The calender says that Spring started a few weeks ago, but for many sports fans, today is the first day of Spring. That's right, it's baseball's opening day (I don't count yesterday). Every team is in first place and each player is looking forward to what they hope will be a career year. Well, maybe not Prior and Wood-I think they're just hoping that their arms don't fall off. For Cubs fans like me, it's the start of another run at ending the championship drought that now extends almost 100 years. Hopefully this is the year.

Now that I'm all responsible with a job and all I can't watch as much baseball as I used to, but I did just subscribe to the MLB.tv video service that will let me watch most of the Cubs' (and everyone else's) games. Hopefully I can keep that on in the background and still get some work done. If the Cubs play as poorly as they did today that won't be a problem. They're losing 5-1 right now, and I'm multitasking like a champ.

Brian, Tim Tracy, Rich, Tim Surrette, and I are all excited about opening day 2007. Anyone else?

Fun Fact: I took this picture and caught the foul ball.

I've never really understood the whole "system wars" thing. I know why some people choose to support one console over another, but I've never understood why they would get into insane arguments about which console is better, especially on message boards. It's fine to talk to your buddies about why you like console A more than console B, but spending countless hours trading insults with someone you've never met because they happen to own a different console? That's taking the whole "loyalty" thing to the extreme.

Or at least that was the extreme.

Last week, Capcom announced that Devil May Cry 4, which was once a PlayStation 3 exclusive, will be heading to the Xbox 360 as well as the PS3. Now, more people can play the game, and Capcom can make more money. Everybody wins, right?

Not everybody.

PlayStation 3 fanboys were all sorts of upset. Why? They lost some precious ammo in the "Our system has X number of exclusive games" argument. But that's just fanboys being fanboys; here's where it gets nutty. For reasons that I have yet to understand, some people were so upset by this announcement that they organized an online petition to whine about it. More than 11,000 nutjobs signed their names to the following:

We (The people that have signed this petition) feel very left out in your decision to make Devil May Cry 4 a Multi-Platform title, and hereby agree to boycott your sale of Capcom affiliated games. This is due to your decision to turn your back on your most faithful gaming company. For years we have enjoyed games, we have reaped the benefits of your committment [sic] to Sony. We find it absolutely demoralizing for not only the gamers, but also Sony itself. We want you to know that will not, and should not stand for your actions, and therefore withold [sic] our option of buying your product.

Let's take a look at why this is insane, one sentence at a time:

We (The people that have signed this petition) feel very left out in your decision to make Devil May Cry 4 a Multi-Platform title, and hereby agree to boycott your sale of Capcom affiliated games

First of all, thanks for clarifying who "we" is. I'm sure Capcom never could have figured out that "we" refers to the people that signed the petition. Second, you shouldn't feel left out. You don't work for Capcom, and chances are pretty good that none of you own Capcom stock. Capcom doesn't need to run their business decisions by you. As for the boycott? You're idiots.

This is due to your decision to turn your back on your most faithful gaming company.

No, this is due to "you" (the people that signed this petition) having way too much time on your hands. I'd comment about the "most faithful gaming company" part, but to be honest, I can't even hazard a guess as to what that really means.

For years we have enjoyed games, we have reaped the benefits of your committment to Sony.

I've got good news for you: You'll continue to enjoy games AND you'll still get to do so while playing a Sony console. Your ability to enjoy Devil May Cry 4 on the PS3 is not affected IN ANY WAY. I'm going to let you in on a little secret about Capcom's "committment" to Sony. Resident Evil 4 was on the GameCube first; Lost Planet and Dead Rising were Xbox 360 exclusives; Phoenix Wright is only available on the Nintendo DS; the list goes on and on. This "committment" is all in your minds.

We find it absolutely demoralizing for not only the gamers, but also Sony itself.

Gamers, at least ones with common sense, aren't demoralized at all. See, more people get to play the game now. Gamers like playing games. You're probably right, though; Sony's most likely a bit bummed out about the news.

We want you to know that will not, and should not stand for your actions, and therefore withold [sic] our option of buying your product.

I'll ignore the omitted "we" that renders the first half of this sentence meaningless. Let me get this straight. Because Capcom is now releasing the game on another system in addition to the PlayStation 3, you won't buy the game, even though it's still coming out on the PlayStation 3? Capcom should leave money on the table? That's a good idea! Maybe they'll take such a loss on DMC 4 that they'll never make another Devil May Cry game! Wouldn't it be great if people lost jobs because the game underperformed? That would be sweet!

