The talk itself is insightful, and the research Jane is doing at the Institute For The Future is very interesting. I especially enjoyed the part of the talk where she discussed Herodotus’ story of the Lydians using dice games to ease famine possibly being true. It at least rings true considering the use of video games to distract ill people from their pain and suffering.

Regardless of that Jane’s talk seems to gloss over many obvious factors. Mainly she completely fails to deeply analyze the mechanics of the games themselves. The sad fact is that games can not change the world, at least not in the way she presents.

In the talk, Jane says that in games people present the best version of themselves. Players will never quit until their goals are achieved. Not only that, but they give their strongest effort, and are ready and willing to collaborate. If you ignore the griefers and shitcockers out there, this is largely true. What she doesn’t discuss very deeply are the reasons behind these behaviors.

The simple and obvious reason is that games have no true failure. If someone tries to be a hero in real life, and they fail, there are permanent negative consequences. In the real world, you risk losing your money, possessions, freedom, health, and the health of those you care for. It’s a dangerous world, and many mistakes can not be undone. This is the cause of the anxiety people feel in the real world that they do not have in the game world.

In the gaming world there is a reset button. Even if you fail, you can keep trying with no repercussions other than lost time. In Mario, you don’t feel much anxiety trying to jump over the gigantic pit because you have extra lives. If you’re down to your last life, then you actually do feel some anxiety because failure means having to start over from the beginning again. When games do actually have negative consequences for failure, players get upset and play something else.

I think the reason she misses this is because she focuses on World of Warcraft, a game with no consequences. Death isn’t even a real consequence in WoW, or other modern MMORPGs. It’s just a momentary obstacle that can be completely reversed. Take a look at some other games out there that actually have harsh consequences for failure. How about some old NES games that have no continues, passwords, or extra lives? How about Steel Battalion which would erase your save data if you failed to eject on time? These games are obviously ludicrously unpopular.

As for the topic of virtuosos and 10,000 hours of practice, I personally don’t buy it. Measures of talent are strictly relative. How many people out there have played over 10,000 hours of golf or tennis? Now how many Tiger Woods and Roger Federers are out there? How many people in South Korea have played that much Starcraft? What percentage of them are professionals? I know I personally have played many thousands of hours of video games, but you don’t see me sponsoring PC hardware like Fatal1ty. The first person to ever play the violin was a virtuoso in their time, though they would be terrible by today’s standards. Being a virtuoso simple means you are better than everyone else. Not everyone can be great. That’s what makes greatness great.

This fact directly interferes with the factor of epic purpose. Every person who plays Zelda to the end will defeat Ganon and save the world of Hyrule. In the real world, there is only one champion, and it’s probably not you. Even if you collaborate and give your full effort, odds are you will still fail to be exceptional in the real world. Tons of people around the world dedicate their lives to sports, music, and other things from a young age. A ludicrously small percentage make it big. Strong effort greatly facilitates great achievement, but does not guarantee it.

For the sake of discussion, let’s imagine that everyone actually can be a virtuoso. We’ll pretend that we can create an army of Steve Vai’s by practicing enough guitar. If that is true, then being a virtuoso at World of Warcraft is like being a virtuoso at the player piano. If an activity has no possibility of failure, then either every human being is a virtuoso at it, or none are, regardless of how much practice. It’s meaningless and unremarkable to be a virtuoso at an activity at which you are guaranteed to succeed. If every scientist got Nobel Prize, it would lose all meaning.

Let’s take this same exact TED Talk, and replace all of the World of Warcraft examples with Counter-Strike. People are not ready and willing to collaborate in Counter-Strike, often prioritizing personal kill ratios above the objectives of the team. They will not work hard towards their goal, often switching servers when faced with a superior opponent they can not beat. People are quick to cheat their way to victory because true victory is too much work, if it’s even possible. Most players quit and never try again when they can not achieve success with minimal effort. These are the same people that quit in real life. They are the boomerang generation running home to mommy because college is too rough. Sorry, I don’t believe that these people can save the world.

If you want to really change the world with games, you need games that mimic the real world. These are known as simulations. The military uses them to train people for various things, most notably flight. If you play a racing simulator for 10,000 hours as a child, you do actually have a good chance of becoming a professional race car driver. The thing is, an accurate simulation is just as difficult as driving a real race car, and will not attract many players putting in many hours. Tons of people play Mario Kart. Relatively few have even heard of Forza or Gran Turismo. If you could get people to play simulation games as much as they play Bejeweled, then you could change the world. Sadly, that will never happen because simulations are simply not fun to most people. This is why rhythm games have ludicrously simplified instruments. They make rhythm games with real instruments, and almost nobody plays them.

I do think that making the real world more like a game can save it. Make it impossible to fail at life. Give straight A+ grades to every student just for showing up to class. Remove all negative irreversible consequences from everything. Guarantee success for anyone who puts in enough effort, regardless of skill or talent. Do all that, and an army of gamers will revolutionize the real world. Then again, does such a utopian world really need changing?

Until then, I think this talk is actually kind of harmful. A lot of people who are otherwise wasting their lives away will use this to validate that time wasting. Some may falsely believe that they are saving the real world while saving Azeroth. Rather than changing the world with games, it may just be giving people another excuse to play games when they could be saving the world.

I imagine that most people, even those who only slightly care about fair play, will not tolerate this. The absurdity of it is laughable. Why should a previous game of you played against other people have anything to do with the game we are about to play today? Should we give the previous Olympic gold medal sprinter a ten second head start? It’s obvious that this is wrong.

Now, having a handicap in a game is frequently acceptable. If you were going to bowl or golf against a professional, they would give you a head start. This is because these are competitions of almost pure skill. You are not on the same competitive level, and your loss is a foregone conclusion. Giving you a handicap is just a way of making the competition interesting for all participants when the skill differential is so great.

These kinds of handicaps are not the same as head start in Monopoly. For one thing, Monopoly is a game that is largely based on chance, not skill. Also, the head start is given to a player who just won, not the one who just lost. It’s bad enough that you give one person a head start, but you give a head start to the person who doesn’t need it. That’s just wrong.

To compound the issue, this sort of head start creates a momentum issue. Whoever wins is likely to keep winning because they will continue to receive bonuses. In a game with a strong momentum mechanic only the early game matters. The player that strikes first will get boosts that allow them to keep winning and winning and winning. You might as well not even play beyond the beginning of a game with momentum.

I would hope that all of these things are pretty obvious, even to novice gamers. What surprises me is that these persistent momentum mechanics are being added to an increasing number of new video games. Why? Because it is those same mechanics that increase sales and popularity.

Think about that. A game that gives players bigger and bigger head starts based upon previous games they have played will be more popular than a game which provides fair and balanced competition.

Just yesterday I played a game called Altitude. My initial experience was very good. It’s a multiplayer team versus game. Each player pilots an airplane in a two dimensional playing field and shoots at the opponents. The controls are tight. The gameplay is complex enough to be interesting, but simple enough to pick up easily.

The one problem with this game is that it has a strong leveling mechanic. The more you play, the more levels you get. As you gain levels, you gain access to better planes, weapons, and abilities. The players who have been playing longer are given a humongous advantage.

Yet the game had a lot of players, and none of them had a problem with this at all. It didn’t even cross their minds that this mechanic was a problem. In fact, they would cite it as a part of the game they like the most!

How can this be? It’s quite simple. People like head starts when they are the recipients of them. Also, it’s basic Skinner box psychology that an organism will superstitiously repeat a behavior that it associates with reward. Give a mouse a treat every time it jumps, and eventually it will think that jumping gives treats. It will be a very jumpy mouse.

Games like Altitude put the player in a Skinner box. As long as you keep playing the game, you will continue to get levels. Your actions might result in getting the levels faster or slower, but you’ll get them. Those rewards will encourage you to keep playing. They’ll also make you very happy as they increase the head start you receive in the next game, and the next game, and so on.

The same mechanic can be seen in all sorts of games these days. Achievements, levels, upgradeable items, and unlockable abilities are the hot mechanics in video games these days. Who needs to make a game that actually has good mechanics and quality fair competition? That’s hard! It’s much easier to make a Skinner box that takes advantage of basic psychology to control player behavior, and get them playing your game for hours on end.

