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Carnival of Gamers III
By Corvus | June 23, 2005
Step right up! Step right up! Push your way to the front of the line! Oh sure, there’s plenty of room but you’ll want to be able to tell your friends you saw this first! Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Carnival of Gamers III! We’re a hodge podge collection of freaks, geeks, gamers, ranters, ragers, and rag tag prognosticaters and prestidigitators.
Oh, and please don’t run away when it’s all over folks. We’d like to know what you think of our sideshows and, more specifically, we’d like to know which entry you liked best. On Monday the 27th, I’ll be naming your overall favorite entry “The Geek Supreme of the Carnival of Gamers III” and sending the author a mysterious prize. I can’t do that, unless you toss in your $.02. So feel free to take a spin through and head back to leave your impressions!
In the tradition of previous Carnivals, we allow the first carnies that show up to take the prime spots at the top of the midway. Our first two exhibits are two new eager additions to the carnie scene, so without further ado, let’s take a whirlwind tour, shall we?
First off, The World’s Oldest Man lets loose with some Unfettered Blather on the musty, fantasy based history of CRPGs and yearns for an alternate future in Unchanged Genres.
Next up, we’ll find the Human Rubberband, known in some circles as the Video Game Pundit, wrapping himself around the PS3 vs. X-Box 360 debate in Microsoft Limbo.
Ubu the Fat Man (and Houblogger) bites off more than even he can chew when he dines on a feast of Sony roast. He ends up needing two courses; Rebellion In A Galaxy Far, Far Away for starters, And the Spin Goes On for afters. We don’t normally let our carnies take up two spots at the table, but with Ubu, you don’t have much choice.
Perched on the Game Chair, our Conjoined twins, Paul and Clayton, discuss the same topic from two different angles. Paul confesses, “This time around, I’m scared,” and Clayton reminds us that,” Games Are Supposed To Be Fun, Right?”
Taking a break from the freaks for a moment, we bring you a magician of great renown, The Amazing Portico! as he saws the year in half with Strategy Games of the Half Year!
Next, the Mentalist with the mad eyes, dingy turban, and the sickly Cathode Tan, stares into the national consciousness and tells us What They Aren’t Saying.
The Lobster Girl (they say she also has Acid for Blood) gets snippy with the Bunch of Savages in this Town, and who can blame her?
A. Jacobsen has set up his fortune telling booth and, staring into his crystal ball, he renders the phrase, “Blogathon 2005 Needs You“, and goes on to explain that he see sees a charitable event on the horizon of the blogosphere
Thomas, a carnie from Mile Zero, sets up a shooting game called The Last Resort. But he’s taken away the water guns so you’ll have to find another way to knock the ducks down.
Now this, friends, this you don’t want to miss. If you’re in the mood for some Pixel Love, TK421 is offering up kisses for a nickle and Reality Bites for two bits.
Somehow, a county safety inspector named Finster, acting like the Top of Cool, has managed to get a spot along the Midway to keep his eye on potentially shoddy workmanship. The sign above his tent reads, “Kutaragi Watch.”
Just to make sure Finster doesn’t start inspecting our rides (which are perfectly safe I can assure you) we’re sending Aggro Me to take care of… er… some last minute details. At the top of his To Do list is, “Tightening Up the Graphics on Level Three.”
Alex is… well, we’re still not sure exactly what Alex is (although it has been suggested he’s a Damned Machine), but he assures us that if we would just let him out of that jar of formaldehyde, he’d be able to convince us that EA is Not Evil. That, and he’d unleash enough power to burn our flesh from our very bones. We think we’ll leave him in the jar.
Spot, the Rat Boy’s tent is next. Id’ stay away from his cage, as he’s having a bit of an Identity Crisis at the moment, foaming at the mouth and muttering, “Kill Ten Rats.”
In the next tent, grizzled war veteran and shocking storyteller, AFK Gamer, recounts his days in A Seven Alt Army.
Next up, we find… well, look who we have here! It’s the head carnie himself, Tony. Don’t let him draw you into a debate, he’s well known for his button mashing. If you’re polite though, you may get him to tell you all about Guild Wars – The Single Player Experience.
Our last stop on the Midway is to see the two gentlemen who run the roundabout, psu and peterb. Don’t let the cups, empty of all but the slight traces of Tea Leaves fool you, these two carnies are not afraid of a little rough and tumble. Stare at them too long and they’ll forcibly remind you that You are Not the Boss of Me.
