Triller BlogTriller Blog Server2009-10-27T11:08:42ZI Spy With My Little Kinect/blogs/members/b/triller_blog/archive/2013/07/11/i-spy-with-my-little-kinect.aspx2013-07-12T03:07:00Z2013-07-12T03:07:00Z<p>Since Microsoft announced the XBox One people have had a lot of things to be upset about. &nbsp;In this post today I am going to focus on the one that surprised me the most. &nbsp;Kinect always being on. &nbsp;Be aware, I had a smile on my face while writing this.</p> <p>A lot of people believe they have very legitimate concerns about the government watching us, &nbsp;using the Kinect to record us and listen to all of our conversations. &nbsp;With all the wonderful news about the NSA, the fear of this being a reality is becoming more legitimate. &nbsp;Even after all this news and speculation by the tinfoil hats among us, I am going to explain to you why this does not concern me. &nbsp;Don&#39;t get me wrong, I know the government can eye me up when it likes but I have no delusion that the Kinect will be its main hub of info on me or anybody else.</p> <p>First off, the things I do that would warrant monitoring. &nbsp;I am a pretty awesome guy if my mother does say so herself. &nbsp;I tend to be able to add a witty side to most conversations and can get a laugh even if it is due to immense pity. &nbsp;I have a lovely girlfriend who lives with me along with 2 cats and a dog at the moment. &nbsp;Most of my days are spent at work but when I am at home I enjoy watching TV and playing games. &nbsp;I engage in no illegal activities and surprisingly do not have many conversations about taking over the world. &nbsp;I am basically the worst reality show anyone would ever watch. &nbsp;So why tag me? &nbsp; You could gather up a lot of info about what I like and do not like, though, I do have facebook like most everyone else and there is a feature on there that actually allows you to &quot;like&quot; something, so that covers that. &nbsp;In fact, anything you want to know about me could probably be grabbed from any of my online profiles. &nbsp;Heck, ask me and I would let you know!</p> <p><img border="0" src="" alt="" /></p> <p style="text-align:center;"><strong>The view from my laptop webcam as I watch some Clone High. &nbsp;Amazing cartoon!</strong></p> <p>Use my Kinect to watch me? &nbsp;Just my Kinect? &nbsp;I have had a smart phone for quite awhile now. &nbsp;Do I really know how to use it, no not really. &nbsp;I can text and call and if I really need to I can take a picture. &nbsp;I am also always on my laptop. &nbsp;I am a 3D artist, how can I not be? &nbsp;Does this laptop have a camera, of course, how else are my parents going to share news with me while screaming into their microphone because they don&#39;t understand that they don&#39;t have to scream? &nbsp;What I am saying is, if you are concerned about the Kinect, look around you. &nbsp;Your phone, your laptop, your friends phone. &nbsp;Go outside, traffic cams, security cams other peoples cell phones. &nbsp;Any illusion of freedom you think you have should stop at you thinking your life is private. &nbsp;As I write this I am sitting in my living room facing out my wall of windows. &nbsp;The people across the ally can see what I am up to. &nbsp;That fat guy always has his shirt off. &nbsp;He clearly won&#39;t be getting the XBox One due to his shy nature. &nbsp;The only thing you should be concerned about with the Kinect is if anyone will actually make a game worth while for it.</p> <p><img src="" style="border:0px;" title="Kinect is watching!" alt="" /></p> <p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Kinect spying on me as I ask the dog why it has to pee on the floor.</strong></p> <p>Next up, my right to privacy. &nbsp;I am not an American. &nbsp;Their constitution and bill of rights is not memorized and I should say that I intend on reading the third book of the Kilo Five Trilogy for Halo before I plan on browsing those documents. &nbsp;Thursday War was awesome by the way. &nbsp;Now, most people are going to rabidly disagree with this but I believe ignorance truly is bliss. &nbsp;I work at a film company and every one of my moves on the computer is monitored. &nbsp;There are security cameras all over the building as well. &nbsp;This is to catch anyone who is stealing film assets from the pipeline or just straight up stealing hardware from the building. &nbsp;Make no mistake, these cameras are ALWAYS on. &nbsp;We have security audits, which are always fun, to ensure this. &nbsp;I am watched and tracked every second of my work day. &nbsp;This bothers me far more then if it was all kept secret. &nbsp;If I am being watched in my house right now that is fine because it isn&#39;t obvious. &nbsp;If I don&#39;t see video of me washing the dishes on youtube I am fine with someone having the footage. &nbsp;If someone is watching me while I sleep, just don&#39;t wake me up and I am fine with it.