I finally took the plunge. The shame and humility is overwhelming. I signed up on Twitter.

Now it's your job to make me look cool and become followers of mine. I live an eccentric life, chock full of never ending excitement and unpredictability. Aren't you interested in knowing what I'm doing every single day? Of course you are:

http://twitter.com/MatthewTSutton

GETCHYO KRUNK ON

I met a girl recently, who is interesting, funny, intelligent and beautiful. I haven't been able to carry on a conversation with her yet that didn't cause me to smile constantly. After only a few days of talking to her I feel close to her, comfortable, sort of the typical "It feels like I've known you all my life," sensation. It might not feel like we've known each other all our lives, but it does feel like we've known each other a lot longer than we have.

She makes me happy, simply put. The past few nights have been spent talking to her all night long. Literally, until the sun comes up, and then some, we've just talked. She has expressed feeling emotions for me, and I've done the same. I feel like there is real chemistry between us. All is good...

... Except we live states apart. Yes, nothing is ever as wonderful as it seems. She is, in fact, a girl met through the internets. But, does that make it less real? Does that mean I shouldn't bother and should find somebody where I live? Or should I try to pursue this, and see what comes out of it?

I'm not really asking anyone for advice, because even if I got 50 replies telling me it's a bad idea I would still follow my heart, it was more of a rhetorical question. What would you do? Even if you have beliefs that long distance relationships cannot work, if you met somebody who genuinely made you feel good, would you ignore those thoughts of yours and just go with it?

Well, whatever ends up happening, she is definitely a girl I would like to keep in contact with, because I can't deny how she's made me feel in such a short amount of time. When you wake up each day and the first thing you think about is how you'd like to talk to that person, and once you go to bed she is the last thing you think about, you know that person must be something special.

This is something I've been wanting to discuss for a long time. I made a thread about it a while ago, that somehow managed to stay pretty civil, which was quite surprising. I didn't really get to say everything I wanted to, and I kept a lot of opinions to myself because it's a pretty taboo subject, and usually ends up with two sides waging war on each other, hurling insults and belittling others every chance they can get.

I did admit in the thread to supporting/partaking in piracy. Which leads me to the topic: I do not understand anti-pirates.

I just can't wrap my head around these people who so vigorously stand up against pirates. It's not as simple as having differing opinions, or believing what the person is doing is wrong. I'm talking pure to the heart hate these people have. I've seen so many discussions about piracy turn into such a fight that death threats are thrown out. Another common occurrence I see is people wishing they would be locked up in prison. Can you sincerely wish that they be sent to prison for downloading a GAME? I don't see how somebody can really want that to happen to somebody else, even if you really dislike piracy. I don't know about you, but I don't want my tax dollars being used to keep a guy locked up because he played a free copy of Halo. It costs over $100 a day to keep a person behind bars. We spend enough as it is on pot smokers, I really don't want to add to the cost by locking up illegal downloaders.

But it's more than just that. Another thing I don't understand is the sheer hypocrisy and biased attitudes a lot of anti-pirates share with each other. They don't download games, and hate the people who do, but how many of them download music? Movies? How about using emulators and downloading roms? Just about every time I get involved in a heated argument about piracy I bring this up, and most of these people admit to downloading other stuff. "Downloading music is different." How, I ask? "Because musicians make money by other means, like concerts and merchandise, and developers don't." But, you're still obtaining a piece of media for free that you're supposed to pay for.

Others claim that downloading roms is OK. Why, I ask? "Because the game is so old, the company isn't making money off the game anymore anyways." And...? The game hasn't magically become freeware because it isn't being sold in stores anymore. You're taking money from small businesses, people who really need the money. Used game stores, mom and pop shops who carry old games. Instead of buying from them, you download for free. Don't kid yourself, it's no different than downloading a new game. There's no library for old, washed up games, they still cost money.

How about music, the most commonly downloaded piece of media that exists. Can anybody truly, with a straight face, tell me they've never downloaded a song before? Even if it was just one song. No, I seriously doubt many people are capable of doing that, so it comes down to people being biased. They love the gaming industry and want to support it, but don't have the same passion for music, so they don't mind music downloaders.

