IAM Blog Engine

I found this article about Second Life via Joystiq. It caught my eye because the BBC was reporting the new happenings of Second Life (or lack thereof), and I didn’t expect a news site like the BBC to write an article about it. Apparently they’ve written quite a few articles about Second Life though, just as many other news outlets have.

I hadn’t even heard of Second Life until a couple of months ago, and I thought that it was created some time in the 90s, but I guess it was created in 2003, according to this article. “Games” like this just don’t catch my attention because I don’t really have any interest in them. However, I think it’s cool that they’re so emergent; they probably attract all the subcultures who aren’t represented in mainstream gaming. I think it serves its purpose well in that respect, but I’m not so sure about the others. I haven’t ever actually played Second Life though, so I can’t be sure.

This article has sort of sparked my interest in it. I would like to try it out at least, just so I know what the gameplay is like and what people are talking about when they refer to Second Life.

I’m glad that I’ve been taking classes in IAM because I feel like I have more respect for all the different types of games people like to play. I used to be hypercritical. I’m admittedly still very critical of FPS’s, but if that’s what people like to play, then that’s what people like to play. My opinion can differ, but I can’t really tell anybody what their favorite genre should be.

I think it’s good to have an open-mind about games or else you’re just going to limit your experiences in the industry.

(For example, there’s this game called Redneck Jamboree. Do I think that there’s any possibility that this is a legitimately good game? Absolutely not. But I feel like it’s my duty to play this game and see just how many stereotypes about rednecks they’ve managed to include. I just can’t bring myself to spend $20 on it.)

As a journalism major, I read this article thinking to myself that it would be pretty awesome to get paid to sign up to play Second Life as a correspondent and then report on the happenings in the virtual world. I would like to aspire to do something similar, whether it’s reviews or cultural papers or studies.

Anyway, as a last thought: I don’t think Second Life has lost its appeal as this article has suggested. If it did, their userbase wouldn’t keep increasing. It might just be evolving into something new that some of the companies and other players no longer want to be a part of. What that is, I’m not sure.

lol picture ::

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/11/20/banned-psn-player-sues-nintendo-and-microsoft/

Blog Response

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/24199/

A Video Game for Angry Teens

Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston are applying the aggression developed in video game playing, to treat teenagers with emotional problems. Using a Space Invaders-like video game, players shoot down alien invaders while avoiding the friendly ships. The game is connected to a heart-rate monitor the player wears.

Prior to playing the game, these patients are taught relaxation techniques, and then asked to play the game. When their heart rate reaches a certain level, they are asked to use the relaxation techniques to bring it down, while continuing to play the game. The idea is to create a stressed environment, and teach the teenager how to use techniques that will control his emotion and aggression. The blogger wants your comments on this new potential use for video games.

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This is a significant twist on video gaming. The complaint is usually video games bring out aggression in teens, but here they want the aggression to occur. This creates a stressed environment the teenager is then taught to control.  Teen-agers are already attracted to video game playing; I’m sure more than a therapy session, so that’s a great hook.

I believe aggression among teenagers is on the rise with so much negative inputs through music, entertainment, and school and just like stuff. Also I don’t believe there are not many successful and positive therapies to treat this aggression those teens would respond to. This seems like a great idea.  There would be an increase in communication between the teen and therapist, because video games would create a bond, developing trust and making the therapy more successful.

This technique could continue outside of therapy, and be used to control teen aggression while playing other video games. Therefore, the game can be played more relaxed, and the player might get something different out of playing, instead of frustration, especially with higher-level games that may be difficult to beat. These techniques could be expanded into and useful in other aggression provoking situations the teen may experience…

I would like to see future games develop like this to reach teens with other significant problems they have, like avoiding drinking and drug use.

Apparently people have waaaay too much time on their hands these days as seen in this article linked on joystiq that shows a laser cutter that has been programmed to play the mario theme.  While awesome as anything that plays the mario theme is awesome in my book  and an ingenious hack of a seemingly boring inanimate object, its kind of sad to think how much time this person sat there tinkering with the laser cutter to see how to get the tune just right.  Seriously. I hope this person isn’t at work and getting paid to sit around and be a total nerd because if they are, I’m totally jealous.

Its always nice to see developers getting along, Eric Ruth has made an 8-Bit version of Left 4 Dead and Valve has been aware of this and is ok with it. So the game is going to be made available for PC in 2010 for free, it is the whole game except that it is only two player not four. The idea of demaking a game is a very new idea seeing as how everything is all about the remaking right now and I think we could be seeing more demakes in the near future. You can check out the original article here,

Alexander Sliwinski from Joystiq reported on the rumor of a recall Russia put in place for Modern Warfare 2.  The recall is a reaction to the controversial level ‘No Russian’ in which the player assumes the role of an undercover operative and in order to gain the trust within a terrorist organization, the player has to participate in killing innocent civilians.  The level takes place in a Russian airport and the player has the option to skip the level with no penalties.

