This Blog Goes to 11

Those that know me well know that I am kind of a video game junkie. Video games have been my biggest addiction all my life. It started with the Atari 2600 that my brother and I had when we were little, along with that handheld Mattel football game that was just a bunch of LED dashes on a tiny screen, and continues to this day with my PS3, PSP, and Wii. In between I've owned most of the major gaming consoles, although, interestingly enough, I never had a Nintendo console until my brother got me a Gamecube for Christmas one year. I was more of a Sega/Sony guy. I even had a Commodore 64 that I used just to play games (and I even knew Basic language), which was really the precursor to the 8-bit era of gaming that the classic Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) ushered in.

Suffice it to say that I like video games. And it's always fun when I meet others who enjoy them as much as me. I actually share an office with one (Brad), and another works right down the hall (Stubbs). Brad and I have had many conversations about games and systems and the like, but I honestly didn't know that Stubbs was another one of us (although he did mention Guitar Hero to me a few times - but that's a game that casual gamers love to play as well) until just yesterday when he came to our office after overhearing us talk about a new game called Assassin's Creed. I won't go into details about that particular game mainly because I am thinking about making some of my blog posts be game reviews, but that conversation sparked a great idea.

As we talked about games, I mentioned that there is actually a PS2 in the 202K conference room (we got it last year for Brian Smith's Innovators Speakers presentation) and that I had brought in some games and controllers for it a while ago. Also, since I had just gotten a Wii, I wouldn't be using my Gamecube anymore so I could bring that in as well. Stubbs then offered up his old Xbox to the mix. We realized we had the makings of a cool gaming parlor.

But as we continued to talk, the conversation shifted from the actual games themselves to the technologies and features that the gaming systems are employing. Brad talked about the cool things he can do with his Nintendo DS, and I was talking about how I can use the remote play feature on my PSP to view media I have saved on my PS3 hard drive anywhere I can access the internet. And as I was saying that I could bring it in and show them how it works, it occurred to us that there may be more staff than just us who would like to talk about and see stuff like this (and play games over lunch).

So we started kicking around the idea of having gaming brown bags. Basically these would be lunches in the conference room where we play games, but also discuss what we think is cool about gaming, what's hot now, what's on the horizon, etc. If it's not your turn at the game, you can eat your lunch, participate in the discussion, or root for one of the people actually playing. I know several of us in the office have PSPs, and we could connect them to not only play games but to share media (videos, pictures, music, etc.). Brad talked about showing some of the lesser known but more innovative games for the DS. And I told them about Jason Johnson showing me an NES emulator that he has on his iPod Touch that I think others would like to see. There's really tons of things to talk about.

I think we could do these once or twice a week, and I don't think we need to have an agenda. Just show up if you want to play or talk about gaming. If these turn out to be popular, I'd like to see us extending invitations to faculty and students to join us. We can use the Educational Gaming Community site as our platform for announcing dates of the brown bags as well as a way to continue any discussions that are started, or even start conversations on the community site that can be continued in person at the lunches. Brett has asked me to look at ways to promote the community site, and I think this might be a unique and fun way to do it.

We're looking to have the first brown bag after the Thanksgiving break. Again, no agenda. Just come and have fun, eat lunch, and talk about gaming. We'll also make a list of what games we have. Anyone is welcome to bring games to share as well. I'll post a date and time for the first brown bag on the TLT staff site when we have it set.

I was in attendance at Steve Jobs' keynote presentation at Macworld in January of 2007 when he announced the iPhone. An iPod, email client, web browser, and a phone all in one. I even snapped some pictures of it as it went on public display for the first time:

I wanted one right then and there, but there were two things stopping me. The first being that they weren't going to be on sale for about another 6 months. The second being that AT&T was going to be the service provider for the phone. I use Verizon, and had just signed a two year agreement less than two months prior. And, personally, I like Verizon, and I like the Razor phone I have. So I thought, you know, can't they just sell me the iPhone with all of the features except the phone part? Wouldn't that be cool?

Well lo and behold, about two months after the iPhone goes on sale to the public, Apple announces the iPod Touch. It's exactly what I was hoping for - all the features of the iPhone without the phone. This was something I knew I must have. And it wasn't long before I purchased one.

What can I say about it? I love it! Front and center is the whole touch screen interface. This will never stop being cool to me. Navigating on this thing is incredibly smooth, and, dare I say, fun too? Scrolling down the list of artists to choose the song I want by flicking my finger and watching the screen scroll never gets old. But that's just one of the things I love about it.

If this thing were just an iPod with the touch screen feature I would be thrilled with it. One of the coolest things I did was add the album art for all of my albums.

You can search through your music in a variety of ways, but there's just something enticing about doing it by scrolling through your album covers. It's kind of reminiscent of thumbing through a box of old vinyl albums (although now I've just dated myself). And I'm a collector by nature, so being able to see my entire album library all in one place and in the palm of my hand is just satisfying.

