I just got back from Downtown Disney with my family. We visited their five-story arcade complex there, and played a variety of games, very few of which the average gamer would have in their home. One of these, and I forget the name, was the one where you're in a inflatable raft, and you're sent to a river in the distant past to go see dinosaurs just before the extinction-level event occurs.
There's no score to keep, but it actually is a video game and not just an "interactive experience", whatever that difference might actually be. There are meaningful in-game decisions to make: the path branches at several points, each with different dino-events occurring for you to gape at. There are obstacles, mostly the cliff-walls of the river, and there are consequences to your in-game actions - you can be "splashed" by actual jets of water, and the raft is constantly bucking from the action on-screen. There's even a goal, in that the faster you go through the river the more you get to see before time runs out (and from the map displayed at the game's end, it looks like there are a few large areas at the end that my family didn't get to in time); however, I don't think the goal is the point, given how low-key its existence is.
But what's most salient about this game/ride is the controller. Instead of buttons, D-pads, or analog sticks, you have an oar. It has skateboard wheels attached to the end of the blade, so that when you row, the wheels contact the airbag that supports the raft, and you get some resistance to your movement - the motion of the wheels is what the game registers, and it moves your raft down the river accordingly. Now, this is a control scheme that might be familiar to people who go canoeing, rafting, or are otherwise regularly on the water without engine or sail... But for the average person, gamer or no, it's completely new and different.
My father doesn't play video games, I've played them for years and years, and my siblings play less than I but more than my father. But they all enjoyed the experience immensely, at least in part because of the new controls, because it leveled the playing field and made the game an experience where my father wouldn't be frustrated at the technology and want to quit. In short, because we all sucked equally, it was more enjoyable for all of us.
(Now, to be fair, other things are at work here: the game has a very simple and understandable premise, with whatever limited gameplay mechanics it has hidden from player view completely, which aids the new controls in leveling the field from gamers to non-gamers, for one. For another, the physical feedback of the raft bucking and the oars getting resistance on the 'water' made it more intuitive. Thirdly, it was a completely co-operative game, which generally helps ease frustration. And so on.)
So, I would argue that the Wiimote does something similar for people who are new to gaming: because it was, at its release, so new and different from what the average gamer had years of experience with, we all sucked pretty much equally at it. Being at the same (low) skill level made co-operative and competitive play more fun for people new to the system, who would then go out and buy their own, to either get practice in or simply to share the newbie experience with others.
Obviously, not the main reason the Wii exploded into money, opening up a new segment of the gaming market. But I'd say it was at least a contributing factor.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Let's Play: For Professors
Note: Consider this a "first draft". There won't be many citations in this essay, at least not at the moment. But I'm hoping that eventually I could whip it into a more promising shape... Right now, though, this is just an idea I've had for a while that needed to get on paper.
Definition time. Do you know what a "Let's Play" is? It's someone sharing their experience of a video game, with their own commentary on top of it. They can include radical new takes on a game, information on content that was cut from the game, or just thoughts and observations (not always on the game in question). They can be either recorded video of gameplay with audio commentary, or screenshot reproductions of important moments with textual additions.
You can check them out here.
Definition time over. Thesis time now!
Now, the "Let's Play" format (hereafter, "LP", or "LPs" in the plural) is fun to read, but that's not why I'm writing this post. The point I'd like to make is that LPs represent a crucial step in the acceptance of video games as a critique-able, interpret-able art form. Rather than simply being a run-through of the game for experts, or a walkthrough for those stuck in playing a game, they offer a few things that have been available for more conveitonal art forms for years, but have been lacking from gaming: a way to experience the work in general without putting in inordinate amounts of time, a way to provide additional information about a work in context, and a format to provide and foster artistic interpretation of a work.
