Couldn’t have said it better myself…

Image by cambodia4kidsorg via Flickr

Way back in the day – and by that, in geek terms, I mean probably a year ago – I used to want to keep up with the news of the day in the world at large. Yes, as much as I enjoyed reading about crazy new gaming devices or the latest in tech and geekery, I did yearn, after a fashion, for a way to keep up with all the other stuff that was going on. Thing of it is, I just didn’t want to become one of those misanthropic or sheltered geeks. You know the type – the ones that during a raid profess that they’d rather eat horse balls than try to discuss or keep up with things like politics, world events, and the fact that there is something going on beyond the next boss kill. I have work that requires me to socialize and talk to other people – some of them people who would look at you like you were speaking a foreign language if you rattled off the latest and greatest in video games and computer parts – and knowing what’s going on out in the world makes for good knowledge, or at least, small talk.

It’s why for a while, I tried to follow the news through rss feeds from traditional sites – CNN, MSNBC, Fox, et al. Now before this degrades into a discussion of how the various news sites are biased more than a stereotypical fat cop endorsing a donut store, I want to say to my small, but faithful readership that I followed all the sites equally because the news was different and had its own tone. While I’m an optimist and sometimes very much an idealist, I do know that the plain jane reality of reporting means that some bias is present at some point or another. When you understand that, it becomes much easier to deal with the fact that news is inevitably also biased, and therefore open to my own twisted interpretations. So thus I followed the news sites, watching and weeping as my Google Reader feed updated in the 1000+ for numbers of articles unread, and did what I could to read.

But Reddit has changed all that for me. For the uninitiated, Reddit is sort of “social news”, or as I like to call it, “news flavored with a generous amount of social media sauce”. The concept is simple – aggregate news from a variety of topics, and allow users to submit either links to said news or submit some of their own. The selfsame community votes articles up or down for visibility, and the site itself is mildly moderated and observed for content. The result is what is appropriate self-styled “the front page of the internet”, or “the voice of the internet”, and in all its chaotic, ever-changing glory, it is. News is delivered from a variety of categories, and “What’s Hot” is set onto the front page as a means of showing which articles are the most popular, whether they be as serious as a news story or as hilarious as cafeteria ninja. When I saw all of what I could discover- things that not only I wanted to know about the world but also of the internet at large – I immediately unsubbed from my other news sites and now only follow Reddit, choosing only the things that I want to read about, serious or not. Sadly, like many others who have any interest in random hilarity, I’ve been sucked into the vortex of insane that is Reddit for long periods of time, sometimes almost to the detriment of my productivity.

If sustainable, Reddit has the kind of dynamic, malleable model of news delivery that will become the future of how people report, talk about, and discuss news. Even blogs like this one are a self-contained targeted audience, while Redditors can basically reach an audience of potentially millions with content that is popular enough to be voted up. It’s definitely something to ponder myself as I think about how I want to let other people know what I’m thinking and what I’m sharing. For now, I’m plenty contented with sitting on Reddit and passively and happily being assaulted by its cacophony of funny images, political and social news, and unique takes on world events, and look forward to what other people post next to keep me from getting my work done.

Sorry – got a little carried away there – or I wanted to cheaply plug Hyperbole and a Half and lament the lack of updates lately. Your choice.

Anyway, I soon discovered after thinking about it that I wasn’t really getting bored of games – I was simply intrigued and interested in the way that they introduce you to them. I thought back to this, and the source of this crazy altitis that I have gotten with gaming led back to Borderlands. Borderlands has a great way of introducing you to the game – you choose a character, but instead of being put into a tutorial that clearly marks what and how you’re supposed to do things, you are instead put into a town where a little cute robot named Claptrap walks you through the motions of doing things. It feels natural without seeming like it’s throwing you into the deep end of the pool yet it isn’t so contrived as to be obvious and therefore, stiff. When I started playing games recently, like Alan Wake, Fable III, and my 3rd playthrough of Metal Gear Solid, I loved playing the intros, because on-screen instructions aside, they tried to put you into a world that should matter to you as well as teach you how to play. Once you get past that, you finally get into the game proper, where gameplay and mechanics take over and the player is expected to keep up with them in increasing difficulty and challenge.

