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Video Games and Power Metal

After continuously refreshing The Escapist’s homepage around 10am this morning (don’t judge me), I watched the newest episode of Extra Credits. In summation: go watch it.


Now that we’re on the same page, the episode got me thinking about one particular bit of EA marketing for Dragon Age: Origins that really confused me. Anybody remember this trailer?

Anybody else bothered by the music choice? Don’t get me wrong; I’ve got no issues with Marilyn Manson. However, I don’t believe his music fits the soundtrack of a fantasy RPG. As long as you ignore the song’s message about a dying music industry it would probably suit a trailer for Bulletstorm or a misguided, overly angst-ridden AMV. (the editing in the video is actually pretty good)

With all that said, pointing out a problem without proposing a solution is a practice I look down upon, so let’s get to the point of this post. Have you, dear reader, heard of Power Metal?

Silly Album Cover Meme

I'll admit I've paritipated in a few of the facebook trends. I've copied messages into my status, changed my profile picture, etc. This one, however, was actually a lot of fun.


1. Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
...
2. Go to Quotations Page and select “random quotations”
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3. Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4. Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together.

In fact it was so fun, I made three! It was actually an interesting exercise in type placement.

How I wrote a research paper about Assassin’s Creed 2

 

Have you ever been excited to have one of your parents watch you play a video game? I know I have. Back when I lived at home, I loved hijacking the family projector with one of my consoles and waiting like the Old Man at Sea for one of my parents to notice what I’m playing and sit with me to experience what their strange child is doing with his free time. It would always be worth it when I got any kind of positive feedback like, “This has a pretty interesting story” or, “Wow that must have taken some critical thinking to figure out."

If there’s one aspect of my personality I have figured out, it’s that I love to spread the word about stuff I like, especially to those with little to no exposure to it. Like many of those who enjoy video games out there, I want the world to know how my favorite hobby is becoming an important form of artistic expression on the level of film and literature. Naturally the world includes my professors, and thus far three of the major papers I’ve written in my college career have been about video games.