JerseySmarts.com

Start the Weekend Right Link Series – Volume #4, Edition #2

Joe — Sat, 19 Mar 2016 11:30:25 +0000

Last week’s Start the Weekend Right Link Series featured many articles that I bookmarked way back in 2011. This week, I am posting some links to some more recent articles. In fact, most of these articles are from the last month or two. I hope that you enjoy reading them!

As always, though, before we get to this week’s links I again want to strongly recommend signing up for a free Feedly account. I get absolutely no kickback for promoting Feedly, but I am so appreciative of their product being the best RSS reader on the internet and I encourage everyone to use it. If you are using another RSS aggregator, please consider following JerseySmarts.com at http://www.jerseysmarts.com/feed/. If you are already on Feedly, then you can follow us by clicking here. Thanks!

Hulk Hogan v. Gawker (Marc Randazza Legal Analysis), Danger & Play
One of the biggest stories in media right now is Hulk Hogan’s victory in court against Gawker Media. Gawker has several websites – none of which have a shred of journalistic integrity. These websites do all that they can to destroy and damage people just for the sake of clicks and pageviews. They epitomize everything that is wrong with what people think the media is today. Gawker should not be categorized as a media source – they are barely worth mentioning as a tabloid. This link will take you to a great, quick set of bullet points outlining how badly Hogan beat Gawker in court. In addition, there is a video of the author speaking with a free speech lawyer about the verdict.

Is Rice Healthy For Me? Does White vs Brown Rice Matter?, Nerd Fitness
While the end result of this very astute investigation is, “it depends,” I strongly encourage you to read this article if you are a rice eating person like me. For my part, I have always been one of those people who does not automatically default to the brown version of everything (e.g. selecting whole wheat over white versions of products). This article made me realize that given the frequency with which I eat rice, I really should be eating brown rice instead of white rice. There is a lot of great information in this piece and I think you will enjoy reading it.

When You Find Out a Coworker Makes More Money than You Do, Harvard Business Review
There are some realities that most people have to recognize, face, and accept. One of those realities is that if you work for someone else, then you are not the highest paid person in the company. Period. And while my short example accentuates the differences between bosses and employees, this article provides some strategies on how to approach a different situation. Namely, the situation that occurs when you find out that a coworker (someone who you might consider an equal or even a subordinate) is making more money that you at your company. I am a big believer in not worrying about what other people are making and, instead, focusing on achieving your own success. I am also a believer in working outside jobs and starting your own company (or companies, if you have the time and inclination) to augment your salary. Ideally, that outside work will eventually supersede your salary and allow you to break free from working for someone else.

Coleco Pulls Out Of Faltering Chameleon Console (RetroVGS) Project, Retro Collect
I have always been fascinated at the moving and changing of the video game industry. Watching the ebbs and flows of video game companies, their gambles, and their successes has not only been a fun observation for me, but it also helped me make a few bucks off of those companies when I was more actively involved in the stock market. One of the most intriguing observations that I have about the industry today is the influence that retro gaming is having on the current market. There are a lot of people who are actively seeking a way to reject the big gaming companies and return to a time of cartridge-based gaming. To that end, RetroVGS started a crowd-funding campaign to start such a system. That campaign ultimately failed, but then legacy video game company Coleco came in to take up the mantle of the project… until they pulled out of the entire thing earlier this month.

The Beginner’s Guide to Meditation and Why You Need It, Live Limitless
This is not a short article by any means, but it is packed with information that you might find interesting if you are seeking more knowledge about meditation. Learning more about meditation is a non-priority goal that I have for myself. Specifically, I have been looking for a way to marry the peace that I encounter from my religious beliefs with a full body relaxation technique.

Obesity Changes How People View World: Study, Newsmax
According to the research presented in this article, if you are overweight, then you see the world differently. No, the research does not suggest that you only feel different about the way the world views you, but that you literally see objects as farther away. Interesting stuff.

City’s 1st CO-OP Coming to Asbury Fresh Summer Market, Asbury Park Sun
And in some local news – it looks like there will be a co-op option at the Asbury Park Summer Market this year. Several years ago I joined a community supported agriculture (CSA) farm that was about 15 minutes from my home. The promise of the CSA farm was that if you purchased a share (or, in my case, half a share), then you would be able to go to the farm and pick a certain amount of produce each week. That particular CSA farm worked well during the first year that I was a member, but the next two years were abysmal. Since then, I have been looking for a similar, local option.

