Zenimax's secret project

I've recently started indulging myself in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Game of the Year Edition again, and because of my thirst for nerdy, useless information, I usually read a game's wiki for stuff I may have glossed over.

However, when looking at UESPWiki, I noticed that the timeline for a new Elder Scrolls game indicated we're about due for another one. And, incidentally, ZeniMax Online Studios, formed in 2007, hasn't released a single thing.

So, according to a very reliable source, VG247 thinks it has figured out the new Elder Scrolls title will be an MMO. Hopefully, it won't destroy the wonderful sense of scale that comes with a solitary experience. There's a certain indescribable element to the Elder Scrolls titles, and Im not too sure how it would translate to an MMO.

What do you think? What would Bethesda/ZeniMax have to do in order to fully translate the word of TES games into an MMO format?

Any takers?

Apparently, there's a big scandal over in Korea regarding illegal bets on Starcraft.

Several big names over there have been accused of throwing games for monetary benefits, as well as leaking replay files of their games to a series of illegal gambling groups.

Yeah, it undermines the legitimacy of pro gaming as a viable occupation, but I also feel as if it legitimizes it a bit; People gamble on everything, why wouldn't they gamble on something so culturally near-and-dear as StarCraft on Korea?

In other news, I've been watching this video from Muscle, Milk, and Moolians, one of the pro-level TF2 gaming groups out there in North America. It's a pretty solid frag video.

Kitsch Factor

In order to trump nVidia's unveiling of the impressive GTX 4XX series earlier this week, XFX has responded by shipping AMD's Radeon HD 5970 in this really tacky, but kind of cool case.

I don't know how often a video card carrying case might be used, but it strikes me as a sort of a "we're still edgy!" move. Obviously, this isn't sanctioned by AMD or Radeon, and is just XFX producing strange packaging as a method to promote their product.

Not that the 5970 is anything to sneeze at: the eyefinity feature is really, really awesome, if you have the dough sitting around to create a wall of displays.

I can't wait to see the performance of these two cards put head-to-head. Moreover, I'd like to see a game released within the next year that takes advantage of super-high-end cards like this. Currently, all we have is Crysis, which, while no slouch, is almost three years old.

In a bit of other news, if you are an amateur scientists, and have been using a PS3 as a cheap supercomputer, you'll want to stay away from the latest firmware update. It disables the "install other OS" functionality, and as most supercomputer users utilize Linux, this is a problem.

Not one, but TWELVE cores....In yo' ass.

AMD just nutchecked Intel hardcore.

I wonder how Intel will respond to this. They obviously can't take it lying down, because AMD's lower price point will walk all over them. But if they fire back, there's going to be a really brutal processor war.

Here's hoping for a processor war. Superior products for lower prices for everyone!

The future of gaming, business, and advertising

There's two talks I want to outline in this post: This DICE 2010 talk, and this TED talk.

The DICE talk first focuses on the rise of facebook and the near-constant supply of surprises the gaming industry has had over the past 10 years. But the real interesting part is about halfway through, where he starts talking about the use of psychological tricks to compel desired behavior.

Later in the talk, he begins discussing about how integration of these same tricks into our day-to-day lives could result in a similar behavior alteration. The example I find most comepelling is the plant "pet" on the HUD of a hybrid that grows when you drive in a manner that conserves the most gasoline.

It's this integration of psychological tricks that illustrates some very interesting possibilities for the future of our economy. Imagine, instead of a card that tracks your purchases and offers you discounts immediately, a grocery store that keeps your "profile" saved in a database, through your use of voluntary information input, or debit card transactions. Behavior can be altered by awarding "points" to a particular consumer based on what they buy, and can use those points to receive free items, or some other such desirable reward, and the reward can only be obtained by following a desired behavioral pattern, such as patronizing a certain brand, signing up to give out more information for the store to sell, or anything else the business wants a consumer to do.

Given my proximity to advertising, it's not a particularly substantial leap of faith to predict that advertisers will begin implementing systems to manipulate these basic human evolutionary quirks in order bring out a higher level of consumerism. Of course, this is simply business-to-consumer; business-to-business is already primarily relationship-based, so this technique would seems redundant in those channels.

