Since Rock Band 3 will be coming out soon I’ve been making the necessary switch from focusing most of my time on Street Fighter to now focusing on Green Day: Rock Band. I really enjoyed this version of Rock Band since I’ve been wanting to see Green Day songs in Rock Band since Rock Band 1.

Due to the popularity of my Beatles Rock Band post I wrote last year on the gold star cut offs I’ve decided to dedicate another post to Green Day Rock Band gold stars exclusively. Here you’ll find my pictures of the songs I’ve gold starred as well as videos if I can get them uploaded.

Feel free to ask me any questions you may have and if you have a request for a video that I haven’t yet posted please feel free to comment below and I’ll get to you as soon as I can! Thanks!

StarSlay3r- GD: Rock Band Song: “Basket Case” 100% Full Combo Gold Stars from Ciji Thornton on Vimeo.

StarSlay3r- GD: Rock Band Song: “Murder City” 100% Full Combo Gold Stars from Ciji Thornton on Vimeo.

StarSlay3r- GD: Rock Band Song: “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” 100% Full Combo Gold Stars from Ciji Thornton on Vimeo.

StarSlay3r- GD: Rock Band Song: “Burnout” 100% Full Combo Gold Stars from Ciji Thornton on Vimeo.

StarSlay3r- GD: Rock Band Song: “In The End” 100% Full Combo Gold Stars from Ciji Thornton on Vimeo.

Maybe you’ve heard of “that 14 year old kid that kicks everyone’s ass at Street Fighter”, but you’ve never known what his name is… well it’s Joshua Spoon and this “kid” is a Street Fighter prodigy that has been taking the fighting community by storm lately. After starting to play SF4 on a serious level only 9 months ago, he is already placing top 8 in tournaments, giving the top players a run for their money and is definitely a player that everyone should keep a close eye on! Here’s a video of Josh “RagingravenSRK” Spoon in action at the Lake Erie Summer Slam SSF4 tournament from a couple months ago.



Name: Joshua Spoon

Gamer Tag: RagingravenSRK

Age: 14

Location: Knoxville, TN.

Preferred Console: Xbox 360

Did you always have a passion for gaming (grew up gaming), or was that something that developed later in life?: I’ve had a passion for gaming since I first picked up a controller! I was around 3-4 when I first played a video game, it was Super Mario Brothers on the NES, since then I’ve owned a ton of consoles and have been addicted for a long time.

When did you decide that you were ready to compete in tournaments?: It wasn’t necessarily a matter of thinking I was good enough to compete, it just sounded fun to do, I went to my first tournament sometime around December of 2009 and just had a lot of fun, so I’ve continued to compete.



When did you start playing SF4?: I got Street Fighter IV the same month that it came out, I was really bad and didn’t really know anything about what was going on, about 3-4 months later my friend introduced me to the competitive scene (I never entered anything, but I was always reading about Daigo and Justin), so I was interested in it and started learning the game on what was still a casual level, I suppose I only started taking the game seriously around November or December of last year.

What character do you play as in SSF4 and why did you choose him/her?: I use Rufus! He is really the only character that fits my style 100%, he is a complete rushdown character! Well, not entirely, but he is the closest thing to it

What are you currently playing?: Outside of SSF4 of course, I have been working on completing Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2. (these games are AWESOME!)

How many hours a week do you spend gaming?: Entirely too much, on average about 20, but if I’m preparing for a tournament I play around 40, it can really turn into a full time job if you want to be at a high level.

How often do you compete?: As often as possible, here over the past few months I have been attending at least 1 tournament a month.



What do you enjoy most about competing?: The competition, it’s just fun to always be against good players, I am always learning something new at tournaments, which helps me to improve.

What was your hardest competition to date and why?: Final Round 13 in Atlanta, this was my second tournament and it just so happened to be a tournament with 200+ people, it was definitely a wake up call, at this point I just wasn’t prepared, I didn’t even have a character that was my main, I ended up placing 129th which was really upsetting, since then I’ve prepared myself for tournaments a lot more.

Where would you like to see yourself go in the Video games industry? Do you want to have more involvement such as creating games or do you just want to play them as a profession?: Well, I would like to become one of the top players in the U.S in SSF4, but it’s going to take a long time, I doubt I will ever really choose gaming as a career path, just a hobby.

Being so awesome at SF at such a young age is a HUGE advantage. Do you think you’ll follow in Justin Wong’s footsteps to be the next consistent top fighter in the US?: I hope so, I’m going to try hard to get to where he is, it’s not an easy thing to do though!



Since you’re still in school, do your parents ever give you a hard time about playing video games a lot, or do they support you?: My parents are really supportive of it, I’m always approached by people telling me “Your parents are awesome for taking you to these events!” I suppose I just recently realized how awesome it is, my parents are AWESOME!

