Post-party weekend

(is that a bad joke about post-partum depression, I hope not)

        Alright so back from class, here’s how my weekend went after the party. This is some reaction to it, and some funny stories about Halloween.

        I slept in a bit on saturday, got up feeling like I sincerely did NOT want to be in my room. I figured I should sit in my room and study, but it was just not going to happen. My laptop was in the living room, by the couch, so I sat down there and booted it up. All well and good, then my mom gets up and is on her laptop and turns on the TV. Oh no. Television. Much as I hate it, it is there, and I end up getting distracted by it constantly. I spend a few hours doing stuff on the internet and talking to Britt about how busy I am and how I’m not keeping my promises to her and stuff like that. Savin’ it for another post. Wait for it. Anyway, eventually around maybe 1:45 pm or something? I got off my butt and went over to my dad’s so I could be alone.

        By 3 pm, I had showered and gotten my stuff organized, but no matter what I did I couldn’t really sit down and do any homework. My dad’s house just doesn’t have any place for me to work - I have no desk, the table is covered in crap, etc. I ended up accomplishing stuff by setting my laptop aside and using the piles of wood my dad had ordered as a desk. I knew, of course, that I could spend the weekend relaxing - but I needed to do work to keep myself busy while I was secluding myself, so I ended up taking notes on the fifth chapter of my linguistics textbook, doing the homework questions for it, and my french homework.

        Sunday, Halloween, I… hmm… I didn’t do much for most of the day. The most notable thing is, of course, trick or treating children. My dad bought candy - two boxes of 94 chocolate bars (two to each child) and two boxes of 24 bags of cheesies (do real people say that, cheetos seems like such an awkward thing to say - anyway, one per child) - so that’s enough candy for 130 children. We had 12 trick or treaters. Four children, eight teenage girls. One teenage girl said she liked my Born of Osiris hoodie and I said “eh, they’re alright” because alright is the best word to describe them. Other than that people just seemed to walk around in costumes without going to any houses. So now we have a disgusting amount of candy and I’m not sure what we’re going to do with it.

        My mom had at least 50 trick or treaters, when I last checked in with her, but according to my dad that was because she lives near a bunch of low-rent apartments - most of which are along the bus route that comes to Carleton. Huh. Well, kids. Around my dad’s it’s just old people and people with older kids. Does that mean he lives more in the suburbs than my mom? Ah well.

        Oh, and sweet story about the Halloween party:

        Near the end of the conversation with my coach and the two guys from Ottawa U, our hostess dropped by and flaunted her numerous assets for our benefit. But we would not be swayed from our riveting fencing discussion. After a brief lull later, one of the guys from Ottawa U remarked that we deserved a Darwin Award for spectacular failure to procreate.

        “Given the choice of finding an attractive female to talk to, or talking to a couple of dudes about fencing, we’re like ‘oh man you could try this, or try that’ and there’s hot women like right there! Right there! And we’re like 'fencing, awesome!’”

        edit: Oh and I watched The Trotsky (Canadian film) and the first three episodes of The World God Only Knows (subbed anime via Crunchyroll) while waiting for non-existent trick or treaters, and liked them both a fair bit. The Trotsky isn’t a must-watch, but I enjoyed it. You might enjoy it a tiny bit less if you don’t know french. The World God Only Knows is about a guy who’s pro at dating sims but has never even held hands with a girl, and he accidentally signs a contract with the devil to collect souls that are living in the hearts of girls by - of course - kissing them. If that premise sounds awesome, you should watch it. Otherwise I have nothing to say to you.

Sunday Something

I’m not sure how many times I’ve link dumped on a sunday, and I’m not sure if I’ll make it a weekly event. But it’s sunday, and this is something, so without further ado, I present several things for your reading pleasure. I’ve been cleaning out my Read It Later list, so for that reason you also get to read the things I’ve picked up over the last couple of months.

First we have a number of Gamasutra articles, beginning with MMOs and moving gradually into the mainstream:

• MMOs: Just a Matter of Time?: A well designed MMO relies not on time spent playing, but rather on spacing out its content and ensuring players come back for more. By enforcing a regular schedule (raids only once a week, or limiting the experience to be gained in a specific period) it creates a mental pattern encouraging the players to come back more often and hopefully spend their spare time away from the grind making friends. Making friends means staying in the game. Staying in the game means making more money. The reality, then, is that no MMO designer wants to limit the time you spend playing their game. They just want to make the game seem more fair, and keep you around for a longer period of time. Why let you play 3000 hours in your first month, when they can limit you to 300 and keep you for ten months?

