Mike Wants a Game Job

Saturday night I attended 16bit Genocide at the Patterson Theater in Baltimore, and it was truly one of my most incredible nights of my life. It was only a little over a year ago that I discovered that there were bands other than The Minibosses that blended videogame music with rawksome (rockin' + awesome = rawksome) metal riffs, and I even discovered that some of these bands were in my own backyard of Maryland. Since then I have been voraciously seeking out local shows that feature such bands, and this show proved to be the epitome of everything a gamer could want in an evening.

A videogame rock festival organized by some of the guys from Entertainment System and hosted by the Creative Arts Alliance, 16bit was simply epic. The sequel to last year's 8bit Genocide, it featured six of the best videogame bands out there, ten TV’s playing some of the greatest games of all time, and a diverse array of the some most talented people in the field of videogame art today. The whole event kicked off with Mr. Shawn Phase of Temp Sound Solutions playing his unique blend of instrumental rock and digitized beats, providing an excellent introduction to the type of musical acts that would be appearing throughout the night. Next up were This Place is Haunted and Anamanaguchi, with the former rocking the place with their metal versions of game music complete with original lyrics and the latter getting everyone up and dancing with peppy digital melodies mixed with guitars. Powerglove then deigned to grace the stage with their godly presence, adorned in the finest foam rubber arms and armor money can buy. These guys put The Minibosses to shame with their masterful covers; the joy brought on by their rendition of Storm Eagle alone is enough to make even the most stalwart gamer (i.e. me) melt into a puddle of quivering, jubilant goop. Entertainment System, the previously mentioned badass mofos behind the entire shindig, took the stage next and rocked with both old hits and new ones from their newly released album Super Entertainment System. If you like videogame metal you DO NOT want to miss this one, it is superb. Lastly The Protomen!, fresh from battling  the nefarious Dr. Wily, performed their metal opera based around the tragic saga of Mega Man and his older brother Protoman. All I can say about this band is….wow. Just wow. The narrative aspect of the music serves to draw the audience into the incredibly catchy music they play, and the end result is an audience that is completely synchronized with the band. Such an experience has a transcendent aspect to it that is incredibly rare to find today, so much so that everyone in the audience suddenly feels as if they are a part of something much larger than themselves.

The event was MC’d by Blue Commander, who gracefully accepted the abuse of the audience while hosting trivia contests between each of the sets. Outside of the performance space numerous pieces of artwork by 8bit Artist, Jude Buffum, and Levi Buffum were on display and for sale, and I am proud to say that I am now the owner of bead pixel Mega Man X. Inside, bands performed against a constantly shifting 8bit background provided by noteNdo and noCarrier, the intense visual stimuli being an excellent pair to the auditory titillation provided throughout the night. Honestly, I cannot think of single way in which I could have had a better time.

Alright, I know I have been doing nothing but gushing praise for the event and everyone involved, but only because I believe they truly deserve it. As a gamer, I love seeing events where other people like me can get together and celebrate the culture we love while being entertained by some of the best artists out there. Keep an eye out for next years 32bit Genocide, which promises to be even better than its predecessors.

Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go drool over all of the merch I bought.

Sorry for the lack of updates, it's been a busy couple of weeks for me. First and foremost, I have decided to scrap the podcast for now. After spending three days working on it and not coming up with anything I liked, the decision was made that my time would be better spent elsewhere, specifically creating my own mods for videogames. As a friend of mine who works as a tester told me, it"s one thing to be able to talk about videogames, but what people really look for is if you have the skills to back that up. With that in mind, I’ve begun work on a small module for Neverwinter Nights 2 which will hopefully showcase my ability to design a variety of game elements. Hopefully it will be finished by mid-September, so if you play NWN2 keep an eye on the NeverWinter Vault for my game. So far I’m really enjoying the creative process, and this makes me feel like I’ve found a truly fulfilling career path.

Also, I’ve begun sending out requests for informational interviews to various game studios in Maryland. Only BethesdaSoft has replied, but I’m remaining hopeful to hear from more companies once the summer begins winding down. If I don’t hear from them, I’ll just have to keep pestering them until I do. I can be very persuasive when I want to be, and by persuasive I mean annoying.

 In other job related news, I have applied for a job as a weekend blogger over at Wii Fanboy and DS Fanboy. I feel like there is a real possibility that I could get this job and I’m feeling incredibly excited about an opportunity to get into professional game journalism. In my application I referred whoever is reviewing me to this site, so if anyone from Fanboy is reading………..PLEASE OH PLEASE GIVE ME A JOB. I SO DESPERATELY WANT IT! PLEASE?! Seriously, I’ll do anything you want! Need your car washed? Done. Need someone to walk the dog? I’m on it. Need an enemy quietly and discreetly taken out? They won’t even see it coming.

 Ahem. Pardon me, I get excited sometimes.

 Lastly, I’d just like to say that these last few months have been a time of great exploration and creativity for me, and there’s someone I would like to thank. My girlfriend has been a constant source of inspiration and support for me and I have no idea how I could do all of this without her. Thanks SVB, you rock harder than a mountain.