Bush Mackel

My baby beside me at the wheel. *riff*

Baby you can drive my car -

Ok, I could clearly go on for a while. Anyway, I don’t know if you caught yesterday’s post, but it was about Glenn Beck attacking the video game industry, and specifically Grand Theft Auto IV.

Mark from Me And My Drum yesterday posted a hell of a comment (thanks again) and got me thinking about the problem of realism in games.

It All Started…
With part of Mark’s comment…

Honestly, what’s the entertainment value in mowing down innocent bystanders or killing law officials? The answer: the value is zero. It only serves to “train” or desensitize our kids to morals, to decency, to the difference between right and wrong.

My head was a mess trying to figure out what to say in response to EVERYTHING he said, but immediately I started thinking about his comment about driving in GTA IV. And I thought about it like this..

Driving in Video Games 101
Forget about GTA for a minute, and lets think about video gamedom in general where you can drive cars. If anyone older than 5 picked up a game where you could drive, they would first and foremost expect that they would be able to drive which to me means being able to direct the car where you wanted it to go, much like a real one. If we stop right here and ask, “What if we weren’t allowed to direct a car where we wanted to go?” I think our initial reaction would be, “This sucks”. And I generally agree with that statement because if you can’t actually drive the car, you’re basically taking the interactivity out the game which is what video games are anyway (otherwise see: movie).

So if we at the most fundamental level agree that if a game has drivable cars we should be able to drive them, that immediately brings about the possibility of questionable behaviours. For instance, nothing would stop us from performing basic traffic faux pas including blowing stop signs, and drifting onto the wrong side of the road. But what’s the alternative? I think it’s getting into a car and letting the game decide where we are going and how we get there again removing the interactivity and turning this product into more of a film than anything. Continuing,

Most game environments are not empty. They’re usually filled with something. Either trees, items, powerups, people, enemies or whatever. And if we again agree that we should at least be able to drive our cars, we obviously have the real possibility of colliding with something. I think the only way to change that would be to have gamers either a) not be able to drive or b) drive in empty Langolier eaten worlds.

Driving in Populated Worlds 101
So let’s assume at this point we want gamers to be able to drive cars in populated worlds. As said before, there’s a real possibility that gamers will display “questionable” behaviours and for this example let’s say that I’m referring to driving on the wrong side of a road. What can happen if one does this? Well in a populated world, you can obviously crash into oncoming traffic. This would obviously be bad. So does this mean that games that allow us to drive are training us to be bad drivers because we are allowed to drive on the wrong side of the road?

Well because I’ve never heard anyone bring up this argument, I think the answer would be a resounding “no”. Which is pretty interesting because if you hit somebody going the wrong way in traffic, there’s a real chance they could end up dead. Much like as if you saw a person in front of you in a game and you mowed HIM over. So what’s the real difference between these two scenarios? I say nothing.

Does Grand Theft Auto IV Celebrate Violence?
Certainly the argument in regards to Grand Theft Auto IV anyway is that the game celebrates anarchy and violence. You should remember though that when you do these types of things in GTA IV, you’re slapped with stars indicating that you’ve created crimes and that the police are on to you which given any amount of time you observe as the cops try to take your a$$ to jail. And again - I know the argument coming : “The ’star system’ in GTA IV may make the police try to take you down, but it’s still glamorizing these horrendous acts.”

Well what if the game was called “Click It or Ticket” and was made by the Department of Transportation to show you the consequences of dangerous driving and associated behaviours? The game would still be realistic because you’d have to be able to drive cars, the police would still come after you, and you’d still be facing points in the game where you’d have to decide what you want to do… Stop at stop lights? Run from the police? Stay in your lane at 35 mph… My bet is that if the driving portion, JUST the driving portion of GTA IV was made by the government, given a new title, marketed in a different way, but STILL had the EXACT same driving gameplay - You wouldn’t hear the complaints that it is teaching its players to be killers.

