TOW-19

Well, I don't think "way too much thought" can be put into anything as long as you're not waxing on conspiracy theories. And this is not a conspiracy theory. This is just a discussion and I think it's a valid one. I'm not calling Sony or Home the devil. I'm simply speculating on where society is heading while we're handcuffed so closely to communication technology.

There will be NO podcast for the week of March 16th, this week. Commander Fury has fallen pretty ill and is eager to start an unhindered road to recovery, so we gave him the week off. He'll be back, bright-eyed and bushy-assed, next week when the Urgent Frequency podcast resumes on the 23rd. In the meantime, while we're all going through withdrawals from no Frequency, LOL, we can check out Dv8's new News broadcast which, from what I hear, will air on-time this Monday. As previously announced, Dv8 News is putting UF at the forefront of their tournament gaming news, as they slowly faze GameBattles out, and we're excited that they made that decision. I DO believe that they will be giving some honorable mention to the winners of our just-finished Black IV and UF Crucible tourneys.

Sign-ups will be cut and invitations sent out on the 31st of March for both Crucible-2 and Black V. Tourneys will start the week following.

Ok....so for the first time, I've been able to sit down and watch a pretty explanatory video on just what PS3 Home is going to be, along with a few other videos as well...and it's something I think would make for a very interesting conversation here. I'm posting this because this entire thing TRULY intrigues me. Not the program itself, but rather, the implications, both present and future, that something like this will have on our and future generations. First, if you haven't seen the video yet, here it is. It is a conference presentation by Sony at E3 2007. Check it out first before reading on: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/21601.html http://www.gametrailers.com/player/22345.html http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/83461.html Ok..... Now, though I do admit this is cool, I also have some reservations about its implications on our youth, our gamers today and our overall society generations down the line. We are, essentially, creating a separate world for ourselves and I believe, once people really start getting into this, the drive to make this world "cool" may perhaps surpass our desires to make our REAL, individual worlds better. When I think about this, it's all very red-pill/blue-pill Matrix to me.From what I've gathered from talking with people who've read up on it to checking out all the demo videos, like the one above, myself, this is what I believe are going to be facts involving PS3 Home: > You're going to be set up with a free avatar with limited clothing options. You're going to be set up with your own living space, though it's assumed that there will be some basic package to it all. From THERE, you will have the opportunity to BUY (as in, REAL money from your credit card) accessories for yourself and your online "home" such as more clothing and fixtures for your home, like furniture, big screen tvs and pools and such. > They have already said that the PS3 home was designed to entice retailers and advertisers. Best Buy...McDonald's....Wal-Mart.....Target.....Disneyland....practically anyone and anything, for a price, will be able to put up advertising in your virtual world. You will walk down your virtual reality and STILL see billboards for crap that you see on billboards on your way home from work on the expressway. ADVERTISING! (For a CRAZY glimpse into what corporations can and likely would do to/in nature and personal lives, read Michael Crichton's book "Next," it will seriously make you shudder for the future....or what's left in it after we knock everything else down for the sake of advertising) > You're able to take pictures and place them in frames IN your virtual "home." You will most likely be able to watch television and, even LIKELIER, able to watch advertising COMMERCIALS on your virtual television hanging on the wall of your virtual home away from real life, though it seems to me that everyone will be standing in line to live a virtual life that's just as fettered as their real one. My problem is this. Everyone is worried about the economy. Everyone is worried about the strength (or weakness, rather) of the dollar. Everyone is concerned about how much time their children are spending on video games and how society has noticed, tested and documented the decrease in physical, family interaction with the advent of the internet and eventual online gaming. Everyone is concerned about the apparent disconnection from one another that people are seemingly more and more comfortable with as the years go on. It is almost MORE acceptable to pass someone on a sidewalk and not even glance in their direction than it is to pleasantly say "hello" as you pass each other by. And yet, there are going to me thousands....MILLIONS of individuals who will be engaged in this virtual world called PS3 Home. Millions, as this will be a global endeavor. You will most likely be able to walk into any one of these "stores" to buy your games but EVENTUALLY (if not right off the bat) you will be able to, through your PS3 Home, be able to walk into a virtual Best Buy and buy something to be delivered to your actual home (don't worry, those with socio-phobias, Sony's working on getting materials delivered to you through your tv screen and onto your lap, I'm sure). With the epidemic (and I think that's an appropriate word) of disassociation from one another that we're already experiencing, I think something like this might further hamper our ability to communicate with our mouths, our eyes, our touch and our PRESENCE. We're working HARDER to get FURTHER away from one another under the guise of "getting closer, more connected." It will baffle me that people out there WILL drop money, actual money, for a pixelated television that they can hang on their pixelated wall of their pixelated PS3 Home. People WILL act as people act in real life. They WILL allow those around them dictate how they should dress, what they should buy, what they should own and how fancy their cars and houses need to be because Sam and Betty next door have a shinier car or a bigger tv or an underground pool instead of an above-ground piece of crap. Envy WILL creep into this virtual world just as much as it creeps into the lives of most human beings, because AS human beings, we're susceptible to greed and envy. We don't call them "deadly" sins for nothing. People will be spreading their meager wealth to fatten the wallets of the TRULY wealthy even further...and why? So they can have a BADASS virtual, pixelated home that will impress their pixelated friends while they could instead be using those small funds of theirs to improve their OWN "actual, real" lives? More and more, we're staying INDOORS. More and more, we're withdrawing from one another, and through the thickness of technological advancement and ooh-ahh graphics and commercialism, we're learning a WHOLE NEW WAY TO LIVE.....though looking at it, it doesn't look like living at all. 20 years ago, most of society didn't have or know about the internet....certainly not in the way we all do now. Children today do not KNOW life without a gaming system...without online chat and texting and cell phones. Children today can't fully comprehend how we can talk about playing for HOURS outdoors with friends because we didn't want to go inside. Nowadays, all they want to do is SIT. SIT in front of their computers. SIT in front of their gaming systems. SIT and watch life roll on by.....but hey, they got that high score they can brag to their friends about or....soon.....they'll have enough allowance to buy the cool pixelated couches they can put in their mansion-like make-believe home. This is what our children have waiting for them. I know some of this may read as a very nihilistic view of things, and I don't mean for it to be taken that way. I AM a gamer, myself, after all. I also try to keep a VERY balanced life between what I do online/internet-wise and what I do OUTSIDE my home. I feel it keeps me sane. I just know that something like PS3 Home will potentially create a MAJOR shift in how we further our journey in disassociating ourselves from one another physically....until we are all simply "plugged in," letting our asses rot from underneath our weight on our couches while we walk, talk, play games, interact, buy, sell and find experiences and adventure ONLINE instead of walking out of our front doors. Quotes from gamers from the above vids like "Mannn... This is where I'll be spending a good portion of my day. And good portion is something like... Say 16-18 hours :)" leads me to believe I'm not too far off in my presumptions. Anyway, I'd like to see what everyone else says and thinks about this. Not particularly PS3 Home itself, but any and ALL means of "online living" that could one day remove all desire to exist offline. Don't mistake me in thinking I won't check out Home when it is available. I certainly will. Curiosity is a mean mother. However, I'm not as excited as so many others out there seem to be. I can do without it. The news, the hype, the anticipation and most likely the eventual product. I'll check it out because it will be available, but it's not something where I "can't wait" for its release. I'd been meaning to write something like this ever since I saw the trailer for it that I linked above. It intrigued me and vexed me enough to think about it this much. It was probably spurred on a few days ago when I was in a home where parents were actually PROUD to say that they could put their little Danny in front of any Wii game and in about a few hours, he'll have that game mastered "on hard." They smiled when they told me this. When I looked at him for some kind of confirmation or expression.....I didn't see any.....because he had his back square to everyone as he faced forward to his god, the TV, and mashed the buttons to Guitar Hero III to a song written 20 years before he was born....and he was playing it like it was as easy as 2 + 2.

