“But I don’t understand! I don’t understand how this all happens, how we go through this. I mean — I knew her, and then she’s… there’s just a body, and I don’t understand why she just can’t get back in it and not be dead anymore! It’s stupid! It’s mortal and stupid! And… and Xander’s crying and not talking, and… and I was having fruit punch, and I thought, ‘Well, Joyce will never have any more fruit punch — ever, and she’ll never have eggs, or yawn, or brush her hair, not ever,’ and no one will explain to me why.”
–Anya Emerson, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Episode 5.16, “The Body”)

It’s a weird feeling when someone you know and talk to on a regular basis passes away. It’s like a giant mental disconnect — this weird, surreal blot that your mind can’t fully process. A hole in the world.

It’s even weirder when the person in question dies a tragically young death, as was the case with Rannie Yoo, who passed away last weekend at the age of 33, after an 11-month battle with cancer. I knew Rannie through Triple Point (previously Kohnke Communications), the San Francisco-based gaming PR firm where she worked. Her funeral was today (well, I guess technically yesterday, at this point), and — between her friends, family, and gaming industry buddies — the room overflowed to the point where the crowd spilled out the door and into the hallway. For nearly two hours, a great many of these people took turns coming to the front of the room and relating stories and memories about Rannie, and how she’d touched their lives.

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The rabid folks who frequent NeoGAF had some pretty interesting reactions to writer N’Gai Croal’s latest column, which deals with realism in games. Croal’s column is an interesting piece that discusses the contrast between art design choices in a few current-gen games, and I recommend giving it a read.

Some of the NeoGAF community members’ responses have me shaking my head, though.

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Stories like this one mystify me. Just look at the headline: “Nintendo’s Fall.” Now, far be it from me to question the experience and perspective that writer Doug Perry — a fixture in the gaming media for well over a decade — has, but I tend to scratch my head every time one of these “Wow, remember when Nintendo wasn’t doing so well?” pieces pops up.

The fact is, Nintendo’s never done anything but well. It’s as though people remember the years between 1996 and 2006 (AKA the Nintendo 64 and GameCube years) as some sort of Dark Age for the company.

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My brothers-in-arms at Eat-Sleep-Game.com have released the third episode of their Rebel FM podcast, and the ex-1UP Show guys over at Area 5 (formerly Talking Orange) have released the debut episode of their new video show, Co-Op. Check ‘em out!

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Head on over to www.eat-sleep-game.com and check out the newest episode of Rebel FM by my buddies Nick Suttner, Anthony Gallegos, Philip Kollar, and Arthur Gies!

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