Time to take games seriously

Steven Johnson, the guy who wrote Everything Bad is Good for You, has written an interesting piece in Guardian Unlimited on why games needs to be taken seriously. We know the economic benefits of having a thriving games industry, but little has been said on the social benefits and relevance of games. It's time to start taking games seriously.

...if games tend to lack storytelling prowess, it doesn't necessarily follow that they lack social relevance. All the complex simulation games on the market - from The Sims, to Civilization, to SimCity, to Black & White - are, in effect, animated theories of how a given society works, whether it is ancient Rome or a modern metropolis. You learn the theory by playing. One of the defining attributes of Grand Theft Auto that has been chronically ignored by critics is how explicitly the game plays as a satire of American inner-city culture - or, more precisely, suburban America's nightmare of inner-city culture. But that satire emerges as much out of the environment of the game - the hilarious radio pseudo-soundtrack, the snippets of dialogue you overhear in the world - as it does from the story that unfolds as you play.

All of this - the economic strength of the gaming industry, the complexity of the games themselves, and their growing relevance as a platform for social commentary - adds up to one inevitable conclusion: ignoring games means ignoring one of the most interesting and innovative cultural forms of our time - not unlike writing off Hollywood in the era of Citizen Kane and Gilda.

How Much Is My Blog Worth?

My blog is worth $2,258.16.
How much is your blog worth?

Ever wondered if your blog is worth anything? This interesting applet created on the Business Opportunities Weblog uses Technorati API to calculate your blog's worth. It is suppose to have use the same link to dollar ration as the recent AOL-Weblogs Inc deal. All you have to do is to enter your blog's URL in the field, and then see how much your blog is worth.

Well, my blog is worth US$2,258.16 when I tried it. Don't think I can quit my day job yet.

Creating Instant Cool Banners

Need to create a banner to put on your webpage but don't know nuts about design? Well, this is a nifty little image generator that creates some pretty cool looking banners. You can tweak the various options to get what you want. Fun stuff.

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Proof that Kurt Cobain was murdered

Everyone knows that Kurt Cobain committed suicide. But did he really? This website by private investigator Tom Grant says that Cobain did not kill himself, but was murdered. The site is rather comprehensive looking at the facts surrounding the case. It's quite convincing that the Nirvana's frontman's death is due to murder. Well, who really knows? It's an intriguing read anyway.

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Nintendogs to Nintengirls...

First there's Nintendogs where you rear a virtual pup. The natural progression after dogs will be... girls? At least that's what some folks think. The featured link is a series of pictures of an imaginary game that will surely drive boys wild. It's called Nintengirls: College girls & Friends. If it is a real product, you'll be able to interact with the girls, and with the DS touchscreen, touching the screen will have a whole new meaning, eh?
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Flock explained

What is Flock? It is a new type of web browser. Based on the Mozilla code, Flock is developed to include features that are used by those into the blogging aspects of the Net. Flock includes integration with social bookmarking, Flickr, and of course, blogging. It seems interesting but since it's still in its early development stages, some of you may want to hold out for a while before trying it. This article gives an overview of what Flock is and why you should use it.

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iPod Nano & Soundbuzz promo by SingNet don't mix

In the Straits Times today, there's a broadband promotion by SingNet that is offering up a free iPod Nano with their broadband plans. In one of the package, they're also offering 8 MP3 songs download from Soundbuzz.

Does anyone notice something that's not quite right here? They are offering free music downloads for a digital music player that can't play those tunes! Need more clarification? Well, what it means simply is that if you've downloaded those free tunes from Soundbuzz thinking that you can listen to them in your free Nano, well, YOU CAN'T. Why? Because Soundbuzz offers music in WMA format with DRM as it has stated clearly on their website:

Before transferring music to a portable digital audio player, insure (sic) that it support the WMA format and DRM (Digital Rights Management) secured music standards. Players must have security settings at the 1000 level.

Of course, Apple's iPods can't play these files. So what's the point of offering up these free downloads? Won't it confuse any Joe consumer?

Of course, there's a way around this, if you're tech-savvy enough. You can burn the tunes you download to a CD as audio, then rip that CD to iTunes and transfer to your Nano. But strictly speaking, won't that be "illegal" as ripping in this sense is not right in Singapore?

