Early Post is Early

I realize that this post is a bit early, according to my last update, but I wanted to talk about Dungeons and Dragons again. It's been a long time since I've mentioned it, and in that time, our group has gone their separate ways for now, having other obligations that needed tending to. But let me start by saying that I really miss playing D and D.

The main reason I loved to play was first and foremost, the friendships that I was able to forge amongst the other players. We all had common interests, similar senses of humor, and a deep love for rich, in-depth storytelling in our gaming experiences. The fact that I was able to meet these people at all, much less around the table of an awesome D and D campaign is something that I'm not likely to play off as coincidence.

I'll openly admit that I am what many would call a nerd. In fact, I'm so comfortable with it, that I don't even take offense to it anymore. It is who I am, and I'm perfectly fine with that. I find high fantasy and science fiction to be among the coolest genres out there. I find dragons immensely fascinating. Hell, I even played World of Warcraft for the longest time. But I'm going off on a tangent. What I'm really trying to say here is that I miss meeting with these people on a weekly basis. That interaction was most often the highlight of my week, and not having it there anymore is honestly a very depressing... hole, for lack of better terms.

Secondly, I loved both the game itself, and its mechanics. Prior to last year, I hadn't actually ever played Dungeons and Dragons, or any other table top role-playing game for that matter. I'd played games using similar mechanics, but under the shiny interface of some kind of video game system. It was the first time that I'd gotten really down into the dirt that is the math beneath the flash. In fact, the game that I've been playing for the past few days, Knights of the Old Republic, happens to use almost the exact D and D system that I had learned during the past year. So, going back and playing it again gave me a new appreciation and understanding about the mechanics behind all of the fancy lightsaber swinging and blaster shots, thereby enriching my time playing the game.

And if all of that wasn't enough, the game was FUN. Ask just about anyone what the most important part of gaming is, and many of them will tell you it's all about having some fun. Between the amazing people and the interesting gameplay, and adding in some very adaptable storyline, Dungeons and Dragons happens to be one of the most fun games I've played, and trust me, I've played more than enough to know what I like. Besides, in what other game would you be able to slay the dragon using nothing but a tin can and some string?

Anyway, I think I've rambled on long enough. I'll still be updating next Sunday with something or other, so if you're interested in whatever I'll have to say, please, feel free to stick around.

Review: Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Hey, guys.

So it's come to my attention that I totally spaced and forgot to post something the past two update days. I feel like... well, I don't know what I feel like, but I'll get back to you on that. Meanwhile, I wanted to talk about something besides NaNo today, for once. I know, I know, such a shock and a travesty, and all sorts of other things, right?

Anyway, I've been playing a lot of games recently. Mostly just Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, though. That seems like a good enough topic to begin on, eh?

If you pay any attention at all to the world of video games and the like, you've probably heard mention of the AC franchise before. When the original was released it was a breath of fresh air, a new concept, and most importantly, FUN. The story was amazing, the action was absolutely awesome, and the fact that you could climb walls at your leisure was simply friggen' stunning. Flash forward a few years and now we have three console games, two hand-held games, a Facebook app, and one or two cellphone adaptations. Brotherhood happens to be the former of the three.

It picks up where you left off after the events of AC2, understandably, and immediately you're thrust into the world of Desmond Miles and Ezio Auditore de Firenze, his ancestor. If you haven't played and/or heard about Assassin's Creed, then you may want to shut your eyes, place your hands over your ears and yell "la la la, I can't hear you," at the top of your lungs, unless you're privy to spoilers and important plot points.

So basically, if you haven't a clue as to why Desmond is able to see, hear, act and think as his ancestor did, it's all due to a fun little device called the Animus. The Animus allows the user to essentially use their DNA to relive the memories of those that came before him or her. Now Desmond's ancestors happen to belong to an ancient order of assassins who fight against the Templar order, trying to keep them from assuming control of mystical and mysterious devices known as 'Pieces of Eden', and therefore taking control of the world at large.

Long story short, Desmond is taken in by the Templars, due to his illustrious ancestry, to track down these Pieces of Eden in their modern day holdings. He is soon rescued by an undercover agent of the assassins and spirited away to learn more about who he is and what he can do, and in the process, find the missing Pieces for the assassins. Anyway, at the start of Brotherhood, Ezio has defeated the big bad and had one such object in his possession, after which he was alerted of a doomsday prophecy and all of that fun stuff.

So Ezio is now in possession of the particular PoE the assassins of the modern world are looking for and it's only a matter of finding where he put it, right? Wrong. Something big happens, protagonist loses all of his armor, weapons, and some of his abilities (sad face, Metroid, sad face.) and we the player are forced to do it all again.

But, in order to stave away further spoilers, I'll leave it at that.

