The Star Trek subculture is a world unto itself. Movies, TV shows, outfits, conventions, secret salutes, and languages – being a serious fan could eat up one’s time. The video of the latest movie in the Star Trek franchise is out this week! Until you can get your copy, you may want to throw back a beer and work on your pinball skills at Pacific Standard on Fourth Avenue.

With props to NeoGaf, 1Up and whomever first came up with the idea – Fluffrick’s first of many “What You Been Playin’?” updates…

Gearbox Software’s very splendid and very gory Role Playing Shooter, “Borderlands”.  Get in!

Bungie’s last(ish) sojourn into the “Halo” universe for the near future, “Halo 3: ODST”.  I love me some Master Chief ass kickery, and I’m confident this should fit the bill nicely.

Finally, for now?

The Audi R8, as approved by Tony Stark, in Turn 10's "Forza Motorsport 3"

“Forza Motorsport 3″ – Race with assists on, or try and beat the game on it’s own terms?  Decisions, decisions…

It was bound to happen at some point ! And I guess Microsoft was a pretty likely candidate. They are currently touring American colleges showing off a minority report-esque next-gen interface. With a clear glass display, motion sensing technology and eye tracking as part of the users tools this is trully an amazing set up !

click link for videos

[from TechEBlog]

Another day at the AOPA expo has come and gone and it has been a busy morning and afternoon. I wanted to get as much done as I could in the one day had available. Quite a bit to see and do and more than I can cover in just one post, so I will focus on the morning summit first.

Since I was early, I had a good opportunity to attend the Next Gen summit meeting in the morning. It was hosted by AOPA President Craig Fuller and Chairman Bill Trimble. Their guests for the summit were: Bill Stone, Tim Taylor, and David Vos, all experts in their respective fields of next generation avionics and aircraft technology.

The discussion first centered around the implementation of Synthetic vision discussed by Mr. Stone of Garmin. He remarked how a past shuttle mission has mapped the earth to help in the implimentation of the system, though its been under development for nearly 50 years. Only now has the computing power available (and size) caught up to the technology. A quick video of the Garmin synthetic vision in action was also shown and its accuracy on the Primary Flight Display with real world terrain and obstacles.

Things then progressed to Infrared or EVS systems also known as “Free Flight”. Mr. Taylor discussed the use of the technology and how it is now available to the general aviation community in the Cirrus aircraft for low visibility operations. There was also a quick video of the EVS system in use on approach and landing  and discussion of the inevitable fusion of both EVS and Synthetic aviation systems for general aviation into one integrated package.

Mr. Taylor also discussed the use of ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance) and how it is now benefiting general aviation and airline pilots in FL and the Gulf Coast. He remarked in the next year or so “full service” ADS-B will soon be available to 2/3 of the U.S. There was also talk of what the “D” in ADS-B meant. Basically the D, stands for “dependant”. That is dependent of certain government infrastructure (Navigation guarantee).  Basically ADS-B is able to tell you and ATC where everyone else is in the airspace, plus the capability to receive information with a universal receiver like weather and other data.

Obviously of concern was how much all this new technology will cost the general aviation. It appears that there will be a choice of ADSB ”out” or ADS-B “in”. Basically for those pilots with Mode-C only transponders, they would be compliant for new future ADS-B rules as long as they have a WAAS (Wide Are Augmentation System) approved avionics, a Mode -C transponder and a data radio, which would be much less expensive than a new Mode-S transponder and universal receiver. This setup will allow the use of ADS-B “out”, telling ATC and other aircraft where you are, but not the access to the data or weather portion of the system. The use of the universal receiver would give you the ADS-B “In” option to gain the other services such as weather and data which provides valuable information to all pilots and even could be configured to use bluetooth for XM weather.

The best however, was set for last. David Vos, a flight control systems expert, talked about the use of fully integrated flight controls for manned and unmanned aircraft in the future and the ability to have a “digital parachute” or “panic button.” He cited, several incidents where pilots have become incapacitated endangering the crew and passengers and how this technology can benefit safety and augment the pilot, but NOT be a replacement for the crew. A video was shown with an unmanned fighter drone  flying autonomously (not ground controlled) where 60 percent of one of the wings was intentionally sheared off.  Instead of crashing, the integrated flight control system was able, not only to maintain full control of the aircraft, but bring the drone in for a safe landing. Quite the amazing video and a little disturbing since Im starting to think that there may come a day when we pilots might become obsolete.

Its is truly stunning how much technology in general aviation has changed just in the last 20 years and I was glad to see what is coming to the GA community in the very near future.

