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eRepublik: The New World
Posted By Jeff On June 8, 2009 @ 8:33 pm
Have you ever wished that you could live your life all over again? I have!
The idea behind eRepublik is that you can create an account and live it day to day as you would in real life. Boring? Nah.
After inital sign up you’re forced to pick a job and horrible wages and work. Sucky? For now. After you work two days you’ll level and get something a little better as well as join the army and train. At level 5 (I think it was 5) you can participate in any wars your country is in. Eventually you can vote for political parties and what not as well.
Personally I’m still pretty newb at this, but looking into the future of the game with user-created political parties, different countries and regions and fluctuating economies it can hold a lot of potential. A key factor that interests me is that the game is based on real-time logic, so those with more time on their hands won’t overrun the game.
I’d recommend to give it a try for a week or so, see how it plays out. I like the idea of being able to represent my region. Look me up while you’re there, name is Egen.
Games: Rock Band 2
Posted By Jeff On January 8, 2009 @ 1:56 am
Today we’re going to get some rock off with our socks off with a quick review of Rock Band 2
For those of you unfamiliar with the ‘musical gaming’ genre, Rock Band and similar products often use controllers shaped like guitars or drums. You simply hit the colored buttons on the instruments in time with the colors on the screen to play the notes. A simple concept, but incredibly fun none the less.
What first made Harmonix‘s Rock Band stand out in comparison to it’s nearest competitor Guitar Hero is that it allowed players to not only play guitar, but drum and sing as well. Though this has been evenly matched by the most recent Guitar Hero World Tour
Aside from just hitting the buttons to match colors, I think a huge part of the appeal of these games is that you can be part of a band, not just somebody playing a game at home on a Saturday night. Rock Band 2 takes advantage of this by giving players the ability to not only form a band with friends at close range, but to join with anybody online. This, for me, is a huge factor as the people online can’t see you dancing around in your PJs while playing We Got the Beat by the Go-Gos.
Rock Band 2 has also capitalized on the character creation factor of games, giving users the ability to make their avatar as normal or bizarre as they want it to be with everything from ripped jeans to a Viking helmet. Along those lines, users are able to register their bands online and put their custom bands into cool looking photos. They can even print out stickers and make t-shirts! (Check out yours truly rockin’ out here)
But what good is playing when you don’t know any of the songs? Rock Band 2 has a ton of good songs, and (whenever Nintendo gets around to it) will feature downloadable content (DLC) to allow aspiring musicians to enhance their library even further.
The only fault I’d say (if anything) this game is lacking compared to Guitar hero is the ‘oddity’ factor. This is just playing songs, where as in Guitar hero there are ‘battles’ where you can throw off your enemy and random encores through out the game. It makes it good to spice up. Rock Band does this with ‘benefit shows’ and ‘TV recordings’, but the game play is still just playing the songs. It would be nice to see a mode to make it a little more interesting in Rock Band 3. (I have picked up another musical game today completely based around being strange, keep an eye out for a review)
So are any of you rock legends? Let me know in the comments below, maybe we can do some face melting some time. Rock on!
All of cyberspace is a stage and we are merely players.
Posted By Jeff On October 15, 2004 @ 4:11 pm
Now before I get WTF’ed about killing Shakespeare, lets talk.
I’ve just finished reading The Online Disinhibition Effect. It talks about the psychology behind the differences in people online in contrast to off-line. It’s a really good.
It talks about a person’s ‘true self’ being realized. But I came out with the impression that it can’t be. If a person’s ‘true self’ is revealed online by supressing off-line tendencies, then their ‘true’self’ can’t be revealed because those tendencies being supressed are part of that person, like it or lump it. The whole idea of it though is very apparent.
They discussed the idea of people thinking it as a game, which I see far too much of. Life is not a game, and it annoys me when people see it as that. However, I can see where they are coming from. Those internet users who see it as a game usually only use it a game (if that makes sense). They don’t try to get emotionally attached to people online, they are simply using it to pass the time, then throwing it away following the occurance. However I’ve found from personal experience that those who see it like this do eventually grow out of that idea with the more time spent online.
The last thing I’ll comment on here (since I need to go get a shower) is the idea of timid people expressing emotions and ideas more online because of the idea of anonymity. I can definitly agree with this theory. Even take me writing this. I can not honestly see myself talking outside of the internet about this, because it seems to me that only internet users would be interested, and I wouldn’t want to talk to anybody else about it. I’m not sure if it’s the idea that they don’t know who I am off-line that makes me not want to discuss it as much as it’s the fact that I can’t see them relating to it. I guess it’s location, and fear of being looked at like ‘WTF?’ Gotta hate that look.
That is all.
