To Those Who May Stumbleupon this blog:
First off, an apology for the break in regular posts. I realize that I am far too early on to have a dedicated rabid fan base, but missing posts is no way to establish one.
Anyways, I wrote a poem, following my carving of a walking staff.
"Wanderlust"
The feeling that seizes one's feet and legs,
Guiding you down a path that you have not tred,
Seeking all, yet seeking nothing, you walk.
Not pressed for time, not tied to a clock.
Journeying to find something missing in life,
Journeying whether you flee from warmth or strife,
Nothing but feet, a direction, and maybe a staff,
(To ensure that the road does not have the last laugh).
Walk until your feel bleed, or you mind fades,
Walk until you find something worth finding,
Then turn around, and walk again.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Beyond Good and Evil
My Fellow Internet Residents,
Today, I'd like to discuss the game "Beyond Good and Evil. BG&E was released in 2003 for all systems out at the time, but didn't sell well, mostly due to poor timing of the release. However, the game garnered enough of a following for it to be re-released not just on Steam, but also as a HD remake for the Xbox 360 arcade and the Play Station Network.
It follows the adventures of a investigative reporter, named Jade(pictured above), who helps a resistance organization to uncover a government conspiracy that was leading to the destruction of her planet. The gameplay is action/adventure, think the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The game is short, sweet, and to the point, managing to tug some heartstrings even though a full-playthrough, including secrets, only takes roughly twelve hours, of which I'm almost done with.
Despite it's short length and lack of adherence to its own title(there is very little ambiguity of morality here) it is a little gem of a game, well worth the $10(or less) that it sells for. And, if you are an achievement hunter, they aren't that hard to obtain on the Xbox 360 Arcade version(so I assume the trophies for the PSN version are also fairly easy to collect). It also had a good sense of humor. Not only did most of the characters manage to crack a few good jokes, some aspects of the world itself were funny in and of themselves. Whether through wacky outfits, or just being a Walrus-person, the average passerby was sure to get at least a grin, and yet felt as if they belonged in the overall world.
Case in point. ^
So, to conclude that, if you can, check out Beyond Good and Evil. If you've already played it, whether you loved it or hated it, comment and let me know, I'd be happy to have a more complete dialogue about it.
Today, I'd like to discuss the game "Beyond Good and Evil. BG&E was released in 2003 for all systems out at the time, but didn't sell well, mostly due to poor timing of the release. However, the game garnered enough of a following for it to be re-released not just on Steam, but also as a HD remake for the Xbox 360 arcade and the Play Station Network.
Despite it's short length and lack of adherence to its own title(there is very little ambiguity of morality here) it is a little gem of a game, well worth the $10(or less) that it sells for. And, if you are an achievement hunter, they aren't that hard to obtain on the Xbox 360 Arcade version(so I assume the trophies for the PSN version are also fairly easy to collect). It also had a good sense of humor. Not only did most of the characters manage to crack a few good jokes, some aspects of the world itself were funny in and of themselves. Whether through wacky outfits, or just being a Walrus-person, the average passerby was sure to get at least a grin, and yet felt as if they belonged in the overall world.
So, to conclude that, if you can, check out Beyond Good and Evil. If you've already played it, whether you loved it or hated it, comment and let me know, I'd be happy to have a more complete dialogue about it.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Casual Gaming for the Hardcore Gamer
I'm going to show you three images. They will be startling, I warn you, but they are necessary in order to segway into today's address.
The reason I have subjected you to those images, images which may have burned your retinas if you consider them to be “casual” games that are meant for children and dreaded casual gamers, is to point out just how “hardcore” some of these games can be. Every game should have the capacity to become a game that a gamer can be a hardcore gamer when they play it-someone who masters the game and pours hours-or at least significant effort-into it.
I do not believe that a level 85 Orc Hunter is anymore hardcore of a gamer than a farmer on Harvest Moon who has logged hundreds of hours making a farm that earns him enough to practically break the game. Yes, some games, such as MMORPG's attract the kind of gamers that tend to put in the time and effort, but that does not mean that they are restricted to those kinds of games.
