(An interruption to your regular DCUO exploration, as my PC seems incapable of running the bloody thing!)
I have been considering a number of roleplaying related issues of late. I have my eye on the future gaming slots and also a deep seated itch that I have been wanting to scratch of late. I have been considering how to combine a few things that are incident at the same time.
- I want something that I can run consistently
- I want something that is not 'big concept'
- I want something with little or no prep
- I want something that speaks to the type of game we play.
The first one is a departure for me, but it is also something that I have become painfully aware of over the years. I am a method GM. When I am preparing and running a game I will submerge myself in the media associated with the game. Movies, comics, books, music - everything. It becomes the soundtrack to my life while I am running the game. With our schedule being quite sparse when it comes to gaming, this means that I have found myself weakening in concentration as a game progresses. I run out of steam, almost. I want something that I can run without the need for this intervention to my life. That would seem to suggest D&H (as I am pretty much in perma-research mode) but I am leaning towards fantasy or even superheroes.
The second one actually plays off the first. I'd like to run something a little more sandbox than normal. My games tend to be quite grandiose affairs. I'm coming to think that there is some charm in something akin to the older style of games. I'm not saying a straight-up dungeon bash, but something with a little less Hollywood Blockbuster and a little more TV serial.
The third regards the type of game I need to run. If I am going to do something, it has to be something I can do off the cuff or with minimal prep. That means I might quite like something that comes as a pre-prepped module (shock!) or some game that has an accessible monster manual style affair. I don't have the time to generate stat blocks or any such nonsense.
And, of course, I need some of that story-based gaming action, but we know that, right? Of course, we also know that I am a firm believer that nowadays with my group there are gaming ideas that we transpose across systems regardless.
Now all I need to do is find a solution to this ....hmmmmm. Any suggestions?
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Thursday, February 03, 2011
More DCUO Styles
Three more styles have been unlocked by your intrepid blogger! The left-hand style is the full 'Jah Kir' set. I'll be honest - I have no idea where the inspiration for this set comes from. It could be something to do with 'Joh Ker' or it could be something Kryptonian.
The middle style is the Retro-Tech set and it is awesome! What you cannot see is the rocket-pack on my back. Its a full-on Rocketeer set. Very cool.
The right hand set is the aforementioned Greco-Roman set which happily fulfils all of your 'I need to look like a Roman centurion' needs quite nicely.
I'll post more as I get them!
Expansion Fever
It would appear that SOE are holding to their promise of new content for DCUO. A Catwoman expansion/Valentine's Day patch has been announced for mid-February, critical feature fixes are beginning to appear (such as easing the stranglehold the profanity filter has on normal English) and future content is beginning to emerge (such as the Green Lantern Patch...swoon!)
Catwoman patch includes a five boss level 30 episode, a new legends PvP character, more races, new armour sets, Valentine's Day stuff (fun, but not needed - however, it adds another 4-man Alert), a Bane Duo, a Gotham PvP zone, a new high end raid and ... the Brokerage (aka the Auction House).
I have to say, I am quietly impressed. The real story here for me is that there is content at just about every level of the game and stuff that is going to add content to everyone's gameplay in some way. I've learned over the years - especially the last one - that you can extend your love of a game by embracing both PvE and PvP and accepting that PvP is a whole new skillset that needs to be developed and trained. Thus the inclusion of PvP stuff makes me very happy.
So the question comes, is it worth 10 quid?
Well, there are two ways to look at this. The first is, could I get more utility from a new game for 10 quid (sorry about the colloquialism, but I simply cannot find the pound sign on this bloody keyboard) and the answer is probably yes, but there would be no perpetual character and no perpetual community built up. The second is whether I would get the same level of new content from WoW, which is my other subscription option? No.
Another thing I have considered is what I would buy into if it was done as micro-transactions? Probably not everything but I think thats because doubt allows you to back down on those transactions. By having it all in one lump I'm probably more likely to have a try.
Of course, even in this post of good news, the community can deliver the sour grapes. I have particularly liked the debate over the release date and the precise semantic definition of what 'roughly monthly' and 'mid-February' actually mean. And yes, there have been people who have said that four days past one calendar month is a broken promise by SOE. Hilarious.
I'm please. I sub for another month. But of course, you all know they had me at Green Lantern!
Catwoman patch includes a five boss level 30 episode, a new legends PvP character, more races, new armour sets, Valentine's Day stuff (fun, but not needed - however, it adds another 4-man Alert), a Bane Duo, a Gotham PvP zone, a new high end raid and ... the Brokerage (aka the Auction House).
I have to say, I am quietly impressed. The real story here for me is that there is content at just about every level of the game and stuff that is going to add content to everyone's gameplay in some way. I've learned over the years - especially the last one - that you can extend your love of a game by embracing both PvE and PvP and accepting that PvP is a whole new skillset that needs to be developed and trained. Thus the inclusion of PvP stuff makes me very happy.
So the question comes, is it worth 10 quid?
Well, there are two ways to look at this. The first is, could I get more utility from a new game for 10 quid (sorry about the colloquialism, but I simply cannot find the pound sign on this bloody keyboard) and the answer is probably yes, but there would be no perpetual character and no perpetual community built up. The second is whether I would get the same level of new content from WoW, which is my other subscription option? No.
Another thing I have considered is what I would buy into if it was done as micro-transactions? Probably not everything but I think thats because doubt allows you to back down on those transactions. By having it all in one lump I'm probably more likely to have a try.
Of course, even in this post of good news, the community can deliver the sour grapes. I have particularly liked the debate over the release date and the precise semantic definition of what 'roughly monthly' and 'mid-February' actually mean. And yes, there have been people who have said that four days past one calendar month is a broken promise by SOE. Hilarious.
I'm please. I sub for another month. But of course, you all know they had me at Green Lantern!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Obsession
I have to say I am developing an unhealthy obsession with the thought processes of the DCUO community and the strange way that they seem to rationalise matters related to the game. This is the first such community that I have looked at from its inception and the memes are fascinating. As someone who has watched other communities for a while the way people's expectations change and warp.
The first thing I have seen is some sort of real dislike and spite between the PC and the PS3 community. There are a good few posters who blame any perceived problems with the game as the fault of it sharing its platform with the PS3. 'Sacrifices' have been made to accommodate the PS3 users. Its a remarkable example of a fault-and-blame culture where someone must be blamed for their dislikes and the remote and 'different' console gamers are an easy target. Its endemic of an inability just to accept the game for what it is. It has six power slots and two 'loadouts', it has a keyboard/mouse no-click interface which allows for these minimal on-screen options. Personally I find it quite refreshing and I can now why people press buttons rather than click in WoW. The game is what it is, and you have to either accept that or not.
Another swathe of posters seem to have a very fixed idea of what a MMORPG should be, regardless of genre. I've read some impassioned pleas for a crafting system of all things? I can absolutely guarantee that in no comic I have ever read, have I seen a superhero farming for materials to make consumables or even their own equipment! That said, I have never seen a hero wearing armour pieces for bonuses either, but that happens. One particular post goes on to say that without the immersion created by player housing, crafting and more people on the streets, this is no MMORPG. I sniggered. What next? Flight points? I'll put it this way, if Brainiac was trying to take over the world I wouldn't be out browsing the shops!
The first two are pretty weak really, but the third is more serious for the longevity of the game and the genre of games into the future, I think. DCUO is a standard monthly subscription game and SOE has 'promised' monthly updates for this money. Within the community however, there seems to be an ongoing shock that the game has the audacity to charge a monthly fee for the game. It feels, in my gut, like there is a sizeable portion of the community who are waiting for the moment they can scream 'told you so' when the game goes free to play. I feel that this issue will only explode further if SOE miss one of their monthly updates. They have already added a caveat that content needs to be approved for the PS3 but you would hope that they have content stocked away for months of releases. Somehow, I doubt it. And the utter shit storm that will follow will make Shaman/Paladin or Space Goats look like a walk in the park.
