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WGA Awards, No Bioshock

Jan13
by Douglas Bushong on January 13, 2014 at 12:00 am
Posted In: Comics

So the Writer’s Guild recently published their 2014 list of nominees for best video game writing.  The nominees are:

  • Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
  • Batman: Arkham Origins
  • God of War: Ascension
  • The Last of Us
  • Lost Planet 3

I was slightly surprised by the games chosen.  I understand the selection of Batman and The Last of Us, but how is it that God of War was selected over Bioshock Infinite or GTA V?

After researching it, I discovered the answer: the only games that could be nominated were those written by members of the WGA.  I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by this, given last year’s nominees:

  • Tomb Raider
  • Thomas Was Alone
  • Lego City Undercover

I don’t think anything necessarily can or should be done about this. It’s the WGA’s award, and it makes sense that they would only include their members. That said, it eats into the credibility of “best” classification when games with such amazing storylines are excluded.  On top of eliminating big bugdet games without WGA writers, this constraint effectively removes all indy titles that were written and designed by the same people from the lists.   Further, it ignores games like Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons that do their storytelling through game mechanics.

If membership is going to be their litmus test for eligibility, they might want to consider taking the emphasis off of the games and put it on to the writers.  For example, rather giving the award to the game and listing the writers on that game, why not nominate the writers and list the games they contributed to?  Of course, this would reduce the number of awards, but it would go a long way toward preserving the credibility of the awards. Also, it would make it possible for the contributions of a given writer to be recognized if that writer has contributed to multiple games.

I just put this out there as something to think about, and I’m sure there are writers who would disagree.  If you are a writer, what do you think about the WGA’s current process for video game nominations?

└ Tags: Best Writing, Bioshock, WGA Awards
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2014 Resolutions

Jan06
by Douglas Bushong on January 6, 2014 at 12:00 am
Posted In: Comics

So two weeks ago, I wrote about my resolutions for 2013.  I had both failures and successes, and I used that information to prepare a list for this year.  The interesting thing about it is that I think both the successes and failures were based on the clarity that I applied to the resolutions.

Here is my 2014 list. Unlike last year, I have included my rationale behind each resolution this year.

1) Develop a basic instrument calibration simulation.

I think my resolution last year of “design a game in Game Maker” was simultaneously too specific and too broad.  “A game” is too vague of a goal to be measurable, and there’s no reason why the game needed to be made in Game Maker.  This constraint pressured me to avoid spending time working on something like a tabletop game, and artificially constrained me to a single platform.  This year, I’ve decided that there are several specific things that I want to learn within the development software, and this specific project will help me to do that.

2) Complete 12 pieces of 3D digital art for the art shows.

This worked well last year, so I will keep it going this year.  Not much more to say.

3) Use up 12 brush pens on brush pen work.

As I mentioned two weeks ago, I had set the resolution last year to do a certain amount of brush pen work.  The purpose of this resolution was to develop the skill set.  The problem, of course, is that the measure that I chose (12 pieces) doesn’t necessarily contribute to that goal.  The purpose of the resolution was to get me to practice more, but the measurement didn’t encourage such practice.  For example, I could belt out 12 pieces in an hour or two, but they won’t necessarily be good or thorough, and certainly would not help with my skill development.

I think wearing out brush pens as the measuring stick will give me better results.

4) Complete my PMP certification.

I strongly considered resolving to completing one year without taking a class. I have an addiction to formalized education, and every time an opportunity comes up to take an organized course (particularly a free one), I pounce on it.  This has helped me to improve my skill sets, but has eaten into my video, audio, and art development time.

That said, continuing education has been a cornerstone of my career, and I don’t suspect this will change anytime soon.  So when trying to figure out the approach that I want to take to controlling my addiction, I’ve decided to give myself a single, achievable objective that would keep me progressing but not force my education time to conform to a rigid schedule.

