Author: Jason

Defining Quest

Gaming

Cuppy’s post about going back to EverQuest got me to thinking… One thing that has always bugged me is when people say that the title of the game EverQuest is ironic because the game had so few quests and was mostly a grind.  “NeverQuest” they often call it.  I heartily disagree… now, on to the tangent…

When I wake up in the morning there are things I do.  I shower, I sometimes shave, I eat breakfast, I check emails, I watch a TV show, maybe I write something for this blog, I go to work.  Work itself is a list of things to do.  Write some code to fix a bug, check on the performance of the servers, flowchart the processes of a new program, and more.  The one thing that all of those have in common is that not a single one of them would I ever, for any reason, consider a “quest”.

My quest in life is to be a writer, or perhaps a game designer.  The things I do on a daily basis are, in some form or another, tasks I perform in pursuit of those larger goals, either directly or indirectly.  And now we return to the point…

In my years of playing EverQuest, there was not a single day in that game where I was not on a quest.  Whether it be a small task performed to gain reputation, or the pursuit of some larger aspect of something else, but it was always moving toward the completion of some quest somewhere.  Headband and Sash quests, Ro Armor, Shackles, Epic weapons, Manuals from Knowledge, Rings in Velious, and much much more.

In my years of playing World of Warcraft, I can’t say I’ve actually done very many quests at all.  Every day, every session, I was completing tasks.  Busy work.  Dozens of little things to do, none of which took very long, and none of which mattered.  The rewards I gained from doing WoW’s “quests” would be replaced in days, sometimes less.  The only rewards that were even close to permanent and mattering to my character were ones gotten at the level cap, through raiding.

To me, a quest should be a long hard road through hell, something that directs more of you life than fifteen minutes.  When I think of “Quest” I think of The Holy Grail, I think of the search for Solomon’s Mines, I think of the search for intelligent life on other planets, I think of goals that consume you.  Quests in EverQuest in the “old days” had this.  Quests in today’s games don’t.  Today’s quests are nothing more than “To Do” lists.  Today’s quests are bullet points on the agenda.  Today’s quests are eating breakfast, checking my email, and reviewing code.

And that, I’m fairly certain, describes exactly why most modern MMOs, and even what EverQuest has become, just don’t seem to hold my interest.  I want to quest again…  Do any games have this? or have they all gone the way of WoW?  I had hoped Lord of the Rings Online would deliver, and perhaps it did later, but I only got up to level 17 and it was “quest hubs” and tasks, sometimes with a dash of story but really nothing more.

30 Days, 100 Pages

Writing

Tomorrow begins Script Frenzy.

You know, for the last few years I’ve made an effort to participate in the NaNoWriMo, but November is just such as awful time of year.  Everything always seems up in the air, crazy, and trying to add novel writing on top of it just never works out for me.  Threats of unemployment, actual unemployment, holidays, budget concerns, falling temperatures and people who get sick and then don’t stay home getting everyone else sick… I suppose there are people who thrive on that, but for me its just distracting.  I’m going to make an effort this year to try to clear up as many things as possible before November to take away some of the stress and see if I can make a real honest go at it.

April, however, is a much better month.  Temperatures actually rising, taxes sorted out and filed already (or at least sorted out and waiting for the last possible moment to mail them in).  April just seems to have much less drama and stress for me.  Maybe its just me, but whatever the cause, unlike November and the NaNoWriMo, I am ready for April and Script Frenzy.

30 Days, 100 Pages… here I come.

Orcs

Reviews

I just spent the last couple of months wading through Orcs by Stan Nicholls.  On the surface, the conceit of this book is quite inventive: let’s tell a fantasy story from the point of view of orcs.  Of course, the moment you delve into the book, the orcs aren’t the orcs of Tolkien or other authors, these orcs are noble warriors who live for battle and only do evil because they are conscripted into the service of a dark sorceress.  So, immediately the book is less inventive than originally thought.  More so once the featured warband, the Wolverines, go off on their own in defiance of their mistress.

