“People who spend a lot of time online are sad and have no life.”

That’s what most people will instinctively tell you. It’s the impression I’m getting from reading some of the blogs and comments in this week’s Star Blog.

Now, I’m not actually going to argue whether real life or virtual life is better or worse. I’m sure there are valid arguments for both camps.

What I really want to know is: Why do people automatically believe that having a virtual life equals no life?

Just because you were born living life one way doesn’t mean that it’s the right way. We must recognise and keep up with evolution and not resist change.

So, let’s assume that the person who spends most of his time online is actually happy. He earns a living online and does almost everything online, and he feels fulfilled because he enjoys what he does.

How is he sad?

You mean he is more sad than the bloke who lives in the “real” world but is unhappy because he’s got a crappy job, an abusive girlfriend and drinks his liver to death every night after work? Is the real-world guy’s life more meaningful because he spends more time in the real world, never mind how he spends it?

Of course, I could also compare an unhappy virtual-life guy with a happy real-world guy, in which case the sad one is the virtual-life guy.

My point is that it’s not logical to judge the lifestyle. Living your life one way or another doesn’t make you better. It’s how you feel and how you make people feel with your actions that count.

Let’s examine some reasons people think Internet denizens are sad no-lifers:

• They don’t go out and socialise.
• They spend their lives engrossed in only one pursuit.
• They don’t go to the movies.
• They don’t go clubbing and partying.
• They don’t play tennis or golf or basketball.
• They don’t go out wining and dining.

Well, then, are we going to call a monk a no-lifer? Because we could superimpose those traits directly on a monk.

In fact, there are people who respect monks for exactly those traits.

So, what, society only allows monks to behave like that?

It just goes to show that people criticise without thinking.

Again, I’m not saying that a virtual life is better than real life. I think it’s useful to have a balance. Do what is necessary and do what you enjoy, without harming others. That’s more important.

What I really want to comment on is that some people criticise virtual living without actually having valid reasons to criticise it. They criticise it simply because they don’t subscribe to it. And that’s unfair.

It’s like someone criticising beef just because he doesn’t like to eat beef.

No, really, think about it.

I have three hours of free time and I’d rather spend it playing an online game than going to a disco. How does that make me a no-lifer?

Okay, let’s say Persons A and B have 10 hours of free time.

Person A spends it on three activities: Go for a movie, have a meal at a restaurant, shop for clothes and books.

Person B also spends it on three activities, except that they’re all done online: Play an online game, chat with friends on MSN, shop for clothes and books.

Most poeple will automatically think that Person A’s time was more well-spent, while Person B has no life.

Why is that? Assuming both Person A and B feel equally fulfilled and happy from their activities and go to bed with a smile, how is either life better than the other?

Yet, online hobbies are not as socially accepted as offline hobbies. And that is what I don’t understand.

We’re not talking about Internet addicts who skip school or miss work because of online activities. We’re talking about normal people who simply prefer to engage on online rather than offline activities, when given a choice. Should these people receive the “no-life” label?

I challenge everyone to question sweeping statements until you get a logical answer.

“Spending too much time on the Internet is bad.”

“Why?”

“Because it makes you a no-lifer.”

“How does it make me a no-lifer?”

“Because you spend your whole life online instead of going out and experiencing the real world.”

“Why would experiencing the real world make me a better person?”

“Because the real world is what life is about. The Internet is not real.”

“Who set the rule that life is more meaningful and better in the real world?”

But keep in mind that discussions should be for the purpose of understanding, and not for the purpose of proving that you’re right.

Too often, when people have conflicting opinions, they believe that it’s their sworn duty to convert the other person to their opinion.

Why must that be? Why can’t we recognise that everyone is made different? We have different likes and dislikes. Different things make us happy or sad. Therefore, shouldn’t we all have differing opinions?

We should enjoy the process of learning how other people think, rather than automatically condemn people for thinking differently.

Just because you like apples and you think oranges are disgusting doesn’t mean that people who eat oranges are disgusting no-lifers who can’t tell good from bad.

If you think about it, that’s exactly how some people behave.

A life is a very individual thing. People derive joy from different things and they derive meaning for their lives from different pursuits. Who is anyone to tell anyone that there is a right or wrong way to live life?

