WII PARTY

So my guild and I experienced a Wii party !

Everything was great, wii had tons of controllers, chips and couches.
I just can't believe how outdated I was with Smash Bros.

The last one I played was for N64. Even then I though the graphics moved fairly fast.
I felt old because I couldn't keep up with the technology. I found my character falling to their death
way to quickly because there was so much moving around on screen. 4 characters are battling, and some battle fields move. There is a battlefield that is designed after a race way. Cars are unleashed underneath the field and also the field can separate at any time. Items also drop from the sky to add to the hectic-ness.
I just couldn't believe how difficult it was focus and work on my skills in the game. I felt like my grandma who would stop watching me play and claim, "I'm only resting my eyes."

Wii played from 1 til 4 on a nice sunday afternoon, well yesterday. I'm still a little bit sore that a game designed for children is too hectic for me to master. Kirby was the only character I could use because he would be able to float back when I got off the battlefield. The only attacked I really used was  a stationary one of turning into a brick and falling on people. I tried a few other characters but Kirby was the only one that would assist my lack of skills well.


Kirby. Super Smash Bros Brawl. Nintendo. Wii. 2008. Pink Ball character.

Super Smash Bros Brawl. Smash Brothers. Nintendo. Masahiro Sakurai. Wii. 2008. Single/multi player.

horror games = not fun.

I don't know how people find entertainment in horror based video games.
The first game I played of this genre was Resident Evil. The basis of that game was you were a part of a team that was in a mansion full of twisted mysteries and creatures. I remember coming  across a porch with one of my team mates dead and a crow pecking it's eye out.

I did enjoy this first instalment due to it's mystery. I find enjoyment in exploring and solving mysteries. (This could be why watch large amounts of CSI) The horror level was nothing to frighting so the game play was enjoyable.

However, I remember playing the second instalment of Resident Evil, Resident Evil 2 and it was too scary to play.  The stress was to much. Arms would break out of walls and attack you. Silent Hill also offered this same effect. The beginning game play is in a deserted school full of wheel chairs and creepy instruments.

I was convinced by a friend to play Dead Space 2.
I played the minimum three hours required for the weekly assignment. I was just to stressed out.
The creatures in Dead Space 2 make the scariest sounds. They come of nowhere and charge you. The creatures have tentacles, fangs and grotesque faces.

Space is also terrifying because it is always dark and there is no salvation check points. No option to calm down and enjoy the game play.

The theme of the game is I am left to my own devices after suffering memory loss. I have to make it though the monsters to find someone to revive my memory.

I found I was most frustrated because I couldn't handle playing the game in long periods. The video game environment was just too chaotic and dark.

I did not like the horror genre of games, and it would appear I still do not like them. I can safely predict I will never like them.

Dead Space 2. Dead Space. Electronic Arts. Play Station 3. 2011. Single/Multi-player. Disc.

Resident Evil Resident Evil. Capcom. Shinji Mikami. Play Station. 1996. Single-player. Disc.

Resident Evil 2. Resident Evil. Capcom. Hideki Kamiya. Play Station. 1998. Single-player. Disc.

Silent Hill. Silent Hill. Konami. Kelichiro Toyama. Play Station. 1999. Single-player. Disc.

hospitals need video games.

So my usual post has been postponed a day due to unforeseen events. Which made me realize how much 

I love the game Mahjong.

I have always loved the game memory since I was a little girl. I don't have the best memory nor do I think it really helped my skills much, but for some reason I enjoyed. The fun thing about memory is you just need a piece of paper and cut out pieces evenly, or just use a deck of cards.

I feel like mahjong is a memory solitaire creation. 

Since I already played Angry Birds for my last stint. I sat there wondering whats a game I like to play? What's a game I can play over and over while I wait. I also wasn't feeling well so a simply formatted game was welcomed.

Mahjong is a game of tiles and matching there is some luck to the game. There can be four of the same tiles so choosing which one you choose to match up could ruin the game because it was blocking a tile you needed to match for the win. 

Throughout the waits and various doctor line ups I probably played about four hours. Also it was the free version so I only had three different lay outs. 

I think I just found comfort in finding a game that was simple and repetitive. Helped me concentrate on playing the game then worrying about what was around me. 

Thanks Mahjong !

Angry Birds. Rovio Mobile. Iphone/Ipad App. Clickgamer Media, Chillingo. 2009. Single Player. Digital Download.