The Problem with Freedom and Realism in Video Games
The problem is that it’s a double edged sword. The gamer community wants to be able to do everything it can in video games but then with that opportunity, you immediately introduce the possibility to perform acts we would consider taboo in the real world. And unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you view the subject, if you’re allowed to drive a car in a video game, you’re inevitably allowed to make some questionable decisions in regards to how you drive it. Personally, I just hope in years to come we don’t see in game police forces upholding real world laws that carry real life consequences.

Or so says Glenn Beck.

Side note : I’m sorry I used that line to open up this post because I know everyone else who is talking about these Glenn Beck statements have done the same thing. But hey, just be glad I’m posting at all. (#);)

If for some reason you DIDN’T know where that all came from, Glenn Beck calls “video game bloggers” losers. But that’s not what I’m really writing about anyway… I’m writing today in defense of the game industry.

My Initial Reaction
If you haven’t seen the video, you can watch a bunch of his statements here but in a nutshell Beck starts off by saying that he doesn’t blame video games for everything and that basically all forms of media are doing damage to our kids. But then instead of talking about the entertainment industry as a whole, he focuses on video games and in particular Grand Theft Auto IV. What gives?! It seems to me that if you were going to have an intelligent discussion about “this”, you would clearly define what “this” is!… If you’re going to talk about GTA IV being the downfall of society, fine. But don’t say that all media is to blame and then focus on one product from one industry. *rolling eyes*

Quotes
Beck alleges that

[Grand Theft Auto IV] is training our kids to be killers…and training our sons to treat women like whores.

and

In Grand Theft Auto your son or your husband or your boyfriend or whoever can hire a prostitute, have sex with her and then beat her to death with a baseball bat. When a police officer comes after him, he can either light that police officer on fire or cut him in half with a chainsaw! This is entertainment!? As he makes his getaway, Niko can carjack the ride of his choice and drive down a sidewalk mowing down as many pedestrians as he’d like. It took 75 YEARS and countless BILLIONS of dollars to train our soldiers to kill. Today - 60 bucks buys your kids the same thing. Whatever happened to pong?

At the moment I’m not gonna lie - I’m pretty hungry. Which makes responding to these comments a bit difficult. I will say though that I believe video games get a bad rap and I think a lot of that is due to the more mature ones being readily accessible to younger people and (what may go hand in hand with that) much like the Internet, most parents just don’t know enough to be able to make responsible informed decisions for their kids. Is this the problem of game designers? In my opinion : No. Look - obviously I’m a big believer or parents parenting their kids and teaching them morals and helping them to interpret the world around them and I think a lot of the problems we have as as society now is because we leave media in charge of teaching our kids about the world.

And look, I don’t have many problems with the media because I believe it is the society who largely drives their content. And I don’t have any problems with people listening to the media, but I think it has to be tempered with personal morality and scruples. Okay enough of this, I really gotta get something to eat.

Anyone have any thoughts?

File this under a little bit of alright : Sega’s hit game Samba De Amigo is coming to the Wii!

Now I’m sure that all of you mugs knew about this a while ago, but for your boy this is news. And you know what Charles Manson said on Family Guy - “If I haven’t seen it, it’s new to me!”

If you used to follow this site when it was approaching “good”, you know that I love rhythm games like Space Channel 5, Frequency, Rock Band and the classic Parappa the Rapper.

Samba De Amigo was always in my mix of great games but I felt that when it was on Dreamcast it kinda flew under the proverbial radar for most gamers.

Will it Be the Same on the Wii?
One of the best things about Samba De Amigo was the maraca peripheral and as far as I know that won’t be making an appearance on the Wii. And that sucks. Now I’m not saying that Destructoid isn’t going to post that someone made his own maracas with a Wiimote holder ’cause who are we kidding? - That’s just a matter of time. But the fact that we can get a crappy wheel for Mario Kart and lightsabers for Star Wars leads me to believe that my favourite monkey just isn’t getting any love.

