I have some quick initial thoughts about the Kinect.  It's pretty cool actually.

But damn, I am tired!  I played Kinect Adventures for about an hour, and I'm pooped.  Totally out of shape.  But it is a lot of fun.  My apartment is just barely big enough to play.  I'm pretty much up against my couch, but it works just fine.

It's weird to hold out your hand and have it track and select menu items.  It feels like I am using the force.  Kinda cool actually.  I just wave my hand around and my xbox does stuff.

The first time the Kinect moved to adjust its viewing angle of me was a little freaky.  It moved to look right at me.  Like it was alive or something.

I played the rallyball, river rafting, and stop the leaks games.  They were all really fun and responded really well.  The rally-ball (think 3-D breakout) was interesting, but hard to concentrate and keep multiple balls in play.  Also hard to direct the balls to the exact corners I wanted.  But maybe I could get better with practice.

River rafting is awesome!  You "strafe" left and right to guide the raft and jump to jump the raft and collect "pins".  I think this is the game that wore me out.  I was really getting into it.

The stop the leaks game was fun too.  You are just in a clear box under water, and fish apparently want to eat you, so they keep poking holes in your box.  You play twister basically and plug the leaks.  It's so weird to have to worry about the placement of my feet during a videogame.

The game also takes pictures of you while you play, especially while you are doing goofy shit.  Like at the finish line of the rafting there are "pins" to collect and there's a billion of them and you have to jump, flailing your arms, looking like an idiot, and of course it took a picture of that.  You can upload them to a Kinect website too.

I also tried a demo of the Joyride racing game.  It is extremely weird to race a car using an imaginary steering wheel, but it works ridiculously well for what it is.  There are items to use like in Mario Kart, and you don't control the acceleration or braking, but it was still really fun.  I don't think I'll buy the full game, but I'll keep the demo around for fun.

The voice commands are pretty cool.  I haven't used them a ton yet, but it has gotten it right every time so far.

I also bought the Your Shape: Fitness Evolved "game".  I got this mostly to try the yoga and tai chi.  I did one of the 5 minute tai chi workouts, and it was really cool.  And I was sore afterwards. It also has some fun minigames.  There is one where you hold a board and blocks come down and you have to balance the blocks on the board and then throw the blocks into bins on the left or right when the bins open.  It was really really fun. 

Overall.........damn, I am so out of shape........but so far, I think it is pretty cool.  Definitely different than anything I've ever played before.  I'm hoping I can make a habit out of the fitness game, but we'll see.  I think I'm at least way more likely to use my Kinect than I ever was to use my Wii.  I just need a cool bowling game for it now.

"Go for the High Score!"

I have some quick initial thoughts about the Kinect.  It's pretty cool actually.

But damn, I am tired!  I played Kinect Adventures for about an hour, and I'm pooped.  Totally out of shape.  But it is a lot of fun.  My apartment is just barely big enough to play.  I'm pretty much up against my couch, but it works just fine.

It's weird to hold out your hand and have it track and select menu items.  It feels like I am using the force.  Kinda cool actually.  I just wave my hand around and my xbox does stuff.

The first time the Kinect moved to adjust its viewing angle of me was a little freaky.  It moved to look right at me.  Like it was alive or something.

I played the rallyball, river rafting, and stop the leaks games.  They were all really fun and responded really well.  The rally-ball (think 3-D breakout) was interesting, but hard to concentrate and keep multiple balls in play.  Also hard to direct the balls to the exact corners I wanted.  But maybe I could get better with practice.

River rafting is awesome!  You "strafe" left and right to guide the raft and jump to jump the raft and collect "pins".  I think this is the game that wore me out.  I was really getting into it.

The stop the leaks game was fun too.  You are just in a clear box under water, and fish apparently want to eat you, so they keep poking holes in your box.  You play twister basically and plug the leaks.  It's so weird to have to worry about the placement of my feet during a videogame.

The game also takes pictures of you while you play, especially while you are doing goofy shit.  Like at the finish line of the rafting there are "pins" to collect and there's a billion of them and you have to jump, flailing your arms, looking like an idiot, and of course it took a picture of that.  You can upload them to a Kinect website too.

I also tried a demo of the Joyride racing game.  It is extremely weird to race a car using an imaginary steering wheel, but it works ridiculously well for what it is.  There are items to use like in Mario Kart, and you don't control the acceleration or braking, but it was still really fun.  I don't think I'll buy the full game, but I'll keep the demo around for fun.

