The Professional Gamer - April 18, 2016

This has been the week where I had something scheduled to do every evening.  In spite of that, I managed to play a lot of video games this week.  However, I only managed to watch a very small amount of anime.  Anyway, read on to find out what I've been doing for the past week.

Let's start off with the shortest discussion.  I'm down to the final episode of Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash.  At this point, I'm expected the series to end one of two ways: either everybody lives or everybody dies.  I'll probably find out next week.  I also ended up showing Golden Boy to some friends.  I'd forgotten exactly how lewd this series was.  It's so bad; but it's also a lot of fun.  And the friends enjoyed it too!

While I was waiting at some of my meeting commitments, I played some Fantasy Life.  Once I finished Ocarina of Time last week, I needed to find something else to play.  And so, I've spent a bunch of effort on increasing some of my crafting and gathering professions.  To some degree, its a lot of work, but I'm having fun with it.

Finally, I've continued working towards a new ship in Elite: Dangerous, but don't feel like I've made a huge amount of progress this week.  To be honest, 2 million credits is nothing to sneeze at, but I've still got another 9 million to go.

That's all I've got for this week.  See you next time and game on!

Anime Southwest is Coming

Good news (I hope) anime fans! Denver is getting a forth anime convention. Anime Southwest is being held April 29 - May 1st at the Ramada Plaza at I-25 and 120th Ave. This convention is being put on by the group known as Sukoshi Con who have done other anime conventions across the country, so they do bring some experience with them. To some this group may sound familiar, and yes they have worked with Animeland Wasabi, possibly the most controversial convention in town on whether one should go or not. Well while they have worked with them they are a separate group and deserve the benefit of the doubt. So why should you got to Anime Southwest? Well that is always the question.

The panels / events of Anime Southwest include the standard array of costume contest and a dance. For Utena fans there will also be a Rose Ball where you can "Dance the evening away in a rose filled wonderland". The guests will also be holding their own panels. Samantha Inoue-Harte, whom has worked in over 33 anime titles and video games, will have panels about Auditioning for Video Game Voice Acting, Old School Anime Fandom, and what it is like Inside the Japanese Anime Studio. Then we have Blake Shepard who has been working in anime for over 10 years by lending his voice to shows such and Angel Beats, Sacred Blacksmith, One Piece, Air Gear, Elfen Lied and more. He is also a animator and will be doing an Animation 101 panel over the weekend. Kazha is also attending as a musical guest so we can expect to see a concert on the schedule. Lastly we will see two cosplay guests, DugFinn Cosplay and Umbra Cosplay

Hopefully we will see more events as the convention closes in. If you want to pre-registers you can do so here for $45.00 for all three days. Look forward to seeing you there.

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