Still alive.. Dealing with Life changes..

So life keeps changing. I'm still playing wow, I now own a Wii, PS3 and I'm looking at hand helds to bring in to my gaming life. Right now I'm taking a break from WoW.. Not by choice. My gaming PC after being upgraded to Windows 7 ( Which is FUCKING AMAZING ) has run in to some issues.

With the help of friends I've trouble-shooted it down to being either the HDD's or maybe even the OS. Rare but it happens. Worst all out scenario is my MB is fucked. I hope not but hey shit happens. We all know this.

I've been consuming my time with Little Big Planet, playing through Bioshock on the PS3 while I wait for Bioshock 2 to be released. VtM: Bloodlines again with the updated unofficial patches. And other things. I'm trying to sort my self out so to speak, so this blog may become a little more personal. For the moment I'm not modeling. Though I'd like to, I'm kinda in hiding just because I'm sorting things out as they come for me.

My Husband joined the army and is in basic right now. My gaming has been what keeps me going. I'm looking to start blogging again just to give me a focus to keep me rolling along since i seem to be getting "stuck". Your welcome to keep following or to get lost, its all fine and dandy by me. Gaming is my hobby and my passion.

But understand I'm Human. I have a life. I'm doing this on the side for fun to share my thoughts on things, I'm not getting paid so from time to time, things are bound to slip through the cracks.

So forgive me if you like, for sake me if you wish, but remember : I AM HUMAN!

Back under the sea in BioShock 2!

Fresh off the presses! Video of game play from BioShock 2 : Sea of Dreams. I'm eagerly awaiting for this game and will be giving up L4D to play though this as many times as I can get in.

In BioShock 2, you play as a Big Daddy chasing or being chased by a Big Sister. Like before your collecting Little sisters, but this time they harvest adam along side you - or you can harvest them like in the first game. Once again you can also "upgrade" your self to fling fire, lightening bolts or lift objects. The new improvment though is you can use your plasmids and a wepon at the same time! Something to make quick work of the splicers you face. And as shown in the video, its something your going to need.

It looks as amazing as the first game and the game play video shows it will be a smooth effortless game that will be sure to have people camping their TV's for weekends to come after its release. I hope to see them do a Special Edition with the new Big Sister as the figure as the figure to get.

Careful with that Wii there Son, you might hurt your self..

Something they need to advise you on - next to wearing the strap and objects - is that you might strain muscles and in turn make your self VERY sore. Odd that they don't since most Gamers are "known" for being out of shape and such.

I managed to make my self sore playing bowling yesterday. I thought just my elbow would bother me, but it seems my shoulder and back are in on the attack more so. Its something I should have exspected cause you really do get in to the game. Most I've seriously played on Wii was Wario Party. Which isn't really active, but is lots of good party fun.

Right now I'm downloading the new WoW Patch. I wonder what goodies await me this time. I do remember someone talking about the racial restraints on mounts being lifted. I'm sure thats going to make for a clustefuck of amusement.

I'll report later on any humor worthy findings.

Edit: As I finished this post the patch notes poped up on my screen. I skimmed through them, noting the confirmed Mount change. I skimmed to my Main's Class - Shaman, to see what changes were made. To my less then exuberant joy - I get to RESPEC because they refunded my talent points due to a change in ONE talent tree. I didn't notice if any other class had to respec, but forgive me for being annoyed. My issue is I'm playing a spec - to level mind you - I'm not familiar with. So I had to do a few trial and errors with the tree when I respeced at 71. I had something I could work with. And as I moved up in level I did what i could to improve what I had, but now cause I really don't have a good memory I get to try the game agian. Good times. -.-

Wii Fun, Left 4 Dead and then some..

So, my roommate figured it was time she broke down and bought a Wii. Even though she is a technological reject who with out my help would have lost her computer a few times over. She mainly got it because she wants to get a Wii Fit, I agreed just because I wanted a new toy in the house to have fun with as I've been in a great debate over what Third Gen Console to move forward with first. So we go hunting last night and pick one up at Toys R' Us. Btw did you know some board games are only sold at Toys R' Us now? Crazy that they would get the exclusive rights for such things but hey whatever keeps you in business. Back to the Wii though. Due to life, I didn't get it set up on our TV till today. More hoop jumping of getting it set up in our wireless network and updating ensues.