In my day job of as an instructional designer, the PMP certification is an important milestone.  Everything I do is project-based, so learning more about the processes of running a project is a good fit. Setting this as my benchmark will allow me to pour my study time into the time gaps that I already have, but still gives me a clear, measurable result at the end of the year.

5) **REVISION** Make the blog more topical, and focus on games in the news.

The death of my thumbdrive in a later entry has prompted me to stop writing big blog entries so far in advance, and to focus my attention on staying up to date with gaming news.

So there we go.  We’ll check back in next December and see how we are coming along.

└ Tags: New Year Resolutions
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UFC 168 and Fight Pass

Dec30
by Douglas Bushong on December 30, 2013 at 12:00 am
Posted In: Comics

As much as I love the UFC, the thought of buying a PPV event just to watch it by myself is not something that crosses my mind often.  Usually, I prefer to see it with a gathering of other people, either at a party or at a sports pub.  So it says something when a fight card is so stacked that I am willing to do exactly that.  UFC 168 is one of those cards.

UFC 168 was a night with a lot of surprises.  I was blown away that Josh Barnett lost.  I was pleased to see Ronda Rousey give a 12 minute seminar on why we should question the notion that “wrestling beats Judo.”  And of course, I joined everyone in horror as I saw what may have been the end of Anderson Silva’s career.

The thing that I wanted to talk about in today’s entry, though, was the new UFC Fight Pass that was advertised before the event.  If you haven’t heard about it, I encourage you to watch this video:

I love the free fight nights. I love the collection of the television shows in a single location.  I love the original content.  But most of all, I love the access to the older video libraries, particularly the PrideFC library.

I recently cancelled my cable subscription (just the TV; I kept the internet) because I hate being forced to buy a package of something in order to get 5% of the package.  It doesn’t matter to me if I have 200 channels if there are only 3 channels that I watch.  So I like when I have the option of paying a small fee to get the specific content that I want, and not have to deal with the rest.

I know this will make me unpopular with some people, but I’m actually a big proponent of these “micro-subscriptions,” or subscriptions that get you a specific and refined piece of content but don’t ask you to pay for anything else. For example, I like the Creative Cloud model for Adobe products and the Office 365 model for MS Office.  Can you imagine if you could chose 5 channels to watch at a dramatically reduced rate?  Can you imagine if you could start and stop subscriptions on a monthly basis based on your needs and life events? I can, and I hope to see it more frequently.

└ Tags: FightPass, Rousey, Silva, UFC
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2013: The Year in Review

Dec23
by Douglas Bushong on December 23, 2013 at 12:00 am
Posted In: Comics

So I made 4 resolutions at the beginning of the year.  Unlike many people, I am a fan of resolutions and, more important, I am a fan of writing them down and putting them out there for the public to see.  This is a place where social pressure can be a healthy thing.  I wanted to take a moment, look over last year’s resolutions, and reflect on my successes and failures.  At the beginning of the new year I’ll post my resolutions for 2014, and those resolutions will be largely influenced by my success or failures in 2013.

Resolution 1: Design one game in GameMaker.

This is one resolution that I would have been able to say I completed on a technicality IF I had written “make” instead of “design,” as I made a few games using the GameMaker and Stencyl tutorials throughout the year.  I can’t claim credit for any kind of design, though.

While I would say this resolution was a failure on the face of it, I do feel that the resolution succeeded in keeping a gentle pressure on me to learn more about the products.  I have a stronger baseline now, and I hope to pursue it further into the coming new year.  Still “Make a game” might be too ambitious of a goal, so for 2014 I will choose something that’s a little easier to break down into workable pieces, and a little more specific in nature.

Resolution 2: Complete 12 pieces of 3D digital art for the art shows.

When I sat down to write out the results of this resolution, I initially thought that I had failed.  I suppose it’s the nature of any kind of year-end review; it’s easy to forget the work that you did at the beginning of the year OR to think that it was actually completed in the previous year.

