non-team players aka douche bags

You know who I'm talking about. There is always that one mofo who just doesn't help out the team for whatever reason. These guys will never help complete the objective at hand and are only out to help themselves. For instance, if the point of the game was to capture a flag or a king of the hill game, these guys would just stand off to the side or go off on their own way. Chances are they only care about one thing and thats their kill/death ratio or KDR for short. In objective based games as to straight deathmatch, there is no killing quota so being in objective based games means you can kill as much you want and it won't end the game.

Whenever I play Modern Warfare 2, I like to play the game domination. In domination, there are 3 flags on the map. The objective of the game is to capture these flags, hold them and accumulate points. The first team to reach 200 points wins. Each team generally has a flag right next to their spawn and then one in the middle where it is sort of a 'no man's land'. To accumulate more points faster you must capture more than one flag. When there are more than one person on a flag it captures faster, so generally you want as many people on it as possible. Get it? Good, because I'm not explaining it again. So whenever I play in this game there is almost always one or two douche bags that just don't want to help the team out to get that W (Win). Many times I would find myself running to a flag in order to capture it and then I would see my teammates just keep running past me. I'm like thinking to myself "Wow thanks for the help in capturing this guys", and then what usually ends up happening is these guys run off, get killed, leaving me alone on this point and then I get killed and so therefore we don't end up not getting the flag. The other situation I find myself in is when one out flags gets captured and as I'm running towards to get it back, I see my teammates running in the OPPOSITE direction and AWAY from it! I'm just like "ARE YOU KIDDING ME? WHERE ARE YOU PEOPLE GOING?"

"But edwadokun, what if they were trying to protect you while you captured the flag?" BULL!!! It takes twice as fast to capture a flag with two or more people so why don't you just help me capture it so that we get it twice as fast and then we can both defend the flag. Plus, even if they kill us in the process, chances are you probably would've died facing against them all by yourself anyways.

"But edwadokun, If you don't kill people, then they would be all over the place and you wouldn't be able to capture anything!" True to a certain extent because yes, in order to capture a flag you'll need to eliminate the threat surrounding it, but my point is that once the threat is gone, where is everyone to take the flag? Sure killing someone would reset them to a spawn point which also buys you more time to capture but capturing points can actually help your KDR because in domination, a team spawns in near their safest flag so in some cases for instance if you are able to capture two flags then the enemy team will be stuck spawning in one area where at this point you can do what is called 'spawn trapping' which is where our team surrounds the enemy team and make it impossible for them to advance. This will basically eliminate the likelihood of someone flanking.

So you see folks, don't be a douche bag, when its a team based objective game then play for the team and the objective. If you care that much about your KDR or just want to get kills then play free-for-all or team deathmatch. Don't waste everyone else's time.

the tester

For those of you with a PS3 you might have noticed that SCEA has made a reality game show called 'The Tester'. In this show several individuals compete against each other in order to win 'the ultimate prize' which is a position as a QA tester. Now sounds kinda cool right at first but as a recent QA tester I can tell you that this show is freaking RETARDED!!!!

These people are complete morons in competing for a position that literally ANYONE can get as long as they are somewhat articulate and can sit in a chair for 8 hours a day. A tester is also at the bottom of the video game hierarchy. So I ask why the crap would these people want to compete for a crap job? Most likely they either don't know about the whole hierarchy or they think 'Hey this is my chance to get my foot in the door' but its like you can do it WITHOUT competing these other mofos for it. These people are wasting their time and Sony is wasting their money. The Tester is by far the most idiotic show ever.

'you're such a noob!!!'

Where to begin... I guess from the beginning. For as long as I have been playing video games (20 some odd years) there has been some form of social competitive bracket where gamers fight for that top score at the arcade and compete for the title of being the best. That was back in the day, now lets fast forward 20 years or so and now there is actually a professional league for gamers, the Major League of Gaming (MLG). Yes, the face of competitive gaming has changed from the arcade leaderboard to a professional league, but enough of the history, lets talk about the social aspect.

Recently, like millions of others I have been hooked on the game Modern Warfare 2 which is the latest installment of the Call of Duty franchise, in case you don't know what it is.

