Gamers Unite !

A headline designed for sensationalism, and this coming from the Straight Times (26th July, 2005). I took the mentioned survey, the basis of its findings, at PlanetGames. In a hall with playable current consoles, a lone computer sits in a corner. Tired of fiddling with the Nintendo DS and being jostled by kids in uniforms, I went to the remote corner for a breather. Oooh, a survey. Clickety-click. Gosh, this is more long-winded than a rambling Paula Abdul. Okay, just for laughs, calls friend over, enters some ridiculous responses. Guffaws. Alrite, finally done. Result - I'm fairly prone to aggression. Walks off.

This survey is skewered towards the intended violence report. The questions go 'Do you feel agitated if you don't get to play as much as you want ?' or 'Do you behave more aggressively towards family members after playing ?' If they had displayed questions like 'Do you feel like shitting after playing?', the big headline would be "FOUR IN 10 GAMERS AT RISK OF LOOSE BOWEL SYNDROME".

Let me just replace the game addicts with something else. Say, working.

'Workaholics typically experience symptoms like the inability to stop working even when they know they should be doing something else, constantly obsessing over working, engaging in conflicts with parents and other family members over their working hours and needing to work more and more to get their fix of power and money.'

Everybody celebrates those people though right. Work = productive = useful. Yeah, useful to fill their own coffers (and when they die their coffins) with important better-than-thy-neighbours things like credit cards and cavernous, flashy cars.

Or what about this :-

'Psychologists typically experience symptoms like the inability to stop analysing even when they know they should be doing something else, constantly obsessing over who to pigeon-hole next, engaging in conflicts with parents and other family members over their over-analysing and needing to analyse more and more to get their fix of stuffing people into categories of neat little boxes.'

Alright, alright, being all defensive is just a cover for my addict compulsions right. Next time some computer beckons me to take a survey though, I'm going to tie it up a red ant-infested (ode to nick stokes, great screaming) tree, bitch slap it and then take a real big rock and smash it to smithereens. Who, me violent ? :B

Barrel !

I've heard various renditions of Barrel ! Ba~rel ! BARREL ! over the past month or so. Atelier Iris : Eternal Mana has that one hook that has sunk itself deep into me. Collecting.

Collecting food, making new clothes, synthesizing new recipes, gathering materials and of course hoarding cole, the in-game currency. When I present my stuff to [col]Lector, she'd unlock the soundtrack, character intros or artwork. It's with great glee and satisfaction that I see more ????? turn to a Midnight Illusion or an Artwork 04. The kick though, comes just from stuffing my inventory with stuff I'd probably loath to make use.

The almost endless combination of materials lead me to spend hours just testing making a fluffy roll. Getting new reviews, changing the store review, reading customer reviews. A whole barrel of fun. Mixing different ingredients can sometimes lead to some strange reviews. A run-of-the-mill would be :

a little sweet
too sour
a lot clean

The weirder ones I've seen :

a lot.. too adults only
deadly odor
vomit-inducing
ginormous (when you mix tall magi grass with say, a big log)

I'm into hour number 90 into it, but no real idea of when the end might come. Only a game like this would have me wishing it wouldn't come for another 50, maybe.