There has been a lot of press covering the high profile title and most of the talk is about this level.  Of course Infinity Ward wanted to make something controversial here, but did they get their intended message across while doing so?  I don’t think so.  I played through the level last night and found the scene to be a disappointment.  I was thinking that the scene would make you feel sorrow for the people you slaughtered, something that would truly make you hate what this terrorist has done.  However that was not the case.  At the start of the level you walk out of an elevator and start gunning down mobs of people but after the first minute, you see them as just moving targets as if you were playing Duck Hunt.  Once you go outside you end up in a shoot out with police and this is where the mentality of “good VS evil” is completely lost and it turns into “us VS them.”  You can care less about shooting at the cops because you are low on health, about to die, and if you have to restart the checkpoint then you’ve wasted some time.  Either way I think Infinity Ward missed the mark by holding back.  I wanted to see the civilians cringe.  More dialogue, yelling, screaming, pleading as opposed to the same “terrorized audience” sound byte looped over and over.

Source

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-lego-rock/58645

Who doesn’t love lego it been around since our childhoods and we enjoyed playing with them. But now its the century Lego decided to make video games out of Lego it first started with Lego Star Wars then Indiana Jones. Those where very good game but one Lego game is just not that very good called Lego rock band. My point of view for this game is that it was only made so that the Lego company would make some money, even the review said it. The review also said that the way you play the notes affects the background of the game but nobody would notice it because wher mostly concentrated on the notes than the background. I’m not a rock band fan but even i can see that this game would be terrible off-hand.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-lego-rock/58645

I admit it that this level was a pain in the neck to do and that it was a maze. Sometimes I would go around in circles and the fact that thre is no maps to show where you need to got or where you are for that matter. Also there are some doors that in different places but they lead to the same destination. It took me hours to figure out where I’m going, so I’m agreeing with Brice that this the worst level in Kingdom Hearts.

http://sarcasticgamer.com/wp/index.php/2009/11/sg-review-modern-warfare-2.html

In this article by Lono, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is reviewed. Lono states that the game is flawless. Both multiplayer and single player are fantastic sequels to Call of Duty Modern Warfare 1. The multiplayer is a sequel to the game because there were problems in the first game that they took care of in the second game. Single player starts off right were you left off in the first game. Perfect Sequel. There are some controversies surrounding one of the levels in single player that you can skip if you wanted to. The level is called “No Russian”. Secrete achievements are a little sketchy for this level, some including killing 5 female civilians with melee, and “mowing down” 25 civilians with one clip of your gun.  Little chunks of the game are done with co-op or in single player after you have completed the campaign at least once. The multiplayer issues that were a problem in the first game were balancing issues with new comers and the customization with all the weapons. These are taken care of by having all the weapons available in the beginning and customization of your weapons are now more in depth. Instead of only having just a pistol as your secondary weapon, you can now choose shotguns, machine pistols, and rocket launchers.

http://www.maltacybergames.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=168:first-mw2-tournament-a-total-failure&catid=3:foreign-scene-news&Itemid=13
by Michele Magro

This news brings both great joy and great sadness to my gamer heart. On the giddy side I am ecstatic that this failed. The Call of Duty games have always brought me great pleasure, whether it was just playing single player or running through the competitive gauntlets of North America and Europe. This was all fine and dandy until they announced the discontinuation of dedicated servers and no modifications and no developer consoles. This is truly a death blow to competitive gaming. In order for the competitive community to embrace a game it needs to be somewhat regulated. The servers need to be very particular in their connection speed and stability. IW (Infinity Ward) had marvelous plans to make gaming on PC exactly like it is on console.

Gaming on console depends upon 2 things being true: 1 that a console is exactly the same as every other console in the world, and 2 that the internet speed is above dial up. The former is always true. The latter however is very dependent on client variables. So the geniuses of the internet devised a system where the game will switch to the best connection. This, in theory, works for PC as well. The only thing that changes with PC is that not everyone has the same PC. This means little Timmy is chugging along at 10 fps on a T3 fiber line using a Dell from the Windows ME era of computing. His game is a slideshow of death in any other fps for pc except for Modern Warfare 2. This system the figured out sees that he is transmitting more bits than anyone else so they assume that little Timmy alias “winn3r” is the optimal host. Now instead of Timmy getting frame fragged, the entire server gets to see what it is like to play on Timmy’s grandfather machine. To make matters worse there is no kick function, so players like Timmy can go forth into the internet making people who pay big money for expensive Rigs feel like they are playing on a bad netbook.

This article also made me weep. This is because IW has finally turned its hard shoulder towards PC gamers. We tried to be loyal, but alas they deemed us unworthy of a competitive online experience. I know this blog/article is more about European LAN organizers being bad at thier jobs, but i find it a great metaphor for the pitfalls at every turn