Digital Hedonist

This is a quick post to tell you that digitalhedonist.com will be changing soon. I have decided that I would like to blog on another topic unrelated to video games, but something that is very important to me on a personal level, namely the topic of my religion, which is central to many of the current events of the day. I have found that a lot of American people on the net are craving answers and it seems there is a lack of support for them. I hope that I will be able to provide that support. You are most welcome to continue visiting after the changes occur and participate if you are interested!

New Year New Focus 

Hello and Happy 2008 to all. I just wanted to make a post in regards to the absence of posts here on this blog. I was away on vacation these past weeks and as many vacations are, it was a time of reflection. For me, I reflected on how, as much as I love video games, I’ve neglected other pursuits that are probably more important. Whenever a person spends all their time doing one thing, the body, mind and the soul suffer. So, I’ve decided to take a hiatus from this blog and to cut down the time I spend playing games and spend more time exercising for the body, writing creatively for the mind, and giving myself some more “spiritual time” for the soul. I am not sure what the future holds for this blog, I’ve put a lot of time and effort into it, but unfortunately haven’t achieved the goals I had for it. Anyway, we’ll see how it goes, but I’d like to thank those of you who have visited and read what I’ve had to say in the past.

The Threat of Realism

Earlier this month I began a multi-part series on the desensitizing effects of violence in video games by discussing it in a personal context. Now I’d like to continue the series by taking a look at a research study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. While this study has been criticized by several other blogs for being loosey-goosey with their statistical reporting, it does pose some important questions in regards to social policy, and most disturbingly, military policy.
Briefly, the study exposed two groups of participants to violent (Carmageddon, Duke Nukem, Mortal Kombat, Future Cop) or non-violent (Glider Pro, 3D Pinball, 3D Munch Man, Tetra Madness) video games for 20 minute. Heart rate and galvanic skin response measurements were taken for 5 minutes before and after game play. The participants were then exposed to a 10-minute video tape of real violence and heart rates and galvanic skin response were measured once more.

The results found that both heart-rate and galvanic skin response were lower in the violent video game exposed group (68.5 beats per minute, 242.9 GSR) than in the non-violent video game group (70.7 beats per minunte, 286.8 GSR). While the numbers do appear to be statistically significant in that they there is more than 1 standard deviation between the groups, it is unfortunate that the authors made some very tenuous extrapolations from their data. For example, they attempt to infer that people who are desensitized to violence through video games are less likely to help someone who is being assaulted in the street. I find it a bit irresponsible that they make this link when the study did not in any way test the helping behaviors of the participants of their study. Also, the study fails to determine if the desensitization effects are unique to video games (highly doubtful) or if they occur as a result of exposure to any other type of violent entertainment media.

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Dr. Victeonus Educates the Masses

A nice little starter guide for the military surplus feature patched in to Tabula Rasa this week has been posted on the Planet TR Forums. Written by Dr. Victeonus, this guide describes the tabs in the surplus interface. I found his MSRP formulas for pricing the items you are selling to be most handy, so I am reposting below. For the entire guide, click here.

Military Surplus Recommended Pricing (MSRP)

Head, Legs, Boots, Helms
Green - Level * 200
Blue - Level * 750
Epic - Level * 1500

Chest items and Weapons
Green - Level * 400
Blue - Level * 1500
Epic - Level * 3000

Example Level 32 Medic or Exobilogist, All Blue:
Bio Helm - 22,500
Bio Gloves - 22,500
Bio Legs - 22,500
Bio Boots - 22,500
Bio Tunic - 45,000
Virulent Injection - 48,000
Electric Injection - 48,000
Cryo Injection - 48,000
Incindiary Injection - 48,000
———————————–
327,000 credits

I know I will be using this guide to price my items initially, but the undercutting of prices is well underway so we’ll have to see how useful this ends up being in the long run. As with most new economies, everything on the MS is in a state of flux, and I imagine the good doctor is trying to set a guideline to help bring some stability. I highly doubt the 100k credits I got for a level 22 purple item is going to be a common occurence in the coming months. Money becomes a scarce commodity at high levels, so make your fortunes while you still can.

Yes, I sound like a capitolist pig. Sue me.

