For about a year now, I’ve been updating this blog every day.
I’ve been maintaining IT CAME FROM NETFLIX every week for around the same amount of time.
I’ve held down a job, revitalized some of my hobbies, made some fantastic friendships and climbed closer to my goal of publication, bit by bit.
I’m going to continue that journey, no matter the cost, and I know I’m going to get there. I also know that I couldn’t have gotten this far without you.
You read my words and occasionally find merit within them. That’s more than any author, aspiring or no, could ever hope for.
This is related to a post I made a few months ago regarding expository writing but it’s on my mind since my wife and I just finished watching (or rather re-watching) the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I’d borrowed the extended editions from my mother, as my copies are elsewhere.
Anyway, this if Faramir. In the books, he’s markedly different from his brother, Boromir, in that he does not fall into the sway of the One Ring. Throughout the narrative, he remains completely uncorrupted, unlike most other characters who encounter the ring. Even Galadriel, one of the oldest, fairest and most powerful elves in all of Middle-Earth, is tempted by this prize, but Faramir says he wouldn’t take it even if he found it on the side of the road.
In the films, Faramir is briefly tempted. He gets as far as Osgiliath with the hobbits, but Sam breaking the truth to the Gondorian about how his big brother died coupled with watching Frodo very nearly get scooped up by a Nazgûl shakes him out of it and moves him closer to the original text. Not enough for some fans, mind you, but you can’t please everybody.
Similarly, Aragorn doesn’t jump at the chance to become king in the movie. Instead of carting around Narsil in his back pocket waiting for the time to be right to reforge that sucker, in the films he shrinks back from the prospect of being king. He knows his family has a history of corruption and failure, having declined ever since the heroic death of Elendil and the utter undoing of Isildur because of the Ring. It’s only after many trials, many adventures, brushes with death and nearly losing the love of his life that Aragorn steps up and takes the noble legacy that’s been waiting for him all along.
As much as I’m a fan of the books, I like these takes on these characters a lot more. It shows growth, the development of the characters from an origin point to a final destiny. Aragorn doesn’t kick around in the North as Strider just to hide from Sauron as he does in the books; he also does it to hide from his own destiny, and the corruption he feels has eaten away at his lineage. Faramir’s line of not using the Ring even if he alone could save Gondor carries far more weight after his experiences with the Hobbits. It might not have been exactly what Tolkien intended, but along with expository writing, the man seemed to like birthing characters fully-formed from his mind.
Let me reiterate that this man’s brilliant. He builds fantastic worlds with rich history and it’s something that gives his narrative weight. But there are two things in his works that bother me a bit as a writer. In addition to the aforementioned exposition, a few of his characters don’t develop a great deal. They’re not grown through their experiences as the story unfolds, they simply are whatever Tolkien needs them to be.
It’s not true for all of his characters, certainly. Both Bilbo and Frodo are very different Hobbits from when they start out in the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring. Even moreso, Bilbo changes because of his experiences in The Hobbit and when we catch up with him on his 111th birthday, he’s no longer the respectable bachelor of Bag End, but seen as something of a recluse and troublemaker. Given, these are the main protagonists of two narratives we’re talking about, while Aragorn and Faramir are somewhat less prominent. They’re no less important, however, given the structure and flow of the story.
While not every character in a story necessarily has to become changed by the events that unfold, the characters that directly impact those events should be cultivated in such a way that they do change. Otherwise, they quickly become static, even boring. I’d like to think that, in the way that Aragorn and Faramir were cultivated in the films to show their nobility and generosity of spirit through action and circumstance rather than telling us how noble they are, Tolkien would have approved.
With colder weather coming at us and my World of Warcraft account on hiatus for now since I zigged when I should have zagged in allocated this last paycheck, I figured it was high time for me to organize the rather large collection of trading card game stuff. For a while it’s lingered in a couple of old boxes, but I blew off the dust and started putting things together, if only to make sure I’ve plucked what Magic cards I still have out of the rest.
And boy oh boy, did I sink a LOT of money into this hobby.
In alphabetical order:
Battletech
If memory serves, this game preserves some of the elements that made the video game a great time for anybody into giant fighting robots in general and the BattleTech universe in particular. Iconic mechs, heat management and pilot selection all came into play. I guess slinging cardboard wasn’t a good substitute for either digital recreations or miniatures, though, as players were hard to come by.
Dragonball Z
There was a time when I enjoyed watching this show. There was also a time when I enjoyed bringing certain characters in it to life in a card game. I never enjoyed it as much as I did Magic, which makes me once again wonder what possessed me to give away so many classic cards.
