Blog Posts from "G.I.B.S Army" - Gameriot.com

I've Been Deleting My Entries

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 22:23:55 -0400

Just recently noticed that there was a delete option for your entries. I probably missed this feature for a few months now, but I had been wishing it existed ever since Kyle Prick stole $500 from me because he didn't like me. Now I have the opportunity of deleting all my entries and finally closing off my ties with Gameriot.

I don't play WoW anymore, and I highly doubt I will start playing again. I tried to recently, but couldn't even really get into the game at all. Now I am dicking around in EVE Online, but I realize that I will probably get bored of and quit this game in the near future anyways. I want to start devoting myself even more to MMA, and there really won't be time for any MMORPGs (especially when next semester starts up). I also need a job, and because I don't make a fortune blogging for Gameriot anymore, I should probably buckle down and find a good ole fashioned job.

Probably won't blog much more on Gameriot. I don't even like coming to the site anymore since its 80% dota character analyzation + digg content + wow e-sport crap + mmo-champion regurgitation, and since very little of that appeals to me this site has lost a lot of appeal. WoW's retarded e-sport game has killed all interest in WoW PvP for me... I never PvPed in mmorpgs to stroke my e-peen and feel like an internet warrior... I PvPed in mmorpgs to find good player versus player combat that has some sort of community politics attatched to it... no matter how insignificant it was.

I also haven't been watching enough anime to blog consistantly about it. Really I am just watching One Piece, and I would guess that this will be the case until I catch up. Seeing as how I am only on like 220ish I still have quite a ways to go.

Plus no one likes me anymore on this site anyways. I got a little carried away with my trolling, and it got to a point where it just became stupid. I could write an entry incognito and receive a bunch of praise and ****, but if I did it on this account I would get a million:

"go die in a lake of acid and sperm you ******* weeaboo ******"

so ya adios

Yay! I am rich!

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:28:16 -0400

Today I got my check from Gameriot, and I am pretty excited to pocket this $100. Sure it isn't $150 like I had imagined I would get, but I am still satisfied with $100. I am going to go cash it soon, and I am tempted to get it all in one dollar bills. That way I can take a picture of my pile of money, and then use it as my new avatar. Also, if I ever feel like hitting up a strip club, then I will be prepared.

I don't know what I am going to buy with this $100. I am stocked with supplements for another month, and food isn't an issue. There are no video games I want... I don't know.

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Gaming has been pretty dead for me recently. I have been having to rely on retro games to find any sort of entertainment. Lagoon, FF6, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, and Shadow of the Colossus are currently where my gaming time is put into.

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The new South Park came out last night, and thank God it was actually good. I really disliked the previous season, and this one is starting out well. I loved the pinball machine scene:

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I have a big update for you guys that will come later tonight. It is something that you will all be amazed by, and I can promise you that it will not disappoint. This will be perhaps the greatest Gameriot article ever... Could it be a picture? I don't know....

We Have A Quidditch Team? ...Really? + More

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:39:00 -0400

Yesterday's headline for our daily newspaper at ASU was pretty intriguing. Apperantly we have our first quidditch game this Saturday. Basically it is a "sport" that involves running around with a broom between your legs, throwing balls in hoops, and a seeker attempting to throw a dodgeball at a man in a gold suit...

Don't worry though, we aren't the only school with slobbering nerds willing to drop their dignity just to fulfill some fantasies...Oh no... According to this article, nearly 250 universities have an active quidditch team. Absolutely ridiculous...

====

I went to Bookman's yesterday, and after much browsing I decided to drop some of my store credit on a copy of Lagoon. I had no problem doing this, because of the fact that I have been developing a large collection of SNES classics, and Lagoon is a great addition; however, after actually playing the game I became pretty frustrated. HOLY **** is this game hard!

I love the soundtrack, and the overall feel for the game. I remember it used to be one of my favorites, and I was pretty excited to see it at the store. Unfortunately it has been the source of my recent frustrations, because fighting giant bosses that practically one shot you with a ******* terrible melee range is absolutely horrid. I swear, you basically have to be point blank to get a hit off.

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Day 6 and still no Gameriot check. Could this be Slappywag Part II? I hope not, but don't worry Gameriot, I have more faith in you guys than the mail system. Hopefully I have a nice little present waiting for me in tomorrow's mail.

WoW Has Castrated Me... A Stallion Gone Tame

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 01:37:51 -0400

Today I have been in a bit of a downer. I decided to quit WotLK beta yesterday, and today I lived went through with that decision. I decided to do this for a couple reasons, but mainly because I couldn't be ****** leveling my death knight over level 60. Out of the 1-70 grind, 60-70 is by far the worst part of it, and it is a bummer that I will be doing it once WotLK hits.

I got bored, and I decided to browse Youtube for MMORPG videos. I looked through my bookmarks, found the best "guy goes crazy" vid I have seen:

While this video is great for laughs, it also successfully made me pretty darn depressed with the state of MMORPGs today. It is upsetting to me that over the past three years, I really haven't gotten to greif at the level I was griefing at back in the day. Heck, the pinacle of my griefing in WoW is making Darkspear's Fiveshot the laughing stock of the server by constant harrassment like this:

IMO, this is weak goofy ****, and doesn't compare at all to my Shadowbane and Ultima Online days of griefing.

In Shadowbane I was well-known by many on my server. 65% of my fortune was acquired from stealing, 25% from scamming, and 10% from doing it the honest way. By the end of my stay on Shadowbane I was hated by nearly every nation, and only accepted in the small tight-knit PvP guilds. I was a thief, murderer, griefer, and most of all I was hated.

My bank was something to be envied. Millions and millions of gold, 5+ commanders, 10+ Bounty Hunters, racial guards, 40 ints, 40 dexxes, and a perfectly constructed set of gear on every one of my characters. I was rich, and it was all from corrupt funds.

========

My evil deeds spread to RL, when I overheard some guy talking about Shadowbane to his friend, trying to get him to try the game.

Apperantly this kid and his friend was one of my frequent victims. When he told me his name, I could do nothing but laugh. I had repeatedly destroyed these guys groups, and stolen from them constantly. I made them miserable.

The kid on the phone even went so far as to challange me to a RL fight, but after seeing my amazingly constructed, muscular body he backed down.

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Why the **** can't I grief anymore? Why can't my prey have any sort of penalties for getting rocked? Why can't I participate in these anymore:

Why can't I feel the satisfaction of burning down something that took months for 100 guildies to earn?

Even losing stuff was amazing, because it adds much more depth to the overall PvP and suspense.

I miss having guilds with purposes, and a server with conflict and politics.

Unfortunately these MMORPGs are a dwindling kind. We have Darkfall in the future, and EVE in the present. EVE's sci-fi elements aren't everyone's cup of tea, and we can all only pray that Darkfall doesn't disappoint.

======

Anyways, yeah... I am not going to be playing my WotLK beta anymore, and I haven't decided what I want to do with it right now. It isn't bad, but it isn't new enough to warrant unnecessary leveling.

I like the Death Knight class, and I definitely find them pretty interesting. Don't trust other players with their opinions on the class, because honestly 99% of the morons I saw on beta servers were absolutely awful with their death knight.

Unlike other classes, Death Knights have a lot of spells in their normal rotation. It isn't any more difficult than other classes, but it does feel more interactive and more interesting. There are a good amount of stuns, interrupts, and silences to make things interesting, including a pet stun that most morons were too retarded to notice and use.

Nope, I didn't die.