The voice commands are pretty cool.  I haven't used them a ton yet, but it has gotten it right every time so far.

I also bought the Your Shape: Fitness Evolved "game".  I got this mostly to try the yoga and tai chi.  I did one of the 5 minute tai chi workouts, and it was really cool.  And I was sore afterwards. It also has some fun minigames.  There is one where you hold a board and blocks come down and you have to balance the blocks on the board and then throw the blocks into bins on the left or right when the bins open.  It was really really fun. 

Overall.........damn, I am so out of shape........but so far, I think it is pretty cool.  Definitely different than anything I've ever played before.  I'm hoping I can make a habit out of the fitness game, but we'll see.  I think I'm at least way more likely to use my Kinect than I ever was to use my Wii.  I just need a cool bowling game for it now.

"Go for the High Score!"

Chapter 1: Finish the Fight

I remember the day you arrived on my doorstep.  I had preordered you nearly a year in advance.  Gamestop online, Legendary Edition.  I went to work that day and checked the UPS tracking page probably about every 5 minutes, cursing myself for not going to the midnight release and instead relying on a brown truck that could show up at any time.  Pure torture.  And then it said "delivered" some time around noon.  I left work, speed-walking to my car.  I never should have gone in that day.  What if someone stole you off my doorstep?  I would have never forgiven myself.  But as I pulled in the driveway, you were there.  I ran.  There was no reason.  You were only ten feet away.  I scooped you up, barely breaking stride, ran back through the garage into the house.  Then I slowed down a lot.  The package needed to be opened carefully.  I had suddenly become a 10-year veteran of the bomb-squad.  Your box was a poster.  The helmet was in a cloth case.  It was Christmas and I was ten years old again, opening up a Nintendo, a Super Nintendo, a Gameboy, a Virtual Boy, a Nintendo 64.  I thought the helmet would fit my head.  It looked like it in the pictures.  At least it held three games. 

The next few minutes are so fuzzy.  I must of turned on the tv, surround receiver, and hit the eject button on the Xbox within a couple milliseconds of each other.  It's something so practiced and routine anyways, but I think it happened at least 100% faster this time.  The controller was already charged and ready; I had made sure of that overnight.  There's no time to check out what else is on the dashboard today.  I'm faster than the 2.4 GHz signals spewing out of my controller.  Play the damn disc already. 

Intro Drums for the Bungie Logo.  Marty's music.  Goosebumps.  Then the title screen and the chants begin.  BIG goosebumps.  Nobody does it like Marty.  NOBODY.

Master Chief crashes into a jungle.  Suit locked up.  But I know he'll be fine.  There is work to do.  Grunts to kill.  Planets to save.  Galaxies to cleanse.  I spent the next 8 or so hours playing through the campaign on Normal.  This was story time.  I knew it would be the end.  The flood would be gone.  But how?  And what would happen to me and Cortana?  I didn't even eat that day.  Master Chief doesn't stop to eat or sleep.  The mission was clear.  And I had done it.  Was Master Chief really dead when the Ark blew up?  Nope, but I had to spoil that for myself on the internet.  I knew there would be a Legendary-only ending, but there was no time for it on that day.  I would see it eventually.

I was fat, dumb, and happy on my fill of Halo.  Saved the galaxy in one day.  On to Multiplayer...


Chapter 2: One is a lonely number

My friends list was still bare, but not for long.  I had been searching the internet for months in preparation.  I knew I needed a clan, or at least people to play with, or Halo 3 multiplayer would die just as Halo 2 had died for me.  When there is no one to play with the multiplayer is not fun.  One Timmy after another just screaming.  But I was determined to make Halo 3 different.  I knew there had to be people out there.  I don't know how or when I found 2old2play.  I think it was just one among a bunch of bookmarks I had gathered in advance.  So when I was ready for the multiplayer, I checked it out.  I joined a Halo clan that seemed like a good fit.  Not pressure, fun games, and relaxed.  I made some good friends.  That clan eventually collapsed, but the few leftovers merged into the HaloTards, and it was a perfect new home.  No drama, no yelling, no pressure.  If you are good at Halo, we want you in our clan.  If you suck at Halo, we want you in our clan even more.  We are out to have fun, and if you like fun, we like you. 