I remain your DCUO correspondent, reading the forums so you don't have to!
The first thing I have seen is some sort of real dislike and spite between the PC and the PS3 community. There are a good few posters who blame any perceived problems with the game as the fault of it sharing its platform with the PS3. 'Sacrifices' have been made to accommodate the PS3 users. Its a remarkable example of a fault-and-blame culture where someone must be blamed for their dislikes and the remote and 'different' console gamers are an easy target. Its endemic of an inability just to accept the game for what it is. It has six power slots and two 'loadouts', it has a keyboard/mouse no-click interface which allows for these minimal on-screen options. Personally I find it quite refreshing and I can now why people press buttons rather than click in WoW. The game is what it is, and you have to either accept that or not.
Another swathe of posters seem to have a very fixed idea of what a MMORPG should be, regardless of genre. I've read some impassioned pleas for a crafting system of all things? I can absolutely guarantee that in no comic I have ever read, have I seen a superhero farming for materials to make consumables or even their own equipment! That said, I have never seen a hero wearing armour pieces for bonuses either, but that happens. One particular post goes on to say that without the immersion created by player housing, crafting and more people on the streets, this is no MMORPG. I sniggered. What next? Flight points? I'll put it this way, if Brainiac was trying to take over the world I wouldn't be out browsing the shops!
The first two are pretty weak really, but the third is more serious for the longevity of the game and the genre of games into the future, I think. DCUO is a standard monthly subscription game and SOE has 'promised' monthly updates for this money. Within the community however, there seems to be an ongoing shock that the game has the audacity to charge a monthly fee for the game. It feels, in my gut, like there is a sizeable portion of the community who are waiting for the moment they can scream 'told you so' when the game goes free to play. I feel that this issue will only explode further if SOE miss one of their monthly updates. They have already added a caveat that content needs to be approved for the PS3 but you would hope that they have content stocked away for months of releases. Somehow, I doubt it. And the utter shit storm that will follow will make Shaman/Paladin or Space Goats look like a walk in the park.
I remain your DCUO correspondent, reading the forums so you don't have to!
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
New Threads, DCUO Style
...or why this game needs RP servers, pronto.
One of the things which you do as a sideline to all of the other cool stuff in DCUO, is collect costumes. This might seem quite a strange thing, especially coming from a game like WoW where the functionality of the armour is far more important than the look, but for a superhero game, the look is paramount! The ability within DCUO to lock your look means that you can perfect it and keep it, whilst increasing your power through loot 'underneath the hood' (quite literally in some cases). To encourage you to complete these sets, successfully gathering the costumes delivers a feat and feats mean extra skill points. However, to me, the joy is being able to perfect your image. With this in mind, I present Pele at level 25
One of the things which you do as a sideline to all of the other cool stuff in DCUO, is collect costumes. This might seem quite a strange thing, especially coming from a game like WoW where the functionality of the armour is far more important than the look, but for a superhero game, the look is paramount! The ability within DCUO to lock your look means that you can perfect it and keep it, whilst increasing your power through loot 'underneath the hood' (quite literally in some cases). To encourage you to complete these sets, successfully gathering the costumes delivers a feat and feats mean extra skill points. However, to me, the joy is being able to perfect your image. With this in mind, I present Pele at level 25
Not a huge number of differences, but to me, they are noticeable. Firstly I've added some cool goggle things for a slightly more futuristic look. These have also been accompanied by new shoulder and hand pieces (from the New Genesis set) and a belt (from the Fourth World set.) Her 'simple blades' have been replaced by 'Techno-Katanas' as well. The changes are subtle, but they add to the character overall. Now, of course some of the sets are so outlandish that you can rarely use the pieces, but I have managed to collect two of the sets and now I can present them here, in all their glory.
This is the Demonic suit (coloured to the red, white and orange of my original costume.) Its a particularly spikey affair and looks wholly impractical but it offers the perfect possibility for your character to be possessed by some sort of entity and transformed into something from beyond that man should never know.
This rather funky get-up is the 'Shielded Robot' set - a full-on elegant manga armour set with big hands and feet, smooth helment and spikey exhaust jets out of the back. Now any self-respecting Iron Man fan will be able to tell you that Shellhead has a set of armour for all weathers and this could easily be the 'edge of the atmosphere/close orbit' sort of space armour, or even stuff for underwater!
So many possibilities, so little RP in the game. It could be so much more.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
One Yea....Week Later
So, one week after install, whats the conclusion regarding DCUO?
Well, because of the unique way my work hours fall, I haven't been able to play a lot this week but a few hours today took me to level 18 (maybe 19?) after a quick detour to Gotham to tackle Harley Quinn (who dropped my first Epic!) and Poison Ivy (although I bailed before I finished her off - more on that later) and the decimation of Circe's latest attempts to Take Over the World (tm). Pele now has a pretty decent slew of powers, making the differentiation on my Defence/Damage loadouts a bit better although I do need to practice some of them a little more. Equipment is coming and doing ... stuff. I haven't quite bothered with theorycrafting! (Like I ever do?!)
So, what don't I like? There are a couple of things that spring to mind. The first is that I am remarkably squishy - or at least thats how it feels. I think I need to learn to slow down and block/dodge more but sometimes I can maul four mobs and others I get reamed by two. Its strange. By no way, shape or form a game breaker though. The second is the nature of instances. The end of each quest chain ends in your own personal instance and they are a little fruity! Lots of less-than-simple pulls, mini-bosses, sub-quests and usually a multi-phase boss fight that are like a solo version of a WoW raid boss. Great eh? Remember my squishy-ness? Death happens in here and really, the only effective healing I can muster at the moment is good old Soda Cola (healing potions). When they run out, its a very quick journey to repair-ville. So, of course, you go and get your equipment healed, right? WRONG! Because if you do that, it resets the frigging instance! So you have to (a) not die, (b) suffer multiple resets or (c) fight on without equipment. Guess which one I chose? Yup, (c) and it doesn't make that much difference except in that Poison Ivy fight which was just beyond me!
What do I like? Well, I have become used to the different interface and I am beginning to really appreciate the difference. This isn't a traditional MMO (and by that, I mean a WoW-clone) and the departures are such that you need to think very differently. The fact that you can change your loadouts whenever and wherever you are means you can customise your interface on the fly, which removes the need for loads of different taskbars. This allows for a nice clean interface and that in turn allows you to appreciate what is a very very pretty game. Strangely, the difficulty of the game is also very pleasing. Back in Classic and TBC, WoW had elite encounters that you simply couldn't handle solo at the correct level. This formed a challenge that has been all but eliminated from the game by 'aided' elites and quirky mechanics which make them just boosted normal mobs. Being able to see an opponent - even a normal mob - and knowing that if you don't give it the respect it deserves, it will stunlock you, knock you about and knock you out is refreshing. The game demands your attention. Another thing that I like is whilst I have only relatively short amounts of time to play, I am still doing things all of the time. There is no grinding. There is no farming. There is no crafting. Its all about the action and the story. Thats very nice indeed.
There are some things that I have not done yet - I have yet to group with ANYONE and thus I have yet to do an Alert or a world boss. I'll readily admit that I cannot abide PUGing - it drives me to distraction. I will get there eventually, but I need to learn to play a little bit more.