</p> <p style="text-align:center;"><img src="" width="300" title="Cell phone keepin an eye on me!" style="border:0px;" alt="" /></p> <p style="text-align:center;"><strong>My cell phone checking on me while I &quot;watch&quot; Jack the Giant Slayer.</strong></p> <p>Last but certainly not least, I have a life to worry about. &nbsp;I have bills to pay and a home to maintain, family and friends to visit and a world to explore before I die. &nbsp;I can be outraged at the possibility of the government watching me but my life is far too short to care. &nbsp;If the government stopped watching me and everybody else this second, I wouldn&#39;t get a raise at work, I wouldn&#39;t be healthier and I certainly can&#39;t get any better looking. &nbsp;I use sarcasm to hide my insecurities. &nbsp;Whatever, like you don&#39;t! &nbsp;I play games because I like to experience what a team of imaginations can slam together to entertain me with and if someone wants to watch me doing that, or watching TV, or eating, or engaging in any other activities, they can send me the footage they capture afterwards. &nbsp;I want the audio as well, might make for a cool podcast if I ever said anything of importance.</p> <p>I know a lot of people have a real problem with being &quot;spied on&quot; and I can understand that. &nbsp;Some people want to keep their lives a secret and those people can always &quot;delete&quot; their facebook profiles, throw out their electronics, change their names and never speak to their friends or family ever again. &nbsp;They can build a lovely shack out in the woods somewhere and eat what they kill. &nbsp;If this is your plan then the Kinect doesn&#39;t concern you and gaming in general doesn&#39;t either. &nbsp;Just a thought though before you head out into the wilderness. If I was the government, I would be much more interested in the individuals who try to keep a lower profile than the ones who just posted an update on facebook about what they just had for dinner. &nbsp;I get it Danny, your fries were good! &nbsp;WHO CARES!</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="" width="1" height="1">Triller Game Art "Career"/blogs/members/b/triller_blog/archive/2013/05/05/3d-game-art-quot-career-quot.aspx2013-05-06T01:25:00Z2013-05-06T01:25:00Z<p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>I am not sure how many of you can relate to what I am about to write. &nbsp;I am sure it spans more than my specific story and I hope it does for relatability purposes. &nbsp;It is somewhat of an origin story without an ending, or at least I would like to hold out for a good one.</p> <p><span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>My name is Cougan Waddell and I am a 3D Game Environment artist. &nbsp;This is the line I have used while applying to a countless amount of game developers throughout the last 6 years. &nbsp;To be honest when I look back I can see that I wasn&#39;t at the top of my game. &nbsp;My skills were new and though my attempts were honest, my work didn&#39;t represent as well as it needed to. &nbsp;I needed to learn more and evolve as an artist and I truly believe I have. &nbsp;So why do I find myself jobless in my desired career? &nbsp;The amount I think about this question is almost sad but it is a question I need to ask often to keep me adapting and working to get better. &nbsp;Below I will discuss my journey and things I have noticed over the years.</p> <p>EDUCATION. &nbsp;The first school I attended was the best and worst experience I had as an intro into how to create art for games. &nbsp;It was a small school located in Saskatchewan, Canada that was close to home. &nbsp;It seemed awesome at the time. &nbsp;A room filled with computers occupied by eager artists ready to learn. &nbsp;An entire year to just absorb and create worlds using the craziness of my imagination. &nbsp;I didn&#39;t know it then but my learning experience was horrible. &nbsp;The teachers didn&#39;t know as much as they let on and most &quot;classes&quot; involved the instructor giving us an assignment and letting us go at it with only a small amount of instruction. &nbsp;I could go on about the negative aspects of this place but I prefer the positives. &nbsp;First off, my friends. &nbsp;I met a few people at this school that will be my best friends forever. &nbsp;Like minded individuals who I bonded with to a point of brotherhood. &nbsp;These are the people I learned from every day. &nbsp;Trying new things and sharing our ideas to ensure we stayed up to date. &nbsp;We still do it regularly to this day while playing games or just sharing projects. &nbsp;The other positive was that I had a year to learn programs that I needed to know. &nbsp;The basics are still the basics and they