Pretty Gamer

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Sat, 16 Jun 2012 14:15:28 -0700

why all my characters are ladies

eye-shuh — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:10:30 -0700

Interesting article over on Medium Difficulty about why this particular lady plays female characters in video games almost exclusively when given the choice.

It of course made me think about our own Puppeteers series that explores why we choose the avatars we do.

Team Valkyrie FTW: Too Many Strong Women In Video Games!!!1!!eleventyone!!

iamuhura — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:03:05 -0800

Team Valkyrie FTW: Too Many Strong Women In Video Games!!!1!!eleventyone!!:

Shenanigans, I tell you. The worst part is that this guy isn’t even trolling. The privilege is so thick, and it comes with a side of cluelessness! -iamuhura

teamvalkyrieftw:

Goddamn, Men’s Rights Activists never stop being funny.

The setup:

… one I have been playing recently is Shogun 2 total war. Now for those who don’t know what this game is, it is a strategy game based on the military of feudal Japan. I recently bought an upgrade for the game the other day…

No Games for the Holidays

iamuhura — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 10:25:05 -0800

Yep. Seriously. Not gonna happen.

I won’t be buying any games through the rest of 2011. Why on earth would I make that horrifying decision between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, when there are killer deals everywhere? When the infamous free-for-all known as the Steam Holiday sale will surely test the bounds of my resolve? After all, every game enthusiast I know is buying the latest and greatest - and likely has a holiday wishlist a mile long. The choice not to buy games during the holiday season is well, outright heresy. But it must be done for the greater good.

A huge part of playing video games is all about time management and budgeting. In short: too many games, not enough time. While I was cleaning up my Amazon, Steam, and ThinkGeek wishlists to prepare for Secret Santa commitments - I quickly realized that my pile of games not played (or in some cases, not even installed) was staggering. It was ridiculous. There are at least 10 games that I forgot I owned, and 3-4 that I haven’t so much as glanced at in six to eight months. Come on now.

That’s just wasteful.

So: I will not be purchasing any games for myself this holiday season. My goal is to make time to play everything I currently own, and de-clutter my digital entertainment collection. Not buying any new games basically forces me to get the most life out of the things I have, and when 2012 rings in, I expect to have saved a whole pile of money while still having plenty of fun.

So what does one do with games they don’t play or want? What if you can’t give any away or sell them? I think it just becomes an expensive lesson over time.

The Temptation of the Cheater

johnhummel — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 07:08:00 -0800

This article was submitted to us by regular contributor John Hummel. Check out his YouTube page for his new series “Comparative Gaming 101”.

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I admit. I’m a cheater. But you don’t understand the temptation. It’s a grind, day in, day out, the same thing. The banality gets to you. You just want to move on. To be done with it, so get that release that you crave.

So I start looking for how to get around the rules. Those ways to keep undetected, shuffle some things around so I can get my fix. After all, nobody has to no. Nobody will be hurt as long as I keep it to myself, right?

Yet - even if all that is true, why do I feel like a schmuck for trying to edit the save game on my copy of Pokemon Emerald?

Off and on for years now, I’ve been playing through all of the Pokemon games. Earlier this year, I played through Pokemon Yellow - the original Game Boy Color game, and then played through Pokemon Red, then used the save game and an old tool to copy over my Pokemon Red save game file over to my Pokemon Blue cartridge instead of playing the game for a *third* time, so I could catch the last few Pokemon I needed. Other than that shortcut, I didn’t use any cheats (I did use a glitch to capture Mew). No Gameshark, no other codes - just playing the games, go to each location to find each Pokemon, using all of the tricks and tools to capture those hard to catch legendary Pokemon - and finally using my MasterBall on the powerful Mew2 himself.

So why with Emerald is the challenge to stay “pure” so hard? I played through both Pokemon FireRed for the Gameboy Advance and Pokemon LeafGreen for the same - no cheats, just going through the game. But something about Emerald has just been rubbing me the wrong way. Maybe it’s the higher level of backtracking in the game, or how it feels like a bigger “fight lots of Pokemon to level up really high to take on the gym leaders” kind of game.

