The Label ‘Gamer’ and What it Means During an Oil Change

Gamer. A term a lot of people don’t care to labeled with. Is he someone who plays Call of Duty into the twilight hours of the night? Is she the girl with the DS Lite on the airplane? Is it you with your Candy Crush Saga at the laundromat?

Yes. For heaven’s sake. Yes. You can’t get all philosophical and pull a Frasier and say, “I was just killing time while the whites dried…” If you’re gaming what you are is a gamer. Now, there is an exception to the rule. If you try a video game (and yes, all those Android and iOS games count – so don’t gingerly and quietly back out of this conversation) and don’t really get what all the fuss is about, so you stop playing and never think about it again, then you’re not a gamer. And that is 100% okay. Just like those of us who are gamers, it’s perfectly alright.

What’s not honkey dory though, other than me using the phrase honkey dory, is people who play Boggle on their Samsung Galaxy while I read Reddit while getting my oil changed, and then make a face when I tell my friend over the phone that I can’t wait to raid in World of Warcraft tonight.  Continue reading “The Label ‘Gamer’ and What it Means During an Oil Change”

Warlords of Draenor Stat Update

Photo taken from blizzplanet.com

Blizzard has been busy testing out all the new stats and features for their upcoming expansion pack, and they just released details of their progress. Statistics play a huge roll in WoW, and the only thing possibly more fun than critting for a million plus may be making fun of dead people over vent. Ah, the good ol’ times…

I won’t get down and dirty because Blizzard already paraphrased enough. And we aren’t really a news site, at all really, but I like to pass along this info every now and then. There are a few highlights worth mentioning though! Continue reading “Warlords of Draenor Stat Update”

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!

Alright, confession time. I haven’t had this big of a guilty pleasure since I downloaded Miley Cirus’ The Climb back in 2009 (Which I played over Ventrillo during WoW raid bosses to aggravate the hell out of our main healer). At leas that’s what I keep telling myself…

But Borderlands? Keep it coming! This franchise is fun, addicting, and I don’t feel guilty when I walk away from it for a month. I loved Skyrim; I will always love Skyrim. But take a a couple weeks off and I had no clue what I was doing, or who I was supposed to sacrifice someone to, or what skill I was building.

Set to debut sometime in late 2014, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel takes place before the storyline of the original in the series, and focuses mainly on Handsome Jack and his own personal bag of problems.  Continue reading “Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!”

Warlords of Draenor: The Upcoming World of Warcraft XPac

Sometime in the fall 0f 2014, World of Warcraft players and aficionados get to explore new territories, rewrite history, and smack the hell out of each other all over again.

Warlords of Draenor sees players revisiting the Dark Portal and heading into what used to be called Outland. Or as I think the less lore-ridden people noticed it: space. Okay, Nagrand looked like Super Mario Bros. level 1-3 on steroids, Netherstorm was clearly the moon. Don’t agree? Leave it in the comments so I know who you are.

This xpac features new content with a pre-order bonus of a free level 90 character boost. Not sure if it’s worth the pre-order, but if you’re going to play it, might as well take the free stuff along the way. Continue reading “Warlords of Draenor: The Upcoming World of Warcraft XPac”

World of Warcraft Wishlist

Remember Robin Williams’ rendition of the Genie from Aladdin? That was a great cast back in 1992. “Genie, wake up and smell the hummus!”

Well we’re alive and out of the lamp, so here’s our current WoW wish list.

First wish: Inta-queue for multiple toons. For example, if I’m in LFR queue on my pally, I should be able to queue as my mage or warlock. Because some queues are cresting an hour, and I may not want to kill an hour on my mage, but I may want to raid with him. What a great way to reward players who have sunk in that much time to multiple toons.

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Awesome Original EverQuest Ad

Now I really feel old.  Is the original EverQuest really that old?  Released in 1999, before Y2K scared the shit out of just about everyone, and just before this guy was even a junior in high school, EverQuest, and MMORPG’s for that matter, has really come a long way.  Years later EQ fans were introduced to a bland, but still addicting EverQuest 2, and then of course we all know what happened next: WoW.  And in fact, EQ is not quite done as a series, as Sony Online Entertainment has the third main installment in the works, which is tentatively slotted for a late 2013/early 2014 PC release.  But let’s get back to the point here which is the original EverQuest, in which killing rats became many young teenager’s first real job, and where you prayed to your favorite deity that your Aunt Nancy didn’t call to interrupt your 14.4 modem’s blazingly fast, AOL connection.  Yes, let’s jump back to 1999.

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World of Warcraft Loses 1.3 Million Subscribers

Raise your hand if you had Blizzard’s “World of Warcraft” lasting more than 9 years; I know I never thought it would last this long (that’s what she said).  Reaching subscriber highs of more than 12 million paid players in 2010, the world of Azeroth has now dipped back down to the 8 million mark, which has raised concerns in the Blizzard Activision Inc. offices.  Activision’s brass commented on those concerns today, commenting also on “challenges in the global economy. For these reasons, we remain cautious. However, our focused and disciplined approach to our business has served us well in the past, and through continued investment and careful management of our costs, we expect to continue delivering shareholder value over the long term as we have for the last 20 years.”  Activision also added that the majority of the defections came from the East, rather than the West, signaling that Azeroth is still going strong in American households.  Hit the link below for more thoughts on the WoW business model, and the way ahead.

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How to Get a Girlfriend, If You’re a Gamer

I’m a man of my word. In response to my last post on WikiHow’s How to Get Your Girlfriend to Play Video Games, I promised I’d throw together a comprehensive guide on a much more important issue: How to Get a Girlfriend, If You’re a Gamer. You see, before you can try to fanoogle your girlfriend into playing video games, you actually need to have a girlfriend in the first place. That girl you kidnapped and have tied up in your garage; she doesn’t count, sorry. Like in your favorite scientific journal (I prefer Maxim Popular Science), authors usually list their edumacational background to validate their arguments. For this guide, I intend to follow the same outline, so let’s take a lil’ gander at my slightly qualified credentials, shall we?  Continue reading “How to Get a Girlfriend, If You’re a Gamer”

Epic Re-Watch: The Red Shirt Guy

We gamers don’t forget, especially when we witness an epic fail/writer pwnage that was the Red Shirt Guy at BlizzCon 2010.  Who gets pwned more in this epic showdown: the Red Shirt Guy with his question, or the writers for actually getting stumped with their own material?  Hit the link below to drop your qualified comments, and see the Red Shirt Guy’s official video response!

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