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library-with-tales · 4 years ago

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Bungou Stray Dogs Band AU that I spontaneously came up with like a second ago.

Based off the mobile game if you haven’t noticed. Someone probably already thought of this buuuuut I like my idea so here we go:

World setting

Port Mafia, Armed Detective Agency and The Guild are music agencies while the other smaller groups are just bands (haven’t read manga yet but I’m aware there are other groups). The Special-too-long-of-a-name people are the big boy cooperation (I am so uneducated with the music world why do I do this to myself).

Port Mafia are filled with talented people yes, but they have the habit of straining the music artists sometimes (this will be relevant in a bit) and are more focused on the monz. If you want a reference, their music are on the same level as your good ol’ big pop groups, the real famous on the radio ones.

Armed Detective Agency (in this case they’re called Armed Music Agency, yes they are still armed) is a smaller agency since they prioritize quality and feelings over quantity and catchiness, which makes them pretty indie tbh, They have songs that don’t particularly appear on the radio a lot, if not, not at all. Though they’re talented all the same.

The Guild are basically the equivalent to K-pop and J-pop, not quite famous in Yokohama, but definitely famous enough to go on tour there.

Atsushi’s arc

There were a few ideas for him (music school was in the draft but I dunked it faster than I pulled it up) but it boils down to one thing: Atsushi accidentally becomes a famous singer from an old video he made when he wasn’t fully into music yet. He, being the oblivious guy he is, suddenly starts gaining fans and is beyond confused yet appreciates it very much.

Though not sure why people are calling him the Beast below The Moonlight (Plot twist, you big stupidhead, that was the title of the old song you made). He goes along with it though, calling himself Moon Tiger, which is so him honestly.

Anyways it’s not Dazai if he doesn’t try to drown himself so while Atsushi’s vibing by the open canal he just sees him. Like canon, Atsushi saves Dazai. But the thing about Atsushi is; he’s camera shy and most of his videos have him covering his face and out of camera view, so Dazai doesn’t immediately recognize him as the famous youtube singer.

As thanks, Dazai treats Atsuhi to dinner with Kunikida, and Dazai has a hunch that Atsushi is Moon Tiger so they start a small convo about it. Atsushi’s all; “ERRRRMMMMMMM” and he wants to leave until:

“Y’know, whoever Moon Tiger is, I’d totally pay a lot of money to hear him sing.” Dazai hums. Kunikida kinda agrees to this, saying how talent like his shouldn’t come totally for free. Atsushi doesn’t ask for donations or get youtube money (because he dunno how :( ) so he’s almost flat broke, and this kinda perks his interest.

“Actually, uh, I kinda know Moon Tiger. I didn’t want to bring it up because I thought you’d ask for autographs or something ha ha. I agree with the paying part.” Atsushi you’re low key greedy ngl, Pre-Bullshit Atsushi was greedy. Money-eyed hoe. “If you want I can get you to meet him, but he won’t wanna show his face so it’s gotta be somewhere he can hide himself while still being able to sing.”

“Done!” Dazai holds his hand out like it’s some sort of deal. “I know a place.”

I’m sorry Dazai, but I’m not smart or sexy as you, so I don’t know the place. Let’s go with the regular canon spot, yeah? And Dazai listens while Atsushi sings behind a big crate and when Atsushi is done, he expects money but he gets a thunderous applause instead and suddenly his identity is revealed and everyone is clapping and staring at him super amazed.

And Atsushi faints from being too overwhelmed.

Anyways, things happen, some parts are alike to canon, some parts aren’t. Atsushi’s main goal in this AU is to get over his terrible stage fright while simultaneously trying to avoid clashing with Port Mafia, who at first, wants to recruit him before he fully signs the contract with AMA.

I don’t know how battles would work in this, but they happen.

Dazai’s backstory

So my man Dazai amirite?

Not a surprise, he used to be under Port Mafia. At some point he does numerous collabs with free lancer Chuuya because Chuuya’s little sheep band had an issue with copyright with Port Mafia (oops).

Onto the main course though: Odasaku.

Ango is in charge of Oda and Dazai, who usually does music together because they’re friends (hurray). But Oda had long gave up on doing vocals because his throat just couldn’t handle it, he much prefers writing music and Dazai doesn’t mind because he never has extremely big ideas anyways.

A clash with Mimic happens and Mori’s all: We need more music we need to stay number one. And so -I dunno how- he forces Oda to finally use his voice to sing via Ango’s persuasion.

Oda completely loses his voice in the end, like he completely damaged it, and he can’t handle the music industry anymore so he leaves. And Dazai’s all: “Don’t go please.”

And Oda writes on his phone and holds it out for Dazai, “This agency. It doesn’t care much for music, does it? I used to sing because I liked singing, because there were feelings in it. But slowly this agency stopped me from being able to do that. Dazai. Don’t you think you should sing with feelings too? You’ve never made an opinion on my ideas, is it because you can’t or you won’t?”

And Dazai realizes he only likes doing music because of the people around him, especially Oda, and now that Oda isn’t in Port Mafia anymore, it just isn’t the same. He’s been making music to grab people’s attention and not much because he wanted to. So he decides to change and switches agencies.

(His relationship with Akutagawa is as straining as canon; “I don’t care about how you made this dumb song, it’s not good enough! How will anyone want to listen to this crap?” Now Aku’s music are catchy and all but lacking in meaning.)

Other things

Yosano’s music is pretty rough, but it literally lets all the feelings out, so it becomes pretty nice. So you know that music that cures this and cures that? That’s Yosano’s music, except it’s really hardcore. I don’t know how she does it, she just does.

Kyouka is the daughter of two big music geniuses and is expected to be the same, so she gets an immediate acceptance into Port Mafia and it nearly breaks her until Atsushi meets her. During a concert or something -because in the end, Atsushi’s still the fan boy type- Atsushi goes up to Kyouka and asks if she’s okay and stuff.

“I’ve made 35 songs, but I can’t...hear my own voice, my own music...” Your Lie in April ref do not hunt me please.

Ranpo is known to have serious in depth meaning behind his music, and a good 20% are just matryoshka songs (he gives out stuff if you find out if his song is an in depth meaning one or just nonsense that somehow speaks meaning while having no theme at all)

Poe’s are somewhat the same as Ranpo, except they’re more like stories to be honest, and his songs get numerous fan interpretation and so far, Ranpo always gets it right. The only one who ever does without missing a beat (ha ha got em.)

Debating if I should just make Kunikida an agent or a music artist that just likes writing songs rather than performing them.

Naomi could be an idol ngl but she’s not, she’s her brother’s number one fan! (She’s a secretary in the agency.)

Chuuya’s more famous for his pretty looks than his music at this point, but it doesn’t mean he’s a shit music artist though.

Higuchi is Aku’s agent.

Kenji’s songs are so happy and go-lucky it makes anyone listening to it feel pumped up. Hence his music are often used in AMVs or sports exercise (what a range!)

Yumeno’s music are those cursed type of songs that weren’t meant to be creepy or weird to begin with (e.g Tonight You Belong To Me, it’s an innocent song yet it can be taken as horror(?)) but end up becoming one anyways.

Dazai’s songs are so sad sometimes but they’re always upbeat. A weird yet perfect balance for his listeners.

That’s all I got! Honestly, don’t really know how to develop The Guild in this, maybe one day I will.

#bungou stray dogs #bsd #band au #dazai osamu #atsushi nakajima #kunikida doppo #yosano akiko #odasaku sakunosuke #kyouka izumi #akutagawa ryuunosuke #yumeno kyuusaku #edogawa ranpo #edgar allen poe #higuchi ichiyo #kenji miyazawa #tanizaki naomi #nakahara chuuya

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thedeaditeslayer · 6 years ago

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Bruce Campbell Calls Hosting ‘Ripley’s Believe It Or Not’ A ‘No-Brainer,’ Pans Hollywood’s Lack Of Originality.

This interview includes a hint of more “Evil Dead” but for what we would like you to consider is to take it with a grain of salt. The interview covers various topics but mostly Ripley’s Believe it or Not.

Over the course of his storied career, actor Bruce Campbell has brought to life many memorable, colorful characters. As the definitive character-actor-trapped-in-a-leading-man’s-body, he’s portrayed Elvis in the campy Bubba Ho-Tep, Ronald Reagan in Fargo, Sam Axe in Burn Notice, and is, perhaps, best known as the Deadite-killing Ash Williams in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead franchise.

As the Travel Channel prepares to relaunch Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!, Campbell finds himself in the role of host, introducing us to a fresh round of the spectacular and amazing. Over the course of 10 episodes, he’ll invite viewers on a journey to explore the lives of people capable of incredible things.

“Shooting this iconic series in the Ripley’s warehouse was actually unbelievable,” said Campbell. “I was blown away by the treasures that unveil a fascinating time capsule into the past and present. Fans are not going to be disappointed when they see the scope of wonderful and weird stories we reveal every week.”

Bruce Campbell was groovy enough to get on the phone with me and talk about his new gig with the Ripley’s relaunch, the fates of some of his iconic characters, and the lack of originality in Hollywood — all with the grace to forgive my fanboying.

Kevin Tall: Hey Bruce! I appreciate you taking some time to talk to me.

Bruce Campbell: I happened to be in the neighborhood so I thought I’d step in.

KT: I usually make an effort to at least pretend to be professional but I’m not sure I’m going to pull it off today.

BC: That’s exactly right.

KT: I do want to say it’s an honor to talk to you and I promise I’ll do my best to keep my inner fanboy in check.

BC: Very good.

KT: Can I call you ‘El Jefe’?

BC: Whatever you’d like, sir.

KT: Groovy. Alright. So, coming soon to a cable network near you, you’re hosting the newest incarnation of ‘Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!’ on the Travel Channel. How did you come to be attached to the project?

BC: Things come across the old desk, you know, and you evaluate them. And this was a no-brainer. I still have the Ripley’s book, the red cloth-covered book with those strange illustrations of people doing crazy stuff inside. As a kid, I had it on a shelf so I’m like, ‘Yeah I know Ripley’s.’

And I haven’t done a show like this in a while; I’ve hosted stuff. Back in Detroit, I got my Screen Actor’s Guild card doing training films for industrials, for Chrysler, and some of the other companies. Now I’m back doing it again, so here I am… I guess, showing people, in this case, it’s not about the cross-section of a Chrysler car seat but people doing extraordinary things.

KT: Ah, cool. Part of me thought this revival of Ripley’s could have just been a thinly-veiled attempt at revenge on Dean Cain for stealing the television role of Superman out from under your chin in the 90s.

BC: No, no revenge necessary on Mr. Cain. I see him at conventions all the time.

KT: While I do feel you have the superior jawline, I was a huge fan of ‘The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.’ There have been several Supermen but there was only one Brisco County. Er, two, if you count his dad.

BC: Anyone can play Superman.

KT: Would you ever consider reprising the role of Brisco?

BC: Brisco would be fine. You could do Brisco Rides Again. He started as a lawyer and then someone has to get killed. I’ll put the spurs back on, sure.

KT: So I got to see a screener of the first episode of Ripley’s. I have an idea if you’re open to suggestion.

BC: OK.

KT: Do a follow up in which you balance on a slack line while swallowing a sword and someone throws playing cards at you from a ladder balanced on someone else’s chin.

BC: [Laughs] I think you’ve got it. I think you should work for the Travel Channel.

KT: So your parts were shot on location at the Ripley’s warehouse in Orlando.

BC: Yes, yes, we shot at THE warehouse.

KT: Did you get to see anything amazing or… unbelievable?

BC: You know, the warehouse, where would you start? It is the closest we have to one of those Indiana Jones-type warehouses. It’s probably the most richly appointed warehouses in the world, I would say. They’ve collected for a hundred years. I can’t think of anyone else, maybe the Smithsonian, but Ripley’s is probably a close second. Ripley’s might have more stuff than the Smithsonian, that would be a fun one to test.

KT: Which do you think would have more body parts?

BC: Well, Ripley’s would have more body parts.

KT: OK, but the Smithsonian does have John Dillinger’s, well, you know.

BC: So the rumor goes.

KT: As they say. So, speaking of ‘Believe It or Not!,’ I still can’t believe you retired iconic character, Ash Williams. Are you sticking to that? No way I can talk you into reconsidering?

BC: Yeah, I’m sticking to that; it gets easier every year.

KT: [Laughs] Fair enough.

BC: I’m still doing video games, I’m doing voices for Ash. I’m just not going to grovel in the blood anymore.

KT: I think that’s fair. It’s not retiring the character, just a retirement plan.

BC: I’m retiring from certain types of roles, ones that require looking at tennis balls on sticks.

KT: I’m excited to see you’ve got the paperback for ‘Hail to the Chin’ coming out; I was a big fan of ‘If Chins Could Kill.’ Although when you were teasing that on social media, I think a couple of fans interpreted that as a little bit of foreshadowing of a new gig for Ash.

BC: That’s fine. Fans are always going to do that. Everyone’s a genius, everyone’s got opinions and the internet fans the flames. No, it’s all good. They’re going to see different versions, they’re going to be seeing more ‘Evil Dead,’ too. We’re not done with the ‘Evil Dead’ saga, more stories to tell.

KT: Do you think Fede Alvarez might return?

BC: I don’t know, Fede’s a big Hollywood director now. I don’t know if Fede needs this. We’ll have to see.

KT: Everyone needs a passion project.

BC: Fede had it. Fede came and pitched his version of ‘Evil Dead.’

KT: Any juicy tidbits you want to tease from the ‘Requiem For Ash’ Edition?

BC: It’s a fuller explanation of the birth, life, and death of ‘Ash vs. Evil Dead’ and then the ultimate retirement of that character. It’s a little more of an essay approach, it’s a little more esoteric.

KT: Psychologically, what is it about Ash Williams that inspires such devotion from fans?

BC: Because he is the fans, the fans are him. Ash has no skills, Ash doesn’t come from another planet, he comes from Michigan. He’s the guy you want in the foxhole, but he probably got low SAT scores. So people watching him, I think they root for him because they’re like, ‘Damn, that’s like my neighbor. That’s like if my neighbor decided to save the world from evil.’ Kind of like that. That’s how I look at it and that’s how we played it. That’s why it was worth bringing the guy back 48 years later to try it again… He’s the ultimate anti-hero, anti in that he can’t even get out of bed, you know?

KT: He comes across as an oafish, ill-mannered lout as well.

BC: Of course, but you know what? He was written in an ancient book, so there’s more to him than just the trailer park guy. That’s what was fun exploring.

