It's not that simple

Sometimes I really wish life was like it is on TV shows. In this case I would like it to be like CSI. See, a little over a week ago my house was broken into, my big TV was stolen, along with my XBox360, Wii, and all the games that go with them. I filed a police report and gave them names of suspects as I thought it might have been people my roommate knew, but without anything more to go on they can't do anything about it. We also found fingerprints on the back window where they broke in, and when the cop told me they were very clear and should be easy to match I got pretty exicited that they might actually be able to get the guys who did this (I know it was more than one because my TV was a 55" and impossible to move by yourself). Then the cop said they check prints by priority based on the severity of the crime, meaning murder, rape and such would take priority over something like burglary, but priority is also based on the quality of the prints, so mine would probably be pretty high up with the other burglary prints. Well that makes sense, so I answered the rest of his questions, had him take down the serial numbers of what was stolen and he left.

Now if things were like in CSI, they would have somebody checking all these prints trying to match them in their computer program that scans the entire database and finds matches, and it would only take like 10 minutes per print. Given this is the only knowledge I really have of how this stuff works, I figured a few weeks, a month at most, and they would either match the prints or find out they aren't in the system, either way I would have an answer. Well I called yesterday to check and see if there were any updates and the officer asked if I had any proof that it was any of the suspects we had given him before, but of course I don't, so I asked him about the prints. He proceeded to tell me the same thing the other guy had said about the priority thing, but this one said for burglary it could take up to 6 months to make it to the top of the list and get checked. Damn, I guess it takes a lot longer to match prints in real life than it does in CSI, but I guess that makes sense. I know computers are fast, but to check every print on file in just one city would take a while, and while I doubt they check against the entire country unless they have to, just checking the county must take a long time, and for how many crimes actually happen out there, my little burglary crime has a long way to go to get those prints matched. But the officer also told me he'd see about looking up the records of those few names of suspects we gave him and seeing if the prints matched, which apparently they haven't done yet.

Up until I had this information I thought it might be a good idea no to replace the stuff I lost yet in hopes that they would find the guys soon and I would either have it back or be reimbursed or something, but it doesn't look like that's gonna happen. So if any of you know of any good deals going on for TVs or game systems then let me know, I'll be looking to replace what I lost in the next few weeks assuming those prints don't match any of the suspects.

To BSG or not to BSG

Actually that's not the question, because I think everyone should see this show. If you don't know already, I'm talking about the new Battlestar Galactica. Sure it plays on the Sci Fi channel, and it is technically a sci fi show, but it's also one of the best dramas on television right now. The storyline is great and keeps you guessing at what's going to happen next. I've gotten quite a few people hooked on this show, some of them hate the sci fi genre with a passion, but this isn't your typical sci fi with laser guns and such. The show goes beyond just the cool special effects and advanced technology and gets into the heads of the characters. After the events that happen at the very beginning of the series, no one truly trusts each other, not even married couples, and the show explores this, the enemy uses it to their advantage, and the situations these people are put in never have an answer that is clearly better than others. So if you think you'd like to see a drama with elements of sci fi, politics, war and psychology then you should really check out this show.

Now on to the elitists who will deny this show is any good because they are too busy comparing it to the original series and how different it is. Guess what? It's not supposed to be the same. What would be the point of doing it at all if it was exactly the same show with different actors? I think almost all of the bashing this show gets is for exactly this, and while I understand the original show was a breakthrough in its time, this new version is a breakthrough of its own. I suppose I see their point though, I mean, if someone were to decide to recreate the Star Wars movies I think I would be pretty pissed, but while they would never compare to the originals, I would still give them a chance to prove themselves. It's hard to set aside your bias in a situation like that, and it probably wouldn't entirely go away, but you have to try to see past the fact that it's a remake and just see that it's a quality show.

So anyone out there who hasn't seen this show, rent or buy the DVDs, set aside a few weekends and just watch it from the beginning, then when you're caught up you can watch the latest season as it comes out. This isn't just for geeks, this is for everybody, get to it.

