Goozex

Goozex is a video game trading site I discovered recently after yet another frustrating craigslist experience had me down on the whole idea of trading video games with people... Seems interesting. I've signed up and put my "library" of games (actually just three games I don't really want anymore anyway) out for trading. But I don't need to explain how it works. You can read it for yourself.

My kid's online... I have no idea how that works.

So I was talking to someone and they mentioned their 9 year old's DS and how he had lost a piece to it. I asked if he lost the stylus, intending to suggest a good replacement brand.

"The what?" she replied.

"The little pen thing," I explained.

"Oh, I don't know what it does. I have no idea how it works." And the conversation ended.

And that's kinda okay, I guess, but then later on I overheard the same person talking about their son to someone else. "Oh, yeah, he connects it to the computer and plays games on there with his friends."

Wow, so you don't know how your 9 year old's game works, yet he's going online to play Pokemon with strangers? Awesome.

Link to my early post about buying a Nintendo DS

Hacking the Nintendo DS

My buddy Dave came by last night and we started talking about my wife's new DS.

Anyway, he reminded me about how I had asked about getting cards for a Nintendo DS that is pre-loaded with games and we set to work together to discover exactly what and how that was possible. Within a couple of searches we found out most of what we would need to do: Get the R4 file transfer card. Then go to a site like NDS-Roms and download whatever game you want.

Very interesting indeed. But are ROMs legal? How does that side of things work? They are so prevalent and easily available (just type in Super Mario Bros. into Google and you can play it online) so could they really be "wrong?"

A lecture from a Senator who doesn't LOL

I was driving around the other day and landed on a public radio station that was airing a speech by Joe Lieberman. He was going on about the shameful content in video games and on the internet and all that stuff like he always does, so I stopped to listen.

After he finished, a woman Senator came on (from Minnesota, I think). She opened her remarks by relating a story about a talk she gave at a college recently. She said she was discussing the internet and kids and whatever, and a smarty-pants college kid asked her "Do you even know what LOL means?" And she admitted to him that she didn't. After the talk, her twelve-year-old daughter explained what LOL meant and told her mom she was sooooo embarrassed by her. Hahaha, she laughed and made it out to be a cute story, and then continued her speech.

Well, she eventually got to a part in her speech where she started admonishing parents for letting kids access inappropriate content online. And she talked about how parents need to watch out about what video games their kids are playing, spend time on the internet with your kids, know what they know, etc (all stuff I'm trying to do).

So, I guess the point is just how ironic it is that this woman was going on about being involved in our kids' high-tech world and literally saying how we don't spend enough time understanding or relating to our kids in regards to the internet and modern video games... when she has already admitted that she doesn't do any of that - she doesn't even know what LOL means. Wow.

Wif-Fi and the Nintendo DS

I've been looking into possibly getting the wife a Nintendo DS for Christmas. The mini-games are fun and she likes the Brain Age and other "adult" games. I think she'd like Nintendogs and cute games like Drawn-To-Life, too. So, with this, I've been checking into the features of the DS and how it works. I know you can play wirelessly, you can download demos and such from stores and at McDonald's, and I know you can even do basic chatting and access the internet for content. And that's really what I'm interested in: the Wi-Fi and online capabilities of the device. Why is that important? Because while I don't know how to do those things, my 6-year-old neighbor does...

And don't laugh and say "Haha, but he's just a kid! Who cares about their silly games?" Because those kids will become teenagers and then adults - growing up as the technology grows with them, and anyone who doesn't keep up will just be another clueless old person to them. And tech-savvy kids have no respect for clueless old people. I know, because I was one of those tech-savvy kids.

Modern example:

In checking out the DS's online capabilities I discovered that Nintendo actually discontinued their Opera-based browsing software for the DS a month or so ago. The reason they discontinued it is that parents were buying it without realizing what it was and then discovering that, to their surprise, their kids were going online with it (um, duh). So, with parents screaming that their kiddo's Nintendo DS suddenly had become a portal to the evils of the internet, Nintendo went ahead and stopped making that "game" and it's now becoming somewhat a rare find in used game stores.

While I think it's funny that a parent would buy their kid a game they don't understand, I have to admit that I don't understand how the DS gets online. What games work online and what is the extent of the file sharing and online gameplay? Other then my Blackberry, I've never owned own a single web-enabled device, let alone set up or accessed a Wi-Fi connection.

But with their lil' Nintendo DS, even the lamest 8 year-old has. And why not? I defeated bowser and saved the Princess at 7 years old - why shouldn't the average kid be able to master the full capabilities of the current Nintendo product in the same way I did?

So, getting a DS and keeping up with modern gaming isn't just a bad idea for a Christmas gift, but it's also a good idea from a parenting perspective: my oldest kid will no doubt have a next-gen Nintendo of his own one day and I think it's important that I not only understand how it works, but maybe even be able play with him.