Can’t say I’m not more than a little nervous, regarding NaNoWriMo. I’m taking Tuesday off, to get a jumpstart on the first day of the thing, and am hoping to get a good start, at least, on just the process of turning out words. I don’t have any illusions that it’s going to be good – I did a sort of “test run” just for a few minutes during the day last week, to see if I could even get into a narrative mindset. It’s definitely not something I’m used to, and I’m just hoping I can keep a sort of mental image of what’s going on in my head long enough to write it down.

Speed of typing, fortunately, isn’t even a remote issue – I was just trying to see how fast I could write, given a subject I was pretty intimately familiar with, and was able to crank out ~1700 words in ~20 minutes. But, actually thinking about what’s going on and how to describe it will be harder. I expect that I’m going to be writing in sort of a skipping-stone fashion – just stringing together the basic points here and there at the beginning, capturing whatever scenes enter my mind that illuminate the characters. Fortunately, because I’m working from a pre-built skeleton (an RPG concept that we worked on for several months last year), there are a couple characters that I already know are pretty damn compelling. Just a matter of actually making them walk and talk, which is the hard part. 🙂

Looking forward to it. Nervous, but excited.

So, we’ve been generally getting pretty good reviews, for Sims 2 – mostly in the 8-9 range, with some mid 7’s thrown in for good measure. One notable outlier is Gamespot, whose 6.5 review came as a pretty substantial shock, to me. I tend to trust Gamespot more than say, IGN or any of the other review sites, largely because they’re more critical. If a game scores in the 9+ range, that’s almost a genuine guarantee of its quality. If something you expected to score an 8.5 scores a 6, you know something’s amiss…

…most of the time.

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/strategy/thesims2/review.html?sid=6136709

I just don’t agree with a lot of the stuff the guy’s saying. Some of it’s flat out wrong, and other parts of it are so heavily biased towards comparisons with the PC game that when I first read it, I was really angry. I’m still pretty upset with what reads to me as a really snide, pervasively negative tone to the review, which trumps, in this case, *content* review. Sure, he can write whatever the heck he wants, and fundamentally, it doesn’t change *my* impression of the game (I believe it’s a *solid* 8.5), but IMO, the tonal bias and the innaccuracy of the review genuinely bother me.

Still, the big thing is that on the various forums that have messageboards (GameFAQs in particular), it was interesting to see the reaction, and the general shift in the tone of the posts. When the game first arrived, it was really clear to me that it suffered from being called “The Sims 2” – people expected a PC port, which at this point, the hardware simply isn’t capable of. Sure, the graphics aren’t up to the PC, which is due to schedule/resource vagaries, but fundamentally, the Sims is structured quite differently than most other games, and the level of customization and simulation that goes on behind the scenes really crushes the console hardware. So it’s frustrating to read relatively naive posts saying that it would have been “easy” to port the PC game, but had we tried to do that, the sacrifices that would have been necessary would have led to a merely hamstringed version of the PC game, which we all thought was a less satisfactory solution than the one we ended up with.

But, again, the issue is of message – the box says, “Sims 2,” and at this point, people have been trained to expect the same thing, when it’s named the same. To me, this was a colossal failure of marketing, because it became clear *very quickly* that people’s expectations weren’t being matched by the product we’re selling. To me, that’s a genuine shame, because I really enjoy playing our game. I think it’s an *excellent* reimagining of the PC game, given our limitations, it’s fun in its own right, and innovative in several ways, to boot. Sure, it’s not perfect – I could rattle off probably a hundred+ different things we should have done differently, but it’s not like last year’s game where those issues were fundamental, core, structural issues with the game design.

Anyway, metacritic’s still hovering at 80%, which is, realistically, pretty damn good. I’m still proud as hell of the game, and like I was getting to before, it’s nice to see the evolution of GameFAQ’s posts, from, “This sucks! This isn’t the Sims 2!!!” to, “How do I get past (some relatively late-stage obstacle)?”

The Sims 2 for consoles hits the shelves today, and while we’ve been reviewing well so far, the “big two” haven’t yet posted their scores (that’d be Gamespot and IGN. Though I don’t hold IGN in particularly high personal regard, their scores have a pretty significant impact on the consumer landscape, so whatever). Still, it’s not really the review scores that matter much – I’m really proud of this game, and that’s something I couldn’t really say strongly about The Urbz.

Still, between Seaman, the Urbz, and Sims 2, I’m pretty proud of the work I’ve done so far. Be interesting to see what’s next.

