W W W W WoW!

I play WoW, that’s right, World of Warcraft. Oddly enough it has become one form of bonding time my girlfriend and I use. We both spend a couple hours each night playing together questing and killing. I’ve mentioned the game in a few posts and replies to comments I get on this site. My recent conversation with someone new to the game sparked me to write about the game in more detail on here. I am by no means an expert on the game and I am sure I still do stuff wrong all the time. I don’t go into all the deep lore and I don’t know all the acronyms for places or all the crazy ins and outs of the game.

I currently have two main characters I use. “But Jason, you can only have one main and the other is an Alt.” Let me explain. I have a lvl 42 horde character that I played with my girlfriend starting at the end of 2007. At the end of January I began to play an Alliance character on a server my friend from Tae Kwon Do is on. I say this to make a point. Get on a server someone who know is on with a high level character. This makes getting into the social aspect of the game so much easier. Knowing people ahead of time in a new place just makes life easier. You’ll get some quests in instances pretty early in the game, before lvl 15 most likely. Knowing people will help you form a group faster or help you find a lvl 70 that can drag you through the instance to collect XP and awesome item drops.

Before making a character, make sure you know which type of server you are getting into: PVP, PVE, or RP. On a PVP server, a player of the opposing side can walk up and gank you or kill you. You’ll then have to find your corpse and continue and this can happen at anytime. In PVE,  The game is insanely huge and you can virtually explore and entire continent without ever seeing a load screen. If you want to really see the beauty of the game, I suggest playing an alliance character. Their areas are really lush and gorgeous; very welcoming. A main horde area is The Barrens which as you can imagine is pretty barren. But it’s really up to you.

Play the game, make friends, and just be in awe at the sheer size of the game. And if you have an older computer (about 3-4 years old) you can play the game. Check it out. You’d think I’m the last one to the game with such a primitive post on a game with 10+million subscribers. Just trying to get people playing. Available for PC and Mac.

Windows Vista: A Quick Review

The System

Processor	2xIntel Xeon 5150 Dual Core 2.66GHz (4CPUs)
RAM	3GB DDR PC5300 667MHz
Video	ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB Ram
Hard Drive	Maxtor 140GB Partition

For anyone not keeping up, this is actually an Apple computer which I used bootcamp to install Windows Vista. I did a clean install of Windows Vista Business edition. Keep in mind bootcamp is NOT emulation software. It turns the computer into a full-fledged Windows machine. The two operating systems never interact. Vista Business edition is missing features mostly related to entertainment. Heaven forbid if I can’t make high def movies in Vista. I do, after all, have OSX running on the other side. Let’s get on with it shall we?

This is by far the easiest installation of Windows I have ever done. Excluding the time to set up bootcamp, it clocked in at just under 1 hour and I had to do very little in between. As soon as Windows installed and I added the Apple drivers for video card and keyboard support, I did a Windows update. It was so nice to not have to restart between every single update per Windows XP. However a restart for Windows still takes forever. I’ll have exact time for you in the near future. It is nice how the desktop loads in the background and everything is ready to go once it’s presented to you unlike having to watch individual parts load like in previous iterations.

I’ll dive more into this later when I launch my Vista and Leopard comparison, but Vista does look pretty for the most part. Although Flip 3D is by no means 3D. It’s like taking a few pieces of paper and offsetting them to see what’s written on each one. It could easily look a lot better though OpenGL, but the window designs are nice. I will be sticking with the stock theme instead of reverting back to a Window Classic look.

Big red flag coming up: Check my system stats again…3 Gigs of RAM. Under my system info in Vista…2Gigs of RAM, whaaaaaat? After scouring some forums, it appears the 32bit version of Vista only supports 2GB RAM. I hope this is something remedied in Service Pack 1. I found this in a mac forum to be exact so if you’re a PC user and do not have this issue, let me know. With games having a 1GB minimum these days and Vista occupying 600MB to run, things could get a little choppy over time.

Most annoying part of Windows Vista, all the permission Windows needed to do anything…ANYTHING! I understand this is to protect people from themselves, but if you’re so prone to problems like this you probably shouldn’t be using a computer in the first place.

Stability-wise, I was able to stop and switch between Gears of War and Civilization IV pretty easily without too much of a performance hit. Speaking of performance, I did add the system info gadget. When I installed XP through bootcamp, XP only saw 1 of my 4 CPU’s. Thank god Vista sees them all. However, it does a really poor job of distributing the work across the CPU’s. One will shoot up to 100% while others remain quiet. The Maxtor HD I have is extremely loud in the first place, but I will be doing nothing in Windows, and it will still be searching for something for minutes on end so I don’t know what it’s trying to find.

