Afternoon, Gamespotters!

It is I, MrMusicMan247, returning to the blogosphere after a long absence. I actually haven't been on the site as much as I used to due to work, school, and overall just being busy. The new website layout almost stopped me from being here all together! SHAME ON YOU, GAMESPOT! However I have decided stay and post blogs. I will probably post more blogs than post on forums from now on since the forum layout is not to my liking.

MOVING ON

So this is being centered around the release of the PS4, the only next gen console I will be owning this holiday season. There are approximately 11 days until the release of the system and I am so excited I am contemplating camping out TODAY. Though, I'm all talk so it probably won't happen, but nevertheless the release shall be grand. And so in honor of the release, I will be posting a countdown blog every day until the release about one of my favorite games of the previous gen.

And so, to start things off we have....

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare! Competing for the biggest mouthful for a gaming title, COD4 was an absolutely delight, both offline and online. The single player experience, for me, is one of the most memorable in the call of duty franchise, bringing you frustration and excitement all at the same time. A good amount of gamers would agree with me in saying that the sniper mission was possibly the best mission in the game, where you go from performing a covert assassination to holding off waves of enemies as chopper flies in to save you. Just a fantastic experience.

Addicting would be the appropriate word to describe any COD multiplayer, but for some reason COD4 was different. It's multiplayer was the only one to get me to join an MLG LEAGUE because I wanted an excuse to play the it more and more. I could have had the worst game I've ever had, going 0-30 for a K/D ratio, not even able to get a shot off. I would still be ready for that next game. This game to me was the best COD game.

AND SO, that is it for today's blog. Be sure to read tomorrow for tomorrow's game as we Countdown to Greatness!

since i got my first job and well...

i just got another one:)

I am now a new employee at the tech desk at CompUSA. This to me, HUGE. And i'm doing ALL of this without my A+ certification. With the help of my two jobs, i'm sure the A+ will be a piece of cake when I take it.

One step closer to me getting better, and one step closer to moving out of this wretched state.

and waiting, PATIENTLY waiting, I have finally gotten a job. That's right, musicman is a working man now!

It's a small computer Computer Service repair place called MJ Network Solutions. In fact, i'm technically their first employee :P. I started on thursday and so far it's been pretty fun so far.

Now that I got this job, i need to work on getting my A+ and other certifications.

Oh things are certainly looking up. :)

Ever since the arrival of the (and yes I will call it this) game Heavy Rain, there seems to have arisen a debate as to what a game actually is defined as. Many people believe that Heavy Rain and it's upcoming spiritual successor Beyond: Two Souls are not games because they believe there isn't really any "gameplay" so there for it's not a game.

Now, accoriding to wikipedia, a video game is an electronic game that involves human interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. Under this definition, Heavy Rain, Beyond, and games of the like certainly fit the definition, yes? However gamers have developed their own personal definition of what a game is. And this creates a rift between the gamers.

What these gamers don't realize is you just can't call a game, not a game, based on your own definition. If there is interactivity, if there visual feedback of what you are doing, it IS a game. It doesn't matter if you can't freely control your character like most games do. It doesn't matter if most of the game is a cinematic experience. As long as you are doing something (i.e pressing buttons, moving analog sticks), it is a game and not, as some people call, an interactive movie.

Now I do, however, believe these games deserve their own genre. These types of games are fundamentally different than others. I think it'll be easier for gamers to say "oh I don't like this genre" rather than "this game is not a game".

Just because I can't teabag my opponent after killing them, just because i can't go killing civilians, just because i can't crash into buildings whenever i want, does NOT mean it's not a game. It's just not a game YOU would play.

I'm going to start writing short stories.

I keep being told I should. So I will.

Wish me luck,

I'm sure a lot of you have heard of the kid named Trayvon Martin who was killed by a man named Zimmerman. If not, just mosey on over to Off Topic and look for the thread.

Now I'm not here to discuss who started what or if Zimmerman should be arrested or not. I'm here to talk about how the abolition of racism has taken a serious hit because of this event. The fact that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton showed to the Trayvon Martin rally shows that they think it was a racial issue. Now I'm not completely convinced it was a racial issue. To be honest, Zimmerman almost had the same line of thinking I would have. If I was walking home, I see someone in the neighborhood I've never seen before, I'd be suspicious too. On the other side, if I saw someone following me when I was walking home, I'd feel pretty hostile.

Now I ask you. Do you think if Trayvon was Asian, would this story have national attention? Me personally, I don't think so. I'm not saying this story would be swept under the rug but it would have stayed local.

The reason that most people are making such a big deal out of this is because they believe it was a racist issue. Not just any racist issue. A black racist issue. And people are using this to basically say "Racism is not gone". My response to that would be "Well no sh*t"

Not one person at the Trayvon Martin rallies believed that racism was gone. So why put the story in the headlines? How will making such a big deal out of this instance help get rid of racism? What if it wasn't even a racist issue? Then people are basically making something out of nothing. People need to mostly be talking about about who started what and if Zimmerman should be arrested for killing Trayvon. Not if he's a racist.

I'm tired of all these racism stories. Especially since they mostly only talk about the black race. Guaranteed. If the races were reversed, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and everyone else who believes this a racism issue would switch sides. There's no doubt in my mind about that.

You know how to stop racism? Stop talking about it so damn much. People know it exists. We do not need confirmation.

If you decide to not answer in the thread, congratulations you've wonthethread and you are of a higher class than some of the posters around here. My answer is null and void since I am simply doing this as a sociological experiment

Some questions that might be floating around might be "Where have you been??" or "Why haven't you been posting more??" or "Why haven't you taken your rightful place as prince of System Wars/OT?" (Ok the last isn't really true but just a far off dream)

Well the answer to all of those questions is really a combination of the new rules being sh*t, focusing on school, and me basically having a life. I've been hanging out with my roommates A LOT more lately.

These things, however, have not diminished my playtime with my games. I've almost hit the 100 hour mark in Skyrim and my roommate just got Kingdoms of Amalur (really fun game so far). I will be getting Mass Effct 3 and SSX eventually.

My activity here on GS will probably go back up over the summer but I can't make any promises. I'm not sure if I'm truly wanted back though, so we will see.

As a reward for reading this blog I shall leave you with this

Enjoy my friends and hopefully I shall return!

Not just because it's popular vote. Not just because they try to use celebrities to reel in viewers.

It's because it's not even about the awards. Well it's only about 1 award. It's a commercialized award show the centers around the announcement trailers and Game of the Year. Sure, there were some instances where people actually went up on stage and got the award and gave a short speech. But most of the awards they just kind of mentioned them as they were talking about the announcement trailers.

Why even call it the Video Game Awards anymore? They should just call Video Games Announcement Trailer Time. Is it a great name? No. But it sure as hell is more accurate to what goes on.

SHUT UP!

That is all.