Chick Geek Games - Online Games in Girl's Eyes

200 posts and 279 000 views in chick geek games blog!

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 10:42:00 PDT

Whew! I can’t believe i made it so far! :))) Thought, the first blog post went live on 10/14/2010 (and got 12 views :)) there could have been many more posts than mere 200, i am not a blogging Terminator spewing 10-20 posts per day, so it really IS a huge number for me :) Thanks you all for reading this blog! I hope we all are having some fun here and I’m not boring you to death, lol :) Okay, there are some stats behind the cut, saved for the generations to come. I really can’t believe that ChickGeekGames.com hit nearly 279 000 views!

General stats:

Top ten posts of all times:

Best Cat Cosplay Ever!

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 06:36:00 PDT

This is the best cat cosplay I’ve ever seen! Here’s the story: the cat’s name is Guagua (“瓜瓜”) and it was Guagua’s birthday celebration for which its owner, a user named toshiya86 from a Chinese blogging service Weibo (to see her page, unfortunately, you have to be registered in Weibo) drew these characters on cardboard. I personally don’t think that sticking a cat’s head into dozens of small holes in cardboard pieces is the best birthday present ever, but the resulting pictures are awesome nonetheless. Characters and amine included in this awesome “cosplay” - Christine Mi, Dino, Gold Sparkle, Kiki's Delivery Service, QB, Green Drive, the Old Anchor, Gintama and Naruto.

Gamer Spent REAL $2 500 000 on a virtual property in a “free to play” MMO – the biggest online shopping spree ever?

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 04:23:00 PDT

I guess we all already know that “free to play” games aren’t free at all and are built to lure people into spending hundreds and thousands of dollars on virtual good, but this guy took it on a whole new level. An anonymous player of Entropia Universe by Calipso Games (a total suckage of a game where ALL in-game items are sold for hard cash, i repeat that, ALL) had sealed a deal of spending $2,5 MILLIONS of REAL dollars on 25,000 virtual pieces of land, each sold for $100. Tell me about the biggest shopping spree ever. But, turns out, this may actually be a clever investment move (unless Calipso goes belly up in the nearest future). Could we be facing a beginning of a new era in banking and real estate?

The thing is, everyone who invested in Entropia Universe virtual property are eligible to receive a percentage of all financial operations going on in the game world. Annual turnover of Calipso Games is currently about $400 millions. So, that guy, who spend $2,5 millions on Entropia Universe virtual property, can now receive up to 27% of his investments per year. Which is a much, much bigger sum than he would make if he just deposited these money in some bank for a monthly percentage. Clever bastard, i say.

Previously, virtual property was sold in other games like Second Life and in Entropia Universe itself a virtual space station was sold for $330,000 and a virtual resort for $635,000. But never there had been spent such a huge sum as $2,5 millions. I wonder, would it make real estate agents to look into virtual worlds? Virtual real estate agents… Somehow, it feels disturbing.

Giveaway – 30% off Iconic Gaming T-Shirts with Chick Geek Games!

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 03:28:00 PDT

Hello everyone, today i have a little something for you! This is the first time I’m doing something like this, but it’s cool, i promise. Some time ago Mike Plater of Espada Limited wrote me about classic gaming t-shirts he’s been designing – with PacMan and Pong and cool stuff – and my previous post was about 8bit MMOs, so I thought: hey, with all the nostalgia flowing around… So, here’s the cool stuff: if you get all nostalgic and absolutely can’t live without a “I PWN N00bs” sign on your wide chest, you can get 30% off with “chickgeek” code. “We have seen a rise in competitive gaming, e-sports, and huge gaming titles that touch every part of our community. I wanted to create a line of designs that brought us gamers back to our roots and reminded us of the beginnings we all share in common”, said Mike. More designs under the cut.

The best part is that these t-shirts are made of 100% cotton and the designs are minimalistic simple. The downside here is that Mike currently ships his t-shirts only to continental U.S., but I’m hoping he’ll expand the range someday – because I sure as hell want one of those PacMan designs for myself.

8-bit MMOs – A Nostalgic Gig You can’t miss out!

