A Quick Response to "Video Games vs The Brain"

A good friend of mine recently wrote a post on her blog titled, "Video Games vs The Brain" wherein she talked about a study conducted by a professor Akio Mori. In the study Professor Mori brought in subjects that fit into one of four categories: normal, (Those who rarely played games) visual, (Those who are avid TV viewers) half-video game, (Those who played played less than fifteen hours a week) and video game (Those who played games at least two hours a day.) Professor Mori then measured the brain waves of the subjects and found that those in the visual and video game group did not have much activity in the areas of the brain related to creativity and emotion. Shay (The author of the blog) Then extrapolated some of her thoughts on the results of the study and about excessive gaming and television watching in general.

Now before I get into my response I would like to say a couple of things, first off being that I quite enjoyed this post. It's an interesting discussion and I thinks its good to have discussion about it. Secondly, can we be real for a minute and mention how absolutely awful having the font, size, and colour of the text change seemingly at random throughout the post is? I love you Shay, you are a good person, but seriously that just looks so bad. Just painful to read. I mean I think I get why you changed font the first time as you transitioned from writing about the study to your thoughts, but it's 100% unnecessary. It makes it look like you just copy pasted a paragraph from somewhere else onto your post and it looks bad. Now that we got that out of the way, let's actually talk about what the words said an not the font.

There are already a bunch of Facebook comments that highlight the major problems with this post. The study doesn't say what games people were playing which could have a dramatic affect on what kind of brain activity the subject will show. Imagine a hypothetical situation where the game being played is pong. Everyone knows that game right? You move a paddle up or down to hit a ball back and forth. There is nothing else to it, you could sit Leonardo DaVinci down with pong and he's not going to show off creative thoughts because there isn't anything to that game. That's just one hypothetical situation though. The other problem with the post highlighted by Facebook comments was that it was a study of correlation and not causation. A study like the one conducted by Professor Mori simply can't offer itself as evidence that excessive games or T.V. stop your creative thinking, it can only be evidence that a relationship between the two does exist.

Another problem that I did not see mentioned was the fact that it was only one study. That's a problem. This study might show a relationship between excessive gaming and a lack of beta waves, (Which are thought to be related to creative thinking and emotion) but another study might show something completely different. I'm not saying that another study will, but leaving that question unanswered erodes the credibility of an argument. Also don't think for a second that this isn't an argument being made because it is.

Now I only have one more thing I want to bash at in this post, the last paragraph made me cringe. No word of a lie. To quote, "If you answered the same as I'm doing today, Then I'm sorry, but you are living your life not to the fullest, and that's where regrets come form." Not only does the wording feel awkward, (living your life not to the fullest? Really? How about but you are not living life to its fullest. Don't lead you reader into thinking your going to say one thing and then turn it around on them like that, feels weird to read.) especially since in the previous paragraph she stated to take things in moderation, and now she's saying it would be good to cut it out completely. The real problem though is that it's an absolute statement. What if I meet my long lost brother and the only thing we have in common is playing games? I'd say playing some with him would still be well within living life to the fullest, and I know that's a really extreme example, but you expose yourself to problems like that when you make absolute statements about subjective things. Honestly I was thinking this was actually a great post until the end of it, now I'm forced to call it just "good."

Alright I'm done, hate train has departed. There are definitely flaws with the reasoning in the post, but I applaud Shay for taking the time to open up a discussion about this. It's nice to see discussion in comments on Facebook rather than just a mass of likes. Keep it up Shay.

Just a reminder of some of the really great things about games.

Why I Stopped Playing Competitive Games.

