• 1Oct 07

  How is the Wii winning?

  I have to start this with a very clear statement: I am a Nintendo whore. For the past 10 years I have faithfully stood by the N64 and Gamecube as they were called the black sheep console and destined to drag Nintendo into the history books. I stuck to them, never buying an Xbox or Playstation because the gems that were put out on Nintendo systems were worth it.

  Yet here I am, thinking that the 360 will be my first purchase this generation. I has games...fun games...pretty games. The Wii...well...how the heck is it winning this war? Are consumers so easily pulled over by something new and exciting?

  Readers are no doubt thinking I've somehow shifted my preference, but I haven't. I just wonder what draws people to the Wii. There isn't any software on it that screams out 'buy me' in my opinion. Sure, they're fun games. I enjoy swinging my sword as Link or punching people but that wears thin pretty quick. Twilight Princess is awesome on the GCN so why should I bother with a Wii.

  Yet here the little console is outselling everyone else by an impressive margin. How? Why? What is the attraction?

  • Posted Oct 1, 2007 3:47 pm GMT
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• 28Sep 07

  On Censorship

  Great...I was typing a huge thing and I hit a wrong button which deleted all my workings.

  Basically I was saying that I was ready to ignore a bunch of union drama happening as of late but was extremely put off by the actions of one member that left the union. A certain blog post that had several comments from people disagreeing with his appraisal of the siatuion was simply deleted, wiped clean, reposted, and now has some posts from sycophants. Yes, just let people tell you how great you dramatic self-proclomation as a martyr is.

  Please. Stand up for who you are and grow a backbone. Don't delete comments and simply say people didn't have all the facts. I sincerely hope the offending person is under the age of 19. If he's not...man, grow up.

  In the interests of public discourse, I have decided to post in this blog a letter I received from this person and my response:

  Letter:

  I want nothing more to do with this, however with all due respect I've saw what happened on IRC last night, you didn't. I'm being dogged behind my back,xxxxx is aware of it, and he's chosen to lie about it.
  
  If you want to believe the interpretation of the events you've been told, so be it, I'm not interested in fighting anyone.xxxx lost two good members - I'd look to the people who seem unfazed by it with a raised eyebrow, but that's just me.
  
  Have fun man, you don't have all the facts in this, and yet you've chosen to defend the actions of someone who is bold-facedly lying. *shrugs* I have nothing more to say. If you think this lowely of me, and trust someone opposed to the idea of officers answering direct questions, re-elections, and a former member being treated with respect, that is your choice.

  Response:

  I'm reminded of an old saying...only one's self chooses to be offended.

  Are you being dogged behind your back? I don't think you are and most of what I've seen from the general population of the union is a desire to forgive, forget, and move on with life. You took actions which you felt were necessary and that is certainly your perogative.

  Strangely I had similar thoughts going through my head this last Monday at a condo board meeting. This is a board that manages a major downtown building in Edmonton with an annual budget of a million dollars and common assets of several million. A few flares of resentment went up between people and I seriously considered resigning then and there but then I thought, well, what good would I be from outside the situation?

  I have not been told anything about the situation. What I have seen, however, is a strangely subvertive telling of accounts from the parties that have decided to back away from the union over said events. For the record, I have also worked for the Government of Alberta and Legislative Assembly of Alberta for over five years...I know politicing when I see it.

  You state that I do not have all the facts and that is something I am readily agreeing with, yet there seems to be a lack of willingness from certain sides of the argument to provide said missing facts. I do not and cannot respect veiled statements and heresay.

  In regards to the whole ban dodging situation, I admit that I am out of the loop on the situation. HOWEVER, I have been extremely distressed and disappointed at the trend that many GS moderaters have taken over the past two years. I feel that the community of Gamespot and System Wars in particular has been damaged beyond the point of repair. Listening to the least of complaints and creating rules to enforce a tyrany of the minority in no way helps any sort of system. There are numerous people on Gamespot that I could easily say I would support if they decided to bandoge after being banned for absolutely trivial matters.

  You say I do not have all the facts, which I agree with, yet it seems that no one is willing to provide facts to counteract the conspiracy. I trust no one's interpretation of the events...I have only my own interpretation based upon what I have seen and been provided. The power to provide more information easily lies in your hands and it is your choice whether or not to embrace that. If you do not, then you forfeit rights to complain much as those who chose not to participate in a democratic election have to right to complain about the current government.

  I certainly do not think lowly of you, nor do I oppose anyone open to questioning the 'system' (I really hate that term but it suits this situation). However, I do have a low tolerance of drama for drama's sake.Questioning must be done openly,through complete disclosure, and with purpose. I have no idea of your age, experience, or any of that sort of thing yet for some reason I sincerely hope that you are of a younger age. The problems, scorn, and vile that has seemingly erupted over this situation is certainly not worth it considering it is a forum on an electronic gaming site.

  I stand by the statements that I wish you the best of luck in your endeavours and I sincerely hope you don't let this electronic world suck up an unacceptable amount of your time and energy.

  • Posted Sep 28, 2007 8:04 am GMT
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• 6Sep 07

  Me = dumb, cleary

  Here I am, trying to finish a MA, writing papers on the game industry, interested in a lot of things and I can't figure out what the hell to do with my life post graduating.

  Whatever. I was trying to get some things off the ground but tonight feel like they're impossible and that I can't handle it. I have no idea what I'm doing, obviously.

  People annoy me who say at one point, yeah, great, then change their mind and then say what I did was completely the wrong angle and that it should be done again. Well, good Lord, why can't that just be said in the first place? I'm sure not going to take offense at critique, but I am going to take offense at my time being wasted.

  On a completely unrelated point, I hate people that think the conversation should end or change when they feel they are bored or done with the topic. No, you're not the centre of the universe just because you're going to a school in Austria that no one has heard about.

  Heaven knows I couldn't get my hairbrain game company idea off the ground and it's just the same with this new idea. I just want to run home to Lacombe and work at Tim Hortons and rock back and forth

  Ok, end rant. Breathe deep. I miss my PC - it's still at the shop trying to get it's PCI locked at x4 instead of x16 problem solved as well as the high reving CD drives. I tried to fix those problems myself, but, again, failiure.

  And today started so well.

  • Posted Sep 6, 2007 6:51 pm GMT
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