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 06:49:00 PDT

8-bit MMOs. That was bound to happen, sooner or later. Most of the “grown-ups” today were raised on 8bit games made back in 80s and even late 70s, and as they grow older, nostalgia for old games hits a whole generation. And while those kids born into a world of 3D shooters, World of Warcraft and handheld gaming platforms wouldn’t at first understand the earning for outdated, pixilated and primitive graphics, still the world turns around to face the classic-style games. And here they come: massively multiplayer games made in 8-bit 256 color graphics.

For those who missed the glorified age of 8-bit games: by 8-bit graphics we mean the one that is drawn in 256 colors. They didn’t have to be the same colors for all the games, but a local palette could store only a finite amount of data describing colors, thus restricting game developers to create a palette of 256 colors. You can Google up more detail if you want, and I’ll proceed to the subject of this post. And the first on out list is…

8BitMMO

It’s a completely free to play browser-based 2D PVP sandbox MMO by one Robby Zinchak. I think the whole game is built by this guy alone, so he must be really cool. “Sandbox” part means that you can build stuff just like in MineCraft (and other sandbox MMOs, but easier) – your own castle ~~with blackjack and hookers~~ or even start your own town. That’s right, in 8BitMMO towns are built and run by players (actually, all in-game stuff is build by players) so you can even be a mayor! Better yet, you then can proceed to boast to all the girls at your high-school/college/work that you've been a mayor once, but then took an arrow to the knee.

Neverdaunt: 8Bit

Number two on the list – another PVP sandbox MMORPG by Robot<3Kitty! (which consists of just one guy, he’s even cooler than the last one). What makes this game stand out is its beautiful 8bit-styled 3D graphics (i fell in love with it right away). Being a sandbox, Neverdaunt lets you build stuff and tear to ground what other players had built, but that’s not all – as the game’s teaser clearly shows us, you can not only blow shit with huge bombs, but also own a character that looks like a cat fighting with a sword-fish. Who haven’t always dreamt of hitting other people with a giant fish?! Plus, i am not sure, but the very name of the game – Neverdaunt – might be a tribute to Neverhood (a quest released in 1996, where the whole game world was made out of clay and shot, rather than drawn on PC). I could be seeing thing here, but the sheer awesomeness of this game already makes me cry in happiness! Oh, and the music is completely awesome too.

NEStalgia

And the last, but not least, a game that is described“Dragon Warrior 3 meets World of Warcraft” by its own developers, Silk Games. It’s a free to play 2D PVP MORPG – a multi-player role=playing game, without the “massive” part. The difference that “M” makes is that when you play NEStalgia, you’re playing a classic NES-style RPG (all with countless quests to solve, items to loot and turn-based battles to fight), but online with a party made of other players, presumable other NES-loving geeks just like you. Plus, there are other nice things transferred from MMOs, like Auction House to trade items with other parties in other instances of NEStalgia world. As i mentioned above, the game is completely free, but there’s an optional yearly subscription that opens stuff like more appearance customization and more character classes, not essential to gameplay.

SW:TOR – Grand Master Jedi Satele Shan by Nebulaluben

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:30:00 PDT

Well, since I’m now trying to find time and play Star Wars: The Old Republic, here’s an SW:TOR-themed cosplay for! Grand Master Jedi Satele Shan is impersonated by Nebulaluben, a wonderful cosplayer from Madrid, Spain. I think her Satele Shan looks just like the “real” one, and the costume is wonderfully accurate too. Another character appearing on the photos is a Sith Pureblood (based on Vindican, according to costume’s author) and he’s cosplayed by Erikku-kun, Nebulalunen’s spouse. I think it’s very cool that people are sharing such a hobby, i wish my husband shared one of mine too lol :) Anyway, they both have a page at Facebook, give it a look. And the photos themselves were taken by Jesús Clares. Now, that all the appropriate credits are given, enjoy the pics ;)

The Gamer Cat Video Review: Cat Toys for iPad

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 06:05:00 PDT

I wanted to do this for a loooong time, and since i now have an iPhone, here it comes – the first video review by the Gamer Cat!

In this video, the Gamer Cat is reviewing Cat Toys, an iPad game made specifically for cats.

Subscribe to my YouTube channel for more Gamer Cat stuff!