It feels more grinding, more repetition in fighting enemies over and over and over again to become powerful enough, and it’s wearing me down.

The temptation to cheat in other games has always been there. I’ll confess - I used the “God Mode” to get through the last 25% of the game Doom 3. Not because it was that difficult, but because it was a kind of boring game. I just wanted to get through the end.

I recently finished playing Fallout 3, and actually started the game 3 times because the temptation to cheat and enhance my character was so strong. The start of the game was so difficult I found myself typing in those tasty tasty cheats and giving myself a little pick me up, then just a little more - and next thing you know, I was sprawled out in my office chair while my character had leapt to nearly godlike status.

Ultimately, I’m glad I played the game “pure.” After awhile, I either got better, or my character got strong enough to handle the challenges. Over time, the temptation went away.

So I know as tempted as I am to just cheat at Pokemon Emerald - I’ll leave it as it is. Maybe it’s even best to take a break from the game for awhile, let it stew, and then come back to it and go the final slot to defeat the Elite Four. I already know it’s going to be a hard battle, that I’ll want to throw my old silver Game Boy Advance across the room when I get wiped out by a flying dragon type using *Earthquake* of all things on my electric type Pokemon -

But I also know victory will taste that much sweeter when I *do* win.

No Flat Girls: How Allies are Born

iamuhura — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 20:12:13 -0700

No Flat Girls: How Allies are Born:

I rarely reblog. But this post, this anecdote, this situation has reached critical mass. This is why allies are important. This is why, if we truly want the gaming industry to stand up and get better for women and other marginalized groups, we have to start within our community. With our friends, colleagues, acquaintances, and perfect strangers. We have to speak out and send the message that this behavior is not okay.

Silence is acceptance. So say something. Let people know that the words they choose have power and that they will be held responsible for them.

-iamuhura

paxvalkyrie:

(This is a guest post.)

This is a story about gamer culture, casual sexism, the silence of friends, and its fallout - more or less in that order.

Firstly, context. I’m a recent graduate working as a game designer for a social games startup in New York City, and I identify strongly with other…

Geek Girls Do GeekGirlCon

kcwebgirl — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:05:01 -0700

This article was submitted to us by Nourisha K about her fun times at the first ever GeekGirlCon in Seattle, WA. Check out her new website ‘Sunless in Seattle’ or find her on twitter at @kcwebgirl!

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There are some things that just go together perfectly for us geeky girls. Geek tees and converse. Feminism and cosplay. Superheroes and villains. Geek love/adoration and cons. This past weekend in Seattle, city of major tech giants and über geeks galore, GeekGirlCon was born. This was the first ever Con devoted to us geek girls. I know what you’re thinking. Don’t scores of girls show up to cons all across the nation each year? Of course we do. And you know what? We still get asked to defend our right to call ourselves geeks. Or we get harassed for daring to dress as slave Leia because no way can we be true geeks and hot at the same time.

Yes, we brave the masses of men each year to show our love and appreciation for our geek icons - Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who, MST3K, Marvel, DC, Dark Horse - longing for a safe shared space to be the true fangirls that we are.

Sometimes we get lucky. Sometimes we walk away scarred like the Batgirl from San Diego Comic Con.

And so, it was with great pleasure and excitement that I hopped the no.16 bus down to the Seattle Center to spend the weekend with my people. As the first geek girl convention I didn’t have super high expectations. I’ve been to more than my fare share of cons, including the mother of all cons in San Diego. But I have to tell you, I was more than surprised with the excellence of this first GeekGirlCon.

