Impending Crash... don't say I didn't warn you

I tried playing Counter Strike yesterday while I was enjoying my day off. I just don't enjoy it anymore. It wasn't out of frustration this time either; I was on pace with the board average. It just isn't fun anymore. Then again we are talking about a game that, by and large, remains unchanged since 1999 (save for graphics upgrades, weapon tweaking, and interface).

This is where I get very concerned for the overall makeup of the video games industry. I've ranted before about the lack of originality in media (many times in fact) but in gaming I think its becoming a rather dangerous mixture. Lets face it, this isn't the economy to be buying games en masse, so why don't we assume that the average gamer will purchase one game per quarter (4 games overall on the year). The industry, knowing that the sluggish economy will affect sales, sticks with the known selling formulas. Standard carbon copy games will continue to make their appearances, such as the annual Madden title, a probable Battlefield title, new releases of Guitar Hero/Rock Band, and several generic first person shooters.

I personally haven't made many purchases in gaming lately. I did purchase Guitar Hero III and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith over the past couple of months, but only because the concept was new to me (I completely missed the original 2 Guitar Hero titles and the first Rock Band). On my list of future purchases all I have is Rage and Doom 4. Beyond that there really isn't anything enticing out there that looks like a must own, much less a must play.

Remember how innovative Half Life was? Or how about that first shotgun blast in Doom? How about the first time Pac Man ate the happy pill and got his revenge on the ghosts? The dog bursting through the window in Resident Evil? Maybe the Culling of Stratholme? These are classic moments one and all. Moments that will echo through the halls of gaming history for eternity.

Periodically we get a moment like that from the modern batch of games, but the disparity is too great to ignore. I believe that we've begun the downward spiral into the next video game crash, only this time the casualties will be outright devastating. The crash in the early 80's was more or less a minor correction in operating procedures. This time around its going to be more severe; this time I believe a consolidation of power will occur. Look for Microsoft to pull a Sega within the next few years. Look for Sony to pull an Atari. Look for Nintendo to play the conservative role until its their time to strike back. And look for old faces to regain their former glory.

How did I get on this tangent? Oh right, Counter Strike. Man that game is fun.

Leo's Latest Conquest...

...just happens to be the 2009 SI Swimsuit Issue cover girl:

King of the World indeed. That is all.

Fighting for Consumer Fairness

The Town of Foxboro is currently in negotiations with Comcast. As most of you are aware, Comcast is currently the sole cable provider for Foxboro, which greatly limits it's resident's choices for telecommunications services.

As a resident of Foxboro I have witnessed the unjustified rate increases that Comcast has imposed on its customers. This business practice is tantamount to a monopoly and is dangerously close to violating the Antitrust Laws that are in place to protect consumers from unfair and unwarranted price fixing.

I am asking you help fight this injustice. I have started a petition online that I intend to submit to the Town of Foxboro Board of Selectmen. Below is the link to the petition. I ask that you please read it and decide if you'd like to help bring competition and fair pricing to Foxboro, and thus send a message to other communities that "business as usual" is no longer acceptable. The petition can be found at: http://www.petitiononline.com/foxcable/petition.html

Please pass forward this to any resident of Foxboro, or of Massachusetts, so our voices can heard. In these tough economic times we as consumers need options that will us control our expenses. Competitive pricing is one of those options.Together, we can bring that to our local communities.

Lay Off A-Roid

Full disclosure: I'm not suggesting we sanctify the guy. He admitted to doing something he shouldn't have done to begin with, and only after being caught.

But before him, the only ones to come clean - of their own volition I might add - were Ken Caminiti, the first and most benevolent instance as it was part of his overall cautionary warning regarding substance abuse, and Canseco, who was motivated out of the perfect combination of spite, bankruptcy (hence the book deals) and boredom at not being the center of attention.

If MLB was truly concerned with preserving the integrity of the game, they would have enacted and enforced this policy immediately after banning PEDs in 1991. Because of the '94 strike, however, they couldn't afford to be idealistic, so they turned a blind eye while players got huge and smashed home runs. It paid off: attendance, ratings and merchandise revenue soared, and within five years (by the time of the McGuire/Sosa HR chase) the sport had fully-recovered.

Only after being pressured by Congress did MLB begin random testing/penalizing. The banned substances list is still a joke: it doesn't even include testing for HGH or some of the more exotic PEDs, and the 'penalties' were initially even more farcical. Meanwhile you had MLBPA (the players association) COO Gene Orza tipping off players as to when testing would occur, overinflating/overreporting false positives to reduce the number of failed tests, etc.

Even when players have been caught red-handed, they refused to admit it outright: McGuire, fighting through tears before a Congressional committee, didn't want to 'talk about the past', and although Giambi was 'sorry' for the 'distraction' he caused, he refused to go into specifics.

Then of course, you have Bonds and Clemens.

Compared to the overall ongoing hypocrisy demonstrated by the entire sport of baseball with regard to this steroid scandal, A-Rod's admission stands out as a responsible, if not commendable, act.

That being said, the rest of that Peter Gammons interview was pathetic, and if its any indication, MLB is in for an long, embarrassing inquisition.

Blowing the Super Bowl

To borrow an oft-used phrase these days, I didn't have a horse in this race. I'm a Patriots fan and watched the game with other Pats fans. But given our team's rather one-sided head-to-head rivalry with the cocky, self-entitled Steelers, we were certainly pulling for the underdog Cards to upset.

