we are buying this.

It is on the pricer side and we don’t have much room to store this entire endeavor but truly would be the first thing on my list when I purchase a house.  Forget the washer and dryer.  All we need is one of these and we would be blissfully happy until the cows came home.  We played with a bunch of co-workers this weekend and I literally could not put down the drum sticks down (Iwas the drummer…who knew?!). I was addicted and I want to play MORE!  I dream about the color notes…I live for the color notes! HAHA! We played songs over and over until we were able to play them entirely through (we got booed off the stage a couple times…flo’ rida is hard to sing people! HAHA!).  It was one of those games you could play with adults, children, a mixture and could really get a party really going.  One minute we are twidling our thumbs trying to figure out what we want to do next and then BAM we are rocking out like true rockstars!  My husband and I both looked at each other and said WE NEED TO GET ONE OF THESE simultaneously.  

So if you have friends or family that do a lot of entertaining this should be first on their wish list because it truly is awesomeness in a box. 

Speaking of box I need to give a shout out to my band C.S.B. and I can’t wait for our next band practice (yup, we are going on a tour soon!) 

Happy Playing!!!

xoxoxoxo

10. Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo, 2007, Wii)
Why not Sunshine, you might ask? Why not New Super Mario Bros for the Nintendo DS? What makes Super Mario Galaxy the best Mario game in the decade and what gives it the right to sit on this list?
Only because it was the single most innovative platformer of the last ten years.
Taking a concept and improving on it is something Nintendo has excelled at for almost three decades. When they had a chance to bring their biggest ticketed franchise over to the latest console, they couldn’t just make a normal 3D platformer. They’d already done that twice already. They needed a way to change it up.
Making Mario run around on three-dimensional objects with their own gravitational field? Check. Making players wonder how to reach that next object, relative to the gravity and physics of the surrounding celestial bodies? Check. Taking something as simple as run-and-jump and elevating it beyond a point it has ever been? Check.
Beyond all that, the game is insanely fun and challenging at the same time. Mastering Mario’s many types of jumps, bouncing off of corners, spinning into the stratosphere, and gaining a free-flight ability are all part of the awesomeness that awaits.
They also integrated the WiiMote in an innovative way, allowing it to act as a magnet to attract and a reticle to shoot the in-game collectable meteor bits, sometimes to great effect on the screen, sometimes just for show. Adding these additional elements plumbed (ha!) new depth and gave all future platformers something to strive for: perfection.

9. Portal (Valve Corporation, 2007, 360, XBLA, PC)
The cake is a lie.
If you haven’t had the chance to play Portal, sit down, spend the couple bucks to download it on XBLA, and give it a good run through.
A puzzle game that pretends to be a first person shooter, or the other way around, is an awesome concept. The small team that put Portal together to be included in the Orange Box with Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and Team Fortress 2. Though TF2 is still enjoying some intense popularity, Portal quickly became the main attraction and the real reason you bought the Orange Box, even with the second part of a highly-anticipated sequel on board.
With some great voice acting portraying the seemingly cold and uncaring GLaDOS, the insane computer who is watching your every move within the Aperture Science Testing Facility, you find yourself laughing even when you’re frustrated because you can’t finish the puzzle at hand. Plus, she gives a killer cake recipe near the end. The turrets have some absolutely awesome dialogue as well.
The physics of the game are incredible. Being able to open a portal on any flat surface in any direction helps to achieve a number of awesome effects and requires some creativity to figure out a solution to some problems.
It also has one of the best ending songs of the decade with GLaDOS cheerfully singing the written report she’s making in reference to your performance and the performance of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device.
Don’t even bother with the whole Orange Box. Download this and be done with it. You don’t need that other trash stinking up your Portal. And I mean that double-entendre.

8. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater Series (Neversoft, 1999 – 2009, All Platforms)
When I say all platforms, I mean all platforms. The Tony Hawk video game franchise is something which is storied. From the original Playstation version in 1999 (I know, it’s not technically this decade, but the majority of the series was, so suck it) with ports leaking into Dreamcast and even N64 territory, up through the current Tony Hawk’s Ride for 360 and PS3, this game has always been active and awesome.
Personally costing me countless sleepless nights and horrifying thumb calluses which I still have to this day (actually called Tony Hawk calluses among some of my friends), this game helped transition skateboarding from the 90s into the new millennium by showing people how difficult skateboarding, even fantasy skateboarding at times, can be. It introduced a new generation of kids to the true pro generation of skaters such as the titular Tony Hawk, Bob Burnquist, Bucky Lasek, and even Bam Margera to an extent. It prompted some of the younger children playing the game to run out, grab a board, and take it to the streets. Tony Hawk games, for all their addictive nature, were, in the opinion of your humble narrator, instrumental in inspiring a new brood of extreme athletes.
When it first came out, the only other skateboarding game I could think of was Skate or Die for the NES, and I remembered how much it sucked. It took a friend from out of town to sit me down in front of a PS1, jam a controller into my hand, and get me well on my way to becoming the dominant Tony Hawk Pro of my particular postal district.
With every iteration came new features, new nuances of skating, new modes, new courses, and new fun. Even now, Tony Hawk Ride, though panned by critics, introduced a new skateboard controller which responded to motion. Pretty sick in theory, but apparently not yet perfected enough to be good.
It was also one of the first game series to offer serious customization, from boards to skateparks, in any significant way. Eventually, having the ability to sandbox around levels and careen through the areas in search of the best trick spots was the greatest thing. Stringing combo after combo after combo was a point of pride for my gaming clique on just about every incarnation of the game. I still hold the record as the only person I know to have gotten a 2500000+ (that’s two-point-five million plus) combo on the carnival level of Tony Hawk 3.
Tony Hawk has since influenced every extreme sports game on the market. When you have a system as awesome as the original Tony Hawk package, you can’t really argue with it. Often imitated, never duplicated. Tony owes me some new thumbs.

7. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Capcom, 2000, Arcade, Dreamcast, XBX, 360, PS2, PS3)
The battle for survival unfolds.
As the follow-up to one of the greatest arcade fighting games and the source of many a fanboy’s uncontrollable orgasm, MvC2 claims the spot of greatest fighting game of the decade. With characters from a previous decade’s worth of fighting games (both shitty and spectactular) brought to us by our friends at Capcom all rounded up and jammed into one sleek little package, there was no doubt that from the moment this machine was revealed in your local arcade/movie theater/generic gaming area, you would be pumping your hard-earned quarters into the slot to try and unlock all the still-unrevealed mystery characters behind the wealth of questions marks on the selection screen. When you weren’t actively playing, you would most certainly have your 50 cents up on the glass claiming that you got next.
With a smorgasboard of characters both new and old combining with the ability to make three-character tag teams, matches could be extended and fierce, often running through the end of the 99 second time limit and being judged by the amount of energy both sides had left. Fights were much more intense with this game than they ever had been in 2D fighting. Strategy was a major key. Choosing the right squad and which special abilities they’d use when tagged or summoned for the three-character hyper-combo became the definitive way of gaining a leg up on your competition. If your three-way (heh heh…) didn’t jive, your team would have a much tougher time winning.
Even my wife loves this game. So much that, when we unburied our Dreamcast upon moving but couldn’t find the game disc, she promptly went to eBay and bought the cheapest working one she could find. When it came up for download on XBLA just this summer, we downloaded it and played for 3 days straight.
This is the definitive fighter. The hell with Street Fighter 3. The hell with Mortal Kombat and all it’s garbage. This fighter beats all comers and stands proudly at the king of the hill for the decade.

6. Final Fantasy X (Squaresoft, 2001, PS2)
With a next-gen graphics update as well as fully spoken dialogue, FFX changed the way RPGs could tell a story as well as changing the way it could affect a player.
X was the first game in the Final Fantasy series to incorporate a seamless character transfer from world map to battle system to cinematic, replacing the old switcheroo we’d seen many times in games past. This gave the game a better flow and allowed for more believability.
Because of its true, flowing play, watching the game felt like watching a computer animated feature. Ask my mother who, as I was playing it while still living at home in college, would beg me not to play when she wasn’t around so that she could watch the compelling story unfold.
The addition of voices to the normally powerful Final Fantasy method of storytelling grabbed you by the heart and would not let go. You became involved in the tentative love story between Tidus and Yuna even more than you had within the Cloud/Tifa/Aerith triangle in VII back in the 90s (I’m sure I’ll get debated on that point, but I’m being honest).
It was one of the shortest in the series, easily beaten within a 40 hour window, but side-quests and unlocks as well as searching for parts of the background story became a great lengthener. Sure, the world of Spira wasn’t quite as big as previous FF iterations, but it was excellent for what it was.
Also, the sphere grid system brought up the idea of characters crossing classes within the same game and contributed to flexibility in many Squaresoft and other games to come, including a big time carry over to Final Fantasy XII’s license system.
In addition to being graphically amazing and including a heart-wrenchingly wonderful story, it also allowed you to do something no other Final Fantasy had done before: break the 9999 damage barrier. Tell me it wasn’t sweet the first time you summoned Bahamut and you saw that great flare-breathing bastard smack a bitch for 10k+. Aww, yeah.
When Yuna’s standing on the dock at the end, whistling into the ocean, I always get choked up. I’m not usually a crier when it comes to stuff like this, but I wept my eyes out the first time I watched that ending. Like a little bitch. I’m not ashamed to admit it, either.

5. Wii Sports Series (Nintendo, 2006 – 2009, Wii)
Both Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort showed us how to have fun while playing video games again.
While I’ve heard from many non-gamers that they’re frustrated with the advances gaming has taken as far as the controller is concerned, Nintendo busted out the Wii console aimed at bringing their old two-button-one-d-pad audience into the next generation not by making things more complicated, but by simplifying.
Where the gaming industry was losing interest by continuously providing anime-styled epic adventures and an ever-growing library of faceless first-person shooters which may not appeal to all audiences, Nintendo came along and said: “Hey, you guys wanna go bowling instead?”
The Wii Sports games brought back the idea of family gaming, allowing everyone from little kids to grandparents a chance to play and have a good opportunity to win.
Better bowlers bowled better games. Better golfers could chip for a birdie over the inexperienced gamer. Boxers could stick and move. My wife could take her vast softball experience and soundly thrash me in baseball. For once, the non-gamer could get the other hand.
Sure, there are the dicks out there who don’t play fair and won’t get off their lazy asses to stand and pretend to throw a bowling ball. They’ll just sit there and casually flick the Wiimote in such a way to grant them a strike every time. This negates the entire point of the game and these people should be slapped and possibly have their pasty-skinned asses pushed (or forklifted if necessary) out of the house to get some fresh air.
Wii Sports Resort added even more events and better motion control with the WiiMotion Plus accessory. If it didn’t feel real before, it’ll sure as hell feel real now. Especially when you re-experience the horror of your off-the-tee slice in a virtual setting. Just try not to throw the club at the screen.
What was once just a demo for the Wii’s innovative motion controls became a family fun activity and really brought gaming back to a level of more friendly competition out of a world of teabagging and pwning. You may have been scratching your head at the beginning of this entry, but you should now realize how much this deserves a spot on this list.

