I think the Write Stuff is great idea for a column. Unfortunately, its need for me to read and write for a long period of time, which is something that is very limited for me, makes it very difficult to fit into my daily life.

So the rules are going to change. The Write Stuff will no longer a planned weekly column (the key word being planned, because obviously it hasn't been). Instead, it will be a monthly column, much like Atlum's incredibly well planned Cblog Analytics. With a hopeful change in pace comes a change in format. Instead of picking and choosing blogs for the week, I'll pick blogs over the course of the month that fit what I think deserves to be spotlighted as per the Write Stuff's purpose. And as we near the end of the month, what is chosen is not set in stone. If new material shows up that I think (or you think) deserves to go up, I'll slowly pick and chose once again.

Basically, as the Write Stuff becomes monthly, I'll develop it over the course of the month with my choices, basically 4 to 5 per category. And if new notable choices appear, they may replace what I've already chosen in the past. Then when the end of the month rolls around, the Write Stuff will pop up! Easy peezy, lemon parcheesey!



A writer has many allegiances depending on how many bills he intends to pay. Ideally, one could write for one media outlet and swear loyalty to this one source. But people like freelancers and unemployed hobos with laptops can write and post for a number of sources.

It's not a bad thing to show what you've been working on for one place to another place with a potentially different demographic or voice. As long as you make it clear that your material has been cross-posted, good content is good content then! The problem comes from meshing the voice with a different place and engaging your audience.

A lot of the things I cross-post are topics that can engage the reader, regardless of where they're reading it, and having them comment to express their own opinion. However, more personal blogs about my life, especially my life as a gamer, stays here in Destructoid. At Bitmob, a serious tone rules and usually if a story idea is picked up there, the lose attitude on language I'm comfortable with here gets edited out for Bitmob's more sophisticated voice.

The same applies for posts involving multimedia like video. Simply posting a video by itself isn't done anywhere. You should lead it with an introduction to get the reader interested in reading, rather than just treating them as a statistic for your view count. Engagement is important as a writer. Are you one? Or are you just some PR number cruncher?



Wrench makes magic. Dark magic

I think the number one reason why I like Wrench's blogs is because they're so in-depth and well paced. His blogs are lengthy yet never go on forever. They get down to the nitty-gritty of the deepest game mechanics without sounding like jargon. He writes about what he's into, with what he knows best, and can draw you in with his knowledge and experience while painting and image of the game without even seeing it in motion.

Zombie Orwell's high brow, verbose journal

Zombie Orwell always goes through great pains to keep his vocabulary sharp as a tack, and I honestly respect that. At other times, it's genuinely impressive. We're all used to the written voice throwing around curse words with reckless abandon but how often do you hear Chicago's uber-gentrified Andersonville neighborhood?

Anyone could say that Chicago, Andersonville is rich. But using an esoteric word like gentrified? Many of the sentences take the high road in word choice, which is funny when you contrast it against the subject matter of Boner Quest HD and the writer is a zombie.



Handy's shoving those words in my face

Handy made quite the welcome splash back into the cblogs a while back and Altum Videtur asked me to take notice. But if there's one thing I always think to myself when it comes to writing, it's commas. I like to imagine if Handy were talking to me, he'd be putting those legal jargon fast talkers to shame. Of course, it's not a fair assessment as Handy probably isn't thinking of writing the way he talks. I feel like there's tons of information and anecdotes for me to push through. He has a point he wants to make but I can't help but feel he could have trimmed some fat.

Doggerel forgot about line breaks

We've been on this topic before really. And Doggerel's blog is here for a reason. His topic about cannon fodder enemies is actually really intriguing. I didn't want to read the wall of text at first. But it's a good blog when you get past how much eye strain you'll probably get.



Not sure if ShuzBallz is serious or-

Here at Destructoid, there is a wide variety of different stories and articles with a different point. Just look at SephyX's promoted blog and you can see that Minecraft and DayZ are two completely different games. The complaints he lodges are justifiable but the article can't be taken seriously at an argumentative level. It's supposed to be enjoyable satire. Then the front page comments set in.



