I now have an emerging group of players in WOW.  We are not yet a Guild but we function much like a guild, which means that we work towards the better of everyone in the group.  The outcome is that we share our resources.  One of the resources is potions as we have a lunatic herbalist who is harvesting and making potions well above his level (the herbs he needs now are in very dangerous areas for him).  Let me tell you, these are FINE potions, which enhances the users attributes such as +4 to strength or +250 to armour.  The list goes on.  

We have been the beneficiary of the diligent work by our herbalist and alchemist who is also very giving because he does not take the drugs he produces (the secret of success for real life drug dealers? LOL).  With these potions, however, we can now take on higher level opponents.  In WOW, when you level, as in going from level 20 to level 21 as an example, you gain +1 in Strength, +1 in Agility etc....  Now imagine a potion that gives your character +4 to strength.  +4 is not a lot until you put it in the context that it takes 4 levels to gain a permenant attribute of +4 strength.  I have often bragged about how much higher the level of mob I am taking down - last count 5 level higher.  On a normal setting without the potions, I can take down a mob that is 3 level higher than me.  If it is 4 level higher than me, I will die before I kill it.  With drugs, I can do as high as 5 levels up!

Now, Stu and I, the two major beneficiary of Rob's deligent hardwork and his designer drugs, cannot go out without drugs anymore.  We are addicted.  If we go out without the potion buffs, it feels like we are going out naked.  The drugs makes us perform better - above our capabilities.  It is not hard to see why drug abuse in world class atheltes is rampant.  Once you use it, it is hard to walk away.  Drug addiction is a reality of WOW just like the real world   The funny conversation between Stu and I when we play together is asking each other for drugs - ROFL.  "Do you have an armour hit?" our favourite drug.

People will look for information that support their view and discard information contrary to their position.  I believe I am no different  except I think I am always right or seldom wrong - LOL.  Here is a story supporting my view on how XBox 360 would fare against the PS3.  Hallelujah! 

The integration of XBox to PC is a HUGE advantage for Microsoft over Sony.  Ultimatley, if the vision comes true, consoles will be able to play against PCs - And, I will put to rest once and for all that the PC gaming is the best gaming platform as I KICK the ARSE off my console friends.  They will not know what hit them.  Only time will tell   And I can hardly wait. 

China's home grown MMOG (massive multiplayer on-line game) Yulang has reached 9 million users in just 2 months.  BUT, they make no money on the sale of the game or the on-line connection.  They make money from the sales of virtual assets like IGE.  Bottom line - they make no money compared to WOW (World of Warcraft).  The math for WOW is about $600 million in subscription fees and $140 million in product sales.  This does not include the virtual auction market going through IGE and Ebay etc.... 

I did write a while back on the mobile opportunity in China.  Last year at CTIA 2004 at the China Mobile Symposium, China had 260 million mobile subscriber.  The total net income of all the mobile operators is a small fraction of the US market with a smaller mobile population, which I concluded that there is no money to be made in China. 

The economics in Asia is so different than North America or Europe.  It is a high volume game with razor thin margins.  But, China is adopting mobile technology that is ahead of Europe and North America.  They already have mobile commerce with over 300 million Golden Wallets.  Of course, it is a State related initiative.

If we broaden our definition of gaming to the gambling space(the gambling sites like to call themselves gaming companies too), Party Poker generated close to half a billion dollars on the bottom line.  It is a 4 year old company, folks.  On-line poker is a game of skill and chance.  Skill will prevail over the long run.  So, we should view Poker on-line as a type of MMOG.  This is where the rainbow comes down to the pot of gold

In the evolution of gaming, with availability of broadband, MMOG is beginning to take momentum.  An interesting article on Eve On Line illustrates some of the game dynamics of the future in MMOG.  Closer to home, the success of WOW is all the validation needed to confirm this is one of the new gaming trend we should see grow in the space of gaming.   

Last Saturday night, 4 married middle aged men got permission from their wives for a Boys' Night out.  No, we are not going to the bar or your local pool hall or poker room -  we are getting together on the Internet.  This is the new boys night out.

