#oneaday, Day 83: Crafting War

The reason why World of Warcraft is still fun eludes me. According to the game, my “main” character (i.e. my highest level one) has been playing for something like 18 days. That’s 18 days total time logged in, not I started playing 18 days ago. 18 days… that’s… (counts) 432 hours, or over four runs through Persona 4. And yet somehow, despite the clunky animation that all MMOs are cursed with, its inconsistent attempts at storytelling and its overwhelming focus on killing things repeatedly… it’s still fun.

There are many things which could cause this. Perhaps it’s the fact that you’re constantly being rewarded. Recent non-MMO multiplayer titles like Modern Warfare 2 have cottoned on to this, rewarding players with points, perks and unlockable things just for playing the game normally, not necessarily being the best at it. WoW is the same. Do quests, get experience. Kill monsters, get experience. Whatever you do, you’re achieving something that will better your character and make your experience more fun. And since Blizzard added an extremely robust Achievements system with the Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack, there’s always plenty of things to do, even if you don’t fancy level-grinding. Perhaps you could go back and solo some dungeons that used to give you trouble. Perhaps you could work on your crafting skills. Perhaps you could take part in one of the entertaining seasonal events, ending up with some sort of kooky reward. Perhaps you could delve into the infinite world of Add-Ons and customise WoW’s interface to make it into the game you want it to be. (For my part, I’ve completely rejigged the interface and use an excellent system called Soundtrack which allows you to assign custom music to zones, monsters, special events and battles).

Or perhaps you could spend your time interacting with other players. That is one of the key things about a multiplayer game, after all.

I play on a roleplaying server – Darkmoon Faire, if anyone’s interested – and this means several things to me. Firstly, it means that there are people out there who sometimes like to forgo the levelling experience for the sake of some in-character conversation. Anyone who has played a tabletop roleplaying game will know that some of the best moments come from the inter-party banter and improvised storylines. RP in WoW is no exception and while, yes, you do get a few teenage lesbian Night Elves around the place sometimes, and yes, you do get some people who don’t know when to stop with the melodrama sometimes, for the most part RP on Darkmoon Faire is mature and entertaining.

The other thing about an RP server in my experience, though, is that those same people who like to RP tend to be the nicer, more articulate people that there are. People who write in full sentences, know how to use capital letters and punctuation. People who don’t abbreviate everything just for the sake of it. And, hey, people who are polite.

I know a big part of my WoW experience is the people I get the chance to talk to while I’m playing. And while most of them are streets ahead of me in levels, experience, time played and skills, meaning that I rarely get the chance to actually play alongside them, the fact that I can chat to them on the channel they’ve set up, or turn up to the regular improvisatory RP sessions that are held in newbie-friendly areas makes the whole experience more worthwhile socially.

But still a massive waste of time. 🙂

#oneaday, Day 82: The Pile of Shame

Hello everyone! Late again. I’m just going to stop writing that at the start of my posts, as it appears that 2am is prime blogging time in my stupid world. Oh well. I could have worse vices at 2am. Or indeed at any time.

Few fun things to report. Well, one really, and one I can’t talk about yet until I know a bit more. First up, I’m going to be writing for an upcoming retro-gaming site called B4HD, which specialises in games from the pre-HD era. (B4 HD. Geddit?) It was brought to my attention by the lovely and talented Jennifer Allen, who is also partaking in this One A Day nonsense (one of the few people who are still left) and also happens to be the deputy editor of the site. So thanks, Jen, for pointing it out. It’s right up my alley. Now I just need to write something ready for its launch.

I also have several potential freelancing irons in the fire, so we’ll have to wait and see if those come to anything. I’m being more proactive about it now, though, and badgering people I haven’t heard from for a while. It’s not really in my nature to act like that, but I’m learning. Assertiveness and all that. Plus journalism can be pretty cut-throat, so I better toughen up, right?

For the remainder of this post, I think I may just be lazy and list my current Pile of Shame – in this case, games I haven’t finished – since it was Jen’s post I linked to that inspired this one. So here goes. Starred games indicate games that I have at least started and played a reasonably significant amount of in the past. Non-starred ones have either not been played at all or very little. Some of these I will probably never get around to ever. But they’re still there, mocking me.