But on that note - Because of current music game hits LIKE Rock Band and Guitar Hero, I don’t know that something suitable could be made and packaged and still be sold at the price of a current Wii game. I think given today’s marketplace, the whole maraca idea where once very creative and innovative now would be viewed as stale, flat and a poor man’s ripoff of something cool like a guitar controller.

Will it Be Good?
I think for the Wii and it’s target audience, I think there’s room for it to be a hit amongst the rest of the system’s party games. Though I don’t think it would quite work on PS3 or 360 because I just don’t think an older audience would dig it. And on a final and very SIDE note, Samba De Amigo MUST pump the maraca sound effect through the Wiimote’s speaker to capture some of the classic goodness. If they do that, we’ll all be happy. Notice : I didn’t touch on anything online because I can’t do another Wii Friend code. Sorry NOA.

P.S. I wrote a post today. Hooray!

You know, when you’ve been out of the blogging game for as long as I have - You can’t even figure out what you’re going to title your posts.

I’m SO sorry that I have basically dropped off the face of the blogging world but lately I haven’t been able to find anytime to write a half way decent post. (See this one for example). And because I haven’t been able to write anything half way decent, I’ve just kinda…

Stopped writing. (#):(

Why I’m Not Writing
I’ve been thinking about this one a lot and while there are a ton of reasons, I think the biggest one is that I’d like to think that my posts have always been of pretty good quality. (Or so I’d like to believe anyway). I know I’ve said it before, but when I write posts, I tend to have my posts blocked out for the entire week and when I start one I’ll write a draft, revise it sometime later and then finally eventually post it with some pictures when I think it’s pretty good.

With how my time has been lately, I just don’t have the time to do that, and at the beginning I just thought it’d be ok because I’d eventually find the time to post some quality stuff. But I haven’t. And then after that I didn’t want to just occasionally pop on to the blogosphere with a random post here and there I mean, usually I’m writing 5 posts a week. That’s what I’m supposed to do right?

Why is this Blog Here?
The easiest and truest answer is that I like talking to people about my common interests. But in its current form, Bush Mackel exists to discuss technology, video games, blogging etc… Now that doesn’t mean that the “truest answer” and the “current form” of the site are contradictions of each other but somewhere along the way I started blogging with a very professional mindset. Which is GREAT don’t get me wrong, but at the same time I think I started imposing a lot of standards on this place which I tried to adhere too. The problem with it now is that I don’t honestly believe I can still blog regularly and live up to these standards.

So What Do I Do?
I don’t know. I miss blogging. I want to blog. But I don’t know that I have the time TO blog anymore, at least not in the capacity that I was. And a lot of that DOES have to do with my job which is very different than the one I had before it. This job pretty much takes up all of my time and the people here are a lot more friendly than at my last so there’s always someone over my shoulder which means it is a STRUGGLE to try and blog from work.

Plus, it doesn’t help that outside of having to show up and the 45 minute commute on both ends, I really don’t mind my job. It pays very well, the people are good and the projects are interesting. Now if my blog were making enough for me to live on, we obviously wouldn’t be having this conversation but the truth of the matter is that it is not and I don’t know that it would anytime soon w/o me spending a LOT of time on it.

Conclusion?
If you’re looking for a conclusion to this, you’ll have to look elsewhere because I don’t have it. I remember when I brought all this up in the past, someone said they understood me taking sometime away from my blog because “work comes first”. That statement stuck with me because if you get to know me, you’d understand that that statement really bothers me. Well, let me say this - Work coming first over my blog wouldn’t bother me. My 9-5 over my blog does. I could go on and on on this point but if you’ve read this blog for a while, you probably understand what I’m saying. Thankfully, even though I haven’t been working on my blog I have been working on my design company and I think it’s coming along nicely. Hopefully soon I’ll have my first client too.

But yeah, I just don’t know what’s going to happen to this blog. I’m sure it will continue but I’m not sure when and I’m not sure how. It’s killing me that I can’t find the time to update it, but I don’t know that I can find the time. I just don’t know.

