buttonmashing

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Archives for 2005

Gamecube and online gaming?

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Google does lots of things very well. Translating Japanese web pages is not one of them (YET!). But I do appreciate their translation tools. If nothing else, you at least get the gist of what the content you can’t decipher means. That’s the case with a link I found on del.icio.us. The Gamecube game referenced here is called “Homeland” and it seems to be a RPG that also uses the Broadband adapter. Follow the other links on the first page and Google will handle all the translations. Expect funny stuff like this.

While there’s no mention of a US release, stuff like this always gets me excited. Here’s to hoping!

Law & Order takes on Video Games

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I’m a fan of the Law & Order franchise and I catch most of the Special Victims Unit (SVU) episodes. One thing that makes the series compelling is that the cases they deal with don’t always end up tied up with a happy little bow where the bad guy is caught and the victim can pick up and move on with their lives. Sometimes, the bad guy (or girl) gets away with murder. It something that bugs the heck out of my wife (she needs everything packaged perfectly) but I enjoy it. I don’t enjoy the fact that bad people do bad things and get away with it, I like the fact that life isn’t fair and sometimes really crappy stuff happens. So it was this reason that caused a little trepidation when I heard that tonight’s episode was about some kids doing a crime they have done over and over in a video game. I thought for sure they were going to hammer away the “violent video games make violent kids”. At first it seemed like that was the path they were going to take. It wasn’t looking good.

The officers come across a body of a hooker who’s been hit by a car, beaten and robbed. Det. Stabler’s son recognizes the M.O. as the object of a video game called “Intensity” (*cough* I mean Grand Theft Auto *cough*) where the object is to run people over and beat them up to take their money. Again, I don’t like where this is going.

Long story short, they catch the teenagers who did the crime, and their high-profile, ignorant-as-nails lawyer cooks up a plea of not guilty because they were addicted to video games and couldn’t distinguish right from wrong. My favorite character of the series, Dr. Wong lays the psychiatric smack-down on the lawyer and basically says the narcissistic adrenaline junkies knew exactly what they were doing. When the lawyer asks him if he thinks video games make the kids that play them violent, he basically says “No”. What’s this? They are actually saying the violent video game “Intensity” didn’t drive these kids to do a heinous crime? That they, of their own conscience, ran a girl over because they were sickos, not whacked-out video game players? Astonishing! I can’t believe it, but the “Main Stream Media” (the evil one?) is actually saying violent video games don’t make kids do violent things? I thought this was a no-no! Someone is gonna get it over at NBC! Didn’t they get the memo? But sure enough, there it was, laid bare for all to see. Complete with the guilty verdicts for the two teenagers on the count of 2nd degree murder. Amazing.

Overall, they did a pretty good job of portraying video games in the episode. The don’t just show them off as mindless entertainment and they definitely don’t make it seem like they’re a breeding ground for an army of killers. The company that made the game Intensity also made children’s games. The gamers weren’t nerdy looking teens, although of the game programmers did. I’d have to ding the kids who played the perps. They weren’t convincing gamers. The boy in particular seemed more like a frat gamer than a “real gamner”. But I give them credit, they did a lot of things right. The even had Stabler’s son playing a Tapwave Zodiac at the end of the episode (shameless product placement? Probably. My guess is the kid owns a GBA in real life). I thought the episode was well done, and I applaud the writers from avoiding the knee-jerk reaction of blaming the video game and getting to the root cause — these kids were just plain bad seeds.

Update (2/9/05) – It appears I wasn’t the only one who caught this episode. Andrew at Tales of a Scorched Earth posted his comments here.

Update (2/15/05) – Here are some more comments, by new-to-me Clubberjack. He also made some pretty good points.

The big Three-Oh

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The day I never thought has arrived. This day, thirty years ago, my sweet mother was in the throes of labor, thrusting the cruel world upon me in a most unceremonious way. That’s right, today is NOT my un-birthday. It is officially my birthday. But not just any birthday, this one is the big three-oh. While it’s not the end of the world, it sure feels like I’m supposed to have grown up and matured, but sometimes I still feel like I’m twenty. And not just because I still play video games. I guess I can wait another ten years to see if I’ve “grown up”.