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 22:10:07 -0400
Hey,

Just wanted to start off by apologizing for not making a blog yesterday. I know that a lot of people look forward to these entries, and it is a huge disappointment when they do not appear. I will try to not let it happen again.

Anyways, my time is short. I have to hit up the gym in a few minutes if I want to be there when all the hot chicks are there to drool over my physique. If I wait too long, then it will be just me and the bros.

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As I said in my previous blog, a fan has given me their WotLK info, and I am now participating in the beta. I was very excited to log in yesterday, and after several of hours of experience I thought that I would share my initial impressions.

The first thing I did was create a gnome death knight, because quite honestly this is what I planned to do when I purchased the game. I was also pretty excited to test out these "amazing" quests, and see what all of the hype has been about. Within minutes I had created Gibblesticks, the gnome Death Knight.

I ran around doing the quests, and TBH I wasn't very impressed at all. Some were rather entertaining, but most were just too simple to be considered fun. One thing that I decided right off the bat, was that I may soon be rather disappointed in death knights. I really...really didn't enjoy the initial feel for the class. It just seemed so boring. Finally, I got frustrated and logged off of the death knight.

The next thing I decided to do was check out Northrend. I checked through the classes this person had, and saw a rogue, hunter, and priest. Since I main a rogue, I decided that it would be best to check things out on his rogue.

I logged in, and the rogue was already at the starting city in Northrend. I looked around, and felt another moment of disappointment. Like the DK starting area, this area was pretty damn ugly. I don't know why Blizzard decided to do this, but they created areas that are way to open. These places just reminded me of all of the free-to-play mmorpgs for some reason. Then the server crashes, and I get emo and log for the night.

I wake up the next morning and immediately delete my gnome death knight. In it's place, I created a NE Death Knight. My reasoning was, that for some reason I absolutely despised a gnome death knight, and I really do not know why. In fact, gnomes have always been my favorite race.

This turned out to be a good decision, because I immediately started to enjoy myself more as a NE. I blazed through the quests I had done the previous night, and then finally got to the good quests. I was very impressed with the battle at Light's Hope Chapel. It was definitely one of my favorite quests.

Since then, I have been running around Hellfire Peninsula, while somewhat enjoying the grind to 70. I am now 60, and have a very good number of spells. I really enjoy the feel of the DK class, and currently feel as if I will roll one when release hits.

I'll get into the DK next entry, and explain why I enjoy it so much. I would do it now, but this entry is getting a bit lengthy, and I have to go curl in front of hot chicks.

===

Also, Sword of the Stranger:

turned out to be pretty damn good. While the story wasn't anything to write home about, the action scenes were simply amazing. 1 hr and 40 minutes of pure awesomeness, leading up to the best drawn fight I have ever seen, this movie was definitely worth watching.

WotLK + Ahh kneeemaayyy

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 14:22:32 -0400
Checking my World of Warcraft email has always been a disappointment over the past few months. One account that dates back to release, and another that dates back Pre-TBC. I never got a TBC beta key, and I was hoping WotLK would be different. Unfortunately it wasn't, and neither me nor my friends had any luck receiving a beta key.

Last night my luck changed, and a very friendly individual gave me his WotLK information. I am very grateful for this, because now I will be able to test the death knight, before picking it as my new class to main. Hopefully it will meet my expectations, along with Lake Wintergrasp, the new bg, and more.

While the anime entries will continue, you can expect some articles to be more focused around WotLK. Unlike before, you will be able to hear about WotLK from the point of view of a PvPer.

I just hope I don't get assaulted by any tuskars ( http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa296/PkPhuoko/tuskar.jpg )

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Once again I somehow manage to miss a BONES studio anime. At least this one came out this year, and I don't feel too bad for missing it. Unlike Jyu Oh Sei, I think this one might actually be pretty good. Sword of the Stranger is a movie, as opposed to a series, and should be very entertaining. The plot is not an adaptation from anything, but I know that BONES can almost always deliver ( **** Jyu Oh Sei).

I have watched the first five minutes of it, and I must say I was surprised at the heavy amount of violence, and the awesome introduction fight. I can't wait to watch it once it is finished downloading.

No Sympathy For Fatties...

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 01:42:00 -0400

Yet another day at the gym, and while I don't feel the coming sensation, it is nice to say that I could probably beat up 99% of the population. My muscles also do an amazing job at creating a beautiful body for my handsome face. It is a pity that they all appear rather weak compared to my powerful charisma, my perfect personality, and my intelligence.

One thing that makes me feel better is the fact that somebody I know admitted that he could only bench 235. I find this rather amusing since the fatty probably weighs more than that.

Anyways, it is nice to know that I am better than people. I couldn't do it without my strict diet, discipline, and workout routine. The intelligence, charisma, etc. all come naturally though.

Which brings me to another point...

I have absolutely no sympathy for fat people. While 1% of the obese population may be suffering from illnesses leading to obesity, the other 99% are just lazy, carefree, or ignorant.

Today I rode the bus from the ASU campus to my apartment, and I was forced to look at these extremely obese woman. She sat on her fat ass yapping on the phone, and amazingly enough she was *****ing about her weight. She was complaining that she had been dieting and exercising and ****, but failed to lose any weight.

This would be ignorable if it wasn't for her purse. Her purse was wide open, and sticking out of her purse was a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos...DORITOS! Are you ******* kidding me?

I can't believe how ******* ignorant some people can be about nutrition. Let me tell you this, if you think that Panda Expresses orange chicken is a healthy choice, then you are a ******* idiot. If you think that a McDonald's snack wrap is a healthy choice, then you are a ******* idiot.

I see so many fat girls showing off their extreme ignorance almost every time I go to a Subway. In fact, today I went and overheard the following conversation:

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Girl 1: It feels good to eat healthy.

Girl 2: Oh yeah I know. Subway is supposed to be healthy for you.

Girl 1: Yeah, like Jared.

Girl 1 + 2: *giggles*

Cashier: Hi, welcome to Subway. How can I help you?

Girl 1: Hi, Can I like get a roast beef sandwich with chipotle sauce and pepper jack cheese?

Chasier: What type of bread?

Girl 1: Italian herb and cheese.

Girl 2: And I would like a turkey sandwich with mayo, provolone, and lettuce on white bread.

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Sorry gals, but the reason you are fat is because you are ******* clueless.

Really, it only takes minutes to research enough about nutrition to avoid eating things that are terrible for you. If you are too lazy for that, then I am sorry but you deserve to be a fatass, and no one should feel sorry for you, especially if you try and pull the genetics card.

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Anyways, episode 76-77 of Naruto came out today, and it just got subbed. Soon I will be in anime heaven, as I watch an Akatsuki fight, and possibly Naruto's new jutsu.

I wanted to end this entry with this video. Hopefully people will watch it if I keep linking it:

Anime Bashers Are Insecure People

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 01:03:32 -0400

Recently I have been receiving a lot of heat for my anime blogs. Some people are mature and subtle about it (Slappywag), while others are simply rude and childish (Limewire).

I have come to the conclusion that the rude and childish population has serious insecurity issues. They most likely have low self esteem, poor RL relationships, and probably an unfavorable physique, sense of style, and handsomeness. All of these
ugly factors leak into their personality, and cause them to become an ugly person.

Now, I am not saying if you dislike anime then you are a hopeless individual. In fact, I have no beef with people like Slappywag, who simply say that they dislike anime, while trying to avoid any sort of conflict. That is the mature way to handle it.