Mahjong. Iphone/Ipad app. December 15 2010. Single Player. Digital Download. 

Thinking on the works of Huizinga,

I though about how my kitten plays. Huizinga looks at how play is natural in animals. I also realized how much enjoyment and fun I get out of when I play with her. I realized I play with her everyday, at least twice a day. Probably for 15 minutes at a time. I composed a list of some of my favourite games I play with her.

1) Shoe string game. Probably the most simple game imaginable but it never grows monotonous. The enjoyment I gain from playing this game is trying to out smart her and see how dedicated to the game she is. My favourite is dragging the string over couches and watching how quick she can sprint up and over them. It's a game of speed and versatility. I find this on both sides of the game.

2) Fetch. She has two items that she find most 'fetchable'. She chooses a pink pony stuffed animal and any crumbled ball of paper. The fun I find in this game is to see who can last the longest being most interested in the game. Reminds me of a childish game of who can go the longest with out talking.  I often win this one because she gets distracted easily.

3)  String and stick game. This game she usually lasts longer in the attention span. This game I find amusing due to her determination to play. She will jump until she is too tired and when she is too tired she will lay down and bat it trying to continue the game.

4) Tag. This game involves equal game play. This game does depend on the kitten's mood. She must be in a chase and be chased mood. The game play goes as she decides when to stop and let me pet her, then I run and she will chase me. 

5) Hunting game. This game is also dependent on the kitten's mood. The game can only be engaged at certain times when she is wide eyes and focused. This game consists of me hiding behind objects and allowing her time to strategize and attack. 

These games are simple but amusement is found perhaps in their naturalness? 

I think my cat maybe a dog. 

example of kitten game play. fetch, hunting, and stick and string.

Nora. 5 months. Brown Tabby. 

Same game, almost same platforms.

Does and Ipad and an Iphone count as the same thing? One is basically a larger version of the other, and only one makes phone calls.

I got my Iphone about a year ago. I wasn't even to sure I wanted one. Once I got it though I loved it. Super clean, touch screen, good photos, and pretty fun. However, I had no interest in Iphone apps. Some people have pages and pages. I have very select chosen ones. I have TD banking, BC ferries, and the Internet Movie Data base.

I didn't get my first game app till a passenger in my car was bored and wanted to play games. He downloaded Paper Toss. I hated it, but it's still on there. Physics and paper. I'm not a fan.

Second game was bought due to cuteness and overall packaging of the game. This one was called Hoggy. It is almost like a child of Mario and Kirby. My boyfriend beat the game, and I played only a few levels.

Anyway, during my trip to Vancouver I got to play on an Ipad on the car and ferry ride home. I played Angry birds. The big screen of the Ipad is very appealing. I found it easier then when I played it on my Iphone. I was addicted. The only problem was, is that I wanted 3 stars right away. I ended  up playing the same levels over and over again until I got the 3 stars for the most damage done with less ammo.

Anyway Friday I spent 40 mins in the car to the ferry and 1 hour and 40 mins playing the whole ferry ride back. Since the Ipad is not mine I downloaded it to my Iphone and been playing off and on up til the date.  I like how portable the game is and how simple it is. I like how I can keep playing till I like my score. I don't think I'll get too many more Iphone games. The small screen is a bit tough sometimes. The touch screen a swell get's tiring. I have also realized I am a sucker for cute games. If the characters are cute and the world is cute i'm going to be keen on learning it.



Angry Birds. Rovio Mobile. Iphone/Ipad App. Clickgamer Media, Chillingo. 2009. Single Player. Digital          Download.

Hoggy. Raptisoft. Iphone App. Single Player. Digital Download.

Ipad. Apple Inc. Foxconn. 64 GB. Grey. Plastic. 2011.

Iphone. Apple Inc. 3g. Black. Plastic. 2010.

Paper Toss. Backflip Studios. Iphone App. Single Player.  Digital Download.

New console adventure.

Since the theme of this experiment is to try new platforms and new genres I went for the Wii that my father owned. Which, I also just read a great article about the marketing behind Wii parties taking a big chunk out of normal American family rituals.

Anyway, I think I Wii partied. I went down to visit my dad with my boyfriend. My brother was there too. I told them I need to game for a few hours and they were for it. My dad said he hadn't touched it for months and my brother stole the Zelda for his house.

