I'm Bored!

[grobelaar]

Quite happy at the moment, but also seem to be really bored too - looks like this job is gonna come to an end pretty soon - and I'm not sure if I can be arsed doing another computer game - I want something new and exciting...

Anyone got any ideas? Would be cool to get out of this fucking dump of a country (UK) - but I don't speak anything other than English - damn why don't they teach us any decent languages in the UK - its a fucking con to make us stay in this shitty get rich quicker rat-race hellhole... or maybe the grass is always greener...

Maybe I need some direction in life - instead of bouncing from opportunity to opportunity...

Bored, bored, bored... :!

[invisibleplanet]

i'm bored of bored people lol

[gunjack]

stop, you are boring me

[grobelaar]

You guys are really great, don't know what I'd do without you :)

[piscaries]

why don't you sign up to be a janitor for the antarctic research team? you can spend 6 months down in the cold cold antarctic and think and design and clean up other people's messes. could be interesing.. however it could be fairly boring...

[invisibleplanet]

it's probably just a fad you're going through, grobs lol

[piscaries]

lol

it's the new goth spin-off fad... we're not depressed, we're just bored. eeyyyh.

[aleks]

you have to learn to enjoy boredom...

i am really into being bored, it´s good fun!

[stu pitaus]

i think some unfrozened faggots will do the trick.

[JE:5]

All those lamp posts eh grobs? ;)

[jukka]

i wish i had some time to be bored.....

[gunjack]

Originally posted by stu pitaus
i think some unfrozened faggots will do the trick.



shall we invite the Doody's round then?

[Weishaupt]

u faggots boring me..............

[Weishaupt]

jes..that was a emergency!!!

[pille'ocheoni]

when im bored i get a job

[Sheridan]

Originally posted by pille'ocheoni
when im bored i get a job

that may be the most profound thing I have ever heard. :-p

[Sheridan]

when I am bored I change my avatar.
I change it quite a bit so I guess I am stuck in perpetual boredom.
think I will change it now.

[karitek]

yeah, all this avatar changing confuses me. just when i get used to what to look out for on the board, its all different. i'm more of a one avatar type gal.

[Thud]

dammit grob, im just thinking of getting into working in computer games cos my job is so boring (and ends on fri) and youre tellin me games are boring.

i always say if ur bored turn on the tv.

[invisibleplanet]

grobs...have u considered making a move into a more educational games/software arena?
u could then use your gaming skills to make something other than war or games for the kids to play with. golf and guns are hardly interesting for kids!
most games don't reflect the type of literature many children read...
there's no games which stimulate the a child's imagination that I can see.

My child wants a game where he can build in the virtual world.. robots...flying machines...a 'da vinci' dream.

Do these exist?

He also asked for an explorer game where he can climb everest, and explore ancient temples in the jungle, which isn't based on some pap nickelodeon cartoon, instead, base the characters on a profile of what a real child might be like.

[Thud]

that's some dream... a very nice one and the ideas for games are cool! but from what I've been reading up on it's just not going to happen at the moment¡ (unless you like your games with a strong Christian message in them too :)

There is a total flooding of the games market with the same old same old ,, no more getting excited about new games for kids,,,,, because they're all exactly the same as the one that came out 6 months ago with the same title, same graphics, same gameplay. I think about 90% of games at the moment fall into about 4 categories; strategy war games/first person shooter/driving games/platform games. When you think about what could be achieved from a narrative and graphical perspective in computer games, it amazes me that most companies will not risk going beyond variations on chess/hide&seek/actual driving/move the hook over the wire, etc.

The problem is that when developers made games back in the days of the 64 and 48k, they were often small budget affairs with loads of imagination and not much risk involved (I remember superdrug having an entire wall of 1.99 and 2.99 mastertronic games and it would get cleaned out every Saturday morning). Nowadays it all seems to be extremely high budget = low-imagination = low risk.