However, the people who click on an anime related article, for the sole reason to bash me and the genre, that is just a bit immature, and shows me what kind of person you are. You are ugly inside and out, and there isn't much more to it. You are a child, regardless of your age, and you most likely have no friends. Gameriot is your outlet to troll, and the internet anonymity allows you to act out without having to reveal your pathetic RL existance.

Now, there also is the large percentage of flamers who actually have never even seen a real anime. They may be judging their opinions off shows like Dragonball Z, Pokemon, Inuyasha, etc.Â While those are all anime, they do not represent the whole genre. While anime may be considered a genre, there are many sub-genres. Saying that every anime is like Dragonball Z, would be the equivalent of saying that all American TV is like the Power Rangers. It simply isn't accurate.

So, let me just say, when I hear ignorant bashing and stereotyping on anime, it really throws me off, and furthermore it makes me question your experience with anime.

What it comes down to is you are insecure. Chances are you have very, very limited experience with the genre, if any at all. You are probably afraid to watch anime. That's fine, because human instincts will try to prevent you from acting out of the norm, but to throw around false and ignorant stereotypes is just silly.

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I enjoy anime for several of reasons. First, anime aren't limited by actors. Characters don't age. They can perform cool acts without the reliance of special effects (most TV series are too cheap to pay for real special effects), and most importantly, they are not hindered by poor acting.

Now, sure there are bad voice actors, but that is why 99% of anime fans don't watch english dubbed anime. Most of the time english voice actors are awful, and can significantly harm the entertainment value of a show. In japanese, it doesn't matter if the voice actor sucks, because quite honestly it will sound nice regardless.

As far as plots go, anime kills american TV. In the United States, we create series with stand-alone episodes (with a few exceptions). They are shows that are designed to air until people get bored of it, and hopefully milk out enough cash before they have to pull the plug or the actors get too old for the roles. Look at the influx of reality TV shows... Producers don't care about making a masterpiece, they care about taking money from people, and they will do this in the cheapest possible way.

Anime is much different. While there are a few popular run-on series, as well as a few spin-off series, most anime is fresh, and designed with a set number of episodes in mind. In fact, most anime will announce the number of episodes they plan to have before the first episode even airs.

Why is this good? Well, they don't run a series until it dies for one. This makes it so that an anime's success has 100% to do with the quality of the show. And as far as the plot is concerned, with anime they are usually much more epic and thought provoking than american tv. The plots are mostly on par or better than the averageÂ hollywood film.

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One popular comment that I hear, is that anime is childrens stuff. It is senseless, dumb, etc. For the people that make comments like these, I have a request. Watch this movie (I picked and english dub for the illiterate):

http://www.veoh.com/videos/v1219166HK4zDBF6

I guarantee it will change your mind about who exactly the anime audience is geared towards, and I can assure you that it may actually make you believe that an animated character can be more "human" than the people in american film or television.

If you would rather watch a more action based anime, then check out:

The first episode may be a bit silly and light-hearted, but from there on out it is nothing but after that it will test every human emotion. It is a masterpiece, and beats every american movie I have seen as far as value is concerned. It is only 12 episodes long (4 hours), and plays out like a movie.

For the rest of the episodes check out: http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=supersneaky

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Chances are you will choose to remain ignorant while throwing out stereotypes. That is fine, and unlike you I am not insecure with myself, and 100% of the time I will laugh off your ignorance.

On a final note, anime is just as nerdy as movies like LotR, and video games like WoW. Quit fooling yourself...

*****Â EDIT:
Also, the first video I linked ( http://www.veoh.com/videos/v1219166HK4zDBF6 ) is based on a true story. The movie has received amazing reviews from notable critics. For instance, Roger Ebert said that Grave of the Fireflies was, "one of the most powerful anti-war movies ever made".

It currently has a 90% on rottentomatoes http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/grave_of_the_fireflies/. Check it out!

********

Top 5 Anime Badasses

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:24:08 -0400
Alright, this is a top five list for the most badass anime characters, but before I post them, I figured I would give you guys a link to my anime list. Here it is:

http://myanimelist.net/animelist/Gibblesticks

I am still not finished adding completed anime, and I will probably remove some of the worthless ones from the list (specials, fillers, etc. that were set as their own anime). I will also be putting this list on my sidebar so that people who are interested can check at any time.

Anyways, here is my Top 5 Anime Badasses list:

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5) Spike Spiegel - Cowboy Bebop

***SPOILERS IN THIS VIDEO***

Alright, I know that at this time 90% of you are probably frothing at the mouth. Spike Spiegel is ONLY #5?!??!

Be happy though, because honestly I almost chose Brandon Heat (Gungrave) over Spike. I finally chose Spike though, and my reasoning is pretty simple.

Spike doesn't have a real plot to work with. Even with a lacking plot, Cowboy Bebop has become one of the most popular anime of all time. How did it rise to that level? Spike...

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4) Rurouni Kenshin -

Kenshin was another tough choice for me. While he was a complete badass in the OVAs, him stopping the life of a Battousai really frustrated me. He was such a graceful and deadly killer, that it was a shame to see him start using the dull side of his blade.

Nonetheless, Rurouni Kenshin: Reminiscense is one of the best anime, and it is all because of Kenshin's amazing abilities and fight scenes.

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3) Shu -Now and Then, Here and There -

For this slot I had a tough time deciding between Gon Freecss (Hunter X Hunter), Naruto (Naruto), and Shu (Now and Then, Here and There). I quickly dismissed Naruto, but then had difficutly choosing between Gon and Shu.

Finally I chose Shu, because quite honestly he was put in much worse situations than both Naruto and Gon. Shu also doesn't possess any special abilities. He is just a regular kid, but his strong heart and unbreakable determination get him through some pretty terrible events. Like both Gon and Naruto, Shu can take some heavy blows, but he will never give up.

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2) Asuka - Neon Genesis Evangelion

Asuka and Sakura (Naruto) are the only two female anime characters that I actually enjoy watching fight.

The main reason I chose Asuka for number two, is because she is the main person in my personal favorite fight scene of all time. The End of Evangelion fight scene with her was perfectly done, and sky rocketed my respect for her. While at times she could be a *****, her fight scenes made up for it.

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1) Gatsu - Berserk

Sorry, but there is no one more deserving of this spot than Gatsu. When any other character decides to hack off his own arm with a dull/broken blade, just to kill his enemy in a blood-thirsty rage, then maybe they can claim this position. Until then, Gatsu will reign as the ultimate badass.

In the manga he becomes even greater. Fighting hundreds of demons at once, obtaining the berserker armor, and battling what are basically gods with one arm, no eye, and serious injuries... Even Kratos (God of War) would piss his pants if Gatsu was charging at him.

Rebuild of Evangelion: 1.0 + Live Action Eva

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 00:50:06 -0400

Rebuild of Evangelion: 1.0 YOU ARE (NOT) ALONE is the first movie in a four part remake of the TV series Neon Genesis Evangelion. It came out in Japan about two years ago, and then was subbed in the United States a good year ago.

When Rebuild first came out in Japan I was amazingly excited. NGE is currently my favorite anime series of all time, and the remake looked extremely nice. After it came out I couldn't wait for subs, but unfortunately with most full length feature films, subs take a while.

After a while Rebuild slipped my mind. I had gotten involved in a few lengthy and addicting series (Hunter X Hunter, Hikaru no Go, etc.), and I simply forgot about Rebuild.

A month ago or so I realized that I hadn't seen Rebuild yet, and I quickly downloaded it. Unfortunately once again I was wrapped up in different shows, and Rebuild sat on my harddrive, and once again became forgotten.

