These days it seems that this is the average level of conversation in most mmorpgs. With prices coming down and access freely available to those of the younger generation we're stuck dealing with grammar that would make your grandma's eyes bleed, and at the best takes four hours to read a 10 word sentance. Not only are we subjected to poor grammar (or grammar that appears to be of a whole different planet!) we seem to have taught our younger-lessers that it's ok to be a rude, insulting little burk.
As a budding linguist (for realz!) I'm finding myself more and more facinated by the text speak phenomenon and all of it's implications. We're Australians. We often answer with the opposite of the question. "Oh, I'm not bad". "I didn't have a great time, put it that way!". So when we're already confusing the world with our distinctly negative grammar, do we really need to make things worse by buying into the text or sms speak?
I was a bit worried when first I heard that 2k were making a sequel to Bioshock, mainly because I thought that the first game was so beautifully self contained that a sequel would be only a watered down cash grab, which would cause me to hunt down all the employees of 2k and punish them for ruining the memory of a wonderful game. As it stands, I was wrong. Bioshock 2 not only holds its own compared to the original storyline, it improves in game play quite a lot.
The story starts 1 year before the events of the original and we see our brave diving suit clad hero, subject Delta, is running to the rescue of his little sister, only to get bushwhacked by the villain of the piece, one Dr. Sophia Lamb who uses the hypnotise plasmid to make you play the losing side of a game of Russian roulette after stealing your ward away from you by explaining that the child is in fact her daughter Eleanor. Cue the bullet eating.
As you may already know, Australia's first "videogame bar" , the Mana Bar, was opened to the public on the 20th of March. Among the owners of Brisbane's most gaming centric watering hole are Yug of australiangamer.com, and Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation fame. I was in Brisbane during opening week, and managed to see the bar in action both before and after the public opening. So how did it all go? Did it part my butt hair and make me consider moving north, or was it a good idea in theory, but one where the elements of gaming and a public bar just don't mix (like country music and good taste)?
