ID:44913
 
Happy Independence Day! Courtesy of Ace of Spades HQ, here's a video to get my fellow Americans' patriotic juices flowing against perfidious Albion. (No offense intended, Elation. Well, maybe a little.) Warning: contains profanity and general political incorrectness. http://ace.mu.nu/archives/267891.php

Now the other stuff!

1) BYOND's first print advertisement made its debut last weekend! As Tom was quick to point out, this ad would be a lot better if I'd included some way to track whether or not it actually brought anyone to BYOND (by providing a special URL like byond.com?source=ABJ200806, or whatever). Still, it was fun just to see it in print. If you know of anyone who found BYOND by seeing this ad, let me know!

Click for pic


2) When Deadron was in town, we discussed our respective preferences for PC gaming and console gaming. I was weaned on the Atari 2600, and aside from my fondly-remembered C-64 and Amiga years (and both of those systems featured lots of games playable with standard Atari joysticks), I've always been a console guy. The 360 controller seemed as foreign to him as controlling a shooter with a mouse and keyboard seems to me -- though I did it successfully with Mafia, and completed the game, because Mafia was worth the trouble. (By the way, it runs fine under Vista, and you can get it real cheap off eBay nowadays.)

At any rate, this article contains perhaps the most succinct explanation I've seen of the difference between the two types of gaming. Can you spot it?

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/07/04/ peter-moore-hates-your-pc/#more-2047

Here it is: "The PC as a platform for authentic, fully-licensed, simulation sports games has declined radically in the past three years as the next generation consoles, with their high definition graphics and 5.1 sound capabilities have attracted millions of consumers to eschew the “lean in” PC sports gaming experience for the “lean back” full room console experience."

It's true. Playing on the PC, you lean in. On the console, you lean back. Being a mostly laid-back guy, I prefer consoles. Another mystery of the universe solved!
What he described also works metaphorically.

The computer, as a platform, is designed to be intensive and powerful: you have full control over your environment (assuming you are worthy of using a computer in the first place), and it's all about customisation. To play a computer, thus, you "lean in" heavily towards making intelligent decisions.

The console, as a platform, is designed to be powerful but ultimately simple: you don't have any opportunity to customise the equipment (unless you modify it against the warranty agreement), and it's all about compatibility. To play a console, thus, you just "lean back" and let the console worry about the details.

Personally, however, I think that's symptomatic of a lot of the problems with the gaming industry as a whole. People are being spoon fed games and digital rights management and are still eating them up like there's no tomorrow.
In England we call it "Good riddance day"... :p


I play both PC and console games. And by console I mean Nintendo. Somehow playing Warioware on the PC would feel wrong.

PCs and consoles appeal to different types of people. If you're someone who finds the Video subsection of the Options screen more fun than the game itself (like myself), you're probably better off with a PC.
I only need three graves, but the four is much better value...