I may not have nearly as much exp as some of my clanmates, but without the HaloTards and 2old2play, I would have much much less.  I probably wouldn't even have beat the game on Legendary.  That $150 helmet has been paid off over and over and over thanks to 2o2p.  Great friends, clan nights, ridiculous clan forum topics, and even stupider Halo custom games.  But damn it, we have our fun.


Chapter 3: Here comes Reach

There is no shipping wait this time.  Oh hell no.  Gamestop midnight release this time.  I will brave the line of timmies.  I've already given Gamestop nearly $600 for this.  A brand-spanking new Halo-themed Xbox with a quieter fan and bigger hard drive are waiting.  And a statue of Noble team that already has a reserved spot next to my helmet is waiting as well.  Is that too much to spend on one game?  I don't think so.  At this age it gets harder and harder to get that ten-year old Christmas morning feeling back.  But come midnight on Tuesday I will have it.  I'm already getting it.  The Reach countdown on my phone excites me.  Seems like not too long ago it was a forty days.  It's down to three now.  Three days until Christmas.   

I don't think I'll be able to finish the campaign that night.  Knowing what happens to Reach, I don't feel as driven as I was with Halo 3, but once I start it maybe the feeling will be back.  Maybe I will finish it that night.  There is no work the next day.  There would have been no point as my brain would have just been a skipping record stuck on the Reach track anyways.  And Bungie will have surprises.  I can't wait for the surprises.  And I like jetpacks.


Chapter 4: The Fight Always Has an End

I don't know how much I'll play Halo 3 after Reach comes out.  Probably not at all, honestly.  I've saved the galaxy from the flood scourge and the covenant take-over five or six times over already.  And the multiplayer has been slightly stale for a while now.  But the helmet will always be there.  It's just a stupid plastic helmet that won't even fit on my head.  But it is also so much more.  It's that Christmas morning feeling.  It's the impetus that saved Xbox Live gaming for me by forcing me to find 2old2play.  It helped me make bunches of new friends that I haven't even met in real life (yet), but they are friends.  Real friends.  That helmet started it all.  A plastic helmet that arrived on my doorstep 3 years ago.  It's always going to be there next to my Xbox.  Holding whatever three games I'll be playing the most at that time.  It'll be there reminding me of all the good times I've had with Halo and all the good times to come with Halo. 

It's not just a stupid plastic helmet.  It is Halo.  And I love it.





 

Chapter 1: Finish the Fight

I remember the day you arrived on my doorstep.  I had preordered you nearly a year in advance.  Gamestop online, Legendary Edition.  I went to work that day and checked the UPS tracking page probably about every 5 minutes, cursing myself for not going to the midnight release and instead relying on a brown truck that could show up at any time.  Pure torture.  And then it said "delivered" some time around noon.  I left work, speed-walking to my car.  I never should have gone in that day.  What if someone stole you off my doorstep?  I would have never forgiven myself.  But as I pulled in the driveway, you were there.  I ran.  There was no reason.  You were only ten feet away.  I scooped you up, barely breaking stride, ran back through the garage into the house.  Then I slowed down a lot.  The package needed to be opened carefully.  I had suddenly become a 10-year veteran of the bomb-squad.  Your box was a poster.  The helmet was in a cloth case.  It was Christmas and I was ten years old again, opening up a Nintendo, a Super Nintendo, a Gameboy, a Virtual Boy, a Nintendo 64.  I thought the helmet would fit my head.  It looked like it in the pictures.  At least it held three games. 

The next few minutes are so fuzzy.  I must of turned on the tv, surround receiver, and hit the eject button on the Xbox within a couple milliseconds of each other.  It's something so practiced and routine anyways, but I think it happened at least 100% faster this time.  The controller was already charged and ready; I had made sure of that overnight.  There's no time to check out what else is on the dashboard today.  I'm faster than the 2.4 GHz signals spewing out of my controller.  Play the damn disc already. 

Intro Drums for the Bungie Logo.  Marty's music.  Goosebumps.  Then the title screen and the chants begin.  BIG goosebumps.  Nobody does it like Marty.  NOBODY.

