Coincidence?

Not really gamer or teacher related, but election related. This is a graph of average gas prices in the U.S. for the past six years. There are ups and downs, as expected. But notice when dips coincide: there were noticable drops in 2004, 2006, and now in 2008 all in the lead-up to the presidential and midterm elections. I won't go so far as to say that Republicans are part of a vast conspiracy to manipulate oil prices to lull voters into a sense of complacency about the status quo, but it's a helluva coincidence.

Grand Theft Childhood

I finished Grand Theft Childhood (GTC) a while ago, but was too busy playing GTA IV to share my thoughts.

GTC is the book I wish was available when I was writing my Master's Thesis, and a book I wished I had written. For those of you debating whether or not to purchase the book, do so. It's a great resource for parents, children, and video game advocates.

GTC does a great job at countering the typical chargies levied against video games. At the same time, it responsibly asserts that more research is done. This is in contrast to anti-gaming studies and politicians who use vague correlation to posit causation.

For your convenience, and to entice you into purchasing GTC, below is a brief overview of the book's structure, chapter by chapter:

1. The Big Fear: A synopsis of typical complaints of video games and sensationalist news stories.
2. Deja Vu All Over Again, and Again: An overview of similar scares over penny dreadfuls and comic books. And how ridiculous they were.
3. Science, Nonsense and Common Sense: A layperson's explanation of scientific methodology ... and lack thereof in many studies.
4. Grand Theft Childhood?: A brief overview of statistical data, emphasizing its inconclusiveness, and suggesting areas for further study.
5. Why Kids Play Violent Games: Self-explanatory, although in middle schoolers' own words rather than politicians'.
6. Sex, Hate, Game Addiction and Other Worries: Again, self-explanatory in its examination of particular concerns besides generalized violence.
7. I'm from the Video Game Industry and I'm Here to Help: An analysis of the ESRB, complaints, and rebuttals.
8. All Politics is Local: Elected officials' hijacking of non-video game-related tragedies for cheap political points.
   
9. Practical Advice for Parents: Like it says.
   

GTA IV pt. 6

This, alas, will probably be my last post regarding GTA IV gameplay. I finished the game last night in 23 hours and change. I have a burning desire to complete all the side missions now, and make all of the alternate moral choices, which I think is the hallmark of a good game.

• The radio is sub-par. Compared to other games, this music evokes zero nostalgia. The talk radio is still amusing, but the music is disappointing.
• Gay rights progressiveness alert! When Niko finds out that the "family values" deputy mayor is having an illicit gay affair with his friend, Florian/Bernie, he is outraged. Note that he makes ZERO homophobic comments, and instead bashes the deputy mayor for hypocrisy, not for homosexuality.
• Niko also displays empathy for others, whether law enforcement or rival gangsters. He has a blase, "we're all just guys making a living" attitude that's a welcome relief from CJ's seemingly inexhaustible supply of anger.
• Niko's military experience makes his combat exploits more believable. How does an Italian goomba learn to use rocket launchers? Or a gang banger how to use a sniper rifle?
  
• One concern I have is regarding occasionally ambiguous mission directions. When I have to chase a car and the only instruction is to "get back McGuffin X" my instinct is to blow up the car and recover the McGuffin. On three occasions, it turns out I was supposed to follow the car for some pre-determined length of time, when the drivers would miraculously get out of the car for me to shoot on foot.
• The cell phonebook is awfully cluttered sometimes. By now, after beating the story, it seems to have been cleaned up. But at other times, there were name after name of deceased characters. And while calling them after their death might throw off police's suspicions, it made it hard to find exactly who I meant to call.
• I only discovered after beating the story (since I avoided all information that might ruin the plot), that there is a point to making friends. I now want to befriend Little Jacob and Dwayne and Brucie so they can hook me up. I feel a bit bad for having turned down all their invitations, and even now I would not really NEED their assistance.
• A street mission involving a runaway teenager, and her subsequent email, put a touching face on runaway exploitation.
• References to San Fierro and Vice City are a nice touch.
• Taxis are great, since you don't have to drive, and can skip the riding scenes. The Indian driver that Roman sends for you is HI-larious. Alas, I didn't discover until recently that LB hails a cab. I just had them run into me and give me a ride out of pity and guilt.
• Italian afia stories, which comprise the final 1/3 of the story suck. One family hates another. Really? Who cares. Stories of the Triads, Russian Mob, Rastafarian dealers and whatnot are far more compelling and far less overdone for me.
• Motorcycles are much worse in this game. Earlier GTAs had made me want to learn to ride a motorcycle, they were so fun. But three factors make them less desirable in GTA IV: 1) more realistic damage means you can die from a single bad accident, especially if you don't wait long enough for Niko to put on a helmet; 2) overly touchy handling and handbraking make them far less maneuverable than before; 3) now that you can free-shoot in all vehicles, motorcycles' forward-shooting is less impressive.
• There are occasional exposition recaps as Niko and another character reminisce. The voice acting is good enough that I didn't skip them, and they serve as good plot reminders to refresh the context of the action.
• The Bellic family has a number of strong women, including Niko's mother and his aunt. They're never featured, and are only passingly mentioned, but it's good to see some anti-testosterone. If only there were a GTA with a female protagonist.
• As the game wears on, Niko's drive for revenge becomes more clear. He seeks revenge not only for the friends in his unit, but for himself. Something died the day his unit was ambushed, maybe his innocence, maybe his naivite. But his desire to kill Darko Brevic is not only for his unit, but for him as well.
• Speaking of which, I chose not to kill Brevic. I don't think it made a difference in the plot, but I felt good that this fictional, digital character was perhaps able to move past his violent past.
• Niko is also torn between his desire for peace and stability (as Roman advises) versus his violent past. What trade does Niko have the skills for besides killing? This tension is a compelling one.
• Buying a weapon is expensive, and ammo is cheap. It's a wise strategy to save at least one bullet/rocket/etc. so you can purchase more more cheaply. Not that money was ever a concern, for me, but still.
• I do like the realisticness of prices. $5 for a hot dog is about right. And I like having the cash to buy a $1000 suit and have it really be a $1000 suit.
• Kate died. I didn't see it coming, although in retrospect I should have. She and Niko bonded, and I hate that mob bastard (whose name I never remembered because they're the freakin' Italian mob and therefore interchangeable), and I hate myself for choosing to kill Dmitri. According to wikipedia, even if I had worked with Dmitri, Kate would leave me (but she'd be alive, damnit), and Roman would be shot. On my second playthrough, I'll discover whether Roman survives, or if Mallorie becomes a bride and a widow on the same day.
  

