On Jack Thompson, hopefully for the last time

Jack Thompson, violent media critic and infamous lawyer among gamers, has been officially disbarred.

One question that Doug Lowenstein discussed was whether the game journalists helped Thompson's crusade against video games. A couple of such journalists have said no, and I tend to agree with them.

Now, I have posted a few years ago a similar discussion. And it still holds.

One tactic of the Obama camp this political season is not to ignore attacks or detractors, but to engage them. By doing so, you don't let rumors spread, or at least let them spread unanswered.

While some tactics of Thompson's were questionable (see disbarment), we still needed to show just how wrong he was. One unfortunate thing I learned from political campaigns is just how easily false information can spread. Ignoring them only lets them set the stage.

In participating in the debate, we actually get to show our side; one which most non-gamers don't get to see. Does that mean the game journalists have to post or respond to everything that Thompson sends to them; no. But at least get to the meaningful and important things, so then we're not stuck with mandates that will haunt us all.

Post Presidential Debate Post

I watched this past Friday's debate with a laptop, watching Factcheck's Blog and the Washington Post's Fact Checker blog update live (or at least the latter).

I'm not going into minute detail as other "more professional" journalists would do. I didn't watch where McCain was looking or how many times Obama said one particular phrase.
Instead, I watched it as an average voter would (aside from the above mentioned Web sites being seen live).

The most notable thing was the amount of time given towards the economy. This debate was scheduled to be more about world issues, but the moderator allowed almost half the time to be given towards the economy. So without a doubt, you'll hear more from both candidates on the economy as the mortgage crisis (which has seen one major bank being downed).

The only revelation from this debate was something McCain said almost in passing, and the moderator nor Obama didn't really follow it up in a major way. What McCain said that he was open to freezing spending on everything except entitlements, veterans and defense.

The problem I have: two of those, defense and entitlements (which he probably ment things like Medicare, Social Security, ect.) are basicly the things that are most inflating within the budget. Not to mention some, like the NEA, are already calling it a very flawed plan.

Overall, both seemed to stick close to their talking points. As such, while I've been seeing polls tilt more towards Obama at winning this round, I don't think this has done much for undecided or independant voters. Essentially, if you were an Obama or McCain supporter to start out with, this didn't change your mind.

Tax Cuts a Solution?

I was just reading this post and had a thought: why are both our candidates proposing tax cuts as a solution to the current problem with the market?
Tax cuts are for times where people are just holding money, when spending is down. Yet, I had read time and again that spending isn't down in the general market.
Instead, the problem with our current economy is: a) the loan industry, being that everyone involved were too stupid to check their responsibilities; and b) the price of petroleum going sky high, which hits most every product and increases inflation/cost of living.

Now, I'll give that there are some non-tax-cut solutions being thrown about for both. This is especially true for the problem on the price of gas, as both candidates have put up proposals. IF those proposals will actually be implemented, or how well they will work is debatable (notably because none seem to be a good immediate solution).

The problem I have is simply the willingness of candidates and the voting public to take those tax cuts. One of the first things you learn in politics is that everyone wants everything, with no strings attached. If you have tax cuts and more governmental programs on separate ballots; without a doubt both will be voted for. And that is happening right now.

Tax cuts are really smoke and mirrors. They won't solve any problems with our economy. What it actually is a form of legal bribery (see why McCain is trying to say his opponent would raise taxes) and it makes them look like they're doing something.

Politicians are masters of politics; they know how to get something implemented. The problem is that those politics don't let real solutions come forward.

Why Online Is Not THE Multiplayer Experience

One of the problems I keep hearing from all the game journalists is that local multiplayer is on its way out.
Yet, they all enjoy Rock Band. Not online, but locally, with their friends.

I discovered the joy of local multiplayer, with friends or any other gamers sitting next to you, while playing Magic: The Gathering Online.
It was during the original beta, and everything was basically free. Magic, socially speaking, is an ideal game for online. It's turn-based, so you can type all you want without interrupting anything. But there is a something about the online environment that hinders things; that you can't actually see the person in front of you. It might be that you'll only play that person for one match; and never see them again. It might be the lack of emotion in text, or that you have a greater chance of finding a, as Penny Arcade terms it, a fuckwad.

Don't get me wrong, online is great. The sense that you can log in to a multiplayer game anytime. And there is a great social environment in some places, like my guild in World of Warcraft, AIE.

But when you get people physically together, there's almost always a friendly environment. In co-op experiences, you get a greater sense of people working together towards a goal. Competitive, people are in friendly competition (and have non-insulting forms of trash talk).

Maybe that's why the Wii works so well; that you actually hear other people's laughter as you play.

How NOT to Get My Vote

OK, there's plenty of reasons not to vote for John McCain. Things like having a Bush-like campaign certainly hurts your campaign. But something like this pretty much shows that: a) you're old and don't use the Internet AT ALL (kind of important for geeks who actually care about things like Net Neutrality), and b) you just don't care about silly things like "facts".

