You may wonder what I’m blathering about, well its this. I’ve been following CAD for some time now (if you like a good chuckle and a well written webcomic check out the archives) and honestly didn’t see this coming. The subject matter is a difficult one and as a away of breaking out of the pigeonhole of ‘Gaming Comic’ its one of the most effective plot twists I’ve seen. Tim sums up his reasons for it here, and I stand behind him wholeheartedly.

Gamers are people too with all the baggage and emotional turmoil that that entails, its about time someone said so. I salute you Tim and will continue to read CAD as long as you continue to write it.

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Flat Out 2 is a racing game. In the single player career mode you drive in race after race, building up your cash reserves till you can afford a better car, unlocking special events and the aforementioned better cars as you go. At first glance there’s not much scope for a story there, and you’d be right. The game makers haven’t even tried to tack on any kind of plotline and have only provided brief bios pf those you are driving against. So why do I find myself reacting as if I was a player in a larger tale?

Flat Out 2 is not a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination, its a full throttle arcade racer with some physics thrown in to make the crashes entertaining. There’s nowhere near the depth of customisation offered by the Need For Speed titles and none of the realism of Project Gotham or Gran Turismo. It is the Spiderman to the more refined racing games’ Dancer in the Dark, if you want to use a movie analogy. Obviously the story of the game has no significance whatsoever. It is however an example of how an entertaining yet shallow game experience prompts the player to build their own stories.

Throughout your career, from your first races in clapped out bangers to the grand finals where you should have reached the stage where you can afford the cream of automotive technology, you are racing against the same 7 drivers. Some of these drivers are destined to be your nemeses, beating you time and again on tracks you know backwards. I hate them with a passion.

For the first few races I didn’t pay that much attention to who the other drivers were as I was beating them fairly easily. The Derby class of races (for the clapped out bangers) was completed with out me breaking a sweat. Then I hit the Race series. Faster cars, new tracks, and slightly harder bots. I still beat them without much fuss but it wasn’t as easy as it had been. I found myself going back to the derby class and re-racing some of the cups available to build up enough cash to get the best upgrades for that little extra edge over my competitors. I was beginning to want to beat two or three specific drivers who were proving to be thorns in my side.

By the time I hit the Street series I knew who my rivals were and could name them. Sofia Martinez in her shining silver pickup and Jack Benton in his waspish black and yellow sports coupe. They are now people to me, rivals worthy of the name. And this is in a game with no literary pretensions, how has this happened?

Game makers can learn a lot from this phenomenon, with little or no influence in the way of plot and/or characterisation from them, a player of their game has been prompted to make an emotional investment. The game is far better for it, not because of anything that they have added to the game, more because of what they have left out. Deliberately or not, Bugbear, the developers of Flat Out 2, have made me want to complete it. Not through the promise of uber unlockables or some other mechanic, but by getting me emotionally involved.

Call of Duty 4 did this as well, though there was more thought put into the plot and such in that game. I actually had a bit of a lump in my throat at the end and a few times in the middle (I’m not going to spoil it for you if you haven’t played it). Here was an all action shooter which pulled at the heartstrings and got an emotional response from the player. So my advice (whatever that’s worth) to game developers is to get the player emotionally involved, give them something to give a damn about and your game will be more enjoyable for it.

So when deciding how to get the player invested in a game you have two options: If you’re going to run the plot on rails then you’d better make it a damn good one (a’ la CoD4)which doesn’t overpower the gameplay, or if you don’t want the burden of a plot tailor the AI so that the player feels they have a worthy opponent. Mindless cannon fodder are not fun to beat, neither are totally predictable driving bots.

Don’t just tell me a story, I can read a book for that.

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The first comic book movie of the modern age could be said to be Tim Burton’s Batman (1989), I wasn’t allowed to go and see it at the cinema when it came out as I was 11 and it was the first film to be given a 12 rating. Batman was a masterpiece in my opinion, capturing the murkiest facets of The Dark Knight’s persona and portraying the madness which lies at the heart of the character as only Burton could. The series fell into disrepute after Batman Returns, becoming flashy, garish and cartoony. Joel Shumacher’s two followups (Batman Forever, and Batman and Robin) to Burton’s Batman films descended into the camp mediocrity reminiscent of the 60’s TV series; which Burton had managed to shrug off.

Things went quite quiet on the blockbuster front for a while, cult films based on comic books like The Crow and Tank Girl appealed to very niche audiences and never really made it at the box office. During the 90’s alot of movies based ostensibly on comic books (or ‘graphic novels’ as they were then being called, as if trying to deny their pulpy and kid friendly roots and wanting to sound more grown up.) were made. The Shadow, The Phantom, those dirisible Schumacher Batman movies, The Rocketeer and many more less notable adaptations. Suffice it to say they all bombed (or did well at the box office but were terrible films).