Things ran smoothly, the panelists were for the most part amazing, and attendance was stellar. Both women and men showed up with kids in tow to support the vision and mission of geek girl convention and that made me proud. A few highlights for me (in no particular order) were:

The weather! It’s fall and it’s Seattle and I fully expected a craptastic day. Instead we got sunshine and warmth as if the gods themselves were smiling down on us geek girl con-goers with approval.
The attendance! There was a great turnout for the first geek girl con! Not sure what the official numbers were but the panels were full, some to overflowing, and there were people everywhere.
The cosplay. No con is complete without cosplay. I usually cosplay myself but I lacked the energy to do it this weekend. So I was pleased to see the many geeky girls and guys who pulled it off.
The panels. In the spirit of full disclosure I have to admit that I was late getting there Saturday. It was a slow morning with an even slower start. But once I arrived I tackled the program book with fervor and attended some great panels. By far, my favorite of which was the culture studies panel that looked at geek girls in pop culture with Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Stephanie Thorpe, Amy Berg, Jessica Mills and Sarah Kuhn. (Hope I didn’t miss anyone.) Anyway, that panel was awesomesauce times three. I’d love to see them all back here for Emerald City Comic Con!

Overall, I had a great time at GeekGirlCon. I will definitely be back next year. I hope it grows bigger because my one complaint with the con was the extra cost for somethings. If it’s bigger, I wouldn’t have to pay extra for things like the burlesque show, or some of the talks. I understand why they did it, I just didn’t like it! Great job ladies.

Zelda!

Special Agent Scully

Geeks are notorious for standing in long lines

I took a sun break to read my free comic book

The exhibit hall - small but manageable!

If you want to learn more about GeekGirlCon, check out their website. See you next year!

Zombie Lane: Grind, baby, Grind

iamuhura — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 17:19:59 -0700

Welp. It only took a week and I’m basically over Zombie Lane. It’s still fun I guess, but on a scale of 1 to 10 it started out at an 8, then dropped to a 5 and now it’s about a 3. All because of something we game playing folk are all too familiar with - the grind.

You see, once you figure out the system and crack the formula to complete missions in the game efficiently, well - you’re done.

Between farming for gold (literal farming, meaning plant crops on a harvest rotation to yield the most coins), trading in collections of items for gold and xp, and friends sending you energy and ammo every day (5-6 consistent neighbors is plenty) - moving forward through the missions becomes super easy. You see, at some point between level 15 and 20, Digital Chocolate just ups the grind factor exponentially rather than creating more interesting and engaging content.

The goal of course is to make the player blow through energy and ammo in an addicting way that prompts you to buy more and keep playing. For example, one mission might have you harvest 50 strawberries and 25 empty bottles. Not only do you have to purchase the plants, but spend energy to harvest them. And if your max energy is 15 that can take some time. Not to mention the fact that the drop rate of those bottles is predictably glacial. At some point it’s just boring - which of course might prompt certain players to pay money to skip past missions.

It might sound like a criticism of social game developers to point out that inserting large amounts of boring and repetitive content to purposely coax or manipulate your audience into paying cash to skip it strikes me as diabolical. But playing Zombie Lane and other casual games meant for the social media marketplace have shown me just what kind of gamer I’m not. And that I don’t begrudge other people who play games their own preferences, likes, and dislikes. After all, I can just go play something else I like better.

Lastly, I definitely wouldn’t mind Zombie Lane’s faults so much if there were more player options, better neighbor/mission interaction, and closer attention to its overall theme. As much as I think zombies have reached a saturation point in pop culture, I’m okay with being hipster enough to demand better execution across the board. Zombies do no physical damage to players save for a minor ‘stun’ period that delays the next action, and there isn’t quite enough variety in zombie types. The lack of character customization for females is almost offensive in its laziness and disregard for the theme of the game. Every single “free” shoe except for an ugly Ugg-like boot is a fashion heel. And almost every shirt is a midriff baring tank top. Impractical fashion items should be the expensive upgrade.

From a storyline standpoint, I can honestly say I wouldn’t put valuable resources into building a doghouse or even finding my lost pet unless its return would add substantial value to the post-apocalyptic household. (Maybe have the pet kill low level zombies without using energy.) And completing the increasingly demanding (and grindy) list of chores your spouse requires yields virtually no reward upon their arrival compared to what you part with to have them join you ($10,000 gold coins, plus a ton of ammo killing zombies to collect candy for the in one mission).

