Camping in the digital age

JUST when I thought camping was the last resort for getting away from the digital world and getting back in touch with nature, ‘camping specialists’ release what they call the N!ergy tent.

What this modern day tent does is allow one to recharge and make use of a variety of 12volt gadgets within this secluded eight-man fabric bubble. While the birds and wildlife creatures experience the real outdoors, the N!ergy tent camper can operate a DVD player, MP3 player, hair dryer, a weather station, and even vacuum their home-resembling living space. With a concealed wiring system, yet a glitzy array of glowing outlets, the tent looks like a mini Hollywood – with all the best of home entertainment concealed inside.

Products such as these are giving new meaning to “roughing it out in the outdoors”, but to experienced campers the N!ergy tent should be seen as an abomination of the true camping experience. What will become of the days of sitting around a smoky campfire, roasting marshmallows, and bonding with nature and one’s family? Camping is just not what it used to be.

But for those who enjoy their comfort yet wish to disillusion themselves with an experience of ‘camping’, the N!ergy tent might be just for you. Allah forbid that the product ever reaches South African shores, but for those who wish to import such crap it goes for $279 (roughly R2000 by today’s standards).

But don’t be fooled yet – the E! Power Pak (battery) comes separately at another $60 (R480). But for the patriotic campers who aren’t afraid to really rough it out and be away from their iPod and hair dryer for a few days, you can pick up a decent tent for about 500 bucks.

The console that rocked the gaming world

GAMING: A tribute to the Atari 2600 gaming console

KNOWN as the godfather of modern videogame systems, the Atari 2600 (originally called the Atari VCS) helped spawn a multi-billion dollar gaming industry. Released in 1977, the Atari 2600 was the first successful console to use game cartridges and its influence can still be felt today in the Xbox, PlayStation, and GameCube.

With an initial offering of nine games, including addictive titles such as Space Invaders and Pac Man, Atari sold over thirty million consoles and hundreds of millions of games.

The wood-finished Atari 2600 gaming console

Atari also spawned the first-ever third party software producer, Activision in 1980. The company was actually formed by four peeved employees who were unsatisfied with the working conditions at Atari. They grossed over $70 million that year after their defection.

Atari’s activity gave birth to several other companies which began competing fiercely in the gaming industry. There was even a company that released a line of X-Rated (softcore 1980s porn) games for the 2600 called Mystique.

There’s no possible way that the Atari can be matched with today’s gaming consoles, yet no other has had such a long history or sold as many systems in the U.S. as the Atari 2600.

According to atariage.com the console still has a large fan-base today,

“… who remember the countless games played over the years, and the years to come. There are even games being produced today by hobbyists, often in cartridge format with a full color label and an accompanying manual. Finally, the recent trend in retrogaming has introduced many more video game fans to the 2600, and it continues to live on 24 years after its release!”

Links: • www.atariage.com • A little history on Mystique

Multi-billion dollar gaming

WE are currently experiencing an historical era as the gaming industry envelopes us. Doug Lowenstein – the President of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), put this perfectly in words by saying:

“Decades from now, cultural historians will look back at this time and say it is when the definition of entertainment changed forever”
- Doug Lowenstein, ESA President

The gaming industry has become one of the largest contributing forces behind the growth and stability of the North American economy. Reaping in $9.5 billion (roughly R76 billion) in 2007 – according to the ESA – the gaming industry is just short of making as much money as the film industry (which made roughly $10.2 billion last year). However, computer and video game software sales have tripled since 1996, and with the rate that new games and technologies are being developed, I’m certain that the gaming industry will far exceed Box Office sales in the very near future.

Future Archaeology

Some other interesting figures produced by the ESA are that 67% of American households play video and computer games – the bulk of which believe that it has brought their families closer together. Furthermore, the majority of the statistical results show that teenagers under the age of 18 get permission from their parents before buying any of the gruesome R18 games. If such innocence is indeed truthful, then is the gaming industry all that bad?

I just wish that South Africa would develop a best-selling game that would ‘wow the world’. Surely we have the capability to do so? Yet I suppose our society, which is so charged with being politically correct, would prevent us from developing say a first-person shooter game based on the Anglo-Boer War.

If only that were easier, and our software developers would cease emigrating overseas where they are more appreciated, we could overcome some of our other financial difficulties…

Related post: Too hot to handle: Future gaming & PCs

Links:
Plunkett Research Ltd.
The Entertainment Software Association
Video games don’t hurt movie sales if you make good movies

Digital Blasphemy

*View this post in HD*

DIGITAL BLASPHEMY: Digital wallpapers to blow your socks off

IF you’re a fan of fantasy and an appreciator of digital art, then there is something you need to see. Images that allow you to immerse yourself and get lost in a fantasy place where all the worries in this world are forgotten (if only for a short while) are at your fingertips.

