New Article on Fallout Shelter

http://www.gameskinny.com/9i9hf/fallout-shelter-tips-and-tricks-a-comprehensive-guide-to-vault-management

Fallout Shelter tips and tricks: a comprehensive guide to vault management | Fallout Shelter

Fallout Shelter tips and tricks: a comprehensive guide to vault management | Fallout Shelter

GaijinHunter, Save us!

GaijinHunter seems to be the West's only hope for getting Monster Hunter X (Cross) any time soon... Check out my article over at GameSkinny

Starting a New Side Career

Hey everyone!

Short post today because I am working on writing for my newest project; contributing to gaming websites. The purpose of this post is two-fold: advertising (sorry) and motivation.

Advertising: Gameskinny. Look for articles with my name, but it's all good stuff, believe me. A lot of great independent writers over there and the management is great. Definitely recommend.

Motivation: Look! I can do it! You can too! At the risk of sounding like Shia LeBeouf, if you want to do something, like freelance writing, just do it!

As always, thanks for reading!

Looks like Yveltal has something to say to Gore Magala...

Online Communities and Inclusiveness

“Git gud skrub.”

This is the phrase that became etched deep in the creases of my brain after I began playing Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate online. While the grammar leaves something to be desired, unfortunately, the sentiment is common across all facets of gamer culture. If you aren’t good enough, get out. The problem was, I am good at MH4U. Sure, I made mistakes, even fainted once or twice, but everyone does. I had completed the single-player campaign and honed the skills I had gained in the series’ previous (Western) installment, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. At the very least, I was competent, if not “gud.” And yet, here I was, my self-esteem under attack and my significant investment in the game minimized in the very public arena of online multiplayer.

So, what does this mean for the every-gamer? The answer is simple and devastating. Judgment is passed immediately, with each player potentially acting as his or her own judge, jury, and ill-spoken executioner. For those of us who don’t meet a particular player’s rubric, this can lead to a form of social anxiety, stopping otherwise enthusiastic players from fully enjoying their game of choice.

This is especially pertinent in today’s game market, where almost every AAA title is marketed as multiplayer first and single player (if it even has a single player mode) a distant second. For years, my gaming experience consisted almost exclusively of single player outings and a few LAN parties. The reason for this was manifold (I’m looking at you, dial-up internet), but the most significant reason was fear of ridicule. The idea of being told I wasn’t good enough to play a game that I obviously liked was very scary to a young gamer like myself, deep in the throes of teenage insecurity. As I have aged, I have learned to shrug off such attacks, but it still stings, particularly when I have practiced and practiced, sometimes for hundreds of hours, offline.

Now, understand, I typically do not spend a lot of time online in my games. I much prefer the personal experience of playing offline. But I can say with certainty that there have been games that I wanted to play online (*cough* Halo *cough*), but didn’t because I was afraid. Some games, for reasons I will explore in a later article, foster the atmosphere of “if you aren’t good enough, get out” (*cough cough* Call of Duty *cough* I should see a doctor for this cough). But all online communities have this to one extent or another.

If you are like me, you want everyone you meet to enjoy games like you do. Games make you happy and offer an temporary escape from an increasingly stressful world. You don’t want to be stressed trying to decide if you are good enough to play online. Unfortunately, the people who make you stressed will not go away and, realistically, will not change. So, what can you do? Try your best and ignore the trolls. Don’t engage them. Play the game because you want to.

Just try to remember that online multiplayer was designed to allow like-minded players to get together and compete in a good-natured arena. “Gitting gud” is a fortunate side effect of having fun, not the reason to play.

OMG GORE MAGALA IS GONNA EAT TEPIG

First!

Ok folks. It's time to do it real style, whatever that means. Welcome to my blog!

This post is gonna be a big one and it's basically a cut and paste from a little thing I wrote and sent to a bunch of gaming websites. As you will see, I'm trying to break into gaming freelance writing and I thought to myself, "hey, I should make a blog about it!"

So here goes nothing!

I am a 23 year old kid who never wants to grow up. I have a degree in molecular biology and anthropology (odd combination, I know) and work full time in environmental health and safety, but my passion is video games. In fact, I have said more than once that if I could go back in time and speak to my younger self, I would encourage him to go into programming/design so that I/he could work in the industry. While I love gaming with all my heart, I am not one-dimensional. I love other things as well. I love all things science fiction; books, movies, games (both video and traditional). I love high fantasy and tabletop RPGs. I love trying new things and forming opinions about those things. A natural extension of that is my love of expressing those opinions to others in the form of lively debates or intense discussions. Additionally, I love to write. I am currently working on my first novel and have been wanting to try freelancing since I graduated university and I thought to myself, “What better arena than the one I am most passionate about?”

My desire to participate in the industry is even stronger now that I live near and work in New York City. I walk down the street and I see all kinds of things related to gaming; people wearing gaming related apparel, small gaming shops, advertisements. I just began working here, so I haven’t had a lot of time to explore yet, but I know for a fact that many developers have offices here, not to mention Nintendo World. Which brings me to my next part: Nintendo. I am a huge Nintendo fan. I own every iteration of Nintendo handheld gaming systems and can’t get enough of the games that they develop and publish.

Interestingly, for the vast majority of my gaming career, I considered myself a PC gamer. I respect consoles (I own a 360, but I am going to upgrade soon), but I always found myself back at my desk, headphones on, furiously clicking away, engrossed in the latest battle. My rig is custom built and very up to date. I say that this is interesting because since I went to college in 2010, I made the shift to handheld gaming. This is when I discovered my aforementioned love for Nintendo. Since about 2011, I would consider myself more of a mobile gamer, due primarily to the fact that I am constantly on the go. I never leave home without at least one handheld console (sometimes two! I have a Japanese 3DS that I use to play Japan-exclusives) and while I have very strong opinions on the topic of smartphone mobile gaming (particularly current mobile gaming business models, I’m looking at you, “freemium”), I nevertheless find myself on QuizUp or some tower-defense game, draining my battery for a few precious minutes of gaming. Mobile gaming, in all its forms, is what I most want to write about, as it is what I mostly do, but I want to write about PC gaming and other gaming topics as well.

Systems I own:
-Custom, high end, gaming PC
-Every Nintendo handheld
-Xbox 360
-A modded Wii (this was a very fun project which I will write about later)

Interests:
-Strategy games (turn based, real time, it matters not)
-Action RPGs
-“Pure” RPGs
-Casual games
-Puzzle games
-The occasional shooter, if it is crafted well
-Platformers, particularly of the indie variety (Shovel Knight and Steamworld Dig come to mind immediately for me)

I'm gonna keep the content flowing so I hope you enjoy!