I would like to make this next part very clear: It doesn't matter what you are downloading. Illegal downloading is illegal no matter what it is. You cannot sugar coat it. You cannot defend it. Downloading a game is the same as downloading music. Downloading a movie is the same as downloading a computer application.

I don't want to go on for too long and begin to ramble, so I'll leave it at this: Even if you are some kind of freak human being who has never downloaded an illegal thing in his life, why do you care so much about people who do? Why can't you just live and let live? Why can't you mind your own business? Aren't there more important things to worry about than Joe Blow from Nebraska downloading Crysis for his PC, or John Doe from Florida playing on his modded Nintendo DS? Why not do something productive instead of trying to get involved in the business of others, especially when that business doesn't directly affect you.

Everyone who grew up in the NES era can agree on one thing: Games were hard. Not hard as in, "Jeez, it took me five tries to beat that boss!" Hard as in, "This game is impossible to beat." If you have a collection of NES games, chances are you own a lot of titles that you never completed, unless you cheated your way through them, a la Konami code.

The NES wasn't the only system to feature a library of difficult games. Genesis, SNES, N64 and Playstation all had their fair share of enduring titles. Earthworm Jim wasn't exactly easy, and Mario Galaxy was a breeze compared to the likes of Super Mario World for the SNES. And let's face it, Goldeneye 64 makes Halo's campaign feel like you're out walking a puppy-dog.

Some of you may feel like interjecting at this point. "Mr. DirtySyko, this is why many games offer you the choice to raise difficulty. If it's too easy just change the difficulty settings in the options menu!" True, this is a good way to make a game more challenging, but it's not exactly the point I'm trying to get at. I won't deny that Call of Duty is a hard game when set on veteran, or that Halo still feels like you're walking a puppy-dog when you are on legendary mode, but the point I'm trying to make is that when compared with games today, overall older games were/are much more difficult to beat. Whether it's the default difficulty that is harder, or the lack of save/check points in the game, older games will show no mercy to anyone. Double Dragons is more brutal than Gears of War and MegaMan is tougher than Bioshock.

It's no secret why newer games are easier, though. Since gaming has become a much more widely accepted form of media, and more people are playing games than ever before, developers want to be able to cater to this vast audience. The problem is, some of us are being punished because of this. A lot of these games are built so even the newest and baddest of gamers can beat them. Almost anybody can chainsaw their way through Gears of War on the default difficulty settings. That leaves gamers who have been playing since the NES days with games that are relatively a cake walk in contrast to what we were raised on. I've never really struggled through beating any current generation game, unless the game offered difficulty settings and I cranked them up.

So, what should the solution be? I don't know if I can definitively give a reasonable solution to make both sides happy. How do you build a game that poses a challenge to a long time gamer, but is easy enough for a bad gamer to beat? The easiest method seems to be adding in a difficulty setting, but to be honest, I don't feel like that's the best answer. Even games played on the hardest difficulty can be easy, thanks to check points or the ability to save anywhere. How challenging is Bioshock on the hardest difficulty when you can save any time you want?

I don't believe there's a nice medium for what I believe is a problem with games today. Being an old school gamer, I want harder games. Call me selfish, but that's what I grew up on and that's what I like. I like to get pummeled, beat and abused, all in the name of a good challenge, because nothing feels better than investing time, practicing, and being able to overcome that challenge. I'd like to see the default setting for games become harder than what it's currently at. Games usually start on "normal" but today normal just feels like easy, and easy feels like it was made for the mentally handicapped. I'd also like to see better save/check point management in games. Being able to save anywhere, while nice for it's own reasons, can lead to a game being overly easy to complete, as do check points that you come across every 30 seconds. Remember when Resident Evil forced you to manage your game saves via ink ribbon? It's ideas like that that say to the gamer: If you're good enough to beat the game, then great. If not, tough shit, try again >:(

How do you guys feel about the state of game difficulty today?

I'm sure most of you have heard the announcement of Mega Man 9, and how it's coming to PSN and XBLA, as well as Wiiware, making it the first downloadable game to hit all three consoles, but if you're not one for following video game news very closely then I will briefly describe why this game rocks your face.