GTA IV pt. 5

• The story is compelling. I can skip cutscenes (unlike Assassin's Creed), but I choose to watch them because they're poignant, humorous, or otherwise amusing.
• Drunk driving leads to cops arresting you. The media condemnation of the drunk driving is really overdone.
• On the other hand, police attention isn't too bad. I had 5 stars as a result of one mission and got away with no problem. I have been arrested 0 times, although I've died perhaps 15-20. It's easy to avoid arrest (since you can always make a break for it). And since you lose your weapons upon arrest (but not upon death) there's a concrete advantage to dying.
• The AI is better. NPCs are basically useless in combat, but they're not longer invisibily tethered to their cars. If the car's flaming and I need to bail, it's not a problem. They're actually get out and into whichever car I choose next. This has saved me from restarting a handful of missions.
• There are choices, and they apparently matter. Two former friends each asked me to kill the other. I chose to kill one rather than the other, and there are consequences to my choice.
• It's easy to damage one's headlights. And hard to drive once one has done so. Great demonstration of how important headlights are to night driving.
• I'm working for some shadowy government figure, a la James Wood's Toreno in GTA: SA. He's having me killing terrorist financiers. And really, who doesn't want to kill terrorist financiers?
• Niko is often the voice of reason. When others are bickering, or when they demand that he kills others, he generally tries to peacefully resolve conflicts. He's a bit more violence-minded when it comes to finding and killing whoever betrayed his military unit in the Yugoslav war, but his problem-solving repertoire is much more diverse than anti-video game critics give him credit for.
• Niko's starting to give small details about his war time experience. His aunt was raped and murdered (by whom, we don't know). This game is turning out to be almost as anti-war as I had hoped.
• GTA IV helps develop peripheral vision. Obviously all the information is visible on the TV screen or monitor. But trying to read the mini-map while keeping an eye out for the road, other cars, pedestrians, and buildings (not to mention the cell phone if one chooses to use the cell phone while driving).
• The cell phone is a wonderful introduction. It adds an element of verisimilitude. It also introduces an urgency that wasn't present in earlier versions. I've been interrupted from driving to missions and dates, and while it's inconvenient, it's also a lot more truthy than earlier games.
• Dating is slightly improved since GTA: SA. There's much more monogamy, which is nice for my monogamousness. The number of activities/minigames is improved, and dates give seem more particular about Niko's wardrobe.
• Niko pontificates with another immigrant on their hard life. The game cultivates an appreciation for the struggles for immigrants, both legal and illegal. It parodies accusations of stealing jobs, and portrays employers as dishonest crooks who don't pay employees unless they have to.
• One of Niko's from the old country is homosexual, and admittedly a stereotypical one. However, Niko kills a homophobic, slur-wielding loser. In other words, Niko should be a contender for GLAAD's video game award. Just kidding.
• All drug use has context. By that I mean we have some ideas of what drove the characters to drugs, and how terrible it is. Whether marijuana, heroin, crack, or alcohol, we see the desperation and futility of drug use. And not in a funny way. Just in a disappointing way.
• As an introvert, I find myself annoyed with the need to maintain social relationships with my NPCs. For chrissakes, give me a mission. Tell me who to kill or what to steal. But don't expect me to waste my time socializing with NPCs. If I find it a chore to maintain real relationships, why would I waste my time on digital ones?
  

GTA IV pt. 4

• Niko helps clean up drug dealers, and then later helps them. GTA IV is by no means an immoral game, merely an amoral one.
• Some slight elements of gender equality exist. Niko argues that the possibility of Roman and Mallorie getting married is an equal decision rather than only Roman's.
• Driving recklessly reasonably forces Niko's date to leave. I assume that hitting her, much like in GTA: SA, forces her to leave as well.
• A female character (who shall remain nameless) turns out to be a law enforcement agent undercover, but that's the closest I've seen to outright hostility to women. Again, she's a bad person because she's a cop.
• The strip clubs are not only unalluring, but uninteresting as well. Some feminists would argue that the mere existence of strip clubs are misogynistic, but feminism is no monolithic thing. If anything, I'd argue that the strippers are strong moral characters since they actually have legal jobs, unlike most of GTA IV's cast.
• Alcoholism is bad, as evidenced by a variety of characters. I should also mention that, regardless of the hullabaloo about drunk driving, that GTA IV is a great demonstration of why it's BAD. You can (and should) call for a cab instead. And I'd much rather people (adults and children alike) find out how hard drunk driving is at home rather than on the roads.
• Use of drugs is also voluntary. So far, Niko has turned down marijuana twice, coke once, and alcohol a number of times. You can CHOOSE to drink, but in no way is it a required part of the game.
  
• The Internet is somewhat limited in GTA IV, but the addition of Craplist (a parody of Craigslist) tickles my fancy.
• A character gives sound economic advice on the need to diversify investments.
• The cover system is heads and shoulders above the previous entries. I liked GTA: SA's as an improvement over GTA: VC, but there's no comparison. I was able to dominate in GTA IV in combat situations that would've killed me in an earlier installment, entirely due to the cover system's awesomeness.
• McReary, thus far, is a more compelling portrayal of a cop than previous installments. Samuel L. Jackson's turn as corrupt as hell Officer Tenpenny in GTA: SA was enjoyable, but one-sided. McReary really seems conflicted, and desperate to prove to others (but mostly himself) that he's an honest cop. I'm excited to find out his full story.
• At some later time, I'll share my thoughts on Grand Theft Childhood, but one aspect relevant here is that psychologists have found that the biggest problem with violent media and child emulation is that the violence is unpunished. Niko gets in problem after problem due to violence, and violent characters all face consequences, either at the hands of law enforcement or other criminals.
• The organ harvesting doctor is black.
• GTA IV has multiple ongoing storylines, especially with the addition of appointments. This develops lateral thinking and is similar to complexly plotted TV shows and novels.
• Pan-African solidarity between a black gangster and Dubai is amusing, wrong, and educational.
• Niko is a harsh critic of American consumerism and breast implants.
• I've encountered two situations now where Niko can CHOOSE whether or not to execute people at his mercy. I'm not sure if that will make a difference in the long-run, but it's nice to have the option to kill.
• Auto-saving is wonderful. There's no excuse not to have it. I no longer have to put off sleep to find a save point. Now I can put off sleep to play more missions.
  