My point is, I cannot tell if ShuzBallz blog is a serious opinions piece or if it was made in satire. Archived blogs shows that he isn't prone to doing blogs for the lulz. Regardless of tone though, the punctuation, grammar, and tone all frankly made me rage. When this was sent to me, I honestly couldn't get past the first few sentences before I had to turn on my iTunes for something to soothe my soul. This isn't a Naruto Genin Reject. This is something special.

PREVIOUSLY!



Day 9
I'm surprised at how quickly I've escalated to grade B. It takes forever just getting to rank C in games like SFIV and comparable games like MvC3. I know there's still grade A and S after this but B still sounds pretty high. Either that or I really have played against a lot of horrible players. But I think grade only reflects the stability of your win ratio. PSR is a metric that represents your some total of wins and losses so the higher I climb in PSR, the more likely I am in playing against people with legitimate experience in the game.

As with all fighting games, there are definitely popular characters even though the cast feels well rounded for balance. In order of most frequently played, I see Elizabeth, Teddie, Yu, and Yukiko. In addition to their popularity, I can see why many players latch onto them.



First and foremost, it's no surprise that Liz is popular. Zoning is a popular tactic because it frustrates people, and frustrating your opponent can oftentimes mean that they lose their composure and play worse in face of keep away games. Both Liz and Yukiko have strong keep away options and are stronger if you don't understand how they work. At first I would be annoyed at a Liz or Yukiko match but as time went on, I realized that against fairweather players using one-dimensional tactics, there are ways to get in and that can make the zoner panic. For example against Yukiko, it's a better idea to focus on her Persona rather than Yukiko herself. There are a lot of instances where her Persona is actually wide open and those times should be exploited in order to weaken Yukiko's control over the match. Liz is the same but her deadly attacks also have long recovery if she misses. For Kanji, that just means an aerial dive bomb for free damage and oki.

Yu is a basic character anyone can get behind. A lot of Yu players rely too much on their autocombo and don't do enough damage to compensate their skill. Real Yu players use heir sweep plus their Persona for easy but effective okizeme, forcing heir opponent to block as his Persona comes in and leaving Yu open to apply mix up as you're stuck blocking.

And Teddie, well I think the people currently playing him are only interested in abusing his unblockable attack against new players. It's amazing to me how every Teddie I've played believes I'll fall for it.

Day 13
I was surprised at how easy it was to hit grade A. I assume I won't be grade A for long but I have yet to rank down though I haven't ranked up either. It feels like between B+ and A, I won around 10 or 15 matches. I've won much more than that as A and I have yet to rank up. I assume the difference between A and even A+ is much more than before and there's still grade S above this!


Look at this motherfucker

I have lost my fear of Elizabeth players as they have the tools to play it safe, but then they're expected to play perfectly because Kanji can do so much damage to Liz's tiny health pool. There's almost nobody online who can play the Elizabeth/Kanji match up perfectly, so I don't worry as much. I do fear Chie players of high rank as legitimate Chie rushdown is scary to defend against.

I consistently win against most legitimate Liz players but I still struggle at figuring out Yukiko. I've come to the realization that instead of focusing on getting around her Persona, I should attack it directly and make Yukiko worry about a Persona Break instead. Yukiko literally becomes the worst character in the game without her Persona. Even Elizabeth has her annoying card attacks to stall for time.

I see a few Yosuke's who are annoying for certain characters I play like Labrys and Akihiko. Most bad Yosukes use Dash Spring on block and attempt to confuse my guard with Moonsault and Akihiko has the worst options against it. Kanji on the other hand can just use 2B and enjoy Yosuke getting slapped into the air in a counter state. Still, especially annoying Yosukes use their speed to their advantage and kite Kanji all day. Luckily, negative penalty acts like ingame karma when I finally catch them.

