The other day, Chris wanted to play some video games. We played a little bit of Super Mario Bros. on the Wii, and then I struggled to connect to the Wii Shopping Channel to get other games. Later that night, I finally did get on the Shopping Channel, and I downloaded SimCity, Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3, Metroid and Excitebike. The Wii Virtual Console is great for reliving memories of 8-bit games past. The retro love doesn’t stop there. Cal State’s marching band performed a halftime show celebrating classic video games. You can watch a video of the performance at Gizmodo.
Archive for the 'Video Games' Category
I can’t wait to get my hands (and feet) on a Wii Fit :-> This video shows you just how great it will be:
One of YouTube’s popular videos right now is Hitler’s Ultimate Downfall. I won’t tell you much about it, because I didn’t know what it was going to be when I started the video. It’s pretty funny. It’s got some explicit language, but it will be appreciated by the gamers.
In Florida, a teenager drove a Mitsubishi Lancer through a shopping mall entrance, and then just missed the escalater as he dropped the car off of the second floor twenty-five feet onto the first floor. And it was all caught on video by the security cameras:
That makes me think of how difficult it would be to drive through Woodfield.
So, I went to Best Buy yesterday and burned some gift cards on Super Paper Mario. Here’s the worst of it: I haven’t even popped it into the Wii because I was too busy working on a project, then I got too busy trying to catch up on Lost.
Perhaps I’ll be able to play at some point this week. Perhaps.
OMG! I have been trying to get past the third challenge on the stupid free Java golf game on my RAZR since we purchased our phones in November. The third challenge is to use a punch shot to get out of a bunker and onto a green. I had tried every combination of clubs and swings, and despite all of them getting on the green, I always failed the challenge.
I finally came up with just the right keywords for Google to get me a page that tells me how to do it: java golf challenge three punch shot. The first hit tells me to press ‘0′ to select between a punch shot, a chip shot and a normal shot. The punch and chip shots are indicated by a ‘P’ and ‘C’ on the left side of the screen. Nowhere in the help or anything does it tell me to press ‘0′ to achieve this goal. How am I supposed to figure out that ‘0′ does anything?
However I was supposed to figure it out, I am glad that NutPeanut posted the tip way back in 2005 for me to find in 2007. Now, I can finally take my tired self up to bed.
Dr. Thiele comments on an Ars article regarding the gaming and violence connection. He sees the Ars article as the first of many articles fighting back against the "violent" label attached to video games.
Another thing to consider is that rarely have I found that those that label games as "violent" have actually spent any time playing those games. Rather, they see an ad for the game or hear about it loosely from someone else, and then they make their proclamation without any first-hand knowledge. They sensationalize their cause without any proof to support it.
It is very similar to those who call for the banning of books. For example, District 214 board member Leslie Pinney requested to have several books banned despite admitting to having not read them in their entirety. Thankfully, Board President William Dussling and the remainder of the board voted against the ban. Similarly, it is going to require individuals knowledgeable about video games to stand up against those who wish to blindly blame video games for the violence in today’s world.
Personally, as I have grown older, I have observed that society is no different today than it was fifty years ago, or even 2,000 years ago. Violence existed then, just as it does now. However, we are more exposed to violence now just because of the availability of news reports that both sensationalize violence and desensitize us to it.
While easy, it is inappropriate to blame just video games or movies or other pop culture for producing more violent youth. Some of the responsibility must be shared by the parents. Youth exposure to violence is inevitable, but it can be moderated. If you don’t want your kids playing violent video games, don’t buy them. If you are concerned about your kids playing violent video outside of the house, talk to them. So much energy is could be saved just by talking to your kids. We don’t need censorship. We don’t need legislation. We don’t need a small group of individuals with their own hidden agenda trying to spread FUD about video games, movies, music, etc. We just need to communicate.
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