Cub Scouts to offer a pin for gaming

Boy Scouts of America stated that the Cub Scouts and Webelows are now offering beltloops and pins for gaming.  Wow, this is about 20 years late.  Maybe if people appreciated games in the 80s like they do now, I may have stayed in the cub scouts for longer than a week.  Oh wait, after reading the requirements for the pin and loop, I retract my previous statement.  

For the easy pin/loop, Scouts have to:

1. Explain the importance of the ESRB video game rating system.  Check your games to make sure they are right for your age
2. With an adult, create a schedule for you to do things that includes your chores, homework, and video gaming. Do your best to follow this schedule.
3. Learn to play a new video game that is approved by your parent, guardian, or teacher.

For the more difficult pin/loop, Scouts have to:

1. With your parents, create a plan to buy a video game that is right for your age group.
2. Compare two game systems (xbox, PS3, wii, etc).  Explain the differences between the two.  List good reasons to purchase or use a game system.
3. Play a video game with family members in a family tournament.
4. Teach an adult or a friend how to play a video game.
5. List at least 5 tips that would help someone learning to play the game.
6. Play an appropriate video game with a friend for one hour.
7. Play a video game that will help you practice your math, spelling, or another skill that helps you in your schoolwork.
8. Choose a game you might like to purchase.  Compare the price for this game at three different stores.  Decide which store has the best deal.  In your decision, be sure to consider things like the stores return policy and manufacturer's warranty.
9. With an adults supervision, install a gaming system.

I think its great that educational organizations are embracing the rise of gaming.  I think this is a great way to teach kids at an early age what a healthy gaming hobby can be like.  I also think it will instill a good technological background into kids at an early age.  I know personally, I would not be the tech savvy stud that I am today if it weren't for Atari, Nintendo, and my first PC (which was nothing more than a gaming platform to me then).  What do you guys think of this move?  Do you think it will be healthy for kids at their ripe Cub Scout age?  Or will it set them up to be lazy bums in their future?

WoW: Thinking back and looking forward

As I have mentioned previously, my interest in WoW seems to have all but dried up.  I have been playing since its release in '04, which is almost a quarter of my life.  One would imagine that a video game could become a bit monotonous in that period of time.

Since the Burning Crusade expansion was released, the game has quite literally evolved into something that is completely different than it was when I bought and played the original.  Is that a good thing?  In many aspects, yes, it is a very good thing.  But it can definitely be a bad thing in many ways as well.

Cataclysm:  Abyssal Maw

In the days of UBRS and MC raiding, who would have ever imagined that the game would be at the point that it is now?  I can remember when raiding MC it took hours to organize a 40 person raid group.  It took days and weeks of raiding just to get a single piece of T1 gear.  Now people can get tier gear without even setting foot in a raid dungeon.  I guess thats my biggest beef with the way WoW has turned out.  It seems that in Blizzard's successful attempt to make the game more casual friendly and enjoyable for everyone, the enjoyment, wonder, and mystery that the game once had has been watered down to taste more like vitamin water, as opposed to the awesome Hi-C flavor that it once had.

Official Cataclysm artwork

And the worst part?  No longer will we be able to go back and enjoy the game the way it used to be played, running on foot for 40 levels, getting griefed for hours in STV, raiding crossroads just for the hell of it, 24 hour AV matches, and controlling a vent full of 40 nerds.  We won't even be able to revisit the environment that was once the most enjoyable aspect of the game.  After Cataclysm launches, Azeroth will never look or feel the same again.

Cataclsym:  Desolace

But I guess if you look at the other side of things, the outlook changes completely.  I can get off of work, run a few heroics, join a pug or two on the weekend, and dps with the best of them.  I no longer have to worry about finding a guild that has to depend on 40+ people to show up on time for a raid, just so I can enjoy endgame content to the fullest.  The World of Warcraft will be completely different than the way I have seen it (almost daily) for the past 6 years, and that truly peaks my interest.  What will it look like, and what will the atmosphere feel like?  The entire game will be changing, and I will probably be taken back by some of the awesome new things to see - much like I was in the original.

Cataclysm:  The Barrens

Personally, even though I have hardly set foot in Azeroth in months, I am really looking forward to the release of Cataclysm.  I'm excited about being excited to play the game again, you know what I mean?  I think I am going to try to form a small group of folks to prepare for the Cataclysm release with.  Meaning I want to run some of the current endgame content that I haven't yet made an effort to see.  But here's the thing...I want to do it from a fresh perspective and a class that I haven't played to its fullest yet.

So, on that note, in the coming days I'll be introducing you guys to my newest alt/main character, and may highlight some of the relatively interesting encounters that I come across on him.  I am thinking Shaman or Warlock.  What do you guys think, have you played either?  Which did you prefer and why?

5 reasons to preorder your copy of Starcraft II

Image courtesy of Crispy Gamer

There is no doubt that the hype for Starcraft II is building as I type this post.  With the beta in full swing, and beta keys being given out daily, the number of people who are experiencing the epic enjoyment of this game is on a steep climb.  If you are debating buying Starcraft II to see what the hype is all about, I would suggest you go ahead and preorder your copy right now.  Here are 5 reasons you should take my advice on this:

It carries the torch of the Starcraft legacy

There is no doubt that Starcraft II has some huge shoes to fill.  The original Starcraft, which was released in 1998, has sold over 11 million copies to date, making it the 3rd most popular PC game, and the most popular RTS game in history.  Starcraft helped pioneer the RTS genre that we enjoy today, and it set the standard for nearly every RTS game to follow.  The series has been around for over a decade and is still played competitively around the world.



