SpawnPoint

I couldn’t believe this when I read it, but apparent the Kansas Board of Education, in their infinite “wisdom” has decided to ban the children’s game Pokemon due to it’s so called promotion of the theory of evolution. Granted, the game is not only enjoyed by children, but they are the ones that are targeted by the parent company and also the primary ones affected by the ban.

I myself have played the video games ever since they started coming out in the United States. I’m not all that interested in the card came per se, but the video games are pretty entertaining to say the least. For those of you that are interested in reading about the story, here is a link to one of the versions of it:

http://www.dailygaming.net/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=202

(by “one of the versions” I simply mean that a search for the title will result in a multitude of different sites all hosting the story. All of the stories are pretty much the same. At least the same general context anyway. Personally I learned about the story via a friend of mine on AOL Instant Messenger, but as I mentioned, a quick google search will turn up plenty of results.

To add to the ridiculousness, religious people were actually burning copies of the game? Seriously, how petty do you have to be to start attacking children’s games? If anything, you would think the churches would be supporting the games to lure more children into the church. *ducks* But I’m not looking for a religious war here. I just want to know if ANYONE could give me the side of the story explaining how a game involving magical creatures and foreign lands should be of any SERIOUS concern to churches. If people really grow up, become scientists, and claim “Evolution MUST be true. I saw this creature evolve right before my eyes as a child!!”...  Seriously..

I just thought this was kind of cool to know. Apparently it is possible to run the mac operating system OS X on a windows computer. I'm personally not a big fan of mac computers as they seem like they're pretty but not incredibly useful unless you are doing some video design work. The link to the video is here: http://www.cnettv.com/9710-1_53-28784.html?tag=bubble

Now I've known that it is possible to get one operating system to run inside of another one by using programs like VMWare, but as of the last time I looked it wasn't supporting the mac operating systems yet. I have run Microsoft Windows XP inside of Windows Vista before, but I wouldn't recommend it unless the computer is high performance and can handle two high graphical systems running on the same processors and RAM.

It seems pretty interesting that not only have mac computers started to use Intel processors and are starting to support running OS X as well as Windows. I see it as Mac sort of giving in and admitting that OS X isn't the ultimate end all solution. Now, I'm not saying that windows is, but it would be kind of interesting if the two could be run together instead of only on their respective motherboards.

First of all, I'd like to ask that if anyone comments, don't post links to any private ones. No need to get in trouble here.

Now then, there's been a lot of controversy over the years about the legality and such of servers that are run on private computers using other company's code, characters, and ideas. My comment isn't about the legally; I'm more interested in finding out if people consider it to be helpful in spreading the word about a game and allowing people to play it free of charge. Or if it's hurtful to the game's existence by pulling customers away.

On the one hand, it helps others to find out about a game that they would not normally be able to play for whatever financial reasons. In this respect, they're nice to let people try a game out. The problem is that if people like the game, they don't switch to an official pay to play server. They don't seem to understand that without the money, the company won't be able to create updates for the game and their own private servers will not be able to keep people interested.

The majority of private owners don't do a vast amount to update a game on their own. Sure some do, but most only change some graphics, add a few items, and don't generally do much at all to add new things that cannot be created by modifications. Any thoughts?

As I'm sure many of you know, World of Warcraft has been steadily gaining popularity for a few years now. It has been seen in a variety of forms ranging from webcomics (such as http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=134) to even having entire television episodes dedicated to the World (such as in Southpark).

In an attempt to figure out what all the hype is about, I signed up for their free trial. I must say I'm pretty impressed. While it does have backstory, it's not a necessity for having fun in the game. All you really need to know is that there are two -main- sides or factions that are basically fighting each other for dominance (either of the world or their beliefs). Each side has 5 classes now with the update of The Burning Crusade expansion. Further, each side can choose between 9 different classes and 10 different professions in addition to 3 general professions that anyone and everyone can get. I must say, this leads to quite a lot of different combinations.

Also, players even have the ability to either do quests to level, play with others in a party, or even grind on monsters on your own. So far it's keeping me pretty well occupied to say the least!

For anyone who doesn't know, Maple Story is a 2 dimensional side scrolling MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) where people from all over the world can join up and play together. Best of all, the game is free!

Or so their website says. Believe it or not, thousands and thousands of players spend hundreds of dollars on this game! Some of you may be wondering how they can call it free when people are spending so much money. Well, while it is technically free to download and play the game, the game features an option to customize your character by buying everything from hairstyles to outfits and weapons!

Fox news covered the phenomenon really recently in a story you can find on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M4SsoI4K6g). In their report, they found that Maple Story players were even resorting to stealing money and credit cards from their parents just to feed their addiction!

Now I for one don't see the point of paying REAL money on game items. Honestly it seems kind of retarded to me. Is there any out there that can shed some light on this?