Zerg Rush: Win a Copy of Starcraft II

Summer of 2003, my last family vacation before going off to college we went to Las Vegas. Walking into the Hilton I couldn’t stop smiling when I saw the room before the exhibit filled with Borg alcoves, immediately running to stand in one and have my picture taken. From that moment on I was on cloud nine not losing my smile from the instant I walked into the line surrounded by props through to my picture in the captain’s chair and talking to the staff dressed up as Ferengi and Klingons in the gift shop. Even though I was a year early and missed the Borg 3-D addition it was likely the happiest day of my life. Followed 5 years later by the soul crushing feeling I experienced when the attraction shut down and I wished I’d spent a bit more time there.

I would weep with happiness if I won a brand-new copy of Starcraft 2.

The best thing that happened to me in the last few years was that I was finally able to fully embrace my nerdiness and come out of the geek closet. In public I used to be “that nice mom” who did arts and crafts at her house. I threw caution to the wind and now I am “that nice mom” who proudly displays her action figures and vinyl toy collection, who has nerdcore music playing in the kitchen,and who can talk comic book shop with the best of them. I’m decorating with a bit of steampunk flair and am spending time customizing and designing toys. To top it off I’m an avid gamer who writes reviews about the games I enjoy. I’ve traded in my pumps for plaid Nikes. My only regret? I wish I’d come out of the nerd closet 20 years ago…I would have been much happier for it. :)

Our child is named Gabriel; but, we pronounce it like the Vulcan G’Bril.

(ok to be fair only I do it, but am hoping it catches on…)

The geekiest event for me has to be when I got my PS3 for Christmas in 2007.

Prior to getting the PS3 I had always played PC games exclusively–almost shunning console gaming for the simplistic and limited inputs bound by the controllers.

Since getting the PS3 I have played over 45 games, earned over 1100 trophies, met many new friends over the PSN and have shared countless hours of gaming with my family. At this point my son and I have trophy wars to see who get the most trophies in a new game fastest and there have been several times where he has won.

StarCraft was the go to game before my oldest daughter was born (she’s now 11) and my wife, her brother and father and I all would play LAN games.

I am looking forward to setting the PS3 controllers down and introducing my son and daughters to a new way to game with StarCraft 2.

Years ago, I recorded my own cover version that combined two of the StarCraft in-game songs and it has now gone on to have millions of downloads all over the internet(http://www.eviladam.com/mp3s/DigitalStink/EvilAdam-03-StarCraft-ZergMustDie.mp3). To this day I still get e-mails and messages from people all from every corner of the globe asking me for pointers on how to play it on guitar. If it wasn’t for the popularity of StarCraft, I don’t think my other songs would have had as many people ready to check out the rest of my original music.

Most significant nerd life moment, Playing Dungeons and Dragons with Vin Diesel:

Round 1 – 2004: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlUsiKfeDfo

Round 2 – 2008: http://www.ugo.com/movies/babylon-ad-video-gallery-vin-diesel-dungeons-and-dragons

Given the level of geek epicness above, I should win, but I forfeit the prize to one of the other good lads posting. I caved in to peer pressure and just picked up my copy. StarCraft and Total Annihilation dominated my early undergrad years, so I somewhat feel obligated to play. That said, I am more ravenous for Diablo III – which can’t come soon enough.

Im trying to think really hard on this; but I have gotten more geeky than nerdy the last several years. Cut back on my video game playing (before 2003, I was a fiend for txt based RPGs and MMORPGs. Never got into WOW)
I got rid of my glasses for contacts around 2005, and took up accounting as a career. I feel like a sellout; a great big phony. However, I do still shill to my friends about the TV shows (Dollhouse, Chuck, Legend of the Seeker) and books (Wheel of Time, Neil Gaiman) and gadgets (Cell Phones, Android, the latest social networking phenomina) that make my nerdy heart all a-flutter.

I got a chance to meet Robert Kirkman at last year’s Baltimore Comic-Con. My lovely wife waited in the ridiculous line for me while I prowled around the Con looking at costumes and buying T-shirts. By the time I had gotten up to meet Kirkman I had at least 14 different conversation starters in my mind(each one rejected and reaffirmed at least four times). I walked up and stuck out my hand….and my mind blanked. I forgot all the pithy, awesome and just plain cool things I was going to talk to Kirkman about and ended up mumbling something along the lines of, “…big fan…keep writing…big fan.”

