O_o;

Final(s) Thoughts

This is my last blog regarding Concepts in Video Gaming specifically, though I’m not so sure I won’t use it for continued updates regarding my thoughts on video games.

Anyway, this was definitely a good experience, and I enjoyed class. The concepts we explored were interesting, and not because I hadn’t thought about them before, but because now knowing about the actual study of games and the terminology is helpful to articulate myself and to better understand the workings of an industry I would like to be a part of. Granted there were definitely topics, such as modernism vs. post-modernism that I never would have associated with video games. But then maybe the most important thing that I’ve taken away is that everything affects video games, because nothing exists in a vacuum.

The projects were interesting and it made me look at video games in a different light, in terms of what they are capable of. Also, I’m terribly fond of the idea of scaring the crap out of Hollywood. Video game “actors” are much better anyway… we don’t have to hear about which ones broke up, or how many children from a third world country Master Chief just adopted…

I think my only disappointment with this class is that (to my knowledge anyway) there aren’t any follow-up topics… I would really love to see a synthesis for this class. A semester-long project the branched Computer Sci, Digital Media and Communications where we would be able to fully explore the making (both in programming and visual/art work design, as well as game desigining in general) and the marketing. It would be a lot of fun, at least in my perspective. It’d also be really nice to have in a portfolio.

Overall, I enjoyed class a great deal =)

Spoiled? A Little.

Timing had made me think of something that I probably don’t reflect on enough. Revisiting the world of classical gameplay for our final, while simultaneously working to complete my 3D modeling animation, something which I had thought about before, but maybe never really appreciated occured to me- When it comes to visuals, the next generation of gamers is completely spoiled.

You can argue the point, but there is a definite trend. Today’s graphics are tailored to the point of indistinguishable realism, or so highly stylized and polished that they become hyper-real (think Soul Calibur). And this really is where the stress is. In fact, I’m not so sure that video games would carry the same appeal if not for the massive, yet sublimminal influence that visual art and style carry. Many times, the initial appeal that draws players into a game is the visual quality. In fact, gameplay and visual aethetics are intertwined now, as many will feel that poorly rendered graphics create for a very ugly and painful gaming experience.

Why the next generation and not us? We’re a special case. While many of us are definitely getting more and more demanding regarding visuals, we’re just old enough to have seen the major evolution in gaming take place and the transition from the super-deformed character sprites traversing their 2-Dimensional landscapes to the highly stylized, highly realistic, 10,000+ polygons character models moving freely within a 3D space. Even in the limited scope of first person shooters (limited due to the single view) the transition between games like Wolfenstein to Goldeneye to Halo are vast.

Are we right to be so demanding of gaphical content? It’s a personal issue I suppose. I have absolutely no problem booting up my copy of Final Fantasy VII or Chrono Trigger, despite their lack-luster visuals by modern standards. I’m also the first person to complain after 10 minutes of Goldeneye that my eyes hurt from the low rez textures and the angular scenery (granted, it could just be that I suck at Goldeneye…). Still you have to wonder if the gravitation towards the real or hyper-real realm is a good thing for games.

You have to wonder if we’re not hurting ourselves as well? How often too have we seen games like Heavenly Sword. Stunning graphics and coreography and 5 hours of gameplay? In fact, as newer games are released, and the stress for looking the best becomes a necessity, especially to compete on the next-gen consoles, are developers sacrificing game play for graphics? Should graphical content be so indicative of good game play?

My personal belief is yes. But I think that it is up to gamers to set the standard, not the industry. We should be willing to pick up a game which maybe isn’t top of the line visuals. And I think for the most part, our generation is. Releases of games like Alien Hominid and its favorable reception is a good example. Look at its artistic style- it’s practically downright ugly. Yet as far as gameplay, it’s more than enjoyable. But you don’t see a lot of younger kids being that receptive. And that’s where we are being damaged. Developers clamoring to create stunning visuals to appeal to the growing younger generation gamers are sacrificing quite a bit.

Is this always the case? Not by any means. The Final Fantasy series, Assassin’s Creed, the Metal Gear Series, and many others are good examples of how games can have stunning graphics and can be an equally amazing gaming experience.

As with all things, there needs to be balance. And as gamers we need to work with the market and show them it’s okay to blow us away with gameplay and not graphics.