Consider a book, movie, or a piece of music. In all of these cases, it does not take someone a large amount of time to experience the work once; however, it will of course take many such experiences to truly digest the work and know it well enough to discuss it in a scholarly fashion. This is also true of video games. The difference, however, is that unlike the majority of books, movies, and pieces of music, they can require upwards of 80 hours for a single playthrough, a single experience. In addition, most games have multiple paths to take, all of which may be necessary to see the work from all angles and begin to know it well enough to discuss in a scholarly manner. This does not even include those games that have no well-defined (or, rather, have a user-defined) end-point, for which there can be no approximation of play-time beyond the statistical.
Now, a Let's Play does not substitute for experiencing a game first-hand. In either its video or text-and-image format, it cannot convey the feel of the actual gameplay, much as a video of a play does not convey the emotions of performing in the same play. What an LP can do, however, is greatly shorten the time it takes to experience a game the first time, from that typical of video games to that more typical of movies or books. When an LP covers the salient plot points, items of interest, and background information of a game (not to mention material that might not be included in the game itself, such as cut, exclusive, or paratextual content), it allows a scholar to experience a game for the first time. This, in turn, allows a scholar to more quickly dive into the game-as-text itself, now being at least familiar with its important parts, and not having sunk half of a month of work into simply reaching and defeating the final boss - and this allows a scholar more time to work on a scholarly view of the work, and lowers the bar for entry, allowing more scholars "in".
As has been stated, a Let's Play allows a scholar to see not only the text of the game itself, but also material that, while not part of the game proper, may provide further elucidation on a game's themes, or perhaps information as to the author's intentions. When an LP splices in cut content, they allow a scholar to see that cut content as it "could have been", in the context of the game as a whole. When they add official information that is not included in the game ROM, such as passages from instruction manuals and strategy guides, they not only can clear up things made unclear in bad translations or the LP writer's choice of path, but also provide a quick reference for further investigation; that is, more sources to investigate.
And when a Let's Play includes the LP writer's commentary, silly or scholarly, they perform the work that critiques of literature and textbooks on art have done for decades: interpretation of a work, which is itself a foundation on which one can build further critiques and investigations of a piece of art. While a typical LP covers the entire length of a game, from beginning to end, this means that, while comprehensive, they often leave plenty of room for further work: interpretations of individual scenes, game mechanics, and other portions of games as unconnected from the rest of the text. An LP writer often invites others in his or her community to contribute to the work, in the form of their own commentary, or interpretive artwork, or even competing LPs; in this way, each LP is itself a boiling stew of jumping-off points for further work. Finally, a good LP is always a fascinating read on its own merits, apart from the game it examines - and as a good read, it is itself a text that could prove worthy of interpretation and examination.
Since a Let's Play produces the foundation, support, and even the simple interest and time to invest in a scholarly work on a video game, it seems that they are, in fact, a critical step in the acceptance of video games as an art form, as they provide so much towards the experiencing and interpreting of games.
Definition time. Do you know what a "Let's Play" is? It's someone sharing their experience of a video game, with their own commentary on top of it. They can include radical new takes on a game, information on content that was cut from the game, or just thoughts and observations (not always on the game in question). They can be either recorded video of gameplay with audio commentary, or screenshot reproductions of important moments with textual additions.
You can check them out here.
Definition time over. Thesis time now!
Now, the "Let's Play" format (hereafter, "LP", or "LPs" in the plural) is fun to read, but that's not why I'm writing this post. The point I'd like to make is that LPs represent a crucial step in the acceptance of video games as a critique-able, interpret-able art form. Rather than simply being a run-through of the game for experts, or a walkthrough for those stuck in playing a game, they offer a few things that have been available for more conveitonal art forms for years, but have been lacking from gaming: a way to experience the work in general without putting in inordinate amounts of time, a way to provide additional information about a work in context, and a format to provide and foster artistic interpretation of a work.
