Pedometer!

I walk a lot. I walked 13000 steps during my working day. According to this site, that puts me into the "highly active" category.

I've never thought of myself as highly active, but hey, there you are. I think I'm allowed to have another vice.

Chain Smoking?
Orgy Parties?
Monkey Knife-Fights?

It's wide open.

Jet lag sucks

So I'm back at work. Been up since 3 am. Couldn't sleep. 2 gallons of coffee and I'm still on the border of Slumberland.

I haven't posted for a while, as I have been country hopping over the past couple of weeks. Ever notice that when you have a blog, and don't post for a while, people start whining? And those people usually don't have blogs? Do they know of the pain we bloggers go through? How every post takes a bit of our soul away, how we hold our lives out to be scrutinized by any would-be blog surfer?

Sort of like Big Brother in a way. No Kinga (NSFW) though. Uggghhhhh. *shudder*

So I guess it could be worse.

Are video games violent enough?

Have I finally lost it?

Kirsten sent me an email a while ago, and I've been brooding on it.

"I just finished watching a show by a former field
journalist about the Iraq war. He was talking about how they're only allowed to show people shooting - not people being hit, not people suffering, and not people greiving. He then played Battlefield 1942 with some teenagers and pointed out how it's the same take - you never actually die or anything (his argument is that current leaders and people don't know how much war sucks and evidently don't realize that we shouldn't take part in wars like Iraq, etc)

Anyway, I was thinking, if people are now also complaining that games aren't gory enough, then doesn't that say something good about Manhunt? After all, at least it is honest about how blugeoning someone hurts them..."

I think Kirsten's got a real point here. Not too surprising, since I'm pretty sure my wife is smarter than I am. And more attractive. And smells better. And is physicaly stronger. But I'm getting off track.

I've been looking at the potential effects of violence in videogames for some time now. Videogames are my hobby, and I love em', and if they were causing any harm, I'd want to know about it. So I read some books (I do work at a library), and looked at some studies.

Conceptually, there seems like their could be a causal link. Little Jimmy plays a game where he shoots some people, and then thinks it's a good idea to get Daddy's gun and cap the mailman.

The problem with this arguement is that it is just wrong. Studies can't find a causal link between violent games and violent behaviour. They can't even find a correlation most of the time. I have a theory about this, and it has to do with context.

When little Jimmy plays said violent game, he could just as easily come to the conclusion that violence is not cool. Sure, it's interesting or exciting in a game context; but he's really happy this isn't happening to him.

"But more violence in games? Come on, right?"

I think that as video games are coming into their own as an artisitic medium, they need to start treating their themes seriously. If little Jimmy was to play your typical war based FPS, he might think that war was bloodless and glorious, and that death in war was painless and quick. Now, I've never been in a war, nor do I wish to be in one, but I think that a little more blood and guts in a war game may get the "war sucks" message across.

I found this article , which I think sums up my thoughts quite nicely.

PS: if I was going a bit on the extreeme, I might mention Animal Crossing for the DS. I know it's a kiddy game, but I owe Nook 120,000 bells. This comic may be a bit harsh, but you know that bugger should be coming by my place every day, asking "Where's my goddam mo-nay!!!!!". Sort of a "welcome to the real world" lesson for kids.

Well, I made it.

Yup, in Canada now. Wasn't the best flight ever. Someone yaked during the flight, and beacuse I'm Mr. Super-Lucky pants, they were all of 2 seats away from me. The smell was not pleasant, but fortuately my sence of smell is crap, so I survived somehow.

It didn't take me long to get sick of the election here in Canada either. Ugh. Democracy sure is fun, isn't it? Had one of those super fun ultra-long debates with someone that ends in a draw and has no point, cause you both have made up your minds already on who you are going to vote for? Me too.

I have devised a test of sorts, which saves me from wasting time debating with people who really have no clue what they are talking about. Let's call it "the Beaver test".

Random Person: "Hey Beav! Who are you voting for?"

Beav: "um... I was thinking of voting for Joe Schabadoo."

Random Person: "Really? Why? I hear that Joe powers his car with the screams of orphaned children. You'd be much better off voting for Jimmy Whatshisnuts. He's great, and if he gets into power, we'll all have hovercars and live on the moon.

So this where you use the test. Ask the person to advocate for the opposite position that they are trying to push. If they can do it without being sarcastic, or useing obviously flawed arguements, then chance are they at least informed enough on the issue to have a decent debate with. Otherwise, you are just wasting your time.

Besides, it's fun to watch someone advocate for something that they don't believe. It's zany.

The salvation of the PC game

You may have recalled at one time I was upset with a certain Sid Meier for making a buggy game. After a patch or 3, the game is now functioning, but not at what I might say "peak efficiency".

Sorry.

Before I continue, this post will be about video games. If that doesn't ring your gong, then this picture is for you.

It's a monkey! With glasses! Zany!

Anyway, Civ 4 "runs" on my computer now, just not all that well. I can't the the wildlife on the main map, Some rulers have no eyelids. My laptop doesn't seem to be comfortable with the game either. In protest, it usually blasts my genitals with a blast of searing air.

Jade, one of my co-workers, told me a sad tale of computer related woe when her new game, Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 , refused to run. PestilentDoom told of problems with Knights Of the Old Republic 2, a game that I have never managed to get working properly. PC games just don't seem to work nowadays.

And yet, I found hope. I found a sweet site full of games I'd never heard of. Weird Worlds? Oasis? Democracy? Never heard of em. And yet now, I speak of these titles with pride.

The reason I had never heard of these titles was because these are all indy games. That's right. There's no greedy developer, no evil, costly IP to deal with. Just a small group of people and labours of love. And before I found GameTunnel, I had no knowledge of their existance.

Don't get me wrong, these are still some very nice looking games with some really nice gameplay. But they work! And they are cheap! And fun! And did I mention they work?

So if you like PC games at all, give some of the indy games a look. You'll be glad you did. And maybe - just maybe, the days of buggy, overpriced games will come to an end.

Why do we put up with this crap?

Must say, this new year is feeling a lot like the old year. No hovercars yet.

Went to see the new Harry Potter movie. In the theater. And yes, the theater-going experience hasn't improved at all. You get to sit through 30 minutes of ads, then another 30 minutes of previews for other movies that you don't really want to see. But the time the movie starts, you want to go home.

My favorite part is the part when the ads start, they try to give you some heartfelt message about how we shouldn't pirate movies. That's bad, and it would hurt their feelings. But after they bend you over for almost an hour as a member of their captive audience, you feel like grabbing a camcorder and pirating their fucking brains out.

It would be nice if this massive ad-gank make the movie free, but they charge more than ever now. So I'm going to go back to Canada for a while and destroy the motion-picture industry. They had it coming. It's a tall order, but hey - I've been putting this off for a while now.

PS: The movie was pretty good, once it got started. Needed some vampires though. Maybe some vampyres too.