Not to mention that these so-called casual games are often of the sandbox variety that many others, such as Grand Theft Auto and Elder Scrolls, also incorporate. Not to mention that they employ the same “play how you want to play” mentality. In fact, the only true difference between these “casual” games and most “hardcore” games seems to be the presence of violence.
Not violence, some would argue, but the need for skill is what separates hardcore and casual playing. However, how much skill is really present in Halo, or Everquest? As much skill as there is in balancing a garden in Viva Pinata, or managing a farm in Harvest Moon.
Simply something to think about.
~The Griffonlord.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Video Game Musicals
To Whom It May Excite,
Amidst squeals of glee and excitement, I discovered yesterday that a preview cd of the Phoenix Wright musical, which goes by the name of Turnabout Musical, was available for free download. I have been following the progress of the project on and off for over a year now, both on Facebook and by actually checking on the site from time to time. I love the Phoenix Wright games. I'll never claim that they are true to real law, or even that they take a real amount of logic, as any point in the game can be surpassed if one simply saves and tries everything available. But if you look past that failing, they are enjoyable games (that technically aren't called Phoenx Wright in Japan) with a great sense of humor, for a fairly low price.
Enough shameless plugging of the game itself. The musical, which to the best of my knowledge was officially endorsed by Capcom, and with luck, it should turn out to be a fresh take on what can be done with video games by the fans. And considering the slew of things like remixes, fan art, and fan fiction, something original is always good. Even if, due to circumstance, I never get to see the show performed, the fact it is being developed gives me faith for other similar shows to follow...like perhaps a stage version of The Protomen's Megaman rock operas.
In less epic news, I have finally worked out the kinks in having applets on my blog posts, so here is a rather basic one. All you have to do is press the click button, driving the square to the top before it falls. The slider sets the difficulty. Have fun.
~The Griffonlord
--EDIT--
The click game was crashing things. So it's gone now.
Amidst squeals of glee and excitement, I discovered yesterday that a preview cd of the Phoenix Wright musical, which goes by the name of Turnabout Musical, was available for free download. I have been following the progress of the project on and off for over a year now, both on Facebook and by actually checking on the site from time to time. I love the Phoenix Wright games. I'll never claim that they are true to real law, or even that they take a real amount of logic, as any point in the game can be surpassed if one simply saves and tries everything available. But if you look past that failing, they are enjoyable games (that technically aren't called Phoenx Wright in Japan) with a great sense of humor, for a fairly low price.
Enough shameless plugging of the game itself. The musical, which to the best of my knowledge was officially endorsed by Capcom, and with luck, it should turn out to be a fresh take on what can be done with video games by the fans. And considering the slew of things like remixes, fan art, and fan fiction, something original is always good. Even if, due to circumstance, I never get to see the show performed, the fact it is being developed gives me faith for other similar shows to follow...like perhaps a stage version of The Protomen's Megaman rock operas.
In less epic news, I have finally worked out the kinks in having applets on my blog posts, so here is a rather basic one. All you have to do is press the click button, driving the square to the top before it falls. The slider sets the difficulty. Have fun.
~The Griffonlord
--EDIT--
The click game was crashing things. So it's gone now.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Eugenics
Dear Readers(if you already exist),
After the fiasco of my initial post, in which I rambled about posting, some vague coverage of an event I knew of through only a single source, and a stumbled upon relic of my recent past, I would like to provide a more coherent, structured post for you today.
One thing which has piqued my interest today is the Republican party in America(where I reside, which I emphasis in order to provide a sense of scope). However, the wealth of information regarding those stepping forward as Presidential candidates and what we can learn from their first debate is far more than I'm prepared to dissect and process without another day of time with which to research it, so that post will come sometime in the days to come.
Instead, I'd like to focus on a different story that I found, once again on BBC news. The article, which can be found here, discusses reparations being voted on the in the state of North Carolina to those citizens who were sterilized as part of the state's eugenics program.
