Author: Leonid Mamchenkov

On pseudovariety

Kottke has a link to an interesting article, with much more interesting visualization of soft drinks industry.  The article discusses pseudovariety.  That’s when you think you have a lot of something, when indeed you really don’t.  Like with all those soft drinks on the shelves of every supermarket.  You think there is a whole lot of them, when in fact most of them are brands of either one of the three major companies.

One other example of pseudovariety that came to my mind was from the field of politics.  Think about it.  There are usually a number of political parties and presidential candidates at every election.  All of them spend hours and millions of dollars to promote themselves, demote their competition, and explain to you how different they are from everything you’ve seen to this day.  But in reality, most of them are pretty much the same.  You can see it from the way they talk, the way they work, the way they lie, the way they approach difficult problems, and the way they talk about simple things.

It often seems like you have so much to choose from, when in fact, you really don’t.

Day in brief

On violent video games

Here’s a question that’s asked often: how violent are video games?  Well, of course, that depends on the video game.  Tetris, for example, is hardly violent at all, unless you play it at full volume at 3am with a bunch of drunken friends.  But more importantly than the game itself is actually you.  Yes, that’s right, the video games are only as violent as you, the player, make them.  Here is a recent example that I picked up via kottke blog:

This feat may sound impossible, but for Game Informer reader and hardcore Modern Warfare 2 player Glen McCracken, it’s only a matter of time. In two hours of playing, Glen has reached rank 5 without taking a life. Using pacifist means to earn points, Glen estimates it will take him roughly two months to be the first player to reach rank 70 with zero kills.

And it reminded me of another story I read some time ago.  That one was about a four year old kid playing Grand Theft Auto:

In all his time with Grand Theft Auto he never once encountered any of the controversy surrounding this notorious title. He didn’t beat any hookers with a baseball bat.  He didn’t deal drugs. He didn’t go on a murderous rampage. He certainly never once had a cup of hot coffee. He didn’t avoid these things because I told him he counldn’t try them. It just never occurred to him to commit these acts.