Epic Gamer Girl

I’m ready to face reality. To overcome my fears and anxiety. To breathe through the pain of knowing its over. I know that suffering makes us stronger. I have officially accepted…

The end of Rock Band dlc.

You might snicker at how crazy it sounds to feel sad about this, or you might fully understand.

When I realised that there would be no more dlc, with the exception of rbn, I kinda stopped downloading songs because I didn’t want to admit that my Tuesday’s were no longer the best day of the week. New songs were released on Tuesday’s every week for as long as I can remember. Songs were announced the Friday before and you had to wait the whole weekend to buy the next set of songs.

Anyways, I decided to start the process of letting go. I downloaded the Chevelle pack and American Pie.

Rock Band has been with me through many epic life events. I played Rock Band while studying and living on campus at UBC, while traveling to New Zealand, and getting settled in Canada. I have celebrated my birthday with Rock Band parties and spend 24 hours of solid gaming for charity using Rock Band. My local friends think I’m crazy because I love a video game so much, but they’ve come to appreciate that it’s a part of who am.

In my professional life, I have used Rock Band to connect  with children and youth. My experience has been working with children & youth in high-risk front line crisis in safe house for women and children fleeing violence. By playing Rock Band with children & youth, and being genuinely into the rockage, I was able to build trust and start the foundation of my psycho-educational work. Once they trust me, I am able to help them recognize their emotions around the trauma they’ve experienced and help them find their strengths to deal with the here and now. Plus, I support them as they create safety plans in the event that they are witness to violence and abuse in their homes.

I’m pretty open with friends and family about why I wanted to get into this work, now I am going to share a bit here. I lived in the safe house that I work in. When I was a child, I was a child that witnessed abuse and violence. I remember fleeing my dad and running across the county to try and stay safe. When I was 10 years old, we moved to Barrie, Ontario from BC and I spent the entire summer listening to American Pie. I knew every word. I could sing it without the music. I would hide in the attic and hum the song when I got scared. If I was walking to school or the park and I felt nervous I would start singing American Pie. I drove my sister nuts because it was my favorite song and she couldn’t understand why I was listening to such ‘dated’ music. She hated anything I liked because she was 2 years older than me, thus, cooler. So naturally I would torture her by singing it loudly before bed.  I would listen to it through my walkman and sing along, so only I could hear the music blaring in my ears. The look on her face was priceless.

My love for this song lasted about 3 months. Every waking moment, every quiet time, every lonely, sad, and happy experience had American Pie attached to it. When you are 10 years old, 3 whole months feels like a lifetime.

I brought this song back to BC with me when my family tried to reunite again and I kept it close to my heart as my own personal weapon against anything that happened. All I needed to feel safe and happy was my song: American Pie.

For some people, music becomes a huge part of who they are. For most teenagers, the music they listen to defines the decisions they make and the type of life they want to live. For me, music was something I had control over. It was something that no one could take away from me. Of course, it could be restricted (my mom referred to Metallica as ‘devil music’ so she wouldn’t approve of me listening to it). But I always found ways around the restrictions and I listened to the music I liked.

The reason why Harmonix picked American Pie as the last dlc for Rock Band 3 isn’t important to me, but playing the song is huge.

It took me over a month to even download the song. Now that I own the song on Rock Band, it might sit in my library unplayed for months. Or I might play it tomorrow.

(Note: a *walkman is sort of like an iPod).

What can a gamer whip together quickly that is healthy and tastes great?

For me, this typically looks like eggs. Anything to do with eggs is the quick and easy. For example, last nights dinner was veggie fajitas. There were some left over peppers so I refried those with a scrambled egg and smothered it in hot sauce. I was actually able to play a couple levels of TMNT while the food sizzled away. And alas, a healthy, quick, and deliciously breakfast that doesn’t interfere with gaming.

I’m not a fan of microwaved dinners. Mainly because they taste gross and I don’t own a microwave. All of the food I eat has to be easily prepared or eaten raw because there isn’t enough time to cook huge fancy meals. I would rather eat pizza cold the next day (with hot sauce) than stick it in the oven to warm up. I think its great!

On the note of pizza …one of my staple foods is home made salsa. I chop up:

1 green pepper

1 red pepper

1/2 red onion

5 Roma tomatoes

1 bunch of cilantro

2 jalapeños

This all goes in a bowl and I eat it with most meals. First, nachos. Who doesn’t love a fresh salsa with nachos! Then I will add it to eggs …it’s lovely. And when it’s lived a couple days in my fridge, I will make Indian pizza:

get some naan bread

Use a butter chicken sauce

Add the salsa to the pizza

Smoother with grated cheese

Top with a few banana peppers

Bake for a few mins and a lovely dinner is waiting to be gobbled up! I’m sure there loads of other yummy foods that are quick easy and delicious. If you want to share your favourite, I would love new ideas! My email is midnitefaery@epicgamergirl.com or you can leave a comment here.

Happy gaming! …and munching

I have fallen under the spell of tapping my index finger constantly on my phone. I refused to play games on my phone forever. I have an xbox, what did I need to use my phone for. Hmph…that all changed when I was in a car accident and couldn’t sit up long enough to play xbox but desperately needed to get my game fix.

Well no, that’s a lie. I was at work when I downloaded and played my first mobile “app” game. I was out for coffee with a resident and she couldn’t stop talking about this game called “Tiny Village”. She was eagerly clicking on all the coins and shops when we got wi-fi at Starbucks. This was about a week before the accident. So I downloaded the game and tried it. I created some houses, got villagers, and upgraded my Rock. I was moving up in the world of Tiny Village. I even got to the point where I could hatch dinosaurs from a pen (it only cost 250 gold for a random one). I was just learning about fusing dinosaurs when the accident occurred. What was I going to do without my inspiration from the resident. I downloaded this game so we could have something fun to chat about… and I’m a gamer I put the game aside for the first few days and then when I could stay alert enough to look at my phone, I started tapping again!

