I don't think I like this new layout at all. It's far too dark and boring. There's no life to it and I think it brings down the mood of my blog which is depressing enough as is. I will likely find a new background in the coming days to something a bit brighter, a bit cheerier.
Let's talk about goals.
What are your goals for the next year?
It's not too early to start talking about what needs to be accomplished in 2011 is it? I fully understand that trying to frame achievement and goals in an arbitrary one year time frame isn't a perfect method of thinking. It's hard to avoid putting thing in terms of years because it is such a neat little organized unit. A lot can be done in a year. A lot can be undone in a year. As a whole it would be easier to remember than specific days or months. I had an alright 2009, I had a bad 2010, I had a good 2008. How will 2011 be summarized? That is to be seen.
Goals for 2011? Numerous.
Blog more, obviously.
Write more, obviously.
Trek up the Zambezi River and locate Dr. Livingstone, of course.
Reinvent time travel, naturally.
Travel to 1985 and watch Back to the Future in theaters.
Get a career, possibly in time travel.
And so on in this fashion. I mean it's a long time and you never know...
So what goals or plans do my reader(s?) have for 2011? I'm interested in what others hope to accomplish in this whimsical coming numbered time unit. Is anyone shooting for the moon? Is anyone trying to keep it on the level? Any plans to start from scratch, like me?
All I know for sure is that I'm going to go out of my way to try and make this year a damn sight better than 2010. That shouldn't be hard. I'm going to be getting a headstart on 2011 by greeting it in Sydney, Australia. What a way to get things going, eh?
See you in Sydney!
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Retro Game Reviews: Starflight
Welcome to the newest future-failed feature on YGGOY, Retro Game Wednesday. Every week I will be reviewing a video game from the past. I don't think this will interest everyone, but for me it's a chance to talk about old games. I love to talk about old games. I'll tell a bit about the game, my memories of the game, what it would've been rated when it came out, and my current rating.
You can ignore them if you don't like them. That's fine. I'll still post my (ir)regular posts too.
STARFLIGHT
Sega Genesis 1991
I first rented this game back in the early or mid 90s. At the time there were two systems competing for supremacy, the Genesis and Super Nintendo. There were other systems, the lesser background systems, but for me it was just the Gensis and the SNES. I personally owned a Genesis and my brother had a SNES. So I actually ended up spending a lot of my time playing the more obscure Sega titles. Fortunately there were enough unique games to keep me occupied for hours and hours on end. One such title that I happened upon was Starflight.
StarFlight is a game any fan of either Star Wars or Star Trek would dream of playing. It was a massively open world space simulator. It gives the command of a single ship tasked with figuring out a mystery that is threatening your homeworld of Arth. Hiring crew, buying ship upgrades and getting news and orders are all done from the home planet and then it basically opens up the universe and says "go play". Several other species populate the vast universe and will react differently to the player based on several factors. The game features hundreds of star systems to explore with every planet fully navigable. That's right, you can take your ship down to any planet and disembark your land rover to mine for resources or gather up local wildlife. The planets have different weather and temperature effects that force you to change your approach on each unique planet. It's amazing.
The combat is pretty basic, but surprisingly fun. Combat can basically be avoided against other local species through negotiation. When it does come to fisticuffs the battles are fought on a 2d field in which you fly around and shoot at each other. It's like Asteroids but you have a few different weapons. Not too advanced but it is fast paced and easy to get a handle on.
Starflight also has a basic economic model that allows you to mine for minerals on planets and sell them at bases. This allows you to purchase more fuel and upgrade your ship. It's a basic model but it does encourage exploration as you look for resource rich planets. When playing there are few greater feelings than finding a planet that has a huge resource haul.
I spent hours on this game way back in... well sometime in the 90s. This is one of maybe two or three Genesis cartridges that I actually own to this day. I was drawn in by the vastness of this game, an open world sandbox style game far before that become so popular. In certain ways Starflight was like Uncharted Waters in space which is probably part of the reason I loved this game. Hidden gems were left throughout the universe for the players to discover and trying to locate these were part of what kept me playing so long. There is the hidden Eden planet with huge resources, a planet suspiciously like our own 3rd rock, and various alien homeworlds. Something I personally liked to do was take the "planet bomb" black eggs and destroy an alien homeworld. I made some enemies for life on that one!
Rating - Then
Even though I spent a lot of time on this game I don't think I would have rated it particularly highly. I imagine I'd have been drawn by the lure of the more popular SNES games. Though I put a lot of time in on the Genesis, I wasn't exactly a standard bearer for Sega. I loved this game, but certain factors brought it down a bit. The sound was sparse and what was there was in that terrible Sega tone. The graphics were lacking and I remember not liking them. The gameplay and fun were Starflight's redemption for my younger self.
Score -7
Rating - Now
So it's been a while since the last time I played Starflight. I recognize now that this game was ahead of its time in some ways. I'm sure that console fans would've derided the lack of linearity at the time. I see that it was really a step towards the sandbox style of gaming that is so strong in modern Western gaming. The replay value of the game is something I appreciate. Few games at the time kept me playing like Starflight. I won't jump the score much, but I will admit it's better than I would have believed at the time.
