Please be advised that the content on these pages is STATIC and for archival purposes only. Links may not work.
Thursday, December 1, 2005 6:20:00p: Increasing My Cash To HP Conversion Ratio*
Digg reports this gem. Apparently, for a limited time, Square-Enix will produce Potion through the Suntory beverage company. I've already made the requisite HP joke, but I'm wondering if this might actually be available for import or something prior to the FFXII release. It'll be expensive, which translates into "not for drinking"... unless I buy two. We shall see.Saturday, December 3, 2005 8:05:00a: Kingdom Hearts II and Animal Crossing DS*
Well, some quick news regarding two very highly-anticipated games. New Square characters have been confirmed for KH2, specifically Yuna and Rikku-- listed as being from X-2. This of course makes me really hope they haven't been age-reduced at all or else we're going to have problems. Disney characters added to the roster number one, being Chicken Little (Joystiq reported Stitch as well, but he was shown in the previous update); it's getting to the point where they've finished showing off the worlds you'll explore and are now showing the summons. On a wholly unrelated note, the surreality of summoning Chicken Little into the Tron world will be very amusing. Japan gets the game on the 22nd and the US waits 'till March.
As for Animal Crossing, the big day is December 5th. Already the rumors are surfacing that the town will have more features than the original, and in surprising ways. I'm a bit disappointed that there're no retro games to be played, but then again, that's life. The East Coast being what it is, I don't expect to have the title in my hands until at least the weekend. This lets me avoid the frustrations of a rocky launch day, not to mention waiting until I actually have money before I go to the store. Final Fantasy IV doesn't hit until the 12th, so my plans of picking both up at once might be dashed, but might not. Depends-- I still have to do Christmas shopping.
Anyway, off to Filgaia and Paragon for me. Later, folks.Monday, December 5, 2005 10:08:00p: Reflections*
Hey, folks. Much to say, much to do-- none of it game related right now. So let's get started.
Every December or so I take a look at my site and start to think of a few changes that I could implement. Granted, the site hasn't really changed that much since I started it back in 2003, which is exactly why I always look back and vow to make changes. Every year I come up with the grandiose idea of writing a web game. Not this year. This year I finally know that a web game is far too much real work to say "I'll do this," and then let real life get in the way. I can either do coding at work or do it for the site, and quite frankly I'm a bit tired of staring at code when I get home. Still, it doesn't mean coding projects are completely out of the question. Since I've been working on it, the My TFO.net framework has come to be pretty much the "hard part" towards a web game. Aside from, you know, a design and a concept and art and promotion and stuff like that. I also may have figured out an issue with data storage and encryption, but that's a tale for another time. The persistency was one of my main concerns as a technical hurdle, and with it out of the way I could try to write a game.
But I'm not going to. This year my resolution is to NOT write a web game for my site. I figure since I've broken the resolution two years running, wording it in reverse will actually force me to write it. I don't know how it works, either, but it probably will.
Anyway, I'm also thinking about just turning the site into a general-purpose gaming blog and opening it up for news from other contributors. The forum box has been sort of a beta test of this, and I'm going to be hacking around a little bit to see if I can jury-rig a comments system for posts using the forum. When I wrote my blog system earlier in the year I had set forth the concept that I'd be using multiple categories-- similar to tagging, but not quite, as each post would only have one category and as such would appear only in one place. I might be able to rework this into a real tagging system. That's a thought for the new year, certainly. Some folks might say "why not go ahead and work with a pre-developed blog system? It would give you comments, tagging, etc." The point isn't that I could have all those things, the point is that I might think of something unique along the way. For example, the page layout switcher. Right now, a proof-of-concept and pretty spiffy, but certainly not essential.
I also want to concentrate on finishing one of my open novel drafts. Both are at an almost equal level of completion-- that is to say, they both need a lot of work. Within the last week I've considered scrapping "A Game of Lords" and reworking the concept into something different... I've been thinking a bit about toying with prehistoric Europe as a setting. The thought process goes something like this: Humanity, in a form more or less equivalent to today's average person, appeared on Earth close to half a million years ago. In four thousand years of progress we've gone from building the pyramids by hand to taking baby steps into space. Either the previous four hundred and ninety-six thousand years were the last blocks of evolution sliding into place, or maybe there was a society before our society. Most cultures have a myth about the great flood, the destruction of the old world at some point long ago. Just thinking about working that into a story of some sort, though I'm not sure what form it might take. It might be a setting for that web game I'm not going to write. In any event, working on "Inconsequential" would probably be a better use of my time than retreading "Lords" just yet.
Finally, DDR. I am going to play for an hour at least three times a week. Mark my words. Must... lose... Gut of Doom...
In any event, there's a bit I have to think about before solidly declaring any New Year's Resolutions. If I learned anything from NaNo it's that having a plan and a set of goals does wonders for my motivation. So... yeah. Right now, time for bed.Thursday, December 15, 2005 8:11:00a: Dark Times*
It seems like fate is conspiring to make this holiday season really, really bad. Just when you thought it was safe to celebrate how good gamers had it of late, the news breaks that Acclaim isn't as dead as we thought it was. Now, granted, the company's just a shell of what made it terrible; basically it's like Atari: after the company's poor decisions earned it a reputation for awful games, its name apparently has enough drawing power to warrant its use for a new company. The new Acclaim will specialize in causal games and localizing Korean MMO-types for a US audience. Basically, you know all those games like Gunbound and Ragnarok and the like which people really like 'cause they're quirky and awesome? Those are going to be destroyed as Acclaim gets its paws on them.