If you could see my face, you see a "BIG GRIN."  I had a fantastic weekend of WOW.   I had arrange the first get together between 4 friends to do a WOW Instance ( a really hard quest where the monsters have 3X more life and are more powerful than the normal garden variety).  This is the first level Instance attack plan by moi.  The group have been working towards Saturday night.  The Herbalist was making potions, the leathermaker was busy with crafting armour and the blacksmithing was busy making axes for everyone. 

At 9:30 PM we met on WOW and started our preparation to go inside RageFire Chasm.  The Elites were Level 13 to Level 16.  We were Level 18, Level 15 and Level 14 (moi).  We got Skype running in the background and we were all conference in.  We spent about 2 hours slowly working our way to the end of this Elite Dungeon where there was a Level 16 Elite as the end game.  By my experience of good measure of how good you are as a player, you should be able to take down an Elite 3 level below you.  So, we did not have a player that could do that.  But, we have two others slightly below the Elite Boss.  We tried 3 times unsuccessfully.  

Finally, the 4th player who was suppose to join us did after the Saturday Hockey Night ended.  We conference him in and off we go.  Other than the fourth player had been drinking while watching hockey, the real problem became apparent to moi.  I was hosting the conference call on Skype maxing out the conference call capabilities to four participants.  As we were inside the Instance, I experience latency of 5 seconds or more.  I kept saying "It's really laggy."  But, no one else was experiencing what I was going through so I kept playing.  We were unsuccessful, which is the result of latency in my system and poor player execution. 

Skype was great for 3 players or less.  Once we added the fourth player, the PC acting as the conference server came to a crawl.  We found this out after everyone started to listen to my complain of lagginess.  We switched the conference hosting to the fourth player who had the most powerful PC and his PC came to a crawl.  The solution for this weekend is to host the Skype conference call on another PC that is separate.  Hey, every gamer should have at least 3 PC at home   I have 2 PCs and 2 Notebooks  

The real solution is to find a VOIP conference service than can hook-up 10 players .  If anyone knows of a free solution for this problem, please let me know - I am all ears.

I have been meaning to post on WOW but I have been too busy enjoying the game.  About a couple of weeks ago, I earned my first honour point in the game.  WOW is basically divided into two groups - The Horde (Orcs, Tauren, Trolls and Undead) and The Alliance (Humans, Dwarfs, Elfs and Gnomes).  As part of the game, you can go on a raid on towns on the other side/group.  Once you attack the town of another group (such as Humans versus Orcs), you are now open to attack by the locals).

My buddy and I were doing a number of Quest as an Orc (Horde group) when we noted that our Quest giver was killed by some Dwarfs (Alliance group).  When our Quest giver, a computer character, was killed by these Dwarfs, my friend was very upset because we now have to wait for our Quest giver to respawn, which could take a while - so, we are now wasting time because of these Alliance folks.  We did see a Dwarf and my buddy wanted to kill him because of what was done.  A quick scan by me noted there were a few of these Alliance characters in the background, which meant that there is support.

We backed off and continued our quest tasks.  A half hour later, deep into the quests, we saw this dwarf again.  Apparently, he has been following us.  But this time, his friends were no where to be seen and there were now 3 of us instead of 2.  We can smell FEAR and a sure kill was only seconds away.  You can see the Dwarf trying to find a way out of his predicament.  

The 3 of us circled him and closed in.  When he tried to run, we chased him down and was put out to pasture in 10 seconds.  I could feel the adrenaline flowing as we closed in on him and the sense that this is a sure kill.  It was not going to be a fair fight.  What gave it an extra edge was that we knew there was a real person behind that Dwarf who did not want to die.  He did not have a chance and the attack was fast and brutal.  Once we disposed of him, we got an honour point for defending our Land.

All in all it was a harmless experience except for the fact that the act was ruthless and we extracted great pleasure from it.  This is very disturbing for me - a self professed pacifist.

I first took note of Korea's entry into the digital world in 1999 when news of their on-line gaming community being the largest in the world.  Linage is a Korean MMOG, which today enjoys close to 3 million participants. 