Score - 7.5
So there is my inaugural Retro Game Reviews post. I didn't start it with a big name game or even one that many people knew. I'll hit the big classics at some point, sure. Covering the more unknown games I put a lot of time into is important for me though. So look forward to more of these at some point and I promise to post some more soon.
You can ignore them if you don't like them. That's fine. I'll still post my (ir)regular posts too.
STARFLIGHT
Sega Genesis 1991
I first rented this game back in the early or mid 90s. At the time there were two systems competing for supremacy, the Genesis and Super Nintendo. There were other systems, the lesser background systems, but for me it was just the Gensis and the SNES. I personally owned a Genesis and my brother had a SNES. So I actually ended up spending a lot of my time playing the more obscure Sega titles. Fortunately there were enough unique games to keep me occupied for hours and hours on end. One such title that I happened upon was Starflight.StarFlight is a game any fan of either Star Wars or Star Trek would dream of playing. It was a massively open world space simulator. It gives the command of a single ship tasked with figuring out a mystery that is threatening your homeworld of Arth. Hiring crew, buying ship upgrades and getting news and orders are all done from the home planet and then it basically opens up the universe and says "go play". Several other species populate the vast universe and will react differently to the player based on several factors. The game features hundreds of star systems to explore with every planet fully navigable. That's right, you can take your ship down to any planet and disembark your land rover to mine for resources or gather up local wildlife. The planets have different weather and temperature effects that force you to change your approach on each unique planet. It's amazing.
The combat is pretty basic, but surprisingly fun. Combat can basically be avoided against other local species through negotiation. When it does come to fisticuffs the battles are fought on a 2d field in which you fly around and shoot at each other. It's like Asteroids but you have a few different weapons. Not too advanced but it is fast paced and easy to get a handle on.
Starflight also has a basic economic model that allows you to mine for minerals on planets and sell them at bases. This allows you to purchase more fuel and upgrade your ship. It's a basic model but it does encourage exploration as you look for resource rich planets. When playing there are few greater feelings than finding a planet that has a huge resource haul.
I spent hours on this game way back in... well sometime in the 90s. This is one of maybe two or three Genesis cartridges that I actually own to this day. I was drawn in by the vastness of this game, an open world sandbox style game far before that become so popular. In certain ways Starflight was like Uncharted Waters in space which is probably part of the reason I loved this game. Hidden gems were left throughout the universe for the players to discover and trying to locate these were part of what kept me playing so long. There is the hidden Eden planet with huge resources, a planet suspiciously like our own 3rd rock, and various alien homeworlds. Something I personally liked to do was take the "planet bomb" black eggs and destroy an alien homeworld. I made some enemies for life on that one!
Rating - Then
Even though I spent a lot of time on this game I don't think I would have rated it particularly highly. I imagine I'd have been drawn by the lure of the more popular SNES games. Though I put a lot of time in on the Genesis, I wasn't exactly a standard bearer for Sega. I loved this game, but certain factors brought it down a bit. The sound was sparse and what was there was in that terrible Sega tone. The graphics were lacking and I remember not liking them. The gameplay and fun were Starflight's redemption for my younger self.
Score -7
Rating - Now
So it's been a while since the last time I played Starflight. I recognize now that this game was ahead of its time in some ways. I'm sure that console fans would've derided the lack of linearity at the time. I see that it was really a step towards the sandbox style of gaming that is so strong in modern Western gaming. The replay value of the game is something I appreciate. Few games at the time kept me playing like Starflight. I won't jump the score much, but I will admit it's better than I would have believed at the time.
Score - 7.5
So there is my inaugural Retro Game Reviews post. I didn't start it with a big name game or even one that many people knew. I'll hit the big classics at some point, sure. Covering the more unknown games I put a lot of time into is important for me though. So look forward to more of these at some point and I promise to post some more soon.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
The Ashes Goes Viral aka My Girlfriend the Aussie Hit!
The last couple of days have been absolutely insane, probably moreso for The Ashes than myself, after a small mixup on Twitter led to a degree of stardom for my girlfriend. It began as a bit of a misunderstanding and sort of blew up in a two day period. Allow me to summarize this story that has left me with my mouth agape and both of us in shock and giddiness.
As you may know from reading this blog I call my girlfriend Ashes or The Ashes. I started this at the beginning of our relationship nearly 4 years ago. She embraced this name and started using it as an online handle in various places, including her now defunct blog Just The Ashes. Most notably, however, she used it as her Twitter handle. Specifically she was TheAshes which meant that you could communicate with her by using @theashes. Any good member of the Commonwealth should now know why this could be an issue. Being Americans we of course were utterly clueless what she had done. So years passed on Twitter with her using that name until just last week.
