Click Gaming

D E C E M B E R 2012

Best LAN Centers In Austin

Top 10 Games

For November 2012

The Decision

Textbook or Computer?

League of Legends Tips and Tricks

Learn how to get out of ELO hell

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Table of Contents The Start Letter from the Editors Biography

4 5

Current Games Gaming Choices

6

Top 10 Games

16

Tips and Tricks for ELO Hell

22

Features:

9

Game Republik Learn about the best console repair center in Ausin.

by Jack Liu

13

Computer or Textbook?

19

What relation does computing hae to schools?

by Jason Villanueva

Game Design Get a behind the scenes look at what goes into making a game!

by Ehsan Asdar

Letter From Editors Dear Readers,

Enjoy the magazine!

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EVERY GAMER EVERY GENRE ONE MAGAZINE

Our magazine is meant to inform gamers about new prospective games about PC and console, but mainly PC. The magazine articles include content to appeal to a wide audience of gamers. Our goal is for our readers to enjoy our magazine as thoroughly as possible and throughout their experiance learn about anything and everything about videogames. As our mission statement would suggest, we want every gamer to use this one magazine to satisfy any of their gaming needs.

Jack Liu

Jason Villanueva was born and raised in austin texas. He

Ehsan Asdar

Jack Liu was born in St. Louis, Missouri, but moved to Austin,

Jason Villanueva

Contributors Texas at the age of three. He lived with his real dad before his parents divorced and now currently live with his mom and stepdad. He is a 14 year old high school freshmen that enjoys playing games of all sorts, but loves PC games especially. His current favorites are League of Legends, Dungeons of Dredmor and Terraria. At the current moment he doesn’t have a gaming computer, but is in the process of saving up for one.

enjoys all sorts of Console Games, such as PS2, Wii, Nintendo DS and 3DS and Xbox 360. As his Dominant Favorites the Final Fantasy Series is one of his many dominant game choices especially #12. The Dragon Quest series is also one of his good choices. He is a 14 year old student at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy in several rigorous classes. Electronic Magazine is a fun for him though.

Ehsan Asdar was born in Rochester, New York and moved to

Austin, TX at age 3. He currently lives with his parents and younger Brother and attends LASA High School as a 14-year-old Freshman.

He also enjoys pc gaming, swimming, playing soccer, and has been playing the violin for over 10 years. His favorite subjects currently are Math and AP Computer Science.

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Gaming Choices

W

hen playing a game what’s your first instinct? Do you want to get the best weapon or maybe get to level 99 as soon as you can? What about trying to beat the game? Which one should you immediately want when you start playing a console game? This is a guide to help you out with an example scenario for each step, see Wikihow.com/Beat-a-video-game for some great tips about it. IGN FAQs: top 100 game weapons breaks down the best weapons that you’ll want to see. Also another great source is the game’s own instructions booklet is a good place for more info.

Choose a job that uses ranged weapons

Go

Go find a good weapons store

Choose any job class that you want

Find the Magic shop Pick a Bow or Crossbow to use (for now)

Complete the tutorial Accept the first mission

Proceed to main storyline Obtain your key item/talisman

Go out of city and into the wild Try out your fighting skills Hunt the Mark to complaet hunt

Return to town and claim bounty

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Buy the weapon best for the job class

Buy some healing magics if you’re new to gaming

Fight enemies until satisfying level Head out to battle area

Find new information

Level up to around Level10

Cross the cheakpoint/ lookout

Fight enemies to next town

Get to Level 99+ A.S.A.P.

Obtain better loot Hunt more enemies

Unlock the best Weapon

Sell loot to local Market

Find loot to synthesize into weapons

Just beat the game

New weapons appear for purchase

Find lots of different weapons

Go on a treasure hunt

Which works for your job class?

Buy a spell that stops your foes

Use it to improve skills

Sell them to local market Buy some items from the sundries shop

Become Lv.50 and move to Stronger area

Hunt 100 of each of 10 enemies Prepare for strong enemies

Your hired as a bodygaurd

Become Lv.99 and enjoy power

You fend them off and continue

You’re ambushed

You cross the mountains

Master it in a sinch

Thats your new best weapon.

Keep Going, You’re almost there

Become Level 90 and kill in 1 hit

Hunt like crazy till your strong

Buy them all!

You reach the capital city All your items are stolen

You meet a caravan Your rich beyond comparison

Your job is done and your paid accordingly

Stop Art Credit: Art designed by Jason Villanueva

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The Best Gaming Center in Austin!

Written by Jack Liu

The Buisness

W

alking down Guadalupe you wouldn’t imagine anything great could be happening behind the walls of this dingy, run down building.

