Saturday, April 17, 2010

Will you please join my cult?

Will you please join my mob?

Will you adopt this fish?

Will you please join my polygamist cult?

Ok so that is not a Facebook game, but I'm sure it's not that far away. Do some modifying to Farmville and you could have Poly-Ville where you request that your friends join your cult and the more friends you have, the more kids you get until you obtain Mormon sainthood by becoming the next prophet. Really considering you have a game called FishVille that is basically you make your own fish tank, is Poly-Ville that much of stretch?

For anyone who has a Facebook page I'm sure we have all gotten the above requests to join into whatever Zynga game is popular this week and you either ignore your Facebook page for weeks and when you come back you have around 100 'requests' to be someones neighbor/thug/monkey along with several 100 'gifts' to accept. Or you cave to Facebook peer pressure and join said game just to see what all the hype is about and hoping they go away. Than you sucked in....

I started with Cafe World because I like cooking, however I hate the mess and injuries I suffer while cooking. *I tend to cut or burn myself a lot* so this seemed like a fair balance between the two. I think I got to around level 15 before I got bored with it. I hated the fact the 'friends' I hired as wait staff sucked and it didn't seem to matter what I did I couldn't get my restaurant's rating to go up plus all the really good dishes take an insane amount of time to finish and the waiting around just sucked.

I was going to swear off the games until I got sucker into Farmville...now I'm sucking others into it. *I'm so sorry * I had hoped it was like another sim game I had called Harvest Moon where you ran a farm, tried to get married and have a family. Farmville simply focuses on the farming part and I'm ok with that, so far I'm at level 32, but I'm wishing that it had a little more to it.

However other people I have friended and play with simply can't get enough of it. One lady I work with is simply a few clicks away from Dr. Phil having another Farmville intervention. She even has the little timer that e-mails her when her crops are done and has had other family member harvest her crops if she can't get to them. Other people have around 90 some 'friends' and all they do is pass gifts to each other and help with the new co-op farming. One of my fiancee's friend is married to a woman who has four different farms going.

While the Zynga games don't take a lot of skill, my friend K dubbed them 'point and click' games there is some level of team play needed, you need friends to help you expand and to send you things you need to compete certain tasks. I'm not fond of those who set up multiple farms/cafes/mobs and just send stuff to the main farm/cafe/mob. That's like running your D&D character though a solo adventure you created to level up.

Yes the Zynga games are easy, one could play them drunk while blindfolded however sometimes after a shitty day at work I want something that doesn't require a lot of thought or planning on my part. I wanna click on the little market symbol, plant some blueberries and come back in four hours and have some blueberries to harvest. I wonder if that's why so many of the players of these games are women due to the ease of it.

Unless you are like the freaky Dr. Phil lady who went has far to unplug the router so her kids would think the internet was down and get off the computer so she could get back on a lot of women like gaming but might not have the time to play a so called 'real' game so Farmville/Fishville/Cafe World is easy to do in their spare time. Plus with it being so easy small children can play and they can all play together.

I do feel compelled to offer some suggestions to these games....I will sound like Amazon.com here

Farmville-Try Harvest Moon. It comes on several systems (Wii, PlayStation 2 and X-Box 360) and each version is different. Like Farmville but at a faster pace. Each day is only about 20 to 30 minutes long and not only must you handle your farm and livestock, having good relationships with other farmers/friends/family is key to winning. *kind of like real life*

Cafe World-Try Cooking Mama. Only for the Wii and DS you are required to cut/chop/mix/fry in order to make different dishes. The game requires the player to learn when to put ingredients in the pan at the right temperature and time and other handy cooking skills. When you master recipes you can try to create new dishes. Or you can just go to the kitchen and risk getting cut and burnt like I do. ^-^

Yo-ville-Try any of The Sims games. PC, Wii, PlayStation, and X-box all of versions of the never ending crack habit not to mention the never ending expansion packs.

FishVille or PetVille-Seriously what is wrong with you...go get a real pet. Something you can hug or stare at in it's fishbowl. If you can't afford a real pet the animal shelters need volunteers so does PetSmart.

Now please excuse me, I have flowers to harvest.

Reggie ^-^

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

What the Hell-O just happened?