Windows Vista is definitely a visual departure from previous versions, but the underlying principle is still the same for how you move around. A few more bells and whistles while moving some stuff around that I’m having trouble finding. The new Start menu is a nice touch removing the annoying scroll lists of program files. How it maintains the games in a file is a neat idea but when I was trying to explain to my girlfriend about how to load Civ IV, I stopped and said forget it. It’s definitely not set up for someone new to Windows. I’m sure the folder can be moved but it shouldn’t have to be.

I am looking forward to Service Pack 1, assuming Apple says it’s ok to go ahead with the install. Hopefully it will take care of the RAM issue and CPU throttling. So a little longer than a short review but now I can bring my Leopard and Vista comparison to you.

"If it Weren’t for Video Games, I Would Kill People" – Anonymous

I remember reading this quote a long time ago shortly after the Columbine shootings in 1999. Two kids walked into a school and wasted a bunch of their fellow classmates. The media was quick to blame, well…the media for the violent outbreak. Anything from Marilyn Manson to video games such as Doom and Quake. Jack Thompson set his sights on the game industry to encourage greater regulation and the banning of violent games. Politicians such as Joe Lieberman and Hillary Clinton support video games legislation as it pertain to minors. Greater emphasis has been placed on retailers such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy to not sell video games rated M for Mature to minors.

The ratings of video games in North America is conducted by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) which was created out of the backlash created by Mortal Kombat when it found its way on home consoles. Keep in mind the SNES version didn’t contain any blood and you needed a code to see it in the Sega Genesis version. The ESRB is voluntary so no one has to submit to it, except the game will never make it to shelves because stores rarely if ever sell an unrated game. There are 8 standard ratings:

EC – Early Childhood, E – Everyone, E10+ – Everyone 10 and over, T – Teen, M – Mature 17 and over, AO – Adults only 18 and over, RP – Rating Pending (which you will mainly see in ads), K-A – Kids to Adults (only found on older games and has since been discontinued) – wikipedia

These work a lot like movies ratings conducted by the MPAA and are pretty self-explanatory. Only two games have ever received and AO rating for violence: Manhunt 2 and The Punisher. Sony refused to license an AO version of Manhunt 2 on their Playstation 3 system, while contrary to historical reason, Nintendo has allowed its release on the Wii. It can be argued that receiving an M Rating will make a game sell more due to people wanting violence or sex in a game.

Wherever we look, however, there is a constant regulation or attempts at regulating video games. No one seems to want to point a finger at the real cause of violence in children, which is bad parenting. And maybe not even bad parenting but a lack of parental involvement in their lives and their interests/hobbies. I’ll flat out say it, video games do NOT cause children to act out violently. (I have an M.A. in media effects theory for video games). Engadget is reporting an update coming to the Xbox 360 will allow parents to control the time their children spends on video games. Apple has increased their parental security for their children in their new operating system so there is an increase for parental opportunity, but that doesn’t cut it either.

The ESRB should be abolished. Too often parents simply rely on the rating to make decisions for themselves or completely ignore them when purchasing games for their kids. Without the ESRB, parents would be forced to play a more active role in their children’s media selection. “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Sound familiar? The same goes with games. Parents need to delve into the game with their kids and play along. James Paul Gee wrote a book entitled, “What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy.” I highly recommend it. Parents might even learn a few things themselves. They could even use a lesson in humility from their kids during a gaming session.

Parents can sit with their children and reinforce the fact that it’s just a game. Aside from that, I think kids can figure out that they cannot tear off a man’s head with his spine still attached or simply walk around with a crowbar wrecking peoples’ faces. I’ve seen kids acting like Power Rangers, I even did it, but that’s an imagination. Walking into a school with guns and explosives is a mental disorder brought on by years of anguish and a lack of parental involvement, not the result of a visual stimulus from a glass tube.

If you’re a parent reading this, don’t ask your kids what game they are playing, just sit down next to them and pick up a controller and play along. If you’re a teenager or even a child reading this, ask your parents to play with you. God knows parents could have a little more fun and imagination in their lives. Video gaming isn’t the anti-social event it was once thought to be. It’s a lot more social than seeing a movie together or watching TV where everyone just sits and stares. Parents, set aside a night where you play games with your kids. You want them to do everything with you, right? Why not do something with them?

EA Going Communist…Where’s McCarthy When You Need Him?

The BBC reported today a senior executive from Electronic Arts, Gerhard Florin, said game systems should “make way for a single open platform.” I suppose this is Europe where Socialism is the new black. Even game analysts, according to the article, are not only suggesting but predicting this route. If the game companies were to unite under a single console or set-top box, I bet you could guess who would like to snatch them up. I’ll make you hold your breath a little longer. With a plan like this, the gaming industry would be in a world of hurt.

