Obruo

Just wow. This is a real winner of a parent… you can find her actual commentary on the npr site. Not happy that her kids are being active playing a video game, this over achiever parent who wants to live vicariously through her kids lambastes the Wii for having sports games that actually interest her kids and make them want to do something active… because it’s not *REAL* and if they go out in the *REAL* world they won’t be able to play the *REAL* game as well as the virtual one… and that will discourage them and make them quit. First, if you have a 8+ year old who can’t distinguish between reality and a video game… you’ve failed, get them to psychological help before you screw them up worse. Second, do you think they wouldn’t be discouraged if they picked up a tennis racket and couldn’t hit the ball anytime it was returned? Overcoming the beginning of any sport where you absolutely SUCK is part of learning the sport.  First time I went rollerskating I ate more dirt off the floor than your average flower pot contains, I hated it.  I never wanted to skate again.  However, my mother wanted me to at least learn and she went with me for a month or two till I could at least get around… once it got to that point I *loved it*… however, even without Wii sports to “disillusion” me, I still hated it when I started.  Shit like this is exactly what is wrong with society… rather than take her kids out to play real sports or do something with her kids that involve real sports to get them interested she lets them sit around and do nothing… then when they get interested in sports because its a fun video game she laments how the Wii is ruining her kids… newsflash, your lack of involvement is why your kids don’t play real life sports… nothing to do with the Wii.  It’s also great how she degrades her kids.  Cute… real cute lady.

digg story

I just read the transcript of the GWB interview on 60 minutes, and honestly a lot of people are ragging him out about what he had to say, and I do take exception to several points he brings up, but all in all, it is probably the most intelligence I’ve ever heard him utilize during an interview or speech.  I may not agree with him on several points, but at least this time he doesn’t sound like a dumb ass red neck with no cares or thoughts about our soldiers dying over there.  Check it out, it’s an interesting read.

A game called “Super Columbine Massacre RPG” was made about the columbine shooting where you are the shooters, you wander around the school and do largely what they did. They were entered in the slamdance competition which is pretty much a small developer/indy comp… they were finalists until they got canned because the corporate sponsors didn’t like that they were in the competition and threatened to pull support and the president caved in. Since originally being reported however, the president of Slamdance says he pulled it on moral grounds. right. There’s a bit more available at rocky mountain news.

Since then, 5 others have quit the contest in disgust over the practice, even if they didn’t agree with what the game stood for and was.

The first contestant to quit was Braid, followed by fl0w, then in quick succession 3 more dropped– Everyday Shooter, Toblo, and Once Upon a Time.

All of them basically have the same thing to say, but I suggest you read each site, they all have slightly different views and insights. Maybe download the games and give them a go, because their creators show integrity and it’s a rare thing to see in the gaming industry these days… or in people in general.

I hope they all get massive amounts of publicity and they each deserve an award for integrity when they could have viewed columbine being disqualified as making the odds of their own game winning better. If they want to exclude something from entering, but do it upfront, it’s dirty and underhanded to do it after the fact when someone you don’t like is a finalist regardless of the reasons.

If I had a game… I wouldn’t enter it in Slamdance– they can’t be trusted to be fair.

EDIT: Sponsors and other contestants (Book and Volume) have pulled themself from the contest also and even some of the judges are up in arms. Baxter (president of sd) commented… it wouldn’t be so bad if they hadn’t actively TRIED to get SC* to compete in the comp.

EDIT2: Even wired is in the act.

EDIT3: The final edit, no one got an award this year the rest of the contestants that still went or were forced to go declined the award. Good for them!

Some gmail users have finally been hitting the 2g limit on the amount of mail you can have (well almost 3g now, but regardless) this blog has a post describing what happened when he reached the limit.  That being said… I used to have 18g of mail stored… i dumped it after I pulled as much out of it as I could and I’m now sitting at about 1g including my gmail… pity you can’t import your old mail into gmail > : )

Saw this quote and had to post it…

I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We’ve created life in our own image - Stephen Hawking