The white paint is peeling off in various places and there’s only one small red and black sign to raise attention. As you walk into the building you are greeted by the man or woman running the desk, depending on the day.

“Choose any computer you want”.

As you walk further in you notice the room is extremely dim. The only light you can see is from the huge row of computer screens along the wall. The luminous glow fills the room with a very cozy feel. If you decide to venture even further in you can see the room filled with xbox 360s, PS3s, Wiis, etc... You have now entered Game Republik.

“We will fix your gaming system whether computer or console, and provide the only place in town to hang out with other gamers, and compete in the real world, not disconnected online,” said company owner Chris Tom.

Before Tom opened his company he was a UT Austin student. When he graduated in the summer of 1998, he decided to open up his small business with his brother because, “I had been a gamer all of my life, and my house was overflowing with my business, and I needed an office, and [I] wanted to have a place to do gaming events.” said Tom. He then moved on to open his own business in 2006 named Tek Republik.

He was motivated to run his company and become successful. He encountered many hardships throughout the first

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Caption: Gaming Setup in the ornage room

year of his business and he now has some words of advice, “You need to know backwards and forwards the business you are doing. You must be able to put up with restraints from local government” Tom said “If you don’t know your business and care about it, you will be hard pressed to make it a year.”

In 2012, he encountered the most publicized hardship in his company’s history. According to Tom, “We were smoked bombed in January 2010. We caught the culprits, but an APD detective took the credit, and called the smoke bomb an IED (Improvised Explosive Device). That caused us to lose a great amount of our younger middle school aged clients. APD made it seem like we were under terrorist attack, and Fox 7 did not fact check in the story they ran, and would not let me see it before it aired.”

This caused them to lose significant business with their younger

Art Credit: Jack Liu

crowds because their parents felt it wasn’t a safe place to be. Even though Game republik encountered a few hardships including the smoke bombing and employees that were stealing computer parts, Tom said “I simply never give up, or lose hope, and realize that hard work will eventually pay off.”

Tom gives the impression that he is a very laid-back kind of guy. His company is a place where people can gather and party with friends or pull an allnighter. For two dollars an hour a person can have all their gaming necessities taken care of. His staff is always there to help. If there is a problem with the computers there is sure to be someone there as soon as possible to help figure it out. They even have a snack bar where they have an assortment of soft drinks, energy drinks, candy and chips.

On each computer they have an archive of every game

Caption: Location of Game Repulik

imaginable. They have the oldies from the early 2000s two the most current games including Borderlands 2 and Dishonored.

Their computers are rigged with AMD 3.2GHz quad core [processor] with Radeon 6850s dual booting XP and Windows 7. In non-geek talk this means that their computers can run the most graphics intensive game in the current moment, which is Battlefield 3. Also, the computers are able to boot up with the option of either running Windows 7 or Windows XP. Tom says after they finish buying all their keyboards, headsets and sound cards, their next upgrade may be Windows 8.

Tom said, “There have been several [companies that] try to copy us, and they have all failed.” There had been a few attempts to run the same kind of business as Game Republik, but all of them went out of business within the first two years. An example of this is GameDocs, who hired some of the people Tom had fired at his own company. Game Republik has a combination of services and low prices to keep people coming back to Game Republik. Overall Game Republik is one of the best places in Austin where gamers can get the combination of service and gam-

Art Credit: Map data ©2012 Google, Sanborn

ing experience they expect, for the price of 2 dollars and hour.

On top of that go there whenever a quick and cheap repair of any console is needed. They try to be the best in the industry and currently are only located at one place in Austin. They hope to spread out to more than just one location in Austin to help benefit all their customers. Soon gamers all over Austin will be able to have the Game Republik experience without the downside of travelling all across town.

Caption: Andreas Toprac plays Borderlands 2 at Game Republik

Art Credit: Jack Liu

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Computer or

Textbook?

Story and photos by Jason Villanueva

Caption: Here we see an example of some technology used in an electronic magazine class

Art Credit: Picture taken by Jason Villanueva

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How it Started

H

ere at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy (LASA) education is changing. Some classes, such as Electronic magazine use mainly computers to design and create a magazine, but in the basic Geometry class it’s still pencil paper and textbook and simple learning. How can some classes be completely technological but others still be fundamental and basic.

Students are changing the way they want to learn from a textbook to a laptop. In many schools here in Texas, districts are using new kinds of technology to teach their students. In example an innovation station for many teachers and lots of portable computers assigned to each school.

