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With Twitter not going great. I thought I just create and pin this on my blogspot so I can be reached if for some reason people actually wan...

Monday, January 27, 2014

Gaming is giving me anxiety

I keep a list of video game news related websites to visit through feedly (I was using google reader until it google decided it should die). Because websites run on hits so headlines tend to be as sensational as possible which often makes going through the news harder as you need to take more time to decide if this is just not as truthful as it makes out to be.

I have to say though the practice of reading gaming news is giving me anxiety. An example would be the news about Index holdings going bankrupt and the brand Atlus might suffer. As a fan, this drove me nuts waiting for some company to buy out the Atlus brand. Then there are kickstarters of games in genres I really like which might not make their kickstarter goal.

Then there are games coming out for Japan and in my head would be praying hard for no online locked DLC. Hell best if there were no DLCs for it so I will not have to worry or bang my head against the wall if some good content were cut so the publishers can make more money.

This practice of reading gaming news and constantly worrying if a certain game comes out, your favorite game company going bust etc. is giving me more emotion fatigue than I would imagine. I guess this explains why some folks have just upped and went "Nope old games are the best".

The practice of a developer and publishers constantly trying to make their fans worry and anxious over the state of their games and saying stuff like "well if so and so game do well we will make / localize the sequel" is seriously driving me nuts.

Do I really need a guilt trip for wanting a game I like to be release? It is even worse like Nintendo exclusive games as there is no Nintendo in Singapore. When I hear games like Shantae or Phoenix Wright going digital only, I bite my tougue and try to find a way to get them and again worry over the fact the games are tied to my hardware. So once my 3DS dies so does my games.

Again do I really need this sort of anxiety from just wanting to play games I like? There are lot more things like dealing hackers / griefers in online games, screaming kids on xbox live and people forcing you to take a stand on games because its sexist or too violent.

The list goes on but boy just thinking about this gave me an anxiety attack.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

The strange era of gaming

This is really a strange era of playing video games. You know hooking up a video game console to a television and playing games on the game console.

Recently someone asked me what I was playing for fighting games. I said "you know I am still playing Meltyblood". His response was "oh" and being surprise at me still playing it. Probably surprise people are still playing it.

His response and expression left kept me thinking for sometime. It kept me thinking why he was surprise that I was still playing the game.So that thought really lingered in my mind. As I go through gaming news, video game forums and playing games, a few possible reasons for his surprise came to mind.

If I would go onto steam and load up the new game titles, the first 100 new titles I could only recognize only about 20 of them. There is such a huge library of games, there isn't any reason to keep playing the same genre of game or even the exact same game.

So why do I still go back to playing the same game?

The best way I can put it is, to think of it like listening to your favorite songs or music. You love that song or music, naturally you would listen to them now and then. I can say the same for games. I like a certain game naturally I would go back and play it again. From this perspective you would realize it is not one bit strange or surprising.

Still I am not that into new games recently. Well not that into triple A games. In fact recently I got into collecting old games(still buying new ones of course).

For me the big budget games are getting less interesting and no longer catered for me.This is  probably a side effect of getting older, you tend to want to play the games you are familiar with. Sadly the genre that appeals to me are no longer being developed by the bigger companies. Strangely I don't mind it that much as indie developers are stepping up and filling the gap.

You must be thinking "alas the internet brought about great things like Indie developers, early access and Kickstarter to save gaming from running into the ground by grey design". That is the good part about the internet which you must remember the down side.

The upside of people doing good is people doing bad things. Oh how playing video games have grown and include people of all walks of life. There are always bad eggs somewhere doing bad things in general and they represent the groups of communities even if we do not see them as such.

Yes I am talking about people behaving really badly or doing horrible things at tournaments, lan parties, game events etc. For me the fighting game community has become the butt of the gaming communities in general and being both vilified and crucified because of a prominent incident that happened. I do not deny that the incident was bad but being on the internet also means that everyone remembers it and it is hard to shake off that image.

The sad part about the whole thing is the whole gaming communities suffer from the same problems as well. It just happens that the fighting game community is the scapegoat of the whole thing and people feel it is mostly alright to point fingers at them giggling at the butt monkey in the room.

The times when I was younger playing video games amount friends you know around the neighborhood Talking about them, trading secrets. Advising people to avoid bad games.Those times are gone. What a strange era for video games.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Remember the last MeltyBlood tournament about not practising? I lied

Well it isn't exactly that I lied about not practising. I didn't exactly tell the full truth. Yes I didn't practice combos setups etc. What I did was watch and remember the matches I had before with the local players.

Basically I spent the night prior thinking about how every player played and their habits.

I also checked out how a match up for certain characters are against C.aoko are like and strategies against them. I didn't write them down though (if the tournament occurred recently I would actually write them down. Well more on that next time).

I figured if I will not be finding new tech  within night why not do the easier thing and study match ups.

So I got 4th place with C.aoko and nearly beat everyone in the 10 v 10. I am happy with that at least.

As for not sleeping the night before. Yeah I really didn't sleep the night before. That was no lie, it was really difficult to keep myself going during the tournament. It was worth it at least in this situation.