Devin’s Top 12 For 2012
2012 was awesome. I don’t care what anyone else says because 2012 was just awesome. There were disappointments, and more than a few horrible things that happened this year but they don’t belong on this list and they don’t dampen a great year.
I’d like to say that this list is my list. That is I don’t pretend to be an all knowing source. I did not see every movie, or video game, or book that came out this year. This list is not meant to be comprehensive in that sense. Instead it is meant to reflect my experiences this year. What follows are the things that were the most important to me in 2012.
Then I’d like to say that I worked on a ton of shit this year. All the video content. All the podcasts, and reviews were fun. And I wrote a damn book. I mean wow. Now that stuff doesn’t belong on this list. This list is about what I enjoyed about what others have done.
Before we begin – honorable mentions to Fringe, The Hunger Games(maybe my soundtrack of the year), Being Human, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and Hyperion.
Favorite Movie of the Year:
The Avengers
It’s hard to believe I was worried during the pre-release of the Avengers. The trailers just weren’t really doing it for me. But like I said I shouldn’t have been worried. I’d thoroughly enjoyed every Marvel produced movie yet and this one was being written and directed by Joss Whedon.
I think I was worried because of what this film would mean to me. In 2008 Iron Man came out in theaters. I saw the trailer and knew I had to see it. So I did and I loved it. Later that year I saw The Incredible Hulk with Edward Norton which is a great movie as well. When I saw Tony Stark show up at the end of The Hulk I knew something special was happening. I ran to the library and asked where I could find the Avengers books. I came out of the library with a smattering of volumes including a retelling of the Avengers origin story. Shortly after that I began my descent into full geekery. There’s more to the story but this is not the place for it.
Needless to say Marvel’s plan to create a series of films culminating in The Avengers is inadvertently what lead me to asking Tim if he wanted to make a website with me. Which is crazy for me to think because I can’t imagine my life going any other way. OK so all that aside: I don’t think I need to say that I loved the film. But I did. It was more than I could have hoped for. I also love it for just the ballsiness of it. I mean nothing like The Avengers has ever happened in cinema before. And I love that Joss Whedon is finally getting the widespread renown that he deserves. And I love that his success is not changing his projects, well it sorta is cause there’s that whole Avengers 2 thing, but he’s still writing comics, and webseries, and making independent stuff like Much Ado. Anyway even without all of the Avengers significance to me it would still be one of my favorite films of the year.
Farmville May Be Dying but Social Gaming Isn’t Attending the Funeral
Despite past success, social game Farmville is on its way out. Such a prediction should not come as a surprise, considering all the technical difficulties and drawbacks that have plagued this particular game from the beginning. What is surprising, though, is that some people are also questioning the future of social gaming.
Farmville’s Successes and Failures
Farmville alone has amassed monthly game-playing usage exceeding the 44.5 million mark since its inception, according to cNet.com news. There has been a decrease in usage that’s attributable mostly to technical difficulties like the game crashing too often and slow loading on old systems. The game’s ad-heavy nature also doesn’t help. However, there is no indication that social gaming is going away anytime soon.
The maker of Farmville may have posted recent losses but social gaming is still a multi-billion dollar, still-expanding industry. This industry is also giving the computer and game console industries a run for their money.
Online Gambling and Social Media Converges
Enter the online gambling sector – another area that is continuing to grow on a regular basis; like free games from Intercasino.com have been released in the form of Facebook. This convergence of online gambling and social media is expected to be the next big thing.
More Than Sunlight and Fertilizer are Behind Social Gaming’s Growth
Stats don’t lie, and they’re telling us that with each year, more people are using mobile devices than PCs to access the Internet. This is creating a totally new hot market for social games. Developers and manufacturers are creating social versions for their traditional games. Social networking is a very strong commercial driving force, and social gaming is an offshoot or product of this explosion.
