2013 A Good Year for Women in Gaming

Who do you see as the lead role in almost all video games in the past years? It is usually the typical while male character in every game, just with a different look and actions. Well not in 2013. 2013 has been a very impressive year for girl characters in video games. Hopefully raising the profile and views of virtual women in major or minor ways is hopefully a trend we continue in 2014. 

What are these games?

Tomb Raider is a game where it shows that a girl lead character is just as a good as a male lead character. Tomb Raider is in the eyes of a young, certainly attractive young lady. But that doesn't overshadow the fact that she has been beaten, stabbed, shot, skewered like every other male character has in games. Doing the same in return to her enemies or worse in many ways. This game starts you out as a innocent explorer to a huge action hero and does it just as well or even better than male led games. Whether it is a female or male character, doesn't take away from them being a "badass" action hero. Not to even mention that the quick scaling of sales showing that the game is very popular, we will see more games with female leads. 

In newer games that have some of the biggest sales of the year, BioShock Infinite and Last of Us are male leads but the female characters definitely are the harder fleshed out characters. They have been made to be bigger parts of the game more than just a liability. They are now assets and a priority to the game where without them playing the role they play, the game wouldn't be the same. 

Female roles in video games are becoming just as big as many female roles in movies being centralized along with everyone else. They are required much attention in the game because if you let something happen to them you lose, but aren't what it seems to be a hard task to handle. They usually aren't able to be killed to make the game easier, but are soon developing into the characters that if anything at all happens to them you will not be able to complete the game. 

What Is The Best Pro Equipment?

When you are on your way to being a professional gamer you are going to need professional equipment. This is the gear you will need.

If you are looking to have the listening competitive edge over your opponent then how would you?
You have to be able to out hear your opponent playing around you in game, but also be able to hear your team communicating with crisp clear sound. astrogaming.com is the place to get sound like this. At Astro Gaming they have put together the best headsets you can imagine with their crystal clear voice communication and pinpoint accurate 7.1 Dolby Digital and Dolby Headphone surround and the comfiest user friendly adjustable headset on Earth.

You looking to outplay your opponent with jumping/laying down skills or knifing skills. Make it easier on yourself instead of straining your fingers using Claw grip on your controller. Buy a Scuf Gaming controller that gives you paddles on the back of your controller. These paddles are hardwired into your controller to be the buttons you wish you could press with ease. Like the A button or the B button. The best part is that they are on the back of the controller in a place where your fingers rest anyway. Another great advantage to using a Scuf Controller is the trigger stops that are applied to the triggers that have pinpoint shoot timing. They are put together so that you don't have to push the button all the way down to shoot or aim, you just have to press it to where the trigger stop is and it will do as you say.

Have a hard time seeing on your tube T.V. or playing on your big 50" Plasma screen? Buy the best gaming monitor on the market. The BenQ RL Series monitor. This monitor has the fastest response time known to man for digital devices and comes with HD quality to see every detail you are looking for when playing against your opponent.

How To Become A Professional Gamer

There is 3 ways you become a professional gamer or also know as a Major League Gamer. One way is more difficult the another and the other is a little bit easier. Here is how.

Way 1:
The first way to be an MLG is by actually competing. There are hundreds of thousands of teams out there for any competitive game you play that you have to overcome and be better than. For games like Call of Duty, Dota, League of Legends, you need to put together a team and go practice. Practice is a very viable thing you need in order to become the best at anything you do. Without practice you won't succeed and if you don't succeed then you won't be an MLG. Once you think you get enough practice in then you go to one of the MLG and UMG events that go on year around all over the United States. That is where you see how you stand against others who have practiced and the pros. Now this is the stage of the game where you need to go the hardest in because if you don't place top 8 at that event then you technically aren't a pro. Because in order to be a real professional gamer placing top 8 at an event is how you do it. That means there is 8 teams with at least 4 players per team. That is 32 players you have to play against and be better than in the final 8 in order to be the best of the best and be a real MLG.

Way 2:
This way to be a professional gamer is the easier one of the three. This way is just by making money to play the game. To be a professional at almost anything is by making money at what you are doing. In order to do this you have to stream your games on twitch.tv everyday, upload videos to youtube.com everyday. This takes a lot of equipment to be ready and a lot of time and effort into keeping it steady.

Way 3:
This is the last and the hardest way to being a professional gamer. This way is by doing both the first and second way at the same time. Compete with your team and still find time to stream and upload and that is what makes you a true Major League Gamer.

What Is My e-Sport Story?

Hi everyone,
I have noticed that I post a lot on my blog about e-Sports but never have talked about what I have done myself that has to do with e-Sports. Well, here is my story!

Ever since the release of Call of Duty 4 I was competitive gamer. I never went to competitions but that is the game where it all started for me wanting to beat my friends. From there on, I have bought every single Call of Duty that came out, even up to the newest release of Call of Duty Ghosts.

In Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 is where I started looking into putting together a competitive Call of Duty team and competing like all the pros. That is when I started watching live events of pro teams winning events, and learning strategies of all the games that have been coming out. The sad side to the story is I turned out to be a bust. I couldn't put together a steady team at the age of 15 years old and I almost wanted to give up. But one thing my dad always taught me, is if at you first don't succeed, try and try again. So I did. I kept on pushing my efforts into being a good Call of Duty player and then the release of Call of Duty Black Ops 2 came out. That is where my competitive world really took the biggest turn.