If you have a really convincing reason to support your belief, then good, go ahead and believe it.

If you cannot come up with a valid reason, then ask yourself why you’re believing something blindly.

Then tell me again why you believe that people who spend a lot of time online are sad and have no life.

The Internet has totally changed the way my friends and I communicate.

In the past, when I hang out with friends, we would just hang out. We would chat over a meal or a drink.

Nowadays, when I hang out with friends, we’re chatting with each other online instead of in person, even though we’re sitting right next to each other.

[Join us on Plurk]

Of course, we still do chat the traditional way, but it’s not uncommon to see the whole group of us sitting around a table together, all of us on our mobile phones, text-chatting with one another and with other online friends.

The Internet is not just an option anymore. It has become an integral part of our lives.

Continue reading…

I’ve been playing the Facebook games Restaurant City and Country Story for some time. They’re something I can leave running in the background of my PC while I work, needing only to check in once in a while to feed my staff or harvest my crops.

The cute animations make me happy to look upon them, so no matter how silly and juvenile the gameplay is, there is that appeal for me.

I like surrounding myself with games and cuteness when I’m working!

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Table of Contents

1. Love and hate Scribblenauts
2. Time Wasters by Swordplay
3. The Ballad of Gay Tony
4. Colin McRae: Dirt 2
5. X Team recruiting
6. Results of last week’s contest
7. Win Grand Theft Auto t-shirts!!

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Love and hate Scribblenauts

I’m in two minds about Scribblenauts. On one hand, it’s a fantastic game. It’s innovative and fun and you can’t help but get hooked by it.

On the other hand, the clumsy controls mar the experience somewhat, which is a tad bit disappointing after so much hype and anticipation.

Scribblenauts is a side-scrolling platformer with over 200 levels to play. In each level, you get through obstacles by typing out any items (living or non-living) you can think of to help you get the Starite (the goal of each level).

There are many ways you can complete each level, which is what makes the game so fun.

For example, to climb up a tree to get the Starite, you could conjure a ladder or wings or even a helicopter.

Or you could choose not to climb the tree but, instead, lasso the Starite down with a rope. The possibilities are quite astounding.

I’m a spade-wielding, magic-carpet-riding ninja.

Many unexpected, amusing things can happen, too, if you take your time to experiment.

Like, there was this button on a wall I had to push to open a door. But the door closes when the button is released, so I needed something to push and hold onto the button while I went for the Starite.

I decided to try someone, instead. I typed “girl” and a girl popped out. I thought I could get her to push the button for me. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t quite work that way. She just stood around and did nothing.

So I summoned a rock to lean against the button, but I got a rock too small to be of any use, so I threw it at the button for the heck of it.

The rock hit the girl instead of the button and she got mad at me. (You know they’re mad when they get angry pictures in their speech bubbles.) So I conjured a flower and gave it to her and she was happy again!

Of course, all these didn’t do jack to help me get the Starite but, what the heck, it was fun.

The problem with the game comes when the sucky controls get you into trouble.

To move your avatar (Maxwell), you tap a spot on the screen where you want him to go. To pick up items in the world, you tap on the items. To do something to anything, you tap on them. Almost everything you do in the game involves tapping.

It’s a great use of the DS touchscreen interface, to be sure, but it’s also a source of frustration.

Sometimes, when you tap on items, the game thinks you’re trying to move Maxwell, so you end up having Maxwell rush headlong down an erupting volcano.

It might be good for a laugh once in a while, but if you have already spent five minutes carefully setting up a path to your goal and Maxwell ruins everything by killing himself because the touchscreen didn’t read your taps correctly, it’s infuriating.

Air navigation is also very clumsy. Magic carpets don’t hover when you stop in mid-flight. They sink to the ground. And, sometimes, Maxwell refuses to fly to where you tap, maybe because he enjoys hovering right underneath a chute that is raining hot coals.

If you can forgive the controls, Scribblenauts is a veritable treasure trove. There will be some levels in which the clumsy controls won’t matter at all, so that’s a consolation.

I would love to give Scribblenauts a 10 because it’s really quite an impressive game. But the annoying controls bring the score down to about a 7, except during the moments when I feel the urge to defenstrate my DS, in which case, it’s down to like a 0.

