Quiet Little Corner of the Interwebs

Dear Player One,

It has been another week and of up and down but I missed your post on Monday. Work has been going along and I've been trying to get better at this volatile work environment. I have found my work in person suffers a great deal more for my metal state than working from home. I suppose this is not a surprise but it is a foreshadowing of a potentially difficult spot to work through. It is not impossible but it is not something I’m particularly looking forward to.

Concept art in person has been interesting. It is not a task that I’m unfamiliar with, but delivering it in person and having the ‘customer’ able to see the pieces unfinished has introduced a new twist to the work. All unfinished work always is up for interpretation but concept work that doesn’t even necessarily have a set direction. I want input but I also don’t want to have my general flow broken up ‘randomly.’ It is not exactly random, it is more a miscommunication between sketches and what the finish pieces are going to look like. While I can look at a piece in process and try to extrapolate to that point, I understand that people that aren’t involved in its creation may have a harder time of it.

I have been playing a number of new board/card games this week. Burred Treasure and Loot are both pirate themed games that focus on card order and collection of points. While Tichu is a card game that I don’t understand so I’ll have to get back to you on the details for that one. I have also revisited a few that I have played before like Bonanza. That one gets easier the more I play it and the more I recognize the cards. Planning ahead and trading away beans I don’t want has greatly improved my ability to collect points.

I have downloaded all Blizzard games available on Battle.net and I’m looking forward to playing in familiar territory. I do enjoy new games but I would really like to just trop around in something I know and have fun where it is not a hugely taxing experience learning new mechanics and environment. I’m hoping this weekend to catch back up with dallies and get back in the flow of regular game play that ‘cares’ if I log in or not.

I have also been crawling up the League of Legends ladder. It has taken a little time, but doing it regularly and in small chunks have shown more success than trying to binge. I might make it to gold if things keep going along the way they have been. We’ll have to wait and see. It is entirely possible that I’m just not a gold level player to start with. It is not a happy idea, but it is certainly a possibility that needs to be examined if there is heavy plateauing at somepoint.

I’ll be looking for your post on Monday.

Your,

Player Two

Uppity Ups

Dear Player One,

I have not heard from you this week. I know this regularly scheduled posting can be difficult. It might be best for us to discuss changing your posting day so it does not cause such a problem. It seems that if things stay the way they are you will just be racking up punishments. I’m not sure what the best solution for this would be, so I’m open to suggestions on the topic.  

This week I have been up and down. I’ve been able to work on concept pieces for most of the week. It is something I really enjoy doing. The down side is the tension that has been building as the presentation day approaches. Monday will be the end of our small group pitches and one with move forward to being the main project for the next seven months.

I think I already feel removed from the process due to the fact my pitch was passed over in the initial phase. My two biggest critics of my own pitch turned out to be exactly what pulled it down. I had too many interconnected systems and involved AI to really justify the seven month time line. I did however get complimented on the interesting world and I was encouraged to peruse the pitch after the program.

I think my biggest contribution to actually presentation process, art aside, has been in recognizing nervous habits or tendencies presenters have. It seems they don’t realize they are pacing, crumpling paper, or making fists while they are speaking. I think this is all part of the high stakes nature of the presentation. Three of the four projects will be terminated and all the work for those projects will be shelved for the remainder of the program.

I have continued to watch Hunter X Hunter and I am really enjoying it. I believe I am approximately half way through the currently available episodes. The show often presents itself as a happy sort of show but the content is certainly not aimed towards children. Death, betrayal, and sacrifice as common fixtures in the main and side character stories. It is refreshing to have a show that takes consequences seriously. Life or death situations maintain their gravity with a conclusion on way or the other.

I have also been watching Gotham. I’m rather fond of several of the characters already and I hope the quality stays high. It has many of the expected themes with only a few details here and there that I find distracting. I realize working with established characters and work even if it is in an earlier timeline has a fine line between believable and appearing to be some sort of convoluted workaround or retcon.

Finally I’ve been climbing slowly in my League of Legends solo queue. A game or two everyday has settled into a good pattern for advancing out of my placement rank. We’ll have to see how long my upward climb can last, but I would like to be in Gold as a goal. I will have to keep you appraised of the situation as it develops.

Your,

Player Two

Don't Turn the System Off

Dear Player One,

This week has been rather busy for me. It seems I miss you at every turn. I didn’t think a one hour time difference would change much, but I suppose it is also a drastic shift in schedule. My class/work days start at the same time every day and I get home after dinner. I’ve found the program rewarding so far but parts seem unnecessarily stressful. I don’t really understand the need to be argumentative because someone is ‘pushing for innovation.’ If there is nothing better to suggest this often just causes a verbal argument that everyone walks away angry in the end.

