information overload

We re called the information generation. I don t think this is a misnomer. My generation knows that through Wikipedia, imdb.com (internet movie database), weather.com, Zillow, cnn.com, various blogs, youtube, and Google Maps, you can find information about almost anything you could ever want to know.

While sometimes annoying (like how Wikipedia has the last word in every pointless debate my husband and I have), this access to endless amounts of information can actually be enjoyable. While watching the Oscars this weekend, Dan and I had the laptop out and were looking up information that we didn t know as it was referenced ( Who was that guy? , What else was Marissa Tomei in? Is the cast of Slumdog mostly Indian or British? ).

I remember what an invaluable resource the internet was when I was planning our wedding. Dress and flower ideas, etiquette tips, and invitation templates were all found online. So now, with a new major life milestone, I turned to the internet for all sorts of things: pregnancy survival tips, name meanings, nursery design ideas, product recommendations, local birth class listings, even podcasts about all things pregnancy. Unfortunately, unlike with wedding planning, I have decided that all this info is just too much.

Diaper brand X is the best. / Diaper brand X totally leaks and you shouldn t buy them, buy Z brand.

You need at least 2 cup holders and an extra deep storage basket on your stroller. / Forget the extra junk, you want a stroller that is light and portable.

Some official organization gives this bottle design it s Most Innovative award. / Some other organization gave THIS bottle the Ingenious Design award.

This book has all the answers you will need about how to prepare for your baby. / Written by an amazing pediatrician, no other book has more information than THIS one.

I m sure you ve now come to the same realization that we have: they can t all be true. So if some of them aren t true, which ones are true? Am I going to be the lady who needs the extra deep storage basket, or the one who would give anything for portability? And the conundrum continues. For that reason, I would like to make this official declaration:

I give up. I refuse to take to heart one more ounce of internet-based information or advice regarding baby gear, baby development, or pregnancy. It s just too complicated and convoluted. I had started to make lists of things I ve read about (like Brand X diapers= good! ), but then I ve had to amend it far too many times because of opposing information found later. I want to make room for my own preferences and opinions too, and I feel like with all that s out there to read and take as fact, I haven t taken the time to consider what my baby might need and what might work best for my family.

All that to say, if you have experience and information on products, advice, and the like, please share. I m just over the whole totally-contradictory-information-at-the-tip-of-my-fingers-from-people-i ve-never-met thing. It seems like I read in a history book somewhere (or a maybe it was a wiki article) that people used to talk to each other (some prehistoric era before facebook messages and twitter) and pass on information about things they had experienced to younger generations, and I like that idea. As we prepare to welcome our younger generation, I could think of nothing more important.

Core Corner War Commander, Total Domination and more Too much

Core gaming is supposed to be about games with more of a challenge than your average Facebook game. Core games are for players who want a little more bite in their habit, but not to the point that marathon gaming sessions require. If core gaming were a breakfast food, it would be just right. Core is attractive because it allows for many different types of play, but keeps the challenge level relatively high. A player can enjoy core games on a casual schedule or sink entire evenings into epic gaming sessions. Core tends to offers more choices than other styles.

One issue with core gaming is that some design formulas have begun to take over the market. Sure, we have super hero games that pit teams of famous characters against each other in turn-based combat and we can also choose from fantastic romps through dark and dreary dungeons, but the style of game we find dominating the core category is the RTS or city-builder. Real-time strategy or city-building games ask players to grab a virtual plot of land, build up a series of important buildings and objects and usually grow an army to conquer neighbors or NPCs. There are variations on the theme, of course, from fantasy settings that pit elves against catapults to futuristic army-builders that put players in charge of massive spaceships.

The idea generally remains the same, though. Check in, put in orders that will take time to complete, and jump into a battle or two. This might be somewhat of an oversimplification, because the truth is that the RTS or city-builder is usually some of the most varied gameplay you'll find. Yet patterns are starting to emerge. Are we in danger of being overrun by carbon copies? Has the core market already been overrun? Next time you're on Facebook, see how many ads or invitations you see for RTS games. Look at the charts in the App Center and you'll see that, aside from standard casual games, you'll be left with quite a few core RTS city-builders. As of the time of this writing, some occupy the top slots: War Commander, Total Domination and Battle Pirates. They are well made and interesting titles, but it's easy to see the similarities even in their tutorials.

