Project Lore

Not the actual occurrence.

I have touched on this subject before, but I never truly broke it down for you. I have been dating a lovely lady for almost eight months now and we have enjoyed our time together thoroughly. Heck, those vacations I took, the ski trip and holiday break, were with her. Needless to say, we fancy each other quite a bit, and yet she has managed to avoid a large facet of my life, video games.

She knows that I enjoy them and write about them frequently, but she hardly ever sees me play them. Unlike some gamers, I am not ashamed of my hobby. In fact, I tend to glorify it in my clothing, my home's decorations and even the name of one of my ferrets, Cloud. Lesley just happens to miss most of my playtime due to work hours. So the issue of games didn't really come up for awhile.

When I discovered that my fair lady still thought of video games as Tetris, I knew I had a job on my hands. I introduced her slowly to the newer games, mainly focusing on lighthearted, easy to grasp Wii titles before handing her the axe for Guitar Hero III. Then one night, I handed her the controller during a mission in Grand Theft Auto IV. Hilarity ensued.

Ms. iTZKooPA turned the game into “Grand Civilian Auto,” slowly driving through traffic as if she were in the South. After waiting at lights, allowing other automobiles to have the right of way, and extending the crosswalk to pedestrians, her vehicle strayed into a barrier into a Toll Booth. It caught fire. Panic quickly consumed the rookie gamer behind the controller.

Lesley spammed buttons on the controller until Niko fled the burning car. Once she swiveled the camera around, a horrible realization struck her, half a dozen cars were piled up behind hers trashed vehicle, blocking the exit she was planning on taking. As the fire roared louder and pedestrians begin fleeing, Niko turned...and got back in the car seconds before it exploded.

Our friends who were there upon the fiery demise of Niko have never forgotten the episode. Nor will they let Lesley, but I didn't recant the tale to make fun. No, no, I simply wanted to give everyone a feel for what kind of gamer is finally going to make the leap into Azeroth.

Just to be clear, I am not forcing her to do this, nor is she going the “if you can't beat them, join them” route. We both believe that the experiment will be a fun endeavor and something new to do with each other. So this weekend, Lesley will subscribe to her first MMOG and make her first character. While I will be by her side on a new alt, SolidPumice a soon-to-be Prot Warrior, I will not be helping her too much. The discoveries and designs MMOs have to offer are half the fun.  Wonder if Recruit-A-Friend still works...

Who knows, you may see some Horde-based coverage on ProjectLore as I won't restrict her faction choice!  Any one who has done the same have any tips?

Click to read more ...

Well, it's officially official. Activision Blizzard is now the world's largest publisher of video games. While Blizzard's FAQ states that the merger will have no effect on anything of much importance at Blizzard, the company has already started selling (and has already sold out of) plastic accessories designed to enhance the World of Warcraft experience. Remind you of any other games published by one of these companies? The problem is that this piece of plastic is just for security purposes, and all you do is punch in numbers from one screen onto another. What is this game, a giant spreadsheet? Far from a new game enhancment. Blizzard should grab a couple of developers from Activision to make a guitar that requires a kick ass solo before you can log in to WoW. Everyone knows that Vivendi could learn a thing or two from Blizzard, but Blizzard still has a ways to go with accessory based gaming experiences.

Click to read more ...