Once again, this whole issue of music download DRM vs consumer fair use is making things rather complicated for us. What are we to do? The follies of DRM... sigh.

Update: I posted this originally on 8 Oct. On today's paper, SingTel has amended their ad and it doesn't say "8 MP3 Song Downloads from Soundbuzz" anymore. It now says "8 Songs Downloads from MusicVibes SingNet powered by Soundbuzz".

Mossberg against DRM

Wall Street Journal's tech columnist is speaking out against DRM. In his recent article, he wrote about the evils of DRM and how it actually imposes limits and inconvenience consumers, so much so that many are turned off by the way DRM is implemented. It's something that Cory Doctorow has written about many times and it's refreshing to see this idea in print in a mainstream medium.

In my view, both sides have a point, but the real issue isn't DRM itself -- it's the manner in which DRM is used by copyright holders. Companies have a right to protect their property, and DRM is one means to do so. But treating all consumers as potential criminals by using DRM to overly limit their activities is just plain wrong.

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Which sci-fi character are you?

This is a questionnaire that aims to find out which sci-fi or fantasy character you are. Go through the series of questions and answer them and you'll know who you are. For me, I seem to be a Gandalf, that's quite cool...

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Wi-fi as basic amenity?

The BBC has posted a story on the growing number of US cities planning to offer wi-fi connection that covers the entire city and that the wi-fi service will be offered at a low cost for citizens. The idea of wi-fi as an amenity like water and electricity is certainly an intriguing one. Will Singapore, a city that is suppose to be one of the most technologically advanced in the world, follow this idea and cover the entire island with cheap wi-fi? As someone who is connected to the Net for most of my waking hour, I certainly hope that this dream will come true.

Look like OS X on a PC

For those folks with Mac-envy, or those who just want to beautify and modify their Windows look, the FlyakiteOSX is a free software that will turn your Windows interface into a OS X-lookalike. Everything here is like OS X from the menus to the docks. The website is also worth checking out as the website itself looks like OS X... a case of taking the love of the Mac OS to the extreme?
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iPod Video Converter

The freeware community doesn't disappoint. Within weeks of the release of the iPod video, there's now a tool which you can convert video so that you can use it on your 5G iPod. The software called Videora Converter supports the h.264 standard and this app is essential for 5G iPod owners who wants to see their own stuff on video. Only thing is that it is only available for Windows and hopefully there's a Mac version somewhere too.

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Add more Hard Disk to your Xbox

This may just be the ultimate mod for your Xbox. Although the new Xbox360 may be just on the horizon, the original black Xbox still is probably more moddable, at least for now. This kit, which allows you to add up to four hard disks, may be just what you need if you're into the homebrew software/games scene. Also, for those who're not too comfortable with the soldering iron, this kit does not require soldering. Sounds good to me, but I don't think this will be available as a commercial product any time soon.
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Street Fighter vs. Mortal Kombat

Here's a pretty amazing and funny video some folks put together where Raiden of the Mortal Kombat universe battles Ken from Street Fighter. Pretty well done actually. See it to believe...

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Using Gmail as online storage

Gmail's 1GB and still growing disk space is good for more than just email. You can use those free storage space to keep your files. But first, you need to grab these apps to enable that function.

• For Windows users, try the GMail Drive shell extension.
  
• For Mac users, try the gDisk.

Now, who says Gmail is just for mail?

Putting Movies on Your iPod

With the new iPod, folks will be wondering how they can watch the DVDs that they purchase on their device. Here are two methods to put the movies, on your Apple-branded player.Pretty useful...

• Rip DVD Movies To Your iPod
• Put Vids On Your iPod

The new video iPod

Yeah, the new iPod is out. It means that my 4G 60GB iPod Photo is now obsolete. The new iPod is certainly sweet, and it plays video. Well, the video playing feature is nice, but I don't see many occasions where I can actually put it to good use. You can listen to tunes while walking around, but watching video and walking is rather dangerous for your health.

Well, the one big reason that this 5G iPod is attractive to me is simply the slimmer form factor. If there's a reason I will buy it, it's probably that. But then, I think it may be better for me to hold out since the video feature is still not so attractive for me. Maybe if an 80GB version is out, then I'll consider ugrading. For now, I'll stick to my current version.

