I can’t help but be skeptical of how real this is. If it’s acted out, then hey! they’re pretty good.
If it’s not, then holy shit these two have issues.
I can’t really say anything to guys that spend a lot of time in front of a TV with controller in hand, or in front of a computer, playing video games. I’m just as guilty. But, I don’t have a significant other whom I’m neglecting with my gross mis-use of free time. Confidently, I know my video game playtime (which, admittedly, goes back in forth in intensity by the week — some weeks I game, some weeks I don’t) and internet-use (okay, that one is consistent) would severely reduce if I did. Granted, any significant other of “mine” would have to be just as geeky as I am.
The girl’s actions in this video are despicable. Not only does she destroy an expensive piece of consumer electronics she apparently paid for, she also commits an act of battery on her “waste-of-space boyfriend.” Clever.
This sucks. In a great loss for the gaming industry and community, Threewave Software out of Vancouver has closed its doors. GamaSutra has a write-up, though it was initially announced not long ago through Twitter by Josh Smillie of Ubisoft Vancouver.
Threewave CTF practically changed online gaming, which was in its infancy at the time of the mod’s release in 1996. I spent an embarrassing amount of hours playing this mod, not to mention all the clones since.
[WordPress seems to have eated a newer version of this blog. I'm editing it again, but I'll keep this version up for now. Damn you WordPress.]
In the latest episode of the podcast Out of the Game, the gang discusses (among other things) Malclom Gladwell and a selection of his essays. Shawn Elliott brings up in particular The Art of Failure. The topic is about how people allow themselves to fail by choking (thinking too much) or panicking (not thinking enough), also known as performance anxiety. Shawn mentions Dock Ellis and his LSD-fueled no hitter, specifically this superb animated video wherein Ellis discusses the incident in candid hilarity:
At around 3:37, Dock Ellis explains that he dealt with “the fear of losing, the fear of winning” by self-medicating. The LSD dumbed the potential for performance anxiety. He instinctively relied upon muscle memory and his philosophical zombie, his subconscious, while his conscious experience was elsewhere.
Though I’ve always considered the idea of a philosophical zombie, it was never formalized as an idea, to me, until I read Robert J. Sawyer’s novel, MindScan. I’ve observed the phenomenon many times whilst playing video games or driving, or do anything other activity which has a possible tie with muscle memory while a part of my consciousness engaged in an activity requiring high-functionality, such as a conversation I’m interested in. There is debate about the philosophical zombie, and I’m not deeply read on the subject. When I use the term philosophical zombie, I refer only to the above mentioned phenomenon.
Robert Ashley suggests that some levels of inebriation can prove beneficial in some gaming, mentioning experiences he had with Geometry Wars. He observed how high of a score he could obtain at various levels of inebriation; he didn’t specify on what drugs, though. I think there’s definitely something to this. It’s as if inebriation, depending upon the intoxicant, peels the conscious experience away from another part of the brain, the zombie. I recall playing Geometry Wars better when I was experimenting with marijuana years ago. The same occurred when playing racing games, and even platform games, but not games requiring deep concentration for strategy and tactics – though, I expect this to differ for each person and each intoxicant.
Jeff Green mentioned that while playing Bejeweled Blitz, he plays best when he’s on the phone and not entirely focused on the game. He’s talking about the philosophical zombie taking over. When distracted with another activity which is engaging a certain part of the brain, you’re not worried about how you’re performing. It’s the same as when Dock Ellis was high off his ass. He wasn’t worried in the slightest about how good or bad he was doing since that part of his consciousness was on a whole ‘nother level.
I have trouble playing competitive multiplayer games because my competitive nature comes out, leaving me anxious and frustrated. This has a serious impact on my performance because I choke. Trash talking can incite the same sensation for people like me. I remember a time when I was playing competitive Halo 3 at a friend’s house against a particular dude just as competitive as I am and he was constantly kicking my ass, and not just that night but every “Halo night” get-together. On this particular “Halo night” I forced myself to relax and not take the game serious. Keep in mind, this is not something I can repeat consistently, hence why I seldom play competitive multiplayer. When I accomplished this state of don’t-give-a-fuck my performance increased. In fact, he was getting increasingly frustrated and in-turn progressively played worse. When engaged due to competitiveness or distracted by trash talking (emotions take over), the conscious experience remains tied to the philosophical zombie, and the zone is more difficult to achieve.
When I’m intoxicated I write better because my inner-editor isn’t such a dick, because it doesn’t give a shit if what I’m writing sucks or not. I don’t over-think, or choke, so much about what I’m writing. Jeff Green mentions NaNoWriMo, which offers a lesson on getting over the impact of performance anxiety. As Jeff expresses in the podcast, this is a liberating experience (one I’ve never had the pleasure of feeling, unfortunately). But, drinking helps. Just as it helps a social anxiety-ridden schmuck in approaching women or in feeling more comfortable at social events. When you don’t over-think what others might think or say about you, you perform your true act with amazing results (you can actually be yourself).