For me, Ashwin Jadhav, a graduate student at the University of Illinois, this is the beginning of a journey. My first step into the professional world. I will try to use this blog as a medium of information exchange with other enthusiasts in my field. There are plenty of aspiring aerospace engineers out there who really don’t get the motivation and inspiration they need. At one time, I was one of them and so I know how it feels to be lost. I have been fortunate enough to find my way into this esteemed industry and look to expand my horizons using this blog. There will be quite a few speculative and argumentative aspects of the aviation and aerospace industry discussed here and I hope people do comment.

A little bit about me, I am an Indian citizen, from Mumbai (Bombay). I completed my undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering from the St.Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation, Russia in 2007. Since then I have been doing my Masters in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA. Currently, I am pursuing a double Masters in Aero Engineering and Aviation-Human Factors here at the U of I. My Aero Engg thesis is mainly focussed on the integration of aircraft and technology in the Next Generation Air Transportation System (Next Gen). I have yet to decide my thesis topic for the Human Factors degree.

I have a personal blog at http://finalapproach-ashwin.blogspot.com and am working on setting up another blog exclusively for the sports and games that I play and watch religiously. I plan to integrate all these blogs, along with information about the industry, courses and avenues on my website http://www.ashwinjadhav.com

And the journey begins…

O site de Webcomics Dueling Analogs lançou a proposta…

Com um X-Box desses dá para apoiar um vidro em cima e fazer uma mesa de jantar para 6 pessoas.

Those are tears for joy my friends! Cryengine 3 is ready to go. I can’t wait to see games using this engine, it will be ridiculous. I’m also ready for a change since Unreal engine games are everywhere… I want to see this new stuff in action. Maybe this will mark the end of shitty ports thanks to its automatic conversion for the consoles but we can only hope. Anyways, here I leave you with the video which says all the things that the new engine can do. Get your napkins because you will drool all over your keyboard.

Buenas tardes,

Recordar nuestro pasado és un proceso y un ejercicio que todo el mundo debería auto imponerse, pues muchas veces nuestras experiencias dicen mucho de lo que somos, de nuestra forma de actuar y de la visión que tenemos del mundo. Cuando crear un cerco a tus recuerdos fijándote solamente en un sector es a veces mucho más difícil, pues según las edades podemos recordar por sentidos, sensaciones, pequeños fragmentos, puntualidades, olores y al final por sucesos significativos.

En fin, todo esto se hace peculiar, pues muchos recuerdos de sobre videojuegos los podemos tener distribuidos por títulos, generaciones o consolas. Muchos recordaran aquellos juegos que podían conseguir, pues cuando uno es un ser menor le acompaña una economía equiparada, así que aprendes a sacar rendimiento de un juego. Aquel juego a niveles empresariales es tu mayor activo y esto te hace especial, por lo que era mejor no compartir los mismos gustos con tus seres cercanos, el cambio funcionaba realmente bien. Éste hecho también propiciaba ciertas conductas videojuveniles que han evolucionado hasta la actualidad.

Por poner un ejemplo, antes tenías miles de formas de alargar un juego, el hecho de que fuese un bien exclusivo y caro de ver (al menos en hogares conocidos) hacía que se exprimieran las posibilidades hasta la extenuación. Así que teníamos jugadores de Mario Bross. pasándose el juego en Speed Run, otros sin utilizar Power Up y algunos optaban por la opción Only 1 Live. Lo mismo valía para cualquier juego, las auto normas se imponían en grupos y a veces suponía muchas horas de diversión.

Cómo todo las sociedades son cambiantes, todo evoluciona o involuciona (según se mire) pero el mundo del videojuego sigue con una tendencia al reto, sí! Es verdad que hoy en día tu mejor bien es tener el mismo juego que un compañero para poder sacarle partido al online, y que pocas veces se utiliza la fórmula del cambio. También es verdad que muchos de los paupérrimos niños dependientes del sistema económico paternal han creado una Opa y dependen de sus propios bienes. Pero los retos en los videojuegos siguen ahí, cada vez con más auge, con más fuerza y copando un gran hueco dentro de éste sector.

El rejugar un videojuego siempre ha sido normal, el alargar las horas necesario e imprescindible, eso sí la Next Gen ha llegado con fuerza y algún “niño” que seguramente jugó al R-Type con el mando al revés a sido el responsable de la implementación del sistema de Logros en nuestro sector.

Bienvenidos sean siempre que tengan como objetivo divertir o hacernos mejorar, pues algunos están por obligación, otros pueden llegar a extenuar y hay un pequeño grupo que hacen resurgir algo desde lo más profundo de nuestro ser, y claro, una vez conseguido todos, babeamos como el perro de Paulov esperando su alimento una vez escuchado el “ting” de la campanita.