Tonight we shall be nerdy and talk about the spring premiere of Glee Tuesday night...that after waiting four months for did leave something to be desired.

It wasn't a bad episode, but it was not the best and after making me wait four months and all the hype around it I was waiting for fireworks, instead I got some sparklers.

Let's recap...and yes this will have spoilers.

The episode titled Hell-O picks up after the kids win Sectionals and somehow even after beating a deaf school and a all girls correctional school at a singing contest the kids still can't get any cool points and they find themselves still at the bottom of the social ladder in a puddle of slushie. Even Will is having trouble getting points in with Principal Figgins and is fighting for the club to stay despite another round of budget cuts and the Cheerleading Cheerios needing the main stage to practice in the winter.

Will is confused about why the Cheerios need the main stage when they don't even have a coach and than in walks in Sue Sylvester, very tan from her time in Boca and reinstated after drugging Figgins and taking some very naughty pics of them in bed. Despite Will's offer to bury the hatchet, Sue says that she will only bury the hatchet in his groin and looks forward to ruining his little club and getting him fired. *Oh Sue I missed you!*

Will later gets our merry band of singing misfits together and wants them to come up with a new signature piece for the club, the club's own way of saying 'Hello' and the song must include the word 'Hello'.

This leads into our A plotline of the episode: Finn and Rachel. Finn is trying to get himself out an emo rut, he's not coping with his break-up from Quinn or that Puck is now dating her and the fact that the whole school now knows that Puck knocked Quinn up behind his back or that he is now 'dating' Rachel who is a far cry from the cheerleader girlfriend and status he's used to.

When Will and Finn meet up to work on his 'Hello' piece both guys bond over the shared stress of baby drama...well in Will's case there wasn't a baby just his soon to be ex wife pretending there was. Will encourages Finn to break away from all that and find a new man; his inner rock star and live it up. Finn settles on The Doors: Hello, I love you.

For me...this is where it started to lose me

It was a good song, Cory Monteith gave a good performance but it was the dance number that ruined it for me. He was singing in the halls being a little emo and the Cheerios were dancing around him and everyone is looking at him like he's a bad ass and I looked and I swore that I had seen the singing emo guy with girls dancing all around him before and than it hit me.

Spiderman 3! When emo Peter Parker is dancing down the street, giving high fives and than at the club with Gwen Stacy making Mary Jane all jealous. Just change Peter with Finn and Gwen Stacy with cheerleaders and glee girls and Mary Jane with Rachel and it's the same freaking thing.

So back on Glee we find out that our two favorite Cheerios Brittany and Santana have been ordered by Sue to start hitting on Finn which will drive Rachel crazy and break up the Glee Club in exchange for doing this Sue will make one of them head cheerleader. I was surprised that both girls agreed to it after Sectionals where both admitted they liked Glee Club and it made them happy, but the allure of head cheerleader is enough to throw happiness and friendships out the window.

So after being asked out by two cheerleaders Finn gives Rachel the lamest break up speech ever.

Finn-I wanna find my inner rockstar.
Rachel-No you wanna be a whiny popular bitch again and I'm not doing it for you cause I like you how you are and you don't like me for me so GFY! *storms off crying*

So Rachel is being pissy and Finn is being emo with cheerleaders and Will wants to know if anyone else has done the 'Hello' homework. Rachel of course has done her homework and wants to show off her 'Hello'. Her 'hello' was more of a 'GFY' that would have made Alanis Morissette proud and she belted out Gives You Hell from The All-American Rejects which was clearly pissing Finn off has he did not join in with the awesome dancing and Will is not pleased that Rachel is not only mocking his assignment she is clearly picking on his new BFF. So he once again goes into the 'Vocal Adrenaline is better than us and we need to get it together or we won't have a club anymore!' speech. *I swear he just needs to record that damn speech he says it every other week*

Rachel determine to forget Finn and focus on winning goes to find new sheet music and we get introduced to the future Edward of Glee, Jesse St James from Vocal Adrenaline.

