Gaming is social, you spend hours playing with other, real, people. You can sit on your couch or in your comfy chair and meet all the different and interesting folks in the world. It’s an amazing a new experience, it deserves all the praise in the world! I mean, how can you spend hours talking and interacting with real people and not consider it a social  activity. It’s not though, but that may not be a bad thing.

I’m sure I’ve discussed this issue on here before. I can’t ever stop thinking about that one article I read on The Escapist, however long ago that was, about video game myths, and why they’re not true, and why that isn’t a bad thing. It talks briefly about games not being a social activity, and that fact doesn’t make them bad. It just means that they are a solitary activity, that can be enjoyed. It’s not always that way, co-op exists to help fight the solitary gamer stereotype, but most games are played alone.

Get it, Alone in the Dark?

Solitary isn’t always bad

In fact, sometimes it’s pretty nice. I enjoy my time alone in my room playing games sometimes. Not to the exclusion of other, more social, activities, but just because it’s me time. It’s just like that article says, it’s just like reading a book or watching a movie. Sometimes, you just want to be alone. It’s just because it’s gaming that it’s frowned upon. The stigma if games not being “high culture” enough to warrant some alone time without calling someone anti-social is such a terrible statement about how far games have left to go.

Sometimes, though I do love her, I just don’t want to play games with my girlfriend. She says she likes to watch me play, but it’s just not the same when she’s around. I can’t make those morally ambiguous decisions in Skyrim that I would normally make when she’s not around. I mean, she got mad when I had to *spoiler alert* beat someone to death to get the mace of Molag Bal *end spoiler*. I found it kind of disturbing myself, but it is a really bitchin mace. So, it was worth it, but she wouldn’t let me live it down.

See? Awesome.

But online gaming is social, right?

No, it isn’t. I’m going to put an end to this stupid assumption right now. Online games is the worst thing to call social, because it gives people the illusion of being social. I believed this myself in my formative years, and preached the gospel of online gaming being as social as anything could possibly be. Though, as the years drug on, and I began to pay closer attention to how I was behaving while playing those games I learned a thing or to about online games, and how they hurt people’s vision of a social activity.

For starters, proper social activity doesn’t include brutal verbal arguments for hours and hours. I almost never talk to anyone unless I’m playing with people that I know, like my brother and my friends, or his friends. That’s just not how things work out there in the real world. Though social activity can include drinking, sitting alone in a room in front of a TV is generally a sign of alcoholism, not someone with a booming social life. Though you may be speaking to people, it’s essentially like talking to someone on the phone while drinking .It really doesn’t count.

MMO’s don’t even count

Seriously, they don’t. Also, I don’t want to spend hours as a panda.

NO PANDA!

It’s not bad, if you don’t let it be

I mean, yeah, gaming is the definition of anti-social, but that doesn’t mean that it’s a bad thing. Gaming is tons of fun, and I rather enjoy doing it. I don’t fool myself into thinking that I am being social just because I’m talking to people. I know that in reality I am having a solitary experience. It’s not bad though. As long as you don’t let it replace other, more interactive social activities, just because you believe that you are already getting your social fill for the week.

Reason for my abscence

That will be covered in my next blog about Skyrim, and how easy it is to become addicted to a game when depression has taken the reins.

War games are being attacked

They are labeled bad, and wrong. And for good reason. They teach players to love war. To look forward to the next chance to rub your superior firepower in your opponents face. They bask in the glow of ever growing digital death tolls, and merrily extend rewards to those that have the most killing potential. They are bad, bad things. This is the main view of these games, anyway. I don’t necessarily see them in that light. Mainly because, like you learned in my last post, my brother and I bonded through these types of games. We do compete with each other, and I feel a sense of pride when I beat him, but I never really see it as pride over killing. It’s more of a mastery over a set of rules, and restrictions set forward by the game itself. I don’t celebrate death, rather, I take joy in sharing a part of my life with my brother

It's all up to you

Yes, they are violent

But war itself is violent as well. Let’s be honest about a few things here. War sucks. It is a despicable, necessary evil that rears its ugly head more times than it should. It is a force for destruction, and leaves nothing untouched. War should never be celebrated, even victories are hollow. No game shows the aftermath. The work it takes to make things “right” afterward. They show small engagements, little firefights that are important to some small part of the overall story. That is the strong suit of the game. The ability to pick and choose what is shown to the player. This ability to shield them from the horrors of war.  They show no bystanders, no accidental casualties. Only two sides, one right, one wrong. And you’re always on the side of right. No exception.

The bigger picture

I have spent a lot of time with the Call of Duty franchise, and have played through the single-player campaign for most of the games. They have pretty good stories that let you get a glimpse of little bits and pieces of war, but nothing of any real substance. You always win, that’s what matters. The game is made to make you feel good, like a winner, like you are one man against the world who will always emerge on top. It’s just difficult to get people to buy something that shows them the real world. No one wants that. Hell, even reality TV is scripted to make everything “better.” I know that if Call of Duty showed me the faces of crying digital children that I turned into bastards I probably would sell my Xbox, and join the Peace Corp. But it doesn’t, and I don’t blame it. I play games to escape the real world, not to be faced with digital consequences for my actions.

