ThrawnOmega Predicts the Future: Episode 2

Today (or should I say tonight?) I decided to bring out my crystal ball for another round of gazing into the future, to make a couple more predictions. Remember, my crystal ball has the habit of distorting reality, but I managed to tune it a bit, so today's predictions fall into the realm of the plausible.

2009 will be known as the Year of DLC

This probably doesn't come as too much of a surprise. With DLC coming for Fallout 3 and GTA4, DLC will get a lot of attention early in the year, but we should see content for L4D, Tomb Raider Underworld, and who knows what else. DLC will take major steps forward in 2009, and more content released and purchased than ever before. The crystal ball also predicts that x360a will be making one slight new advancement to embrace this change in the industry. What could that advancement be? The crystal ball says you should be able to see for yourself within the next month.
While we're on the subject of DLC, the crystal ball tells me it knows what the first two DLC campaigns for L4D will be:

Deaducation (working title)
In this potentially controversial expansion, the survivors find themselves at the top floor of an academic building on a college campus. To survive, they must make their way through several linked academic buildings and the library before finally making it outside. From there, they must shoot their way to the college's football stadium, and make a harrowing last stand at midfield with ramshackle defenses, while they wait for a rescue chopper to arrive. Fighting the infected swarms of college students won't be pretty...

Mighty Mall
The other campaign takes place in a parody of the Mall of America. The survivors must fight through food courts, an indoor amusement park, a movie theater, a restroom, two department stores, and countless long halls of stores. Play starts in the East Parking lot, which the survivors can't escape from. Their evac is an APC that will pick them up in West Parking lot, clear across the mall, after they've made their last stand in the parking garage. Can the 4 humans make it out alive? Valve will announce this campaign is the longest, running an average 20 minutes longer than the others (on normal... God help you on expert).

Kingdom Hearts on 360
Moving away from DLC, sometime this year it will be announced that all future Kingdom Hearts titles will be on the 360 and PS3. Don't act surprised. I predicted well over a year before FFXIII was announced for the 360 that it would happen (I have friends who will verify this!). The signs were all there. When Infinite Undiscovery came to 360, and Last Remnant was known to be multi-platform, along with Square-Enix's announcement that they wished to go multi-platform in the future, why would they keep their signature franchise stuck on one system? (I'm referring more to announcements here than release dates, because I know the above chronology is a bit fuzzy) Now, the new Star Ocean game is 360 exclusive (if I'm remembering right), so it is possible Kingdom Hearts could stay on Sony systems, but I highly doubt it. They'll want to milk that franchise for every penny they can.

That concludes my predictions for today. Tomorrow I roll out a major achievement progress update.

Image links:
http://www.xbox360achievements.org/images/screenshots/261/med_gauss.jpg
http://www.campusexplorer.com/media/376x262/University-of-Wisconsin-Eau-Claire-2C57281B.jpg
http://gallery.vanguardist.org/d/36859-2/DSC01002.JPG
http://www.doupe.cz/vaulty/finalfantasy/pictures/kingdom_hearts_2_wallpaper.jpg

Farewell to My Wingman: What Co-Op Play Means to Me

This post is dedicated entirely to my brother Evan, who took off on a plane earlier today to spend five months studying abroad in Spain. I'm excited and happy for him, because I know from my own experiences in Japan that studying abroad is a wonderful thing, and I know he'll grow as a person and learn a lot over there. At the same time, I'm sad to see him go, as I'll be without my co-op Wingman for almost half a year. Of course, I'll miss him for a lot more than just video games, but since this is a game-related blog, co-op is the subject to talk about.

The two of us are very different people, with different interests, aptitudes, and personalities, but share common ground in video games, and our love of defeating a common enemy. We've been playing together for as long as I can remember, with a list of completions that includes:

• Jet Force Gemini (N64)
• In Dragon Warrior Monsters (GBC) we completed the incredibly long breeding sequence to create Dark Drium, the ultimate monster. Anyone who knows anything about that game should understand how awesome an undertaking that is.