I've played with Wii's before so its no new thing for me really. Having to maintain two for work has given me some trial and error time with them. But she as the techie ignorant she is, is amazed over how small it is and what it can do. For the moment she's still afraid to use the remote, unsure of the control system (mind you shes the want who wanted to buy it)and would rather was my self and a friend play bowling for three hours without even trying her self. And yes, I kicked his ass seven ways of Sunday. Dun dun duuuuuuuunnnn... Which is a bit trickery then one might thing given the advanced control system of the Wii.


She asks to see the boxing when my friend figures he'd give it a try, but the moment we hand her the controllers she acts like we've given her the cloth that cover Jesus and doesn't want to move like she needs too. She ends up frustrated and chooses to sit back out. As much as I love her, shes one of the people who make me believe that if you don't know how to work it without help - then you don't need to own it. What is she going to do when I move out? Call me at four in the morning to tell her how to sync her wii fit board? I might kill her if she tried!

I've been busy gaming wise, not so much with WoW like I should be. My Shammie is level 77, but may stay there as I wait for Guldies to catch up. I've done all the quests I can for my level that I can do on my own without my epic flying mount. So I really need to farm gold if anything.

I don't think he wants a kiss...

But have no fear ! I've been owning my friends in my new FPS love - Left 4 Dead. OMFG if the game was alive I'd make love to it. The AI, the zombies alone and the game play are just so omfg amazing!! I hate Bill and Zoey when the computer controls them. Zoey because she always one shots my ass when I'm infected before I can even get close. Bill because the damn ass wouldn't take the pills I gave him when he was near dead, he kept getting in my way during the Train yard Level of Death Toll and thus nearly got me killed twice. I was more then happy to leave his ass for the horde when they rushed us at the house before the safe room.

Its a game we can't get enough of in my gaming group. If we have the chance to play around we haul ass to try and squeeze in two. Its so easy to forget time and get lost in the game figuratively and literally. As you advance your level of difficulty the game changes. Spawn points of special zombies that can quickly end you to a door you might have used before you died or a spawn point of ammo that you had used before. I may love this game as much as I love BioShock in my FPS heart. And that's a hard spot to earn as I'm not normally a big FPS fan. Too many of them seem the same. But Valve out did them selves with Left 4 Dead. I could go on for hours so I'm going to end that here...

What do you plan to do with that, exactly?

LIES I tell you!!!

While I find this video funny and somewhat true - for me its not. For a demographic of women who are nearly brain dead or over 45, it is true. I have to give the guy credit for making up lyrics that didn't repeat. Mainly because a friend of mine in collage one night when my best friend (who is a guy) was playing tetris that went along the lines of " We are little Russian men who love to play with blocks.." and it repeated a whole lot.

We often found our selves humming the tetris music with the lyrics he made up in our head while out on the town. Go nerds. Video after the jump...

WotlK but no game time and prviate servers

I admit it. I've gotten lazy. Actually scared it more like it, with the Wrath of Lich King to be released at midnight tonight I can only imagine how things will be. Spend an hour to two hours to get my copy that I paid for. Spend another two hours updating my system and downloading the new expansion to it. Only to.. wait what? A QUEUE?!

Yep. Something I exspect to see on many EST servers ( with others to follow suit respectively as it becomes 12 am their time) due to the people who left WoW (for 50 assorted reasons) only to return with WotLK. Causing servers that were low population when they left to surge up to high or even locked status in many cases (Like with my own. -.-) I wouldn't be surprised to see a number of realms to actually crash due to the overwhelming resurgence of players returning with the expansion as curiosity of the new is always a deal breaker when you swear something off.


So whats a girl to do? Thank her Lazy nature for a change. I forgot to get a new subscription card for my account and my game time expired yesterday actually. Now it won't top me from doing a one time charge to one of my cards should the urge push me, but I already know what its going to be like. Not to add I've avoided WoW the past week due to Guild Drama I seen coming a mile away thanks to a friends forewarning. So I've not gotten any recent game time really.

