Nothing much interesting this night. Except for that stupid SW thread where someone is hyping the cell to no end and some random pro wii and GC ones. It was fun playing garry's mod with the guys tonight too. I must say though, Sentinelrv's proposal to revamp the union system looks really promising and I really hope it's implemented.

That's all for tonight. Sorry no new topics. Hopefully tomorrow though.

YTMND of the night:

http://dumbworf.ytmnd.com/

Song of the night:

Revolution (Artist: The Beatles, Year: 1968 )

Fact of the night:

Soft shadows and antialiasing cannot be enabled at the same time in F.E.A.R. Enable just one of them and if both are enabled, only AA is used.

Like I said before, I would not always have a new topic for the night, as I don't always have new things to think about, or I simply don't have the time to write another composition or rant. I will however take the time to say a few things. About how I've been thinking about myself and my future. And I still wonder what it holds for me. It's true that if I continue this worldly strong obsession for games and PC hardware, I won't get far, but if I actually become one with the outside world, I actually have a chance to amount to things. But still yet, I have to deal with the concepts of failure, acception, and being flexible, none of which I am very good at. But who knows, maybe someday it'll all work out.

Anyways that's it for tonigth. Good-night everyone.

YTMND of the night: http://lostark.ytmnd.com/

Song of the night:

Strawberry Fields Forever (Artist: The Beatles, Year: 1967)

Fact of the night:

Contrary to popular belief, "SOS" does not stand for "save our ship", but rather the letters that its code represents (3 dots, 3 dashes 3 dots; 3 dots="S" and 3 dashes= "O" in morse code)

Alright. Here we go again.

Tonight's topic touches upon what the rest of the world (not just kids, bored teens, and young adults) thinks of gaming in general. Now, while gaming has often been considered nerdy throughout its earlier years (I mean, look at the lame commercials and people back in the day. You can very much see why), but is it starting to catch on in the whole emcompassing world outside of the dark realm we had once dwelled in? I mean, it's not to say that gaming isn't well established (after all, the average gamer is about 35 years old and there are thousands of games and millions of gamers out there), but will it ever be viewed as more than just a past time in ordinary people's minds? And even though gaming might be well established, the average person still doesn't know squat about the underlying principles and structure of gaming in whole. Sure, the same can be said about movies and books (or all the entertainment subdivisions in general), but that are infinitately more clueless about the game industry. If the knowledge of the other divisions were shadows of thought in an ordinary person's mind, then gaming is a complete and limitlessly dark abyss where thought does not dare to go and if it does dare to go there, it doesn't get far. I still see people in general refer to "nintendo" no matter what system they might be trying to talk about, I seldom see games get talked about other than Halo, GTA, or the other largely casual series, and I've seen people try to talk about the gaming industry, but just completely screw up by incorrectly stating facts or just complete rubbish. Although gaming might be arrosing in the whole world, these kind of acts and facts make me think that people are really not terribly interested and are just playing along until the next big thing comes along.

So, my questions for you tonight are:

1. Is gaming in general considered "cool" or "nerdy" in the minds of the majority of the people?

2. Do you see gaming becoming the next big thing in the entertainment industry (on the same level as movies or rock music)?

3. Do you ever see gaming returning to the niche hobby that it once was?

Please sound off on what you think.

YTMND of the night:

http://duckhuntr.ytmnd.com/

Song of the night:

Bohemian Rhapsody (Artist: Queen, Year: 1975)

Fact of the night:

A book was released in 1898 that almost entirely mirrored the Titanic sinking that came 14 years lately.

Alright. I know what you're thinking: I'm about to go raveling on and on about how people are stupid to think that graphics matter and how gameplay>>>>graphics. But what I'm trying to touch on tonight is not this, but rather the reason why people care about graphics and why we hear all so many topics and complaints about them.

Now, back in the days of the Odyssey, Space Wars, Pong, and all the forerunner consoles, and even extending up to the 8-bit era, I would find it hard to imagine that anyone at all cared about graphics, from either an artistic or technical aspect (after all, it's pretty hard to have artistic looking games with such limited technology). But with the evolution of 3d, and ever increasingly more realistic and lifelike worlds, I find that people are caring more and more about graphics to the point where they almost forget about the underlying concept of all games: gameplay. And I wonder: why do they do this? Well, one of my theories involves how they are becoming addicted to the so-called eyecandy that graphics bring. You see, whenever our eyes see something that looks realistic in something that is not real, I find that they tend to be "pleased" by this. They might be a little indimidated at first, but after you feed it more and more of this, and progressively making it look more and more realistic, your eyes may grow addicted to this, and therefore it may start to depend on this, making your mind really start to crave graphics and possibly forgeting about gameplay. Now, that's not to say we shouldn't care about graphics at all, given how eyecandy is still a nice feature and it's good to keep our eyes "pleased". But we must not let them overcome our senses and let them supersede gameplay in importance in games.

