so this past weekend, i chilled a bit, lived a bit, hallucinated a bit, you know the drill. and naturally, i would wonder the purpose of our lives.
god created a setting: earth. he created the players: men. he created an entity that every player is fighting for: the middle east. and with the middle east, there is conflict, and with conflict, there is his entertainment.
who will end up on top?
-andy
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007
the zen of kirby's air ride
if you haven't played kirby's air ride for gamecube, then don't bother unless you have nothing else to do or you are on acid/any sort of drug.
air ride is not a conventional racing game with cars; rather, players race with 'air ride machines'. f
or instance, there is no accelerate button and there are boundaries on each track (unlike mariokart, where you race on precariously small tracks with risk of falling off and finishing in the bottom four). there are different vehicles, as in any other racing game, that players can choose from. since mark and i were new to the game, we chose the 'wagon star': a large box that kirby sits on that requires no skill due to its easy handling (compared to the other vehicles, which have poor acceleration, poor handling, and requires competent control of drifting and boosting). to put it simply, using the wagon (or as we affectionately called 'the haier' because of its resemblance to a stolen--no, hijacked--chinese refrigerator) requires the least amount of player input. since the tracks have boundaries, you can leave your controller on the couch and your place in the race would not change drastically.
when the race was between two haiers (which was usually the case), both haiers always finished within two seconds of each other. regardless of what happened during the race, the power ups gotten and weapons used, the different paths taken, the race would always finish the same--one haier winning by a close margin, flying from out of the screen, taking the loser by surprise.
we played air ride for five or six hours. i can't tell you for certain what held our interest in the game; maybe the flashing lights, aesthetically pleasing back drop, mindless simple game play, the instant gratification of pressing the 'a' button and attacking random objects that cross your path, or the acid we dropped earlier (yeah, probably the acid). and it was probably the acid that instigated these thoughts on the air ride that emerged in my mind while playing.
video games, like religion, is the opiate of the masses. today, video games sedate the minds of millions of today's youth. the japanese have understood this and are one of the biggest think tanks for creating the most popular games. and it is all part of japan's plan to become the future world power. by making games that do not actively improve any aspect of the player (besides to get better at pressing certain button combinations), solely to entertain and kill time, and directed towards america's youth, japan is diluting the potency and culture of next generation america. how can video games, a seemingly innocuous form of entertainment, be used to control an entire generation?
consider arcade tekken, for instance. i have played a couple of times against my japanese friend, yousuke. me, backed with my knowledge of several combos and KO moves, against yousuke, smart enough to understand the capabilities of button mashing. our games were always close, but the credit goes to him for his passive playing style. i would be bent over the little red plastic joy stick and the four buttons, fingers clumsily deciding which button is the punch and which is the kick, eyes glued to the screen looking for an opening in yousuke's game. yousuke would be leaning back, smoking a cigarette, visibly not engaged in the fight. and yet sometimes, to my bewilderment, he would win.
mashing buttons, huh. so that is the secret to games. many people posting on online forums frown upon button mashing, as it 'takes away from the skill required to play the game'. but isn't playing smart also a skill? or recognizing the ease and efficiency of button mashing? the tekken arcade players, like me, who went through the trouble to learn difficult combos have all done so in vain against players who button mash and win. in fact, if two players button mash, the outcome is random like a sporting event. like air ride, if two haiers are racing, the outcome is generally random. who decides who gets to fly out of the corner of the screen, surpassing the other player a few feet before the finish line? especially considering the fact that that outcome occurs regardless of the race itself and that the players need not be actively engaged with the controls to race competitively (given, of course, that the players are racing with the haiers). is air ride just one giant, intricately created game that deceives us with all of its flashing colors and power up capabilities into pushing the joystick and pressing 'a', only for all control inputs to have negligible contribution towards the outcome of the race?
