A bit late, but still good.

Well, I promised to do something lighter after the last two weeks, so here we go:

Over the course of the last year I really got into Minecraft. Now obviously the thoughts "took you long enough" and "who doesn't love Minecraft?" are probably the first things you're going to think, but stick with me. I had played Minecraft before, back in the earlier days when the game was new, and it never really grabbed me. Sure, the game was fun to play around in with friends, but once you've built your house you quickly start to run out of things to do. It was during this past year that I discovered modded Minecraft, which is a whole different animal.

Adding mods to Minecraft opens up a whole new world. Mods for Minecraft can do anything from add weapons and armor to totally change the way you create tools and build things. Some are just quality of life improvements, to fix annoying things about the vanilla Minecraft game, while others add whole new mechanics like electricity management and dynamic storage. The big draw of these kinds of mods are to be put together into a "modpack", which can be downloaded all at once, and played on a server running the same modpack. There are several launchers that allow you to create, distribute, and download modpacks, including Technic Launcher and FTB.

These modpacks are where the "game" of modded Minecraft really shines. Numerous mod authors have designed their mods to be compatible with other mods, which means you can have numerous mods in place, which can all interact with each other, and allow you to build crazy contraptions that wouldn't otherwise be possible. Let me try to give you an example:

The primary method of "power" that many mods use is called Redstone Flux (or RF for short), which is measured in how much is produced each in game tick (RF/t). This power can be generated by machines using a variety of fuel sources from coal to steam to uranium, and is used to power a variety of machines. A mod called Minefactory Reloaded has a number of machines that run on RF, including ones that can run a farm for you automatically, breed animals, kill hostile mobs, and even automatically mine resources. The usual goal is to create systems that are not only automatic, but also self-sustaining, so once you start them off they will just continue to run for you and produce resources on their own. This is where much of the entertainment of modded Minecraft comes from, being given a certain set of tools, and trying to make your resource gathering and processing as fast and efficient as possible. It's obviously not for everyone, but it scratches my engineering/building itch nicely.

If you ever find yourself asking why someone would drop hundreds of hours on (modded) Minecraft, that's the basic answer. There's something relaxing and cathartic about designing and developing your own controlled systems. Coming up with ideas, testing them, finding what does and does not work, correcting, and then trying again is very relaxing, and creating a finished product is affirming and rewarding. It triggers that dopamine release in my brain just right when everything clicks into place and works properly. If you like to build things, or you like figuring out how things work I highly recommend a tech Minecraft modpack as a great way to unwind.

Next week is a pretty big week for people in my circles. We're getting the final Smash 4 Direct on Tuesday, Star Wars VII on Friday, and the Forge update for Halo 5 at some point as well. I'm going to be quite busy, and that's even before holiday plans. I'll probably have next week's blog post be a (spoiler free!) Star Wars review, since I'll be taking the day off to see it.

Make Sure You Have Time For Everything.

This week's blog post has a little bit of required reading. Why? You'll see.

I'd like to introduce you to one of my favorite authors, David Wong. In addition to writing the twistedly funny "John Dies at the End" and it's sequel "This Book is Full of Spiders", his primary writing job is to be the lead editor of Cracked. Despite the fact that his articles follow the same "5 Amazing Things YOU Didn't Know About _____" clickbait-title scheme as other posts on the site, this is merely a disguise. In reality most of his articles dispense life lessons and harsh truths of reality, which is why I encourage everyone to read them. David Wong is a huge writing influence for me, but more importantly he manages to put a lot of what I see as my life's Philosophy into words, something which I'm going to try to do myself here. So before continuing, please read the following:

Most importantly, read: 6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person. This article should frankly be required reading for everyone, everywhere. I know a lot of people who would benefit greatly from the advice here, and it is the exact article that got me writing in the first place (he reposts it every year with updated dates, because it continues to be true every year).

Additionally, 5 Harsh Truths That Will Make You Less Of A Jerk will teach you about the hidden elements of empathy. 5 Helpful Answers To Society's Most Uncomfortable Questions will explain social issues and "privilege" without the ulterior motive of trying to guilt you into something. 6 Ways to Keep Terrorists From Ruining the World will show how manipulation of fear is something to always be wary of. 7 Reasons the World Looks Worse Than It Really Is will prove to you that negativity is relative, and to always consider the bigger picture. 6 Things Rich People Need to Stop Saying (mostly #1) will introduce you to the idea that we all exist as a conjoined world, and that "no man is an island".

Have you read all of them? Good. Now I can continue with my explanation. I see a lot of people around me ask me (or silently wonder) how it is that I do all I do. I work a full time job, run a national level Smash 4 region (I'm driving to New Jersey in like 5 hours!), live and spend time with a fiancée, hang out with numerous friend circles, write this blog, have my own hobbies, maintain a house, and still find time to sleep at night. This isn't meant to be some kind of "humble-brag" post, and while it's true that I do keep myself busy, I honestly don't consider myself to be burdened by any aspect of my life currently. I'm very lucky to have everything that I have, and I try my best to not take anything for granted, but the way I maintain my energy, my humor, my optimism, and my passion for everything in my life through one thing; my personal Philosophy on life.

This isn't about religion, your religion and your Philosophy are two totally different things, although they can be related. Your personal Philosophy is, basically, how you would answer the question "What's the meaning of life? Why are we/you here?". Sure, the answer to that question could be something you read in the Bible, or something your parents told you, but to truly know what your Philosophy of life is, you have to ask the question of yourself.

So what's mine?

The easiest way I can explain it is this: I am a piece, you are a piece, every person on earth, alive or dead is a piece, in a giant puzzle called "The History of Human Existence". Just like a real puzzle, every piece is unique, it won't fit in just anywhere, but the places it can fit are shaped by the pieces that were laid before them. Any piece, on it's own, is useless, because puzzle pieces are made to join together and create something bigger than themselves, but that doesn't mean that an individual piece doesn't matter (have you ever finished a 1000 piece puzzle and found one piece to be missing? Suddenly that one piece becomes very important). It's this balance, between importance of the self and importance of the whole that forms the foundation of my life's Philosophy.

