I really should go to more concerts!

Last night I went to my third ever concert, and for the second time it was to see I Fight Dragons. If you are any kind of fan of chiptune, and rock n roll, please please please do yourself a favor and check them out! You will not be disappointed! 
They played last night at THE STUDIO, part of Webster Hall in NYC and I can describe the venue as nothing other than intimate. The opening act, Megaweapon was also pretty good, I can't leave them out of this post. They're still getting used to their stage presence, but personally, I think they've got what it takes to make it! I'll be following up on them in the future! 
When IFD started to play, CrazyBacon, Kaitylyn and I were third row standing and we could literally touch the band members on stage. It was amazing. I believe there were just enough of us in the crowd so that our singing and the band's singing were at somewhat of an equal volume. There are few occasions in my life where I have ever thought that the group I was with was one cohesive unit, but last night was one of those wonderful times. There's just... something about such a big group all shouting and moving in unison that I don't think you could get in any other situation but a concert. Music really does bring people together!
I'm also going to slip in a little channel stuff in here... I've been thinking, and I think I've officially decided that for every 100 subs and 100 followers I'll be doing a giveaway! I think that's a pretty decent thing to do, right? 

Ponderings

To be honest, before CreepshowKate had sent me that package with a new controller and SuperChargers, I was really on the fence about continuing with YouTube and Twitch and the like. I guess in some ways, my whole online persona and all that. She got me back on the right path, gave me that confidence that I seemed to have been missing since I lost the person in my life that gave me the most confidence I'd ever had. It's weird what exactly gives you that little bump in the right direction that everyone needs every now and then! 

Well, one of the things I had been considering for a while was to make a tubestart or a patreon or something along those lines. I had always thought "but why would anyone want to donate to me as opposed to anyone else?" It's true that I haven't ever been a shining beacon of quality, but I'm always around. When CreepshowKate told me she wanted to help out, I don't know, something that I had been missing just... well, it just clicked. I was going to give up on Skylanders, and really streaming in general before I received that package, but it's really been a huge deal for me as far as my online persona goes. 

It couldn't have come at a better time and it really was the perfect thing! My Twitch fanmily is growing ever-so-steadily and I'm actually interested in other people's streams, which is... well, relatively unprecedented for me! I've also just been... drowning in partnership network e-mails. For the first time in a long time I've actually got that "I might be on to something here!" vibe, and I love that! 

Back to the Patreon/Tubestart dealie, I've been strongly considering those as of late because I finally feel like people may actually have a reason to help me. I know that sounds really weird, but I'm one of those people that gets wildly uncomfortable when other people do something nice for them for no reason. Even though I do stuff that other people would consider the same thing for others pretty often, I don't know how to deal with it when it's directed at me. 

I mentioned previously that the thing about me and my channel is that I'm always around. I may not give people HD content all the time, or play the newest-released games, but people come to me for stuff that they know I can provide. Recently the screen on my laptop died and that means I'm now out of a way to film older consoles (My Easycap doesn't function on Win10 so I can't use that). I will clarify, I'm talking about direct capture in this case. I could point my camcorder at the tv, but I feel like that's not really something I should do, it's like stepping back instead of stepping forward once you've already had direct capture. 

That's where the tubestart/patreon stuff comes in! I feel like this might be a good time to start one, since you guys can help me get my laptop back in working order. That way I can continue to give you guys older console footage and games, and get through the remainder of your requests! I'm not saying I'm going to make one of either of those right this second, but, it's something I'm strongly considering. 

If any of you that read this blog would like to offer your thoughts/ideas, please do! I'm all ears!

So I beat SuperChargers...

As many of you know, or have guessed from my personality, I'm all for things getting better in subsequent iterations of a series. That sounds like it's a pretty reasonable thing to think is going to happen, but especially in game design, that's just not the case. I firmly subscribe to "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," but many game developers don't seem to subscribe to that formula. I can't tell you how pissed it makes me when a game removes something from a previous iteration. 

Take for example, something simple like how in Skylanders: Trap Team, they introduced an entirely new customization item, the trinket. The trinkets don't exist in SuperChargers, but then again, neither does your ability to capture villains, also a bummer. It's not just elements that get removed in subsequent iterations, let's look at Capcom for example. Marvel vs Capcom? The first game had six buttons. Then we lost a set of buttons, and they did the same thing with Power Stone 2. They removed an entire set of combos from the first game. Why? So you added two more characters, but you also removed a layer of depth. Is it worth it? I don't think so, since all the previous characters are now dumbed down.

I recently finished Skylanders: SuperChargers' story and while I loved the story and all the graphical updates and stuff... There's a lot missing from the game. I'm relatively certain that this game (number 5, if you're counting), is actually shorter in length than the first game. I'm 90% certain this is the shortest (story-wise) game in the entire series. Not only that, but they tried to make it longer by removing features that have existed for four games, namely the ability to bring in legacy hats to the game by putting them on characters' heads. You can't unlock hats that way anymore. Instead you have to buy/unlock each and every one of them one by one. In order to facilitate this need, they've made it really difficult to make money in the game compared to past iterations. It's been 3 games since they've raised the max level cap and this game is ABSOLUTELY the easiest to level up in. Before I played SuperChargers I think I had a single Skylander that was max level, and that's only because I had two people that exclusively played him for four entire games. Do you see what I'm getting at here? Why are games getting so short yet maintaining their price tags? Such a silly thing to be happening...

The fact that instead of regular PvP or the AMAZEBALLS SkyGoals mode, we have a racing mode doesn't really bother me. It's just that because they had to develop something all new they basically just have two short games put together. The racing is actually its own game (literally on the Wii and 3DS), and then there's the regular Story, which is incredibly short this time around. How about instead of mashing up two short games into one game, how about the next game goes as long as development needs to make a full game? How about that? 

AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON HOW YOU NEED TO PLAYTEST CO-OP. FFS, IT'S BEEN FIVE GAMES.
PLEASE. PLAYTEST. CO-OP. BEFORE. RELEASE.

That's the one thing you keep!? Get real, guys.