Overall, the book is a decent fantasy tale.  Typical, almost, which was a let down when prior to picking it up I was led to believe it was going to break the mold.  As the book wore on, and part of the reason it took me so long to slog through it, parts of the prose just feels like filler, as if the author wanted to get to the “cool” part but didn’t want to just jump cut straight to it between chapters and instead wrote a chapter or two to bridge the events.  It detracted from the book, for me.  I think the same story could have been told with greater effect if it had been half as long, tighter.

I’m not sure I’d recommend this book to others.  Perhaps if they were die hard fantasy fans who regularly read mediocre novels they might find this to be excellent.  But for me, it was just okay.

Movie Round-Up: March 27th, 2009

Reviews

Hitting the theaters today are three films: 12 Rounds, The Haunting in Connecticut, and Monsters vs. Aliens.

12 Rounds:

I haven’t seen it yet, but I want to, which means I will likely rent it.  It seems like a decent action flick, but I’m just not sure its worth $10 a seat to see it on the big screen.  I will have to wait until I read a few reviews.

The Haunting in Connecticut:

Based on a true story.  I’m always a tad skeptical when I see that phrase associated with a film, because without a lot of leg work you never know how much is “true story” and how much is “based”.  But I like a good scary movie, so when the opportunity arose for me to see this one early, I took it.  There are two great things about this movie.  The first is that the build up of suspense is very well done.  A flash of ghost here, a noise there, with a dab of odd things over there.  Its done without getting right in your face, and is fairly creepy.  The second great thing is that they manage to tell the story without buckets of blood, tons of gore or any real kind of torture that has accompanied so many horror films over recent years.

I did have some problems with some of the characters in the film, and the sort of matter of fact coincidences that lead to all the right people being in all the right places.  The son with cancer just happens to meet a reverend in treatment who happens to know quite a bit about ghosts and hauntings and the psychic world.  But as long as I ignored that, it was a decent scary movie.

I’m not sure its worth $10, but its easily worth a matinee price if you enjoy movies about hauntings.

Monsters vs. Aliens:

Oh man.  When I saw the trailer for this, I knew I had to see it.  The trailer was pure unmitigated awesome.  Which is probably why I was a little disappointed with the movie as a whole.

Don’t get me wrong, still a good movie, but I expected it to be better.  The main problems I see for this film is that on one level it is clearly aiming for kids, but its got a few slow dramatic scenes and a number of older-skewed “inside jokes” that will sail right over their heads.  I’m almost 35, and I got every single inside joke and I thought they were hilarious, but someone ten or fifteen years younger or older might not get them.  Small children probably won’t get the Close Encounter or Beverly Hills Cop or a slew of other references.  As for the dramatic scenes… well, Pixar has proven that they are kings at giving you drama without stopping the action.  Sure, they slow down, but stuff is still going on, even while Mr. Incredible is explaining how he failed.  The Dreamworks people are still a bit clunky in this respect.  They want to have a serious or heartfelt moment between two characters and the entire movie grinds to a halt so we can see it.

Should you go see it?  Even with the problems I mentioned, I would.  But definately see it at a theater that is showing it in 3D.  You miss half of the awesome without 3D.  But even in 3D, if a few overly dramatic halts and inside jokes are going to spoil it for you, then you should pass on this one.

Limitations

Gaming

Talk to me long enough and you’ll hear me refer to the book Illusions by Richard Bach.  If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you’ve seen mention of it a few times.  Within the book is a book, the Messiah’s Handbook, which is filled with all the things a messiah needs to know, and it is quoted on numerous occasions throughout the novel.  One of my favorites is as follows:

Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they’re yours.

Illusions isn’t the only place this idea crops up.  In Star Wars, Yoda tells Luke “Do, or do not.  There is no ‘try’.”  In the Matrix, a boy explains to Neo:

Boy: Do not try to bend the spoon; that’s impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Boy: There is no spoon.

