Does Gaming Take Too Much Time?

Hi, Chris here. I would have another 'screenshot of the day' ready, but I've found to my chagrin that Dragon Age II is a successor to Dragon Age: Origins in length, among other things. I've played for more than twenty hours, and the end is still barely in sight. The ridiculous length of many of the games I've played sometimes leads me to wonder how I can enjoy video games and still live a meaningful life. Some entertainment is acceptable, of course, but when you think of the idea of sitting down and watching a forty-hour movie, playing through a standard fantasy RPG seems slightly less reasonable.

As with many things, I don't have answers for these questions yet, but I'm going to try treating my individual games more as not-yet-released-on-Netflix TV shows, to be enjoyed in small portions every week, rather than gone through all at once, like released-on-Netflix TV shows. This means, of course, that I won't be able to play as many games as before, but I'm sure Benjamin will enjoy having time to focus on studying this semester.

On a completely unrelated note, Dragon Age: Inquisition is coming out this year. Following the current plan of a couple hours a week, I'll probably be finished playing halfway through 2015. I've been warned of this, and now it's coming true more and more: you can't do everything in college.

Seawater and Inquiry

Hi, Benjamin here. For a long time, I've thought that one of the most disappointing things about nature is that drinking seawater is unhealthy for humans. Up until now, I've accepted that as truth, but a semester in college has taught me about the importance if inquiry. Is drinking seawater really bad? What if you drink other liquids as well as seawater? Is it just the taste that's bad?

And thus I went about my research, id est, a Google search (id est Google translate as well). While I looked up "id est" on Google translate, it dawned on me that the abbreviation i.e. probably stands for "id est". Things began to fit together.

That's one thing I really like about scientific inquiry-- accidents or distractions during the pursuit of one idea can lead to completely new and different discoveries. As inexperienced as I am, I would guess that this is because of the fundamental structure of the universe, i.e. everything is linked in some way. Also, drinking seawater is unhealthy, or at least not beneficial, because the human body uses more water to get rid of the extra salt than the volume of seawater imbibed.

Screenshot of the Day: Braid

I'm on an artsy overdose here...
Braid-- in the locker room of indie games, it's said, Braid is a man among boys. This may seem surprising to someone who's only seen screenshots of the game (a.k.a. myself about three days ago), but once the game starts rolling, the beautifully painted levels, soothing music, simple platforming and complex story roll over the unsuspecting player in an indie-hipster tidal wave. The 24 minutes I've spent in Braid have all blurred together, but I recall jumping from cloud to cloud, looking for a sparkling key while cello music played soothingly in the background.

Braid's shining mechanic is time reversal-- holding down shift at any time in the game will reverse events, providing an ingenious alternative to the common mechanic of death in games (Fell on spikes? Reverse time!) Puzzles involving some objects, such as the player, traveling through time while other objects, such as keys, do not, make for puzzles mind-bending enough to flutter the heart of any puzzle-platforming enthusiast. As I unfortunately cannot count myself among that number, I ended up just jumping off cliffs and reversing time to see myself fly back up to the cliff top and start running backwards. Braid may not be a perfect fit for me, but if you enjoy solving crosswords, frequent Starbucks, paint in your spare time, enjoy retro platformers, or play a stringed instrument, Braid is probably the game for you. If you participate in all five activities, Christmas has just come early... really early.

Songs and Memories

Hi, Benjamin here. My Pandora playlist has just dredged up some memories from last semester, so without further ado, I will tell my tale. Story story. Once upon a time...

It was a pretty bad day. My phone had stopped working the night before, so I woke up late. I didn't have any classes, but I was scheduled to work at the museum from 10 AM to 4 PM. I ended up getting to the museum just a few minutes late, but in my haste, I forgot my watch in my dorm room. For the whole day, I had no way to keep track of the hours. My gallery was pretty quiet, so I sat and read by myself for large, indeterminate amounts of time.

I had a coffee meeting scheduled at four with a friend, so it would be a rush to get there straight after work ended. As I sat and read, though, I started to notice that things were unnaturally silent. I assumed it was just a quiet afternoon until my boss came around, locking up the doors. It was five o'clock, and when the museum had closed an hour before, none of my coworkers had checked that I was clear, assuming I knew the time, as I usually did.

I would have texted my friend to inform them what the situation was, but as I've mentioned, my phone was malfunctioning, so I had no choice but to return to my room. I was feeling quite downtrodden, and slightly lonely, having had less than two minutes of human contact through the entire day. I booted up my laptop and opened Pandora, hoping to find solace in music. The first song to come on was One by Three Dog Night-- One... is the loneliest number...

This isn't the first song I've identified with at a point in time (Crying in the Rain is great for angst), but the perfect fit of One, considering the situation, actually raised my strange emotions. Does this story have a conclusion? Not really-- I forget what happened next, but the happy ending is that things only improved through the following days and weeks. I got a new phone, met new people, and had more success-- either a sad country song in reverse, or most of the pop songs I've heard forwards.

Screenshot of the Day: Dragon Age II

This particular dragon is at a very mature age.
After my bout with Dragon Age: Origins, my attachment to the series was such that playing Dragon Age II was almost inevitable. At the moment, I've almost finished the first of three acts in this dark fantasy RPG, and am deeply enjoying it. While many RPGs and adventure games have a strong focus on travel and wandering, Dragon Age II is interesting in that the entire game is centered around one city - Kirkwall - in which you start at the bottom and work your way to the top, though not without getting your gauntlets dirty. The restriction to one city could be cynically seen as a ploy by the developers to reuse the same assets and environments over and over, it does establish more connection between the player and in-game locations than is usual. As for the combat, it's as good as I remember from Dragon Age: Origins. Fighting happens in real time, but liberal use of the pause button is encouraged in order to plan strategies moment by moment. I've heard through the grapevine that Dragon Age II is a terrible game, but either the game is saving its full awfulness for acts two and three, or certain grapevines are going to be rendered as credible as a blood mage claiming innocence in a recent series of disappearances.

Science Facts: Spoiled Food

Whereas it is commonly known that honey is the only food that doesn't spoil, scientists have recently discovered that chicken curry is probably not the only food that does spoil, an idea proven by the fact that curry not containing chicken also spoils. This discovery, while minor, throws new light on the idea of food itself.

Happy New Year

I have to finish the year here with a slightly sentimental but ultimately uninspired post. 2013 has been a big year for me. As far as this blog and my video game journalism is concerned, there's been great change just in the past three months (that is, from non-existence to existence). I for one am interested to see what comes of it all in 2014. For now, Happy New Year's!