Are you Hardcore?

J-Cat asked in her blog earlier today whether she was "hardcore". As in Hardcore Gamer.

The question has resonated with some folks because of E3. There has been a great deal of discussion about how the Big Three seemed to be concentrating on the Casual Gamer. There was even some outrage from Nintendo fanboys that Nintendo is not serving the Nintendo Hardcore Gamers. The snob in me sees the term Nintendo Hardcore Gamer as an oxymoron. This flash of self-awareness is probably contributing to my writing this blog. Am I looking down my nose at certain gamers?

J-Cat's question and supporting information got me thinking about how we really quantify our 1337ness.

Does the use of 1337-speak qualify you? Only as a poser.

Does possessing an almost god-like skill at a single game or genre qualify you? Only for some sort of compulsive or addictive disorder.

Is it spending 8-12 hours each day playing video games? No. That just means you're unemployed.

 

So what qualifies you as "hardcore"?

To begin with, I am now preaching to the choir. If you are reading this blog you are a member of 2o2p. I don't use this forum to connect with friends and family. The very fact that you are a member of a video game-centric website qualifies you as hardcore. And this isn't some general purpose video game site. This is a niche site. +1 on your hardcore status.

What about the other poor folks out there? Are they hardcore?

Let's try this easy checklist:

• Would you rather play videogames than watch TV?
• Do you belong to a clan?
• Have you ever marked a game's release date on you calendar?
• Have you ever pre-ordered a game?
• Have you ever purchased the special/limited/collector's edition of a game?
• Have you ever tried to explain a really cool part of a game to a non-gamer?
• Did they think you were crazy?

 

Like a number of gamers I play a lot of different games. (I updated my game list to the right to illustrate what I've played.) I play enough FPS to beat most of the people I know personnaly but still get my head handed to me on LIVE. My recent return to Gears after a year or so has shown me how poor I really am. It also reminded me of how much fun the game is. I've played Oblivion and Mass Effect so much my 360 says "not again!" every time I load one of those disks. I've spent more on RockBand DLC than actual CDs in the past year.

But that's kind of the point. The games are fun! They are more fun than work. They are more fun than channel-surfing. They are more fun than getting a boil lanced.

It's not about your gamerscore or ranking (although to everyone with less GS than me: PWNED!!!).

Being hardcore is a love of the games and the people that play them.

 

Posted by SamuraiCoder @ 3:08 pm EDT | Permalink | 7 Comments

My head is really this large

Ooooo. Herd mentality! Must join in!

Posted by SamuraiCoder @ 5:36 pm EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

Entry #4

No time to think up a witty blog title.

I hate week long business trips. This one was only four days but that is more than too much.

The only consolation? I took the 360. Not only that, I got a little LAN party organized with some folks at the office. We used our training room which is quite big and has a nice projector and screen at one end. We brought in a couple more projectors and used white boards for screens. We had a couple 360's, an XBOX 1 and a PS2.

We had some pizzas delivered and warmed up with some PGR3 and RB6V. Once the network was all connected we got down to some Halo2. Some of the guys weren't very experienced and a couple of us had more than a few hours under our belts. After a little free-for-all slayer we moved to teams.

Four of us stayed late and played two-on-two CoD3. I love the dying gasps of "Medic!"

It certainly is a hoot playing against a bunch of people in the same room. I realized I swear a lot more when I play games than in the rest of my life.

I have a number of trips to our Kansas City office this fall and I'm going to try to get a few more parties like this organized. We had 13 people stop by for this one and I think the good word-of-mouth around the office will get some more folks to participate.

Have a joyous weekend of fragging!


Posted by SamuraiCoder @ 3:12 pm EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments

My moment of Zen

First, respects to ATC_1982. Check his blog today and think about how great it is to be alive.

He got me thinking.

I had to drop my daughter (6 yrs) off at school this morning. Usually my wife walks her over or drives if it is raining or they are short on time. My wife couldn't do it today so I took her over before I had to start work.

We pull  up in front of the school and I open the passenger side door for her to get out and she starts screaming "I don't like my outfit. I need to change my clothes!" Her clothes were fine. She just wasn't a big fan of the pants she was wearing.

I'm not carrying a change of clothes for her (why would i?) and she won't get out of the car dressed as she was. There are times where I just tell her to suck it up and get moving. I wasn't going to inflict my daughter upon her teacher, though. The woman hasn't done anything that I'm aware of to deserve that sort of pain.

We drive home and I tell her she's going to have an all day long timeout.

She is pissed.

I'm at the bottom of the stairs telling her to get into her room and she's at the top of the stairs screaming "I want to go to school! I want to learn!" I said "Oh, you'll learn!"

It was tough keeping a straight face.

I finally get to my desk and I'm thinking about the 50 critical things I've got on my list. I start some programming work and I am so stressed out that I'm not thinking straight.

This is no good.

I push back. I close my eyes. I take a deep cleansing breath.

I love my family. While the kids can be aggravating, they are cute as hell, too. I love standing in the backyard on cool evenings looking up at the stars. I love a cold beer after mowing the lawn. I love blowing away a splicer with one shotgun blast to the face. I love getting nekkid with my wife.

Work may suck at times. The kids may piss you off. The car may breakdown in the middle of nowhere. This bullshit is just filler around the great moments. The human brain is really good at forgetting the bullshit if you let it.

Remind someone you love that you do love them by saying it.

Have a great weekend of gaming.




Posted by SamuraiCoder @ 1:55 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

Game On?

I'm in the software biz.

I wish it was game development but I have to settle for more business-centric fare. Despite that fact, games are software and require the same processes as developing an accounting package or photo sharing web site.

I oversee a few development teams working on different products. One QA team handles testing of all these products. Thanks to varying degrees of delay, we are looking at three MAJOR releases in QA at the same time. My QA Manager's wife is also so pregnant that if she doesn't have the baby by Thursday's doctor's appointment, the doc will schedule an induction. Within seven days I am going to lose my QA Manager for two weeks.

Have you taken the time to look over the credits for your favorite game?

You should.

Developing software these days is a bitch! Windows XP vs Vista vs OS X. IE vs Firefox vs Safari. 1.2 GHz vs 2.8 GHz vs 3.46GHz Dual Core.

360 vs PS3 vs PC.

I'm feeling sympathetic to the 2K Boston guys and the firestorm kicked up about the BioShock widescreen issue. I don't agree with how 2K handled the cropping, I just sympathize with a team that worked their ass off to build one hell of a game.

The same with the Silicon Knights vs Epic lawsuit. I've worked with licensed technology before and good code and support are critical to its successful use. I feel for both sides on this one. There is so much pressure to get more done in a shorter time frame while spending less money.

So I guess my point here is to show love to the folks working in the trenches. If you love a game, send email to the developer. Write a nice long letter about what you like. Those things get printed and pinned on bulletin boards and taped on cubical walls. It helps that animator or tester or designer or engine programmer put their best into the next game.

And aren't we all about the next great game?

Posted by SamuraiCoder @ 3:25 pm EDT | Permalink | 4 Comments