In Call of Duty Black Ops 2 I finally established a constant 4 man team and was able to compete. That is where I went to MLG.com and played against other teams that were looking to get to the top. My team rose up the ranks, of course losing some before he we hit the top 50 teams in the world for competitive Call of Duty on MLG.com. That doesn't include all the pro teams out there and the teams that practice in other ways. I spent the majority of my days constantly playing Call of Duty to where my mom hated me being home because all I did was sit in my room. It wasn't the healthiest diet plan I shall say. I became recognized as a Top 3 player in the State of Maine for Call of Duty. Then the release of Call of Duty Ghosts came about.

When Call of Duty Ghosts was released my same 4 man team was able to get a sponsorship with Aroma Joes Rush Energy and that is where I stand now with my competitive Call of Duty career. It never gets boring to me, even though I do get really frustrated. I will always have a passion for being a Call of Duty player and soon become a Call of Duty pro.

Besides me becoming a top player in my state for Call of Duty, I have always noticed the growth in e-Sports in the years. I am now getting a liking into the evolution of PC competitive games and once in a while enjoy watching Dota 2 or Star Craft 2 players go against each other. ESports will always be the biggest passion of mine and even when I get too old to play video games, I will sure keep up on all my favorite teams progress as I support them like most people do their favorite sports teams.

Thank you for reading, if you have any questions comment on my blog!
Have a great day!

Can North America Compete With the International 3?

Team Liquid is THE American Dota 2 team. They are the hope North American eSports have. Last year at the International 3 they had a very impressive run. They qualified for the Final Tournament Bracket after a on stage record of 7-7 which is very impressive record against the level of competition at the event. Bringing an amazing win over Malaysian team Team MUFC and pulled of a legendary upset over Chinese team LGD.cn. This shows that they have dedicated nothing but hard work into their progress. This is shown because of what North American teams struggle with that I talked about in my last blog post. Their training consisted of a 6 week hardcore training session. Since the International 3, Team Liquid has put up substantial numbers of wins over European teams and decent results over major global powers like Alliance. Team Liquid isn't the only hope though for the North American revolution in Dota 2. Evil Geniuses has placed consistently in the 2nd and 3rd spots in the second half of the Dota 2 2013 season. Another team is a half Canadian international team, Speed Gaming who have taken the championship win over the top Chinese team Team DK in the November MLG Columbus. The only thing is, it will take time for the balance of power to shift.

What Will It Take for North American Dota 2 To Succeed?

North America holding a strong third place globally. They are still falling behind Asia and Europe as dominant Dota 2 nations. But why is that if the amount of people in North America playing is still very high? America holding many of the biggest eSports events around the world, has been the worst at the eSports games since 2001. Many believe that it is a cultural issue on why America falls behind all their foreign counterparts. America has always offered scholarships for their youth in athletics so that they can have a way of financial help when they go to play their collegiate sports and that is why North America is some of the best at team based sports. That doesn't happen for the athletes because there is no collegiate eSports system for the gamer's in North America. It doesn't compare to countries like South Korea, where gaming is a recognized passion, there is a system that helps those players be able to financially be helped. North America's phenoms mostly come from individual talent that hope to reach the top because of their worth ethic, but not as much as the help from others. Video games in these European or Asian countries are much more accepted, and the players don't have to move out of their houses and live on their own till they usually are in their late 20's. Where as in North America the young and coming up people in society are continuously moving out by the age of 18 and having to pay their own bills and not have the money or time to pay those bills. Living expenses in North America are also much higher than countries like Sweden. With expenses and gaming not being accepted as much, it is harder for gamer's to be able to shine in their eSport title because the time simply isn't there unless they force upon their schedules.

Also North America was a late bloomer compared to these other centers of Dota 2. The game has been around East Europe and China much longer than it has been in North America. A matter of fact years ahead. With the majority of America's gamer's are still more willing to play hardcore games on consoles, it is knocking them off the stepping blocks and putting them behind all the other countries that are rising with PC eSports.

Another big let down is that it is hard to play and get better if they can't play every day against the best teams in the world. Because all these other countries are so far away from North America, the over see connection counts in lag compensation for whoever is player. It makes the game harder to play. Have you ever clicked a button on a computer and it doesn't respond for a few seconds after? Well that is what happens when American gamer's are trying to play these top teams in other countries. It doesn't allow for the full practice. Time zones are even off. If a team on the West Coast of North America is trying to play a team in Europe, the time difference makes it hard to find times to where they can actually play. Then when they do, there is a lag. There is going to have to be a way for players all over the world to compete against each other with no disadvantages so the playing field is level and the practice needed, is fulfilled.

Can Next Generation Consoles Hold Their Weight?

The competitive world wasn't too excited about the next generation consoles coming out. None of them seemed too great on supporting the eSport world. Matt "Nadeshot" Haag America's favorite gamer definetly wasn't. He expressed in many of his youtube videos that he didn't know how the turn-out of the Xbox One would be. It didn't seem to support much of the competitive world like the Xbox 360. But have their opinions changed? The 2014 Call of Duty Championships are to be played with the Xbox One's. Why would they do that though if all the qualifiers are with the Xbox 360? They are having all the teams looking to qualify for CoD Champs, qualify on the Xbox 360 but expect them to play the event on the new generation console. It is Call of Duty, and Microsoft's way of gliding the new Xbox One into the competitive world of gaming. So yes, Microsoft when making the Xbox One did intend on letting it be compatible for all competitive gamer's in the Xbox franchise and regular gamer's.

What is Sony doing with their Playstation 4? Well at the beginning of Black Ops 2 there was no competitive seen for Playstation players like there was before and that is MLG's choice. Unless Sony does something that interests MLG, it will still be off the competitive side of games. Only the future will tell on how the competitive world will be with the new generation of consoles being brought into the hands of the gamer's.