In a real zombie apocalypse, you’d abandon your spouse or possibly shoot them in the face for such BS. If you disagree with this, please let me know so I can strike you from my Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness Plans’ commune recruiting list. <3

Tricks of the Gamer Dad

johnhummel — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 14:03:05 -0700

Whenever I talk to other parents about their children, usually at some point I talk about how I play certain games with my children, like Pokemon, or Super Smash Brothers, or Castle Crashers. What I hear back is “Oh, but video games are so bad for children but mine would play them all the time.”

I’ve got children who are getting straight A’s in school, who participate in school events - and they game. In some ways, games are <em>why</em> they’re where they are.

But that’s only because I am an evil genius. Bwahaha. Bwahahahaha! Bwahahahahahahahahaha!

OK. But really, there are things I’ve done with my children. Some of these are just general tips, others are specific things that I’ve done.

Tip #1: Pokemon at 5.

When each of my children turned 5, after years of reading to them at night so on and so forth, I give them a challenge:

If they can read ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ without a single mistake, then I’ll get them a Nintendo DS, and their own copy of Pokemon. So of course the idea of playing the cartoon they’ve been watching is OMG YAY TOTALLY GOING TO DO IT!

So over the course of a month, I’ll practice with them. Make them sound the words out. Point to words out of order so they can’t just memorize the book and regurgitate it.

Then when the day comes, and they’re able to read it without a single error, they’re so proud. And then they get Pokemon…

And realize that they have to read to play the game. Read the instructions. Read what people tell them in the game, read what happens to the Pokemon they catch, sound out the names, and on and on. So now if they’re going to play the game, they have to read. They have to think and look at the numbers to know how much power their Pokemon have. They have to use logic and strategy in understanding strengths and weaknesses.

Tip #2: Set the schedule

When my children come home from school, they can do whatever they want (after putting away their shoes and school things). Play games? Go ahead. Call your friends? Knock yourself out. Create a time machine from Twinkies and sardines?

Why not.

Once the clock hits 3:30, that ends. Time for school work. They have to show me or their mother their homework when they’re done so we can critique it. If there are long term projects they’re expected to work on them.

One problem is that usually kids will rush through their homework and do a crappy job because they want to get back to play. That’s why from 4:00 to 6:30 there’s no electronics allowed on in the house. No TV, no DS, no PlayStation 3, nothing. This forces them to do - anything else. Read, play outside with their friends, swim in the pool - but until 6:30 nothing electronic.

Usually by then they have their other activities, like instrument practice, or gymnastics, or just dinner. So it’s not as onerous as you might think. And really, if I’m home at that time, it forces *me* to turn off the electronics too and read or play with them.

Tip #3: Responsible Play

This weekend, my youngest was grounded from playing any games of any kind. Why? He didn’t plug the PlayStation 3 controllers into their charging cords.

When my children play, they have rules they must follow: the TV and game system must be turned off. The controllers must be either put away or put in their chargers. The games must be in their cases - no disks laying around.

Any violation at all, and they are not allowed to play. There are no exceptions. There are no “But Daaaaad!” If you set a rule and then let them break it, then they learn not to follow the rules.

There are some others, like “If your portable console is not charged up before a trip then you may not borrow Mom or Dad’s. You must be responsible for your own system.” Or “No playing games while walking or out of the car on a trip.” They don’t get to play at the restaurant table, for example, if we go out.

Games are great tools for getting children to learn all sorts of skills - cooperation, reading, strategy, and the like. But if you’re the adult, then you have to be the adult: set the rules, teach the children to use them responsibly.

And then let them have fun from there.