Census

A woman rang the doorbell yesterday and identified herself as being part of the U.S. Census bureau. She presented a generic ID badge and began accusing me and my family of being out of compliance with federal law.

Apparently, the Census bureau does not rest on its laurels between ten-year full censuses. It has more frequent surveys sent to randomly selected addresses. On principle, I agree with randomness in doing censuses since watching the West Wing episode dealing with the topic.

It seems, however, that the downstairs apartment was selected. We never received the survey we were supposed to, and instead this woman arrives to accost us for violating federal law. The total interaction should have taken five minutes once she found out the apartment was vacant. Either yes, we need to fill out the form, or no, we don't. Instead, she dithered for twenty minutes that I'll never get back.

She constantly referred to not having to fill out the form as us being "off the hook" as if the $100 fine (which she only alluded to as being legal penalties) were so onerous. Moreover, in order for anything to hold up in the court of law, the government would have to provide evidence that we had received the letter, say in the form of a certified letter. Since we received no letter, no such evidence exists.

The type of information the government requests is also a bit disconcerting. As a well-socialized little cog, I tend to follow government instructions. I have no problem providing numerical information to better allocate resources. Any other information about race, religion, or other data should not be required. It may seem like an overstatement to say that this information may be used to round us all up, I need only point to Japanese Internment. The 1940 census was necessary to forcibly removing all Japanese-Americans. It simply would not have been possible without centralized information that the internees voluntarily (!) offered. And after reading Naomi Wolf's The End of America, and the shift towards fascism, I'm even more unsettled. Constitutionally, the government has no need for this detailed information.

Iron Man

I just got back from a 9:15 sneak peek at the local independent theater. I'm going to be exhausted tomorrow at work, but it was worth it.

Marvel has a record of having hits and misses in making films. For every X-Men, there's an X-Men 2. For every Spider-Man, there's a Daredevil. For every Fantastic Four, there's a Fantastic Four 2. Maybe they should just stop making sequels ... In any case, Iron Man is a hit.

Robert Downey Jr. does an adequate job of playing the charming asshole everyone hoped for. They don't directly deal with alcohol abuse, but his womanizing is the source of many jokes. I appreciate two aspects of his character that the film endowed Stark with: first, a driven genius; second, a purpose. The comics made Stark seem like some generic alcoholic dude who designed this magnificent suit. The film gave more background on Stark's genius (perhaps inspired by the Ultimate version of the comics which presents a more impactful version of his character). In particular, the scenes of him working with his badass robotic assistants were touching in showing his isolation and focus. Additionally, Stark has a reason to actually do what he does. I'll address more the specific reasons, but at this point, let me just say that Stark's near death leaves him with a sense that he must at least undo the harm his company has done. In contrast, as The Physics of Superheroes correctly identifies, Silver Age heroes got powers and thought "hm ... I have these powers. And everyone ELSE with powers is being a superhero. I guess I should. To fight communists. Or something."

The rest of the cast does an adequate job. Terrence Howard is a better actor than his role, but the assumption is that he will return later to play War Machine in a spin-off. That might seem like planning too far ahead, especially since War Machine is an angry black man version of Iron Man with no real depth. Gwyneth Paltrow does a solid job as Pepper Pots in being sweet and charming and a sort of girl-next-door sort of romantic interest for Stark. The real let-down is Jeff Bridges as the slurring Obidiah Stane. Whoever thought of that name should be shot, as should the person who decided Stark should refer to him as Obi. Unless it's followed by "Wan" or some passing reference to a Star Wars mentor with a similar name, just don't. Bridges is perhaps believable as an asshole corporate executive. But as an asshole in a big metal ape suit? Not so much. I should also mention that the Arab (or Latino playing an Arab) to play the "Ten Rings" wannabe Taliban militia leader, is a let down. I don't recall his name, if he even had one, and I can only assume that the casting call for him was for an Arab stereotype. And in he walked. Assumably, as an Arab stereotype he would have come from outside Afghanistan since Arabs come from nations significantly to the west, but I digress.

The references to the comics are entertaining enough, although I didn't have the patience to sit through all the credits to see Samuel L. Jackson's cameo as Nick Fury. The long-ish name for which SHIELD stands was a recurring gag. Stark's comments to Potts about the problems of being a superhero girlfriend were amusing, and Stan Lee had one of his best cameos as ... himself, or at least a Hugh Heffner version of himself.

The film was well-updated to the modern era from the source material. Rather than being kidnapped by the Vietnamese communists, he was kidnapped by some unexplained terrorist/insurgent fellows belonging to the aforementioned Ten Rings organization. I can only assume that the sequel would/will deal with the Mandarin and his actual ten rings. I'm curious about how they'll be able to update such a Fu Manchu-ish character to the PC age. Regardless, the film seems to take an early anti-war stance. Stark starts so indifferent to the suffering his weapons cause, a contrast only heightened when he bonds with Yinsen, whose family was killed (assumably with Stark's weapons). I considered early in the film what would have happened if such a message came out, say, six years earlier. Shortly after the invasion of Afghanistan, and during the early phases of the build-up to the Iraq War, such an opinion would likely have been boycotted by die-hard conservatives. Bill Maher, you'll recall, lost Politically Incorrect due to inopportune statements that wouldn't raise an eyebrow today.

I had my hopes for a strong anti-war message dashed when Stark rails against non-Americans using his horribly destructive weapons against civilians. Thinking back, it's unclear who used Stark's weapons on Yinsen's village. It seems the message is that American weapons are so freakin' sweet that only our soldiers should be able to use them. Because, you know, our soldiers don't make mistakes. By, say, accidentally killing Canadian soldiers. Or blowing up Chinese embassies. Just theoretically. Stane's great plan seems to have been to kill of Stark (I assume because he was annoying, because prior to his abduction he was the model of a company man) and sell weapons to dirt poor terrorist groups because the huge profits in selling weapons to whackjobs totally outweighs any possible risk in losing multi-billion dollar defense contracts. The plot didn't hold my at attention, as you can probably tell, in large part because it seemed so muddled. The moral outrage seemed misdirected, although again if it had taken a stronger anti-war message, it would receive a far more hostile response.

