Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Drugs & Gaming (Oh my!)

You know that your guild leader smokes pot. You know that the guy you just beat in the arcade smelled like he just chugged a bottle of vodka. You know that crazy muffucka on the mic screaming at you just did a couple of lines.

Who's to blame for all this drug intake? Society? Video games? Parents?

It's a mixture of many things. Boredom for one will make anyone do anything and peer pressure's a bitch.

The thing is, do any of these drugs help you play games?

It depends on who you are. Personally, playing anything while drunk sucks. I get physical, and not intellectual when drinking. Although, if I were to smoke some weed and then play some Wii games, I can tell that there is a huge difference in my gameplay. It actually makes me concentrate on timing my smash moves, listening to the wiimote so that I know when to serve the ball in tennis, or which Mii is the look-alike.

Some people may look down upon this, but at least we're playing video games instead of being out in the world causing havoc. Imagine a world where there are no video games and everyone still did the same amount of drugs. Thinking about it scares me.

On that note...looks like some people want their faces owned.

...Liquid_Courage out...

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Brawl Club

Please lock your nunchuck into its secure and locked position.
It seems like I was room hoping.
Everywhere I went I knew there was Brawl match close.

Nintendo had been busy, setting up tournaments in every city.
Had I been asleep?
Nintendo gets brand reconstruction every 3 years.
It felt like this has happened before.

These rooms smell of old pizza boxes.
Dirty fingerprints on the television screen and controllers circling each other.
That aroma of old sweat from an intense Brawl match...2 stock no items.
The feel of chairs still warm from the guys sitting there last.

It's not Fight Club...it's Brawl Club.



...Liquid_Courage out...

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Gamer Youth

Today, in a semi drunken stupor, I found a long line going into a local video game store. Not an EBGames or a Gamespot, but an actual local video game store. They had brand new HDTVs with Smash Brothers Brawl playing. Tournament... fuck yeah! Damn you alcohol, made me forget about the most anticipated game of the year's launch.

To be honest, I didn't know that today was Brawl's launch. Sad, I know, but I had other things going on. I couldn't get into the tournament, but what I gained is a better sense of the new-age gamer (new-age meaning, young age). If you approach them, they will talk to you, they are not afraid to talk to anyone at all, especially if it's about gaming.

Just a tidbit to the haters of video games.....think of a generation of people of all races, genders, and backgrounds coming together to be entertained. Discrimination disappears, relations are gained, and the product is the ultimate victor.

Thank you Nintendo!

...liquid_courage out...

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Where do you game?

Being at a college where 90% of the students play video games daily, you see a lot of things.













One room may have several days old Carl's Junior bags of food with beer cans strewn throughout a sea of Maxim and gaming magazines,




another one may have the biggest HDTV you have ever seen, but realize to yours and my dismay that it is only being used for RockBand and the whole series of Planet Earth,















and another one may have the most random of group of people sitting on broken beds and chairs or on the stolen gas station rug all playing Mario Party 8's minigame 'Shake it Up'.

Where do you game?

...liquid_courage out...

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Youtube musing...

If you don't know what Youtube is, you should get out from under your rock or step out of Azeroth for a bit.

From funny

to

disgusting

Youtube is everyone's friend from the stay at home stoner to the relaxing business man. I totally forgot why I am talking about Youtube in the first place.

...ChoB out...

Thursday, February 7, 2008

DOTA...damn acronyms

Defense of the Ancients...


Did you see that...all the crap that's happening at once, think you can handle it?

It's easy. You control one character with 4 spells and 6 item slots. The strategy and skill that comes into playing this game is all about teamwork. Identifying where your opponents are and what they are doing to your teammates. Ganging up or 'ganking' occurs often. Keep on doing it and you will hear some lame excuses and crying.

This is the new game to play if you are hoping to get into any Major League of Gaming tournaments. Might as well get some friends to play too as you will need a team.


Don't screw up.....

...Cho-B out...

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

The Rise and Fall of the Arcade 90s-Present

Hello everyone,

You will see a Tilt or Fun Factory in a mall every so often, several arcade games tucked away at a hotel or casino, or you will have a large pool hall with some coin-operated games that don't work. Unfortunately, these places have only a few people in them, but the people who are there are some of the greatest gamers out there.

When you play a game online, you can trash-talk all you want because no one knows who you are. On the other hand, at an arcade, you are wide open. At any time someone can challenge you or take up arms as an ally. Arcade gamers know how good a person is at a game just by looking at them.

During the glory days of arcade gaming in Hawaii there was a game called Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. This game was pure genius with over 40 characters. Most of these characters were locked and only unlocked when someone beats the game with a particular character or enough credits have been plugged into the machine.

There were two arcades to play this game which created a sense of guilds. Players from Tilt would go to Fun Factory to see what new characters their MVC2 (Marvel Vs. Capcom 2) machine had, and of course came to compete with the best players of that arcade.

I played at both quite often and soon became an admirable player amongst the MVC2 community. Instead of doing infinite combos posted on the Internet practiced daily, I would try out character combinations. In MVC2 you can choose 3 characters that work together as a team combining super powers or just assisting with an uppercut when you get pinned on a wall. My combination was with Zangief's lariat assist combined with B.B. Hood's super special. The outcome would be a half-life opponent that just got schooled by medium level characters.

Fighting games were the dominant genre at the arcade, but they have slowly being dieing out because of their small amount. There are only three series of fighting-games out there that anyone plays. They are: Street Fighter (which includes MVC2), Soul Caliber, and Tekken. These series of fighting games are the only ones producing new arcade titles.

Of course there are other coin-operated genres, but none that deliver much revenue. Arcades are only surviving due to ticket games. These ticket games have a very small market and will not bring arcades back to what they used to be.

If you want to see true gamers, go out to your local arcades and just watch these people take down the AI, or plug some coins in and give it your best.

...Marty out...

Closet-Gamers

Hello everyone,

You may not know this, but there are literally millions of closet-gamers. You may be one. Do you play Solitare, Sudoku, Diner Dash, Bejeweled, or Tetris? Well, you are probably a closet-gamer. You play games during work, when you get home and check emails, and when your insomnia kicks in. You don't talk about games with friends or family because you are afraid you will be labeled. Don't worry though. The terms nerd, geek, or hacker are a thing of the past.

Casual gaming has the biggest amount of closet-gamers. If you go to www.newgrounds.com , http://www.miniclip.com, or http://www.pogo.com you are a casual-gamer. You love the simplicity of gaming, how it eliminates stress, increases your eye-hand coordination and fine-hand coordination, and the adrenaline that flows through you when you know you have the top score.

Casual gaming is only getting better. Everyday there are several new games published by common users. These common users make these games for free and for the people's pleasure. You'll see a lot of these on www.newgrounds.com.

So, get out there and get playing. Be open with it, you'll find that your disgruntled landlord is a gamer, that your grandmother is a gamer, and you yourself are a gamer.

...Marty out...

Introduction

You're all part of the same compost heap and you are not a fragile snowflake, you are all singing dancing crap of the world. -Fight Club

Good movie and book, especially if you saw it at a movie theater. Ever notice the arcades they have in these theaters. You know flashing lights, broken joysticks, and always someone there playing the same game and not watching movies. Well that guy is a gamer.

Gamers are everywhere, from the hardcore gamer that spits lingo out during class to the closet-gamer who has grandchildren and is most likely a member of the AARP.

You soon will realize that you are a gamer yourself....scary I know.

...Cho-B out...