All I ever wanted to do with the amazing technology of online console gaming…was awareness. I would watch my brilliant autistic son play and think, “we can raise awareness and funds through this”. Years later, I’m here! Elaine Beemer and I have Gaming4Others.org, a place to go to find out about the latest charity tournaments, causes or play in a G4O tourney.

I am so proud of our little Site! We have had many tournaments and helped to change lives. We are growing and loving every minute of it.

But, I now find myself in a position of having to defend what I love doing. I am accused of being a bad parent under the assumption that gamers are a force of evil in society. I am fighting for my kids and I’m surprised that my charity work is in question simply because it is through the gaming industry. At first I thought that gaming itself was seen as something bad, but then I realized that this wouldn’t happen if I were a man.

Father’s watch sports and it isn’t questioned for a second! Father’s can play video games…no problem. But a mother? Dos she get the same consideration? I don’t think so and I will be interested to hear what a judge thinks of my charity work.

I expressed my frustration to my friend Hal Halpin, President of the ECA. (that awesome organization that fights for the rights of gaming and gamers) He replied:

“Prosecuting gamers and gaming is the latest socially-acceptable form of discrimination. Would the court look any more of less favorably upon someone who invests several hours per night in watching prime time television? No, of course not. What about a movie or a local concert? Same.

The ECA was established, in part, to right many of these misperceptions - some of which are unfortunately used to exploit whole swaths of our population. Please let me know if I can be of any help - providing written expert testimony, or talking on the phone with the judge.”

That first paragraph really hit home…no, watching television isn’t looked down upon…And a father can play video games without anyone thinking twice about it.

I don’t just play games, that’s rare for me…I raise awareness. I filled the wish-lists of hospitalized kids, helped a young gal get a kidney transplant, raised the money to make 5 year old Mia walk, gave to childrens charities in the UK, assisted in Research for the Epilepsy Foundation, Walked for the Cure…and in a couple of months G4O will play for Autism and my dream will have come full circle. Yet I have had a friend say, “I’d just like to see a better use of your time”. I’m sure the people I just listed would disagree.

I assure you, I balance my time like any mom. I will continue to give to my kids and to my Charity site and I’ll not have it diminished by naysayers. I’m proud of my work, as a mom, as a member of the gaming community and as a female who should have the same rights as any man who chooses to pursue a career in a field he loves and believes in.

But to be sure, I may just have to take Hal up on his offer.

I’m going to be completely honest here: I am not a Lord of the Rings (LOTR) fan. Peter Jackson was not able to romance me with his cinematography or the length of his films — size does not always matter! I’ve played LOTR The Battle for Middle-Earth and was a bit overwhelmed by all the functions and consequently not enticed to pick it back up. When I learned of LOTR: Conquest, memories of frustration and confusion came to mind and was not too interested. Thankfully, after giving it a try at PAX this past Summer and again last week and I was quite pleased.

For those not familiar with the game, LOTR: Conquest it is an upcoming game developed by Pandemic Studios picking up at the end of the Lord of the Ring movies. Now you can continue your epic battle in the campaign mode or if you are feeling a bit rogue, the evil campaign offers a story picking up on a failed Frodo scenario. Both campaigns offer maps and missions with tons of enemies to slay in what I felt was a “smart” hack and slash in a open world setting. There are four classes you can pick, which are divided into two melee and two ranged. They all offer different types of attacks and combos, so play around to find who fits you! However, keep in mind that a certain class might better deal with a mission than others , so change it up if you are feeling stuck. Insider Tip: The classes Pandemic Recommends will be the first classes displayed in the class selector.
There will be instances in the game where you will be offered to control a hero so you can mix it up. Why not? Conquest has an extensive cast of Heroes, Wargs, Ents, Oliphaunts, Cave-trolls, the Balrog, Nazgul, and ballistae. As in anything made in Hollywood, we have an all-star cast of heroes such as Aragorn, Gandalf, Legolas, or Gimli. With great heroes come great maps to kill them in. Death or victory might find you in Mt. Doom, Helms Deep, Moria, Pelennor Fields, Isengard or The Shire! These are just a few of the locations in the game I remember. How? Victory found me in them, of course! The point is to re-spawn a lot…right?
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I want to thank everyone who attended the Pre Pax Party. I was so happy to see how many people showed up and the intermingling of so many communities and industry people. It truly was the joining of many communities. Without the love of community gaming would not be what it is for so many of us.

