Click to play.

Pushing colored buttons in an ever increasingly complex pattern just doesn’t appeal to me – gameplay wise.  I hated the dancing mission in GTA: San Andreas for the same reason.  I got through it, but it was a hassle.  Not fun.

But every so often a game comes out that does something different with the same gameplay elements, improving the gaming experience.  Brutal Legend, for instance, used short guitar riffs as magic spells.  Repeat the pattern and Drop a Deuce.

Rapala Pro Bass Fishing 2010 plays a different tune for each lure reeling style – like Fast Cranking or Slide and Glide.  Keep the rod moving smooth and steady and the music continues – letting you know that the lure action is attracting the fish.  Make a mistake and the music stops.

Both of those games added a little bit of Guitar Hero into a different genre and both succeeded in transforming the Simon-esque gameplay into something I found enjoyable.

So – today,  I got the GameStop weekly ad email and they’re advertising a game called Rock of the Dead.  I watched the video (below) and am tempted to buy it.  Conspiracy games has mashed up a shooting gallery game with Guitar Hero gameplay.  The way it works is: you play a guitar riff and zombies explode from the sheer Awesomeness of your Metal!  Each individual enemy gets its own riff bar and explodes separately.  It’s backed up with a Rob Zombie heavy soundtrack and dialogue by Neil “Doogie” Patrick Harris.

I think it’s an innovation in the right direction, but ultimately it’ll still feel like Simon.  So- even at the sale price of 30 bucks, I don’t think Rock of the Dead would be a wise purchase for me.  (Maybe I’ll pick it up once it hits the bargain bin.)   But if you already like Guitar Hero or Rock Band, it might be worth it to you.  Take a look at this gameplay video to see what you think:

Here’s a link to the full report from Brenden Nyhan and his research team.  It may load slowly, because it’s a PDF.

M.C. Escher's "Relativity"

You see, the individual makes an investment with every interpretation of an event.  After a while the investment becomes so great that the individual becomes defined by it.  It becomes terrifying to even consider an alternate explanation for some events, no matter how minor, when that explanation would threaten the investment. This is especially true when the alternate explanation is simple and obvious.

What is so fascinating is how this can lead people to accept the most ridiculous ideas and reject rational ones without hesitation.  And that every single one of us does it to one extent or another.  It’s an unavoidable part of the human experience, because we learn to think by experiencing and interpreting events and no one ever interprets an event in exactly the same way as someone else.  And every interpretation is built upon by every previous interpretation, all unique to an individual mind, and all slightly (occasionally greatly) divergent from “objective reality.”

Sometimes, I wonder how we communicate with each other at all, or even if we really do….

Here’s a link to an article that deals with the same subject… or maybe it doesn’t, but I just think it does… It’s hard to say with any certainty.

Let’s take a look at the incredibly ambitious Project Natal.  If it works as well as advertised, it really could revolutionize video gaming and beyond.

Move is Sony’s attempt to perfect the technology that Nintendo introduced with the Wii.  The Playstation Move uses visual instead of infrared tracking, like Natal, and uses Bluetooth for communication between the controllers and the wands.  As you’ll see in the video, Sony’s Move promises the rock solid and precise control that many Wii players owners dream of.

The trend in this generation’s consoles continues with both the Xbox 360 and the PS3′s offerings being fantastic for gamers, but with somewhat different visions behind them.  Both controllers are rumored to cost less than $100 and be bundled with a game.   It looks like it’s going to be an exciting fall for us gamers.

Accuracy is very important, but is often quite difficult.  Knowing this, I humbly offer this guide on the tricky questions #8 and #9 on the form.  The other questions on this short 10 question form are very straight-forward and should not cause any confusion.

Let’s examine question #8 :

Is Person 1 of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin?

The confusion about question #8 stems from the perception that the Census is concerned about your ancestry.  This is not the case.  The Census wants to know if you are unable to speak English.

As the description suggests, this question applies to first generation immigrants.  If you were born in a foreign country that’s primary language is Spanish (or another Hispanic language), you answer should be “Yes” and the name of the country.  If you were born in the United States, then your answer should be “No.“

On to question #9:

What is Person 1′s race?

