Someone Feel My Forehead

I just told my wife that "we don't need to spend our tax refund on a PS3."

Next thing you know I'll hate chocolate, beer, motorcycles and computers. OH MY GOD COMPUTERS!!!

Intrinsic Values: This Gaming Life

As I listened to a Bungie podcast whilst soaking in the tub (yes, I take proper baths), I really started to think about the gaming world that gamers live in and how it compares to other hobbies that people have. There are certainly more people that just play games and maybe pick up magazines to read about what's coming out, but the world is so much deeper than that and I suspect that there are not many others like it. The following is my grasp on this world and what I believe to be the state of our union.

The industry is comprised of many things: developers, publishers, the console makers, and the media. It's like the music industry with less glamor and more nerds. But gaming came from the computer/software world where there are huge press conferences spanning days where the media looks at the year to come as showcased by the game makers and console manufacturers. Developers get together and theorize and hypothesize about gaming technology and human interaction at developer conventions. There are small groups that fit in garages that make games many never see (and really should) as well as big companies that make games that everyone sees (and probably shouldn't).

The big dogs in the developer world are the publishers. EA is probably the biggest today. They are the Microsoft of the game software world. Like recording houses in the music industry, publishers gobble up developers (the musicians) and offer them the ability to publish their games (the albums). The developers, in turn, get better advertising, better quality control (supposedly), and better paychecks and budgets. But they also might get 18-hour work days coding and the possibility of their games being manhandled by suit-types who just want higher profits. Recently, the gaming monopolies are under fire by everyone from journalists to developers themselves. But gaming as a business is alive and monstrous. Big budget movies and fast food chains get video games for marketing. The Army develops for training and recruiting. And games are blamed for school shootings and dysfunctional families.

Then there is the media. Journalists that couldn't get enough of games and had a knack for writing made it in print and on the web. Gamers have their favorite magazines, blogs and even writers. We trust them too much to decide what games are going to be good and where we should spend our hard earned cash. Recently, stories about bad games have gotten people fired because those publications also solicit advertising from those developers and publishers. As critics, some follow them blindly and others barely glance (but glance at least) at their written drivel. But their insight into the gaming world is intriguing and captivating at times. Today developers now keep blogs and community sites. They produce and record rss-feed audio and video podcasts with themes and programmed content.

The console makers are in a battle to differentiate themselves. Never before have a group of companies been so closely matched to win the "console war". Historically the market was dominated by just one console until Sony's Playstation 2 met competition from Microsoft's Xbox and Xbox 360 and Nintedo's Wii. Nintendo took the first step with the Wii to peel away a huge layer of gaming market for themselves with their radically designed console, leaving Microsoft and Sony to spar over the traditional gamer market. With console makers, the battle for sales dollars lies solely with the developers to make games that push the hardware. Games drive the market. That's why even the console makers develop and publish games, hoping to carve their market niche with custom content.

And lastly, the public. We have die-hard fans of practically everything: games, developers, consoles, etc. You can probably search for anything game related and find a Google Group for it. While you mom is at home with her Wii bowling the night away, a 20-year-old is dressed up as her favorite Dead or Alive fighting character posing for cameras at video game music concert. Gaming is becoming as popular (or moreso) than going to the movies. As the diversity in the community increases, video games now have a presence in politics and culture.

After seeing what the whole big picture is, it's hard to see any comparison in another market. Music and movies are all very one-sided, one trick ponies. Complex, but only on one dimension. Video games have become not only a pastime, but a way to communicate with other people and the outside world. They act as not only an art form, but as a cultural mirror to reflect on humanity and our state of awareness. If you ever thought video games were a waste of time, there is a whole world to discover and learn about. And most likely you'll learn a lot more than you bargained for.

At first, this post wasn't going to be an "Intrinsic Values" post, but I realized that there is value inherent in being immersed in a subject that offers so much to learn from. I just hope writing it conveys that mindset that I feel I've gained from it.

Surving on the Past

Having quite an extensive array of systems and games in my game room, I knew losing my Xbox 360 (for a third time) to hardware failures wouldn't be hard to get by. I've got a nice backlog of games to button up on my other systems and there's always the nice nostalgic stroll down memory lane with the real old stuff (the games the don't have endings). My friend came down to work on my lighting and electrical work in the basement and after a hard day in the dark and a nice dinner at the Wood Fired Oven, we came back to the house to take such a stroll.

So many memories of our pre-driver's license days were tied to video games. Playing games like RC Pro-Am and Ivan Stewart's Off Road immediately had us sitting in front of our family room tvs ignoring parents and homework. Moving to James Bond: GoldenEye and Perfect Dark on the N64 transported us together with friends in dirty high school bedroom eating pizza and drinking soda and sucker punching each other in the arms for cheap shots and dirty tricks.

I think as well as most people can attribute songs to be the soundtracks of their lives, video games are the like that too. But video games offer nostalgia on so many levels: the music, the palette of sounds, the evolving gameplay, the cheap stories, the friends we played them with. The walk down memory lane easily becomes the dive into the deep pool of our pasts. Video games will always be the preferred form of entertainment for me and my friends. Luckily technology has been able to keep us all connected even though we live much farther away from each other than before.

So, Microsoft, there's no real hurry to get my Xbox fixed and back to me. I have a huge library of memories that I really don't mind flipping through and relaxing with. Old games can be really fun because they come with so much more than just jagged graphics and 8-bit music, they come with years of memories and loads of good times.

Gaming Wife

Nicole will play games with me. Fun games. Games that both of us can play at the same time. It was part of the wedding vows.

We first played LEGO Star Wars. It was two player co-op and ultimately a test of the strength of our relationship. Two people controlling characters on the same game screen and sharing mutual game goals and game lives. Trying not to yell at each other was half the fun.

She has the genres of games that she likes. I have mine. Occasionally they converge and we experience a co-existence in the living room. I'm not saying we spend a lot of time apart, but my hobby is one that tends to lean toward a solitude that even some life-long sailors would respect. The language alone would make them blush.

Tonight Nicole has gotten bit by my latest gaming bug that involves an Xbox Live Achievement and me driving all 1000 miles of road of a polygonal representation of the island of Oahu to get it. It's something I've been working on for almost a year off and on and I'm finally at 98%. Keep in mind that driving games are not one of those genres we share in common, so when I threw her the controller and she picked it up with moderate interest, I was surprised.

But her ability to become obsessed with trivial things is something that brought us together. She can dive deeper into a subject than I can most times. I imagine that's what makes her a good editor.

But tonight, we won't sleep until all the roads have been covered. Something I like to think bleeds into our real life in some form or another.

I think she just cussed at the police car.