If players go to a nearby campsite they can hear screaming or an incomprehensible whispering sound which, if played backward, says let's see your shot. If you try to approach her ghost, she will vanish into the night … Next up at number 6 we have Luigi Is Dead. There's something you Luigi fans never want to hear. However, there are clues in some Super Mario games that he really is. In Luigi's Mansion, during the blackout that happens after the Boss battle of Area 3, Luigi journeys to the telephone room and answers two calls. During these calls, while Luigi is holding the phone to his ear, the player must wait until there is a lightning flash and then they will see that Luigis Shadow has been twisted into a way that looks like he's been hanged.
Now, some say this shadow is the metaphorical shadow of a much darker game than what was actually released - it's just that they forgot to take this part out https://oncasinogames.com/free-spins-bonus/. Others say this was intentional and nod from the developers to the fact that Luigi has been dead for many years - he killed himself after always having to live in the shadow of his more popular and famous brother. Nintendo says its just a glitch, but others say that's just a coverup and as much as Nintendo fans don't want to hear it - Luigi is dead. Next up at number 5 now we have Lavender Town. Those of you that have played the original Pokemon games on Gameboy may already be familiar with how creepy Lavender Town is. I mean, the whole town is based around dead Pokemon - that's kinda the point - but there is a story that goes way deeper and darker than you know. Following the release of Pokemon Red and Green, there were a number of reported child suicides in Japan. When players got to Lavender Town, the music had a strange effect on them. Let's hear it really quick as a reminder. People said the song was created with a hidden code that would drive children to kill themselves. The subliminal code used very high frequencies, ones that only young kids can hear and not adults. This became known as Lavender Town Syndrome. Two hundred suicide supposedly committed suicide because of this, and many more developed illnesses and afflictions. The children who committed suicide usually did so by hanging or jumping from heights. Those who did not succumb to the suicidal pull still complained of severe headaches after listening to the Lavender Towns theme. According to the legend, the developers in Japan were forced to fix the frequency of the song to be at a lower frequency before international release. That's the -safe- version you and I and many others have heard - but they say the real version can still be found out there, waiting for its next victim … Moving on to number 4 now we have the Xbox Voices. When the Xbox was first released in 2001, it was praised for its power and cutting-edge technology. Microsoft didn't want to waste all of that when the console wasn't being used and so they added some ambient noises which played while it was idle. These noises started out normal at first but quickly got very strange. People said it sounded like the console was channeling voices from the dead. Naturally, people wanted answers from Microsoft. Was this some sort of subliminal messaging? Was it supposed to influence dreams when players fall asleep with the console on in the room? Well, the company said it wasn't actually their own music, it was public domain audio from NASA transmissions from the Apollo Missions. For those of you that don't know, these were the missions that went to the moon. If you think you can handle it, Id recommends listening to the whole thing. People report hearing robotic voices, whispers, and even Halloween music.
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Some call this the most dangerous video game ever made. The story begins in Portland in 1981. A local arcade hall was attracting more visitors than normal.
All the games were busy but only one had a long line of people wanting to play - a new game - Polybius. The players couldn't stop playing. When they were finally forced off it, they began to act strangely. They felt nauseous, stressed and had terrifying nightmares, others had seizures. There were even reports of all the madness forcing people to suicide. The one common thing that everyone felt was that they were unable to control their own thoughts. Then, people began to notice that the game was being serviced a lot more than usual. Other games might get checked by technicians once a month, but Polybius was being checked every week. Men in black suits would come, record its data and leave - they would never take the coins and seem to have no interest in the money. After a while of this, the mysterious arcade game vanished as soon as it arrived - taken by the same men in suits. People believed that the men and the machine were from the CIA - that it was all part of a mind control program - an experiment that was sending subliminal messages to players. So - was there any truth to this? That's the faith you need to put into the story. The story has been repeated and spread for almost 40 years now but its hard to verify as the arcade machine and the men who monitored it disappeared without a trace. If this program has continued to modern times though, perhaps they've just got better at hiding their experiments. Next, up at number 7 we have The Ghost of GTA V. Its been almost 5 years since GTA 5 was released and by now it seems that players really have discovered every last secret and easter egg the game has been hiding. One of them sticks out as a lot more creepy than others though. Near the peak of Mount Gordo, there is a flat rock on the ground which bears the word JOCK, written in blood. Between 11 PM and midnight in the game, the player can see the ghost of a woman appear near the rock with long black hair and wearing a white dress. She is said to be the ghost of Jolene Cranley Evans. She was the wife of Jock Cranley, a famous stunt double in the game from years ago. The story goes that she didn't want to move from their home near Mount Gordo to the city of Los Santos so that Jock could pursue his stunt double career. He took her up for a walk on the mountain and pushed her off where she fell to her death. He was arrested but released due to lack of evidence. Now, she haunts the mountain in the game. I'm very excited for this, everyone who knows me knows I love a good video game, and you guys all know I love creepy stories - this video is gonna be a match made in heaven. Video games as we know them have been around for about 50 years - not too long, but enough time for some very creepy stories to emerge about them. It turns out that games can be haunted, games can be more creepy that you can imagine, some games have even caused terrible events and curses to happen in real life.
