Why I'll Be Skipping OVER-1 More Capcom Game: Uncut Edition

What kind of a name is this anyway?!?

Greetings once again readers. I know there are likely only a select few of you who may see this unless it blows up for some reason. For the sake of sounding more "professional" I will refrain from using the curse words that were used in my angry Mega Man rant over in the VGHC Facebook Group. Since I've already set the tone for being not pleased, and referenced what I'm not happy about right in the title, let's get right into this.

Let's skip the intro and get right into this, shall we? I'm glad I waited so long to make this version, because it's gonna make things even better!

Anyone that has been following Capcom lately - well it speaks for itself. They have been putting out things that have been disappointing for some - Resident Evil 5, anyone? Now we also have 6 to look at. Apparently also crap. Go figure. 

Really...call him. Please.

I want to put you all in my shoes here. I know of this news, but none of it matters to me. Will I poke fun at it? Absolutely. Do I really care? No, no I don't. What I care is that the Blue Bomber I spent a good portion of my childhood with returns to it's past glory, and if it won't, for the love of god just leave Mega Man be. I'd really appreciate if you guys bring him back, but you're too busy fucking up Resident Evil and making multiple versions of your fighters (with on disc DLC) to care, eh?

Let me ask a question. What do you get, when you take the Mega Man from Battle Network, put some white armor on him, similar to X, and make it look like as if he has a winter coat on?

Christmas Mega Man anyone? This isn't quite what I had in mind for his american 25th anniversary come December. 

Maybe it's just me...moving along though. This is OVER-1. Yeah, you heard me. The character you see above is called OVER-1. Amazing! So the impostor Mega Man you see pictured above was apparently created in a collaboration between Dr. Cossack and Dr. Light. This was done to save the "Crossover World" that is under attack by of course Wily and Sigma, because why not right? No, I'm sorry. I can't accept this. This makes no goddamn sense.

You can customize this new character with Battle Memory, which makes you think maybe it's referencing now three different Mega Man series games, but to compare this to any of them I think would be an insult. Is this how Capcom brings Mega Man back? Is this the way to celebrate one of their biggest title's 25th anniversary? The answer - hell no! This is a mockery of what could have been. It gets better, I'm not even done yet.

The game will be "free to play" but will charge for items and such. Sound familiar? Silly micro-transactions. You know what else has those? Stupid Facebook games (they are all stupid, IMO). The mention of Facebook was done intentionally. This is a "social game" and you can summon your friends to battle with you if you happen to find someone else stupid enough to play this game with you. So, OVER-1 is created the way he is according to story, but everyone can customize their own OVER-1 character that I assume is what gets sent into battle, and you guys can battle together and talk about how totally awesome your OVER-1 model is and I'm so OVER this nonsense. Really, I am. I can't believe THIS is what you guys have to offer. If "Remember Me" didn't interest me so much, I'd rent DmC, and just call it a day with you guys. This shit is absurd.

What else is there really to say? Not much. Oh, excuse me guys, I forgot one more thing! If you're sold on this game that sounds super special awesome, you can play it on iOS! Yep, on iOS - and that's it. I have no more to say on this game, I will now explain my frustration before finding out more about this silly game that I honestly overlooked and took for a joke anyway.

Really, it doesn't matter what this exists on. Seriously. Someone made this same game in Flash. In fucking Flash. If this doesn't speak for itself about the quality of this game, I'm not sure what does.

Capcom's Senior Vice President, Christian Svensson had the following to say about the Mega Man franchise:

"I (and probably I alone, so please don't ascribe said belief to "Capcom") think one of the problems MM has had as a brand is that we've had too many competing splinter sub-brands within it. I'm not sure starting yet another is the way to get the franchise as whole back on track more than creating greater brand confusion, but we'll take it under advisement." 

