Last week, when Namco Bandai voiced their intentions to go in "guns blazing" and handle the upcoming sequel to their niche cult-hit as a massive AAA release, it put plenty of Demon's/Dark Souls fans like myself on notice. The escalating potential of the Dark Souls series ultimately succumbing to a similar fate as that of Dead Space 3, Resident Evil 6 and all the other misguided, bloated and grossly compromised AAA failures released over the last few years has become quite disconcerting for the modestly-sized yet passionate fanbase of the series to say the least.

Jim Sterling of The Escapist puts their legitimate fears and the broken mentality of AAA publishers into perspective quite perfectly: Click here for the video link.

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     Over the last few decades, the human species have done some incredible things. We reached the moon, we created the modern computer, and one of the most prominent forms of entertainment today: the video game. We have evolved over the years and created such a glorious entertainment. As well as evolve technologically, we have evolved away from horrid gender stereotypes. Women used to be viewed as the housekeeper, while the men were the breadwinners. Likewise in video games, gender stereotypes and roles in the industry such as protagonists and even jobs or appealing games have changed. Women are becoming accepted to be in higher job roles and even taking on more masculine characteristics. With video games, women are usually found being the damsel in distress, the voice-over sidekick, or the sex object. Throughout the past four decades, gender stereotypes as well as the cultural norms have changed through video games, and there is also a parallel trend from how our culture has come to accept the overall different types of people, in which as time goes by, we have culturally gone away from gender stereotypes and sexism.

      Women in video games overall were uncommon in any strong position pre-21st century. One of the first time the lead character of a video game was a woman, but the catch was that it was revealed upon completing, and that was only if the game was completed in under five hours. That game was called Metroid. In the game, the playable character was a space bounty hunter named Samus Aron who fought against the Mother Brain and a bunch of space pirates, her weapon was, and still is, a gun. Back when this was made, in 1986, there wasnt another female protagonist, and if there was, they certainly wouldnt be shooting anyone. But at the end of the game, Samus took of her suit and revealed her true sex. The response to this revelation was complete shock in the audience. But the audience came to accept her through the entire game, thinking that she was a guy, even though she wasnt. There are mixed conclusions one could make, as the developing team didnt even think to include this until after the game was finished, but the series creator Sakamoto, even stated in 2004 that they didnt want the bounty hunter to become nothing more than a sexual object. (Sorice) Back then, women were only viewed as sex objects, and intentional or not, Samus was wearing a bikini. So as the start of women in video games were emerging, there were still problems, but at least Samus was not intended to be a sex object. Most other women who were in video games, were damsels in distress. One of the first and most famous video games was Donkey Kong. The hero is jump-man which we know today as Mario. Mario traverses the traps that Donkey Kong set up to try and save the damsel in distress, which in this case, is Princess Peach. She is completely helpless as she waves her arms around like a fish out of water, and outbursts cries of help because she needs a man to save her. Once you complete the third level, Donkey Kong falls to his dismay and there is a heart that appears between the two. Later on in the industry, when they began to star females in games, one female lead stood out from the rest: Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. She was in countless games where she is a treasure hunter. She gets dirty and kills anyone that stands in her way. The one problem with having a female doing this, was that she was highly sexualized. The industry still wasnt used to having a strong female lead, and many men wouldnt want to play this game unless they could look at her butt the entire game. Most images that you see of her from her first games, are her abnormally large breasts, her tight tank-tops, and her extremely short shorts. A writer at IGN says about the men who played Tomb Raider, But for others, as the series declined prior to Crystal Dynamics Tomb Raider: Legend, Lara Croft became symbolic of the video games prevailing failure to offer up real characters rather than cardboard cut-outs with huge guns/muscles/breasts. (MacDonald). The women she says viewed her as an iconic heroine, but the factor of how she was sexualized outweighs the factor of that she is a woman. So with the sexualization of women, and the damsel in distress helplessly flailing her arms away, women didnt have an easy time in the industry. Men in videogames had a lot easier time in the industry, with no one even questioning their position.

