I haven’t bought a game since Skyrim

Ok, this is getting less than topical but it’s only been out for over 3 months and I’m still playing it so I’d like to write about something I’ve discovered in the long term with this game. Firstly, it’s not as addicting over time, I’ve found I can sit and do a single mission/quest over the course of a hour and be sated for the evening and turn it off. This is probably the best place to be in a video gaming experience, it’s so easy to balance life with something like that. I think most of the original time sink was discovering all the locations out there, the expansive world; but, besides the very obscure areas, I’ve gotten the key locations found and explored so I don’t need to do that ever again. My main point though, is that this game removes my need to play other games, which means it’s so good that it’s bad for other games.

My guy has never looked anything like this

I’m a huge fan of the Devil May Cry series, the God of War series, and Bayonetta for example. These games are interesting and have stages/levels for pacing yourself but the actual game is so short that in comparison you can finish it on normal within a week just playing it a few hours a day. Not so with Skyrim, this game has so much to do that you’ll find yourself playing it maybe even a full year after purchasing, that seems to be the case with me. When I think of playing vid’s at home these days I immediately think of Skyrim because 1. It’s awesome and 2. There’s more left to do. Other games I’ve gotten this much gameplay out of have either been RPGs where you’re playing a long-ass linear story with side-quests or fun shooting/slashing games where you want to go for the harder difficulties on replay. With Skyrim you just never finish the game! The main story is just one of many veins to tap into in this series. Each side-quest evolves into a greater story all on its own. 

I beat you on Dante Must Die mode, then never played you again

So here’s the kicker, I haven’t bought another game since I got Skyrim, I haven’t felt the need. I wonder how game sales are being affected by this. I used to buy a game every 2 weeks (new or used or online), my current record is 3 going on 4 months (bought AC: Revelations on release day)! That’s a long time to go without any need to purchase a game, that’s just how good this game is! It’s not even some kind of personal challenge; I simply haven’t felt there was any reason to get a new one. Other games have been coming out and with Mass Effect 3 coming in less than a week, I’m not sure what I’ll do for that, but there’s no harm in waiting, letting the game move off the shelf for a few months before I pick up my own copy won’t affect my experience. I was planning on going through Mass Effect 1 and 2 again before starting the finale anyways so I have at least a couple of months before I’ll be at the point where I’ll be ready to get into the final addition.

Anyways, if you want to know what truly defines a great game and makes the world of difference in the quality of your purchase? Lastability, how long the game entertains you and the quality of that entertainment throughout. The result of Bethesda Softwork’s work is a game that will entertain me for months on end, the quality of that entertainment being quite significant. By purchasing this game I’ve saved the cost of probably 5 or 6 other games due to the sheer immensity of the environment, the story, and the gameplay. If that isn’t a testament to how truly awesome a game is, I don’t know what is. Sucks to be other game companies having to compete with that.

City Living

I’ve been a big How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) fan for almost two years. There’s something nice about getting into a series this late, you get to watch 4 seasons of episodes and you’re still in for a few more years. The reasons I love this show are quite plentiful; the character interactions, the clever and hilarious writing, the way Marshall (Jason Segel) laughs at inside jokes on screen making it more engaging, the fact that they still have inside jokes from the first and second season. I could go on about it for some time but let’s just say that this show is one of the highlights of my week and a recent episode made me realize a few things about myself, some stuff I hadn’t considered in years. 

Shit, do these guys ever age?! Alyson Hannigan looks like she just got back from Band Camp!

I used to watch Friends religiously, man that show was addictive and funny. Chandler and Joey were my favorites, the original bromance (for my childhood anyways). One thing this show inspired was my intention to someday live in a big city in a cool apartment with friends nearby. I mean, these guys were all in their 30’s and while I get that it’s a show, my trips to Vancouver have revealed that the lifestyle is exactly what I’ve been looking for. This living style is still a big thing for me, a significant dream I would like to fulfill and for the longest time I had forgotten why I was drawn to city living in the first place, until about two years ago.