But I could be wrong as I really only have a cursory interest in c games

[grobelaar]

Interesting, could be rewarding - the war made me do a lot of finking – I’m not sure all these war toys and war games and stuff is really a good thing – they may be fun to make… but no gun, no soldiers = no war… male kids are told war is cool, so it’s a bit of a dilemma… Kids games could be good avenue to explore though...

Incidentally, speaking of Golf and Guns – I did have an idea to do a game called War Golf – its inspired by that old Gene Hackman film Bat 21 and that scene in Falling Down where Michael Douglas blows up the golf buggy with a shotgun…

But essentially you play a full round of golf in the middle of a war zone – they’ll be lots of war zones to choose from – Bosnia, the Gulf, Northern Ireland, The Congo, Colombia, Chechnya etc. You have to negotiate the 18 holes, watch out for the minefields, enemy gun positions, patrols of enemy golfers with exploding golf balls, booby traps and marauding US air strikes…

Should liven up what is fundamentally the dullest sport on the planet…

@Thud: Nah games is wikked – get in there – its lots of work though…

[JE:5]

Yeah, sounds cool
you should call it "Golf War" though. ;)

[grobelaar]

Originally posted by Thud
that's some dream... a very nice one and the ideas for games are cool! but from what I've been reading up on it's just not going to happen at the moment¡ (unless you like your games with a strong Christian message in them too :)

There is a total flooding of the games market with the same old same old ,, no more getting excited about new games for kids,,,,, because they're all exactly the same as the one that came out 6 months ago with the same title, same graphics, same gameplay. I think about 90% of games at the moment fall into about 4 categories; strategy war games/first person shooter/driving games/platform games. When you think about what could be achieved from a narrative and graphical perspective in computer games, it amazes me that most companies will not risk going beyond variations on chess/hide&seek/actual driving/move the hook over the wire, etc.

The problem is that when developers made games back in the days of the 64 and 48k, they were often small budget affairs with loads of imagination and not much risk involved (I remember superdrug having an entire wall of 1.99 and 2.99 mastertronic games and it would get cleaned out every Saturday morning). Nowadays it all seems to be extremely high budget = low-imagination = low risk.

But I could be wrong as I really only have a cursory interest in c games

Yeah, a lot of what you say is true, although personally I don’t think its game originality that is lacking – but good management and organisation – the general geek nature of the computer games industry means that vast quantities of money gets poured down the drain – Computer games is supposed to be doing better than ever, yet many publishers are turning in losses or low profits – this is because they are haemorrhaging money into the tons of dog-shit games that are churned out – which also dilutes the impact of the good titles.

Educational Games, I don’t know anything about I reckon it would be good though – none-competitive, exploratory, story telling games – hmmm, cheers for the pointer IP :-)

[phil]

I used to work for Blizzard, and did a lot of work on Diablo 2. I think working on fantasy games is ok. but real war games makes kids bad.

[decadnids]

you did stuff on Diablo.. what did you do phil?
war games, are weird thing.. I used to do a lot of war gaming...

[fiby]

come to Russia!!!!!(saint-petersburg)=)))
it`s so cool overthere!!!!!i`ll show you the city and stuff.....
we have great celebrations on 26-30 of may-300 anniversary!!!
it`d be really great!!!!!
don`t be bored!!!

[phil]

most of the work i did was on the game engine. I was the senior game designer. It was great fun.

[tsr_tomas]

when i´m bored i start to play laud punkmusic and drink lots of coffe... at tip !

[grobelaar]

Originally posted by phil
most of the work i did was on the game engine. I was the senior game designer. It was great fun.

Nice, so Phil have you heard from Stieg recently?

