Fanboys sort of wear me out. Is that the hip term to use these days? Fanboys? As frequently as these slanderous titles are doled out, I try my damndest not to use them. Video gamers have grown up being an ostracized group of degenerates, as far as the greater public is concerned. I believe that we should ban together, rather than bring one another down. Sure, our industry is boasting billiions now, but it wasn't when I was playing Megaman 2, I'm sure of that. Perhaps some gamers out there, infallible as they believe themselves to be, think that their opinions are so profound that they should be delivered with a little high-school angst. Should be given with an "I'm-smarter-than-you" air, which might earn them the right to be pingeonholed into an unpleasant characterization. I wouldn't want to be labeled so.  Maybe fanboyism should stop. It won't. I certainly won't stop it.  But I think such people promote disillusionment amongst gamers. And that's bad.

And that is exactly what I want to aimlessly dwell upon for this installment of my blathering. Competition. Among our ranks. Originating from the age-old debate (debacle?) borne of Nintendo and Sega, of "Which system is better?", this question has provided a tangible rift among us. Healthy, perhaps. It led to bruises as kids, and now drunken arguments as adults. And hey, you need something to fuel that need for passion. That need for belief in something. Nothing promotes that moreso than a fistfight at the age of 12 over which NHL '95 is better. Genesis or SNES. I'm choosing to remain silent on that one. However, to keep the ancient war alive, here's some screenshots. Have at you!

But it's too far now. I work at a video game depository. I won't specify. A big one. Anyway, I continuously encounter people who are vying for the PS3's demise. "PS3 sucksIt's overSony's already trying to make a PS4I hear Sony's going bankruptThe graphics aren't even that goodThe system freezes all of the timeblahblahblahblah." It is exhausting to listen to. However, it is depressing to listen to, moreover.

Choose a favourite. Fine. You like ingenuity. You like interactivity. You appreciate unprecidented online support, and benchmark next-gen titles. You appreciate cutting edge, so to speak. You appreciate loyal developers (or not-so-loyal?). Fine. Play what you wish. But I would never want to see the failure of a console. Any console. And I'm unsure as to why you would. Why would you? You deem yourself a gamer? Playing since the womb and all of that? Your Troll Hunter is level 70. You know who Commander Keen is. You allowed Sonny to waste the Death Angel. You think you know the industry and support it? I disagree. Wholeheartedly. Because anyone who legitimately backed something they idolized would not want to see facets of it failing. Dropping out. Dying. Let me put that one in there again: dying.

I never owned a Dreamcast. I hardly even played one. But I'm still bummed that it didn't succeed in North America. Because it tried, damnit! Sega tried! And ultimately failed. They can't all make it. Simple as that. However, the more that make it, the better we, the gamer, are for it. This isn't Calculus guys, seriously. The more systems there are to own, the more games there are to play. I like playing games, don't you?! I like eating gravy and meatballs out of a can on a friday night while I'm knee-deep in an rpg's story. Knee-deep in stealth game precision and tenacity. Knee-deep in a First-person shooter bloodlust. I like not having girlfriends. Okay...well, maybe not so much.

Wait...women distracted me. Where was my point?

Halo isn't the best FPS ever. GTA didn't originate open-ended gaming (ever play Fallout?). But they're still both great titles.

Variety is the spice of life. The video game industry is where it is today because of our support. The gaming market started out as a smelly little unappreciated faetus. Our support allowed it to grow and grow and grow into the juggernaut it now is. Videogames are captain of the football team (I wonder which Madden is better...?) because of us. To wish for a console's failure is turning one's back. It's surrendering support. You may wish for as much ruin to rain down as you want. I won't join you. No one should.

*note: sorry if these NHL screens are inaccurate to either the system or the year (they were surprisingly hard to find). I'm taking google's word for it, as it was too long ago to figure it out by my own instinct. Feel free to call me on it.

