The Daily Sync for January 20th, 2010

Ok, first, because I know she probably won't read much farther than this sentence in this article, it is my wife's birthday today.  I owe her much, especially because on my birthday she allowed me to have the TV all day to play video games.  ALL DAY.  She's not a gamer, but that kind of gift to one means a lot.  Love you, Abby!  Ok, you can go download some more songs from iTunes for your new iPod. :)

Next, I'm sorry about this week sucking on daily synchronizing of news.  Life happens, you know?  Perhaps I went in over my head promising daily reports.  I'm gonna do my best, though.  And so as not to false advertise, I think I'll alter the title of these sections.  Keep your eyes open!

Over the past few days not a lot happened, at least in my opinion.  However, some biggies have dropped recently and I gotta spread my excitement!  Click below to read how you can be a hero, updates and previews of my next two anticipated releases, and other gaming news.

The "Halo Effect" that ISN'T about Master Chief

One of my favorite new blogs is The Psychology of Video Games.  It's writer, the well-educated, gaming-savvy, Ph.D.'d Jaime Madigan, tries to answer what every other girlfriend, wife, and septuagenarian and older wonder:  Why do we play video games.  There's some very insightful studies, such as the Hot Hand Fallacy that links basketball in the 80s with Modern Warfare 2 (so I guess this isn't true!).  Ok, it's not just 80s basketball but that's beside the point.  The articles are really fascinating, and I've always loved psychology.

His latest entry, "Bayonetta: Witches with Halos" discusses the halo effect, "a cognitive bias that happens when your evaluation of one trait unjustifiably bleeds over into your perceptions of others."  Though the article is more about reaction to marketing and design, as a Christian and a gamer, and a Christian gamer, I'm certain this effect trickles into the perception of individuals.  And part of the purpose of this blog is to defend that "unjustifiable bleeding."

And also, as a Christian, it's on my conscience to say that this article does include a somewhat shapely advertisement of Bayonetta's heroine (there's worse out there, but any little "bit" can lead to bigger "bits"), and the entire blog has pretty good control of language.  I only say this if there's anyone reading this who was born after Jurassic Park was in theaters, aka the young ones.

The Daily Sync for January 13th, 2010

Welcome to the first ever edition of "The Daily Sync," certain posts that are pretty much my attempt at compiling and further reporting video game news ... that other people have done already ... but I provide links to them and comments ... ... ... yay!  I figured that since I practically have a stock ticker of gaming news, I would do something else with it than read it for myself.  Lo and behold, my brain-news-child, "The Daily Sync."

Every weekday after 5pm I hope to provide a short list of some of the crazy, interesting, sad, and exciting news that has been released that day and the night before.  5pm because I'm at least done with my office work for the day (usually), and I take forever on these posts so I miss out on anything that happens that evening.  Just go with me, people! :)

Read on to see what I deem newsworthy!