Rachel-OMG YOU ARE AWESOME!
Jesse-*Goes on about how awesome he is and how she is not but she could be*

Clearly Rachel has been reading Twilight where if the boy insults you and treats you like crap it means he is fighting really deep strong feelings of love for you and you must throw everything to the wind to be with him. So after a really random song from Lionel Richie the two make plans to go out.

Elsewhere Finn is on the most awkward/awesome date with Santana and Brittney. It was awkward cause they ignored him and bashed on Rachel, but according to my fiancee who walked in when Santana and Brittney offered to make out in exchange for Finn buying dinner it was an awesome date. But Finn ditched them and simply proved that he is the dumbest teenage male to ever walk the planet.

The only saving grace to this scene was the interaction between Brittney and Santana. I have fallen in love with Heather Morris who plays Brittney. Any girl who can say lines like, 'Did you know dolphins are just gay sharks?' and you still wanna hang out without even though you have no clue how she gets out of bed in the morning is for the win in my book. Seriously my favorite scenes the entire episode were between Sue/Santana and Brittney and possibly the only reason I kept watching.

So Finn realizes that he was a tool on level with Spiderman 3 and goes to win Rachel back.

Finn-I'm a tool.
Rachel-I know.
Finn-Can date?
Rachel-Like no! You are the Jacob to my Bella and I have found my Edward so step off. *storms off again* * Finn tattles to his new BFF Will*

The Glee kids are not happy about this new dating of the enemy and tell Rachel to pick them or the Volvo driving glee boy. If she doesn't pick them they will all quit so no club. Now I can understand them being all pissy about dating the enemy to threaten her with ending the club seemed a bit on the overkill side. The reasoning that they didn't want another repeat of the stolen set list mishap that almost cost them Sectionals really didn't make sense.

Rachel would rather drink gasoline than lose and considering they let Santana and Britteny stay even though they are the ones who gave the set list to Sue and admitted spying for Sue (and still are) it seemed harsh and unfair to throw Rachel to the wolves. So Rachel meets with Jesse and asks him if he wants this to be a real relationship or is it just to mess with her. Of course being a smart teenage boy he says yes it's a real relationship and promises to keep it between them...and of course you know he's playing her cause you see his glee coach off to the side watching them make out.

I don't see this ending well, however I don't think he's in it for info. I think he is there to try to get Rachel to leave and join Vocal Adrenaline since she has the talent. Plus it would be tempting for her to go to a school where glee is popular, she doesn't get a slushie in the face everyday, she can date this 'thing' openly and leave Finn behind.

Finn is still trying to win Rachel back and it's still not working, she turns him down said it's best for the team if they don't date. This time Finn calls her on her BS and he promises to not give up on her this time.

We end our A plotline with the kids singing a Beatles classic-Hello, Goodbye and you can tell during the musical number that Rachel was not there, didn't wanna be near Finn and just not happy there has she walked off the stage at the end. I really think she could defect to Vocal Adrenaline for awesome plot twist.

Our B plotline wasn't that great between Will and Emma. Now I have cheered for this couple, not since Jim and Pam have I cheered for people to cheat on their partners and hook up. When we ended the season with them kissing I had a fan girl moment and couldn't wait to see them find each other as a couple.

I was let down in so many ways.

To sum it up-Yes they are dating, but Emma has physical issues with the relationship due to her OCD and we find out she is still a virgin. Not surprising considering it's her, wasn't surprised that Will agreed to take it slow being that he is the nice guy.

What surprised the hell out of me was after Finn tattled on Rachel he went to meet with the coach of Vocal Adrenaline played by Idina Menzel and what happened during the meeting.

Will-Tell your talent sucking leech to stay away from my girl.
Menzel-Oh sure whatever, hey you wanna go make out?
Will-Hell yeah.

So they go back to his apartment and start making out and than Will wusses out and spills to a total stranger all his problems who tells him when he fixes the crazy in his life to give her a call. This whole bit made no sense at all, how does Will go from stand up guy who waited until leaving his wife to date Emma to horn dog in 30 seconds cause Emma won't go all the way?

Menzel was worth watching though as a crazed glee coach telling her students she wanted smiles that hurt and enough onstage optimism that could cure cancer. I think she is the Sue of Glee and I hope to see more of Menzel this season. She was the second reason I kept watching after Sue/Santana and Britteny.