Modern Warfare

I recently read something on Kotaku about war games, decrying the “fun” nature of war games that I have expressed above, but it got me thinking. Then I played the campaign for Modern Warfare 3, and that made me think even more about it. The Modern Warfare series have been some of my favorite Call of Duty games because of the story. The characters are engaging, the scenarios exciting, and the locales pretty amazing. It is chock full of adjectives and ing’s. This is an interesting thing though, because it is a series. Unlike the other Call of Duty games that jump through history, and through random characters, Modern Warfare has characters that span the entire series. You get to know them, you follow them through the worst time of their lives, and you see how they either rise above, or break. You know them. Then, you put them into harm way. You control these characters you know through increasingly dangerous missions for the sake of the world, and guess what? They win, standing on a pile of bodies, propelled by revenge, and sacrifice.

TF 141

It gets better

Modern Warfare 3 tweaks the formula a bit. It feels like it focuses on what war leaves behind. You travel through a world in the midst of a third Great War. You look at cities you recognize that have been torn apart. Beauty that is forever marred, lost in the exchange of bombs and bullets. You are put into a fight on the losing side. This is not a happy game. You are fighting to stay alive, not even to promote the American Dream, or Manifest Destiny. You are just trying to keep America alive, to take back what has been lost. It is depressing. Don’t get me wrong, you still win some, but you also lose some. That in itself is surprising. It shocked me to see the glowing red “Objective Failed” in the upper right corner, and the game to continue. That doesn’t happen, I control the world, if I hit reset I don’t have to fail, but I do. This campaign is a response to those saying that games glorify war. There is nothing glorious about this game. Every victory is hollow, you feel what it takes to “win.” Nothing happens without sacrifice.

It’s not a solution

But it’s a step forward. This game, if you think about it, shows that war sucks. It does it in a very Hollywood way, but it does its best. It does the best it can to show that war isn’t a game, while still making you want to play it. So, play it, it’s a fun game. Kill your friends over and over in multiplayer, show your skills in slaughter. Just be sure to remember its just a game, and that real war isn’t something that should be used to show your “skill.”

This time, however, I just can’t bring myself to get really excited. Ever since I picked up my Xbox and the original Modern Warfare, Call of Duty has had its hooks in me. I used to play by myself, and then with a friend I made in college. I was completely in love with it, even though I was absolutely awful at it. I kept playing though, because it was fun. It was almost perfect. The game flowed well, everything felt balanced, and the people, although not great, weren’t the worst I had ever played with. It was all pretty great. Then I found out my brother played, and that got me playing even more often. We would spend hours a night playing Call of Duty, and bonding. He doesn’t live close to me, so Call of Duty really brought us together. We continued playing Call of Duty, and we still do, mostly Modern Warfare 2 these days, but it’s just not the same as it was. Things changed, mostly for the worse, but sometimes for the better. But now Modern Warfare 3 is due out soon, and I should be excited about it, like I normally am, but I’m just not. And I need to know why.

When did it start?

I have to say, my growing concern for the quality of the Call of Duty series started with World at War. I couldn’t really get into that games online multiplayer. It just felt a little wrong. It’s hard to describe that feeling, but I’m sure every gamer has felt it at least once. That let down feeling, almost a betrayal, but not quite. That’s how I felt after trying to play WaW. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but not quite as much as I enjoyed Modern Warfare. It wasn’t until after playing WaW that I found out that my brother played. We played that for a while, but ended up moving back to Modern Warfare. WaW just wasn’t as good.

We spent nights playing Modern Warfare, counting down the days until MW2. We were excited, my brother and I. Playing MW just became a way to talk about MW2, and all the videos that were slowly leaking out to the internet. We were foaming at the mouth by the time it came out, and we played it religiously for months, until that infamous Javelin Glitch started making the rounds. We took a break then, and started playing Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

Battlefield on the Side

I felt like a cheater. Playing the main competition of my favorite series while I waited for it to get patched. It was a little weird, but we played Battlefield whenever MW2 was having issues. I must admit, I am not a huge fan of Battlefield. Its focus is more on team play, and I am more of a one man being selfish with a gun type of player. That attitude hinders my performance in Battlefield, so I only played because my brother did. I never really got into it as much as him. But I kept playing, because MW2 had let me down. It had been broken, and it took some time to fix.

We kept playing Battlefield every time we had issues with CoD. It became our back up plan. That and, eventually, Homefront. My brother only played legacy controls, so that limited the games we played together to mostly FPS games, and even then, not many FPS games use legacy anymore. Halo, CoD, Battlefield are the main ones that use it. But, back to the point. We switched between MW2 and BF:BC2 until we started talking about the new Call of Duty that was about to come out, Black Ops.

Black Ops

By the time Black Ops was due to arrive I was starting to lose faith in the franchise that brought me and my brother together, but somehow I managed to work up a little bit of excitement. It came out, and much like WaW, it felt wrong. But this time I was able to formulate ideas as to why. The lag was a major issue for me and my brother. It was either not there, or extremely annoying. There was no happy medium like in MW2, it was extremes. The guns were all the same. There was no feeling of personality to the guns at all. It felt like Black Ops rewarded those that just used one gun, or two guns, even though that isn’t true. It was almost pointless to experiment with the guns, which was fun in MW2.

The game was pretty ok, but it didn’t keep our attention long, a few months, at the most. We then went back to Battlefield. We played that and MW2 until my brother was finally convinced to move on from Legacy controls. Then a new world was opened up. Borderlands, Red Dead Redemption, Saints Row, those were the games we started playing, and they were awesome. We had something to play all summer, and very rarely did we think of the series that started it. We never went back to Black Ops, MW2 sometimes, but we left Black Ops behind.

Here it is, hours until MW3′s release

And I remain unexcited. I have very low expectations, and honestly, my only hope is that it doesn’t suck. That my brother and I can enjoy it for a few months, before finding something better to do. I don’t know if I should be so harsh, I haven’t even played the game yet, but I have such low expectations. I guess it’s really because I feel like Call of Duty isn’t growing. There haven’t been any real changes to the formula since Modern Warfare. It’s hard to grow in that genre, but it seems like they are just cashing in on the success of the franchise now, and not really trying to make a great FPS.

I will wait and see how it goes, but I don’t expect much. It’s hard to formulate these thoughts, because frankly, I’m drinking and playing MW2 with my brother. Hopefully MW3 will be just as good drunk. Night folks!

I have been neglecting my blog, and you my faithful followers. I have had a stressful week and I forgot to treat this like a job. Which I someday want it to be. I noticed my views spiking on days I normally posted and it made me happy that you check in just to see if I’ve put anything up. So, I’m sorry I didn’t get anything up, and thanks for supporting this crappy little website/blog/thing. I appreciate the support.

Now, on to what’s important!

Mmmm. . .

I’m relatively new to the Sim racing genre

I was never really good at racing games until I decided to purchase Forza 3 and suffer through my inability to effectively steer a car. I never enjoyed simulation games because I lacked the ability to understand the need to brake, and how that may affect turning. In that, if I don’t brake, I don’t actually turn. I just go flying off the track in a crazy spinning maneuver that couldn’t even be accomplished ever by anyone trying to do that. Needless to say, I hated racing games. I tried to stay away from them for as long as I could. Until Call of Duty got boring, that is. I needed a new game to play with my brother and he rather enjoyed Forza. So I picked up the Ultimate Edition of Forza 3 and I eventually discovered, after many hours, that I could, in fact, drive a car around a track decently. That’s how I got into Forza.

Forza 4 – The actual review

So here is where the meat of my review begins. Starting where I spent most of my first night. Autovista mode. Oh my god, is really all I can say. Exploring the cars is beautiful, and hearing them roaring to life from the drivers seat is a great experience. I was a little sad that there was only a small selection of cars available for this mode, but they were all perfect. Even the Delorean, and the Hummer. I spent a good hour completing all the challenges to unlock the Warthog, because I’m a nerd. Then I probably spent another hour going over every single inch of that beautiful, fictional vehicle. Autovista with Kinect, however, leaves a lot to be desired. It may have just been my brothers set up, but it just felt clunky and unresponsive, and the leaning all over the place was just weird. The controller makes for a much more fluid exploration experience.

Next came spending time with the games career mode. This has been tweaked a lot from Forza 3. Instead of participating in groups of events, like the last Forza, 4 takes you on a world tour. As you travel around the globe you participate in events that are all scaled to the level of the car you are driving. Gone is the fun of entering an R1 in an event for E class cars. The events occuring always seem to be right at your level, or slightly above. I am not a fan of that, but it does keep the game challenging. If it really bothers you, you can turn it off, for a pretty hefty amount of credits. I have to say I am pretty impressed with the new system, and it keeps me playing.

Here’s where I talk about everything else

Since I mentioned that I’ve never really gotten into Sim racing games before I’ll go ahead and give you my brothers opinion on the driving. “It’s different that Forza 3. It feel mushier, more realistic.” He enjoyed the game a lot. So take that comment as you will. From my point of view, though, the racing feel solid. Using a controller or a driving wheel the performance of all the cars just feels right, and the tracks are all beautiful, as long as you stay looking inside the fences. The trees are kind of hideous, but that happens when all they really need to be is a green or orange blur. The changes to this game from the last one are all small, but they all make the game better than the last one.

The four bar rating system for everything from speed to drifts really makes me want to strive to be a better driver, and hit every apex. The titles and emblems do for Forza what they did for me in Call of Duty, they make me want to keep playing to earn them all. I need to get better to have every single one of those stupid titles, dammit! Next is the new car leveling system. This was an interesting decision, in my opinion. Turn 10 decided to make it so at level 4 or so to make it so you get 100% discounts on most upgrades for that make. Not that vehicle. Everything from that manufacturer. I guess they wanted to put more focus on trying out more cars and making them more fun, and if that is the case, then good job. It does make it a little easier, but it feels a little cheap. I liked earning my discounts slowly, but to each his own I guess.

The final point?

Forza 4 is a great game. It has some small issues, but they are just that, small. Very small. If you like racing games, pick it up, if you don’t like racing games, give it a try. You may discover a secret love for cars and racing, like I did.

Sorry dedicated readers, I know I said I’d be reviewing Forza 4 right now, but something came up. I was shopping at Best Buy, looking for a printer for school when I came across an interesting title on display. Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure it was called, and it was an interesting concept. It’s basically a way for Activision to sell video games and toys, and it’s marketed at the perfect age for those things to intersect, children. You know, those things that don’t have their own money and rely on others to support them and buy them this stuff. Needless to say, I decided it would be a good game to play with my girlfriend, and that’s how I ended up buying the game.

I am just going to say this now, if I didn’t have a girlfriend, this would not be nearly as enjoyable as it was, and I probably wouldn’t be recommending it at all.

It really is super gimmicky

But to be honest, that’s half the fun. You start by buying the game, already a bit more expensive than a regular game, but only by 10 bucks, which is surprising. While playing the game shows you all the other critters you can get, which makes you only want to get them more. There are over 30 of them, and they aren’t cheap to purchase. My lady and I worked it out and figured for the game and everything it would run you about 260 dollars. Quite an investment for a kids game, but as far as we’re concerned totally worth it.

My girlfriend loves the toys, she thinks that they are all adorable, and even wants to keep some for herself at her place, and not just leave them all at mine. I think that’s a win for Activision creating memorable characters. The game even comes with a poster of all of them and we started planning which ones we were going to buy first. The toys themselves seem pretty sturdy, and the portal used to “summon” them into the game world is a pretty cool accessory. It can be used with your console or your pc, for summoning your critters online in a simple game played in your browser.

The Gameplay

It’s pretty solid. The only complaint I really have about it is the lack of a jump button. Though this is kind of helpful when playing with my girlfriend, who really doesn’t play many games. It’s hard to accidentally die in this game, which is a good thing, for the reason I have stated above. You pretty much just wander around doing quests to save the Skylands from Invader Zim. I mean, I can’t make this up. The bad guy isn’t actually Zim, but might as well be. He’s short, and shares the voice and mannerisms of everyone’s favorite inept Invader.

We only played for about an hour or so, but had tons of fun. There weren’t too many noticeable bugs or glitches, and other than the occasional treasure falling off the edge or somewhere else we could reach it, it was all good. There is also no way to kill each other, which is awesome to me, because I hated that about Lego Star Wars. We would just waste our time killing each other, which meant we spent hours playing but didn’t really get anywhere. So that’s another plus for gameplay.

Everything else

Because I don’t like getting too wordy in my reviews, and because this is a kids game I’ll cover everything else here. The voice acting, Patrick Warburton is all I need to say. Yeah, I know he’s in everything these days, but let’s be honest. That’s only because he has an amazing voice. The man can’t help it! The graphics, solid. Everything looked pretty good, and I didn’t notice any clipping or tearing or anything that tends to make games look bad. The only problem I had was with the syncing of the characters mouth movements to the dialogue, that wasn’t fantastic.

How can you not love this man?

The music, I didn’t notice it. That’s something I consider good. Because when it comes to games you either don’t notice the music, or it bothers you. I mean occasionally you’ll find a game with music that jumps out at you and is wonderful, but that is rare. I think it’s best when it is part of the background, the ambiance of the game. You don’t notice it because it feels right, and it fits, which is perfect. This game was clearly made for children, and that’s ok, because it’s still pretty funny for adults too.

Buy this, maybe

I definitely recommend this game if you have children, or a girlfriend who isn’t a gamer. It’s not too fun to play alone, but it is tons of fun to play with someone who is just getting into games, and needs something to show them the ropes. Plus, being able to buy your girlfriend toys as a gift, that you know she’ll love, is a great feeling.

We’ll return to our regularly scheduled programming Thursday with my review of Forza 4. See you then!

The brash, rather dickish was they deal with people is well known. Well, that and the extreme anti-social behavior that is expected of people who play MMO’s or games of that depth. I fall into the first category, sadly. I am quite unaware of how I got there too. It must have been a slow steady change, nothing that could have happened over night, and surely nothing that those around me could have possibly noticed outright. I feel like they should have said something if they did, because I am kind of a dick, and I should have been told.