If I were to review Brotherhood properly, I'd say something like, "A good game, true to its predecessors, very stylish and polished. Story is up to par, and indeed, a fairly unexpected plot twist occurs at the end, causing a cliffhanger and a hook for the next installment (because there's almost a 100% chance of it happening - the series is much too successful for Ubisoft to call it quits here. Being milked like the cash cow it just so happens to be...)."

My judgment on AC: Brotherhood? Buy it, at the least for its replayability, but more than that, because it stands up to those that came before it and adds to the experience without bogging it all down.

Next update should be something more novel-ish. Or maybe turkeyish. I don't know, but I swear!

Should Characters be Treated as Real People?

Yesterday, I came across a post on the Fantasy Genre Lounge on the NaNo forums that regarded the topic of character "realness". For the past few years that I've known about the National Novel Writing Month, I've maintained that even though I may outline and plan, bordering on obsessively, my characters actually have the final say on plot outliers and the like. You know the deal, really interesting tangent that you figure you can fit into the main narrative to explain a little bit of one of your character's motivation and background? I generally chalk that up to the character in question begging to be explored a little more.

But, in keeping with topic, the author of the post brings up good points to the contrary of a character's life and reality (in the figurative sense, not the literal).

Writing a novel requires that you take mastery over the facets of your novel the way a skilled painter would the pigments on his or her palette. Your characters, plot, theme, setting, and dialogue are all under your exclusive control. No external force, no magical muse, is taking your hand and making you do anything. That's why I tend to feel frustration when I see a would-be author blaming one of the aforementioned for hijacking the tale.

I both agree and disagree with their sentiments here. Yes, you have direct control over what your characters say, think, do, and like. But sometimes there are points in which your mind begins to think as if it was the character. Your mind says, "hey, this would be something extremely cool to put in the story, because it explores a what-if situation you hadn't planned on". That's what I speak about when I say that my character set off on a tangent. I don't go out of my way and say that my character is writing the story using me as a vessel to set his words on paper (or screen).

You are telling the tale, and should be consciously making use of your novel's elements to do so. The lion's share of misplaced blame for novel derailment gets heaped on characters. When you're saying "My character refuses to do this!" what you're really telling us is that you've failed to give the character proper motivations in the story up to this point, and now your mind does not feel that it would be logical for the character to move on to your desired course.

Now this is something I definitely agree with the post's author on. Character motivations are a tricky business, but are absolutely essential to a good tale. Sometimes you as a writer forget to add something essential that would cause a character to do something or to think some particular way. That's the beginning of a pretty big plot hole just waiting to happen. Your inner editor stops you before you make the plunge into this plot hole, and that's when you run into issues in your will to write. That's when irrelevant tangents take over your story and it begins to act in a different way than you want. And if you don't want it that way, the readers likely won't either. To use a cooking analogy and try and warp it into a writing one, don't use a wine that you wouldn't drink to cook with. In writing, that becomes, if you don't like writing it, your reader won't like to read it.

One method is to go on the new logical route and see where it takes you. If you are a discovery writer, as opposed to someone who outlines, this can be a healthy process. If it's going to leave your story in shambles instead, or destroy all of the carefully laid plans for your plot, then you need to step back and rewind. Find out where you failed to give your characters proper motivation, and make the necessary changes. Take ownership of your characters as tools to tell your tale.

Of course, pantsers are allowed, and in fact celebrated. But here's another part where I agree with the post. If you don't directly control your characters when you're outlining, things can become very messy, very quickly; unless of course some of these subplots would actually work well with the main plot (see my original blurb).

The big pitfall of believing your characters are actual, sentient beings is that you lose the ability to tell the best possible story with them. Grow too attached and you'll always find a way to keep bad things from happening to the character. You'll enhance their traits until they're the embodiment of everything you want to be. You'll give them unrealistic rewards, or become blind to their faults. You'll stop using them to serve the needs of the story, and they will become a parody of excellence that you may adore, but no one else will want to read.

Sometimes, bad things need to happen to great characters to facilitate the best possible outcome. If you behave as if you're the characters' kind and loving creator, instead of an artist who is using a tool to shape your tale, you're always going to be tempted to mitigate any disasters that occur to your imaginary friends. 

Here, they make another very valid argument in why falling too "in love" with your characters is a massive mistake. In fact, to correlate their point, I'm going to pull an example from one of my favorite video games to show exactly what they mean. In Mass Effect, you play a character called Commander Shepard. In the most basic terms I can afford to use, they are a bad ass (trying to avoid pronouns because it's up to you whether they're male or female). But at the start of Mass Effect 2, the developers, BioWare decide to throw you a big 'ole curveball (you only need to watch 'till 2:49 for full effect). They aren't afraid to destroy what they've built in the first game in order to provide a richer storytelling experience. Many writers would do well to heed this advice, and don't grow too attached to their characters. Of course, just a little is necessary for believability, but as it is in almost all things, moderation is key.

