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Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Why I Stopped Playing WoW

The reason I considered going back to WoW was because of the new expansion coming out, Cataclysm. Of course I want to experience the awesome changes coming to WoW, but truly I cannot see myself playing through the boredom again.

It has been about six months since I quit WoW and I’m thankful for the extra 15$ a month I have in my pocket, because I spend 20$ for three months of Xbox Live now.

I spent many hours on WoW, I had four level forty characters and enjoyed my time there for over a year. I mostly stayed to play with friends, but even they could not cure my boredom. Find quest, complete quest, find another quest, complete quest; nothing changed and I discovered I was becoming a pet collector.

Blizzard has a beautiful storyline and I truly thought this was going to help me find a consistent game for RPGing, because all of my friends are flakes and busy, but it turned out to be a repetitive bit of slop. An addicting slop I consumed almost daily to help replace a tabletop game feel, but WoW never did.

Also, I felt depressed I was celebrating holidays online and making tons of gold by selling holiday products. This honestly scared me, because I was proud of the gold I earned through selling pixel generated items.

My school was suffering, my job was suffering, my personal relationships suffered, I’m very glad I quit, because it was creeping into too much of my life. Furthermore, it became boring and thankfully, my ADD kicked in and decided to find something creative to do, like write an article, a short story, make a silly video, anything but waste time on a boring MMORPG.

Many people become addicted to WoW, but they would just pick a different way to be obsessed if WoW did not exist. I’m glad I am unscathed, but I know many families and friends who are still trying to revive their addicted loved ones.

Of course, WoW was not the only game I could blame, in general anything can become an addiction, but what made games especially harmful was how they become a reality to people. Food, money, sex, at least these forms of addiction were apart of the real world, as for WoW it was like developing schizophrenia.

Luckily many people quit when a game becomes boring, like me, but I saw why people become addicted so easily, any activity with a sense of accomplishment pulled people in and made them want more. It was so easy to accomplish goals and it made me feel good too, but I left and I have no intentions of returning.

There are many sites to help with this form of addiction:

http://www.wowdetox.com/
http://m.wikihow.com/Break-a-World-of-Warcraft-Addiction
http://www.squidoo.com/wowaddicts

Monday, July 5, 2010

Dungeon Fighter Online: Review

Dungeon Fighter Online was a game bringing me back in time where Super Nintendo reigned supreme in story and graphics.


It was a MMO and it impressed me with the simple details, like how your character would cut the grass if he attacked, between the pixels.

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For the rest of the article: Dungeon Fighter Online: Review

Monday, June 21, 2010

My XBox Scratched My Disc

Apparently, when the Xbox 360 is upright there is a risk of the disc inside being moved and scratched within. You do not even have to move the Xbox for this to happen, any movement can be fatal to the disc.



I tried all the tricks to fix the disc, cleaning it, toothpaste, professional fix-it-kits, the game still plays, but it takes two minutes to load any online game.

Luckily, my local Gamestop will take the disc as defective and give me a deal for a new or used game.

However, my question is why is Microsoft ignoring this obvious flaw in their design?
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For the rest of the article go here: My Xbox Scratched My Disc

Monday, June 7, 2010

Movie and Game Prince of Persia

I have only played Prince of Persia: Warrior Within and The Two Thrones, but they have stuck with me because I still press L1, despite the controller I’m using, in hopes of turning back time.
For a video game movie Prince of Persia: Sands of Time was good.  Especially when I could see how quick time events could be used within the movie and eventually in game. 
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Tuesday, May 18, 2010

What JRPGs Taught Me About College

1. There was and always will be bureaucracy.

What exactly is a bureaucracy? How I define it is a bunch of soft handed sissies who stand behind the scenes to remain blameless when any shortfall comes to light. They also like to dance around with red tape and count the millions of dollars wasted on shoddy plans for short fixes.

All JRPGs have a large figure who pulls the stings of the game. Most of them are greedy, over powered and over fed presidents, kings or sly magicians who are really sissies but hard to cut through, like red tape.

2. You get what you pay for. San Jose State is the cheapest college in the area, so it is assumed the education reflects the cost. It’s not horrible, but like buying weapons/accessories in a JRPG, more money equals better quality.

For the rest of this article: San Jose Girl Gamer Examiner: What JRPGs Taught Me About College

Monday, May 10, 2010

Three Kingdoms: It's a RTS: Review


What?  Was this female complaining about how the game cheated her out of scantily clad warriors?  Yes, I am complaining, because it was false advertising and I felt like a teenage boy on Playboy.com and suddenly my computer crashed from viruses.