but it is all in the genius of air ride. there is a relentless pursuit to unlock all the vehicles and all the tracks. and for those with competitive spirits, the pursuit to master a more difficult vehicle than the haier. and for the simple minded, the flashing colors and instant gratification that comes with hitting someone or something with your power ups. air ride encompasses all and on all levels. from a grander perspective, air ride is a video game, like any other video game, that gives an objective to challenge the player, the give the player something to do, some goal to achieve, but does nothing to better the player as a human being (improve a skill that can better life, not just to excel in a specific area like 'being able to master king dedede's bicycle on the last track') and only serves as entertainment.
so the time and money spent to enjoy a few hours of insignificant fun is time and money not spent exercising the mind, exercising the body, pursuing a hobby, or anything else that betters somebody as a human being. but there are exceptions. if everybody is playing a particular video game, then not playing it may limit your social standing as an 'outsider'. but that is the case with any activity, television program, or movie. although everything is good in moderation, excessive video game playing, which i believe is the result of poor parenting, is one of the reasons video games is slowly rotting the minds of today's youth.
and yet we keep playing because the instant gratification mixed with the pretty colors just simply makes the players feel good. i feel good when i see kirby riding on a stolen laundry machine with a chinese character on its side. i love flying around, the frictionless surface, the responsiveness of the haier, and the colorful shapes on the screen give the game a warm, soft feel. soon, i am immersed in the game completely, gliding aimlessly on a fantastical track floating among the wispy clouds.
and the entire time, it is air ride that is playing us. it is the video game industry preying on our need for stimuli, our need for gratification. it is the video game industry, always one step ahead, teasing us with colors and predetermined goals, slowly trapping us in a world where human interaction is replaced with pre-scripted, fictional dialogue. it is the video game industry, secretly conniving behind our backs, giving us a false sense of empowerment whenever we win or score, deceiving us into buying more games and playing until our fingers are seized with carpal tunnel and our brains fried.
and yet everyone is connected to video games. not to say that video games are bad, but they should be treated as such: just video games. there exists people who live for video games, where video games become their lives (they should drop acid and come to these realizations themselves). i feel that to be a bit excessive. but there are times when i crave the security of being in command of a few hundred pixels on the television screen.
while playing air ride, nothing can budge me from my seat, my hands from my controller, my eyes from the screen. if it isn't boredom or the need to be 'doing things' that continuously brings me back to video games, what can it be?
don't leave me high, don't leave me dry...
-andy
air ride is not a conventional racing game with cars; rather, players race with 'air ride machines'. f
or instance, there is no accelerate button and there are boundaries on each track (unlike mariokart, where you race on precariously small tracks with risk of falling off and finishing in the bottom four). there are different vehicles, as in any other racing game, that players can choose from. since mark and i were new to the game, we chose the 'wagon star': a large box that kirby sits on that requires no skill due to its easy handling (compared to the other vehicles, which have poor acceleration, poor handling, and requires competent control of drifting and boosting). to put it simply, using the wagon (or as we affectionately called 'the haier' because of its resemblance to a stolen--no, hijacked--chinese refrigerator) requires the least amount of player input. since the tracks have boundaries, you can leave your controller on the couch and your place in the race would not change drastically.when the race was between two haiers (which was usually the case), both haiers always finished within two seconds of each other. regardless of what happened during the race, the power ups gotten and weapons used, the different paths taken, the race would always finish the same--one haier winning by a close margin, flying from out of the screen, taking the loser by surprise.
we played air ride for five or six hours. i can't tell you for certain what held our interest in the game; maybe the flashing lights, aesthetically pleasing back drop, mindless simple game play, the instant gratification of pressing the 'a' button and attacking random objects that cross your path, or the acid we dropped earlier (yeah, probably the acid). and it was probably the acid that instigated these thoughts on the air ride that emerged in my mind while playing.