This previous week was the first "test" of the 2010 Ashes cricket series, also known as The Ashes. Apparently this is a very, very big deal in England and Australia. These days Twitter has become very popular and rivals only Facebook in social media networking, and is more often used by professionals and celebrities. Livetweeting has also become a common part of any major event. Cricket fans would want to Tweet about this big event they love so much. Oh now this is where it gets very fun.
People started tweeting about the first test in Adelaide and while they should have been using #theashes to talk about the test many people used @theashes instead. On top of that there were plenty of folks thinking @theashes was the official account of The Ashes (cricket) this led to dozens to hundreds of people pestering my GF for the score. On top of that was Jonathon Agnew (famous?) incorrectly saying to tweet @theashes in order to talk about the game. And oh my god what a shitstorm started!
I don't even remember the alerts but I wouldn't because it wasn't my phone, but my GF was being woken up in the middle of the night to folks tweeting at her about The Ashes (cricket). She begged them to stop and eventually shouted at them "I am not a freaking cricket match!" which absolutely lit up Twitter users following The Ashes (cricket). People suddenly became very interested in The Ashes (person) and her ordeal in having to deal with hundreds of cricket fans. Within two hours of posting her quote from above she went absolutely viral, Australian and English fans eating the story up. Over night her followers jumped 3500, and over the next day she was up to 8600. At this point she's at 11000 and likely to go higher as the second test is about to start up.
When this first broke out she was getting mentions at over 100 every 20 minutes. Ashes, her aunt and I were sitting upstairs in the living room following this whole event in absolute hysterics. We couldn't believe how quickly her story was spreading over Twitter. Amazingly it started moving on from there thanks to word of mouth. She was a trending topic in Australia that night, both theashes and her quote. It didn't just stop at that as people started to contact her more and more. Offers for interviews with news stations, cricket shows and papers started pouring in! The first day after this all happened was so overwhelming we were mostly unable to do anything, but she kept tweeting and handled all this sudden attention like a pro. Her story started appearing all over the internet, from the NYT website to BBC to the India Times. It even featured in the news feed that comes with my browser.
She quickly embraced her new found fan and started playing along with the whole thing. She and I found a sudden and genuine interest in cricket. We both like learning and as complete neophytes at cricket we start at ground level. We have been studying our asses off trying to figure the game out. We had nothing to gauge this new info against and it was all so foreign! We'll have plenty of time to figure it out and a pretty damn good opportunity as we're actually getting flown out to The Ashes (cricket)! More on that in a bit.
So the second day she actually had some interviews scheduled. Channel Nine Australia sent a news crew out to our house! They set up a news studio in the living room and she did an interview for their Today Show. At the same time a local station from Boston showed up and did a story. She also managed a Skype interview with the BBC and a phone interview with CNN International. There were a few other radio shows that she did interviews for as well. It was all very, very overwhelming. Yet the people were drawn to her and her genuineness (duh, that's why I love her a-holes) and her good humor so she continues to be in the good graces of the fans following her story. She had more interviews the next day, with a camera crew from Springfield stopping by and a few more phone interviews. She has an interview scheduled with Jonathon Agnew (Aggers?) which is apparently a very big deal. As Americans we wouldn't know, but the Aussies and English seem to be going nuts over this and feel she is getting a huge opportunity.
It's all pretty amazing for one week, isn't it?
I've been staying in the background for most of this since it really isn't about me, but I've been helping her as much as I can. I'm trying to pick up cricket right alongside her. Plus when she flies over I get to go with her which is awesome. This is a once in a lifetime story and we are both just going along with it. She's so into this but realizes that it is a huge bit of fun with the opportunity to maybe do a bit of good too. She's really handling it like a champ and has got into the spirit of the whole thing. The Twitter users are mostly very nice and have really eaten up this story. We're both managing to get a lot of laughs.
Expect this story to take over my blog for a while as I keep updating what is happening and go into deeper details about other aspects. There is some stuff I can't talk about yet but let me just say the excitement is just starting for my Ashes, the viral cricket star.
As you may know from reading this blog I call my girlfriend Ashes or The Ashes. I started this at the beginning of our relationship nearly 4 years ago. She embraced this name and started using it as an online handle in various places, including her now defunct blog Just The Ashes. Most notably, however, she used it as her Twitter handle. Specifically she was TheAshes which meant that you could communicate with her by using @theashes. Any good member of the Commonwealth should now know why this could be an issue. Being Americans we of course were utterly clueless what she had done. So years passed on Twitter with her using that name until just last week.
This previous week was the first "test" of the 2010 Ashes cricket series, also known as The Ashes. Apparently this is a very, very big deal in England and Australia. These days Twitter has become very popular and rivals only Facebook in social media networking, and is more often used by professionals and celebrities. Livetweeting has also become a common part of any major event. Cricket fans would want to Tweet about this big event they love so much. Oh now this is where it gets very fun.
People started tweeting about the first test in Adelaide and while they should have been using #theashes to talk about the test many people used @theashes instead. On top of that there were plenty of folks thinking @theashes was the official account of The Ashes (cricket) this led to dozens to hundreds of people pestering my GF for the score. On top of that was Jonathon Agnew (famous?) incorrectly saying to tweet @theashes in order to talk about the game. And oh my god what a shitstorm started!
