Just food for thought. I was bored and this is what came out



This article is not calling people out or saying that people who deal with games on a daily basis lost that "night before Christmas" feeling, I genuinely want to know. This is a question that I've always wanted to ask someone who was in the industry. Everyone wants to do something for a living they love. I so happen to love video games and will one day make that love a career. But what happens when that dream becomes a reality? Will I get so use to swag coming into the house on a daily basis that I start to lose that joy of release dates? Will I be play so many horrible games that I won't want to play the ones that I really enjoy?

If your passion is still strong, how do you keep that fire lit? In my eyes, being able to see games months before they are released would be amazing. Then being able to share that amazing feeling with others would be a joy in itself. But would I be able to keep myself grounded and still have the same attitudes towards games as I do now?

Surely, I can't be the only one who looks at release dates for upcoming games with a sense of excitement. Take Modern Warfare 2 for example; I can not wait for that game to drop. I get the same feeling now as I did as a child the night before Christmas. You know that warm fuzzy feeling you get that keeps you up at night? If you have never experienced that, I can't really put it into words that would express that wonderful feeling. I'm just not sure if that feeling will still be there if I were to see games so early in its development.

This article is just me spewing things onto the screen that are just swimming around in my head. What are you thoughts? Comments? Concerns? Advice?

Before I go into the splooging that will be going on in this blog, I want to give a shout out for all of you who didn't make it. As you venture through the C-Blogs and notice all of the PAX love, past and future, I want you to remember one thing: you need to find a way to come next year. Take all of these blogs as inspiration for you to come. I don't care if you only know one person on the site, we will take you in with open arms. If you haven't realized yet, Destructoid is all about community. It started with community in mind and this mindset continues to grow Destructoid into something grand.

Now let's get on to the love. To everyone I met at PAX for the first time this year: thank you for coming out. To those I've already built relationships with: it was great seeing you again. As I become more rooted into Destructoid, the more relationships I start to build. PAX for me is a great way to see all of my favorite people in one place. I didn't go to PAX for the swag, the games, or even the panels. I went for all of you lovely people. You're a great bunch of people to get to know and I'm glad to have you all in my life.

I'm going to attempt to give special shout out to some people and if I miss you, it's not because you don't mean anything to me, it's just…I was drunk. If I saw you in the mall I would recognize you and give you hugs, but don't take me not mentioning you to heart.



My roomies: Hollie (phoenix), Mike (blehman), and Chanh (Hoyegit): Thank you for being the best roommates a guy could have. We all were on one accord in that room and I think we had a blast together. It was awesome just hanging out with Mike for a extended amount of time and you're just as funny in real life as you are on the internets. Hollie, you're like my little sister and I love you with all my heart :). Chanh, you're a great friend to have. Selfless and always looking out for the greater good of the people around you. You are always welcomed any where you go. Never forget that.

The rest of the CBM crew plus associated: Dorian (DJ Duffy), Travis (Itemforty), Maurice (Professor Pew), Mandi, (midivol), Liz (Fooliz): I talk to you guys on a regular basis and I love the fact that when we get together in real life, it's like we've just saw each other yesterday. Dorian, words can't explain how awesome you are. I love hanging out with you and I'm glad you're Liz came again this year. I guess we did a good job of not turning her off to internet people. Travis, you know how I feel about you. I'm glad I got the chance to meet Andrea, she's an awesome lady and you better treat her right. I still don't understand how you got her but I'm happy for the both of you. Hurry up and marry her so I can come to Texas and drink all of your beers. Pew, I got to see you twice this year! This time was better because we got to get wasted and act dumb as hell for 4 days :). Mandi, you're adorable. I wish we had more time to get wasted together and make fun of people but it was great nonetheless. When I come out to Cali, I expect crazy times to be had. Liz, a pleasure as always to run into you. I caught up with True Blood and I have to say, the finale was a bit of a let down. Tell Ben he owes me an awesome shirt.



Failcast Crew: I'm not even going to name you bastards. We interacted, we drank, we played fighting games and it was great. Hito is still my arch enemy that I love like a brother. King, always a pleasure and I can't wait to do it again. Necros, thanks for taking the whole racist thing in stride. i know you love black people but I'll try and keep it a secret. Yashoki, how can you be so awesome in real life but somewhat of a douche on the nets? I'm glad I got the chance to meet you.