4. BioShock (2k Games, 2007, 360, PC, PS3)
Quite possibly the safest choice for one of the best games of the decade. BioShock is a true mind-blower in just about every way possible.
If you’ve never played it, get your ass out to the store and buy this game as quickly as possible. Trust me, this is one game you don’t want to order from GameFly. You’re going to end up replaying it at least once and will probably get a hankering to pick it up again soon after.
With a story as rich and deep as the sea in which it takes place and a crazy mash-up of styles that could be classified as deco-punk (a combination of art deco and steampunk) which fits that story perfectly, this is one you will not be able to put down.
BioShock was one of the few first-person shooters where you will be almost compelled to stop and pay attention to the story rather than just blasting your way through the entire game in a few hours. The plot twists have as much of an impact as a movie and will leave you in disbelief.
It’s also one of the few first-person shooters that makes you think about things other than, well, shooting. With the ability to hack machines and turn them to your advantage and Plasmid abilities (essentially psychic powers) in addition to traditional and not-so traditional firearms, there are more creative and sometimes more effective ways of taking out your enemies. Trust me, you’ll want to conserve that ammo as much as possible (don’t forget you can re-loot your crossbow bolts, kids) because you’re gonna need it in the end.
Easily the most innovative first-person shooter of the decade, if not one of the most innovative games period, BioShock is certainly a must have in your collection. With BioShock 2 due in early 2010 and slated to be one of next years biggest sellers, make sure you get your hands on this instant-classic while you can (and while it’s still relatively cheap and available used).

3. World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 2004, PC)
Yeah, I had to put it here. I admit, I was not prepared.
Like it or not, the MMO world exploded with the November 2004 release of World of Warcraft. Yes, I purchased the game during the opening week. Yes, I played for almost five years. I was tenured. It was only within this very year that I decided to give it all up and run away from Azeroth, never to look back.
Well, I look back, but I won’t go back.
World of Warcraft brought the World of Reality to its knees as it continuously steamrolled over every shred of competition. Gamer after gamer joined the growing snowball and it still holds true today. Millions of players around the world log in daily for their dose of WarCrack.
What was thought to be a safe place to flitter about for “casual gamers” (as opposed to career ones) quickly turned into a cemetery of addictions and time ill-spent gaming online to no end. Planning and grouping raids. Timing runs. Scheduling life around a particular world or guild event. Dominating your every free moment with material grinding for professions or power-running guild lowbies through instances.
Is it all that bad, you may ask? Is WoW, indeed, the Devil Itself? Nay nay, I say to you.
For all of its bad notes, World of Warcraft is one of the most important games of the decade, if not for sheer player number and dedication, then for the fact that it is the one true consistently expanding MMO experience. Blizzard learned from the mistakes of the games that had come before and built Azeroth on the dying corpses of previous also-rans.
They found what was right and what was wrong with the flood of MMOs. Even as new competition would pop up, they would analyze and learn from it. They are the MMO Borg (if I may counter one geeky reference with an even geekier one), absorbing everything good and spitting out the bad as it rolls on across the gaming universe. They created one fairly simple and, for the most part, user friendly interface and continued to improve on it, even though some may call such improvements detriments simply due to what they’re used to.
It is, truly, an ever expanding world with new areas, quests, and enemies opening with every patch, sometimes long before the giant expansion sets (of which there will soon be three) drop. They’re going as far as to revamp their original world, Azeroth, as an entirely different map for an entirely different leveling experience and adding two more races to their already impressive collection of 10.
It is such a juggernaut that it warranted and entire in-game animated episode of South Park. How funny was that shit, by the way?
I was staved off from actually buying new games for a long time due to my obsession with WoW. That, in itself, makes this game one of the best of the decade.

2. Guitar Hero and Rock Band Series (Harmonix, Neversoft, 2005 – 2009, PS2, PS3, 360, Wii)
Say what you will about fake-bands. These two franchises have changed the industry.
You may be incensed at me for naming both of these franchises as games of the decade on the same entry. What you need to realize is that one wouldn’t exist without the other which wouldn’t have evolved without the other.
Guitar Hero coming on to the scene in 2005 was something incredible and new. Though the Japanese had similar rhythm games dominating their arcade and home scenes since the early 90s and DDR was, at the time, insanely popular in the States, Guitar Hero brought something along which none of the other rhythm games had before. Real music
DDR may have offered a few remixes and some 80s pop before that, but most of it was J-Pop or Techno Trash. Guitar Hero was the first to feature real rock tracks – real popular rock tracks – even though the first iteration was mostly a series of well-played covers by a studio band. But, it sounded real enough.
Later, in 2007, as the popularity of Guitar Hero grew, Harmonix split from the franchise and created Rock Band, a combination of elements from Guitar Hero as well as singing and drumming games, to provide a more immersive multiplayer experience. Being backed by MTV gave them the ability to recruit actual artists to their cause, contributing the actual tracks instead of just the rights. Neversoft countered with Guitar Hero: World Tour, including the same elements and a larger drum kit. With the advent of things like XBLA and the WiiShop, both games started flooding the market with downloadable content. Rock Band came up with the idea of allowing their additional games to be used within the same game system (Rock Band and Lego Rock Band tracks can be downloaded to your hard drive and played on the main Rock Band 2 platform). People got serious about it, including me, who was gifted a pricey “fake” bass for his birthday right as he decided to make the jump to Expert mode and also including my “band-mate” Budda who I helped to purchase an Ion drum set (which can actually be used as synth-drums with an attachment).
With the Beatles, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Van Halen, and Metallica all contributing entire solo games of music to these two franchises, the future can only go up from here.
It may be fake band, but for those of us who have no idea how to play a rock instrument, it’s the closest thing we’re gonna get to jamming on the songs we love.

