At Long Last...(Pt. II)

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And now, the exciting conclusion to "At Long Last"...

So, I spent about two weeks, earning my stripes in COD4 (sort of literally; after all, it is a military game). And I was doing pretty well at it. There are few gaming experiences cooler than going into a match in which you are the lowest ranked player, and coming out with one of the top three performances of that match. It makes you feel like a wild card, one that no one saw coming.

Now, something really cool started happening in these two weeks. As I mentioned, I had started to be an active member on the TRS forum, posting fairly frequently, having back-and-forth’s with a few people, even going so far as to speak up on someone's behalf when they were rather unnecessarily attacked.

Well, something surfaced that tied everything together; all of my new gadgets, all the functions they served and the opportunities they provided. It was simple. A thread moved its way back to the top of the forum, a thread that asked for Playstation Network ID's and what games people were currently playing. After putting up my information, I began using the list to send out friend invites to those who were playing any of the games I owned and with my name being new on that thread, others were sending me invites in turn.

Suddenly, I was not only playing games with very specific people, and communicating with them as we played (through headsets), but they were fast becoming anything but strangers as we had video chats. Even as many as six of us were able to have a group video chat; sitting around, talking about games we had played together and games that were coming, talking about TRS (our most common thread), and things about ourselves such as where we're from*, etc.

Now, the neat thing about being a member of the TRS forum (as I suppose is the case with many forums) is having a common interest, a starting point for any interaction. TRS is about all things rad, yes, but it's pretty widely understood that those involved speak to and from the geek culture. Indeed, most are proud members. As Jeff (one of the hosts) says, "Geek is the new cool." With video games having pushed their way in, to become a mainstream pastime; and with so many people knowing a little bit of coding these days (at least enough to customize their Myspace pages), I think it's safe to say that there's some truth to that statement. Of course, the fact that I'm saying this in a blog probably ensures that I'm preaching to the choir.

While I consider myself a bit of a geek, and am therefore familiar with some aspects of the culture, there's quite a bit for which I knew nothing.

As I've been mentioning, I recently began learning about the world of online gaming. Something I was happy to learn, upon building up my PS3 friends list with TRS fans, was the level of interest in forming clans** for many of the games. Naturally, most of this group was eager to be a member of a TRS clan, for any particular game that had enough people interested.

And so, I became a member of the TRS clans in a couple of the games I had begun playing online. This meant that I was not only playing with people I knew, but we had decided to make the effort to strategize, to work as a team. The strategizing didn't always work (still doesn't always), but we all at least knew that someone had our backs.

This started a great new side to my (somewhat humorous) social life, and I had begun to see some pretty great friendships coming out of it. But, as these things will go, I would soon find out first-hand, not everyone is looking for good times with good people.





*Surprisingly, I have ended up talking to and playing games with a lot of Canadians. Three of the guys I play with most, all live in Canada. Canucks like to play video games. Who knew? What?! I kid, I kid.

**Being a member of a clan just means that someone starts a group. This group will have a call sign (clan tag) that displays in front of all members' names, ingame. It signifies what group someone is a member of, and games tend to keep clan members on the same team.
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At Long Last...

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And at long last, I will get down to business. Though I must say, I fear that all of these stuttering missteps and promises and cliffhangers may have led to a level of expectation that might not be met. It quite possibly won't be, after all, a thrilling story to most people. I will, in the end, only relay what I intended to all along. I am merely telling the events that occurred and which, for me, were quite thrilling.

Having a new PS3 and Zune meant that, even with my pace for learning how gadgets work (i.e. - functions, tools, applications, etc.), I suddenly had things that did...things, with which I was entirely unaccustomed. I was suddenly able to have the PS3 online at all times, and wirelessly no less, having put a wireless router in, some time ago. With this ability, I could not only play online multiplayer matches (as I discussed before, shortly after my first experience with it, and ended up sounding like some old guy that just got a hint at what's up with that whole "internet" thing), but I was able to download demos, PS3 themes, and purchases from the PS Store. With a bit of effort (and some ingéniosité, after the how-to guides I found online fell short), I was able to have the PS3 recognize our computers as media servers, allowing us to stream music, photos, and video straight to the TV! Suddenly, ours started looking like one of those "connected" houses, a house of "the future," as some might describe. It was all a bit overwhelming. But it was only the beginning.