I don't even remember the alerts but I wouldn't because it wasn't my phone, but my GF was being woken up in the middle of the night to folks tweeting at her about The Ashes (cricket). She begged them to stop and eventually shouted at them "I am not a freaking cricket match!" which absolutely lit up Twitter users following The Ashes (cricket). People suddenly became very interested in The Ashes (person) and her ordeal in having to deal with hundreds of cricket fans. Within two hours of posting her quote from above she went absolutely viral, Australian and English fans eating the story up. Over night her followers jumped 3500, and over the next day she was up to 8600. At this point she's at 11000 and likely to go higher as the second test is about to start up.
When this first broke out she was getting mentions at over 100 every 20 minutes. Ashes, her aunt and I were sitting upstairs in the living room following this whole event in absolute hysterics. We couldn't believe how quickly her story was spreading over Twitter. Amazingly it started moving on from there thanks to word of mouth. She was a trending topic in Australia that night, both theashes and her quote. It didn't just stop at that as people started to contact her more and more. Offers for interviews with news stations, cricket shows and papers started pouring in! The first day after this all happened was so overwhelming we were mostly unable to do anything, but she kept tweeting and handled all this sudden attention like a pro. Her story started appearing all over the internet, from the NYT website to BBC to the India Times. It even featured in the news feed that comes with my browser.
She quickly embraced her new found fan and started playing along with the whole thing. She and I found a sudden and genuine interest in cricket. We both like learning and as complete neophytes at cricket we start at ground level. We have been studying our asses off trying to figure the game out. We had nothing to gauge this new info against and it was all so foreign! We'll have plenty of time to figure it out and a pretty damn good opportunity as we're actually getting flown out to The Ashes (cricket)! More on that in a bit.
So the second day she actually had some interviews scheduled. Channel Nine Australia sent a news crew out to our house! They set up a news studio in the living room and she did an interview for their Today Show. At the same time a local station from Boston showed up and did a story. She also managed a Skype interview with the BBC and a phone interview with CNN International. There were a few other radio shows that she did interviews for as well. It was all very, very overwhelming. Yet the people were drawn to her and her genuineness (duh, that's why I love her a-holes) and her good humor so she continues to be in the good graces of the fans following her story. She had more interviews the next day, with a camera crew from Springfield stopping by and a few more phone interviews. She has an interview scheduled with Jonathon Agnew (Aggers?) which is apparently a very big deal. As Americans we wouldn't know, but the Aussies and English seem to be going nuts over this and feel she is getting a huge opportunity.
It's all pretty amazing for one week, isn't it?
I've been staying in the background for most of this since it really isn't about me, but I've been helping her as much as I can. I'm trying to pick up cricket right alongside her. Plus when she flies over I get to go with her which is awesome. This is a once in a lifetime story and we are both just going along with it. She's so into this but realizes that it is a huge bit of fun with the opportunity to maybe do a bit of good too. She's really handling it like a champ and has got into the spirit of the whole thing. The Twitter users are mostly very nice and have really eaten up this story. We're both managing to get a lot of laughs.
Expect this story to take over my blog for a while as I keep updating what is happening and go into deeper details about other aspects. There is some stuff I can't talk about yet but let me just say the excitement is just starting for my Ashes, the viral cricket star.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
An Hour, a Day, a Week and Turkeys
I blink and two hours have passed.
I blink again and it's midnight.
I close my eyes for a second and when I open them it's tomorrow.
I just can't get time to slow down right now but who amongst us can?
A Bit of Bitching
I have every intention to be productive but get lost in my own mind and goings on. I keep an irregular schedule and allow myself endless distraction. I might have three days off at a stretch but it goes by so quick. In a three day stretch I have hundreds of ideas float in and out of my head. It's a bit crazy how little it takes to get inspired. It's also a bit crazy how easily I distract myself.
I am a consumer and not a producer. I consume everything. Information, culture, emotion, food... and allow all that to build up and rip apart my mind. When I feel most capable of producing something amazing I return to consumption mode. It's time to watch a new show or research some new whim or play some other game for "inspiration".
What is inspiration? Sudden creativity? A sustained flow of ideas? A lie?
Who knows.
I have an incredible headache at the moment that seems to be rendering me unable to get anything done. So instead of doing anything, as I intended to, I do this. I write a babbling blog. I figured if I can't do anything too intense I'll just blather on about nothing right here. I need to manage my time a lot better. A lot better.
Thanks to Turkeys Day
Thanksgiving is just a few days away. I'm looking forward to it this year since it'll be a change for the first time in forever. Usually I just stay at my parents house and eat their modest dinner and then sit around being lazy the rest of the day. This year I'm amongst Ashes' family and will participate in their gigantor feast, which happens to be taking place right in this house! There is a certain amount of pleasure knowing that I can gorge myself on what I've been told will be a massive amount and variety of food and then retreat to my room and nap it off.