Consider a book, movie, or a piece of music. In all of these cases, it does not take someone a large amount of time to experience the work once; however, it will of course take many such experiences to truly digest the work and know it well enough to discuss it in a scholarly fashion. This is also true of video games. The difference, however, is that unlike the majority of books, movies, and pieces of music, they can require upwards of 80 hours for a single playthrough, a single experience. In addition, most games have multiple paths to take, all of which may be necessary to see the work from all angles and begin to know it well enough to discuss in a scholarly manner. This does not even include those games that have no well-defined (or, rather, have a user-defined) end-point, for which there can be no approximation of play-time beyond the statistical.
Now, a Let's Play does not substitute for experiencing a game first-hand. In either its video or text-and-image format, it cannot convey the feel of the actual gameplay, much as a video of a play does not convey the emotions of performing in the same play. What an LP can do, however, is greatly shorten the time it takes to experience a game the first time, from that typical of video games to that more typical of movies or books. When an LP covers the salient plot points, items of interest, and background information of a game (not to mention material that might not be included in the game itself, such as cut, exclusive, or paratextual content), it allows a scholar to experience a game for the first time. This, in turn, allows a scholar to more quickly dive into the game-as-text itself, now being at least familiar with its important parts, and not having sunk half of a month of work into simply reaching and defeating the final boss - and this allows a scholar more time to work on a scholarly view of the work, and lowers the bar for entry, allowing more scholars "in".
As has been stated, a Let's Play allows a scholar to see not only the text of the game itself, but also material that, while not part of the game proper, may provide further elucidation on a game's themes, or perhaps information as to the author's intentions. When an LP splices in cut content, they allow a scholar to see that cut content as it "could have been", in the context of the game as a whole. When they add official information that is not included in the game ROM, such as passages from instruction manuals and strategy guides, they not only can clear up things made unclear in bad translations or the LP writer's choice of path, but also provide a quick reference for further investigation; that is, more sources to investigate.
And when a Let's Play includes the LP writer's commentary, silly or scholarly, they perform the work that critiques of literature and textbooks on art have done for decades: interpretation of a work, which is itself a foundation on which one can build further critiques and investigations of a piece of art. While a typical LP covers the entire length of a game, from beginning to end, this means that, while comprehensive, they often leave plenty of room for further work: interpretations of individual scenes, game mechanics, and other portions of games as unconnected from the rest of the text. An LP writer often invites others in his or her community to contribute to the work, in the form of their own commentary, or interpretive artwork, or even competing LPs; in this way, each LP is itself a boiling stew of jumping-off points for further work. Finally, a good LP is always a fascinating read on its own merits, apart from the game it examines - and as a good read, it is itself a text that could prove worthy of interpretation and examination.
Since a Let's Play produces the foundation, support, and even the simple interest and time to invest in a scholarly work on a video game, it seems that they are, in fact, a critical step in the acceptance of video games as an art form, as they provide so much towards the experiencing and interpreting of games.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Reading "Let's Play"
So I read a lot of Let's Plays ("LPs") - the screenshot type, of course; anything else would be "watching". I also read them aloud to my girlfriend, and she enjoys it. I try to do voices and such. She enjoys them enough to make sure her computer is recording every chapter, in fact.
So I was thinking, that might be a good way to keep in touch with her while I go to school in Florida. It wouldn't be a supreme amount of material... And if I decided to get creative, I could splice the screenshots into a video and send a whole presentation instead. But at the least, the audio files alone would work well in a "RiffTrax" sort of way; just read along with the original material while I read aloud.
Of course, I'd have to step up my readings a little - when I'm just doing it for my girlfriend, I don't worry about things like coughs, or mispronunciations, or anything like that.
But still, could be fun.
So I was thinking, that might be a good way to keep in touch with her while I go to school in Florida. It wouldn't be a supreme amount of material... And if I decided to get creative, I could splice the screenshots into a video and send a whole presentation instead. But at the least, the audio files alone would work well in a "RiffTrax" sort of way; just read along with the original material while I read aloud.
Of course, I'd have to step up my readings a little - when I'm just doing it for my girlfriend, I don't worry about things like coughs, or mispronunciations, or anything like that.
