I’m selling my xbox 360. I remember being so exicited for this sucka to come out. It was my first non-Nintendo console… does that make it a Nontendo?… anyhow, it made me think about my interests in gaming.

Now more than ever, pretty graphics just aren’t enough for me. The 360 has been out for almost a year, and I still don’t see any must-have titles on the horizon. Sure, you could argue for Halo 3… but most first person shooters are always 10 times as fun on a PC. The 360 lineup just leaves so much to be desired for me. Action, adventure and old-fashioned non-MMO RPGs are where it’s at for me on console systems. In my eyes, the 360 doesn’t deliver.

So am I done with console gaming? I can’t imagine that being the case. If I got another console down the road, it might be a Nintendo Wii… going back to what’s just fun. Criticize Nintendo all you want for their crazy ideas… they’ve got plenty. They’ve been working alright so far, though (working meaning making fun games and not leading the industry in sales). I’ll always have fun playing a Mario or a Zelda. These are fixes that other consoles and PC gaming can’t give me.

So I’m putting my xbox premium package, and the 4 games I have for it, on craigslist for sale to a local buyer here in Vancouver. But rather than bitch about the xbox, I do the “I don’t have time to play it,” excuse. I save my bitchings / rants for you guys :)

Mark hasn’t stopped playing City of Heroes since I got him the game over a year ago. I played for a while, and eventually moved on to World of Warcraft. While the character creation and powers in COH is great, I found the gameplay a little monotonous. Though it’s still pretty fun.

So in order to encourage us to game together from time to time - rather than sitting back-to-back in our office, enveloped in different MMO games - we created a superhero duo.

Meet Glacier Cat (my Ice/Storm Controller) and Quickburn (Mark’s Fire Blaster). They’re on the Victory server, and are prime candidates for COH’s gay supergroup. That’s also why we made these heroes have crazy sex appeal. Though Glacier Cat is clearly the hot one, right?

If you’ve taken a peek at my moblog recently, you may have discovered that I’ve started to play World of Warcraft. This is mostly thanks to my friend Zane, who badgered me at every opportunity to stop playing City of Heroes and come join “the funnest game ever.”

WoW has made news in quite a few gay publications over the past year due to the popularity of a couple gay guilds in the game - a guild being a “club” of players you can contact in-game to find help on missions, trade goods, and explore the game together. It’s a cushion against the shocking big-ness of the game’s world, giving you a sense of fraternity and a place to find help.

However, news is popping up that Blizzard is starting to forbid the recruitment for “gay friendly” guilds in the game… “gay friendly” being either gay or having no problems with gays.

Is Blizzard turning an anti-discrimination policy around on us here? Check out the following story:

“Sara Andrews thought it was a big misunderstanding when she received an e-mail from a game master in Blizzard Entertainment’s popular online role playing game “World of Warcraft” citing her for “Harassment - Sexual Orientation.”

Andrews had posted that she was recruiting for a “GLBT friendly” guild in a general chat channel within the game.

Believing that her notice had been accidentally flagged, she e-mailed Blizzard to correct the problem. Blizzard, to Andrews’ surprise, upheld the decision…” […]

Finding a Christmas present for Mark this year was easy. He’s a huge comic book and super hero fan, and has been since he was a kid. However, he’s never been a fan of video games. I grew up on them.

This was my plan of attack. I’ve wanted Mark to like video games, and I’ve tried to get him to play, but that dog just wouldn’t hunt. So I had to get him something he couldn’t resist…

I bought Mark the game City of Heroes for Christmas this year. COH is a Massive Muliti-player Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) for the PC. This means that not only do you design and develop your own super hero of choice, but you play and interact live with countless other heroes being played by gamers across the globe. This allows you to create your own super hero and form teams with other heroes to beat up baddies all across Paragon City.

So, meet Airborne, my character (shown in the picture). Since I’m sure you’re wondering, he’s a mutant controller, and his powers are based in illusions and kinetics. He plays on the Guardian server. He’s cool. And damn sexy. Everyone tells him so.

I’m very impressed with this game. I’ve heard lots of commotion about World of Warcraft, a very popular MMORPG. While I haven’t given it a try myself, I’ve been playing City of Heroes for a few weeks and am addicted as it gets. I now see what the hubbub is all about. The social aspects, overwhelming size (these worlds are HUGE), and innovative live events happening in the game make MMORPGs something for gamers on all platforms to be excited about.

The characters you can create are highly customizable… you won’t find 2 that are the same. In fact, the game has given players so many options that they’re under fire for it. Marvel is suing the makers of City of Heroes for allowing players to create characters that pretty much could pass for The Hulk, Wolverine, etc.

Mark and I have both been logging long hours on this game. This game - and pretty much most MMORPGs that I’ve seen - cost a monthly fee to be able to play online. Games like these aren’t just developed and pretty much done - it’s an ongoing world that the game makers have to maintain, change, and expand. Understanding that - as well as simply getting my money’s worth in gameplay hours - makes the $12/month fee seem very reasonable.

I’d include a link to download a demo, but I don’t believe they have one available…

- Andy