Finally today I got around to watching it, and I am sure glad that I did. The movie is amazing, and definitely lives up to the Evangelion name.

===

So what's different?

If I remember correctly, the start of the TV series was kind of silly compared to the second half of the series. If anything, the first part of NGE was just another Mecha action anime. It was brainless, yet entertaining mecha vs monster battles.

The first movie of Rebuild did an amazing job at changing this. It is much darker than the beginning of the TV series, and they did a great job at introducing a lot of the emotional issues with the characters at a much earlier time. They started throwing around the religious symbolism a lot earlier, and they added a lot of the crazy elements that were found in End of Evangelion.

As far as differences go, they have kind of added elements to the show. For instance, they make it much more obvious that Ikari Gendo is brain washing and manipulating Ikari Shinji's emotions. While this was included in the original, it wasn't this obvious before.

Shinji appears much more heroic in this first movie, but at the same time his *****ness is starting to seep through. He is displayed as a much larger emotional trainwreck, and you can tell that things aren't going to be great for him.

Another thing to note is the added fanfare. Both Rei and Misato appear nude in Rebuild of Evangelion. In fact, Rei appears nude multiple times. They started doing this with End of Evangelion by showing both Rei and Asuka nude, but you can tell they will be using that a lot more with these Rebuilds.

Most of the differences seem to come with Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0. For instance, Kaworu seems to appear at a much earlier point in the story. For those of you that don't remember, Kaworu is the gay guy:

Who came in near the end of the series. With Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0, it seems like he will be coming in at around the same time as Asuka, and he will be piloting some new Eva right off the bat.

In 1.0 there also seemed to be a new plot twist unfolding. Some sort of hidden agenda being acted out by Gendo, Kowaru, and the council. It will be interesting to see where they go with it in 2.0.

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One thing I have to comment on with regard to Rebuild 1.0 is the animation...

It is truly stunning. Never have I seen animation come close to the perfection that is Rebuild 1.0. The amount of detail in the animation is amazing, and the overall feel of all of the environments is very fitting.

They also added some CGI elements to the show, and while I don't normally like CGI in an anime, it worked very well in Rebuild. There were some scenes where you couldn't even tell you were looking at an animation. It looked so realistic.

====

Along with the animation, they also brushed up on the soundtrack. All of the songs seem to have been redone, and while the TV series' soundtrack was a bit lacking, the movie's soundtrack is pretty darn good.

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Finally, the live action version of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

At the most recent Anime Expo, announcements were made with regards to a live-action version of Neon Genesis Evangelion, that would be carried out by the film company ADV, Gainax, and Weta (Lord of the Rings, King Kong, Chronicles of Narnia).

Interest in the live-action version has boosted significantly since the release of Transformers, and ADV has been working with producers like Stephen Spielberg and Jerry Bruckheimer to try and come to get the show on the road.

It has been announced by ADV that the live-action version of Neon Genesis Evangelion has gone into production; however, they didn't announce much more than that.

To WAR or not to WAR...

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 20:10:41 -0400
The past few days I have been bored out of my mind during my usual gametime. WoW has lost all of it's value to me, and I can't imagine going back to it until WotLK is released, and I can play a brand new Death Knight.

To kill time I have been playing Ultima Online mainly, while checking things out in Shadowbane. Unfortunately Shadowbane is pretty much dead. UO is fun, but theres too much stuff that I really don't have the energy to do. It sucks to go from a keep owning, rich, and max skilled character to a naked, low-skilled, scrub. I also realize the fact that this is just a time-killer before WotLK, and because of that can't really devote too much energy into advancing my characters.

As we all know, WAR came out the other day. From what I hear, there have been improvements since even open-beta, but I would have to see that to believe it. I personally played WAR Open-beta, and wasn't too thrilled with my playtime; however, at this time I wasn't completely set on quitting WoW like I am now.

What do you guys think about WAR so far? Is it a decent time-killer?

I think my issue was with the classes. They all seemed pretty boring to me. I honestly hate when games decide to make too many classes. It usually just ends up having a reverse effect, and instead of bringing variety to the table, it just ends up dulling down all of the classes. Shadowbane was the only acception to this.

Richard Garriott On Colbert Tonight

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:54:05 -0400
Yes, it is true.

I just received a spam email, and it was some Tabula Rasa advertisement. In it I was informed that Lord British himself (Richard Garriott) would be on The Colbert Report tonight.

As we all know, Richard Garriott is perhaps the greatest game developer of all time. Without him we wouldn't have Ultima Online, and without UO we probably wouldn't have WoW, WAR, and all of these other games that are only a fraction of what UO is.

Here is an interview of Richard Garriott talking about his video game career:

The reason why Richard Garriott is appearing on the Colbert Report is due to the Tabula Rasa's Operation Immortality. Colbert is one of many people to have his DNA sequenced and recorded for this "operation", and will soon have his DNA shot into space.

----

Now Richard Garriott just needs to ditch this Tabula Rasa thing, and get back to the Ultima series.

Top 5 Hottest Anime Chicks!

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:16:23 -0400
Here we go. Entry of the century, and I am sure I am pleasing most of you guys on Gameriot by sharing my list of the top five anime hotties. This is a difficult list to create, because quite honestly there are a lot of REAALLYY hot anime chicks.

Now, I haven't seen every anime in the world, and because of this I may forget to add someone that you may think is more deserving. If that happens, then feel free to post pictures of anime girls that you think have earned a spot on the top five hottest anime chicks.

Anyways, here we go:

5) Kagome - Inuyasha

Kagome is one of the few highlights of Inuyasha. She is definitely cute, and pulls off the school-girl routine perfectly. Honestly, I don't see how Inuyasha gives a **** about walking-corpse Kikyo, when beautiful Kagome is chilling at his side in a Japanese school-girl uniform.

==========

4) Eureka - Eureka Seven

Eureka is one of the wierd, but cute anime girls. While Ayanami Rei (NGE) may be a cuter wierd girl, Eureka is definitely more lovable. In fact, if I were to admit to having a crush on any anime girl, I think Eureka would be the one. The love story in Eureka was so touching, and so involving, that even after Eureka went Frankenstein, you still loved her.

=======

3) C.C. - Code Geass

I am not a huge fan of Code Geass, but C.C. is definitely a hottie. My number one question though...

Does the carpet match the drapes?

======

2) Asuka - Neon Genesis Evangelion

Asuka... No hot anime chick can kick as much ass as Asuka. Watching Asuka pilot an Evangelion in that tight jump suit is definitely amazing.

========

1) Yoko - TTGL

Yoko, like TTGL, is an overexaggeration of anime stereotypes. With that being said, they did an amazing job stereotyping the typical hot anime chick fanservice. Yoko is hot, and definitely the best cartoon to fap to.

The End

WAAAH! My epics lose value with the xpac! WAAAH!

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:45:30 -0400
One of the major complaints with World of Warcraft expansions is that all of your epics become essentially worthless. While this was a somewhat legitimate complaint for T3 players back in Pre-TBC, we have a much different situation going into WotLK.

TBC epics really lost their value. Heck, even legendary weapons became normal item drops. Now, I am not saying that raiding has become any easier, but for a majority of the playerbase, aquiring epics has become significantly easier. Heck, getting top notch gear only requires the Pre-TBC equivelent of a few UBRS runs.

The constant crying I see on the forums about WotLK and the loss of their easy to get epics is getting pretty annoying. CRY MORE! If anything you should be used to this constant regrinding of gear. While running with MC and Ony gear Pre-TBC was somewhat acceptable, running around in Kara or even S2 gear is not. Every new season you have to regrind new stuff, so why is regrinding new stuff for WotLK any different?