As it turns out, I completed 15 pieces instead of 12.  It was my intention to complete one per month, but I find that a more effective approach is to schedule them around events.  This year, in addition to meeting my deadlines for commissioned work, I made it my goal to always have a new piece for each convention.  In doing so, I gave myself a hard deadline, but I also had a direct connection between my work and my customers.

This year, I completed 3 character commissions, 4 contract pieces for the Shadowfist card game, 2 commissions for show conventions, and 6 personal projects.  This is apart from the videos and animations I completed for work.  On the whole, I think this resolution was met, and I’ve earned the right to set a more aggressive goal for 2014.

Resolution 3: Complete 12 pieces of brush-pen art for the art shows.

Unfortunately, for the work that I’ve done in 3D artwork, I haven’t done as much brush work as I’ve wanted.

I realized something recently as I went back through my sketchbooks:  I have a lot of sketchbooks, but nearly all of them have only one or two sketches in them.  There’s one image at the front of the book, and no more.  Likewise, I have a lot of art materials, but I haven’t used any of them up.

I think the root cause of this is the fact that, deep down, I lack the confidence to commit to a second piece in a sketchbook.  When I have a sketchbook with a really good sketch in it, I find that I don’t want to add another because it might not be as good as the first one.  As I think about it more and more, I realize it’s a fundamental misunderstanding of what the sketchbook is supposed to be.  Reflecting on this resolution has brought this root cause to the front of my mind, and my hope is that it will help me to overcome it.

So with that in mind, when I make my 2014 resolutions, I am going to change the nature of this goal and see if it improves my results.

Resolution 4: Complete one (and only one) blog entry per week, and place more emphasis on the importance of games in society.

I think the record will show that I completed the first part of this entry, even if I wasn’t always on time.  As to the second part, I think the entries were a little stronger this year.  I still have a long way to go, but I feel like I’m getting into a good rhythm.  I’m also exploring, in my own mind, why games are important to me, and why they are important to society.

So that’s it for this year.  Next week I’m going to give my comments on UFC 168, and then we’ll be into the new year.

└ Tags: New Year Resolutions
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Severing All Ties

Dec16
by Douglas Bushong on December 16, 2013 at 12:00 am
Posted In: Comics

I’ve notices a trend this last year that has been hampered my gaming for years.  When I beat a game, I generally require a decompression period before I can go on to something else. This often involves going back and playing through parts of the game to get achievements, and to satisfy the completionist in me.

In some instances, this has led to me completing parts of the game that most people don’t complete.  In the Batman Arkham games, for example, I collected all of the Riddler items (incidentally, I did this twice: once on OnLive, and again on Steam).  In Sang-Froid and Gunpoint, I completed all of the achievements and tried out the final mission several times using different strategies.  And so on.

The problem is this approach keeps me from moving on to other games.  I’ve had many games on my Steam, XBLA, and PSN accounts that have gone untouched for years simply because I haven’t had time to get to them.  Much of that time has been spent continuing to play completed games long after they were completed.  Some games are very hard to break away, especially if the game makes it easy to return to previous scenes and locations to complete additional quests and achievements.

Earlier this year, when I beat Tomb Raider, I found myself doing this once again.  In that instance, I tried to go back and get all of the items a la the Arkham Games.  I found myself coming in during the evenings wanting to keep playing, but not wanting to waste time on a completed game.  My solution to the problem at that time was to uninstall the game.  I figured, once it was uninstalled, the process of re-installing it would be enough of a deterrent to keep me from playing it again.

It worked.

With that in mind, I’ve gotten into a new habit: As soon as I complete a game, I immediately uninstall it.  This allows my laziness (not wanting to re-install) to overcome my comfort (the comfort of returning to a known game), and gives me an added motivation to move on to other games.

Consider giving it a try on your machine.  You may find that experience more games as a result.

└ Tags: Batman, Completionist, Deleting Games
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