All Entries Tagged With: "Editorials"

The Best Gaming Editorials You’ve Never Read

As we approach our 1 year anniversary milestone we here at DualShockers figure what better way for you all to familiarize yourself with the site than by checking out some of our past original work that has helped gain some serious momentum throughout our first year in the biz. Believe it or not, but we’re much more than your everyday gaming news site, and it’s actually editorials like the ones listed below that have helped gain the respect of readers as well as our peers throughout the industry. Considering that it’s Monday, we’re in the middle of the Summer, and Michael Pachter hasn’t made any ridiculous predications recently, actual gaming news is pretty light. So instead of searching for news that isn’t really there, how about checking out the very best gaming editorials you’ve never read!

The Online Shooter Learning Curve Debate: How Late is Too Late?

Whether you’re a casual or a core gamer, at one point or another, we’ve all fallen victim to a good old-fashioned online ass kicking. And sometimes, it’s not because you’re unfamiliar with the genre, or unfamiliar with the control scheme. Sometimes, it just happens because you waited too long to buy it and/or play it. It’s the online shooter learning curve, and it’s a casual’s worst nightmare. However, even core online gamers fall victim to it.

Weekend Wrapup of May 16

First off, we offer our apologies for any inconvenience the delay in the Weekend Wrap up may have caused our readers. We normally like to provide this service on Sundays but this week we are bringing it to you on a Monday. This week was another exciting one as we were bombarded by trailers and developer walk-through videos from upcoming heavy hitters like Red Dead Redemption, LittleBigPlanet 2, Split/Second, and Fable III. Four more solid reviews were released here at DualShockers and the team even managed to avoid all of the god awful titles out there this week. Our Editor-in-Chief and long-time, competitive Halo: Combat Evolved player Yaris Gutierrez gave his impressions and then some on Halo: Reach based on his time in the beta.

Senior Contributing Editor Chad Awkerman gave his raw uncensored thoughts on Bioware and their latest headline scandal (*cough cough* publicity stunt?) involving insults being thrown at a certain RPG most gamers love. Beyond this the team engaged in hot debate and discussion over the Nintendo VS Apple feud that is brewing, based on the comments being made back and forth between the two consumer electronics giants, in our latest ShockCast Episode which you can listen to below. Enjoy the following highlights of the past week after the break.

ShockCast 14: Nintendo Needs To Bow Down To Apple, Should All Games Have RPG Elements?, Reader Feedback and Questions Answered, LittleBigPlanet 2 Announced, Steam on Mac, and more.

Reviewing Games – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

For many out there, being able to review games is a dream job. In my younger days, I always looked up to game reviewers, which I really only had access to through print media in magazines like Nintendo Power and Electronic Gaming Monthly. As time progressed and the Internet became more and more popular, there was an explosion of video-game-related sites popping up everywhere and, so it seemed, everyone and their mother was writing game reviews, for better or for worse.

Some are paid to write, some do it because they enjoy it, some aren’t gamers but journalists forced to play and write in this industry – needless to say, there is a wide variety of people out there right now reviewing games. Who are you to believe? What qualifies them to review a game? How long should they play a game before giving their opinions to thousands of people across the Internet? Is it really a dream job?

No Treasure To Be Found

Exploration in games can be a fun and rewarding experience…as long as the developers make it out to be. I explore for more than just something to benefit me through finding treasures or other secrets – I enjoy checking out the scenery at times and just generally prancing around the map to take everything in. But, you know, as much as I enjoy exploring just to explore, there is definitely a part of me that is a selfish bastard. This part of my brain forces my body to explore with the sole purpose of finding something to benefit me in-game – some treasure, some upgrade, some item. Or, perhaps there’s an NPC hiding just around the bend, off the beaten path, that might offer a side quest, or unique merchandise. There could even be a hidden area, a secret tunnel or an optional boss.

