Tag: Video Games

Games: Why Buy At Launch?

So, for those of you who know me… I am a gamer through and through. I buy games on launch to aid in the ever growing quest for publishers to have “great launches”. I don’t know if this legitimately helps them, but I feel better knowing I support the things I love. I do the same with movies, and this rant applies to both. As an avid supporter of the realm of media (digital or otherwise) I find myself at a crossroads where I never would have guessed I’d be.

I am slowly not buying games at launch.

Why you ask? Well I’m glad you did!

You see, it has become trend that not only do games drop in price or trade ins arrive after a game has been out for awhile but the person who picks it up on day one loses out on getting the whole package. Let’s use Skyrim for instance. I love Skyrim, so much to do, so much to explore and never quite the same experience twice. However I bought this game at launch. Got the game, no special edition, no downloadable content, not a thing extra. Then they announce some downloadable content, which after paying ninety dollars for my game they now would like an additional five or ten dollars. More content? More money. Even more content? Sweet! More money. So if you were the poor sucker who bought the game at launch and got all the content, you spent close to one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty dollars.

Ok, so you really loved the game. It was worth one hundred and thirty to you. Fair enough. Great game, great story. Then as a slap in the face they release everything you bought for a third of the price. Thanks for the giant slap in the face. So what I’ve been asking myself is this: Why buy a game at launch that you can buy in say a year’s time and get all the content for cheaper? I’d rather have the full experience than the expensive episodic experience.

So the problem is pretty apparent, game companies for some strange, unknown reason are slowly conditioning us to not buy their games at launch. They don’t see it now, but I can assure you I’m not the only person out there with this mentality. I have spoken with multiple people who refuse to preorder when they will wait until they can get the “full game” in a bundle or pack. Yeah, it is going swell for companies right now while people are coming to their senses… but parents are going to stop buying brand new, gamers are going to hold off and all it’s going to take is some time.

Assassin’s Creed IV just came out. It looks nifty. I’ll pick it up when it has a GOTY or Platinum Hits All included edition. I preordered the collectors edition of Batman because that statue of Batman and Joker rocked my world. That being said, give me something I can only get at launch. I know there was a statue for Assassin’s Creed IV, but frankly… what if I hated that character like I hated Ezio from Assassin’s Creed II? That’s a big risk. Replica Hidden Blade? Better.

My problem still lies in the fact that it all comes out later in a cheaper package. I think instead of buying the season pass or whatever “buzzword” they’ve marketed, it should come included at launch. Entice people to preorder for only the launch ones will have a full season pass. Then the next lot can pay ten bucks less, with no season pass. Then when the game of the year edition comes out, have it include the DLC on a disc. Have it at that original price point again or the ten dollar less one. Yes eventually that will drop in price, but it doesn’t condition people not to help you at launch.

Don’t get me wrong, gaming has changed considerably in the twenty five years I’ve been gaming. From my old Commodore 64 and Colecovision to my preordered PS4 and Zelda 3DS XL, it is fantastic to be able to get additional content for the games I love. But I just want that content to be an addition to the game, not a sore mark.

Finishing up, I love the new Batman game, but sadly I won’t get the additional DLC from the Playstation store. Same thing happened with Bioshock Infinite. I suppose as I grow older and find my ambitions higher and my time for gaming less, I’ll start prioritising how and when I spend my time and money. I mean it sucks when you buy a movie and then they release an extended edition or collector’s edition… am I right? Same thing with bands, new album, extended album with covers and unreleased tracks. Do you ladies and gents out there feel the same? Let me know via email or in the comments below.

 

The Writer Within

I find myself writing a diary entry every night that is somewhere between three hundred to five hundred words. Strangely that comes easier than the posts I manage to write on this site, as I feel must be more professional. This is the gateway to my future career hopefully, although my twitter feed somehow comes up in the top results on Google. I find myself inspired by almost anything and everything and focusing on the task at hand can be very difficult. I pour my hear out in my writing whether it be an article type post for IGN or a short story based on some kind of post-apocalyptic world.

Where I am going with this is I have found it exceptionally hard to simply choose a freelance project that feels worth doing. All of them want masses of articles, from fifty to one hundred, and they would like them for anywhere from twenty cents to seventy five cents a piece. The hardest part is being able to let go of my personal passions and just write whatever they want me to write. Kind of makes me feel like a mercenary, good enough to help but the bad guys are the ones paying! There have been some articles that have seemed interesting but in freelance you put in your bid (essentially undercutting the competition) and then seeing if you get snatched up. Imagine an eBay for writers, where the bids keep going down, until eventually someone is almost paying to write the article for the company they won the bid on. It’s a harsh world, but I suppose you need to start somewhere.

