My very first blog post: Mario Kart 8, Oculus Rift & gamification

Hello everyone!

The text you're reading is my very first post* on my "Karelian Gaming"-blog. I created this blog as an outlet for my thoughts on video games and all things related (gamification, retro-games, board games etc.). I have played video games as long as I can remember (over 30 years!! yup I'm that young ;D). I still love gaming & follow actively what's happening in the gaming industry, so I thought it would be a nice idea to start blogging about them.

At the moment I'm playing the Wii U NES Remixes (1&2)

Currently I'm eagerly waiting for the Mario Kart 8 to come out. The videos of the game have looked gorgeous & I skipped the N64, GameCube and Wii-versions (had a loong period in the late 90s and early 2000s, when my main consoles were PS1 & PS2, so I had less time & money to spend on Nintendo-games & I've owned only the SNES & GBA Mario Kart-games), so it's high time to "get back on track". Even my girlfriend has said to me, that I should get it, so it's currently on my "must-buy"-list. Only a couple of weeks to go! MK8 has currently (May 16th) a metascore of 88 so things are looking good so far.

I prefer the quick "pick up & play" type of games for the 3DS.

Other things that I think are very exiting at the moment, are the new virtual reality headsets (the Oculust Rift & and PS4's Project Morpheus). I haven't gotten a chance to test any VR-devices, but I can only imagine how cool it would be to fly in space (please make a Star Wars-game) or race a car in virtual reality.

I'm also quite interested in gamification & all the possibilies it can offer to learning, education and life in general. I think the writer & game designer Jane McGonigal's thoughts on gamification are an inspiring example of the posive sides of gaming.

So.. here was my first blog entry. Please share your thoughts. I'm happy to discuss about anything related to gaming & gamification.

Have a nice weekend!
-KG

*I'm not a native English-speaker (I live in Finland, Northern Europe) & rarely use English in my daily life, so sorry about the unavoidable grammar errors. I hope my writing is still good enough to read. I try to do my best to improve and learn the English language. I think this blog could work as a nice learning platform :)