But still, could be fun.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Being Productive
It's been almost a year since I was productive at work, wherever that work was. Back when I worked at Netsmart, I didn't have too much to do from December on through March; at my current temporary job, I haven't had much to do for the past few weeks, since I started in September...
But today, at that temp job, we finally started the week-long project we had been hired to do. And we were pretty hard at work all day, for nine hours, no lunch.
And I liked it. I had forgotten how nice it was to be productive at work, it had been so long since such a thing had happened. I hope I can keep it up.
I also hope that I'll be similarly productive when I get back to school, but that's another matter...
But today, at that temp job, we finally started the week-long project we had been hired to do. And we were pretty hard at work all day, for nine hours, no lunch.
And I liked it. I had forgotten how nice it was to be productive at work, it had been so long since such a thing had happened. I hope I can keep it up.
I also hope that I'll be similarly productive when I get back to school, but that's another matter...
Monday, October 12, 2009
Anxiety; or, Dnd and My Little Brother
I played DnD 4 with my little brother, once, back in August. I gave him a Dragonborn Fighter (Lv. 3) to play, and ran him through a little town and some kobolds. He liked it, we both had fun, and he said he'd be willing to try it again.
So why am I so nervous about telling him I have another session planned out and ready to go?
A little background: My little brother is a big sports fan. Football, baseball, basketball, it's his thing. And that's fine; playing in organized sports has been good for him. But he also likes reading novels, and he's big on the Twilight series and Harry Potter right now. He also enjoys choose-your-own-adventure stuff. So it's not like I'm throwing DnD at him out of the blue.
I planned it out, made some unique monsters, and I think it'll be at least mildly entertaining. The big thing I'm "doing" in this session is introducing him to the fantasy flavor of DnD - the first session I did with him was in the 'real world', and this will start there, but move to an Eladrin town, etcetera etcetera. So there's that - I don't know how he'll respond to the fantasy setting. But if he accepts it, it would certainly make things much easier on me to make more sessions for him, simply because then I can use the whole flavor of the system and not just he mechanics.
I talked this over with my girlfriend, and she suggested that I'm afraid of rejection here. I don't want him to say "blah" to it. And as long as I'm worried about the fantasy, or about not having the 'right' materials to play, as long as I'm anxious enough to not ask him... well, he won't have the chance to say "no".
So I'm going to gather up my courage, and ask him sometime tonight if he wants to play. Tonight, tomorrow, whenever, just try to set a time and go at it with him. That's my plan.
I'll report back with results when there are some.
EDIT: Of course he says "sure". So hopefully tomorrow, we'll play.
So why am I so nervous about telling him I have another session planned out and ready to go?
A little background: My little brother is a big sports fan. Football, baseball, basketball, it's his thing. And that's fine; playing in organized sports has been good for him. But he also likes reading novels, and he's big on the Twilight series and Harry Potter right now. He also enjoys choose-your-own-adventure stuff. So it's not like I'm throwing DnD at him out of the blue.
I planned it out, made some unique monsters, and I think it'll be at least mildly entertaining. The big thing I'm "doing" in this session is introducing him to the fantasy flavor of DnD - the first session I did with him was in the 'real world', and this will start there, but move to an Eladrin town, etcetera etcetera. So there's that - I don't know how he'll respond to the fantasy setting. But if he accepts it, it would certainly make things much easier on me to make more sessions for him, simply because then I can use the whole flavor of the system and not just he mechanics.
I talked this over with my girlfriend, and she suggested that I'm afraid of rejection here. I don't want him to say "blah" to it. And as long as I'm worried about the fantasy, or about not having the 'right' materials to play, as long as I'm anxious enough to not ask him... well, he won't have the chance to say "no".
So I'm going to gather up my courage, and ask him sometime tonight if he wants to play. Tonight, tomorrow, whenever, just try to set a time and go at it with him. That's my plan.
I'll report back with results when there are some.
EDIT: Of course he says "sure". So hopefully tomorrow, we'll play.