So the verdict at the end of Week One? Its good, its tough and its pretty. Nice.
Well, because of the unique way my work hours fall, I haven't been able to play a lot this week but a few hours today took me to level 18 (maybe 19?) after a quick detour to Gotham to tackle Harley Quinn (who dropped my first Epic!) and Poison Ivy (although I bailed before I finished her off - more on that later) and the decimation of Circe's latest attempts to Take Over the World (tm). Pele now has a pretty decent slew of powers, making the differentiation on my Defence/Damage loadouts a bit better although I do need to practice some of them a little more. Equipment is coming and doing ... stuff. I haven't quite bothered with theorycrafting! (Like I ever do?!)
So, what don't I like? There are a couple of things that spring to mind. The first is that I am remarkably squishy - or at least thats how it feels. I think I need to learn to slow down and block/dodge more but sometimes I can maul four mobs and others I get reamed by two. Its strange. By no way, shape or form a game breaker though. The second is the nature of instances. The end of each quest chain ends in your own personal instance and they are a little fruity! Lots of less-than-simple pulls, mini-bosses, sub-quests and usually a multi-phase boss fight that are like a solo version of a WoW raid boss. Great eh? Remember my squishy-ness? Death happens in here and really, the only effective healing I can muster at the moment is good old Soda Cola (healing potions). When they run out, its a very quick journey to repair-ville. So, of course, you go and get your equipment healed, right? WRONG! Because if you do that, it resets the frigging instance! So you have to (a) not die, (b) suffer multiple resets or (c) fight on without equipment. Guess which one I chose? Yup, (c) and it doesn't make that much difference except in that Poison Ivy fight which was just beyond me!
What do I like? Well, I have become used to the different interface and I am beginning to really appreciate the difference. This isn't a traditional MMO (and by that, I mean a WoW-clone) and the departures are such that you need to think very differently. The fact that you can change your loadouts whenever and wherever you are means you can customise your interface on the fly, which removes the need for loads of different taskbars. This allows for a nice clean interface and that in turn allows you to appreciate what is a very very pretty game. Strangely, the difficulty of the game is also very pleasing. Back in Classic and TBC, WoW had elite encounters that you simply couldn't handle solo at the correct level. This formed a challenge that has been all but eliminated from the game by 'aided' elites and quirky mechanics which make them just boosted normal mobs. Being able to see an opponent - even a normal mob - and knowing that if you don't give it the respect it deserves, it will stunlock you, knock you about and knock you out is refreshing. The game demands your attention. Another thing that I like is whilst I have only relatively short amounts of time to play, I am still doing things all of the time. There is no grinding. There is no farming. There is no crafting. Its all about the action and the story. Thats very nice indeed.
There are some things that I have not done yet - I have yet to group with ANYONE and thus I have yet to do an Alert or a world boss. I'll readily admit that I cannot abide PUGing - it drives me to distraction. I will get there eventually, but I need to learn to play a little bit more.
So the verdict at the end of Week One? Its good, its tough and its pretty. Nice.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Familiarity Breeds Contempt
A week or so ago, I got called arrogant and elitist for jokingly suggesting that people stop posting divisive threads on a forum. I chuckled. I've yet to venture officially onto the DCUO forums, deciding instead to lurk and read the madness as it develops. And develop it has. I wonder sometimes whether its my age, but I have never understood some of the practices that come about on these things. The levels of egocentrism and delusion that must exist in the minds of some of the posters is amazing.
I simply cannot fathom what would bring someone to waste their time posting with such passion and vitriol on subjects which anyone with two pence of common sense would know they are wasting their time contributing. Does WiggyBoggy276 really think that Sony Online Entertainment is going to completely redesign their game because he has a gripe with the way that the interface works? Do they really believe that anyone cares if they, singularly, threaten to 'leave' the game? Do they think that the best way to represent their customer service issues is on a forum where they type in l33t-speak and represent themselves as an image of the Mad Hatter?
Of course, these people have valid concerns... or do they? I mean the game is what it is, after all and whether you like it or not is the gamble the developers have taken. If you don't like it, you don't like it - thats always the case with any product. DCUO is a very different game from WoW. It has dispensed with some of the familiar tropes of MMOs and brought in some stuff from the console genre. In a world where games are readily disregarded as 'WoW Clones', this game is a very different consideration and some people could find that hard to handle.
Of course, there are also problems when it comes to expectation. A lot of people come to a game with very closed minds. Clamped down minds with deep set parameters that run from the way buttons should be pressed, the way the canon is represented and to some, the way that the game expands upon their favourite comparative game. So if the character generation isn't as intricate as CoX, the game is 'fail', if the powers cannot mimic every single power as represented in the comics, 'fail. If the game doesn't have exactly the right buttons in the right places ... fail.
I'm unsure what these ragers against the machine think they will achieve and I wonder whether they operate the same rules when it comes to other products? Do they contact the publisher of a book and demand that an aspect of character development is altered because they don't like it? Do they barrage their local supermarket with demands that the recipe on their pizza be changed, lest they cease buying pizza? Do they raise petitions for changes in the design of a new car, as they find the knobs in an inconvenient position?
And all this after less than a week. To quote a friend - People are weird!
I simply cannot fathom what would bring someone to waste their time posting with such passion and vitriol on subjects which anyone with two pence of common sense would know they are wasting their time contributing. Does WiggyBoggy276 really think that Sony Online Entertainment is going to completely redesign their game because he has a gripe with the way that the interface works? Do they really believe that anyone cares if they, singularly, threaten to 'leave' the game? Do they think that the best way to represent their customer service issues is on a forum where they type in l33t-speak and represent themselves as an image of the Mad Hatter?
Of course, these people have valid concerns... or do they? I mean the game is what it is, after all and whether you like it or not is the gamble the developers have taken. If you don't like it, you don't like it - thats always the case with any product. DCUO is a very different game from WoW. It has dispensed with some of the familiar tropes of MMOs and brought in some stuff from the console genre. In a world where games are readily disregarded as 'WoW Clones', this game is a very different consideration and some people could find that hard to handle.
Of course, there are also problems when it comes to expectation. A lot of people come to a game with very closed minds. Clamped down minds with deep set parameters that run from the way buttons should be pressed, the way the canon is represented and to some, the way that the game expands upon their favourite comparative game. So if the character generation isn't as intricate as CoX, the game is 'fail', if the powers cannot mimic every single power as represented in the comics, 'fail. If the game doesn't have exactly the right buttons in the right places ... fail.
I'm unsure what these ragers against the machine think they will achieve and I wonder whether they operate the same rules when it comes to other products? Do they contact the publisher of a book and demand that an aspect of character development is altered because they don't like it? Do they barrage their local supermarket with demands that the recipe on their pizza be changed, lest they cease buying pizza? Do they raise petitions for changes in the design of a new car, as they find the knobs in an inconvenient position?
And all this after less than a week. To quote a friend - People are weird!
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Up! Up! and Away!
 |
| Its Super-Cheryl!! |
Nominally in my brain, I have her as some sort of exchange student who believes she is possessed by the spirit of the goddess (rather than mutated by the Exobyte virus thingys - I have no idea how Brainiac is supposed to have triggered mystical powers, but he has!). So, who has she tackled? Well, she fought alongside Zatanna (never a chore...) against Felix Faust, she had a right nasty tussle with the Titans against a possessed Raven and she has recently battered Giganta senseless with Wonder Girl.
This game is not easy (for me) and I have hit a pretty stern learning curve, but what is nice is I am learning. I can feel my grasp of the controls growing and that means I can unleash more destruction, faster and more accurately. I like that the game is challenging me in ways that other games have not. Downside? I spend a lot on repairs!
