Hard Core Gamer

Field Report: Back On The Wagon

2011-06-27T10:14:00.000-07:00

After far too much boozing recently the time has finally come to knock it on the head, it doesn't do anything for my Game other than being a state inducer, but that comes at too much of a steep price in terms of lower awareness and calibration, and thus less can be learned from the experience.... Not to mention those really bad decisions that can only be made under the influence of alcohol. So, with the main objective of the weekend to be to sarge 100% sober, off we went... well, some of us.

Friday
After a serious pub burger at The Renovation, me, Wolf and Cannon headed to The Vault to meet up with Hank and a social group he was out with. they were all on the piss and quite settled, we hung around for a bit then headed straight to Rotation, and I was just not feeling it. I'd had a mother fucker of a week at work, actually, a mother fucker of a fortnight to be honest, and my head was not in the game. I normally struggle a bit on a Friday night to get myself back into it, but this was harder than usual, there were loads of sets and I just locked up. After a while Wolf opened a 2 set and a couple of minutes later Cannon convinced me to go in to wing. Utter doddle, within seconds I was sat down occupying the obstacle, which was fine because she was more my type than Wolf's target... assuming she was Wolf's target, I didn't bother to check, just figured it was as he was sat next to her, must remember to go back to the old codes for checking that shit out.
I jumped straight in with comfort building stuff, cold read, qualification (minus the sexual framing statement, fail), 'Wake Up Anywhere', then threw out a time bridge, 'Fish Foot Spa', first time I'd used it, didn't hook, so I should have totally threw out my other default TB but didn't. I did however mention that we were going to Dizon later and hyped it up pretty hard. We should have number closed there and then while both had our targets in rapport, but sadly did the usual fail and ejected from set. downstairs we met back up with Cannon who was now with Todd and his new student.
We all headed over to Dizon where we met back up with Hank and co. I started getting into the swing of things and did some daft over the top dancing and bouncing around, which got some giggles from a 4 set in the corner next to the table that some of our group had occupied. This of course made my life easy as I sat down and just swung round to open, ran 'Fun & Friendly' but it didn't hook like usual, however the target was the one I was next to and the social pressure was too much for her so she engaged me and I just ran with that. Didn't tease or FTC, so slap on the wrist for that, but went into cold reading and ran with a few threads from there, but not much else.
Hit the dance floor with everyone else and it wasn't long before the 4Set I'd just opened hovered near by, totally should have re-engaged, but didn't and they wandered off. Not too much longer after that the 2Set from rotation turned up, Wolf's target headed over to him and I used the moment to re-engage my target at the bar, just said hey and then went back to the dance floor as the other one reappeared so isolation was out the window. this all eventually fell apart as they had a miss match with each other, the one I was interested in got tired and wanted to go home, the other wanted to carry on partying, tension raised and for some reason this is when I decided to try a close, right when she was pissed off with her friend, got facebook details but it wasn't solid and I knew it.

Saturday
Me and Wolf headed to the Toad & Chello to meet Hank, who it turned out had been on the piss all afternoon with a chick he's playing long game with. We had a look around, there was a few sets dotted aroubnd, one 2set in particular should have been opened but wasn't. The girl Hank was with headed home when her boyfrind came to pick her up, who Hank shamelessley waved at through the window and with a sadistic self assured grin uttered 'yeah, bye, I'm going to fuck your girlfriend', which I could not help but laugh at. And with that, we went to our venue of choice; Rotation.
Me and Wolf had already agreed that we were going to take turns in opening tonight and there was no getting out of it, he went first and opened a 2set upstairs, I don't know what went on with that set. We headed downstairs and I opened a 3 set in the corner with an opener about guys using hair removal cream (it was relevant but I'm not going into that). Ejected again fairly soon and rejoined Wolf and Hank a few feet away, Wolf opened a 2set over his shoulder and while that was going on I caught a 2 set who had just walked in the door (a couple of feet from where we were) simply by saying 'Hello' with enough energy to capture their attention, we ran with that for a bit and then turned to wing Wolf, but I was the fifth wheel so headed back to the 3 int he corner, sat with them and went cocky funny, this time they hooked very well, I had them giggling and throwing around all kinds of threads, no real structure though, just totally free styling in social and comfort stages, the target was furthest from me and hardest to hear (while Rotation is usually very set rich, the music is too fucking loud). I should have still gone for the close on all 3 for social circle or long game purposes, it would have been easy as once one agreed the others would have, but didn't and went to find the guys.
Wolf went to the gents while me and Hank headed to the bar where Hank opened a girl dressed as Where's Wally (Waldo for anyone in the States), chatted briefly then turned back, Wold reappaeared and immediately opened the same girl, which was a bit of an amusing moment, but it was totally fine, just one of those things you think you can't do but in fact you can and should.
We headed back downstairs again where Wolf was approached by a chick from a hen part who put a sticker on him, he enaged her and then another cam eover and started labelling me and Hank with stickers too. I then opened a blonde 2set nearby witht he hair removal thread again, Wold also engaged them ont he same topic, in my mind neither were targets, bad form as practice is still practice.
Wolf then opened a hot Brunette2Set, the obstacle leaned over and called Hank over, and I had a quick look around for another set, saw a blonde girl walking past, caught her eye and must have looked like I was about to open as she turned her body towards me while still heading the same direction and looked like she was waiting to hear what I said, but it didn't happen. I went over to the guys, Wolf was still in set but Hank had moved away and said that the obstacle was boring, so I went into set and introduced myself. Hank was right in some regards, she certainly didn't have any chat of her own, and Wolf ended the set before I could really get stuck in, but my opinion was that she just didn't have any game and was waiting to be lead through the interaction. Shame really as I thought she was pretty damn cute.
We shifted venue to Single Exception and I opened a 2 set with the hair removal cream opener again, should have stacked into tease and so on but didn't. Wolf opened a 2Set in the corner and me and Hank went outside so he could have a cigar. There was a seated 2Set that he opened by asking for a lighter, we should have properly engaged them in hindsight.
Next we headed down to Dizon (after a quick shit stop at the Wolf Lair) and Hank met back up witht he girl he'd been drinking with earlier. I did a quick scout around, saw a good 2 set in the smoking area I should have opened but didn't, same with a seated mixed 3Set as I figured the dude was with the cute one, but we'll talk more about these guys in a bit. We also saw the blonde 2set that me and Wolf saw after leaving Under Beat last week and they threw some pretty big AI's at us, why we didn't engage them was beyond me as I realised that the one Wolf hadn't hooked up with before was cute as hell (yet again with the blondes, my taste is definately shifting). We ended up int he smoking area where we ran into HippyNinja, a PUA we don't see much of these days as he's more or less out of the game, coincidentally I was forcing IOI's out of a girl who turned out to be his girlfrined, could have been an amusing situation if I'd opened. While chatting with these guys the mixed 3 set appeared and the dude tripped over and I quickly used that to open them, running 'Fun & Friendly' to preload, sat down and started chatting. It was immediately apparent that the guy was not with the cute girl, she wasn't his type at all... because she was a girl! So I ran 'Always Shy', finally running one of my default openers and teases in a set, something that I now need to make a habit of. Chatted to them for quite a bit, the cute one had a boyfriend and was lashed to the point where she couldn't maintain conversation, so I chatted with other two who were quite a lot fo fun, I should have closed them to build my social circle but again didn't, totally ignoring the ABC rule.
We ended the night by heading to Under Beat, in one of the bar areas I saw a seated 2Set that I should have opened, and I'm not even sure why I didn't as by now I was in state and wasn't feeling any kind of AA what so ever. What was very cool was that when I hit the dancefloor I was suddenly outside of my own head, and felt awesome, and that's when I started seeing AI's all over the place, too many! I didn't take any of them, but I was just enjoyin the moment, soberly feeling like that for the first time since I've been back in the game, possibly for the first time in a year and a half, if not longer!
Only other thing that went on was that we saw the chubster set from last week and possibly should have reopened them, but we just didn't have the energy by this point... maybe there is one other advantage to boozing, you don't feel the fatigue creeping up on you bercause you're too busy being drunk.

Right, main sticking points:
1. State control issues, manifesting in taking ages to open my first set of the weekend.
2. Sticking to my early stages game plan, I seem fine once I've hit cold read, probably because the gap between running my next routine is naturally longer due to being in the conversational comfort stage giving me time to think ahead, compared to the initial blasting out of open, chick crack, tease and FTC in quick succession.
3. ABC! A fucking B fucking C!

Solutions:
1. Open on entry to venues and practicing presence of mind techniques to shut off internal chatter (which has worked very well in the past)
2. Open purely with the intent of running Open > Tease > FTC
3. No more ejections from set with 'nice chatting with you guys, might see you later', now it's all purpose 'You guys seem cool, we should hang out some time, what's the best way to keep in touch?' OR don't leave the fucking set!

Day 2 Report: Framing Fail!

