Your childhood was not better than anyone else's and everyone needs to stop recreating things based on their childhood memories, especially with video games, because it isn't being helpful, it's just the creators being obsessed with nostalgia, and nostalgia is a ridiculous thing to be obsessed with. The idea of trying to preserve dated concepts to the point where they bog down innovation in the creative media for the sake of nostalgic memories is pathetic, damaging, and anyone who does this should be ashamed of themselves.
The rest of us would greately appreciate it if you'd stop ruining the gaming industry for us just because you can't deal with modern advances like cutscenes, stop saturating the cartoon industry just because drawing that obnoxious and generic style Walt Disney developed reminds you of when you were 5, and stop complaining about how everything was better in whatever decade you were born in than it is now. Everything looked better when you were a kid and didn't have a job or responsibilities (Don't even joke with me about school; that's not a responsibility, it's a glorified babysitting service) and we all felt the same fucking way, it has nothing to do with what generation you're apart of.
I'm fed up with going on forums and hearing a bunch of cranky assholes whine because Mario Sunshine was too open-world and didn't have Goombas in it or Sonic's too serious now, or that games are 3D and SO MUCH MORE CONFUSING than sidescrollers, and why won't these kids get off their lawns? They never have a good reason for bitching about these things other than "It wasn't like this in the 80s/90s" or some equally retarded bullshit like "It makes it less like a game" Nevermind they never specify how, except maybe "It has cutscenes and I HAVE TO WAIT OMG" God forbid you'd ever have to exercise an intention span longer than a toddler. Can't you people grow the fuck up already and stop ruining shit for the rest of us?
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
A Minecraft community rant
I'm sure everyone knows how horrible the Minecraft community is but I just wanted to say that I am extremely disgusted with some of the attitudes people have, one modder actually infuriating me and personally insulting my integrity. Frankly, I want to embarrass him, so I saved a screenshot of my post and will proceed to spitefully paste it everywhere I can, I recommend not using the mod of suck an immature child.
In fact, many of the mods I refuse to use on Minecraft are on my personal blacklist because of the way a modder acts toward people. I do not think someone who demands a modder update to the latest version of Minecraft in all caps with exclamation marks and fire emotes deserves much respect, I do not think a person who flames a modder because their Minecraft crashes deserves a second glance, but I am not either one of these people, I make an effort to be constructive even when I have little to no personal respect for a modder, for one reason or another. It seems that being diplomatic and mature has no positive effect in the Minecraft community, you're going to get sh*t from people if you flame and use textspeak and you're going to get sh*t from people if you are trying to be respectful. Quite frankly, I'd have loved nothing better than to flame this person because parts of their mod offend and disturb me, but I thought it would express this in a moderate fashion. Obviously, that was wasted effort, now I am going to proceed to paint them in a bad light.
And this idiot is not the only one. There are some decent human beings on the Minecraft forums, but some modders are just dicks for no reason, maybe dealing with the Minecraft community for long periods of time makes them bitter husks or maybe they're just as ill-behaved and uncivilized as the cunts they flame for not posting error reports and demanding fixes, but either way, they are not the kind of people I like dealing with. I use ModLoader out of need, I used IndustrialCraft because a friend wanted me to, but he had to be the one to solve the problems with it, I wanted no communication with the modder, I refuse to use any of DrZhark's mods because of the way he acted toward me when I made a simple suggestion for his mod, claiming it was as ridiculous as riding ogres, and more than half of the animals he adds are just meant to be killed for something anyway, I find that disgusting.
I will give an example of a polite and courteous modder: Xie, as well as Domino, are very polite, one reason I continue to watch their mods is because, whenever I have asked a question, they have answered not only in a neutral tone, but promptly, I could not possibly ask for more from them. I highly recommend their mods if only because they are sure to help anyone with a problem. Another example is a texture pack creator, Misa, who is fair in her dealings with her fanbase; oh, she will get mean, but only when someone accuses her of stealing, which has actually happened. (She gave someone permission to use her textures and some people mistake the owner, I would become annoyed at that, too.)
Basically, I only go to those forums out of necessity, to report bugs. Even the admins have been known to be impolite for no reason, it's no small wonder the community is so awful.
I suggest we beat some sense into those people when they come over here looking for a new game to play, nip it in the bud before it grows out of control. :P
If you're wondering, here's the thread link:
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/253365-11-better-than-wolves-but-not-cats-mod-v351-upd-feb-11/page__st__20720
Here's an image I printscreened of my response to his reply, screenshot was in case one of the admins deleted the post, which they probably will. Why side with a decent person when the immature kid can code Java? :dodgy:
http://i.imgur.com/Xyynw.png
Here's my original post:
http://i.imgur.com/i3MPy.png
You tell me if that is deserving of this:
And here's how I replied to it:
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/253365-11-better-than-wolves-but-not-cats-mod-v351-upd-feb-11/page__view__findpost__p__12874789
Proof of the quote in my first image:
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/253365-11-better-than-wolves-but-not-cats-mod-v351-upd-feb-11/page__view__findpost__p__12877436
Also here's something one of his cronies posted, which I thought was pretty barbed...
