E3 2010 De-Brief

Not being a real journalist I stand very little chance of ever attending E3 in person, but all the media that comes out of it from various websites is quite comprehensive, so the following is my opinions of what was on show based on the reports and footage from other sources. Of course if anyone is in a position to hook me up for next year then by all means, drop me a line.


Industry Innovations

So, let's start with thing's that are moving the industry forward, and hot on the heels of James Cameron's Avatar we're now seeing video games making the move to 3D. Arguably the biggest move in this direction comes in the smallest package (see what I did there?), I'm of course talking about the Nintendo 3DS. when this was first announced a few months ago I was quite skeptical and uninterested, not really being one for hand held consoles and the concept just seemed too advanced to be real or as described, a 3D screen that doesn't require glasses. But the independent reports following the hands on opportunity at Nintendo's press conference all say that it truly is a 3D experience, with objects seemingly jumping out of the screen, which has made me really want to see it for myself, especially seeing as a port of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has been announced. On the big screen side of things Sony were very keen to push their 3D TVs by showcasing their first party title Killzone 3 on the PS3 which reportedly makes great use of 3D, and is the first real nudge Ive had towards thinking about upgrading to a 3D TV (although it's still plenty of nudges and out right shoves away yet).
The other innovation that caught my eye was the game Black Light: Tango Down, while not a technically amazing game by any standards, looking at the footage I find graphics lacking by modern standards but that's not the point of the game, nor does it have any baring on it being mentioned here. I'm interested in it on the grounds of the way it is being made available, namely a digital delivery only release which is interesting from the stand point of where the industry is heading. Digital delivery is nothing new, but this is a move towards full games from big name studios and developers being made available solely through this method of distribution, maybe by the next generation of consoles we won't have packaged products or even downloaded products on hard drives anymore, maybe everything will be played remotely. that said, I can't see me buying the finished product, I tend to rate games on their single player experience and think of multiplayer as an added bonus, but Black Light: Tango Down is just a multiplayer package, although the co-op side of things could go some way towards tempting me.


The return of the old skool

A growing trend at the minute among developers is to add a retro flavour to their games, which I believe is largely inspired by increased interest in retro games and the production of simplistic indie games. What are are now seeing though is a number of well established franchises going back to their roots, in either a full blown retro style of play or borrowing from their earlier iterations to make a hybrid in play styles and presentation, and from what I've seen this is a very good thing! One franchise that used to hypnotise me with it's bright colours and funky sound track right from the original in 1990 was Sonic the Hedgehog, but the move to 3D for this franchise has been plagued with lack luster games, so Sonic 4: Episode 1 is like all my childhood dreams coming true, a true Sonic sequel with all the same style and flare as the Mega Drive (that's Genesis to you guys the other side of the Atlantic) originals and is only 1 of 2 new Sonic games to have caught my attention. Sonic Colours has peaked my interest more than any other 3D Sonic game, which is probably because a totally new direction has been taken to the design. The game appears to be 2D side scrolling platforming like the old Sonic games (and now Sonic 4) which seamlessly transitions into behind view racing and platforming of the more recent games and this currently looks like it's been executed with much more care than previous attempts.
Next on the list of games following this trend is Donkey Kong Country Returns which is being developed by Retro Studios, and like Sonic 4, it doesn't look like a huge departure from the original DK titles, which makes perfect sense for Nintendo after their success with Super Mario Bros Wii and New Super Mario Bros on the DS.
Team Ninja seem to have taken this on board as well for their up coming Wii title Metroid: Other M. Until this E3 I was under the impression that this was going to be a combat based game with a flashy new fighting style partially inspired by the recent Ninja Gaiden games, which would have been a massive departure from the classic Metroid games and the first person action of the Metroid Prime trilogy. But now it appears to be a throw back to Super Metroid crossed with many of the play elements of the Metroid Prime games, which I think is a smart move, and has made me pay a bit more attention to this work in progress.
One more from Nintendo's offering from the old school was the remake of GoldenEye for Wii. Now I didn't think that last sentence really does my feelings on this justice, so I will reiterate: GOLDENEYE! FUCKING GOLDENEYE! Oh my god I'm pumped for this, not 100% sure about having Daniel Craig playing Bond as Pierce Brosnan was a pretty good bond in the movie (not so much in his other Bond outing though sadly) but in essence this game could make me cum in my pants.
The last throw back that I'm way too excited about is Mortal Kombat, this looks to be another nice dose of nostalgia with a modern lick of paint. I lost interest in this series when it made the transition to 3D, and I don't seem to be the only one Ed Boon, series creator, has stated this new game has been crafted out of fan feedback, and seemingly the fans want a modernised version of the original trilogy, which makes me a giddy inside!