We are only important because we represent a piece of something much bigger than ourselves, but because we are a part of something so big, old, and important, we ourselves become important simply by joining up to become it. Your personal worth and the value of the human race are intimately intertwined, the more you do to advance humanity as a species, the more valuable you become to yourself and others, but the inverse is true as well. If you retract from other people, not only does your inner value decrease, but the world is a worse off place for your absence (remember: that last piece is very important). 

You don't have to be the president, the pope, or the prime minister to change the world, sometimes just being yourself is enough. The lives of every past human, from the greatest of leaders to the worst criminals have led us to where we are today, every single one of them was important in crafting the world we see around us right now. In much the same way, you, me, and everyone alive today is in the process of shaping this world for future generations. Maybe you won't change the world, maybe you won't ever find the one thing, or the one person you're looking for, but someone you influenced might, or someone who descends from you might. Do you think that Abraham Lincoln's parents knew they were raising someone who would change the world? What about his childhood friends, or his distant relatives? Don't you think it's possible that they, and many others, had an impact on his life which led him to make the choices he did, and become the person he was? Even someone as important as our 16th president was built from his experiences with the world around him, which means that the people he interacted with played a huge role in shaping the world, even though they probably didn't realize it.

This is why I find the view of "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" so reprehensible. No one alive today is where they are because of their own hard work alone. Everyone on Earth is where they are and has the things they have because of the foundation that the people who came before us laid down. Is the world perfectly fair and even? No, but to pretend that you or anyone else is where they are through completely independent means is asinine.

This puzzle of life isn't finished, not by a long-shot, but it has been steadily built over the course of the last several hundred thousand years. It'll continue, long after you or I is gone, which may cause you to view the whole thing as futile. "What purpose could a small piece such as I have in a puzzle so gigantic?" Remember, as the puzzle is completed, every missing piece becomes more and more important. The longer you deny your interaction and impact on the world around you, the more you will start to feel like you don't belong at all, which couldn't be further from the truth.

So what's your life's Philosophy?

It's Like Herding Cats, and I'm Thankful for it.

Oh boy event coordination. I suppose since it's the day after Thanksgiving, I should be talking about what I'm thankful for. If there's one skill I have, that I'm most thankful for, it's the ability to coordinate and lead groups and events. It probably sounds self-centered, but trust me when I say organizing people is not easy. Having the ability to organize and coordinate things like parties, tournaments, game nights, and road trips is just as much of an art as it is a skill, and many aspects of it are things that can't be learned, only experienced and practiced.

I've been creating, running, and organizing events for over a decade at this point, and while it's tiring work, a lot of it is second nature to me now. My first major events that I hosted we're Gamestop Pokemon tournaments, back when I worked there. It was only a yearly event, to coincide with the release of new games, and our attendance varied wildly. The first year we only had fifteen or so people, most of which were friends of mine. The second year we had 120, which I ran as a single elimination bracket, with nothing but a pen and paper. After that I made sure to use computerized bracket making software for tournaments, but I also moved on to hosting school events, charity events, and holiday parties.

You're probably not here for my history though, you're here for my secret. Pretty much everyone tries to host an event at some point, whether it be an online meetup for games or in person events like parties. If you've tried to host an event at any point in your life you probably got struck by just how hard it is. Sure, having some friends over to hang out isn't the hardest event to plan, but you also get to take a lot for granted in that scenario. You and your friends know each other, and are already comfortable communicating. You all probably have a similar idea of what a successful and unsuccessful event look like, and you aren't super invested in anything beyond hanging out with your friends, but hosting an event with public attendance, or that is welcoming to newcomers is totally different.

There are a lot of things necessary to run events smoothly; backup plans, well tested equipment, proper setup time, marketing and outreach, etc. The number one thing you need though, as an event host, is confidence.

It sounds cheesy, sure, but when running or hosting an event where you need people to follow directions or achieve a common goal, the best way to get them to treat you like a leader is to act like one. There's lots of evolutionary reasons why people are more inclined to follow someone who speaks and acts with confidence, I won't go into them here, but the basic idea is that who the leader is doesn't really matter, what matters is what they're doing and if people agree with it. In some social circumstances, independent thought and creativity are key when it comes to getting successful results, but for events a more organized and coordinated, even military-like discipline is more effective. The way you have to think about it is this; even for a competitive event, like a tournament or a sports game, all of the participating parties have the same overall goal, to have the event run smoothly in a way they can all agree on. Just because players are competitive with each other doesn't mean they are also trying to fight the event itself, it's usually just the opposite.

This turned out to be a bit more of a ramble than I had initially planned. A lot of what goes into making a successful community leader is patience and experience. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't explain everything there is to know about running successful events. So much of it is just trial by fire, and learning to adapt and recover under pressure. It isn't easy, but somebody's got to do it, and I'm thankful for the opportunity to do so.

I'm Back Baby

Due to a combination of interest from people, and my own itch to be more creative, I'm going to be posting here again! The schedule will be every Friday, but I'll do a quick one today as a catch up on where I've been.

It's been almost two years to the day since my last post here. In that time I've been to lots of conventions, made lots of new friends, and played lots of games. Some of my opinions from earlier posts have changed, a lot of the world has changed, but it's amazing how many things stay the same. Going back and reading over my old posts, I find myself agreeing with almost everything still, but nearly all of my older posts are about games, the games industry, or conventions. With this "re-boot" of the blog, I'm going to expand my topics a little. I want to write more about relationships, life, social issues, and overall trends of global activity. This may lead to some people realizing that they butt heads with me on some topics, that's okay! I want to start a dialogue, you can always leave a comment here and I'll do my best to respond. If you feel like I'm out of line or that my opinions are dumb please tell me why! I want to be able to have healthy discussion with people about controversial topics like politics.