Master Chief crashes into a jungle.  Suit locked up.  But I know he'll be fine.  There is work to do.  Grunts to kill.  Planets to save.  Galaxies to cleanse.  I spent the next 8 or so hours playing through the campaign on Normal.  This was story time.  I knew it would be the end.  The flood would be gone.  But how?  And what would happen to me and Cortana?  I didn't even eat that day.  Master Chief doesn't stop to eat or sleep.  The mission was clear.  And I had done it.  Was Master Chief really dead when the Ark blew up?  Nope, but I had to spoil that for myself on the internet.  I knew there would be a Legendary-only ending, but there was no time for it on that day.  I would see it eventually.

I was fat, dumb, and happy on my fill of Halo.  Saved the galaxy in one day.  On to Multiplayer...


Chapter 2: One is a lonely number

My friends list was still bare, but not for long.  I had been searching the internet for months in preparation.  I knew I needed a clan, or at least people to play with, or Halo 3 multiplayer would die just as Halo 2 had died for me.  When there is no one to play with the multiplayer is not fun.  One Timmy after another just screaming.  But I was determined to make Halo 3 different.  I knew there had to be people out there.  I don't know how or when I found 2old2play.  I think it was just one among a bunch of bookmarks I had gathered in advance.  So when I was ready for the multiplayer, I checked it out.  I joined a Halo clan that seemed like a good fit.  Not pressure, fun games, and relaxed.  I made some good friends.  That clan eventually collapsed, but the few leftovers merged into the HaloTards, and it was a perfect new home.  No drama, no yelling, no pressure.  If you are good at Halo, we want you in our clan.  If you suck at Halo, we want you in our clan even more.  We are out to have fun, and if you like fun, we like you. 

I may not have nearly as much exp as some of my clanmates, but without the HaloTards and 2old2play, I would have much much less.  I probably wouldn't even have beat the game on Legendary.  That $150 helmet has been paid off over and over and over thanks to 2o2p.  Great friends, clan nights, ridiculous clan forum topics, and even stupider Halo custom games.  But damn it, we have our fun.


Chapter 3: Here comes Reach

There is no shipping wait this time.  Oh hell no.  Gamestop midnight release this time.  I will brave the line of timmies.  I've already given Gamestop nearly $600 for this.  A brand-spanking new Halo-themed Xbox with a quieter fan and bigger hard drive are waiting.  And a statue of Noble team that already has a reserved spot next to my helmet is waiting as well.  Is that too much to spend on one game?  I don't think so.  At this age it gets harder and harder to get that ten-year old Christmas morning feeling back.  But come midnight on Tuesday I will have it.  I'm already getting it.  The Reach countdown on my phone excites me.  Seems like not too long ago it was a forty days.  It's down to three now.  Three days until Christmas.   

I don't think I'll be able to finish the campaign that night.  Knowing what happens to Reach, I don't feel as driven as I was with Halo 3, but once I start it maybe the feeling will be back.  Maybe I will finish it that night.  There is no work the next day.  There would have been no point as my brain would have just been a skipping record stuck on the Reach track anyways.  And Bungie will have surprises.  I can't wait for the surprises.  And I like jetpacks.


Chapter 4: The Fight Always Has an End

I don't know how much I'll play Halo 3 after Reach comes out.  Probably not at all, honestly.  I've saved the galaxy from the flood scourge and the covenant take-over five or six times over already.  And the multiplayer has been slightly stale for a while now.  But the helmet will always be there.  It's just a stupid plastic helmet that won't even fit on my head.  But it is also so much more.  It's that Christmas morning feeling.  It's the impetus that saved Xbox Live gaming for me by forcing me to find 2old2play.  It helped me make bunches of new friends that I haven't even met in real life (yet), but they are friends.  Real friends.  That helmet started it all.  A plastic helmet that arrived on my doorstep 3 years ago.  It's always going to be there next to my Xbox.  Holding whatever three games I'll be playing the most at that time.  It'll be there reminding me of all the good times I've had with Halo and all the good times to come with Halo. 

It's not just a stupid plastic helmet.  It is Halo.  And I love it.





 

Beta Beta Beta Beta Beta Beta Beta Beta Beta Beta Beta Beta.

It's really hard to work today with that running through my head.  I'm taking part of the afternoon off.  Probably leave as soon as the interwebs light on fire with posts about the beta being available.

I'm pretty sure this is as close as I can get to feeling like a kid on Christmas morning at this age.  Until the real game comes out, at least.

Beta Beta Beta Beta Beta Beta Beta Beta Beta Beta Beta Beta.

