The Average Aussie is a Gamer!

Greetings, people! Or robot, if you aren’t a human.

http://pixabay.com/en/users/qiye/
Public domain image by qiye

I’ve decided that this site needs content. So, I’m going to start writing posts every week to please our ever desiring audience. Whoever that is, I’m not sure… Anyhow!

I want you to think about something for me. Over the past few years especially, the media and ‘child well-being’ groups have been calling for video games to be banned due to bad content and for them being the supposed cause of violence in teenagers. What they want, is for all video games no matter what genre to be banned in Australia. That means preventing adults from buying and playing video games too.

Let’s look at the research done here, by a creditable source other than the media. According to a study done by Bond University last year (2013), approximately 70% of all Australians play video games. Games like these, normally associated with young people under 25, are now being played by people of many ages. The average of these gamers being aged around 32 years old.

It doesn’t stop there. 9 in 10 households have some form of interactive entertainment, regardless of the model of console (let’s not get into the console war here). Even 40 – 60 year old men and women play video games, with that age bracket representing the largest group of gamers in Australia. People over 50 account for 20% of all gamers. Bet you never knew that, ‘ey?

One of the arguments against video games is that it is anti-social, and that games are mostly played by people under 18 that are being brainwashed into thinking that violence is the way of life. Well, that’s wrong.

76% of video gamers are over 18. Adults continue to form the vast majority of gamers in Australia, with the average gamer now aged 32 years old. This aligns closely with the average age of the Australian community which, according to recent ABS census data, is 37 years old.

This, with the fact that over ~80% of parents play video games with their kids to connect with them and have fun, completely disproves the argument for the brainwashing of children.

So when people tell you that kids are being brainwashed and that games are destroying our way of life, show them this. I’ll leave the link to the article at the bottom of this post.

Once again, thanks for reading. Leave a rating!

This is the Festologist, signing off.

 

http://www.marketingmag.com.au/news/the-average-aussie-is-a-gamer-70-of-all-people-play-video-games-45462/

All in a Timely Manner

I’m not even going to bother pretending that I’m posting on a schedule here – unless ‘tri-sometimes-yearly‘ is a schedule.  Something tells me that if my blog was my source of income… I wouldn’t be eating much.

Yes, yes. This is another one of my typical…

“I’ve been too busy! LOOK! Here’s a list of things that I’ve been doing! See! I HAVE BEEN BUSY! Am I excused yet? Good! BYE!”

… posts.

There has been a relatively substantial amount of ‘work’ going on.  Note the quotes, this is my backup plan in case you decide what I list here isn’t worthy of the ‘work’ title.  If you do, ignore the quotes – if not, absorb and keep note of these mysteriously placed quotation marks in your frontal lobe and assimilate the conclusion that the writer of this post was clearly using the word for comedic effect the entire time. Once you’re done doing that, we can continue – but next time, try not to think about it so much.  You’re really over complicating things you know.

Projects

Control

ControlBanner

My second shot at the MyState Film Festival.  My previous entry “VOID” that I entered nearly 2 years ago had many flaws.  Apart from being technically riddled with problems that the time constraints did not allow reparation of, it also had a story line that was crunched down by the five-minute limit until it was a mess of confusing mismatched sentences.

This time, would be different. I started conceptualizing the production of Control from before this year’s featured object had been released to the public.  This film was designed to make up for where VOID failed.

  • Visual effects were planned out and were streamlined to take the least amount of time needed as possible. Once the basic effect was done – additional touches could then be made to enhance their appearance – but at least in the worse-case-scenario – they would still serve fine without enhancements. No unnecessary effects.
  • The script was written and timed out to the competition time limit before any filming took place.  A month of script writing – I wanted to write a script that was dynamic, rather than finite. One that’s length could be modified without loss of story line.  Something that would be all but impossible without ambiguity.
  • This film was designed as a silent and narrated story – meaning that I could focus entirely on getting the shots done – rather than wasting time trying to get audio with no decent sound gear.  A limitation in my camera equipment did partially drive this decision – but even with decent sound gear – lugging it around in the rain with my skeleton crew would have been anti-productive.
  • But most importantly… I’ll tell you about this later. =)

I’ll tell you more about Control later this month/December.

Auriferous

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For my Computer Science class – I had to code a computer game in Java.  This is the first game I’ve properly coded “from the ground up” – and it’s… pretty basic.  It’s a point-and-click adventure game with narration (me, attempting to talk in different voices), called Auriferous meaning: containing gold. It follows the story of a character named Julian, a man who… well, you’ll have to wait and see! After I’ve spent some more time on it, I will probably release this game for download later on. The project has already been handed in and marked. (It got good marks!)