Do you think that being high level at such a young age is an advantage or disadvantage, and why?: It’s both an advantage and a disadvantage, it’s an advantage because at such a young age I still have a long time to learn and improve, it is a disadvantage because it makes it much more difficult to travel.

Do you currently have any sponsors?: Nope, not planning on having any either!

What event can we watch you beat down the competition at next?: Aside from some local tournaments, I will be at Seasons Beatings 5 in Ohio! That’s going to be in October.

Do you have any social networking sites that people can go to if they want to contact you?: http://www.facebook.com/RagingravenSRK or you can contact me on XBL which is RagingravenSRK

Thank you for your time Josh! I look forward to seeing you dominate EVO next year! Good luck in your endeavors! Justin Wong… watch out! ^_~

Early this morning the XBox Live Dashboard was updated with next weeks “Play The Pros” event which features StarSlay3r playing Super Street Fighter 4! Some of you may be wondering… “Why Super Street Fighter 4? Isn’t she a pro rhythm game player?”. Well here’s why… The XBox Live events coordinator talked to StarSlay3r about trying to play a game that would get lots of people in one session at a time and where everyone can talk to each other. Unfortunately Rock Band/ Guitar Hero is only 4 people at a time and no one can watch and you can’t exactly hear people talking over the music. For this reason Super Street Fighter 4 was chosen. StarSlay3r will be playing Endless Battle mode so that she can get a chance to talk to as many people as possible at once and also those who are waiting their turn to play can watch the battle in progress. Seems like a much better idea eh? Plus, we all know Super Street Fighter 4 is a much better game than Rock Band and Guitar Hero combined… so no complaints right?

Also… Thanks to Gunnar Optiks they will be giving away a pair of Gunnar glasses to one lucky twitter user. For more details on how to win, check your XBL dashboard!

To all participants… have fun and good luck!

Yet again WCG Ultimate Gamer reveals an initial trailer that shows who most of the cast is, reveals games, and teases with a bit of drama. A couple people and I have been talking back and forth about who we thought was on the show and the trailer confirmed a good majority of these people.



I CAN NOT WAIT for this show to come out. One reason why… EDITING! You can tell ALREADY from how the show was edited that they are going to show LOTS of drama. They show a well known DOA player Vanessa crying in the trailer… just like they did for me. Basically this is going to go one of two ways… Either people will just stupidly believe that that show accurately portrays everyone on it.. OR People will finally realize how “reality” tv can portray ANYONE to look like ANYTHING they want as they see their favorite gamers in a new light. I really think people need to realize people were made out to be the “bad guys” in season one when in actuality they are very nice. People like Rob were made out to be the quiet type when he’s very outgoing, talkative and fun to be around, Chelsea was the innocent girl on the show and she was the one creating most of the drama… so editing is going to play heavily on how you perceive this new batch of gamers on the show… so keep that in mind before you start talking crap again people. Ok… now that you trolls ignored ALL of what I just said… read on.



Before I get started I wanted to touch base on a couple things. The intro… only pay attention to the people’s faces in boxes… ignore anyone that had a speaking part in the beginning…that guy followed by an asian girl you saw in the beginning of the trailer. NO, they are NOT on the show. How do I know? Lets just say I was personally told that she was the 1st person sent home from the final auditions hence why she ran home and wrote a nasty little blog with the following blurb…



1st- I dare you to tell that to Mark Smith, Season 1 winner who’d laugh in your face while flashing $100 bills. lol 2nd- Didn’t everyone just see you on that video AUDITIONING for a show that’s purpose is to find the BEST ALL AROUND GAMER? *Facepalm* Can you say “SALTY”? I actually saw a few ppl who talked smack about Season 1 at auditions for Season 2 also so it goes to show, people will do anything for fame and money… luckily the cast they picked had a handful of passionate gamers who were doing it for more than just the attention. Well… what you REALLY want to see starts at about 0:35 in, so go ahead and fast forward to that.

Now I’m going to start telling you a bit about the gamers that are on this cast. (AND PRODUCERS… DO NOT CALL ME YELLING AT ME AGAIN! YOU RELEASED A VERY REVEALING TRAILER!)

Let’s start with the winner of the voting contest…

GAMER: Jake aka Thirstee321 Jake won the popular vote to earn his spot in the house and that is something that will hurt him BADLY! Why? Well Basically everyone else who was a candidate for the show saw the voting process, and if they were smart, would have researched his background to see that he is a very well rounded all around gamer that is part of a group called Countdown321 along with Season 1 cast member Jamal aka Zophar321. Speaking from experience, I told Jamal to tell Jake that he needed to put his xbl profile on friends only because Amy from season 1 was watching all of us like HAWKS before the official cast was announced to see who was good at what games. If anyone did that to Jake all of his weaknesses and strengths would be exposed making it easier to take him down. On top of that, since he’s the only one that all 11 other members will be familiar with, he will probably be deemed “the threat” and they will try to take him down ASAP.