KT: The prophecy of the ultimate average guy.

BC: Exactly.

KT: Got it. You’ve had a number of memorable, colorful roles over the years, from Ash to Brisco, Autolycus to Sam Axe, even a fictionalized version of yourself in ‘My Name Is Bruce’ (shout out to Guan Di, the patron saint of bean curd). Is there one, in particular, you’ve enjoyed playing the most, above all others?

BC: Elvis was pretty fun. I think most American males would have enjoyed playing that part. Playing President Reagan on ‘Fargo’ was fun, I used to imitate him with my buddy, John Cameron, who produced that show. In the ’80s we were both subjected to endless Reagan on television. That was fun.

KT: Have you been in that situation professionally, where you’ve gotten kind of a lousy role on a great show?

BC: Well, I’m better at saying no to stuff now, so hopefully I won’t find myself in that situation nearly as much.

KT: Circling back to Elvis, there was talk of a ‘Bubba Ho-Tep’ follow-up years ago. What are the chances of that coming together?

BC: Zero. I’ve retired that character as well. I’ve notified Don Coscarelli and Joe Lansdale. You know, it’s Don Coscarelli’s project, he’s more than welcome to forge ahead. We couldn’t crack the script the way I saw it and we were going to come to loggerheads. I didn’t want to do that, so I backed out because I know now if the script isn’t where it needs to be, the movie will not get there either.

KT: Marlon Brando advised a young(er) Johnny Depp to play Hamlet before he got too old for the role. Are there any of those iconic types of roles you’d like to tackle?

BC: Of iconic people?

KT: Yeah. Just those classic roles from that sort of timeless production, like ‘Hamlet.’

BC: No. No, I don’t, because I like original stuff. I mean, if we’re going to remake something, let’s remake our own stuff. That’s the case with ‘Bubba Ho-Tep.’ It won’t be as good and people will only remember that you blew it on the second try.

KT: So the legacy of the project would be one of failure.

BC: You have to have original stuff out there to make up for the movies that have a seven, eight, and nine after them.

KT: The old maxim is that there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

BC: Yes, except ‘Ripley’s Believe It or Not!’ There’s never too much of that.

KT: [Laughs] Well played, fair enough. Fan question: Who would win in a left-handed arm wrestling match, Ash Williams or Sam Axe?

BC: I don’t do those questions, because they’re hypothetical and impossible to answer.

KT: Can you hook me up with a six-pack of Ash’s favorite beer, Shemp’s?

BC: No, because it’s fake.

KT: Well, Bruce, I came here to ask questions and kick ass, and I’m all out of questions.

BC: Let’s go kick ass!

KT: Again, thanks so much for taking some time to talk with me and putting up with my silliness and unending admiration.

BC: Yeah, my friend. All good. Thank you, sir. Have a good day.

KT: Thanks, Bruce!

BC: Cheers.

#Bruce Campbell #Ripley's Believe it or Not #Ash vs. Evil Dead #Ash vs Evil Dead #Evil Dead

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diamondcitydarlin · 6 years ago

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okay been thinking about how I would’ve written a more general Varric romance into DA:I, which was the original goal of my story here but it became more specific to him and my character so here’s how I would’ve set it up for anyone, had I been given the honor of doing so. Which never would’ve happened. But my husband now works in the video game industry SO YOU NEVER KNOW. HMU EA or Bioware or whoever handles that now. Anyway here’s my pitch, PART 1 (I haven’t planned the rest out yet, bear with me):

1. Flirt options, obviously, just after the first cutscene convo at Haven. To these Varric will generally humor the Inquisitor and flirt back because at the earliest point it’s harmless fun. Maybe some dialogue like,

Inquisitor: Do you always leave your chest exposed during battle? Seems dangerous.

Varric: Sure. You see it, kinda hard to contain, so I don’t bother.

Inquisitor: Oh, I’m not complaining, just making sure what’s eye candy for the rest of us isn’t a death sentence for you.

Varric: I’ve come this far, haven’t I? Gaze to your heart’s content, my ego feeds on it.

And/or maybe when he mentions he’s written a romance series;

Inquisitor: So...bodice-ripper, smut pieces, then?

Varric: Not all of it, but yeah, you could say things get a little heated in parts.

Inquisitor: Do you...write from experience?

Varric: Well, you know what they say, write what you know...which I rarely do, but when it comes to heaving bosoms and all of that it seems only appropriate.

Inquisitor: I’ll definitely have to give Swords and Shields a try then.

Varric: Try one of my better sellers before you do. Not saying the writing is much better, but I’d rather have Hard in Hightown be the first impression.

Maybe more, but you get the idea. The flirting is just kind of fun and easy at that point, but I’m thinking things should ramp up a bit at Skyhold if the player is keen to pursue. I think at this point there’d be a dialogue option during the first encounter at Skyhold, maybe something like;

Inquisitor: I’m glad we all made it out of there in one piece...you especially.

Varric: Why me especially? I’m probably the most useless addition to this rag-tag band of misfits.

Inquisitor: I enjoy your company./You make me laugh, that’s just as important as anything else./ (backing out) Yeah...now that I think about it, maybe you’re right.

Varric: -laughs- I’m glad to hear someone does./ -teasing- Why not try a court jester then?/ Whoa...didn’t need to own that so quickly. I’m an extra pair of hands with a good crossbow, let’s not forget.

Inquisitor: (continuing the laugh dialogue option) I can get you a jingly hat if it makes you feel more at home.

Varric: (continuing the laugh dialogue option) It might. I’m gonna hold you to that.

Varric continues to deflect with humor a bit at this point, but I think there’ll still be flirtation options in the meanwhile, like maybe at his greeting of, “Did you need something or did you just come to admire the Dwarf?” which might only be accessible if you had been flirting successfully with him to this point the Inquisitor could have the option to say, “Maybe a little bit of both.”

Things more or less stay as they are until the ‘Well, Shit’ quest pops up along with the infamous Bianca. An Inquisitor that has been pursuing to this point could get some extra dialogue options in the course of things. I’m thinking especially at the end where something could be said in the cut scene like,

Inquisitor: You deserve better, Varric.

Varric: Do I though?

Inquisitor: I think so. And I don’t speak just out of personal interest.

Varric:....shit. That makes things a lot more complicated. Maybe not a bad complicated, but...I don’t know. I guess I thought we were joking around, if I knew it was more than that for you-...

Inquisitor: Isn’t it for you? We’ve been through a lot together already.

Varric: I’m not saying it isn’t. There’s no bluff to call here, I like you...okay, I like you a lot, but shit’s complicated. You’ve got the end of the world to think about and I’m obviously a mess. Bianca and I have been going around in these circles forever, I wouldn’t really know how to put a stop to it. I’m still not sure I want to. But yes, since you’re asking, the feeling is probably mutual. I just don’t know what’s the right thing to do here.

Inquisitor: Maybe you’ll have to make a choice. A difficult one, but we’re all doing that, aren’t we? / If it really is the end of the world then we only have today. Maybe we should make the most of it instead of thinking so hard about a future that may or may not come. / (backing out) You’re probably right, there’s too much in the way.

Varric: (to the first two choices) Yeah...it’s tough to admit, but you’re right. / If it’s any consolation, I am sorry. If things were different...well, who knows? I’m glad you understand and, for what it’s worth, I really enjoy being your friend. Maybe, at least for now, that’s enough.

Varric: (to the first two choices) Listen, I have a lot to think about right now, but...I’ll try not to keep you waiting too long for an answer.

So, some time goes by. Things would be set up so that ‘Well, Shit’ would happen before the Winter Palace quest, so if the first two dialogue options were chosen and the romance not shut down, in true love-interest fashion Varric would join you on the balcony after everything, after Morrigan sashays away. Dialogue could go something like this;

Varric: Some party, huh? I was almost glad for the venatori, that shit I can handle.

There would be options here to deflect with other subjects, like about the Inquisitor’s choices, etc, but I’ll just follow through with the positive romance stuff here

Inquisitor: Are we...going to have the talk?

Varric: -sighs- Yeah. I said I wouldn’t keep you waiting, hopefully it wasn’t too long. I...wrote Bianca. Not so much because I’m convinced I deserve better, but after the shit at Valammar...I don’t know. I can’t risk Inquisition secrets and Thedas’ security and your time for her. Not if I’m going to be here for the foreseeable future.

Inquisitor: I appreciate that. Any...other reason?

Varric: -coughs out a nervous laugh- I’m not...really good at this sort of thing. Maybe that’s why my romance serials bombed so hard. You know how I feel, I just...don’t know about jumping from one thing into another so fast.

Inquisitor: So, you’re asking for space and time to figure it out?

Varric: We only have so much of that...but yeah, if I can be so selfish. Maybe we can just take things slow and see where it goes?

You’ll have the option here of course to be like ‘that doesn’t work for me’ and put an end to it, but as I’m writing the positive stuff,

Inquisitor: Slow and steady...works for me./ Whatever you need, I’ll go at your pace.

Varric: Glad to hear it. I do really want to see where this goes.

He’ll then look back at the ballroom and get an idea, to which he’ll offer,

Varric: A dance seems as good a start as any, and since we’re here...

Inquisitor: I’d like that. / I’m not much of a dancer, but since you’re the one offering...

Varric: Let’s uh...let’s keep it out here though. I’ve been trying to make myself scarce from the Merchants Guild.

(Player and Varric come together for a dance)

Inquisitor: I think you’re afraid you’ll make a fool of yourself in front of the Orlesians.

Varric:...there is that.

Some more time will pass, The Wicked Grace game will be slated to come after the Winter Palace quest (tho not much farther in the future since the main plot accelerates pretty quickly). Maybe just to be cute in the meantime your traveling group might occasionally tease you about what’s going on with you and Varric, idk something like that. Anyway, he invites you to a game of Wicked Grace and the whole cut scene there is basically the same until the end, after everyone leaves and you get some extra dialogue options;

Varric: The night’s still young, we could try to play another round, or...

Inquisitor: Or...?

Varric: I...don’t know how to suggest it tactfully, but I figure since we’re exploring this whole thing, and if you’re keen...maybe we could spend some time together, just you and me?

The Inquisitor can then suggest they go ahead with another game OR they can get DOWN TO BUSINESS. The latter of which is what I will write;

Inquisitor: Are you sure...? It’s a big step.

Varric: Yeah. We trust each other, don’t we? Some big steps will have to be taken eventually if we’re going to feel our way through this.

Inquisitor: (seductively) Then what are we waiting for? I’ll meet you in my quarters. / LAST ONE TO MY QUARTERS IS A ROTTEN EGG. (zooms off)

(cue scene of drunk Sera under the table before cutting to sexy tiems, etc)

Scene will open on Varric and Inquisitor having a heated make out in front of the fire in their room. THEDAS LOVE THEME PLAYS BECAUSE OF COURSE.

Varric: (breaking away for a second) If I’d known it’d be this good I would’ve been kissing you first thing at the Temple. I kinda wanted to, after you pointed out Bianca. I always hope my bow will be the first thing people notice about me.

Inquisitor: Is that what you think I noticed first? Not, y’know...this chest?

Varric: I give, it’s hard to miss.

(MORE KISSING EEE...before he breaks away again)

Varric: I have to be honest for a second though...after this, I don’t know if I can go back to how things were. I understand that now. I’m in too deep with you. This can’t just be a one-off.

Again, the player will have a chance to back out at this point, but if they go ahead this will be the definitive relationship moment.

Inquisitor: I don’t intend for it to be.

Varric: Good...then we’re on the same page.

Varric rolls on top of the Inquisitor as make out increases and the sound of clothes shuffling can be heard, but close up fade-out on the fire unfortunately because this isn’t a PR0N GAME OK.

Player wakes up the next morning to find Varric writing letters or doing some kind of work at the nearby desk.

Inquisitor: I’m not that boring, am I? / I have something more exciting than ink and quill over here, if you’re interested. / What, no breakfast?

Varric: (looking up from his work) -teasing- When you’re asleep? Yeah, maybe a little, unless you want me to just stare creepily at you and wait for you to stir. / You know I am. / Joke’s on you, I already sent down for it. Just wasn’t sure when you were going to get your ass up.

He comes over to join the Inquisitor on the makeshift bed/pile of blankets in front of the fire. Inquisitor sits up and they share a lingering kiss.

Inquisitor: Did you mean what you said last night?

Varric: I wouldn’t say something like that for shits and giggles. I know it puts everything in fast motion, maybe faster than we planned, but...with you, it’s different. I’m willing to dive into this head first.

Inquisitor: I’ll try to make it worth the risk then.

(They kiss some more until a foreign cough interrupts them. The advisors are there because I find that trope way too funny. Cullen has his eyes covered lmao)

Leiliana: (hiding her amusement from the stairwell) Apologies, we should have knocked.

Inquisitor: Ideally.

Josephine: (uncomfortable) Perhaps we should come back later...?

Varric: Well, you can go or you can stay, but I don’t think we were planning to stop, so-

(Josephine ushers the other two quickly back towards the staircase)

Josephine: Yes, yes, later then! Knocking in future, will make a note of that.

(Amused, Varric and Inquisitor continue to kiss and maybe suggestion of something MORE before fade-out)

TO BE CONTINUED ONCE I FIGURE OUT THE REST

#varric tethras #varric x inquisitor #i'm not gonna put romance exceptions bc i think all options should be accessible #regardless of race or gender #SO THERE #varric romance

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askagamedev · 6 years ago

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What do you think about the recent ArenaNet dev firings? As an aspiring designer, the more I learn about the industry, the more I think you're on to something with this anonymity thing. I keep hearing about how small the industry is and how important it is not to burn bridges. Quite frankly, I'm afraid of ever making my opinions on controversial topics known, especially when a lot of well-respected devs are openly disagreeing. I don't like staying silent on issues I find important though.

I woke up this morning, checked my twitter, and sighed. This whole situation sucks. For those who didn’t know, Narrative Designer Jessica Price posted a twitter thread about the issues narrative designers have to consider while writing MMORPG protagonist characters. She was approached by a Guild Wars 2 Youtuber called Deroir, who politely asked her if she had considered branching dialogue. She responded as if Deroir were attempting to tell her how to do her job (he kind of was), then her coworker Peter Fries defended her. The exchange exploded on reddit and both Price and Fries were let go from ArenaNet.

I do have many thoughts on this and they are complicated. Here’s the distilled version.

My days of remaining anonymous have certainly come to a middle

For what should be obvious reasons.