Austin ISD has been among them and has been using more computers and projectors in all schools since 2005 when companies first realised smartphones. Now the students are growing up with technology as a fundamental tool that should be expected to be used. Compared to a classroom in the early 1990s, this looks like A rich kids class. Back when the parents were in school all they had to use are fundamental tools like pencil, pen, paper and textbooks. Yet students are living in an educational system that is entirely parallel to an old one like that.

Why it’s happening

A

ccording to sources at LASA on the topic of why schools are changing, ”We did that to try to keep up with our students in the ways they live. Mainly to help convenience our students” said Mr.Cutler, Technological Resource Page14

Caption: Here is an electronic magazine class as an example.

Manager at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy. The root of why change is everywhere is because of society and the way people go by their daily lives, “Society itself is improving and shifting so we must do the same,” said Stacia Crescenzi Principle of the LIberal Arts and Science Academy.

Students aren’t the only ones who have a say in the future.

Some Adults and School Faculty are supporting the newer methods technology based teaching that is being used on the students. In specific example the way a teacher teaches by using a projector and laser pointer rather than a chalkboard and a simple finger pointer. Some schools use old and new methods of teaching, LASA for example, ”I think its great that our school uses both styles to help our student to both enjoy the old and new ways of learning” Cutler said.

The stimulator for the changes in education have come from all over the school system and student body.

Some students become distracted by the new devices.

Some schools have a strict or lenient policy about this because they have a large workload on their

Art Credit: Pictures taken by Jason Villanueva

students. Small distractions could be considered healthy, in example here at LASA the policy is than other schools. Some faculty members, are both opposed, and in favor of, small distractions, for example, ”Well I suppose I approve as long as it doesn’t take up any bandwidth or mess with the main system, otherwise we have to block it,” Cutler said. Cutler has a mixed view about the reasons that students would use want to distract themselves from their work.

Crescenzi agrees when she said, “I think that both purposes have their place but its a tricky business because entertainment can take up more time than planned and it makes the student lose focus on their work”.

Cutler says, some new benefits to education have become available due to the way education has changed. The main one being ”The access to more updated and current information. We have some books that are dated back from five years ago that aren’t as updated as the internet or websites,” Cutler said.

Crescenzi says, there still are some drawbacks to this new technology that we use. “If you’re using a calculator and all you know

a

Caption: Some students are useing computers to design magazines as well as complete papers for a class.

is how to input numbers and operations, but do you know why you got the answer that you got or why you want it or even what you’ll do with your answer?”.

Crescenzi makes a solid point in her stance on the points students are using technology. She states how relying too much on technology isn’t such a good thing for a person’s self reliability.“There are some schools that just give you an iPad the moment you walk in but some that are barely able to meet the basic needs a school should.”

Crescenzi said. “The three reasons for that is the low amount of funding, the amount of space that a school campus can apply, and the different needs each teacher and classes needs.” Crescenzi says. By stating this Crescenzi is showing that civilization isn’t the only factor in the changes to education. She

Art Credit: Pictures taken by Jason Villanueva

has shown that Education can take any direction based on Three factors : Funding, Space, Teacher needs and background.

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Top 5 Grossing Games

T

he month of November is typically a huge month for gaming, as many of the AAA (big budget) releases come just pre holiday season, selling more copies this way. Here are the top 5 grossing games from November of 2012 aggregated from VGChartz, with a short synopsis of the plot, main characters, and features of each game.

Call of Duty: Black ops 2

Platforms: Windows, Xbox 360, Playstation 3. Copies Sold: 6.21m.

The latest in the yearly cycle of Call of Duty games, Black Ops 2 hopes to innovate and improve upon the last game by changing the setting of the series to a near-future scenario rather than current and iterating on the games graphics and multiplayer systems. You are originally set in the cold war, from the years 1986-1989. After this storyline however, you are quickly fast forwarded to a new Cold War, incited by the Cordis Die, whose leader is the main Antagonist of the story. On the multiplayer side, several changes have been made to make the game more team and objective based. Streaks that reward you with special abilities in game have been expanded to encompass more than just killing, and several modes have been introduced for 3+ team play.

