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Tony

The Carnival of Gamers

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Recently, I’ve been mulling over starting something that has been popular among other “genre” bloggers, the Carnival. What is a Carnival? I’ll quote the description of the popular Carnival of the Vanities (from a recent edition of said Carnival):

The COTV is showcase of blog posts which have been submitted by their authors as an example of their best work. Each week a host is selected to compile these posts and present them to the blogosphere so that people who may not have known about them will get a chance to read them. It is a great opportunity to expand your horizons beyond the normal heavy hitters.

There are a bunch of interesting Carnivals out there, including the ever important Cat and Dog Carnivals! If cat bloggers can have their own Carnival, so can Video Game Bloggers! I think this would be a great way to expose your readers to other players that also blog about video games. I think video game blogs are on the cusp of something big here.

With that in mind, I propose the Carnival of Gamers. (That’s the working title, it can change if someone has a better moniker) I would host the first couple of Carnivals, since I have a vested interest in seeing this succeed. I’m not sure if weekly or bi-weekly would be the best format, but that would work itself out. Anyone interested in participating would submit their selected entry to me, by way of blog comments or email to “buttonmashing at gmail dot com”. Everyone that submitted entries would be included (barring any inappropriate content, my discretion) and I reserve the right to present the entries as I see fit. I would add commentary as needed but I would want the entries to speak for themselves. This is about bloggers and their writing, not my lame attempts at pithy remarks.

So before I/we start this, I want to gauge interest in this endeavor. If you have a blog about video games, would you be interested in participating? Would you link/submit/host the Carnival? Would you be thick-skinned enough to take the occasional bit of criticism that may pop up, over time? How often to do you think we should have the Carnival? Can fanboys get along? Do you have a better name for it? Should we call it the Carnival of the Fanboys?

So please, link to this post, comment, send me an email, whatever, if you think this might be something that we “non-existent” gaming bloggers can do.

Update 5/11/05 – 8:28pm: There has been a pretty good response to the idea of having a Carnival. Many have responded, both to participating and to helping out/hosting. Everyone seems pretty optimistic. Thomas mentioned (in the comments) that some Carnivals have the host choose the posts to highlight, but I like the format of the Carnival of the Vanities with the participants submitting their own posts, so I think that will be the format we go with.

I’m planning on holding the first Carnival of Gamers Thursday, May 26th. I think bi-weekly will be an appropriate frequency. Thomas has volunteered to host, so he’ll host the next Carnival June 9th. We’ll set up a schedule with other hosts after that. I’ll set up a submission page next week and we’ll start accepting submissions then. Everyone is welcome to submit, and I’d really like it if we had some submissions from bloggers who aren’t obsessed with games as much as we are. Look here for more information soon.

Update 2:Go here for submission instructions.

Live Xbox 360 shot!

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I don’t care for it, but maybe you will – Engadget brings us a Live Xbox 360 shot!. It can look ugly as long as it delivers the goods, namely Halo 3. The white color will certainly stick out next to the black components of my home theater but that’s not a big deal for me. Standing up isn’t my thing, either, but I doubt it will have to stand as such.

Is this the real deal? Who cares, in less than a week we’ll have the MTV unveiling (which I’ll probably live blog) and we can say goodbye to all the rumors and hearsay.

These aren’t the blogs you’re looking for…

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It’s late and I should be sleeping, but this can’t wait until the morning.

It’s hard for me to believe I missed this one. Hard for two reasons: 1) I regularly read Technology Review at work and doubt I would have looked past an article such as this (even though it was posted a couple days ago) and 2) I am fascinated with all things blogs and video game blogging in particular. So when I read this over at Cathode Tan, I was flummoxed. How can someone at the pinnacle of the technology world (MIT) be so off?

First, for the full story, you need to read Josh’s attempt at contacting Tech. Review here (thanks for the mention, Josh). It’s classic. Adam at render was equally upset with the lack of journalistic research and sounded off here. Finally, Amit at Damned Machines is sucessful (?) at contacting someone over there with some jabs at this piece. All good stuff and I’m glad everyone was on this. The video game blogging community is growing pretty quickly. With Bloglines I currently subscribe to 80+ video game blog feeds, with more popping up all the time. There is no dearth of bloggers blogging about video games. To only mention Joystiq (which I enjoy) and Gamespot is simply embarassing. I’m no journalist but I try to hit up Google anytime I’m unsure of something I’m about to write. It makes sense to me, but I’m just a blogger.