I guess I just wanted to see how different games tried to show you how to play without it seeming like you were sitting in a classroom being told how to. Of course, the failure rate of dying or otherwise losing the game at the intro is supposed to be extremely low, so I guess maybe part of it is the ease as well. I used to be one of those dudes who really loved a game the harder it was, which forced you to learn mechanics either from a perusal of the instruction book or, as was the case many a time, through constant and utter failure (you can cue the original Ninja Gaiden here, and how its unforgiving nature caused many a controller to be dropped to the ground in disgust). These days, however, probably because I literally don’t have time to fail for hours at a time, I want to make sure that I get eased into a game that will give me the appropriate level of challenge, and a good introduction with a comfortably “easy as hell” setting does that just fine.

So yes, bring on Claptrap and more intros so full of charm they even make “behind the scenes” vids about them:

Image via Wikipedia

I got my attention called to a link posted by someone I follow on Twitter that talks a bit about how the new Ultimate Spider-Man is African-American and Latino, and the bit of a boat-shaking it’s caused in the comics community. Now, admittedly, when it comes to comics I am fairly weak, and really only have fond memories of 75-cent X-Men comics as a youth to provide any real context. But it was interesting to note that no matter what side of the debate people fell on, and no matter how extreme the viewpoints were (from disturbing borderline-racism to purist zealotry, and everything inbetween), that there was nevertheless a concern about the appearance and face that a hero presents. Add to the fact that Peter Parker has been a staple of the comic book industry’s look, and you have the makings of a volatile issue. It’s like a powder keg with a bunch of overeager pyromaniacs surrounding it with matchbooks in hand, with the only thing holding them back from blowing each other up worse than Wile E. Coyote being their own choice.

To someone who deals in, is friends towards, and forms connections with people who don’t immediately show you their face, I don’t know why faithful representation of a hero is such a huge deal. The whole issue with a change in the appearance of a hero – even one as iconic and familiar to geekery as Spider-Man – is one which after a certain point, becomes irrelevant. Not surprisingly, the reason I believe this to be is because of the unbridled optimism I share about heroism in general, and how it inspires us, touches us, and drives us to be more than just a time-clock puncher when it comes to how we spend out lives.

Heroes – including those revered by geeks – come in all colors, shapes, sizes, and appearances. A hero is a person who to others presents a strength and depth of character that causes reverence, respect, and inspiration. When you read about a tragic event or a disaster, the heroes could be firemen, police, the one guy who decides to run back into the burning building to save a family. When you enjoy a favorite piece of media, whether that’s a music, or a book, or a movie, the heroes are either the ones being depicted, or the ones who created the media in the first place. When you’re at work or at home, the heroes are the co-workers who get you out of a jam, or a parent or significant other who gives you love an support when you need it. Heroism is in many ways formless, and therefore faceless.

The facelessness of heroes is all the more apparent among geekery, most importantly in how we interact. How many times have you read or watched something that got you respect, admiration, and good feeling about what was being written or said? How many times have you been primarily concerned with what that looks like as opposed to what you experienced? On the internet, where anonymity is the default and words depict personality, a perceived hero carries no stock appearance, no iconic look, and no standard – yet there are people we consider to be heroic online every day, writing or posting, or creating content that we like.

So if the reason we like heroes is because of their traits, ideas, and creations, and Super Heroes are just heroes with a little something extra that helps them be heroic, why then are people worried about how a hero like Spider-Man looks? You could make an argument for longevity and the fact that “it’s always been that way”, but I challenge you to A)find any comic book hero who hasn’t changed costumes, looks, or style in some manner and B)really think about why you like the hero. Like I said, I have the capacity of a thimble when it comes to my comic book knowhow, but I think that Spider-Man specifically is beloved and seen as heroic primarily for a character that is not mutually exclusive to his face. He’s the geek-turned-superhero, a fictional calling card for the physically weak yet intelligent geek that can only dream of lifting twice their poundage, fighting crime, and scoring the romantic love of someone outside of their league. He uses what he’s been given and acts accordingly, and he carries a whipsmart wit that has been matched by few. Those are the qualities that construct the real face of Spider-Man – not the way he looks, but the way he is. And that goes for heroes everywhere, regardless of race, gender, creed, orientation, or any other surface quality you can judge by.

When you think about that, the only thing that loses face is the idea that our heroes need to look a certain way to be our heroes.

Image via CrunchBase

Recently I came into possession of an invite to new-but-not-so-new service Spotify, which has been around in Europe for a while but finally came over to the US to take advantage of the vast and music-obsessed. I know that I’ve been sort of looking to jump into one of the streaming or digital delivery services, and this seemed to be an easy way to do it. After all, what’s a work day without a little bit of the soothing sounds of Gothic Rock to put you in a tranquil working mood, right?

