Friday, November 21, 2008

Friday afternoon tidbits

Don't know what it's like where you are, but here in the Northeast we've been having January-like weather all week. The unexpected bonus: ski resorts are opening early.

-Downloaded the New Xbox Experience last night, as I'm sure you all have. Snap judgment: it seems just fine. The interface is a little smoother and easier to navigate than the old one. I don't think avatars were necessary, but other people seem to like them. Otherwise, the functionality seems the same, which is okay by me. What do you think about it?

-Brilliam has a request: Let's all stop saying "retro." Games like Braid and Ikaruga do interesting, new things, and it's dismissive to refer to them as throwbacks. As a fan of using words correctly, I'm intrigued by his argument.

-Duncan makes a point that I tend to agree with, that attempting to write completely neutral or objective game reviews is a fool's errand. I don't know if that's always the case. For all the grief I give the big outlets, their main goal probably should be to write product reviews bereft of interpretation. There's a place for that. But if you're writing a more subjective, incisive essay -- the kind of game review I'd like to see more of -- then it may not be necessary to include a token complaint just to show you're unbiased. It really depends who you're writing for, and what you're trying to tell them.

-I missed Kotaku's feature about Xbox Live trolls, so thanks to Julian for posting it in comments. It's pretty interesting stuff. I'm surprised no one has yet undertaken a full-blown study of Internet-based douchebaggery. Or, if they have, they should publicize the results better.

-Typealyzer is a site that looks at your blog and instantly psychoanalyzes you. Here's how it classified me, through the prism of Insult Swordfighting:
ISFP - The Artists

The gentle and compassionate type. They are especially attuned their inner values and what other people need. They are not friends of many words and tend to take the worries of the world on their shoulders. They tend to follow the path of least resistance and have to look out not to be taken advantage of.

They often prefer working quietly, behind the scene as a part of a team. They tend to value their friends and family above what they do for a living.

Is that accurate? Seems like it, but I don't know. It could also be so general as to apply to anybody.

By the way, that same site tells me that Iroquois Pliskin and Leigh Alexander both "enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters," Michael Abbott and Duncan Fyfe "come across as arrogant, impatient and insensitive to people that need some time to understand what they are talking about," and N'Gai Croal "might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through."

9 comments:

Etelmik said...

Mine's the same as Leigh's and Iroquois's.

I have a post on a gaming personality test coming up that I think you'll like--one that manages to not be too bullshitty like this one. (This one is fun, though).

Anonymous said...

Thanks for that Typealyzer link! My result for Eat | Think | Game was INTP - The Thinkers...Holy unrivaled indisputable coincidental evidence!!! I just took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator like last month and I received the exact same result. Wow... INTP 4 Life... I guess...

Anonymous said...

Oh, how I wish Typealyzer were some kind of fairy godmother who saw the real me.

Sadly, I'm not really a first-rate "doer" who is "especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities."

In fact, would you be astonished to learn that I sometimes have difficult talking to people I don't know, and am not known for my outdoor activity?

Oh, God, I just showed this to my girlfriend. And she's laughing pretty hard now... well, that's my self-esteem shot for the day. Thanks, Mitch.

Mitch Krpata said...

Mike, I'll look forward to that. These things are always way too absorbing.

Omari, oddly, whenever I take the Myers-Briggs, I score as INTJ. That's almost as different as it could be from the results Typealyzer comes up with for the blog. But that leads into my next point:

Rob, one thing the site notes is that it's looking at the persona you present for your blog, which may be quite different from the one you present in meatspace. Certainly when I take the Myers-Briggs, I'm thinking more about how I consciously present myself in real life.

(There's also the possibility that it's not nearly as scientific as it would like to be, I suppose. Nah.)

Anonymous said...

Well, I sure am glad that my online persona is a good reflection of who I really am.

@Etelmix
I will be looking out for that GPT you speak of...

Iroquois Pliskin said...

This is probably the sign of some acquired derangement but when the site tells me I'm a "mechanic" I just immediately translate it into a team fortress class. Go figure, I am an engineer at heart.

there was a social gaming site that made a "gaming personality" test a while back, there was a pretty hilarious article about it on murderblog 3D a while back: http://www.zacharyreese.com/2008/09/a-friends-a-friend/

Also, what happened to N'Gai Croal? Seriously.

Daniel Purvis said...

It put me in the same category as Abbot and Fyfe -- that actually comes across pretty well. I'm extremely short with people that don't grasp what I'm trying to say at the outset (a miracle I still have a girlfriend, really). Don't know if anything I've said is "deep and far-reaching" though. I seem to only skim the top of issues in my attempt to penetrate them.

Regarding NXE -- when will it cease to be called "NXE" considering something can only be new for so long. Stupid idea calling it that, if you ask me. I don't mind it. I actually find the system more confusing to get a grip with than the blades, however the marketplace is definitely better. It's also a lot more appealing, I feel like playing Xbox more now, surprisingly.

The avatars are fine, though I would have liked to be able to change the colour of my t-shirt and cargo's. In addition, where are the decent kicks? Converse style shoes ARE NOT COMFORTABLE NOR HIP.

Michael Abbott said...

Okay, this finally seals the deal. I'm officially changing the name of my blog to "The Arrogant Impatient Insensitive Gamer."

Now I'm gonna sit myself down and watch that traffic spike!

SVGL said...

Super weird -- I'd definitely say mine is mostly a fair assessment, although I'm generally INTJ on the Myers-Briggs (or E, it's 50/50). Personal versus professional personality divide?!