The reason we write

I was trying to think what I should talk about but today’s post and then it hit me. Most people when they start blogging create an “about me” post so the world can get to know them but for some reason, I skipped that. So I guess you can consider this my “About me” post (even though it’s not exactly what I want to talk about).

The reason I created this blog in the first place was for a uni assignment but the more I got invested in it, the more it started growing on me. The idea of creating online content even though it was always very appealing to me, I couldn’t be bothered with committing to anything since I knew chances were no one would want to see it (except my webcomics blog which is an on and of thing). But what did I have to lose? Worst case scenario no knew about it, best case scenario I’m a millionaire internet celebrity that makes shitty diss tracks. However I’m lazy as fuck and since the youtube channel I made in junior high school never caught on, I decided to focus on different projects.

But the idea of expressing my voice was always in the back of my head. And I’ve always been the guy that has an opinion on anyone and anything so it only made sense. So when the opportunity arrived I decided to give it shot. To be fair, no matter how much you enjoy doing something, when it becomes stressful it stops being fun. And since I always get stressed about uni assignments, mostly because English isn’t my native language, when I created The Promise land, blogging and I were not the passionate lovers we are today. I tried focusing on research and not so much on expressing my own opinion. But for some reason, 5 scraped posts later, I realised writing stopped being something I had to do and became something I enjoyed doing. When I wasn’t writing I was thinking about new post ideas. The more I wrote the more I enjoyed it and even though my posts are not Pulitzer worthy, blogging became something I wanted in my life. Almost as if I needed it.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I’m a fucking journalist now. My enthusiasm is probably going to wear off in the near future and the blog will be in a similar state with my webcomics blog. But that’s not the point of the post. As an amateur artist, I believe that it’s important to expand your horizons now and then and give new things a shot. You can’t call yourself a painter if you’ve never tried sculpting or photography. Technically you can and I’m pretty sure there are many people out there who disagree with me, but I could never limit myself to only one thing and miss out so many opportunities. I was never talented enough to draw with a brush but with my photoshop skills and a cheap Wacom tablet, I was able to create something I was never able to. And I think that’s what art is all about. Pushing your limits and discovering new skills you didn’t know you had on the way.

My 5 favorite games from the ’00s

My creative juices were really not flowing today even though I really wanted to write about something. I’ve had this idea in the back of my brain for a circumstance like this. I know Top-10s usually do good on the internet so I’m expecting this post to go viral (#adrevenue #summeriscomingandihavenomoneytodothings). So without any further ado, these are my 5 favorite games from the 2000’s.

5) Assasins Creed II / Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Even though using two games in one spot is technically cheating, Assassin’s Creed II and Uncharted 2 are both games I used to play through my Junior Highschool hardcore gaming phase and they both managed to become the best games in their respective franchises escaping the classic triple-A formula, thus I consider them equals. Even though third-person shooters are not usually my thing, the Uncharted games have a very unique charm that makes me came back (it’s as if Lara Croft had a baby with TinTin). On the other hand, I’m a big fan of AC’s religious tone and renaissance vibe and before it got fucked in the ass by Ubisoft, it used to be one of my favorite franchises.

4) World of Warcraft

As every other player in the world, I’ve got a love-hate relationship with World of Warcraft. I’ve spent so many hours grinding and leveling up new characters just because I was too bored to do my homework. The vast lore of the Warcraft franchise along with the game’s huge community makes it the most fun MMORPG to play in my opinion. From raiding and PvP to finding the right transmog for your characters, there’s a shitload of things to do in the game and even though these days I only play for a couple of months every time a new expansion comes out (it’s expensive af), it’s definitely one of my favorite games of all time.

 

3) Call of duty: Black Ops

I really didn’t want to include a Call of Duty title in my list simply because of their infamous reputation but considering the hours I’ve spent playing the game, it’s impossible not to include it. Being the “darkest” CoD game, black ops is my favorite instalment. The campaign of the game was the least cringy out of all the other games and both Zombies and Multiplayer mode were phenomenal. Treyarch took everything that the previous titles did right and created an FPS masterpiece that renewed the FPS genre.