This week Korea announced their entry into the VOIP world with a splash.  They have implemented a 07 dialing VOIP prefix to all Korean land-line telephone numbers.   Korea is reported to have above 70% penetration of broadband, which is a hugely amazing numbers.

The World Cyber Games (affectionatley know to gamers as WCG)  staretd in Korea and is now touring the world.  Last year, this event was held in LA.  It is in Singapore this year.  The professional gaming industry started in Korea where the top gamers are paid large sums of money and treated like rock stars. 

The gaming nation had some very sad news today.  A 28 year old man died after 50 hours of continous on-line gaming.   Let's hope he was not playing WOW.

Not disclosing too much, I found out last night my RABID behaviour on WOW is nothing at all compared to an Alcatel engineer.  Apparently, this guy has taken a 5 week vacation to play WOW - ROFL!!!  I have done many years ago but it was only 4 weeks and it was only the weekends (total all weekend gaming with Diablo).  But, the 5 weeks is not the kicker.  This guy actually met a woman from playing WOW.  They had teamed together and kept in touch and than later met and than spent time together travelling.  WOW!!! Now this is what I call and ALL SINGING ALL DANCING GAME - Wooooohoooooo! 

The carnage of WOW on the gamers' life is well documented on the Net.  It is kinda of sad.  I did read one yesterday on how he has had enough of the stupid game.  He is quitting his Level 51 Paladin.  He noted that he is looking forward to planning a real weekend in the real world.  My advice to him would be to play a different character and get a different view of the game.  Than, return to the Level 51 Paladin when he feels refreshed.  This is what I am doing ;-)  Each type of character requires a very different approach.  My Mage is a long range melee type.  I am playing a Tauren who is a warrior with range capabilities.  The style is very different, which makes the game interesting.  But, the end game here is to develop a Level 60 character. 

On a side note, I just recieved an email with a URL to

http://www.steampowered.com/status/survey.html

Below is an excerpt form an article published in the Economist. 

“It's just a generational divide,” says Gerhard Florin, the European boss of Electronic Arts, the world's biggest games publisher. “It's people not knowing what they are talking about, because they have never played a game, accusing millions of gamers of being zombies or violent.” Digital natives who have played video games since childhood already regard them as a form of entertainment on a par with films and music. Older digital natives now have children of their own and enjoy playing video games with them.

This is an interesting chart.  Most of my gaming partners/buddies are well over 40+ years of age.  We represent the 43% of the market. 

It is not hard to figure out who is how old when you game in a multiplayer environment.  The kids are the ones running around (LOL).  The old guys are the ones who move purposefully   And, just chat and you will figure it out right away from the conversation. 

For those who play WOW, Blizzard is looking for beta testers.  You will need to have at least one Level 60 character.  You can work from home in the wee hours of the morning.  Sounds like a great job, eh? Vince?  He has 2 level 60 characters   - way too much time on the game,dude.

As for me, the weekend was suppose to be a WOW fest because the family is at summer camp.  That was the plan.  But, I ended up helping my WOW buddy finish a quest I did in 20 minutes but it took him a full day of gaming.  We had to do the quest 3 times to get it right.  This is one of the game interesting dynamics on partnership.  When someone help you to get what you want they are investing their time for you.  When you achieve what you want, are you willing to help them get what they want?  Usually, that is the right thing to do.

My character is now Level 26.  I had plan on reaching Level 30 by last night (LOL).  That was a grand plan.  But, I did manage to complete my first Elite Quest - Pyrewood Village.  This was the village where my buddy and I was taught a lesson on Elite Quest.  We got killed twice in no more than a minute of melee each time.  I return with a bunch of players ( 4 or 5).  It was one of the best battles to date for me.  When the group works, it is a sight to behold.  Everyone knows their duty, which is protect me the Mage  cause I have the BIG GUN (big HP on the fireball).  At the end, we were in a room with 6 or 7 attackers.  We were overwhelmed by surprise.  The battle ended with my Mage casting an ice storm (area spell that covers the melee scene), which destroyed all the baddies.  One of our team died seconds before the battle was won.  As a result, he did not finished the quest.  We waited for him to get back.  He asked us if we would help him finished the quest, which mean we would have to hang around and repeat the challenging situation one more time.  We all said "Yes."  There is a sense of camaraderie, which is always a GREAT FEELING.  

