Extra Lives

I finished reading Extra Lives by Tom Bissell before it is available to the public. A friend loaned me his 'Bound Galley', which are advanced copies handed out for review. Somehow the book is cooler for being pre-release.

Anyway, it's an interesting read if you play games, but it's an excellent read if you have played most of the AAA titles in the last 5 years. The author walks through a number of his emotional moments in gaming, of which I shared similar moments but vastly different experiences in the very same games. If you haven't freed the Little Lamplighters from the Slavers or made the choice between Kaidan and Williams, then I'm not sure you're going to understand his connection to characters he simultaneously lambastes and lauds.

The writing is funny and insightful, though his more literary background does show up in an odd mixture of obscure references and detailed definitions. For instance, he explains that a bug is an 'instance in which the game behaves in a way that is not intended'. Yet, on the previous page he drops a John Gardner reference like it's immediately obvious who John Gardner is and why he is important.

What Bissell really nails is an understanding of where games really shine, the direction designers should explore if they ever hope to convince the Eberts of the world. The key is in the unique and highly personal experience of the individual gamer.

Capturing what playing Left 4 Dead feels like is not easy. But set Left 4 Dead to its highest difficulty level, recruit three of its best players you can find, push your way through one of the game's four scenarios, and make no mistake: What will go down will be so emotionally grueling, it will feel as though you have spent an hour playing something like full-contact psychic football. The end of the game, however it turns out, will feel epic to no one who did not take part in it, but those who did take part will feel as though they have marched, together, through a gauntlet of the damned.

Personality Defined

My sister ran across this blog post about proper relationship maintenance. It's a funny read, and I highly suggest it. Anyway, my wife read it, laughed, and said, "This is you."



She appreciates that I call attention to her.

Chrome Speed Tests

Chrome is another browser trying to break into the collective mind share that is internet society. IE is the old and busted incumbent, Firefox is the scrappy underdog, and Chrome is a proof of concept. The concept here is speed.

To illustrate how incredibly fast the newest Chrome is, the kids at Google put together a series of highly entertaining tests.

2 out of 3 involve fire...



The fryer was a nice touch.

Optical Illusions

This is a fun illusion because the obvious solution, is not the solution.

Taxes

Everyone can agree that taxes are necessary part of any number of social benefits, but no one likes paying them. The Tea Party movement in particular has built their soap box around preventing new taxes. One third of their Contract from America is centered around reducing and preventing taxes, and the rest are indirectly related.

There is a reoccurring theme when people complain about taxes. They complain about paying them, but ultimately they don't know how much they pay. How many of you can say with certainty the percentage of their income that went to taxes last year?

I imagine most would be surprised to learn that 2009 had the lowest tax bills in 60 years. In fact, we've been enjoying very low taxes for the last decade. Of course the effects of a very low tax rate are evident.



Their response of course is that we need to shrink the government, but they will be unable to point to which programs to cut. Our government tends to do good work with the money we give them. Ultimately, the hard truth is that we will need both a raise in taxes and cuts in spending in an effort to prevent this: