Xbox live has a new look

Xbox live is a service provided by Microsoft that Xbox 360 owners use to get connected to the internet. Xbox live is not a free service, you have to pay for a subscription.

There are three subscriptions:

• $7.99 for one month
  
• $19.99 for three months
  
• $49.99 for 12 months
  

So what's different with this "new" Xbox live?

• A new interface that appeals to a more general audience
• A customizable avatar, an animated graphical representation of a person.
• Brighter color scheme
• The ability to try out new games more easily
• The ability to discover and navigate through a library of 30,000 movies, TV shows and video clips.

New Xbox live











Old Xbox live

New SAT prep game for the Nintendo DS

No more SAT For Dummies books for high school kids any more, now they can just go to their local GameStop store and pick up a copy of FutureU for the Nintendo DS.

"FutureU promises to sharpen students' critical thinking skills and build relevant knowledge with a collection of interactive games focused on math, reading, and writing. There's also a section that teaches the test-taking and time management skills necessary for taking the big exam," as explained on the Cnet news website.

This is an excellent game that should appeal to parents that have children that play video games. Educational games are on the rise and it's not just the parents that are buying them.

For example there is the hit Nintendo DS game Professor Layton and the Curious Village, which is nothing more than SAT questions neatly hidden throughout the story of the mysterious village.

Gamers are diverse, they don't just play hack and slash kind of games, they too like to play something that challenges their intellect and that's what FutureU promises to offer.

Game publisher THQ partners with CoverGirl

THQ a leading video game publisher, responsible for such games as Saints Row 2, Star Wars the Force Unleashed and Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise, is now working with CoverGirl on a cheerleader game.

"THQ announced a collaboration with CoverGirl® for the recently released All Star Cheer Squad™ video game for Wii™, as well as the upcoming Nintendo DS™ version expected to be available next month," as explained in a press release on Oct. 29.

The agreement includes:

• CoverGirl logos on the performance stages
• Billboards and banners seen throughout the game
• CoverGirl branded uniforms with matching makeup, found in the "Create a Cheerleader" mode
• Voice overs by CoverGirl spokespeople Drew Barrymore and Rihanna

The game is a full cardio experience, meaning the gamer will be using the Wii balance board for foot movements and the nunchuck for hand movements. The end result is to make the gamer feel like they are really putting the cheers together and really participating at a cheerleading competition.

Here is a trailer for All Star Cheer Squad for the Wii

Obama ads to be featured in nine video games

You see the ads in newspapers, on television and now you will be seeing the vote for Obama ads in nine games that are being released this holiday season.

"Obama is the first presidential candidate to buy space [in video games], according to Holly Rockwood, a spokeswoman for Electronic Arts, whose company is featuring the Obama ads in nine of its games," as explained on the London Free Press's website.

Candidates are known to try everything to reach every audience and some feel that this is an uninformed or hard to reach audience. Electronic Arts allowed the ad space to be bought and used for the campaign to help inform this audience.

"As a gamer this is too much, I hear it enough on the radio and on TV I don't need to be 'informed' again while playing my video game," said Daniel Beach, 22, who has been playing video games since he was four-years-old.

The ads will be featured in such popular games as Madden NFL 09 and Guitar Hero 3 and will be using this new temporary ad function that has only been in use for the past 18 months. The ads appear on billboards in a racing game or stadium banner ads in the football game and so on.

Here is a video of the actual ad in the Madden NFL 09 game.


"I think it's annoying, you don't feel like we have seen your face enough so now you buy space in our games, that's just lame," said Billy Jones, 22, who has been a gamer since he was seven-years-old.

Here is a video of MSNBC explaining the new Obama ads.

Video game addiction is blamed for missing teen

Brandon Crisp, a 15-year-old Ontario teenager ran away after having an argument with his parents about his Xbox console being taken away.

The parents of the boy say he ran away because he had a "video game addiction."

What is this video game addiction? Is it real?

The addiction to video games is believed to be just like most other addictions. An addiction is, "The state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma," as explained on Dictionary.com.

American Medical Association (AMA) council members believe that video game addiction involves psychological habit forming but as of right now they can not fully prove that.

"The percentage of players affected by video game overuse varies. Many researchers believe that video game addiction occurs only in a small minority of players, while others disagree... there is currently insufficient research to definitively conclude that video game overuse is an addiction," as explained on AMA's website.

This fight to get this supposed condition validated is not going to be easy or something that happens over night. The main reason for that is because, "Video game makers scoff at the notion that their products can cause a psychiatric disorder," as expressed on MSNBC's website.

In my opinion I would have to agree with the game developers. I believe that it all depends on the person and their background before playing video games. I don't believe that a video game is going to cause you to be addicted to it, the addiction is something you already have with you before even playing the game.

Guitar Hero World Tour risks high price for holiday season

The holiday season is fast approaching and for game developers that means massive releases and dollar signs.

One of the most anticipated holiday titles this year is Guitar Hero World Tour. The game was released on Oct. 26 for each of the consoles and priced at $189.99, for the bundle pack. The bundle includes a guitar, a drum kit, a microphone and a copy of the game. To date it is one of the most expensive games that Activision Blizzard Inc. has ever released.
(Click on the link to learn more about Activision Blizzard Inc. on their website)

Most gamers expect a new game to not be cheap, but during this economic crisis that most consumers are facing right now, is that price too high?

ABI expects a profit from the game, predicting that it will bring in $1.4 billion in sales this year. They are anticipating the people that have played the games' predecessors, Guitar Hero 1, 2, 3 and Aerosmith, to add this new installment to their collection and the addition of the drum set and microphone is expected to attract new gamers to the title. ABI will soon find out if their prediction was in fact correct after the holiday season.

Check out the trailor for GHWT

A new kind of music game has arrived

One of Nintendo's big holiday games, Wii Music, was released on Oct. 20.

Wii Music is a rhythm/music game, in which the player conducts or plays in an orchestra, using the wireless Wii remote and nunchuck adapter.

Wii Music features:

• 60 instruments including: the piano, the violin, the cello, the sitar, the accordion and even cat sounds.

"Each of these instruments is played by one of four simple motions. Guitars are played by holding the Nunchuk as you would the neck of a guitar and then moving the remote in a strumming motion. Wind instruments are played without the Nunchuk; just hold the top of the remote toward your mouth and press the 1 and 2 buttons to change notes. You can raise and lower the remote to increase or decrease the volume. Violins are a little more complex; you hold the Nunchuk out from your shoulder and then move the remote back and forth like a bow across strings. Drums and keyboards are played by waving the remote and Nunchuk up and down. A more complicated drum set is available if you have a Wii Fit Board as well (it acts as a pedal)," as explained on GameSpot's website.

• The option to conduct the orchestra.
• The ability to use your own Mii character, also called avatars, that can be created to look like you. (Click on the link to be learn more about Miis on Wikipedia's website)
  
• Offers two types of game play: Jam mode and Minigames.

For more information on Wii Music click on the link to GameSpot's website.

Parenting.com and the Entertainment Software Rating Board collaborate to educate parents about video game

As of Oct. 29 the Bonnier Corporation's Parenting Group with be working with the ESRB and producing a series of web tools and content on Parenting.com. Geared to assist parents this holiday season in picking up the right video game for their child.

Every game that is made for any console is reviewed by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, more commonly known as the ESRB, and then given a rating on what age is appropriate for playing that game.

"As we head into the Holiday season, parents are keeping their ears open for gift ideas, and video games are a perennial favorite. But just like movies and TV shows, not all games are intended for kids," said ESRB president Patricia Vance in an article by News Blaze (Click on the link to read the full article on News Blaze's website).

Four things to expect on Parenting.com's updated website

• A series of three articles by ESRB president Patricia Vance, the first of which, "5 Steps to Smart Video Game Choices."
• An ESRB search widget will be located on the site, that searches ESRB's database of reviewed games.
• A monthly list of some of the best-selling titles with their complete ESRB rating information.
• A shopping channel that will have shopping guide videos, one of which will be, "The Parenting.com Video Game Cheat Sheet," to aid in helping parents pick the right age appropriate game.
  

New controversy involving Little Big Planet

The release date for Sony's Little Big Planet (click on the link to be redirected to GameSpot for more information on LBP)has been pushed back because of the controversy surrounding a song with lyrics taken from the Qur'an, in the game.

What has a majority of the Muslim gaming community upset are two verses that are taken from the Qur'an.

"Concerns about the lyrics--contained in the track "Tapha Niang" by Grammy Award-winning African kora player Toumani Diabate (click on the link to be redirected to Wikipedia for more information on Diabate)--came to light on official PlayStation Community forums and reportedly on some Arabic gaming forums, as well," as explained in an article on cnet's website.

Little Big Planet is Sony's big game of the year, mainly because it is only being released for their Playstation 3 console. The game was officially supposed to be released on Oct. 24 2008, but now all of the games that have already been shipped to retailers are being recalled and the new game, minus the offensive lyrics, will be shipped on Oct. 27.

Here is the song that caused the recall. You be the judge.

Highly anticipated holiday game releases

The holiday season is the most anticipated time of the year for gamers. Considering the games that are released right before Christmas are the last games of the season and are usually the most talked about games of the year.

Here are the top three games for this holiday season.

• Left 4 Dead (PC and XBox 360) - This title is from the Valve team, the creators of Half Life 2 and Counter Strike Source, and is being released on Nov. 20. This game is being talked about because of the past two titles that Valve worked on were so well done. The game is a zombie first person shooter game that looks, graphically, amazing. (Click on the links for more information about Valve) Check out the video for some game play footage from this years E3 expo (Click on the link to learn more about E3 on Wikipedia's website).

• Tales of Symphonia 2 (Nintendo Wii) "To celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Tales series in North America, Namco Bandai brings us Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World on the Nintendo Wii. The game takes place just two years after the events of Tales of Symphonia, and you'll come across familiar faces and revisit this new world that Lloyd and Collette had saved," as explained on GameSpot's website. This game will be released on Nov. 11. Check out the video for the latest trailor of the game.
  

Chrono Trigger (Nintendo DS) - "The classic SNES game makes its way to the Nintendo DS featuring dual-screen presentation and touch-screen functionality," as explained on GameSpot's website. This game will be released on Nov. 24. Check out the teaser video for Chrono Trigger for the DS.

Major League Gaming professional gamer Xena

Her game name is Xena, also known as Bonnie Burton, she is a professional gamer and was one of the people to compete in this years Major League Gaming competition in Orlando. Her game of choice is Halo which she started playing after her brother got the game and after countless hours of practice she is now a professional gamer.

Burton sat down after she competed in this years competition to give an interview on the event, how she did and what she is going to do next. While she did not take home the top prize she did make it a lot farther than most of her, male dominated, competitors.

I was able to find the interview on www.youtube.com and I hope everyone else finds it as interesting as I did.

Major League Gaming competition continues through Orlando

The Major League Gaming 2008, Pro Circuit tour stopped in Orlando on July 11, 12 and 13.

"Orlando [was] the third stop on MLG's 2008 Pro Circuit tour, which feature[d] Halo 3, Gears of War, Rainbow Six Vegas 2, and World of Warcraft," as explained on Major League Gaming's website.

The event offered up $93,000 in cash prizes, brought together some of the world's most talked about gamers that were working towards making it to the National Championship and invited any one that was interested in attending to stop by this free to see event.

These types of events are open for anyone, from the most casual of gamers to the most hardcore gamers and non-gamers will all be there. Some people come just for the competition but there were events just for the visitors and prize giveaways taking place that whole weekend.

"Orlando is OPEN TO EVERYONE:

-- You do NOT need to compete in Pro Circuit Ladders in order to compete in a Pro Circuit Event.
-- You do NOT need to have competed in a prior Pro Circuit Event in order to compete in a future Pro Circuit Event.
-- You do NOT need a sponsorship in order to compete in a Pro Circuit Event. -- Spectating at all Pro Circuit Competitions is free," as expressed on MLG's website. (For more details on the event check out MLG's website)

What's the deal with PC games?

With all the talk centering around consoles lately, how are PC games fairing? The truth is PC games are doing just fine, if not better than consoles and their games. The down side for console gamers is that they have to wait for their next generation, more commonly referred to as next gen., consoles for upgrades in game graphics,

When it comes to gaming your personal computer is where it really begins. The most average of person can be considered a PC gamer simply by playing a game of solitaire or mine sweeper on their computer.

On the PC you will find the most hardcore of gamers that spend a majority of their life in a virtual world. For example, the game World of Warcraft has more than 10.9 million players as of this year. These people spend hundreds of dollars, real money, and countless hours, to maintain characters, accounts and items in game. These are the hardcore gamers.