Lucky for me my blog at IGN is getting more notice, more people are viewing it and random people who aren’t a friend of a friend. The more notice I receive the better it is. I once read an article that said many companies these days will actually Google a prospective employee, especially when it comes to jobs in the media or design and development. You must demonstrate consistent passion and knowledge of your particular field and sell yourself every single day. As a writer you are just as much your product as your story is. No one gets rich over night, not in this field. They work at it, slave at it and they perfect their craft. As hard as it has been and as mentally draining as it can be, I have been loving writing every day.

The book I mentioned in my last post, Elements of Style, is a general knowledge book I believe everyone should have. It’s a little over seventy pages and that is all it needs to be. Short, concise and straight to the point. The new book I’ve started on is a Scriptwriting book that probably should have learned from Elements of Style. If I remove much of the wordiness and meaningless sentences, I find that so far this Scriptwriting book has taught me nothing. Not even a review of topics I already knew. Just nothing. Which is fantastic, I give it another two chapters before I turn to Scriptwriting For Dummies. At least I figure that one should be dumbed down already!

My short story will be posted tomorrow regardless of it’s state of edit, and I will begin the actual plans for my projects next week. Also I will be submitting a guest review for a friend’s website on the video game Fallout: New Vegas by Bethesda in the next few hours and if it does end up being posted, I’ll toss out a link to it and you can decide if you’d like to share in my experiences of the barren wastelands of the Mojave.

Either way thanks for swinging by this little blog and I hope everyone out there has a great day!

Elements of Style

Today’s blog post is brought to you by the letter A (as in awesome) and the number one (as in I am). Now, if I may direct your attention to the title of this post. Yes, there is a reason for it. No it’s not because I am styling (but thank you nonetheless) but it is because I just began reading a book on english grammar and proper punctuation. The rules may be pretty loosely defined over the years and different teachers have their own preferences, but this is the definitive rulebook if you would.

The book is entitled as my post is: Elements of Style. The authors are William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White. Thus far everything seems pretty common sense, that is until you’re revising your own work with a fine tooth comb. I have been working more on structure and sentence building as well as paragraph maintenance. If you’re a writer or consider yourself to be one, you need this book. I’ll bet even most successful authors have this in their libraries. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts it has been awhile since I’ve written this much, lately I’ve got the quantity down but now I need to focus on the quality.

The old articles and short stories will remain up in their choppy, garbled forms; but new articles will begin to rise from their ashes. The short story I am working on right now may require some more editing. I’m unsure if I will be able to as I just passed a significant event in the story. I’m not even sure how close I will be to completing a story as I write until I’ve had my fill each day. Today will be the sixth day writing it, and I’m already at over four thousand words. Wish me luck and hopefully I will be able to leave you all with at the very least an interesting story and some decent writing practice for myself!

Strangely enough I got inspired for a story about a daughter seeking out the father that walked out on her, only to discover that he wanted to be a part of her life so badly he documented the things he did and places he went for her. Not sure as to why this idea popped into my head, but I do like it and the potential characters I can write about. As Barney Stinson would say… “Challenge Accepted!”

Freelancing: Easy? I Think Not.

I recently decided to give a go at freelancing as so many websites say it’s actually fairly easy to do. I am here today to officially debunk that myth. For writers, we are a passionate group, however the market for writing is pretty cut-throat and hard to really break into. I had never actually thought about freelancing until a few days ago when I came across an article that told me “The way to get started.” I got really excited, and have been stalking the few websites I have found to see if anything comes up within my interests or expertise. Let me put it to you this way, when they say “get started” they literally mean here’s the websites and go. What they don’t tell you is you’ll definitely want to broaden your horizons.

Freelance work seeming stems from a few things, what I can see on these boards for writing are mostly articles for teen magazines or even women’s magazines such as Cosmo or Cleo. I had no desire to write for these magazines, but on these kinds of websites, that seems to be the majority of the articles. All fluff pieces, talking about the top (insert number here) ways to (insert random thing here). If you want to freelance, and you’re desperate, then you’d be at the right place. The better solution is something I strangely didn’t see on any of these so called “How To Start in Freelancing” articles was to get out there and research. Your local paper may take your submission, your favourite magazine may also take your article and while you’re at it just blog it.

