The Xbox Ecology: Do you meta-game?
"What's your gamerscore?" is the innocuous enough question now emblazoned across blogs, bumper stickers, t-shirts, and people's brains. I'm a new guy in the party, having had a Xbox 360 for only two weeks and an active Live account for only a few days. I've got, in my opinion, a respectable gamerscore for the brevity of the time that I've been playing.
The gamerscore, for the unintiated, is the grand sum of the point values of each game achievement. Most games have achievements, little badges of honor of the completion of some task in the game. It presents something of a unified view of your progress across the various games that you play. Quickly an entire ecology of websites have started growing to further the reach of your gamerscore. There are specialized comparison websites, graph websites, and even a website that anthropomorphizes your Xbox 360 with the data as conversation.
360 gamerscore is well on its way to being a fairly large massive multiplayer space. One opt-in service (My360Stats, aka GamerScoreWhore) shows a statistic of over 36 thousand gamertags being tracked. With every Xbox 360 console purchase it grows... and there are fun rumors around the Internets about a Windows service codenamed "Panorama".
Those that know my fascination with massive multiplayer spaces should guess that my mind is having way too much fun coming up with weird ways to tell stories within this space. If anything, I'm a bit disappointed there isn't more fiction (beyond the cool "Xbox blog" idea) already out there. "Microsoft points" are even more ripe for fiction potential, considering their nature as a true micro-currency. I'm curious if there is an interesting reason, or at least fiction, behind the Microsoft points logo, which in 2D form looks like ...
Shatterstone: The Hard Goodbye
Shatterstone is a Louisville-area (N'albany, to be precise) hard rock/metal band. I've still yet to catch them live, but keep meaning to. My next oppurtunity when I get back will be the Rock for Kosair event on November 17, which should be the Friday after I get back if I remember correctly, if anyone is interested in checking it out.
I discovered the band via reviews and eventually found a set of MP3s on their website. The Hard Goodbye is the second iteration of that set of MP3s. Overall the quality has only gone up, which is great to hear. I still would love to see some further balancing in the studio, but understand how tough that can be for smaller artists.
Returning from the previous set of files that I have are Nothing's Real and Invisible, both of which are probably the catchiest and most powerful of the songs that had been previously released, and good to see them. These pieces also help explain part of the uniqueness of Shatterstone. Shatterstone's Ricky Payne actually sings the lyrics, which in fact have real melody (and harmony in some of the newer songs). Nothing's Real, with its dark style is still immensely hummable and can get stuck in your head. It's such a rare skill that appears to be thanks to a much more varied music background than the average pop hard rock band (including the obligatory Country music influences from the Louisville area).
New songs like the slower Misery, pounding Tsunami, and the title track The Hard Goodbye round a good, if short, album that is well worth the $7 I paid for it. I certainly look forward to the next album, and to getting a chance to see a live show sometime.
DRM-be-gone
It was only two weeks that I realized I hadn't paid enough attention to a case and what appeared to be a an average everyday CD purchase revealed itself as a monstrous non-standard beast. Now, I've met a couple of DRM engineers, and most of them have their hearts in the right place, even if I don't agree with how their products are used. In this case, I was given a CD that was just about useless in my personal music ecology: I couldn't use the music on more than one computer (my desktop is my main stereo, but I leave the Quiddity behind when I'm here in Redmond). I couldn't use the music on my portable audio device (Neuros). I couldn't store the music in the format I preferred (not as big of a problem, but still a personal irritance).
I found a program just now to help me make fair use of the Windows Media files that the fake CD did allow me to have. (Albeit it is against the contract that was worst EULA I've ever seen, that was a required click-through in the awful fake CD. Apparently Virgin's lawyers don't like fair use.)
After PAX
PAX really was a neat oppurtunity, and I'm debating whether I'll have to get tickets and plane fare for next year's event... At dinner last night, sitting at the Rock Bottom bar, I was talking with a couple of other guys (who flew out from New Jersey) that attended PAX. We traded some stories of the things we saw and did. For instance, they made it to the panel on comic creation, where I was visiting some of the panels on game development and the industry. (I missed out on a long line, but also apparently a good time full of such goodies as the hot dog fairy.)
The big thing the three of us decided that with an event like PAX, and the fact that there was no way that one person could see everything that went one, there wasn't so much one key event to look back on and say that it was the best or most awesome thing you saw or did. So I won't even try.
I visited quite a few panels, picked up a few new blogs for my aggregator, particularly at the panel on game blogging that was itself blogged by Crecente of Kotaku. I can indeed be found in Crecente's photo, but didn't have a chance to ask a question so I didn't end up in MajorNelson's podcast.
I met quite a few new and interesting games. The first, Elite Beat Agents I met during the keynote, where the guy next to me was playing the Japanese import on his DS. It was weird enough with the Japanese words. I later saw English demos of the game in the exhibition hall. The game features a "secret agent gone DDR" gameplay where circles have to ...