STRENGTH: Multi-Genre Gamer

PORTRAYAL: The Threat

PLACEMENT: Top 3

GAMER: Yaz aka Clown- A well known Counter Strike player formerly of Team OPTX who has CLEARLY stated to me several times he does NOT own an Xbox 360 and has only touched a console a few times. He was supposed to be on Season 1 but was screwed over by CGS right before the company bombed. He was promised a spot on this season, and they clearly came through with their promise. How far can he go? Well, honestly it depends SOLELY on his ability to make friends, and do well in the physical challenges because he’s going to suffer in the isolation room.

STRENGTH: FPS games on PC

PORTRAYAL:The likable jock

PLACEMENT:Bottom 3

GAMER: Vanessa- A well known top DOA player, former CGS Team OPTX member and girlfriend to the well known MASTER. While I don’t know her personally, I have witnessed first hand that she is a very emotional person since I followed her progress in DOA while she was competing in the CGS series. She’s a very strong player but takes her games to heart. At world finals I saw her break down in tears for about 30 minutes when her team lost while MASTER consoled her. Does that make her a bad person? No, but it DOES mean you’re going to be seeing a lot of tears as long as she is around. Her skills in other games is unknown to me. I have never heard her mention playing other games, but I also don’t follow her too closely anymore since CGS went under. I imagine she is good at ALL fighters, other strengths are unknown.

STRENGTH: Fighting games on console

PORTRAYAL: The drama queen

PLACEMENT: 6th-9th

GAMER: Faye aka PrincessAura Faye is known in the Street Fighter 4 and Brawl scene for… well I believe she was a top placing SSB player, but as far as Street Fighter goes, she’s just a competitor. You may notice her at every event with her friend MarkMan, she’s the girl with the blue streak in her hair. Knowing her on a somewhat personal level I have seen that she has some skill in the fighting genre and is also good at vocals for Rock Band. Where her talents extend outside of that I have no clue. While she has always been nice to me, I have heard from multiple people in the gaming industry that she is a … well… a persuasive person I’ll say. She can easily obtain what she wants, and if she took that into the house with her she could end up in a situation very similar to Chelsea from season 1 who skated by to the finals by making friends with the right people.

STRENGTH: Fighters on console

PORTRAYAL: The cute “innocent” girl that everyone will overlook while she skates to top 6.

PLACEMENT: 4th-6th

GAMER: Sebastian aka Chosen1 I don’t know too much about Chosen1 but I definitely know the name. He is another Multi-Genre gamer and he doesn’t take crap from ANYONE as you can see from the trailer. I really think that he’s going to be taking charge in this house and starting a fight or two. I don’t think he intends on being friends with anyone to make it to the top and will dominate purely on his skill.

STRENGTH: Multi-Genre Gamer

PORTRAYAL: The trouble maker

PLACEMENT: Top 6

GAMER: AJ aka HatPerson While most of you will be saying “who is this guy?” I know him pretty well. AJ was the tech guy for the Rockathon charity Rock Band marathon that I did in Houston last year along with Prod1gy X. When we needed an extra person because someone fell asleep or just couldn’t do it anymore, AJ would step in as an expert guitarist, vocalist or drummer. His strength in Rythm games is well known to me and he is also a very strong Street Fighter player. On top of that I remember him telling me that he’s a pretty well rounded gamer before he auditioned and obviously, it’s true if he made the show because unlike the first two gamers I mentioned, he does not have a huge name for himself… YET. Since no one in the house will really know who he is, I think he’s going to be the biggest threat to everyone without them knowing it.

STRENGTH: Multi-genre gamer

PORTRAYAL: The quiet shy type that will be quietly planning his plot to destroy everyone behind the scenes

PLACEMENT: Top 6

GAMER: Justin Wong aka Jwong THE MOST recognizable player in the fighting game community, I believe Justin Wong is going to be the most well known gamer on the show. While he’s top in the nation for various versions of Street Fighter, TvC, MvC and more, no one has ever seen Justin attempt to go pro in another genre. Does that mean Justin is ONLY a fighting game player? Well, yes, he is, but that doesn’t mean he’s not multi-talented. I talked to Justin while he was practicing for auditions and he passed all of the game auditions with only a short amount of time to practice each game. While he did not like having to do cramming practice sessions, apparently they paid off. While my initial instinct was that Justin was going to bomb and be the first person out unless Game 1 was SSF4, I now think he’d make it just a bit further after seeing the rest of the cast. Justin being on WCGUG2 will either make or break his career either further boosting his already huge success, or in the event of poor portrayal, can cause him to lose a large amount of his fan base and respect in the community, especially if he gets knocked out in the first episode. Here’s the twist though… Justin is good friends with Faye Mata in real life. I predict an alliance between them DAY 1.