[phil]

yeah, a personal friend of the family. that guy has done soo much dmt!!! lovely guy. and amazing at maths

[amble]

Originally posted by phil
real war games makes kids bad.

honestly i doubt they do. it may be that they can work as sort of catalyst to people, but only if lots of other stuff is going very wrong in their lives too. otherwise there'd be snipers on every roof with that amount of gamers everywhere.

i see it like that: every person has a potential of negative energy and hate bubbling in his chest(surely even ghandi had) . so only thing that keeps you from going mental is to get rid off that energy from time to time. some do it by dancing the night away, some do sports, some like to beat up each other; so why not playing games to handle that problem - could be quite therapeutic as well don't you think?

[Sheridan]

I agree with amble. I think a lot of the war games and first person shooter games shouldn't really be played children, but I think that parents need to talk to their kids about the games that they play so that they can learn and understand that those games are just pretend. but to say that violent games make people commit crimes is absurd. I have played loads of grand theft auto and the like and I have never felt the urge to commit any of the acts dipicted in the game. also all you need to do is look to japan where most of the games are made and a lot of them violent. then look at their violent crime. it is one of the lowest in the world. so what kind of connection do you have?

[karitek]

Originally posted by invisibleplanet

My child wants a game where he can build in the virtual world.. robots...flying machines...a 'da vinci' dream.

Do these exist?


you should check out the sim's series...i am sure they've got something like that. hell i once even saw one (cant remember the name --something like 'sim party') where you created a party with djs, sound systems, etc and the object was to get people to dance...

[grobelaar]

I think perhaps people are taking my thoughts and running too far with them... I never said anything about portrayal of violence causing people to commit crimes. I simply mentioned that I have to question my involvement in creating wargames and creating toys and games for children who's basic premise is that of war and violence.

However, to address this rather sticky issue of portrayal of violence and crime in the media. there is of course very little evidence to suggest that media portrayal of violence can affect people's behaviour and there's a very good reason for this...

Consider that most western nations count their retail and lesiure industries as a very large provider of cash, jobs and prosperity - admitting that media may in fact affect people's behaviour would be a fundamental blow to the marketing and advertising industry that supports this consumer culture.

Of course media affects people's behaviour to suggest otherwise is ridiculous - everytime you buy a can of Coca-Cola you've been 'affected' by media... The entire advertising industry would be a waste of time if you couldn't affect people with cleverly arranged images and sounds.

Its my opinion that I think images in the media can affect people, its not a whole answer and I'm sure there are many contributing factors involved (particularly in cases of violence). Personally I get afffected by things I see, I have quite a vivid imagination and has been known to come up with some pretty sick shit. I have to question whether some of that stuff would have occurred had I not exposed myself to certain images, ideas and concepts. I have to question people who say that the portrayal of violence affects people's behaviour or even causes them to be violent, as you have as little evidence to support your claim as I have to support mine. However, there are a series of institutions whose mere existence supports my view - the advertising industry and Film Censorship/Classification boards to name a couple.

I feel that people support this view as they feel to do otherwise would compromise their freedoms.

[grobelaar]

Originally posted by karitek


you should check out the sim's series...i am sure they've got something like that. hell i once even saw one (cant remember the name --something like 'sim party') where you created a party with djs, sound systems, etc and the object was to get people to dance...

Hmm, I wouldn't recommend the Sims for kids - its more of an adults social voyeurism game - lacks the imagination and fantasy to engage kids...

[invisibleplanet]

I think the beauty of games is that you have an arena whereby the impossible can become virtual reality.

To give a chance to test drive your imagination or creativity without even spending one iota on materials would be fantastic.

All the physical laws would need to be preprogrammed into the 'game' so that all materials would behave as closely as possible to the real thing, then, maybe some other planetary laws such as wind direction etc, leaving one 's virtual self to build whatever their imagination wants....like a jetpack to get out of congested London, perhaps?

I don't think games are directly responsible for the ills of the world. That's probably related to self-disipline and ethical understanding (or lack of), however I do think they can exacerbate behaviour in pre-teen children.

[Sheridan]

a good sim type game that would go well for kids is animal crossing for the gamecube. certainly loads of fun.