Nevertheless, the special affects held my attention throughout. They were well-integrated and tied in fundamentally with the plot. The suit (in all three versions) were sufficiently impressive, and are a main reason why I recommend this film.

GTA IV pt. 3

More thoughts:

• The misogyny is less common, it seems. Sure, Michelle puts out on the second date, but so does Niko.
• Moreover, Roman two-times his girlfriend, and Niko calls him on it.
  
• Realizing that Vladimir is Russian and Niko and Roman are Serbian (they should really do a better job of showing/explaining this) it makes sense when Vladimir calls Niko "peasant" and "yokel". Although why does he call them this in English rather than Russian?
• GTA IV seems more and more an anti-war game. Niko is so horror-struck by his experiences in the war. His criminal acts aren't excusable, but his experience in the military mitigates his actions in my mind. As he puts it "During the war, I did bad things. After the war, I thought nothing of doing bad things." It'd be too strong to say that military service causes criminality, but having to kill and see his friends killed seems to have put some post-traumatic stress disorder in him.
  
• I love the different carjacking animations depending on the type of gun used. I recall hearing that there was a mini-game, but carjacking remains the same and hot-wiring can be speeded up by jamming on the left and right triggers.
• As in all GTA games, loyalty is a fundamental theme. Niko wants to kill the member of his unit who sold them all out, and he's determinedly loyal to his cousin. He's somewhat loyal to Demitri, only it turns out that Demitri is more loyal to the loan shark Niko originally fled from. I now feel a bit bad about killing whacked out Mikhail, and look forward to killing Demitri and Mr. Bulgarin.
• Another portrayal of drugs being bad: Mikhail was once a great guy, as his wife and Demitri insist. Yet he's an erratic whackjob. Why? Because he snorted Colombia's yearly cocaine in the five minutes of cut-scenes he was in.
  

GTA pt. 2

I realize as I play that I'm going to want to give a lot more than just first impressions. So after another 45 minutes playtime, here are my observations , in no particular order:

• Niko is such a swell guy that he scolds others for crank calling police. What a nice, upstanding fellow.
• He also refuses to smoke weed, which puts him heads and shoulders above most elected officials.
• The game demonstrates how difficult it is to drive while using one's cell phone. I know the game has caught flak for allowing gamers to drive while drunk, but really, if it shows how it warps perception and slows reactions, how is this a bad thing? Isn't it just a better deterrent than lame posters and parents saying not to drive drunk?
• It's touching to see how Niko is forced into being an enforcer for Vlad. Not only is it tragic to see how Niko's hopes for a new start in America are dashed, but it's also poignant to see him intimidate the laundromat-owner (not Chinese!) who wants to call the cops because of his faith in America, only to see those hopes disappear as Niko ruins another immigrant's chances for a fresh start. It's almost as poignant as seeing (in GTA: SA) African-American, descendant of slaves C.J. rescue Chinese people being smuggled in shipping containers.
• Speaking of Chinese guys, there's an antique shop owner who speaks with a faint accent. This is a more positive portrayal than Pirates of the Caribbean's Sao Feng, and the disappearing Asians from the cast of 21.
• I can't understand the Jamaican characters worth beans. I almost died while reading the subtitles in a shoot-out. Learn to speak English, guys. Niko's been in the country for five minutes and his English is better than yours.
• Cars seem to have appropriate radio stations. Roman's taxi has the Russian station, and the cabs have talk radio. Nice touch.
• I had sex with the girlfriend lady ... who is so remarkable I forget her name. Misogyny aside, it unlocked a "warm coffee" achievement. Also a nice touch.
• I got hit by a car and lost my hat. I saw it on the floor, but couldn't pick it up. Sad, and makes me unlikely to buy more hats.
• Slight foreshadowing of Niko's future: he got in trouble for blindly following orders. Is it possible that Niko massacred Croatian Muslims? That would be phenomenal in its real-world relevance. With the exception of Owen Wilson's Behind Enemy Lines, I haven't seen any mainstream American media deal with this subject.
• The radio is FUNNY: TV shows like America's Next Top Hooker? Polemical campaign ads criticizing flip-floppers? Parodies of racial profiling?
• And the cabaret show is an actual cabaret show. With magic and singing and whatnot.
  

GTA IV First Impressions

Indoubtedly, everyone and their mother (well, maybe not their mother, but their cousin for sure) is going to be talking about their first GTA IV impressions. Here are mine, after having played for one hour:

1. The degree of verisimilitude is amazing. People have fingers, for starters, rather than claw-hands. You can actually see Niko turn the steering wheel while driving. When standing half on a curb and half off, Niko actually rests one leg higher in a Captain Morgan-esque pose.
2. The police are a force to be reckoned with. Pay and Sprays now take three hours (not that it really matters), but the real change is that cops can't see you entering. And getting ride of police attention by evasion is much more realistic in having to leave the scene of the crime. I, for instance, had a devil of a time leaving the area when I fired a single pistol shot at a wall (!) and I got a star.
3. Clothing is much more reasonable. Instead of being able to choose 750 clothing options that I ignored (partially due to unreasonable loading times), I quickly grabbed a pair of boots, a winter coat, and (because Niko is such a bad-ass motherfucker) a Soviet-era winter cap.
4. GTA IV teaches good lessons. Sometime I'll get around to writing a post about the positive messages GTA: SA teaches, but that's for a later date. In the hour I've played I've seen the following moral messages: respect family, America is a beacon of hope to the rest of the world, war is where the old settle their disagreements through the young dying, and don't be a lying sack of shit like Roman. True, you also have to kick the shit out of some Albanian loan sharks, but in context, Niko is applying the only skills he has (from the Russian military, presumably) to defend family.
   
