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Video games woes?

rudyamid — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 21:07:51 +0000

Late October, I got my Nintendo Wii. Since then, my whole family is enjoying it. Even my 2 year old is swinging away the Wiimote, pretending she’s a baseball player. The Wii is definitely a family friendly game console.

I am keeping an eye on several other Wii games like Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Medal Of Honor: Heroes 2 , that may or may not be toddler friendly. Are they even kid friendly? The Mario series might be ok. But what if they come up with Half Life 2 or even Gears of War for the Wii? Will I also get those games as well? First of all, my wife would disagree with me spending $50 to get these games. Then she’ll scold me for playing with these games too long. Finally she’ll say these non-kid-friendly games are bad influence to my young daughter. Right now we wouldn’t even play Wii Sport’s Boxing in front of her.

But is this self censorship justifiable? Tim has a blog entry that covers this topic. Tim is a youth pastor, so he has a feel on the video games effect on today’s young generation. The funny part about the analysis is the survey that shows an average video game user is 38 years old. Hello! Video games are not for kids, anymore! This whole thing was probably sparked by the GTA and a slew of other controversies. There’s even a video game violence investigation started in the UK. People are worried with the violence and realistic graphics of these games (which are intended for adults) will fall into kids’ hands. Now parents are more sensitive to what their kids play, especially when it is without adult supervision.

Like anything else in this world, too much of something will become a bad thing. My pastor said we have to be “insulated”, not “isolated”. We have to be informed, not ignorant. If video games are starting to take away family time and responsibilities, then they must be curbed. If video games encourages family time, like Wii Sports, then I really think it should be a part of our routine.

Responsible gaming — it’s not just a Vegas warning label, anymore!

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Video games woes?

Nintendo is doing just fine, thank you.

rudyamid — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 21:40:51 +0000

After recently acquiring a Wii, my topic of reading this week is all about Nintendo and the Wii. Nintendo is back in full force ever since the release of the Wii last November (2006). The report from CNBC said Nintendo’s sales were up 31.4% from last quarter (US$1.2 billion). The company is totally in the green, thanks to the family friendly game console (and the DS handheld).

That’s amazing considering people are still having a hard time buying the unit. It takes a daily phone calls to a local game shop for us to finally get one. Or we could ask someone to buy it from out of town and bring it back to us, but that’s just an imposition.

Anyway, now that Nintendo has established itself on the market again, the floodgate for third party games are here! Wii gamers are enjoying titles such as Batallion Wars 2, Mario Party 8, Warioware: Smooth Moves, Resident Evil 4, and Guitar Heroes III. Also coming are the much anticipated titles like Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Medal of Honor: Heroes 2.

Personally, I’m a First Person Shooter (FPS) gamer, so I like to try out the Wii Zapper. It is a unique new controller that will make games like MoH:Heroes 2 look so much fun to play! Check out the trailer below.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3p4F5Oy06k

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

Nintendo is doing just fine, thank you.

I am a Wii bit excited!

rudyamid — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 23:49:08 +0000

I know I’m married to the right woman when she buys me what I want. In this case, I wanted the Nintendo Wii for my birthday, and last night I get to open it early! It’s quite easy to setup, with only one exception: they don’t include the component video cables for 480p resolution on my 42″ Samsung DLP TV. No matter, a quick visit to Target and I picked one up. Connected everything together, setup the basics like my Mii character, and I was off playing Wii Sports’ Tennis, Baseball, and Bowling! All of that arm/wrist swinging was tiring. Hey, I may even lose weight playing the Wii all the time.

Anyway, I’m off to buy additional Wii remote and more games! We’ve got lots of practicing to do. Maybe I should challenge my neighbour for a Wii tennis match. He just got a unit recently also.

On a side note, we had a bit of trouble finding a Wii in stock at our local stores (Target, Gamestop, Walmart) and impossible to find on the internet (except for the rip offs on E-Bay). My wife kept trying the Gamestop around the corner, and she finally got one last week. Kudos for her persistence!

P.S.: a co-worker (LK) said he saw stacks of them available in Las Vegas’ Best Buy and Costco. Next time someone wants one, go to Vegas!

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I am a Wii bit excited!

YouTube video awards… that’s a first!

rudyamid — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 00:07:51 +0000

This is great, one of dot.com’s innovative new idea is actually succeeding to take people away from the “Hollywood Production” into a more accessible (yet fun) format — the web. Then they take it a step further and give recognition to the best of the amateur video fans, which surprisingly brought up some really cool work, as reported in this FoxNews article.

I particularly enjoyed the OK Go’s treadmill dance and the ever so funny Ask a Ninja series. Check them out!

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YouTube video awards… that’s a first!

The Blog of Rudy Amid » video

Video games woes?

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