It's really hard to work today with that running through my head.  I'm taking part of the afternoon off.  Probably leave as soon as the interwebs light on fire with posts about the beta being available.

I'm pretty sure this is as close as I can get to feeling like a kid on Christmas morning at this age.  Until the real game comes out, at least.

This is a pretty interesting article on Kotaku. I haven't figured out why I play what I play, or why I play games the way I play them yet, but this article really got me thinking.

I've always felt like the nice guy that finishes last, but I've never taken it out on prostitutes (or other women) in GTA, and it is kind of creepy that he admits that so easily. Makes me think about how I treat and view all the little virtual people I have interacted with in games like GTA and Assassin's Creed though, espeically the women. I think I have probably become more attached to and more protective of the virtual girlfriends/wives than most people. I never really finished GTA4, partly because it got annoyingly difficult at some points, but I also remember how pissed off I was when the girlfriend that I had taken bowling tons of times, played darts with, etc, turned out to be a damn FBI agent. I was not happy about that.

Lots of food for thought anyways.

http://kotaku.com/5526414/nice-guys-stressed-ladies-and-the-things-video-games-let-them-do

Nice Guys, Stressed Ladies And The Things Video Games Let Them Do:

A galpal and I are discussing video games over cocktails at a bar. Well, kind of. She's trying to tell me why she plays FarmVille, and in the course of the discussion I find out her life is a mess.

This new acquaintance of mine and I have recently bonded over our fondness for farming simulators. I'm trying to explain to her how my personal favorites, the Harvest Moon games – as much life simulators as farm simulators – are and aren't like her FarmVille favorite.

"It just feels really good to know that I'm on top of things," she tells me, chewing on her straw a little nervously as she explains why she's so into FarmVille. "I like to know my farm is in good shape and, like, everyone can see it."

I know the feeling; our motivations seem similar. I get really into Harvest Moon's evolving, character-based chronology. The act of progression is satisfying. You build your farm in a village of others who become your friends as you watch them fall in love, marry, and participate in seasonal festivals. You yourself are a character who can choose a husband (or wife, if you're playing as a boy) and have a baby, family pets, and a home that you can upgrade.

Rosie (not her real name) is a FarmVille junkie like millions of others. She's probably poured as many hours into her Facebook farm as I have into my Nintendo DS one. "It makes me feel like I have my shit together," she tells me after a pause.

But the way she tells me this is funny; she looks a little furtively around her, speaks a little bit softly. Guiltily, even.

I ask her, "You don't have your shit together?"

Silence.

Farm Junkies In The Facebook Era:

Rosie and I aren't close, and it's uncomfortable for her to reveal the anxiety she feels about being unemployed. Especially in the Facebook era, where she alludes to a sense of insecurity that old classmates from her alma mater, or friends of her mother's, are continually privy to a social profile she considers unimpressive. She doesn't like how she looks in tagged photos.

She balks at admitting that her status as a "total FarmVille addict," as she describes it, is a reaction to the sense of helplessness she feels in the exposed world of social networking – but I suspect I might have hit on something by the way she can't meet my eyes.

I am twenty-something, old enough not to want to specify the "something." I am aware of the passage of time and hypercritical of my ability to balance work, play, and home life. I don't often think about why I play video games like Harvest Moon – to me, they've always been a way to unplug from the common pressures of living; most people, to some extent, use video games as a form of distraction or escapism.

"Pete," The Nice Guy:

Wondering if I'm onto something, I phone up an old friend — let's call him "Pete." Pete's a quintessential "nice guy." Shy and retiring, he'd never hurt a fly. He's the kind of guy who holds doors open for women, pulls out chairs. He quit a job he loved so that he could move back to his hometown and look after his sick mother. Seriously.

Of course, the old adage about nice guys finishing last is true for Pete. Despite his unfailing gentleness, he has trouble with girls. Time and time again, he's ended up relegated to the "friend zone" while some big jerk swipes his crush. I remembered playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City with him when we lived in the same city, and feeling like his enthusiasm for crashing cars and shooting pedestrians felt just slightly out of character.

I ring him up to see how he's doing, and rather than explain that I'm kicking around an article about coping mechanisms, I just tell him I'm exploring people's most common gameplay behaviors. I ask him if he still plays GTA – he says he's played every iteration since Vice City, pretty much. I ask him what his favorite things to do in the game worlds are.