A continuación y para celebrar que he llegado a las 100 visitas en el Blog! Os dejo aquellos 10 logros de los que estoy más orgulloso:

Cuchilla Letal	Exterminio	Fin Misión Especial	A dar caña	Curtido en combate
Tesoro Escondido	Campeón de karate	Modo ∞	Exterminazombies	Rasto de cadáveres

Y gracias a este sistema seguimos y seguiremos siendo exigentes….o no?

Un saludo, Laocoont y gracias a las 100 visitas.

Dear Friends,

This is for those of us who work in interactive voice-overs. There is an important meeting at SAG on Oct 13th at 7pm. Significant changes for better or worse could be in store for us. Too bad for us if we don’t show up to this meeting.

In interactive v.o., we have two contracts with two unions for the same territory that are out of sync, so significant gains are pretty much impossible. Producers can easily play one union against the other, or choose to only sign with one union to cripple the other’s bargaining abilities, all of which we have now with interactive v.o. If we continue without intelligently merging our unions, I feel this is the future for all other contracts.

On to the meeting: The good news is that our two unions have heard us and have come together and bargained a new interactive agreement with modest gains with a re-sync’ed end date, which I feel is a significant and much needed gain. However, there is a new feature in this proposal that those of us who work in interactive must take a careful look and and let BOTH our unions know our feelings on. If our attendance is as paltry as it was at the informational SAG interactive caucus was a few weeks ago, this change will be passed by both our unions’ boards whether we like it or not.

Even though SAG has pretty much lost all animation and interactive v.o. work over the past few years, they are at least holding a second informational meeting over this new SAG/AFTRA tentative interactive agreement. If you work this contract, you need to be there and listen and speak up. In particular, there is concern over a new feature producers want called “atmospheric voices” which BOTH our unions need to hear our opinions on. I believe there is a pro and a con to this concept and I’ll try to lay the two sides out as fairly as I can:

“Atmospheric voices,” as I understand it, allows for producers to record many more individual voices per session fee and an infinite number of different voices for only a double session fee, where the number of voices we can perform are significantly restricted with our current contract. It seems the argument for this new category is that games with greater numbers of voices, such as MMORPG’s like “World of Warcraft” which have literally hundreds of voices in a game, will be enticed to sign up union voice talent (WoW is non-union as are other mega-voice games). More games like this are on the way in the future, the argument goes, and with this new feature in the contract, more big games could choose to go union, and this could potentially mean a lot of new work for union voice actors. Many such games that feature a great number of incidental characters are populated with characters that say only a few sentences anyway (a vendor, a page, a merchant, a citizen, someone you happen to bump into etc), not a ton of vocal work per incidental for the most part, the argument goes. With the addition of the “atmospheric voices” provision, big games of the future which would have remained non-union would turn union, sign more union actors for more work. Win win. At least, that’s the pro pitch, as I understand it. As a gamer, I’d say this could possibly change some big v.o. games to “go union.” Possibly. And that could be a significant amount of work. I would also say that the evolution of gaming cuts both ways, with the “next gen” titles (Xbox360 and PS3 and some Wii “portages”) needing to sound increasingly “cinematic” and professional (union), but “low-res” and retro gaming (iPhone, Wii, DS, etc) are expanding possibly faster (voice acting here probably tends to be more non-union in cheaper games if there is any voice work at all). I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the top selling next-gen games mostly use union v.o. talent. Could be wrong there, though. Most games I believe are non-union and for many games (some might say most) the voice acting is not nearly as important as game play and game design, if it is a factor at all. Frankly, I’d like more data on all this and hardly any was presented at the last SAG interactive caucus. I don’t think that most of our negotiators are gamers and I’m not sure they necessarily know video games or that biz. As someone who not only works in interactive v.o. but is also a fairly active gamer, I am honestly not sure about this pro argument. I admit the possibility of populating future iterations of games like “World of Warcraft” with all union voice actors could potentially mean a lot of work for us. Most of the voice work in that particular game strikes me as pretty “light duty.” Modest gains with re-sync’ing the contracts is great. Okay, that’s the pro.