Unless you are the dual Warglaive rogue with 4 piece slayer and Cursed Vision of Sargeras, then I think you really need to stop complaining about your not-so-epic epics. People will seriously find anything to ***** about....

Yup, 3.0 is broken....

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 15:38:19 -0400
I think in this case, a picture is worth a thousand words. Here is the first Alterac Valley I did, with the chart sorted by Damage Done:

I think it is safe to say that when a single target dps is dominating in a 40 vs 40 environment, that we have a problem.

===

Don't mind my action bars and stuff. I haven't gotten around to fixing those. I have been in too much of a hurry to test out the new stuff, that I haven't put the time aside to rebinding, and reforming my action bars.

I have chosen to mess around with my mage first instead of my rogue or shaman. My rogue is much better geared, but the mage received a lot more interesting stuff.

I have started off with fire. I really just wanted to have the opportunity to blast wave people off of our bridge and cliffs. Living Bomb is alright, but in AV theres really not any opportunities to see it go off. Paladins are one shotting people too fast for that. I am not sure if it is working properly anyways, because the few times that the dot did go away, I did not see any knock-up effect.

I plan to mess around with arcane next, and then finally frost which will probably be my live build.

On live I have started my mage honor grind up again. These new spells and talents are a breath of fresh air, and I am actually enjoying messing around with in AV.

Paladins do need to be toned down though. I don't give a **** if you think they will be OK at 80. This patch is designed for level 70, and interferes with season four.

Save Me Death Knight!!!

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:42:17 -0400
Every day of WoW seems to get worse and worse for me, and it is getting to the point again where I am getting sick of my class. I started frequenting Shadowbane forums, and reinstalled UO. I play TF2 and Savage II. Basically I am bored...

Arena has always been pretty stale. The whole nature of the thing has never really been appropriate for an MMORPG. Arena successfully killed PvP guilds, many PvE guilds, and many player relationships. Basically it is a system where it promotes playing with one or two other people non-stop whenever you both are online. It's not that you have to, but realistically its all there is to do.

Playing 2v2 with my roommate can be pretty frustrating. Especially since we both play the same class, but very differently. There is also a gear gap. Going from 2200 w/ Rogue/Hunter to a garbage rating is really killing the fun of the thing, and makes me want to reroll a class that can carry a little better (*cough* druid *cough*).

With everything added together, I have started to grow tired of my rogue once again. Rogue was my first class in beta, and I have been playing it since, and coming from a UO and Shadowbane background, having the same character over a month or two is a huge ******* time investment.

I haven't really enjoyed my rogue must since TBC. Sure they are great in arena, but so are warriors. The whole reason I rolled a rogue was for World PvP shennanigans, but with flying mounts that is non-existant.

I used to love dagger specs, but now I am forced to play clunky ole mutilate if I want to relive the glory days of rogues.

Pressing 2,2,2,2,2,Shift+6 repeatedly in PvE makes it a terribly aweful experience. I don't see how anyone gains any sort of satisfaction from raiding aside from healers and tanks. Everyone else just has a brain dead role.

Ganking in Orgrimmar isn't as fun anymore. Everyone evenly geared is sporting 400+ resilience and 12k hp. Getting a quick kill is almost non-existant, and being on one of the most heavily populated servers means that I get zerged pretty easily. The quick kills I do get are pretty insignificant, and are not rewarding at all.

MCing people off boats on my 40 priest than PKing on my 70 rogue. I think that is a problem in itself.

====

I think I need something new. Not necesarrily WAR (not tossing out 60 bucks to a game that represents the opposite of what is needed in teh genre today), but maybe a new role within WoW.

I am starting to strongly consider to level my priest, but I can tell now that it will most likely become another unfinished project. If not though, then I am in for one hell of an honor grind after the 41-70 grind.

I think I would be better off waiting till the death knight. The whole nature of that class seems pretty interesting, and I would enjoy taking on the role of a tank when needed.

Oh well... I think at this point I have officially decided to hang up my daggers come WotLK. I am done withÂ the rogue class. Four years is enough, and WotLK doesn't really offer anything that exciting for rogues. All of the new spells are uninteresting or just plain silly.

Warhammer Beta is a Go!

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 08:53:27 -0400
Warhammer Open beta has officially started, and millions of nerds are flooding the servers in an attempt to become the greatest RvRer on earth.Â I am one of them...

While Open Beta is slightly exciting, I am already dealing with the problems associated with the horrors of release day. The most annoying being the patcher.

Basically WAR's patcher is pretty terribad, and in order for it to work properly you have to attempt to log-in twice, close the client, and try again. Each time you attempt to log in you will most likely receive some sort of authentication failure, and if you fail more than twice without restarting the client, then your account will lock out due to exceeding failed password limit.

Finally I got through, and patching has begun. It is a slow patch, but at least I am getting somewhere. If you are receiving authentication failures, then make sure you just keep trying, and hopefully you will get in. Basically the problem is that the patcher is being over-flooded with nerd spam.

I plan to share my opinions about WAR in the upcoming days. I have played nearly every major MMORPG to date, and am one of the few "real" PvPers around. Hopefully it is good, but due to DAoC being one of the most carebear PvP based MMORPGs to date... I doubt it. Regardless, I am willing to bet that WAR stands no chance against WotLK, and this will just be a fun little distraction for the MMORPG community.

Top 5 Movie Themes

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:13:09 -0400
5) The Godfather

4) Letters From Iwo Jima

3) Rocky

2) Braveheart

1) Last of the Mohicans

I won't go into why I chose these theme songs to be on my top five. To be honest I just enjoy every one of these songs, and more importantly the movies. These songs helped make these movies great.

Will New Talents Be Enough?

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 03:37:15 -0400
I haven't mentioned this subject in a while, but I have given up on my mage for a couple weeks now. The honor grind for sub-par gear was just too tedious, and when I have a 4/5 S4, S3 Weapon, rogue with all of his Guardian gear, rotting away collecting dust...it becomes difficult to stick with the grind.

With that being said, I am back to my good ole rogue. While I am happy that there's no grinding to be done, I am also at a loss as to what I should do with my game time.

I am already a Justicar, and have all of my honor crap... You won't see me in another bg anytime soon.

After the next Kara I will have all of the badge gear that I want.

I stopped having fun in Orgrimmar a long time ago.

Outside of my arena games, I am at a loss as to what I should do, and it really makes me almost regret my decision of giving up on my mage.

===========

I think I am just getting sick of my rogue, and my question is:

Will ten more levels, and new talents/skills be enough to spark an interest in my rogue? Doubtful...

I think I originally rolled my rogue so that I could be a stealth ninja that roamed the streets of Orgrimmar, slaying horde. While I can still do this, so much of the game has been changed that this type of behavior isn't really that much fun anymore. Outland PvP also makes stealth pretty worthless, thanks to the fact that flying mounts do essentially the same thing, but better.

That brings myself to the question, "Should I level another character to 70 out of boredom, gear up an alt, wait for Death Knights, or hope that WotLK is enough to make myself enjoy my rogue once more?"

I think the answer may be level another character to 70. This will be my fourth 70, and I have three lvl 50+ to choose from if I decide to go this route. The only problem is that once that character hit 70 he would be pretty useless. I don't think I have the energy to farm more honor after having one Justicar, and another near Justicar.

I don't know... I wish I just had a beta invite, and all of these troubles would be washed away. Hopefully WotLK will cure me of this burnout fatigue.

