When I first heard about Shadow Complex, I just heard it was a game from Epic (makers of Gears of Wars). I said okay. Then I heard it was a 2D platformer shooter. My interest was piqued. Then I heard it was very much in the style of Super Metroid. At this point I wanted to subscribe to all and any newsletters and blogs regarding the subject. When I heard that the developers all played Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion before starting, I was enraptured. When the game finally came out at the end of Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade, I played the crap out of it and beat it in a matter of days. Few games have captured my attention and time like this one has.
So by way of Kotaku I saw this video (see below) about how a kid was asked to play a retro game and evaluate it. The game of choice was Contra for the NES. Among the questions asked were the difficulty of the game, the graphics, the music, and the willingness to try to beat such a difficult game. The outcome? The kid didn’t really like it. I didn’t find it surprising, but it seems like geeks were in an outcry all over Twitter. Notably, some friends of mine as well. I am having a hard time grasping why people are outraged at one kid.
I think the interview/evaluation with the kid was flawed. The kid didn’t strike me as an avid gamer. He listed three games that he plays: Halo 3, Call of Duty : World at War, and NHL. Some first person shooters and a sports game. When we were kids we had friends like this – the friends that only played NBA Jam, or Mortal Kombat. Fighting and sports. But some of us played all kinds of games and subjected ourselves to such masochist games like Contra. All of this is anecdotal evidence. I personally overheard two kids at Red Lobster talking about Super Mario World for the SNES and how much fun they were having. This study also doesn’t include Erica’s cousin who plays Contra 4 for DS (not exactly the same, but the music, graphics, and difficulty are not much different from the original) and loves the game.
The point I want to convey is we shouldn’t make assumptions based on the opinion of this one kid. If someone were to provide me a valid poll with a proper sample size (1000 kids of varying demographics) then we could worry about kids and video gaming. There is a plethora of good video games today, and several opportunities for kids to play classics by way of DLC. The biggest problem is exposure to such games. Kids aren’t rocking out to Mega Man 2 or Tetris like we did. They aren’t advertised and aren’t sold on store shelves.
Two last things. I didn’t like Contra when I was a kid. The difficulty was too high for me. I didn’t appreciate the game until college. Also I know people that haven’t played half of this awesome list of 16 bit classics (the best generation in my opinion).
For those who know me, you know that I would give my first born child to Google. So what happens when my beloved iPhone creator Apple rejects something Google makes? I get sad and depressed like Mommy and Daddy are fighting. Recently it was announced that all Google Voice related apps on the iPhone App Store were removed for “duplicating functionality already on the iPhone.”
Google Voice is a service that allows you to keep one number and forward it to any phone you own. Google gives you one number for life, for free. Tons of features come with it, it’s essentially your own personal call center. You can block callers, screen calls, and set times for which phones ring. There’s tons more that I’m not mentioning. It’s absolutely amazing and it’s something that the Telcos should have come up with years ago. But they didn’t. Now Google’s got it and there isn’t even a competitor for this type of service, let alone one for free.
Google recently opened the flood gates for Google Voice to the public and has been sending invites like crazy. This must have what triggered the events that recently passed. Two apps were already available in the App Store – GV Mobile and VoiceCentral. They’ve been around since May. They were paid apps developed by third party developers. The main reason people want these apps is to be able to show their Google Voice number on outgoing calls, and to review all history on their Google Voice account. These apps also integrated with your iPhone address book. But these apps were pulled this week, and then Google admitted that Apple denied their official app that was submitted six weeks ago. Again, the apps were pulled for “duplicating functionality already on the iPhone.” You may want to re-read that. And come on, how many notes apps are in the App Store?
There are several reasons why this is and should be upsetting to iPhone users.
First, Apple is now aggressively blocking an incredibly useful app. Something that is new, that no one else has. Their acceptance to date has been pretty inconsistent. They’ve hindered functionality of apps like Google Latitude, and Skype. But this was a flat out block, and a retroactive one at that. The apps that were already in the store were APPROVED for months, then retroactively denied. People paid money for them, and now if they need to clear their iPhone, they won’t be available.
Second, Google has already released this app to all Blackberry phones, including those on the AT&T network. So AT&T already has this app functioning on another device on their network. Some have suggested that AT&T is not ready for the growth of the iPhone userbase, even though they’ve dropped the price of the phone down to a mere $99 to gain… more iPhone users.