Let's talk burnout. I don't really know if this is a term used like it is with gamers, but burnout is pretty straight forward, you play one game a lot over an extended period of time and then you don't enjoy it like you did when you started playing and that causes you to stop. Occasionally you burnout on a game so badly that you never play it again. Most of the time it's just temporary lasting from a month or two to as long as several years before you return to a game. I'm really burnt out when it comes to League of Legends, I honestly can't even boot the program up and stay in a good mood. Nothing about playing the game is fun for me right now. I still absolutely love watching League be played at a professional level though, but I can't play it. To extend that even further I really haven't enjoyed playing StarCraft II as much lately either, even though I feel like I'm at a peak of sorts with my level of enjoyment as a viewer. I think right now it'll be good for me to simply take a step back from playing and focus on being a more informed viewer. That means goals, which I've been really bloody awful at finishing on this blog, but you gotta keep trying ya know?

So the new goal will be to reach the point as a viewer that I can write informed and decent quality preview and review pieces on the 2014 Season of StarCraft World Championship Series (WCS) and League of Legends Championship Series. (LCS) In order to accomplish this I'm going to have to become a little more focused on what I watch in terms of streams. I think for League I should be focusing on watching a decent amount of at least one professional in each of the five positions and for StarCraft a pro for each of the races.

So basically in summary, I'm not going to really be playing games right now, but rather focus on getting better at writing pieces for Esports which I'll post up here. I'll write another post "soon" TM where I'll go into detail about the streamers I'll be focusing on. Until then, good luck and have fun peeps!

Some Review of WCS 2013, and my Thoughts on WCS 2014 Plans

In case you did not know, Blizzard released their plans for their World Championship Series (WCS) for two thousand and fourteen. Fans, players and hecklers alike were in anticipation of this news, particularly if any nationality or residency requirements would be introduced to help prevent the mess that was the WCS America region where they top eight throughout three separate seasons had only one person native to North America, (a Canadian) tying it with Australia and Norway for the year. 

Blizzards first step to fixing this problem is allocate the number of spots available for challenger league qualifiers (The tournament that funnels into premier, the highest league.) shall be limited to certain numbers based on nationality. fifty percent of qualifier spots are guaranteed to those who call North America their home, (whether by birth or legal residency) while only two will be available to their main competition, South Koreans, and even those sports are actually wildcards open to anyone. If you are wondering, while 1 Canadian made the top eight over three seasons, eighteen Koreans made their way to the top eight, possessing 75% of the top spots, and always claiming the title and runner up spots. This will probably prevent many Koreans from making their way up to premier league spots, while giving many more North Americans opportunity to attempt to make the jump. 

However, these changes do not affect the seven Korean players already seeded into Premier via their previous seasons performance, nor does it affect the Twelve Koreans who will be looking to make the jump to premier in the challenger league best of five matches that will take place early next year. It is highly likely unless several Koreans are matched against their countrymen that we will still be seeing as many as 16 Koreans in premier league, and with the new format, it will be difficult to remove them. WCS America looks to remain GSL* lite for the time being. 

You will notice I have not mentioned how this change will affect Europe`s own WCS competition. This is because Europe does not have the problem of being totally overrun by Korea. While it is true that the top 4 spots are still very Korean, there has been at least one European in the top 4 each season. There was even a French player who made the finals in season one! (RIP in peace Stephano) 

What has kept Europe safe from the invasion though? Are Europeans just better players and therefore more capable of repelling the coming invaders? while I do think Europe is ahead of North America overall, that's not really what kept them safe. The almighty wall that is Europe to Korea lag has kept them much safer than their own level of play. Harsh lag has made it very difficult for Korean players to surge forth in the 2013 year, and its simply not cost effective for the Korean teams to send their players over to Europe just to attempt to qualify for a tournament now is it? Most of the Koreans that made deep runs in WCS Europe were part of European teams where it made sense to bring them to Europe to play. Only IM.MVP (who won a season) and MVP.duckdeok (also won a season) were members of Korean based teams and also made deep runs into WCS Europe. 

To close my thoughts somewhat randomly. I think Europe looks to be in a good spot for WCS. North America might need some more time before they are able to showcase North American talent. At least there's some hope so the NA players will continue to try. Also did not mention the changes to the Korean region. Going to be good to have GSL back, looking forward to staying up way to late many nights to watch it again. Peace out!