Trek your pick

OK, we all know that Star Trek is just about #1 on the list of "shows that geeks watch." Take your pick, any show in the series is basically a soap opera for us geeky sci fi fans, just like professional wrestling is a soap opera for rednecks. Everybody has their pick of which series they like best, and it can be because of the characters, the story line, or whatever else you look for in a show. I have also found that Star Trek likes to have a formula for their shows, and while it is a fairly loose formula, we see it pop up in some way every time.

One of the main ingredients of this is the way they emulate cultural biases, but in this case it is not just humans that have differences, but alien species as a whole. In fact, race never comes up as far as humans go, but there are many conflicts that arise out of cultural misunderstandings and ways the characters have to deal with them. This is where the formula I was talking about comes in. Now I don't have much experience with the original series (shame on me) every series since TNG has had the outcast, the character that doesn't fit in with everyone else but wants to. In TNG it was Data, DS9 had Odo, Voyager had the doctor, and Enterprise had T'Pol. Each one of these characters were basically one of a kind on their respective ships, and until we met Lore, Data was the only one in the galaxy. These characters were always struggling with trying to be more human (or in Odo's case more like a "solid") and even through all their efforts, the moral of the story was always that while they want to change, they find out they can be happy just the way they are.

Switching topics abruptly, my favorite of the series' would have to be DS9. It isn't quite as cut and dry as the rest of the shows. A Federation controlled space station which not only contains military officers, but is mostly inhabited by civilians of various different worlds and sits in front of the most strategically important wormholes known to the quadrant. The problems that arise aren't the same as on a normal ship like in the other shows. There is a lot of history with the station and the area of space near it that is revealed throughout the show, and eventually they all face a new enemy in the Dominion and have to go so far as to join forces with the Romulans to fend them off. I find it the most interesting of the series', with a great variety of characters, and it leaves the show open to much more with military interaction, with civilians, diplomatic situations with allied governments, as well as many religious and spiritual conflicts. I love the other series' as well, but I just feel DS9 has more to offer than the others and after watching it all the way through I found I miss it the most.

Anybody else like a different series better? Why? No wrong answer here, but I'd like to find out some other views on the show.

The Great Debate

I've talked only about videogames so far, and I'm gonna try to switch it up to a different topic. This topic has been debated for years among gamers and I want to share my take on it. This topic is, of course, whether to buy a PC or a Mac.

Up until recently, if you wanted a gaming rig, you pretty much had to buy a PC. This was mainly because game manufacturers didn't always make their games Mac compatible, but was also because Macs just didn't come with the hardware to run games as well as a PC. The big change was made when Apple decided to start using Intel processors in their computers rather than their own G4 and G5 and such. This opened up many possibilities for them, including being able to use the high end video cards that PCs are able to use. They are also much better able to run Windows emulation software, which can give you a Windows-like experience even though you are actually on a Mac. In this way they have made themselves more gamer friendly, and from what I have read from many of the avid WoW bloggers, they use Macs to play and I haven't heard too many complaints coming from them.

Now in the past there would be no debate for me. I have used PCs all my life, I grew up on them, from DOS to Windows 95 (which I didn't get until '97) and now to Vista. Last year I bought a new laptop for myself, sort of as a gift to myself for graduating college and finding a job, not to mention my monthly earnings are about 5 times what they were when I was in college. At the time I didn't even consider getting a Mac, it just wasn't on the radar for me at all, and mainly because of the bias I have had all my life. My mom does all her work on a Mac, but she uses lots of graphic design programs that I really have no use for, and Macs tend to run those better. She also has a lot of files she can't afford to lose, and Macs tend to be much more reliable so there isn't too much worry about crashes and crazy problems popping up. I didn't really care, I'm not into graphic design, I wanted something that will run my games, and I knew a PC would, so that's what I went with, and of course I got it installed with Vista because it was new and seemed cool.

Fast forward to now and I hate Vista with a passion. It takes forever to boot up, and I can't touch it while it is loading up all those damn startup programs or it might interrupt it while it's connecting to my wireless network, which if it doesn't do off the bat I have to restart because I can't manually make it connect after that. It also freezes...a lot. Want to know what makes it freeze the most? Unplugging the power cord. Aren't you supposed to be able to plug in and unplug laptops when you want? Not this one, there's pretty much a 50% chance it will freeze up when I decide to unplug it and take it somewhere else.