What’s even worse is you have culprits like MMORPGs, Farmville, and others who are effectively extorting money out of the player with the sunk cost fallacy. Want to keep all the bonuses you earned in that MMORPG? Better keep up with the monthly fee. Want to get more money in Farmville? Just cough up some real cash for an instant hit you won’t have to work for.

If you are playing one of these games, I strongly encourage you to think seriously about what you are doing. Are these games actually good games? Are they good for you? Are they worth your time and money?

For game designers, can we please put some ethics ahead of our wallets? When we hear about certain advertising techniques, we deem them to be unethical. They take unfair advantage of human psychology to deceive and/or coerce people into spending money. These game mechanics are no different, except that they are present in the product itself and not the advertisement.

It is possible, and in fact trivial, to make games that effectively control people’s minds. We need to recognize this fact, and work together to create a code of ethics for game designers. Games which are designed specifically to addict players can be, and are, harmful. People are being deceived into playing golf against Tiger Woods, giving him a head start, and preferring it to a fair competition. You know something is wrong.

Pretend you are at the movie theatre. There is a movie there that you want to see very badly. You’ve got your money ready to buy a ticket. There are two other movies in the theater. One of them you hate, and you wouldn’t watch it unless under duress. The third movie seems ok, but you don’t actively want to see it.

While you are waiting in the ticket line someone comes up to you and offers free tickets to the third movie. You are now choosing between paying for a movie you really like, or paying nothing for a kind of ok movie. You might go either way, depending on the movies, the cost of the ticket, and other factors. The point is that if the second movie were not free, you would not watch it.

The same goes for digitally pirated music, movies, videogames, etc. Back in college I decided I was going to try to watch all of the top 250 movies on IMDB. I haven’t finished that, but I’ve seen a lot of them. Of course, I saw most of these movies by downloading them. If I had to actually pay for all of them, how many would I have paid for? Probably zero. I was in college, I couldn’t afford to start collecting DVDs.

Take a look at something like World of Goo. Ars TEchnica says it is a crying shame that the piracy rate is near 90%. World of Goo is a very good video game. There is no denying that. But how many people out there really like it a whole lot? How many people have $15 worth of like for it? Apparently the answer is 1/10. Those people who are pirating it might like it, and might have fun, but if piracy were not an option, they simply wouldn’t pay.

There’s this conception that piracy is stealing. And true, it is illegal. But illegal doesn’t mean wrong. Ever hear of no harm no foul? Who is hurt by piracy? If you believe me that the people who pirate would rather not play than pay, then the copyright holders are losing almost nothing to piracy. In fact, they are gaining because when their products are enjoyed by people who would have otherwise ignored them, it is excellent marketing. It creates more fans, and makes sure that the maximum number of people willing to pay money get that opportunity.

Let’s pretend we have perfect replicators. We can create perfect copies of any inorganic object at no cost. First we woudl replicate the replicators until everyone had one. Then everyone would have the best TV, the best car, the best furniture, the nicest house, the best everything.

In such a world, would it not be cruel to deny someone something? How could you deny someone the best food if it cost nothing to create? How could you deny someone the biggest television, or the most luxurious car, if it were free to produce and equally easy to produce as a smaller television or a less luxurious car? If replicators didn’t exist, of course those people wouldn’t have a luxury car. But replicators do exist, so how can you deny them to everyone who wants one? How can you not replicate the Mona Lisa for everyone who wants one in their house?

Just to reiterate the point. Let’s pretend I had infinity apples. Literally infinity apples. Everyone knows I have infinity apples, and they are the best tasting apples in the world. If I try to sell those apples for $5 each, am I not an asshole? I have infinity of them! It wouldn’t hurt me at all to give them to everybody at no charge. What’s better for the world as a whole? Infinite delicious apples for everyone, or $5 for me? Would people even pay the $5 for my apples if they had to? No, because I’m a jerk and nobody will give me money.

We all know what is legal and what is illegal. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about what is right and what is good. In a world without piracy the company that made World of Goo ends up with roughly the same amount of money that they do in the world with piracy. However, in the world of piracy, ten times as many people experience the joy of playing World is Goo. The world without piracy is only different in that there is less joy and more jerks hoarding apples.

You may go on about the consequences of copyright for artists and such and such. And I may even agree with many of those things you say. The reality is that any sort of copyright on anything that can be expressed digitally is absolutely unenforceable. That’s reality. Piracy is here, and it can’t be beaten. There is no way. If you’re against it, you’ve already lost. The only possibility is that you may temporarily reduce the amount of joy in the world for some people who are not technologically inclined.

I really think that digital piracy just needs a makeover. We need to stop thinking about pirates as thieves, and start thinking about anti-piracy folks as apple-hoarding jerks. It will take some marketing, and probably won’t ever happen. The saddest part I think is that so much energy is being spent fighting a battle that is already over. If those resources were spent elsewhere, the world would be a better place twice over.

Recently I’ve become unemployed. I’ve got a lot of money saved up, so I’m not in any sort of financial situation. However, now that I don’t have to go to work, I have the time to try to sell or give away things I have been trying to dispose of for quite some time. I’ve already given everything to friends and family that they were willing to take, so everything now has to go to Amazon and/or Craigslist. eBay is dead, but that’s a discussion for another time.

In getting rid of things, I have noticed something pretty interesting. There are a lot of books being sold on Amazon at ludicrously low prices. I even saw some popular manga, like One Piece, selling for just one cent. I have the first eleven volumes of One Piece that I want to get rid of, but for one cent it’s not worth it. I’m better off giving them away. No, it’s not because I need the money. It’s because the time it takes to go to the post office is worth a lot more than one cent.

Here’s the phenomenon I think is happening. First, you have a bad economy. People are buying less. If they are buying, they are buying used and cheap. Places like used book stores are in trouble. They need to clear out whatever isnt’ selling, even if it’s for a neglible profit of a few cents. Manga publishers, and others like them, print way more copies of something than there is a demand for. Book stores buy it up like crazy. However, unlike actual books, manga are read very quickly. This is why there are so many manga cows. You can’t read War and Peace in the store, but you can read multiple volumes of Naruto, no problem. Even if the fans do buy and read the book, they don’t re-read it very much. Thus, a money-starved teen in a bad economy is very likely to resell whatever they have.

And there you have it. Lots and lots of people with manga volumes, and everyone who wants them has already read them. Used book stores who have extra stock sell it for a penny on Amazon. If they can ship it for less money than Amazon’s shipping reimbursement, then they can make some green if they sell in quantity.

I really wonder how long this will last, and how long publishers can have their new books compete with their old books selling used for a few cents. I can tell you one thing, Amazon has it made. They get paid whether a copy is sold new or used.

In the olden days information traveled relatively slowly. If you wanted to learn the twist ending to some new Alfred Hitchcock movie without seeing it yourself, you would have had your work cut out for you. Nowadays, unless you are completely non-social, you will be bombarded with information. It actually requires effort to avoid learning new information. As we all know, it is extremely difficult to intentionally un-learn information. The fact that learning is easier than not learning tells me we live in a truly amazing time.

There is another factor, though, that has resulted in increased prominence of spoilers. An increasing quantity of the works created in modern artistic mediums are of a nature that is very prone to being spoiled. Serial, as opposed to episodic, television shows are perhaps more popular than ever. Literature, especially graphic literature, is also increasingly serial. Multi-volume series, such as Harry Potter, are much more prevalent than self contained novels. These popular plot structures that keep the audience constantly in suspense of what will happen next are much more easily spoiled than works in other styles.

I, like most people, am a fan of surprises. For some psychological reason, pleasant things give people more joy when they are unexpected. Thus, when you become informed about a good thing that will happen, you feel as if you have been deprived of some joy. It’s as if knowing there is a yummy batch of cookies waiting for you when you get home will diminish the flavor of the cookies. I think most people can empathize with this feeling.

On the surface, a spoiler seems to be no more than a ruined surprise. This is why they are widely despised. Though, on the fundamental level, spoilers are merely information about a work of art. If you’ve ever been to an art museum, you know they post small cards associated with every piece to provide relevant information. In many cases the information on these cards does not merely enhance enjoyment of the work, but is in fact necessary to have any amount of appreciation for it. Why is it, then, that some information about a work of art can enhance the experience, while other information can diminish it?