Behavior modification, while the hallmark of good advertising, also seems to suggest a frightening trend of invasiveness into the lives of consumers. It remains to be seen whether the use of this technique will be used in a way consistent with the typical advertising code of ethics, or if it will be used in exploitative and harmful ways, ultimately requiring the use of more legislation. Only time will tell.

On a lighter note, the TED talk is about how gamers are going to influence the world. Consoles are currently being developed to run off low power, and use wireless telecommunications signals to create a new generation of gamers in India, China, and other less-prosperous nations. The expected addition to the gaming population at the end of the deployment of that technology is around one billion people.

In short, the talk is about how our perception of online worlds are more idyllic than our perception of the real world, and so we escape to those virtual places. However, in these virtual spaces, we build a variety of skills that translate well to the real world, more specifically, enacting positive change in the real world.

So, that additional one billion gamers will result in a massive human resource that can be used to help the world, according to McGonigal. So, it essentially boils down to her opinion that gaming can save the world. For serious.

What do you think? Are games going to ultimately lead us to a world where we can all integrate and help those less fortunate, or is it more realistic to presume that companies will exploit the psychological tricks in advertising to make more money, for good or ill?

US v. HFCS

After a long and arduous debate between corn growers and everyone else in the US, there is finally a body of research illustrating the health impact of HFCS in food.

The sweetener is found in almost everything: from pop to bread to processed foods. Its ubiquity warrants a certain level of scrutiny, as did the "wonder substance" asbestos back in the 70's, which was used in flooring, walls, insulation, etc.

Though it may seem as if the health issues outlined above do not strike at HFCS alone, and instead give a general consensus that "sugar is bad," this finding illustrates that even when controlling for caloric content, people who were exposed to HFCS vs. other forms of sweetener gained more weight.

Given Michelle Obama's interest in reducing child obesity, and her proximity to the president, there exists a possibility for future sanctions against corn growers converting their crop to HFCS. Though, I would hope not; I'd rather the US population learns what to avoid and avoid it, rather than manipulating the free market system any more than what has currently been done.

GX 4XX series released

Yesterday, nVidia unveiled their new line of graphics cards. I don't anticipate many people will pick these up in the near future, except for those with a desire to be on the bleeding-edge of technology, who also happen to have between 350-500 USD laying around.

But these are the first DX11 cards nVidia has released, so that's exciting. I'd think that we'd start seeing a shift from developers to move from DX9.0c to DX 10 or 11, but Microsoft has shot themselves in the foot by keeping the hardware in their Xbox 360 compliant with DX 9.0c. The PS3 uses OpenGL, so I don't know what constraints a developer has placed on them with that API.

But I'd love to put one of these in my computer.

PAX

PAX East 2010 started yesterday.

I want to say I'm particularly interested in it, it being a major video game conference. But beyond Starcraft 2 I haven't heard any rumblings or talk of any PC games I'm particularly excited about. There's the possibility of some unveils, sure. Or something I totally didn't expect, like Batman: Arkham Asylum, which I'll cover later.

But it could be my expectations of future delights have been colored by last year's bumper crop of excellence: Dragon Age: Origins, Borderlands,
Left 4 Dead 2 among others.

But the pickings are slim for a non-console gamer. More and more money is being spent on that sector of gaming, while it seems PC gamers are left to wither on the vine. There are notable exceptions, of course, BioWare's Dragon Age.Borderlands, however, was obviously a console game first, and a PC game second. As well, Oblivion had its UI gutted by the console dominant market(it is, however, still an excellent game.) And these are not just my idle preconceptions; PC gaming only accounts for 20% of the video game market, vs. 57 percent for consoles.

I don't expect PC games to be left in the dust; 20% market share is still a substantial portion. It will just mean us PC gamers will see a decrease in PC-exclusive titles, if not outright eradication(anyone remember Shattered Horizon?) And the games we do see will continue to have their UI destroyed by console accessibility.

Review: Rockstar Cola

A while back, RockStar changed distributors to PepsiCo. Which meant a few things.

