Microsoft's Kudo Tsunoda caught with foot in mouth

Kudo Tsunoda was rightly defending the new Kinect.  It's what you have to do when you work for a company--stand by the product.  But he seems to go a little to far, saying that Halo on the Xbox killed FPS gaming on the PC.  The article quotes hims saying "hardly anyone plays first person shooters on the PC anymore."

Really?

I am sure most of you fellow gamers would agree that this sounds outrageous.  Well, in response someone looked up some numbers, and before even America was at full force on Steam there were at least 266,505 people playing FPS' online via the Steam community.  This doesn't even include people playing on LAN networks or other dedicated servers.

Alright Kudo, could you please do some research before someone debunks your bogus claim in less than 24 hours.  I don't think any of the consoles are dying out soon, including the PC.  So those of you in the video game business, don't offend your competition until you know you have them beat.

My Gaming PC: am I a traitor?.

I've been meaning to post about my new gaming PC, which I named Adonis.  I had a chance to buy all the parts cheap on Newegg, and since the Boyfriend loves to build computers, I got it put together for practically free.

That's part of the reason I've been playing Dragon Age exponentially.  And next Mass Effect!  WOO!

But in some ways, I feel like I am betraying my roots.  I was raised a console gamer.  Started out with a Super NES and I didn't really start getting into it until I got older.  I've always loved video games, but I never really considered myself a "gamer" in that regard.  Sims 2 was really the most hardcore I went.  Everything else I played but never finished.  Spyro, Super Mario 64, Yoshi's Island, Dark Cloud...  Never finished any of them.

I was always around people who loved video games, and I could see why people loved them too.  It wasn't until college I got into games for real.  I got a first generation Nintendo DS and it was awesome.  I played it to escape from my first summer job in the evenings.  Kirby Canvas Curse is the first game I got for myself and actually finished.  Or at least that I can remember.

And from then on I was hooked.  I loved gaming and would play or watch as much as I could.  I made a friend in college that would play JRPGs and I would watch all the time.   Soul Caliber battles were awesome.  And I was seeking out stuff to play.  But it was always on a console.  I didn't even consider PC games.  Partly because my main computer was a mac and partly because I grew up with consoles.

Within a year I've totally converted.  I prefer the input with a keyboard and mouse.  Point and click!  No double joysticks to deal with!  I don't want to operate the camera and the character at the same time like that!  And if you don't like how it looks or operates, you upgrade it yourself!

I think I was officially sold when one of my friends let me try out Prototype on his beast of a laptop.  It was so fluid!  It made perfect sense!  Who knew I could be this good at video games?!

I think that when I knew I needed a gaming PC.  There are a lot of video games these days that revolve around really good stories.  Dragon Age is one of them, but let us not forget other games I wanted to play and never really got around to like BioShock and Fallout 3.  And with Mass Effect I didn't actually play.  Instead I did all the character choices while the Boyfriend was nice enough to do all the shoot.  Well now I can do my own shooting!  WOOT!  And I'll actually hit!  YEAH!

Though... I'm still playing on easy...

Anyway, I don't know if I am actually abandoning what originally brought me to gaming.  I still love my Wii, and the games that are on it.  And console games are a lot more social.  But a lot of the games I want to play are like reading long books.  They have unique stories, and the best way for me to play through without dying all the time is on a PC.  I guess it's just me adapting to the changes in the gaming world.

Mac vs. PC: A Compromise

This is something I've wanted to write for a while.  Partly because I feel I lose some nerd points because I'm personally a Mac user.  It limits you in the culture to an extent.  You're less likely to be into computer software and hardware, less likely into programming, and less likely to be into computer gaming if you are a Mac User.  That's a lot of points to lose, especially as a gamer.  But I am still confident about my choice to stick to Mac, and not because it's all together better. (Note how I said in my title "a compromise", not "an ultimatum") 

I first got into Macs right before college.  My school, for practical purposes, is a Mac school.  The computer store here is a Mac store, which means if something breaks down on my Mac I can just hop across campus and get it fixed relatively quickly.  Seemed economical, despite the higher price tag.  I personally prefer walking or driving to a store, knowing what is going to happen to my computer before I sign it off to the company, and then pick it up a week later, rather than having to ship it off to the middle of nowhere and hope that not only the company but the postal service will do their job.  I picked up a powerbook (I now have a macbook instead because I messed up the screen of the first laptop) and proceeded to love the operating system as well as the machine.

I think I officially switched my loyalty when I came back home for winter break and I tried to play the Sims 2 on my computer and home, and it was glitchy.  My brother had proceeded over the course of 4 and a half months, install 6 viruses, a couple worms and tons of spyware while I had been at college.  Even uninstalling and reinstalling didn't make anything better.  In fact, I couldn't reinstall at all, everything had messed up.  You could imagine my frustration.

Frustrated just like that.

On top of the ease that most viruses have with the Windows OS, it was really difficult for me to just try and fix everything with my ignorance.  My mother was nice enough to help me get Sims 2 for the Mac (Aspyr is good at keeping the series somewhat current for OS X) and I never dealt with a home PC unless I had to from then on.  

Does this mean the PC was horrible and how could anyone deal with it?  Not at all.  If The Boyfriend had the same problem I did, the thing would've been solved within a 24 hour period.  Why?  Because he knows the innards of computer better than I do.  But I don't.  Nor do I want to take the time to learn something that I'm honestly not that interested in.  I don't want to invest the time to know what's going on in the background of my computer as I work on word documents and play silly casual games online.  I just want to be able to do those things without hassle.  And that is why a Mac is good for me.

Macs are meant for people who don't care about their computers that much.  The computer is merely a tool to use for web browsing, music collecting, communicating... etc.  When it breaks, you take it to a specialist who tells you what he or she is going to do and then just does it.  You don't worry about upgrades, you don't worry about  replacing parts, you just take the computer as it is and use it.  I am this kind of person.  I am not ignorant about computers, but my care about a video card or the RAM is limited to "Will this work?  No?  Then give it to someone who can fix it!"

PCs are a step up.  If you do care about your computer, maintaining it and updating it, personalizing it, you get a PC.  Partly because there's a lot more variety.  Partly because the OS is easier to manipulate.  Completely because you can change a PC to be specifically yours.  Need it to be the fastest stock reader and meeting center for video conferences?  Easy to do.  Mega gaming machine?  Even easier.  Just to use WordPerfect and solitaire?  Well, don't know why you want to use WordPerfect but sure, super easy to set up.  You just have to do the research to set it up correctly.  If you are willing to put in the time, get a PC.

"But d20 Sapphire, how can you cal yourself a gamer?"  Well the only computer games I play are the sims, so that's not a big deal.  For me it's not about how fast it will process, just the funny stories and the genetics.  The rest of the games I like to play are on consoles, so I don't need a computer to play them.  Well, except for Starcraft but that game is so old it can run on practically everything.  I don't need a gaming PC, so I'm sticking to my Mac.  

Let's not say one is better than the other overall.  Mac's are favored in their simplicity, PCs for their versatility.  Let's say that to each his own when it comes to this debate.