Obviously, my writing life also revolves around my gaming life so forgive me the indulgence.
So, the dust is settling around the ill-judged move to start a pay for mods model for Skyrim on the Steam Workshop. Well that firmly puts my stake in the ground. I think that neither Valve nor Bethesda thought it through properly and in the initial announcement that paid mods were no longer being continued they said as much, so fair play to them for that. Out of all this, the already fragile community itself suffered most. One of the cries on the Steam Community Forums was that there was no initial dialogue with the users about it. This makes me laugh. The response and backlash on the forums shows exactly why Valve would be reluctant to open up such a channel with the users, the immaturity knew no bounds and was for the most party utterly vacuous and without anything meaningful to say, usually filled with memes, videos, bigotry and expletives. * slow clap *
However, that said, and obviously would be in my interest, I'm not totally against the idea of amateur creatives being able to make a few quid. I've a few of NPC mods on nexus, and initially would have considered upping my game to maybe jump in if it seemed to be working out alright for the modders. If only it were that simple, eh? After this moment of fancy, and after thinking it through a bit more and reading up on some of the real sources of actual modders invited into the initial launch, the current style of modding is too much of a 'shitty mess' for it to be so cut and dried. There's so many shared resources being used, tools created by other modders, shared textures, meshes, the whole kaboodle, because everyone is just doing if for the love of it and is happy for others to make use of it and thus extend the life of the game and their notoriety into the bargain. So who gets paid? Does the guy who made the skin textures you used for your follower mod need paying? The possibility of mods being downloaded from a free site like Nexus or the other place(...), to then sell on Steam was another issue that there was little in place to challenge or avoid that possibility, And then with what turned out to be a meagre percentage of the total for the modder (25%), what about the supporting talent, like voice actors, artists, musicians, story and dialogue writers, and so on?
In short, my opinion would be that the modders themselves need to organise before this can really be attempted in earnest, and treat what is a hobby now as a business, with agreements over assets between themselves in place. We are hoping, however, that this has not been so bad for the community that Bethesda pulls support for mods completely in future titles such as the impending Fallout 4, which they have been very supportive of thus far, providing the Creation Kit for Skyrim and letting us run riot.
'Gaben will provide' Book of Steam 1:14
Friday, 1 May 2015
Wednesday, 29 April 2015
Little Women (no, not the book) -Bioshock
http://archiveofourown.org/users/Stoob/works
Since I did a passage in 'There's always you' where the Little Sisters are fresh from Rapture with the Lambs and still playing, I did wonder what would happen to them in life once they returned to 'normal society'. We see from the in-game closing scenes that they go on to live full lives, helped by Jack, and are there for him in his final moments but I'd imagine the transition would not be straight forward or easy.
So the last few shorties in my Bioshorts section seem to have been devoted to those thoughts. Not sure always why certain aspects appeal to me, though I will say that attempting to capture the potential fragility of a Little Sister later in life did (yea, I like to prod emotions where possible). Also, the time frame would mean that the sisters would be young women in the 'summer of love' in 1969, which is when Eleanor would be exiting from Rapture - I've implied in other works that Eleanor would have been quite 'groovy' and fallen right in with the beatnik crowd. I felt compelled to explore some of this, that she might seek out her former sisters, though when I started I wasn't quite sure what I had to say about it but I was quite pleased with what came out.
Since I did a passage in 'There's always you' where the Little Sisters are fresh from Rapture with the Lambs and still playing, I did wonder what would happen to them in life once they returned to 'normal society'. We see from the in-game closing scenes that they go on to live full lives, helped by Jack, and are there for him in his final moments but I'd imagine the transition would not be straight forward or easy.
So the last few shorties in my Bioshorts section seem to have been devoted to those thoughts. Not sure always why certain aspects appeal to me, though I will say that attempting to capture the potential fragility of a Little Sister later in life did (yea, I like to prod emotions where possible). Also, the time frame would mean that the sisters would be young women in the 'summer of love' in 1969, which is when Eleanor would be exiting from Rapture - I've implied in other works that Eleanor would have been quite 'groovy' and fallen right in with the beatnik crowd. I felt compelled to explore some of this, that she might seek out her former sisters, though when I started I wasn't quite sure what I had to say about it but I was quite pleased with what came out.
