I remember back when AOL was the biggest ISP on the market and online chatrooms were relatively safe, everyone typed normally.  Sure there were some mispelled words here and there, but it was ok. Everyone understood each other and hardly anyone abused the CAPS LOCK. But then, the internets started becoming mainstream.  I think by the time I turned 16 or so, other “teenie” boppers started to poke their heads into chatrooms to see what all the fuss is about. How did I know they were “teenie boppers”?  They typed LyKe DiSh.

Now, travel to present day internets and you have so many different kinds of acronyms, different kinds of “speaks” (leetspeak, lolcat, geekspeak, etc.), and emoticons.  That’s all fine and sometimes funny to read, but one thing stood the test of time. Uppercase, lowercase typing.  This is my biggest internet pet peeve of mine and I really don’t understand how it is still here.

Why do people think iSh SoOoOoOoO kEwL 2 tYpE lYkE dIsH? Damn, just typing like that made me angry. I guess it gets under my skin because when I first saw that kind of typing it was like kids stomping on my internet lawn. Call me old but, if you see a full paragraph of that, it’s hard to read and it gets annoying to me.

Does it make you look cool if you type like that? I really don’t see the point of it but I do hope to see the end of it soon.

3D Realms is dead. Don’t expect a joke or a punchline. That is the cold, hard truth of the matter. The developer, most famous for the infamous Duke Nukem Forever, closed its doors on May 6, 2009, much to the dismay of many Duke Nukem fans.

To be honest, I wasn’t even aware that DNF was still being developed until that teaser trailer was released back in 2007. And, regardless of my apathy towards the series, it was enough to get my attention, having been a big fan of Duke Nukem 3D. But seriously, 3D Realms; 12 years? I know game development is never an easy thing, but I cannot fathom why this game would’ve taken even more than 3-4 years to release. What were you all doing? Seriously? I mean, aside from publishing games like Max Payne, the company has really done nothing when it comes to development that wasn’t related to Duke Nukem Forever. And now, that game that was promised to us 12 years ago might never see the light of day. Nice going, 3D Realms. You wasted 12 years of our lives. It’s unfortunate, but seriously. If it takes 12 years to make one game, you guys had to have seen this coming.

But it seems like the fans won’t rest until they get what they want, with bogus reports that the closing is one big hoax making there way onto the internet. Seriously? A hoax? Part of me wanted to believe that but in all honesty, 3D Realms has to be full of idiots if they’re willing pull a stunt like that. Seriously people, it’s not a hoax. Something like that would be quite damaging to the company and a lot less effective than simply releasing a trailer with a set release date.

Who cares if savedukenukem.com was registered the day 3D Realms closed down? One such redditor has been making a public outcry of the situation, claiming that the leaked game footage and screenshots released after the closure is just part of massive ad campaign designed to garner attention for DNF. Others have been making a big deal about a creation date of a PNG file on the Save Duke Nukem site being March 19th after opening it in a hex editor (I did it myself to confirm it).

I know people were excited for Duke Nukem Forever, but this is borderline insane. Seriously people. Grow up.

As much as I would like to believe that Duke Nukem Forever could have been a great game, expectations for the game would be so high at this point, I doubt many people would have considered the 12 year wait worth it. Duke Nukem is dead, unless someone wants to pick up the slack and take a shot at finishing what 3D Realms started. But seriously, maybe it’s time for old Duke to make a trip down to the unemployment office and pick up his first check because it may be a while, if ever, that we’ll be seeing the old boy make a comeback.

Unless that Apogee Software produced Duke Nukem Trilogy ever sees the light of day.

Many critics will argue that video games are nothing more than a useless little past time that rots the brains of today’s youth. Yet somehow, many gamers I know happen to be successful college students; that “rotting-your-brain” argument is instantly null and void in my world. I myself am a student at UC Berkeley, yet I’ve been playing video games for as far back as I can remember – I still have vivid memories from back when I was three years old, so that should say something about how long I’ve been gaming.

Setting aside the brain rotting argument, naysayers continue their criticisms, labeling video games as a shallow experience, something that bears no meaning to the player other than just providing a cheap thrill. That may have been true back in the days of the Colecovision and Atari 2600, but these so-called critics have not been keeping up with the times. Either that, or we are clearly not looking at the same set of games.

