Television sets as a medium

Consider the television. I don't really know for what need it was created, but early uses of the TV include news broadcasts and programs that were often performed and taped in front of a live audience. TV programs were originally aimed at sending infromation to an audience.

Consider now video games (specifically, 'modern' video games). The purpose of most games these days (especially first person shooters and most action/adventure games that are played with an 'over-the-shoulder' view) is to immerse the player in a virtual setting. I hope that immediately you can discern the difference between these two audiences. One brings the esperience to you, while the other tries to bring you to the experience.

TVs haven't changed much over the years. They still display things on a rectangular screen and not much else. Television programs have changed drastically in style (American Idol still treats viewers as an audience, but consider CSI or 24 which have fabricated environments, if you understand), but still only output information to viewers.

Video games however, are fundamentally different: they require interaction with the player. It is this interaction that makes gaming a distinct experience from television. Let's break video games into three distinct parts: input, output, and processing. If we consider now the 'next generation' consoles (PS3, XBox360, Wii), we see that PS3 and X360 are focusing on increasing the processing capabilities of the experience, while Nintendo is expanding the definition of what the input is.

In terms of the output, all systems are limited by their medium: televisions. They are increasing the number of polygons on screen at one time through processing, creating more 'realistic' images, but I argue that in this context, 'realistic' is a comparison to the realism that televisions are capable of, which is a program intended for an audience. They're still just dots on a screen. Until the big three rethink the output phase of the gaming experience, they will be limited in how immersive their games are. I certainly don't have any revolutionary ideas about what the new output medium could be, but that's not my job.

All in all, I'd like to congratulate Nintendo for being the first to truly revolutionize the input part of the equation. PS3 and X360 have embraced things like tilt control, analog buttons, and even camera input, but 95% of the games out there still use controllers just as they would have ten years ago (though I suppose analog control has become standard). Nintendo is trying to do away with the generic design while still keeping it an option.

Sorry if this is a terrible entry, but I'm just sort of typing whatever comes to mind as it comes to me.

Listening to... Ozma - Flight of the Bootymaster
Link of the moment... I don't know if I'll wind up buying a next gen or not.

Last day of classes

Well in a few hours I'll be done lectures for the term. Just one more class left. I finished the last assignment for the term last night. Then, I think I'll be having lunch in the plaza with the usuals.

The case study project is done. The presentation went pretty well, minus a few small details (such as going over time). I don't know what sort of mark I'll get, but I'd think it'll hover around 80.

To celebrate the end of that terrible thing, I bought myself a new game from J&J: Apples to Apples. If I had to compare it to something, it would be Balderdash. It's a pretty good game, and more importantly, my roommates seem to like it. I'd say it plays best with about 5-6 people. Not a bad buy for $25, but I don't know how much use it will get.

John and I played a total of 45 turns of Mario Party 5 yesterday...I think we may have issues. It was fun times though. I'll probably play even more if Nicole comes over tonight. She doesn't come around much anymore, since she works in Brantford now.

Hm, not much else to say...I think I want to get in a post some day soon about the use of television as a medium for TV shows, movies, and video games, but I don't have the time right now. Tune in next time so you can destroy my poorly formulated argument

Listening to... the Black Mages - Battle Scene 2 (FF2)
Link of the moment...

My vision is blurred

So, my monitor is acting up. The left half side of the screen (as split down the middle) has this sort of horizontal line static happening. It's especially noticable on warm colours (including my current background).

At first I was hoping it was a monitor issue rather than video card, thinking that it would be cheaper to replace, but come to think of it, even a low to medium end card these days would be better than my previously high-end card (as of two years ago), and cheaper than a new monitor.

I don't know what to do about the monitor (too obscure for link, but it's a no-name 17" LCD), so I need some opinions. I know I'm not going to go back to a CRT. I'm not yet in a position to get a projector. I have three main options (not including "put up with the slight annoyance and save $300).

I can get another 17" LCD. I'm used to the size, and it would be the cheapest of the three solutions. I could spend a few more bucks and get a 19" LCD. Slightly more luxurious, and keeps things in a generic aspect ratio that is standard for most things I use my computer for (esp. gaming). Lastly, there is the 19" widescreen LCD. These things seem to be standard, as 6 of the top 10 (including the top 3) sold monitors at ncix are widescreen. I'm not sure if this would provide a great benefit to me, since I don't use my computers to watch movies often. My PS2 games are all standard 4:3, AFAIK. I suppose some of my newer PC games would *support* widescreen, though not necessarily in an enhancing manner (do they make FPS games for widescreen that give you a wider perspective? They should).