I think the devs in question handled it badly and should be punished

I try to avoid engaging in any form of social media when I am angry or frustrated. Clearly these two did not. They clearly did not respond well. I think that the studio should have reprimanded both of the devs involved, then require them to take some sort of community management seminar or something as well as post a written apology to the community. Maybe they did and the two involved refused. Nobody knows except the people involved.

I think ArenaNet went too far

Frankly, ArenaNet’s response to this scares me a little. I don’t think that the two firings were warranted. I think firing them sets a bad precedent - it’s horrifying to think that enough angry redditors could potentially destroy my career if I make a mistake in a tweet. It scares me that my employer might throw me under the bus in this way. I could see it if I were a repeat offender, but not on a first-time offense.

I understand Jessica Price’s perspective and I agree with her general sentiment, despite her phrasing

She’s an experienced narrative designer. She’s worked on a lot of games, she’s created a lot of story content, she knows what she’s about. What Deroir asked about, politely as he may have been, was basically asking if she had considered turning it off and on again. As a narrative designer, branching dialogue is something she had already thought about, actually tried, and come up with two dozen reasons why it would not work the way Deroir thought it would. Had she simply said so and (we assume) Deroir accepted her statement, nothing else would have happened.

However, that was not the entire situation. Jessica is also a woman in game development and that brings a lot of social baggage from fans. For the longest time, video games have been considered a male space. Gamers as a group are generally thought of as male, and most men have grown up with video games being a large and formative part of their lives. It is something they are intimately familiar with, and thus feel a sense of ownership - especially those who post on the internet. This leads to a grossly over-inflated estimate of self-ability when it comes to the topic of things like game design - like how someone who eats a lot of cupcakes feels like they are as knowledgeable about baking as a trained patissier. After all, they’ve been playing games for years. Why wouldn’t they know how to design games? It’s the worst of the [Dunning-Kruger effect] in action.

Gamers of all walks that I’ve met do this to me all the time when they find out what I do for a living. In conversations, I usually head it off by establishing a position of authority early by showing them in no uncertain terms just how much of a difference there is between us in the amount of knowledge and context of game development. Most readers who have been following the blog for any amount of time has probably had that moment where they sit back and think “I never thought about it that way. Wow.” If I don’t perform this display of authority, they often treat me as an inferior - giving suggestions and talking about how easy it should be. I have to do this all the time.

Please believe me when I say that every woman I know in game dev has experienced this constantly. The men they speak with - friends, acquaintances, or even just those in polite conversation will assume that position of authority and speak as if they are equals or even more knowledgeable than the female dev, despite the massive difference in experience, contextual knowledge, and training. It happens to them all the time. I have seen it happen countless times firsthand. These men explain to her over and over and over and over how the devs should just do this and not that and it’s so easy and so on and so forth, but they treat her worse than her male colleagues. It isn’t even necessarily because they are doing it consciously or out of ill intent. It’s just that subconscious sense of entitlement and ownership, the same reason that fans of a particular franchise will get bent out of shape if a publisher takes a franchise in a different direction than what they want.

It is especially bad for female devs because of the urban myth that women don’t play video games so they somehow lucked into the job or something. It is super duper exhausting because it is the most common situation. I read a thread just yesterday about how there are no female CEOs at any of the top 50 game studios in Germany, and there was no shortage of armchairs throwing in their opinions about how women in game dev don’t really want to be there or just don’t want it enough. For Ms. Price, like all the others, it wasn’t just this one incident. It was just the latest in a never ending stream of gamers without even a fraction of her skill and experience telling her how to do her job. She lashed out and it burned her.

So yeah. It’s a whole big bundle of fail involved all around and it all sucks. I’m not saying that I condone Ms. Price’s response - I most certainly do not. There’s a reason I never engage in social media when I am feeling frustrated or angry. But I understand why she did it and I sympathize because I’ve been there and it really sucks.

The FANTa Project is currently on hiatus while I am crunching at work.

[What is the FANTa project?] [Git the FANTa Project]

Got a burning question you want answered?

Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter

Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr

Frequent questions: The FAQ

#internet stuff #dealing with community #ArenaNet #personal soapbox

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ginnyzero · 7 years ago

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SSO’s Problems are Gaming Industry Problems

The A lot of players of SSO want more story quests. And time after time, SSO keeps saying to players that doing story quests take time. To extent, this is definitely true. And to be fair, a lot of the story that we have been getting is repetitive, inconsistent and leaves a lot of threads hanging. And while working on a resume, I ran across the blog @askagamedev and he pointed out two very important things about the gaming industry that affect SSO. 1) Story takes back seat to game mechanics and 2) being a female and having games catered to females in the gaming industry is difficult.

A writer in the gaming world has very little control. A writer is at the mercy of the game designer, the level designer, the combat designer and basically everybody else. They are essentially given a bunch of characters and the restrictions of a fight and a word count. This is counter intuitive to almost every other industry that involves writing. The only other similar industry is television (and even there the writers have a room where they actually write and create the story with the show runners.)

Games are created in order for game designers to show off their shiny game mechanics. Not for game designers to tell an impactful and emotional story. Even in the MMO industry, especially in this era of sand box PVP focused MMOs, that would seem to be story driven, they aren’t. Despite the fact that the most successful MMOs, and I’m talking about Warcraft and Guild Wars here for the most part, and open world games like Assassin’s Creed, Skyrim and Red Dead Redemption are successful because of their story first and not their shiny game mechanics.

WoW is an interesting case study for an MMO. As the first successful MMO, it started off with 3 strategy games first and became an MMO second. Warcraft was originally conceived as a computer strategy game version of Warhammer. When Warhammer backed out, Blizzard continued with the project, kept the basic story and changed the names. Over WoW’s lifetime as an MMO, they’ve had a stable of six to seven writers for each game and expansion. (Honestly, more than that, you run into issues.) Even if these writers were at the mercy of the other game devs on the team and only doing dialog, that’s 7 more writers than SSO has credited right now.

Talk to a hardcore player of WoW. Talk to someone who wanted a movie. They don’t talk about shiny game mechanics. They talk about the story. They talk about the LORE. That’s the beauty of WoW. That’s not the beauty of SSO. We fans have made up more Lore than SSO has given us out of their supposed “huge game bible.” (Forbes talked about it, has seen it. It exists! Supposedly.)

Now, lately, SSO has been expanding their game mechanics to a degree. They’ve been adding cinematics. (Though not crediting a cinematics designer.) So, yes, anything that involves new mechanics does take more time. But they also don’t have an excuse when the old games of the seasonal star riders originally had virtually the same coding as SSO. They’ve used the dressage mechanic in their game. The only mechanics they have NOT used in the game from the old games are the Endurance racing and the trail riding mechanics. But we still don’t have dressage in the game. We don’t have a lot of showjumping in the game. And several of the game mechanics they have added to the game have been closer to one offs than anything that truly enhanced game play. (Throwing bottles at henchmen? Flying starter horse you can’t control. Riding on water! The crouching mechanic.) Or have been extremely buggy. (The race where the druids chased you. OMG was that buggy.)

It’s impossible to know what positions that SSO has filled exactly because they don’t credit more than 13 of their 100 odd employees. Sure, they have riggers and texture people and animators and those should definitely be credited. (Rumor has it that they aren’t looking to replace the animator that left, which is too bad.) But, the only game designers we know they have are the game and level designers. We don’t know if they have scripters (those who create the quest chain codes.) They have to have them. We don’t know if they have combat/race designers. (That’s the only thing I could think a combat designer would do.) We don’t know if they have systems designers. (Think about experience points and leveling and the pricing of everything.) Because these people aren’t credited. And that’s a real shame.

Of the 13 people credited with the design of the game, 3 of them are women. And we see in videos behind the scenes that there do seem to be a lot of females at SSO HQ. This is great. Most of them though aren’t in a position of power to say, “hey, maybe we need to do this to appeal to our customer of females of all ages.” Of the three credited,one is a Game/Level Designer (she designs the maps and places.) One is a graphic artist. (She makes things pretty.) And one is a Developer QA. And I have no idea. (Quality assurance maybe?)

SSO itself is a pretty huge anomaly in the gaming industry. When the CEO gives interviews (soon to be former CEO), and he talks about how no one has ever done this before and everyone told them that they were going to fail, he’s not exaggerating. Females do not have it easy in the gaming industry. In fact, they have it ten times harder than their male counterparts.

The gaming industry is like the dudebro group of nerds playing DnD, having live chats in WoW and basically putting up that “no girls allowed” sign. The top tiers are clique-ish and anyone female trying to breech that world is regarded with suspicion. The gaming industry happily wants to ignore 50% of their potential market just like the comics industry. Especially the AAA gaming studios for PC and game consoles. To most the gaming industry, gaming apps for your phone or little flash games don’t count. (And guess where you see a lot of games aimed for girls.)

Blizzard finally got the memo with Overwatch. Overwatch has been a huge sensation despite being a FPS with both males and females. Why? They made the cinematics and extra material and the characters face centric. They animated the faces well and made sure everyone had one and you could see it! Females relate better to that. This was a deliberate move on Blizzard’s part. It has paid off. There are a lot more female players willing to admit that they play Overwatch versus Halo or even the old Unreal Tournament. (Man, I hated that game. FPS are not my thing.) Females who don’t LIKE FPS like Overwatch and that is success on any level.

Yes, there are more females working on Overwatch. I follow at least one of the character designers on twitter. Blizzard has been making strides in their female character designs to make them more than anime waifs with balloons for breasts. They have different sizes and body types. This is progress!

SSO is a success in the way that it proves that games created and marketed towards girls can work. That is, if they don’t manage to sabotage themselves by believing in their own hype. But the upper management of SSO is still mainly MALE. The CEO, Lead Game Designer and Game Director are all male. If the 13 people have Chief or Lead in their title, they are MALE.

So to me, a lot of the content ends up being geared more towards a male audience than a female one or is written for the entirely wrong age group, inconsistent age groups or just doesn’t seem to fit. I include spiders, snakes, weird enchanted dolls/girls, and all the incompetent adults in this category. (Why in SSO is every adult completely incapable of doing their jobs?) The stereotypes of mean girl saddle club girls (without the nice club girls to balance it out), witches and horrible scientists (Einstein anyone) is downright insulting. The Baroness seems to be about the only competent woman in the game and she’s barely done anything since we sent that letter to Aaron about the GED oil rigs.

In a game that is supposed to be for girls to empower them, there are depressingly few empowering female role models. The men (Justin, Ricky) keep having to “save the day” while we, the main character, stand by and play the sidekick. And that’s not the way to have a good female targeted game.

Things are changing... but it might not be fast enough to save SSO.

#star stable #star stable online #sso #game industry

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letterstothemidnightsociety · 4 years ago

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Season 3: The Background

Alright guys, so while I’m digging in to season 3, now seems like the perfect time to introduce the biggest antagonist to a television series - the 2007/2008 Writers Guild of America Strike.

Nary a scripted program was unaffected by the great Writer’s Strike of Aught 7, and woe betide those shows cancelled in their prime, cut down too soon. Pour one out for The 4400.

Since the Writer’s Strike would ultimately have a big impact on this season of Supernatural, I thought I’d start out with a Writer’s Strike Primer. Here are some very brief facts:

Every three years, the Writers’ Guild of America negotiates for basic rights and salaries of their members with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. WGA represents television writers (and film AND radio and OTHER media writers, but we’re only concerned about TV for right now); the AMPTP represents the studios that pay for production. It sounds wild now, but the big issues at stake in ‘07 were residuals (or small profits) for DVD sales.

See, screenwriters, and specifically TV writers, are paid a lump sum per script. So for a TV writer, every episode they hand in that airs is a payday. Now that may sound appealing, but for a staff writer on a 30-min sitcom in the year 2020, the payment for a teleplay is only between $10 - $20,000 and you’re probably not writing more than a handful of episodes in a season. Factor in that you will not be working for at least 6 weeks of the year in between seasons and the fact that there’s no guarantee you’ll get a job during staffing in April/May, and that lump sum payment doesn’t stretch as far as you think it will, especially if you’re living in LA. To compensate for that, the WGA makes sure that TV writers get residuals for each additional airing of their episode. This is why syndication is so important - that’s when you start making the REAL money. And by real, I mean, tenths of a percent.

But even back in the 2000s the media landscape was changing. The big disrupters were TiVo and home video sales, closely followed by the onset of Internet video. Rising DVD sales meant that the future of reruns were in question and so the fate of residuals was looking bleak. When negotiations were being held in 2007, there was a contingency plan for home video sales already in place, but it had been set over a decade beforehand. Back in 1985, when movies and tv shows were first getting released on VHS, nobody thought that home theaters would be much of a draw. VHS tapes and VCR’s were expensive, and the market didn’t seem to be going anywhere. So the AMPTP and the WGA agreed that the script writers for any movie or TV show would receive 0.3% of the profits for the first million dollars made on VHS or Betamax or LaserDisc (yes, BETAMAX OR LASER DISC) and 0.36% of the profits after that. And then home theaters did what no one expected - they boomed! VHS tapes got cheaper to produce, DVD’s were even cheaper, and by 2007, the home movie market was pretty money. By that time, the WGA felt like they’d gotten a poor deal and asked for a bump in percentages - from .3% to .6% of the sale of each DVD.

On TOP of that, by ‘07 shows were airing not just on television but also on the Internet, at that time dubbed “New Media”. New Media was a twofold question - 1) how will writers get compensated for purchases and rentals from sites like iTunes?; and 2) how will writers get compensated for episodes streamed on a network’s website?

The current state was that writers received .3% for episode downloads, but streaming video was considered “promotional” by the networks and therefore the networks concluded it wasn’t necessary to pay anyone residuals for those viewings. Reading the writing on the digital wall, the WGA wanted to lock in a better deal than they’d made on home video sales over a decade earlier. Even then, the industry knew that streaming was going to be a big game changer and they didn’t want to fall behind.

Negotiations started in October, but the AMPTP was unwilling to accept these major sticking points from the WGA and negotiations broke down almost immediately. The AMPTP (who was representing the big studios) claimed that they needed the profits from the sales (and downloads) to compensate for rising production budgets and would not move. The WGA responded by shutting down production on all shows in LA, New York (and Canada) starting November 5th and running through February of 2008.

In hindsight, we can see just how important the sales and new media issues were and still are, especially since cable TV is continually in a downward trend for American households. The WGA negotiations would shortly be followed by the Screen Actors Guild contract negotiations and everyone in the industry knew that the outcomes of the WGA deal would impact what SAG would be able to negotiate for their contracts, followed by other deals made for other guilds and unions in Hollywood.

