• 31May 13

  XBOX ONE - the Quandry

  Well, after briefly reading some of the coverage of the Xbox One, I'm left with more questions than answers.  Unlike many people, I'm not throwing a hissy fit over the possible scenarios.  Rather, I'm just finding myself a little confused and a little reserved in my opinions. I'm curious to see how the proposed features or possible features would affect me.  Most of the big sore spots that everyone seems to be fretting over, really aren't big issues to me.  I dont normally buy used games and I have high speed internet. 

  First off, I've never been big on used games.  I hate buying a game that someone else has already had their grimy hands all over.  I guess I've just had some bad experiences with scratched discs, missing manuals, or just plain greasy cases.  Seriously, what the hell do some of you  people do with your games?  Anyways, for whatever reason, I have the collector gene.  I like getting a fresh, unopened game that's in mint condition.  Never found the savings on used games to be all that great.  Gamestop seems to be the biggest reseller of games, but their deals are just plain awful at times.  I'd rather just spend the extra 2 to 4$ and get the game new.  Furthermore, almost every game goes on sale at some point.  The savings you can get from just being observant far outweigh the paltry savings of buying used.   I hardly ever pay full price for any games and can often get new games for 20$ or less.  Now, one aspect of used games is not just buying them for cheaper, but selling them back once you're done.  I can understand why people would fear losing that.  However, once again, this just isnt something I do.  I like to hold onto my games both as a collector and for replay.

  Now, I'll be honest.  I have no idea what MS plans to do about used games.  Whether there will actually be a fee for using a used game and who would end up paying that fee.  Would it be the institution that sells you the used game or the player with an activation fee?  Some individual software developers have already been taking their own steps to cut down on the recycling of games, but it would be a significant deal if the console maker themself took measures.  Part of this boils down to the quagmire of intellectual property rights.  What do you really own when you buy a game?  In my opinion, I think if you buy a physical copy of the game, you should have every right to sell that to whomever you want.  However, I suppose an activation fee doesnt prevent that transaction from occurring.  It just makes it less palatable.  But I'll liken this to another practice that occurs in business -airline bag fees.  If just one airline was doing it, they'd lose business.  But if most of them do it, we get stuck with it.  Microsoft certainly can do whatever the hell they want with used games.  But if all their competitors don't charge fees, they're going to look pretty bad.

  As for always online, I dont care.  I'm already always online.  Have had high speed interent for years and can't imagine life without it.  This issue is a non-issue for me.  However, from a business standpoint, it seems somewhat perplexing.  Why would you intentionally limit your customer base?  Of the over 70 million xbox 360's sold, I would have to assume that a decent percentage of those people dont have high speed internet.  So why would you create a situation that would instantly eliminate them from your customer base?  I'm not a business major, so maybe they think it would be more profitable to protect againt piracy and other issues.  Maybe they assume that most of their future customers will have high speed internet?  Maybe there's some other aspect I'm just missing.  But honestly, I have no idea why you would limit yourself.

  As for Kinnect 2.0 or whatever it is, I'm absolutely clueless on that.  Never got a Kinnect 1.0.  I dont like gimmicky controllers like that or the god awful wii controller.  As long as the Kinnect is a superfluous feature, then I'm ok with it.  Dont mess too much with the regular controller.  That thing works like a charm and has evolved nicely over the last few generations.  It does what I want it to do. I certainly do need more information on whether this kinnect is acting like a spy camera in my living room.  If I'm sitting in my boxers playing games (because let's face it - we all get lazy some mornings), I dont want other players or the MS staff to be viewing my tiger printed underwear.  No offense, but that's just for me and my future wife.  Disclosure is important and they need to clarify this.

  Despite all the facetious bellyaching going on, I think most of these things won't be that big of a deal.  In the end, it's going to come down to the games, the price point,  and the service.  Looking back at the last two generations, both the ps2 and the xbox 360 did fairly well despite atrocious hardware issues at launch.  The reason - their large and high quality game libraries.  As for this upcoming generation, I'll do what I always do.  Wait and see. 

  • Posted May 31, 2013 9:19 pm GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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• 5Feb 13

  Superbowl Sunday

  Wasn't expecting the Ravens to win.  Thought they would get beat bad.  Was a good game until the power went out, then I kind of lost interest.  Pretty good half time show as well.  Probably one of the better ones I've seen.  And champ, Ray Ray got his ring.  Granted he looked awful in most of that game.

  • Posted Feb 5, 2013 2:37 pm GMT
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• 16Jan 13

  Violence and video games - a connection?

  Given recent events, violent video games have been headlining a lot of news stories. Countless pundits have labelled them as a culprit for instilling violence in our youth. Most recently, even the president of the NRA, placed the blame of school shootings squarely on the shoulders of violent video games. Congress appears to be jumping on the bandwagon calling for bans or regulation of these dangerous products. On the other side, countless gamers declare that they have never been unduly influenced by their games. They claim that any such insinuation lacks merit. So which side is right?

  Well, if we want to be honest, the best answer is no one knows. There simply isnt enough information to determine whether games contribute to violent behavior. Do they desensitive us to violence? Do they cause us to lose empathy and become more antisocial? It's possible but it's certainly not been proven. As such, most of the critics of violent video games are not basing their opinions on published research. They are going more on public perception or their own thoughts on the subject.

  Most of the perpetrators of these mass shootings have been young men, and not suprisingly a lot of young men play video games. Hence, there is a correlation between those who perpetrate violent crime and those who play violent video games. But as we have often heard in these forums, "correlation does not imply causation". There are lots of things that are strongly correlated but have no direct impact on each other. One famous example - shown on freakonomics -, was ice cream and the incidence of polio (pre vaccination days). These two events had an incredibly strong correlation. So much so, that people back in the day thought ice cream caused polio. Both ice cream consumption and the incidence of polio shot up tremendously in the summertime and then dropped signficantly in the winter. But as we know now, polio is caused by a virus not food. When summer came around, kids played with each other and transmitted the virus. Given the hot temperatures, they also ate lots of ice cream. So the two events were correlated but had no cause and effect relationship.

  Now this doesn't necessarily get these games off the hook either. They certainly may have deleterious effects on certain young and vulnerable minds. We just dont know. Rather than jump to unwise conclusions, maybe a little research is in order? However, psychiatry and psychology are incredibly complex disciplines. It may take quite a while to get any definitive data on this subject. The human mind is a very hard thing to study because you can't just isolate one variable.

  • Posted Jan 16, 2013 5:13 pm GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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