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Questions from Full Sail
Recently, I've been getting in gear to go to Full Sail, a school in Florida that focuses on new media - television, radio, movies, and video games. I'm aiming to get a Master's in Video Game Design. As part of the application process, I had to answer a few questions, chosen from a set of 10, about my relationship with video games in general, and certain aspects of them in particular - guilds, or mods, or LANs, to name a few.
Below are my responses, c/p'd from the text file I sent to Full Sail yesterday. I think they say a lot about me, and it's the kind of soul-sharing I need to do more of, so... enjoy.
---
3. What computer game genres do you prefer to play?
RPGs, platformers, action/adventure, the occasional puzzle game. All of these games share a commonality of exploration - while all games have secrets and oddities in their worlds, these genres are, in my opinion, the most likely to offer up a game world that would make me want to *not* accomplish anything relative to the plot or even to the improvement of my character, and instead simply go for an idle stroll, taking in the aesthetic of the world, and personally discovering the world's hidden treasures.
6. What electives did you take during your undergraduate degree program?
I didn't have much time for elective courses, as I had an absolutely full course load for all four years of my undergraduate degree. However, there was one non-required course that's stuck with me: the Digital Storytelling class I was able to take, an experimental one-time-only class for both Computer Science and Business majors. It concentrated on how digital media, the ease of creating new work within those media, and the even greater ease of piracy, was shaping how stories were told and profited from.
It was not the first time I worked on CS-related material with non-CS students (in fact, my school had many classes designed for such collaborations, centering around modeling and hard sciences), but it was absolutely the best. The group discussions were insightful, our projects were all interesting, and all of the required reading has stayed on my bookshelf to this day. Bar none, it was my favorite class, because it allowed me to step outside of the requirements of Computer Science, and let me study something I was truly interested in and could contribute to.
---
I'll answer questions 4, 8, and 10 in one long answer, because, for me, they all tie together.
Back in 2002, I found an online community that was working to create a pen-and-paper RPG based on the entire Final Fantasy video game series, the "FFRPG". I lurked for a while, joined their forums. Around 2006, I became an official developer for the project. Although it was mostly finished, it still required a lot of proofreading, and a system for non-combat magic, both of which I contributed heavily to. I worked heavily on the Chocobo Racing rules, greatly expanding them and adding more depth to what was, originally, a not-entirely-finished system built to emulate the famous minigame of Final Fantasy VII. I also helped with a lot of little things, like terminology and flavor text, and participated in the original play-test campaign in 2003 or so. The official release of the completely unofficial FFRPG was in 2008.
Through all that experience, I gained a deep understanding of the Final Fantasy series, the differences and shared themes between each game in the series. I also gained a deep understanding of game balance, playability, and the need for a game system to allow players to try off-the-wall solutions without being artificially restricted.
During my time so far with the FFRPG, I ran and played in a number of campaigns - a series of gaming sessions tied together in an overarching plot, like an episodic television series or, yes, a video game. I started a play-by-e-mail game in 2003, and it lasted for four years before coming to a conclusion. I also played in a few games run over IRC, though the majority died out within a few sessions. Perhaps the biggest and most social game ran in the system (or that I have ever been in period) is the 'guild game', a style I helped to create.
This 'guild game' is not completely dissimilar to the guilds of MMORPGs, but it is subtly different: A large group of people (in this case, usually ~50) come together to socialize, roleplay, and have fun in the game together. The main difference is that the GMs on the other side are making the world, monsters, NPCs, quests and other bits as the game progresses, as well as solving problems and handling bad players. Instead of the guild forming within the world, as in an MMO, the world forms around the guild's need for adventure, storytelling, and other forms of fun.
The first real guild game in the FFRPG community was one of the first campaigns I played in, the Playtest Campaign in 2003, though it quickly died off. In 2005 I revived the idea in the community, and created another campaign, "Adventurer's Guild"; this one lasted slightly longer, and had fewer problems, but was still done in by a number of factors (see below). The community liked the idea, though, and ran with it; several other guild games came and went over the years. However, each guild game had problems similar to the last: GM negligence, player in-fighting, scheduling conflicts, waning interest.