Monday, 20 April 2015
Darker thoughts on dark circumstances (Bioshock and the Little Sisters)
Andrew Ryan's vision was of a society free of the 'petty morality' of church, government or any arbitrary authority, a society allowed to explore everything to its fullest potential no matter the cost/harm. Life is deemed pretty much expendable in this society, for the 'greater good' of progress. We see this everywhere in Bioshock and Burial at Sea, the Little Sisters being the pinnacle of this casual disregard of empathy.
Essentially, as a society that has fallen so far, I wonder if Ken Levine tempered his original ideas for the Little Sisters, and what such people might do to the young for a profit. I shall assume I don't need to expand on that premise more than I have.
In a Rand-ian society, 'lessers' are expendable and exploitable. To what level the exploitation? Long term harm is moot when the person is destined for the dump anyway. If society were to go to those levels of Ryan/Rand, where would it stop? Money buys anything if someone is willing to pay and another to offer the service.
And yes, I am dumb. It is only while writing this that the 'Ayn Rand' / 'Andrew Ryan' anagram thing hit me lol.
I hope these musing aren't TOO dark for some but I enjoy taking things to their nth level, regardless of where that may lead.
Essentially, as a society that has fallen so far, I wonder if Ken Levine tempered his original ideas for the Little Sisters, and what such people might do to the young for a profit. I shall assume I don't need to expand on that premise more than I have.
In a Rand-ian society, 'lessers' are expendable and exploitable. To what level the exploitation? Long term harm is moot when the person is destined for the dump anyway. If society were to go to those levels of Ryan/Rand, where would it stop? Money buys anything if someone is willing to pay and another to offer the service.
And yes, I am dumb. It is only while writing this that the 'Ayn Rand' / 'Andrew Ryan' anagram thing hit me lol.
I hope these musing aren't TOO dark for some but I enjoy taking things to their nth level, regardless of where that may lead.
When is an Easter Egg not an Easter Egg?
In a scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, there are hieroglyphs of the droids from Star Wars hidden amongst the texts. In Jedi Knight: Dark Forces, Max from LucasArts' 'Sam and Max' is hiding in one settlement. In Duke Nukem 2, there is a 'doomed' space marine skewered behind an altar.
These are classic Easter Eggs: little hidden nuggets of interest of no consequence.
In Portal, we see the Borealis' dry dock and reference to Black Mesa.
So I ask again, when is an Easter Egg not an Easter Egg? At what point does a hidden piece of information become 'lore' or 'canon', rather than 'Easter Egg'? No-one seems to be jumping up and down that Sam and Max must then be in the same universe as Star Wars, or that Star Wars precedes Indiana Jones in some Zelda-esque impossible timeline.
A hell of a lot has been made of both the direct and perceived links between Portal and HL, beyond the realm of fanfic. But what if they are just Easter Eggs and no intention was ever made to actually follow through on such ideas?
Of course, the Borealis is cited in HL2, but that doesn't guarantee an in-game connection. If devs followed through on EVERY idea like Aperture being in competition with Black Mesa, story lines would be a right mess. It could have easily been an afterthought, that once Portal was ready for testing (no pun intended), some bright spark thought, "Hey, Aperture's a science facility, Black Mesa's a science facility, we're all Valve, so why don't we..." and added the slide show content in Portal 1 purely as an Easter Egg, which the 'joke' then continued into Portal 2.
Don't get me wrong, I WANT a HL/Portal cross-over, but one has to temper the vigour sometimes. Particularly after one of Gabe's recent uncommitted interviews.
Wednesday, 18 March 2015
Skyrim (Erdi)
http://archiveofourown.org/users/Stoob/works
I've done a short tale and a few oneshots of Skyrim, and recently been modding the game myself with some new followers. While the characters of Skyrim are not quite as fleshed out as in other franchises, there lies the intrigue as they are empty pages to be filled.