PS1

Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy VI

PS2

Final Fantasy XII*

ICO

Metal Gear Solid 3

Resident Evil 4

killer7

Persona 3 FES*

Odin Sphere

Project Zero/Fatal Frame*

Psi-Ops

Shadow of the Colossus*

GameCube

Resident Evil Zero*
Resident Evil Remake

Xbox 360/XBLA

Borderlands*
Numerous titles in the Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection (particularly the Phantasy Star series, Story of Thor, Shining Force II and Shining in the Darkness)
Alien Hominid*
Braid*
Castle Crashers*
Forza 3*
Lode Runner*
Perfect Dark*
Puzzle Quest*
Shadow Complex*
Splosion Man*

PS3/PSN

Matt Hazard: Blood, Bath and Beyond
Final Fantasy XIII*
Disgaea 3
Shatter’s last two Trophies
Uncharted 2 multiplayer
Building a level in LittleBigPlanet

PC – god-damn Steam sale in early January saw to this one.

King’s Bounty
King’s Bounty: Armored Princess
Mount & Blade
Uplink*
Jade Empire
KOTOR as Dark Side
Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark
Neverwinter Nights 2
Baldur’s Gate 2*
Baldur’s Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal
Icewind Dale
Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter
Morrowind* (played EXTENSIVELY, never got anywhere NEAR finishing)
Homeworld 2
Dungeon Siege 2
The entire Myst series
Gabriel Knight 3*
The Police Quest series
King’s Quest IV
The Witcher*
Freelancer*
Startopia*
Ghost Master
Martian Memorandum/Mean Streets
Realms of Arkania
Relams of Arkania 2
No-One Lives Forever 2
Unreal Tournament 3

Yeah, that’s right. Kicking it old-school with some of those PC games. It’s actually quite fortunate I have little-to-no money coming in right now as I clearly have a backlog to last me until the end of time. Couple that with the fact that I’m in a World of Warcraft phase right now (halfway to level 75 with my best character now) and there’s clearly plenty to be getting on with. So a big middle finger to all the triple-A games that have come out since Assassin’s Creed 2.

Of course, when Blur and Split/Second come out soon, this will all go to pot. Still, never mind.

#oneaday, Day 81: The Unspoken and NSFW Language of Gentlemen

[Warning: This post involves crudely-drawn pictures of dicks and the discussion thereof, and is thereby probably unsafe for work.]

There are two unspoken understandings between men. One of them is this:

[EDIT: Dear Channel 4. I’m trying to promote your material. Why not let me embed a video of one of the funniest scenes to ever be shown on television? Grrruuuuu.]

And the other, less safe for work one, is this:

I have no idea what it is with guys and dick drawing. But there’s something universally understood by it. Perhaps this sketch wasn’t far from the truth:

…though to be perfectly honest, I don’t remember that lesson myself. Maybe it gets erased from your mind, like Men in Black.

I do remember, though, sitting next to a kid named Daniel in my first year at secondary school. It was a Humanities lesson and for some inexplicable reason we took it on ourselves to draw at least one cock on every single page of a textbook called “Discovering the Past”. And we succeeded without being spotted. It was a triumphant moment for the pair of us, and one we never quite managed to recapture the magic of. The book just lent itself to obscene drawings. On one page, there was some sort of flask which Daniel thought was ideally suited for a bell-end to poke out of the end of. And for some inexplicable reason, he added a speech bubble reading “I SCREAM! I SCREAM!”

That image has stuck with me for many a year. I’m not quite sure what I should make of that. And you’re probably not quite sure, either. I apologise.

Still, the fact is that doodling cocks on pieces of scrap paper is something that remains appealing to a large proportion of the male population. There are those who do it and admit to it, and there are those who do it and don’t admit to it. If you speak to a man and he denies ever having drawn a crude todger on a bit of loose paper, he’s probably lying. I personally consider it a sign of close friendship when you’re able to not only hurl light-hearted obscenities at each other verbally, but visually too. Of course, there’s absolutely no question of any real tallywhackers being whipped out – that would be, as the kids say, “a bit gay”. But if you’re with male friends, at a loose end – particularly when you’ve been drinking – and there’s some loose paper around, just see what happens. I have numerous photographs of whiteboards we had in our house that will attest to this. No, I won’t burn your eyes with those right now.