Observations on Zombie Lane: the Farmville of Google+

iamuhura — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 18:19:55 -0700

Zombie Lane is the latest kill-time obsession for my friends and I on G+. I started playing at the suggestion of a friend at our weekly game night, and it quickly overcame Team Fortress 2 as my “go to” for semi-mindless entertainment. Soon a small group of us were playing regularly, and thanks to the genius of a Games Notification only stream, our shameful addictions were mostly hidden from view. After a few weeks, here are some of my general observations:

Wow. Your spouse is full of shit. So, part of the game is getting you to complete missions, and the first big one is getting your spouse home. Lemme get this straight: it’s the zombie apocalypse, and it’s made clear through the tone of the messages (via walkie-talkie) that your spouse is missing not because they’re on a crucial mission for food and ammo, but that they’re lackadaisically off on some minor errand and constantly haranguing you about chores to complete before they arrive. When one of the missions from my spouse popped up telling me they didn’t like the color of the house and asking if I paint it before they get back, I looked at my boyfriend and said, “How about I paint it red with their blood?”.
Pay to play only if you don’t have friends to give you stuff. Our new goal is to play Zombie Lane as long as possible without paying real world dollars for stuff. The day the game gets too boring or annoying without spending cash is the day it’s all over.
Sure, Digital Chocolate (which sounds like a 70s band name) describes your partner as “spouse”, but really they mean wife. And that shit is HELLA annoying. One of my friends pointed out that it was BS to even assume you’d be married - why not just roommates?
I can’t believe it took me forever to realize that you could sell all of the fence posts you weren’t actively using. And, strangely enough, having a good fence strategy is pretty key. Hire your friends to upkeep that crap. Don’t waste your precious energy doing so unless absolutely necessary. Need tips? Visit your neighbors and see what they’re doing.
The constant pop-ups can be silly to the point of absurdity. Yes, I know I’m out of energy. Why do I need TWO pop-ups to explain it?
Farming is the key to insane money hoarding. Who knew that I would plan my day around when fake crops were ready to harvest for nearly worthless gold coins? Apparently - it’s all about the cabbage.

An interesting addition to the “games as art”...

lazity — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 07:34:21 -0700

An interesting addition to the “games as art” debate.

How to get a gaming laptop on the cheap

lazity — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 08:32:01 -0700

I recently upgraded from my 2007 Macbook Pro (“Gaming on an Apple? Boo! Hiss!”) to a shiny new Alienware M11x R3. I was asked how I got my new computer for such short money this morning, and I thought that I would take some time to write out my whole purchase process.

First, of course, is saving some money. I knew approximately how much I wanted to spend (under $800). Once I had that squirreled away I started looking into what options were available and how to make that money work harder.

I started scouring slickdeals.net for sales. Not only current sales, but I went through their forum history and brought up past sales as well. Then I started mapping out when these sales occurred on a google calendar. Once I had everything up to last year’s black friday mapped out (there’s too much noise in the holiday time period so I threw that data away) I exported the google calendar as a pdf and imported it into photoshop as slides. I set the slides to be 80% transparent and boom: I had a heat map of when sales were most likely to occur during each month. I did this for a few major brands (Dell, HP, Asus, Lenovo, and Acer). After looking at the data I decided on Dell because they had the most frequently overlapping deals (more on that later).

Once I decided on Dell I started looking at the specific deals and how frequently they occurred. At first I noticed Dell’s “buy a laptop, get an xbox for free” deal, but after some due diligence I saw that they were just jacking up the prices on those specific laptop models to compensate for the free xbox. You sly dogs.

Then I noticed a Dell gift card deal. Basically you buy a $500 gift card and get X for free. X was usually a printer or a low end monitor, but also occasionally a second gift card. This was promising. I set up an alert for that in my RSS reader.

I also noticed that, while specific models were often on sale in the Dell store, there were rarely any site wide “X percent off” sales. However, the dell outlet store had 10% and 20% off sales almost monthly. I checked to make sure that I could use the gift cards in the outlet store (I could) and set up an alert for that.

In mid-august the $500 gift card deal showed up, with a $75 e-gift card kicker. Perfect! I picked one up with my rewards credit card.