Hopefully this guy and win a tourney soon. Couple of 1st places would solidify him as the best in the world. 

Fun week!

               This was a good week, I’m going to be pretty straight up about that. I accomplished two major things that I wanted to do with my summer. One was out of necessity and the other less vital but of similar value to me, if that makes sense. I like didn’t need it, but I really wanted it.

               First off, I found a place to live this fall! WHOOOOOOO! That’s a huge relief for me, because as I began my search things just weren’t really going my way with it, so when I started the week I was starting to legit think I might be bumming off couches for the first month of my life in Edmonton. Jeez that would have been an experience. Probably would have sucked, but I would have learned a lot from it. That doesn’t really matter now because I did find a place to live. Nothing super special about it, 5 bedroom place in Southeast Edmonton, it has close proximity to shopping and LRT so I don’t need a car up there. (Huge plus for me!) It has a surprisingly nice looking kitchen in my opinion. But yeah, the LRT location is important for me because….          

Pretty Good for a Rental eh?

               With the confirmation that I will not need a car, I felt comfortable enough with my money to order the parts to my PC that I’m building! Yay! Isn’t it cool how those things actually link together like that? The build I decided to go with is the same one I talked about in my last post, so I don’t feel like I need to link it again. About 1100$ cost including shipping and handling, and Im confident that it will be able to do what a 1800$ pre-made rig would, so yeah. Lesson to the peoples, building yourself is way more cost efficient than buying a pre-made.

               You know what else I just thought of that makes this week even better? I’ve found what I believe to be a solution to my frustrations with League of Legends. Stop playing ADC. (Attack Damage Carry, I shot things a lot and win fights for my team.) Why? Because when I play ADC I feel an obligation to carry my team through the ENTIRE game. That’s not good, because when I think like that I get really hypercritical of my own mistake which leads to most of my frustrations. So I’m going to be looking to play more assassin like roles. Cause then I just make plays and be a cool dude. Yay!

               So yeah! Good week overall. Like a solid 8.5/10 More blogging next week! Or maybe tomorrow. Provably next week though. 

Change of Plans Folks!

               Right, so I’m going to go ahead and change up the summer goal deal. I’m only changing the goals in regards to gaming so really no one ought to care much for it. Originally I set out to complete a run through of Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker and reach Diamond rank in Starcraft II. While it’s defiantly not that far out of reach to complete this, (Ocarnia of Time already done, Wind Waker can probably be complete in a single day with some dedication and a red bull and I finished Top 8 in platinum for the previous ladder season of Starcraft, which is basically as close to diamond you can get without actually making it.) I've decided it’s not really what I want from my gaming experience right now.  

               What do I mean when I say that’s not what I want from a gaming experience right now? Simple really, I play games for one of two reasons. First being I like becoming immersed in a new world and all of the cool details that go along with it. That normally lies within a Single player game when the narrative or game play is the driving feature. The Second reason is that I’m competitive and I can win at them. This is where Starcraft and League of Legends come in, and at the moment it’s really all I've been playing, and I’m getting increasingly more frustrated every time I play them. I play games because I enjoy them, and in reality I’m just not enjoying games like Starcraft or League right now. So I’m taking an indefinite break from them until I feel like I've “ Calmed the freak down.”

My average face while playing League, Witnesses can confirm unfortunately.  

               My plan to calm down is going to come by rediscovering the first reason I play games. I've always greatly enjoyed the experience of becoming part of a completely different world. That’s why I particularly love games like Mass Effect, Skyrim, Dragon Age, and The Legend of Zelda. They are all these fantastical worlds that simply don’t exist in reality but are very interesting to explore and learn about. So for the time being I’m going to focus on playing single player games and trying to remember why I love games in the first place. It’s like a good movie really, because you kinda forget that you’re just a viewer or player and simply become part of the world. It’s partially why I like games so much, just by the very nature of you participating in a game makes them feel more immersive. You know? Maybe not, but it’s true.