Of course you, as a loyal Button Masher, would like to shower me, your fearless Head Button Masher, with gifts and well-wishing. Alas, I would be remiss to accept said gifts, but send ’em any way. I’ll just be remiss and deal with that myself.

As I looked back on the past thirty years, I can say I’m happy where I am at. I wouldn’t change any of it. Here’s to thirty more!

New Kids on my Block (#2)

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Here’s in the second installment of the New Kids on the Block, which has already been renamed the New Kids on my Block, since a lot of the blogs I’m highlighting are new to me, but not the blog or gaming blogosphere. As this feature grows, it may return to its original name, but for now, it’s the “New Kids on my Block”. So on to the new kids:

I haven’t been reading loongy boi for very long but I like what I’ve read so far. It’s definitely a blog that’s more about games, but Jason (who works for Take 2) seems to love his games. He’s definitely been doing this much longer than I have, but remember, this is the New Kids on my Block.

Wonderland was a site I stumbled on when I first started this blogging thing but somehow got lost in the shuffle. A women’s perspective on things is always good, and currently there’s a dearth of said perspective in the world of video games. It’s slowly coming around, but Wonderland is a good place to get it, with pop culture peppered to make it more authentic.

arcon is a blog from across the pond, where comments about gaming pop up now and then. He seems pretty passionate about gaming, and that’s good enough for me.

I don’t know why I haven’t been reading Water Cooler Games before, I see mention of them all the time, I’ve just never taken the time to read them. Now that I have, I regret not taking the time sooner. Grade-A stuff there.

There will be more sites forthcoming, I’ve got a handful bookmarked that I still need to go through. Stay tuned!

Some light reading.

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I know it might be hard to believe, gamers do have other interests. For me, I am fascinated by the financial world, with a particular interest in the world of investing. I’m pretty green (pun somewhat intended) when it comes to investing, but over the past 3+ years, I’ve been doing dollar based investing through ShareBuilder (a great service and a great way to get your feet wet). I’ve done fairly well, but I’ve got a lot to learn. As such, I try to follow as much stock-related news as I can. Currenlty, I’m subscribed to the Motley Fool newsletter for their insight and tips. It’s nothing great, but a couple weeks ago, this article was highlighted. As I read it, I was reminded of this, which I read over at Video-Fenky. I think these articles really get to the point of what can and needs to be changed over at Nintendo.

I think we can also throw this little tidbit (hat tip, Joystiq) as well. Nintendo has definitely embraced the kid-friendly image but maybe the embrace has turned into a bear hug and Nintendo can’t let it go.

Nintendo DS “Another Code” Movie

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I’m not totally enamored with the DS yet. I toyed around with the Metroid game, which was pretty cool, but I still haven’t been “WOW”ed by anything DS-related yet. Well that was until I saw this. I don’t understand any of the Japanese, but the game looks pretty amazing. The use of the dual screens looks really intuitive and blends the two together really well. If this is plays as good as it looks, they might have something with those two screens.

I’m still not sold on the DS yet, but this game looks extremely promising.

Back in business!

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Our friendly Time Warner tech came over this afternoon to reconnect us to the virtual world of broadband and cable TV, just in time for Monk. Whatta guy! It’s been strange being disconnected from the internet at home. I still my work access, so I was able to follow my blogroll on Bloglines (I have a convert in Jeff Freeman, my first convert. I’m working on more) but being detached from ButtonMashing was good.

It was good because the move has been a big change for the family and I was able to attend to more important things, like hooking up the washer and dryer, and not have to worry if I’ll miss a big gaming story. I love doing the blogging thing and I love doing the gaming thing, but this past week had presented me with some more valuable ways to spend my time, so I’ve been enjoying my time away.

But I did miss it, all the same, and it feels good to be back. I’ve still got non-gaming things to take up my time (like making mortgage payments) but I can also have some gaming time, too. All in moderation. So the Button Masher has made a return to the video game blogging world, and he’s all the better for it.

