Gamer Grrlz

The Great Gamer Grrlz Swag Bag Giveaway

You know what’s the great thing about being media in a fan event? First, swag. Second, more swag. At this year’s almost-all-media E3 2010, it was tough getting my hands on any real bulk of giveaway items. They all required doing demos, which took hours of standing in line, and that can be hard to sandwich in when you have an appointment every other hour! But at this year’s PAX, I was able to not only take in a lot more demos, upping the potential for swag, but my magic yellow badge also got me extras of just about everything I (shamelessly) asked for. And now I’m giving it back to you guys, in my epic swag giveaway!

The first package contains a Sonic the Hedgehog lanyard, a set of stickers and a bandz bracelet from Okamiden, an Epic Mickey pin featuring the logo, a Hunted temporary tattoo, a set of four Bethesda postcards featuring scenes from Hunted, RAGE, Fallout: New Vegas, and Brink, a Portal 2 iPhone skin, a pin from Lord of the Rings: War in the North, a LEGO Universe beta key with a promotional figurine, a set of five Valkyria Chronicles II pins and a patch from Kirby’s Epic Yarn. All of this will be packaged up in a powder blue drawstring bag from Dragon Quest IX! The second pack, pictured below, features the Sonic the Hedgehog lanyard, Epic Mickey pin, Kirby’s Epic Yarn patch, Okamiden stickers and bandz bracelet, and the Valkyria Chronicles II pins, all in a green tote from FanGamer.

To enter, simply leave a comment below through DISQUS, using a real email address that I can reach you at in the event you win. The contest ends when we reach 100 comments, so be sure to promote the link to get others to enter (comments are currently set to moderate, so please, bear that in mind and only leave one message). Only one entry per person. Contest limited to the US, UK, and Canada. Winners will be chosen at random, old school name in a hat style.

Check back in soon for reviews and first impressions of several titles from PAX 2010, including Portal 2, Civilization V, Fluidity, Fallout: New Vegas, and more.

And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter; I have an Okamiden bandz, a Kirby’s Epic Yarn patch, a set of Valkyria Chronicles II pins, and a Behemoth lanyard to give away in the upcoming days.

Good luck!

(Belatedly) Introducing Scarlet Pirate!

I sense danger

Yaaaaa so this post is about two weeks late. Better late than never, right? Besides, I’m sure you’re more interested in the actual news. My ~~shy~~ ~~quiet~~ ~~meek~~ daily identity is Emily, but I prefer my alter ego, Scarlet Pirate. Emily works a boring desk job; Scarlet Pirate dresses like a whore and dances on poles. But not for money…except that one time….

Alter egos have more fun.

I have been gaming for like, ever. I was born the same year as the Nintendo and I can’t think of any point my life we didn’t have a console. I wasn’t very good at the twitchy games, but I really got addicted when I started playing RPGs. Shadowrun on the Genesis is the first game I really remember playing and loving; my husband played the opening midi music for it, and I knew what it was immediately without looking. And for the record, there are NO other Shadowrun video games, and if you dare speak blasphemy in my presence, prepareth to be slappeth’d.

I also remember logging in hours and hours on Link’s Awakening on the original Gameboy. Nasty, green screen, shaped-like-a-brick Gameboy. To this day I can still recite, purely from memory, the “side quest” items needed to complete the game. First you get the Yoshi doll from the crane machine, and when you give it to the baby you get a hair bow….

Slime earrings: +1 to Defense

I currently have a DS, XBOX 360, PSP, PS2, and a Wii, plus a lot of the older consoles stored away. I’m currently addicted to Dragon Quest IX if you haven’t noticed, along with Red Dead Redemption on the XBOX and I’m debating playing Persona on the PSP.

I’m currently looking forward to Fallout: New Vegas (though I know Badfish isn’t impressed that Felicia Day is in it), and Diablo III, if it actually comes out this year. I also want Dead Rising 2 and I hope this time I can read the text. I even had a wide screen TV, and it still sucked. It was ridiculous. Oh and Fable III. Bring on the pie.

My Steampunk wedding. You can see my metal wings.

I have my own blog about British Television at Queen’s Forgotten Children but I’ve focused on helping Badfish over here so I don’t post often (not like I did before anyway). You can follow me on Twitter under BritsAndBobs and if you really like me, you can catch me on Facebook. My husband and I also share an Etsy Shop and we’re currently stocking up on some geeky goodies.

Thank you all for following Gamer Grrlz; I hope we can put a stop to the stupid assumption that girls don’t game. Or at least make nasty, snide remarks along the way!

On The Scene At Portland’s Dragon Quest IX Event

This Saturday, Nintendo released a map for Dragon Quest IX for the first time in America, and your very own Scarlet Pirate (that’s me!) was there for the occasion. I started this adventure with a trip to my personal make up artist, Marsina McCall, my sister in law. “Make me look like a crazy anime girl,” I told her. As you can see she hit it spot on. (I’m the one on the left. She knew I was coming in and she said she was inspired to do anime eyes for herself that day too.)

The event started at 1 and I was there maybe ten minutes after it started. I figured there would be maybe a few people, and I’d be there for maybe 30 minutes tops.

