I Just Don't Get It

I'm fairly stuck playing Modern Warfare 2 online. I feel like I can hold my own most of the time. Yea for me. Generally I find the folks online fairly quiet, occasionally helpful, but sometimes offensive, and this I don't get.


It isn't terribly unusual for some thug to badmouth other players, and sadly it's often racial epithets.


I can certainly understand trying to gain "hand" by smack talking an opponent. There are a few guys who just keep up a constant mumble of bizarre word salad that creeps me out. But when some yahoo starts in on someone's suspected racial origins, maybe it's time to leave the room, pack it up, watch something harmless on TV, and try to forget the foolish idiocy that permeates even the most pointless of pasttimes: the video game.


Can't we all just shoot zombies together, or wage a war, or banish a wizard? Why in the anonymous world of onlinearity do we have to recognize or ignorance and foulness?

Infographics!

Another cool visualization of gaming info. I think what surprises me is:
1) how many folks there are over 50 gaming
2) how long we've been doing so
3) how much the Wii dominates


The other thing I don't get is the difference between console and PC gaming. For me it was a real financial issue - the cost of keeping the PC hardware up to snuff was just sort of silly after a while, whereas the designers will accommodate the consoles for far longer. Oh well.





Source: Online Education

I Am in the Wrong Business

Cool chart from Business Management:

Here's the Original Article

What? I Can't Hear You!

My consoles are in the basement, in sort of a low-tech mancave, and it would take a bit of volume to bother anyone else in the house. Since I am Aged, and there are others in the home, often I can't really use my surround sound system to full effect. In my mind at least,  it makes a difference if, in the midst of a game,  I think I can hear someone sneaking up behind me. 

I liked the spacial awareness I got from my very first surround sound headphones. Though they didn't have a microphone, I wasn't playing online at that point.

But then two things happened: I got a new LCD TV without a headphone jack, and I started playing XBox Online. Now here's where the Aged Gamer get old-sounding. Using the stock XBox Live headphones, I couldn't really hear what anyone was saying. Now, it turns out that a lot of y'all either mumble, scream, or both into the boom mike, and no amount of audio fidelity is really going to help that much, but I didn't know that yet.

So on a whim, I tried these:

I know, the thought of a 50 year-old man wearing these either makes you groan or giggle. But there turned out to be a couple of fatal (for me) flaws. The rigging of these things to the Xbox was a pain, using a patch cord that required that I dig up the adapter that allows an analog audio output from the XBox (I use HDMI to connect). That was just irritating. More confounding was the absence of a volume control on the unit. Well that just didn't make any sense. So I got rid of those and got these after considerably more research:

Turtle Beach makes a well-reviewed X41 which has Dolby 7.1 Surround. Boy that sounds really neat. It also sounds like about $180 on Amazon, a bit too rich for my wallet and my needs. The X31 (around $80) also has a wireless transmitter which connects to the audio-out of the XBox via a piggyback adapter, which just seems cleaner than the wired Skullcandy phones. The transmitter box is powered by one of the USB ports on the XBox. The headphones fit me well, are comfortable, and sound seems pretty decent. There is a button for special effects such as increased bass and spacial separation, but I like my sound flat.

It's hard to tell if the boom mike is helping much. No one ever answers me, even if I think I have something to say. But at least the little soundy icons on the XBox screen move when I speak.

I haven't appreciated much the purported benefit of headphones in online playing. I don't know if there is not enough spacial separation in the online signal, or whether these headphones don't convey stereo separation well. But they do seem to facilitate communications online, and they do seem to allow me to crank the volume a bit, which I'm sure my family appreciates.

For now, I'm happy with my purchase. I believe there were a few new gaming headphones to come out of CES this year like these:

http://www.psykoaudio.com/

but for now, I'm content to hear what I've been missing. Perhaps as we gamers age, there will be nifty XBox branded Dolby stereo hearing aids.

Fun. Fun. Fun.

This time,  I really was about to sell my PSP. After I ran through Tekken 5, I just couldn't find anything else that made me happy. I think the PSP is an atrocious convergence device - the wireless is "b," and though the screen is fine video conversion is annoying. Anyone wanting more of an iTunes experience with their PSP should look at Doubletwist (doubletwist.com) which does allow a sort of (slow) syncing between your media library and the PSP. Even so, I have an iPod Touch which does all that stuff better, and fits nicely in my pocket.

But then Tekken 6 for PSP came out. I was curious to see if it held a candle to Tekken 5, which in my mind was worth the price of the PSP. But $40 for a PSP title?