Capcom's Christian Svensson was the lucky person tapped with responding to this nonsense. He said, "We are certainly moved that people are so passionate about our products that they would go to such extremes. At the same time we feel that allowing more people access to our content pleases far more people than it displeases (after all, we're not denying DMC4 to anyone that was already going to get it). It really is the best decision for the company and for consumers." As you can see, Christian was much more diplomatic than I was. Sadly, he's got to tread lightly around these zealots or else they might start a petition to have him fired for being insensitive to their very sensitive feelings. Fortunately for me, I'm free to tell them just how I feel.

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Get to know the people that bring you all of the great content on GameSpot in a regular series of short and lighthearted gaming-related interviews.

Episode XIV: Homer Rabara

This week's episode is with the person who has been requested in more emails than anyone else here at GameSpot. Everyone knows Homer from the "Homer Cam," but what's he like when he's not covering huge events for GameSpot? Watch the video and you'll find out where Homer sees himself in a few years, what movie stars he's played games with, and why the heck his face was on a sticker promoting GameSpot's G.A.M.E event from a few years back.

"Getting To Know" will return in two weeks with a hard-hitting, in-depth interview of Brad Shoemaker. As always, thanks for watching!

As a side note: I wrote an article about the Folding@Home project for the PlayStation 3 earlier this week, and just last night it was made available for download. I've already folded three molecules, so you'd better get cracking if you want to keep up! If you're looking to joining a disease-fighting team, the GameSpot team is #32721. You can read more about the group here.

 

With so much focus on what's "wrong" with the world of video games, sometimes the things that are "right" don't receive the attention that they deserve. One such thing is Stanford University's Folding@Home program. This research program currently uses a network of over 200,000 personal computers to perform calculations and simulate the folding of proteins. It's when these proteins are "misfolded" that diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and even some types of cancer occur. Using this network as a giant patchwork supercomputer will hopefully bring researchers closer to eradicating these diseases.

What does this have to do with games? Well, by the end of March your PlayStation 3 could be helping the medical research community too. According to the director of research and development at SCEA, Klaus Hofrichter, the PlayStation 3 is perfect for making these sorts of calculations, and they've worked with Stanford University to bring the project to the PS3. An upcoming system update will give you the ability to download the 40 megabyte program, and when you're not playing games, you can run the application. Once started, you can actually watch the molecule being folded, and even view a map of the world to see the location of everyone who's participating in the project.

Much to my amazement, not everyone is interested in this program. Though Mr. Hofrichter's appearance on last week's On the Spot was just seven minutes long, a vocal minority complained that it was "boring" and were upset that the show was focusing on something that wasn't a game. Now, I realize that younger people may never have known someone with a terminal illness, so they might not feel they have a personal interest in the project, but I just can't fathom how anyone could have something negative to say about us giving the project and Mr. Hofrichter seven minutes out of a 79-minute show. You'll still get the latest info on the rushed movie-licensed-sequel-spinoff that you're going to buy even if it sucks, so why not relax and learn about something that is guaranteed to affect you at some point in your life?

Folding@Home is something I'm very excited about, and I'm anxious to put my PS3 to work. This isn't just because I recently lost my favorite uncle to cancer or because I watched my grandmother suffer for over a decade from Parkinson's before she recently passed away. It's because in some small way I'll be able to contribute to a great cause by doing something amazingly simple.

If you'd like to see Folding@Home in action you can watch the On the Spot segment (15 minutes into the show) right here . You can also go to the project's website for more information. And if you don't own a PS3 or can't wait for the PS3 version of the software, you can download the application for Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X.

My name is Aaron Thomas and I was wrong about the Nintendo DS. Here's my story:

I first got my hands on the system a few days before it came out. I was writing for GamingHorizon.com at the time and we had gotten a system a little early so that we could post reviews in time for the system's launch. My initial impression of the system was that it was terrible. It was bulky, the screen wasn't very impressive, and in my opinion it was vastly underpowered. And this was before I fired up the games. The lack of an analog stick killed my enjoyment of Mario 64 since none of the off-the-wall control schemes worked anywhere near as well as an analog stick would have. Madden was a complete mess. The graphics were awful, it was riddled with bugs, and like Mario, it controlled poorly. The only game I played that seemed to be a decent fit for the handheld was The Urbz, but that game wasn't really my cup of tea.