In my experience I have found that the truly great works of art are still great no matter how much information you know about them. For truly epic works of art, I believe that learning more information about them can only serve to enhance the experience they deliver. This line of thinking flies right in the face of common conception, but I will show you that it holds true.

Think of one of your favorite jokes or comedy routines. Since it is your favorite, you have undoubtedly seen or heard it before. You already know all the punchlines. Yet, because it is your favorite, you must still find it funny, no? In fact, it is because you find it funny every single time, despite having committed it to memory, that you hold it so dear. If the logic of spoilers holds true, no joke should ever be funny if you know the punch line. However, we see in reality that the best jokes are funny no matter how often they are repeated. It is only the sub-par jokes that lose their power after their secrets are revealed.

The greatest film of all time, Citizen Kane, is the perfect example. Long before ever seeing the film, I knew that Rosebud was the sled. This was largely thanks to Warner Brothers cartoons making jokes about it. My knowledge of the ending did have an effect on the experience I had watching it for the first time, but it did not ruin it. I actually watched the movie as part of a film class in college, and the professor taught us a great deal of information about the film. I feel very lucky to have been able to learn so much that I never would have seen watching on my own. Knowing this extra information greatly immensely increased my enjoyment of the film.

For one final example, let us look at the Mona Lisa. Most people know that the Mona Lisa is a special painting, but those who have not had an art education, like myself, are typically not aware of what makes it so special. If you knew nothing about the painting, seeing it really isn’t that exciting. It’s a relatively small painting of a smiling woman. Personally, I had no appreciation for the painting until I watched this video. After learning about exactly why the Mona Lisa is so famous, I am now find myself fascinated by it. Spoiling the Mona Lisa for myself has made it possible for me to enjoy a painting that I previously found unremarkable.

When you think about your favorite works of art, and the truly great works from history, I think you will agree that one common trait they all share is that they are immune to spoilage. They are all enjoyable multiple times over. Learning more about these works makes them taste better. For an artistic creation to be truly great, it must be evergreen.

If you agree with that, then I think you must agree with the conclusion that follows. It seems that for much of the popular art created today, the enjoyment is diminished when the works are spoiled. If enjoyment of these works increased with more information, as do the great works, then people would not be trying so hard to avoid spoilers. Therefore, I believe it is safe to say that the spoiler-prone works are not all that great. If they were truly amazing, we would be trying to learn more about them, not less.

I’m as much a fan of surprises as anyone. The element of surprise is a necessary tool in the arsenal of any creator. Having surprises ruined is indeed upsetting. I just feel that the effort required to avoid spoilers is not really worth it. Unless you decide to become a hermit, it will only become more difficult to avoid spoilers as time goes on. If a story is spoiled for me, and that ruins my ability to enjoy it, then it probably wasn’t a great story in the first place. If something is truly awesome, then all the spoilers in the universe can only make it greater.

After watching so many openers I have become much more conscious of many of the openers to shows I enjoyed in my youth. The first thing I noticed were shows that didn’t have any vocals in the opener. Perhaps this was done on purpose to make internationalization easier? I also noticed that the only shows that seemed to have opening songs with lots of vocals were made by the big studios like Disney and Warner Brothers. They also seem to be the only studios that were able to afford to have most of their songs translated into multiple languages. Shows with heavy vocal openers that are not by Disney or Warner, like The Real Ghostbusters or Thundercats, tend to not re-sing the songs when they aired them in other countries. Also, the Disney and Warner Brothers openers that were heavy on vocals were typically light years ahead of the competition in terms of musical quality.

Another interesting thing that I’ve found out is it is almost impossible to find Hanna-Barbera openers in other languages on the net. Were these shows not aired in other countries? I wanted nothing more than to hear the Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Scooby Doo or Jetsons theme songs in other languages, but I couldn’t find a single one. If you know how to find them please help. It is also difficult for me to find openers in languages that use different alphabets, like Cyrillic, because I can’t search for them.

Anyway, for your entertainment here is a collection of all the great international cartoon openers that I have found on YouTube. Everything is in alphabetical order for ease. If you find any others, feel free to post a link in the comments. Also, I do not speak most of these languages. I am sorry if anything here is wrong, let me know and I will correct it. I mean no disrespect to your country or language. Also, I put a * next to the ones I think are the awesomest.

Alvin and the Chipmunks – English
Alvin and the Chipmunks – German
Animaniacs – English
Animaniacs – Finnish
Animaniacs – French
Animaniacs – German
Animaniacs – Hebrew
Animaniacs – Portuguese
Animaniacs – Spanish
Bonkers – English
Bonkers – Swedish
COPS – English
COPS – German
Darkwing Duck – Dutch
Darkwing Duck – English
Darkwing Duck – French
Darkwing Duck – German
Darkwing Duck – Russian
Darkwing Duck – Spanish (Latin)
Darkwing Duck – Spanish (Castilian)
Darkwing Duck – Swedish
Dragonball – English
Dragonball – Galician*
Dragonball – German
Dragonball – Greek
Dragonball – Spanish
Dragonball – Japanese
Duck Tales – Dutch
Duck Tales – English
Duck Tales – Finnish
Duck Tales – French
Duck Tales – German
Duck Tales – Norwegian
Duck Tales – Portuguese
Duck Tales – Russian
Duck Tales – Spanish
Duck Tales – Swedish
Dungeons and Dragons – German
Dungeons and Dragons – English
Freakazoid – English
Freakazoid – Spanish*
Garfield and Friends – English
Garfield and Friends – German
Garfield and Friends – Spanish
Gargoyles – English
Gargoyles – German*
Gobots – English
Gobots – French
Goof Troop – Dutch
Goof Troop – English
Goof Troop – Hebrew
Goof Troop – Norwegian
Goof Troop – Swedish
Gummi Bears – Dutch
Gummi Bears – English
Gummi Bears – French
Gummi Bears – German
Gummi Bears – Hungarian
Gummi Bears – Polish
Gummi Bears – Russian
Gummi Bears – Spanish (Latin)
Heathcliff – English
Heathcliff – German
Heathcliff – Hebrew
Macron 1 – English
Macron 1 – Hebrew
Mighty Max – English
Mighty Max – Hebrew
Pinky and the Brain – Arabic
Pinky and the Brain – English
Pinky and the Brain – Hebrew*
Pokemon – Cantonese
Pokemon – English
Pokemon – German
Quack Pack – English
Quack Pack – French
Quack Pack – German
Rescue Rangers – Dutch
Rescue Rangers – English
Rescue Rangers – German
Rescue Rangers – Swedish
Sailor Moon – English
Sailor Moon – German*
Sailor Moon – Japanese
Sailor Moon – Russian
Sailor Moon – Spanish
Sonic Underground – English
Sonic Underground – French
South Park – German
Super Mario Bros. Super Show – English
Super Mario Bros. Super Show – German*
Super Mario Bros. Super Show – Italian
Tale Spin – English
Tale Spin – Swedish
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – English
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – German
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Hebrew
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Italian*
Tiny Toons – English
Tiny Toons – Hebrew
Tiny Toons – Spanish
Tiny Toons – French
Transformers – English
Transformers – French*
Transformers – German
Transformers – Japanese

When I was a kid, I could never get enough entertainment. I had lots of free time, I had very little money and the Internet was not what it is today. All my video games were beaten promptly. Any time I got a book, toy, movie or game I would immediately start consuming it. I remember putting together small LEGO sets in the car on the way home from Toys ‘R’ Us. I was not a spoiled or rich child who could go buy new toys every week, so the entertainment media I already possessed was consumed multiple times. Those were good days.

So how did I get from there to here? Well, having a full-time job certainly decreased the amount of free time I have available. I used to be able to watch an anime episode or two between classes, not now. Having the money from a full-time job has increased the amount of money I have with which to acquire entertainment. I went from buying a few meager comics once in awhile to getting a box full of trade paperbacks monthly. I also stopped watching TV when I started college, and that freed up a lot of time for other pursuits. However, now we’ve got digital anime fansubs, bittorrent, Netflix, YouTube and Google Video more than making up for the lack of content from ignoring television. Oh yeah, podcasts got thrown in the mix as well.