Oh, I also got the tour of the JLA Watchtower. Its almost worth the price of admission! One final note - its nice to see that somethings never change. Clearly the architects from WoW have come across here as most of the police stations have that familiar 'enter and hit a brick wall, which you have to walk around to carry on' business that the WoW buildings have. Bizarre.
Friday, January 14, 2011
MMORPG? MMOAG? MMOARPG?
The new shiney is here and it is DC Universe Online, the latest attempt by SOE to wow the MMO market (hehe, see what I did there...). After Everquest, Star Wars Galaxies, Pirates etc. we know that SOE know something about the MMO genre and after Champions and City of Heroes/Villains there are some expectations of the superhero genre too. Hey, after reading the comics for decades, I have my own expectations!
I got the game through a new source - direct2drive.co.uk - and the process was reasonably easy. There was some issues with phone verification of credit cards but I eventually just used my paypal account to pay and left it downloading overnight. I woke up expecting a nightmare, but after a small driver patch I was playing the game. Whoo hoo. Thats about as smooth as I could expect so I am very pleased.
The game itself is different from the other MMOs I have played and it took a little time to accustom myself to the controls. Essentially you move with the WASD keys but you steer with the mouse. This works very well for flight etc. but I have had to get used to not pressing the mouse keys when doing this. Powers are activated using the number keys and weapons attacks are accessed via combos of mouse clicks. I find this a lot of fun. All of the crucial keys are around the WASD interface and this too appeals to me as a newbie-non-clicker.
I'll go into the aesthetics of the game in another post - here I want to talk about the experience and how it impacts upon my perceptions of the game. The game, essentially, has all of the staples you would expect from a MMO (except an Auction House, which was not included from beta) and operates in much the same format as many MMOs - with quests, reputations and the standard four quest types (kill x, collect x, find x, escort x). All of this is wrapped up in a very action orientated interface with a LOT of combat involved. Which is FANTASTIC. Kicking ass and taking names is a very good thing to do and this game does it well. I've even had some mid air battles which were great!
However, this familarity has lead to some downsides. I've come to the game from WoW - a game that I can confidently say I have a decent grasp of many of the mechanics and I can even more confidently say I could walk around with my eyes closed. Now, I am faced with a new world and its filled with uncertainty. Will the things I expect be there when I want them? Will there be an endgame? Will there be sufficient content? Its a curious set of thoughts considering I have had the game installed for all of one day but it is a sense of foreboding that a number of people seem to be sharing. We shall see. I am reminded of the fact that Dire Maul was not in the original launch of WoW, of you know what I mean.
This leads me nicely to the community and how it has panned out. Guess what? Its the same old bitching, complaining, entitled bunch of doomsayers as you get everywhere. To highlight one example, there are no official RP servers (yet) so a bunch of RP guilds ganged together and after some consultation decided to announce a couple of servers as the (un)official RP servers. Now, whenever they do it, someone will pipe up 'Who told you that? Who decided that? You can't tell me which servers have been unofficially chosen! You're not the boss of me!!' - its laughable.
Finally there is some teethgrinding about the designation of the game as a roleplaying game, as in an MMORPG-style of roleplaying (i.e. none). Its too action-orientated to be a RPG, surely, people are saying. Which implies that to be a RPG, you have to be slow, ponderous and dull. Again, I laughed.
Looking good so far.
Monday, January 03, 2011
Zombie Apocalypse!
ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
'Created' by Stephen Jones
It is not often that I mention books that I am reading never mind review them. Thats mostly because not everyone is as absorbed with Napoleonic military fiction as I am, mind you! However, sometimes I am moved to mention something and this is one of those times. I picked up 'Zombie Apocalypse!' on a whim last week and I read it in under 24 hours. Thats always a sign of a good book in my eyes. The tome tells the tale of ... well, a zombie apocalypse, through transcripts of modern media - emails, tweets, blogs etc. as well as more traditional means with diaries, police reports etc.
Sound familiar? Well yes, I thought so too, as it in theory treads the same ground as World War Z by Max Brooks right? Well, yes and no. Technically yes, but the scope and tone of this is different. If WWZ was presented as a hollywood blockbuster, then ZA! is a BBC2 mini-series. It has a very British tone and indeed, in my opinion, the book begins to loose some of its lustre when 'the Death' spreads around the world.
Another interesting aspect of the book for me is that it is quite possibly the first piece of post-coalition fiction I have seen! The backdrop of a broken Britain being distracted from an increasingly oppressive state by the bread and circuses of a New Festival of Britain has to have some mirrors in the real world difficulties of the country, the discussions of mainland water cannons in response to student protests and the imminent media maelstrom over the 2012 Olympics?
The book is an anthology and as such, there are some differing levels of quality within the writing. Some of it is spine-chillingly good. The 'Diary of Anne Frank' style memoirs of a 13-year old girl and the typed memories of a woman trapped in the tower block are excellent, for example. On the other hand there are some that are filled with rather clumsy exposition - especially the police report of the first outbreak, which cannot work out whether it is fiction or report. I have read some criticism about the likelihood that people really would text someone as they are being besieged by zombies ... but I think they might well, in a world so obsessed with instant information channels.
If there is a real downside to the book, it is when it tackles other areas of the world. This only happens in the last third of the book but here, some of the stuff didn't have much traction with me - except for the stuff in Mexico, which was very good indeed. The American stuff however? Yawn. Another thing I would say is that I really REALLY did not like the end of the book. I won't spoil it but if you want to have a decent ending, just miss out the last two pieces - an address from the President of the USA and the Queen.
This is not a happy book. I cannot remember one truly happy ending to any of the pieces. It achieves something for me which WWZ did not. It took me out of that arrogant 'roleplayers 1-0 zombies' mode and made me think what it would actually be like to have to deal with say, children, during a zombie attack. It made me consider some of the practicalities in a wholly different way and it made me realise that whilst we all like to think we would be able to put our theoretical knowledge into practice, we would all almost certainly fail. Thats a kind of bleak mental horror that does it for me more than any amount of gore.
Not a great work of literature, but a great read and currently available at Waterstones as part of their '3 for 2' deal, so a good pick up to make up your numbers there.
Sunday, January 02, 2011
Gaming Resolutions 2011
And the final part of the now traditional triumvirate of posts is here. I absolutely detest the expectation and madness that occurs around New Year and until I started doing these had never been drawn to make any resolutions in my life. However, these statements of intent have been very useful for forming up my thoughts about what I want from my gaming.
As an aside, you will note they only cover gaming. A lot of the hobbies which plagued me at the start of this blog have faded to black over the years. I no longer play CCGs, I'm only really buying a couple of comic titles now, I have officially 'retired' from fan fiction and wrestling is something that occasionally gets put on when there is nothing else to watch. Gaming is pretty much my Number One hobby nowadays, in its varied forms.
So without further ado:
Number One: Game More
As gaming is now my number one and only real hobby, I really would like to do it more than once a fortnight at best. I have sated my need for more gaming through other means over the years; fanfic, efeds, RP servers on WoW, PBEM, PBF, PBGwave... you name it. My gaming group have experimented with 'Group Two' - an occasional midweek group - and that would definitely be something that I would like to pursue again. However, if that cannot work I might have to throw my net a little wider. However, as noted below, I have to watch the balance of my time. I just feel that I want to do more of the hobby that I enjoy so much but I don't really have to tools to do so at the moment.