               Taking a break from games like League does leave me in a mild dilemma though, how on earth am I supposed to help my friend Seth with his not sure if serious or not idea of making a gaming Youtube channel if I’m not playing the leagues with him? Let’s play’s? Come on, no one really wants to watch someone like me with no presence in any gaming community play through what can easily be a 20 hour game like Mass Effect. So with the power of editing I plan on making simple highlight stuff. Parts of games that I think people need to know why they make those games good. Maybe look at freak out about how dumb I think that game design has changed so dramatically in the past twenty years. (It’s no actually dumb, it’s just be being a baby.) Who knows what’ll happen, I know it’ll be fun though. That’s why I’m doing it. Also the rare chance for dat YouTube money obviously. 

Starting Goals and a Bit of Real Talk

               Well I`ve crossed one and a fourth goals off of my list already, I mean one of them was my completion of a Pikmin run in thirteen in-game days. Each day is 15 minutes so my run was about three hour and fifteen minutes in total. That is my fastest run to date yet. Honestly I think I can cut a few days off if I did another run within the next few weeks, but I probably won`t be booting it back up again so quickly. Great game, although I know it well enough to make the game really easy. It`s less about wether or not I can win, but rather how long is will take before I win. Oh well, still a great game and definitely looking forward to playing the third one when it comes out.

               The fourth portion of a goal I completed though was a new dish I learned to cook. Lemon Chicken. Nothing complicated, but something that I wasn`t 100% sure how to make. So I learned how to make it. Cooking is like a lot of fun, did anyone else realize that? Maybe I’m just saying that because I only legitimately cook every once and a while, but I really do enjoy it when I do, definitely going to be cooking more in the future. Food tastes great and its cheaper, what more could I ask for? Anyways, the Lemon Chicken went well enough, didn’t light anything on fire or burn myself/the food so I’d call it a successful activity.

Yum. 

               Beyond that though, I had an intresting weekend as well, kinda. It was a good friend of mine’s homecoming, Keaton Moore. Loved seeing him again. Really cool to talk to him and  such. It’s always kind of awkward with these things being an early return, but that part wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Got to see some other faces I hadn’t seen in a while. Kind of sad to see where some of them are right now. Particularliy the people that I feel are being pushed into bad circumstances rather than being there as a result of their own decisions. One in particular was apparenly going through some rough stuff. I use the word “apparently” because I was kind of shocked about how well they seemed to be doing despite being in a rough patch. I’m happy they seem to be doing well but fear that it may be a act to keep the appearance of strong. That’s just pure speculation though, and only time will tell if any of it is true. I hope its not.

               Lastly another one of these 30 topic things. #25. Wouldl you rather date someone plain with an amazing personality or someone beautiful with a plain personality? Peronsonality wins here hands down. I really think that if a person has an amazing personality and you do get the chance to get to know that personality then looks really won’t matter. I would be attracted to that person because of how awesome they are of a person. End of story. That sad truth is that lots of guys (myself included) don’t give the more normal looking girls that do have incredible personalitys the chance to show off that personality. I’ll admit that I did not introduce myself to many of the girls I consider now to be my best friends. I kind of had to be put into situations where I got to know them and I’m lucky that I did, because they are incredible people. They aren’t even plain looking either. I was just pretty stupid then. Still am. Probably will be for some time, but you know what I’m getting at here.  I didn’t give them the chance to let their personalities shine on my own, but rather simply learned about it by chance. I don’t regret it really, excpet I do think about how many really cool girls I didn’t get to know in my life because I simply didn’t give them a chance? Shouldn’t dwell on this, definitely going to get depressed if I do. Let’s stop right now. Thanks for reading if you get this far. 

Let the Heckling Begin!

            So I haven’t written here in like forever, but I’m not even going to go into that, because I’m here now to start getting a schedule together. That’s all this post is going to be about, me putting together a few goals before I head back off to post-secondary education.  