5. It's gorgeous. Mass Effect was nice, as was Assassin's Creed, as was Halo 3. But all of those games were fairly limited in their scope. Static (and identical) space mines, repetitive biblical cities, and almost empty space stations look pretty, but don't have very much going on. GTA IV is beautiful, and there is SO much there: pedestrians, cars, traffic signals, architecture, etc.
6. The map system is superb. Instead of simply saying where the end-location is, it actually shows the shortest legal path (a la GPS). Mind you, you can still ignore those directions to swing by somewhere else via the waypoint system, and if you need to leave faster than the legal route allows, you can feel free to take some shortcuts.
7. The fighting system rocks. The hand-to-hand combat is much more complex (in a good way), and the shooting system is leagues better than the previous entries in the series.
   
8. The tone is darker, but not in a bad way. I have always appreciated GTA IV's humor, and I was concerned that this game would lose some of its charm. It is quite a bit more serious, and I haven't met any laugh-out-loud moments yet, but that doesn't make the game any more compelling. I want to find out Niko's secrets that led him to come to the States. I care about Michelle and Roman, and I want the Albanian bastards to suffer. But most of all, I want Niko to find happiness.
   
9. The deluxe version is freakin' awesome. The safety deposit box is high quality, as is the duffel bag, as is the keychain. I haven't looked at the art book or listened to the CD, but I'm sure they're superb as well. And the license plate I got through Amazon.com pre-order is identical to the ones in-game.

I'd write more, but I'm going to go back to playing. Buy this game.

Edit: I checked Wikipedia, and apparently Niko and Roman are Serbian rather than Russian. I wish the game did a better job of explaining which Slavic nation they came from. On a related note, immigrant groups in England are protesting Eastern Europeans' portrayal in video games. Basically this, I think, because I can't imagine where else Eastern Europeans are portrayed.

Driving Safely = Saving Gas

In addition to having taught US History, AP US History, Modern World History, Health Ed, and Career Ed, I've also taught Driver's Education. I've always been a safe driver, but teaching the class has refreshed my memory of some obscure laws (turning immediately after an intersection MUST be preceded by signaling in the middle of the intersection), and general tips like obeying the speed limit and basic car maintenance.

With gas prices as high as they are, it occurred to me that driving safely saves on gas:

1. Obey the speed limit. Cars are designed to get peak mileage at 50 or so mph. Since speed limits tend to be around that range, driving 70+ will absolutely cripple your mileage.
2. Accelerate and decelerate slowly. Cars that race to stop signs are wasting energy from unnecessary acceleration. It's better to imagine that you have eggs on the hood of your car that you don't want to drop off. By eliminating unneeded acceleration and deceleration, you waste less gas.
3. Make sure your tires are properly inflated. According to Paul Roberts' The End of Oil, having over- or under-inflated tires can result in a 5-10% drop in fuel efficiency.
4. Don't carry extra weight. The obvious exception is extra people, since fewer cars on the road is better. But having a ski rack all the time is a waste, as is carrying around extra stuff in the cabin in your car.
5. Don't drive an SUV. You may imagine yourself to be safer, but you're not. SUVs have longer braking distances, worse close-range visibility, and are more prone to tip-over. At the same time, they weigh far more and have have a greater front profile, so they have to displace more air as they move. The end result is that they get abysmal gas mileage at absolutely no benefit to you.
6. Don't drive a pick-up truck. According to Paul Roberts' The End of Oil, 90% pick-up trucks have nothing in their bed. That's right, nothing. Which means that there's extra weight and drag on your car (even if you leave the foot of the bed open) slowing down your car and making it work harder.
7. Drive an electric car ... whenever they start making them again. Due to the nature of chemical reactions, approximately 90% of the energy contained in gasoline is wasted in the form of ambient heat. That's why cars need cooling systems. In contrast, electric cars get basically 100% of their energy (from electricity) transfered to the wheels to move. Some critics of electric cars claim that they're not good because the electricity has to come from somewhere, usually coal-powered plants. But it's still far cheaper in terms of money and carbon emissions. And who says all electricity has to come from coal>
   

Gas Taxes: Hillary vs. Obama

I drive relatively little. I make sure that I live close enough to school that I can walk, even when I have to carry 20+ pounds of school materials to and from work. I fill up my 1992 Nissan Sentra every two to three weeks, and average 21 mpg. I, less so than most Americans, am affected by rising gas prices. That is, of course, until we factor in how gas prices affect the price of everything else. From consumer goods, to airline flights, to shipping costs, Americans are victims of their own industrial success. Our lives are based on gasoline-powered machines, and it's because of this dependency that Americans are so concerned about $4.00 gas.

Into the fray step Hillary Clinton and John McCain, who both propose removing the federal gas tax during the summer travel months. Their theory is that the 18.4 CENTS per gallon is too onerous a burden. And that Americans have an inalienable right (alongside life and liberty) to pursue happiness by driving places they really don't have to.

Against this foolish plan stands Barack Obama who has correctly articulated a host of problems with this proposal: 1) the average family stands to save $30, which they could make up by buying one less spa visit for their dog; 2) this will actually increase the quantity of gas consumed and accelerate depletion of the world's reserves; 3) this removes any sense of personal responsibility for the American consumer, since the government is there to bail them out of the high prices their demand has created; and 4) the gas tax revenue goes to pay for infrastructure like roads and bridges that don't maintain themselves.

In response, Hillary Clinton argues that Obama is out of touch with America. Because she, who has been Senator and previously President and Governor's wife, is soooooooooooooo in tune with the American people. Note that she doesn't contest any of Obama's facts or his arguments. Instead she fights it the only way she knows how: distracting people from the issues and making them think that this educated black man doesn't respect their values.

At the same time, Americans are complaining that taxes are what are driving up gas prices. Tell that to Japan or Europe, where gas is $7-9/gallon. Or to the climatologists who argue that internalizing gasoline's negative externality should ratchet the price up dollars rather than cents. In California, the state with the nation's highest gas tax, it amounts to a meager 45.5 cents per gallon. Add that to the federal gas tax, and Californians are paying and it's still a reasonable 63.9 cents per gallon. On a $4.00 tank of gas, that's only 16% of the initial value. And when that money goes to pay for public transportation and safe roads that drivers, car manufacturers, and gasoline companies all benefit from, it's a small price to pay. Instead consider that gasoline companies are making excessive profits through no foresight of their own, and that American needs to develop alternatives. And in a democracy, these are all problems that we should be fixing rather than shifting the blame to the government.

