Monthly Archives: December 2010

classic video game monday, video games

Classic Video Game Monday: Halo

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Hi, everyone! I’m here to make you feel old. I figure, I’m turning 27 in a couple of days, it’s the least I can do to spread the feeling-old-cheer. Ready?

Halo came out over nine years ago. That’s right. There are kids these days playing video games who have never lived in a pre-Xbox world.

You’re welcome.

Halo is one of exactly two traditional shooters that I’ve actually enjoyed, the other being Goldeneye 007. My memories of Halo, though, are a little different. See, I played a lot of multiplayer in Goldeneye, but I also played a lot of the story mode. A lot. In fact I think my focus on that game was getting through the story mode. As proof, back then I could quote probably half of the lines from the game.

Anyways, I played the story mode with Halo, too, but that wasn’t the point of the game for me.

The point of Halo was hours and hours and hours of multiplayer. Mmmyep.

Who doesn't remember this map?

Hours of making crazy novelty “[insert random weapon name here] only” modes
Hours of accusing people of “screen-looking”
Hours of me getting the tank and subsequently racking up more kills than should be legal
Hours of people getting the tank before me and shoving it into the cracks in the wall in Blood Gulch so I couldn’t get it
Hours of “three on one” fights against my brother because he was stupidly good
Hours of this game simply not getting old despite the fact that there were only, what, like 12 different maps? And we played Blood Gulch 80% of the time anyway?

Halo was, to put a simply, a period of a few months of my life that I remember fondly. School was getting tough and my job at the time sucked, but I could come home and wrangle up some friends and family and notch up the frags long into the night. I wouldn’t be this “social” with a video game again until World of Warcraft, and it just was a ridiculously fun experience.

Thanks, Bungie. <3

rambles, rants, thoughts, writing

Storycrafter’s Pride Parade

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You know, when I was in film school, it was all about being super deep. Everyone worshipped “Memento” and “Fight Club”. David Lynch was viewed as some sort of deity.

But you know what, there’s a reason why “Avatar” is the highest-grossing movie of all time. And it’s not just because of 3D or because James Cameron has more money than God.

No, it’s because he took a bunch of familiar character tropes, mixed them up in a blender with “Dances With Wolves”, made a very tantalizing dish out of it and served it to an audience hungry for exactly that sort of thing.

…why is that bad?

Hint: it’s not.

We live in a world where there is much emphasis on absolute originality in creative pursuits. If you make a story and some character or plotline has already been done, everyone sees it as some sort of grave unfortunate error. But the truth is that that’s how stories work.

As a storyteller my job is first to entertain you and secondly to hopefully teach you something. Both of these things are best done by allegories, fables, and parables. By the familiar hero that is almost like us, if maybe we were just a little more brave. By the familiar character arc that is almost like our own, if we had been born a little different. In that world that is almost like our own, if you hold a funhouse mirror up to it. That’s where you make emotional connections and that’s where you tell the best stories.

Yesterday I watched “Elf“. It was completely unoriginal. But it was thoroughly entertaining, it made me laugh, the ending made me go “awww”, and I loved every minute of it. That’s what movies and stories are supposed to do.

Guys, if you’re a writer or a dreamer or an artist or what-have-you, and your goal isn’t to make the next “Ulysses” but to make the next “Warcraft: The Last Guardian”, then stand up and be proud. Who cares if you’re not super hardcore or deep? Who cares that students won’t have to BS their way through long papers about your work sometime in the far future? You made someone’s day a little better.

I would rather make the next “Elf” than the next “Apocalypse Now”. And I’m not afraid to admit it.

classic video game monday, video games

Classic Video Game Monday: Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga

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It’s hard to top Super Mario RPG. Like, really hard. Like, “There’s a reason why it’s Pike’s Favorite Game of All Time” hard.

But you know, Superstar Saga was far from a bad effort.

It’s actually been years since I’ve played this game, but off the top of my head, let me tell you what made this game so enchanting:

1.) Nods to classic Mario. At one point you are thrust into a minigame that is a variation on the original Super Mario Bros. Neat, no? But not content with stopping there, the game throws in one of my favorite renditions of an homage ever. You know how in World 1-2 of SMB, you can get to the top of the level and reach the warp pipes at the end?

Yeah. You can do that in the Superstar Saga homage level. I think you get some sort of bonus item. I can’t remember. All I know is that it made my day.

2.) Geno. The Greatest Video Game Character of All Time has appeared in exactly two games. Super Mario RPG… and Superstar Saga. Granted, it was a cameo. But I didn’t see it coming and I sort of flailed around in fangirl glee for a long time.

3.) Fawful. In the running with GLaDoS for my personal designation of “Most Hilarious VG Villain of All Time”. Choice Fawful quotes include, but are not limited to, the following:

“I HAVE FURY!”

“Princess Peach’s sweet voice will soon be the bread that makes the sandwich of Cackletta’s desires! And this battle shall be the delicious mustard on that bread! The mustard of your doom!”

“Your lives that I spit on are now but a caricature of a cartoon drawn by a kid who is stupid!”

“Rage dressing on a salad of evil!”

I mean, really. You can’t top that. “Rage dressing on a salad of evil”? Sign me up, please.

I also seem to remember this video game having above-average play value and some pretty addictive mini-games but as I said, it’s been too long.

I do need to look into this game again, though. It’s no Super Mario RPG, but dude. FAWFUL.

I HAVE FURY!
writing

Ode to the NaNoWriMo Graph

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Dear NaNo Graph,

I hate you for sucking up all my free time.

For tying me to the shackles of an enticing statistic. “Your daily wordcount average is dropping! OMG, get your butt over here and write before it’s TOO LATE.”

For making me write piles of crap when I couldn’t think of anything else to write.

For making me look at my story that I loved at the beginning of the month and hate it for all its flaws. …well, okay, dislike it. Dislike myself for coming up with it and for not being prepared to fix the flaws and for putting my characters into such a trainwreck.

For making me keep writing anyway when I wanted to stop and do something else,

for forcing me to solve problems,

and making sure I didn’t quit because then how embarrassing would the graph look?

And that, NaNo Graph…

…that is why I love you.

50k, back-to-back.