tomburgoyne

Just thought I should post this screenshot of my most current project. Using the word 'Glacier' as a seed for the map generator, this is by far one of the coolest worlds I've played on.

A heart attack waiting to happen I just thought that this fine specimen of a pizza deserved some recognition. Including double pepperoni, jalopenos, roquito sweet chilli peppers, some tandoori chicken and not to forget some ham and meatballs too, this bad boy certainly could win some pizza awards. For this I say god bless you Dominos Pizza Southampton, god bless you (and your voucher codes that make your pricing slightly more reasonable). Disclaimer: many pigs were harmed in the making of this pizza.

A screenshot from one of my latest worlds  Minecraft is an interesting paradox. It could quite easily have been a game that was, dare I say it, revolutionary in the early part of the last decade (circa 2000-2004 or so), yet it is, arguably, a revolutionary game, even by today's standards. Simplicity is sometimes all that is needed for a game, or indeed like most things in life, to succeed. Graphically speaking, Minecraft just works in its current format. Although many of the skin patches made by players do add nice elements to the game, I for one prefer to stick with the basic default skin simply because it just keeps the game as basic as possible, which is why, personally, I enjoy it so much. It is a game that you just never know what you may end up trying to make or do. Something in your day might trigger some thought and make you think 'I really want to try to make such and such when I get home'. I can't say I have felt that with many other games. Possibly the onl...

I point to: Rebecca Black - Friday ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2LRROpph0 ) as my prime example of this happening. I don't blame her for this, who wouldn't give it a go knowing how many things easily become viral on the internet? My main struggle is I just can't understand how something that is so barren of any lyrical depth or imagination can become a 25,000,000+ viewed video, plus be selling by the bucket load on iTunes? I genuinely think anyone with a few quid spare and a decent know-how of some sort of music recording technology can make a terrible yet 'catchy' song and become an overnight 'musical' sensation, setting themselves up financially for a good many years (or for life) if they go market it sensibly. This is very sad, considering that the parodies of these songs usually are more creative and deserve more credit than the original song! This may just sound like I am jealous, which is wide off the mark, I just can't fathom the logic of pe...

Where to begin? I suppose I should say a few things about myself (the boring part). I'm 21 and am in my final year at the University of Southampton studying Criminology (BSc (SocSci) Applied Social Sciences: Criminology if you must know). I enjoy playing and watching football (as well as destroying myself mentally on Football Manager 2011) and also playing electric guitar amongst other things. Erm... I also enjoy gaming (sometimes, when it doesn't raise my stress levels to head-exploding point), with my final year dissertation project focusing on violent content in video games. My current games of choice are Football Manager 2011, as mentioned a moment a go, Minecraft (until unexpected lava death puts me off for a few day due to huge amounts of rage), and on occassion Call of Duty: Black Ops and Fifa 11 on Xbox 360. However, I own many other games which I seem to have bought but really am yet to play (Mass Effect 2 a prime example)! Curse you impulse buying! Anyway, that will...

Hey everyone, This is just a blog for me to mull over anything that springs to mind. I'm not entirely sure what will be discussed, will just have to wait and see what comes up! Any comments/questions/discussions welcome! Thank you, Tom