STRENGTH: Fighting Games on console

PORTRAYAL: The cocky one who will probably say things to start trouble because he knows how to work those mind games!

PLACEMENT: Bottom 3 (Unfortunately. I <3 you though Justin. Prove me wrong please!)

GAMER: Rachel aka PMS Seltzer This gamer is not one I’m very familiar with. I know OF her but don’t know her well. Apparently she’s a FPS console player. My friends and I believe that was her in the opening shot where it shows the boxes around peoples faces. You can see her next to the well known Guitar Hero pro WitWix. Not knowing much about her but only a bit about her personality and going off a few things I heard about her strategy in the house… I see her as the type that will turn on a few people to get to the top.

STRENGTH: FPS games on console

PORTRAYAL: The backstabber

PLACEMENT: 6th-9th


GAMER: Katherine aka Mystik I don’t know much about her but was told the following: She is a pro gamer, and was a member of the Carolina Core team for the Female DOA4 division in the now-defunct CGS league. That makes 3 players from CGS.

STRENGTH: Fighting games on console

PORTRAYAL: Nobody has really told me much about her personality so I don’t know how she’ll be portrayed.

PLACEMENT: 6th-9th

GAMER: Ryan aka RyBu Oh boy! I got all giddy like a school girl when I found out Ryan was on the show. I had the pleasure of meeting Ryan at the Los Angeles casting call and he was instantly one of my favorite people. If you remember my video from Day 1 casting calls you’ll remember a guy saying “Ryan Burnett Portland, Oregon WCG Ultimate Gamer right here baby!” Well… he definitely had the right mentality going into it and I know first hand that he is very good at Rhythm, FPS and Fighting games. It appears as though the only areas he has problems with are Sports and Racing.

STRENGTH: Rhythm, Fighting and FPS games on console

PORTRAYAL: The nice guy that everyone overlooks as he takes top 3.

Placement: Top 3 (I wouldn’t be surprised if he won actually)

GAMES EXPOSED: NHL 10 (Euw), Tekken 6 (awww did Capcom say no to SSF4?), Forza Motorsport 3, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Mario Kart (WTF?). I’m not super surprised by this set of games… the only one that threw me off was Mario Kart, but I guess that goes to show they DID take our recommendations to include more systems not just Xbox 360 this time around. I was surprised, however to see what looked like Wii Sports resort or something which looks like a multi part challenge. That… looked… STUPID. It also appears as though Wii Sports Resort will be the first game in the series. Also they more than likely WILL have one PC game on the show and our guess is that BFBC2 will be played on PC. Other then that, the real life challenges are pretty similar to what we did for season 1 and OF COURSE someone doesn’t know how to drive and almost killed people again. Dammit! Did they put Dante back on the cast?

NEW RULE: I was also told about a new rule to this years show. Apparently the winner for each game/real life challenge overall is NOT allowed to place themselves against the last place person. This new rule will make the show a million times more interesting since TWICE on season 1 we had to deal with 1st going against last which resulted in the last place person going home both times. With everyone knowing that THEY could be placed against the last place person at any point in time, that adds some extra tension and will make the show that much more interesting. Good call guys, but wish that was implemented in season 1!



The most interesting part to this show is that the final 2 people have not played yet. We have NO idea who won the show because they don’t play until WCG grand finals in Los Angeles, CA this year. This is an AMAZINGLY smart plan by their marketing team to get more people to attend the WCG World Finals. Kudos marketing experts… I applaud you. What else does this mean? This means that the two finalists get to practice their ASS off all the way up until that point. I think that’s a bit unfair because on Season 1 we could only practice each game 1 day before we were expected to play it for isolation and they also kept to that system for the finals between Mark and Rob. If they didn’t already have experience with that game then they literally had one night to learn the game. I believe THAT was a true test to how good these gamers are, now these guys get to sit at home and practice? Well guess what WCG… you messed up there. Why? Well because anyone who knows these people’s gamer tags is just going to watch which 2 cast members are practicing the same games every day and we’ll be able to tell who is in the top 2 from that. If you haven’t already started trying this theory out… good luck on that because I’m sure the producers are going to tell them to put their stuff on private once they read this. lol



Well… I look forward to Season 2. It’s supposed to August 19th and I’m DEFINITELY going to watch. I can’t wait to see how they dealt with experiencing what we went through. They’re lucky however… I heard filming was only a couple weeks for them. We had to endure a whole month of living together. -_- I will be posting updates as I find out who more people are. KEEP CHECKING BACK and COMMENT! I would wish all of you who are on the cast good luck… but the time has passed. So good luck to the top 2 people and to the rest of you… prepare for hatemail. :p Sad… but true…

OH! And don’t try to call your friends who are on the show and asking them what happened because if they DO tell they’ll get in big trouble and we all know you can’t keep your mouth shut… so leave em alone. ^_~ You’ll find out what happened soon. I know it’s hard to contain yourself… but if you get your friend sued they’ll hate you forever. -_-*

Well I’m going to start this off with the statement that I’m not afraid to admit when I am wrong. I’m sure you all read my “say bye bye to guitar hero post”. Basically it looks like Activision actually listened to the people on this one and made the smartest move they could have ever done and they decided to bring Guitar Hero back to it’s roots. I believe that Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is going to help save Activision’s ass quite a bit after the failures known as Guitar Hero 5 and “Crap Hero”. Yeah, I said it. Basically just when you played Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80’s and Aerosmith and thought “well it can’t get much worse” they came out with GH5 and the pop hits aka Band Hero and totally turned me, along with 75% of the hardcore Guitar Hero crowd, off to the series.



