Friday, August 10, 2012
H+
Quick post: this new web series on YouTube, an experimental high budget digital only release by Warner Brothers, encapsulates the core theme of the Art and Tech course. Stay awhile and watch...
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Diablo 3 Profiles
FINALLY, this past Monday, Blizzard released the Diablo 3 character profiles, something they should have done when the game launched in May. You can find mine here. I like how they display time spent in the game as a percentage divided up between the classes you played, rather than actual hours played...
Monday, August 6, 2012
Sword Art Online
On the topic of MMO's and online games in general... there's an anime that started airing this summer season that has held my interest. Sword Art Online will be a 25 episode series, adapted from a light novel of the same name. The premise isn't that groundbreaking or new (as there have been other similar projects though I am unfamiliar with them), but it offers some interesting twists: 10,000 players of a new virtual reality MMO are trapped in the game when the creator reveals that the players can not log out until all 100 floors of the whole game are cleared. Also, death in the game means death in the real world.
The game takes much influence from MMO and RPG games, though much more from Japanese style ones (Final Fantasy and Phantasy Star I believe). Leveling, skills, items, guilds, and many other game elements would be familiar to most gamers.
There is already much controversy with the show's format, even though it's only 5 episodes in. Apparently, according to those that have read the light novels (translations here, but I'm sticking solely to the show), the series has been adapting mostly side stories first, with the actual main story taking a back seat. It definitely doesn't help that characters are seemingly skipping several floors between episodes. Blogger Guardian Enzo describes it best as "SAO has a funny sort of narrative style to it – the anime anyway – where it seems as if things keep happening whether we’re watching or not, and we just happen to check in on them from time to time". Still, I find the integration of game mechanics I can relate to and pretty animation worth the while of watching. I'm really interested in seeing what will become of the players once they reach the 100th floor and what the game's creator has to say about it...
The 5th episode (spectacularly blogged by Guardian Enzo) is probably the best to date since the first episode in a line of one off side stories. The narrative confronts the two main protagonists, Kirito and Asuna, and their budding relationship. As two of the top players in the whole game, they have been advancing on the front lines to progress through the floors. This episode presents some interesting elements regarding the game, and the human aspects behind them and any other game.
For one, Asuna devises a plan to lure out the boss to the village where it will attack the NPC's (non-player characters, essentially AI and NOT real players) while the players can then focus their attacks on it. Kirito disagrees that they shouldn't do so, even though the NPC's will respawn. Is Kirito getting too absorbed in the game, believing the NPC's to be real, or is there another reason? From what I hear, there may be another reason, but the anime adaptation has yet to touch upon this game mechanic.
Another point is Asuna's insistence that they work around the clock to clear the game as opposed to Kirito's relaxed demeanor about it. She argues that every minute spent in this virtual world is a minute gone in the real world. However, Kirito believes that since this world is so real anyways, they might as well enjoy the beautiful weather, the calm breezes, and the changing seasons. Funny enough, for this game, like in the real world, one has to "play hard and work hard".
Relaxation leads to the next element. With such a game and the shocking reveal of finite death, many players have resigned themselves to living in towns and forgoing the whole adventure, leveling, and clearing aspect. Still, many players band together to form guilds to clear what they can. But like guilds in actual games, drama can arise and the worst in a person can be brought out. The episode centers around some murders and disappearances over a rare and powerful item being found and a guild's indecisiveness over who would claim it. Guild members end up disappearing and dying, and the mystery is the focus of this episode arc. The mystery also brings up the possibility of the "fairness" of the game rules, and I think they'll hint at what the game creator will be up to in the end.
Last point I want to touch upon. Although not mentioned yet in the anime, the characters' real life constituents are all apparently being treated in hospitals like coma patients, as the VR helmets they wear can not be removed. By the 5th episode, 6 months have already passed in the real world. In that time frame, any popular game would already be hacked or exploited to oblivion. However, the game creator has stated that any tampering of the game and helmets would lead to instant death for ALL players. Save all the players or risk them all dying? Better leave it up to the players to clear the game then!
As always, below is a trailer of the anime, as well as the anime opening, which gives a good glimpse of what's to come.