For the rest of this article:  Three Kingdoms: Game Review

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Battle On Games: Dragon Fable: Review


This gaming site featured an online game updated every week based on players input and the creative minds of the creators. 

Most of the games were fantasy based, but there was one sci-fi on the list.  I’m a sucker for dragons so I decided to play the Dragon Fable storyline and was thrown into a high fantasy.

Of course, one of my first complaints, and a common one, I had was how the only race was human.  I stand by the statement as how playing a human online while you are really a human seems boring.  
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for the rest of this article please visit my new site:

It's a great site where you can write what you want and get paid for it.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

California Tries to Ban Violent Video Games to Minors-Thank God they Failed

I head about this proposed law yesterday while listening to KGO 810 and I commented promptly as to how I believe parents are responsible for what games their children buy, not the gaming industries, the stores or even the government.

The two laws were passed in 2005, but have not been enforced yet.  Luckily, the U.S. Court of Appeals are debating if the laws were unconstitutional, despite how it might protect children from the horrors of video games.

One of my greatest fears is how laws pass “for the sake of the children”.  This is not only a dangerous tactic but a useful one as well.  I’m glad I have freedom of speech here in America and I understand it only reaches to protecting me from my government, not my work or any other private industry.  This proposed law obviously stretches to a violation of freedom of speech, even if it only proposes banning “M” rated game sales to minors.

My question is always, “What’s next?”  It seems well and good at first, protecting the children, but what is the governments definition of violence?  The video game industry already has a very harsh rating system in place to inform buyers what the ratings mean.  But, I fear if a parent if offended to how Mario smashes goombas Nintendo may have a problem with even their “E” rated games.
 
Another issue is how people presume violent video games induce violent acts.  However, there is no actual study, other then through correlation, as to how video games affect violent tendencies.  It is also very difficult to perform a random study, because people will not play a video game unless they want to, so it defeats the purpose of random selection.

With all of the acceptance and tolerance thrown around about religion, sexual preferences and other social issues, I wonder if privacy, free speech and safety are balanced now.  I think people are so concerned about being safe we forget how quickly we are loosing our Bill of Rights. 

It may just be video games for now, but I really try to think as to how it could change the larger picture of freedom of speech.  The government would love to chip away at it because it is the people’s greatest weapon against politicians. 

So, all I can say is write to the California legislature, including the governor, and tell them how you feel about these laws.  Also, don’t forget to write to your own State legislature about this and tell them you are thoroughly against any such laws prohibiting freedom of speech, even if it is for the sake of the children.

Children do not stay children forever, so don’t reduce their rights for limited safety.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Earth Eternal: Power to the Credit

What first caught my eye about Earth Eternal was the point it made to having no human characters. No offense to MMORPGs and many other games, but humans are boring to play because they are average to play.

You do not have to download the game to your computer, you can, making the download time faster, but it really doesn’t matter. There are over 20 races to choose from and three body types. It’s very simple and sometimes it’s hard to see the difference between the male and female, but it has a certain charm.

There are only 4 classes to choose from: knight, rogue, druid, mage, and it doesn’t matter what race you choose, there is no benefit to having a fox as a rogue versus a bear, so it’s limited. It would be nice for them to add some advantages to the classes depending on which animal you choose, but I think they were attempting to make it simple and fun for kids.

The graphics took me back to the 90s because it reminded me of “Beast Wars”, innovative for its time, but very primitive when you compare it to WoW or Team Fortress 2. It wasn’t horrible, just a little rough and cartoony.

Controlling your character was pretty much the same as for any MMORPG, but I did not like having to click for my auto attack. It’s supposed to be auto right, so why do I have to click on it? This annoyed me and it’s really my only complaint as for character movement.

However, the major disappointment was when I spoke to a player, Slypaw Rogue, and he told me the new download made the game more focused towards buying credits. . He was a level 47 knight and felt cheated as a long-term player to how they handled credit buying, “It would take years” he wrote, “to get the good armor and weapons” for any free player.

(Another Overhyped Video)^^

It was sad to see how companies forget about the players who were there from the beginning and decided to shaft them of they fun by making money the main point within the game. There is nothing wrong with making money, but doing it tactfully and ensuring even free players can still reasonably achieve the best items is key to keeping players happy and playing.

Sadly, the small uniqueness of no human characters did not keep my interest for long especially when a company is willing to sacrifice player enjoyment for sheer cash intake. Many players are already leaving for better MMORPG pastures and I wish them luck.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

MMORPGs: Stagnet Storytelling Waters



MMORPGs are very fun to play with your friends and a healthy way of escapism into a fantastic world where you can be a bloodthirsty warrior or cunning mage, without ever leaving the comfort of your home. However, I feel MMORPGs in general have slammed into a rut of repetition and I’m wondering about the ultimate future of massive online gaming.