So… I think about why on Earth people continue to pay attention to Jack Thompson, and the thing that I can’t get past is that it all makes perfect sense, when you think about the current state of the media. You have people like Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin, who spout demostrably false, hateful, bigoted, racist, borderline insane garbage, and they’re called on again and again to comment, in the mainstream media, on the state of world affairs.

For some reason, people seem to care what they think. Now, I don’t understand why anyone would give a second of airtime to people like that. But there it is, again and again. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson remain on the air, to spout their inane nonsense about how it’s the fault of the gays and atheists that 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina happened. Yet, even after *showing* is that they’re completely devoid of even the most marginal intellectual competance, people continue to listen to them as though they have something worthwhile to say.

So, Jack Thompson fits right in with the crowd. Here, you have someone who I’d genuinely consider psychotic, who has little to no grasp on what he’s talking about (he believes, for instance, that the “Hot Coffee” mod for GTA is easily accessed by anyone, and that it’s not hidden away at all). But, because he speaks in crazy hyperbole, the national media continues to pay attention to him. My question is why do we keep letting this happen?

We don’t let members of the KKK talk about their philosophy in the mainstream media, becuase it’s clear that these people are so monstrously bigoted and ignorant that they have no place in rational discourse. Can we just agree that Jack Thompson is so bigoted and ignorant that he *also* has no place in rational discourse? Can we remind the mainstream media that he is a liar? Can we remind them that he fundamentally has *no grasp* over what he claims expertise in?

I suppose not, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

So, I’m going to give the National Novel Writing Month a shot. 50K words in a month. Ei-Nyung did it last year, and really, really enjoyed it, so I figure it’s worth a shot. Sort of like the 24 hour comic, just 30 times longer. Fun fun. Since work tends to be a little slow in November, I should have enough time during the evenings to work on the project.

Basically, my plan is to take a concept that a couple of us had worked on for a game, called “Chimera,” and turn that into a novel. Some things will be necessarily different than the plot for the game, and I’m convinced I need to pretty substantially alter the conclusion, but because we’ve already outlined the entire story structure, it’s a stronger head start than I’d be able to get otherwise. Fundamentally, I’m most concerned about finding a “voice” with which to tell the story. I don’t tend to write well in a narrative setting, and I certainly don’t have an ear for dialog. Still, there’s a couple really vivid images in my head from when we were working on the game design, and a few bits of real life I’d like to interject into the story – little moments that were really vivid experiences that I could write about in a different context.

It’ll be interesting to see if I can keep up the enthusiasm for an entire month – I tend to get burned out really quickly on projects like this, but at the same time, most of the time, when I do something like this I’ll really burn through it when I’m motivated – so who knows, I might get to 50K in two weeks. Who knows.

Anyhow – figured if I wrote a little about it here, I’d be a little less likely to quit without completing it. 🙂

Just read a review of the Episode 3 DVD, and it reminded me how different my opinion of Star Wars is now. 10 years ago, if you’d suggested to me that I wouldn’t even have *seen* the last of the second trilogy six months after the movie had been released, I’d have never thought it possible. Now? I can’t even believe it’s possible I’d have *ever* felt that way. Episodes 1 and 2 were such terrible movies that if I want to remember why I liked Star Wars at *all*, I have to go back and watch the first film, or Empire. Flawed movies, certainly. But still – the actors had chemistry, the storylines felt epic, and it was a joy to behold.

I think, sometimes, that it must have been the weight of impossible expectations – but I think about the image of the potential I had in my mind, and though Lucas’ vision is beautiful, it’s immensely uninteresting. There are no curveballs in the origin story, it’s exactly as you might have expected. Less so, even, for all its hamfisted convolution of the plot, there’s simply nothing particularly compelling about it.

Compare something like that with a movie like Serenity, and the difference is like night and day. Serenity has deep, interesting characters – realistic ones, that we care about immensely. It has a story that’s both unexpected, and incredibly … powerful. The effects are eye-catching, but not anywhere near the central focus of the movie.

Anyway… not really any point. Just seems strange that my perception of the franchise is so different, not.

Spoilers will be clearly delineated

Incredible movie. If you haven’t seen Firefly, you really should see that first. And honestly, you should see it, whether you intend to watch Serenity or not. It’s one of the best television shows ever made. Great dialogue, incredible plotting, a fully-realized, deeply envisioned world… There’s really nothing to like. I don’t know *anyone* who’s seen more than a few episodes that hasn’t gotten hooked.
.
.
.