The guy graciously said, “Thank you,” and signed a copy of Invincible for me. There it would have ended had not my wife been there to save the day again. She called out, “Can we get a picture?” which was something I had told her I wanted to do but had completely blanked on, along with the rest of my ideas for this big moment. We did a cool thumbs up pose, with me looking a little “gangsta”.

Now when I tell my friends about meeting Kirkman, I just show the cool picture my wife took and let them think we had a stimulating and witty conversation and ended with a sweet picture. It’s much better than telling them I had an attack of the brain farts and almost made a complete fool of myself

My geek moment started in the summer of 2004 when I purchased my first laptop with my gift money saved up. To me, my laptop was my first love (and still is!). It allowed me to explore the benefits of technology to a hearing impaired individual such as myself, to play video games online, to watch tv shows (although begrudingly with a split-screen to read the subtitles on notepad) like Stargate SG-1, Star Trek and Firefly, to googling for cheats in video games like Zelda, or movie/book/comic book spoilers when I couldn’t wait for the movie/book/comic book to come out. My first laptop had progressively turned me from a quiet shy girl into a more geekier and outspoken girl who regularly attends conventions with her geeky friends, and is always on top of the latest news on technology, movies, etc. Ask me and I can recite the history of the CD, or to the most obscene thing like Stan Lee’s use of alliterative names in comics – Peter Parker (both P’s), Bruce Banner (both B’s), etc.

Although I now have a new laptop, I can’t resist ever giving my first laptop/first love away or recycling it. To me, it’ll always be a reminder of my knighting into Geekhood. It’ll constantly remind me that I should never be afraid to be who I truly am, and to embrace the unconventional and unique things in life. I would love to geekbreak my new laptop with a new milestone: playing a PC-based game on it for the first time.

Starcraft was my introduction to Blizzard games. Well, id you don’t count the Lost Vikings which I didn’t know was Blizzard until later. I loved Starcraft but after a few years I got pulled into Warcraft III and eventually World of Warcraft.

I played in secret because my wife didn’t like video games all that much. So the most significantly nerdy thing that has happened to me would be when I convinced my wife to play WoW with me for just 30 minutes. To indulge me as a birthday present. She did, and she was hooked. Now it’s one of our favorite things to do together.

Growing up I was always a fan of Transformers, not the Hollywood crazed new Transformers, but G1. The summer of 2005 was when I decided that my very first tattoo would be the Autobots symbol on my arm as a sign of my true dedication for TF. There will be no regrets or remorse for this, but just pride and glory and it doesn’t stop here. My next tattoo will be Prime’s matrix across my back. I can’t wait!

Epic video game weekends, playing way too old games like goldeneye and perfect dark. Building a killer robot in school. Teching my nephews all about comic books and most inportantly star wars even if they do love the clone wars.

I would have to say my most significant nerd moment since SC2 started brewing would be the day I was able to meet Robert Jordan. I was a latecomer to the Wheel of Time series, and as such I had never had the desire to visit a signing. Shortly after Knife of Dreams was released I had the opportunity to visit my local tiny bookstore, which was upsetting because I worked at Barnes & Noble at the time, and meet him.

At this point I had voraciously devoured books 1-10 and with great anticipation of the event I decided to reinvest in a collection of the books in hardcover (Thank GOD I worked at Barnes & Noble because that 30% discount saved my wallet at the age of 19). I took my copies of books 1-11, New Spring, and the officially published companion book to the series and got them signed. Now, because the bookstore was so small I was only able to get 2 books signed at a given time because of the policy at the store so with all these books I had to enlist the help of my girlfriend so we cycled through the line 4 and 3 times respectively to get these all signed. Because of the unique nature of this situation I was able to get to talk to Mr. Rigney (Jordan) a number of times, and listen as my girlfriend (a total non-nerd) informed him that she thought all that fantasy stuff was kind of silly and he attempted to convince her to read the books and give them a shot, which she blatantly refused to do 4 times.

