Played through the origin for a female city-elf this weekend. Originally when I played I chose mage, found it to my liking and pretty much stuck, neglecting some of the more interesting origins.
As my girlfriend recently played through the city-elf origins, and I realised there was a potential for gender differences, so played a female to mirror her male.
Monday, 31 January 2011
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
BEST JOB EVAR.
Had a blog-worthy moment at work to day.
Here's the emails.
From: teh_steve
Sent: 19 January 2011 12:47
To: Darren; teh_others...
Subject: RE: e-Marketing
Oh Darren boy
Darren's my boss. A general jack-of-all trades in our small digital group, which more or less means he's the central pillar for a lot of the teams work. He's known as the "Technical Developer" a title he wears with a fair amount of self-pity.
He also got the job he has now by working as the student placement. All good stuff.
And he's a geek, which helps our rapour massively. He's also very right about the idea of viral marketing, it's an "offend to make a splash" tactic, taking on the ideology that "any press is good press" but in this instance, I disagree.
Erectin' another issue
A recent blog post of mine was tangentally about the "Mass Erect" issue, and how Mass Effect got cast in a negative light. now sure, those of us with half a brain know it's not true, and still bought it. And those of us that like that sort of thing (you sick fucks) probably bought it to play the porn simulator, as disappointed as you would be. But there's the issue. It's "us" and "them". Those that buy video games and those that don't.
Just watch the Extra Credits: Gamer episode and you'll start to get what I mean. All of the content in the email, everything from the Supreme Court case to the general dislike of video games. All of it is because we lack integration. For the same reasons that scientists could be seen as heretical in ye olden times, people hate on different religions, and things like comic books, new musical styles and even films have all been seen as corrupting.
It's fear of the unknown.
If everyone played games, knew what they could do, knew their ability to deliver a narrative in a real-time, consequential, and interactive medium, then this sort of bullshit would vanish, and we couldn't judge all games by the choices of the few.
Wii and DS was taking us that way, but man, if deadspace didn't just faceplant us back a few hundred yards.
Dead Face
Anyway, I'll try to keep it brief, though all of the above is true.
Do I believe kids should be getting access to M rated video games? Fuck no. But do I think that games should be declared a negative influence on all society, morally reprehensible and damaging to ALL minors? Again, no.
Why isn't there a middle ground? Why's it got to be art of purile steaming toxic waste?
In the UK stores actually bother to heed age guidlines, on all media. So they're neither banned nor freely available to those that really,REALLY shouldn't have them.
Whatever the reasons, and whatever the result, you guys on the advertising team for Dead Space really, REALLY screwed up. Though "I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." ~Voltaire. </end auto-felatio>
Here's the emails.
From: Kate
Sent: 19 January 2011 13:53
To: Everyone
Subject: RE: e-Marketing
Sent: 19 January 2011 13:53
To: Everyone
Subject: RE: e-Marketing
Good points and an interesting debate! Shouldn’t this be a blog article…? :)
From: teh_steve
Sent: 19 January 2011 12:47
To: Darren; teh_others...
Subject: RE: e-Marketing
As a marketing ploy, hell yeah.
But as a means of promoting video games as more than damaging childrens toys? Eurgh… Stinks of adolescent pandering and “it’s an 18, but we’re really marketing it to the 14 year olds” mentality that many game studios use.
Dangerous stuff considering http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwarzenegger_v._Entertainment_Merchants_Association ....
For further reading,
Not every game needs to be a deep involving experience, but that’s still a massively stupid move by the ad-writers considering what’s happening at the moment. I’m not saying kids SHOULD be able to get violent video games, but that games shouldn’t be punished more than other mediums depicting the same thing. You wouldn’t ban a book with a rape scene, and I’m sure even young kids could still buy it, yet you’d ban a game for its bloody content? Don’t ban the game because the parents fail at raising their children properly.
The adds detract from the fact that Dead space should be a harrowing and dark survival horror experience and instead focussing on it being a bloody video game, appealing to the younger gamers with material intended for older.
