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Back from Tryptophanistan

Where do I begin?

Picked up World of Warcraft at Fry’s Electronics Black Friday sale (along with a bunch of other awesome stuff).

Xbox 360’s are apparently crashing left and right. Oh, and you can’t get one right now. Well, unless you want the craptastic core system, which are taking up shelf and prodcution line resources that would’ve been better served with a universally supported HDD system.

What really gets my goat this week, though, is the undeserved adulation that Warren Spector is getting for hiring people for his unannounced Source engine project.

Have we so soon forgotten the travesty that was Deus Ex: Invisible War? I for one have not forgotten. I don’t want another dumbed-down, shallow, mission-based shooter. For crying out loud, Ubisoft is still releasing Rainbow Six games on the Xbox.

*sigh*

Anyway, 1.9 patch is coming out for WoW. My co-worker still hates paladins.

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! I know I did. PUMPKIN PIE FOR ALL!

I hate FilePlanet

Josh at Cathode Tan posted his recent experience trying to download the World of Warcraft trial from Fileplanet.

I’m all about free stuff, and admittedly wanted to see what the fuss was, as I’ve downloaded a lot of different things from Fileplanet over the years.

I have seen the enemy and it is Gamespy.

For some strange reason, the download stops at 2.0 GB every time. And no, I’m not downloading to a FAT/FAT32 filesystem. NTFS should have no problem with a 2.7 GB file. At least, it’s never had any problems with my Linux distro DVD images before. I looked up their customer support and went through the various options. Let’s see… I was using a firefox browser. Well, what if I use Gamespy/IGN’s very own patented download manager? Same results. 2.0 GB and it just stops downloading. Hmm, not running any firewalls on my machine. I guess I could uninstall Symantec’s Corporate anti-virus client. Oh, wait… how about NO! Especially when I click a link that popped up on Gamespy’s Download Manager for a customer feedback survey that took me to the kind of website you’ve only seen when Gmail warns you of a phishing attempt.

Forget this, I’m going home.

Video Games: The Perfect Escape

(This is part of a roundtable discussion on video games and addiction hosted by Corvus’ Man Bytes Blog. Other entries in the discussion are found at the end of this article.)

DamnedMachines.com, one of my favorite video game blogs, linked to a video on Google’s Video archive where some kid (we’ll call him “Assass3n” to protect his identity) began berating his (far-too-lenient) mother after she insisted that he stop playing and go to bed. Almost immediately, the thought that went through my head was, “If this were my kid, I’d slap him right in the mouth.” Corporal punishment seems like the answer to everything, especially if, like me, you don’t have kids yet.

I encourage you to go watch the video. (Be warned, there is some foul language.) It will simultaneously anger and entertain you. It also illustrates a classic behavior. Well, when that behavior is enabled and coddled by a parent. I also suspect that this is a single mother, as if I was the kid in this situation, my dad would’ve walked in, yanged all the cables from their respective sockets, and that would be that. Bedtime for all.

It is behavior like this that is often cited to show that video games are as addictive as hard drugs. “See, that kid is totally out of control. Only someone who is seriously addicted loses control like that!”

I’ve wanted to write an article about Video Games and addiction since I first started this blog. It is a topic that has always been at the forefront of my mind, and I’ll get into that in just a moment.
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Anakin is Clutch

So, I picked up a snazzy Star Wars Episode I watch from Booger King (still feeling somewhat queasy from all the BK food I bought when they were giving away the chibi Star Wars toys). I got to thinking about how much Jake Lloyd bugged, and this led me to think about how Episode III hints that Emperor Palpatine (or maybe his master, Darth Plagueis) was responsible for using the Force to create Anakin. But why? Why did the Emperor need Anakin before taking over the galaxy? What purpose does he serve, besides typical Sith shenanigans of killing Jedi, spreading fear, oppressing innocent people, and such?

Then, I got to thinking, we could look at this question in the sense of football quarterbacks. A lot of people used to say (unfairly, IMHO) that Tom Brady isn’t that great of a QB, he’s just a regular guy that is in the middle of a great system in New England under Belichek. The argument being that you could put almost ANY quarterback on that New England team and win 3 out of the last 4 Super Bowls.

Which brings me to Anakin. Was he merely placed in a really good system with a really good coach (Darth Sidious)? I say yes. There is no doubt that Anakin was talented, and probably the most powerful Jedi ever born… er… hatched, er… whatever. However, couldn’t Palpatine taken any young and upcoming Jedi and used him to perform key tasks such as cleaning out the Jedi Temple and killing the Separtist leaders? Yes. Did he really need Anakin to go into the Jedi Temple at all? No, that’s why he had legions and legions of Clone Troopers.