Additionally, here's a short list of things that have changed about me in the last two years (which I may or may not write more about):

• I'm now the Tournament Organizer for the largest Smash 4 scene in New England (and leadership is hard)
• I discovered that Minecraft is super fun (but only if you mod it)
• It turns out that I'm a massive sucker for consumerism, despite earlier rantings to the contrary (the allure of Halo 5 was too strong)
• Getting engaged taught me that feelings are just one part of a successful relationship (love is a choice, whether you make that choice is up to you)
• I'm very excited for the new Star Wars movie (and it's a struggle every day to not cave and buy Star Wars Battlefront)

While I figure out what I want to write about for Friday, take some time to read over my old blog posts if you're new here. They'll give you an idea on the structure of these things, and give you some insight into how I tick. Alternatively, if you're in the mood to watch quick videos featuring a fast talking British teacher, check out CGPGrey's YouTube channel. He has five minute videos on a number of topics ranging from "What challenges are robots and automation going to bring to the global economy?" to "Why does the United States have a two-party political system? (hint: it's math)", and I find him to be an excellent jumping off point for learning about a topic. Seriously though, watch this video of his, it's really eye-opening:

That's all for now, check back Friday afternoons for more.

Story Time

Gather round folks its story time! This is the story of a little site called Polygon.com, who have, just today, released their impressions of the Xbox One, and accompanying games. Polygon has been releasing an episodic self-documentary about themselves for a little while now called "Press Reset", which it turns out they got a little help funding. From who? Microsoft. And how much you ask? $750,000. Here's that fact being confirmed on twitter by Arthur Gies, the head reviewer for Polygon:

So since Microsoft is literally funding their website, you'd think that they would give the Xbox One a glowing review right? Well that seems to have been the plan, what with the final review score being 8/10 (.5 better than their PS4 review), however looking at the review itself tells a different story. It's full of statements like this:

"The Xbox One is a hundred dollars more than its direct competition, and several third-party games run in lower resolution than they do on the PS4."

and

"A notable disappointment is the absence of real-name support at launch. One of the PS4's most enjoyable enhancements has been postponed for Xbox One until an unspecified future date. Microsoft has also dropped social-network integration, which seems like a short-sighted reaction to the lack of users of the Xbox 360 apps."

and

"It isn't perfect: Saying "Xbox" at certain times practically fills the screen with green-colored voice options, which can be distracting. Kinect demands full names of movies and games to start them, so you'd better get used to saying "Ryse: Son of Rome" instead of "Ryse." Cross talk was also an issue — when multiple people were speaking conversationally, commands often went unheard."

and

"Not all the changes are home runs, though. The new bumpers split opinions at Polygon — some editors feel they're more difficult to click than the 360's shoulder buttons. When compared to moving the "Black" and "White" buttons on the original Xbox controller to the shoulders on Xbox 360, this modification seems superfluous at best and a detriment at worst."

And it goes on. Despite all of these criticisms however, they still offered both a glowing final score and a notably higher score then their competition. Another note about the review is that it frequently cites features that have not been implemented yet as positives, as they will be positive when they launch. Why is the review so self-contradictory in this way? Especially when the same company slams the PS4 in their review with statements like:

"Sony's currently announced slate of platform exclusives is thin — shy of Infamous: Second Son, there's little to carry the PS4 through the spring and summer of 2014."

When the Xbox One review makes no mention of these shortcomings that both systems share. Why is it like this? If I were a more cynical man I would say that it's because Microsoft believes that people still undecided on which system to get are dumb enough to only look at the final score, rather than read an in depth review. If I were more cynical I'd think that part of Microsoft's deal with Polygon for the $750,000 was to have the Xbox One beat the PS4 in final score no matter what, and that the content of the review itself was never part of the deal. If I were more cynical I'd believe that right now Polygon is live streaming 12 hours with the Xbox One and instead of praising the system that their site declared the "superior machine", our hosts banter would be punctuated with quotes like "Why won't this just work?" (referring to voice controls) and "I hate this game." (referring to Dead Rising 3, a game they praised in their Xbox One review as a "truly next-gen experience" and gave a final score of 7.5/10).

Oh wait. That last one is real.

I Just Want To Smash Things

Let’s talk about Smash Bros. I know the PS4 came out last week, and the Xbone comes out Friday, but every news organization on the planet is covering those things, I’d rather talk about this:

For those not in the know, Project M has been an attempt four years in the making to improve Brawl’s gameplay and return it to the level of competitive combat that Melee offered. It has been a long time coming, and characters have been reintroduced a few at a time over the years, but now it looks like everything is ready. The technology behind the improvements this team has made to the game is nothing short of miraculous. When Brawl was first being modded, the limitations of the modding engine became very obvious very quickly. At the time, no one even though you could do full model importation or real mechanical tweaks. It wasn't until very recently that it was possible to actually add a new character without removing an old one.

This is a big step for competitive smash, as Project M tournaments have happened, but they ave never been the standard. The competitive Brawl scene is largely dead anyway, due to the nature of the game and the lack of a community consensus on a unified mod engine to play on. The other primary mod set that people use is Brawl+, which sticks closer to its Brawl roots, but still tightens up the gravity and other changes. Brawl+ has had the advantage of not needing the time it has taken Project M to really get up and running, since the changes are much more subtle. Project M, however, has shown a lot more promise as a balanced platform, and has a more dedicated team, so it will hopefully be supported with balance patches for a long time.

I’m very excited about this new version. I still have my Wii hooked up and everything solely for Smash Bros, and probably will for the foreseeable future. Smash Bros U is looking great so far, and everything Sakurai has said about it so far has been overwhelmingly positive and beneficial to the health of the game. It’s going to be at least a year before the release of the next Smash Bros, but I’m going to try to not be freaking out the whole time. The announcement trailer still gives me chills.