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/253365-11-better-than-wolves-but-not-cats-mod-v351-upd-feb-11/page__view__findpost__p__12859727
You tell me if you think I deserve that kind of treatment.
In fact, many of the mods I refuse to use on Minecraft are on my personal blacklist because of the way a modder acts toward people. I do not think someone who demands a modder update to the latest version of Minecraft in all caps with exclamation marks and fire emotes deserves much respect, I do not think a person who flames a modder because their Minecraft crashes deserves a second glance, but I am not either one of these people, I make an effort to be constructive even when I have little to no personal respect for a modder, for one reason or another. It seems that being diplomatic and mature has no positive effect in the Minecraft community, you're going to get sh*t from people if you flame and use textspeak and you're going to get sh*t from people if you are trying to be respectful. Quite frankly, I'd have loved nothing better than to flame this person because parts of their mod offend and disturb me, but I thought it would express this in a moderate fashion. Obviously, that was wasted effort, now I am going to proceed to paint them in a bad light.
And this idiot is not the only one. There are some decent human beings on the Minecraft forums, but some modders are just dicks for no reason, maybe dealing with the Minecraft community for long periods of time makes them bitter husks or maybe they're just as ill-behaved and uncivilized as the cunts they flame for not posting error reports and demanding fixes, but either way, they are not the kind of people I like dealing with. I use ModLoader out of need, I used IndustrialCraft because a friend wanted me to, but he had to be the one to solve the problems with it, I wanted no communication with the modder, I refuse to use any of DrZhark's mods because of the way he acted toward me when I made a simple suggestion for his mod, claiming it was as ridiculous as riding ogres, and more than half of the animals he adds are just meant to be killed for something anyway, I find that disgusting.
I will give an example of a polite and courteous modder: Xie, as well as Domino, are very polite, one reason I continue to watch their mods is because, whenever I have asked a question, they have answered not only in a neutral tone, but promptly, I could not possibly ask for more from them. I highly recommend their mods if only because they are sure to help anyone with a problem. Another example is a texture pack creator, Misa, who is fair in her dealings with her fanbase; oh, she will get mean, but only when someone accuses her of stealing, which has actually happened. (She gave someone permission to use her textures and some people mistake the owner, I would become annoyed at that, too.)
Basically, I only go to those forums out of necessity, to report bugs. Even the admins have been known to be impolite for no reason, it's no small wonder the community is so awful.
I suggest we beat some sense into those people when they come over here looking for a new game to play, nip it in the bud before it grows out of control. :P
If you're wondering, here's the thread link:
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/253365-11-better-than-wolves-but-not-cats-mod-v351-upd-feb-11/page__st__20720
Here's an image I printscreened of my response to his reply, screenshot was in case one of the admins deleted the post, which they probably will. Why side with a decent person when the immature kid can code Java? :dodgy:
http://i.imgur.com/Xyynw.png
Here's my original post:
http://i.imgur.com/i3MPy.png
You tell me if that is deserving of this:
And here's how I replied to it:
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/253365-11-better-than-wolves-but-not-cats-mod-v351-upd-feb-11/page__view__findpost__p__12874789
Proof of the quote in my first image:
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/253365-11-better-than-wolves-but-not-cats-mod-v351-upd-feb-11/page__view__findpost__p__12877436
Also here's something one of his cronies posted, which I thought was pretty barbed...
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/253365-11-better-than-wolves-but-not-cats-mod-v351-upd-feb-11/page__view__findpost__p__12859727
You tell me if you think I deserve that kind of treatment.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Full Circle
Well, the other day I was pretty upset, so I made a dA... and now my life has come full circle.
There's a lot of things that upset me that my friends don't understand, like visiting a Sonic fansite, or signing up for a dA account. It has a lot to do with a war I fight every day with my inner demons, and it's a war I feel like I'm losing.
Because I've told everyone the reason I deleted my old account was because I got sick of bullshit on the site, which was a lie, because I never want to admit anything is my fault, but everything was my fault, I repeatedly fucked up, I repeatedly exercised practices I condemned other people for, on every site I joined, I let people troll me until I cried, I threw myself into hysterical fits of rage, and when I got upset, I made the most incoherent, inflammatory journals. These are things a normal, sensible, mature person would not have done, but I was not any of those, and I feel that I am still not any of those.
Mostly because I'm doing the same shit again, I feel like I'm never going to be the person I want to be, the cool, aloof person that gets all kinds of recognition for their work but can brush it off like it's meaningless, the air of logic that makes people follow them, I want to be that person.