I get told that now, because I spend my time around a lot of people who aren’t like me. They don’t spend their time in front of a TV or monitor grinding away to be better than those other anonymous masses playing the game with them. They are just normal people, who do relatively normal things, I guess. Going to clubs, starting bands, working on cars. You know, that normal stuff that is supposed to make you a functional member of society. Not some asshole who sits behind a mic, and enjoys the fact that no one knows where I actually live.

I try really hard not to be that guy

It’s a difficult thing to do though. After becoming hardened to the world by spending so much time online. Though I can’t entirely blame the internet for my current demeanor, I dont think it helped matters at all. Constantly dealing with all that negativing online is difficult to deal with and come out on the other side unscarred. I became more negative towards others, and began to develop a personality based around stupid jokes and insulting others. I try desperately not to do these things, but in a pinch, I immedatiely revert to that persona.

It has become almost second nature to have this rude, smart-ass guy take over whenever I am in a conversation with someone. It makes it hard for me to make friends, and the friends I have I think can only stand me for a short period of time before I have to get out of their way, or get hit. I don’t mean any of the things I say, but they don’t know that. They haven’t spent a large amount of time in the same environment I have. That dangerous and horrible place called the internet, or worse, by internet gaming.

Trip down memory lane?

Trying to think back, I don’t know if I can remember how this all could have happened exactly, or when the change really started taking place. I would have to say it really all began with my first GameBoy. I mean, in terms of the very very beginning of my social downfall. This mystical device, with its wonderful game, Tetris, changed the course of my life, and I’m sure my parents regret every day that they ever bought it for me. It continued with the purchase of a N64, then moved on to a Playstation and Playstation 2 inhereted from my brother, a Gamecube, countless handhelds, and finally my Xbox 360. Purchased on a whim in literally the middle of the night, this device would go on to change my life. In a good or bad way is still pretty much up in the air at this point.

After obtaining the Xbox I spent a lot of time learning the in’s and out’s of Xbox Live. I quickly learned that that involves getting yelled at by small children, who use every single foul word, and racial slur they could possibly imagine. Improperly, I might add.

This kid is calling you a &@!#%

I started becoming hardened to their mockery, and eventually committed the cardinal sin, joining in. I argued against them, and felt like I could accomplish something if I was only louder or more annoying. That kind of attitude began to slowly blur in to my personality outside of gaming. The smart-ass comments, and the general disdain for anyone who wasn’t me began to grow.

It only gets worse

As this personality trait began to intrude into my life outside games most people didn’t seem to care. It made some people laugh, and sometimes I took it too far, but always apologized when I did. It wasn’t too bothersome at first, but it just kept getting worse and worse. I slowly transitioned to party chat with my brother and his friends, because there were people out there worse than me, and I didn’t like hearing them. So, I continued with this attitude and some crazy how managed to still have friends.

These days I try really hard to treat people with respect, and not insult them too much, unless they start something first, or we’re joking around. It’s difficult for me still though. Thanks to the way gaming has treated me, and the attitude I developed spending so much time online. I may use gaming as a cop out for my behavior here, but I honestly feel like it’s true. I am probably predisposed to be this way, and gaming only made it worse, but who knows.I’m no doctor, these are just my opinions.

The End

Enough of me whining about my life. I just have been thinking about this for a while, and typing it out would be cathartic. This was all for me folks, sorry. Next week I’ll be back with a review of Forza 4 and a discussion about the death of the Arcade. Sad times. Later folks!

Or people who say they are MLG, or anyone who likes MLG, or anyone who knows someone who likes MLG. I mean, I think the competitive aspect of gaming is fun, and I love trying to constantly get better than everyone I face online, but the fact that the MLG exists brings out the worst in people. I know, as soon as I see someone with a MLG gamer picture that they will, more often than not, be a stark raving asshole.

I only link to this because I'm not a douche

I only think this because it’s true

Let’s be honest with each other here. Most gamers are already not great people. We tend to abuse our anonymity over Live, or PSN, or whatever the Wii has, maybe. We compete fiercely for bragging rights that don’t really matter in the real world. We struggle to be recognized for the fact that we are slightly more twitchy than the guy sitting in front of that other screen, across the country. I know it doesn’t sound great, but it’s true. It doesn’t bother me though, especially when it’s all in good fun.

It’s easy to get too caught up though, and lose control. These people, those who believe they are “pro” or “1337″ are the people I have the most problems with. Someone who will yell at you for not vaulting over a wall quicker in Call of Duty. Seriously, that happened to me, I was yelled at for not performing a pre-programmed action with a set animation faster. This unreasonable rage is what is at the heart of the MLG. Or at least the following that MLG has created.

MLG itself probably isn’t evil, probably

I mean, the fact that people are willing to watch others play video games competitively, and that people are willing to give money to people who are good at games still astounds me. I still remember growing up with my dad telling me, “No one makes money playing video games!” I almost believed him, but held strong to my belief that it was possible, and it totally is.

I can has?