On Sunday afternoon, I had my 3.5 year old daughter sitting on my lap as I was showing her WOW - yes, its true.  I had made up a female character for her called the BluePrincess.  We were running around throwing fireballs at wolves when someone whispered to our Blueprincess "Will you take off your clothes for me?"  I was shocked that such a request came.   I ignored him.  He was persistent.  "I will play you for it," he whispers again.  (Whisper is a private mode of communication between players.)  I was totally shocked - a sexual predator on WOW.  Maybe, I should not be.

There have been discussions as to whether female players are really female players.  I for one subscribed to "You have to be a bit strange to want to play a female character when you are a male in real life."  But here I am, playing a beautiful female character and being proposed by some guy."  I have to admit it was fun until I was propositioned.  You know what - I get a lot of help from the strong masculine characters more often than my other male characters that I have played.  More than a few times when my female character was way over her head and going down when another player (male) would run up and finish the job off for me - very nice.  I bow and smile for such gallant acts.

On levelling up, my Undead Mage is now Level 23 - (there you go Vince - progress).  At this pace, which is about 2 to 4 hours per level, I have at least 80 to 100 hours to Level 60.  I need to do this in 1.5 months (my account runs out).   Levelling up is getting more efficient as I now locate where the quest are via the Internet and waste no time looking around.  The key is to keep maintenance and travel time to a minimum. 

BTW, my daughter response when she first saw her character was "I don't like her dress."  "Why?" I asked.  "I don't like the colour."  It was a good thing she could not read as we played together and goofhead was whispering for a stripper. 

I don't usually post any information on private companies I have visited.  But, I will make a special case for Immersion, social software for social minds   Immersion has their showcase project at Expo 2005 in Japan for the Canadian Pavilion.  They have created virtual cities of Canada with an MMOG (massive multi-player on-line games) platform.  It is different because Immersion have embed multimedia along with all the other MMOG stuff (see other people visiting cyber-Vancouver, etc..).  What is cool is the seamless blending and transitions between different media types all on one screen.  There have created a sort of mod-heaven Sim with RSS hooks and hooks to a bunch of other services like Flickr. 

That's Rodney, the CTO, who is also a gamer by the way   Yes, he has played WOW.  And, he thinks WOW is head and shoulder above the other MMOG.  Oh yeah, baby!  I told him that I did help connect them to some industry player if he hops on WOW's Dreanor Realm as an Undead Priest - LOL!!!

Jokes aside, these guys have an interesting product in my view.  I have yakked about the social implications of the Internet (cyberworld) and current trends such as blogging when I started this site.  Immersion is creating a parallel cyber replication of our real world in cyberspace.  I can see a reality Sim in the making   Here is a question for you?  What is the Number selling PC game of all time?  If you don't know, you would never guess the title. 

BTW, picture was taken with the Treo 650 camera - not bad for a low res camera phone, eh? 

Have you ever have the feeling of power and that you can do anything?  absolute power is a wonderful and intoxicating feeling  even though its only in cyberspace.

Last night, I jumped back into WOW to level up.  I met up with my buddy when he came on and we did our thing - kill bad arse monsters.  Half way through, we returned back to town and got house keeping stuff done (sell loot and fix weapons etc...).   As we were leaving, a player came up to us and ask us to help him.  He was a level 14 and we are level 19 and 20.  "What do you want?" I asked.  I need help with "Investigate Amberville."  I replied, "We just did that."  "Please" he begged.  This player is a kid  

We agreed to help him and invited him to our group of two, which is now three.  Merrily we ran to Amberville.  Along the way, I found a couple more level 15 running along with us.  I invited them.  We are now a group of 5   It is a little army.  I invited everyone so I am the leader (I am also the highest rank in this group).  "Hey, why don't we do an elite quest?" I asked the group (knowing many of the lower levels will die).  The feeling of Power is undeniable and intoxicating. 