All too often, though, I find there are numerous areas in games that are there just to be there, it seems. There’s no treasure to be found, no bit of lore to learn, no hidden room, no NPC, no optional boss – nothing. While some games are worse than others, I noticed several times throughout my Mass Effect 2 play-through that there were rooms that were just there – empty and unwelcoming. There weren’t even enemies in them. See, that game’s missions are fairly linear, however there are numerous optional things to find along the way – including bits of lore, mission logs, reports, safes, data terminals to hack for credits and upgrades, you name it. Yet, sometimes you’ll go into a sizable room right off your main path, hoping to find one of these juicy bits of content, yet are left disappointed.

The problem is even more widespread in JRPGs. These games usually offer expansive interior and exterior locations to explore, yet sometimes expansive doesn’t cut it. Why make an area so big if you’re not going to fill it with things to find? Star Ocean: The Last Hope is a game guilty of this to a large degree. While I enjoyed the game overall, one of the things that continually nagged at the back of my mind was the fact that we had all these beautiful outdoor landscapes to explore, yet many of them held nothing but pretty visuals. Sure, there would be one little nook out of several in this large area that held a chest, but when you think to yourself, “Hey, if I go aalllll the way over to the other side of this area, even though it is horribly out of my way, there has to be something cool over there!”, then you get there and there’s nothing, it is rather disappointing.

While games in general should be more creative and liberal with content placement, I think RPGs especially should be held to a higher standard here. One of the aspects of those games over most others is to explore the environment. Sometimes just checking things out is enough, but sometimes it is not – it depends what kind of gamer you are and, frankly, what kind of mood you’re in at the time. I think there should always be something to found – not every two feet, but fairly liberally. If you have a huge area, and only put one treasure chest in it, what is the benefit to the player to explore that area? There is none. It doesn’t have to be just treasure, either. Mass Effect 2, although not being an RPG in the strictest sense of the term, was good about scattering bits and pieces of lore around, which I found interesting to read, because that game has such a vibrant and inviting universe to explore. I enjoy doing the same in World of Warcraft sometimes, especially in my heavier role-playing days. There are an almost unlimited number of books that enhance the richness of the lore scattered around the game world.

I would like to see developers take more of an interest in giving us reasons to explore, because not everyone wants to do it just for the sake of being there. This would be like driving to another state only to get out of the car, take a picture by the “welcome to” sign, then driving right back home. You can say you were there, but you never explore what the state has to offer. To entice you, various states or cities have commercials, web sites and brochures to get you interested in exploring their corner of the world. Game worlds should be much the same way, so to speak. There need to be things to entice the player, get us interested in the game world, give us something to find and a reason to explore. One thing I would think developers wouldn’t want is for the player to say, “Yeah, I was there, but there was nothing to see”.

Game Critics and Ulterior Motives

One site gives a game a 7.4/10.0. Another gives the same game 3/5 stars. And one more gives the game a 9.5/10.0. Which one of the three reviewers had their opinion tainted? You got it! It was the third one. But don’t worry, defend your site/magazine/show, because it’s all opinionated. One reviewer’s opinion is different from another right? Heard that one way too many times before. Let’s cut the crap. Some video game publications are being paid off by publishers to boost the appeal of certain games. These companies are being paid to cheat. To cheat the system and to cheat you all from a truly objective view of a game. And we gamers hate cheaters.

I want to start with a simple and basic real world example. Take a look at Spike TV’s Video Game Awards (VGA). The winners are voted on and you can agree or disagree with the fans, doesn’t matter. The issue here is not the winners, but the nominees. VGA 2004 had Fantastic Four nominated five times.

I don’t remember that game being that good. I’m sure there were plenty of other video games in 2004 that could have taken those nomination slots. On second thought… maybe not. If you take a look at the categories, they seem tailored made for Fantastic Four. Two of the categories were BEST CYBER VIXEN and BEST PERFORMANCE BY HUMAN FEMALE. It looks like someone really wanted Jessica Alba’s name to be mentioned twice that night.

