I'm on vacation this weekend but I just had to share something I saw today. I was visting my dad at Cabela's, his post-retirement job. While I was there, i noticed a large group of Amish kids and teens headed excitedly towards the cafeteria. I followed, wondered what they could be so excited about. After all, the Amish do have food, so it wasn't like it's something new to them. I was shocked and surprised to see them heading towards a grouping of Big Buck Hunter arcade games. Below is the photographic evidence that EVERYBODY loves video games where you get to shoot things. 

In my last blog entry, I admitted to being an obsessive personality. Not surprisingly, this reared it's ugly head most prominently when I was heavily into MMO's. Of course, before there were MMO's there were just MO's, which were really MUD's (Multi-User Dungeons for those of us who are to young to have played online text based adventure games). I cut my online gaming teeth on LOST MUD out of Austin, TX. I spent many a late night (actually many all-nighters) in the computer labs of Michigan State University, working my way up to Wizard (Admin/Coder). Incidentally, It's also how I really first learned to code: a bastardized version of the C language specifically for building MUD objects, taught by a high school student who stayed up all night in the lab MUDding as well. So every dollar of tuitition wasted on the semester I skipped class to game has been made back about 100 fold in my later IT career as a programmer and analyst. 

My first MMO was Ultima Online which I played for well over a year with countless hours each day hunched over my first handbuilt PC, before finally casting off the shackles of MMO addiction for a couple of years. Then came Star Wars Galaxies. The amount of time I spent playing that, while still going to work every day, playing hockey every weekend, going to CBJ games, and trying (and failing) to maintain a marriage is almost amazing.

Realizing that the call of online gaming is something I can't easily deny (especially with my Xbox 360 on it's way to get repaired), I've decided to become an MMO Tourist. By playing games that I only have access to for a limited time, I'll be able to get an in depth look and still have a safety net from jumping back in with both feet. To continue playing I'd have to purchase a subscription, and that's the golden rule of this process: no subscriptions. Starting with the demo discs I got from PAX 07 (Lord of the Rings: Shadows of Angmyr, Guild Wars), I'll be blogging about my adventures as I make my way through as many games as I can get a free or cheap trial of. If a game isn't free to try, the limit I'll spend on any one game is $9.99 (plus tax) for a short trial, and only from packages that can be obtained in stores.

Now some may say I'm playing with fire here, but it's not as bad as all that. I've grown quite a bit since my last time on MMO's and with the understanding I have of my possible gaming obsessions as well as the limits I'm placing on the experience, I don't have any concerns about getting in over my head. Also, my girlfriend would kick my ass because she can't watch me play when the game is only on the PC screen and not the TV (Note to self: get wireless keyboard and cable to use HDTV as PC monitor). Plus, there are just too many good games coming out for the consoles that I won't be able to ignore when I get them back.

I've already finished my 7 days on LOTR and I started my time on the Guild Wars demo last night. I'll be working on a comprehensive list of the games I'll be trying over the next couple of days, and I'm going out of town this weekend, so look for the next major part of this series early next week, starting with my life as an elf in LOTR. I'll still be blogging about whatever other strange things pop into my noggin over the coming days, but the MMO Tourist series will likely be the focus of the blog for a while.

Ole Dan Keener has sent along the schedule for the Rock Band tour in Gaming Nexus's home town of Columbus, Ohio.

September 20, 2007
Columbus, OH
Ohio State campus, outside St. John's Arena & Memorial Stadium
11AM - 6 PM

September 21, 2007
Columbus, OH
Ohio State campus, outside St. John's Arena & Memorial Stadium
11AM - 6PM

September 22, 2007
Columbus, OH
NCAA Football: Game Ohio State vs. Northwestern
9:00 AM - 4:00PM
Ohio State campus, outside St. John's Arena & Memorial Stadium

September 23, 2007
Columbus, OH
NHL Preseason Game Columbus Blue Jackets
1:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Nationwide Center

I think it pretty much goes without saying that China is a country with a horrible track record in terms of human rights. Strangely, in country with a history like the Tiananmen Square Protests and subsequent massacre, people are appearantly free to videogame themselves to death.  Evidently, a 30-year-old man went on a gaming binge that rivals anything I've ever heard of. While this type of behavior could be expected in a country like the US where its not unheard of for parents to be criminally negligent in ignoring their kids to play online, It's almost shocking that this could happen in China, where much of the internet has been filtered or blocked by the goverment for years.