Maybe I'm Just Getting Slower

I realized today that I've been playing a lot of turn based and strategy games lately. Between Fire Emblem, Pokémon, the new Age of Empires 2 expansion, and the new XCOM expansion, it’s been nothing but strategy for me. I've played a few other games in the interim, like Batman: Arkham Origins and Wonderful 101 but I've just had a strategy bug to itch for the last few months. Part of it is that I have this weird thing where I have never been a fan of any real time games on handheld systems. With the sole exception of Mario Kart I basically only play turn based and tactics games on handhelds if possible. I guess it’s because I feel that whenever I’m playing a handheld game, I should be able to stop and put it down at any second, since I’m playing them on the go.

The new XCOM expansion is pretty excellent. It’s basically a sequel to Enemy Unknown, using the same core game and engine and adding a ton of new content. Enemy Within more than triples the number of gameplay maps available, and adds new options for unit upgrades, mission structure, and gameplay modes. Everything it adds breathes new life into the game, and fixes a number of issues many people had with the original version. I’m about to start playing it now, and I’ll post more impressions once I get some time with it, but the reviews have been almost universally positive.

Age of Empires 2 HD got a new expansion as well, which is surprising considering how old the original game is. It’s a pretty barebones expansion, only adding a few new civilizations and campaigns. The Forgotten also adds a couple of new features and improvements, like built in streaming with Twitch TV and built in spectating for online matches. For such an old game, getting any expansions at all is pretty impressive, and I don’t know what else they could do to improve the game that wouldn't ruin the nostalgia of being an HD remake of a 14 year old game. It isn't much, but I’ll take it.

Obviously Pokémon is still eating up most of my gaming time, and I’m approaching 200 hours. The amount of work Game Freak put in to rebalancing the scene for competitive play is fantastic, and it has rekindled my love for Pokémon battles. I’m almost sad that Pokémon Bank is coming out next month, and with it will come a flood of perfectly hacked Pokémon from the earlier generations. On the other hand I really want to use a Heatran on my new team, so win-some-lose-some.

Expectations? Ha!

A new Call of Duty game comes out today! This being a gaming blog and all, I should probably talk about it, but screw that! I'm running a new D&D campaign!

Dungeons and Dragons is really fun, if you've never played it. I know I'll get a lot of flack for this, but my favorite version is 4th edition, because it has the most interesting and balanced combat engine of all the RPGs I've played, and I prefer to play D&D like its Fire Emblem. If you like tactics games, D&D is basically a tactics game with a story you write yourselves, and act out through improv.

I usually fill the role of DM, or Dungeon Master, the person who runs the game, and controls all of the monsters and NPCs. The last time I DM'd a campaign was years ago, and it was awesome until it resulted in week after week of me trying to kill and overpowered adventuring party. See, there are two ways to run a campaign, as a storyweaver and friend, who just wants to share in cool experiences with his party, or as a malevolent force, hell-bent on slaying the party and putting them in mortal danger as frequently as possible. As you can probably imagine, the second one is super fun, and it results in this DM vs party situation where the DMs job is to hit the party hard enough to kill them, but not so hard that they claim it's unfair. Your primary goal is to make them wallow in despair, and accept their fates. Victory for a slayer DM comes not when the party is dead, but when the players accept their fate, and blame themselves for their failure, instead of your brutal campaign.

That ended up sounding significantly more evil than I intended, but the point is the same. If you are the kind of person who likes developing challenges, traps, and encounters, and then watching your friends try to navigate them, then DM is the job for you. I bring all this up because I have been coerced into running a short campaign by some friends, and I'm really getting into it. Here's the campaign background for the first encounter:

It is a time of great turmoil on the Material Plane. It has been 200 standard years since knowledge of the multiverse became widespread as the result of the time wizard Amser’s devious plans, and gave rise to what is now called The Convergence. With travel and communications between planes now a common occurrence, beings with wealth, power, and knowledge seek to plunder and control areas of the multiverse once inaccessible to them. Many of the old gods and other greater beings have retreated, as this rapidly changing world is causing disturbances not even they can predict, and the resulting power vacuum has given rise to numerous emperors, gang leaders, and false prophets who seek power for themselves.

 Your group, [group name] is a small organization in the business of conducting, less than scrupulous missions for being who are willing to pay your fees. Your services aren’t cheap, but you have a reputation for silence, discretion, and honor. [Group name] is based in the undercity of Polis Agora, an ancient city of magic and power that was founded long before the convergence. The native Agorans are a peaceful, spiritual people, who have had trouble dealing with the influx of technology and power that their city has faced, and very few still live in the city itself. Since the convergence, this once great trade city has been overrun with gangsters, thieves, and con men, who have been trying to overthrow the local government and install their own puppet politicians. Due to the cities ancient laws, the title of Duke of Polis Agora has been passed down through named successors, and each Duke has picked a native Agoran replacement, and for the last 200 years their office has been as resistant to change and corruption as possible.

 The current Duke, Duke Torlief, is known in the public eye for being aloof and likeable, but behind closed doors he is a strong negotiator and a powerful ruler, who refuses to yield to the ruffians who would steal his city. He is also a man of honor, and refuses to turn to illegal or unscrupulous means to shut down his opponents. The Duke’s cabinet, however, is not so valiant, and is willing to do anything to maintain native Agoran control of the government. One such cabinet member has even gone so far as to hire [group name] under an alias, to assassinate notorious gang boss Baron Darost.

Writer's Block

Blarrrrrrrrrrrg.


I have no idea what to write about this week. All I've been doing for the last week is playing Pokemon, and I already did like 3 posts about that. Batman came out, and my roommates seem to be in love with it, but I haven't really touched it yet. Microsoft continues to screw the pooch with the Xbone launch, but that isn't even news at this point. Mountain Dew Game Fuel is back, and super delicious, but that isn't exactly news either.

Nintendo announced that that sexy Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds 3DS XL is coming to North America, and that's pretty sweet, along with announcing some awesome new colors for this holiday season.