Other Social Gaming Platforms
Social gaming is finding other platforms besides Facebook, and spurring new gambling games and apps all around the web. This growth will be aided by the following strong economic realities:
- According to an article in Slate magazine, makers of social games are vowing to enter the lucrative online gambling market in 2013
- We are now seeing the marriage of live sporting events and social games that let fans try to predict what’s coming next. This is a totally new arena
- Third world populations now use mobile devices more than PCs. Social gaming has proven to be an excellent tool for tapping into this huge new market
- We’re seeing the injection of “gamification” into many aspects of our private life, thus creating new uses for computer technology
- Social games have led to a unique form of gaming and are changing the way we engage with the web
- The joining of TubeMogul and TrialPay will inject real-time bidding into social video ads in games, thus further increasing revenue
- Social games are only a small portion of the $7.3 billion “virtual goods” market; this is a relatively new, evolving economic powerhouse
- Social gaming will be even bigger once adapted for the mobile device industry
It’s apparent that the convergence of gaming, social media, and mobile apps is the next phase of digital entertainment. This opens up new doors to opportunities for everything from “edu-tainment” applications and online gambling to new forms of corporate brand engagement. It should be interesting to see what social gaming trends are in store for the remainder of 2012, as well as the endless years to come.
Guest Post By: Bethany Ortiz
More Than 15 (Mostly)Free Ways to Beat Summer Boredom
My friends over at Good Girls Gone Geek wrote an article about what to do now that your favorite TV show is on hiatus. Maybe the seasons over or maybe it’s at a mid-season brake(why do those exist).
Basically, your bored.
You don’t know what to do.
Your just sitting around, it’s summer. Maybe you know you should be doing something but you just aren’t.
So what do you do?
Let me tell you! There are no, and I repeat no ends to the things you could be doing right now.
It’s awesome. Most of it you can do completely free too.
The Get Geek 2012 Video Game Draft
With the debut of the real life Ezekial, there’s magic in the air as we bid against each other to win the games we think are going to sell the most. The person who’s games sell the best at the end of the year wins 10$ from the losers!
Illuminating Neurology of Gaming infographic
On finding this infographic I found it really interesting that shooting a gun in a video game has a very specific effect. I wouldn’t assume each individual act you do in a video game had an effect on your brain, but it sorta makes sense when you think about it. The second thing that really interested me is that games effect women and men differently, and in the instance given here, its that men are more easily addicted to video games. Lots of cool stuff on here check it out:
Devin’s Best and Worst of 2011
My list is going to be a bit strange considering most of the time I get to things a little later than most people. So I spent a good part of the year watching old doctor who episodes, and reading back issues of Fables instead of getting to the new stuff. So because there is still a ton of stuff I want to get too and since this list would be pretty sparse with out them I’m going to include a few things that did not come out in 2011. Also keep in mind these are not compiled into a specific order, I can’ t choose my babies, or brats in case of worst.
Worst: Let’s get this crap out of the way!
Stupid Autotune pop radio songs
I don't even know what LMFAO stands for but I bet its stupid
Yes! Every bodies booing this song tonight… Seriously, you guys stop listening to this shit. I’m subjegated to stuff like Party Rock Anthem, Sexy and I know it, and possible the best(ie worst) Moves like Jagger. Wasn’t Maroon 5 an actual rock band at some point? For those of you out their that like this music. I’m not attacking you, I’m just saying their are better songs in these genres, and that they get waaaaaaaaaaay over played on the radio. And no I’m not choosing to listen to the radio. What kind of person do you think I am.
Christmas time stage productions
Yep, look how hip these penguins are!
Yes, I think its time for the stage production to go the way of the dodo. If your not Broadway or an actual professional British theater then I don’t think you belong any more. Yes its a bit harsh but they just can’t compete with TV or Movies. I’ve yet to go to a production that wasn’t under or overacted. You know why? Because you have to overact in theater, you have to almost scream everything. But what am I talking about specifically here? Well for the past few years I have been dragged along to Christmas time…things. The first was Zoozoo. Yep Zoozoo. What is a Zoozoo? Well I’m glad you asked. Basically its a group of gymnasts or something that dress up as animals and…move around. Either I’m crazy or I just read a quote from the New York Times saying “delightful…just watch!” . Maybe I’m just missing what makes this such a “delightful” experience, but to me watching dudes jump around in frog suits for over an hour, at the nice fee of $25 is just crazy. I mean whats the internet for?