Day 17
I feel a little unrewarded playing as Labrys as my sub character, so I decide to explore different characters again. After some thought into how she works, I settled on trying Aigis.

I was initially intimidated by her due to the complexity of her two modes. She has a normal mode and Orgia mode, which gives her access to jet thrusters and powerful new attacks. However, Orgia mode is limited by an overheat bar she needs to balance between usage and also has a finite number of bullets at her disposal which feeds into certain attacks. After some time in arcade mode and some time in training mode, I decide that I can take Aigis online and get some real experience.

Everything about Aigis is the exact opposite of what I'm used to with Kanji. Kanji can afford to be slow and patient due to how powerful single blows with him can be. Aigis players on the other hand, need to constantly think quickly in order to keep up with how Aigis moves and fights.

I have 75 bullets left, so I have to be careful with how I use her combos.

I'm going to go in with Orgia mode and try to apply a high/low mix up and hope my opponent isn't daring enough to interrupt me.

I need to turn off Orgia mode in order to cool down but I won't be able to stall for time because I'm down to 40 bullets.

I have an aircombo going but am I in Orgia mode? If I am, I can use this combo ender and continue my pressure.



Whereas with Kanji I just need to think about what my opponent will do, with Aigis I not only have to think about my opponent but myself as well! It's very mentally overwhelming and I'm very thankful my Aigis' threat rating is zero since I've never played her. I can hardly take her against people with ratings into the 300s where my Kanji can compete, let alone other people who can stop me cold by wildly mashing A.

By this point, I've completed story mode for around five or six characters as well. I am genuinely interested in finishing story mode and even arcade mode for the achievements, but for now, I've realized something about the game that keeps me coming back. Something many fighting games I play seem to lack which is also an integral point as to what keeps me playing: netcode.

Arc System Works games seem to have impeccable netcode. Blazblue had similar netcode as well and both were made by ASW. In a game like MvC3 or SFIV, a 2 bar meant people had to adjust their playstyles to adapt to the latency of lag. But in Blazblue or Persona 4 Arena, latency is hidden very well. I feel I don't have to pick and choose matches just because the latency indicator isn't green. I've actually started to feel how much lag their can be while playing someone as fast paced as Aigis while Kanji is so slow and methodical that I've never experienced any issues.

I'm still continually experiencing new things in this game, so I hope to keep this series going awhile longer. Keep your eyes peeled for lobbies labeled for Destructoid, cause I am making them.

Persona 4 Arena is one of the more balanced fighting games available and one of the easiest to get into. Still, those same features that make the game accessible can also be your bane in competing online with Aksys' great netcode. After playing the game a little over a week, here are some tips I want to share that can help you get an edge in winning.

1) Keep fighting, earn experience
The characters of Persona are all unique. Playing the game and learning how everyone plays is a given, but it's especially important on defense.

Kanji for example has a move that sends him flying through the air in an attempt to grab his opponent. Knowing he has this ace is important when trying to keep him out. Yosuke has a move that let's him flip around his opponent in an attempt to confuse your block. But in both examples, there are things to keep in mind to counter them.

The somewhat small cast works in this case as you're not needed to remember the matchups to +50 characters. You just need to remember a few by comparison.

2) Know when to use Furious Action
Every character has a different Furious Action that essentially acts like a get out of jail free card under pressure. Each one is different and aren't necessarily created equal. You'll have to learn when to use yours and when to hold back. Reversals are heavily embedded in the metagame and you have to guess your opponent's tendencies towards reversals.


BIG GAMBLE!

If you get hit once by Yu's Big Gamble for example, that should clue you in that Yu isn't afraid to bust out his Furious Action when he's feeling pressured. Now you can try blocking next time and expose Yu to a big punish.

The same applies to you and you'll have to learn how to guess and call bluffs when it comes to things like wake up reversals.

3) Burst smart
Burst has been a staple mechanic in Arc System Works games for years now. It can be used offensively for big scores or defensively for one last chance. No matter what though, it's always been a precious commodity.