It seems to be a good path to take, if you’re good at games, or rather, great at games. The ability to modify strategy on the fly, working in groups, and fast reflexes are really all you need to take competitive gaming to the professional level. Well, that’s probably a generalization, but still. It probably amounts to more than that, like practice and stuff like that. Much like a real sport, teams, called clans, rule the MLG circuits. They play together often, and only tend to allow the best of the best into their ranks.

But All in not Well

The competitive element of gaming brings out the worst in people, like I have said before. It causes people to become filled with an unreasonable rage, and for some reason causes them to no longer have fun. I even get that way sometimes, then stop to think about what is actually going on before I can de-stress and de-rage. With the advent of professional gaming, this competitive aspect of gaming has grown into a monstrous issue in the gaming community. Who is MLG and who isn’t? Are those 5 year old I’m playing with who have MLG plastered all over their profiles really pro gamers? No, they are merely the fallout of a industry that turned a fun experience to one of horror and grueling monotony.

I don’t know how many times I can say this, but I hate playing with people who want to be in MLG, but aren’t. The people who take it too seriously, because now they have a reason to. Chances are, they’re never going to see a check, or a final, or maybe ever the first round of any national tournament, but they will still treat you like garbage because they have the little MLG gamer pic on their profile, and you don’t. They think they rule every single game, and you just happen to be intruding on their territory.

Gamers are Only Part of the Problem

The game companies aren’t exactly helping matters. They seem to have forgotten that their core user base is casual gamers. Not these lunatics that run around ruining everyone’s fun. It seems like, contrary to what seems like a good idea, more and more studios are seeking this uber hardcore audience. They are striving to make sure the MLG players are happy. I mean, maybe it means that your game will get out there more, and you may sell a few more copies that way, but let’s look at it another way. If enough people play your game for a “sport” to have evolved around it, you probably don’t need to cater to them to sell more copies.

The game that is the most guilty of this is the newest installment in a long series of games, Call of Duty: Black Ops. It seems to me that Treyarch is catering exclusively to what MLG players, or MLG wannabe’s want out of their game. Oh, this gun is no good for tournaments, nerfed. Everyone uses this gun, nerfed. Wahhhhhhhh, nerfed. It is awful to watch a game I once enjoyed playing get torn apart by the creators because they are seeking to appeal to the smallest percentage of their audience. It’s like Star Wars all over again. Haven’t we nerds had enough!?!?!

I’m not saying that there aren’t companies that do it well, though. Bungie really found a happy medium between MLG and regular players. They offer a MLG section where the rules have been tinkered with to suit those people, but only in those game types. It also helps to keep the MLG players from ruining the good time that everyone else is having. So, good job Bungie! Keep up the good work.

Where’s the line?

That is my only question. I mean you can want to play professionally, but chances are you’re not going to amount to anything, or make a living playing video games. I am not being negative, just realistic. At what point do you sit yourself down and say, “Hey, I should probably stop being so competitive, and maybe just have fun.” It’s all fun in games. Let’s make sure to keep it that way.

This will happen, a lot

And you will love every single second of it.

It is HARD

Well, probably not every single second. This game is frustrating, but still manages to feel rewarding. Even as I write this review I know that nothing I can write will feel right to me, because I’ve only spent a few hours playing the game. I also haven’t even made it halfway through the first real level(after the tutorial stage). My initial feeling of joy at this wonderful new game was stripped after I dies for the first time, while reading a note that said, “Run Away.” Needless to say, I was a little late in following that advice, which led to the first of many inevitable deaths. That’s my first statement, you will die, a lot. I can’t stress that enough, the back of the case for the game can’t stress that enough, and the developers can’t stress that enough.

It's True

Though you may experience death a lot, and sometimes the game feels brutally hard, it was still fun. I was having a blast figuring out where enemies where, and what strategies worked and what didn’t. The first major problem I had though was this, sometimes the game kills you on purpose. It’s hard to explain this, since the game is already really hard, but I’ll try. Occasionally you will die because the game wants you to. It’s a meaningless death. Most of the time when I die, I gained something. Learning to dodge or block better, learning what enemies I can fight up close, or when I should use magic, or simply learning how to jump better. But sometimes, you just die. Enemies wait around corners, swords waiting to slam into your digital stomach to end your run. It just feels a little unfair.

It looks good.

The game looks beautiful. It’s hard for me to conceive that the Xbox 360(my console of choice) can still run a game that looks this good, with only a few hiccups. I have noticed some slowdown, like when I’m getting swarmed by a gaggle of skeletons. Is it a gaggle? A pride? Flock, maybe? Who knows, but that tends to happen quite frequently, and only once has my game slowed, and it was only for a couple of seconds, and I didn’t die, so I considered it OK. It may cause issues down the road, especially if I die during a slowdown, but with only one after hours of play, I don’t see that happening. *knocks on wood*

Looks Good

Online play

This game has an interesting feature for it’s online play. The souls of other players will randomly appear in your game, allowing you to see what they are doing, and maybe get some clue as to what to do yourself. Leaving messages is also a powerful tool for helping the occasional stranger on their quest through this game. To do that though, you need an item, obtained relatively early in the game, as long as you buy it. Don’t miss out on that, it allows you to help other players with messages, as well as rate others’ messages to cut back on the trolling, which exists in this game. You also have the opportunity to summon other player to help you, and to help other players with boss battles and things like that. If you feel like being mean, you can jump into someone’s game and kill them, but don’t do it too much, because there’s a rating system for that, and I’d hate to see what happens to trolls. From software is known for their inventive punishments, like putting extremely high level enemies in anyone’s game who played it before release.

