• 29Sep 07

  The Death of a Gamer

  If gaming is a sin: a guilty pleasure, something to be a glutton for, does this mean that there is a special place in hell for gamers? It stands to reason that there would be, as there is a place for all who partake of other fruits of man. But where... where in the lake of fire would a career gamer fit into the pit? Beyond that, what would this sad subject have to endure for eternity?

  My take on the whole subject would be something comparable to your worst gaming experience that you could possibly dream up and then toss that out the window, because that would be too easy. For me I would say my I would have to suffer for the rest of existence with the game Pong. Sure Pong isn't that bad but I would have to play it with a controller that only half works. And as I madly twist the controller and the paddle barely moves and then I loose, again and it resets, I look over at the guy next to me and he has a color television with Halo 3 playing. My less than HD T.V. pales in comparison and yet the Halo gaming punk, known only to me as "Skilled_BooB_NooB_Hunter12," seems to think it's okay to yell, scream and point about how much fun he is having and how little I must be having. Oh, why must he do this every time I loose my game? Like clockwork reiterating that I'm just playing Pong while patting me hard on the back and shaking me vigorously because of his excitement.

  I hate him.

  Damn! I just lost again. It's so hot here... and always on the cusp of intolerable annoyance. I now only pray for reincarnation and that the cruel world will once again call me so I can repent and never play videogames again. I can only imagine how much fun the life of a casual gamer must have in heaven. Sure you'll have your Wii and DS games there... the Japanese are huge in heaven, but you'll also get to play the games you neglected in life from your gaming abstinence. Man, play Halo 3 with Master Chief, screen name: Cortana69baby. It must truly be a fun place to party at. I must work harder to get to this place.

  Oh man. Halo 3 called out to me. I couldn't help myself I'm so weak. Well, I will never get to play with Master Chief in the sky.

  As a side note: I would like to apologize for the Halo 3 centric nature of this blog posting. It was not my intention to make the "casuals" uncomfortable. I'm not game-racist... some of my favorite games are casual. Really they are.

  • Posted Sep 29, 2007 10:25 pm PT
  • Category: Games
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• 15Sep 07

  Bio-Shocked

  Well, I spent the better part of two days playing Bioshock on the Xbox 360. I lived, slept, and ate this game. It was the first thing I thought about in the morning and the last thing at night, living life waiting for the next fix. I wanted that fright I got wandering the halls. For a moment I felt like I had a girlfriend during the honeymoon portion of the relationship. This game could do no wrong for me and for once in this current console generation I felt like a gamer again.

  Around a month ago I determined that I might not be as young and sharp as I once was. Sure my knowledge about the industry is at an all time high for me and I'm taking in information quicker than I can regurgitate it. But there was something in the way that I was playing games that made things annoyingly irritating. Death lay around the corner but no save points in sight. It is just angering me to no end. Not because the game is hard for me on Normal Mode but because I was truly considering lowering my expectations and changing my war cry to Easy. Unacceptable! This is my problem not the games I must overcome my issues.

  So I plucked around playing games and not really having any fun with many of them. I thought perhaps that it might have been because I was trying too hard to catch up on my video game library and playing about five games at any given time. So I reduced it down to one game per system. This unfortunately did not work because I would get bored with one and switch over to a different one and I would be back on my shelf looking for something to do... exasperated. Thank goodness for Mystery Science Theater 3000. I kept playing hoping to get someplace in these games, my only reward was the high definition cutscenes which defined the story and character development.

  This actually disturbs me though. I would like to see more in the way of character development throughout the game as a way to keep me interested in what I'm doing. Some games fall flat in this idea when they throw too much information at you or too little and you end up having little clue why you're doing what you're doing. I found that the story in Halo: Combat Evolved had this issue. A particularly shallow game, it had the potential to be better if it found a more compelling way of conveying story. Using communications during gameplay that you could rarely hear or in the middle of combat it made it very hard to identify why I was doing what I was doing.

  Then Bioshock hits the stores and I am there, then everything changes for me. My opinions are shifting from one game. I do not know what it is about this game that made me wake up thinking about it. I mean there is not anything special about this game. It is a typical FPS with pretty graphics. Maybe it did lie in that: the graphics, the art style. I had to stop and take pause in each room, enjoy the beauty that was around me. The combat was fun and at times inventive but I doubt it was not enough to make it the only factor. If not that the sounds and story. The story had no real main character development it was all in the little tape snippets and revolved around how a city collapses.

  It seems like it was a combination of all these factors and none at all. I cannot really explain what it is that makes it great but perhaps the fact that I know it was great is enough. It was easy enough for me to feel comfortable playing it without going crazy. I always felt like I was making progress no matter how bad I was doing. I know that this is the deciding factor that caused my shift in thought. I finally realized that it was not the fact that I was a bad gamer but that I needed the right type of game. A game needs to be challenging to the gamer and not difficult in order to be fun. Perspective is all that is important. For the first time in my life I have accepted the fact that Easy Mode might not be the death chant I have always believed it to be. I might not be a member of the "Hardcore" anymore, though I certainly go through games like I was one, I will no longer hate the fact that I may be an Easy Mode kind of guy. For once in my life could be a good development. Thank you Bioshock... for making me live and laugh again.

  • Posted Sep 15, 2007 5:05 pm PT
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• 16Jun 07

  World of Whatever-craft?

  Maybe this is a bit sacrilegious of me to say... but I'm going to say it anyway: does anyone really care about World of Warcraft? I mean don't get me wrong this is a huge game and I know this, but do people really play this game for fun or because it is what everyone else is doing? When How many times a week does someone ask me if I play WoW? This is about as many times as someone asks me why I don't download AIM. What is really unfortunate is when I decide I might want to maybe play this game someone asks me again if I play it. And then my interest subsides as quickly as it hit me.

  I think I have an aversion to things that seem to be overplayed. I tried Dark Ages of Camelot for a time... and I'll admit it: Star Wars Galaxies. None of these could truly make me enjoy paying a monthly fee to continue the "fun" time I was having. From what I've seen of WoW nothing tells me I'd be anymore interested in this one either.

  This is probably a problem that I only have but I just can't imagine that normal mid 20 year old like myself can possibly care for too long. This isn't a party game and when you engage a boss in a group,the organization in most MMO's,seems to dissipate in a quickm'elange of color and opportunistic free-for-all. I think I have an established notion and perhaps I shouldn't do this but it just all seemsso redundant.

  I have plenty of other games to play. I just sometimes wish I did care enough to check it out. My pocketbook doesn't agree with WoW either. So how can people just dump endless sums of money into this game?

  I hope no one out there thinks I'm bashing WoW. For what it is there are millions of people out there who love this game and I same more power to you. I guessI just don't understand the phenomenon.

  • Posted Jun 16, 2007 8:43 pm PT
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