The con argument is that “atmospheric voices” simply gives up what little firewall protection our interactive contract already provides and just gets us less money for essentially more work. The number of voices we currently perform for scale (most of the work in this realm is scale, if it is union at all) is restricted as it is in television animation, where producers are required to pay essentially for very few voices, although the session can last four hours even for one voice. Certainly there is merit to this restriction for game v.o. work, although you’d be hard pressed to find an 11 or even 22 minute t.v. cartoon with literally hundreds of individual voices. The comparison of games to t.v. only partially holds. The con argument sees an easy opportunity to further work union voice actors to death in a realm where (unlike television animation) we are already worked to death as it is- with no residuals, potentially four hours of working solo, and often to the point of blowing out your voice with screaming or yelling without some kind of “hazard pay.” Game work is also often much more demanding and punishing than television voice work. In fact, the only worse union contract might be SAG’s anime dubbing agreement (another multi-billion dollar industry where the union contract is long hours with no residuals– most of the work here is also non-union). Despite resync’ing the contracts between SAG and AFTRA and other modest gains, this “atmospheric voices” feature is potentially a massive give away and cannot be allowed– at least that’s the con argument.

Frankly, I think both sides have points and the fact that these contracts are re-sync’ed means that when they expire (I think it’s in a couple years) if this “atmospheric voices” thing is abused and we don’t like it, we can kill it– assuming our unions are either bargaining together or merged, which may not be the case, though it looks better these days. Perhaps opening up “World of Warcraft” type games to union work would bring us a ton a new work, each such game is like a country that we could populate with union voice actors instead of non-union. Or it could make an already problematic contract even more punishing and difficult for less pay. I honestly think there can be a discussion about this (not a screaming match). Let’s make an informed decision as a community.

But there can be no discussion without any of us showing up to listen and talk on October 13th.

One thing I do know: if the interactive v.o. community chooses shows up in such pathetic numbers as we’ve seen recently, this will pass, whether it is a good idea or not. We must let both our unions know our opinion, not just SAG (the one producers have abandoned) but AFTRA as well– they are set to sign off on this on Oct 14th, as I understand it. Either both must pass or both must reject, but it should be with our community’s input.

Please show up.

Thanks

Dee

—-

Attend an Informational Meeting Regarding the Tentative Agreement for the
2009 Interactive Media Agreement, Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Screen Actors Guild will host an informational meeting for the purpose of providing a report to members on the Tentative Agreement reached for the 2009 Interactive Media Agreement. The meeting will be held in Los Angeles.
Members of the Interactive Media Agreement negotiating committee and staff will be in attendance.

Please inform your fellow union members who work under this agreement about this important meeting. Participation is limited only by fire department regulations.

When: 7-8:30 p.m., Tuesday October 13, 2009

Screen Actors Guild Headquarters
James Cagney Board Room, ground floor
5757 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Parking will be validated

All paid-up SAG members who work under the Interactive Agreement should attend. Unfortunately, no guests allowed. Parents/guardians of young performers under 18 years-old are welcome. PLEASE BRING YOUR SAG MEMBERSHIP CARD FOR ADMITTANCE (paid thru October 31, 2009).

Previous readers of this blog (or the Frugal Gaming forums) may be aware that I nurse something of a man crush on Nathan Drake, erstwhile digital leading man and all-round, quip-on-the-draw badass from Sony and Naughty Dog’s “Uncharted” series of video games (the sequel, “Uncharted 2: Among Thieves” is released in ten days’ time).

You may enjoy the embedded ad above for the PS3, but doesn’t it trade on ‘Gamer Girlfriend = Clueless Bimbo’ stereotypes just a little bit?  I can see where Sony and their ad bods are coming from – the experience of playing next gen games can feel like you’re playing a high-end CG animation at times, and people walking in on a cut scene might well fail to register that a game is in progress if they are unfamiliar with the medium.  The line is being blurred between the mediums of cinema and gaming at the moment – I hope that this is the idea that Sony were trying to deliver here.

I was unfortunately unable to attend Pecha Kucha Night 5 last night at the Horowitz Theatre on the U of A campus. However, by all accounts, it was a tremendous event.

Long-time friend and Girls And Bicycles writer Sarah Chan attended and had this to say about PKN5:

“Generally speaking, all the presenters seem to have the common goal of wanting to help make Edmonton a better city. [...] All in all it was a great evening if only to go to something where there are a bunch of people who aren’t necessarily in undergrad and who aren’t super middled-aged either. The demographic was very much to my liking because it was people who are living and working in Edmonton, with the belief that we can do better. Better communities. Better social programs. Better buildings and planning. It’s heartwarming to know there is at least a small segment of young professionals who feel as though it’s worthwhile to take the time to discuss these things.”

You can read Sarah’s full review here.