The game takes much influence from MMO and RPG games, though much more from Japanese style ones (Final Fantasy and Phantasy Star I believe). Leveling, skills, items, guilds, and many other game elements would be familiar to most gamers.
There is already much controversy with the show's format, even though it's only 5 episodes in. Apparently, according to those that have read the light novels (translations here, but I'm sticking solely to the show), the series has been adapting mostly side stories first, with the actual main story taking a back seat. It definitely doesn't help that characters are seemingly skipping several floors between episodes. Blogger Guardian Enzo describes it best as "SAO has a funny sort of narrative style to it – the anime anyway – where it seems as if things keep happening whether we’re watching or not, and we just happen to check in on them from time to time". Still, I find the integration of game mechanics I can relate to and pretty animation worth the while of watching. I'm really interested in seeing what will become of the players once they reach the 100th floor and what the game's creator has to say about it...
Asuna and Kirito
The 5th episode (spectacularly blogged by Guardian Enzo) is probably the best to date since the first episode in a line of one off side stories. The narrative confronts the two main protagonists, Kirito and Asuna, and their budding relationship. As two of the top players in the whole game, they have been advancing on the front lines to progress through the floors. This episode presents some interesting elements regarding the game, and the human aspects behind them and any other game.
For one, Asuna devises a plan to lure out the boss to the village where it will attack the NPC's (non-player characters, essentially AI and NOT real players) while the players can then focus their attacks on it. Kirito disagrees that they shouldn't do so, even though the NPC's will respawn. Is Kirito getting too absorbed in the game, believing the NPC's to be real, or is there another reason? From what I hear, there may be another reason, but the anime adaptation has yet to touch upon this game mechanic.
Another point is Asuna's insistence that they work around the clock to clear the game as opposed to Kirito's relaxed demeanor about it. She argues that every minute spent in this virtual world is a minute gone in the real world. However, Kirito believes that since this world is so real anyways, they might as well enjoy the beautiful weather, the calm breezes, and the changing seasons. Funny enough, for this game, like in the real world, one has to "play hard and work hard".
Relaxation leads to the next element. With such a game and the shocking reveal of finite death, many players have resigned themselves to living in towns and forgoing the whole adventure, leveling, and clearing aspect. Still, many players band together to form guilds to clear what they can. But like guilds in actual games, drama can arise and the worst in a person can be brought out. The episode centers around some murders and disappearances over a rare and powerful item being found and a guild's indecisiveness over who would claim it. Guild members end up disappearing and dying, and the mystery is the focus of this episode arc. The mystery also brings up the possibility of the "fairness" of the game rules, and I think they'll hint at what the game creator will be up to in the end.
Last point I want to touch upon. Although not mentioned yet in the anime, the characters' real life constituents are all apparently being treated in hospitals like coma patients, as the VR helmets they wear can not be removed. By the 5th episode, 6 months have already passed in the real world. In that time frame, any popular game would already be hacked or exploited to oblivion. However, the game creator has stated that any tampering of the game and helmets would lead to instant death for ALL players. Save all the players or risk them all dying? Better leave it up to the players to clear the game then!
As always, below is a trailer of the anime, as well as the anime opening, which gives a good glimpse of what's to come.
There's obviously a lot more I can talk about, but I'll keep this post short for brevity. :)
Sword Art Online is freely and legally viewable on Crunchyroll.com.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Extra Credits
On the topic of video games, I want to highlight another web series I've been following. Extra Credits is an excellent and highly intelligent series that discusses various video game and video game industry ideas. I love their sense of humor, the narrator's sped up voice, the silly images, and their ability to totally absorb me into whatever they're talking about. Some of their videos deal with serious issues, such as piracy and game addiction. Others cross the thinning border between video games and other media, and contain essential material anyone working in media should know (such as the hero's journey concept in many narratives). Click the image below to visit their home page and watch their videos!
Monday, July 30, 2012
Oh snapz, it's THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
I saw The Amazing Spider-Man yesterday, and I feel like writing about it! This was actually going to be a The Dark Knight Rises post, but all my friends had seen it except for me. D:
Anyway, I like the Spider-Man franchise in general, knowing some of the backstory and general cast and villains, but I have never seen any of the three original movies. Maybe that's for the better, because I thought The Amazing Spider-Man was awesomely amazing.
