Videogaming in Australia

I've been playing videogames for quite some time now.  I have been to Cookie Mountain.  I've made numerous trips to Silent Hill.  I've fought zombies and unraveled vast government conspiracy theories.  I've fought as a Special Ops super soldier and saved mythical kingdoms.  Videogames have allowed me to live out fantasies and become immersed in unique worlds.  Videogames are not only entertaining, but they are interactive art.  According to the 2010 Entertainment Software Association "Essential Facts", the average gamer in the United States is 34 years old and has been playing videogames for 12 years (check out some more interesting videogame facts here).

As technology advances games are becoming more and more cinematic, interactive movies that offer hours and hours of entertainment.  I wish that I had more time to play videogames, but all I can manage to squeeze in these days are a few rounds of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 online.  That being said, one of the things I have noticed here in Australia is that videogames, both consoles and games, are ridiculously expensive, sometimes being twice the cost of the same game back in the States (if the average Playstation 3 game is $60 new in the U.S., here in Australia you can expect it to be between $109-119)!

So when Call Of Duty: Black Ops, the follow up to the best selling Playstation 3 game of all time, comes out here in Australia on Tuesday, I will not be purchasing.  Instead I will buy it in America for $54.99 and ship it over here, which will cost considerably less than purchasing it here for twice that amount.  Why does Australia jack up the prices of their games so much?  I suppose it's because they can.

While you mull that over, check out the definitive Call Of Duty: Black Ops review below.


And finally, here is the opening theme to what I consider to be some of the best music in videogames courtesy of Akira Yamaoka and the Silent Hill franchise.

Akira Yamaoka - Silent Hill

Not a single Trick or Treater...

 So Halloween has come and gone here in Australia (and by this time, in America as well), and while we had a good time at not one, but two Halloween parties, it just didn't feel the same without the incessant doorbell ringing of sugar-starved children.  It seems that the only people who have really embraced Halloween in Australia are people in their late teens and twenties, solely because they want yet another excuse to throw a party, but who can blame them?  Anyway, above is the first pumpkin that Rhiannon has ever carved in her entire life, a pretty faithful Jack Skellington, if I do say so myself.

 OOOHHH...scary!

Rhiannon and I were Rick Deckard and Pris from Blade Runner.  I think our costumes came out pretty good (Rhiannon's trumped mine for obvious reasons).  I start work tomorrow at Myer, which is like a big department store here in Australia.  I guess my days of sitting around and riding the chillwave are over.  No more all day sessions of COD: MW 2 online.  No more pretending that "I'm a writer".  It is kind of a bittersweet day.  I'll be making money, which is good, but I won't have the freedom to spend all day doing whatever I want (i.e. see above).  I'll keep you updated on how it is.  In the meantime, I am wondering if anyone watched the premiere of The Walking Dead on AMC Halloween night.  If you did then you know how awesome it was, if you didn't, watch the trailer below and frantically search the internet/local television listings to watch it.