But bearing in mind I already roam a regular Medium to High Population server I can only wonder what tonight would bring if I did attempt to log on after updating with WotLK. More like I wonder how long my Queue is going to be really. I tried to get a bit of game time in on one of the private servers I frequent only they are still on patch 2.4.3 and I've already gotten the 3.0.3 patch - I could downgrade but that means having to install the Echos of Doom patch along with the correction patches. So I've attempted to locate a diffrent private server in which to game on that is up to patch 3.0.3. Not much luck really.

The few I found when I attempted to access their server lists via the WoW launch screen I was told my account - which should have been active by now didn't exist and I should contact Blizzard for help. It made me giggle and sad at the same time. The Private servers supporting 3.0.3 don't offer a forum or area where I could ask why I was unable to access the realm lists for their servers. Given I had changed what I needed to in order to get on but with no luck and no help. Whats this teach us kids? Find a friend with a private server you can play on. Seriously.

Just something cool..

I go to a special page every day because of the random things I find on it, yesterday I tracked across this and thought it was interesting enough to share.


The Unfinished Swan - Tech Demo 9/2008 from Ian Dallas on Vimeo.

Its a demo for a game that looks like it could be interesting and entertaining given you have to figure out your way around in a WHOLE new way. I look forward to seeing this move from Tech Demo to game demos soon.

The Blogger.. Part 2

So picking up where I paused at the other night. My gaming education then shifted gears as I got in to RTS and MUDs online. Now by this time I was in High School and my gaming for consoles was a observation through one cousin who was still gaming strong.

Time drags on.

I started dating and a few boyfriends in I find one in to gaming on consoles. And fearing to be rusty as he's on a PS2, I'm more curious to watch and observe over his shoulder then jump in to gaming. At one point a friend of his finds out about this and attempts to convince him to marry me as soon as he can. I find the humor in it of course, but whats even funnier is I'm still with him to this day. Gaming away, but I'm getting a head of my self.

Creepy mofo you really wana keep the camera on.

It is with the PS2 I find New additions to the Silent Hill and RE families. A few sleepless weekends later of gaming at his place I add these to my happy memory box. I soon discover Fatal Frame. It was like the rush when I discovered Silent Hill. The game play was new and unusual - if a bit frustrating at times with the restrictions to camera movements but the game didn't lose its hold on me. I soon added it to my list of games to play till the disk broke.

I get in to playing with him in Slayers and other fighting games. You win some and lose some. Then one day when we were hanging out I wander in to the game room to find him playing a curious game on the PC. I'd never seen it before, it looked like some card game but not with playing cards. So in my usual way, I sat and watched. It was a couple days till I got the urge to ask him to play my self. He sat by my side and helped walk me through my new addiction - Magic the Gathering. The game, now seriously out dated, was a PC version in which you played a Plains Walker trying to save a world from being taken over. It was amusing, but he soon told me that it wasn't just a PC game. WHAT? I had to see this.

So we dug around in a closet in his room to find a moving box full of MtG cards. I dove in reading what I could get my hands on. It wasn't long till he was helping me build a Green deck. And he found his old decks for us to play with. It became something fun for us to do when we just wanted to sit and spend time together. Playing with the cards, making new decks or looking at what was coming out.

Another skip in years, we move (as in him and I) and the addiction keeps going. We find places to play against others. We become regulars and get better at our skills and game styles - he's more aggressive while I play on strategy. After some time of learning rules and getting better I take over running the weekly events for a friend at his Comic and Gaming Shop. I get to be a bigger geek by picking up my comics on top of gaming. Go me.

It gets better though, as my friend loses his shop help he asks me to take his place in helping him run the shop. I gladly agree to it, while working with my boyfriend to get him in place to run the FNM when I wasn't able to. Now at the shop we cover all types of gaming, table top, console, LAN gaming and miniatures. So now on a daily bases I get a great big helping of other types of gaming. This is where I get an exposure to WoW. At first I giggle and mock it, amused by it in truth. Months though in what is really a far more stressful job then some might think, I cave and make a trial account to vent some stress. It was better then I expected and far more entertaining.

