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I Want to be the very best . . .

7/18/2016

So Pokémon Go continues to be an incredible social experience. I was actually at a 3 day intensive training last week, with some great folks. The topic area was focused on addiction recovery, and specifically on certifying us attendees as a first group of Certified Recovery Coaches (CRCs) in the county. It was a great time, and I got to hear many inspiring stories from folks in recovery, as well as other professionals trying to make changes. It got me inspired to work even harder to achieve my goals to be more of a help to people.

On a much lighter note, we spent our lunch hours together networking with one another and sharing ideas. I was in a group of several folks who were actively playing Pokémon Go, and the restaurant where we were eating at had a Poké Stop right outside. So each of us would take turns setting up a lure so that we could catch Pokémon while we ate. One of the discussions that came up out of this (between Ryan, Kyle, Abby, and I) was on the interaction that continues to be central with this new mobile experience.

The discussion went something like this. Abby asked about this being one of the first games where people would have to physically meet up to be able to take advantage of the multiplayer functionality in the experience. I had a realization that actually, this mirrored some of the experiences that I had way back before services like Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. I would literally pack up my N64 (or whatever console) and go to a friends house in order to play a multiplayer game. We'd hook up the TV and systems, and link up physically in order to play. This continued well into my college experience, where we'd set up our consoles together in what my friends identified as the "Fortress Digitalus"

The discussion then went on to include the changes that went on with large scale online multiplayer, and though we had an opportunity to connect with people around the world, we would sometimes isolate to do so.

Kyle pointed out that it feels like we've really come full circle. We now, as a result of this augmented reality experience, are exploring a virtual world, but re-exploring the meet ups that used to be such a part of gaming in the past. It really is a strange and wonderful world we live in. I've been finding many experiences to socialize with new people since Pokémon Go was released. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next given this being such a huge hit.

Until next time folks,
All the Best,
- Steve

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Pokémon Go

7/13/2016

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I had to jump in and discuss my experiences so far with this game. It's something everyone is talking about, and I don't know that I could say much that hasn't already been said, so rather than repeat information, I'll share more about my own reflections on the experience of playing this game.

For me, Pokémon Go is much more than "another game." The social experience and health components are what really draw this game out as something different for me. I've been posting pictures, and will add more on the page here as I gather them together, but the spontaneous flash mobs that are popping up in every city and town across America (as I'm hearing it) are astounding. I had the opportunity to be a part of one in my own city last night. I had heard about the experience from friends who live in larger cities like New York (Central Park is apparently constantly full of Pokémon hunters) or Chicago, even in Pittsburgh for a more local experience. I hear that the point is pretty much flooded by folks around the clock now. But as I was driving home last night, I passed a parking lot near the courthouse in town, and was shocked to see around 60 or 70 people gathered around all checking their phones and chatting with one another. After coming home to check on my dog, get things situated for the next day, etc. I was able to meet up with my better half, who also saw this flash mob gathering, and we decided to venture up. The number of people fluctuated as more arrived, and others had to head home for work the next day or because their phones were going to die (though many folks had portable charging devices), but there were never less than about 30 people at any given time chatting with one another moving from one cluster of Pokémon trainers to another. People were chaining lures to keep things going (there were 3 Poké stops surrounding the parking log) and sharing information and plans to get together and continue the socialization.

It was a completely positive experience, with the exception of one older gruff gentleman who decided to stop and harass us for "loitering." He tried to make a point that we ought to have better things to do and to go back to our homes (this was not a police officer, just a random guy who seemed to have been leaving a local bar). Folks responded to him in a completely friendly and non antagonistic sort of way, just explaining what we were doing, and that this was a public area, not like anyone was on any sort of property. However, he was clearly very bothered that we were all hanging around having a good time, not doing anything wrong. Folks even tried to explain the game to him, and get him involved, however he was having none of it. After it became clear that he wouldn't be reasonable, we simply all got back to our pleasant conversations and attempting to catch a wild Meowth that had wandered into our area of the sidewalk. Just ignored him until he went away, though he did spend a lot of time staring at us, hating us. It's just amazing to me that the argument used to be "those damn gamers, all they do is sit inside alone, never socialize, not getting exercise, wasting their time gaming," now the experience is "those damn gamers, they're always hanging out socializing, exercising together, wasting their lives being happy together."