video games, like religion, is the opiate of the masses. today, video games sedate the minds of millions of today's youth. the japanese have understood this and are one of the biggest think tanks for creating the most popular games. and it is all part of japan's plan to become the future world power. by making games that do not actively improve any aspect of the player (besides to get better at pressing certain button combinations), solely to entertain and kill time, and directed towards america's youth, japan is diluting the potency and culture of next generation america. how can video games, a seemingly innocuous form of entertainment, be used to control an entire generation?
consider arcade tekken, for instance. i have played a couple of times against my japanese friend, yousuke. me, backed with my knowledge of several combos and KO moves, against yousuke, smart enough to understand the capabilities of button mashing. our games were always close, but the credit goes to him for his passive playing style. i would be bent over the little red plastic joy stick and the four buttons, fingers clumsily deciding which button is the punch and which is the kick, eyes glued to the screen looking for an opening in yousuke's game. yousuke would be leaning back, smoking a cigarette, visibly not engaged in the fight. and yet sometimes, to my bewilderment, he would win.
mashing buttons, huh. so that is the secret to games. many people posting on online forums frown upon button mashing, as it 'takes away from the skill required to play the game'. but isn't playing smart also a skill? or recognizing the ease and efficiency of button mashing? the tekken arcade players, like me, who went through the trouble to learn difficult combos have all done so in vain against players who button mash and win. in fact, if two players button mash, the outcome is random like a sporting event. like air ride, if two haiers are racing, the outcome is generally random. who decides who gets to fly out of the corner of the screen, surpassing the other player a few feet before the finish line? especially considering the fact that that outcome occurs regardless of the race itself and that the players need not be actively engaged with the controls to race competitively (given, of course, that the players are racing with the haiers). is air ride just one giant, intricately created game that deceives us with all of its flashing colors and power up capabilities into pushing the joystick and pressing 'a', only for all control inputs to have negligible contribution towards the outcome of the race?
but it is all in the genius of air ride. there is a relentless pursuit to unlock all the vehicles and all the tracks. and for those with competitive spirits, the pursuit to master a more difficult vehicle than the haier. and for the simple minded, the flashing colors and instant gratification that comes with hitting someone or something with your power ups. air ride encompasses all and on all levels. from a grander perspective, air ride is a video game, like any other video game, that gives an objective to challenge the player, the give the player something to do, some goal to achieve, but does nothing to better the player as a human being (improve a skill that can better life, not just to excel in a specific area like 'being able to master king dedede's bicycle on the last track') and only serves as entertainment.
so the time and money spent to enjoy a few hours of insignificant fun is time and money not spent exercising the mind, exercising the body, pursuing a hobby, or anything else that betters somebody as a human being. but there are exceptions. if everybody is playing a particular video game, then not playing it may limit your social standing as an 'outsider'. but that is the case with any activity, television program, or movie. although everything is good in moderation, excessive video game playing, which i believe is the result of poor parenting, is one of the reasons video games is slowly rotting the minds of today's youth.
and yet we keep playing because the instant gratification mixed with the pretty colors just simply makes the players feel good. i feel good when i see kirby riding on a stolen laundry machine with a chinese character on its side. i love flying around, the frictionless surface, the responsiveness of the haier, and the colorful shapes on the screen give the game a warm, soft feel. soon, i am immersed in the game completely, gliding aimlessly on a fantastical track floating among the wispy clouds.
and the entire time, it is air ride that is playing us. it is the video game industry preying on our need for stimuli, our need for gratification. it is the video game industry, always one step ahead, teasing us with colors and predetermined goals, slowly trapping us in a world where human interaction is replaced with pre-scripted, fictional dialogue. it is the video game industry, secretly conniving behind our backs, giving us a false sense of empowerment whenever we win or score, deceiving us into buying more games and playing until our fingers are seized with carpal tunnel and our brains fried.
and yet everyone is connected to video games. not to say that video games are bad, but they should be treated as such: just video games. there exists people who live for video games, where video games become their lives (they should drop acid and come to these realizations themselves). i feel that to be a bit excessive. but there are times when i crave the security of being in command of a few hundred pixels on the television screen.
while playing air ride, nothing can budge me from my seat, my hands from my controller, my eyes from the screen. if it isn't boredom or the need to be 'doing things' that continuously brings me back to video games, what can it be?
don't leave me high, don't leave me dry...
