What’s been keeping me occupied at home is not kicking ass in Civilization IV or learning how to drift in Need for Speed games (you’re damn right I don’t know how to drift), but the Dream Day games: DD Wedding, DD Honeymoon, and DD First Home.  Finding stuff in a pile of clutter is irritating, but it’s kind of exciting once you get the hang of it.

   I’ve also been using arcade emulators lately to practice on old arcade classics like Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, X-Men: Children of the Atom, and Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter.  Yeah, I just went retro.  Here are my characters:

• MSH: Psylocke, Captain America, Blackheart
• XSF: Cammy/Rogue, Magneto/Bison, Cammy/Chun-Li
• CotA: Psylocke, Colossus, Iceman,  Spiral
• MSF: Ken/Ryu, Chun-Li/Ken, Spiderman/Captain America

   Tekken is no longer a top-priority for me: I’ve just grown too good at it (whatever).  I just Perfect-ed a Korean playing Sergei Dragunov with my Steve Fox, which still does not have a juggle in it.  I’m not looking forward to playing T6: I don’t have problems playing Bob in the future, but I do have a problem with Miguel (who, strangely enough, looks like Antonio Banderas in “Take the Lead”). 

   Yesterday’s episode of “Emergency” (I don’t have a meter-box installed on my TV, and nobody paid me to watch it) focused on “game addiction.”  The problem is that most gamers would either deny the existence of game addiction, or would say that they are not addicts.

   I have to agree in part with some gamers: “addiction” is an extreme situation.  It’s easier, if not more accurate, to call it ”game dependence” than “game addiction.”  However, it cannot be denied that extreme dependencies on computer games exist, that there is such a thing as “game addiction.”  There are cases in South Korea, for example, where marathon gamers either suffer heart attacks, lapse into comatose states, or in more than a few cases, die.

   The problem with the term “addiction,” though, is that it is usually used to represent not only the extreme that the term was meant for, but also for the mildest cases of game dependence.  It’s just like being called a “caffeine addict” if you drink coffee every day, or that you’re a “drug addict” if you catch a whiff of marijuana.

   Make no mistake about it: gaming is dangerous.  That’s from the perspective of a computer game player: while games are harmless, it is the drive to play games that is harmful.  That drive, I think, is what should be addressed when it comes to “game addiction,” not the content of the games themselves.  Almost all games have similar effects on the brain’s pleasure centers, creating a drive that satisfies pleasure.  Dependence - and even addiction - comes from “overdrive:” when people stay up for days on end playing games, when kids commit petty thefts to pay for computer rentals, when interpersonal relationships fall into disrepair.

   As a gamer myself, I acknowledge the dangers of computer gaming: to me, it is the drive to play games that is much more dangerous than the actual content of games.  While the responsibility of preventing - not controlling - game addiction falls to families, the government, and to gamers themselves, some of the responsibility should go to computer game companies.  Like cigarette packs and liquor bottles, the dangers of computer gaming should be explicit in their products.  It will cost a lot, but in the long run, it is beneficial not only to them, but also to their clients.

   My brother’s job is something to kill for: he’s a game programmer.  We both grew up around computer games, and it’s hard to think of new games nowadays.  Especially if the bulk of games nowadays demand so much in the way of commitment and skill, like PerfectWorld and Lineage.  SecondLife is not a game, it’s a lifestyle choice.  As a (former) gamer, I think that what the gaming industry needs right now is a game that you can play on the fly: something that does not demand extreme system requirements, extremely fast Internet access, and extreme commitments that would put many romances on the rocks.

   It’s not that I’m clamoring for another Ultima game (although it would be nice to see it) or that I’m looking for a thinly-disguised copy of EverQuest.  I used to play Magic: The Gathering, but as much as I’d like to see a rendition of it that is not based on cards, Magic demands a lot of commitment.  This got me thinking about Online POG.

   Where girls played jacks, we boys played POG.  While “tatsing” has been around ever since tansan (bottle caps) was around, POG is essentally the same: only that instead of using tansan, you used round cardboard chips and turned them over by “slamming” them with either a coin, another chip, or a Slammer.  Back then, Coca-Cola was more gallant with its promotions: we used to keep a store, and the cases we returned earned us kids a canister of POG chips.  Slammers were particularly coveted: it had to be just the right weight to turn chips, and it had to look cool.  Although as a former POG player, I preferred using those old dodecahedral two-peso coins (back when we still valued Andres Bonifacio enough to give him his own coin).

   The success of Audition and O2 Jam among casual players nowadays means the perfect market for making a Web-based POG game.  I envision a rather simple interface akin to computer-based pool games: the power of your POG-slamming is defined not only by a power meter (how long you keep the left mouse button down), but the way you drag your mouse also plays a significant factor in the game.  POG chips can be bought online, or taken for keeps at POG games where one’s chips are on the line.

   That’s a good game idea…

   I’d give my left arm, my right leg, and both of my testicles to drive the 2008 Lamborghini Reventon.  My pet car for 2007 was the Lamborghini Murciélago, which I used to whoop ass in Need For Speed: Most Wanted and Need For Speed: Carbon (although I would never use a Murciélago for a Canyon Duel: I use my trusty Nissan Skyline for that).  Lamborghini has a special place in my heart.  I won’t say that exact same line to a girl or to my own mother, but I would say it about Lamborghini.

   Like any man, I have a particular fascination for cars: I literally wept seeing the new Subaru Impreza looking like a damned station wagon for a soccer mom.  Back when I was in Subic Bay, the highlight of my trip was not the sight of dolphins at Ocean Adventure, but a Lotus Elisé and a Ferrari Testarossa parked next to each other.  When customs officials wrecked a smuggled Porsche 911 Carrera under a mechanical shovel, I literally wanted to throw feces at the Bureau of Customs and hijack the beautiful car, spiriting it away to the highway that is freedom.

   Not to sound racist or anything, but I have the urge to be a black rapper and fill the garages of my diamond-studded gold-plated mansion with Bugatti Veyron’s, Lincoln Continental’s, and BMW’s from every era.  But those are pipe dreams: driving experiences left on cursor keys on keyboards.

   Damn…