Delicious

Uhhhh...


I'm excited for the new XCOM DLC, but that isn't for another few weeks. Halloween is this week, but all of the festivities I'm going to be a part of aren't happening for another week or so, for scheduling reasons, and so I'm not really feeling the holiday spirit. Also the new Magic: The Gathering Commander decks come out Friday, and they look pretty sweet.


I guess that's about it. Back to breeding Pokeymans.

Pokemon: A Retrospective

I was going to do a review of Pokemon X and Y, but I realized that Pokemon games are enormously difficult to review. The contents of the review have to change dramatically depending on who the audience is, because many of the improvements from game to game, and most of my favorite new features, are only significant to hardcore or long time players. Even major updates to the game could be seen as revolutionary, or obvious, depending on an individual’s connection to the series. I can talk about how the graphics are now full 3D for the first time ever, and the camera and battle sequences take a cue from the Pokemon Stadium games, and that will sound amazing from one perspective, and trivial from another. Conversely, if I tell you that Destiny Knot can now pass down 5 IVs from parents, significantly improving the yield for IV breeding, half of you will give me blank stares while the other half jumps up and down with glee.

So that’s why I’m going to be writing sort of a retrospective of the Pokemon series, or the main games at least. Pokemon has always been a game that has offered a ton of hidden complexity, under a cute, kid friendly shell. Contrary to popular internet complaining, Pokemon has always had hidden stats and tedious training in one form or another, but it wasn't until comparatively recently that these factors have been well documented and critically considered. It’s these elements of simplicity and complexity that, when held in perfect balance, enthrall so many people and generate record breaking sales.

These elements of complexity and simplicity, combined with a “minute to learn, lifetime to master” mentality, are what make Pokemon so successful and long lasting, especially in the face of competitors. Since Pokemon’s explosive burst on to the scene in the 90s, a number of copycat, monster collecting series have come and gone, in an attempt to capitalize on the Pokemon frenzy. Nearly all of them, however, have fallen by the wayside, usually as a result of elements which made their unique universes too complex for their audience to handle. The two most famous Pokemon “knock offs” are Yu-Gi-Oh and Digimon, and while they both survive in one form or another today, neither of them even come close to the sales or brand power of Pokemon. This is primarily because in an attempt to be ahead of the curve, both series resorted to creating a multitude of new mechanics and monsters much faster than their player base could keep up with, and as a result their players gave up out of frustration.

Pokemon is a paragon of self-control, in this sense, as they tend to make lots of little changes gradually, so no generation of games feels dramatically different from the previous one, and the core mechanics of the game barely change at all. A number of critics penalize the Pokemon franchise for “releasing the same game every year”, but unlike other series such as Call of Duty, where worthy competition comes out at the same rate and yet they do the bare minimum to get by and coast on their brand recognition, Pokemon was the original big “monster collection” game, and is still the most popular one today. Pokemon manages to outperform the competition every time, not only because of their brand name power, but also because of the level of quality that dwarfs every major competitor. Nintendo knows what they’re doing when it comes to handheld games, it’s sort of their thing.

Anyway, short version is: Pokemon is great, the new game is great, if you want a cute RPG where you can force your monsters into a pit fight with your friend’s monsters then go buy it!

Travelogue: New York Comic-Con 2013

This entry is a special one for me, because even though it hasn't been exactly one year since I started this blog, my experiences at NYCC 2012 were what drove me to start a blog in the first place, so this is technically my one year anniversary. Go me.

My feelings about NYCC haven’t changed much from last year, it’s still the next best thing to San Diego Comic-Con, and it still offers a wide variety of awesome things to do. Parking is still a nightmare, but you take what you can get in one of the biggest cities in the world. The crowds were immense, but there were plenty of staff to help out and keep lines moving, and everything went smoothly all in all. In addition to general con madness I got to play a number of games, which was fantastic, and got to see a couple of really cool panels.

I got to play Bayonetta 2, which is looking to be fantastic. It feels just like the first game, which is a good thing, but with an upgraded climax system and pretty new graphics. I’m not kidding when I say that this 5 minute demo rekindled my love for spectacle fighters.

Got to play Super Mario 3D World, which is shaping up to be the most evil game ever conceived. The NSMB series is already known for killing friendships with its unintentional head bounces and bubble death system, but SM3DW adds a communal life pool, the ability to troll power-ups even more, and levels that feature Mario Party style cooperative minigames. All of these elements combine into a game which will leave friend groups sweltering and tensions high. Deceptively pretty game, only purchase if you hate yourself and your friends.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is basically just more DKCR, which is totally fine with me, since DKCR was great. There are a bunch of new enemies and obviously improved graphics, but I'm pretty sure that the 2014 delay was to ensure that it didn't have to compete with Mario rather than completion problems, since the game engine is literally the same. 

Finally A Link Between Worlds is something amazing. It totally captures the feel of old school Zelda games, and will be a welcome return to form for the Zelda series. I also saw the Eiji Aonuma panel, where he revealed lots of new information about the game, and also admitted that past games in the Zelda series have had a bad case of hand holding, and he hopes to fix that going forward. I love everything about than sentence.

Oh, also Pokemon came out. That happened. It didn't even take long to write this, but I'm already getting withdrawals, so I'm going to go back to playing. It's really really good. Not gonna lie, next weeks blog post is probably just gonna be me ranting about how awesome it is. Probably.

My 3DS XL Review

I finally upgraded to a 3DS XL last week. I've had my OG 3DS since launch day, and I've used it for just about everything you can imagine. The 3DS is a fantastic system that’s totally worth owning, but the original build had its share of issues. This is my first XL system, since I skipped the DSi XL, and the size is certainly something I’ll have to get used to. What really put me over the edge though was the release of the Pokemon X and Y editions, which are sexy as hell and totally worth it.

So Sexy.