The fact that this comes up so often in stories, about shaking off some feeling of the impossible and overcoming it to success, in my opinion, only lends to the truth of it, and to the fact that so many people spend so much effort in arguing for their limitations.  So, I’m not horribly surprised when the announcement of some cool new technology, like OnLive, is met with such resistance by many (read the comments).  Luckily, there are people out there capable and willing to see beyond what is to what could be and move things forward.

Personally, I look forward to watching OnLive’s development.  Although, I do agree that input lag could be an issue for them if they stay with the plan I read about where they have five or six data centers spread around the country.  I think they might find value in co-location with ISPs.  Like, if Comcast wants to offer their customers OnLive gaming as part of their cable package, put an OnLive data center directly on the Comcast network, with them subsidizing the cost of the installation in return for a share of the subscription fees.  Setting the servers as close to the end user as possible is one way to overcome input lag.  Once you get over that, connection to a game server to play with other people is no different than connecting to that game server from your own PC without OnLive, and people do that all the time.

Pride and Prejudice … and Zombies

Random Thoughts

I have never had a desire to read any of Jane Austen’s work.  Luckily in school there were always other options.  I have suffered through a couple of her books’ film adaptations, however, and based on that it only strengthened my desire to continue avoiding them.

Seth Grahame-Smith, author of such works as How to Survive a Horror Movie, The Big Book of Porn, and other humorous endeavors, has taken the original text of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and filled in the “gaps” of the book with a battle for the survival of humanity against the hordes of the walking dead in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

I really couldn’t think of any way I would ever consider reading Austen’s classic book, but now I just might.  It hits Amazon on April 8th, but some book stores have already started stocking it on their shelves.

[amazon-product image=”510XXFxXXGL._SL160_.jpg” type=”image”]1594743347[/amazon-product]

Print is Dead

Random Thoughts

Personally, I’ve never been a big newspaper reader.  Mostly, though, its because I never wanted to spend the time reading the news, not for any dislike of newspapers themselves.  I wasn’t replacing the newspaper with TV, radio or websites, I just avoid most news outlets since they tend to report primarily bad news.  If I had the inclination and the time, I probably would subscribe to and read the newspaper, because I do like the format.

But like the title says, print is dead, or at least is dying.

The thing I like most about newspapers that is lost as they move to the Internet is that they are a snapshot.  You can go to a library and pull up a newspaper for 40 years ago, or even just a month ago, and see exactly what was considered news on that day, exactly what was fit to print.  Try doing that on CNN, or even the sites of print newspapers.  You might be able to gather a collection of stories that were published on the site a month ago, maybe piece together an idea of what was newsworthy on a particular day, but not really.  With news websites’ penchant for “updating” stories and new information breaks, often rewriting rather than just appending, news reported on a Monday might carry the date and time stamp of Friday when the story stopped developing.

I would absolutely love to see news websites that mimic print news papers.  Big publications of stories once a day, with an archive so you can always pull up a previous issue, and then maintain a “breaking news” blog type feed that puts out mini stories and facts and things happen throughout the day, all of which will be rolled up into full stories for the next day’s issue.  But I suppose, perhaps, I am in the minority about this, seeing as how every news website out there is following the CNN.com style layout of “news now” and anything that doesn’t make the front page that minute is lost to the search field, which even defaults to a web search instead of a site search.

A man can dream though…

Quake Live

Gaming

Spent this morning playing some first person shooters on the PC… one was a beta, the other was the open beta Quake Live.

