Gaming and College dropouts

Games Politics, a blog I read on a semi-regular basis points out an interesting concern by the FCC Commissioner on the relationship between college drop outs and World of Warcraft. Deborah Taylor Tate briefly referenced the following with no other support on December 5th.

You might find it alarming that one of the top reasons for college drop-outs in the U.S. is online gaming addiction - such as World of Warcraft - which is played by 11 million individuals worldwide.

Obviously World of Warcraft is referenced specifically for it's notority, but it is very clever in it's way of opening up the fears of and concerns of parents at it's mere utterance. Of course this reminds me of the parody of similar concerns of a more primative version of a similar form of escapism.

Although I applaud her serious interest in the importance of broadband internet for the US I will have to punch a few holes in this particular statement for a moment.

First of all, there are a number of more pressiong and real reasons which college students drop out of school. Many of which could be generalized to either be from or cause depession. This could be a confounding variable in which depressed college students are more likely to play World of Warcraft and drop out of college. So unless there has been a particularly clever research into college students and MMORPGs I'm unconvinced by this supposed correlation.

Secondly, I would say from even looking at the trends published by the US Department of Health and Human Services, from 1970 to 1995, the percentage of highschool graduates who have attended college by the age of 25-29 increased from 40% to nearly 60%, yet within this same population, the percent of those who attained a bachelor's degree has stayed around 25%. So from a purely statistical standpoint, there are more college dropouts, because there are more college students to drop out. Any study of trends in college drop outs must take this into consideration in linking any causitive variables.

So what was the purpose of this statement. It seemed to me that the role of the FCC has always been whatever the commissioner at the time deemed it to be. When Micheal Powell (a fellow alumn of mine) was at the helm, he was more concerned with business practices and fair ownership of airwaves. Deborah Taylor Tate has been the "Children's Commissioner", we have to remember that she is the same person who convinced the "Cookie Monster" that cookies were a sometimes food.

Japanese Tabloids

The Mainichi Daily News Online Website has recently removed the "Wai Wai" section. In the past it was a rough translation of various trashy Japanese tabloid articles in Japan. Here is a short list of the type of headlines you'd see.

Schoolgirls' decade of decadence: panty sales have punters panting
University turns blind eye as foreign students turn tricks
Coffee pot tips seductress plucking schoolboy cherry
Depraved duo target pregnant women in horror rape spree
Super Onanism Machines rubs the lonely the right way
Lion poo proves roaring success as deer deterrent
Sex shop offers discounts for big sluggers
Quirky quacks prescribing sexual harassment
Old fellas savor the ins and outs of a porno actor
Sucking away for huge hooters in the land of itty bitty titty

It was trashy news, unfortunately for many foreigners who read the Mainichi Online, they usually get the most hits on the site.

So here's my problem. On the one hand, this is a clear example of the Japanese selectively censoring its image to the world in thier ongoing effort to show a sophisticated, and cultured face on the global stage. Although all countries do this, it just seems that the Japanese do this with such a brazen disregard of how constructed it looks to outsiders. On the other hand, defending articles on how nurses give tell alls on how they sleep with thier patients seems not worth the effort. What I do see is this, it seems as if the crime here is not that these articles exist, but that they are being translated to English. The Mainichi has never claimed responcibility for these articles, they are merely translating them for curious foreign readers. I find it hard to swallow that Managing Director Yoshiyuki Watanabe needed to be punished for this publicly, being that he had no power on what the articles were about.

My question is how did this ever become such a big issue? It seems that much of the attention was directed at bloggers bringing traffic to the "Wai Wai" articles, and the reaction to them from Japanese citizens who are afraid of how this reflects Japan.

If you give a mouse a cookie...

So I just got Mario Kart for the Wii recently. I've been holding off on buying this game for a long time because I knew a few things about this game.

1) It's going to be a fun game.
2) My friends will come over to my apartment just to play this game.
3) It will begin the slippery slope into "geeky consumerism".