For starters, to only real problem I ever had with my launch day 3DS was the battery life. The wireless features take a pretty massive toll on the battery, and even with less liberal use, the system could only handle 8 to 10 hours at a convention. I never had any problems with screen size or brightness, and I never fully filled my default 2 GB SD card. Even so, the battery life promises I heard about the XL were enough to get me interested, and I’m happy to report that those promises are easily kept. With semi-regular use my XL can last upwards of 50 hours before the low battery indicator even turns on.

The other improvement that I consider really valuable is the improvement of the quality and placement of the buttons. The regular 3DS could leave my hands frozen in raptor claw positions after extended gaming sessions, but the XL seems to have been designed for human hands. The Start, Select, and Home buttons are also real buttons now, instead of strange, plastic sheet covered depressions, and feel much more responsive. The circle pad is also improved, but it’s difficult to explain the change. Both the new and the old versions are coated in some sort of rubber/plastic hybrid that gives the pad its grip, but the new version seems to be slightly less porous, so it doesn't absorb skin oil as much and doesn't become dirty or slippery from use. This also causes it to have less grip, but they made the center “pit” deeper to compensate. It’s a small change, but a noticeable and welcome one, since the old circle pad tended to leave a ring on the upper screen when closed for a while.

As I mentioned before, this is my first XL, and I will say that the size is minimally problematic. While in its case it barely fits into standard jean pockets, but alone it doesn't have much trouble. This got me to thinking though, who exactly does Nintendo keep making XLs for? Every secondary model of Nintendo handhelds has been made to either cater to a different demographic, or to improve basic functionality of a system. The Game Boy Pocket was made to be a more portable version, and the Game Boy Color added Color. The Game Boy Advance SP added a hinge design and backlighting, and the Game Boy Advance Micro was made for Japanese businessmen to play on the go. The DSi added a camera and a real menu system, and the DSi XL was created to tap into the emerging demographic of older and elderly gamers with failing eyesight. The 3DS XL doesn't offer any of the features targeted at that demographic that the DSi XL had like the oversized stylus and the muted colors, but it was still designed to be that size. I would have honestly preferred a 3DS Lite, with all of the button and battery improvements but without the increased size. Regardless, the improvements are better than advertised and if the increased size doesn't bother you then the 3DS XL is a worthy purchase whether you are upgrading or getting a 3DS for the first time.

My Pokemon Is Fight

I have been participating in and running Pokémon tournaments for a long time. I played against neighborhood kids in grade school, built teams to face my friends in high school, and developed complex strategies in college. When I worked for Gamestop I started a tradition of having a Pokémon tournament before the launch of each new game in the series. At its peak my tournaments hosted over 120 players, and resulted in a number of angry complaints by mall security. Even though I’m no longer with the company, friends of mine are continuing the tradition and this Saturday will mark their second annual tournament without my help.

The biggest thing that gave our tournaments drive was our awesome district manager at the time who authorized us to offer prizes, including free copies of the new game to the winners. Runners up would win things like DS storage cases and Pokémon figurines, one year we even had a custom engraved trophy for the winner. So far every tournament winner has been a friend of mine, including our current reigning champion who is also a two time winner. That doesn't mean that you need to be college aged in order to win, in our second year we had an 8 year old boy in the quarterfinals, and last year a young girl whose team was her starter and five dragons made it to the semifinals. People of all ages come out to participate, from toddlers using their in game team to full adults who compete alongside their children.

For the years that I ran it, I didn't get to participate for obvious reasons, but I did get to face off against the tournament champion each year in an exhibition match. In those battles I was undefeated for three years running. Every year the matches would get closer and closer, including the famous frozen Togekiss moment, but I managed to pull off a win every time. Last year I entered at the last minute with my championship team basically as a gimmick to see how far I got, and got eliminated in round 3. This year I’m significantly more prepared, and I’m ready to reclaim my title.

If you've never played competitive Pokémon it’s a crazy beast. The best way to describe it is really really complex rock-paper-scissors. There are layers upon layers of strategy, team synergy, and countering options for you to consider when building a team, and then actually playing involves equal parts luck, skill, prediction, mind games, and tactics. There are over 600 Pokémon now, and hundreds of attacks, items, and abilities for them to use which leads to literally billions of possible teams, and on top of that every year or so a new game comes out which adds new moves, forms, or Pokémon to be considered for use. There is a massive Pokémon metagame that is maintained by websites and communities across the internet, and countless hours have gone into testing and perfecting certain strategies.

Just a little trip down memory lane I guess. I’m very excited for the upcoming tournament this Saturday (10/5) and I’ll be there with the 3^rd year champion and some other friends. It will be good to really get back into the swing of competitive battling, since I haven’t been seriously competing for a number of years. If you’re near the South Shore Plaza feel free to come by and see what all the fuss is about.

So How 'bout That Steam OS?

It looks like the long rumored Steambox may finally come to fruition with Valve’s announcement this week of a Steam OS. Apparently it’s going to be a full, Linux based operating system that’s optimized for game performance and media sharing. According to the official website, this operating system is being designed from the ground up to be a living room operating system with streaming options, developer support, and more. No hardware partnership has been announced yet, but this seems like a natural first step toward a first party Valve box.

The Steam OS is a somewhat unique product, as there isn't really any competition for “living room TV” computers. There are consoles, sure, but consoles are closed systems, designed to play specific games. You can’t just install the Xbox operating system on a PC and hook it up to your TV. There are also smart TVs, which offer video and music streaming options, but those are bare-bones systems that are basically just apps for your TV. The Steam OS is going to be a full operating system, which will presumable have all the features of base Linux available underneath the Steam shell, so the system will be as complex or customizable as you want it to be. That leaves room for a lot of flexibility and space for upgrades in the future.