I'm not a huge fighter game guy. I get the combo thing, loved the entire Ninja Gaiden series, but I never had played the Mortal Combat/Street Fighter ilk. I got Tekken 5 based on ratings, and enjoyed it enormously. Truth is, it is more fun on the PSP than it is on the PS3. The PSP is the perfect console for Tekken, since you really only need the D-pad and face buttons to play. It was painful trying to micro-move on Resistance:Retribution for PSP, and while I appreciated the effort the developer put in to accommodating the restraints of the hardware, it just wasn't any fun for me. In my opinion the PS3 version of Tekken 5, while fun, was not as well situated as the PSP version for the game. Some moves benefit from the extreme closeness of the PSP's buttons. It's just easier on the PSP.

I don't know why this isn't a more lauded release - I suppose I don't see Sony doing much to hype anything for the PSP

Tekken 6 has put off for the time being, any thoughts of selliing the PSP. This game is a work of handheld art. Visually, it is stunningly rendered, taking full advantage of the 4.3" screen without overwhelming these aged eyes or crowding the screen. The animation is stellar, almost as good as the cutscenes themselves. The gameplay appears to have been improved considerably. It seems to me that chaining together moves that result in "juggling" is easier and the flow between moves seems more fluid. There seem to be considerably more moves to choose from, which should please the compulsive among us. And I can't get over some of the new characters. I've started with "Bob" who uses his weight to his advantage (and yes, I have heard that Bob is a resurrected character from an earlier Tekken. Whatever).

There are some changes to the layout of the gameplay. Gone is the Dojo mode, which was my preferred way of playing Tekken 5. Looking on the boards, there seem to be some that really miss this ranking area. Instead, you can still play the arcade, ghost, and challenge modes, but I don't appreciate the same sense of ascension that I did iwth the Dojo. Ghost mode seems the most entertaining, offering a constant variety of modded characters that will keep one interested.

For me, the PSP is the best of the portable gaming devices, and though I could have used the extra money from selling mine, I'm awfully glad for the reprieve offered by Tekken 6.

Why I Can't Get Rid of Sony

I keep trying,honest I do. Over the years I have had very little practical use for Sony products. They often seem a runner up in utility to something else. The music players aren't quite up to the iPod's ease. The PS2 wan't as moddable as the original XBox was. And the PS3's distinguishing feature seems its ability to lord Blu-ray over the failed HD-DVD. I wanted to believe that I would watch Blu-ray movies all the time, but the reality is that I seem to download/stream most of my videos, and have watched a grand total of...one Blu-ray.

But even as I consider selling my dust-gathering Sony products, despite the dearth of PS3-only titles, and the notable limits of the PSP as a convergence device (I'm talking to you pathetic browser and "b" connectivity) I keep getting reeled in at the last minute. Tekken 5 kept me glued to the PSP until I had mastered at least  4 characters. Now Tekken 6 (Bob is completely awesome) halts my Amazon marketplace promotion of the "PSP +case+ UMDs for $100 thank you." Just as my finger was poised to shuffle off this mortal coil the PS3…God of War III comes into view, staying yet again the execution of the PS3 sale to yonder 12 year-old who didn't get a Slim for his Christmas present. 

I should just be happy that these devices are here, sharing a warm home and electricity with the other members of our home. The XBox doesn't mind. The iPod doesn't. They're too busy actually being used.

Fatigue and the Aged Gamer

I gotta admit it. I am just dog tired. At the same time, I am practically bathing in the glory that is Modern Warfare 2. As my prowess (rank and experience, not to mention weapons and perks) improves, I itch to get back into the fray. I think I get it enough to venture into some other game modes. Did I mention that I sent back the headphones? The lack of volume control was ultimately incompatible with my ranking of…Sergeant.

The sad thing is, with the long days of Christmas Break, entertaining children and extended family, avoiding strife and dysfunction, I am just completely beat. And as any Aging Gamer knows, it's pretty much 9PM before you can even think of heading to the Man-Cave for fragaction. And don't forget that you must, on occasion, submit to quality time with one's spouse.

The adult in me also realizes that there are other things to do than play video games: reading, educational thingies (depending on your occupation), getting through Season 5 of Six Feet Under. This is a complicated life. And at the end of the day, there is often little else to give to the Console Gods. The French playwright Antonin Artaud said, "Don't tire yourself more than need be, even at the price of founding a culture on the fatigue of your bones.” Yeah, well I'm hardly founding a culture. I'm just trying to hold a house together, cook a meal, tuck in somebody, and find a little game time.