Up SotA Player Count

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:18:02 -0400
I am sure that by now, most of you guys have seen this video posted on youtube:

For those of you that have, I am sure that you could probably agree that SotA looks pretty ******* boring.

For a 15 vs 15 battleground, SotA is a fairly big map. In this video, there was very little conflict, and a WHOLE bunch of running around to find the enemies.

Siege weapons also take from the playerbase, and turn this map into a ****ty version of Lake Wintergrasp. Maybe this is Blizzard's idea to get people back into world PvP, but when I am required to farm my 40 SotA marks, I really don't want to have a reason to leech. While I hate instanced PvP, I still hope that SotA is somewhat successful.

In my opinion this map would be more appropriate with a 25 vs 25 player cap. While it would be slightly harder to pug, it would be much more exciting, and would have much more of a siege feeling instead of a ghost town defense.Â Â

WoW: Our Playerbase is Garbage...

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 15:12:20 -0400
Sometimes it disgusts me when I decide to visit the general forums. So much *****ing, whining, and begging. Players crying that things are unfair, or that they want more. It truly shows how pathetic and greedy players really are.

So today I come across this thread:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=9336516896&sid=1&pageNo=1

Basically this thread is the OP complaining that server first achievements/titles are unfair, and that he requests that they be removed from the game.

At first I expected him to receive a negative response. I personally found these server first titles to be pretty interesting, and even though I knew I would never complete these achievements, I still thought that they were still a great idea.

Unfortunately I was wrong, and the greed of the playerbase spammed the thread. Operantly the community agrees that it is unfair that the people who worked hard for this achievement, receive some sort of cosmetic (not game changing) reward.

Does it bug you guys to see titles like, "of the Shattered Sun"? Heck, even I think my Justicar title is a little too common, but at least it takes a **** ton of battlegrounds to achieve.

People need to stop expecting to have everything given to them. This game is already dumbed down enough, that there really isn't all much to do.

I am sick of this new generation of MMORPGers...

==========

Also, a blue confirmed that the new talents would be live during S4. This probably isn't a shock to most of us, but it does clear any doubt:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=9336866344&sid=1

Top 5 Video Game Songs

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 03:55:52 -0400

5) Lufia II - Battle Against Sinstrals

Well...what could I say? How can I have a top five list, and not include a retro boss battle theme? Out of all old-school boss themes, this is definitely the best. Hands down. While it is not as good as the following songs, it is still an awesome song nonetheless. For this it earns it's spot at number five.

4) Final Fantasy X - To Zanarkand

Final Fantasy definitely has the best music of any game series. Nobuo is a genius, and it shows in his work. It was hard coming to the decision that To Zanarkand is the best of his work, but for me this is the best.

3) Metal Gear Solid - Main Theme

Very catchy song, and one of the most epic songs in video game history. It is so appropriate for the game. This is a song that I get stuck in my head for hours.

2) Baten Kaitos - To the End of the Journey of Shining Stars

I actually heard this song before I ever heard of the game, and I still haven't even thought about purchasing the game; however, I have downloaded the soundtrack and I am VERY impressed. This song definitely stood out.

1) Ultima - Stones

To this day I still believe that Ultima Online is by far the best MMORPG ever, and in my opinion will probably be the best of all time. The amount of content, freedom, skill, community, exploration, and even role-play elements are unrivaled.

This song brings back so much nostalgia of my favorite game of all time. I never get sick of it, and when I listen to it, it brings back the memories of when MMORPGs didn't suck, and gaming companies had a soul. When there was still magic in virtual worlds, and when progress had nothing to do with grinding.

At number one, from Ultima universe, Stones:

Toward the Terra...New Top 5 [Anime]

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 07:05:09 -0400

Well, I just finished Toward the Terra (Terra E), and I must admit that, excluding the days I partied, this is definitely the fastest I have ever watched an anime. It was simply an amazing show, and has earned a spot on my list of the top five anime.

Recently I have been pretty disappointed in the newer anime series. IMO they have mainly been garbage, and can't hold my interest through a single episode. A few of the series lost my interest all together. In fact, out of the newer series I have only enjoyed action-type anime like Naruto and Soul Eater. Mainly because while they lack in story...at least it is entertaining.

Terra E ended this disappointment. It's story was amazing, it's characters brilliant, and with it's amazing soundtrack (composer's previous works include Naruto and Princess Mononoke), it was just a nearly perfect series. Each episode was filled with dramatic events, telling the story of humanity during a twenty or so year conflict between two races of people.

If you are an anime fan, then this is a must watch. It amazes me that this show has received less hype than shows like Code Geass (Death Note anyone?) and Serei no Morobito (complete garbage). In fact, Terra E was released around the same time as CLAYMORE (HOLY **** OVERRATED), and the popularity of that garbage anime over-shadowed Toward the Terra.

**Note: There is a Toward the Terra movie, which is OLD. The manga was written in 1977. Here is a link to the show:

http://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=2158

P.S. -

The reason I keep mentioning the soundtrack is because it is by far the best of the genre.

========

On another note, I have been asked several times to list the anime I have seen. Here is a list of shows that I have seen, but chances are I have left out a couple of series, that I had forgotten and were not in top 200 lists. Here it is:

Rurouni Kenshin - Reminiscence
Fullmetal Alchemist
Hikaru No Go
Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien
Elfen Lied
Cowboy Bebop
Berserk
Gundam SEED
12 Kokuki
Hunter X Hunter
Last EXILE
Neon Genesis Evangelion
GunGrave
Scrapped Princess
Rahxephon
Grave of the Fireflies
Monster
Furi Kuri
Death Note
Naruto
Naruto: Shippuden
Hunter X Hunter: Greed Island OVAs
Naruto Movie 1
Naruto Movie 2
Naruto Movie 3
Naruto Movie 4
Samurai Champloo
Spirited Away
Trigun
X TV
Vision of Escaflowne
Vision of Escaflowne Movie
Ima, Sokoni Iru Boku (Now and Then, Here and There)
Ghost in the Shell
Princess Mononoke
Wolf's Rain
Cowboy Bebop - Knockin on Heaven's Door
Gankutsuoh
Scryed
Kino no tabi
Saikano
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Hellsing
Eureka Seven
Whisper of the Heart
Laputa: Castle in the Sky
Rurouni Kenshin: Seisouhen
Inuyasha
Inuyasha Movies
Akira
Darker than Black
Evangelion: End of Evangelion
Jin-Roh, the Wolf Brigade
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Ninja Scroll
Gundam SEED Destiny
Code Geass
Gurren Lagann
CLAYMORE
Howl's Moving Castle
My Neighbor Totoro
Basilisk
Toward the Terra
Hajime no Ippo
Soul Eater
Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo
Baccano!
Rebuild of Evangelion
Seirei no Moribito
X Movie

Again, there are probably more, but at the moment I can't think of them. For those of you interested, here is my top five in no particular order:

Berserk
Now and Then, Here and There
Neon Genesis Evangelion + End of Evangelion
Hajime No Ippo
Toward the Terra

WoW Suggestion Forums...Lawl

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 21:09:39 -0400
So I decided to make a post on the suggestion forums today. This is the thread that I created:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=9023691997&sid=1

Feel free to comment in that thread if you think it's a good idea. It basically talks about adding STV Arena type events to Nagrand/Blade's Edge/Future WotLK world arenas, but with rewards like Badges of Justice. Just check it out and please comment if you think it's a good idea.