So while one company returns to life on a career of bastardizing perfectly good games, Working Designs, a company I did respect (when they were releasing games), has folded. Victor Ireland sounded penitent in an interview on GameSpot, mentioning some of his decisions as being key to the company's downfall. I think that's being a little harsh-- he'd chosen some very difficult games to localize, and after Silpheed and Gungriffon Blaze dropped, and the release schedule trickle down, things did get bad. He seems pretty eager to put the blame entirely on Sony's shoulders-- which makes sense, as the decision to fuse the Growlansers and then refuse release to Goemon was theirs. Vic said this "doubled production costs and halved profit potential" for Growlanser. But I do agree that many of his decisions were responsible for the fall-- including their frequent, public, and irreparable falling-out with influential companies. I think that if they had scaled back on some of the extras and tried to take a few more steps into original development, WD certainly could have kept up their two-a-year release schedule. I'd welcome the chance to ask Mr. Ireland what his personal plans for the future are, as well as where he ends up. If he were clever-- and if he happened to be reading this-- I would suggest he head across the street from Microsoft and see about working with Bill Trinen and the good folks at Nintendo's localization department.
And WD hasn't been the only company on the rocks. Midway closed the doors to their San Diego and Adelaide offices. Gamespot was short on details as to what games the studios were responsible for, but it's likely that quality of work wasn't the reason the studios were shuttered. With this news, and Activision reporting that their profits on their 360 launch titles were abysmal, I'm wondering if the industry is headed to another crash.
I've always said that if the video game industry crashes again, there will be no coming back. That sort of changed once video games became mainstream. Games are a pretty big part of American culture now, and it's evident that they'll be around for a very long time to come. The problem is that the industry as we know it still will be crippled if it crashes. And sadly, I foresee that crash happening very, very soon. The XB360 has been bungled horribly so far, the PS3 looks to be no different than the PS2 in terms of design philosophies (proving that Sony indeed does not have the ability to learn from its mistakes), and Revolution is either going to be the industry's salvation or damnation. The fact is that the mainstream industry is so focused on marketing and graphics and how the games look rather than how they play. It's what killed WD (though they picked some stinkers, too) and it's what's killing Nintendo.
We shall see what's going to happen. More news as events warrant.Saturday, December 17, 2005 12:10:00a: Parkour For The Course*
A few weeks back I'd stumbled upon the Wikipedia entry for parkour, or urban navigation. The concept is simple yet elegant: on foot, you must travel from point A to point B as quickly as humanly possible without breaking any laws. That's pretty much the extent of the rules. You can hurdle obstacles, scale fences and fire escapes, and if you're really good (or brave) leap gaps between buildings. How you get there is of little consequence, save for the thrill factor. At the time, I thought it was an interesting and novel concept, and once the weather warmed up a bit I'd been thinking about buying a bus pass, traveling to downtown Cleveland, and setting forth a goal: get to a specified point before a certain time.
Tonight, after work, I sort of had to do exactly that, as the Gustaff broke down. Yet again. The engine was running fine, as evidenced by the loud grinding noise it was making-- it was the right front tire which was wedged against the wheel well. It was also no longer perpendicular to the road, and instead clung to the rest of the vehicle at a jaunty yet totally useless angle. That was fun, randomly swerving across two lanes of traffic against my will. Fortunately (or miraculously, depending on how you look at it) I didn't hit anyone during my unexpected trip, nor was I hurt at all. I left at 8 to get to my radio show for 10, but I never got there, I never got there, I never got there they say-ay-ay: The AAA took my baby away, after the nice policeman set flares some twenty yards behind my car. (And you have no idea how long I've wanted to make that joke.)
So at the garage I took a look at the door to try to see the shop's hours... they're closed all weekend. I have to get there bright and early Monday morning at 7 to ask them WTF happened to my car. You want to know the ironic thing? I was going to get a couple bottles of Coke for the weekend and play video games. I can still play video games but the Coke is now officially not going to happen. This changes my weekend plans.... not at all.
Yeah. Bored, tired, and in pain now (my back for some reason has decided to revolt against my body at irrational times, like when sitting down or standing straight up). Taking aspirin and melatonin, do not wake until May.Saturday, December 17, 2005 10:41:00p: *
Kingdom Hearts II.
This is an interesting Christmas for me, actually. My mom has been more or less on edge at any given moment during the past month or so, and the car thing just served to compound that. Still, what's done is done. I've inherited the Neon from the family, so that's a nice Christmas present. So while the Gustaff is done for, I'm still mobile.
My sister is going in for surgery next week. That's causing everyone else's blood pressure to rise significantly. I could care less about the car and other stuff under the tree. I just want her to be OK. ...no matter how much she irritates me at times. (She's trying her hardest to prevent me from writing this entry by coming in here every five seconds.)
It's like I always say at this time of year-- all the trappings of the season are meaningless, all of the commercialism in vain, if there's no love in your heart for the people around you. Not just your family, not just your co-workers, but everyone you come into contact with. Most folks don't generally have that kind of congeniality, and some folks have been shafted so bad recently that it's hard to come up with the pleasantries of the season. Despite all that, and despite how bad you might have it, there is someone who has it worse and desperately needs those kind words, that smile and gift. Don't do it because I tell you to (not like anyone really listens to me anyway); do it because it might be what you need six or twelve months down the road.
Once again, I hope everyone has a wonderful and relaxing holiday. I'll not be back here until Tuesday at the earliest, and I might have the beginnings of a special gift lined up. Take care, folks.