The Aging Gamer

I'm now coming up on another year on this planet. The thought of it made me look back at my history in the gaming industry and how my play style and genre of choice has changed over the years.

As a child, I was first introduced to gaming via the Commodore 64 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64), and since then, my life has never been the same. New consoles and new games were seemingly being released all the time. I had to play it all, every game... I was a regular at my local video game store, always trading in the old for the new. It didn't matter what the game was about, I just had to play it. This 'ritual' went on all the way through my college years. Action Adventure, Shooters, Strategy, Role playing, I loved them all. To this day, I still own every console, and once a month I have a retro day, where I go back and relive the days of my childhood gaming glory.


Games back then seemed to be so much more of a challenge than games that are out today. They almost seem watered down. Made at a level where anyone can pick up a controller and easily beat it. I feel almost cheated at times when I can complete a game today in less than a week. I know that so much more goes into games today, the production levels are amazing, but it just does not feel the same. (Maybe this is why my genre selection has shifted towards MMO's. There's still a challenge there, that and there is technically no end unless the developers take the game offline permanently.)

Towards the end of my college career, I was introduced to the MMO genre by a game called Everquest. It began to consume me, I logged hour after hour in the brand new consistent online environment. As the years when on, new MMO's came out, and I played them all. I couldn't get enough. My consoles began to collect dust. I stopped buying every new game, it became less and less important to have another completed game under my belt.

Does this happen to all of us as we age? I still play console games today, but 90% of my game time is spent in an MMO (currently SWTOR and WOW). Is this me 'settling down'? It seems that I have missed out on so many great titles out there, but to be honest, I really have no desire to even try.

Interactive Achievement Awards

For those of you who missed the Interactive Achievement Awards(IAA) last night, here's a quick recap of all the winners!



Best Original Music Composition: Portal 2
Best Sound Design: Battlefield 3
Best Story: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Best Character Performance: Wheatley
Best Downloadable game: Bastion
Best Casual Game: Fruit Ninja Kinect
Social Networking Game of the Year: Sims Social
Role-playing / MMO Game of the year: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Outstanding Innovation in Gaming: Skylanders (!)
Sports Game of the Year: FIFA 12
Racing Game of the Year: Forza 4
Fighting Game of the Year: Mortal Kombat
Strategy / Simulation Game of the Year: Orcs Must Die
Hall of Fame 2012 Inductee: Tim Sweeney
Family Game of the Year: LittleBigPlanet 2
Mobile Game of the Year: Infinity Blade 2
Handheld Game of the Year: Super Mario 3D Land
Adventure Game of the Year: Batman: Arkham City
Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay: Star Wars: The Old Republic
Outstanding Achievement in Connectivity: Portal 2
Action Game of the Year: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Outstanding Achievement in Animation: Uncharted 3
Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction: Uncharted 3
Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering: Uncharted 3
Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Game of the Year: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

If you are unfamiliar with the IAA's , the winners are not selected by you, me, or phone calls. They are selected by their peers, meaning others in the same industry. For many, we consider the IAA's to be the 'Official Video Game Award Show' not the VGA's on spike.

As for the winners, I think they speak for themselves. Don't agree with what was picked? Then sound off!!!

1.1 Million Players Flee WoW

Article posted via http://furiousfanboys.com/2011/11/1-1-million-players-flee-wow/?utm_source=scribol&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=scribol

"Has World of Warcraft finally begun that downhill descent that all large MMOs do? It probably has finally hit critical mass and has seriously started to bleed players as today Blizzard announced that their global subscriber numbers have dropped from 11.4 million to 10.3 million. Blizzard did stress that most of these lost subscriptions have come from the Asian market, and not North America; so people who will point to The Old Republic for this drop will be wrong.

Still, it happens to every big MMO. EverQuest was once the biggest MMO on the market, and although it only maxxed out at about 500,000 players; it was king of the hill for nearly five years. WoW is going to celebrate its seventh anniversary at the end of this month, so it went for two years longer than EQ before beginning a big decline in subscriber numbers. And even then, 10.3 million players is a number that all other MMOs can only dream of reaching"

Could we finally be seeing the downfall of the MMO Giant? What do you think?

The Elitest Jerk

No, I'm not talking about the website Elitist Jerks, where they give greats guides to follow to maximize your potential in World of Warcraft. I'm talking about the actual people who act like the name of this blog. If you've played a MMO before, than you know who exactly I am referring to.

The people who zone into an instance or dungeon, inspect the other 4 member of the party, and leaves. I'd almost prefer them to do this every time rather than the ones that stay in the group and complain at every turn, 'your heals suck, your dps sucks, your gear is not enchanted GTFO!' You know, those guys?

Its a video game people, makes it hard to enjoy if your always raining on every ones parade. Maybe the person is new to the game, or just hit level cap. Instead of berating them because they are not up to your expectations, why not coach them. Take that extra minute and explain the fight to them, or teach them a proper rotation. Not everyone has time to sit there and research their class. Many people just don't bother to because then your crossing that line from it being a fun video game, to being a job.

If you don't have enough time to explain things to people and coach them, then maybe you should not be playing a MMO! Go back to MW3!

Follow me on Twitter!

For more up to the minute gaming news, follow me on twitter @KController

Thanks!

Xbox 720~Death to physical gaming retailers?

So rumors about the Xbox 720 are starting to hit all over the place. The name Xbox 720 is of coarse just a nickname, with no official name or comments being given by Microsoft. The biggest rumors floating around is the Microsoft will be rolling out the console as a cloud based gaming format.

For those of you who do not know what Cloud is, here's the wiki definition~ Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility (like the electricity grid) over a network (typically the Internet).

What that would mean in a gaming console is that everything would be download/stream based with no physical copy of games needed.

While this seems to be the future of gaming, one has to step back and look at the big picture. If console gaming goes to a 100% download based industry, will it be the death of physical retail stores like GameStop and PlayNTrade? Or will they become thrift stores where we can browse games from its nostalgic past? It could cause quite a few people to lose their jobs! Just a thought lol.

Let me know your thoughts!

Star Wars: The Old Republic (Part 1)

With less than a month away, Star Wars: The Old Republic(SWTOR) is shaping up to rock the MMO community. For those of you who are familar with the genre, SWTOR brings new elements to the table. While all the similar aspects of MMO's are in place, what this game does to change it up, is deliver story in a way we have never seen in an MMO before.

SWTOR takes place about 300 years after the events of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which was release on PC and original XBOX. This game is among my favorite RPG/Action game of all time (I might be a little biased since I am a HUGE Star Wars fan). For those of you who have only watched the movies, its about 3000 years before the events in A New Hope. So no, there is no Darth Vader, Anakin or Obi-wan.

What makes this game stand out from other MMO's, like I said, is story. The game is 100% fully voiced, that means every NPC and even your own character has a voice. In other MMO's such as World of Warcraft (which i've played for about 7 years) you simply walk up to an npc, read a text box for your quest, if you chose to, and click accept. Then your off to kill 20 boars in the plains of duratar. You dont really know why your killing these boars, but your do so anyway. In SWTOR, every quest is met with an interactive dialog system, similar to what you see in Mass Effect or Dragon Age. If you've ever played these games before, you know that means your answers in the conversation affect your moral standing.

I can not wait to get my hands of this title when it comes out 12/20/11. It looks like a great change of pace from todays well established MMO's. For more info on the game, visit www.swtor.com.

I look forward to discussing the title with anyone out there, so feel free to leave a comment. I can't get into too much detail about the title until the NDA is lifted, but I can tell you that it is AWESOME!! =P