To fly my own mathematician flag a little here, our kernel is different. The language is the same and an approximation could be found between us but we both, to continue the example, started in different spaces and contexts and thus ended up in different places too.

What was more interesting to me, other than the differences of interpretation, was the role of confirmation bias in the experiment. If, even as players, we seek games that we like and that have messages that we agree with, can we ever experience a truly “alien” experience of being an other?

I struggled that idea and decided, in my own approach to the topic, to write from both sides: myself as player and myself as character playing a role. After all, how can I know if it was different from my norm without partitioning the two?

ps. Learning is always learning to play.

I was happy to see that Amazon lets you schedule delivery times for TVs; less happy to learn that the first available delivery time is a week from Monday. :-(

As far as TVs go, I know that for gaming you really want a TV that does blacks well. Plasma displays do this the best (and the best color in general) but they cost more than LCDs. I’ve heard that LCDs have made great strides in that area, especially the OLED backlit displays (because they can turn off smaller regions of the screen). avsforum.com is a good enthusiast site that has an overwhelming amount of information, but I think there are some good summary threads in the forums somewhere.

Sorry for the quality of writing, this was written hurriedly.

Maybe I should go to Best Buy; I’m just really allergic to stores like that unless I know exactly what I want. :-( I might end up doing that anyways, but I might just order from Amazon.

I’ve seen a couple of mentions of Panasonic Viera; currently I think I wish I could get the TC-P50ST30, but it’s out of stock on Amazon, so I’d either have to go slightly smaller with the TC-P46ST30 or bump up the price and get the TC-P50GT30. They’re plasma, so I’m a little worried about burn-in from video games, but hopefully that’s not a big deal these days? You and Bruno both mentioned LGs, though, so I’ll look into that some more. I suppose I really should go to a store; though I’m not sure how much I trust in-store appearance to be representative of in-home appearance…

With that said, you definitely need a receiver to drive your speakers. I’ve found some great deals at Best Buy. Go there and ask for display/open box models. My best purchase was a Pioneer Elite VSX23-THX, which had an MSRP of $1,000. They sold it to me for $313, and when the clerk retrieved the box, it turned out it had never been opened, even though it was listed as open box. Brand new, less than 1/3 of the price.

I do recommend the extended warranty, though. Learned that the hard way. Over the past 6 years, I’ve gone through one Harmon Kardon (died after 2 years) and one Onkyo (HDMI board became flaky, repaired, broke again). I’m now on a Denon (at home) and the Pioneer mentioned above (in Tahoe). Both seem solid, and both are now covered with extended warranties.

As for TOSLINK vs. HDMI — HDMI audio actually has more bandwidth. TOSLINK won’t do some of the BluRay audio formats, the best you can run through TOSLINK is Dolby Digital (5.1). HDMI 1.4 actually goes further and supports bidirectional audio, as well as Ethernet, so you should be able to truly run everything through one cable.

Can’t say I’m too up-to-date on the latest TV models, but again, it pays to shop and ask for deals. The TV we have at home was the top-of-the line Samsung LED backlit model with local dimming in 2008. We purchased it as a very briefly used floor model without any visible signs of wear from Best Buy in 2009 for less than 1/2 the original price (which compared to today’s prices was still a lot).

As I mentioned over lunch, I’ve also been happy with the LG 47″ we have in Tahoe. Same model as the 42″ in amnesty and upstairs. For the price point ($549), it’s hard to beat. Fry’s runs LG specials every week, if you’re patient, after a few weeks you’ll find a good model at a very attractive price.

Happy to chat more in person :)

In regards to behavioral clusters and gender: I’m sure there are areas for which that’s true; but there’s also a whole set of areas where the behavior distribution is different for men than for women but where differences within gender are much larger than differences across genders, so there’s huge areas of overlap. (See e.g. the graph in the upper right of http://www.warandgender.com/wggendif.htm ) And, in many of those areas, society treats gender performance as much more different than they are. E.g. mathematical ability (a subject that’s particularly close to me): my understanding (which could be wrong) is that current research supports the idea that, on many of the traits that are related to mathematical ability, there’s a slight difference in the spread of those traits across gender, but that that difference is completely swamped by the difference in spread within each gender. Or that End of Men article that you mentioned to me – I can see where it’s coming from, but, well, I’m male, and I don’t identify with the male behavioral traits pointed out by that article. (Maybe I’m deluding myself on that latter score, but I don’t think I’m deluding myself too much.) Who knows, though: could easily be a blind spot, it’s probably the case that I pay more attention to traits where I feel like an outlier within my gender (or within humanity as a whole) than traits where I feel normal for my gender.

I’ll have to think more about your point about brains needing to identify others’ gender; my first reaction is that it makes sense, but there’s a Delany anecdote I should share. Not right now, though, I’ve typed too much already…

So, I happen to feel that the two genders are pre-e-etty different. If you break gender down in to all sorts of traits and map them out, you’re going to get two distinct clusters. There is overlap for sure, but you still have two very distinct genders.

But I think the question if wether or not they are -fundamentally- different depends not only on the definition with what is fundamental in regards to who a person is, and and the person themselves. Certainly, for a great many people, their gender identity (or sub-conscious sex, a slightly different concept (which I like) introduced in that book I loaned you today) is a pretty fundamental part of their identity and idea of self. So from an internal perspective, as individuals, I think most people who think that’s a pretty fundamental change. Some people are not as attached to their gender as others, and for them, it may not feel that way, but for a majority of people, their gender is one of their most internally defining characteristics, in addition to being the most fundamental socially defining characteristic. The first thing our brain does when we see someone is try to determine their gender. I have seen this process on people’s faces a million times now. And when that process runs of the rails, it often makes the perceiver very uncomfortable. So, both from an internal perception and and external one, I would say that gender qualifies as fundamental…

Specifically to the point of this post, when I was growing up, being able to play games (Dungeons and Dragons in particular) as a female character was a tremendous escape and release. In my 20′s I played many video games with overly sexualized female protagonists also to have this (not as intense) escape. I would say that experience both let me experience something “other than what I was” as well as learning about myself, namely, that I was really happy when I got to be a girl, even if it meant sitting in dank smoky basements arguing saving-throws with people who are very passionate about saving-throws or getting carpal-tunnel hunting yeti and grave-robbing.

:)

See you in a couple of months!

Anyway, great article and insights, as always, David. Hope to see you at GDC this coming March.