I really wish I could have found a different picture, especially since this one could make one think something else is going on
Ok so now we get to the second production was an actual play. The Christmas Carol. Oh a classic, they can’t mess it up can they? What am I saying of course they can! I wish I could find a picture of their poster, because if you saw it you would think, “Hey, that looks like the Christmas Carol. Its got the knocker, man is that like blood, looks kinda dark.”
Then you would get to the play, and your treated to what is basically a) a mockery of the creative proccess, and b) akin to those really bad really dumb dreamworks animations where you cringe at each joke. And its like 2 hours long. At least Zoozoo had the decency to let me leave after about an hour.
My own god damn ambition
As you can put together this ones my fault. And I don’t even think its that bad of a thing, except it tears me in all these different directions. So over the course of 2011: I have started this blog(yes the one your on right now!), started 5 let’s plays(2 unrealeased and still not very far in but still), swam in the swimteam 10 out of the 12 months, taking mostly advanced classes in highschool(there are some that don’t have an advanced option, like health and its Laserdiscs for example),started to write a novel(la?),started to learn the C programming language, and I think finally start to learn pixel art at the very end of 2011. We will see what sticks around in 2012, and I’m planning on posting about what 2012 holds for us here at WeGetGeek.
Best: Whew let’s get to the good stuff
The Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim
Ezekial looks out to the survey the land. All for the taking.
What is it about the Elder Scrolls games that makes them so damn fun? Sometimes I wonder that myself. It doesn’t have an amazing main story, or great combat, or super stunning visuals(unless your talking about those vistas, cause damn). No in one of the best years in my video gaming life its almost in spite of these things that Skyrim is such a spellbinding experience. The way that the world is presented, as a living breathing world is something you just don’t see in any other game except maybe the other games that Bethesda has worked on. The scope of Skyrim while being intensely captivating at the same time is almost too much at times. I’ve played a rough 50 hours in my main character not to mention the time I’ve spent with Ezekial everyone’s favorite gray Orc and I have yet to even enter some of the major cities. That’s right and each city has dozens and dozens of quests to complete. As an example I just entered the hold of Windhelm, and picked up a quest about solving the murders of three girls, by questioning witnesses and collecting evidence. There are no other quests like this one as far as I know. That’s super cool!
Also Colonel Tigh is in it as, you guessed it a general. Poor guys going to be typecast for the rest of his career.
Bastion
Bastion is an inspiration. It’s one of the best games I’ve ever played and it was made by five people. The art is beautiful, the game play snappy and fun, and the music FU**ING awesome. It’s a cool, surprisingly emotional story narrated brilliantly to respond to the players actions. I seriously can’t say enough about this game, its one of the smartest games I’ve ever played.
Mass Effect 2
Tust me, I'm a doctor, scientist, warrior, alien, biological warfare researcher
What is there to say? Mass effect may end up being my favorite sci-fi universe when its all over. It’s got the crazy looking aliens from star wars, along with force like powers without all the spiritual crap. All the alien races have interesting developed cultures, and histories, and science. That’s right if you want to there are hundreds of pages on breeding, development, technology, species relations…you name it they thought about it and its in the game. But enough about the fiction, what do you actually do? Well, early in the game your put on a task to assemble the greatest team in the known universe. So you fly around recruiting these guys like Mordin up their. At its core its a shooter, with RPG mechanics backing it up. Besides guns characters also have tech powers, and biotic(see force like) powers to throw around. The gameplay doesn’t get in the way of what’s really important, and that’s the characters and setting.If I’ve not made my point clear Mass Effect is awesome. The first game is pretty clunky, and you can skip to the second and piece together what went before without losing out on too much, so do it.