It's just amazing to me in this time where all I hear about when I turn on the news is information about protests vying for people to just respect one another's lives, frequently turning violent. Political campaigns focusing on spewing negativity back and forth against one another. And now a game that is bringing people together, getting them out of their homes and interacting with one another, getting exercise and bettering their lives, and all I hear about it on the news is how we should be careful that the companies aren't stealing our information, the dangers of exercising while focusing on hunting Pokémon, and various head shaking with smiles which imply "oh these silly kids. What will they come up with next to waste their time." I'm choosing to ignore that though, and focus on the people who had difficulty in dealing with their anxiety about being out and about, but are finding something to draw them into social situations. I'll focus on the group of people who weren't paying any attention to the color of skin of the Pokémon trainer next to them, the amount of money the other trainers were bringing in (there was myself and Abby, both licensed counselors, two students in between jobs and school, one guy who had to leave to get to his night shift, etc. all floating around chatting with one another), or the political or religious affiliation, etc. that any of the other group members were identifying with. We were all spending time together, socializing, walking about and getting some exercise, and planning future opportunities to meet up and spend time. It was telling to me when one of the guys I was talking with was saying something like "I've never experienced so many people who would typically struggle with social awkwardness, purposefully coming out and trying to interact with each other." That's the beauty of our culture, we get to have something that bridges all of those other potential barriers, that we can jump off of to be able to interact with one another in positive ways. I'll choose to focus on that.

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Data Collection Woes

7/6/2016

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I've been taking the last few weeks to get ahead with reviewing the data we gathered from PAX East 2015. Readers might think that the delay in getting this data organized and out there might just be because of a lack of focus. Really it comes down to the method by which we gathered the data, and the time taken to encode and review that amount of information in any reasonable sense. We've been using paper and pencil methods, and we've gotten well over 500 samples (3 pages each) to be able to turn into useable information. That means that every one of those little areas a participant circled or wrote in a response need to be coded so that a stats program can recognize the information as numbers. So all those times someone identified as playing "0 - 1 hours per week," or "8-10 hours per week" need to be turned into "1's" and "8's", as an example.
I've decided that in order to further our study data and make this more user friendly for those of us who actually turn it into something meaningful, we're going to need to procure some tablets, and start doing data collection digitally. Doing this alone will save roughly 6 months worth of work. That's no small thing.
Additionally, this will also cut down on deviations from the study data. Let me explain that a bit.

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Happy Memorial Day!

6/2/2016

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I'm a little late with the post this week, because I was busy celebrating Memorial Day with my family and friends, as well as preparing and executing a big once a year activity with my church that just happened to fall on this holiday weekend. Not an excuse, just an explanation, but I wanted to make sure that I posted something acknowledging the holiday.
So, Memorial Day weekend is one of my favorite "holiday weekends" of the year. It's not a gift giving holiday like Christmas, however, I think it's important and deserves acknowledgement in its own right. Memorial Day weekend is often looked at as the start of the summer season, and is marked by cookouts with friends and family, or if you're in my circle of friends long gaming events (though that didn't play out so well this year). However, it's really about something far more important. It's a day to recognize those who've served in our armed forces. I have tremendous respect for the men and women who sacrifice of themselves to protect those of us back home. It's with that in mind that I write about another Pittsburgh based charity that I learned about within the past 6 months. They call themselves Stack Up.
Stack Up is a charitable organization that focuses on supporting the military through various means, but primarily through the donation of video games and systems to active duty military. What a wonderful endeavor, to try and bring a little slice of home and comfort to the individuals who are dedicating so much of themselves to serve others. I had the distinct pleasure of speaking with the organizations founder Steve Machuga about a month ago, hoping to get Stack Up involved in our Gaming and Health Expo. It was a real pleasure. So let me share the organizations information so you all can check them out and consider supporting that charity as well as ours. None of us can do everything, so I feel like it's important to help each other out whenever we can, so that we can all achieve our unique and important goals.

