Programmer, Analyst, Learner, Leader, Gamer

An interview that Kevin Flick of Microsoft (aka Fhearl of HILYMI), conducted with me a few weeks back. He’s going to conduct a series of interviews with gamers for his blog with the sneaky and underhanded goal of helping to demonstrate that gaming is just like any other hobby we may engage in. The interview of me was the first of the series of interviews. He’s not to great with post production work, but it’s a greater interview. http://blogs.technet.com/immerse/archive/2007/10/19/gamer-interview-1-victor-f-laurence-aka-livistos-aka-soriathus.aspx

The interview itself covers my history in gaming and about half of it covers my leadership of the guild Hit it like you mean it. We really went into a lot of high level philosophical stuff in there and really put somethings I do for the guild in perspective. Sometimes I’m too humble about all the work I do.

Need I say more?

Victor (my clone here at work) and I are going at lunch to pick up a copy. We’re gonna grab pizza and soda and play into the night. Good times. I can’t wait. MWUAHAHAHAHA

Sat back today and chilled with Ray doing some console gaming. We played a lot of PS3 because that’s what he’s addicted to right now and I must admit the one game were Russia developed an alien super race during World War II is ummmm creative. It has good controls and though completely unbelievable, a well presented storyline. Overall I still think the Xbox360 is a superior system and Gears of War graphically puts this other to shame. The big thing is that Graphics are graphics. Innovation in game play is what is key in the gaming world these days. Gears of war adds a lot of elements to game play that noone else has done which is what makes it a better game. Even with that at the same time it’s graphics are superior. I can’t wait for Halo 3…

Today I’m starting to eat more real food in small quantities, but at least it’s been the first day I’ve been out of bed all day. Kinda bummed around in WoW to keep myself entertained while sick. I really didn’t feel like Xbox’ing it since that’s in my bedroom and I wanted to get away from my bed. My stomach/intestines are starting to adjust from having 100% fluid in them to having solid food. Lots of Gator-aide has been my saving grace. Lots of crap going down with work. I’ve been working a bit with Brian on it from home to see if it’s anything I could fix. I’ll try more tomorrow my head is very lightheaded still today.

Chilled out with Sean today at his place. We did a little bit of WoW’ing, Burnout Revenge 360, Oblivion, then more WoW for the rest of the evening. We didn’t get quite enough done that we wanted to get done, but whatever it was fun none the less. It was great being able to sit back and chill with Sean gaming, hanging out, drinking way too much soda, and well being real. I’m looking forward to hanging out with him on Thursday Night / Friday since I have the day off and so does he.

Yes I’m thoroughly lost in Oblivion and probably will be for quite some time. I’ve now joined the warrior guild, thieves guild, mage’s guild, and of course the assassin guild also known as the Dark Brotherhood. The way the game scales quests so that they are perfect difficulty based on your level is amazing. Tomorrow I’m hoping to do enough quest for the Dark Brotherhood that I will be offered the dark gift of Vamparism.

I will preface this by stating that I’m an old school Elder Scrolls fan boy. I played TES I and II before people even knew who Bethesda Software was and long before Marrowind was even conceived or the original Xbox. I am also an old school Final Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, and Ultima fan boy playing such games as Eye of the Beholder I-3, all the old 2D games, most of the Ultimas especially loving Ultima 8: Pagan, and every single Final Fantasy game in existence. This game by far is the most exciting, most immersive, best game I’ve ever played. The storyline is rich, the graphics amazing, and the game play fun when you want it to be fun and heart pounding when in a quest that leads you into a sewer, dark cave, or worse the Planes of Oblivion themselves. I can’t wait to get more game time in.

Thank you Bethesda for making my year.

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion was launched today and I will be picking up my reserved copy that I’ve had on reserve since last summer. I’ll also be picking up my copy of Ghost recon finally, a new xbox headset, and a memory card (so I can take my profile to Ray’s house). Overall I’m really excited to do some new gaming and it’s going to be a ton of fun. Oblivion from what I can see is the first game that is seriously using the Xbox 360 hardware to it’s fullest or at least close.

So as always I go over to my brother’s house to play some WoW on Monday night and the server is severally jacked up to hell. We got maybe 30 minutes of gaming in before it just got unplayable and the whole server crashed and doesn’t seem like it’s coming back up. After much aggravation we went out and Ray picked up Fight Night 3 as well so we could beat the shite out of each other. So many nice games are coming out, I’ve even heard that Oblivion is finally coming out on tomorrow (thanks to Sean) and I still haven’t picked up my copy of Ghost Recon.

Sitting back today relaxing playing some CS, playing some WoW (battlegrounds), watching some new comedy DVD, and other wise just chilling around the house. Tonight Mom made the Laurence famous HPnC (Hotdogs Potatoes and Cheese). It’s an acquired taste, believe me! After dinner Ray and I chilled for a while and played some XBox360 and now that he’s hit the sack I think I’m going to do some more battlegrounds before I get to bed. Interesting side thought: I’m enjoying the game more now that it’s just entertainment rather than an escape.