Tag: gaming

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Thanks, KMIZ…

So, KMIZ, the ABC affiliate out of Columbia, MO., made the national gaming news blogs with their coverage of the Mid-Missouri Internet Crimes Task Force, specifically with their interview of Andy Anderson, who said: “There is no reason an adult should have [Animal Crossing: City Folk]” for the Wii. The whole thing makes Missouri look pretty dumb, as nearly all of the posts say either “Missouri Police” or “a Missouri Task Force”…

In the original report from KMIZ, they write “If your kids play interactive video games, like the Nintendo Wii, be on the lookout. The Mid-Missouri Internet Crimes Task Force is warning of predators using games like, ‘Animal Crossing- City Folk,’ to target kids.” This statement is only a little bit sensationalist, but more importantly is quite mis-leading…

The game is kinda like Sim City or The Sims, but a bit more complicated (you can run a shop, go fishing, do some gardening, etc.) with interactions that you have with other people over the internet (using an included peripheral microphone that sits above your TV). The thing that the Wii does, however, is use “Friend Codes,” which is a 12-digit randomized number that an individual must input into their system in order to contact someone else (i.e. I have to have your Friend Code plugged in, and you have to have my Friend Code plugged in), soooooooo…I’m very curious how any pedophiles could even contact someone through the game, as it’s impossible without a Friend Code exchange. The only way it could work is if a child exchanged their Friend Code with a stranger through the interwebs, or in person…which is the parent’s fault, not the Wii’s.

The idea that this game shouldn’t be played by adults is also rather absurd, as it’s a pretty popular series and has been bought by millions of adults, not just kids. It certainly isn’t a game I’m interested in, but to say that only pedophiles play it, or that only kids should be allowed to play it, is absurd.

The key here, as always, comes down to one thing: the parents are responsible for keeping an eye on their kids. Parents should know what games their kids are playing, the books they’re reading, the television they watch, the movies they watch, the kids they interact with at school, etc…especially when they’re at a young age (obviously, the ability to monitor them by middle school/high school gets reduced…). If parents are going to allow their kids to play games on the internet with a PC, or use a console system like a Wii, the parents should know about the capabilities of the system (such as Parental Controls) and the kinds of games that are available.

For more information on all that, though, check out What They Play, which is the “parent’s guide to video games”…great site for all kinds of information, not just for parents…

People should stop blaming things on the medium and learn to take some responsibility…

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My V-Day

Here’s how my day went:

  • Cleaned up the house (it needed it pretty badly…)
  • Watched “CSI:” and “Eleventh Hour” with the wife.
  • Watched “Sarah Connor Chronicles” and “Dollhouse” while the wife took a nap.
  • Played some Resistance 2.
  • Took the dog on a walk.
  • Did some dishes.
  • Played some Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, ’cause that’s the version the wife likes. I won, but she got close.
  • Helped the wife make dinner (she did most of the work, of course…)
  • Watched “Scrubs,” “The Office,” “Psych” and, finally, “Say Anything…” (the latter of which neither of us had ever seen…and dude, a young Jeremy Piven was in it!). Started a fire (in the fireplace) and drank some Moscato d’Asti. It was glorious.
  • Did some more dishes.
  • Played some Red Alert 3 with Ryan.
  • Went to sleep.

    • Best. Valentine’s. Day. Ever.

    🙂

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    “I think I killed it…”

    So, a few nights ago, I tried installing Yellow Dog Linux (YDL) on my PS3… This is a version I know relatively little about, except that it’s based on Red Hat/Fedora (which I haven’t used in years) and it classically has been used for Macs, as they used PowerPC processors back in the day. As the PowerPC and the Cell Processor in the PS3 are related, YDL is specifically geared to run on it. There aren’t really any specific benefits to having Linux running on my PS3, except that I can potentially plug in a keyboard/mouse and do computing on a 32″ HD TV screen…or stream content from upstairs (Linux server box) down to my TV…or stream a variety of Flash-based TV shows to the TV without having to fight with the PS3’s installed web browser.

