Game of Thrones Season 4 Episode 2 – Major Spoilers

And there we all sat, thinking nothing at all of it when the little royal prick began a quiet and feeble dry cough. The thought did not occur to any of us, even in that moment, that King Joffrey’s life may already be coming to a close in only the second episode of the season. Even as the faces of the wedding guests began to show concern and shock – all I could think was that this must be farce. He’s playing a game, he’s fallen ill, he’s setting someone up…Somehow, he MUST be manipulating the situation, the crowd, and the viewers. He vomited. For an instant, I thought, even that can be forced. It was only as he fell and blood started to trickle out of his nose and his hue began to go purple that the realization finally hit me – hit us. My husband, myself, and our two friends jaws began to drop, and you could feel a collective moment of “Holy shit…This is happening NOW. This is really happening in episode TWO.” And so it came to be. There lay the little shit in his mothers arms, dead and destroyed, a permanent look of absolute terror etched on his face. As my husband and friends celebrated with cheering and applause a moment that I have wished for for so long, all I could do was sit in silence with my bottom jaw in my lap.

There is so much to talk about with King Joffrey’s death that I really don’t have a clue where to begin. I wanted him dead so badly. He was so cruel to everyone and everything. I despised everything about him. I hated the things he’d done, his arrogance and cruelty, the way he wore his crown at the front of his head, the crooked way he sat on his throne and the way he writhed in it – twitching with rage and blood lust. I should have been cheering and laughing and enjoying that moment. I’m not sure why I wasn’t. I was more in shock than anything, even maybe a bit horrified.

There was something about how unceremonious his death was that made it difficult to enjoy. A simple poisoning for someone like Joffrey? And it wasn’t that it was an unsatisfying death either. It was certainly gruesome and (dare I say) tragic in a way. I think I expected him to go out in a fit of rage – a royal tantrum of screaming and yelling and just generally being a douche. I didn’t expect him to look so frail and so afraid. I didn’t expect someone to get the better of him by poisoning him. I suppose I expected something more along the lines of him being roasted alive by dragons, all the while yelling angrily and vowing vengeance, or perhaps taking a jab in a sword fight with little Miss Arya and spitting in her face as he bled out.

Hardly. In Joffrey’s final moments he looked the most human I have ever seen him. He looked terrified. He looked like the child that somewhere in our collective subconscious we all knew he was, but forgot.

And so The King is dead. Now what? Now we must move on from the utter shock and consider other things. The last moments of the episode made it clear that Tyrion will be taking the blame for the most recent of wedding fiascoes. Considering how our beloved Ser Martin so recklessly tosses characters to the wolves at a whim, I have serious concerns for him. He’s become a favorite of the show, and that in itself is trouble. George R. R. Martin has showed us that these characters belong to him, and he can damn well do anything he wants to do with them. Hmm…Remind you of anyone, folks? Perhaps the author has a bit of Joffrey in him. 😉

One thing that is really fun about this poisoning death of the king, is that Joffrey was so hated by so many people, and there are so many with possible motives to get rid of him, that it could quite literally have been anyone at all who orchestrated the purple wedding. During The Diecast’s podcast show last night, we went down the list of possible suspects. We named just about everyone in the show at some point or other, including even Cersei herself, who had several awkward moments showing her inability to relinquish the power of having been the standing queen. I would love to discover that Sansa had something to do with it, or planned it entirely on her own. She had possibly the greatest motive of all, and had mentioned that she was having trouble sleeping. It’s possible that she would have been taking small doses of something to help her sleep when she decided to try out a different dose of her sleep aid on Joffrey. Or perhaps it actually WAS Tyrion. Although he strikes me as a cunning and intelligent character with more sense than to so publicly poison his nephew, he did give a strange little glance out from under the table when he was retrieving Joffrey’s goblet. Maybe this was even a group effort. The possibilities are endless, and so much fun to think about.

One thing is certain, the balance of power has shifted in a major way. This is going to be complete chaos – perhaps even all out war. At this point, anything can happen.

