video game culture

Collection Shaming

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A while back, The Dice Tower put out a video of Jason Levine’s board game collection. Featuring thousands of board games, it might actually prove to be the largest personal board game collection in the world. While the video received a lot of praise, it also received criticism from those who took offense to him having a large stash of board games. It reminded me of a similar backlash that video game YouTuber 8-Bit Eric received for posting a video of his Nintendo Switch game collection. I get the sense that if I were to seek out people showing off their collections of anything, there’s going to be hate.

My big question is, “Why?”

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My Game of the Year for 2017 is…

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Game of the year is a weird award for an individual person to reward. Who am I, as one man, to make a bold declaration on which one of the thousands of video games is the best? Especially when I’ve probably played less than 20 of them this year?

The reality is, I can declare my own personal game of the year just like anyone else. How one comes to that conclusion is irrelevant. For me, it’s all about which game I played this year was the best and most impactful, with a tendency to weight the latter more heavily. In a year where I named Catherine my game of the year over Skyrim, I still believe I made the right call. I clamor for the day when a sequel to Catherine would arrive, though I’ve been largely over Skyrim since I completed it years ago.

Enough with the preamble. My 2017 game of the year is….

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Gaming in the Suburbs

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After six years of living in the city, my wife and I have moved into a house in the suburbs. It’s a major life accomplishment for us that goes well beyond the world of gaming. Having said that, there are some very real ramifications that impact my hobbies. Let’s look at some of the changes in this new suburban world!

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Biggest Game Surprise of 2017

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2017 has certainly been an eventful one for the video game industry. From Nintendo’s resurrection off the strength of the Nintendo Switch, to the franchise-crushing disappointment of Mass Effect: Andromeda, there was a lot about this year that we didn’t see coming.

In this post, I’m going to highlight the biggest surprise in terms of software. I think the success of the Nintendo Switch would take it hands-down otherwise. Anywho, here’s my biggest video game software surprise of 2017!

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What Seven Games Will Make It To EVO 2018?

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https://twitter.com/MrWiz/status/935267417877446656

Joey Cuellar, one of the head organizers of EVO, has come out and said that there will be seven games at EVO this year. This is down one from last year. Which seven games will make the cut? I make my picks and name a few that should be in the running as well!

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So…let’s talk about EA and Star Wars Battlefront II

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For a while there, EA seemed to have players fooled into thinking that it would right the wrongs of its previous efforts. They were incorporating a single player campaign into Star Wars: Battlefront II because players hated its exclusion from the first game. They also adjusted the way maps work so that the player base would no longer be separated based on who has paid for what maps.

In the last few days, whatever good will they have generated has been flushed down the toilet as the realities of its loot box system.

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This Narrative About ARMS Being a Flop Needs to Stop

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I’ll be the first to admit that I like ARMS more than most. It dominated my summer as I fought my way up to the highest ranks, and even earned a spot as a finalist in a tournament earlier this year. That said, I’ve seen more than my fair share of criticism about the game from around the web, attacking its perceived lack of content, shallow gameplay, and slow rollout of updates. Everyone is entitled to their opinion on those matters and I respect that.

What does bother me though is this narrative that ARMS is a sales flop. Despite having sold 1.35 million units and counting, some want to use that information as proof that the game has failed to meet expectations. While it may not stack up to the heavy hitters on the Switch, especially in light of Super Mario Odyssey selling a whopping 2 million copies in 3 days, I think that people using that 1.35 million units sold tally are looking at it from the wrong perspective.

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Happy Halloween! Check Out My Spring Man Cosplay!

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My wife made this for me to wear at a Halloween party. Really proud of her and how this turned out. Will definitely wear this at a future convention to show my love for ARMS!

Buy Arms Now From Amazon.com

Capcom’s Comedy of Fighting Game Missteps

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I consider myself to be a massive fan of Capcom fighting games. I’ve poured in thousands of hours into everything they’ve put out since Street Fighter IV, and was a always a fan of Street Fighter II. However, it’s gotten increasingly hard to ignore the calamity of errors that follow every fighting game release. Let’s run through a bunch of them from the last few years, shall we?

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Super NES Classic Review

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The NES Classic is a novelty time capsule of gaming during the 1980s. Yes, there are some all-time classics on there, but most of those games haven’t aged well. The same cannot be said about the Super NES Classic. This cute mini console packs a punch with a 20-game lineup that is not only some of the best the SNES could offer, but many of these titles are still glorious gaming experiences today.

On paper, this should be a home run. Does the package as a whole live up to its incredibly high expectations?

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