When I describe HIMYM to my friends I usually say, “it’s a new and improved version of Friends.” I mean, they live in New York, they kind of date each other within their circle, one of them is always getting women to sleep with him, Ted/Ross are both neurotic expert geeks in their field of study (I think their professions are pretty cool actually), two of the characters end up getting married with no love interest in the other characters and have a baby on the way (friends did the marriage much later in the show), they live in New York in a gorgeous apartment, there’s no Phoebe equivalent but I think Robin and Lily have aspects of Phoebe that more than make up for it. The list goes on… and the first thing I really noticed was that this show made me want to live in the big city again, but HIMYM did one thing for me that Friends didn’t, they made me want to stay in the city forever.

 Robin, representing us Canadians... very accurately actually.

In the most recent episode *SPOILERS* Lily and Marshall reveal to Robin that they actually hate the suburbs and want to move to the city but their baby needs a good place to be raised. I agreed with them on that point, I mean Monica and Chandler had to leave New York, why would they stay? But Robin basically said, “if you’re happier in the city the baby will be too;” this was not expected, I was thrilled but it was completely unexpected. They decided to moved back, this was the end of the episode. Personally, I had thought raising a child in the city was best to be avoided but I was on board with this new way of thinking minutes before it was revealed in the show, I could see where it was going and liked it. I’ve been worried about my age and whether I’ll be able to move to Vancouver for the past year or so but this single episode made me realize, “You can go when you find the opportunity, until then you should enjoy what you have because you can stay in Van the rest of your life if that’s what you want!” This realization has eased a burden off my shoulders and makes me look forward to moving to Van even more than ever!


That’s it, still a day behind but working to catch up!

The Dog side

If you're reading this and are open to suggestion, give yourself 30 minutes, maybe even an hour if you're enjoying it.  Take the time to relax, go to Yoga, go for a walk, lie back and listen to a Weezer CD (or album on your iPod).  Kill time doing nothing, let your thoughts wander.  Keep your body active if you want, whatever feels good man~  Take a few chill pills, take it easy, remove yourself from the situations of life and breath the air you work so hard for.  Oh, and I drew this while I was trying to think of something better to write...

Darth Puppeh!

Yang's Abortion

*Warning, HIMYM and Grey’s Anatomy Spoilers!*

So, Christina Yang from Grey’s Anatomy is in constant conflict with her husband about having a baby. Christina has made it abundantly clear that she never wants to have children, this seems to be coming up a bit lately (Robin from How I met your Mother just broke up with her boyfriend this season because she physically can’t and does not desire children). Dr. Hunt can’t let this go; he has his heart set on kids and won’t give it up. He can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to have kids and as a medical professional I find that hard to believe. Not having kids is a tough decision to make as a couple but it’s one to be respected. I know of people who have kids unexpectedly but found they wanted kids anyways, and others who have chosen not to, but never known anyone personally who’s been pregnant and chosen to abort. There’s much debate about the idea of a child having a life/soul even minutes into conception but it all comes down to what you believe and what you believe will ultimately determine your decision and how you cope with that. 

As I said, I don’t know anyone who’s had to abort a pregnancy, or maybe I do but they haven’t told me about it. Regardless, if you believe your child has a soul from the moment of conception, you’re going to have (or believe you should have and this will have) adverse effects from this. I heard one story about a woman who aborted when she was 16 but found that she couldn’t 5 years later with the daughter she kept. She was content with terminating the first time because she wasn’t ready and didn’t consider what was inside her to be alive. Her second child was different, she felt different, she couldn’t go through with it. Maybe there was something different other than just the parent’s feelings of being ready but regardless, it’s the woman’s body, the couple’s baby, what they choose to do is up to them. In Grey’s Anatomy’s take on this, they do it maturely for the subject material. Yang doesn’t want it, Hunt does but eventually consents to Yang having her way as she would’ve been miserable with it. There are two things I want to draw from this. One, Hunt’s reaction is easy to understand but difficult to tolerate, and two, that not having children is ok.

