Get In The Game (or out of it?)

As a child of the late 70′s (1977), I was part of the generation that grew up playing video games, both at home and at the arcade. When I think back on my history with this illusory past time, I remember all the fun and excitement that I had with playing them. Yet, at some point in my life I grew past playing video games all the time. I don’t quite recall when the turning point was, but I also know it never fully left. The last console I purchased was the Gamecube Nintendo and that all changed a little over 6 months ago. During a pre-black Friday sale, I bought an Xbox 360. For a brand new system, I paid only 99 dollars. I figured it was a good deal and given the hell of a year it has been, it was the first “gift” to myself in a long time (even before the lay offs). After buying this system, I got it home and opened it up, just to make sure everything was in the box. Then I packed it up and put it in a storage bin where it sat for a little over three weeks. And again, that all changed months ago. So, as of today, I have been actively playing my Xbox 360 and using the Xbox Live service. I’m meeting up with some friends online and meeting some new gamers via the online games that I have. I’m enjoying it a lot and the more I play the more I start remembering the part of me that I left behind, and how I used to be.

Over the past eight years I have had a few skirmishes here and there with playing video games, but even with my new console, I still haven’t scratched the surface of the hours I used to give to my gaming past. In many ways, I am glad that this is the case. However, there has always been, and I suspect always will be, a desire in me to get back into heavy gaming. Even though I have controlled the habit over the years, I still get that persistent itch once in a while and I have given into a few all night sessions. However, after getting back into the groove, I’ve started to reflect upon my memories as a child growing up in Seattle, WA, California and later in Oklahoma and Minnesota; a reflection of how much video games were a part of my life. Another reminder of this fact actually came to me prior to purchasing this Xbox 360 when I watched the movie, “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters” back in June or August of 2009. Now for me, the arcade game of choice from the classic arcade game era was the fast version of Ms. Pac-man.

I clearly remember being a very young kid, unable to reach the joystick on the system, but wanting to play. Every once in a while, my mom would take me to this BBQ shack that was around the corner from our apartment in Seattle, WA, and she would sometimes provide me with up to five dollars in quarters, put them down on a table and then hold me up to the video game to let me play. I believe this was the juncture for me that started my descent ascent into gaming. As time went on, I was brought up on Nintendo consoles. Through the years, I never swayed from Nintendo, until recently. When I was of age, I also gamed at local video game arcades, comic book shops that, at that time, had arcades in their stores and pretty much anywhere else that I could pop in a quarter. And they were everywhere for me. I swear, the 80′s to early/mid 90′s were a great era for arcade gaming.

Arcade gaming provided something that console gaming, at the time, never could: community interaction of like mindedness. It also provided the aspect of direct competition and the warrior mentality of wanting to be the best (in a digital world). And this was the life for me. Some of my best times and friendships were made, even if temporarily, with people whom you only saw at the arcade. Hanging out and talking about the newest game or some new, secret path you found in Mario Bros.; or how you demolished a friend at your home on some past night. Standing around, with your quarter on a machine in a line of quarters denoting your spot in the imaginary line that is winding and crunching all around the game as everyone is watching another person(s), play the latest and greatest and being in awe of their mastery. Asking someone how they did a move or sweating in the heat of the moment as you’re accomplishing some new goal on a game that you’ve played over and over again, but at that moment it feels like it is a first time experience. Finding a quarter or a token on the ground, because you knew you didn’t have any more money to play, but if you could find that one coin you could be the best for one more evening (or at least kill more time from having to return home where chores and boredom awaited). Being in an arcade was like being in another world, one in which you rose and fell based on the power of your gaming.

The movie The Wizard, starring Fred Savage (the child actor from “The Wonder Years”), was the movie that you had to see back then. It was the movie for us in the gaming world, even though it was very cheesy (you never admitted it then, because you couldn’t see that aspect. In hindsight, even if it’s a whisper, you have to admit it); it still pressed upon the desire of the inner gamer to be the best at what you play. The song, from Karate Kid, “You’re The Best” by Joe Esposito was informally adopted in my gaming mind (and I suspect many others in the gaming community). I had that song in my mind so many times, even today it sneaks back in, “You’re the best–around–nothing’s gonna ever keep you down… you’re the best–around…” I mean, who didn’t hum that song at least once while destroying a competitor or obtaining that next level unseen before. I know I did.