The Collapse of Oil IS the Economic Boom, Reason
Another very interesting article about how the pending economic boom that everyone is waiting for is actually here. How is it here, you ask? Well, the precipitous drop in oil prices is something that impacts nearly every American adult. Further, while there have been some layoffs because of the price dropping, there are a lot more people who are experiencing more money in their accounts because they are not paying as much for gas as they were just a few months ago.

How To Make Your Own Rain Barrel Watering System, The Good Human
If I owned the type of home that had a big backyard that I could plant a substantial garden in, I would definitely be into putting something like a rain barrel watering system together. There is no question that I would have several of these barrels in my yard specifically for watering my plants and my garden (which would be packed with tomatoes and basil). Unfortunately, I do not think it is feasible to have something like this on my current backyard patio. Oh well!

Shrinking the White Male—and His Culture, Minding the Campus
As I often mention in these and other posts, young white men are being intellectually attacked on college campuses on a daily basis. This very short article is in that vein, but at a different level of the college campus. In this article, the author looks at language that many of you have seen in job postings about your potential employer embracing diversity and not holding any characteristic against you during the hiring process. The author then applies that language to the reality of the individuals that make up the department to which the job posting refers. The result is interesting, but what really stuck with me was the near-aside that ends the article. That is, that college students are new 60% women and 40% male. Where is the outrage about that inequality?

Have you come across any great articles lately? If so, please share those links in the comments below! And one more time before you go – for those of you who love reading online articles, I strongly recommend considering a free Feedly account. You can follow JerseySmarts.com on Feedly or you can add us to your existing RSS aggregator. Enjoy!

Start the Weekend Right Link Series – Volume #4, Edition #1

Joe — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 20:00:24 +0000

For the first Start the Weekend Right Link Series of 2016 – and nearly one year since the last edition of this series – I decided to post some of the oldest articles that I have saved in my Feedly reader. The articles below are years old, but they are very good and I highly encourage you to read them.

Your Chair Is Giving You Cancer, Men’s Health
Admittedly, I am one of those folks who dislikes these types of misleading headlines. No, your chair is not giving you cancer. Yes, sitting in one position and living a sedentary lifestyle can lead to increased risk factors related to catastrophic health concerns like cancer. There are some good, quick tips in this article to get up out of your chair and improve your overall health.

Frugality Advice from Millionaires, Get Rich Slowly
Is there a better source to get information on money from than millionaires? Many of the tips in this article are those that you should already know: avoid debt, do not accumulate lots of stuff, put money away for later, etc. For those of you who are looking for financial independence, you might enjoy reading these tips from people who have achieved your dream.

My Primal Transformation: Discovering the Art of Fit, Mark’s Daily Apply
I really enjoy reading dramatic weight loss stories that have accompanying pictures to show the person’s actual weight loss. This is a story from back in 2011 that tells the story of Frank Sabia, Jr. and how he went from 255 pounds down to 167 pounds. Granted, losing 88 pounds is not what I would typically categorize as a dramatic weight loss (I usually reserve that categorization for 100+ pound weight loss stories). However, I think Sabia has a good story and one that is worth reading.

Outfitting a Manly Kitchen, Danger & Play
One of the most important things that all of us can do to be healthier human beings is eat better. In this short, but potent, men can learn about how to outfit their kitchens to improve their overall health. After re-reading this article, I went out and purchased a vegetable steamer on Amazon.

How to Whistle With Your Fingers, Art of Manliness
Even after reading this article, I still cannot whistle with my fingers. I can whistle loudly and just fine without using my fingers, so I am okay with not being able to use this technique. Maybe you will have better success that I did in trying to whistle with my fingers. Good luck!

The 38 Best Methods of Successful Exercisers, Zen Habits
Everyone on the internet seems to have an opinion on how best to lose weight and get into shape. Good for them and their opinions. This article is less about a single person’s opinion and more about what worked for other people. These are the type of weight loss posts that I like to scan through from time to time just to see what worked for people who have actually lost weight (there are a lot of hucksters out there on the internet).

How to fix Final Fantasy, Engadget
You did not think that we would go through one of these link series without some video game fun, right? Even though this article is more than four years old, I still think that there is a gem of relevance in what the author writes in this piece. And since I did not see a comments section on this article, my addition to the discussion on how to improve the Final Fantasy games is to… (wait for it)… make the games about fantasy again! Too many of the recent incarnations of this series have been focused on creating an ultra realistic approach to the classic fantasy role playing game. Stop it. Give us black mages, warriors, and a guy named Cid and we will be happy with Final Fantasy again!