There are other projects too… but I’ll tell you more on them… LATER!

Other News

intsmlIntelligic Shouted out by PewDiePie

For those that are somewhat up-to-date with this never-up-to-date website, you would probably be aware that among my YouTube Channels, I have a gaming channel called Intelligic.

Well, on the 21st of September my gaming channel with 181 subscribers was shouted out by the largest channel on YouTube, PewDiePie. For those who aren’t YouTube Savvy… PewDiePie has nearly 15 million subscribers – and he told them about my channel.

It went mental. My subscriber count was growing by the minute and my inbox flooded with messages begging me for co-operative let’s plays and “can you shout me out”s.  Out of nowhere, suddenly people were viewing my gaming content.  As of the first of November, 2013, I have 11,500 subscribers… and I am still speechless when I try to talk about it.

Even so many days after the shotout I still am rattled by these emotions. Excitement, encouragement, worry and shame.  I’m excited by the people I have as an audience, and I want to continue making content for them.  I didn’t know what to expect, but they are the most encouraging viewers that I could have ever hoped for.  I haven’t received any (substantial) negativity, it’s a collection of supportive and positive people – and that’s fantastic.

But of course, with all positives – there are negatives.  Because I can’t help but be worriedThere are so many people! So many people now know who I am, know my face.  I’m not a particularly social person in ‘real life’ – and the thought of so many people is somewhat intimidating.  But perhaps that will change.  Then of course… I feel a bit ashamedBecause I’ve been boosted into a place that would have taken me years to get to on my own.  I only just reached 1,000 subscribers on my Upload the Download channel a few weeks before PewDiePie shouted me out – and those subscribers were earned on my own, after 5 years of running the channel. (1 year of running it well.)  Then all of a sudden, Intelligic overtakes Upload the Download 10 fold… and  I can’t help but feel like I don’t deserve it. But mostly…  if my channel continues to grow because of his boost – I feel as though I would forever be seen as someone who is only where he is because of someone else’s accomplishments.  Yes, I am very grateful to have been shouted out. I’m the one who signed up to the shotout competition (I didn’t expect to get anywhere with it, I figured there would be people who would see my post in the forum and check my channel out.) But at the same time, I feel pitied for being a small channel who was mentioned by the largest channel.

benIntelli

I got to work producing a thank you video, that video I uploaded the next day, I don’t know if he’s seen it or not.  But the response from my viewers has been very positive towards it.

Time to Shut Up

Well, I’ve been talking (writing) for a while now … and I haven’t exactly hit the points I was planning on hitting… but oh well, enough is enough.  Too many words! I’ll write another post later on how Control goes – maybe even an update on Scribble’s Notepad.

But until then, I’ll see you later!

Ben,

Halo 3 Skulls, Terminals, Tips and Tricks.

Hey everyone,

As most of you know I’m Ben and I’ve finished the fight on Heroic and have finished a few on Legendary in Co-op.

Obviously not as great as some people, but still.
I dare say a few people will be thinking, “Heroic??? Wimp!!!”
Others may be thinking, “Crap! I struggle with Easy!”

Anyhow.
If you can’t play the game on Easy then you cannot find any of the skulls.
UNLESS, you have a buddy that you can play the game with.
The skulls will be listed below by their location throughout the game.
Here I’m going to tell you where the campaign skulls are, where the terminals are, a few tips, and a few tricks.

SKULLS:
Skulls unlock new armor, and make the game tricker, and more fun for the player.
If you find all the skulls you unlock the Haybusa armor, which looks pretty sweet,.
To find these skulls you must be on either Normal, Heroic or Legendary. If you are on Easy you CANNOT find these skulls, they do not appear in Easy.
You MUST also start from the beginning of the level you CANNOT start from a Rally Point Alpha, Bravo etc.

Sierra 117- Blind
This first skull is at the start of level where the Phantoms bring in Covenant forces onto that small river bank.
First clear the area of all the enemies then head to the right end of the cliff, there will be a rock sticking out over the water, at the end of the rock is the skull, pick it up using the RB button.
Now it may seem like it does nothing, No achievement will be unlocked, this is normal.
Then to drop the skull press Y. You DON’T need to take the skull to the end of the level, once you’ve picked it up you’ve got it. If you want you can even save and quit. You’ll still have unlocked the skull.