But now I think the only thing harder than trying to become the person you want to be is to not be the person you used to be.
My entire life has become an attempt to distance myself from my past, I threw away my old characters, changed my art style enough to not be recognized, no longer contact and/or avoid people I used to know, avoid sites I used to frequent, and deleted as much as I possibly could, I want to erase it and pretend it never happened, because I'm ashamed of it, and it's just a failed attempt to me, I feel like I wanted something specific to happen but the opposite happened and I don't want to deal with the backlash or the consequences.
Because I don't want to change, I don't want to stop complaining about the things that I complain about, but I don't want the horrible reactions that I got from it before either, so I have tried to make my complaints more logical, but I don't feel like it works that well. People no longer flame or troll me for them, but people don't agree with me either.
But mostly, I just don't want people to look at me and see that immature kid that was so oblivious to the real world and so idealistic that they thought they could change an entire community but failed miserably and became bitter over it and everyone's favorite joke, because that's exactly what happened, it happened when I was 16, I'm still bitter about it, it caused me to re-evaluate everything about my life, to let go of my religion and my ideals, and to become what I am now, which is probably a good thing, but there are parts of me that still feel broken, I purged 90% of what I was raised to believe and completely reprogrammed myself over the course of a year, and in that year, I was volatile and unstable.
And every time I think of it, I think of a screaming 4 year old, which is exactly what I compare myself to, a stupid kid that won't shut the fuck up, that throws a tantrum for decidedly frivolous reasons, that everyone around them wishes would fall in a hole and disappear, and that nobody else understands or cares to understand. Why should they care about what a toddler is screaming about? They have more decidedly adult matters to be bothered with, and that toddler is selfish and conceited and will blow up if the smallest little thing goes wrong.
I think I will always be that person, and I wonder how long it will take, every day, for someone to recognize me and remind me that I am that person, for someone to ruin my life, the fake life that I redesigned and unsuitably call "self-improvement", the only way I can improve myself is to not be myself, there is no helping me, I am a difficult child that gives everyone a headache, it's been like this since I could utter a sentence, I'm not easygoing like my cousin who everyone loves, I'm the embodiment of annoying petulance.
And now my life has come full circle, and I will again attempt to be the person I want to be, and fail, possibly by bitching in a journal like I always do and like I'm doing right now, and everyone will realize what a pathetic waste of time I am again and I will be right back at square one.
There's a lot of things that upset me that my friends don't understand, like visiting a Sonic fansite, or signing up for a dA account. It has a lot to do with a war I fight every day with my inner demons, and it's a war I feel like I'm losing.
Because I've told everyone the reason I deleted my old account was because I got sick of bullshit on the site, which was a lie, because I never want to admit anything is my fault, but everything was my fault, I repeatedly fucked up, I repeatedly exercised practices I condemned other people for, on every site I joined, I let people troll me until I cried, I threw myself into hysterical fits of rage, and when I got upset, I made the most incoherent, inflammatory journals. These are things a normal, sensible, mature person would not have done, but I was not any of those, and I feel that I am still not any of those.
Mostly because I'm doing the same shit again, I feel like I'm never going to be the person I want to be, the cool, aloof person that gets all kinds of recognition for their work but can brush it off like it's meaningless, the air of logic that makes people follow them, I want to be that person.
But now I think the only thing harder than trying to become the person you want to be is to not be the person you used to be.
My entire life has become an attempt to distance myself from my past, I threw away my old characters, changed my art style enough to not be recognized, no longer contact and/or avoid people I used to know, avoid sites I used to frequent, and deleted as much as I possibly could, I want to erase it and pretend it never happened, because I'm ashamed of it, and it's just a failed attempt to me, I feel like I wanted something specific to happen but the opposite happened and I don't want to deal with the backlash or the consequences.
Because I don't want to change, I don't want to stop complaining about the things that I complain about, but I don't want the horrible reactions that I got from it before either, so I have tried to make my complaints more logical, but I don't feel like it works that well. People no longer flame or troll me for them, but people don't agree with me either.
But mostly, I just don't want people to look at me and see that immature kid that was so oblivious to the real world and so idealistic that they thought they could change an entire community but failed miserably and became bitter over it and everyone's favorite joke, because that's exactly what happened, it happened when I was 16, I'm still bitter about it, it caused me to re-evaluate everything about my life, to let go of my religion and my ideals, and to become what I am now, which is probably a good thing, but there are parts of me that still feel broken, I purged 90% of what I was raised to believe and completely reprogrammed myself over the course of a year, and in that year, I was volatile and unstable.
