I was recently asked about gaming headsets that are good for computers, extended use, and communication. Being an avid gamer myself, I have a decent amount of experience with full-featured headsets that are comfortable, high-quality, and work well for voice communications. Since it is so close to Christmas, I thought I would share my recommendations in case you are looking for a gift for your gamer friend, loved-one, or significant other… Continue reading
Hai Tech Eric
eclectic musings
Category Archives: Gaming
Principles of Gaming in Industry
It is the nature of all human beings to seek learning through games, a structured paradigm that allows one to grasp new concepts and expand their horizons in a safer environment than the real world. We play house, tag, and create fingerpainting art as children. As we grow, we play sports, more complex games, and create finer works of art. Indeed, from our earliest days we rely on playing as the most effective way to learn about our world and how to live in it. Pondering this topic inevitably led to the question: Why does the playful approach to life stop when we grow up and move into a professional field?
Stigmas, Stereotypes, and Super Nintendo
So over the past couple of weeks, a whole slew of events at work and in my community has furthered demonstrated to me the culturally-based stigma towards video gaming. Thanks to mass media, the stereotypical gamer is reduced to a pimply-faced, pale-skinned male who lives in his parent’s basement. He is anti-social, wears only black clothes, and will end up being a mindless or violent drain on society because of these “evil” video games. Having lived in Taiwan for two years, I am amazed by how much societal pressures and norms impact individual personalities and behavior. It is more clear to me because of my exposure to other cultures how extreme Americans tend to be on many seemingly odd issues. I imagine every society has their quirks, but that doesn’t make me appreciate America’s antagonism towards gaming any more. I think it’s time to tell the other side of this story…
Making it to Gold III
In League of Legends, after you’ve progressed your account to the maximum level 30, you have the opportunity to play in the Ranked matchmaking system. In this system, you gain and lose various points depending on the skill level of your opponents and the outcome of your game against them. The players in ranked matchmaking are divided out into six separate tiers of players: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and Challenger. Each tier contains five divisions to help separate out the ~1 million players that are in the ranked system. So I am one game away from making it into the third division of the Gold tier, and it’s an exciting feeling. But until recently, I never realized what that means. Then I found this set of compiled statistics that shows me how I compare to other players (I was pleasantly surprised!):