I’m Back Again

Wow,  how quickly a year flies by. I’d apologize for my absence, but I’ve been genuinely busy, not just lazy. I’m now halfway across the world, in Brooklyn, having moved apartments twice, and am now slowly rebuilding my stock of things, having picked up a newer XBox slim,  built a new PC (that needs to be taken apart again; seems like a dead motherboard), and a little TV/monitor that serves as the center of it all. I’ve been doing plenty of gaming, but life often intrudes, so most of it has been Live Arcade games that I can duck into and out of, like Deathspank, Outrun Arcade, and the like.

I flailed around for a while, applying for dozens of jobs, then got an internship, which lead to a part-time job, where I helped to make a few books, and then finally got a full time job at another place, working downtown in Manhattan, at a newswire. I guess I’m now officially ‘in the media.’

I decided to leave all my PS2 games behind, but brought my PC games in CD wallets, my PS3 games (haven’t got around to actually picking up another of those, yet) and most of my XBox games, except the EA games, which I knew were region locked. Once I got here, I discovered that Rockstar region-locks their XBox games, too. Eternal Sonata was another no-go, and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts was also region-locked, but not Viva Pinata, so it’s clearly not all Rare games. I’m still playing WoW, although with a busted smartphone that had my authenticator on it, the non-working new PC, and other things that I’ve needed to do, I haven’t played in probably 6 weeks.

Now that I seem to be settled in one place again, with the essentials of life and a steady schedule, I’m going to start blogging again. You may commence celebrations.

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My Admission


I usually got to see this about 50 times a match, 0.1 seconds before waiting to respawn.

My first post to Bitmob made the front page a few weeks ago. It’s about the coming changes to raiding in the next WoW expansion, Cataclysm. If you’re interested, you can check it out over here.

Also, for a fun little retro gaming mashup, check out Super Mario Crossover.

Work is nearly finished on my thesis, with a week left before I hand it in. No fabulous job offer has presented itself, tickets have been purchased, and in just under two weeks I move halfway across the world with a suitcase, a laptop, and a guitar. I ultimately made the decision to take my PS3, DS, PC and 360 games with me, and not sell my PS2 games. It’s keeping a foot in two camps, I guess, but whether or not I decide to stay or come back, I figure that my PS2 collection is essentially worth as little as it’s ever going to be worth, and I can sell it on a later visit back, should I need to, or it’s there for me if I come running back with my tail between my legs.

I’ve been reading, even if I haven’t been writing, and I found one particular article to strike a chord. Here is an admission of guilt within, rather than about, videogames.

My own admission: Well, I’ve thrown my controller a few times before in frustration, but I’ve already mentioned that. The general tone of this blog probably indicates that I’m prone to being a tad surly at times, so that should come as no real surprise.

A deeper admission, for someone who complains so much about what games should and shouldn’t be and thus likes to portray himself as a switched-on gamer: I’m terrible at multiplayer gaming.

WoW? Well, not WoW. I’m not the best but I’m in the upper half. PvE WoW is easy. Do some maths or read someone else’s maths so you gear correctly, don’t stand in the fire, watch the cast bar, hit the right buttons. PvP WoW is rock paper scissors, pick your battles and you’ll probably win. Other types of games, though, well…

Generally, it’s the speed of the game that gets me.

RTS? I build too slowly, try and get massively fortified, and end up getting rushed and stomped very quickly with my fortifications half-done.

FPS? I panic when someone starts shooting at me and when I fire back my shots tend to go everywhere but where they should. I can do reasonably well with an AoE class like the Pyro in Team Fortress 2, where I don’t have to be dead-on with my shots, and I’m adept at not dying when I play a support class, like someone repairing, doling out ammo, or chucking healthpacks around, but by genre definition, the games are shooters, and I fail at that part. I’m especially bad at the fastest-paced games, and vividly recall the thrashings I got when Quake 3 came out. In single player FPS, I can hide, take my time, rely on the predictability of the AI, and think about things. I don’t have that luxury in multiplayer FPS. The same problems also largely apply to me and third-person multiplayer games. Shit, even when I played on various MUDs, MUSHes, and MOOs, I’d panic during combat and not be able to type quickly enough half the time.

Sports games? I lack the aftertouch finesse, reflexes and, in most sports, tactical awareness needed.

I can’t think of any other common multiplayer genres at the moment, but it’s a good bet I suck at them, too. I generally need time to consider what I’m going to do, and other people don’t, it’s that simple. Me fail gaming? That’s unpossible!

Image from Unreality Magazine.

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  • Old video games were often uneven, arbitrary, sometimes painfully difficult, with rudimentary graphics, bizarre design decisions, and other little nasties. New games are often highly polished and far more user friendly, yet they make mistakes all of their own. While not ignoring the problems with older games, Oldschool Hard pines a little for the simpler times and asks the question: why must we replace mistakes with new mistakes?

    Email: oldschoolhard (at) gmail.com