@GreySeal9: I'm a firm believer in the Ballmer Peak, no argument there. But that only applies to specific cases. The majority of people consuming alcohol aren't doing it to "enhance" their creativity, they're doing it to make up for the lack of it, which is probably why they're drinking in the first place. It goes hand-in-hand with going out at night in America, and is practically second nature when while trying to socialize.

With you drinking leads to enhanced creativity, but what about the writer who is on his 3rd week of writer's block with bills riding his back to get this article pushed out? That man is slowly descending to insanity and alcohol is just adding fuel to the fire in his case.

@LJS9502_basic:No shit. Gaming is a common escape I'm sure most of us on these boards share.

Alcohol is a specific substance (depressant) that is ingested to achieve a different mental state. You may not need it to escape, but it is definitely one of the most abused substances in terms of escaping reality via substances. Xanax and opiates are the other ones that come to my mind, but this is just from my observations throughout my lifespan.

The main difference between alcohol and other substances is that you can walk to the store and easily purchase enough of it to kill yourself overnight. You can't kill yourself gaming (unless you're playing an MMORPG, hardy har har), which is a pretty big differences in distinguishing alcohol's place.

So with this in mind, where is this battle to be fought? Is it banning or restricting alcohol usage, or are a majority of the people abusing the substance in need of desperate culture shock, possibly even a near-death experience that can help push them in the right direction and reprogram their culture-fueled lust to abuse the substance? It's madness at every corner. You've a better shot at believing in reincarnation, embedding the belief that there's a parallel universe that never conjured up alcohol to begin with, and being reborn into said parallel universe.

Barney, Half-Life series :)

As great as a world without that hellish creativity-diminishing depressant would be, our culture is far too deep with it as a source for "fun" and "escaping the shitty reality that is pursuing the American Dream."

Looks beautiful still.

Duke Nukem Forever definitely has a better "bang for buck" appeal considering it can be found for a buck or two easily nowadays ;)

That being said, Wolfenstein (and DOOM for that matter) have WAAAAY better gameplay mechanics. The movement alone is much more natural and "old school" to me, which is a must for any shooter that claims to have fast-paced gameplay.

@sHaDyCuBe321:

How are they destroying your dreams?

Look at the Super Smash Bros. franchise: casual-friendly and competitive-friendly gameplay. Easy as hell to get sucked into if you're a newbie, yet rewarding with no end in sight to veteran players.

I don't see this as a bad thing. Nintendo especially doesn't, but yeah ;) $$$$$$

If only it was that easy, Massachusetts.

It's an extremely friendly casual-appealing game, and will most definitely die out in 2017. That being said, Nintendo seemingly jumped on the mobile bandwagon after being exclusive to their consoles for so long and have pulled off one of their greatest marketing campaigns in doing so. It's a Pokeplague at it's finest, and people who've been turned off from the game for such a long time might be realizing how much they miss it's simple gameplay.

For me, Pokemon GO is quite boring and deserves it's place amongst the other 99.99% of mobile games that are pieces of crap. Cool concept, just not a concept I personally desire within my game library. I feel like die-hard fans are in the same boat... I'd just much rather pick up a DS (hell, even my old GameBoy) and play through the cartridge titles for the full Pokemon experience.

Final Fantasy's theme by far. It was awesome to hear it evolve over time with technology's rapid progression :)