And every time I think of it, I think of a screaming 4 year old, which is exactly what I compare myself to, a stupid kid that won't shut the fuck up, that throws a tantrum for decidedly frivolous reasons, that everyone around them wishes would fall in a hole and disappear, and that nobody else understands or cares to understand. Why should they care about what a toddler is screaming about? They have more decidedly adult matters to be bothered with, and that toddler is selfish and conceited and will blow up if the smallest little thing goes wrong.
I think I will always be that person, and I wonder how long it will take, every day, for someone to recognize me and remind me that I am that person, for someone to ruin my life, the fake life that I redesigned and unsuitably call "self-improvement", the only way I can improve myself is to not be myself, there is no helping me, I am a difficult child that gives everyone a headache, it's been like this since I could utter a sentence, I'm not easygoing like my cousin who everyone loves, I'm the embodiment of annoying petulance.
And now my life has come full circle, and I will again attempt to be the person I want to be, and fail, possibly by bitching in a journal like I always do and like I'm doing right now, and everyone will realize what a pathetic waste of time I am again and I will be right back at square one.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Skyhigh View (New blog)
I'll still be using this one, but I started a new one for video-game related things.
http://skyhighviewgames.blogspot.com/
It only has one post right now but I'm planning on making more.
http://skyhighviewgames.blogspot.com/
It only has one post right now but I'm planning on making more.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
A Great Gift Pie Rant
So, anyone with a Steam account will probably know about this contest they've had called The Great Gift Pie, where you were supposed to play games to earn virtual coal and then once you had 7 coal, you'd be able to craft it into a coupon, the coupon was completely random, of course, or you could save your coal and have a (very small) chance of winning one of four grand prizes, the first one being every single game on Steam.
Well, as a ton of pissed-off forum goers have already pointed out, Valve ran out of coupons and now everyone is entirely pissed.
Well, not everyone... Namely the people this rant is directed at.
I'm talking about the inevitable obnoxious twats that will show up on any thread where people are complaining about such matters (Or, in my experience, anything, really) and say something along the lines of "You ungrateful ****s are *****ing about getting free stuff?" Typically, this is the kind of person that completely misses the point of why people are angry, and typically is very narrow-minded about the entire situation, believing that "getting free stuff" as they like to call it, justifies a large number of people being disappointed and feeling cheated.
So this isn't a rant against Valve, because they obviously had a limited budget, even though they could have really managed the entire situation better by making the announcement more widespread than on a forum the majority of their customers don't visit, but rather a rant in general, in part directed at a group of people who I have never liked and find obnoxious in the best of times, unbearable in the wost, and partially against the entire concept of the contest in general, which, even if it went off without a hitch, I'd still be quite antagonistic about the whole concept, but more on that later.
Let's get the obvious thing out of the way first; Just because someone is being offered a chance at a discount (Which they will still have to pay the difference of out of their own pocket) does not mean they are being offered anything for free, and certainly is not compensation a company's fuck-up. I have seen this same attitude elsewhere, and honestly, I'd just like to give each person that thinks this way a good whack with an aluminum baseball bat. Because if there is one belief I hold to no matter the situation, it's that people have a right to complain, and if they have a reason for complaining, they should go ahead and complain, so shut the fuck up with your pretentious, sanctimonious bullshit that you people insist on shoving down everyone's throats and let them exercise their right to bitch about something they do not like. Because bitching about things we do not like is as much a part of human culture as intelligent debate or gratitude, it infuriates me that some people would be so callous.
Now that we've gotten that out of the way, the second part about this whole contest thing that I didn't like from the beginning.
First of all, I am...Well, I'm a unique gamer, I have what my friends generously call "unique" gaming tastes and what everyone else calls "Strange and nonsensical" gaming tastes, and what people who can't stand me, which is a rather large majority, "Terrible and completely ass-backwards" gaming tastes. If you look on my Steam profile, you'll probably find games you've either never heard of, or have no interest in, because nobody likes the kinds of games that I do, and I don't like the kinds of games most people do. I cannot stand Super Meat Boy, I find it boring and unrewarding for my efforts, I don't care for any Valve game that isn't Portal 1 or 2, and I do not like arcade games or shooters in general, so you can probably see where this is going.
If you can't, I feel like the whole contest alienated me.
The first day the contest announced what you'd have to do, play games and achieve certain things, I knew exactly what that would entail and I wasn't the least bit thrilled about it; this is one reason I am not nearly as angry as other people have the right to be, because I barely participated in the contest. Why? Because I knew right off the bat that most of the games required would be games I didn't own and didn't have any interest in owning, but that most of the population would probably own, the one game that I did see that I owned was Toki Tori, and if I have to be perfectly honest, I found that one experience of trying to complete some ambiguous achievement about falling snowflakes to be a borefest.
