Stuck in the world of Skyrim

The last few years I’ve been avoiding games “without an end,” such as games where the major focus is on multiplayer. The reason being that I like to beat a game and move on to a new gaming experience, II like variety. There are gamers in the world who have been playing nothing but Counter-Strike for the last twelve years and while I don’t think there is anything wrong with that, in fact those people are going to save a lot of money in the long run on new titles and hardware, I don’t think I could bring myself to actually spend more than a few months on any one game.

This year I’ve played some long games such as Dragon Age and Fallout: New Vegas, as well as games with no clear end like Shogun 2. Even though they were long the two RPGs had a clear end and while I didn’t get tired of Shogun 2 I just didn’t find myself returning to it after a certain point.

I’m a person who loves to beat games and move on. My goal is to get a complete narrative experience, then move on to the next one. Skyrim has completely halted that urge. I find myself going into Skyrim now, two months after its release, just to wander around and do little quests. After killing dozens of Dragons the encounters are still exciting and the variety and richness of the quests continue to absorb me. Even with all that more than the game continuing to compel me, the world of Skyrim has become a comfortable place to return.

The main reason that this happens is because the experience of Skyrim isn’t fixed, it isn’t directed by a writer and crafted so the player gets a specific narrative. It’s built as a choose your own adventure where the player is able to craft their own experience as they go along. If a quest doesn’t interest the player then they can simply ignore it and that part of the Skyrim narrative vanishes from their own personally crafted narrative. The most enjoyable aspect of this being quests which you stumble across almost accidentally. I hesitantly accept the responsibility and starting to run through them as a quick way to get some gold. It’s in these little pieces of the game, something that could have easily been skipped over, which best illustrates individually crafted experiences. There are some of these seemingly small side quests that develop into epic pieces of the Skyrim story. Once I experienced the first of these I couldn’t help but wonder what little secrets the game held that simply went passed over, unnoticed. Not from disinterest but simply from the fact that the game is too massive to ever be completed.

I’m expecting to get ready and move on from Skyrim soon, but each time I play find myself falling into the side quests rather than resuming the main quest. Before I can put the game away permanently I will finish the main story, something I didn’t come close to doing in Oblivion, and I will complete the Civil War quest line. Even after that my quest log is filled with unfinished quests on top of the thieves guild and Dark Brotherhood quest lines that I haven’t even touched, but of which I’ve heard nothing but good things.

Skyrim has become more than just another game in my normal run of games. It has become a comfortable place to go when I feel stress, it has become a way to craft my own gaming experience where I can choose to fight monsters, settle arguments through diplomacy, or just go for a long walk. It’s a little scary how much I’ve fallen in love with Skyrim as a destination, more than a game. I’m looking forward to seeing how much longer I’m going to be playing it, even as my backlog becomes larger and larger.

New Year's Resolutions 2012

I tend to make New Year’s Resolutions that I forget about by halfway through January and so to prevent that, I decided to put them down in writing and that way I can come back to it at the end of the year and see how I did. The main problem with vague resolutions is that they are hard to measure, so I will make them as specific as possible. My most successful New Year’s Resolution was in 2010 when I vowed to avoid “Any fast food with a dollar menu” and so I managed to avoid Burger King, McDonald's, and Wendy’s for an entire year. Having such a specific goal forced me to stick to it and hopefully putting my goals down in writing will have the same effect.

1. Lose sixty pounds

This year I started on a strict diet thanks to a weight loss contest that started at work. When it began I decided that this was the jumping off point I needed, and so I dove right in. Now, about eleven months later, I’ve lost seventy pounds; more than 20% of my body weight; and feel better than I have in my useful memory. But, unfortunately, there is a lot of work left to go and while a steady 266 is far better than where I was I still have a long way to go. So I think losing another sixty pounds in a year is a reasonable goal and will get me closer to being healthy and remaining healthy.

2. Write consistently

Yup, a vague goal. I hope to write at least one blog post per week here, even if it is a video with a bit of commentary, and a post up on Otaku in Review at the very least once every two weeks. I would also like to spend more time working on my fiction than I did in 2011, which honestly was almost nonexistent. In 2011 I thought more about what blogging format I wanted to use than actually writing content. Now that things are set up the way I want I’m going to just work on my craft.

3. Take as many photos as possible

I started to take photography seriously as a hobby in 2011 but I still don’t get out and take photos as much as I should. So in 2012 I want to not only just take photos with less abandon with my camera phone but make sure to have my DSLR on me more often so I can take it out and start taking photos if the urge comes over me. Also I want to make sure I take more photos on occasions I do take out my camera, because there is no reason to hold back. This is especially true at conventions more than anywhere else.

4. Time management

One serious flaw I have is my lack of time management. I go to sleep too late, wake up too late, and waste my idle time. So part of my goal for time management is to wake up early, go to bed early, stick to a set schedule and not waste idle time. Idle time is death and even a few minutes is time I could be reading, writing, watching something, or playing a game. The more I get done in a day the better!

So those are four goals that I think are attainable for the coming year. I’m getting older, and it’s about time I start getting some important things together before it’s too late. Hopefully, these goals will allow me to take some steps in the right direction.

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Doctor Whooves comes to life

In Japan it’s not an unusual thing for people to come together and create fanmade animation based around their favorite properties. However, that doesn’t happen so often in American fandom communities. Maybe they lack the rabid nature of the Japanese fans or just the lack of a property that drives American fans to go through the trouble. Well, My Little Pony has inspired fans to create some custom animation around the character known as Doctor Whooves. In the clips below we see two scenes from Doctor Who recreated with 100% custom animation. I look forward to seeing more complete adventures of Doctor Whooves if the animators decide to continue with the work they’ve started here.