Does anyone out there have a widescreen monitor (Paul? Aly? Emiko?) who can give some positives and negatives for this options? I can't imagine I'd really need a widescreen monitor until I move away from home, which may be a few years away, and I expect to upgrade my computer (and maybe monitor) at that time.

Listening to... The Vandals - Fourteen
Link of the moment... Looks like Guild Wars supports it, with a minor loss in vertical display, and minor increase in horizontal display

Whatever happened between you and me?

Jeez, I'm starting to get lapped in terms of blog posts now. It's been one of those "busy weeks followed by apathy" sort of things. Last post I made was talking about my SQL assignment...I've already got that back, and I'm about to hand in the NEXT assignment for that course, so shame on me.

Haha...I keep telling myself I'll proofread my posts before submitting them...I put some pretty godawful mistakes in the last one. "Luch" instead of "Lush", and "phong" instead of "phoning". I'll try to be a bit more careful this time around.

Well, my case study is handed in now. That's what the "busy week" was. I think my entire group was working for the week straight on that thing. I'm proud of the final product, so that means it'll probably get a miserable mark. It's not completely done though; we have a fifteen minute presentation to give on Wednesday. I think for the most part we can wing it since we know the material of our own sections pretty well. I actually had to go buy some clothes for the presentation, cause I don't have any 'business casual' clothes.

I've been watching a lot of movies lately. Let's see how far back I can remember:
-Pirates of the Caribbean (Curse of the Black Pearl, on CBC)
-Saw
-The Ring
-Seven
-Mad Max
-Kung Fu Hustle
-Old School
-Three Amigos

Of those, I'd like to comment on two. Please don't see Mad Max. It's an hour and a half introduction, five minutes of his mission of revenge, and then the credits roll. Terribly paced movie. If you think you want to see Kung Fu Hustle, then I recommend you see Shaolin Soccer instead. If you've already seen Shaolin Soccer, then Kung Fu Hustle likely won't live up to your expectations. It's not bad enough for me to recommend you not seeing it, but it's not as funny as I thought it would have been.

Guild Wars is getting really hard. I'm in the second area of the game, and my party size has increased to six. That just means 1.5x as many enemies to team up on my character and kill him. I'm going to play through the game with my monk character first, and hopefully accumulate items for my other characters to help them out.

Andrew has got me hooked on Smash Brothers Melee lately. Thing is, I suck at it, but it's good times anyways. We've got two characters left to unlock, plus a bunch of stages.

I think I'm going to bring Trigun back from home. I think Andrew would appreciate it; I remember when I got into Firefly, I noticed a similarity between the two, and Andrew likes Firefly, so hopefully he'll like Trigun as well.

Only a week and a half left in the term...then exams. Nearly there! I only have two exams to write as well. Still two CS234 assignments to start and finish, but I don't really have anything else to get in the way of them, so it should be smooth sailing for the rest of the term. I just hope Wednesday's presentation goes well...

Listening to... Trigun - Yellow Alert
Link of the moment... An old Dragonball Z fight video with an awesome song...brings back my childhood

SQLing

Well, I guess that Databases assignment wasn't so bad. I'm not sure all my answers are correct, but they seem as though they should be. Plus, now I can fake my way through Microsoft Access. I guess I can throw that and SQL on my resume now, plus that Euchre database is looking a bit easier to do.

I was going to clean the shit out of this house, but the Dollarama is closed due to Canada Day. I need a mop head, bucket, and a few other small things. I was hoping to get all my chores out of the way today so I didn't have to worry tomorrow. I've got my marking done and now CS338, CS234 can wait until Wednesday and Thursday night, so that means the only thing that should be on my mind for the next three days is my individual section of the case study.

I've already clocked well over 10 hours on Guild Wars in the last few days. I finally got one (actually two) of my characters into what is referred to as "Post-Searing", where the map is drastically changed from what it was in Pre-Searing. It used to be nice and luch, which I really like in games, but now it's more of a wasteland. The game is much harder after this point; you really can't play by yourself. I joined some random guild, but still used the AI-controlled party to do my quests since not many of the members were online or responding.

I went bowling last night with the mathsoc people. By mathsoc people, I mean the guy who organized it, and two of his friends. I felt a bit out of place, but I got four free games of five pin. Lino had some righteous BO. I think it got on my clothes.

I'm debating phong Nicole or not. I have no one else to hang out with, but I'm not sure if I'd rather play NES with her (which includes 2 hours total drive time) or stay in and play more GW.

On a parting note, are you ever gonna get your blog back up Paul? How else will I hear about Spiderman 3 news with personal commentary?

Listening to... Bedouin Soundclash - Eloween Deowen
Link of the moment... God, I need better ideas for links