This is a moment I treasure because I have a great collection of books, signed by the author, at the last book-signing he did at that little shop. This is something I am immensely proud of, and is a great way to introduce this series to future generations of nerdlets.

I met Geoff Johns at a deli near the DC HQ when Black Reign coming out (late 2003) and I was gushing about how cool he was making Hawkman. He asked me what other characters I was into, which always struck me since I thought asking what books I liked was more common, and I think I named everyone on the Justice League. Then I showed him my Green Lantern keychain and he smiled and told me he was going to work on Green Lantern and that I should keep my eye out. That was a year before GL: Rebirth released, and the rest is history.

Couple month ago,I downed 25man LK. Practically my entire apartment building heard me cheer.

Time for something different till Cata comes out.

oh, it’s got to be the ending sequence of P0rtal.
On the same day that I got the orange box, i returned home, and discovered P0rtal, a game I never had heard of.

Four hours later,I just sat there and laughed while the final song was played. Puzzle, frenetic action and a sarcastic computer made my day.
I had gotten more than I bargained for, in a good way.
I will always count that as one of my best gaming-memories.

I think I’m living in arguable a golden age of Geekdom…the popularity of super hero and scifi films and tv – Batman, Spiderman, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica are all relevant again with real budgets, acting, writing, etc.

On a personal note, the Big Bang Theory has been a great show that has given geeks and nerds a better image to a certain degree…nerd gets the girl, it’s okay to love comics and super heroes. That’s a great message! Plus we learn or are reminded of something geeky every week.

Plus, LOTR in the Theaters…are you kidding me….EPIC!!!!!

* Filed a patent on a biosensor technology for detecting bacteria (Feb 2010)
* Got an MSc in Biomedical Engineering (Jun 2010) and my BSc in Electrical Engineering (May 2004)
* Watched every episode of Star Trek Voyager, Stargate Atlantis and SG1, and read almost every Star Wars book available online.
* Dude, I got a Dell… then I played AOE III (Age of Empires) and Starcraft (as Protoss) until I felt sick. Boo. :(
* Grew a deep sense on contempt for Macs – Apple is the new Microsoft. The only difference is they make machines that are useless for engineering purposes. I.e. they’re not an engineer’s supplier.
Gotta judge’em for it.
* Currently writing a bloody fantasy story about a kid who discovers he’s a berserker (a warrior goes berserk in fights) the hard way.

i dont exactly remember the years, but i do now it was after 2003, it was the first time i used linux i went to a conference in my university about free software i had hear about linyx before but that day i fell in love, i got my free cd with ubuntu, the first time also i did a dual boot and thats when the inner and sleep geek in my finally wake up, before i was more a gamer than a geek but it was that summer i started to get interest in gadgets new hardware, i became the tecnology guru within my friends and family, now am a law student but i still fix computers for fun (and ocassionally some money), i played sc1 since the release and waited for a sequel for a long time i saw wow and its xpansions always wondering when blizzard would finally do that we all were waiting for, the day the beta release i downloaded and was blown away by sc2 even in beta it was just beautiful.

Well, let’s review:

Late in freshman year of college, I was a biology major with little idea of what to actually do career wise beyond a hazy vision of myself in a lab coat. A friend gave me a copy of Richard Preston’s The Hot Zone, and thus based on a biological thriller I’m now pursuing a masters in biodefense.

Despite picking up (and putting back down) Good Omens on at least two separate occasions, I decided to make the Sandman part of the spearhead of my attempt to correct the horrifying lack of comic books in my upbringing, and was of course amply rewarded. Other series consumed include Buffy Season 8, DMZ, and Scott Pilgrim. Not only has this made me a better person, but I now wish to do naughty things to Vertigo.

BSG BSG BSG. I had no idea how high on the list of my favorite shows this thing would climb given the lukewarm reception the pilot received. 3 years later my friends and I were clamoring onto iTunes to get the latest episodes (comcast controlled the cable market where we lived at the time and for some unholy reason denied us SciFi channel. I will spell it “Syfy” just as soon as I get back from my ski trip to hell).

Between World War Z, every zombie movie since 28 Days Later, and most recently The Passage, I continue to be delighted with the ability of microbiology to breathe new life into old horror tropes.