One of my biggest complaints with the series was that ever since Guitar Hero 3 it seemed like they focused more on making the game mainstream by getting the big name pop stars like “Taylor Swift” instead of making the game challenging and fun. They also came up with the gimmicky slider bar for the GH World Tour and GH5 guitars which was a total flop as most people didn’t even use the touch bar since half the time it would malfunction causing it to go off on its own ruining your streak and became completely useless.



When it comes to Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock’s setlist it’s looking like they’re going back to the roots of GH1 and GH2 and bringing in some killer metal tracks and some awesome artists that are going to make for some decently hard and fun to play tracks. So far the following have been released:

AFI – Dancing Through Sunday
Anthrax – Indians
Avenged Sevenfold – Bat Country
Black Sabbath – Children of the Grave
Buzzcocks – What Do I Get?
Children of Bodom – If You Want Peace… Prepare for War
The Cure – Fascination Street
Def Leppard – Pour Some Sugar on Me
Dethklok – Bloodlines
Dire Straits – Money For Nothing
DragonForce – Fury of the Storm
Drowning Pool – Bodies
Fall Out Boy – Dance, Dance
Foo Fighters – No Way Back
Foreigner – Feels Like The First Time
The Hive – Tick Tick Boom
Jane’s Addiction – Been Caught Stealing
Jethro Tull – Aqualung
Kiss – Love Gun
Linkin Park – Bleed It Out
Megadeth – Sudden Death
Metallica & Ozzy Osbourne – Paranoid (Live)
Muse – Uprising
My Chemical Romance – I’m Not Okay (I Promise)
Night Ranger – (You Can Still) Rock in America
Nine Inch Nails – Wish
The Offspring – Self Esteem
Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody
Rammstein – Waidmanns Heil
The Rolling Stones – Stray Cat Blues
Silversun Pickups – There’s No Secrets This Year
Slayer – Chemical Warfare
Tesla – Modern Day Cowboy
The Cure – Fascination Street
ZZ Top – Sharp Dressed Man



I had a chance to chat with Herman Li of Dragonforce about GH:WOR a while ago and since his band has a song in the game he was wondering what my thoughts were on the game. He wrote “So do you think people will still care about the next GH or Rock band games? It’s getting repetitive now and saturated no?”. Of course after seeing the other artists that are going to be on here and knowing that this is only PART of the list I’m extremely confident that this will be one of the best selling Guitar Hero titles to date and difficulty wise will probably sit at a level comparative to Metallica or Van Halen with the fun factor of Guitar Hero 2 mixed in. I don’t think Herman needs to worry about their song being in THIS version of GH at least. So far Dragonforce has been one of the selling points for Guitar Hero 3 and Smash Hits especially since they had a 3 track downloadable content pack for GH3 that everyone couldn’t get enough of.

On top of the new incredible setlist Activision, of course, felt the need to introduce two new guitars into the mix. I was surprised to see that the new guitars are lacking their slider bar since that seemed to be the new thing that they were all excited about. Gizmodo had a write up about the new guitars and revealed that they will have one cutaway section with all of the electronics inside of the fretboard and neck which means you can change out the bodies or even play without a body at all which is definitely an interesting new approach.



This new concept comes with positives AND negatives however.



Positives:
-The guitars have a more edgy “hardcore” look
-The guitars will be easier to customize
- The guitars will have less problems with buttons going out now that the body/ fretboard can’t disconnect. Often times disconnecting and reconnecting the pieces too much would cause pins to not connect properly and fret buttons would start to mess up or stop working entirely after a while.
-No touch strip means that the game most likely wont have insane unnecessary slider solos in the songs. Thank goodness!
-The fact that the guitar is all one piece means you can’t break it down for travel anymore which means you’ll now have to check your bag instead of tossing it in the overhead compartment on the plane.


Negatives:
-The guitars are too small which will make it awkward to play if you are a person who plays sitting down with the guitar resting in your lap
-The awkward shape will cause a problem similar to the explorers for 360 where the guitar would tilt if you’re a standing up type of player
-The start button looks like it is big and easy to hit which means that the possibility of accidentally pausing the game is greater.
-Where the hell is the XBL button supposed to be? Basically there’s not much room in the neck/fretboard area for a guide button and I have no idea where they’re going to place it. No matter where it goes it most likely will be in an easy to hit area which is VERY VERY bad!