It worries me a bit that you aren’t sleeping particularly well. I hope it is just a sleep scheduling issue that will resolve itself. I suspect my sleep troubles stem more from the fact that I just run out of hours in the day. It is 12 hours minimum before I return home each night and there is quite a bit to be done before going to sleep. I’m still getting used to sleeping on a twin sized bed. I have bruises on my knees from curling up on my side and driving them right into the wall next to the bed. I just have no idea on my position in the room.

I have started watching Hunter X Hunter and I’m enjoying it. I can understand the parallels drawn between it and Dragon Ball. I get many of the same feelings from it. A carefree young/innocent character running around and just making things work. I have also been watching Free! That has been more of a spectacle. It is strange to see a show devoted to that sort of entertainment and it is not full of ladies.  I think this is a step in the right direction for my viewing life at least. I don’t mind the ladies but the change of pace is wonderful

I’m glad modeling class is going well. Sometimes it is nice for someone to have low expectations. It means they will be very surprised when you turn in something you worked very hard on. Even among artists there is something be said about excellent modelers. It is not one of my talents, but I am capable at least of the basic construction. There are a lot of other little details that pop up when it comes to rigging and modeling that I’m not even confident I could repeat. The upside is that I kept all of my notes from that class. If I need to duplicate my work I can at least follow a path I am familiar with.

I will be attending The Captivate Conference here in Austin next month. I hear that it is very interesting for artists to network and show portfolios. While I do not currently plan to bring a physical portfolio, I can always email it to people if they are interested. It will still be a while before I throw myself into job hunting.

Your,

Player Two

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So I must first apologize for the missing of days previously. I leave my punishments up to you. School has started to get a little more intense and I'm making some poor decisions about when I go to or stay asleep. I'm sure part of it is switching to a new schedule so it should all be over soon.

I've been doing some fancy things in class and cannot wait to get to the more fancy stuff. We've been starting particle effects, and I'm talking extremely basic ones starting from "open up an empty project in visual studio" sort of basic. I think it'll get less basic pretty quick and some good optimization things will start going in once the rest of the class catches up.

Modelling class, which is a lot less glamorous than it sounds, is great as well, our prof has really low expectations from us since we aren't artists, we're programmers. He seemed pretty happy with us when we started noticing polys with 5 vertices and are asking good questions about the stuff he's showing us.

On to the slightly more embarrassing part of things though. I've been sleeping a lot and for the last week or so I've just been napping in the afternoon. Well the last few days I've been waking up extremely early, think 3-4 in the morning or so, and have been unable to get back to sleep. I suspect this is part of why my sleep schedule hasn't returned to normal. I did however sleep for a long enough time recently that I should have caught up to my accrued debt to sleep. I also tripped going up the stairs today and my foot is still hurting. Odd that my foot is the only part that got injured at all.

I'm shocked though by people's shock at seeing the books I read. Just because they are massive, and yes I agree a 1200 page book is quite large and impressive, they aren't some mystical tome of arcane knowledge. That said, I do wish that I could've gotten this latest one in paperback since hard cover makes it unweildly, which my computer is telling me isn't a word.I am really enjoying it though, in a way that I haven't enjoyed a book since I first started reading fantasy novels, and perhaps not even then. It's not a TTGL or KLK type of feeling though, it's something I don't think I've really gotten out of a book before. I'm sad that it's only 2 books in but am glad there's another 3 at least in the wings after this, according to the author's page on Wikipedia.

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Player one
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Player two? *sigh* I guess I'll have to wait until next time.

A week that would not end.

Dear Player One,

I have not heard from you this week. My week has been fairly hectic and I know you have started class again. I recently had guest speakers and it is funny that so many experts in the same field disagree so directly on some of the most fundamental the way business and creative process is run in a studio. I think it reflects a great deal of the diversity in the industry. Creative properties can be a fickle thing, especially when working under the pressure of a budget and an out of business sign that is creeping ever closer.

That being said, in my most recent group project I found myself constantly in a state of mental exhaustion even though we were not dependent on any sort of funding. The work was not difficult but the management and group dynamics just make me either want to yell or cry depending on how things were spinning out that day. Attempting to produce anything nice while under extreme mental duress directly caused by the project is something I never want to experience again. It leaves a sense of dissatisfaction no matter how well some little parts of the project went. The mental anguish for a less than perfect result is a bitter experience indeed.

I have finally opened my maple syrup. I made French toast for a classmate and we sat in the middle of my empty living room eating and drink want out of plastic cups. It is funny how much I miss having a table of some kind. Anywhere to sit down to eat would be nice at this point. My desk has yet to arrive so I can’t even eat there. My computer chair though is very nice. I think it is very much a thinking sort of chair. It is comfortable to just sit and ponder things a while.

On a positive note I’ve written out a game proposal for a 7 month project. I know I tend to be overly attached to my little creations but I have high hopes for the selection process. My game seed is right in line with some of my desires to make a little contained world.