The Morning Stream
A morning show? No thanks. That was my response upon hearing about the Morning Stream even though I listened to a bunch of other podcasts done by the host Scott Johnson. So I didn’t listen to it. Finally after I kept hearing about it on their shows, I decided to give it a chance. I’m glad I did, four days a week Scott and Brian take me through the day with stupid news stories and “celebrity poop”. I love hearing their stories like Brian’s son, who got his ipod stolen. Then Brian tracked the phone, staked out the place and discovered it was his kids friend from school. Tell me that didn’t sound like a sitcom’s plot. They are geeks to the biggest degree, and are the reason for me getting into A Song of Ice and Fire. Their nearing their one year anniversary so you can bet some crazy stuff is about to go down.
Fables
So bringing updating fairtales for the modern times is nothing new, especially after the recent glut of them, however Fables did start over ten years ago. Plus its so much better executed then everything else. The fables have been exiled to the human, or Mundy world and have to try to keep a low profile while fighting off an impending invasion from the Adversary, and no spoilers but apparently there are hints as to who it is withing the border of the first few issues of the book. I’m not their yet, but I think that the Adversary was revealed around issue 100, if that’s not good foreshadowing then what the crap is. Always surprising, always entertaining Fables is a must read.
A Song of Ice and Fire
Winters...actually already here, kind of a bummer huh?
Did somebody say must read? This one slides in close, because I didn’t finish reading the book till late December. Plus I have yet to see the show, because I don’t have HBO and they take forever to put out their dvds. A year…seriously? Whatever it just gave me time to catch up with the book, and figure out my own pronunciations of the characters names, so that when I watched it I could yell about how my pronunciations are better. The book has one of the best mid-book twists I can think of, and the only think I can really say bad about it is that it doesn’t really end. It just stops. But whatever there are four more ~700 page books out and I can’t wait to read them.
Super 8
Even the poster is not safe from lense flair!
I saw this movie in the theater, which is pretty rare for me, but I’m glad I did because there are moments that just don’t play the same outside of the theater. Like the train sequence, it was just soooooo loud it freaked me out. Not in a bad way. I love the feeling this movie gives me. It’s not a dark, depressing movie and I love it for that. And come on its the Goonies meets E.T.
Fiasco
Thats right. Poor impulse control is probably the most important skill.
Like the sign says Powerful Ambition and Poor Impulse Control. I’ve played this game once, and it was one of my favorite roleplaying experiences ever. Plus its great for anyone out their who is afraid of RPG’s because of their genre trappings, or because you don’t know anyone who can DM. Fiasco is generally set in modern times, and there is no DM! The rules are simple and are only their to facilitate your groups crazy antics. Let me tell you what happened at my game. Now if I remember correctly I died at some point, my mom’s character thought she was psychic, two people were animal right activist radical terrorists and I think one of them turned out to be a vampire at the end. That’s just the kind of minds we have I guess, but it all started as a group of researches at an Antarctic research facility.
Community
Don't let it die people!
The first episode I watched was the D&D one. I watched it again pretty much right after I had finished. Then all of season 1, hooked Tim, and Season 3 started coming out. Still haven’t seen all of Season 2 but the discs should be here any day. Season 3 has been pretty great aside from what I thought was a lackluster halloween episode especially after the first two. But you should know that Community is awesome, and if you don’t now you do. So don’t let them cancel it. The second half of the season is going to be airing sometime this year(people are predicting summer) so tune in. Go Human Beings!
The site
Yes, the music swells and we all get teary eyed…but seriously this.THIS right here has been one of the best consistently fun things this year. The relationships that I’ve acquired(You know who you are, and yes you can say you were on a best of 2011 list now) from doing this here thing have been great, and I have more faith in the internet because of it. I’ve done a lot of crap over the year and shared a lot of the crap up here, and…here’s to another year of crap!
Christmas guide of…well christmas gifts
There’s not much time left, but if your like my mom then you shop on the night before Christmas anyway. In which case this list might spark your ehem, credit card finger. This list will focus on internet geekery mostly.
Keep in mind these are not reviews.
