Anyone actually try this out yet? How's the framerate holding up? I recall Zeus on the Xbox forums saying how A Kingdom for Keflings suffered a bit by being Ninja Bee's first 360 game in regards to the framerate, texture, item limit, and other graphics problems.
@Kobun: My kids play Keflings a lot and I haven't noticed those issues. Also, it's not their first 360 game. Outpost Kaloki X, Cloning Clyde, and Band of Bugs were all out before Keflings.
@DaFron: The framerate is terrible. I don't see how you can miss how much it stutters, especially during the snow weather effect. You're right about it not being the team's first game, but the problems do exist. You can read about the programming issues here:
I'm really not sure how to address some of the comments in this article. It seems so many people are quick to say there's no addiction or that the media is just looking to blame videogames for something else which simply isn't true. First off, the addiction is reffering to MMOs, not gaming in general. So to those who say, "I play videogames all the time and I'm not addicted!", you're simply ill-informed on the topic at hand. No one said that was the case.
Anywho, I'm currently the guild leader for one of the Top 20 best raiding guilds worldwide in WoW. I'd like to think that being among the top 500 or so players in a game with 11 million subscribers puts me at an adiquate position to speak on this subject. Qualifications aside, let me tell you a few of the things I've seen in my 7 years of leading high-end guilds in MMOs:
A good first story would be about a Paladin in my guild. Out of nowhere, the kid simply disappeared. No one heard a word from him. Well over a *YEAR* later, he returned. Come to find out, the guy tried to rob a convenient store for money because he quit his job to play WoW.
I can also tell you about a guy who got both of his kids taken away due to child neglect because he played the game instead of taking care of them, and another individual who was actually homeless for nearly 6 months after getting evicted because he didn't have a job to pay his bills.
Aside from the couple extreme cases, I've also seen more people than I can even recall who've dropped out of school because of WoW. Then there's people who've quit their jobs (or, in most cases, got fired because they didn't show up), and lets not forget those who had to move back in with their parents to continue their gaming habbits. Oh, and you've also got quite a few failed marriages along the way, as well as a handful of suicide attempts.
I'm sorry, but I don't see how these can be qualified as anything other than an addiction. People addicted to drugs do anything and everything within their means to get that next hit. They completely ruin all aspects of their lives because they're consumed with the drug. While MMOs may not induce a chemical reaction for withdrawals like drugs, there's definately a mental reaction that makes people feel like they must play the game.
For most people who play MMOs, it's simply a feeling of responsibility or friendship with other people. That's what keeps us playing. However, for others, it's taken to great extremes - if these examples are any indication of that. They sacrificice everything in their lives to continue their need to play the game.
Leading an "extremely hardcore" guild, I definately see a lot of the "extreme" cases that MMOs can produce. I can tell you that a lot of these people are completely normal when the game is removed from the equasion. They aren't "failures at life" nor are they "someone who simply couldn't deal with real life hardships". They're people just like you and I who simply got consumed by a substance that was introduced in their lives.
I honestly don't know how people can view this as anything other than an addiction.
@Kanji08: Excellent and thoughtful post. Acknowledging gaming addiction is not a negative statement on games.
Honestly, a 12 hour a day habit, meaning that he has to fit in work, sleep and time with his family into 12 hours? Anyone who voluntarily does anything 12 hours every day has a problem.
It's London, Ontario. I've never comprehended why it is so difficult to state what province a particular city is in, in Canada. Especially considering the vast expanse of the country,
As for "game addiction", it's no different than any other form of psychological addiction. Whatever someone gets a release from they will keep coming back to it, no matter what it is. Smoking, drinking, sky diving, cutting, playing games or anything else.
And with that, you will always have the select few who take it too far and will place too much of their time and life into the particular activity. Sure, there's probably not as many people addicted to games as there are alcoholics but it doesn't change the fact that they may need support just like anyone else with any addiction they can't control.
One just has to look at the unfortunate Brandon Crisp story or any number of incidences with MMOs to see that some things can lead to very bad situations, and if people can get help before something terrible happens then so be it.
I'll admit that I partake in an unhealthy amount of gaming. But I'd call it more of a compulsion than an addiction. I get the same effect from a long-lasting lack of gaming that I do when I try to fight my OCD.
On the other hand, my psychological addiction to cigarettes (as opposed to my chemical addiction to cigarettes... huge difference) causes an entirely different effect.
Now, I will concede that I'm *addicted* to the natural secretions of dopamine and adrenaline that gaming provides. But if it all boiled down to that, I'd be able to take my excess playing and put it into another chemical releasing activity, like jogging.
Sorry if that came out rambling. Just free-writing my chain of thought on the subject there, as it's definitely a concern I've had for awhile.