Assasins Creed 3 Platforms: Xbox 360, Windows, Wii U ,Playstation 3Copies Sold: 2.37m

Assassins creed 3 is the latest in the series of the highly popular open world action adventure games created by Ubisoft. The series features a man named Desmond set in a futuristic setting where he fights the templars. He accomplishes this through his ancestors, using a device known as the Animus to go back in time and take control of them. The story of this game, and his relative Conor takes place during the American Revolution, spanning 30 years of Connor’s life. (http://assassinscreed. ubi.com/ac3/en-US/index.aspx)

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Hitman: Aboslution

Platforms:Xbox 360, WIndows Copies Sold: 501,081

Hitman: Absolution the 5th Hitman, a stealthy action adventure game series. You play as Agent 47, employed by the International Contract Agency. The game features stealth action as well as gun fighting wrapped in a storyline to uncover a man gone rogue in the ICA.(http://hitman.com/)

New Super Mario Bros. U Platform: Wii U,Copies Sold: 372,169

New Super Mario Bros. U is the latest in the Mario series of platforming games from Nintendo. It features mario, the character with whom you must complete levels in the game by reaching the final flagpole, usually at the far right side of the level. The games storyline, like the other games in the series, is to save Princess Peach from the evil Bowser that has stolen her. (http://newsupermariobrosu. nintendo.com/)

Halo 4

Platform:Xbox 360 ,Copies Sold: 4.55m

Halo 4 is the first in the new trilogy of Halo games made by 343 Industries. The game features Master Chief, back from the end of Halo 3 and takes place predominantly on the planet Requiem where Master Chief fights the race called the Forerunners. Among this race is Didact, the main antagonist, who leads the force against which Master Chief fights during the game.(http://www.ign.com/ games/halo-4/xbox-360-110563)

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Free to Play!

Over 50 million accounts registered

The Art of Games How games are created and what goes into designing them Written by Ehsan Asdar

Caption`: Typical Xbox Controller

Art Credit: Unrestricted Photostock

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Where to start

T

he street is dark and quiet, except for one faint light at the corner. The local Gamestop is lit up and the corner outside the store is packed with people counting down the last minutes till midnight. It is the launch day of a major game, Mass Effect 3, which has been anticipated by fans of the series as the exciting and action packed finale to the trilogy. Finally the store unlocks, the last few seconds tick down, and Caption: Dragon Age II Concept Art the game is released to millions worldwide. As many sit down to play the game however, what they do not realize is the many years it took the large Bioware studio

When someone starts to craft the game, designing the a career as a game designer elaborate story,art, and complex they usually have great previgameplay that most expects of ous experience in one aspect of such large titles. game design, and most poten While gaming entertains tial game designers have more millions every day, what remains success starting off working on behind the scenes of the games indie games or complex mods for to most is shrouded in mystery. existing games. To see examples Each project takes many years to of this, one does not have to look go from concept through develop- far. Gabe Newell and Ken Rolston ment and finally quality assurance came from backgrounds with codas a collaborative effort of large ing Windows and writing pen and studios of people. In addition each paper rpgs respectively but both game strives to perfect the enterwent on to lead the worlds largest tainment form and push the limits video gaming franchises. Howof what we think is possible. ever these large studios have key Game design can be boiled down differences from smaller studios. to this definition, from E-Learning Among them is the “key skill(is) …

Modules“The theories and practo be able to communicate with tices used to create effective and others and work effectively as a engaging games”. One`s job as team with others” said a Bioware a game designer can therefore designer I talked to. Another difcan be reinterpreted as Employference is the tendency of indies ing theories and practices while to more freely innovate, as VG247 innovating upon them to craft efremarks “But somehow there’s fective and engaging games. This not enough diversity, I think, in definition alludes to the diversity our business models to create and broadness of game design, interesting, alternative games. At which involves art, writing, proleast on the triple-A side of things, gramming, music, and more. the top end market. You’re not

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Art Credit: Dragon Age II Concept Art

seeing very high end innovation happening”. Innovation also has a downside according to a Wired Magazine report quoting Tim Sweeney, founder of EPIC games “One of the biggest problems as an independent is protecting your game ideas, said Sweeney. “It’s always a problem when designing smaller games”. One problem that is universally challenging and that has had its ups and down is the current lack of new generation hardware, as many developers wait for the next evolution of consoles. Nintendo life was met with this response when asking Trine 2 Developer Mikael Haveri about why the new extra content coming with the Wii U version of their game was not in other consoles “Basically that does require... well, not huge amounts more graphics processing power, but still considerably. If we would publish that on the other consoles, then I believe that there would be some small downscaling of what it is right now”.

Caption: Location of Austin Bioware

Inovation in Game Design

C

omputing technology has increased greatly since video games were first developed, consistently following Moore`s law which states that the power of computers doubles every 2 years.

According to the National Academy of Science, this has directly affected video gaming,“Ever-increasing computing power over the past 60 years has directly assisted the evolution of modeling, simulation, and games (MS&G), leading to new capabilities for developing models and simulating natural and engineered phenomena with greater realism and accuracy”. This is significant because of the fact that large game projects take years to develop fully, requiring game developers to take an iterative approach to development. “A game project is never done but constantly is evolving, lacking features are overturned and new features are added, old code from the early in the development cycle is overturned closer to release” said the same designer at Bioware.