1. Grand Theft Auto III & IV Series (Rockstar Games, 2001-2009, PS2, XBX, GBA, DS, X360, PS3, PSP, PC)
Is there anyone playing video games out there who hasn’t played at least one iteration of the GTA series at some point in their life? Better yet, is there someone out there who hasn’t at least played a game influenced in one way or another by the GTA series? I defy you to find one.
Though the series found its humble origins in the late-90s, with groundbreaking open-world game play and earth-shattering ultraviolence from an overhead perspective, it was GTA III that truly got the ball rolling in 2001 and brought the series to legendary status.
GTA III was the beginning of something new – a gaming experience which would be directed by the classic mission-giving NPCs in the game, but would be ultimately and completely controlled by the player. You could completely ignore the brutal missions to perform even more brutal or insane acts on your own.
This was also the first game where you were not penalized for killing innocent bystanders or other normally helpful characters. Nothing compared to beating an old lady to death in front of the police station, jacking a sports car, and leading the police on a lengthy chase around Liberty City, opening fire until they broke out the National Guard to stop me (that’s six-stars for those of you playing along at home). It was fun and it was an incredible way to let off steam after a hard day. Still is, really.
Former Lawyer (disbarred, in case you hadn’t heard) and notorious enemy to gamer-kind, Jack Thompson, slammed the series from III onward. He described the proliferation of these games as “Pearl Harbor 2”, slamming not only the cultural impact but also as a racial slur against Japan-based Sony. He called the GTA series “murder simulators” and condemned both the adults who played it and the adults who would buy it so that their children could play it. There has yet to be a link established between a rise in real-world violence and the wide distribution of GTA games.
Though it did bring a new brand of ultraviolence to the home console, the GTA series also allowed for incredible industrial breakthroughs in graphics, processing, physics, and most notably the introduction of celebrity voices for video game parts. With most of the first chapter in the III saga being voiced by the cast of the Sopranos, it suddenly became cool for real actors to get involved in gaming. It added more depth to games when it wasn’t just some third-tier voice actor whose skills were relative to a plank of wood as far as emotion. It made you feel like this world around which you were riding and causing havoc was a real place, no matter how farfetched the mission goals were.
Beyond the voices came the soundtrack. The radio stations have always been the best part of the game. Riding around San Andreas listening to gangsta rap in the games early 90s LA setting made me remember the hours I wasted watching MTV when it actually played videos. Rolling around Vice City blasting hair metal and 80s pop or Liberty City in GTA IV tuned in to classic rock, the game keeps you bobbing your head and makes your foot (thumb) just as heavy as it would be in real life if you heard the right song at the right time. As with the celebrity voices, GTA was probably the first series to really attract the attention of the mainstream recording industry to video games.
With GTA IV now setting the bar for the concept of continual gaming by offering two downloadable mission packs for the same city (including new places, vehicles, weapons, and features) which seamlessly integrate with the original product, something unheard of in the scope with which Rockstar delivered, this series is pushing the envelope again.
Sure, most games don’t even profess to be anything like GTA, but they have all been influenced by the way Rockstar and the next-gen GTA series have consistently driven the industry by setting trends and paving the way for breakthroughs that have us arriving at the end of this first millennial decade still enamored with consoles as a whole.

I saw this tweet in my Twitter stream today, and it immediately reminded me of what Noah Brier said recently about a generation of people probably hearing some songs for the first time as part of games like Guitar Hero. I guess we have to make our peace with it. It is happening as we speak.

Band Hero is the new release from the Guitar hero franchise by Red Octane making it the 6th version of guitar hero available, without including the specialist Aerosmith and Metallica packages.

The track list itself consists of a number of well-known songs from the past 2 decades, offering tracks from ‘Kung Foo Fighting’ to ‘Marvin Gaye’ and the likes of ‘PaPaRoach, this game really does offer a wide variety of pop music as opposed to the rock/metal roots of the Guitar Hero franchise. The gameplay is very similar between the other Hero games. This game is very enjoyable and with a much broader track list it really does appeal to every market I would recommend this to any fan of the franchise as well as anyone sitting on the fence about music simulation games.

With no major differences between the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii versions of Band Hero, it’s an open level for console shoppers. The band hero super bundle contains all the things you’ll need; game and hardware.

Two top sites to shop for console bundles – Xbox360 250gb deals, Top 10 cheap PS3 250gb deals

http://ezinearticles.com/?Band-Hero-Super-Bundle&id=3378964 by Chip Seal

I’ve been off work for 4 days now. It’s quite relaxing ^^ and I’m enjoying it a lot.