The Pain of the Daily Commute, New York Times: Well Blog
In the “no big surprise” category, this 2011 entry on the awesome Well blog on the New York Times website notes a study from IBM talking about how commuting is actually painful. The pain that most commuters report is increased stress and anger levels. With the pending transit strike here in New Jersey, I thought now was a good time to bring out this link. If this transit strike actually takes place, then it is going to be a stressful time for New Jersey commuters until a resolution is reached.

How Widespread is Student Indoctrination?, National Association of Scholars
I am a critic of any unfair treatment of any student on any campus in the country. I do not care about the color, gender, age, background, etc. of the student – if they are being treated unfairly, then I want to see that unfair treatment stop. One of the biggest criticisms of higher education is that students are being indoctrinated, but is that really true? The author of this piece suggests that perhaps students are not being indoctrinated because, frankly, students just do not have an opinion on the “controversial” issue being discussed. This article is a quick, interesting take on student indoctrination on college campuses and I think you will enjoy reading it.

The Chilly World of Campus Males, Minding the Campus
We are in an interesting time in higher education. On the one hand you have the media, political extremists, and willfully uninformed campus-based employees promoting the false narrative that there are rapists preying on young college women. While every meaningful study absolutely destroys the false statistics being promoted by those with an agenda, there are other folks – like Dr. Warren Farrell, the author of this article – who are concerned about the anti-male environment that colleges have now created for young men. College men are taught that they are dangerous just because they are male – and that is about as inappropriate and unacceptable as it gets. We certainly would not accept that dictum if it was peddled about young women, gays and lesbians, students of certain ethnicities, etc. Why is such a reductive, biased perspective allowed to be propagated against young men who have done nothing wrong besides enroll in an institute of higher education?

One more time before you go – for those of you who love reading online articles, I strongly recommend considering a free Feedly account. You can follow JerseySmarts.com on Feedly or you can add us to your existing RSS aggregator. Enjoy!

Square-Enix Fails The Most Basic Customer Service Request

Joe — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 01:06:34 +0000

Once upon a time (15 – 20 years ago), I used to be a big fan of video games. These days, I just don’t have the time or the desire to sit down and really get into a game. Back then, I loved playing role playing games (RPG) like the Final Fantasy series and its many spinoffs. I remember when Final Fantasy 7 came out for PlayStation and it was groundbreaking at the time. The visuals were amazing and the game play was deep. Everyone wanted to follow the story of Cloud and Sephiroth – it was an intense story for the gaming community!

With a history as an engaged RPG gamer you might have predicted that I was really excited when I heard that during last week’s Cyber Monday sale, Square-Enix was offering Final Fantasy 7 for a ridiculously low price. In fact, Square put pretty much their entire collection on sale at prices that were 60% off. It was crazy!

But you might imagine my surprise when I tried to purchase a few downloadable versions of some classic Final Fantasy games only to be met with an error screen on the Square website. I tried to purchase those downloads for about an hour and a half and just couldn’t get past the error screen.

It was the most frustrating experience you could imagine.

Or at least it was the most frustrating experience you could imagine until I contacted Square’s help line to see if they could help me with problem I encountered. And lucky for you folks, I’ve saved the entire back and forth conversation for you to read and most likely be disgusted by as I was disgusted. Here’s how the e-mail conversation started:

I tried to purchase both Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy 8 PC editions during your Cyber Monday sale, but the order form on the website kept coming up with an error message. Is it possible to still buy those two games and the Cyber Monday prices? I’m a long-time Square fan and I hope that you understand my frustration when I could have gotten these two games at a great price, but your website wouldn’t work for me. Thanks.

I think I was pretty rational and calm in that query. Here is Square’s first awful response:

Thank you for contacting the Square Enix online store. We apologize for the inconvenience. We show that the Cyber sale already ended. Please attempt a new order. To place a new order, go to: http://store.na.square-enix.com/store/sqenixus/en_US/ResetShoppingCart

Ugh… talk about a useless, non-response. If I owned Square-Enix and I saw that this was the response that one of my customer service people sent back to the question that I posed, I’d fire them for not being able to comprehend basic English or customer intent. Here is my response to Square:

It appears that you didn’t listen to my concern. The items that I wanted to buy were on sale during your Cyber Monday sale. Your website did not work during your Cyber Monday sale. I tried to purchase the items several times during your Cyber Monday sale and your website would not work. This is false advertising and is against the law in America.

I’m asking that you recognize that your website – not me or anything on my end – but your website failed during the period that your sale was active. And as an act of repentance for your website failing during your sale, I’ve asked that you offer me the two games that I was attempting to purchase for the price that they were offered during the failure of your website.

The response you provided doesn’t address any of those points. Please try again.