With the ultrapowerful and sleek PSP looming on the horizon I couldn't figure out what Nintendo was thinking releasing what was essentially a Nintendo 64 with a gimmicky touch screen and no analog stick. I couldn't stop thinking about how lousy the 3D graphics were, and I couldn't imagine wanting to play games that looked so dreadful when I could play a better looking version on the PSP. I figured that there would be a handful of first-party games that made good use of the touch-screen technology, but most developers would make minimal use of the touch screen, including it only so that they could brag that their game used the functionality. And I just couldn't figure out the lure of having two screens, especially when there was a huge gap between the two. Of course, none of this stopped me from buying a DS on the day it came out.

Now before I get to the part where I admit that I was wrong, I will say that I was right about a few things. The system was kind of ugly and the screen was too dark, though the DS Lite has rectified both of these issues.There are certain games that I just don't want to play on the Nintendo DS. These are mostly sports games and racing games, both of which I feel are generally better on the PSP. I was also correct when I said that many companies would shoehorn touch-screen features into their games, with little regard as to their usefulness--it happens all the time.

But for the most part, I was wrong. I didn't think the touch screen could offer much in the way of new and compelling gameplay ideas, but it has. It has also made existing gameplay mechanics easier. Clubhouse Games and Nintendogs are simple games that could be done on any console or handheld, but it's hard to imagine them anywhere other than the DS thanks to their smart use of the system's dual screens and touch-screen control. While the system may not be a graphics powerhouse it is able to display some beautiful visuals, such as in Castlevania, New Super Mario Bros., and Hotel Dusk. Speaking of Hotel Dusk, it's a great example of what the DS brings to the table; it's a gorgeous game with unique artistic design. Turning the system sideways to play the game works brilliantly and some of the puzzles use the system in ways even its designers probably never envisioned. Nintendo has of course made some great games, but even third-party developers, most notably Capcom, have stepped up and made some excellent games for the system.

Most surprisingly (at least to me), the thing I was most wrong about was that the PSP would make the DS irrelevant. I used my PSP a ton the first year it was out. I traveled every week so I'd load it up with videos and pass my time on flights watching them. I played a lot of Burnout, Lumines, Hot Shots Golf, and Midnight Club, too. I rarely used the DS at all. Eventually I ran out of videos, grew tired of the games I had, and figured I'd see what was going on with the DS. I had a blast with games like New Super Mario Bros., Phoenix Wright, Brain Age, Elite Beat Agents, and Mario Kart. Now I rarely play my PSP (more original games that play to the system's strengths please!), but I play my DS nearly every day. Heck, I even bought a DS Lite, which is something I swore I'd never do.

Yep, the Nintendo DS is a fine system. Nintendo was right and I was wrong. This wasn't the first time my initial impressions of a system differed from my later feelings and I'm sure it won't be the last time, either. I've got strong feelings about all three of the current consoles, but it's simply too early to tell how things will turn out, so I'm just going to keep an open mind and enjoy the ride.

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I may not have a tremendous knowledge of fine art, but I know what I like and I like what I know. So when I was walking through the Game Developers Conference and stumbled upon a preview gallery for the "I am 8-bit" exhibit, I was surrounded by something I know and like: video games. More specifically I was surrounded by artwork that was based on and inspired by video games.

Because you don't see paintings depicting two children playing Mario Kart or characters from Punch-Out!! every day, I thought it would be interesting to videotape my stroll through the exhibit. I hope you enjoy it! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to see how much that Soda Popinski painting will set me back...

If you're in the Los Angeles area and you'd like to see more of this fantastic art, the exhibit will be in town from April 17th until May 12th.

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Growing up, you're always told that when it comes to determining a career path you should "do what you love." But what if what you love is video games? No matter what your talent is there are many ways you could wind up working with or around video games. If you're strong at math or good with computers you could become a programmer; there's plenty of demand for gifted artists to create and design characters and levels; talented musicians are behind all great game soundtracks; and of course, every game needs hardworking people with an eye for detail to do QA testing for bugs.

It's not necessarily easy to have a career in the video game industry, but as you see every time you try to pick out a single game from packed store shelves, it's a pretty big field and there are lots of companies out there. With the 2007 Game Developers Conference in town, I thought it would be interesting to find out what advice game developers themselves have for people looking to break into the business, so I grabbed my camera and headed to the convention center.