~A~

Please be sure to check out the latest episode of The Diecast’s NERDGASM Podcast that will appear on our YouTube channel later today for LOTS more heated Game of Thrones talk. Don’t forget to like and subscribe!

https://www.youtube.com/user/DiecastPlays

Why, Blizzard…WHY?!?! – Blizzard Adds Paid Level 90 Character Boosts With Upcoming Xpac.

I heard a terrible, terrible rumor. Now the official word is in. With the release of World of Warcraft’s newest expansion, Warlords of Draenor, Blizzard will be adding a feature in which players will be able to purchase level 90 characters for $60. Characters purchased in this way come with a myriad of additional freebies, including a flying mount and level appropriate gear. Of course at 60 bucks, I suppose these are hardly “freebies,” but the player certainly didn’t have to do anything to earn them. In fact, perhaps the only redeeming quality about this awful turn of events is the steep price. I would like to think that with such a high price tag, most people will just opt to level their characters the good old fashioned way. However, I have witnessed players (myself included) tolerate 30 dollar faction changes, 25 buck realm transfers, and mount after mount after mount with a $25 price tag. This is all on top of the monthly subscription fee we addicts pay just for the pleasure of logging on. Judging by how freely players migrate from server to server and always seem to buy up every mount and pet available in the shop, I’m willing to bet that despite the intent of Blizzard to not “devalue the accomplishment of leveling,” we will be seeing an enormous surge in level 90 noobs with the release of the expansion. It’s a pity, really. I was more excited for this expansion than I have been for one since Wrath of the Lich King. I still do have high hopes for Warlords of Draenor, but the looming threat of a bunch of players who have absolutely no clue what they’re doing suddenly being added to the heroic/raid/pvp pool puts quite a bit of a damper on my excitement. How far removed we have become from the glory of what WoW once was. It breaks my heart. I hope I’m wrong about the Rise of the Noobs™ and the $60 price tag will keep most people away from character buying. It honestly could come in handy for occasional use by people who already know what they’re doing in the game. Perhaps a requirement of a character at max level before the feature is unlocked for use would up my confidence, but I don’t see that happening. Blizzard has little interest these days in endeavors that come between themselves and a gamer’s money. Le sigh.

~A~

Some articles on the subject from Gamespot:

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/you-can-now-pay-60-for-a-level-90-world-of-warcraft-character/1100-6418216/

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/why-world-of-warcraft-character-boosts-cost-60/1100-6417949/

You had to know it was coming…Gamer Girls and Girl Gamers.

Hey all. I know it’s been a little bit since my last blog post. Unfortunately for my gaming habit, I have work and other things that interfere with my ability to blog and play games all day! But, I’m here now and I want to talk about “gamer girls,” versus “girl gamers.” I have to first tell you the difference, but don’t worry. That’s not what this whole post is about.

The difference is simple. A “gamer girl” is a girl who plays games because being a gaming nerd is (apparently) cool right now and bears with it some kind of sex appeal. At any other point in history, she would not be classified as any sort of gamer, and she is generally not very good at gaming. “Girl gamers,” on the other hand, are gamers who just happen to be female. They have a genuine love and interest in games and the gaming industry, regardless of how cool (or uncool) being a gaming nerd is at the time.

A lot of my favorite YouTube gamers have started incorporating “gamer girls” into their videos. I can only assume this is for the attention of having a girl playing video games. They’ve been inviting girls to come play with them just because they are girls. How do I know that they’ve been incorporated just for being female? Well, because quite frankly, they aren’t interesting. They contribute nothing of substance to the gaming videos they are in. They just giggle and make sarcastic comments and bad jokes. I have a real problem with this. Mostly that problem is that they downgrade the quality of what would otherwise be a good video.