I mean – I can’t be any clearer in that response, can I? Well, get ready for more useless help from Square. This was their response:

Thank you for contacting the Square Enix online store. We apologize for the inconvenience this issue may have caused you.

Unfortunately, we are no longer able to place an order for the price on the Cyber Monday promotion. You may need to complete the order at the current price that is showing online. However, we can submit a request to match the promotional price once the order has been completed. Please be reminded that this request is not a guarantee the the price will be matched.

If you wanted to place an order, you may do so. Once it is completed, please provide the promotional offer information that details the price you are referring to.

That’s right, folks – Square’s response to my request was to tell me to buy the products at full price and then request that I be offered the promotional price… after I made the purchases! In what world does that make sense? Well, I attempted to explain this to the dopes at Square:

This isn’t an acceptable resolution to the problem. You certainly wouldn’t accept my “conditional” payment and forward me the software with the condition being that I’m only sending you the money if I get the discount that your broken website wouldn’t allow me to get on Cyber Monday. You’d be fools to give away your product on the hope that I was going to pay in full just like I’d be a fool to pay you in full with the hope that you’d live up to meeting the sale price (which, let’s be honest, you absolutely wouldn’t do).

So this has been a useless interaction for me. I look forward to sharing it with my fellow gamers and folks who have generally been disenfranchised by a once-great company.

They haven’t/didn’t respond to my last e-mail, but that’s okay. The steep decline in the popularity of their now-craptastic Final Fantasy series speaks volumes to how far this company has fallen. People used to line up outside of stores to get the latest Final Fantasy games. Now? Well, fan backlash was so strong against Final Fantasy 14 that it forced Square to take the game off of the market and totally recreate the product. When your company has fallen that far, it’s no wonder that your customer “service” team isn’t able to meet the type of simple request that I asked in my question.

Oh how the mighty have fallen…

What To Do About Nintendo’s Next Generation Blunder… U

Joe — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 02:20:59 +0000

Back in 2008 I started investing in the stock market. One of the cardinal rules of investing is to go with what you know and that’s what I did to some pretty spectacular results. In 2008, I was 27 years old and before I began investing I looked back at which companies I really knew something about from my life. For example, I invested in Barnes & Noble because I had been going to their bookstores since I was a kid and I knew that they offered something much different than Borders or the local bookstore. Also, once I started working full-time after graduate school in 2006, I picked up a daily commute that lasted over an hour to and from work. During that commute I began listening to satellite radio so I understood the very unique place that it occupied in the daily lives of millions of commuters and I invested quite a bit in Sirius XM (which was just Sirius back then). That investment paid off big time and helped me fully pay off one of my student loans a few years ago.

No one seems to give too much of a damn about Nintendo’s latest console

As a kid growing up I used to love playing video games. I wasn’t obsessive about the games like you see with so many young kids today; I probably played as much as anyone else in my age group. However, as I got older I began to learn more about the video game companies. Who were the people behind these games? Who made the Mario series? What about the Madden games? Who was behind the wildly popular WCW/nWo video games? By the way, I used to consistently watch wrestling (again, probably not any more than anyone else in my age group – we all loved Stone Cold and The Rock back in the 1990s). Those two items – video games and wrestling – were two pieces of pop culture that I “knew” and that I felt comfortable investing in. So I invested in WWE and THQ stock back in 2008, too.

A quick side note: today, I’m only invested in two stocks – Sirius XM and WWE. They’re both reliable and WWE’s dividend is fantastic, not to mention that the stock has doubled in value over the last year (and… I happened to purchase before it doubled, too). Oh, and I sold my THQ stock at a profit before the company went under.

Getting back to the point, one of the things that I knew well as a young kid and that I researched quite a bit as I got older was the video game industry and, in particular, the Nintendo company. No matter what people may think, the Nintendo gaming consoles were the superior, global home console up until the GameCube was released (and floundered). They beat the Genesis and the first PlayStation as well as a long line of one-shot consoles that could never really compete. And yet, when I began investing – even after Nintendo had its major success and reclaimed the “King of the Consoles” crown with the Wii, I couldn’t bring myself to invest in the company.

And I still can’t bring myself to invest in the company because of blunders like the Wii U.

There are a bunch of people out there who are writing about how Nintendo should scrap the entire Wii U platform and focus on a truly next generation system. Others are writing that Nintendo should just give up on hardware and become a dominant software company on the Sony and Microsoft systems (which I think is a silly, dumb idea). And there’s never a shortage of anti-Nintendo writers who are heralding the end of the company once and for all (they get proven wrong every few years).