It isn’t unheard of for people to have gaming computers hooked up to their TVs. Steam launched their Big Picture feature at Christmas time last year to target those people specifically. This OS could be a step in the right direction for those people, since presumable the entire OS could be controlled with a gamepad, similar to how Big Picture works, but it will be interesting to see how many people are willing to buy or build computers for that purpose when the OS launches. Luckily the OS will be 100% free, which eliminates the large cost of buying an operating system for a living room PC, but even with that benefit it seems unlikely that average consumers will be willing to build or buy their own living room PCs just for gaming.

I’m one of those people that has a living room PC, and thanks to a 30ft HDMI cable I can play all my Steam games on the glorious big screen. When Steam OS launches I’ll probably look into setting up a dual boot to at least try it out, but whether or not it becomes a permanent part of my setup will depend on how good the streaming capabilities are. If a Steam OS PC with minimal running hardware can act as a streaming box, and stream games in real time from my main PC I’ll buy one for every room in the house.

Versus!

Competitive gaming is an interesting subject. It has existed since the first days of head to head play and high score competition in arcades, but in the grand scheme of things that’s been a relatively short period of time, about 40 years or so. In that time competitive gaming has grown by leaps and bounds, and not just in a professional sense. Sure, there are gaming tournaments now that offer millions of dollars in prizes, and games that support millions of players in competitive environments, but video games as a medium of competition still have a long way to go.

Competition in numerous forms has existed longer than human society has. It can be used to settle conflicts, to entertain, or to communicate, but all forms of human competition have been bound by one thing; arbitrary rules. Rules are important, they are the only things that keep society from collapsing into roaming gangs of murderers, and by extension competition needs rules as well. These rules are generally a good thing, as they establish a fair and balanced metric for use in determining victory, but that does not mean that they aren’t still totally arbitrary. The only reason a quarterback doesn’t punch and kick his way through the defensive line is because there are rules against it, just like how the only thing stopping a particularly jealous ex-boyfriend from kidnapping his former girlfriend are the laws that call that act illegal and the police force who enforce those laws. These rules create important boundaries in both games and in life, for the safety and fairness of everyone.

As a result of these rules, human beings become very adjusted to limiting and controlling themselves on a daily basis. Learning what the rules of life are, why they are important, and how to avoid breaking them is one of the most important parts of becoming a member of a society. In a way, all of the bad things that happen in society are the result of someone breaking the rules. Unfortunately, this leads to a fundamental problem when it comes to competition in video games, because video games have their own rules, and don’t need the players to enforce them.

This is very weird if you aren't prepared for it. Even other games, like board or card games, have established rules that you can break if you know what you’re doing. You can’t cheat a computer program, it literally cannot do things it wasn't programmed to do. You can exploit glitches, sure, but those are things that are very specific, and achieve a specific result, in a way they are just as much a part of the program as the non-glitch parts are. This results in a whole lot of new rules and problems that don’t exist anywhere else. Because the physics of the universe are set in stone from a gameplay perspective, it’s up to balance testers and programmers to fix problems that arise in the rules. You’ll see that in online or ongoing games, where routine patches are commonplace. It takes a lot of creativity to create a network of rules that result in a balanced competitive environment. Imagine if the referees and officials could manipulate physics for the duration of sports games, and how much work would have to go in to maintaining a system like that.

Additionally, people are bound to find this type of game difficult, seeing as there has never been anything like it in human history. Video games exist in a world where all the rules of the game a built right in, and there are no "honor rules". Anything that isn't allowed by the rules of the game is simply impossible to do. This is why you get lots of cases of people enacting their own honor rules in video games. Things like no rushing in real time strategy games, or no spamming in fighting games. Humans are used to having to live by arbitrary rules, and the lack of them can be startling to some people.

Just a random thought I had.

Travelogue - Dragon-con

Dragon-con is a convention that takes place every year in Atlanta, GA, and claims to be the “The world's largest fantasy/Sci-fi convention”. The convention certainly seemed huge, but that was due largely to the fact that it takes place across six hotels instead of one large convention center like most other cons. This leads to a lot of walking, both indoors and outdoors, and very congested hallways, since people have to do a great deal more walking than they would if this were held in a convention center. I managed to completely wear out my shoes over the course of the weekend, but it was well worth it.

This convention is run by fans, for fans, which of course has both positive and negative elements. On the positive side it doesn’t feature any of the strict regulations that sometimes plague larger cons. The autograph area is simply a room, where you can walk around, see people, and line up for whoever you want to meet. The celebrities get to make their own schedules for when they want to be there, and you don’t have to line up hours in advance or get lucky in a ticket drawing in order to meet them. Security was also a lot more lax then at other big conventions, with several vendors selling live steel weaponry on site and several outfits that would be impossible at other conventions for one reason or another. Also there were bars, lots of bars. Literally at least two or three per hotel, and open all day and night, so the entire convention was one big drunken four day party.

The flip side of this of course was the lack of organization. It’s very apparent that Dragon Con doesn’t have any sort of singular event coordinator to make sure everything is running smoothly. Each event or panel basically has to govern itself when it comes to tech support and organization. This results in several events clearly being run by people who are not prepared to do so, and the show suffers as a result. The lack of organization also makes navigating a colossal pain. Because the convention takes place across multiple hotels, there are more than fifty different event rooms, floor names, and venues to navigate, and each hotel has their own method of naming and organizing them. Instead of a single unified map and room layout, patrons have to navigate from building to building using sky-bridges, which leads to clogged hallways and lost con-goers. It doesn’t help either that the hotel staff will know the names and locations of areas in their hotel only, so getting help is a pain. It took us two days to finally figure out the most efficient way to navigate the area.

If you like massive parties and exceptional costumes, Dragon Con is the con for you. The events run all night every night, so there no shortage of things to do. If you don’t like large crowds, complex navigation, or lots of walking however, this one may not be worth it. Even if you don’t attend the event proper, Dragon Con takes over several square blocks of downtown Atlanta, and even has a parade that’s open to the public, so if you’re in the area you can still come by and experience the festivities.