But the “there are no gaming bloggers” gaffe is only one of many the writer makes. The article in question also hints at blogging in MMOG’s. Hmmm, that seems like something Foton mentioned, ohh, I don’t know, two months ago! Of course, the all-mighty dollar looms large in all of this and we can’t forget marketing!

“The reason we don’t have more community elements like blogs in games is because the publishers haven’t figured out how to harness it and make money off of it,” says Li.

Holy crap did I just read that right? “We already take fifty bucks out of their pockets but when we can use blogs to take more, we will!” Blech!

And we end with this doozie:

Everyone contacted for this article expressed interest in seeing more game-specific or within-game blogs. While it may be awhile before we see blogs within games, one thing’s for certain: there’s plenty of room for them and, well, there’s interest in blogging.

“Video game blogs are on the rise,” says Swofford. “The segment is growing.”

Plenty of room for them? I beg to differ.Video games move at such a quick place that I really don’t see their utility within most games. Screen shots and funny stories, sure. That usually takes place after you’ve played a session of gaming. But in-game blogging, even in the MMOG sense, doesn’t really resonate with me. And yes, video game blogs are on the rise.

So blog on, gaming bloggers. I’d like us to have an even bigger presence. Join the ranks of more “accepted” forms of blogging (whatever that entails). Personally, I’ve been mulling the idea of a “Carnival of Gamers” in the near future. I’m still hatching my idea, but I’ll be presenting here soon, hoping to drum up some interest. So stay tuned!

Wired 13.05: Dome Improvement

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I just finished reading the oddly titled article Dome Improvement over at Wired and I must say I’m mildly confused and extremely interested in this topic. The article looks at the steady climb of IQ in the civilized world. It attributes the rise partially to genetics and not as much to environment (among other things) and it makes some interesting observations. Like this one, regarding twins:

Identical twins raised in different environments have IQs almost as similar to each other as the same person tested twice, while adopted children living together – shared environment, but no shared genes – show no correlation.

Very interesting.

But what does this have to do with video games? Well, the author of these studies wonders where this increase in IQ is coming from. It can’t be schooling, given the current state of our public school system (which I don’t buy completely). It also can’t be correlated with nutrition, since diets haven’t changed for the better since the 50’s. So what is making kids smarter? The explosion of media, including — you guessed it — those evil video games!

The best example of brain-boosting media may be videogames. Mastering visual puzzles is the whole point of the exercise – whether it’s the spatial geometry of Tetris, the engineering riddles of Myst, or the urban mapping of Grand Theft Auto.

That might be a stretch for some, but I’ve seen it first hand. I’ve seen my four year old nephew play computer games like it’s second nature to him. My two year old daughter can recognize different characters in video games and she know I’m supposed to shake trees to get the fruit out of trees in Animal Crossing. These might not be developing life skills but they are helping these little minds develop. In my book that’s a good thing.

And I think the author of the Wired article is a pretty good authority on this topic. He’s the author of Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter, which sounds like an interesting read. I’ll have to check it out.

Update 5/11/05 – 11:59pm: Seems like this article (and book) are getting quite a bit of air-time. Kottke has a big list of both media and blog links. Render and Damned Machines also chime in.

Forza Motorsport review roundup

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Supra!
The good guys at Joystiq bring us their Forza Motorsport review roundup. I’ve been on a Burnout 3 kick lately but I’ve been looking for something else to try. I’ve been debating between Forza and Midnight Club 3. I know that’s apples and oranges, but both look like fun in their own ways. I was all about the Underground scene with NFSU (Toyota Supra for teh win!) and I’ve heard good things about MC3 but I’d also try my luck at a more “pure” racer like Forza.

In the end I’ll probably rent both of them and buy Burnout 4.

The hyperbolic machine

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Nowak is mad as hell and he’s not gonna take it anymore!