Destructoid Staff: I'm not even going to name all of your names because people should know who you are: Niero, thanks for making a great site. You are the most humble person I've ever met. As the site gets bigger and bigger, you still keep the same cool as persona and I love that about you. Don't be surprised when I show up in Miami one day. Colette, you're amazing but I'm sure you hear that all the time. Not only do you give the best hugs, you also attempt to have a conversation with everyone who comes to say hi. I have no idea how you do it but keep up the good work. Nick, it was damn awesome to meet you in person. I'll be emailing you on how to keep an awesome marriage going while still playing a shit ton of games. Dale, most chill dude on the staff? I'm going to go ahead and say yes. Samit, thank you for letting me eat your birthday candle. It was quite possibly the greatest tasting thing I had that hour. Grim, I'm so glad I got the chance to put a face with all those damn high scores on my XBLA leaderboards. You're usually on top of all of them and I've thought about taking you of my friend's list so I could have a chance. I haven't yet :). Rey, I know..I'm not green. Maybe next year? Keep doing your thing buddy and when you get rich and famous, make that green thing happen for me. Stella, you are an awesome person to be around. When people are around you, they don't have a choice in the matter; they will be smiling because you just ooze happiness. Dyson, man…you are just awesome and amazing at the same time. Any party with you there is a great time. Our drunk conversations rank up there with the best times I've had drunk ever. Do you take coupon? Hamza, we got to spend some good quality time together and I'm grateful for that. You are a shark and if I wasn't getting married I would suck your dick. Ben PerLee, you are the master of story time. I could sit down and listen to stories from you for hours :). Chad, I guess I could say that you're amazing but you know, I don't want to be that game. You're a spectacular human being that suffers the same fate that Stella does: people have no choice but to be happy around you. You should clone yourself so I can have one of you in Florida. Will, best forum leader/moderator ever. You might catch some heat from the trolls but keep doing your thing. Haters are going to hate.



Man, so this is harder than I though. I want to thank everyone who I interacted with at PAX. I just can't! There was like 100 of you there! Solgrim, it was great meeting you in person. You are a smooth dude and I'm totally going to make your Superman game a reality. Yes, I was drunk but I remember every detail. Funktastic is going to be my new collection buddy. I know you have the hookup so expect some emails from me in the near future. Excremento aka Ex, it was damn good times seeing and talking to you in person. I'm glad you had the chance in between the family stuff to hangout. I know this was your one vacation of the year and I'm glad you spent some of that precious time with us. Tiff, you crack me up and you know exactly what I'm talking about. And if you don't…we'll talk about that later. Ghost, I think I learned more from you in one sitting than I did in all of college. Hurry up and become a famous doctor already! LostCrichton, my brother from another mother. We need to tag team the dress up portion of PAX next year. Just saying.

Dammit..this is going on way to long.

Gandy, Bunny, Halfie, Mikey, Chooly, Simmy: I would. Always and forever. You guys are part of the early to arrive and last to leave crew. Thank you for giving me someone to hangout with at those times :).



Okay, I'm done. Husky, Zen, Popa, Coon, Maya, AnonymousNoob, WalkYourPath, Marques, Senisan, SonicBoom, Dex, Mamadonna, Kyle, Aerox, Taxtix, Knives, AgentMoo, Garison, Drew, ScottyG, Storyr, UncleMilkShake, Wardrox, Nintendoll, Analoge, ShadokatRegn…damn there is way to many of you. Yell at me in the comments if I left you off. I know I did and I'm sorry for that. You guys make me extremely happy to be part of this community. If we talked at PAX, you are in my mind forever. I never hugged so many strangers at one time in my life! I tried to make it my goal to talk to at least everyone once and if we didn't talk: let me know, I'll fix that.

Until we meet again….

PS: JIM STERLING WE MUST MEET IN PERSON SOON! I WAS TOTALLY BUMMED YOU WEREN'T THERE!!!!! SAME GOES TO YOU MR. CANTLER!

Around this time last year I was getting ready for PAX. I was excited about going to Seattle and playing games before the game out to the general public. This year, however, is totally different. My excitement no longer stems from the chance of playing debugs builds of various games, but the chance to be reunited with my extended family for a weekend.

If you've never had the chance to hangout with anyone from this community, you might not understand the excitement flowing through Destructoid over the next few weeks. Imagine having a group of friends who you talk to on a near daily basis and never having the opportunity to hang out with them. Then for one glorious weekend, you get the chance to just wild out. With no obligations except for one: enjoy yourself.

I made this video after last years extravaganza because I could not put into words how much I missed everyone. This time next week I'll be in Seattle once again having a great time and wishing some of our fallen soldiers could have made it as well. If you do come to PAX this year, make sure you come say hi to me. I love meeting users in the community and I'm sure we'll have some crazy stories to talk about. I'll be the black guy with the Superman bag.