I don’t think I fall easily into any one of those categories. First, I’m just a guy with a blog – not someone who gets paid to write about technology or gaming systems. Second, I base my entire opinion on not investing in Nintendo solely on my own personal impressions of their ability to meet the demands of the video game market. Third, I’ve always been a fan of Nintendo and as long as they exist I’ll probably remain a fan (even though my video gaming has dropped from 2 – 3 hours each day as a kid to 2 – 3 hours every 6 months today).

With that information as a base, the title of this entry remains: What to do about Nintendo’s Wii U blunder?

I’m not going to suggest that they should scrap the system completely. However, I do think that it would make a lot of sense to drop the dual screen peripheral requirement for the most intense and hardcore games. In other words, when the latest Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Assassin’s Creed, Madden, NBA 2K, etc. are being developed and released for the next generation consoles (Wii U, X-Box 1, and PlayStation 4), the developers should have the option of making a game that doesn’t require the use of the second screen in the game pad. I don’t know if it is easy or economically viable for third party developers to do that right now, but it seems to me that part of the Wii U blunder is the gigantic game pad with a second screen that hasn’t ignited the video gaming world like the Wii Remote did in the last decade. And speaking of the Wii Remote, I don’t think that Nintendo ever really understood why it was such a draw for hardcore and old school gamers. It wasn’t that any of us old school video gamers or any of the hardcore gamers were excited about swinging our arms around like a looney tune – nope. The draw of the Wii Remote is that there were only two or three buttons that you could push to perform an action – not the nearly dozen or so that you had to deal with on the PlayStation controller.

Nintendo missed that point completely and it shows with the silly second screen in the huge Wii U game pad.

The other thing that I would do if I were Nintendo is I’d really focus on the next generation console and make it everything that their competition is and more. Yes, it’s time for Nintendo to start making a home theater-capable console. That means that the next Nintendo console has to be able to play the latest home movie technology whether it’s still Blu-Ray movies or something more advanced. And the console needs to be able to easily perform the same multimedia streaming/tasks that the Microsoft and Sony platforms can perform. If that type of functionality is paired with a blazing fast system that can handle the latest graphics and includes a powerful, yet easy-to-use internet shop, then I think Nintendo has a winner on its hands.

The final requirement that I would have for Nintendo’s next system is full backward functionality with the Wii and Wii U. Further, that backwards functionality should include the ability to transfer the digital ownership rights of any game purchased in the Wii and Wii U Virtual Consoles. That would be the type of ground-breaking, customer-centric focus that would set Nintendo apart (again) from the pack and ultimately lead it to long-term success…

…and potentially lead me to invest in the company!

Some Projects I’m Currently Supporting On Kickstarter.com – Join In And Help Them Out!

Joe — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 14:30:07 +0000

Just about a year and a half ago I was one of the many people out there who discovered Kickstarter.com. If you’ve never heard of this platform, it’s a crowd funding website that allows regular folks like you and me to support aspiring artists, authors, techies, developers, filmmakers, and so on. The aspiring person or group posts information about their project on the website and lists how much money they need to accomplish their goal. Then they offer people surfing through the website to actually contribute to their financial goals in an effort to help them accomplish their project. Of course, for your financial contribution you receive some level of “reward” – usually a copy of the final product that the person or group is trying to create.

For example, the first project I contributed some funds towards on Kickstarter.com was a country music album from a female professional wrestler (eclectic, right?). She met her funding goal and is now in the final stages of completing her new album. Due to the level I chose to support her project at, along the way I’ve been given behind-the-scenes updates on the making of the album. I was also a member of a group of backers who qualified for a private online concert where she sang some of her new songs and covered some long-time popular hits. It was pretty cool.

Lately, I’ve been trying to put some money behind small video game developers because let’s be honest – without these small developers, the entire video game industry is doomed. Specifically, I’ve been trying to put money behind some action/adventure games and role playing games. The role playing games are really what I look for whenever I browse around Kickstarter.com. After Square Enix screwed up the entire Final Fantasy series by trying to make it too realistic, I began looking for better gaming experiences and the truth is that they’re really hard to come by.

And it’s not just the video game industry that I’m thinking about. Remember, video games are one of the primary training tools for a lot of our high-end military applications and one of the best hand-eye coordination tools that we have at our disposal. Also, more creative minds building, structuring, and restructuring these software applications can also lead to new breakthroughs in the medical field or in scientific research (like the Folding@Home project). There are a ton of great reasons to support these small, independent developers.

Oh – and I support these developers because video games are fun!