Ultimately, the WGA received some allowances but not nearly as much as they wanted. DVD residuals remained at .3%, but they were able to negotiate for 1.2% of online rental profits, .65%-.7% of online purchase profits and 2% of gross profits from ad-supported streaming sites but ONLY after 17 days from the original air date.

Thanks to COVID, we’re coming out of a strangely similar situation. At a time when streaming media is higher than ever, COVID shutdowns put a halt on production for months, leaving the 2020 staffing season and fall premiere season in limbo through the summer. When you take into account the fact that traditional TV production is rapidly coming to an end, I won’t be surprised to see another WGA or similar strike on the horizon. In fact, there were rumors that the WGA was on the verge of striking while they renewed their AMPTP contract in April of 2020, but luckily an agreement was reached and a strike was avoided.

Then, like now, the whole industry was impacted by delays, shortened seasons, and outright cancellations. In both cases, Supernatural was impacted. In 07, production shut down after 12 episodes had been completed and ultimately the third season only ended with 16 episodes total. This time, Supernatural was shut down after completing production on 18 out of 20 final episodes. They did not shorten the season, but only 14 episodes aired in their original time slots. The final 6 were delayed until October, after they were able to complete production on the final two episodes. Thus, the series finale that was supposed to air in May of 2020 did not air until November.

Coming back to season 3, I’m going to predict that this season will play out closer to the kinds of shows that start up on streaming sites today. 16 episodes is a pretty big hit from the 22 of seasons 1 and 2. Although production in 2007 didn’t shut down until about half way through the season, my guess is that there will be a lower percentage of self-contained episodes and more emphasis on the Main Quest - saving Dean’s soul from hell. I’m very interested to see if this looks and feels like the show we could have gotten if SPN had premiered 10 years later on Netflix or Hulu, so I’m pretty excited to dive into it. I know that they introduce two new female characters - Ruby and Bela. I know that they introduce a new Big Bad since the Yellow-Eyed-Demon is dead. And I know that ultimately, our boys fail their quest yet again - that Dean doesn’t get saved and the final shot of the season ends with him literally in hell. I have almost no memory of anything else in this season. So it should be a fun ride!

#Supernatural #SPN #WGA #AMPTP #Writer's Strike #2007 #Sam Winchester #dean winchester #Season 3 #COVID TV #TV history #TV Production #supernatural rewatch #Betamax #Laser Disc #Writer's Strike of 2007

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omnigeekempire · 5 years ago

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Well, this truly is the last day and blog of the decade huh? Man, I can’t even remember where all the years went to to be honest, but I guess that just means I’m getting old, or maybe I spent most of my time playing video games and didn’t realize. Either way, in the last decade I have played some remarkable games of that period, many of which have left a lasting impact on my psyche. So today, I wanted to commemorate those games in this blog today. My Top 30 games of the last decade!

Now, I know many have done this kind of thing already, some even rounding it up to just ten games, however, when I look back at the times and all the games I’ve played I couldn’t leave certain games behind or out of the list. So what I’ve decided to do is break them down into the ten year period in groups and give a line or two as to why I enjoyed the game. This way the blog won’t be a chore to read. Hopefully!

2010’s

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood & Darksiders

Let me start with Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. I got into the series in AC2 and I was immediately engrossed with the concept of the Creed and the Assassins. So when AC:B came out, I was more than ecstatic to jump back into the world of Ezio and I was not disappointed. The combat and stealth abilities was amazing for it’s time and being able explore 16th-century Rome as a history fan was unreal.

Darksiders was a game based on religious background, mainly the Christian belief that dealt with a post-apocalyptic Earth, where mankind has become extinct and angels and demons battle for the world’s control. Among them are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the last of the Nephilim who are tasked to bring balance to the universe. It’s I’ve always been interested in concept of angel vs demons, so seeing this take was unique. The story was great and the game had the right balance of combat, puzzling and everything in-between.

2011’s

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim & Sonic Generations

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was probably the first proper open world rpg game that I can say I’ve sunk so many hours into. I honestly remember how everyone was hyping this game up, making it seem like the ultimate game that lets you do whatever you wanted. Naturally, I was drawn to that idea and what I got was an amazing adventure that has made me a fan of the Elder Scrolls series.

After Sonic Unleashed (a criminally underrated game imo) I was starting to get excited for the future of Sonic games. I won’t lie that I am a fanboy of the blue blur as he has, and still is, one of my all time favorite video game character of all time. So when I so Sonic Generation, a game that celebrated 20 years of Sonic, I was hyped. I can happily say I was not disappointed. They finally got the gameplay right and every stage was a blast to play. To this day, many still hold this game as a standard for future modern sonic gameplay. If only they’d take inspiration from Unleashed level stages, now that would be a dream.

2012’s

Guild Wars 2, Journey & Gravity Rush

One of the main core reason why I have a PC today was all thanks to Guild Wars 2. After Champion’s Online had gotten boring, I needed another MMO to dive into and I came across this game that talked about all this features such as dynamic events and the likes. At that time, it looked amazing so I knew I needed to build a PC for it. After that, I sunk more that 500 hours into the game and I still play it occasionally from time to time.

Journey was one of those games that I just came across randomly, I had no idea what to expect but that part of why I enjoyed it so such. From its stunningly beautiful graphics to it’s simply gameplay, there was something that made me comeback to the game. The journey was something I still think about to this day, and the way they implemented the multiplayer was genius.

Just like Journey, Gravity Rush was a came I picked up when I first got the PS Vita. It’s a game that in we players take the role of Kat, a young woman who can manipulate how gravity affects her, allowing her to walk on walls and fly through the air. It was a very unique ide at the time and was one of the first PS Vita game that I enjoyed.

2013’s

Tomb Raider & Injustice: Gods Among Us

The reboot of Tomb Raider was one that of those games that I felt has always been criminally underrated considering she came before Nathan Drake’s Uncharted. I was an action-adventure video game that operated as a reboot that reconstructs the origins of Lara Croft. And that it did very well, establishing the character really well, keeping her exposition ground in a plausible world. One of my favorite aspect of the game was was seeing how the world of Yamatai, a fictional lost island in the Dragon’s Triangle off the coast of Japan unfolded as you progress through the story.

Man, Injustice: Gods Among Us gave me exactly the storyline I’d hoped for in DC story. The idea of Superman crossing the line and becoming this overbearing ruler actually made for a more compelling story in a fighting game and a DC story. Combat was great for its time but it was the storyline that captivated me.

2014’s

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor & Dark Souls 2

Shadow of Mordor was I believe the first game that did the nemesis feature right. It was the first game that I genuinely felt a passion of hatred for a NPC that shit talked me after beating me in a fight. Forcing me to post-pone my main mission to hunt that bastard down. I enjoyed every moment of it and the story was very good from what I can remember.

Dark Souls exposes a lot of games when it first came out. And even though I’ve played the first game, the reason why I put this on the list was simply because it improved on a lot of the feature of the previous game and its the one were I played co-op with my brothers that showed no mercy in exposing me and calling me trash for dying a lot. I plan to finish the games on my own some day (i’m actually quite far into it) but it made an impact to me so it’s here.

2015’s

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain personally wasn’t my first exposure to the MGS universe, but it was the first game I became engrossed with. I never thought an open world stealth game could work, but my goodness did it work. From the story, the characters, the visuals, everything was amazing. This was the game that made me actually take the MGS series, more seriously and go back to playing the other games.

Dying light in my humble opinion did the zombie genre right. I’ve never felt scared of a slow moving zombie, but one that can run and climb building. Yep, that will do. Not only that but the traversing and free-running mechanics in the game was amazing, probably the best of it’s time.

When it comes to Until Dawn, it was one of those games that I got from the PlayStation Plus deal. I read the description about an interactive drama survival horror video game where your choices affects the story, got it and didn’t regret a second I spent with the game. The story was compelling and interesting and over time the characters started to grow on me. But man, knowing that your characters can die and you have the abilities to save them really added the tension because I wanted everyone to survive. I managed to only lose one person but shit I never liked that fucker anyones.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse did something I never thought we’d get from a dragon ball game. A brand new story that lets you be the main character. The story was OK if I’m being honest but it was the multiplayer that proved to be the most fun, before hacking became the norm.

2016’s

Final Fantasy XV & The Last Guardian

Now, despite what many will say, Final Fantasy 15 was still a great game to me. It could be that this was my first Final Fantasy game, so I didn’t have much expectations going into it but I really did enjoy my time with the game. The story of Noctics and how it all ended hit me harder than I actually expected. The gameplay was fun too and exploring the world felt rewarding. Yeah, I know they sold pieces of the story in dlc (which I did not buy) but at it’s core, I had fun playing the game.

Last Guardian was another game that I never played the original and jump right in. The game lets you clim structures, carry objects such as barrels, and operate mechanisms such as levers. It was innovative and unique, especially using Trico’s to reach areas that the boy can’t reach alone. It created this unique dynamic in which you couldn’t directly control Trico but had to tell him what to do hand hope he did it. Aside from that I really enjoyed the way the game told the story, making Trico seem almost alive in the process.

2017’s

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Assassin’s Creed: Origins, Little Nightmares, Nier: Automata, For Honor & Sonic Mania

I was never a fan of Zelda, I tried in the past and couldn’t get into it. So when the Breath of The Wild version for the Switch came out, I figured why not! I’ll give it one last chance and oh boy was I hooked. The amount of freedom this game gave you to solve all the puzzles and how you wanted to approach the world was insane. This is when I learned how open world games should be handled.

For a long ass time, after the Ezio/Desmond had concluded, the Assassin’s Creed story had been all over the place. No other came afterwards was able to capture the vibe I got from playing the game. That was until Assassin’s Creed Origins came out and introduced a strong character by the name of Bayek. The gameplay was solid and actually made me appreciate the changes but there was two reasons why I both this game. The first was that it was telling the origins of the Assassin’s, so that means we would be going back in time where it’s less industrialized and more ancient. Secondly, it was based in Ancient Egypt, an African civilization featuring a black assassin that didn’t start out as a slave but as a Medjay. The did both very well and the game shot up to two spot in my ac list.

Little Nightmare was a simple puzzle-platformer horror adventure game that I found enjoyable. There was something about the atmosphere of the game that kept me coming back, making me want to learn more about the world.

Nier Automata was perhaps one of the best action role-playing hack and slash video game to come in recent memories. It’s best feature was the story hands down, but not only that, the gameplay was challenging and there was a lot or lore to explore that your leisure. And jeez, don’t even get me started on the music, S-tier materials right there.

With For Honor, I’ll keep it real with you guys, I did not play the story mode. All I played was multiplayer and it was glorious. Yeah the game had some issues at the beginning but that was mostly ironed out over time. But man, I’ve never raged in a game so much yet enjoyed every moment of it. The tactical combat system, known as “Art of Battle”, was a very interesting take on a sword-based fighting game and proved successful if you ask me.

Sonic Mania, the most rated game in Sonic’s history. I enjoyed my time with it. Yeah, I’ll admit I’m not a fan of 2D Sonic, simply because I started with the 3D era, but of course I can appreciate a solid game when I play one.

2018’s

Red Dead Redemption 2, Spider-Man PS4, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Detroit: Become Human, God of War PS4, Super Smash Bros Ultimate

Red Dead Redemption 2 was an experience that I won’t be forgetting anytime soon. Yeah, so will say it was a slow burner but to me, the pacing was perfect. It took its time to tell the story of Arthur Morgan and his crew and how their world around them was changing. Seeing Arthur go through his change was amazing and if you got the good ending, then you’d understand .

Spider-man was the game all spidey fans have always wanted. A game where you feel like Spider-Man. The controls for the swinging mechanics is the best it’s ever been and following a Peter Parker that was all grown up, dealing with adult life stuff while doing the Spidey gig was a fun experience.

There’s not much to say when it comes to Dragon Ball FighterZ. Its hands down THE best looking Dragon Ball game ever. To the point where now everyone in the anime community is begging Arc System works to make a game based on other anime IP’s’.

Detroit: Become Human is another interactive game that I really enjoyed. This time I was anticipating the game after playing Until Dawn. I really liked how the told the story from three different perspective. Yes, the game had a real life narrative but I really liked how it was executed.

God of War was one of those games that will linger in people minds for years to come. The compelling story of how Kratos went from a raging spartan to a man trying to be the best father he could be was touching to say the least. Combat and the boss fights in the game wasn’t as crazy but still it was a great experience nonetheless.

Once again, not much to say about Super Smash Bros Ultimate. It is the ultimate version of the Smash series and one that will probably go down in history as the greatest crossovers in gaming history.

2019’s

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, The Outer Worlds, Astral Chain & Fire Emblem

Sekiro well deserved to win Game of The Year. I was a game that challenged you and made you get better by learning from your failures. Amazing combat and an interesting story, this game was also my game of the year pick.

The Outer Worlds was perhaps the best open rpg to come out in 2019, which was why it got nominated. The world may be small in comparison to other open world games, but what it lacked in size, it more than made up on it with quality. Side quest feel like main quest, companions are actually interesting, dialogue has depth and gameplay was great. Can’t complain really.

Astral Chains lest player take the role of a detective from the “Neuron” special police task force, who are tasked with solving cases and investigating incidents. It had exploring, questioning characters and examining evidence but the main take from the game was the insane combat in which you take control of another character called Legions. Once you had leveled up your legions, there was almost a crazy amount of combos you could pull off in game. It was also the game that got PS4 fans to actually complain to Platinum Games about not brining the game to PS4. Good game.

Last but certainly not least is Fire Emblems: Three Houses. Probably my favorite tactical role-playing game on the Switch. I really enjoyed the Harry Potter like house gimmick of you being the teacher guiding your students and building a bond with them, only to have watch as you mercilessly kill them on the battlefield years later. Aside from the great 80 plus hour story, the tactical aspect of the game as been well refined and would make even the most elite Fire Emblem fans happy.

Well that’s it from me. Man, hope this list ain’t too long for ya. I tried to keep it short and concise for you guys but I didn’t want to leave any game that made an impact on me. Please, do share your list in the comments below.

Top 30 Games Of The Decade (2010 -2019) That Made An Ever-Lasting Impact! Well, this truly is the last day and blog of the decade huh? Man, I can't even remember where all the years went to to be honest, but I guess that just means I'm getting old, or maybe I spent most of my time playing video games and didn't realize.

