Winter Wonderland Xmas and New Year irl update

Life has been great. I've been working a ton, gaming a ton, playing guitar a ton, and just living life to the fullest every day. It's pretty great! For the Christmas break from school my younger brother came and visited us. It was great having him. It was a real bros kind of a Christmas with the three brothers all together. My brother goes to the University of Chicago and he's a brilliant young guy. He runs a great blog about African/Caribbean history and its tagged on my blog. I like his posts on jazz. Check it out.

Work has been stressful but it pays the bills. I've been working super late shifts and its always a lot of work. But as they say the show must go on even if I'm tired of it. I've almost reconciled the fact that I'm giving up a social life to work but there have been good things that have come out of work lately. Such as...

The other night I met Steve Vai's son, Fire Vai. Don't call his name out in a movie theater! :D
We talked for a bit and I told him about how his dad was a big influence on my guitar playing. He mentioned that Tosin Abasi comes over to their house all the time. Later that evening he came back and gave my friend and I some signature Vai guitar picks, poster, dvd, and a cd! Talk about cool.

Christmas was also great despite the fact that I worked until 11:30 pm. When I got home I got to eat a great Cornish game hen dinner and open my gifts with my family. I got a nuka cola girl blanket, fallout vault boy (pixelated art-style) snapback, n64 anthology book that covers every game made on the console, Ravi Coltrane's latest record, Attack on Titan movie part 2, Warhammer 40k comic, Halo original soundtrack, Hendrix shirt, Megadeth shirt, Ghost shirt, Steam card, and I still have one more gift coming from a friend or two. Talk about an epic fucking loot experience. I spent a lot of money on friends and family this year and they certainly did the same for me. It's great knowing that people care about me and got me great stuff that I will use for the long term.

In addition, earlier this week I jammed with a guitar playing co-worker of mine and we're going to start a project together. Find a bassist and a singer and have a real band that can start gigging. These guys are younger than I am but they are great musicians. The guitar player is a progressive metal player that plays on a John Petrucci signature 7-string. The drummer just likes to groove but he has great technique and fills. He was keeping up with every rhythm I threw at him. It was an incredible jamming experience. With me there things went into improvisatory jazz territory but I could also bring it to prog and metal moments as well.

In terms of gaming I've been playing a lotta stuff with friends. Team Fortress 2, Overwatch, and Heroes of the Storm mostly but since I got Warhammer Vermintide from a friend on Christmas I've been putting in time on that. It's a great game and I'm glad I finally have it because I've been wanting it for a while.

Lastly, its been a real winter wonderland in California this year. Its been the coldest year since I've lived here. Nights get pretty cold in my room but thankfully I have a extra blanket and a small heater.

Things have been good but life also has to be well balanced in order to live a meaningful life. As we go into this next year I will focus harder on living a meaningful life. That is all I can ask for.

That's it for now. See ya next year!

Overwatch plans for 2017

Jeff Kaplan put out a new video talking about Overwatch and plans for the future.

He began talking about how they haven't changed Sombra yet because they think she has a high skill cap and they don't want another overpowered character like the launch of Ana. They introduced Eichenwalde, Arcade Mode, Seasonal Events, and all the other content. It's been a blast.

Looking forward to the new year there's a lot of stuff for the players to be excited about.

Oasis is the new map that's already on the ptr. They're going to release it early 2017, maybe even by the new year.

More Seasonal Events are coming. Some that we'll see coming and some that we won't see coming.

They're working on customization for a communication wheel (ultimate, hello, voice lines, etc). They're going to put like 4 emotes and voice lines and stuff. There's also going to be custom bindings to trigger these. For sprays they're going to add a spray wheel-up to four sprays. By adding this customization it will make a lot of the voice lines, sprays, and emotes more exciting and rewarding.

Minor upgrades include joining team chat right away instead of clicking on it every game.