Don’t get me wrong, if a girl is quirky, funny, interesting, good at gaming, or has some other quality that warrants having her in the video (for example Marzia in PewDiePie’s videos) then there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s only when it’s clear that a girl has been included solely on the basis of her girlishness that I take issue with it. Aside from the fact that they make the videos more boring, this is clear catering to a male audience. This might have been appropriate years ago when gamers were mostly male…But this just isn’t the case anymore. I personally find adding girls into your videos just for the wow-it’s-a-real-girl-on-teh-interwebz factor (or the hotness factor) a bit insulting. There are some awesome Ladies of the Computer and Console out there, and if you want to use them, please do. But don’t add an uninteresting woman to your footage just to get views. It’s obvious when you do, and it’s tacky.

~A~

In and Out

I enjoy trying out free to play MMOs. Even though some people consider them to be pay-to-win, I don’t find this to be the case with most. But, I digress. That’s a blog for another time.

One thing I’ve noticed (mostly among free to play MMOs, but also among subscription games to a lesser degree) is that being able to move freely in and out of buildings is a rarity in the MMO world. Most free to play games have either no option to enter buildings, with all NPCs standing just outside them, or players must wait for a load screen when entering. I’ve always wondered why this is the case. I know nothing about video game programming, so I apologize if I sound ignorant in this. I just wonder if there is something that makes it difficult to have buildings that players can enter freely, like World of Warcraft has. I look for little things like this when I am choosing which games to try out. In fact, I have a list of “deal-breakers,” that I might post a blog about later on. This kind of free movement in and out of buildings is not a deal breaker for me, but I do consider it a sign of a well-polished game when I see it. It’s just a small thing, but for me it helps to eliminate the barrier between reality and fantasy – which is what I want when I play an MMO. I don’t like a loading screen to pull me away from the story and remind me that I’m playing a video game every time I need to go into a building. And having buildings that are totally closed off is even worse. Something about having all of the NPCs awkwardly standing around beside their front doors just seems…Lazy? I guess that’s the word I’m looking for.

~A~

http://www.youtube.com/user/DiecastPlays

I’m Baaaack!

Hey guys, I hope you had a safe and wonderful holiday! I’m back and fully recovered from my little break. Did anyone get any new video games? Steam had all kinds of great deals over the holiday. I was pretty well broke, but I was able to take advantage of a couple of their deals. I just got Contraption Maker and “VVVVVV.” Yeah, that’s the title of a game…I’ve seen playthroughs of it and it looks endlessly frustrating, but it went on sale for only 49 cents so I figured I might as well add it to my collection. My loving husband also got me a couple of games for my Nintendo 3DS – Scribblenauts and Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. Awesome, awesome, awesome is all I can say. Sadly, I don’t think I’ll be able to post any YouTube videos for those games. I love Nintendo, but frankly they aren’t very friendly when it comes to use of their footage. In other game-news, my husband got Rocksmith and is trying his hand at learning guitar via video game. He should be posting videos of that on our YouTube channel, so be on the lookout for those! Follow the link below to check ’em out. My videos are there too, of course!

~A~

http://www.youtube.com/user/DiecastPlays

Happy Holidays!

Hey guys, I just wanted to wish everyone a very happy and safe holiday! I’ll be spending time with family and friends, so I probably won’t make any new blog posts over the next few days. Try not to miss me too much, and don’t worry! There will be many more blog posts to come. Thanks for all the support! Still want more Nero? Click on the link below and check me out on The Diecast’s YouTube channel. Peace and love! ❤