Uh-THAT'S sexist! LOL ;D

What exactly are you smoking? lol... For legal reasons, I cannot divulge that.

I once was SO drunk out at a bar one night with a bunch of friends. We got into a conversation about Irish quotes, songs and such. (I'm not Irish) I was so drunk that, laughingly, I told everyone and our server for the night that whenever I exclaimed "Erin Go Bragh," it meant "I have finished this fine drink, now bring me ANOTHER!" I always said it in an Irish accent. Funny coming from a Vietnamese/German. And she brought me a new one every time I said it. LOL

I would have just dropped a plugged-in toaster into the lake and baked them all. And then fed the world, ending world hunger, and then appearing on Oprah as she promotes my new book "Gooses Gracious! How I Fed the World."

Not sure if this has ever been posted before, but I thought this was a great watch: Animator vs. Animation

I don't believe you. Show me!

I watched it and I saw the bear a split second before the vid ended....and I was thinking "who the hell was that UGLY lookin' guy??" I didn't know it was a bear....LOL

The map looks great.....graphics look great.....looking forward to seeing this one.

Glad you all like it. Sniper was very excited about it when he told me about the new template. I took one look at it and knew it was UF-caliber....and that it would rock your socks off. It'll take some getting used to, but hopefully most of you will see that it IS heads above our old forum....and this is coming from a guy who LOVED our old forum look. This is simply easier on the eyes, more so that our previous template, and offers a bit more "war-torn" look for all the action we're gonna be throwing your way. This is UF, baby. You should EXPECT this by now! ;D

Seems like you figured it out. LOL

It's being worked on now.

As stated, we are currently under construction updating the forum.

I'm gonna have to say "there's gonna be some big trouble in little china" every time we load that map into our private rooms. LOL

We can hope....though the article was quite pleasing to read. I'd like to roll out an all-new Black tourney series for the PS3.....and who around here is missing a good ol' SOCOM Tacmap tourney!? LOL

GO TO BED.

Before you become a critically acclaimed web designer, you should probably know the difference of spelling between "know" and "no." It'll impress the clients.

Little boy.....they're talking about pussy.

Go to bed and quit asking useless questions that don't improve your life.

Yes sir!

LOL...yeah, sorry. We always try to make good on promises. Just a technical, unforeseen difficulty tonight is all.

We ran into a snag on the update.......forum will be updated sometime during the day on Saturday.