Of course when someone hears MMORPG World of Warcraft automatically comes to mind. I personally love the storytelling and the beautiful world Blizzard created to involve gamers with world events similar to real life.

With the “Cataclysm” expansion coming out soon for WoW, everyone is excited and chatting away about the dramatic changes happening to the world. I am also excited, but I still feel like it’s just a thin cover to keep older players on while immense repetition remains.

Honestly, I forget there is even a story while I’m clicking away through quests without much concern for the outcome. My choices do not matter, I do not need to take quests, the world will do just fine without me completing the dungeon. This is where MMORPGs fail in storytelling, the world ultimately doesn’t change due to player participation.



MMORPGs are becoming stagnated in this lack of flexibility within the world. I think it’s time to change the repetitive quest and create a world where every choice can you change the environment.

Tabletop RPGs consider the player’s choices and by directly engaging players; it makes the story more personal and fun to play. Imagine if your choices on a MMORPG changed the game, it would make the story matter again and engage the player to think wisely.

It would pose new challenges to storytellers, game developers and players, but there is a surplus of creative people up to the challenge of allowing players to shape the game.

I do not believe technology is up to standard to keep up with this immense idea in MMORPGs, but when they can, whomever does it first will blow all other MMORPGs out of the water and bring life back online.



Not everyone will be happy with this new engaging idea, but there could be special servers who just support repetitive quests and flat plots. But, I believe it will re-invent MMORPGs for the better by keeping the player on their toes and playing to see how their choices change the world.

Monday, March 1, 2010

"M" is for Mature



When I’m playing Left for Dead or Halo I expect to find a well rounded bunch of players (mostly boys) who are ready to kick some bad butt, not a screaming nine-year-old.

Both of the games mentioned are rated “M” for mature (or immature, depends how you look at it) players due to sex, violence or language. I understand the video game industry has some of the most stringent guidelines in ratings, but I think it’s better safe than sorry, especially when you consider how sue happy people are.

However, it is very unsavory to me to find a nine-year-old playing online at one a.m. on a school night. Sure they may be home schooled, but it still isn’t healthy for them to keep such irregular sleeping hours.

I understand some fathers buy games for themselves and want to enjoy it and let their children enjoy the fun, but at the same time it frightens me knowing children are shown such adult themes and violence. It may not be real, but why expose a child to it in the first place, especially when they may not understand what is happening.



I feel like the parent is being shellfish or downright irresponsible when they buy or let their children play mature games. I know kids games can be boring, but your parents suffered through endless board games with you.

I do feel that children’s games have become a bland mix of un-adventure and ground down plot, but there are still a few games out there appropriate for kids and fun for adults. It may take more work to find these games, but it’s the responsibility of the parent, not the gaming companies, to guide the child to appropriate games.


There is also a lack of knowledge to what these games hold within their boxes. I advise parents to buy a gaming magazine and read the reviews for upcoming games their children may want. Of course they may wine and complain, but you are the influential adult, so just say no.

I do believe this world is trying to make children grow up too fast and this has made the gaming industry loose touch with their child like side. Kids buy games too, but it doesn’t mean they have to be bland or boring, everyone was a kid once, just try to remember what excited you then and make a game out of it.



It’s hard to find games appropriate for Timmy, especially when he reaches the pree-teen age, where being a child is questionable, but being an adult is impossible. Gaming industries seem to have forgotten how to tell a good story and go for shock value.

For me, this has made games a little more than grotesque at times. There is a large difference between pushing the envelope and plainly for the sake of gore. I wouldn’t say Left 4 Dead or Halo have crossed this line, but games like Dante’s Inferno have crossed it, mainly with the excuse, “we’re in Hell”.

Parents, it’s time for you to just say no and tell video game companies what you want. There are games for kids, adults and families, the gaming industry has tried to accommodate but. we are the power consumer, we control what our children buy, take advantage of that power and give your child a healthy happy life.