I enjoy everything that I have read so far in regards to Naughty Dog's upcoming project, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Hope I got that title right. What is it about certain publishers that allows them to gain your respect (and hard-earned greenbacks) so effortlessly?

There's that looming prescence of big business again, ransacking villages and coughing up coins (pennies, mostly). Donned in its pinstriped suit, immaculate from a distance, I'd say that big business should be making all us wee gamers sweat just a little bit.
I've been silent for quite some time on the issue, though I did cry doom and demarcation for all of us gamers, siting things such as movie liscences and E3 invites. I received some response, which was very exciting for me, as I expected none. I managed to stand on the user's soapbox (thank you to whomever I need to thank for that), and then I went underground.

Now I'm back, much to the rejoice of none. Not sure why I returned. I think it's all of this exclusitivty that Sony once had that it now seems to be misplacing here and there. Frequently. As though Sony's (lined?) pockets are full of holes, through which game liscences can slip. And anyone walking behind Sony during their daytime comute will come across these forlorn franchises, which they can pick up at will. Much to Sony's chagrin, perhaps, Microsoft seems to have the same bus route.

Devil May Cry?! That's a big one. Now, I've never really touched the liscence, and although I think Dante no doubt looks cool in his garb, I guess I just played Oniumsha. It wasn't a purposeful avoidance. Sadly, you can't play em all. But it's a surprise to me. All of these titles are just jumping ship. And the Capcom representative in question answered the whole issue quite simply: "It's an oppurtunity for more money." I'm obviously paraphrasing. Oh, here's the article, for anyone who hasn't read it yet.  

So, if you've trudged through my wandering thoughts this far (tahnk you), you may be asking for a bloody point. Not sure I have one. I've simply realized something that many of you may have realized a long time ago: third-party games being exclusive to a particular console may be a thing of the past. Entirely. Is that necessarily bad? No, in fact, it could be quite the opposite. I certainly believe that those who have limited access to games should be able to play everything. I hate the idea of anyone being unable to delve into a fabulous game due to a silly thing like cost (I just upgraded my PC for the last time...). I suppose I just liked the idea of certain systems being known for certain games, and though I understand that first-party titles will preserve this tradition to a degree, it's somehow not the same.

As I said, I'm yet undecided as to whether or not this new fad is a good thing or a bad thing. I simply implore all of you to keep an eye on this trend, and to debate for yourselves whether or not it's something we want to see. I would love to hear any opinions you people may have. Especially if they have a direct train of thought, which I cannot boast for myself.

The idea of Final Fantasy being on the 360 is strange, but then, it's not like it originated on the Playstation either, now did it?

Oh, and to cover my ass, legally speaking, I obviously found these pictures online. I had nothing to do with their production or creation, etc. etc.

I've gotta say, with the dawn of the next generation of gaming upon us, it's Nintendo's Wii that kinda has me questioning where things are going. Innovation sometimes means more than technical superiority. It's more a matter of creating. It's a slash-and-burn risk in which what's considered commonplace is cast aside for new ideas. That's what this industry is all about, isn't it? It's supposed to be.

Say what you will about Nintendo's history, about its meandering, and occaisonally paltry Gamecube sales, about its utter change of direction in sales demographic, Nintendo is still innovating. Still creating. I believe that Nintendo has always been the forerunner for presenting new ideas to the public, for better (DS touch screen) or worse (Virtua Nintendo). I do believe that such a gutsy approach to this industry is crucial, and I find it comforting to see.

So, I must be quite pleased with the Wii's new and (hopefully) intuitive control system. Such a new and improved style of play mechanics, as it is, I must be very keen to see what it will do. Well, I gotta tell ya, no, I'm not. I'm not happy to see it. I don't like it, in fact. I do believe that motion sensitivity is a good direction to go in, at least in theory, but I don't like these hare-brained remote-swinging ideas. I'll tell you why. When I was a kid, I played a lot of video games. I was to video games what Keith Richards was (is?) to drugs. I was a very dedicated user, let's say. My small circle of friends back in those days, some ten to fifteen years ago (how old am I?!) would exhaust our Super Nintendos with NHL '95, Mortal Kombat, Final Fantasy III, you name it-we played it. Here's the catch, though. When we were on our seventh hour of play, and our eyes were borderline on bleeding from so much gaming ("Visine, I need Visine!"), our moms sent us outside. Whoa. Easy. What a concept. Our parents intervened and took a few minutes to raise us. Now that's innovation. At least in our current society.