In between all of this insanity - I get in to Anime. LORD do I get in to it, Cosplaying and all. My best friend took me to my first AnimeCon. BEST TIME EVER. Anyway I can sum this part up in one word - Otaku. Tyvm. My mom also raised me on Star Wars, Star Trek and M*A*S*H. So yeah I'm just all over the f*king place really.

Currently I still work for this shop, I'm still with the boyfriend and I'm a big geek. As it stands my Boss got in to Warhammer and 40k. I'm currently looking at building my own army, as well as my boyfriend. I still play Magic, if anything to appease the guys surprised to hear a girl plays. I play WoW.. and consoles.. and more then I really have money for. God Help me.

But hey... I'm a Gamer.

The Blogger.. Part 1

Not really sure how to start this honestly. I mean, how do you really talk about your self? I suppose its something that may come through more as I blog and you read. But I think some background information helps.

I come from a mostly female family. I was raised by my grandmother and mother. I only have a sister and a few cousins I consider siblings because they spent so much time in my house or I in their. SO there goes any talk of me getting in to games because of a Brother. ^_^ Kinda makes me proud I guess.

Sexy NES

Our very first system was a classic NES. I loved Duck Hunt, though I did try to shoot the dog a few times due to his mockery. My sister liked Mario. I remember we got it for Christmas along with a TV for us to play it on. My mom I think did it to keep us busy so she could watch TV in the Living room, but as she listened to us play she got in to playing her self.

It became a family thing to play Duck Hunt or Super Mario. It was fun times for us really, my grama even got in to playing as well. Something that continued in to our next system - the Sega Genesis. While I don't remember what other games we had for the NES, we had tons for the Sega. As well as having the system for a rather long time. My grandma and my sister got in to playing Toe Jam and Earl. It was there way of spending time together, mostly impart due to as my sister got older the more her and my grandma seemed to clash.

We had Sonic and a few 2-d side scrollers, as well as Street Fighter II. Mortal Kombat was one of my favorites. The list is gets kinda endless here. Life moved on and we changed consoles agian. This time upgrading to the snazzy Play Station.

We all ooh'd and Ahh'd over it as we all tried to find games we could get in too. Mom and Grama found Casino style games they liked to play on it, while my sister found racing games and Crash Bandicoot were her flavor. I struggled to get in to them, the casino ones were alright and racing was sorta fun - unless my sister picked a track she knew and I didn't.

Creepiest Mofo EVER!

This though would be where I found a genera where my addiction would really begin. Silent Hill. Creepy, nerve wracking and SO GOD DAMN COOL. I played through it over and over again till I had each portion of the game nearly memorized. Beautiful graphics compared to so many of the time, a life all its own. I was amazed. My passion for this style of games still flourishes today. I love a game that can pull you in by the collar and hold you there till your gasping for air. I followed it with Resident Evil and anything that seemed close to the style of either.

This is however where my console journey with my family ends though. Times changed, people changed. We ended up getting a computer at some point, and I got in to playing (For some reason) the silly little games it came with. They kept me busy, but as I figured out the functions of a pc I moved along in gaming. I got my first taste of a RTS with Cesar. It was a great game I loved to play, addictive really. I actually have a current version of the game to play, but with the updated graphics and snazzy new features to actually go in the houses of the people in your town - I still love the very first.

Part 2 to come...

Female Gamer Vs. Gamer girls

I found this article while surfing google in my hunt for a decent Gamer Girl Blog, it makes valid points because we all know a few of both types of girls described in the article. I see it at work and I am a female gamer to the core. But I thought this would help those who lack the foresight to see what they are dealing with in truth sometimes.

Its a topic I'm sure will be a main stay as some people think chicks don't game, or at lest truly game. Not just try to own someone in Halo or Counter-strike. I mean is the one pushing for late night D&D cause her level 12 Elf/Human Rogue is going to kick some level 11 Gnomes Warrior's ass in some all out battle for gold. Because there is more then FPS's out there. And we ARE there.