Capcom has decided to go back to it's roots and deliver a Mega Man game guaranteed to activate the sensors in your brain that trigger nostalgia. The game is going to have a complete retro look to it, resembling the original six Mega Man games to a T. They aren't just trying to make this game feel like old Mega Man games, they are making it look like them too. For people like me who consider the original six Mega Man games the Holy Grail of the series, this is some damn awesome news. If you think it's stupid that they are taking this route and making a retro version of Mega Man, then I can only assume you never played the original six, and in that case, fuck you.

Here is a video of the game.

Now, the only question remains, what platform do you get it for?

When I was trying to figure that out I instantly eliminated the 360. The D-pad on the 360 controller is bad, there is no denying it, and this is a game that utilizes the D-pad. So, the PS3 or the Wii? I like the Wii classic controller, it has this old school feel about it, which works for old games. The PS3 controller is good too. It has a great D-pad and also has an old school feel to it, mainly because it has been the same design since the beginning of Playstation. Both controllers are pretty equal for playing a game like this, I really wouldn't care which one I used. But, I decided to go with the PSN version, because of three reasons:

First, the PS3 has much more space than the Wii. Nintendo has yet to announce any plans on more storage space in the future. Why waste Wii space if I don't need to?

Second, the online shop. The Wii, like the 360, uses a points system when buying games, whereas on PSN they just charge you how much that item costs. Now, from what I understand the game is $10, and you can buy 1000 Wii points which is exactly $10, so I wouldn't be getting stuck with any extra points, but, it's the principle of the matter. I dislike point systems, and would much rather just pay using cash, not buying points and redeeming them for goods.

Third, the graphics. This is just me speculating, but the 360 and PS3 version may end up looking a tad better thanks to HD. Maybe more vivid colors, a bit sharper, I don't know. I could be wrong, they may end up all looking identical. It's not like the game is going to demand much to play it. This definitely isn't my biggest choice for deciding, but if the game does happen to take advantage of high definition, I may as well get that version.

The game hasn't been given a release date yet, but I'm sure it won't be much longer. Soon enough we'll be kicking robot ass and listening to those great Mega Man songs.

I'm sure the Diablo fans out there, or anyone who posts in the video game forums, knows of this, but D3 has been announced. I'm not making this post to talk about D3, however. Instead, I wanted to take a trip back to memory lane and revisit my past, and discuss why Diablo II had such a big impact on my life.

I was about to be a freshman in highschool when the new PC game Diablo II hit the markets of summer 2000. Being someone who had played Starcraft I knew who Blizzard was and what Diablo was, but I never played the original. This did not stop me from becoming totally infatuated with Diablo II. There was something about this game that I couldn't put my finger on. Without knowing much about it besides it being a hack 'n slash RPG game, reading no reviews or information on the game, I purchased it almost immediately after it's release. I stepped into the Diablo universe with my newly created Necromancer, joining someone's game randomly (I went straight for online, none of that single player business), and spoke with an old man named Deckard Cain. I spent my time learning the basics of the game, and my journey bad begun.

For a while I mainly kept to myself when playing the game. I would join parties and quest, but I never really befriended anybody. That all changed after a few months of playing when I met a guy who I began talking with on a more constant basis. I ended up losing contact with this guy around the release of Lord of Destruction. It was a bummer to play without him because it had gotten to the point where we always played together, but because of my love for the game, I kept on truckin' it.

Before discussing LoD, there are two more things I wanted to mention. As I said previously, I began playing D2 as I was about to go into my freshman year of highschool. I ended up failing a lot of classes my freshman year. Math, science, and history, I failed. The only main course I passed was English, and my selective courses. I fully and completely blame the awesomeness of D2 for causing me to fail my freshman year. It consumed hours out of my life every single day. The following year I had to take special courses to make up the credits I had not gotten.