It all begins very innocently, with this game I will finally have a reason to get a second Wii-mote. (Although I've been wanting one ever since I bought Trauma Center, but no one else really was willing to appreciate my love of hospital drama.) This second Wii-mote is quite an investment. It's 60 dollars for both the Wii-mote and a nunchuck. (Not to mention the 10 dollar Wii-wheel)

Of course buying begets buying. Now I'm happy with two Wii-motes, and the two GameCube controllers I already got for Super Smash Brother's Brawl, and I have three friends who actually want to play on my Wii. But now I realize that my TV is too small to play the game.

For most guys of my generation this is not a problem. They just slip on some sandals get in their light truck and drive out to the newly rezoned commerical area 40 miles out from the city and buy a bigger TV at a big box store. A decent size LCD TV isn't that expensive these days, and I can afford it even on my salary. But that's not the point. The point is I know that once I let that door open, I'll release the flood gate of even more buying.

If I get a bigger LCD TV, then I will be tempted to buy a gaming PC to hook into it. This is because I really would want to do things like play Mass Effect, (Which I don't own) Skype StarTrek style to my friends, and watch Homestarrunner and AdultSwim. You see what I mean, buying this one game has set off a chain of more consumption. Now I don't mean to imply that there are some marketing guys at some company laughing at their genius marketing plan, but there is something insidious with how our consumer culture has prepped us to buy things.

Art imitates Life

Above is Raytheon's XOS exoskeleton which was trotted out this weekend for a demonstration. It's no coincidence that Raytheon wants to connect the Ironman movie with their fledgling exoskeleton technology.

I have to say that the Ironman movie was very very good. This is truly a bold new age when superhero movies are actually pretty entertaining. I really like this movement for Marvel in their ability to make their superheroes have a universal quality. Spider-man wasn't just a movie about a teenager who gets spider powers, but carried the message of the choices one makes to become a healthy adult. X-men pushed the message of human discrimination. Ironman? the message in this movie was quite clear, and actually quite elegantly done.

We live in a world in which the corporations have become the most powerful force in the world. Outward conflict of guns, bombs and missiles are horrifically merely the backdrop to the truer means of control. Emile Durkheim wrote extensively on how social stability can be examined through understanding the centers of social solidarity. A nation is stronger, when everyone in that nation is aligned to a common goal. The idea of citizens rallying together against a common enemy is unfortunately a worn out tactic. What has happened now is the breakup of citizens in America in their allegiance to our country. Not to say that Americans have lost faith in America, but the vision of that faith has become fractured. What seems to be taking the place of national allegiance, is an allegiance to one's workplace. The dissatisfaction with the dirty hands of America as a nation, the romance of internationalization, and the ever expanding reach of transnational businesses have all driven this idea.

Ironman depicts a world which no longer rely on ideas of physical borders. (Honestly, Tony Stark takes a woman from Las Vegas across state lines to Malibu to have one night stand with her.) A company will sell weapons to anyone who will buy them, even if the buyer intends to harm the nation of the company headquarters. Tony Stark, horrified at this prospect takes it on himself (without the formal aid of the nation) to stop this menace. To further the point, he is recruited by Strategic Homeland Intervention, Engagement and Logistics Division or S.H.I.E.L.D., a nationless organization created to protect the world. (Think InterPol with a multi-billion dollar flying fortress.)

Research project on anime-fans

It's been way too long, and I've seemingly abandoned my blog. This was not for poor reasons, but I feel bad all the same. You see I've finally become gainfully employed. This means that I now work 9 to 5 and can't spend the day musing about stuff I find in my hours of reading blogs in my pajamas.

One exciting thing is that one of professors has asked if I would like to co-write a paper with him this summer. He is a sociologist who is an expert on the political atmosphere of Burma. He had done an extensive ethnographic research there and is usually listed in many articles related to Burma. He has found that he was referenced on the "NarutoForums" message board. After reading the thread on recent events in Burma, he was interested in the level of sophistication which many of these posters were speaking on the issues involved. He has asked me to co-write with him because he doesn't really understand the culture of message boards very well, and would also like my advice on understanding any cultural meanings in the anime references.