During this period CGI was still in its infancy, with the technology remaining expensive and requiring very highly skilled users to get the best out of it. As the hardware and software bacme cheaper and easier to use, the possibility of bringing the comics to life on screen more faithfully than ever before was seized upon by writers and directors alike. Previous to the dawn of the CGI age the writing and characterisation had taken back seats (with the possible exception of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies) because the effects necessary were expensive and time consuming. With the advent of decent and believable CGI, which is a helluva lot cheaper to produce than FX involving models and wires and stuntmen, the effects have been put in their proper place, i.e. that of scenery.

From this point on comic book movies hit the mainstream, with the Spiderman series and The X-Men being by far the most prominent. A new depth was introduced as those writers who grew up reading comics brought their favourite characters to life on screen. Granted there have been some turkeys as studios have sought to cash in on lucrative licenses (Electra and the first Fantastic 4 anyone?) but all in all comic book movies have been pretty faithful to the fans of the characters, and the studios are coming to realise that merchandising isn’t everything.

Iron Man is indicative of how movies based on comic books have grown up in recent years. Comic books (I hate the pretension in the title ‘Graphic Novel’) have long been concerned more with the personalities of the protagonists than with the awesome powers they possess. I think it was Stan Lee who said that a hero without flaws and weaknesses is less of a hero. Iron Man is certainly a flawed hero, Tony Stark is rich, amoral, and a drunk, all things which add depth to a character which is basically a guy in a tin suit. I think Iron Man may mark the coming of age of the comic book movie (Sin City not withstanding) and I’ll be forking out my reddies to go and see it at the cinema, which I haven’t done in a long time. Here’s a trailer to whet your appetite:

Hat tip to Loudmouthman for inspiring this post.

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(Note: clicking on the ‘read more’ link will lead you to what looks like a broken page, this is due to the embedded music player, everything still works as it should its just the layout thats screwy. Wordpress can’t handle the <object> and <embed> tags. If anyone has any suggestions for fixing this feel free to let me know in the comments)

Trent Reznor has finally left interzone, after describing them as ‘greedy assholes’ and encouraging fans to steal his music during his last tour. The Nine Inch nails have released part of their new instrumental album Ghosts I-IV for free through their website and for a nominal payment of $5 (US Dollars, which is £2.50 in my money) you can download the whole thing DRM free. The popularity of this move was demonstrated when the NIN website went down due to high traffic over the weekend.

Ghosts I-IV is also the first offering from a fairly big name I’ve seen to carry a creative commons license. Released under an Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike license, you can basically do whatever you want with it as long as you credit the creator, don’t sell it and do it under the same license. This brings up some interesting possibilities, especially as you can order a version of the album which includes all the tracks in multi-track format encouraging remixes and sampling (its $75 though, or I would have ordered that one). I look forward to hearing some fan remixes in the future, let me know if you’re planning any and I’ll promote them here (if I deem them worthy of course :P)

This is indicative of a growing trend in the music industry as more artists become disillusioned with the traditional music industry and release their work online. With the recent controversy over the RIAA not passing on money made from suing those who copied music to the artists, whose interests they claim to be representing, I can only see this as being another nail in the coffin of a dying industry. The men in suits have lined their pockets for long enough and the artists are taking control.

Good on you Mr Reznor, I salute you.

Here is a selection of tracks from Ghosts to whet your appetite:

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This is an interesting one of Tom’s armpit, an unusual subject for a photo you might think. The result is rather good though. At first glance of the thumbnail you have to wonder what it is actually a photo of.

One thing that Tom has a knack for is making you wonder at the angle the photo was taken from, at first I thought this one was take from a balcony looking down through glass at a coffe shop. I’m not so sure now, it could have been taken looking up at a reflective ceiling.

This has to be my favourite, it looks like a painting by one of the impressionists.

And the new header which regular readers may have noticed is adapted from one of his too. See if you can spot it on his site. Bloody wordpress is not arranging the images as I want them so please excuse the dodgy formatting in this post, I’m buggered if I can figure it out.

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What is the point of “living”?
Everything rots to a stink.
Love is a transient bloom, like bluebells, choking on the fumes of plenty. Every promise that we make our kids is proven to be lies by life.
So wouldn’t it be better if we all just died?
Yours
etc
Harrison Digby

Mr. Digby neglected to leave an address I can link to, so he has to go without the linky love.