Art Credit: © 2012 Google

Overall, game design is a very broad and complex subject, requiring anywhere from a single person to large studios. The process of creating the art of this interactive medium requires graphics, writing, programming, and many other areas of development, in which each some people find strength. This all comes together on the day of the launch, the day you walk down the street with your copy of Mass Effect 3, put the disk in, turn on your TV, and enjoy.

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Top 3 Champions to get out of ELO Hell

By Jack Liu

T

his story will teach you about the 3 best champions to play to help you get out of ELO hell. To clarify for those who don’t know, in league of legends, there is ranked and or competitive play where your ranking in the world is called ELO. Between the ranges of 900-1250 is considered ELO hell because people who consider themselves “good” feel like they are being matched with bad players and then their team causes them to lose. To put this all into perspective they professionals of league of legends are ranked around 2300 ELO and every time you grab a victory you gain around 10-20 ELO and every time you get defeated you lose around the same amount of ELO.

These champions that I have have picked to be featured in this list have a combination of attributes that allow them to carry games to some extent. They rely on shutting down their lane or in Dr. Mundo’s case shutting down all the lanes by forcing a very strong feeling of jungle presence on the other team. After getting just a little bit of farm these champions are able to dominate team fights and carry the team to victory. Even though these champions are very good, things like team communication and a positive attitude help just as much as playing a good champion. According to Dyrus, a professional league of legends player, “Don’t trash talk the guy who’s screwing you over it only makes it worse.”

Remember to never rage at your teammates while playing and you will see your win to loss ratio go through the roof.

Dr. Mundo

second.

Q - Mundo throws a cleaver infront of him dealing a percentage of the max health of the target enemy.

W - Toggled ability that creates a burning circle around Dr.

Champion Pciture

Dr. Mundo is a high health champion. He is most prominent in the jungle because he has a tier 1 clear time which means he is able to jungle fast enough to the point where he levels quicker then the lanes. His ganks are amazing due to his attack steroid and his long range slow. Late game he becomes the tank of the team that if ignored does a lot of damage and even when is focused can stay alive do to the health regeneration from his ultimate. He benefits from building health because his skills dont scale on attack damage or ability power except for his ultimate which scales on health. Said best by Stonewall008, “Mundo does what he pleases.”

Passive - Dr. Mundo regains 0.3% of his maximum health each

Mundo. Every second costs part of Dr. Mundo’s health.

E - Dr. Mundo gains attack damage for 5 seconds increasing every level up to 100 bonus damage.

R - Dr. Mundo uses part of his health and starts regenerating a great amount of health depending on the level of the skill.

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“Mundo goes where he pleases” ~Dr. Mundo

Darius

Passive - Darius’ basic attacks and damaging abilities cause enemies to bleed stacking up to 5 times.

Q - Darius deals physical damage to all nearby enemies in a circle around him. At max range it does the most damage.

W - Darius’ next basic attack deals bonus damage to target and

Champion Pciture

Darius is one of the best top laners in the game. He destroys most melee top laners with a few exceptions such as garen. His passive which is a damage over time ability is helpful for early game skirmishes due to its ability to stack on itself to do more damage. Darius also has one of the easiest combos to pull off which is E>Q>W. This will do a lot of damage early game and when you any fight. Darius becomes even more effective when he gets his ultimate because it does true damage and refreshes the cooldown if it deals the finishing blow.

slows their movement speed and attack speed.

E - Darius pulls all enemeise infront of him towards him. He also passivly gains armor penetration.

R - Darius leaps towards and enemy and strikes down on them with his axe. For every stack of his passive it does bonus damage.

Garen

Passive - Garen regenerates 0.5% of his maximum health every second if not damaged in the last nine seconds

Q - Garen gains a move spped buff and his next auot attack will scilence and deal bonus damage to the enenmy target.

W - Garen passively gains an armor buff and on activation gains

Champion Pciture

According to Mobafire.com, “Garen is a high early game damage champion. He requires to get ahead of his lane opponent by having a hyper-aggressive play style. He is able to use his ablities to charge in and do heavy damage without being hurt. Every time he has his cooldowns he must go in and attack the enemy. He has one of the highest pre-ultimate damage in the game therefore he can gain an early game advantage and force his lane opponent out of the game for good. A down side is without the early game advantage garen becomes useless late game.

“Never retreat!” ~Darius

extra protection against incoming attacks.

E - Garen spins around in a circle dealing damage every second around him for 3 seconds.

R - Garen drops a huge sword on his enemeny dealing magic

damage and bonus damage according to the enemy’s missing health.

“Demacia!” ~Garen

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