That brings us nearly to the end of the Carnival of Gamers III and our final offering, the Great Egress. But before you go, please leave a comment and let us know which sideshow you enjoyed the most. Check back Monday, when I’ll announce who’s Geek Supreme of this, the third Carnival of Gamers! Thanks for stopping by. For information on The Once and Future Carnivals, stop by Carnie HQ, which is kindly maintained by button mashing. To be included in the next Carnival, send a link to your post of choice to carniegrue (at) gmail (dot) com.
Tagged:Carnival. | 26 Comments »
June 23rd, 2005 at 8:38 am
Nicely done!
June 23rd, 2005 at 8:42 am
[...] Shortcuts | Comments: 0 Step Right Up! Step Right Up! The 3rd Carnival of Gamers has set up on the fields just outside of town! This time around, the sideshow frea [...]
June 23rd, 2005 at 8:43 am
Great job Corvus! I love the whole setup of this Carnival. And great job to all the writers. Now I know what I’ll do at work today
June 23rd, 2005 at 9:04 am
An illustrated Carnival … nice work.
Is the fat one supposed to be me or Portico
June 23rd, 2005 at 9:32 am
Excellent work! This gets better everytime! (No pressure, Josh!)
June 23rd, 2005 at 10:20 am
[...] illa, and find something to hold onto. Number One, let’s see what’s out there. Engage!
This entry was posted
on Thursday, June 23rd, 2005 a [...]
June 23rd, 2005 at 10:25 am
Great work, Corvus. Lobster Girl looks just like me.
June 23rd, 2005 at 11:02 am
I think Pixel Love gets my vote right now. Old issue, new perspective, well written. But it’s hard. This was a good crop.
June 23rd, 2005 at 11:53 am
Good entries all around, but since we have to choose my vote goes to AFK Gamer.
June 23rd, 2005 at 1:01 pm
What’s this carnival thing about? I’m just a two-month-old blogger
June 23rd, 2005 at 1:08 pm
I vote for AFK, too, but I love a good gaming story.
June 23rd, 2005 at 1:11 pm
BronxPundit, check your e-mail…
June 23rd, 2005 at 1:28 pm
Wow, great write-up. Love the illustrations. I haven’t read all the entries yet, but I’ll mai you my vote.
June 23rd, 2005 at 1:40 pm
[...] Just a minute… reading COG 3 Ehh, today is boring… But the carnival is roaring. With slide show freaks, and lore from gaming geeks. The third incarnation of the Ca [...]
June 23rd, 2005 at 3:23 pm
Subduing shameless, selfless plugs, I thought Tea Leaves “You are not the Boss of me” was the best entry this time around. Good read all around.
June 23rd, 2005 at 8:49 pm
[...] 4 pm Filed under: Etc. by Foton The latest edition of the Carnival of Gamers is hosted at Man Bytes Blog and includes illustrations! over a do [...]
June 23rd, 2005 at 10:53 pm
This Week’s Carnival of the Gamers
Check out what other gamer/bloggers are saying. Psst…Dog-byting-Man, Over here!…
June 24th, 2005 at 9:54 pm
I’m going to have to vote for Game Chair’s “Games Are Supposed To Be Fun, Right?” article but both the articles there were excellent, and I also enjoyed reading the Boss article even though I disagree with it.
This is my first trip to the Carnival. I’m glad I came! Lots of great reading here guys, and some very talented writers among these bloggers.
June 24th, 2005 at 10:38 pm
We’re glad you came and I’m happy you voted. Perhaps you’ll be submitting something for an upcoming carnival!
June 25th, 2005 at 12:47 am
Several good posts, but I vote AFK Gamer for best.
June 25th, 2005 at 1:28 am
[...] get about the Carnival
Carnival of Gamers #3
The Carnival of Gamers #3 is up! Update: Okay, I’ve been really lazy updating around here. I’ve b [...]
June 25th, 2005 at 12:19 pm
And what of the truly freekish. The people with 1 gig of processor speed still looking for games to play. Thief II, I suggest. But where is our freek. Who is the Lorax who will speak for our trees (metaphorical trees….not real trees…ok, so it’s a bad allegory).
June 25th, 2005 at 5:26 pm
Well, there are plenty of low impact titles for those who are under endowed, CPU-wise. If you enjoy RPGs, then Spiderweb Software is a good spot to start. Perhaps I’ll play Lorax and speak for your metaphoric fir and symbolic deciduous in the upcoming week… ya freak. *kniw*
June 26th, 2005 at 10:54 am
And that’s an awesome analogy…
June 26th, 2005 at 1:34 pm
The really funny thing is that I actually have a Lorax sticker affixed to my laptop.
September 9th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
[...] Step right up! Step right up! Over at Man Bites Blog check out the Carnival of Gamers III which is a nicely written sampling of various gaming blogs out there. Some good posts on there! Be sure to save an hour or so to do some serious gamer reading. [...]