The game ended up winning zero awards that night. So, if the fans didn’t like the game, who got this game nominated so many times? I don’t know, but his name could very well be “money.” Someone at the “Video Game Awards” must have been paid. This was just a blatantly obvious example of what may be happening at possibly some of your favorite video game review sources.

What has been shady to me lately is IGN. Take a look at this image:

Metacritic gives Army of Two: The 40th Day a 73 out of 100. Heck, we here at DualShockers gave it a 3 stars out of 5. Its average score from all the critics is a 73, and IGN has given it a 8.5 out of 100 and an Editor’s Choice award. I guess it’s just a coincidence IGN’s layout for the day was… Army of Two: The 40th Day. I’ll leave this one up to you. Maybe the reviewer really did like it, and it just so happens Electronic Arts is paying the bills too. I shouldn’t connect invisible lines, but it seems fishy and strikingly similar to an incident that has happened before.

One of the greatest cases of a video game publication being paid off by publishers happened in 2007. GameSpot writer Jeff Gerstmann was terminated from said publication along with several editors quitting shortly after, because the integrity of their reviews were being compromised by greed. GameSpot’s reason for terminating Gerstmann were never officially confirmed, but it does not need to be.

His unbiased review of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men gave the average game an average score. But at the time, GameSpot was being paid very above average by publisher Eidos Interactive, possibly to have the favor returned. GameSpot has a rich history of being paid tremendously well by publishers of terrible games. Themes and backgrounds of mediocre to horrible games have plagued the GameSpot site numerous times, and that doesn’t come cheap. We may not know the exact reason why Gerstmann was terminated, but what we do know is that he did not give the game a royal score boost, and we know several other editors couldn’t do it neither.

So, do we dare ask publications such as GameSpot is take a possible price-cut from their income in favor of little ol’ us? The gamers? My answer is: “this is video game JOURNALISM.” Journalism, not public relations and not advertising. Speaking as a journalist, we are here to serve the people. The early history of journalism began as the flow of information from person to person through word of mouth, the passing of pieces of paper, and community boards and books. It was hidden and undetected by influences such as the government, who saw that people knowing certain information a threat as it would give them too much power. In the same way, video game journalism should not under any circumstance write for the service of any other reasons besides the investment of a gamer’s clicks or $19.95 subscription.

Who could we trust?  Who can’t we trust? Does anyone even care? And what can we even do about it? Maybe all these questions cannot be answered. Who knows, maybe even our reviews are somewhat tainted. We get free games, maybe subconsciously we already feel the need to “thank” the publishers or have an already positive mindset towards a free game, and not even realize it. Journalists can be as objective as they can be, because nothing is truly objective. But publications that push and pressure critics to boost a score are the true problem, and it’s up to time and people like Jeff Gerstmann to expose them.

Why Iron Man 2: The Video Game Will Be Good

Can Iron Man 2 possibly ever step out of the shadow of its much ill-fated predecessor? I recently had the pleasure to attend a Sega Event where they unveiled their lineup in NYC and I had the opportunity to see firsthand what Iron Man 2 had to offer. I spoke with Kyle Brink of Sega who is the creative director of Iron Man 2 and sort of the father of the entire project if you will.

For those of you who did not play the original Iron Man title, it was lack luster to say the least. It was not completely terrible, but it was a game full of potential that fell way short of the mark. The biggest issue with the first tile was that you quickly felt as if you were doing the same things over and over after the very first board.

Fast forward to Iron Man 2 now and let’s see what changes have been made via an in depth look with Kyle Brink. First off Iron Man and War Machine each have different fight styles which are load-outs available at the beginning of each mission. There are three styles per type of suit and you can load up to two during a mission, which Kyle showed off a Dragon and Hurricane style. The fighting styles mimic fighting styles of a typical MMA fashion such as Muy Thai which gives Iron Man a different feel in the brawling aspect.