Mack Male, one of Edmonton’s more prolific bloggers and Twitter kingpin (yes, Mack, I *am* throwing that out there) provides a great summary of PKN5 on his blog:

“I think my favorite presentation was Christian’s. He’s a great speaker, and I’m a sucker for cool technology applied to Edmonton. It’s amazing that he’s created so many 3D models for local architecture. His work is a really great resource for all of us. I also really loved Isha’s presentation, because I think it embodied what Pecha Kucha is all about – an interesting, thought-provoking idea introduced in six minutes and forty seconds. She left me wanting to learn more and wanting to talk to others about it!”

All of this took place on the heels of an article from David Berry at Vue Weekly talking about the upsides and downsides of Next Gen, the committee responsible for organizing Edmonton’s Pecha Kucha Nights. David has a good analysis on Next Gen with some interesting quotes from Next Gen chair Cary Williams (incorrectly named “Cory” Williams, at least in the online version of the story):

“One of the hopes is that Next Gen will be this hub, this glue that bring different people and organizations together and creates a greater community,” sums up Williams. “I want people to be excited about what’s happening here and wanting to contribute to the energy and creative thought here, and I’d love Next Gen to be the pebble in the pond that causes people to get out and be excited about building a community.”

Blogging stalwarts Mack Male and Dave Cournoyer are also quoted in the story. Give it a read!

In the 1950s and 1960s it was all so easy. Mad Men placed cigarette adverts on TV and nationwide the populous soaked it up. The hypodermic syringe model of advertising was working. Keep pumping the message into the audience, and eventually their response to your product with be akin to a pavlovian dog. Great empires were built around the creation, direction and execution of advertising.

Then somewhere between the 1950s and today it all went wrong. The glut of ads got so great that they went from being a novelty to an annoyance and people started to stop listening. TV remote controls were a milestone in ad avoidance, as channel surfing provided a temporary opt out.  As single channels became less effective the agencies started to integrate and plan and create multi-channel campaigns. They integrated press, radio, TV and any other channel that it could lay their hands on.

The leakage of the audience continued unabated and the advertising industries hit a wall around 2000. That wall was the internet and like so many industries the hugely disruptive force of the net, splintered the advertising industry. This was the classic flip from push to pull and suddenly a silicon valleys based start up was leading the audience to the brands rather than the advertising agencies leading the brands to the audience. Google still has a frosty relationship with many global media and advertising agencies. The reason? Google represent a threat to the core of their businesses. Google was a symptom and not the cause of disruptive power of the internet, the evolution of Google was born out of a necessity to search the web effectively. Conversely for the agencies, the better the search the better the ad avoidance. They needed to find another new channel.

Ad-funding is not a new idea, it has been around for decades but away from straight ahead advertising it was almost invisible, with product placement being covert not overt. The net provided a new transparency, a highly targeted route to the consumer. When online you are being watched, and this means that your tastes and habits can be observed and used for geo location, gender, age and numerous other analytic variables. Music was the first to try and employ the model of give away the product, and offset with advertising revenue. To date none of the primary ad-funded music services like We7 or Spotify have started to turn a profit so it seems that even when the audience is given the bait and switch proposition of free music in exchange for ears and eyeballs, that the reluctance to absorb ads is apparent to both audience and advertiser. Online game services like Pogo work on a similar model, where browser based games provide a platform for ad-serving and the games bring in the audience.

In game advertising represents quite a different proposition. Here, the audience have already paid the entrance fee, in most cases £40 (in the UK).  In terms of entertainment media games represent the higher end of the cost scale. In addition to that (in the case of Xbox at least) there is a monthly fee to be able to play games online. There are two primary methods of in game advertising, those included in the on disc game (that can often be static) that approximates to traditional advertising/product placement and those games that have ads served into them once they enter the online environment (Dynamic). The first advertising hoardings within games with real world ads started to appear in 1994 in the EA title FIFA international soccer.

The challenge for these static ads was that they were not measurable like online ad serving. Like any other connected platform ads are piped into the environment. Thus far this has met with varying degrees of apathy and outrage. Some gamers have been outraged and have decreed the ads to be invasive.  In the case of Wipeout HD, the ad-serving proved to be disastrous, with load times greatly increased and an incensed audience. Sony backed down and the ad serving was cancelled. A similar furore broke out around the EA title Battlefield 2142, these ads were served by IGA worldwide.

This was a short term victory for the audience as the introduction of ads is inevitable. Massive have predicted that in game advertising will reach $1.8 Billion in 2010, and it is seen as a way for games developers to offset the increasing costs of game development.  Some publishers see this as a way to make an additional $1 to $2 for each unit sold. The inevitable wave of analytics measure are already being put in place by traditional firms such as Nielsen, through Nielsen Media Research. Nielsen call it Gameplay Metrics and it has been created to serve in-game advertisers.

