Plushed Gameplay Footage is Tantalizing

I deemed Blacksmithgames‘ neat-looking platformer Plushed worthy of salivation a few weeks ago, and I still stand confidently behind my words. They’ve just released some gameplay footage (see below) and for the most part it looks fantastic. The character animations are among the most detailed and unique to hit the device, and the haunting score is no less other-worldly.

My one apprehension, which seems to be shared by others on Touch Arcade, is the slowish-looking player movement. Hopefully this can be remedied before the developer’s planned October release. And just to remind folks, follow Blacksmithgame’s twitter account to lower the launch price. Sweet beans.

Gameplay Footage:

MySpace Now Does Email…Meh

I just came across a TechCrunch article outlining MySpace’s foray into the world of web email. Yes, MySpace’s 68 million users will soon be able to attach their vanity URL to @myspace.com, officially rendering the social networking giant a practical platform again. Just kidding. . . about the practical part, that is.

MySpace has tried several tactics to increase their worth in the past (including the piddling YouTube competitor, MySpace TV), but they can’t seem to counteract the lure of sexier, slimmer platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

I don’t think email can save them.

I do get tripped up thinking about what’s going to happen to the digital graveyard of abandoned profiles that MySpace will inevitably host. Will our derelict profiles be the 21st century photo album equivalent that we share with our android grandchildren?’

“Take a look at this Billy 2.0, back when I had bangs and bad grammar.”

/shudders.

Defamation Lawsuit-Inducing Tweet Prompts Serious Questions

The blogosphere is abuzz with the recent news that a defamation suit has been filed against Amanda Bonnen for her disparaging remarks about Horizon Realty in a public Tweet nearly 3 months ago.

According to the Chicago Bar-Tender, Bonnen could pay up to $50,000 for her remarks, which the realty company asserts amount to public dissemination of malicious speech.

As the Bar-Tender points out, this begs some serious questions about the public/private nature of Twitter updates.

According to Wikipedia, the public sphere is “an area in social life where people can get together and freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action.”

Definitely sounds like Twitter, right? But what about the private sphere?

“The private sphere is a certain sector of societal life in which an individual enjoys a degree of authority, unhampered by interventions from governmental or other institutions.”

It seems to me like people are using Twitter in both ways, and just aren’t taking the precautions to censor their private sphere speech.

Perhaps Twitter should be more upfront about what is publicly searchable when you sign up for an account? If Twitter’s as hip and humane as it puts on, then the legal protection of its users should be a priority.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one.

The Stretching of Generation Net

My generation is full of media whores. I don’t mean the Paris Hiltons or Lindsay Lohans of the world either. I am taking about everyone, including myself. While attending middle and high school in suburbia, the internet was my means of connecting with people on a consistent basis. Screw five hour phone conversations with one person, I could chat up ten friends on AIM until two in the morning. Hell, I would chat up friends on AIM while simultaneously chatting with friends through Steam as I engaged in furious games of Counter Strike.

As technology progressed, so did my communication addiction. Xanga and MySpace consumed my free time and probably much of my working time in my last two high school years. Once college hit, Facebook was the new tool of procrastination. Now I operate on all these platforms in addition to Twitter, Linked-In, Google chat and the EnV2, my super text-friendly phone.

Through my interweb and cellular connections I have bits and pieces of my identity spread out all over the information superhighway. Instant communication is an incredible tool, and I cherish it for all its worth.

However, consider this interesting predicament. A couple weeks ago my friends and I were out venturing on a late night hike, a luxury for the currently unemployed class of 2009. We were having an engaging conversation, and I wanted to share some of our insights with others. Rather than wait for the morning, I began texting my brother on the other side of town, Mr. Sles from POWSO while he was in San Francisco and even my friend who was only a couple of blocks away.

I had to divide my attention between texting and conversing with the beings my friends physically present. Of course, I missed out on some of what was being said. In trying to extend a line of communication to people in distant locations I sacrificed my ability to live in the moment.

Perhaps many of you have had this realization and I am just the last horse crossing that cliché finish-line. Our desire to share and maintain communication with others at all times handicaps our ability to communicate with those directly around us.

I have a friend who when we use to go out to parties or social gatherings would spend all of his time putzing around on his iPhone reading Cracked articles and checking his Facebook. He would complain that he hated parties and just felt awkward. Balloo aptly told him that he might enjoy social gatherings more if he interacted with living people more often. We would even confiscate his iPhone when going out in order to socialize him. After one night, he got separated from our friend group and was without his phone since Balloo had confiscated it. When I finally ran into him the next morning he told me had one of the better nights of his college career.

Technology is changing the way we define and look at the words social and anti-social. When I first developed my Counter Strike addiction and spent large parts of my time on the G4 message boards my real life acquaintances would raise their eyebrows when I talked about the friendships and relationships I had accumulated online. Online dating services were mocked and generally frowned upon. Now they are becoming increasingly acceptable.

My struggle lies in the attempt to define our society’s changing form of communication. Are we evolving or devolving? When do we cross that threshold and become media addicts rather than just media users? The answers to these questions will be decided in the future.

I once heard someone say that when we look back at our current time period we will either look at Google as one of the world’s greatest resources or as the anti-Christ. While I sincerely hope for the former, the latter may be more fitting if we forget the importance of traditional human contact.