Getting the Blog back together

I have a confession to make. This is probably my sixth or seventh blog. Each previous one now just a driftless piece of waste floating along the internet. It's probably time for someone to dredge the internet. Take a big fishing boat with a couple nets floating behind it and pick up some of the crap and toss it. All the piles of shit upon piles of shit stacking up in files kept on pinheads. The internet's already looking like a landfill; in ten years how many abandoned sites and blogs and twitters and myspaces whatever new fangled widget, gigget, and gizmo that comes along in that time.

So hopefully my goal, this time around, is not to add to the data cesspool and not abandon this project because of whatever half-ass excuse I give next time. Blogs are usually a bunch of work (despite the fact that nearly everyone does it now and I swear they're seemingly close to overtaking credible outlets of news; but let's digress) and putting out content that deserves to pass the eventual dredging of this place is job in of itself. One I don't get paid for despite the fact that you can actually now get paid by doing such acts. Hell you can even create an entire website and community around blogging on that nature as I point you at destructoid.com. While being paid for this would be nice, I'm not exactly ready to quit my day job and get my foot in the door as a professional....blogger.

I'm not going to look at this blog -- this time around -- as work. I'm going to still strive for solid content but I'm going to just have fun with it and we'll see, in a couple months where that leads us...or well me. And then you. And then us.

The blog title probably doesn't give much away despite the fact that it is my XBL handle (X-Box Live for those out of the know) and its a title from a chapter of Bleach, a popular shounen manga title that's not particularly great in quality but a nice 'veg out and read in chunks' book. I do tend to love mangaka Tite Kubo's chapter titles -- especially and obviously this one.

But the blog isn't going to be about Bleach or manga, although it may come up from time to time. No this is going to be one of those dreaded video game blogs. There's about 3 million and a dozen out there floating around, I'm just making it 3 million and a baker's dozen. Other geek things may or may not apply. We'll just see as it goes. Remember -- I'm just going to attempt to have fun here. Primarily video games will come up but I'll leave my freedom holding the door open for anything else.

So what about video games? Anything that catches my fancy I guess. Be it upcoming releases, stupid shit the industy is doing, companies I like, games I like, reviews, deconstructions, what I'm playing...whatever. I'm just going to do whatever and too bad for you if you don't like it. But hopefully you do. I like readers. And I implore you to leave a comment, even if it's just a 'hey' or if you just like the stuff, or heck, tell me you hate the stuff and what you'd rather see. I just want to know who is reading. Open up some conversations.

What makes me qualified to do this? Absolutely nothing. But that's the beauty and ugliness of blogs -- there really aren't qualifications. That's the shame that blogs are starting to take over for credible news sources. But I've been a gamer and a fan of gaming my entire life. I was breaking open PCs and putting them back together by the time I was 5. It kind of grew from there. Also a couple Atari units didn't hurt.

I sadly got my NES kind of later than some and my first game that I owned for that (besides Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros.) was Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, and that game held a special place in my heart for a long time until I decided to play it again thanks to Nintendo's Virtual Console. The game's horrible. It's not one of the worst titles on the NES but it did shatter some childhood memories.

Since I've owned pretty much everything out there sans the Neo-Geo (c'mon I'm not made of money) original Playstation, which once I got my PS2 I made up for thanks to its wonderful backwards compatibility. Currently I own that aforementioned PS2, a PSP, a 360 (I'm still on my first one albeit I only got it in August,) a SmashBros. Brawl player (also known as the Wii,) both versions of the DS (and yes, I'll probably be suckered into buying a DSi,) a N64 and a Sega Dreamcast. I also have a TurboGrafx-16 but it doesn't work currently.

I also at this current moment have a PS3 being shipped to me. I hate buying consoles used but this seemed like a pretty strong deal and saved about half-off the sticker price. Apparently there's only cosmetic scratches on the surface but there's at least a 30-day money back offer and they offer a warranty to purchase. I'll think about that although I don't know anyone who's had a PS3 fail without dropping it or spilling something in it.

So yes, I will be completing the current-gen tri-fecta.

I like just about every genre, as long as the game is done well. RPGs and fighting games are probably the two genres where my expertise lies. Unlike most of the internet peanut gallery, I do enjoy FPS games if they're well done. I'm horrible at them and I refuse to play online but I still enjoy them.

I did spend my first couple years in college as a computer science major before switching to a degree in Literature, which a word of advice to the kiddos out there -- the liberal arts are fun and all but don't expect them to land you a job just with that piece of paper. MAKE CONTACTS while you're in school. The old addage that it's who you know is more truth than anyone likes to admit.

But back to computer science, I do have some sort of background with game design as well as narrative structure, so occasionally that'll get in the way of my enjoyment of a game that should just be pure mindless fun. And other times I'm actually able to put those two critical eyes away when needed. I'm still attempting to find that magical third eye that rules above the other two.

Some people have refered to me as a video game snob -- mainly because I don't gush and scream 'zomg' for Gears of War or any of the real big titles that get way too much credit on just name recognition or marketing alone. But if I apparently hate anything only on the basis that its popular, why do I actually like Halo? or find Dorito's Dash of Destruction to be a nice killer of time?

And that brings me to my last point, I like a lot of things. I hate a lot of things too. The reasons vary for whatever, but its never simply because something's too popular...except maybe Final Fantasy VII... but either way, they're just my opinions. One of the big problems with the video game community is the in-fighting over stupid things, such as opinions. We honestly can't seem to respect our fellow gamer (then again this is a hobby where we encourage, and enjoy, tea-bagging our opponents in a show of superiority) so if you disagree with me, that is awesome. Let me know in the comments. I appreciate that, I truly do. However, let's keep it civil. I'm not trying to "fanboy" for any of the three big companies. I have no real loyalty for soulless corparations that don't give two flying shits about me (if they did, Fragile would be coming stateside and they wouldn't be charging me $60 for a new game.) And guess what; contrary to your prior beliefs they don't give two shits about you either. Beyond your money. So let's leave the silly fanboy talk on another blog, keep comments civil and thought-out and just have fun.