Meanwhile Will's soon to be ex wife Terri is playing head games with Emma and basically tells Emma that Will is using her as a crutch and he'll soon come back to her. So after months of dancing around each other, a wedding called off and a marriage ended Will and Emma agree to step back and just be friends for now.

I waited four months for this...and it wasn't even good. Even the musical numbers that I normally love weren't even that great. The Highway to Hell cover made wanna cry for AC/DC. Jonathan Groff's voice is far too pretty for AC/DC. This kid needs to take up a whiskey/cigar habit before trying to do AC/DC again. I did like the Hello Goodbye cover despite Beatles's fans flipping out it was going to be ruined and the Gives You Hell cover wasn't that bad. I seriously hope they give Other-Asian kid some story time this season just to explain where the hell he learned to dance like that.

Overall it was a misstep to open the season with this episode. If anything had ended the season with Hell-O I would have been happier and wanted to come back after four months to see what was going on. The Madonna episode should have been the season opener after watching Jane Lynch cover Vogue. I think I would have been happier. Than again after waiting so long and having so hype maybe my hopes were a little too high.

I'm hoping that the rest of this season doesn't give me hell.








Monday, April 12, 2010

One does not become a gamer nerd over night

It takes years of being sucked into Mountain Dew filled nights and several heated Batman debates and before you realize it you own a D&D 3.5 manual and are fighting with loved ones over control of the PS3.

My father was gamer way back in the day (by the way back in the day was 1989) He would host games every Saturday night with his high school friends. He was very focused on these Saturday night events, spending hours reading from the AD&D (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons for the newbies) and kicking me and my brother out of the living room so five grown men could pretend they could cast Fireball and summon the inner He-man. My father focus on these Saturday night events trumped all, including remembering my brother and I needing to have dinner until crying. (damn children and the need to eat!)

This resulted in my father's friends calling him a dick and me having a story to blackmail my father with till he passes.

He stopped gaming till I was about 10 or 11 and than LARP-ing was born. (Live action role playing for the newbies) Oh the LARP-ing. Nothing says father-daughter bonding like watching dad put on make-up, fake teeth and trench coat to pretend he's a 500 year old vampire.
My birth mother however swore she wasn't having a gamer for a daughter which gave to a cheer leading phase I won't go into. My father took pity on me however and started leading me the Dork Side. (Yes I meant to say that)

I started reading Dragons of the Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, also known has the D&D gateway drug. I fell in love with the DragonLance series and they started me down a path of gamer nerd I couldn't turn away from.

I didn't play my first D&D game until I was 17, however I was still a nerd falling in love with Japanese Anime, video games and a site called fanfiction.net. Gaming simply pushed me over the edge of nerd landing me in the gamer nerd category which I now proudly claim.

Since than I do own a D&D 3.5 manual, several dice sets, and a manga collection of Sailor Moon. I have had talks at two o'clock in morning about what a whiny girl Wolverine was in the third X-men movie fueled by Mountain Dew and Pixies Sticks.

And I love every minute I get to be the Girly Nerdy Gamer

Just because I have pink dice doesn't mean I won't kick ass.

Hello and welcome to what I hope will be the start of something new and slightly dorky.

This blog is for all the Girly Nerdy Gamers out there who feel like they are the only ones who love a good sale at Victoria's Secret yet enjoy throwing down a good D20 with the rest of the guys on a Friday night.

Sometimes it can be a bit lonely being the ' gamer chick' trying to explain your hobbies to either sex. Guys don't understand your need for brownies, shoes or why you jumped up and down screaming like a fan girl when Jim and Pam got together on The Office.

Girls don't understand your need to sit in basement pretending you're a half elf rouge pirate trying the stop the Black Fleet from taking all your loot, yearly trips to Gen-con or why you have X-men comics next to a stack of bridal magazines.

Since this is so new I can't be sure how often I'll update or what topics will come up. I may blog about what happened on Glee, trying to survive convention season with wallets and friendships still intact or what happens when you tell your co-workers you took a pole dancing class at said convention. ^-^()

I just hope to get some laughs if nothing else.

Welcome to Girly Nerdy Gamer blog

Reggie
Owner the Pink Dice.