I always feel bad when I look at my toolbar and see the icon for this blog and I feel bad that I really don't have much to say. I guess it's because I feel I should be posting something of substance on here. Other times I have to remind myself that blogging (and to a greater extent Twittering) was created to tell people about every little that you are thinking or doing, regardless of it's relevance to... well anything. So with that in mind here are some things.
I do not like to pack, it's not like it is really hard for me. I rarely have that much furniture to move. The problem is that I like to get stuff done when I can so this often results in having half my stuff packed weeks in advance, and the other half packed a few days before the move. I'm not sure if this is normal as I have never really been involved in any large scale (such as a family and the contents of a house) so I can't really be sure if this is a problem.
Either way I will soon be at my new apartment, and for those of you that don't know it I will living with my girlfriend of 3 years (4 years in October). When I first brought up this idea to my friends and coworkers I got a lot of unexpected responses. The stereotypical reply I always assumed would be that this is a bad idea, kills the romance, etc... But most of the people I have talked to, namely those that already see their girlfriends on a regular (day to day) basis or basically live with them anyway, thought this was all well and good. I was pleasantly surprised by these responses.
Now to the festering meat of what has been occupying my thoughts lately. For those of your I have not already excitedly told, I am working on writing a book. I say I am working on writing it because at this point that is about as far as I have gotten. I am stilling mapping out the events of the story. This is taking some time, since basically the first 2/3 of the story are based on the events of an online roleplaying game I was a major player in, and the last third is of my own creation. I could go on and on about why this is the case but that is another post/rant altogether mostly cause it deals with a lot of stuff outside that particular game. None the less I am still using the events of the game before it basically ended and as such I am constantly pouring through the posts of the game to make sure I am covering the points of the story I wanted to cover.
I have ideas for how I want the conclusion to go but the more I talk about them I realize they are just that, ideas, often scattered and disjointed from a form that resembles storytelling. Part of the problem is my own. really all the problem is my own, but that too is not the point. I am used to taking the fragmented and random ideas that pop into my head and using my friends as a sounding board to help me sort them out and in this case I am trying to do this basically on my own, using my friends for final editing. In short, I want to write this book myself. Not so much to be able to claim credit, but mostly to prove to myself that I can.
I have over the course of my life had many ideas for stories (mostly short ones) but never had the patience or care to work them out into something resembling a proper story. With this I want to see if I can follow this through to the end. I may or may not bother with ever publishing this thing, but if I can get to that point then I will have made my point to myself. This is something I am doing with my spare time, it's not my job, I won't delude myself for a minute into thinking that I could write for a living, but for me it is something I want to do and hopefully that will be enough.
So long for now, I may try and get my other rant up soon.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
JRPGs
I was just reading a very interesting article on gamespy (http://www.gamespy.com/articles/977/977228p1.html) and reading the comments section I found myself nodding. Wada said "Japanese games makers excel at complex role-playing adventure games" and... I disagree.
I feel that they did excel in that field, once upon a time, but not anymore. I look in at modern RPGs, both western and Japanese and the JRPGs are just unplayable. They tell a story but offer no freedom to the player. It could be argued that they offer less freedom to maintain the storyline but I don't think that it's at all necessary. KOTOR is the perfect example of a very strong story driven game that still gave the player choices, still let them make the storyline thier own. From character appearance to dialog. You just can't do that in a JRPG. Thus I find myself staring at a character I just don't like half the time. I won't sink 40 hours on a character I don't like and his story, I have better things to do.
The most recent JRPGs to my mind, Lost Odyssey and the Last Remnant were both... unplayable. Part of that is the art design which I have always critized in japenese games. Frankly most everything looks fucking rediculious and impractical as hell. it's offensive to me. But... the gameplay. It doesn't seem to have evolved any. You still have the invisible party on one screen that all suddenly appear for the turn based combat sequences. I have nothing against turn based combat but... it feels tired to me these days. There's no dynamic to it, no enivorment, combat happens in a vaccum basically and that annoys me. Hell, Last Remnant combat wasn't as annoying as say, the main character (who annoyed the shit out of me within 10 minutes. Honestly, I could not hate him more) started combat, every combat, by saying "Let's kick some A" because gods know you can't say "ass." Where is the option for him to shut the fuck up?