In contrast to the previous films (according to reviews and criticism currently over the airwaves), Peter Parker is a shyer and less confident young man. I, for one, agree with this change. He's brilliantly intelligent, but isn't given any respect for it. And having lost his parents, he's pretty much alone other than for his uncle and aunt who always stay up waiting for him to come home late at night. Parker only has confidence while donning his spandex alter ego, Spider-Man. He cracks subtle jokes at villians no less, and isn't afraid to take that leap (no pun intended). However, talking to his initial love interest (true to the comics I might add), Gwen Stacy, makes him all stammery and hestitant. Very humanizing in my opinion. This humanizing trait is carried over when he's injured, hampering his mobility. He's not immortal, he's Spider-Man! Fortunately, his karma kicks in, and citizens help him out, giving him more creditabliltiy as the city's true vigilante.
I really don't have any qualms with the film. I saw it in 3-D too, which I would usually say is a waste of money and gimmicky. Not for this movie though. I love how gripping those scenes with Spider-Man zipping through the skyscrapers or fighting; I felt really tense in my seat. They even included some first-person scenes (his point of view), and I felt my slight acrophobia kicking in, but it was AWESOME. Wish they could have included more first-person shots, but this may have been unfavorable due to causing motion sickness in some people. The 3-D effects also seemed to help with the scenes with bokeh and depth of field.
All in all, this is a great reboot of a beloved franchise. Everyone should go and see it, and keep the original trilogy out of their minds while watching. And stay for the credits, as there's an extra scene... Can't wait for the sequel!
Anyway, I like the Spider-Man franchise in general, knowing some of the backstory and general cast and villains, but I have never seen any of the three original movies. Maybe that's for the better, because I thought The Amazing Spider-Man was awesomely amazing.
In contrast to the previous films (according to reviews and criticism currently over the airwaves), Peter Parker is a shyer and less confident young man. I, for one, agree with this change. He's brilliantly intelligent, but isn't given any respect for it. And having lost his parents, he's pretty much alone other than for his uncle and aunt who always stay up waiting for him to come home late at night. Parker only has confidence while donning his spandex alter ego, Spider-Man. He cracks subtle jokes at villians no less, and isn't afraid to take that leap (no pun intended). However, talking to his initial love interest (true to the comics I might add), Gwen Stacy, makes him all stammery and hestitant. Very humanizing in my opinion. This humanizing trait is carried over when he's injured, hampering his mobility. He's not immortal, he's Spider-Man! Fortunately, his karma kicks in, and citizens help him out, giving him more creditabliltiy as the city's true vigilante.
I really don't have any qualms with the film. I saw it in 3-D too, which I would usually say is a waste of money and gimmicky. Not for this movie though. I love how gripping those scenes with Spider-Man zipping through the skyscrapers or fighting; I felt really tense in my seat. They even included some first-person scenes (his point of view), and I felt my slight acrophobia kicking in, but it was AWESOME. Wish they could have included more first-person shots, but this may have been unfavorable due to causing motion sickness in some people. The 3-D effects also seemed to help with the scenes with bokeh and depth of field.
All in all, this is a great reboot of a beloved franchise. Everyone should go and see it, and keep the original trilogy out of their minds while watching. And stay for the credits, as there's an extra scene... Can't wait for the sequel!
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Diablo 3
World of Warcraft certainly wasn't my last game addiction... I've been playing Diablo 3 a lot. With such perfect timing, the game was released on May 15th, barely a week after the summer semester started, and I've been playing way too much since. I am finally on a hiatus due to the inevitable last semester crunch time.
My "main" character, Sinpathy, a male Barbarian. 105 hours spent on him? Yikes.
Developed by Blizzard, the same people who also created WoW, Diablo 3 has players create characters to venture in the realm of Sanctuary, battling hordes of demons, and the Prime Evil, Diablo, itself. There's a whole metagame around this game: what items are best, overpowered skills, class quirks, and general hate or love of the game. See the appropriate sub-Reddit for much more...
