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Why I Am Not Playing GTAIV

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Gamespot: 10 out of 10. Game Informer: 10 out of 10. X-Play: 5 out of 5. IGN: 10 out of 10. 1UP: A+. Gamespy: 5 out of 5.

I would not be surprised if GTAIV is Game of the Year. I’m not playing it, and I probably never will.

Here are my reasons in no particular order:

There are just too many reasons not to.

I’ve changed. In the past, I would play any game that was popular or a triple-A title without any regard to content or subject matter. I just cannot play a game where it’s good to be bad. I pretty much avoid games where you are a serial killer, psycho, or just some crazy going postal. The GTA games let you do just that. You’re rewarded for being evil, and not just a satiric or comedic type of evil. Generally, the worse you are the better. I’m not against violence. I like playing Crackdown and Assassin’s Creed, but even then I don’t play them all that much anymore. Now, someone will argue that I really don’t know the game because I’ve never played it. However, there’s so much about GTA in popular culture and reviews that I’m pretty sure I’m not too far off the mark.

Violence and language affects you. Argue this as much as you want, but playing games influence you. Any game. There is no way around it. Another argument is that anything we watch, do, hear, and feel influences a person. Over the past year I’ve come to realize that when I surround myself with violence I tend to be more agitated and have a shorter fuse. I’m also tempted to use language I shouldn’t when I hear a lot of it. That’s not good. I generally avoid movies, comics, books, and games with over-the-top violence and language.

I have two kids under the age of five. Why even fall into the trap of exposing my boys to this? Will I be able to protect them from everything? No. This is me being a responsible parent. By the way, the adult games I do own and play are put up and out of sight from the kids. I don’t watch movies or play games until after they are in bed.

My job. In working with teenagers, I am appalled at how many of them know about games such as the GTA series or any other type of game that the ESRB says they shouldn’t play. It’s only too obvious: they’ve played them. Gamers, publishers, and designers can scream all they want, but these type of games are being played primarily by kids. Who’s to blame? Parents? Retailers? Gamers? Publisher? Designers? You? Me? No one really knows, and that debate will go on forever. I’m trying to influence kids to live good, clean lives and uphold at least a modicum of morality. It gets difficult when I’ve got to break up a group of kids sharing gaming tips when it’s time to teach them. Oh, and it’s not just games either. Movies like Superbad (Quality matches title? Brilliant) and their ilk are just as to blame.

I know some of these reasons are tied together. Do I think anything negative about people who play these type of games? Not at all. Each person is allowed to set their own standards. I just feel that if no one at least stands up and reminds us what we’re really surrounding ourselves with and sucking into our lives what it is we might become. If not, we may see games where you can drive spikes through a person’s skull, come up with creative ways by killing a person by cutting their genitalia, and exploring all ways to strangle a man. Oh, wait…I think we’ve got that on a couple of titles.

Just what the doctor didn’t order

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Gaming addicts with sore eyes and tired brains may be able to perk up with “Game Suppli”, a new Japanese supplement developed specifically for the country’s thousands of fanatic players.

Link.

For some reason, this doesn’t strike me as the greatest idea.

Something to think about

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I bet this is something you’ve never considered: Gaming while Color Blind. (via Instapundit)

Eventually I realized there were blue, green, AND red people in the game. *sigh* Green and blue guys are teammates. Red guys are enemies. That seems simple enough, except that I couldn’t tell the green guys from the red guys.

So the rest of the night went like this: “Oh it’s a green guy, I won’t shoot him. Arrrgh!!! I’m dead; again. He must have been red.” Or, “There’s a red guy! I’ll take him out. Oops, lost more points for killing a team member.”

RTWT.

Sickos are everywhere

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And some of them have (and play) video games!

In an unrelenting attempt to make the tenuous violence-and-video games connection, we get a story like this. The media will not let up. Look for a ban on video game controllers soon, backed by Senator Clinton.

This deplorable behavior by the boyfriend should be vilified and condemned. He will receive the swift justice he deserves. But did we really need a headline like “Baby killed with video game controller”?

Unacceptable.

Blog Banter #2 – New Year’s Goals

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Blog Banter is a group of bloggers passionate about anything and everything video games. We enjoy getting together once a month to write about the same subject. You will be amazed at the different viewpoints so many people can have on the exact same topic! Links to all the participant’s articles can be found here. If you are interested in participating, contact bs angel for more information. Enjoy our stories!

This month’s Blog Banter topic is “New Year Resolutions” and gaming. I don’t really like the idea of “resolutions” as they often are nebulous and don’t have a tangible result. When I look out at the new year before me, I think of changes I’d like to make in terms of goals. Sure, a great resolution would be to “eat better” but that doesn’t get results. A goal of “lose 25 pounds” on the other hand, is what I need to motivate me to stick to the change. Rewards don’t hurt, either, but that’s a different subject.

So this year’s New Year’s Goal for Gaming for me is to branch out, try something new. I’ve always played the old stand-bys: I stick to a few specific genres like first person shooters (Halo 3, The Orange Box) or action games (Crackdown) or Nintendo propeties (Zelda Phantom Hourglass, Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3). It’s time to branch out!

