Video Game Myths

Not too long ago, Henry Jenkins - the director of comparative studies at MIT - wrote an article debunking eight of the major myths about video games. If you'd like to read the entire article, you can find it here. But there are a couple that I'd like to mention, mostly because certain politicians have been using video games as a way to pander to their constituents lately (*cough* Hilary Clinton *cough*), and have been playing on parents' fears without any real science or research to back up the claims they are making.

Claim #1 - Video games has led to an epidemic of youth violence.
What the federal crime statistics actually show is we are in the middle of a 30-year low in the rate of violent juvenile crime. The overwhelming majority of kids play video games - 90% of boys and 40% of girls. Why aren't all of these kids comitting crimes? According to the Surgeon General (in a 2001 report), the strongest factors in violent juvenile crimes were mental stability and quality of home life. Which makes sense, when you think about it.

Claim #2 - Video games are not a meaningful form of expression.
Are they serious? Anyone who has ever actually played a video game (especially an RPG), will agree that video games can be an extremely powerful form of expression. Because the player participates directly in the story, sometimes a good video game can even be more powerful than a book or a movie, where the viewer (or reader) is just a passive bystander. Video games have made me personally feel every emotion in the sprectrum, at one point or another. Comments like this one are just plain ignorant. Will Wright, the creator of the incredibly popular game "The Sims" said in an interview that "games are perhaps the only medium that allows us to experience guilt over the actions of fictional characters. In a movie, one can always pull back and condemn the character or the artist when they cross certain social boundaries. But in playing a game, we choose what happens to the characters." At different points in our history, this same complaint (of something not being a "meaningful form of expression") has been leveled at jazz, rock and roll, and comic books - all three of which are now widely excepted as art forms in their own right.

Anybody else have any opinions or comments they'd like to add?

42 Words of Wisdom: #01

"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."

- Douglas Adams

Today, is the first of a planned series of 42 Douglas Adams quotations I plan to post. For those who don't understand the significance of the number 42, read "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" - I promise you won't regret it. Doug Adams was a fount of wit, and is sorely missed.

Today's quote especially applies to the realm of software. I can't even begin to count the number of times I thought I had designed a piece of software to be completely bulletproof, only to have someone unfamiliar with it do something completely unexpected and core dump it within seconds. Anticipating what a user will do is often more art than science, and it's a skill I seem to be developing as of late. Does that imply something about the folks I work with? Heh!

Paper Sculptures

I came across something cool on flickr this past week. Richard Sweeney creates geometric sculptures out of paper, by scoring and folding. They are pretty amazing, and some of them have a bit of an M.C. Escher feel to them. Check them out.

Coverville – Did You Know?

There's a podcast I listen to called Coverville. The host of the show, Brian Ibbot, plays only cover songs - and usually some very interesting or obscure ones at that. Sometimes Brian does a theme show he calls "Originalville", where he plays the original versions of songs that were made much more famous by someone else as a cover. In those cases, most people don't even realize that the version they know is actually a cover of an earlier, less popular artist. The March 31st show was especially cool. Did you know that "Honky Tonk Woman" was not originally performed by the Rolling Stones? Or that "Oops, I Did it Again" was actually originally a 30's jazz song? Check out the March 31st episode of Coverville, and hear the originals!

Greatest Easter Eggs In Gaming

For those who don't play video games - or have never played a game enough to find one - "easter eggs" are the little secrets hidden in a game for persistent users to find. Gamespot recently posted an article entitled "The Greatest Easter Eggs In Gaming", and it was fun to reminisce over some of them. The cow level in Diablo II has got to be one of my all time favorites. Diablo II was a action RPG about fighting demons will huge swords and the like. So having a hidden level that was full of evil cows that continually bleated "Moo" while they attacked you was just hilarious. Finding Reptile in Mortal Kombat was also another of those awesome easter egg moments. Does anybody else remember any great gaming easter eggs?

Scenes from Space #30

This picture was taken by the fisheye lens camera on the Huygens probe as in descended to the surface of Titan - Saturn's largest moon. Titan is wreathed by a thick layer of clouds, and its suface cannot be seen from the Earth. This probe was released from the Cassini orbiter on a close approach of Titan, and parachuted down through Titan's atmosphere to land on the surface. Even cooler, if you check on NASA's website you can find a time-lapse video of the descent to the surface, as seen by this fisheye lens. Very cool.

Seventh Son

I've been listening to an interesting podcast recently - it's called "Seventh Son", and is acutally more of an ameteur audiobook. It's pretty entertaining so far - especially for something that was free. :)

Here's the premise, direct from the author's website:

7th Son, Book One: Descent is the story of seven strangers who have been brought together after the recent assassination of the U.S. president. These seven men quickly discover they have one disturbing thing in common: They all appear to be the same man, with the same name ... and the same childhood memories.

Unwitting participants in a human cloning experiment, these "John Michael Smiths" have been gathered by their creators for one reason -- to catch the man who murdered the president.

Their target? The man they were cloned from; the original John Michael Smith, code-named John Alpha.

The author has recorded and posted 13 episodes so far (of a planned 24), and if you've got the time and dig sci-fi, check it out!

Splish Splash!

When Mommy's away, the boys will play! Lori and her brother James went to a movie and lunch today. That was Lori's Mother's Day present - a "Mom's Day Out". While she was gone, Sean and I went to the store to pick a few things and couldn't resist this kiddie pool for the backyard. Sean was lovin' it! At first, he just gave me a confused look, like "Dad, we're supposed to take baths IN the house". But once he got used to the idea, he started having a ball.

When I eventually took him out (after at least an hour), I wrapped him up in a towel and we sat on a chair near the pool. He cuddled into me and said "da da da" over and over again in a very content, very happy little voice. And every now and then he would lift up his upper body and clap softly while looking right in my eyes. I really think he was trying to find a way to say "thank you". It was great. Sean and I have really been connecting lately, especially in these last few months. I feel like a have a new little best friend.


Scenes from Space #29

Skylab was the first space station put into orbit by the United States. The station weighed 75 metric tons, and was in orbit from 1973 until 1979. Unfortunately, the station was only manned for 171 days out of its 2249 days in orbit. One interesting this about Skylab is that it was actually the refitted second stage of a Saturn IB booster rocket, leftover from the Apollo program.

Making Mud Pies

Sean hasn't played outside much lately - it's been raining a lot, and the back yard is a mess. The other day we decided to throw caution to the wind (what rebels!) and let him play outside anyway. He spent his afternoon sitting in the mud, and squishing it through his fingers. This probably went on for almost half an hour, and we finally had to nearly drag him away. He stayed surprisingly clean - the damage was more or less isolated to his fingers, and not so much his clothes.