Bboy Battle: 2008 Circle Prinz Poland Final -- Azizi Fellas vs. Funky Masons
In an age where having an individual product isn’t enough, where building a brand through viral marketing via ‘synergized releases’ -- its easy to lose sight of what’s important. Did we need the insulting and insensitive advertising campaign circulating the release of Dante’s Inferno? When you ate Dominio’s pizza in the 90’s where you thinking, “You know, if I could avoid the Noid and eat pizza, life would be so close to completion.” Maybe the Doom movie should have been released straight to DVD, seeing as theater goers typically do not support video game movies starring men [Angelina Jolie & Milla Jovovich]. The point is, we have come far from the days of Ducktales and Aladdin. We exist in a time where seeing a broken cd on the sidewalk is common. Furthermore, seeing brands stretched and skewed to make a buck -- makes what you liked about said brand much more disposable.
Not even five years ago I was the owner of a PSone and Dreamcast wandering will I ever play a new game again. I wondered if there will ever be a need, I should say. I have always played games since pooping in pampers, I mean haven’t you read my blog [nerd chortle]? Once I entering college in 2000, I played three games: Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Street Fighter III: Third Strike, and NBA Showtime. I wish I could explain my NBA Showtime love to you all, but I feel it could fall on many deaf ears, I digress. This form of gaming hermitism could have been attributed to being the typical broke college student, but in reality I didn’t see the good in gaming. I was perfectly fine playing a select few and being in my own little world in that regard.
Sometimes being self-aware works against you. In the above video we see retro-footage from 2005 of Mista Conspiracy. I want to say he's a rapper, but I know I'm wrong. Though I'm glad he was able to make a video making fun of himself and putting KFC product placement throughout, what I could only assume is a masterpiece of rhythmic song, Mista Conspiracy's droning nouns and adverbs leads me to this last question. "Dude, what the f*#k are you saying?!"
I had a friend over who wanted to sit down and play through the Transformers: War For Cybertron’s Co-op campaign. We were surprised to see that the local cooperative mode was unavailable. We started talking about a simpler time when men were men and games new their place. It should be noted that while writing this I wore a cowboy hat and slim-fitting jeans. Its to remind me of a time where pressing start wasn’t just for one anti-social gamer on a couch, but sometimes two-to-four. Today we have three and four hundred dollar gaming consoles that, in away, promote solitary gaming. That’s right my little cowboys and cowgirls. Even the current multiplayer games encourage players to hide behind the veil of avatars and screen names within the isolation of the internet. Excuse the obvious pun, but has the gaming culture evolved to a point where gamers are just playing by themselves?
You know that feeling of a date gone awry? Nothing really that interesting being exchanged between the two parties. “Oh look, your meatball is getting cold.” Making idle chit-chat while trying to figure out why your friends set you up with someone so incompatible. Looks aren’t important to you, but being entertained is. The night started with so much promise and now you’d kill to see the waiter’s leg catch fire and hopefully engulf the entrance-way to this mid-tier dining establishment. Alpha Protocol was my date for the past week-and-a-half and came recommended by friends I use to trust. I’m currently staring across the table wondering how such a promising piece of work has me humoring sticking a fork in my eye.