Now, I am full circle to where I am at today. With a new job and career in tow, and my first new console after skipping a console generation of gaming; I enjoy how powerful this system is and the games that I am playing (Left 4 Dead 2, Borderlands and Army of Two: The 40th Day). Yet, I still find myself longing for more. I’m sure others would disagree or consider it not as important, but that external interaction with others in a sea of machines with the imaginations of their creators displayed for our enjoyment was unlike any experience that a console can currently provide and yet, this disparity will soon diminish as time goes on. As fun as it is for me to play with friends online and with new gamers that are waiting to join up to play the same game, I still feel as if something is missing. What we gain in the online connection of our systems, we lose in that social interaction that was so prevalent at an arcade. Sure we can chat and even video chat online, play the game together and do all the things you could do at an arcade, but it can’t take the place of those times when you would high five someone for doing something great; grabbing the person next to you as someone achieves something unseen before; besting player after playing during Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat and being able to watch them leave in defeat. And yes, even the face to face shit talking. I realize most of this is still able to be done through our consoles, but there’s a unique experience when you’re physically next to others while it is happening. I suspect that gaming may never truly see its way back to an arcade environment again, outside of a few niche areas or some ‘event’ that is taking place, but what a wild ride it was and I wish some of these younger gamers could truly experience what those in my age group grew up with.

——-@ds

While doing my daily perusing of a few internet sites, I came across a post on Digg.com about a guy who saw an image of a flock of birds sitting on electrical wires. Now, there really isn’t anything truly unique about this picture on its surface as I’m sure we’ve all seen similar scenes in our lives. Yet, it was his interpretation of that image that really piqued my curiosity. Whereas many people see that and just think of a bunch of birds dropping bombs; Jarbas Agnelli, from São Paulo, Brazil, viewed the image as musical notes.

On his vimeo page, he posted a video called Birds on the Wires. This video details the arrangement of the notes and shows how he interlaid the notes over the birds positions on the five electrical wires. You also are shown, while the music is playing, the original image that he saw when he was reading his newspaper that prompted this musical interpretation. Personally, the music is beautiful. It’s not very long, just under 2-minutes. It seems to start off with a very young and curious ambiance. My thoughts were “childish” in nature, but in a positive sense. As the music starts to grow, it blossoms into this very open, yet uplifting arrangement that teeters on the edge of wonder. It is as if the listener is being playfully teased with something that is as close as a whisper, but is never revealed. I find myself in awe each time I have listened to it. What a wonderful piece of music that makes me feel a bit better then I was before, for having listened to it.

Thank you, Jarbas Agnelli, for sharing this with everyone. His local newspaper, (the entire site is in Portugese, so unless you speak the language, which I do not, you’ll have to have it translated) Estadao, has a write up on their site, under their Cidades (Translation: City) tab entitled, “Foto de pássaros no fio publicada no ‘Estado’ vira música” (Rough translation: Stock photo of birds on the wire published in ‘State’ newspaper turns into music). It seems that Jarbas is very talented and creative, as he has other videos on vimeo that displays his other creations. I hope that more sites, readers and people pick this up and pass it along for others to experience.

It’s an oddity how nature continues to find ways to position itself in such manners that leave it open for interpretation and yet, translates so well.

——-@ds

*translations done by wordmonkey.info via iGoogle.

Warning: What you’re about to read has a blog disclaimer

On Saturday, May 16th, 2009, I went and seen the movie Angels and Demons. Personally, I thought this movie was a much better attempt at Dan Brown’s book, then the previous Howard/Hanks movie The Da Vinci Code. This post today, however, is not about the movie, but it is about the absurdity of disclaimer statements. As the trailers for this movie began to play, one of the trailers that was shown was Public Enemies, starring Johnny Depp. Right before this movie started, there was the familiar green movie disclaimer statement that pops up before each and every trailer. What was inherently absurd, in my view, was the fact that its disclaimer had a line in there that noted that this movie contained “gangster violence“. As I looked at this statement for the few seconds it was on the screen, I couldn’t help but think how silly that statement is. As if there is a distinction between violence and gangster violence. If a movie has a guy running down the street who is looking to murder people, but is not in a gang, and shoots people down, how is that intrinsically different then a gangster using a gun to shoot people down? There is no difference. So, why does such a distinctive description need to be made?

