Month: August 2020

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Every four years, Americans head to the voting booth to cast their ballots for the next President of the United States. Typically, voters lean Republican or Democrat, but this time around, voters will have a new party to choose from–the Gamer party.

You might have seen that choice manifested online with the Gamer party’s preferred candidate for president: Ace Watkins. The Watkins candidacy is mostly a presence on social media, using its Twitter and Facebook accounts to make promises to deal with gamer-centric national issues. “During this crisis, the president must use the Defense Production Act to ensure that every Americ. (sic) has access to a Nintendo Switch,” the Watkins Twitter account recently posted.

Obviously, the Watkins candidacy is a joke–there’s no such thing as a Gamer party and Ace Watkins himself is a character, played by actor and comedian Phil Jamesson. But it’s a gag that has surprising legs, thanks to the efforts of the team behind it.

The Ace Watkins for President campaign all started in 2018 when a group of editors from the satire website Hard Drive decided to have a little bit of fun on social media. “We needed a ‘gamer president’ to fix various gamer-related woes,” Jeremy Kaplowitz, the editor-in-chief at Hard Drive and one of the driving forces behind the Ace Watkins persona, told GameSpot in an email interview.

“At New York City Comic-Con that year, I made a video asking people to sign a petition to make gamers a protected class in the workplace, in November I wrote a hard Drive article [It’s Time for a Gamer President], and in March we launched a shirt,” Kaplowitz explained.

After their successful petition at NYCC, the team knew that they had struck a nerve in the community, and continued to build on the idea of a “gamer president.” The Hard Drive editors tried to put together a few t-shirts to continue to promote the idea, but they quickly found that the shirts weren’t a hit and something seemed to be missing. “We didn’t have any real structure for a long time–we would just tweet out ideas when we thought of them,” Kaplowitz said.

Creating The Character

Despite the idea seeming to slow down, the folks at Hard Drive really felt like they’d struck a nerve with the gaming community and were determined not to let the idea die. Eventually, the team realized what was missing–they needed a face for the “gamer president.”

“The other Hard Drive editors–Andy Holt, Kevin Flynn, and at the time, Mike Amory–and I wrote up a bio and we reached out to comedian Phil Jamesson to play the character because we really like his videos and thought he would be a good fit,” Kaplowitz said.

Jamesson was friends with Hard Drive editor Kevin Flynn and caught the eye of the rest of the team. As soon as everyone saw some of Jamesson’s YouTube videos, he quickly became the “obvious choice” to play the role of Ace Watkins.

I’m glad that Ace is providing another, more inclusive, path for gamers looking for a place to fit in.”

“The content lined up perfectly with my interest,” Jamesson said. “Being very into both games and politics myself, I had to say yes, and I’m glad I did.”

With a Twitter account set up and an actor willing to play Ace Watkins, everything had finally come together, and now it was time to see if the gaming community would rally behind the Ace Watkins for President 2020 campaign.

“We made the account, thinking it would get 3-5k followers and that would be that,” Kaplowitz said. “But by the next day, we had 40,000, and it has just been going up from there. So now we’re having a blast expanding the character and the world, seeing how big we can make it.” Today, the official Ace Watkins Twitter account has over 200,000 followers.

This is when things really started to take off. Maybe timing had something to do with it, but Kaplowitz believes getting Jamesson to play the role of Ace Watkins is what really sealed the deal. “I think having a name and a face to the sort of jokes we were already doing really helped sell them and made it a lot more fun to expand his world.”

Kaplowitz attributes a lot of the success of Ace Watkins to Jamesson, who Kaplowitz said is always incredibly prepared when appearing publicly as Ace. “I think, before we went to New York Comic Con, he actually read and memorized nearly every Ace Watkins tweet, to make sure he was prepared to answer questions using Ace’s real ‘policies.’ He’s really great at not breaking character when we’re talking to people and it’s truly so impressive.”

Kaplowitz said he truly believes that there is “no way Ace Watkins’ character would have been popular if we had chosen someone else.”

“I run the lines, over and over, ad nauseum,” Jamesson confirmed. “Our ‘rallies’ use a stump speech in which almost every line is a joke, and a good one. It’d be a horrible shame if I missed one, and I’d feel personally responsible… I need to live up to the image of a presidential candidate for the comedy to work, and part of that is having a polished speaking style.”