GTA IV

It's extremely rare that I pre-order a game. In fact, I think the last game I pre-ordered was GTA IV. And before that, Street Fighter 2 for the SNES (yes, I'm dating myself). I pre-ordered GTA IV knowing that it would be worth my money. After scouring online for some sort of bonus that didn't involve gamerpics, I found that amazon.com was offering a GTA IV license plate with the pre-order of the Special Edition. I could care less about the art book, but the lockbox and duffle bag, oddly, called out to the organization-freak in me.

I've always had good experiences with amazon.com. Even when I've chosen Super-Saver shipping in the past, I've received my orders within a few days. I ordered a few extra books with GTA IV, including Grand Theft Childhood and Howard Zinn's History of American Empire. The last two were shipped last Thursday, and I haven't received them yet. GTA IV was shipped Sunday, and the fact that the first shipment has taken over 3 business days makes me afraid that GTA IV won't arrive until this weekend. Yes, I could've done the smart thing and actually, y'know, paid for shipping, but I had such faith in amazon.com's free shipping!

Most people are going to be talking about GTA IV this week, and probably for months. I, alas, will be waiting. And with that, I leave you with some filler: the editorial I wrote for the school newspaper:

As I write this, we are a week away from STAR Testing. I wish, realizing that it isn’t likely, that Washington would be evaluated not only by its standardized test scores, but on how well it comprehensively facilitates students in achieving their potential.

Standardized tests seem to be a necessary evil. For national, statewide, and school district comparisons, purely quantitative (numerical) measures are the easiest way to judge schools’ academic achievement. The STAR Test is probably a better measure of economic status, familiarity with English, and test-taking skills than student achievement. The myriad qualitative (non-numerical) measures possible cannot be so easily scored and categorized. If standardized tests are the definition of student success, students’ whose strengths do NOT lie in test-taking should feel like they contribute nothing? I tell students that they are not their standardized test scores, and it’s a shame that some view Washington as its Annual Performance Index.

Similar problems arise when schools are compared against one another only in terms of academic rigor. My school is better than yours because it’s harder? Because it offers more A.P.’s? Because the average GPA is higher than yours? Or lower? The same problem arises here as it does from standardized tests. Students whose gifts do not lie in the traditional academic arena do have something to contribute to the school, even if such a narrow criterion doesn’t recognize them.

Other traditional evaluators include things like school spirit and athletics, both of which are also imperfect. Why is our school greatest? Because our blind faith in our school’s superiority is greater than anyone else’s? Because our students run faster or jump higher than theirs? School spirit and athletic competition tend to increase self-worth at the expense of others’. While these standards not inherently harmful, students whose leadership and athletic abilities are less than ideal don’t feel like they have anything to contribute.

I suggest an alternate method of evaluating Washington, one that I can’t rate. Instead, you will have to, as students, teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals, staff, parents, and counselors. For each student’s interests, abilities, preferences, and goals, how well does Washington help that student be the most s/he can?

One way to try to categorize and evaluate Washington’s success is this area is Howard Gardener’s Multiple Intelligences Theory, which states that people can be intelligent in different ways. Gardner argues that people can be smart in the following ways: verbal/linguistic, logical/mathematic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, spatial, musical, naturalistic, and bodily/kinesthetic. Unlike standardized tests which only reward the first two intelligences, the Multiple Intelligences model recognizes a diversity of gifts. Students are not simply smart and dumb. And instead of fuzzily saying that everyone has something to offer, it concretely categorizes student strengths. We can use the Multiple Intelligences model to see how well Washington helps students maximize their intelligences.

Intelligence	Explanation	At Washington
Verbal/linguistic	communicate and understand language	Most classes, especially English and Social Studies
Logical/mathematic	reason and process numbers	Most classes, especially Math and Sciences
Interpersonal	“read” others and participate fully in groups	Any social interaction, extracurricular clubs
Intrapersonal	“read” oneself	Any individual, introspective activity
Spatial	imagine objects and sense space	Visual arts, architectural design, etc.
Musical	understand, appreciate and create music	Choir, orchestra, band, dance
Naturalistic	relate to and understand the natural world	Biology, physiology, environmental science, etc.
Bodily/kinesthetic	move with dexterity and coordination	Gym class, organized sports, dance

Tragically, the classes most likely to be cut with the budget crisis are those that strengthen musical and spatial intelligence. From an equity standpoint, losing those classes means depriving musically and spatially intelligent students the resources needed to thrive.

There are a nearly infinite number of other ways to judge a school. How respectful and mature are students? How honest are they? How mature are they? How many discipline problems does the school have? How many students apply to attend the school? How many are turned away? How equitable are resources distributed? How are decisions made? How diverse is it, racially, ethnically, religiously, economically, etc.? And how well does that diversity function? All these criteria are rarely used, and in their place is a single battery of tests whose connection to the quality of education is tenuous.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

The 40-year-old Virgin was the first of Judd Apatow's works that I had seen, and it was glorious. It was a wonderful combination of sweetness and one-liners. It led me to watch Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, and make sure that I watched Knocked Up and Superbad when they came out. Some of those shows/movies were much funnier than others, but I was nonetheless impressed.

It was a no-brainer that I would see Forgetting Sarah Marshall, seeing as how it combines Apatow with his frequent collaborators Jason Seigel, Paul Rudd, and Jonah Hill with the glory that is Veronica Mars' Kristen Bell (who has a much nicer body than I would've expected). It's not up to the level of The 40-year-old virgin, it's still a highly enjoyable film.

Seigel and Rudd and Hill play the same role that they've played in all of Apatow's other works, which is a bit of a concern. Seigel is the shlubby man-child, Rudd the laid-back (although moreso in this work than in most) wit, and Hill the sarcastic critic. They all do a good job within those roles, so that isn't too much of a problem, but some elements feel like it's the same movie over and over and over again.