Every genre has its patterns, of course, just like every type of music has its earmarks that signify it as part of that genre. But core gaming cannot be defined by one play style. Core gaming is more a level of challenge and time commitment than a series of mechanics. There are core titles that offer side-scrolling action, puzzle-based questing or, of course, city-building and conquering. My fear is that city-builders might be so well suited for core gaming that its continued growth and success is inevitable, possibly leading to a genre bloated with rip-offs.

What makes a city-builder so perfect for core gaming? First, if we look at a game like War Commander, I can go away from the game and find completed projects just waiting to be enjoyed. Build times for many buildings can be short enough to perform several times in one evening, but not so long that I actually forget to check the game and lose interest. The city-builder must entice players to check in every once in a while or it just gets pushed down on a list of games.

A game like Total Domination has great music, voiceovers and other earmarks of a quality game, but also allows players to play at a relatively smooth pace. Quests are a great way to accomplish this, simple tasks that teach the basics of play or much more challenging series of events chained together. Either way, they appeal to the player's love of shiny new things, giving out goodies and needed resources as the challenges are completed. Battle Pirates provides a third, important mechanic that keeps the RTS firmly within the high ranks of core gaming: research. The idea is to grow a player's city, similar to how a World of Warcraft player might level his or her character, but instead of grinding through monsters, the city-builder sets research and waits for it to complete in real time. Times can be brief or can take days, depending on the level. Getting the timing right is often the difference between core gaming and casual gaming. Casual gaming allows the same variety of play that a core game does, but core games tend to dive deeper and take longer to grow in. Casual gamers often graduate to core games, but when they do graduate, will they find mostly RTS and city-builders? If they do, is this a good thing? It's possible that it is the standard way that games develop. In crowded genres, change is slow in coming. That is, until a few special titles come along and set everything on its edge. The rest of the genre takes note and the cycle begins again. So, while core games do feel too populated by RTS games, imagine it in only a year or two. Not only will social gaming change but core games will become more stylized, varied and perfectly suited to those of us who need a challenge, but on a specific schedule.

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Are you tired of the RTS genre dominating core gaming? Share your thoughts with us in the comments! Add Comment
Beau covers MMORPGs for Massively, enjoys blogging on his personal site and loves social and casual gaming. He has been exploring games since '99 and has no plans to stop. For Games.com News, he explores the world of hardcore Facebook and social games. You can join him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.

my names Allison, and im an olympiholic

There s a disease taking the country by storm, and I have fallen prey. The symptoms range from enthusiasm to exhaustion and it is often characterized by one or more of the following: staying up until midnight to watch Nastia and Shawn nail their floor routines (disregarding the fact that your alarm will sound in 6.25 hours), bookmarking NBCOlympics.com so you can check the medal count 15x a day, watching Michael Phelps every single time he gets in the pool, and getting very emotionally involved in all this tiebreaker/age/judging gymnastics controversy. I know I m not alone in my suffering. On that note, I figured that many of you would enjoy this as much as I did when I found it:

Go USA!

Zyngas PetVille will say goodbye to Facebook on December 30

Apparently, even a game with 1.1 million monthly players isn't safe from Zynga's chopping block. The developer has announced that PetVille will be the next game to close on December 30. The disappointing news comes from the game's official Facebook fan page, which thanks players for being long-time supporters.

As with other recent Zynga game closures, players are being encouraged to login to PetVille at least one last time to claim their free "complimentary bonus package" in another Zynga game from the following list: CastleVille, ChefVille, FarmVille 2, Mafia Wars, or YoVille. This is a one-time bonus for PetVille players, and it must be claimed before December 30 when the game officially closes. Here's the full statement from Zynga. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to spend some final quality time with my virtual pet.

Greetings PetVille players,

Thank you for supporting PetVille and for being a loyal player! We're sorry to inform you that PetVille will be shutting down on Dec 30, 2012. In place of PetVille, we encourage you to play other Zynga games like Castleville, Chefville, Farmville 2, Mafia Wars and Yoville.

