Night Owls

Some of you who read the newspaper article that had me on the cover of InTech would know that I work at UF. Late night software deployment and maintenance are part and parcel of my job since the project that I'm working on belongs to a local client.

Thanks to the Internet, deployment and maintenance work can take place from home and it does make the job a little bit easier. However, there are instances where work can drag on till 6 in the morning. So how do I keep awake while waiting for others to complete their tasks?

Caffeine is an option, but I tend not to drink coffee late at night. Video games are more viable as they keep me engaged, but there are some caveats. Games such as Digidrive cannot be played on easy mode since the slow gameplay (at that level) and the hypnotic movement of the pieces would put you to sleep.

Burnout or Mercenaries for the PS2 are better suited for keeping me awake since they are both noisy, fast, and action packed.

Reading is okay but the material should be engaging like the book I'm reading now, Freakanomics.

So, what do you do to keep awake at night?

As a Video Games Blogger, what's in your bookshelf?

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I just got around finishing The Hobbit. Very good read indeed despite the book being meant for a younger audience than that of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.


On the subject of books, what do video game bloggers read? In terms of non-fiction material regarding video games, my bookshelf has the quintessential John Carmack/John Romero biography and therefore id Software's, the aptly titled Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created An Empire and Transformed Pop Culture (David Kushner, 2004, available at Amazon UK and Amazon US)


The book has company in the form of GAMEplan's The Encyclopedia of Consoles, Handhelds & Home Computers 1972-2005 (Winnie Forster, 2005, available at Amazon UK and Play-Asia (cheaper)). This console bible (as I would call it) contains a lot of stuff, particularly on retro video game consoles and their games.


Magazines wise, I used to read quite a bit of PC Gamer, before I grew bored of it. Now the shelf is populated with issues of EDGE. The highlight here is the EDGE Presents the Art of Video Games. An extra thick issue with lots of artwork from video game artists.

In terms of fiction, I've not gone about buying and reading all those Diablo, Starcraft or even Warhammer 40K books, but I do have quite a bit of science fiction books. There's almost the entire Dune series sitting on my bookshelf along with a bunch of Star Wars and Halo books. And that's pretty much it.

So what about you guys? What do you read?

Nintendo DS Games for Kids

So how did the following games fare in the hands of a 10 year old, who has not seen a DS prior to yesterday and has never played anything on a GameBoy before? Don't worry about the Nintendo DS, the kid was well-mannered and treated it with respect.

1. New Super Mario Bros.
2. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
3. Mario Kart DS

New Super Mario Bros.

This game earned the title of of "game lompat-lompat" from the kid after I demo-ed that bouncing stage to him.

This was obviously the easiest game for him to master, nothing more then moving left and right (and the occasional going up and down), jumping and ducking. He found out all by himself how to move about worlds and enter levels.

Time spent on it: A very very long time (think hours, good thing the DS was fully charged). It was very engrossing.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

I initially hesitated to let him play this game, it's pretty freaky even for my standards, but maybe to him it's just a game whereby the hero chops up monsters.

The flat graphics made it abit difficult for him to know whether there is a path where he can proceed to the next screen. However, the recurring monsters made for an interesting challenge for him. He got the concept of using different weapons in the game and even using the touch screen to start a new game!

Time spent on it: This game takes 2nd place, and its pretty funny to hear him make his own sound effects when chopping up zombies and what not.

Mario Kart DS

When compared to other racing games, Mario Kart DS is pretty easy to pick-up, once you discard the notion of explaining a. power-ups and b. drifting, cause it's too much of a hassle for absolute beginners.

The boy did get a hang of racing and using power-ups, but I guess driving around doesn't make for much fun.

This was the only game he spent less than 10 minutes on. Soon he was asking me.."Bang, ada game lain tak?"

Nintendo should be applauded to bringing games to the casual crowd and those who don't tend to play games. But the target audience tend to be adults and are well-versed in English. So what about kids? The language barrier is a downer and the lack of experience with a touch screen interface hampers understanding as well. Putting myself in my young friend's position, even Touch Generation's Club House Games would suck.

But if you are looking for a game for your 10-year old (or any other kid in general), New Super Mario Bros. is highly recommended. But do remember that video games are not a permanent substitute to a parent, so don't forget to participate during play-time with your kids.

Video Games in Mainstream News

How often do you see news articles regarding the video games industry in mainstream news? Most of the time, you'll see them when:

a. There's a new video game console launch, heralding the next generation in graphics, gameplay, bla bla bla
b. The fiscal year just ended and video game companies would like to show off their earnings (or be a little discreet about their losses, less someone else reports on them)
c. Another massacre just happened like the one in Columbine and there's no better excuse than to blame the video game industry.

So what recent mainstream news article caught your eye lately (in relation to the video games industry)? There's only one that I can think of:

• Games 'make drivers go faster' (BBC News)(Original article: here)
  

Fancy Hot Coffee on Your Lap?

Video game violence and U.S politicians have been pretty cosy bedfellows for quite sometime. It is not uncommon to hear politicians condemn video game violence (and sex); they have been doing this since the 90s when the first wave of violent-themed games arrived, led by id Software's Wolfenstein 3D and Doom.

The backlash from the politicians was even stronger in the days after the Columbine massacre and things came to a boil when Rockstar Games shot themselves in the foot with the Hot Coffee scandal.

Just yesterday, the Pope decided to lend his weight into this issue of video game violence, stating that "Any trend to produce programs and products -- including animated films and video games -- which in the name of entertainment exalt violence and portray anti-social behavior or the trivialization of human sexuality is a perversion" and that it is repulsive when these "programs" are directed at children.

I tend to agree with his statement and despite having made a mockery of ERSB ratings quite some time ago, I believe that the ratings when combined with parental supervision (and awareness when purchasing games) would actually make a difference on how children are exposed to video games in the area highlighted by the pontiff.

However, video gaming is largely perceived as a community and children, easily impressionable, would like to do things adults do (or play) and thus would naturally want in. Hop in to any cybercafe and you'll see my point; primary school children who are as good or even better in Counterstrike then you and me both and probably are engaging in far worse smack-talk then we had in our day.

The day would come when video game violence will lead to something that would eclipse every single scandal/controversy. Detractors may say that video games are after all video games, but doesn't that also nullify the good points of games (better hand-eye coordination, problem solving)? I would not be suprised at all.

Edit: I found the transcript of the Pope's message yesterday at work (break time surfing) but I couldn't find it last night when I was updating this blog at home. So here you go (link).