So, what is so bad about this situation? I should be happy that I will never want for entertainment media. Let me tell you that I am, and I do not take my situation for granted. Although, it is not all sunshine and roses. The major issue is that the mere existence of the entertainment glut has an opportunity cost beyond merely the time it takes to consume it. Due to the increased risk of consuming bad media, I have to spend lots of time selecting media to consume. If I select poorly, not only have I lost the time consuming media that was not worthwhile, but I lost the time I spent selecting it.

The next problem follows directly from this. As much as I dislike it, I am forced to judge books by the cover. I am forced to judge new anime series with a quick skimming of the first episode. I am forced to judge comics by the first few pages. Spending more time testing something to see if I might grow to like it is too risky an endeavor. I have to use a very selective filter on the enormous amount of content coming in. I’m certain that I am missing out on some great stuff, but that is preferable to risking wasting my time with something terrible.

Another consequence of having all this media is that I consume it much more rapidly. I used to read books slowly, watch movies carefully and play video games methodically. So now when I read books quickly I miss out on some things and do not get the full experience. I play video games without exploring every possible area. Also, many works simply fall outside of what I have time to do. Japanese style RPGs are simply out of the question because of the amount of time they require to play. MMORPGs are laughable.

Not only do I consume media quickly rather than absorbing every detail in its fullness, but I hardly ever revisit anything. As I said, I get boxes of comics in the mail every month. These comics are read once and put on the shelf. It’s cool because friends borrow it, but I have no chance to reread any of it. I can’t go back and play a beaten video game because a new video game always comes along and pushes it out of the way. With Netflix I just feel like its a waste getting a movie I’ve already seen. Music is just about the only thing I have time to repeat, but that is because I can listen to a song while doing something else like writing a blog post.

Oh yeah, blogging and podcasting. With all these new technologies making distribution and acquisition of content easier we also have a situation in which making content is easier. Making entertainment content is in itself a form of entertainment, perhaps it is the best kind of entertainment. But even with these new technologies, content creation takes an enormous amount of time and takes away from content consumption time.

The long tail is an idea that with democratization of media creation and distribution we will be able to get away from our homogeneous pop culture. Sure, the most popular music might have a million CDs sold, but the sales of all the less popular genres combined will be greater than the sales of the most popular music. This is really a poor and oversimplified summary, you should really read up on it.

Anyway, what does the long tail have to do with me having no free time? It means increased competition within the tail. In the days when the best sellers were the only option, I didn’t invest lots of time trying things out or hunting things down. I bought the one hit and consumed it again and again. Now because I am so much more discerning of what media I ingest, only the best of the best makes it through. Good art just doesn’t cut it anymore, it’s either a masterpiece or crap. So while a much broader range of genres and styles of content is reaching its audience, only the best in each category will make the cut.

You can see this happening already. There isn’t room for both Digg and Slashdot. There isn’t room for more than a few podcasts in each category. In times past the head of the snake was the only part that mattered. In the new wave, each segment of the snake’s tail will have its importance, but each segment will be dominated by a few players. It’s the old model within the new model. People with a broad range of interests skim off the top of everything leaving the soft underbelly still unexposed.

Are there solutions to this problem? Maybe, but nothing complete. We can definitely use technology and manpower help each other out. Meta conversations about media can serve as entertainment themselves while lubricating the decision making process. Changing jobs and lifestyles can free up some time to make a significant difference, but not enough to clear the problem entirely.

The only solution I can see is to narrow my horizon. If I were to concentrate just on video games or just on books and stop caring about other mediums, like I did with television, I would have an achievable goal. If I narrowed my horizon by genre, only caring bout science fiction or only about fantasy across all mediums, that would do the trick as well. Though, there is no way I will do this. There are many ways to narrow the scope of my interests to create a situation in which there is less of a mountain for me to ascend, but all of them are even far more prejudiced than judging books by the covers.

So what’s the conclusion of all this? As far as entertainment media are concerned, we are living in what appears to be a Utopia. Supply far exceeds demand. The rate of production is greater than the rate of consumption. It’s an infinite harvest of the highest quality. I personally perceive this bounty to be a dystopia in disguise. We will delight in eating the greatest new varieties of fruit from the greatest trees. Meanwhile, I fear that many more perfectly good, but less perfect, fruits will rot on the vine.

Thinking about this later led me ask a very important question. What is the definition of old school? Here is the top definition from the urban dictionary.

old school

Anything that is from an earlier era and looked upon with high regard or respect. Can be used to refer to music, clothing, language, or anything really.

Personally, I feel this definition is not accurate nor is it specific enough. If someone were to try to submit that shoddy definition to a real dictionary, like the OED, it would be instantly rejected. Where exactly are the borderlines between eras? Also, old school is often used to simply refer to things that are old, but not necessarily deserving of respect. Custer’s Revenge is an old school video game worthy of no respect whatsoever. Let us try to come up with a new definition of old school in order to put an end to many geeky debates.

Let us first look upon the words that combine to form the phrase. Old means something that has existed for a long time. It is not an absolute measurement, but a relative one. Depending on the context something from five seconds ago could be considered old as well as something from five centuries ago. The only thing that can not be old under any circumstance is something from the present or future.

A school is an institution of learning. That can mean a physical building or set of buildings in which schooling takes place. But old school as we mean it is not referring to ancient university buildings. The definition I think we are looking for is the sixth one listed in a more official dictionary. To paraphrase, school can refer to a group of people who have a common origin, influence or unifying belief.

So what does old school mean? It means that something is of an older school of thought. This is most apparent in art and more recently comic books. Artists, feel free to pummel me if I botch this, but in older times they had different ideas about art. There are many schools of art such as impressionist, abstract, expressionist, realist, etc. Some of these ideas of art are very old, from the renaissance or earlier. Therefore, works of art created from these schools can be correctly described as old school.

Let us look at video games, an area in which the term old school is used quite often. In my eyes, the current school of 3d game design began in the 1990s with Mario 64 and Quake. Therefore, I have to say it is wrong to refer to these games as old school. Games like Mario 3, Pac-Man, and Final Fantasy 1 came from a prior school of thought in game design, therefore they can be correctly categorized as old school. The next school of game design that I see includes games like Guitar Hero, DDR, Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii Games. If and when the games from that school of thought come to dominate the industry, you will be able to refer to Half-Life as old school.

So, what is my definition of old school? Old school is a phrase you use to describe anything which originates from or is influenced by of a set of ideas or beliefs prior to the modern one. That’s not a perfect defintion, semantically speaking, but it gets my point across. A comic made in the golden or silver age style is old school. An anime made in the 70′s style of Astroboy or Tetsujin 28 is old school. Sailor Moon is not old school, because it is cut from the same artistic cloth as the anime of today.

Let us all work together to reach a unified definition of old school and to propogate it throughout the geek world. Perhaps if we try hard enough it eventually will be put into the real dictionary.

It all started freshman year of college late in the year 2000. My roommate and I split cable TV 50/50. It was twenty dollars a month each. It wasn’t too bad considering the Time Warner service was pretty good. For the first few months it was awesome. I gladly paid the bill for this wondorous luxury I was unable to live without during the prior portion of my existence. But as months went on I began to loathe paying the bill. My roommate used it to watch European soccer matches, I used it rarely. Why should I pay half when he gets 90% of the use? I watched more VHS tapes on the TV than I watched cable. Also, all the lounges around campus had cable TV. It was quickly becoming a poor investment.

Sophomore year I moved out of the dorms to an on-campus apartment with my current roommate, and podcast co-host, Rym. We decided not to get cable television. The school provided the local channels over coax for free. Our computers, game consoles, VCR and DVD player provided enough entertainment that TV was not a worthwhile investment.

Over the course of 4 years of living in that condition we lost all interest in television. It surprises me to this day how gradual and painless a process it was. In the beginning I didn’t even realize I was missing something. I would watch TV whenever I went home to my parents house, but I was so occupied wither other things at college that TV was not missed. The Internet also provided so much entertainment that it was always more fun to sit at my computer than it would be to sit in front of the TV. Who could ask for more than a withdrawal without symptoms?