Because you typically can only use it once per match if you're lucky, you need to learn the important facts that contribute to whether you should burst or not.

You shouldn't burst just because you're being frustrated. Damage is inevitable so bursting out of a BnB combo only to get hit by another is stupid. Do burst if your opponent gets lucky and scores a fatal counter. Combos from a fatal state are aptly named and can lead to big damage; damage you can prevent with a burst.


NOPE

Do burst if you can formulate a plan. A successful gold burst from a neutral stance can earn you 100% meter which can be wielded to great effect. Likewise, a One More Burst can help clinch you the extra damage you need for a kill in a combo, or even bypass Awakening mode altogether if you're lucky!

4) Meter management
The single biggest offender I see that could change how well a player fights would be meter management. There are very few times where winning with a full unspent meter could mean anything good. If you manage to win without spending meter, that fight most likely would've been way easier if you had spent meter on even Skill Boost attacks.



Akihiko for example, has very few chances to super cancel into his Skill attacks. But instead of letting that meter go to waste, Akihiko can spend 25% for SB attacks for increased damage and combo opportunities. SB Kill Rush for example provides better rekkas combos for more damage and better okizeme rather than just letting that meter sit and do nothing for you. Once Chie Awakens, she gains a Skill attack that rains meteors down and while you can't combo into it easily, using it raw gives Chie free reign to start pressuring her opponent. Blocking a storm of fireballs while Chie is free to throw in high/low mix up can be difficult and that's how Chie wants it.

Persona 4 Arena has some of the best netcode ever and that will invariably lead to much fairer online games without lag hampering it. Above all, understand your character through training mode and single player and you be on your way to playing against similarly skills players and friends with all the basics you need.

I've never been able to play as one before. I've been white, African-American, Eastern European, Hispanic, and even an Argonian lizard man. Maybe I've played as one in a fighting game but their identity wasn't fleshed out beyond their ability to fight. I've certainly never felt this attachment in Fallout as you never really saw your character.

Finally in Sleeping Dogs, I'm playing as a distinct Asian character.



As a Vietnamese American man, I'm finally asking myself questions of identity in a video game. Is Wei Shen a good Asian character? How are people in this game portrayed? Does this game let me conquer the stereotype that Asians are bad drivers? All questions I can't answer for sure as I've barely passed two hours of the game. But I do feel like I like Wei Shen not just as a representative of Asians in games but as a character in general.

The game establishes early into the game that Wei Shen is in fact a good guy with a sympathetic background. It's made clear hat he was chosen for this undercover assignment because his history of involvement with Asian gangs makes him an ideal candidate for infiltrating their ranks. Deeper reading of HKPD profiles reveals that Wei's floating time between his childhood in Hong Kong, life in San Fransisco, and return to his home have left him, according to the HKPD, culturally malleable. This makes him paradoxically the best candidate to blend in with the triads and also the most dangerous candidate fo the job. As his psyche profile states, it's possible for Wei to actually integrate into the triads too much and switch allegiances if he becomes too comfortable in his new colors.

While it's true people might feel a disconnect between being an undercover cop and murdering tons of people in missions, I think it's important to note that the game penalizes you cop experience if you act recklessly like driving onto the sidewalk, running over civilians while on a mission. I naturally want to play the straightedge cop but the game rewards me anyways for trying to stick with Wei's moral compass as a police officer while acting the part as a triad gangster.

As someone has commented before in the cblogs, the web of relationships is the game's strongest point. Wei doesn't like his police handlers and they don't trust him either. Meanwhile in the triads, Wei finds acceptance amongst his wary gangsters. But even as Wei may find himself wavering between the two, meeting his old kung fu master inserts a small reminder of Wei's place and humanity in Hong Kong.

As you can see, there's a lot of duality and identity crisis going on here and I feel engaged as an Asian American. Many Asian cultures put a strong emphasis on family values and loyalty. It goes back to how deeply rooted Confucianism is and while many youths eventually learn to be individualistic and become argumentive with authority to find their place in the world, it's not uncommon under Confucian family values to learn through a very structured and disciplinarian way.