The big hype games

Before we get into the run down of the big name games which, while not really breaking any new ground or trying anything too far removed from the proven formulas, I first want to cover a couple of titles that have really caught my eye. First up is Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, which I'm suddenly hungry for due to the epic cinematic trailer that was put on display which, if representative of the ingame action, could make this game very special. I wasn't really paying attention to this title until I saw the trailer but I'm now thinking and praying that this could be the Jedi game we've always wanted. The original Force Unleashed was a move in the right direction towards that lofty goal but it suffered from loose controls which caused the player to feel a but detached from the action. And speaking of giving us what we've always wanted, we're brought nicely onto Metal Gear Solid: Rising, which might possibly be the MGS Ninja game we've always wanted. Konami showcased their sword cutting game mechanics and amazing visuals, but not too much else, so time will tell and it's unlike Kojima to let us down... after all, we already know Raiden is the main character this time around, which in the past was the biggest failing they've made.


The best of the rest

Moving onto the assortment games that aren't breaking new ground but still look good enough to bust out the credit card for. I'm going to let my fanboyism for this series break through to get the ball rolling with Halo Reach which we finally got to see some campaign footage for. I wasn't too hyped about the space battle section which everyone seems to be creaming over, but it does look like it has all the super soldier comic book infantry action fun of the Halo series intact, so consider me signed up.
Returning series Medal of Honor are busting out a blatant Modern Warfare rip off, but you know what, who fucking cares, they're not the first to do it and won't be the last, and most importantly it looks good so I'm keen.
Trayarch are taking their bi-annual stab at the Call of Duty series with COD: Black Ops, taking a page out of Infinity Ward's book (quite probably their last ever book) they are making an overdue departure from World War Two setting, and offering up more of the same well executed first person shooter action but in a selection of scenarios spread out over the cold war era. That's pretty new and intriguing on it's own and if it has the zombies mode like World at War I'm sold.
Gears of War 3 is looking, not too much new stuff from what we've already seen, new enemy characters and 4 player co-op are new aspects but essentially it's still the well realised 3rd person shooter it's always been. that said I'm hoping for more out of the multiplayer this time, I never really found much to enjoy in the last two Gears on that front.
I enjoyed Assassin's Creed despite it's short comings, and I really enjoyed Assassin's Creed 2, so I'm very much looking forward to Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, essentially this looks like more of the same but with expansion on the villa upgrade gameplay of AC2. The new recruiting and levelling mechanics for building your brotherhood look like a nice new layer of gameplay mechanics and multiplayer component appears to be quite a different type of experience from anything else currently on offer.
As far as new IP's go, Spec Ops: The Line looks like a solid third person shooter with an interesting setting and unique gameplay mechanics around dynamic changes to the environment as you play and Rage from id Software is something that I'm super pumped for. It just looks like a really awesome FPS with a fallout type setting and stunning visuals, I want to get my hands on this little beast sooner rather than later.


The ones that failed to inspire

A couple of key announcements failed to deliver in my opinion, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword left me quite underwhelmed after so much hype leading up to the announcement. It doesn't look like any kind of step forward visually than the last game, in fact I thought it looked worse with drab blocky textures and clunky character models, if it wasn't for the motion plus controls I would have felt totally dejected by this. And speaking of motion controls, the Kinect is without doubt amazing technology, but it has nothing in the way of software that interests me, and the same can be said of Sony's all too familiar offering to the point and waggle market, the so called PlayStation Move. I can't help but feel these thing's are out there just to test the market for what is to come a couple more years down the line.



Where are they now?

It may have been the biggest video game event of the year, but a few games were strangely absent, both the sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum and the PS3 exclusive The Last Guardian were nowhere in sight which I found bemusing. Batman already has the engine and mechanics in place so I at least expected to see a few environements and character teasers, and The Last Guardian is something that I'm starting to think was just an illusion.
One other disappointing no show, although not at all surprising was Aliens: Colonial Marines, I mean where the hell is it? It's in development, it's out of development, will we ever fucking see it? Is anyone working on it, I gotta say, I've lost track of what is meant to be happening with this game, if anything at all.


One to watch

Before I wrap up I want to give special mention to Devils Third, we only got to see a brief reveal trailer, but that trailer contained nothing but gameplay, which consisted of big guns and samurai swords being used generously in chaotic fast paced third person action, which are things that rate very highly with me. this is something I want to see more of and will be watching the development of this potential gem closely.