The more important realization, however, is that even if real-time rendering reaches that watermark, the game industry will still be a long, long ways off from reaching the standards of Toy Story’s creativity, originality, cleverness, writing, acting and maturity (all this from a G-rated film).

Amen, brother.

Halo 2, New and Improved

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By now, just about everybody knows that Halo 2 has been updated with new maps, playlists, and cheat fixes. I haven’t tried them out yet (but will after the greatest TV show ever is over). I did talk to a clanmate this afternoon about it and he gave it the thumbs up. But he likes movies starring Kirsten Dunst, so he may not be the best authority. We’ll have to wait and see for ourselves. Update forthcoming.

Update (3 hours later…): The clan had a chance to try out pretty much everything except the new maps (because I haven’t bought them and now I won’t because I don’t want to give my clanmate (you know who you are) the satisfaction of saying “I knew you’d cave in and buy them.”) Highlights included big team battle (CTF) in Containment and a Slayer in Warlock. Containment felt like a smooshed Sidewinder but it was enjoyable. The Slayer match in Warlock was crazy frenetic and I never had a chance to get my bearings. We also ended the night on a Sniper Battle which was enjoyable. Overall, I give the new changes a thumbs up. Or, in keeping with the theme of the blog, a big thumb mashing on a button. Because that’s just what I do.

The Dome of York…

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I still feel a twinge of nostalgia when I think of Neocron. It could have been so much more than it ever was. It sports my favorite crafting system — being a constructor, building that 5-slot uber-pistol was sweet. But alas, my friend and I turned our backs on that game months ago and haven’t looked back. But I’ve wanted to know what ever became of the expansion/sequel “The Dome of York”. Well I didn’t have to look any further than Van Hemlock (a new addition to the blogroll) for his review. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like I’m missing much. It looks like more of the same. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing with Neocron, I think I’ll be passing on Neocron 2. If you’re interested, read Van Hemlocks review of The Dome of York…

John Dvorak Needs a Hug

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I was out of town this weekend and missed this column by PC Magazine’s indomitable John Dvorak. I love reading his columns mostly because his narcissistic pronouncements on all things technology are always amusing. He’s a “shotgun prophet” (my term). He boldy shots off predictions, shotgun style. When something hits he can boldly proclaim he “called it”. Nevermind his hundreds of other predictions that never materialized. They’ve been relegated to the magazine’s archives, never to be heard from again. When he isn’t predicting the downfall of a technology he’s jumping bandwagons, switching sides midstream. Just recently he’s gone from HD-DVD’s camp to Blu-Ray’s DVD format camp. I believe that’s called hedging your bets. He’ll be correct either way. Genius! Unfortunately, this column is a wild swing-and-miss. He may hit genius once and a while, but this is so “Might Casey striking out”-like that it’s embarassing. Of course, in typical Dvorak fashion, he hedges his bet:

I really can’t imagine this scene continuing as it is for much longer. I suspect that the next generation of machines will be the last—or at least the last in the current boom market. It will be downhill from there.

It’s true, the video game market is peaking, reaching saturation. Once it hits that high, it has no where to go but down. But that doesn’t mean the next round of consoles won’t sell a billion units. I see the industry plateauing but I don’t see a rapid descent anytime soon. I just have to hearitly disagree with Dvorak this time.

This has, of course, attracted the attention of fellow gaming bloggers. Bill at DQ takes Dvorak to task much more detailed then I have here. SmashBOT didn’t have anything nice to say about it. Josh says Dvorak is out of touch (he is) but he (and Greg Costikayan) think there may be a shred of truth in what has been said.

Paging Esquire Thompson

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Let’s hope super-chimp-lawyer Jack Thompson doesn’t get word of this. I wonder how his personal injury lawyering skills are. (We already know where he stands on Personal Responsibility). This quote from the defendant’s testimoney strikes me as rather fruity:

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.

Are those euphemisms?

(from Kotaku)

Update (5/2/05): After Thompson is done with this case, Kotaku has found another candidate for Thompson’s burgeoning Personal Injury Prosecution: Man breaks arm attempting move seen in video game.