This feeling of power is trivial, I am sure, to a buddy of mine who was a beta tester of WOW.  The beta testers form a Guild called the Permafrost Guild and they were the first to complete the game is a few weeks.  Using a raiding horde of 40 players, they quickly put an end to the toughest Instances (real bad shit which guaranteed death to a single player).  The developers of WOW actually had to change some of the rules because of this group - heeheehee.

Back to the entertaining evening - working with a group is also a problem just like in real life.  We spend too much time debating what we are going to do - and time is precious for me.  The evening was fun as a group of players enter the killing zones and laid waste to the landscape.  We do not have to run around and hide and be sneaky.  We just walked in and blast everything that moved.   The players in the group were looking after each other and helping each other was also an amazing feeling. 

I made a friend last night - the kid who begged us to help him.  After helping him with the quest, I uninvited him from the group.  The poor kid was broken.  "Why?" he cried.  "Because, you are useless.  You do nothing and we do everything for you," I shot back at him.  I had watched him and he would sit back and waited for us to take out the monsters before he even strike.  I invited him back and after my buddy left we level together.  He was OK!  I guess he was over whelmed with two much higher characters and did not have the chance to show his abilities.  We work well as a team and he looked after me as much as I looked after him.  We ended at 11:30 PM.  "Where are you from?" I asked before we logged off.  "Rhode Island,"  he relied.   "Same time tomorrow night? he asked.  "Yeah," I answered with a smile.

Getting acquainted with WOW in the summer is a BAD idea.  Into my second week of WOW, I now have my Undead Mage at Level 19 - there are 60 levels, which means I am a third of the way there (in reality it is a lot further away as each level progressively takes longer to complete). 

New game experience this weekend was meeting my first Elite quest at Pyrewood Village.  My buddy, Graham, and I have been running around laying waste to all the bad arse monsters.  And than, we got to Pyrewood Village.  The first thing we saw were a group of players outside the village standing around (you know real players by the blue name tags on their characters).  Till now, my buddy and I have been doing well and itching for something more challenging.  We moved into the village, with the attitude of let us show you folks how it is done, and within a minute we were DEAD.  Dying in the game is a BIG PAIN in the butt because you have to get back to your body with your spirit and that takes time - wasted time.  You think we figured it out?  No, we went back in only to be promptly DESTROYED in 30 seconds.  Ah... we get it.  Elite Quest - that is something for a big group of players.  It appears that the only way we are going to accomplish what we want is to go in with a larger group that is coordinated.  I have not played Rainbow Six and the likes.  I imagine it to require very similar skill sets - team work. 

I like to game.  Playing alone has never been a problem and playing with someone was at first a bit off centered.  I have to keep track of where my buddy is and what he is doing.  The first few times we were all over the place and I ended up dying a lot (mage is notorious for dying under melee conditions as they are weak and like to fight their battles over a long distance with ranged attacks).  Now, we work as a team.  As a warrior, my buddy goes in first to engage the enemy (big bad monsters ;-)  and I back him up with range attacks and cover him if two or more monsters team up on him.  Finally, at 10 PM last night, he had to hop because he has to get up very early for work on Monday (6 AM - 3 PM).  All of a sudden, I found myself alone in WOW.  With someone at your side, we always feel stronger and more invincible - maybe its a herd mentality   It took an hour or so before I got back to the one person mode of gaming. 

In all of this, I always try to appreciate the finer points of game design - what makes one game so much better than another?  It all comes down to User Interface (UI).  And, unfortunately, this is a learning curve for new players.  The Diablo interface became a defacto UI for RPG (Role Playing Game).  Mastering Warcraft III controls is critical in winning (it took my 2 years to get all the tricks of the trade).  Here is an interesting article on PC controls versus Consoles.  This is an ongoing debate as to which is better.   Another gaming buddy of mine, an IP lawyer, is a RABID XBox fan.  I have an XBox and I say that the PC gamers will frag the living day lights out of the console gamers.  There is now way the console can aggregate controls the way PC can. 