[invisibleplanet]

if u want evidence to support the relation between increased violent behaviour after viewing media violence....

there's LOADS!

[grobelaar]

Originally posted by Sheridan
a good sim type game that would go well for kids is animal crossing for the gamecube. certainly loads of fun.

Surely, more commonly known as Frogger... :-)

Haven't seen it myself - but I think a big barrier for kids game is the obsession with 3D engines - kids are only just getting used to 'interfacing' with the real world - without having to get their heads around complicated and probably what in the future will be seen as somewhat naive attempts at a virtual world.

The best kids games are usually abstract - and most western developers don't make abstract games - I suspect this is because they can't get over the whole silliness of them - yet western developers look on in awe at games like Tetris, Puzzle-Bobble and Mr Driller, yet I bet most of them laugh until the cows come home at every potenetial abstract game concept.

[Yer_Maw]

what a game that was.

[invisibleplanet]

i worry that computer sim games are taking humanity down a
'fahrenheit 451' path, where sim life is more stimulating than real life, and books are laid aside for more immediate gratification.

of course, I worry about alot of other things too.....like the lack of windpower in our fair isles....and what will happen to intercontinental travel once oil is exhausted.

[Loz]

I'm writing a computer game, at the moment, actually. Very hush-hush right now. Time to completition will be probably 3 years, since I have a fulltime job, but it's slowly coming along.

I don't think I'd be able to do stuff for kids, I write, too, but all my stuff is dark, depressing and sometimes very psychological. Not great kid reading.


As for my avatar, I changed it once, when Bush started blowing people up, and it was requested to be changed back. And here it remains.

"Mein Fuhrer! I can valk!"

[grobelaar]

Originally posted by invisibleplanet
i worry that computer sim games are taking humanity down a
'fahrenheit 451' path, where sim life is more stimulating than real life, and books are laid aside for more immediate gratification.

of course, I worry about alot of other things too.....like the lack of windpower in our fair isles....and what will happen to intercontinental travel once oil is exhausted.

A lot of hardcore gamers have this pale pallid complexion, which caused me to theorise that their may be some sort of undiscovered vitamin necessary to human well-being, well its more of a meta-vitamin. It works a bit like Vitamin D, in that sitting out in the sun replenishes your Vitamin D.

However, my Meta-Vitamin is replenished by exposing yourself to reality or realities, without it you begin to literally slither off reality. Hardcore gamers suffer as they replace their reality with poorly made artificial realities of computer games, which like many synthetic drugs have severe side-effects - hence the pallid skin and ability to survive off junk food for decades... They get stuck in this cycle, getting immersed in some game binging on some reality then they sloth about a bit waiting for the sequel - they try playing it again - but its not the same hit.

What they don't realise is that if they just went out in the real world they'd feel fine :)

[Sheridan]

Originally posted by invisibleplanet
there's LOADS!

then would you care to share it.
because I have yet to see a study to definitively and beyond any shadow of a doubt prove that violence in the media causes violent behaviour.

[Loz]

Originally posted by invisibleplanet
of course, I worry about alot of other things too.....like the lack of windpower in our fair isles....and what will happen to intercontinental travel once oil is exhausted.

Airships.

I live around the corner from Cardington Hangers, home of the fated R101. Now home to Airship Group Technologies. Their latest airships are bloody massive, about twice as fast as a train, and about the same cost in fuel as a heavy goods vehicle per mile. And that's right now. Imagine what they'll be like when we run out of fossil fuels?

[Loz]

Originally posted by grobelaar


A lot of hardcore gamers have this pale pallid complexion, which caused me to theorise that their may be some sort of undiscovered vitamin necessary to human well-being, well its more of a meta-vitamin. It works a bit like Vitamin D, in that sitting out in the sun replenishes your Vitamin D.

