I'm at the hospital with one of my headaches. Some just don't react to medication and the stuff at the hospital works much better. My son is with me - the older boy: 12 going on 40. He stays to watch over me.

The nurse who is giving me medication asks what I do; I tell her; she asks about it because she has a son who would be interested (they always have a son that would be interested!) and I give her my card. Then it begins...

"But I won't let him play online at all. He can play whatever game he likes just not online." Hrm, ok, I'll let the "whatever" comment go for the moment.

I steel myself and reply. "Do you mean Xbox Live or PC games? What don't you let him play online?" I ask. My son is sitting next to me listening but bored. He's heard this conversation a few times.

"Oh, I won't let him play online at all. Especially those MOMO games. I'm too afraid of predators and he's only 13." *sigh* Yeah for the media.

I'm getting loopy because she's been pumping meds into my IV this entire time and I feel like I'm talking through cotton.

"Well... I wouldn't let him use voice on Xbox Live but you could let him play. Voice though - it's just too profane. But I can't think of any reason he couldn't play most MMOs online. He's just typing."

"Don't you worry about whether someone will ask to meet him at the park or something!!" It could be the meds or she could be shrill, I can't tell at this point. The room is spinning.

"Well, no. It's rather like being at the park, isn't it? I mean, you teach him if he befriends someone at the park and they ask him to come home with them he should say no or ask you first. It's the same online - teach him the skills he needs. Say no, or I have to ask my mom or report it to abuse or hit ignore... It's just like the park or school or anywhere, really."

She's looking at me sideways. I know I'm loopy and all but she is looking at me sideways. I don't know if I've gotten through to her.

Damn media blows everything out of proportion.

She starts to ask my son about his online experiences just as I pass out. At least I have nothing to worry about there.

I'm sitting in the car on the way to the movies this evening when my younger son says to me, "Mom, why do we charge more for millions of dollars?" I love non-sequiturs that wouldn't make sense ever. I ask to what he is referring.

"You know how when you make a little money we charge a little bit and when you make more we charge more?" Yeah, I wasn't getting it either. After teasing some specificity out of my boy, I come to realize he's asking about a Progressive Tax. Ok, fair'nuff. I explain the idea behind it - those with more carry more of the burden because those with less simply can't. I tell him that it's a way of forcing people to help their neighbors because people aren't particularly good about helping their neighbors.

I think we're done. Nope.

"So, your money at the bank, do you get paid for that?" Huh. More specificity, please! Some more discussion and it's obvious he asking me if I earn interest at the bank. Then he wants to know about yearly interest, daily compounded interest and I'm wondering what the heck is going on? I mean, he's 9 - he's in the fourth grade.

"Have you been studying this at school?" I ask.

"No. I've been playing Neopets."

Why exactly aren't games good for kids again?

Convergence is happening again/still/ad infinitum. Psychochild pointed me to a post on Slashdot last week about game reviews being broken; this post is based upon an editorial on Kotaku which discusses game reviews being broken primarily from the point of scoring and worth the money.

Gee, really? (Self-aggrandizement off.)

Convergence. While all of this yapping was occurring, I was noticing a few things myself:

After reviewing a game I adored and was particularly proud of the review, I sent the link to a friend. His response? (verbatim)

"i had a hard time getting into it. i dunno why. :( i kinda think being paid for reviews and being rushed on them is making gaming less enjoyable for me. i had to can the review for it since it wouldn't have been timely." What's timely? "2 weeks after release, though 1 is preferred. we have to rush with the reviews." (This site buys all of their titles retail; they receive nothing pre-launch.)

Nice.

Three PR companies were pushing particularly hard for PC previews. These were for games of medium-sized publishers and it is unlike any of the people at the companies to push like this. So I asked why?

PRRep: both IGN and GamesRadar have both said flat out they don't have the manpower to cover [said vendor's] games. this is a growing trend with PC games, by the way with titles that are not AAA or multiplatform releases. it's insanity
OpheleaLC: but there are so many of "me"
PRRep: unfortunately, no
OpheleaLC: what happened to the b-list sites? and honestly, my problem? they spend their advertising money on ign and gamesradar so that we struggle....
PRRep: a lot of the b-listers don't cover PC anymore
OpheleaLC: wow, that's insane and that explains why I have so much PC
PRRep: yep!