You Decide 2008: Ron Paul Revolution

Summary (Topic):

If you’re like me, you find the entire presidential race more than a little boring- every candidate is watered down, boring and unwilling to take a stand on anything. And if they do, they’re pretty much crazy. So who are we left with? Not much. Unfortunately, that has led to a great deal of voter apathy in the past years, but to be honest, I can’t blame anyone.

One presidential hopeful however is someone I can almost completely endorse. Ron Paul. Now, granted, my own politics are not really any place for a game, but when you look at Dr. Paul’s position, he is the ideal focus of a game: A relatively unknown presidential candidate is forced to take on big business, a liberally slanted media, conservatively biased radio broadcasters, and hope to garner enough support in the primaries to achieve victory of some kind.

Our game is going to be a spoof on the current presidential race from the perspective of Ron Paul. Love him, hate him or just don’t care, that’s not really important. We’re hoping to poke fun at the circus that is presidential campaigning.

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Gameplay:

Based in Flash, Ron Paul’s adventure will be brought to you in the form of a 2D platformer.

However, the game will give Ron Paul RPG-like stats which grow as he collects finances, increases his reputation, finds pieces of the constitution, etc. These stats are essential, because they allow Ron Paul to unlock abilities to help him defeat harder obstacles in later levels.

The basic strategy is simple. Each level gives Ron Paul an objective. For example, in level one, he is required to have a status of at least 60% in order to become a candidate. To do so, Paul is required to make contact with 6 of the 10 Republicans in the level, while avoiding Democrats. The reward of this tutorial level will be the Republican nomination. Players can then begin the game.

Players are able to fully explore levels and may go backwards, forwards up or down in order to find every object necessary for 100% completion if they so choose.

At the end of every level will be a boss battle, wherein they must use their unique Ron Paul abilities to defeat the politician. Of course, gameplay will include highly exaggerated battles and abilities to place emphasis on the ridiculous debating done by each candidate.

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Graphics:

The advantage of being Digital Media students means that we will be able to tailor our own unique characterizations of each member of the presidential race. The graphics will be highly stylized and will place an emphasis on a comedic sort of appearance when it comes to bosses.

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Controls:

All of the controls are currently tentative and may be changed in the games final phase.

W- Look up
S- crouch/duck
D- move right
A- move left
Space- Jump
Mouse- select options from the menu
Esc- Open menu

*more controls will be added upon necessity.

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Sounds:

The game will employ actual audio clips from the presidential campaign, in particular, audio that portrays the candidates in a comical light. Other than these, the game will feature very basic sounds that will be activated by their respective action:

Jumping
Ducking
Attacking
Collecting Money
Negative Event
Taking damage
Dealing damage to enemy
Success
Game Over
Level Completion
Tallying

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Game Flow:

The games overall flow is determined by how entertaining players find the game. Those who are entertained will find the absurdities pointed out to be comical and spur them on further to discover more comedic nuances. The game begins with a tutorial level and then sets players out to finish the remaining levels. For this class, this may be limited to two or three levels with a boss battle.

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Levels:

Also intended to be highly stylized and comical looking, these will range from streets to legal buildings. The goal again is to create a sort of cartoonish element to the surrounding environment to continue with the satire feel.

The final level is decidedly a debate stage, where Ron Paul will do battle with a presidential candidate.

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RPG-style stats

As previously mentioned, the game uses RPG styled stats in order to measure the players’ overall achievements in-game and to give a very elementary idea of the candidates need to consider when running. Here is a basic overview:

Player Stats:

Support:

Players raise support by successfully keeping away bad media,avoiding “bad money” and keeping their policy unchanged, and kissing babies. Players support can fall by dealing with the elderly, illegal immigrants, and negative media.

Influence:

Players raise or lose influence depending on their confrontation with bad money, and crooked politicians

Finances:

Players gain finances by picking up both bad and good money. However, support will fall by picking up bad money. When finances level up,

Network:

Players increase their networking by contacting positive media and helpful politicians.

Policy:

Players increase their policy by picking up “bills” or constitution

fragments. Their policy falls by dealing with shady politicians. Total:

Potential Threats and Enemies: ·

Bad Money· Shady Politicians· Illegal Immigrants· The Elderly· Negative Media· Debates

Potential Help: ·

Legitimate campaign funding· Positive media· Kissing babies· Debates· Helpful Politicians Players unlock abilities based on their statitistics and their finances.

New abilities will allow them to more successfully defend themselves and progress through the levels eith greater ease.