The show floor was pretty loud (thanks Singstar demo kiosk!), so it can be a little tough to hear, but the folks that I spoke with had a lot of interesting and informative things to say. A common theme in most of their answers was that you've got to be willing to work really hard and pay your dues, but judging by the plentiful "now hiring" signs and numerous recruiters at the conference, if you're willing to put in the work you can get your dream job.

*Thanks to Sunshine and the folks at Disney Interactive for their time. I had to cut their segment because it was too hard to hear. Sorry!

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Get to know the people that bring you all of the great content on GameSpot in a regular series of short and lighthearted gaming-related interviews.

Episode XIII: Brian Ekberg

Wow, what a week. I played lots of baseball games, got to check out the Game Developers Conference, but most importantly, I got to know Brian Ekberg just a little bit better.

In this week's "Getting To Know GameSpot" Brian talks about what it's like meeting famous athletes, explains why his dogs don't like it when he stinks at a game, and reveals the clever test his future wife gave him on their first date. Oh, but there's more; especially for all of you people that want to know about Brian's J. Allard-like attire. And even though it was my fault that there was no video last week, Brian was a good sport and made good on my promise to try and get him to do the robot. You don't want to miss that do you?!

I'll be back next week with some sort of new video content and "Getting To Know" will return in two weeks with the much requested appearance of Homer Rabara. Thanks for watching!

Last week I wrote an article about the pain I was experiencing from playing so many baseball games. I figured I'd get a bunch of grief for whining about having to play games too many hours a day, but much to my surprise, you were quite understanding. I also wanted to hear your stories about what games caused you the most pain and what measures you took to keep playing. I received quite a few responses. Most of them were about Guitar Hero, which I can't believe I forgot to list because I'm pretty sure my thumb actually caught on fire from strumming so much. Without further ado, here are some of the stories of the games that brought GameSpot readers pain:

Jerkofski wants to rock and roll all night (and party everyday)
When the first Guitar Hero came out I immediately fell in love with it. I'm actually a bit of a younger gamer at the ripe age of 15 so I haven't hit what I consider my quick hands prime. I played the first game for an hour every day till I finally got to the last set songs on expert. I decided to go all out, so I made sure an icepack was in the freezer (at this point I had already learned that the game made your hands hurts after a while) and decided to pull an all-nighter with a friend. I started playing at around 5 pm I. I stopped at 3 am. At this point my hand was a bright red and had gone almost numb. I went to bed and woke up around 9am turned on my PS2 and played for another 3 hours. When I finally beat it I had blisters on the tips of my fingers on both hands and my left hand had lost all feeling. I then proceeded to do the same thing 8 months later with Guitar Hero 2. The only difference is I've gone through this process at least 3 times on Guitar Hero 2 due to corrupt files.

Mu5uko Mario Parties like it's 1999
The original Mario Party was by far the worst pain-inducing video game. There were a set of mini games where you would have to rotate the stick as fast as you could so naturally everyone put their palm on it and spun it around. Now palm skin isn't that tough to begin with so when scraped against awkwardly shaped bits of plastic it was inevitable that blisters would ensue. What did I do? I wore a glove on my right hand when I played Mario Party... kind of like in a nerdy Michael Jackson way.

Anvil_Pinata would make a great burglar
My worst case of this by far was playing a boxing mini game in the original Ape Escape. After about 20 rounds of that I had effectively removed my thumb prints!

CodingGenius takes a lickin' but keeps on tickin'
Most Recent Gaming Problem: My fingers didn't bother me in Guitar Hero, my thumb did. The fingers on my left hand, the fret hand, were fine, but my thumb went numb. For 5 days. I ended up taping a facecloth to the palm of my hand. The guitar rested near my thumb, and I kept playing for a while, but since I have small hands, I couldn't reach the fret buttons properly anymore. So, I stopped playing and after 3 days the feeling came back. Now I only play it for about an hour at a time, and haven't had problems since.

F15srcool says crack is the answer
When I play video games for 2+ hours and don't do anything besides work the controller ("anything" meaning crack my knuckles, use a mouse, flip pages in a book, etc.) My fingers get "stuck". That's right, I have to wring them out vigorously, crack them, and some times they'll still be stuck! Not nearly as extreme as everybody else's, but still weird.