#decade #Discussion #GAMES #games of the decade #Gaming #News #The 30 best video games of the decade #The best games of the 2010 - 2019 decade #The best video games of the decade #The Decade&039;s Most Influential Video Games #top #Top 10 games #top 30 #Top games of the decade #Top greatest games of the decade

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componentplanet · 5 years ago

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Video Game Addiction in the World of Warcraft

Video game addiction is definitionally a controversial subject, given that there’s disagreement over whether such a thing even exists. If we separate the clinical concept from the colloquial usage of the term, we’re more likely to be able to come to general agreement. Everyone has known someone (assuming you haven’t been the someone) who, at one point or another, spent way too much time buried in a game and way too little engaged with the world around them.

Most recently, discussions on video game addiction and inappropriate player retention techniques have focused on issues like the use of microtransactions and loot crates. Players have a variety of concerns surrounding these issues, including the use of gambling mechanics to generate revenue and increase customer engagement. The question of whether MMORPGs are overly addictive is the sort of topic that was being debated more widely about a decade ago.

It felt nearly retro to see the headline “World of Warcraft Changed Video Games and Wrecked Lives” go by at Vice. It’s a topic with some personal resonance for me. The article describes what happened to several people who describe themselves or their loved ones as World of Warcraft addicts who played and engaged with the game to a much greater degree than was healthy.

Why Are MMO’s Easy to Get ‘Stuck’ In?

Multiple people Vice spoke to identified World of Warcraft as offering a supportive community for various identity issues or life struggles they were going through at the time, even if they often felt that their own relationship with the game had fundamentally been an unhappy one. This dovetails with my own thinking. While I never allowed World of Warcraft to take over my own life, I played a great deal of the game during some tumultuous and difficult years. I participated in the PvP grind that the Vice article discusses and wear my “Commander” tag to this day. I saw people become colloquially “addicted” to WoW, in the sense that WoW became central to their lives. It’s not that everybody quits their job and becomes a full-time player, so much as being able to count on people to show up around 6 PM and hang around until 10-11 PM, 5-7 nights a week.

Vice’s article hints at part of the reason why this happens: community. Players in WoW self-sort themselves into guilds for the purposes of raiding endgame dungeons and (more rarely) for PvP. It’s not uncommon, at this point, for long-time WoW players to have real-world friendships that have transcended the game. While I am not in regular contact with the vast majority of people I played WoW with, I remain friends with a double-digit group of people that I met solely as a result of our mutual travels through Azeroth.

But WoW didn’t just offer a community. It offers a chance to succeed publicly, to be recognized for that achievement, and to feel as though you are making a positive contribution to something larger than yourself. Leading a group of 25-40 people through a series of choreographed fights while they variously alt-tab, argue, bio break, check Thottbot, check YouTube, get distracted, make food, kill random trash, and occasionally kill bosses felt like an achievement at the end of the night, especially if you’d refrained from throttling the guild leader after he speculated that we should just give all the caster DPS loot to mages by default in the middle of a raid.

It wasn’t always this bad. It just often felt that way. Image by BlizzPro.

Most of the addiction stories that Vice recounts are from earlier in WoW’s history, when the game required a significantly higher time commitment than it does today. That’s one reason why the second parts of my WoW leveling comparison haven’t appeared yet. It’s not that I haven’t logged time in-game, it’s that the amount of time required to level goes up substantially in Classic, while Retail remains a comparative sprint. One of the reasons why people used to log more time in WoW is that WoW used to require it in order for you to be truly successful. In the Classic era, you couldn’t make enough gold from raiding to support the cost of raiding in an endgame progression guild — you had to play the game on top of that.

It’s this combination that I think made WoW (and MMOs in general) “addictive” in ways that a single-player RPG like Skyrim or Dragon Age: Origins really isn’t. First, you’re interacting and socializing with a group of friends you’ve generally chosen to play with. Second, you’re actually working at something that requires some dedication and commitment to succeed. You didn’t have to be a great player to wind up in endgame gear, but a good progression guild had standards and demanded that people show up on-time with buffs on and ready to play. Maybe your clever use of Divine Protection kept the main healer alive when a fear caught the main tank off-guard. Maybe you knew how to stance dance to maximize rage generation. Maybe you were the Druid with a fast-fingered battle rez or the hunter who could always be relied on to handle an add or take Drak for a walk. Maybe you’re the rogue tank who makes snarky comments about how well you can hang with plate wearers and then winds up splattered down the side of Blackrock Mountain.

(I never said all these comparisons were going to be complimentary).

Regardless of the role you played, being good at WoW offered social interaction and validation in a way that a single-player game doesn’t. It was difficult enough to “feel” like work in some psychologically important ways, without being so hard as to represent a challenge on par with the pits and snares of everyday interaction.

Should Blizzard Have Made WoW Less Addictive?

It would be a mistake to pretend people weren’t asking this question 10-14 years ago. Everquest had already been nicknamed “Evercrack” before WoW hit the scene. Nor do I recall Blizzard taking enormous pains to help people disconnect from WoW, though there were a few hint messages that would pop up in-game from time to time reminding players to take a break and only enjoy the game in moderation. It’s worth asking, yes, if Blizzard could have done more than it did. But it’s also worth remembering that MMOs were a lot newer than they are now, with smaller playerbases. World of Warcraft was the game that popularized the MMO genre like no other title ever had.

It’s easy to forget now, but in 2004, Blizzard was the new kid trying to break into the market. I still remember reading head-to-head comparisons of WoW versus Everquest 2, some of which predicted that WoW would be the game to fall by the wayside as Everquest 2 took over EQ1’s built-in player base. The other facet of the conversation that’s easy to lose is that World of Warcraft was hailed at launch for requiring less grinding and being more accessible to individuals than any MMO had been before. Blizzard set out to make a game that was easier for people to play, with less frustrating roadblocks and readily accessible fun.

Vice brings up the WoW PvP grind as an example of a place where the game took a catastrophic wrong turn, and I’ll tell you, they aren’t wrong about that. The PvP of original WoW was an extreme grind. Unhealthily so. But it’s also a system that Blizzard modified even before The Burning Crusade launched, before dumping it altogether. This aspect of the game was gone, never to return, by 2007. Classic WoW might recreate that system, but it does so at the explicit request of the player base.

The problem with declaring that Blizzard should have made WoW less addictive in the run-up to launch in 2004 is that it assumes game designers have a perfect understanding themselves of where that line is or that it’s easy to parse such information from the mountains of player feedback that millions of first-time MMO players were churning out. Blizzard was attempting to build a game that would meet the expected requirements of players who wanted a “hardcore” experience against those from “casual” players that wanted the game to be more accessible. The other term for casual players was “filthy casuals,” which gives you some idea how much these two groups of people got along with each other. From its launch, however, WoW moved consistently in one direction — towards making it easier for people to play for smaller amounts of time.

I think it’s much fairer to criticize WoW and Blizzard for the degree to which they acknowledged that some WoW players did have problems with addiction as the game moved forward, or even to argue that the game could have included features intended to check on players who were playing too much as time went on. At the same time, virtually every change Blizzard has made over the past 15 years has been aimed at making it faster to play WoW. The PvP grind? Gone for well over a decade. Reputation grinds? Much faster. Unlocking major abilities like flying and mounts? Happens much quicker in the game. You don’t even need to visit trainers to learn skills any longer. The game has been categorically overhauled to make it faster and easier to play, and these changes haven’t all been dumped in at one point — the game began evolving in this direction in 2004 and it hasn’t really stopped at any point.

Ultimately, I found the Vice piece somewhat frustrating — not because I doubt that WoW had a negative impact on people’s lives, but because it doesn’t really engage with the fact that World of Warcraft was, ultimately, a product of its time and designed the way it was in part to meet the demands of its own player base. It doesn’t engage with the fact that much was learned in the gaming industry as a result of World of Warcraft or that the game as it exists today is, in a very meaningful sense, not the title that it was in 2004. It doesn’t really engage with the difficult question of how to help people who get hooked into video games (or any other form of entertainment). It doesn’t touch on the fact that compared with the modern era’s loot crates and microtransactions, the idea that people would spend insane amounts of time grinding Dark Iron rep or killing mobs in PvP purely for in-game rewards comes off as rather quaint and self-assured.

That’s one thing about WoW Classic that I intended to put into its own article but that I’ll pull out for this one. WoW Classic is confident in its willingness to ask you to spend time doing things. It doesn’t ask you to buy microtransactions to speed things along. It doesn’t advertise the ability to purchase six Onyxia Death Tokens to get more chances at her loot drops on your next kill. It just… takes a while. Far from trying to climb in your pockets and rifle them for spare change, WoW Classic says, “This is going to take a while. Let’s have some fun along the way.” World of Warcraft Classic is striking to play partly because it exists in an era before game developers treated player time investment as a monetizable commodity.

There are more nuanced ways to explore the question of why people are drawn into MMO worlds than Vice has engaged in here — questions that range beyond the mechanics of the game and explore the social aspects that draw people together. Some of the people Vice spoke to clearly touched on these issues with discussions of identity and finding like-minded communities of players. The topic is more complicated than this treatment ultimately addressed.

Now Read:

Blizzard Lowers Penalty on Hong Kong Streamer, Says China Uninvolved in Censorship

Capitalism Didn’t Bring Democracy to China, but It’s Yoking the Rest of the World to Chinese Authoritarianism

World of Warcraft Classic vs. Retail, Part 1: Which Early Game Plays Better?

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/302134-video-game-addiction-in-the-world-of-warcraft from Blogger http://componentplanet.blogspot.com/2019/11/video-game-addiction-in-world-of.html

#Video Game Addiction in the World of Warcraft

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tessyinfohub-blog · 6 years ago

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See What Nigerian Celebrities Of Yesteryear Are Doing Now

See What Nigerian Celebrities Of Yesteryear Are Doing Now Emeka Ike Emeka Ike is one actor that many movie lovers wouldn’t forget in a hurry. He was a toast of the industry in the early 2000s. Often cast as a lover boy, Ike was that actor that many loved to hate because of his brash charaterisation of roles. However, the actor has been absent from the silver screen for some years now, even though he was the president of the Actors Guild of Nigeria at some point. The actor also owned a school which was shut down some years ago.In a chat with Sunday Scoop, the actor maintained that his business activities have been keeping him busy. Ike said, “I have many investments. I own a TV channel on TSTV and we will be going on Startimes soon. I used to own a studio in Surulere, Lagos, but it has been closed down. I also had a school, St. Nicholas College, which was one of the best in the area but my ex-wife shut it down on the day I travelled out of town. Our former students are doing very well in different parts of the world right now based on the foundation they got from the school. A professor recently called me from America and said he was amazed at how I was able to run the school so well.” The Not Man Enough actor added, “A school is a very capital intensive business and I spent well over N400m to run it. All the money I made in my youth was invested in the business. I stopped acting in movies because I had become a CEO and money maker. I didn’t see any reason I should continue going on set to make the kind of movies we were making then. The people who think I went into business because I stopped making money from acting can continue believing whatever they want.” Idowu Phillips Popularly called Iya Rainbow, Idowu Phillips was an absolute delight whenever she appeared on screen. Loved for the energy she infused into playing her roles, it was evident that she knew her onions when it came to make-believe. However, she abruptly exited the scene and many of her fans wondered why. She is now a cleric and in a chat with Sunday Scoop, she insisted that she was fulfilled with her current role as a woman of God but she still missed her days as an actress. She said, “I’m still interested in acting; and as long as I am alive, I still have action in my body. If anybody calls me, I can act in any type of movie except as a prostitute, and I can’t put tattoos on my body, or wear short, revealing dresses. I really miss my acting days. When we go to locations to shoot movies, we enjoy ourselves and interact with friends. We sleep in hotels and eat whatever we like in a relaxed atmosphere. I also enjoy myself in the church, but we do more of fasting and praying, and lots of vigils. “It is the work of God that I’m doing now. I go from mountain tops to pray, to America, London, Canada, and other countries to minister. I find joy being in the ministry. It is easy, and at the same time, not easy because it is a congregation of different types of people. People come to you with various problems, and it is my prayer that God should intervene in whatever issue they bring to me.” Meanwhile, she recently returned to public consciousness in a television commercial for a telecommunications company. Daniel Wilson In the nineties, Daniel Wilson, was one of the biggest artistes in the country. His song, Mr. Ragamuffin, helped to cement his popularity and he was the favourite of many music lovers of that time. However, his career failed to evolve beyond the nineties and not many people know what he has been up to since then. The singer has since delved into different spheres of business. He has been involved in manufacturing, advertising and politics. But the most notable of his business ventures is a bakery which is owned by his family. Speaking about his business concerns in a recent interview, he said, “I started by managing a food business that my late dad left behind. I got into it with my brothers and we took it from a one industry to about 11 industries. We spread all across Nigeria and we had factories in places such as Ilorin, Niger, Edo, Cross River. We were practically the biggest bread and confectionary makers in the country. We went to bread fairs round the world. Then, I moved into making plastics. From there, I went on to own an advert company and secured different contracts. At that point, the kids had started coming and there were bills to pay, so one had to be creative and start doing a lot of businesses to keep them going.” Last year, the singer released a song titled, Never Again. African China Singer, Chinagorom Onuoha, aka African China, thrilled a lot of fans with hit songs such as Crisis, Mr President, No condition is Permanent, among others. However, after he was involved in an alleged rape scandal in London, his music career experienced a decline. Not one to stay down, the singer has since diversified into other areas of business such as running a salon. In a chat with Sunday Scoop, he explained why he decided to become a businessman. He said, “It is always good for an entertainer to have other business. Even up and coming artistes need it so that they don’t have to rely on promoters, friends and family to fund their music. In showbiz, you cannot be there forever; so you need to have others. Doing so, you wouldn’t be stuck. “My businesses include a salon, boutique and I’m into real estate. I also have an entertainment outfit and I rent out sound and stage equipment. Right now, I’m planning to bring in more cameras for movie productions and other things.” Insisting that he didn’t diversify into other lines of business because his music career wasn’t doing well, he said, “People who think like that are myopic. And you will find out that such people don’t even have anything of their own. If someone like Jay Z, Jenifer Lopez and P-Diddy can have a clothing line and other businesses, who am I not to toe that line?” Ruggedman Michael Stephens, aka Ruggedman, undoubtedly redefined rap music in Nigeria. With hits such as Ehen, Peace or War, Baraje, among others, many looked up to him to go international with his craft. However, the rapper seemed to run out of steam after his 2007 album, Ruggedy Baba. Perhaps distracted by his beef with 9ice and Mode 9, the rapper didn’t pay much attention to his career. The emergence of younger rappers also contributed to his decline. But the rapper has always been business-minded. Even at the peak of his career, he launched a clothing line, Twentieth September Wears, and he has since invested in other streams of income. Telling Sunday Scoop about the businesses he is involved in, he said, “I own a virtual soccer gaming brand called Rugged Premier League. I also host events and TV reality shows. Only ignorant people would say that I went into business because I was no longer making money from music. I started working on Twentieth September Wears in 2004/2005. Some of the shirts we used in my videos, Peace or War and Baraje, of many years ago, were made by TSW. A lot of people are quick to say things despite the fact they cannot prove it or how silly it sounds.” Bisi Ibidapo-Obe Actress, Bisi Ibidapo-Obe, shot to limelight with her role in the movie, Bisi Omo Logbalogba. She appeared in a lot of movies after and many expected her to build a lasting career. However, she abruptly went out of circulation and stopped featuring in movies. At a point, she was reported to have had a baby for controversial lawmaker, Senator Dino Melaye. Some years ago, she established an adult shop, where she trades in lingerie and sex toys. In a chat with Sunday Scoop, she maintained that business has been good and she enjoys what she is doing. Liz Benson At a point in the nineties, Liz Benson was practically the biggest actress in the country. She dominated the movie industry and appeared in majority of the movies produced during that period. Known for movies such as True Confession, Witches, Diamond Ring, Chain Reaction, among others, she had movie lovers eating out of her palms. Loved for her sterling interpretation of roles, she won many awards and garnered a lot of acclaim. However, when many were expecting her to continue soaring, the talented actress took a bow from the industry. She is now an evangelist and lives in Delta State with her husband, who is also a cleric. Hilda Dokubo Hilda Dokubo was one actress whose portrayal of roles was always so believable that viewers were often confused as to whether she was acting or being real. She seemed to be able to cry on cue and the range of emotions she displayed endeared her to many fans. With movies such as Without Love, Jezebel, Evil Passion, End of the Wicked, Onye-Eze, among others in her kitty, Dokubo was a delight to watch. However, she took a long break from the industry and newer stars have since overtaken her. She once served as a special adviser on youth affairs to a former Rivers State governor, Peter Odili. She is also a cleric and an activist. Regina Askia Former actress and beauty queen, Regina Askia, was the delight of many whenever she appeared on movie screens. The one-time Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria commanded the attention of many with her beauty and her face helped to sell lots of movies back in the day. However, she took a bow when the ovation was loudest and relocated outside the country. She currently lives in USA and works as a family nurse practitioner. She is also a healthcare and education activist, television producer, writer and public speaker. Saint Obi Obinna Nwafor, aka Saint Obi, was the quintessential bad boy in movies. Talented and prolific, he was the first choice of many movie producers and directors. He made waves in movies such as Sakobi: The Snake Girl, Fantasy, The Final Battle, among others. However, it’s been a while since the actor appeared in a movie. Not many people know that he is now a singer, consultant and social crusader. Source: PUNCH Read the full article

