Event Overview for Owens CC Gaming Club

Tuesday, Oct. 12 allowed a number of Owens students to throw down on the digital streets as the college’s Gamers United club hosted its first competition of the school year with Capcom’s one-on-one fighting game Super Street Fighter IV.

Featuring two Microsoft Xbox 360 consoles running the game, the free tournament saw 10 students enter for a chance to win gift cards to the campus’ bookstore. With a qualifying pool and an eight-person elimination bracket, psychology student Carl White stormed through nine different matchups undefeated to have his hand raised in victory after the dust settled. Utilizing a handful of the game’s various characters, White noted he has been competing on Street Fighter IV since the game’s initial release in 2008.

“At that point, there was nothing else to play,” White explained. “People stopped playing Dead or Alive [the fourth installment of Tecmo’s one-on-one fighting franchised released on the Xbox 360 back in 2005] and at that time, that was my game.”

Before picking up on either of the aforementioned titles, White said he actively played a number of fighting game titles that are now staples of the annual Evolution 2K tournament, the United States’ largest competitive fighting game event, such as Street Fighter III: Third Strike, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Capcom Vs. SNK 2 and Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. White attended this year’s “EVO” tournament, along with various other competitions throughout the past couple of years and was enthusiastic about the fighting video game circuit.

“The people around Toledo haven’t been too exposed,” he said, making note to the fact that larger competitions are primarily found in larger cities such as Columbus and Detroit. “Playing here, though, I can see everyone really has potential. Overall, competitions are getting really big. This year, EVO had 2,000 people in just one event, but, still even local events can pull in about 50, with regionals reaching 500.”

The Street Fighter series, crafted by Japanese company Capcom back in 1987, has mostly depicted renowned martial artists Ryu and Ken as they interact with other fighters in worldwide fighting tournaments. Because of the focus on vivid and unique characters, the company has enjoyed revenue stemming from comics, books, movies and other merchandising opportunities featuring the Street Fighter name throughout the years. Since the initial release, nearly every Street Fighter game sees two players (or one player fighting a computer-controlled character) pitted against each other in one-on-one hand-to-hand combat, utilizing a joystick (or controller pad) and six attack buttons.

According to software sales tracker VGChartz, the original entry of Street Fighter IV has accumulated sales of more than 3 million copies worldwide, banking off its popularity stemming from the fact Street Fighter II caused arcades and the fighting game genre to explode in the early ‘90s. The “Super” version of the title, released late in April this year, added a new selection of fighting characters, moves, modes and more to create a budget update release for those who couldn’t get enough of the game. The life of the franchise, as Capcom reported at the end of its fiscal year 2008-2009, has enjoyed more than 29 million units sold worldwide, placing it among the top 50 best-selling video game franchises of all time on many sales sources.

“Fighting games as we know them today essentially began with Street Fighter II back in 1991,” said Gamers United club advisor Chris Zasada about the series. “It featured a refinement and complexity that had never been seen in a video game before and its contributions to gaming are immeasurable, securing the Street Fighter name in pop culture legend. Street Fighter IV represents the first numbered sequel of the primary franchise in eleven years and, while the graphics have greatly improved and the game is more refined, fans and newcomers alike flock to the game because the competitive spirit and fun of a Street Fighter game hasn't changed a bit.”

Although the Street Fighter competition is finished for 2010, Gamers United certainly isn’t done for the year. On Tuesday, Oct. 26, a Left 4 Dead 2 competition will spark a Halloween theme for the club and on Tuesday, Nov. 9, Gamers United will host more shooting action with a Halo: Reach competition. Both events will start at 5:30 p.m. in AVCC 125 and interested players can get more info at www.occgamersunited.info.

Repurposing: Halo: Reach Article Revised for Owens Outlook

Here is an example of repurposing a piece for publication. I took my previous piece, took out all elements of Napoleon and subtituted the quotes with relevant sources. The information is also updated.

In the still of the night, thousands worldwide dug into the trenches in preparation for a Sept. 14 standoff. Fueled by beverages and snack food rations, these future soldiers refused to give up their position.

Many waited hours for the opposing side to act first and at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, the gate finally opened for them to make a move of their own. As the GameStop and other video game retailer locations across the United States finally opened up for midnight business, this army of eager gamers flooded into the storefront to be among the first to get their hands on the thumb-blistering digital warfare of Halo: Reach.

“This is the legacy of Halo,” Owens’ Gamers United Advisor Chris Zasada explained of the appeal of the game and these events. “As each game has been released, a new milestone and hordes of new fans are created. There’s a reason fans camp out in front of stores at night, braving the elements, just to be among the first to secure their copy of the next Halo entry.”