Well, maybe this is the one man's said opinion, but it was Capcom's decision as a whole to keep putting out the games, even when Keiji Inafune himself didn't want to go on with them. So yeah, I'm going to blame Capcom. Who are we going to blame? Did the fans not give you enough input? Definitely not the case there. Speaking of fans, which Capcom has clearly forgotten about over the years, most fans know, X5 was supposed to be the end. This would lead into the Mega Man Zero series. Capcom went on with the X series anyway, and well, we know how that went. You guys killed the X series (you bastards), fine, I'll deal. You guys made several other spin-offs as well, and somewhere down the line Inafune left. Now Mega Man is one big joke, because all we get is a mockery of him in Street Fighter X Tekken and skins for Zero in Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3.

How about a Mega Man 11, in the style of 9 and 10 before it? Credit to Xavier "xm" Dang and company for making an attempt (and a damn good one at that) at what this could possibly be like. Hell, talk up a deal with him about the art/music that went in to this project and put THAT out. How about a proper burial for Mega Man if you guys clearly don't care about him anymore. Better yet, a proper burial through a proper celebration for the 25th anniversary of the franchise. It's not ALL about Street Fighter (and it's several versions) you know? I'm gonna get off-topic here for a second...

I'll give you guys some credit, you decided to go free with the DLC that was on disc with RE6 instead of charging us for it like assholes like you did with SFxT. Now call me one of those who should be told "I'm not entitled to anything". Well, technically, you're right. I read a post not too long ago on ScrewAttack talking about the whole DLC thing on disc and actually got into a debate with a friend about the exact same thing. The post on ScrewAttack however ended his post with one simple comment. The only real way to fix this is to not buy the game. Problem is, most will buy and just deal. I'll be smart and simply not buy, because really, times are tough. I expect to get what I pay for when I buy it, and if you want to hide something from me even though I already have said product in my hand, so be it. I don't agree with it, and I won't support it.

Back to my original point, now that I got that out of the way. Both franchises (Mega Man and Street Fighter) were responsible for bringing you guys to make your Resident Evils, Dragon's Dogma, and now DmC - you get the idea. Is it so hard to bring back a franchise that not just myself, but several people out there want back in it's true form? I have a separate sub-series on my videos dedicated to the better days of Mega Man, because I definitely can't expect anything new, so why not, right? I've been waiting from a solid effort from you guys. You blame it on Mega Man having this identity crisis, but you guys decided to whore out the franchise much like Square-Enix whores out Final Fantasy. You know what happens when you do that? Your fans give up on you. I hope justice is served here, and perhaps you guys have something up your sleeve for later this year.

This lack of a good Mega Man game is killing me. Especially since X7 and X8 were garbage. I can forgive it. Just bring it back. Even classic had it's crap games (the same numbers funny enough). The lack of Mega Man is a running joke. We want the Blue Bomber back. THIS is not enough. Repackaging existing music as a celebration? Maybe with some super awesome game collection to go with it. Look what you guys did for Street Fighter. Where's the same love for Mega Man? Why must I keep seeing games that I compare to it, and not be able to make that comparison to a more modern game? Why must I keep doing things such as having backgrounds made, buy shirts, listen to your soundtracks like crazy, ect in order to remind myself that Mega Man doesn't suck?

Mega Man sucks because of YOU Capcom. You and you alone. You can make all the excuses you want, but this can be done. You just don't want to. It's such an easy way to make fans not hate some of the more recent stunts you have pulled with either killing off game franchises or shady practices. December is coming...and I will be waiting. Impatiently, but still waiting... 

Until I hear any confirmation of this, I'll keep playing the older games I happen to enjoy very much. I'll be passing on Megaman Xover and awaiting a proper Mega Man title. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go searching right now for a copy of Mega Man Soccer instead. Or better yet, make a hard copy of Xover for me, so I can smash the living hell out of it.

- Victor Max Vellon
Commissioner and Leader

Gaming: SRS Business. Really Though, I Mean It.