As I mentioned, I also purchased a Zune around this time. It had one feature that I had never tried before, something that scores of people have been familiar with for some time: podcasts. By having that one option listed on the main menu of the Zune, and offering the ability to search for and subscribe to podcasts from within the desktop software, I decided that it was worth a shot.

I started with subscribing to a few random podcasts for gaming and tech stuff, but wanted one that had movie reviews/news, so I did a search and saw The Totally Rad Show in the results and decided to try it out. I loved it immediately. When I subscribed to it, only the previous six months were available in the feed, though the show had been going for nearly a year. I watched six months worth of episodes in about six weeks. And once those were done, and I was caught up to the new weekly episode, I started downloading the rest of them, starting at the beginning, and closed the gap.

The Totally Rad show, or TRS, is a simple idea that works. It's pretty much just three guys (all in their late-twenties, early thirties) who sit and talk about movies, video games, and sometimes television shows and/or comics. It's just three 80's kids, talking about things they think are rad.

What's unique about the show is the aesthetic. It's completely relaxed and people often describe it as feeling like a conversation one would sit around and have with friends.

One of my favorite elements of the show is the opening. They begin each episode with a retooling of a famous movie scene. My favorite example would be the Cliffs of Despair swordfight from Princess Bride, done as a ping pong match.

Well, watching TRS all the time, and constantly hearing Jeff (one of the hosts) mention "the forums," and recommending that I check them out, I decided to do just that. I signed up, started reading and, at some point, started posting. So now, by following a podcast (something I'd never done), I was becoming an active member of a forum (another something I'd never done).

At some time, during all of this...NEW...I was experiencing (and loving), I decided to just jump in and try an online match. Actually, I was a little too nervous for all of that, so I just chose to start some Free Skate in the aptly titled game, Skate, and to see if anyone would show up. I won't go into that experience, as I already have. To read my awkward, fumbling description of it, read the March 20th entry (scroll down, or click HERE).

That was all it took for me to realize what I'd been missing, with the whole Online Gaming experience. I wanted more. This time though, I was ready for the harder stuff**. I decided to try Call of Duty 4.

What followed is a blur, a 2-week blur, a 2-week blur of playing NOTHING BUT COD4! Being a modern-warfare military squad setting, this blur consisted of a lot of sprinting across open ground (or cover, if I was lucky), dropping to a crouch, lobbing grenades, and approaching enemies from behind and disposing of them with my field knife. And it was fast...

This concludes Part One of "At Long Last." Please join us next week for the exciting conclusion, in which Jan finally tells Richard that she's pregnant, and Emily has to make a tough decision about school...***





*This means that there was no clock running or score accumulating, just skating around for fun. In a video game. Yes, seriously. Hey, I can't afford to go breaking any limbs on a real skateboard. I'm a little past the age at which that would work out okay.

**Though that phrase might bring to mind ideas of various unhealthy drug addictions and moving from recreational drugs into something more dangerous, and though that comparison wouldn't be entirely inappropriate, I was in fact referring to the idea of trying a game that required more skill, or at least had a scoring system in place.

***Next week...or in the next few days...or tomorrow.
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So Many New Things...

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Previously, I made reference to timing; how things had changed, new things coming from where I was, when posting the entry before. I promised to get to it later, and so, without further ado, here it is*:

Thanks in large part to Violet, I was able to get a PS3** in mid-December. I was, apparently, having a tough week, so she decided to order it for me with the credit card. She's just that cool. We had discussed my interest in getting one, and had made the "when" plans. She decided to forego those plans, in order to surprise me and to put me in better spirits. It worked. She came into the living room, having explained that she had gotten me a gift but, not being a Christmas gift, she wanted me to open it immediately. As soon as she left the room and came back in, pulling this large box behind her, I knew what it was. Man, was I freaked! So, that led to Christmas, and getting a few games for it. And, after the new year, I got myself a couple more.