I thought I’d take a moment to share some of the latest projects that I’m helping to fund. I encourage you to check out some of these projects and, if you’re so inclined, why not throw them a few bucks to help them along their way? You can pay directly through PayPal (via Amazon) and you’ll get a great deal on a new video game (it usually just costs between $10 and $15 to qualify for a digital copy of a game). Check it out!

Are you active on Kickstarter.com? If so, are there any projects that you think I should know about? Feel free to leave a link in the comments section below. Thanks!

Have You Heard About This OUYA Video Game Console?

Joe — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 00:44:44 +0000

Some of you may be familiar with the new crowd funding website Kickstarter.com. I stumbled across this website a number of months ago and I immediately loved it. The main gist of the website is aspiring artists, developers, writers, entrepreneurs, etc. post descriptions of their projects online and then ask you to help them fund their goals. It’s a way of harnessing the do-gooder, helping spirit that exists in all of us while, at the same time, helping someone achieve their goals and realize their dreams.

But Kickstarter is better than just feeling good about what you do with your money – you actually get something in return for your dollars.

The first campaign that I put some money towards was a music project. Believe it or not, there is a woman professional wrestler who is an accomplished country music artist. She’s not half bad, actually! Anyway, this woman was trying to make a second album with funding from Kickstarter and was asking for anyone to contribute $5, $10, $50, $100, and so on towards the costs to develop her album. After the word spread around the internet, she reached her funding goal and is now in the process of making the music. The dollar amount that you contribute to a campaign dictates what you’ll get in return. Personally, I only contribute at a level where I’m going to get something tangible. For this woman’s campaign, I contributed $50 (funded from my website company) which gets me both a physical copy of the new album plus the full MP3 version of the album, my name in the “thank you” section of the album, my CD autographed by the woman, and an invitation-only web concert. Sometimes the rewards are much more extravagant. For example, in this campaign if you donated $10,000, then you received all of these items, a 30-minute in-home concert, a hand-painted t-shirt from the singer, an executive producer listing for the album, and a personalized thank you video.

And each Kickstarter campaign is different. Seriously, check out the link above – I think you’ll enjoy what you find on there.

This entry, though, is about a new video game console that I saw on Kickstarter. Here, watch the video for yourself:

Did you watch the video? It’s a pretty cool concept, right? Some of you might be wondering, “Well, what’s the difference between this OUYA video game system and the Nintendo Wii or the Playstation 3 or something like that?” And that’s a good question. I’ve been doing some research on this OUYA concept and what these folks are trying to do and this is what I think the difference is between this console and the others.

It’s open.

When I say it’s open I mean that you can go in and hack it and it doesn’t void a warranty or become an illegal device or anything like you might imagine. In other words, people can go in and hack the core system’s operating protocols (I’m probably not using the right language) and it’s not a problem at all (assuming, of course, that the hacking doesn’t fry the system). The OUYA system is built on the same software infrastructure as the Droid cell phones out there – it’s an Android-based system. What this means is that anyone who can develop an “app” for a Droid cell phone or an app for a Droid tablet (for example, a NOOK) can have that app operationable on the OUYA system. This creates two immediate outcomes – one interesting and one alarming.

The interesting outcome is that since the console is built on the Android system, there are going to be thousands of apps and mobile games available for download on the first day that this thing is hooked up in your living room. The second, more alarming outcome is that I can’t imagine wanting to play any of the time-wasting games on my cell phone on the big screen of my television.

That second outcome is one of the issues that the OUYA development team is taking very seriously. They are talking to a variety of high-level gaming software companies to ensure that there are blockbuster-level games available for this system as soon as it hits the market. That’s going to be a huge task, but with only one week of starting their Kickstarter campaign these folks have already generated over $5.2 million from over 40,000 backers.

That’s a lot of money to make in a single week!

I admit that I’m not technical enough to know much more about how this thing is going to work, but I do know that if you Bing “OUYA” you’ll find a bunch of positive and negative press for the not-yet-created console. For my part, I like supporting these Kickstarter campaigns and I’ve supported a variety of independent video games on that website already. So I supported the OUYA campaign at the $99 level. This gets me the ability to reserve my username before the console goes live to market, a “Founder” emblem emblazoned next to my username forever, and an OUYA console plus one controller. That’s right – a brand new video game system (expected to be delivered some time in March 2013) for $99 (plus $20 for shipping).

You can’t even buy a used current generation console for $99!

If you’re interested in the OUYA or in at least learning more about it, check out their Kickstarter page. This is a very interesting concept and I’m glad to support it!