In short, from a sociological standpoint, this is a rare opportunity in which we have documented evidence of how an informal community carries a dialog about political issues relating to my professor's work.

I was telling him that this paper would be a good opportunity for me to get published a few of my own ideas about geek culture. This idea borrows greatly from Lars Konzack's work "Geek Culture: The 3^rd Counter-Culture" in which is sets up the idea that "Geek Culture" is the rejection of "Yuppie Culture" in the same way that "Yuppie Culture" was the rejection of "Hippie Culture". I would go into further detail as to how this plays out in terms of how geeks seek to understand the world around them. I feel as if for many geeks, the key element of being one is this comfortable attitude with understanding fantastic worlds. A geek would be able to see a strange situation, and quickly adapt to the situation and operate on the level of that situation instead of on a personal presupposition. This gets into various famous arguments like which would win in a battle if the USS Defiant was put against the Millennium Falcon. A geek would answer "Depends on who was in command". I feel that this comfortable relationship with fantastic worlds allows for an attitude which is able to grasp other cultures with ease and without disregarding issues as too foreign to care about. While many Americans can't point to Burma on a map, geeks are curious to learn more about a place if they are given even an inkling knowledge.

Wanna play some smash?

So my brother got me Super Smash Brothers Brawl last week. I've been playing it for a week and even had a few guys over to my place to really break in the game.

I really like the series. Super Smash Brothers has always been a solid game that understands that games should be fun. One of the things that I tend to get annoyed about many of the games out there is this idea that more violence, and darker themes would mean the game would sell better. Games that look like it was created through market research to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

Last Saturday, I discovered (or maybe rediscovered) another reason this game is great. I had a few guys come over to play the game. All four of them were seasoned veterans of the last game and were fairly good players. (One of them seemed to continue to dominate using Yoshi.) We had been playing for several hours and had gotten used to the new controls. Then another friend of mine came over later in the afternoon. She had never really played the game, but was a big enough nerd to appreciate the appeal of Nintendo characters fighting each other. After only a few rounds of playing she picked up the subtleties of the game right away. Within 30 minutes of playing the idea of taking it easy on the new player was completely ignored.

For the most part the game is very well designed. Even if you're losing, it's still a fun game to play and the penalties for losing are so meager they don't really mean anything. Also the controls are really easy to pick up. No half-circles, no crazy button combos, everything is pretty straight forward. Really good players can dominate a game on occasion, but with the way the game is made, the range of how good one can be at the game is very short.

It's the type of game that follows the ideology of the Wii. Wii games don't have to be the most advanced game out there to be a very fun game that can be accessible to a wide range of people and not just to the gaming elite. It also gets me thinking about the idea of categorization of games, as in games for girls, infants, kids, and adults. In many ways these distinctions get into the realm of silly and insulting. Is SSBB a kid's game? is it girl friendly? These ideas create assumptions about the abilities of women and children that can hardly be generalized in any reliable way. I was concerned at the newcomer's ability to enjoy the game not because she was a girl, but because she was playing against people who had played the game quite a bit before. (being outmatched no matter who you are is never fun) But it was through the design of the game that was able to encourage even newcomers to the series to find enjoyment.

Who are nerds

This is a very fascinating bit on this guy that lives not too far from me. In fact I may end up going to see him in the near future if the desires strikes me.

Other than the fact that he's an example of a "white guy with too much expendable income". I don't have anything against him. He seems like your typical geek that has a hobby. To be honest, I've been inconsolably jealous of anyone with a lot of money lately. I don't even know why. I saw a site with several pictures of Dubai and suddenly had this fit of rage over how much freaking money is pouring into this city.