So, like I said, if this thing were just an iPod with the touch screen interface, I'd be thrilled. But there's so much more. I can upload pictures and videos, which I haven't actually done yet (with the exception of my album covers). And I can surf the web. Just like the iPhone, the iPod touch has the Safari web browser installed. And it works pretty well. It's pretty cool to be sitting in Beaver stadium during the halftime show and checking ESPN.com for other football scores. The web pages load at a pretty good rate if there is a strong wi-fi connection. There's no email client on the Touch, however, but I don't consider that a big deal as I use AOL for my personal email, and I can just log onto their site and check my mail that way.

I haven't even touched on the link to iTunes, mostly because I haven't used it more than once or twice. I think I am old school in the sense that I prefer to buy CDs rather than download music. It goes back to the collector in me. I like having the entire package - all the songs on an album together to listen to as a whole work by the artist. Although, downloading shows and movies is another story. But I haven't done that yet, so I think I'll hold off on talking about this feature until later.

Suffice it to say, the iPod Touch was money well spent. I went with the 16GB model, and I have a little less than half of it filled - just with music. The next thing I plan to do is to get some photos uploaded. I've said it about a half a dozen times already, but I'll say it again. I love the thing. I take it with me wherever I go, and I would recommend it to anyone.

I recently just replayed a game called Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty for the PS2. It originally came out in 2001, and (obviously) is the second game in a series. The 4th installment, titled Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, is coming out for the PS3 next year. I rarely return video games after I have completed them, because there is always a point where I get nostalgic and want to go back and replay them. Also, the collector in me wants to be able to have all the Metal Gear Solid games together in my catalog. So, in preparation for the upcoming 4th game and to refresh myself with the overall story, I have replayed and completed the first two games. I'll be starting the 3rd one again shortly.

I'm not going to get into the main story line of the game here, but I am going to mention certain plot points and characters without spoiling anything for those who may want to play the game and find out on their own. But for those who would like to know more about the game's story and have no plans to play it, here is the wikipedia page for Metal Gear Solid 2 (MGS2).

The Metal Gear Solid series is known for intertwining real world issues and themes into its story line including the morality of soldiers and the consequences of war, but it mostly focuses on the threat of nuclear proliferation and the maneuverings of those in power in order to achieve their own ends. Metal Gear is the name of a heavily armored, bipedal walking tank that is capable of firing a nuclear missile from anywhere in the world. As the story progresses from the first game to the next, the specifications of Metal Gear, which was secretly being developed by the U.S. government and captured by a renegade group of special forces turned terrorists, have been sold on the black market and are available to anyone with the funds and resources to build one. The main character of the game, who goes by the code name Solid Snake, is the one man the government turns to in order to prevent the terrorists from using Metal Gear to make good on their threats.

In the second game, the threat of nuclear attack is still a prevalent theme, but the concept of the control of information in the digital age as another and almost equally frightening abuse of power is brought up. I find this to be extremely interesting, because a case is made around the fact that all information, no matter how trivial, is constantly accumulating and being preserved and is therefore actually slowing down social progress and reducing the rate of evolution. Liken it to the genetic code and natural selection - in genetics, "unnecessary information and memory must be filtered out to stimulate the evolution of the species." But the fact that now practically all information in its various forms is recorded and available, much of it pointless, there is no real context for what is "valuable truth." For example, humans have always kept records of their lives throughout the course of history - writings, images, symbols, etc. But, in the past, not every mundane event was preserved. Only a "small percentage of the whole was selected and processed, then passed on." This is very similar to the passing on of genes.

Darwinism. Survival of the fittest. The natural order of things. In nature, those with the strongest genes survive to pass them on to their children. In society, those who are the strongest beat out the competition and succeed. Human nature and behavior is predicated on these basic instincts. But as we plunge ever faster into the digital age, have these instincts eroded away? What can we learn and and how can we grow when we are inundated with the concepts that success is contingent upon nothing anymore. Britney Spears is no longer famous because she sells tons of albums and fills up arenas around the world. She's famous now because everyone wants to know how she'll screw up next, not because she continues to be successful. Her albums have steadily declining sales with the most recent being the worst selling by far. Her fans have thinned, and her appearances on music awards shows are mocked by the media. She has two children that had to be taken from her by the legal system due to her erratic behavior and unsafe parenting. In another day and age someone like her would have faded away into obscurity, but now anyone with a camera phone can take a video of her running through stop signs in her car and post it to YouTube in a matter of minutes for the whole world to see. And this is why she's still relevant.

So if it really is the case that all of this unnecessary and trivial information is accumulating and eroding away the instincts that help us to grow, adapt, and evolve, does there need to be some way to control what information is received by the masses? That is the question that the game asks which, in the context of its story, is motivated by the antagonists and their lust for power that you as the hero are battling against. I'm not posing that question myself (my lust for power is not as great as that). What has made me stop and think is the reality that information - every little bit of it - is no longer ignored. Even though we have the ability to decide for ourselves what is important to each of us, how many of us really do that? As technology becomes faster and more powerful, are we progressing less and less? I would say, if anything, that the advent of such amazing technology is testament to how far we've come, what we've accomplished, and what's on the horizon. But the trick is how we use what's available to us. Sometimes we know so much, yet really have learned so little.