I was looking through the favorites saved on our family computer one day and noticed a reference to OLGA. I first thought it was the old Online Guitar Archive (they used to store a lot of TAB for guitar before they got in trouble)I thought the site was dead so I clicked and found that my wife had bookmarked this online gaming addiction site.....I think that is a bad sign. The truth is that non-gamers may perceive our time with games as an addiction even if 90% of us are spending normal time playing when compared to other hobbies like, I don't know, hang gliding, train set something, car monkey business, stuff like that. A site like this may only cause gaming to gain more of a stigma than it already has (and it already is pretty bad). What we are really seeing is the result of some form of addictive personality syndrome (if that is a real thing) and should not be blamed on the games.
My retail copy of STALKER: Clear Sky came with two CD manuals. One good one, and one that was printed completely upside down and backwards. Good thing is that the second manual had a unique CD key on it, meaning I basically got two copies of the game for the price of one.
@TheZohar: Are you sure you weren't just looking at the upside down backwards one upside down and, y'know backwards? I've got a work around for you. Turn the manual over so you are looking at the front cover not the back, then rotate the manual 180 degrees (either direction is fine). Let me know if that works. :)
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[forums.xbox.com]
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11/06/08
Anywho, I'm currently the guild leader for one of the Top 20 best raiding guilds worldwide in WoW. I'd like to think that being among the top 500 or so players in a game with 11 million subscribers puts me at an adiquate position to speak on this subject. Qualifications aside, let me tell you a few of the things I've seen in my 7 years of leading high-end guilds in MMOs:
A good first story would be about a Paladin in my guild. Out of nowhere, the kid simply disappeared. No one heard a word from him. Well over a *YEAR* later, he returned. Come to find out, the guy tried to rob a convenient store for money because he quit his job to play WoW.
I can also tell you about a guy who got both of his kids taken away due to child neglect because he played the game instead of taking care of them, and another individual who was actually homeless for nearly 6 months after getting evicted because he didn't have a job to pay his bills.
Aside from the couple extreme cases, I've also seen more people than I can even recall who've dropped out of school because of WoW. Then there's people who've quit their jobs (or, in most cases, got fired because they didn't show up), and lets not forget those who had to move back in with their parents to continue their gaming habbits. Oh, and you've also got quite a few failed marriages along the way, as well as a handful of suicide attempts.
I'm sorry, but I don't see how these can be qualified as anything other than an addiction. People addicted to drugs do anything and everything within their means to get that next hit. They completely ruin all aspects of their lives because they're consumed with the drug. While MMOs may not induce a chemical reaction for withdrawals like drugs, there's definately a mental reaction that makes people feel like they must play the game.
For most people who play MMOs, it's simply a feeling of responsibility or friendship with other people. That's what keeps us playing. However, for others, it's taken to great extremes - if these examples are any indication of that. They sacrificice everything in their lives to continue their need to play the game.
Leading an "extremely hardcore" guild, I definately see a lot of the "extreme" cases that MMOs can produce. I can tell you that a lot of these people are completely normal when the game is removed from the equasion. They aren't "failures at life" nor are they "someone who simply couldn't deal with real life hardships". They're people just like you and I who simply got consumed by a substance that was introduced in their lives.
I honestly don't know how people can view this as anything other than an addiction.
11/11/08
Honestly, a 12 hour a day habit, meaning that he has to fit in work, sleep and time with his family into 12 hours? Anyone who voluntarily does anything 12 hours every day has a problem.
11/06/08
Check out the various definitions of "addiction", the simplest of which is "an abnormally strong craving".
11/06/08
As for "game addiction", it's no different than any other form of psychological addiction. Whatever someone gets a release from they will keep coming back to it, no matter what it is. Smoking, drinking, sky diving, cutting, playing games or anything else.
And with that, you will always have the select few who take it too far and will place too much of their time and life into the particular activity. Sure, there's probably not as many people addicted to games as there are alcoholics but it doesn't change the fact that they may need support just like anyone else with any addiction they can't control.
One just has to look at the unfortunate Brandon Crisp story or any number of incidences with MMOs to see that some things can lead to very bad situations, and if people can get help before something terrible happens then so be it.
11/06/08
On the other hand, my psychological addiction to cigarettes (as opposed to my chemical addiction to cigarettes... huge difference) causes an entirely different effect.
Now, I will concede that I'm *addicted* to the natural secretions of dopamine and adrenaline that gaming provides. But if it all boiled down to that, I'd be able to take my excess playing and put it into another chemical releasing activity, like jogging.
Sorry if that came out rambling. Just free-writing my chain of thought on the subject there, as it's definitely a concern I've had for awhile.
11/06/08
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11/03/08
Back in the good ol' days, we had to guess all 20 digits, uphill, both ways!
11/03/08
11/04/08