It’s not too often on here that I write posts about art or design, but maybe because of my latest efforts in that field or maybe just because I secretly like this stuff (which is odd for a programmer)…

I felt compelled to shed some light on teddY-risatioN’s new design!

Before he released it today, I really didn’t think that I could like it as much as I did his old theme, but he really surprised me when it was unveiled and it absolutely floored me!

So Many Things To Love!
It’s hard trying to comment on the design because there are so many good things about it (imo) but I’m going to try my best and see what I come with…

• The Colors - He uses blues very well in this design… And all of them combine very well in the background and in the header and in the teddY-risatioN text. Furthermore, where he uses lots of other colors (in the header nav) and in the sidebar, they go very well there too. In the header the colors on the nav are blended very nicely so they don’t seem out of place, but are still different enough from the background to standout. In the sidebar the colors are a bit more grabby, but it works really well in the white area me thinks.
• The Top Nav - On most sites, (like this one currently) the top nav is usually just text. But teddY went out of the way to make his special and you see that with the cool Chemistry like symbol buttons. Very fresh and creative plus it certainly draws your attention in because of its uniqueness forcing you to check out areas of the site that would probably otherwise go overlooked.
• Sidebar - The problem with a lot of sidebars is that they always have to that delicate dance of “how much content” vs “how long” but here it is done quite well and attractively using collapseable areas.

• Footer - I’m a big fan of having footers on your blog, (even though I haven’t done it here) and putting a lot of good information in it. teddY also does this one well by adding a lot of good information down here that regular readers will love to see, but making sure not to have anything in there that’s WAY too precious (imo).

Again, well done teddY and I hope next redesign on here I can come up with something half as good as what you have!

It’s been a hot minute since I talked anything video games right?

(Of course that’s probably because I haven’t gotten some regular posts on here in a while, but whatchya gonna do?)

So I thought that I’d just start up a conversation about what I’m playing, what you’re playing, and what we may be missing out on.

Honestly, there are a lot of games that I’m kind of in the middle of right now that I’ve wanted to write some reviews for but those kinds of posts I really need to block out time for, so until then…

Super Smash Bros Brawl
This is the current hotness that I’m rockin’ and the latest reason to dust off your Wii. (In case you were wondering, these reasons seem to come every 6 months or so). So far I’m really enjoying the game and I’m working through the 1 Player mode to unlock all the characters. I’ve yet to play a game against friends yet and I’ve also yet to take it online either because recently I’ve had a hard time getting my Wii connected to my network. But that seems like it could be the result of SOMEONE in my house port fwd’d everything for Starcraft games. *rolling eyes*

Burnout Revenge
No that’s not a typo. Being as how my wife gets downright bitter when I spend ANY amount on games, I bought the cheaper Revenge before I got Paradise even though I had it on XBox. But that’s ok because for one, I’m addicted to achievements and for two, I never got far in the XBox version because I think Prince of Persia distracted me. I’m pretty far in the game right now… If I can find the time this weekend (ha ha) I may actually be able to finish it. Doubtful if I’ll be able to get all those online achievements though. I played a couple races online and just got WAXED.

Rock Band
I finished the Guitar on Expert, now I’m working through Vocals on the same level. And before you ask, I do NOT fancy myself a singer like some of our other bloggers, but I just like trying to 100% games. After this, it’ll be time to hardcore start on the Drumming. (#):) And BTW, that game is awesome and I’m very glad I bought it even if it DID cost $160!

Zuma
You may have thought that when I beat this game that I was done with it. NO CHANCE. I still have to go back and get 3 straggling achievements. The biggest one on my hit list right now is clearing a stage in 5 seconds. I’ve managed to get 6. ARGH!!!

So that’s what I got. And I know I’m missing some good stuff out there. What’s everyone playing nowadays?

I was so happy when I finally finished the new look of my design site last night.

Obviously this was the main project that prevented me from posting on here (or at least that’s my story) and it has been a monkey on my back for a really long time.