So like any other game with a competitive scene a player will either be branded as a 'noob' or a 'pro'. There seems to be little to no middle ground. Now what qualifies someone to be a 'noob' or 'pro' seems to be currently dictated by the general community of gamers. Currently, the 'noob' qualifiers are using weapons that require little skill to use. For instance, in Modern Warfare 2, all assault rifles have attachments and one of them is a grenade launcher which has been so dubbed 'the noob tube'. This little guy fires a grenade and will kill anything within its kill radius. "Whats the big deal?" you might be thinking? Well the big deal to the gaming community is that this is too easy to kill someone. You don't need to really aim, just be able to judge the relative distance and POW goes a shell and BOOM there comes another frag. The attachment is balanced by only being able to have 2 rounds. After the two rounds are gone, you are forced to switch back to your rifle or if you have the scavenger perk on, which allows you to replenish your ammunition and equipment from dead enemies.

Another example, is the thermal scope attachment for all assault rifles and sniper rifles. This little gizmo gives you the same amount of magnification as a regular sniper scope but also turns the world to grey and white where enemies show up on the scope as a silhouette of white and all other inanimate objects are grey. This allows the player a great advantage where enemies are as clear as night and day. So no matter how much yout try to blend yourself in with the map or dark corner you plop yourself in, the thermal scope will pick you out. The only way around this is if you have the cold-blooded perk which basically blocks its effects. So you might be thinking 'Why doesn't everyone just use cold-blooded then?" Well, this funny little game did something weird where another perk called stopping power can be used to kill people faster. This perk is in the same category as the cold-blooded perk so to use one is not to use the other and players are extremely reluctant to give up more power to kill someone over not being spotted by the thermal scope.

The list can go on and on with guns/attachments that every player thinks is 'overpowered' and what not. For some players it seems like their ego is SO BIG that whenever they are killed, whatever set up the other user is using is considered 'noob'. It;s like they think they are so good that god forbid they will ever get killed because that's just not possible! *sarcasm* I first noticed this behavior from my 14 year old younger brother who screams 'WOW!' and 'ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" every time he gets killed and begins to swear whenever he's done in by a 'noob' weapon. Now I can agree that it gets annoying if every corner I turn theres a dude with a noob tube waiting for me or a sniper thermal scoping, but hey guess what. EVERYONE CAN USE IT! So therefore SO CAN YOU! I know I know, you don't want to lower yourself to that level but then you're just digging your own grave. Basically what I'm trying to get at is that these things are part of the game. Sure some are cheap but its not like it's limited to certain users. All users are allowed to use it so what's the point in whining when you can just do it back to them. One time my friends and I encountered this team where that the grenade launcher was all they used so I decided to fight fire with fire. I brought out my own grenade launcher and so did my friends. End result? We kicked the crap out of them.

In my personal opinion, the game is pretty well balanced for the most part. It's not a perfect game but it's good enough that there will never be that one thing that makes you a juggernaut and everyone else is screwed. If someone is noob tubing then snipe them or flank them. If someone is thermal scoping then they are stationary so flashbang them and advance forward. There is ALWAYS a solution and a way around it.

At this moment, I would like to promote KEN. No, not the blond guy from Street Fighter (so S-class) KEN was originally just a guy's clan tag in Modern Warfare 2 because his name is Ken, Ken Burton to be exact and who is a YouTube director where he makes random gameplay videos about various aspects of the game. He's not very good but he enjoys playing the game and always seems to have a great time. His positive attitude rubbed off the community so much that others started sporting the KEN tag, so now the KEN tag is known as "Keep Everything Nice". The KEN tag promotes good sportsmanship and overall fun gameplay. Don't you just hate it when you enter into a lobby where you got all these mofos yelling at each other? Who always seemed pissed off for one reason or another, and who screams into their mic at every little thing? It just makes me not want to play it. So all in all, Keep Everything Nice.

this is edwadokun

the audacity of the american people

So today like any other weekday, I hop in my car and head to work. As I pull out of my driveway, I tune in to my favorite radio station and morning talk show (which will remain anonymous). About 5 minutes into th commute or so, the host starts taking callers about the aid to Haiti and for people to express their opinions about how certain A-List celebrities are hosting a telethon in order to raise funds.