"I'm kind of like a walking anti-war campaign"

Hunt wants kids, and he’s not going to get them with Yang. He consents to making his wife happy by aborting their baby but he doesn’t just get over it, he harbors resentment for his wife for making the choice she made and can’t seem to let it go. I don’t know where his reaction is coming from, probably the realization that his wife will never want kids (something very important to him) but probably not from a spiritual side. He accuses her of killing their baby, but I never got the impression that he thought it was murder before, unless he developed these feelings afterwards. In the end, Hunt is probably just upset about not just losing a potential child but losing all possibility of children when he married his wife. This is the message of these recent episodes and it comes up in many other aspects of a relationship, “if your partner is directly opposed to something you’ve wanted all your life, you need to choose either your wife or that dream and leave the other forever.” It’s tough but we make these choices every day, an oversimplified example is when we choose to be healthy/happy vs. eating fast food all the time, you can’t have both.


  vs  

The choice is yours!

And finally, it’s ok to not have kids. I think this was the weirder messages I was getting from irrational, emotionally torn Dr. Hunt. He claims he doesn’t understand how anyone could not want to have kids; I think his view on the subject is sorely coming from a lack of reasonable thinking. I’ve been there and back again, thought kids would suck, thought kids might be nice someday, back to the kids sucking thing again (baby-sitting my brother or sister’s kids for a weekend will do that). Not having children is a sort of anti-evolutionary way of thinking and is the entire backstory of the movie Idiocracy, it’s also kinda selfish when you think about it but it’s detrimental to your kids to have kids when you don’t really want to. I remember going to a church where the pastor was saying he wanted to see more babies in his church, that we weren’t procreating enough as a congregation. I’m summarizing and he never said “procreating” but the idea was there. Throwing a God given duty into the mix is just another bit of the old, “do it for Jesus” way of thinking that’s lead to, well, obligation over "the joy of having kids."  If only the people who wanted to have kids were having kids, then we might see a different sort of generation of children (probably spoiled ones) in the future . 

Tomorrow… is Sunday! Following the idea of Lent, it’s not required that I blog tomorrow but I might just for fun… we’ll see.

Living with Coffee Machine fear

Ok, so I like to watch Grey’s Anatomy. I don’t know why, I guess the developing careers of the individual are interesting, the ups and downs of the relationships, the humour, and sometimes even the philosophy. Don’t get me wrong, there are episodes I can’t stand, like the musical episode… actually I stopped watching the show entirely after that one and only recently went and got myself caught up. So what’s the big deal with the show? Well, it’s a medical drama where the actual medical parts are well done. There seemed to be quite a few of these popping up at some point over the last few years but the genre has been around for much longer Here’s my list of medical dramas I’ve either watched or just heard of but was never interested in:

• General Hospital – Never seen it, but hard not to have heard of it 
• M*A*S*H – Also, how could I not have heard of this, not really all medical drama but components of it, I didn’t watch it religiously but I used to watch it whenever reruns were found. 
• Quincy M.E. – Heard of, never watched 
• ER – maybe watched an episode… I think it was the one where the guy who was afraid of helicopters was finally killed by a helicopter falling on him just outside of the hospital, fucking writers… 
• Scrubs – loved this show, not so much drama as comedy but there are thing to be resolved/overcome every episode. 
• House – still watching, I love Hugh Laurie and his supporting cast have such a variety of a characters and side-stories, House’s sense of humour and constant rebellion make for a great watch. I wonder how much longer they can keep this show interesting. 
• Nurse Jackie – I watched part of the first season, I’ve always intended on picking this one back up but will take a bit of effort. 

