Patchwork

Let me take you back to the year 2008 where Sony Interactive was taking the stage at E3 (Rest in Peace). Towards the end of the press conference, host Jack Tretton gives us the “one final thing” moment. Big claims of a massive multiplayer game that was unlike anything else and in many respects, he was not underselling it. An action game that would push the envelope of what was possible in the current play space. He then welcomes Andy Beaudoin of Zipper Interactive (also rest in peace… to Zipper, I’m sure Andy is alive and well) to talk about MAG: Massive Action Game.  Big claims were made of 256 live players in a squad based first person shooter. It wouldn’t be until the following year at E3 2009 that we would see this game in action. Andy would once again take the stage and show us a “live” match with a team of devs and testers. And it was incredible. Early the following year the game was released and I was stoked to get my hands on it. I can’t recall if I got my Playstation 3 for...

I have been watching the speedrunning charity event, Awesome Games Done Quick, for about 10 years at this point. It is a gaming marathon where a list of gamers (called runners) play a video game on stage (and streamed online) to beat said game in the shortest amount of time possible, utilizing both advance skills and technical exploitation. Awesome Games Done Quick, abbreviated as AGDQ, has benefitted the Prevent Cancer Foundation and to date has raised just under 30 million dollars. For the last three years, AGDQ has been held in my backyard of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and this year I had the good fortune of being able to afford two badges (one for myself and one for my lady friend) as well as an overnight stay in the hotel the event was being ran at. Since I've been wanting to ramp up my creative works, I figured I would take some time to write about my first time experience and what this event has done to me.  The Pre-Pre-Show As stated above, I believe it was 2016 when I first ...

Foreword I’m a huge fan of countdowns and top ten lists; less so tier lists because they feel a little less definitive to an actual top ten. Maybe it’s because my monkey brain likes when number go up (or down in this case). Regardless, countdowns are fun and I’ve spent many a time watching the likes of TheGreenScorpion ( The Green Scorpion - YouTube ), Josh Scorcher ( joshscorcher - YouTube ) and RabbidLuigi ( rabbidluigi - YouTube ). Also, super honorable mention to Alex Rochon ( Alex Rochon - YouTube ) , who is now voice acting for characters like Caine in the Digital Circus and is, in my opinion, the canon voice of Spamton G. Spamton.  I’ve always wanted to throw my voice out into the masses and make my own countdowns, but goodness does it take A LOT of time to put those together. I cannot express my admiration enough for the YouTubers that do countdowns as their main content, since the amount of research and pondering alone could be a full time job. Hats off to all of you. Time...