At one point RIT began giving us basic cable for free. I used it on 9/11 after a friend informed me about the disaster via instant message. We used the TV again when Lupin III was originally on Adult Swim. That ended very abruptly when they started with reruns and changed the schedule. Soon after that we rearranged the furniture and the TV ended up on the side of the room opposite the cable jack. We considered running a cable a few times, but we eventually gave up and were better off because of it.

By this time we realized we weren’t watching television anymore. We finally had become conciously aware of how much better our lives were due to lack of TV. We were no longer slaves to the schedule of the broadcasters. We no longer cared about stupid bullshit shows that meant nothing. We read the news we cared about on the Internet. We entertained ourselves in the method of our choosing at the time of our choosing without any advertisements in the way. We began to take notice and cringe when we saw telvisions in public places. It became annoying when other people would watch TV instead of having a discussion. For the first time even the Super Bowl passed without notice.

Our TV watching habits had turned a complete 180. We were TV watchers, then TV ignorers and now TV haters. We often joked about plans to save the world by destroying all the TV sattelites. Often we would quote the Simpson’s episode where the cable goes out. If you remember the scene where all the children go outside, rub their eyes and the neighborhood becomes a paradise. That’s what we envisioned, and it’s what we still envision to a certain degree.

Since that time life has been grand, except for the existence of Cablevision. At RIT we were provided with access to two OC3s worth of juicy bandwidth which was paid for by the school. In other words, we paid for insanely fast Internet in our tuitions. Over the years we became spoiled, and we began to loathe having to use a more pedestrian Internet service. Eventually the time came and we moved out to Beacon, NY. Cablevision is the most reasonable ISP available in this area.

Getting Cablevision to sell us Optimum Online without Optimum TV was not much of a problem. But after a painless installation they began to harass us. I often got calls from them trying to sell me television service. Once a guy even came to our house and asked where our sattelite dish was. He checked the box outside and saw that we had not removed the TV filtering device. Cablevision just can’t imagine how anyone can go without TV. They really think that we are stealing cable. It wasn’t until the end of last year they ceased harassing us.

Of course, there are some things I miss about TV, but not many. I miss watching a few cartoons that are not available on DVD. I can’t remember the last time I saw Dexter’s Lab. I also miss some live sporting events, mostly ice hockey and Formula 1. The Internet just doesn’t provide a reasonable way to watch ice hockey in HD or a way to watch Formula 1 races before the results are posted everywhere. When that day comes it will be joyous.

I would be willing to pay ten, or even fifteen dollars a month for access to five television channels: Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, MSG and SpeedTV. I would use MythTV to record all the shows I wanted to watch and remove all the commercials. Until then I’ll just continue to get F1 races via Bittorrent and forget the rest. I’ve got more important things to do than sit in front of the idiot box. Really important things like writing blog entries about not sitting in front of the idiot box.

The idea I came up with is to make an emulator that emulates nothing. Instead of trying to make something to emulate a game console just make up a brand new amazing game console on paper and emulate that. If you’re computer savvy you probably realize this is essentially what Java is, a virtual machine. But imagine if someone made up a brand new virtual machine designed for games.

I’m confident that if such a system were implemented and supported by developers it would create a new revolution in PC gaming. It would make it easier to program PC games since developers would no longer worry about users having different hardware. They would just have to write games to work with the virtual machine without caring about what hardware is underneath. The emulator’s interface can include means to distribute games over the net and include an online matchup system for multiplayer gaming.

Think of it like this. What if the XboX 360 was a free piece of software that ran on any computing device ever instead of being an expensive piece of hardware. It would be like having a game console that never became obsolete. People would continue to use it and make games for it forever. Game developers would make money based on how many copies of their games sold and how much they sold for. The company developing the emulator would charge a fee for having games listed and perhaps advertising in the interface, but not during games.

All the detriments of PC gaming would also go away. No more difficulty installing games or not getting them to work. No more complications with patches. No more tricky copy protection schemes. All the detriments of PC gaming would be eliminated without getting rid of any of the benefits like the KVM.

I’m sure I’m not the first person to think of this. And some people might argue that Steam is almost this already. The difference is that Steam is really just a front end for MS Windows. For Steam to fulfill this role and achieve all the benefits it would have to become much more than it is.

There is one negative to this that is the full power of PC hardware would not be able to be easily harnessed. The performance would be well above that of Java or VMWare, but it would not come close to fully utilizing the hardware. The emulator would always cause a performance hit by nature. One solution is to have an operating system instead of a VM. Maybe there can be an OS on a LiveCD or such, but I do not think that by taking on the OS route will this be successful. We’re just going to have to start shying away from crazy insane graphics and put more emphasis on making games that many people will buy.

Every mash-up I’ve heard so far, with one exception, has received just one chance. What’s strange is that most mash-ups I enjoyed, yet I still did not go for a second helping. The entertainment of a mashup comes from the cleverness of the combination. Once you’ve discovered that combination all the mystery and excitement is lost. Experiencing it again doesn’t add anything new, and it is therefore less enjoyable. Think of it like a joke heard a second time. It’s not always funny if you know the punchline beforehand.
I think there is a way to solve this problem. Notice that most mashups, especially musical ones, are comprised entirely of sampled content. Very rarely does someone add their own original work to a mashup. I think if people started making more mashups with their own original work they could begin to create art worthy of repeat consumption.

Take Dread Zeppelin for example. Their music is a combination of Led Zeppelin, Elvis Presley and Reggae. But they don’t copy and paste beats together, they get out their instruments and play. The words and basic rhythms are taken from the other sources, but they recreate them rather than taking them outright. The result is a very enjoyable and original sound I can listen to over and over again.

So, this is to all you mash-up artists out there. If you’re going to mix hip-hop master A with rock god B then put the computer away. Grab a guitar and rock out while you rap some mad rhymes. And if you’re going to mash up two paintings, don’t just scan two prints and combine them with Photoshop. Use that Wacom tablet and draw it. I guarantee your results will be a much higher quality contribution to the community. People will enjoy not only the novelty of the combination, but the art in and of itself. And they will enjoy it many times over.

I have been a fan of Eurobeat music ever since my early college years. I was introduced to it view Initial D, Dance Dance Revolution and ParaParaParadise. As you can imagine, I have been able to acquire quite a bit of this music in all those years. I can tell you it wasn’t easy though. This music is only easily available in Japan where Super Eurobeat CDs are $40. And as peer to peer networks die out it gets harder and harder to get this stuff. But recently, by some miracle, I was able to obtain the first one hundred and sixty albums of Super Eurobeat. That’s right, 160 albums.

Well, the real story here is not the 18 gigabytes of music I obtained. The story is what I did with it. You see, we have a running joke about eurobeat music. An insanely large proportion of the eurobeat songs out there have the word “fire” in the title of the song: Night of Fire, Made of Fire, Fire Fire Fire, you get the idea.

Being a Linux nut I immediately made a nice regular expression and used various tools like grep and locate to make a list of every song with the word “fire” in the title that is on Super Eurobeat volumes 1 through 160. Let me tell you, the list is quite impressive. Here it is.