Visit the Massive website and you will see a very convincing argument for the dynamic in game advertising case. Impressions are counted by actual instances of the ad in clear line of sight of the player, and they are counted by the second. As an advertiser I can be assured that my audience is looking, or at least looking in the general direction of the ad. This varies greatly from online ad serving as impressions do not indicate any accurate level of engagement. Connected consoles provide exceptional analytic feedback about the level of interaction with the ad including viewing angle. These are metrics that outdoor, online or TV simply cannot provide.

If the serving of the ad can be accurately defined the question therefore is are the audience looking and listening? The suitability of in-game ads has to be based upon context. If they add to the experience and are not intrusive, then it seems counterintuitive as a gamer to register a complaint.

Prototype made it explicit on the back of the box, but when you play the game the presence of the ads is far from intrusive. The game is set in New York so the inclusion of ads makes perfect sense. Indeed they add to the experience. The content of the ads is secondary to context, as from memory I am finding it difficult to recall the actual ads within the game. There has been a long standing tradition of the inclusion of marques of car which represents another more oblique form of in-game advertising. Perhaps the most pervasive and least perceived form of in-game branding is the use of real-world gun names such as AK47, M16 and MAC-11. These are all products and whilst not consumer brands, I am sure that most ardent FPS gamers would be able to recall these with almost total clarity. In both of these cases the use of brand name would wholeheartedly be defended in the name of realism.

Advertisers are drawn to in-game advertising as it presents a new channel to reach the 18-34 year old males who had drifted away from traditional TV advertising. The other benefit is that these games are played on the TV, so are not a huge leap away from the communication methods of the past. The fundamental difference is that the TV represents that delivery method and not the platform itself.

Dear Teenage Boys, (actually, let me call you young men, I know being a teen you must hate being called a boy…)

The truth is you are becoming men.  That being said, there are some responsibilities that you need to step into.  I know, I said it, that dreaded word – RESPONSIBILITY.  As scary as the word may be, it’s time to face the facts.  You are responsible for some things now.  To make matters worse, your responsibilities will only grow from here on in.  It doesn’t get easier so I hope you really enjoyed the carefree days of your youth.

For the rest of your life you will be faced with choices.  Choices that bring with them consequences,  Choices that effect more people than just yourself.  Choices that can either set you up to have a great future and choices that can make your life far more difficult than it is meant to be.  How do you make your decisions?  Do you just “go with your gut”?  Are your choices made purely by how you feel?  If it makes you happy will that be the choice that you make?  Do you ask others for advice?  Do you seek any guidance at all?

This is something I have always found interesting.  In school you have a guidance counselor.  Their role is simply to help you make choices regarding the classes that you need to take in order to complete a well-rounded education.  At times they are also there to help you when you are having a bad day and need to talk – but mostly it’s just a quick appointment once or twice a year to pick your classes.  If you have someone that helps guide you through the mundane choices of Algebra or Geometry then why in the world would you expect to be able to jump into much larger decisions on your own?

Yesterday I spoke honestly to the ladies.  I spoke to them about the images that they post of themselves on Facebook.  I’m quite sure some of you are hatin’ on me right now because I am trying to take your fun away.  Sorry.  No, actually I’m not sorry.  I’m annoyed.  I’m frustrated.  I’m downright pissed off at times.  I see the way that girls are doing anything and everything possible to be noticed by you guys.  I see the way they are throwing themselves at you in order to feel wanted and cared for.  The sad fact is that many girls are not getting the love that they need from their father’s the way that they are supposed to and because of that they will take any kind of attention they can get – including you all gazing upon their bodies – and giving them the appearance that they are desirable.

I guess that is one of the responsibilities that we can talk about right now.  The responsibility of being a man and not just some punk that will freely take what is not yours to have.  Just because some girls are willing does not mean that you should be.  Man up!  Having sex doesn’t make you a man.  Sex does not equal love nor does it equal care for another person.  And quit using the line, “I love you.” just to get what you want.  Girls so desperately want to hear this and when you manipulate them by telling them what they want to hear you are only continuing the cycle of un-acceptance that these girls are struggling with.  Each of these girls are someone’s daughter, someone’s sister, and someday, someone’s wife, mother, grandmother.  Protect them.  Protect them because you will appreciate your future wife that much more if she enters a marriage with you with no baggage.