Kristen Bell is a breath of fresh air. Her character starts out as a simply unreasonable wench, but has a small taste of redemption towards the end as she describes why she cheated on Siegel. The real highlight for me, however, was all the slight references to her real career. Her Sarah Marshall is a CSI-type television star whose awkward transition to film mimics her performance in the abysmal The Pulse. Her show being canceled, which forces her to consider film, only to find another show, is touching and an inspiring nod to her future career.

The rest of the cast is charming as well. Mila Kunis is surprisingly charming as the polite (extremely non-Jackie-ish) Rachel who manages to maintain a sense of successful chemistry with the socially awkward Seigel. Also of note is the actor who plays Aldous Snow, who pulls off the eccentric, rakish British charm without seeming entirely batshit insane.

I also have to comment on the surprising amount of nudity. Not only is there more genitalia in this film than in Apatow's other works, but surprisingly MALE genitalia. There are brief shots of what may or may not be Kunis' breasts, but by far the bulk of attention is paid to Seigel's wang. And as I saw in an online interview, that slapping sound was actually his penis against his thigh. If I have to know that, so do you.

GTA IV Release

From Gamepolitics.com
California State Senator Leland Yee has publicly urged parents to please not buy GTA IV for young children. Hopefully this is just a reminder, because by this point in the series, only Osama bin Laden and other cave-dwellers wouldn't know that GTA is not for kids.

He then goes on to accuse Rockstar of maliciously deceiving the ESRB. I assume he's referring to the Hot Coffee content in GTA: San Andreas. I've seen it. And in addition to it being lame, and not at all erotic or arousing, it was deleted from the game. Admittedly, Rockstar should have eliminated all the code instead of making it inaccessible through the regular play. But take a step back for a second, and ponder this: the point of ESRB ratings is to keep little kiddies safe, right? How many little kiddies are able to hack into the game data and access this information? Don't know the exact number? Neither do I. But I do know that it's less than saw footage during the endless news coverage.

It's a bit embarrassing to see Leland Yee railing yet again about violent video games. He's a San Franciscan, for starters, and I supported him prior to his video game-scape-goating days. He's a child psychologist by trade, and so he at least has more credibility than others that I could name. I'd be interested to see his response to the arguments raised by Grand Theft Childhood (which should be arriving any day now via amazon.com). Yee seems to be a one-trick pony, as I don't think any of his constituents (or anyone else for that matter) could name one thing that he's done besides try to make the sale of video games to minors the legal equivalent of selling hardcore pornography to kids.

Forbidden Kingdom

Jackie Chan and Jet Li are by far the two most well-known Chinese martial arts stars. There's been a lot of fan speculation about a joint production between the two, and it's finally arrived in the form of Forbidden Kingdom.

Plot-wise, it's an interesting spin on the traditional Monkey King stories. There is, of course, the obligatory white guy (from Boston, no less) to give American audiences someone to relate to. This is, of course, under the assumption that American audiences are not Asian, and that they would be unable to enjoy or recommend a movie that only have people of other races. Nevertheless, the actor they got is charming in a aw-shucks, doofus-y sort of way, so I'll let it slide.

The action itself is quite well-done, although a bit derivative. The film doesn't break new ground in its kung fu scene direction, although at its best it channels some of the best parts of Hong Kong action classics. Jackie Chan as a drunken master is always enjoyable, and Jet Li's sleeves of doom remind me perhaps too much of the bad guy monk's sleeves in Iron Monkey.

What's more troubling to me is the Hollywood formula of having every Asian woman who encounters a white guy magically become enthralled by him. Is it his hairiness? His assumably large penis? Who knows? Forbidden Kingdom is better than most in this regard, in that the two never have sex (it's PG), and that there's more the promise of a relationship as equals since she's a kick-ass martial artist rather than some teahouse girl. The trailer for Bangkok Dangerous, in which Nicholas Cage stars as Joe the Assassin, is a different story. He realizes the error of his ways through the glory that is the Asian Mystique, and of course she seems to instantaneously become enamored with him. Imagine that the roles are reversed and a Chinese assassin on a mission to Prague undergoes the same epiphany because of a Czech woman.

GTA IV Leak

As has already been reported across the Internet, GTA IV has been leaked via Torrent programs. On the one hand, the rippers and uploaders urge downloaders to buy the game. And I doubt that the leak of GTA IV is going to hurt Rockstar's bottom line or prevent them from making more games.

I tend to be fairly loose with intellectual property. I have an R4 for my DS (only for homebrew games, honest!) and see no problem with downloading television shows. That said, I will NOT be downloading GTA IV, and not just because my Xbox 360 isn't modded. I prefer to wait like a patient little boy and play the game at the time of release. I think I'll enjoy it more when the anticipation has built. Even if I don't have to worry about being banned from Xbox Live (since I don't have an account), I'm doing this to increase my personal appreciation, not out of fear of punishment.

Mass Effect

The main way I evaluate a game is how much does it occupy my thoughts, and by that standard Mass Effect excels. While I was playing through it the first time, I read FAQs constantly, and thoughts of the mechanics, characters, and plots filled my thoughts. And as soon as I had beaten it on Normal difficulty as my female paragon Infiltrator (soldier and technician hybrid), I immediately started over on a harder difficulty level as a male renegade Adept (biotic).

It's hard to define exactly what makes the game so enjoyable. Some of it is certainly playing it on a computer monitor via the VGA port on my Pelican Air Flo Cooler. The game was beautiful before, but now it's simply gorgeous.

The game really lends itself to replays. The conversation wheel is wondrous in its simplicity. Compared to reading pages of text in games like Knights of the Old Republic and Planescape: Torment, this is a godsend. My second character has a fundamentally different gameplay experience in the ways that matter. His storyline is going to have his own nuances, and his skills are entirely different.

The ease of replay is in sharp contrast to a game like Assassin's Creed which, although I anticipated and loved it, was not at all replay-friendly. I completed nearly all of the sub-missions on my first playthrough. When I went back to complete the one I had missed or skipped, I found that I had to replay the entire mission. That's bad enough, but factor in unskippable cutscenes, and I quickly decided I would never replay it.

