RetroGaming Radio January 2006 Edition

[nukinetix]

He had mentioned that life is like a game.

Not as a whole, but I'd say that certain aspects of "real life" can be like a game. Ever played the stockmarket?

[Flare]

One of the best B&B submissions this month was without a doubt the Nintendo Themes A Capella video...

So, if you are like me, and don't want to suffer through buffering, you can download the file using the following link:
http://www.missouri.edu/~bah347/gpri...acappellax.wmv

[TripHamer]

Not as a whole, but I'd say that certain aspects of "real life" can be like a game. Ever played the stockmarket?

A game...perhaps...but the consequences are real....weather good or bad. That's my point. Doesn't qualify as a virtual game (video game) IMO. You can't just tell your stock broker that you were just playing a game and to give you your money back when you lose so that you can start over.

[Shane R. Monroe]

I think everyone is missing my point ...

People demand REALISM in video gaming - I'm saying we ALREADY HAVE the ultimate realism RIGHT NOW. Go outside and LOOK at the clouds if you want to see realistic volumetric cloud formations. Hey, want to see the BEST HIRES TEXTURED BUMPMAPPING ON THE PLANET? Go outside and look at your lawn. DYING for volumetric lighting? Turn your porch light on at night and go outside and look at your car in the driveway ... BEST ... LIGHTING ... EFFECTS ... EVER.

Hey, you want the best ragdoll physics EVER? Pick up your kid's Barbie doll and throw it ... damn, that's realistic! Want the ultimate driving simulator? Drive to work. Want technological marvel? Go get a chest X-ray and ask how it works. Want to know what happened at the beach in Normandy? Read a book - you'll learn a lot more than playing Call of Duty.

Yes .. Life IS a video game .. a damn good one at that.

[nukinetix]

The problem, like I explained in another thread, is that reality is what it is - you cannot make a million different realities, with completely different forms, shapes, rules and laws, and interact with that reality in yet a million different ways with imagination being the only limit. The current obsession with replicating "reality" down to the last detail is only a test, a nerdy phase, a fad even. Once we hit unimaginable levels of computational power the floodgates of true alternate realities will open. Right now we're just playing with the possibilities as developers. (I'm not going to get into the marketing realities of it because it confuses the matter)

Up until now, before the discovery of computers and mathematics, we've used the only reasonably realtime computer known to us, the universe and it's newtonian mechanics, to construct experiences by overlaying modes of play on top of the existing substrate. Obviously, there's only so much one can put together with such a strict underlying computational medium - but there's also a lot of fun to be had, from bouncing ball games to rolling wheels (all types of racing) and so on. That , we call gaming.

Videogaming is about transcending the limitations of the computational substrate of physical reality and exploring "what could be" by constructing elaborate, detailed, imaginary but consistent alternate computational systems which we can interact and "play with". After all, the basis of all "play" is a hypothetical "what if", and the basis of mentation (which is what makes us human, with a mind) is the ability to imagine variations and alternatives - virtually construct them in our heads. Thinking is when we juggle, call it "play", with hundreds of variations at a time, subconsciously, either in order to understand something better or to discover something new, or even better, to CREATE something that never existed before and forever change reality itself irreversibly.

Yes, agent Smith was right ..

[TripHamer]

I think everyone is missing my point ...

People demand REALISM in video gaming - I'm saying we ALREADY HAVE the ultimate realism RIGHT NOW. Go outside and LOOK at the clouds if you want to see realistic volumetric cloud formations. Hey, want to see the BEST HIRES TEXTURED BUMPMAPPING ON THE PLANET? Go outside and look at your lawn. DYING for volumetric lighting? Turn your porch light on at night and go outside and look at your car in the driveway ... BEST ... LIGHTING ... EFFECTS ... EVER.

Hey, you want the best ragdoll physics EVER? Pick up your kid's Barbie doll and throw it ... damn, that's realistic! Want the ultimate driving simulator? Drive to work. Want technological marvel? Go get a chest X-ray and ask how it works. Want to know what happened at the beach in Normandy? Read a book - you'll learn a lot more than playing Call of Duty.

Yes .. Life IS a video game .. a damn good one at that.

Point taken.

Speaking of Ragdoll physics, a couple of months ago I was watching a program called either MaxX or Incredible home videos or whatever.....anyway the video was of one of those bull runs where people run down the street with the bulls. There was this one scene where the bull went ape on this woman and the bull was thrashing the crap out of her with his horns. Anyway, I was watching the woman get pummeled and I suddenly thought, Hey! That's ragdoll Physics!!!! It looked EXACTALLY like ragdoll physics. You had to see it!

Now that's a real life example of realism in video games!

[nukinetix]

Now that's a real life example of realism in video games!

Actually, if you want to be precise, that's just an example of a great computational implementation of newtonian mechanics - the computer that implements it is what we call "the universe" or "physical reality".

There's two problems with that:

1) We don't have the source code to the universe, but we're currently reverse-engineering it and making embryonic steps towards applying that knowledge towards creating alternate realities.

2) The only way you can interact with the universe, currently, is basically through your 5 preprogrammed senses and your very limited physical body. While that can be useful, or even fun for a while, it's quite limiting (not everyone would agree, but some of us tend to think so).

These two points are the basis of science, mathematics, computers and yes, even videogames. In fact, it's what makes us human as opposed to merely smart primates.

[TripHamer]

Well if you want to be precise!

[Merc]

Hi Shane,

You mentioned that you listen to other internet radio shows. Care to share what some of those might be?

Keep up the good work

[Shane R. Monroe]

Actually, I don't listen to other shows. Keeps me objective.