He who shouts loudest isn’t always the most knowledgeable.

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ATTENT03 He who shouts loudest isn 8217 t always the most knowledgeable

Rant alert!

The more blogs, articles, and tweets I read, the more I am seeing people described as experts. Often this is self-proclaimed, but not always.

The Oxford Dictionary describes an expert as:
“a person who is very knowledgeable about or skilful in a particular area”

Some of these people are legitimately experts. They know huge amounts about their field and can be very informative and interesting. Sadly, this is not always the case.

I am finding more and more that the people who make the most noise are being classed as experts (again, often by themselves). The travesty is that others listen, because as is the rule of the playground – He who shouts loudest will be listened to. Read More ...

Gamification: what is it, why is it important?

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Gamification Gamification what is it why is it important

Just as a thought, as a tag line – Gamification: why you have been doing it since you were a small child.

Gamification is another one of those words that seems to be getting a lot of use at the moment, a little bit like Cloud. If you look at the Internet for a description (in my case Wikipedia) you get;

“Gamification is the use of game play mechanics for non-game applications (also known as “funware”), particularly consumer-oriented web and mobile sites, in order to encourage people to adopt the applications. It also strives to encourage users to engage in desired behaviors in connection with the applications. Gamification works by making technology more engaging, and by encouraging desired behaviors, taking advantage of humans’ psychological predisposition to engage in gaming. The technique can encourage people to perform chores that they ordinarily consider boring, such as completing surveys, shopping, or reading web sites.” Read More ...

Clouds in the sky – what is the cloud?

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Clouds Clouds in the sky 8211 what is the cloud

Cloud computing. It seems that whenever I hear talk about a new technology, the word Cloud is never that far from the description. From the humble, yet devastatingly handy Dropbox to the mysterious iCloud.

The question that I keep asking is, what is the Cloud? It seems to be a question that no two people can offer the same answer to.

Some seem to think that if they offer an online service, be it storage or an online word processor, that they are offering a Cloud based solution. To many it is just a new word to describe the Internet. Massive and a little fluffy round the edges. To an extent they are correct. The term cloud stems from the cloud like symbol used to represent the internet in simple network diagrams. Read More ...

Why am I not an axe murderer even though I play video games?

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First off, if you don’t want to read a rant about how stupid people are when it comes to their views on computer games being the root of all evil, back away now.

I often post about this kind of thing. I get so angry at idiots who seem to blame computer games for everything.   The latest thing I have read that made my blood boil is all of the nonsense about the Foxnews.com editorial about Epics Bulletstorm. It was basically a very one sided item titled “Is Bulletstorm the Worst Video Game in the World?” (Nothing like a provocative title!) This is the kind of crap I would expect from the likes of the Daily Mail, but not a well respected media giant like Fox.  http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/02/08/bulletstorm-worst-game-kids/ Read More ...

If anyone can set up a website and publish news and reviews, is the traditional games press doomed?

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The internet is saturated with sites and blogs that publish games news and reviews at a phenomenal rate. Within seconds of press releases being sent out, they appear on the internet in a dozen different ways. Technologies like Twitter and Facebook allow us to release snippets of information without even needing to write a full article. Games reviews get published on the internet days, weeks or sometimes months before the traditional printed press have a chance to release theirs. I spoke to one very unhappy staff writer recently, who was complaining that he needed to have reviews written for a magazine that was to be published in 2 months time. He could not convince his editor that it would be pointless releasing reviews of games 2 whole months after everybody else. At any given second of the day there is more information being uploaded than anyone could feasibly read.
So what does this mean for games magazines and the like? If they cannot keep up with the speed at which the internet can get information out, what place do they have in our world? Read More ...