Some of those problems, especially in Adventurer's Guild, were my fault. As the creator and first GM of the game, the other GMs and players expected me to keep everyone in order, to keep people's morale up, to keep the game moving and fun. Due to my own reluctance to take the reins, and the few harsh rules I did implement, the game died quickly once the initial sheen wore off. While later guild-style games learned from my mistakes, none of them could overcome them fully; at least, I thought so.
Finally, in 2009, the developers of the FFRPG, myself included, having officially finished the game itself, created a guild game to 'show off' the final result. This game, "Triumph of the Returners", has so far had more players, more interest, more co-operation and more overall fun than any guild game in the community to-date. We've learned lessons from the mistakes I made in Adventurer's Guild, and those that others made in later guild games. As of my writing this, we're still running it, and people are still having fun with it.
My own ability to help run Triumph of the Returners has been greatly improved by taking to heart the mistakes I made in running (or, rather, not running) Adventurer's Guild. I've learned to listen to the people around me, both fellow leaders and followers alike, and to neither blindly follow their advice nor to completely shun it out of hand. I've learned to keep people's interest in the project, and to not let a lack of time or preparation spoil people's fun - mostly, by reserving the time to make the preparation necessary. Finally, and most importantly, I've begun to learn how to not fear being in charge. The responsibility for others' entertainment is not a weight, but a challenge: "Can you top yourself, and their expectations?" I can; I have; I will again.
Below are my responses, c/p'd from the text file I sent to Full Sail yesterday. I think they say a lot about me, and it's the kind of soul-sharing I need to do more of, so... enjoy.
---
3. What computer game genres do you prefer to play?
RPGs, platformers, action/adventure, the occasional puzzle game. All of these games share a commonality of exploration - while all games have secrets and oddities in their worlds, these genres are, in my opinion, the most likely to offer up a game world that would make me want to *not* accomplish anything relative to the plot or even to the improvement of my character, and instead simply go for an idle stroll, taking in the aesthetic of the world, and personally discovering the world's hidden treasures.
6. What electives did you take during your undergraduate degree program?
I didn't have much time for elective courses, as I had an absolutely full course load for all four years of my undergraduate degree. However, there was one non-required course that's stuck with me: the Digital Storytelling class I was able to take, an experimental one-time-only class for both Computer Science and Business majors. It concentrated on how digital media, the ease of creating new work within those media, and the even greater ease of piracy, was shaping how stories were told and profited from.
It was not the first time I worked on CS-related material with non-CS students (in fact, my school had many classes designed for such collaborations, centering around modeling and hard sciences), but it was absolutely the best. The group discussions were insightful, our projects were all interesting, and all of the required reading has stayed on my bookshelf to this day. Bar none, it was my favorite class, because it allowed me to step outside of the requirements of Computer Science, and let me study something I was truly interested in and could contribute to.
---
I'll answer questions 4, 8, and 10 in one long answer, because, for me, they all tie together.
Back in 2002, I found an online community that was working to create a pen-and-paper RPG based on the entire Final Fantasy video game series, the "FFRPG". I lurked for a while, joined their forums. Around 2006, I became an official developer for the project. Although it was mostly finished, it still required a lot of proofreading, and a system for non-combat magic, both of which I contributed heavily to. I worked heavily on the Chocobo Racing rules, greatly expanding them and adding more depth to what was, originally, a not-entirely-finished system built to emulate the famous minigame of Final Fantasy VII. I also helped with a lot of little things, like terminology and flavor text, and participated in the original play-test campaign in 2003 or so. The official release of the completely unofficial FFRPG was in 2008.
Through all that experience, I gained a deep understanding of the Final Fantasy series, the differences and shared themes between each game in the series. I also gained a deep understanding of game balance, playability, and the need for a game system to allow players to try off-the-wall solutions without being artificially restricted.