Games I Recommend for Kids:
A Boy and His Blob: Wii
Legend of Zelda: Windwaker: Gamecube
Any of the Lego Adventures (Batman, Indiana Jones, Star Wars): Multiple Consoles
Any of the Super Mario games (I really liked Mario Galaxy): Wii, Gamecube, ect
Banjo Kazooie: Nintendo 64, New game on X-Box 360 (You can download it on the X-Box)
Pokemon Snap (or any of the Pokemon series, this is just my favorite): Nintendo 64 (Downloadable on Wii)
Spore: PC
Zoo/Roller Coaster ect...: PC



Little Big Planet: PS3
Viewful Joe: Gamecube
Pacman: Multiple consoles
Dance, Dance, Revolution: Multiple Consoles (and different versions, or plain rip-offs)


These are just a few of the games I grew up with and played (and still play), but don’t be afraid to explore yourself. I find these games are the least lame children’s games available.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Plants VS Zombies: All We Want is Brains and Ice Cream



Quickie: Download, Don't Buy the Monotony

My friend Mike introduced me to a new Pop Cap game highly inspired by a drug called LSD Plants VS Zombies. Thanks Mike, like I need another addiction.

Most Pop Cap games, like Peggle, Bejeweled and Insaniquarium feature overly cute characters and colors, making people with ADD become hopelessly addicted to the simple point gameplay.

I do not have a problem with casual games, in fact I love something simple and un-complex every once and a while just to feel like I accomplished something greater than myself. Also, these games meant for hours of gameplay, mainly because of the repetitiveness and simple goals like, kill the zombies.



Plants VS Zombies in particular features classic cute-Mario-world inspired plants designed to fight hordes of classic and pop-culture Zombies. It’s a nice twist to the Zombieland, Resident Evil and Left 4 Dead genera by adding killer-cute plants because I think the theme has been a little overdone.

Sure, this game was a great short distraction, but the levels are too long for my taste and buying the full version just to use different plants doesn’t seem worth it to me. I just wish they would add a fast-forward button, because sitting there waiting for the wave of corpses to come was b-o-r-i-n-g.



It's a simple game for simple players and there was nothing wrong with it as long as you take it in small doses, just like drugs. The industry makes millions of dollars by creating cheap-repetitive-games based on the human nature's need for something cute, fun, cheap, and achieving a simple accomplishment.

So, go ahead and kill some zombies with a peashooter, but save some cash.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Demos, demos, demos! Bayonetta, Divinity, Dante and Left 4 Dead 2

Quickie: Ignore the Bayonetta, Divinity, Dante, but check out Left 4 Dead 2

I have to say Microsoft is genius for having downloadable demos available because they have to compete with Gamefly somehow and sucker you into paying 40-60$ for a new game. So, I tested out Bayonetta: First Climax, Divinity II, Dante’s Inferno and Left for Dead 2 to find the best game of the bunch based purely of their demos, which are supposed to make want to buy the game.

Bayonetta: First Climax

The first laughable issue I noticed was the title. First Climax a very sexual message to the player and was a precursor to the big-boobed, glasses wearing dominatrix ready to experience her first gunfight in barrel wielding heels. Yes, this game was a sex fantasy made into a game.

Then the opening movie, with reel holes, appears on the screen, explaining that there is some sort of church like power who condemned your parents for having sex with an angel and there was a revolt and you were freed by someone….to be honest it was so confusing, I had to watch it 3 times to understand it. There was a line between mysterious and confusing and Sega crossed it.



Ok, so the story was a little ‘say what?’, but at least the graphics were sweet and the battle system was button mash friendly, but dodging can be a little difficult with multiple enemies. There was also this ring/ halo collection which I did not understand, perhaps you have to earn angel points to be good enough for heaven.

Furthermore, the characters entire costume and posture say sex fantasy woman. Even when there was no wind her hair blew and she just looked so uncomfortable just standing there. Also, I could not stop picturing her leg blowing off because she broke a heal on her gun-shoes. Honestly Sega has inventive thoughts, but they were ruled by their peckers in this game.



The game looks fun, but it made me laugh too hard and the basic premise was fantasy dominatrix.

Divinity II

Yes another RPG game. The graphics are nice, the story was classic, ‘become a dragon slayer’, but the controls threw me off at first.

I understand video games need to be slightly different from each other, but there are just some buttons designated for certain actions. A or X is for social actions, B is for cancel, LT is for shooting the hell out of something….these are just examples, but most controls follow this basic pattern. This game threw me off by making LT a social action and even talking to people was a pain, they move too much and half the time the action doesn’t work.



Besides that, it really wasn’t unique from any other RPG I’ve played, except for using words like ‘willie-nilly’. Talk to people, earn points, attack things, it left me better off than Dragon Age did, but it really didn’t provoke me to buy the game.


Dante’s Inferno


Again, why does a mature rating on a game automatically mean uncovered boobage and graphically nasty gore. I’m not anti-gore, just when it’s excessive it makes me gag and wonder why logically the producers through it would add to the gameplay.

The scene, in the demo mind you, which bothered me the most was when the warrior sews his crusader cross to this own chest. This was not needed, it added nothing but shock value, especially because he was returning home to his wife, after defeating death, why would she sleep with him with that nasty infectious cross on his chest? But doesn’t matter, she’s dead.