Super Eurobeat 140 – Non-stop megamix/Disc1/Disc1-20 – MADISON – YOU CAN LIGHT MY FIRE
Super Eurobeat 140 – Non-stop megamix/Disc2/Disc2-33 – D.Essex – Boom Boom Fire
Super Eurobeat 140 – Non-stop megamix/Disc2/Disc2-19 – Dave Rodgers – Wheels Of Fire
Super Eurobeat 140 – Non-stop megamix/Disc2/Disc2-50 – Nuage – Baby Get My Fire Tonite
Super Eurobeat 140 – Non-stop megamix/Disc2/Disc2-24 – De La Vega – Sex On Fire
Super Eurobeat 140 – Non-stop megamix/Disc2/Disc2-48 – Niko – Night Of Fire
Super Eurobeat 140 – Non-stop megamix/Disc2/Disc2-21 – Matt Land ft. Kiko Loureiro – The Road Is On Fire
Super Eurobeat 140 – Non-stop megamix/Disc3/Disc3-03 – NIKO – NIGHT OF FIRE
Super Eurobeat 130/Disc1/Disc1-26 – Madison – You can light my fire
Super Eurobeat 130/Disc2/Disc2-50 – Niko – Night of fire
Super Eurobeat 130/Disc2/Disc2-42 – D.Essex – Boom boom fire
Super Eurobeat 130/Disc2/Disc2-40 – Matt Land feat. Kiko Loureiro – The road is on fire
Super Eurobeat 130/Disc3/Disc3-07 – Atrium – Supersonic fire
Super Eurobeat 131/09 – Mega NRG Man – In the flame of fire
Super Eurobeat 132/05 – Nuage – Baby get my fire tonite
Super Eurobeat 133/25 – Matt Land feat. Kiko Loureiro – The road is on fire
Super Eurobeat 134/11 – De La Vega – Sex On Fire
Super Eurobeat 138/01 – Lou Turner – Spitfire
Super Eurobeat 141/01 – Dusty – The Fire and the Rain
Super Eurobeat 141/18 – Jimmy Bravo – Queen of Fire
Super Eurobeat 142/04 – MAD MAX – CRIMINAL FIRE
Super Eurobeat 148/07 – Powerful T – Blood And Fire
Super Eurobeat 150/Disc1/35 – D.essex – Boom Boom Fire
Super Eurobeat 150/Disc1/02 – Niko – Night Of Fire
Super Eurobeat 150/Disc2/44 – Dream – Night Of Fire
Super Eurobeat 150/Disc2/13 – Max – Love Love Fire
Super Eurobeat 151/18 – LOLITA – SET YOUR HEART ON FIRE
Super Eurobeat 151/09 – TAM ARROW – FIRE TO THE EUROBEAT
Super Eurobeat 152/02 – MARCUS – MAN OF FIRE
Super Eurobeat 155/05 – Giacomo Caria – Light My Fire
Super Eurobeat 156/05 – Terence Holler – Dance Into Your Fire
Super Eurobeat 156/13 – The Girls – Hold Back The Fire
Super Eurobeat 156/09 – Ace Warrior – Fire On The Beat
Super Eurobeat 157/01 – Lolita – My Heart Burns Like a Fire
Super Eurobeat 160/Disc 1/29 – Nuage – Baby Get My Fire Tonite
Super Eurobeat 160/Disc 1/22 – Lolita – My Heart Burns Like A Fire
Super Eurobeat 160/Disc 1/18 – Ace Warrior – Fire On The Beat
Super Eurobeat 160/Disc 1/09 – Niko – Made of Fire
Super Eurobeat 160/Disc 2/33 – D.Essex – Boom Boom Fire
Super Eurobeat 160/Disc 2/18 – Lolita – Riding On Fire
Super Eurobeat 160/Disc 2/50 – Niko – Night Of Fire
Super Eurobeat 143 – Non-stop megamix/19 – Criminal Fire (Mad Max)
Super Eurobeat 143 – Non-stop megamix/03 – The Fire And The Rain (Dusty)
Super Eurobeat 143 – Non-stop megamix/23 – Queen Of Fire (Jimmy Bravo)
Super Eurobeat 137 – Non-stop megamix/24 – DE LA VEGA – SEX ON FIRE
Super Eurobeat 117 – Non-stop megamix/22 – DAVE RODGERS – WHEELS OF FIRE
Super Eurobeat 117 – Non-stop megamix/25 – MAD MAX – DANCE IN THE FIRE
Super Eurobeat 113 – Non-stop megamix/04 – Powerful T. – My fire
Super Eurobeat 127 – Non-stop megamix/Disc1/Disc1-23 – MAKO – Shellfire
Super Eurobeat 108 – Non-stop megamix/22 – Atrium – Fire fire fire
Super Eurobeat 100/Disc 1 – MST Side/38 – MEGA NRG MAN – INTO THE FIRE
Super Eurobeat 100/Disc 1 – MST Side/43 – LOLITA – YOU SET MY HEART ON FIRE
Super Eurobeat 100/Disc 2 – Y&Co Side/50 – NIKO – NIGHT OF FIRE
Super Eurobeat 100/Disc 2 – Y&Co Side/45 – D.ESSEX – BOOM BOOM FIRE
Super Eurobeat 101/03 – Ace Warrior – Baby I’m on fire
Super Eurobeat 102/12 – Dave Rodgers – Black fire
Super Eurobeat 106/16 – Atrium – Fire fire fire
Super Eurobeat 110/DISC 2 – Second Step & To The Future/Disc2-21 – D.ESSEX – BOOM BOOM FIRE
Super Eurobeat 110/DISC 2 – Second Step & To The Future/Disc2-44 – NIKO – NIGHT OF FIRE
Super Eurobeat 110/DISC 1 – First Step/Disc1-10 – RODGERS,CONTINI & SINCLAIRE – NOT FIRE
Super Eurobeat 111/17 – POWERFUL T. – MY FIRE
Super Eurobeat 115/03 – MAD MAX – Dance In The Fire
Super Eurobeat 115/16 – LOLITA – Light Your Fire
Super Eurobeat 115/17 – DAVE RODGERS – WHEELS OF FIRE
Super Eurobeat 120/SEB120 [1of3] – 09 – LOVE AND FIRE
Super Eurobeat 120/SEB120 [3of3] – 24 – NIGHT OF FIRE
Super Eurobeat 120/SEB120 [2of3] – 09 – NIGHT OF FIRE – NIKO
Super Eurobeat 120/SEB120 [3of3] – 19 – BOOM BOOM FIRE
Super Eurobeat 120/SEB120 [2of3] – 02 – DANCE IN THE FIRE – MAD MAX
Super Eurobeat 120/SEB120 [1of3] – 05 – YOUCAN LIGHT MY FIRE
Super Eurobeat 121/17 – POWERFUL.T – FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE
Super Eurobeat 122/09 – MEGA NRG MAN – KUNG FU FIRE
Super Eurobeat 124/Disc1/Disc1-14 – MATT LAND – IN THE LINE OF FIRE
Super Eurobeat 124/Disc1/Disc1-15 – MAKO – SHELLFIRE
Super Eurobeat 124/Disc2/Disc2-20 – DAVE RODGERS – WHEELS OF FIRE
Super Eurobeat 124/Disc2/Disc2-05 – NIKO – NIGHT OF FIRE
Super Eurobeat 128/Disc1/Disc1-09 – POWERFUL T. – GREAT BALLS OF FIRE
Super Eurobeat 128/Disc1/Disc1-18 – MATT LAND feat.KIKO LOUREIRO – The Road is on Fire
Super Eurobeat 128/Disc2 – Autobacs Special Megamix/Disc2-03 – Tommy K. – Rock Of Fire
Super Eurobeat 128/Disc2 – Autobacs Special Megamix/Disc2-01 – MATT LAND feat.KIKO LOUREIRO – The Road is on Fire
Super Eurobeat 022 – Non-stop megamix/23 – Leslie Feat. Rick Wild – Fire Desire
Super Eurobeat 003/02 – MARK FARINA – GUNFIRE
Super Eurobeat 004/20 – Mark Farina – Gunfire
Super Eurobeat 011/01 – THE BIG BROTHER – RED FIRE
Super Eurobeat 012/04 – THE BIG BROTHER – RED FIRE
Super Eurobeat 014/12 – Leslie Feat. Rick Wild – Fire Desire
Super Eurobeat 018/11 – LESLIE feat.RICK WILD – Fire Desire
Super Eurobeat 019/12 – Leslie – Fire Desire
Super Eurobeat 021/01 – Big Brother – Dancing In The Fire
Super Eurobeat 024/07 – RODGERS.CONTINI & SINCLAIRE – HOT FIRE(SATURDAY NIGHT VERSION)
Super Eurobeat 025/12 – RODGERS & CCONTINI & SINCLAIRE – HOT FIRE
Super Eurobeat 043/17 – MEGA NRG MAN – FIRE
Super Eurobeat 049/13 – DELTA FORCE – RELIGHT MY FIRE
Super Eurobeat 049/11 – LOVE & PRIDE – IN THE LINE OF FIRE
Super Eurobeat 080 – Non-stop megamix/Disc2 – SK FACTORY SIDE/Disc2-14 – ATRIUM – SUPERSONIC FIRE
Super Eurobeat 080 – Non-stop megamix/Disc1 – MST SIDE/Disc1-40 – VICKY VALE – STOP THE FIRE
Super Eurobeat 076 – Non-stop megamix/14 – Atrium – Supersonic fire
Super Eurobeat 090 – Non-stop megamix/DISC 1 – FEMALE SIDE/Disc1-34 – LOLITA – YOU SET MY HEART ON FIRE
Super Eurobeat 090 – Non-stop megamix/DISC 2 – MALE SIDE/Disc2-45 – NIKO – NIGHT OF FIRE
Super Eurobeat 090 – Non-stop megamix/DISC 2 – MALE SIDE/Disc2-08 – MEGA NRG MAN – FIRE
Super Eurobeat 090 – Non-stop megamix/DISC 2 – MALE SIDE/Disc2-03 – ATRIUM – SUPER SONIC FIRE
Super Eurobeat 090 – Non-stop megamix/DISC 2 – MALE SIDE/Disc2-44 – D.ESSEX – BOOM BOOM FIRE
Super Eurobeat 070 – Non-stop megamix/04 – ROXANNE – LOVE LOVE FIRE
Super Eurobeat 052/12 – Roxanne – Love Love Fire
Super Eurobeat 052/10 – Sally Rendall – On Fire
Super Eurobeat 053/21 – DELTA FORCE – RELIGHT MY FIRE
Super Eurobeat 053/23 – ROXANNE – LOVE LOVE FIRE
Super Eurobeat 060/Y & CO.SIDE/Disc2-19 – ROXANNE – LOVE LOVE FIRE
Super Eurobeat 060/ISD SIDE/Disc1-04 – DELTA FORCE – RELIGHT MY FIRE
Super Eurobeat 065/06 – ANN SINCLAIR – LOVE AND FIRE
Super Eurobeat 066/CD1/13 – MEGA NRG MAN – FLAME ON THE FIRE
Super Eurobeat 068/10 – DENISE – EMOTIONAL FIRE
Super Eurobeat 068/05 – VIRGINELLE – LOVIN’ LIKE A FIRE
Super Eurobeat 072/12 – VICKY VALE – STOP THE FIRE
Super Eurobeat 074/09 – KL Jones – Spitfire
Super Eurobeat 075/18 – ATRIUM – SUPERSONIC FIRE
Super Eurobeat 077/13 – TENSION – I’M ON THE FIRE
Super Eurobeat 082/11 – NIKO – NIGHT OF FIRE
Super Eurobeat 083/CD1/26 – Niko – Night Of Fire
Super Eurobeat 086/CD2/01 – Niko – Night Of Fire (New Generation Remix)
Super Eurobeat 087/CD1/16 – LOLITA – YOU SET MY HEART ON FIRE
Super Eurobeat 087/CD1/14 – MADISON – YOU CAN LIGHT MY FIRE
Super Eurobeat 088/CD1/01 – D.ESSEX – BOOM BOOM FIRE
Super Eurobeat 089/CD1/13 – MEGA NRG MAN – FIRE FIRE
Super Eurobeat 092/Disc2/04 Leslie Feat. Rickwild – Fire Desire
Super Eurobeat 096/Disc1/23 – MEGA NRG MAN – INTO THE FIRE
Super Eurobeat 096/Disc1/21 – TOMMY K. – ROCK OF FIRE
Super Eurobeat 098/Disc1/Disc1-10 – ROSE – DON’ T STOP MY FIRE
Super Eurobeat 099/Disc1/Disc1-10 – Mr M – Run Into The Fire
Super Eurobeat 099/Disc2/Disc2-08 – Madison – You Can Light My Fire (Extended)
Super Eurobeat 099/Disc2/Disc2-09 – D-Essex – Boom Boom Fire (Old Generation Mix)