They're working on a lot of new content all the time but they also scrap a lot of ideas as well. Genji is an example of this because he wasn't working out in the beginning of the creation process. They have a hero that has been worked through the art prototype already. Possibly Doomfist voiced by Terry Crews?

They're working on other maps other than Oasis. These will be shown next year. Some won't see the light of day.

They're always looking for new things to try out for Arcade Mode.

Improvements for esports will be coming for sure-particularly for spectator viewing. Professional broadcasters and observers have been helping them with this.

The last thing which they mentioned at BlizzCon is that they want to give us a way for us to find custom games. They're creating a server browser so people can see a big list of custom games and players can create them and make them public for people to join. This is the top requested feature and its very common in first person shooters. They're going to have a solid version 1.0 running in early 2017 and they're going to expand upon it later.

The developer updates will keep coming and we'll learn more as time passes.

Oh yeah, Tracer was revealed as being gay in the latest Overwatch comic. Cheers love, the gays are here!

Evolve, Left 4 Dead Studio working on new co-op fps

Evolve was a bit of a failure of a co-op multiplayer experience. Support for Evolve officially ended earlier this year and Turtle Rock studios has moved on to a new IP. It's going to have a dark fantasy vibe.

A studio rep told gamesindustry.biz that they're collaborating with free to play publisher Perfect World Entertainment. Their works include Star Trek Online and Black Light Retribution. He went on to say:

"We are developing a new franchise set in an all new universe that leverages the style of gameplay our community loves and expects from Turtle Rock Studios," according to Phil Robb, the studio's co-founder. "We're focusing on what we do best - heart-pounding moment-to-moment online co-op FPS action, and with Perfect World as our partner, we will always make sure that our players come first by listening to them and growing the game based on how they play and interact over what we hope are many years to come."

Sounds pretty sweet, right?  The President of the company Steve Goldstein also said the game will be focused on co-op play and that it will have a strong dark fantasy element. There will be no zombies nor will it be apocalyptic.

Evolve wasn't a bad game. But it died hard. These are great gaming developers. They created one of the best co-op experiences in gaming-Left 4 Dead. I think this new IP will be pretty great especially since it will be in a fantasy universe. I'm hoping that there's magic and elves and stuff. This new game will be out in 2018 at the earliest. 

Is Terry Crews gonna be the voice of Doomfist?

In a tweet earlier today Blizzard announced that Terry Crews has visited the campus for unknown reasons. People are thinking its because he's going to be the voice of Doomfist. This seems highly likely, as I don't think he would've been there just because he's a fan of pc gaming.

In an Overwatch subreddit titled "If Doomfist becomes a hero I'd be so hyped if Terry Crews voice acted for him" Terry Crews responded  "I would LOVE TO PLAY DOOMFIST." He's really into pc gaming and he has to do this for the fans, the devs, and for himself. He would be a great addition to the game.

I know Terry Crews mostly from Everybody Hates Chris, a Chris Rock comedy sitcom about when he was a kid. Terry Crews plays Chris's dad in that show and he's a great actor. I also know him from Brooklyn Nine Nine, a goofy show that delivers the laughs.

Blizzard loves their fans so it is entirely possible that they might hire a voice actor based on thousands of Reddit upvotes and one piece of Reddit gold.

If you didn't know who Doomfist was you can read all about him here.

Overwatch Christmas Update Is Live

     So the Christmas update for Overwatch has gone live. The new update brings a bunch of cool new skins, a Mei only 6v6 brawl, the changes they made to Symmetra from the ptr, and a new social features that allows you stay as a team together after games. So much stuff but we all know you're only here for the cool new skins. Here they are!

     These new skins are pretty terrific if I do say so myself. I already got the Nutcracker Zenyatta, Scrooge McCree, and Santa Torb. I'm hoping to pick up the Yeti Winston because that one is just badass. It looks like Winston has a manly beard mane, its pretty freakin' awesome. I'm definitely going to farm up more loot boxes and see what I can get. I will probably end up buying the other ones with the currency I have saved up.

