Geek Talk

Will Wright recently wrote an article for wired called Dream Machines. Basically talking about how society has this negative opinion on games and doesn’t really talk at all about the positives. Here’s a quote:

Society, however, notices only the negative. Most people on the far side of the generational divide - elders - look at games and see a list of ills (they’re violent, addictive, childish, worthless). Some of these labels may be deserved. But the positive aspects of gaming - creativity, community, self-esteem, problem-solving - are somehow less visible to nongamers.

I think part of this stems from the fact that watching someone play a game is a different experience than actually holding the controller and playing it yourself. Vastly different. Imagine that all you knew about movies was gleaned through observing the audience in a theater - but that you had never watched a film. You would conclude that movies induce lethargy and junk-food binges. That may be true, but you’re missing the big picture.

A side note - I was watching Law and Order over the weekend and they had one where this person killed someone over a video game or got the idea from a video game and usually (all the time) I agree with the cops, but this time it seemed stupid. They instead went after the game creators, and made those game creators seems like uncaring assholes with no morals. Only one person said something like “I don’t think a video game can drive someone to kill”, but its almost like they ignored him and continued on. I never did watch the end of it however so maybe everyone decided to just play Mario 3 and forget about it. Anyway back on topic…

Earlier in the article he says the children use a basic form of the scientific method to play games, they don’t read the manual instead they hit a button or move a joystick to see what happens. And from this simple trial and error method they learn how to play the game.

I never really thought about it that way but its also exactly how users use complex websites. They click on links to see what happens. Where I work I created this php interface for our customers, this was way back when I was first learning php so its kind of messy. And inside their login area are some instructions, really really long instructions. I will venture to be about 90% of our customers never even clicked on the instructions to see what everything does. Why? Well they don’t want to be bothered with it. They’d rather just muddle through and be content (or not content) with that.

Now comparing games and some login interface might be a bit of a stretch, but it seems like its human nature to use things by trail and error. When your a kid your mom always (mine anyway) tell you the stove is hot, yet I would still touch it. Why? It’s not like I enjoy burns. And I’m sure our customers don’t like to get frustrated by a system that isn’t totally straight forward, but they won’t read the instructions either.

I’ve heard rumors about this game for awhile but this is the first mention of Jim Lee having a part in the game. IGN Jim Lees Key DC Comics RPG Role.

Now I’d hope they’d make it current and if any big time stories happen the effects can be seen in the game. Like if Superman goes missing in the JLA then he shouldn’t be found in the game. I’d also be interested to see how the game mechanics work, I’ve been playing City Of Heroes since launch so I’d love to see a new take on the superhero MMO.

And this is what Penny-Arcade thinks.

Found this on /. today. Certain “highly anticipated” Xbox 360 title filling four discs worth of space

4 Disks? Thats a bit much. The article also says

Microsoft’s J Allard downplayed the storage issues, citing that improved compression rates in the future will allow much more data to be held on an individual disc, and that the pre-launch crunch forced many current 360 titles to use space far more inefficiently than they would have otherwise.

So maybe its not as bad as they say. But sooner or later they will hit that cap and all those recently purchased Xbox306’s won’t beable to play new “HD Disk” games that Microsfot will be pumping out. I’m sure they’ll have some kind of Drive so the older 360s can play these new games, but why buy it now? So you can play Madden on the pretty new 360? Doesn’t make sense to buy it now.

I don’t own an xbox, but one is hard pressed to ignore the 50 million reviews previews and email spam about it. Ok it might be pretty easy to ignore if you don’t visit any tech sites and have a decent spam blocker, but for me not so easy. Anyway, the 360 was released today and I’m not so sure I’m going to be picking one up. (more…)

I found this on /. the other day. Here’s some text from the article incase your lazy like me:

In emotional testimony on Thursday, DeMeo said that Alexander had put his hand on DeMeo’s knee and made him push the accelerator down hard, then grabbed the emergency brake and sent the car into a skid.

DeMeo said that Alexander was trying to perform a maneuver that both had done in a video game, “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City,” that they played regularly.

“‘We can make it, we can make it, just like in the game,’” DeMeo said Alexander had told him. “He pulled up on the emergency brake really quick.”

“Then what?” Meeker asked.

“We crashed,” DeMeo said, breaking into sobs.

But Assistant District Attorney Paul Humphrey said there was no evidence, based on the skid marks left after the crash, that the emergency brake could have been pulled, or that DeMeo had even turned the steering wheel in an attempt to avoid a crash.

This kind of bullshit pisses me off. I really have no respect for people who blame their actions on a video game, or any kind of media really. If your mind really can’t distinguish between fantasy and reality then you need some kind of counseling. And that’s not a jab at people who do seek counseling, most of them know when you jump off a building 90 story (Link in City of Heroes) you won’t live, but in some games you will. If you read the article it talks about how the dead kid still had his hands in his in his pockets:

Humphrey said Alexander couldn’t have interfered with DeMeo’s driving because he was found moments after the crash still wearing a seat belt, his hands jammed into his pockets. He had suffered fatal head and heart injuries, Humphrey said, making it impossible for him to put his hands into his pockets after the crash.

That’s really not the point, but thought it was interesting that people can now just turn and blame video games. I think people need to remember that video games don’t have mind control in them. Sure people try to mimic what they see, but where are the parents to say “No”. In this case I don’t think anything the parents say will do anything, but this started a long time before this incident.

I’ve played all kinds of video games since I was 8 or so . I’ve played GTA and Unreal and every Doom out there, and I haven’t gone and killed anyone or tried some jump with my car. Why? Because I’m not a complete idiot. Stop blaming games; take some responsibility for your actions.