All this is fluff anyway. The Miller test (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_test ) is based on what’s good/bad for minors, but doesn’t just affect the kids. 1st amendment protection would go out the window for most video games, and that’s the real issue. Sure, ban the sales to minors, and properly police those processes, but don’t declare that video games do absolutely nothing to benefit society and plenty to damage them.
</soap box>
From: Darren;
Sent: 19 January 2011 12:14
To: teh_steve, teh_others...
Subject: e-Marketing
Sent: 19 January 2011 12:14
To: teh_steve, teh_others...
Subject: e-Marketing
This has to be the finest marketing scheme ever.
Oh Darren boy
Darren's my boss. A general jack-of-all trades in our small digital group, which more or less means he's the central pillar for a lot of the teams work. He's known as the "Technical Developer" a title he wears with a fair amount of self-pity.
He also got the job he has now by working as the student placement. All good stuff.
And he's a geek, which helps our rapour massively. He's also very right about the idea of viral marketing, it's an "offend to make a splash" tactic, taking on the ideology that "any press is good press" but in this instance, I disagree.
Erectin' another issue
A recent blog post of mine was tangentally about the "Mass Erect" issue, and how Mass Effect got cast in a negative light. now sure, those of us with half a brain know it's not true, and still bought it. And those of us that like that sort of thing (you sick fucks) probably bought it to play the porn simulator, as disappointed as you would be. But there's the issue. It's "us" and "them". Those that buy video games and those that don't.
Just watch the Extra Credits: Gamer episode and you'll start to get what I mean. All of the content in the email, everything from the Supreme Court case to the general dislike of video games. All of it is because we lack integration. For the same reasons that scientists could be seen as heretical in ye olden times, people hate on different religions, and things like comic books, new musical styles and even films have all been seen as corrupting.
It's fear of the unknown.
If everyone played games, knew what they could do, knew their ability to deliver a narrative in a real-time, consequential, and interactive medium, then this sort of bullshit would vanish, and we couldn't judge all games by the choices of the few.
Wii and DS was taking us that way, but man, if deadspace didn't just faceplant us back a few hundred yards.
Dead Face
Anyway, I'll try to keep it brief, though all of the above is true.
Do I believe kids should be getting access to M rated video games? Fuck no. But do I think that games should be declared a negative influence on all society, morally reprehensible and damaging to ALL minors? Again, no.
Why isn't there a middle ground? Why's it got to be art of purile steaming toxic waste?
In the UK stores actually bother to heed age guidlines, on all media. So they're neither banned nor freely available to those that really,REALLY shouldn't have them.
Whatever the reasons, and whatever the result, you guys on the advertising team for Dead Space really, REALLY screwed up. Though "I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." ~Voltaire. </end auto-felatio>
Friday, 14 January 2011
Subtitles
Subtle Insanity
Oh, and just so you all know... These little subtitles I do through my posts are sort of mini-bookmarks to break up the writing.
See, I did English at school (close to 5 years ago now, Christ, time flies) and I have rather a... vomiting approach to essays.
What I tend to do is empty my brain of all possible information. I find ideas are a lot like a fire, they spread and reach out to other touching points. Everything is interconnected, and we see that in day to day life.
Point to point to point to point
Ever had a conversation about one thing, and then 10 minutes later jumped to another topic and thought "how the hell did I get here?".
Well, when you think about it you'll normally see logical routes, from logical roots (ha). Maybe you started off talking about football (which I hate) and end up on pizza? Well maybe you once went to a football match and had pizza afterwards, and that's where you draw the link.
My posts are a lot like this. However I've also taken a big chunk of my previous writing style. I tend to rewrite and revise a blog post several times, and go back and edit it at a later point. I treat my original "bleurgh" of information as the raw matter, the clay, and from that I sculpt a coherent(ish) post, editing phrases, juggling order of sentences, and deleting that which is redundant.
Get on with it, would ya!?
I still ramble a bit, because I tend to ramble when I speak, but fuck it, this is my blog and it's all good information for me, you're just here for the ride!