• Gauntlet: Dark Legacy (Gamecube)
• Dynasty Warriors 4 (PS2)
• Halo 1, 2, and 3
• Gears of War (1 & 2)
• Rainbow Six Vegas (1 & 2)
• Unreal Tournament III
• EDF 2017 (about 5 times)
• Left 4 Dead
• Duke Nuke 'Em 3D
  

I'm sure there's more games that I forgot about, and eventually Crackdown, Army of Two, and Resident Evil 5 will be added to this list. Already, at least 2000 points of my score can be traced directly back to co-op play with my brother, making him the largest individual contributor to my current success. Some of my fondest memories of us include the vanquishing of enemies via co-op, and I'm kind of at a loss on how I'll play while he's gone. Who can I play RE5 with on release? (Don't worry bro, I refuse to tackle the Hardest difficulty with anyone else. I'm saving that achievement for us to mutually annihilate.) My guess is I'm going to have to play more solo games, or learn to enjoy competitive multiplayer.

When you've played with the same co-op partner for years (and probably even more so when you're related to that person) you develop a 6th sense of sorts about what your partner is going to do, and you have a complete understanding of each other's roles. Evan and I barely need to talk anymore to complete games if we don't want to, even on the highest difficulties (we still chat it up 'cause games are more fun that way, of course). He runs for the sniper rile and starts picking off enemies while I practice some close range shock-and-awe. We have our system, and we rock with it.

No trend in the gaming industry do I observe with more happiness than the continuing expansion of co-op play. Where competitive multiplayer has long been dominant, developers are beginning to realize that there are people out there like me who find playing WITH others to be a lot more fun than playing AGAINST others. Some games, like Army of Two or Left 4 Dead, were designed specifically for co-op play, and I hope to see many more games embrace co-op play as time goes on. While there will always be griefers, even in cooperative play, I've found co-op players to be much nicer people, who will work with you to get a mission accomplished. Even in team-based competitive multiplayer, where working as a unit could ensure easy victory, people act like a bunch of mavericks, which has ruined competitive play in Halo 3 (which I wasn't a fan of to begin with), Gears 2, and even Vegas 2. Why people don't communicate in squad-based games is beyond me, and I almost never play multiplayer anymore unless it's with friends.
Perhaps the greatest thing about co-op play is the fact that your opponent is AI, not human. Let's face it, people (and by people, I mean most random people you encounter on Xbox Live) suck. They glitch, they cheat, they quit early, they teabag, they turn Gears of War into a running shotgun fest which was not what the developers intended. They swear, spew forth racist or homophobic garbage, make excessive "your mom" jokes, beat-box, sing, or rap into the mic, are pre-pubescent boys playing M-rated games, and a million other things that annoy and lessen the experience. When playing cooperatively against AI, you know the opposing team is going to play the game the "right" way, and don't have to suffer the annoyances offered by a million idiots. Everyone shares the experience, and walk away satisfied at that shared accomplishment. I've never had a co-op session where players left frustrated or angry, while that happened in almost every competitive session.

With my brother gone, I feel like I'll be cut off from the style of gaming I like most for five months. Sure, I can still chase achievements for all time, but what do I do when I'm sick of that and need to play a different way? I'm going to need to hold auditions for a temporary new Wingman, I think.

I'll conclude my comments on co-op by wishing my bro good luck in Spain. You'll have a blast, I'm sure. Keep me updated about what you're up to. The games will still be here when you get back =)

Dark Drium pic from: http://tiger3k.com/yash/entertainment/games/index.html
other pics from MGC or xbox360achievements

MUA is starting to bore me

NOTE: Due to my last post arriving a little after midnight, this will appear as the second post for today. If you happened to miss the post on blogging, read the post that comes just before this one.