2011-06-23T11:15:00.000-07:00

Right, so lets start off with a brief explanation of why I vanished for a year. In short, I got myself into an LTR, became lame, stopped going out, it all fell apart, the end. April I got back into game and have been steadily regenerating my powers ever since, started posting again the other day as I'm closing in on the level I was at, but with some new sticking points that I didn't get before, some that I did get before, but also some things that were sticking points have now resolved themselves. anyway, I did my first Day 2 last night since being back in the game, which makes it my first Day 2 for well over a year!
'How did it go?' I hear you passively enquire, well my enthusiastic blog reading type person, I will tell thee, but first, let me explain something. Blondes are not usually my thing, never really have been, but for some reason I've been more attracted to them recently, and currently 4 out of the 5 chicks bothering to play long game with are blonde, which is very odd. I think a large part of the reason for this is that my recent girlfriend was very much my usual type, so much so that I think I've saturated that taste bud a bit, only the ones that heavily fall into that category have hooked my attention recently and I've been branching out a bit more. Wolf also pointed out the other day that I seem to really go for girls with soft features, the really cute face type girls, and this one I am about to talk about is all kinds of that!
So, I number closed her a few weeks back in the town I normally go sarging in, which happens to be 40 miles from where I live, but she was over this way last night because she was crashing at a friends place before they went to Glastonbury festival this morning. So I knew the logistics for an F-close were going to be somewhat unlikely but I wanted to see her anyway, partly for practice purposes and partly because, well, she's a cute girl (duh!). She drove over early to meet me and I met her outside her friend's place, drove us back into town and we headed to a bar that for the purposes of this blog I will call The Lounge. We chatted for ages and she wanted to know everything about me, which can only be a good sign, and she started hitting me on the leg when I teased her or when she was excited about what she was saying, and at this point I hadn't touched her of my own accord, so she's making a physical connection, very good sign. After a while I started matching and mirroring her body language to generate rapport, and after 30 or 40 mins she starts to copy my body language, so I know I'm definitely in rapport. This is something I like to play with in business meetings, and in a pick up scenario it can really make life easy when done right, one use is to use it by reposition your body as if you are just shifting posture to get comfortable, but int he process getting closer to her, and she will reciprocate, without even realising it, making things a little more intimate.
If you think that is something that should happen naturally like a friend of mine suggested, well, you're fucking crazy, you might as well say 'you should just let it happen' in regards to meeting people and pulling girls, and forget about pick up altogether! Game is all about making the most of everything, using what ever you can and taking every opportunity to get a result. People against this kind of 'trickery' tend to concerned about people being 'tricked' or 'manipulated' against their will into feeling rapport when it doesn't really exist. Well, I call bullshit on that line of thinking! The fact of the matter is that when you match and mirror someone to get into rapport, it's a two way street, you BOTH unconsciously go into rapport, even if you consciously created it. It's like a mental reflex, all you're doing by matching and mirroring is kick starting the unconscious process. but, I digress.
At this point I realised I wanted to escalate, or in plain English I want to kiss her, which is something I totally should have done in our initial interaction a few weeks ago but didn't, fuck knows why, she isolated me for fucks sake! But, even though I know it's what I want to happen next, I'm stalling, and get ready because I'm about to unleash my excuses and rationalisations for this, now I know you're thinking 'Dex, buddy, you were just being a pussy' and you're probably right, but indulge me for a second, it'll make me feel better.
I cant even remember the last time I made out with someone for the first time while I was sat next to them in a quiet bar, I usually I k-close on the dance floor, or stood up chatting in a busy bar or club, but last night it was dead in there, and being sat down I'm not in optimal position to kino escalate with all the incidental and 'accidental' stuff I usually do. However, I'm pretty sure she wants make out as well, because we're in rapport. for those that don't know, every time people do, say or think the same thing, it's actually because they are in rapport, thus attuned to each other, like harmonic resonance (not something as fantastic as psychic connection or as mundane as coincidence).
So, we both sense the need to mix it up, so we leave and have a wander around town. She's never been here before so it's sight seeing time, so I take her down to the old university buildings and churches and shit, all the olden style architecture is all illuminated in orange light and the sun is setting, women seem to love this shit, like they're in a fucking Disney movie. As we walk we're teasing each other, she's doing most of the proper talking still and I'm interjecting to make connection or take the piss from time to time, just being very chill. At one point she tries to nudge me into the curb, awesome, back to creating physical connection and a playful vibe, so now it's on, I reciprocate and half move in like I'm about to escalate then pull back as few times, testing how comfortable she is with that and teasing her at the same time. At the same time I'm also trying to figure out the smoothest way to escalate, my thinking was that it's gotta be smooth on the off chance I'm misreading the situation (I know how crazy that sounds given everything that's going on, but it's been a long time since I went on a day 2, it's just me and her, if it goes Pete Tong I'm not in a club full of girls to approach to take my mind off it, so I'm playing it safe, which was a mistake really. Pussy points to me.
We walk along the high street, I'm still teasing her every chance I get, then all of a sudden I pull a brilliant move (in theory), not totally sure how it went down exactly, she got excited about seeing a certain jewlery shop that she knew there was only 5 of in the UK, I acted like I thought she was looking at something else and in the resulting confusion I grabbed her waist from behind and maneuvered my way around her with my hands on her hips and BANG... we ended up... holding hands, this isn't the vibe I was aiming for, but maybe if I'd figured out what vibe I was aiming for earlier it might have helped, I was driving without directions or a map again. So now we're walking around holding hands, I've not even k-closed this girl yet, and in her mind this is 'our first date', in my mind I'm thinking 'I really fucked up', this is couple shit right here, for an AFC pulling that move would have been a stroke of genus, in fact, a few years ago I'd have been elated by this.
Eventually we end up on the bridge over the river and she pretty much k-closes me, I figure my coolness about it all must have been winding her up to the point she couldn't take any more, I was confident, cool, fun, clearly liked her, but not leching or being needy for the kiss, I'd made her feel so relaxed and good about herself she was getting butterflies (not the only one I've done that to recently), but I totally could have k-closed so much earlier and now I was drastically lacking any sexual framing.
Now we're walking and stopping to make out every so often, and the night is coming to a close (not to be confused with an f-close sadly) and the real cock up was about to happen on the way back to my car. We're talking about how I flaked on BBQ with work in favour of seeing her (which was true by the way, but totally a good line I might use again in the future), and I said I hadn't bothered to tell my boss I wasn't going. She playfully slaps my arm and says 'Dex!' in a fun telling off voice, like she's now considerably more familiar with me, my rapport trick has worked too well, and I turn to her, get in her face again and say 'Woman! you can't tell me off like that yet', adopting the same level of familiarity and implying she will be able to tell me off like that in the future, the word 'yet' was such an error! Her response is 'Can't I!?' in a 'I soooo can' kinda voice, and then she grabs me and makes out with me, thus.... passive acceptance on my part of the frame, double fuck!
we went back to the car, I took her back to her friends place, made out a bit outside, teased each other some more, then I go home.
As I'm just getting my head down for the night my phone gets a text message:
"Sorry if this wakes you up, only just got to bed. Just wanted to say thank you for a nice evening :-) X"

I really do need to sort my shit out and start driving and framing things towards sex much earlier and not go into such deep levels of connection, otherwise I'm just on course to be a love rat. That said, if I was looking for a girlfriend, she would be the sort of girl I'd go for, that in itself might explain my behaviour. Still, not too bad after so long off.

Field Report: Tequila Weekend

2011-06-19T13:29:00.000-07:00

Ok, before we get started, yes, I'm bad and I'm back, can't believe it's been a year since my last post, I might write a post explaining the last 12 months, but I might not, really depends on whether I can be fucked and whether I can make the story of benefit to myself or you, my dear devoted reader.