Billed with one of the most recognizable brand names among gamers, this entertainment juggernaut drew in thousands as a part of the gaming spectacle of midnight launches, of which many were held worldwide for the Halo release. Reserved for only the most anticipated of titles, the midnight launch of gaming product is pretty self explanatory – stores operate special late-night hours to get these hot titles into the hands of gamers the second the calendar flips over to the game’s allocated release date.

These launches are more notorious when one of the three console manufacturers, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, release their newest gaming platforms, which typically take gaming hardware into the “next generation.” For such releases, it wasn’t uncommon for people to wait outside of a store for days, claiming their rightful spot in line for the product while camping out with coolers and lawn chairs. Such campers became so adamant and showing up earlier and earlier for releases that many locations now prohibit the act and set up special dates where people can come and be placed on a list to avoid such acts of "loitering."

Specifically for Halo: Reach, the Times Square Best Buy in New York City was host to thousands of fans of the series, with the location's theater featuring a music performance and a chance for visitors to meet the creators of the game. Seattle also hosted a grand-scale event at the The Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, with more creators from the game present in order to carry out official tournaments.

“The release of Halo: Reach marks a historic end to the series,” stated Zasada on the scope of the release’s recognition. “This is the last release by the series’ original creator and developer, Bungie, who has expressed interest in moving on to other projects with other companies. While Microsoft still owns the Halo franchise, the departure of the original developer marks a significant change to the record-breaking series that began almost ten years ago. The final chapter written by the group that created this legend is nothing short of historical to the gaming community and the world of entertainment”

With Microsoft Game Studios Vice President Phil Spencer announcing Halo: Reach pulling in day one sales of $200 million (which at the standard price of $60, translates to more than 3 million copies sold), many are counting on the title to be 2010’s biggest sales success. The popularity of the title has exploded since Bungie developed the original title Halo: Combat Evolved for the Xbox in 2001, making it the first certifiable success for Microsoft’s fledgling debut system.

The series depicts futuristic warfare where players control human soldiers that wear enhanced armor through an elite squad known as Spartans as they fight off an alien race known as the Covenant. The series' gameplay uses a format known as first-person shooting where the player views the action through the eyes of their character and while single-player modes are available in each installment, the success of the franchise has stemmed from its competitive modes that essentially made console online gaming successful thanks to the release of Halo 2. Before this release, even though a number of gaming systems had online capabilities, online gaming was a feature nearly exclusive to the PC format.

Bungie estimates the series as a whole will push the franchise’s sales figures beyond $2 billion some time this year. Given the company made a Twitter statement announcing Halo: Reach has already surpassed the record for concurrent unique users on Xbox LIVE (a record previously held by Halo 3, which sold $600 million in 2007, with day-one sales of $170 million), it is very likely the title will hold up to these lofty expectations.

Backed by a gargantuan marketing campaign on the part of Microsoft and padded by a critical reception averaging at 92 percent on the review aggregator Metacritic.com, it already seems like Halo: Reach has a hefty portion of gamers already sold on the title. During the launch period, Amazon listed the title’s four packages among the company’s top 10 sellers, placing the standard edition of the game at number one and the limited edition package, retailing at $80 and packaged in a special case with extra items, at number 2. The Legendary Edition of the title, packaged in crate-style container with an exclusive statue crafted by McFarlane Toys, still ranked at number six even though it was produced in very limited numbers and carried a $150 price tag. Players also had the option to purchase Halo: Reach in an Xbox 360 system bundle that also included two Halo-themed controllers and a 250 gigabyte hard drive for $400 and this ranked in at number seven for Amazon. In the United Kingdom, storefronts HMV and Play also listed the standard and limited editions at one and two on top sales lists respectively.

Furthermore, according to the U.K.'s GfK Chart-Track, Halo: Reach has also spurred interest in the Xbox 360 system itself. GfK director Dorian Bloch revealed to U.K. publication Eurogamer that the system drove a 99 percent console sales increase during its launch week. While many sales figures have poured out from U.K. sources, the only product sales source in the U.S. tracking video games sales, market research firm NPD, only releases stats monthly and comes under criticism from some in the industry due to the fact it allegedly does not have an agreement with heavy-hitting sales giant Wal-Mart to provide figures and it also does not track digital downloads.

Bloomburg has predicted the title will move 10 million copies of the game this year and Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan who is known for specializing in gaming industry predictions, predicts it will be 2010’s top-selling title. Even so, Pachter feels Halo: Reach won’t have quite the sales punch 2009’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, developed by Infinity Ward and published by third-party giant Activision, had last year. He noted the title, billed as the single-biggest day-one entertainment release in history by Activision, pushed 15 million copies in 2009 alone.

Figures aside, in the end, all that really matters is the smiling faces of those that picked up their copy of Halo: Reach. Even with Bungie now moving on to new products, Sept. 14 proved the gaming community has stuck with the series until the end.