are very necessary. &nbsp;</p> <p>LOCATION. &nbsp;I would wager someone could correctly guess how many game companies are housed in Saskatchewan? &nbsp;At the time none and if I am correct, there still isn&#39;t anything there. &nbsp;I applied outwards to the coasts of Canada and this is where a sad reality set in, very slowly. &nbsp;Why take a guy from the middle of nowhere when we have all the talent we need right here? &nbsp;EA, Ubisoft, Capcom, Rockstar, Bioware and many others obviously receive multitudes of applications and how was I to stand out? &nbsp;So something needed to change and it came together all at once. &nbsp;I needed more education and I needed to be where game companies could see me up close. &nbsp;Off to Vancouver I went, the promise land of games! &nbsp;A beautiful place with beaches and mountains and a game developer that I could possibly call home, but before all that, it was back to work.</p> <p>EDUCATION. &nbsp;My second go, this time I was armed with much more research as to where I could get the best experience. &nbsp;My parents are to thank for finding this gem. &nbsp;A small school called Think Tank Training Center on the North Shore in Vancouver. &nbsp;This school brought me back into the fold and taught me what was relevant and what I needed to do to create something that would get me a job in the games industry. &nbsp;Their classes were held later in the day because our instructors worked in the film and gaming industry. &nbsp;They knew their stuff, but the best part about Think Tank was the internship. &nbsp;I had two mentors, one from United Front Games and the other from Slant Six who are currently at Crytek and 2K Marine respectively. &nbsp;Amazing guys and they taught me pretty much everything I know. &nbsp;Also met some amazing artists who still blow my mind every day with the things they can do. &nbsp;Film, characters artists though, our skill sets don&#39;t cross paths too many times. &nbsp;After school at Think Tank I felt as high as a cloud. &nbsp;My mentors and teachers praised my work and my confidence was at an all-time high! &nbsp;&quot;I&#39;m in&quot;, is all I could think. &nbsp;With what I learned and where I was there was no way my career could be stopped. &nbsp;Here is what I created and shared with every game company, big and small, in Canada, multiple times.</p> <p><a href=""></a></p> <p>LOCATION. &nbsp;I didn&#39;t think this would become an issue again after I moved out west to the promise land but while I was finishing up school I started following a disturbing trend. &nbsp;Game companies dropping like flies. &nbsp;Rockstar packed up and went to Ontario. Propaganda, A.C.R.O.N.Y.M, Pop Cap and a few other Indies shut down. &nbsp;Slant Six, United Front Games, Relic, Radical all running into layoffs. &nbsp;What the hell is going on? &nbsp;The worst of it is not that these companies are gone or almost gone, it is that the game art market is now flooded with artists who have experience and will work for what I would work for, so why take me? &nbsp;Companies here aren&#39;t entirely dead but they are swarmed with artists of fallen companies. &nbsp;So I looked east. &nbsp;Quebec and Ontario with their wonderful tax breaks to cg companies and a nice healthy market. &nbsp;A familiar question is asked once again, why would we hire someone from the other end of the country when we have so much home grown talent?</p> <p><span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>Stuck is how I feel these days. &nbsp;I am constantly working on new projects when I can and trying to stay up to date on engines like the Unreal Engine and CryEngine. &nbsp;Freelance is hard to come across and even harder to find time for with my current job. &nbsp;Joining a not-for-profit team requires quite a time commitment as well and I certainly do not want to neglect my wonderful girlfriend as she already puts up with my crap. Where do I go?</p> <p>OPTIMISM. &nbsp;The next generation of games is about to begin and I think a lot of companies are learning how to make a splash with gamers again. &nbsp;Companies like Capcom, EA and Ubisoft will still pump out their usual yearly games but I think a lot of Indies will evolve into functional mid-size companies that stay independent and continue to innovate. &nbsp;With Sony talking about how easy they want to make it for indie developers to make games for their console, I can only imagine Microsoft will do the same, this should also sprout many new indie studios. &nbsp;With new consoles will come announcements for new 1st party developers and hopefully new IPs. &nbsp;When Microsoft opened Black Tusk Studios here in Vancouver about 5 months ago it was a small light at the end of the tunnel. &nbsp;Clearly one studio will not be able to hire all of us but if successful never know who might want in on some Vancouver action.