Anyway, on with the show. Code names for people and places have been used to protect identities.
Friday, me and Wolf went out pretty early, hit up Rotation, it was pretty empty compared to usual, I was on a mission to open immediately on entry to every venue so I jumped into a 2 set in the centre of the room, opened with my 'cowboy hat' throwaway opener thinking this was just a warm up and expecting it to bomb, but they hooked onto it and teased back, throwing out at least 3 other threads, very playful and it's utterly shameful on my part that I stuck with my initial idea of leaving set as soon as I'd run the opener. Awful stall out, but first set of the night done which is better than the 40 mins of psych up time that tends to happen. what I should have done was just stick with it, throw out one of my default teases and take it from there, one of them was pretty hot although she spoke like she had a sore throat and my initial impulse was to neg on that basis, thankfully I didn't can't see that having gone down very well.
As it's so quiet we kid ourselves into thinking there are no sets to open, which quite frankly was an outright lie, after a drink we head off to hit Single Exception bar. again, I hit a seated 2 set of guys with the cowboy hat opener, so going strong on the mission, this time it does go as I expected, so I guess neither of them fancied me, which all of sudden makes me realise I had a high level of attraction with the first set in Rotation, doh! we hover around for a bit and don't open any sets, again, pretty bad form as it's busy, we need to get out of the habit of not opening just because there are no sets with blatant targets. As I keep reminding myself, everyone knows hot girls so everyone should be sarged to grow your social circle, need to start practicing what I preach.
We headed back down to Rotation, this time it was a lot busier, but I forgot my mission to open immediately so that went out the window at this point. It was bit cock heavy but still enough sets to keep us occupied, rather than opening we already had a plan to recreate a vibe we had going a few weeks ago. On that occasion we had gone in and acted high energy and like we were having a good time chatting to each other, very animated and fun. As a result we were effectively approached by any women within proximity to us, it was fucking crazy. this time we tried to recreate that, and to some extent did, I could see loads of AI's coming at us, but none within a few feet for an incidental easy open, which again, should not have been any kind of excuse, slapping my wrist hard for this now.
Next we headed to Dizon, where I quickly fell in love with a hot oriental bar maid from Canada, we're talking jizz your pants on sight hot IMO. Again, no opening of sets despite even more AI's and easy mixed sets hovering around, it was pretty dead so we should have just hammered what was there before moving on. We continued this pathetic performance when we got to Silk, although this place was more like a zoo, it was dude heavy again and the vast majority of the chicks there were hideous, and I really mean that, proper puke worthy ugly bitches, I actually felt myself about to wretch a couple of times just looking at them. The night was really not going to plan... and this is when the boozing started, we'd only had a beer each at this point, but it was £1.50 for all drinks in this place, and there wasn't much else for us to do, hell, we'd paid to get in so might as well make the most of it. Sank a few beers each in rather quick succession and then hit the dance floor. I started getting a bit more in state as tends to happen when we hit the floor, I've become a hell of a lot better at dancing since getting into game and no longer give a fuck about how I look, before game I used to shudder at the notion, now I'll jump into the centre of the floor and just hit it! It wasn't long before IOI's started cropping up, and then a hot 2 set, one a total Dex type (technical term for the type of chicks that make my sperm lock and load for combat), appear next to us and give us stupendous IOIs... which we totally do nothing about and they leave as abruptly as they appeared, making it painfully obvious that they came over to us for one reason and one reason only, by now I'm thinking I need a damn good slap and I'm giving myself the telling off of a lifetime, 3 weeks since my last sarge shouldn't have made me this much of a pussy! Fact of the matter is this would have been one of the easiest dance floor opens I had ever pulled off, the Dex type's body language was so open towards me it was just fucking on.
Finally we head down to Under Beat, starting to feel the effects of the booze and probably talking a bit more shit to each other, on entry we hit up the bar for a couple of shots of Tequila each, it's 50p a shot on Friday's here, and this was the turning point, I know that because the sequence of events isn't totally clear from here on out, I know at one point I was at the bar and a blonde threw me 4 solid IOI's which once again I totally stalled on, it's got so bad by this point that I'm thinking I should be taken out back and shot. I know we had another couple of shots at some point before we headed outside as I hit the level of drunk that requires me to start smoking. As we stood there looking around I spotted a 4 set int he far corner and uttered 'fuck this!' and marched over and started running my opener, at the same time as a drunk old dude decided to do the same, somehow he ended up with his arm around me and graciously invited me to run with what I was going to say, so I ploughed in with my Online Dating opener, total chick crack, hooked hard, the dude was gone in no time, Wolf joined the fray and the set was off, sadly the 2 hot ones we totally ignored in favour of chatting to the two gobby chubsters, at one point I said something about meeting people in reality being much easier than online, and she half heatedly challenged me to get the nearby mixed 2 set talking, which was all the incentive I needed having finally found my bollocks again, opened them not Interested opener, my variation on the classic 'how do you let someone know you're not interested int hem without hurting their feelings?', my version roles into a story that happens to be true, although no longer relevant. they open beautifully and we chat for a bit before I return to the initial set and the chick that challenged me was quite gob smacked that I had just done that so naturally and fluidly, apparently not realising that I had done the same to her 15 minutes earlier. this ultimately went no where, we were drunk, but not THAT drunk, so called it a night... almost. As we headed towards the chicken place we came across a 2 set hanging around the street, Wolf opened, the alpha female's response was 'I've got off with you!' which she had, must have been nearly a year ago but I remember the night when he hooked into her. this set suddenly grows into a mixed 5 or 6, can't quite remember, but we handled the dudes expertly and they were happy to leave the girls with us, all we had to do was suggest heading back to the Wolf Lair for drinks and Wii, both were perfectly fuckable, but didn't and let the set fall apart, lesson learned.

Saturday, after a day of gym, sauna, steam and sun bed, sweating out all the toxins from the night before, we're ready to go out again for Hank's birthday bash, and we all know it's going to be boozy, all suggestions of 'not drinking much' and 'taking it easy' we had made throughout the day were simply bullshit and we knew it. Hank turns up at the Wolf Lair and we're all on the gin before you can say 'is this a good idea?', logistically this night was going to be tricky as Wolf's girlfriend was coming along and some of her mates were part of the party, and Wolf even joked because of this logistical nightmare that tonight would be the night we hook into a 2 set that want to come back to his.
We get to Chill and gin starts flowing like we've struck oil. And as if that wasn't enough, Hank buys a bottle of Tequila from the bar and we're throwing shots back like there was a prize, around this time I spot a Dex type in a mixed 3 set but don't do anything about it, but she catches me checking her out and ends up watching me for the rest of the night, fail. As the shots hit my system I can feel myself retreating into the depths of my mind, it feels like I'm watching everything going on around me through frosted glass, and I'm feeling very concerned that I'm not even going to make it to midnight. I decide to get some fresh air and head outside for a smoke. I can see a 2 set in the centre of the patio area that would have been an easy open but instead I open a mixed 3 set and sit down with them, one is quite attractive and the other 2 are straight away suggesting we hook up, she is giving classic smiles and eye contact, but I'm lashed and words just are not coming at the right speed, there is a serious miss match of drunkenness, I'm not even paying attention to what they are saying, and I eject. I should have thrown out the time bridge just for practice but never mind, however, it had been enough to wake me up, and I'm now feeling naughty!
I head back inside and am now on form, I'm mingling with everyone in our party, which had grown to about 16 people and getting my waffle on. One of them points out 4 hotties about to leave which I probably should have run over to just for a throw away opener and to build some social proof, but I'm also paying close attention to another dude in our group who is a bit of a natural and trying to analyse his game as it's happening. A few of us head outside for another smoke and I spot a mixed 4 (3 girls) who I head over to and and run 'Fun and Friendly', and before I can stack into any chick crack the one that was talking as I entered the fray turns to me and say#'s 'Yes, we are fun and friendly, but I'm telling a story so be quiet' and she carries on banging on about some shit, as part of it she mentions something about her hand and I ask for clarification, to which she explains she had been sick on it (in the story, not then and there) and before I know what's happening she's got her fingers in my mouth under the notion of making me be sick! I turn to the dude and start running game on him, he's pretty sound but also a bit out of his element apparently as he was no where near as high energy as the girls. I turn back to the finger girl (who was also the target) and plough into comfort with cold reading etc, get some details and make a connection, find out they are all heading to the same venue next as us, Wolf enters the set and I use it as an excuse to eject.... Why exactly? Not sure, this is something I need to work on, my next move should have been to FTC and then stack into qualification.
Next up I approach a decent 3 set and open with the Online Dating opener, quickly the alpha girl uses the thread to mention they are all in long term relationships, fair play, she knew what was going on and let me know it was unlikely without being a bitch. I stay in set to make it look like I didn't just approach to try a pick up, besides, I used to make a thing of going for girls in relationships. the Natural from our party comes over and knowing he uses a lot of AMOG tactics to raise his value I send him packing in seconds, I'm not prepared to have him jack my set... which I thought was a smooth move at the time... It wasn't, he got his own back later, but we'll get to that. I carry on to run this set and stack into a story, I can see the alpha girl is accepting of my presence and engaging me in conversation, the girl next to her has a look like thunder on her face but says nothing, and I can see in my peripheral that the hottest one is throwing DDB at me, but before I can really do anything the whole party heads over and we're off to the next venue.
I march into Double Swine like a man possessed, I'm feeling good, really in state, I head straight to the garden for a smoke knowing it's really easy to open sets out there from my last visit a few weeks back. I head to a 2 set and sit down, wolf joins me quickly and we have a good chat with them, lots of fun, the alpha girl is chubby but she's got such a fun attitude and pretty face that I considered ploughing her, set runs for a good amount of time but I don't stick to my game plan at all, in fact I'm not even thinking about it, I'm just drunk and waffling now. As the set comes to an end Wolf is quite thankful that his missus didn't turn up while we were in set, and as if by magic that's when she appeared, we head upstairs and get a drink, and I head downstairs to the gents, getting felt up by a 3 set on the stairs on the way, they pinned me against the wall and one of them just rubbed her hands all over me, I'm enjoying this night a lot.
I go back to the garden to rejoin the party and see the mixed 4 set from Chill, but don't re-engage as I've got my eye on a 2 set, who are clearly part of a much bigger set nearby but have separated from them, and one of them is a super cute brunette. I head over and run 'Not Interested', they blow wide open, I think I stacked forward but can't quite remember exactly, I'm lashed by this point. Wolf sends in his girl to wing and social proof, she is also drunk and somehow ends up suggesting she's going to lick HBcute's face. It turned out HBcute's boyfriend was part of the larger set a few feet away, so it's essentially over, but I hang around again for social proof purposes and a guy joins the set who I make friends with quickly and keep everything sound. while I was in this set I spotted another 2set sat at a nearby table, one of which I Had opened a few weeks prior and should have totally closed but happened to be drunk and easily distracted... something that seems to be happening a lot and needs to be addressed.
Wolf heads off to put his girl to bed as she's drunk and tired and says he'll give me a call when he's on his way back to see what's going on. I end up chatting to one of the girls in our group, who I've had opportunity to sarge before and have seen IOI's from her a number of times in the past, but this time it's jumped a level, she's kinoing me a lot and running connection building questions on me, and I'm thinking this is golden, especially as the social pressure has eased for her as Wolf's girl is one of her mates. However, I was about to get bitten in the ass by my earlier actions, the natural joins us and befiore I know hat's going on he is sexual framing like a mother fucker, he went all in and in fairness, I was pretty impressed, it was a well timed manuver and I totally stalled. In hind sight I could have thrown out a low invesment suggestion to see if she was willing to follow me to the bar but didn't realise that until later, and just left them to it. that said, I do still intend to close this deal at a later date, I've had chances before that I wasn't sure about, but now I know there is a long running attraction there that seems to have jumped a notch (probably due to my runnign around opening sets and social proofing myself).
Wolf calls me and I can't find Hank, so we agree to meet outside Lucky Number, which when we get there has a really long line which isn't moving, a girl steps on my foot and manages to hit the sweet spot on my toes first knuckle for maximum pain, and someone lets off a logic defying fart, so we sack it off and head to Dizon.
first up I open a 2 set next to me at the bar who are the 2 set I saw earlier in the centre of the patio at Chill, in fact, that's what I opened with, said I was going to come over and ask them a rediculous question. she asks if it was going to be a chat up line and I say 'yeah, it probably was', her response is that I should have come over because she loves chat up lines, it's a bit confusing as to why I ended the set right then and there, I'd rather not think about it to be honest.
We head to the smoking area so I can have another smoke, bad habit, must stop boozing and smoking ASAP! Wolf opens a 2 set, I head in to wing but they hadn't hooked properly yet and it falls apart, but within seconds a girl approaches and asks for a lighter. The joke Wolf had made earlier was about to become a reality. Her friends join us from all angles, it's a decent 6 set and within seconds I'm all over the birthday girl, I can't recall exact details but I'm pretty sure they did all the work, I could see Wolf getting the number of the first girl within minutes and the birthday girl used that as a platform to number close me, she then created the conspiracy frame that she had known me ages to avoid a dudes her friend was tryign to hook her up with, next we head inside and isolate our 2 at the bar from the rest of the set. Before I know what's happening birthday girl is time bridging to meet us again, and I've barely said 10 words since the set started, she is a motor mouth, total air head, but also totally got her sights set on me. I'm not that keen to be honest, hot body but I'm all about soft features and an air of cuteness and innocance, she's a drunk bleached blonde, not my bag, but hell, it's 2 in the morning and the club is getting empty, and most would be happy with this outcome. she repeates the same threads over and over and I get a little k-close in just to shut her up. she takes the other girl to the toilet and wants me to find out if wolf is keen on her, which is a totalyl redundant question as he quite clearly was. We roll of for a bit, have a piss and get a drink, find them outside again about 15 minutes later and they are elated to see we haven't ditched them. Birthday girl spends the next 15 mins talking and the club starts to shut, I get the proper k-close in and Wolf does the same, we part ways with them and leave.
When we get back to the Wolf Lair his girl is out for the count, but then my phone rings, it's birthday girl, SHIT! They're gunning for the F-close, son of a bitch, why tonight?!? We ignore it and skin up a joint and settle into watch some trashy TV, 40 mins later, Wolfs girl from the club rings him! WTF! You can't make that shit up.