I appreciate the fact that although Nintendo was trounced in sales the last time around, they still choose to really put some balls into their production and risk everything with a control system that has never been seen before. I appreciate that Nintendo is charging hundreds of dollars less that Microsoft and Sony are for their next-gen installment. I will always defend Nintendo as the purveyer of original gaming ideas. They have me in their corner there. So, why am I against this system?

Because I think that physical activity should remain physical activity. In fresh air. With rocks, and grass, and trees, and a potential to skin out your knee on any given day. Childhood should involve lots of antiseptic. If you want to swing a tennis racquet, I don't think you should have to replicate the motion in a video game, in your living room. I believe that you should go outside and swing an actual, tangible tennis racquet. Swing a sword? My friends and I would have red arms from whacking each other with plastic swords. That was way more fun, trust me. Did anybody else have those cool He-Man replica swords? Remember those? You could get the He-Man version, or the Gray Skull version? Now that's swordplay.

I hate to break it to the docile, lazy parents of today, all of those fresh-out-of-the-gate parents who see babies as accessories for Starbucks moreso than they see them as their own offspring, but you can't have your kid raised entirely in front of a TV screen. It seems like a good idea now, sure. They're happy, and you're happy, but when they're pale and sixteen years old they're going to frigging hate you because they'll all have rickets, and terrible bone structure.

I want to see my innovations in gameplay. Not in physical strain. Not in the sweat on my brow.

Playing video games is supposed to be about sitting still, and not doing anything. That's what has always made them beautiful. If you want to play Dance Dance revolution all day, then fine, but personally I'd rather buy some Jojo CDs, and some really dark drapes that are difficult to see through, and bust it out in my bedroom. That's how I do my dancing.

So, you Nintendo fans can enjoy your Wii, swinging imaginary weapons at essentially imaginary monsters. I'll sit on my ass and play Final Fantasy XII until 4 in the morning with chip crumbs all over my chest. Chip crumbs from the day prior. That's how games are supposed to be played.

Careful what you wish for. Now I can't play FFXII because I only have my ps1 dual shock in my apartment right now. And guess what type of controller I need...

Everybody point and laugh at me.

Thank you.

About time. I finally grabbed a copy of Final Fantasy XII, and I'm disgusted with myself that I'm a few days behind release in getting it. I'm slipping in my old age.

But that's the thing. I have it here, and I'm looking at it right now, and to be frank...I'm afraid to open it. Not because I think it'll disapoint me; I was concerned about that, but such worries have since been negated by all of these positive reviews (hey man, if Kasavin likes it, I'm sure I'll at least be intrigued by it). I'm afraid to open it because this series has been with me for my entire life. If you're in the 'right' age group (anyone around the age of 24?) this series has raised you. This series raised me. I remember watching my two older brothers playing FF1, walking around that horseshoe-shaped bush/tree/forest that surrounds the opening castle (which I can't remember the name of) so that they could gain some levels before starting the adventure. They weren't the best at sharing, my brothers, but in time it became my turn, trying to suss out this game at the age of five, or six. It's been with me since. Something about the series makes me feel nostalgic whenever a new one is released. This time...it's making me feel old. I can't possibly articulate this effeciently. It's hard to explain.

How many more Final Fantasies do I have left in me? Will they still be accessible when I have a square job? ...When I'm a parent? Can video games be handed down to your young as if it were baseball, or hockey? I appreciate that there are undoubtedly people in the world right now who are twice my age playing this game at this very moment, rather than blogging philosophical about it. Gaming will have to end, eventually, for me. When is that? At what number? XVIII? XX?