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This is a very basic overview. Once the game has been tested and more work has been done, the resulting modifications made to this data will be posted.

DewMocracy

So I’m hoping the “Moc” in DewMocracy is derived from “Mock.” You have to admit, the ad pokes a lot of fun at the sort of things which would grab our interest if they were plot lines for an upcoming blockbuster. Utilizing these conventions, it’s hard for us not to get interested however. I have to admit, that watching it, and exploring the website a bit, I can’t help but try to get involved in their new campaign.

[2bcontinued]

Okay, I finally got time to finish this blog. I’ll try to be brief, because once I get started on my reaction to a project, I can get pretty detailed and no one wants to read all that.

Overall, I find the concept behind Dewmocracy amusing. It’s a good way to get fans of mountain dew (apparently there are hardcore fans, I was not aware of this) involved in the release of new products. So far, releases like Code Red, Livewire and that Game Fuel (the last one, I wasn’t a huge fan of- too sweet) have already added 3 additional flavors to mountain dew to begin with. And it’s interesting, because giving drinkers (poor choice of phrasing I guess) the opportunity to choose the flavor also reduces the number of complaints. But that’s true of any system.

Now, you also can’t overlook how important this concept is. This entire campaign goes to the heart of what every person wants- control. Everyone wants to be in control of just about every aspect of their life. And I’m certain their soft drinks are no exception. Granted, it’s not exactly the sort of control everyone dreams of, but it’s a step in the right direction.

They put a story to all of this, and I don’t really remember all that much. A king, a prince, a sleeping princess, a turtle, some crabs, chambers and elements and such. Again I’m over simplifying, but it’s really to prove that the story, if you look at how it relates to Mountain Dew- it doesn’t. And that’s okay. It’s actually not so silly that you can’t suspend your disbelief at the plot if for no other reason to suck it up and forge ahead to make your soda. It’s pretty cheesy though. Quaint, but cheesy.

The method of choosing flavors through questions/puzzle/arcade-esque gameplay is also a novel idea. Honestly, I wasn’t’ sure how they could make a game about mountain dew terribly exciting, and in my opinion, it’s not as exciting as it is inviting. You spend more time interested in what will happen as you play, than you do trying to get a high score for example. The use of these mechanics allow players to make the choices without giving them too much to think about. If Mountain Dew bombarded me with which fruit blend combination I would want, as opposed to their rather simple method of selection, I think I would have probably just clicked my way through without giving much thought to it.

Ultimately, I think it’s a clever approach. And I’m sure anyone who takes the time to really look at the webpage will appreciate the work they put into the dialogue, story and games. It may not be the online playable of the year, but it’s a good time-suck.

MMovie- World of Warcraft Follies

Machinima is definitely a lot of work. With our machinima nearly completed (now that we’ve been afforded some extra time before showing it in class, I’ll definitely be “tweaking” it a little. Christine and I have probably spent more time re-filming a 4 minute segment, than if we just watched Zoolander 9 or 10 times through.

What issues did we run into?

I think the major opposition to any smooth sailing in terms of the project, result from the severely limited movements of character models in World of Warcraft. While the models we chose are ideal (Blood elves are pretty much the metrosexual Azeroth race) for a reproduction of Zoolander, their preprogrammed macros are not. These gestures, wether they be highly animated or understated and dull, become a serious issue when it comes to trying to duplicate very basic human motions. I ended up spending a lot of time splicing film together (not always very well). Luckily, for our second attempt at filming, Christine managed to put together some macro strings that were convincing enough when we edited them. My job was to make them convincing.

Storyboarding was not a huge problem. I say that, because during our first attempt to film, Christine and I found ourselves writing out every single shot that we needed (as opposed to drawing) and checking them off as we completed them. Doing the storyboards wasn’t a big deal. It was a mandatory part of Digital Animation classes, so we managed to complete it. Christine’s definitely more organized than I am, so she took the lead here.

Splicing and editing the footage was also a problem. I have a bit of experience in this department, since I used to do AMV (Anime Music Videos). Feel free to cringe. (Believe me when I tell you, it was more of an exploration of film editing than me feeling the need to make a In Flames/Bleach video). In either case, synching up sound with video isn’t really all the difficult. I don’t use Windows Media player, because personally, I find it to be really primitive. The program I use allows me to cut frames up to the millisecond, so that’s definitely helpful. Unfortunately, this also means that I have to be really careful and highly selective about how to cut the film to make sure scenes look as though they flow into one another. It also is a huge hinderance that if I cut a segment out of the film, everything contracts together meaning that while the audio track may have been previously synched correctly, now, it is half, or even a quarter of a second off. Might not seem like a lot, but for 4 minutes of footage, it can throw an entire scene off.