While Jamesson loves having some fun while portraying Ace Watkins, he also believes he has an important job to fulfill.

“It’s typically been the case that gamers are often viewed as a group of toxic, hateful people,” Jamesson explained. “Of course, almost all people who play games aren’t like that, they just haven’t been represented in pop culture. I’m glad that Ace is providing another, more inclusive, path for gamers looking for a place to fit in.”

“The vast majority of people who play games do it to have fun. But for a very long time, there has been a problem with online hatred in gaming,” he said. “There is an archetype of a person who thinks it’s okay to use racial or homophobic slurs because ‘it’s the internet….’ I think that one of the reasons Ace is such a well-liked character is that while he is passionate about video games and unimpeachably knowledgeable about them, he doesn’t say that you have to be. And he doesn’t say that you have to be anything else, either. Having a place to enthusiastically appreciate games without running into the online radicalization engine has traditionally been tough to do, but Ace offers that.”

The Next Phase For Ace

As the Ace Watkins for President campaign began to grow, so did the team. Despite starting out as a main character and team of writers, the brains behind Watkins began to add new characters, like a campaign manager, campaign strategist, communications director, and head of security.

Kaplowitz has taken on the role of campaign manager, while Hard Drive editors Kevin Flynn and Andy Holt have joined the public team as the campaign strategist and West Coast strategist, respectively. Hard Drive writer Jolie Darrow is playing the role of Ash Watkins, Ace’s sister and former head of security turned communications director.

With a core team in place, Kaplowitz said Hard Drive had big plans for Ace’s campaign before the coronavirus effectively shut down the country. The team actually made an appearance at PAX East, which took place just before E3, Gamescom, and virtually every other game show in 2020 was suspended or canceled.

“We had plans to do a lot more live shows,” Kaplowitz said. While all the upcoming gaming events in 2020 have been canceled or moved online due to the worldwide pandemic, the team is still hoping they can make some more appearances before the election this November. “We want to do more live shows like PAX East and more videos like the one we did at New York City Comic-Con. We filmed a cool little thing in New Hampshire for the primary and I hope that eventually sees the light of day.” However, with the current state of COVID-19, it seems unlikely the team will be able to host any more campaign rallies.

Even though everything is shut down, the team isn’t giving up on Ace, and instead refocused on launching a podcast, the Ace Watkins Presidential Hour. Released in January 2020, the podcast is essentially “an advanced version of the Twitter account,” Kaplowitz explained.

“We all have our characters that we play and let influence what we’re saying, but at the end of the day, we’re just filtering jokes about politics through the language of gaming or we’re filtering jokes about gaming through the language of politics,” he said.

“Now that we have the podcast, we have to meet once a week to discuss ideas anyway and that has been helpful, especially with regards to making the character work more in [a] longform project.”

With the 2020 U.S. presidential election only a few short months away, it may seem like Watkins days are numbered. However, Kaplowitz said that the team is tossing around a few ideas for how they can keep Ace around post-2020, but said he didn’t “want to spoil” what the team was up to.

“We have been kicking around some ideas for how the Ace Watkins character can continue into the future or end in a compelling way,” Kaplowitz said. “I don’t really want to delve too much into what those plans are…but we’re definitely thinking of ways we can keep Ace around after November and we hope to be able to if we have a good reason to do so.”

Kaplowitz also indicated that the team was open to introducing new characters to the campaign team, since the podcast gives them a unique opportunity to explore different personas. “We had a lot of ideas for characters that could come onto the podcast just before the quarantine began, so hopefully we can find a way to bring them on in a limited capacity now that we’re all stuck at home,” he said.

The team was reluctant to share what kind of characters they were planning to bring on in the future, but noted a lot of it would depend on how they “clicked” with Ace. “There’s so much room to expand his team and see how they click with Ace, especially because Phil is such a good actor,” Kaplowitz noted. “I would love to eventually have a whole world of staff helping the campaign to put Ace in the White House!”

Despite keeping future plans close to home, Kaplowitz did confirm that there are plans to introduce Ace’s running mate in the near future. Further, while Jamesson was hesitant to say much about the possible running mate, he did share that “Player 2” would be “thoroughly playtested” before joining the campaign.

