Game Goods 2015: Bob Hoose’s Year-End Picks
2015 was an interesting year for video game trends. There were more and more gamemakers deciding that the digital download was a far better way to sell their wares than that old-school game-disk-in-a-box routine. Crowdfunded games were popping up like popcorn on the stovetop. Virtual reality started making some serious steps toward being something people […]
A Nice Commercial Christmas
We here at Plugged In like to bring you thoughtful or entertaining online tidbits from time to time. We’ve shared some compelling family focused commercials on occasion, too. And, well, it turns out that IKEA offers up all-of-the-above in two different Christmas commercials it produced for its various markets around the world. Now, the first […]
Finding God in Games: Thoughts from a Christian Game Designer
Part of our job here at Plugged In is to talk earnestly about the impact media consumption can have on our day-by-day lives. After all, a constant inflow of anything is going to impact you in one way or another. Hey, anyone who says he can binge-watch some gotta-see sleazy TV show all day or […]
The Clock Ticks, The Tech Pile Grows
One pleasant advantage of having a few years under my belt, is the ability to drone on endlessly about my phenomenal, life-changing adventures in the ’70s and ’80s. And as I pontificate about my collected memories, I can watch happily as Millennial listeners sigh and consider their own meager experiences. They may have youth and […]
Let’s Grow a Few Heroes
Remember when we used to have heroes? You know, those people you could look up to, admire, maybe even want to be a little like? And I’m not just referring to the really special iconic individuals like Martin Luther King Jr. or Mother Teresa. I’m talking about those day-to-day cultural heroes we’d hold dear, bring […]
Smartphone? Or Smutphone?
Porn is everywhere. And it’s killing us. Hey, even Playboy says that pornography is soaking through every nook and cranny of our culture. The men’s sex mag stated that some 30 years ago 40% of adults watched porn. Now it’s reached a saturation point of over 80%. The publication didn’t say anything about how many […]
The E-Laugh’s on You
I got a text from my twentysomething daughter the other day that responded to a message I had sent with a “hahaha.” And being at that time of the afternoon where my brain desperately seeks out anything to settle on other than the work before me, I got to thinking about her seemingly laugh-out-loud response. […]
The Robo-Future is Here … With Your Turn-Down Service
Are you one of those who’ve been staunchly steering clear of all those techy thingamajigs and touch-tablet whiz-bangs? You know, maybe holing up in your grandmother’s Wi-Fi-free basement because you fear all those Hollywood future-apocalypse movies might just be right and someday robots will indeed take over the world? Well, if so, your biggest nightmare […]
Please Fix My Tone, Watson
Listen up, boneheads, and you might actually learn something. Now, if I were a particularly tone-deaf individual, I might actually think that the above sentence was an interesting way to grab your attention. Or maybe a wink-wink way of being cute/funny. On the other hand, a number of people read those nine words and immediately […]
Why, Back When I Was Young …
We are awash in many, many screens. Tiny ones and pretty big ones, twirling-swirling-thingamajig ones. … All right, I’m no Dr. Suess, but you get the point. And if you saw Adam Holz’s blog from yesterday you know that some experts are every bit as concerned about we adults and our immersion in today’s tidal […]