Until next week.....

5. Because the show it's the after party. Then after the party it's the hotel lobby. Then we light someone on fire.
All of this has been known to occur.

4. You'll be jealous of all the fun that will be had.
You don't want to be that person who sits on the c-blogs whining about how you didn't get to go to PAX. And then proceed to talk shit about the people who did get to go.


3. You might get a chance to wear the helmet.
Be forewarned, that shit is heavy. Although I'm sure you'll get to rock the new hotness at PAX :). I heard it has controls to insta-ban trolls inside the helmet. It also has x ray vision.


2. Community. Nuff Said.


1. Red Lion Bar
This is the best bar ever! You just sit outside and get waited on all night long! There will be no need for you to yell at the manager of the place and she won't treat you like a child! You won't have to go off on her because she's retarded and doesn't know what the fuck she's talking about. You can even bring your own beer!

I know it's been awhile but I've been damn busy. Hopefully I'll be able to finish this 3 part series? 2 part series? And no, I didn't proofread it! I'm going to bed.

It's January 2009 and the company is in chaos. With the recent changes in the economy and the huge bandwidth bill coming in every month, drastic measures need to be taken. At first, it was subtle with just one or two people but quickly the numbers increased in size. Towards the end of that month there were droves of people being fired left and right, many with no explanations at all. But I knew. I knew this day was coming for a long time, 6 months to be exact. So with each passing day I saved, searched, and contemplated my next move. I was ready for whatever they threw my way.

Nevertheless, I always asked myself these questions;

"What would I do when it happened?"
"Would I throw chairs or just leave quietly?"
"Would I be one of those who would be saved?"
"WHEN will it happen?"

January 23rd, 2009: The day that will suck balls forever in my mind. I lost my cushion of a job. It came quickly and swiftly; no pain at ail. My manager came into my office, told me I was let go, and sent me to HR. While in the HR room I was given my last paycheck, a pretty awesome severance package, and a paper to sign that basically stated that I wouldn't come back to the office and blow it up. I signed to paper and left the building never to return again. Time to set my plan in motion.



Since I was smart enough to save most of my money, I decided I wanted to work for my local video game company. I would be able to start off at a relatively low salary as I worked my way up the corporate ladder. I've had experience programming different things at my last job and I consider video games a strong passion of mine. Why wouldn't I want to do something I love for work? The only thing I didn't figure into my plan was the economy. Being that the economy was basically eating itself alive, no one was hiring. NO ONE! I checked the video game company's website 10 times a day and never saw one job posting until March 1st. On that day, I was greeted by not a blank page laughing me in the face but a position: QA Tester.

At first I thought there was no way in hell I would apply for that job. They do not make near enough money for me to sustain the gaming habit I have. There surely had to be something else! Sadly, there wasn't. I began to remember all of the developers I've heard throughout the year and most of them mentioned the same thing, "I worked my way up through QA." Yes, QA would be my foot in the door. QA would be the job that would get me into the industry I long to be in. QA will be my chosen path to my ultimate destiny.



I filled out the application, sent it in on Wednesday, had an interview on Friday, and started work on Monday. I remember the hiring director mentioning something about there being overtime but I've done overtime before. I didn't give it a second thought. Get me into the QA department already!

So the journey begins. The first week was orientation and then they would set me loose on the team. Time to grasp this opportunity by the neck and squeeze out my success. I'm excited, motivated, and ready to rock faces.

Let's do this.

Then the week after orientation begins and I was introduce to my new team and the game I would be working on. This is where things changed my prospective of the video game industry forever.

Being that I've always played a Street Fighter title with a D-pad, I decided to go out and buy the new Street Fighter IV Fightpad yesterday and I'm in love with it. I already knew that it would be amazing because I got the chance to play with it earlier in the year and it's as awesome now as it was last month.

If you ever played with the 6 button Sega controller or the Sega Saturn controller then you already know what the pad feels like. We all know that the pads on both the 360 and PS3 leave you wanting more and surprisingly Mad Catz nailed it. My only complaint with the 360 version is that it's not wireless but I can live with that.

The footage above contains a section of me playing online against someone and I almost get my ass beaten. To be honest, I was playing it on my Macbook Pro screen so that I could capture the footage. Also, I was kind of leaning to the right so I could capture the footage of me playing with the controller. I'm honestly not that bad at the game.


....maybe.

If you have any random question about the pad that I could answer, feel free to ask away.