So the question is this, is being a nerd merely an extension of the culture of consumerism, or is there something more. Are you still a nerd if you don't have a lot of "stuff"? Does this stuff define you as a nerd? Are you a bigger nerd if you have more stuff? I'd like to think not. I'd like to think that being a nerd merely means interests in things, and not the collecting of things. I knew this guy who specializes in selling rare and highly sought after comic books. He was telling me that he was selling "Amazing Fantasy 15" to an NFL team owner. I know nothing about this guy, and I'm sure he is quite a fan of Spider-man and all, but the question is, does it make him a nerd?

I consider myself a big nerd. I know that there are two Dr. McCoys, (Dr. Hank McCoy, and Dr. Leonard McCoy) I read Gizmodo and Kotaku almost on a daily basis, and learned Japanese to be able to read manga in Japanese. I own a fair amount of nerdy things including a boxed copy of Final Fantasy 1, a Wii, a 9 inch figure of symbiote suit Spider-man, and a Principality of Zeon flag. But I have this nagging feeling that there is more to it. A more central reason to why I do all these things, and these things are merely products of that.

Psychology

Mike Krahulik from Penny Arcade has written one of the bravest bits on personal psychology that I have read in a long time. Seriously, of all the things that I have personally read about psychology and have experienced personally, this perhaps one of the astondingly reflective and honest discription of what's it like to deal with a psychological problem.

It was almost impossible to go get help though because the very nature of the illness prevents you from getting it. So I worry alot, I know that. So I start to think maybe I worry too much. Maybe I have a real problem. Then I think, "no I'm just worrying too much". This is the kind of thing that keeps me awake at night. It's fucking inescapable like some kind of brain trap. So I have to write off this fear that I might actually be sick as another example of my needless worrying. Add to that the fact that I worry that if I do go to a doctor he'll tell me I have some kind of brain disease or I'm not treatable or maybe just as bad that there's nothing wrong with me. All this shit piles up and the result is that I'm 30 and I've never gone to the doctor about it until yesterday.

I started crying a bit a this part here. It cut very close to how I feel about myself and the way I am. I have often credited Penny-Arcade for it's quality work, but this is the first time I have wanted to send a strong message to Mike Krahulik that I am simply humbled by him.

Psychological problems are all too often linked to nerd culture. This could be simple depictions of nerds in the media as socially awkward individuals (see: Steve Urkel, Brian Johnson) or the litany of various claims that video games, comic books, and television would lead to psychological disorders. The Japanese have historically drawn much of their presuppositions on nerds from Akio Nakamori's "Mの時代"(The age of M). This was a case study of Tsutomu Miyazaki a famous serial killer. Since Miyazaki was also an otaku, the connection was commonly held that otaku may also harbor psychotic tendencies. (Similar distinctions have been made of both the Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, and Seung-Hui Cho.)

I personally find it difficult to rationalize this in my mind. The only thing I could say is this. Perhaps there could be an attraction phenomenon. Reduced down, the promise of nerd culture could be said to be the promise of escapism. To be free from our physical and social restraints, of only in our minds and play with "what ifs" that would otherwise couldn't be. This could become a very attractive solution to people who are dissatisfied with their own reality. I take as an example Spider-man. If you're a kid living in a poor Jewish Romanian immigrant family in New York city, what better dream than to have someone who selflessly protects the people of the city. Even Peter Parker himself was a role model for me. When things in my life didn't work out very well and I felt like a failure, it made me feel a little better to know that even being a failure made me bit more like Peter Parker. In a time in which secular thinking is held at a pedestal, and we are no longer soaked in a culture of religious fervor, perhaps nerd culture acts as the non-spiritual solace which those who need it, seek it.

Modern Man (response)

Many different journalist of better writing ability have responded in similar dismay to Hymowitz' article on the child-men problem.

Mighty Bargain Hunter, has a short piece basically saying that ideas of what it means to grow up are not as uniform as some my think it to be. I especially like the bit at the end.

If you grow up earlier than you should, life is “thrust upon you” and you’ll feel cheated. If you grow up later than you should, you’ll know it, and others will tell you once they get tired enough of your behavior. If you grow up at the right speed, you know what you’re leaving behind, and you know that where you’re going has a good chance of being better. After nearly six years of marriage I hardly remember what it was like not to be married, and when I think about what it was like, I don’t miss it that much. But I was ready to “grow up” and get married. There’s more responsibility being a grown-up, but it’s also more rewarding and more fulfilling. That’s where the payoff is, but it’s a payoff that you have to want.