Point is, one of the last things I do when I've written a blog-post is go back and read-through. I tend to write a lot so I'll add these little bench-marks of subtitles, which are generally a thought or phrase I feel applies to the next "part". That's mostly it, I go by feeling and gut instinct.
Ultimately, I don't put a lot of thought into these subs, as they're just a quick way of splitting up my blog-posts, so there's a fair amount of "streams of consciousness" about them. Though instead of a stream it's more a dollop, you get the idea.
So yeah, my subconscious (kinda) helping me write my blogs.
Steve
Oh, and just so you all know... These little subtitles I do through my posts are sort of mini-bookmarks to break up the writing.
See, I did English at school (close to 5 years ago now, Christ, time flies) and I have rather a... vomiting approach to essays.
What I tend to do is empty my brain of all possible information. I find ideas are a lot like a fire, they spread and reach out to other touching points. Everything is interconnected, and we see that in day to day life.
Point to point to point to point
Ever had a conversation about one thing, and then 10 minutes later jumped to another topic and thought "how the hell did I get here?".
Well, when you think about it you'll normally see logical routes, from logical roots (ha). Maybe you started off talking about football (which I hate) and end up on pizza? Well maybe you once went to a football match and had pizza afterwards, and that's where you draw the link.
My posts are a lot like this. However I've also taken a big chunk of my previous writing style. I tend to rewrite and revise a blog post several times, and go back and edit it at a later point. I treat my original "bleurgh" of information as the raw matter, the clay, and from that I sculpt a coherent(ish) post, editing phrases, juggling order of sentences, and deleting that which is redundant.
Get on with it, would ya!?
I still ramble a bit, because I tend to ramble when I speak, but fuck it, this is my blog and it's all good information for me, you're just here for the ride!
Point is, one of the last things I do when I've written a blog-post is go back and read-through. I tend to write a lot so I'll add these little bench-marks of subtitles, which are generally a thought or phrase I feel applies to the next "part". That's mostly it, I go by feeling and gut instinct.
Ultimately, I don't put a lot of thought into these subs, as they're just a quick way of splitting up my blog-posts, so there's a fair amount of "streams of consciousness" about them. Though instead of a stream it's more a dollop, you get the idea.
So yeah, my subconscious (kinda) helping me write my blogs.
Steve
Mancrush in 5, 4...
I'm a perfect harmony of my two parents. My dad's a massive geek. My mum's a very post modern woman.
Both have great moral fibre, and both are deep loving intelligent people, and while I can't claim my fathers technical prowess or my mothers raw intellectual spark, I'd still consider myself a fairly smart, capable and confident guy.
Anyway, enough auto-felatio.
Both have great moral fibre, and both are deep loving intelligent people, and while I can't claim my fathers technical prowess or my mothers raw intellectual spark, I'd still consider myself a fairly smart, capable and confident guy.
Anyway, enough auto-felatio.
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
DAMN IT ALL TO HELL!
So, a bad movie with lots of blood gore and violence is made, and the movie industry isn't panned. A book with rape and murder is written, and again it isn't panned.
Whatever the means, whether it's for some sick twisted kick or because it's actually making a statement all media and those attributed to it will in some way defend their medium.
They'll either stand in line, take the blows and say "I believe this should be in the medium because of this, it's making a point" or they'll dismiss it saying "Yeah, but I wouldn't go in for that sort of thing". Their media still remains "clean" no matter how many bad uses of sensitive material like sexual violence, inequality/racism and violence are used.
Whatever the means, whether it's for some sick twisted kick or because it's actually making a statement all media and those attributed to it will in some way defend their medium.
They'll either stand in line, take the blows and say "I believe this should be in the medium because of this, it's making a point" or they'll dismiss it saying "Yeah, but I wouldn't go in for that sort of thing". Their media still remains "clean" no matter how many bad uses of sensitive material like sexual violence, inequality/racism and violence are used.
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
Hello world!
Hello all, and welcome to my blog!
Well, my blog-type thing that I'm going to be using for my own purposes more than anything else, but it's defined as a blog none-the-less.
Well, my blog-type thing that I'm going to be using for my own purposes more than anything else, but it's defined as a blog none-the-less.
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