I purchase video games based on a policy I set forth a long time ago. New Xbox 360 games run $60, and I purchase new games about once every 6 months or so. The challenge I set for myself is that I can spend $60 on games but I cannot buy any game over $20. This last run I bought 8 games for $60.09 and among them was Mass Effect ($18.99) and Mass Effect 2 ($17.99). I even picked up a copy of Sneak King for $0.99 (totally worth it by the way, just to have in my collection).
All the games I bought have been out forever, but I’ve started playing Mass Effect 5 days ago and have barely stopped. Last weekend I started a session at 4pm Saturday and didn’t stop until 9am Sunday morning. It’s an amazing game, filled with aliens and what-not. Of course, with few exceptions, they are all pretty much “humanoid” in nature… a head, two legs, two arms, they stand upright. It all got me thinking about what might be truly unique traits of animals from Earth, particularly humans.
Biochemistry – Our understanding of biochemistry has been put to test with NASA’s discovery of a form life here on Earth that uses poisonous arsenic instead of phosphorous in building it’s DNA strands.
Sleep cycles – Our sleep cycles, and the sleep cycles of pretty much all forms of life on this planet, are tied directly to the rotational speed of the planet. Other planets rotate at different rates, have different gravity, etc.
Timekeeping ability – Something that seems very interesting to me is the development of our ability to very accurately keep time when it’s reduced to rhythmic pattern. Aside from that, we also keep very accurate timing estimates when it comes to lengths of times for tasks to complete. We seem to know immediately if a certain task takes even a second too long. This may or may not be a uniquely Earthling trait, as it would help any species along it’s evolutionary ascension, but it is a very interesting development.
Anyway, not a very involved RTOTD today, but it felt good to get it out of my head before I went back to playing Mass Effect.