Large award goes to…
Posted By Jeff On August 12, 2004 @ 12:31 am
OK, first off, I have a large “Screw You” award to hand out. This goes to all those parents and guardians and choose to read their child’s chatlogs, blogs, ect. It just seems to me like a total invasion of privacy. How can you expect your kids to trust you if you don’t trust them? Now I can understand it if there is a reason to distrust them. For example, if they were already caught building a bomb in the basement, well that’s a pretty significant reason to monitor them online. However, if they were caught looking at porn or saying the dreaded “f word” when you walked by, it’s not a good reason to take away they’re rights to freedom of speech.
By now, I’m sure there will be readers thinking “What the hell does this guy know about kids? I can do whatever the hell I want to.” Well sorry to tell you dear reader, you can’t. If you know it or not, it is possible for your kids to hate you. And you not letting them live, well that’s pretty good grounds to do so I think.
If your kids have something they want to tell you, they will. If they started a blog, they’ll probabally show it to you. That’s the only time they want you looking at it, until they tell you to look at it again. Just because you know it’s there doesn’t mean that you have to read it every update. There is a good chance that a child will blog about you, and there is about a 50% chance that it will be negitive. Does this make you even more suspecting of your kids? Well it shouldn’t. Any intelligent person should already know that their kid is probabally saying something about them to one of their friends anyway, it’s normal, and it’s not hurting you if you don’t know. This brings me to the Basis of All Blogs.
Basically the idea behind all blogs is the idea that everybody can read it, they may be reading, but in reality they’re not reading it. Bloggers write something to be read. Anybody can read it, all they have to do is go to the address. The blogger doesn’t know who did an who didn’t read it because comments aren’t required. But when you look at the whole of the internet, there is little chance that the webpage address will go very far, and therefore won’t be read by many.
Why, you may ask, do bloggers even bother then? Well, it’s because it’s a release of emotions and thoughts. Blogs give you something that a journal or diary can’t, the thought that other people can know what you think. People often say that writing something in a diary can get it off your chest. However from personal experience, I find this just can’t do what blogging does. When you write something on paper and hide it under your pillow, you’re still the only one who has those feelings and thoughts as far as you know. When you blog, other people can feel those things and think those thoughts, evne if they actually don’t. That goes back to the fact that they aren’t reading it. But the blogger will still think that they are, therefore releasing any emotions that remain tied to the words, which would stay tied if in a diary.
Confused yet? Oh good, then I’m on the right track. Now back to your children. Kids go through one hell of alot of changes before they become an adult, and obviously, it’s not easy. They easiest thing to do is to tell somebody, but that can be embarrassing. So why not tell everybody without needing telling anybody? Seems like an easy thing to do, and it is. Let the emotions fly, doesn’t matter where to, but away. Sure they may feel that the internet becomes their own security blanket to cry on, but what harm can it do?
Now do I have you worried yet? So you’re thinking that I’m telling you to just let your kids tell their life story online to anybody willing to read it, right? Well, not totally. You have to take into consideration the vast galaxy that is the internet. You may think that if your child says something that some guy will come pick her up at school and you’ll have one less mouth to feed. If only, right? Well set some basic, general rules for your kids, which they would probabally already think of themselves, and they’ll be just fine. For example, tell them to avoid saying the name of a city, school, mall, etc. Tell them just to say something like “at my school” instead of “at Lakewood High” or “At Joe’s Diner”. And avoid last names. First names are fine, unless for some strange reason everybody else on the planet with the same name dies; then we have a larger problem.
So there, that’s all I’m going to ramble about for now on this. For the conclusion to this topic though, I’m simply going to say this: Trust your kids, there is a good chance that they know what they’re doing because I can bet money that they’re smarter then you are. Yes, they ARE smarter then you are. So sit back, relax and put your feet up. Let them screw up and you can say “I told you so” when they come to you for help, because everybody likes saying that.
For those still reading, check out this article, which is how all this started.
Now as for my life: I’m leaving tomarrow to go to Ontario. Bus takes off around 6, so I’ll show up at 5 or so. I’m kind of worried about it all though, to be honest. I have 4 connecting tickets (A-B, B-C, C-D, D-E). When I called the bus station, they told me I was changing buses at B and D. When I was talking to the company, on their hotline, They said I only changed at D. So what’s with C then? I don’t know. Plus there is no times on the tickets, or bus numbers or anything. What organization. Just a recommendation, take a train or fly if you’re going anywhere. Oh well, it should be fun.
And I hate Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic. It’s so addicting that I’ve spend teh last 3 days playing it and haven’t picked up my munchies yet or packed my carry-on bag, which I was going to do today. Damn Wookie.
That is all.
Referal Risk
Posted By Jeff On June 27, 2004 @ 4:04 am
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