Because the second thing working against me here, and in most cases with the so-proclaimed "hardcore" gamers is that I am not competitive in the least. I have no shame in looking up walkthroughs if I can't figure something out, I have no problem with cheat codes, Gameshark codes, Action Replay codes, or savestates in emulators. I do not play video games to be challenged, I play them for reasons barely anyone understands and almost nobody cares to, but all you need to understand is that my concern with Steam achievements in general (Not just with the contest) is minimal at best. The very idea of scouring a game for a piece of coal for hours sounds like a tedious waste of time that I could be spending playing a game I actually like, so that's the second reason I didn't even bother.
So we have a contest I had no hope of actually getting anything out of, and to my way of thinking, putting forth effort for something I might earn is a complete waste of time. Some people, in fact, most people, find this to be such an incredibly thrilling concept, but some people, unlike me, are excessively competitive, wishing to "challenge" themselves and prove their merit. I have no such urgings, I never have, and I can't imagine why I ever will. Maybe because I don't feel like I need to prove anything, to climb the mundane ladder of superiority when I can stand aside and do my own thing and be considered just as valuable for different reasons, or maybe because I just don't give a shit what people think of me or my (lack of) skill in anything video-game related and I'd rather play a video game for afore mentioned ambiguous reasons that I play games for, or maybe because I find trying to win a desired prize against impossible odds to be a waste of energy; I am not ashamed to say that I'm lazy, I will not put myself out there unless reward is guaranteed, which is counter to most contests, which is why I do not compete in them.
But there is another side to this. I have a friend who managed to obtain 6 coal on his own. I gave him the three that I obtained (Including the one obtained for trading. :V) and then he crafted his coal into a coupon, hoping for a discount on a game he might want, and then once he finds out it's a valve coupon, I almost physically slam my head against the desk, having remembered a fleeting comment someone mentioned about how Valve ran out of 3rd party coupons and fervently apologizing to him about wasting his time and effort. I feel guilty about not recalling this before he wasted his coal, but there are two factors that make me angry about the whole "prize process" in general.
Number one: The coupons don't stack, and you can't use more than one; this leaves a lot of people with Valve coupons they probably can't even use. I suppose they might be able to gift them to friends, but that poses the problem that they might not even know anyone who could use the coupons or maybe they don't want to give away several hours of blood, sweat, and tears. The last time I checked, the majority of the human race isn't running a charity, and most people aren't feeling very charitable about work and money they just flushed down the toilet. (This would be one of the few groups I feel like I'm in the majority of.)
Number two: Some people don't like Valve games. OMG, IKNORITE? Someone might actually NOT want a Valve game?! GEE I wonder why that could possibly be! Maybe because said person might not even like the fucking genre the majority of their games fall under? How unbelievable! Well, believe it. As hard as it is for fanboys and various other obnoxious internet parties to believe, some people do not like shooters, do not like zombie games, have no interest in a shoddy sandbox game which I feel has been outmatched by various other sandbox games like Minecraft or Ace of Spades, or maybe they just don't give a shit about Valve's direction and would rather play something else?
I'm not saying that there aren't people who are thrilled to be able to buy Left 4 Dead 2 or Portal at a discount price, and I'm not implying that the people that don't care for Valve coupons for any reason are in the majority here, because there's a good chance they aren't, what I am implying is that offering 1st party coupons as compensation for running out of 3rd party coupons is not fair compensation by any stretch of the term. The biggest reason that I believe this is because of the type of variety in Valve's 1st party games versus the immense variety in the whole fucking online store. Whereas before you could expect a fun indie title, a point-and-click adventure game, maybe a blockbuster title like Bastion or Trine, maybe even that one obscure game on your wishlist that you have private interest in but aren't sure if you want to pay full price for it, now you are limited to a very few games that are all in the same genre or play similarly and barely differ in art direction from each other (I suppose TF2 would be somewhat of an exception) which, to my way of thinking, does not sound like fair compensation. Oh, it might sound like fair compensation to the aforementioned fanboys, but think about it for a second. Valve typically makes games within the modern shooter genre, the exceptions being both Portal games, as opposed to an entire online service teeming with variety. This new development in the contest only serves to alienate people further. Even someone like me had a chance to earn something they cared about or wanted, now we don't even have that.
Again, I'm not blaming a company for using up their budget, because that's just how things work, this is directed at the insensitive obnoxious twats that do not understand why people are angry. Well, this is why we're angry. Do you people still think we've been "properly compensated"? I hope not. Want to know how to compensate people? Give them their fucking coal back and let them try again next year. That seems fair to me.
Well, as a ton of pissed-off forum goers have already pointed out, Valve ran out of coupons and now everyone is entirely pissed.
Well, not everyone... Namely the people this rant is directed at.