</p> <p><span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>BC tax breaks. &nbsp;With Ontario having such a wonderful tax break for game companies it is no surprise that companies are moving or opening up studios there. &nbsp;BC does no compete in this sector yet recognizes the opportunity lost by not matching blows. &nbsp;Elections are upon us and luckily a change in leadership seems to be on the horizon. &nbsp;Promises of higher tax breaks for our industry have been tossed around, but a promise from a politician is like high fiving a chicken. &nbsp;You can swing all you want but the end result is never quite what you wanted. &nbsp;I can only hope a significant change is made and luckily the first step is about to happen.</p> <p><span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>In the end I choose not to give up. &nbsp;I love what I do and someday that will be recognized, either that or I will have to hold someone hostage till an agreement has been made to allow me to make something for a to-be-released game. &nbsp;An inconclusive ending to a somewhat depressing story. &nbsp;It is almost a bit of therapy just throwing it out there and I thank you for that.</p> <p><span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>I maintain an art blog where I have been working on a model a week. &nbsp;Every week I make a new prop and throw it up there. &nbsp;A way to keep producing work. &nbsp;My recent models are contributing to a larger overall project that I am keeping a secret till I get further in.</p> <p><a href=""></a></p> <div></div> <p>&nbsp;</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="" width="1" height="1">Triller Undeath - Part. 4/blogs/members/b/triller_blog/archive/2009/11/06/my-undeath-part-4.aspx2009-11-07T05:22:00Z2009-11-07T05:22:00Z<p style="text-align:center;"><a href=""><img src="" border="0" alt="" /></a></p> <p><span style="font-size:small;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; These lights are blinding. They cast a terrifying shadow of this dead parade over my empty cage, as well as the empty buildings that occupy this city. The mass has been&nbsp;wandering towards what looks to be a residential area. My thoughts turn towards what I believe we will eventually stumble upon. I hear the echos of that helpless woman. Are there more people in this city? How could anyone survive this monotonous onslaught? The street lights are dimmer now. Most flicker on and off as if the city itself was slowly dying. The brief darkness taunts me with a temporary escape from this place. As the crowd starts to thin, I notice that my body has now entered the quaint streets that were once filled with the everyday pedestrians that I had taken for granted. The houses are quiet. My body browses these homes as if it were shopping for groceries. I keep telling myself that there is nothing to be found, that there is&nbsp;no one&nbsp;left, but I can not drown out the doubt that plagues me. I am now afraid of the living, the conscious. My body stops and turns to the left. A face in the window disappears behind, once still, curtains. I had seen it but&nbsp;was my body aware? This question is quickly answered as my corpse begins to stumble towards the front door of this now, doomed home. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:small;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The deep groans ring out from my mangled face as if to invite all to the feast. I watch my hands turn to fists and begin to pound on the front door as we are joined by the other enthusiastic dinner guests. I can feel the rage and hunger returning to my corner of the mind. I notice the numbers &quot;4216&quot; boldly stamped on the side of this house. Is &quot;4216&quot; the host of a horror that I have been unable to even imagine? This hunger slowly consumes me. I can smell it, I can taste it and I can feel it.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:small;">I will go on, but as I like to say, &quot;some things are better off left undead.&quot;</span></p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="" width="1" height="1">Triller Undeath - PT. 3/blogs/members/b/triller_blog/archive/2009/11/04/my-undeath-pt-3.aspx2009-11-05T02:23:00Z2009-11-05T02:23:00Z<p style="text-align:center;"><a href=""><img src="" border="0" alt="" /></a></p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A distant scream startles my thoughts as my body stares vacantly into a brick wall. My corpse reacts as a child would when it hears the jolly tune of an ice cream truck. I can feel something new. This creatures most primitive motives begin to drip into my thoughts, covering them in a hungry rage. I need to feed, but on what? It does not matter seem to matter as my body runs into a wall of undead. The screams are louder