The biggest thing that needs to be pointed out is the fact that this title has its own unique story which is completely separate from the film. Although it is scheduled to ship sometime in April (prior to the next Iron Man film) it will not be based on the same plot. This is a huge difference maker from the original title as it frees up the team at Sega to explore a variety of different areas and enemies while not being bound to an existing campaign or storyline like in the original.

One notable difference is as we flew and hovered with Iron Man was that you no longer have to regulate the power settings to thrusters, weapons, etc. this management is now automatic and we thank Sega for this. Also brawling a mob is handled much more fluid now in the style of Batman Arkham Asylum such that you can switch on the fly from enemy to enemy using the Right Stick. Flying has also been revamped especially since Kyle Brink has strong roots in the flight simulator genre and it shows as Iron Man takes corners and hovers along with grace and style.

Another huge difference and addition in this title are the destructible environments. This is huge for me as I love to take advantage of blowing up trees and especially buildings in games and Iron Man 2 achieves this feat in spades. I watched as Kyle destroyed rooftops of warehouses, took out sheds and shredded a silo. This was all made possible via a new dynamic lighting that was implemented for the game. The dynamic lighting makes the destruction that much more impressive because once you knock something down the shadow it cast has to disappear and that is exactly what happens in the game. It was impressive to watch him take out walls and watch as the shadows shifted.

Also, Iron man now takes the fight inside of buildings. This is something that is a complete contrast to the first game where you only fought in open fields and spaces. The close combat feel is a nice change of pace and really promotes the brawler aspect and the differences in load outs where you may want splash or area damage instead of long range weapons.

So will Iron Man 2 shine? It is still early to tell but I was impressed with what I saw and I thought it was a great sign that Kyle Brink was very confident in his project and actually enjoyed playing his title to the point that we stayed a half an hour after the event had officially closed playing through Iron Man 2. In my opinion gamers will need to give Iron man 2 a chance and experience the flying, brawling, shooting, and hovering that is iron Man. Here’s to looking forward to an April date which gives the studio some more time to polish it up.

Hate Us or Love Us – Gaming Blogs Are Taking Over

Since the beginning of the decade there has been an online revolution, it’s called the blog. It’s given a voice to the voiceless. It has provided the opportunities that for most people would have been impossible before it’s inception. What started as something personal, became professional. Guys that liked talking about gadgets would eventually become Gizmodo, Engadget and LifeHacker. Guys the liked talking about games would become Kotaku, Joystiq, and Destructiod. Sites are popping up all the time now, and the bigger sites are scared. IGN is a perfect example of this. They went so far as to transform into blog style to reconnect with their readers who are slowly but surely looking at different avenues for their news, mostly sites like the one you’re currently reading. Times are changing, and you may hate it or love it but one thing is for sure, gaming blogs are taking over.

A couple of weeks ago, I appeared on an online talk show by the name of Counterpoint. It was basically an online debate that focused on and discussed recent gaming stories that were making headlines that week. I was on hand to represent my site (DualShockers), and after five rounds I ended up coming out with the win.

One topic that ruffled a few feathers was a segment devoted to N4G. For those of you unfamiliar with the site it is a social news aggregate similar to Digg.com in many respects, where it’s users dictate what’s deemed news worthy and/or interesting and vote it up by comments and views.

It wasn’t that our segment bashed N4G, but it raised a good question; and that was whether N4G is good or bad for gaming journalism? It seemed like a great topic (and title for the piece) at the time. Yet that one question opened up a whole new can of worms, as users of the news site took it upon themselves to not only defend N4G as if they owned it but also discredit gaming bloggers as not being journalists. After reading many of those comments, I figured it would be right to set the record straight for those that feel the same way and think that gaming “journalism” isn’t journalism at all.

jour⋅nal⋅ism

-noun

1. the occupation of reporting, writing, editing, photographing or broadcasting news or of conducting any news

2. Press

That is the way journalism is described according to dictionary.com, and if there are gaming blogs out there who do not fall under this category by the definition of the word, I’ve never seen one. Readers on sites like Digg, N4G, and to a lesser extent Gamekicker have this notion that bloggers are miserable overweight men living in their parent’s basements full of rants and sensationalist headlines and arguments. They think that many of these blogs require no skill or knowledge of the industry and are run by bias opinionated heathens, and to an extent they may be right, as there are both good ones and bad ones out there. However there are certain blogs (this one being one of them) that each and every day, provide readers with as much of the latest gaming news as they possibly can. We may be few and far between, but we do in fact exist.