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kacydeneen · 6 years ago

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‘Tough Game for Women’: No Female Jockeys at Triple Crown

Mike Smith will ride Justify for a shot at the Triple Crown in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes. He’ll compete against nine other horse/jockey combinations -- and all nine other jockeys will be men. In fact, over the past 48 years, more than 300 jockeys have ridden in Triple Crown races, and only six have been women. A female jockey hasn’t competed in a Triple Crown race since Rosie Napravnik rode General a Rod in the Belmont four years ago.

“It’s an incredible feeling, it always validated how far I’ve come, and making it to the level I wanted to be riding at,” said Napravnik, who retired from racing in 2014 at 26 while seven weeks pregnant. “It’s really all about the quality of horses that you’re riding. …That’s why we’re in the game and that’s why we ride to get to the top level.”

But Napravnik is the exception. About eight percent of jockeys are female, according to the Jockeys’ Guild membership, and the majority never reach that top level. There’s a host of reasons why those numbers are so low, jockeys say.

In interviews with NBC, five female jockeys described what they say is a long and persistent history of gender discrimination in the sport. Some say their careers have been deterred by sexual harassment and bullying. At a time when the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements have exposed inappropriate and often illegal treatment of women by more than 200 high-profile men, there has been no similar reckoning in racing. Female jockeys say that’s because too many of them are afraid to speak up.

“Every day, someone says something derogatory,” said jockey Erica Murray.

Female riders often share stories with each other, Murray said, about trainers, jockeys or grooms making inappropriate comments about their appearance or making unwanted physical advances. The harassment, they said, is especially bad at small tracks.

Murray and three other jockeys interviewed for this article said they didn't want to name the men who have harassed them or the tracks where the harassment occurred for fear of losing work. For the same reason, they never filed official complaints.

“To survive,” Murray said, “you have to keep your mouth shut and keep chugging along.”

Horse racing has always been a male dominated sport. Women could not compete until 1968, when Kathy Kusner sued the Maryland Racing Commission for a jockey license. Diane Crump broke the gender barrier at the Kentucky Derby in 1970, 95 years after the first Derby. Fourteen years passed before another woman rode in the Derby.

“It’s a fair statement to say that there are many, many more men good riders than women, but that doesn’t change the fact that when a girl is a good rider, she’s just a good rider. Period,” said trainer Tom Amoss, who chose Napravnik to jockey Mylute in two Triple Crown races in 2013. “Horse racing is a men’s world and I don’t say that proudly, it’s just the way it is. It’s very difficult for a woman to break in in any aspect of it.”

Amoss chose Napravnik to race his horses in the Triple Crown and in other races because she was among the top jockeys.

“I’ve never thought of Rosie as a ‘woman rider,’” he said. “She’s a very, very good rider and there was an opportunity to get her for the race and so we chose to do that, to get who we thought was the best rider available, man or woman.”

Not every trainer thinks that way. Women in North America rode less often, getting a 10.2 percent of race starts and winning just 7.5 percent of prize money in 2017, according to analysis from Paul T. von Hippel, an associate professor of public policy, sociology, statistics and data at the University of Texas, Austin, who looked at data from Equibase, the thoroughbred industry's official database. Those percentages have declined by two to three points since 2000, Von Hippel said.

This "could suggest poor results but could also occur because women tend to ride inferior horses in lower class races," according to his analysis.

Women jockeys say they have to work at least twice as hard as men, which often means working horses for hours in the morning for free only to see a male rider competing on those same horses later in the day. Some women jockeys, including Napravnik, had trainers turn them down then hire them after they won races for someone else.

Cheyanna Patrick, who has ridden mostly for her dad, a trainer based in Indiana, said if it wasn’t for her family, she wouldn’t have the success she had finding mounts.

“I literally walked into barns just to introduce myself and trainers would say, 'You can keep walking, we don’t use girl jockeys in this barn,'” said Patrick, who now attends law school at the University of Kentucky. “I would try to get an agent, but when I called agents they would say the trainers they work with don’t use girl jockeys.”

Patrick remembers approaching a trainer about racing opportunities, and immediately being asked about her appearance instead of how many races she has won.

“You should think about being a stripper, you’re really pretty, you’ll make more money at that,” Patrick said he told her. “I was probably 18. I was stunned, I thought, ‘Wow, this makes me really want to be a jockey and work with you guys.’”

Murray, 20, who races at Louisiana Downs, said an agent told her that if she was a boy, she’d be the leading apprentice rider in the country.

“It’s behind like 50 years on the race track in terms of the treatment of women. It’s ridiculous,” said Murray, who started racing at 17.

Larry Jolivette, a trainer at Louisiana Downs who works with Murray and other women riders, says a lot of male trainers believe that male jockeys are stronger riders than female jockeys. To Jolivette, it’s all about how hard a jockey works. A recent study by the University of Liverpool in the UK that used data covering a 14-year period, found that women jockeys did just as well as men when they were offered horses of the same quality.

“It’s a tough game for women; they have to be dominant,” Jolivette said. “Erica had won a race for me just yesterday. She’s got the mindset and she’s got the ability. She will make it.”

Murray says she first experienced catcalls and sexual harassment at age 13, when she started working horses on a farm. Since then, it’s been a constant.

Murray will talk about her experiences but will not name names for fear of being blackballed. Filing a complaint to track stewards, Murray and others said, is not taken seriously and could lead to retaliation. They say the harassment takes focus away from their jobs and creates an unsafe working environment.

Jockey Natalie Turner named a name in 2016: another jockey at Will Rogers Downs in Claremore, Oklahoma. Freddy Jose Manrrique-Guerrero was saying inappropriate things, leaving notes on her car and following her, Turner said. She and others complained to track stewards, who gave Manrrique-Guerrero verbal warnings that had little impact, she said.

During one race, Manrrique-Guerrero grabbed her shoulder and hit her horse in the face, she said. Turner said she struck him several times with a whip as “self-defense”—all of it visible on video. Both jockeys were sent to anger management classes and received a 30-day suspension. Turner’s was later reduced to a two-week suspension.

Manrrique-Guerrero's agent, Mike Gass Sr., denied that the jockey reached for Turner’s arm or hit her horse. The Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission determined that Manrrique-Guerrero did make contact with Turner’s shoulder, but there wasn’t enough evidence to conclude that it was intentional. Manrrique-Guerrero did not return several messages left with Gass Sr. or Will Rogers Downs.

Eventually, Turner took out a restraining order against Manrrique-Guerrero, but she was still pitted against him in races, she said.

“The whole thing could’ve been avoided, but instead it was swept under the rug,” said Turner, who retired from racing in 2016 after six years in the sport. She is now a marketing coordinator at Belterra Park in Cincinnati, Ohio. “When you look out at the track and you start thinking about everything that goes into those two minutes on the track, it’s not just worth it for me,” she said.

Amanda Clinton, Vice President of Communications for the Cherokee Nation Entertainment, which owns and operates Will Rogers Downs, would not comment on Turner’s case but said the track has a “sexual harassment free workplace.”

Kelly Cathey, executive director of the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission, said if a jockey is being harassed, “they should report it no matter who is going to find out and have enough faith that they will be protected in situations like that.”

“That’s serious. They should never feel like they shouldn’t complain because they’re the only female rider,” Cathey said.

Amelia Hauschild, 18, said her experiences as a 16-year-old apprentice at small tracks nearly drove her from the sport. She said trainers and other jockeys verbally and sexually harassed her. People passed around her phone number and called her to ask for dates, and harassed her on social media. Two trainers told her she’d get more rides and better horses if she slept with them, she said. They routinely commented on how her clothes fit her body.

“I have been in situations where I should’ve reported it or called police, but if you’re the only woman then it’s pretty easy to know who made the report,” said Hauschild. “Until it’s time to move to a different state or work for someone else you’re kind of stuck in that situation.”

After about a year racing, Hauschild was able to move her apprenticeship to Santa Anita Park, a large California track, where she says she hasn’t encountered any harassment.

Jockey Julie Burke, who moved to the U.S. from Ireland two years ago, said a male jockey hazed her for weeks and punched her in the face after a race in 2017. They were both punished.

“I was just riding a race like everyone else but because it was me, he could come in and bully me, because I wasn’t one of the guys,” said Burke, 28.

She complained to the track stewards about the bullying but they did nothing about it, she said. She didn’t want to name the track where the bullying happened or name the jockey because she still has to work alongside him.

“It’s probably the only sport where women take that kind of stuff,” she said. “We have to because that’s what you have to put up with. If you’re competing with the men you have to accept it as that’s that.”

Katie Clawson Ramsey, 21, an exercise rider who retired from racing last year, said she was shocked to hear derogatory comments men made about women on the racetrack but she said it seemed acceptable for them to behave that way. She said older jockeys would offer to mentor young female riders, only to try to take advantage of them.

“Unfortunately, some girls fall for that and can get into sticky situations and unfortunate circumstances with the guys taking advantage of the fact that they have a dream to chase and hone their craft,” Clawson Ramsey said. “I know of numerous people who had that direct experience.”

The Jockeys’ Guild, an organization that represents jockeys, said in a statement it’s been made aware “of a couple of incidents throughout the country” but it has not received complaints about sexual harassment from its members.

“The stewards at each racetracks are given the authority to oversee all aspects of racing, including participants, at each race track,” the Guild said. “Therefore, they would be the most appropriate avenue to investigate and address such complaints or alleged incidents.”

While some jockeys described widespread harassment and discrimination in the sport, others said they haven’t experienced it.

“You might have guys who will whistle at you but that’s just normal life, it can happen anywhere you go,” said jockey Ashley Broussard, 25, who’s been winning races at Evangeline Downs and Delta Downs, small tracks in Louisiana. “I’ve never had anyone make comments or that if I want to ride for this barn you have to be with me. I’ve never had these issues.

“I feel a lot of that is how you present yourself and carry yourself. If you go out there wearing cutoff shirts and skinny jeans and go and flirt with the guys, of course they are going to take advantage of that. You have to think of it as a business, not as trying to work your way in.”

She thinks the reason women are underrepresented in the sport is due to the risks involved, not the lack of opportunities, and many choose family over racing. Broussard said her body hurts every day because she’s had broken ribs, a broken collarbone, punctured lung, several concussions and other injuries.

“It’s not going out and playing ball,” said Broussard, who’s a single mom to a 3-year-old son. “A lot of people get killed, they get hurt. You have to be willing to take that and mentally prepare yourself.”

Jockey Sophie Doyle, who moved to the U.S. from the U.K. in 2013, echoed Broussard’s opinion. She said she hasn’t experienced sexual harassment at work and said a woman’s success as a jockey depends on hard work and connecting with the right people.

“It’s same as in any job, you just have to know how to handle yourself,” Doyle said. “Don’t ever put yourself in a situation where you have to do something to get a ride in the barn. I’ve had people whistling and saying, ‘hey babe,’ you have to ignore it.”

Donna Brothers, who won over 1,100 races and serves as a horse-back riding reporter and analyst for NBC Sports' Triple Crown coverage, said bullying, discrimination and sexual harassment were not part of her experience during her 11 and a half years as a jockey. She said she simply “didn’t make room for it.” Her mother, Patti Barton, one of the first women to be licensed as a jockey in 1969 and among the top female jockeys during her career, took the same approach, Brothers said.

“I never felt I was treated as a sexual object in any way,” she said. “I handled myself professionally and I never wore a mini skirt to the jock’s room either.”

Brothers believes women are underrepresented in horse racing because there’s less mid-level racing than there was when she started, making it hard for female jockeys to rise through the ranks.

Still, women like her, her mother, Napravnik and others have proven that female jockeys can be as strong riders as men and win races at the highest level, Brothers said. Experience and hard work, not gender, made the difference.