I've been in a kind of gaming funk the last few days, where I really haven't felt like playing much. I'm starting to remember why I got rid of Marvel Ultimate Alliance when I did... the remaining achievements are a pain in the ass. Sure, I can self-boost the multiplayer achievements, but that will be time consuming and even more boring than an Orochi 2 grind. I also need to get every costume for every character, and gold medal every comic mission (there's 34). That amounts to multiple hours of tedious grinding... I seem to do that a lot. Almost all the points I've picked up here have been from the DLC, with the original points almost unchanged. With my interest in the game flagging, I'll probably bring Lego Star Wars II and Dynasty Warrior 6 back into play for some variety.

It says in my "upcoming posts" today that I would be talking a bit about gamerscore leagues and challenges, but I think I'm going to save that topic for another day. I'm just going to put my feet up, watch some Aqua Teen Hunger Force on DVD, and try to get a few more hours of gaming in, before going to bed a little early tonight. For reasons to be discussed in tomorrow's post (and that post will be a big one) I'll be waking up a lot earlier than normal tomorrow. I'll leave today's short, since tomorrow will make up for it. Happy gaming all =)

Am I Alone in the Universe? Early Thoughts on Blogging

YOUR HELP NEEDED! PLEASE COMMENT IF YOU HAVE ANY USEFUL INFO =)

Ok, I know I'm not alone in the universe, but I'm very new to this blogging thing, and it sometimes feels like it. I've been writing all my life, and love to do it, so providing the raw content for this blog is a breeze. The other areas of blog life, however, mystify me. Today's format is a little strange, but shouldn't be hard to follow.

QUESTION: Are there other achievement-related blogs out there?

WHAT I KNOW SO FAR: I've only recently become aware of the blogs of a few fellow x360a members, and have not yet had time to give them more that a passing glance. I've read all of Birky's, but there's not a whole lot to read there, as he started his blog the same time I started this. I've tried every search I could think of on google to turn up blogs from gamers writing about achievement points, and found virtually nothing. From what little I did find (through Google), I saw blogs that were written for a bit, and quickly fizzled, or where ongoing, but pretty bad. While World of Warcraft players can find thousands of blogs on their hobby, I can find almost none on mine. What the hell? Are the few of us blogging on achievements actually treading new ground? If there are any major achievement blogs out there I missed, let me know... cause when I think achievement blogs, I think of myself and Stallion83's blog (1 Million Gamerscore) and that's pretty much it. I do plan on checking out those other x360a blogs when I have the time.

NOTE: Raptured Reality, listed in my "I read" list, is a great all-around gaming blog, and I recommend checking it out, but I wouldn't consider it an "achievement blog."

QUESTION: How do I advertise this blog an build a readership?

SO FAR: I've done everything I can without being annoying to promote this blog through x360a. A couple times I've dropped links in the forums to posts here people would find interesting, and I have this blogged linked in my x360a forum signature. As a member of the review team, I have a fair amount of exposure there anyway, and "ThrawnOmega" as well as "Nate Gillick" are beginning to show up a little more often in google searches, which is always happy. However, how do I maximize exposure in that community and beyond it? How does one advertise a blog? I have not looked too much into this yet, as providing quality content remains priority #1 (and I would write this blog anyway, even if nobody read it), but it would be nice to continue putting my name out there. Remember, a large following never hurts when you're trying to convince someone that people read what you write (and thus should pay you).

QUESTION: What's the difference between subscribers and followers?

MY UNDERSTANDING: I think subscribers are people who get your feed and read your blog, but may not blog on there own, while followers are other people with blogs?

BLOG NOTES: You may notice I've made a few changes to the blog's format today. I've made myself a Feedburner account and changed the feed for this blog, which is now simply http://feeds.feedburner.com/thrawnomega. Spread the word to your friends! =P This change should make it easier for people to subscribe, and it allows me to track how many subscribers I have, as well as how many hits this blog gets, and what people are reading. It's a valuable tool for me to see how I'm doing and make an ever-better blog.

