About
Yet Another Self-Important Blog.
Rohit Singh
Email Me
Blogs
Use as directed or at your own risk.
Links
These are a few of my favourite links.
[Tue, 13 Jul 2004]
The Video Game Face
Many people-- and I first noticed this in my dad-- are sucked in when
playing a video game. I do too. Thus, when you are racing a car and you
have to take a sharp left your body bends towards left; even the joystick
banks towards left. It's as if you are sitting in that car, cringing as
you scrape by the car to your right. I guess one test of good game design is how well it can suck you in.
Ditto for driving- lanes that seem so wide when you are standing on ground seem impossibly narrow when you are driving.
So it turns that this is not just a figment of my imagination. There is this notion of the peripersonal space (NYT) that extends to about an arm's length from our body, or if we have a tool, till the tool's reach. Our brains seem to be especially attentive to things happening in this space.
Will This Guy Win'em All ?
Seven gold medals...wow. Swimming and running are unfair sports, though. In no other kind of sport can you prepare for so many different events in one go. Are the skills required in 100m freestyle swimming that different from those required for 200m freestyle ? Ditto for 100m sprint vs 200m sprint.
Still, seven gold medals...If he were Indian, he'd increase India's medals tally by a gazillion percent. Seriously, of all the major-sized nations, we must be the ones with the most pathetic olympic record. Blame Tendulkar :-)