Sierra 117- Iron
In the area where you rescue Johnston, head along the bridge where all the Grunts and Brutes are, at the end of this bridge hop up on a block, then on a brown pipe then up onto the platform that goes around the giant glass house. Follow this platform and hiding at the very end is the skull.

Crow’s Nest- Black Eye
At the start of this level when you don’t have a weapon yet head up the steps so that you are standing on the level with the locked door, turn around and their should be a green cage/weapon rack. Jump on it then turn right and jump up on the red metal bar, then up onto the grey concrete pipe. Walk along the pipe right to the end and there will be the Iron skull pick it up using the RB button. You DON’T need to take the skull to the end of the level, once you’ve picked it up you’ve got it. If you want you can even save and quit . You’ll still have unlocked the skull.

Crow’s Nest- Grunt’s Birthday Party
For this skull I recommend grabbing a grav lift from the room with the Grav Hammer Brute and using it here in case you struggle.
The skull is in the weird black tubed place where the drones are flying across the room from one hole to another. Now the skull is underneath you, it is underneath the metal floor you are standing on, head to the end of the room where you are about to drop down to meet the arbiter. (unless you are playing on co-op he’ll be there) There are two ways to get this skull.
The first way is to keep to the wall as you drop down the hole at the end of the room,
The second way is to jump down the hole, find where the opening is above you then use the grav lift to get up there.
It’s your choice which one you choose to do.
Once in the opening the skull will be at the end of the passage.

Tsavo Highway- Tough Luck
When you get to the broken road where you have to leave your Warthog behind head back to the big pipe on the side of the road.
Jump up on the pipe and follow it along till you get to a yellow fence in your way, jump over this fence then jump down onto the platform below on your left. You may die a few times, try landing in different spots on the platform, you’ll get it.
Once on the platform head along it and to your left there is a big rock with the skull sitting on it, jump across to the skull and pick it up, there you go, Tough Luck.
Now unfortunately, you can’t get back up after getting this skull, so you must jump off the edge, don’t worry you won’t lose the skull, but you may lose your dignity.

The Storm- Catch
After beating all the Covenant forces in the building with the Warthog you drive out into an area with an Anti-Air Wraithand heaps of Ghosts.
There is a round building at the end near the Anti-Air Wraith that looks like a hugh water tank.
Now this can be painful to get while being attacked from behind so try to clear the area first, you need to drive the Warthog up to the water tank thing and jump on top of it, then onto the building. You may even need to get a ghost and drive it onto the Warthog to make it higher.
When driving the ghost onto the Warthog hold down A and boost, that should make it easier.
This can be a frustrating skull to get, If you can manage to highjack a Wraith you can use that to get up there too.

Floodgate- Fog
You have to be quick for this one, the skull jumps over you when you head back down into the buildings . The thing that’s carrying it is a flood.
If you get your Battlerifle and zoom in to the top of the building on your right you’ll see him as you go into the city.
He’ll run accross and jump, you have to shoot him at the right moment otherwise the skull will be stuck on top of the roof. As he is in midair is a goodtime to shoot, just before he jumps is also a good time. This is another skull that can be frustrating get.
Keep at it though.

The Ark- Famine
This is without a doubt the most annoying skulls that I had to claim, it took me countless attempts. After you’ve been in the area with the big door and the sentals and had the Pelican come to the platform with Johnston saying, “Follow my Pelican cheif, I’ll show you the way,”
Follow his Pelican and beat the two Ghosts in the next area, try not to destroy the ghosts, just kill the grunts driving them.
Now see that big platform above you that looks like the one in the last area? Up there is the skull, but you need either ghosts, plasma or spike grenades, a chopper or a deployable cover to get it.
So go up onto the platform, If you drive around past where it says, “Checkpoint . . . done” there is a spot where you can jump up on a large rock then walk up the slope and jump across to the platform, you can also drive the Ghost up there using boost and hold A and boost to make the jump.
The skull is at the far left side, opposite to where you just climbed up, it is hiding in the support beam coming from the top of the platform, you should see it, it’s pretty easy to spot.
Using grenade jump you’ll have to line yourself up on an angle, throw a grenade down and jump in the air as the grenade goes off. This can take a long time to get it right so alot of jumping back to the last save will be needed.
Using Ghosts, drive the two Ghosts that you fought below up onto the platform, park one Ghost on the slope right next to the support pillar with the skull on it, then park the other Ghost carefully on top. Jump on the top Ghost and jump across to the skull, again, this may take some time. And alot of climbing back up, and falling back down.
Using a Chopper, if you can manage to get a Chopper up there it makes it easier, no stacking, just parking and jumping.
Using a deployable cover, if you place it in the right spot you can jump on it and leap across to the skull.
This is a tricky skull to get, to don’t give up!