(Sidenote: If you don’t have some type of rewards card, then I highly suggest getting one (I use a JetBlue card because they have earned a lot of good faith with me over the years). Make all of your daily purchases with it (gas, groceries, amazon, link it to your steam account, etc) and you will be surprised at how quickly the points stack up. I earn at least a free round trip flight every year. In this case, I was using $500 that I was already going to spend and getting some points as a kicker. As I said earlier, make your money work harder.)

The $75 e-gift card was only good for 90 days, but from my previous research I was confident that an outlet sale would come up in that time period. Sure enough, on September 2nd the Dell Outlet store had a one day 20% off sale.

The downside to using the Dell Outlet store is that you can’t customize your own setup. You have to buy pre-built machines, so you have to be flexible with what you are getting. That could mean spending a bit extra and getting a little more machine then you intended, or spending a bit less and having to do some upgrades on your own later (RAM, hard drive, bluetooth, etc). Thankfully Dell laptops are pretty easy to get into (easier then macs, for sure) so this isn’t a big deal. I camped the dell outlet website for the day and waited for a computer close to what I wanted to be listed. When one came up, I pounced.

The end result:
$1016 base price for the alienware, minus the 20% off coupon ($203), minus the $75 gift card, brought the price down to $738 (with free shipping). In the end I saved over $650 on the regular dell store price.

I know that a lot of you may be thinking “wow, that’s a lot of work just to get a laptop”, but it really wasn’t. Putting some money away, one solid night of planning, and a little patience was all that was needed.

A little birdie told me Portal is now FREE on Steam! If you don't have it for some reason, go go! No more excuses! ;)

eye-shuh — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:04:00 -0700

A little birdie told me Portal is now FREE on Steam! If you don't have it for some reason, go go! No more excuses! ;):

If you don’t know and have been living in the gaming dark - Portal is the accidentally smash hit game that Valve included with Orange Box games. The little puzzler saw huge success and now has a sequel. You use two portals, one orange and one blue, to teleport and propel yourself through obstacle course type levels. All the while you are battling the cake promising robot GLaDOS. The game is fun, hilarious, and great for all levels of gamers. It is a fantastic starting point for anyone in your life who might not be into gaming but is open to try.

-Eye

Review: Jonathan Coulton - Artificial Heart

marcseveral — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 08:06:05 -0700

Jonathan Coulton - Artificial Heart

Jonathan Coulton, when discussing his thoughts about the prospect of creating a new album for his masses of rabid fans, gave a list of reasons why the new project scared him. The one that struck me was number five, “I’m afraid that even a small change in direction is going to disappoint some fans.”

Having listened to the new album, I can see why he would be afraid. This is a grown up sounding Jonathan Coulton. There isn’t too much here for the robots and evil scientists crowd, but thats okay. The songs still have the JoCo quality we’ve come to know and love. This album takes some serious nods to Ben Folds at times, and They Might Be Giants at others.

There are 16 new songs here, along with reworkings of both Portal songs, “Still Alive” and “Want You Gone”. The new arrangement of Still Alive really stands out, with vocals by Sara Quin of Tegan and Sara fame. As for the new songs, “Glasses”, “Sucker Punch”, and the albums title track “Artificial Heart” are the most likely to get stuck in your head, but I have a feeling that like most of his catalouge, the other songs will start to pop over time. Don’t get me wrong, these are great songs, but they don’t have the immediate hook that songs like “Re: Your Brains” had. In fact, some of these tracks are downright contemplative. (I’m looking at you, “The World Belongs to You”, which appears to be about a god losing his credibility)

Overall, I don’t think Jonathan Coulton has anything to worry about. This album, while a departure, is a welcome one. It’s an evolution of the sound that makes a lot of sense, and a solid album all around.

Loot! Comment below to win the awesome in-game costume item for...

eye-shuh — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 07:20:00 -0700

Loot! Comment below to win the awesome in-game costume item for RIFT pictured above: Dwarven Smithy Goggles! They were giving them away at PAX and I happen to have an extra pair after my initial guild give-a-ways. As far as I know, getting the code from PAX was the only way to grab this handsome head wear!

If you’d like them for yourself, leave a comment below and tell me what your favorite thing about RIFT is.