On the positive side, it runs games great. The only thing that ever makes me lag is my internet connection if someone else in my house decides to use up all the bandwidth downloading something. Otherwise I never have problems, even with all the resolution and detailing options turned up to maximum. I am also very used to using a PC, and while I do know Macs somewhat, there are those differences that keep me from making that move.

The debate comes in now that Macs are more capable of running the games that only PCs could run previously. Many games that are released are compatible with Macs, and many of them don't even require you to buy a different version of the game anymore, which is a big step in changing the pattern. I don't need a new computer right now, mine is top of the line for now, but looking to the future I could see myself buying a Mac when my current computer becomes obsolete. I've actually been taking a look at the new iMacs and I think those are at the top of the list for choices for my next computer. I like having a laptop because it's portable and I can move it around easily, but I don't really take my laptop out of the house much so I think an iMac would be a pretty good computer for me since I really only carry it up and down the stairs.

Anybody else have any opinions on this or know any details I may not be privy to that would change my mind on this? I know Vista will get better as they put out service packs, but the fact remains that Macs are still more reliable and are generally not prone to viruses, and that's a big plus for me.

Retro Time part 2

To continue the discussion of my early gaming influences, lets move on to the PS2. Once again I never owned one of these, but my friend did let me borrow his for a while when he first bought an Xbox. In the little time I had it I managed to beat Final Fantasy X. I know, it seems like those are all I play, and maybe that was true for a while, but that was the last one I played. Now that I don't have that PS2 anymore I kinda want to buy one for cheap and get FFXII so I can get through that too, but I'm not sure that's ever going to happen. The only other game I really played on PS2 was GTA3, but that didn't last very long before I had to give it back.

I would move on to Xbox here, but I never got one. I know, I know, I missed out on all those games, especially Halo and KOTOR, but I didn't have much money at the time so gaming systems were a pretty low priority for me.

I did, however, buy a GameCube, and that thing got a fair amount of use. First game I had was Animal Crossing, and I pretty much played that until I was bored out of my mind with it. Once I paid off all my debt there really wasn't much left to do that interested me, so I gave it up. Next up was Mario Sunshine, and while not as groundbreaking as Mario 64, it was still a fun game that I managed to get through pretty quickly, although I didn't unlock everything. Finally they came out with Metroid Prime and I grabbed that up quick. I had been waiting for another Metroid game to be release, and since the N64 never got one I was starting to wonder if it would ever happen. The game was pretty fun, and I made it all the way through, except I missed one missile pack and I can't figure out which I missed, so that bummed me out. Now we come to the only fighting game I really play, and that would be Smash Bros Melee. I'm terrible at most fighting games, but when all you have to do is button mash I tend to be pretty good, and I of course unlocked everything. The only other games I played regularly were the Mario sports games (golf, tennis, soccer), and while Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker was fun, I watched my brother beat it and decided I didn't need to go through all that work too.

I suppose that moves us on to the Wii. At this point I wasn't into gaming as much as I used to be, and for the longest time I only had the Wii Sports that comes with the system. A little later I bought Zelda and Metroid, but I don't think I ever made it more than halfway through either of those. I have some plans to beat the games I have right now, but it's gonna be tough finding time to do it. All I know is Mario Kart will be first up and we'll go from there.

Xbox360 would be last on the list of consoles, and is also the last console I bought. So far the game I've played the most by far is Rock Band. This game is ridiculously fun, and even though you find yourself playing a handful of songs over and over, I never get tired of drumming, even though if you stuck me in front of a real drum kit I probably wouldn't be able to do much. I also played a little bit into Mass Effect, but that game just overwhelms me with how big it is, I'm a little intimidated by it. I also played through the Halo 3 campaign on co-op, and that was fun, but I haven't played online much. I'm gonna have to overcome my reservations about these games and just play them, they were great from what I could tell.