During my time so far with the FFRPG, I ran and played in a number of campaigns - a series of gaming sessions tied together in an overarching plot, like an episodic television series or, yes, a video game. I started a play-by-e-mail game in 2003, and it lasted for four years before coming to a conclusion. I also played in a few games run over IRC, though the majority died out within a few sessions. Perhaps the biggest and most social game ran in the system (or that I have ever been in period) is the 'guild game', a style I helped to create.
This 'guild game' is not completely dissimilar to the guilds of MMORPGs, but it is subtly different: A large group of people (in this case, usually ~50) come together to socialize, roleplay, and have fun in the game together. The main difference is that the GMs on the other side are making the world, monsters, NPCs, quests and other bits as the game progresses, as well as solving problems and handling bad players. Instead of the guild forming within the world, as in an MMO, the world forms around the guild's need for adventure, storytelling, and other forms of fun.
The first real guild game in the FFRPG community was one of the first campaigns I played in, the Playtest Campaign in 2003, though it quickly died off. In 2005 I revived the idea in the community, and created another campaign, "Adventurer's Guild"; this one lasted slightly longer, and had fewer problems, but was still done in by a number of factors (see below). The community liked the idea, though, and ran with it; several other guild games came and went over the years. However, each guild game had problems similar to the last: GM negligence, player in-fighting, scheduling conflicts, waning interest.
Some of those problems, especially in Adventurer's Guild, were my fault. As the creator and first GM of the game, the other GMs and players expected me to keep everyone in order, to keep people's morale up, to keep the game moving and fun. Due to my own reluctance to take the reins, and the few harsh rules I did implement, the game died quickly once the initial sheen wore off. While later guild-style games learned from my mistakes, none of them could overcome them fully; at least, I thought so.
Finally, in 2009, the developers of the FFRPG, myself included, having officially finished the game itself, created a guild game to 'show off' the final result. This game, "Triumph of the Returners", has so far had more players, more interest, more co-operation and more overall fun than any guild game in the community to-date. We've learned lessons from the mistakes I made in Adventurer's Guild, and those that others made in later guild games. As of my writing this, we're still running it, and people are still having fun with it.
My own ability to help run Triumph of the Returners has been greatly improved by taking to heart the mistakes I made in running (or, rather, not running) Adventurer's Guild. I've learned to listen to the people around me, both fellow leaders and followers alike, and to neither blindly follow their advice nor to completely shun it out of hand. I've learned to keep people's interest in the project, and to not let a lack of time or preparation spoil people's fun - mostly, by reserving the time to make the preparation necessary. Finally, and most importantly, I've begun to learn how to not fear being in charge. The responsibility for others' entertainment is not a weight, but a challenge: "Can you top yourself, and their expectations?" I can; I have; I will again.
Friday, July 31, 2009
A Year and a Half
...Since I last posted.
Last time I posted, I was one semester away from graduating college. Now, I did that a year ago. Old hat. Didn't attend the ceremony, and got only one piece of paper for my two majors (which were, as far as the school was concerned, completely separate things up to that point).
Last I posted, I had recently put down a few ideas for RPG campaigns, and the like. Since then, I've run one of those ideas - the "no humans" FFRPG idea, in Aetas Procella - and that campaign feels likely to either die or resurge. I need to get inspired for it to continue.
Since then, I've gotten into some other things. I've been programming a lot more, on my own and with my girlfriend's help, and I've learned way more from that than (I feel like) I did in school. I've also gotten into the 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons, specifically because it's not nearly so crazy and confusing as the 3rd (or 3.5th) edition was. I play with a bunch of my old High School friends now, every Sunday-night-ish.
What else... Speaking of my girlfriend, she's still the same gal I was with as of last post. We've been together for, what, three and a half years now? Wow.
And the big news: I'm going to grad school, this november. Full Sail, for a master's in Video Game Design. It's only a year-long program, but it's supposed to be intense. It's also the best step I can take towards "what I want to be when I grow up". (Yeah, stil - after 15 years of wanting to make video games, I'm about to be academically certified to do so.)