     Men had much more of a common and easier time in the industry, such as being the lead role without any big fuss, but also were described as the one in power, with hyper masculine traits. The male in general was typically the guy who provided for the women and got dirty when he had to. Margaret Fuller describes in her essay The Great Lawsuit, The wife praises her husband as good provider, the husband in return compliments her as a capital housekeeper, (Fuller 22). The women in our society accept the men in charge. In games such as Max Payne, Halo: Combat Evolved, and the original Resident Evil, the male protagonists each had a female sidekick. The job of the female would be not to kill the people that stand in their way, but to give them information behind a desk, or just run around helplessly. In a game like Mario, it would be the males job to save the princess, similar to that in the Legend of Zelda. In most games pre 21st century, the male would save the female. The men in video games were typically described as muscular and overly strong. If you look at a game like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter, the men in that game have their shirts off to the point where you can see the over-the-top muscles. Take Ryu for example, the most well-known street fighter. Every picture of him is him with a tough looking face, with a karate suit on, and either flexing or in a fighting stance. Every guy in that game on the character select screen has a tough looking face. Similar to what expert and educator Jackson Katz says in the documentary, Tough Guise. Jackson Katz says in his argument The front that many men put up thats based on an extreme notion of masculinity that emphasizes toughness and physical strength and gaining the respect and admiration of others through violence or the implicit threat of it, (Katz). That accurately represents how all of the male Street Fighters and Kombat warriors are portrayed. Although the street fighters are still disguised as this masculine pose, and women are still sometimes the sidekick, there has been several positive changes since the new millenium hit.

    When the 21st century hit, there have been numerous changes to the bias that video games had in regards to gender and sex. Females are more common to be the lead characters and getting more dirty. Games like Uncharted, Final Fantasy, Gravity Rush, Assassins Creed: Liberation, all star females who arent afraid to get dirty and do things that are described as masculine, except the opposite sex is taking on these roles. Take Gravity Rush for example, the main character, Kat, has to defend the city from the Nevi, an unknown terror that rose up from the ground. Typically you would see a man saving the world from an alien attack, but in this case, its a women taking on the attack. She uses her gravity shifting powers to kill the Nevi. She kills, fights, and saves people. Countless times, she saves the rookie cop from trouble. Another lead female is one I have already talked about, that is Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. Square Enix is rebooting the series with a whole new look at Lara Croft, she is no longer a sex object that has men drooling over her when people cosplay. The first images released of the new Lara Croft were of a dirty female in jeans and a shirt. Ron Rosenberg, the executive producer was in an interview talking about the changes, where he said, Gone are her ridiculous proportions and skimpy clothing. This Lara feels more human, more real, thats intentional, (Schreier). This is a sign that people are changing. If some company who intentionally made Lara Croft into a sexy protagonist, into an actual and realistic human, there is so much other companies and we as a society can accomplish, and we can change. The change in who plays video games is a surprise. Typically the ones who would play the NES, or Genesis, would be the brother in the family. But starting in the mid 1990s, games were having more appeal. The Sims was a huge success among women and men. Kristina Benson says, even studies from the early and mid 1990s suggest that a large percentage of females play computer games for approximately 1-2 hours a week, (Benson). The console that were released in 1995 was the original Gameboy. Due to the complete lack of solid graphics, the blood and gore were merely pixel dust. Nintendo was releasing games that could attract both genders, like the Game and Watch Gallery. Today, women are seeing a lot more play time than 1-2 hours a week. The Electronic Software Association explores the growth of women gaming, as they say based on studies and statistics, Forty-seven percent of all players are women, and women over the age of 18 are the industrys fastest growing demographics, (ESA). While this might not have to do with the roles of women being the lead character, it does have to do with the variety of games. Mario has shifted away from just saving the damsel in distress, to games like Mario Party, Super Paper Mario, the sports games, and Mario Kart, all are games that you can play as Princess Peach and are genres that attract everyone. Not only are those games fun and violence free, but they are also games that encourage you to find a partner to join in. The guy in the relationship can now play a nice, friendly game with his partner. The changes in the industry have had a positive influence, as there is less controversy like in Custers Revenge, where the goal is to rape a Native American girl, and we are shifting more towards a less offensive and family game. Culturally, we are making huge steps in the right direction.