Jyhad/Vampire:TES
This game’s complexity always appealed to me. I’m not entirely sure why, but the intricate structure of the politics and powers of the Masquerade being intact in these cards makes me happy. It’s like slipping on an old, comfortable pair of pants. Or fangs.
Legend of the Five Rings
This is a universe I’ve always wanted to explore with more depth. The combination of bushido honor codes with hedge magic and dark powers beyond the wall is full of ideas I like. See also why I enjoy George RR Martin’s books. I’ve yet to get into a role-playing group that plays the tabletop game, and I only played this card game a few times. It was always fun, though.
While I’m on the subject, I seem to have a Hantei/Shadowlands deck that isn’t mine. Ring any bells among my readers?
NetRunner
Introduced not long after Magic itself got started, NetRunner came with built-in PvP. One player was the Corporation, furthering goals of world domination. The other was the Runner, hacking into the Corp’s servers to make a quick buck. It’s definitely fun if you ever enjoyed things like Tron, Hackers, the works of Gibson or Dick or even The Matrix. Although there’s more actual hacking and less wire-fu.
Pokemon
I taught some kids how to play back in Bloomsburg.
…Don’t you judge me.
Universal Fighting System
I was going to demo this and help promote it at the Roundtable in Conshohoken, before they shut down. I still have my demo materials, which feature characters like Felicia from DarkStalkers, Cammy from Street Fighter, Tira from SoulCalibur and Mai from King of Fighters. Yes, there’s a pattern there. I also have the Penny Arcade decks. Gabe & Tycho make anything more awesome.
World of Warcraft
I have more of these cards than I do Magic. I might have had similar numbers if I’d kept my original stock. I competed in a few events, picked up some of the raid decks (Onyxia & Molten Core) and even own a Aleyah Dawnbringer play mat. That may actually come with me on my next Magic trip. Anyway, most of these cards are, from what I understand, all but useless now, as power scopes have far outstripped the original expansions and, unlike Magic, the old cards have lost their luster. I doubt I could get $2000 for any of the rares from Heroes of Azeroth the way I could if I owned a Black Lotus. So they’ll likely sit in the bottom of the box until I can catalog the lot and try to sell it.
Any other card players out there? If so, what’s your game of choice?
The last time I reviewed a movie that had any connection to a video game, things did not end well. On the other hand, I’ve been meaning to watch Tron, WarGames and The Last Starfighter again to see if the “holy trinity” of movies about gamers stand the test of time, especially with the long-awaited sequel to Tron just around the corner. I mean, there’s got to be more to the fervor than just seeing Olivia Wilde in a skin-tight neon future-suit, right? Then again…
Anyway, Gamer isn’t looking to compete with that high a pantheon, or any other group of movies. It’s kind of looking to be it’s own thing, and taken it’s own, it’s not that bad. You can’t take it on it’s own, unfortunately, because just about everything it does has, on some level or another, been done before.
Once again, we’re in the near future. Not the glitsy, flying-cars future of Back to the Future Part 2, the gritty, brownish-grey near-future in pretty much every action movie and first person shooter made in the last decade or so, give or take a few stand-out examples. Internet media mogul Ken Castle is flush from his success in the phenomenon called Society which allows players to take control of real people and have them do anything the player wants. Now, he’s introduced SLAYERS, in which gamers assume direct control of death row inmates and have them shoot each other for fun and profit. It’s online deathmatches with flesh and blood hardcases instead of digital simulacra. The top badass in the game is Kable. He’s close to freedom, but with not only a wife and daughter on the outside and a wrongful case keeping him locked up but also a big secret about Castle’s success, the moment we see him it’s just a matter of time before he breaks out and joins the underground resistance movement.
So yeah, this one’s playing in the same yard as Equilibrium,District 9 and Repo Men. And using a mass media distraction to placate the masses while they’re getting bent over for a nefarious purpose has also been done before, viz. The Running Man. To a lot of people, especially people who see lots of movies all the time, this is going to feel a little “been there, done that.” Especially with Gerard Butler as Kable. A lot of people can’t see him as anybody but Leonidas, having all but forgotten that he was also the Phantom of the Opera. As much as the movie might want to be taken on its own merits, the connections to previous and (let’s face it) better-done work is inevitable and waters down the experience a bit.
You keep making that face, Gerard, it’s going to stay that way.
So let’s talk about what Gamer does differently, and what it gets right. It’s not here to preach to us about the evils of video games or even to extol their virtues. It’s here to play around with some concepts that have seeped into gamer culture and write them large across the screen. Glitched NPCs, game mods, the allure of online popularity – there’s even a very brief joke about teabagging. Given that this is being directed by the guys responsible for the Crank movies, it should be no surprise that just about every aspect of gaming in general and first-person shooters in particular gets pulled out at one point or another, even if it’s just touched on in passing.
