Right now, it has two. An installation of WordPress and ComicPress (for the aforementioned comic) which is still under development, and an installation of WordPress. This blog has been moved (imported all the old posts and everything) to this new home. The link is here.

If the comic goes well, I have room to install a forum, store, wiki, or anything else I happen to feel like to support it. Better yet, I think it will be perfect for when I want to start my story blog, because it allows advertising. Hurray!

So, I’ll see you at the new address, I hope!

Thanks for reading.

My first impression of the game wasn’t great. In retrospect, I can’t imagine why, but at the time, I wasn’t really drawn into it. But, I pressed on, and very quickly, the game consumed me.

Most importantly of all, the game is fun. They’ve created an excellent world, and moving around in it is exhilarating. I spent hours just running and jumping from roof to roof, and climbing up every tall building I could find. It feels incredibly natural, too. Seriously, dude is a ninja. Not just a ninja. A monkey ninja.

Combat, I know, is a big sore point for a lot of people in this game. I want to come right out and say that I enjoyed it. A lot. It wasn’t perfect; not by design, but by unfortunate unresponsiveness. I wouldn’t change anything about their combat system, but I would like it to work a little better. But it’s very rare that a game can pit one person against anywhere between one and seven (the most I ever fought at one time, though there were as many as twenty others waiting to jump in) enemies and still make you feel like you’re in control. Instead of being overwhelming, it’s very easy to manage, and combat flows smoothly, when the system works. As the game progresses, enemies get smarter instead of tougher, by using new tactics and responding more intelligently. It’s a much more refined system than enemies simply gaining more health and doing more damage. It was very satisfying to pull of my first successful counter, which resulted in my dodging the enemy’s blow, slicing through his kneecap then stabbing him through the chest. Awesome. Also, the variety of weapons were excellently chosen and implemented. My main concern with it is that the gameplay through the middle of the game is fairly repetitive, and your investigations for assassinations are very formula based. New city, climb high to get a good view, then find bitches to interrogate, pickpocket or eavesdrop on. Also sometimes there are informants, who’ll give you information if you collect flags or kill people stealthily for them. They feel like the least organic but most rewarding sources.

The story was definitely a high point for me, though I didn’t think it would be at first. Mostly because it’s actually to concurrently occurring stories, neither of which are particularly compelling at first. The basic plot is as follows: it’s the year 2012, and you’ve been kidnapped by some organisation. This is because your DNA contains the genetic memories of one of your ancestors and hence the location of a valuable treasure. They’ve developed a device which will let you relive those memories, but it’s too unstable to jump to the last memory, so instead, you have to work your way through all of them. The memories are divided into blocks, and as you progress through them, the real world story progresses too.

It’s a very clean and fairly original idea, and one they’ve implemented well. More importantly, though is how it ties in with and effects the gameplay (they also do an excellent job of this). As you’re reliving a memory, obviously it would be possible to stray from that. The game handles this in a few ways. Instead of a health bar, you have a sync bar. If you get completely desynchronised, you die, and have to start from the last checkpoint. If you get hurt, or do something your ancestor wouldn’t do (like kill an innocent civilian for example) it goes down. If you do the things he did, like climbing view points, it goes back up. It also comes back over time. Slowly.

Another important issue with this is the idea of failing something. For example, you want to pickpocket some guy, but he catches you. Obviously, it’s a game, and you need a way to redo it. But most games don’t cover it very well (there aren’t many organic ways of handling it, really, unless you introduce a spontaneous amnesia virus or something). Assassin’s Creed divides it into a memory pattern. If you fail, that little part of the memory re-loads itself, and the rest of the world stays in tact. It makes sense, and it works, something a lot of games don’t bother with, or else fail miserably.

Another highlight of the game for me was the dialogue. It was well written, and competently acted. Most of it was intriguing, though like any movie or novel, some of it was weaker than other parts. More interesting for me, though, was the (possibly unintentional) social commentary that emerged from some of it. For example, if you jump of a roof and land in the street, obviously, people are going to react. Same if you just randomly start climbing a building. Some responses to this include “He’s going to hurt himself, and I won’t help him”, “When will he stop acting like a child” and “Why is he being such a fool”. As I’ve mentioned previously, I think it’s a serious concern that people will do away with harmless actions as being childish, or foolish. I found it interesting that it would feature in this game (and since I did a lot of wall climbing, I heard it a lot). Weird.

An interesting point is the game’s cultural sensitivity. It’s set in 1191 in the ‘Holy Land’ including Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus. Templar Knights, Saracens, King Richard, all of these feature in the game (the last is only mentioned, I think, but still). There is a religious war going on, and in today’s climate, that’s ballsy territory. A lot of media today shies away from that kind of content. Granted, it’s in the past, but they still thought it was big enough to warrant a disclaimer at the start stating the game was developed by a multicultural team from a plethora of faiths. They didn’t seem to receive a lot of backlash over it either, which pleases me. Mostly, I’m glad to see that not everyone is terrified to include Muslims in their work. It also features as an interesting piece of history, though the further it goes on, the more they bend the truth, but it’s all in the name of the story they’ve concocted (you even have a conversation with your captor/scientist dude) about how it’s starting to be a little different to how you were taught.

