Click click clack! Click click clack! Click click clack!
This is the sound that my fightstick makes as I practice Decapre’s crouching medium kick into heavy Rapid Slash combo. It’s only two moves long, and one of those moves can be triggered by simply mashing a single button, yet I’m weeks into my practice and can only land it about 50% of the time against a stationary dummy. What makes this two move combo so difficult?
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Oh my goodness! It’s not every day you get an opportunity to fight the legendary Justin Wong. Having idolized him ever since I discovered the competitive fighting game scene, this was basically the equivalent of me playing Michael Jordan in one-on-one basketball. I’ve got my direct footage from my console above, though you can also watch our fights from Justin’s perspective. He talked some smack after that first match, but maybe he spoke too soon. 😉
GG Justin! Thanks for the matches! I hope we can run it back to settle the score once and for all!
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Me.
After five years and four major revisions to the game, I reached #1 in the world on the Ultra Street Fighter IV Rose leaderboards on PSN. This does not mean I’m the best Rose player in the world, but it’s certainly a validation of all the work I put into becoming a better Street Fighter player. I never really set out to reach this milestone, but when I came within striking distance, I decided to go for it.
I may not hold onto this spot for long. If I were to lose it, I may never reach the top again. However, being able to reach this milestone for even an instant is worth a pat on the back. Besides, how often can anyone say that they are or were actually #1 in the world at anything?
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Years ago, I publicly dumped Akuma. Despite having invested hundreds of hours into the character, I felt like our relationship had run its course. I hit a ceiling with that character that was lower than where I wanted to go, so I thought it would be best to move on. As I’ve said multiple times on this blog in the following years, dropping Akuma for Rose was the best thing I ever did in a fighting game. Since dropping Akuma, I’ve leveled up to the point where my Rose is currently ranked 3rd in the world on PSN, which is a milestone that I wouldn’t have foreseen in my wildest dreams.
Was the dramatic turnaround all due to the character change? Part of it certainly is. However, having gone back to watch some old video and having played with Akuma recently, it’s becoming more apparent that much of my success now comes from personal growth.
Having noodled with creating video content for the last few months, bandwidth has become a problem at our house. Our bandwidth limit was relatively small and the overage costs have been tremendous. While I was in the midst of considering ways in which we could scale back our internet usage to save money, I got a call from my service provider. Knowing that we’d gone over our limit for the last few months, they instead offered to switch us to a new plan.
With this new package, we get faster download and upload speeds, a new modem, and our limit over three times higher than before! Best of all, this new plan is actually a bit cheaper than what we’re paying now. Now that I have a much higher ceiling, it opens up more opportunities with video content. I can make videos that are longer at higher resolutions. I can crank out more videos overall. I may even noodle with live streaming more. For me, the biggest problem with live streaming was that I couldn’t play any online games while streaming at the same time, as my internet was too slow to handle both. It remains to be seen if this new setup will allow for that, but I’ll certainly try.
Kudos to my internet service provider for hooking us up. Not having to worry about the cap makes our lives a lot easier while allowing us to freely do what we want with the internet. When it comes to this site, hopefully that means more video content!
A few months ago, Steff and I went on a date to Snakes and Lattes, which is Toronto’s premier board game cafe. On that day, a game called Tokaido made a positive impact on us. In it, players trek hike through Japan, making stops along the way to take in the scenery, relax in hot springs, meet cool people and more. The player who has had the most fulfilling trip wins. The game’s charm and interesting strategy mechanics won us over, but we weren’t quite ready to purchase it that day. Months later, we’re ready to buy, but the game has been sold out of at most stores and online retailers ever since. My only options to purchase the game through international retailers and eat the extra shipping costs, or purchase the game at a premium price through a third party seller. I’ve actually seen the game for sale at over double it’s suggested retail price!
On July 27, 2014, under the Florida starlight, I got down on one knee and asked the love of my life for her hand in marriage. With no hesitation, she said yes and we’re now happily engaged. Looking forward to Steff and I’s future adventures together, wherever they may take us!
Off the strength of a countless number of success stories, the crowdfunding process have become a staple of the modern entreprenurialship. Thanks to services like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, entrepreneurs have an easier way of raising money for their projects while backers can receive exclusive stuff for their support. Crowdfunding successes can be found in virtually every field, from video games, movies, books, and even potato salad.
While I’m all for the crowdfunding model, and I’ve certainly purchased Kickstarter products after the fact, I’ve been reluctant to back a project. Understanding the fact that Kickstarter is not a store and that the completion of any given project isn’t guaranteed, I haven’t been comfortable with the thought of giving my money to a scam or a project that won’t make it through. However, with the release of one particularly appealing project and weeks of internal debate, I decided to put my money behind one. Continue reading
On this day in 2009, I quietly released In Third Person into the Internet wilderness. At the time, my expectations for this blog were about as low as any. For me, if this was a place where I could express my views on video games, I was happy. Over time, I’ve expanded the scope of this site to include board games, comic books and stories from my personal life, but I hope my heart resonated through everything I created.
Looking back, I’ve managed to achieve far more with this project than I ever could have imagined. Being featured on the WordPress.com home page was a huge honour, as were nods from Marquette University, Indie Game: The Movie, and most recently, Shoryuken.com. Off the strength of my work here, I earned a writing gig at Splitkick. I started up a podcast with an old friend and a new friend I initially met through the site that I’d eventually get the honour of meeting in Vegas. Most importantly, this site has accrued over 220,000 visits since its inception 5 years ago. You, the readers, have continued to support my site and I hope in return that the site provides you with content of value.
It’s been one heck of a ride and I hope it only gets better from here. Thank you for your support and let’s keep this thing moving!
For years, I’ve gone to great lengths to ensure that I create a steady stream of content for In Third Person. I’ve bought dozens of games to play that I wouldn’t have purchased otherwise in hopes that my time with them will be worth writing about someday. I’ve played dozens of games that ended up being bad and justifying my time with it by creating a post or video about it. I also literally spend every day working on this site in one way or another.
For those of you who support this site with your visits, views and/or purchases, thank you. I truly appreciate it and I hope to continue making all of your visits worthwhile. However, trying to maintain this pace has taken quite a toll on the quality of the content I produce and on my person well-being. Instead of going forward as I always have until I drive myself nuts, I’m going to take some time to think things through instead.
In Third Person 