The Ark- Cowbell
After you’ve beaten the Scarab in the hugh area go into the building near where the Scarab was, inside there is a Chopper, and a few grav lifts, grab one of these grav lifts, you’ll need it.
Now head through into the building, at one point you head down into a room full of Brutes, if you look up before turning the U turn corner you’ll see openings, in the wall above you, use the grav lift to get to the top opening, There’s the skull, enjoy. If you don’t get it on the first try just keep going back to the checkpoint by going Start-Load Last Save.

The Covenant- Thunderstorm
Once your up to the part where you drive the Hornet go to the place that the Elites previously were, it’s the building on the cliff face to your right when you take off.
Land your Hornet and go up the ramp to the top and the skull will be at the end sitting there for you. If you’re interested there is also a Terminal in the building as well. Be sure to check out the Terminals section of this post.

The Covenant- IWHBYD (I Would Have Been Your Daddy)
After stopping Truth from firing the rings clear the area of the Flood, it makes it a hole lot easier.
Now the big glowing rings are actually a type of combination lock.
The ring closest to Truth is number 7 and the ring at the other end near the elevator is number 1. The 1st and 2nd ring you don’t even need to use! The rings go like this:

{ELEVATOR}-O-O-|-|-O-O-O-|-|-O-O–{TRUTH}
—————-1-2—–3–4-5—–6-7————-

First thing before you go jumping, you jump onto the block then jump right through the ring, secondly you always jump through the ring facing towards the Truth.
The order of the rings that you jump through is 4654534.
Remember to jump through the ring always facing in the direction of where the Truth was, this doesn’t mean jumping backwards, this means jumping forwards through the ring.

Cortana- Tilt
Again, an annoying one to get.
In the second large room where you fight the flood, the one that has the glass floor that you can see Brutes and cloaking belowyou. Clear the room of Flood first so that it’s easier.
Head over to a small purple stand, jump on it and you should see what looks like fungi above you, jump onto it, then jump up onto another fungi, then across to another fungi platform, then along a long skin coloured tube onto the big purple platform, on the platform are human remains with the Tilt skull.

Halo- Mythic
At the beginning of the level you will walk into a big ice cave, if you follow the wall to your right you will find a small passage leading to the Mythic skull. This is the easiest skull to get.

Congratulations! That’s all of the skulls!!!

TERMINALS
These terminals are weird, there are seven of them and they are on 3 maps only, The Ark, The Covenant and Halo.
Once you find them all there is an Xbox achievement, that’s all really.
Before we begin you have to remember that when looking at the terminals you must wait until the second lot of text comes up after the console flashes red.
I’ll explain again simpler, so go to the Terminal, hold RB to read it, there will be a page or so of text, then text will turn to code and the terminal will turn red, DON’T PRESS B YET wait until a new screen of text comes up before exiting.

The Ark

-TERMINAL 1-
After beating the Hunters you go up the cliff into the building, turn left instead of continuing down the hallway and the terminal will be in that room.

-TERMINAL 2-
After activating the weird energy bridge to let the tanks and Warthogs across the gap turn around, the terminal is directly infront of you.

-TERMINAL 3-
After being in the room with the sleeping Grunts you will come to an area with a ramp leading down to your left and an unlocked door in front of you. Go down the ramp and underneath the ramp is a door leading into a small room, the terminal is in there.

The Covenant

-TERMINAL 4-
In the first tower when you are on the elevator about to go upstairs look to your right and their is an area, jump across to this area and the terminal is here.

-TERMINAL 5-
When you get into the Hornet fly straight over to the building on the cliff to your right, the one that the Elites were at. Get out of the Hornet and go inside, the terminal is in there.
This is the same building that the Thunderstorm skull is on.

-TERMINAL 6-
In the last tower, the one that Johnston failed to de-activate stand on the elevator, just like you did for terminal 4 and there should be a small area to your Left that you jump accross to. The terminal is there.

Halo

-TERMINAL 7-
Once you exit the ice cave at the start if you stick to the right and go along the cliff there is a small hole in the ice, Cortana will say, “Where are you going?”
Go inside and there is a Terminal, Cortana will say, “Wait, what’s that?”
and, “How many of these have you found?”