My geek growth was in computer building. Didn’t have the confidence or money before ’08. When ’08 rolled around I had been given several games for Christmas that my ’02 bare bones computer could not play. I wanted to get a gaming rig but in looking to buy one I kept running into the money issue. So I priced out parts to make my own, found I could do a mid range system at a low end price, and took the plunge. It worked great, booted up the first time without any issues. I was hooked.

Now I custom build computers for my friends. They pay for parts and I get to enjoy picking the right parts and putting them together. It’s not something I ever expected to do but it is a highlight of my geekness.

I am a long time geek, but a recent journey to Geekdom was the first time I went to Gencon. Gencon as most of you know is the best gathering of all things geek, nerd, and gaming(mostly card and tabletop kiddies) in the Midwest. This was also the first year (2006) Videogames Live came to Indianapolis. I took my then girlfriend with me not thinking about how crowded and smelly it would be. We indoor types really need to start using speed stick. I thought she was going to be miserable, but it turned out to be a blast we watched anime did some gaming and people watched for hours. Gencon is the only place in the Midwest you can see PimpVader. We ended the day going to video games Live an experience I recommend to everyone. This Wonder Woman who put up with all that is now my wife. We are happily married and play Mario galaxy 2 together. The geek lives on!

My first step into geekdom was in 2006 where my friends first introduced me to “Maplestory” (I know guys, it gets better) I played this and got to level 50 where I decided to stop playing as I was introduced to starcraft by my friends.
In 2007 was my first night not sleeping (soft I know) but this was the first in many days to come. I soon got to the rank of C- on Iccup and although this might seem like much on March 25th 2008 I went to my first lan party, at this party we watched the MSL and OSL.On the same night me and my friends decided not only to play starcraft for 5 hours straight but to have a starwars marathon and watch anime movies. Though I’ve done some more things i feel they’re a bit too embarassing to express. I hope that me and my group of peons can enjoy starcraft 2 together.

having gone from not playing to many video games in 03′, I played SC and CS, but not a lot, to now checking massively and techland and 1up everydayyyyy to check if any new games are in beta or are good. I also check my swtor inbox like 20 times a day since game testing was announced. I would classify myself as a nerd now, a couple of years ago I would have denied it with every ounce of me, but heh I played WoW for years, my roomate is a friend I met on wow years ago,I moved 8 hours away from hom to live here, but it’s way more fun to be around people with the same interests and some of my friends are people I met on there as well now, it’s whatever I EMBRACE The NERD!

March 2008 marked the first time I picked up a paintbrush, painted up a slew of 30mm scale miniatures and got into miniature wargaming (Warmachine).

Here’s a sample of my work: http://badj.tumblr.com/post/92420810/dress-purples-not-dress-blues

December 2009 is the year I put down the brush and picked up an Xbox 360 controller.

Something had to give so: http://badj.tumblr.com/post/616975568/why-there-are-no-new-painted-models

About a year ago I discovered Techland.com while reading through my Time magazine. And ever since then it has sat atop the number one spot on my firefox pull down URL. And I am on Facebook ALOT. But my day is never complete till I catch up on all things Techie on techland. I do get sad when it takes a break for the weekend though.

I played a ton of Starcraft back in high school, so 2005-2006ish. During one 3v3 BGH game, both of my partners got rushed and died, which left me 1v3 but gave me time to tech up. With tons of micro, I eventually managed to win the game despite 1v3. Only after the game did I realize I was sweating all over. It was the first time I had ever broken 200 APM (actions per minute), albeit for only a few seconds.

picked up world of warcraft, and couldnt put it down for a whole year. after i completed most of the end game content, i moved on to MW2, WC3, SC:BW. ive been trying to save up for sc2 but i failed to save up enough in time for the release.
i would like to thank you for being so kind as to give away your sc2 for free. thanks

I’ve always made a point not to play too many games when I had a girlfriend over, but with the latest girl (we’ve been together just over a year now), something changed.

She came over one day while I was in the middle of a game on my PC, and instead of the usual whining that most girls did, she just whips out her DS and sits on the couch playing Zelda.

So I decided to keep her around for a while.

I started playing Runescape online and ended up suffering slight reduction in eyesight. Now I have glasses, but am still playing the game years later.. D: the things I sacrifice for video games

Well my entry may be a little late, but I’ll share it with you anyway.