Last saturday I’ve been to my friends to celebrate Sinterklaas.
It was fun =D my friend’s child got A LOT of presents as you can see on the picture…
I wish I was still a little child =P

After celebrating Sinterklaas I went to another friend, around 1 am, to have a MovieNight. We drank some vodka and it was fun at first. Then my friend got a little too drunk and he had to throw up @_@ After that he fell asleep =P I continued watching another movie. I think I saw 30 minutes of it when I looked on my phone to see what time it was. It was like 5 am. For some reason I went to the living room and feel asleep on the couch =P I woke up at 6.30 am again. After that I went to my own home and fell asleep almost immediately. Next time we’re not gonna drink anymore. It was fun but it kinda ruined the MovieNight.

The past few days I’ve been playing DJ Hero. At first I thought it was quite boring, but now since I’m getting better, it’s quite cool =D It’s now actually quite addictive =P Tomorrow my friend is coming over to play together with me. She is going to play the guitar parts and I’ll be the DJ ^^ I didn’t have a guitar for the PS3, but of course I’ve ordered 1 right away haha…

As most know I want another tattoo. But I really don’t know what kind of design I want. I like stars a lot, but a lot of people have them already and of course I want something special. I’ve been looking on the internet for cool ones, but I haven’t seen one yet that makes me go WOW! My friend (who is a big fan of Twilight) wants a Twilight tattoo. I like Twilight a lot, but getting a tattoo of it is too much. I’ve seen an internet page full with pictures of people and their Twilight tattoo’s. I kinda was like -> … WTF?!?

Talking about Twilight. Check out my new background on my iMac =P

Isn’t it SEXY??? Hahahaha!

Probably one of the hippest music conferences earlier this year was the SanFranMusicTech conference that packed 600 into the swanky Kabuki at 1625 Post in San Francisco.  Well they’re back by popular demand this Monday with Third Eye Blind – how cool is that!  There will be live streaming on the site at www.sfmusictech.com and you can follow along on Twitter at #SFMT.  On Tuesday, VentureBeat delivers DiscoveryBeat workshops for developers seeking to chart in the apps stores.  Best kept secrets shared by Playfish, Playdom, Zynga, RockYou, IGN, SGN, Smule, ngmoco…looks pretty awesome.  Not sure of the hashtag, guessing it’s #DB.  For those of you looking for money, the place to be is on Sand Hill Road for two fantastic days of the AlwaysOn Venture Summit, they’re using VSSV on the site so I’m assuming #VSSV is the hashtag, and they usually live stream.  And then on Friday at Microsoft, SD Forum hosts the Business of New Media:  Where’s the Money with Tim Chang, Guy Kawasaki, Zynga, Gaia, Yahoo!, The Wrap.. .also no official hashtag yet, not even attempting to guess this one.  For those of you in LA, Digital Media Wire’s Future of Film at the Sheraton Delfina in Santa Monica – recap AFM, prep for EFM, and meet all the key players – the lineup looks incredible. Follow at #FOFILM.  Agendas are posted below:

M 12/7 9-6
SF MUSICTECH SUMMIT
Hotel Kabuki, 1625 Post, San Francisco
www.sfmusictech.com

Tu 12/8
FUTURE OF FILM
Sheraton Delfina, Santa Monica
www.lafilmconference.com

Tu 12/8  2:30-7:30
DISCOVERY BEAT
Guide to discovery in the App Store!
Auttomatic Lounge, Pier 38, San Francisco
http://discoverybeat2009.eventbrite.com/

2:30pm – 3:00pm | Registration

3:00pm – 3:05pm | Welcome

3:05pm – 3:15pm | “Make or Break: How to successfully leverage publicity and social media to drive awareness and downloads of mobile apps”

3:15pm – 3:30pm | “Should driving app discovery require hemorrhaging money?”

3:30pm – 3:45pm | “Social Gaming: The evolving technology platform & monetization”

3:45pm – 4:00pm | “Building Social Games: Games at the speed of light”

4:00pm – 4:40pm | “Discovery 1.0: Starting from scratch”

Randy Angle (Director of Game Design, SGN)
Julian Farrior (CEO, Backflip Studios)
Ge Wang (Co-Founder, CTO, & COO, Smule – maker of Ocarina iPhone app)
Peter Farago (VP Marketing, Flurry)
Matt Marshall (Editor in Chief, VentureBeat)

With more than 119,000 apps in the Apple AppStore, discovery is a huge problem. Facebook is just as tough. And to make it worse, you’re at a disadvantage because large networks have the upper hand of experience in platform strategy and a louder voice to get their products heard.
• If you’re a two-person garage development shop and starting from scratch, how do you create an app that can go viral?
• If you’re not a giant company, how do you exploit your newness and focus, using the key ingredients of success?
• How can the smaller developers team up with bigger brands that have name recognition? When should they go it alone?
• How do they build a company that bigger investors will notice?
• What are some of the platform tools at your disposal that can be used to get your apps noticed?
• How does discovery fit with the right business model for your app?