I have resisted trying out Massive Multiplayer On-Line Game (MMOG) because I do not believe in paying for the software and than another $10 per month to play it.  UNTIL, someone showed me what World of Warcraft (WOW) was all about.  WOW was developed by one of the world best PC Gaming development group in the world - Blizzard.  On the World Cyber Games (Olympics of PC Gaming), they have two titles out of 8 tournament games. 

World of Warcraft is a Role Playing Game (RPG).  You pick a character be it an Elf, Human, Orgs or the Undead race.  You can choose to be a female or male, you hair style, face, etc...  You get the picture.  And than, you run around levelling up.  It is exactly like Diablo, which is one of my all time favourite game.  Most of the RPG in the market stole most of the game interface (how you run, fight and od things in the game) from Diablo.

While it is a Diablo like game (and it should be because Blizzard also created Diablo), you are playing in an enviroment where there are literally tens of thousands of real people also running around.  It is a virtual world.  It will take months to discover the four corners of this cyber world.  It is very very big.

The graphics are not as good as what you should expect for a non-networked game.  Let's say that there is no comparison to the level of graphics in DOOM 3 or Half-Life 2.  But, it is good enough for you to stop every so often to just enjoy the lush scenery.

A few new things happened that I have not experience on PC gaming. 

1.  Comradeship.  As you move up the levels the monsters become tougher and they all attack at the same time.  You need to partner up with someone and work as a team of 2 or more players.  Occasionally, someone running along sees you getting in trouble and throws a healing spell or help you takeout the monsters.  This is the really cool part of the game as it shows the good side of humanity - lend a helping hand whenever possible.

2. People come up to you and interact in a way that I have not interacted in PC gaming.  A female character came up to my Druid Elf and started dancing in front of me.  "Do you have any money?" she asked.  Sounds familiar   "Well, I need more than that!"  She laid down on the ground.  "Now what?" I ask.  "Lie down beside me," she replies.   I did.  She said "69" with a smile.  I gave her 10 copper pieces and she ran off saying that is not enough for the dagger she wanted to buy.  Cyber hookers

3. Like in the real world, there are also beggars.  I invited a player to join me last night.  I needed help becuase my undead mage was up against some very tough monsters that are resistant to magic.  The other player was a warrior who can take a beating.  After playing for 15 to 20 minutes, he asked me "How many hearts do I have?"  Once I figured out what he was asking, I said "Yeah, I got one."  Than, this guy, or kid, started to beg.  "Can I have it? Please?"  I felt sorry for him because I had eneded with winning a lot of good items (we roll the dice to see who get to keep the really cool items when you are playing as a team).  I gave him my heart because I only had one and he had 5 and needed two more to complete his quest.  Beggars.

4.  I have to go home now and level up

Harharharhar..... 

I have taken psychology at University but that does not make me an expert.  I am a competitive swimmer (varsity level) and I have coached a swim club.  This gives me an insights into what it takes to win in competitive sports. 

At the level the top atheletes compete in such as the Olympics, World Chamionships etc...  the atheltes are essentially at the same level of physical competence, fitness and talent.  While there are exceptions, such as Alex Bauman (200 IM and 400 IM world record holder), Salinokov (1,500m world record holder), and the aussie kid (whose name escape me right now), most of the swimmers are at the same level.  The men I have mentioned, however, are in a different league all by themselves.  What make them so different?

Valdimir Salinokov is the first person to go under 15 minutes for the 1,500m free.  For 3 Olympics, he would lead the field of world class swimmer by at least a full length of the 50m pool at the end of the race.  His coach said that Salinokov feels no pain - I believe that much like Lance Armstrong.  But once the 15 minute barrier has been broken, more swimmers began to go under the barrier.

While Salinokov and Armstrong are in a league of their own, most Interntional swimmers are at the same level.  The only thing that diffentiates them is their mental attitude - a desire to be the best. 

The funniest story on the psychology of winning was by Don Schollander, US world record holder of the 400m free in the 60s.  At one meet with his nemesis in the lane next to him, Don purposely false started and dove into his opponents swimming lane.  As he got out of the pool, he said to his opponent "Have a good swim.  I just pissed in your lane."  Don won that race as his opponent no doubt taught about what Schollaner said and that was the diffence between winning and loosing.