I also got Violet a new computer for Christmas (man, I love having a Dell account!). While this was a great update for her, it left me in the lurch, regarding one small but important function. I had this great 20GB touch-screen Olympus mp3 player/camera. Yes, they dabbled briefly in the mp3 player market, adding their own little touch (the camera). Unfortunately, having backed out of the market quickly, before Windows Vista had come out, the desktop software only worked with XP. I had gotten my laptop some time ago, with Vista on it, and realized my problem. I solved it by having the software on Violet's computer. Once both computers were running Vista, I had no way of ever syncing my mp3 player again.

So, I found myself in need of a new mp3 player. Of course, being a tech...enthusiast (ed.: attempting to disregard the fact that "tech junkie" was the first phrase that came to mind), I thought to myself, "Awe shucks! It looks like I need to do a little shopping." What I came up with, and ordered, was an 80GB Zune.

All the pieces were in place, and so it began.





*It should here be noted that I have inadvertently (of this, I swear) misled you, the reader. I have not, in fact, gotten to the subject matter I promised earlier. There has been further ado. Know this: I have now placed the pieces; described the setting and elements involved. Nothing remains, but to get to it.

Only the story itself remains.....for next time.

**It should also be noted that, when discussing my purchase of a PS3, it was agreed that I could also get a PSP, which I did in January as well. This, of course, just put the level of my being spoiled...over the top. I took it surprisingly well, considering I had almost never before been spoiled.
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Late Start

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Well, I have tons of other things that I intend to write about, and I realize that I'm taking forever to actually get this blog going, but I decided that I wanted to write about something really quick, while it's fresh.

I just had my very first online multiplayer experience. I decided to jump on and play Skate earlier. I saw one guy jump on, we were skating around for a second, and then he hopped off. After a second, he came back. I had a headset on, but didn't know (the first time around) that I had to hit the button to activate chat ingame. I know, blah blah blah.

BUT, when he popped back in, I just hit the button on my earpiece (it's a bluetooth headset like you use for a cell phone). It took me a second to realize that what was happening in my ear was the sounds of this other guy playing the game. What a bizarre experience! We just sat there for almost 5 minutes before it was clear to me that there was someone there. It was this strange mix of the feeling you get when you pick up the phone (a land line, not a cell phone) and there's no dial tone. Like, if maybe you were picking up to dial at the exact time someone had called you. So, you don't say anything because you are wondering why there's no dial tone, and they're not saying anything because they're realizing that it's not ringing. Weird. Just...weird. It was a mix of that sort of thing and some crazy...I don't know, awkward.

So, I made a few audible responses to things I did in the game (like landing a trick or wiping out). Once he did too, I just decided to say something like,"What's up, man?" You know, casual. Well, casual in a situation where two people form a sort of unspoken agreement to ignore the fact that they just had a full 5 minutes of extremely awkward interaction.

You know what it was like? It was like trying to talk to a girl, back when you were in middle school. You simply couldn't trip over yourself worse, or make yourself more a fool, then when you completely lose control of that situation!

Well, anyways, all told it turned out to be very, very cool. We played for some 2 and 1/2 hours or something crazy like that. A couple of other guys came in, some dropped out, some new guys joined us. It just turned out that the two of us were the only ones with headsets, so we just ended up talking about all kinds of cool stuff - entirely about the game, of course. I mean, I will tell you now that I don't know shit about the etiquette of this whole online-gaming-interaction thing, but I can guess that there are some things that would just be retarded to talk about. So, I stayed clear. Mostly.

I just find it really trippy that there is an entire generation of kids for whom this sort of interactions is completely normal. That's just...really F'ed up. I mean, I don't think it's bad or anything, but how freakin' nuts is that? And here I am, this 30-year old guy who just played his very first online game. I was definitely a late bloomer. But, it's cool. Now I can say I've started. Before I know it, I'll have gathered the nerve up to join an online multiplayer, squad-based military game (I own Call of Duty 4, but haven't gone anywhere near playing it online). Soon, I'll be running and gunning and having the time of my life.
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