That's all I have to say for now. Please sound off on what you think.

YTMND of the night:  http://martydocstophubbard.ytmnd.com/

Song of the night:

Hey Jude (Artist: the Beatles, Year: 1968 )

Fact of the night:

"Ringo" is also Japanese for "apple".

Now, as gamers, I think we have all touched upon this simple question before: is gaming becoming an increasingly more expensive hobby? Now, keep in mind that I'm not only talking about the cost of games and systems, but everything else in between, such as accessories, modifications, PC hardware, display devices, and services (i.e XBL, MMO subscriptions, etc). With today's current situation, it's not uncommon among hardcore gamers to spend $1000+++ for all of this stuff, including games alone (on yearly basis that is). This actually kind of goes with what I said yesterday. Now, I  understand that if gaming is something you really enjoy, then it might not concern you to be throwing away your hard earned cash for the sake of your own gaming experience. But, like I touched upon yesterday, this could become a problem if gaming becomes the main focus of your life. You might end up spending $2000+ for PC hardware alone in a year just to stay on the top line, $3000+ for games you might be interested in (if you like to play a lot of different games and not just extensively play a few), $1000+ for new console releases, $1000+ for maintaining your HDTV and surround sound set-ups (and to also stay on the top line), and $100+++ for any accessories or modifications you might want (depends on how much you care about that stuff. Some really don't care at all). So, you might be looking at gaming costing you anywhere from $5000-$7000 a year if you become this extreme. This can put a great deal of financial strain on you, especially if you're just some teenager or 20er (people in their 20s) that can barely get by with the way things already are. So, while we may be very passionate about video games, we must remember to regulate ourselves. But even if you're not that extreme, you may find gaming to start costing more a little more than it's worth this day and age. With main stream consoles costing up to $600 in price, $60 games (yes I know that games were actually more expensive in the past, but at least most of the consoles were cheaper than this), the fact that PC games are becoming more demanding and requiring new hardware (*cough* directx 10 and vista *cough*), and HDTVs becoming the norm, and many other factors, the numbers can really start to add up. Gaming isn't generally sounding as simple and straightfoward as it once was, is it?

While I know that people have been thinking like this for years about gaming, I really think that it's starting up an upward trend towards becoming increasingly more expensive. But who knows what the future will hold? Maybe it will even out at some point or actually become cheaper as all the new tech before us becomes more standardized.

The questions I have for you tonight are:

1. Are gaming expenses going up, down, or staying about the same IYO?

2. Would you ever give up or take a break from a particular gaming generation if you thought the costs were too high or unjustified?

3. What does the future hold for gaming in terms of expenses?

Please sound off on what you think. I feel as if I might have may sounded a little unclear with what I was trying to say, but I hope you understand. Here's your YTMND for tonight:

http://poketrainerbond.ytmnd.com/

Song of the night: Can't Buy Me Love (Artist: the Beatles, Year: 1964) 

Okay here's my second shot at this thing. Tonight's topic is something I've been thinking a lot lately and especially applies to me, involving how video games can distract us from our social lives, and in some cases, our entire lives in general:

I think anyone who uses this site or games consistantly has also dwelled on this ideal of how video games can drain the life right out of us if we don't regulate ourselves. While some may argue that video games can be used as social activities and in some cases actually bring people together, I find the opposite to be often true. Sure, there's always playing with friends and having LAN parties and wonderful times. However, this is not often the case, and especially if you're like me, someone who does not enjoy playing with friends due to the fact they're not good or knowledgeable enough about the given activity, and you simply just don't enjoy playing with them or feel comfortable doing so. Therefore, gaming can often dissolve down to you sitting in a chair all day playing your MP FPS's online, SP RPGs, exploring vast worlds in adventure games, facing limitless competition in racing games, and wasting your entire life away in the neverending MMOs. I'm sure most serious gamers have done a lot of this stuff before, but I often stop to think: do these games isolate and distract you from the material world? The obvious answer is yes, given how many just play games to get away or in leisure times, including many hardcore gamers. But how much is too much? It may become too much in fact if you've made gaming the main leisure activity of your life and don't find time to do anything or much else other than gaming. People who do this, like me, often start to break off from the material world and just move into the digital world as their main concern. They might become indifferent to normally serious things in the material world and take total concern over things that matter far less, like gaming schedules, winning or losing in game matches, the amount of experience and emblems you have on this site, etc. Now, I find that people eventually realize what is happening to them, and often try to escape. But hold up, it's not so easy now. At this stage, you've often become so obsessed with the digital world that you've been lured into its chains of addiction that cannot be undone easily at all. It can't be too far off to call the internet the most addicting drug of them all for some people. This can also be amplified if you have an already obsessive nature, like I do.

