Gaming market suffering big time; EA stocks down from 50 to 15

I always thought the video gaming industry would not suffer much from these economic down times. Regardless of what the banks, oil and car industries are facing, I thought paying $60 a month for a game or $40 for unlimited rental for a month was a small manageable expense. I guess i was wrong. Apparently the fear for a failing market has bleed into the gaming industry as well. The following is the stock price of Electronic Arts during the course of the past year – courtesy of Marketwatch.com:

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Usually gaming stocks jump up and down by as much as 10 points every quarter, but the stay consistent and only during major breakthroughs do they climb real high. This however, is a bloody nose dive.

At first i thought well, the months of sept. to nov. are slow months for video games, because people are saving up for the holidays. And i believed the success of Warhammer and Little Big Planet might keep peoples faith in the industry over time. Apparently not when EA stocks steadily fell from 50 to 15. I guess investors, who are feeling their pockets getting lighter are just pulling out without of the market before they lose everything. Or maybe its something else. I dunno? What do you all think?

SC4, Quick easy tip on how to perform Ivy’s Calamity Symphony and Summon Suffering grapples

The Calamity Symphony and Summon Suffering are by far the most difficult and awe inspiring move in Soul Calibur IV. This is because of the new restrictions on buffering moves, while performing other moves, that have been placed in thise version. If you don’t know which two moves i am talking about here is a video of them:

I have been practicing them in training mode for a week straight and I was only able to pull of summon suffering (The whip mode super grapple) 1 out of 12 times. As for CS i was never able to pull that off even once. That is, until i came across a neat tip on Gamespot forums.

I am going to use Summon Suffering and the Numpad numbers as directions, for my example; the basic way to perform this move is 1236173+(B+G) where the last direction 3 and B+G need to be pressed together in whip state. From 1236 it easy, but breaking your momentum to do the the last three commands almost always screws up the move.

I found it much easier to spin the joystick in a 180 degree motion instead of 1236 part and a  360+ 180 or 40 degrees (both work) in the other direction. so in numpad numbers summon suffering would look like 41236 then 32147896321 or 321478963 +(B+G). It is much easier to pull two circular motions swiftly than to do the crazy joystick boogie dance. Using this technique I went from pulling of SS 1-out-of-12 times to 1-out-of-5 times and went from never being able to pull off CS to being able todo it 3 times in a row. I even manage to pull off CS in a fight once. Oh one more thing! You have to be really fast at doing the spins from my experience.

For those of you who think that this a pointless grapple, you have no idea what you are talking about. Not only does it do a lot of damage it also psyches the other guy out. Everyone knows the difficulty level of pulling these moves off and when they became a victim of one, the sound of them going “Oh damn!” just soothes your soul and leaves your opponent awed just long enough that you can pull off a second cheap one.

This is an excellent technique, however, I don’t know why but the technique is easier to pull off if you are Player 2. The original post also said the same thing. Its weird but true.

Beginner Soul Calibur IV ( SC4 ) Ivy’s tips; a beginners prespective

Ok i have not played soul calibur since SC2 came out and so pretty much sucked at it when i picked up my copy of SC4. Nevertheless, in an attempt to get better i scoured the internet for quick tips, combo list and whatever else I can find. I found a Shit-ton of stuff and when i say SHIT-ton, I mean that 80% of the stuff i found was exactly that; Shit and there was tons of it. Most of these articles, tips and advises were written by pros or vets who have long forgotten what it is like to be a rookie, coming into a new game. In this article i will try to share with my fellow beginners what I have learned over this time.

Article about the true potential of Warhammer RVR

I found this article truly interesting. I am on low to medium population server and RVR is rare, especially in the first two teirs. This dudes experience was out of this world, just check out that map in the corner.

Electronic Arts tries to reach younger women through TV

Electronic Arts apparently hired the founder of Oxygen Channel, Geraldine Laybourne, to their board so they can look into the young women market. The full story is right here.

What the hell EA? Us men not good enough for ya? I have no problems with girls playing video games (rare though it may be) but if this leads to a game about Paris Hilton, I am boycotting EA for life. And probably kidnap all the board members and do to them what Sega did to the Golden Axe series with latest release of Beast Rider.

I understand EA is feeling the pinch right now with all the layoffs and shutting down offices, but i have seen what is on Oxygen and dear God that is not what video gaming culture is about. Video gaming culture is about bragging rights, trash talking and bowing down to the all-mighty out of respect and then trash talking behind their back. It’s nasty, it’s humorous, it’s insane and it creates an unusual bondship with random screen name like BigChief101. It’s about escaping reality and not being obsessed with it, although i must some of the shows on Oxygen are pretty darn delusional to me for instance the show Coolio’s Rule . I refuse to put up a picture of that mistake-of-god on my blog and disturb the sanctity of this sacred zone. Seriously, WTF. I mean imagine a game with that dumbass as a side character or even has a line in it.

I don’t know how Ms Laybourne will pull this off, but if she can actually get a lot more girls interested in blowing stuff up, impaling hairy monsters on mighty swords, screaming wildly at the sight on dominance and then splurging in a gore of pawnage, then my hats are off to her.