Quality of film is also a problem. To begin with, WoW is pretty ugly graphically. Still, my computer runs it really well since its made to do all of my digital work, but Fraps is another story. There is a very grainy quality to Fraps when translated into a .WMV file. Then, when it is translated over into the film editor, cut apart, merged, and then reproduced, there is more data loss. Overall, the finished product looks nothing like what I actually filmed in terms of quality. I’m considering touching it up in another program (maybe Adobe AfterEffects? Not terribly sure yet.) because the finished product leaves something to be desired in terms of graphical content.

There is also no end to the things that will go wrong during filming. Sometimes, you find yourself standing too close to an animated NPC who feels the need to do something inappropriate like laugh or start walking in front of your shot. Likewise, players ALL feel the need to walk up to groups who appear idle and attempt to interact. Interacting of course means standing in front of a person and jumping. This is funny the first twenty times, but after that it’s a little ridiculous. Having a person jumping up and down like a moron in your shot, or running back and forth, or attempting to chat with you is frustrating after a while. It has to be dealth with though, since people are inherently nosey. Also difficult is choosing a proper locale. There aren’t many places in Azeroth that allow for a convincing “modeling party.” Of course, this was also an exercise in “find the place where there are the least lowbies running around so we can actually get filming done.” Of course, there were definitely a few bloopers on our parts. For example, acting out an entire scene without Fraps on, or panning the camera, only to end up moving the wrong direction in relation the character.

So that was our endeavor. Whether it came out well or not, I guess we’ll have to wait and see the general reaction, but I like it. I’m biased of course, because I know how long we spent on it. I also can’t not laugh when I see Blood-elf Zoolander saying “I can dere-lick my own balls.”

That might just be me.

Orange Box

I’m a huge fan of first person shooters. I hadn’t played Half-Life since the original came out, and at the time, it was not a good introduction for me- the plot went over my head and I was a little too young to appreciate just what I was playing. I do remember being in awe at the graphics though. In fact, I’d stop and watch the looping trailers at the supermarket where I bought it (sounds weird, I know.).

I passed up Half-life 2 when it came out, because I didn’t enjoy the first one the way I should have. However, with my recent boredom with Unreal Tournament 2K4, I decided it was time to pick up something else.

Orange Box completely blew me away, actually. The price for all of these games together is decent. Granted, some of the titles are a little dated, but they’re just as enjoyable. As far as Half-Life 2, seeing this much effort in a FPS is really wonderful. The scripted events are pretty well done (maybe a little stiff). The graphics are nothing terribly fancy comparatively, but are still impressive and don’t leave my eyes bleeding from ugly textures or shitty color contrasts.

I think this game really shines when it comes to Team Fortress 2 and Portal. The gameplay in the latter is actually an impressive concept and is well executed. And the dialogue from the antagonistic computer had me and my roommates laughing quite a bit. In terms of content, the 19 levels can go really quickly, but there’s a decent amount of replay in terms of challenges, so I won’t hold it against them. Not to mention, there was no guarantee this concept would receive the reaction it has, so for a test-run it’s not so bad. I’m hoping for (and counting on) a sequel.

My favorite overall is Team Fortress 2. This is probably the most interesting approach I’ve seen in terms of competetive FPS. The class system makes for diverse game play every time, and adds levels of strategy that one might not expect. The various quirks, such as nemesis, record keeping (the computer letting you know that you’ve killed more people this round with headshots than the last is mildly entertaining), and the achievements (grey-matter award is pretty rewarding) make it entertaining. Unfortunately, lately, I seem to be ending up on French servers, so I haven’t been communicating with my team mates, but I’m sure it’s a useful feature, lol. Also, please note that it’s pretty funny to listen to French people when they get killed.

I’m sure this review isn’t helpful, it’s more me just talking about my excitement with this game, but I thought I’d share my current gaming experience. Plus, I figure Orange Box is a nice way to spend my time until I pick up Jericho.

Whoops, Well, Classifications Anyway.