Moving shop

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Well, after I hit “Publish Post” on this quick post, I will be packing up all things gaming and computing into boxes. Tomorrow, I will be loading them into a Budget Rental Moving Truck and moving my family about 2 miles down the road to our new home. I will be incommunicado until at least Friday, when Time Warner comes by to jack me back into the net. Until then, I am looking forward to the evenings disconnected from the world of blogging and reconnected with what matters most, video games. (Okay, okay, family matters most, video games second most).

The time down will give me a chance to actually play games instead of blabbering about them here. If you miss me, there’s plenty of other good stuff going on in the gaming blogosphere, I’m sure you’ll make do.

Until then, good gaming.

What prevents me from playing video games.

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(What follows is a little more detail to my “Gaming Pedigree” that I wrote when I first started this page. It needs updating, but you’ll get my drift)

I played video games, pretty much non-stop, from when I was eight or nine until I was nineteen. The first video game I remember playing was Space Invaders and the last was Doom. I then took a three and a half year hiatus from pretty much all video games. I lived in Spain as a Mormon Missionary for two years with next-to-no access to a PC or console and then I worked as an apprentice mason for a year and a half when I returned. I did buy an N64 when it was released in 1996 but I didn’t play it much for two reasons. One: there was this cute girl (okay, she was a total betty) I was courting and I couldn’t be bothered by video games when I could be with her. I married her so I could be with her a lot more often. Two: As I mentioned before, I was an apprentice mason.

What does that have to do with anything? There are many construction trades out there, and it’s all hard, back-breaking work, but besides roofing and concrete finishing, masonry is one of the most labor intensive jobs out there. If you work for a company like Roof Top Services of Central Florida, Inc, I retract my statement, the Florida sun will make it really intense too. I would work 50-60 hour weeks and I would come home everyday tired. Down-right beat. I would hang out with my friends for a bit when we had the chance but I had next to no energy to play video games. So for almost two years I didn’t Mash very many Buttons. After I was married, I came to my senses and released I didn’t want to break my back for the next thirty years so I decided to go back to college. Don’t get me wrong, I loved working with my hands and I respect those who make a living (a very GOOD living, at that) doing manual labor. They are the people that make this world go round. But it wasn’t for me. So we moved to Columbus so I could attend the College of Engineering at THE Ohio State University and suddenly I had all kinds of time to play video games. So I broke out the N64, upgraded the computer, and have been gaming ever since. My wife has been mostly supportive (she prefers console games, since she can at least have her turn at Animal Crossing or Mario Party, etc). Many Buttons have been Mashed since.

What does that have to do with anything? Well, the past few days have thrust me back into the world of manual labor as we prepare to move out of our condo into our new house. We’ve been packing and cleaning here, painting and cleaning at the new house, and just running around like crazy people, thinking on the next time we better get a maid service to do it, we just have to book now. In other words, I’ve been too tired lately to play many video games. It’s a shame, but family always comes first, and moving them into the new house is my current project.

So this was basically a big post to reminesce and say blogging activities will probably become scarce as I’ll be packing up the PC soon (probably Thursday night) and move things to the new house. Hopefully Time Warner will seamlessly move our broadband connection over there and we can be up and running by Sunday night, but I’m not holding my breath. Either way, I hope to be back in business soon. In the meantime, I hope you get some gaming in, because it’s not happening here. I’m too tired.

I’m going to bed now. Good night.

I Heart Bloglines

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If you read blogs or maintain one yourself, I hope you’re using Bloglines. I’ve been urged many times to give it a try and I’m only now beginning to see its usefulness and flexibility. I’m already using it to keep track of almost all my links on the right. Being able to make folders to store your various feeds is perfect and highly customizable. Being able to share/publish your links is equally brilliant. I am really liking Bloglines and I guarantee that, if you’re a blogger, you will dig it too.

In fact, I imagine the majority of ButtonMashing readers are and intrepid bunch, so you’re probably using it already!