There are times when a man feels less of a man. An example may be he wants to go get a few drinks with the friends, but his lady wants to pick out matching towels from Bed Bath and Beyond. Unfortunately for us guys, there really isn’t a choice. You go because you have to. Your friends will be disappointed if you don’t come, but if you deny your woman she will freak the hell out. And that in a way makes us feel like less of men. We are no longer master of our domains.

Then there are the guys who well up a bit in sad movies. Movies like Moulin Rouge find ways to make guys empathize with the characters. Even some video games have been known to make a guy or two re-think their priorities in life.

But today my friends - I have taken it a step to far. The Nintendo DS game Elite Beat Agents has officially made me cry. I don’t mean like I finished a hard song and tears of joy and exhaustion poured down my face. I mean the story in a rhythm game was powerful enough to actively make me cry while playing it.

Basically how it works is you play as three dancing agents who solve missions for people in sticky situations by…well…dancing stylishly. You have multicolored buttons and these large outlining circles that shrink down and collapse into the button. When the large circle meets the outline of the button you use your stylus to tap it and it registers a beat. Each button has a color and a numerical value so you hit them in a consecutive way before switching. (EG. red 1,2,3 - green 1,2,3,) This timing happens to be in sync with the music that plays out on screen and thus makes it a rhythm game.

So as you succeed in your tapping you find yourself solving the problems of the people who have called for your help. It’s always ridiculous things like a high school babysitter who needs to put the kids to sleep so she can ask the quarterback to be her boyfriend. Or a speeding taxi driver let off with a warning from local police only to be boarded by a woman in labor who needs to get to the hospital immediately. It’s full of just a variety of silly, very japanese situations that give the game charm.

So to set these situations up each mission has about a minute and a half of manga-style story to introduce you to the characters, their situation and the problem. Which of course can in no logical way be solved by dancing. If you do well durring the stage their problems get better and if you do bad their problems get worse. Each song is divided into 3 parts with 3 intermissions that update you on how your performance is effecting the outcome of the story. All fun and games and excitement.

Enter “A Christmas Gift”. Let me again stress that the game has an overly silly, stylized tone. Then comes this stage called “A Christmas Gift”. A cute scene of a little girl and her mother saying goodbye to her father before he leaves for a big business trip plays. The little girl makes him promise he’ll be back in time for Christmas and he asks her to make a wish for Santa so he can let him know. So the setup is pretty basic, father leaves and won’t make it back in time for Christmas and it’s your job to help him get there and keep his promise to the little girl. WRONG. Turns out the father DIES and the song is spent going through old photos, celebrating birthdays and dreaming dreams from the perspective of the little girl. The little girl who’s father just died. Of course its all compounded by song playing, which happens to be You’re the Inspiration.

So here I am trying to play through the level as my eyes continue to well up more and more as a play. Since the outcome of the story relies on your personal performance I found myself HAVING to do well despite having never played the level.

I mean it’s either the little girl lives on with her father’s memory in her heart forever, or she grows up hating him for dieing and ruining Christmas her entire life. THAT’S NOT FAIR. I don’t need that kind of pressure on me while I play! The stakes are to high! Needless to say I passed it, but not before a few tears had rolled down my cheek.

Who knew rhythm games could have such depth? Make me feel better.

So let me preface this by saying Star Trek sucks. It has Bad acting, bad writing and no real plot to consider. However, somewhere in there beneath all of the suck lies some of the coolest technological concepts ever conceived. Since that show came out we’ve measured our current technological standings against it. I agree that the devices in Star Trek are many kinds of awesome, but we aren’t as far away from their standard as you might think.

For sake of argument I’ve chosen to use the most wanted (read awesome) features in the S.S. Enterprise. They are as follows:

Holodeck
Transporter
Space Exploration
Food Materializer thing.

Believe it or not but we have the beginnings of this technology already in development today. Check it out -

Holodeck

So the holodeck is based around the idea of a large, grid-paneled room controlled by a computer. Within this computer are many different simulation environments that users can request. Within the simulation the walls of the holodeck fade away and display the surrounding environment seamlessly and realistically. One of the keys to the holodeck is the ability to interact with the display and its effect on your senses. You can feel, touch and taste things in the holodeck. Space also distorts and you are able to walk freely with no barriers or limitations.

Well we aren’t quite that far along but many labs and universities employ the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment or CAVE for short. CAVE is a system of projection that allows projectors to display images in real time along 4, 5 or even 6 walls totally encapsulating a person. Some versions of the cave are able to render OpenGL 2.0 graphics and can even run some of the latest PC games. Some caves have motion sensors along the floors that tell the computer where the user is standing and will scroll the images accordingly. Quake 3 in CAVE

Some versions have a VR goggle and gloves that allow you to manipulate the objects you see the environment like in this video.

Teleporting

This is actually pretty amazing. In 2004 scientists in the US and Austria managed to teleport atoms from one space to another. That is they disassembled them and reassembled them in another place with consistent process. They can do this at the push of a button. It’s not ready to teleport a human being or even something as complex as a cricket or a plant. However it does have immediate application. If it proves conclusive it could revolutionize the way we transfer data around the world. It could eliminate the need for wire altogether. Supercomputers could be built that did not transfer information through a BUS but simply teleported information back and forth.

