Paws to Play

Homecoming was invented at the University of Missouri. Seriously. We have all kinds of ridiculous traditions that go along with our Homecoming celebration, including something called campus decorations, or "pomping." Pomping is kind of hard to describe, but basically you wrap tissue paper around a marker and then stick it on a board to make a huge, elaborate scene. Yes, it's as silly as it sounds. This year the theme was "Paws to Play," and all of the scenes were of videogames! It was super exciting.

My house had Mario:
Pretty cool, right? I'll post pictures of the ones from the other sororities as soon as I get them.

Always wanted to make your own ocarina, but weren't sure how? You could make one with the standard clay, or use card, make one with your hands, and then make it pretty.

(I'm a little too excited about Phantom Hourglass.)

I love fetch quests, and I'm not afraid to admit it.

Okay, I'm a little afraid to admit it. I read a lot of game reviews that complain about games being tedious and boring. Well, what most people would define as boring in a game, I define as bitchin'.

One of my favorite things to do when I'm playing something is just walk around. This has a tendency to bore anyone that's in the room with me when I play, but I would say that at least six hours of my total time playing Twilight Princess was devoted to wandering aimlessly, and far more than that much time is spent doing essentially nothing in most RPGs I play (I shudder to think how many countless hours I spent making sure I had seen every speck of land in Dragon Warrior III for my GBC).

Fetch quests essentially give me an excuse to backtrack and look around. I read a review on Gamespot.com of the latest Harry Potter game (which, fyi, I was totally already planning on buying because I am a GIGANTIC tool and words cannot express the sheer joy I feel when I think about using my Wii controller as a wand), and as soon as I saw "the game is little more than a chore simulator," I knew I had found a game I would love. Once "endless backtracking" and "nearly everything about the game is tedious" were thrown in, I practically ran to Slacker's.

And you know what? I was right. I think it's great. I am proof that the saying "one man's trash is another man's treasure" applies to video games. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go do some pointless backtracking through Hogwarts. Bitchin'.

Sometimes having a conscience is a real bitch

I suck at Grand Theft Auto. The first GTA that I played was GTA: Vice City. I was sold on it at first. I was right in the middle of a big '80s obsession, and I really, really loved the music choices and the fashions in the game, and because I grew up with a car-obsessed father, I totally dug my vehicle options. After a startlingly short amount of time, though, the game made me antsy. I didn't like the idea of pulling a little old lady out of her car and throwing her on the street so that I could use her car to escape law enforcement. I wished there were an "apologize" command or something. I just felt terrible stealing cars from the defenseless little NPCs.

As for running over pedestrians... well, I just couldn't do it. I had to keep my car on the road. I finally managed to get out of my habit of stopping at red lights, but I pretty much sucked at the game as a whole because I couldn't get over feeling like the stuff I was doing was just inherently wrong. I think if I didn't get as into games as I do (despite my vacant facial expressions, I really am sucked in), I wouldn't have as much of an issue. I really do feel like I am my character when I play a videogame, especially if it's as immersive as GTA. I don't like being mean in real life, so why on earth would I like it in my fake life?

Sometimes, I make wonderful decisions

Cooking Mama: Cook Off: On a scale of 1 to 10, it sucked.

I've never been a big believer in renting games. I love renting movies. I can easily watch a two-ish hour movie in five days, but playing a game that could take anywhere from ten to fifty hours to complete? That's a little bit of a stretch. Finally, though, I have accepted that rentals don't have to be all about playing ten plus hours per day to complete a game... it can be used as a way to save money by not buying crappy games!

I love Cooking Mama on my DS. It's one of my favorite games to pick up and play when I have some spare time, and even though I have had it since it came out, I haven't gotten sick of it (okay, I've gotten a little sick of putting breading on things, but that's because it's a total bitch). I saw no reason that I wouldn't love Cooking Mama: Cook Off for the Wii, and I figured I'd buy it as soon as I had a job for this summer. I then saw the price tag, and realized that although $20 was a fine price to pay for portable fun, $50 seemed a little stiff for the home version. I thought to myself, why not give renting a try? I think $7 for a five-day rental is a little ridiculous, Blockbuster, but I figured if it ended up saving me $43, it was worth it.

I question whether I have ever made a better decision in my life than when I chose not to buy Cooking Mama: Cook Off. I'm not sure I have. I played it for around an hour and a half and was so, at the risk of sounding dramatic, disgusted with how hard it was for a single one of my actions to be recognized by the game that I turned it off. What a horrible, horrible disappointment. At first I thought maybe it was my sensor bar or something, but all my other games still play fine (I had to play something else afterwards to get the taste out of my mouth). I had been playing the two-person version with my sister, and when I went back and played the single player I discovered that it was marginally better because I didn't lose track of where I was pointing as much, it still wasn't what I would call fun. My sister quit after about thirty minutes, and declared that it was the "worst game ever." I don't know about that, but it's definitely a big disappointment. I expected mindless fun. I only got the mindless part.

Game face

I could never be in one of the Nintendo Wii commercials. Every time I see one, I am struck by how ridiculously exuberant everyone looks as they play. I, on the other hand, have a look on my face that is the absolute polar opposite of vivacious. I am slackjawed, I hardly blink, and the only real sign that I am still a functioning human being is that sometimes I squint my eyes when I'm thinking. When I watch other people play, I get completely engaged and I gasp, laugh, and smile while they're playing. Somehow, though, when the controller is in my hands, I get so completely in the zone that I look like the kids in Psychonauts whose brains are sucked out. Anyone else lose all control over facial features when they've been taken in by a videogame?

Sorry it's been so long, but sometimes I just don't have much to talk about. I haven't been playing a lot of games lately (with the notable exception of Puzzle Quest, my greatest love in life), but I have been knitting a lot and reading a lot of books.

I somehow didn't feel telling tales of my knitting adventures would really interest very many people (although I did make a sweet personalized DS case with pockets for games... it's super cute). As I said, I've also been reading a lot, which always makes me think. I like things that make me think. I love discussing books I've read with other people that have also read them, and seeing how we interpret things differently, etc. I've never been in a real, true, honest-to-goodness book club, but my friends and I trade books around and it's kind of an unofficial type of thing. I love it.

That being said, I also love Brian Crecente's idea for a Kotaku Game Club. I like to think that I'm not the only one who loves trying to find deeper meaning in games, even if it's probably all just my imagination, and I would really enjoy having people to share my ramblings with and hear their ramblings in return. Could be a good time, right?