• Targeted Focus, Broad Audience?: Two design angles for social games that are seemingly at odds with eachother. One method says to target a niche audience, another says to keep your appeal broad and get as many individuals as possible. The question, then, is how to unify the two. Some games might seem pretty niche at first (Frontier Ville, Mafia Wars - how many western or mafia games have you played recently, in comparison to much more popular genres like World War II shooters and sci-fi? Those are also bad examples because two successful and high profile games have recently come out in both of those genres, but hey, I tried), but then have a general enough appeal to get your grandmother playing. Seems like cornering a market is the real key to success.

• Warren Specter on Game Culture in the Mainstream: Warren Spector reminds us that casual gamers are gamers too, and says that gaming will thrive as it enters the mainstream culture much like every new art form before it has. By embracing other types of gamers and expanding gaming’s appeal, we’ll see more and more widespread cultural acceptance, not to mention bring some diversity into the types of games available. Imagine if movies tended to fall in only two categories: the Nintendo family game and the violent and bloody power fantasies. The hope, then, is that with a more diverse audience we’ll have more and more demand for games that fall outside of those groups.

Next, on an entirely different spectrum, we have an article about the future of books. However, there’s a hilarious quote from a man who doesn’t know video games other than them Grand Auto Thefts and Modern Wars, so for that reason it’s the logical follow-up to articles about video games.

• Book Have Many Futures: It’s pretty good timing that this article mentions a gradual transition away from the traditional university textbook, as spending hundreds of dollars on books that are out of date by the time they come into our hands is an incredibly wasteful, expensive, and ultimately unsustainable practice. Not that the textbook publishers have a problem with that. On a broader note, they also discuss the possible avenues for books to pursue in the future. A word of caution, too, on the Kindle vs hardcover books statistic: paperbacks are of course not included in that number, so it’s not like they sold more electronic books than they did physical ones. Personally, I loathe hardcover books, so I wait a year or more if that’s what it takes to get my hands on a paperback. Not just because of price, either, I just hate having huge books that wouldn’t look out of place in a classy library when you take off the jacket.

Moving from books to writing for anime, we have a rant from the writer behind well-known anime like Ergo Proxy, Samurai Champloo, Eureka 7, Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex, and the biggest one of all - Cowboy Bebop. Then a roundtable discussion on his rant from the wonderful folks at Japanator. Following that is a discussion of the American meaning of the word “otaku.”

• Storywriter Dai Sato is frustrated with Japanese anime: Not much to say about this, honestly, it’s just the story of how this guy is really angry about the state of anime in Japan and how he sees the industry losing much of what made it special and pandering to a rapidly shrinking audience. By catering to existing fans and not seeking to provide new experiences and expand that audience, the anime industry as we know it could very well crash. More on that in the next article.

• Japanator Discusses: Dai Sato rants on the state of anime: Analysis of Dai Sato’s rant, judging it more than a little “butthurt” but admitting he may also have a point. In particular, Brad Rice dishes (hey get it rice dishes) some Serious Business on the industry, which is exactly why he hosts an infrequent podcast called Serious Business with Brad Rice.

• I, Otaku: Identifying as a J-Culture enthusiast: People like to have a label for themselves, if only to explain to other people what exactly they’re interested in. For that reason, otaku has largely become the accepted term for english-speaking fans of anime and pretty much anything Japanese. Some people argue against the use of the term by people who are ignorant of its origins (it’s a derogatory term in Japan), while others happily prance about squealing about how they’re the NUMBAR OEN OTAKU EVAR. The reality, then, is that this is America and we can steal words and adopt them for an entirely different use than they were originally intended. But isn’t that a wonderful thing? I think it is. I think we can be otaku if we want to be.

If you have no idea about my interests, there’s your crash course. Hope you enjoyed something up there!

So I realize that perhaps I’ve barely mentioned my current real life status here on tumblr. Since people I talk to all the time were unaware of why I was absent. Perhaps those of you who know nothing but what I post on my tumblr worried that I was dead, or that I had abandoned you. No, I was just in the middle of moving fifteen hours away from the city (more like overblown town) in which I was born and raised. From peaceful little Summerside, Prince Edward Island, where you could have found my house if I told you the slightest bit about me, I have just finished moving to Ottawa, Ontario, where I could give you my full name and you could never find me. Prince Edward Island had a provincial phone book. Ottawa has two, or maybe three, phone books to itself. And each of those is at least twice the size of the PEI phone book. Yep, it’s a change of pace.

        We’ve been all moved in and everything for a little over a week now, and it’s kinda weird taking all of the *stuff* from your house and putting it into a new building, where you will be living from now on. We didn’t get internet because we were trying to find a good deal, and we ended up with Rogers because Bell was hardly an option. Their good service wasn’t available here, and we wanted good. So Rogers it was, and so far I’m not exactly happy. But I’ll live. Life goes on. I have a lot of catching up to do, but I’m alive! Hooray! And I’m so bored that I could post every day if I felt like it! I even have posts pre-written to post, but I’ll try to space things out. Honest. I’m going to post one now, and then another tomorrow or the day after. Sound like a plan? Yes? Great!