I know that seems like such a foreign concept to you right now.  Marriage is something that you are not thinking about.  Actually, if I may make an observation (and I will because it’ my blog and you can’t stop me) the cycle that you are perpetuating is one of divorce.  Your dating habits actually teach you to be great at LEAVING relationships.  Think about it.  You date a girl.  It’s fun.  It gets serious.  You get physical.  It goes as far as it can go.  You get bored.  You have some conversation (hopefully it’s face to face and not via text message!) and you share with her that, “it’s not you , it’s me.  I guess I have changed.  But we can still be friends.”  (Forgive me for a minute, but you’re lame!)  Then you go find another girl and repeat steps one through seven.  And then you do it again, and again, and again.

What did you just teach yourself to do?  When the going gets tough, leave.  Think about how many married couples have done this over the years.  Rather than take the vow, the commitment, the oath that we have made seriously – “to have and to hold till death do us part” we just leave when it begins to get difficult.  Maybe try and just be friends with girls.  See your role, your responsibility, as one of a protector of girls.  If more guys did that these days I believe we could see a radical reformation in relationships that would make a difference for generations to come.

There is so much more I could write to you, and I hope that through the next years we will talk more about this stuff.  Trust me, I’m not coming down on you alone.  I understand that there are plenty of girls that need to understand that they need to protect you guys as well.  I understand how you are wired – I’m wired the same way.  When you see something that looks good you want to look at it more and more and more.  I do understand that girls need to cover themselves up to keep you from desiring to see more of them.  But you’ve got to do all that you can to protect yourself.  Get together with some other guys and talk about this stuff.  Share with them about your struggles.  Allow them to help you.  Find some other guys that may be a bit older than you, or for that matter way older than you, ask them to help you.  Ask them for guidance.

If it worked for that Algebra class who knows how it could help with this kind of stuff…

Dear Teenage Girls,

I know many of you.  I spend time with you.  I pray for you.  I know your parents.  I pray for them even more.  Over the past few years many of you have become “friends” with me on Facebook.  I think this is a great thing.  I am always looking for ways to connect with people and I see Facebook as one of those ways that help to build relationship.  That being said, can I be honest and blunt with you for a moment?

You show too much of yourself in the pictures that you post.  I understand that it’s all the rage to take a picture of yourself by extending your arm high up into the arm, above yourself, in a way that aims the camera down.  I’m not so naive to believe that you are not aware of how the camera is angled or what exactly the picture focuses in on.  I’m as Pastor and I take the calling I have very humbly.  But before I am a Pastor I am a Father.  I take that role very seriously.  I love my two daughters.  I don’t think that I am your father.  You have a father, or at least some of you do.  Some of you may be missing that relationship for one reason or another.  I know that you not having a great connection with your father is not part of God’s plan.  With that being said, can you hear the words I write as words from a father – please?

Stop posting pictures of your breasts on Facebook.  I understand that you are proud of what God has blessed you with.  I am quite sure that is true because you keep giving all of us that are in your friend list access to numerous pictures of them.  Please, hear my heart for you as you read these words.  You may be proud of the “girls,”  but you are not doing yourself any favors by showing them to the rest of us.  The people that are looking at these pictures are not looking at these images and thinking, “what a nice smile she has”  nor are they thinking about how happy you look.

The pictures that you are posting of yourself make you look cheap.  I’m sorry for saying this but you need to understand that you are freely giving away something that costs you dearly.  The boys at school may like you more because of the pictures that you are posting but they aren’t liking you for the reasons that you HOPE they are liking you for.  They are happy that you are posting these pictures.  Some are VERY happy.  These boys will want to spend time with you.  At least, for a little while they will.  But soon enough someone else will come along that will show them more of what they want to see.  At this point you will be faced with a choice.

“Do I give them more?  Do I allow them to touch me?  Do I give myself away?

If I don’t do this they may not like me any more.”

Many of these questions, if you are already struggling with friendships, will be easy to answer.  You will say yes.  You may not want to but the pull to have someone attracted to you will be too strong.  No one wants to be rejected.  I understand that.  I also understand the heartache that comes from being used and then left behind.  Don’t give yourself away – in any form.  Change the angle of the camera.  Aim it at your face.  Put on some clothes that hide some of the front of you.  We love you – all of you – but we don’t need to see ALL of you.

In my attempt to add a bit of humor to this post.  I’ll make this one last statement.

Put away your boobs and step away from the camera.  Please.

From 1Up’s Jeremy Parish – “…a side diversion in the Halo universe, but it’s an awfully good one”.

MTV Multiplayer’s Rush Frushtick – “For Halo fans, it’s a no brainer”.

Kotaku’s Stephen Totilo – “Bungie’s done good this time. That’s a victory, even if that’s a departure from a series which has often seen Bungie do great”.