"With more than 10.9 million monthly subscribers,World of Warcraft is currently the world's largest MMORPG in those terms, and holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG," as documented on Wikipedia's website.

So no matter how many consoles are made each year, there will always be games being constantly made for PC gamers and they never have to wait for their next gen system to be created so they can play their game.

Top 10 scary video games

After completing my last post I thought to myself, I wonder if people really know that there are other equally, if not more, scary games available? So continuing on this October scary Halloween trend (mostly because this is my favorite holiday and I love the horror genre) I decided to do a list of the top scary games.

Top 10 Scary Video Games:

10. 7th Guest
What is it about? - "The 7th Guest is a haunted house puzzle-adventure which takes place inside an abandoned mansion. Venture into the 22 rooms of the spooky mansion, solve over 20 mind-bending puzzles to unravel a tale of revenge and horror that took place in the 1930s," as explained on Moby Games website.
Why is it scary? - While solving tricky puzzles might actually scare some people, it's what happens after you solve a puzzle that will scare everyone. After completing a puzzle you are rewarded not just with progression but with a shock and a scare too. It might be a gory image of a room or flash of a face on the screen. To actually complete the game you must repeatedly surprise and frighten yourself. Are you ready to be the 7th guest?

9. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
What is it about? - "The game centers on the Roivas family and its ties to an ancient book called The Tome of Eternal Darkness. Behind the scenes, an evil force called the ancients has been scheming to harness the power of the book and overtake the world," as explained on GameSpot's website.
Why is it scary? - Some people are going to be scared by the grotesque enemies but what really scares everyone is that the game has a tendency to play the player and obliterates the fourth wall. What that really means is that you might be running through a stage and the TV will seem to just shut off for several seconds, leaving the player scared for his character and confused. This fear inducing tactic worked so well that Nintendo patented Video Game Insanity.

8. The Suffering
What is it about? - In the Suffering you play as a man named Torque, who is convicted of murdering his family and sentenced to death. In the opening of the game he is being walked to his cell in Abbott State Penitentiary, where he tries to plead his case again to the guardsman, explaining that he can't remember anything. Soon after that you understand that Torque is not just haunted by a metaphorical demon haunting him for his crimes but literally is possessed by a demon that takes hold of the character and runs havoc around the prison.
Why is it scary? - Blood smeared walls, screams for help, demented hauntings and it all takes place in a dark, eerie prison and really a haunted prison is pretty scary by itself.

7. Condemned: Criminal Origins
What is it about? - "In Condemned: Criminal Origins, players take the role of Ethan Thomas, a SCU agent (Serial Crime Unit investigator that uses forensic tools) framed for a double cop murder he did not commit who becomes trapped in the condemned sections of a fictional American city named "Metro City" while hunting a serial killer," as explained on Wikipedia's website.
Why is it scary? - You have psychotic serial killers hunting you down trying to kill you with whatever they can get their hands on.

6. Clock Tower
What is it about? - "A disfigured mass murderer called Scissorman is on the loose, cutting up the citizens of Norway, and you must piece together clues to stop him," as explained on GameSpot's website.
Why is it scary? - A crazed scissor wielding man is after you and all you can do is find places to hide from him and hope that he isn't already in your hiding place with his scissors ready to jab you to death.

5. Fear
What is it about? - "...You play as the newest member of the First Encounter Assault Recon, the military's top-secret task force assigned to deal with paranormal situations," as explained on GameSpot's website.
Why is it scary? - The paranormal situations are all being created by this creepy little demon girl who will randomly pop up on the screen, make scenery randomly move, or make creepy laughing or demonic sounds as you progress through the stages.


4. Doom series
What is it about? - "The player takes the role of a space marine, one of Earth's toughest, hardened in combat and trained for action, who has been deported to Mars as punishment for assaulting a senior officer when ordered to attack civilians," as explained on Wikipedia's website.
Why is it scary? - Mars has a portal to Hell that has been opened and now demons are flooding the living spaces of Mars. To progress through the game you must defeat Hell's minions and work your way through demonic levels to reach the bowls of Hell itself.

3. Resident Evil series
What is it about? - The Resident Evil series follows the survivors or rescue team in search of survivors in the zombie filled Raccoon City. Scientists of the Umbrella Corporation, in an underground lab, created a virus like substance that creates zombie life forms from dead creatures, but the virus gets exposed to the outside town. The town becomes over run by zombies and you a Raccoon Police Officer or survivor are trying to make it out of the city alive, while looking for survivors and struggling to understand how this happened.
Why is it scary? - Zombie mutants running rampant, that at times pop out of no where and only crave your flesh, yeah it's scary.