Napravnik, who was regularly ranked among the top jockeys in North America in both earnings and total races won, agrees. But she said she still experienced trainers that refused to hire her because of her gender, and she took special delight in beating their horses, and having those trainers come back and ask her to ride for them.

”People cannot resist winning, and so in my experience anybody that I can remember saying that to me, I rode for and won races for,” she said. “I feel like it was a personal victory of my own, like haha, I told you so.”

Photo Credit: Ernesto Belmonte This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser. ‘Tough Game for Women’: No Female Jockeys at Triple Crown published first on Miami News

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aois21 · 7 years ago

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July 29, 2017

Here is the top literary news of the week:

Outrage after children's author denied visa

The Comics Industry Has An Accessibility Problem

Library survey says readers of all ages still prefer print to digital, among other findings

A Bookseller’s Elegy

HOW A BOOK ABOUT GROVER REVEALED TO ME THE WIDE WORLD OF LITERATURE

WILL FACEBOOK BECOME THE ULTIMATE ONLINE BOOK CLUB?

Game of Thrones: Winds of Winter could be out in 2018, says George RR Martin

US Author’s Guild Announces Copyright Infringement Agreement With Hungarian Magazine

Welsh minister accuses arts bodies of 'undermining' review process

When New York City Rioted Over Hamlet Being Too British

7 OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LIBRARIES IN THE WORLD

Publishers step in to help cash-strapped school

Nestle Japan CMO Masafumi Ishibashi on brands as publishers

HELP SAVE JANE AUSTEN’S GREAT HOUSE

Video: Fulcrum Digital Publishing Platform Will Power ACLS Humanities Ebook

A new four-day poetry and spoken word festival comes to Hull in September.

VISITING THE ACTUAL ISLAND THAT INSPIRED NEVERLAND

LIBRARIES ARE THE REAL PUNK ROCK

Google Has a Big Canadian Problem — and It's Getting Desperate

Author Yap funds Curtis Brown scholarship for 'less privileged'

IMLS Now Accepting Nominations for 2018 National Medal for Museum and Library Service

Luxembourg's Chapter 1 Files For Bankruptcy

READING ALOUD WITH OTHERS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOU THINK

AN OPEN LETTER TO PEOPLE WHO DON’T THINK THEY NEED TO READ DIVERSELY

The Swedish Novel That Imagines a Dystopia for the Childless

Journalists, critics, and editors have released a statement of solidarity with workers of the Village Voice Union

LEONARDO DA VINCI’S NOTEBOOKS NOW ACCESSIBLE ONLINE

Jubilation as Iranian children's author finally granted visa

Grand scale: Calgary instrument lending library in high demand

Librarians on the Front Lines

5 REASONS WHY A WRITER SHOULD MOVE TO VANCOUVER

Keeping you current Interact With the First 3-D Scan of the Rosetta Stone

Jeff Bezos was briefly the world’s richest person

12 books that shaped the way Jeff Bezos thinks about success

Hachette UK sales grow 10.2% in first half

Calling all young women writers: Enter the Telegraph's Cassandra Jardine prize

HILLARY CLINTON’S NEW MEMOIR GETS A TITLE

This Glow-In-The-Dark Library Was Designed to Mimic a Diamond

* Zoe Saldana Is Launching A Digital Media Brand To Empower Latinos

Some pig: porcine sizzler claims 39th Diagram Prize

MAD Magazine Writer Stan Hart Has Passed Away

Emma Donoghue donates over $100K in royalties for children's literacy in Asia and Africa

Library gives slum children taste of literary world

I was and remain an excellent liar: Paro Anand

Ancient Egyptian Records Indicate Philistines Weren't Aegean Pirates After All

Literally This Week is available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, Google Play, Tune In, Podomatic, and media.aois21.com.

For news during the week, follow @aois21 on Twitter.

You can now support this podcast either by buying an ad through Advertisecast, or on the aois21 page on Patreon.

If there’s a story we missed, tweet to us with the #literallythisweek and we’ll check it out.

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geniuszone-blog · 7 years ago

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New Post has been published on Geniuszone

New Post has been published on https://geniuszone.biz/top-five-most-important-aspects-of-your-game/

Top five Most Important Aspects of Your Game

So you have decided to plunge yourself into the sector of game development, have assembled a crew of powerful warriors to address all of the huge problems and are equipped to create the following best game in the enterprise… Trumping WoW, Guild Wars… (you get the factor). You’ve chopped up all your brainstorming and assembled some certainly keen principles for a storyline and you are prepared to go. But among all of the programming, the character ideas, the dungeons, and the quests – what are without a doubt the maximum essential components of your recreation so that it will determine whether a person enjoys themselves? Read on, and allow me to proportion with you what I suppose.

When we do decide to take that plunge into the improvement of a brand new sport, there are 5 belongings you ought to recollect very carefully, and pay an extraordinary deal of attention to. There are probably greater of those with a purpose to avoid or assist you alongside your way, and your ordering can be distinct than mine, however, those are what I always hold to be the maximum important. Over the following week, we can display every aspect, and at the end of the week culminated with the whole article. For these days we’re going to start on the top, with range 5.

Number 5: Storyline

When crafting your sport, there’s no better idea for features and activities, quests and dungeons, than your very very own fantastically advanced and custom tailored storyline. Some may also cringe at this statement, claiming that storyline is easily overshadowed and un-important when you have intense images that make your fingers tingle, or when you have combat so excessive that you’re actually ducking out of the manner from behind your screen. While these items honestly make contributions to an awesome game and might result in loads of excitement (in truth, they are on the list too!), they cannot make up for a loss of storyline. One issue many gamers crave whether or not consciously or now not, is a sturdy storyline that leads them into worrying about the game – it entices you – and makes you feel as even though your wildest dreams may in truth be possible in this environment. Storyline may be simple and to the point even as being so flawlessly performed that it serves as the crux of the whole game (EVE Online: We’re flying via area, blowing people out of the sky…) and on the equal time being so rich and deep with lore (the complexities in lore and story surrounding EVE is so first rate that it entangles even the most basic ships and inventory objects) that it compels gamers to write down their very own histories.

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Not best does storyline help players end up engaged with all which you’ve slaved over and worked for, however it enables you the developer along the way. If you’ve been smart, and from the start dreamed up an intoxicatingly deep records of your sport putting, it’s going to continuously serve you all through development. It will provide clues into what functions need to be a part of the game, what does not need to be blanketed, and what does or doesn’t in shape. A structure professor of mine once stated, while relating to the website evaluation portion of a structure that we could discover a great deal about what we have to be constructing on the constructing website online by means of certainly traveling the region, and “envisioning the invisible constructing that wants to be constructed”. This is genuine in structure, and it’s miles particularly authentic in game development and dreaming up your storyline/game putting.

The storyline may be crucial, but is it extra critical than a snazzy sport placing so wealthy and colorful that your tempted to stay indefinitely? Well, perhaps – just so long as your 3d representation isn’t always bogged down with the aid of hundreds of thousands of nasty polygons or quads. Why within the world is Artwork critical, anyway?

Number 4: Artwork

I’ve heard many, commonly that the artwork/3d models/characters located for your game won’t make or wreck things. I trust this in that it may not make or destroy the whole game, but art work and professional searching/feeling fashions absolutely help you out alongside the way. Think of any film you have visible lately in which the sets had been sincerely high-quality and beautiful – one such instance (despite the fact that now not necessarily as “recent”) are the Lord of the Rings films. Throughout the whole set of movies, wealthy and diverse settings abound, and help the immersion component like you would not accept as true with. Would the film be “broken” via less awe-inspiring scenes? Probably no longer, due to the fact inside the case of The Lord of the Rings, there have been a lot of other high-quality factors. Did the awe-inspiring scenes make the movie just that tons better, and supply it just that a good deal *greater* to drool over? Yes, Definitely. The equal kind of effect may be seen in the game industry. I play games that have brilliant portraits (EVE Online) and other that do not (Dark Ages). I am, however, addicted to each of those games for unique motives, but you can wager that the beautiful environment in EVE without a doubt facilitates to inspire its huge participant base.

Additionally, your artwork can critically impact the mechanics of your recreation. Many developers over appearance an extremely essential aspect of their 3d fashions – poly count… That’s to say, the range of triangles (or *shiver* quads) your sport has. Many of the loose 3d fashions you may discover on the net are splendid but are so incredibly specific that the use of them in a laptop, real-time surroundings could not be sensible due to the fact you’re normally looking to attraction to as many systems as viable. Console systems have the posh of (for the most component) assuming that everybody’s strolling on an excellent playing discipline. Those people developing video games strictly for the PC don’t have this luxurious. Suffice it to say, it is vital to discover great, low poly game content material, and there’s honestly sufficient of it obtainable that there is no excuse if you want to be shoving your recreation complete of characters which might be within the 10,000 poly range (many online groups limit their avatars, or characters, to round 2500-5000 polys).

The decrease your poly count on your 3d fashions, the smoother your environment goes running at the widest range of computers… Usually. One aspect to keep in mind at some stage in this entire procedure is how your engine handles polygons, and to find out what the precise poly range is which you need to aim for characters and scenery. In most cases, better person polys are more ideal, with surroundings (buildings, trees, and so on) being lower in poly. Another engine unique feature to keep in mind is whether or not or not the engine supports Level of Detail (LOD). LOD for those who won’t understand is a device in which the engine will use very low poly variations of a version if the player is far away, swapping the model inside and outside for excessive great versions the closer you get to it. As some distance as I recognize, nearly each engine out there supports LOD, however, some like Active Worlds do not.

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Down the street, we go along with Number 3:

Music! Some may say (and argue) that tune for an internet sport have to be covered into the category of “Artwork” – at the same time as this could be proper depending on the way you take a look at it, tune in a recreation is particularly critical *aside* out of your 3d models and 3d characters and so it receives its own spot.

Number three: Music

In many ways music is the heart and soul of any environment you can create in 3-D – it’s miles literally the sound trick to which activities occur, players win battles to, return domestic to, and so on and so forth. Music is a vital tool used to set the mood in any placing, and without it, your game will feel useless and like something is lacking. In many methods, music allows to express for the participant the mood of a selected area, it enhances and emphasizes what you’re regarding your participant. Do you need them to experience unhappy, disturbing, excited, apprehensive? Because hearing is one in every of our number one feel (seeing, smelling, and many others), one could argue that it’s far just as powerful in linking and creating reminiscences. It should be considered one of your *top dreams* to make human beings don’t forget your game – making your sport memorable is one of the hints in making it both exciting and some thing that people will inform their friends about. Hearing, and the music in your game is one of the extra subtle features that performs a large part in how a surroundings *feels*. Think approximately what your favorite movie could sound like without sound and song?

This highlights any other important component that could be a sub category of track: sound effects. While the song is the important thing that offers your environment a few feeling and lifestyles, sound consequences are what make the environment tangible and sense practically. When a player is capable of knock over a trashcan and as a result, they hear the clanging of aluminum and tin rolling down the concrete they’re standing on, the player has an expanded feeling of interplay with the surroundings. Think of the effect and life the environment takes on whilst a player is going from strolling on stone, in which their footwear can be clacking, to taking walks on dirt or mud, in which the sound would evidently change pretty dramatically. Making proper games is set studying small (however powerful) details that immerse your player.

Many independent developers might also turn away from setting such a significance at the song played in the sport because in some approaches it can be tough to come back with the aid of for humans with restricted budgets. While tune can be highly-priced (o.K., no foolin’ it IS expensive) to have custom made, you could locate a few tremendous offers on royalty loose track for purchase online. In many cases those tracks are professionally made, and available for bendy licenses – both for unbiased folks, or industrial studios. It’s now not uncommon as an example, to find five-6 tracks on an indie license for round $a hundred.

GarageGames.Com has some incredible offers on music and sound consequences – the sound outcomes observed there are virtually a deal. You can find the web page at once through traveling their content applications.

Gamedev.Net also has a few outstanding sources relating to tune in video games and offers a nice directory of web sites containing inventory and royalty unfastened track. Check it out right here.

At a later time, it might be first-class to include a directory of our own of some incredible song sources. Look for that later. In the suggest time, let us recognize what you reflect consideration on Music and Sound Effects inside of video games that you’ve played, whether you concept they had been powerful and crucial on your gaming enjoy… And if you don’t agree, you could let us know that, too!

Now that we’ve got covered an awful lot of the beef of your recreation (Storyline, Artwork, Music), we are going to delve a touch bit farther into game layout and in reality define the skeleton of your sport – the spine, the component that in the long run maintains humans coming lower back on your recreation daily. The storyline, paintings and tune are essential things so as to sincerely make your game sense entire, and make it less probably that humans will stand to your nearby village, and go searching wondering “What’s lacking?” But ultimately in terms of the development of your recreation, we are now getting into what truly matters. That brings us to state-of-the-art submit…

aspects

Number 2: Game Flow

When it involves game design in modern international there are absolutely three number one varieties of flow which your game can observe. What precisely is recreation waft? The sports drift, or shape of your sport is how players have interaction with it and storyline events, quests, missions, and so forth. It determines whether or not players can department out and make the game what they want it to be, or if they may be locked onto a music that guides them into their pitfalls and pleasure. Appropriately the 3 types of float are as follows: Sand container, Roller-coaster, and a hybrid blend of the two. In many instances, the way in which your sport engages human beings, and how it forces them to interact with the environment and progress in the game will determine the varieties of gamers you appeal to your recreation.

The maximum “conventional” game play style or instead of the most regularly used in the past has been that of the “Roller-coaster”. This form of recreation play is just because the name implies – customers start the game (get on the trip) and are carefully lead thru the build up, the climax of storyline, pitfalls, exciting twists and turns, and ultimately the sport ends with a hurry of exhilaration. This could also be equated with the experience studying an e-book gives where there are an exact beginning and a specific ending of things. Many RPGs accessible fall into this class, wherein your desires in the sport are explicitly defined (conquer the evil demons of the sea and save the pretty female) and at the same time as these video games are numerous amusing, in some approaches this machine does not constantly work as properly in hugely multiplayer online position-gambling games (MMORPG’s) where you have got dozens, hundreds, even heaps of people interacting with one another. This isn’t to say that there are not MMOs that pull it off (Guild Wars mainly involves thoughts), and this isn’t to mention that MMORPG’s that pass the direction of the Roller-Coaster aren’t wildly amusing (as Guild Wars is). This IS to mention that during more current years humans have begun to desire a more modern breed of game wherein the alternatives seem countless and if instead of rescuing that quite female from the evil demons of the ocean, you need to go and be an innocent farmer… Greater strength to you!