So as you can see I’m no expert but there are a few points of interest that came up in a recent episode. So I’ll quickly summarize the episode (season 8, episode 16):

• ER emergency with exploding espresso machine hurting two people 
• Adele’s Alzheimer’s is full blown, she needs special care 
• Derek Shepherd is suspicious of race related issues and his new African daughter 
• Dr. Avery reveals he’s still in love with Lexie 
• Other dramatic stuff that has little to do with what I want to talk about. 

Let’s start with Adele’s Alzheimer’s: This is a tragic happening to our favorite Good Wife, Adele Webber. The only thing I found hard to swallow was that Adele basically experienced her first symptoms of Alzheimer’s exactly one year before this episode aired (with potentially other issues arising off screen beforehand). I don’t know much about it but it seems to take years for it to develop to the stage where Adele’s is. Not only that but her case is rare in that she’s so young so she has a form of early onset, highly volatile Alzheimer’s that we have to watch Richard suffer through. Not sure why this had to happen so quickly in the series, ah well.

Derek Shepherd’s black baby. Ok, I actually enjoyed how they handled the idea of white Shepherd having a black baby. I don’t think there is anything wrong with this, adoption is a great alternative especially when unable to have your own children, but I did think some watchers out there might feel the need to troll and spread messages of disgust and hatred. So, Derek assuming the same thing, confronted one of the women about her quizzical looks only to find out he was just doing his baby’s hair wrong. It was a clever way of broaching the subject and dismissing it as an non-conflict with some simple humour.

Avery has had feelings for Lexie for some time but it hasn’t been talked about since Avery decided to focus on his work more than his love life. In this episode it is revealed that his feelings are still very much alive but suppressed and making him sexually frustrated. All of this is “blah,” not much that I care about but the way Sloan finds out is just hilarious. He actively tries to get his student laid by asking around for him, trying to convince Dr. Kepner that she might want to become more than just study buddies, a different kind of buddy. The acting chemistry for Sarah Drew and Eric Dane in this scene alone makes up for some of the poorer writing in previous episodes.

The espresso machine explodes, covering a guy’s face with shrapnel and hurting the lady barista as well. The story around this is a bit sad, guy likes barista, barista has no idea who guy is. What I’m worried about is how they chose to have a coffee making device explode. I found some articles about other situations where this has actually happened, so it’s not something complete fictitious and was serious when it happened here. I was hoping to say, “This could never happen and the show is creating a form of wariness unnecessarily” but now that I know it can/has happen(ed) I’m afraid I’ll be a bit more tense when picking up my morning coffee.

A bit more on an Grey's Anatomy ongoing theme tomorrow.

Motivation vs Laziness

There’s a constant battle going on in my head at most times (not quite all times). It’s the battle between my lazy self (LS) and my super motivated, “let’s get ‘er done” self (SMS). Basically, my LS usually wins and it’s been an ongoing battle that my SMS has been getting more and more frustrated with. Life’s not as long as we’d like, maybe we’ll have augmentations by the time I’d be dying so as to make this point moot in the future, but for now it’s a limited lifetime and one I intend to live.

Lately I’ve been taking on more and more hobbies, things I’d have liked to do earlier but was too busy with my Engineering Degree. Here’s a list of the ones that are the most important to me at the moment:

• Learn Guitar
• Make comedic songs for YouTube
• Create short films
• Complete my private pilot’s license
• Complete a triathlon

I have so many more but they aren’t the focus of my life at the moment. I’ve started on all of these things minus the short films, that require more time and the help of others. Now this guy, this LS that keeps getting in the way of SMS is not my friend, he’s like that sketchy friend who gets you into all sorts of trouble while claiming to have your best intentions in mind. This guy likes video games, sleep, and giving up. Now, SMS likes video games too but he knows his limit. Video games are a release, a de-stresser, a simplified sense of accomplishment, but LS likes them a little bit too much.