2. Fatal Frame series
What is it about? - Haunted mansion, creepy girls, and ghosts that you can only see through pictures. The Fatal Frame series is all about people venturing into haunted mansions (which are based on real places in Japan and are really thought to be haunted) looking for lost relatives, usually a brother or a sister that was last seen there.
Why is it scary? - To progress through the game you must photograph the ghosts that haunt the mansion, to capture their soles. So you run around a haunted place with nothing but a camera and ghosts around every corner.


1. Silent Hill series
What is it about? - Throughout the series you play as different characters who are some how connected to this town of Silent Hill. Most of the time the characters don't truly understand why they are drawn to the town but learn rather quickly through weird notes and memory flashes.
Why is it scary? - The town was cursed by the cult that lived in it and now anyone that enters the town never leaves and is stuck in this evil hell on earth town. Filled with mutated nurses, dogs, and mutilation filled areas this game has to be number one on the list.

Scare fest in your hands

Silent Hill: Origins is the hand held game that I'm currently playing. This game fits the month of October perfectly, considering it is one of the scariest game series that has ever been made. (Click on the link to get additional information on GameSpot's website)

Silent Hill: Origins is a horror game that takes place in the fog filled town of Silent Hill. You play as Travis Grady, who is a truck driver with some unknown connection to the town.

The game begins with Grady driving past the town on a stormy night and out of nowhere a girl runs into the middle of the road. Grady narrowly misses the girl but sets out in search of why she was there and if she is truly unharmed. As he begins his search for answers, you gain control of the character and begin your nightmare. The game is filled with eerie music and sound effects, grotesque monsters and scenery and weird camera angles. The game has two worlds the normal present day world and the evil cursed world that is filled with unimaginable horrors.

Full Silent Hill: Origins Opening Video


Silent Hill is an on going series that began on the PlayStation on Jan. 31 1999, and has since had five additional titles released since then. The most recent release was Silent Hill: Homecoming, which was released on Sept. 30 2008. This particular game series has also under gone a game to movie adaption during the Spring of 2006, the title of the movie was simply Silent Hill (Click on the link for details on the Silent Hill series on GameSpot's website and/or the Silent Hill movie on the Internet Movie Database).

A hand held console is a game system that has a screen and controls in a console that is small enough to fit in your hands. There are only two names that people discuss in the gaming industry, when it comes to hand held consoles and they are Nintendo DS (click on the link to get additional information on Nintendo's website) and Sony PlayStation Portable (Click on the link to get additional information on PlayStation's website).

Scholarship being awarded to female gamers

While I was at work the other day I had a coworker inform me that he heard about a girl gamer scholarship that I might be interested in checking out. So as soon as I got home from work I got right into researching this unbelievable scholarship.

What I found out was that yes there actually is a scholarship that is being awarded to female gamers. It is sponsored by National Computer Camps and WomenGamers.com (click on the individual links for additional information about either sponsor).

"The $925 scholarship is being offered to two girls aged 8-18, and will enable the girls to enjoy the forerunning technological experience offered by the National Computer Camp," as explained in an article on Opposable Thumbs website (click on the link to read the full article).

By creating this scholarship people involved with the video game industry hope to tap into an untapped market. They hope to interest some of the female gaming community to share with them their fresh new ideas and concepts for video games.

The Dark Knight Lego Style

I was stumbling around on YouTube and I found an interesting video of a trailer for The Dark Knight. What made it different from the rest is that it was done in Lego style. So for your enjoyment here is the Lego Dark Knight trailer.

Holy Lego Blocks Batman!

On Sept. 23 Lego Batman was released for all of the gaming systems.



Fortunately I was able to pre-order the game for the Nintendo Wii console and I have been playing it on a regular basis for the past four days.

My review thus far:

Pros

• The controls are easy and fun to use in the game and their is a small learning curve of about 15 to 30 minutes.

• The game offers up a variety of characters from the Batman universe for the player to choose from and that is always a plus.
  

• The multi-player game play actually works very well in this game and helps to progress the story line more smoothly.