This event was done with the help and love from so many people. We want to give props to those that helped us promote this event on their site as mainly to those that helped make sure that our event was a hit.

PMS Harlequin and Peterocc as a couple you are like a perfect glove and as friends and community people you rock, We can’t thank you enough for all you did for this event. Peterocc supplied the music and Kiki and myself did the initial check in of the guest but PMS Harlequin insisted we leave this post and enjoy the party and she took the role of welcoming committee for the evening. Thank you girl for that.

We like to thank Jay, Horhay, Coral Toe, KilaMOMjaro, I Acid Ragnarok I and SalmonSlayer for helping us to put the bags together for our guests in such a fast pace.

I’d like to say a personal thank you to Venus Envy for helping to do artwork for the event.

And a huge and much love and appreciation has to go to CPaladino from Microsoft. I had asked him if he could supply the rockband for the event so we didn’t have to drag it across country and he went one step above that and had come to me and told me that he was able to get Rockband2. CPal and Dirty Diva also wanted to show their support to the event and arrived with the Two Human game for our guests. They also helped out in only ways they can (CPal and Diva, you know what you did and I’ll always be in your debt - love you guys)

To everyone that attended I really hope you had a great time and hopefully all of you were able to see old friends and walk away with new friendships. Thank you again as your attendance made our event successful.

I just watched the gameplay footage of the new Prince of Persia from the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany. I have to say that it looks freakin sublime.

It almost seems like a beautiful amalgam of Sands of Time (as it should), Super Mario Galaxy, and Zelda. The acrobatics are smoother than ever and even feature some nifty new tricks, some including the new female companion. The trailer also states there will be open zones with non-linear progression.

My biggest concerns are with the battles and the graphics. Both are spectacular, don’t get me wrong. The super cinematic fights and the hand-drawn, cel-shaded look of new PoP are great. I can’t help but wonder, though, if the battles are a bit *too* cinematic. Granted, this fight is clearly meant as a sort of boss fight, so perhaps standard enemies will be more of a straight shot… On the graphics, then, I have to say that they look gorgeous and there are lots of nice little touches that add to the gameplay like the trail that follows Prince’s hand when he does a wall run (great for those of us with mixed depth perception in some games :-p). The graphics, though, look a bit unpolished. I suppose I should reserve judgment until I see it on my TV.

Here: See for yourself

FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK HERE

Comic Con is definitely not just for the comics. One of my favorite things about it was checking out the cos play. People dressed up as everything from a down and out Batman to Emma Frost. I spent the majority of my time saying “Hi, can I take your pic?” Everyone was friendly and more then willing to stop and pose.

Check out my photo album. It was a crazy hectic few days, but the people attending were awesome and creative and a blast to check out. There is even a pic of a group of people who made their costumes out of the swag bags that were given away.. that was some quick sewing!

One of the more notable things about the con was that it didn’t really smell bad.. even by the third day it seemed everyone was showering and/or covering up. The variety of people there was awesome. From babys to grandma’s, no one wanted to miss this awesome event. I went from talking about anime, to the Nintendo E3 press briefing to tattoos within a couple hour span.

All in all.. I definitely won’t miss Comic Con next year, and I was even thinking of dressing up too

Very soon I will be heading to bed, awakening later to the sounds of hurried packing and shuffling of feet for Comic Con 2008 is nearly upon us! I have confirmed that Kiki will be attending by my side on at least a few of the days, but I will do my best to post relevant gaming information from the floor as it happens (or close to it.)

Larry Hryb (Major Nelson) has indeed confirmed that he and Xbox will have a presence on the con floor, so keep your eyes here for potential breaking information from Comic Con 2008!

If you enjoyed the Dead Space E3 trailer, wait until you see this! The Lullaby Trailer was not approved by the ESRB, but that has not stopped the red, white and blue folk from experiencing the trailer. It was approved in EU and upload on the internets (of course!) for our viewing pleasure. Gory? check. Creepy music? check. full of awesome? check.

Yesterday morning at E3, the “New Xbox Experience” was shown off to the media. This completely revamped software for the Xbox 360 brings not only a brand new visual aesthetic to the console (replacing the blades system we have now) but brings interesting features devoted to enhancing the community experience.