4:40pm – 4:55pm | “Super-sizing the app economy by moving it beyond the iPhone”

4:55pm – 5:35pm | “Discovery 2.0: Moving to the next level”

Sebastien De Halleux (COO, Playfish)
John Pleasants (CEO, Playdom)
Roy Sehgal (GM, Zynga & Executive Producer of Cafe World game)
Neil Young (Founder & CEO, ngmoco)
Dean Takahashi (Lead Writer for GamesBeat, VentureBeat)

The social app companies, those successful application companies that came of age on Facebook and the iPhone, have created their own ecosystems with successful titles that feed on each other. Now what do they do?
• How many different types of monetization schemes do they need? What can they learn from the bigger companies?
• Should they recruit executives from the “old world” companies, to help with partnering or organizational discipline?
• What sort of analytics process should they have in place?
• Can anyone catch up with them?
• What will the social/mobile/gaming look like in two years?

5:35pm – 6:00pm | “Discovery 3.0: Bringing in the big guys”

Jon Vlassopulos (CEO, Moderati – maker of the virtual light Zippo iPhone app)
Alex St. John (President & CTO, hi5)
Michael Chang (Founder & CEO, Greystripe)
Lisa Marino (VP Sales, RockYou)
Roy Bahat (President, IGN Entertainment)

Established video game companies and entertainment giants are eyeing the social networking and mobile platforms as a source of future growth. For success, the big guys need to apply the secret ingredients in different proportions.
• How much should they invest in these areas, and how should they do it?
• Which kinds of partners should they recruit? Which business models are the best?
• Who has made the transition already?
• What’s the right mix of social networking, marketing, analytical measurement, advertising and web design ingredients they should apply?

6:00pm – 6:05pm | Closing remarks

6:05pm – 7:30pm | Reception

Tu 12/8 – W 12/9
AO VENTURE SUMMIT
Rosewood Sand Hill, Menlo Park
http://alwayson.goingon.com/ecom/productview/19291

Tu 12/8

W 12/9

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

This is the latest update to the full list.

•   Dragon Age: Origins
•   FIFA 10 
•   Guitar Hero 5
•   PES 2010: Pro Evolution Soccer 2010
•   The Beatles: Rock Band

Rock out to the third entry in in Red Octane’s music series for guitar gods! Songs for Guitar Hero III include Barracuda by Heart, Sabotage by Beastie Boys, Rock And Roll All Nite by Kiss, and much more! In addition, players can experience an incredible number of added features and explosive content including a new multiplayer action-inspired battle mode, grueling boss battles, a bevy of exclusive unlockable content and authentic rock venues. Expanded online multiplayer game modes also allow axe-shredders worldwide to compete head-to-head for true legendary rock status.

£11.85 @ ShopTo

If you have Guitar Hero branded wireless instruments you may be interested in some rechargeable GH batteries. They definitely work with the Guitar Hero: World Tour Guitars and Drums, the PS2 Kramer and the X360/PS3 Les Paul. The battery should last about 25 hours.

These are supposed to be £20 RRP but poundland got some in a few months ago and many a money-maker has slapped some up on eBay. Right now there are 12 listings with a buy-it-now price of £5 or less including delivery costs.

Link to eBay containing GH Wireless batteries order by cheapest first (price + P&P)

I managed to snap up six (2 guitars and drums with a spare for each) without paying more than £2.50 for any of them . So if you are prepared to wait a little bit you can get a good deal from an auction listing. FYI: postage cost are approximately £1.50 if that helps you to determine the value you want to aim for.

Of course if you have a poundland near you it would be wise to check there first! I didn’t have that option.

I’ve got maybe two more regular shows left, including this one, and my Christmas show. Spend my last couple of Wednesday nights on KRUI 89.7 fm with me from 8 to 10 pm, you can also listen in online here.

1. Blondie, Blondie (1976), X Offender

I pulled this sweet image of Debbie Harry off of the Blog entitled “x” Another cool bit of info is that this photo was taken by Bob Gruen who’s exhibit at the MoMA I just got to experience. “x” does a really nice job describing the image, so I won’t go there, if you want to read about it check it out.
2. Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense (1984), Take Me To The River
3. Joy Division, Unknown Pleasures (1979), Disorder
4. Liz Phair, Whitechocolatespaceegg (1998), Polyester Bride
(I’m engaged, and I wouldn’t mind having a polyester dress.)
5. Lyres, 12 Classic 45s, I Want to Help You Ann
6. Mazzy Star, So Tonight That I Might See (1993), Fade Into You
(God I love this song, tell me its not beautiful?)
7. Mission of Burma, Vs. (1982), Trem Two
(Another definite favorite, it’s in my top 10 favorite songs for sure.)
8. New Order, Power Corruption and Lies (1983), Age of Consent

9. The Replacements, Let It Be (1984), Unsatisfied
10. Sonic Youth, Dirty (1992), Theresa’s Sound World

11. Superchunk, Incidental Music 1991-95, Night of Chill Blue
I might have to say this is my favorite Superchunk song.
12. Pixies, Doolittle (1989), Here Comes Your Man
This song just appeals to everyone, I bet even my parents would jam to it and they prefer to rock out to Elvis and Peter Paul and Mary.
13. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (1992), Chicken Walk
14. The Jesus and Mary Chain, Automatic (1989), Head On
(The Pixies do an awesome cover of this track)
15. Pavement, Terror Twilight (1999), Spit on a Stranger
You know what I heard? Pavement is going to be featured on GUITAR HERO! Yuck. Steve what are you doing? You know who else is going to be featured? Spoon. I don’t know why this shocks me and I can’t seem to figure out why it annoys me. If someone can articulate this better than me please do it. For now, I’m going to sit down and think about it.