I've found after teaching in Japan, that your average Japanese 20something is rather immature compared to your average 20something in America. Being that I taught elementary and junior high school kids, I have a personal theory. The Japanese kids are raised to uphold an unreasonable amount of responsibility. Although it's always good to teach responsibility at a young age, there is a point in which it becomes harmful. After growing up with it, the reason for having responsibility becomes meaningless and a mental rejection of adulthood occurs. In many ways forcing a child to act grown up, stunts their ability to actually grow up. I've found that growing up requires learning first hand those mistakes of youth, saying ouch, and then moving on.

Another article by Amanda Marcotte writes extensively tearing down the argument that because of "feminism" men have fallen behind in becoming adults. She writes sarcastically

of course women are to blame for men who are unwilling to take responsibility. Specifically the secret, all-powerful cadre called The Feminists. We all know the argument—men aren’t motivated to grow up and do icky girl stuff like get married and have children and hold down a full-time job on their own. No, they have to be bribed into it. You ladies have to sweeten the deal by offering dependence and submission. But never fear, men are like vending machines. You put submission and dependence in, ladies, and you’ll get devotion and responsibility back. So really, it’s all on you to “make” men be responsible.

Where the Xbox is concerned, is that men are spending their time and money on childish things like video games instead of growing up and appreciating how independent and career driven their wives are. Marcotte wrote that not only is this inaccurate, it implies that most women are now independent and career driven and wouldn't touch a video game controller for fear of getting cooties.

The idea that men are always playing around with women and games is an old story that predates both the Xbox and yuppies. (see: Guys and Dolls "I'm playing craps", Pride and Prejudice "You tricked me with your womanly ways", The Odyssey "So, heres the reason it took me so long to get home.")

The Modern Man

Kay Hymowitz from The Dallas Morning News wrote an interesting opinion article about his opinions of the modern man. For him all men seem to be behind in being able to grow up.

Now meet the 21st-century you, also 26. You've finished college and work in a cubicle in a large Chicago financial-services firm. You live in an apartment with a few single guy friends. In your spare time, you play basketball with your buddies, download the latest indie songs from iTunes, have some fun with the Xbox 360, take a leisurely shower, massage some product into your hair and face – and then it's off to bars and parties, where you meet, and often bed, girls of widely varied hues and sizes. Wife? Kids? House? Are you kidding?

I wish my life was like that. (I actually happen to be 26 right now.) Who even has a life like that? I tend to be pretty hard on affluent white people. I've been known to snicker at the silly things that honkies do. However, what I'm interested in here is the writer himself. Mr. Hymowitz has a few issues with the modern world and his generalizations tell more about what concerns him, than what is happening in America.

With women, you could argue that adulthood is in fact emergent. Single women in their 20s and early 30s are joining an international New Girl Order, hyper-achieving in both school and an increasingly female-friendly workplace, while packing leisure hours with shopping, traveling and dining with friends. Single young males, or SYMs, by contrast, often seem to hang out in a playground of drinking, hooking up, playing Halo 3 and, in many cases, underachieving. With them, adulthood looks as though it's receding.

What is this NGO? I know quite a few "jet-set" women and none of them have told me of any such NGO. On top of that most American women have never left the country and don't plan to go father than the time share resorts. The rest of the article is mostly alot of pseudo-psychology about why men aren't becoming adults and that it's the media's fault.

It seems to me that this is less of a commentary of the modern man, but casting nerd culture as an affront to male adulthood. Somehow a "real" adult is meant to have cast aside silly things like Halo 3 and iTunes and get in the real world with a real job working with heavy machines and responsibilities.

