The dandelion sun is scorching

Not much of a post, but figured I'd put something up, if only because I've gone too long since my last update.  Life is hectic lately, crazy work hours, haven't been in the mindset to actually blog for fear of it turning into a rant.  Suffice it to say I've been working on a new project that I'm very excited about, sort of embracing the whole spooky New England style made famous but better authors then me.  More to come when I'm not working 70 hours a week.

A little glass vial?

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is everything I hoped it would be.  Which is good, considering it is one of the few games I paid full price for, on the week of their release no less.  No buyer's remorse this time.  I've got about 12 hours clocked in, and I'm not even done with all the tutorial quests yet.  I'll let that sink in for a moment.  My son watched me play it, when I was still doing some of the initial quests, and commented "I thought you said this was hard.  It doesn't look hard."  He's since learned otherwise.

It comes from an old school game mentality, and a distinctly Japanese game design.  It doesn't hold your hand, it throws you into the mix and expects you to read and learn through playing.  You will spend hours killing the same monster over and over to make a suit of armor that you will swap out for the next suit of armor that you spend hour upon hour grinding monsters to make.  It has never really caught on here in the West, and I can't say as I'm surprised.  The kind of gamer who will like it, has never heard of it, and the kind of gamer who has heard of it is too busy bitching about how hard it is and will then promptly go back to Call of Honor XVI. 

I'm pretty well done with MMO's for the time being.  I'm tired of the juveniles honestly.  Nothing ruins a game for me faster then children arguing over chat about ridiculous things with badly spelled words and no concept of punctuation.  Oh, and their answer to this complaint?  "Well, if you used voice chat, you wouldn't have to see my bad spelling."  Because I really want to have my game immersion destroyed by actually hearing you whine about ridiculous things and having no regard for the fact that I have children running around and for God's sake will you watch your damn mouth! . . . Sorry, sort of lost myself there.  So yeah, I love these games, but they are just no fun if you have no one to play them with, and every guild I've made an effort to track down and join has either been completely devoid of anyone to play with, or is dominated by juvenile asshats.  Right now I'm playing a couple of hours a week of LOTRO, but that has more to do with the fact that my wife plays than anything else.

So, it's single player games for me.  When I feel like playing anyways.  Been devoting myself a lot to the Sims 3 lately.  I never understood why the hardcore crowd disliked the game.  It's as much of a sandbox as you can get while still having some direction to it.  My Game of Thrones mod stopped working with CK2 during the most recent update, so that's a shame.  I think it's time to go through my back catalog and finish some games.  Torchlight 2 will be my next project, so expect some thoughts on that eventually, as I consider myself a bit of an ARPG connoisseur.  I wrapped up Fire Emblem on the 3DS not too long ago, and am now devoted to Etrian Odyssey 4.  If anyone has a 3DS and they fancy a nice strategy game, you could do worse then Fire Emblem.

And I'm thinking what a mess we're in, Hard to know where to begin

Writing's hard.  To be more specific, trying to write an original story that doesn't come off as trite, cliched or otherwise unoriginal is difficult.  I'm also trying to avoid a common trope that annoys me to no end, and that is turning the lead character into a sexpot.  Bond is the best example I can think of, but he's been doing it for years, so I can kind of forgive him that.  For example, based on an Amazon recommendation and buzz I've heard, I started reading the Iron Druid series.  I'm about, oh, 6 or so chapters in, and the main character has been accosted by one naked goddess, slept with another, and flirted with another supernatural girl, all of which are described in overtly sexual descriptions.  Now, I know, it's fantasy, but please, it's just kind of ridiculous to beat us over the head with the author's fantasy sex objects. 

Another issue I have with the book is the overabundance of the supernatural in it thus far.  Yes, urban fantasy is about the mundane and the supernatural existing together, but again, 6 chapters in and we've met a couple of werewolves, a vampire, 2 goddesses, a group of fae, and a coven of witches, all in the same small town.  That's not even including the main character.  They're supposed to be "hiding" but none of them seem to take pains to hide what they are.  At least the Sookie Stackhouse and Anita Blake books have the excuse "supernaturals have made themselves known to the world at large" in their favor, but even then they don't scream "Ooh, isn't this cool, look at all the supernatural critters!"  Maybe I'm just spoiled by the subtlety of Charles de Lint (and if you have no idea who he is and you consider yourself a fan of fantasy, or even writing as a whole, stop reading this and go find one of his short story collections to read.  Dreams Underfoot is a good place to start) who incorporates the mystical into the urban in a flawless manner while still keeping it mysterious.  Or even the Dresden Files, where each book we're shown a little more of the supernatural world, until by book 13 or so, we understand why there are so many supernaturals.

Needless to say, I won't be reading any more books in this series.

It's not the only culprit of these sort of mistakes though.  For every Stackhouse or Dresden, there are dozens of wannabes that just don't get why these books worked.  Hell, even the writer for the show True Blood doesn't seem to always grasp why the books worked.  (Seriously, wtf is up with Tara and why must we be tortured by her every season?) 