The first addition comes with customizable avatars. They are reminiscent of Nintendo Wii’s Mii system, but in a more detailed and highly customizable fashion. Crafted in conjunction with Rare, the avatars will be available to all Xbox 360 users and will be able to represent the player (or what the player wishes to look like). They will also be integrated into some future games and…

The Primetime Channel. This will be a community-centric multiplayer channel that focuses on Game Show type casual games like UNO and the newly announced 1 vs. 100. The great icing on top of all this is a global Party System that allows you to network with a series of friends over Xbox Live and maintain your party not only within a single game, but between multiple games without the need to reconnect with your group. This will also work with the confirmed Netflix integration, allowing you to not only watch your Netflix movies over Xbox Live by yourself but also with a group of your friends… Online.

The Xbox 360 established itself as a multimedia giant with a great multiplayer community. With the NXE software on its way it will become a multiuser multimedia experience. Just imagine MST3King movies live with your friends over Xbox Live, or merely sharing a movie that makes you cry with a very special lady. (I’m looking at you, Ooopy.)

Top submissions to be displayed at Penny Arcade Expo Aug. 29 - 31

SEATTLE - July 9, 2008 - After sifting through over 80 submissions from a wealth of genres and gameplay hybrids from ‘exploratory puzzle’ to tactical to rhythm/action, The PAX 10 panel of industry experts selected the ten best submissions in terms of gameplay and “fun factor” for inclusion in The PAX 10. Penny Arcade was pleased to announce today The PAX 10 winners to be displayed at the upcoming Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) at the Washington State Trade and Convention Center in Seattle Aug. 29-31, 2008.

The PAX 10 are (in alphabetical order):

- The Amazing Brain Train by Grubby Games (puzzle/strategy)

- Audio Surf by Dylan Fitterer (rhythm/action)

- Chronotron by Scarybug Games (puzzle/platformer)

- Impulse by a team of Rochester Institute of Technology students (puzzle)

- The Maw by Twisted Pixel Games (action/adventure)

- Polarity by a team of Carnegie Mellon University students (platformer/puzzle)

- Project Aftermath by Games Faction (tactical/action)

- Schizoid by Torpex Games (action/strategy)

- Strange Attractors 2 by Ominous Development (puzzle/strategy)

- Sushi Bar Samurai by Molly Rocket (exploratory puzzle)

Announced earlier this year in cooperation with the DigiPen Institute of Technology, The PAX 10 is a games showcase open to independent developers worldwide. The winners will be shown in the PAX Exhibit Hall alongside over 70 other exhibitors - including top publishers like Activision, EA and Ubisoft - allowing those publishers, attendees and media to view their home-grown potential. Attendees will have the opportunity to vote on the exhibited games, honoring one of The PAX 10 with the “Audience Choice Award,” to be announced on www.penny-arcade.com following this year’s expo.

“The variety and caliber of the titles blew us away,” says Robert Khoo of Penny Arcade. “Narrowing down the group was a challenging process for the judges, but we’re incredibly proud to have these ten games as our kickoff showcase and can’t wait to see them on the show floor.”

About Penny Arcade Expo: The Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) gaming festival is a three-day celebration of games and gamer culture. The annual convention includes an exhibition floor filled with playable builds of upcoming tabletop, console, and computer games; a conference program of game industry speakers; music concerts; freeplay areas; industry parties; an independent games showcase; game tournaments and more. Since its inception in 2004 the show has doubled in size year-over-year, growing from 4,500 attendees to 37,000 in 2007, making it the largest gaming festival in North America. For more information visit www.pennyarcadeexpo.com.

About Penny Arcade: Equal parts online comic and commentary, Penny Arcade (www.penny-arcade.com) keeps its finger on the pulse of the gaming industry, prompting conversation and controversy alike from community members and industry experts. What started as a hobby in 1998 for Jerry “Tycho” Holkins and Mike “Gabe” Krahulik has grown into an online phenomenon serving 70 million page views a month to millions of readers worldwide. In addition to the comic strip and PAX gaming festival (www.pennyarcadeexpo.com), Penny Arcade has expanded its reach to include a growing line of merchandise, a video game and management of Child’s Play (www.childsplaycharity.org), a gamer-driven charity for children that spans the globe.