blueZhift Blog

Since Nintendo announced the new name for its next video game console, there’s been a lot of pissin and moaning from what I guess are the ranks of hardcore gamers on boards like Slashdot and around the blogosphere. That’s expected, I don’t think any console’s official name has met with much enthusiasm. But I think that these people are missing the point. I don’t think the code name “Revolution” was an accident. Nintendo has stated over and over again, that they want to open up the ranks of video game players wider than it has ever been before. Doing that means doing something different, and doing something different usually makes someone unhappy, at least in the short run. Nintendo wants to redefine how people think about games and where they fit into their lives. The naming is just a part of that overall marketing strategy. And since they’re still playing catchup to Sony, what better way to pull off a coup than to redefine the terms of the conflict?

With the naming today, Nintendo has thrown down the gauntlet and is saying louder than ever that they don’t just want the hardcore, they want your mom, who’s playing Bejewelled, too. They want your little sister, and your grandpa too! Sony and Microsoft had better watch out because there’s just a chance that Wii could be the next iPod. It’s probably no accident that World War II, WWII, and Wii are similar. Nintendo will publicly deny that I guess, but it’s pretty obvious to their competitors.

Nintendo has just announced that its new video game console will be called Wii (pronounced like We). Oh boy, I just imagine my kids screaming that right now because I want to too! Anyway, with built-in Wi-Fi, backwards compatibility to the GameCube and downloadable classics, plus a sane price, I think I’ll give the Wii and its funky controller a shot. I especially like the idea of being able to consolidate nearly all things Nintendo in one nice little package. All I can say is Wii!!!!!!!!

It looks like there’s plenty of room on the stupid-assed politicians bandwagon. The Oklahoma senate has passed an anti-violent games bill that makes it illegal to sell violent video games to anyone under 18. Never mind the fact that laws like this have been struck down by the courts as unconstitutional in state after state. So it seems to me that any legislator that supports such a bill at this point is at best uninformed, and at worst a dumb fuck! Sorry about the language, but it is sooo frustrating for our elected officials to be wasting time and money on things like this when real work needs to be done. Our energy and education needs should be more than enough to keep them busy, so dumb-assed legislation like this just proves how morally bereft our system has become. We have no moral right at this point to even suggest that countries like China, or Iraq should adopt the same system that continues to spew out bull crap like this!

Last night I saw The Ten Commandments: The Musical performed by The Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus. First let me say that it was a bit disconcerting at first to see Moses parodied given that I grew up watching Charleton Heston playing Moses in the epic movie every Easter season on TV. But I also grew up watching Monty Python’s Flying Circus poke fun at all things holy as well, so this discomfort was very short lived and I found myself laughing at a very witty show. I was at the show because my wife works with Jonathan Verge who played Dathan and nearly stole the show with his great stage presence and expressive performances.

So I enjoyed the show, but I also enjoyed a chance to see and mingle with people that are far too often villified in U.S. society, namely Gays and Lesbians who made up (judging by the pairs at least) a good portion of the audience. I could see for myself that they’re just ordinary people like me and we were all out to have a good time. Yeah, this should be obvious, but if that is so, then why do we have so much trouble with it? As for the cast, they were a rainbow of size, shapes and colors. Aside from Jon, my favorite performers were George B. Smart as Moses, Jeremy Hilborn as The Burning Bush, and Will White as Nefretiri. The Plague Balladeers were good too. Some of the show’s humor does depend on the fact that many of the performers are gay, which I felt was signal to the audience that it was okay to acknowledge the fact that most of the performers were gay. I think this was as liberating for the audience as for the performers themselves!

In my strangely continuing OMG series, I take a what Final Fantasy character are you quiz and am labelled Yuna…LOL I ran across this one while scoping out some of the Final Fantasy XI forums for info on the new expansion. My characters are all pretty low level right now so there really isn’t anything in the Treasures of Aht Urhgan expansion for me. But with the expansion and all of the new Xbox 360 players, it may be easier to get some pick up parties going to gain some levels. So I’m kinda excited about that!

Yes, as I write this, my kids are doing DDR in the kitchen. No, there is no PS2, TV, or dance pads in the kitchen. Yes, they are making it all up in their heads, amazing. I love these times! I love these kids! <3

The middle of the week is usually kind of blah for me. But this Wednesday is different for a couple of reasons. One, its report card day, which I hope and expect to be full of good news. And two, I have and interesting project to work on in Python! I love using a variety of languages to build software, but this cannot be done in a vacuum. I usually need something interesting to work on which people need, otherwise it’s hard to get the proper focus. Now that I have a project that will force me to delve deeper into the language, I’m going to have some real fun now! Oh I am such a geek at heart, it’s amazing that I have any kids at all!

While metamoderating at Slashdot this morning I ran across a link to IntelligentBlogger’s Top 10 OSS Games You’ve Never Heard Of. Looks interesting, I might try some of these out when I recover from some serious motion sickness induced by last night’s session of Kingdom Hearts! Ugh, I’m hoping I was just tired and not getting too old to play these games. i always thought arthritis would be the thing to stop my game playing, but this motion sickness is just, ugh…

A few days ago, I noted the rise of Yaoi manga at Borders and wondered where the culture police were hiding. Now after reading volume one of Yubisaki Milk Tea I’m wondering if I should quit using coupons and start paying for things in cash! Yubisaki Milk Tea is the first manga I’ve personally encountered that features cross dressing, and a heavy dose of lolicon (lolita complex) including underage nude girls, all in one package. I know such things have existed for some time in Japan, but this is the first I’ve seen of it in a mainstream bookstore. The story is interesting and I like the exploration of gender identity introduced by the the cross dressing Yoshinori/Yuki. But the lolicon undercurrent is a little pervy putting the manga right on the borderline of hentai. So the book is shrink-wrapped and marked with an M (mature ages 18+) for good reason. But there is nothing graphically explicit that would push the title over the line, so while it may inspire some really naughty thoughts, the police are not likely to come a knockin any time soon.

All of this makes me wonder if we’ll see another volume of this stateside at all. It also makes me wonder if manga in the U.S. has already peaked which would make catering to niches within manga another way to support sales. Or is this part of a greater trend in the entertainment industry to cater to more mature tastes?

Uh oh, looks like I’m goin to hell now! Out on my lunch walk I stole a second glance at a cute nun! Too much Chrono Crusade I guess… No seriously, I think it was mainly because you don’t see too many nuns on the street in habits these days…Yeah, that’s it…

I was also lucky enough to find volume 3 of the Neon Genesis Evangelion manga at Borders which completes my collection up through volume 8. And Yubisaki Milk Tea is now out and on the shelves! I’ve been waiting for this one after the interesting write up in NewType.