         Gender problems through video games and through culture are growing out of pathetic stereotypes. Our culture has been shifting around a little bit, and there is a parallel trend from how video games are changing and how gender stereotypes are changing. For video games, when the games go from women being the helpless, screaming hostage, to a female described masculine hero, it provides hope that stereotypes dont need to exist anymore. When women are becoming the dominant sex in education, as more women are graduating, we can stop viewing them as just a sex object who lives under the stove. The industry is making games also more appealing to feminine characteristics, which leads for more opportunities for them to play, similar to how in the job world there are opportunities for both sexes. If we would take these trends and put them on a graph, the x-axis would be time, and the y-axis would be progress towards eliminating gender stereotypes, both lines would have the same slope going positive. For the future, this could mean a lot of things. We may see new series with female protagonists, we could see men being the sidekick, we could even see more women saving men as they are in the damsel in distress position. There is a vast open-world that we can take anywhere, and in a few years, the changes may even double.

Works Cited

Benson, Kristina. "Five Myths about Female Gamers Debunked." LA Weekly. LA Weekly, n.d. Web. 1 Feb.

   2013.

"Game Player Data." The ESA. Electronic Software Association, n.d. Web. 1 Feb. 2013.

MacDonald, Keza. "Rewriting Lara Croft." IGN. IGN Entertainment, n.d. Web. 1 Feb. 2013.

Shrieier, Jason. "You'll Want to Protect the New, Less Curvy Lara Croft." Kotaku. Kotaku, n.d. Web.

   1 Feb. 2013.

Sorice, Adam. "Samus Aaron, the Woman Within." Nintendo Dojo. Nintendo Dojo, n.d. Web. 1 Feb. 2013.

Tough Guise. Screenplay by Jackson Katz. Media Education Foundation. Film.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/10/11/rewriting-lara-croft

http://www.nintendojo.com/features/editorials/samus-aran-the-woman-within

http://kotaku.com/5917400/youll-want-to-protect-the-new-less-curvy-lara-croft

http://blogs.laweekly.com/arts/2011/03/five_myths_about_female_gamers.php

http://www.theesa.com/facts/gameplayer.asp

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http://www.laserlemming.com/2013/05/20/resident-evil-revelations-review/

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When paying full price for a game i feel that there should be more content than just 5 hours, even though they are really good. If the singleplayer is that short, they should maybe have a mutliplayer/co op part in the game. It is something i think should be shed light on. When someone required the player to pay the full price on a game and only have a short singleplayer experience i pushing it in my opinion. 

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Now some might say you can wait and buy the game when it is cheaper, it is beside the point. Because the publisher and developer release the game for a full price and considering it finish. If developers don't have time or means, they should lower the price on the game and make it more accesible for people rather than just making it full price at launch. 

I don't know if anyone has any opinion on this like me, i would like to know though

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Anyway bought about 35 more items off of amazon which ended up costing me about $260 all together. and here they I'm not listing the prices for all of them since it would end up taking forever. and hopefully I can get through this blog without it screwing up somewhere in between.

Two Worlds 2

Playstation 3 Game #106

Price: $9.99

was told this was better then first, but I guess if not at least I didn't spend too much on it. hopefully it doesn't make feel sick if I play it for a long period of time

also bought

A Fringe-Obeserver T Shirt, a Dragon T-shirt and a Pokemon Reishram-Zekram tshirt

prices ranging from $17-$20 each

also bought

Pokemon Movie/TV.Show animation cards x 2 each I think for first movie and t.vshow and 1 for pokemon 2000

and bought

Digimon Cards

and also bought

Card binder ring along with more Binder sleeves x 2, hopefully I bought the right sized binder this time, if not guess I'll try walmart instead.

also bought

Pokemon Card Theme Deck-Green Tornado

Price: $14

and bought

Shadow Tamer and Light of Intervention

used to own these before so bought them again

also used to own Swords of Revealing Light, Monster Reborn, Mirror Force and a Dragon Card I forgot the name of.

Bought Prime Material Dragon and the rest of these cards all because I like the card design wonder if that is bad

almost forgot bought these cards too

I'd say Light and Darkness dragon is fitting for me and sylver, elemental dragons of light and darkness.

also bought more Pokemon Cards

Flareon, Glaceon and Zebstrika Card along with

Black/White Booster pack x3

Dragons exalted x5

and also bought My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Cards

x30-Box

price: $45

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Tin

which cost about $20

so I just spent over $50 on My Little Pony cards, and who knows how much on cards in general

reminds me think I took some lion king quiz years ago and score Kiara at 98% wonder if I should be concerned.

and was looking on amazon at posters for dragons and saw this epic picture

As for other things Pokemon White I caught a Deino which I'll be leveling up to a Hydreigon then going to the Elite 4

and played the Resident Evil Revelations demo for PS3 just as good as the Nintendo 3DS game. so might buy it on PS3 sometime too

and 15 days until Legend of Zelda Oracle of Seasons/Ages on Nintendo 3DS VC.

after not buying cards in years I turn around and buy a bunch. after buying this many probably should take a break from buying them.

and there is another Fringe shirt I want to get sometime along with a dragon and wolf one and Mew shirt but that is at Hot-topic.

and still waiting on some of the other items I ordered last blog or two which I should get May 17th I think

Picture for the Day:

~Cynder of Riverclan

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http://dropanchor.bandcamp.com/track/pulverized

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This one of the last (if not THE LAST) series you havent screwed up yet. 

PLEASE. MAKE SB4 WORLDWIDE.

- Thank you

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My time at school was when things were at their worst. I wasn't diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome until the final year of secondary (high) school so had no way of explaining where these obsessive rituals or communication problems were coming from whenever I got into trouble or got into a fight with someone. In my attempts to escape it, I would immerse myself in games, films and music. Never anything particularly conventional or mainstream, usually foreign art films or alternative music since the furthest away I could get from reality the more comfortable I would be. The artistic side of media tends to make this possible. Despite their success, Ive never considered the animated band Gorillaz to be mainstream which is partly why I adopted the name 'Starshine' after a song from their 2001 debut album. Gorillaz have long been known for making alternative music a strange fusion of rock and hip-hop but manages to sound like neither hence the unique and interesting sound they produce. The song Starshine is comprised of little more than the same set of guitar strings played over a synthesizer which slowly fades to an echo as the song goes on. Its lyrics are also minimal consisting of;

Starshine, they ain't gonna find me

Starshine, never gonna find me

Stand easy with myself,

Jumping up, I'm low, low, low, low

Show me down, fast now

It's very possible these five lines could be just random nonsense. On the other hand, it could be a reference to some profound philosophical text. I don't know, but what I do know is how I interpreted it. The music, combined with Damon Albarn's haunting vocals and the lyrics themselves formed the basis for my indentifying with these rituals and thoughts that were festering in my head.

The way I read into it was that there were two individuals present in the song. The first was Starshine who, thanks to Albarn's echoed and distant singing, seems to be calling out from a mysterious void as if taunting at never being found or caught. This came to represent my Asperger's Syndrome a voice from within the mind, compelling the sufferer to perform rituals or flooding their head with unwanted images. The sufferer is unable to locate or punish this voice for the damage it's done since it has no name or visual representation no identity. The second is the sufferer. The line 'stand easy with myself' in particular carried enormous resonance of someone wanting to be left alone or trying to convince themselves that they could live a life without the influence of this mysterious voice they carried around. It was something that didn't have to be part of them, something that could be fought and left behind. It immediately recalled memories of my mother as she would try to encourage me to stop listening to it and just move forward. Easier said than done of course, but it was sound advice.

The sound and imagery of a depressed world invoked by Gorillaz became a metaphor for my own mind...

This interpretation was how I came to know this voice. Before hearing this song, I was struggling to understand what it was that I was experiencing or what I could possibly do to stop it. It wasn't something I could see in my head and recognise which essentially meant that I was at its mercy. After all, how can you fight what you can't identify? But by giving it an identity, it turns into something tangible, something that can indeed be recognised which allowed me a more coherent understanding of what I was up against. So I christened it after the song - Starshine - the enemy, the evil and oppressive tyrant that was trying to take over the mind. Perhaps an evil general leading an army on a relentless mission of dominance. After that, the rituals themselves took on a new form and became battles against him with the brain becoming a mental battlefield. It wasn't long before I even gave Starshine a visual identity to help. I struggle to remember where the image came from or what inspired it but it consisted of a man dressed in black military fatigues black and white camos, boots, a black short sleeved military vest with fingerless gloves. Since he was a manifestation of my own mind I decided that he would look identical to me in terms of body type and facial features but with black spiked hair to represent his status as an evil alter ego of mine. He could be best described as an out of control rock and roller with Gulf War syndrome - the entire opposite to my outwardly nature.

