The first album I ever owned on my own was Michael Jackson's Dangerous. I was eight. I thrashed it so much that the tape stretched and eventually split. Musically, it changed my life and to this day Michael Jackson has three songs that rank in my top ten songs of all time.

I woke up this morning to read of his death, and I just couldn't believe it. I'm still in shock, actually. It's just too unreal.

All I can say is: For the music and the message the world thanks you, Michael Jackson. R.I.P.

This image irks me a little. That's probably because everything is relative, and to see someone complaining about broadband I would love is like moaning about your mother meatloaf in front of starving child from Africa. Case in point:

Slow, huh? The worst thing is that this is practically the best internet connection you can get in New Zealand, and it costs me US$50 a month. Oh yeah, did I mention that it has a 40GB cap? After that, it's dial-up speed baby.

Obviously, this affects my gaming. You see plenty of people using lag as an excuse, but for those of us Down Under (you better run, you better take cover!) it's actually just a fact of life. When I used to play Halo 3, it could take up to 10 minutes to find a game. I honestly spend longer looking for a game than I did playing. When I did find a game, my connection was constantly red, and I was always finding myself shooting at things that appeared to be there but in reality were not. Oh yeah, and I paid a yearly fee to do this.

Even the PSN is not immune. While some games do have servers that are "local" (I guess those of us in New Zealand are used to getting lumped in with the Aussies in terms of video games) many games still use a P2P connection for online gaming. This means that generally lag is a given.

In some cases, it renders games unplayable. Take Street Fighter IV, for example. I'm already annoyed enough at the cheap-ass players that make up the community, but it's just so much more annoying when you cannot even defend yourself correctly because of the lag. The game fails to register my focus attacks and even my blocks, and half the time it will execute a move that I pushed the buttons for five seconds ago. Ultimately, it ends up in a lot of losses. This, of course, isn't even talking about the framerate that is often reduced to a slideshow or worse.

At the end of the day, it just makes playing online a pretty frustrating experience. I'm not one to usually get all high and mighty about my gaming skills, but it's certainly annoying being told you suck when you know you're better than what your connection allows.

Of course, there are other problems with having a lacklustre internet connection in a modern gaming world. With many of the major players offering content by digital distribution -- the PSPgo offering it exclusively -- a cap suddenly becomes a massive burden. Our house shares an internet connection, and we probably use about 1.5GB a day. This means by the end of the month, we're approaching our cap. This comes from general internet usage. If you add game downloads on top of that, it suddenly means that your cap will not cope. I already got a lot of flack from my flatmates because I downloaded Mass Effect off Steam and reduced us to dial-up speed for a week. Can you imagine if they only way to get and play games was online?

The internet is becoming an increasingly large part of modern gaming, especially with the hardcore focusing on Xbox Live. However, such a focus often leaves those of us who do not have the luxury of such wonderful connections behind. It leaves us with laggy, unplayable games and the inability to access all the content available to us. Ultimately, we are second-rate citizens because of an industry focus.

But, you know, there are bigger problems in the world. I could be living in Iran right now. I guess all I'm saying is that next time you complain about lag, or the next time you complain about digital distribution, spare a thought for those of us whom it really affects.

God, I HATE this game. Everyone just spams special moves, including the computer. People wouldn't know a combo if it bit them on the ass. Coupled with heinous lag, the game is practically unplayable. I'd rather shove a broom so far up my ass I can brush my teeth with it. It sums up everything that is wrong with the gaming community: do whatever it takes to win, even if it sucks the fun out of the game. In fact, it's sucked the fun out of gaming in general. I went to play something else and I was just like "Awww **** gaming."

I think I'm just going to read a book instead. I wonder how much money I can get for the collector's edition on eBay...

EDIT: So after I posted this, I played some Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City (City Folk in the USA. I believe) and I calmed right down. Nook's was closed, but I guess you get that at 10 p.m.. It was also nice to just talk to the people in my town and catch some fish. And Nibbles is sooooo cute. After that, I played some Wii Sports and by the end of it I was nice and calm. It made me wonder if it's worth being into this hardcore gaming if it's just going to raise my blood pressure. I play games to have fun, after all. Maybe slowly but surely I'm becoming part of Nintendo's core demographic? More on this later, I guess...