Number Two: Fold or Twist with Omnihedron
Big changes on the self-publishing front this year - Collective Endeavour is still around but its pretty much not going to be functional as a sales conduit. Additionally, I've made a decision to have some time off from the convention circuit to recharge my batteries a little and just to spend some time at home. This gives me the time to assess whether I want to continue with the self-publishing - specifically with the Empire! line of books - into the coming years, or whether I should just bow out at the top, so to speak. I really enjoy the self-publishing thing but I've done all I can at this level now. Pushing it up to the next one would require quite a bit of work on my part and I have to consider the time and effort required and whether there would be a reasonable return on my 'investment'. That said, I have some unfinished business - starting with 'Vive L'Empereur' and then ....
Number Three: Duty & Honour V2.0
Regardless of the outcome of Resolution Two, I will publish D&Hv2 this year. There are a number of reasons, but the overriding one is that I know that with some lessons that I have learned through BtQ and the feedback I have received from other people, I can make it a much much better game than it is at the moment. With that settled, I can then make a proper decision with regard to continuing with the company and the entire game publishing thing. Now, anyone out there raising some cynical eyebrows about this being some sort of market-squeezing scam can return to your normal non-Vulcan appearance. I'm going to endeavour to make it all as painless as possible for people who already have the game, somehow. Haven't quite worked it out yet like, but I will.
Number Four: Run Another Game
Dresden Files was a success and the new format or running relatively short runs of games seems to be one that we are happy with at the moment, so my aim will be to run another game this year at some point in time. Indeed, if Resolution One holds true, I might run it sooner rather than the scheduled slot after Nigel and Dave. Currently I'm working through some of my issues with superhero games via the medium of ICONS and its going quite well. There has to be some sort of irony that the fact that I have almost stopped reading comics has opened the door for me to explore them in the RPG sense!
Number Five: Time Management
Time is my perennial enemy. I never have enough time and I am always having to shave things here, there and everywhere. Horrifically, for me, one of the things that began to lose in the war with time at the end of last year was reading books! That soon changed over the holidays but it was a little wake-up call. Now, things should get a little easier soon as I will be getting my Tuesday nights back soon when my course eases up. Similarly, I am getting a little more disciplined about my marking. However, on the horizon is a more stringent marking regime and the probability of some course design coming along which is going to eat up my time. However, I know I need to get some more time available for other stuff. So I have to work smarter and think about what is eating my time. One of the things that I have in my sights at the moment are a number of facebook and online games that I play which are not delivering palpable returns in terms of pleasure. They could get the chop to make way for other stuff. I'm simply going to have to be more disciplined.
(Unofficial) Number Six: Continue Avoiding Toxicity
This year has been a bit of a watershed for me, in that I removed myself from any sort of online grief and strife. Fora which have caused me crap have been kicked to the digital curb with ruthless abandon and anything I have posted has been edited to ensure that they are constructive, positive and not spikey. It has resulted in a very pleasant online year. Reading back on some of my old posts, especially right at the beginning of the blog, I was shocked with the amount of crap I put up with - not anymore! So this resolution gets promoted into a continued behaviour. Thats a very good thing!
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
As David Bowie once stuttered.
I'm going to be fiddling with the format of the old blog over the next few days as I continue bringing the bloody thing back to life. I appears that in the five years since I started (Is it really that long?), Blogspot have got their arse together and offered up an absolute smorgasbord of tinkering options. This is a good thing.
There are some more fundamental changes going to be made as well - namely, I need a new title. You see, when I started this blog, I used to drink quite a lot, so viewing life 'though the bottom of a glass' was quite an appropriate title. However, three years ago, I stopped drinking alcohol and therefore its a little disingenuous to continue with the title. 'Through the bottom of a mountain of marking' would be more appropriate at the moment, but thats not going to hold.
Similarly, my strapline, about being the musings of a 30-something whatever, is going to have to change as I turn 40 in a couple of weeks. Again, an update is required!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
2010 Top Three Gaming Moments
And as the resurrection of the blog continues, we return to another Bottom of the Glass tradition - the gaming moments of the year. This year has been pretty much dominated by one game - D&D4e - but there have been other highspots as well.
Honourable Mention: 3:16
I'm tempted to say that it is a sign of the narrow range of my gaming this year, that this game makes an honourable mention because it wasn't exactly the greatest game in the world. I should really have said '3:16 ... the last hour' because it was at that point that I 'got' the game and it really kicked up a couple of gears and became a pleasure to play. Something as simple as adding media cameras to the troopers helmets was the trick. Its based on Starship Troopers right? Throw in the satire and it worked far better.
Honourable Mention: Rise of the Zulu
Again, not the most stellar game in the world but a real pleasure to run because it was an open playtest style game with a group of players who, in the most part, had played and really understood D&H perfectly. More than playing the game it was really cool just to be able to talk about the rules and the intent behind the rules and play around with some concepts with a really cool group of people. A great way to start Furnace this year.
Honourable Mention: Dead of Night
It had been a long time since I played DoN and I had never played the new second edition. Its good. Really good. The scenario was like mana from heaven to me. Sort of Cthulhu meets The Hunt for Red October. The players were all great - I got to bellow orders at Andrew, in character, which was both entertaining and cathartic! The game played out well although I winced sometimes with some of the rather entertaining physical feats that were manifested - like ejecting the reactor from a nuclear submarine ala Star Trek.
Number Three: Dresden Files
I think, to a degree, this game taught me a good few things. First - if you are going to pitch a game, deliver that game rather than defaulting to your usual high powered, high stakes adrenaline fest game. Two - I have a high powered, high stakes adrenaline fest default game and I'm quite good at it! Three - there is a level of systems mastery that comes with playing games and cannot be delivered by reading them (I only really got the game in the last couple of sessions) and Four - planning a good 'trad' delivery game requires time. Time which I may not have. It was great to be at the head of the table for my home gaming group again after such a long time but really it gets number three because of what it taught me rather than for the quality of the game.
Number Two: Lady Blackbird
Ah, now this? This was much better. The sort of seat-of-the-pants gaming experience that has become my bread and butter over the last couple of years. It was a different gaming group set up with Ben added as well. The system and the set-up really worked well for me, and the freeflowing nature of the narrative was excellent. I loved running this and I would love to return to some different iteration in the future. In fact....hmmm
Number One: D&D4e Epic Tier
Waaaaaaaaaaaay out in front, its not even funny, the final third of the City of Kings. I've written before about the quality of this game but I recently re-read the GM's blog about the game and it all came flooding back to me. It was sheer quality from start to finish and really capped off an excellent campaign. It will be exceptionally hard to top it. Ever.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
2010 Gaming Resolutions - The Results
Its that time of year again, where I address last years gaming resolutions and set some new ones. I should really make a subtle new sub-resolution of 'write some more in your blog!' as well, as I have been terribly lax of late. So without further ado, lets see how I have done this year, shall we?
1. Maintain the momentum of Omnihedron Games (SUCCESS)
Aye, no problems here. All of the games have sold like hot cakes, funding my trip to GenCon and more. I've knocked out another Miscellany which has sold well. I've done some work on Rise of the Zulu and Vive Le Empereur (A French book) but most of my recent energies have been focused on Duty & Honour 2nd Edition which will be the rules capstone for the game system as a whole. Add to this that BtQ picked up a couple of places in the Indie RPG Awards (Runner Up in Best Support and second runner-up in Best Game) and it is currently placed for the finals of the UKRPG Game of the Year and well ... things have been good.
2. Balance the time pressures of work and gaming (SUCCESS)
Gaming has flowed this year, with D&D wrapping up very nicely indeed and that leading into a Dresden Files game from me. We should kick off some Gamma World tomorrow and we even squeezed in some Lady Blackbird. Hell, I even ran a non-Omnihedron game at Furnace! Now, however, I want more. Work is becoming more manageable and soon my night classes will drift away into the occassional tutorial. If I can plot some stuff around WoW raiding, I definitely want to get some more gaming in next year, one way or another.