I had tried to play QL before, but the insane queue lengths kept me out.  I’d wait, then find something else to do long before I got into game.  But today I managed to get in and run through the tutorial and a couple of matches.  The tutorial started out alright, with me choosing the beginner level and quickly getting an 11 to 0 lead.  Then the AI adjusted and I lost 15 to 11.  Then I went and join some matches…

Either their skill levels are very broad or I somehow borked it up or everyone else is cheating.  First off, I hate deathmatch, and prefer team games where my personal frag count is less important than the team winning.  So I joined up with a capture the flag server.  Its been a very long time since I played bland CTF, usually sticking to Team Fortress, so I didn’t know any of the “standard” maps that were running, and I also didn’t know that I had to put flag-on-flag to capture it.  This coupled with the dumb ass on my team who was yelling at me to “go ahead and cap noob!” even though I was standing in the right place (the enemy had our flag too) confused me for a bit.  But that got sorted out, and we eventually won.  It was close, the score looks bad with an 8 to 1 victory, but it was much closer than that with a lot of good slugging it out for each hard won point.  However, I noticed while playing that even though I was doing alright, other players were fragging much more than me, and they were getting off air kills and other feats of awesome that I’m not so good at.  I really am of a beginner level, I know I suck, so how is it that I’m playing with frag gods when skill matching is supposed to prevent that?  Anyway, we won… then the second match started, and the other team picked up a few more frag gods while our team picked up a few more people like me.  We had to fall back into a pretty strong defence (the entire team, minus one guy) just to keep our flag on our side of the map.  In the end, we lost.  It wasn’t even close.  Sure, the score looks alright with an 8 to 5 loss, but we were winning at one point, all our caps were done pretty much by one guy and the other team got 5 of their points within just a few minutes, chain capping the crap out of us.  We got steamrolled.

Anyway, the game runs smooth, although now I need to go beat up on Comcast because I was getting “Connection Interrupted” every couple of minutes, just for a second, but it was enough to get me dead every time.  If you want to find me, I’m Jhaer.

Script Frenzy

Writing

Every year I attempt the NaNoWriMo.  Every year, so far, I have failed to achieve the goal of 50,000 words by the end of the month.  November tends to always be a harsh month for me.  But even though I fail, I do still love the effort, which is why this year I’ll also be giving a shot at Script Frenzy.

I love movies and TV, and I’ve always got ideas floating around in my head, but until recently the tools I used to write scripts (Word) didn’t support the format very well.  I’ve discovered that the more effort you have to put into formatting the less desire you have to actually write.  Of course, I could always adopt a “write now, format later” attitude, but that just isn’t my style.  I don’t have a problem with rewrites, but if it just looks wrong to start with… anyway… through my brother, through a friend of his, I discovered celtx.  I’ve always wanted to own one of those cool screenwriting programs, but never could get beyond paying the money for them, an often non-trivial amount (they start around $150 and go up from there).  I did once get Write Brothers Writer’s DreamKit 4, but it turned out to be more complicated to use that I had hoped, or maybe I just sucked at using it.  Celtx, on the other hand, is simple.  I downloaded it, installed it, and spent just a couple minutes familiarizing myself with the menus.  Then I watched one of the five or so minute video walkthrus from their website, and then I pounded out ten pages of script.  All perfectly formatted.  Awesome.

So, with celtx in my arsenal, on April 1st, I’ll be undertaking the Script Frenzy challenge: 30 days, 100 pages.  At first, I was going to tackle one of the many ideas I have scribbled on bits of paper or filed away in documents on my PC, but then I went and saw Watchmen.  It got me to thinking about all the comic book based movies I’ve seen and how some I felt nailed the material, even when they strayed from it, and how others totally blew it and left me thinking “I could writer better than that.”  To that end, I went to my bookshelf full of graphic novels and picked one out.  I’ve got 12 days now to read my source material, get familiar with it and make some preliminary notes, and then, come April, I’ll start drafting my adaptation.  By May, we’ll see which category of comic book adaptation writer I fall into.

Zombieland

Random Thoughts

It seems that a new movie about zombies is being filmed in and around Atlanta called Zombieland.  Woody Harrelson, Mila Kunis, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin (who adopted a puppy in Roswell)… if only I were still unemployed and could go hang around their sets in an effort to get in as an extra.

Well, at the very least its another film to look forward to, and I’ll get the added bonus of being able to say “Hey, I know where that is!”