MY (Crazy?) GOAL: The total number of readers of this blog (subscribers + followers) equals 100 or greater by the end of 2009. The year is young, and I'm just getting started. Is this number too low? Impossibly high? I know not, but it's the number I picked, so I'm going to shoot for it until it's mine, then set my sights even higher. (95 to go =P)

Here's to my continuous quest to write one of the best achievement (and gaming) blogs on the internet, and writing the best content I can. I thank you all in advance for your support, and any advice you can provide me on how to make this better =)

ThrawnOmega Preys on Points

The title of today's post is a rather lame pun, I'll admit, but it amuses me (read on and you'll get it). This post comes in two parts, with achievement progress coming first, then a research update.

ACHIEVEMENT PROGRESS:

Over the last few days, I've been working my way through Marvel Ultimate Alliance again. I beat the game and traded it in before I became a true achievement junkie, and recently lamented the 650/1250 I had in the game. Therefore I repurchased it for $9.99, and downloaded the DLC, both for the points and so that the new characters would make my 2nd playthrough (I'll need a 3rd to get everything...) feel more fresh. I think I'm up about 100 points on that game now from where I was.

I've also gained the Ground Cover achievement and several of the versus mode achievements in L4D. I love the versus mode in that game, but it seems nobody (outside my circle of friends) has any clue how to play versus... With various groups of friends, I've won the last 4 matches I played by AT LEAST 2,000 points, including a 4000 point mega-blowout, where we killed all 4 survivors in The Hospital chapter of No Mercy before they could reach the top of the first freaking staircase! They got 4 points for level completion!!! I simply can't wrap my head around how poor the competition is, because I seriously don't think we're experts, but they make use look superhuman...

With a New Year's challenge running on 360voice, it's been time to get really cranking on the points, which brings me to my first success story of Operation Jedi.

Operation Jedi Success Story #1: Prey
I originally borrowed the game from my brother for a while, and picked up 55 points in it. However, I had a lot of my own games I was busy with, and never got too into the game. They my bro traded his copy, I became an achievement whore, and those 55 points have been an eyesore on my gamercard ever since. When I got Prey with Superman Returns for a total of $7.50 from Blockbuster, I knew this game had to be finished. Yesterday, I spent my time plowing through the campaign, finishing it on Normal, and in the evening boosted all the online points with OldWIKI TIK. The online achievements are probably the most easily boostable points out there, or close to it. Having more bodies would have made the kill achievements go faster, but we managed to get all of them done in 3-4 hours, and it was a much smoother experience than I would have thought.

I'm now blazing through my 2nd play, to get the hardest difficulty achievement. Since I just beat the game, and know how to do everything, I've been treating this play as a speed run, and have already made my way to chapter 17 of 22 in just 4.5-5 hours. If you haven't yet, I highly recommend playing Prey. The achievements are easy, the campaign is a lot of fun, and the game is really cheap now. Once this baby is finished, that'll be 945 points on the board toward the fabled 75% completion. =)

Operation Jedi stats: Completion percentage is now 58.4%, and I'm now 19,652 points shy of my goal. Progress is being made! My only complaint is that the point total needed to get the 1% badge on 360v seems to be growing at the same rate I'm scoring points... I don't think I'm getting any closer yet to that coveted badge...

RESEARCH UPDATE:

I'm also been spending a good amount of time on my grant research. I've now found 13 of the 20 or so blogs I need to have for my study. It's been a real roll of the dice finding these. Sometimes I'll find 3 in 10 minutes, then go for hours without finding one that qualifies. I've found there are several types of MMO blogs:

1. Role-playing: Bloggers write from the POV of their character. Since this is really fiction, and not a player narrative, I can't use these.
2. Informational: Most posts are about how to play the game better, or discussion of various aspects of the game. These too are not player narratives, so I can't use them.
3. Informational/Narrative: Half information, half discussion of their own play experiences. I can use these if the blogs have been running long enough to have a good body of data of player experiences in-game.
4. Narrative: The best kind for my uses. Discussion is almost exclusively about what a person did in-game.