"I kinda make up these weird story things," he says, a little sheepishly. "Yeah, I think they're funny – like, I pretend I'm shooting a movie and then I have the characters do all this random shit that has nothing to do with the game."

Like what?

"Like… I'll pick up a whore and do it with her and then I'll drive the car off a cliff or something."

Or something?

"Or like, I'll drive around until she freaks out and bails, and then I'll chase her down and beat her and get my money back," Pete says. The way he laughs nervously is kind of unlike him.

He continues: "One time I drove a prostitute to my girlfriend's house [in GTA: San Andreas] and when she jumped out in the chick's driveway I beat her to death with the pink dildo, and then I gave it to my girlfriend as a present." Laughs. "She loved it. It was hilarious."

I get psychoanalytical again; I ask if he resents women, or resents his nice guy status, and if he's acting out these feelings through the game. I expect the same kind of embarrassed dismissal that Rosie gave me. Instead, Pete gives a strangely bitter laugh and tells me frankly, "Probably."

Control Freak

I think of Rosie's latent emotionality about FarmVille, and Pete's repressed anger, and figure I should turn the lens inward a bit and think about the way I play Harvest Moon. In contrast to my real life, I am eager for time to pass in the world; I like the opportunities for new crops and new festivals that the changing seasons bring. Unlike my real life, I find it a burden to go out and socialize with the game's villagers, as one must do to gain certain perks of their friendship. I am obsessive about hoarding money (in real life it burns a hole in my pocket), and compulsive about removing weeds and stones from my garden (in real life, I can't be bothered to do dishes more than once a week).

I'm not living as myself in Harvest Moon; I'm not projecting a "fantasy life," as the series has often advertised. In fact, I'm using the repetitious organizational tasks within the game as a counter-measure to real-world activities. I'm not using the game for escapism. I'm using it for a sense of control.

Except one uncomfortable parallel: When playing Harvest Moon, I always choose the most unattainable, reticent bachelor. Time after time, I marry the mean ones. The game mechanic requires you to win over your future husband by regularly approaching them with gifts. I elect not to disclose some of my past dating habits here.

I tell Pete this, when I'm explaining to him all about the real nature of my article, asking his permission to write candidly (if pseudonymously) about him, and he was all for it. In fact, he seemed surprised that I'd address the topic.

"Doesn't everyone use games as a coping mechanism? You're gonna get a million comments saying, 'duh,'" he suggested, only half-joking.

He says: "You really only pursue the jerks in that farm game?"

Yeah.

He laughs, "You're so totally the kind of girl that makes me beat women in GTA."

I don't think it's really that funny. But Pete really is a nice guy. That's his idea of a joke.

 

This is a pretty interesting article on Kotaku. I haven't figured out why I play what I play, or why I play games the way I play them yet, but this article really got me thinking.

I've always felt like the nice guy that finishes last, but I've never taken it out on prostitutes (or other women) in GTA, and it is kind of creepy that he admits that so easily. Makes me think about how I treat and view all the little virtual people I have interacted with in games like GTA and Assassin's Creed though, espeically the women. I think I have probably become more attached to and more protective of the virtual girlfriends/wives than most people. I never really finished GTA4, partly because it got annoyingly difficult at some points, but I also remember how pissed off I was when the girlfriend that I had taken bowling tons of times, played darts with, etc, turned out to be a damn FBI agent. I was not happy about that.

Lots of food for thought anyways.

http://kotaku.com/5526414/nice-guys-stressed-ladies-and-the-things-video-games-let-them-do

Nice Guys, Stressed Ladies And The Things Video Games Let Them Do:

A galpal and I are discussing video games over cocktails at a bar. Well, kind of. She's trying to tell me why she plays FarmVille, and in the course of the discussion I find out her life is a mess.

This new acquaintance of mine and I have recently bonded over our fondness for farming simulators. I'm trying to explain to her how my personal favorites, the Harvest Moon games – as much life simulators as farm simulators – are and aren't like her FarmVille favorite.

"It just feels really good to know that I'm on top of things," she tells me, chewing on her straw a little nervously as she explains why she's so into FarmVille. "I like to know my farm is in good shape and, like, everyone can see it."