So, I’ve totally neglected this blog. Not out of laziness, I just forgot about it.

Working on this recent project as of late has made me realize that trying to classify anyone is almost impossible. People have too many diverse interests to think that you’ll ever appeal to anyone.

I also think that attempting to group people together by age and assume that you’ll make something that appeals to them is also a very naive hope. You just can’t do it with any certainty.

Ultimately, I think it’s all about how you create a game and knowing your target audience. To me there’s several separate groups:

Plus gamers- This is pretty much “us.” I use the term plus because we’re pretty much modern gamers with the knob turned to 11. We play video games and don’t get freaked out by complex controls, and learn the mechanics of game-play really quickly. But we also appreciate how the games are made, and spend more time analyzing what could or should be done to make it better (The “how I would have done it” conversation we’ve all had).
Modern gamers- regular gamers, typically from our generation. They pick up controls as fast as we do, but don’t really enjoy games for the same reasons. It’s tough to differentiate, but generally, these guys don’t get philosophical when it comes to their games.
Casual Gamers- These are the kind of people who will play mostly for time-suck or when they get hooked on addictive game play. They’re not involved for story or witty dialogue. They can appreciate graphical quality, but generally, not with the same scale. These are also the guys who feel the need to yell at the screen when something goes wrong and throw the controller (stop doing that, it’s not nice)
Retro-Modern Gamers- The generation who grew up with the very first video games, and are willing to at least take a stab at the new titles. Generally the controls come very slowly, and they get overwhelmed easily. Typically they are most comfortable with really simple objectives and controls. Most enjoy very shallow plot-lines and very few things to remember.
Retro Gamers- If it goes much more beyond pac-man, these gamers want nothing to do with it, and shun the new technology.
Retro-New Comers- This is mostly adults who missed getting into video games and are trying to now (i.e. the Wii crew). They play like Retro-Modern Gamers, but lack the preexisting knowledge.
Young Children- These kids don’t have the motor skills necessary to play Halo yet, but Cooking Mama is just fine. While maybe not intellectually stimulated by games just yet, they like being entertained by bright colors and cute characters. On par with the retro-newcomers
Unreachable- Some people just don’t want to play. These are typically adults who disliked games as a kid, or just never got into it, and have no intention of doing so now.

I dunno, this is overly simplified, but I tried to generalize the types of players as opposed to their age groups. I mean, if I’m making a game, I want it to appeal to a certain type of person, not an age group. I think that’s why Halo is so successful. Maybe not the simplest of games, but Bungee reaches out to our entire generation on so many levels. And they don’t try to be something that they aren’t. That’s pretty important. I mean, I could puke at all of these awful Nintendo Wii games. Some of them are laughable. Who are they even for? I dunno, I don’t see them being as popular as they look on television. I feel like those people in commercials are just passing that console around.

Bloxxorz!

I played Bloxxorz for a little while today. I’ll agree, it’s relatively addicting. I really enjoy puzzles and stretching my brain a little, so it was fun. Some of them were painfully easy, but I think that meant that as I played, I was learning how to think ahead in terms of the games’ rules, which is a good thing. I stopped after about Stage 23, mostly because I was bored and I wanted to go do other things. It was an hour well-spent though, because it made me think a little about games in general.

You can look at my last post for my feeling on this regarding social factors, but I believe that games don’t have to be super-high tech with the best graphics and engines ever created. Is it nice? Yes. Necessary? Not at all.

Personally, I think of it like the cliche of being a little kid. You could buy a really great toy, only to get home and end up having more fun with the box. Sometimes, the simplest things are entertaining, and that’s not bad. If we couldn’t enjoy simple things, complex things would never be invented, and it’s nice to return to something so relaxed after playing a game with many complicated rules.

(An Absence of) Women, Sub-Culture and Stigmas

I’ve taken sociology courses in the past, and I have a general interest in the subject. If I weren’t able to pursue a digital media career I’d most likely be studying something in the sociology/psychology area. I thought it was interesting to look at the effects video games have had on global culture, and how things have changed even since their initital introduction.

In the present day, playing video games has become its own sub-culture. While there are those that play purely for social-recreational purposes, there is definitely a group of individuals who are dedicated to this field solely. These dedicated gamers belong to a sub-culture all their own, similar to sports sub-cultures. I started thinking about this whole sub-culture thing in class when we discussed the previous acceptance of women as gamers and why the same isn’t true today.