I've always just assumed people like me grew up learning their native tongue for example. I was surprised in high school when one of my friends told me she didn't know how to speak Vietnamese. My girlfriend has oftentimes asked me if I would bother teaching our kids Vietnamese and I would, despite thinking of myself as not being in touch enough with my culture to think it was worth teaching them.



When I went to middle school and high school, I often felt I was an American youth, hanging out with other people of varying opinions on their identity. Some acted like me and were very much American. But when I went home or walked around my neighborhood, I was Vietnamese. However, others in school were much more in touch with their culture and weren't afraid of proclaiming it in school. I had a friend who always used an appropriate moment to declare how she was Portuguese. It wasn't as if she said it all day, but whenever there was talk about food or a party, she said how she had it in a Portuguese way.

Do I consider myself Vietnamese-American? Or am I an American who is Vietnamese? In Sleeping Dogs, the way the different sides of the law are viewed can be influenced by Wei's identity as Honk Kong native. His history of violence may stem from his past in Honk Kong but his role as a police officer was an American created identity while Wei was in San Fransisco.

Speaking of Asian identity, I find myself second guessing images and stereotypes in Sleeping Dogs at times when most would lodge complaints. One way of gaining health upgrades is by finding shrines and burning incense at them. Is this a stereotypical image of Asians? Well, I don't think so because we really do that. Confucianism doesn't just penetrate life philosophies but religious faith as well. And don't try and act like food stands serving random snacks like noodles and tea is weird. In a crowded space like Hong Kong, you will pretty much find everything you need in just a few blocks.



I love a lot of things about Sleeping Dogs. While combat is right out of the Arkham Batman series, Wei won't leap 10 feet across the room to deliver an upside down spring kick to the goon you wanted to continue your combo on. I enjoy the emphasis on charged attacks and environmental hazards, and countering is less forgiving. The ramming function while driving breaks reality sure, but is very much appreciated for dealing with vehicular situations and the leaping car jack to me is just an adrenaline junkie's wet dream to the game.

Is Wei Shen and Sleeping Dogs a good chance at representation of Asians in gaming? I'm Vietnamese, so I can't say for sure if it represents the area well. But I think the representation and the game is the best we've had so far. The last time I remember triads in video games was Woozie Mu from San Andreas and he was a blind gangster who could drive and shoot much to the surprise of the main character, CJ. I like Sleeping Dogs, even as a Vietnamese gamer. What does Sleeping Dogs mean to you culturally?


Woozie Mu, the OG triad

I was looking forward to Persona 4 Arena mostly because I love the Arc System Works line of fighters. It doesn't hurt that there's a little bit of novelty in seeing characters I'm even a little bit familiar with in the setting of a fighting game. What follows is my experience with the game with the first week since it launched.



Day 1
I decided to immediately jump into Challenge mode with Akihiko to begin understanding the basics that make up the boxer. I only really used Challenge mode as a glorified training mode to see what special moves he had and practice a few basic combos with him. But after about a half hour in both Challenge and Training mode plus a run in Arcade mode, I decide to take my stuff online hoping to fight similarly skills opponents. That is to say, hoping to find people like me, who haven't completely understood their character and just wanted to prove themselves online.

Day 1 connections were generally spotty on Xbox 360. Despite playing like I'm underwater, I was always in control of what I was pressing at least. A big problem I ran into as Akihiko was the ridiculously short range of his standing strong. Oftentimes, I'd try to throw a few jabs out, hoping to score some hits and at best, a simple Persona chain would get blocked and I could end the string with a safe attack like his rush punch into the Boomerang Hook. Recollections of what happened on day 1 is spotty since latency was questionable at best but in general, I found myself somewhat enjoying what I could get out of Akihiko when it came to punishing whiffs and maximizing damage from his rekka chains.