A lot of really reputable magazines and websites will have a place where you can actually submit your work and they will take it into advisement. Sometimes you’ll get feedback, and sometimes you won’t, but the important thing is getting your name out there. Be aware however, if you submit something that is absolutely terrible they will remember your name for all the wrong reasons, so be kind and please revise! I for one still haven’t picked up any freelance work as I’ve taken on two blogs and a short story this week. Majority of the freelance work on these websites want a mass commitment from you. I saw one that asked for sixty articles, minimum four hundred words each and they would pay you sixty cents a post. After sixty articles and twenty four thousand words, they will give you thirty six dollars. That is the reality of much of the freelancing I have seen thus far. They want more for less. I’ve been writing between two thousand and three thousand words a day, six days in a row now, which brings me up to roughly fifteen hundred words. No, I’m not getting paid for mine, but to think I’d need to write for ten days to crank out that many words (at least) for thirty six dollars makes my hourly rate probably a dollar twenty if I do three hours a day. I suppose what I’m saying is get a day job.

Freelancing is like training for the Olympics. It’s going to be hard, you won’t make any money until your famous and then you have to remain consistent to keep the money coming in. But the hardest part is training, write and read my friends, I cannot stress it enough. Even though I just recently got back into writing, I know I haven’t read enough lately to really enrich my stories. I just like all of you out there need to train, need to work at it and I’m still not even ready to practice for the practice squad yet. But I will know when I’m ready, and then I will make the push further, for now my goal is to consistently write over two thousand words a day and make my targets of two blog posts and a page of a short story. I’ll raise the bar next week! For now I am off to work and I hope everyone has a great “humpday”! The weekend fast approaches!

Articles, Scripts and Stories, Oh My!

I dream of a world where I can be paid to create for some creative works company. Whether it be games, movies, television, books, at this point anything would be incredible. As it stands I am practising for bigger and better things. I’ve been looking online and have been wondering if there is script adaptation help somewhere. Thus far I feel like my articles are getting better, but I need to start practising for creative writing. This saturday I will be posting a short story which I started just on sunday. Thus far I’ve been writing a page and a half per day (8.5×11 @ 10pt) and it’s feeling good. I enjoy the main character and the world and I hope you guys will too. Also feel free to leave comments on the saturday blog post here if you catch any errors or want me to contact you about the story. I can use all the constructive criticism I can get!

After this story I might as a side project try to convert the mediocre assassin story into a tv show script. I’ve been watching How I Met Your Mother and just recently read the script for the pilot episode. It doesn’t seem too hard, or complicated, but I will need to find a script for something more action oriented to compare to if I want it to hold up. Also, does anyone out there have any great ideas for novel writing? I figure if I can manage to write two thousand words a day, an eventual reality might be to write a novel. Also has anyone been published who’s reading this? How did you manage and also, should I consider publishing myself?

As for articles I think I’m holding up pretty good, although I suppose I cannot combat the content of the IGN articles. I found myself openly laughing at the Star Wars versus Marvel article, but I do commend the artist. Also please check out my latest IGN post about 3D, I think you’ll find some interesting ideas in there and I’d love to hear about your thoughts on the topic too!

For now I continue checking the freelance work for anything remotely close to what I would like, but I did consider writing an article for a girly magazine entitled “Top five ways to make your bath time more romantic.” However, I haven’t sold out (yet) but it was paying forty dollars an article. If only people would stop trying to get into the game industry it would give me a chance! But for now I must be off to work for a few hours and then back to write more on my short story.

The Hardest Part Of Writing…

Many people state the hardest part of writing is getting started. Perhaps I’ve never experienced this or my issues differ, but I can always get started. I never have a plan when I write short stories, I always come up with a scene or an idea and it simply flows from that simple start. My problem seems to be keeping consistent, as well as finishing a task. I believe every writer will have his or her own issues while trying to write. My problem is I get sidetracked too easily by other ideas and it’s very hard to settle with the main one I’m already working on.

For instance, I was working on a story at one point where the main character was a knight who is slain by the very King he served. He ends up in Hell despite his fight in the name of God, and after a short while asks for a chance to avenge himself. Seeing this as an opportunity, the Devil sets him free upon the world again but much time has passed. The King is older, governs many smaller kingdoms and has a massive army. The fallen knight decides that he needs to somehow break into the castle. (Here’s where I got sidetracked) Upon entering the castle through the sewers, he stumbles upon a single sorceress who is one of the last magicians alive. Now great, the knight’s story is going well and he’s getting close to his goal, however I now have this girl who I wish to add more back story to. And thus, I begin.