Tips’n’Tricks: Star Wars: The Old Republic – How to get Back to Republic Fleet from Coruscant

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 02:58:00 PDT

I finally subbed to SW:TOR and hoping to play it at least sometimes, so i’m gonna post stuff about it in the future. This is just a small tip for those whose “main” planet is Coruscant – how to get back to Republic Fleet. Coruscant can be a bitch to navigate around, and at first i even thought that Republic Fleet is one of those newbie zones that you can’t get back to, but of course it’s not true. Here’s how you do it…

The easies way is to assume we’re at the Senate Plaza taxi pad. From there, head past the huge fountain and into the Coruscant Spaceport. You’ll reach a room with four elevators, two of them lead to the Spaceport’s second level – you don’t need those – and another pair is leading to Shuttle Docking Bay. That’s where you go.

At the docking bay, there’s an area where shuttles stay and it’s not showing any active doors or quest pointers even if you have a quest in Republic Fleet area, i don’t know why. But the shuttles ARE active, so to get to the Republic Fleet you need to head to the middle shuttle, walk around it and active its door. Choose “Interfleet Transport” and that’s it!

I’m not that far into the game yet as i write this, but i assume that from other planets you can reach Republic Fleet in the same manner, using a shuttle.

Metal Gear Acid 2 Venus Cosplay by Crystal Graziano

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 01:18:00 PDT

Crystal Graziano is a beautiful cosplayer from South California, USA who is currently supported by Red 5 Studios to officially cosplay their free to play MMO, FireFall. Crystal’s contract with Red 5 included support for her non-Firefall projects, so this is the first one she made with their support. Venus is a character from Metal Gear Acid 2, an assassin – a kind of girl you would call “deadly hot”, if you see what i mean :)
Crystal Graziano took 1st places in both Konami's Metal Gear Solid cosplay contest at San Diego Comic Con 2010 and Tokyo Game Show 2010, and her latest award was Best Construction at Anime Conji 2011. No wonder, with great costumes like these!



The Gamer Cat - Playing Star Wars: The Old Republic

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 04:05:00 PDT

Well, you may argue that he’s not actually *playing*, but he’s pressing keyboard for my character to walk, nonetheless ;) I wonder if i can teach him to press buttons to fight, lol! Also, the cutest Gamer Cat photo ever:

More cute pictures of the Gamer Cat under the cut. I hope you like cats ;)

No fridge is considered properly stocked up without the Gamer Cat first approving it:

The Gamer Cat while taking advantage of my pizza:

Yep, while pizza isn’t the best kind of food even for gamers, it’s definitely the worst kind of food for gamer cats, so don’t let your kitty eat pizza regularly ;) Mine just wanted to taste some fake crab meat used in the pizza.

Know-How: Women Gamers of Russia - Who Are They? “Perfect World” Audience Study

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 03:11:00 PDT
Mail.RU Group – the biggest online games publisher in Russian Federation – released some numbers on their recent sociological study of audience for the Russian version of Perfect World (a free to play MMORPG based on Chinese mythology and history), which has around 6,000,000 registrations – quite a large number, if you ask me. I don’t know how representative the study’s results could be for any other country, but in Russia they show that in some age groups female players are actually dominating males in numbers!

Women of all ages are playing Perfect World – even below 12 and above 50 years – but the most prominent age groups are, of course, these three: 12-18 years (20,3% of all female players), 19-24 (20,4%) and 25-30(16,5%). Interestingly, that according to Perfect World statistics, male and female players are presented in almost equal numbers in age group of 19-24 years, and female players are dominating in numbers in all those age groups above 25 years.

Perhaps, because of that male and female audience are quite different in their marital status: 14% of female players are married, more than 32% are seeing someone and 54% are free of relationship – compared to respectively 7%, 25% and 68% those numbers of male audience. So, because more of the female players are in some kind of a relationship, they spend less time playing: only 65% of women players are online daily versus 72% males.