I will say this, though. Anakin, like Tom Brady, was big in clutch situations (both to the advantage and ultimate detriment of Emperor Palpatine.) The one point where Palpatine faced certain defeat was at the hands of Mace Windu. The Emperor had no problem handling Yoda, especially once they got into an open field, but in the close quarters of the Chancellor’s Office, Mace bottled him up and was ready to lay down the Jedi smacktitude… until Anakin showed up and knocked Master Windu out of the park. Fast forward 20 years and he was also reponsible for saving the galaxy when at his son’s request, chucked the Emperor over the railing.

Beyond these key plays, Anakin did very little. He got his arm chopped off by Dooku, then Yoda had to bail him out. Obi-wan had the “high ground.” He choked Natalie Portman (moron!) He let the Millenium Falcon escape how many times?

On the other hand, he did build C-3PO. Oh, wait… that might be a point against him.

Anakin is like Michael Vick. He’s got horrible numbers, but somehow he wins games.

Welcome to the Carnival!

The latest chapter in the Carnival of Gamers saga is up at Aeropause. Some good stuff, this month. I had a hiatus from the Carnival for a time, but I am now back in full force.

Sony: not ALWAYS stupid

I saw on IMDB (via EvilAvatar) that Warner Bros. will be releasing movies on UMD. Meh. Whatever. What really got my attention was this:

Sony on Monday opened an online store where Japanese owners of the PSP can buy movies that can be downloaded to PSPs for about $9.00.

Oh, REALLY? Not a bad idea at all. For the price of a single movie ticket (in most markets) you can legally own a movie which can be downloaded and watched on the PSP. Yes, of course Sony will pile on the DRM to keep the movies from being played on anything else, which will last all of a few hours before someone cracks it and allows you to burn these movies to writable DVD, or anything else that is a guaranteed right under Fair Use. The only catch here is that I buy most of DVD’s based on how many special features are included with the film. Yes, I listen to movie commentaries quite a bit, and I assume such features would not be available for your $9. But hey, still not a bad concept.

Kutaragi Watch: Ken’s dad can beat up your dad

And his console can run games at 120 fps (frames per second)! That’s better than Microsoft’s crappy 30 fps!

ONLY BLACKBELTS DISPLAY 120 FPS!!!

(And if you can read Japanese, here are his actual quotes. Right now, we’re just going by whatever Joystiq and Gamespot say he said.)

My Warcraft tastes like Burning

After watching this *double* postage stamp sized preview trailer, I couldn’t help myself. I must post about this latest Blizzard bid.

Let’s take a look at the added feature list point by point.
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Civilization IV: Not Realistic

Well, at least according to this article on Tech Central Station, which my father posted about on his blog.

The gist:

But as much as I love Civilization, I can’t embrace many of the historical assumptions that the designers coded into the game. A Whiggish progressivism permeates the game’s outlook; civilizations invariably grow and flourish unless outside forces stunt or destroy them. Governments and religions have only utilitarian value; freedom and decency are not uniquely useful in Civilization IV. The superiority of the modern to the medieval is everywhere assumed, and the atomization and ennui of contemporary life is thoroughly ignored. To be sure, the game takes cognizance of unhappy citizens and social unrest, but civil wars, religious schisms, and collapses into barbarism simply don’t happen in Civilization IV. These absences make for a smoother and more entertaining game, but not a more realistic one. . . .

In the great Civilization IV game that is the modern world, the West is in no danger of losing to an outside civilization. Osama bin Laden will not beat us to Alpha Centauri. China will not acquire cultural hegemony over the world with its thrilling movies and catchy pop tunes. Africa will not send tank columns to capture our capital cities. But the West may lose to its own self-disgust. Our appetite for wealth outpaces our willingness to produce it; our sense of justice grows ever more rarefied even as our capacity for self-discipline declines; and our achievements cannot keep pace with the speed with which we forget our own history.

A fair indictment, to be sure.

Oh no… not ANOTHER Video Game Awards show…

SpikeTV sent EvilAvatar a press release announcing… Ah geez. Yeah… another Video Game Awards show.

I was hoping the first one was bad enough that they wouldn’t make any more.

Well, here’s the press release, followed by some comments from me. (Darn, I didn’t get nominated for the blog award.)
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