Gamers

Are WATA/VGA Video Game Gradings a Scam?

August 25, 2021 Guides

To save you time, if you define a scam to mean that you give someone money for a service and they do not do that service, then by all means WATA and VGA (Video Game Authority) are not scams. They’re legitimate companies that, if you ship your games to them, will grade your games and send them back based on what services you paid for. Maybe not very quickly, but they do what they promise to do. Now, is video game grading in of itself a scam? A fictional system designed to inflate the prices of retro video games that are becoming more scarce due to the fragile materials used to construct their boxes? That’s a deeper question with some actually quite odd answers. Furthermore, should you invest in graded games? That’s an even tougher question. We will dive into all of them below. If you’re wanting to collect retro…

Scott Cawthon Retirement – What it Means for the Future of FNAF

December 17, 2021 Editorials

Scott Cawthon is retiring from the Five Nights at Freddies series. You can read the full details over on his site right now, but since it will change, we’ll include the full announcement at the bottom of this post. For FNAF fans this is kind of big news, but in reality with where the franchise is now, I’m not sure that is exactly is for the reasons I’ll outline below. Scott has sort of long moved more into a visionary role than an actual core programmer of everything. The original FNAF games were mostly developed by him (I’m not exactly sure the exact percentages of his development vs. outside help for each game). They were simple and easy to develop. Streamers and YouTube gamers made the series popular with their reaction to the game’s relentless jumpscares and, in later games, the increased difficulty modes where precision button mashing was required…

SteelSeries PrismCaps Pudding Keycap Review

June 12, 2023 Reviews

2023 Review Update: Still using the keycaps purchased in 2021. No impact so far to them. They’ve not discolored and still function fine. There’s a new trend in the mechanical keyboard world known as pudding keys, which are not taking the niche but far more mainstream than it ever was community by storm, but more by a light drizzle. Pudding keycaps are keycaps that include a semi-transparent base to the key that allows RBG light to shine through, giving you more light for each key and a kind of “pudding” effect to the RBG glow of the keyboard. Steelseries has joined the trend with the release of their PrismCaps, a set of pudding keys that work universally for most mechanical keyboards. I purchased my set at Best Buy for $29.99 and got them in about five days after ordering them, due to no local availability. SteelSeries has no involvement in…

PUMA’s Gaming Socks Shoes and Referrer Links

December 21, 2019 Editorials

PUMA has announced new gaming socks and shoes, with a ridiculous idea of somehow being better for gaming than a pair of Crocs. I don’t really care enough about the actual socks or shoes to delve too far into them. The socks have “different modes” for some reason which is just whatever and the shoes are whatever as well. I mean, I just don’t care a fool and their money, right? Created with console gamers in mind, the gaming sock is the first edition Active Gaming Footwear. Designed for indoor and in-arena use, it delivers seamless comfort, support and grip so gamers can adapt to different active gaming modes and game their best.PUMA’s Website (UK) What is interesting, when clicking the links on a few gaming sites is noticing that there are referrer links in play. While, not specifically big news to anyone, I find it absolutely hilarious and silly…

Monetization is Destroying Gaming YouTube and Gaming Video in General

December 7, 2019 Editorials

He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have. Socrates Greed can ruin the nicest of things. We’re going to take a deep dive today in the history of YouTube and video sharing online and how monetization has completely ruined what was once an innocent form of expression and turned motivation away from passion and into greed. There was once a time when watching video on the Internet was difficult and nearly pointless to do, especially around the year 2000. The popular media format was “Real Media” which was a very high compression format that was “dial-up friendly.” You could fit a lot of video in a small file size in a very small resolution. Which, to be fair, 800×600 was the common high resolution display in those days, so a 320×240 video was nearly half the resolution of…

The Nintendo Switch is the Clear Winner of the 2010s and the 2019 Holiday Season

November 27, 2019 Editorials

Nintendo’s console is a literal sweeping victory when it comes to sales and nearly everything else. The Xbox One was released in 2013 and has 46 million. The Nintendo Switch has sold 41 million and was released in 2017. The Playstation 4 has sold 102 million since 2013, which may be more, but considering Nintendo moved half of that in 2 years compared the 6 that Sony has had, we can really see the clear winner here. The Switch games hold really high resale values. For instance, I recently traded in Luigi’s Mansion 3 for $34 after purchasing it for $47 via Walmart, stacking on the 5% back on the Walmart card. That meant that I lost only $13 plus tax in the transaction. Attempting to trade-in most of my PS4 games after launch and I’m lucky to get offered $15 for them. The demand is real for the games…

Fortnite is a Boon and a Curse in the Evolving Digital Landscape

October 28, 2019 Editorials

Fortnite is an example of a game that can appeal to the masses with ease. The gameplay is simple, over the shoulder FPS that’s simple to play with the only extra mechanic being building. The game updates itself roughly each quarter with some new mechanic or changes within the game and new ever existing plots and stories for players to follow. The ever snowballing amount of cosmetic choices give players the ability to be them within the game, even though millions and millions and millions worldwide are playing. In this current landscape you have two kinds of people out there. The ones who love the game and play it frequently and you have those who resent it, for a myriad of reasons that honestly don’t matter in this context. Both camps have a lot of people in them and both have excellent reasons for their opinions. Looking deeper than on…

Best Gamer Drinks in 2019

October 13, 2019 Editorials

Honestly water is the best drink and I’m pretty sure every study and everything out there is going to talk peak performance on a steady diet of drinking water. Gamers though demand more than just water, obviously, preferably something with RGBs in it I’m sure. That’s where we take a look at the popular gamer drinks here in 2019. As a reminder, the FDA puts a limit on the daily consumption of caffeine at around 400mg. Drink any of the following in moderation and we’re not doctors, so make sure to read what’s in something before you drink it. Monster & Red Bull The 30 year old boomers choice, Monster and Red Bull both have caffeine and a ton of other junk in them. They taste good, although watch the calories on the non-diet versions and make sure not to drink too many. GFuel If you love Kool-Aid with the…

Is Discord Nitro Worth It?

August 14, 2019 Editorials

Discord Nitro is the premium monthly subscription addon to Discord, the free voice & text chat app that gamers have adopted. We’ve moved past Teamspeak and Ventrilo and live in a Discord world. No longer does someone have to pay for a TS or Vent server, with Discord being free everyone can have their own server and talk to their friends, guild mates, etc. Discord does charge for its premium service, Nitro, which comes in at $9.99 USD a month or $99.99 a year (2 free months) or classic which is $4.99 USD a month or $49.99 a year (2 months free). What You Get You get the following benefits (read over these and if it sounds good then you’ve answered the question yourself, if you’re still curious scroll down and read our thoughts): Classic Nitro & Nitro Tier Custom Discord Tags: You can change the “Discrim” or the four…