The DiZeeZ'D Humor, Video Game, and Videogame Streaming Blog

 I'll admit that I'm no expert at conventions, although I've had my fair share to understand what are the "dos" and "not-dos." I've had somewhere around 30 under my belt, including E3, TwitchCon , BlizzCon, MLG, IndieCade, Playstation Experience, Gamestop Expo, and even some renewable energy conventions. Some of these I've attended as a journalist, some I've attended as an exhibitor, and others I've just attended personally. The intents of attending a convention generally determine what you'll bring with you and other details, but as a whole I think that this can suffice as a guide for how to prepare for your first convention. Preparing For Your First Convention: What to Do and What Not To Do Water--And Very Little Else My absolute worst mistake when I attended my first E3 was immediately going for an energy drink.  Often times outside of a gaming con there will be Bang, Monster, Red Bull, Rockstar vendors just giving out cold cans a

These are never the easiest to write. About a month ago, I was playing Rogue Legacy 2 when I started to notice my energy for the past several streams was horridly low. 3 hours into a stream and my interest in streaming dropped, my personality went out the door, and all I wanted to do was to lie down. I realized the past several streams I had been energetic, talkative, and communicative to all of zero people. Every time I started stream it was 15 minutes to start and another 10 or so for announcements. So, literally, 25+ minutes every stream went to nothing. Twitch streaming isn't easy in the least, and for someone that has a mellow energy level, stretching on into 5-6 hours just gets draining. I needed a month off to re-think a lot of things—primarily what Twitch meant to me. Here's my internal struggle, and I never seem to settle with it. Getting Over The Mental Hump: Deciding What I Want with Twitch When I first saw Twitch, I didn't even realize what it was. Okay, you

 A Look at Guerrilla's Smash Hit I'll admit I'm biased. I originally played the first Horizon (Zero Dawn) upon it's release, knowing that the game would be something special. I had seen it advertised at conventions in the past and had a strong feeling that if Sony was going to pump millions of dollars into its advertising, the game would be phenomenal. I was right, and so when the second was announced, the only action I cared about was procuring the game so I could stream it on Twitch . Because of the first game, I'm heavily biased about the second. But that doesn't mean I still can't have a critical eye for Horizon: Forbidden West, and so before I jump into the positive aspects of why I make sweet love enjoy this game, I'd at least like to provide what I hated . Which, admittedly, isn't a lot. What I Hated About Horizon: Forbidden West Lens Flares For anyone that has picked up a Horizon game, you'd probably think it had a lot of influence from

 What Will the Future of Videogames Look Like? This isn't a new question by any stretch. I'm reminded jokingly of the Playstation 9 commercial which was a very tongue-in-cheek commercial for the PS2. Admittedly, we're somewhat close to extreme immersion video games with VR arenas popping up all over the world, but something "Matrix" style won't be around for at least 50 years. We've just begun to see the emergence of twitch streaming where people literally make money playing video games , so streaming has a long way to go first before we can see something close to full immersion. But for now, I think we can fill in some of the gaps to see where the future of gaming might head. The Future is Definitely About Diversity I think it took the 2010s for people to recognize that gaming wasn't just about white guys doing their thing. With the rise of social media, people became a little bit more "internet aware." I think that was the biggest "fas

  This is a difficult topic for me for various reasons. Probably the most glaring reason that it's difficult for me is that I, among others, have been going through motivational slumps in the past several months when it comes to twitch streaming . For others, their stream is entirely a business so the motivation isn't really a factor; if you don't stream, it affects your standard of living. For others, especially those that are trying to establish their selves by "doing the grind," motivation comes and goes. It's never an easy answer to the motivation question, but I think I've been able to whittle motivation when it comes to twitch streaming down to 3 methods. Here they are: 3 Methods to Motivate Yourself Streaming A Quick Guide to Getting Back on the Twitch Track So, as before, these are 3 methods or ways for those of us that are trying to push the envelope when it comes to streaming—not the ones that are well established and make a living from full-time

CyberPunk 2077: Meeting My Expectations I avoided the hype. Stuck to what I understood about CD Projekt Red. Recognized that this was an 8.5 year development. Didn't stick to the lore. And admittedly, Cyberpunk 2077 met my expectations which, to be transparent, weren't all that high. The first demo I saw at E3 was arguably the worst demo I've ever seen—unresponsive AI, a crash mid-demo, and a poorly-matched pair of people representing the game—and so I felt a lot of problems might carry forth into the finished game. Whether or not I could stream the game on Twitch was also a concern, because if a game is going to launch poorly, you won't be getting much of an audience either. Sure enough, Cyberpunk 2077 launched unfinished. 8.5 years is a long time for a single release, and at that point, you have to wonder what's cooking in the kitchen. But I'll approach the most important question about the game that's on a lot of peoples'