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkiU5vQ2-7d1JwRiDinJO8g

~A~

The Great Dumbing

If you play MMOs at all, this isn’t really news to you, but it’s something that’s been on my mind lately since returning to World of Warcraft. There’s been a trend over the last few years of  game developers “dumbing down” MMORPG-type games. I actually first took notice of it back when I was a regular player of City of Heroes. I had quit the game for a little while – only a few months or so.  When I returned, I tried to find a group for “The Sewers,” which was the standard thing that people did to level up new characters. It was both frustrating and fun, but before I left you could almost always find a group to run with. Not so this time. I did the typical “LFG Sewer” post in the general chat, and was met with deafening silence. Thinking it was maybe a slow day, I tried again later. Same deal. It became clear to me that something had happened. Something changed. I soon discovered what it was. Something known as the “Architect System” had been added to the game, and what a bloody nightmare. City of Heroes would never again be the same. It was the beginning of the end. You see, what the Architect System did was add a way within the game itself for players to create instances (dungeons, if you will). It allowed players to choose what kind of monsters would spawn there, how many bosses, types of loot, amount of experience…Everything. I logged into the game, found the area where you go to engage in this architect business, and found myself thoroughly horrified. Everyone – and I do mean EVERYONE – was inside this one building in the game just creating and entering other people’s instances. There was nobody out on the street actually playing the game. No one out fighting crime, working on the storyline, being social…Hell, even the costume contests people would have in Atlas Park had dwindled away to nothing. The entire fan base of the game were huddled together in mindless instance grinding. I hung up my cape that very day. I knew it was the beginning of the end, and even if it wasn’t, such useless grinding drudgery was not for me. It was a sad day.

Even though I was disappointed that my favorite game had been butchered, I figured it was a fluke. Just a bad decision on their part. Surely no other respectable MMO would allow something like this to happen…Right? Well, this brings me to today. My current game of choice is still World of Warcraft, but I see the same dumbing-down syndrome slowly creeping over the land of Azeroth, just as it destroyed my beloved Atlas Park. Some would say that it truly began with the release of Cataclysm. It’s true – Cataclysm, while still a lot of fun, did dumb down the game in a lot of big ways. For me, however, I first noticed it in the tiniest of changes. Things like no longer having to carry flint and tinder to make a campfire, a reduction in the complexity of crafting recipes, no more ammunition, and no more having to level up each individual weapon type. No single one of those things by itself is a deal breaker, but all together I think those changes really took something special away from the game. It took away complexity. It removed depth.

It’s become clear to me that not everyone agrees that these changes are bad. A lot of people who call themselves “casual” players were very happy to find that they could now just log in and play WoW for ten or fifteen minutes and be done for the day, as if it were pong or something…And sure, there should be casual MMOs out there for people like that (it’s called Guild Wars, folks), but I think it was a big mistake for a game so wildly popular  and filled with long-time, RP-type fans. Us role playing types want complexity. We want to be able to get lost in the game, and to feel like we have completely left the real world behind. Every time an RP element is lost – like say hunters no longer being able to carry swords with their bows – a part of what made WoW so great for so many people dies. I understand that casual players want to be able to get in on the MMO fun, but they have other games for people like them. Shouldn’t there be a game for players like me? Players who enjoy the journey of leveling and exploring the world, collecting useless trinkets, pets, and costume pieces rather than just dungeon grinding away to max level for “end game” content? No really. Is it such a horrible thing for there to be a game – even just ONE game – that caters to the hardcore RPers of the world, and ignores casual gamers altogether? One that just allows the game to be deep, and complex, and DIFFICULT to master? I know that the fan base would be smaller. I understand that. But the fan base would also be loyal. There would still be a lot of money to be made.

If a game ever comes along that can create the same experience that I felt up until about midway through Wrath of the Lich King, I will abandon World of Warcraft forever. I think a lot of people will. Blizzard is making a huge mistake. I wish they’d take a history lesson from City of Heroes. This will end badly. There would be no shame in going backwards and admitting to a lapse in judgement.

That being said, the upcoming expansion does look promising. It actually almost looks like a step back is exactly what Blizzard is planning to do. There may be hope yet. I suppose we will see.