Anyway, if you can't wait and want to get your sweet paws on the new iPod, Apple has posted links on how you can get your own vids on the machine. Look closer at the Digg posts and you'll find more tips in getting other videos on the iPod.

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GremSpot's 5-mins of fame in TODAY

Hmm... I didn't expect my post commenting on Digital Life's review of the EA's fighting game Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects would generate so much comments. What surprised and amused me even more, was that the post was referenced in an opinion piece on the free daily TODAY. The article is written by blogger Mr Miyagi and you can read the full text in the link below. I've only quoted the parts that refered to my post.

"Gremlin" (gremspot.blogspot.com) had his doubts about one newspaper's glowing review of a particular computer game, as most other publications had given it only a "fair rating".

"Maybe because the game was provided for review, there's sense to want to please the company.

"Otherwise, it's that the reviewer does not have enough experience with bad games to give an honest review," he speculated.

The great thing about this is that on Tomorrow.sg's comments section, Christopher Huang, the writer who reviewed that game, had a fair go at justifying his review.

"All I have to say is that reviews are subjective in nature and one man's meat may be another man's poison," he wrote — though his comment was sandwiched between 17 others slamming the accuracy of game reviews.

Well, I've seen my name in print a number of times when I was working as a writer, now, it's my blog's five minutes of fame. Amusing...

Entertainment Software Association to sue California

Seems like the ESA in US is taking the fight on games legistation to courts. Recently, the State of California has passed a bill that has outlawed the sale of violent video games to minors. However, the ESA is not taking this lying down. There's an interesting piece on Ars Technica examining this and it is an interesting read.

The Entertainment Software Association is planning to sue the State of California over the passage of AB1179, a bill that has outlawed the sale of violent video games to minors. President Douglas Lowenstein said that he "intends to file a lawsuit to strike this law down," and added that he is "confident that we will prevail."

Is this a case of the ESA throwing respect for laws meant to protect children to the wind?

Simulate spread of zombies!

After seeing zombie movies like Land of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, and various versions of XXX of the Dead, ever wondered how long it takes for a group of zombies to infect a city? In comes the Zombie Infection Simulator. The link leads to an interesting simulation of how fast a group of zombie invades and infects a city. There are also links to versions where you can fight back, drop nukes. Interesting!

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If Microsoft Never Existed...

Wonder what the world will be like if Microsoft never existed? ExtremeTech has a commentary speculating what we will do with our computers if the Redmond giant, well, didn't become a giant. It's a world where Apple would have dominated, but not exactly in the good way that we think. It's interesting read... more like sci-fi than anything else though.

How To Find Podsafe Music

If you're looking a doing a music-based podcast, you'd know that unless you've paid royalties, you'd get into trouble playing music by artistes from major music labels. But don't despair, there're still plenty of music out there. The most obvious source of what is know as "Podsafe" music is of course the Podsafe Music Network.

Of course, the PMN is not the only source. The iPodArmy site has highlighted other sources for "podsafe" music. Go check those out if you're looking for real indie music.

The iPod smasher

Although the iPod may be the most popular digital music player out there, there are still plenty of iPod-haters on the loose. But I don't think anyone has taken their iPod non-love to this extreme. On the website Smashmyipod.com, they are getting donations to buy an iPod, then smash the brand new purchase, filming it in the process. Till date, they have actually raised half the amount needed to purchase the iPod.

To further this concept, these folks are also starting collections to smash a Xbox, a PS3, and the Nintendo Revolution. People do the strangest thing.

The invite-only Darknet

When you make filesharing criminal, you turn all filesharers into criminals. You can of course do it underground and be in some exclusive private groups that share files where membership is invite only. The New York Times has an interesting article about this phenonmenon where such networks are known as "Darknets". Goes to show that you can't kill P2P, only drive it underground.

These are "darknets": exclusive peer-to-peer networks in which membership is based on circles of trust, whose activities are veiled from the general public. And though people who are adept at configuring servers and comfortable with File Transfer Protocol have used such systems for years, a spate of new online services aimed at everyday users is sure to draw new attention to under-the-radar file sharing.

Inaccurate review in Digital Life?