The variety of food is what I'm looking forward to the most since my parents stick with the same stuff year after year. That's not a bad thing, necessarily, I'm just a person that is constantly looking for new experiences especially in food. So while I enjoyed Thanksgiving at my parents house it didn't get me as pumped up as I am this year. Ashes' family is pretty cool too so it'll be nice, mostly for her, to have everybody around.
Dark Days
After Thanksgiving we have Black Friday... which I am not even going to get into here. It's a day that has the masses scrambling for deals on outdated junk. Personally it's something I've never taken part in because a) I never had the money and b) I usually worked. This year I work later in the day so I can look for some deals I guess, but I'm not going to sit outside the doors like the sickening deal chasers.
The word stampede comes to mind. People in certain areas die in stampedes at religious gatherings, tragically. Here in America we die in stampedes at stores in an attempt to get something just a bit cheaper. Amazing eh? I'm sure the death toll is miniscule, probably less than one a year, but still...
Acceptance
I've come to the gradual understanding I'll never make it to Japan, Korea, China... Asia. That was never the course my life was going to take I guess. Living vicariously through the blogs of others is my way of visiting those lands that fascinate me so.
I blink again and it's midnight.
I close my eyes for a second and when I open them it's tomorrow.
I just can't get time to slow down right now but who amongst us can?
A Bit of Bitching
I have every intention to be productive but get lost in my own mind and goings on. I keep an irregular schedule and allow myself endless distraction. I might have three days off at a stretch but it goes by so quick. In a three day stretch I have hundreds of ideas float in and out of my head. It's a bit crazy how little it takes to get inspired. It's also a bit crazy how easily I distract myself.
I am a consumer and not a producer. I consume everything. Information, culture, emotion, food... and allow all that to build up and rip apart my mind. When I feel most capable of producing something amazing I return to consumption mode. It's time to watch a new show or research some new whim or play some other game for "inspiration".
What is inspiration? Sudden creativity? A sustained flow of ideas? A lie?
Who knows.
I have an incredible headache at the moment that seems to be rendering me unable to get anything done. So instead of doing anything, as I intended to, I do this. I write a babbling blog. I figured if I can't do anything too intense I'll just blather on about nothing right here. I need to manage my time a lot better. A lot better.
Thanks to Turkeys Day
Thanksgiving is just a few days away. I'm looking forward to it this year since it'll be a change for the first time in forever. Usually I just stay at my parents house and eat their modest dinner and then sit around being lazy the rest of the day. This year I'm amongst Ashes' family and will participate in their gigantor feast, which happens to be taking place right in this house! There is a certain amount of pleasure knowing that I can gorge myself on what I've been told will be a massive amount and variety of food and then retreat to my room and nap it off.
The variety of food is what I'm looking forward to the most since my parents stick with the same stuff year after year. That's not a bad thing, necessarily, I'm just a person that is constantly looking for new experiences especially in food. So while I enjoyed Thanksgiving at my parents house it didn't get me as pumped up as I am this year. Ashes' family is pretty cool too so it'll be nice, mostly for her, to have everybody around.
Dark Days
After Thanksgiving we have Black Friday... which I am not even going to get into here. It's a day that has the masses scrambling for deals on outdated junk. Personally it's something I've never taken part in because a) I never had the money and b) I usually worked. This year I work later in the day so I can look for some deals I guess, but I'm not going to sit outside the doors like the sickening deal chasers.
The word stampede comes to mind. People in certain areas die in stampedes at religious gatherings, tragically. Here in America we die in stampedes at stores in an attempt to get something just a bit cheaper. Amazing eh? I'm sure the death toll is miniscule, probably less than one a year, but still...
Acceptance
I've come to the gradual understanding I'll never make it to Japan, Korea, China... Asia. That was never the course my life was going to take I guess. Living vicariously through the blogs of others is my way of visiting those lands that fascinate me so.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
The Other East
I just can't make my fingers type tonight, I just can't do it. I'm suffering crippling writer's block even though I have a wealth of ideas to put into words... but I just can't get started. That's really the hardest part for me, when writer's block hits it overtakes and destroys everything! I can't defeat it and it's holding my life back!
What do I do?!?!
Write, I guess. The only way to solve it is to write.
So tonight aside from continuing to watch DuckTales episodes I've been doing some cursory research into Eastern history. And not just the stuff I usually look into and would consider my specialty, Japanese and Chinese history. No tonight I looked into the other East, namely Persia and Arabia. There's quite a lot of interesting history that goes largely ignored in a traditional education. These regions are an untapped resource and a great influence for an aspiring writer like myself. Their was a golden age of Arabian culture when it was the most advanced society in the world (arguably with China) which is a fact that few Westerners would ever admit. A few weeks ago I looked
There are several factors that make studying these regions difficult with names and language being some of the biggest barriers. If you are able to get past that, and I am, the ancient histories of these regions open their treasures up to study. I've done some quick looks at Arabia and Persia in the past but I want to really read in depth about the history of these two areas. It can never hurt to have such an influence in fantasy writing, y'know, and I think this area of the world has been largely ignored. From names to mythology to traditions the "other East" isn't well represented in fantasy. Mostly just retellings of 1001 Nights. Ancient Persia was so much more than just Greece's rival. There was a strong Zoroastrian nation there when there were no Christian nations.