The game was a load of fun for the first few weeks. However, once reaching the max level on one character, and reaching Inferno, the hardest difficulty, the game slows to a crawl. The game becomes a game of playing the Auction House and lottery. You have to buy better gear on the player driven auction house or continuously "farm" good items, by killing lots of monsters and hoping you strike gold with a near perfectly rolled item with awesome stats.
My secondary character, 忠忍者, which roughly translates to "loyal ninja". As you can see, I named some of my characters with Chinese and Korean characters. Because I'm cool like that. "Only" 65 hours on him so far, but he's my gold and item "farmer", due to his demon killing efficiency.
In that regards, the game is very broken. There are so many complaints about how Blizzard is running the game. Within weeks of release, people were able to create automated scripts and "bots" to watch the auction house and buy and resell items for higher profits. Bots have also been made to farm gold and items. Blizzard addresses this by banning these accounts, but they always return in droves, decreasing the value of gold and ruining the game economy. This description is a little exaggerated, but many players would agree.
Difficulty is another thing. Why do you make a game so difficult, your testers couldn't even get through it - and then DOUBLE the difficulty and release it to the public? Well, people have certainly beat it, and Blizzard has addressed some difficulty issues with patches, but the game can be a masochist's game for those who don't play enough to improve their characters and gear.
Nonetheless, I suppose I can't complain. This game was well worth the $60 (and I can still attempt to sell some items using the Real Money Auction House for some real money and earn it all back...). I do regret that it has wasted over 170 hours of my precious time over the last two months. Time that could have been spent working on my senior project and other class assignments. :(
Developed by Blizzard, the same people who also created WoW, Diablo 3 has players create characters to venture in the realm of Sanctuary, battling hordes of demons, and the Prime Evil, Diablo, itself. There's a whole metagame around this game: what items are best, overpowered skills, class quirks, and general hate or love of the game. See the appropriate sub-Reddit for much more...
The game was a load of fun for the first few weeks. However, once reaching the max level on one character, and reaching Inferno, the hardest difficulty, the game slows to a crawl. The game becomes a game of playing the Auction House and lottery. You have to buy better gear on the player driven auction house or continuously "farm" good items, by killing lots of monsters and hoping you strike gold with a near perfectly rolled item with awesome stats.
In that regards, the game is very broken. There are so many complaints about how Blizzard is running the game. Within weeks of release, people were able to create automated scripts and "bots" to watch the auction house and buy and resell items for higher profits. Bots have also been made to farm gold and items. Blizzard addresses this by banning these accounts, but they always return in droves, decreasing the value of gold and ruining the game economy. This description is a little exaggerated, but many players would agree.
Difficulty is another thing. Why do you make a game so difficult, your testers couldn't even get through it - and then DOUBLE the difficulty and release it to the public? Well, people have certainly beat it, and Blizzard has addressed some difficulty issues with patches, but the game can be a masochist's game for those who don't play enough to improve their characters and gear.
Well, at least the pre-rendered cutscenes are undoubtedly amazing. Granted, this trailer makes the game seem much better than it actually is.
The video above touches upon even more things people have been complaining about. The "customization" apparently praised by the trailer is more of a myth. For most players, it means copying builds that are guaranteed to be the "best" or most "useful", making most skills at this time, useless. PvP, a core part of many MMO games, still isn't even released yet, and it's been 2+ months since the game came out. And hilariously enough, during the "end game", there is no incentive with playing with others. It is much more efficient playing by yourself. And unless you have many friends that haven't yet given up on the game, you'll be stuck with undergeared idiots in public games.
Nonetheless, I suppose I can't complain. This game was well worth the $60 (and I can still attempt to sell some items using the Real Money Auction House for some real money and earn it all back...). I do regret that it has wasted over 170 hours of my precious time over the last two months. Time that could have been spent working on my senior project and other class assignments. :(
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Genki Sudo
They did the above routine in New York City too!
This one contains my favorite choreography. THOSE ARMS AND HANDS AT THE END.
They even put a video together soon after the Sendai tsunami and earthquake in March 2011 to give hope to those who lost so much.
Glad to see he's staying productive after retiring! I hope to see more of his works. And I really hope he performs (or films!) in America again!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)