More Political Games: On Polls and the Two Parties

Unfortunately, this will be another post on the game theory in politics.
First up, the Huffington Post, a more liberal blog, decided to look at the methodology of the recent polls, and found the balance between liberal, conservatives and independents had changed.
While the Huffington Post took the angle that pollsters designed changed their methodology to make the race seem close. I'm doubting that analysis, and there's no way to confirm that bit of speculation at all, unless somebody within polling organizations says something stupid publicly.
Instead, this actually is another reason why YOU DO NOT BELIEVE THESE POLLS. All presidental polling has been historically innacurate. In this case, it'll be darned near impossible to tell the make up of Democrat, Republican and Independant voters in November, especially since it's only been a week after the last political convention.

Now for the bit of game theory that is completely misunderstood, third parties. It seems that Ron Paul is calling for voters not to vote for Obama or McCain, but any third party candidate. In reality, this isn't as smart as it seems.
This is taught in politics 101, that rarely and under special conditions that third parties even stand a chance, mostly when there's a political vacuum. Put it this way, there's no practical way for a third party to be in competition and not take away votes from someone else. The best analagy is if an Alaska crab fisherman set his cages down in the same location as another boat's; they only split the local crab population. Nether fisherman gets a good catch.
That isn't to say that third parties are usless in campaigns. They often can bring up topics that the two dominate parties avoid. But if you want to actually change how government is runned or how the parties act, it's better to change from within.

From PAX: Impressions of Guitar Hero: On Tour

One of the best things about PAX was that IGN had set up tables in which you could rent out different games, including handheld games.
The game I HAD to try was the DS's Guitar Hero game. I've read and heard many reviews and impressions and got either "It's good, but not great" or more commonly "It's not that good."

First, I don't think the accessory wasn't that badly designed. It isn't the most ergonomic, as you have to figure out a comfortable position for it, but it didn't give me cramps within my 4 or 5 songs that I played.
Strumming wasn't hard either. If you get out of the rhythm of strumming, problems will occur (ie: it only registers horizontal strums on the touch screen, too far diagonal will stop the strumming).
What was the main problem for me was the rather limited list of songs. Going from Guiltar Hero 3, which has 50-some songs, to On Tour, which had only a handful unlocked on the copy I had, felt limiting. However, in checking the Wikipedia entry, it has a total of 31 songs, quite a bit better then what they had there.
More over, it did feel like the "Guitar Hero simulator" that everyone says, rather then being the "guitar simulator" that console Guitar Hero games are. Which brings an early Futurama joke, of a baseball simulator, then a "baseball simulator" simulator.
Is it worth the $50 msrp? Probably not. Maybe $40, but I think the limited song list took this down for that high of a price point.

Flintlock's Back!

Just a quick post. One of my favorite web comics is back.
Flintlock was not only a great web comic for anyone, but also one of the main reasons that got me into WoW fandom.

The Problem with "The Horserace"

Being a gamer, I see the concept of "game theory" behind quite a lot of things (and even more that even Chris Mathews couldn't adequately explain). However, my problem especially in election time is the political reporters and pundits excessive use of "the horserace" rather than actually doing their jobs of fact-checking and policy analysis.
It's just strange, the reporters of today idolize Edward R. Murrow for being the guy who points out the obvious and takes on the government. Yet, these people don't do a darned thing to keep that spirit in political journalism.
Just look at how often they put up polls. Does it matter how far Obama is vs. McCain? No, because the actual result that they're trying to scry for is months out there.
It's mostly bad when a Web site like Factcheck, or even satire like The Daily Show, does a better job of asking serious, need to know questions. We don't need to know if a new policy will help out a candidate's chance of being elected, we need to know if that policy WILL ACTUALLY HELP PEOPLE.
This was one reason I want to go into journalism. I appreciate much of the work they do, but they're just blind to their own flaws.

Blog Rezzed, and also I'm back from PAX

OK, I'm back from the Penny Arcade Expo, and decided to rez this blog. First work got in the way of posting, then WoW (WoW is probably more to blame).

PAX as always was a blast. This time around, I actually had some money to spend, getting some stuff that probably can't get anywhere else, or at least as cheaply.
First off, there's Blizzard's booth. It was simple: eight booths with 2 demo-ing PC's each, four for Starcraft 2, the others toward Wrath of the Lich King. Both were great, especially SC2. If you've watch the videos, they don't do the animation justice. Every unit looks and feels more alive. And the gameplay is the same as you remember Starcraft back in the day; it hasn't aged at all.
I've played a few other games as well. One skating game on the Wii using the WiiFit Board works at least ok; it doesn't help that I have no experience with skateboarding outside Tony Hawk Pro Skater.
Red Faction went to third person. Still good, although the destructable environment weren't aparent in the demo.
One of the best games I didn't play wasn't Fallout 3 or Left 4 Dead (both still looked great); but was: Grifball. Yes, the Halo 3 multiplayer varient was in full force at the RoosterTeeth, and is one of the primary reasons to get a 360 and Halo 3.

One last thing for this post: Felicia Day was there; and I met her. She was signing The Guild DVD's, and conversed a bit with everyone. She was also great at the panel (probably should have recorded some of her spontanious coments).