You need to know what to watch out for before its too late. My name is Danny Burke and this is the Top 10 Video Game Urban Legends. Coming in at number 10 we have The Super Mario Shadow People. Super Mario Galaxy is a game known for pure fun - bright colors, familiar faces and a whole lot of bouncing around. Its also gained a reputation for featuring the Shadow People. At the beginning of the Shiverburn Galaxy level, strange shadowy figures can be seen at the top of the cliff in the background. At first, many people brushed this off as just peoples imagination running wild. Then someone took the initiative to look through the game files. They found that the name of the background image is -Hell Valley Sky Tree- … umm, who said anything about Hell Valley. The internet exploded with conversation. Who were these shadow people, always watching you, even though you can never get any closer to them - and nobody ever mentions them. Some people have tried to explain these away as trees but others say, I ain't seen no trees that look like that. Its one of those things where if Nintendo actually acknowledged it, it may not be so creepy, but the fact that they have refused to means people are still left wondering who the Shadow People of Hell Valley are … Next, up at number 9, we have The Hall of Tortured Souls. This is a well-known Easter egg that was hidden in the coding of Windows 95. Deep in the coding of the Windows 95 software, there is a hidden game. Nobody knows who found it first, but this is how you do it. To enter the game, go to Microsoft Excel 95. Open a new blank Excel worksheet. Go down to the 95th row and select the whole row. Tab over to column B. Goes to help / about. Tap and hold control alt and shift and then click the tech support button. Then, the game will appear. Its called -Hall of Tortured Souls-. Players use their arrow keys to move in 8 different directions, eventually, you will find a staircase. The walls are surrounded by the text of the creators. On the next level, there is a small room with red walls. Again, the names of the creators will flash up on the screen. Go down and enter the room where you were before. Type the magic world EXCELKFA. Another room will open where you have to follow a zig-zagging black path. Eventually, you will find the end of the game - a picture of the developers of the software. The whole thing is a little unnerving. Even though the game has been discovered and completed, many people are creeped out by its name - Hall of Tortured Souls - … they feel there may be something much darker hidden deeper in that game, maybe you'll be the one to find it … Next up at number 8, we have Polybius. Hello Eorzeans, welcome to The Fall and Rise of FFXIV, a deep dive into how the game we now know and love as FFXIV A Realm Reborn, Heavensward and soon to be Stormblood, used to be called one of the worst MMORPGs on the 2010 market. I’m Lukile Bravestone and I’ll be your research guide! So let’s begin! To fully understand the game and it’s faults, we must pop the time back all the way to 2002 – the year Queen Elisabeth II celebrates her Golden Jubilee, The war in Afghanistan is raging on following the previous year’s terrible 9/11 attacks on the United States and the Mars Oddysey finds signs of large water ice deposits on Mars. Amidst all this chaos and wonder, Final Fantasy XI stepped out of the Square Enix factory and--- well, I know it’s not a factory per-se, but… it just sounds cooler than… oh you get the point. Anyway, Final Fantasy XI was announced for the PS2 (that’s Playstation 2) on May 16th 2002 in Japan, and in November the same year for PC.