I should probably be faintly ashamed of my sex’s predilection towards drawing its own genitalia. Knobs aren’t, after all, the most photogenic things that there are. But in some ways, it’s nice to recapture that inner child with a childish doodle of a dong.

I hereby apologise for the crudeness of the above post. But I have been drinking. And I needed something to write about. And since our drunken game of Munchkin tonight involved just as much drawing of obscenities on pieces of paper as it did actually playing the game, this seemed as good as anything.

Good night to you. *tips hat*

#oneaday, Day 80: Lift! And down. And lift! And down.

I started “playing” EA Sports Active again the other day, having got out of shape during my abortive attempt to return to classroom teaching. And yes, I blame the latter for the former. Partly because the 80-mile round trip daily commute I was doing meant I got back too late to go to the gym, and also that the stress caused tiredness and lack of motivation. Finding myself currently with relatively little to do (it’s the Easter holidays, so I’m going to have to wait for supply teaching work) I decided to start it up again.

Those who have known me a while know that I used to keep a blog here. I’m thinking I may start using that again, as it was an excellent self-motivation tool. Even if others weren’t particularly interested in reading about how many chest presses I’d managed that day, the act of writing that stuff down helped.

EASA takes a similar approach by constantly offering you feedback and achievable goals. God, I feel like an obnoxious management-type just saying those words, but it’s true. For once. Start on the app’s “30 Day Challenge” programme and you’re automatically set some goals – a number of calories to burn in your first week, a total number of hours to achieve in the month and a number of workouts to successfully complete in the first week. You can also create your own goals, which is nice – though I’m quite happy with the ones it’s set for me so far. There’s also an Achievement-like trophy system that rewards you for completing workouts, burning certain numbers of calories, completing certain exercises several times – it’s surprising how motivating adding these “game-like” elements is.

EASA also has the benefit of actually working. Unlike Wii Fit’s all-you-can-eat buffet of exercise with no structure whatsoever (though I understand the Plus edition fixes this), EASA gives you a decent structured workout to do that isn’t the same each day. Some days you’ll be concentrating on the lower body and doing things that will make your thighs hurt for days afterwards. Other days you’ll be using the included twangy red band to work on your arms. The band itself isn’t very strong, so I’ve taken to wearing wrist weights while undertaking the workouts. They’re not THAT heavy, but they add enough additional challenge to be able to feel the strain a little bit.

EASA will also get you breaking a sweat quite quickly. Again, unlike Wii Fit, whose only really challenging portion came in the bizarrely featureless monochrome world of the yoga and muscle exercises. Today I had a lot of jumping around, which looked ridiculous, but which was also genuinely hard work. This is good. If I come off a workout feeling tired, then I feel like I’ve achieved something. It may not be the most pleasant thing to be sitting there sweating, but hey.

Anyway, I shall be continuing with my 30 Day Challenge and seeing where it takes me. I’m also going to try and pick up my gym routine. Motivation!

Now, if only all this stuff I was doing was earning some money, I’d be sorted.

#oneaday, Day 79: Morning!

Good morning! 2am today. BED ERROR.

Actually, I have a marginally good reason for it this time – I was waiting up to see if there was a response from a PR representative for an article I was writing. This is something I’ve not had to do before. I probably didn’t need to wait up quite so late as I did (and play a bit of Game Room) but, well what are you going to do? (The PR rep did respond in the end, incidentally.)

So… what to talk about this time? How about the election, seeing as how it’s on everyone’s lips and Twitter feeds at the moment. Unless you’re not British, in which case you probably couldn’t give a damn what feckless idiot steps up to the plate to run our country further into the ground.