Saturday I am having a few different social events. First I will be having a few of my classmates over to show them some of my sculpture and some of the techniques that I use. It should be fun just to sit on the ground and play with some clay for a few hours. The second activity is ‘booze and board games’ over at another classmate’s house. I’m not so much for the booze but games might be fun. I’ve already played a few of the games that will be available. Loot is a simple card game that plays its course pretty quickly. I’m not sure I understand the intricacies but the basic play is fun.

I will keep you up to day as my plans change and my plans progress.

Your,

Player Two

Room Inventory Still Empty

Dear Player One,

It is Friday. I have not received my furniture yet. I have had to reschedule its delivery several times. I'm not sure what the moving company's business model is, but most people are not home in the middle of the week from 10 am to 2 pm. It would be my general feeling that most people are at work, school, or otherwise occupied with activities that make it rather difficult to wait for the delivery man if he shows up at all. That all being said my delivery is set to arrive on Saturday and I really look forward to having a bed.

I’m pretty physically sore. I suspect this is from sleeping on the floor. I don’t remember this being quite so difficult when I was younger. It will be a while before I agree to any camping trips after this experience. It is difficult to be energetic and focused when no matter which way you sit something is aching.

I have started playing board games with my faculty during lunch. There are now a few small games I wish to purchase after I come home. I might be able to grab the smaller ones before Christmas and tot them back with me if things work out.

Hanabi is a short cooperative game which involves cards and efficiency of information. The game does not last very long but certainly requires players to observe the rules closely. It is easy to feel the need to cheat in the interest of succeeding.

The second game is Kill Doctor Lucky the Card Game. I have played Kill Doctor Lucky the board game a bit and find the card game much more interesting. It is a much quicker game that tends to be more inclusive (It is entirely possible to play the board game and never get a turn). It is a very strategic game but not exclusionary to people who have not played before.

The last of these games are Bang and the related game Samurai. I know we have played Bang together before so I’ll focus on the later of the two. Samurai is made by the same designers but was constructed to specifically address some of the game problems that Bang has. Players that are ‘out’ are still include and don’t have to wait quietly while the rest of the game finishes. The second addresses some of the power balancing. I will have to keep you up to date on this one as I get to play it more.

Now that it is Friday, it is board game night with the program. I think the game of choice for the evening is Avalon. While I have been told that it came be played in a reasonably short period of time, I have become skeptical of this given how many stories of long drawn out games I’ve been hearing. I realize this may be because the long games are most interesting but I’m not holding my breath on getting home at a reasonable hour.

I’ve still not been able to obtain waffles for my own waffling hour. I will have to make a more concerted effort on this front. The little stores around my apartment just do not carry waffles. Pop tarts and pancake batter, yes but waffles are a no.

I’m hoping it cools off soon. Walking to class is still very warm despite the fact I’m only moving around a little after 8 am and walking home after dinner. We’ll have to see how that goes. Is it getting cold for you yet?

Your,

Player Two

Main Menu

Dear Player Two,

I have some pretty exciting things to talk about this week, and I'm sorry if things feel weird, today me and weekend me don't always know how to talk to each other.

It's been a nice week with classes and some strange moments. To start one of my prof's missed class due to buying a house. That has to be one of the greatest excuse I've heard of to miss a class. Far better than the excuse of a locked door. I'm really excited to get things going and it looks like we're going to be dive in head first. I don't have many details to share but perhaps the next time you load up this game I can reveal more to you.

I hear austin is a weird place, though IMO all of Texas is a very strange place but that's just because I'm from Canada. I'm glad to hear you've got a lot of your room adornments settled, and hope that you'll see your IKEA furniture soon and without too much interference from the cruel hands of fate...or hands of bad movers.

Time for the thing of the week that's been bothering me! Many games I've been playing lately are co-op or pvp or otherwise social. Lately we've been playing a relatively fast paced game and we find that one person is constantly in menus and comparing stats of items etc. Most of us are running along at what I feel is a regular steady pace while the one remaining is always lagging behind not participating. This isn't unique to the ones I've been playing lately, many of the other online games have this as well. Seeing this in things like warcraft or league is simply infuriating. But enough of that, I just need to include something bothering me each week since I started off last week with it.

That said, I've been really enjoying the new D3 lately with some school friends doing a lot of the timed Rifts. Before you ask, no that's not where the problems I've been having are coming from. I've probably put far too much time into that game recently, though I can justify it with the simple claim that I'm networking with my classmates to make sure I get into the good groups for projects.

With that I must bid you Adieu (which is particularly funny since I'm talking about Ubisoft in classes lately, which as you know is a french company HQ'd in Montreal) and hope this finds you well.

Goodnight my Player Two, Load Game. *blink blink*