Hello there, my name is not important, and neither am I, to be honest. I am an incoming freshman at college as a theatre major with a minor in philosophy. I am also something of a gamer, leaning more towards the RTS, turn based strategy, and city building games out there, though I'm open to trying new things. One of my favorite series' is the lego games series, infact. Rather odd for a strategy player, I think. Though, despite its simplistic gameplay, the lego series is quite fun.

But I digress. I've been using Gamespot for quite some time now as my primary review site, dabling a bit in X-Play, which has sadly sort of died over the years. I haven't really stepped out of the lurking shadows until now, I've reviewed three games and am starting to get semi-involved, though not exactly. It's hard to get involved in a site this large, especially with the amount of people on it, I might never have this blog read. If you are, infact, reading this blog, thank you very much for choosing me, whatever that means. Anyway, I've been mostly pleased with Gamespot's reviews and agreed with them, but I have disagreed ocasionally which brings me to the second point in this blog, mob hysteria.

Now don't get me wrong here, some games that are extremely hyped are very very good. Take Civilization 4 or Age of Empires 2 or Age of Mythology for example. Other games that are over hyped are really not all they're cracked up to be, like Warcraft 3. And still other games just fall flat, like Civlization: Colonization and Metal Gear Solid 2. I know there are several people who love all of the games I mentioned, and that is my point. We, in the gaming community, have become what we commonly mock in the movie community, or music industry, or even clothes industries. We are a slave to labels. Brand names. Think about it. Blizzard or Sid Meier could make a piece of crap and it would still get great reviews. Infact they have. World of Warcraft and Colonization. Not to mention the Railroad Tycoon games.

We can sit by and laugh as someone buys a Rolex watch for hundreds of dollars or Old Navy clothes that have an Old Navy patch on it for free advertising. How about those creepy mall goths that shell out fifty dollars for a t-shirt at Hot Topic or those uppity preps that buy Abercrombie and Fitch clothes without batting an eye. Pretty idiotic right? What about watching craptastic movies just because there is a star or two, or maybe listening to idiotic music just because it is put out by a popular artist. Beiber, Hannah Montanna, Jonas, Carrie Underwood, and the list goes on. It's not just those types, every music style has it's own line up of celebrities. It's even true for authors. JK Rowling or Stephanie Meyer could write a book about a pen and people would flock to it. This is the sad thing, because you have alot of people out there struggling by for their art that get no recognition, doing it for the passion of the art, but than you have crappy celebs out there getting all the fame with no talent. Why is that? It's pretty idiotic, don't you think?

Well guess what? The gaming community has taken the same bait, without even knowing it. If it's put out by this or that gaming company, it must be good right? Hell, Sid Meier's name on games has become like Disney's name on movies. What about the not nearly as hyped games that are good enough to deserve some play time: Okami or Zeus: Master of Olympus for example. This is the gaming equivalent of the hyped up brand names that plauge malls. And also the struggling artist. After all, creating video games is an art. You have to be passionate about doing it to even begin to get a job in that area. There is so much competition, like movies, music, books, theatre, any sort of art you are going to find alot of competition. If you are one such passionate person, hold onto that passion and never give up.

The moral, and point of this little post is to not buy a game just because it is put out by a company, a brand name. Don't buy it just because Gamespot says to either. Look around, check review sites all around the web. Don't be afraid to check the "critics scores" button on the side of Gamespot's review. Also, make sure you play the demo first. Unless of course we are talking about a platform game, but for a PC game, definitely. They can be a real pain to download because they take forever, but it is very much so worth every minute if you know you will like it or not.

And that, I suppose, is that. Thank you for reading and sticking with me. Please know that my opinions are not necessarily that of Gamespot or that of anyone else. I'm just speaking my mind in a clear and orderly fashion, something that seems to be a bit lacking with Gamespot users for some reason. >_>