It’s going to be a strange election this time around. The government we’ve had in for the last God-knows-how long (“Labour”, for the non-British readers out there, a party traditionally associated with socialism but which has seen something of a drift towards the middle as time has gone on) has disillusioned rather a lot of people. The fact our leader is one of the most uncharismatic, doublespeak-speaking arses in British politics at the moment (not to mention the fact that we didn’t elect him) has, amongst other things, pissed off a lot of people who are ready for a change.

But the alternatives… we have the Conservative party (traditionally the “other side” to Labour, but which has again drifted rather towards the middle as time has passed) fronted by Captain Middle Class, also known as David Cameron. To give him credit where it’s due, Cameron is a better public speaker than Gordon Brown, but he is unashamedly and completely middle-class which I can’t help feeling is going to count against him. While there are a lot of middle-class people in this country, there are also a lot of working class people who think he’s nothing but a posh git. Hell, there are plenty of middle-class people who think he’s a posh git, too. Smarmy, overly-Photoshopped advertising campaigns haven’t helped, either.

Then there’s the Liberal Democrats, aka “the ones that never get in”. Traditionally, people have voted LibDem when they don’t like the other two. There’s going to be a lot of that this time around, with Labour having disillusioned a lot of people with the failures of the last thirteen years and the Conservatives alienating entire socioeconomic groups by being incredibly white and middle class. It, sadly, wouldn’t be surprising to see more radical parties like the BNP (aka “the racist ones”) get more of a foothold in Parliament.

Of course, I’m stating all this without any great understanding of the whole proceedings. This is just my opinion. But early buzz seems to suggest that we may well end up with a “hung Parliament” this time around, with no party holding a clear majority. I have no idea what that means for the country. It might actually make this election interesting for once, though.

Pity none of our politicians have the charisma of Obama. Whatever you may think of the President’s policies, you can’t argue with the fact that the man knows how to speak to a crowd.

#oneaday, Day 78: It Never Rains But It Podcasts…

It’s 3 in the morning and I’ve just finished recording the latest SquadCast on the subject of David Cage’s Heavy Rain.

Featuring me, Chris Whittington, Mark Whiting and Jeff Parsons, we certainly all have plenty to say on the subject of the game. It should be a good episode, and I’ll keep you all posted as to when it’s up online and available to download.

For any of you reading this through the One A Day project, or stumbling across this blog for non-games reasons, the Squadron of Shame are a group of gamers who have come together with the express purpose of digging up overlooked underdogs and giving them a damn good (and often lengthy) critiquing. We podcast on a semi-regular basis about these games and tell you why you should play them… or not, in some cases.

For more information, if this sounds like something you might be interested in, check out our official (work-in-progress) site here or follow us on Twitter. You can also become a Fan on Facebook. Just search for our Page. I’d post the link but I’m on my iPhone right now. I’m sure you can find it. You’re big boys and girls.

Gratuitous self-promotion now over, it’s time for bed. Yes, that’s it for today. It is 3am, after all.

#oneaday, Day 77: Who?

Back to after midnight again. Whoops. Oh well.

Watched the new Doctor Who today, a day late, but fortunately it was repeated on the normally-awful BBC3. It’s a cracking start to the new series, and enough to make me want to watch again. Jane and I missed most of the last series as we kind of got out of the habit of watching it, but this first episode was good enough for Jane to want to watch it twice.

Matt Smith, despite everyone’s initial misgivings, makes an excellent new Doctor with just the right amount of quirkiness to hearken back to previous iterations of the hero and still make the role his own. Early scenes see him clearly channeling Tennant, which hardcore fans will tell you is actually just how it should be, as the new incarnation of the Doctor adjusts to his new body and life. By the end of the episode, he’s found his own individual style, though, a style rich with sarcastic one-liners and slightly supercilious grins. But never obnoxious. It’s a fine line between “wacky” and “irritating” and Smith treads it well.

New assistant Amy Pond, too, despite driving Daily Mail readers wild with either indignation or sexual frustration – they don’t seem to be able to make their mind up either way – is a fine addition to the lineup of companions. She’s feisty and sassy and, yes, has lovely legs. Plus, much as everyone is brought up to believe that redheads are somehow subhuman, you can’t possibly tell me that this (right) isn’t a fine example of spectacularly hot womanhood?