After deciding on this name, I began altering my screen name to Starshine to correspond to the imagined identity that so many of us adopt whenever we go online. It became my email address, Steam ID, GameSpot ID and anywhere else that would allow me to use it. I thought that if games and online services were representative of a virtual world and that my in game avatars would be a fictional manifestation of myself entering a crowded community (something I rarely do in reality), it would make sense that it would be Starshine who would be in control of them since he also occupies a fantastical world. Indeed, he does make himself known in games. His terrible communication skills, team working and common sense all symptoms of Asperger's Syndome - have gotten him, and therefore me, into trouble countless times. It's the reason I have yet to complete a raid on World of Warcraft for example. Occasionally I would attach 'M2A2' to the end of his name which also originated from a Gorillaz song entitled 'M1A1' but was adopted more for convenience than anything else. The reason for using it was not all games allow the creation of specific characters with their own fleshed out identity created by the user - Call of Duty and Battlefield 3 being good examples, as opposed to MMOs that allow growth and development along story driven lines.

Online gaming - the mind downloads to a computer system becoming a new online persona...

So there it is. The origins of Starshine. I've been gaming since I was around four years of age but was a late bloomer to online gaming. If memory serves, I entered my first online match some time in 2002. Since then I've encountered online names of many shapes and sizes. I often find myself wandering where the origins of those names lie. I know there are many, many gamers out there who simply choose the first name that comes to mind but I like to think that screen names, more often than not, are indicative of the user's life or some event that can transcend reality and enter the virtual world. I think that's one of the few sure fire ways we have at the moment of bringing our real lives into a computer game and a powerful message for the relationship between the mind and the computer system. Appropriate as Aspies are often said to have more in common with a computer than a human being.

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Not too keen on Moyes taking over...I mean seriously, has he done anything good with Everton? When's the last time they've won anything? Just looked, 1995 for the first team.....Moyes took over in 2002......I'm sorry my fellow reds, but I see a few years droughts for trophies for us...which will probably please Liverpool, Chelsea and Man $#!tty supporters...oh and let's not forget the Leeds Utd supporters either. (Ok, I know Everton didn't and still don't have the financial resources United does for buying players so I'm hoping that's the only reason...and yes, they have had a few good years I will give them that...). I guess I will just have to wait and see and try not to be so pessimistic about Man Utd's future.

And just to set things straight, I am not the sort of supporter that hates on other teams, while I can't stand Man City, I won't bash their supporters as everyone is entitled to support whoever they want. So please show me the same sort of respect, if you don't like Man Utd, fine, but don't take it out on me for supporting them.

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I was 9 years old when we moved to a new house. I was over the moon , i finally had my own room and i felt independent. About a week after we had moved i started having these dreams. I don't remember how many times or how often but i remember being scared to death. We had a backyard with a big garden , in my dream i would see one of those outdoor toilets with a crescent moon on the door. The door was shut , it was just there , in the middle of the garden. Then the door would open and i could feel this evil , sinister presence. I remember thinking it was a vampire at the time , it was this dark mass and could see it's eyes looking at me. I remember waking up without my covers and freezing. 

My theory is that i was afraid sleeping on my own...

Story 2 :

After a couple of years we buy an apartment and we move again. So it's night , we had just settled in and my dad asks me for a glass of water. I go to the kitchen , i click the switch to open the light and while i was waiting for the light to turn on the dishwasher starts shaking like crazy. It felt like a small earthquake , i remember it starting slow and the then just shaking frantically. The light turns on , everything stops and i take a step back. All this happened instantly. I called my father over and asked him if there where dishes in the dishwasher , of course he said that it wasn't even plugged in. At this point he's next to me so i give him him glass to get water on his own. I was still staring at that dishwasher waiting for something to happen again just so my dad would believe me. But nothing happened ever again in that kitchen besides the occasional whisper now and then. 

