PAX-less

Another year is well underway, but there's very little to look forward to. Gamers have already began their conventions, which has most recently made its way through Boston. Unfortunately, I was not in attendance.

While I have never been the biggest fan of Penny Arcade, I do admire that they have taken a mere webcomic strip about gaming and turned it into a pretty nice Expo. Over the past few years we have seen PAX roll in and out, like an Autobot, but what we rarely see is what PAX leaves behind. Is there some sort of legacy? Well, if you can count the game-related graffiti and the remnants of people unable to hold their liquor... then yes.

Why did I not attend PAX East 2011? Well, I chose not to attend PAX East because I suffer from an irrational fear of catching a rare form of a highly contagious sickness... a sickness known by many. Many refer to this illness as the “Flu,” but we know better than to accept this simple coining as the whole truth. In the past we have seen the various strains make their way across the country and their consequences. The West coast broke out into H1Nerd1, while the east coast simply called it "The Dreaded Geek Flu.” Medieval attendees simply described it as “the plague,” but here in the south it’s called “The Vidjya Game Bug.” I desperately wanted to avoid catching this disease, which has been known to make gamers susceptible to physical damage, magical damage and severely weaken their shields.

Irrational? Well this is up for debate. It's certainly possible. In fact, it could have happened in the past already. Maybe it happened in the future? I guess that really depends on whether you are experiencing a time shift or enjoying a joyride in a Delorean. The end result? I was unable to attend. There was no gathering of monopoly money to be had, therefore I was not required to crudely paste the faces of U.S. Presidents on them. I did not get to enjoy sitting in front of the only child who enjoys kicking the back of a chair or behind the 4-foot tall individual who requires the full recline position for a four hour plane ride. I did not lose my luggage and I did not get the remote chance of becoming the Mayor of a CDC Quarantine on 4Square.

Of course, it would have all been worth it for just a taste of the event, but it was just not in the cards for me this year. Maybe next year I will overcome my fear… or simply stock up on surgical masks and latex gloves. Hopefully, this time next year I will actually have a job and not be stuck in "over/under qualified limbo." Who knows what the future may hold, unless you're in the sequel of course.

Contest entries

So, in my last entry I noted that I enjoy entering contests and I provided a few links. The majority of those contests were simple retweet, comment or randomness. While there is something comforting about easy, no-hassle contests... I also enjoy the contests which require a bit of thought or creativity. While these can be painstakingly difficult to win, placing value on thought-requiring entries is far superior than random selection. Not every contest can require it as it is not only difficult to pick the winner, but can take significantly longer to determine the winners. It's also extremely difficult to choose between numerous high quality entries and certainly NOT a task I envy. I try to enter these contests whenever they show up, but finding the time to compete in them can certainly be difficult. So here's a few of my past entries: winners and losers!


This photo is from my most recent entry over at Destructoid. The rules are simple: create a new box mask for Jim Sterling. This can be done in several different fashions: Photoshop, Hand drawn, etc. Personally, I went for the construction method and created my own Helghast box mask. The box itself is hand painted, along with the monocle and side panels. The chain is an old necklace I had lying around and the gas mask portion is actually a piece of a Rainbow vacuum cleaner. It actually took a bit to make, even though it looks ridiculous. I wanted to go for a hybrid Destructoid/Helghast creation, but I figured it's best if I leave the side panel "ears" their original design. What's the prize? Killzone 3: Helghast Edition. This contest ends 2/28, but is definitely worth looking into if you haven't already entered.



These two are from a single entry I made into GamesAbyss's Care Package Giveaway around the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops. There were quite a few really good entries into the contest. Of course, as you can tell I am no artist, but I tried to make a slightly humorous entry. I tried to incorporate various titles into the comic-style entry. I threw in references to Modern Warfare, Toy Story, Gears of War and tried to make it partially interesting. Did I succeed in making something slightly enjoyable? Probably not, but it was definitely an enjoyable thing to make. That contest has long since passed, but if you should keep up with their site for the editorials as they are quite good and a pretty solid gaming website. You may not always agree with the conclusions in their editorials,




but they present well-grounded points. Don't forget: Keep an eye out for their future contests!


















I also had another creative entry to place on this blog, but I seem to have misplaced the photo. It was for an old contest on Destructoid for Power Gig: Rise of the SixString Guitar Bundle. The goal was to create, display or articulate interesting uses for the Guitar Hero plastic instruments. The reason being that Power Gig was the first title to introduce a guitar peripheral with strings rather than plastic buttons. My use was disassembling the guitars and creating bathroom decor. The Wii-version's neck made a perfect toilet-brush stem, while the body made an ideal toilet paper dispenser. The strap could even be used to hang up clothes. I really wish I was able find the picture, but I fear it is lost in the infinite space of the internet.


I hope that I find the time to make more creative entries, as the projects can be extremely fun and rewarding even if you do NOT win. My only wish? I wish that I had more talent! Some will call the entries Juvenile, but at least they aren't full of nothing more than offensive, genitalia or gastric jokes :)

Freebies!

I enter a lot of contests for a variety of reasons. I love free stuff, but I also love promoting websites that deserve some sort of display of support. There are tons of websites, all of which run contests and deserve... at least the "retweet" or constructive post they ask for. Many of the websites offer great writing or great products. Of course, I love free swag from contests too :) I thought it is only proper to post about what I receive and where it came from (and no... not just for boasting purposes). These are posted in order received.