Anyway,  it took my dad and brother twenty good minutes rewire it and connect it to the screen. During that same twenty minute span my boyfriend and I were trying to connect the Wii controller to the Wii numchuck to the Wii sharp shooter. I'm fairly video game literate, but I have no idea how seven year olds do it.

My dad is a hunter so I ended up playing hunter games, which were surprising alot of fun!
The two games were Cabela's Dangerous Hunts and Cabela's Big Game Hunter

We played after dinner from six to nine o'clock.

The controls were difficult to master. For shooting it's difficult because you'd expect the numchuck trigger to be the shoot command. However, it was the under tab of the original Wii remote. I also had great difficulty shooting with looking around. Sensory gaming is a new field for me. Even after playing for an hour or so I still found my self struggling to look around in time so a moose didn't kill me. We all played individual tournament. I ended up getting flukily lucky and got 3rd overall. My father who is in his fifties got first. My whole life my father was not very video game literate. My brother and I got almost every system and game growing up and I can just remember him trying Sonic the hedgehog once. This also proves to me how easy Wii makes it to play for all ages. I was always the kid that wanted to play board games when I was little and no one in the family was interested. Wii has successfully allowed me to have my whole family play games with me. It's a different video game experience. I'm not sure I could handle a weekly Wii party experience. I want  compare it to a night out the the movies. I would also choose a new game. I do not usually enjoy sport type games, however, the equipment and people made it fun.


Cabela's Big Game Hunter. Wii. Nintendo. Magic Wand Productions. Sports. 2007. Disc.

Cabela's Dangerous Hunts. Wii. Nintendo. Magic Wand Productions. Sports.  2008. Disc.

Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic the Hedgehog. Sega Genesis. Sonic Team. Hirokazu Yasuhara. 1991. Cartridge

Wii. Nintendo. Foxconn. Video game console. White. 2006. Disc.

Wii Numchuk. Wii. Nintendo. White. Plastic.

Wii Remote. Wii. Nintendo. White. Plastic.

Wii Sharp Shooter. Wii. Nintendo. White. Plastic.

Zelda Twilight Princess. Zelda. Wii. Nintendo EAD. Nintendo. Shigeru Miyamoto. Single player. Action adventure. 2006. Disc.

I never though i'd be a D&D person...

I sat on this for the whole week. Well I didn't really have time to game early in the week anyway, but I wanted to test my gaming skills. I went to Fascinating Rhythm a local used cd, dvd, and game store to look for a new SNES I haven't played. I didn't find anything that struck my fancy. So I piled out all my games and decided to find one has rarely been touched. This is when I came across "Eye of the Beholder" a dungeons and dragons game. My brother couldn't even operate this game. I remember trying it three times and we got lost, and could not figure out the game play.

I played from 1:30 P.M. till 3:30 P.M. and I had to turn the T.V. off but leave it running while I was work.
I returned home at 9:30 P.M.to 11:00 P.M. tonight,
After only dying once I made it the second level.


I have a strong feeling of accomplishment. This game has been in my memory as something I couldn't play. The set up for this game, however, is quite different from the average RPG model. It is a first person view and all you are given is a cursor. The cursor can click for North, West, South, East. The combat does not change into a new screen, and every thing looks exactly the same. I spent most of the time getting lost in the first dungeon. Near the end of the dungeon it creates a full circle trap, and I ended up where I started at the beginning. I didn't find this overly stressful. I enjoyed searching around. I rather enjoyed finding my way through the corridors. This game proved I could use skills that I have developed from other games and apply them to learn a new one. I have realized I have a large patience for games that require methodical thinking and time consumption. I only made it to the second level after three and a half hours. I made my team an all female team and chose fighter roles. It was difficult for me to make time for games, but after a few brief hours I have realized how much I enjoyed the exploration and surprise. I forgot what it was like to jump when an enemy comes and the small adrenaline that comes from the excitement. I look forward to next week, and must decide on a new game to conquer. Overall, this game has taught me that I do have large experience in gaming and I have the skills to continue playing modern games. I do need a lengthy bit of time to put aside so I can fully concentrate and enjoy my time.


Here is a video to show the difficult game play.


Eye of the Beholder. Dungeons and Dragons. Strategic Simulations Inc, Capcom. Super Nintendo. First person role-playing. 1994. Cartridge.