Some info on what women players marked as their hobbies:
°    25,8% are engaged in something creative – music, literature, cooking, etc;
°    17,1% are learning or studying something;
°    10,3% loves movies and serials;
°    9% loves reading;
°    8% likes to take a walk and to visit friends;
°    7,7% women players are workaholics;
°    10,2% likes to, quote, “idle about!”.
So, if you meet a female gamer in Russian version of Perfect World, you can safely assume that she’s a talented, educated, well read, sociable and energetic – a perfect friend or a wife! That’s probably why more than 60% of characters in Russian Perfect World are married to each other.
This post is based on a blog post in mailru_games, one of the company’s official blogs. Infographics are drawn by me based on original study’s materials.

Star Wars: The Old Republic – My Gameplay

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 04:08:00 PDT

Well, yes, i HAVEN’T played SWTOR up until now. Life happens, as they say :) And I’ve missed a chance to play in the last days of beta because it was closed right in time when i downloaded these horrendous 25GB of SWTOR… But 7 days free trial was too much not to give it a try – finally – so here it goes. I am recording my gameplay advances for the future generations, even if everyone else already have seen it :) Although, I’m sure there are other people like me, who haven’t played it yet.

3 more videos behind the cut. Others will be published on Chick Geek Games YouTube Channel as i make some progress.

Ragnarok Online Cosplay by Miyoaldy

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 04:00:00 PDT

All praise Miyoaldy, DeviantArt user, for the wonderful costumes the designs! Some additional credits to people who worked on this:

Drake - MiYo
Male Arch Bishop - MiYo
Female Arch Bishop – Miyuko

Photo – Chori, Alucard

Original design on the cover photo of this post – Awlduke

Alicia Online: News About English Release (As of March 2012)

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 09:50:00 PDT

To all Alicia Online fans out there! I’ve been watching status of Alicia Online for a few years now – there was post in 2010 and later another one in 2011, when i asked Alicia devs if they are going to release Alicia Online in English. Sometime ago i wrote them again. I told them that there is a community of fans outside of Korea, and we’ve been hoping for an English release for quite some time. Is there any hope for us? Is there anything that we can do to help NTreev enter Western market? So, here’s their answer to my message.

I wrote to NTreev using Alicia Online support ticket system. Text was in English, translated to Korean with Google.Translate service. I assume they translated their answer for me to English with some service too. Here it is:

말과 나의 이야기, 앨리샤 운영팀입니다.
─────────────────────────────────

Sorry I can not answer in English. Please understand.

Alicia still has a lot of gaps.
In order to launch a lot of preparation is required.
Many tests and stability should be a priority because it may take some time.

Alicia on Japan in 2012 we are preparing for launch
Review and Europe/America as well, but the schedule is uncertain.

Shop for a good overseas partners will promote the Alicia service to do.

Thank you for your interest.

앨리샤를 이용하시다가 다른 불편 사항이나 궁금하신 점이 있을 때에는
언제든지 1:1 문의로 남겨 주시면 확인 후 답변 드리겠습니다.
────────────────────────────────────
살아 숨쉬는 레이스!
말과 나의 이야기, 앨리샤

In the meantime, you can play in Korean version of Alicia Online. Visit these posts to learn more on how to do that:
How to register an account in a Korean game – finding KSSN (Korean Social Security Number)
How to register an account for Alicia Online – step-by-step walkthrough
How to download Alicia Online – step-by-step walkthrough

*INTERMISSION"*

I’ve decided to create Alicia Online Wiki site for all of us to share information about Alicia. Just finished setting it up yesterday, and it’s pretty much empty right now (except for the guides i have in this blog, they were copied over to Wiki), so I’m asking everyone to please come and join me at Alicia Online Wiki site and help fill it up! If you have anything to share, post it!

Cinderella VS Zombies: How South Korean Government Fights MMO Addiction

noreply@blogger.com (Chick Geek) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:57:00 PST

While Blizzard fights waves of rage against its BattleTag, people in South Korea are being subjected to much more harsh measures. I’m speaking of so-called “Cinderella Law” – the one that was accepted in last October. If you read this blog for it’s Alicia Online news, then you may have already experienced this law on yourself, for all minors (below 16 years) in South Korea are now banned from all of the country’s MMOs from 0:00 til 6:00AM by force of the law – and that’s why it was called the Cinderella Law. Koreans probably got tired of their kids being sleep-deprived zombies playing online games whole nights long. But how the hell did they managed to implement and uphold such a law?

