The Kickflip

Last month Jurelle, Nixxie and I visited SM Megamall to see ToyCon (Toy Convention) 2011. It was a 3-day event with non-stop toy exhibits, toy sale, comic book sale, cosplay, etc. You know, things that geeky weirdos (like us) would enjoy.

One of the biggest events was Cosplaying. No matter where we turned our heads we see cosplayers, literally, everywhere. The escalator, the mall entrance, and event the restrooms! And then we started a joke that Jurelle could cosplay Blanka (Street Fighter) or Hulk (Marvel Comics) because of his figure, very manly and bulky. It was a good idea and Nixxie would love to do the stuff Jurelle needed. It was a good tease… until this week.

A few nights ago, the 3 of us talked and we decided to take the cosplay joke seriously. Oh, we were dead serious!

I would cosplay as this guy: Wolverine (X-Men Origins movie version)

And Jurelle would cosplay as this guy: Blanka (Street Fighter)

If you know us both, you would wonder how we would pull these characters off. I know, they are oh so buff and we are oh so… uhm… meaty. Let me explain.

Jurelle and I are going to the gym. At least I am. I’ve been going to the gym for a month and Jurelle is going to start this August because he got inspire to workout after he saw the Captain America trailer a hundred times. We have time to get all buff until next year for ToyCon 2012.

The gaming industry is very innovative in a lot ways than you can imagine. It influences the world around it and even the gamer himself. It influences technology advancement, industrial strategies and stuff in the concerning business. For the player, it affects the way he thinks in certain situations, the way he would approach problems, the way he would adjust to an environment and most importantly the way he approaches people around him.

An obvious manifestation I have seen of a gamer’s way of approaching people is “trash talking.” This may be only applicable on circumstances when a gamer is playing with fellow game enthusiasts. You are probably familiar with this term and the discouragement it delivers to a person. But what if… what if trash talking took a wrong turn? What if trash talking made your opponent laugh so hard that it becomes a distraction for him? This I have proven more effective than the angry trash talking.

Last Saturday (23^rd of July, 2011), Jurelle, Nixxie, and I decided to have a Sedona gaming-chill-out day. The goal is to play games (on Nixxie’s PS3), watch a couple of movies, and other stuff that doesn’t involve stress or work.

I have proven this the “Funny Trash Talk Theory” successful when we played Soul Caliber 4 (Namco). Nixxie is a master at this game. She proves to be almost unbeatable at it. And at the first few games I saw this was true. But there was just something so funny about the way the characters looked and the way they said stuff that, to us Filipinos, seemed very funny.  So, I took advantage of the situation and throw jokes everywhere! Nixxie was cracking up and lost focus of the game. This brought Nixxie’s winning streak to abrupt and hilarious end and everybody was laughing so freaking hard.

Some may not agree with me on this one, but you should try it. It’s worth the shot. It makes the gaming experience a lot more fun than the usual cussing-and-humiliating-the-enemy kind of trash talking.

GAME ON!!!