Day 2
Latency was improve greatly with the patch, to the point where netcode was the best I've ever experienced. Arc System Works and Atlus regularly churns out great netcode and things only improved in P4A when the technical problems got ironed out from the patch.

I decide to give Kanji a whirl since I'm well-versed in grappler characters. Immediately, things click into place with me for Kanji. Unlike all the time I took to even just understand Akihiko's gameplan, I found the tools available to Kanji made him one of the best grappler characters I've ever played. He's certainly still a slow character who's prone to getting zoned by long range characters but he comes armed with a plethora of powerful tools that Zangief and Tager can only wish they had. For example, Kanji can actually air dash and full on run albeit with an extended warm up frames to his animation. He has a powerful air-to-ground grab that can punish ground zoning if planned correctly. He has a great anti-air grab using his Persona and he has two variations to his main command grab: one that's fast and one that has long startup with invulnerability to bait mashers.

Probably the most important thing that makes Kanji a viable threat compared to other grapplers is his follow up chair slam. Most grapplers have throws which deal huge damage at the expense of throwing their opponent across the screen, forcing them to approach again. Kanji on the other hand, can follow up his throws with a leaping chair slam that tilts the wake up game into his favor all the time. Basically, once he grabs you, he can stay close afterward and force you to make guesses on defense that usually favor Kanji's odds.

While my Akihiko game is mostly hit-or-miss in terms of consistency, I find my game leveling up quite a bit with Kanji at the helm. In the middle of the week, I'm still learning new things for both characters such as Akihiko's midscreen jump cancel loops and the fact that the Skill Boosted version of Kanji's followup slam deals unscaled damage. It's during this time that I put Kanji in my back pocket in response for legitimate challenges while I put Akihiko in the front to better train my game.



During this time, I also play through a lot of Story mode. I am acquainted with Persona 4 through the anime that also aired on Hulu Plus, so despite never playing the game, I was mostly caught up in terms of important story events when it came to Story mode. I know Kanji is the lovable knucklehead and brawn of the team while Chie brought a lot of energy and life to the Investigation Team with her spunky attitude. With a background in Persona media, I better enjoy the endless text and static images thanks to the emotional investment I have, even in just an anime that gets criticized by hardcore Persona fans a lot.

First weekend
By the end of my first weekend, I've slowly grown more and more resentful of Akihiko's horrendously short ranged normals. Half of the attempted hitconfirms I throw out whiff halfway, leaving me to whiff standing strong and at a disadvantage at range game. I learn that Akihiko's rushdown has very little mixup potential, allowing most opponents to simply block low and stop everything he throws out. Akihiko needs to read his opponent's attacks in order to throw in a successful offense with ducks and punishes and I find the nature of his straightforward offense to be a big turn off.

I decide to put Akihiko down and explore some other characters. Yu has surprising oki game and is solid but I wanted something else. I hadn't thought of trying Yosuke even though online matches against him are usually the most annoying thing to play against due to his speed. I explored Teddie a little but I wasn't satisfied by his eccentric Persona actions. I then decided to try Labrys and despite being worried about playing a character reliant on sustaining offensive momentum for her power, her basic high/low game sold me. She's much stronger in slipping past an opponent's high/low guard and combined with decent wake up game I decide to use her online.

While autocombos get me though a few matches, I find that learning new combos is easy for Labrys, which shouldn't be a huge shock because when her ax's power is maxed, it turns counter hits into fatal counters, which makes hitconfirming combos a breeze. Fighting against keepaway isn't a problem because the huge range on her jumping strong easily stuffs most attempts at zoning before they can start. Her biggest problem is stopping enemy offense and momentum as her normals are slow and her Furious Action reversal relies on armor rather than invincibility.



