• 27Dec 05

  The Rise of Co-Dependent Video Games

  
  You guys miss me? I've been M.I.A. for a while as I worked out some of my issues. I had to work out that whole incarceration thing (I swear to God I never dropped my soap in the shower and you can't prove that I did). Then there was the whole straight jacket incident... yeah, let's not discuss that. But I'm back now. And you know what that means? It means you're going to have to live with my gaming pontification once more. Deal with it; you know you love it.
  
  

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  Someone out there has to tell me what is with the proliferation of co-dependent video games? I'm going to use two (arguably) excellent games to explain my point: Nintendogs and Animal Crossing: Wild World. I'm going to reserve my judgment on these games for the moment I've actually played them enough to give suitable judgment on them. However, the little I have played begs the question "why do I want to feel as if I have gaming obligations?"
  
  I play video games because I want to, not because I have to. However, with these two games there are time-dependent obligations that must be fulfilled. If one of your neighbors in Animal Crossing tells you to come back tomorrow, they really mean come back tomorrow. If you leave your dog alone for a couple days in Nintendogs, it reacts with such utter sadness and despair that you literally feel guilty.
  
  It's a video game, for pete's sake! It's not even an MMO where I can understand that kind of behavior given that there are real people behind the characters and real relationships are affected by your presence (or lack thereof). However, I do not want to get guilt trips from a polygon puppy who doesn't understand I have bills to pay and women to chase. Ok, so maybe I just have bills to pay. A man can dream can't he? (And if they told you I was stalking them, they're liars, I tell you. Liars!)
  
  The concept of having real-world tangibles such as your voice or the time of day affect your in-game experience is certainly an interesting idea; but I'm not sure how much I'm going to be able to jump on board with it. I don't want to feel obligated to play a video game. The beauty of World of Warcraft was that even with being in a guild I didn't feel obligated to play every day. In fact, there were whole months that went by when I didn't touch it because the real world demanded my attention.
  
  I play video games for one reason alone: because I want to. And unless there's more to this new generation of guilt-tripping video games, I don't think a lot of them will be on any of my top ten lists.
  
  • Posted Dec 27, 2005 3:29 pm PT
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• 2Sep 05

  Hurricane Katrina

  I'd been going out of my skull all week long because one of my close friends live(d) in New Orleans (he's a freelance writer for GameSpot Mobile). Ironically enough, he was supposed to move to Southern California in the middle of September. I tried calling him and emailing him to no avail (understandably so). Then last night he contacted me. He and some of his friends had gotten out just at the start of the storm and he was doing ok.
  
  Then he started telling me stories. Some of his friends had gotten out later than him and showed up at the house where he was staying a day or two after he did... and they inevitably came with horrific stories detailing the decline of human behavior in the region. 80% of the city was under water. Corpses were floating past rooftops. The details he gave me were so much worse than anything I'd envisioned that I can't even repeat them.
  
  I put up a bulletin in the 4th Wall about what you can do to help if you want to. If you have three weeks of your life to give, the Red Cross is offering two days intensive training followed by three week deployment in New Orleans. If I could, I would be there in a second. But there are other ways to help and the first place to start is to contact your local Red Cross or a local church group. I'm an atheist, but this transcends my feelings about God.
  
  The whole week, I've been sitting here in relative ignorance of what's going on down there. I'm pissed off at myself because I didn't fully understand the magnitude and the depth of things going on down there. The news reports are obviously disturbing, but it's a layer of abstraction that allowed me to not be as concerned about it about as I now am. I mean, outside of my own friends, I wasn't too concerned because I was under the mistaken impression that our disaster response would be adequate enough to handle it.
  
  Now I'm less upset with myself, but I'm definitely more upset at what I see as a lack-luster response by the federal government. The media has done a (surprisingly) excellent job of keeping us up to date on the happenings. But the federal government took four days to appropriate funds for disaster relief; they took five days to get the National Guard there in any significant numbers; they took five days to get the airlines to start offering flights to affected residents to places where they could get help; and all Bush can do is go on TV and say something to effect of "it looks bad now, but we'll be stronger after it's over."
  
  I'm telling you, I was not a lover of our President before this disaster. But his lackluster response to a disaster of this magnitude on American soil doesn't have me pissed off at him any more; it just has me completely and utterly disappointed. I disagreed with him on Iraq. But if there was one thing I never doubted it's that somewhere in his warped mind, a part of him thought he was doing the best thing for the country. Emotionally, I was in sync with him when 9/11 happened and in the days surrounding 9/11 he was nothing if not Presidential. During the immediate weeks following 9/11, I was actually proud to have him as our President. I thought about what it would have been like if Gore were in office and I was actually happy that Gore lost the election because I couldn't see Gore speaking to the American people on the emotional level that Bush was.
  
  But now I'm just completely disappointed almost to the point of feeling broken. I was hoping I would have the opportunity to get that feeling back again; that feeling of American pride that was so obviously present in this country post-9/11. It was a feeling that stemmed directly from the leadership of the federal government. But I've been unable to find that feeling during thie crisis because our national leaders are dropping the ball. I listened to the Mayor of New Orleans address the nation on the radio and I've never heard a politician more... I used the word "raw" when speaking with WedgeWu earlier, but I think the word I was searching for was "real". I've never heard a politician more real. And he's nothing if not upset.
  
  Two buildings fall down in New York, thousands dead, and the federal government's response was swift, sure, and decisive. A whole city sinks under the sea like Atlantis and it takes four days, an upset mayor, and corpses floating in between rooftops before the federal government gets the National Guard mobilized in any seriousness.
  
  Before, I just strongly disagreed with Bush; now I'm just fed-up. I'm done with this administration. If you guys see me mouth off about Bush and his policies again remind me I said "I'm done with this administration". I'm done writing about them and I'm done caring about them. I'm just done. My tirade is over.
  • Posted Sep 2, 2005 8:25 pm PT
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• 20Jul 05

  The 4th Wall

  It's alive!
  
  For a little while now, I've been talking about getting a few people together to put together a union to end all unions! Well this one is it. It's a place of opinion put together by a small group of us, including Oilers99, Adam_B, Andrew_A, and wedgewu. More will most likely be added over the next couple weeks.
  
  What's the idea behind the whole thing? Well to get different members of the community speaking out about what's important to them in gaming. The first week of opinions is on a very tame issue: what gives a game value. Don't worry, it probably won't stay tame for too long... after all, Oilers99 isn't exactly a tame guy.
  
  We will be adding new opinions every weekday (and if we get enough people, eventually every day). There are new features which we're thinking about adding to the mix as well... so this is only beginning. Check back daily (except this week Adam's not available, so he's probably not going to be posting)...
  
  .. and let me know if you're interested in joining up and posting regularly.
  
  • Posted Jul 20, 2005 8:36 pm PT
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