That's what I'm doing now and I want to try and craft a world or region of my own based on what I'm discovering in Arabian and Persian history. Maybe. Or just increase my knowledge of the world by understanding better the history of a large area that has become very troubled in modern society. In fact I would say the modern cultures in these areas are very much the antithesis of their ancient counterparts and my studies might show me the path to this modern world. Where once there was an Islamic enlightenment there is fanaticism and ruin, and I want to know why!
It's all part of keeping my mind active and healthy. If you don't use it you lose it. I'm a student of the world and history and I intend to be for the rest of my life.
What do I do?!?!
Write, I guess. The only way to solve it is to write.
So tonight aside from continuing to watch DuckTales episodes I've been doing some cursory research into Eastern history. And not just the stuff I usually look into and would consider my specialty, Japanese and Chinese history. No tonight I looked into the other East, namely Persia and Arabia. There's quite a lot of interesting history that goes largely ignored in a traditional education. These regions are an untapped resource and a great influence for an aspiring writer like myself. Their was a golden age of Arabian culture when it was the most advanced society in the world (arguably with China) which is a fact that few Westerners would ever admit. A few weeks ago I looked
There are several factors that make studying these regions difficult with names and language being some of the biggest barriers. If you are able to get past that, and I am, the ancient histories of these regions open their treasures up to study. I've done some quick looks at Arabia and Persia in the past but I want to really read in depth about the history of these two areas. It can never hurt to have such an influence in fantasy writing, y'know, and I think this area of the world has been largely ignored. From names to mythology to traditions the "other East" isn't well represented in fantasy. Mostly just retellings of 1001 Nights. Ancient Persia was so much more than just Greece's rival. There was a strong Zoroastrian nation there when there were no Christian nations.
That's what I'm doing now and I want to try and craft a world or region of my own based on what I'm discovering in Arabian and Persian history. Maybe. Or just increase my knowledge of the world by understanding better the history of a large area that has become very troubled in modern society. In fact I would say the modern cultures in these areas are very much the antithesis of their ancient counterparts and my studies might show me the path to this modern world. Where once there was an Islamic enlightenment there is fanaticism and ruin, and I want to know why!
It's all part of keeping my mind active and healthy. If you don't use it you lose it. I'm a student of the world and history and I intend to be for the rest of my life.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Entering Winter '10
The leaves are finally falling from the trees and the barren winter landscape is presenting itself. With snow certainly right around the corner I've found myself looking to hibernation. Couple hibernation and my own personal bubble of relaxation.
It's not hard to find time to really enjoy downtime now that I'm working again. I forgot how much work, any work, took out of you. It's a great feeling to have your personal time after spending so long doing a monotonous job. Work is a draining experience, even if all you're doing is performing my simple duties. I wonder if it's different when you enjoy your job? I'll figure that out one day. For now though I'm finding myself coveting the down time between my working hours. I still have many, many free hours and days a week but somehow it's different than before.
Tonight, for example, I got into my fantastic grey robe and put on some DuckTales. This was absolutely divine. Simple, sure. Fulfilling, definitely. Throw some coffee into the mix, maybe some internet time and some quality time with Ashes and that's a day well wasted. Am I finding it harder to be productive? A little bit, but my mind is actually feeling a bit more focused. And relaxed. That's important to me at this point since I work much better when I'm relaxed and focused. After this holiday season is over I might be able to use that to get something done in terms of my life. For now I'm going to stick with coffee, the robe and some quality entertainment.
While unemployed it was nothing but "free" time. That was actually a very, very bad thing. My mind was all over the place while I was unemployed. I struggled to keep focused on any one thing and instead started taking on too many projects at once. This left most of them in bits and pieces, and none of them anywhere near completed. Ideas are fine but at some point they have to become material. I was also feeling lazy and lethargic as opposed to relaxed. That is the best I could hope for and was quite detrimental. I'm finding it much easier to focus on single tasks and start getting stuff done. Managing my own schedule with nothing else going on isn't my strong suit I guess.
Now that winter is around the corner our trips around the area are decreasing and Ashes and I are becoming more sedentary. We are entering, to steal a phrase from HIMYM, "couple hibernation". That would probably be more appropriate if we had any friends to hibernate from, but nonetheless we're sitting around enjoying our cave. Marathoning TV shows has become something of a habit around here these days. Now that the weathers colder we have to find our relaxation indoors. Winter is right around the corner and it's time to hunker down.
We've actually got a pretty sweet set up in our two basement rooms. It isn't the most glamorous place to live, and certainly I wish we lived some place better. At this point in my life I thought I'd be doing better. But we certainly are comfortable and that's what matters. It's time to hibernate and our basement cave isn't such a bad place to do it.