Retro Video Game Review: Final Fantasy Mystic Quest

Joe — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 02:15:09 +0000

Sometimes you have to face the music. For example, at some point over the last ten years I lost just about all of my video game skills. Gone. Sure, I can play a game here and there, but I can’t dominate them like I did when I was a little kid. I’m just not very good at the high end video games that are produced and released these days. The truth is that I suck at these Call of Duty games, I’m horrible at that Resident Evil stuff, and when it comes to Madden and other sports games – I just can’t keep up!

I suspect that there are many people out there just like me – people who used to be good at playing videos games, but try to play today’s video games and generally find themselves on the short end of the stick. If you’re one of those folks who has been passed by in the current generation of video games, then I’m here to tell you that there is hope thanks to the Nintendo Wii! More specifically, there is hope thanks to Nintendo’s Virtual Console – where you can download hundreds of old games from previous gaming systems.

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest - A Quick, Fun Way to Spend 10 Hours

Last weekend, I was flipping around the Virtual Console looking for a nostalgic way to spend a few bucks and there it was – Final Fantasy’s Mystic Quest. Frankly, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it on the screen because I didn’t think that Mystic Quest was the type of big-time game that you’d find on the Virtual Console. But there it was and a few bucks and a few minutes later it was downloaded to my Wii and I was ready to play.

Mystic Quest was originally released in 1992 and you’ll be able to figure as much as soon as you turn the game on. The graphics, gameplay, character movement, audio, and sound effects are all straight out of time warp when George H. W. Bush was still President and I was kicking butt playing on the recreation soccer team in Mount Arlington. Good times, but I digress.

It took me about 10 hours of playing the game in order to beat it. Now, I don’t specifically remember how much time I spent playing this particular video game back in 1992, but I have to imagine that it was a number greater than 10! So, while I tend to fail miserably at today’s video games, I think I’ve actually gotten better at yesterday’s video games. Ha! That’s improvement right there, people! And, honestly, I could have beaten the game a little bit quicker, but it took my some time to get my bearings about me (hey, it’s been almost 20 years since I last played the game – give me a break!).

Mystic Quest follows a tried and true formula for Final Fantasy games: something bad is happening in the world, a fabled hero appears, the hero defeats a series of lesser “bad guys” which lead up to fighting the major bad guy, and the world is saved. Hey, if the formula ain’t broke – don’t fix it, right? After you save a bunch of crystals, you’re faced with going through a tower and refighting a different form of each of the lesser bad guys before you come before the Dark King (creative name, right?). After you defeat a few incarnations of the Dark King, Square-Enix (actually, Squaresoft made the game, but since they’re now Square-Enix, I’m using that name) puts together a montage with the hero visiting all of the major locations in this very small land that the game takes place in. The hero gets an update from everyone, borrows a ship from his girlfriend’s father, and goes off sailing around the world with a treasure hunter named Tristam.

And that’s it – the game is over. There’s nothing else going on after you beat the game unlike some of the newer Square-Enix games where you can go through the game from the beginning with a powered up version of the hero. But hey – this game was made in 1992 and the idea of going back through the game at top performance was probably crazy talk back then!

However, better than actually beating a game again, I was able to take 10 hours of my time (broken into an hour here, two hours there) and feel like I was good at a real video game again. So if you’re on Nintendo’s Virtual Console, like role playing games, and are a fan of Final Fantasy and Square-Enix – go ahead and download Mystic Quest. You’ll love it!

Up next from the Virtual Console… Secret of Mana released by Square-Enix in 1993. Awesome!

I Want To Buy A Video Game

Joe — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:56:10 +0000

That title is pretty direct, huh? I want to buy a video game…but I’m not going to. Now, at 28 years old some of you might think, “You’re not going to buy one because you’re too old.” Not necessarily. Since the home video game console revolution of the 1980’s/1990’s and the market domination of the Nintendo Wii in the 2000’s, it’s common for folks of all ages to be playing video games.

But, even though I want to, I do not believe that I am going to go out and buy a video game. There’s no one, single reason that I can put my finger on as to why I’m not going to get one, but here are a few thoughts that keep crossing through my mind…

Cost. Even though I have a Nintendo Wii, the cost of a video game is still expensive! Sure, it’s not $60 to buy a new game like it is on the other consoles, but games range in price from $30 to $50 which really isn’t that cheap, either. Of course, if the right game came along, I would be willing to spend the money on it.

Difficulty Level. This is an odd qualifier for me. When I was younger, I could play games at the hardest difficulty and beat them. Now that I don’t really play games as much as I used to, the easy-to-medium difficulty level becomes a challenge – and that’s fine with me. I never had a desire to be a hardcore gamer, so I’m glad to play a game on easy or medium. But some of these games are just too easy or too hard. I could never get into the current Madden games on Wii because there’s no way I’d be able to understand what’s going on. At the same time, I’d never be into a lot of the downloadable games that Wii offers because they’re all too easy. There’s no happy medium these days.