So, what do you think about the issue? Are characters real entities, entitled to their own opinions apart from what you have set out for them? Or are they tools with awesome personalities and weird quirks that make you love them?

NaNoWriMo Countdown: 2 Days.

So last night was Dungeons and Dragons night, and as per pre-NaNo preparations, I told the group my intentions for the next month, and that I was definitely going to be above my word count goals for every Friday so that I could come and play with everyone instead of being a lonely miser. So, now this provides the all-important mid-November incentive and one of those fun (and more than a little creative) distractions I mentioned a few days ago. And, of course, I developed a few more scenes for the novel in dreams that I can eventually use to beef out the story and characters. Those are always good.

Today's post, however, has almost nothing to do with NaNo. It has to do with gaming, my other great love.

I mentioned D&D at the top of the post, a thing I regretfully only just found enjoyment in a few months ago. I believe that any gamer who is in the least bit interested in story-based gaming should give it a go at least once or twice. As for me, fancying myself a writer, as well as someone who enjoys a grand fantasy story, I should have found my love for this long, long ago. Okay, so that line about being about gaming, but not NaNo? You probably guessed by now, but I kinda lied. NaNo-ers can draw great inspiration from a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, no matter which era it happens to be. I personally am plying my fourth edition experience into my writing style.

Unfortunately though, tabletop gaming has seen a large decline (but definitely not death) at the hands of console gaming, and someone like me is left wondering how such a thing could happen. These things should coincide with each other. Tabletop gaming is a wonderful thing, and can forge great friendships, or perhaps strengthen those that already exist. But, what is really satisfying about games such as D&D is the interactions between two or more players in-character. This is the stuff that many writers should really pay attention to, because this interaction is just about as real as if the characters existed in the 'real' world. It provides important insight into character background, gives them their own voice, and most importantly, brings them to life - a skill that some, like myself, have struggled with in times past.

So, if you're a writer, make an attempt to go down to your local tabletop game store, see when they run (if they run) their D&D (or similar) games and sit in on one or two of them, you might be surprised with what you can come up with. Or, if you're feeling really adventurous, see if you can join in on the fun.

Rediscovering Old Favorites

I took a small peek through my game library to find something to play the other day, to find something rather interesting: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Now, this game was created by Bethesda Softworks in 2008* for Xbox, PS3, and PC, and I have had the pleasure of playing all three versions and comparing/contrasting all the visual differences. Now, no one should be offended by what I'm about to type - it should be rather blatant, actually, and unnecessary to say - but I believe that the best looking of the three is most definitely the PC version. Of course, this all depends on hardware, and that's a thing for perhaps another time.

However, it's continued beauty graphically aside, Oblivion has also aged well in another area I particularly love to see games flourish in: story. Add to this that Bethesda managed to actually merge gameplay and storytelling seamlessly, much like BioWare and it's fantastic lineup of RPGs, and Oblivion makes for one of, if not THE best game of it's year.

As I said, Oblivion has actually aged gracefully in terms of graphical quality; it was well ahead of its time, in my opinion. Almost the entire world is rendered at once, with minimal loading times between certain few areas (and of course, going inside/outside houses and dungeons), achieved by caching some of the data into the hard drive of whatever systems drives that particular copy. So, it's beautiful AND fast to render, which always quite impressed me.

All things aside, Oblivion is a great game, and if you haven't played it, I highly recommend that you do. It's simply an awesome experience.

*Edit: I totally meant '07.

In Working Order

So I've given a lot of thought towards my next big writing adventure (besides NaNoWriMo), and I'm getting excited to start working on it. It's been rather impatiently waiting in my head for quite some time now, and only now am I actually doing anything to put it down on to paper. I've got some character background done and I'll start working on outlining my plot in a few days. After that, it's just applying the characters and some exposition into the outline and I'll have the first draft of this thing going. Speaking of writing, I'll try and have an excerpt for everyone in a short while.

As for my NaNo project, it's a rethought version of a plot I had been planning for NaNo a few years back (when I was unable to participate). It's already outlined, I've gotten my characters all settled, and the only thing left to do is get the first draft done up during November. Shouldn't be too hard. I've been excited about this thing for years now. I've even gotten my excerpt almost finalized, and when I have it typed up and serviceable, I'll be putting it up here. If you're looking for timelines for all of this, expect my NaNo excerpt first. After that, it might be a week or two before I post the other - there's still a lot of work that needs doing on that one.