The problem I see is that the roles that are presented to us in the media, and the roles that men are able to fill now has changed dramatically over the years. We have not settled on what it means to be an adult in the modern age. (Frankly it's something we figure out in hindsight.) We are constantly being told that we need to get a "good" education, (like at least a masters) and then a steady job with a steady paycheck. In actuality there really is no set model. Some of the most influential people of the past and present hardly can be considered to have lived a normal progression of adult stages.

Technology

Somehow the lady's message reminds me of this little scene from Johnny Mnemonic.

Johnny Mnemonic: Yeah, the Black Shakes. What causes it?
Spider: What causes it?
[points to various pieces of equipment throughout the room]
Spider: This causes it! This causes it! This causes it! Information overload! All the electronics around you poisoning the airwaves. Technological fucking civilization. But we still have all this shit, because we can't live without it. Let me do my work.

One of the interesting thing here is the overlap of two different ways to bring more power to the iPhone than it really deserves. The lady is blaming the iPhone as the harbinger of mind numbing technology, and the juveniles off camera are ensnared by the promises of new gadgets to make their lives better. Neither group understands each other's culture, the lady can't understand her own arbitrary cutoff point between good technology and bad technology , and the juveniles can't understand how far seduced they are by consumerism.

This brings up two interesting parts of the argument. The lady is pleading for a return to a natural state of humanness. However, is shown to be hypocritical through her patronage of sprint cellphones. (why is that open in her hands anyway?) The fact is our human bodies are far past any return to a "natural" state. We live far beyond the time of maturation of our offsprings surviving through a cocktail of vaccines and antibiotics. There is no "natural" state for humans, and even if there was such a person at this state, civilized society rejects them instantly with no remorse.

However, the juveniles are arguing that technology is at the aid of human potential. Through access to the internet, this serves as a collective unconscious of all information that one would desire. This is part of the salvation story of technology and science, that there will be some "thing" if perfected that will save us all from ignorance. (see OLPC) Marketing agencies play into this desire and use elaborate ads that promise us salvation but really are merely asking for our money.

As the hierarchy of class/age/sex/race/nation divisions stay solid while information sharing continues to lure us into being numb to these divisions, we will see more and more of these conflicts between people and cultures.

Mass (Media) Effect

(Thank you Matt Ian for the art, I hope you don't mind my vandalism)

So I've been playing Mass Effect on my friend's Xbox 360 for a while. (I don't own one myself, I can't afford it.) I really like the game. It's every SciFi novel I ever read as a kid all rolled into one really fun game to play. However recently, it's gotten some poorly researched attacks by people who really don't know what they're talking about.

The first bit is from Cathy Ruse.

The game is "clearly marketed to minors," Cathy Ruse, a lawyer and senior fellow for legal studies at the Family Research Council, told Cybercast News Service.

"There are cultural implications for feeding porn to kids in this way," and "when you do this, you're teaching them a distorted lesson about human sexuality and human dignity. These are lessons that they will take with them into adulthood and ultimately society," Ruse said.

First of all, apparently a game that is rated M for mature is clearly marketed to minors. Even if we were to buy the argument that unless it's sold next to the porn, ratings will mean nothing to stop minors from buying them. The game box art doesn't look anything like something that is marketed for minors, the color scheme is too dark, and no one is smiling. Companies are usually pretty obvious when they market something to minors, and when they're not.

Secondly, to call the minute amount of sexual scenes in the game a "distorted lesson about human sexuality and human dignity" Is more than unfair. You play the game and there is a build up of a dialog between consenting adults who struggle with horrific terrors and at the same time challenge ideas of human loyalty, extra-special racism, and deep ideas of intimacy. It's not Shakespeare, but we don't live in a polarity that everything is either fine art or trash.

The second one that has gotten the most press was this commentary by Kevin McCullough.

And because of the digital chip age in which we live - "Mass Effect" can be customized to sodomize whatever, whoever, however, the game player wishes.

