What keeps you gaming?

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August 12th, 2008

So over the last little while I’ve been trying to get ahead on the comic strip and unfortunately that has meant letting some of my other hobbies fall to the wayside. One of the casualties of this schedule cleansing has unfortunately been my x-box time. Although I do try to make an effort to play when I can, the time that was available to it has been severely hampered. So this weekend I thought “I should play a couple of rounds of Call of Duty 4″ and was flabbergasted as to how my skills seemed to be AWOL. Now I suppose that being a gamer is like anything else, you need to practice if you want be good at it. But it’s a little unnerving as to how quickly I lost my feel for the game. But then I thought… is it really my skills that have taken a beating…. Or is it just that I’ve fallen behind? There seem to be a lot of people out there playing every day for multiple hours a day…. why is that? It’s the same game…. the same weapons.. what keeps them interested enough to jump on day in and day out and raise their skill level to such a level? Maybe it’s the fact that other people see it….

Gaming seems to have become more and more competitive over the years. There was a time, not so long ago (or at least that’s what I tell myself) when gaming was all about the fun. If someone was really good at a certain game it was easy to enjoy that WITH them. Coop play, taking turns on the same controller was the norm. Maybe it was because there were so few head to head games available to the fill that competitive space. Now-a-days it seems like most games are all about the personal achievements. More and more are focusing on the multiplayer platform. Maybe because people believe that the skill they display is more persistent when others can experience it first hand. And maybe they’re right.

Now I broke free of the shackles of World of Warcraft only a few months ago, but it was hard for me. And I think that had a lot to do with this exact issue. World of Warcraft is a great example of how gamers like to parade their skill around. High level armor sets are so desirable in that game because they show the world how much time and effort you’ve put into the game. It shows your level of dedication. I’m not sure if x-box really knew what they were tapping into when they instituted the “gamer score,” but it really is a powerful incentive. You know it’s funny, when I first got my x-box live gold up and kicking, I thought that I wouldn’t be the type to care about a silly number. But it really feels good to see that number grow as you play through different games. Now I’m still not one to go out of my way to “pad” my gamerscore…. I haven’t stooped so low as to go and rent Avatar or anything, but it still feels nice every time one of those little achievements pops up on the screen… especially when you get it for something you weren’t really trying for.

So competitive gaming seems like its here to stay. Like it or lump it, the multiplayer experience is the way of the future. If you’ve been fighting it up to now, you might as well give up and accept it. The single player game will soon be just a story you’re telling the grandkids around the fireplace….. They’ll smile and laugh at the old man describing antiquated simulated 3d environments and analogue controls… Bank on it!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 at 7:09 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

^ 3 Comments...

souljabwoy
August 12th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
How True!! Single player games and single player mode will just be used to help get some practice so when you jack in online, you can bypass all the noob banter!
Rob Lundy
August 12th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
Yeah that seems to be the case these days…. I don’t really mind though… I think if you try to fight these things it only gets worse…
Kiwii
August 16th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
WoW is the only online game I play and if the kids are worse everywhere else, you’re making me frightened of trying the new consoles *hugs NES*

The Process: Writing

September 22nd, 2011

So week after week I find myself doing something that I never thought I’d spend so much time and effort to improve…. Writing.

Maybe it comes from my art and programming backgrounds, but I am constantly trying to find some kind of formula or exercise that will make the construction of a storyline an easier process. Now that may feel like a kind of clinical and antiseptic way of approaching what is very much an art form. But to be perfectly honest, that’s how I approach my artwork. Now granted, that isn’t how I always thought of art, but in college I learned that a well drawn character begins with a solid construction from basic shapes, so why should writing be any different?

I tend to start my writing sessions by recapping what is happening to the characters, what they might be feeling, thinking, what they want to do… just something to get the writing juices flowing. A little like a warmup sketch.

The next step is for me to write out a series of Plot Points I want to hit. I don’t try to fill up every slot in a month of comics or anything, adding in more points between them to achieve a proper pace for the story can come later. I just throw in anything I can think of that I’d like to have included in the storyline. These Plot Points can be as detailed as fully fleshed out comic scripts or as vague as a single sentence that gives a loose idea of what will eventually become a script.

At this point I look over what I’ve got and I just kinda guess at where I need to add another strip or two between the existing plot points to correct the pacing. This is one part of the process that I don’t fully understand myself. Pacing is just one of those things that I can just tell is off by looking at it. I know it’s not particularly helpful, but it’s true. Sometimes I can just tell that I need to add a strip before a change in location or subject matter, like it needs a transition… I dunno, it’s hard to explain.

This is the point when I’ll often have a hard time coming up with ideas for those filler strips. Luckily I recently discovered a writing trick that helps me come up with some new ideas. It’s a variation of brainstorming I think of it as “the what if game.” I just make a big old list of what ifs that relate to whats currently happening in the strip.

What if the car breaks down on the way to the hospital?
What if Brody discovers he’s allergic to the gel in disposable diapers?
What if Abbey goes into false labor?
What if Max breaks his arm and they all end up in the hospital together?

You get the idea…

So this list will generally generate enough options that SOMETHING in there will spark my imagination that will eventually become a joke. You know it’s been said that ideas are cheap, that the execution of those ideas are what matter. This is true for writing comic strips. I have learned that ANY situation can become a joke, you just need to find the right angle to approach it from. Humor comes from the unexpected. Present a problem or situation and then resolve it in a way your audience wont expect and you illicit a humor response.

The last thing I do when writing a strip is simplify it. Again with the writing as a formula…. This is the point where I take the joke I have and I optimize the script. I try to take the most basic essence of the comic and I try to reduce it down to as few words as possible. Editing down your scripts is important, but there is such a thing as doing it to aggressively. You still need to maintain the tension in the strip. By tension I mean you need to build up the tension in your first two or three panels and then release it on the final panel. That tension can be lost if you edit the script down too far. But that’s what I mean by optimizing…

Anyway, that’s my writing process… Hope you guys find it interesting.

I’d love to hear from you guys regarding your own writing tricks and tendencies.

Rawb

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Where there’s a whip, there’s a way…

May 26th, 2011

Sorry about the lack of updates lately guys… I picked up a neat little contract to work on in my spare time and it has completely dominated my time over the last couple of weeks and will continue to do so for a little while longer. I’m not sure how much I can share about the project at the moment, I’ll have to defer to my collaborators on divulging information on it. But I will say that it is very much the kind of thing you all might be interested in.

I’ll be back with some more information as soon as I can.

Rawb

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