I bring all of this back to gaming and what it takes to win.  I did played the guy whom I destroyed convincingly last week on a 4 to 1 ratio.  The table turned last Friday and this time I lost badly - not because I was bad but because I was not focused on winning.  After a 5 to 0 rubbing, anger was a motivator to focus, which turned the tide.  I did note I had the fastest lap times but I still lost because I was not consistent. 

Gaming is not just a source of entertainment and mental excercise.  With out moving (except for my hands and fingers), my heart rate when I am gaming can reach 190 bpm.  I can sweat just from an intense gaming session.   For the winners, they would have exhibited control over the game, consistency, and creativeness.  One definition of "Intelligence" is the presence of "discipline" and "creativeness."  Discipline is the ability to learn and master the subject matter.  Creativeness is the ability to dynamically adapt changes in the environment to your advantages.  I have seen this in the World Champions in WarCraft.  Ultimately, gaming is a way we define our own abilities and limitations at the same time having fun at it.

I have dived into XBox's Burnout - Takedown the last week logging 20+ hours for a total of 40+ hours to date.  But hey! I am now winning!

My buddy who beat me two weeks ago took a beating last Saturday as I won 4 out of 5 times and it was not even close.  The week before he was better than me.  20 hours of pratice and it was Game Over for him.  What does it takes to win?

For about 4 or 5 days I was stucked to one track.  I need to place 1st to get more tracks and new cars.  I was stuck at 18% completion for the game.  This is what you call FRUSTRATION.

With practice, I must have done this one track more times than I care to count - north of 25 times.  As I try and try again, my driving skills improved and I got to know the track really well.  But, this was not enought to win.

On the game I won, I did let it all hang out - as in, this is all I have BABY and it's all or nothing.  I did not hold back and was on the attack the whole time.  My mind was suspended in time and if my house was on fire and I would not notice.  Every moment of the game was focused on finishing first. 

Warcraft  is a game dear to my heart and I am good at it having logged north of 700+ hours (I don't need much sleep folks ) over the last 3 years.  I did loose a lot in the beginning.  When I finally started to win against humans and the Computer at the INSANE level, I had adopted the strategy of "I am going to KILL you.  Your arse is mine."  Prior to this mindset, I did think about strategy and defense and build.  Now I have only one thought in my mind - to build a army as fast as I can to destroy my opponent.  To win you need to master the controls and have a singular purpose - winning.

So? You may ask?  What is your point?

Having gamed, I did look at an accomplished gamer as someone who can solve problems and do it with unresolved focus to get the job done.  I think those are pretty good traits - don't you? 

Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus and we cannot live without each other - we did be extinct if we did.  Here is another study on gaming.  Other than the obvious that men play video games more than women, it is interesting that 40% of household in the US have some form of gaming set-up - WOW!  8% have all three consoles XBox, GameCube and PlayStation 2.   

Here is my comment on the difference or lack of it between men and women.  My wife does not understand how I can sit in front of a piece of metal for hours.  "What do you get from it?" she asks.  Than one day after my wife talked for a couple of hours on the phone with a friend, I asked her what she talked about? "Nothing much," she answered.  "Oh, it is just like gaming," I replied.    Exactly....

Here is a good article on World of Warcraft and why it is doomed to fail even thought it was a raging success on launch.  I am a BIG fan of Warcraft but avoided World of Warcraft because it was subscription based in addition to paying top dollars for the game itself.  A subscription is a monthly payment just to play the game.  That is OK if you are a teenager with lots of time.  I don't have lots of time and paying any money every month to play one game is not right.  They will have to come up with a better scheme such as pay for on-line hours and they carry over from month to month.

The article is worth a read because it has links to great stats on on-line gaming.  Lineage, a Korean game, is # 1 with over 3 million subscribers was a game I stumbled upon in 1999/2000.  Apparently this was so big in Korea that the tournaments were televised and displayed on large plasma panels at the airport attracting crowds.  That is what I call a gaming society! 

I have always looked down on consoles as the quick-twitch genre of un-intelligent gaming.  True gaming can only be achieved with the PC and we are not even talking graphics, which is a hands-down winner for PC over consoles.