On Microsoft's Xbox Competition
Someone was mentioning that they thought the PS3 was the only real competition to the Xbox 360, and didn't think Nintendo's announced Raw Power System (aka the Revolution spelled Wii) currently counted as real Xbox 360 competition due to the generally younger audience feel that Nintendo has attracted. This was right after someone else provided the view that Nintendo will be the absolute winner of the next gen console war because major Gamecube owners won't even consider an Xbox/PS3 and will buy a Wii, and many Xbox/PS3 owners will buy a Wii in addition to their other system.
I find the PS3 more amusing with every new announcement. I donât think it can compete. Sony seems to be in a very weird delusion phase, too, because they keep announcing that the PSP is going toe to toe with the DS, but all the evidence in the world points to the contrary, that the DS is simply continuing Nintendoâs dominance of the portable game space. How many PSPs do you see in a day?
Nintendo in all its incarnations (DS, Gamecube, Wii) absolutely is a competitor for the 360, particularly for the XBLA crowd that is buying 360s solely for the Arcade. (Iâm curious if any of the statistics/marketing people are tracking this yet.) Iâve met some people from the Gamecube camp that have moved to the XBLA crowd, and the competition between XBLA and the similar services from Nintendo just might be the fiercest battle of the next generation of consoles.
I think the war on console technology is finally over and the war on content is about to truly begin. Nintendo has proven, with its âkiddie libraryâ that it can hit the lowest common denominator and get just ...
PAX First Impressions
This weekend is the Penny Arcade Expo 2006, aka PAX, in cute downtown Bellevue. I was unsure that I would be in this area during the period of pre-registrations, and so on Friday (after picking up a Ford Taurus to make this semester's weekends easier to control) I stood in line to buy the three day pass. It's been very crazy, hectic, neat, weird, and fun. I've had all sorts of weird, random geeky conversations with people that can only be had in such nerd herds. I've wanted to see a major convention for some time, but haven't until this point had much opportunity (I know that I should at least try Conglomeration, but it just doesn't seem all that major compared to some of the others), partly because I haven't had much incentive to travel just for a convention. Thus, some would say that even with PAX I'm getting only the B experience since I'm commuting from my apartment rather than staying in one of the convention's hotels, drinking, testing the limits of sleep deprivation, and getting invited to such things as random 3am nerf wars. I think part of it is that those things are hard to solo, and I've yet to find a party interested enough in a sci-fi, games, or otherwise nerdly convention to travel somewhere remote.
There are a ton of tournaments going on at PAX, but my focus has been on the lectures and discussion panels. I've attended some pretty neat things so far. The concert with the Video Game Pianist (he made his name on Youtube for playing the SMB theme blindfolded) and the NESkimos was pretty cool. The keynote, Alex St. John, was funny and cool.
I've got some ...
Social Online Games in Learning
A researcher, Yolanda Rankin from Northwestern University, is doing studies on Evaluating Interactive Gaming as a Language Learning Tool by using MMORPGs, EverQuest 2 being the particular choice, to build competence amongst English as a second language students.
It's yet another study that shows that MMORPGs as social vehicles help promote social/lingual competence. I remember about ten years ago having the debate with someone that social games, regardless of the fact that face/manner/voice might be hidden, do indeed build useful social skills. It's something of a common sense thing for gamers, and I think that I benefitted quite a bit from the many hours I spent playing old MUSHes/MUCKs, Acrophobia (still in the Top 9, woo!), and even posting crazy ideas and pompous attitudes to now long departed forums. It's just great seeing more and more intelligent academic studies doing scientific verification of these good things, particularly to counterbalance some of the FUD studies like the ridiculous Pac-Man is 62% violent study.
Quick Xbox Status Update (not that it matters)
I realize some might be worried about my oh so sad situation of not having more games than Hexic, but that was corrected only a few hours after that post. A coworker of mine let me borrow some of her company store quota to purchase a game to keep Hexic company. I've since scored 4 more achievements (made it through to the end of the second major level in Kameo) that I can't yet show off.
My Overpowered Hexic Machine
So I went ahead and bought that Xbox 360 I had been talking about. Unfortunately, I'm waiting for the cable modem to arrive, so I can't connect to XBLA to buy games (I'll probably be buying Lumines Live! after being hooked on my brother's PSP copy, and will consider some of the others like Geometry Wars). I'm also waiting for my badge number to be reactivated at the company store before buying games/accessories. (There aren't any third party games I'm willing to pay full price for right now.) It's quite a lovely limbo that I'm in as I wait for different sorts access at work and at my apartment...