• The animation and in game music/sound is very fluid for a Lego game and for a Wii game.

Cons:

• The Wii controller works on batteries (mine has rechargeable ones) but the constant use of the vibrating function, the sound function and just the constant use of the controller I am finding that I have to stop the game and charge my controller a lot. It's not always that great for a game to use all of a controllers capabilities for this reason.

• The muti-player game play is limited to only regular game play and is not online.

• The puzzles in game are more often than not just tedious ways to lengthen the game but in an annoying and boring kind of way.

Final Verdict

If I were to score this game on a 1 to 10 system I would give it an 8, because it does what most games are supposed to do. It is fun, it allows me to play with my friends and it looks and sounds good.




For more information about Lego Batman, including photos and videos, check out the reviews on www.gamespot.com

Top three influential females in gaming

Female characters have been a major part of video games since the beginning. Whether you were the brave Link, in the Legend of Zelda, looking for Princess Zelda or you were the main character Samus Aran in Metroid, females were and still play major roles in most games.

In my opinion here are three of the most influential female video game characters:

Samus Aran


Samus is an interesting character in the sense that in the game Metroid the gamer is led to believe that her character is actually a he. The gamer is shocked at the end of the game when Samus removes her helmet and reveals that he really is a she. Samus is also one of the first female lead characters ever.

Lara Croft


Lara Croft is from the Tomb Raider series. She is influential because she was one of the first female characters to be well designed so that it was obvious that you were playing a female character. Also the Lara Croft games showed that a female character could be beautiful, intelligent and just as tough as the boys.

Aerith Gainsborough


Aerith is from Final Fantasy VII. In the beginning of the game she is one of the main characters, up until she is killed by the main "bad guy" Sephiroth, an hour or so into the game. This is influential because the game's main character, Cloud, has set out to protect her from the main Sephiroth, but for the first time in gaming history a main character, Aerith, is actually permanently killed off about a quarter of the way into the game. While her character is killed, her spirit and what she was fighting for is enough to encourage the main character to continue and in the end save the world.

For a more in depth look on influential female characters you should check out Tom's Games website, which lists the top 50.

So as always thank you for checking out my blog and check back often for updates.

The Big Three

In gaming there is something called the "big three". The big three refers to the three, next generation, consoles that are available today.

The big three includes :
Microsoft's Xbox 360 - released on Nov. 22, 2005


Sony's Playstation 3 - released on Nov. 11, 2006


Nintendo's Wii - released on Nov. 19, 2006


Each console offers people an extremely different gaming experience.

The Xbox 360 is more of a hardcore gamer console but it still can and does appeal to casual gamers. The hardcore gamers are attracted to the Xbox for the high profile games, like Halo 3, visit www.gamespot.com to find out more on Halo 3 and many other Xbox 360 titles. The casual gamers are attracted to the group games, or "party games" as gamers would call them, like Guitar Hero Legends of Rock or Uno, which you can play online using Xbox's, Xbox Live online feature.

The Playstation 3 is mainly considered, amongst gamers, to be solely a hardcore gamer console. Gamers expect excellent graphics, difficult but replayable games and big named titles like Metal Gear Solid 4. Playstation understands what hardcore gamers want and really does tap into that market but lacks what the Xbox and Wii have, which is good and unique party games.

The Nintendo Wii is considered by most to be a for everyone kind of console. That means that not just a hardcore gamer would use this console but it is easily adaptable for any type of gamer to just pick up and play. Also with its abundant selection of games there is bound to be something that appeals to just about everyone.

So thanks again for visiting my blog and as always check back often for updates. For my next post I will be discussing some famous video games that have female heroines.

Video game terms and history

I believe that it is important to understand some terms and a bit of gaming history to fully understand my blog.

First some frequently used terminology:

• Noob - Some one that is new to a game or gaming, otherwise known as a newbie.

• Pwn - primarily used with online gaming crowd, it means to own or to overtake an opponent. Originating from the word "own" and is thought to have started as a typo and then just became accepted.

• "Casual gamer - is a loosely defined term used to describe a type of video game player whose time or interest in playing games is limited compared with a hardcore gamer," as explained on Wikipedia's website.

• "Hardcore gamer - This type of gamer prefers to take significant time and practice on games, in contrast to a casual gamer. Many hardcore gamers pride themselves on mastering the rules or use of a game, although this is not a strict requirement," as explained on Wikipedia's website.

