Hi all, RileyScott here, and this is my Gaming and Gadgets blog. Here I'll be discussing gadgets that I either acquire or find interesting, and documenting the games I play. So here is where I'll intro you to some of the more predominant games you'll be hearing about.
Magic: The Gathering Online: Introduced to me in 2003 by Darque(best friend), I initially didn't take to it much. I mean, the business model is quite odd to say the least. You pay real money, to get virtual cards that stay on the company's servers. Then you build decks, and pay more real money to participate in tournaments. Individual cards range from 10 cents to 20 dollars per. You can have 4 of them in a deck and prices can vary daily. So what brought me around...well, there are a few reasons.
1)Since I was introduced also in 2003 to Collectible card games (CCG), I was absolutely hooked. I wanted to slip these slim pieces of cardboard into their protective sleeves and play against another person basically any moment I was awake. This is the first reason why I prefer Magic Online to playing a paper card game, like actual Magic: The Gathering or Yu-gi-OH. I can play a constructed or limited tournament at any time of day 365 days a year. Not having to wait till Friday night or Saturday afternoon to play the deck that you just built is a HUGE boon to me.
I feel that I should share some history of how I came to play these card games:
My first CCG was Yu-Gi-Oh, which I bought random packs, and kept one deck, editing it with
new cards I'd get out of a pack or two that I'd buy with Darque. At first it was something to do when we didn't have enough time for a full blown Heroclix game which took time to set up. Over the course of about 2 months, we started noticing that we were buying more Yu-gi-oh packs then Heroclix boosters. I heard about the tournaments that MonkeyHead games was having, and went to play in one. I did ok, but I was totally outclassed by people with better cards. Let's just say that I don't take losing well. Especially when it wasn't based on skill, or luck, just that every card that was played against me was of higher quality. Then I found a place in the flea market that sold Yu-gi-oh singles. That was the beginning. I bought the cards I needed individually, and went back to the next tournament ready. It wasn't even close. 1st place. I continued on with Yu-gi-oh, building my collection, and continuing it in Florida after I moved there. That's when it became my main game. In NY Darque and I had played Heroclix, this was a collectible Figurine game based on Marvel and DC superheros, and Darque and I were the kings of our store. It was 1st and 2nd, and everyone else picked up after our scraps. In Florida though, the Heroclix gaming scene was just sad. The team build point totals were very low, and the competition was....not up to snuff. We quickly abandoned any hope of finding worthwhile competition, but after a few months discover that we have conviniently moved to the most populated Yu-Gi-Oh playing region in Florida. This led to a year and a half journey through the tournament ranks. Darque and I went every Saturday, and then towards the end of my two years in Florida big tournaments at convention centers. I was ok, not great, Darque having played Magic before was in his element, and even made nationals. However, it was not to continue for much longer. I moved back up north for financial reasons, and found that it did not have the competition I was looking for, and the format soon disintegrated into a luck game. Concentrating on who could combo out first rather player skill. I tried to revive my VS. system collection
(Another card game I had started in Florida), but the small tournament group soon dissolved. So there I was, a card player without a game. It was at this time that I revisited Magic Online, after an almost 2 year absence. Darque still played, and therefore became a cornerstone to help our now long distance friendship flourish. That was June 2005, and I've never looked back. I now play tournaments regularly on magic online, and it is my the main game that I play.
And now we return to our reasons:
2)Storage: I have a long white box that is 3 feet by 2 feet filled to the brim with Yu-Gi-Oh cards at my parents house. I have a metal deck box and another small cloth case filled with over 18 VS decks. The amount of VS. cards I have fills 3 huge binders and another small showbox. These were the cards I didn't put into decks. With Magic Online, my collection is neatly organized on the computer, and kept intact my Wizards of the Coast IT department. They guarantee my investment, and I've yet to hear about anyone losing an account. I have almost 20,000 cards, and they take up no more space then an icon on my desktop. Now that is efficient.
