JohnnyBGamer

Surf Report – 12/7/09

Welcome to a Monday edition of the Surf Report.

.: God :

What does it mean to be a man?

Mark Driscoll believes that the transition from boyhood to manhood is marked by the following 5 events:

1. Leave your parents home.

2. Finish education/ vocational degree.

3. Start a career-track job vs. a dead-end job.

4. Meet/ marry a woman.

5. Have children.

My thoughts:

Not everyone is “called” to marry.
I agree that no transitional event marks when one becomes a man.
There is nothing wrong with marrying later in life.
Being single does not equal being irresponsible.
Playing videogames/ interest in videogames is not a sign of immaturity. Videogames are as valid as a hobby as sports. (I agree when Mark speaks of how dumb it is when people throw their lives away playing videogames.)

Your thoughts?

.: Life :

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” – President Franklin D. Roosevelt

.: Gaming :

Recently Syp over @ Bio Break had a great post that outlined a year of free-to-play MMO’s. This got me thinking, why not play an MMO a week? Sounds like the ultimate MMO tourist challenge to me! As you might have guessed from the header above, I have decided to play Maple Story this week. Time for some quirky Korean fun! Thoughts and comments will be shared in next week’s Surf Report (12/14/09). Stay tuned.

That is it for this weeks Surf Report. Make sure to comment below and have a good week!

Poll: Church Attendance

Guild Wars 2 – The Races of Tyria

An introductory video to the various races that dwell within the lands of Tyria.

Fiery Actions

As videogames progress as an art and hobby, the level of how much a game lets a player express himself has increased. Awhile back I was playing through Fallout 3 (which I did not finish as the scenario described below freaked me out) and came across a mission that I could just not resist.

I blew up the town…

What had started as an innocent trip to the local watering hole soon turned into a life changing event. The whole thing started when a man approached me about leveling the shanty town of Megaton to the ground. Seems the residents hadn’t been too smart in building the town around an undetonated atomic bomb. For my part, all I had to do was place a detonator on the bomb and get out of Dodge. Easy right? It was. I was actually surprised at how no one noticed me placing the detonator on the bomb. Not even the Church of the Atom fanatics, who were worshiping the weapon at the time I placed the detonator, did not notice me. Detonator in place, I made my way towards Pennington Tower…

Fortified, the tower was actually the remains of an old high rise building. Inside, I soon found out, lived people of wealth who paid for protection and sanctuary from the Capitol Wasteland. I climbed to the top of the tower, stepped out onto a balcony, and was told to detonate the bomb. The horizon was suddenly filled with a blinding flash. Megaton was no more. I had become a murderer. I had blood on my hands.

Save.

Quit Game.

The destruction of Megaton made me seriously consider the action/ consequence system of Fallout 3. You see, I play games to break them; I play games to see what they are made of and then see how far they will let me go. The problem with my gameplay style this time was that I had gone down the road the developers of the game wanted me to. I had done something I would never do in real life. I had killed virtual people in the plume of a fiery mushroom cloud. My past actions lead me to this weeks question:

Even though its just a game, when does a game go too far and if so, how far is too far?

Feel free to comment below.

Announcing Something New: JBG Blog

New experiences are a way of life – remember the last time you decided to try some sashimi and regretted it later? – . In order to further the Johnny B Gamer experience, we have decided to add a section dedicated to blogging. Here you will find links, videos, and thoughts that are not always going to be videogame related. Hopefully this will help facilitate discussion outside of our regularly scheduled content. Enjoy!