I knew that the United States had eugenics as a belief, at least in the minority, at one stage of it's existence, hardly surprising considering her history, but I had not realized that at least 32 states had at one time laws allowing for the sterilization of those considered ill-fit for breeding, namely the "feeble-minded", though also including(in some states) the sexually deviant, those with criminal tendencies, or even orphans, the homeless, and anyone else that could become, or already was, a burden to the state. Over the course of the programs, which didn't end until the 1970's approximately 60,000 Americans were sterilized.
This shocked me for too reasons. The first, was that the event happened to begin with. Forced sterilization is a horrible thing to do to a person, especially a mortal that requires reproduction to continue their own existence and bloodline. But perhaps more tragic and unsettling than the event's occurrence, is that I didn't already know about it. I, perhaps cockily, consider myself well-informed. So if even I did not know of this crime, who does? And if a crime is not known, is that not more dangerous and evil than a crime that is discovered and dealt with?
If you want to research this topic yourself, the BBC article is a good place to start, as is looking up the Supreme Court Case Buck vs Bell, which upheld the forced sterilization for eugenic purposes.
On a lighter note...Bunny!!!
After the fiasco of my initial post, in which I rambled about posting, some vague coverage of an event I knew of through only a single source, and a stumbled upon relic of my recent past, I would like to provide a more coherent, structured post for you today.
One thing which has piqued my interest today is the Republican party in America(where I reside, which I emphasis in order to provide a sense of scope). However, the wealth of information regarding those stepping forward as Presidential candidates and what we can learn from their first debate is far more than I'm prepared to dissect and process without another day of time with which to research it, so that post will come sometime in the days to come.
Instead, I'd like to focus on a different story that I found, once again on BBC news. The article, which can be found here, discusses reparations being voted on the in the state of North Carolina to those citizens who were sterilized as part of the state's eugenics program.
I knew that the United States had eugenics as a belief, at least in the minority, at one stage of it's existence, hardly surprising considering her history, but I had not realized that at least 32 states had at one time laws allowing for the sterilization of those considered ill-fit for breeding, namely the "feeble-minded", though also including(in some states) the sexually deviant, those with criminal tendencies, or even orphans, the homeless, and anyone else that could become, or already was, a burden to the state. Over the course of the programs, which didn't end until the 1970's approximately 60,000 Americans were sterilized.
This shocked me for too reasons. The first, was that the event happened to begin with. Forced sterilization is a horrible thing to do to a person, especially a mortal that requires reproduction to continue their own existence and bloodline. But perhaps more tragic and unsettling than the event's occurrence, is that I didn't already know about it. I, perhaps cockily, consider myself well-informed. So if even I did not know of this crime, who does? And if a crime is not known, is that not more dangerous and evil than a crime that is discovered and dealt with?
If you want to research this topic yourself, the BBC article is a good place to start, as is looking up the Supreme Court Case Buck vs Bell, which upheld the forced sterilization for eugenic purposes.
On a lighter note...Bunny!!!
Monday, June 13, 2011
An Introduction to What I Trust Shall be A Marvelous Relationship
The most difficult part of beginning to write a blog is, and possibly always will be, writing the first post. It is with the crucial first post that one establishes the tone, topic, and quality of a blog. Therefore, I would like to begin this blog with several things, which I believe shall be essential to my building or maintaining of a following.
First off, Hello there. Nice to see you. Hopefully you read something which tickles your fancy in some way, and makes you either likely to come back, or establish a good reason to never look this way again. Either way, I would hate to be simply ignored as mediocre. Better to die trying than to waste away.
Secondly, regarding the subject matter of this blog: I have no set in stone plans. I would like to cover a broad range of topics, from current events, to media interests of mine, as well as discuss projects of my own, from art to music to game design and back again, with prose and poetry thrown in for good measure. For I am a Dungeons and Dragons Bard: A jack of all trades, and an expert in none.
With the necessary yet unwanted introduction out of the way, it is time to move on to business. First off, a news story on the BBC which caught my eye while I was browsing the internet at work in between assignments. Namely, how the Spanish police arrested several members of Anonymous, purported to be involved with some hacking. In response, Anonymous launched a DDoS(Distributed Denial of Service) attack on the police's website, crashing it for several hours. They defended their actions as being akin to that of a sit-in protest, or any other form of non-violent, prohibitive protest.