Last but not least is the PC, and this one is gonna take up a lot of space so get ready to read, a lot. I was very young when my dad first let me on the computer, an IBM 386. I think it had a 8Mb processor, probably about 4Mb of ram, and a hard drive so small it would make today's computers laugh. I had to learn DOS to use it because I don't think Windows was even out yet. Anyway, besides the learning games for kids, we also had a game called Captain Comic. It was a very early side-scrolling game where your character can run, jump, and shoot. The object was to collect certain items and those would lead you to the next area, until you finally reached the goal, pretty simple, and for a little kid it was as fun as any videogame could be. My dad would also bring home shareware from work, including Commander Keen and a couple of the Hugo games. These were basically free games that would usually come with new computers, but the offices my dad visited had no use for them so he would take them. The first RPG-like game I played that I think got me into them in the first place was Hero's Quest. You had a choice to be one of three types of characters and while you could move your character with the arrow keys, you had to type in any other actions you wanted to perform and it was very particular about what words you used as it only recognized certain phrases. It was a great game for the time, and provides lots of puzzles to keep you busy.

Moving on to post-Windows 95 games, the first one that comes to mind is Warcraft II. My uncle actually suggested this game to me, and I was blown away when I started playing. The campaigns were very challenging, and this game pretty much got me to realize that besides RPG's, RTS games were my bread and butter. Not too long after I picked up Command and Conquer: Red Alert, and the expansions, and was once again blown away. I'm not really sure what it is about those older RTS games, maybe the simplicity and the challenge it presents when trying to defeat an enemy that has units that don't differ from your own by much, but they were a blast to play. Next on the list is a game you may or may not recognize, and if you don't you should check it out because it is very unique and addictive. This would be Heroes of Might and Magic. I guess it would be classified as a strategy game, but it is much more than that. You basically have characters called heroes that command your armies, and you move them around but they are limited to a certain number of moves per day. Your army can be recruited from castles you own and the numbers of units replenish at the start of each week. Usually the goal is to take over all enemy castles and defeat all their heroes to win, but the computer AI in this game is very smart and makes the game very challenging. They also had a multiplayer option that let you take turns on one computer. It made the game take forever, but playing against a couple other people made it much more fun. I also played Heroes 2 and 3 and both were well worth it.

And now that we get to the more current games, Starcraft is the first that comes to mind. This game is probably one of the greatest RTS games of all time, and for good reason. I never did make it through all the campaigns, they were just too hard, but the online play was where it was at. Besides the normal mode you could also play maps that others created called 'Use Map Settings' maps. These maps let the map makers program in events and such that let them make something totally different than the normal mode game. I can't tell you how many hours I spent trying make my own maps, not to mention how many more hours I spent playing other maps, it really did set the standard for future RTS games. Next up is another game I played for countless hours, and just happens to be made by Blizzard as well. I'm talking, of course, about Diablo II. When I first got this game I didn't have an internet connection, but despite that it was probably one of the best games I ever played. When I finally got internet and was able to play online is when it really started taking over. I was on there constantly, always looking for the best items, trying to trade other players for stuff I wanted, it was too addicting to give up. I finally stopped playing for a while and my account got deleted due to it being inactive for too long, so when I decided I wanted to play again I found all my characters were gone and I decided it was probably for the better. Of course not too long after that I found myself a sweet little game in Max Payne. I really think the biggest draw of this game was the 'bullet-time' button you could push to go in slow motion like in the Matrix, but it was a fun game anyway and I beat it in about 3 days, so it was on to finding a new game after that.

This brings us to my current gaming obsessions, and number one on the list is, of course, World of Warcraft. If you haven't heard of this game, you probably shouldn't be reading this blog. I bought it about 3 months after its release and have only recently stopped playing, making for about 3 years of playing, give or take a few months. I don't think any other game has taken up more of my time than this one, and it basically caused me to neglect any other games, hence my lack of games on the newer consoles, and I didn't even play much compared to others, it was just that the limited time I did have to play games I would dedicate to WoW, so the other games took a back seat. Only one game took my attention away for a few weeks, and that was the Half-Life orange box, namely Portal and TF2. Very cool games, and if you don't want to spend the money on the whole package, both can be bought separately now. I beat Portal in three days, including the extra challenge levels, but it was still a very good and fresh game, I just wish it was longer. TF2 held my attention for a while, but WoW soon sucked me back in.