2) Tony Hawk’s: Pro Skater 4

Being the oldest game in the list Tony Hawk’s: Pro Skater 4 was the first game of the series that I played and the one I’ve spend the most summers playing. Even though it has just as good as Underground and American Wasteland, the nostalgia is just too strong in this one. It introduced me to skateboarding and the Sex Pistols, two of my favorite things in the world. The skaters, the levels, the boards, the tricks, the gameplay, everything is perfect and thus I believe it’s the best game ever made.

1) Pokémon Emerald

I haven’t played any other game as much as I’ve played Pokémon emerald. It was the only Game Boy game I owned for two years after I got the console and frankly the only game I needed. From trading all my Pokémon’s to my older friends because I didn’t know better to finding my first shiny Pokémon, the memories I’ve got from playing the game are infinite and it was the first game that introduced me to Pokémon, a franchise that holds a special place in my heart.

A different age

I don’t know if it’s because I’m Greek (probably), but Age of Mythology is one my favorite real-time strategy games. In case you’ve been living under a rock your whole life, Age of Mythology is a spinoff to the popular Age of Empires game, published by Microsoft, featuring three different civilizations and their respective gods. The Greeks with Zeus, Hades and Poseidon, the Egyptians with Ra, Isis and Set and the Norse with Thor, Loki and Odin. The game got an HD re-release in 2014 with a new expansion but I haven’t had the chance to give it a try yet so I’m going to focus on the original game and the Titans expansion, which added a new civilization, the Atlanteans (who are basically another Greek race) and three new gods Kronos, Gaia and Oranos along with the option to summon titans.

The game has anything a man could ever want. Dragons, hydras, krakens, minotaurs, you can control Hades goddammit, the ruler of the underworld. The dude technically is unable to die. There two main modes, the campaign which features 31 scenarios and the multiplayer mode, which is the more popular one, where you get to fight with either your friends or the AI opponents. Even though it’s more fun when you play with your friends, the AI can be quite a strong opponent and it’s a good option when there aren’t enough players.

Now, why the hell would I review a game that’s 16 years and no one knows about? First of all, it’s a great retro game that even though it still has a great cult following, it’s slowly being forgotten, and it’s my duty keeps its legacy alive. But the main reason is I’m still fucking playing the game. Twelve years after my brother first introduced me to the game and I’m still being entertained by the same shit. Two weeks ago I discovered GameRanger, an app that allows hosting servers for old games such as Age of Mythology, that the developers no longer support online mode and gives you the option to play online with your friends (or at least something along these lines, I’m not a computer scientist). And it’s the best thing since sliced bread my friends.

But what I realized when I opened the app for the first time was that no matter how many years pass, if a game is good, it will never be forgotten. There was a never-ending list of game servers of games that were created before I even existed. From Diablo to command and conquer, there was a huge community of people playing these old games. Minutes after I created my first server I was bombarded with messages by people who wanted to join. And I got my ass served and even though I was a bit mad because I thought I was good at playing the game, I was also happy knowing a community I was a part of growing up is still as alive as ever.

When X-Men used to be cool

The 90s sure were a strange time, but it was the only time where you could get decent animated adaptations of beloved superhero franchises. Airing in 1992, the same year as the legendary Batman: The Animated Series, X-men was Marvel’s first successful attempt to adapt a superhero franchise on television. Being the lovechild of Fox Kids and the very inconsistent Southern Korean animation studio AKOM, the show faced many challenges during the production but managed to get high ratings and is considered Marvel’s best animated tv-show. After the hit 2000’s X-men film the series re-aired multiple times (and that’s how a 90’s baby like me got to watch it for the first time). And to be honest it was the shit. Before anyone gave a fuck about the Avengers, The X-Men were the cool kids on the block and they were fighting racism right in the face. Quite literally.