While it remains to be seen what the future holds for the Ace Watkins team post-2020, there are no plans to slow things down leading up to November. If you enjoy a healthy mix of gaming and politics, you can follow Ace on Twitter or check out the podcast for plenty of gaming-themed political puns.

She Dreams Elsewhere is the retro-style RPG from solo developer Davionne Gooden, under the banner of Studio Zevere. It incorporates intricate turn-based combat in a surrealist world where the main character Thalia navigates a dream-like state alongside her friends, which comes with a lot of brutally honest dialogue that can be both fun and sobering.

In our exclusive gameplay video above, Thalia hits up a club for her friend Amia’s birthday, in what Gooden likens to a Persona-style social link scenario or Mass Effect loyalty mission. “With these connections, I wanted to explore mental health and these personal issues from a different perspective,” he explained. “Sometimes that relates to what Thalia’s going through, and other times it relates to how she views that person or their relationship.”

Gooden also assured that there’ll be many wild situations throughout She Dreams Elsewhere that explore these characters’ thoughts and feelings. In this particular moment, Amia and Thalia’s other friend Penelope are trying to have a good time in the club. The way things play out is quite reflective of what that experience is like–bugging the DJ to play a certain song, helping a friend out of an awkward interaction at the bar with a stranger, or having too good of a time shutting the club down. Towards the end of the video, you can also see the combat system in action and how the game casts a visually striking and stylish look.

We have more coverage of She Dreams Elsewhere in the works; look forward to an in-depth interview with Davionne Gooden that dives into the dynamics of being a solo developer, building an RPG that reflects his experiences and influences, and just staying afloat during tumultuous times in the world.

There’s no current release date for the game yet, but it’s set to hit Xbox One (also through Game Pass) and PC. You can try the game yourself with the She Dreams Elsewhere demo that’s available on Steam right now.

The beta for Marvel’s Avengers didn’t particularly blow me away, but I did enjoy the snippet of story I got to see. Specifically, I love Kamala Khan, who’s the focal point for the campaign. Not only does she have my favorite combat mechanics, but she injects both a wonderful playfulness and human element into the story.

Kamala is a nerdy teenager who likes to tell cheesy jokes, but she’s also struggling to come to terms with being labeled as a freak for having the superpower to enlarge and stretch her body (which she calls embiggening). Marvel’s Avengers is about Earth’s Mightiest Heroes learning to become a team again, but the beta also showcases that it’s just as much the origin story for an ordinary girl who becomes the second Ms. Marvel–a symbol of inspiration for Inhumans and teenage superheroes. This is the aspect of Marvel’s Avengers that I’m most intrigued to see unfold, and that largely comes from actor Sandra Saad’s performance as Kamala.

Saad does a wonderful job bringing the young hero to life and, after playing through the Marvel’s Avengers beta, I got to sit down and talk with her about her performance, how she prepared for the role, and what someone like Kamala means to both her and the wider superhero fan community. I was immediately surprised by how much Saad already is so much like Kamala–I can see why she was cast. “That’s what I’ve been told,” she said, laughing. “That I’m pretty similar to her character DNA already, so I didn’t have to go very far in my study.”

She continued: “Forming the character from my own personal experience was really nice because my personal experience is a lot like Kamala’s. I was a lot like her at 16. I had a lot of the same struggles as a first-generation American girl. I’m just as awkward and quirky, apparently.”

Seeing a superhero story about a group as notable as the Avengers through someone like Kamala is incredibly important, says Saad. Too often, people of color are relegated to background roles in superhero narratives where they can run the risk of being portrayed with negative stereotypes. And that can be harmful to the emotional and mental development for kids of color and how they perceive themselves. “When you grow up, you see your people being put up in the media in a certain way,” Saad said. “And at some point you get old enough to understand it for what it is. But when you’re a kid growing up with that, it’s disheartening and you’re like, ‘Wait, but is that really what my people are like? Is that real?’ And it’s confusing.”