Another argument, and it’s what probably separates most writers, journalists, bloggers, or whatever you want to call us, is our integrity pertaining to reviewing games. Recently, I had an in depth conversation about this with one of the Public Relations people I collaborate with for review products. He’ll remain anonymous for now but what I will say is that he works for one of the big 3. We were going back and forth about blog and site integrity and he brought up many great points, which should provide some insight. It isn’t just readers that are uncomfortable with certain sites reviewing games as game publishers have similar reservations as well, and it’s all with good reason.

Not to go back to my episode taping on Counterpoint, but one thing that was brought up during a behind the scenes segment was talk about IGN and the whole Gamespot firing Jeff Gerstmann (over the low review score on Kane and Lynch) debacle. It was the notion of once your getting paid, your essentially getting paid to keep your mouth shut. And while I agreed with that idea at the time, my Public Relations buddy clarified that a bit further. He said “larger sites have to maintain some decorum because their jobs depend on it, they’re less likely to fly off the handle about something related to a game…you can call it journalistic integrity” and now come to think of it he couldn’t be anymore right. He also goes on to say, “if they hate a game, they can hate it, but it’s their job (key word here) that they also try to find at least one good thing about the game they hate, a blogger on the other hand, has no obligations to anyone. He could theoretically have a bad day and go off on a game, trashing it like crazy and not have to fear about losing their job.” And while I do agree with him that there has to be a sense of accountability, with that said it isn’t hard to see that if you want a genuine review, you’re going to find it on the blogs before you find it on the bigger sites out there.

You may not always agree with the score your favorite game receives online, but that doesn’t mean the person is assigning it that score without reason. A recent one that comes to mind is Desctructoid’s Jim Sterling take on Assassin’s Creed 2. People (mostly miserable internet trolls) write him off as being sensationalist with his headlines, stories, and reviews, but if you take the time to actually read the writing before jumping down his throat in the comments section, he might just turn you into a believer. One of our writers gave AC2 five stars with plenty of reasons why, where Jim Sterling gave it less than 5 out of 10 but he explained in detail as to why he did so. Jim Sterling is not the only one as there are others like him who aren’t scared to say how it really is, yet as soon as they do, if the masses do not agree then they are no longer considered “journalists.”

If your favorite game receiving an unfavorable review bothers you that much, than maybe you should hear that a recent study shows that game sales are actually more dependent on word of mouth more so than advertisements and review scores. So when you do find a game you really like, make sure to tell everyone you know about it, instead of cursing out a reviewer you don’t agree with.

Every real gamer has that one game store they frequent. Not because it’s the closest or because they save a few bucks by going there. It’s usually because everyone knows their name, and they can go in there and shoot the shit with the clerk, as well as get some insight from other patrons. Well, us blogs are just like that game store, except for the fact that we don’t sell anything. We’re jam packed with real gamers, with real news, real editorials, and most importantly real reviews. If you want online propaganda and advertisements that determine how games get reviewed head over to the big sites.

A Hero Among Us

Throughout the history of gaming, heroes and heroines have stepped to the front of the battles and taken gamers right along with them. From Batman to Lara Croft, characters take down hordes of zombies and battle armies of robots without even breaking a sweat. Male and female gamers are represented by an array of characters to choose from in today’s gaming world. Bayonetta is a highly anticipated game bringing a female lead character into the spotlight to kick whatever butt is thrown her way. But as we all know, it wasn’t always this way.