My answer is after the jump…
What is the point of dying? (I’ve paraphrased your question, and interpreted its true meaning.) If you live every day as a slave to the desires of others then dying may be an escape, but it is by no means the only one. Do something out of the ordinary, it keeps life feeling fresh and new. There are more things to know than can ever be known, I challenge you to find some that you don’t know.

Everything may stink but at least you have the means and faculties to notice, and its a small step from noticing the pong to getting out the air freshener.

Love is not transient, it is never transient, if it is then it’s not love. Love is not something which you can look for or have as a goal. Its not an achievement to be ticked off the list of things that must be done in a lifetime. Love is an experience, an affliction and a chemical imbalance of the brain. Neither is love like a bluebell, your analogy is flawed. Pollution has no sway over love, just as love has no sway over pollution.

We promise too much, I agree, but the solution is not to make promises. The future is our children’s world and they should be allowed to  make of it what they want. If we make promises which cannot be kept then our guilt at not keeping them merely influences our children into making the promise to theirs that they will keep their promises. And so on, ad infinitum. We should concentrate on making the world as it is now a better place, leading our children by the example that we set. The past cannot be changed, the future is always in motion, and now is the only thing we have any control over.

You wish my death? Simply to make you feel better? You presume to dictate what I should do (die) so as to make the world a better place? I presume you want me to do this out of the kindness of my heart, I can surely expect no payment for the service that I render. If we all capitulate to your desire who would remain to admire the wondrous spectacles that make up the vast universe in which we live? Who would create art in appreciation of it? Who would sing the songs of our history. Humanity is worth more than you could ever imagine, each and every part of it. We are a tiny fraction of creation and yet we are able to contemplate it’s vastness. Nature would not be better off without us, it would be less.

A tad rambling, I know, but then I didn’t promise literary greatness or even comprehensibility. Make of that what you will Harrison, and I hope you feel happier soon.

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Successful challengers will receive a link, and a post just for them.

So, as they say in cheerleading competitions: Bring it!

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This is the back of the business card, the front will have my contact details on it, I’ll be handing these out to anyone that’ll take one. I planon getting them from moo.com (I’m tempted to get stickers too but I think that may be a bit much).

This is the design for the t-shirt (preliminary draft) I’m going to get some someftware to put it into .svg format so I can get better quality printing on darker colours. Not sure where I’m going to get the t-shirt done yet I’m still pricing sources, am open to suggestions.

So your thoughts are welcome. I have a nagging feeling that there is a very similar design out there but as yet have been unable to find it, if anyone has seen this before somewhere I’d be grateful if you’d let me know. I’d like to get the design finalised and off to the printers ASAP. Comment in the box as usual.

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Go and stand on a hilltop.
And enjoy the view.
Remember how to wonder.
At the scale and beauty of the world.
Be awestruck by the heavens.
And the distances involved.

Remember the size of the sky.
Surrender to the infinite.
Stretch your horizons.
Till they encompass everything.
This is what it feels like.
To think with a mind that is free.

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I’m planning on going to the Edinburgh Interactive Festival next month, if I can a) convince the wife that the £120 fee is worth it in the long run, or b) convince the organisers that I’m a member of the press (which I am).The thing is, I’m not sure if I need any kind of credentials, qualifications or certificates to say I’m a journalist. To many in the industry I’m sure their first thought is “Heh, another blogger,” and I can understand that attitude, I really can. There are thousands, no millions of us out there slogging at our keyboards, writing about our own pet passions. Writing our own news, from our own point of view. Without qualifications or experience, we write from our hearts for little or no money. Some write well, others not so well, but we work just as hard at it as our more mainstream colleagues.

I’m a gamer, or I would be if I had the time. What I mean is that I love video games. Its my passion. I’m lucky that I get paid (not very much at the moment, I’ll admit) to write about something I love. Games are a new artform, one whose possibilities defy even the foresight of those currently making games.  I grew up playing games and am part of the first generation who did so to have their own children. Thats something monumental right there. What is it about me, sitting at my PC writing about my passion, that makes me different from someone who does it for a newspaper, magazine, or a TV show?

I have written to the press contacts of various publishers and developers with no response. This was to get a comment for a story I was writing, I wanted to give a balanced view. That’s journalism. If I wanted to just publish my opinion I could have (and its what I did in the end, I had a deadline) but I sought balance. I wanted their opinion, I wanted all sides of the story.

There’s a quote from Babylon 5 which I think of when I’m writing;

Understanding is a three-edged sword. My side, your side, and the truth

I see this as the fundamental rule of journalism. The more opinions you gather about a story, the more information you get, the closer you can come to telling the truth.

Unfortunately the truth in this case is that bloggers aren’t taken seriously, unless they’ve already made a name for themselves. I’m in the process of making my name, take it from me, its bloody hard work.

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