The second thing that happened was that I got my feelings substantially hurt one day while playing D2. I had heard about this new thing called "duping", where a person could make multiples of your items. I should have known better, but I was young and naive, and I gave my trust in this guy. He told me what I needed to do and I followed his instructions. I don't recall exactly how it went, but I do know it did not require me to give him any items, nor did I have to turn on the option to drop my items upon death. Because of these two reasons I felt I had nothing to lose. He had me follow these steps, and finally told me to come outside to where he was. He PK'd me and all of my gear dropped to the ground. My heart stopped as I could not believe what had just happened. I didn't understand it. I didn't have the option turned on for that to happen, so why did it? Later on I found out it was just a bug in the game where if you followed these certain steps (I really can't remember how it went), and a person PK'd you, your gear would drop like you did have that option turned on. The bug was later fixed, but it was too late for me. I lost my Ume's Lament wand and Wormskull helm, both of which were pretty rare items back when I had them. I didn't play for a while, and really felt like just quitting the game after that incident, but I just couldn't resist.

A year passed and Lord of Destruction was released. I was extremely excited. I was playing D2 more than ever before. I didn't have any friends at this point, so I was back to joining random games and just questing with strangers. After a while I finally ran into another guy I began talking with quite often, his name was Brian. Brian had much better gear than me, and seemed a lot more experienced with the game, so I looked up to him as a mentor of sorts. After a while Brian introduced me to his friend Matt (which also happens to be my name). As time went on, me and Matt became better and better friends, as Brian sort of drifted away. The thing about Brian was, he was an extremely addictive gamer who really looked out for himself. To put it simply, it was as if he chose gear over friends.

Even so, I kept contact with Brian and Matt for the remaining years we played D2. We had tons of great times, joining rooms and PKing newbs, fucking with Koreans (kakakaka, act1 gogogo~~~ -.-;;), and leveling up all types of characters. Killing cows never felt too monotonous when you had friends to kill cows with.

We ended up playing D2 for about two and a half years after meeting. Total I played D2 for about 3 and a half years. I had times where I took breaks, but if I had never taken breaks my time may have exceeded 4 years. It got to the point that we just couldn't go on playing. The game had become plagued by glitches and exploits. Everyone was duping, everyone was cheating. There was no reason to play legit, and we had been playing fair for so long that it didn't feel right to join in on the exploiting craze (although we did in the final days of our playing. I duped myself some gear, but it didn't make me happy. It made me feel like my D2 days had come to an end). Finally the inevitable time came, and we ended up leaving D2.

I still kept in contact with Matt, although at this point I didn't talk to Brian often. Matt, however, still spoke with Brian on MSN occasionally. More time passed and Matt told me that him and Brian had started playing a new game, Asheron's Call. I wanted to experience those same sensations I had back in the D2 days, so I jumped right in with them. I didn't play AC for very long, maybe 6 months. Brian played the game for a few years, becoming a very well recognized AC player (you know how I said Brian would always choose gear over friends? It never showed more so than when we played AC). I ended up joining with the notion that Brian and Matt would help me get started, since they had already been playing a while and had established themselves. It ended up just being Matt who really ever did anything with me in that game. Brian was always off doing his own thing, telling you "he will help you with that later", but later never came. Because of this Brian grew distant between me and Matt, and once we left AC we basically lost contact with Brian.

As far as me and Matt, we still talk today. We started playing WoW together as well about a year and a half ago, and as much as we enjoyed it, we could not get that same feeling back that D2 gave us, no matter how hard we tried. We have already basically stopped playing WoW too. Matt was busy with college and couldn't afford to invest enough time into WoW to make use of it. I was beginning to not enjoy playing alone, and I got tired of paying the $15. I canceled and renewed, and I canceled again and renewed again, but I just couldn't keep myself playing. It just wasn't the same. It wasn't Diablo II.

A few days ago Blizzard starting showing their infamous splash screens. Me and Matt talked about them each day they came up, hoping and praying it was D3. We would talk about D3 here and there, making jokes about how it would ruin our lives if it came out, wondering what it would be like if we started playing again. I always felt it was inevitable that D3 would release, as most people did, but I just didn't know when. And when it did, would I still care? Then, it happened. Earlier today in the wee hours of the morning, Blizzard announced D3. Matt began messaging me on MSN in a wild frenzy of excitement and disbelief. He was watching the live streaming footage of gameplay and had just told me about the trailer they showed. I couldn't connect to the video, so I just had to listen to Matt talk. After the show was over they put up their website page and I went there immediately and watched the footage and began reading. I had an excitement in me that I had not felt for other video games in a very long time. Now I knew what it was like for fans when they were highly anticipating their favorite game.