Conclusion

To sum it all up, Microsoft are making a nice move with their Xbox 360 Slim and have a nice line up of forthcoming games that I want to play (a lot of which will be available on the PS3 as well) but none of which are especially innovative, however I'm totally not into the Kinect and the same goes for Sony's Playstation Move, but I do like that they are starting to push for 3D games on the PS3 (although I don't have a PS3 yet and sure as shit won't be getting a 3D TV for quite some time). But ultimately Nintendo wiped the floor with both of them for cool upcoming games and technological innovation, so well done to the oldest player of the big three.

'Dear Dexterity, what went wrong with this set?'

Ok, since I started doing this blog I've unexpectedly had a number of dudes asking for advice on things PUA related, and while I'm happy to offer my opinions, I would like to stress that I am not an expert and by no means a teacher or 'guru' (see my post on teachers and 'gurus' here). That said, there is one type of question that I've been asked that I do have some advice on that I would like to share with everyone, and that type of question is one that involves a specific set or girl, usually one where things are not, or did not go as you would have liked, and how you can rectify it or what specifically you should have done differently. So here is what I have to say on this:
Go out and do it 10 more times! Open 10 more sets and run the same game, and then figure out what went wrong for yourself. I wasn't there when your specific incident occurred, so I can only theorise as to what happened, and that is based solely on your description of events, and it doesn't matter how honest and accurately you describe those events, it is still only your memories of the sensory input that made it through your perceptual filters and was then organised in your mind based on your internal belief system. Telling me how hot the target was on a scale of 1-10, how many AMOG's came in to the set and what routines you ran, isn't going to give me enough insight into what happened to give you feedback on how you could have closed. But before I totally sound like I'm being harsh towards any requests for advice, which certainly is not my intention, I just like to lay it on pretty thick sometimes, the advice I have for you is this; be your own teacher.
Now that sounds vague, almost as vague as when an AFC is told 'just be confident', if you have no experience or understanding with which to grasp that advice it essentially means nothing, so I will give some pointers on how you should go about being your own teacher.
Firstly, you were there, so ask yourself 'what do I think went wrong? Was it something I did or was it some external factor beyond my control? How could I prevent it from happening again or how could I handle it better if it happens again?'
When you've answered these questions as fully as you can, go out and run a minimum of 10 more sets, implementing any changes you decided upon, and see if it improves things, rinse and repeat. this is very important, and I shouldn't have to explain why (if I do have to explain why please contact me and I will do so) DO NOT test your theories on just one set! Make it a MINIMUM OF 10 SETS!

As a side note, if you are still hung up on one particular girl or set that didn't go the way you wanted, I ask you this; does it matter? So you didn't get this set, big deal, give yourself a pat on the back for being in set in the first place, you still showed more balls than most guys! The only way you will learn to be better is by doing this over and over and over, and making slight changes each time until you hit on the magic formula for you, and what ever your magic formula is, it will be different to what the formula is for me. It is different for everyone, and it is different in every set, just get out there and have fun! Having fun when you are gaming should be the only set in stone constant in your game.

PUA Victim Mentality

A common thing I have noticed among a lot of community guys, and practically all AFCs is the mentality that their own particular situation is somehow worse than other people's and is the reason why they are not as successful with women as they would like to be or think they should be. The fact of the matter is that this attitude is a major part of the problem, it's a self fulfilling prophecy. By thinking this is the case, you make it your reality, and as thus make things more difficult for yourself. Trust me on this as it's something I used to say all the damn time, and to some extent still do, but you know what, there is only one way to deal with it and that is to be harsh with yourself about it, and to illustrate this I'm going to tell you straight up what you need to do and the best thing you can do is take this same attitude with yourself:
Stop your bitching, what's done is done, where ever you are in your life right now is where you are. Bitching about how you got there and why you are there is only making things worse, get the fuck over it. Live in the now, what is happening right at this second? Is there something you can do right now to make right now better? Go do it then! If you don't then all you are doing is proving that you are the one who isn't allowing you to make things better.
Trust me, this small change in attitude will remove a lot of issues pretty much immediately. If you cant do this small thing then no amount of canned material and Jedi mind tricks will help you get the girl, in fact I reckon that by doing this one small thing you will rapidly see massive improvements in your game. Don't forget that sometimes you might fall back into old habits and patterns of thought, so it might also be helpful to find a way to remind yourself of this important attitude and behaviour shift from time to time, like telling other people via an Internet blog for instance ;-)