16. XTC, English Settlement, Senses Working Overtime
17. INXS, The Best of INXS, Need You Tonight
The single came out around 1986.
18. The Psychedelic Furs, Talk Talk Talk (1981), Pretty in Pink

19. Tears for Fears, The Hurting (1983), Change
20. Billy Idol & Generation X, Billy Idol (1982), Dancing With Myself

21. The Swirlies, Cats of the Wild, Vol.2 (2003), Sleepytime
22. Polvo, Exploded Drawing (1996), Bridesmaid Blues
23. Enon, Believo, Cruel
24. The Jam, The Gift (1982), Town Called Malice
25. PJ Harvey, Uh Huh Her (2004), You Came Through
26. Slowdive, Souvlaki (1993), Souvlaki Space Station

Stop by the Wakelin Room on Wednesday 12/9 between 1-3pm and take a break from the neverending cycle of homework with a round of Guitar Hero.  We’ll have the full band setup, so bring some friends and rock out!

Last night we celebrated sweet Kait’s birthday at her adorable apartment.  It was the perfect night, filled with drinks-a-plenty, cupcakes by Jenn, and Guitar Hero (which um, I think might just be one of the greatest things ever!).

Here’s Katie, Kait (the birthday girl), and yours truly:

I knew that Kait loved these cupcakes, so I opted to make them instead of a cake:

Here she is, making a wish!

That’s right – it’s me on bass guitar!  I’m taking this very seriously.

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR KAIT! xoxo

Guitar Hero: Van Halen Guitar Faceplate for X360 and PS3

Exclusive Bonus Offer: Get a FREE Eddie Van Halen Frankenstrat-inspired guitar faceplate with your purchase of Guitar Hero Van Halen!* Now you can rock out in style, just like the legendary guitar virtuoso himself! You’ll be the envy of your friends and family when you play Guitar Hero Van Halen with this awesome faceplate. *While supplies last. Consumers who pre-order Guitar Hero Van Halen will receive both the faceplate AND the $5 mp3 credit bonus offer.

See all detials of Guitar Hero: Van Halen Guitar Faceplate for X360 and PS3

Seeking to expand the scope of this blog (at the request of its creator), I present a review of the video game “The Beatles: Rock Band.”  For those unfamiliar, Rock Band is an extension of the Guitar Hero game, in that you try and play along with songs using a guitar, bass, drums and vocals.  There are varying degrees of difficulty for each song, both overall and with each individual component (for example, you can set the drums to “easy” on an overall “difficult” song, etc).

The Beatles version of Rock Band contains a wide variety of tracks to choose from, spanning their short but prolific career.  It has early stuff like “I Saw Her Standing There,” “Twist and Shout,” and “I Wanna Be Your Man.”  It has well-known songs like “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” “Yellow Submarine,” and “Ticket to Ride,” but also delves into the deeper album cuts like “I Me Mine,” “Within You Without You,” and “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).”  It’s a well-rounded selection of tunes of varying degrees of difficulty to play, from the relative ease of “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” to the very tough “I Am the Walrus.”  Of course some people will be disappointed that their own personal favorite Beatles song isn’t on here, but there’s no way they could include their whole catalog.  I’m sure some sort of expansion pack with more songs will eventually be made available, or certainly you will be able to download (for a fee) other songs.

A cool aspect of the game is the numerous computer-generated background videos that accompany each song.  Some are depictions of the Fab Four recording in a studio, some feature their appearance at Shea Stadium in 1965, and some are imaginary representations based on the atmosphere of the song; “Here Comes the Sun,” for example, shows the band playing in a flowery meadow in the sunshine, and for “I Am the Walrus,” we see the group in their trippy animal mascot costumes from the “Magical Mystery Tour” film.

I enjoyed playing this game, partly because of the song selection and partly because of seeing John, Paul, George and Ringo represented digitally, playing their tunes.  It definitely takes practice to get good at the instruments, which is why I enjoyed the vocals better than anything else, but that’s just me.  Essentially, Rock Band is karaoke on steroids…in a fun way.

The Beatles: Rock Band gets 4 out of 5 stars.

Dans notre précédent article sur les Flash Mobs, nous avions analysé la tendance comme un phénomène social « récupéré » dans des publicités. Rappelez vous ces foules dansant en rythme avec des mouvements simples et saccadés. Désormais, il semblerait bien que la mouvance se matérialise … sous la forme d’un jeu vidéo.

La console Wii va accueillir un jeu de danse qui nous fait fortement penser à notre bon vieux flash mob : mêmes mouvements, même rythmique, même philosophie de groupe.

La tendance dépasse alors le phénomène socio culturel et publicitaire, elle devient un élément physique : un produit. Nintendo aurait pu nommer ce jeu « comment se préparer à un flash mob » tant les similitudes sont frappantes. Ainsi, le milieu du jeu vidéo contribue au développement conscient ou inconscient de la mouvance (les gens peuvent danser sans connaître les flashs mobs ! Eh oui ;) ).

Au-delà de cette matérialisation, le secteur vidéo ludique démontre une nouvelle fois ses capacités à adapter les tendances réelles du marché, qu’elles soient musicales ou autres. Pour ne pas citer, Guitar Hero et Wii sports sont les exemples les plus marquants d’une société désirant s’amuser sans un apprentissage long et massif de la discipline (comparez la prise en main de guitar hero à celle d’une vraie guitare ;) ) et tout cela sans bouger de son salon.