I've been playing this game for a while, and I really don't have that many choices of who to have sex with, it actually ends up being a choice between two people, Kaidan a hopeless romantic with psychokinesis, or Liara a bookish scientist with psychokinesis. While Kaidan is cute and all, I have a certain penchant for bookish types. That's it, in fact as you go through the game, each character starts getting more upset if you try to "play the field" and makes you choose. All the while my good friend is asking if I can have sex with the Krogan, (who looks like a cross between a dinosaur and a turtle, and has the manners of a steam roller. Go figure, she has adventurous taste.)

Although McCullough has since apologized, (twice) for some of the more outright lies in his article, he hardly seems to seem any more reasonable. The problem is that many of these pundits are making entire opinions without playing the game or knowing anything about the game. Even McCullough based his opinions entirely on stuff he saw on YouTube.

I'm all for protecting smut from getting to minors, and reducing unfavorable depictions of women in the media. And I think we as a society has progressed quite a bit in the last few decades. Mass Effect is in many ways the product of how far we've come in progress. We have here real depictions of men women aliens and humans in an in depth story in which shows people with true strength of character and human realities of emotion, loyalty, duty, and even faith. (Ashley Williams is a quite religious) If the ideas that violent video games are "killing simulators" are in any way true, then could there also be "socialization simulators"? We live in a time when we can't trust our neighbors, coworkers, or fellow bus riders. We live secluded and separated from our fellow people and have rare moments to ever be comfortable with getting to know anyone. That's a hard life, and it causes more psychological pain than any video game can muster. We are social animals, to keep us away from human contact is like denying a plant light. We need to figure out a way to understand how to interact with each other, and learn that human interactions are about love,consequences, pain, and forgiveness.

Japanese border security

Apparently collecting fingerprints and photos of all "foreigners" coming into Japan hasn't been enough to quell neocon reactionist in Japan. Now it looks like Japan will consider making knowing Japanese a requirement to obtaining a long-term work visa.

Personally, I feel like I know enough Japanese to be able to pass whatever requirement that they would set up, so I'm personally not too concerned. Besides many of the jobs that I'd be interested in would require passing JLPT 2 anyway. In fact this may favor me because now if I were to work for a company that needs to send a guy to Japan, I'd be moved up to the shortlist of the employees that know Japanese. They couldn't just send anybody, they'd be required to send someone that knows Japanese.

To be honest the reason for this is to keep various people from entering Japan and taking up resources, space, and pension money. This is mostly those from South America, Philippines, Guam and other members of the working poor in Japan. However, the reaction from nerds on the internet is mostly "Oh noes, now I'll never get to work in a manga shop in Tokyo" I've gotta say that honestly in the grand scheme of things, this is hardly the case. I find this particular bit interesting.

"Japanese language ability is important to increase the quality of foreigners' own lifestyles, and is also important for Japanese society," he said. "It will be a very good thing if this builds momentum for people to say, 'I'm going to study Japanese in order to go to Japan.'"

Japan is far from being an international language. The only way one would need Japanese is if anyone is doing business with the Japanese. Languages like Spanish, Chinese, and French are far more useful for general worldwide appeal, also there are far more "obscure niche" languages to delve into, and Japanese is not one of them. (But Vietnamese is!) So this is really a way for Japan to increase the value of the Japanese language. Perfectly reasonable actions for a language that is already in linguistic decline. (ie: being slowly replaced by foreign words.)

I mostly wonder how this will affect jobs like JET and Nova. JET doesn't have a Japanese language requirement to be able to do the job, this has been their greatest recruiting tool for those fresh out of college. This also has widened the type of people that apply for JET giving them a large diversity of applicants to chose from. If JET must comply to these new language requirements, this will narrow down the applicant pool to only East Asian Studies majors and those that just happen to have learned Japanese.

In the end this will restrict the number of incoming workers in Japan and possibly even tourism. (Many tourist come to Japan because they know a friend who lives in Japan, if there are less foreigners living in Japan, then there will be less of those connections to incite tourism.) By no means does this stop anyone from getting their Japanese wife fantasy. Although actual life in Japan is quite different from perceived life in Japan.