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        If Serial Experiments Lain, Welcome to the N.H.K, and Inception had a threesome, Chaos;Head would be born. I can’t speak for the visual novel it’s based on because I didn’t want to change my language settings just to play it, but holy crap, what an entertaining show. Those of you who don’t like subs (hi vael) won’t be able to watch it for a little while yet, but it has been licensed, so yay.

        It starts with a series of unexplained events dubbed the New Generation Madness by @Chan (it’s full of less-than subtle references like that, but some are funny), starting with a group suicide and a man becoming pregnant. The hero of our story, Takumi Nishijou, lives in a storage container on top of a tall building, where he spends his time watching anime, being the best at an archaic MMO (why would the data for his character be stored on his harddrive, and furthermore, how could he play in an internet cafe that way…) and jerking off to plastic figurines. Takumi has no friends, goes to school only as often as he needs to graduate, and hallucinates that one of his figurines is alive and talks to him. His sister occasionally comes to his “base” to make sure he’s still alive.

        Then he stumbles upon the third event of the New Generation Madness, the slaying of a professor studying a phenomenon called GE-Rate. The killer is… a cute high school girl. Who suddenly appears at Takumi’s school the next day and claims to be one of his only friends. The plot thickens!

        Takumi’s pretty much nuts and the whole idea is that half the time you don’t know if anything is actually happening. He hallucinates pretty frequently, often erotically, only to hear someone say his name and realize it wasn’t real. Then these hallucinations start becoming reality, simply because he imagined them. Then girls with swords no one else can see start paying a whole lot of attention to him. Then he becomes a suspect in the murder of the professor, and then stuff gets really crazy.

        It’s only twelve episodes long, and honestly it’s pretty well paced. There really aren’t any boring sections where nothing really happens. It’s one mystery after another, and as the pieces start to come together it all works pretty well. Off the top of my head, I don’t think there are any loose plot threads. It just clicks in a really satisfying way, and I think it would be as interesting to watch in one sitting as it would be to watch it slowly and give yourself time to think about it. In the last few episodes, there were a few times where I stopped for a second to connect little details and figure things out. One thing it doesn’t do is patronize you - no big villainous reveal followed by “yes indeed, I AM the villain!” Rather, you’ll see a chat screen left open, and then a confrontation. No need to tell you what you already know. So I like that about it.

        One of the characters was tortured as a young child and developed some serious psychological issues, as well as her special powers. She sees the world through mystical fantasy terms, like Black Nights and Demon Kings rather than people with special powers and mind control machines. She makes several references to Cocytus, the River of Grief  in Hades, only one of several horrible and depressing rivers to be crossed. At the end of the series, she realizes that the rivers past Cocytus don’t make passing it meaningless; rather, they validate the effort as a proof of strength to surpass further trials. Having passed one challenge, one can clearly pass the next, and the next, if only through willpower alone.

        Meanwhile, in Synthetic Worlds, the author compares the endless grind in an MMO to the trial of Sisyphus, who was sentenced to roll a boulder up the side of an impossibly tall mountain. Only at the end of the day, as he neared the top, his strength would fail and the boulder would fall to the base of the mountain. The reason people enjoy the grind in an MMO, however, is because they aren’t simply crawling up one large mountain. They’re crossing an entire mountain range, getting the reward for each milestone they pass rather than only being rewarded at the very end.

        Greek mythology aside, the two philosophies are similar at their core. Having climbed one mountain, you don’t admit defeat because there’s a taller mountain ahead. Nor should you expect a grassy plain on the other side, because there will always be challenges to be met and problems to be solved. No amount of success will guarantee a worry-free life forevermore. However, we need to take pride in our accomplishments and relish the joy of success to get us over the next mountain. If you disregard what you’ve accomplished, then every further challenge will be a source of despair, one more reason to be miserable.

        That’s the way I see my life when I look back. With every challenge I’ve overcome, I’ve become a better, stronger person. In the face of every challenge to come, I’ll take what I’ve learned and I’ll work until I succeed. Forward motion. Constant progress. I’m not looking for a grand reward at the end of the road to validate my efforts. The results are validation enough. It’s just a question of how you measure progress. Every little step is worth something, even if you need to take a thousand more. Don’t stop moving just because you aren’t there yet. Run faster if you’re that anxious to arrive.

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        Hey there kids! Are you really tired of writing, and completely forget the point you were originally trying to make? Don’t worry about it! Here’s a fool-proof guide to making nice fluffy arguments that barely form a cohesive thesis but give you an opportunity to mention all kinds of neato things.

1. Think of something that, in some small way, relate whatever your last paragraph was about.

2. Mix far too many metaphors and sound fancy without being completely clear what you mean. Don’t worry, nobody will notice except your english teacher.

