Category: Gaming

Observations,mistrust chronicles and exploits

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Gamers, bullied and hacked

This article caught my attention a few weeks ago on UK TV.

According to this report which was sponsored by Habbo, an online vintage pixel-art style virtual community, 38% of gamers have been hacked.

A deeper dive into the data reveals that the source was taken from 2515 young people aged 12-25 in the actual Habbo game.  This tiny sample is a poor representation of the Global gaming industry and to the casual viewer of the article, 38% is a pretty high percentage.

You can download the actual 2017 report here

As usual, the media falls into the easy alarmist viewpoint on gaming reinforcing the stereotype.  There are many sources out there that confirm the average age of gamers to be between 35-38, these and other facts contradict the tardy image gamers are burdened with.

It’s really usual to see a positive article on Gaming in general and Gamers are not generally bothered about their image. Maybe they should be.

Typical gamers have jobs, families and mortgages.
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The Arrival

Well, the winter season has finally arrived albeit slight warm for this time of year.  The clocks have changed so the early nightfall is enough to send me into bunker mode.

So far though, I’m well balanced about it all.  Got my boots from Florida ready and have decided to spend the Christmas in London.

Metal Gear Solid V has been sitting on my PS4 for 25 days with me only getting the chance to play the intro and the start of a training mission.  The game is epic but it now time to delete the 2015 title to make room for Star Wars Battlefront 2.

We’ll spend more time together in 2018

Haven’t worked out for 20 days….not good

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The Comfort of Denial

One of the easiest emotions to embrace is pure denial, It’s like a warm duvet on a cold winter night.

Gaming is the ultimate denial of the real world. Feeling broke? Go out and find some loot. Feeling alone? Dive into a multiplayer session.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can

Denial clouds the mind leading to lack of action in the futile hope that things will just get better on their own. Taking actions means risk. Risk of losing everything but also carries the real possibility that thing will improve.

Here are some great countermeasures:

Step 1  – Look at the cold hard facts
Step 2 – Look at your real options including the Hail Mary plays.
Step 3 – Take a single step forward

Christmas flight booked

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Unrestricted

Yesterday was a perfect mirror match of real-world raw power and wealthy testing.  Unleashing a vehicle with no speed limit or cops on a runway track with a professional co-driver is brilliant.

Need for Speed™ Rivals

It took a while to actually ignore the rules of the road which are just ingrained into my driving habits.  It has been a few years since I experienced the raw Porsche power off road and I found myself quickly becoming super comfortable in the seat of the awesome Ferrari.

My real life Need for Speed

Keep your dreams in Front of You

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19th Century Gaming

Vienna, renowned for Opera and Fine Arts, hosted the 11th Vienna Games Conference in the Vienna City Hall which is more accustomed to Banquets and Balls than Game tech.

I was actually hopeful, especially in the backdrop of just finishing the StarWars Battlefront II Open Beta.  Sadly, this was probably the worst hybrid attempt at bringing Gaming Academia and Players together I have ever had the misfortune to spend time on.

I actually whizzed through the entire venue on a Sunday morning in under 90 mins.  Considering PS4 and Xbox were heavily represented, the actual gaming content lacked anything new.

Titles that are already available for pre-order were presented to visitors to test drive and I had a great 10 mins on FarCry 5.  The only other title I hadn’t seen before was Quantum Break (released April 2016) for Xbox and PC but this stands to reason as PS4 Player.

19th century meets Gaming

There were plenty of refreshing upsides to the event.

Reason to be cheerful

A brilliant absence of mandatory visitor data collection.

A Beautiful Neo-Gothic palace-like structure built from 1872.

Wonderful noise control (conversation level)

No overcrowding and marketing hassle

Excellent compliance to the 
Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) age rating system, 
basically all 16-18+ had to prove it.

Downside

Very limited new gaming news

No Star Wars Battlefront II presence or demos

Small demo screen, most players today enjoy
37+ inch screens at home while we had to endure tired 
small screen old PS4 demos.

Heavily restricted eSports access.
My verdict

Vienna should stick to Opera and stay out of the Entertainment Software Industry.  Shame on you Microsoft and Sony for allowing this travesty to actually happen in the Global Gaming arena.