Genre. My favorite type of game is a role playing game. The old Final Fantasy games are the best series in my view. Give me Final Fantasy numbers 1 through 10 and all of the sub-games that have come out of that series and I’m a happy gamer. But you don’t get that any more. Today, you get companies that try to make games in the Final Fantasy mold and they fall short. And for their part, Square-Enix (developer of the Final Fantasy series) has too many breakaway scenes in the beginning of their games – so much so that you could start a game and only play for maybe ten minutes of the first hour. It’s overkill. Plus, the only games they put on the Wii are these Crystal Chronicles games, which I have very little interest in. I’m looking for a game like Final Fantasy 7 or Final Fantasy IX – games that take a while to get through. Which brings me to my next point…

Time. Yes, I want a game that takes some time to play, but one that also allows me to play it in intervals. I don’t want to sit in front of the screen for hours on end – I don’t have the time for that. I want to be able to play in 30 or possibly 60 minute intervals.

Fun Factor. Finally, I want a game that’s fun to play over and over again. My cousin and I used to play WCW/nWo video games because there were easy to control and a hell of a lot of fun (I would always whip his ass – isn’t that right, cousin?). I like the Final Fantasy games because they’re fun to play, same goes for the Mario Kart series.

So there are some of the problems that I’m facing as I try to figure out which video game, if any, I want to purchase. If you have any recommendations, let me know. If not, then no worries. I’m not that concerned, really!

Recession Buster: Sega Dreamcast

Joe — Mon, 04 May 2009 18:55:20 +0000

Former TBLWrestling.com Web Manager, friend of JerseySmarts.com, and owner of MartyMusings.com Martin Hawrysko sent over a link this weekend that got me smiling and laughing a little bit. The link was to the video that you’ll see linked below.

Ha ha ha! How great is that?! Not only do you have the team at ThinkGeek.com reviving one of the most underrated consoles of the last generation, but they’re doing it on the cheap. And as for games, an eBay search shows me over 900 listings (plus I’m sure any GameStop or EB Games has some discs laying around for sale).

And I love that Dreamcast is now competing again (at least in terms of price) with PlayStation 2. Frankly, this is a battle that it cannot win since virtually everyone owns a PlayStation 2 (some 45.2 million sold vs. 2.2 million for the Dreamcast). But it’s fun and I got a kick out of it.

I would absolutely buy a Dreamcast, but the truth is that I really enjoy the Wii and Nintendo DS so much that I don’t want/need another system. And even more than that, I don’t really have any time to play video games these days. If I pick up an hour or two of gaming each month between the Wii, the DS, or my computer then that’s a lot.

But for those of you who want an affordable – and fun – alternative to the current generation of video gaming systems, give Sega’s Dreamcast a try!

Some of the Latest Video Game Goings-On

Joe — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:27:36 +0000

Lately, I’ve been neglecting coverage of the video game industry on this blog. I think that since I’ve become a casual gamer (like most people in their late 20’s and older) and began looking at video game publishers more as companies to invest in versus companies to buy games from, I just haven’t followed the industry as much. I do go looking around one video game site the other day just to see what was going on with the Nintendo Wii and there were no big surprises.

The Wii still dominates the market with 48.5 million units sold worldwide which is almost double the nearest competition. XBox 360 comes in second with some 29.5 million units worldwide with PlayStation 3 bringing in the caboose at 21.3 million units worldwide. And in terms of handheld units, forget about it. The Nintendo DS has over 100 million units sold worldwide, which is more than double the PSP. It’s not even worth calling a competition any more in that segment of the market.

I read an update about the Wii now being able to handle up to 32GB smart disks and a change in the core technology to allow users to download software directly to their smart disks. That’s a welcome relief for many gamers who were running up against the internal limits of their Wii machines and other gamers who went out and purchased smart disks when they bought their system and have had yet to use them! It always seemed odd to me that the smart disk technology would be so ready available for use with the Wii, but that there would be no game-specific uses for it upon the system’s launch. Talk about a dumb move – but at least it’s been fixed now.

And apparently there are going to be more Final Fantasy downloads coming from the WiiWare system thanks to Square-Enix’s support for this feature. That can only be welcome news as there will always be a void in Nintendo’s line-up with no first-run games from the core Final Fantasy story.

Anyway, just thought I’d share some information that I picked up when running around the website linked above. Enjoy!