The show is set in a universe where mutants exist, and most of humanity are right-wing extremists for some reason. So, Doctor Xavier and his team of X-men carry out the difficult task of defeating evil villains that try to destroy Earth with one hand, while trying to show to the world that mutants and normal people can co-exist peacefully with other. You can’t make that shit up. I mean they fucked up 90% of the time but still, it was the coolest thing you could watch on a Sunday morning. Who cares about Batman, that shit is for emo kids. We got Wolverine, Gambit, the Beast goddammit.

The show was embraced by the comic community since it showcased many popular storylines (that later got the shitty film adaptations we all love to hate) such as Days of the Future Past and the Phoenix Saga and some killer cameos (Doctor Strange, Deadpool, Cable etc). And they killed it my dudes. You think Hugh Jackman is cool? Try again sweetie.  Cathal J. Dodd. No idea who that guy is? According to imdb he is part of the Canadian team of voice actors that Fox Kids hired to save costs. But what matters is that he created the coolest, meanest, most careless, gothic, yellow spandex wearing Wolverine ever. For real though, the costumes they wore looked more like the cheap cosplay costumes they use in porn parody videos (so I’ve heard).

There’s nothing really wrong with the show (except Jubilee, fuck Jubilee). Even though I might have exaggerated a bit about how cool it is, it’s a really good and progressive cartoon. It combined colorful animation with some of Marvel’s more mature plotlines that both children and comic fans could appreciate and was the influence for many cartoons that followed, superhero related or not. Just listen to the theme song and let it take you back to the miserable carefree Tuesday evenings of your childhood.

The nerd that we didn’t deserve

Before the gaming biz was all about the fancy graphics and microtransactions there was a time when no one could have imagined the explosion of gaming content that would follow. That time was the early 2000s aka the period when internet routers made weird noises, and that person was The Angry Video Game Nerd. The American comedian, filmmaker, and game enthusiast James Rolfe was one of the first pioneers of independent online gaming content. Even though the premises of the show were quite simple, a guy on a sofa critiquing shitty old games, the 2000’s were a completely different time and James’ videos were phenomenal. Back then thumbnails were not enough to ensure ad revenue and independent content creators would rarely make money. If you were a gamer and wanted to know what new games were coming out, your best bet would be getting your ass all the way to the corner store and buying a magazine. Do you believe that shit? You had to go out and pay REAL FUCKING MONEY just so you could get a disc full of shitty 32-bit game demos (some of them were fire tho). The Nerd was a first step in the right direction and the gaming community responded extremely positive. After moving his show to YouTube from his website Cinemassacre, James’ content had such a huge impact on the platform, he soon became one of the first internet celebrities and his show even got a spot in MTV’s hit tv-show Viral Videos Infect the Mainstream. As Alex Carlson said (in a much more superior article that you can read here), he’s the nerd that changed gaming culture forever.

But what I think makes the nerd so special is not the persona, nor the bad NES games. I think it’s the community itself. Targeting the average gamer, he influenced a whole generation of game reviewers. Seeing how popular and easy to access internet was, along with the fact that video cameras and capture cards became much more affordable, people adapted his show’s format and with the help of platforms such as Screwattack, YouTube, Deviant Art and Game FAQs, the gaming community was bombarded by higher quality content that formed today’s gaming community.

Yet after all these years there’s something that makes come back to the Nerd. I don’t know if it’s because of the theme song (which is the catchiest shit on earth and is basically stuck in my mind 24/7 since 2011), the lovable quirky characters or the profanity (big fan) but there’s something about the AVGN that makes me, and his huge online cult following, keep wanting more.  Even though the format of the show has changed over the years, he has consistently managed to provide high-quality content and as long as the fans are not bored of his psycho anger issues his channel will remain one of the greatest gaming channels on YouTube.