Christian Allen's Corner

What actually causes violent children? The news media!

I came about this thought a strange way tonight.  I was browsing the news on the web, and I came across this video clip from CNN. 

While this may seem unrelated to what I am about to talk about, it really fired me up.  Regardless of what you think of the subject matter, the method of "reporting" is so fucking awful!  The story is about a proposed law to penalize the third parties in adulterous relationships when a marriage breaks up.  OK, interesting subject...BUT.  The "reporter;" instead of bringing in two legal experts from each angle to talk about the subject, takes the pro side, and brings in the webmaster of a site that allows married people to hook up in adulterous rendezvous to defend the other side.  WTF?  How is this journalism? 

The "reporter" (note that "Prime News" is described as being a show "delivers the stories and information that impact your life;" not an opinion or talk show), is obviously overacting to draw you in, and they pick not a legal expert, but a webmaster who financially benefits from adultery to defend against the need for the law...again...WTF?

So...now to totally change subject.  I was sitting there, aghast at this utter crap and how we put up with it, and I started thinking.  Every time a teenager (or lately, a young adult), shoots up his school, the news media and their resident slimy talking heads come out swinging at two of my favorite pastimes:  Guns...and Video Games (and in the past; violent movies/TV and rap music, although this is SOOO five years ago now).

Now of course the guns argument is always fun.  If there were no guns, the argument goes there would be no school shootings (although the bombing plots would continue).  The media never seems to mention Switzerland, where every household with a male between the ages of 20 and 42 is required to have a fully or semi-automatic rifle; and has a murder rate that is around 13% that of the US.

Next comes video games.  Everyone who watches the news (and doesn't think for themselves) knows that video games causes kids to be violent. Yet in South Korea, where violent video games are possibly even more ingrained in the popular culture than in the US, there is less school violence (although, probably more MMO starvings).

So what is the straw that breaks the camel's back?  I posit that it is the news media in this country.  A news media that agonizes over every detail of some doped out worthless celebrity; epitomizes the lack of self-responsibility by promoting a war and then capitalizing on the results of their drum-beating by about-facing and attacking the politicians who drove for it (and drove up their ratings); and of course, by making celebs of these psychos who choose to go out and shoot up schools. 

They have to know that by publishing the intimate details of these sociopaths that they are providing EXACTLY the kind of exposure these sickos want.  They HAVE to know that by splashing the pictures of these violent people on every website and newspaper around that it will encourage the next imbalanced loner to get the same kind of fame that the current one has.  But do they stop?  No.  Why?  BECAUSE WE KEEP WATCHING.

Nancy Grace, Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, etc, etc.  These people are poisoning our youth.

Now, I'm really into that whole Constitution thingy (and all those pesky amendments that so many people tend to forget when they want to ban guns, secretly wiretap, shut down "seditious" speech, or hold people without charging them...oh and I don't count the tenth one, since that one is dead and no one seems to care).  So...am I calling for a ban on these scumbags?  Nope.  I just wish people would act.

Turn them off. 

Go to the range.  Play a video game.  Read a book (preferably George Orwell, John Ross, or Smedly Butler). 

But most of all...think for yourself. 

[/rant]

There's still the wars...

It's easy to forget there is a war(s) going on.  I don't generally publicly speak about politics and war, but scrolling through the news today, I got hit with a blow.  One of my old units, the ANG 1132nd MP Company out of Rocky Mount, NC, came under rocket/mortar fire in Baghdad.  One soldier, Staff Sgt. Emanuel Pickett, 34, died.  14 others were wounded.

I didn't know Staff Sgt. Pickett.  He joined the 1132nd after I got out of the service (I was part of the unit before it "stood up," or became a deployable unit).  But the news of his passing and the attack hit me in the gut today.

I had a similar feeling back in '05, when I read the report that many of my friends from the 855th MP Company in AZ were receiving purple hearts.  People in my fire team.  Folks I had left when I transfered to the 1132nd. 

Here I am making video games, and my brothers & sisters are taking fire.  I guess I don't know what to say to that, except godspeed.

My thoughts go out to the family of Staff Sergeant Pickett, as well as all my family, friends, and service mates that have served these conflicts...I'm sorry I wasn't standing beside you when it really mattered.

I give teenagers heroine and make them pregnant…

Or, I might as well, according to this douche.

"I hate video games, on or offline. I hate the way they suck real people into fake worlds and hold on to them for decades at a time. I hate being made to feel hateful for saying so, and I hate being told to immerse myself in them before passing judgment, because it feels like being told to immerse myself in smack and teenage pregnancy before passing judgment on them.