But I am still enjoying the game. It’s such a good game that I must play it despite the controls.

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Time Wasters by Swordplay

Swordplay is my pesky li’l bro who spends all his time playing time-wasting games. To make him a little bit more useful, I’m sitting on him and making him recommend one fun and simple web-based game each week.

This week: Higher

What a nice, relaxing game this is!

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The Ballad of Gay Tony

When the first expansion for Grand Theft Auto IV (The Lost and Damned) was released earlier this year as a download option for the Xbox 360, I was excitedly stressed.

It’s no secret that I love Grand Theft Auto IV but it’s such a long game that I will never get enough time to complete it, much less play the expansions.

And now the second expansion is coming out!

The Ballad of Gay Tony allows you to play as Luis Lopez, a street gangster and personal bodyguard to Tony Prince (aka Gay Tony), who is ostentatiously the king of the club scene but is, in actual fact, in a lot of trouble.

You would have come across Luis Lopez in your adventures in GTA4 and The Lost and Damned, so this time, you’ll get to play some familiar scenes as the other camp!

Here’s a video promotion of the game disguised as an actual news report from Liberty City:

The Ballad of Gay Tony is also an Xbox 360 exclusive. It will be available for download on Xbox LIVE on Oct 29, 2009.

It’s looks set to be totally explosive!

A disc-bundle comprising The Ballad of Gay Tony and The Lost and Damned will also be sold. Called Episodes from Liberty City, they can be played as standalones, without requiring the original Grand Theft Auto IV.

Watch out for the cool new features you’re going to love, such as the parachute, APC (tank) and AA-12 (automatic shotgun with explosive rounds)!

October 29!

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Colin McRae: Dirt 2

I gave this game to the Goonfather to review because racing is his forte. He really enjoyed Ridge Racer and Initial D, plus he used to race in real life.

But it turns out that he didn’t like Dirt 2 because the game is too good, plus he claims that he’s not into racing games. Sometimes, you just can’t understand him!

The Goonfather reviews Dirt 2

First of all, I am not much of a racing genre fan, nor am I into rally cars. But I was forced by Sheylara to take Colin McRae: Dirt 2 out for a spin.

After a long intro (with me almost falling asleep), the game menu popped out. I created an ID and started the game.

Something I like about this game, which is unique, is that you get to choose a voice name from a long list. The game would then address you as that name throughout. Kinda cool! Ever played games where you enter your name as Tom but the voiceover is still calling you some other thing?

After the initial setup, I got into my first race. The only car available for selection at that point was a Subaru WRX STI. The race begun and I crashed myself into the last position.

Tried a couple more times and I started to hate how realistic the controls were.

Finally gave up on my fifth attempt. The thing about me is that I play games for fun and not for realism.

Sorry for the short and unexciting review. This game made me sleepy with the long intro so I had no energy left to explore much of it. But the graphics is very good.

Don’t let my bad review of the game fool you since the rating in most gaming sites for Dirt 2 is above 8/10. It’s just not my game. Waiting for Forza Motorsport 3 and Gran Turismo 5.

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X Team recruiting

Want to be part of the X Team?

As part of my involvement with the Singapore Xbox team, I’m recruiting a volunteer to help out with online activities to reach out to local Xbox fans.

Click here to read more!

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Results of last week’s contest

Last week’s contest to win this eye-catching haversack gave us some interesting information about what guys carry in their bags when they go out!

Thank you all for your entries! It’s nice to know I’m not the only crazy person who carries tons of stuff out with me.

Well, I have randomised a winner. The winner doesn’t carry many things out. I think this bag is too big for him! Or maybe he’s waiting to get a bigger bag so he can carry more stuff.

Anyway, it’s his.

Congratulations, Ryen! A winner is you!!

Please do me a favour and e-mail me to claim your prize. Thanks!

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Win Grand Theft Auto t-shirts!!

In anticipation of The Ballad of Gay Tony, I got some t-shirts from Rockstar to give away!

Three, to be exact! Size M, but the M is actually more like L or XL.

If you would like to be one of the three lucky winners, just post a comment here and tell me one thing (anything) about The Ballad of Gay Tony. No repeats, so submit your entries early!