now. It&#39;s a female, and she is close. This feeling of hunger is like nothing I have felt before. The feeling makes me angry. As this bloody rage slowly consumes me, the screams of the tasty morsel die off into the low moans of the crowd. The bodies thin and I push my way to the middle. I arrive in a frenzy only to see the bloody bones of what used to be a living human being. In an instant, the feeling of hunger is gone. Like someone with ADD, my body slows and continues to wander aimlessly as if nothing had happened. I am alone again. This is the first time something other than myself has occupied this space. I fear for what I was fortunate enough to miss. I now know what drives this body and I hope to never witness the consumption of what it craves.</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; My corpse once again walks these crowded yet empty city streets. My only thoughts now are of envy. The pain that being would have felt would have been excrushiating, but I would gladly accept it over this neverending hell. I would pray to God to release me from this terrible fate, but after what I have seen, it is hard to believe that there is any higher power.</p> <p>I will go on, but as I like to say, &quot;some things are better off left undead.&quot;</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="" width="1" height="1">Triller Undeath - PT. 2/blogs/members/b/triller_blog/archive/2009/11/02/my-undeath-pt-2.aspx2009-11-03T04:32:00Z2009-11-03T04:32:00Z<p style="text-align:center;"><img src="" border="0" alt="" /></p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; My days are long, almost neverending. This body does not sleep, nor does it stop moving. I am a forced witness to everything. I can not close my eyes or turn away. Who was I before this all happened that would justify a punishment such as this? I have no name, no identity. I am a subconsious thought that has no subliminal influence over any of my external actions. It seems a flashing light, a distant noise or a larger group are the only things that trigger this body into an awkward gallop that would be cause to put down any champion stallion. What is it looking for, what does it need? We seem to always be in a group. Something I am yet to be desensatized to. These grotesque figures haunt the hollow place where I reside. I am not sure what frightens me more, these ungodly creatures, or my thoughts of what my own apperance must be like to be accepted into this morbid group. We wander these city streets to the constant hum of depressing moans. As my body finds the strength to express itself, I feel as if I am a mouse in a box that is being shook by an unruley child. The deep sound shakes the walls of my dark empty prison. As I distract myself with constant thoughts, I wonder if there are other unfortunate sould trapped amoung these shapless beings. I hope that if there is, they are able to find some peace when their lifeless bodies finally wander into a part of this city that is dark enough to envelope their veiw of this unjust world, if only for a moment.</p> <p>I will go on but as I like to say, &quot;some things are better off left undead.&quot;</p> <p><span style="font-size:x-small;"><span style="font-size:small;">Check Out&nbsp;</span><a href=""><span style="font-size:small;">Part</span></a></span><a href=""><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="color:#3789c2;"> </span>3</span></a><span style="font-size:small;"> of &quot;My Undeath&quot;</span></p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="" width="1" height="1">Triller Undeath - PT. 1/blogs/members/b/triller_blog/archive/2009/11/02/my-undeath-pt-1.aspx2009-11-03T04:31:57Z2009-11-03T04:31:57Z<p><span style="font-size:x-small;"> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=""><img src="" border="0" alt="" /></a><span style="font-size:x-small;"> <p> <p><span style="font-size:small;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; These are my thoughts as I wander the earth trapped in a body that was once mine. These are the horrors I witness through familiar yet uncontrollable eyes. My consciousness is not infected, but my being is. I am the undead.