The Professional Gamer - April 11, 2016

I feel like I just keep having very busy weeks, but I'm still managing to have a little fun on the side,  I've watched a little TV and played some video games.  Read on to find out what I've been doing.

First, I've watched a few more episodes of Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash.  The series has been slow going for a few reasons.  The violence is rather brutal and the character relationships are nuanced and requires a high degree of attention.  I'm glad that after some of the initial pain in the series, that things are going better for the main characters.  I'm constantly worried that everything is going to go downhill again at some point soon.

Some of you may be aware that Nintendo released their new social network platform Miitomo this past week.  I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it.  It feels like Nintendo has combined the typical social platform with a game.  Also, lots of questions.  Kinda like doing speed dating or a network event.

Speaking of Nintendo, I finally went back and finished my playthrough of Ocarina of Time on my 3DS.  I'd left myself at a point where I could basically have explored Ganon's tower and finished the game.  I don't recall what the circumstance that led me to leaving my save file in such a state.  I'm just glad that I managed to finish it now,

Lastly, I've been playing a little more Elite: Dangerous. I feel like I've got my ship fairly well equipped., since I was able to take down 2 NPC's without any aid.  Which is considerably better than I've had previously.  And, I'm about halfway to earning my next goal ship. Yay!

Colorado Anime Fest 2016 - We Can Have Two Good Anime Cons

Colorado Anime Fest 2016 - We Can Have Two Good Anime Cons

So last weekend Colorado Animefest entered the foray into the growing Denver convention market. And despite this being their first year I would say the convention was a success. Sure it had it's share of problems, but it was nothing major and things overall flowed well.  Now lets flashback to the convention itself.

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The Professional Gamer – February 15, 2016

Hello, readers!  I’ve been at the inaugural Colorado Anime Fest.  I’ll have a full article about my experience here a little later this week.  Other than that, I’ve spent my time this week watching Snow White with the Red Hair, and flying around some more with my space truck.  Also, since we are starting to get close to spring, I’ve started reading more gardening books, and have started some herbs to keep in pots in my house. 

Snow White with the Red Hair is very enjoyable.  I like seeing that the two lead characters, who maybe have some romantic interest in each other, also have plans and goals that do not simply revolve around the relationship.  Without relying on the typical "love conquers all" trope, the creators are much more free to develop the characters as individuals.

My adventures in space trucking in Elite: Dangerous continue apace.  I've been a bit more busy this week, especially with helping Crystal get ready for Colorado Anime Fest this weekend.  So, I haven't moved much further towards my goals of a new ship, but my rare trading scheme still seems to be working well as a means of earning the needed capital.

Look for a full article from me about Colorado Anime Fest to come out later this week.  I took a few pictures and had a lot of fun at the cultural track programs.  I hope to see you all here again later this week.  Game on!

Colorado Anime Fest - The Time is Nigh

Colorado Anime Fest - The Time is Nigh

We are a week out from Colorado Anime Fests first convention. Happening February 12th - 14th at the Denver Renaissance Hotel (I-70 and Quebec) this will be Denver's third Anime convention. So why should you and your loved one spend at least part of Valentine's Weekend here?

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The Professional Gamer - January 25, 2016

This has been another pretty great week. I've again been able to spend a fair amount of time dedicated to the more trivial pursuits of life.  Which means that I'll have a bit more to talk about this week compared to what I might otherwise have.  Read on to find out how I spent that time.

My viewing time this week was dominated by watching all but the last episode of One Punch Man.  The series has been so much fun.  It's a real breath of fresh air among the moe serials and overserious cast-of-thousands fighting series that have dominated the air-waves lately.  I only have one episode left to watch, and I'm kinda dragging my feet about it. Mostly because I don't want the series to end, but also because I'm an older anime fan and have seen so many serials fizzle at the end.  Here's hoping that One Punch Man stays strong to the end.

After I finished writing my article last week, I spent the remainder of the evening playing Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale.  The game is a few years old, and I originally purchased it sometime after it was released on Steam in North America.  I had mostly forgotten about it, but decided to reinstall it on a whim.  I played for a few hours that night and a few more hours over the next few days.  In the beginning it was fun, but I feel on the cusp of a very long grind to get through the rest of the game, and that has somewhat turned me off of the whole thing.

I also finally had enough time to get a few decent sessions in with Elite: Dangerous.  I hadn't played for a long time, largely because it is the type of game that I want to dedicate a relatively large block of time to at once.  For the last few months, I haven't felt that I had the appropriate amount of time to dedicate to it.  Man, I love this game a lot, but sometimes death can be swift and arbitrary.  This is largely due to the NPC archetype commonly referred to as the "psychopath".  Basically, these are folks who will kill you just for fun.  They never ask for your credits or cargo or anything like that.  They just pull you out of lightspeed travel and start hammering your ship with everything they have.  At least insurance costs for my ship are not too punishing at my level of play.  It's a little frustrating sometimes, but from what I can gather in the community this is considered a "feature" and an "essential part of the tone" of the game.  I'm not sure that I agree with that, and I may go back to working the relatively safe career of the merchant.

I'm still reading Ways to the West, but I am now more than half-way through the book.  The current chapter is especially interesting to me because the discussion not only centers around Denver, but on the exact area of my current commute: the Southeast Corridor.  I've been enthralled learning about the history that has lead to an everyday feature of my own life.  I should be finished with the book in time to discuss it more completely in a fortnight.  So you should look forward to that in the future.

I'm going to finish off this week with a couple of fun links.  Elysium Adventures is a Denver based firm that organizes wilderness adventure trips with a fantasy theme.  Think of those urban team building exercises, except out in the wilderness of Colorado, and you can pretend to be an elf without fear of judgement.  Finding Molly is a new webcomic that is being published by Emet Comics.  The comic is brand new, but looks really promising.

I hope you all have fun this week and I'll see you back here again next time.  Game on!

One Punch Man

Recetter

Elite Dangerous

 

The Professional Gamer - December 14, 2015

Welcome again, to another week of "The Professional Gamer"!  This week I ended up watching a substantial amount of anime, and solving a complex design problem at work.  I think I'll tell you more about the former, rather than the latter.  But if you are interested in hearing about it, let me know!

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NDK Costume Contest!

This took longer then I wanted it to, but I finally when through the pictures that I took for the NDK Costume Contest. Now these are not all the pictures I had, just the ones I liked best, so if you see something you like please feel free to ask my "rejects" and I can get them to you. Enjoy!

You can all see these at THIS PAGE as well.