Last of all, the game ends with a slight twist and a massive cliffhanger, so now I’m all fired up for the next one, which may be released in 2010. Great. Overall, I was very impressed by Assassin’s Creed, and I’d heartily recommend it. The mid-game is repetitive, but I found that the gameplay was still interesting enough to make me keep playing it, even if I did have to break it up over several days. Also, the end game is totally worth it story wise, but not so great gameplay wise. In every category, this game scores high with me. Of course, I don’t believe in actual scores (you may have noticed I’ve stopped actually grading things) but if I did, this would get some high numbers.

It was a legitimate concern, and one which I understand fully. But it’s not one that I’ve stopped to question.

It seems I had fallen into one of society’s myriad of cultural lifestyle traps, without even realising it. It’s not uncommon; we have everything we know and think about how we should spend our time drilled into us by a society that demands conformity to it’s mundane and repetitive rituals. As I’ve recently expressed, I’m painfully aware of the societal expectations of a life and how to use/spend it. We go to school to prepare us for a job, and we work until we’re too old, at which point we retire and/or die. Further to this system, we’re led to understand that time is a very valuable thing (not something I disagree with), and that any time we have that we don’t achieve something with is time wasted. Recreational time should be kept to a minimum, and to counteract the effects of more stressful ‘real life’ situations.

And I was of the same line of thought, deluding myself as to being separate. Because whilst I didn’t see myself as subscribing to the idea of being productive through working, I was nonetheless determined to use my time to achieve my own goals. For instance, writing and drawing. Not a bad thought to have, but one which occurs to me, now that I can step back and re-evaluate it, as something decidedly out of character for me.

Because I don’t believe I need to achieve anything with my day. I don’t feel that a day spent playing games and not writing a word is a day wasted. The regret that I feel on coming out of a day with nothing tangible to show for it, no achievements to list and feel satisfied in, was simply a societal construct, designed to lead me back to the path of work and money.

There isn’t any reason for me to rush to achieve these goals. Beyond what is expected of me, I have no motivation to complete anything within any set time frame. If I happen to set myself my own goals, that’s fine, and a perfectly acceptable motivation to work from. But if my only reasoning is based on what others think, and not something I’ve considered and decided for myself, well, it’s not something I can be comfortable with in the long run.

They’re just sketches, and crude ones at that. But I’m satisfied with them at this stage, and I thought having them out in the open would motivate me to work harder to improve them.

I’ve jumped back into fiction writing, with some definite results. I’m loving it. As always, I’m at my most creative post midnight, a fact which doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

Blogging has been put on the back burner a little, but I certainly haven’t forgotten about it.

Peace out.

It’s fairly simple so far. Go to new city, get information, kill motherfucker, run like hell. Then repeat. The repetition I can see getting a little annoying, but the gameplay, I think, will be able to sustain it.

Seriously, the dude is a ninja. Jumping around on rooftops, stabbing people with his finger-sword (yeah, he has a finger sword. How can he not be a ninja?) and leaping off tall towers. It’s so much fun! The combat is pretty good too, once you learn the counter move, it’s easy to take on a whole crowd of guards and win.

They’ve done some interesting things with the storytelling, too. Instead of it just being a medieval assassin game, you’re actually someone from what seems to be modern times, accessing the memory of your ancestor. So if you die, it just means the memory was wrong, and you can try again. Since it’s pretty much standard that games need to have a way to let you come back to life (extra lives, PoP’s life saving chick, or just inexplicable revival), I enjoy to see ways to shake that up and make it a little more interesting. They also block you from entering certain points by saying the memory of that area is inaccessible at that time.

I’ll review it when I’m finished with it, but for now, it’s looking pretty positive, but not outstanding.

Another short post. Sorry!

The first is writer. I consider myself, above all else, a writer. Writing is what I do, it’s what I love. I cannot deny that. What surprises me, though, is how readily I apply that label to myself. I have never had any of my work published, or made any money off of writing. My writing consists almost entirely of this blog, and several fictional works that I have yet to complete. I have experimented, and branched out, but never successfully. And I say that not in a dejected manner, merely an amused one. To consider myself a writer at this juncture of my life should feel odd, but it doesn’t. It feels right. (Was slightly tempted to make a right/write pun there. Be glad I didn’t.)