This was where there were excessive boob-shots. No offense, but she was dead and her boobs didn’t look too hot with those blue veins. Otherwise the graphics were sweet and my eyes were in awe of how they were beginning to make Hell come alive.

The battle system was relatively simple, but you need some precision if you were going to survive through the demo. So it’s kind of half and half friendly to button mashing.



Lastly, the story seems a little weak to me. I can see the anti-middle-age crusades oozing though the pixels, but I fail to see why his wife was taken to Hell, especially when the Christian religion makes you pay for your own sins, not of others. Anyway, going to Hell to save your wife’s soul was darkly romantic, but a very heavy price to pay.

Furthermore, it showed the game would only have once setting, Hell. That’s it, dark, gloomy, fire and brimstone…to be honest I hope the game will be relatively short, because I could only handle so much of Hell and maybe that was the point.




I do like the inventive interpretation of the famous poem and hope it has more to offer in story and gamplay than the dark visions of Hell and no more dead-woman bobbies please!

Left for Dead 2

From what I head this game was mostly a glorified expansion pack, but I never played the first game, so it has a fresh view.

When I played this demo I noticed there was a option to play online and multiple versions of the game like realism, scavenge, versus, of course all the options weren’t available, but it was nice to see the verity.

It was fun, the graphics were sweet and the story was classic, zombie apocalypse, why not, this was way better than any Resident Evil game I’ve played. Mostly because it doesn’t rely on any cheesy antics it’s just survive or die with NPCs or friends.



However, as with most online games there are jerks out there but just report them and move on.

I am addicted to this game, it soothes my nerves, infuriates me with blood splatter and who doesn’t want to mindlessly fight zombies. Sure the characters chatter gets a little annoying after a while, but that is why you have an i-pod. Fun, fun, fun, it’s the only one I bought.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

I Didn't Like Dragon Age Origins



For an added Christmas gift to myself I decided to buy a highly anticipated game, Dragon Age Origins. I’ve played many classic RPGs in my time and most of them seem very flat, difficult to control and riddled with clichés.

Unfortunately, Dragon Age meets most of the repeated disappointments in RPGs. One, customizing your character is a tedious task because it really doesn’t matter what you look like because it hardly effects the game and all of the choices are plain ugly.

In addition, there was only the plain human, pointy eared human, and short-stocky human to choose from.

I don’t know why realism transforms the game into a muddy brown mess of hardship, but it adds little to the enjoyment of the game and makes me sigh in disappointment at the graphics.



The blood splatter on characters just made me laugh and say ewww. I don’t understand why a Mature rating in a fantasy RPG means dark theme, with cussing and head to toe blood showers.

To further the laugh I thought the Darkspawn looked like Lord of the Rings orcs with a horrible skin condition. Seriously, they couldn't think of anything more original, at least add some thing outside of the generic fantasy spectrum. There are winged-wolves, stayers, giant puffer fish, giant eyes that can shoot lasers, cat people! Anything to at least stand out from the basic Dungeon and Dragons thought up by an eight year old.



The plot also made me question the writing skills of the team because at one point Alistair describes his character as the bringers of bad news and witty one liners. Honestly I liked him compared to Morrigan whose lack of social contact with people made her an annoying-sarcastic-monotone filler.

All the characters were flat, annoying and looked like they smoked pot from the bags under their eyes. I could not connect with any of them effectively to care if they lived or died.

The story itself has many choices, personally, I chose the Mage path and I hated how if you chose the wrong phrase to answer certain questions you would become stuck. No offense to the sandbox, but I rather have a guided game than dig through the sand only to find cat turds.



This plan would especially be useful in quelling tedious quests like Kill the Bears or Find Me a Pretty Pansy were used for filler and not the progression of the story itself.

The battle system was well planned for an RPG, but I hated having to understand how to play every character and develop them. Honestly I just wanted to focus on my own character and let the computer do the work for the other party members.

When I did return the game the employees at the store ragged on me for disliking one of the “best RPGs ever” and dictated to me how I chose the wrong story to play the game with. Excuse me, but shouldn’t any character choice be well rounded and written? All it lead for me to believe was there was just sheer laziness from the development team.


How was reusing classic enemies, redundant race and class choices, filler quests and flat character development counted as a fantasy RPG? There was little innovation in any of the storytelling aspects and it just made me yawn and hope for skip buttons. I think writers and game developers have reached a rut in fantasy RPGs. There needs to be come true creative inspiration to save this game genre and it has to be more than changing enemy names and adding a dragon.