Jeffool.com

Seriously, after this post… I don’t see the problem why anyone should be angry with Rockstar or Take Two over the Hot Coffee mod. At least not yet. I, like Greg Costikyan, assume that the content (minigame code, animations, and other resource files, are all included on the San Andreas disc. (edit: It is. Here are the Action Replay Max codes to play it on your PS2.) But he (and others) take Rockstar to task for even allowing it on the disc, available to players or not. From his blog:

However, I think it likelier that this is entirely and wholly intentional. It is, in fact, standard industry practice to include game features that are not “public,” and release knowledge of them later semi-surreptitiously, to spur a little more gamer interest and public exposure. That’s why we have cheats.

(…)

So if I’m right–that is, if the material is indeed on the disc, and Rockstar not only knew but approved its inclusion–Rockstar seriously deserves a bitch-slapping.

Here’s what I proposed: The ESRB should refuse to give any Take Two product a rating for the next two years. They can release their games as unrated if they want–and good luck getting them into Wal-Mart.

I think that’s a bit much. It’s no secret that developers leave extra features hidden for later release. But it’s also no secret that developers often leave junk data on discs. Just read up on Halo, where the flame-thrower, gravity gun, and other items were discovered. Fable left traces of items, characters, and even an unfinished level on the gamedisc. Knights of the Old Republic 2 left the majority of the original ending to the game, that was completely scrapped and replaced by a much-lamented “shoddier” ending in time to make their release date, all on the game disc. And players love to look on discs to see what else developers have left behind. So, was it obvious that someone would look around San Andreas? I would say no. Because I’ve never heard of someone looking on the other GTA discs for loose info. Why not? I don’t know. But I haven’t heard of it.

The real question comes in when you ask the question of “how did the patch author find out about this?” If he did it by searching the disc and finding it through old-fashioned ingenuity? Fine. Kudos to him and everyone should get off of Rockstar’s back. A developer having unintentional material unearthed from a disc was going to happen one day, and it’s today. This is a warning to all developers. They now all know. But if Take Two did this on purpose, then I’m for a punishment, but two years of no rated games? How about, instead, we try to think up new ways to educate non-gamers on how games are just as relevant as any other field? No movie would be rated NC-17 for minute-long depictions of sexual scenes. And the number of unnecessary times it can be played, like the number of times a viewer would rewind a movie to watch the scene, is inconsequential. Do we really want to do our best to set the bar so low for AO games?

So, please. Someone bitchslap Greg Costikyan. (I almost apologize for the attention-whoring post title. It was too good to resist! :D Nothing but love, Greg! Nothing but love!)

Hi. I’m new to gameblogging. Hell, I’m practically new to blogging. Sure I’ve got four posts, but those are largely posts that were started when I initially got the bug to blog. So, this is what I should’ve started off with but never got around to, the introduction. Hi, I’m Jeffool. Sound silly? I choose Jeffool partly for branding reasons (because my real name, “Jeff Bridges” is impossible to google and get results for me,) and partly because, well, I’ve used it for so long in games and on the internet that I’m sticking with it. It’s worked fine for me so far.

I started blogging because I like to talk (, or write as it is,) and conversation helps me flesh out my ideas and opinions. I have no doubts about no one/few people reading this, and that’s cool. It’s just a place for me to stretch my mental legs as it is. I’m a programmer by habit; I have an Associates of Science from Full Sail. (Which isn’t a bad place, despite the rumors. There’s some good teachers there.) While in school I found Jamie Fristrom’s blog. Before, I was anti-blog, but now, well, I am a blogger. Blame him.

I do hope to one day join the commercial games industry, and to be honest, I want to change the world. Hey, why half-ass it? I have a bit of an ego sometimes. But I think I’m generally an affable guy. I enjoy programming, but that’s not why I chose games. I chose games because I want to make my own games. Programming is a means to do that. Just like if someone wanted to make their own comic, they better learn to draw.

More or less, I’m just a gamer with a blog.

Terra Nova asked a very important question the other day. They noted Blizzard’s localizing of WoW for China. When looking at the aspect of 1.3 billion new consumers potentially entering the gaming market, “What do we make of China? And what do we make of Chinese gamers, now and in the future?” Two easy answers for that one. The first? Family.

1.3 Billion potential gamers. What could we do except welcome them with open arms? They outnumber us, but more importantly they are us. Granted WoW-China will have it’s own servers, but eventually we’ll all be playing the same games anyway. What to do isn’t much of a debate; games are an excellent learning tool. Maybe this potential interaction will help us learn from each other. Maybe even more interesting, we can study how we all play and compare. After all, if we are so different, it would seem that we would be different at play as well. So, that’s what we do. We watch, we interact, and we learn. And hopefully we all get along.

The second answer is we fight. This is what will really happen. Need proof? Play Halo 2 on XBox Live sometime. I can’t go five games without being called either a ‘nigger’ or ‘faggot’. Try it sometime. Sometimes it’s enough to just make me put the controller down and walk away. Similar points were made by Brooks Brown, the Columbine student who spoke about video game violence, and the blame to be placed on children who go wrong. And think MMORPGs are different? Think players are more ‘enlightened’? I’d agree largely, but it’s not like it doesn’t exist. From the makes-you-wonder hijinks of Leeroy Jenkins to just plain name calling, it happens.

Though there was one thing that gave me hope. Pardon me while I tell a tale.

Playing Halo 2 I was on a team with three other English speakers, and four guys who seemingly spoke an Asian language. It was an eight-on-eight battle and we absolutely wiped the other team out, scoring 3-1 on Capture the Flag. Almost like it was planned the second the game started the four English speakers took the vehicles and went to get the other teams flag. We lost a guy, but we managed to come back with the flag. The second we jumped out to put the flag in the base and score, the non-English speakers were taking off with the vehicles to score on their own, and they did it without losing a guy. After that we lost the vehicles, but we all ran up the same side of the map, grabbed the enemy flag, and ran back. The enemy only took our flag once and got it half-way. (We met them on the way back the third time and killed them, leaving some guys to guard the flag, while others took their flag to our base.)

Sure it’s just one story. And it’s not a rosy picture of pleasantly working together interchangeably… But it’s a start. And it was great. The moral? Hopefully we’ll do more learning and playing, and less hating and assholing. (Yes, assholing.)