I don't identify with the character or even like him. His dialog just makes me angry. Most western RPGs these days give you dialog options. KOTOR, Mass Effect, Fallout 3. I vividly recall the start of Last Remnant where the main character acted like a disrespectful prole to a local Prince who just saved his ass. It made me angry. I slogged through it and found out about the lack of an autosave and bugs with the save game system the hard way and haven't put the game near my console since. I felt abused. Those same bugs wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't already hate the main character. (Let's kick some A!)
But these games are complex... I'll give him that. The options menu, the stupid fucking inventory and upgrade systems, the convoluted classes and just stupid numbers. Ugh. The truth of the matter is that when a player's level is capped at over 100 then there is something wrong to my mind. Like Disgea... wanna grind up to level 99999? Or whatever the stupidly large number is? FUCK NO! Nor do I want to see an enemy with several million HP. Shit, you can have challenge and feel like you've built up a strong character without breaking into the tens of thousands for damage numbers or HP, or any other bloody number (other than the in-game currency). At a certain point the math involved in it just disgusts me. I don't want to deal with a 10 million HP boss enemy regularly, it's just stupid. Just throwing numbers around isn't a challenge. ... Although I suppose that *is* the only way to challenge a player in a JRPG.
In Fallout 3, in the latest piece of DLC (Downloadable content) they managed to challenge (briefly) even my high level character. They did it by taking away all my hard earned weapons for some time and throwing me into a hostile enviroment. It left me feeling exposed and made for a great bit of gameplay. Sure, I killed everything and eventually found enough equipment that the loss of my old gear didn't matter. Although that was close to the time I was going to get my own gear back anyway. heh. The point is that they were looking for a way to make the game challenging without just throwing stupid numbers of enemies or enemies so strong that it's silly at the player and I feel that succeeded to a degree. Not so much an option in your average JRPG. Nor is stealth usually... nor a social focused character. It's disappointing.
Innovation has passed by the RPG industry in Japan. I couldn't be happier honestly, more and more good games are coming out of western studios. Maybe the japs will look at these innovations and add some freedom and choice to their games... but... I doubt it. Ah well.
I feel that they did excel in that field, once upon a time, but not anymore. I look in at modern RPGs, both western and Japanese and the JRPGs are just unplayable. They tell a story but offer no freedom to the player. It could be argued that they offer less freedom to maintain the storyline but I don't think that it's at all necessary. KOTOR is the perfect example of a very strong story driven game that still gave the player choices, still let them make the storyline thier own. From character appearance to dialog. You just can't do that in a JRPG. Thus I find myself staring at a character I just don't like half the time. I won't sink 40 hours on a character I don't like and his story, I have better things to do.
The most recent JRPGs to my mind, Lost Odyssey and the Last Remnant were both... unplayable. Part of that is the art design which I have always critized in japenese games. Frankly most everything looks fucking rediculious and impractical as hell. it's offensive to me. But... the gameplay. It doesn't seem to have evolved any. You still have the invisible party on one screen that all suddenly appear for the turn based combat sequences. I have nothing against turn based combat but... it feels tired to me these days. There's no dynamic to it, no enivorment, combat happens in a vaccum basically and that annoys me. Hell, Last Remnant combat wasn't as annoying as say, the main character (who annoyed the shit out of me within 10 minutes. Honestly, I could not hate him more) started combat, every combat, by saying "Let's kick some A" because gods know you can't say "ass." Where is the option for him to shut the fuck up?
I don't identify with the character or even like him. His dialog just makes me angry. Most western RPGs these days give you dialog options. KOTOR, Mass Effect, Fallout 3. I vividly recall the start of Last Remnant where the main character acted like a disrespectful prole to a local Prince who just saved his ass. It made me angry. I slogged through it and found out about the lack of an autosave and bugs with the save game system the hard way and haven't put the game near my console since. I felt abused. Those same bugs wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't already hate the main character. (Let's kick some A!)