Than we have a weekend like last weekend.  I played a lot of Xbox - specifically Burnout - Takedown.  This must be the best driving game I have ever played.  No, it is not Grand Turismo 4 or 3 or 2.  But, me think it is a lot more fun.

What is fun about it?  Playing with a buddy!  Takedown is a racing game where smashing up the other cars win you points and get you ahead.  The graphics on my HDTV is amazing - not PC quality but competes well with arcade quality.  XBox supports HDTV.  An hour can just go by and we did not even notice - just one more because we are tied 5 vs 5.  More time goes by and more fun for us as we raced each other on the track of our choice.

While I still think true intelligent gaming can only be achieved on the PC, the consoles are also fun.  I still like RTS (real time strategy) as they have the most enduring play value.  I still like Simcity  and Civilisation I, II, III and IV   These games will always have my attention whenever it is booted up.  But when I have an hour or two to kill, consoles are quick mindless fun.    I think consoles are for first person games (shooter and driving or flying).  I do not think there are enough controls for RPG (role playing game) or RTS. 

Do you think I am trying to justify my gaming addiction?  It seems I am always looking for someone to tell me that I am normal.  Here is another study on gamers - specifically the MMOG phenomenon.  Am I an Internet addict too?  Probably. 

What is the definition of an Internet addict?  much like what is the definition of an alcoholic?  If you do not know this, it is interesting.   The defining moment when you cross the line from a scoial drinker to being an alcoholic as define by the medical text is the moment you blackout from drinking.  Has that ever happened to you?    I regress.  The defining moment when you become an Internet addict is the moment you think "I wish I had access to the Internet on your one week vacation in Hawaii."  By that definition, I am an Internet addict too. 

Oh well, it could be worse.  It appears that much of this behaviour is probably part of the genetic make.  I do have obssesive compulsive behaviour tendencies - as in I really get into do whatever I do that I like  

So what am I playing these days?  Crimson Skies (XBox), Burnout - Takedown (XBox), Amped (XBox), MechAssault 2 (XBox), Warcraft III Frozen Throne (PC), Battle for Middle Earth (PC) and Warhammer (PC).  The PC games are real-time-strategy (RTS) games.  Yes, I just got my XBox  which are all the quick twitch console games. 

And you thought gaming was a juvenile past time!  Here is an article on who games.  From the same blog is also an article here on "What are video games turning us into?" 

Yes, I am an avid gamer.  I play on-line once a week - time permitting.  My partner are the good citizens of corporate Canada.  There are managers of companies - not teenagers to whom we loose to   At least on the 2 x 2 on-line games.  But, we are learning.  Getting team work and communication is critical in winning - hmmm... not that much different from life.

I had the honour of landing a 727 in a CAE flight simulator.  This is where pilots from all over the world come to get their yearly checkup.  As we sttod in the lounge, our host from CAE said that this was an area of high discomfort for the pilots.  This is where they wait before embarking on the yearly test.  The flight they will embarked on will be one that is marked by mini and big diaster simulation (such as engine oil pressure gone, stuck landing gear, and many more emergency and life threatening situations).  For me, it was just landing the 727 on Person Airport in Toronto.  Well, it is just like playing  video game.  This massive airplane is controlled by a joystick not any different than the ones you play with on your PC.   Of course, I landed it with the slightest of bump, which prompted my friend to say "You play way to much video game."   

The biggest contributor to problems in an airplane emergency situation is communication, according to our CAE host.  For those who do not know CAE, they are the world leading flight simulator company.  I bring this point up because it is an area me partner and I need to improve for our on-line games - in addition to our game play. 

For my son who just turned 7 and hates school (like me when I was his age), I use his GameCube as a reward and a lesson for preservering through difficult situations in learning and school.  Pratice makes perfect.  Lots of pratice.  While being a good gamer does not mean you are going to be successful in life, good gamers do show that they are capable at being very good at something, which requires problem solving, good hand eye coordination, good liner algebra skills if the game is a real time strategy game, good sense of direction and an ability to adapt quickly.