I know I left out a bunch, but I think I got the main games in there. If you haven't played or heard of any of these games I would suggest you check them out. Anybody else have some retro games that you think people should know about?

Retro Time

Let's talk about the games that brought us to this point. You know, the games we spent endless hours on, only to be replaced by newer games and forgotten, sitting in a box or drawer somewhere, probably never to be played again, but there was a time when you couldn't get enough of it. I'm going to go through this by platform, starting with early platforms first and moving my way up, we'll see how much I can remember off the top of my head and how much I leave out when I read this next week and realize I left out something very important.

First off is the NES, which I never actually owned until way after it was obsolete. I actually got this from my uncle when he decided he didn't want it anymore, and it worked out great. I went to this little game store that sold used games and found myself staring face to face with Final Fantasy, the game that started it all, and it was only 3 bucks, so I grabbed it, along with both Zelda games for NES and a few others to round it out. At that point I had already played through various other FF games, but to see where they started out was a real treat. Took me a while to get through it, since half the time you don't get any clues of what you are supposed to do next, but I finally beat it and it was a fun experience.

Next is the SNES, the very first console I ever owned, and the very first game you get with it is Super Mario World. I can't tell you how many hours I spent on this game, with many of the levels having alternate goals that unlock different paths, this game kept you occupied for a good long time, especially if you had to beat every single level and unlock everything. Next up is Super Metroid. Once again this is a game that can be beaten without collecting every item, but where's the fun in that? After those games I got into the RPG genre, and that started with Final Fantasy III, or VI if you want to be proper. I managed to learn every single spell with every character before I finally beat the game, despite the fact that for the final dungeon you can't even bring everyone with you. I don't want to think about how many hours that took, but I know it's something ridiculous. Last up would be Chrono Trigger, my all time favorite SNES game, and maybe even favorite game in general. Not only did this game provide a great experience the first time through, but once you beat it you could start a new game, but with your characters carried over from the previous game, thus meaning they were already at a high level when you start out again. This may seem like cheating, but the whole point is that there are multiple endings that can only be achieved in this mode, one of them requires you to use only the main character to defeat the final boss on his own, so it provides a lot more than just a one time through game.

Moving on to N64, the next system I bought, and once again a Mario game, this time Mario 64. They somehow managed to make an awesome 3D Mario game right off the bat, and once again it took many hours to find everything this game had to offer. Yes, I collected all 120 stars, met Yoshi on top of the castle, and all that, and it took forever, but it was quite the accomplishment. Next would be the FPS game that would change the genre forever. I'm talking about Goldeneye, which not only had an awesome single player, but the multiplayer had me bordering on addiction. Proximity mines in the Complex was a legendary fiasco. I'm pretty sure I spent an entire summer break having friends over every single day and playing Goldeneye for hours at a time, and we still couldn't get enough of it. That is until the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time came out. I pretty much spent all my single player time on this game, and finally made my way through it in between Goldeneye sessions with my friends. And not a moment too soon because Banjo Kazooie was next up. This was another platform game, and I'm really not sure why I liked it so much, but this game, along with Banjo Tooie and Donkey Kong 64, took up a lot of my playing time. They were challenging, but fun to play, and that's exactly what draws me to these games. Last I have to mention Perfect Dark, or for me it was Goldeneye 2.0. Made by the same people, this game wasn't quite as solid in the single player, but the multiplayer replaced Goldeneye for me and my friends. First off, you could drop down from ledges, something you couldn't do in Goldeneye for some reason. They also carried over a few of the Goldeneye multiplayer levels, which is what we played mainly, and there were some really cool weapons to choose from.

So lets talk about Playstation. Actually I never owned one, but my friend did let me borrow his for a while so I could play Final Fantasy VII. Now I still say FFVI was better, but out of the rest of the FF games, this one comes the closest to being as good, it just would have been nice if the memory card didn't get erased twice while I was close to the end, forcing me to start over. I also managed to beat FF8 and 9 while I had the system, as my main reason for borrowing the system in the first place was to add those to the FF games I have beaten.