3) Rule of four: In Magic, you can only have 4 of any particular card in a deck. In real life if you want 4 cards like Wrath of God
in two decks, that would mean that you would need 8 actual copies. On Magic Online, you would only need 4, This is because you can make an infinite amount of decks, all of them with 4 Wraths of God, cause as far as Magic Online is concerned, you always have those 4 to use, since you can only use one deck at a time. This leads to a cheaper economy to trade with too, since everyone can trade away any copy of a card that they get more then 4 of. This leads me to...
4)Cheaper: Now granted, Magic Online is not cheap by any measurement comparing other games. I have have probably spent more on Magic Online then on any real life game. However compared to actual paper Magic, it's a steal. Card prices are only similar during launch weekends. A perfect example of this is the card Garruk Wildspeaker.
When Garruk was first released a year ago at the start of Lorwyn block, his price went something like this in real life.
Oct 2007:10 dollars
Nov 2007:20 dollars (after first tournament results in which he dominated came out)
Dec 2007: 30 dollars (for right before worlds, when everyone was looking for him)
January-October 2008: 20-15 dollars (This is the current price. Keep in mind that this card was released a YEAR ago, and appears rarely in tournament decks since the release of Shards of Alara the current set.)
Online pricing: since Magic Online gets the cards released a month after they are released in real life, Garruk was the most sought after rare in Lorwyn for a while.
Nov 2007: 15 dollars
Dec 2007: 25 dollars
Jan-April 2008: 10-15 dollars
May-Nov 2008: 5-8 dollars
This is what the rule of 4 does. Since the drafters on Magic Online can trade away any card they get extra of over 4, eventually the market is flooded, and the price goes WAY down. Also, do to the virtual nature of the card, it never eclipsed the real life price. Therefore, no matter when you bought Garruk, it was cheaper then buying it in real life.
So those are the reasons I play Magic:The Gathering online. I plan to use this blog to keep track of my rating, and my game play to try and improve my game.
Halo3: 
The second most played game in the Scott household, and the most social. This game is played almost nightly, and with our good friends Darque and DD in Florida. We play in "Team Slayer", both us and our wives, and play against other teams of 4. The funniest thing is that this is the first time I've actually done something like this. Usually, I would get a game like Halo and Halo 2. I'd play through the story mode first, then try online. I'd see that it's nothing but juveniles and idiots cursing and shooting their teammates, and then it would sit on the shelf till I got nostalgic one day. This changed when Darque took a sabbatical from work last year. We had played Halo 3 together online a few times, but now it was his time to "master" this game. For two months, he and his wife basically played every day for at least 3-4 hours cumulative time. My fiance (at the time) and I would join them at night. Over the two months, Darque went from an ok member of the team to the best on the team. We've all progressed at our own rates and are now in the upper teens in ranking numbers (Darque is in the late twenties). This is a great game to help the Mrs and I relax, and bond with our long distance friends. You'll hear mainly gripes about this game mostly, but maybe I'll get some tips in the comments section to help me improve.
Rock Band 2:
RockBand 2 is the music game we play. There are alot of choices out there today for music rhythm games. We were originally a Guitar Hero household. I in fact got Guitar Hero 2 for xmas in 2006. For 2007, after getting Guitar Hero 3 for my birthday and being disappointed with it. My wife and I purchased RockBand 1 for the big 2007 gift for each other. Over the next 9 months, we played RockBand almost exclusively, finding it much more friendly then GH3's ultra challenging and odd song selection. When there was a choice between Guitar Hero World Tour, and RockBand 2, the decision came down to really one thing.
RockBand 2 is backwards compatible with Rock Band 1's songs!
This meant, no losing the songs that we had beaten and praticed, and still enjoyed to play for fun. This meant over 100 songs on launch day, and the instruments were backwards compatible to boot. When we play this game this game, I am generally the drummer, and the Mrs. is wicked on the Axe.
Wii Games: This category includes Wii sports, Super Smash bros brawl, Wii fit, Mario Party 8, Mario Kart Wii, and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
Generally these games come out when we hang with Hawk and Dove, or when we need a change of pace. Though they did prove quite a hit to bring over to my parent's house on Thanksgiving.
Well that's a brief run down. And until next time, remember, all work and no play...
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