I am not defending the actions of hackers. I, like Extracredits questioned Anonymous's link to the PSN hack, question why a group like Anonymous, which stands for(Other than For the Lolz) such things are freedom of speech, would hack banks, which was one of the charges brought against the hackers. They may indeed be responsible for hacking the banks. However, profiting like that would be against the spirit of Anonymous. And Anonymous will deal will those who act in such a manner in their name, I'm sure.
(No, I am not a "member" of Anonymous.)
Onto a cheerier subject, The second and final thing I'd like to mention in this post(since the introduction artificially added length) is something I came across quite by accident while trying to find this blog, whose URL I had forgotten between making it yesterday and writing the first post today. Attempting to find it without simply going to Blogspot, I googled myself, or more specifically, one of my internet aliases, Griffonknight.
I was quite surprised when I not only found several other things of mine I expected to show up, I also found an Esnips album, something I had entirely forgotten I had made. It contains a set of Fire Emblem sprites, some splices, some recolors and some animations.
Several of them I remembered fondly, and I'll include a few here for your viewing pleasure.
Not masterpieces sure, but I had forgotten I had even made these. So it was a nice, pleasant surprise.
On that note, I shall bid thee farewell, and with luck, I shall be posting again soon, hopefully with more forethought and finesse.
~The Griffonlord.
The BBC news links:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13749181
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13727639
The Fire Emblem Sprites:
http://xxx.esnips.com/web/GriffonknightsFireEmblemSprites/
First off, Hello there. Nice to see you. Hopefully you read something which tickles your fancy in some way, and makes you either likely to come back, or establish a good reason to never look this way again. Either way, I would hate to be simply ignored as mediocre. Better to die trying than to waste away.
Secondly, regarding the subject matter of this blog: I have no set in stone plans. I would like to cover a broad range of topics, from current events, to media interests of mine, as well as discuss projects of my own, from art to music to game design and back again, with prose and poetry thrown in for good measure. For I am a Dungeons and Dragons Bard: A jack of all trades, and an expert in none.
With the necessary yet unwanted introduction out of the way, it is time to move on to business. First off, a news story on the BBC which caught my eye while I was browsing the internet at work in between assignments. Namely, how the Spanish police arrested several members of Anonymous, purported to be involved with some hacking. In response, Anonymous launched a DDoS(Distributed Denial of Service) attack on the police's website, crashing it for several hours. They defended their actions as being akin to that of a sit-in protest, or any other form of non-violent, prohibitive protest.
I am not defending the actions of hackers. I, like Extracredits questioned Anonymous's link to the PSN hack, question why a group like Anonymous, which stands for(Other than For the Lolz) such things are freedom of speech, would hack banks, which was one of the charges brought against the hackers. They may indeed be responsible for hacking the banks. However, profiting like that would be against the spirit of Anonymous. And Anonymous will deal will those who act in such a manner in their name, I'm sure.
(No, I am not a "member" of Anonymous.)
Onto a cheerier subject, The second and final thing I'd like to mention in this post(since the introduction artificially added length) is something I came across quite by accident while trying to find this blog, whose URL I had forgotten between making it yesterday and writing the first post today. Attempting to find it without simply going to Blogspot, I googled myself, or more specifically, one of my internet aliases, Griffonknight.
I was quite surprised when I not only found several other things of mine I expected to show up, I also found an Esnips album, something I had entirely forgotten I had made. It contains a set of Fire Emblem sprites, some splices, some recolors and some animations.
Several of them I remembered fondly, and I'll include a few here for your viewing pleasure.
Not masterpieces sure, but I had forgotten I had even made these. So it was a nice, pleasant surprise.
On that note, I shall bid thee farewell, and with luck, I shall be posting again soon, hopefully with more forethought and finesse.
~The Griffonlord.
The BBC news links:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13749181
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13727639
The Fire Emblem Sprites:
http://xxx.esnips.com/web/GriffonknightsFireEmblemSprites/
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