E Sports

 What is E Sports? Well this is something I have been asking myself for a while now. Usually they are team based games, with an objective of some sort. Kinda like any other sport, but it is played in a chair behind a screen with a controller or keyboard.

 E sports has been a phenominon around the globe. It all started with the first Space Invaders tournement in 1980. Yet if you think about the arcades you honestly have to realize that it was even before that. All arcades had the highscore mechanic. Which got more people to play. It was a challenge to everyone to see who could beat whose score.

Yet here we are today. With E Sports becoming a huge event covered by ESPN. How did we get to this point. You might ask? Well after the said Space Invaders tournement. Things escalated with home consoles and the arcade systems in the 90's. Which saw a huge boost in video games being made and games that could be played with multiple people playing at the same time.

 In 1996 came a huge game that literally shook the gaming world just as its name said. Quake was one of the top team/solo games for E Sports. It gave players the chance to prove that they were the best at the game. So Quake started the FPS or (First person shooter) tournement idea.

 Then two yours later (1998) the game that would start E Sports around the world was realeased. Star Craft. Is a real time strategy game that put the players in control of a specific side in a war which had to get specific resources to grow, make units and destroy the other teams base. This became one of the biggest E Sports games of all time.

On a hot summer's day a game that would become the granddaddy of every MOBA ever made was released Warcraft 3. This game would be used as a game in E Sports as well. Then the modding community would get a hold of it and turn it into Defense of the Ancients, better known as DOTA.

Over the years the games have changed. Yet the reasons we play stay the same. We wish to prove that we are the best at what we do. Even if it is shooting other players, destroying their base, taking their flag, or even capturing points. We as gamers love a challenge and we run into it head on. To see if we have the talent it takes to have the highest score or to take on a bunch of enemies by ourselves to get a pentakill.

Competative Gaming has come a long way, and it is still trying to go farther. All you have to do is look at Gamescom, PDX Lan, or any get together of gamers challenging each other. Over a lan or online. It is all the same. The best wins, the worst looses. Which are you?


   UrielLocke

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Augmented Reality vs Virtual Reality vs Reality

 So with all the news with everyone working on and making some form of virtual reality/ augmented reality. I have to take a look at these subjects as a gamer and see where they go. Virtual reality has been around for a long time. Some say since the 1960's others may say before. Yet all would agree that it has helped influence a lot more than we ever expected. Augmented reality is somewhat of a new form of technology. Where virtual reality is a full dive into a realm (game, video or what have you). Augmented reality adds things to reality. Such as arrows to guide you on a map.

 Virtual Reality or (VR) is the oldest of the two but only really seems to be geared towards those who are gamers. Or for some form of entertainment. It had a very shaky start with was Nintendo's Virtual Boy. Which ended up causing a slew of issues for the gamer. Now in recent days we have had the Oculus Rift, Valve and HTC's VR prototype along with Sony's. Today we have made many breakthroughs with motion sickness and eye strain.

With Augmented Reality or (AR) we have the ability to use it outside of the entertainment realm. It's practical applications are limitless. We can use it in any form of drafting, design, art, history. Or, well anything.

Now all that being stated. I am not for one, and not the other. I honestly think that one can't flourish without the other. Both are somewhat built on the same form of technology.  Both have made great leaps forward to what will soon be the holodecks from Star Trek. Which of course is the gamers dream.

I support both of these technologies but I have to ask how often are we going to be wearing a box on our faces before we realize how ridiculous we look? I mean, do I really want to wear any VR at my computer while my hands could be flailing around. (Once we have gloves to control our hands.) Or do I want to wear a visor around my house just to interact with my calender... Both of these two technologies have raised questions about technology, and what reality truly is. I will have to cover that topic in on a later date though.


 UrielLocke

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Why I am a gamer

 (Disclaimer:In this blog post I will be talking about a lot of things that I really don't like talking about, but I believe in order for everyone to understand why I am a gamer. It will help in the end. So this is a short story of my life. Now that being said. I am in no way blaming others for what happened in my childhood. Nor am I wanting pitty. I am who I am today because of it)

 As a young child my life was normal. My parents, did what they could to provide for my brother and I. My brother is three and a half years younger than I am. So he and I became very close over the years. (I will discuss this more later) Everything was the way it should have been, as I was growing up. All I wanted to do was be like my father. (It is only in my late teen and early adult years that I discovered the error of my ways.)