Nice, again. And not the first time I've heard this concern about PC titles. Not even the second or third…

GamersInfo.net makes it a point to cover children's titles - in homes with children. During the holiday season we are overwhelmed. But, something common with children's titles is you must ask for them. Why? Direct from the mouth of PR:

"Well, we don't really want a hard-core gaming site to give a good kid's game a bad review score, simply because they don't "get" the audience, KWIM? It likely won't have all the elements that hard-core gamers want, and therefore a perfectly great family game will get a bad score ;)"

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With a cultural and political climate so hostile to all things gaming, I wonder that we hear so little about the positives. They occur; if you’re a gamer you have a personal litany of how games have improved your life and those around you. But, do you tell non-gamers? How often do you “geek-out” about your new found interest in Chinese masonry from playing Civilization? Or explain to your boss that your geometry skills are better because you’ve been studying ancient formations in the Total War series?

I’d be very surprised if each and every person who reads this doesn’t know of at least one couple who developed a committed relationship through their shared enjoyment of gaming. Love of sports, reading, theatre, movies – all of these have brought (and kept) people together. Games are no different. People get married in unique ways showing their commitment to each other and their passion – Elvis, bungee jumping, roller coasters…

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Those who know me find me infuriating at times. I love to argue. Not in the common sense of the word. But the true definition: to consider the pros and cons of: DISCUSS (argue an issue). This is my high – it’s how I learn best. Many would call me stubborn but in actuality I’m quite pliable, you just have to argue your point well so that I can learn from you. Then give me time to mull it over.

This means I have no fear of confrontation.

Fear of confrontation baffles me. So many “bad” things happen because people simply don’t say, “no, you can’t do that”. The odd thing is, if it were a child behaving badly – even one not your own – a person usually doesn’t hesitate with a “no!” But an adult behaving badly? We look the other way.

Me, not so much.

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I have a good friend, a game designer of 20 years who often tells the anecdote, “I tell my mother I’m a crack dealer so she’ll understand because it seems so much more understandable and respectable than saying I make games for a living.” In a previous blog entry I stated the following: Computers have always been a part of my life. I've been working with gaming support sites for 7 years; I've been in the Games Press for five. My mom said to me, "now that you're into this, what will we have to talk about?" Apparently, I've mutated beyond human.

There’s a legitimacy issue in games.

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re aware of it even if you’ve never voiced it to yourself. More than once you’ll have had to justify to someone why it’s important to you that you play a video game for your fun; why you’d rather not go outside on a nice sunny day but sit inside and get to the next level; that really, you’ve learned something from playing games as opposed to killing multiple brain cells.

Movies are a legitimate form of entertainment media. Television is a legitimate form of entertainment media. Books have always been a legitimate form of entertainment media.

Comic books are more than 60 years old. They are not.

But wait?! You can make a movie based on a graphic novel (admit it, it’s a big comic book) and it’s a legitimate form of entertainment media. The original media? Still not legitimate.

In the last three weeks I’ve attended four press events/conferences/seminars or had the opportunity to talk to game developers. And something struck me as odd: more than once they were asking creators of other media to approve their game design.

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There’s nothing like sex to get people talking. Even the ones who “hate” it like it. Everyone reading this, who likes it, raise your hand.

…

That pause was me raising mine. It made it hard to type.

This weekend, I spoke about Community Management at the IMGDC. I wasn’t speaking about managing “sexual” communities; though, if you want to get technical, we are all sexual animals. (I looked for the original citation on this – good luck!)

Kelly Rued, of Black Love Interactive, wants to make MMOEGs – Massively Multiplayer Online Erotic Games. Letter Soup. Sex games online. She’s very passionate about her subject, no pun intended. It’s an important subject. And while I don’t necessarily agree with the direction she’s taking to get there, I think she’s got the right idea.

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I’m sitting here in the Phoenix Airport waiting for a flight to Minneapolis. This is my weekend to speak to the Indie Devs at the IMGDC about Community Management. Boy, are they in for it. I’m not going to be doing the usual “be polite, be respectful”; I plan to tell them to build tools from the beginning because “it’s a damn service, not just a game!” *sigh*

What I should be doing is catching up on some reviews. I have 3 kid’s DS games I need to review. Some are going on four weeks old.

We work really hard to cover children’s titles on this site. We work even harder to make sure there are children (of the appropriate ages) in the homes where the games are being covered. And you’d think the games would be a slam-dunk to cover. It’s just not the case. With the possible exception of MMOs, they’re the hardest titles to cover.

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I have ideas. Some of them come to fruition, some don't. It's like that with most people, I'm sure. But, I do have goals with this site. Someday, they'll become obvious, I hope. I'm working on a completing a long overdue communications degree. But I have obstacles. Yesterday, I found out that I had until midnight last night to produce an essay indicating why I had need, qualifications and would make a difference if someone gave me money.

I considered posting this on my personal blog, but it's relevant to the gaming industry as well. Because, I'm working on this degree not just for personal enrichment, but for this site and for this industry.

Tell me what you think. I'll get back to games, etc soon. Essay after the jump.

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