The other is insane. Whomever is asking, the response will be the same. I am in-fucking-sane. And this, too, I mean genuinely. Not that I think I belong in an asylum. I don’t believe I function significantly differently to ‘normal’ to be incompatible with normal society. And I am very easily able to disguise my differences and abnormalities. But it becomes more apparent to me every day that my brain does not function the way everyone else’s does. And I’m okay with that. Hell, I fucking love that.

Anyway, I have little else to add today. I know, it’s uncharacteristically short. But there you go.

Twitter is growing on my daily. I wish everyone had a twitter, I really do. I’ve found several internet personalities to follow, but sadly only one friend so far. Not that there’s anything wrong with that friend, I just wish my friends outnumbered the randoms.

1UP was bought out recently. For those out of the loop, 1UP was a video games network/community. It was because of them that my passion for video games was reignited, and I subscribed to 5 of their podcasts, as well as their RSS feed. The reason I’m speaking about them in past tense is that accompanying their new purchase was the firing of the vast majority of their staff. To really convey the significance of this, I need to explain something. The success and popularity of 1UP was almost entirely due to its personalities. They didn’t offer anything unique, different, or even superior to other game networks. But the people who worked their (and this came through strongest in the podcasts) really defined it, and helped provide a unified and entertaining medium for games media. Without them, the network has nothing. It would be similar to buying McDonalds, but using all of your own recipes instead. Or buying Apple, and replacing all their computers with PCs. It’s not only completely fucking stupid and pointless, they’ve essentially bought a successful, popular boat, made the crew walk the plank, then set it on fire. Anyway, it’s very disappointing news to me, but I sincerely hope they all land on their feet, because they have the potential to do even greater things than they were already doing.

I found a way to install Starcraft the other day. I haven’t played it in years. It’s not anywhere near as fun as I remember. It hasn’t aged too well, but it’s done a hell of a lot better than several other games I could mentioned.

I’ve decided to continue RoB in third person, instead of the multiple first person perspective I’ve been using. Even switching between characters, I’m finding it limiting, and there weaker moments that just can’t be strengthened to my liking using the first person perspective. It was a hard choice, but I’m happy with it now. I think I write (fiction) a lot better from the third person perspective. I won’t go back and re-write what I’ve done just yet though. I’ll pick up where I left off, and go back to the start when I reach the end. Otherwise, I’ll never reach the end.

I watched Seinfeld for the first time a couple of days ago. The first and second seasons. It’s one of those shows that I’m aware is a classic, and has earned itself eternal fame in one form or another. Like The Simpsons, or Friends. Having said that, I did not find it at all entertaining. It was incredibly bland, basic and weak. The characters were annoying and there was nothing at all about it that drew me in. I think it was more impressive when it came out because (to the best of my understanding) it was entering a reasonably new genre of television, and there wasn’t a lot to compare it to. It may have paved the way for funnier, smarter, and in every conceivable way superior shows like friends, much like The Simpsons paved the way for shows like Family Guy and other animated comedies, without being particularly strong itself. I am a Simpsons fan, but I can recall countless hours quoting Family Guy with friends, and barely a single Simpsons quote. Ever.

I’m aware that I am currently very unfit right now. I’m also dangerously close to being underweight. Those two items don’t cooperate well. My low weight is hardly a motivation to stay in shape. If I were fat, on the other hand, I would be very motivated (I hate fatties). I also have no appetite, but that’s due to a very messy state of affairs that I won’t go into in such a public forum. It’s not a great place for me, physically, but I am still healthy. I just need to be very careful.

Rambling is far too easy. If I got paid for this, I would be set for life. Unfortunately, no-one wants to pay for this. And not nearly enough people could ever be interested enough in it for advertisers to be interested in it. Unfortunate.

Apple announced a new iLife with almost 0 features of interest to me, a new iWork with literally 0 features of interest to me, and coming soon, a DRM free iTunes with variable song pricing (instead of one flat rate for all songs). That one does excite me, if only slightly. I’m more interested in their next OS (Snow Leopard) and a possible Tablet Mac (Which has been rumored for an eternity but never found its way into existence).

And that, I think, concludes this post.

I find it difficult to support a decision to prohibit pornography. Prohibiting it suggests, or more accurately, accuses without fair trial, that something is in some way unfit to exist. Essentially, it takes a personal stance on the issue and applies that opinion to every single person. By banning porn, you are making a blatant statement that not only do you believe it is wrong (and you’re more than welcome to think so) but that you don’t believe anyone, anywhere, should have access to it. And that, I have a problem with.

And not because it’s porn. I don’t think that anything should be outlawed. But I’m going to stay on topic, and only discuss porn in this post, to the best of my ability.

If you personally have a problem with it, you are well within your rights to, and I know this is a radical suggestion, not view it. Allow me to say that again, nice and simple. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to view it. I know, shocking, right? You are also more than welcome to make your stance on the issue clear to anyone and everyone that you feel the need to. You can set up websites, write your little blog, hell, get your own national TV show. You can tattoo it across your forehead and surround it with a big neon sign. I don’t give a shit.

