Disturbing Trends in Gaming

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Steam-ValveI love it all. From text-based adventure games to grand strategy to puzzle to full-fledged RPGs. I cut my teeth on the ridiculously-hard 8-bit horrors of my youth, lost hundreds of dollars to the Arcade, marveled at the “golden age” of gaming’s ingenuity, was floored by the graphical power of modern platforms, and cheered at the sheer variety of ways that I can now enjoy the experiences, old and young, refined and rough, mobile and non, social and single player. Sifting through the generations that I’ve witnessed, however, I’m starting to see some emergent trends that I’m not very enthusiastic about in contrast to the bright future that video games seem to hold.

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Chili Cook-Off!

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chili_bowl_01The wife and I have a good system. She cooks great food and I eat it. I OFFER to help occasionally, but more often than not I am either in the way, stir-obsessive, or inept. Culinary Arts is not my strongpoint since scrambled eggs is the peak of my expertise. So how is a couple to simultaneously spend “quality” time together and get the drudgery of meal-time out of the way? Chili Cook-Off! With each chef making their own pot of chili, we squared our experimental stews against each other in two rounds of good-natured competition.
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Why Do People Care About Phones?

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2001-a-space-odyssey16Hello, I’m in the market for a new phone. I would like to be able to call and text with it please. Internet access would be useful. Oh, and sometimes I entertain the idea of watching videos and maybe listening to some music on occasion, though I can’t really see myself doing that consistently…. Yes. All those things I mentioned, can you point me to a phone that does that? It’s very specific, I know. What?! ALL PHONES DO THOSE THINGS? Shirley, you jest? But then why would my peers go apeshit, touting the perks of their toys, broadcasting the ridiculous amount of money they spend on this finger-smudged piece of hardware with way-too-many icons?

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Dopey Bikers

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hist5bigI’d be pissed if I cared about cycling in the slightest. You go back and look at all the commercials he made, all the tv spots he did, all the times that he denied the doping and pretended to be the Golden Boy of athletic success. He promotes everything you’d expect in an American Poster Child, the easy choice to slap on a Wheaties box and tell kids to emulate, yet we’re still suprised that he embodies everything that you’d EXPECT in an American Star: the Fakeness, the Bravado, the Unabashed Lack of Scruples, and Hypocrisy. “Drugs” is a gimme but with Armstrong’s particular fall, he brought the rest of us with him.

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