What I think escapes most of the media coverage is that gaming is just the outlet that happened to attract these particular obsessive compulsive personalities. I have an obsessive personality, a lot of gamers do. But being a gamer, and even a gamer with an obsessive personality doesn't mean you're likely to game yourself to death. Heck, the longest I've ever managed was about 26 hours during the launch weekend of Star Wars Galaxies, and even during that run I took some breaks to eat and relax. 

While I am surprised that this happened in China, I'm not surprised by the coverage. If the man had done the same thing with alcohol, drugs, gambling, or even sex, we likely would never have seen a story. But because of the hot button topic that online gaming is, it becomes a top story on news sites all over the web. It's sad that this happened to the guy, and to the others before him who let the internet or gaming become the sole focus of their lives. I would think the owner of the internet cafe would have some liability in this, but with Chinese laws, I sort of doubt it. People who suffer from these issues should obviously seek treatment, and those who witness them in these binges should do whatever they can to encourage them take breaks or stop for the day. No matter how much they want to play, the game will be there in the morning.

You never know, you could be saving someones life.  

Almost 2 months ago, my Wii stopped reading discs. I called Nintendo, sent it off, and so far it hasn't returned to me. Last update said a couple more weeks. I wasn't playing it a ton at that point, other than my every other day Wii Sports boxing workout, so i wasn't too worried about it. At least I had my trusty 360 to keep me warm at night....

Fast Forward to last friday night as i took a break in my preparations for the New Albany Classic 10k Walk race, I settled in with my girlfriend to play the last 10 hours or so of Bioshock. H, as I shall refer to her, is a huge fan of cinematic games, and when she isn't swearing at her Pink DS Lite trying to figure out why Phoenix Wright can't crack the case, she's planted next to me on the couch watching me rescue little sisters. 

Anyways, as I waited for my saved game to load, I was rudely greeted by the sight no Xbox 360 owner wants to see: the dreaded Red Ring of Death. But instead of the immediate and complete bricking that so many have experienced with their 360s, mine seemed to be dying a slow painful death. A call to Microsoft customer service confirmed my unit was circling the drain, though strangely the problem only occurs when the disc drive spins up. I could play anything on the hard drive almost without incident, although it did freeze just loading the profile a couple of times. So now I wait for my prepaid dropship box to whisk my console away to some far off repair facility with just days left before Halo 3. 

Of course, with my (lack of) skill at FPS, the RRoD may be saving me some embarassment at the hands of other GN staffers. My feverent hope is that it will return to me in plenty of time for the Rock Band and Mass Effect launches.

There are few things that get me geeked up more than the idea of a good new Star Wars game.  I had intentionally stayed away from any early information on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed until yesterday when GameTrailers released a behind the scenes look. The storyline is about Vaders' secret apprentice in the period between Ep III & IV. The character is basically a lightning rod for the Force, and Darth is using him to see exactly how far the power of the Dark Side actually can be taken.

The real selling point of this game will be that for the Wii version, a head to head lightsaber dueling game. The impression I got from the trailer was that this is indeed the thing we Star Wars geeks have waited for: a way to lop your buddies head off in lightsaber combat without risking jail time. Maybe it's just some silly mini-game, but with LucasArts leaking months ago they already had in house lightsaber battles going on with the Wii, it stands to reason this is not going to be Star Wars: WarioWare.

I didn't feel like doing the digging on Sony Defense Force but someone has and the truth has come out.

It's nice to see a work environment like this and it's even better that it's an EA division.

Today I went to Microcenter to pick up a new router and at the games area was a little sign saying they are holding a midnight launch event for Halo 3 complete with costume contest. Best Buy is also having one as well and I'm sure that the local Gamestop will also do one even though I haven't been there yet to see if any signs are up for it. After checking it out at E3, I'm not that excited about the game as it seemed like a lot of been there done that in what they showed but hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised when I finally do get the game.

So I took a poll of some new features the staff wants and this is what I got so far:

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