I know you all know what I'm talking about.  For example, last night I set my alarm for 5:30am, the plan was to wake up and get my ass to the gym (opens at 6am) and start my day hard-corily. I successfully woke up, my alarm is located across the room so I have to do some walking to turn it off. I was able to pack my bag and get out the door but the whole time my LS was screaming “Get back to bed, you can do this tonight or tomorrow morning, or on the weekend!” He wouldn't shut up even when we arrived at the gym, not until I hit the treadmill, then I was in the zone and his voice was stifled.

I often wish this guy would just leave for good, whenever I think something is worth doing just hit it with all my might and beat the crap out of whatever obstacles might stand in my way.  So far I seem to be gaining the advantage, but you never know when the next time he'll strick will be.  It will probably be a moment of weakness, or a time when I've got my guard down.  I've been successfully going to the guy for the last few weeks, 3 times a week.  Last week I only managed 2 of the 3 planned days, this week was the same, I need to get that 3rd day back!  That's my goal for next week!

Why the tester tests my patience

I’ve been playing around with this idea for a few weeks now, why the heck does this show rub me the wrong way? I’ve come up with a short (haha) list of probable reasons:

Focus of the show

We see about 2 minutes of footage about how these guys interact between events, personally I’d like to see more about the individual interactions of all the people. We get about 15 minutes of random competitions where they’re building cars, covered in roaches, whatever! It’s… interesting, but not really what I’ve come to watch, I want to see some context for people’s relationships, survivor does it really well, it’s an hour long show that establishes the individual relationships so we, the audience, can form slightly more reasonable opinions about the contestants.

The basic prize

The position of being an actual “tester” is nothing to be too keen on; especially if you’re working on a specific game you’ll be playing the crap out of this game to the point where gaming becomes work! As a gamer, I usually don’t spend more than 40 hours on a game, but you could probably expect hundreds upon hundreds of hours on any given game checking to make sure your character interacts with the environment properly. By the time the game comes out you’ll be ready for speed runs!

The new prize

Ok, so this season they’ve upped the ante with an associate producer position. This position is relatively undefined; it’s more of an assistant position, helping the producer, giving massages, lathering him/her in oil while feeding them grapes. All joking aside, if you’re working closely with the producer you might just learn a shit ton of stuff about the world of game development. Unfortunately, this isn’t guaranteed, there’s an equal chance you’ll just be writing emails, getting coffee, and lathering that oil (how else do producers stay so fresh ;P )

The competitions are unassociated with Game Design

Ok, so this is a common opinion of the series, what does building a car, pulling it down a road while shooting targets have to do with game design? No idea, because it would make for a shitty game idea. This is perhaps my greatest qualm with the show. The show uses Fear Factor elements to basically route out the weaker characters, which makes sense from a team work environment, but someone who’s good at appealing to the judges might have little to no qualification for…oh, right, game tester, never mind.

The focus of the show isn’t gaming

Remember that show, Video Arcade Top 10? You know, I loved that show because it was basically everything to do with video games. Hints, game clips, ads for upcoming/existing games (how else would you find out about some of these cheats other than a Nintendo Power subscription), we could even write in and ask questions, it was great! So, what does this show have in terms of gameplay? I timed the last episode, between the beginning and the end of the Twisted Metal fight less than a full minute had passed, which included the clips of people talking (say 45 seconds of gameplay). The clips also jumped around, the enemy’s health bar flipping around in a disorienting way so when the winner was announced it had no impact. Show us some real gaming! I want to see these guys going head to head for the positions, wouldn’t that be better anyways? Wouldn’t you want the best gamer as your game tester? Wouldn't L33T gaming sk!||z be a desirable in a game tester?