Click on the links to get a better understanding of those terms through Wikipedia's website.

Something that most people, including gamers, don't know is that the idea of video games and consoles started back before most of our parents were even born. While searching my favorite video game website, www.gamespot.com, I myself found out that one man opened up the idea for video games and in the year 1949 too!

"In 1949, a young engineer named Ralph Baer was given an assignment to build a television set. He wasn't supposed to build just any television set, but one that would be the absolute best of all televisions. This was not a problem for Baer, but he wanted to go beyond his original assignment and incorporate some kind of game into the set. He didn't know exactly what kind of game he had in mind, but it didn't really matter because his managers nixed the idea. It would take another 18 years for his idea to become a reality, and by that time there would be other people to share in the glory, like Willy Higinbotham, who designed an interactive tennis game played on an oscilloscope, and Steve Russell, who programmed a rudimentary space game on a DEC PDP-1 mainframe computer. And then there was also Nolan Bushnell, who played that space game and dreamed of a time when fairground midways would be filled with games powered by computers," as explained on gamespots website, http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/video/hov/





So thanks again for visiting my blog and check back often for updates. For my next post I will be discussing the "big three" consoles.

Fellow female gamers

While visiting a local comic book store, Tate's, the other day I met two girls who were shopping for comics and decided to ask them their thoughts on female gamers.

(Click on the link to be redirected to Tate's website for additional information)

The first girl I spoke with was Leanna Barrows. She frequently shops at Tate's for Spider-Man comics and Japanese manga novels. Barrows also plays video games. She explained that she is a casual gamer, expressing she only plays video games with friends and not so much as a hobby. The game that she has played most recently is Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock for Microsoft's Xbox 360.

(Click on the links to be redirected to Barrows' email, Tate's, Wikipedia's Guitar Hero or Microsoft's website for additional information)

"Guitar Hero is one of those games that just has rhythm to it, it's easy to pick up and just play and really it's just fun," said Barrows.

I asked Barrows, if she too gets that generic response from guys when she tells them she is a casual gamer.

"Usually it is a shocked response, it's not what they expect and I totally think that is because I'm a girl," said Barrows.

The second girl I spoke with was Alexa Turner. She shops at Tate's for rare and unknown comics; such as, old Disney comics. Turner like Barrows is a casual gamer but she is interested in the classic games. She occasionally plays her original Nintendo Entertainment System, the NES.

(Click on the links to be redirected to Tate's or Nintendo's website for additional information)

When asked the same question as Barrows, Turner had a slightly different response.
"A lot of the time, yeah guys are surprised to hear that I play video games, but it does seem that more and more guys are acknowledging and accepting the reality that yes girls do play video games," said Turner.

Overall my experience speaking with these two female gamers gave me two different and yet similar responses to the way fellow female gamers are perceived, especially when it's by males.

Thanks again for visiting my blog and as always check back often for updates. My next blog is going to be an explanation into some gaming terminology and history.

A female gamer by definition

So what is a female gamer? Are they just like male gamers? Do they play video games more or less? Can they be professional gamers? Those are just some of the questions that people ask about this growing "new" trend of female gamers.

The way I define a gamer (male or female) is someone that regularly plays video games and/or is involved with the video game industry.

A more technical definition of a "girl gamer" is:

"A girl gamer is a girl or woman who:

• Works in the game development industry or
• Regularly engages in the practice of playing video games, role playing games or other games (colloquially referred to as "gaming"). This can be from the most casual interest to the most serious professional gaming, where female players often draw extra attention due to their rarity," as explained on Wikipedia's website.

(Click on the highlighted words to be redirected to Wikipedia's website for additional information on those topics)

Basically a female gamer is just like a male gamer. They can play the same amount of games and spend the same amount of time playing them, as guy gamers, and there are professional female gamers that are currently challenging male gamers for the title of best gamer. The only real difference is that female gamers are still not as common to this form of entertainment but that is steadily changing.

The modern introduction

Hello everyone and thanks for checking out my blog. I wanted this first posting to be an explanation of my blog and to include a short video about me. I felt like taking the modern approach is something that is and isn't expected.

My blog is about, as the title implies, a focus on females and video games. I want to inform people about females that play video games, opportunities for them and up to date video game information. So now that you know a bit about what I want to write about, check out the video about me.