Note: While we appreciate re-blogs, they do not count as a comment. You must use the Disqus comments in order to win.

I will choose one lucky winner next Friday, September 23rd.

Good luck!

-Eye

UPDATE: A winner has been emailed! Sorry for the lateness on this! Won’t happen again! Stay tuned for more free give-a-ways!

What I'm playing now: The Game of Life*

iamuhura — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 21:45:07 -0700

Eye-shuh’s been doing all the heavy lifting on the site these days content-wise and I am equally envious and grateful for it. I wish I could be investing hours of my day in both my Games and Writing To Do List, because my WorkFlowy is full of plans and ideas. I wistfully yearn for time to delve into the following:

Finish Guild Wars: Eye of The North (GWEN). First, to complete new content and earn rewards for the release of my next obsession Guild Wars 2 and second because my dream of a competitive all female PvP team isn’t going to build itself. Thirdly, I need to explore and interview new guilds (Luxon for life!) where I can pursue an Officer position. Oh, and maybe get it together to finish Guild Wars: Nightfall. Finally. Sheesh.
Bastion may be quickly sinking into the pile of Games I Was Excited For and Bought on Steam but Haven’t Installed Yet. This makes me a sadpanda. Other games in this pile include Plain Sight, Portal (seriously, I know), and Super Meat Boy.
There’s a sub-list of games that I’ve been trying to revisit for fun, review, or research and it’s honestly not looking too good for them these days: Hello Kitty Online (what? what?! come at me, bro), Alien Swarm, annnd let’s be honest I’m never going to play Aion. Loved the beta, but now I just have too much free stuff to play to fork over $15/month. Have a couple of text-based CircleMUDs I’d like to explore again as well.
A whole pile of Post PAX stuff: From 4th Annual Triwizard Drinking Tournament follow-up to OMG I Promised Jerry Holkins we’d submit a Pretty Gamer panel for PAX Prime 2012 uhh let’s just say I have shizz to DO, son.
Pretty Gamer Projects including a one year anniversary retrospective, videos, and the development of a He Said/She Said podcast regarding issues in the gaming community. Not to mention all the behind-the-scenes business-y stuff.

Whew.

But over the last several months or so, I’ve been super busy with Life Things and making the crazy bearable by turning everything into a series of mini-games. Basically turning my work into a timed puzzle game in addition to playing my least favorite titles of all time: Budgeting for Food and Cheating Sleep Debt When You Work Graveyard Shift. Actual gaming these days is a real luxury and so I choose things that are restful, rejuvenative, and don’t require a lot of time. This explains why 98% of the time I’m playing my Team Fortress 2, Animal Crossing (DS), and Angry Birds on G+. I know, it’s kind of sad.

I don’t think I need more tips and tricks to make more time for gaming (there was a great Pretty Gamer piece on that here), just mostly reminders to take a deep breath, look at the big picture, and enjoy what I do have time for. I never want the things I love and enjoy to become a mind-numbing, insufferable chore. Setting boundaries and having a great support system helps! Recruit and build a great team and you’ll never have to face grue alone.

-Uhura

*not the board game Life.

Loot! Comment to win a free copy of Poker Night at the Inventory!

eye-shuh — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 17:45:00 -0700

The cool cats at Telltale Games were giving away codes for Poker Night at the Inventory - the full game! Seeing as I already own it, the only responsible blog contributor thing to do is to give it away!

Poker Night at the Inventory is a silly way to play poker. It’s pretty standard as far as game play is concerned, but the added twist of the hilarious dialogue from the characters you play with plus the chance to unlock fun card decks and tables gives the game a unique spin.

Probably my favorite thing about the game is that you can turn the dialogue of the players up and down to suit what you’re in the mood for. If you just want a quiet poker game, turn ‘em down. If you’re looking to take it slow and giggle a lot, turn it up!