Of course in the grand scheme of things, getting the site up probably isn’t the biggest thing I’m going to have to do. THAT dubious honor would probably fall to attracting clients and getting work.

Bethesda Web Design
As you’re probably already aware, that’s the name of my design site/company. Recently, amongst the 3 or 4 big projects that I’m focusing on for the future I decided to make this one a priority because I thought it would be the quickest avenue for me out of the 9-5 that I could find. Additionally, I’ve had design clients in the past that I’ve had on retainer and it’s really nice to know that your hosting costs will be covered month to month without you having to go out and get people to say…

Buy ads on your site. (#);)

The Design
I’ve said it before but I think it deserves repeating, I don’t fancy myself a designer. I like art, I like design, but coming up with original work in that area is a bit of a struggle. So coming up with a look for the site that I felt good about was a very taxing endeavor. And unfortunately (or fortunately), I had to come up with something good because I couldn’t sell my company knowing that my site was utter trash. Thankfully before I started the site (and my company in earnest), I did what any upstart does and order really flashy and expensive business cards. (#):)

Sure that doesn’t sound like a good thing (buying expensive cards before you have a site or anything), but the company I went to make my cards also did free logo design and consultation. And what they came up with helped me out quite a bit. In fact, what you see on the site as far as the company’s logo is about exactly what you see on my cards. Sure it’s not super over the top, but it definitely works for what I needed.

The Main Content
Outside of the logo is the main content, and I needed to find a way to present everything in a way that was clean but still (pun not intended) flashy. What I came up with was what I think of as very clean (even if a bit too simple) layout, where my main content is presented with animation in a Flash movie and I came up with the message, “Because everyone deserves a unique home on the web”. Recently with my projects, that whole ‘message” thing has become very important for me, and I think that’s what really drove me to overhaul the site into what you see today.

What Do You Think?
I know the readers of this blog (the few of you who are left) are a very talented sort. I’m hoping that you’ll check out the site, and let me know what you think of it. What you like, what you don’t, and what I can do to improve it. Much appreciated and can’t wait to see what you have to say!

Hopefully.

Ha ha. So I’ve really been trying to put the final screws into these projects and I think I’ll finally be able to do that this weekend. *fingers crossed*

Even though I’m not quite ready to unveil either of them at this moment…

I thought that I could at least put out a little blurb about them up today so I can buy a little more time from all of you. (#):)

And of course when I finish them, I’ll unveil them in all their glory and you guys can let me know what you think so I can make some improvements as necessary.

So a friend of mine in California contacted me a little while ago about making a website for a business of sorts that he’s trying to get off the ground. Basically you can send in your pictures, and an artist that he knows will take your photos and make oil paintings out of them. Obviously there are other services currently available that can do the same thing, but I don’t think at the rate he’s going to charge. For me, it’s a neat little project since I’m handling the upload process with a little php and Flash. Stay tuned on that one.

As I’ve said before, I’m putting a lot of effort in getting this site to where it needs to be so I can start doing some serious marketing to bring in clients. Even though I don’t fancy myself a designer, I now have one that I can work with (who I met at previous employer’s) who’s capable of putting out some quality stuff. (Thus taking the burden off me). The thing with BWD is basically when I get going and I get one client, I’ll have more than paid for my monthly hosting costs. Which is one of the reasons why I’ve made this project a big priority for myself.

More To Come
I am DESPERATELY hoping that I have this stuff wrapped up by Monday. It is KILLING me that I haven’t been able to get any posts up in a while, but I’m praying that in the end this little sabbatical will be worth it. Thanks again for the patience everyone!

Yikes this has been a busy week!

My apologies that I haven’t gotten any posts up lately, but I’ve kinda taken a step back from blogging this week so I could put some serious effort into getting my web design project off the ground.

Don’t be misled though by my use of the word “project”. I really should call refer to it as my business since well…

It literally is that.

I’ll of course give some more information on the whole process when I can, but I will say that over the past two weeks or so, I was kinda inspired by NBC’s The Apprentice to redesign its homepage, mission statement (as it were) and also my plan of attack (marketing) on the whole thing.