Terms & Conditions

1. Only one entry per person.
2. Winners will be picked randomly.
3. Winners will not be notified. Please check the next issue of GGF for results and instructions.
4. Prizes not claimed after two months will be returned to the giveaway pool!
5. Closing date is Oct 1, 2009, 11:59pm.

Okay, please post your entries now. Get the chance to wear this t-shirt before the game comes out! (If you dare.)

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Time to eat!

It’s tough having to look good all the time. People criticise us when we go out looking imperfect, as if it offends them.

“Your hair looks wrong today.”

Then they stare at you expectantly, as if they need an answer from you to explain the offense.

I’m not joking. That happens.

Then, an awkward moment happens when you stare back at them helplessly, wondering what the heck they expect you to say.

“I’m sorry my hair isn’t perfect today. Would your highness kindly wait while I zip into the salon for a complete makeover?”

So, you spend a lot of time making sure you look perfect enough to avoid stupid statements that are delivered in the form of accusations.

If you look good enough, you might even earn a compliment.

“Your hair looks great today.”

Which is always nice. Never mind whether you’re vain or not, receiving a compliment is always nicer (and easier) than receiving a perplexing accusation.

Which is why I tend to spend quite a bit of time dressing up to avoid awkward moments.

At other times, I just avoid social situations totally.

So, on the night of the Singapore Blog Awards, it was with a bit of apprehension that I made my second attempt to curl my newly-dyed hair.

If you remember, my first attempt was an astounding disaster. I had to hide the failure in a ponytail.

I did a little better the second time, after learning from my mistakes. The front parts of my hair curled beautifully. I was heartened.

And then I did the back.

And I became Medusa.

So, then, I had half a head of beautiful curls (front) and half a head of angry, hissing curls (back). I could feel all the accusations sitting on the sidelines waiting to be born.

I didn’t want to do the ponytail thing again because ponytails are too unglam for the prestigious Singapore Blog Awards, and there was no time to straighten out the hair to do it all over.

So I brooded and considered calling in dead.

As I sat there brooding, a flash of inspiration struck me. I will hide the disaster in braids!

It was a perfect solution. I carefully forced the hissy curls into two side braids while leaving the nice curls alone… and it looked messy nice!

I felt like a genius!

I was ready to face the world!

Well, the rest you know already. I went on to receive the Best Lifestyle Blog Award, which was an awesome cap to a great night.

I had a bit of trouble lugging my prizes home. The Goonfather and I looked really bulked up with all the stuff while walking to the carpark. I wanted to take a picture of us then, but I had no more hands free to do it.

Most of the bulk came from the Koka noodles.

The noodles in the two cartons and the hamper are my prize. The loose ones are from the goodie bags the Goonfather and I received combined. Scary!

A lot of it has been given away to relatives, though. I also invited my friends to come over to take their pick but they never did. I think they were scared off when I showed them the photo above. I have weird friends.

Full list of prizes I got:

• Trophy designed by Tan Swie Hian, a renowned artist. (He did the floor calligraphy at Chinatown MRT Station.)
• Award certificate.
• 3D2N stay at Sugar Palm Grand, Hillside, Phuket worth $800.
• $500 voucher from Play Smart (a gadgets shop).
• 52 packets/bowls of Koka noodles.
• Tons of Transformers premiums (3 posters, notebook, lanyard, cube, dog tag, soundtrack CD).
• Star Trek mouse and mousepad that also serves as a USB hub.
• Supperclub CD.
• Fast & Furious 4 cap.
• Monsters Vs Aliens notebook.
• Laptop bag by Fabrix.

It was fun going through the bag to see what they gave me. Like unwrapping presents!

But that’s beside the point.

The point of this blog is that, no matter how nice your hair, makeup and clothes look during the day, it all disappears when the night’s over, although not as dramatic as Cinderella.

And then you have to do it all over again the next day (or the next time you step out of the house, anyway).

What a waste of time!

If only people would stop harping on the way we look all the time.

This week, I have to invite five special people to dinner at Raffles Hotel.

I’m inviting a very old man, a special person, two children and Angelina Jolie.

Okay, it’s all hypothetical; it’s a Star Blog topic.

It was a tough one to write, too, because I’m not in the habit of inviting strangers to dinner.

But, after writing it, I realised that, in fact, I would very much like for such a dinner to come to pass.

Read more…