Now, we wait. Matt and I were thinking of getting into Warhammer once it released, and still talked about whether or not we should get back into WoW, but we both agreed that any interest we had in other online RPG games had been totally eliminated with the announcement of D3.

The question now is whether or not D3 will give me that same feeling I had so many years ago. I'm a lot older now, gaming has changed, me and Matt have changed. I keep wondering if I'm just feeding off the nostalgia of my old memories of D2. To be honest, I don't think I am. I am genuinely excited about this game, so much so that I pissed my girlfriend off by waking her up and telling her they announced D3.

Before I end this post I just want to talk about why I thought Diablo II was such a great game. Besides playing with friends, what made Diablo II such a memorable experience? In my opinion, this game is the epitome of what gaming should be. It's a simple game that sucks you in and can make you lose track of time. It has extremely high replay value, and you become attached to it because it awards your dedication to the time you've spent playing. It has an interesting and fun storyline, but the storyline doesn't try to smother you, and it doesn't try to make the game. It seems these days a lot of games are so story driven that they are sacrificing gameplay for a more cinematic experience, and that's not what games should be. It's brutal fun that involves you chopping enemies to little bits and pieces. It doesn't take a whole lot of smarts to fight enemies, but it does take a bit of thinking and planning when picking out the stats and skills of your character. It's a lot more fun to play in a group because it doesn't involve you having to micro manage every little aspect of the fight. You all just go in and start beating the shit out of monsters, being able to relax and not have to worry about communicating over Ventrillo to be successful. It's extremely easy to get into a game and begin playing. No need to join a guild and schedule dates, and no need to take an hour to organize or find a party. It is the embodiment of what a game should be. It is pure, simple entertainment, and my panties have never been wetter.

Only one question remains: How much fucking longer is Blizzard going to make us wait?

Lately I've been thinking about what I want to do with my life. Not that I hadn't thought of it before, but I'm 22 years old and really haven't started figuring things out yet. I'm getting to that time in life where a person needs to establish who he is going be and where he is going to go. The fact is I have been wasting my time. Years have passed by so suddenly that I can't believe how little I've accomplished. I have friends who are graduating college now, and I never even started college. I've just worked shit jobs and I'm in a no better position today than I was five years ago.

I'm not trying to sound melodramatic. I'm not depressed or anything, I'm generally a happy guy. I just need to set my ambitions higher and try to get my life moving. So, with that said, I think I've decided what I want to try and do...

I've always wanted to write, ever since high school. Hell, even in grade school I was writing, and I won a competition to meet Lois Lowry, the author of The Giver. Writing always seemed tangible to me, it was something I felt I could do better than others, and it never felt like work. My dream has always been to become a published author, and it still is, but I need to start somewhere. Try something small and move up. I've thought about my hobbies, and only one really stands out; video games. Nothing in my life has been more consistent than video games. I've been playing them since before I ever even started school. To this day I still play games religiously. It wasn't just a fad, or just a moment in my life. I would have an empty feeling inside of me if I were forced to stop playing games, as cheesy as that sounds. They're just video games, but I love them. I think it's good to have something in life you care so much about, and video games are one of my biggest passions.

With that said, I think I've decided to try and revolve video games around writing. Mix the two up and see where it goes. Just the thought of being a video game journalist makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. The problem is that so many people seem to want the same thing. There are countless video game websites on the internet, and bloggers; the competition is fierce. I'm not really trying to make a living off of doing this (although I wouldn't mind it if the opportunity arose), but it is something I want to try. I have no college education and no experience, so trying to get a job doing it is out of the question. Thankfully, nobody needs a college education or experience to succeed, not when you have the Internet! I figure I will start off very small, and slow, and see if I enjoy it and where it goes. I'll write about video games and related topics, mostly opinion articles, as an experiment. I suppose it won't be much different than any blogger out there who does the same thing, but maybe I'll be able to do it better.

So, Newgrounds, what do you think of this idea? I'll start by keeping a blog on Newgrounds, and try to make weekly posts. Would you read it?