*spoilers contained within*
.
.
.
.
Serenity, the movie, confounds me somewhat… not really, I suppose – it really just makes me sort of sit in awe of Joss Whedon. Had he simply made a longer episode, one in which fundamentally nothing happens, but the fans get to spend another two hours with their favorite cast of characters, I think it’d have been a movie I’d have seen three times in its opening weekend. Instead, Whedon’s chosen to tell the story he wanted to tell – rather than pandering to the audience, guaranteeing a higher return, he’s made *art* – something that challenges the viewer, that is a genuinely affecting emotional rollercoaster – funny, intense, and heartbreaking.

The twists and turns of the narrative are *so* jarring that when I left the film, I was simply aghast – I didn’t know what to think, what to feel. I wanted to want to watch the movie again and again, but instead, I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. Ei-Nyung read some little bits about a deleted scene, and when she told me about it, I completely inadvertently teared up. When she mentioned it to a friend of ours two days later, I teared up again. Now, I’m a sucker for that sort of thing, but it was really just devastating to watch, given how attached I’d become to the characters on the show. I didn’t want to watch it again. I’m still not sure I do. But I will – probably by the weekend. And the combination of both respect, admiration, and … love, for the universe and characters Whedon’s created are more strongly solidified by his narrative decisions in the film than before.

A lot of fans seem to feel betrayed – that events in the film were “pointless” or needlessly cruel. I certainly don’t feel the same. To me, this is the universe that Joss Whedon *intended* Firefly to be – a day to day existance, where actions have consequence, and lives are ever-changing – dynamic, and the characters are forced to evolve in response to the events of their lives. In Serenity, this happens on numerous levels. Would a new series of Firefly be the *same* as it was before? Absolutely not – the events of the film are significant, they have consequences, and there’s fundamentally no way to return to what was. To me, this is a large part of what the show is about. It is, for instance, one of the defining features of Mal’s character – and something you almost never see elsewhere in TV.

I can’t put into words my respect for Joss Whedon – the story he’s written – the universe he’s created has substance. It has feeling – it has *life*. The world evolves, the characters change, and we are given the chance to watch how these events unfold.
.
.
.
.
.
* End Spoilers*
.
.
.
.
.
To me, Joss Whedon is TV’s Charlie Chaplin – someone who embraces the medium with such ferocity that he literally alters everyone’s perceptions of what is possible. While Half Life and Ico have begun to show the potential of the medium, I cannot wait until gaming gets a storyteller of the caliber of someone like Chaplin, or Joss Whedon. In some meager respect, I hope to be a part of the movement.

So, that’s the story from the previous post. Here’s the first paragraph:

Congressional Democrats blasted former Education Secretary William Bennett on Thursday for saying that aborting “every black baby in this country” would reduce the crime rate, and demanded their Republican counterparts do the same.

Now, Bennett followed that with, “That would be an impossibly ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down,” so I suppose he doesn’t necessarily justify genocide, which is good, but the remark is still so throughly racist that it’s hard for me to comprehend that this guy is basically saying that to reduce crime, all we need to do is stop black people from reproducing. It’s just *insane*.

It’s bizarre, though – I mean, sure, we’ve got a long history of incredibly racist/sexist/homophobic remarks coming from people that label themselves “conservatives,” but it really seems like right now, the whole right-wing “conservative” political machine is coming apart at the seams. Frist *and* DeLay both under investigation, Abramoff being tied to just about everyone, the whole Plame case once again moving forward… is there anyone in this administration who’s *not* going to be touched by some measure of corruption, open bigotry, or otherwise? Are there *any* people in this administration who are even marginally respectable? Seriously.

I’m not talking about Republicans as a whole – I’m talking about the power players in this administration. Anyone who’s not a.) corrupt, b.) openly racist/homophobic/sexist, or c.) completely incompetant? How can these people remain in power?

That was the headline on CNN.com, re: Bill Bennett, and his moronic racist remarks. My question is, why is the news that Bennett is “under fire”? To me, the headline should read, “Bill Bennett Makes Racist Remarks,” or something to that effect. It’s not that Bennett being under fire is news – that’d be like saying, “Man Says “Hello,” after picking up Exploding Phone”. Everyone says “Hello,” and everyone should be condemning racist assholes. It’s the fact that he said this idiotic crap that should be making the news, but I suppose the current crop of “conservatives” being racist asshats really isn’t news any more anyway.

Still, it’s weird to see the news framed in such an incompetant and ill-thought-out way.

You are a Social Liberal (73% permissive) and an… Economic Liberal (21% permissive) You are best described as a: Strong Democrat Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid Free Online Dating