I was smart enough to buy the extended Xbox 360 package, and so I do have one game to play, Hexic. I've been working on my "flower skills", and spent way too long playing all the way to the end of Survival mode (level 50). I've got 4 achievements already, but can't connect to Live just yet so I can't show them off.
I need an HDTV, but will wait until I get back home... Anyone know of any good deals on good HDTV-enabled widescreen computer monitors? (I don't understand the idea of having a seperate TV anymore... particularly because computer resolutions are still higher than HDTV.)
Quote of the Moment: Digital Rights to Virtual Sex
Upon recently announcing a demonstration video of a Second Life-connected vibrator:
All completely open source. There should be no DRM to your fucking!
(Via Raph's website)
Ye Olde SCRAMM Bar
Sam, is confabulation a real word?
Is it possible to have a reunion of people who never really met? Is it possible to mourn a meeting ground that never really existed in the first place?
The Internet is a weird place, and I have so many weird periods of "I remember back when..." and so many weird lives that are long gone. It's weird, but I did so many things and met so many people in my time, but can't shake the feeling that I was so often in the Wrong Place at the Right Time or the Right Place at the Wrong Time. I haven't seemed to contribute anything lasting yet, at least not enough to allow me to pass very many of Wikipedia's notability tests just yet.
One of the places "I spent my youth" was the SCRAMM forum. (Pretty much everyone on that forum was just a kid.) A brief history, as best I can remember it: Jimmi "Serge" Thøgersen (Denmark) planned to build a new, freeware compiler for LucasArts' SCUMM engine. Serge decided that there wasn't an easy single version of the SCUMM engine to target (after having done much SCUMM reverse engineering, which eventually went into SCUMM Revisited, which eventually helped the ScummVM team). After some retooling, SCRAMM development changed hands to James "Rethguals" (Slaughter backwards) Slaughter (UK). I, Max "WorldMaker" Battcher (Kentucky), was introduced to SCRAMM somewhere around this point through a group planning a game for SCRAMM known as Unidentified Flying Entertainment (UFE). UFE split up shortly after.
I was young, I was naive. I defended a project that did eventually fizzle out in vaporware like so many internet-announced projects. Just like SCRAMM turned out to be vaporware, so did, unsurprisingly, my own projects. I dreamed big ...
NYC Vacation Photos
I've uploaded the photos from my NYC vacation with my family. We had some fun, some anger, copious amounts of subway time, and some great food. There are quite a few photos of my little sister, Grace, who also happened to take some of the photos and is excited to have photos on at least one of the internets. I promised to show her how to make a simple website if I get a chance this week. To recap: I flew back to Louisville on the 31st of July. Flew to NYC on the 5th of August for a vacation with my family. Flew back to Louisville today (the 13th of Aug). Will fly back to Seattle/Redmond on Saturday (August 19th). 12 Weeks out there, and then I'll be back in Louisville in time for Thanksgiving, giving me a pretty nice "break" between then and the start of the Spring semester of classes.
(Also uploaded were photos of the beerrow I created of some of the bottle caps from the (mainly) beers that I drank over the Summer. Most of them are micro-brews, as is my preference.)
On Copy Control
Recently I remarked, on the rather evil "Copy Control Discs" (which are not, and should not be confused with, CDs):
DRM is not a solution. It fails to even consider the root cause of the "problem". Welcome to the Free Market, ladies and gentlemen. If you can't compete with "Piracy", by value-added services like, for example, originality, promotions, or down home guilt appeals, then by all means go find another industry to play with. Breaking standards and removing people's freedoms is just sad, and in a just world would never be tolerated.
Recent and Planned Game Purchases
I bought the New Super Mario Brothers the other day. The game is just beautiful, with a lot of classic feel to it. Between my brother and I we've opened up Worlds 1-5 already.
I signed up (via Uru Live) for a month's GameTap trial. GameTap will be the new home for Uru Live. GameTap also has a distribution deal for Telltale's Sam & Max episodes. Between those two choice pieces of entertainment, GameTap finally had the power to sway me. I'm thinking that I may again soon shut my City of Heroes/Villains account down and just pay for GameTap and possibly Puzzle Pirates again. Interestingly, GameTap + Puzzle Pirates may be less per month than CoH/CoV, and a much better deal for entertainment choices. GameTap is pretty endearing and I may in fact already be hooked. A good part of the GameTap catalog I bought when the games were new, but there is the odd GameTap TV shows and there are some gems in the games catalog we've been finding that I hadn't previously tried like Mr. Driller. My brother was quickly infatuated with Comix Zone.
I'm thinking that soon I'll break down and buy an XBox 360. All of the interesting sounding games are Microsoft-made, though. I'm actually more interested in the XBox Live Arcade games than any of the current third party games. Carbonated Games (Microsoft internal casual games development) alone has some cool offerings. I'm also debating whether or not I need a nice HDTV capable monitor to go along with an XBox 360...