I don't dig business. I don't dig big business, and I don't dig small business. I don't enjoy stocks, I'm not really concious of what bonds are, even. Are they money? They're probably money. I don't enjoy business from any standpoint because my opinions and interests aren't situated towards that sort of facet.

However, I do enjoy gaming business. Mergers, bankrupcies, in-game advertising (which I don't necessarily agree with, by the way, more on that later), all of it grabs me and I can't get enough of it. Is this the sign of some sort of video game maturation on my part? Reading reviews and playing the games, perhaps those two passtimes aren't enough for me anymore. I need to feed myself with more information. When I walk into an EB games, I want to know more than the other customers (not a tough accomplishment, generally), I want to know more than the 'sales associates' (depending on the store and the employee, this could be a little tougher), and I want to know more than you. I want to inhale this media form, in every respect. Wish I had a lot of spare time so I could do that. But I don't. Stupid fiscal obligations. If I could get away with not paying rent....or having to buy food...anyway, I'll aleve you of my personal problems (and poor spelling).

This being said, however, I don't necessarily appreciate the fact that games are tying to become big business. Billions of dollars in revenue per annum isn't enough for you guys? Seriously? This is the 'quiet' little industry that grosses far more money than what's realized by those who aren't interessted in the industry. Parents, primarily. The general, non-gaming public (filthy as they are). It seems to me that gaming as an industry is doing just fine. Sure, we've had our piracy scares in the past, but I still purchase my PC games. Can any of us say that we don't empty our wallets into this medium? Please. I don't know how much I spend on video games in a year, but I'd ballpark at least a grand or two, and that doesn't include system purchases. And I assure you, if I had the cash, I'd empty a lot more coins into the coifers of EA, Ubisoft, Square-Enix, and so on. The list varies in size and consistency for all of us, but we all need to fuel this industry just for our own addictions. Look at each other's game collections, for instance. The money's there.

And yet, the community isn't satisfied. They want big-time advertising. Strangle independance. Put all of our lusts on billboards. Hollywood. That's what they want. If you read it, if you look at it closely, you can easily see it. The CEOs and publishers (at least the powerful ones) want Hollywood. I don't want Hollywood. Neither do you. Trust me. Can you imagine it? It would be cool at first. Game ads as frequent as movie trailers on TV. Master Chief plastered to the side of buses. Link is Time's 'Man of the Year' (sure he's fictional, but he still deserves it more than Bush). I can see it. It would be cool. But only for a while. I find myself smothered by the movie industry these days, and I've grown weary of it as a result. Money can taint things you apprciate. And it will happen with gaming in time. Look at the direction they're going in now. Notice the shift in focus? E3 is dead. Read it again. E3 is dead. The definitive expo for the games we love. The stuff we dream about playing. A first-hand look at things that the public has never seen before. And there you are. I always hoped (and fantasized, I'll admit) that I would be in attendance for an E3 show at least once. Now it will never happen. And that special event-that colleseum, that orgy-is gone. Now, this is where it gets dangerous: Who's been cut from the picture? The public. Why did it happen? It all cost too much money. It got too big. Too saturated. Booths and babes and lights and plasma screens. Anarchy set to motion. Everyone had to out-do everyone else, and in time the real reason the event occured in the first place was forgotten. It was shrouded, and now it has been extinguished entirely. Keep going with me here. Who gets to go next year? To the new, bastardized, re-named version? Media. And? ...and? Investors. Publishers and investors and dudes in business-casual outfits debating how to best market their new products. Guys who don't play games in the same way that we do. Guys who possibly don't play games at all. And no, I'm not referring to the developers and the media guys, obviously they obsess about this stuff more than we do. But we've been cut. You've been cut. I think that's something that you should really think about.