Story 3 :

Same house , summertime and the livin is easy. It's night (again) and it's hot as hell. My fan was broken and i was pissed , sometimes it stops working on it's own... So i close my eyes and try to sleep. While my eyes were closed i thought " I wish someone would turn on my fan" and i imagined my hand pressing the button. Can you guess what happened next? I hear this *wooshhh* , i open my eyes and i see the fan spinning and changing direction which i found weird because i had locked towards my bed. My heart was beating so fast. Did someone turn it on? But i opened my eyes immediately , why didn't i see anyone? I was frozen in place , i managed to get under the covers covering everything but my eyes , ironic isn't it? Did that just happen? i kept thinking... I slept eventually. I didn't know whether to be amazed or terrified.

Story 4 :

I think this happened a while before the previous story. It was Saturday if i remember correctly , i watched "The Omen" that evening and i remember waking up in the middle of the night that same day , i don't remember why but i remember hearing something under my bed. It sounded like a small glass ball , bouncing as if someone was dropping it , then picking it up and dropping it again. Once i realized what was happening i started screaming at my mom. She came running thinking i was being butchered or something. I told her to listen , it happened one more time and then it didn't happen again. She looked under the bed and didn't see anything and told me to go sleep with my brothers. At least my mom heard it so i knew i wasn't hallucinating. 

Story 5 :

This happened a couple years ago. It was almost midnight , everybody was in their beds and i was waiting to fall asleep. Out of nowhere i felt like someone was running in the house. You know when someone is walking and you feel the thumbing on the ground , like when the music is very loud and you can feel the bass in your heart. That's what i felt/heard , it was all over the place. Then i felt something running on the hall , my room is facing the hall so my eyes were locked on my open door. I could feel it getting closer , i knew i was about to see something , i was bracing myself. I started praying , i've never felt so scared in my entire life. It stopped after a while but needless to say it wasn't going to be a very relaxing night. 

Why is everything out to get me...

Do you have any scary stories or unexplained events? Share them in the comments section. Thank you for reading!

~Rein

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Hope everyone has been enjoying the nice warm weather in the Uk this weekend its been really nice unless of course you play on a PC all day like myself and end up melting into your chair due to the combined heat of the sun and a PC... it;s not nice

Anyway's as my title suggests it's almost my birthday AGAIN, seriously it can't be a year already since my 18th This year I shall be 19 on the 22nd of May. Already decided I'm tottally going to be seeing Star Trek Into Darkness for my birthday since the last film was epic. 

New Pickups.

This week I took the money I've been saving.. well some of it and brought myself some awesome stuff.

Fire Emblem Awakening. 

This was  35 from Grainger Games in my town centre, wish I preordered it and got the art book. I'm loving this game sp far since i don't usually enjoy grid based games such as this but its just fantastic. Only about 5 hours in just leveling up all my characters for bigger battles so I don;t just use one team for every battle.

Hitman Sniper Challenge

I brought this because it was 25p in HMV, havent had the chance to play it yet because my internet is down

Final Fantasy 7 PC 

It was 4.99 on the square enix store at the start of the week so i thought hell why not, still not tried the Pc version out because as I've already mentioned my internet is down

Legacy of Kain Soul Reasver 1 & 2 + Blood Omen 2 

Legacy Of Kain is a series I've been wanting to play again for such a long time it's been killing me I noticed the entire series was like 99p a game so I brought the ones i didn't already have for my Pc which made me really happy.... then of course my internet went down.... D:

Battlefield 3 Premium

Brought the Premium version of Battlefield 3 because Origin had a St George's day sale on and it was  21.50, I'm really enjoying it and the DLC is really good, I quite like trying to mow people down on a dirt bike

I don't know why but my internet went down last monday which really annoyed me, nobody has been in since friday so my dad rang and arranged for a technition to come down and fix the problem. of course that was yeasterday and nobody turned up There just being lazy due to it being a bank holiday weekend over here in the UK. I swear to god if it's not up by tuesday someones gonna die... 

Anyway everyone thanks for reading my blog and hope your all having a great weekend, I'm gonna go level some more on Fire Emblem  

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Your business life and your personal life, two parts of the same conundrum or do they deserve to be accepted separately? Recently I have had these two worlds collide when people who know me personally have taken it upon themselves to reveal personal information in regards to myself and my family. They have revealed names, adresses, locations and even confidential information relating directly to them. This is something that I will honestly not tolerate as not only is it ilegal (by English law) but it infringes on my rights as a human being.