I know the feeling; our motivations seem similar. I get really into Harvest Moon's evolving, character-based chronology. The act of progression is satisfying. You build your farm in a village of others who become your friends as you watch them fall in love, marry, and participate in seasonal festivals. You yourself are a character who can choose a husband (or wife, if you're playing as a boy) and have a baby, family pets, and a home that you can upgrade.

Rosie (not her real name) is a FarmVille junkie like millions of others. She's probably poured as many hours into her Facebook farm as I have into my Nintendo DS one. "It makes me feel like I have my shit together," she tells me after a pause.

But the way she tells me this is funny; she looks a little furtively around her, speaks a little bit softly. Guiltily, even.

I ask her, "You don't have your shit together?"

Silence.

Farm Junkies In The Facebook Era:

Rosie and I aren't close, and it's uncomfortable for her to reveal the anxiety she feels about being unemployed. Especially in the Facebook era, where she alludes to a sense of insecurity that old classmates from her alma mater, or friends of her mother's, are continually privy to a social profile she considers unimpressive. She doesn't like how she looks in tagged photos.

She balks at admitting that her status as a "total FarmVille addict," as she describes it, is a reaction to the sense of helplessness she feels in the exposed world of social networking – but I suspect I might have hit on something by the way she can't meet my eyes.

I am twenty-something, old enough not to want to specify the "something." I am aware of the passage of time and hypercritical of my ability to balance work, play, and home life. I don't often think about why I play video games like Harvest Moon – to me, they've always been a way to unplug from the common pressures of living; most people, to some extent, use video games as a form of distraction or escapism.

"Pete," The Nice Guy:

Wondering if I'm onto something, I phone up an old friend — let's call him "Pete." Pete's a quintessential "nice guy." Shy and retiring, he'd never hurt a fly. He's the kind of guy who holds doors open for women, pulls out chairs. He quit a job he loved so that he could move back to his hometown and look after his sick mother. Seriously.

Of course, the old adage about nice guys finishing last is true for Pete. Despite his unfailing gentleness, he has trouble with girls. Time and time again, he's ended up relegated to the "friend zone" while some big jerk swipes his crush. I remembered playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City with him when we lived in the same city, and feeling like his enthusiasm for crashing cars and shooting pedestrians felt just slightly out of character.

I ring him up to see how he's doing, and rather than explain that I'm kicking around an article about coping mechanisms, I just tell him I'm exploring people's most common gameplay behaviors. I ask him if he still plays GTA – he says he's played every iteration since Vice City, pretty much. I ask him what his favorite things to do in the game worlds are.

"I kinda make up these weird story things," he says, a little sheepishly. "Yeah, I think they're funny – like, I pretend I'm shooting a movie and then I have the characters do all this random shit that has nothing to do with the game."

Like what?

"Like… I'll pick up a whore and do it with her and then I'll drive the car off a cliff or something."

Or something?

"Or like, I'll drive around until she freaks out and bails, and then I'll chase her down and beat her and get my money back," Pete says. The way he laughs nervously is kind of unlike him.

He continues: "One time I drove a prostitute to my girlfriend's house [in GTA: San Andreas] and when she jumped out in the chick's driveway I beat her to death with the pink dildo, and then I gave it to my girlfriend as a present." Laughs. "She loved it. It was hilarious."

I get psychoanalytical again; I ask if he resents women, or resents his nice guy status, and if he's acting out these feelings through the game. I expect the same kind of embarrassed dismissal that Rosie gave me. Instead, Pete gives a strangely bitter laugh and tells me frankly, "Probably."

Control Freak

I think of Rosie's latent emotionality about FarmVille, and Pete's repressed anger, and figure I should turn the lens inward a bit and think about the way I play Harvest Moon. In contrast to my real life, I am eager for time to pass in the world; I like the opportunities for new crops and new festivals that the changing seasons bring. Unlike my real life, I find it a burden to go out and socialize with the game's villagers, as one must do to gain certain perks of their friendship. I am obsessive about hoarding money (in real life it burns a hole in my pocket), and compulsive about removing weeds and stones from my garden (in real life, I can't be bothered to do dishes more than once a week).

I'm not living as myself in Harvest Moon; I'm not projecting a "fantasy life," as the series has often advertised. In fact, I'm using the repetitious organizational tasks within the game as a counter-measure to real-world activities. I'm not using the game for escapism. I'm using it for a sense of control.