All right. I have a mild redhead “thing”. But it’s under control and I can quit any time I want.

Uhh, what was I talking about again?

Oh, right, Doctor Who. Yes, this first episode was great fun, alternating between moments of comedy (with the already oft-quoted “You’re Scottish – fry something” clearly the best line in the show) and ridiculously overblown “OMG THE WURLDZ IZ ENDINGZ” drama. There was a great soundtrack, too, giving this first episode a suitably epic feel despite being largely based in an idealised version of quaint English country life.

The seeds have been sown for this season’s plot arc, too, with something about “Silence will fall” clearly being an omen of what is to come. Plus the trailer totally spoiled that there will be Daleks, Cybermen, vampires and Spitfires involved at some point. Oh, and the Spitfires are in space. YES!

Approval on Twitter and around the web has been almost universally positive so far. The Daily Mail article linked to above has been the only negative comment I have seen so far, citing unnamed “message boards” and “forums” as its source, so perhaps take it with a pinch of salt – or more likely a handful, this being the Mail and all.

I’ll certainly be interested to see where the series goes from here. And no, not just because of the delectable Amy Pond. It looks like thoroughly silly and epic fun, which is just what Doctor Who should be. If you haven’t seen it yet, the first episode is still available on BBC iPlayer at the time of writing. So what are you waiting for?

#oneaday, Day 76: Daytime. Sort of.

Yes! A pre-midnight post! How about that. Since I’m in a writing frame of mind, I thought I’d write something. I’ve just written 1100 words on my story. Actually, I ditched what I wrote yesterday and started again. It’s flowing a bit better this time, which is good. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep up some sort of momentum.

I say I’m in a writing frame of mind but in fact I’m just trying to avoid the televisual monstrosity that is whatever that ridiculous audition show for The Wizard of Oz is on television. I’m really, really sick of these shows, as I’ve made abundantly clear on a number of occasions. These ones where the “winners” end up with a part in a West End show make a mockery of the whole process. Andrew Lloyd Webber sitting in a gold throne with everyone calling him “The Lord”? The sycophantic nonsense spewed by Graham Norton and others on the show is enough to make one want to vomit. Yes, Lloyd Webber has created some of the most successful musicals ever, but that doesn’t mean I want to see people practically sticking their nose up his arse and rimming him on television. And I certainly don’t want to vote on it.

Enough ranting on that subject, otherwise it’ll annoy my wife.

Anything else interesting happen today? Well, no, not really. It’s been very quiet since PAX East, but people are still talking about it, which is good. A good buddy over on BitMob posted a fantastic article about the experience, which summed up exactly how I felt about it as a fellow sufferer of social anxiety. I suggest you go and read it if you haven’t already – even if you’re not a gamer. It’s a great piece.

I’ve also been watching some of the PAX 09 DVD which I picked up as a keepsake. The video quality on it is great, meaning the concerts, panels and appearances by Gabe, Tycho and Wil Wheaton all look and sound great. I’m actually really impressed with how good it is – I was expecting low-quality, hand-held shakeycam, but in fact it’s a completely professional job. I should know better than to doubt nerds making videos, I guess.

Anyway, that’s about it for today. Not very interesting, I know. But that’s the way some days go.

#oneaday, Day 75: Late again

One of these days I’ll post one of these entries before midnight. If you look at the dates, it looks like I’m a day behind. But I’m not. Oh no. I just stay up late. Which is perhaps not wise. But hey. It’s too late now.

I wrote 650 words of story today. They’re probably crap, but I made an effort to just churn them out regardless. I’ll try and do at least 500 every day, preferably 1000. I can easily get through that. It’s just a case of letting the creativity flow and not worrying about it being stupid. That’s what the editing process is for.

Little else of note has happened today, really. I went out for a walk and took Gowalla with me. For the uninitiated, Gowalla is a location-based app for the iPhone where you “check in” at places to stamp a virtual passport. You can create your own spots too, meaning that eventually, a user-generated map of points of interest in an area is built up. There’s a sort-of game mechanic in there too, with items appearing in places and allowing you to either collect them or drop them elsewhere for others to find.