Ponified form of an extended version of The Doctor’s message to Martha Jones in the two part “Human Nature/The Family of Blood”.

Ponified form of the climactic moment from “The End of Time Part 2” as The Doctor decides to turn around and face his greatest enemy yet.

Makoto Shinkai

The main attraction of New York Comic Con for me was the coming of visionary director Makoto Shinkai, known for 5 Centimeters Per Second and Voices of a Distant Star. So, I was understandably excited when I was approved for an interview. The original schedule was to be me with a a group of four other outlets for a half hour, then they decided to combine all the interviewers into one big block and have ten people speak with Shinkai for a full hour. However, many of the outlets didn’t show up. The few that did just took off when they learned that video wasn’t allowed. I understand those who only release video to be upset that they can’t record but…we’re talking about a chance to speak with Makoto Shinkai! Even if I wasn’t allowed to publish anything, if I was sworn to secrecy for the rest of my life…you get a chance to speak with one of the best animation directors currently working in Japan.

In the end only two of us sat down with Shinkai-san and my fellow interviewer asked only three questions in the half hour session. SoIbasically had a one-on-one with Makoto Shinkai for over twenty minutes. I wanted to prepare some questions that wouldn’t be wasting my opportunity. I figured everyone would be asking him questions about starting as an independent animator or his love of clouds. I wanted to ask him specific questions about his films. So I came up with as many specific questions as I could about the film I know best: 5 Centimeters Per Second. I didn’t expect to ask all of them. I couldn’t have been more lucky with the way things turned out.

When the interview wrapped and I asked to take a photo, the one at the start of this post. Shinkai agreed then offered to take one with me, which I eagerly accepted. Before we parted I told him I was looking forward to seeing his new film the next day, explaining that I missed the screening in Baltimore. He hoped that I would enjoy it. That evening I saw the excellent panel where Roland Kelts interviewed Shinkai in the official panel, which can be read about on ANN or seen here. After getting so close to Shinkai and asking him my specific questions it was good to get a well rounded view of the man. It backed up my impression of him, which I’ll cover at the end.

The next day I got to the con early so I could get a seat for Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below which was a beautiful film, to say the least. After the film Shinkai held an autograph session at the Bandai booth and another stroke of luck hit. I bought a copy of 5 Centimeters Per Second and said I’d like to get it signed. The cashier asked if I had a ticket which I did not, they had been given out early in the morning. A guy standing next to me said he had an extra, he grabbed one but had never seen a Shinkai film! I was so grateful and wanted to give him something so I handed him $5 and got in line. When I reached Shinkai he seemed excited to see me and thanked me for coming out. I told him I saw the film and that it was beautiful. He asked if I enjoyed it. I said, “Very much.” He shook my hand and said, “Yesterday when we spoke I had fun.” To which I returned a humbled thank you and told him that the honor was completely mine.

My impression of the man was complete in that moment. Throughout the weekend I got the feeling that he was truly humbled when people enjoy his work. During his introduction of “Lost Voices” he told the audience, “If you like the movie it’d make me really happy!” (which he said in English) and I get the sense that was a completely sincere statement. Shinkai loves making animation and even more he loves when people enjoy his work. I hope the crowd that came out to see him at New York Comic Con gave him reason to continue creating exceptional works of art.

You can read my interview with Makoto Shinkai over at Otaku in Review.

On Steve Jobs

Over the last few years I’ve perhaps been more transfixed by Apple’s products. Their design and functionality attracted me more than the competitive products, especially in 2006 when I bought my Macbook. The beautiful, white, wonderful example of industrial design was years ahead of the bulky laptops that Dell and HP were tossing onto the market. Due to the success of those white Macbooks the entire landscape of design in the PC industry has changed. Now every company produces beautiful machines. That is what Steve Jobs did more than anything else. He could see trends before they happened and he knew what the customer wanted.

The Apple of 1983 was happy building Apple IIs and if John Scully had his way they would have never moved forward from making variants to the popular computer. Steve Jobs took a team of engineers and designers, removed from the rest of the Apple campus and built the first consumer computer that featured a Graphical User Interface. Without that bold step forward it might have been years before a company decided to take a chance on a GUI, setting the development of consumer operating systems back years.

The modern introductions of iPod, iPhone, and iPad share the same pattern. Jobs didn’t invent the categories but he gave consumers what they wanted out of the products and by Apple developing the products the world of digital music, multi-touch smartphones, and multitouch tablets exploded.

Even if you’ve never used an Apple product, or would never think of using an Apple product, the technology you’re using today has been effected in some way by Steve Jobs. The world is a better place because of Steve Jobs.

An Apple without Steve Jobs and a Microsoft without Bill Gates. The personalities responsible for transforming our society have taken their leave. The next generation of innovators will build on their work and continue to change the world for the better. The march of progress continues on.

As everyone else on the internet has already discovered, the commencement speech Steve Jobs gave at Stamford is among his greatest legacies. In it he three stories from his life and his philosophy in approaching it. The first is connecting the dots, trusting that "the dots will connect" if you follow your heart. The second is love and loss, how he always tired to do what he loved to do and never worked for anyone but himself. The third is death, his relationship to death before and after his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. The speech is inspiring, to say the least, and is one of the few moments that Steve Jobs shows a personal side of himself. One of the few times he relates to an audience on a human level. It’s a shame he didn’t try to do it more often.

Here are some of the best excepts from the speech, along with link to the full speech and the video.

"I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

"On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." - Steve Jobs

Words to live by. Words I want to live by, at least. Makes me rethink a lot of things. Perhaps it's time to stop standing still. It's time to move forward. Not slowly, not safely. I've been trying to live safely, but no one ever made something of themselves by taking the safest road. No one exciting, at least.