Obligatory "Welcome to my Blog!" Post

Welcome, one and all, to a little blog that, until further notice, I'm going to refer to as Katana's Kiosk!  First of all, thanks for visiting!  Even if it doesn't look like much now, I'm sure that with a little time and effort put in, it'll pick up in no time.  So, if you're visiting, you must be wondering, "What exactly is this blog?  Who are you and why should we care about what you write?"

"Sometimes I like to pretend I care about what you're writing..."

A difficult question with a segmented answer, one that I've carefully laid out in question form.  Yay!

Who are you?

I'm an amateur blogger who is very interested in becoming a critic for video games and other media.  I'm also a college student and an avid writer (Creative Writing minor, fuck yeah!).  I wouldn't say that I have lofty dreams, but it wouldn't be accurate to say that I'd rather slink away into the throes of monotony, and not have my voice be heard in some regard.  So, here I am, writing about a passion and hobby of mine that I've had for the better part of my life: video games!

What are you writing about?

Simple!  I'll be writing about a lot of different things, but mostly I'll be providing news and hype for upcoming games that I hear about.  Not only that, but I'll be reviewing games (obviously once I finish them to the fullest extent) and writing prospectives on older games that I've played, or am currently playing.  In this way, I'll provide you, the readers, with a little bit of information and a semi-biased (this is, after all, my opinion) reports on the news of the video game industry.  This includes all types and genres of video games, including the newest of the new indie games the moment I hear about them (flash games included!).  So if you feel that I'm not reviewing or touching upon a game that you wish to hear about, go ahead and shoot me an e-mail.  If I've played it, I'll write a rather large post on why it was good, what worked, or what didn't work.  If I haven't played it, it might be tough for me to drop everything and immediately start that game.  But, nag me anyway.  As long as your nagging is well thought-out and not filled with typos and passive-aggressive comments, I'll heavily consider playing and becoming acquainted with the game!  And, of course, I'll mention the person who introduced me to the game (gotta give credit where it's due!) in the post/review.

And above all, I'm just writing about video games.  I can't stress enough that this is all opinion based, so obviously I won't have all the answers, and sometimes I may not have taken a good enough look at some games.  On the whole, though, I will attempt to be as thorough and helpful as possible with games.  Tl:dr, I won't review a game or provide a prospective look at it unless I've gotten everything I can out of it.

Why?

Why not?  Video games are usurping many other types of media for a kind of social supremacy; a wave of new media that has revived a subculture (nerd-dom, hurrah!) that, heretofore, was shunned due to bias and perhaps some admittedly drastic unhygienic habits.   Essentially, I'm catering to that.  As much as it's important to hear about one side of the video game industry, sometimes you won't get a straight answer from the major video game reviewers and critics.  Especially because of their new popularity, video games have become a consumer market, and one that, indefinitely, will have some "dirty cops" as reviewers.  As much as I hate to say it, a lot of video game critics aren't very good at their jobs, as they tend to "butter up" a game even if the storyline has thousands of plotholes, or there are grievous mistakes in programming or design that render the verisimilitude of a world completely inert.  Not all reviewers are like this, but many have turned toward this kind of "nice guy" reviewing, and in a lot of ways, that's bullshit.  I'm not going to give scores, or grades to games, because that tends to undermine several different qualities of a game that a text document might not be able to portray accurately in a few paragraphs.

I also want to say that I'm doing this because I want to, NOT because I have to.  I don't have to buy a game and review it just because it's getting a lot of hype.  If I hear that a game isn't doing so well, but it got a lot of publicity, I might comment on that, but playing the game to the fullest extent would be taxing, and difficult considering the fact that I will have other things that I have to take care of (y'know, in life and stuff).

Really...?

Video games?  Yep.  There's been a lot of debate as to whether or not video games are worth it these days, as the prices rise and, let's be honest, video games contribute to quite a bit of the global warming crisis we're in the middle of.  I'm not going to get all political here, but it's a struggle to convince a wider number of people that video games are not only important, but they can also be art.  I believe this wholeheartedly, and I'm hoping that, after reading a few posts, you will too.

And if you don't like it, the back button is in the top left-hand corner of your screen.

You managed to get this far.  Why not stay awhile...?

Thanks for coming, and enjoy your stay in my kiosk!  It's pretty messy at the moment, but I've got a lot to sell.

Have a wonderful day,

~CascadaKatana