I will be recording my gaming experience once a week on mondays.

Refrences

Final Fantasy III. Final Fantasy. Square. Super Nintendo. Yoshinori Kitase, Hiroyuki Ito. Hironbu Sakaguchi. Role Playing Game. 2 April. 1994. Cartridge.

Family Feud. Snes. GameTek. Super Nintendo. 1993. Cartridge.

Harvest Moon Back to Nature. Harvest Moon. Natsume. 22 November 2001. Single Player. CD disc.

Minecraft. Mojang AB. Markus Persson. Beta. 20 December, 2010. Single Player, Multi-player. Java, Online, Offline. Digital Download.

Play Station. Sony Computer Entertainment. 1994. CD Disc Console.

Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Nintendo. Video Game Console. 23 August,1990. Rom Cartidge Console.

Super Mario World. Mario. Nintendo EAD. Taskashi Tezuka. Shigeru Miyamoto.

Super Nintendo. 21 Nov, 1990. Single Player, multi-player. Cartridge.

Windows Vista. Windows Corporation. 30 Jan 2007. PC CD/DVD Games.

Zelda. The Legend Of Zelda. Nintendo EAD. Super Nintendo. Takashi Tezuka. Shigeru Miyamoto. 21 November. 1991. Single Player. Cartridge.

Back from gaming hiatus.

              I spent a large sum of my childhood playing games with my older brother. My brother is five years older then me. When he grew up out of playing games with his little sister I stopped playing as much. Money for consoles wasn't really an option. I had just played the games my brother always got and played them on the consoles he bought. I grew up mostly with Super Nintendo and Play Station. I got my Mac computer last year and I installed Windows Vista on it so I could play more video games. The windows side of my computer is permanently frozen, so I have given up on new games.

The last stage of video game play was seven months ago when I moved into my new place. No cable, no internet, just sweet Super Nintendo. I replayed Final Fantasy 3, (FFIII is my favourite game of all time) Zelda, and Family Feud. 

 [side note on Family Feud: The first time I played it I was put into a bullet round. This determines how much money you play for, and you are given one answer questions. The very first question I had received was "Who is the most well known person?" I assumed Elvis or Jesus. I went with Elvis. My answer was incorrect and the correct answer was "George Bush". I was fed up by that and didn't play it for a few days. I think the game should of distinguished it as ever? Or in North America? Also, George Bush, really?]

Anyway, upoun taking a video game class I must now branch out and game again.

Minecraft has been a rude awakening. I had a classmate show me the ropes. I had died seven times in a row. The game offers no explanation or tips. How was I suppose to know zombies come out at night? All you see when you start the game is cute pixelated things.  I learned that using my square fist I can chop down trees, and defy gravity with blocks of dirt. Anyway, I learned a few things and I now have an amazing house by the sea. I grew few trees to make an entrance. I have windows to watch the sunrise and spy on skeletons that want to shoot me dead. I have a great treasure chest, and many great tools. Super addicting game. 

This game appeals to me in many ways. This game also has many negative qualities. For a player like myself, I really have difficulty with the night time lapsing. Since I have not discouvered any flint yet I spend my nights indoors stating out the window til it is light. The night time is lengthy and this game does not give you an option to speed up time lapsing or allow me to run in the back ground while I do other things. Second thing that bothered me about his game is it's lack of instruction. I enjoy puzzles inside of games, but I do not enjoy it when learning new games is a puzzle. I don't mind the poor graphics since majority of my games are Super Nintendo and Play Station. The appeals to this game is the option to customize. I am not interested in fighting monsters or finding rare ore. I like to build log houses by the sea and have a nice flower garden out front. This is similar to the games Harvest Moon and Sims 2 I have spent many hours working on houses and customizing, and ignoring the main plot of the storyline. I like to have freedom to explore worlds. 

        I learned how to play Minecraft Wednesday for an hour and half. I spent the evening from 10 P.M. till 4 A.M. the next day. I was determined to finish my house. I haven't had too much time to continue and I know I will have to set it down to start my group project soon. I'm purposefully removing the attachment to the house. I also realized the appeal to long term gaming. I enjoy RPGs mostly for their stories. I like to play long hours so I can learn more of the story. Much like a good book. I find comfort in long term gaming rather then short small segments. 

Long first blog, but It's been a long time gone.