Like most of the online tech I tend to use, I almost decided to drop the service like a bad habit until I found the very interesting sharing features, which allow you to share a public URL of your playlist that other Spotify users can click on and even subscribe to. Being the social media…errr..enthusiast that I am, this definitely seemed to appeal to me. The crappy part about iTunes is that you can’t really share your tunes unless you’re on the same network as everyone else, and even then, the naming scheme of most iTunes user lists leaves way too much to the imagination (here’s a protip: if you want me to listen to your stuff, please do not call it something like “Bob’s Emporium of Acoustic”, because I will think you own bad guitar solos and vague big band nonsense instead of good stuff). With Spotify, you can still run into this problem, but the newness of the service has its users looking to be a bit more intelligent with their collections. So I did the only thing I could possibly do.

Load the guiltiest song list ever, filled with titles that people probably secretly listen to at 2am when they think no one is watching them.

The current list I possess is here: http://bit.ly/q7I4Mm and the content contained within has such amazing classics such as Bel Biv Devoe’s “Poison”, Britney Spears’ “Hit me Baby One More Time”, New Kids on the Block with “Step by Step”, and the perennial fixture and cornerstone of any good wrong song list, Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back”. And don’t think I came up with the list all on my lonesome, either. No, my friends and Twitter followers are just as bad, telling me to include Paris Hilton, Vanilla Ice, Prince, and Boyz II Men among others. I can only conclude this absolves me of any blame because if the people who know and follow me are this screwed up it cancels me out too, right?

If you ever get a chance to pick up a Spotify invite, check it out – and not just because you  might be able to find Milli Vanilli or Kenny G on it. I think it’s got some legs and the services it potentially offers are worth checking out. Just don’t blame me if you get Genie In a Bottle or Livin’ La Vida Loca stuck in your head. You were warned, after all.

I finally managed to pack on some pounds in the last year or so. Now granted, I’ve always been rather slender for a dude geek. I’ve never had to worry about my weight, which meant that my college-like diet of hot wings, pizza, and Klondike bars was sure to catch up to me at some point. Despite my best efforts, including an obvious sacrifice involving the excruciating arm-twisting it took to get me to drink more beer, I still haven’t had to worry too much til the last few months or so.

Now that I have some weight, and I don’t look like a kindly grandmother’s worst nightmare in terms of being underfed, I need to get in shape. Amazingly enough, getting up from the computer to go to the water cooler is not sufficient cardio for a workout. It’s been many, many years since I did regular exercise, and the gym is probably a sad place where I would end up injuring myself trying to lift 10 pound weights, so I went looking around for games. I’m fortunate enough to have a Kinect, and eventually settled on “Your Shape, Fitness Evolved” to get me the toning and cardio I needed. Granted, I loaded the game expecting maybe something that might make me crack a sweat like I did that one time I imitated Mike Tyson on Wii Boxing.

Perhaps about 60 minutes of torturous exercise later, I found out how wrong I was. And that was just the tutorial and the analysis of my very out-of-shape body. I really like games like this – mostly because, well, they aren’t games. This seems overly contradictory so to clarify, I mean to say that exercise, while having some game-like elements to it, is ultimately not supposed to be a game – it’s supposed to be a way to exude effort to get in better shape. For that, it takes work and any title that claims to do so better put you through your paces. I have a customized workout for Your Shape that is tailored to me now, and with the addition of some cardio and shaping-based games and a bit of tai chi and tae bo style boxing, I look forward to many more humbling sessions of Kinect-powered workout. At the very least, it’s a way I can be embarrassed at having knees that crack on a squat in the privacy of my own home.

But I’m not here to tell you how much of a social media addict I am. Today I’m going to be talking Google Plus, the search engine/software giant’s answer to Facebook’s dominance. Plus hit the web in beta a bit over a week ago, and since then geekery has been ablaze with updates about the new and shiny, how the tool might or might not unseat Facebook, and the implications in the market. For my part, I’ve always been a bit cautious about the adaptation of new tools – especially new social media ones. Why is this? Well, mostly it’s for my own protection – I already use Tweetdeck, cross-post entirely too much to my Facebook (I’ve had people wonder what in the blue hell is a Follow Friday before), and utilize my smartphone as a means to share ridiculous images such as my parking lot with the power cut off. Any more than this and I’ll be needing an IV to connect directly into my arm for my social media fix.