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:small;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Where do I begin? The last thing I remember was that I was attacked. I don&#39;t remember where I was, but I do remember the darkness. It washed over my mind like a tidal wave over a coastal town. I was dead. It was the end, but then I awoke as if I was waking up to a pitch black room. I heard no sounds. I tried to move, tried to jar myself from this post slumber feeling, but nothing happened. Just then, my eyes opened. Somehow this shocked me. Something was wrong. I was not looking at the world through my eyes, I was experiencing some kind of &quot;inside looking out&quot; perspective, as if I was watching the world through a window. I was trying to examine myself but my body refused. It stood up and glanced around the room. This was an entrance way of a house. My house? My body trudged towards the front door and then paused as if exiting this home would be a most challenging task. I reached out and grabbed the door handle, but instead, my hand moved forward slowly in a bunched up fist and slammed down on the lever. I felt nothing. The front door slowly opened to the outside world to reveal a scene that has only been depicted by cinema. The sky blackened by smoke from the raging fires, the streets bloodied as a crowd of......are these people, slowly pushed themselves forward towards oblivion. This was my birth, the beginning of my afterlife.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:small;">I will go on, but as I like to say, &quot;some things are better off left undead.&quot;</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:small;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:small;">&nbsp;Check Out <a href="">Part 2</a> of &quot;My Undeath&quot;</span></p> </p> </span></p> </span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="" width="1" height="1">Triller have all the good gamers gone?/blogs/members/b/triller_blog/archive/2009/10/27/where-have-all-the-good-gamers-gone.aspx2009-10-28T03:36:50Z2009-10-28T03:36:50Z<p>Did they get pushed back from popularity? Did they&nbsp;become overwhelmed&nbsp;and were&nbsp;consumed by evil, or did they just go extinct entirely? I want to know where these gentle yet dedicated gamers went.<br /><br />I am talking about the &quot;Good Gamer&quot;. I remember back when I first started to play online games. I would meet tons of them. No matter what game we were playing or what the &quot;score&quot; was, this gamer would be having the time of his life. If it was an intense game he would amplify the intensity by showing his pure dedication to the plan or if it was a pure fun game he would not only find ways to make it more fun for himself but more fun for everyone involved. If you were new to a game this gamer would show you everything you needed to know. It was like having the greatest game support worker on the planet. He wouldn&#39;t yell through his mic or cut you down for having a weak &quot;score&quot; or ever use the terms, &quot;noob&quot;, &quot;uber&quot;, or &quot;pwned&quot;. I&#39;m not saying this gamer was some guy who didn&#39;t care about playing a game hard, he played it the hardest and was usually the best, but he never said a word about it.<br /><br />Then came the other gamers. True that they had always been around but not in such numbers. Slowly they would make their way to the top yelling and swearing like it was a new language. Good players within a game but not &quot;good gamers&quot;. These players would mock the &quot;good gamer&quot;, push him down for his enthusiasm and dedication to not only the game but to its newcomers as well. He was labeled &quot;noob&quot; himself as if the word had all of a sudden began to mean something else. These &quot;mic jockeys&quot; as I like to call them, seeing as they ride the mic more than actually play the game, would breed and spread like fungus covering up the leaderboards with cheaters and loud mouths who at any chance would spout the words &quot;uber pwned&quot; as if they needed it as much as air. Where was &quot;good gamer&quot; amoung all this? Slowly they dropped off the leaderboards, not because of their ability but because their online play had slowed and stopped.<br /><br />Where can we find these, &quot;good gamers&quot; today? Have they created a server unkown to all other gamers where they can play competitively and have fun at the same time? Unlikely, seeing as even when you try to avoid the fungus it spreads to some of your friends and even sometimes to you. So in the end I think I may have found my &quot;good gamers&quot;. You have to look not online but to some of your friends who have not yet played online for very long. These are &quot;pure gamers&quot;, the &quot;good gamers&quot; I have been looking for. They don&#39;t play to see their name at the top, they don&#39;t play to have a legitimate climate to say &quot;uber pwned&quot; in, they just play. They love it, every aspect of it. We all would like to think this is why we play but when a player gets online he becomes something else. Play by yourself sometimes and do just that, play. Look around you within the game and witness how so much hard work can make you feel.<br /><br />Maybe someday the &quot;good gamers&quot; will rise again and we can all play online, in peace.