(Just an important sidenote for those of you that haven’t played FFXI – you had to add a Hard Drive to your PS2…. And it looked… well, let’s just say it looked “early 2000 tech-ish”) The game was a big hit in Japan, where it didn’t really have a lot of competition, with the exception of games like Anarchy Online, Dark Age of Camelot and the very successful game Runescape released in 2001. Following the game’s release on PC, it picked up speed and in 2006, the game reported that it had somewhere around 200 to 300 000 active players logging in every day. The game was praised for its graphics and battle system, the two things Square Enix, or Squaresoft at the time, would pride themselves with on pretty much every Final Fantasy game…. Ehm… There are exceptions though. *cough* MOVING ON. Fast forward to 2005. Squaresoft is now Square Enix, and the company is eager to create a successor to Final Fantasy XI. There were speculation internally wether or not to make it a direct sequel to Final Fantasy XI, a Final Fantasy XI-2 check this website. This had worked before with Final Fantasy X, but it was unclear how this would work in practice. At this time, Final Fantasy XI was on its second Expansion, Chains of Promathia, and the active player numbers were still rising. However, it was eventually decided it would become a main title Final Fantasy game, and work on the game started sometime that year. Codenamed Rapture, the developers were still worried that making it a main series title would be risky, as the features they were planning to implement were considered “too radical” internally. And also, just to clarify, the “too radical” part means that they were trying to make it a little bit more different from Final Fantasy XI. A little bit. The staff hired for Codename Rapture was Producer Hiromichi Tamaka – the head honcho and original producer of Final Fantasy XI. The director was Nobuaki Komoto who himself was the director of Final Fantasy XI. The game’s writer, Yeako Sato had been the main scenario writer for… you guessed it, FF XI. Are you noticing a pattern here? Cause…. Cause I… am. So, let’s go over the battle plan. The game was to be built around a main story, complemented by SIDE- stories. Also, leves. Guildleves were supposed to be the future of MMOs according to Square Enix. The godsdamned leve plates were plastered on pretty much every promotional material for the game. But we’ll get to that later. Unfortunately for Sato, the incredibly inefficient work environment and lack of communication between departments, the setting and gameplay had already been decided before she was brought on board as the main scenario writer, which meant that she had to consult the rest of the team every time she wished to use any of Eorzea’s main locations in a certain way. The story of Final Fantasy XIV was supposed to focus on the conflict between the five main races of Eorzea and the troublesome Beast Tribes and their stupid primals…. Looking at you, TITA—oh wait you didn’t make it to 1.0, HAH. Anyway, the story would also feature a third conflict with the mighty Garlean Empire, serving as the title’s iconic bad guys. Speaking of iconic, the game’s logo was to once again be designed by the extremely talented Yoshitaka Amano. Seriously, this is the guy behind pretty much every single Final Fantasy logo. LOOK AT IT IT’S BEAUTIFUL. ALL OF IT. *ahem* The logo for Final Fantasy XIV was designed around the importance of weapons and take a look at this logo for a second. When I first read what the concept was I got confused, but don’t worry, it will make sense a few seconds later. The concept for this logo is… a wheel. Okay, so, the wheel in question was a wheel of adventurers, arranged so their backs were exposed and the needed to rely on their comrades and friends for support. Pretty neat huh. So back to the game development. Art Director Akihiko Yoshida was one of the few department leaders that had no previous experience from MMOs. So he had to adjust from working on a single static project where what was done was done, to creating artwork assets for a game that was supposed to be constantly updated and expanded. Needless to say, he had some serious work ahead of him. Now, when the team finally sat down and started planning the actual game world, they quickly decided to once again use a high fantasy aesthetic, and the world was supposed to encourage exploration. *sigh* we’ll get back to that later as well, don’t worry. With the more abstract ideas ready, they started with the actual world. The team created a detailed profile of Hydaelyn including its relation with other planets, ecosystems, climate and geography to promote a sense of realism. Seriously, I know the team would soon get a lot of flak for the game, but my gods their attention to detail is admirable. As development continued, the world was being sculpted