A4
Sun Spread
Mt. Carmel SUN
Mt. Carmel SUN
October 2, 2009
The Guitar Hero: Shaun Boley
KEVIN LAGE
SPORTS EDITOR
When most people
think of the song,
“Through the Fire and
the Flames” they think of
the lyrics and the rhythm,
however when senior
Shaun Boley thinks of it,
the first thing that pops
in his head are green, red,
yellow, blue and orange.
While some people
get excited when they
think of the release of a
new movie, Boley gets
excited when he hears of
the release of the latest
version of Rock Band or
Guitar Hero.
“These games are
better than other video
games because you get
to listen to good music
and utilize a skill while
playing,” Boley said. “It
also feels good when you
finally beat a hard song.”
Even though Boley is
really into playing these
games, he doesn’t let it
affect his schoolwork.
“I try to always
stay focused and do
my
homework
first,
but sometimes I get
distracted,”
he
said.
“Part of the reason I love
the games is that unlike
other games, you can just
The WoW Fiend: Jesse Liang
KELLY FAN
STAFF WRITER
take a quick homework
break and finish a song
before going back to your
homework.”
While some musicians
believe that Guitar Hero
and Rock Band are just
for fake guitar players,
Boley is attempting to
master both the real guitar
and the virtual one.
“I bought a guitar,
but never actually learned
fully,” he said. “However
I would like to learn in the
near future.”
The signs are ominous: teenagers holing
up in their rooms, oblivious to everything
but the glowing screens of their monitors,
oftentimes accompanied by a disinterest
in food and sleep. It must be a World of
Warcraft addiction.
WoW is a massively multiplayer online
role-playing game, commonly abbreviated
MMORPG, and is a virtual universe that
has attracted millions of players all over the
world.
One such player is senior Jesse Liang,
who manages to find time for WoW despite
schoolwork.
“I play whenever I want,” he said.
“Pretty much every day I put in a few hours.
I just have to move my school work around
so that I can finish my school work.”
Introduced at an early age to the
MMORPG world, Liang prefers WoW for
several reasons, including the game’s clearcut objective and storyline.
Gamer Stats
Preferred game: RB2
Preferred console: PS3
Favorite song: “Bloodmeat”
Highest score: 1020000
AVG time to beat a game: 2-3 days
Fastest time to beat a game: 6 hrs
Money spent: $900
The Noob: Mr. Kris Hizal
JAY HUEY
STAFF WRITER
In the left corner of his classroom is a
mural consisting of Beatles posters and framed
photographs. He says that there isn’t a single
Beatles song he doesn’t know by heart.
When he heard the news of the release
of Rock Band: Beatles, AP US Government
teacher Kris Hizal was convinced on buying
a Wii that he had been denying his two boys
for many years.
“I kept saying no, but when I heard Rock
Band: Beatles came out, I told my wife, ‘Hey,
maybe we need to get a Wii!’ She just slapped
me.”
Hizal says he purchased the game not
“WoW has a clearly defined goal,
which makes it easier to work towards that
goal,” Liang said. “I also play to get the best
set of equipment, or to create the perfect
character.”
Despite his fondness for WoW, Liang is
still able to prioritize his hobbies and work.
“These games are fun, they are a great
stress reliever, but you shouldn’t spend too
much time on them,” Liang said.
Gamer Stats
Realm: Tichondrius
Faction: Horde
Race: Orc
Class: Hunter
Profession:
Leatherworking/skinning
Months on WoW: 10
Money spent: $100
The Gamer Chick: Heidi Dotimas
only because he’s such a huge Beatles fan, but
it also provides him with the fantasy of being
on stage as someone people looked up to.
“It’s also the idea that as a kid, I dreamed
of being a rock star,” Hizal said. “Rock Band
kind of allowed me to be one without really
having any musical talent at all.”
When Hizal and his children played Rock
Band: Beatles for the first time, he says his
two boys got a kick out of watching him.
“I play with my sons Daniel and Keith.
They laugh at me really badly, I didn’t know
I was supposed to strum and push the colored
buttons at the same time.”