Question #9 is a mess.  The Census offers a mishmash of colors, nationalities, and even a U.S. State as possible answers.  Choosing an accurate answer is problematic to say the least.  Given the suggestions, it seems obvious that the Census Bureau doesn’t have a clear definition of “Race.”  Luckily, I remember my biology classes, so I can assist.  A race is a species that is potentially capable of interbreeding.  For example, a Poodle and a St. Bernard are capable of interbreeding and producing offspring.  Even though both animals look very different physically, they both belong to the race of “Dog.”

Now that we’ve established that, the most accurate answer becomes clear.  Choose the option “Other” and write in “Human.”

I hope my guide proves useful to you.  Thank you for reading it.

If you have any questions, please add a comment and I’ll do my best to find the answer.

I’ve earned 75 Swag Bucks. To give an idea of what that is worth.  45 SBs can be traded for a $5 Amazon Gift card or 70 SBs can be traded for $5 cash through PayPal.

My unique and secret email address has received 28 spam emails. As I explained at the start of this, I created a new Gmail address with an unusual name that I’ve revealed to no one but SwagBucks.  It occurs to me that I probably should also have made a control Gmail address that I don’t use at all, in order to verify that the spam is SwagBucks and not Gmail related.  I’ll do that now.  For my methodology I’ll use essentially the same address as before, with two of the letters at the end reversed to test the possibility the spammers are using a spider program or something.

Next update in one month.  I’ll include the experience of my first purchase at the SwagBucks Store.

Here are a couple of excerpts:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

Dr. King dreamed of a colorblind society.  The ultimate logical extrapolation of the Great American Melting Pot, a concept first penned in 1782 by J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur in his Letters from an American Farmer that acquired its common name from the 1908 play The Melting Pot.   He believed that being an American overshadowed an individual’s color, sex, and ancestry.

The Melting Pot view of America was pushed heavily in the 1970s and I’ve internalized it to the point that it is Truth.  It seems blatantly obvious to me that people are the same and deserving of the same respect regardless of their genetic attributes and origins, and the only fair criteria for judging people are their actions and intent.  As a result, I was quite surprised when I was informed in 1990 by an RA in the dorms at Penn State McKeesport that what I believed was no longer true.  She informed me that people were not the same under their skin and should be judged differently because of it.  Later I would learn that this opposite philosophy, which snuck up while I wasn’t paying attention, was called Diversity.

Diversity puts color, sex and ethnicity above being American.  It is a philosophy that divides people and, from my point of view, is indistinguishable from racism.  Considering the following words from Dr. King, I doubt he would have approved.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

And Dr. King would be right not to approve.  Over the last 20 or so years, the progress we made in the 60s, 70s and 80s towards his dream has slowed, if not reversed.  Diversity and its big brother Political Correctness have served to terrify average people, who don’t even understand how to think racially, into tiptoeing on eggshells around anyone that might possibly be different than them.

Such thinking is madness and harms everyone.  Even worse, it’s become institutionalized.  Job applications, school applications, loan applications, and government forms of all types ask us to put ourselves in racial and ethnic categories.  And with our semi-voluntary help, they use that information to divide us further.

A short while ago, I decided to stop helping them do it.  And I’d encourage you to do the same.  Especially when you fill out your 2010 Census form.  As you are probably aware, it is illegal to lie on the Census, so I suggest you fill out your form in the completely honest way that I will:

Race:  Human

Ethnicity: American

—————-

Finally, in tribute to Dr. King and his dream, here’s a video I grew up with and I think he would have enjoyed.

I’ll report back once I’ve collected enough Swag Bucks to claim a prize.  My plan is to take the risk, so you don’t have to.  But if you’re feeling adventurous too, here’s a link to sign up.  If you do, please set up a unique email account to protect your primary email.  Just in case.

This appears at the top of the search results when you are awarded a Swag Buck. Higher denominations may also appear, especially during the Swag Day event every Friday.

Avatar is a pile of three dimensional computer generated blue poo that looks fantastic, but stinks worse than a 3-day Phish concert. It combines the hackneyed plots of Disney’s Pocohontas and Peter Faiman’s “Ferngully” into an unbelievably ridiculous soup of murderous capitalists vs noble eco-worshiping savages. Apparently, maguffinium is so valuable that it’s worth travelling half-way across the galaxy to get, but the expense of mining in a location away from the only native village on the planet would cut into profits too much.

Score:

Eyeballs 5 out of 5

Brains 1/2 out of 5