Month: August 2010

Fan Expo Day One: Among Nerds

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An hour after the the Fan Expo officially opened, I received a call from my brother. I was still at work and he had just entered the line, which he said was insanely long. Almost two hours later, he sent me a text saying he just got in.

I was fearing for the worst when my girlfriend and I finally got to the convention centre. There were two lineups facing each other: one for pre-purchased tickets and one for those who needed to buy tickets. Both lines were roughly two blocks long. We got in line, expecting a long, slow, painful trek into the convention centre. To our surprise, our early experience was nothing like my brother’s unfortunate two-hour wait.

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Social vs. Gaming: Why I Haven’t Jumped Into the Social Games Scene

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I love social media. I am a long-time blogger, active Facebook and Twitter user, and enjoy the technologies so much that I pursued a career in which I could work with these technologies on a regular basis. I currently work in the digital/interactive advertising business, where leveraging social technologies to improve our clients’ position in the marketplace is part of my everyday life.

Combined with my love of games, I should be all over social games like FarmVille, Mafia Wars and Foursquare. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. As of now, I have no personal interest in playing any social games. It’s not the social elements that turn me off to the scene; it’s the gaming part.
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Game Design Talk: How Conquist Takes iPhone Risk and Ruins it With a Terrible User Interface

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I really enjoyed the simplicity of the user interface Risk had on the iPhone. I had a lot to overcome, having not played Risk in 15 years, but I picked it up immediately and the user interface worked exactly how I wanted it to.

I picked up Conquist on the iPad because it looked like Risk with more features, iPad support, it had great user reviews and it was on sale for $1. In spite of its strengths, I hate this game. Terrible design choices make this an extremely annoying game for me to play.

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Brothers in Arms 2: Global Front HD Impressions

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For someone who is tired of WWII games, has never played a Brothers in Arms game before and already has too much to play on the iPad, I sure did scoop up Brothers in Arms 2 really quick when it hit $1. I picked it up because it was a brand name, the screen shots were pretty and it was $1.

I haven’t played too much of it, but so far, it’s made a good impression with me.

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Late to the Party: Tron

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Yes, I know. I’m late. 28 years late to be exact. To be fair, I wasn’t alive when the movie came out and by the time I was old enough to understand the world around me, Tron was old news. For as long as I can remember though, it’s been referred to in popular culture countless times and often mentioned as a film that helped bring computers, computer-generated graphics and video games to the mainstream.

I’ve always felt bad as a gamer and all-around nerd for not having seen Tron. Thankfully, my girlfriend and I recently watched it a few days ago and enjoyed it for the most part. I’m pretty tired right now, so I don’t have the mental capacity to write something fully thought out. However, I did want to share some assorted thoughts about the movie.

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Jett Vs. – Episode 1: Stay Classy, Ken Masters

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Welcome to a feature I’m testing out on In Third Person that I like to call “Jett Vs.” (no relation to that Shaq show). For now, I’ll probably use this as a place to post some of my Street Fighter match videos, talk about Street Fighter knowledge and what happened in a particular match. I guess with a name like “Jett Vs.”, I can use it for basically anything related to competitive gaming. Apologies in advance the poor video and audio quality; it’s the best I can do with the on-board camera on my laptop.

For episode 1, I chose a battle I recently had with a Ken player whose cocky play cost him the match. Click through to the rest of the post to see the video and read my match commentary.

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Portal Being Added to a College Curriculum is Not A Lie

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Students heading to school at Indiana’s Wabash College this semester will find something very cool added to their curriculum: Portal. The critically acclaimed game about mind-bending puzzles and a deranged AI that is trying to torture you to death will sit along side Hamlet and Aristotle as required material for students looking to earn a degree.

Education purists may scoff at the thought of a video game being used as a teaching tool, especially a video game that isn’t meant to be educational. But having read the context in which the game is used, I think this is an amazing idea.

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The Legend Begins

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I vaguely remember the first time I ever played the Legend of Zelda. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t old enough to go to school and I couldn’t read at the time. All I remember is getting the sword and running around the world, killing monsters. I was told that I was supposed to save a princess, but I had no idea how. I aimlessly wandered around the world and killed things, which at the time, was probably enough of a gameplay experience to satisfy my tastes.

It would take a few more years before I actually understood how to play a Zelda game, when I first got my hands on A Link to the Past. It would take a few years after that for me to finally “get it”, when Ocarina of Time left an impact on my gaming life that I still feel today.

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5 Things I’m Looking Forward To At FanExpo

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FanExpo is only a few days away and I can barely hold in my excitement. My girlfriend and I are in for a whole new experience by partaking in this event, and I just want to soak it all in. With that said, there are a few things I’m a bit more pumped about than others. If you’re heading out to FanExpo, hit the cut to see if we’re psyched for the same things. If you currently have no plans to visit, these might be 5 reasons you should check out FanExpo.

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