Considering that Hizal only got 18
percent on his first try, it would be fair to call
him a “Noob.”
ANGELA KIM
COPY EDITOR
As many people will confess, “girl
gamers” are often stereotyped as noobish, wannabe-gamers who mess it up for
their teammates.
Junior Heidi Dotimas, part of clan
called “The Greenhouse Tribe” on the
first person shooter games Team Fortress
Two and Left 4 Dead, expresses how she
deals with the stereotype.
“One thing that video games changed
in me is that I became more defensive,”
she said. “I learned how to defend myself,
because I’d get a lot of insults…People
would say bad things about me and I can
take it.”
Dotimas tries to keep a “professional
air” by practicing five hours with her
clan on weekends (though practicing
is currently on hiatus) and maintaining
Gamer Stats
Preferred console: Wii
Money spent: $149.99 plus tax
Worst score: 18% (“I Saw Her Standing There” on Easy)
Best score: 87% (“Fixing the Whole” on Easy)
her web identity. By taking her games
seriously, she also developed a close
bond with her teammates.
“We had a really close knit
relationship,” she said. “We were online
friends for a long time… members from
the East Coast came over our side, but we
never got each other’s numbers to hang
out in person.”
Dotimas will resume her gaming once
she replaces her computer and continues
to keep in touch with her team.
Gamer Stats
Preferred platform: PC
TF2 side: Blu
TF2 class: Spy
Time spent on TF2: 21 hrs/wk
L4D character: Zoey
Time spent on L4D: 7 hrs/wk
ALL PHOTOS BY MARY CARMEN GONZALEZ | PHOTO EDITOR
ALL ART BY MELANIE DICKINSON | CENTERSPREAD EDITOR
The App Whore: Ryan Enshaie
JORDAN UGALDE
STAFF WRITER
With the advent of the iTouch and
iPhone came applications for almost
any occasion, whether it be SAT prep or
guitar tuning, or just a game for when
one is bored.
Junior Ryan Enshaie has over 10
pages of apps (16 apps on each page),
most of which are games to keep
himself entertained.
One of Enshaie’s favorite app that
he had to pay for is iShoot because of
the destructive force he commands by
playing a tank.
“In iShoot, you can blow up
anything you want on the screen,”
Enshaie said.
Among his favorite free apps
is Jelly Car, which he enjoys for its
puzzle-like qualities.
“You play as a jello-like car that
must squeeze into small places and
enlarge yourself when needed to
complete the levels,” Enshaie said.
The main reason he loves apps so
much is because they help waste time
when there’s time to waste.
“They’re a good way to kill time in
class as long as you don’t get caught,”
Enshaie said.
Gamer Stats
Platform: iTouch
Favorite app: Pocket God
Number of apps total: 163
Money spent: over $100
AVG class time spent playing
app games: about 20 minutes
per period
A5
The Retro Gamer: Raymond Remigio
DENNIS SUN
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
Some games are so archetypal that they never grow
too old to be enjoyable. Junior Raymond Remigio finds
Nintendo to be a great video game company through
the ages.
“Right now, I’m still playing a whole bunch of
Pokemon, Mario, Kirby…Basically, I’ve been with
Nintendo since I was born,” Remigio said.
Remigio still plays games he considers to be
Nintendo classics on one of the first video game consoles
developed by Nintendo.
“Well, the Nintendo Entertainment System came
out in the ‘80s, and the games I’ve played for it are, of
course, the ever-classic Mario series, and the occasional
Kirby games which pop up from time to time,” Remigio
said.
“I actually still play on my NES, even though it’s 20
years old now, because the games – they’re just classics.
They’re the kind of games that everyone wants to play,
or follow the series.”
Remigio compares the feeling to the experience felt
by any other exciting story.
“It’s like after you read a good book or watch a good
TV show, Remigio said. “You like it so much that you
want to go through the experience of reliving it again.”
Gamer Stats
Preferred platform: Super
Nintendo
Preferred developer: Nintendo
Money spent on games: Over
$1000 for sure
Favorite series: Pokemon
Favorite Pokemon: Gengar
Favorite retro game: Super
Mario World