I'm talking about the inevitable obnoxious twats that will show up on any thread where people are complaining about such matters (Or, in my experience, anything, really) and say something along the lines of "You ungrateful ****s are *****ing about getting free stuff?" Typically, this is the kind of person that completely misses the point of why people are angry, and typically is very narrow-minded about the entire situation, believing that "getting free stuff" as they like to call it, justifies a large number of people being disappointed and feeling cheated.
So this isn't a rant against Valve, because they obviously had a limited budget, even though they could have really managed the entire situation better by making the announcement more widespread than on a forum the majority of their customers don't visit, but rather a rant in general, in part directed at a group of people who I have never liked and find obnoxious in the best of times, unbearable in the wost, and partially against the entire concept of the contest in general, which, even if it went off without a hitch, I'd still be quite antagonistic about the whole concept, but more on that later.
Let's get the obvious thing out of the way first; Just because someone is being offered a chance at a discount (Which they will still have to pay the difference of out of their own pocket) does not mean they are being offered anything for free, and certainly is not compensation a company's fuck-up. I have seen this same attitude elsewhere, and honestly, I'd just like to give each person that thinks this way a good whack with an aluminum baseball bat. Because if there is one belief I hold to no matter the situation, it's that people have a right to complain, and if they have a reason for complaining, they should go ahead and complain, so shut the fuck up with your pretentious, sanctimonious bullshit that you people insist on shoving down everyone's throats and let them exercise their right to bitch about something they do not like. Because bitching about things we do not like is as much a part of human culture as intelligent debate or gratitude, it infuriates me that some people would be so callous.
Now that we've gotten that out of the way, the second part about this whole contest thing that I didn't like from the beginning.
First of all, I am...Well, I'm a unique gamer, I have what my friends generously call "unique" gaming tastes and what everyone else calls "Strange and nonsensical" gaming tastes, and what people who can't stand me, which is a rather large majority, "Terrible and completely ass-backwards" gaming tastes. If you look on my Steam profile, you'll probably find games you've either never heard of, or have no interest in, because nobody likes the kinds of games that I do, and I don't like the kinds of games most people do. I cannot stand Super Meat Boy, I find it boring and unrewarding for my efforts, I don't care for any Valve game that isn't Portal 1 or 2, and I do not like arcade games or shooters in general, so you can probably see where this is going.
If you can't, I feel like the whole contest alienated me.
The first day the contest announced what you'd have to do, play games and achieve certain things, I knew exactly what that would entail and I wasn't the least bit thrilled about it; this is one reason I am not nearly as angry as other people have the right to be, because I barely participated in the contest. Why? Because I knew right off the bat that most of the games required would be games I didn't own and didn't have any interest in owning, but that most of the population would probably own, the one game that I did see that I owned was Toki Tori, and if I have to be perfectly honest, I found that one experience of trying to complete some ambiguous achievement about falling snowflakes to be a borefest.
Because the second thing working against me here, and in most cases with the so-proclaimed "hardcore" gamers is that I am not competitive in the least. I have no shame in looking up walkthroughs if I can't figure something out, I have no problem with cheat codes, Gameshark codes, Action Replay codes, or savestates in emulators. I do not play video games to be challenged, I play them for reasons barely anyone understands and almost nobody cares to, but all you need to understand is that my concern with Steam achievements in general (Not just with the contest) is minimal at best. The very idea of scouring a game for a piece of coal for hours sounds like a tedious waste of time that I could be spending playing a game I actually like, so that's the second reason I didn't even bother.
So we have a contest I had no hope of actually getting anything out of, and to my way of thinking, putting forth effort for something I might earn is a complete waste of time. Some people, in fact, most people, find this to be such an incredibly thrilling concept, but some people, unlike me, are excessively competitive, wishing to "challenge" themselves and prove their merit. I have no such urgings, I never have, and I can't imagine why I ever will. Maybe because I don't feel like I need to prove anything, to climb the mundane ladder of superiority when I can stand aside and do my own thing and be considered just as valuable for different reasons, or maybe because I just don't give a shit what people think of me or my (lack of) skill in anything video-game related and I'd rather play a video game for afore mentioned ambiguous reasons that I play games for, or maybe because I find trying to win a desired prize against impossible odds to be a waste of energy; I am not ashamed to say that I'm lazy, I will not put myself out there unless reward is guaranteed, which is counter to most contests, which is why I do not compete in them.
But there is another side to this. I have a friend who managed to obtain 6 coal on his own. I gave him the three that I obtained (Including the one obtained for trading. :V) and then he crafted his coal into a coupon, hoping for a discount on a game he might want, and then once he finds out it's a valve coupon, I almost physically slam my head against the desk, having remembered a fleeting comment someone mentioned about how Valve ran out of 3rd party coupons and fervently apologizing to him about wasting his time and effort. I feel guilty about not recalling this before he wasted his coal, but there are two factors that make me angry about the whole "prize process" in general.