Munchkin/ Munchkin Axe Cop
Specifically the Axe Cop version, as it is the newest and undoubtedly most awesome version yet. I own the classic version and have played a few other types in the past years. It’s grown to be Steve Jackson Games’ flagship game and with good reason. It’s a fast paced multiplayer competitive card game with a sense of humor. It’s a race to be the first player to level 10. You do this by battling monster cards, and certain treasure cards. Sounds easy right? Well not when your four best friends are trying to stop you any way possible. If your a wondering why I say that the Axe Cop version will be the best yet, I would respond with another question: Have you read Axe Cop? Seriously Do IT . Just as a side note, the Axe Cop trades, and t-shirts would be a great present for the Axe Cop fan in your life. I have the first volume and its got lots of bonus commentary.
DC COMICS: THE NEW 52
Rob Kirkman Comics
Of course the Invincible (More expensive because its color) and Walking Dead Compendiums are wonderful bargain collections of some of my favorite books.
A Netflix Subscription
Everyone has different TV tastes so why not get something with a big selection and let them decide what they want to watch. Plus I’m sure they’ll share their password with you!
Apocalypse World
This was on my list. It’s written by Vincent Baker the indie darling behind such hits as Dogs in the Vineyard, and kill puppies for satan… Yes, you read that right. Anyway its met universal praise for its GM advice and hard hitting system. He’s dropped the price of the PDF to $10 and included some bonus material until the 31st(act quick) in response for winning the Indie RPG Awards, the Lucca Games Best of Show, and the Golden Geek Game of the Year. Quite an accomplishment huh?
Mouse Guard
For that Video Game player in your life:
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Something like this could happen to you!
Surely you’ve heard about it? Not only is it the biggest bang for you buck, with an estimated 300 hours of gameplay, but its just straight up fun. See if you can get someone else to play it as well because its always fun to swap stories about the crazy things that will happen to you. I’m partial to the PC version because it not only looks better then its PS3 and 360 counterparts but it has modding potential!
Bastion
If you don’t have a good gaming rig, and don’t want to plop down the investment money there are still options for you. Bastion is an critically acclaimed(and beautiful) indie developed downloadable game, for the 360 and PC. It’s a 2-d action rpg game in a very vibrant world. And its recently been ported to the Chrome web browser… I don’t know how they got it to work but they did so as long as you can run chrome on your computer(mac, pc, linux) you can run the game. Pretty nifty huh? There is a demo you can download as well to see if your interested.
That’s it! Got any suggestions? Leave your tip in the comments section!
Geeky Song of the Week: Starcraft Edition
Here’s the first two Terran themes from the original Starcraft done on piano. Normally I only do one video per post, but I couldn’t decide between these, there just awesome.
1 More Day Till Skyrim
Just here to update you on some Dramma Fo Yo Momma as all the cool cats say. So this past week I’ve been prepping to make the Get Geek Skyrim Let’s Play the greatest I possibly can. That means avoiding any information that people have about the game, just so its all fresh for me. I’m not sure when the first episode is going to go up, because upgrading my computer has been a bitch. Thats right a female dog. But I can assure you that it will be no later then Sunday the 13th.
Anyway heres the story. Feel free to stop reading now cause I’m just going to spew my frustration into this post. S0 my birthday was on the 6th (fanfare…) and what better time then to upgrade my computer and get it all decked out for skyrim. So knowing my computer I know I need to upgrade my processor. I do a little surfing and decide that I would get the Intel i5 2400 because it was light years ahead of the one I have(a pentium D) and it was relatively affordable.
Putting the Savage(Worlds) in our Heroes: Captain Falcon
What is this: Man, according to Tommy Brownell Savage worlds does not! claim to be a universal system. But that’s fine, it just means that the people at Pinnacle are smart and know to now oversell their game. It still fits in my series because the whole point of this has always been to stretch the system and see what it can handle. I’ve decided for some reason to stat the ENTIRE original super smash bros lineup. Today since I’m going through the lineup in order its Link from The Legend of Zelda.
what's up bra?
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