-andy
Friday, September 7, 2007
life without my laptop (i am so lame)
i apologize for my absence in the blogosphere. the reason is that my laptop conveniently decided to break right when i moved into my apartment at union square. my new one is coming in the mail soon, but until then i won't be 'connected' so much to the 'rest of the world'.
living a few days without a laptop made me realize how 'alone' and 'isolated' i am from the 'world'. access to the internet is the ability to maintain contact with 'friends' via facebook or aim or e-mail. but to stay connected is to isolate yourself in front of a computer. when did 'socializing' lose the actual human aspect of socializing? who am i talking to when i type in my blag, who do i intend to read these words?
studies have shown that the majority of a message is conveyed not by its content but by tone and body language. but 'talking' over the internet is just text, pure content. we have replaced the ability to inject personality and character with an array of emoticons and abbreviations, lol. adding a :) or a jk in a line will lighten the tone or suggest sarcasm, for instance. but then again, thats just the purpose of the internet: to transfer information, to foster communication, to stay connected. and we can all stay connected if we can compromise our desire for human contact. though the internet is useful for these purposes, days and nights and days and nights of aim use will degenerate common traits necessary for good social situations, such as hygiene and looking pretty in general.
but i must stay connected, a slave to my laptop. some of those 'friends' you can only stay in touch with facebook. sometimes there may not be enough time to set aside for a conversation over the phone or on aim. sometimes there is nothing as simple and casual as a message on the wall. sometimes only a short, concise facebook message will suffice--no need to go through the greetings commonly found in phone or aim conversations. facebook has really revolutionized networking and the idea of 'being connected'. some people can't go a day without checking the newsfeed or looking through a friend's recently posted pictures.
for the first few days, i experienced facebook (or maybe just laptop/internet/talking to friends) withdrawal. i was getting used to talking in person, getting used to taking showers and maintaining good hygiene, getting used to changing clothes daily. or maybe i was just adjusting to life sans the internet.
work awaits me.
-andy
living a few days without a laptop made me realize how 'alone' and 'isolated' i am from the 'world'. access to the internet is the ability to maintain contact with 'friends' via facebook or aim or e-mail. but to stay connected is to isolate yourself in front of a computer. when did 'socializing' lose the actual human aspect of socializing? who am i talking to when i type in my blag, who do i intend to read these words?
studies have shown that the majority of a message is conveyed not by its content but by tone and body language. but 'talking' over the internet is just text, pure content. we have replaced the ability to inject personality and character with an array of emoticons and abbreviations, lol. adding a :) or a jk in a line will lighten the tone or suggest sarcasm, for instance. but then again, thats just the purpose of the internet: to transfer information, to foster communication, to stay connected. and we can all stay connected if we can compromise our desire for human contact. though the internet is useful for these purposes, days and nights and days and nights of aim use will degenerate common traits necessary for good social situations, such as hygiene and looking pretty in general.
but i must stay connected, a slave to my laptop. some of those 'friends' you can only stay in touch with facebook. sometimes there may not be enough time to set aside for a conversation over the phone or on aim. sometimes there is nothing as simple and casual as a message on the wall. sometimes only a short, concise facebook message will suffice--no need to go through the greetings commonly found in phone or aim conversations. facebook has really revolutionized networking and the idea of 'being connected'. some people can't go a day without checking the newsfeed or looking through a friend's recently posted pictures.
for the first few days, i experienced facebook (or maybe just laptop/internet/talking to friends) withdrawal. i was getting used to talking in person, getting used to taking showers and maintaining good hygiene, getting used to changing clothes daily. or maybe i was just adjusting to life sans the internet.
work awaits me.
-andy
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