Overall I’m pretty impressed with everything I’ve heard about Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock so far. The set list is looking solid, the new look for the characters is pretty damn awesome and I can only imagine the death metal overhaul that the venues got. So far I’m saying good job Activision. I’m so happy that you have proven me wrong because I was fearful that the game that I once loved so much was doomed to fall into the fiery pits of pop hell. Thank you for taking the route of your fans and going back to the good music that we all know and love and making the songs harder so that we can once again shred on our dusty guitars. On behalf of all of the hardcore Guitar Hero 1 and 2 fans out there… I thank you.

CTA Digital and @GameMarketing Partner on E3 Twitter Event

CTA Digital, a leader in innovative accessories for digital entertainment, and Mary Kurek (game marketing guru) will co-host a first-ever Networking Tweet-up at E3. This unique endeavor will include prize drawings, game demos, pro gamer guest appearances, and an interactive networking opportunity for game industry pros…all headquartered at the CTA Digital vendor booth. Here are the details:

Event: Wednesday, June 16th 1-4 pm PST
CTA Digital E3 Booth: #4500 West, LA Convention Center



–Visits by Pro Gamers: Rob Paz (Prodigy) World Record Holder for Rock Band 2 and recently featured elite gamer on XBox Live Dashboard. Ciji Thornton (Starslay3r) has amassed a total of over 30 top 5 finishes in 9 games in 3 genres. She ranked 7th in the Pan American region of the world for Guitar Hero: World Tour in the 2009 WCG Pan American Championships in Guadalajara, Mexico and also claimed 1st place for Rock Band 2 at the 2009 Pan American Championships.



Gaming “challenge” between Prodigy and StarSlay3r and prize giveaway. Photo/media opps with pro gamers. *If you are media and wish a few minutes one-on-one with pro gamers,contact mary@marykurek.com

–On site promotional support provided by Ryan Thompson (Gaming PR/Marketing pro) and SFX-360.com, [Mission Design | Facebook] producers of the now “infamous” Gamers Gone Wild events.

–During event: Hot new racing accessory demonstrated by 8 yr-old Kids Are Heroes own Ricky Springer, founder of Racing for a Cause.

–Prize giveaways throughout event. Register at the booth by checking in and grabbing your Twitter tag. We’ll be flashing event activity info on a large screen and tweeting random Tweep checkins throughout the event.

–Demo your favorite new gaming accessory at the CTA Digital booth for a bit of “personal gaming fun.”

Make sure to stop by the booth and say hello and enter for your chance to win some cool prizes!

Hey everyone! Sorry about getting to this so late but I’ve been busy busting my ass the past couple days and everything is just now settling down for the night. Here’s some updates.


* As you saw on my twitter I gave you guys a hint about what I’ve been counting down to. YES, I will be doing a cross country road trip VERY SOON! More details about that will come later but it’s because of THIS that I won’t be heading to EVO. I have a very important tournament that will be happening at the same time as EVO and I’ve given that priority especially since I haven’t played SF4 or SSF4 since I got hired to do PR/Marketing work for Neverdie.


* I’ve been in talks with a couple different companies the past couple weeks and two companies just finalized everything with me yesterday and today. I now have 2 new sponsors! Sponsor #1 is the oh so yummy Gamer Grub! I’m told I have some PB & J packets being sent my way as of today and I’m excited to work with them! And yes… I WILL share my Gamer Grub with you. ^_^ Sponsor #2 is American Guru clothing so expect to see me sporting their gear at events in the future. One of the things I love about American Guru is they’ve been super supportive of the “up and coming” gamer offering to help out with a program. With their program gamers that help sell American Guru shirts can earn money that will go toward travel expenses for tournaments. It’s things like this that make me give American Guru clothing the up most respect and I’m honored to be working with them. An added bonus to working with American Guru… well they’re giving me my own line of shirts! I’ll be working with Bruce and his design team to come up with some kick ass gamer shirts with my own little dash of style so stay tuned to see what we come up with! I’ll also be shooting an endorsement video for them and for another sponsor very soon along with a photo shoot so you should see those up sometime in the next month or so if all goes according to plan.


