More Malstrom

I hate to turn this blog into some sort of Malstrom shrine, but this guy continually amazes me. For starters, on Christmas Day, he got so bent out of shape due to 'green' packaging that he declared the 'last blog entry.' Today, however, he's admitted that he'll continue his blog, though with a little less pro-Nintendo stance.

Perhaps most interesting of all, Today's post is an e-mail in which the mailer says to Malstrom "you’ve become the last bit of sanity on the complete internet," and begs him to continue the Blog. In his response, Malstrom links to a GAF thread in which virtually every other post calls him insane (with no reason for the assertion, mind you.) And in one hilarious post, one member said "Just ignore the dude, he'll go away eventually." Of course he will, like the Wii will 'go away eventually.' It's really funny how people are reacting to this the same way that they reacted when the Wii sales dropped; All sorts of glee.

Personally, I'm glad that he's decided to continue his blog, and hope that he continues, if only to keep giving these people the slaps in the faces that they deserve.

The Chupaquesadilla

Unfortunately, I am out of bacon, so today's food experiment will have to without. I have, however, tried it with bacon, and rest assured, it is delicious.

Fans of a certain webcomic may partially recognize the name of today's experiment: namely, the Chupaqueso.

I have taken it one step further than simple melted cheese with a fried cheese shell, however, and wrapped the whole thing in a tortilla shell. It's somewhat like a quesadilla, somewhat a Chupaqueso, therefore, I give you the Chupaquesadilla.



Yes, it is a mouthful.

Violence and Video Games

Funnily enough, this post started out as a reply to a post in one of the forums I go to. In it, I use many arguments which have only come to me as part of reading up on Malsrom's stuff. Seriously, if you haven't already read this guy's stuff, at least his article on birdmen, you owe it to yourself to do so.

Anyway, here's my (revised and expanded) post:

Video games are getting more violent. There isn't really any way around that fact. Does this mean that everyone who plays these games is going to go on a violent rampage, ala The signal?

Probably not.

It is, however, an indication of something different. There is a 'niche' market that like the gratuitous violence and/or sex in video games. The games need to be "Hardcore" just as they see themselves as "Hardcore" gamers. For those of you who've heard of That Guy with the Glasses or specifically Linkara, you'll know what I mean when I say that this 'niche' market, the "Hardcore" gamer is, essentially, "the 90s kid." You all know who I mean, many of you four reading this are probably that guy. The "Hardcore" gamer, the guy who thinks that an "M" rating automatically makes a game good,(and automatically makes any game without an "M" rating inferior.) These are the people who bought a Playstation because it boasted "Mature content" and hate the Nintendo Wii because it's "ruining gaming."

Games are not for fun to the "90s kid", it is an "art" that should be put against movies or books, after all, many of the games have "Good story" and "Deep characters," (both of which would be laughed out of Hollywood) but at the same time, the game can't bee too 'linear.' Games are "serious business," and should take over 40 hours of time; these people are willing to give up two days of their life to beat this game.

The current gaming market is being overrun with "90s kid"s. This is the 'something different' I mentioned earlier. What's happening is that more and more games are getting catered to the "90s kid" and as a result, most games out there are made for the "90s kid." These are the games that get advertised the most, and thusly get the most attention. The people who don't like these games end up just quitting the whole gaming scene altogether. I am, unfortunately, one of these people.

In other words, Gaming is stuck in the 90s.

This is actually the reason why Nintendo's Wii is so successful. With games getting catered to this 'niche' market, most people were alienated from games. The Wii not only provides these alienated people with the means to easily play games, but provides them with the type of games that they want to play. Miyamoto himself has said that "It is [Nintendo's] duty to produce alternatives to GTA."

The Nintendo 'revolution' was scoffed at, and was set to be a giant flop. Why? because the only people looking at it were "90s kid"s. The gaming market at the time of course would see in the Wii a "weaker" console, full of "kid games" (read: not "M" rated, First Person Shooter, and/or "sandbox" games.) The secret to the success of the Wii is that it didn't cater to the "90s kid," They instead made a console for the people who bought an NES. The people who, like myself, have been ostracized for not being "Hardcore."

I sincerely hope that Nintendo "ruins" the gaming industry in the way it's been doing: providing alternatives to Grand Theft Auto, and making games that can be played without a controller with a ridiculous amount of buttons.

Sean Malstrom

Have you ever wondered why the Wii was so succesful? Why the games on the PS360 have become bland, with few real gems in the lot? Why gaming in general seems inferior to what it used to be?

Well, that last one might just be the nostalgia talking, but really, Sean Malstrom has a website almost entirely dedicated to the reasons for the Wii's success.

What is Nintendo's big secret? It's called disruption. It's not even a secret; Nintendo has even said that disruption is their strategy.

In Malstrom's articles, he details how disruption entails more than just making "casual" games, and how it's really about changing the values, about literally changing the game.

Be warned, his articles are long, and might be a bit too long on some fronts, but it's well worth it.

The place to start is with his article on "Birdmen and the Casual Fantasy."

Or just start with his main page: http://malstrom.50webs.com/

I have recently made a discovery.

So the other night I was looking for something to eat, and I was getting tired of turkey leftovers, so I found myself a package of Top Ramen with beef flavoring.

But I felt like it was missing something, after all noodles in flavored water was sounding a little weak, so I added a little something.

A little something known as BACON!

What resulted was delicious.

So then, last night I made some Mac&Cheese, and thought that it could also be made better by the addition of bacon.

Much to my pleasant surprise, it was even better than my previous trial. I've decided to try experiments with bacon, and see if it truly does make everything better.

More as this develops.

Hello!

I have officially broken into the blagoshpere. Hooray for me, I guess. So, you'll probably want to know a bit about me, so here goes. My name is Mark Goodwin, though I might be better known online as CID Farwin. I'm 21 years old, and I'm going to college at Utah Valley University. I'm an aspiring artist, writer, cartoonist, humorous movie/game/whatever reviewer, or whatever else I think I might be good at at the time. As of now I don't have very much to offer, aside from a few reviews at (which apparently just takes you to the forums now.) I hope to make good use of this opportunity, and to provide whoever may have stumbled on this little corner of the Internet with quality entertainment.