The answer is easy: all gamers in South Korea are required to attach their Korean Social Security Numbers to their in-game accounts. There’s no way to register and play in ANY online game in South Korea without using a KSSN. So, it’s pretty easy to see which players are falling under the Cinderella Law, and to order all of the gaming companies to bar access to these p layers for particular time is even more easier after the law has been positively voted for.

Though, both teenagers and the gaming companies are not particularly happy with the law, because not only those minors are kicked out from games, they also need their parents to sign a paper allowing them to play at all. So, if you’re a Korean kid who’s not fond of doing homework, your parents can ban you from World of WarCraft by the force of Gray Skull… erm, the Cinderella Law! Children between 16 and 18 years old could play after the world hits midnight, but also only if their parents would sign a paper. A lot of paperwork for everyone.

By the way… Remember when Blizzard wanted its customers to attach real names to their accounts – not Social Security numbers, mind you! - and what a shit storm this intention did started? Well, Koreans are living pretty fine with their KSSNs being attached to game accounts, and they actually see it as a good thing that helps to fight trolls.

SOPA STRIKE – FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE!

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 07:33:00 PST
ChickGeekGames will be blacked out in observance of the SOPA Strike.

The regular work will resume after 24 hours.
UPDATE: Service resumed as normal.

Alicia Online: Alica Online Wiki Site Going Live!

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:07:00 PST

Guess, what? I’ve decided to create Alicia Online Wiki site for all of us to share information about Alicia. Just finished setting it up yesterday, and it’s pretty much empty right now (except for the guides i have in this blog, they were copied over to Wiki), so I’m asking everyone to please come and join me at Alicia Online Wiki site and help fill it up! If you have anything to share, post it!

If you haven’t worked with any Wikis before, it’s nothing hard to do, really - I learned how to install it in just one evening! If you are non-English speaker (as i am), then you can create pages in your native language for other players like you – the engine I’m using has support for UTF8, meaning you can write in pretty much any language in it.

Please, share the news about Alicia Online Wiki page with all of your friends who are playing Alicia too, and ask them to join – the more people we get, the more info we can have in one place. And if you have friends who speak Korean, please pester them until they help us translate stuff for Alicia ;)

Tips&Tricks: Alicia Online - Quest Walkthrough – Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 10:55:00 PST

The second post with Alicia Online (a horse racing online game) quest walkthroughs, with more quests covered. I write about Alicia Online quests that aren’t 100% obvious on what you need to do to complete them. Feel free to share your own information regarding quests, if you have any, in the comment section! For the previous post on this theme please head here: Tips&Tricks: Alicia Online - Quest Walkthrough – Part 1, also, don’t forget to visit ChickGeekGames.com YouTube channel for Alicia Online videos!

Be among first 3 players to finish a race, 3 times on a specific track. I think it’s not necessary to exactly win a race, but I’m not 100% sure.

Gather Christmas toys on a snow-covered race track. I am not sure if this quest is permanent or only appears during winter-time celebrations.

Finish 10 races being one of the first 3 players.

Gather 2 purple crystals

Use speed bonus during a race 30 times.

A list of other posts about Alicia Online can be found here:
Alicia Online: Fresh News, Tips and All You Wanted to Know

Tips' & Tricks: How To Run Alicia Online - The Shortest Possible Video Guide =)

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:32:00 PST

How do you run Alicia Online? Very simple:

1) Make sure you have Korean language pack installed.
2) Check if your System Locale is set to Korea
3) Look if all the checkboxes in your Fonts Settings are unchecked
4) Run Alicia Online...
5) ...
6) Profit!
(You can buy it here)
A list of other posts about Alicia Online can be found here:
Alicia Online: Fresh News, Tips and All You Wanted to Know

Awesome Male Cosplay by Ludo Erendrym

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:46:00 PST

For all my female readers ;) I guess, i should have posted some hot topless guys after that sexy Tasha’s Sheryl Nome cosplay – for the sake of being fair to everyone - but my husband is occasionally stalking this blog, sooo…. not just yet, lol :) Okay, this post shows off some cool stuff made by Ludo Erendrym, a French cosplayer who does both anime and game cosplays. I totally dig the guy! Male cosplayers often make much simpler costumes than females and don’t bother with make-up to fit into a chosen character, but Erendrym’s characters look cool even without make-up. And when he’s out making costumes, well… did i said he’s awesome? Well, now i certainly did :)



Happy New 2012 Year from Chick Geek Games!