========

Anyways, I found some of the requests on the suggestion forums to be quite comical. In fact, nearly every suggestion is terrible or unrealistic. Here are some examples:

" from my personal experieces with games it's pretty helpful when ur on a mount and you're allowed to fire a bow or gun or whatever, i think this would make a pretty good addition to WoW. and for those of you who think this would introduce an unfair advantage to the game, the attacks should have a far lesser chance of hitting the target. personally i think this would be insanely helpful in PvP, and like hunters there should be certain shots that have effects like stun and all that. even if it's only for one class i think the benefits would be great."

" Alright so I was in Nagrand today and I was picking up some food in Garadar and Thrall was there sitting next to Greatmother Geyah and noticed his armor was.... Well lets just say he looks like he should be a level 40. I'm just suggesting to change the armor of Thrall and make him look like the badass that he is."

"nerf [insert class here]"

===============

The suggestion forum is flooded with either terrible suggestions, or massive QQing. It is now clear to me why Blizzard fails to listen to their customers. Most of them are complete idiots, and don't really know what would be best for the game.

The TLDR PvP Entry

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 05:21:58 -0400
Resilience

Contrary to popular belief, resilience is in fact a good thing, and for that reason I can understand why it is here to stay. Revisiting games like Shadowbane, and trying out the new Age of Conan was an eye opener at the lameness that was PvP long ago. In other games, and in pre-TBC, it was all about who got the opener. While two shotting was fun, it gets old quick, and after that you are left with a silly skillless PvP system. Resilience has come with it's own problems though. Mainly forcing casual players to choose between PvE and PvP. It also puts fresh 70s at a much larger disadvantage than pre-TBC. Pre-TBC it wasn't uncommon to see dungeon geared characters holding their own in PvP, but today that is pretty much impossible.

Resilience gear has to come from more sources than what we are currently offered. People are already in the habit of AFKing battlegrounds, and all of the interesting pieces come from arenas. Other than that, we have had two other pieces of gear acquired outside of arenas. These two pieces are the second PvP cloak, and what ever stat trinket you prefer. Then there are some craftables frequently used in arenas (Stormherald, Nigh-Invulnerability Belt, Shadowsong Panther Trinket, etc.), and these craftables, along with the cloak/trinket, are items that have existed for 1.5 years now.

=============================

Arena

Arena can be awesome...if you ditch your friends, have the proper comp, have maximized gear, play a ton of games, hope you don't get countered much, avoid mace stuns, quit PvE (or ignore your real life), and... well....

In all seriousness, arena has a lot of potential to be fun, but it really isn't for everyone. I personally love it, until I get bugged by real life friends to do arena with them. After I am stuck with ****ty comps with people I outskill, it just becomes a burden. So what are my options? Suck it up? Ditch them? If only there was a PvP system where they could progress, other than arena, then maybe I wouldn't feel obligated to run ****ty comps. If only there was some other form of PvP (NOT BGs) that I could do with them, then we would be able to do something together.

I hope arena stays, and it obviously will, but honestly it shouldn't be the only option. It has already killed PvP guilds, RL friends being able to play together, and solo progression. Please add other options.

===============================

Battlegrounds & New Players

Earlier this month I decided to start gearing up my level 70 mage. Welfare epics right?

WRONG

Sorry, but theres nothing welfare about this gear. First off, it is gear that is over 1.5 years old. It is just sub-par, and will just give you a fighting chance stepping into the arena. The boots/bracers/belt are obviously a different story, but the rating requirements have made those pieces more difficult to obtain for a fresh 70.

But let's talk about my mage. The past couple of weeks I have been slaving away in battlegrounds, just to get to a point in which I could do arenas with my RL friends (impossible on my s3/s4 main). Basically I have accumulated around 175k honor, 60 badges of justice, and 1.2k arena points for the following stats:

9123 HP
281 Resilience
24 Spell Hit
780 Spell Damage
40 Spell Haste

Level 60 5 min trinket

Please note that every piece I have acquired has been enchanted with top enchants (goodbye gold for s2 gear). The sockets have been filled with stam/resil gems to become eligable for premade battlegrounds.

Take into consideration the amount of time it takes to grind the 2k gold, 60 BoJs, 175k honor, and 1.2k arena points, and then tell me if that time is appropriate for the stats that I have acquired. Are those stats going to get me onto a quality arena team? Will those stats help me succeed?

**Note: 60 BoJ isn't easy for a fresh 70. Getting into Karazhan these days either requires a terrible guild, or unnecessary stats. It can even be a chore finding a heroic group that will accept my 780 sd mage. Getting more spell damage will require a fresh 70 to farm a PvE set as well as a PvP set.

Blizzard MUST lessen the time it takes to acquire this outdated PvP gear. It is ridiculous and only disinterests people from the game. I have had two fresh 70 RL friends quit within two weeks of honor grinding. Battlegrounds aren't fun enough to keep people from feeling like they are working a job.

Both concerted efforts and s1 from t4, s2 from t5 were great ideas. Unfortunately, more must be done to make those changes usable by fresh 70s. S1 from t4 doesn't help fresh 70s much at all. While the helm and gloves may be somewhat easy to come by, Gruul and Mag groups generally require much higher stats to attempt. Picking up T5 tokens is very unlikely for a fresh 70 or a non-raiding 70.

Concerted efforts has it's own problems, but these could be easily solved. My mage has had very few opportunities to use concerted efforts, due to the mark requirements on all of this S2 crap. These mark requirements were made to force people into doing battlegrounds that they didn't like, and that way the ****ty battlegrounds wouldn't become ghost towns. Concerted efforts promotes the same thing right? Do away with, or lessen the badge requirements. Doing BGs I hate will only increase the likelihood that I decide to afk leech from my "team".

====================================

Rated Battlegrounds {GUILD}

Arenas killed PvP guilds. This could bring them back. This topic has already been discussed thoroughly, and I won't get into it, but all I can say is that I support this idea 100%. MMORPGs need guilds for every group of player, and right now we only have guilds for one group of players. It would also make it much easier for RL friends to participate in competitive PvP together, without having to reroll due to fotm comps.

The new map looks like it could be a cool Guild vs Guild map, but it will most likely be unbalanced, and if that is the case then WSG or AB would still make an awesome Guild vs Guild map.

====================================

World Arenas

I have posted several times this same idea. Almost always it has been ignored, and I don't know why. I personally think it would benefit PvP and the players on many different levels.

Everyone has probably participated in STV arena at least one time. Why not? It's fun, theres usually a crowd, and being able to battle against the same faction is always a blast. Fighting over that chest every 3rd hour has brought a lot of great memories for me.

So...with that in mind. Why not implement something similar in Nagrand and Blade's Edge Arena? The catch is that to get people interested (people don't have fun anymore unless theres a reward involved), make it so that which ever group loots the chest, will be rewarded 4 badges of justice, and a rare chance at a T5 token? The turnout would be huge, and the fights would be a blast. Drama would ensue as guilds fought other guilds over the chest.

Just an idea...

==================================

World Objectives/Rewards

Finally, if rated battlegrounds don't happen, then please make it so that arena quality gear can be obtained from world objectives. Isn't there going to be two arena sets per season anyways? Just put the lesser set as a world objective reward as well.

Solving the Ultimate Mystery

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:17:28 -0400
So, my roommate was listening to this song today. It was really pissing me off, because I knew that the background piano work was from either an anime or a video game. I was absolutely sure of it. This is the song in question:

I was originally leaning towards a Final Fantasy game. FF8 in particular. I knew I had heard the song before, and it reminded me of Final Fantasy at first. I decided to search youtube for the song.