When I was much younger, (I’m 21 now) my parents bought me a 6-player x-men arcade cabinet, for about $300. This was around the time that arcades were beginning to die in the mid 90s. My local arcade was closing so that’s part of the reason my parents were able to get it for so cheap.

Anyway, it has been in a few parts in my garage for several years…until now. I decided to bring it back inside and reassemble it, and to my amazement, the thing still works!

It works almost flawlessly, but i will try to do some work on the speakers (they can cut out from time to time).

As you can see from the following picture, the cabinet is FREAKING HUGE, and I will eventually have to move it out of my room…at some point…maybe.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/Spike1001/1.jpg

I think I’m doing a great service to nerds everywhere by keeping the spirit of such games and the memories of arcade-goers alive. I hope to add a few more cabinets to my “collection” in the future.

P.S. You guys are welcome to come play it! :P

aiiit! so, who won?!

Guys, these are amazing! I’m going to read through them all again and pick a winner. Expect to hear something this evening.

Okay, after having read each comment several times, I’ve decided on a winner. Truevcu will be the proud owner of a new copy of Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty.

I just had to give it to his blend of hard science, comics and non-illustrated prose. Truevcu, you’ll be getting an e-mail with details momentarily.

You honor me *bows*

I am a chef, and Starcraft has helped me develop and hone my skills.

Seriously.

Now, it’s incredibly embarrassing, but at a certain point early in my, still young, culinary career, I was spending my nights obsessively playing LAN Starcraft with my room mates. Anybody who has played Starcraft understands that at a certain point, the game boils down to your raw ability to multi task and manage several different aspects of the game at once. One night I was at work, and I started to think of the 3 steaks on the grill as 3 groups of marines currently under construction, waiting to attack. While my marines were building I was having a conflict with a squash, dicing as quickly as I could so I could move on to preparing the garnishes for my steak which were, of course, upgrades for the steak (marines.)

My evenings at work continued like this, and it was quite unsettling and made me feel pretty ridiculous. However, I had a noticeable improvement in my overall speed and technique. Dishes were coming out faster then they ever had before. And so, I suppose it’s all sub conscious at this point. I don’t think about it anymore, but perhaps the bread in the oven still are Battlecruisers under construction while I’m plating some fettuccine alfredo (a sneak attack not meant to destroy, but distract, and buy me time i.e. keep the customer happy,) and ALWAYS cooking pasta, because you need it for the entire service, much like SCVs.

Also, since I am a cook, i’m incredibly broke and NEED THIS GAME!

For my career, of course.

not to burst your bubble, man but I think at this point the begging has moved from this thread to my inbox

I got laid off then realized I could make a decent living painting toys, and modifying action figures. I then delved into buying, and selling vintage toys which eventually turned into my dream job.

Now the economy isn’t doing so well so I am not making any money doing custom toys, and have begun developing Web pages, but the jobs are sporadic. I am dieing to play Starcraft 2 when the first Star Craft came out I was in Art School and this was my favorite game.

I then hitch hiked across country, and the first thing I did when i got an apartment was build a new computer, and install Starcraft and Counterstrike. Eventually I got sponsored to play Counterstrike, and stopped playing Starcraft. I continued to enjoy the thrill of playing Counterstrike through Diamond Multi Media Sponsorship until the retail version of Counter-Strike was released.

Oops I am too late I see.

Congrats.

After an 8 year absence I returned to Everquest last year. Not Everquest 2. Everquest. I didn’t even bother with the 50/50 server. I started from the beginning. Noob 2.0, that was me. I had to re-learn the entire game. Why? What the H*ll else was I gonna do while waiting for SC2?

On May 29th 2010, I got married. I’ve been a hardcore gamer my entire life with the budget to support my choice gaming hobby. I fell in love with the woman of my dreams and married her as soon as I could. Now I’m married, expecting a son, and in the middle of saving up for diapers.

Today, after yet another conversation with co-workers about their 2v2 ladder progression, I actually thought about selling plasma to be able to get myself a copy.

I’m not an addict, I just love Starcraft and currently all my friends are playing it without me *help*. I love my wife and my new life. But I have got to find a way to get a copy of SC2 =)