I’m now up to a hundred stamps. That’s cool, although I did create a whole bunch of them myself. Southampton was a little dry on “points of interest” when Gowalla first launched. Now, thanks to the machinations of myself and several others in the area, there’s now lots to see. Interestingly, I’ve got to know a couple of people (not face to face… yet) simply through playing with Gowalla, which is nice. There is talk of a “tweetup” at some point in early April so if I’m feeling super-brave I may go and check it out. We shall see.

Elsewhere today, I rediscovered LittleBigPlanet, which is still one of the best-looking games on PS3. There’s some incredibly creative levels out there, too – but you knew that already. Tonight, I played through a selection of excellently designed levels by a guy whose name escapes me right now, as well as a perfect recreation of the first bit of Bioshock, albeit with some rather poor writing spelling, punctuation and grammar-wise. My mind draws a blank any time I fire up the level designer for LittleBigPlanet and I am yet to create a level. I’m sure I’ll think of something eventually, though.

Tomorrow, I have a music pupil in the morning and then the remainder of the day… who knows. Since coming back from PAX East, it’s been an odd feeling to be “free”, though of course the money thing is something of a worry. I have let various agencies know I’m available for work, however, and of course, if you know anyone who is interested in either music or computer tuition in the Southampton area, I invite you to direct them here for music lessons or here for computer lessons. That would be marvellous, ’cause if I get enough pupils between those two things, I won’t have to set foot in a classroom, even as a supply teacher, ever again. But that won’t work just yet, unfortunately. That’s the plan, though.

Right. I’m off, because it’s nearly 2am. Good night!

#oneaday, Day 74: Don’t Be A Dick

Just watched Wil Wheaton‘s Awesome Hour on the PAX 09 DVD. This has made me sorry I missed his keynote speech at PAX East, as he’s a fantastic public speaker, an excellent storyteller and a genuinely funny guy. Modest, too, which is always nice to see.

It’s strange to think about these people that we got the chance to see or even meet at PAX being “celebrities” in the geeks’ world, but complete unknowns to everyone else. The thing is, I personally feel that Wheaton, along with Gabe and Tycho from Penny Arcade, are far more admirable human beings than many people who are constantly in the news. What is it about them?

Well, I know why they are admirable people: they’re not dicks. But why do they toil in obscurity? Because of their geeky interests? Perhaps. I say it’s a shame. But it’s probably for the best. Would these guys be the same people they are now if they were constantly in the spotlight? Who knows. Perhaps they would be. I’d like to think so. But it’s actually kind of nice to have figures to look up to that belong entirely to your own subculture.

Wheaton said some interesting things in his speech and Q&A session, particularly about self-publishing material that you’ve written yourself. It’s something that I’ve considered myself, actually. But, of course, I need to write something first. I have quite a few half-finished novels in a folder on my computer (in fact, that folder’s made the jump across at least four different hard drives now) and an abortive attempt at last year’s NaNoWriMo in the planning stages.

If there’s one thing that this One A Day experiment has proven, it’s that I certainly can churn out some writing each day. Some of it’s not great, of course – I’m writing this at the same time as watching the end of Wheaton’s spot on the PAX DVD, for example – but I certainly don’t have a problem churning out… stuff. So perhaps I should try and actually, you know, write something.

So tomorrow I’m going to try and start a novel. And try and finish it. Not tomorrow, obviously, but I’m going to make a good attempt to write a bit every day. I’m going to take the NaNoWriMo approach of doing a brain dump every day and edit it later. I have a few ideas floating around in my head and have done for some time. Some of them are compatible. Others are not. The difficult thing is coming up with a concept that’s not shit. Or coming up with a good concept and ruining it with a shit twist. If there’s anything that Douglas Coupland novels have taught me, its that you don’t have to have big, stupid, dramatic twists to make a decent story.

So let’s see where this goes. I’ll post regular updates on here. If you’re lucky, even extracts. Though I’m weird about people reading work-in-progress writing, so you’ll have to be very lucky. But it starts tomorrow. You’ll see. You’ll all see! Bwahahahaha! *jumps out of window*