If you've read this week's Digital Life, you'd have read a review of the latest Marvel superheroes-based game by EA called Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects. The reviewer, in Digital Life, gave the game a stellar review and even gave the piece a headline titled "Super Fun". Here're some of the words he used in his piece. (Emphasis my own.)

In story mode, EA has come up with a winning single-player concept that takes you beyond the classic game progression, allowing you to choose from a series of superheroes as they progress through separate yet intertwined phases of the underlying plot.
...
The action is fast and engaging, no doubt enhanced by the game's realism and challenging artificial intelligence.
...
Marvel Nemesis is definitely a strong contender for Game Of The Year.

There's really nothing wrong with this review... until you start to read other reviews on the Internet. It seems like every other major gaming press are only giving the game a fair rating. If you look at the summary of ratings in Gamerankings.com for the Xbox version, you'd notice these ratings by the major gaming press.

• Gamespot.com - 6.4 out of 10
  
• Gamespy.com - 3.5 out of 5
  
• IGN - 5.1 out of 10
  
• Electronic Gaming Monthly - 5.33 out of 10
  

Overall, the average rating is 64.5% for the Xbox version, 58.1% for the PS2 version, and 59.9% for the GameCube version. Well, doesn't sound like a game that's suppose to be a "strong contender for Game Of The Year".

There's more. On gaming blog, Joystiq.com, there's a piece that actually mentions that a EA developer is criticising the game. Imagine, saying something bad about a game that's from the company you're working in. The full review by the EA developer is on Game Girl Advance. Now, the game sure doesn't sound like a "game of the year" anymore.

So what went wrong with the Digital Life review? I can only speculate. Maybe because the game was provided by EA for review, there's a sense to want to please the company, hence the good review. Otherwise, it's that the reviewer does not have enough experience with bad games to give an honest review... a case of lack of gaming journalism culture/experience? Having been a gaming editor with a major gaming site, I do know that it's not easy to find gamers who can write, and also get some sort of recognition as a games journalist.

Ultimately, I'm feeling sorry for folks or parents who depend on reviews for making their purchase. They may have wasted their hard-earned S$69.90 on a game that's only mediocre.

Star Wars Mix... out of this world!

I managed to get my Force-inspired paws on a BBC Essential Dance Mix session done by DJ Tom Middleton. The mix has a Star Wars theme and is essentially out of this world! This mix contains snippets from the Star Wars movies, soundtrack from the film, and also dance tunes from folks like the Chemical Brothers (Galvanise [Half-Arsed Beat edit]), Daft Punk (Technologic), and even Bebel Gilberto (Simplesementes [Tom Middleton Cosmos Club Vox]). It's an out of this world smashing Sith and Jedi-embedded experience.
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SuprNova.org is now NewNova.org

The BitTorrents keep on coming. SuprNova.org used to be a popular BT site but it died, probably due to copyright issues. Now, it seems like the guy from SuprNova.org gave his old code to a new owner, and NewNova.org is born. Looks exactly like SuprNova a torrent site, obviously.

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HBO Attacking BitTorrent

Seems like HBO is going on the offensive against BitTorrent. Interesting read on how HBO is blocking the downloads of the Rome TV series, and how folks using BitTorrent are fighting back.

HBO is actively poisoning the BitTorrent downloads of the new show Rome. In addition to an older tactic of offering bogus downloads that never complete, HBO is now obstructing the downloads offered by other people.

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DJ Food mixes mashup music

Love remixes? Go here to download a recording called "Raiding the 20th Century". What it this, you ask? Well, it is a remix by DJ Food which attempts to catalogue the history of cut up music, from avant garde tape manipulation to turntable mixes to bastard pop mash ups. Great music for your listening pleasure. You can also grab them using BitTorrent on DJ Food's page.

Dylan Thomas: The Caedmon Collection

MP3s are not just about music. There are plenty of great spoken words MP3s floating around on the net. On Salon, you can download a great recording by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas called "Dylan Thomas: The Caedmon Collection".

On February 22, 1952, Dylan Thomas made his first recording for Caedmon Records, "A Child's Christmas in Wales and Five Poems." It was the first of many albums Thomas was to record for Caedmon and the recording not only launched Caedmon as a company, but initiated the spoken-word industry as well.

Go download this gem of a collection.