Next post I will move on to more recent games, except when I get to PC, where there will be many games from various eras, some of which you may have never heard of.

Mario Kart Wiiiii!!!

As you may be able to tell, the new Mario Kart for the Wii is a fun game and I would recommend anyone with a Wii to get it. I had actually written a post about this last Friday, but it somehow got flagged as a spam post, not really sure why, but it was removed by Blogger and I didn't feel like writing it again at the time. Now I'm gonna make it a little shorter than it was, and I will try to make it not seem so similar so it doesn't get flagged again.

Ever since the original Mario Kart on the SNES I have made sure to buy each one that has come out since, and not only that, I have completed each one as well. This new one will be different though, as there is a lot more you have to do to finish the game, and it's looking to be much more difficult. In the former games it was just get gold in each cup and you won, now there is a grading scheme from A to F that rates your performance, so you can win gold but get a C ranking and it won't count for much. There are also 8 cups now rather than the usual 4 that I have come to expect. The first 4 cups are like any of the other games, brand new tracks that are sure to take a while to master. The other 4 cups contain all retro tracks, meaning tracks from previous Mario Kart games, and while some of them are from versions only released on the handheld systems that I've never played, it is fun to see the older tracks on there that I've raced on so many times before, especially the SNES tracks, and they even kept the music the same. With 8 cups each containing 4 tracks that adds up to 32 different tracks to race on, and should make for lots of play time.

The other thing I like, and I have noticed they are doing this with all the newer Mario sports games, is how much there is to do in order to complete the game and unlock everything. There are many unlockable characters and karts, and some of them are no easy task. Not only do you have to get gold on all the cups, but many require you to complete the cups with a certain rating as well, often better than an A score, which I wasn't able to accomplish on some of the 50cc tracks, let alone the more difficult ones. So far I have gotten gold on everything in 50cc, unlocked King Boo and Diddy Kong, and have moved on to get gold on two of the 100cc cups so far. It's looking like this game will have more than enough for me to do before I grow tired of it.

One last note is the multiplayer options. I consider the Wii to be mainly a multiplayer game system, as the games tend to be much more fun with more than one person playing. The problem is if you have friends that aren't comfortable with their gaming skills, they tend to not have fun playing when it means they lose all the time. Mario Kart has somewhat solved this problem by introducing a team racing mode. In this mode racers are split up into two teams, and your team points are added up to determine the winner, so you can do poorly as an individual but your team can still win. This instills a sense of accomplishment, even to bad players, if their team wins, even if they didn't do that well, because they contributed to it. I think this will get more people involved in the game and make for a fun time for everyone.

I highly recommend this game, especially if you like inviting people over to play, and the fact that you actually turn the wheel to control your kart just makes the game more fun for everybody.

Blown out of the water

As you may or may not have heard, GTA IV was released last week and set record sales for release day at $310 million and release week at $500 million, blowing Halo 3's sale record of $170 million on release day out of the water. Not only was this game highly anticipated by gamers, but it is also highly controversial with many conservative people and organizations. If you've been following any of those idiots who think videogame content leads to people taking part in similar behavior in real life then you know the name Jack Thompson, the lawyer who pretty much tries to take a stand against any violent game, and GTA IV just gave him more firepower. Another group that has made a complaint about the game is MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), although their beef is that the game allows you to drive while intoxicated, which is not such a broad hate for the game, but still assumes we are zombies that will only do things that videogames influence us to do.

Now the biggest controversy so far is the "Ladies of Liberty City" video and what the player is doing in the game in that video. The video shows the player go into a strip club and get a lap dance, as well as pick up hookers, have sex in the car, let them out, and then shoot them. Now the fact is that when you make a video like that and someone like Jack Thompson gets a hold of it, he's going to twist it in his own way and make it seem like that is what the game is all about and convince non-gamers to agree with him. The point is that anyone judging a game by this little video is an idiot. There is never a situation in the game where you have to have sex with a hooker and then kill her as some sort of mission, or drive drunk for that matter, but the game does allow you to do this on your own time. Unlike the fairly linear games of the 80's and 90's, the newer games have a lot more side content, other activities in the game that don't affect the outcome but give you something else to do to keep the experience going.