In addition to the amount of time I have invested into video games, I have also invested much emotional involvement. Someone claiming video games provide nothing more than a cheap thrill is ludicrous and that person needs to re-evaluate their perception of video games with some good old-fashioned research.

I watched in sympathy as Cloud Strife’s very world was shattered, realizing everything he ever knew was a lie. My heart was racing as Phoenix Wright had to justify defending a clearly guilty criminal to save the life of poor Maya Fey. I spent ten years watching Solid Snake battle to help avoid the coming onslaught of nuclear war and the cruel reign of the Patriots, only to see him used as a tool every time. To be completely honest, the ending to Metal Gear Solid 3 nearly had me in tears (and not because of its sub-par voice acting).

Video games have slowly started coming into their own as an art form, which requires something more than just good graphics and gameplay. It requires something more in terms of a narrative structure and many developers have risen to that challenge as games begin to incorporate a more narrative approach in their gameplay. And why not? Shooting anything that comes onscreen is fun. But it eventually becomes very, very, very, very repetitive. Why are we shooting down these objects? What is the meaning of what we’re doing? Are they enemies or are we just killing them because we can?

The idea of telling a compelling and well-told story within a video game world is significant for that very reason. It gives the player more emotional involvement with what is going on. While it’s sometimes fun to have a main character that isn’t all that well-developed (as is a common occurrence in many FPS’s), a well-developed main character works more seamlessly. While the nameless FPS protagonist gives players an opportunity to transplant themselves into the role, a well-developed character offers the player a better motivation for going through the game and seeing what happens next. If the character is developed well enough, the player will want to keep going through stage after stage, seeing what becomes of the protagonist. If the storyline is compelling enough, it may even excuse a few gameplay issues, unless they’re too glaring to ignore.

It is only natural for gaming to have reached this point in its evolution. While many might have said in the early days of video games that gaming was mostly a kid thing, those gamers have grown up and many, though admittedly not all of them, have kept their interest in video games. But like most things in life, gamers’ tastes in games have matured and (speaking personally as someone that has been gaming practically his entire life) story-based games are the primary reason why I continue to invest time into my gaming lifestyle.

Regardless, there are many people who see gamers as shallow, something that probably explains the fact that for every intense, artistic gaming experience, there are dozens, maybe even hundreds of games that are total crap. But the gamer has grown beyond the standard slacker mentality that most people associate with video games. There is an intellectual quality about gaming that pushes developers to make emotional and thought-provoking games. I feel many naysayers ignore that.

Back in 2001, there was a lot of backlash when Metal Gear Solid 2 was released, mainly surrounding its overly convoluted storyline and heavy focus on plot as opposed to gameplay. Although criminally short, the gameplay for MGS2 was quite on par with what the hardcore Metal Gear fans were expecting, evidenced by the overwhelming enthusiasm from the gaming community. However, the game itself had a hefty amount story sequences and lengthy radio conversations, some of which were very complicated and difficult to understand.

None of this is more evident than the last hour of the game. At this point in the game, there is a difficult battle where the player must fight against waves of Metal Gear RAYs, thought the total number of RAYs battled is dependent on the difficulty level. After that, the player is treated to a roughly 45-minute-long cut scene before the final boss fight in which many truths about what is really happening in the game are explained to the player. While I’m sure many a gamer skipped through everything after the first 10 minutes in order to just get through and face the final boss, I sat through and watched everything, completely immersed in what was being said as my then-14 year-old brain tried to decipher just what exactly was going on. To this day, when I reach that point in the game, rather than skip through it, I watch it completely as I still attempt to wrap my head around everything.

Which brings me back to my point. The storyline of MGS2 was so engrossing and so involving that the length of time I spent watching rather than playing didn’t matter. What mattered was not only fighting my way through an enemy stronghold but finding out exactly what was transpiring in the narrative world of the game. And that there is a point I have been trying to make all along.

A compelling narrative within a video game can be so much more rewarding than a game that gives the players new items and game modes based on their skill level. The game’s story is the reward, watching things in the game world unfold as the player helps affect what happens. It helps to make the game so much more impactful and, by extension, more satisfying to the player as they grow attached to the world and its characters, watching them grow and develop. Many will say that nobody ever cried at a video game character’s death. Try telling that to the fans that were bawling when poor Aerith Gainsborough died.