6 Ways to use your iPods in a car

You can carry a few thousand songs in your iPod, but you don't know how to play them when you're driving. This piece in PC Mag is here to help and gives you a run-down, from worst to best, ways to link your iPod and other digital music player to your car's radio.

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BBC offering P2P download with Internet Media Player

BBC gets it. They are offering a BBC Internet Media Player which allows UK viewers to download TV shows via P2P. It's all legal but for now, it is only works on Windows using IE and Windows Media Player. Also, it is only for UK citizens. Guess the rest of the world will have to wait a while before their broadcasters catch up to such a radically cool idea.

Upcoming Erotic MMO Targets Female Audience

Massive Multiplayer Online games are moving into the realm of more mature materials. In fact, a company called Republik is working on a MMO about sex called Spend The Night. In the game, adults can meet other adults and act out their fantasies through graphically rich avatars. Presumably, they can also spend virtual nights together. The game is also suppose to attract more female players but I'm skeptical if the theme will actually attract more males pretending to be females instead.

"This is a fantasy multiplayer dating game," says Coshland. "It's not like the dating games that we've seen coming out of Japan where you try to win the favor of someone of the opposite sex. We're providing more of a game where two people can go on a date and interact in a 3D space."
...
"There is little to nothing with erotic content, that has been developed specifically targeted to women either in the game industry or in the adult industry," he says. "For whatever reason, women tend to be written off as people who have no interest in sexual content. We don't believe that to be true."

Apple iPod not tops in Asia

Although Apple's iPod is the hottest digital music device globally, it is not dominating in Asia as the Samsung Yepp emerged as the most popular MP3 player brand amongst users in seven Asian countries. The findings is from a research done by research firm Synovate. In Singapore, Creative is holding on the the market with a majority share of 40% amongst Singaporeans. Seems like Sim Wong Hoo's marketing and anti-Apple trashtalking works in Singapore, but not in other markets.

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Kevin Smith Video Diary Begins - Making of Clerks 2

Ever since I saw Kevin Smith's Clerks, I've been a fan. Now, he's starting work on the sequel which is called... get ready... The Passion of the Clerks. You can't expect anything less from the guy who did the controversial but hilariously funny and honest Dogma. The website of Clerks 2 is now online and he's posting his "making of" video diaries online. Snooches!

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Herbie in Bishan?

When I woke up this morning and looked out the window to the carpark below, I saw something interesting. Well, the famous Herbie is in the HDB carpark! I thought my eyes were deceiving me but they were not. It's actually a Volkswagen painted with the Herbie strips. Seems like the folks promoting the Herbie movie must really be taking their promotion to the streets. Later in the day, I caught another Volkswagen Beetle with similar strips and decals. It must be the invasion of Herbie and its siblings... but I can bet that Lindsay Lohan (or a Lindsay lookalike) was not driving the Herbie-lookalike below my flat.

Free Harvey Danger music download

I love music that you can grab from the Internet, and I mean the legitimate ones. And I especially love those musicians who recognise the value of offering their music up for sharing. In short, the record labels just don't get it, when it comes to P2P, BitTorrent, and other such stuff. Anyway, here's an album that you can download for free. You can get it as a direct download or as a BitTorrent download. Why is this band offering their release as a download? You can read their reason here. Support the indies!
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Use WinXP apps without using Windows!

There is a rather ambitious project going on called the ReactOS Project. It is about building an implementation of a Microsoft WinXP compatible operating system from the ground up. What it means to you in plain terms is that with ReactOS, you will not need WinXP to run software written for the Wintel platform. You probably may not need to spend your hard-earned cash on WinXP and use this instead. Sounds cool and since it'll be free, it sounds really attractive. The only problem is that we may have to wait a long time for this and it may become a target for the Redmond lawyers.

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Gmail Skin!...change the look of Gmail

If you want to do some tinkering and change the look of Gmail, there's this little little how-to on how to change Gmail to have a .Mac look. Maybe Gmail should look ahead and introduce skinnable interface for Gmail, that would be rad.

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Tips to search on Google effectively

I guess most of us have used Google for most of the searches that we perform on the Internet. So, it's not a bad thing that we review some tips that will help us do our searches. This article has some tips that will perhaps help you find the things that you want in the wide wild world of cyberspace.
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