Interesting survey of British gamers just came out (for those who like that sort of thing).
Pretty much reaffirms what we already know - gender norms, violence in games doesn't translate into murderous behaviour, people get addicted to shit every once in a while - but nonetheless worthwhile. If you've ever played a game until the sun came up and said, "Fuck, I gotta sleep!" followed by, "Guhhhr... I'm such a loser..." then some of these interviews will ring quite true.
I was invigilating with a girl I've known for a while now (seminars and meetings and all that) and she was telling me about how her boyfriend just got her Final Fantasy X. So instead of walking around giving disgruntled students blank booklets, I told her about how to optimize the Sphere system to get new skills. Cure is better than using ten thousand potions, after all. Embarrassing for her, I bet, but totally worth it for me!
I wish I hadn't given away my Playstation 2. Tidus is only a dream.
Posted by Chris at 02:59 PM >> Commentations (4) | Permalink
April 22, 2007 >> Doctor Dent
Lately I find a lot of people asking me if I'll be going for my PhD. I never really know what to say to this: will I? Will I really? I like my area of research and there's no shortage of things to explore in video game studies, but the idea of 4 more years of school make me cringe. At least starting right away, because then I'll be thirty by the time I'm done school and thirty is way old. Sorta like twenty was way old at one time.
Still, academia seems to be all about momentum. It sorta feels like an icy hill that you have to run up, and you slip and you slip until your feet go so fast that they're on fire. Then you melt footholds up the mountain and you're getting by... until you take a year off or two. Then your feet cool down and you're back to slipping and sliding all over again. I'll never forget what happened when I went to Korea - I wanted to study instant messaging, but the field broke wide open while I was out of school and I came back to ten thousand articles saying exactly what I had wanted to say. Technology moves lightning fast and, while theory lags behind, it still chases innovation like an angry dog hungry for a Puma sneaker. And just think of all the reading one has to do to catch up... oh god, the reading.
So any time off is not just a break, it's a significant dent in your theorizing face. A little early to be contemplating this, but with people moving away and those who remain in Korea, the future is always a little tiny bit interesting.
Posted by Chris at 10:57 PM >> Commentations (0) | Permalink
April 16, 2007 >> "I'm a Fucking Guitar Hero!" Plink plink plonk
These days, life is polarized by the opposing behemoths of school work and Guitar Hero 2. "Guitar Hero 2?" you might ask incredulously. "What is that, like some game where you play a guitar and feel like a hero?" To which I reply yes, yes it is.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to take a badass plastic ax and plug it into the XBox. Then you wail away on little coloured fret buttons and mash the strum trigger in tune with a song. Little dots on the screen race towards you at breakneck speed, and if you don't satisfactorily wail in accordance with their demands you get booed off the stage. This is the exact opposite of a Guitar Hero, incidentally, a Guitar Hello Kitty. Or a Guitar Honky. Either way, you would much rather have a tiny virtual audience clapping and cheering along with your efforts than screaming that you suck.
Which leads to the devilry of this game: you have to practice if you want to play the tough shit. You gotta play. I have a vague suspicion that people who play Real Guitar are naturally more inclined to rock - they have speedy little fingers already. But even if you've never touched an actual guitar, you can train yourself to play "Free Bird" in a couple days. And then, upon successful completion of this hideously difficult task, a flying saucer beams your Guitar Hero up and flies away into the stars. I'm not even kidding. It's awesome. But the key factor is "a couple days" in the middle of the customary April paper blitz. You will never rock as hard as your friends who aren't writing papers - it must be assumed that they will crank out a rendition of "War Pigs" that will make you cry. Because of how beautiful it is, but also because you can only hope to aspire to such levels of Guitar Greatness.
Which brings me to Plink Plink Plonk, which is what it sounds like when you screw up. They have these things called Guitar Hero Parties, I've been told, and one spontaneously combusted in our apartment last week. At this type of gathering your social worth is not only determined by your ability to rock the ax, but also to look good while doing so. So if you're scrunched awkwardly in front of the screen and you suck, it's all over, but if you look like a nerd and hit every note then that's aight. If you're bouncy but somewhat inept, you'll get encouragement. Basically victory is aligned somewhere along these matrices: you must not only have disturbingly quick fingers, but also look like you're having fun to win a Guitar Hero Party.
Witness the following:
I don't know if you can possibly appreciate how hard this is unless you've tried yourself... while looking at the screen... intently... and wondering how the fuck your fingers are ever supposed to move that fast.
Posted by Chris at 04:33 PM >> Commentations (9) | Permalink
April 09, 2007 >> Which came first, the Jesus or the egg?
Things learned from a Scutt Family Easter Jamboree:
-ScuttBabies say "ta-ta" when they want you to give them something, like an arrowroot cookie or a knife in the eye. "Ta-ta" is an interesting choice of phonetics because isn't that, like, tits? Stupid babies.
-Don't say "shit" or "asshole" in front of the babies, but if you do you should probably apologize to them. It's not their fault you're a vulgar vulture.
-Egg hunts are way more fun than you remember as a kid. Mostly because now you're six feet tall and can find the real tough hiding places.
-You can only cram a hardboiled egg inside a drain pipe so many times before it cracks on entry. No matter how prettily that egg is painted, it will still smell like poo.
-Probably shouldn't eat that egg...
-Children are marginally more fun than dogs, but it's a problem two hours later when they're no longer entertaining. Where do they go then? Like out to the farm or something?
-You can buy condoms from gas stations at 2 am, but only if you're prepared for some weird suggestions from the attendant (second-hand observation ONLY).
-You know when you go away to university and your parents move to a new house? And then you have a room, but it's not really your room since you've never spent more than two consecutive nights there. It feels kinda like a hotel. All those rooms look the same because mom gets to decorate them like they want Grown-up You to be: flower print comforter on the bed, tasteful art on the walls. The Real You is usually packed in boxes in the closet.
Posted by Chris at 10:07 PM >> Commentations (1) | Permalink
April 04, 2007 >> Propose this!
Good news keeps rolling in, although unfortunately it's all related to scholarly pursuits. Half cool points anyway. My proposal was accepted by the Association of Internet Researchers conference, which will take place in Vancouver a long while from now. Last year it was in Australia, so I clearly missed out. Really, who goes home to stay with their parents for a confere... oh, wait. Me. I'm the one.
From what I'm told about these things, I can expect to blandly read my paper for fifteen minutes while academics think about their own work and don't listen to me. Then they will ask asshole send-up questions that relate more to their interests than mine. In order to not look stupid I have to say something like, "Well, I hadn't really considered cyborg kinesthetics in the context of VIDEO GAME MUSIC REMIX COMMUNITIES, but that's a good point to follow up on. Thank you." I have been firmly discouraged from screaming at these people to shut the fuck up.
In all seriousness though, it might be kind of cool to put faces to some of these theorist guys and gals I've been reading for years. It'll be sorta like meeting a celebrity, only not really. Not really at all.
Posted by Chris at 12:23 AM >> Commentations (6) | Permalink