What else?

I honestly haven’t played long enough to give a proper review of what this beast is really like, but I will say this. If you want a challenging game, one that will truly put you to the test, buy Dark Souls. I plan on investing a lot of time into this game, and the small issues I’ve had with it take nothing away from what a truly amazing game this is.

There’s just something about the atmosphere. That sweet smell of unwashed nerds wafting in the air, the tight knit groups of people who are waiting together for their game, the general feeling of tension in the air as rage slowly rises as midnight creeps ever closer. These are the moments I live for. These small events that show what it’s really like to be a part of gamer culture. It may not sound too great after my description, but you have to experience it before you can judge. And no, this isn’t just like waiting for a movie, or a book. This is a completely different beast, something strange, so strange it almost seems counter productive, and yet, so fulfilling.

Yeah, that's right.

Why we do it

I guess this should be the first thing I discuss. It’s almost crazy to think the people would stay out at past midnight just to pick up a game and then rush home to play it. That’s all it takes on most nights, paying for your copy, then returning at midnight to pick it up, or even crazier, waiting until midnight to pick it up. I mean, how can one have to little to do, or nothing better to do than to wait hours on end for something as silly as a video game? It’s a hard thing to put my finger on, it really is. I honestly don’t know why I attend these crazy things, I hardly ever talk to anyone, and when I do my antisocial nature takes over and I end the conversation quickly. I guess it’s because I’m a people watcher, that’s why I go, at least.

I love the people you see at these things. Especially if it is a less than popular game, like Dark Souls(Review Imminent). I say less than popular because there were only about 15 people at the midnight event, and some of them were there for the other game of the evening Rage.There were all kinds there. There were the gaming elitists, the jocky types, and of course the underage crowd with tired looking parent in tow. It was the typical crowd, diverse, yet completely similar.

Why it’s worth it

There’s nothing like owning a game as soon as you possibly can, even if you don’t play it as soon as you get it. I picked up my copy, went home, and then went to sleep. I would rather have it sitting on my shelf while in school than sitting on some cold, uncaring GameStop shelf all day. It just feels good to know that I got it as soon as I could, and that it’s waiting for me. I guess it’s just all about impatience, and the desire to spend money and have something.

About that game. . .

I’m planning a review of the game for Thursday’s update. My initial thoughts are, this game is absolute torture. In the best way.

Till next time

Sorry about the short post today, I just can’t seem to work the magic about the midnight release, probably because I’m tired because I went to a midnight release last night. I have to wait on the next game I buy, and that may actually kill me. We’ll see how it goes!

Later friends and fellow gamers!

“Getting in an argument on the internet is like pissing into an ocean of piss” – My Brother.

Online Forums are Great

If, and only if, you can manage to wade through all the garbage that is said on them. They are a way for users from different backgrounds who have had different experiences to come together and share what they know about a certain subject. Being a gamer, I often spend time lurking on gaming forums, reading what other users have to say, and if I’m feeling brave occasionally posting something myself. I say occasionally, because most of the time the posts end up like this.

Look below to see what that deleted one says. . .

So, as you can see from above, I tried to post something on GameFAQs, a popular website for game tip, tricks, cheats, and discussons, and it was not received well. I don’t want to come off as some kind of baby here, but let’s be honest, those people were a little rude. As I’m sure you have noticed, there is a comment that as been removed. That comment is the reason I’m writing this now. It was a quote of my original post, followed by the words, “jump off a cliff and stay there.” That was awesome. It sure feels great to be insulted by a complete stranger.

The thing is, this is a site that exists for game questions, and game discussion. I tried to start a discussion, and hoped to hear others opinions, and instead apparently angered the internet, and it struck back with its rage. It’s hard to say if I should be offended by this behavior, or if I’m just trying to wallow in self-pity or something like that. I had to debate whether or not to write this post for a bit due to that conundrum. I also know I already covered most of what I’m about to say here in my post on online gaming, but forums, to me, feel like a completely different beast, with the same problems.

I wish this was a one-time thing

But it’s not. I have had many negative experiences on web forums. Most of them have been on gaming forums though, which I something I don’t understand, but plan to explore. One of the wost experiences I’ve had was with the time I spent on the forums for the game Homefront. I really enjoyed my time with the game, and wanted to spend some time online sharing ideas with some others who, I hoped, would have the same mind-set as me. I would occasionally have a good conversation, with the expected troll here and there. But some posts we just plagued with flamers and trolls, and it made having a legitimate conversation almost impossible.