3. Exploit Google Wave (SUCCESSish)
I ran a Google Wave game of Beat to Quarters and it was good, but like so many online games, it faded due to real life commitments from some players meaning that they could not contribute as readily as they would have liked to. Looking at the technology as well, it was quite good but in the end we were using it like a message board with a built-in card flopper rather than something actually useful. Of course, the entire point has become moot as Google have retired Google Wave and put it into some sort of unsupported software care home, which I think is a shame really. However, I made a go of it.
4. Be More Selfish at Conventions (FAIL)
Conception: Slots 12, Played 1, Ran 1
Conpulsion: Slots 5, Played 0, Ran 1
Games Expo: Slots 6, Played 0, Ran 1
GenCon: Slots 'many', Played 0, Ran 0
Furnace: Slots 5, Played 2, Ran 3
Dragonmeet: Slots 2, Played 0, Ran 0
I ran one more game and played one more game than last year. So this has to go down as a massive fail. I can put it down to a number of things - certainly my feelings of responsibility for sales on the CE stall contributed a great deal as did my generally being a mug when it comes to calls for referees. GenCon sits there as a stark and confusing stat. I had a good time at GenCon this year, but it coincided with the explosion of my dislike of convention gaming and really, finding a non-Living game there was difficult. Ironic, I know. The indie side of things seemed virtually impenetrable.
5. Avoid Toxicity (SUCCESS)
I think this one has been a definite success. I have only really interfaced with one public forum - UK Roleplayers - and I have made a concerted effort to present a positive, forward thinking and constructive face on it. I have abandoned a number of other fora and feel so much the better for it. I have been in a position, on a number of occassions, where I have written a post and then thoughtfully deleted it. Not through fear of reprisal but more through consideration of their tone and content. It is so much better being nice.
So, three and a half out of five. Not too bad. Circumstances dictate that at least one of these will not be an issue in the future. The dissolution of Collective Endeavour to about half its size and my decision to give the convention circuit a year off in 2011 mean I will be focussing my gaming at home. Thats got to be a good thing.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Echo!
You can tell the reason why I have not been posting here recently, by the date of the last post. Just before the beginning of college term. This is reading week, hence I can breathe!
There will be more soon. Until then, enjoy the silence
Friday, September 03, 2010
Improper!
This summer I travelled to the USA with a companion. We sat next to each other on the plane and occassionally, our legs touched each other. We shared tense moments in an airport discovering our flight was delayed but relaxed that evening during a late supper in a deserted restaurant in our exclusive stop-over hotel. We shared a room .. for five days. We laughed, we joked, we even had a time and a place to rendevous should fate mean our paths parted. On the return leg my luggage was lost and my companion waited, patiently, for me to solve my issue.
Of course, my companion was a man and therefore, under the rules of the day, we may have taken part in an 'improper relationship'
What a load of shite.
The furore over the relationship between the Foreign Secretary William Hague and his advisor is such a ridiculous framing of the continued deep-seated homophobia that runs through this country that it makes me furious.
We start with the idea that two men cannot be friends without their relationship being 'improper'. We then move on to the idea that two men sharing a room is somehow 'improper'. Not a bed, mind you - a twin room! We then drill down into some of the more murky depths of the insinuation - that somehow a gay man's relationship with another gay man is a threat to national security in a way that a man and woman could never be. Oh no. That somehow by hiding this 'non-fact' that William Hague is somehow showing a lack of integrity?
It gets worse. Max 'Leech on Modern Society' Clifford suggests that questions need to be answered why a multi-millionaire would need to share a room? Well, I'm not a highly trained journalist looking to cover all the angles (/sarc) but I can think of half a dozen possible reasons off the top of my head including the not unreasonable prospect that William fancied someone to have a chat to late at night?
Because, you know guys, being in the same room as someone does not mean you have to slip your slender majority into the opposition benches!
Has there been any implication that the impropriety within the alleged relationship might be adulterous? No. Not at all. Its all about the G-A-Y.
In my mind, the only improper thing around here is the sad mirror this throws up on our society.
Of course, my companion was a man and therefore, under the rules of the day, we may have taken part in an 'improper relationship'
What a load of shite.
The furore over the relationship between the Foreign Secretary William Hague and his advisor is such a ridiculous framing of the continued deep-seated homophobia that runs through this country that it makes me furious.
We start with the idea that two men cannot be friends without their relationship being 'improper'. We then move on to the idea that two men sharing a room is somehow 'improper'. Not a bed, mind you - a twin room! We then drill down into some of the more murky depths of the insinuation - that somehow a gay man's relationship with another gay man is a threat to national security in a way that a man and woman could never be. Oh no. That somehow by hiding this 'non-fact' that William Hague is somehow showing a lack of integrity?
It gets worse. Max 'Leech on Modern Society' Clifford suggests that questions need to be answered why a multi-millionaire would need to share a room? Well, I'm not a highly trained journalist looking to cover all the angles (/sarc) but I can think of half a dozen possible reasons off the top of my head including the not unreasonable prospect that William fancied someone to have a chat to late at night?
Because, you know guys, being in the same room as someone does not mean you have to slip your slender majority into the opposition benches!
Has there been any implication that the impropriety within the alleged relationship might be adulterous? No. Not at all. Its all about the G-A-Y.
In my mind, the only improper thing around here is the sad mirror this throws up on our society.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
How Much Money Makes You A Customer
As many of you know, I quite like professional wrestling and on occassion I have been known to 'e-fed' - a sort of wrestling based group fanfic. I have also been playing a browser game called 'The Wrestling Game' for over two years now and nestle quite nicely in amongst the top 200 or so players in the game. Its fun, mindless and costs nothing apart from time and a little attention.
Years ago, I started playing a facebook game called 'Wrestler' which, with a little more interactivity, attempted the same thing. It was OK, but like many of these games it really only rewarded time-sinkable players and I grew a little bored and abandoned it. Cut to a couple of years later and I stumbled across 'Wrestler:Unstoppable' (essentially Wrestler 2.0) and started playing it. Its quite good, I enjoy it - mindless, free fun etc.
However, for some people it isn't free. As with most FB games nowadays, an area of the game has been monetised to generate income. By taking part in matches you earn coins, which can be spent on new costumes, training slots etc. However the really cool stuff costs Wrestler BUCKS which can be got in two ways: buying them direct or signing up to survey companies, installing (and deleting!) FB apps etc.
Its not hard to do the second method, carefully, and generate a few bucks. However its far easier to just push a few buttons and grab them using paypal, should you want to. Well, why would you? Aha! The roleplaying side of the game - the federations - costs bucks to set up. Thirty, I believe. In real money that constitutes almost £2.50 worth of investment. To get a few special items, a fancy nameplate for your character and a nice background - cosmetic things - will cost you around 120 bucks, or a wallet tearing £8.
Seriously, you would think people were mortgaging their homes!
"We cannot afford this!"
"You are forcing us to spend REAL money!"
"I cannot believe that all the cool stuff costs bucks!"
Its the same refrain that comes from the Zynga stable of games as well.
The fly in the Wrestler ointment however, appears to be that the player base quite liked v1.0 and were mighty miffed when it was closed and 2.0 was opened. All that time and effort into developing their characters has been wasted. Now they are 'investing' in this new game, they have a voice, some ownership, a 'right' as 'consumers' to have their words listened to.