When listening to most music, my consciousness is engaged with whatever task is at hand whilst my philosophical zombie takes in the music. I don’t generally listen to music with lyrics, or if the music does have lyrics I don’t pay attention to what they are. My mind takes in the pitch and tone, the basics of the entire melody, the beat and its tempo and that’s about it. In fact, I find it difficult to enjoy lyrical music because it’s difficult to pay attention to lyrics. This is unique to me because of whatever attention deficit problem I have. Whatever music my philosophical zombie or subconscious or whatever-the-hell-it-is absorbs has a significant impact on how my the rest of my mind works, as I believe it’s directly tied into the emotional fixings of my brain. This I know isn’t unique to me.
So, when I listen to hip-hop and R&B or any other music hipsters and elitists might call mindless, for me it is mindless — but only because it’s absorbed by a portion of my consciousness which doesn’t use any analytical procedures against it, which ignores qualia.
That’s what GameSpy is suggesting with this awesome graphic:
Personally, I never played or cared for the series — skateboarding was never my thing. Still, I can appreciate the chart.
I suppose I could go into what makes Assassin’s Creed 2 a great game, but I’d just be parroting many other reviews out there, and in less than stellar copy. It’s not like anyone reads this blog anyway. I’m merely going to pour my thoughts on the game, as unorganized and bland as they are, without calling this a review.
Several times I’ve observed the phrase “proof of concept” passed around to describe Assassin’s Creed in comparison to its sequel. Why? Because Assassin’s Creed 2 has substance and depth compared to the first game. This sequel has taken what Assassin’s Creed promised and actually accomplished, improved it, then took what didn’t work and threw it out, leaving one hell of an amazing experience. All the content available to players, such as collectables and objects to purchase and unlock in Assassin’s Creed 2 makes Assassin’s Creed 1 seem, thusly, like a mere proof of concept.
In the first game, players took Altair from one assassination to another in a very rigidly structured narrative: complete a set number of side missions, unlock main assassination, complete, repeat about ten times. If you got bored with that, you could cleanse your palette by searching for four-hundred and twenty flags scattered around the beautifully rendered game world. Oh, but collecting these offered no reward aside from an achievement.
In Assassin’s Creed 2, there are all sorts of collectible items and all of them provide a tangible reward – in-game money, Florins, which allow Ezio to unlock new armor, weapons, and skills. These collectibles include treasure chests, some of which are sitting in guarded banks, which put Florins directly into Ezio’s posession; feathers, which are more akin to the flags from the first game, though there aren’t as many of them and they increase the value of the Auditore villa, increasing Ezio’s cash flow (I’ll get into all that in a moment); seals hidden in tombs belonging to some of history’s greatest assassins, and when collected in full unlock a certain item of ultimate bad-assitude. I mentioned weapons and armor, but also purchasable are famous paintings from the renaissance which are put on display in your villa as well as increasing its value.
About that. Early in the game, players unlock a villa (Auditore villa), founded by Ezio’s great-great-great Grandfather, that acts as a sort of home base for Ezio’s operations throughout Italy. With Florins, Ezio can renovate different parts of the villa, such as shops (which offer bonuses in the way of discounts on merchandise) and various other non-interactive buildings (thieves’ guild, courtesan’s “house,” a bank, the church, etc.) and as he does this the villa’s value increases in total, which has an effect on the amount of money it pulls in. That’s right, the villa produces money, but how much it can collect is limited by its value. At the start of the game, the chest which holds the Florins earned by the villa can only hold about fifteen-hundred, so Ezio has to return to the villa periodically to collect. As the game goes on, as weapons and armor gets more expensive and as the villa is improved, the villa chest can hold more Florins. All this equates to being a very effective carrot-on-stick experience, as if the story wasn’t interesting enough.
I mentioned the rigid structure of the narrative and game flow in Assassin’s Creed, and how Assassin’s Creed 2 resolves this, cutting down on repetition. Players can access assassinations of key characters, story missions they can be called, almost right away. It’s organic in flow. The side missions are not required. They are, just as they should be, optional. Rather than being forced upon the player, they can be pursued as a palette cleanser.
Though not side missions per se, there are also procedural encounters with courier or pickpockets than Ezio can chase down and tackle (killing is optional, and not entirely beneficial). This requires no interaction with another character or entering any sort of mission start asset. The courier works for the game’s antagonist, and if tackled nets Ezio a decent amount of Florins. If killed, Ezio’s notoriety is severely increased. If couriers see Ezio, they’ll run away in fear, screaming and yelling. The pickpockets will attempt to pick Ezio’s pocket if facing the away, and will run away if Ezio sees him. If successful in stealing from Ezio, the pickpocket must be chased down and tackled (killing doesn’t make a difference). Ezio gets his money back and then some.
The notoriety system is a new addition. Ezio starts off with neutral notoriety, being anonymous to guards as he moves through Italy. As he completes acts of infamy, such as killing guards or picking pockets, Ezio gains more notoriety until eventually he’s constantly suspicious to guards. Ezio can hide in crowds. This is called blending. To lower notoriety, Ezio can find and destroy posters, bribe heralds, or kill “officials” whom bear “false witness to your crimes.”