    Anyway, I flipped through a few tutorials and used this one from PS3grid.net. Essentially, just as on a PC, you need to format the hard drive to make a 10 GB partition capable of housing the Linux install, leaving the rest for the PS3 to use. The guide says NO DATA WILL BE DELETED.

    Not so much.

    Apparently, it doesn’t work like it does on a PC, where the formatting simply resizes the existing partition and makes room for a new one, deleting (essentially) no data from the existing drive. The PS3, on the other hand, formatted the whole thing in order to get Linux on there…sigh…

    Long story short, I had to re-download all the games I’d purchased through PSN, but thankfully, some of my progress through games (online progress, at least) was saved to external PSN servers. However, my progress through the single-player campaign of Resistance 2 and LittleBigPlanet were both lost (along with Wipeout HD and Burnout Paradise…), so now I’ll have to go back and re-play what I lost.

    My holiday season is now planned, I guess!

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    A step too far?

    So, I heard this mentioned a few weeks ago on a video game blog I listen to: if you don’t like the message of the songs presented in the popular Guitar Hero or Rock Band franchises, you’re in luck, ’cause now there’s Guitar Praise!! You can how have “inspirational fun” with 52 songs from Christian bands like Skillet, Petra and Casting Crowns!

    But that’s not all! Remember the seemingly unstoppable”High School Musical” franchise? Well, maybe some of the themes in those movies are questionable…but you’re in luck there too, ’cause now there’s “Sunday School Musical!” An “inspirational story” about a group of kids that enter a music competition to save their church from closing! Watch the trailer – it’s gripping…

    So yeah, perhaps I’m wrong (and I usually am…), but isn’t this a step too far? I understand that the “High School Musical” franchise is primarily watched by middle school-aged kids (as opposed to actual high school kids), perhaps exposing them to some themes that aren’t exactly age appropriate…but shouldn’t it be the parent’s responsibility to limit that exposure? Or the fact that music from Guitar Hero or Rock Band are on the radio/TV all the time….wouldn’t it make more sense to talk to your kids about the themes in popular music rather than simply ignoring them and avoiding them? Isn’t it better to teach kids how to handle a variety of media that they may be exposed to on a daily basis…rather than trying to keep it from them only to have them see it on their own at a friend’s house, not knowing how to treat it?

    It seems to me that, while I don’t have any kids (besides a very lazy beagle), I’d want to help my children integrate into the world around them efficiently and effectively, rather than shelter them to the point where they may not know how to deal with what’s really out there until they leave home and go to college.

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    Palin vs Obama

    I honestly wasn’t impressed with the “Mercenaries 2,” but with downloadable content like this, I may have to change my mind. Running around as Palin or Obama with a rocket launcher? Classic!

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    Bigotry and the new frontier…

    So, I don’t have an Xbox 360…nor do I really want one…but this is one of the reasons why Nintendo has been so slow to get voice chat features in its games: the company wants to protect children from hearing the other idiots that frequently populate these games.

    I’ve only listened in on some of these chats on the Xbox a few times, but I do remember specifically playing the Halo 3 Beta at Josh’s place and hearing what these kids are saying. Not to say that I was any different at the age of 13 (although I hope I was!), but seriously, there are a lot of kids out there playing games (chatting online, posting on Facebook, etc.) that really don’t think about what they’re saying and thinking they’re “cool” for using language (“colorful metaphors,” for the “Star Trek” fans out there) that is somewhat unbecoming. Personally, I find the language part to be more of an annoyance than anything else, but making fun of people and uttering racist and homophobic comments online or while gaming because you are an anonymous person on the internet is pretty unacceptable.

    Arguably, were I a parent with a 13-year-old, I’d be more likely to let them play violent video games than to actually talk to these other kids while they play them. I know a few people that don’t even turn their chat feature on so they don’t have to listen to some of these people.