~A~

Keepin’ it Chill

Hi guys! Thanks for checking out my blog today! I have another rant a-brewing, but I thought I’d give you a break and keep it light for today. So I’ll just say I love you all, and I have posted a new video to The Diecast’s YouTube Channel. Show me some love and check that out. Click on the link below, and don’t forget to like, comment and above all please subscribe! Hope you enjoy. *^_^*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRXUpUt6Ixs

~A~

YouTube Content ID and the YouTube Gamer Phenomenon

I want to take a moment to talk about copyright infringement as it pertains to YouTube. Apparently lately there has been some kind of major crackdown on the content of YouTube videos, in which the monetization of certain videos has been pulled due to what is only described by YouTube as “matched third party content.” YouTube videos that contain video game footage have been hit especially hard this month, and that’s a big deal for a lot of people. Gaming videos and game reviews are wildly popular on YouTube right now – both to produce and to watch. There are many YouTubers who make a portion of or their entire income from these kinds of videos. Was this a test on behalf of YouTube to measure user outrage? I do wonder. It is entirely possible that a much bigger crackdown is looming, something that could be disaterous for producers of gaming videos as well as the fans that love them.

Several of our own videos over at The Diecast were affected by this action. It seems that the big ticket items that cause monetization to get revoked are things like cut scenes, music, and the displaying of high profile logos like EA Games. This is easy enough to solve by simply turning down music volumes and skipping cinematics during playthroughs, but we have encountered this issue even on some indie games. What I would like to know is, who is this third party? Seems awfully vague and mysterious to me.

I suppose I wouldn’t be quite so bothered by it if I got a message telling me that EA or Blizzard or whatever game developing company has said they do not want me to use their content. I would still disagree with such a decision (I’ll explain why in a moment), but I would be able to accept it because the video game is their property. But this is John Doe making a claim against my monetization. This isn’t the game devs or even YouTube. Who is it? The fact that some party unrelated to the creation of the games is able to cause this to happen is just, well…Sketchy.

But, sketchiness aside – I have other issues with this whole thing. To begin with, if we are to follow the logic that nothing containing another person or company’s creative content can be used by anyone else, where is the line for that drawn? In theory, we could then sue people who use photos with certain landmarks or buildings in the background. An engineer could potentially make a claim against someone who had a jet fly by in the background of one of their videos. The world is filled with stuff. We don’t live in the wilderness anymore where everything is generic and belongs to no one. Things are inevitably going to start bleeding together. I don’t personally think that’s a problem. It’s not as if YouTube gamers are trying to claim any of the video game content as their own, and most of us will make pennies – if anything at all – off our videos. The Tobys and Pewdies are few and far between. In short, we aren’t really hurting anyone.

The YouTube gamer phenomenon could be a mutually beneficial relationship for all the parties involved. What a shame if this potential gaming trifecta were not to be taken advantage of by YouTube and game devs, as well as YouTube gamers. Everyone could make money, everyone could have a good time. As a fan of YouTube gaming videos, I can say with authority that watching these kinds of videos has only ever increased my level of interest in the video games being shown. I truly believe that there is no such thing as bad publicity for games, because quite honestly, even when it comes to the bad games…the REALLY bad ones…I have been inspired on occasion to buy them after watching my favorite YouTubers play them. Even if only for the shared experience, the laughs, the gamer achievement. I’ve also been reminded of old games I loved or never got to try, and been inspired to buy those as well. YouTube gamers are a good thing for game devs of all sorts, and Youtube gamer videos are good for YouTube. If a few nobodies like me happen to make a couple bucks, what’s the big deal? If anyone’s watching my videos, the ultimate cash winners are the game devs and YouTube. NOT me.

Is it just me? I feel like YouTube should defend the people who give their site a reason to exist. We didn’t create the site, but we made YouTube. We ARE YouTube. Seems like shooting yourself in the foot to come after us. Stay on our side, YouTube, and surely YouTubers and their fans will rally behind you in turn.

~A~

Thanks for the Love!

Wow! I was very surprised and humbled at the positive response I received for my first blog post. Thanks so much guys for your support! I really appreciate it, and I hope you’ll keep coming back and checking in on my blog. I have lots more topics planned and I can’t wait to share them with you. Please don’t forget to check out the YouTube channel that I am a part of, as this blog goes along directly with my activities there. Just follow the link at the end of this post, and look for me – Nerodia! And check out the videos featuring the rest of the members of The Diecast, as they’re pretty awesome too. Much love, guys! Thanks again! ❤

http://www.youtube.com/user/DiecastPlays