The other reason I’m taking the Google Plus thing a bit slowly is that I always like to use the tech after they’ve worked out some of the inevitable bugs and kinks. If you’re a heavy first adopter, you get to experience all of that in real time, with the real frustration that goes with it. I haven’t seen any weird things with Google Plus so far, but you know they’re coming – the first funny and hilarious post I see of someone who mistakenly shares their “dancing with monkeys” video with the Public and not only their family is inbound, trust me.

But all that being said, you know me – I think new tech is always awesome and great, and Google Plus is no different. A ground floor implementation of Circles – groups of people who you choose to view, share, or otherwise organize as you see fit – is a great way to provide an alternative to the “I share with everyone by default” option of Facebook. The current purity of the interface as well as the lack of the adspace or privacy things that Facebook has been known to dabble in are also good selling points. There’s also the potential of integration with Google’s powerful toolset of software – GMail, Docs, Reader, and more – which should give it a natural leg up in the features department. Already there are people raving about the simple yet neato features of selective viewing, private and granular media sharing (though I’ve been tagged in at least one drunken pic already, but that was my fault), and social tools like webcam enabled Hangouts.

I like the buzz and the talk – I like it a lot, hype be damned and optimist that I am – mostly because the main thing that Google Plus provides is competition. Facebook entered the scene as a college-only app that eventually creeped in and stomped the heck out of MySpace with features that simply made sense and were easy to use. But after that, it had admittedly settled into a complacent, perhaps portly, king on the throne – one leg thrown over a chair leg while nomming on a chicken leg. The inclusion of Google Plus into the social media space as a direct competitor to Facebook will either shock the king into dusting off the sword and shield and taking up arms, or knock him righ toff the throne. Time will tell whether or not Google Plus will do one or the other with Facebook – but for now, I plan on using it and enjoying the show. So look for some Plus posts in the future!

What if this was applied online? I’m not quite sure of the raw application, mostly because of the disastrous implications of doing favors for other people without the ability to find out who did it for you. But in another context, it might help if we thought of it as being kind or nice to others on the Net should be paid forward to others. Why do I say this? Well, the lack of consequences  for what you say and how you act on the Internet leads to some very unsavory things that tend to be said or acted upon. We hear all the time about stories of people who are trashed online and flamed to hell and back for everything from sexual orientation, gameplay style, favorite sports teams, or even sometimes the shirts you choose to wear. It’s a little bit nuts out there and in the wrong places, it’s a jungle.

What if we could partially reverse the trend of people being awful to one another? A daunting concept, to be sure, because we all know that until technology advances to the point that you can put your hands through a monitor to reach the other side, some people will always be cruel if they can get away with it. Lack of perception that behind every poster (even the bad ones) is a real live person is probably a reason why trying to fight it wouldn’t work. But that being said, I never have a problem planting my stake in the ground even if the wind is blowing in my face. The next time I help someone online and they thank me, I plan on telling them not to thank me, just do something for someone else. We’ll see if anything comes of it.

Thing I’ve come to realize is, is it really that important who “won” E3? I think that pressers, while they are supposed to be made to be professional and show off new games and directions a company is taking, don’t need to “win” as much when it comes to other press conferences. The important thing, to me, is that a company is confident enough in their product and what they want to do to not have to worry about what someone else is talking about. They’re secure in the fact that they have a direction and they’re going to follow that direction. “Winning” can and should be a consequence of what you do on your own and not how you respond to others.

I guess I’m not really that concerned with people winning E3 because, well, I’ve already won E3 for myself. I get to see the best that companies have to offer for upcoming titles both new and old. I read up on interviews with my favorite developers and get more knowledge about the titles I’m looking forward to. I get to use the geek tools at my disposal like Twitter and Facebook and streaming media to share my excitement with friends and talk about the games I love. As far as I’m concerned, if I find one or two things that I’m excited about or make me open my mouth in awe, then I think I’ve already won without needing to declare a winner – if that makes any sense.

It might go back, overall, to a sense of optimism about the industry at large. If a closed show like E3 doesn’t prove that the games industry isn’t anywhere close to not being able to offer something for fans, then certainly PAX is definitely a marker to hang your hat on. Cynics can abound, but there are always people who look wide-eyed at a trailer or a gameplay demo and want to get their hands on a game that in some cases is more than a year away. As long as gamers keep wanting to game, and find games that appeal to them no matter who thinks they “won” or how many people are interested in them, then we’re not in any place to say that games don’t have something to offer a person who likes to play them. Last I checked, liking and enjoying didn’t necessarily equate to “winning”.