Video games are widely viewed today as “kid stuff,” or at least, not for adults. Those who play them regularly are viewed as immature, which while not necessarily accurate, leads a negative perception. In fact, the “gaming sub-culture” has many negative stereotypes associated with them, called stigmas. Gamers are considered “nerdy,” and lacking any real interpersonal skills. Unfortunately, the last part is generally true- time spent interacting with a digital interface is not the same as real, meaningful human contact and leads to poor interaction. Of course, this stigma is a catch-22: Poor interaction leads to a lack of acceptance, which in turn leads to a lack of interaction, making for poor interaction later, thus the cycle continues. The major problem here is that many people who belong to this sub-culture turn inwards and generally can’t participate in the world around them. Many become bitter and angry at this situation, which also does not help. Introversion and a seemingly unfriendly, or inaccessable demeanor are often wards to anyone who might try to initiate a conversation. Many times, it is the fault of the gamers, and not necessarily others, for their inability to interact.

With these negative stigmas, it’s not difficult to understand why there is a lack of women interested in video games, or at least in interacting with members of this sub-culture. Despite it being horribly stereotypical, women are more keen to what is socially acceptable. Video games, being immature, and the members of this culture being widely unaccepted on a social level, it’s not impossible to imagine them being repelled. Most women probably don’t want to, or can’t hold a conversation on the Nintendo Wii’s latest game, or their favorite first-person shooter.

Keep in mind also, that since the industry is male-dominated and the demographic is male-dominated, the games made appeal to that range. Despite also being stereotypical, girls are not generally raised to enjoy the blood-baths and rampage-type gameplay we’ve grown to love. For example, while I can “destroy” any of my friends in Soul Calibur, a fighting and aggression oriented-style game, my girlfriend can wipe the floor with me in the latest version of pokemon. I find that my female friends tend to enjoy playing video games, but really bloody, or fast paced games are not enjoyable for them. And I think honestly, that’s really the point of games in general- to enjoy ourselves. It may not be necessary to have the most high-tech or realistic game- just the one that’s the most fun for everyone.

A lot of the lack of female presence is not society’s fault, but our own. We tend to turn them away with the way we present ourselve and the way we act. And sometimes, it’s our sub-culture’s perceptions about the larger scale culture that inhibits us. So maybe put the controller down once in a while, and get outside. If the gamer sub-culture shows everyone that they aren’t as recluse as larger culture believes, maybe we’ll all be able to find a common ground. Maybe not. Who knows?

Introductions (?)

So today’s going to be my first blog. I don’t generally blog in the typical sense, besides having facebook or myspace or whatever personal network jazz there is out there, so forgive me if these entries are a little lacking.

What first? I guess an introduction would be in order.

My name’s Brian Deysher. I’m a junior in the Digital Media major. If I had a minor it would be sarcasm. Despite that, I’m not an unfriendly person, as much as I am reserved. I’m an artist by nature, and I feel like art is more about telling a story rather than just creating aesthetically pleasing images. I have an overwhelming love for concept art and for the art industry of both film and video games alike, which is only surpassed by my love for 3D animation. My studies currently focus on 3D modeling and animation and I really hope to find myself in that field in the future. I really like the fantasy/sci-fi genres.

I think it’s an understatement to say I enjoy video games. I absolutely love video games, as an art form as well as a form of entertainment. I’m a much more casual gamer now, considering I don’t have as much free time to dedicate to playing as I used to. I tend to spend more time learning how the latest technology is being applied than actually playing. I’m a bigger fan of the RPG genre, because I feel that there’s more emphasis on story and art as well as gameplay. Other than that I guess I like thriller games like Silent Hill or Fighting games because I love the fast pace, and I think it involves a fair deal of skill. Not too thrilled by racing games, I’m not gonna lie. I wasn’t much of a fan to First-person Shooters either until Unreal Tournament, but now I enjoy them a whole lot more. In fact, I even build levels for Unreal and then host tournaments in them and watch people get frustrated. My current favorites in this genre are Shadow Run and Bioshock. I think RTS games are entertaining in short bursts, but can get really annoying really quickly since they are somewhat limited. I really enjoy playing online with others, but I feel like most MMOs are sorely lacking. WoW is completely overrated in my book.

I’m sure there will be more important things for me to blog about at some point, but I don’t have anything right at this moment. I guess that serves as a good introduction.