* FiXT music is launching their magazine in the next month and I’ll be one of the featured interviews in their very first issue! For those wondering why a record label would be interviewing a video game player, it’s because of what I do outside of gaming. I have been doing a lot of work in the music industry for over 7 years now and FiXT is one of the 3 record labels that I do work for. Don’t expect this interview to be the typical “when did you get started with gaming, etc etc” interview because this IS NOT one of those kind of interviews. As I said… there’s a lot of work that I do aside from gaming that you guys don’t know about, but soon all of this will come to light… when the time is right. ^_^


* Last night my band PWN Stars won 1st place in the Rock Band 2 tournament. I was pretty excited because even though the vocalist I was supposed to have (Faye) was unable to show up, I did get 2 really great teammates that I’m actually going to compete in one more tournament with! Last night’s line up was me on Guitar, Sam aka Sammer_i on Bass, Brian aka Brubinow (from GYT) on Drums, and Flitz (formerly of G4) on Vox. We scored 1.4 million round 1, 1.6 million round 2 and 1.6 million round 3 in a score based competition setting the new record for high score at that venue. Unfortunately due to internet issues we were unable to pick from any DLC songs so we did the best that we could with the normal RB2 setlist. After competing together we decided to team up for the larger Rock Band tournament for $10,000. This Rock Band 2 tournament is a bit different however as the tournament rules state that only the band with the highest score from each specified venue gets to move on to the grand finals and at grand finals it turns into a score & showmanship tournament so I’m very excited for this. I have SO much fun at showmanship tournaments! Right now the score to beat is 1.8 million and we only get one shot… so hopefully we can pull it off!


* Some of you may have seen the tweet and some of you just may have noticed on your own but I’ve added a new gallery feature to my site. I’m attempting to add more pictures from events while keeping everything organized and this gallery makes things a million times better looking than just adding a million little thumbnails to each blog. Just wanted to thank Jamal aka Zophar321 that!


* Speaking of Jamal… his friend Jake aka Thirstee321 is in the running to be a WCG Ultimate Gamer 2 cast member. This guy is UBER talented and one of the best well rounded gamers I’ve seen in a while. From rhythm to racing to fighting and fps, this guy rises above the rest and he definitely deserves a shot on the show. If you haven’t already voted for him please go to the official WCG Ultimate Gamer 2 website and make sure to vote for Jake! You can vote once every hour per device so bust out your iPhone and your laptop and vote every hour that you can! Also, please tell your friends to do the same. Currently Jake is leading the contest with 49% of the total votes and he only has to hold the lead until Sunday to officially make the cast. I wish you the best of luck Jake, kick some ass!

Well that’s it for now. I’m working on adding more content to my site but I’ve been so busy with work and everything else I’ve got going on that I haven’t been able to get around to it yet. This summer I plan on having exclusive interviews with musicians and gamers as well as coverage of events and video game reviews. Give me some time… and what you get will be nothing short of awesome. ^_^ As always thanks for checking out my site and thank you for all the support. Much love to you all! <3 GAME ON!

Interview with StarSlay3r, Top Female U.S. Gamer

Wed, 28 Apr 2010, 3:16 pm
by Rob Clegg, Do Gaming journalist
Tags: Ciji Thornton, StarSlay3r, Guitar Hero, WCG Ultimate Gamer, The Tester

Ciji ‘StarSlay3r’ Thornton has been gaming since she was a child and began playing competitively in 1998. She has won many Guitar Hero competitions since then and has ranked up to a total of over 30 top five finishes in nine different games in three genres.

Thornton is considered one of the top female gamers in America and is a threat to many top teams and players. She has been ranked as high as fifth worldwide for Guitar Hero: World Tour in 2008.

Thornton also made history in 2009 by being the first female in the World Cyber Games (WCG) to ever compete on Team USA, and she is considered the best female in Guitar Hero based on tournament placements.

She was also a contestant on popular TV shows such as WCG Ultimate Gamer and Sony’s The Tester.

Telkom Do Gaming caught up with Thornton for a chat.

Telkom Do Gaming (DG): Hey Ciji, thanks for taking time out to chat to us.

Thank you for having me!

DG: How long have you been playing Guitar Hero for?

I’ve been playing Guitar Hero since shortly after its original release date in 2005.

DG: So what would you say is the secret to a good Guitarist Hero?

Being good at Guitar Hero just takes practice. I had been playing a similar game called Guitar Freaks since 1999, so when Guitar Hero first came out I was already playing on Hard difficulty.

If you practice a good 20 hours a week and review the scorehero.com forums for star paths, tapping, and other techniques you will see a drastic improvement in your performance. Practice makes perfect!

DG: What has been your most memorable achievement in Guitar Hero?

My first time competing at a national level on Gamespot’s tournament TV was pretty memorable. I had so much fun and ranked third in the nation for Guitar Hero 3, beating out the top ranking Wii Guitar Hero player which was something that I was really proud of.

I was also pretty surprised when WCG offered me the opportunity to represent Team USA at the Pan American Championships for Guitar Hero last year. That was an awesome time and it led to me taking first place in Rock Band while I was there!

DG: Apart from Guitar Hero, you also play Street Fighter IV. How is that going? Any recent competitive wins?

Street Fighter has proved to be one of the most difficult games for me to master… probably ever. Most of the time I pick up games very fast but this past year of playing the game has definitely been one full of learning, and I’m still learning every day!