The game doesn’t come without its flaws: even with the dialogue turned off, game play tends to be pretty slow. It also takes a very large amount of system resources for how simple it really is at its core. My biggest issue with the game, however, was the voice acting for Tycho. It wasn’t bad…I was just creeped out by it since I was half expecting to hear the voice of Jerry Holkins. ;)

If you’re interesting in grabbing this game for free tell me in the comments who your favorite character from it is! The game features Tycho from Penny Arcade, Strongbad from Homestar Runner, Max from Sam & Max, and the Heavy from Team Fortress 2.

~~I will then choose two people at random next Friday, September 9th. Good luck~~! Two people will be emailed! Thanks for your participation and good luck!

NOTE: Re-blogs don’t count! I need you to comment on the Disqus comments so I have a way to contact you! Though, of course, the re-blogs are still appreciated!

-Eye

Grab Ultima 4 for free of GoG right now!

eye-shuh — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 14:59:00 -0700

Grab Ultima 4 for free of GoG right now!:

Good Old Games is offering Ultima 4 for free at the link above! I have never played this game, but I have heard that it is amazing and one of the ground breakers for its genre.

GoG caught my attention at the Penny Arcade Expo with their awesome granny booth babes who handed out cookies. If all goes well with my Ultima 4 play, they will definitely have grabbed my business!

If you’re interested in the video game classics that built the road for your favorites today, you can’t do better than GoG! Check ‘em out!

[source]

-Eye

Loot! Free copy of RIFT plus 30 days game time, expires 8/31/11!

eye-shuh — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:03:00 -0700

Stay tuned to Pretty Gamer for swag give-a-ways! I have a lot of PAX loot to go through and get rid of, which is awesome for any of you out there who would like it!

To get the loot train rolling, here are a bunch of RIFT free game codes. Yep, the entire game. For free. I know, I know. You’re welcome.

Unfortunately, I just noticed these game cards expire at the end of this month, i.e. after tomorrow, so grab ‘em while they’re hot!

Each code also includes 30 days of game time BUT you have to put a payment option on file in case you go over or decide not to quit.

The back of the card says:

Visit RIFTgame.com/start to register your free copy of RIFT.

Promotional code must be redeemed online at riftgame.com on or before August 31, 2011. Redemption of promotional code requires: (1) internet connection (sold separately), (2) creation of Trion Worlds account, and (3) valid credit card or pre-paid game time card; monthly recurring subscription fee applies following included gameplay time. Account and gameplay subject to Trion Worlds’ Terms of Use., Privacy Policy and RIFT’s End User License Agreement. System requirements may change over time and you may need to upgrade your current system (or obtain a new system) to play the game over its lifetime.

It’s no secret that I absolutely love RIFT, so I hope at least a few people grab these up and give it a go. Please post in the comments after you’ve used a code!

1. 9DRH-NZTM-3KQ7-Y7RF-PTYE

2. RN96-PJ9J-X3WN-ENLD-MXWP

3. MZCE-FEK2-CH6F-EQMN-GYQW

4. XKEN-66M6-2F6J-PYLW-ZGWP

5. NJN7-62NL-3KGC-TK62-XPGH

6. QPE9-PQM2-CNFW-TZDC-36FC

-Eye

Similar game logos for the lawls - WoW devs enjoy their font

eye-shuh — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:20:00 -0700

Funny story. I stayed at the Sheraton for PAX and happened to be in the hot tub on the top floor at the same time as a couple of the graphics designers for Firefall.

I bring this up because of a recent Destructoid article. The end made me laugh:

“There’s a lot of talent behind this project, including the project lead for World of Warcraft, so it’s a safe bet to keep this one on your radar.”

The reason for my giggles is that I got to poke fun of them a bit for their logo’s similarity to the StarCraft logo, and they jokingly pointed at their acquisition of a former Blizzard guy as a possible cause.

Which made me laugh more because I know of another company that picked up some WoW devs.

I heard a lot of people at PAX joke about the similarities between the first two logos, so perhaps now I have solved the mystery for you. Heh.

EDIT: Oh, and I should mention - I signed up for their beta! Apparently it is a very social invite system, so if you post something in the comments I will send out random invites as I get them!

-Eye