So, in conclusion, 3 sticking points to focus on:
1. Not making the most of AI's and easy to approach sets
2. Not sticking to my game plan
3. Ejecting for no reason

E3 2010 De-Brief

2010-06-21T15:51:00.000-07:00

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?'

2010-03-22T00:01:00.000-07:00

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

2010-02-18T00:01:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-10T10:07:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-05T00:20:00.000-08:00

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.

The Moment It All Falls Apart

2009-10-04T09:35:00.000-07:00

So a few weeks ago I went to a friends wedding, got pretty drunk, then went out to a club afterwards with a few of the other wedding goers. Inside the club I spotted a bar maid who ticked a lot of my boxes, and this woke up my gaming senses enough for me to start acting up a bit. I grabbed the best man and opened a mixed 2 set by us by telling them he had just got married but his new wife had passed out at the hotel, then I ejected from set and left him to it. A little while later he comes up to me and tells me not to do that again because he was stuck with them for 10 minutes talking about his imaginary wedding and wife, with that I grabbed him and we walked around opening as many sets as I could find with the same thing and quickly ejecting, I could see he was enjoying it as much as I was and this started to really boost my state, and sober me up. While we were doing this another mixed 2 set walked past us and I got some solid eye contact from the girl. Later on me and the best man were sat on a sofa discussing game, he's one of my best mates and has been aware of my involvement in pick up from the beginning, but this was the first time he'd really seen me gaming since I had become competent at it. The mixed 2 set that I had the IOI from came and sat adjacent to us, but due to my alcohol intake I didn't recognise them, despite her giving more IOI's. My friend spotted the IOI's and assumed they were aimed at him, and as a result he asked for an opener, which I supplied, and went in to open the set. Within seconds the girl jumped across the room and parked herself next to me, leaving my mate and her friend chatting.
Now my state is pumping, I start stacking forward with my usual stuff, she's lapping all of it up, she's a cute little American girl who's just got into town that week, we're connecting, flirting, playing, and having an awesome time. I lead her round the place once, we get a drink, I run some sexual framing routines and it's all totally on the cards. We're about 20 mins down the line and it's looking like a done deal, which is when I get the impulse to bounce her to the dance floor, and for some reason, I questioned this instinct. This was when things started to go south, because I questioned my instinct, I then started trying to think about what I should do next, and nothing seemed to be good enough, so I figured I'd eject from set for a bit to give her time to miss me while I come up with a plan - mistake number two. I hit the dance floor for a bit with some of the other people from the wedding, we're actually in a student club and had somehow blagged our way in, so the fact they we are all suited and booted is generating a lot of attention, but I can see some of the dudes I know forming crystals around groups of girls. Deciding to show them up I start jumping into the centre of the groups and dancing around like I own the place, which again is building my state and social proof. this is when I spot the American girl again, she's with another of her guy friends (it turned out the set was a lot bigger than the 2 I originally thought it was) and looking over at me, but this place is so rammed I couldn't get over to her without making it look very clunky and/or needy, so I give it some time then go try to find her again. she's back at the seating area with her mates, so I sit down and start chatting to them, which is when she kicks out the words 'you're a really nice guy aren't you?'. Being drunk I totally miss-calibrated and assumed this was an IOD or a challenge, and as such assumed I'd botched the set, this was when things really fell apart... or at least, I THOUGHT it had fallen apart, and that's what is important here, I thought it. The fact of the matter is that in all likelihood it was an IOI, I had social proof to the max, was probably the highest value guy in the venue, we'd made a good connection and she's bought into all the frames I'd put forward, if anything, this was her trying to build rapport.
But like I say, I thought it had fallen apart, that was my reality at that moment in time, so I ejected and went back to the dance floor. I didn't have to wait too long to discover that my perception had been incorrect, because while I was back on the dance floor I caught the eye of another girl, a Welsh red head (I don't know what it is with me and red heads), I quickly escalated and got into heavy k-closing. About 10 mins down the line, while I'm against the wall with this new girl, I see the American girl in my peripheral vision about 2 feet away from me, with a look on her face of utter disappointment and anger. At that moment it all pretty much became clear to me, but thankfully I didn't react to it, I held the frame I was in and 10 minutes later left with the Welsh girl, so I can't really complain.

the lesson here is that you should follow your instincts, if you find yourself questioning them logically, ignore your logical mind unless it actually has a course of action for you to follow, but if it is just questioning your impulses you need to switch it off, or you'll just end up second guessing yourself. How does this look to a girl? It looks like you have lack of conviction in your actions, like you are sexually un-confident, and a whole load of other unattractive behavioural traits. If you want to do it, and no one is gonna get hurt because of it, then just fucking do it.

Also, drinking and game do not mix, trust me on this, it's a cocktail I have sampled many times lately and it always leaves a nasty taste in my mouth.

Quantum Leap

2009-10-04T09:32:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is a totally abstract concept, and I know similar scenarios have been debated before, but this caught my imagination enough for me to post about it here. anyone who has seen Quantum Leap will be familiar with the idea of your consciousness time travelling and jumping into someone else's body, and I think there may have even been an episode of the show where something like this happened, but I want you to imagine what it would be like to quantum leap into yourself as a teenager. This is obviously way out there, but how do you think you would be able to cope with that, on the surface it sounds great, getting to live through it all again but with all the knowledge and skills you've developed since then, it sounds like a doddle, then again, maybe not.
In the years since you were a teenager you've grown up psychologically, and the events you experienced since then have formed your persona, what kind of impact would this have on your behaviour if one day you woke up to find yourself back as 15 year old again? What would be your initial impulses? What things would you want to go and do? What would be the first thing you try to change about your past? Would you even want to change anything about your past when you consider that the events that occurred are what have made you the person you are? If you felt the need to change events, would that mean that you are not happy with who you are or would there be other reasons for changing events?
I think some of the factors that I would find most difficult would be the way people would treat me, I was a very different person at that age, so to suddenly find myself back in that time, place and body but with the mind I have today, it would be one hell of a shock to the system. I also had a very different opinion of a lot of people back then to what I do now, as well as a very different attitude and outlook on the world, so as far as other people would be concerned, my behaviour would take a very sudden and dramatic turn, and I imagine that behaviour would not suit a 15 year old for the most part. Of course, it's also entirely possible that you would start to think and act like you did at that age the first time around, all the influences around you would be pushing you to adopt the thoughts and behaviour expected of you, and also there would be some many associations that might cause you to regress.
I'm not really getting at anything with this post, I just found it an interesting debate topic and I'd like to know what other people think would happen.

How Long is Long Enough?

