Most Influential Game of All Time!

This semester at school I am taking a class dedicated entirely to the element of gaming! I am in love with this class! First let me give a shout out to my class who is reading this, and a big thank you for voting my poster in 1st place, along with a congratz to my two fellow placers! And to my Professor Tracy, for creating the class! For our first assignment of the class we had to choose and write a paper on what we believed to be the most influential game of all time and why. I present to you, Zephy's choice for most influential game of all time!

Most Influential Game of All Time

Let me first start off by saying that this is one of the hardest assignments that I have ever had to do, and it has excited me more then any in a long time. I sat down for hours thinking over the answer to the one question asked “What do you believe is the most influential game of all time?” I went through hundreds of games in my head and the reasons that they could be consider influential, in reality how influential they were or are, and in the end it came down to two. Either Doom, the game that completely changed the face of First-Person Shooters which are my favorite, or Metroid, the first game to have a female Protagonists. After much thought I figured it would be best to go with something that I stand for in my blog (http://girlsdontgame-headshot.blogspot.com) and choose the game that brings women to the fore-front of gaming: Metroid.

Now I know that Metroid is in reality not the first game to star a female character, that would be Ms. Pac Man but it is noted for having the first female protagonist in a video game. Protagonist for the Greek protagonistes meaning “one who plays the first part, chief actor, the leading character, hero or heroine of a drama or other literary work.” This is the person in the story, or in this case the video game plot line, whom the events of said plot line revolve around and with whom the audience is intended to share the most empathy; (Empathy - The capacity to, through imagination rather than literally, share the sadness or happiness of another sentient being.) And well we don’t know that Samus Aran is female at the start we learn in a surprising twist that the character we have come to love and relate to is in fact a girl who is a femme de force; a girl that can and will save herself, and kick your butt in the process.

From the beginning of history we have seen the story over and over again. Princess/damsel is captured by the evil/misunderstood villain; hero comes along and saves her/kills or entraps the evil and is rewarded with either a kiss from or the princess herself. The thing we rarely see is that girl saving herself. Metroid showed us that that is possible, and in doing so brought a new and revolutionary idea to the video game industry. Girl’s can game too, and they don’t have to be a sex object well doing so. The moment at the end of Metroid when Samus is relieved to be a girl is considered one of the greatest twists in a video game, and the greatest moment in Nintendo history.

The game play in itself is revolutionary, combining the platforming of Super Mario Bros and the exploration of the world as in The Legend of Zelda and containing elements of shooters, makes for the great nonlinear gameplay that we find in Metroid with a much darker atmosphere. The Metroid series will consists of eleven games as of the 31^st of August 2010, and is one of Nintendo’s most successful franchises with over 16 million games sold.

That right there proves that Activision is wrong in its latest statements, recently brought to light, where they claimed “they don’t do female characters because they don’t sell.” The Metroid series has been and is still running strong since its first release in 1986, with the latest and much anticipated installment Metroid: Other M being released later this month (31 August 2010). Thus proving that statement wrong and that a female character, can, will and do sell; provided that the character is more then just a sex object.

So after much internal debate, and hours of research; I truly believe Metroid to be the most influential game of all time. Not only being an evolution in gaming, but for showing the world that women can be the lead in a video game too, and you’ll still love her. It makes me proud to be a strong women and true girl gamer.

Peace.Love.&.Gaming

Zephy Out!

Blizzcon Draws Closer! Announcments Incoming!

Hey All!

Alright so with Blizzcon only a little ways away, we are going to see an influx of new information on the up coming Blizzard games! And I am happy to say that I will be including what I can. Well I am not going to Blizzcon this year, (School, Work and the lack of an ability to get a ticket) I will be informing my readers of the oh so wonderful things that are going to be coming out!

The first of the many great posts to come, was brought to my attention by Revenant earlier today! Blizzard has announced their website today what the new non combat pet will be for attending Blizzcon this year!

Meet Deathy!

" A murloc companion decked out as Deathwing and doing his best to strike fear into the hearts of Azeroth's crustacean population."

I must say that well he is super cute, I wouldn't want to try and cuddle him to close :P Deathy will be a must add to any companion pet collection out there! I am sure the people over at WarcraftPets are super excited to hear this one!

Along with Deathy our fans of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty will be given a Murloc Marine character portrait and a pair of deep-sea decals to emblazon on your units, each with a different terran, protoss, and zerg design!

Along with that we had the recent announcement for the Special Edition Cataclysm Pet! I am happy to introduce you to:

Lil' Deathwing!

I am sure by now if you are a wow player you have heard and seen the footage already but I figure that if I am going to cover Deathy I might as well cover Lil' Deathwing too!

That's it for now!

Peace.Love.&.Gaming
Zephy Out!

WOW....Activision Fails Even More!

Okay for the last few years Activision has slowly been destroying everything that they touch, but this latest action has taken it to far.

Now those of you who know me know that I am the first to tell girls to stop bitching about guys saying girls don't game, and to just be proud and prove that we do, we are here, and we PWN3!

In a post by Leigh Alexander on Gamasutra we are shown just how EPIC FAIL Activision really is when it comes to girls in gaming.

Apparently True Crime: Hong Kong was originally a project called 'Black Lotus' which was suppose to feature an Asian female assassin as the main character, who was even to be modeled after Lucy Lui. (I don't know about you but I personally think that would have been awesome to see!) In the article a former Activision employee states:

"We were all on board, and then Activision killed it, said they don't do female
characters because they dont sell."

Leigh's other source even says:

"Activision gave us specific direction to lose the chick,"

As a hardcore girl gamer I have to say that I am actually offended, and for someone to offend me is a pretty big deal. Leave it to Activision to piss me off even more.

The article goes on to tell how close minded Activision really is:

"Activision has no room for 'we are making an open-world game with a Hong
Kong action movie fell with a female lead,' because that game doesn't
exist right now." says one source. "What they do have room for is, 'we are
making an open-world game with a gangster main character who can steal
cars and shoot people, but it will be in Hong Kong instead of Liberty City."

What they don't seem to understand, is that the lead of the game is only a small portion of if it will do well or not. If the story line sucks, or the characters are flat, or the mechanics are horrible the game isn't going to sell regardless of the main character be it male, female, or a freaking purple people eater!

If you want you can find the full article here! And if you take the time to read through the article just take a glance at the comments at the bottom they are enough to make you want to really pull of a headshot.

Enough of that sadness to close this post out on a happy note Zephy has found two new sites for my fellow girl gamers out there! The first is Gameinatrix! This awesome site is the home to the podcast Gamer Girls Radio and is dedicated to all the gamer girls out there! The second is WomenGamers.com not really sure on this one yet, though they seem to have a lot of really interesting posts and a great information lead on girls in the gaming industry. I am going to keep my eye on that one before I say anything else. But I fully suggest checking out both of them!

As always comment! Let me know what you think!

Peace.Love.&.Gaming.

Zephy Out!

Gaming Aside for a Minute

Hey y'all

Alright, so gaming aside for a minute there was a horrible accident this last weekend (14 August 2010) at the California 200 run by the Mojave Racing. Eight people were killed and many more injured, there is going to be a fun raising event Thursday August 26th at Fast Lap in Ontario, so right off the fifteen at 4pm. For any of those out there that read my this and want to help the families that have lost their loved ones in this then please comment and I will be more then happy to give you more information or someone you can get a hold of for more details.

For those of you out there that have taken this to the extreme and are saying that racing needs to be banned you need to get a life, there is no reason that this should be banned. Yes it is a horrible tragedy, but no by no means does this need to be closed down. Now I am not saying that nothing should be done, I agree with the regulations that they want to put on the races so that no one is that close ever again. There are rules in place now that say that spectators should be 100feet back form the track at all times but as you can see from the videos posted all over youtube and the news this is not the fact of the matter. The fans come right up to the track so that there is just enough room for the trucks to get through.

The race does not need to be closed down, nor outlawed! Yes regulations should be put into place AND ENFORCED! But please don't make this more then it should be.

My heart goes out to the families who have lost their love ones.

Peace.Love.&.Gaming.

Zephy, Out!

Congratulations and Decisions!

First things first!

I want to say a big congratulations to all the new Frag Doll Cadettes!

AliBakes
Miz_Calamity
JaspirLady Graphix
SDWIFEY or DeathChips
ElisaRockDocPMS SourPatch
PMS Fedaykin
Texas XOPMS ClubSammich
PMS Seliona or Kimminyton
PMS Vball Chick

I have to say that some of your videos were really awesome! I can not wait to see what you all do with your time as a cadette! And for those of you wondering, no I did not put my application in this time around. I decided to wait the January deadline, for the spring session! No worries I will keep you all up to date on that one too! And even post my video once the new girls are announced for the season.

Enough with the congrtaz now on to the decisions! Mwahahahahahaha! So as many of you know I do not own an XBox360 yet and with the release of the new 250GB Slim I have decided to drop the money and get one! Yay! New thing for Zephy to get addicted to! Oh Joy! I can just see it now!
"Homework what homework are you talking about?! I spent the night owning noobs at Halo!"

So now comes the decision point, do I want to go the "build your own bundle" route with GameStop?? and end up getting the XBox360 250GB Accessory Bundle which comes with:

• XBox360 Console (250GB) - Black
• 2 XBox 360 Wireless Controllers - Black
• XBox360 Black Headset
• One Month XBox Live Membership
• XBox360 Hard Drive Data Transfer Cable

for $369.97 and then add on an XBox360 Live 12+1 Month Card for $49.99 making my total so far $419.96. Then of course I am going to need games so I would have to go with Red Dead Redemption (59.99), Naughty Bear (49.99) and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (54.99) which would bring me up to $548.93. Finally we all know that Zephy is going to need Marketplace points to get my avatar all beautified so we have to add a 4,000 point card to that which closes my total out at $634.92! Woot! And of course this is all BEFORE tax! :P

Or do I go with the Uber L33T and get the XBox360 Limited Edition Halo: Reach Console - With Bonus! which includes:

• XBox360 250GB S Console With Custom Design
• Halo Reach Standard Edition
• 2 XBOX360 Wireless Controllers With Custom Design
• XBox360 Black Headset
• One Month XBox Live Membership
• Gamestop Exclusive in-game UA Multi-Threat Mjolnir Mark V(B) Armor
• Exclusive in-game Spartan Recon helmet with the Visor/Blast Shield

for $399.99. See I would still need the other three games which brings me up to $564.96 plus the Live membership and the 4,000 Marketplace points which brings me to $664.94! WOOT!