Read about Stack Up here: stack-up.org

Watch a Reverse Unboxing Video Here: Reverse Unboxing on Youtube

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. . . Everything is Permitted

5/18/2016

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So I came up with a new name for Geek/Gaming and Health Days. Technically it wasn't me, but the support of one of our Allies over at Warp Zone. So I owe the credit to Nick. However, I'll be rolling out the new name here shortly. Get your suspense prepared to rise.

I was surprised to see the Assassin's Creed movie poster and teaser video last week. It looked really good to me, and being a long time fan of the series, I'm excited for any more content that might be produced. As fans of the series might recognize, my title for this post is a part of the actual Creed in the Assassin's Creed series. My concern comes up, and has been echoed in any of the conversations I've been having about the movie since seeing the trailer. Everyone comes back with some form of ". . . but movies based on video games haven't done very well. Hopefully this will be different . . . ". I agree, of course. I'm hopeful, but we haven't had a lot of success with video game transitions into movies so far. We're going to have at least two across the next year with Assassin's Creed being accompanied by the Warcraft movie. I'm hopeful, but cautiously so. This led me to wonder what makes media translations so challenging.

It's pretty natural in todays day and age to have these cross platform translations. We have Star Wars movies, Star Wars books, Star Wars comic books, Star Wars video games, etc. Certainly there's the entire revolution of the Comic Book film, which have found a way to become mainstays in our movie theatres. And its these that give me hope for video game translations.

It wasn't so long ago that we had comic book translations that were absolute flops at the Box Office. It wasn't until Marvel made the X-Men and Spider-Man movies around 2000 and 2002 that we started to see some success with film going fans. And then real success starting with the actual Marvel Studios films with Iron Man, etc. I think that we really saw that success because American audiences discovered a need for heroes again (more on this theory in a later post), but also because the movies started to become respectful of the source material. There's a reason that people gravitate to these stories in the first place, and previous iterations of super hero films tried to come at this source material from some new perspective, using movie writers. I think that the more emphasis we put on the actual source material writers influencing the writing of the translation material, the better off we are. So the fact that this Assassin's Creed movie has some strong influence from Ubisoft itself, that gives me hope.

I don't need a movie writer to translate the material that I already love into a movie story. I also don't necessarily need a retelling of the story I already know. That's what I kind of like about this Assassin's Creed movie. There would be so much material, and so many choices that I made in the games to try and distill into one compiled story, that I feel like what I love about the games would get lost in the movie. So this new take gives me hope. If it works, I'm hopeful that we'll see other stories begin to translate across. As with the other media translations out there, I love getting more content in different forms. So I'd love to take advantage of this scenario with my favorite game stories too. After all, what I show up for is a great story, regardless of the medium.

Look forward to talking again later, please comment in the section below. I'd love to have the interaction. What's your favorite franchise translation?

All the best,
- Steve

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Wrap Up and Looking Forward

5/10/2016

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We had a great time at Geek/Gaming and Health Day this past weekend! We nearly doubled our successes from the last event, and look to make even more headway for the next one. That date, by the way, is October 8th. We're changing our location to accommodate some of the planned growth we're experiencing. The new Con will be at the Ramada in Greensburg, which is up on the hill behind the Best Buy. This will allow for some continued growth without changing locations, as they have several sizes of conference rooms. Fingers crossed, as we're working out some plans that might lead to some pretty significant growth, so invite everyone you can to the October event!

I'm beginning to do some work connecting with Twitch Streamers, as this has been a goal for this organization to take advantage of and connect with for some time now. So if anyone knows anyone out there with Twitch, please let me know.