The main factor, though, in Mass Effect's appeal, is the Paragon/Renegade system. I cut my teeth on Knights of the Old Republic, and although it scratched my Star Wars itch, it was fairly simplistic in its mechanics. Some of the problem comes directly from the Light Side/Dark Side concept from Star Wars canon. In much the same way as I never really empathized with Voldemort from Harry Potter, I never empathized with the Dark Siders. Even after seeing Anakin's self-fulfilling slide towards the Dark Side in the better-than-expected Revenge of the Sith, the Dark Side never seemed more appealing than "bad is good". The same complaints could be leveled at Fallout's karma system. In both games, I had to really force myself to be so unspeakably evil. Kill civilians for fun or profit? Evil. Save the civilians? Good.

Mass Effect takes a notably more sophisticated stance on the topic. Kill civilians to accomplish a mission more quickly? Renegade. Place civilians more important than mission objectives? Paragon. Even the names are more apt. Neither side is bad or good or dark or light. Instead it's a reflection of overall military operating procedure. The Renegade side's actions may not be nice, but they have a more reasonable motive than eating babies. Renegades, in addition to having some great one-liners, are concerned about getting the job done no matter the cost, and at loyalty to the human government. Even what would otherwise be simple xenophobia and knee-jerk bigotry is instead framed in the context of protecting humanity because no one else will. Paragons don't exist to be goody-two-shoes. They seek to represent humanity in as mature a fashion as possible, working together with aliens on a basis of trust and accountability. Clearly this is a more developed morality system than the demon/angel model of a game like Bioshock.

I heartily recommend Mass Effect to anyone and everyone with an Xbox 360. I won't be able to finish this playthrough before GTA IV comes out, so I'll have to put it on hold. I'll come back to it and beat it at least one more time and enjoy every minute.

Rave: Pelican Air Flo Cooler

I saw it in the store and wanted to check before buying it, but it turns out that the Pelican Air Flo Cooler is a GREAT investment. Marketed in England by the far awesomer name "Cooler King", the Pelican Air Flo Cooler features extra USB ports (for which I have no use), a USB-powered fan (which won't cause power overloads like the power-supply-powered Nyko cooler), a warranty, and (best of all for my purposes) a simple VGA port. That means I get to enjoy the glory of high definition visuals without a $2,000 HDTV, or the $40 official Microsoft Xbox 360 to VGA cables. And all this for the low, low price of $15.00.

Playing Mass Effect with updated graphics is almost like playing an entirely different game. Man, I can't wait until GTA IV comes out.

I should mention, almost as an afterthought, why getting all this for $15 is so frakkin' awesome. I couldn't afford $2,000, and I wouldn't bring myself to spend even $40. Why? Here's why:

For 2007, my salary as a 2^nd year teacher with BA + 30 in SFUSD was $44,941/year. This is after a 6.5% salary increase in 2006.

Based upon my income, the top of my salary fits into the 25% tax bracket. With 10% tax on my first 7,825, 15% on my income up to 31,850, and 25% on the remainder, this totals $7,659. Add to this the Medicare withholdings of 52.65 per paycheck, and that's an additional $631.80 for a federal total of $8290.80.

Per California income tax, I fall into the highest bracket since I make more than $44,819. I must pay 9.3% of my income in taxes to California, which in my case works out to be $4,179.51.

Union dues take an extra $79.27 per month, or $951.24 per year.

The end result is that my take-home salary for 2007 was $31,519.45. This must cover housing, food, transportation, school supplies, medical expenses, and clothes, with whatever is left over for entertainment and travel.

There is no guaranteed cost of living adjustment to keep pace with inflation. This means that every year, when I do not receive a raise, my salary actually decreases by the rate of inflation, about 3% per year.

Obviously, these taxes apply to everyone. In my case, I spent two years getting my credential at USF (not counting the $132,640 for my B.A.), which was 40 units at $770 per unit. The total of $30,800 is nearly my yearly take-home salary. My classmates who work outside of education make far more at a rate commensurate with their skills and contribution to their community. I chose teaching because I love it, and hope that my wage will be closer to its significance to society.

Press Start: An Introductory Guide to the Educational Value of Video Games

For those uninterested in an explanation, just click here.
A little background: I started playing video games while in elementary school. Back in the days of yore, independent video rental stores rented out video game systems (the NES) along with games. Eventually I got a Sega Master System, and then progressed onto the Lynx, Gameboy, Super Nintendo, Gameboy Color, Playstation, Gameboy Advance, Playstation 2, DS Lite, Dreamcast, Wii, and Xbox 360. Concurrently, I was playing quite a bit of PC games from LHX Attack Helicopter to Secret of Monkey Island to Team Fortress 2.
Parallel to this video game evolution, I became increasingly intrigued by education. I liked learning, but I discovered in high school, through tutoring, that I liked teaching as well. When I graduated from Washington High School, I decided to attend the University of San Francisco and participate in its Dual Degree Program in Teacher Preparation (almost a decade ago, in 2000, it was simply known as the Dual Degree Program). There, I found others interested in teaching, and if it weren't for that social support group, I would probably not be a teacher. It's easier to resist peer pressure to pursue other more financially rewarding careers when surrounded by others who are answering the call.
What I did NOT find, however, was a strong, supportive environment for video gaming. Many of my peers were indifferent, and most of my professors (as was the case with most of my teachers in high school) were strong critics of video games. As often as I had to defend education to my aspiring lawyer Politics course classmates, I had to defend video games to my education colleagues. Most of the critiques of video games came from people with very little experience with them, and focused on sensationalized news stories and extreme video games like Manhunt and Rumble Roses.
When the time arrived to write my Master's Thesis, I received the advice to choose an education-related topic I was deeply interested in. Since we'd be working on them for over a year, it was wise to choose something we'd be relatively unlikely to get tired of. As it is, it's been over 3 years since I submitted it for review, and I can just reread it without wincing.
In any case, I present here Press Start: An Introductory Guide to the Educational Value of Video Games. The name is a mouthful, but I hope that it is of interest to you. Some sections are a bit out of date, and it's not at all comprehensive. But if anyone knows of someone willing to pay me to update it, or to provide me a job drawing concrete links between pedagogy and video gaming, I'd be willing to start next week.

Salutations

This is my third attempt at a blog. Hopefully I'll keep it longer this time. This'll be a place for me to share my thoughts on video gaming and education (both as a student as a teacher).
Shortly I'll be posting my Master's Thesis on the educational value of commercial video games. Until then, game hard, study hard.