2009-09-28T11:50:00.000-07:00

This is not a post about penis size, let's get that out the way now before all the comedians out there pipe up and get the two pence (cents) worth in.
I find myself getting frustrated with the length of video games, and it's a problem that has seemingly been present since I got my PS2 back in 2001, and has steadily become more of an issue since then. I don't know if it's just me that finds this, but most modern games have a very short length, which is something that I found to be an issue in both of my recent reviews for Wet and Halo 3: ODST. I find this to be an issue with a good 80% of the games I have played through in the last 7 or 8 years, even COD4 and Halo 3 were not as long as would have liked, it seems to be a common trend now that singleplayer campaigns average out at around 7 - 15 hours, which leads me to ask: is this long enough?
The games I played through prior to 2001 had much longer length, and while I wasn't anywhere near as involved in video games than as I am now, I played a variety of games across SNES, Megadrive (Genesis), Master System, PC, PlayStation and N64, all of which had some good sized games that kept you playing for hours upon hours. In my childhood, I spent hours on the SNES, playing games like Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda, and even games where saving wasn't common place, they were huge adventures that would absorb hours upon hours of button bashing, brightly coloured, imaginative mayhem. But then again, time is relative to the observer, and when you are a kid time seemed to move much slower, so is this all a figment of my imagination? I also have to appreciate that my gaming sessions had time limits placed on them by my parents to an extent, so probably only lasted 1 or 2 hours at a time as opposed to the 5 or even 10 hour sessions I sometimes clock in at on a lazy Sunday these days.
I think not, because even today there are a few games that just seem to last forever, and a stark contrast exists between these long epic adventures compared to the short chapter like games that account for most of what is out there. Final Fantasy games can easily suck up over 100 hours if you try to accomplish everything on offer, and a couple of these are so good that you want to play them through a second, or even third time. The gargantuan offerings from Bethesda that take the forms of The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and Fallout 3 both have had me clocking in over 100 hours each, and with such gigantic single player adventures such as these I can't help but feel other game developers are simply lazy and looking to make a quick buck.
It's a difficult to take a side on this argument, because I am also aware that there are limitations on technology, story, and ideas, as well as limitations posed by the type of games. when a shorter game is released, is it because the developer has spent their time trying to make a more solid gaming experience, so that what is offered may not be very long, but is of extremely high quality? This is certainly the case some of the time, COD4 and Halo 3 being the two examples used above that would also fall into this category, but there are also some very low quality items produced that are also very short in length, but maybe due to their poor quality that is a blessing, I've had a run in with a couple of less than amazing games recently (reviews pending), and I find that I can't be bothered to finish these.
The other factor that changes the shape of the argument completely is the presence of multiplayer, I may hammer my way through most FPS' in 2 or 3 sittings, but if the multiplayer is good, there really is no limit to the amount of time you could spend interacting and shooting other human beings, and I'm sure the same is true for many other genres such as racing games. But should a game rely on multiplayer? For me, multiplayer is an afterthought when I consider buying a game, unless I know ahead of time it's something that me and my friends are all going to get heavily involved in.
I don't really have a conclusion or direction to take this debate to, but if anyone has any thoughts or opposing views I would love to hear them.

Smashing Solo Game

2009-09-28T11:46:00.000-07:00

Following on from my post recent post I had a serious brainwave about how to go about blasting through the sticking point of struggling to sarge solo. I want to share this with you, but in order to do so I will need to explain what 'Project Skywalker' is.
I've mentioned 'Project Skywalker' in a couple of other posts already, but I've not really explained what it is, until now. 'Project Skywalker' is the working title of a document I have been writing over the last couple of months, it started life as a written routine stack for my own reference so that I could ingrain it all into my head, it was what a lot of guys would call a cheat sheet, even though I had no intention of taking it out with me. What happened next was that a guy I know, from outside of the game and PUA community, showed some interest, so I decided to write some commentaries on my routine stack document that would explain each stage of the interaction and the purpose of each routine or technique. This is when it seemed to take on a life of it's own, once I started, I couldn't stop, I kept having more and more ideas that I had to get out of my head and into writing, until it started ti take the form of a full blown treatise on the system and style of game that I have been running and learning recently. I started structuring it all into a series of 20 lessons, each of which containing a theory, practical, and homework section designed for even the most inept guy to learn game. Now this isn't to say I had, or have, any intentions of marketing this out, in fact, it has been primarily for my own well being, and has already assisted me in a number of ways.
Primarily, it has allowed me to un-jumble much of the information I have taken in over the last 2 years, I've been throwing so much shit at the wall trying to get it to stick, that I didn't notice that so much had stuck to it that you couldn't tell it was a wall anymore, and all I was left with was a mound of shit. In a sense, writing Project Skywalker has allowed me to peel it all away and organise it into coherent piles of... shit... ok, bad analogy, but you get what I'm saying.
Secondly, the 'inept guy' I had in my mind when I was working out the lesson structure and content, was myself 2 years ago, I wanted to come up with a system that would have helped me learn and understand a swifter pace, should the opportunity ever arise that I could teach someone, I would already have the method laid out.
How is all this going to help me start gaming solo? Well, I realised that now that I've done all of this, I should work through everything within 'Project Skywalker' alone, there are a lot of exercises and missions I have placed within it that I haven't done myself, so it's only fair that I go out and do them, I can't expect someone else to do what I tell them if I am not prepared to do it myself or have not actually done it myself. In doing this I've given myself a reason to go out on my own and run game, essentially I've re-framed the entire scenario.
In a sense, I'm starting to feel like a mad scientist trying out a new formula on himself, will this be like Dr Jekyll & Mr Hide, or the more modern equivalent of Dr. Bruce Banner and the Incredible Hulk? Will I end up overshooting my goal and heading in a direction I hadn't intended? Quite possibly I think as through learning game I already seem to have done that in some ways, but none the less, that will be interesting in itself.
Having now had this idea, I find myself wondering if this is what many of the so called 'gurus' in the PUA community have done, do the experts all find a way to reinterpret everything they have learned into a form that they best understand, thus allowing them to reteach it to themselves and then upon succeeding, teach it to others? At this point I just want to reiterate that despite that last sentence, I have no interest or intention of teaching this to other people at present, I'm starting to feel as if the PUA scene is becoming very saturated with 'sure fire' new systems for learning game, and it's getting harder and harder to find genuinely new material, but as I also see a flip side to this debate, I'll leave it for another day (that isn't too far away by any means).
Going back to the topic at hand, is this what David DeAngelo means when he says 'become your own teacher', maybe I've drilled the concept down to too much of a fine detail, but do you think it would help you to work out how you would teach what you know, put it into a concise system for relaying and practicing the information and skills, then teach it to yourself?
I'm theorising that by doing this I will solidify own skills, test the system for any glitches that I might have missed, seeing as I didn't learn this system from scratch, it was something I transitioned into from a different system of game, and maybe by going through everything from scratch the system I am using will evolve further and become more effective along with my actual skills.
Obviously all of this will mean going back to basics, but that's not often a bad thing in any area of life, sometimes it's necessary to go back where you've come from in order to see things you missed the first time around, which is something often portrayed in detective stories, where the vital piece of information that ties all the clues together was the detail that was so obvious that it was overlooked. this isn't going to stop me going out at the weekend and gaming as I normally do with friends, but it will give me a focus for weekdays when I wouldn't normally sarge.
Another bonus of this is that it will give me a solid reason to post field reports, I'm not a huge fan of general field reports outside of my own hand written journal. I see a lot of them as being boastful and self indulgent, and only really useful if there was a revelation contained within that has a positive application for the future (I do actually have two such revelations and accompanying field reports which I will post in the near future). But again, this new active phase of 'Project Skywalker' has re-framed the idea of field reports for me, I will be able to analyse and feedback on the events of the lessons, specific to the subject matter of each lesson, almost like a hybrid of someone who is relatively experienced practicing from a newbie perspective, which will allow you guys to get more of a feel for what I am actually doing and how you can apply this to yourselves.
There are also two factors that will ensure I stick to doing this, firstly, posting it here, as I said in the previous post where I highlighted this sticking point, writing it for the whole world to see makes me accountable for carrying through with it. Secondly, the guy I go sarging with most, who also had an equal hand in forming our current system of game, has also expressed an interest in testing this out solo, and will keep me moving forward with it to compare notes.

Please feel free to leave any comments or ideas you have on this.

Update: 11th Oct 09

Psych from PUA Training has just put a post on their blog that presents a very similar idea to what I have presented above, I suggest checking it out for a comparison by clicking here