Let’s talk about basic economics. Competition is good. Competition breeds creativity. Imagine how shitty a world we’d live in with a single computer operating system. Linux users wouldn’t be welcoming the newest release of Ubuntu Gutsy Ribbon. We also wouldn’t be so entertained by Apple and Microsoft trying to outdo each other all the time. We get better products because Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo compete. Remember the days of Sega versus Nintendo?

One console would also create so many barriers to entry for new software companies through a lack of audience and hardware diversification. This would especially become difficult because EA would snatch up the single system as soon as it was released. EA would only need to buy out one company instead of three for exclusive licensing deals on the one console. It would be far too expensive for them to take over three. EA creates great games, but the last thing we need is them snatching up their own competition.

It is suggested the game industry is facing a lot of competition from PC’s and even, yes, Apple. What? Granted both can and do make great gaming platforms but they are not dedicated gaming systems no matter how much you tweak them out. Games will still crash more often than a dedicated console. They also become outdated a lot quicker. Game systems are becoming media centers for living rooms. You want to make the gaming industry better, stop making them game systems into media centers. I don’t need another DVD player in my living room; I have 5 or 6 between my computers, game systems, HD-DVD player and upconverting DVD player.

Give us a break EA. Shut your trap and just keep on making games.

Daddy is Only Going to Buy You One Console this Year

Today Sony announced the 40 gig PlayStation 3 to be released on November 2nd for $399. Unfortunately we lose PlayStation 2 backwards compatibility and two USB ports. The 80 gig model will also see an immediate price drop from $599 to $499. What does this mean for you? Absolutely nothing. You can run and scream to mommy and daddy that it’s cheaper and they should buy you one, but what are you going to play on it? Not a damn thing. If you want a PlayStation 3 this Christmas, get your parents convinced they need a Blue-Ray player. The games will come eventually, but sell them on the movie stance. Sony claims the backwards compatibility was a second priority and could be brushed aside. I don’t know about you, but I’m still running a first generation PlayStation 2 that will open the bay if you ask real nicely and won’t allow me to get any further in Final Fantasy XII due to some loading issues.

The video game industry has always been criticized for not operating on the cannibalistic strategy most other technology companies use. The idea is when a new product is released it must consumer the previous generation. Nintendo did this with the Game Boys even though there wasn’t a real paradigm shift with that system until the DS which will only run GBA software. Microsoft sort of did it with the Xbox360 by allowing select titles to run with backwards compatibility. The PlayStation 3 needs this feature unless you never owned a PlayStation 2. I won’t be buying the 40gig version. Consumers holding out on the PS3 has led to price drops and new models. Just hold out a little longer for and I think we’ll finally get what we won’t, but again this doesn’t mean anything without good game.

Onto the Wii. Yeah I want one too for Christmas, but again no games other than Wii Sports. Wait until next Spring for Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Mario Kart. I don’t think Super Mario has the draw it once did after Super Mario Sunshine but that may be a reason for you to snag a Wii as well. However, if you are waiting to get a Wii for those titles to come out, I would expect the console drought to continue well into their releases. People are going to snag Wii’s just for these titles. Oh the fun that will be had. At least for now, you can play all your Gamecube games on it.

Xbox360? Alright, I have to say something first. You may have picked up on this, but I am an Apple fan. I run a Mac Pro and a Powerbook. I never look forward to having to use a PC at work. However, I LOVE my Xbox360 and I’m not even playing it that much once I beat Tiger Woods ‘08. Other than the lack of integrated HD-DVD player, the Xbox360 is a pretty solid console. The dashboard works really well and it’s a pretty effective media center. Although, I think the PS3 has more potential for this purpose in the long run. The most important thing is Xbox Live. This is the way online gaming should be. You pay a flat rate and get to play all the games you want. Subscriptions aren’t based to a single games. Microsoft got online gaming right (if you ignore EA titles because they’re too cheap to let Microsoft run servers for them). The 360 has also just seen the release of Halo 3 and Bioshock which people are eating up. I don’t care for first person shooters on anything but a computer so I won’t be picking them up.

If you want my ultimate advice, the silent assassin in all this and the console to ask for at a cheap enough price to be able to ask for more, the Nintendo DS. I’m not kidding. It’s incredibly portable and a complete blast to play. There are a lot of great games for it. My personal collection Final Fantasy III, Pokemon Diamond, Mario Kart DS, and New Super Mario Brothers. My only main gripe with the DS is how awful their online system works. It does work, but it could be SO much better. I bought my DS before I went to Europe for 3 weeks. When you spend night on trains every few days, it comes in handy. My recommendation will probably change next holiday season, but I think the major set-top consoles need to be hashed out a little more.