The Boone Marriage is Saving the World

Jane McGonigal presented her research at TED on how gaming can save the world.  She challenged the world to play video games "21 billon hours a week." What basically equates to us all playing one hour a day.  It seems that my husband and I are well on our way to saving the world!

I quoted Jane in my Masters thesis because she is the best kind of gaming researcher: a scholar that writes and plays.  I am a public speaking teacher who was so impressed by this presentation that I think everyone should watch it.  If you read my blog you should watch this video, twenty minutes may seem like a long time but her research is amazing. 

Hero Hiatus

John and I decided together that finals week should take precedence over our daily play.  So we are a few days behind.  With God of War, Final Fantasy and Heavy Rain all sitting and awaiting completion we will now add a few Urgent Evoke games to our queue.  I actually had to take Final Fantasy to bed with me last night to curb John’s temptation.

Jane is Sexy

On a shallower note: I love Jane McGonigal’s boots and dress in her TED presentation.  Kudos to Jane for her brilliant research and proving that geeky gamers can be sexy. 

My PS3 is glitch-free but Heavy Rain is Random

Last night I accidentally killed a religious schizophrenic.  In real life I have never shot a gun but during the game Heavy Rain multiple option pop on the screen and you have to act quickly or you might be killed, maimed or loose the chance to catch the killer.  I quickly pushed a button not realizing it was the “shoot him” option.  I was horrified which was only lessened by the fact my character was horrified as well.

I also changed a diaper and fed a baby in the game last night.  This is the only game you can shoot someone in the face and then rock a baby to sleep ten minutes later.  I controlled the game for almost 2 hours last night before John nicely asked if he was going to get a turn?  You do not realize how much time has passed when you pulled in so many different directions.

I have mentioned before that it helps to play with partner who can prompt you on which button to press.  My skills of shouting commands can use some refinement.  Luckily john presses buttons before I talk out loud or our characters would all be dead already.

My only complaint so far is that loading times are taking longer.  I would whine about this more but I am just grateful to have a slim PS3 and not face the “glitch” or rather the online connection of death that other Sony customers faced this week.

When we finally went to bed we had unraveled so many plot twists that we were not as sleepy as usual.  We dozed right off but we were not zombies as we stumbled up the stairs: the random plot twists had our minds reeling.