She continued: “I can’t tell you how many auditions I’ve been on for stuff like ‘woman whose husband gets blown up in front of her.’ It was super sad at first. And then I was just like, I don’t want to do this anymore. I would rather not be successful then do this to my people because I know that’s not what we’re like, and that’s not all we are. When you have a character like Kamala Khan, a person who looks like Kamala Khan can look up to her, can see people like them being reflected in a better light. And there’s just something about that that empowers a young person.”

To that end, Saad wanted to ensure that Kamala was done her due justice. “I think I took on that heavy responsibility [of becoming Ms. Marvel] really quickly,” Saad said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to play an Avenger. What do I do? Okay, I’m going to read the comics.’ And I delved into that. Nice and slowly actually, because there’s only so many of them–there isn’t 50 years of history behind her yet. That was really nice. And then having my time with the script and with the director was also really helpful. [Creative director/writer] Shaun Escayg is really great about spending his time with the actors and talking through the characters with each one of them. And then in that way we can kind of create our own Crystal Dynamics version of the character and not just the ones that you’re used to.”

Amusingly enough, Saad has been able to draw inspiration from being cast as Kamala in order to inform her performance for what it would feel like for Kamala to meet the Avengers and take on new challenges. Coming from a background in comedy and television and movies, Saad is a relatively new voice in the video game industry in comparison to fellow Avengers actors Jeff Schine (Steve Rogers/Captain America), Travis Willingham (Thor), Nolan North (Tony Stark/Iron Man), Laura Bailey (Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow), and Troy Baker (Bruce Banner), all of whom have been a part of numerous video games and many of whom have worked together on past projects. Meanwhile, though Saad has voiced characters in a few notable video games (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Rage 2, and Fallout 76) she doesn’t have the same amount of experience doing the other things that go into creating a character, like motion capture.

“They’re mega mo-cap superheroes already,” Saad said. “This is my first mo-cap game. I’ve done other games. I auditioned for film and TV, and I came up in comedy. That’s where I come from. But you step onto this mo-cap stage where everyone’s already a superhero on that stage. And I’m like, ‘What’s a mo-cap? Explain this to me.’ And everyone’s super cool and super inviting and super giving with their knowledge. It fit like a glove.”

And once she got the hang of the mo-cap, Saad says that Crystal Dynamics afforded her a ton of creative freedom in defining Kamala’s idle animations, as well as how she stands, walks, runs, fights, and (most importantly) embiggens. “I think I just did whatever I wanted,” she said. “There was a lot of like, ‘Hey, what do you think it feels like to embiggen? Do that.’ And thankfully it worked out. Crystal Dynamics does a really good job of showing me the abilities and showing me the stuff that they’ve come up with. And that really helps inform what the movements are supposed to be. There’s only so much a human of my actual size can do, but I try.”

When you have a character like Kamala Khan, a person who looks like Kamala Khan can look up to her, can see people like them being reflected in a better light.

In order to avoid spoilers, I couldn’t get too much out of Saad about Kamala’s story and her arc as a hero in Marvel’s Avengers. But Saad did confirm that we can expect to see more scenes like the one in the beta between Kamala and Bruce, when Kamala momentarily breaks down as she deals with her situation as an Inhuman and Bruce comforts her–it’s a heartfelt moment for the two heroes who seemingly see themselves as having kindred experiences on account of their respective superpowers. “I’m not going to give anything away, but she does have special moments with everyone because it’s an Avengers story,” Saad said. “It’s not just the Hulk and Kamala story. She relates to all of them just from her own abilities. And just from knowing everyone’s abilities already, you can see how they all relate to her as her heroes. But the Hulk, as you know, he’s a monster who has this thing about him that he can’t really control and Kamala does, too. She has this new power and she’s like, ‘What do I do with it? Is this weird? How do I even use it? Do I use it for good? Is this a disease? What is it?’ And so in that way, you can see that they both have a lot of similarities.”

Saad also told me that she has had the chance to play the game and even after spending all her time shaping Kamala, she’s not sick of the teenage hero. Ms. Marvel is her go-to. “For me, there’s nothing like fwipping your limbs out from your body and swinging and stuff,” Saad said. “It’s so much fun.”

You can see and hear Sandra Saad’s performance as Kamala Khan in Marvel’s Avengers when it releases for Xbox One, PS4, PC, and Google Stadia on September 4. Next-gen versions for Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 will be available when both consoles come out later this year.