On an unrelated note, Civil War premiered this past week. I'm ashamed to say that I was so busy with all the last minute stuff that comes with event planning, that I wasn't able to make it out and see it. I hear great things, and I expect nothing less from a Marvel movie. However, at the risk of sounding like a social subclass that I don't self identify with, I did read the book. Civil War was one of my favorite Marvel story arcs, and I'm really excited to see it play out in theatres. It felt to me like a Marvel story that really brought a lot of the super hero story out of the standard 'good guys fight bad guys, earth shattering odds are overcome, bad guys are vanquished, good guys fight bad guys . . .' wash, rinse, and repeat. Though there have been plenty of comic book stories that make us explore life and death, who our allies really are, what happens when our personal values are challenged, and more, Civil War was different for me. The idea of really questioning why the heroes do what they do, dealing with ideas like who really deserves freedom, and is safety worth any sort of cost kept me turning pages. There were some triumphant experiences, sad realizations, and powerful imagery and writing in those books. I'm incredibly excited to see it play out on the screen. I'll be checking back in after that.

What about all of you? What were some of your favorite moments in comic books? Did they end up on the silver or small screen? How'd that pan out for you?

Thanks for reading, and until next time,
All the best,
- Steve

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Virtual Insanity

5/3/2016

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No matter where you look in the gaming world, I feel like there's a complete focus on virtual reality systems. Now granted, having tried them out at some shows in recent years I can vouch for this, they're pretty awesome. However, I'm wondering what this means for mainstream gaming culture. I want to get the shameless promotion piece out of the way early, so. . . .

WE WILL HAVE A VIRTUAL REALITY EXPERIENCE AT OUR GEEK/GAMING AND HEALTH DAY THIS WEEKEND, MAY 7TH AT THE COURTYARD MARRIOTT IN GREENSBURG!!!!!!!

Now that I've got that out of the way, I want to go on with my thoughts. I think that these virtual reality and augmented reality devices (like what you can find on the 3DS or in the previewed Microsoft Hololens, are really great, and an amazing feature that we can get to enjoy. I'm hopeful that this doesn't become like 3D movies or even previous attempts at virtual reality. I recall in the distant past, as a child of the '80s, things like the Nintendo Virtual Boy and the Sega Activator that promised to bring us into our virtual worlds. 3D movies were the way of the future even just a few years ago. Then I felt the pressure of the 3D television, in order to bring this shift in technology into my own home. Being more in control of my own finances now then I was at say 8 years old, I really thought about jumping into 3D, however, I quickly realized that this was a gimmick that I didn't NEED, even though I WANTED it. I did fall in love with my Kinect when attached to my Xbox One, and though it's not NECESSARY, I do love the voice command features, and talking to my Xbox in general. So I can't imagine not having this. Indeed, talking to our devices is becoming more common, like Siri or Cortana on our phones, and now Amazon throwing their hat in this arena. We're getting ever more connected and immersed in our technology.

So my musings on this blog are now turning to virtual reality. I wonder if this is going to be yet another gimmick that eventually fades out, or if it will find its way into the mainstream and grow and flourish. Really, only time will tell as this tech starts to find its way into the marketplace. I also wonder what will happen with regard to our relationship to technology and virtual worlds. I'll leave this document with just wonderings for now, but I'd love to see what everyone reading this thinks. Where are we going with this? Are you excited, or afraid (i.e. Skynet)? What are some utilities that might exist with this technology?
Definitely stop out at our Geek/Gaming and Health Event on Saturday, and try out the virtual reality experience! We'll be glad to see you there.
All the best,
Steve

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We're Back

4/25/2016

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It's been quite a while since we had a post up here. The lack of blogging is not to suggest that we haven't been busy. This past year has been very challenging for we original members of the GGCA. Each of us has had a share of our own personal concerns that have kept us occupied. Additionally, we've been trying to find new ways to broaden the scope of the work at GGCA. I'm pleased to say that we've come up with a plan for the coming year that will do exactly what we've hoped for. We've explored new partnerships, new members to our core group, and new sponsorships for our Health Days. We even have a plan for making these blog posts rather regular.
I'm looking forward to sharing the new information as it continues to arise. Our big kick off for this is really at our next Geek/Gaming and Health Day on May 7th at the Courtyard Marriott in Greensburg. Please check out our Facebook page for that event invitation, HERE.
Just wanted to get things started.
All the best,
- Steve