I'll also admit, perhaps there's a bias on my end.  I'm painfully aware that most of my generation and younger just aren't familiar with classic literature in the way they should be.  Nor are they as well versed in the English language as they should be.  I know I'm not perfect but I at least attempt to use proper grammar and even will check a dictionary or thesaurus from time to time.  So yes, perhaps my high standards are to blame for my dislike of trite, unimaginative rehashes.  But here's the thing, you won't find me trashing the Twilight novels.  It's an interesting plot, and it got young adults reading, something I consider extremely valuable.  I'm perfectly willing to look at something, and say "It's just not for me" without having to make up reasons to condemn it.  However, if there are valid reasons, then I will share them.  If I haven't read it, as is the case with Twilight, then I clearly can't condemn it.

Well, that's my rant for today.  I will mention that I'm scrapping the serialized story through blog idea, as it would raise too many copyright issues, but that doesn't mean I won't be writing.  I am discarding the idea I was working on though.  I don't want to be lumped in with books like Hounded.  So now, onto idea . . . well, I lost count, but it should be fun.  For me at least.

And one more leading nowhere, just for show

I think we can all sympathize with Tevye.  At least, those of us who know who he is.

You may have noticed that I haven't posted in a bit.  Maybe not.  It's not like I get a lot of traffic.  Which suits me fine, since this is very much a vanity project.  But, at the very least, I should explain my absence.  I've been going through a burnout period with my games, and I haven't watched any movies/shows worth blogging about, and as I want to keep this focused on entertainment, well, if you got nothing to blog about, kind of hard to blog.

Another factor though, is that I've been trying to dive back into creative writing again.  I think I may have struck upon something that will work, at least so far as my being able to write it consistently.  I'm going to be starting a serial.  It's brilliant (for me) for a number of reasons. 

First, I suck at finishing a story.  I get caught up in re-editing, tweaking, going back and re-writing until I get so burnt out on the first 30 pages that I just walk away.

Second, serialized storytelling is THE medium of this generation, and has been for some time.  Comic books, soap operas, prime time television, all of these mediums use serialization in one form or another to tell stories.  A properly done serial will leave you with a longing for more of the story.

Finally, my goal is not to seek a profit.  If, by some chance, it's deemed good enough to publish, then great, but storytelling, to me, is something that should be shared with the world anyways.  It's one of the reasons I'm pursuing a degree in Information and Library Services.

So, right now I'm wrapping up the first part of my story, trying to think of a name for the serial, trying to decide how I want to go about publishing it (I'm thinking a secondary blog devoted to just the serial would be best), and if I want to try for some advertising.  My goal is to have everything in place by the end of the month, and start posting bi-weekly beginning in April.  I'm actually extremely excited about it, and I hope those of you who do follow me will enjoy it as well.

Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pen

I have to be careful not to get too distracted, or I may end up forgetting about this project altogether.  So, here are my thoughts on some of the events of the week, at least the ones I deem noteworthy.

Playstation 4:  I'm disappointed.  I have been a devout Sony supporter for years.  I don't own an Xbox 360.  I use my PS3 for everything from movies to games to streaming media.  I have spent hundreds of dollars on the PSN on games, DLC and add-ons.  I even owned a PSP for the longest time.  But if what they are saying is indeed true, I will not be purchasing a PS4.  It's not the lack of backwards compatibility.  I get that, gotta try and keep the cost low.  It's not the push for everything to be connected to social media.  I'm OK with that, because if I'm being very, very honest with myself, most of my social interactions are through media. 

No, the biggest issue for me is that it will be able to stream PS1, PS2, and PS3 games.  I take issue with this, not because I think it's a bad idea, but because, according to Sony, I will have to re-purchase all of the PS1, PS2 and PS3 games I already bought on the PSN if I want to play them on the PS4.  I'm not talking physical media.  Digital media.  I'm sorry, in a world where Steam exists, I fully expect my digital purchases to carry over to all the devices that are compatible.  I can load up Steam on ANY computer and access my library of games.  Why the hell shouldn't I be able to start up a PS4, put my username and password in, and access my library of PSN games?  Between this, and the Vita last year, I almost think Sony doesn't want to be in the game business anymore.

1UP and Gamespy are no more:  I have mixed feelings about this.  Frankly, IGN having 3 different sites dedicated to gaming was a bit much, so I get the downsizing.  Neither site has been worth reading in ages, as they're too obsessed with pageviews and keeping the corporate people happy to properly do games journalism.  I do think the respective editors farewell letter shines a light on maybe why it's a good thing they're going.  Gamespy's is a self-congratulatory piece of shit that goes on about how awesome they were, and then points out why they were awesome, completely ignoring the legacy of the original staff.  Fuck them, and good riddance.  1UP's is a different beast altogether.  Not surprising, since I've always respected Parish's writing, even if I abhored the pageview, ad obsessed site he ran.  He all but admits that the site has been crap for a while, primarily because of the issues I've been going on about.  He mentions some of 1UP's history, and gives credit where credit is due.  It's sad for the people employed by these sites, but maybe games journalism might benefit from learning that pageviews aren't everything if you're putting out shoddy material.