Category: Games

I enjoy playing video games. I used to play PC games since early 1990’s. I played anything from real-time strategies like WarCraft, StarCraft, Age of Empires, Transport Tycoon Deluxe, etc; to first-person shooters like Half Life and Quake III.

In the recent years though I have completely moved to consoles. My favorite gaming device is Sony PlayStation 3. Now I play mostly first-person shooters (Kill Zone, Call of Duty series, and the like), driving simulations (Colin McRae’s Dirt), adventure quests (Assassin’s Creed and Uncharted), and sports (NHL09 ice hockey).

I don’t write much about games, but when I do, I publish my posts in this category.

Adult women are now the largest demographic in gaming

Adult women are now the largest demographic in gaming

Congratulations, gamer girls—you’re officially at the top of the food chain when it comes to games. A new study released by the Entertainment Software Association has revealed that adult women now occupy the largest demographic in the gaming industry. Women over 18 made up a whopping 36 percent of the gaming population, followed by adult men at 35 percent.

Teenage boys, who are often stereotyped as the biggest gamers, now lag far behind their older female counterparts, making up just 17 percent of the gaming demographic.

Code.org – Learn an hour of code

Maxim mentioned code.org to me a couple of times last week, but I didn’t have the time to check it out.  Today, however, he said that “Learn an hour of code” was his homework for the computer class.  That got me quite interested.  After all, I was exploring looking for an easy way to get him (and some other kids) into computer programming.  We’ve tried bits and pieces of online tutorials here and there, YouTube videos, and I’ve even took a swing at it myself – all for nothing.  It was all too boring and broad and it always required plenty of effort to get into.

code.org

And I’m happy to report – that’s where Code.org succeded.  These guys have found a way to explain things in a very simplistic manner, with immediate practical exercises, which utilize drag-n-drop instead of typing (even a seasoned programmer is rarely a touch typist in my experience), familiar surroundings of Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies games, and short, yet motivational explanations of core concepts by computer industry celebrities, like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates.  There also a familiar gaming incentive to the experience, with badges and achievements, but those aren’t the core motivator.

We’ve spent about an hour with Maxim, going through tutorials and doing exercises.   So far, it was a perfect balance of fun and education.  But for me, it there was also another important aspect to this.  I could finally show to my son what I do at work (well, not exactly what I do, but close enough).  Explaining programming with words and showing bits of code and chunks of website never looked too appealing.  Now however he has a better idea.

And for the first time he is actually excited about programming.  So much in fact that I could barely get him to go to bed.  We had to make plans for tomorrow to continue to calm him down a bit.

Thanks code.org!  You guys have done an amazing job.  Keep it up!

Call of Duty: Ghosts

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When I got back home from work yesterday, another one of my recently ordered packages arrived.  This time, the one with the “Call of Duty: Ghosts” game for the Playstation 3.  It’s been a while since my last Call of Duty campaign, so I was excited – jumped straight into action.  The next six and a half hours flew by like 15 minutes.   That’s how long it took me to finish the campaign with the Regular difficulty.  During that time I fought in space, in the air, on the ground, at sea, and water.  I’ve been to the ice cold north and mosquito infested jungle of the south.  I flew helicopters, drove tanks, operated remote snipers, targeted space-based warfare, blew up hundreds of vehicles and killed thousands of people.  It was a bloody battle which required training, precision, bravery, heart of a stone and balls of steel.  But I came out on top and got all the trophies and the medals in the process.

A few minutes after the campaign finished and my red, watery eyes rested, I’ve also tried the online multiplayer.  That’s the part of the game where I’ll be spending much more hours in order to learn the maps, weapons and gear, but for now I just needed a taste of it.  While the new interface is a tad bit confusing at first, I see that all the old elements are there – different types of games, different types of weapon and equipment configuration, etc.  The controls in action are all the same as before, so I was pretty comfortable decreasing the numbers of my alive enemies.  The physics are slightly different from the previous games, but this, again, is just a matter of getting used to.

Overall, I’m quite happy with the purchase.  It’s the good old Call of Duty that I dearly love – with a good, twisted campaign and a multitude of options for men-to-men battles.