The fundamentals are the same, yet the experience is new and refreshing
Blizzard has done an incredible job of not fixing what was not broken.  If you played the original Starcraft, you will be able to sit down and begin enjoying Starcraft II to its fullest within minutes.  Even if you never played the original, learning the basics and navigating the interface is quite simple and easy to learn.  However, while all this stays to to the original, Starcraft II offers a completely fresh and new experience, with new abilities, new units, new technology, and much more.



The graphics are great
Graphically and aesthetically speaking, Starcraft II is on a completely different level than its predecessor (obviously, considering the original is 12 years old now).  The detail in this game is incredible and adds a whole new depth to the RTS experience.  You will notice unique death animations based on different circumstances, new warp in animations for Protoss, and random weather effects in certain maps.



The spectator mode overhaul
The spectator mode allows for players to watch matches between other people on a new system that is incredibly robust and enjoyable.  In addition to standard fast forward, pause, and rewind abilities, you are also able to see a standard overview of the entire map, or watch from the perspective of individual players and see exactly what they currently can or cannot see.


In addition, there is the ability to compare between the players economic breakdown, units in production, active units that are in play, actions per minute, and even more.  A replay of every match that is played will instantly be saved to a script file for viewing and reviewing.  This allows players to watch and critique their own performance in order to improve.



Instant access to the Starcraft II Beta
Okay I already mentioned this in a previous post, but just for preordering your Starcraft II through Gamestop and Amazon.com (and as far as I know, only through those two sources) you will get a beta key.  The beta is in full swing, already boasting tournaments, hundreds of videos with commentary, and a healthy and bustling community.

So what are you waiting for?  This game will fill a void that many RTS gamers have had for years now.  And even if you are not an avid RTS geek, but you are just burned out on WoW, you should pick this up and try something new.  You owe it to yourself to preorder this game and claim a beta key for yourself right now!  Even if you don't enjoy it (which you will), the release of Cataclysm will be right around the corner.

Internet addiction? Please...

So as I was checking through the news sites that I frequent yesterday, I came across this gem of an article on Reuters.  A study conducted by the University of Maryland asked 200 of its students to give up their ties to all sources of media (TV, cell phones, computer, music, etc) for 24 hours.  Some of the students claim to have experienced withdrawal symptoms similar to those seen in drug and alcohol addiction.  This includes cravings, anxieties, and difficulty functioning on a normal level.

"I clearly am addicted and the dependence is sickening," said one student.  Another claimed that without texting and Instant Messaging capabilities, he/she "felt quite alone and secluded from life."

...lol, ok.  I have a few issues with this study.  First of all, of course these students would feel somewhat disconnected from the world at large and from themselves without media interaction, because they would, in fact, be disconnected from a majority of the world, and disconnected from a medium which has become a part of life in this day and age.  This is the 21st century, and the media is a part of every day life for every one of us who are fortunate enough to not live in a third world country.  We use media for communicating with friends and family, getting up to speed with news and current events, meeting new people, learning new things, and providing and consuming entertainment.  We could do all of these things without the media, and have done so for many centuries, but with the amount of opportunity that media presents to us...why would we?  What these students are experiencing is not withdrawals and anxiety, it's culture shock.

And what exactly does one do with the results of a pointless study like this?  What could happen is that the information could be given to the American Psychiatric Association, they could declare that "internet addiction" is a disorder, and my tax dollars could go on to fun Internet and Media Addiction Centers all across the United States.  But now I'm just ranting and getting ahead of myself.

Of the 200 students who were involved in the study, the article on Reuters quoted two of them.  That is 1% of the study.  While I'm sure that there was more than that who did wish that they could communicate with their friends without actually having to travel 45 minutes on public transit, they did still seem to make it through the day without going through a detox.  Internet addiction?  Please...

Add the new Facebook Like button to your Blogger blog

At Facebook's F8 conference yesterday, they made many announcements regarding their future and how it will effect the social web moving forward.  One of these announcements was the addition of the Like button on external websites.  Any web user will now be able to "Like" any website that has implemented the widget into their template.  If that user is a registered Facebook user, it will share that activity on their profile, making it public to their friends and affiliates.  This is huge for bloggers and anyone else who uses Facebook for marketing and outreach, as it will make Facebook marketing much more streamlined across the web.

Facebook will let you generate a basic code to use here, but the code does not work for individual pages or blog posts.  To get the most out of your Like button, it takes a few tweaks to the code.

To add the new Like button to your Blogger blog, follow these few easy steps.  You will be set up in 10 minutes time.  Also, for Wordpress users, try this guide.

1. Go to your blogger dashboard and find the blog that you want to add the button to, and click "Settings".
2. Click the "Layout" tab at the top left.
3. Click "Edit HTML" in the sub menu there under the tabs.
4. Check the box that is labeled "Expand Widget Templates".
5. Left click anywhere inside of the text box (where your template code is) and press Ctrl+F to search for the following line of code:  <data:post.body/>
6. On the line directly above it, paste in the following code: 

<iframe allowTransparency='true' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' expr:src='"http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=" + data:post.url + "&layout=button_count&show-faces=False&" + "width=530&height=25&action=like&" + "colorscheme=light"' style='border:none; overflow:hidden; width:530px; height:25px'/>

Preview your template to make sure it's good, and click the "Save Template" button.  And there it is, you've been officially setup.  Thanks to devfuel for the quick guide.  If you have any problems with it, post a comment and I'll be glad to help.  If you found this post helpful, click my Like button below!