League is the best!

Really enjoying the League of Legends championship series so far.  This match between Copenhagen Wolves and Fnatic is one of the best: (draft starts at 46mins in)

Also the game allows you to make powerful metaphors such as this one on economic theory:

“Mercantilism was essentially equipping the government with several GP/10 items as well as a sightstone, allowing an overall positive balance of trade while maintaining clear access to global objectives and maximization of the use of domestic resources. (see: Chauster’s doctrine of Blue Side)

Netting multiple Drake kills in essence bolstered non-tariff based routes for capital generation without the export subsidies needed in Twisted Fate team comps that instead looked to increase capital output per fiscal interaction.”

League and life lessons – a post-aram rant.

There’s a zen approach to most things in video games, though it often has to do with turning off the game and doing something of a more immediate and present nature – like sweeping your floors or tending to your garden (aka. dirty dish ecosystem).  There are some games that bring the player to a certain state of mind that is not unlike meditating.  Tetris or Cave Shooters are a great examples.  Then there are games we can play that are exercises in frustration.

You see, Dark Souls is a feeling.

I’m in love with Dark Souls.

I could put it in more words I suppose, but I am late to the game and many many great things have been written about it already.  So, instead of explaining it with words, I did it with music.  Like many a crushing high schooler I painstakingly put together a mixtape for the object of my affection.

Stream Age: Origins

Critical Distance  run a monthly Blogs of the Round Table thing where people with blogs write about games on a central theme.  This month’s topic?  Origins. 

“Character develops itself in the stream of life” – Goethe

It was the summer of 1998, I was hanging out in the dingy basement apartment of a small time drug dealer, watching him smoke something off a piece of tinfoil.  I wasn’t there for the drugs, but while sitting on the grubby couch I was getting excited. Things were about to get scary – we were about to play some Resident Evil 2.  

Akira Committee

I’ve been thinking about the two English language versions of Akira and why I like the “better” one less. It’s fascinating stuff really. In revisiting this movie I remembered something that always struck me as a kid. The name of the studio that made it as listed in the opening credits: “Akira Committee”. As a kid the idea of a company being like a committee appealed to me. I’m not sure why exactly. I would definitely consider myself a team player, and a person who appreciates fair play. ____ by Committee, though often used disparagingly, has an appeal to me.

The other thing is the idea that this committee got together for this specific project alone… So much so that they named themselves after their project!

Whenever I’m working with a team I like to think of this model, the committee brought together with a common goal, a mission statement, a deadline, a shared responsibility for the success of our project. I worked as a test lead at VMC here in Montreal towards the beginning of my career in games and it was that kind of spirit I tried to bring to my team. It worked wonders.

Dear, All games I haven’t bought.

Dear, All games I haven’t bought.

I’m sorry. I see you there with that sad puppy at the pound look in your eyes. I hear your soundtrack, see your youtube clips and rock paper shotgun review. I know how fun you all might be. Some of you I’ve been looking forward to meeting, others I know I’d like to get to know once I upgrade my digs a bit. Get that new graphic card I’ve been promising all my other games. All you ethically motivated “bundle” games, you triple A show-stoppers, you lil indie cuties I’ve been following on twitter.

Thing is I’ve got my hands full with the games I already own. They need the care and consideration that you demand. It’s time to lock up the gates. Money and time do not grow on trees. I’ve got a foster home filled to the rafters with the likes of you.

First things first, gotta beat Dark Souls… first things firster, gotta beat the Orstein and Smough boss fight. Then MassEffect 2 and 3. Then I’m going to plug in my consoles again and take down LA Noire, Bayonetta, maybe Ninja Blade.

Then… oh gosh, only 2 months til the steam Christmas sale…

GAMES!

Gut feelings: Grit, Violence, Video Games.

Manhunt still haunts me, while taking an alley detour late at night, catching the sight of a security camera on a building’s side-wall.  A crackly voice heard in the distance.  Film grain.  Violence.  The ultra-violence.  I stopped playing Manhunt about halfway through and never looked back.