First I found:

Yes! I had found it. But I had to be sure of my claim. I needed an orchestrated version of the song. Soon enough I found:

At 1:06 is the section of the song that was used in the rap song.

I don't know why I found this so amusing. I guess it's just funny to see people sneak Final Fantasy music into their rap. It is pretty unexpected to see something like that.

WoW's Top 5 Gank Spots

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 16:46:00 -0400
Here we go, my personal top five gank spots in World of Warcraft.

5) Stranglethorn Vale -

STV is basically noobies on a plate for gankers who are into that sort of thing. I rarely venture into this zone to gank, but I do respect it for what it is. Due to all of the lowbie quest hubs in this zone, it is a great place for griefers to grief. It is probably the most well-known gank zones, and because of that it deserves a spot on my top 5.

4)Â Southshore/Tarren Mill -

Easy ganks here can usually turn out to be a decently sized lvl 70 brawl. Most people believe that world PvP here is dead, but that couldn't be further from truth. Me and a couple of friends can usually go harrass Tarren Mill for 20 or so minutes until we get overrun by 7+ horde. Reasonably close graveyards doesn't make this a pain like most other enemy cities.

3)Â Isle of Quel'Danas -

No flying mounts, and heavily contested by level 70s. A great thing about this zone is that by ganking people you are interrupting their quests. This bring griefing to a new level. Also, people here are lvl 70, and unlike the other zones you may actually get some good fights in.

2) Jump-a-tron -

Back in the day this used to be my all time favorite place to grief people. It was almost beautiful how well this got the job done, and is the only place in which I have been able to confirm that I have made someone cry due to world PvP.

Why is it so great you ask? Well...some people are absolutely awful at this thing, and fail to make the land dozens and dozens of times before they finally land. Unfortunately, patience plays a major role in pulling off the perfect grief, and waiting up to 30 minutes for someone to finally land in the nest may feel like a chore, but when you blow their head off right after they land, then it all feels worth it.

One time I watched this girl make 1 hour, 15 minutes worth of attempts. Over and over she would launch in the air, and fall to her death. Finally, when she landed in the nest she /danced in happiness. Unfortunately her dance didn't last long and I one shot the remainder of her health.

A little bit later a random person joined our ventrilo. It was this girl, and she was sobbing. She screamed and left the vent, and a minute later her angry father came on the vent and asked what we had done. It was priceless.

1) Throne of Kil'Jaeden -

Nestled in the mountains of Hellfire Peninsula is the Throne of Kil'Jaeden. Home of two Shattered Sun Offensive daily quests, and my current top gank spot. While the kills aren't as sweet as some of the Jump-a-tron kills, these are more consistant and don't require a ton of patience. Also, Jump-a-tron isn't nearly as active as it was when the xpac first game out.

So what makes this place better than Isle of Quel'Danas?

http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=11516

This quest basically requires you to go around and kill fire elementals while your burning essence grows large enough to blow up a portal to Isle of Quel'Danas.

The thing that makes this quest so desirable for a griefer, is the fact that upon death your burning essence returns to the original size. This means, that every time you kill someone working on that quest, you are essentially resetting their quest.

What I do here is scout around the area, and find a horde ready to complete the quest. Once he has completed it (essence turns large and green) I swoop down for the kill. I repeat this process over and over until they simply give up on the daily (rewards 250 rep, 12g, and a shattered sun bag).

Awesome place to grief.

New Tradeskill Bonuses = OP

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 05:19:15 -0400

Motorcycle mount.
Gimmicky enchants.

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So what is there to say about all of this?

Well, the passive enchants to gathering skills are pretty interesting. It is nice to see that all tradeskills will benefit in some ways. I used to be pretty bitter about the fact that enchanting and jewelcrafting had stat bonuses.

Some professions seem a bit under par currently. The drums were and always will be a stupid addition, and I think leatherworkers could use something extra.

Engineering seems to be once again a gimicky profession, but the motorcycle makes up for it.

Blacksmithing is ridiculously OP. Rogues will be benefiting from it by receiving 5 additional gem slots.

Alchemy is garbage once again. People should just give up on the profession.

Should S2 Gear Be Cheaper?

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:58:22 -0400
Due to boredom I decided to dust my mage off the shelf. I am starting to like the way they are turning out in WotLK, and I am getting more and more bored with my rogue by the minute.

Pre-TBC I loved my rogue. I loved the upgrades, and I loved looking forward to new items. It was fun getting epic weapons, and fun swapping around specs. You could have fun with any tree, and with any weapon. It was awesome.

Now epics have just lost their coolness, and theres no new items to look forward to. Every upgrade you get isn't as special, because you know that everyone else will have it within a couple of weeks. The fact that rogues don't have any cool looking moves, coupled with this lack of upgrades, really make it a boring class to stick with in my opinions.

With that being said I have swapped over to my poorly geared mage. I had no idea how much of a world of hurt I was getting myself into. I would like to say, that a mage is probably the worst class to play with in greens.

First off, mages are always targeted, and it really doesn't help that I have engineering goggles showing off my squishiness. I prob get two shot by melee toons who can grab ahold of me, and with casters I have a better chance thanks to distance, running, and wards. My only significance comes from my offensive abilities. Even with very low spell damage, a well timed shatter combo will drop a wsg flagrunner to his knees. That, coupled with CS and Poly makes me a helpful member of the team.

Anyways, after a couple of days of farming honor, I have started to become a bit frustrated with the whole process. People complain about farming up Guardian ****, but try doing triple that for subpar gear. I no longer consider this **** to be welfare gear, because honestly it takes a lot of time to get this gear.

But my main question is...should this gear cost so much? I mean, the staff alone is 27k + 40 AV marks, robe is 15k + 30 AB marks...etc. I mean...its not cheap at all, and most of the time u can't even use concerted efforts for this stuff. Plus, on top of all of this stuff you have to pick up all of the guardian stuff, trinkets, cloaks, etc.

If this was pre-TBC that would be one thing, but this is TBC. Endgame is arena for PvPers, and almost every active player has close to full s4/s3. This gear we are busting our ***** for is S2, and it is definitely not on par w/ s4.

New To Starcraft...

no.spam@gameriot.com (GibTehStix) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 16:35:48 -0400
This post is in response to Lipton's contest. http://starfeeder.gameriot.com/blogs/The-Starfeed/Win-Blizzcon-2008-Tickets-a-Starfeeder-contest/ was a great incentive to get people talking about Starcraft II. This is also pretty much the only way I would consider going to Blizzcon. I gave it thought before, but kind of backed off on the idea when I started factoring in the distance (from AZ) and cost. If the tickets were given to me though...that would be a whole different story.

Anyways, about Starcraft and Starcraft II. I have never played Starcraft, and because of this I cannot say that I have much to write about. I have been tempted to play it. I definitely do enjoy strategy games. I played WC3 briefly, but got bored due to the slowish nature of the games.

About a month or two ago I almost picked up a copy of Starcraft. I was inspired to play that type of game after watching one of my favorite anime, Hikaru No Go, but at the time I was going to purchase the game, Blizzard's online store was shut down, and I basically forgot about it.

While I was doing some research on the game, I stumbled across some videos that made the game seem incredibly intense. This one in particular:

I have always enjoyed RTS games, and I do plan to buy SC2. I am honestly looking forward to it more than Diablo 3. I can imagine that each win in SC2 will be rewarding (much more than arenas lol).

http://starfeeder.gameriot.com/blogs/The-Starfeed/Win-Blizzcon-2008-Tickets-a-Starfeeder-contest/