Didn’t believe me, did you?

While sorting out those old GamePro magazines I stumbled upon something very interesting. In the labs section, on page 30, where they review new hardware accessories, of the March 1997 issue #102 there is a small box containing a review of a third party PlayStation controller. The box is titled “The Alps Adventure” and it is a review of a controller simply called “The Gamepad” that is made by Alps Interactive. The picture and text of the review follow.

It looks like a batarang, but fear not, hardy PlayStation gameplayers. The Gamepad by Alps Interactive is anything but sinister. The cool, sleek design is actually very functional, with extra-long, rubber-coated handles for a sure grip and a responsive, thumb-friendly direction pad rather than the four buttons as on the stock PSX controller.

Some downsides are the closely spaced teardrop-shaped action buttons and the triggers, which seem more spread out than on the standard controller. Sill, The Gamepad is ready to help gamers kick some butt–even if it’s not in Gotham City.

I think it is obvious to everyone that this is almost identical to the PS3 controller designs we’ve seen around the web. I couldn’t confirm the current status of Alps Interactive with a brief web search, but I did find this site selling the controller and giving it high praise.

Like others I am skeptical of whether or not the PS3 controller will actually be comfortable to hold and use. But based on a couple reviews of the original I think that it might actually be comfortable despite it’s misleading appearance. Assuming the reviews are to be trusted. Sony had better hope that the patent holder for the gamepad doesn’t come looking for them. I think they have enough lawsuits on their hands already.

Of course, there are differences between code and music. Having people collectively modify a song as if it were a wiki is not the greatest idea. Not everyone has musical skills, talents and knowledge. You would probably just end up with a jumbled mess of sound if you operated in this fashion.

But just because music can’t be open in the same way that software is open doesn’t mean it can’t be open in some other fashion. Not only can music be more open, but it needs to be. How many times have you heard an awesome song only to find out that the other songs by the band are not as good or even in the same genre? How many times have you heard a song that has a good part, but the rest of the song is boring or even painful? Those are only problems because music is a one way street.

Here’s one way I propose for opening up music. Artists write songs and just record yourself trying to write the song. In fact, record everything every time you use your instrument. Who says the only thing people want to hear are finished studio recordings? Then your fans can listen and give you some advice. Like “hey, that bit is really good but that other one sounds a little off”. Artists absorb the user input and go back to the drawing board. Eventually there will be a finished product created by combining the musical skills and talents of the artist and the input of the listeners.

Death to authoritarianship (is that even a word?). Music, movies and everything else can be authored via collaboration rather than by a single author. If you have musical skills you should create music which more people will enjoy. If having the listener participate in the authoring process will help achieve this goal, then you should do it.

The last thing I want to mention is how this will change music listener habits. In the current environment people are spending their time trying to find new artists and new songs that they enjoy. In a more open environment listeners will do this less and instead spend that time influencing artists they know to get them to create better music. I’m not a musician and maybe I’m wrong. But I know that if I create anything it always helps to have more eyes and ears review it before I put the final seal on it. Why is music not that way?

Lastly, from a financial point of view this is a much better model than the one we are headed for. With the advent of people buying single tracks for a meager price musicians will not be able to sustain long term financial success unless many of their songs are wildly popular. Most bands I’ve found trying the new model are one hit wonders or zeros. Under the current model only the greatest musicians will quit their other jobs and the rest will be poor. With the model I suggest a few of the one hit wonders will be able to survive on their music thanks to the loyalty generated by the interactive fanbase.

Music is all about creating good feelings in those who hear it. We all know the ways in which music can make us feel good. But let’s add one more way in which music can make us feel good. Imagine going to a concert and hearing a song played that you helped to create. Then you hear a part in the song that you suggested. That “I did that” feeling is great, the same feeling you get when a big podcaster says your name or you see yourself on TV.

When I saw this fps implemented using the canvas element last week I knew gold had been struck. With the canvas you have the ability to create a real-time drawing surface with JavaScript. With the XMLHttpRequest you have the ability to get and send data to a web application which can read and write to a database. If you add these two things together you can make a massive multiplayer online game in a web browser that requires very little loading time, no installation and no plugins. This is the hotness. If games like Kingdom of Loathing pick up on this technology they can do some really revolutionary stuff.

As a proof of concept for this idea I have created a terrible terrible demo. It’s really simple and almost embarassing, but that’s what you get with less than an hour of work. I only tested it in Firefox 1.5, but it should theoretically work in any browser that supports XMLHttpRequest and canvas. There are two links and a canvas. If you click a link, the square with the coordinates it represents will turn black. This isn’t anything new, except that behind the scenes those coordinates are being read from XML data. If you replace that static XML data with a web application and a relational database then you’re playing with power.