Death_burnout is all thumbs
Well I'm no stranger to pain and video games. My back kills me so much no matter what chair I'm in. But I guess this is not so much of a pain as much as a deformity, but one thing I have developed is a lump on both thumbs, which is freaky. I think I got those from too much Tony Hawk.

Edubuccaneer can't forget the name of his pain
I suffered through this hell as well, but with a different name: Banjo Tooie, and its infernal rap-tapping stages. It pains me to remember!

NeoJedi had Nintendo thumb before it was even Nintendo thumb
Eah, the Nintendo Thumb. I've had that. I remember back in the '80s when I used to play Decathlon on the Atari 2600 with my friends. You'd go through all of the events, moving the joystick left and right and pressing that red button. Then, just when your arm was starting to hurt a bit, they throw in the 1500 yard dash, where you moved the stick left and right as fast as you could to make your guy run. We were almost in tears when the race finished. Great training for the arms.

MrBetterThenYou is actually TougherThanYou
Many moons ago I smashed my left thumb in a door and my nail came loose but did not fall off. Playing like that was hell; it really hurt on games like Strider and TMNT. My solution was to use the knuckle of my left thumb to keep on playing. When I woke up and saw a newly formed blister on my knuckle the next day I decided to just give up and used my regular digits to keep on playing. It was next to impossible and I just ended up playing more thumb friendly games like Final Fantasy until the healing began.

Crithon has mastered zen and the art of Street Fighter
I think I got out of all my video game injuries during the NES. I would get massive blisters from Ninja Turtles 2 from pressing the two together to pull off the one hit kill attack. But it was after Street Fighter 2 at the arcades and the SNES, where I learned to focus and learn from patience to fight. I owe a lot to Street Fighter to master the Zen of video games.


As always, thanks to everyone who took the time to respond via comment or email. I'm sorry they couldn't all make it here, but I did read them. This week is going to be/already is crazy because of GDC, but barring any unforeseen issues, you'll all be "Getting To Know" Brian Ekberg a little better this Friday.

I've been playing a lot of video game baseball for work lately. In fact, I've been playing so much that I finally had to quit playing last night because my hands hurt from holding the controller; my eyes were tired from staring at the screen; and my shoulders were sore because I sort of lean towards the TV when I play. I guess I didn't quit soon enough, though-- my right hand hurt so bad I couldn't even fall asleep. I grabbed a bag of ice, took some Aleve, and as I lay in bed at 4am and iced my hand and wrist I had a vague recollection of doing this before. Yes, I've gone to some pretty extreme lengths to keep myself in the game.

Anyone who played games in the '80s or early '90s can tell you about "Nintendo thumb," which was basically when you had played so much Nintendo that the skin on your thumbs had been rubbed raw. I played a lot of games back then, so it didn't happen often, but Goal! for the NES was always able to bring the pain. My friend Bryan and I would play that game for hours on end, always trying to lead Argentina to glory. When our thumbs started hurting, or more accurately, when we couldn't stand the pain any longer, we'd go stick them in some ice until they felt better. That usually bought us one more game and then we'd do it again.

Thanks to Mario 64, things didn't get much better in college. The Nintendo 64's analog stick may have brought about a revolution in controller design but it didn't win any awards for comfort. After a few hours (Six? Eight?) my thumb would feel like it was on fire, a victim of being ripped to shreds by that stupid analog stick. But darn it, I wanted to keep playing! What did I do? Toughed it out during the platforming sections, but when it came time to toss a boss around, I pulled my shirt over the stick and used that as padding. It wasn't as pathetic as it sounds. Seriously! By the way, the great guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan used to Super Glue his calluses back onto his fingers after they had fallen off so that he could keep playing. Of course he allegedly used to nurse hangovers with cocaine and alcohol, but still, he was pretty hardcore when it came to playing the guitar.

I know I'm not the only person who has done something crazy so they could keep playing games; some of you guys must have some stories. Feel free to leave a comment or send an email to AaronT@GameSpot.com telling me all about your ability to play through pain. I'll put together the best submissions in an editorial that will be posted in the Soapbox sometime next week.

* Before anyone else says it: "Waaaaaaaa, I have to play too many games at my job. Poor me." I know. I'm a big baby.

**Because I'm up to my ears in baseball, you'll have to wait another week to get to know Brian Ekberg. That's good news for you baseball fans that want reviews, but bad news for the millions AND millions of The Ek's fans. To make up for the long wait I'll try and get him to do the robot or something in the video. Should be sweet.