Undermining the intelligence of the audience

Ok, I can’t really ignore this. The first episode of Season 3 felt like a 30 minute commercial for PlayStation. When they played Twisted Metal on the second episode and people were saying, “Twisted metal is my favorite game!” I was like, “bull shit.” To be fair, maybe it’s legit or maybe I’m the minority here. Who knows, it felt forced and the new one came out the day the episode aired. I personally loved Twisted Metal 2 for PS1, I played the crap out of that game with my brother when we were kids, but it wouldn’t come anywhere near my top 10 list and it’s certainly not a series worth “following” like one would love Mass Effect, Resident Evil, or Assassin’s Creed. Also, I’m of the opinion that Xbox 360 is superior to PS3, so when burnNibelheim said she works at GameStop and pushes the PS3 I was not impressed.  Pushing a console regardless of the customer’s requirements is lame. XBox vs PS consoles aren’t the same, so a sales rep should be finding out what works for the customer not shoving PS products down their throat, once again there could be more to the interview that was edited away but the Judge was happy with her response, so go figure.

Inconsistent or weird Judging
I don't know where to start with this one... Here might be a good place.  So basically, the judges give very lame, inconsistent reasons for their choice of who to vote off.  
The first episode they had a perfectly pleasant interview with Ashichan who showed initiative but was accused of being unremarkable, this was after they listed her stronger traits from memory.  They then said Kwajamonster was over-sharing during her interview.  So what was worse?  Well, not sticking out enough!  Basically, not being entertaining enough for the show.  
Second episode, Asuuka was taken off for letting her team down while her partner Suzkaiden was just as much there and claimed to have a history of building.  Asuuka was taken off for not owning up to her inadequacies, Suzkaiden just shut her mouth and let Asuuka bury herself.  Now Suzkaiden has started this trend of being accused of failure over and over again while toughing it up, basically she's appealing to the judges and they are lapping it up like a starved kittens.
Third episode, ok so this one looked like it was finally going well.  They worked as a team and everyone was happy.  As this was a timed event, Suzkaiden ignored the warning of "each contestant hits one target" and basically sunk her team.  The judges then asked for the team's opinion and everyone who would point a finger said "Suzkaiden" and everyone else on the team said they were still a team and wouldn't out their team-mates.  The result?  The judges said, "well, if you aren't going to choose then we will."  Wait, was this supposed to be a formal vote?  No it wasn't, did they express an opinion that one of them should go?  YES!  Three of the contestants pointed the finger at Suzkaiden, so who goes home?  Egoraptor!  Their reasoning was that he had been on the losing team 3 times in a row and that he hadn't stayed to help the team after shooting the target!  So, apparently your past episode's transgressions are held against you, so by that logic, Suzkaiden has two against her as well.  Finally, they had to send a second person home, they were obviously behind as two had to go from the first episode and they showed mercy and kept Egoraptor.  Nibelheim went home, I don't really know why... they said she should have shown more initiative.  
In summary, while there is a bit of solid reasoning for Nibelheim and Asuuka, Suzkaiden should have been gone in the third episode, she was actively holding her team back but interfering with Nibelheim. 


So basically they tortured Egoraptor for 3 episodes and then sent him home, fuck this show.


And I wrote a songish thing!

Lent - The disciplinary tradition

The origin of lent represents the 40 days of fasting that Jesus toughed his way through as a destroyer of sin, devourer of nothing. If you care to know more about the reasoning behind it, check this out. Personally, I don’t really care for the reasoning but it has become something of a tradition for me and a few friends who aren’t necessarily avid church goers. Our version of it basically works out to be either giving up a bad habit/personal pleasure or take on something beneficial to yourself or others. Here’s a brief list of what myself and friends have givin up in the past and their relative difficulties.

· Video Games - was surpisingly easy, just read a bit more than usual, I wasn't as in tune with the new releases as I am now

· Salt and Pepper - I used to use it in excess, it was a very simple one to give up but it’s also one that really stuck as I rarely use it even today

· Music – This was, by far, the most difficult and depressing. I really love music and while I allowed others to listen around me I could not listen on my own initiative. This one made my GPA drop.

· Coffee – I didn’t do this personally, some of my friends have; it’s a popular one but makes for a rough first week depending on the level of dependency.