The Sorceress is the last of the Magi, a race whose magical ability is second nature to them and most of which were wiped out in a war several hundred years before she was born. (I am already getting sidetracked by the thought of war of the magi) As she looks human, she has been raised by an elite group of assassins to hone her skills for sneaking and killing. However upon her arrival at the castle it was discovered that the King himself has a single trained Magi of his own, locking the two in battle. As they fought she was quickly overtaken by the battle trained Warlock and she was sedated and placed into the dungeon.

So now I’ve got two characters on the go, and I find myself drawn to the idea of the War of the Magi. Thousands of years ago the Magi were a race of people who lived harmoniously with the land. They were feared by humans as their innate magical abilities drove the minds of men wild with thoughts of destruction and their eventual extinction at the hands of these Witches and Wizards. The Magi however were peaceful and kept treaties with all neighbouring countries so they could remain within their country, secluded and protected. One day the Prince of the Magi wished to visit the human worlds despite it being forbidden by laws in both Magi and Human society. As the Magi kept spells to keep Magi in their country and keep Humans out, the Prince turned to dark magic to attempt his escape. His decent was quick, as in less than a month he was finding out how powerful the dark magic really was and began sacrificing his own people for more power. Eventually he broke free of the walls of the Magi kingdom and began his innocent exploration of the Human worlds. However the darkness had taken its toll on him as he felt the need more and more to sacrifice, almost as if being recharged every time he cast dark magic. Eventually he was caught as a serial killer and jailed, with his kingdom wondering where he had gone to. One of the Human guards who caught him caught a glimpse of the Magi Prince’s signet ring and reported it to his Captain. As the Human Kings found out about the Prince, it was deemed that the Magi had been a threat far too long and to war they would march.

So now I have three stories I could go into. Sure I could intertwine the two characters but for every character I create suddenly from their back story comes a whole world I could write about. The chain continues on and on, until I’ve drifted far enough away from the original concept that I almost forget where that story was heading. I also find when I write short fiction, I write in episodes. One page can have so much happen, and I also have the tendency to over or under describe. I remember the first time I tried to get published I must have changed some of my descriptions over twenty times. “Too Much” or “Too Little” were always the comments from the editors, no matter what I changed and then eventually the description changed so much I think I had gotten away from the characters I wanted. For me I can be inspired by the slightest thing and I have to be careful and diligent or I will fall straight off the point and onto something else. It’s one thing to know your issues and a completely different thing to be able to overcome them. Anyone out there find something hard about writing? Or do you have the same issue I do? Let me know in the comments below!

Hooked worse than Peter Pan

It’s been feeling invigorating to get back into writing! Just to give everyone a little idea of how much writing I’ve been doing per day, it’s easily been over two thousand words! Now this week is my first full week of writing like a madman so thanks to everyone who sticks with me (Including my lovely girlfriend, thanks for your support and patience)! I feel like the words just pour out of me while I’m writing lately, which has lead me to get organized and start a little bit of planning. This week I have a few personal goals, and I have to remain constant! I won’t sleep until I accomplish my daily goals! Stay tuned to this blog for the following wild features:

1) A daily basic blog post on this website following my writing exploits: both trials and tribulations.
2) A game themed post over on the IGN website. I’ve been alternating between one serious and one fluff post per day.
3) I’ve decided to go hard or go home, back onto the creative scene with an attempt at one short story per week. I’m going to try hard to do a minimum of one page per day, not published online until Saturday.

If I write two thousand words per day, every single day of the week… In about five and a half weeks I’ll have written as many words as J.K. Rowling wrote about a certain boy wizard’s first year at Hogwart’s. I wish I had some advice from her on how to write a full novel, I’ve got the drive and the passion, but I’m as disorganised as… well, nothing is more disorganized as me! I free write entire short stories with no plot, no structure, sadly it’s fun for me and probably not the best read. I’ve read a few books on the subject, but sometimes you just need an exercise on the topic. Strange that I went to university for Computer Programming, followed by 3D Animation because I wanted a job where I could make money while trying to break into writing in my free time. Sad that I would probably be making more money if I’d have gone through university for writing. If anyone knows of any decent guides or a direction I could be put in to help myself get structure, feel free to let me know.

End game, I would love to write either creatively for myself or a game company, or failing that I definitely wouldn’t mind reviewing virtually any media (film, music, apps, games, etc…) The dream job I used to want was designing for games, I love math, puzzles, writing and interactive media. I also really love the way games can make you feel emotions much like films but it hits you harder knowing that in some cases you affected the outcome. Sadly for now, I have to try and make some money for bills so here’s to hoping I can start earning money in Australia! Thanks for tuning into “ye ole writing blog” once more, hope to catch you tomorrow!