In my tale 'Road to Breezehome' I suggested that Mikael the Bard used to study at the Bard's College in Solitude, and being a ladies man woo'd Lisette and Erdi. Now in my tale, some time after he was at the college, Mikael had written a less than flattering song about the girls of Solitude and Lisette finds out about it when the Dragonborn visits the Winking Skeaver tavern; Lisette wants to go to Whiterun to have 'words' with Mikael with Erdi.
I'd a few ideas about where that short 'sub plot' might go but recently I played Skyrim to test out my mods, but I created a rare male character. Upon encountering Erdi at the Blue Palace, she wasn't quite the same as when I meet her as a female character. When female, she's quite enthusiastic about the idea of two women on the road, adventuring, strapping men in every tavern but when you're a male character, she's more melancholic, that she spends her time daydreaming about a more exotic and adventurous life rather than lowly court maid.
Perhaps Erdi ever remembers her questionable time with Mikael fondly, as about the most interesting thing that has happened in her life; that he was two-timing her with Lisette just made it more exciting.
I've done a short tale and a few oneshots of Skyrim, and recently been modding the game myself with some new followers. While the characters of Skyrim are not quite as fleshed out as in other franchises, there lies the intrigue as they are empty pages to be filled.
In my tale 'Road to Breezehome' I suggested that Mikael the Bard used to study at the Bard's College in Solitude, and being a ladies man woo'd Lisette and Erdi. Now in my tale, some time after he was at the college, Mikael had written a less than flattering song about the girls of Solitude and Lisette finds out about it when the Dragonborn visits the Winking Skeaver tavern; Lisette wants to go to Whiterun to have 'words' with Mikael with Erdi.
I'd a few ideas about where that short 'sub plot' might go but recently I played Skyrim to test out my mods, but I created a rare male character. Upon encountering Erdi at the Blue Palace, she wasn't quite the same as when I meet her as a female character. When female, she's quite enthusiastic about the idea of two women on the road, adventuring, strapping men in every tavern but when you're a male character, she's more melancholic, that she spends her time daydreaming about a more exotic and adventurous life rather than lowly court maid.
Perhaps Erdi ever remembers her questionable time with Mikael fondly, as about the most interesting thing that has happened in her life; that he was two-timing her with Lisette just made it more exciting.
Thursday, 12 February 2015
Chell/Gordon/Aperture/G-Man brain spew
Thought splurge.
We don't specifically know how long Chell is in stasis for, but we do know that Gordon was in stasis for around twenty years. There's nothing to say that Chell was not in stasis for a similar or the same length of time. So my thought of the day was, when Gordon sleeps, Chell sleeps.
This also made me wonder, as it's not mentioned anywhere in Portal 2, how or when the stasis technology was developed. Of their notable achievements, only the portal device gained any attention, becoming their main development area. As far as I would think, portal technology probably wouldn't assist with stasis, unless you are holding a person outside of space and time in the space between portal exits (?). Rather like one might expect G-Man to do it...
G-Man's appearances in the Half Life series are often accompanied by crows, the birds also being a large feature of Portal 2. If we are to take Valve's hints as read, then G-Man is or was around in some way in Aperture. Is G-Man responsible for guiding Aperture's seemingly impossible technological advancements, and for opening our dimension to the demons from beyond via the Borealis before Black Mesa?
G-Man is of undetermined origin. He does say in one speech that the weapons Gordon carries are property of the government, though not which government. He certainly seems not of this Earth,
Hm.
We don't specifically know how long Chell is in stasis for, but we do know that Gordon was in stasis for around twenty years. There's nothing to say that Chell was not in stasis for a similar or the same length of time. So my thought of the day was, when Gordon sleeps, Chell sleeps.
This also made me wonder, as it's not mentioned anywhere in Portal 2, how or when the stasis technology was developed. Of their notable achievements, only the portal device gained any attention, becoming their main development area. As far as I would think, portal technology probably wouldn't assist with stasis, unless you are holding a person outside of space and time in the space between portal exits (?). Rather like one might expect G-Man to do it...
G-Man's appearances in the Half Life series are often accompanied by crows, the birds also being a large feature of Portal 2. If we are to take Valve's hints as read, then G-Man is or was around in some way in Aperture. Is G-Man responsible for guiding Aperture's seemingly impossible technological advancements, and for opening our dimension to the demons from beyond via the Borealis before Black Mesa?