· Pizza –A friend took this one on, I made sure to enjoy more pizza around him for the month that followed (#goodfriend)

· Sarcasm – Surprisingly tough but not a bad way to go. A few ladies I knew did this one, they thought it was sooooooo fuuuuun.

· Alcohol – Probably one of the better ones, you can be the DD for 40 days!

Of course, the list goes on for as long as you can think on the subject. Those were all examples of things to give up so here a few ones one can take on:

· Walk 3km a day - not tough to do and good for you

· Jog x kilometers a month - same idea as above

· Eat more healthily - very general but a good idea to start with

· Read/write x pages a day/week - Most Christians would do this with regard to the bible as it's a time of discipline and reading the bible requires it.

· Write a blog entry everyday – this is what I want to take on this year, there should be 40+ articles on my blog by lent’s end.

So, why am I taking the time to write in detail about such a tradition? Regardless of what you believe, lent (or the 40 days of whatever) can be a good time to make a positive change. I think the most significant idea that occurred to me was that 40 days is the perfect time to form a habit, not quite 66.  Actually, that article talks about people who have a resistance to forming habits which would explain some things.  
Now, when we think of taking up jogging a few times a week we usually think, “Oh man, I really don’t like jogging, and doing it for the rest of my life is not gonna happen so what’s the point of picking it up at all?” This is a common attitude (one that I’ve shared from time to time) and is self-defeating. But when you say to yourself, “let’s take up jogging for 1 month, if I don’t like it by the end I’ll give it up knowing I gave it a fair chance.” So you’ve gone from loathing the idea of how long you can sustain the jogging to knowing you only have a short time period (40 days is nothing) to commit to. 
Finally, we can use the tradition to make it something of a group activity.  If everyone is doing it, it motivates us to try harder.  Going in with that positive mentality, maybe you’ll find you get hooked to whatever habit you've been forming and that positive change sticks. I think that would be the greatest result of taking up something for lent. 

~Good luck~

The Tester, Season 3 Episode 1

I've been meaning to write something on this since I first saw it. The first episode of Season 3 of the tester aired on the 7th of February, 2012 and it would have been a fresh review had I done it then but I really didn’t enjoy the experience of watching the show and have been mulling about it in my head ever since. I haven't seen the previous seasons up to this point but so far it seems like a half hour commercial for Sony Products. The show itself, busting out hissing cockroaches, is less than classy with its competition but I will admit it does test the mettle of its contestants. Firstly, I enjoy the contestants on this show; they’re gamers with some very interesting personalities and much less spray tans. They are all like-able in their own ways as they needed to be voted onto the show in the first place. To be honest I’m only watching this show for Egoraptor, he’s been making me laugh since I was in high school, so it’s been at least 10 years. His views/reviews on certain games have made me think critically about the games I play and laugh about the more nonsensical parts of them.

 

Watch it, and you will understand!

So, after the cast had been introduced and Egoraptor exposed as the one to beat we were introduced to their living quarters. Their place of living is sweet-awesome, it resembles my dream abode and I shall have it, it will be mine someday! They’ve got systems set-up for competitive games and all sorts of Sony memorabilia, good times but also adding to the commercial aspect of the show. Finally, we got into our first competition.

The competition is having your head in a box with a bunch of hissing cockroaches whilst undergoing an interview! Great? Dunno, but those involved would need to keep their cool while answering piercing questions like, "how many trophies do you have?" For the most part, all did well with the roaches, some were interesting and funny, and some interviewed better, while others talked about some random stuff. The most significant contestants were:

Ashichan – Was the first to volunteer, had a great attitude and seemed super keen and likeable, I was looking forward to future episodes with her.

RealityPalez – By far, he interviewed the best and had me sold that he knows much about studios and their development history.
Skyd1ddy – Hilarious, so funny that they added in affects afterwards to follow his commentary, giving him imaginary superpowers. He needs to stay until the end, he’s entertaining! 

