Author: Tim Gaydos

The term “casual gamer” is pretty self-explanatory and benign on the surface. These are people who just play games casually. People who don’t necessarily want to invest huge amounts of time to the hobby, or make long term commitments to a specific game or genre. Unlike “hardcore gamers” who view games as something to master and perfect, casual gamers seem them simply as a fun way to pass time when there aren’t more important things to do. Kind of like how Taylor Swift views boyfriends. However, within the gaming community there are few terms used as dismissively as casual gamer…

I have never been to any kind of Comi-Con, which has been a huge blight on my geek cred. I’d tell myself it wasn’t a big deal, that conventions are more money-sucking machines trying to make a profit than places for a community to gather and bond. But while that isn’t exactly wrong, it was also a convenient way to not feel left out, to convince myself I wasn’t missing out on something cool. I’m pretty good at self-delusion. But then Wizard World announced they were coming to Cleveland, and I finally had my chance. Travel and lodging wouldn’t be…

I’ve talked before about Silicon Valley’s obsession with disruption, and how when it can’t find real issues to innovate solutions to, it tends to try and improve simple services and tasks by adding complicated T-Rex math. Well, the tech industry is at it again, this time upending the dating industry. You might think I’m talking about some new dating app, maybe one that matches you based on the number of Forever Alone jokes you make in a day. But dating apps are so two minutes ago. No, now Silicon Valley is just going to be your girlfriend or boyfriend for you. That’s…

Anyone who has even a passing interest in video games heard that this past Christmas was just the worst Christmas ever. A hacker group called Lizard Squad (allegedly) attacked both Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network and brought their servers down for the entire day (and then some). This led to the most first-world-problem crisis of recent memory as players in the gaming community collectively lost their shit over the inability to play games online and call each other racial slurs. Servers going down is not a new annoyance, and it will certainly happen again. But after seeing how freaked out…

It is an understatement of almost irresponsible proportions to say that video games have changed over the course of the medium’s history. This is Big Bang Theory-joke-writing level of obvious. The graphics have improved immensely. Arcades, once a vital and necessary component of playing games, are mostly irrelevant. The actual gameplay has improved, and the controls needed to interact have mutated countless times. Storytelling and narrative are expected as a norm now, as opposed to being a unique exception, and it is easier than ever to argue that video games are an art form. But the most important change has come…

This article originally appears at SkobeTV and has been reprinted here with permission from the author. Christmas is here! It seems like only five months ago the department stores were rolling out their Christmas merchandise, and Christmas music already began taking over the radio. My, how the time has flown! Yes, the patented Most Wonderful Time of the Year has come, and for the kids that means Santa Claus. For most children, that is Christmas. A man giving you free toys and all you have to give him in return are token attempts at being nice for a month and a few cookies?…

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Note: This post is written with the assumption the reader has watched season eight in its entirety. Spoilers, Sweetie. The eighth season of the revived Doctor Who concluded Saturday night, which means it’s the time of year so many Who fans look forward to most: arguing over the merits of the finale and the season at large. So allow me to throw my hat into the ring very much on the side of this season being a success, and with the exception of the fifth season, my favorite overall season since the show’s return. The season promoted this new Doctor as…

You may remember me flipping out about the prospect of a Pokémon fighting game a couple of months ago. Well I’m over it (not really though, please send me to Japan). As fantastic an idea as that is, I just found something that is going to blow it out of the water like a Magikarp being hit with a Hyper Beam. Let me introduce you to Pokémon Insurgence. Insurgence is literally a dream come true for every single Pokémon fan, because it isn’t an official Game Freak game. It’s 100% fan-made, which means there is no incentive to hold back on…

Geek War is a semi-regular dueling column between Tim Gaydos and Linton Lewis, where they argue over pop culture with varying degrees of intensity. For the last decade and a half, the found-footage genre has become one of the most visible forms of horror for the movie-going public. It skyrocketed after its use in the indie film The Blair Witch Project to become a mainstream mainstay in films like the Paranormal Activity series (four films and a spin off and counting), Cloverfield and V/H/S. Obviously people like it. But there are plenty of critics as well, who see it as a…