Type #4 there isn't quite as common as I thought it would be, or I'm just having trouble finding good ones. I've noticed a good number of blogs that could have worked, but they died out rapidly, or they post far too infrequently (ideally I like blogs with at least 2 posts per week).

I have to keep trucking on this, as by the end of the month, I need to have found all my sources, copied all of them to Word, and done a decent amount of reading through them and developing codes to analyze what they mean. I really want to get to the reading... this finding and copying is the reaaaaally boring part of the job.

That covers me for today. Happy achievement hunting everyone.
(Images again from xbox360achievements.org)

Operation Interview, Part 1: Mixed Beginnings to a Long Quest

I've made it no secret I want to get a writing job in the game industry. With January being about the slowest month on the planet in terms of game releases, I figured now is the best time to try to reach out to the editors of various gaming magazines and web pages, in the hopes of having informational interviews with them to learn more about the industry and job, as well as get my name out there. If they're ever going to have the spare time to speak with a relative unknown like me, January is the month where that would happen.

So, I did so scouring of the internet to try to dig up contact information on the editors of various mags/sites. Results were mixed:

• Official Xbox Magazine: Easy to find staff page, with emails. I appreciate this considerably, and will be contacting them.
• Game Informer: Contact information also readily available.
• EGM/1up: I found staff bios, but no great way to get in contact with them. I can leave a message and a prayer at feedback@1up.com, or will probably try logging into my 1up account and sending the appropriate people messages that way.
• IGN: Pretty much the same as EGM/1up
• Gamepro: Nothing... I have no idea how to contact their staff. I'll have to try posting in the site's forums or seeing if the magazine is more helpful.
• Gamespot: Ditto... no clue how to contact the staff.
• Nintendo Power: Doesn't even really have a site, as far as I can tell. Just subscription related stuff.
• could not find a Playstation-centric magazine, but I thought there was one...

So, I'll be sending direct emails for OXM and GI, trying work-arounds for EGM and IGN, and figuring out if I have any shot at reaching someone at Gamepro or Gamespot. Perhaps the info was there, and I'm just too dumb to see it. I'll look again later.

Any gaming magazines (non-PC related... I know squat about PC gaming atm) or websites I missed and should look into? Let me know!

This was the first and most obvious cut of where I send emails. On a day where I actually plan on working (today is a vacation day), I will be looking into game developers/publishers and what writing jobs they may have on offer. I'm sure there are some, and my Sociology major can help open doors (I'm hoping) in community relations and management, in addition to writing.

Tomorrow's task is to compose the email I'll be sending out, requesting an informational interview, explaining who I am, why I'm interested, and my relevant experience. I plan on mentioning my review work for x360a and including links to a few of the reviews (probably Dead Space, Warhammer, and Fallout 3), so they can take a look at samples of my writing, if they choose.

Once those emails have been sent, I'll be writing up a list of questions I'd like to ask during an interview, so I'm ready if an email or call ever come.I refuse to be unprepared for something so important to me.

Tomorrow I also have to get back to work on my research, so I'll be a busy bee tomorrow. Taking a break in the evening for some work on Operation Jedi will be quite satisfying.

That covers me for today. Happy New Year, everyone, and have a great time gaming =P...

ThrawnOmega Predicts the Future: Episode 1

NOTE: Getting this to 4 items actually took a while, but was quite a bit of fun. I'm planning on making this a sub-series within the blog, so I can add more items as I'm feeling creative.

Today being the last day of 2008, I felt like gazing into my crystal ball to see what the future holds for 2009. It should be known that my crystal ball has been know to grossly distort reality and spew forth the claims it finds most amusing. Some of these might come true, some are probably wishful thinking, and others will be plain nonsense. Your challenge is to guess when I'm being serious (if I'm ever serious) and when I'm kidding =P... You ready?