Egoraptor – Seemed to be walking into a deathtrap with this one, I feel like he was answering questions honestly but not focusing on his own personal selling points which he brought up later when questions by the judges during elimination. It’s interesting because Egoraptor gets more hits on Youtube than the Tester does. They posted the episode online and a week later it has (at the point of writing this) just over 88,000 views while Egoraptor’s 30 second Saint’s Row cartoon has nearly 10 times that with over 800,000 views and it was released around the same time. I don’t think this show will be getting Egoraptor any new fans as I bet most of the views for the episode were probably Egoraptor fans anyways. 

Kwajamonster – By far the worst interviewer, she talked about an embarrassing moment in explicit detail and didn’t seem to have any game-related questions. It was difficult to watch. But the judges were entertained….? 

"Actually, we're all Egoraptor subscribers too, love that guy."

Here’s the thing, I watched Egoraptor’s panel at MagFest just prior to watching this and he gave off every indication of not only being humble about his success but also very personable and passionate about what he does. I’m not sure if the job interview was just edited (with music to emphasize) in such a way but (and I’m not for lack of bias) the judges really annoyed me with how quickly they made up their mind with him. Here’s what I’m worried about here, and it’s something that I’d desperately like to know from Egoraptor himself, “is any of this real?” Let me explain why this is of concern.

After the interviews ended we are shown that Ashichan is one of the people going home because she wasn’t memorable enough. I found both her spirit and her enthusiasm unforgettable and the judges talked about quite a few redeeming qualities; she was also the first to volunteer for the competition which shows initiative. If she was so forgettable then how could they list so many of her stronger points? My theory on this is that the judges probably thought she wouldn’t be as entertaining for the show. I mean, she went first which gives her bonuses but they weren’t enough apparently. Another girl, Kwajamonster, spoke about very personal and embarrassing material, not being able to stop herself and thus providing more entertainment than Ashichan apparently. So, what are the judges basing this decision on? I’d have to say entertainment value, because from my first impressions Ashichan has the required spirit for a producer (or basically Gopher) position and certainly didn't let her mouth run wild.

Secondly, it seemed that Egoraptor was about to go home. The question he was asked was, “what do you think’s going to make you stand out” and his response was honest. Egoraptor said, “I’m funny, I got an audience, I think I’ll pull in the watchers” and that his motivation was a combination of wanting the position and the attention. He seemed to be selling his position on the show rather than for the job itself. It was then followed by being questioned on how many trophies he has, too few apparently as your trophy number seems important for the job. I’m gonna say I kinda understand this as it’s a SCEA position, but they never asked him, “do you have any experience in game-design” or anything equivalent. The next interviewer was of a Gamestop employee who basically said when she’s selling products she’s biased towards PlayStation. Is that an honest answer? Not really, Xbox is comparable if not superior to PS3 so she’s obviously coddling the judges doing the opposite of Ego or maybe she is unethical in her work practices.  it was a short clip which summarized that saying what they want to hear is more important than honesty. When they finally explained that their decision to consider sending Egoraptor home was based on his apparent cockiness/attitude and lack of want for the position, Egoraptor apologized, explained his experience in game design and thus what makes him fit for the position and was given a chance to sleep on the couch. Now, here’s the thing, I’m convinced that if they let go of Egoraptor their viewers would drop significantly. I’m already of the opinion that Ego is better than this show, maybe not the position itself, but the show? Heck yeah. They then posted the episode on YouTube with Egoraptor’s face on the front image, further emphasizing their priorities in keeping him and losing the point of "humbling" him. 

This is how I reacted to getting the bottom bunk too

Regardless, I’m writing about the show so it’s obviously got enough material to gripe about, which is better than nothing. Overall, seeing Egoraptor humbled is not something I needed to see, it was harsh, it’s been a knot in my stomach all week. I hope it doesn’t happen again, love you Arin.