So caller number 1 calls in and starts talking and to my surprise he is AGAINST the relief effort for Haiti. He begins to state and i quote "Why are we helping out others when we have our own problems to take care of ... why do these celebrities suddenly start giving money to Haiti when we're still in a recession." First thought that came to my mind was 'what a douche bag'. In a way I do agree with him in terms that where were the celebrities to help out the common people when this recession started? Forbe's list the top 100 celebrities who earn the most and the current top ten are:

1. Oprah Winfrey

2. Tiger Woods

3. Mel Gibson

4. George Lucas

5. Shaquille O'neal

6. Steven Spielberg

7. Johnny Depp

8. Madonna

9. Elton John

10. Tom Cruise

The celebrity 100

These people make damn good money and when the crap hit the fan, they were nowhere to be seen. Oprah and Tiger alone make BILLIONS every year and yet they can't seem to spare one cent to help put struggling normal blue and white collar workers. Oprah is for sure a person who gives and gives a lot but for the amount she makes, she can give a lot more. She can single handedly put hundreds if not thousands of kids through college, probably save tons of small business from going bankrupt and save hundreds of homes from getting foreclosed. Maybe not all at once but she is capable. So in that sense I agree with caller number 1... HOWEVER, is this guy out of his freaking mind? The United States has a lot of problems, we all know it either from the news, radio, papers or obnoxious people like caller 1 but is it really more important than the devastation of Haiti? The guy went on to talk about how millions have lost their jobs and what not but millions have DIED in Haiti. People's home may be getting seized by the banks here in the U.S. but they are completely gone in Haiti and took human lives along with it! Yes it is unfortunate for so many people in the U.S. to be struggling but it has only been a few years. People in Haiti have been struggling their entire life. I've read stories of CEOs who went from making $200k to $20k a year. Yes it's sad but people in Haiti will never even see $20k in their life time. They'll be lucky if they can get $2k a year. I seriously do NOT get how selfish people can be and when in a crisis they can only think of themselves. Here's a little food for thought:

1. If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more fortunate than the one million people who will not survive this week.

2. If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the world.

3. If you can attend a church or political meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, then you are more blessed than three billion in the world.

4. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in your pocket, then you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

How about them apples eh? TOP 8% of the world's richest if you have a bank account, some bills in the wallet and some change lying around. Saying that the U.S. needs help first is the most selfish thing someone can say in this day and age. That's like telling your friend who's dying of a gun shot wound that you cannot take him to the hospital to save his life because you need to go to walgreens for some cough drops. At one point he did say we need to help education and thats for damn sure when people like him are around. We need better education so people like him don't exist!

Then there was caller number 2. This guy agreed with caller number as well and decided to throw in more ignorant things to say such as, and i quote "What did the Haitians ever do for us, all we got from them was Wyclef." I have to admit that was pretty funny. Defintely made me chuckle but still it's like what can you honestly expect from a 3rd world country. Do you really expect a country with a corrupt government and where the average worker gets about $200 a year come to New Orleans and help them out? That's like asking a small business owner to go and bail out a bank.

All I have to say is that if there is anyone out there who thinks helping dying people is not as important as making sure you can afford a steak dinner now and then is pretty freaking selfish and I high suggest that you take a long walk off a short pier.

my recent surge back into kpop

So recently I've been listening to a lot of kpop thanks to a few suggestions and pleasant surprises. First it was 2pm when I found out I knew someone in the band and now its the wonder girls. Both bands are catchy and fun to listen to. on that note there has been a surge of publicity regarding the leader of 2pm, Park Jaebeom (Jay Park).

Earlier this year, a comment surfaced from his MySpace page where he expressed some negative comments about Korea and its citizens. After the comments surfaced, the korean population was outraged and wanted Jaebeom out of the group and even out of the country. They were so angered that there was a rally in front of the record label JYP entertainment where thousands gathered to protest against Jaebeom. Now, Jaebeom is back in America at his parents in the state of Washington. This has gotten so big even the local news reported a story on it. Fans all over the world are pleading for him to come back to the band and even ahs gone as far as holding flash mobs in places like Korea, Singapore and Malaysia. These groups of fans would begin dancing the choreography of the band's popular song "Again and Agian" when the clock strikes.. you guessed it, exactly 2:00 PM. Fans of Jaebeom in America all stress how this anger and hatred is childish, immature, outraegous and that the Korean public is overreacting. In some ways I think they are right because as humans we do ridiculous things. The comments were from when he first arrived in Korea in 2005 to train at the JYP Academy. Though Jaebeom is Korean, he was born and raised in Seattle, WA and didn't even speak a word of English when he went to Korea. Being alone in a country as foreign to him as any other non-Korean he most likely started having withdrawals and became homesick. His parents and friends were thousands of miles away so like any other emotional teenager, they resort to expressing their dislikes online.