3 Types of Teacher

This is not a post specifically about the Pick Up/Seduction community, however it is very applicable to it, but it is applicable in pretty much every other area of study. Over my life I have come to notice that there are three different types of teacher you will encounter, and it can be very useful to know the differences in that it can be very resource saving in terms of time, money, effort, etc. The three types as I see them are as follows:

The first type are those that should teach, in the traditional sense, they are people who have the knowledge and experience of a given subject, and ability to relay this knowledge and experience to a student effectively so as to get the best out of the student. This is the type of teacher who has earned the right to exchange teaching for money or another commodity, although they may choose not to do so, that is their perogative. I have been fortunate enough to come across a few of these people in my life, both in pick up and in other areas, but they are not all that numerous.

The second type are those that get too far ahead of themselves or do not have the best interest of a student at heart, they are the 'teachers' who like to think they are capable and worthy of teaching, but in fact they lack the necessary knowledge and experience, or the ability to replay those things to a student effectively. they may also be those people who are more interested in the potential personal gains of teaching for themselves such as finanacial gain or another commodity, rather than being interested in the benefit of the student. This is by far and away the the most common type of teacher I have encountered.

The last type of teacher are those individuals who are aware that they are still a student themselves, but understand that by teaching what they have learned thus far they will reinforce and improve their own knowledge base and skills, as well as developing it into new areas through observation and having their ideas challenged as they develop. These are the type of teacher that do not expect anything in return for their tutorage because by teaching they are being rewarded, they do it either because they genuinly feel they can help their student, or because they are accutely aware that in fact by teaching, they are teaching themselves and also being taught by their student.

Looking at any teacher I have ever encountered I can place them into one of these three categories fairly easily, but I also believe that it is entirely possible for someone to move fromone category to another, and in fact it might even be necessary for some people to experience being one of these types in order to become another type, for whatever theor reason for wanting to change, whether that reason is a conscious descision or not.

This template can be useful on two fronts, firstly if you are a teacher of anything, which one of these categories do you think you fall into? Now try to imagine which one you appear to fal into from the perspective of a student or prospective student, is that the best tyoe of teacher for you to be and if not which one is and what can you do to become that type?

If you are a student looking for a teacher, make sure you know what kind of teacher you are looking for. Try to bear in mind that what people offer you and what they are cabable of delivering can be very different things, try not to fall victim to the second type of teacher if you can help it.