Nerd Authority

So Gizmodo has this great picture that they found of a few guys sitting by the pool for some beers and BBQ. This itself is enough hilarity to make an entire post about, but that's not why I'm here. What really interests me is the sudden surge on the Gizmodo comments page on trying prove if this is truly dangerous or not. It's everyone from the resident electrician to a freaking carnival engineer trying to outdo the other post in being the "expert" on electrical safety.

I've encountered such behavior pretty often around nerds. The one thing about being a nerd is that you'll run into a few that have this strange desire to be the absolute authority on something (or many times everything.) Gizmodo being a gadget blog attracts this sort of bunch as they scour these blogs so they can be the most up to date on happenings in the technology world. There is something frightening about this strange modern version of muscle flexing that many men do now. This reinvention of this habit of being able to say that "I'm right and you're an idiot." Last week I was a part of a dinner party and one of the guest was one of these guys. He was a perfectly nice guy, but he had this attitude about him of trying to be the biggest boy with the best toys. He spent a great deal of the night talking about his car, computer, or other type things that he could buy now that he was back in the US. I wonder if somehow it's a form of self empowerment in the form of consumerism to make up for personal feelings of a lack of control in the path of his life. I wonder as society pulls more control away from the individual will we see more of this "reclaiming" of control in the form of consumerism.

disappointing Wii games

It's a new year and the post Christmas reevaluation of my material possessions is in order. Mostly, I'm talking about trading in some of my Wii games for more Wii games. Here is the list of Wii games that I've decided to part with.

Super Paper Mario:
This was actually a really great game. I really enjoyed many of the platformer/RPG elements of this game. It was fun to play, it had a zany sense of humor, and was challenging enough to satisfy my gaming itch. I really liked the whole flipping from 2D to 3D aspect of the game. It gave it an interesting element of problem solving and obsessive easter egg hunting that I like in a game. There were some really funny moments like Otaku Castle on world 3-4 was absolutely indulgent. Sadly, the reason that I'm returning the game is because it has little to no reply value. After playing it through once, there's no real reason to play it through again. They tried to make the game play a bit longer by having cards and things to collect, but I'm not interested in collecting cards. If I had other friends that owned a Wii, this would be the type of game that I'd just pass around.

Red Steel:
This was one of the games that came out at the release of the Wii. I was pretty excited about it because it looked like a pretty cool. For the most part the gameplay was acceptable for the time. It had a few control issues, but a decent FPS for the Wii. (Personally I don't really like FPS so I may be a bit biased) The only problem is that the story was cringingly bad. You would have to be a ridiculous wapanese to appreciate this poorly put together story. Get this, you play a white guy that is hired in Tokyo to be the bodyguard to a beautiful and rich Japanese girl. Then logically the two of you fall in love and decide to get married and so you fly to America to announce your engagement to her father. Then it turns out that her father is a retired Yakuza boss and your fiance is kidnapped as a part of an interfamily rivalry. The voice acting is miserable and the lines are worst than watching a Hong Kong action movie. The supposed "sword play" in the game is really sloppy and unsatisfying. You can only use the sword in pre-determined parts of the game and your frantic swings seems to have nothing to do with what actually happens on screen. All in all, Red Steel was a big flop and I doubt the sequel would be any better.

MySims:
I was actually really excited about this game too. I really like Sim games. It appeals to my desire to create perfect societies. The sprites are adorably cute, you just see them jump around you just wanna cuddle them to bits. The ability to build and create things was quite impressive and offered a limitless amount of customization. The only problem was that there was almost no Sim element to the game. The location and choices of buildings and people in the game had almost no impact on your little society as a whole. The only things that any of your residents seem to care about was getting stuff that matched their personality. For the most part it was less of a sim game and more of a virtual doll house game. That in itself is not so bad if you like playing with doll houses. So if you want to "simulate" the experiences of being a doll house hobbyist, then MySims is a great game. Personally, I'd rather have more gameplay in my sim games than just building things.

After returning these games I got 51 Gamestop credits. I'm not sure what I'll get with them, but we shall see.