I started to think how we’ve become a society of disclaimers. Everything we read, watch and use has a disclaimer. It’s as if someone out there knows that something is not right, but to compensate for having done it anyway, they slap a disclaimer on it to “make it OK”. I’m sure much of this has to do with legal issues, because companies do not want to be sued for someone who didn’t read that a movie was rated R vs. PG-13 and decided to see the movie or allow their kids to see the movie. However, I place that blame on the party for not being personally responsible and paying attention to the rating system. With that being said, if I am going to a movie like Public Enemies, Transformers, Star Trek and Batman; do I really need to be told that there is violence in the film? Isn’t that part of what we call the action of a movie any way and isn’t it part of the reason we go to see the film in the first place? In other words, when I go and see a Jet Li film, I’m not going to see or expect really great acting. I’m going to see what new Martial Art move he uses to beat someone up and take them out. If we’re going to have a disclaimer for Public Enemies called gangster violence, then shouldn’t we have a disclaimer for Transformers called robotic violence, another for Star Trek called space violence and lastly, for Batman called (I don’t know what to call this, maybe…) Bat-violence? And speaking of Jet Li, along with other Martial Artists, their disclaimer should be called martial arts violence or maybe ass-kicking violence (but then we’d have to have a disclaimer for the disclaimer, because we used the word “ass” to describe the violence and that word is profane). I realize that my blog is not going to do away with the inundation of disclaimers, but can we at least agree to reconsider the absurd descriptions contained within them?

——-@ds

What a great weekend this has been. Went to a former colleague’s house party and pretty much just sat out on the pier. I was able to meet up with other friends and just talk, and pretty much chill. Saturday was a great day out here in Orlando, FL. Although it did rain later on in the evening, it was pretty much great throughout the day. Was able to take part in a boat ride on their lake, which I always enjoy sitting back on a boat and enjoying the ride. I made, what I call, “My infamy”, which is BBQ shredded beef. Suffice it to say, I received a good amount of compliments about it and it was gone in a few hours!  Very cool.

Later on, I left to go watch UFC 98 in which two of my favorite fighters, Rashad Evans and Lyoto Machida fought. Lyoto was able to defeat Rashad (who came in 18-0-1) with a knock out in the second round and take the title. Lots of speculation that Lyoto will retain this title for a long time. Personally, I was happy with either one winning, but Lyoto has a very nice, controlled style and now he is 15-0 with the title. A perfect streak, congrats! Sad to see Rashad get knocked out though. That’s life and as he said afterwards, it had to happen sometime and when it does you have to move forward. I agree with the moving forward speech, it’s what running without condition encompasses and I hope everyone will be able to continue doing the same.

——-@ds

For a couple of days now, a number of people online (myself included) have been trying to help a fellow Facebook friend and (for some of us) a former co-worker (who was laid off as well) win the “Create Dunkin’s Next Donut” contest. Her name is Kimberly Brooks and she has already been featured in one of the Orlando’s (Florida) local newspaper blogs, Orlando Sentinel. The article entitled, “Orlando woman needs your vote to win Dunkin’ Donuts contest“, has a lot more information on the contest as well as the other finalists. I won’t repeat much here (please visit the blog or Dunkin’s website for more information about the contest), outside of asking for everyone’s help with catapulting Kim to the lead. According to Dunkin’s donut contest site, she is currently in 8th place with her submission, “Frozen Assets”. This donut would be exceptional as it is stuffed with Bavarian mint chocolate. A few of us are also using Twitter to help promote her donut. This contest will continue through May 27th, 2009, so we do not have much longer (13 days to be exact) to help her win and you can only vote once per day. So, gather your friends and head to the Create Dunkin’s Next Donut website and vote each day until the end of May. If she wins, she’ll obtain $12,000 and her donut will be sold at some Dunkin’ Donuts locations throughout the country. I know I’ll be in line to grab one and you can to, if you remember to vote for her donut: Frozen Assets!

——-@ds