This is a 4GB Flip UltraHD Video Camera. I received this from a Flip Video promotion titled "Do you Flip" held by Flip. I originally ran across this contest on Cisco's Blog. This camera is a quick "point and shoot" camera with pretty decent quality. It only records a few hours of video, but it feels to be better quality than my Sony GC1 Net Sharing Cam that I bought from Target a few years ago on clearance for 24.98. The contest itself was a simple entry, text flip to their number (it has since expired) and they drew for 500 camera over the course of the month. Entries were limited to once per day and 125 entries were drawn each Wednesday. This has long since passed, in December, but definitely deserves a spot here.




For those of you who are not gaming fans or even unfamiliar with artistic titles, this is "swag." Swag is an acronym for stuff we all get and are generally items given out for promotions or trade-shows. It can also mean "sophisticated/scientific wild a#@ guess"... but in this context, it does not mean that. At any rate. This swag is from the upcoming release of OkamiDen. Okami was a beautiful Playstation 2/wii game centered around Amaterasu. As you can tell, this is a sillyband Amaterasu and a DS Stylus in the shape of a paintbrush. In the game you use a paintbrush to alter the world, fight, etc so this stylus is rather fitting. Enough about the swag. Where did it come from? Well this is an easy answer. This swag is courtesy of @Gamer on twitter. @Gamer is a magazine whose partner is Best Buy. They will occasionally ask for responses from their twitter followers for entries for swag. They are definitely worth a follow! Their magazine subscription costs are relatively low too, but deal seekers will probably be interested in the magazine for their monthly coupons. Each month they offer various coupons. One of the best coupons I used was good for $15 off Dragon Quest IX. That being said, the store and magazine promotions do suffer from some miscommunication because I have occasionally been denied using the coupons because of "overlapping" promotions.

Oh. My. Goodness. A Kinect Sensor with Kinect Adventures! Who in the world would give that away for free?! Well, the note is not entirely legible in the picture, but it's from a website called TheGiveAway. The website's goal is to give away free stuff, and they do. The website creator, Chad Hinton, is awesome and offers great costumer service and communication too. How does it work? No signing up for spam.. simply sign up and click "Get it Free" and the posted item will be given away within the designated time periods. The majority of your clicks will yield a rather disappointed looking present with the phrase "try again" and after 30 clicks you will need to verify your humanity by passing a captcha code test... but you may eventually win! Thank you Chad and TheGiveAway. This sensor will definitely be put to good use!



This final prize, isn't really a contest per se, but it was on my doorstep this morning! LittleBigPlanet 2. Where did it come from? HouseParty and their VIP Gaming Rewards club. HouseParty is a great website whose goal is to promote community and social engagements. I guess that is why they are a Groundswell award winner. At any rate. The program was a 6 month program where you posted a blog, took pictures and completed challenges for some epic rewards. Prizes over those 6 months included High Velocity Bowling, The Shoot, themes, PS Home costumes, etc. It was not entirely too time consuming and the rewards were great. They've recently taken the program down to do some maintenance and upgrades... but it should be back in a few months! In the mean time, they currently have an instant win contest on their website and you can always sign up to host parties. Their parties are pretty good too. they send you a box full of goodies and all you have to do is throw a house party! As a reward, you get to keep all of the goodies. I've personally managed to host two parties, one for Singstar Dance and one for New Years Eve (PS Move party). It definitely worth your time because they offer parties for a variety of products!

Pick-up of the Day.

I am an avid gamer. Borderline gaming addict, but my real passion? Collecting things. Am I a packrat? Possibly, but it's definitely inherited from a long line of collectors. My grandfather collected bottles and knives. Random? Not really. He dug, bought and traded for years everywhere and had one of the neatest bottle collections I've ever seen.

He loved bottles because they have real history behind them. Who drank from them? What was stored inside? Where did they come from? If they were hand blown (which the majority were), how many did that person make? Of course, he never got an answer to those questions.. but there was something about the mystery of it. In his collection he had some real pieces of history including an Egyptian tear bottle, an amazing privateer captain's bottle, some rum flasks (which I always called pirate bottles... because face it... pirates are awesome), Snake-oil salesmen bottles, as well as many more. There's something about seeing and holding pieces of history.

For me, the option to go in search of those things is a bit unrealistic because this is a different time. I collect more modern things, primarily video games/memorabilia. At one time I collected sports cards, but following the various strikes in the 90s, I refused to spend another dime collecting rare portraits of the overpaid, pretentious and self-righteous. I still have the cards, dating from 1955 -1993 (baseball) and 1996/97 (basketball)... but no longer collect them.

So, occasionally I find amazing deals on video games... so I will occasionally post about my pick-ups. Like today yesterday. Yesterday I picked up a black label [Parasite Eve] for the Playstation 1. It could have been in better shape, but the discs play. Of course, whoever had it no longer had the third disc (vol. 1 demos). You may be asking yourself "whats so special about a single copy of PS1 game in less-than-stellar shape?" [Parasite Eve] was Squaresoft's first entry into games rated mature and a superb roleplaying game and a great title, from a time when Squaresoft's quality wasn't as debatable as it is now. Another reason it is important is because of the upcoming release of The 3rd Birthday.

So where did I manage to find it? A pawn shop for $3! Pawn shops are generally full of dirty, destroyed stuff. I am not the biggest fan of pawn shops, but I'm a huge fan of the occasional deals. So when I was perusing their billion sports games, I was shocked to find a quality RPG that was actually playable and only searching for a good home. It's not the biggest pick-up, but still a good one!