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Summer Geek/Gaming and Health Day

7/15/2015

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Our next Geek/Gaming and Health Day is coming up on 8/15, so literally just a month away. We're so excited with everything we've been gathering together over the last few months to bring to the event. We'll be posting updates at minimum weekly here, to share about all the cool stuff we've got planned.
For starters, I wanted to point out that the title of the event has been expanded from our old "Gaming and Health Day" to the inclusion of "Geek.' The events have always included stuff like comic books, and sci fi, but we really wanted to get more inclusive with what people can expect. Plus having more than just games really makes this feel like the mini Con that its starting to become.
So the first inclusion of events that I want to share with you all is actually gaming related (I know, after I made the comment about being more than just gaming). We're going to be hosting a GoldenEye tournament. This will be in addition to our traditional Smash Bros. Tournament, and with GoldenEye we'll be digging out our classic N64 gear. This takes me back. While I was studying at Saint Vincent my buddies and I would frequently have Halo nights (there'll be more Halo news for us later, I'm so excited), but every now and again we'd dust off the N64s and throw down on GoldenEye, Conkers, or Mario Tennis. Many larger scale Cons will have a GoldenEye tourney hidden away in their schedule somewhere, so we're proud to bring it to ours. A good friend of mine and 007 aficionado has graciously volunteered to help pull this together, so I'll have more info on times here shortly. But for now let's just get excited about some classic N64 greatness.
Keep coming back here as we reveal more of the schedule and some more info about our guests and sponsors. I'm so pleased that this is looking like the best show we've had so far, with plans to continue to improve. Please share in the comments about some of your favorite tournament games official, dorm room, or otherwise. We'd love to hear about it. And definitely check out and share around our Facebook event page. You can find it right HERE!
Looking forward to making some more announcements in the coming days and weeks. Check back with you all soon,
All the best,
- Steve

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Alliance Movement

4/27/2015

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So we've got another Gaming and Health Day completed successfully, with exciting news on the horizon for our next event. We will be continuing our partnership with the Westmoreland County Community College Gaming and Anime Clubs. We're changing our location, however, in the hopes of providing a more convenient location for a larger audience. The Courtyard Marriott in Greensburg (sits behind the Smokey Bones, and next to the Wal-Mart) has agreed to host us, which will put us conveniently on Route 30 for much easier access. We're also switching the day to Saturday to allow for easier attendance from the public. The goal will be to make the event more "Con" feeling, and with that in mind we're working hard to add to our list of sponsors and collaborators to bring more activities to the event. That in mind, we're requesting a $5 donation (free to children under 12) for entrance to help to grow this event. All donations and any money raised on our part will go right back into the Alliance which will help to defer the cost for future event attendance for us (which leads to more research opportunities) as well as directly into our gaming research, and our future educational outreach and programming opportunities. Keep your eyes posted to our Facebook page, Twitter, and this webpage for more information as it rolls out. We're all really excited.

As well, we're starting to partner up with Twitch. This is a direct connection with our attendance at PAX East in March. Look for weekly live streams to become regular events, as well as some scheduled charity streams throughout the summer as a kickoff to what we hope will be a year of interacting with our supporters across the country. Additionally you should see some new headings on the webpage as we really start to develop our educational services in the coming month.

It's looking to be an exciting summer at Alliance HQ. Please make sure to sign up for our newsletter, and check out our social media pages as we continue to keep you all up to date with what we're doing in the community and online.

All the best,
- Steve

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I Want to be the very best . . .

Pokémon Go

Data Collection Woes

Happy Memorial Day!

. . . Everything is Permitted

Wrap Up and Looking Forward

Virtual Insanity

We're Back

Summer Geek/Gaming and Health Day

Alliance Movement

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