Emotional Investment of the Virtual

2009-09-28T11:37:00.000-07:00

Having just seen the new, 7 minute, Japanese trailer for Final Fantasy XIII (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/tgs-09-final-fantasy/56840) I find myself wondering how important a story is to a video game. In this trailer alone I find myself sucked in by the drama of the events, the way the characters speak and interact with each other with complex body language and facial expressions. Various emotions are carried in their voices and it is all very clear that the world in which this takes place is breathtaking and awe inspiring place to be. Most of the trailer seems geared towards pulling someone into the story rather than the game play, but how important is a story to a video game?
Over the years, the Final Fantasy series has been a treasure trove of imaginative story lines, sub plots, archetypes, and characters that captivate the imagination. I first fell in love with the series, with Final Fantasy VII, and to this day I consider it to be one of the best video games I have ever played, if not 'the' best in fact. I didn't play it when it first came out, in fact I already owned an N64 when I finally got my hands on a PSone and a copy of the game, a good 3 years after it was released, so standards of video games had gone up. The character models were blocky, the animations had a low frame rate, most of the game took place in 2D pre-rendered backgrounds, some of game mechanics were fiddly, there was no voice acting, and some of the menus were confusing... but none of that mattered, simply because the game oozed character, imagination and charisma. The story was one of the most fantastic epic tales of good and evil (and the shades of grey in between) that I consider to be more imaginative and awe inspiring than anything modern cinema has thrown at us. The characters within the story were all so well written that even by reading their dialogue on screen you could almost hear their individual voices and personalities in your head, and you quickly grew to love all of them in their own way, causing explosive excitement whenever a piece of back story for any of them was revealed. As the story progressed and the lines of friendship, love, and heroism became blurred, you become so involved in the story and the fate of the characters, that anyone who claims not to have shed a silent tear for the pure and innocent Aries (Arith to Americans) when she met her untimely end, half way through the game at the hands of the game's misguided and disillusioned antagonist, can be nothing short of liar.
Obviously all final Fantasy games are story centric, which is no surprise as series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi is famous for saying "I don't have what it takes to make an action game. I think I'm better at telling a story" at the time of the first Final Fantasy game in 1987, however none of the others that I have played have ever been as engrossing as FFVII, despite most of them being technically more proficient. after VII I played VIII, which, despite two separate attempts, I never finished. this had nothing to do with difficulty, I just didn't care enough about the plot or the characters, not totally surprising for a follow up game to one of the most successful RPGs of all time, although there is debate among fans as many believe it to be superior to VII. Personally, I consider VIII to be more generic, less mature, and akin to a Hollywood plot. A better game that I played following VIII was IV, and despite going back to the 16 bit graphics of the SNES, this for me was a very good game, as complex, if not more so than VII, and I did see it through to the end despite a crippling level of difficulty, but ultimately I didn't care as much about the story or characters, the whole thing just seemed a little fragmented. XI is a game I finished, but again, didn't find it as engrossing and it almost seemed sparse in places. X was very different take on things and heralded the evolution to the next gen of consoles for the series, and while the characters felt more real and caused the player to become more emotionally involved in them and their relationships, the main story arch wasn't as dramatic as the almost opera like VII.
If we were to take a look another long running story driven franchise, you don't have to look very far to find the Metal Gear series. The metal gear games have always been based on stealth action in a world the resembles our own much more closely than the worlds presented in Final Fantasy. I came into this series at Metal Gear Solid, which was the third installment in the story, but that didn't leave me at a loss. The 4 'Metal Gear Solid' games happily stand on their own as a story and fill int he blanks for anyone that missed the earlier 'Metal Gear' games. the Metal Gear Solid games play much like an interactive action movie, and draw many elements from Hollywood action films. I only actually played Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2, but the story line is so enthralling and exciting that I have watched the cut scenes of Metal Gear solid 3 and 4 without bothering to play the games! doing this was actually a pleasure, they are well constructed cinematic sequences and the voice acting is totally top notch. And while it is a shame that I missed some of the finer details that would have cropped up during actual play sequences, there was still enough rich story and action content in the cut scenes to keep me on the edge of my seat throughout... and that actually says a lot when you consider that there was over 5 hours of cut scenes in Metal Gear Solid 3, and 10 hours in Metal Gear Solid 4! (which to be honest is something I didn't know when I sat down to watch it one Sunday morning). for this series in particular, the story was actually more important to me than the game itself, but had it been presented in any format other than a game, I believe many elements would have been dropped to fit the medium, and as such it would have lost some of it's charm and suspense, and had these elements not have been dropped, the production costs would have been either too high or corners would have been cut, causing it lose it's edge.
It's fairly obvious from my review of the new Halo game that I am a fan of the series, and the story there of, but it isn't as necessary to the the game as Final Fantasy or Metal Gear, but it is a sci-fi epic in it's own right. What I find interesting about it is the different way in which the story is presented, in the Halo trilogy the player takes the role of the Master Chief from a first person view to run a bloody assault against an alien army (or two), and for the most part this is the perspective that you assimilate the story from as well. The Chief doesn't have a lot to say, so it is very easy for the player top layer the Chief with their own personality and play through your mission almost as yourself, or how you would be if you were an armoured and fearless cyborg tasked with saving humanity. where the emotion comes in is through the characters you meet and fight along side, how they all depend on you to save the world and the sacrifices they make in order to help you accomplish your mission. The other very clever element is the character of Cortana, a female computer AI who spends most of the series plugged into the chiefs computer components, meaning she almost lives inside you and talks directly into your head. But she is also written with a very human, caring personality, and while her main purpose is the survival of earth, you get the feeling that she actually cares about the various characters and their well being, including you, the Chief, which makes her presence sorely missed throughout most of Halo 3 while her whereabouts and and condition are unknown, a time during which the Chief displays his most determined and human side throughout the entire series. Without all of these components, Halo would really have been the stereotyped mindless and violent video game so many non-gamers seem unable to release their mental grasp on, albeit a very playable one.
Some games only really have a story out of necessity, or even in some cases, habit. the legend of Zelda series has been using almost the same formula for all of it's games, where by a Hero dressed in green (often called Link but this is left up to the player) has to set about saving the world of Hyrule (occasionally another place) by adventuring around the world and into various dungeons or temples to vanquish evil, find magical items and tools to help him proceed with his quest, and sometimes save a princess (almost always named Zelda). Most of the series seemingly is unconnected despite these similarities, and while the story has become more developed in later installments, it never really ventures too far from this formula. Because of a few small elements that do seem to connect the stories of the various games, there are a number of fan theories connecting them, which include ideas of alternate time lines, parallel universes, and reincarnation, which if nothing else goes to show how video games can actually encourage the imagination.
Similar to the Zelda series are the, one time rival, Mario series and the Sonic series. these were both simple platform games, but given basic story lines to give some small element of sense and purpose to the player, but over time with more installments and associated fiction, the story arches and lore evolved until both series' had their own rich worlds for players to become engrossed in, so much so that books, comics, and in Mario's case a poor Hollywood blockbuster, all spawned from them. Would either of these series's survived if the fantasy world in which these loveable little characters existed had not been solidified around them and left to be utterly unexplained?
Coming back to more modern times, one in-development game that has recently caught my attention is Heavy Rain, a game set in a real world setting with a gritty tale of murder and various other adult themes. From what I can tell, the story has been written for this game with the actual game play being more of an after thought, the catch is that depending on how the player influences events, the story will unfold very differently. the game appears to have many possible paths for the story to flow down, with each 'scene' having multiple ways of playing out, all of which will alter the events to follow.
what about games that do not have a story, well these days they usually only come in the form of sports simulations, even other types of simulators have a story that develops, but they just happen to be stories built by the player. The Sims series is a rather obvious example, where by the player is given a canvas world to fill with what they choose, then place in the characters of their choice, just to watch the story unfold in it's own way, which must be very much like the way soap opera writers imagine their worlds, and that comparison alone explains why so many girls enjoy the Sims series (risky comment!). going back to sports games, even these have an element of story in the modern world in the form of a career mode, where the player writes their own story from the stand point of an athlete, or even a team of athletes, and is a simple easy to identify with, story of challenge and glory.
Before I wrap up, I want to quickly suggest the notion that a bad story can ruin a game, the same way a bad story or poor acting can ruin a high budget Hollywood movie. If a game is perfect to play, in that it is utterly, sublimely enjoyable to perform what ever tasks or challenges have been set, but the story makes no sense, or the acting, certainly with today's increasing standards, was so bad that cerebrally I couldn't stand it, I would have no choice but to turn it off. The same however would also be true if the story was superb and well acted, but the game itself was diabolically crafted with bad controls, terrible visuals, and frustrating level design.
I believe that video games are like any work of fiction; books, films, cartoons, comics, etc, they are worlds and characters created in someone else's imagination and presented in a form that allows others to experience to a level that is not possible with other mediums. and this is why I love video games, because you actually get to enter and explore someone else's world, to live there for a short time, and the more fantastic the world and events, the more interesting and believable the characters that exist there, the richer the whole experience becomes.

Step 1: Collect Underpants, Step 2: ?, Step 3: Profit

2009-09-25T13:58:00.000-07:00

I have just demonstrated to myself exactly how to NOT organise a week of sarging. Here is how it went down; I found out when freshers week was, I booked the time off work.... and that really is all I did. So it transpires that I should have firmed up some exact plans for what to do with this time and how exactly I was going to sarge some freshers. Just because you buy the land, it doesn't mean a house is going to magically build itself on it.
So, despite the epic failure that the week has been, I'm taking my own advice and finding something positive in it. to do that, I'm going to pick apart where I went wrong and what I should have done.
I relied on very few un-firm plans to transpire into the first field tests of Project Skywalker, I also had one very vague plan to hang with a girl I know one night, not one of these things had any one say 'yes we will do it at a specific time and place'. So the first thing I should have done was firm up everything with everyone, and at least some of it would have transpired, serious lesson to be learned there, and one that translates into actual sets that flake as well, must set up those solid day 2 time bridges people!
Secondly, when things started falling through, I just sat back and waited for something to happen... WTF! this is why I got into pick-up in the first place, I was sick of waiting for things to 'just happen'. Now I'm competent in social situations and understand the process of creating attraction with a woman, I should have translated the learning of finding ways to make stuff happen into other areas, especially in the arena of putting myself into situations where I can practice my social and seduction skills. Ultimately this comes down to one sticking point that's been nagging at me for a while now; solo game. Unless I feel I have a wing with me, I don't feel I want to go out and practice game, this is straight up wrong, and in fact, some of my greatest moments in pick up have been when I suddenly and spontaneously busted something out on my own. I need to start gaming solo as a matter of urgency really, if I had gone out to do this at any point this week it wouldn't have taken me very long at all to make some new friends to hang with. This is something that I feel so passionately about that I've built it into Project Skywalker, and as anyone who I've discussed Project Skywalker with knows, the lessons are as much for me as any student, and I'm committing to running through the practical exercises with every student, and all the homework exercises as long as they still apply to me (some are one time only exercises that do not take place in the field), but I'm now thinking that I can't wait around to find a student to go through all the lessons with up to that point just so I can start doing it. this is probably the biggest wall I've hit with game since I started doing it, and by the nature of the sticking point, there isn't anything anyone else can do to help me out, this one is all on me. But by writing it here for the whole world to see, I've now put myself in a situation where I have to do it.

