Getting into World of Warcraft for the first time means hours of grinding: performing the same tasks over and over to “level up” a character. But far from being boring, grinding is one of the great unsung joys of gaming.

Last week, I finally decided to start playing World of Warcraft again. And you know what that means: Exciting medieval adventures! Chess-like strategizing with guildmates over raid techniques!

And, of course, grinding.

Hours upon hours of mind-numbing grinding.

The article goes on to discuss the psychology behind grinding, and why despite this truly burdensome element, people continue to pay monthly subscriptions.  Without going into too much psychology, a subject of which I am a novice and an expert in my own mind, let me offer the simplest explanation for the acceptance of grinding.

Essentially, grinding offers users a way to kill time, blow off steam that might be building in real life ventures and simply beat stuff up.  From the very first video games until now, there always was and will be a repetitive idea that lives on in virtual worlds.   Think about simple, but popular video arcade games like Pac-man, Centipede, and Space Invaders.

Sure, the addiction element may not be anywhere near as sophisticated as that found in World of Warcraft or other MMORPGs, but designers today are paid to make addiction happen.  Without addiction, games become yesterday’s news and there is no way they’d last beyond a few months to a year on the replay value scale.

As for my gaming habits, I notice that some of the most fun I have gaming involves repetitive and violent bludgeoning of pixels that resemble an enemy.  In the real world, you might consider how hunters love stalking and destroying their prey.  In the virtual world, the feeling is very much the same with the only consequence being that the time I spend hunting or destroying monsters online is time I could have spent doing something more productive.

Wii Crossbow, are you ready for it? 

Super Smash Brothers, Brawl – Trailer of upcoming  release

Click here to view the embedded video.

I own the Game Cube version and would be interested to see how this might play out on the Wii, based on the new sensor-driven controls.  Just the same, I don’t get what makes the game so popular!  Sure, it’ll make tons of money and perhaps break new Nintendo Wii records for sales in a given time-span, but what I want to know is why?

I know I’m in the minority, so I’ll leave a cookie for the gamers who eat this stuff up. “Cheats and Exploits for Super Smash Bros Brawl“

Not everyone likes to mess around with hardware and dive right in to having fun with their toys, but Softpedia has a manual that helps make this process easy. They’ve provided very detailed information and numerous screen shots for the gaming and Ubuntu enthusiasts.

Getting started:

1. An USB flash drive or a Memory Card (PS3 can read only SD/miniSD Memory Card, Memory Stick PRO (Duo) and CompactFlash). Or, as an alternative, you can use a portable hard disk with FAT32 filesystem on it.

2. An USB keyboard and mouse attached to your PS3.

3. Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) PS3 ISO image, which you can always download from Softpedia. You will need to burn this ISO image on a blank CD with your favorite CD/DVD burning tool.

Read the article: “Ubuntu 7.10 on PS3 – Installation“

I’ve seen a number of World of Warcraft commercials over the last year. It’s not surprising that a game has that much pull on commerce, but I can’t believe that this advertisement went viral. I have an idiot friend in NY that refused to talk to me until I watched the video… all he would do is say, “I am the lawgiver!”

God, nerds are dumb sometimes!

Click here to view the embedded video.