Credit comes where credit is due. With the help of the VGHC core (Jeremy, Dustin, Ray), Dan being there for support during preparations to help test streams/audio levels, and Tom being there for what I just mentioned and live tweeting at the event itself, we've been able to run two successful tournaments, with the second being so much better than the first it not even funny. Definitely proud of this one. In addition to tournaments, there are obviously discussions, promotion, ect, that goes into it. It's not easy, but mostly business related, even if we aren't one. It's treated like one. All to build up to that one day of excitement. It makes what is done all worth it in the end, to have people come up to you personally, and thank you for having these tournaments. I knew Jeremy already, easy pick. The rest were friends of friends and all connected. This is one side of the story.

On the social end, because it is not business related, and also the foundation of the brand, there is more I can speak about from that end. Just so I'm not taking away from the competitive end, I'll try to be as brief as possible. Matter of fact, I won't even give details. I will list results. VGHC over time has continued to grow in the Facebook Group, which are the roots. During Triple Threat II promotion/more social posting on the page that I have done, as well as putting through promotional effort done by both Dustin and Ray, likes have come in. I'd say about seven to ten new ones, at least, since the time of working on Triple Threat II and getting more active with one of the latest social features, VGHC Radio. We just got a new one, actually. Running the Twitter page, I've gotten 277 followers. I will take credit for that as I have been the only one to run it. The VGHC Radio has brought some more people to the site. The efforts of Dan, Srakin, Senkei and myself have pushed a trend for people to simply come and join in on our crazy gaming track rotations. We've got some regulars along at least one of us that are there most hours of the day. The efforts of Triple Threat brought in four new followers on Twitch. My streams thus far (random content related) have gotten two. It will be a continued thing though.

Here what it all comes down to. Competitive and Social aspect WILL co-exist. No one is greater than the other, and both have benefits to VGHC as a brand. The problem? The both need to be properly maintained in order to be completely effective, and to be quite frank, I can't do it all. Part of this is my fault, because I take it amongst myself to do things, but the other part is simply not having people that can do it, or want to do it. Let me just give an example of what I'd like to see.

- A competitive scene on the VGHC site, which otherwise isn't there outside of Triple Threat.
- We (social) figure things out and launch our podcast already.
- VGHC becoming a LLC (at least).
- News posts to be more frequent on the main page of the site.
- VGHC Teams? An idea brought up by Dustin that I want to see take off.
- Actual events for some of the bigger gaming soundtracks to come, for the VGHC Radio plug.dj lobbies.
- Dedicated strategies for both Facebook Page and Twitter accounts.

This is just a few things, I'm sure I'm forgetting more. I have content to manage for both Twitch pages, as well as the YouTube channel. Aside from all this, I'm trying to make a name for myself in the gaming world through blog posts on VGHC, Players of America, and GamerSyndrome.

One can't do it all though, and I've started getting help in certain things, but I need a system to be able to manage it all and not have to worry about much outside of it being done or not done. As I continue to work on previous vids to put out for content, other plans are being thought of. I no longer want VGHC to pick up steam and then just disappear, and that's for both ends of the brand respectively.

I'm also, admittedly, still jobless. I'd like this to change soon, then things can REALLY get in motion, because let's face it, money makes the world go round. I am thankful for everyone I have worked with throughout this journey thus far, just know that change is coming, and it will be for the better. If you're involved, you're in for a wild ride.

tl;dr version:

Strengthen the competitive end of VGHC so it does more than just Triple Threat with the hype leading up to it and further branch out social efforts to improve on a already successful formula that has been mostly responsible, at this current time, for pushing VGHC's fan base to where it is now.

- Victor Max Vellon

One Big Nutshell. Next Step, Takeoff!

Fair warning, this one does get personal, but is still mostly gaming related, given what I do for a passion. I also will try to not stay on one point for very long before moving onto the next. I have lots I want to say, but I don't want to spend a lot of time on any of them. Just want to get things out. Hence, this blog post. Here it goes...

My birthday last year changed everything. My outlook on life, me as a person, and probably the most important thing that came of it. I gained more of a backbone than I previously had, and also pushed the idea that is Video Gaming Hard Corps out there that much more. Some of you may think it's all I speak of lately. Well, why not? I'm proud of something that WAS nothing. Given the journey into competitive gaming, this could mean big things for the brand.