2009 Game of the Year: Onechanbara: Bakini Samurai Squad

Do you like scantily clad women? Killing zombies? Samurai sword hack 'n slash action? Bikini Samurai Squad combines all these fantastic things into the perfect trifecta of gaming bliss. Players will be able to slice the undead with a roster of hotties in what will probably be the most compelling and emotionally moving story ever told in videogame form. What's more, you can even customize what the ladies wear! How can this game possibly suck? The crystal ball predicts sales in the United States to exceed 5 million units sold in the first two weeks after release.

Need to know more? Here's a description I found on filefront.com "In Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad, Aya, a descendent of the family known as IMICHI, meaning blood that goes out of control, reconciles with her sister Saki and live together in peace for awhile. The peace doesn’t last for long as an infestation of zombies have plagued the city. The sisters join together to draw their swords and rid the city of evil. Gamers can play with a friend in Co-op Mode or switch between any of the three beautiful playable characters in single player. Each character has a variety of unique moves that can be mastered during combat to destroy enemy zombies. Get too much blood on either sister and be driven into Rage Mode and gain more power and agility to destroy enemies faster and deadlier." This game is made of Epic Win.

News story of the year: Jack Thompson to run for Senate.

Reading Jack Thompson's colorful history from Wikipedia was one of the most entertaining things I've done in a while. Perhaps this legendary videogame hater isn't as off the radar as we would hope. The Republican party of late would LOVE this guy. Conservative Christian values? Check. Disregard for rules, procedures, and unrelenting vigilantism? Check, check, check. Sure, he was disbarred and fined over $40,000, but some politicians have survived worse. If Thompson can fire up a Republican base with his conservative values (takes notes from Sarah Palin, okay Jack?) and add just the right amount of fear-mongering in the media (too many examples to list, but Videogames finance Terrorism! seems like a nice slogan to start with), he could have what he needs to start making a run at that Senate seat, next time there's an election. It's never too early to start that grass-roots campaigning. I mean, the guy's from FLORIDA, and in 2000, it seems many of them forgot how to properly vote. If he has a political future anywhere, it'll be in Florida... (Florida citizens need not get mad at me... I live in the state that elected Jesse Ventura governor, OK?)

Avatars to be expanded in... fantastical... new directions.

If you're like me, you've probably seen about a million versions of the Joker on people's avatars. (For the record, I made mine before there were a MILLION of them =P) The latest issue of OXM even shows one of these Jokers, as well as a Barack Obama, Pip-Boy, Jack Black, and Michael Jackson. Microsoft figures out that some people like making their avatars look like other people, or look unrealistic, and rolls out a new line of avatar accessories and options to capitalize on that. Look forward to angel wings, magic wants, the ability to change your skin color to unnatural shades (blue, green, purple, etc.), reptile scale skin patters, and an ever-increasing variety of other fantasy items. Perhaps at last I'll be able to make my avatar look like Grand Admiral Thrawn.

Nate Gillick scores a writing job for major gaming magazine

While the crystal ball would not say where, it believes the writer of this esteemed blog, pictured above, will definitely be scoring a job (complete with paycheck!) from one of those sweet videogame magazines. (For the record, that picture is two years old, and I have no problem making fun of myself :P) Will it be OXM? Game Informer? EGM? Somewhere else entirely? Who knows? He has the determination and (in his own mind, at least) the talent, but does he have the experience? The crystal ball predicts he'll continue to write every review he can for x360a to pad that resume as much as possible.

That's all of episode 1 of ThrawnOmega predicts the future. I hope you had as much fun reading it as I did writing it, and stay tuned for future episodes!

(I forgot to credit images today, but only the picture of me is my own. If owners of those images see this and request I remove them, I shall obey.)