by the art department. It was decided that larger seamless zones were more desirable than a series of smaller zones with zone dividers, to stick with their realism mantra. In addition to this, they supposedly put a lot of effort into the topography and varied lighting of environment to ensure they didn’t seem repetitive….. *ahem* It would appear however, that they would make one asset, say, this passage right here in La Noscea, and evenly distribute this all over the zone, sometimes mirrored, other times at an odd angle, but always the same asset. Take a look at this map. This is Thanalan as it appeared in the original release of the game. Look at this area right here, then notice how many times this exact asset is repeated!! Not only that, but the lighting they put so much effort in was not actual light, it was a very simple light map put straight onto the ground textures, and yeah, the environment didn’t have any shadows…. It didn’t have SHADOWS! Yeah, I’m gonna say that again. It didn’t have SHADOWS! This made day/night cycles awkward, as there was no actual global illumination on the environment, so to solve this, they…. They added a blue tint at night time…. A… blue tint. This made things such as campfires and lamp posts look dull and not really lighting up anything at all. SERIOUSLY SQUARE WHAT WERE YOU THINKING THIS LOOKS RIDICULOUS! Let’s look at some map designs again, shall we? Like this one, for La Noscea. It’s actually one of the less horrible ones. Still a lot of copy paste in this one… but… there is one map that all 1.0 players dread. One so cruel, so evil, few even bear to listen to the zone’s soundtrack… Oh no… Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you… The Black Shroud, 1.0 style…. SERIOUSLY look at this. Look at this and remember that someone at Square Enix gave this design a thumbs up. This is the worst case of copy/paste/corridor/waffle maze design crime I have ever seen! The only open areas in this map are these… things… and they are just lazily copy pasted throughout the intestine that is the 1.0 black shroud. And this river. This godsdammed river section….. Anyway, the cutscenes for the game were especially good, in fact they might be the best part of the entire game. They were first drafted using a storyboard followed by motion capture to create the scene in a digitized format. And let’s be honest guys, FFXIV 1.0’s cutscenes were impeccable, even by today’s standards. Most impressive were the scenes that were voiced, as the lips were synced to the voice, making the scene look just like one you’d see in a good single player game. However, the dev’s almost obsessive attention to graphical fidelity was one of the many reasons why this game was destined to fail. Take the opening cutscene for Limsa Lominsa, for example. It was one of the most challenging cutscenes for the devs to create, as it featured a real time rendering of a scene involving multiple NPCs running around with monsters swarming the deck all happening at once while a giant sea serpent jumps out of the sea and over the ship. The cherry on top with this scene is that each of the giant sea serpent’s fins were individually animated, causing most computers at the time to either struggle past 10 fps, or flat out crashing to desktop due to the strain on the system. The engine responsible for this mess, was Square Enix’s own middleware engine “Crystal Tools”, originally used in Final Fantasy XIII. The engine was customized to better fit Final Fantasy XIV, but… as you’ve just seen countless examples of, it proved unsuitable to the needs of the game, rendering its internal structure… broken. Yeah. This is all in hindsight of course, as back in 2009, when the game was about to be revealed, Square Enix had already approved of the designs and was ready to announce the game. But nothing, nothing would make FFXIV players shiver more than this thing. This monstrosity was responsible for frame drops so significant, you’d think the game was made by Skrillex. ….. get it? Dropping the bass, dropping frames…. Skrillex… *sigh* Yeah, yeah I knew it was a bad idea. BACK TO THE MONSTER. This monster not only made the game run slower than your grandma, it was EVERYWHERE in the main cities. This monstrosity is known by many names, but the most common name used for it is….. FLOWER POT! Seriously…. Flower pots. But that’s all we have time for in this video. In the next episode we will look closer at the flower pots and the rest of the world design, sot thank you so much for watching, I hope I didn’t bore you to death. If you’re still alive, make sure to thumbs up this video if you liked it and crave for the continuation, and leave a comment with your best/worst memory of 1.0, or just let me know what you think of the article, that works too. What was the biggest challenge you faced writing this book and how did you overcome it?
