My Introduction/The Gaming Experience

Everybody loves blogs... well generally bloggers are the only ones that really get anything out of them, most people find the a useless waste of the internet space, as if that ever has been enough reason to condemn a website. Regardless, if my blog ends up being a waste of space (which to most people, anything written by me ends up being as such anyway), then at least it will be a useful waste of space which somebody is bound to benefit from.

Most everything I write will have a tag to denote the series it is part of. FRB, TGE, or RFN are abbreviations for the main categories which will be spelled out on each article itself.

• Those familiar with the forums will remember "From the Red Book". I've written essays on various Tolkien subjects in the past, which I'd be willing to take up again once I've reacclimated myself with the lore. These essays will have titles tagged {FRB}.

• As El Kevo stated on the front page.. I will be fronting reviews alongside El Kevo and Mordred. I will give more details about the kind of perspective I have to offer later, but they will be titled as part of "The Gaming Experience" and tagged {TGE}.

• And as is the responsibility of every good blogger, I may have some words of wisdom to share. I've made it habit to share some of these meandering philisophical thoughts on other forums, but never really shared it anywhere else. Such "Reflections" will be tags {RFN}.

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About Myself

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I go by JEV3 almost everywhere I frequent, with the occasional alias usually as some kind of parody or in-joke with another person I know. My real name is Jarrett Voight, I come from a large and loud family and have always had a strong liking for video games despite the family's standards causing a sort of paranoia for choosing these games. I wasn't fully introduced to Nintendo until Super Smash Bros Brawl came out, which depicted many names I'd never seen before and brought back names I'd all-but forgotten from the days of playing a gameboy crosseyed on a car-trip.

I always tend to tie as many pieces of me together in as intricate a manner as possible, and as such my philosophy for gaming reflects many other aspects of my life as well as maintaining a substantial presence. I am not merely a casual gamer or a hardcore gamer, but I consider myself a gaming enthusiast. I play a diverse range of games for the sake of the experience, with special attention to the unique and the quirky games that tend to gather a cult appeal.

This experience is often food for thought. Feeling becomes perception; information becomes knowledge, then intuition; occurence, experience, becomes reflection. I am constantly thinking, often too much for my own good. Whether it is to take a subject to far, to take my pseudo-geek status and raise the bar, to scrupulously pick at the details of a game, or complain about the fans of said game...

I've had my fair share of cynicism and drama. As such I tend to regard the more unreasonable facets of this resentment. This is a hopeless loop of hypocrisy because the only thing I hate more than politics is complaining about politics, the only thing more than the media is the 'image' of the media, the only thing more than a bad game is those who say it is bad. It boils down to an aversion to the sensationalist tendencies of media that extends even to IGN selling articles because of fanning the flames of the hate for a specific franchise or the handling of the mainstream 'news'.

Despite all this, I remain stubbornly optimistic. Hating the group but holding out hope for each individual within the group; hating a label while supporting the ideal. My signature message recalls this same mind set with its quote: "There IS good in this world". My supporting message connotes hope, and speaks to the individual "Bloom Nobly!". And despite the discouragement it brings, by placing my foundations and my trusts in the immaterial, I have a source of strength that is timeless and infinite.

This does not come at the cost of my sense of humor (actually it does, but I pretend it doesn't) as I still love a good battle of insults, and some lighthearted fun to offer some genuine amusement. Here also, games may come in, for this is the other side of experience. It does not take away from the meditational experience, but clears an often too-heavy air which may pave way for such observations.

What is a name? A word has no meaning except which another can give to it. And no actual meaning can be precisely the same as the perceived meaning. Am I or am I not JEV3? I am no more JEV3 than I am Jarrett Voight, for perception can never perfectly match the actual. Yet, I hope that I have given some understanding to the JEV3, or to the Jarrett Voight you will be seeing here, and perhaps offered a more full meaning.

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The Gaming Experience

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As I have often stated, I'm a Gaming Enthusiast. This is why I normally choose Nintendo for my focus, for their philosophy is similar to mine somewhere behind the buzzwords "accessibility" and "innovation". I will be concentrating on games for the Wii, the DS, and the Virtual Console, while also giving some attention to games on the computer which fit into this philosophy.

My reviews will not be perfectly objective. "Experience" is the crux of gaming, so it is incomplete without allowance for impressions, observations, experiences, and how it may affect each one differently. Inasmuch as I will try to be fair, my reviews will cannot be helpful nor accurate unless I allow for the X Factor of the game, which may allow a good game to be stale or a bad game to be enjoyable depending on the audience.

My reviews will not only use Kevo's score system, but an additional TGE score, which will use letter grade (A-F) which factors in the appeal of the game toward its audience and the experience it offers alongside the actual quality. Thus it can come closer to identifying how the percieved quality may differ from the actual quality. It is loose and not end-all, like all scores actually, but I use letter grade to keep it informal.

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I look forward to sharing what I can with you in the future. If you found the patience and/or time to bear with this article, you should be able to survive the future installments of this blog... maybe. See you across the site, and be sure to check out the forums or come to chat at the inn.

Note to self: pictures don't work baka~