A big thing that has happened though, or better yet hasn't happened is a real push for the competitive side. I'm not going to sit here and point fingers because one of the biggest problems is organization, and that's a problem as a whole for planning these bigger events. Even with complications, things seem to be in order. So much has happened since VGHC was only a Facebook Group that only consisted of local friends and friend of those friends. I've interacted with many, and pushed the brand more so than most realize. What might not seem like much to most, I've watched it grow, obviously. Never expected to get nearly as far as I am now and it only gets better.

A big obstacle has been finances and it continues to be. As my journey to find a job continues, I've pushed both the brand and myself to simply get out there and get known. For what, who knows? I stumbled upon Players of America and GamerSyndrome. Two sites that let me express myself freely, much like I do on the YouTube channel and VGHC site. I've also now worked on three collab posts. One for VGHC with Tom, one with Flapperdoodle on ScrewAttack, and one with Nathan Jang of GamerSyndrome. I've had my hands full lately. I keep it that way because it makes me not stressed and I can say I did something at the end of the day.

I've met some great people leading to more great people, which from time to time lead to some of these people working alongside me. Tom Hall, the best man I've had the pleasure of running to online thus far, sees my vision. There are many people I treasure a relationship with, but this man works with me, understands my visions for VGHC and also is coming for Triple Threat II. Some of these connections lead to other connections for myself and even for others.

I've started a completely different division of VGHC to go with the social practices via the plug.dj site. Enter VGHC Radio, where me and three other mods , one of them being one of my longest known friends, Dan Janoff, sit in a lobby that plays gaming tracks, chiptune, and gaming covers most of the day. You can also chat on the side as well. We've even gotten some artists such as Dave and Leon (guitarists) from The Cartridge Family, the one man genius behind Pokemon Reorchestrated (Braxton Catherwood), and Dj CUTMAN! I plan on putting something out to talk about this new "experience" of sorts at some point, where all involved will be getting the credit deserved.

As far as credit goes, the first Triple Threat was great, but bothered me very much. The small flaws got to me. We started working on Triple Threat II. Jeremy Waxman, Dustin Steiner and myself sat down and plotted what to do about things, how we were going to have a tournament, and replace our lost member, Jose Denis. The answer was our best commentator at our first tournament, Ray Linsalato. All of us, each using different strategies of sorts put out this tournament in a much better way than we did the first time around.

It hasn't been easy, and it's thanks to Jeremy that I can even hold it all together sometimes, and I can't honestly think of ANYONE else I would trust with "Business Relations" for VGHC. Arrangements made, and promoting done. Equipment was tough, especially with me being broke. Compromises were made, but we had issues. We fixed those issues. Real people, real problems. SRS business leading up to what is going to prove to be one of the best weekends of my life.

Lots has gone down over time, and it DEFINITELY hasn't been easy. I don't want to make this huge post trying to explain all these things, I just finally feel like I'm doing something and who knows where it leads, but it continues to grow. There's only so many things you can do to push forward though until you reach a standstill, and that right now is where I stand.

Triple Threat II isn't just gonna be great, but it also determines the future of VGHC as a whole. Things will be pushed forward post Triple Threat II, but how that happens all rides on this event, which I plan on making nothing less than pure win and awesome. One thing I can promise is this. I've done lots on my own, but I want to have people with me. Some will stay, some will go, or not be as involved. I already lost a member after the first Triple Threat because of several reasons I won't be listing here. Whoever really stands by me and understands VGHC as a whole, we're going places. You're gonna see results, and my success will also be your success.

Triple Threat II is in a few places. The site, Shoryuken, ect. A post on GameZone by core member Dustin Steiner however, does a great job of describing TTII without just saying the where and when for promotional purposes.

Click here for Dustin's post!

To conclude, I simply say, Sic Parvis Magna - greatness from small beginnings. For one thing or another, VGHC will be known for something, because as of right now, it's probably the only thing I can say that I would leave behind, outside of being responsible for changing a select few people's lives.

- Victor Max Vellon