What I'm really quite happy about with all of this is that I've hit a real dip in my progress, which believe it or not is good thing, as these are commonly followed by a massive peaks. I've observed this a number of times, and it seems universal to everyone and in all areas of life when you try to learn and improve at something, just when you start to get really frustrated, your ability seems to drop a bit, but then by sticking with it you suddenly end up better than you were before.

Day 2 Snap Decisions

2009-09-24T14:07:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that I'm not much of a gamer (we're talking seduction/pick-up in this one btw) outside of the cold approach arena. I've focused most of my efforts learning pick-up in the last 18 months on the initial interaction; approaching, attracting, connecting, etc, but my follow up has been very thin on the ground. The reasons for this are numerous, firstly, I don't have very much interest in having an actual girlfriend, I used to believe I couldn't pull random girls, and now that I can it's all I've really wanted to do, I get a rush from it, a serious emotional kick. But at the same time I want to live that playboy lifestyle, and that can't be done if you are starting from scratch every time you go out, a true playboy has girls around him all the time, or at least they want to be around him all the time and are fighting for his attention. If I'm not following up and leaving them all by the whey side, I'm missing some serious tricks.
So what can be done to rectify this? Well, as it happens I have a few girls that I'm in contact with at the minute so am trying different things out, but unlike the cold approaching scenario, I don't have anywhere near the amount of information at my fingertips, nor much of a road map to follow. What I've found to be the best method so far is just to waffle in SMS text, private messages or chat with the intent of finding some way to slip in a day 2 suggestion, but this has it's share of problems too. It's very similar to the way I used to run my cold approach game before I had a structure to work with, it's reactive and relies on creativity in the moment and being thrown the bones to gnaw on. An example happened earlier today, I was chatting on facebook with this chick who has shown a crazy amount of interest, and I knew I was going to try to set up a day 2, but no blatantly good suggestions came out, and it resulted in the day 2 being 'go for a drink'. I hate 'go for a drink', might as well 'go to the movies' or 'have dinner with me', it's so boring and cliche. I like the idea of casually inviting girls along to something you are already doing, but at present my social life doesn't have many such events; I'm either out sarging, out with a set I have previously gamed and using them as pivots (or attempting to sarge one of them still, technically a Day 2 I suppose), or with people who I don't want to mix new (lady) friends with.
I think something I should probably do is take stock of the options available to me from now on, so at least I'm packing some ammo when I go into battle, rather than scavenging the battle field when I get there.
I'm guessing, like cold approaching, it's something that will become much clearer with time and work, but still, if anyone out there has some good pointers they would be more than welcome.

Heroes: Time Travel for Idiots

2009-09-23T13:17:00.000-07:00

Season 4 of Heroes, the X-Men for the 'I'm not a geek' geeks, has just started it's run in the US, and watching the first episode I once again find myself wondering 'why do I watch this tosh?'
The answer is simple really, I like action, especially when that action is centred around various superpowers that help me indulge in my fantasies of what I would do if I had some amazing super ability of my own, which is why I quite enjoyed the film 'Jumper'. Actually, there was one other thing about Jumper that I liked, and a similar attraction also exists in Heroes in the form of Claire, oh man, how I would like to wreck that chick...
But back to the topic at hand, we find ourselves with yet another set of plot inconsistencies, which it seems the writers of Heroes are now throwing in as a social experiment to see how long it takes before everyone has given up on watching the show bar the most gibbering of idiots... (yet I'm still going to carry on watching, less said about that the better). What really gets my goat is all the time travel plot lines, I have nothing against time travel as a plot device, as long as it's done right, but seemingly every time Hiro jumps into the past, something happens that clearly would have had a knock on effect that would have altered everything we have seen so far. This time around, Hiro verbally expresses this, only to have the writers go so far as to have another character tell him that it's OK to change 'just one thing' without altering all of the past... resulting in Hiro changing 'just one thing' that anyone who remembers the events of season 1 and has just a shred of intelligence would realise that it would have completely altered most of the events we have seen anyway (namely it would have meant Ando would never have sought out Nikki in Las Vegas, and the knock on effect from there). what the writers have tried to do is make this 'one thing' that Hiro changes different from what he originally intended to change, thus an attempt at misdirecting the audience was made, and it fell flat on it's face.... again.
Personally, I find this kind of thing insulting as a viewer, it's as if the production team don't believe their viewers have the intelligence to realise these things... either that or they don't have the intelligence to write a coherent story, but then who's more the fool; the fool or the fool who follows him?
... but it does have some entertaining (enough) action sequences, albeit brief as they are, and the corruptible looking Hayden Panettiere... so I guess I am committing another 23 hours of my life to this over the next 6 months

Review: Halo 3 ODST - Xbox 360 (Part 1)

2009-09-22T15:05:00.000-07:00

This is not just a review of a game, it's a review of a story and a package as well, and it's likely that because of this review I will come off as being a Halo 'fan boy', which to be fair, I am. Why am I a Halo fan boy? Because I like to play things that I think I will enjoy, and even when I pick up a game I think I will enjoy, some still fail to hold my attention, most recently this was the case with prototype and bioshock, I played them for as long as I could but they failed to engage me, failed to fill me with excitement, failed to have give me consistent fun... I have never grown bored of playing Halo, from the moment I first picked up an Xbox controller at a friends house when we were drunk and asked with a love at first sight slur; 'what's this game?' I was in love with it. Even if I'm not in the mood to play, within a few minutes of blasting aliens or other people in multiplayer I can't put it down... or at least that has always been the case with the 'Halo trilogy'.
Earlier this year I downloaded and played the demo of 'Halo Wars', the first Halo spin off game, which failed to draw my attention, it was set in the Halo universe and was relevant to the events of the over arching story that I have grown to love, but the game itself failed to inspire me. So as ODST is the second spin off game, and while the first was not a product of Bungie studios as this and the Halo trilogy are, I approached it with a little more caution... This was unnecessary, I've had it for 11 hours and have been playing it for a good 9 and a half of those, only breaking for the toilet and a quick session at the gym. In fact as I write this, I have an empty feeling in my soul that I think will only be filled with more ODST action.... or a blow job... turning on my Xbox is the quick fix so we'll stick with that for tonight.
I'm going to assume that you know what ODST is, so I won't put you through the 'previously on Battlestar Galactica' style recap of the rest of the Halo franchise, instead lets get to what is awesome about it, and then I'll try to find some faults with it just to avoid being labelled a whore to Halo.
The Halo story line as a whole is epic, now spanning 5 games a graphic novel and a number of actual novels (I promise this isn't a recap, I'm going somewhere with this), the main story arc being that of the Halo Trilogy, and ODST does a very good job of fitting it's story into neatly into the existing events (it's set between Halo 2 and Halo 3) but for the most part avoids the main plot devices of the Halo trilogy other than the circumstances that were set up in Halo 2 that set the scene for this game. In fact, if you have never played a Halo game before, you wouldn't be totally lost coming into ODST, the year is 2552 and a coalition of alien races have successfully invaded earth and are now occupying an African city. You are an ODST (Orbital Shock Drop Trooper, basically the SAS of the Halo universe) and you are about to be sent into the hot zone with the rest of your squad on a classified mission, the details of which have not been disclosed to you. You and your team load up and get in your pods (you are in orbit and will drop down into the conflict in armoured capsules as the ODST name suggests, like modern day paratroopers but with a serious sci-fi twist), but the shit hits the fan immediately causing you to crash land and get knocked unconscious for 6 hours, when you wake you are stranded all alone at night in a city occupied by hostile forces. It's now your job to track down the rest of your team and make it out in one piece. To do this you will have to explore the (free roaming) city, finding items that will take you into various flash backs where you will find yourself playing as one of your squad mates at some point in the 6 hours you were unconscious. This is a very new and fresh way to play Halo, and also a very clever way to make the samey scenery of the city seem much more interesting, seeing as in previous Halo games you were put on a linear path through various locations such as space stations, ancient temples, swamps, desserts, icy mountains, etc. It's also nice to have a more compact story, you are not here to take on the entire invading army, you have a specific mission, you are not about to win back earth all on your own, as you probably guessed due to this being set between Halo 2 and 3 (and if you've played through 3 you know how the war ends anyway)
The characters in this game are much more fleshed out than those of previous Halo games, the ODST squad you find yourself part of are all quirky in their own way and they actually give a sense of friendship in the way they interact with each other and causes you to become emotionally invested in them much quicker than those of the Halo trilogy (after all, they had the luxury of 3 games to make you fall in love with them) , the only odd one out being you, the new member of the team, only referred to as 'The Rookie'. As 'The Rookie', you are a silent protagonist, almost an observer caught up in events, which makes you feel almost as if you are your own narrator within this story, especially due to the playable flash backs you experience. Much like the Master Chief of the Halo Trilogy, the face you have under your helmet is never revealed, the difference being that even the Chief had the odd line of dialogue here and there, giving him a strong silent type personality, The Rookie however is just silent, but that's not to say you are made to feel totally devoid of character. I believe that keeping The Rookie silent was a necessary step to avoid over shadowing the Master Chief, who has become one of the biggest gaming icons of all time, and as I already stated he had very little dialogue in his appearances, so to give the new protagonist more of a personality might have upset some of the fans. This is nicely offset within the game by it being mentioned and indicated by other characters a number of times throughout the game, that you, the Rookie, have seen combat before, but this is never detailed or expanded upon. I found this to be very clever, as it feels like the characters within the game are acknowledging and respecting The Rookie for getting into the ODST squad and for standing up and being a man in the face of danger. But this also me the sense that it's the game developers alluding the probability that the player has likely blasted his or her way through the Halo Trilogy, which is a curious paradox when you consider that the events of those games run parallel to the events of ODST and are carried out by a different character.
So how does it feel to play, firstly it is very evident that you are not the walking battle tank cyborg of previous Halo games that was the Master Chief (and by this point it's possibly starting to sound like I have the hots for him... I don't know, maybe I do). You are normal human being this time around, you can no longer jump from a rooftop into a crowd of enemy soldiers, blasting, punching and sticking grenades to them until you are the only one left standing, allowing you to walk away like John Wayne with a smug grin on your face as you shoot off a cliche one liner at your TV screen. In fact if you attempt this, the fall will likely kill you, and if it doesn't, the heavily armed party goers you just dropped in on (see what I did there?) will make swift work of you.
Because you are a normal man, the enemies you face will seem much more daunting than they did when you were the Chief, thankfully you have a few things working in your favour. Firstly, you are in the middle of an occupation, not a raging battle as used to be the norm, the fights you find yourself in are for the most part smaller scale affairs, and when the larger battles do occur in the game, they are set piece battles designed to look epic, so you are suitably armed with heavier weapons, equipment and reinforcements to deal with them. A lot of the game also takes place at night, and thanks to you being a normal sized human, as opposed to a 7 foot walking tank that can jump 15 feet in the air or take down a tank with it's fists, you are able to hide and sneak easier, allowing you to bypass enemies without alerting them or sneak up on them to get a tactical advantage, one which is helped by your stealthy load out of a sci-fi night vision/threat detecting visor and silenced weaponry. This gives the entire experience a much more desperate and tactical feel rather than the super-heroics of past installments, but still remains true to the feel of a Halo game.
One of the curious things I noticed was that due to the more subtle nature of the game and the isolated lonely atmosphere, there was a much mellower tone to the music used, which isn't something that I am used to in a Halo game, as previously it was always all out action, ever escalating to higher states of destruction, but this time around, you are made to feel lonely and find yourself wondering if you will be able to get down the next street unscathed, or be unlucky enough to run into an enemy patrol.
The voice acting is superb, easily the best in the Halo series thus far, Tricia Helfer fits her role well, as do the members of the ODST squad, but Nathan Fillion steals the show, accentuated by some genuinely funny lines of dialogue, particularly towards the end of the campaign.
This is only part one of my review, as I said at the beginning, I was reviewing more than just the game, but the story and package as well. Well, so far I've reviewed the story, and the game to the extent that I have played it, it took me the better part of the day but I ploughed through the solo campaign on normal difficulty, and had a riot all the way. I won't be able to finish this review until I have played through the harder settings, which is something I only do if I really enjoy a game (Halo and COD being the only games that have sucked me down that route in recent years), tried the new 'Firefight' mode, played through the campaign with a friend (or friends) in co-op, and done something else I'm almost dreading... the Halo 3 multiplayer suite that came as part of the package on a second disc, but I'll go into why I'm uneasy about that after I've done it.