It's not hard to find time to really enjoy downtime now that I'm working again. I forgot how much work, any work, took out of you. It's a great feeling to have your personal time after spending so long doing a monotonous job. Work is a draining experience, even if all you're doing is performing my simple duties. I wonder if it's different when you enjoy your job? I'll figure that out one day. For now though I'm finding myself coveting the down time between my working hours. I still have many, many free hours and days a week but somehow it's different than before.
Tonight, for example, I got into my fantastic grey robe and put on some DuckTales. This was absolutely divine. Simple, sure. Fulfilling, definitely. Throw some coffee into the mix, maybe some internet time and some quality time with Ashes and that's a day well wasted. Am I finding it harder to be productive? A little bit, but my mind is actually feeling a bit more focused. And relaxed. That's important to me at this point since I work much better when I'm relaxed and focused. After this holiday season is over I might be able to use that to get something done in terms of my life. For now I'm going to stick with coffee, the robe and some quality entertainment.
While unemployed it was nothing but "free" time. That was actually a very, very bad thing. My mind was all over the place while I was unemployed. I struggled to keep focused on any one thing and instead started taking on too many projects at once. This left most of them in bits and pieces, and none of them anywhere near completed. Ideas are fine but at some point they have to become material. I was also feeling lazy and lethargic as opposed to relaxed. That is the best I could hope for and was quite detrimental. I'm finding it much easier to focus on single tasks and start getting stuff done. Managing my own schedule with nothing else going on isn't my strong suit I guess.
Now that winter is around the corner our trips around the area are decreasing and Ashes and I are becoming more sedentary. We are entering, to steal a phrase from HIMYM, "couple hibernation". That would probably be more appropriate if we had any friends to hibernate from, but nonetheless we're sitting around enjoying our cave. Marathoning TV shows has become something of a habit around here these days. Now that the weathers colder we have to find our relaxation indoors. Winter is right around the corner and it's time to hunker down.
We've actually got a pretty sweet set up in our two basement rooms. It isn't the most glamorous place to live, and certainly I wish we lived some place better. At this point in my life I thought I'd be doing better. But we certainly are comfortable and that's what matters. It's time to hibernate and our basement cave isn't such a bad place to do it.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
The Fable Continues
I've been absent from the blog for about a week now due to one word and one number, Fable 3. I bought the game after (or slightly before) getting my first paycheck at my new job. Always have to blow through the first one y'know. This game has taken up a great deal of my time as I tried to beat it as quickly as possible so that I could turnaround and sell it for maximum profit. Hey, I'm on a budget here.
Just because I'm rushing through the game doesn't mean I'm not thoroughly enjoying what it has to offer. It also helps that the Fable games aren't the deepest available and all of the features can be enjoyed in short order. This was by far the best game in the series but still fell short of being great. It's a good game, certainly, but it leaves a lot on the table and feels very rushed. Now that I've beaten the game I feel I can comment freely on everything in the game. Usually Peter Molyneux hypes his games to a degree that can never end in satisfaction, as I've covered elsewhere. This time he kept his mouth shut which worked in his favor since there weren't any major disappointments in Fable 3. Everything that was promised was delivered. Some of the features in the game, like the much talked about "kingship" phase, were lacking in depth but were still nice.
Fable 3 is a very simplified version of it's predecessor. It takes the main technical parts from Fable 2 and makes them foolproof. The combat, the leveling up orbs, and expressions have become almost automatic in their function. It helped streamline the gameplay but at the same time it took a bit of the actual "gaming" out of Fable. The combat retains the melee, ranged and magic focus and adds flourishes which are visually cool. The pause menu is probably the biggest improvement. Pressing start puts your character into a "sanctuary" that acts as homebase. It give you access to weapons, clothing, stats, multiplayer and the map. While Fable 2 had one of the worst menu systems I've ever encountered, Fable 3 has replaced it with something entirely unique and functional. It works with nearly no loading time either, so you press start in the middle of combat it'll drop you into the sanctuary in the flash of a second. This is Fable's strongest feature by far and it also includes your very own butler voiced by John Cleese. The butler is never annoying and often quite hilarious. This feature works so well that it boosts the overall experience by volumes.
As much as the new menu system does to improve the system there is a lot of ground to be made up on weaker aspects of this game. Interactions with townspeople feel as hollow as ever and since the option to choose your expressions is limited. You are presented with one option at a time which can lead to unintended interactions, though it boils down to nice, mean and silly. Boring more like. Marriage and family raising are still in the game and still have as little impact as ever. The dog sidekick makes a return, but it seems with his brain removed. In this adventure it's a brainless mutt that constantly barks only to get stuck instead of leading you to treasure. These little things really add up to take a toll on Fable 3.
