TCPS 19: Jesse Cox in your ears!

We had the immeasurable pleasure of having Jesse Cox (voice actor and of Youtubes OMFGcata) on the podcast and this is what resulted. A talk about Games of the year, Final Fantasy, SWTOR, Dragon Age, Guild Wars 2, and some anticipations for 2012. Megan got to fangirl out, and she is a Very happy girl now.

   

Gamers are Awesome, not Lazy

That's right, Parents, Grandparents, bosses, I said it. We're not lazy, or anit-social, well most of us anyway. "But, Megan, what proof do you have to back this up?" I hear you non believers ask. First, I've been told that you should start a sentence with but, but I do it all the time, (you also shouldn't start a sentence with And, but I'm about to do it.) And, I can't give you numbers, or science, but I can give you personal experience, and what I have observed. When I'm not working with video games as part of my job, (how I wish I actually played them for a living) I am at home playing them, or even watching them. I'm active on YouTube, checking my subscription box regularly, and most of them are of people playing the games that I don't like, or won't get for a while.

There are a lot of people on the internet that record themselves playing games, and I'm one of the people who watches them. Some of these commentators actually make a living off of making these videos, off of playing video games, and in turn they get to hear and talk to a lot of fans who watch their videos and find enjoyment and entertainment from them. For the most part, most of these commentators love their fans, and read every single comment and message they get from the fans, and listen to them. Not Anti-Social. Let me give you another example. Minecraft. Yes, I said it. Love it or hate it, it's gotten a lot of attention. Enough that a Minecraft convention, Minecon, is happening this weekend in Las Vegas. And a good number of YouTube commentators will be going there to meet their fans, along with have fun. And they are amazingly excited for it. See, not anti-social. They see day light, gamers that is.

Gamers are also not lazy, we cultivate talents without knowing it sometimes. We're constantly thinking when playing a game, looking for the best tactic, or the best way to befriends someone, or sneak behind their back to steal from them. Through my own personal experience I've found that recently when playing Dragon Age 2 I've found that I've been working on multi-tasking. Killing my enemies of giant spiders with no mercy is my main task, but I have to make sure that my character doesn't die, and the lives of my companions. All the while checking on their tactics and that my mage will actually heal someone when they start to die because I've used the potion and it hasn't had enough time to cool down. All those FPS games, those take thinkin', tactics, game plans. Call of Duties, Battlefields, Halo, even Gears of War, even those little Final Fantasy games take some planning when it comes to your characters.

I was in Voice/Keyboard for five years in Middle/High School. I sang in a choir and I took daily keyboard lessons, learning on my own and from the teachers. You would think that in all those years I'd be able to play some moderate stuff, right? At least something out of the level 4 piano book. Wrong. My left hand doesn't like to be independent a lot of the time. If my right hand is doing something simple, then yeah my left hand will go off on it's own, but if, say for chance, my right hand were playing the melody of a song, like the Sleeping Beauty Waltz, my left hand cannot play the accompanying chords for the song. It refuses to be simple, and wants to do what my right hand is doing. Now, what was the point of my telling you this? What relevance does it have to gamers? When I am playing Left 4 Dead, of Dragon Age 2 like earlier this week, my hands are all over the place. They know what they have to do to kill the undead and to keep myself, and maybe others (Antonio not included, you coward) alive throughout the game. When I was playing Guild Wars I had two computers up so I could play on one and look up anything about the game on the other simultaneously. My left hand had no trouble doing that. Playing all these games is actually training my hands, and in turn it's making my typing speed faster also. Not particularly more accurate, but, faster.

So, as I was taught in school, here is my conclusion. Gamers are in fact not lazy, or anti-social, in fact they can be quite social, funny, who actually know how to speak proper English, and game speak, meet people in real life, and are actually training their brains and hands, and their body if they use any of the motion "controllers". I may not have used science, but I used my own personal experiences and first hand observations. Thank you for your time. *bows*

Confessions of a MMORPG n00b

I'm not Exactly a n00b to MMORPG's, I just don't play them all that often. I experimented with text based ones on my old Apple2. I have Guild Wars, I anticipate Guild Wars 2. I've played the trial versions of World of Warcraft, because I was too young at the time to even consider affording the monthly payments. When I was 17 I considered getting Final Fantasy 11, but other singleplayer games caught my attention first. I'm not adverse to trying out new MMORPG's, looking for a good one, and I learn how to level up and take quests fairly quickly. I've found a new one to play, FTP on Steam in fact, and I've become a little bit addicted to it.

Forsaken World is what I'm playing. When I first opened it to play it I played it for three hours and found myself at level 13 when I left the 'tutorial' world. Another four hours later and I'm sitting pretty at level 22 as I type this up. I will admit that I spent a lot of time just exploring the harbor and trying to remember where all the different merchants were, and where I could go to buy something other than just 'basic weapons'. I'm ready to graduate from basic I feel.

But I do have a fatal flaw when it comes to playing MMO's, and it's kind of a big one. If I don't have any other friends playing the same game, I won't join or start parties. The problem probably stems from growing up as an only child and never really playing any multi-player games. The most multiplayer action I got was playing Super Mario Bros. 3 with my best friend when we were single digits. So I've never really felt comfortable finding random people and starting a party. Unless a quest or instance requires it, I will do everything alone. There was one time playing Guild Wars that I was invited to a party, and on a whim I accepted. I was a lower level than everyone else, and I was still exploring new abilities and actions that I could do. I was not as good as the others and not too long after I found myself traveling alone again.

I think what I'll have to do is explore the forums, become part of the community, for I want to make my Kindred Vampire awesome, and I'd like to join a Guild soon. I'm going to do what I never did what I was younger. I'm going to learn how to play MMORPG's the way they were meant to be played, with other players. Wish me luck. But, until then, I'm going to continue knitting Harry Potter scarves and crocheting Sailor Moon amigurumi's. The life of a nerd is never slow.