Philippe ROUSSELLE – Directeur associé

Double XL – Conseil en Marketing

 It’s time, once again to talk music downloads. 

Activision Blizzard has just announced their December download lineup for Guitar Hero and Band Hero.  They have track packs featuring the Fall of Troy, One Republic, a selection of Indie bands, and Band Hero stars.  All of these songs are compatible with both versions of the game.

The Fall of Troy will have a track pack available for download on December 3^rd with the following songs available

• “Panic Attack”
• “A Classic Case of Transference”
• “Single”
• In the Unlikely Event Album

One Republic will see a three song track pack hit on December 12^th

• “All The Right Moves”
• “Everybody Loves Me” Both from their album Waking Up
• “Mercy” from their first studio album Dreaming Out Loud.

An indie track pack hits the store on December 17^th featuring:

• “Hi-Speed Soul” – Nada Surf
• “Cut Your Hair” – Pavement
• “Sister Jack” – Spoon

The last track pack to hit the store will be the New Year’s Rock Track Pack on December 22^nd and feature Band Hero in game artists:

• “Our Song” – Taylor Swift
• “Harder to Breath” – Maroon 5
• “New” – No Doubt

The Fall of Troy, OneRepublic, Indie Rock and Celebrity New Years Rock Track Packs will be available on Wii for 550 Wii Points and the New Year’s Rock Track Pack will be available as single downloads for 200 Wii Points each.

Source: Activision Blizzard Press Release

I’ve been thinking about this post for quite some time now. Looking for the right approach and how to balance pros and cons about the theme. Truth is, at this point, there is no general accepted final answer about video games. They are a relatively new form of entertainment compared to other forms such as television, radio or movies. And the fast track that video games took made them carry the burden for a bunch of contemporary problems in our society.

For example, video games have been blamed for the disaster of Columbine in 1999 and in Helsinki in 2007 [1]. They’ve also been blamed for kids that don’t want to go to school or bad school performance; childhood obesity, and the list keep growing. However, more and more research shows that video games have hardly anything to do with most of them. Kids that suffer from any of those have shown psychological backgrounds that explains better their problems than “video game addiction”[2].

In fact, I share the opinion that only troubled minds get addicted to video games. In our current society we only praise successful people, stories, and those who became rich and famous. I’m not a psychologist but I like to question the kind of pressure we put in people these days. Advertisement, movies, TV series, cartoons, and, more concerning, in magazines, newspapers, TV news reports everyone has some special powers that make them better than the average man or woman is. And hardly have we seen their failures. And not only kids are affected by that.

I heard once from a Human Resource consultant that “we are supposed to know to dance like Astaire, to choose wine like a professional sommelier, to sing like Sinatra, and to excel in every aspect of life but we are failures if we are learning how to do these things”. Have you ever considered that perspective? And how long does it take to learn all those things? Truth is that in virtual worlds offered by Video Games we accomplish a lot more in less time than in real life. And this reward, in troubled minds, can lead them to focus on virtual worlds rather than the real one. In a way, video game accomplishment offers an alternative to the mediocrity that daily life scrapes on our faces everyday – taking school exams that you have no idea what’s that course for, paying bills, paper work, fixing the door bell, or changing a flat tire. They offer us those special powers and allow us to dance like Astaire, or play guitar like a Guitar Hero (pun intended).

I don’t want to celebrate mediocrity. But I think we might as well value the process and the learning involved in trying – and not turn every mistake into failure. Because if we want to do something different (innovate) we are incurring into a great chance of making mistakes in the process. And if we do not take advantage of those and punish mistakes as we do today, how are we to ask for people to innovate? Video games instead, when you die you get new chances, and you can question what you are doing wrong, go to the internet to find out about it and so on. There is learning after dying – because there is purpose and a clear goal.

There’s a lot to be said about video games and some points are quite controversial. But this is just a first post of a series I’ll try to write discussing their use in many other fields that not only entertainment. Video games offer a far more interesting interface than regular software and some are aware of that power and willing to experiment with them. Here I just want to make the point that video games are not evil or responsible for the collapse of virtues and values in society. Those opinions are just facing a hard time in accepting the new as generations ago had as the following illustrates: “A pastime of illiterate, wretched creatures who are stupefied by their daily jobs, a machine of mindlessness and dissolution”. While this might illustrate the type of attacks that video games suffer today, it was actually said more than 70 years ago about the movies – which today are considered a form of art[3].

So instead of blaming them, perhaps we should look more carefully into them.

[2] and [3] Steven Poole (2004): Trigger Happy: Video games and the entertainment revolution. Arcade Publishing.

Being in a small class (20-40 people) should mean that it’s easier to get to know people in said class, right? Not really…but, thankfully, being in SLS gives you so many opportunities to do so; hence, Brooklyn Pizza. This event was pretty chill, and I actually got to go to it this time (before, I couldn’t go because rehearsal would interfere, but this day was scheduled at just the right time). This night was pretty relaxed: eating pizza and playing Guitar Hero with everyone’s favorite SLS professor, Jimmy Moore. I took the time to solidify some friendships here, so the night was…pleasant, to say the least.

So until next time, this is Roger “The Ultimate Knight?” Thacher…saying Good Knight, and Good Luck.