This “review” is getting long enough, so I’ll hold off on extra thoughts and opinions for another time. I’m still in my second play through of the game, putting more time into it than I have Left 4 Dead 2 and Modern Warfare 2 combined (I really haven’t played much Left 4 Dead 2, sadly), which I’m confident I’ll finish before the end of the year – it’ll be my first 100% completion of a game, achievements and otherwise. I have no problem declaring Assassin’s Creed my Game of the Year for 2009, and one of the best impulse purchases I’ve made since Batman: Arkham Asylum, which happens to be my runner-up for GOTY.
Rather than post every single song I hear on Digitally Imported’s Chillout Dreams channel, I’ll just link to the station.
Love writing to stuff like this. I can’t find a way to purchase a lot of this music, though some of it is had for free on artist websites.
Love eet!
Today I’m 26 years old, which is really old – it’s okay, I like growing old. Eventually I’ll be a part of the universe in a less conscious way, and that means peace! Anyway, here’s a list of things I intend to do on the a day I celebrate my birth almost three decades ago:
(no particular order)
- Masturbate 26 times – you can tell how this list is going already, can’t you?
- Foil a terrorist plot at the local Walmart without the help of that over rated scoundrel, Keifer Sutherland. What kind of a name is Keifer anyway? Sounds Nat-zi to me.
- Prank call the White House, tell them I don’t believe Obama was born in the U.S., call shenanigans on their health insurance nonsense, and proclaim my dislike of Obama being a Muslim terrorist out to destroy this wonderful Christian nation.
- Watch the Patriots get murdered by the undefeated Saints.
- Get wasted (or just have a few drinks and call it a night).
- Masturbate some more.
- Watch this video again.
- Kick a cat. Not either of mine, though.
- Pray to space daddy that the LHC destroys the planet on my Birthday, of all days.
- Play Modern Warfare 2 for about two minutes before rage quitting, maybe crying. No guarantees of that.
- Kick a Republican.
- Kick a Democrat.
- Then kick a Republican again because I hate them more.
- Steal my dad’s tub of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
- Eat Subway for dinner. Spit out passengers.
- Post on my blog, hope I don’t mistakenly link a porn video instead of something else cool.
- Shit out more Turkey and potatoes from Thursday.
I’m unemployed. Have been for a while. It sucks, but it has its bonuses. Extra free time, for one. I’m fortunate for having support from family during such a shitty situation, so the free time is used to great benefit for my sanity, which is keeping my mind occupied and away from the depressingly hopeless job search. I don’t go stir crazy like other people do, at least not as often. So, spending almost all my time at home, to my self, reading – which is what I do with 90% of my free time – doesn’t drive me crazy.
I’m kicking myself for not utilizing all this free time more efficiently, though. I could be using all this time to write a book, or writing more on this blog, or doing something else creative. Why? Because I’d much rather write for a living, even if it’s not much of a living, than work a bullshit retail or other mindless service job.
For the longest time I’ve not known what I wanted to do “when I grow up.” First I thought I wanted to work on computers because I enjoyed it as a hobby growing up, putting together and maintaining my gaming rig. Programming really burned me out. Turns out I’m terrible with numbers and logic problems. In fact, academia in general isn’t compatible with my personality, just like working retail or other shitty service jobs aren’t. I know, I know, everybody has to do something they don’t want to do. But it’s much more than that for me. I would get severely depressed whenever I worked those shitty jobs.
Then I thought being a chef would be right up my alley – because, hey, I like food. Nope. Wrong on that one too. In fact, working in food service sucks too. Then, well, I kinda gave up. Worked fast food. Worked retail – and I hate retail. I can’t sell anything. I hate selling things. I HATE SALES. And I hate working with the public, at least in that setting as the servant to customers, because the customer is supposed to be always right when, in fact, no they fucking are not.
No matter what I was doing, writing and video games (or writing about video games) were always my outlets. I love video games, but I damn sure don’t want to work a video game retail chain. I love writing, but…okay, so I wouldn’t mind any job so long as I’m getting paid to write, but I’d rather write entertainment, or about entertainment, than producing sterile technical data for some bullshit corporation I don’t give a fuck about.
Also, I don’t like the idea of being a near mindless, obedient, ass-kissing douche bag. I hate being censored. Working for myself allows me freedom my spirit requires in order to be happy, and a significant philosophical requirement in my life is the pursuit of happiness. If I can’t live happy, then I shall not live at all. Yes, I’m borderline hedonist. Being freelance, or making a living by producing content for other people and having my own production company, or something along the lines of me working for myself — that in general, in fact — is what I need to be happy, what I need to be successful. To be human.
For now, I’ll take any employment I can find (that will have me, which is apparently nothing), but my heart, my dream will be about writing and video games. It’s what makes me happy. At least, until I figure out if I can actually act. Because, secretly, acting is something I would love to do for a living – I’ve just never done it before.