So, E3 now lives only in a collective memory. These days they're holding the M16 conference, which is geared solely towards marketability in games. Now, don't get me wrong. I think that this is important, but it's still unsettling. I implorey ou to read up on it, if you're not familiar with it. I'd give you a link, but I'm kinda tired right now.

As for my take on in-game advertising. Well, i enjoy it for the level of realism. I understand that in Yakuza (which I haven't played yet) you can order drinks in bars all over town, and purchase actual brands of liquor. It's a cool level of depth, sure. But necessary? I'd call that into question. Depth is cool, but I still get nervous when I stalk by Powerade machines while I'm playing my first-person shooters. Maybe you should be, too.

Why are they releasing a Resevoir Dogs game? Why? Why would you take a perfectly good movie, make a bastardized video game version of it, and then release it, thus diminishing the film's integrity while creating trade-in fodder for EB Games? I think we've gotta tone down the film-franchise-to-game-franchise trend just a tad. Are you reading, EA CEOs? I wish you were. Of course, you'd likely retort to my humble blog post with snide comments, and then return to lazing about on your huge piles of money...in your mansions...with your pet tigers lounging by your (gigantic) in-door pools.

This industry used to be fueled by creativity. What happened to that? Innovation? Anyone? Have you seen it anywhere? Checked the seat cushions? Family sedan's glove compartment? Underneath your huge piles of money? No? Haven't seen it? Me neither.

I'm choking on MMOs, film knockoffs, and sequels, sequels, sequels. Sequels are considered a given now for any game that's even mildly successful (in terms of sales). Games that were once innovative (did you check the back of the closet? Well...keep looking) have now been churned out over and over again so many times that what was once new is now stale. Splinter Cell, for example. I loved the original. Stealth-action games give me a funny feeling down in my nethers. This game was huge at the time. Optic cables? In a game?! Get outta town! As I said, I just wrapped Chaos Theory, and now, according to Kasavin, Double Agent is more of the same in a tropical wrap. Nothing's new. Except for multiplayer  features, which is cool, but not all of us eat and sleep on xbox live. I don't.

You guys all know that classic episode of The Simpsons where Lisa develops a new doll to compete against Malibu Stacey? It doesn't sell because they develop a Malibu Stacey doll with a new hat? Ring a bell? Well, we're buying the new hat. Over and over and over again.

We're next-gen all over again. Please impress me, Army of One. Assassin's Creed. Jade Raymond, if you're out there....

Well, seems gamesradar gave me the slip. for now. i don't understand how anyone can get into the media side of this industry (bearing in mind that i've made no real attempt to do so...yet). i've spent my life reading, writing, and playing videogames. it seems like the most logical career path for me. but there are so many others. it's a media facet that is saturated with wannabes and hopefuls. i'm just another of those.

wish i could afford a ps3.

i feel as though i'm in the midst of a culmination of video gaming progress. do any of you get that? is anyone reading this? enjoying it? are you enjoying it? i feel as though i've been waiting for 20 years for right about now. i feel as though things are about to change drastically; are about to enter a new echelon. clearly, with the ps3 and wii on the way, we will be brought into yet another platform generation. next-gen, all over again. but how i feel goes beyond that. i feel as though things will change globally. and yet, i'm not talking about online play. i think we need to tone down the online play, personally. what happened to single player games? they used to be cool...i can remember it. no, i feel as though how videogames are seen by the general public is about to be redefined. just not sure why i feel that way, or what it means.

now's the time, for me. now is when i need to make a move, if i want to break into this industry. i'm 24. stats don't lie; i'm the (approximate) video gaming demographic. i'm peaking. only decline will follow-a sort of gaming menopause. watch out when that happens. and my god, the mood swings. oh, the mood swings.

this whole entry was pointless. i've lost interest in blackthorne because i started playing crono trigger. final fantasy xii is en route. it's gold (i think? is it gold yet?) and ready to be received by me. i worry that it won't be up to par, but i'm always proved wrong. i finished chaos theory (xbox), and the ending was dull, at best.

so many things are on the horizon for us gamers.