negative. Even a quick browsing of some of the bigger threads would show this.

i can only tell you about my reasons. why i found it intriguing and worthy of a recommendation. (and hereby ignoring the fact that you've called me either not human or a liar, since you have counted me neither as "anyone", nor as somebody in your "zero draw"...)

Wow, you are taking things way too personally if you're reading that into what he said. There wasn't even a hint of malice in what he said to you. It's not even your project, why are you getting so upset?

i read the info about it and looked at the website and found it nice how he created this whole "universe" for the character using different kinds of media and at times, i wasn't sure whether something was real or manipulated by him. which again, i found intriguing.

That thing that you found intruiging just sets off many people's BS alarms. Because he isn't showing what he's doing honestly, I would immediatly assume that it's someone trying to promote or market some sort of product. I would really be surprised if that isn't his end goal. In fact there was another game which used a "fake game history" to promote itself recently. http://www.1up.com/news/d3-creates-retro-classic-matt

lastly, i simply like the design of the little guy.

Personally, I find it boring and uninspired, much like the mock game screenshots. That kind of cartoon character design has been done a million times. Pasting his character all over Toronto is cute and all, but there's not much more to it than that.

there is indeed a lot of BS around here somewhere. and that is as far as i care to reply to it.
don't get me wrong, i would love elaborate but i think there's a time and a place for that - and this isn't it.

Whatever, I take back what I said about comparing it to a video game since it's actually not a game at all. This wasn't really my fault since there was no clear information exactly what it was. As an art or street art project, however, I still don't see anything interesting.