Number one: The coupons don't stack, and you can't use more than one; this leaves a lot of people with Valve coupons they probably can't even use. I suppose they might be able to gift them to friends, but that poses the problem that they might not even know anyone who could use the coupons or maybe they don't want to give away several hours of blood, sweat, and tears. The last time I checked, the majority of the human race isn't running a charity, and most people aren't feeling very charitable about work and money they just flushed down the toilet. (This would be one of the few groups I feel like I'm in the majority of.)
Number two: Some people don't like Valve games. OMG, IKNORITE? Someone might actually NOT want a Valve game?! GEE I wonder why that could possibly be! Maybe because said person might not even like the fucking genre the majority of their games fall under? How unbelievable! Well, believe it. As hard as it is for fanboys and various other obnoxious internet parties to believe, some people do not like shooters, do not like zombie games, have no interest in a shoddy sandbox game which I feel has been outmatched by various other sandbox games like Minecraft or Ace of Spades, or maybe they just don't give a shit about Valve's direction and would rather play something else?
I'm not saying that there aren't people who are thrilled to be able to buy Left 4 Dead 2 or Portal at a discount price, and I'm not implying that the people that don't care for Valve coupons for any reason are in the majority here, because there's a good chance they aren't, what I am implying is that offering 1st party coupons as compensation for running out of 3rd party coupons is not fair compensation by any stretch of the term. The biggest reason that I believe this is because of the type of variety in Valve's 1st party games versus the immense variety in the whole fucking online store. Whereas before you could expect a fun indie title, a point-and-click adventure game, maybe a blockbuster title like Bastion or Trine, maybe even that one obscure game on your wishlist that you have private interest in but aren't sure if you want to pay full price for it, now you are limited to a very few games that are all in the same genre or play similarly and barely differ in art direction from each other (I suppose TF2 would be somewhat of an exception) which, to my way of thinking, does not sound like fair compensation. Oh, it might sound like fair compensation to the aforementioned fanboys, but think about it for a second. Valve typically makes games within the modern shooter genre, the exceptions being both Portal games, as opposed to an entire online service teeming with variety. This new development in the contest only serves to alienate people further. Even someone like me had a chance to earn something they cared about or wanted, now we don't even have that.
Again, I'm not blaming a company for using up their budget, because that's just how things work, this is directed at the insensitive obnoxious twats that do not understand why people are angry. Well, this is why we're angry. Do you people still think we've been "properly compensated"? I hope not. Want to know how to compensate people? Give them their fucking coal back and let them try again next year. That seems fair to me.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Mistichian Chronicles: Tale of a Misfit
New story I'm working on. I'd really like to bring some attention to it. You can find it here: http://www.fictionpress.com/s/2971689/1/Mystichean_Chronicles_book_1_Tale_of_a_Misfit Sorry about the weird formatting, I couldn't fix it.
Anyway, I hope this is enjoyable, it's a generic fantasy story about generic fantasy quests and a war and ancient powers and all that stuff that generic fantasy fans like, so, yeah.
Working on the next chapter as I type this...
Not much else to say, just read the damn story. :V
Anyway, I hope this is enjoyable, it's a generic fantasy story about generic fantasy quests and a war and ancient powers and all that stuff that generic fantasy fans like, so, yeah.
Working on the next chapter as I type this...
Not much else to say, just read the damn story. :V
Friday, November 4, 2011
Aviary Series (Book 1) Should I bother?
I've been privately working on this little story called Aviary series for quite some time. It's pretty well inspired by authors like Anne McCaffrey and Donita K. Paul, and is a fantasy-sci-fi story about war, intrigue, mystery, and growth involving a shattered world several thousands of years after an apocalyptic event that caused the planet (and its many races and species) to reform and evolve differently, isolating some, corrupting others, and leaving everyone with fragmented history before what is known as "The Darkness", and not much more afterword.
In their present-day lives, the people of the island-nation of Aerona make their homes on land-masses that float thousands of feet above sea-level, completely oblivious to most of the world below, believing that only a few other island-nations survived the now mythological point in their history. These industrious people have evolved in the hundreds of thousands of years they have been airborne, contriving clever ways to keep their islands aloft while still maintaining their agricultural structure, as well as the power supply that keeps the great propellers that keep the islands from crashing into the sea. Their city operates by catching clouds as it passes by them, absorbing their moisture to use as water for plants and people, the lowest bowels of the islands contain regenerating crystals that can be charged like batteries to make the machinery - including the islands' altitude control - function, and the people of Aerona have bred a special kind of beast to assist and live among them in their daily lives.