Enter the “Sandbox” games.

In greater current years there was a large push to those sandbox’s in which people can do what they had like. Similar to roller-coaster video games, the call is synonymous with it’s real lifestyles counter component, the sandbox. The concept is that upon entering the sport if making a decision to disregard the over arching and present storyline (consider our pretty woman), that you could do just that without any significant consequences. This kind of game play is now and again stated to enchantment commonly to hardcore style gamers, although I’m now not positive I fully purchase into that philosophy. Often instances I’ve located many informal players in sandbox kind video games who surely enjoy socializing with one another, mining together, exploring, and many others, with out all the insane time commitment of pursuing the important storyline activities. In many of these video games political and spiritual systems may be discovered, in addition to an expansion of job occupations. From what I’ve seen, however, those video games tend to be some distance extra time extensive than roller-coaster games, really due to the amount of time you need to pour into your character to forge your personal course (and be successful at it). While some many now not agree with me right here, I would say EVE Online is genuinely classifiable as a sandbox, as a majority of EVEs content, gameplay, and activities are created and stimulated with the aid of the gamers themselves. GTA3 is also considered by using many to be a sandbox game. That in itself is an essential observe: in sandboxes, you will normally discover a wealth of structures run with the aid of the players themselves, like guilds and factions – normally there’s additionally an economy in recreation this is facilitated completely with the aid of gamers promoting their for my part made items.

Finally, very these days we’ve hit a time while a few humans are discussing approaches to make what you may call a mix among sandbox and curler-coaster games. I have yet to encounter an amazing instance of ways this has been executed (or how someone is working on one), I’ve most effective heard moderate mention of it here and there. From what I collect though, there could be a few valuable very these days we’ve hit a time while a few humans are discussing approaches to make what you may call a mix among sandbox and curler-coaster games. I have yet to encounter an amazing instance of ways this has been executed (or how someone is working on one), I’ve most effective heard moderate mention of it here and there. From what I collect though, there could be a few valuable over arching storylines taking location at one time, giving customers their preference of a way to proceed, and alongside the way presenting ample possibility for players to branch off onto their very own paths, at the same time as still permitting them to come lower back to the large storyline. Some can also again classify this in the main as the sandbox, but I could argue that if at any time there’s a outstanding deal of route coming from quests, storylines and developer pushed content material, that you begin to get extra into curler-coaster factors. If absolutely everyone has run into what you’d bear in mind to be an excellent example of a sandbox curler-coaster hybrid, please allow me recognise! If you have ever examine one of those “Choose your own ending” fashion books that plagued elementary and middle faculties, you’ll understand what a sandbox roller-coaster hybrid might be like. While the participant has choices (possibly many, many selections!), matters are nonetheless ultimately “guided” by an over all storyline, even as leaving room for player created content. At the stop of the day even though, all of that is less difficult said than achieved.

Ultimately, selecting what game system you use, or “Game Flow” technique you use goes to be critical in growing your recreation. Like storyline, it’s going to come up with path and more without difficulty assist you to make decisions approximately whether or no longer a particular characteristic might suit into your game. Not handiest will it help you to make choices, however as a end result it’ll help to form your recreation. Direction and backbone are actually mandatory in recreation development, and choosing a Game Flow will at the least assist you inside the path branch 😉

We’ve protected some surprisingly essential components of your gaming environment – from visible stimulus, and the sounds that pull your vacationers deeper into your sport, to the testimonies that inspire and the sport mechanics that assist shape your players’ characters. However, on the cease of the day there is one aspect so that it will bring the whole thing home and determine whether or not or no longer your recreation is bursting with keen gamers, or an emptied ghost city.

Number 1: Activities, toddler!

While pals inside video games come and pass, quests are released and crushed, objects are unveiled and later trumped – on the cease of the day the gaming network isn’t always in contrast to society at big; we are a disposable institution of human beings. We love to love the freshest items, spells, houses, quests, but in the end they end up some thing of the day past and end to draw as much excitement from the human beings who have been hanging round your game for some time. Many video games falter because they fail to recognize that new content material is a must, even supposing the content material you already have is great. The traditional gamer can crunch via your common sport in much less than a month and in case you’re making plans to launch a recreation that has a monthly subscription, or the need to maintain gamers for an extended quantity of time, this is bad news for you. Ultimately the answer to “What subsequent?” and “Why are humans leaving?” is to imbue your recreation and all of its nooks and crannies with valuable content material and *things to do*. It is from this region that it appears most of the discontent for games comes from because of this that it isn’t always handiest imperative to have lots of sports in the sport when it first releases, however to observe up on the ones activities with new matters to discover, find, and take part in within the following months and years of the games life span.

Not handiest does presenting and making plans activities in the beginning degrees of your sport layout assist create a sport with a view to be amusing to play, however it is able to additionally assist to inspire other areas of your improvement as properly. Events can encourage your storyline, and your storyline can assist to give you thoughts of activities and new plot strains, as an instance. In many approaches this factor of your recreation is what is going to help to build and foster the social community within your sport, that’s in the end what ties human beings to particular games: the friends and network that could be left at the back of if they were to leave.

Ideally, there are an entire host of occasion and interest types you may create within your game. Some of them are worldwide fashion events that involve nearly all of us energetic in the environment at the time. Examples of such events would be those relating to actual global holidays like Christmas, Halloween, and many others. More often than no longer the ones are time durations in games in which if there is not anything new occurring, your recreation will lose out in opposition to real life in the excitement class. People will pick to spend time doing things apart from gambling your game, if this is the case. Now, even as we at TGS respect family time and all, this is awful news for you. Create worldwide events that in shape up to real life occasions to be able to make being interior your environment throughout this time amusing, exciting, and offer the extra little bit of excursion spirit in your players. There also are occasions which might be recurring, which include participant run elections and hunting events that supply your players something to do year round. Optimize these sports and lead them to with ease available to gamers in order that these are matters they can without problems participate in and enjoy.

There are infinite numbers of occasions that you could consist of in your game to make things feel extra lively – we have just covered a very small range of them right here. Perhaps in a later put up we can create another article with a view to inspire you a chunk more on this class. We’ll see! An essential aspect to remember when judging whether or not or not “sports” are your number one precedence: a web game is at its nice while there are enough matters to participate in with others. When your recreation is one which does no longer foster socializing, it’ll extra than probable become quiet and empty, and let’s face it – will we anticipate human beings to play (and pay for) an empty online game? Food for thought.

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ber39james · 8 years ago

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How Gaming Makes You a Better (Yes, Better) Communicator

The stereotype of gamers as abysmal communicators is familiar.

It’s easy to picture an anti-social type sitting alone in his unkempt room with the blinds drawn, swilling energy drinks and grinding levels past dawn. Or worse yet, the kind who racks up kills online while wearing a headset and emitting a nonstop stream of cringeworthy recriminations. There is also that timeworn trope of the dungeon crawlers—those chortling weird-beards in the back room of the comic shop, forever rolling dice of peculiar geometries and blurting shrill inanities about critical fumbles: “This is preposterous!”

Indeed, it is—for gaming has long-since emerged from the basement. More than half of American households are now home to at least one gamer who plays for a few hours a week. As an industry, vidya games have long since eclipsed Hollywood, and with mobile gaming now on track to surpass consoles and PCs, the global gaming market sits on the cusp of $100 billion. And, stereotypes aside, adult female gamers outnumber all those loathsome teenage boys.

Gamers, in fact, are everywhere. They’re running the morning meeting at your office, putting out literal fires in your neighborhood, and researching vital new kinds of medicine. And one thing all these roles have in common—whether it’s analyzing feedback from beta testers or crunching some quick numbers ahead of the guild’s next raid—is communication. In fact, whether you game via a big screen or a pocket-size one—or at a table with no screen at all—gaming might just make you a better communicator, collaborator, and all-around team player.

Project manager by day, dungeon master by night

Many games unite players in pursuit of a shared objective. Maybe it’s the simple, time-honored goal of a first-person shooter like Halo or Call of Duty, e.g., “shoot the opposing team more than they shoot us.” (A noble goal with million-dollar stakes, at times.)

Or maybe the mission is more complex; a group of friends gets together on Friday nights for wine, cheese, and a Dungeons & Dragons adventure involving twenty-sided dice and character sheets for goofy rogues with names like Storm Drayne.

All the same, these endeavors aren’t so different from when the sales team at the office pushes to hit its third-quarter target or when the developers furiously mash out the newest release ahead of next week’s deadline; they all require coordination. The Friday night dungeon master, who may have labored for hours mapping out a campaign that plays to her friends’ strengths and tests their cohesion, might find these same skills come in handy on Monday morning while mapping out the week’s goals for her trusty band of programmers.

Where guilds tend to use voice chat clients during raids and office folks might instead rely on Slack, in either case, unless each member takes on a role that serves the broader purpose of the team and works cooperatively, their effort is bound to struggle.

For a comical illustration of this lesson in freefall, consider the woeful cautionary tale of World of Warcraft’s Leeroy Jenkins, who precipitated an utter massacre by charging in alone while the rest of his crew was still discussing their plan of attack.

This can be equally evident for a five-player team in a game like Defense of the Ancients, where a random server connection might fill your headset with tactical calculations uttered between two teammates in Portuguese, while another’s suggested maneuvers appear on your screen in Cyrillic. Such communication challenges can, to put it mildly, make it difficult to properly time a coordinated strike, or to know who on your team will need backup and when. It can also be just plain stressful—even before whatever semblance you had of a plan starts to crumble, alongside morale.

High spirits lead to high scores

To UK Halo player Abdul Musawwir, keeping morale up is the most essential part of team interaction:

If something bad happens in a game, a team that responds to that calmly and confidently is way more likely to regain control compared to a team that just gets angry or starts blaming each other. Poor morale is going to lead to more mistakes, like mindlessly charging the guy who last killed you. . . . Remain focused, remain positive. Just shake that incident off and move on.

Thus, gaming teaches us the value of communicating clearly and concisely, even in situations that feel dire. Maybe the concern when you’re part of team in Halo is that one of your opponents has managed to take a strategically advantageous perch with a long-range weapon like a sniper rifle. Or maybe you’re on deadline at the office, battling a buggy script while trying to stage a critical post.

Either way, no one likes feeling shouted-at or having to manage other people’s panic. In situations like this, it’s essential to know who you can work with and to state plainly what you know, why it’s important, and how it can be resolved. This tends to be vastly more productive than trying to handle such problems alone or freaking out your teammates or colleagues. In this respect, a question like “Will you take a look at this interactive I’m trying to embed?” has more in common with “Do any of us have a rocket launcher?” than with “Oh God, I have no idea what to do.”

Plus, having rehearsed being assertive and adapting on the fly in pitched combat where warnings are constantly flashing and the terrain around you sometimes explodes, pivoting to an urgent assignment at the office might just feel like a piece of cake.

When communication itself is the game

In some games, communication isn’t just a crucial tool if you want your team to do well; rather, what you tell people is itself part of the game. Players in a roleplaying campaign, for instance, use conversation (and sometimes persuasion) to essentially construct a story around their characters’ shared quest.

Lisa Pickoff-White, a journalist in San Francisco renowned for her tenacity and data-wrangling skills, says figuring out how to effectively steer such a game, even when not everyone’s character shares the same values, tends to yield translatable skills:

I think table topping has allowed me to think through different scenarios quickly and learn to take into account the goals of people in my group and whether they’ll align with the plan. Like is that paladin really going to go for stealing some jewels? How do you motivate them?

While certain games (say, Texas Hold’em) tend to hinge on giving up as little information as possible, other games can at times offer strategic advantages in over-communicating—or appearing to, anyway. One example is Magic: the Gathering, where a typical turn might find one player attacking with a team of creatures—knights, elves, demons, or the occasional mongoose for instance—while the defending player decides how to try to block them with creatures of her own, or perhaps kill them with removal spells.

Here, a crafty player can lead an opponent into traps, perhaps through careful readings of the wordings of the cards—or perhaps by simply seeming to say too much. Gaudenis Vidugiris, who is known among competitive Magic players for his Pro Tour appearances, demonstrated exactly this tactic during the weekend-long slog toward his third Grand Prix victory. Nine rounds into the first day, his exhausted opponent was puzzling over which creatures he needed to block.

Vidugiris, a New Yorker who sometimes plays for the Lithuanian national team, impatiently slid his opponent’s cards into a position suggesting an even exchange that would maintain parity, as if to say “Isn’t your move obvious? I’m a professional and I’m tired of waiting.” His opponent (your humble blogger) obliged. That’s when Vidugiris revealed the Lightning Bolt he’d been masterfully slow-rolling like a titan of poker. Vidugiris—a lawyer by trade—had not, in fact, said too much, but instead communicated exactly the right amount of information to rout his opponent’s defense.

Vocab grab bag (of items)

It’s worth noting that one other way Magic, like many games, can enhance players’ communication is simply by building their vocabulary. There are more than 16,000 unique Magic cards with different names; Magic’s multiverse has many large zombies, but only one Corpulent Corpse, for instance. As a result, a longtime player might recognize the difference between the type of veil you wear and the type of vale you walk through, because the game classifies one as an artifact and the other is a land.

Similar examples can be found in iconic video games from Chrono Trigger (where, should you recruit the dark wizard Magus, you’ll quickly learn the word “scythe”) to Metal Gear Solid 3 (in which, if you find yourself wounded in combat, you’ll come to appreciate the word “styptic”).

Whatever your game of choice might be—and whatever context you find yourself communicating in, professional or otherwise—Grammarly is pleased in help you lead your team to victory and fulfill your quest.

The post How Gaming Makes You a Better (Yes, Better) Communicator appeared first on Grammarly Blog.

from Grammarly Blog https://www.grammarly.com/blog/how-gaming-makes-you-a-better-communicator/

0 notes

arthur36domingo · 8 years ago

Text

How Gaming Makes You a Better (Yes, Better) Communicator

The stereotype of gamers as abysmal communicators is familiar.

Project manager by day, dungeon master by night

High spirits lead to high scores

To UK Halo player Abdul Musawwir, keeping morale up is the most essential part of team interaction:

When communication itself is the game

Vocab grab bag (of items)

The post How Gaming Makes You a Better (Yes, Better) Communicator appeared first on Grammarly Blog.

from Grammarly Blog https://www.grammarly.com/blog/how-gaming-makes-you-a-better-communicator/

0 notes