Though the Homefront forums were a terrible place, the GameFAQs forums have always been the place I go to when my self-esteem is just a little bit too high. Or when I feel like I like a game too much. I need to be dragged down by comments on the internet. I know it’s rather stupid of me to let these anonymous words get me down, but I haven’t really been able to take things with a grain of salt. It’s something I’ve tried to work on for a long time, but I just can’t seem to manage it.

The problem is accountability

Like online gaming, there is really nothing there to prevent people from being outright dicks to anyone and everyone they meet. I mean there is some moderation on online forums, along with some censorship built in to the posting tools, but there is nothing to prevent someone from saying, “go kill yourself.” People don’t seem to have any respect for others opinions, and tend to rage in order to be heard, or just rage because they can.

A Troll

Trolls post against opinions just because it gives them some kind of sick joy to frustrate others, actually I know it does. Sadly, I’m no stranger to trolling and have committed it before, in the past. Flaming is the worst offense though, because all flamers do is go around and insult people. They are different from trolls because they blindly spew hate against anyone and everyone, and really have no point to it at all. At least trolls, for the most part, have an opinion they are trying to get across, even if they know it’s wrong.

GameFAQs has some small form of an accountability system. They have moderators that go through marked posts and the most active boards to make sure that there are no huge issues with content or anything. They remove messages that are offensive or in are in any way against their Terms of Use. Once you get a message moderated you lose a bit of Karma, that all powerful force that controls just rewards in the universe. Not quite though, it is just a ranking of you as a user. As you post you build Karma, and it’s like gamerscore. People think it matters, but it really doesn’t. So you lose something that doesn’t really matter, and you can keep posting. I’m not sure how many time you have to be moderated before you get suspended or banned, but it seems like quite a lot, and it’s not too hard to make a new account. It really doesn’t accomplish too much of anything. It is, however, a good attempt.

There are some good ones out there

Not all gaming forums are bad, there are a few that are everything you could want out of place gamers go to connect. Two examples of this are forums run by gaming clans. The Midworld forums, and the Sword and Shield Gaming forums. Both of these are forums run by clans, groups of gamers who play the same game, and also compete is these games against other clans. These groups tend to keep things as civil as possible, and generally have a large amount of moderators for a rather small amount of users. This makes keeping things clean a lot easier than the larger GameFAQs. These are probably the best example of what we need to strive for when we think about a good forums for gaming conversation.

This isn’t to say that these websites are without their issues. Since they are run by like minded people it’s easy to get overpowered when trying to present your opinion, and if everyone agrees you’re wrong, then moderation really goes out the window. Another thing is that in small groups like that people can be quite passive aggressive. I had an experience on the Midworld forums when I made a post in anger and almost trolled a little. They not only called me out on it, which is acceptable, but they also posted a couple of my older posts where I mentioned my dislike of trolls. It was a little catty, but that’s kind of the price you have to pay for an otherwise perfect experience on forums.

What non-gamers see

This is perhaps the most important things here. As gamers we can’t just look at our hobby from our own perspective. We need to take a step back and ask ourselves what others see when they look at us and our hobby. We need to realize that if a non-gamer were to look at these forums it wouldn’t bode well for us. They just make us look bad. All the arguments about gamers being angry nerds, or unintelligent, or any other negative stereotype are all affirmed when we engage in this behavior. I always try to think about what someone who doesn’t like gaming would think about my post, or if they’d take issue with what they were reading, in strictly a respect kind of way. Everyone deserves respect, regardless of whether or not they give it.

It’s not too late to fix the problem!

It really isn’t! Much like the issue faced with online gaming, all we really need to make sure this issue doesn’t plague future generations is to show each other a little respect. This may take some time, and it probably won’t be until the internet becomes so integrated with our lives that people can find us in real life with little to no effort that this issue will finally be solved. It shouldn’t have to come to that, but with the direction we’re headed I highly doubt any real change will occur any time soon.

For example, when Blizzard announced their Real ID system for their forums as a way to curtail this negative activity there was a huge backlash. Blizzard merely wanted to introduce people’s real names to their posts, a way to get to know the people they are talking to better, and to hold them personally accountable for the things they say. The internet went into an uproar and called it an invasion of privacy, but the real worry was that people would finally lose their shield of anonymity as they callously berated that one guy who honestly didn’t know how to do a quest. They worried about people retaliating in the real world. That was the major argument, real world punishment for their online actions. Think about that. They were scared that the things they had done and said would finally catch up to them so they threatened Blizzard to keep them from instituting this new system, which they ended up not doing, in full anyway.

We shouldn’t be scared

To venture forth into the internet. Forums shouldn’t be a scary place to go to get help. They should be a magical place where like minded individuals can gather and rejoice in what they love. Why can’t we all just get along?