Your Scourge, The Casual Gamer.

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What's that gaming companies? You want me to pay fifteen dollars for each DLC you put out after I paid sixty for the initial game? Please playa I've got bills to pay. Oh and EA/Bioware you want to make SWTOR free but make features super restrictive? Well I don't like you either so eat my shorts. Why am I not level 50 prestige on Black Ops 2? It's probably because I suck at first person shooters. Oh, you're mad that my rotation isn't cranking out the best DPS in this boss fight even though I'm always last to die in a wipe? Well I do have other things to do like spend time with my family so find another Death Knight.

     ^Bitter much? Nah, it's actually the fact that I have zero fudges to give about being a hardcore gamer. It is sublime being in the realm of casual gamer because I can actually do other stuff I deem more important first and then go play a video game if I feel like. Don't get me wrong, I love gaming, it's just not very high on my to-do list. I'm also very, very, picky about the games I do play and often times I pick the games I know I can play or have mechanics I am comfortable with. Why spend too much time trying to learn new mechanics while getting frustrated and dying 7 million times? An argument is that once a person gets the hang of it they can go back and replay. You can take that argument and throw it out the window because it's my sixty bucks and I want to enjoy it right away.

     Plus it's funny to watch leet gamers, and when I say funny I mean fricking hilarious, because often times they're prone to bursts of fury at other gamers, if it's online, or particularly hard levels i.e. "Oh yeah! Cuz that just happened!" It did sir, it did just happen and your anger is comical. Then there are those points in time where, if you are an online gamer, you have a bi-polar guild leader who will yell at everyone for not doing their jobs even though it's probably the leaders own fault, but hey they're the guild leader so why not? I'll tell you why not because casual gamers like myself are perfectly fine going off and farming for crafting, or getting achievements, or pvping. You think we want to spend 2-4 hours going through the Ice Crown Citadel? Nope, but we do it anyways because other members in the guild want the Kingslayer title and they are nice enough to ask(I haven't played since LK).  Anyways I couldn't tell you how much time I spent laughing while the raid leader was freaking out, I always made sure my mic was off though. Another thing I find funny is the looks that I get from some hardcore gamers when I tell them I'm not going get a certain game, or tell them I didn't like a certain game. They range of emotions shown on their faces go from confusion, disgust then to acceptance.
Dude: "Have you played Mass Effect 3 yet?"
Me: "Nope."
Dude: "Are you going to play it?"
Me: "Maybe, but probably not."
Dude: "You're missing a great game, like one of the best in a long time." shakes head.
Me: "That's nice, can I have Tomb Raider now please?"
 
      I'll admit most of these interactions happen at gamestop or wherever I buy a game. Sometimes with an employee or sometimes with another customer. I also admit that I too can get angry with a game, but when I find myself about to reach the limit I just set the controller down and come back later. I couldn't imagine getting so riled up that I throw my controller and bust it to smithereens. Here's the thing, if you find that you have steam coming out of your ears and you are about to smash your third controller please take a deep breath, shut the system off, walk away, find a phone book, look up anger management therapy and promptly make an appointment because your butt has issues. I guess the best way to avoid issues like that is the difficulty mode. I can't speak for all casual gamers, but I always pick the easiest mode there is. Sure it partly has to do with the fact that I suck at playing video games, but at least I can have the best chance to enjoy the game while still playing poorly. Yay me.

     Lastly, the best part of being a casual gamer is sticking it to the man and not getting sucked into DLC. I don't think I have ever heard anything possitive come out of DLC except for Skyrim, good for Bethesda, so why do people keep spending 15 bucks for more game to play? Maybe the studio wanted to include the content in the original package, maybe they have to cover costs, but probably not. They most likely just want our money. Screw that, I'd rather pay the original 60 dollars for the base game than pay an addtional 15 each for 3-4 DLCs that always turn out medocre.

     So if you are a person that brags about your prestige level in your bro-shooter game or you brag about you how many games you have and you beat them all on the most difficult mode, or you're a hardcore raider that spends 3 hours a night raiding to get the best gear, here's what I have to say to you.

But please keep your cell phone turned up. I may need to call you so you can beat a hard part for me.
Cheers.

    
 

5 Things I Hate About Online Gaming

The release of the new Star Wars game "The Old Republic" has gamers in a blissful tizzy, well at least the ones I know personally anyway. It has restored my interest and optimism in the big MMOs where World of Warcraft had started to drag me down. Even though I love The Old Republic it has also brought back things I absolutely freaking hate about playing online and I narrowed them down to a list of five topics.

1. The Grind

      If you're a gamer, especially an online gamer, than you know what I am talking about.This is a necessary evil because well...you have to level and you have to earn it. A lot of companies do their absolute darnedest to make leveling interesting and exciting with the allure of new abilities and immersing you in the story, but sometimes it's just too long winded. The new star wars game especially is guilty of having long winded cut scenes...but I digress. The grind can come off sick and twisted too by creating an addiction to leveling. Gotta get to the next level, gotta get to the next level, gotta get to the next level. It's like having a gambling problem for crying out loud. Crafting also contributes to the grind. Some people I know just wait until they reach the max level to craft, but people like me who depend on the gear to help get leveled need to craft.

2. Trolling

     Ah yes, the trolls, probably the worst thing ever to come from the Internet, and sometimes the funniest. Most of the time it's just down right mean, some noob seeking honest help in general or trade chat (Barrens chat anyone?) gets lambasted with smart mouthed replies and comments from someone who has low self-esteem and taking it out on that player. Usually the noob falls into the trolls trap giving the troll more power to make fun of them. Oh! They are so brave with their keyboards! So defiant in front of their computer screens! So lonely in their mother's basements! Don't feed the Trolls kids. Luckily for us there is the ever useful ignore option and if you're my brother you just disable the whole general chat system entirely.

3. Group Questing

     Unless I'm in some sort of heroic instance or an endgame raid then I really can't stand questing within a group, it's absolutely frustrating. You have to wait for the people or find the people if they run off some where and you spend half the time in the game typing instead of questing. Sometimes they want to skip quests you don't want to skip, or run into a huge mob that you have no chance of beating, it's lame. Usually I try to be polite and make some excuse why I don't want to quest together, but I guess the cat is out of the bag now!

4. Travel

     In most MMOs for some lame reason they make your character start out traveling very slowly. In WoW if you need to taxi they charge you. Really? Wtf? They just can't have a character start out with faster movement or even a mount? I never saw the point of this. Sure if you want a special mount you have to get the achievement or pony up the dough, but for goodness sake at least make the running speed twice as fast in the beginning. What's it going to hurt? It is a virtual world remember, its fake economy isn't going to get hurt.

5. Guild Politics

     This one is a doosy and has effected most everyone that has ever been in a guild. Usually it happens because the guild leaders don't have the mental faculties to govern a guild or make the appropriate people officers to help divvy out the raiding time. It results in favoritism and then members who haven't gotten the chance to raid and get better gear start throwing a fit and it all goes downhill from there. Other problems with guilds is that the leaders can be unholy douchebags of people who take out there real world problems on people in-game. Also sometimes certain people just don't mix well with other people. You can have instances where something is said that was meant to be taken one way but is taken the wrong way. My advice is have thick skin and don't take things personally. If you are a casual player like myself then find a casual/social guild. If you are or want to be a hardcore gamer than find a hardcore guild, a big one too that has an actual guild application to fill out online.

There yah have it.