And of course, because it is the internet, their 'word' means telling the owner - a guy called Jon - exactly what he should be doing to 'save' his game. His dying game. The game he is killing before them by his stupid decisions and moreover, the game they HAVE PAID REAL MONEY (£3) to take part in!!! That makes them PAYING CUSTOMERS (I don't know the mark-up for a trumpet volley, but it should accompany that phrase) and therefore they have RIGHTS and if you ignore their rantings you are BAD BUSINESS and you are KILLING THE GAME.
You know, his game. The one he has invested his real money - and probably a damned sight more than £3 into. And he should listen to all of you, the vast majority who are still, eight months on, demanding a rollback to v1.0....
I often wonder about the mob mentality of the internet. I often wonder what turns a rational human being into an entitled wanker just because they have a keyboard in front of them. If you bought a pint and some crisps for £3 would you then think that you had the divine right to bellow at the directors of the pub chain about their choice of juke box tracks? No, not really.
But you can on the internet. Bless it.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Porn-acus is Over!
If ever a TV show got the award for 'Most Uninspiring First Episode Only to Create Awesomeness' then it would have to go to Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Or Pornacus, as we call it.
Mrs G. and I watched the first episode with almost detached indifference. It was there, doing things, but nothing really grabbed us. It looked like a Rated-R version of '300' done by someone as a college film project and really nothing to write home about. It was only as a freak of circumstance that the series had stayed on our SKY+ planner that we watched the second episode and then were hooked for the rest of the series. Once the show hit the gladiator school, it was addictive viewing.
Its hard to pinpoint what has made the show so good. Obviously it mixes action, intrigue, sex, romance and adventure into one heady rollercoaster ride, but thats not really it. Maybe its because it does it all with such gay abandon. The violence is truly viscerally violent. The action borders on superheroic on occassions, especially with the patended salmon leaps. The intrigue slips beyond twirling moustaches and becomes a genuine web of ambitions and lies. The sex is ... unforgiving. Brutal and wanton and omnipresent. The language is a mix of pseudo-theatrics peppered with coarse swearing. And it keeps you on your toes. Plot threads are raised and dealt with in blistering speed. Characters live and die on a whim, appropriately, and it has an almost Game-of-Thrones-esque disregard for the lives of popular characters.
In fact, its hard to see how they have squeezed so much into only 13 episodes!
The characters have also been a pleasure. Obvious props go to the scheming John Hannah as Batiatus and Lucy Lawless as his desperate wanton wife, Lucretia, flanked by her scheming (and equally evil) nemesis Ilithyia. The niaive Varro, noble Doctore, manipulative Ashur and fallen Crixus all made their mark. And of course, the title character is awesome as well.
What hit home to me in the last episode was that in the midst of the bloodbath, the real conflicts were essentially social.
- Could Spartacus persuade Crixus to be part of his rebellion?
- Could Spartacus persuade Doctore to cast aside years of servitude and rebel?
- Could Ashur trick Doctore to escape?
- Could Spartacus persuade Varro's wife that he was innocent?
The fighting was superfluous in the end - set dressing to the main event which were these conflicts and the one-liners between the various characters as they died, escaped or rebelled.
And in the end, only two of the main characters* died at the end of the show (and then, one was still twitching!) despite it appearing to be a complete cast TPK scenario. Genius. A true feat of televisual sleight of hand.
There is a prequel coming, Spartacus: Legends of the Arena, and then Season 2, now that the actor that plays Spartacus has recovered from cancer. Personally, I cannot wait. Oh, and DVD in Sept. too. Excellent.
* I don't count the Gaul brothers as main...
Mrs G. and I watched the first episode with almost detached indifference. It was there, doing things, but nothing really grabbed us. It looked like a Rated-R version of '300' done by someone as a college film project and really nothing to write home about. It was only as a freak of circumstance that the series had stayed on our SKY+ planner that we watched the second episode and then were hooked for the rest of the series. Once the show hit the gladiator school, it was addictive viewing.
Its hard to pinpoint what has made the show so good. Obviously it mixes action, intrigue, sex, romance and adventure into one heady rollercoaster ride, but thats not really it. Maybe its because it does it all with such gay abandon. The violence is truly viscerally violent. The action borders on superheroic on occassions, especially with the patended salmon leaps. The intrigue slips beyond twirling moustaches and becomes a genuine web of ambitions and lies. The sex is ... unforgiving. Brutal and wanton and omnipresent. The language is a mix of pseudo-theatrics peppered with coarse swearing. And it keeps you on your toes. Plot threads are raised and dealt with in blistering speed. Characters live and die on a whim, appropriately, and it has an almost Game-of-Thrones-esque disregard for the lives of popular characters.
In fact, its hard to see how they have squeezed so much into only 13 episodes!
The characters have also been a pleasure. Obvious props go to the scheming John Hannah as Batiatus and Lucy Lawless as his desperate wanton wife, Lucretia, flanked by her scheming (and equally evil) nemesis Ilithyia. The niaive Varro, noble Doctore, manipulative Ashur and fallen Crixus all made their mark. And of course, the title character is awesome as well.
What hit home to me in the last episode was that in the midst of the bloodbath, the real conflicts were essentially social.
- Could Spartacus persuade Crixus to be part of his rebellion?
- Could Spartacus persuade Doctore to cast aside years of servitude and rebel?
- Could Ashur trick Doctore to escape?
- Could Spartacus persuade Varro's wife that he was innocent?
The fighting was superfluous in the end - set dressing to the main event which were these conflicts and the one-liners between the various characters as they died, escaped or rebelled.
And in the end, only two of the main characters* died at the end of the show (and then, one was still twitching!) despite it appearing to be a complete cast TPK scenario. Genius. A true feat of televisual sleight of hand.
There is a prequel coming, Spartacus: Legends of the Arena, and then Season 2, now that the actor that plays Spartacus has recovered from cancer. Personally, I cannot wait. Oh, and DVD in Sept. too. Excellent.
* I don't count the Gaul brothers as main...
SuperMetroFootballPunditsGo!!
I have had the pleasure of sharing the Metro this week with two gems of Geordie football knowledge. They are only on the train for a couple of stops but the pundit style gems that have come from their mouths have made my day. For example:
Manchester Utd 3-0 Newcastle United
BBC View: Manchester United made the perfect start to their title bid with a comfortable victory against promoted side Newcastle at Old Trafford.
SuperMetroFootballPunditView!: Newcastle should have easily beaten Man Utd. With the squad Newcastle has, it should have been easy. If they cannot beat Man Utd away, they are doomed to relegation.
Or how about this one?
Young Boys 3-2 Tottenham Hotspur
BBC View: Tottenham's dreams of qualifying for the Champions League group stages hang in the balance after a first leg play-off defeat by Young Boys
SuperMetroFootballPunditView!: Utter disaster for Spurs showing them up for the relegation candidates that they are. Must mock my Spurs-supporting work colleagues about their impending Championship status when I get to work.
Its all totally without a hint of irony either - just two blokes talking very solemnly about football and they way they see the league playing out. Its addictive!
Manchester Utd 3-0 Newcastle United
BBC View: Manchester United made the perfect start to their title bid with a comfortable victory against promoted side Newcastle at Old Trafford.
SuperMetroFootballPunditView!: Newcastle should have easily beaten Man Utd. With the squad Newcastle has, it should have been easy. If they cannot beat Man Utd away, they are doomed to relegation.
Or how about this one?
Young Boys 3-2 Tottenham Hotspur
BBC View: Tottenham's dreams of qualifying for the Champions League group stages hang in the balance after a first leg play-off defeat by Young Boys
SuperMetroFootballPunditView!: Utter disaster for Spurs showing them up for the relegation candidates that they are. Must mock my Spurs-supporting work colleagues about their impending Championship status when I get to work.