But these games are complex... I'll give him that. The options menu, the stupid fucking inventory and upgrade systems, the convoluted classes and just stupid numbers. Ugh. The truth of the matter is that when a player's level is capped at over 100 then there is something wrong to my mind. Like Disgea... wanna grind up to level 99999? Or whatever the stupidly large number is? FUCK NO! Nor do I want to see an enemy with several million HP. Shit, you can have challenge and feel like you've built up a strong character without breaking into the tens of thousands for damage numbers or HP, or any other bloody number (other than the in-game currency). At a certain point the math involved in it just disgusts me. I don't want to deal with a 10 million HP boss enemy regularly, it's just stupid. Just throwing numbers around isn't a challenge. ... Although I suppose that *is* the only way to challenge a player in a JRPG.
In Fallout 3, in the latest piece of DLC (Downloadable content) they managed to challenge (briefly) even my high level character. They did it by taking away all my hard earned weapons for some time and throwing me into a hostile enviroment. It left me feeling exposed and made for a great bit of gameplay. Sure, I killed everything and eventually found enough equipment that the loss of my old gear didn't matter. Although that was close to the time I was going to get my own gear back anyway. heh. The point is that they were looking for a way to make the game challenging without just throwing stupid numbers of enemies or enemies so strong that it's silly at the player and I feel that succeeded to a degree. Not so much an option in your average JRPG. Nor is stealth usually... nor a social focused character. It's disappointing.
Innovation has passed by the RPG industry in Japan. I couldn't be happier honestly, more and more good games are coming out of western studios. Maybe the japs will look at these innovations and add some freedom and choice to their games... but... I doubt it. Ah well.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Repo! The Genetic Opera
Just dropping in with a short blurb. Almost a tweet. I have just finished watching Repo! The Genetic Opera. It is far and away the most unique thing I have seen in ages. It was... Wonderful. The title is a good clue as to the content, Repo is a musical, an opera of the finest type. The cast shines, even Paris Hilton (sigh. To think I would ever say that). Doctor Horrible made me sit up and take notice of musicals again, ones that aren't wearing a Disney label, but Repo!... Repo! is what will keep me singing for weeks.
If you have the opportunity, buy this movie. And the soundtrack. (Gods know I will as soon as payday rolls around). You could rent it, but that doesn't nearly do the movie justice.
If you have the opportunity, buy this movie. And the soundtrack. (Gods know I will as soon as payday rolls around). You could rent it, but that doesn't nearly do the movie justice.
Monday, April 13, 2009
My Deal With MMOs
Every now and then I'm forced to remember why I prefer the regular RPGs as opposed to these MMOs that most people basically live their lives through anymore. I'm not saying that they're particularly a bad thing but I am saying that the good intentions behind them have bred the breed of gamer I like to address as the fucktard population of gaming.
It basically starts out as a normal game, sometimes you can take things seriously because heck, you've put a lot of work into getting at something and someone else takes that one item that you've spent several hours [or days] on trying to obtain. I can understand the anger and frustration that lies behind some fucktard bullshitting you like that and I'm happy to say that's a normal reaction. but it's the people that DO it that need a lesson as well as an ass whupping because they've just meandered along and basically come to terms with it being ok to jack whatever they can when it best suits their needs. I'd really like to meet some of these dickish 12 year olds and show them what I really think of them with the proper application of force up their arse with an industrial strength steel rod to ensure that they'd have a hard time sitting for long periods of time and go out and get some exercise.
The next portion of these fucktards are the people that alienate their friends due to the idea that because they don't play the same MMO you do that you're not worth the time to even talk to. While your former friends are now better off without you, you suddenly have only your online guild to turn to in times of need and you'd better pray some live nearby in the event your house burns down because otherwise you're fucked. You may wonder where all your other friends have gone in that kind of situation but you have only yourself to blame. I'll pick on the World of Warcraft idiots because most of the ones I know will surf the online forums when they can't play and yammer on and on about their epic level Death Knight while those of us that don't play it are doomed to listen to your incessent babbling and pray that the gods will save us by having a semi-truck burst through the wall like the Kool Aide man and smish you like the annoying twat you are. If we've expressed that we don't play then it's most likely a good probability that we don't want to hear it. Fuck your Death Knight.
