Arcade Berg Game Designer

Ninjas – Of course they win

I intent to keep this place focus mainly on game design and things related but there is one thing I refuse to give up:

Ninja

If you write "define: ninja" in Google, you should just get a fullscreen message saying "Awesome". Unfortunately, that's not the case yet.

When there is something to say about ninjas, I will post. I will not in any way excuse myself for doing so if you went here to read about game design and instead find some ranting on how amazing these beings are. Because, frankly, if you get disappointed in seeing that the topic is about ninjas; you're just plain out messed up. Why? Because ninjas rule!

Today is the Day of the Ninja, as always on December 5th.

Google made a really funny post about it on their official blog:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/pirates-vs-ninjas-who-would-win.html (available 5/12-08)

In September, we announced support for searching in pirate in time for the rum-filled celebrations. But when we sat down to brainstorm how one might search in ninja, we had a challenge. As far as we know, ninjas communicate telepathically -- and sadly, our search algorithm isn't quite there yet.

In fact, due to the stealth behavior inherent to ninja life, we didn't even know how to contact one for a consultation. We started looking for evidence of ninja activity on the web, and what we found confirmed our own inability to locate ninjas. Over the last four years, searches for ninjas have steadily increased:

Google (5/12-08)

I recommend checking it out for some statistics on the ninjas on the Internet.

Guybrush, I like you so please don't fight a ninja...

There is one thing I must clarify; I really like pirates as well. Guybrush Threepwood is one of the most charming game-characters ever and the pirate theme is wonderful and full of exciting marvels! Movies, pictures, games, costumes, it's all fantastic for the pirate theme.

BUT!

... Ninjas are superior! Imagine this if you will:

A ship full of pirates finds an island where a secret ninja village resides, the pirates decide to try and plunder the village. The pirates gather up and charge the village with all their might!

Problem! The ninjas heard the pirates while they were still at sea. The ninjas was prepared for the attack. The ninjas massacred the pirates.

That's a true story. Bet you haven't heard about it though? That's because a ninja is very thurough and doesn't leave any trace.

Now, let's say a group of ninjas are swimming and training in the sea. They see a pirate ship and decide to kill them. They swiftly jump out of the water, landing on the deck of the ship and execute all the pirates before they realized ninjas were on their ship.

True story.