Space Exploration

OK so NASA may not be to hot these days. In fact 2 shuttles have been destroyed and 14 crew members killed. The fact that we use shuttle technology 40 years old isn’t to hot either. The good news is it’s reforming. What the average person doesn’t know is that the Enterprise isn’t powered by jet fuel like our ships are but a substance called anti-matter. But actually it’s real and a pound of this stuff could power the entire US for two full days. It’s all around us. The only trouble is it’s incredibly difficult to collect and maintain. Basically it has the exact opposite chemical makeup of regular matter and when if it makes contact with that matter they cancel each other out and a subsequent reaction ensues.

There’s a research facility called CERN and they happen to produce more antimatter than anyone else in the world. Unfortunately according to them if you took all the anti-matter they’ve ever made and discharged it at once you could only light up a light bulb for a few moments. The cool part though is this stuff occurs naturally in space and in mass quantities. NASA has already begun funding for a project to go and capture it in naturally occurring environments like Jupiter. CERN manages to create about 5 nanograms a year, but there are thousands of pounds of it in space that could potentially be harvested.

Creating Food

This one is a bit of stretch. We’re not really very close to the creation of food from nothing. In fact if the laws of nature hold true, we know that something from nothing is pretty impossible. However, we also know that those same laws mean absolutely nothing on a quantum level. We do have the ability to grow meat independent of a living animal. So while we may not be able to create something from nothing, we can create something from something independent of its natural environment. Eating grown meat is beginning to be seen as a more humane, cost effect way to produce high-quality cuts of beef, ham and fish.

Once our teleporters move beyond transporting data to transporting more complex organic material. We could potentially teleport our food to us from an outside source. So instead of going to the store you have your grown meat teleported to you. It’s a scary thought, but after all it’s science not mad science. Scary? A little bit, but only because it’s possible not because it’s not safe.

Star Trek may be a crappy show, but it has inspired us to continue our quest to *ahem* boldly go where no man has gone before. This technology very well could be the building blocks of what has lived in our imaginations for so long.

If you’re like me , a seasoned gamer from every genre, you probably have noticed a disturbing trend among your favorite games. Innovation and inspired gameplay is taking a backseat to shipping as many well monetized titles as possible. In less words - same recycled garbage at higher price points.

Never fear! Episodic delivery and content has the potential to break this mold and save us all! Your 5 reasons are:

5. More Indie Developers

The games industry is hard to break into. Next-gen systems are reportedly more expensive to develop titles for. Epic is reporting Gears of War at a meager $10 million for development costs. This doesn’t count the development and research on the UT 3.0 engine or marketing costs, but when everyone was estimating that Gears had a budget of $30 million it’s crazy to see that 10 million figure and caught everyone by storm. Turns out the way they did it was by already having a next-gen engine in place and then OUTSOURCING the game to Epic Games China. They outsourced jobs to China and still managed to spend $10 million in development. Remember that doesn’t include their insane engine.

So from the perspective of an indie designer looking at Gears is really terrifying. How can you expect to design a game with a 1/5th the budget and expect to compete?

Episodic content opens the door for first time designers to take a chance on a new idea without having to pitch it to a major publisher. 3-4 hours of gameplay at a reasonable price point allows developers to take advantage of a shorter development cycle and by consequence work with a smaller budget. From there they are able to finance their next installments and continue to create engaging content regularly.

4. Customer Feedback

Sometimes certain gameplay mechanics just suck and developers blinded by their own work can’t always realize they suck until critics and players speak out against it. With an episodic model developers have the opportunity to listen to players and see what they do and don’t like as a whole in their product. Even the best game can be tweaked and often that extra bit of time can add extra polish that can take a good game and make it a great game. A practical example would be iD’s Doom3. The ambiance in that title was used to great effect, but players hated having to switch between the flashlight and the pistol. This was later remedied in the expansion pack, but in an episodic game players would have the opportunity to make their voices heard and change the way future installments are played.

3. Digital Distribution

Digital Distribution is booming. All of the next-gen consoles including the Nintendo Wii have digital content distribution systems of some kind. Systems like Xbox Live provide developers with an instant market directly in the homes of potential clients. Obviously the players that want your game are going to go anywhere, store or online, to find it. Those on the fence however may shy away from Gear’s $60+ price tag. How much more enticing would it be for you as an unsure gamer if you could try out an episode of the game for $8.99? Then if you liked the game you could purchase a complete copy less the portion you’ve already paid for. Episodic content allows users who are unsure if they’ll enjoy a game the opportunity to try it relatively risk free. Unfortunately these days game demos are hard to come by - especially on a game console.

From the standpoint of a developer it provides a relatively low-cost way to enter the market. There’s no reason you can’t develop a great media and sell 40,000 copies on xbox live. At this point you’ve made profit and are well on your way to financing a version for the Wii, PS3 or PC. It opens doors for developers to test new concepts and ideas in an environment that’s relatively low risk.