Maybe the demo will be better by the time you read this. I’m going to keep working on it as a platform for creating games that utilize grids. Tile-laying games like Tigris and Euphrates and strategy games like Dungeons and Dragons combat are top contenders. All that we have to do now is expand the canvas to have real 3d drawing power with the help of the GPU.

What are the long term implications of this technology? The most obvious thing I see is another nail in the coffin of Microsoft. Looking for the reason? PC Gaming is one of the main reasons pepople still run Windows. If all the software is web-based then Firefox becomes the OS and Linux/OSX/Windows doesn’t matter. If we can make a 3d, or even a 2d MMO that works in Firefox regardless of platform we can make a killing. Even people running old versions of BSD would be able to play the game just fine. There are more PCs than consoles out there. Firefox’s popularity is growing daily. A quality game built on this platform could easily overtake the great World of Warcraft because the barrier to entry is so small. To get into most MMOs you have to install software and have sufficient 3d hardware. Signing up for this MMO would be no harder than registering for a forum on the web.

I’m going to talk about this tonight on GeekNights.

As German games go, M.U.L.E. is fairly flawed. But the flaws really can’t be blamed on any people. Half of the problems in the game are simply due to technical limitations. Because it is a video game with very minimal controls there had to be some losses. For example, the mine outfitters are on the left side of town. So if you have plots of land on the left of the map you can mine them without spending too much time. Also, having a poor a.i. which can be taken advantage of in any game with less than four players really hurts the game quite a bit. Lastly, the method of selecting plots of land is fickle, and you really need lots of skill to get the land you want.

The other ways in which the game is flawed weren’t viewed as flaws because this is a video game. But when you design a strategy game the current thinking is that you want to remove as many random and arbitrary factors as possible. M.U.L.E. has way too many random factors. Pretty much every turn somebody gets a random bonus or detriment. There is an element of gampeplay where you hunt the wampus which appears randomly. And the selection of how many plots of land are auctioned off and when can be pretty random.

One last thing about the game that is not so good is the lack of knowledge. In game theory there are ways of describing games as being games of total information, partial information or no information. A game of no information is like 3 card monte. The dealer used sleight of hand to move the card so you don’t know which card to pick, and your chances of winning are one out of three, or worse. A game of partial information is like Texas Hold ‘em, you know some of the cards out there, but you don’t know what your opponent is hiding. A game of total information is like checkers, chess or go where everything is in plain sight.

The problem with M.U.L.E. is that it is a game of total information, everything every player has is wide open. However, the rules of the game are closed. You receive points based on money, land and goods. Money points are obviously one point per dollar. Land points seem to simply be a number multiplied by how many plots of land you own. And goods points seem to be a multiplier of how many, and which, units of goods you possess. However, the multiplier for goods is unknown! How am I supposed to decide whether or not to sell a good? Let’s say I have an opportunity to sell one crystite for $50. Would it be worth more than 50 goods points if I held onto it? There’s no way to know because I can’t find this information anywhere on the Internet.

Despite multiple paragraphs about the flaws of M.U.L.E. it is still a great game. With a little bit of modification it would make an excellent board game that could be played time and time again. If I find the time I am going to work on making a new game very much like M.U.L.E without as much randomness. I know that I’ve said stuff like this before and never come through on it. But remember what I said about shit-talking? At the minimum I will design a new game like M.U.L.E. that is much more like a german strategy board game with less random crap. At the most, I will implement this game in software for online play.

This means that on those long road trips you can get your Verizon EV-DO PCMCIA card, plug it into your laptop, create an ad-hoc wireless lan and get your DSes online for some worldwide Mario Kart action!

See how easy this was? These are the only tiny tidbits of information that people needed and Nintendo was not revealing. This is not even rumor, this is fact. I used the interface myself and took pictures of it. The only way this could possibly be untrue is if Nintendo spontaneously decides to heavily modify the software between now and release. But from what I played I doubt that will happen. These seemed like very finished games. I think the only thing that is keeping them off shelves is that they need to produce enough copies and packaging and distribute them.

So Mario Kart DS and the new Superstar Saga are sold. Animal Crossing will sell to a lot of people, but probably not me. The rest of the trade show was cool, but nothing really interesting except for the pepper pad.

The second thing is a note about the lack of DS games. You might notice that there isn’t a particular surplus of titles for the DS. However, this rarity in turn has somehow increased demand. I’m not sure if Nintendo did it on purpose or by accident, but it helps them a lot. Think of it like this. There are tons of GBA and PS2 games out there. Because of this gamers have to be very discriminating in which games they purchase rent and ignore. Only the best games get money. On the DS players are dying to be able to use the touch-pad, the microphone, and especially the wireless multiplayer. But if they had a large selection of games available they would likely only buy one or two of them. Nintendo is rationing the titles. Look at me, I’m seriously considering spending money on games like Polarium, Yoshi Touch+go and Puyo-Pop. Fucking Puyo-pop. These are games I would normally ignore on the GBA. But the wireless multiplayer elements of Polarium and Puyo add so much. Add the fact that there aren’t a lot of other games out there offering access to these features of my hardware, and you’ve got big sales of games that normally would get none. I’ve already bought Mario and Kirby, my roommate bought Mario and Bomberman. At least with the multiplayer games we only need to buy one copy between the two of us. Just don’t be surprised if you see above average sales for titles like Bomberman on the DS.

Lastly, I want to talk about the gimmickiness of the features of the DS. Before the DS came out many people had fears that the touch screen, microphone, two screens and wireless would be gimmicky. Anyone who remembers the infra-red port on the Gameboy Color knows what they were thinking. It turns out however, that each and every one of these features can be used for gimmick or not. And it all depends on each individual game whether or not the feature is gimmicked or not. Take Bomberman for example. Bomberman uses the two screens very well. It also uses the wireless for multiplayer flawlessly. However, it uses the microphone in a gimmicky way. Certain gameplay modes allow making loud noise into the microphone to trigger bomb explosions or shields. I played it, and while it might be fun once, after that it sucks. It just hurts, you have to be loud and it’s not worth it. Thankfully every microphone mode has a clone mode sans-microphone. So to all you DS developers out there. Don’t feel obligated to use every feature of the DS. Use only the ones you need when you need them in appropriate ways. If you aren’t making a touch screen game like Kirby, then don’t use the touch screen at all. Nobody wants to take the stylus in and out of its holster during play. And if you aren’t making a game where voice control or communication is necessary and polished, don’t use it at all. And if you don’t really need to put anything on the second screen, don’t. Just stick the HUD up/down there and be done with it. When you’ve got a hammer everything starts to look like nails. Don’t use something just because you’ve got it. Use the stuff appropriately and your games will be better.

Then it hit me. Setting up LANs with VPN access intentionally for the purpose of playing multi-player games could be a great way to restore PC gaming. On a LAN you can provide all sorts of services very easily, and since a VPN is the only way in you can provide those services to only a select group of people rather than the whole world. It also makes everything easier by putting a single, yet very strong, security mechanism in front of all the services. No need for separate authentications or anything.

Why would this bring PC gaming back to life? Well, there are a lot of PC games out there that still work just fine. The problem has to do with lack of players, lack of quality players, or abundance of crappy players or cheaters. If someone were to setup a VPN dedicated to quality online gaming it would create a close community of quality PC gaming folk who could get their awesome game on without worrying about all the shitcockers. Not only could you lock up some game servers in the VPN, but you could also lock up some other stuff in there too. How about multiple game servers for different games, forums, IRC, informative web pages, a web server running web based games just for the LAN, etc. This type of community could allow the quality folk out there, like me and hopefully you, to get our PC gaming groove on free of all the craptasticness out there.

Imagine if there was a CS server out there that nobody could get to except for a large enough group of quality players. Imagine a place where there are servers for games that nobody plays anymore. Most of all, imagine a place where there are no shitcockers. They can’t get in, and if they do they are banned forever with no chance of getting back in. Incorporate the VPN into the LAN parties and you’ve got some even better times.