Also amongst the WoWtwats and the moronic 12 year olds we have the glitchers. Many MMOs have glitches and many of them aren't addressed. I'll take the example from Exteel where if you have a sword and you've jumped you can attack and if an opponent is close enough you close in automatically. The Bunny Hopping talentless n00bs have confused the term Dragooning with this which is wrong. Dragooning is done with a lance and you boost into the air much higher than just jumping, dropping down on your opponent. Dragooning takes skill, Bunny Hopping takes n00bs ... or nubs ... either one really since neither have any real skills other than cheap shots and button mashing.
Another problem with MMOs are bots, third party programs making use of a character and basically leveling it while you're AFK. While they never ever pick up drops they're annoying because anything mobs near them are fair game and can lead to kill stealing which can be annoying when you're trying to get x amount of mobs and the bastard keeps mowing them down before you get to them.
Lastly you have the player killers and these guys are dicks. Granted if I felt like I could get away with offing whoever I might try it once or twice but it'd never be an everyday occurance for me. In a PVP server it's expected but when I goto PVE servers I expect to be able to level in peace and not have to worry about PKers 50 levels higher than me running by and one hitting me in the middle of my training area. Fuck off and goto the PVP servers you wankers and leave me alone. If you can' deal with the hardcore PVPers then go play another game or level up and get better gear.
It basically starts out as a normal game, sometimes you can take things seriously because heck, you've put a lot of work into getting at something and someone else takes that one item that you've spent several hours [or days] on trying to obtain. I can understand the anger and frustration that lies behind some fucktard bullshitting you like that and I'm happy to say that's a normal reaction. but it's the people that DO it that need a lesson as well as an ass whupping because they've just meandered along and basically come to terms with it being ok to jack whatever they can when it best suits their needs. I'd really like to meet some of these dickish 12 year olds and show them what I really think of them with the proper application of force up their arse with an industrial strength steel rod to ensure that they'd have a hard time sitting for long periods of time and go out and get some exercise.
The next portion of these fucktards are the people that alienate their friends due to the idea that because they don't play the same MMO you do that you're not worth the time to even talk to. While your former friends are now better off without you, you suddenly have only your online guild to turn to in times of need and you'd better pray some live nearby in the event your house burns down because otherwise you're fucked. You may wonder where all your other friends have gone in that kind of situation but you have only yourself to blame. I'll pick on the World of Warcraft idiots because most of the ones I know will surf the online forums when they can't play and yammer on and on about their epic level Death Knight while those of us that don't play it are doomed to listen to your incessent babbling and pray that the gods will save us by having a semi-truck burst through the wall like the Kool Aide man and smish you like the annoying twat you are. If we've expressed that we don't play then it's most likely a good probability that we don't want to hear it. Fuck your Death Knight.
Also amongst the WoWtwats and the moronic 12 year olds we have the glitchers. Many MMOs have glitches and many of them aren't addressed. I'll take the example from Exteel where if you have a sword and you've jumped you can attack and if an opponent is close enough you close in automatically. The Bunny Hopping talentless n00bs have confused the term Dragooning with this which is wrong. Dragooning is done with a lance and you boost into the air much higher than just jumping, dropping down on your opponent. Dragooning takes skill, Bunny Hopping takes n00bs ... or nubs ... either one really since neither have any real skills other than cheap shots and button mashing.
Another problem with MMOs are bots, third party programs making use of a character and basically leveling it while you're AFK. While they never ever pick up drops they're annoying because anything mobs near them are fair game and can lead to kill stealing which can be annoying when you're trying to get x amount of mobs and the bastard keeps mowing them down before you get to them.
Lastly you have the player killers and these guys are dicks. Granted if I felt like I could get away with offing whoever I might try it once or twice but it'd never be an everyday occurance for me. In a PVP server it's expected but when I goto PVE servers I expect to be able to level in peace and not have to worry about PKers 50 levels higher than me running by and one hitting me in the middle of my training area. Fuck off and goto the PVP servers you wankers and leave me alone. If you can' deal with the hardcore PVPers then go play another game or level up and get better gear.
Testing, Testing, 1...2...3...
Most just throwing this post up to test out embedding videos. That and the fact that I love Zero Punctuation and Unskippable and I wish more crossover events could be this fulfilling.
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