Its all totally without a hint of irony either - just two blokes talking very solemnly about football and they way they see the league playing out. Its addictive!
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Too Hot? Too Spicy? HOT! HOT!
Holidays can do a lot of things for you. They can allow you to experience new cultures, taste new foods, meet new people and even, if you are lucky, relax. I've pretty much managed all four whilst I have been away in Tunisia and not always to my benefit.
The chance to live in an Arab country, even for just a week, has been illuminating. First off, it wasn't all that bad! Obviously we were in a tourist resort but I never once experienced any anti-western feeling. Indeed, it was a very international experience, with British, French, German, Italian and African tourists all mingling. I even found myself slipping into my pseudo-esparanto tongue mixing three parts English with one part French and one part German. Of course not everyone was nice. The place was crawling with 'vendors' - all willing to sell you rubbish for inflated prices - and bartering shopkeepers who start at ridiculous levels (£20 for a £2 toy) in a hope to catch a fool. Relentless is not the word for these guys and you have to learn a firm NO! quickly to avoid annoyance. It's not always that easy as they are masters of open questioning and many of them have bribed the hotel staff to have access to the actual hotel lobby, passing themselves off as hotel entertainment staff.
I think that one of the starkest things to understand here is that whilst not quite third world, the area we were in was very ... desolate. Broken buildings, dust track roads, barely functional cars and nearly no municipal sanatation. Dead cat in the street in full rigor mortis? No worries. Huge empty hotels overgrown? Of course! Aggressive taxi drivers that driver death traps? Par for the course. However on the other hand, we saw not one beggar, unlike at home. The prices for commodities such as fruit and fish are set by the government, as is the exchange rate of their closed currency. It felt contented and 'safe', safer than many areas in Newcastle.
I think what struck me the most was the desperate and predatory nature of their commerce. We visited the medina in Sousse, which was beautiful begat this 9thC ancient walled city contained was, essentially, a massive series of souvenir and fake stalls. Tat as far as the eye can see. It was hard to think that these people relied on gulliable tourists to make a living although that would explain their attitude and persistence.
Of course this probably isn't helped by asshole tourists. We encountered a delightful family from Glasgow who demanded they had their own regular table in the restaurant. We made the mistake of sitting in their territory once and the father exploded at the staff. Full on f-ing and blinding about the useless hotel, the crap staff and them 'fucking towelheads'. For his whining he got a designated table and complimentary water and our shared waiter got a bollocking. And Muppet Boy eyeballed me all week, clearly wanting to make something of it. Silly thing is, if he had asked, we would have moved. The waiter was awesome, laughing with the kids, charming Christine and telling me all about the food and the weather ( it was bloody hot - in excess of 42 degrees). On our final night, the muppets had their own table and we had flowers, table settings, water laid on and the full works. Right next to them. Oh how we laughed. Needless to say, he got his tip!
And I relaxed. No, really! No Internet. No phone. No tv. Well, no tv for the first five days and then we relented. One English channel, MBC Action, which showed subtitled (in Arabic) shows like CSI, Heroes, Bones, The Unit etc.
I read mostly, ploughing through four Dresden Files novels and some background reading on the reasons for the Anglo-Zulu War. I even put pen to paper on some outlines for DFRPG adventures and a BTQ campaign book. Most of all though, I had time and space to do nothing, with no real need to worry about anything, even if jut for a few fleeting days. Very cool.
So was it a good holiday? Of course it was. It was very different from my expectations and that was a good thing. I did reflect, as I was sat opposite the mosque in Sousse, watching a man trying desperately to sell photos with a sparrowhawk whilst listening to some Arabic drumming, thy in two week time, I will be in the middle of the USA, draping myself in American popular culture. It should be quite the juxtaposition, I think
The chance to live in an Arab country, even for just a week, has been illuminating. First off, it wasn't all that bad! Obviously we were in a tourist resort but I never once experienced any anti-western feeling. Indeed, it was a very international experience, with British, French, German, Italian and African tourists all mingling. I even found myself slipping into my pseudo-esparanto tongue mixing three parts English with one part French and one part German. Of course not everyone was nice. The place was crawling with 'vendors' - all willing to sell you rubbish for inflated prices - and bartering shopkeepers who start at ridiculous levels (£20 for a £2 toy) in a hope to catch a fool. Relentless is not the word for these guys and you have to learn a firm NO! quickly to avoid annoyance. It's not always that easy as they are masters of open questioning and many of them have bribed the hotel staff to have access to the actual hotel lobby, passing themselves off as hotel entertainment staff.
I think that one of the starkest things to understand here is that whilst not quite third world, the area we were in was very ... desolate. Broken buildings, dust track roads, barely functional cars and nearly no municipal sanatation. Dead cat in the street in full rigor mortis? No worries. Huge empty hotels overgrown? Of course! Aggressive taxi drivers that driver death traps? Par for the course. However on the other hand, we saw not one beggar, unlike at home. The prices for commodities such as fruit and fish are set by the government, as is the exchange rate of their closed currency. It felt contented and 'safe', safer than many areas in Newcastle.
I think what struck me the most was the desperate and predatory nature of their commerce. We visited the medina in Sousse, which was beautiful begat this 9thC ancient walled city contained was, essentially, a massive series of souvenir and fake stalls. Tat as far as the eye can see. It was hard to think that these people relied on gulliable tourists to make a living although that would explain their attitude and persistence.
Of course this probably isn't helped by asshole tourists. We encountered a delightful family from Glasgow who demanded they had their own regular table in the restaurant. We made the mistake of sitting in their territory once and the father exploded at the staff. Full on f-ing and blinding about the useless hotel, the crap staff and them 'fucking towelheads'. For his whining he got a designated table and complimentary water and our shared waiter got a bollocking. And Muppet Boy eyeballed me all week, clearly wanting to make something of it. Silly thing is, if he had asked, we would have moved. The waiter was awesome, laughing with the kids, charming Christine and telling me all about the food and the weather ( it was bloody hot - in excess of 42 degrees). On our final night, the muppets had their own table and we had flowers, table settings, water laid on and the full works. Right next to them. Oh how we laughed. Needless to say, he got his tip!
And I relaxed. No, really! No Internet. No phone. No tv. Well, no tv for the first five days and then we relented. One English channel, MBC Action, which showed subtitled (in Arabic) shows like CSI, Heroes, Bones, The Unit etc.
I read mostly, ploughing through four Dresden Files novels and some background reading on the reasons for the Anglo-Zulu War. I even put pen to paper on some outlines for DFRPG adventures and a BTQ campaign book. Most of all though, I had time and space to do nothing, with no real need to worry about anything, even if jut for a few fleeting days. Very cool.
So was it a good holiday? Of course it was. It was very different from my expectations and that was a good thing. I did reflect, as I was sat opposite the mosque in Sousse, watching a man trying desperately to sell photos with a sparrowhawk whilst listening to some Arabic drumming, thy in two week time, I will be in the middle of the USA, draping myself in American popular culture. It should be quite the juxtaposition, I think
ps. I wrote the above the night before we left. On the plane coming home, I was sat in front of two couple who whinged and moaned about EVERYTHING on their holiday, from the moment they arrived until the moment they left. It was like a comedy sketch - complaints about the foreigners not all speaking English, about them serving them foreign food, about the presence of flies, about the 'funny money', about the quality of everything, the lack of english TV channels, the heat, the sand, the rooms - even the way people looked at them around the pool. Remarkable.
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