Probably the biggest disappointment in this game is the pacing. In the beginning as you build up your army to try and overthrow the corrupt King Logan there is a great flow. A variety of missions see your main character collect allies from all over the kingdom. Playing the revolutionary sneaking around and cutting deals with all the people harmed by the king is fun and draws you into the game world. This all culminates in a fantastic showdown in the capital city that ends with you taking the crown. And that's when the game goes to shit. The much-hyped "kingship" mode follows your conquest and feels completely tacked on. In a series of days you make rulings on promises you've made while trying to maintain a treasury in preparation for an invasion. The story goes out the window and you are simply presented with "good" choices and "bad" choices with little black and white. You certainly have to internalize the story at this point as the game mechanics just become about budget balancing. In fact one of your worst enemies who attempted to kill you earlier in the game and was a key figure in the corrupt regime becomes a major advisor. There isn't even an option to turn him down! You choose the fate of the king, but not this sniveling industrialist! The game rushes you through this phase anyway and the endgame comes without much warning, without a "this shits about to happen" message. Nope, you go to bed after ruling on one of your promises and then it's "uhhh, they're invading right now!" Very rough stuff at the end of the game.
Despite the problems Fable 3 is a fun, easy game. It's not for everyone and it was certainly dumbed down to appeal to more of the casual crowd, but it is an enjoyable experience. I've beaten it once and I hope to get one more quick play in before I sell it. This was worth playing as I'm a sorta-fan of the series, or at least the ambitions of the series.
It's in the past though and I expect to have my time returned to me so you can expect more posts in the coming week. I intend to re-enter a productive state and try to get my life... y'know... on track.
Just because I'm rushing through the game doesn't mean I'm not thoroughly enjoying what it has to offer. It also helps that the Fable games aren't the deepest available and all of the features can be enjoyed in short order. This was by far the best game in the series but still fell short of being great. It's a good game, certainly, but it leaves a lot on the table and feels very rushed. Now that I've beaten the game I feel I can comment freely on everything in the game. Usually Peter Molyneux hypes his games to a degree that can never end in satisfaction, as I've covered elsewhere. This time he kept his mouth shut which worked in his favor since there weren't any major disappointments in Fable 3. Everything that was promised was delivered. Some of the features in the game, like the much talked about "kingship" phase, were lacking in depth but were still nice.Fable 3 is a very simplified version of it's predecessor. It takes the main technical parts from Fable 2 and makes them foolproof. The combat, the leveling up orbs, and expressions have become almost automatic in their function. It helped streamline the gameplay but at the same time it took a bit of the actual "gaming" out of Fable. The combat retains the melee, ranged and magic focus and adds flourishes which are visually cool. The pause menu is probably the biggest improvement. Pressing start puts your character into a "sanctuary" that acts as homebase. It give you access to weapons, clothing, stats, multiplayer and the map. While Fable 2 had one of the worst menu systems I've ever encountered, Fable 3 has replaced it with something entirely unique and functional. It works with nearly no loading time either, so you press start in the middle of combat it'll drop you into the sanctuary in the flash of a second. This is Fable's strongest feature by far and it also includes your very own butler voiced by John Cleese. The butler is never annoying and often quite hilarious. This feature works so well that it boosts the overall experience by volumes.
As much as the new menu system does to improve the system there is a lot of ground to be made up on weaker aspects of this game. Interactions with townspeople feel as hollow as ever and since the option to choose your expressions is limited. You are presented with one option at a time which can lead to unintended interactions, though it boils down to nice, mean and silly. Boring more like. Marriage and family raising are still in the game and still have as little impact as ever. The dog sidekick makes a return, but it seems with his brain removed. In this adventure it's a brainless mutt that constantly barks only to get stuck instead of leading you to treasure. These little things really add up to take a toll on Fable 3.
Probably the biggest disappointment in this game is the pacing. In the beginning as you build up your army to try and overthrow the corrupt King Logan there is a great flow. A variety of missions see your main character collect allies from all over the kingdom. Playing the revolutionary sneaking around and cutting deals with all the people harmed by the king is fun and draws you into the game world. This all culminates in a fantastic showdown in the capital city that ends with you taking the crown. And that's when the game goes to shit. The much-hyped "kingship" mode follows your conquest and feels completely tacked on. In a series of days you make rulings on promises you've made while trying to maintain a treasury in preparation for an invasion. The story goes out the window and you are simply presented with "good" choices and "bad" choices with little black and white. You certainly have to internalize the story at this point as the game mechanics just become about budget balancing. In fact one of your worst enemies who attempted to kill you earlier in the game and was a key figure in the corrupt regime becomes a major advisor. There isn't even an option to turn him down! You choose the fate of the king, but not this sniveling industrialist! The game rushes you through this phase anyway and the endgame comes without much warning, without a "this shits about to happen" message. Nope, you go to bed after ruling on one of your promises and then it's "uhhh, they're invading right now!" Very rough stuff at the end of the game.
Despite the problems Fable 3 is a fun, easy game. It's not for everyone and it was certainly dumbed down to appeal to more of the casual crowd, but it is an enjoyable experience. I've beaten it once and I hope to get one more quick play in before I sell it. This was worth playing as I'm a sorta-fan of the series, or at least the ambitions of the series.
It's in the past though and I expect to have my time returned to me so you can expect more posts in the coming week. I intend to re-enter a productive state and try to get my life... y'know... on track.
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