Way back in 1980, Namco came up with the first video game hero. The round, yellow, munching on power pellets and ghost icon: PACMAN. PACMAN was everywhere in the 80’s, on t-shirts, cereal boxes, and even his own cartoon. The world had it’s first taste of a hero in gaming and

they welcomed him with open arms. Later on, Nintendo shot back with Mario, Mega Man, Link, and many others. But unknown to the rest of the world one game that was very popular would introduce us to our first female heroine in the gaming genre. Metroid was a fantastic game in the 80’s that earned rave reviews from gaming analyst. However, the one thing no one knew until they beat the game was that the hero of that game, Samus Aran, was really a female. Yes the badass Bounty Hunter in Metroid was indeed a girl. Small victory for female gamers but not the last.

Samus Aran led to many modern day female heroines in gaming, such as Lara Croft, Jill Valentine, Bayonetta, Ivy, Cammy, and Sonya Blade. In a genre dominated in the early days by all male characters, female characters are making their own marks on gaming and they are doing so with a vengeance. The days are here where a female gamer can turn on her favorite game and choose her favorite playable character, be it male or female.

Now in the 21st Century, characters have taken on an whole new level of being bad. We have characters from the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty series to allow gamers to become some of the best trained warriors today’s and yesterday’s military can offer. We have Batman from Arkham Asylum, Chris Redfield from Resident Evil, and even Mickey Mouse himself is set to wage all out war in an upcoming game. Modern day female warriors have taken over as well, such as Sheva Alomar, Bayonetta, and Ivy from Soul Calibur. We have Apocalyptic warriors from Borderlands, male and female. Todays games are becoming more and more equal in the butt kicking be it male or female.

So gamers, prepare for even more heroes and heroines in 2010 and beyond that will take your breath away. We seem to meet new ones every month. DualShockers wants to know what character you would create. Would they be male or female? What special skills or powers would they possess? And what would their name be? Be creative and explain your reasons.

2010: The Year of Questions

As 2009 winds down and 2010 approaches, we at DualShockers are excited about the great gaming coming this year. Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2, MAG, and countless others are preparing to launch. HALO REACH will certainly be on alot of peoples must want lists. Dead Space 2, Arkham Asylum 2, and Dead Rising 2 will make a run for game of the year. God of War 3 will indeed be epic. A year of sequels it will be.

What is a gamer to do you might ask with so many great titles to choose from? From January 2010 to December 2010, the video game industry will swamp the consumer with must have games. Question is, will everybody have the time to play them all? Can you sit one game down to play another? That multiplayer game you have been tearing up takes a back seat to the hottest title out?

We see the return of Medal of Honor, reinvented to take place in the world of today, to try and take back it’s crown from Modern Warfare as the best first person shooter series. Can it make up the ground it has lost since the original Modern Warfare took over? Can Bioshock 2 prove to be as great as it’s predecessor? These are the questions put in front of gamers for the coming year. We here at DualShockers asks you the gamer one question. What game are you most looking forward to in 2010? And do you think 2010 will outshine 2009 due to the sequels? Tell us what you think. Better get the wallet ready readers, it’s going to be a big one.

Does Sex Sell In Video Games?

There are certain subjects, genres, criteria, that make us think about which games to buy. It is a common process of elimination. If you are more of a slasher game fan rather than a sports nut, of course the slasher games would be more of a priority. Over the years there has been an underground genre, an idea thrown into some games that , if it was not there in the first place, no one would have ever dreamed to get that game. This genre or idea, is sex.

Life is More Like a Video Game Than You Think – Chapters 5 & 6

The following piece was written by Brian Wilmeth, a 25 year old aspiring author (and gamer) from Park Slope, Brooklyn. He is currently working on a book entitled “Life is More Like a Video Game Than You Think” (working title), and in it he describes many ideas how life is basically one big game and we’re all essentially just trying to “level up” in a sense. We here at DualShockers have been fortunate enough to have the author of the piece send us a condensed a version, one of which we can share with our readers. It isn’t the chapter you will see when the book is published, but more of a detailed summary of what your can expect when it is.  We will run this as a weekly series, giving all of the readers out there an exclusive chapter per week. Check back often, as this young and hungry author seems to have a real hit in his hands. Enjoy the reading.