There’s also the fact that Society is very clearly a send-up of the online simulation Second Life. If you’re at all aware of the existence of Second Life, you probably know that it’s a haven for all sorts of people seeking an outlet, from counter-culture to free-form role-playing to out-and-out deviance. The approach that Gamer takes by replacing the customizable user avatars of Second Life with the real-life remote-controlled people of Society is calculated to make the entire enterprise seem sick and wrong. Not only does it make the antics of this sort of adult playground look ridiculous, it makes no bones about its portrayal of the kind of people who actually indulge in this sort of thing on a regular basis. It certainly isn’t very nice in how it sees the players of Society, and by extension Second Life, but it’s definitely funny.
Believe it or not, this is a modest outfit in Second Life Society.
While Gamer can be fun, it’s also flawed. As I said, Butler is still shaking off the stoic badass visage that seems to paralyze the ability to convey emotion. The plot of the movie is inconsistent at best and disjointed at worst, and some of the camera work is too quick and confusing. The action sequences aren’t going to set the world on fire and there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of inventiveness at work. Some characters are introduced only to have them die or disappear arbitrarily, some things happen with only the most threadbare explanation and a couple of plot threads that might have proven interesting go entirely unresolved. It doesn’t maintain the frenetic pace of the aforementioned Crank flicks and it suffers, as the manic energy that both fuels the action and gives the scorn of the Society bits its edge drains very quickly when neither of those is happening. I think a couple of plot meetings and screenplay edits could have smoothed out these rough bits.
However, the dialog does pop in places, Michael C. Hall’s fun to watch as Ken Castle, we get some great stuff from Ludacris as the leader of the resistance and while you might not be blown out of your seat by the action, the way Gamer takes the piss out of Second Life you just may catch yourself having a good time. A few moments of intelligent writing and a fresh take on a tried-and-true concept manage to poke through action sequences that would look right at home in a Transporter movie or any given game of Gears of War. Watching Gamer is like eating an entire giant Oreo cookie when all you really want is the cream filling but, for some reason, you just can’t unscrew the damn thing properly. In my opinion, it’s good to see a movie about gaming that has little to say about gaming itself from a pontification standpoint, and focuses more on the game.
Which you just lost, by the way.
Josh Loomis can’t always make it to the local megaplex, and thus must turn to alternative forms of cinematic entertainment. There might not be overpriced soda pop & over-buttered popcorn, and it’s unclear if this week’s film came in the mail or was delivered via the dark & mysterious tubes of the Internet. Only one thing is certain… IT CAME FROM NETFLIX.
So how did NaNoWriMo go? If you participated, that is. It’s my hope that, if you did, you’re looking at a somewhat complete & coherent manuscript. Maybe you’re still working on writing yours – if so, don’t fret. Rome wasn’t built in a day, as they say.
The great thing about editing in Scrivener is that your work is divided up into easy-to-manage bits. You can move sections around, take some out, add new ones. And within those sections, remember that Scrivener has all of the tools of a mass-market word processor. Highlight text you’re unsure of, make notes to yourself, do all the things you need to do to make the text work.
This not only eases the editing process but makes rewriting much less of a daunting task. You can go right into the bits that need work, or start a whole new section of text while keeping the old one intact. Being inclusive in your editing helps you see what works and what doesn’t. Like any good tool, Scrivener makes this process easier without getting in the way of the process.
Compiling
When you’ve finally gotten the text where you want it and are confident in its structure, flow and end result, it’s time to release it into the world. Scrivener puts your text together in a variety of formats and lets you compile the text for many purposes.
Scrivener’s built-in templates, from novel to screenplay, take care of the end-result formatting out of the box. The front page, word count and spacing are all defined for you. You can send the compiled draft directly to the printer, or save the file as a PDF or even an RTF file for portability and sending to test readers or other contacts across the Internet.
I know a new version of the beta is coming in the next few weeks and I’m interest to see what tweaks have been made to it. I’d like to see if I can take one of my early Scrivener experiments and import it into one of the aforementioned templates. I want to make sure my end result looks as good as possible before it starts crossing other peoples’ desks.
If you’ve been trying out the Scrivener beta for Windows or Linux, how’s it gone for you? Are you an old-school Mac user with advice? Got questions on the software? Lay it on me.
And if you participated in NaNoWriMo, I hope you keep up the good work even though November’s behind us.