 Everything changed when I turned seven. My whole life got flipped on its head and insideout. My father got really sick. (Viral Encephalitis) My father was acting really weird. I remember my mother waking my brother and I up and having us get in the car at some ungodly hour. I remember it was maybe one in the morning. My father seemed to be kind of out of it. In a sense that he was paranoid beyond belief. (Yet this was just the beginning) He was messing with the door locks on our old Chevy Cavalier. He seemed to be loosing motor functions. The next thing I remember was waking up and being taken into the nearest hospital and sitting in the waiting room for what seemed like forever. Now my brother and I fell asleep in the waiting room. Only to be awoken by our mother soon after and taken home.

 I was told that my father had been air lifted to a bigger city, to a hospital there that would be able to help take care of him. During the time my father was in the hospital he was in the ICU for what seemed like forever to my. My mother was staying by his side as often as she could. While my mother was at the hospital. My brother and I were bouncing from friends house to friends house.

I didn't understand what was going on. Nor did I understand the emotions attached to the situation. So it turned to anger and I became a very angry child. I took my anger out on everyone around me. I would throw fits and freak out for no reason. It wasn't until my brother and I bounced to a friends house that I felt comfortable that it stopped.

 These friends had a Super Nintendo. I would play with them for hours. (This is when I think I became a gamer) I used gaming as an escape from things I didn't understand or comprehend at the time. It was the one thing I could control, the one thing I could understand.

Months later my father was better by the doctors standards. Which in my opinion meant that he was my father. (Sadly that wasn't the case. He lost a lot of his memory along with the ability to understand time. To this day he treats me like I am a child.)

Things just got worse, with his paranoia. To the point that he came into my brothers and my room, and searched our dressers, closet and under our beds. Saying that there was someone in the house. That my mother was cheating on him. (I had no idea what that meant back then so I was just scared that he was going through our stuff)

Shortly after that night my mother had to file a restraining order, and divorce my father... Again my life was flipped on its head and inside out. I blamed myself for years, I held out that if I was good enough that they would get back together and my father would be my father again. He would be the man I remembered as a child.

It didn't happen, my father went to live with my grandmother and grandfather. I thank whatever judge made the dicision to have my brother and I stay with my mother. My father had become violent and angry. (I think because part of him said that this was wrong but he didn't understand why it was happening.)

My mother did her best to take care of my brother and I. She worked a ton of jobs and did all she could to keep a roof above our heads. She cleaned houses and had a waitressing job at a local diner. We had to make frequent visits to that bigger city, because my father was fighting for custody of my brother and I.

During these court dates my brother and I, again were bounced from house to house. We always ended up going to that specific friends house. The last time I was there. They had an N64. It was the first time I saw 3D graphics. My mind was blown and I was in love with the games.

After the divorce though my mother did the best she could to keep some form of male figure in our lives. Guys from church would spend time with us. One of which had a Playstation. He was awesome, just because he had a Playstation. I remember going over to his house one night I think it was around Christmas. The street lamps, and fresh snow made the are look so solitary. Yet when we got there there were presents, hot chocolate and video games to play. He also had a daughter if I remember correctly.

I have left out a lot of specific things about my childhood. Not only to protect those who were a good part of it, but also there are three years that I really don't remember.

A few years after the divorce my mother found a man that she fell in love with all over again. I am thankful every day that she met him. Yes he and I had some major issues when I was younger. Being defiant and angry at the world makes you a hard person to deal with. Yet I can also thank him for my love of video games and helping my get into flight simulators.

He was a computer drafter and some how got a hold of an apache helicoptor flight sim game. He would let me play every now and then when he took my brother and I to the office. We would also play pinball for days on his work computer.

So in closing. Some of my best memories as a child were of playing video games. They helped get me though some of the most tramatic times in my life. So to all of the adult in my life who have helped me through so much. Thank you.

 To those that think that video games are evil, or are stupid. Take this as a lesson as to how powerful a game can be. I am still alive and a functioning member of society because I played video games as a child. If it weren't for video games.  I really don't know where I would be today...

           UrielLocke