It is truly unfortunate that his beginning frustrations came back to bite him but in all honesty it was a pretty dumb mistake. Some say that it was an invasion of privacy well its not really privacy if you set your account to public or add tons of fans as friends and giving them full access. Being such a big hit in Korea, diehard fans would for sure add him on MySpace and then try to learn as much as they can about him to further their obsession. It was only a matter of time until those comments became public. For all those who believe the Koreans are overreacting, ask yourself what would you do if one of our own celebrities said that in America. If Shakira ever said anything negative about the U.S. the American public would react just the same and rally against her. American flags would start flying up everywhere and thousands would start telling her to get out of this country. You think you wouldn't react like that but this didn't happen in your backyard did it? We all hear stories and think we would react differently but in reality, human responses are pretty much the same throughout the board. If the Beatles had ever said they hated America or Americans we would've sent him on the first place back to Liverpool. If Jackie Chan ever said anything we'd all tell him to go back to China. It's just how people are. When someone offends your home territory you automatically get angry and fight back. This is just human nature.

With all that said, I believe it will be nearly impossible for him to go back without hostility unless he has such a strong following that they out number the haters. The chances of that are slim and JYP as a company will probably not risk having all the fans split with his return. In the end, they are a business built on making young and attractive kids stars (Disney anyone?). I wish the best for Jay but if I were him I'd start looking into other venues.

vampire insanity

Within the last year or so there has been an uproar of vampire shows and movies. Everyone is just sucking up all these shows (pun oh so intended). First there was twilight, a novel series that was a virtual overnight sensation along with its movie(s). Shows like True Blood and Vampire Diaries have swept the young "tweens" of this generation. Need I say enough already?

the day the earth stood still on blu-ray

recently i rented this movie from my work. i watched it over the weekend and you know what? this movie isn't half bad. it didn't get the greatest reviews and i can see why but i think the overall impending story was quite touching. if you haven't seen it already then don't read on. so the overall premise of the movie is that, this alien race came down to earth and is going to eradicate the human race because we're destroying the planet. i guess u can say they mean us no harm but of course the U.S. government in all its wisdom is just going to treat them hostile anyway and actually escalates the situation. the overall message of the story was pretty interesting and what not but so many things were so confusing or unnecessary. for instance in the beginning you see keanu reeves in the arctic somewhere and he first encounters the aliens. nothing really happens to him except that his hand gets a weird mark. fast forward to modern day and the aliens return. the aliens present themselves to the humans and what does one of these trigger happy morons do? shoots it.. they eventually reveal that the alien is using a human body they made themselves that evidently looks like keanu reeves. first thought is that keanu mustve been kidnapped right? no because the alien is only using the body and in the movie the doctor says the human body was probably made and it needed human DNA so the aliens were here once before which we know is true. but was it necessary to show keanu's encounter and mark signifying that he was the 'sample' these aliens took? nope. in fact you could've just left it at what the doctor said and it would've been all gravy. i spent 1/2 the movie thinking keanu was abducted and was sent back 80 some odd years later brainwashed. another part i didn't like was will smith's kid in the movie. the kid was a complete brat and made just want to smack him. which means he did a good job acting and gives a good performance but man that kid was just SO aggravating. in the end, the aliens decide not to kill the humans because they convince them humans can change when pushed to the threshold, which is exactly what the aliens did when they were face with the same dilemma of their own demise. after the movie ends, pretty much everything is left up in the air. we know that the human race lives on but do they change? do they relay the message to the rest of humanity that they need stop harming the planet? what happens to that secretary of defense when the main character gets to tell her 'told you so' and watch that smug face turn white? this movie couldve been so much more if they had just thought it through but now it is only an OK movie