I’m back everybody. Next week my post will be about my new place and all the fun things it contains. After that I can go back to posting about how Microsoft has their collective heads so far up their collective asses they look like that inside out pig monster from Galaxy Quest

I forgot Alan Rickman was in this movie...

Is It Almost A Year Already!?

Welp, it’s time for me to be taking a little summer break. I’ve been writing this blog nonstop, every week since its launch almost a year ago, and I’m about to go through some big personal stuff soon. I’m moving in 2 weeks, and also going to DragonCon in Atlanta. I’ll be back with a Travelogue about that on September 10^th. DragonCon is one of the largest conventions on the east coast, so it should be a good time. I’ll be back in a few weeks, enjoy your summer till then!

This Week In: The Internet

Too many things were announced in the past week so I’m going to cover a bunch of them! Here we go~

Riot Games and American Express are teaming up to create a League of Legends debit card. They’re doing a full reveal of it tomorrow but it looks like they are going to be offering a lot of Riot Points to customers. 22,000 points by my count, for signing up, adding money and making ten transactions. That’s almost $150 in Riot Points, which is a pretty damn good deal. It isn't a credit card, so there’s no credit check and no chance of it stealing money from you in interest. I’m still waiting to see more details, but if the American Express website is to be believed other than ATM fees and the one time signup fee it doesn't cost a thing. If it’s really on the up and up I’ll totally get one for myself.

Mark Whitten confirmed in a Reddit AMA that the Xbox One no longer requires the Kinect to be plugged in to function. This is fantastic news, because even if you love the Kinect and would always have it plugged in, you have to admit that losing your Kinect or having it break also resulting in the effective bricking of your console would be extraordinarily annoying. Not to mention the fact that Microsoft had stated in the past that it is possible to disable the Kinect on the software side, but if you could disable it but not unplug it, it leads to some questions about how much you can actually disable.

Finally, Nintendo announced a new element for the new Pokemon games; Mega Pokemon. This has been a big controversial point among Pokemon fans, mostly because we don’t have enough information about how they work mechanically. I like the designs from a visual standpoint, and from what we've seen the forms are activated in battle through the use of a hold item, which seems pretty straightforward. Nintendo probably won’t give too many details about this until the game is closer to release, but I’ll keep my eyes open. Another advancement for the new games is a system to track and build EVsin game, which isn't a big deal if you don’t play the game competitively, but if you do play competitively it’s a huge freaking deal.

Honestly though Mega Pokemon, good or bad, are totally redeemed by one thing: L'oreal Ampharos.

Because you're worth it

Travelogue - Boston Comic-Con

Boston Comic-Con was this past weekend, and it was pretty entertaining. It’s held in the Seaport World Trade Center now, as opposed to the Hynes convention center in previous years. This is good news for everyone, since the Seaport is larger, better laid out, and doesn't have the traffic problems that come with being connected to the Prudential Center. Last year BCC was small, taking up only half of the Hynes and only featuring a vendor’s room and a small hallway, but this year the offerings increased significantly.

Having been to both San Diego and New York Comic-Cons has spoiled me somewhat I suppose. Between those and PAX I’m used to large, sprawling convention halls with multiple main rooms and lots to do. Not that BCC is anything underwhelming, but it pales in comparison to the larger conventions. This is improving of course, and in a few years it’s likely that BCC will be big enough to rival the bigger cons, but this year it was still small. The convention hall was crowded, and the lines out the door went on for nearly a mile, but the convention still felt small and intimate.

The convention’s size did not stop it from attracting numerous noteworthy guests, however. The most exciting for me was the chance to meet Billy West, the man of a thousand voices, before the end of the final season of Futurama. We also got to meet the actors who played Fili and Kili in The Hobbit, as well as some famous models and cosplayers. All in all it was a good time, and even if you don’t think this convention is worth the price of admission, keep an eye on it. I have a feeling that Boston Comic-Con is going to become a very noteworthy convention in the next couple of years.

In other news, Pikmin 3 is fantastic, and I've put almost ten hours into it already. It’s so good that I can’t stop playing it, even with my Steam backlog staring me in the face and Tales of Xilia coming out today. I'm trying to find a way to fit all these games in, but there just aren't enough hours in the day. It’s so tough being me sometimes.

Insert Fish Pun Here

As you may or may not have heard, Phil Fish has cancelled Fez II, and is giving up on making games. He says that this decision comes at the end of “a long, bloody campaign”, and it has been confirmed that he is totally serious. People have made a really big deal about this on both sides of the camp, with some people really upset that Fez isn't getting a sequel, and others glad that Phil Fish won’t be making any more money.

If you've seen Indie Game: The Movie, you probably know that Phil Fish is a bit of a weirdo. He reminds me of a game developer version of Edgar Allen Poe, kind of sad, misunderstood and a bit of a dick. Fez turned out to be a fantastic game, but only after years of development and multiple revisions. Regardless, I have a lot of respect for Phil Fish as a developer, the conditions and situations he had to face while developing Fez we’re terrible but despite that he managed to make a great game. If he wasn't so abrasive toward his fans and didn't respond to criticism with such hostility he could have become a well-known and beloved game designer.

Honestly, this isn't really news. Game companies form and collapse all the time, and Indie companies aren't any different. The only real difference is that this decision was made by one person while he was overly emotionally invested. Was it a sensible move to make? No, but it is his decision. If he really believes that random people on the internet have been working in tandem to offend him and get him to stop making games, then there’s nothing else to say. As anyone who does any job in the public eye knows, you need to be thick-skinned about most of the things people say. You’ll drive yourself insane if you try to rationalize and internalize everything anyone says about you.

In reality though, Phil Fish is just a guy who either never really cared about making games in the first place, either that or someone who takes internet insults really really badly. I wonder what he’s going to do now that he’s out of the game business. It’ll be interesting to see if he takes up another “public creativity” career like writing, and if he does how badly he reacts to being called a hack all over again.