Personal

Game Case Nightmares

JettLeave a comment

I get the feeling I’m in the minority here, but I know I’m not alone on this one. I like to take care of my games. I take pride in keeping everything intact and in top shape. This includes the cases that my games come in. Back in the days of Nintendo boxes, I would go as far as storing all of the cardboard boxes in a safe place. Nowadays, it’s a lot easier to keep everything in top shape, as game cases are well built to withstand average wear and tear.

However, having bought a number of used game stores and more recently, having bought a number of used games, I’ve seen so many games with messed up packaging. Everything from broken cases, to missing box art, to stickers all over the box. The majority of these cases makes me wonder: what are you people doing with your games?

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Reemployed Gamer

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These last two months have been difficult for me. At the end of January, I lost my job due to circumstances beyond my control. It was the first time I’ve been unemployed since I first began working in 2001. The good news is I just got a new job. I start as of Monday and I’m really excited to begin anew.

On my first day of unemployment, I wrote a blog post outlining a few gaming resolutions of sorts to tide me over during this tough time. I can say right now that I failed horribly at not purchasing games, having bought a total of 16 games during these last two months, but how did I fare at the rest of my resolutions?

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Come On DJ, Spin That Wheel

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As a fan of music games, hip-hop music and DJ-ing, DJ Hero caught my eye the moment it was announced. At first, I had my reservations in regards to how it would control. Unlike my previous forays into video game musical instruments, I do have a bit of background in real DJ-ing, which skewed my perception of how it would work. While I am no DJ Shadow or DJ Q-Bert, I do have the ability to blend tracks on CD turntables and do some basic scratching. I was kind of bummed that the controller would only feature one turntable and I wasn’t so sure I was cool with having buttons on the turntable. It wasn’t until I got my hands on it a few weeks ago that I changed my stance.

I Caved

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Back when I first lost my job, I made a vow to myself that I would not buy any games until I got a job. I admit, I made this vow to myself in hopes that my drought would not last long, and that I could hold out with my current stash of games.

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Living The Dream?

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Over these past few weeks of unemployment, I have played a lot of video games. I do spend time every weekday applying for jobs, and I’ve even gone to a few job interviews, but I think it would be unreasonable to expect me to spend every moment awake job-hunting.

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Unemployed Gamer

JettLeave a comment

Due to circumstances beyond my control, today is my first day of being unemployed since I started working in 2001. I will be diligent in trying to get back on my feet, and I hope this spell of unemployment doesn’t last for long. I have been pretty good at saving my money and my expenses are relatively low, so I should be able to hang out for a few months if things get that hairy. I pray that they don’t.

Home Decor For Nerds

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A few weeks ago, I found myself at my local Rona, looking for a shelving unit to store and display my video games. To my surprise and amusement, I found a wall-mounted shelving unit specifically designed for gamers. It was shaped like a vertical paper storage unit, where your console would sit in the middle. The top was closed-off and had slots to store about 8 games. The unit also featured a hook on the side to hang a plastic guitar.

For most owners of a vertically-standing video game system, this solution would suffice. However, this shelving unit was horribly inadequate for me.

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