DunDunDunpachi
Banned
Interesting article from Vice/Waypoint, and a decent peek into the shmup genre. I was exposed to this content through a labyrinthine trail of forum posts, pdf guides, obscure Discord servers, SuperPlay DVDs imported from Japan, and YouTube videos. For an all-in-one article, this does a remarkable job of touching on many of the unseen details of the shmup community that most gamers are never exposed to.
Please give the article a read if you've ever been curious about bullet-hell shmups.
"Shoot-em-ups" or "shmups" are a classic genre of video game, but also, these days, one of the least well-understood and appreciated. Their age and simplicity are easy to confuse with crudeness, and even though almost every video game player has encountered one of these games, few players even understand how they are meant to function or what they truly demand of skilled practitioners.
Dr. Mark R Johnson has firsthand experience of this, having collected four world records in the genre to date, in addition to his academic work as a games scholar studying competitive gaming. Alexandra Orlando is a games scholar and critic, whose writing focuses on live streaming and eSports and draws on her experiences in the industry as a player, team manager and tournament organizer.
Together, they'll explore this rarely-seen world of competitive shmups, and shed some light on the place of these games in contemporary gaming culture by drawing on their experiences and insights as both researchers and active members of the competitive gaming and eSports communities.
I love shmups. The genre doesn't receive much attention from game journalists, largely because the genre is far too removed and obscure nowadays. It is mainly played by lonely people with too much time on their hands and weebs. So, not only is it nice to see it receive attention, but it is especially nice when a thorough article appears on a major website.
Oh, and please drop a farthing into the Shmup OT by paying it a visit.