And while I absolutely hate to have had to backoff blogging, there’s really only so much I can do in a week with the new job and unfortunately, I really had to make the web design stuff a priority. It’s one of those things (and I think I’ve mentioned this before) where the initial ramp up takes a lot of effort but after that, the whole thing isn’t too bad. In my case, I pretty much started from scratch this past week – Redesigning the website, complicating my design, and just making a lot of work for myself.

But in any event, things are getting done that need to get done so I’m obviously very happy about that, and hopefully all this work I’m putting into the business will pay off really soon. Thanks for always being patient with me guys!

If you remember in part one of this epic mini-series, I related the woeful tale of a boy - his XBox - and the red ring of death.

And even though at the time it was unfathomable, I was able to find Salvation that night from the most unlikeliest of places - Best Buy.

I say unlikely because as time has gone on, I really have started to dislike Best Buy which is a complete 180 from my initial opinions of the place.

And perhaps it was because of my opinions that I was afforded such a great outcome! Though I wonder what you kids would’ve done in my situation…

XBox No Worky
So at this point in the story, I have a busted 360 with the infamous Red Ring of Death. Thankfully though, when I first bought the 360 I pretty much knew this would happen despite forums telling me they had fixed “the problem” in the newest boards so I bought one of the Product Replacement Plans which ensured that when my XBox went bad, I could just go and swap it for a new one. Sure it cost $60, but I thought it was well worth it because I couldn’t be without my system for more than a day. I mean, let’s be honest.

The Trek to Best Buy
So after destroying my house looking for my warranty, I finally found it and made my way with my neatly packed system and cables to my local Best Buy not knowing really what to expect. Luckily when I got there, I was the only person in the customer service line so I got “help” pretty fast. The guy who helped me looked everything over and said “No problem” to the whole thing but that unfortunately they didn’t have any more 360s in stock. BUT he said I could upgrade my system to the Elite and pay the difference… OH and of course I had to get a new warranty since my current one wouldn’t transfer. *rolling eyes*

At this point I’m pretty distraught and I leave the broken Box at customer service so I can walk around the video game section and go over my options. On one hand I could buy an Elite and get a lot more storage space, and get a cool lookin’ Black XBox but have to pay $100 difference PLUS $60 in another warranty. OR..

I could pick up one of the freakin’ XBoxs they had in the store that the customer service guy had just told me they were out of!!!

The Tables Turn at Customer Service
Back at customer service, I give them the new XBox and the guy basically says, “Oh, they must’ve just got some in”. *sigh* He starts to really go through the Xbox Box I just brought in and then pipes up with “So I you didn’t bring your controller, your headset…” I couldn’t believe it. And with work, there was NO CHANCE I’d find time to come up to do this again. So I just say, “Do I really have to go home and get that stuff?” And thankfully he said he’d just take it from the new box.

This is where things get interesting.

It’s now 8:30, 8:45pm and the store is closing in 15 minutes. Obviously the last thing that this guy probably wants is people in his line. So what happens? 4 more people jump in behind me, one or two of which has an XBox also. I can see him getting a bit twitchy and trying to hurry things up so long story short he completes the transaction and starts to send me on my way. At this point it donned on me,

He never removed the new controller and headset from the box.

What just happened here? Did he hook me up? Or did he just make a mistake. Honestly, I didn’t stick around long enough to find out as I basically ran out the store! So not only did I get a brand new working Xbox, but an extra controller and an extra headset.

Would you have honestly said something?
That’s my question. With me, I have a lot of history with Best Buy. My family has shopped there for years and especially now they do everything in there power to nickel and dime you on purchases by offering up “Geek Squad” services which they charge the computer illiterate an arm and a leg for. Plus - I worked for the store on two different occasions, was stiffed on my employee discount for the majority of my second and was rep remanded for helping customers out of my section. Obviously, I have more than enough ways to rationalize the decision I took.

So I’ve been straight with you - What would you have done?