Like all writers, I get writer’s block where I just cannot think of the next words to fit the page. When this happens, I know that it is time for me to take a break and indulge in some of my other favorite hobbies. It helps if I go for a run, hang out with my friends and family, or go to a sporting event. It helps me to come back to my writing and make it better. It’s always good to take breaks and brainstorm off the paper. What are the future plans for you and this book? The only future plans I have for the book are to sell, sell, and sell some more. I would like this book to become introduced into school systems, and I am working on that process currently. It is definitely not a textbook, but I think it could help people, students, and readers learn more about the subject. What is your next project? My next project is actually a compilation of stories about people that I meet on airplanes. Everyone that I know has had at least one unique experience with this. I figured it would be funny, enjoyable, and also relevant to write a book with this information. Any advice for other writers/indie authors out there? Never give up. Challenge yourself. Edit, edit, edit, and edit again. Reach out to other authors and ask questions. People are willing to help. I am trying to write my essay about a subject I enjoy and that I am passionate about. Tell us a little about your book. The book is a unique compilation of examples of pop culture, history, social media, business, sports, and education all explained through an economic lens. It uses current market trends and examples that can be applicable and enjoyable for anyone. It is written in a narrative non-fiction format so it flows easily and does not read similarly to a textbook. Economics is part of daily life, and this book challenges readers to question how and why people make decisions by adding a simple twist on normalcy. What inspired you to write this book? I love economics, and I majored in it during my undergraduate work at Indiana University. As a student, many of the examples in my textbooks were irrelevant and made the subject one that many students did not enjoy. I wanted to change the negative connotations associated with the topic. I wanted to make it something that people understood and relished learning about. What are you doing to market your book? To market my book, I have been asking hundreds of bloggers to put the book on their website with a review. I have also been marketing it on GoodReads.com, Amazon.com, and I created a website for it as well. How have sales been? Where have you had the most success? Sales have started off quite slow, but they are picking up as the book gets reviewed more. I have had the most success through word of mouth. My book was also featured in my local newspaper and I had a lot of great publicity from that. It was important to get the word out and that helped tremendously. How are readers/reviewers reacting to your book? I have gotten fairly good reactions thus far. Most people seem to enjoy it, and the rating on Amazon is quite high so far. I am happy about this because you never know how someone will react to your writing. It is a great feeling to know that people are learning from what I wrote. It has been an excellent experience. Plymouth Rock is bleeding. Day has turned to night. Hundred-pound hailstones level buildings. The small town of Clement seems cursed, and the residents know who’s to blame: the new kid, Tony Marino. After losing his family and his home, 14-year-old Tony is forced to move from Florida to Massachusetts to attend Kalos Academy, an unconventional school for gifted children. Strange things begin to happen the day he arrives, and soon stories of plagues, monsters, and mystical objects surround him. Refusing to believe superstitions, Tony struggles to explain the occurrences logically, until he comes face to face with a satanic cult determined to bring about the end of the world. What inspired you to write this book? The biggest inspiration for The Faustian Host was the approach of 2012 and all the excitement surrounding the possible end of the world. I wanted to create a unique spin on the idea, and give a group of kids the chance to stand up against it. The actual writing of the book began with a single image: a trail of blood trickling out of Plymouth Rock. From there I just let my imagination run wild. What are you doing to market your book? Currently over 60 reviewers are reading The Faustian Host, and the book has been featured on a number of book blogs and websites. I produced ten paperback versions of the book which are being made available to winners in exclusive giveaways. I’m also active on Goodreads and Facebook. What are the future plans for you and this book? This is just the beginning of the Apocalypse Signs series. The second book is scheduled to be out next summer. What is your next project? In November I’m releasing an adult, psychological thriller entitled Mindfront. After uncovering a universal code in the brain waves of all living things that could revolutionize psychology, Martin Keller wakes one morning to find himself covered in blood, surrounded by his butchered family. Convinced he’s being framed by a diabolical organization set on stealing or sabotaging his work, he dodges a multi-agency manhunt that pursues him from the seediest corners of DC to the highest offices of government. Struggling to stay alive and find his family’s killer, Marty soon finds himself lost in a maze of conspiracies and paranoia, and eventually begins to doubt his own sanity. How can he find the truth when he doesn’t know what’s real? Any advice for other writers/indie authors out there? Discover the story that only you can tell, and then tell it the best you possibly can. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.
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