However, my Meta-Vitamin is replenished by exposing yourself to reality or realities, without it you begin to literally slither off reality. Hardcore gamers suffer as they replace their reality with poorly made artificial realities of computer games, which like many synthetic drugs have severe side-effects - hence the pallid skin and ability to survive off junk food for decades... They get stuck in this cycle, getting immersed in some game binging on some reality then they sloth about a bit waiting for the sequel - they try playing it again - but its not the same hit.

What they don't realise is that if they just went out in the real world they'd feel fine :)


Going outside is fun. Especially with other people.

[invisibleplanet]

Originally posted by Sheridan


then would you care to share it.
because I have yet to see a study to definitively and beyond any shadow of a doubt prove that violence in the media causes violent behaviour.

http://www.academicarmageddon.co.uk/library/EURO.htm


sheridan...there ARE are many contradictory theories!
however, as far as I understood it, the theory where homicide increases after every boxing match holds true for the UK, as well as the USA.

Interestingly, most people who sit at home and watch tv, don't then go out and commit violent acts, but, (and here's the rub), most violence is actually commited in the household itself, and the only way to measure this is if reports of it have been made. As far as I understand. most people don't report 'at-home' violence.

[Sheridan]

quite a bit of reading for me to do right now (working on other things) but I will certainly check it out! thanks.

[Sheridan]

Originally posted by invisibleplanet
as far as I understood it, the theory where homicide increases after every boxing match holds true for the UK, as well as the USA.


now why did you have to bring up the murder of tupac like that!:)

[invisibleplanet]

i didn't realise!

i think most people have a grip on themselves, and don't fell inspired to commit violent copycat style acts which they might experience through watching passive tv, or playing games, however, there are always those people who are too young to control themselves, or as already mentioned, have a predisposition to violence anyway.

i must be bored! quoting a-level psych at u lol

[dirtyho]

@ invisible planet

"if u want evidence to support the relation between increased violent behaviour after viewing media violence....

there's LOADS!"

true, but mostly discredited i.e. the bobo doll experiments
human behaviour is far too complicated to support simple
"cause and effect" "stimulus and response" type theories
of reception/action to cultural products, this is the problem of medical/scientific methodologies applied to the reception of cultural artefacts ordiscourses - they produce artificially proscriptive theories

however some people probably do react directly to such stimuli
this is the problem with theories, they are often applied universally when they are only valid in very specific circumstances

[emef]

i see this thread has run and run, how are you feeling now grobelaar
still bored?
or feeling a little more energised?

[stu pitaus]

i think this whole thread is boring, ive barely read any of it. for some reason i feel like hooking my xbox back up now tho...

[Weishaupt]

xbox is very boring..like playstation and other stuff like that..........

[LEFTHANDLOU]

I think the world needs more BOOZE and more GUNS
Then Grob would not be bored, because he would have to constantly look over his shoulder to make sure there are no drunks with guns. :)
I also think that the drinking age law is crap, I mean think about it, you got kids wasting their best drinking years reading books, and sitting in classes. what a waste.

[LEFTHANDLOU]

I also think that the Police force is not necessary. I mean everyone always says that People are generally good natured. we don't need no stinking cops.
And don't get me started on speed limits. I mean if everyone was speeding all the time, then there would be no traffic, and people would not be late, and the world would be more productive, Right?

Also I think dumb people should be shot, then there is no risk of them reproducing, and messing the world up for the rest of us obviously inteligent folk. I mean come on people, do we want the world to be over run by morons? I say attack the problem at the source.

[stu pitaus]

you live in LA LHL... thats how the west coast was started. tryin to keep it real in 2003?

[LEFTHANDLOU]

Word!, you know how we do. The streetz iz Hot! :)
And you know we don't love them hoes.;)

Why I just put the bitch slap down on someone that was set trippin,
but keep that on the low low, aint no need fo the po po

[LEFTHANDLOU]

Not to mention I be crip walkin fo sho :)

[stu pitaus]

aight den playa playa. doan trip. do dat dare. dolla dolla bill yo n a whole lotta hydro.