New Links – Creative Endeavors

Another day, more writing! I’d like to thank everyone once again for stopping by whether you stumbled upon my little site here or facebook caught your attention. Either way I could barely sleep last night I was so excited to write more! It’s definitely more motivating knowing people actually may read what you’ve written!

Now that we’ve passed that, I’d like to redirect you to two of my short stories on the right side of the page. I’ve been writing on and off for quite some time and these are both products of me bunkering down and actually finishing a story. They’re a few months old, however I think they do represent where I stand as a creative writer at this point in time. Hopefully the short summaries below will urge you to read and hopefully enjoy them!

The Runner was something actually that was inspired from the video game Mirror’s Edge by Electronic Arts. I was trying to consider how to write an action packed short story and decided to give it a go. The story’s background is rooted in a society in which Parkour Couriers are the main means of delivery within a city. Considered by most to be of an urban ninja type, these Couriers are used both commercially and underground. Tracked via GPS and guided by an appointed operator, the couriers must manage the urban jungle and make the delivery quickly, efficiently and without notice. However since there is little to no competition for these type of companies, the only real threat they have is an underground group called the Interceptors. Plain and simple, their purpose is to acquire the package before it is delivered and ransom it to the highest bidder. The story writing is done in short chunks, broken up by the passing of time. The entire story happens within an hour and a half and after rewatching The Matrix, feels a lot like Neo running from all the agents toward the end.

The Mediocre Assassin started out as a short story just to write for the sake of writing. I hope to one day turn it into a script for a TV show or podcast radio drama. The story surrounds an average guy, Sherman, who is trying to keep his head above water as his debts pile up. While he is actually a really well trained assassin, he is constantly tested by his bad luck which has kept him out of the top ten list of assassins for years. Being number eleven he is frequently passed the worst of the jobs as the top ten get first pick. His gun repeatedly lets him down and he frequently has to improvise the kill, it has made him quite good at cleaning up the evidence at the scene of a crime however. I just noticed that google docs has butchered the formatting of the original document but it is still readable in its current form. Note to self: Fix that ASAP.

Well that is all for today, hopefully someone out there will give them a pass over (if you haven’t already) and I am on my way to post again on IGN. Wish me luck and I wish you all the best out there!

A New Beginning: Volume 8 in the Life of TJ Edwards

To those of you who know me, you will tend to call me Tim, TJ, Timothy (never Timmy) and I will answer to all of those. However, after getting stir crazy in Australia my mind wandered onto a thought; getting back into writing. it has been quite awhile since I did anything interesting in the realm of writing but I always complained I never had the time. Well since my working holiday visa is putting quite the damper on my career in retail management, I’ve decided to focus on one of my other passions, writing.

Perhaps you’re wondering why this is Volume 8, or why I’ve even classified it as such. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about my life and where I have come from. This has lead me onto researching my family history, to which I traced my Mother’s maiden name as far back as a few spelling changes and into the 1600’s. Also it’s made me think a lot about the direction my life is headed and where I’ve been. In every volume of my life, there has been one constant; My passion for writing and my creativity.

Some people say everything will work out in the end, and perhaps that is the case. I am one of the people who fully believes we are the masters of our own destiny. You would never think that to know me. I’ve always wanted to write, as far back as I could scribble on paper. Classes came and went, I moved up through grades just like any average child. I wrote a lot when I was younger, I definitely had the time. As I matured however writing was still always there, my muse constantly packing my daily dose of creativity. However I sometimes ignored the call, or there was something more important going on. My jobs got in the way, romance, higher education and pretty much anything I gave the time of day to. I started and restarted so many blogs I cannot begin to tell you how many books I’d have written by now if I’d have focused all those efforts.

But now! I have been in Australia for two months and I was relying on my resume as a store manager at multiple different outlets and my record of quick promotions and praise to get me somewhere. However over here, my visa has been the bane of my existence. No one wants an employee for six months, and I cannot even apply for a Spouse Sponsored Visa until May of next year. As it stands, I need to take my destiny by the wheel and make a good use of the free time I have. I’ve already wasted far too much on video games and films. Thus begins the very serious direction of writing and the push I am going to make for it. Reviews, Blog Writing, Articles, I shall do whatever it takes to start on the path to writing as my full time job and me as my own boss.

TJ Edwards