3. Repeat steps one and two until you run out of neato things to bring in.

4. Repeat yourself, either with the same or different metaphors, and maybe add something personal. Just to make sure people reading the rest of what you wrote think of the things you wanted them to think about. Also, if you get a little lost yourself while writing this part, that’s ok. It’s all about the personal discovery they have reading what you’ve written. Let them draw their own conclusions! It’s like Writing 2.0 - involve your readers!

        I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it again, because I start writing late or I just get frustrated with what I’ve written but plow ahead because I want to get it out. I’m not going to rewrite this, and I totally want to plug Choas;Head, and I’ve acknowledged the failure so now it’s a learning experience for everyone. Also, plan your essays. Having a thesis is important. Having supporting points is a nice touch.

        Now it’s time for the bonus quote, yay! From Dust of Dreams by Steven Erikson, the ninth book of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. It’s a completely ridiculous series, and not for the faint of heart. I started when book 6 was new, and they only get longer. I think the entire series reaches my hip or higher now. I wouldn’t know, because I donated them to my high school library because I knew I wouldn’t have enough space to take them with me to Ottawa. Sad, because now I don’t know what to do with this book and the next, which will be the final volume. I can’t just keep volumes 9 and 10 on the shelf, but who could I ever give them to? They’re basically useless on their own T.T

        Also as for the quote specifically I absolutely love it and it was like the most amazing thing ever to read and it makes so much sense in context and the reference is obvious (in the book I mean) but it still makes me think of a badass person going around fixing everything and knowing the world is horrible and they can’t change that, but doing their own small part rather than giving up. Kinda like Scott Shelby in Heavy Rain appearing out of nowhere to solve problems and then just disappearing without needing any thanks. Kinda like what I aspire to be too. I want a fist full of tears T.T

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Somewhere, out there, you will find the purest essence of that philosophy. Perhaps in one person, perhaps in ten thousand. Looking to no other entity, no other force, no other will. Bound solely in comradeship, in loyalty honed absolute. Yet devoid of all arrogance. Wise in humility. And that one, or ten thousand, is on a path. Unerring, it readies itself, not to shake a fist at the heavens. But to lift a lone hand, a hand filled with tears. You want a faith? You want someone or something to believe in? No, do not worship the one or the ten thousand. Worship the sacrifice they will make, for they make it in the name of compassion - the only cause worth fighting and dying for.

        I look at my work schedule, and think geez, I have no time. Then I look at my tumblr and think man, I have more than enough time. It’ll be nice not having a piece of paper to tell me how much stuff I can’t do for the next month.

        That being said, I have my AP english exam in a little over two weeks. No meeting about that today, because our teacher got food poisoning :( Sad, but we read A Modest Proposal for our “exam,” which was fun because I read it as a kid and loved it. While I was debating the economics of breeding children as livestock, others didn’t seem to understand because they probably only read three sentences before giving up and skipping half the words.

        As far as that exam goes, wow, I am so unprepared. Why? Well, I don’t have an essay ready to go for every potential topic they could ever pull out of their asses. I’m not really a deeper meaning kind of person, and I can’t read a book and go “oh hey a tree got struck by lightning, THAT SYMBOLIZES A CATASTROPHIC BREAK IN THEIR RELATIONSHIP HOW BRILLIANT.” I mean, really? Yeah, I get it, but I don’t know that’s going to happen yet! By the time it does happen, I don’t remember the tree in the first place! I could probably put together a decent essay about a tragic hero, or a character that’s a foil for another character, and other things like that where you can see it without having to read a five hundred page book twice in the same sitting.

        I’ll probably sit down with the list of essay topics they’ve given over the last 40 years and jot down ideas for each, so I have a general idea. No, I’m not fucking kidding. That’s a bare minimum of effort for this, and if I’m lucky might help me scrape out a decent mark D: It’s not like I’ll fail, judging by the failed essays we read, but… How well can I honestly do writing an essay, with a time limit, on a random subject?

        @vael: Episodes 13-16 of Baccano! were added to the DVD release after it aired on TV, but I dunno, I’m not sure it would have felt as complete without those episodes. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s perfect and nothing could be better, but complete is a good word for it. Complete in its incompleteness, I guess. The way it manages its characters is what I want for my story when it gets finished in the far off future, but replace immortality with killed-somebody-and-got-a-new-identity.

        Speaking of Baccano!, I dunno when it’ll be localized, but the same studio is doing an anime of another series of light novels by the same guy called Durarara!! Obviously, it is superior thanks to the extra exclamation mark. Aside from that, it’s on episode 14/24 in Japan, but they’re going to add extra episodes for its DVD release too. It has a black man who runs a sushi shop (this is really weird for Japan), a butler who throws vending machines, and a female headless horsemen who rides a motorcycle instead of a horse. Sound exciting yet?