Lesse, what else...
Oh, I had a job in that missing year-point-five. Worked at a place that does databases for hospitals and doctors. It would have been an okay gig, except they didn't have any work for me to do. So I got laid off about six months in. But I saved oodles of cash, and that's all I needed from them. (I also learned that there is only so much internet a guy can surf in an 8-hour workday and not go crazy. Pretty sure I read the entirety of TVTropes.)
I picked up guitar, and my GF started learning the mandolin. I can't play much but I know a few chords and the melodies to a few songs (Kids on the City Corner, Chocobo Theme). I just tuned my guitar yesterday after about a month of neglect, and it sounds so much better.
Got a PSP, many many new games, and not enough time (!) to play them in. I still want to go through my whole collection, sometime, and finish every single game. I do have a Backloggery now, though, so I can say that I have at least 183 games, of which 66 (or 36.5%) are unfinished. When I look at it that way, it doesn't seem like such a huge project... But not every single one of those games is good. Many, but not all...
Oh, and my family has two new dogs since I last posted. Jack Russel Terrier and a fluffy little white mop. Both purebred, and the little fluffy white one isn't yet pottytrained (and that's after six months of trying very hard). Lovable dogs, both, but I miss the days when the house didn't smell like urine.
So that's a quick overview. Maybe I'll post again? I won't make any promises.
Last time I posted, I was one semester away from graduating college. Now, I did that a year ago. Old hat. Didn't attend the ceremony, and got only one piece of paper for my two majors (which were, as far as the school was concerned, completely separate things up to that point).
Last I posted, I had recently put down a few ideas for RPG campaigns, and the like. Since then, I've run one of those ideas - the "no humans" FFRPG idea, in Aetas Procella - and that campaign feels likely to either die or resurge. I need to get inspired for it to continue.
Since then, I've gotten into some other things. I've been programming a lot more, on my own and with my girlfriend's help, and I've learned way more from that than (I feel like) I did in school. I've also gotten into the 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons, specifically because it's not nearly so crazy and confusing as the 3rd (or 3.5th) edition was. I play with a bunch of my old High School friends now, every Sunday-night-ish.
What else... Speaking of my girlfriend, she's still the same gal I was with as of last post. We've been together for, what, three and a half years now? Wow.
And the big news: I'm going to grad school, this november. Full Sail, for a master's in Video Game Design. It's only a year-long program, but it's supposed to be intense. It's also the best step I can take towards "what I want to be when I grow up". (Yeah, stil - after 15 years of wanting to make video games, I'm about to be academically certified to do so.)
Lesse, what else...
Oh, I had a job in that missing year-point-five. Worked at a place that does databases for hospitals and doctors. It would have been an okay gig, except they didn't have any work for me to do. So I got laid off about six months in. But I saved oodles of cash, and that's all I needed from them. (I also learned that there is only so much internet a guy can surf in an 8-hour workday and not go crazy. Pretty sure I read the entirety of TVTropes.)
I picked up guitar, and my GF started learning the mandolin. I can't play much but I know a few chords and the melodies to a few songs (Kids on the City Corner, Chocobo Theme). I just tuned my guitar yesterday after about a month of neglect, and it sounds so much better.
Got a PSP, many many new games, and not enough time (!) to play them in. I still want to go through my whole collection, sometime, and finish every single game. I do have a Backloggery now, though, so I can say that I have at least 183 games, of which 66 (or 36.5%) are unfinished. When I look at it that way, it doesn't seem like such a huge project... But not every single one of those games is good. Many, but not all...
Oh, and my family has two new dogs since I last posted. Jack Russel Terrier and a fluffy little white mop. Both purebred, and the little fluffy white one isn't yet pottytrained (and that's after six months of trying very hard). Lovable dogs, both, but I miss the days when the house didn't smell like urine.
So that's a quick overview. Maybe I'll post again? I won't make any promises.
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