TheMacJedi

I’m certain that I do things that others don’t when it comes to games like Halo and GTA. When I used to play campaign with my nephew he would shoot the Marines for fun and it would bother me. I told him not to do that, not because the Marines were helpful but because they were on our side and they communicated with us. When I started playing GTA4 a couple weeks ago I would run a lot, look for parked cars to jack and avoid all pedestrians. I never run over pedestrians for fun, or shoot them or anything like that. I will take someone’s car to speed up the story.

I’ve even tried to finish a GTA4 mission without killing cops, I did however shoot them in the leg (Terminator style). The game didn’t let me, no problem, I kill them all and escape. Maybe I could have knocked them out or something else but I didn’t try. I assume the mission was designed to have me kill them, in the game to police aren’t that respectable.

I don’t mind the violence, I still attempt to make a decent decision. It’s just a game and the majority of it fun, that which isn’t fun is just neutral (doesn’t affect me either way).

In the latest podcast from Bungie, they explore the nuances of artificial intelligence. While out to dinner with my wife last night, I was explaining some of the more interesting comments on the show. I was explaining about the ‘if - then” and she said it will never be like humans until they make mistakes. She gave an example of someone walking up to a door and pushing on it, then looking around and pushing on it again, then pushing on the door next to it. When the door has a sticker on it that says “Pull.”

This got me thinking, maybe she’s right, maybe artificial intelligence will never be human-like until it incorporates artificial ignorance.

AI&I (Artificial Intelligence & Ignorance). I know characters can make several right decisions, but what about wrong decisions. Like running for it when they should have stayed still. What about shooting at their buddies when they come around a corner and get startled? What about forgetting to reload after each battle and running out of ammo in the next battle?

I want to see an enemy run towards me, start shooting and run out of ammo after 2 shots. Then I beat them down while they’re reloading.

Tonight my friend Shawn and I went to EB Games for a little Halo tourney. I’m 34, Shawn is 38, and we played a couple of 13 year olds. Shawn and I play online a lot and we hold our own most of the time. However, tonight was special because we got spanked. The time limit didn’t even run out before they had 50 to our 8; I had 5. It was still fun but OMG we got beat down. There was laughing.

Yes I waited in line at midnight (11/09), so did you.

I was one of many hundred people who were up past their bedtime just to be able to play the newest Halo ASAP.

It was worth the wait, the Xbox Live functionality is awesome.

I was up all night long playing, or should I say morning.

Last night my nephew Stephen and I tested a new beta of Aquaduct 1.03b for OS X from PostPone.

It was awesome, it really was like we were in the same room playing.

And on top of that Stephen had the bright idea to use iChat for voice messaging and it worked brilliantly.

We voice chatted and played Halo for more than an hour an he lives more than thirty miles from me.

Tips for anybody setting up Aquaduct themselves.
Make sure that both routers are forwarding ports 2041-2046 to the computer that’s running the Aquaduct software.
That was our main issue, when we got past it everything worked great. You might want to alternate who hosts to see which setup works the best.

It’s weird to see people playing games like that at the Mall.

I went to Texas Roadhouse with Allyson last night and after dinner we walked around the Mall.

There is one wing of the Mall that seems to be the Mom and Pop shop area, and as we were walking down that section there were a bunch of kids standing outside of what used to be a beauty salon.

As we got closer I realized that the doors were closed but people were in there as well and it was very loud. You guessed it, groups of young men playing Halo on a large projection.

Kids were going in and out keeping the doors closed due to the noise.

It was kinda cool to see that.