We appreciate your participation in PetVille as it helped make the game a fun place to meet and war with friends. As a loyal PetVille player, you are eligible for a one-time, complimentary bonus package in one of either Castleville, or Chefville, or Farmville 2, or Mafia Wars or Yoville. You can start the process by logging into PetVilleand clicking on the "Redeem" button. Please note that this offer will be valid only until Dec 30, 2012.

Thank you for your time in PetVille. We look forward to seeing you again in other Zynga games.

Play PetVille on Facebook >

Are you disappointed to see PetVille close? Do you still routinely play the game, or had you left it behind for other games long ago? Let us know in the comments!

in a hospital, naturally

Writing posts like this make my hands sweat. I have an opinion. I am going to voice it. I might not word it soft enough to not offend someone. I might not have all of the information. I might come from an entirely different perspective than you.

I am going to voice it anyway.

~~~~~~

Sometimes I feel like there are these birth cliques. It s strange, I know, but hear me out.

There are the I had an epidural and I loved it! mamas who see absolutely nothing wrong with using the God-given pain medications to do exactly that: medicate the pain. They had a hospital birth with all the bells and whistles and wouldn t change a thing about it. Mantra: modern medicine is awesome.

And then there are the natural birth ladies who support letting birth take it s natural course. They will tell you that hospitals and their interventions are not what they wanted for their baby s birth, and that birthing at home is perfectly safe for an uncomplicated pregnancy. Mantra: Hospital births and the medical interventions that come with them are often unnecessary.

But OBaby s birth doesn t fit in either camp.

I had a natural hospital birth attended by a midwife in a birth tub and I would do it again in a second!

I see hospitals painted in a criminal light so often by the natural birth advocates. It makes me sad to see people imply that natural birth is diametrically opposed to hospital birth and must be at home. I think a lot of people, my husband included, are not comfortable with the idea of being at home (especially for their first) but they still want a beautiful, natural birth. To hear that hospitals are evil and the only way to have a natural birth is at home stops these people from pursuing their options.

Don t get me wrong, if my husband were comfortable with a home birth (and maybe he will be someday), I would pray about it and probably have one. I think it sounds amazing. But I also think assuming that a mother can t be responsible for her own care and have a natural birth unless they are at home is damaging to some women who, like me, find themselves unable to have a home birth but still desperately want a natural birth experience.

I think to have a natural birth in a hospital requires you to view yourself as the one who is ultimately responsibility for your care, not the doctors or hospital staff.

Here are the things we did to prepare for the (hospital) birth we wanted that I highly recommend:

1. Educate Yourself Take a class. Read books. Watch videos. Dive head-first into information that supports the kind of birth you envision (even if it includes an epidural!). Having a good idea of what to expect prevented a lot of stress during our first birth.

2. Have a Plan I ve heard women say that if they d handed their doctor a birth plan s/he would have looked at them and laughed. If that s the case, you should get a different doctor. It is your birth, the doctor is only attending it. This website is a wonderful resource for creating a birth plan.

3. Bring Strong Advocates Have a birth team. Mine was DanO and my doula. The three of us met to go over our birth plan. We made contingency plans (For example our 3x rule. If I asked for drugs once we would try a different pain management technique, if I asked a second time we would try something else, but if I still wanted it after two attempts then I would have it.)

4. Surround Yourself - with those who have similar perspectives of birth. If someone envisions an epidural during their birth, they don t deserve to be told constantly throughout their pregnancy that natural is better . Similarly, if you are preparing for a drug-free birth, it is completely within your right to (kindly) tell naysayers to shut it.

5. Research Area Hospitals for c-section rates and natural-birth-friendly perspectives. This is huge. The hospital where we delivered has the second lowest c-section rate in our state. They have a rooming-in policy where babies stay with the parents rather than being carted off to a nursery. They have water birth suites which we utilized. Midwives typically round on laboring mothers and OBs are only called in the case of complications. All hospitals are not created equal. Find one that fits you.

By the grace of God, all of those parts fit together to give me my ideal birth in a hospital!

father

father (n): a role on earth that serves the purpose of pointing children to their heavenly one.

Happy Father s Day, babe. We love you.