(And before any of you try to correct me, Aerith was mistranslated as “Aeris” in the original FFVII and further installments in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII have stated her name as Aerith.)

Hunter, Death Knight (or any physical dps), Holy Paladin/Resto Shaman/Disc Priest

Wow…blizzard…really? Hunters are already OP…they bring sooo much to the table now MS, mana drain, OP AoE frost trap, multiple CC’s, and crazy damage…

Piercing Shots (Tier 7) Your critical Aimed, Steady and Chimera Shots cause the target to bleed for 10/20/30% of the damage dealt over 8 sec. (Previously triggered 2/4/6% armor ignore).

Say goodbye to rogues lol…even if you cloak the poison or dots, the bleed will get you…yay…deep wounds on hunters…BUT WAIT! Theres more…Black Arrow…o great another dot…

Black Arrow (Tier 9) – Fires a Black Arrow at the target, increasing all damage done by you to the target by 6% and dealing [ 10% of RAP + 785 ] Shadow damage over 15 sec. Costs 6% base mana. 5-35 yard range. Instant Cast. 30 sec cooldown.

So you do more 6% more damage on top of a dot effect…

BUT WAIT!

The pet also bleeds the target…so this means you can have 4 or more (if you include immolation trap lawl). UGH! Hunters are so annoying…with their scatter, flares, frost trap, op explosive shot, MS, dispels etc…The DK can just do whatever he wants…it’s the hunter that will be carrying the team. I’d say give Blood Spec a shot because it boosts and helps the hunter dps with Abom Might. The healers can vary. Defensive? Go Pally for freedom and bop. Offensive? Go Shaman for lust, purge, and hex. Balance? Go priest for AoE fear and possible mana burn…if the game even allows you to mana burn…But ya…I think double hunter shaman will rape aloooot of teams…it’s like the only class you can stack without diminishing returns…double drain and double pet on healer, 1 pet be scorpion and the other crab to pin, have half the map snared and keep MS on multiple targets and explosive shot the crap out of one.

LiKe OmG. DISh iSh sOOoOOoOO kEwL. I LIk leaRneD hOw 2 uSe thE inTeRnEt aNd nOw i’M LiK sOoO PoPuLaR n StuFs.

I’m sorry. I don’t really type like that, but I did type that for a reason. To annoy you. I was annoying myself while I was writing that.  It took a good 2 to 3 minutes to type that first line. So how do pre-teens and teens do that? How do they read that?  And most importantly, why write/type like that?!

I grew up with the internet since the days of AOL 1.0 floppy disks. As a teenage geek during school lunch, all the “popular” kids went to the popular kids lunch areas.  I, on the other hand ran to the school computer lab as fast as a could to learn HTML, networking, and how to rocket jump in Team Fortress 1.   I always had some sort of annoyance towards those “popular” kids.  They all dressed alike, talked alike, and at some cases even had the same handwriting styles.

But now it feel as though they are stepping into my world.  Teenagers have learned to use the “internets” and are annoying me more and more. At first I thought MySpace was a good idea when it first came out.  Then they learned how to “code” their own HTML.  Since then, I haven’t visited MySpace until I created the “Why I hate MySpace” video.

I really feel as though I’m like an old grandpa sitting on a rocking chair yelling at kids to “get off my yard.”  Why can’t teens just use the internet for what it’s meant for.  Research, a creative outlet, a way to share stories, and read stories. If you’re going to use the internet just to “like say um stuff such as” why a forum member called you dumb. Just keep it to yourself and don’t feed the trolls.

Here is one more video that’s even worse than the first. Try watching it all the way through. I know I couldn’t.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ugh. I hate you kids.

But why in the heck would ANYONE give just ANY Joe the power to *pretend* they have skill in this art? Flash music players playing audio on top of flash video players playing videos. Background animated gifs. Backgrounds with the same color as the main text color. Confusing layouts! STUPID MOUSE CURSOR FOLLOWERS!

AHHHH!! This is why I call MySpace the SH*T hole of the internet and why I love Facebook. Facebook gives people what they want from a social networking site and NEVER gives anyone but REAL designers/developers a way to design and code things in the site.

Ok, I’m done ranting. What are you thoughts on MySpace today?