To be continued... (next time on Battlestar Galactica...)

Review: Wet - Xbox 360

2009-09-22T04:51:00.000-07:00

If Max Payne and Lara Croft had a drunk and steamy night together, then Rubi - Wet's anti hero protagonist - would have been their daughter... their rebellious, morally grey daughter. She dives, slides, flips, runs up and along walls, and swings around flag poles in slow motion while blasting dual weapons at relentless crowds of thugs, criminals and anyone else unfortunate enough to get in her way. She's crude, she's rude and if you tried to chat her up in a bar you'd probably end up locked in a cubicle in the gents sobbing into your lap. Controlling her is relatively easy and standard, left stick for movement, right stick for camera/aiming, right trigger to shoot. Other buttons are mapped as follows: A - Jump/Dive in slow motion, B - Slide along the floor in slow mo (which you can do on it's own or at the end of a dive), X - use your sword, Y - is your context sensitive action button, use zip lines, open doors, etc. Any time you do anything slightly acrobatic and pull the right trigger to fire your gun, the world slows down but you can still aim in real time, giving a very matrix effect to the whole affair. One very cool thing about this is that Rubi makes good use of dual wielding her guns, any time you are in acrobatic slow mo, she will auto aim one of her guns at an enemy who will be highlighted, allowing you to either target the same one or a totally different guy to make every bullet count, which provides some awesome cinematic moments as you slide on your knees into a room shooting two gangsters in the head at the same time.
The more stylish your moves the more points you rack up, and these are used in an upgrade shop to purchase new moves and upgrade your guns. And with that masterfully executed link, your guns come in 4 flavours, standard dual pistols which provide infinite ammo, dual shotguns for getting up close and personal, dual sub machine guns for spray and prey mayhem, and lastly dual cross bows that fire explosive bolts for when you absolutely, positively have to kill every mother f*cker in the room.
The levels themselves are all designed with plenty of scenery to dive behind, jump onto, grab hold of, and leap from to showcase Rubi's acrobatic prowess, and are all styled in the appropriate scenery as the story demands - US west coast freeway, hong kong opera house, london docks, and so forth. The story is presented in a Tarantino grindhouse style, larger than life characters that are treated as every day occurrences the world they exist in, the midget torture expert, the female, blind, albino, gothic body guard, the token British bad guy (4 of them in fact) and of course rubi herself closely resembles a more gothy version of the bride from Kill Bill.
A few set piece levels break up the action a bit; jumping from car to car on the freeway while having a shoot out with the mafia who are shooting at you from speeding cars, various sections of levels where Rubi gets blood in her eyes and literally sees red allowing you to go into a berserker mode painted in a noir pallet of reds, whites and blacks. There is even one level, caused by Rubi's less than stealthy infiltration of a carrier jet, that sees Rubi sky diving without a parachute amongst the wreckage of said jet, while shooting the other doomed occupants (who despite their predicament still seem to be hell bent on putting as many bullets your way as possible), avoiding the chunks of wreckage that are hurtling towards London's sky line with you, and trying to grab the only parachute in sight, which is bolted to the inside of a piece of the hull. This scene seems to have been completely lifted from the Clive Owen movie 'shoot 'em up', only Wet somehow manages to make it more believable!
The run time of 8 - 9 hours on normal difficulty seems to be pretty standard these days, I'd rather it was longer but as all other games of it's type seem to be about the same length, criticising it would be unfair. What really got my goat was the lack of New Game+ or being able to revisit the levels you have already done, once you reach the end of the game, that's it, you can either start over, from scratch without any of the skills you have unlocked, or just play through the final scene again, which wasn't much of a boss fight, but fitted well with the grindhouse setting. Not being able to go back and play the memorable moments again with your full arsenal feels, at best, like a huge oversight, and at worst, like a very cheap way of forcing you to replay the game.
Technically there are not many faults with the game, I didn't see many glitches, a couple of visual quips here and there, and while the graphics aren't ground breaking, they are tailored to the grindhouse theme, although I turned off the movie scratch/grain effect immediately to avoid feeling ill.
Scoring this game isn't all that easy, I had fun playing it and there were some truly breathtaking moments of over the top action and violence. It's faults are not really in what it has and does, but rather in what it lacks, there are key features that I feel should have been included, some as standard, and that's what really brings this game down for me, an anti climax to the fun.

6.5/10

Watch this space

2009-09-22T02:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, lots happening people, lots and lots.
As it's the first post you have no idea what exactly 'lots and lots' entails, so here is a quick run down of what this is all about; I like gaming. to the masses this means playing video games, and that is correct, I love it, experiencing adventures and living stories I wouldn't otherwise experience, and of course blowing shit up. But, I also love gaming in the sense of pick-up, seduction, and 'The Game'.
So in regards to 'lots and lots', I've got plenty to post, I've written a review of 'Wet'; the bullet-time, grind house, slug fest starring Elisha Dushku; that I will be posting later on today or tomorrow. I also just got 'Halo 3: ODST' through the post, so will be posting my thoughts and opinions on this as I progress through the game. I'll probably be posting various musing generated by my enthusiasm for upcoming titles like Assassins Creed 2, Splinter Cell: Conviction, and of course Modern Warfare 2.
In regards to the other gaming, I'm currently in the process of putting together a lesson plan to teach the system I'm currently using, this is more for me than anyone else really, in doing this I have clarified and streamlined my own knowledge, and by teaching it I believe I will hone and develop my skills. That said, I do get a kick out of helping people out and it's serious fun as well, so right now I'm looking for local guinea pigs to trial this on, it's been code named 'Project Skywalker' (the inner geek seeping through the cracks there) until I find a more fitting title.
Specific areas of pick-up I'm aiming to discuss at the minute outside of Project Skywalker are dance floor game, text/phone/follow up game, day 2 game, and training and using wing girls.

So like I said, plenty is on it's way, watch this space...