Chapter 5: Video Games and Simplicity

There are some quirky video games out there. I once played this game called Orbox. The point of the game was to get your square to a red square without falling off the screen. It was a puzzle to solve and each level usually took a lot of tries. I wasn’t really happy playing it and I wasn’t really bored either. It was sort of the “I’m bored so I’m going to try this game” scenario.

Another game like this was simple internet ping pong. The mouse was used to control the paddle and your swing of the ball. Not as fun as real ping pong, but definitely good for a screen. I even played Ping-Pong without the Ping.

When there are so many wonderful video games out there, why would I play these? Well, these games are very simple, and sometimes simple can be a good thing. Final Fantasy III for the Super Nintendo was anything but simple. There were 1000s of items in the game and nearly 20 characters, yet I probably only used maybe 100 of those items and usually the same 4 characters. I made a complex game more simple.

Not everyone likes simplicity. It can be boring sometimes. People often distract themselves via TV, work, or video games, to avoid simplicity. So is simplicity a good thing or not? In my opinion, if you can enjoy simplicity, you can enjoy anything. As a kid I enjoyed simple video games and as I grew older it took more complex games to make me happy. But now I find myself going back to simplicity and enjoying it all over again.

Another game I liked as a kid was Sonic the Hedgehog. The game idea in itself is immensely simple. You have a character similar to Mario that jumps, rolls, and runs really really fast. What an exciting idea! Now build around it huge levels to make the most of those attributes and you have a great game. This game was like the next step up for me from games like Mario and Mega Man.

Chapter 6: Items, Upgrades, and Life

I loved video game items. Mushrooms were one of my favorites. Touch a mushroom and become supersized. What’s the point of being supersized? Well, in the original Mario there was no point except now it was easier to get hit as a big man. It gave you a second life yes and now you could break bricks and access the fire flower. But why become supersized at all? Why not turn a different color, and stay the same size? Why, because it was cool, that’s why!

There are also real life mushrooms, but they don’t make you supersized. Some are simply part of a healthy diet and some make you crazy. I recommend the former.

I always like video game items. Collect this and all the sudden you have a special ability. If only it were that simple in life. Well sometimes it is. If you collect a gun you can now shoot bullets. If you collect running shoes you can now run with less discomfort.

But what is the point of this chapter then? In games, items are used to become stronger and more powerful to make accomplishing a goal easier. In life too, there is no way to accomplish a goal without items. We have books, computers, phones, and other items that make our goals achievable more quickly. Ancient cave man didn’t have many items. Maybe a club for wacking things. Try getting to the moon when your only item is a club.

As technology becomes more advanced, reaching goals actually becomes easier. I remember a day when making a video game used to be accomplished only by the most experienced programmers. Now with the internet, software, cheap computers, and google, anyone with the proper motivation can learn how to program video games. I used these tools as a C++ beginner and learned how to program tetris in less then a years time, without using my college education!

Cell phones are another great example. Now meeting people is easy. Before cell phones people had to discuss an exact place and time to meet, and if any mistakes were made they wouldn’t meet and would have to go home. But with cell phones we don’t have to be so specific. “Lets meet at the mall”. “Where?”. “Who cares, I’ll call you when I get there”.

MapQuest is another great item but has its drawbacks. The good thing about mapquest is it does the thinking for you. People don’t even need to know where they are in space and time if they can follow directions accurately. But if a mistake is made by you or mapquest then you’re going to be very lost. Which is why the new use of GPS systems is an even greater item.

Items are used as a way of making our goals easier. So make good use of them in video games and in life!