Then, on top of all that work, I need to finish off my last Warcraft fanfiction before I call my time with that line of work done. Which means that I need to get off my lazy ass and get in touch with my friend who I'm co-authoring it with, and get things moving. So, I have my work cut out for me within the next few months, between my writing, this blog, and that fail thing I call a podcast. That doesn't even include taking breaks for playing some games and getting that damnable job, too. Fun, fun, fun.

I'm thinking about making a section for game reviews here as well. If anyone besides me reads this, lemme know what you think.

I'm Richard, and I'm a Bungie Fanboy

So, I've finally got in touch (again) with the hiring manager at the place I'm trying to get a job at, and now I have to wait longer for this potential job to either come to fruition or be cast into oblivion. I hate the real world, sometimes. If only things would just work out, how easy would that be? Too easy, likely, but all the same, all of this run-around just makes me want to hurt something.

Anyway, with that out of the way, I'm obviously still sitting out on the release of Halo: Reach, while looking in. I've been trying not to even look at videos beyond the trailers for the game so I don't spoil it for myself. I'm basically willing to sell my soul for a copy of this game, although not so dramatically.

But, while we're on the topic of Reach, I don't think many people who play it will realize what a momentous occasion this truly is for the franchise. And I'm not just talking about it being the precursor to everything that's happened in the series so far; no, this is based solely on the developer, Bungie. Halo: Reach marks the final game that Bungie is making for the series before moving on to their next IP - which is undoubtedly going to be a smash hit, best-selling game. This means, that whatever comes next for the series is more than likely going to feel... well, different somehow. Not the same, at the very least.

Halo was Bungie's baby, from day one. The original RTS version of the game that got transformed into one of the best first-person shooters of this generation (last generation, if you're speaking consoles), that was the catalyst for arguably the best gaming series of the day and age; all of it came on the back of Bungie's excellent core of programmers and writers. The fact that they were able to take their project from real-time strategy and turn it into a workable (read: great) FPS is a testament to their flexibility, which has served them well. But, now it's all over. The trilogy's done, and now, even the prequel has been realized. I, for one, look forward to the next great Bungie game.

Posting Schedule After This Week

Alright, so for future references and for my sanity, I'll be imposing a schedule to which I will update this blog. So, anyone who actually reads this beyond myself, will have ample notice as to when to expect the next big blob of absolute nonsense to be posted on the site, and those who don't, well, won't.

So it'll be like this:

Sunday through Thursday, every day, whenever I can find the time, and I can remember to post things. Friday may or may not happen, depending on whether or not I'm in a rush to head off for Dungeons and Dragons (the real one, the one played with ACTUAL PEOPLE). Saturday is generally a no-go. This be my lazy day.

And there it is. When you can expect me to make a big 'ol fool of myself in semi-public.

As for tonight's post, I don't have much, beyond a short rant about my own stupidity. Awhile ago, I pre-ordered Halo: Reach, much like a lot of other people in the world. I was expecting to actually be employed by the time release date rolled around, but lo and behold, it didn't happen. So now, I'm a very unhappy person. Mostly at myself. GO ME. Let's just hope that I actually get this job by the end of this week. Perhaps that will change my mood. Then again, perhaps not. Moods are very fickle things, you see. More tomorrow, when I should actually have a topic to go off of.

I Believe an Introduction is in Order Here.

Hey, everyone, I'm Richard. Or, probably better known to everyone else on the internet, Python862. I like a lot of things. I like to read, I like to write (more on this later), I like to play video games (again, more on this later), and, I like to shamelessly promote myself on blogs that likely won't see much traffic beyond myself comment-whoring.

Now, when I say I like to write, I mean that I really like to write. It's one of my all time favorite hobbies, and at some point or other, I hope to be published, just like any other aspiring author. What do I write? Fiction, usually high fantasy or something along the lines of fantasy. I even have quite a selection of stories based upon well known properties (you know it as fanfiction), which, conveniently enough, are all posted upon fanfiction-dot-net. You can probably guess the username. However, I've since drifted away from that and am now focusing entirely on original material. Some of which I hope to excerpt every now and again here on this very blog.

I also happened to mention that I enjoy gaming. I'd rate this right behind writing in terms of hobbies, and it would likely explain why I wrote fanfiction for the longest time. I've recently gotten over an addiction (yes, an addiction, for that's what it was) to World of Warcraft, and I feel better for it. So much wasted time, it sickens me. Regardless, I continue to play games on various systems, most notably Modern Warfare 2 (for both Xbox 360 and PS3 - I'm just lucky like that) and the Mass Effect series (much <3, BioWare). So, with that said, I'm quite likely to start off on some sort of tirade on one issue with gaming or another. Just don't get me started with games being an issue for children's mental health - that's always been a topic I've been hot about.

So that's me in a nutshell. I hope that whoever reads this will stick with me for what I hope will be a long, fun ride in the adventures of variety.

Be Happy, everyone.