I understand that there will be some socially inept sub intellectuals who will take it upon themselves to exhaust all of their anger and frustration at the world unto me. Using your free time to tell someone in no less than 43 comments why you hate them is a rather bizarre pass time indeed. Let me just say that I can't stand football (or soccer as our American cousins call it) however you will never see me posting repeatedly hateful comments on Fifa videos or classic matches.

24 hours seems like a long time but in fact it's not, considering most of us get up around 7:00-7:30 arrangements not withstanding of course. Now take into consideration that most will be in bed around 11:00 and theres not many hours your left to play with. In conclusion only a complete and utter deluded idiot with no social struture would waste time hating on a video or person just for fun. Then again these are the type of people that believe the word syntax is an insult, yes this actually happened to me.

And so the worlds collide and keeping them separate seems harder by the day, internet acquaintances become friends and friends become close friends. In the end it seems nothing separates my real life friends from my internet friends and vise versa. As my popularity on youtube and twitter increases I can expect this sort of insident to become more frequent.

Until ultimately there is no business life or personal life, there is simply my life...

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This is not the only thing Nintendo used to do in the mid 80's that they are still doing now. Since Mario was such a hit Nintendo decided early on to put Mario into any game to help sell it. Even other companies could do this. 

This practice was done constantly. For every one authentic Mario game there was Famicom Grand Prix: F-1 Race or Mario Paint. Instead of just simply making a racing game, or a paint game Mario was slapped on the cover and in the game so it would sell more. The only  purpose mario has in these games is to help sales. Nintendo still does this today. Here is some food for thought. Would Super Mario Sunshine have been a lesser game if Mario was not in it? If, instead of Mario there was a new character that they created with the same gameplay and visual style. A platformer with a squirt gun thingy, why not make it a new character? Simple, Mario sells more. That is the only reason.

Or how about Super Mario Galaxy? A fantastic game, but why Mario? Could this great game not have been a perfect opportunity to introduce a new character and world? Does anyone honestly believe that the game improved because it was Mario, that it would have been a lesser game had the character not wore the red hat?

Finally it seems that Nintendo will even borrow levels in their future releases. I recently saw this image posted and feel it does a very good job of showing the recycled material. 

This practice of reusing levels has been done since VS. Super Mario Bros. reused levels in 1986 and here is Nintendo still doing the exact same thing. Reusing levels and characters is not done to save money but instead done to reduce risk. By rehashing a great game that everyone enjoyed there is little risk that it will not be liked a second time around. This is no different than the yearly sequels we see today from other companies. It's very risky to put millions of dollars into a game that might flop from a business standpoint but it must be done or the short term goals will prevent any long term viability

The fact is that Galaxy and Sunshine were great games and would have sold well without Mario. It is commonly understood that the quality of Nintendo products is top notch but they are simply too afraid of trying something new when they can just stick Mario on the cover. This fear is why there have been over 10 Mario Parties. This is why they are reusing levels from old games decades later. Nintendo is too old and stuck in its ways to change. Once faced with financial hardships they do the opposite of what is needed. They slink back even farther into the mindset of sticking with what sells instead of innovating. They begin to tell scary camp fire stories of creating new experiences with new characters. It's not too late for them, but they need a bigger wake up call than one bad year.

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Risk. It's a board game. I have the board game in my loft (somewhere). So why do I find it better on XBLA?

There are a couple of obvious answers, it's far less time to set up, no cheating friends who move pieces when you go to the toilet, and no missing pieces that you find a week after binning it. Apart from that it's the same game I've owned for 10 years. What makes it different?

Risk Factions on XBLA offers a poor storyline, with some funny characters and a small campaign mode. But it's online mode where the real fun is. There people quit early, leave games, or take 5 minutes to attack to go toilet.

So why do I force myself to play? Is it self-inflicting? Am I the forever optimist? Maybe it's because nobody in real life will play me at Risk, as I tend to win. Whatever the reason, I'm sticking with it...for the mean time.

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