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The Tin Foil Hat Brigade Responds

In episode 31 of the Game Theory Podcast hosts Gaz and Colin discussed the firing of Jeff Gerstmann from Gamespot and the rumors surrounding the reasons for the firing. Namely, that Jeff was fired as a direct result from pressure that Eidos applied in response to his review of their latest release, Kane & Lynch. Gaz and Colin essentially discredited the rumors as so far out of left field that the advocates of the theory are members of the “Tin Foil Hat Brigade.” Immediately after listening to this podcast, I listened to the latest GFW Radio podcast, which takes the view that the rumors are completely within the realm of possibility. I highly recommend listening to both of these podcasts to get several viewpoints on the Gamespot fiasco.

Now, as for my personal opinion. To be so certain that Jeff was NOT fired because of pressure from Eidos is a bit naive. Lets look at a few things that happened subsequent to Jeff’s firing:

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Ahoy, Thar Be Ghosts From SOE’s Past!

Its a bit uncanny how much Pirates of the Burning Sea just “feels” like a SOE game to me. I don’t know the nitty-gritty details of the game, such as the development backgrounds of those working on it, or the graphics engine that its using, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some previous EQ and EQ2 devs working on this game and if some code came along with them. But more on this later.

After three days of downloading, I finally got in to the game and created my character on Blackbeard Server. I often like to recreate characters from arabian history and mythology in the games that I play, so it was quite natural to create Sindbad Al-Bahri of 1001 Arabian Nights fame. Designing a look for your character is an enjoyable experience in PotBS, as there are a plethora of faces, hats, hair styles, accessories and clothing options. I was particularly pleased that that they included African, Asian, and Arabian looking faces in the game, though a few more of these really wouldn’t hurt. Nonetheless, I was able to recreate a pretty convincing looking Sindbad to sail the high seas.

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A Whole Lot of Land Lubbin’

Well, I finally got my beta invitation to Pirates of the Burning Seas, and I have to be honest, I am approaching it with a mix of trepidation and tempered enthusiasm. As a File Planet subscriber, I did get a chance to be involved in an earlier Stress Test. I can tell you that experience was a whole lot of stress and not much test. On the rare occasion that I managed to get in to the server to play my character (who was unintentionally sporting the Teli Savalis look) I didn’t manage to stay connected more than 5 minutes. I did manage to get a taste of the ship to ship combat, which felt like a less enjoyable version of the combat in Sid Meier’s Pirates!. I would have been happy if they just copied that system, but for some reason all MMORPGs absolutely insist on the “click to target, press to attack” methodology. It would have been a lot more fun if they required you to line up your shots the way you do in Pirates!, but instead they leave it to dice rolls to do the fun stuff. Ah well, someday one of these developers will see the light.

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PHP & CSS Blues

Well, after driving myself crazy trying to learn enough CSS & PHP to add a widget-friendly left sidebar onto my original theme, I must throw my hands up in the air. I give up. Damn you merciless web code gods! You have forced me to give up my beloved Games Blog wordpress theme! Well if any of you web gurus out there think you can figure this out for me, I’d be eternally in your debt. It can be downloaded from here. I’d love to go back to it, but if you all think the site looks better like this, let me know and I’ll stick with it.

My Rant Against Gamespot’s Biased Reviews

I have been visiting Gamespot as my first stop for trusted game reviews since 2001, but today that trust is gone and thats because of their Tabula Rasa review. I honestly don’t understand how they score it less than the steaming heap of dung that Shadowbane was; and yes, I know there is a three year difference and the changes that come with time. However, principles do not change, and I have heard that Gamespot in the past has claimed to be ‘objective’ in their reviews. I understand that I may be over-enthusiastic about Tabula Rasa, and I am not beyond acknowledging its faults; but please, worse than Shadowbane?
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A Gamer’s Introspective Part 1

I still remember my “good old days” of video gaming, when I had a Sega Genesis and a NES, and I couldn’t get enough of Mario. Sword of Vermilion is a game my brother and I still talk about on occasion to this day. I eventually took on the PC as a gaming platform, too, and spent hours upon hours conquering lands in Civilization. My gaming world was innocently childlike, with bright colorful two-dimensional sprites and I couldn’t ask for more.

But more we got. The first person shooter was born when Wolfenstein 3d opened the doors to realism by putting us literally in the shoes of the game character, looking through his or her eyes. Game studios started their engines (pun intended) in the race to make the better looking, better playing, and often times, most realistic first person shooter experience. Today, it often seems the driving concept for the FPS developers is how we can deliver the thrill of violent combat without the bloody real-life consequences.
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