I didn't let that cloud my objectivity however. On the trip down to Boston one of my buddies asked how I thought the game would unfold. I responded that while Warner was turnover prone, if Arizona limited their mistakes offensively they should have been able to keep pace score-wise. As it was they committed two turnovers (more on that later) and still only lost by four, which was three points closer than the margin of victory I predicted for Pittsburgh.

I only wish the NFL made the Steelers earn it.

Last night's officiating was the worst for a championship since Super Bowl XL. For those who have trouble matching letters-as-numbers to actual game events, that was the one where a long-moribund franchise (Seattle) got screwed to Pittsburgh's benefit. Sound familiar?

On every borderline call the referees gave the Steelers the benefit of the doubt while saddling the Cardinals with the burden of proof, as evidenced by the latter twice challenging successfully:

• The ball never broke the plane on Roethlisberger's goal line run (initially ruled a TD);
• Warner wasn't even close to fumbling on the Cardinals second half opening possession.
  

Other officiating miscues (in chronological order) included:

• Harrison's TAINT (TD after the interception, kudos to Simmons et. al). - Warner was clearly held trying to make a tackle on the return. Also, Pittsburgh may have jumped offsides before the play. Arizona should have entered the locker room with a lead (perhaps by an even greater margin);
  

The three personal foul calls against Arizona's defense on Pittsburgh's 3rd quarter field goal drive:

1. Rodgers-Cromartie's Face Mask - He had hold of Holme's crossbar for all of a half-second: no twisting whatsoever. In previous years this certainly would have been of the 5 yard variety. Rules are rules however, and Rodger-Cromarties was guilty by the strictest interpretation. Why then was Holmes able to get away with illegal use of hands to Rodgers-Cromartie's face on the same play? At worst both should have been called, the penalties offset, and the down replayed.
2. Dansby's Roughing the Passer - Apologies to Penn, Pitt, Langella and Rourke; the Academy Award for Best Actor this year goes to Ben Roethlisberger. He'd been avoiding the rush all game by scrambling, pump-faking, you name it. This time he threw the ball away, Dansby took one momentum-induced step to deliver a shove, 'Ben' took a soccer/European basketball-worthy flop, and the terrible towels (er, yellow flags) went flying. So just to clarify: this is illegal, but diving for a quarterback's legs and snapping them in half (see Brady, Thomas and Palmer, Carson) is allowed. Got it.
3. Wilson's Unnecessary Roughness - Blocked into the holder. Terrible.

For those scoring at home, that's three highly-debatable personal foul calls that gave Pittsburgh three first downs and 35 yards of field position. Fast forward to Arizona's final punt:

• Harrison's Unnecessary Roughness - A transgression far worse than anything the Cardinals were flagged for. And how were the Steelers punished? The punt stood (no first down for Arizona) and the half-the-distance resulted in a 1 yard penalty. While Arizona was able to force the safety, Harrison should have been ejected for his actions.
  
• Holme's Taunting - Not called for using the ball as a prop. Would have given Arizona 10 yards on the subsequent kickoff.
  

And last, but certainly not least:

• Warner's Fumble - Contrary to popular belief, the replay booth DID review Warner's 'fumble' at the end of regulation. Officiating head Mike Pieriea was also onhand to weigh in. Despite their diligence, both arrived at the wrong conclusion: Warner's arm was going forward (New England are better judges of this than anyone). Combined with Woodley's Unsportsmanlike Conduct, the Cards would have had at least one more (realistic) crack at the end zone.

The scoring flurry and lead changes at the conclusion of Super Bowl XLIII distracted viewers from a game-long series of injustices by the zebras, who should trade their uniforms in for a different set of stripes as far as I'm concerned.

How to socially network (without being social)

I'm a product of the technology era. I was born and raised as home computers, video game consoles, cellular phones, and Al Gore's internet all became commonplace and, in many cases, a necessity. Still though, some things are lost on me.

My girlfriend introduced me to this website a little over a year ago. It is called Facebook, and apparently it is one of many websites that allow people to "socially network" with other users. The idea itself is actually quite brilliant in principle. The execution and usage, however, is laughable and irritating.

My point is simple: take a quick look at the average Facebook user's profile. There's a box on the website that displays the total number of people associated with this user... they're called "friends". This number is often times absurd: are you REALLY good friends with 318 people? Are you terribly interested in what that guy you met that one time 2 years ago is doing right now? Are the pictures from your second cousin's sister's brother-in-law's former roommate's trip to Kentucky so enthralling you simply must stop to look/comment upon?

Facebook and MySpace users, by and large, have one thing in common: self importance and gigantic egos. Seriously people, what the hell are you thinking? You place your entire life online for all the world to see as if somehow its important for us to see it. You add "friends" that you have really connection to whatsoever, as if the more you have online the better you can feel about yourself.

Oh, oh, even funnier, you post pictures of yourselves in compromising situations of alcohol/substance abuse (or even outright slutty behavior) and then wonder why you're denied that new job or labeled by your actual friends/family when they (being part of your hundreds of friends) stop and visit your page and see how life is.

You're morons. Egotistical morons.

I tried Facebook to see what it could do for me. All told I ended up with about 11 friends, of which 3 I cared enough to post on their walls, check their pages, etc. Of those 3, 1 of them was my girlfriend, so obviously the need for a website to track her life was negated. The remaining 2... one of them I email frequently and collaborate on this very blog with. The other one, well, things change. The real world people I want to keep in touch with, I simply keep in touch with.

Offline. Go figure.

You know what actual social networking is? Pick up a damn phone and CALL your friends, make plans to see them, catch up on things, and stop pretending the world is interested in your pathetic life. We don't care.

No one cares. If we did care we'd call you.