    Anyway, this video is from Current TV (w00t, Al Gore!) and is discussing gays and video gaming, and more specifically the “new frontier” of bigotry when a person can be even more anonymous than they used to be (wearing a KKK hood, for example).

    I found it interesting, at least…

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    Send Revival

    Recently, there has been what is called a “retro revival” in video gaming: old properties that are being reproduced in nearly the same fashion as when they first came out, from Bionic Commando Rearmed to Space Invaders Extreme. Most of these include generally similar gameplay, but beefed up, modern graphics.

    Mega Man 9, on the other hand, isn’t going that route. The first Mega Man game was released in 1987 for the NES by Capcom and, since then, the character has appeared in over 100 video games. Many fans of the originals have stated that the franchise has been diluted over the years, with many of the past few iterations being less than impressive.

    Anyway, Capcom decided to make Mega Man 9, and all indications are that the game will be awesome. The game will be released for all three console platforms and are made in the original 8-bit graphics with the original sound. The Mega Man series is one I never played, personally, but now that they’ve released the original Mega Man and, arguable the best in the series, Mega Man 2 to Nintendo’s Virtual Console, I’ve been playing and loving them. The attractive part about the games is that they aren’t linear – you can go after any of the levels in any order you want, using whichever power ups from each level to help you with the next one. So, if you can’t beat the first one, you can go on to the seventh boss instead.

    Anyway, Mega Man 9 releases in Japan next week and, hopefully, North America shortly thereafter. Until then, I’ve still got to fight through the rest of Mega Man 2…

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    Ungrateful Princess…

    Seth MacFarlane, of Family Guy fame (great show) has started up what he’s calling the Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, an online video short site. This is one of many efforts by comedians and writers/producers to get their content out on the internet in a free fashion that’s ad-supported.

    Who knows if this will ever take off, but it’s interesting to see entertainment providers branching out into other media.

    (oh…and the video’s funny, too…moreso at the very end…)

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    Fond Memories…

    So, the software company behind the “Half-Life” series and the (relatively) recent “Orange Box” collection, Valve, started up a digital distribution service known as Steam to help disseminate their games, and others, online. Services like these are cropping up pretty frequently now and, as with the advent of iTunes, it’s a sign of the times where in the not-too-distant future, there will no longer be Gamestops, or software sold at Best Buy, or movies sold at Target: it’ll all be distributed digitally.

    Anyway, one of the really neat things about these services is that companies can release older content that they otherwise wouldn’t have a market for. As in, why recreate all the packaging from old games to sell them in a store when you can just have them stored on a server somewhere for people to download and play on their modern systems?

    Steam released the classic game, X-Com: UFO Defense, late last week for $4.50 (special price…it’ll be $4.99 after this Thursday). This game was released in 1993 and is considered by some (IGN, at least) to be the greatest PC game of all time. The idea is that you run a government-sponsored organization that tracks alien ships landing on Earth. More often than not, you land a squad of soldiers to take out all the aliens and then claim their technology, that you then have your scientists research until they can build you better weapons and ships to make the job easier. The game is a turn-based strategy game that involves quite a bit of resource management, from how many scientists to devote to a particular project, to how much money to spend on a veteran vs. a rookie soldier that you can train yourself.

    So yeah, I grabbed this game last night and, while the graphics are rather dated (yeah…it’s a 15-year-old game made to run on a pre-Pentium based computer with 4 MB of RAM…), it still brings back some fun memories. If I recall correctly, this was one of the first (if not the first) PC game I got for myself that wasn’t something Mom or Dad picked out (yes, Kristen, I remember “Avoid The Noid,” which while an awesome game from 1989, it wasn’t quite as definitive in the eyes of PC gamers).

    Regardless, we’ll see if it stands the test of time, but so far, I’m having a good time with it.

    Edit: Here’s a blurb from ArsTechnica on this very subject, in an interview with CEO of GameStop, Dan DeMatteo.