Microsoft's Night of the Long Knives

According to a report in InformationWeek, Microsoft banned about 1 Million users from Xbox Live due to pirating. This action may annoy some users that are now heavily punished for their "small" crimes, but it makes people like me, who pay for their games, feel pretty darn good.

The thing I wanted to talk about, however, is not whether pirating is good or bad, or even to discuss Microsoft's reaction. In this post I would like to tell you why I've decided to be a legit Xbox player, and in fact, this has little to do with my conscience.

Many of my friends have the chip for the Xbox (and in the past, for the PS1 and the PS2) and I've watched them from the side play whichever game they wanted as soon as it came out. As I watched them, I've noticed something else. They rarely finished ANY game the had burned illegally, and what I've come to realize is that when you have no limitation and no boundaries, you can't fully enjoy your games. This may sound as a rather strict attitude, but it actually makes allot of sense to me. If I had all the games I wanted at the minuet they came out, I would be scattered all over the place. I believe that when you have to consider every game before spending a decent amount of money on it, you research more, anticipate more, and when you finally have the game - enjoy much more.

With that attitude I've established quite a collection of great games, and I'm proud to say - I've played them all the way through. .

Would love to hear your thoughts about it.

Play more,

Morris

Modern Warfare 3?

Taken from the Onion News.


Ultra-Realistic Modern Warfare Game Features Awaiting Orders, Repairing Trucks

The Psychology of Competitive Gaming

There is a term In psychology called “Social Facilitation”, which regards to the tendency of people to perform differently when there is an audience present. Basically, doing better on simple tasks or worst on complex tasks.
One day, came Robert Zajonc and claimed that the presence of others increases our arousal and straighten our dominant response. In other words - if you feel good about one of your skills, for example, playing basketball, you will perform better on the field while others are watching. On the other end, if you lack confidence in your ability to solve word puzzles, you’ll probably do worst playing “Wheel of Fortune” on TV then playing scrabble with a friend at home.
In video games, I've found that this theory does not work, at least for me. Let's say that I'm an excellent player in Call of Duty, but I suck at Gears of War. My theory claims that if you'll put me at a CoD tournament, I'll do worst relatively to my usual score. Then again, if I'll be forced to participate in an GoW tournament I'll probably do better then ever.
Why, do you ask? Well, the answer is pretty simple. I feel that I'm a good CoD player, which means that being good at this game is important to my "gamer identity", therefore, the pressure will be more intense for me, even that I know that I'm the only one caring about it. In GoW, I don't know what the hell I'm doing, so I'll probably just mash some buttons and, according to my experience, do better then most of my attempts in this game.

Want a proof? Did you ever played a fighting game, such as Tekken of Mortal Kombat, with some expert friend of yours and succeeded beating him by a simple 'button mashing' tactics all the way through? He was definitely better then you at this game, yet you did better. That's because you didn't have anything to loose so you played like a moron. He, on the other hand, wasted his best moves and combos just to find you crouching in the same position, low-kicking his ass to a humiliated loss.
I'd love to hear your thoughts about this subject.


Play more,
Morris

The Sims Horror Movie

A very funny movie by College Humor. A must see for Sims lovers and haters.

Creating this Blog

I just bought 'Dragon Age: Origins' yesterday, on the day it came out. Now, I’m known as someone who play games, sometimes for hours, but for the past couple of days it was as if I did nothing BUT play. Dragon Age is indeed a game worth spending time playing, and is one of the best RPGs on the market, but this time I felt like I was pushing the limits. At least that’s what my girlfriend told me I should feel.

She couldn't stand the looks of me, drooling in front of the TV, my hand cramping, holding the remote in a disfigured form, mumbling to my self - “one more quest...”

Finally, on one of my rare breaks, she took my Xbox controllers and hid them from me. She told me to do something with myself. Read a book, do some homework, ANYTHING but play this cursed game. I thought when I moved to a place of my own I would not have to deal with people keeping me away from my precious games, but I was again wrong and helpless.

So I left the house. I took my laptop and ran to my favorite coffee place here in New York - “Joe Coffee”, where I come to relax. There I sat for a while, listened to some podcasts, read some articles, when it suddenly hit me - I should start my own gaming blog! That’s creative enough, right? So I hope You’ll like it. In this blog I will try to bring you news about the industry, thoughts about the gaming world and game reviews.

If you wanna contact me, I welcome you to do so.

Play more,
Morris