Even though I hate my stupid, junk of a phone, Blackjack, it's still cool that I can sit on the train and write a blog from it. So you'll have to forgive any spelling or grammer mistakes becase this key board is freekin small! So you may be thinking what is the point of straining your eyes and typing with your finger nails? Well there is no point I do it because I can, so there. But this is kinda hard so I'm gonna stop now.
peace out
Jon
Friday, December 28, 2007
WoW I Quit You.
I have broken the choke hold, made it through withdrawal and come out clean on the other side. Yes that's right, I have stopped playing World of Warcraft and it has reopened my eyes to the world of gaming. For well over two years I was immersed in a world of level grinding and loot gathering. My gaming life suffered, I only completed one game during my stint in WoW and most games I started were quickly overrun by my addiction. But now that I'm free I have rediscovered my love for games. I can play other games for hours on end with out that little WoW devil on my shoulder nagging me about my incomplete armor set. My X-Box Achievements have doubled since I set down the keyboard and picked up the controller again. I have even found joy in shaking a Wii-mote at my television screen. The Future looks bright, I only hope that the next expansion doesn't suck me back in. But if it does I'm hoping I can take a more casual approach so as not to neglect and miss out on other great games. Until then I'm going to suck in as much diverse gaming as possible.
Jon
Jon
Monday, December 17, 2007
Merry Christmas... to everyone.
Dear Friends,
To my democratic friends. Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.
May you have a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great, (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only 'AMERICA" in the western hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual orientation of the wishee.
To all my Republican Friends. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Jonathan
(Herd this on Dennis Millers radio show.)
To my democratic friends. Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.
May you have a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great, (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only 'AMERICA" in the western hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual orientation of the wishee.
To all my Republican Friends. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Jonathan
(Herd this on Dennis Millers radio show.)
Thursday, December 13, 2007
What's my motivation?!?
The Writers Guild of America announced recently that they will be adding a Video Game writing award to their 2008 Writers Guild Awards ceremony. The award was instituted "to encourage storytelling excellence in video games, to improve the status of writers, and to begin to encourage uniform standards". The Guild went on to say that this award "Aims to spotlight a wide range of quality work by video game writers." I would like to know who exactly they could be thinking of when they instituted this award. I'm not trying to say that this award is ill advised or not needed, In fact I'm all for promoting better writing in video games. However I fear that the creation of this award will do nothing to "spotlight quality work" but rather spotlight what little to no quality work is being generated on the story telling front of video games. I hate to beat a dead Master Chief But unfortunately story telling has not only taken a back seat to game play and graphics but they have stuffed it in the trunk under the spare tire. As a gamer I find that I am starved more and more for a good story. And as a western society that has made great moves and written amazing novels I don't know why we find it so hard to inject a good plot line into a game. The entire Halo series felt like a bad remake of Star Wars meets Starship Troopers. Even the Halo ring itself wasn't original, Larry Niven wrote Ringworld years before the "writers" of Halo wrote their story. I mean how many more different ways are you going to have me kill an alien invasion, before you make me WANT to squash the alien invasion. Duel wielding is great, duck and cover games are fun, squad based strategy is cool. But what is my motivation here director? Story is lacking in games today and while I love the idea of a game writing award I'm not sure our medium is ready for it quite yet.
However something is stirring in the industry, I believe we are close to a new era in video games where the Story will start to show a more predominate face. If we look back at the history of video game creation we see an odd evolution of sorts. The dawn of video games was characterized by innovative, ground breaking advances in computer programing and so programing was the main focus of games. The art therefor was very rudimentary and simple filled with spaceships that were nothing more than triangles and aliens that resembled mushrooms. Granted technology at the time was no where close to what we have today, but art simply wasn't a priority. Today I believe we are at the end of a renaissance of game development where game art has taken a more predominate seat in the industry. The inklings of this began as far back as Mario. As games progressed and studios sprang up and started hiring artist rather than relying on programmers for assets, the art progressed. Art continued to refine itself and grow and now we are seeing games like Shadow of the Colossus and Heavenly Sword, games that fuel the fires of games as a true art medium. You can't talk about a game today without discussing its Art (Graphics) alongside its game play, but story is still rarely disused or critiqued. But now I hope the next step in game evolution is upon us, a second renaissance, where story driven games become more of a priority. Studios I hope will begin to integrate the great game play and art, that has become a standard, into a great story. Rather than slapping a pieced together plot on top of a good game mechanic and stunning visuals. Why is it that people will still watch " It's a Wonderful Life" or "Casablanca"? Movies that have stood the test of time. Its because of their story, not because they look so good or have innovative special effects. Once we start to make games that get people talking about the story rather than the new feature. I hope then we will start to see games that our children and grand children will play just so they can experience a good story.
Jon Wheat
However something is stirring in the industry, I believe we are close to a new era in video games where the Story will start to show a more predominate face. If we look back at the history of video game creation we see an odd evolution of sorts. The dawn of video games was characterized by innovative, ground breaking advances in computer programing and so programing was the main focus of games. The art therefor was very rudimentary and simple filled with spaceships that were nothing more than triangles and aliens that resembled mushrooms. Granted technology at the time was no where close to what we have today, but art simply wasn't a priority. Today I believe we are at the end of a renaissance of game development where game art has taken a more predominate seat in the industry. The inklings of this began as far back as Mario. As games progressed and studios sprang up and started hiring artist rather than relying on programmers for assets, the art progressed. Art continued to refine itself and grow and now we are seeing games like Shadow of the Colossus and Heavenly Sword, games that fuel the fires of games as a true art medium. You can't talk about a game today without discussing its Art (Graphics) alongside its game play, but story is still rarely disused or critiqued. But now I hope the next step in game evolution is upon us, a second renaissance, where story driven games become more of a priority. Studios I hope will begin to integrate the great game play and art, that has become a standard, into a great story. Rather than slapping a pieced together plot on top of a good game mechanic and stunning visuals. Why is it that people will still watch " It's a Wonderful Life" or "Casablanca"? Movies that have stood the test of time. Its because of their story, not because they look so good or have innovative special effects. Once we start to make games that get people talking about the story rather than the new feature. I hope then we will start to see games that our children and grand children will play just so they can experience a good story.
Jon Wheat
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