Gaming

Combat School, retro games, imagination and broken bones.

by
Combatschool Combat School retro games imagination and broken bones

I suppose I could call this the “Realification of Games”, but I won’t!

A slightly related more recent article I wrote can be found here Don’t See what’s there, see what’s not there.

“When I were a lad, games were better”.
That is often an opening gambit of any retro game lover. Of course it is not precisely true for all retro games. It would be more accurate to say; “when I were a lad, I loved the games we had available to us”.

That is not to say some were not better, but try convincing a modern gamer that any C64 game was better and they will laugh at you – before trying it. You see the sad fact is, they all look crap compared to the current photo realistic games we have. Read More ...

Online Gaming. A positive and enjoyable past time.

by
423073 390626730966234 374094667 n Online Gaming A positive and enjoyable past time

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away… oh wait wrong story.

A few years ago, in a town somewhere in Cardiff, before I was a father or even married (I was at University), I got my first taste of online gaming. More specifically, clan gaming.

The game in question was Starship Troopers on the AOL network. It was a fairly simple Birdseye view space shooter, set in the Starship Troopers universe. What made it stand out was the fact that you needed to use real teamwork to get anywhere in it. Until then, most games I had played just needed you to run around shooting each other (Duke Nukem, Doom, Quake). None of them needed or promoted teamwork. Read More ...

Gamification: what is it, why is it important?

by
Gamification Gamification what is it why is it important

Just as a thought, as a tag line – Gamification: why you have been doing it since you were a small child.

Gamification is another one of those words that seems to be getting a lot of use at the moment, a little bit like Cloud. If you look at the Internet for a description (in my case Wikipedia) you get;

“Gamification is the use of game play mechanics for non-game applications (also known as “funware”), particularly consumer-oriented web and mobile sites, in order to encourage people to adopt the applications. It also strives to encourage users to engage in desired behaviors in connection with the applications. Gamification works by making technology more engaging, and by encouraging desired behaviors, taking advantage of humans’ psychological predisposition to engage in gaming. The technique can encourage people to perform chores that they ordinarily consider boring, such as completing surveys, shopping, or reading web sites.” Read More ...

Why am I not an axe murderer even though I play video games?

by

First off, if you don’t want to read a rant about how stupid people are when it comes to their views on computer games being the root of all evil, back away now.

I often post about this kind of thing. I get so angry at idiots who seem to blame computer games for everything.   The latest thing I have read that made my blood boil is all of the nonsense about the Foxnews.com editorial about Epics Bulletstorm. It was basically a very one sided item titled “Is Bulletstorm the Worst Video Game in the World?” (Nothing like a provocative title!) This is the kind of crap I would expect from the likes of the Daily Mail, but not a well respected media giant like Fox.  http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/02/08/bulletstorm-worst-game-kids/ Read More ...

If you want good review scores, make good products.

by

This is a bit of a rant, but here goes.

I was recently questioned about my ability to review a product objectively (possible inadvertently).  Now as someone who has written one or two reviews, this came as a bit of a shock.  I always thought I was impartial.  I write reviews based on their merit and compared to other products I know.

So I got to thinking what could have spawned this question.  Then I looked at the links I sent them, quite a few of which were Steelseries reviews.  And then I understood. Read More ...