This is not because of anything wrong or bad about video games or heroin or teenage parents. It's not even because of game-induced homicide or web-grooming of little girls by perverts - serious problems, but statistically low-risk. It's because, compared with everything else on offer in a kid's life, video games and heroin and teenage pregnancy are a colossal waste of time."

Of course, I do wish my parents were more like him. If my father had never brought home that Apple IIe, or my mom had never bought that Atari 2600 from a garage sale, I might never have developed a passion for games. I would have never gotten stuck in this dead end job dreading every day going to work with no opportunities to advance in a short time frame. I would never have had to travel to all those crap holes like Paris, Montreal, Montpelier, London, San Francisco or New York. Maybe if my wife hadn’t been introduced to games, she would have a proper job instead of being a “Senior Franchise Manager,” whatever that means.

If my parents were more like him, maybe I wouldn’t produce the equivalent of heroine and pregnancy for kids.

It is interesting that a writer hates an alternate form of media. I wonder if he lets his kids read books, or if he makes them put down that drivel and GET OUTSIDE! I’m trying to think of things I hate as much as this guy says he hates games. I guess Nazis…maybe the 2 party system. Definitely Rush Limbaugh and Bill Maher. But a form of entertainment? Maybe slam poetry?

Piracy Doesn't Matter? O....K....

The effect of piracy on PC gaming has been a hot topic lately, starting with Michael Fitch’s rant against PC piracy (Michael Fitch wrote how piracy contributed to the collapse of Iron Lore, and in the interest of disclosure, in the past I’ve worked with Michael Fitch, as well as folks high in the ranks of Iron Lore), along with Id’s change in focus to console gaming, and recently updated with the article by Brad Wardell. 

I have to say, as developer that has been focused on console development (I’ve only peripherally contributed to PC titles), I’m commenting on this subject from the outside. However, Wardell’s blog compelled me to post. 

Fanboys have responded with great fever, on all sides, arguing the impact of the pirating of console games in the Philippines or China to how “try before you buy” doesn’t actually hurt sales. That’s great and all, but I’m interested in what effects developers.

Now, back to Wardell’s article. I have to say that his article, at least to me, doesn’t do a good job to convince me that piracy doesn’t significantly hurt PC game sales (which I think is his point). Mainly, my takeaway is that putting work into anti-piracy software on PC games is a waste. That, I generally agree with. I’ve never seen a game with anti-piracy software not cracked within a day or two of its release. In my (humbly personal) opinion, all anti-piracy software does is keep the super-honest person honest, and screws a great number of consumers who want to be honest but get fucked by the bugs in the anti-piracy software. And yes, I have been one of those consumers when I have tried to install PC games.

So while I agree that PC game anti-piracy software is largely useless in stopping piracy, I don’t understand how Wardell takes this argument to come to the conclusion that PC games are (supposedly) floundering because of lack of innovation. He brings up his Galactic Civ: II as an example of a game with no copy protection, and somehow brings the attention of the gaming press into the equation, as well as developer’s focus on the “coolness” factor. I don’t see what the attention of the gaming press has to do with piracy, nor why “cool” games should suck.

Again without commenting on any specific title, I have in the past had privy to some gaming stats. A certain PC title(not one I worked on) I looked at  the online stats for sold around 300k in the first month after launch. Three days BEFORE the game launched…one MILLION people were playing online. Now of course those numbers are approximate…but I don’t see how anti-virus software and the apparent “coolness” of the mainstream game approach can touch those numbers.

Now that that’s posted, as soon as the new episode of Futurama is over, I’m going to buy Sins of a Solar Empire. I hear it’s fucking awesome. Looks like Homeworld 2 on crack.

The Game Dollhouse

I was playing with my daughter tonight when I realized that her doll house is pretty unique.  Not for the house, but for it's occupants.  Imagining Master Chief, Batman, Piglet, and Han Solo having a tea party cracked me up.

Spitzer FTW!

It's moderately satisfying to see yet another politician who has partially built his credibility on bashing games fall from grace, due to his inability to stick to his preachy roots (and his inability to keep from banging hookers).  While it is nice to see the hypocrisy of any politician exposed, I have one request for future scumbags hypocrites.

I have no problem with prostitution, being a libertarian myself.  In fact, I think it should be legal.  But if you base your career on rooting out "evil," and include video games as evil, when you finally decide to succumb to eventual corruption that power breeds and get caught committing a felony, please don't drag your wife up on stage with you.  It's got to be hard enough for her to have the hypocrisies of her husband called out in public; at least spare her the humiliation of standing next to your while you scrabble for the last hope of your career.  Oh well; at least Spitzer will have plenty of time to play GTA now that he can't nail high-priced prostitutes in Washington, DC. 