Another complaint I've heard about the game is that it should be rated AO (Adults Only), for people over 18. I understand that the game can get graphic, but it's also rated MA, meaning for people over 17, the equivalent of a rated R movie, and I would consider that a fair rating. First of all, how is upping the age cutoff by one year going to make a difference? Secondly, it would seem to me that ratings on games should mirror our movie rating system. I haven't played through everything in the game, but from what I've seen there is no nudity, and the violence and swearing is nothing worse than what you'd see in a rated R movie, hence the rating seems to hold. You think this game glorifies crime and violence? Go watch the Godfather, or Goodfellas, or any other gangster movie and tell me those don't do the same. Hell, some of them won academy awards and you're going to tell me that because it's a videogame it should be judged differently?

Games are not marketed to just kids anymore, despite what some may choose to believe. All those kids from the 80's and 90's are adults now, many of whom still play videogames, and the industry knows that and makes games that appeal to adults. The fact that kids have access to these games is not the fault of the programmers, it's more the fault of the parents who don't supervise well enough or just don't care. I worked at a Blockbuster Video for 3 years, and more often than not it was the parents renting the games, and they didn't seem to care what the rating was. I remember a kid handing his mom the Playboy Mansion game to rent and she didn't even give it a second glance, just put it up on the counter along with her movies. I even brought up the fact that it was a Playboy game and would have Playboy content, but she just said her kids have been or will be exposed to it at some point anyway, so why try to stop it.

The last point I want to make in this rant is that assuming people are going to perform the same acts of violence they see in a game is ignorant at best. If you're going to make this assumption then do some research to back up your claim. The argument is that these violent games cause increases in crime. Now I don't remember where I found it, but someone made a graph of crime trends over the years and added in release dates of videogames. Do you think it showed increases every time a game was released? Nope, actually it was the opposite. Ever since the original Doom came out violent crimes have been on the decline, and the release of the GTA games has yet to cause that to change. I think the anti-GTA people have it all wrong. It isn't that the game is going to cause non-violent people to commit violent crimes, it's that it gives an outlet to people who could potentially commit those violent crimes. Violent games don't turn people violent, that mindset comes from a different set of circumstances altogether, and GTA won't change that. What GTA does is give a place where violent people can let out their aggression on virtual people and still get enough satisfaction out of it that they don't go out and do it to real people.

I'm not leaving this open to debate. Any comments disagreeing with me will be read, but won't change my mind. I have heard of violent crimes that people try to link to videogames, but the fact is those people were capable of those crimes, videogame or not, and they may have even committed the crime sooner if not for the game. That about covers it I guess, just wanted to get my thoughts about it put into words. Next post won't be a rant.

Opening Day

After keeping a WoW blog for a few months I decided to broaden my horizons. If that isn't geeky enough for you I don't know what is, maybe a blog on various geeky things? The idea is that while I do like geeky activities, there have been mixed reviews on whether I can actually be considered a geek. This blog will pretty much be a place for me to talk about random geeky stuff ranging from videogames to anime to computers and everything in between.

First some background. I am a graduate of UC Berkeley with a degree in civil engineering, a major that requires a lot of math and science before you even get to start some of the basic engineering stuff. I still have my original NES system, as well as every Nintendo console released since (except Virtual Boy). I also have XBox360 and many PC games. My desktop computer is about 6 years old, but I built it up from scratch and it only cost me $600 at the time, and after upgrading a few parts since then it still runs many of the newer games just fine, although at lower resolutions. I also have a 9 month old laptop that I ordered from a smaller PC builder company, not one of the big ones like Dell or Compaq, I wanted mine fully customized and without all the extra crap those other companies throw in to jack up the price. I like being able to surf around online and watch TV at the same time. I download anime fansubs to my laptop, hook it up to my 55" hi-def TV and watch them in surround sound almost every night. You'll find out all my other geeky activities as you read this blog, but that's the basics.

Look forward to some geeky rants, reviews, and discussions in the near future, and don't tell my girlfriend about this blog, I don't think she'd understand. Crap, is it not geeky to have a girlfriend?