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="" width="1" height="1">Triller War Story/blogs/members/b/triller_blog/archive/2009/10/27/a-war-story.aspx2009-10-27T17:08:42Z2009-10-27T17:08:42Z<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:small;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>A War Story</strong></span> <span style="font-size:x-small;">by Cougan Waddell</span></span></p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The bombs were going off overhead as the bullets wizzed by my sweaty, mud filled face. The score of Transformers was blareing in my headphones to try to drown out the terrors of war. My P90 was covered in mud but she still worked. I had been charging all day trying to get behind enemy lines to work from within but I had been stonewalled by the losers of games......snipers. Sure we had snipers, like BugArse and Nitro45less, but these guys blew more chunks than Paris Hilton after drinking a whole glass of water, like all snipers did. I was determined to reach the building across the map to cut and shoot my way to victory. I looked to my right to see Hector. He wasn&#39;t a *** like those snipers, he was a man. He had been beaten all day as well, but his determination was out in full force. He would be a good right hand man. After meeting in our spawn we decided that this rush would be the rush to end it all! </p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; We decided to take the war torn building by both sides, Hector to the right, and myself to the left. We bolted. Shrapnel from the fallen grenades pierced through my uniform and into my skin. It was a pain I was far to familiar with, a pain that made me feel like there was no other way to win then this. I hit the deck as the last explosion went off.&nbsp; I was behind a cement guard which would last me for now. I glanced over at Hector to see him in a similar situation. We were both close to our selected entrances as the anticipation of blood rose from within. I nodded over to Hector. It was time to go in. As I stood to run from my cover a sniper bullet, from a pansy ass b*tch, glanced off my helmet and blew it off my head, the next hit me in the shoulder. It was nothing, a flesh wound if you will. These snipers could never finish anyone in one shot, screw-eyed morons.</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I bolted into the left entrance of the building after knifing one of those screw-eyed snipers who had figured laying on his gut staring through his scope was a good idea. I had jammed that knife so hard into his skull that I had to leave it there and take his. It was clean as a wistle. He was a b*tch like the rest. I wondered how Hector was doing, no problems I bet, we would meet up in the middle. My legs were sore after the sprint but the taste of that snipers blood fueled me enough. There were more on the top floor just waiting to be gunned and cut down.</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I ran up the rubble quickly and was able to catch one of the enemies with his back turned. I lodged the knife into his spine and turned it. The man jerked to the side as if I had full control over his body with only my knife. Before he could fall to the ground, his friend had been cut as well. The snipers were what I was here for and I didn&#39;t want to alarm them, they aren&#39;t accustomed to action. I walked into the second room and there they were, lined up in a row for easy pickings. I could only imagine the view my snipers had as they watched me gash large holes into each snipers body. The blood sprayed out and I let it fall on me like a refreshing summer rain. This was what it was all about. </p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; As I looked up from my bloddy bodies, I saw Hector with the same grin on his face that I only just realized I had, suddenly his grin turned to a wince and he fell to the ground. They had spawned and were coming back. The anger within me welled as I strafed side to side as the enemies bullets only wounded me. This revenge I would have for Hector would be my only task left. I charged through the enemies bullets and slammed my knife into his eye socket. I hoped the pain he felt would match the pain he inflicted on Hector. As the muffled scream of my victim faded into the score of Transformers I turned to see the inevitable. The snipers were back and knew I would be there. Only random shots would hit me but after being hit by my last victim it didn&#39;t take much to finish me off. After a few hits I went numb and hit the ground. My eyes dimmed as I watched the snipers lay right back down were they had initially been. I faded to black. It was over. I have to wait 10 seconds to respawn. Now isn&#39;t that just bull ***?</p> <p style="text-align:center;"><img src="" style="vertical-align:bottom;border:blue 2px solid;" alt="" /></p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="" width="1" height="1">Triller