Congratulations, that’s all the terminals and the Marathon Man achievement.

Tips:When playing online try to keep a stock of Plasma or Spike grenades handy, you can even the fight if you are about to die by taking your opponent with you, if you are running out of shield and you are close to them throw the grenade on them, you will die, but they will die too.

When playing either online or offline you can combine melee and shooting to strengthen yourself. In campaign Brutes can be taken out by shooting them then punching them by pressing B. In online play players can be killed the same way, also melee comes in handy if you are reloading.

When versing the Flood melee works well, but melee does not work so well against the wall shooters, so try not to carry melee only weapons, I find carrying a Needler does really well, but nothing beats it more than dual Plasma Rifles. Dual Plasma rifles slaughter the flood, and they aren’t melee.I finished Cortana a lot easier with them.

You can survive a lot longer by jumping around, online and in campaign, If you’re running out of shield jump around and get to cover, or if your good enough with your controls and looking you can jump all the time and shoot while jumping around.

Press start and go Settings-Game-Controls-Look Sensitivity
Changing it to 10 (INSANE) makes it quicker when you look around, this can take some time to get use to but makes you a lot more powerful and more quicker online and in campaign.

Incase anyone was wondering this symbol (to the left) appears next to some peoples names when playing online. This just means that the player has logged into the Bungie website with their Hotmail account.
You to can log into the website using your Hotmail account that you used to make your Xbox live account. Try it, there;s pretty cool stuff there.

TRICKS
I’ve found great use of the marines and elites on campaign, you can swap weapons with them right? Well!
I go around and collect stronger weapons and give them to my allies.
For example on The Covenant instead of using the Spartan Laser that you are given at the start of the level I gave it to an ODST troop, firstly he probably has better aim with that thing than I do, and secondly in his hands it will never run out of ammo.
Normally the Spartan Laser only has 5 shots, using 20 charges per shot. But with an ally holding it it lasts forever. I drove around in a Warthog with the ODST Spartan Laser troop in the passenger seat and he took out the Wraiths, Prowlers. Then when I went in the Hornet he took out a few Banshees and an Anti-Air Wraith.
Then I gave Brute shots to all the elites and gave a Fuel Rod to one of them, but enough about that.
Here’s something to remember though, Marines and ODST will not take alien weapons except for Plasma Pistols, Needlers and I think Carbines and Plasma Rifles.
Elites take practically any weapon you want to give to them.
There are 3 ‘cheats’ to Halo 3, I call them ‘Cheats’ because they aren’t really cheats at all, they are things the developers would have used during the game when testing it and stuff.

The first one hides your weapon from your view, everyone else can see it, but you cant.
To do this press and hold down LB, RB, LS, A and Down (D-Pad)

The next one shows coordinates, so basically grid location on the map.
To do this press and hold down LB, RB , LS , A +and Up (D-Pad)

And this next one only works if you have coordinates on, it changes the mode of the coordinates.
To do this press and hold down LS, RS and Press Left (D-Pad)

Thanks for reading the post people!
Be sure to get updates and more stuff
on Halo 3 in the near future.
I’ll be sticking some of my Halo 3 maps on here for you to see soon.

Until next time,

Ben A Ball, out.

Welcome To Ben A Ball Gamers Spot!

Hey everybody!Welcome to Ben A Ball Gamers Spot where you can play games, review games, talk about Xbox 360, Xbox and Wii games.

My biggest gaming this year has been in Halo 3 and shortly will also be Halo ODST, so you can be sure to get quite alot on these two games until further on.

Enjoy!

Ben A Ball,

 

RuneScape Money Tip

Hey, wanna hear a making money secret?

First go to the grand exchange and buy 200 dry clay. You heard me right. Buy the clay.
Now go and make this clay soft clay with buckets or bowls in Varrock at the Eastern Bank.
Fill up the bowls or buckets by going to the fountain nearby filling the bowls up then banking them.
Make the soft clay and go back to the Grand Exchange.
Sell your clay and you will get twice the amount of money that you payed for them.

Happy Making!

RuneScape Update

New RuneScape Update!

 

RuneScape has been updated! 
Members can now play in HD (High Definition) and the map and players have been updated as well!
All the emotes have updated as well.
 
Look at that! 

Pretty Cool Aye.
Amazing, what is next?
Thanks!
 
Ben.
All Images from RuneScape.com.