What you cannot do, and I really can’t stress this enough, is tell other people what to think of it. Again, this applies to anything. Your heartfelt objections do not give you the right to force them on anyone else, no matter why you have them. One more time, DO NOT FORCE YOUR OPINION ON OTHER PEOPLE.

And by making porn illegal, you are doing exactly that. You are saying, ‘Your views on porn are unimportant. We disagree with it, so you will too. No questions.’ And I say, fuck that. Who are you to decide? No, if people want to view it, you can’t stop them. That’s depriving people of their own civil liberties, and it’s wrong.

Note that unlike you, I am not forcing these views on anyone. I haven’t tried to get a law passed that prohibits the prohibition of anything. I’m simply stating my views, and no-one is any the worse for it. You could try it sometimes.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not opposed to the regulation of pornographic materials. Anything with an adult nature/content needs to be restricted. I do agree that children shouldn’t be exposed to certain things (though that is a rant for another day, political correctness my ass). But regulating something is very different to removing it altogether.

You may have noticed I haven’t outlined my own personal stance on porn. That is because it is not relevant. What I’m objecting to here is not anyone’s stance on the issue, but, and I can’t say this enough times, forcing that stance on other people. I don’t agree with banning porn, I also don’t agree with porn being forced on people (though that, I’m sure, is a far more esoteric concern). I think everyone should have the right to choose what they view, and not have it made for them by some power hungry government (or anyone else, for that matter).

Oh, and for the record, I have no objections to porn, but I have no interest in it myself.

Twitter allows you to follow others if you have an account, but even without an account, you can subscribe via RSS. I tried RSS before migrating to my own account, and it worked well enough, though I would tend to get bulk updates instead of regular ones. Before that, I would simply check back every now and again, and that seemed to work just as efficiently as anything else, given my relatively low interest in the site, and the equally low number of people I followed.

The characters of Alex and Becky are a lot more to me than just the comic. I am constantly searching for new ways to expand on them, and indulge myself through them. Both have blogs, of course, and those are fine, though I find myself with little motivation to actually write them, having not fleshed out enough of their existences to write blog entries. Twitter, on the other hand, being only short updates, will not only circumvent this issue, it will allow me to develop them further, and upon achieving a satisfactory level of this, I can return to their blogs triumphant, and set about blazing a new literary trail.

I drew both of them for the first time today. Pencil sketches, nothing impressive. And nothing that will ever see the light of day, nor fall under the scrutiny of another living being. It means that now they have very real physical images associated with them to me, and that brings them one step closer to being real. With a bit of refining, and a method of colouring that is both pleasing and relatively simple, I should be reasonably close to revealing their appearances to the world (read: you).

Speaking of colouring, I have decided to try my hand at old school inking, that is, colouring with actual ink. The commonplace MO today being, of course, through Photoshop. However, to colour in Photoshop (or in my case, free equivalent GIMP) also requires the inking of the lines to be done digitally. Without a graphics tablet, the process of inking the lines digitally is messy and imprecise, and not something I am up to the challenge of just yet. So instead, I’ll do everything by hand, and then scan the finished product. I think I’ll probably still to word balloons digitally though, if not just the text. We’ll see.

Beyond that, I think I’m finally ready to start writing RoB again. My main problem right now is that the weather (yes, the weather is a problem, stay with me) is quite warm (to my sensitive self, intolerable) and I write with my laptop on, shockingly, my lap. Since my laptop generates even more heat, I am left sweaty, uncomfortable, and hot. In such a condition, I cannot possibly feel motivated to write. I can’t write with the laptop on the desk (I’ve been too far converted to slothful, bed-ridden ways) and the more I put between my legs and my laptop, the more hot I get anyway. If anyone could suggest a solution, I’d be eternally grateful. Preferably, one that won’t cost me a lot of (or any) money. 

Regarding the blog story, I’ve decided that neither option services my needs perfectly, so I’m still in search of the perfect outlet. If only WordPress allowed for advertising! (Technically, they actually do, but it requires a VIP account, with a $600 set up fee and a $300 monthly fee. I know, great value, right?) Of course, if I were enough enough from it to cover a $300 monthly fee and still make a profit, I would be ecstatic. If only…

Money has become a critical factor in my life, and I am currently locked in a struggle to obtain it, without compromising my own ideals. I may be forced to do the unthinkable, and get a job I hate (Coles doesn’t count; I can’t quit because I need a stable source of income for my phone bill, if nothing else). I would personally sooner be poor, but I have commitments to other people that require to me have money, and at some point it becomes necessary to decide which is more important to me.

Anyway, I think I’ve rambled long enough. Fuck I’m hungry…

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