Category: Gaming & Esports

Articles and video content relating to Video Games

The Gaming Diaries – Get Into Gaming

by akadjblaze, posted in Gaming & Esports

DNA putting gaming on the map with the Ministry of Education

Who would have thought this would be streamed into schools in NZ?!

It has been a busy few months as us here at DNA have taken on the task to bring Get into Gaming to life, a joint project with the Ministry of Education here in NZ to help inform and inspire our young ones about the reality of the gaming industry. Showcasing the many different career pathways within the industry and how kids can start on that pathway from esports, game design and content creation. The project ended up being a video series of 5 episodes featuring interviews from the big players in each of the different parts of the industry. Yeah it ended up being a pretty big undertaking and easily the first of its kind

Continue reading “The Gaming Diaries – Get Into Gaming” →

Gaming Diaries – A Return to Middle Earth

by akadjblaze, posted in Gaming & Esports

Why hello Hunter my old friend

Level 113, Hunter, Elf rocking the Ranger gears

Hey Sauron, guess who’s back! Just in time to come kick your ass! Oh, wait, Frodo has done that already… Well I guess I’ll just have to join the cause to tidy up the mess you left behind then!

Yes, I am back playing Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) after being away for a few years and it is good to be back! But damn, do I have a bit to catch up on! When I left, the level cap was 105 and I was mostly caught up with the story progression. Now that I am back, new level cap is 130 and there is 2 major expansions that have moved everything into the end game and another major content area added as well. So yeah, I have a bit of grinding to do! I will be sharing bits and pieces from the game in-between my travel and events posts so keep an eye out for more Lotro content! Continue reading “Gaming Diaries – A Return to Middle Earth” →

The Battle Diaries – GBL Ultra League

by akadjblaze, posted in Gaming & Esports, Pokemon Diary

Who needs dust anyways…

After what seemed like a very short foray in Go Battle League with the Great League being opened up first, trainers were now thrust into the second level of competition and what was arguably the most expensive on, the Ultra League! Pokemon up to the 2500 CP mark were allowed to be used which really changed the dynamic of battles. That extra bulk made a huge difference in the way matches play out. For most of us who are used to Great league especially with the Silph Arena, this didmake a nice change. However, the cost of preparing Pokemon for this league was steep… very steep. Continue reading “The Battle Diaries – GBL Ultra League” →

The Battle Diaries – Getting it right

by akadjblaze, posted in Gaming & Esports, Pokemon Diary

Fu-sion-ha!

December say rise to the fourth Cup of season 2 from the lovely people at Silph. And finally, we come across a cheap cup! Dirt cheap! With Go Battle League on the horizon (now live) many trainers would be looking to conserve resources in anticipation of this long awaited feature and Silph decided to help us out! The Fusion Cup revolved around dual-type pokemon (of any two given types) and only those with a second charged move unlock cost of 50k or below. Azumarill, Medicham, Wormadam and Dewgong were specifically excluded: the first three are very expensive to power up, not exactly keeping inline with the “cheap” theme of the cup, and Dewgong is still too exclusive since it is only relevant with the rare double legacy moveset. Continue reading “The Battle Diaries – Getting it right” →

The Battle Diaries – Go Battle League

by akadjblaze, posted in Gaming & Esports, Pokemon Diary

Preseason begins in the Great League

After much anticipation, Pokemon Go has finally delivered us with its fully realized version of PvP, the Go Battle League. The League is an online matchmaking system with a fully integrated ranking and elo system. Designed basically the same as most other online competitive gaming systems, the Go Battle League of course has the single goal of trainers competing to be the very best, like no one ever was. Continue reading “The Battle Diaries – Go Battle League” →

The Battle Diaries – Getting it wrong

by akadjblaze, posted in Gaming & Esports, Pokemon Diary

The Timeless Cup

December paved the way for yet another new take on the Silph Arena themed cups, bringing us another original set of rules and restrictions. The Timeless Cup intended to bring us back to the main series games by choosing your starter Pokemon and building your team around that. In this cup you could only choose pokemon from the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh regions and you had to include one, and only one, starter in your lineup. Also, targeted bans were placed on Fighting-, Normal-, Fairy-, Flying-, Steel- and Psychic-type Pokemon, as well as legandaries, mythicals, Alolan and Galarian forms, Umbreon and Sableye. Again, this was to try and encourage as much variability within teams as possible and not have certain Pokemon dominate the meta. While the idea was right, it kinda failed. Continue reading “The Battle Diaries – Getting it wrong” →

Fading Frontier: Yongsan Video Game Alley

by akadjblaze, posted in Gaming & Esports

Where generations collide and nostalgia reins supreme

Given the interest shown in my other article Fading Frontier: Kukje Electronics Centre, I thought I might as well continue on and re-visit the other final bastion of Retro Video Gaming here in South Korea, the legendary Yongsan Video Game Alley. I would be very interested to know the history of this place and how long it has been around. Suffice to say, its been there a long time and is the best known place in Korea to get your hands on some great retro (and also modern) games and consoles.

Located out the back of Yongsan Ipark Mall in Yongsan Y-Valley and across from the Sunin Plaza Building (your one stop shop for everything PC related, if your looking to get set up, check out the man himself Phil!), Video Game Alley is literally a small little alley at the bottom of an open mall type building that you would easily miss if you didn’t know it was there or where to look for it. Continue reading “Fading Frontier: Yongsan Video Game Alley” →

The Battle Diaries – Missing in action

by akadjblaze, posted in Gaming & Esports, Pokemon Diary

The Ferocious Cup

Even though I had Umbreon in my team, it was a bluff, it didn’t have Last Resort

The month of November gave us rise to a new type of themed cup from Silph Arena. The Ferocious Cup was the first cup to not be restricted to a handful of typing’s as the theme, but instead to a whitelist of 130 species, or as they like to say, “land-based beast pokemon inspired by the fearsome beasts that rule the land”. While the goal of this cup was to provide an interesting and diverse meta, it still ended up revolving around a single Pokemon (one that I didn’t have) and that was Last Resort Umbreon. Continue reading “The Battle Diaries – Missing in action” →

The Battle Diaries – And so it begins

by akadjblaze, posted in Gaming & Esports, Pokemon Diary

A Sinister Beginning

With Go Battle League on its way and my new found love of Pokemon Go with the emergence of the Silph Arena, it is time to start cataloging my teams, battles and experiences. To this end, coupled with my other love of making the world come more alive by bringing the Pokemon Go AR experience into my photography, I will endeavor to write about this here on my extremely sporadic website! Continue reading “The Battle Diaries – And so it begins” →

The Pokedex Entries

by akadjblaze, posted in Gaming & Esports

Deoxys Raids in Seoul

With my current success with live streaming Pokemon Go, it is time to build on that by also making and uploading short videos showing my exploits in Seoul. From raids to PvP tournaments, I will try to cover these much more regularly and it gives me a way to keep releasing content! So here is the first video. Enjoy!