What This Is All About

Hello World,

I'm here today to indulge you to the wonderful world of video games and table top games. Expect to read a lot of my opinions, critic, and plenty of random nonsense involving them.

But first a little about myself.

My name is Duane Pierce, I'm a 23 year old General Business Administration and Marketing Student currently studying at the University of Central Florida. I've been playing games since I was first bought an NES as a kid, my gaming resume then moves onto every single gameboy, sega genesis, n64, playstation, xbox, playstation 2, xbox 360, playstation 3 and PC gaming. So this is my story of looking into video games and trying to figure out what makes one better than the other.

The whole point of this blog is to better understand what makes a game great for the player, what draws out that emotional response or thrill of an accomplishment. I want to know how to make players feel and learn lessons while having fun. The best way I can think to do this is by diving right in and trying to see what effects me. Path to understanding others is to first understand yourself right?

My dream is to one day work in the video game industry, to create games that affect people, to have people making friends and bonding over challenges in my games, and to create virtual memories that will keep them talking about it for decades to come.

The intent of this blog is to share my opinions on the strengths and weaknesses of certain games and my general opinions on games I'm playing, I may also talk about some current issues or news in the video game industry I find interesting.

I'm currently busy planning a Pathfinder DND game for Monday and playing Amnesia: The Dark Decent and League of Legends. To help document my experiences I've also started a twitch. Twitch, for those of you who don't know is a online website for streaming and saving video files, a good majority of the site is used for video games.

The current theme I've been looking into is fear, thus Amnesia and the theme of my upcoming Pathfinder game. Amnesia is so freaking scary mostly because it take horror and puts a more classic approach, you cant fight, there is no safe harbor, your only viable option is to run. More aptly flee. The game also uses controls in a way to create a more intense experience, making the player move the mouse as they would their hand rather than click doors and cabinets open. While running away quickly pulling doors open makes the experience very intense.  The game also utilizes a sanity aspect demanding you stay in the light, but at the same time it penalizes you by making you easier to see to the monsters in the area. These few aspects create a edge of your seat fear that is hard to capture in games. I'm about halfway through and I look forward to completing it.

I look forward to sharing my experiences and becoming a better gamer. Until next week. 

Game on,

            Duane