As you might have noticed, this has happened to me as well and I've been trying to escape with no success. But my underlying questions still remain on this subject matter:

1. Why does this addiction exist?

2. Why do some people take such matters above physical and much, much, much more important ones?

3. How can one escape this and come back to their senses?

4. What's something that can be done to avoid it from happening again?

Please sound off and what you think about this and here is a YTMND as a reward for listening:

http://sbb2.ytmnd.com/

I think I'll decide doing one of these little features where I'll think of a topic that's been on my mind and try to speak my mind about it, and I'll try to do this regularly, about once a night. Maybe I'll miss a few days, but I think I'll consistantly do this and try to increase my thinking skills at the same time.

Anyways, the topic at hand is one that I've think we've all touched on to some degree, but never give a lot of thought to. But from what I've seen on this site, and in my gaming experience in general, there is an unusually common opinion on certain things regarding the industry, whether it includes what's the best game of all time (common answer examples: OOT, FF7, HL2, etc), what's overrated (examples: Halo, GTA, etc), what's the most unreliable company in the industry (very common answer is sony), and so on and so forth. While I understand that individual opinions may often be similar on a mass scale, the scale that I've seen in this industry is too large to be natural, or what everyone really thinks. What's the deal with this? You really don't see this kind of stuff in the other branches of entertainment (i.e movies, music, books, theatre, etc). Some say may argue that the video game industry is a lot younger than the said industries, but even in its current state, the gaming population stands at 250 million+ and with 30,000+ games. I find it hard to believe that the dearth of variety of opinions that I see would come naturally with an industry that large. So, what can be causing this? The more I think about it, the more I believe that all these common opinions may be caused by something I would call "mass agreement". Now, what I mean by this term is that people often take an idea that's floating around out there and adapt it to the point where it becomes a very common or near universal belief. Now, while this might not hold true for all the whole industry, it's certainly still a large part in many aspects (see examples cited above). But what causes to happen on a large scale in the gaming industry, but not in the other entertainment industries? Could it be blindness from nostalgia, which is a much larger factor in gaming than the other industries, as gaming is contineously changing and improving, while the other industries are not time-bound in the least ( I mean, anyone today can enjoy old classics like star wars and jaws and listen to music like the beatles and still enjoy them as much as someone around from the time period it originated around might have), and which in turn causes others to bundle to a common belief? Could it be an unexplored physcological effect of this industry? Could it just be a fad to think this way? What do you any of you think?

As a reward for listening to my boring rant, I'll give you this YTMND to view:

http://tsnta.ytmnd.com/

Please sound off on what you think. I'll be open to any suggestions.

It's true I've been here a while, but I've never really explained myself or anything much about me. So, I think it's about time I set the record straight and explain everything:

My name is jetpower, but you can call me Mike. You can find me all over the internet, at places like gamefaqs, gamerankings, YTMND, xfire, steam, wikipedia, google, photobucket, this site, online games, etc. I always use a variant of the name "jetpower", usually accompanied by a number based on the order in which I joined.

On this site in general, I've been here since September 2004, but my previous account stopped working (not banned though, mind you), and I ended up creating this last January. I live in NJ like I have my whole life, and while I won't tell you my age, you can use this expression to help you:

16<x<21

x= my age

I enjoy playing all the different systems from all different companies, and I'm partial to the PC ( I have a really high-end machine as well). You can view my collection for a complete scope of my game tastes. I used to own a bunch more older systems, but those disappeared somehow (don't ask). I can be very picky about my genre choices, as my choices can be rather limited at times, but it's really more so due to the fact that I haven't add time to branch out lately. As a matter of fact I haven't been gaming a lot lately as I've been working a lot, using this site, and trying to solve some of my own personal problems. But with any luck, all this stuff will be settled soon and I'll be back in complete business.

My other interests include: running, listening to the beatles (probably the only band I consistantly listen to everyday), researching PC hardware, gathering info from all places I can find, cleaning, doing paper working, planning things, and thinking. Please note that my interests often change spontaneously, so this list may soon not hold any water :P.

Anyways, I think that's a good enough explanation of myself for now, and I'll tell you more if needed and if I'm ever in the mood.

You heard right. He's never going to be back ever again, anywhere on this side of the internet. Not xfire, no games, nothing on this site, etc. I just had my last conversation with him on xfire just now. He really was a one of a kind. A good friend, a very well informed person, and he was someone who's left a one of a kind legacy on SW. Although I hate to have him go, we must all remember that life is full of meetings and partings, and sometimes we have to part with the people we least want to. But we must also remember that life goes on, and new people and things will come up to fill up the holes left by the people we have left behind. So, jimmy, if you're out there somewhere, here's one last good-bye and assurance that we'll never forget you and the legacy you have left behind.

That's right. I'm now a radiant silvergun. Just one more level from reaching that big milestone that is the wicked sick! level.