So for Thirty dollars and two cents more I can get the Halo: Reach game with a smexy console and controllers along with exclusive in-game content! The question here is it worth it?? Do I really want a console with Halo:Reach permanently attached to it?? Or do I just want to go with the first custom bundle and get Halo: Reach Legendary Edition for another $149.99?? Decisions! Decisions! What is a girl to do??

Give me your advice what do you think I should go with??


Peach.Love&Gaming!

Zephy Out!

Gaming Hotties

Hey Y'all!

Maxim.com recently released a list of The 10 Most Important Hotties in Gaming Today and I have to say that even though I am not one to really invest much into how people look I think they picked some really awesome girls here!



Jo Garcia - Playboy's resident girl gamer. Well I have to say that I don't believe she has been all that influential in regards to showing that girls can and do game I will say that she is one of the hottest in the gaming industry. Maybe not number one as according to Maxim but fully one of the hottest. Now lets see you get out there girl and show the world what you are really made of!





Morgan Webb - Current G4 Underground host, co-host and senior segment producer of their show X-Play and one of the top female Journalists in the gaming industry. At second on the Maxim list I have to say that this is a good choice! Morgan has done much to promote girls in the gaming industry with her writings and shows!







Stevie Case - Known for beating Quake creator John Romero in a deathmatch, which not only got here a job but a date with Mr. Romero himself. Later known for her writing of game guides and today seen in the development and sales side of the gaming industry. She is a true gamer girl at heart and I can't wait to see where she goes in the next few years.





Olivia Munn - Having got her start on G4's Attack of the Show, known for here role in Ironman2, Olivia is also the author of her biography Suck it Wonder Woman!: The Missadventures of a Hollywood Geek. I personally believe that she is a true asset to gamer girls everywhere. Having read and loved here book I have to say that it is worth the money and the time, she is truly a fearless, honest and funny gamer girl.





Jade Raymond - Her career started off as a Programmer for Sony Entertainment and from there it has been nothing but up for Jade. She is the Producer of Assassin's Creed and the Executive Producer for Assassin's Creed II. She is now the Managing Director of Ubisoft's Toronto Studio. Jade is an amazing role model for not just girl gamers but gamers everywhere. Her success has inspired me personally to go for my dreams, so here is to you Jade!







Veronica Belmont - She is the face of Qore Sony's monthly interactive magazine about the PS3 and co-host of Revision3's weekly video podcast Tekzilla. She is a gamer and social-network junky with over 1million twitter followers, she speaks out loud and proud about her interests!







The Frag Dolls - Now here is my personal favorite and current aspiration, a group of gaming girls sponsored by Ubisoft to promote games and more particularly women in gaming. Not only are all of them "hotties of gaming" they will show you just how a girl gamer should be! Go ahead challenge one of them to a deathmatch and just see who comes out on top!






Kari Wahlgren - Voice over actress extraordinair! She is the leading lady of Voice acting in the gaming industry, being heard in over a 100 titles some of them including: Bioshock, Final Fantasy, Dead or Alive, Metal Gear Solid, and Soul Caliber.









Jessica Chobot - Known for here roll as the host of IGN's Daily Fix segment, Jessica got her start to fame back in 2005 for the picture of her licking a Sony PSP shortly after it's release she is known in the industry now for promoting Japanese culture mainly her love of Anime and Manga.







Felicia Day - Script writer and star of the original web series The Guild, Felicia is not just any gamer, she has taken it to a whole new level showing what a day in the life of a hardcore gamer can be in a very funny way. She is also a singer, which we get to see in her roll in Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog and in her original song Do You Wanna Date My Avatar.



All of these ladies are amazing women and a great influence on the gaming industry. They inspire girl gamers, geeks and nerds to stand up daily and make their voices heard! We should all be proud to have these ladies as a four front to those of us still making our name. Thank you ladies!

And soon to be among their number is.....






Zephyira (Ashley Amber Boyle) - Avid girl gamer, and college student studying to make her way inside the animation and programming side of the industry! I will make it one day, only with your help that is! Show me to your friends! Comment tell me what you think! Let me know what you want to see!







Peace.Love&Gaming! Zephy Out!

Pride & Girl Gamers!

Hey All!

Here is the next installment to my video blog took a little bit longer then I thought to get it up and running but here we go!

Comment and tell me what you think!

Zephy