What's in a Name? Reflections on my Irrational Mistrust of the Online Persona

Xbox Live, harsh but fair.

Usernames, gamertags, SteamIDs, whatever you want to call them, the online pseudonym has been around since Alexander Graham Berners-Lee first tied two soup cans together and invented the internet (I think that's how it went, anyway). I'm hardly a stranger to them, mainly because you just can't do much on the net without having one, especially with the ubiquitous connectivity of today's gaming platforms. For some reason, I've always felt uneasy about the idea of being referred to or known by an internet nickname, and I can't fail to notice that others online take a very different tack on this. I thought I'd write a semi-comprehensible post here to explain my username Luddism, self-critique a little bit and give my co-bloggers the opportunity to tell me what it's like on the other side of this fence I'm pretty sure I just made up.

How I caught VVVVVV fever. And you should too!

PES 14 BFVG Style; The Dream League of Dreams

Who will triumph in the Dream League of Dreams?

Do you love the Beautiful game? Do you enjoy playing said beautiful game on a gaming device? Have you ever wanted to endlessly sim a league with friends and see what happens?
If like me the answer to those questions was yes, yes, no then a few weeks ago I would have agreed with you. That was before myself and a few other members of BFVG found ourselves watching fellow BFVGer, Arjybarjy playing PES 14 while streaming it on Twitch. During our late night ramblings we stumble upon this great idea and from this the BFVGDLOD (Best Friends Video Games Dream League of Dreams) was born.



Its a simple idea, we each create a team including team names and kits (which I will come to later) then draft players to fill our respective rosters. Each week we would sim these games live on Twitch for our, and hopefully everyone else's enjoyment. Unfortunately there are not enough of us to have the league saved on PES (smallest league requires 14 teams) however I will be keeping all the results and updating the table. Then after each team has played each other twice a champion will be crowned. The winner* will be given the greatest trophy of all, the right to rub it in everyone else's face that he/she are the greatest and all others suck.

Podcast #5 - Death Friends Video Games

Our 5th podcast-iversary we talk about the pretty inconvenient trait we humans have - mortality - and how video games reflect this. We'll be discussing perma-death as well as regular bucket o' lives games and how meeting our grizzly ends (in video game form) can improve or diminish the games we play. Expect technical difficulties as internet connections reflect the fragility of life itself...

Podcast #4 - Stimulating Simulators

In our 4th inaugural podcast we try to pinpoint what the difference between a simulation and a game exactly is. Should they have similar features to games? Should they accurately reflect the drudgery of carrying out these activities? Expect really unprofessional behaviour as we leave our mobile phones on and send Skype IMs to other people throughout this topic!

XCOM Enemy Unknown Review

Hey! Wanna play a turn based tactical role-playing game? If your first reaction to that question is confusion along with a quick no as a reply, then a few months ago I would have been right there next to you, looking down on the person like some kind of weird overgrown kumquat. That is until I played XCOM Enemy Unknown.

Podcast #1 - Cookie Clicker

We discuss whether Cookie Clicker is a wonderful game full of intrigue and strategy or a demonstration of how we waste our pointless existence on meaningless activities.

Here are some relevant links:
Play Cookie Clicker
Cookie Clicker wiki
Yoglaiiiii's blog post

The Big Cookie debate

BFVG is in disarray. A huge divide has been created. And what’s at the centre of this disagreement? The simple act of clicking a computerised image of a cookie.

Meet the Best Friends from Best Friends Video Games!

Arjybarjy (Arjun) plays games. Well... he collects games and plays them when the urge strikes (sometimes). He grew up playing a ludicrous amount of Tiger Woods PGA Tour '05. He enjoys silly games and has a spreadsheet of games that he needs to complete and challenges himself to complete more games than the year previous (ten more games!).
 

Hairwire (Jess), also plays videogames (you will notice this is an emerging theme), generally centred around fantasy RPGs and God simulators (because who doesn't love elves and dwarfs and megalomania?), but she also plays/sings/teaches music and is a closet feminist, masquerading as a gender egalitarian.  In honesty she's kind of confused about how she pigeonholes herself  - WHY CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?

Gnatasha (Tash) tends to play games to unwind. Due to her deep-seated hatred of conflict, she mainly plays RPGs, strategy and puzzle games, as well as anything with a co-op element (because friendship). She is frequently consumed by pug-lust.

Fingers333 (Dean) is an average to below average gamer. He has little to no computing skills, is easily confused and lacks any understanding of subtlety. His opinions mean nothing and yet he continues to express them. He is however passionate about gaming, particularly when it comes to games that he feels he has missed out on. 

Theris108 (James) is a recovering achievement addict.  His lowest moment was when he bought Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for some easy Gamerscore.  However he has turned his life around and only collects 'cheevs recreationally.  He usually favours RPGs (in which he gets far too emotionally invested), and has fond memories of growing up with point-and-click adventures.

Kingofallcosmos (Gurdeep) was born with a Master System pad in one hand, a Sega Menacer in the other, while riding atop an Amiga 500. Dismissing both the disgusting imagery of an Amiga 500-aided birth, and the fact that the Sega Menacer was released several years after he was born, he has fond memories of Amiga classics such as Paradroid 90. Those memories fade to darkness when he remembers the game Nightbreed; a game so terrifying and disturbing he would leave the room as soon as the title screen loaded. He continues to enjoy games on all formats, counting the Bioshocks, the Mass Effects, the Half-Lifes, the Sonics, the Deus Exs and the Mirror's Edge among his favourites. He still hasn't got past the loading screen on Nightbreed.

SeaKing61 (Laurie) is our least gamey gamer. A fan of simulators and making open world games as boring and monotonous as possible, he suffers from a severe phobia of any game involving magic, fantasy or trading cards. SeaKing can be identified during podcasts and multiplayer games by his long, slow, boring drawl and will be blogging about various simulators and his undying love for Orangina.

Heliosrain (Richard) is proud to admit that he loves the incongruous combination of moba games like League of Legends, simulators (Eurotruck 2), fpSsssss (BF3), RPGs (Assassin's Creed, Skyrim etc.) with a particular penchant for 2D platformer style games, of which Terraria is a favourite. His general level of noobiness when playing most games is sometimes punctuatued by a blinding ray of mediocrity which occasionally leads people to think (wrongly) that he's good at them.

This_is_jazz (Felix) really, really likes Romans.

Yoglaiiiii (Yogs) is a paranoid & confused gamer who regularly has contradictory opinions but is not afraid to say them, especially in front of Arjybarjy. His main experience and upbringing in the world of gaming have been FPS’s & racing sims, but has now in the last few years branched out into other gaming genres such as RPG’s, MOBA's and Indy games. He plans to continue his adventure into the gaming world and hopes to experience the best it has to offer. His favourite games include Carmageddon, Quake 1 & 2, The Half-Life Series, BioShock and Guitar Hero 2.    

Alex Cole (brave enough to use his real name) loves playing video games, period.  He'll give pretty much any genre a chance but certainly has a predilection for challenging platformers (think Super Meat Boy or Rayman Origins), super deep RPG's (Elder Scrolls or old-school Final Fantasy) and driving games (whether full sim like Gran Turismo or more arcade-y like Motorstorm: Pacific Rift or Trackmania). A console gamer since childhood, he wants to broaden his gaming horizons and gaming knowledge further and further, doesn't matter if the game's old or new, universally loved or controversially divisive.  And it always helps if they have a cool world to explore. He can't get enough of that shit.