Quantcast
Showing posts with label call of duty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label call of duty. Show all posts

Thursday, November 17, 2011

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*

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The Greatest Games Never Sold

*Presses Start*

This game sucks.

A phrase said all too often. We get a game home, pop it in and expect to be bedazzled with amazing graphics, a immersible story, and game play that will blow the socks off even the most stubborn gamer. Sadly, PS1 graphics, terribad story and horrible controls instantly brings out the worst case of "Buyer's remorse" that anyone will ever see. For every Call of Duty and Uncharted, there's a BodyCount and MindJack. What happens when the game that instantly gets the rage is a game that is actually good...but doesn't sell?

I've made it no secret that I had about a two week affair with Deus Ex: Human Revolution that cultivated into a up-all-night session crack at the ending and a phone call to Megan at 8am. The story drew me in. The game play rocked. It had a little something for everyone and made it pretty awesome. Worth a 2nd play through and I believe a heavy contender for GOTY. I went into my local game store to trump how good this game in and overheard a conversation that made me wonder what kind of gamer are around today.

*hands a copy of Deus Ex* I'm trading this game in. This game blows. You can't run around and shoot things and it was hard. The story was boring. This game sucks and I don't know why people liked it. *looks around at PS3 Section* Hey, let me get that Call of Duty or that Saints Row 2. Those were some good games!

Now, in order to keep me from disconnecting this man from living, I have to understand that everyone has their opinion. No one's game opinion is correct and I'm sure that there is someone out there who's favorite video game is Iron Man. Hell, Nickelodeon Guts was my favorite game for a while. Then again, I openly admit that this game was terrible then and it's still terrible now. It just bugs me greatly that the smart games are the ones that just don't sell. Maybe it's the crowd of people that it goes for. Sometimes, it's the console that the game is ported to. Okami is a perfect example. The game dropped on the PS2 but because the PS2 was dying, no one really played Okami. Never mind the fact that the game is beautifully well done. Even when it was ported to the Wii (The ideal system for the game, mind you.) Everyone didn't want it, because it was the Wii. Alas, the game because a cult hit. A lot of my friends in particular got their first exposure to Okami from Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. (Yami, the boss from Okami, was the final boss in the Capcom fighter.)

The thing that gets me the most, however, is that people were calling Dead Island (which dropped 2 weeks after) the better game. Yes, a game that on launch had save game problems and had a pretty lackluster story. I do like the game and problems aside, it's well done and a gory good time. However, to say that it's better then Deus Ex, is insulting to me. Maybe it's my problem. Maybe I'm just a old fogie who prefers being in a challenging situation instead of being a super soldier who can kill everything.

Continue?