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 09:57:00 PST

The coming year will bring new surprises to ChickGeekGames.com readers and subscribers ;)

Aww, so you bothered to click the “read more” link or you’re reading my RSS feed, sweet! :))) Guess what, i will be holding a couple of contests for all regular readers and subscribers – with real prizes and stuff! Oh, what kind of prizes? Games, of course! Stay tuned ;)

Consumers vs. Assholes – Part 1: Penny Arcade, Ocean Marketing and Russian Mafia

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 08:35:00 PST

Couldn’t keep from throwing my 5 cents in. In case you’ve been living under a rock, Ocean Marketing is a PR “agency” led by Paul Christoforo, the asshole of such an epic proportions that you could fit in Enterprise and Babylon5 both at the same time, and who hanged himself to dry over at Penny Arcade after attacking his own customer AND then Mike Krahulik. The shit storm that rose after is wonderful not only because it’s got a mention at all the main gaming portals, but also because it took the whole business of people in the game industry being assholes towards their customers for many years on a whole new level. Wait, but what the Russian mafia has to do with anything?..

Except from the mails posted at Penny Arcade and everywhere else in the world:

“From: Ocean Marketing
To: Mike Krahulik
Dec 26, 2011 at 9:33 PM

OK Mike whatever you say lol , are you sure hour not in Boston I spoke to the person who ran the show in Boston last year. If you let some little kid influence you over a pre order then we don’t want to be a your show ,Ill be on the floor anyway so come find me , I’m born and raised in Boston I know the people who run the city inside and out watch the way you talk to people you never know who they know it’s a small industry and everyone knows everyone. Your acting like a douchbag not that it matters pax east pax west , e3 , CES , Gamer Con , SSXW ,Comic Con, Germany I’m all over the place. If we want to be there we will be there with industry badges or with a booth you think I can’t team up with turtle beach , Callibur or Koy Christmas , I can’t get Kevin Kelly to pull some strings or G4 , Paul Eibler Ex CEO of take 2 , Rich Larocco Konami , Cliff Blizinski Epic who were working with on a gears version , Activision who were working with on a MW3 and Spider man Bundle , The Convention Center Owners themselves , Mayor of Boston come on Bud you run a show that’s all you do and lease a center in Cities you have no pull in its all about who you know not what you do. I’ll see space where ever I want , with who I want when I want and where I want so many ways around you and so many connections in this industry its silly. Anyway , I have no issue with you Sean Buckley Engadget, Scott Lowe IGN and the list goes on and on. Little kids unhappy with a PRE ORDER starting trouble and you email that to us , he’s a customer unless you’re his boyfriend then you should side with the company not the customer. Be Careful”

This guys is obviously in a Top 10 Douchebags of 2011 list. He’s an absolutely illiterate asshole, with a brain of 6 year old and an attitude of a thug, the same kind that waits with a pocket knife in a dark alley to jump on your wallet. So, the first question is, how the fuck this guy managed to crawl into a gaming business? Actually, how did he managed to crawl into ANY business at all besides selling drugs at a local school, is way beyond me. But he’s all over YouTube, showing that poor avenger controller at Pax 2011 East and other videos:

The second question is, and i specifically paint it with this bright color as a token of its vast importance – do you think he’s the only one of a kind?

Okay, now, you may be wondering what the Russian mafia from this post’s header has to do with anything? I’m now almost getting to the point. You see, when USSR went under in the beginning of 1990’s, Russian society crashed like a plane with no pilot and all kinds of thugs and criminals began to emerge as fast as cockroaches in a dirty kitchen. It was called a “wild market” and people happily sold alcohol with poisonous fractions and sausages with cellulose pulp instead of meat. Many of these sellers/thugs were just like Paul Christoforo of Ocean Marketing – they’d take your money, kick your guts out and call it a day. Law enforcement wasn’t working at all, because the old laws were already not functioning and the new ones were not made yet, and the law structures' employees like police were engaged in the same activity as these thugs.