G-Man is of undetermined origin. He does say in one speech that the weapons Gordon carries are property of the government, though not which government. He certainly seems not of this Earth,
Hm.
Saturday, 7 February 2015
Constants and variables (and rule 63) - Bioshock
http://archiveofourown.org/users/Stoob/works
Recently saw a few vids on YouTube discussing gender and women in gaming, covering the usual topics of motivation and 'gender stereotypes' and so on. I do wonder if the 'damsel in distress' figure that is becoming more prevalent in gaming must always be female and the protagonist hero male. It has been said of Bioshock: Infinite that it is of its time, and so the former Pinkerton would obviously be a man, and some have gone as far to say that a woman wouldn't sell her child like Booker does (a key point of the tale).
I do have some reservations about using time-period alone to justify gender roles, as history shows us there are many strong successful, and even brutally minded women in the past. So the Pinkertons were probably mostly men, I don't think that could be argued against; that said, I don't doubt that there were women in the ranks, at various levels of militancy. The 'Pinks' infiltrated other organisations with moles, for example, so why not a woman for this role? Also, just because female that doesn't mean they can't appear apathetic; not every woman has to gush their emotions all the time.
On the other side, could Elizabeth work as a boy, and so the 'damsel in distress'? I don't see why not. Being stuck in a book tower for his whole life, I'd doubt he's going to be the beefiest of young men, and he'd have the same level of naivety and innocence due to his isolation. Motivations for Paris might be a bit different, though it's not stated categorically what Liz's fascination is beyond it being 'Paris'. No reason why he wouldn't have a similar idealistic view of Paris, like we saw in Burial at Sea part 2.
The scene at Battleship Bay. Hm. You don't see too many lads dancing with so much glee, and this is quite a 'Disney-fied' scene, but again, stereotype is stereotype. Though that did make me think, what song would Fink have stolen, instead of Cindi Lauper's 'Girl's just wanna have fun'? I've gone with 'If I were a boy' by Beyonce. It just felt right that the AU where Booker is Brooke and Elizabeth is Elijah, to choose this song.
So the result of all that was an exceptionally short scene with gender reversal, and a tune on the old calliope.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/956733/chapters/7213550
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=13045465
Recently saw a few vids on YouTube discussing gender and women in gaming, covering the usual topics of motivation and 'gender stereotypes' and so on. I do wonder if the 'damsel in distress' figure that is becoming more prevalent in gaming must always be female and the protagonist hero male. It has been said of Bioshock: Infinite that it is of its time, and so the former Pinkerton would obviously be a man, and some have gone as far to say that a woman wouldn't sell her child like Booker does (a key point of the tale).
I do have some reservations about using time-period alone to justify gender roles, as history shows us there are many strong successful, and even brutally minded women in the past. So the Pinkertons were probably mostly men, I don't think that could be argued against; that said, I don't doubt that there were women in the ranks, at various levels of militancy. The 'Pinks' infiltrated other organisations with moles, for example, so why not a woman for this role? Also, just because female that doesn't mean they can't appear apathetic; not every woman has to gush their emotions all the time.
On the other side, could Elizabeth work as a boy, and so the 'damsel in distress'? I don't see why not. Being stuck in a book tower for his whole life, I'd doubt he's going to be the beefiest of young men, and he'd have the same level of naivety and innocence due to his isolation. Motivations for Paris might be a bit different, though it's not stated categorically what Liz's fascination is beyond it being 'Paris'. No reason why he wouldn't have a similar idealistic view of Paris, like we saw in Burial at Sea part 2.
The scene at Battleship Bay. Hm. You don't see too many lads dancing with so much glee, and this is quite a 'Disney-fied' scene, but again, stereotype is stereotype. Though that did make me think, what song would Fink have stolen, instead of Cindi Lauper's 'Girl's just wanna have fun'? I've gone with 'If I were a boy' by Beyonce. It just felt right that the AU where Booker is Brooke and Elizabeth is Elijah, to choose this song.
So the result of all that was an exceptionally short scene with gender reversal, and a tune on the old calliope.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/956733/chapters/7213550
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=13045465
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