Firepit!

So this weekend was busy.  Had a total of 7 trees taken down on the property.  2 big cedars because they blocked all the light coming into the house, 2 firs that were getting a bit dangerous with their leans, and 3 big dead alders that were a falling danger.

Yesterday had the cutters out, and today i spent splitting and moving wood.  Since I have way more firewood than I know what to do with now (even after a guy came and took 2 truckloads), and cedar can't be burned in your fireplace, we went ahead and made a firepit.  Burning wood = Happy Christian.  Plus I got to feel all manly chopping wood in my yard.

GDC 08

Another year, another GDC.  This year was a bit unique for me, as I wasn't a speaker.  It's the first time in four years that I haven't had a presentation, so I got to take the show as a consumer, a developer, just enjoying the talks and the atmosphere without having to spend hours in my hotel room practicing a talk I would give.  Kinda cool.

My take this year is that the quality of the talks was better than last year...I was happy to rarely hear (except from recruiters) the term "next-gen".  The term I heard too much was "democratization."  I saw great talks from Clint Hocking, and a predictably crappy talk from a certain writer who should NOT be at the talk again next year.

Networking was good.  I saw folks that I see every year, I got drunk with RSE folks and the crew I usually get drunk with.   The one thing that got to me this year was the number of students.

Specifically, the number of students about to graduate.  There seemed to be a huge amount of students
the were about to graduate from X school of games.  This included when I was working the (out of the way) Bungie booth, and in general when I was hanging out; there was a human wave of students looking to get jobs.  Now, I think school is great.  If you have a choice between attending a game program and not going to school, game programs are great.  Hell, if you know anything about me, you know that I attended the Art Institutes (although I dropped out to join RSE, and went back and finished after I was already an established game designer).

What worries me is the pure number of students graduating from these game programs (or technical programs) that seems to expect to go straight into game dev jobs.  If you are one of those folks that are in college game programs and your instructors have told you you will walk into a game design job; I have something to tell you.  Chances are, you have been screwed. 

There are tons of people competing for your job.  Yes, you may happen upon an entry level job at one of the "big" publishers (who held a wonderful talk at GDC sponsored by gamecareerguide.com that happened to cut off comments before I got to the mike); but those chances are slim.  And if you expect to walk into a job at an established studio, you better kick some major ass, and do something to stand out from the mass of grads who's resume's look EXACTLY like yours.

When I decided to get into the industry it was 2000.  I got hired in late 2002.  That's almost three years of networking and work, even after I had become established as a mod maker for the company I eventually got hired for.

I'm not trying to discourage students.  If you have the will, passion, fire, and talent; you can and will get in.  But don't expect it to be handed to you.

Rant over.  Frag Dolls are cool.

Oh, and GRAW2 won a GANG award.  Rock on to the audio team, you kicked ass!

Bungie Podcast

So I did a podcast with the Bungie crew last week.  Interesting feedback from it, from many facebook friends invites from people I don't know (because I mentioned facebook in the interview), to Kotaku taking my comments to mean that I might be working on a "platformer with fluffy clouds, kids in puppy suits and fully-integrated co-op."

Anyways, you can check out the podcast in the following link.  And yes, I suck at Halo. 

http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&cid=13219

Video Games are "Satan's Sudoku"

Ah, another week, another journalist calling out the gathering fall of our civilization because of video games.  This time it's The Time's Janice Turner, in her column titled "Xbox is crack for kids."

I guess I should be offended...after all I am one of those "evil" people who create games, and "Even the crappiest cartoon or lamest soap teaches a child about character, plot, drama, humour, life. Playing videogames, children are mentally imprisoned, wired into their evil creators' brains"

Maybe I SHOULD be offended (I haven't been called evil since I worked as a Child Support Enforcement Officer) but I'm not.  I think I actually take a perverse pleasure in seeing idiots like this spout off complete bull**** because they don't have anything worthwhile to write.  I guess feel a camaraderie with the likes of Elvis and Judas Priest, who's music was worried about by older, less blog-savvy idiots without anything worthwhile to write.   

I guess the next time I'm sitting on my couch, playing Surf's Up with my daughter, I should stop myself, turn off the 360, and fire up an episode of Teletubbies, leaving her mesmerized by the non-language babble and epilepsy-inducing trash on the screen, so that my daughter doesn't get wired into those evil brains in Montreal.