As of now, I'm a grade B on ranked matches and most of my competition are players who rely too much on mashing A to victory or people who are too reliant on one action for their strategy like one-dimensional zoning or predictable Furious Actions. Despite reversals being simplified to a button combination, I find defending against them easier because people are more prone to using them on wake up as opposed to guessing if the player is skilled enough to input their reversal's motion in other games. Seriously, you wouldn't believe how many reversals I've baited out and punished except maybe you can because a lot of higher ranked players are probably ranked highly because they use their reversals a lot.

To be good in any match, you're not just going to have to practice your own character but practice seeing what the other characters will probably do. Match up knowledge is an important part of the fight and knowing if a character is prone to keepaway or rushdown and how that stacks up against what your character is capable of is important. For example, Kanji's diving grab is a great tool to punish character who zone carelessly while an early air dashing heavy attack from Labrys has enough range at midscreen to shutdown most zoning attempts. I've fought a lot of Yu, Akihiko, and Yukiko as well as Chie but I've still got to learn what the other characters are capable of in match up when used by players who go beyond their autocombos.

With the impending doominess that is PAX upon us, not to mention the influx of adoption blogs, I thought I'd try my hand at getting my avatar adopted.



"But Strider!" you may ask. "There are plenty of Domo themed avatars out there! What makes yours any different?"

Well I'm glad you asked simple hypothetical human!

You might be familiar with another Domo avatar, Funk. You may even be wondering where my avatar came from. A long time ago, there was indeed a Domo x Slurpee promotion at 7-Eleven. Being the anime weeaboo that I am, I snatched up a lot of collectible souviners while Domo was at 7-Eleven like a Slurpee cup, reversible beanie, and a key lanyard that still hangs out of my pocket from my keys to this day. In fact, I feel like something's amiss if my lanyard isn't hanging out of my pocket.



"Strider!" you're probably thinking. "Get to the the point!"

Well, during the promotion, Slurpee added Domo information to their website, which you might visit to punch in your Slurpee codes for Slurpee points. After I entered my own code (and being notified I didn't fucking win anything), I saw it. Domo just chill'in like a villain with a cold Slurpee into his permantently gaping mouth. How could I not save that image? But it was flash, not an image, so I couldn't just right-click it. So instead, using Evernote, I saved a screencap of it and smoothed out the details of making it an a avatar on my photo editor, Gimp.

But is that not enough? Ok, here's some more fun facts to sweeten the deal.

1) I'm good at fighting games. Someone challenge you to a Street Fighter throwdown? My avatar will give you the skills! Persona 4 Arena pow wow? I'm a grade B right now! I'll rub off on you! SoulCalibur V slice-fest? Well good luck then. I'm more of a 2D fighter kinda guy.

2) Domo gets you attention, that's a fact. But a Domo drinking a Slurpee? You'll be catching the attention of all the ladies and guys for all your sexual preferences! Girls will think it's cute. Guys will think it's hilarious! Perfect ice breaker!

3) Wearing my avatar provides a +8 buff to your DEF, letting you shrug off damage from foes as much as five levels higher than you. You also gain a staggering +20 buff to your LUCK but only specifically to finding parking spots. No seriously, I have uncanny luck when it comes to finding parking spots. When stacked on top of the bonuses of wearing the Mr. Destructoid helmet, you gain a unique buff called being awesome. All photos directed at you retain their original value when sold back to a marketplace.

4) Equipping my avatar provides you with a unique skill. Once per encounter, you may let loose a blood curdling roar that staggers enemies within 5 meters of you and inflicts fear status on them as well as making them wish they stayed at home with their lame stuffed animals. If they do not own stuffed animals, they will own one stuffed penguin for the purposes of this attack. Radius increases to 10 meters and inflicts an additional effect of being lame when used while wearing the Mr. Destructoid helmet.

5) My avatar provides a 35% faster stamina regen which stacks with any previous buffs. Becomes 500% while wearing Mr. Destructoid. You regain stamina so fast, you make your enemies tired!

Sold yet? You should be! Because look at all those numbers! Hardcore, min-maxing gamers should love all those numbers! Adopt my avatar and all those things are probably yours!