The Difference Between 'Female Gamers' and 'Gamer Girls'

We treat them like a rare species, but really, women who game are not that uncommon. Recent polls have put the figure between 35 and 40 percent of women, a minority but not a scarcity. Negative Gamer's Chelsea — aka Nintendoll — spotted something elsewhere that set her teeth on edge, and she wants to set the record straight about the reasons women and girls game. Because in her view the experience risks getting cliquey and catty, like high school.

Female gamers separate into two groups, Chelsea says, that are pretty easy to understand. "Girl gamers" do it for the attention — "a feeling of security and control from her social circle" — while "female gamers" just want to have friends who share an interest in games. "Since these “gamer girls” get their self-esteem from the praise and adoration of men who play video games, they become dependent on video games as something far more than entertainment."

How does it get to that point?

Well, it’s a problem that many people suffer from that is completely unrelated to gaming: low self-esteem. These girls want to be part of what they see as an exclusive boy’s club. It is true that women are currently a minority in the gaming industry, which is why gaming men find girls who play video games more desirable. Girls who feel the need to be loved try to sneak their way into this “boy’s club” using video games as a pretense to say that they’re a “tomboy” or “just one of the guys.” But the reality is that it is not really for the “equality” that they constantly complain is absent, but for the feeling of superiority over other girls coupled with the adoration of the male gaming community.

And that's where it gets catty.

“Gamer girls” hate on each other because they feel threatened by each other. Another female in this “boy’s club” diffuses the overall attention that a girl will get. Therefore a “gamer girl” will rip into another female gamer to protect her status as the most important girl in this male-dominated social circle. This is not unique to the video game industry, I’ve seen it happen in other predominantly male territories such as tech schools and the local rock climbing gym I used to frequent.

How can dudes help? She doesn't say, and I don't want to get all womyn's-studies on you here. But I'd say that treating everyone who picks up a controller, male or female, like a gamer first is a good start.
Patronizing, condescending or leering behavior would definitely discourages an interest in gaming as a fun activity, and if they continue it'll be for the other reasons Chelsea described — attention seeking, social superiority, etc.

I know I foment a lot of the "OMG hot girls who game" stuff, but when you look at them — Jo Garcia and Grace Kim are demonstrably serious about what they do, and the cosplayers are definitely informed about the games they like. To me, that's even hotter, and you see it when you game with them seriously.

Grand.. Opening sorta..

OKAY! So.. I've gotten it to were I want it. For now. Some more tweaking I'm sure will happen but right now I'm pleased with the look and feel for the most part. Everything is a work in progress though as they say.


So as it stands right now I'm mostly looking to get AdSense up and running. I am also looking for sponsors or people who just want some ad space on my blog. Gaming, geek or nerd related - how ever you like to say it.

Right now my intentions is to just do a blog that isn't just about one thing, but a few things. Cause as a Geek/Gamer I'm in to quite a few things, and I know other gamers that are as well. But I also feel like there is something honestly lacking in the department of a blog from a regular gamer girl.

Sure you can go look at supposed "Hot gamer girls" on hotgamergirls.com - yet I have a very good feeling half those supposed "Gamer girls" wouldn't know a DS from a NES. They only see the attention they get from posing with the xbox controller and figure they should do it more. There are a few places for Gamer girls, but the focus on Video Games. Gamer girls exist in many realms of the world of Games that is owned by men. There is TCG's, Pen and Paper, Board Games and Miniatures.

As well as much as I would love to see these sites flourishing, they seem to be ghost towns. Lacking of a population that actively talks, sparse posts in a starving forum with only a few regular readers and posters that cling to the hope of change.

I don't promise to cover everything. Rather hard, but I will cover what I can, post often and just give my two cents when it matters. Beyond that who knows..

I'm sure your dying for information about me now, but I'll save that for another post as the hour grows late and I really should try to sleep tonight. Hardcore bloggage begins tomorrow. Mark my word.