2. Game Pacing

Of all the reasons to like episodic content this may be the most opinion based. Stay with me for a second though. How many times have you bought a single player game played 4 or 5 hours of the game and then never went back to it again? You liked the game and everything and you’ll probably buy the sequel, but you didn’t beat the original. This scene is far to common. I admit to having played the StarCraft terran campaign no less than 5 times. I think StarCraft is a fantastic game and I’m definitely going to be all over StarCraft 2 when it’s released, but I simply can’t find it in me to finish the single player in that game.

This is largely because while games have excellent gameplay, graphics or sound they often lack a proportionate amount of pacing throughout that keeps it interesting. One of the most popular TV shows around is LOST. Can you imagine watching the entire series beginning to end in one sitting without any breaks or cliffhangers? The entire premise of the show would be gone. It would still be a really great experience if you could get through it. But no one would. The cliffhanger and break between episodes helps ensure that we don’t lose interest in the show by challenging us and rewarding us in short sessions. Episodic gameplay can take that same concept and apply it to a world of scenarios. Metal Gear Solid gameplay with exciting cliffhangers and rewarding sequences would be a welcome replacement to 40 straight hours of dialog and no known end in site.

Valve is doing this with their Half Life 2 series and while not perfect in their time-table they have kept sustained interest in HL2 characters for nearly 3 years.

1. Cheaper Games

Cheaper games you say? How can this be? Developers are already supposedly losing tons of money (ahahahah) developing next-gen games for new system. The rising costs of development has forced consumers to pay more for what is amounting to the same experience. Episodic content relies on digital delivery systems which cuts out the need for a publisher to begin with. Episodic games have lower development costs, no need for distributors and little need for publishers. In fact a development studio could eliminate a publisher completely and do all of their marketing and localization in-house. That doesn’t mean they would necessarily price their games any cheaper, but when you cut out retailers, distributors and publishers it’s clear there’s money being saved somewhere. A good company would pass that savings along to us the customer and start setting prices at a solid $49.99 again. I miss $49.99 don’t you? More importantly I miss inovative gameplay and concepts that only come out when developers are willing to risk them. Maybe you guys want to keep playing Tom Clancy’s Rainbow WarFighting Advance Recon Mission Delta, but I need new life and new experiences to keep me excited in gaming. Episodic gaming opens these doors to veteran and new developers alike. Ultimately it’s up to them to take advantage of it.

In my never ending quest to find awesome on the web I ran into Divx’s new online flash video service they’re running to compete with sites like YouTube, Guba or Veoh.

From what I’ve seen so far it’s definitely the best online video service available. The only catch is you have to install a quick browser plug-in which only takes a few moments. Once you have that installed a whole world of high-quality viewing opens up. I’ve been using it to watch The Office and you should to. Here are some links to get you started:

The Office Season 1 & 2

1×01
1×02

It’s funny to think of the media that has influenced you as a young person. Everyone has a period in their life that is seemingly defined by a certain obsession, phase or passion. This influences them and ultimately changes the person they grow up to be. For some it might be a piano in the parlor room that leads to a music career. Other people could pinpoint their engineering background to an erector set. For me it was ’80s-’90s adventure games by Sierra and Lucas Arts.

I directly attribute my interest in all things tech to the time I spent clicking around with Roger Wilco, Gabriel Knight and Guybrush Threepwood. If not for those games I probably never would have developed any interest in gaming media at all. That’s kind of a compelling thought considering it defines a large portion of who I am today. By and large I like myself a lot and it scares me to think that I could have ended up a completely different person had I decided to buy a drum set instead of Space Quest IV.

In hopes of re-kindling some of my youth I went ahead and purchased the Sam and Max: Season 1 pass from TellTale Games. They really managed to capture the spirit of everything that made Sam and Max: Hit the Road a really great game. Though the interface is a tad oversimplified, it remains true to the essence of adventure gaming and to it’s source material. Each episode runs a cool $8.95, but a season pack is only $34.95 and so far it’s been worth it.

I’m a huge fan of episodic content so this gives me the pacing I need to get through the entire season without ever feeling a slow down. If I don’t feel like I’m making progress I can soon lose interest. This is why it’s much harder for me to read through a book like Lord of the Rings vs the very quick pacing of a Jurassic Park type.

Unfortunately this is also the games biggest weakness. The episodes recycle dialog from the previous ones and the puzzles tend to follow the same outline - Talk to character 1. Talk to character 2. Solve 3 Puzzles. Win. I imagine this is something that bothers me because I’m used to solving absolutely ridiculous puzzle sequences in games like The Dig which rely heavily on your experience as an adventure player and not necessarily on puzzle logic. Anyway, Check out the Sam and Max demo.

Regardless the entire experience has been an exciting return to an era in games that just doesn’t exist any longer. Which is sad because it was the era that really helped shape me into the person that I’ve become. Tech-Savvy. Smart. Good looking. Overwhelmingly popular with the ladies.

Well I guess I can take some of the credit myself.