The Prince vs. Hamlet Prince of Denmark

If you want to be supreme overlord of the world then read The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli and the secrets to world domination will be  unlocked for you. If you want Religion to impede your progress as you attempt to reclaim your royal birthright then red Hamlet Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare. That is basically in a nutshell what these two books are about in a nutshell. Aspiring Kings and Queens, Lords and Ladies, Emperors and Empresses, and Khals and Khaleesi's should take note of the lessons that can be learned from these two pieces of literature. One of the crucial lessons that can be learned from The Prince is how a prince must handle an internal dispute. A smart prince would take advantage of external forces either allying with them or destroying them would give him/her the merit needed to take power.If only Hamlet had followed the teachings of Machiavelli then maybe he would have lived to become King of the Danes, but instead he chose to ignore external elements, like those of Fortinbras and his army. If Hamlet had allied with or destroyed Fortinbras it would have added a stable base from which to reclaim the throne. Hamlet would have been looked at as the savior of Denmark and would have had more support to become king. But instead Hamlet was blinded like religion which should never get in the way of a prince who follows The Prince.

Video Games, Pt. II

Christmas, 2006. The months of waiting were over for me, I finally had an Xbox 360. The first game I experienced on it was Call of Duty 2. For me and millions of other Xbox fans, Call of Duty 2 is the Zeus of video games. From it, all other 360 shooters descended. Part of Call of Duty 2’s campaign took place in Normandy, France. I used to take family vacations to Normandy and playing Call of Duty 2 was just like being back in Normandy. The maps in the game were modeled after the towns in France. After a half-century nothing much had really changed in the French towns and villages. The only real difference was the buildings in the game lacked the bullet holes that the towns in France are covered in. After Call of Duty 2 came Rainbow Six: Vegas and Call of Duty 3.

While I was busy with my new Xbox 360, I kept hearing more and more talk about something called Xbox Live. All I knew about it was that it was the best thing ever created: a multiplayer system connected to the internet that allowed anyone to play with everyone. I got Xbox Live February 10, 2007 and I’ve been wrecking fools as tuckar (online name) ever since. The first games I played online were Rainbow Six: Vegas and Call of Duty 3. They solidified my love affair with online first person shooters. With Xbox Live I was smashing on fools and talking mad ish to anybody else with a headset. After the summer of 2007 Halo 3 and Gears of War came out.

Neither Halo 3 of Gears of War had much appeal to me; I played them simply to pass the time until Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare. Out of all the games I’ve played, COD4 was hands-down my favorite. It was so new and unreal, it was the first Call of Duty to give the player a customizable profile, but it had only scratched the surface of what Xbox live would become. After COD4 came so many new and awesome games it would be pointless to list them all, but if there is one game that stands by itself its Fallout 3. I can’t even begin to explain that game right now. I’ll talk about it in part three.

Video Games, Pt. I

            I’m not exaggerating when I say that playing video games is one of my earliest memories. Gameboy, Nintendo, Playstation, PC, Xbox, Call of Duty, Mario, Mortal Combat, Resident Evil, Halo, The Elder Scrolls, Need for Speed, Forza, and all the rest. I’ve owned them, sold them, played them, bought them, and borrowed them. The first system I can remember owning was the classic Nintendo 64. I kept it out in my sunroom and I would wake up at dawn, sneak past my snoozing brother, and brave the cold to be the first one to play. I loved playing that thing as a kid. I remember I only had like six games and I would just replay them constantly and sometimes I would never even make any progress, but I’d keep playing because it was still awesome. I would never buy new games for it either; I would always just rent Super Smash Brothers from Blockbuster and beat it like ten times before I returned it. Later in my childhood, I would get a PlayStation 1. It sucked. I traded it in. Then I got a Playstation 2 and my journey into serious gaming began. The first two games I had for it was Tony Hawk’s ProSkater 2 and Star Wars: Bounty Hunter. Those two games took endless hours of my invaluable time, but oh my god they were fun. I think I bought all the Tony Hawk games, they’re so nasty. Then I got an Xbox for Christmas, I remember seeing them in the cases at Sears and standing their endlessly playing the free demo, I was mesmerized. I spent days playing the Star Wars: Battlefronts and the first Call of Duty on my Xbox. Then I was introduced to Halo: Combat Evolved. I asked my mom first if I could buy it, but she said no because of the M rating it has. So I asked my Dad and he bought it for me. Thanks dad. Halo was unlike anything I had ever played before. It was so intense I was too scared to get past level six. I didn’t go back and beat the game until I was fourteen, well after I had beaten Halo 2 and owned an Xbox 360, but that is a story for another time. In 2006 Xbox 360 came out, I didn’t have one until 2007. Part two picks up from there.