First, going back about 4 or 5 years, Rockstar had a particular formulation, Rockstar Cola, in a red can. After seeing this on the website, I sought it out. However, after discovering it, it was pulled by Coke in what I can only assume was a distribution deal. But in 2009, they changed over to PepsiCo, and with it, released two 'new' product lines: Rockstar Recovery, and Rockstar Cola.

However, my anticipation was ill-placed. It's as if RockStar had known the product was sub-par, as the flavor seems very muted. What remains is a concoction of bitter, boring, and overall unpleasant flavors. Fortunately, it still maintained the vitamins/stimulants blend so it still "worked" as desired. I haven't tried it as a mixer yet, but plan to the next time I'm in a situation where alcohol is involved, as I've found Red Bull cola makes an excellent mixer with rum.

Verdict: Don't buy unless you're exceptionally curious. Rockstar makes much better products than this particular formula.

California's move to legalize pot

And so it begins.

It's an interesting time for people who believe that the government has no ability to tell them what they can and cannot put into their bodies. For the first time, we're seeing substantial pull against the institutionalized prohibition that has characterized both global drug policy, and America moving ever farther from it's founding classical liberalism roots.

It's interesting to watch pro-pot proponents such as Allen St. Pierre get grilled in interviews, when alleged "hard-hitting" reporters always ask the same questions: "If pot gets legalized, what's to stop us from legalizing everything else?! Do you think we should have legal cocaine, legal meth?"

The question is of course loaded. Those drugs are harmful, and they have very negative consequences. Saying "yes" to the question is on-air suicide, as it makes you look like a junkie who just wants a legal way to get his fix. The drug war has done an outstanding job in programming the American subconscious with the concept that drugs are evil, and that anyone who supports them shares in their devilry.

But those elements don't change the fact that the answer to legal everything should always be "yes," if you know what concepts America was founded on.

Cocaine, Meth, Heroin, etc are all extremely harmful. This is common knowledge. Legalizing them would not cause a mass exodus from our places of employment so Joe Sixpack can drop a couple of hundred on starting a new smack habit. Most people have no interest in trying these drugs, and that's probably for the best. But, there are still those that use, and that's an issue we should deal with in a medical context, not a criminal one.

There was a court ruling a long time ago, where a supreme court justice ruled we cannot lock people up for being addicted. But we can lock people up for participating in their addiction, rather using the means to slake that need. This principle is tantamount to saying we won't jail a human for a fever, but depending on the bacteria causing that fever, you may be subject to imprisonment.

But, I digress. This post is about Marijuana. So far, this administration has seemed pretty pot-friendly, despite the open laughing rebukes at town hall conferences. Obama has said that they won't go after medical marijuana dispensaries, thus allowing states to enact medical marijuana measures without fear of retaliation, which has allowed public opinion on supporting this age-old tenet of classical liberalism to proliferate.

Indeed, this November shall be very, very interesting.

Tabata and you

Tabata protocol

I've been using HIIT training for a while now, but I hadn't heard of Tabata until recently. In short, it's a simple 20 seconds on, 10 seconds rest ratio you perform with any exercise you want, whether sprinting, squats, bench presses, or what have you.

I had first heard about this when I had stumbled into a program used by George St. Pierre of MMA fame. Not a big MMA fan myself, but I can recognize results when I see them. After trying this out a couple of times, I can really vouch for its efficacy; after 4 minutes of sprinting, I'm seeing stars and have bile creeping up my throat. It's brutal, but time-efficient and effective.

I use a treadmill so I can modify and monitor the elements of my workout. I usually do sprints at 8.5 mph, going up .5 mph every two weeks, with a 5-degree incline. If you've already got a fitness plan going and want results, definitely check out tabata.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1494498

Dude uses a silver Christ statuette as a biocide for his PC's water cooling system. The irony, it is delicious.

Introductions.

Greetings! My name is Alex, and I'm a graduating senior at Michigan State University, with a major in Advertising. The posts in this blog will center primarily on my interests, obviously: Fitness, gaming, energy drinks, science in general, and maybe the occasional set of breasts.

Hope you enjoy it.