The giant birds of Aerona are a species unique to the island nation. Bred by the first settlers and founders of the islands above the ocean, these birds are partnered with a youth at birth in much the same way a mother imprints her offspring so that a long-lasting and unbreakable bond is formed. These birds have several different subspecies, and depending on feather color, each is specifically designed for a certain job. Thus, in the structure of Aeronian society, certain guild halls have taken control of certain colors of bird. The Swithbreeze Guild, for example, controls delivery and message-sending with their green birds, the fastest breed, while the Blacktalons, a subset of the Aeronian military designed for scouting and infiltration missions, controls the larger but more maneuverable and silent black birds.
Young men and women can join a guild of their choice - either if they can pay the tuition for apprenticeship or if they are deemed exceptionally worthy of joining said guild. The guilds that deal with the giant birds will allow the youth at a hatching of fledglings once they are of the Blue Rank; each Apprentice starts out at navy, then moves up to blue when they have proven their dedication to the Guild, then comes cyan, and white. After white, they can commission to become a Journeyman and then will be elected Master after showing outstanding work. Our story follows one such boy, coming into his Blue Rank in the Wingstrikers, the official armed forces of Aerona. At the hatching in question, his plans, future, and dreams of being a glorious warrior for the Ambassador and King of his nation now hang in the balance when he realizes there is something terribly different about his newly-hatched fledgling...
Lack of motivation is why I haven't done much with the story other than write a prologue which I am not satisfied with and should probably redo, along with make up a story bible so I don't have to keep recalling things. Anyway, I'm just wondering if anyone has interest in reading a story like this, especially one that any Anne McCaffrey fan can see that I "borrowed" several ideas from her books. I did have a lot of my own ideas in mind but most wouldn't surface until later. I don't want this to be considered a clone or anything, I just really liked the idea of animal imprinting, mostly, after reading how she did it.
Anyway, this is meant to be a trilogy of books, all building and explaining the world-building while each focuses on a different part of the changes these simple events from the first book will bring about. I can't make that less ambiguous without giving away spoilers.
Not sure where to post this, maybe FictionPress? I dunno... I should get at least one chapter done before I think about that. >_>
In their present-day lives, the people of the island-nation of Aerona make their homes on land-masses that float thousands of feet above sea-level, completely oblivious to most of the world below, believing that only a few other island-nations survived the now mythological point in their history. These industrious people have evolved in the hundreds of thousands of years they have been airborne, contriving clever ways to keep their islands aloft while still maintaining their agricultural structure, as well as the power supply that keeps the great propellers that keep the islands from crashing into the sea. Their city operates by catching clouds as it passes by them, absorbing their moisture to use as water for plants and people, the lowest bowels of the islands contain regenerating crystals that can be charged like batteries to make the machinery - including the islands' altitude control - function, and the people of Aerona have bred a special kind of beast to assist and live among them in their daily lives.
The giant birds of Aerona are a species unique to the island nation. Bred by the first settlers and founders of the islands above the ocean, these birds are partnered with a youth at birth in much the same way a mother imprints her offspring so that a long-lasting and unbreakable bond is formed. These birds have several different subspecies, and depending on feather color, each is specifically designed for a certain job. Thus, in the structure of Aeronian society, certain guild halls have taken control of certain colors of bird. The Swithbreeze Guild, for example, controls delivery and message-sending with their green birds, the fastest breed, while the Blacktalons, a subset of the Aeronian military designed for scouting and infiltration missions, controls the larger but more maneuverable and silent black birds.
Young men and women can join a guild of their choice - either if they can pay the tuition for apprenticeship or if they are deemed exceptionally worthy of joining said guild. The guilds that deal with the giant birds will allow the youth at a hatching of fledglings once they are of the Blue Rank; each Apprentice starts out at navy, then moves up to blue when they have proven their dedication to the Guild, then comes cyan, and white. After white, they can commission to become a Journeyman and then will be elected Master after showing outstanding work. Our story follows one such boy, coming into his Blue Rank in the Wingstrikers, the official armed forces of Aerona. At the hatching in question, his plans, future, and dreams of being a glorious warrior for the Ambassador and King of his nation now hang in the balance when he realizes there is something terribly different about his newly-hatched fledgling...
Lack of motivation is why I haven't done much with the story other than write a prologue which I am not satisfied with and should probably redo, along with make up a story bible so I don't have to keep recalling things. Anyway, I'm just wondering if anyone has interest in reading a story like this, especially one that any Anne McCaffrey fan can see that I "borrowed" several ideas from her books. I did have a lot of my own ideas in mind but most wouldn't surface until later. I don't want this to be considered a clone or anything, I just really liked the idea of animal imprinting, mostly, after reading how she did it.
Anyway, this is meant to be a trilogy of books, all building and explaining the world-building while each focuses on a different part of the changes these simple events from the first book will bring about. I can't make that less ambiguous without giving away spoilers.
Not sure where to post this, maybe FictionPress? I dunno... I should get at least one chapter done before I think about that. >_>
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)