My most recent tournament placements were fourth, fifth and seventh when I competed in New York last month, and I recently placed fourth place with my team RM519 and Steve the Champion at the UGTL tournament this past Saturday.

I have been placing top eight in tournaments lately which has been a great accomplishment. I even got my first OCV (one character victory) singlehandedly, taking out a team of two top players in New York at the CTF tournament last month, which was a great show of how much my skills have improved in the past year.

To read the rest of the interview click HERE to go to the official Telkom Do Gaming website!

Kristen goes to the casting of WCG’s Ultimate gamer 2. She interview’s Ciji a contestant of last year.
Excuse the microphone pops.

if you missed the first season, check out Season 1 on Hulu!
http://www.hulu.com/wcg-ultimate-gamer

thebitbag.com
gamemeetsgirl.com

Well early last year I predicted that Guitar Hero would be meeting it’s fate very soon. I explained that I felt it was time to move on from that game and to explore my options in the pro gaming world to ensure that I’m always keeping myself busy. Last year I notice a DRAMATIC drop in Guitar Hero tournaments ever since the release of Guitar Hero: World Tour. After seeing that Guitar Hero just got worse after that (GH5 and Band Hero) It was very clear that Activision just stopped caring about the game and put more focus into producing as many versions of the game as possible as fast as possible and having celebrities promote the game then they did on ensuring that people actually liked the game and was having fun with it. Every version of the game just got worse and the dollar amount spent per game just went up and up even though sales for each version were worse then they had been before.

Last summer over 150 testers were laid off from Activision as they opened a new division in Quebec, Canada to take over the testing for all of their rhythm games. Recently Kotaku has been posting about the massive lay offs and shut downs associated with all companies involved with Guitar Hero and it’s been announced that the only games scheduled for release this year are Guitar Hero 6 and a new DJ Hero meaning that this is the end of Guitar Heros reign in the rhythm world.

Some excerpts from Kotaku:
“Luxoflux, also responsible for True Crime and Kung Fu Panda games for Activision, is said to have been shut down completely, according to former employees. Approximately 55 people have been let go, according to sources at the company, with some possibly being transferred to Call of Duty developer Treyarch.

Activision is said to have laid off another 50 at developer Neversoft, formerly of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series and responsible for the Guitar Hero series after the departure of Harmonix. “

They later posted:
“In addition to sackings at Neversoft and Luxoflux, Kotaku has learned today that publisher Activision has also laid off employees at RedOctane and internal studio Underground Development.

We’ve heard that RedOctane, the publisher of the original Guitar Hero and creator of the franchise’s plastic instruments, has been completely shut down. Those responsible directly for the series’ hardware will now report straight to Activision, while those remaining – around 30-40 people – have been shown the door.

Also reportedly affected is Underground Development, an Activision studio responsible for games like Guitar Hero: Van Halen and…BMX XXX. We’ve heard that, as of today, the entire studio has been shut down.”

Activision says:
“As we discussed on our earnings conference call yesterday, we are directing our resources against the largest and most profitable business segments, and as part of this initiative, we are realigning our resources to better reflect our slate and the market opportunities”

Oh COME ON! Don’t act like you JUST NOW discovered you guys spent WAAAAY too much money on the Guitar Hero series. What happened to just going the route of Guitar Hero 2? That game was all word of mouth and was a HUGE seller. Once they made 50 million versions of the game and paid every celebrity that would agree to get in their underwear and slide across the floor, they should have known they spent WAAAY too much money on the franchise and they were slowly strangling it to death. All they had to do is give us Guitar Hero fans 2 REALLY GOOD Guitar Hero versions in a year and we’d be happy. DLC keeps us busy… they kept coming up with SO many versions of the game and forced everyone to purchase peripheral after peripheral and it just got annoying. Am I wrong? Please… state how you feel about this!!! I loved Guitar Hero and all… but after Smash Hits and Metallica I got sick of the game.

With all of the lay offs the end is near for Guitar Hero. What does that mean for me? Nothing much! I haven’t done much with Guitar Hero lately as there are only 2 competitions involving Guitar Hero planned for this year Devastation and WCG 2010 and due to the fact that the game for both is Guitar Hero 5 and it’s basically just going to come down to whoever memorizes the best star bath and not really involve skill at all, I’m most likely not competing in either competition this year. I have been too busy with my plans to start my own business and practicing Street Fighter 4 for EVO to sit around and watch star path videos. I WILL however, still be competing in Rock Band 2 tournaments.

To everyone who recently lost their jobs due to all of this. I am sorry for your loss… I too was laid off last year so I know how it is to go through the lay off process. My advice to you all, collect your unemployment and use your time off to do something you’ve always wanted to do.. trust me… there are bigger and better things waiting for you out there. I wish you all the best of luck in the future.

To anyone who focuses their career on Guitar Hero only… I tried to warn you.