Dig!

I know I've posted already today but this is probably the best thing ever. Strictly for fans of Dig Dug, the original theatrical trailer. Genius. Does anyone know where I can get the theme music for this from? I'd love it as a ringtone.

Waiting for my Olbermann

Hope this works. Pretty powerful stuff.

More Japanese Drama

It's like something from the movies, but the toilet mystery gripping the Japanese public is far from make believe. Up and down the country's male public WCs, anonymous envelopes have been found with a moderate 10,000 Yen hidden inside, marked simply "remuneration". The twist comes with the fact that the writing has become progressively weaker as the total of 4m Yen (and counting) has been found over the recent months, suggesting that the (presumably) male gifter is suffering from some kind of fatal illness.

The story itself is a nice reminder that good can be done in the world, even in the face of the capitalisation of just about everything. It goes in stark contrast to the local government in Ripley who decided it would only be fair and good to charge people £50 for the use of sandbags in the desperate time just before the floods. Similarly, wellies were going for up to £80 at Glastonbury festival, in line with the appalling weather. Rather than just put their necks out and offer help to those in need, the current state of the world dictates that money be made at every possible oppurtunity. Maybe I'm old fashioned or naive, and will find myself poor in years to come, but I can at least give myself some self respect and feel content that I haven't conned anyone by pinning them into a corner until they pay up. Perhaps the mystery gifter in Japan is feeling guilty for a life lived in such a way, and is repenting by giving something back to the world. Perhaps not. I'd like to just accept that he is making a lot of people slightly happier on a day to day basis, and reaffirming everyone's faith in the human race.

Reading a rambling blog: 10 Gamerpoints.

If anyone has a 360, then they will for sure know what an Achievement is. Basically, if you set about completing a game, the further you get the more achievements you unlock, in the form of points which are added to the gamerscore, which complements your Gamertag. The idea is that the higher your gamerscore, the more games you have completed (and therefore the better at computer games you are). It's sort of a bragging thing, although for the most part you don't actually know anyone else on XBOX LIVE, so it's all pretty pointless. The other issue is that the richer you are, the more games you can buy and therefore the more potential you have to heighten your gamerscore.

The catch is that for some reason, they are very very addictive. Just last week I played through the truly awful FIFA World Cup 2006, tackling the impossibly difficult and frustrating Challenge Mode, for the sole reason that I knew it would unlock a huge amount of gamerpoints. I didn't enjoy playing, but just kept going for the points.

There's a huge debate as to whether or not they are a good thing. On the one side it ensures increased playability of a title, by tempting you to go a little bit further to unlock in-game items and that little droplet noise that comes with it. On the other hand, people start speeding through games just to get to the end and reap the rewards.

Recently, games have started making the rewards extremely difficult to acquire, meaning that if you are hunting the points you really struggle with a game, but if you're just going through having fun they come naturally sooner or later. Two great examples of this are Viva Pinata and Forza Motorsport 2, which in my opinion are the two strongest titles on the platform so far. Both have very small point rewards for each task, but most of them come naturally to playing the game through. Conversely, a recent review of Fantastic Four 2 accused it of offering easy achievements to boost sales by counteracting the poor quality of the game itself.

It's a very pointless issue, and one that doesn't really deserve much thought at all, but I do think Microsoft have defined their console by coming up with this as a gimmick. It ensures people keep going back for more and moving swiftly onto the next title once one is finished.

For me, I'll just let this minor addiction set in. There are worse things than being addicted to games. Just as long as I don't give up doing other things because they don't offer Achievements.