Tiny Village

So…after I started to feel fully addicted to my Tiny Village. I was taking photos and uploading them on twitter. I was amazed with how quickly I could progress through the game and how much there was to do. Silly little goals and instant rewards of gold and crystals! I think I spent about 80 crystals without even realizing it :/ I was just “tap” “tap” happy! Typically the crystals cost “real” money if you want to have an abundance of them. For my purpose, I didn’t care so I wasn’t going to start buying extras for a game I was newly addicted to. See, I have control over my addiction!

I leveled up!! – Tiny Village

That’s what I thought until a girlfriend of mine suggested that I download “Order Up” on the app store. It’s another free mobile game. The premise is that you take orders, prepare them, and serve them …all with a tap! Ahah, it was another game that I could feel successful at with my current state.

It didn’t stop there. Some of the goals for Tiny Village is to merely download and run a game to earn free crystals (remember you have to pay for them otherwise) …so I was downloading and running the games. But then, if you run them, you get new goals that will give you more crystals if you play the game to a certain level or prefer a specific action in a game. This is where it all went downhill, and I had no choice but to download all the “story” games (restaurant, fashion, bakery, dragons) …and Slots! I’m not even a gambler! I was laying down … tapping away on all these various games in order to push further in my initial downloaded game.

how can you resist the cuteness!?

Restaurant Story

…I’m not going to lie, now that I can sit up and play games on my xbox, my mobile games will have to take a back burner. I love my xbox and can’t wait to have more time and energy for gaming! That said, I can’t promise I won’t load my mobile games occasionally to tap on my coins and order items to sell (virtually). The addiction takes time to wear off!

So… you know when you love something, take for example, The Walking Dead graphic novels, and you watch it turn into mass produced media. Well that’s what happened from my perspective. I started reading The Walking Dead before the masses picked up on how awesome it is. The tv series started and I stood against it. Partially because movies/shows often ruin the story and also because I didn’t have cable so I couldn’t be bothered spending time finding it online. I was so in love with the graphic novels that I implemented them in my programming while working with youth. What better way to connect then through beautiful art and a fantastic story! Of course there was discussions about safety and what could happen …but I will save that for another post

I got The Walking Dead. I had the demo ages ago and played through the start. I entered the kitchen and bashed that zombie lady’s head in (this is not a spoiler because it is in the demo and you bash through lots of zombies in a apocalyptic game). The demo was the extent for me. I wasn’t hooked. I figured I would wait for all the episodes to be released and then get it. So now you know how long I had been sitting on the fence about this game.

I typically don’t enjoy games that focus on cut scenes and that have amazing graphics during the scene but choppy game play. I just like to turn my console on and play. I even played the start of the 3rd episode at PAX and I wasn’t completely sold.

Then on Christmas Eve, I got a message from a friend on my Xbox. The first whole episode of The Walking Dead was free!! Wicked. I am a sucker for free games …who isn’t?!

I played the first episode and loved it. I was hooked on the characters (even though they’re different than the graphic novels). I loved the choices they had to make and the pace of the game. Plus, its got gorey elements if zombies being killed!

Check out a bit of Episode 2, which was on sale over the holidays.

I would highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys watching a beautifully created video/game. You get to interact with the characters, kill zombies, and make life determining decisions (in the game of course!).

All 5 episodes are available now to download or purchase in the shops. Playing in sequence without a time delay is vital to fully immerse in the story.

You will play as Lee, an escaped criminal. You will find out what he did, as the story progresses. Your partner throughout is Clementine, a little girl who is searching for her parents. You will come across various survivors who will help and hinder your fight against the walkers.

I’ve heard rumors that you will be able to continue your story when the next Walking Dead game comes out. All the tough decisions that you make, will continue to impact what happens and your interactions with other survivors along your path.

These are MY choices throughout the game. Don’t click on the picture if you don’t want to spoil any of your decisions

Over the Christmas holidays I had to make time for video games. Considering that is the whole purpose of a holiday for a gamer right?

I picked up a couple games. First was just before the holiday began. I got LEGO Lord of the Rings. I played through about halfway with Julz before I got distracted with the madness of Christmas.

Lord of the Rings is a fantastic LEGO game because it has voice overs, the characters are easy to control, and you get to blow everything up!

The characters actually communicate to each other through a language that makes sense! Instead of the grunts and groans as seen in previous LEGO games (exception: Batman 2, which I haven’t played).

Each member of the fellowship have their own special abilities that you can upgrade throughout the game. Plus you can forge specific weapons so everyone has access to them. When playing co-op, there are different experiences and missions that you get thrown into so that you can carry on working as a team. Frodo likes to do his own thing! Plus it requires team work to complete certain tasks. Personally, I like Sam the most. He can dig and light fires. Gandolf has awesome magic but he’s not a hobbit!

The reaction speed for the controller and your character are great. You press a button and you see an action. And last but not least, you’re in Middle Earth! I’ve personally been to both (in New Zealand) so I was really excited to explore and blow stuff up!! …anything I could hit, roll into, or pound on, exploded with beautiful studs.

The following captures are potential spoilers as they are from the game.

Introduction to Lego Lord of the Rings:

A bit of gameplay during a quest:

Adventures through Middle Earth