I believe it was the band Cinderella who once said, "You never know what you got until it's gone."

In my case, I never remember what I had until I find it again. Somewhere around my apartment is a card from my grandma with money in it. I'm sure everyone has those. You get a stack of cards, you them home, and then the cash is gone. When I find it, I will have a few moments of excitement.

The other day I unearthed some games held in the dark recesses of my parents' house. To think I wasted money on some of those titles . . . what was I thinking?

I wonder what I will say years from now when I pull out my old Xbox collection . . . Why in the world did I ever waste my time on Halo 2?!? Maybe. Perhaps I will be disappointed by my collection of exciting action games . . . perhaps I will wonder why people ever thought these games were bad.

Chances are, I will look at them and wonder how much money I could get for them on the market. Assuming any buyers are left and they haven't been melted to slag.

Either way, I updated my collection with the games I found.

Doom was an impressive FPS, but Dark Forces was still better. You could jump.

:P

The only difference between Doom and Wolfenstein, from my estimation, is the darker, infernal setting. . . and the chainsaw.

So instead of playing more MGS2Subsistence, I have continued to play the heck out of The Twin Snakes. Both endings have been unlocked with passing grades. I find it much more appealing. I know I ranted earlier about my disdain for the XBOX controls . . . but the GameCube setup is much more approachable.

Last night I preordered MGS3:Subsistence. It seems my local Gamestop still doesn't know the difference between the regular edition and the special edition with the bonus pre-order disk.

I am certainly hoping my $30 has not been poorly invested.

At midnight? Yep day starts early when you have calls with India.

*ZZZzzzzzzzzzz*

So it turns out a whole subsegment of Gamespot members are into this capitalism v. marxism v. whatever socio-economics debate. I would have never known. Anyone who has been in the forums since 2001 will know GS forums are as politically charged as the New York Times online forums. I don't frequent the nytimes.com forums for that exact reason. Fortunately, gamespot has contained the politics to off-topic and general discussion areas. Even political and economic unions have arisen on a gaming news website. Marvelous!

In the market. . .and the marketplace of ideas freedom is the best fertilizer. The opinionated may be price setters. The vocal are heard. But a time and a place should exist for certain communication. To protect 1st Amendment rights, and the sensibilities of individuals who may be offended by certain language, the government has created time/place/manner restrictions for communication. There is a reason you don't see porn sold from the side of the road in Palo Alto, CA when the elementary schools are letting out. The vocal have lobbied to ensure that communication is relegated to other times and places. It is still protected, but is not displayed when it might be damaging.

On a similar note, I read about a group of interactive media aficianados who got together to create a petition to delay Heroes of Might & Magic. Impressive. I had a friend once who played it. She was in Colorado and I was in CA, but we never played together. I wasn't really interested in the game, and she didn't really play anymore. It was the ships passing in the night syndrome. But I digressed . . .

To think that a group of consumers of the video game industry got together and petitioned a developer/publisher for better product is marvelous. This is frequently seen in other industries (consumer goods, automotive, etc. . .) but I can't think of an instance where it was manifest in the gaming community.

This got me thinking about AO-rated games. If AO-rated games are likened to porn (based upon adult-oriented content and lacking artistic memrit) then it may stand to reason that they be relegated to certain times, sold at certain places, or distributed in a certain manner. If big retailers like Gamestop, Wal-Mart, or Target don't want to carry these hot potato(e)s, than perhaps move it online. Howard Stern's communication moved to satellite radio. One of the top 3 reasons people use the Internet is for pr0n. Perhaps well-intentioned groups should get together and petition to move AO to online rather than have the government regulate it. If developers and publishers continue to push the envelope, I would expect we will continue to see even liberal government push back. Nobody wants that.

Publishers lose money through litigation expenses, or by being the unwanted recipient of government taxes (expenses they would love to pass along to the consumer). Plus, there is the whole issue about the opportunity costs associated with certain peoples' time. Do we really want our Legislators debating whether or not to rename a popular, cafeteria side-dish when social-security and budget issues are waiting in the wings?

The marketplaces for ideas and for money each have limited shelf space. If we encounter issues contrary to our preferences, whatever they may be, should make our voices heard. That is the only way to ensure our words are heard, and our consumer preferences are made known. That, or we can vote with our money.

No I do not own a single GTA title. . . Not even Gran Tourismo A-Spec. 

:wink:

In case you didn't know babies cry. . . a lot. So, While I am trying to study for my Economics exam, my wife heads out to run some errands. No sooner does she leave, than the baby wakes from her nap and begins to cry.

She didn't stop until my wife got home. . . more than an hour later.

It was not pretty. Lately baby has been doing a lot of crying. Perhaps I notice it more since I have been short on sleep. After a couple of very early mornings at work, sleep has been a hot commodity. Since supply has gone down demand has gone up. It is a rarity. Or, is it since the price of sleep has become so high, that the quantity demanded has been reduced?

I can ponder that. All I know is the MGS3:Subsistence collector's edition has created quite a demand within me. My wife has consented and now it is only a matter of time before the key MGS prequel is let loose within my PS2.

I hope my wife will enjoy the Movie portion. She seems to have enjoyed watching MGS:TTS. Hopefully it meets expectations. . . which are high. I'm not so interested in the online game as I am the other behind-the-scenes extras. Just how we are in this family.

Only 6 more weeks (roughly).

I don't know who Fred is, but his house did a great job of summarizing yesterday's PARC forum:

http://www.fredshouse.net/archive/000456.html

Until I type up my notes, this is all the forum reporting that will be appearing here.

Work is. . . demanding today. IT craziness, login failure, early morning meetings, and no time with my family are all collaborating to sell my sanity short in the stock market of life.

Perhaps tonight I can dip into some MGS2 insanity. I still think the XBOX controls are daft. I should be allowed to map my own controls. The controls for MGS:TTS on the GameCube are brilliant!

. . .just in case you were wondering about the human/computer interface thing.

Crazy stuff is going down. Got into work at 5am this morning. Been making calls and setting up appointments all day to get transatlantic work issues resolved.

Looking forward to hearing Raph Koster, Chief Creative Officer of Sony Online Entertainment speak this afternoon.

Last time I went to the PARC was to hear the team behind ilovebees give a presentation on the future marketplace for immersive gaming.

Very interesting. I wonder if that Stanford professor is still doing that WoW research. . .

So I can either watch the live broadcast of On the Spot tomorrow or hear a prominent game executive speak in person.

Yeah. That is what I decided too.

No secret that game playing is directly correlated to stress level.

Current game playing consumption: 5 hours/day.