For those who don’t know: Over the course of the last 13 years Ryan Bliss, a self-taught 3D artist, has created the most incredible digital artwork.

His website www.digitalblasphemy.com, which began in 1997, offers original hi-res 3D-rendered desktop wallpapers, as well as links to some of the best computer art sites on the web.

Updated fairly regularly, it currently features over 650 images (including Widescreen, Dual-Monitor, and Triple-Monitor versions of some wallpapers), iPhone wallpapers, Pocket PC themes, and PSP wallpapers.

“Glowing Shrooms”

Glowing shrooms

Members are able to download new wallpapers once created and have unrestricted access to the entire collection of 3D wallpapers, which can be downloaded after paying a membership fee ($99 for a life-time membership).

There is also a free gallery available for non-members which hosts 20 wallpapers that can be downloaded free of charge.

To date, over 180 mobile wallpapers have also been posted inside the Members Gallery, which have been pre-formatted to fit Blackberry and other mobile handsets.

Apart from 3D wallpapers, other products available are full-sized posters, T-shirts, and digital blasphemy mouse pads.

The desktop wallpapers are designed large and look their best at the maximum comfortable resolution on any PC. They are designed to look decent at 1024 x 768 resolution but can be scaled down to suit any desktop resolution setting.

Digital Blasphemy is by far the best digital art website that I have come across on the web. Unfortunately, the steep exchange rate between the US dollar and South African Rand prevents me from signing up as member.

However, if you’re in the same pickle jar as myself, yet would still like to keep up to date with new blissful creations at Digital Blasphemy, there is a Facebook group available where all are welcome!

***Check out these top 10 Digital Blasphemy wallpapers***

Links: • Digital Blasphemy • Interview with Ryan Bliss (2001)

g.O.d

ALTHOUGH the gaming market tends to ignore female gamers when it comes to ‘boys’ games, there are female gamers, such as those belonging to “girlz Of destruction” (g.O.d.), who are beating the boys hands-down.

This gaming group is a 7-member, international all-girls PC gaming clan hailing from seven different countries (Canada, China, New Zealand, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the USA), who are widely regarded as the highest level professional female QUAKE 4 players.

g.O.d. are taking the gaming world by storm, showing that there are girls who like to slaughter mutant humanoids & cap the odd nazi just as much as any guy.

Girlz of destruction:

Gaming usually brings to mind anemic looking teenage boys hiding out in their parent’s basements for extended periods of time, while ogling busty heroines traversing the barren landscapes of World of Warcraft.

While this stereotype may have been accurate at one time, it no longer holds true, as more and more women are joining the gaming fraternity. According to the Entertainment Software Association, 38% of gamers nowadays are female, and what’s more, they spend up to 7.4 hours a week playing games.

Women’s interest in gaming is obviously growing, but we must ask ourselves then, why do marketers insist on compounding the stereotypical idea that if women do enjoy gaming then they must enjoy playing games relating to cooking, family, animals and strategic games?

One common way in which marketers often exclude the female market from popular shooting and racing games, is by representing female characters as being scantily clad, with under-developed hips and over-developed breasts, and by posting those same female forms on billboards, street lights and posters.

This kind of marketing is rather short-sighted as it ostracises a potentially huge market by not appealing to, or talking to women gamers.

Concentrated marketing to the male group, on the other hand, could stem from the fact that although more women are enjoying gaming, on the technical side it is still very much a male-dominated industry.

A survey commissioned by Sony Online Entertainment revealed that more than 60% of female students that enrolled in game design programs at The Art Institutes say they believe male dominance in the industry is a deterrent to women pursuing a career in gaming.

While many companies may be displaying a certain amount of arrogance towards the female market, it’s good to know that certain conglomerates, such as (believe it or not) Microsoft, are doing their best to encourage female gamers.

One initiative taken in this direction is evidenced by the ATI/AMD Cyber X Games: Windows XP Championships in Las Vegas, where Microsoft Windows XP are a title sponsor, and whose sponsorship has led to the creation of new categories for female gamers, such as the Windows XP Female Pro Gaming Quake 3 Competition, and the Windows XP Female Counter-Strike Team Event.

With incredible prize money as a little incentive, Microsoft is at least encouraging women in an area where they have previously been ignored.

•rAge is South Africa’s largest interactive gaming and technology expo and is the ideal place to see female cyber athletes in action. To find out more about the South African gaming industry and trends, check out the gaming event of the year taking place in Johannesburg from the 3rd to the 5th of October at the Coca-Cola Dome in Northgate.

For more info visit: www.rageexpo.co.za

Sweden seems to be taking this whole thing rather seriously:
Girlz of Destruction get 24/7 training house in Sweden

Related posts: • All the rAge right now • Gaming…an Olympic sport?