photo by Keith McDuffee (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic)

You either love it or hate it, but regardless of which side you’re on, you can’t say that Glee isn’t influencing the world.

A quick history lesson of the actual word first, and then we’ll talk more about the television show.

Originally Glee was an English part song from late baroque, up to and including early romantic period music. Written for at least three voices and sung A Capella (unaccompanied). They are reminiscent of Gentlemen Singing Clubs.

The first Glee Club was founded in 1787, London, England, (The Harrow School) and became popular in the United Kingdom up until the mid 1850’s. They became dominated by Choral Groups and Societies. Then heading into the mid 20^th Century, Glee Clubs were no longer as common. The title ‘Glee Clubs’ are mainly used by Japanese and North American Universities and Colleges. One such university is Harvard, where their Glee Club was founded in 1858.

So in a nutshell, Glee is a short English song for A Capella singing, and a Glee Club today is more of a choir.

So now for ‘Glee’ the television show.

Once upon a time gamers bashed keyboards of brand new Commodore 64s and Amigas. Loading times were measured in minutes and multiplayer meant more than one joystick was plugged in.

Once upon a time most gamers were young. Not anymore.

According to the Entertainment Software Association, ESA

Average age of US gamer is 34

• 25% under 18 years
• 49% 18-49 years
• 26% 50+ years

The average age could be expected to be a bit lower worldwide compared to these US numbers, and the average age is increasing.

34. So that’s born around 1976. A kid in the halcyon days of the 80s and teen in the 90s.

We’re getting old. Wasn’t the millennium bug just last week? The impact of us old codgers is enormous. We have much of an industry to ourselves complete with websites, corporations, developers, shops, jobs and of course the product, games. The impact of games has spread everywhere into all media forms including books and the news.

There’s a toll too. Many of us are looking after kids now, have jobs and so have become time poor. Not quite time poor enough to not play games, but enough to make it a serious time management challenge.

For the time poor, 5 hour Raids are an expensive luxury. All those delays and just one Leroy away from a wipe. Spare a thought for the young whipper snappers too. Halfway through their priest has gone missing trying to calm down a kid wailing in the background. I mean it’s only blood. Can’t the kid call the hospital themselves?

We never had to put up with that now did we? No, not really because most of us were kids and besides MMOs hadn’t taken off yet. Indeed putting up with our former selves as the new breed of teenagers play games can be hard for some of us. The Barrens chat. The l337 and.. sigh.. and anime.

Actually it’s a good thing. Kids know the price of babies all too well because it’s thrust in their face. They are learning from the oldies. Us older folk keep in touch with what’s going on at the younger and frankly more culturally vibrant end.

But what about real old codgers? Some of them are playing games already. Maybe, just maybe it’s a good thing. I don’t know what it is about our society but for reasons that bug me the elderly are basically shoved into the invisible box. Take yer metamucil and shaddap. Hell many people in the family don’t even take time for them. The endless theme seems to be one of boredom for them.

Maybe games and the internet can change that. Games can alleviate boredom but we don’t need a replacement for the TV which is just as impersonal. Age is less of a concern online. They can reach out and interact to their heart’s content. Email, Skype and World of Warcraft. Fun, discovery, keeping in touch and even usefulness. Yes, just as important is the knowledge locked up in those wrinkly heads. It’s an untapped goldmine we don’t use enough at the moment.

Maybe games can start a rethink about the meme of old people being of no value to society.

I leave you with the salty language, skill and cackling of the infamous Grandma Hardcore.

The PlayStation Network (PSN) which provides online and multiplayer services for Playstation console users has been down for over a week which is remarkable in itself.

The problem has been due to an illegal intrusion onto their systems commonly referred to as hacking. This happened between April 17 and April 19, 2011. One might leap to the idea that Anonymous is responsible but they have denied involvement. The real perpetrators are as yet unknown but may be brought to light by the security experts.

Sony just released information on just what kind of details were compromised. These include:

• Name
• Address (city, state, zip)
• Country
• Email address
• Birthdate
• PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login
• Handle/PSN online ID

It is also possible that the following has been compromised:

• Profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip)
• PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers
• Credit card details

It’s quite a lot of detail and if you are a victim of this I would strongly suggest you look to your own security especially if you use your PSN password elsewhere. Be aware of scams that might crop up and if you’re worried about your credit card take action on it.

This is a very long outage with potentially serious consequences for their customers so I don’t think this is going to do Sony’s image any favours. It seems Sony have done what they can to deal with it but that of course doesn’t remove what happened. They claim some services may be restored in a week, so this is going to be a long haul.

Update 28 April 2011:  Didn’t take long for a class action lawsuit to pop up.  Looks like Sony are taking advantage of the downtime to rebuilt their network for better security too.

After several weeks of intense rumours Nintendo have admitted there is a new console coming out in 2012.

Details are sparse but Nintendo say more will be revealed at the E3 held June 7-9 2011.

Nintendo’s Wii console has been slipping slowly (sales down 27% in the past year) behind the Xbox and Playstation 3 possibly due to things like the Kinect. Compounded with this have been reduced sales of the games for the Wii as well.

Nintendo’s operating profit slumped 52 per cent in the past year and sales also fell. They are also concerned about the consumer spending impact of Japan’s quake and tsunami. Clearly they need a lift and it looks like the 3DS alone will provide some of that. It’s also clear they’ve had to do something about the situation with the Wii and this new console is their decision.

IGN have been thick with the rumours even providing details of the cost at $US350-400 and component details.

This announcement could also explain the rumour that the original Wii will shortly receive a price cut.

Yet more rumours suggest the Wii 2 may be named the Stream but I think this is going a bit far. The Wii Stream? Please.

Attended the ANZAC day Dawn Service at 6.00am this morning to a good crowd at Morphett Vale’s memorial. No rain at all but quite cold. It’s always amazing to see so many come. The service itself is quite short. Lowering the flags, the service and laying of the wreaths. The two minute silence and the anthems.

I will put this link to RSL SA down, as much to remind myself, as my readers of where to get the details of the local services, which are not so easy to find. There are quite a few locally so perhaps next year we will attend one of the others.

One man was carrying a frame full of medals emotion of his face plain.

We remembered too the other members of ANZAC. The New Zealand flag and anthem of course but there was also a haka. Kia kaha.

We will remember them.