The Guardian’s Tom Roberts – “At the end of Halo 3, Master Chief put himself into cryogenic freezing. If  Halo: ODST’s fresh approach delivers on its potential, as far as I’m concerned, he can stay there”.

The initial word is very positive – and I have to admit that I’m intrigued by the prospect of non-linear storytelling influenced, in part, by Film Noir – but I wonder if there’s enough here for anybody who isn’t a dyed-in-the-wool fan of Bungie and all things Master Chief.

I didn’t try “Halo Wars” for that reason, and I don’t know that I feel involved enough in the series to pick up this premium priced campaign extension.

Of course, the vocal presence of some of these chaps could well sway me in the queue at GameStation.

The Man does not rock

My resolve crumbles as “Modern Warfare 2″ approaches – and this man knows it…

Caroline Bergeron and Next Generation Ministry Children’s ministry updates can now be found by clicking to

www.carolinebergeron.ca

Ben Johnson and Next Generation Ministry updates can now be found by clicking to

www.benjaminjohnson.ca

]]> http://espanglishvideogames.wordpress.com/2009/09/07/eye-candy-2-malgasto-de-recursos/ Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:14:13 +0000 Pedro Cori http://espanglishvideogames.wordpress.com/2009/09/07/eye-candy-2-malgasto-de-recursos/

Back in the days del PS1, mi gran amigo Anchoa un día me preguntó si había seguido jugando el Metal Gear Solid. “No”, le respondí yo, “es que no sé, como que no me gusta como se ve.” Anchoa immediately retorted “pero cómo wn?? Si los gráficos son a toda raja!”. Después de ponderar unos segundos sobre el porqué, encontré la respuesta: “Es que… es como muy verde.”

En el post pasado comenté que iba a escribir sobre juegos que, a pesar de tener gran elaboración in the graphic department, se quedaban cortos en ese aspecto debido a decisiones extrañas de los diseñadores. Desde esos tiempos de la anécdota me he ido fijando que los juegos más realistas se han puesto cada vez más monocromáticos en sus paletas de colores. No sé por qué ultimamente se les ha ocurrido a los diseñadores gráficos de los juegos, que para hacer un mundo creíble, la variedad de colores no puede incluir más de 4 tonos de girs. Ha llegado a tal extremo que, tal como me pasó con el MGS, puedo llegar a describir cómo se ve un juego con un color.

Algunos ejemplos que he jugado ultimamante son: Killzone -> gris, Resistance -> café, FarCry 2 -> sepia, Fallout 3 -> gris, Gears of War -> gris.

La lista sigue; sobre todo los juegos de terror o suspenso se cargan de sobremanera en los negros, cafés y en tener mucha oscuridad en pantalla. Ahora, es un recurso bueno, pero ultimamente se ha tornado un abuso. Sobre todo se nota cuando salen juegos que demuestran que pueden asustarte in the creepiest ways sin necesidad de aburrir tu pupila. El Bioshock es un ejemplo claro de esto. Si bien tiene etapas bastante oscuras, en otras partes tiene matices de colores y una ambientación excelente y diferente. También hay otros juegos que tratan temáticas serias y tratan de emular mundos relativamente realistas, pero lo hacen con una creatividad que de verdad llama la atención. Por ejemplo, el Mirror´s Edge tiene colores oscuros y brillantes, contrastes increíbles e iluminación copios y sin embargo te mantiene al borde del asiento durante toda la historia. Algo similar me pasó con la última entrega del Prince of Persia. Si bien no es un juegazo en el sector gameplay o narrativa (es botado de fácil y la historia es típica), tiene los gráficos más hermosos e innovadores que he visto en el último tiempo. Logra mezclar perfectamente colores vívidos, opacos, cálidos y fríos y en un ambiente definitivamente medio-oriental, pero surrealista. La mezcla de cell shading y renderización poligonal clásica que se ocupa en las texturas, también le dan un aspecto novedoso y, en conjunto con efectos de partículas y física increíble (but believable XD), tan agradable que me tuvo jugando hasta el final sin aburrirme. Lo mismo con el Assassin’s Creed: un juego repetitivo, pero visualmente enviciante (aparte que I could´t get enough de saltar por los techos, jeje).

Esto prueba que existen maneras de hacer que los juegos se vean bien sin perder realismo, suspenso o lo que sea que tratan de transmitir. Por el contrario, a través del uso creativo de los medios gráficos es la mejor manera de efectivamente crear una atmósfera. Por eso me sorprende que, teniendo tantos recursos gráficos, se estén creando juegos que se ven tan “bland”.  Todos los juegos mencionados son muy entretenidos, pero me imagino lo mucho mejores que serían si hubieran considerado estos puntos.