Moral Justification

Ok, so me and my wing were out in a club we hadn't hit before, not doing an awful lot and we'd been hitting the piss again (getting drunk for anyone who doesn't know that expression), but by a stroke of luck a girl stood on my foot on the dance floor, resulting in immediate reaction from me, kino, negs, etc.
She was a mature fresher, meaning she was 25 and just started her first year of uni. There is the often quoted ethical code of a PUA which is 'leave her better than you found her', this isn't really something that I've thought about much while gaming, probably because I haven't really needed to... however that was not the case here. After a while of leading her round, building comfort, push pull, yada yada yada I found out she had a boy friend back in her home town, that on it's own did not concern me, I've come to realise that 'boyfriend' is a pretty ambiguous term used by girls and if they are showing signs of attraction then it isn't all that serious. About 1.30AM my wing decided to bail and I stayed in set, I could see the IOI's plain as day from this girl and I felt it in my bones that this was on. Yet it turned out to be anything other than easy, I could see she was into me, but she was playing really hard to get, moving around the dance floor, flirting with other dudes, which of course meant I had to act totally indifferent towards this behaviour and do my own bit of flirting with other girls, although my effort was more subtle, which in turn seems to have come off as being higher value than her need to get attention and possible try to make me feel jealous. This went on for a while and every time I got close for the k-close she pulled away, and it got past the point where it was her playing hard to get, I could see something was really stopping her from going for it even though everything else in her behaviour and attitude was screaming for it.
I forced myself to stay in set longer than I normally would, I normally run a set in about 30 mins to an hour and half, any longer than that without a close is pretty much wasted time, to be honest 30 mins is normally my limit but go up to an hour and half in special cases. But there was something shouting in my head that let me know I could do it, I believed in my abilities like I never had before, I had this in the bag,, even though I wasn't sure how to progress to get it I felt the power to do it. We shifted venue, picked up 4 of the weirdest dudes I've ever met on the fly outside a closing pub and brought them with us, one of them made a play to steal my hard work, but I just back turned him when we were in the next bar, did some very obvious kino escalation in plain sight and he buggered off of his own accord. Even here I still couldn't get the k-close, I could feel her resisting it but I had my hands rubbing up and down the inside of her leg and seriously solid eye contact that just wouldn't break, so there was no way she didn't want something to happen. We went down to the dance floor and similar shit happened to before, we both started approaching and dancing with other people, but again hers was clearly aimed at getting my attention, and my behaviour appeared to be aimed more at the other girls int he club, even though it actually wasn't. I'd now been in set for 4 hours, all my canned material had been used up ages ago and I was free styling hard. We end up dancing with each other again in a very dark area of the club, hands end up running all over each other, scratching, grasping, all the things that people do when they madly make out with someone, but only there was no actual making out! The tension was now extreme and I knew full well she was rubbing herself against my hard on, I can see in my peripheral vision that all the people around us are watching... finally it happens... then she pulls away and her eye's have a look in them not to dissimilar from Luke Skywalker finding out Darth Vader is his father. There is a clear look of panic on her face, she shouts 'FUCK' and sprints up the stairs and out of the club. I have just enough time to see the look on my audiences faces, as if they had just seen a live bit of soap opera in action. I debate my options, I could call it a night... but I go after her, obviously something has gone on that I'm unaware of, I could have really screwed something up here and at the very least I should find out if I made a mistake in my game so I can avoid it in future.
I leave the club and see her down the road, I chase after her and when I catch up I can see she's drying her eyes and is now trying to stop herself from crying. We sit on a nearby step and I get it out of her; she is 'head over heels' for her boyfriend, they've been together for 5 months, and she's never cheated before... at first I think, ok, so she's not cheated on him before, these things happen right?... Nope, these things don't happen with her, she's so messed up about this because she has made it to the age of 25 without ever cheating on ANYONE before! With that plot point reveal the whole night is suddenly given a new perspective, I understand it all, and more to the point I now realise that I'm not just wielding a power, I'm wielding a weapon, I had no idea I could cause so much effect on people's emotions or lives, up until now I have never seen any effects of running game that have lasted longer than a night, a few weeks at most, but this is something that is going to have lasting effect on some level.
However, things did not stop there, sometimes people just need to get something out, and now we're hooking into each other again, then she's swearing at herself again for being a 'bitch', then we're necking again. this cycle went on for 30 mins while we walked back to her place. But now I'm starting to think that any further escalation will be really screwing with her unnecessarily, I was feeling guilt about what had happened, but was the guilt actually mine or did it transfer to me from her due to the level of rapport I had reached over the course of the night, the connection between us had become really strong and the gate swings both ways when you build a rapport if you're not filtering things out. Or was it social conditioning from society that was making me feel guilt? Most media portrays this type of situation as something people should feel guilt for, as do most people, maybe it isn't something I should feel any guilt about, or maybe that is just wishful thinking. Was all of this worth doing to further my own skills? I certainly pushed my skills and abilities during this pick up, is this progress I wouldn't have otherwise made had I not been in this situation? Does that justify it? Is that just an attempt to justify it and appease my guilty conscience?
The feelings of guilt subsided fast after the event so I'm inclined to think it was more her than me and I just picked up on her emotions empathically. But even if I don't feel any guilt now, should I feel bad? Have I become too desensitised about this kind of thing or is it a necessary evolution of my emotional maturity? And besides, she is a fresher, so surely this behaviour is natural and she's just not used to it yet?
Going back to the events; outside her place the mood has become strange, guilt is being felt by both, but we're still kissing, however now feeling sober and questioning the credo of 'leave her better than you found her' I am holding myself back from attempting to escalate any further for an f-close, we agree not to have any contact with each other as she is freaking out about seeing her boyfriend the following week (admittedly this was a total balls up on my part I now realise so let's not even talk about this, no discussion is needed), and I leave to walk back to my wing's flat, praying he'll wake up to let me in or I'm sleeping in my car (he woke up thank god!).
Should I have pushed for the f-close or was I right in thinking that was taking it too far? After all I proved my point which was that I knew I could pull her despite her resistance, f-closing would have been unnecessary and purely for cheap thrills and would have caused more damage right? Right?... No, I'm not convinced either.
What is concerning is that this was just one of a string of pulls I had recently from girls with 'boyfriends', and I think that factor in itself is something that makes me want the pull, I've always had a tendency to do thing's that make me feel 'naughty', so is this a new trend for me? The feeling of 'being naughty' as a motivating factor, a feeling that I get from gaming girls in relationships. I hope not, that can ultimately only lead to bad places and is not why I got involved in the game. Is it something I will continue to actively do? Only time will tell.