     The game has changed a lot. Symmetra is a lot stronger now with her projectile shield and the new social feature to stay as team makes finding games a lot faster. It works especially well with a good team you played with in competitive mode. However, the more I play competitive the more toxic players I encounter. Like players that leave after the first minute of the game that say, "fuck you guys" and leave. It's an epidemic that the devs must fix.

     It's always great to see the holiday spirit reflected in our favorite games. For some this is a hard time of perhaps even suffering. If we can find joy in the things we like than maybe that really is the Christmas spirit.

Happy holidays

China passes loot box law

Loot boxes are a thing in many video games. You level up and you earn boxes or you can buy them for a set fee. Inside you can find many a in-game items. For example, in Overwatch you can get character skins, emotes, sprays, etc. Right now we have no idea what our odds are of getting items we want as its usually always random.

Well, China passed a law that's going to be a game changer. Starting May 2017, developers will have to start disclosing the probabilities of what could be inside the boxes in games like Overwatch, Counter Strike, and Hearthstone. 

Here are the stipulations (as translated by NeoGAF user chillybright):

2.6 ...Online game publishers shall promptly publicly announce information about the name, property, content, quantity, and draw/forge probability of all virtual items and services that can be drawn/forge on the official website or a dedicated draw probability webpage of the game. The information on draw probability shall be true and effective.
2.7 Online game publishers shall publicly announce the random draw results by customers on notable places of official website or in game, and keep record for government inquiry. The record must be kept for more than 90 days. When publishing the random draw results, some measures should be taken place to protect user privacy.

This doesn't mean that we will be able to choose what we get in our loot boxes or see the probabilities because this law is only going to apply in China. However, that doesn't mean that it couldn't reach the Western hemisphere. This could be huge for developers and us gamers who feel like loot boxes are kind of a crap shoot gambler's audition. It is kind of messed up when we put in time into a game and we don't get the items we want out of these loot boxes.

This looks like a good step in the right direction for gamers and loot boxes. Hope it comes to the West.

Will Ferrell Starring In Esports Movie

Will Ferrell will be starring in a movie about esports. ESPN says it “will have similarities with the role he had in Talladega Nights”.

"His schtick, as exciting and unexpected as you may find this, will be that he’s an old dude playing in competitions where nobody else is over the age of 30, and esports powerhouses Evil Geniuses and Fnatic are both “in discussions to participate in the film”." (Kotaku)

I tried looking for the trailer but it doesn't appear to be online anywhere-meaning that the fact that most gaming publications and gamers know this is pretty cool. I wish I could see the trailer and get the pre-giggles. I'm a big fan of Will Ferrell and his comedic antics.

The fact that he's doing a movie about esports is a major win for us gamers. Whether you're semi-professional gamer (or super hardcore) like myself, pro gamer that gets paid and wins tournaments, or just a casual player that plays when they have the time we can all appreciate the fact that gaming has become a huge phenomenon and has been unleashed upon the general populace like a bat outta hell. 

I think gaming used to be a bit taboo when I was a kid. It meant you were a basement dweller who didn't have a girlfriend and still lived with your mom. But now everybody is a gamer. Hot girls are gamers (gamer grills), weight lifting jocks are gamers, dads are gamers, and even old ladies (see story about 80-year old granny who streams Skyrim). Gaming has become a part of the mass media culture in many aspects. This means that its no longer as exclusive as it used to be but things are much better now that everyone can be accepted and initiated with the rites of gamerdom.

Esports has made gaming even bigger and its great. I do enjoy watching gaming tournaments on Twitch from time to time and I can see that the gaming community has widened in race, gender, class background, and age. Gaming has also brought people together who otherwise would've never known each other in a million years. I've met countless friends through online gaming, it's pretty cool.

If this movie hits the major box offices (and I'm sure it will) it will be a huge win for gamers and the gaming community.

Gamers are really funny people. Just talk to me or any of my friends.