This was the scene I walked into. There was at least 15 people there already, all intensely focused on their DS. It turns out when you canvass, you can only tag 3 people at a time (someone guessed that it had to do with the multiplayer system set up for a maximum of three people playing at once). So we had to tag our 3 people, exit the menu, leave the inn, come back, start canvass again….it was a long process. I was dual wielding DS’ too, one for myself and one for my hubby out on the river that day.

Everyone was really friendly and it didn’t take us long to start talking nerdy. We compared notes on our party vocations, our favorite maps, and how frustrating some of the quests were (damn you armamentalist class!)

I think most of us got to about 15 canvassed guests pretty quickly, and then we had to wait. The inn was considered “complete” once you hit 30 guests. We’d walk around the store waving our DS like it was a tricorder, hoping to pick up a missed connection. Oh, the waiting. After a while we started migrating towards the door, eager for another person to show up. Someone would walk into the store, look down to set up their DS, then look back up, horrified at 15+ people standing, staring, waiting for that next hit—I mean tag.

Here are some of the poor suckers I got to take pictures with me. I bee-lined when I saw someone else with a woot shirt. The full shirt reads “Race for a Cure for Something. Children or Africa Maybe.” I had on the Drunken Cloud Puking Rainbows shirt from woot on (not sure if that’s the official name).

This was the poor store rep that tried to do business while we stood around like predators. He had to shoo us away from the door on a few occasions just so normal customers could come in. Not that you could call too many of them “normal.”

I had to have a picture of the mighty mighty mustache. I told him he looked like he came straight out of Red Dead Redemption. Thankfully he took it as the compliment it was, though I must imagine, when you’re wearing skinny jeans, a belt buckle, and that mustache, that’s kinda the point.

This was Cubby. I’ll have you know this is what she looked like the entire time, that isn’t a face that says “who the fuck is this crazy bitch?!” Okay, maybe it was, point is she gave me permission to take the picture.

These two ladies are employees from the Pioneer Square Gamestop. I asked them why the event wasn’t there, which is right in downtown Portland, instead of the 82nd Avenue location, which is pretty much close to BFN. They didn’t know why either, their store even sold the most copies of the game. The girl on the right was also dual wielding DS, one for herself and one for her friend. You can see us ladies take our responsibilities very seriously.

This cutie is Zak, who is a diehard Dragon Quest fan. He won one of the slime shirts they were handing out, I think on cuteness alone. He was also one of the youngest people there, instead of the rest of us that have day jobs and responsibility and such. At least he has a good reason to still have his virginity (not that I asked, just so you know). We talked for a while about our vocations and skills; he was probably one of the most knowledgeable people there. (Bad Fish note: and um hello! That shirt! Is this kid up for adoption?)

The look of confusion on my face is from the camera. It isn’t my normal camera and sometimes it would take forever to take a picture. This was after about 20 seconds of waiting on it, when I said “what the hell” and then it snapped the picture. I have to leave this picture in though, since the shirt is simply awesome. Here’s a close up.

Get it? Right angles, triangle, something that looks suspiciously like math class. Give up? It’s the hypota-moose of the triangle. GROAN!

All in all it was a pretty good event. We all got our 30 guests, we got quite a few maps, and some free swag. The next event is next Saturday, August 7th at Best Buy, but the closest one here is in Salem. Really? Salem? It’s about an hour away and there’s nothing there. The population is going to double just from the nerds. They probably panic, thinking we’ll “hack the interwebs” and set off nuclear missiles or something.

God help Salem.

Free Treasure Map For Dragon Quest IX At Gamestop 7/31; Best Buy 8/7

This Saturday, July 31st, Gamestop is hosting an event from 1pm to 4pm. You’ll be able to watch live demos (first one’s always free), get assistance with walkthroughs (because even the best of us get stuck), and play with other Dragon Quest addicts using the rich multiplayer options. The topper on this crack encrusted cake is they will be debuting the treasure map “Zoma” for the first time in America.

Lather, rinse, and repeat for the Best Buy event on the next Saturday, August 7th, except they will release the treasure map “Estark,” again for the first time in America.

Simon Malls will feature several events, starting August 7th and going until September 19th, with the map “Malroth.” Check out for Nintendo’s site for the complete listing. It looks like they start out in Boston and make their way westward.

These are special maps that house extra difficult monsters, but that means extra awesome drops. You get the maps by connecting to a friend who has completed the map already using the Canvass mode. You will need to unlock Quester’s Rest in Stornway to be able to use the multiplayer options, but that’s the second town you reach after starting the storyline. I think I feel the 24hr bug coming on, cough cough.

The closest the Simon Malls gets to me is California, and I’m not much of a road trip person. I guess I’ll just have to get it by proxy, just like every other social disease.

[Nintendo]

Dragon Crack IX: Sentinels Steal My Sleep

So does everyone else have a life since the release of Dragon Quest IX? Nah, me neither.

In this video, Yuji Horii talks about his trip to New York and the unique multiplayer in a creepy, English dubbed voice. Shudder. Have fun trying to sleep tonight.

[Joystiq]