Gaming industry is just as wild as Russia in 1992. Games and devices were made and sold for decades now, but there are no laws to defend buyers from new-age thugs, and the premises are still reminds of the Wild Wild West. What, no one never EVER saw this Ocean Marketing guy before? With an attitude like that he should have been out of the business long time ago, with the only connection to the gaming industry left is a boot print on his ass. But he is not. Even if you live in a country with an extensive law-enforcement system like USA or EU countries, you probably can sue Paul Christoforo because he deals with real-life, physical goods, but... The outcome of that case would be unknown. He could go out and bribe a judge, for all we know, and even if he didn’t – he’d just get back to business right away.

The worst part is that, let’s face it – he’s not even the only one of a kind out there, and they all can do whatever they want. There are many people acting the same towards their customer base, including not only customer service, but software developers and high-positioned “thugs” in big MMO companies. And these people were treating their buyers with the same amount of “love” and “caring” for years and years. This particular asshole just got exposed in the most loud manner, while others are still lingering in shadows.

There was a scandal on Aeria Games forums several years ago after they kicked out one of the Game Sages and she hanged her former employers to dry, telling of their immense douchebagery in great details. Did anyone lose their jobs? Nope. Did anything changed at Aeria’s customer service? Nope. They continue to offer horrible customer service and even more, Aeria Games bans players because they are successful in their games. Several years ago Eve Online’s employees were exposed in helping certain players to gain wealth and control in-game. Did they got fired? Nope. Did anything changed? CCP are the same old assholes they always were. Usually people just quit playing assholes’ games or stop buying assholes’ goods, but new people – unaware of they’re getting themselves into – are coming in to replace them.

The only positive change I've seen so far is Final Fantasy XIV old development team being kicked in the nuts for delivering utter crap and Square Enix covering under their very own shit storm and trying to salvage the game for over a year now. The moral here? Expose the assholes everywhere you can, call out for “big guys” like Penny Arcade who can expose them better, and let’s hope something changes.

The Gamer Cat - Playing “Call Of Duty: Black Ops”

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 02:47:00 PST

The Gamer Cat is usually very busy with sleeping, eating and clawing at stuff, but still finds some time for his gamer activities. Some time ago he was into FPS games, this particular picture shows him playing Call of Duty: Black Ops with my husband. The kitty seems to be really engrossed in the game. This picture isn’t very recent, he’s a lot bigger than that now but still likes watching games :)

Actually, he gets very interested each time there is a game running and won’t act the same when I’m watching movies (except for Simon’s Cat, which is our favorite), so he must be seeing some difference between them.

More posts with The Gamer Cat here.

Tips & Tricks: Alicia Online - How to Play With Your Horse (Using Horse Toys - Carrot)

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 10:44:00 PST
More Alicia Online videos ;) This video shows how to use horse toys in Alicia Online to play with your horse. I'm sure many of you are able to do it better than me, but still ;) I couldn't find a video about this, only a piece of other video where the author showed horse feeding, tending and playing with a bow, but not with a carrot. If you just started playing and the toys are blocked (grayed out) for you, don't worry, they will unlock after some time. I think it happens when your horse is happy enough (the top meter should be of some size and also pink, which means the horse is happy).

Alicia Online is a Korean horse racing MMORPG that currently is released only in Korea and Japan. Liked the video? Subscribe to Chick Geek Games YouTube channel ;)
A list of other posts about Alicia Online can be found here
Alicia Online: Fresh News, Tips and All You Wanted to Know

Tips & Tricks: Alicia Online - Game Controls & Movement Tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (Nina Nezhenets) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 14:25:00 PST

This video shows in-game tutorials for game controls in Alicia Online, the horse racing MMORPG we all love so much ;) They weren’t full-screen so i enlarged that part of the video so the keys pressed during the tutorials would be more clear to see.

Liked the video? Subscribe to Chick Geek Games YouTube channel ;)

A list of other posts about Alicia Online can be found here

Alicia Online: Fresh News, Tips and All You Wanted to Know