Resident Evil was a series I never got into. I played a couple hours of the RE remake for the Gamecube, but that didn’t float my boat. I thought about giving Resident Evil Zero a try but never got around to it. It wasn’t until I played Resident Evil 4 at Game Crazy one afternoon that really got my attention. I picked it up and never looked back. RE4 has become one of my favorite games, ever. I never played any of the “survival horror” games before this but Resident Evil 4 opened my eyes.

I’m hoping the same thing will happen again this year. I’m not sure what game it will be, but it has to be something I never would have thought twice about before. Maybe it will be Culdcept Saga for the 360. Maybe I’ll pick up a PSP, a console I never would have thought I’d ever pick up. I may go totally off the deep-end and give Endless Ocean a try. The possibilities are limitless!

Go read this right now

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I haven’t mentioned much about the whole Kane & Lynch/Gamspot/Jeff Gerstmann thing, as there are better sources for that sort of information from people with more time than me to cover it.

Nevertheless, I’ve been thinking a lot about it, especially from the perspective of blogs. The idea (whether it’s true or not) that video game publishers can strong-arm “enthusiast” publications into providing favorable coverage (previews, media, reviews) has been around for a long time and has always been troubling. Something can and should be done. I have been mulling around with some ideas for buttonmashing.com that may or may not come to fruition, but it’s still something I feel strongly about. Maybe something we can remedy collectively.

However you feel about the whole situation should not stop you from reading N’Gai Croals piece today at his Level Up blog. It’s a must-read.

Blog Banter

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I was contacted by BS Angel earlier about joining in a sort of blog discussion group, something along the lines of the Carnival of Gamers and The Blogs of the Round Table. Since I’m all for blog interaction and finding new blogs to read, so I agreed to join in. I wanted to write a post to participate in this month’s “Banter” but just didn’t have a chance to get one together. Nevertheless, I thought I’d post the entries for this month’s topic. I also see this as a “passing of the baton” in terms of the Carnival. Interest has waned a bit with the Carnival and I just don’t have time to keep it going. So I think the Carnival will be going into retirement and I’ll be joining in with the participants of the Blog Banter down the road. Here’s a little blurb about it:

Blog Banter is a group of bloggers passionate about video games. We enjoy getting together once a month to write about the same subject. You will be amazed at the different viewpoints so many people can have on the same exact topic. If you are interested in participating, contact bs angel for more information. Enjoy our stories!

Blog Banter Articles :
Boffman22’s Memorable Gaming Moments (Boom Stick Brigade)
I love you Intellivision! (Boom Stick Brigade)
Just how much fun LAN can be! (Cat’s Blog)
Memoirs of a Young Gamer (Gaming with Baby)
Memorable Gaming Moments (Hawty McBloggy)
To Memory Lane and Back (Play Your Station)
Hit the Reset Button (Thoughts and Rants)
Memorable Gaming Moments (Zath Games Tech)
Becoming an Ace and Dealing With Minsc (Delayed Responsibility)
Old School, Middle School, New School (lukeshep.com)

Battling ‘Gamer Regret’

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“Gamer Regret”

My gamer regret usually takes the form of drawing up a humiliating list of other, potential activities I’ve forgone. I could have … volunteered at a local hospital! Learned a language! Cleaned up my rats’ nest of an office! Gotten a head start on a new writing project! Hell, I could have just, you know, played the guitar or something. Wouldn’t that have been a less howling waste of my precious time on Earth?

Do you suffer from it? If I sit down after I’ve accomplished something off the “list,” then I hardly ever regret the time played. But if I have to push a pile of stuff off the desk so I can play Everquest 2, then more often than not the time feels wasted. For as long as I’ve played games, though, I think I’ve done pretty well. The biggest regret for me would have to be all the time I spent with Diablo 2. I loved the game to death, but I played it way too much. Luckily there was no way to check how many hours I was logged on to Battle.net.

It wouldn’t be pretty.

Let the marketing onslaught begin!

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There’s a post over at the Gamerscore Blog listing all the upcoming promotions that will accompany the Halo 3 release next month (they’ve already sold 1 million pre-orders! This is insane!). They’re going to market the heck out of this game. Mountain Dew, 7-11, Burger King, Pontiac (Wait, what?) and others.

I don’t understand this. Is Microsoft paying for this? Halo 3 sells itself, it really seems like their marketing money could be better spent marketing other games that are juggernauts like Halo 3 is. Or, I don’t know, redirected to make a better system that doesn’t overheat. That sounds like a good idea, right?

Maybe it’s the other way around? Do these other companies/brands want to be associated with Halo 3? I’m pretty sure I’ll be no more persuaded to by a Pontiac car because it was tangentially related to the Halo 3 video game. I’m also positive my Whooper with cheese (extra tomato, onion, no lettuce) will not taste any better because it came in a Halo 3 wrapper. I just don’t understand marketing.

I guess that’s why I’m an engineer.