Posts Tagged ‘videogames’

Is Mario Offensive?

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

Wii Mario

I’m about a third of the way through Paper Mario, which I’m playing on the Wii Virtual Console.  It’s an awesome game, and I highly recommend it (although if you’re not into RPGs, it may take you a while to get used to the turn-based, tag-team combat).

One thing I’ve always wondered about Mario is whether people of Italian descent are offended by the character. 

I’m trying to imagine how I would react to a bestselling videogame from Italy, in which the main character is a stereotypical hard-working Asian guy named Lee who speaks broken English and who karate-chops his way across a magical kingdom to rescue Princess Chrysanthemum.

I guess I would be okay with it, especially if the list of stereotypes for Asian males were expanded to include skillful lover, snappy dresser, and in general someone you don’t want to mess with.

Two-Handed Mousing – Part 3

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

I had an old i-Pen Pro lying around that I wasn’t using.  It looks something like this:

i-Pen Pro

On a whim, I hooked it up to my current computer, in addition to a standard, corded USB mouse.  I tried using the i-Pen with my right hand to move the cursor, and the standard mouse with my left hand to click the buttons.

The results were awesome! 

It’s a little freaky looking (which I like!) – when I mouse, there’s hardly any movement in either of my two hands, so it looks like I’m moving the cursor with my mind.

One tiny mod — in order to avoid unwanted clicks from the i-Pen, I pulled out the removable plastic nib.

There’s definitely a lot less strain on my wrist.  (Now if I could only cut back on videogaming…)

And remember — I’m not a doctor!  If your tendons are bothering you, seek professional help!