            Firstly I want to become consistent with this blog, to help with that I’m going to give this blog a clear definition. I will talk about things that are interesting to me. That means that there are going to be E-sports posts, there will be ones where I rant about stupid things people do, I will talk about my personal thoughts on a variety of subjects. I will occasionally rant about what a dork I am. I will talk about cute girls; I will talk about a good restaurant I might go to. I will post pictures that are related to all these topics.  There will be many Calvin and Hobbes references. I am definitely going to talk about music in games and movies, as well as games and movies. I will probably say things that people will subsequently call me out on. It’ll be a good time. I will criticize almost everything.

           - I’m going to read 3 full books by the end of the summer. Any suggestions?

          -  I’m going to reach Diamond rank on Starcraft 2, and complete a play through of Pikmin and The Legend of Zelda: Wink Waker and Ocarina of Time.

           - I’m going to learn to cook 4 new dishes.      

         -   I am going to find a steady exercise schedule and be consistent with it.

          -  I will go on at least 2 dates.  

          -  I will discover one new band that no one else knows about (Hipster cred inc!)

            We’ll cut if off there for the sake of being realistic. I think Starcraft, exercise, and dates will be the hard ones on this list. Ok blogging consistently will be the toughest, but that’s a given.  Still, dates will be difficult just because of what a recluse I am and breaking out of that shell. Exercise because well because I’m pretty freaking lazy. Starcraft because it’s a really difficult game to get good at, and I’m prone to getting really really frustrated at myself when I play it. I think if I accomplish the other two difficult tasks though I should just become a happier person which will make it easier to tolerate the rage inducing nightmare that is the battle.net ladder.  

            Why blog this though? Because the biggest lesson I’ve learned in my life knows when you are beyond your own capabilities. Not that I can’t do these things. Just that I know that I won’t on my own. So I humbly ask whoever reads this, to please pester and bother me about accomplishing these things. Pick the ones you want me to do and hassle me. I think that’s manageable. Another excuse to get on my case? Gladly. That’s what I imagine most of you are thinking about this. That’s all for now, happy pestering!

            Don't think I forgot about that 30 topic thing though, nice and quick. Something little that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. The ending to Rudy. Goodness me I love that movie and I hate how it can just play with my emotions like that, but it can. If you haven't seen it, let me know. I have a copy and will gladly loan it to you. Heck I could even watch it with you if you want to see me nearly break into tears. 

So good.....

I Wanna Work in E-sports but I'm Still Just a Lurker

               I think everyone kinda has this job they really want but don’t really know how it’s even possible to get it. Some of them get really motivated and find out and then do it. Some find out and don’t. Some though never really even let it become anything more than a fleeting dream. I haven’t decided which of those three I am yet. Partly because I haven’t really ever settled on what I think would be that dream job. All I really know is that it’s in online media. Online shows, sites, article that sort of thing. I really think working in the E-sports scene would be just an absolute blast.

 Getting into E-sports is a complicated idea in itself though. Mostly because there really isn’t a set way to get into it. One of the more commonly accepted ways is the simple procedure of constantly producing content. Really that’s the best way. If you really try to boost the community the community will accept you and help you out. Artosis is the best example of this in my opinion. This guy hopped on a plane to Korea with no idea what was going to happen, but he constantly produced content and built himself up as a respectable person in the community, eventually his work was rewarded and he is now arguably the most respected and well known casters in the entirety of the Starcraft II community, stable job as the Code S (Premier League of sorts) caster with his best friend Tasteless. Total nerd baller.

Where E-sports is at now, I believe a good solid way to get into the industry would be to do two things. First get off to school and learn a skill that is relevant to E-sports, secondly continue to be active in the community and produce content. It’s critical that you strive to make sure that the content you make is the best you possibly can. This includes taking criticisms and building off of them. Not that I really know much, I mean I’m not all that active in the E-sports community myself. You know what? I’m gonna change that. This is one of my absolute favourite things in the entire universe and I don’t help build it up. That has to change. Time to get active! (In E-sports) WHOOOOOO!!!!!

Ten Bucks to whoever finds the French guy. (HInt, it should be obvious)