Third, most people are placing the blame entirely on AT&T. AT&T is scared of Google Voice, even though to use the service… you have to have a wireless phone number to use it wirelessly. It’s not a VOIP app. I will be using my AT&T minutes to make calls on my iPhone. You can also text from Google Voice, which is maybe what they are afraid of. But most people are going to keep their texting plans too (because $30 a month is a reasonable price). So if AT&T thinks they are going to lose money on it, they are wrong. They will lose money by for blocking it, as a lot of people will move to the Android platform which has a much more open acceptance for applications developed for it.
Fourth, and last. Apple has been so inconsistent with its approval of apps that developers may not want to take a chance on any kind of application that “duplicates functionality already on the iPhone” or improves upon it. Why spend money and time developing an application if you have no certainty on whether that app will show up a month or two later? Apple and AT&T are blocking true innovation on an already innovative phone. Why not improve it and foster even greater unimaginable uses for the phone?
I am greatly upset with this new trend Apple is setting, and as a consumer I should be allowed to put whatever I want on my phone as long as it doesn’t interrupt with AT&T’s network. Android and the Blackberry will have time to catch up to the iPhone if this continues. Even if you aren’t a Google Voice user, you should still remain concerned. Hopefully these are just growing pains that we can laugh at in a year.
Looks like the old website got hacked this past week. Still trying to determine why. My website was hosting a script to take visitors to a malware site. If you visited my site using Firefox or Google Chrome you were protected by a warning. For anybody else I apologize if anything happened. This is just a reminder that we all need to take proper precautions to everything we do online.
I have been a member of Twitter since it was created in 2006. It has grown into something quite amazing since, with millions of users finally “getting” a new way to communicate. But what I don’t understand, is all the hype around it. I am personally unhappy with Twitter’s innovation in the past year. This could be due to their growing pains. Twitter has taken away more features in the past year than created. And they have completely lied on why they took them away, and whether they would be returning. For such a widely used service, Twitter needs to get its act together.
The latest hype revolves around a Twitter TV show. Seriously people? Are we so obsessed with Twitter that we need a TV show , about Twitter? Granted, Twitter provides an excellent way to communicate with listeners or viewers of programs (ex. CAVERadio*). Integrating Twitter can provide a new provocative way to combine our information overload, but this Hollywood focus, and celebrity oriented phenomenon needs to stop.
I think Twitter needs to start innovating with some new features, and stabilizing current ones, instead of relying so heavily on the API community to do cool things for them while they hold up the walls. If you haven’t yet, please check out FriendFeed. It’s everything Twitter is and more (stable, real time, feature rich), and you don’t have to completely abandon Twitter to use it. And seriously… a TV show?
This blog-a-day initiative has fallen apart recently. I think I’m an entire week behind. It’s hard to write everyday. Today in particular. I can’t think of anything of any substance that I want to talk about. I think it may be contributed to the fact I only had 3.5 hours of sleep last night.
If you don’t already, follow me on Twitter, and check out my link blog to the right. The links I share are often what I’m reading or interested in at the moment. The links are aggregated from my Google Reader shared items, my delicious, and my Vimeo likes.
I have received a few punishment suggestions for not updating. The top two, and only two are as follows:
Central Ohioans do not know how to drive when something is falling from the sky. While this may sound as a complaint, I think there should be a study comparing accidents, and driving behavior during rain and snow compared to other demographics. I have several friends (and while this may be anecdotal) from outside the Central Ohio area who claim drivers around here are idiots. I tend to agree.
by ahhyeah via Flickr
A couple of notes, and advice to people who will never read this and then I’ll leave this up for discussion.
SUVs do not make you invincible. Momentum and physics still exist in your four wheel drive monster. (I own a Jeep, and I can tell you, 4 wheels do not matter on ice).
One does not need to go 5 miles an hour to be safe. If the road is straight they will be fine.
Don’t ride my ass because you think I’m going too slow. I’m trying to avoid an accident, and so should you.
For you safe drivers that read this, do you tend to agree with Central Ohio being the bad driving capital of the midwest?
Not that many of you responded. Is anyone reading? Here are the results to the poll I put up about Radios.
For the 6 of you who answered, you all listen to FM in the car. 1/3 listens to NPR. Hoorah. I think there needs to be some sort of new innovation in radio, but, I’m not a genius so I can’t think of what that innovation would be. I think it would be something to make it more interactive. Do any DJs have Twitter accounts?
Twitter’s innovation in the past year. This could be due to their 
