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| CANADA'S SOURCE FOR COMPUTER HUMOUR, PDA PARODY, AND SATIRE
OUTSIDE OF THE COMPUTER ROOM--Hard-core gamers are often criticized for the heavy amount of time they spend in the computer room, and the lack of time they spend away from it. Parents tell their children to pry themselves away from their computer and go play outside, friends warn of the dangers of anti-social behaviour, and spouses complain that too little time is invested in the "relationship." But now, with the ever-advancing technology of Pocket PC's, gaming addicts can conveniently slay monsters, build empires, and still be able to interact socially--quite possibly at the same time.
Steven Freehouse has a HP Jornada 565 Pocket PC computer, and he recently installed the full 600 megabyte version of Valve Software's Half-Life Counter-Strike on his portable device. Steven, an obsessive gamer, used to spend entire evenings, nay weekends, playing the terrorist/anti-terrorist first-person game, locking himself away from his family for hours at a time. But now with the increased portability of his favourite games, he has the freedom to play anywhere he likes. "Not only can I play a few extra maps while I'm out dining with friends or family," said Steven, "I can also squeeze in one or two matches during my commutes to and from work. I just velcro my pocket PC to my dashboard, plug in the mini-jack to my stereo input, and dodge enemies while I'm dodging traffic. "And I'll admit it is a little tricky steering and shooting with a stylus at the same time," added Steven. Before the development of portable versions, games such as Quake, Diablo and Everquest ("Evercrack" as it is often called) would create "gaming widows," spouses who were ignored or abandoned while the gamer spent his or her "quality" time "fraggin' 'til the sun went down" (or came up). The frustration levels of gaming widows would continue to mount, because the serious gamer was unable to extract himself from his machine to fulfill the companion's needs.
"I didn't enjoy speaking to the back of my husband's head every evening," said June, whose husband is an Everquest addict. "But now that he can play [Everquest] on his Palm, we are able to go out again as a couple. Oh sure, Barry still plays while we visit my parents, but at least he's with me...physically anyhow." Full version portable game titles are making gaming more convenient for the gamer, and making it possible for him to maintain an almost-normal lifestyle while still being able to satisfy those addictive game cravings. "Pocket gaming technology is making my real-life tolerable," said Barry. "That includes the otherwise unbearable in-laws." It is expected that developers will continue to produce games for the PDA markets, and quite possibly for WAP devices as well, although cellular gamers playing that copy of Freelancer will likely still have to switch to vibrate-mode in the theatres. At present,
it's a niche market, but expect the PDA gaming market to expand. Already,
most pocket gamers can't wait for the release of Doom III, but
because of the huge hardware demands, many suspect that they'll have to
upgrade their Compact Flash cards before they can install it.
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