Except one uncomfortable parallel: When playing Harvest Moon, I always choose the most unattainable, reticent bachelor. Time after time, I marry the mean ones. The game mechanic requires you to win over your future husband by regularly approaching them with gifts. I elect not to disclose some of my past dating habits here.

I tell Pete this, when I'm explaining to him all about the real nature of my article, asking his permission to write candidly (if pseudonymously) about him, and he was all for it. In fact, he seemed surprised that I'd address the topic.

"Doesn't everyone use games as a coping mechanism? You're gonna get a million comments saying, 'duh,'" he suggested, only half-joking.

He says: "You really only pursue the jerks in that farm game?"

Yeah.

He laughs, "You're so totally the kind of girl that makes me beat women in GTA."

I don't think it's really that funny. But Pete really is a nice guy. That's his idea of a joke.

 

I know everyone is busy with MW2 right now, but anyone else checking out AC2?

The reviews were awesome for it, so I was pretty interested in playing it, but I had never played AC1, since the reviews for that pretty much said it was boring and repetitive. I didn't want to miss out on story though so I borrowed AC1 from my bro-in-law and LOVED it. Like "Holy Shit, I'm an asshole for listening to the reviews and not playing this!" type of moment. Yeah it was repetitive, but the climbing and the sneaking and the killing and the running from guards was so damn satisfying. Took me about 3 days to beat it. So I went out and bought AC2 before I was even done with AC1.

It was a little jarring going from AC1 to AC2 right away just because AC2 is so ridiculously amazing compared to AC1. It's like playing Super Mario Bros for the first time, beating it, and saying "Wow, that was a great game!".  Then you pop in Super Mario Bros 3 for the first time, and your brain explodes inside your head with a small little *poof* sound.  The graphics in AC2 blow me away constantly. When they load up the city in the Animus for the first time....wow, it really felt like being in the Matrix. If you've read reviews, you've probably heard AC1 is a tech demo compared to AC2, and that is absolutely true. AC2 feels more like GTA set in the renaissance with more swords and more prostitutes (yep, more, but you can't have 'alone' time with them, as far as I know).

I'm not super far into the game yet but already the variety of missions is pretty darn good. The side missions are infinitely better. The running on rooftops and climbing of buildings is better and FASTER. The story-line is starting to pick up pace with a little bit more mystery this time. There is money for buying things, upgrades to weapons, upgrades to armor....There is just *more* in this game. And after being surprised by how much I loved AC1........AC2 is like icing on the cake, topped with fudge, whipped cream, and naked big-breasted women.

If you liked AC1 even a little, you owe it to yourself to play AC2.

I know everyone is busy with MW2 right now, but anyone else checking out AC2?

The reviews were awesome for it, so I was pretty interested in playing it, but I had never played AC1, since the reviews for that pretty much said it was boring and repetitive. I didn't want to miss out on story though so I borrowed AC1 from my bro-in-law and LOVED it. Like "Holy Shit, I'm an asshole for listening to the reviews and not playing this!" type of moment. Yeah it was repetitive, but the climbing and the sneaking and the killing and the running from guards was so damn satisfying. Took me about 3 days to beat it. So I went out and bought AC2 before I was even done with AC1.

It was a little jarring going from AC1 to AC2 right away just because AC2 is so ridiculously amazing compared to AC1. It's like playing Super Mario Bros for the first time, beating it, and saying "Wow, that was a great game!".  Then you pop in Super Mario Bros 3 for the first time, and your brain explodes inside your head with a small little *poof* sound.  The graphics in AC2 blow me away constantly. When they load up the city in the Animus for the first time....wow, it really felt like being in the Matrix. If you've read reviews, you've probably heard AC1 is a tech demo compared to AC2, and that is absolutely true. AC2 feels more like GTA set in the renaissance with more swords and more prostitutes (yep, more, but you can't have 'alone' time with them, as far as I know).

I'm not super far into the game yet but already the variety of missions is pretty darn good. The side missions are infinitely better. The running on rooftops and climbing of buildings is better and FASTER. The story-line is starting to pick up pace with a little bit more mystery this time. There is money for buying things, upgrades to weapons, upgrades to armor....There is just *more* in this game. And after being surprised by how much I loved AC1........AC2 is like icing on the cake, topped with fudge, whipped cream, and naked big-breasted women.

If you liked AC1 even a little, you owe it to yourself to play AC2.