Project Spark: The little idea that could.

Project Spark on one hand seems like a rather small scale "Who cares about it" kind of game. It's going to be Free To Play. Just how awesome could it be? Let me tell you why Project Spark is so much more than a small time game.

I can't....I won't... believe that there is a single gamer out there that hasn't wondered why a certain game didn't exist. Or how they would have made a game better. Who  hasn't played a game that by all rights SHOULD have been awesome, but wasn't.  Can you imagine all the gamers out there with all kinds of ideas but no way to bring them to the world? The things that are potentially locked away in any given persons mind is limitless.

Granted, some things should STAY forever buried in some peoples minds, but at least we wouldn't have paid for them. Maybe you're not the creative sort, but maybe others are. Instead of creating your own dreams live them through someone else's creation. My autistic son I imagine will have a hard time with creating something, but I can also seem him delving into things that others create. My autistic husband on the other hand already has ideas brewing. Several of them. He thinks in pictures. I can see JUST what he wants.

The BIG reason why Project Spark isn't just some small time Free To Play game: Publishers, developers, everyone will be able to see what it is that gamers are interested in. Going forward I can see Project Spark as a tool to fuel the gaming community and the games we play. They'll know what we want. It will be shown by the types of games we are creating vs the type of games we are playing within the Project Spark community.

If you ask me, I'd say that Microsoft nailed it with this little idea. Project Spark will be having people's imagination sparking all over the place. Just wait for the wild fire that will ensue in the gaming world, and all thanks to one little Free To Play game.

You can find Project Spark on Facebook to keep up with all their latest news. Word has it they will be releasing information about beta this week. Project Spark will be released on Windows 8, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

It always feels like, someone is watching me....

These days there is never a shortage on conspiracy theories and alarmist statements. We live in a time where our government tracks where you go, via those red light runner cameras, by scanning your license plate every time you pass through an intersection. They monitor your calls, your Facebook, and any other social media that you use. Likewise employers are also tracking your social media. These things are honest to goodness facts, not alarmist statements.

However, people have taken those things and become paranoid. This is mostly centered around the new Xbox One's Kinect that it comes packaged with. Not to be fooled, the PS also has a similar feature called The Eye but is not packaged with their system. I used the word paranoid to describe how people are acting because... well, I'm not really sure what else you could call the things you can read across the internet in a host of comment sections about the Kinect watching everything you do.

I think my favorite paranoid statement so far has been that Microsoft will be watching you masturbate. That's your concern? To me that sounds like shame. If you can't masturbate with some confidence then maybe you should do it in the bathroom like the other 12 year old boys. But seriously, Do you really think that Microsoft has so much money that they can throw it away by watching everything that everyone does 24/7? Outside of the cost of equipment, software, and maintenance there would be the cost of the mass amount of employees they would have to have to sift through all that video.

Can you really picture Microsoft having the equivalent to NASA's mission control except instead of all those people looking into screens monitoring a space shuttle each person is instead watching someone masturbate in their living room. Is THIS what the internet really think is going on?

I would for once just like to hear one SOUND point of view as to why any company would do such a thing. What would they get out of it? What are they looking for? Are they going to start emailing you penis enhancement ads?

This isn't about Microsoft, at least not for me. This is just about people taking things too far. This is about people taking a simple tool to make their gaming experience better and going OMG they will watch me yank my chain in my living room. I don't understand how that even registers in someone's head. I have no more fear of Microsoft watching what's going on in my living room than I do that PS would do it with their Eye.

Gamers, can we just please stop acting like we're a bunch of paranoid crackheads who seem to believe they heard something and it must be the cops at the door? No one is, nor does anyone want to, watch you masturbate.

Changes to Xbox Live

According to an email sent out from Xbox they will be getting rid of the Gold Family plan for Xbox Live starting on August 27th. Their Family Plan allowed up to four people to have access to the Xbox Live program for a discounted rate. One of the four was the master account holder.

I have been having my suspicions that the Family Plan was on the way out the door due to statements about a single Live account acting in a similar fashion as the Family Plan. As I suspected, that is the purpose behind the changes. Now, one account will allow anyone using your box to have access to Gold privileges as if they were a member themselves. Likewise, if you go to a friends house and sign in to your Gold account and they do not have a Gold account, while you are there and signed in they too will have access to your privileges.

It's not a shabby deal. Instead of having to buy a four pack of Gold memberships at a discounted rate of four individual accounts you will only need to buy a single account which is cheaper than the four pack anyways. Plus, unlike the Family Plan you get to share it with as many people who are on your box, and however many use any box your account is actively signed in to.

Additionally, when they split up the Family Plan and turn each person on those plans into an active individual account they are awarding an additional three months of Gold membership. That equals three months of free Gold access for four people.

The only feature to be lost will be the ability to look in on what the other members of the Family Plan have been doing. A feature I have never used anyway. You can still control what your kids play and how long they play by the features on your box.

Finally, all memberships will work on the 360 AND the One. 

The Gamer in ME

We've all played with her.....him...ummm it?

I'm...just a girl. Yeah, I'm that video game unicorn that you keep hearing about, but that no one really believes exists. After all, everyone knows girls don't play video games. Grow up boys. We do too. Some of us might even kick your butt. Would that really be any worse than being beat by a 12 year old in CoD?

Ok. I'll give it to you. When I was a kid most girls didn't play video games. Those who did SUCKED at it. The most my mother could master was solitaire on the computer. She couldn't even complete level one of Super Mario Bros on NES. I don't even remember any other girls from my childhood playing games. I hated girls growing up. They were always saying stupid stuff like, "Let's go to my house and play Barbies!" Uhhh, no, let's not. And, let's not even say we did.

I started playing games on the Atari. We had multiple computers in our home when most people didn't even have one. We had 2 NES's and a Sega Genesis. To say the least, my family was always at the cutting edge of tech gear. That was my dads influence. He knew that computers and the like were the things to latch on to. That they'd be a BIG deal in the future. And they have been.

 I spent a good bit of my youth in chat rooms. I played D&D. I still play D&D, but now I play with my kids. That's right, I spend a good amount of energy seeing to it that I keep the geek gene alive. My son has been bitten by the gaming bug. He has a fever that won't break. He'll play games any way he can get them. I think it's an awesome thing to share. My daughter is more selective. She prefers PC gaming to console. 

We game as a family. PC games, console games, and paper D&D. We game as individuals. We play more games than we watch t.v., but we do other things too. Like, read books, my son is on a Little League Team, my daughter is in the High School Band, my husband coaches my son, and I'm on the Band Board. BUT this blog isn't about us being well rounded. So, I don't want to hear any moot comments about getting out into the world and doing something. I've been outside...the game play sucks.

What is this blog about? In short, whatever I want, BUT it's really going to be about the various games I play. What I think about them. What I think about what's going on in the gaming community. What I think could be done better. Who I think is messing it up. We'll talk about gaming articles I read, consoles I buy, and maybe even some D&D.

In short, let's geek out with our socks out!