This is where old rants go to die, and where you can read their corpses.
...as it were.
Next 8 entries
Previous 8 entries
I just realised that I now have more than three things up here. I have therefore modified the intro.
Jen, apparently IE5 has a very strange bug; when I looked at the source, the link was fine, but it remains stubbornly strange when displayed normally. Search me. And talking of bugs, my page was apparently updated at 4:30 this morning. I wonder who did it?
Anyway (and I should really get some new linking words), I wanted to talk about LLAO. So I will.
People have been saying that it's good. OK, that's fine; it is good. (I'm hoping that, like Asimov, I can get away with calling this "cheerful self-appreciation".) But I'm not that good.
The style that I wrote LLAO in borrowed heavily from others, and most of them did it better than me. Unreal Estate (and a host of others), by Twoflower; Self-Extraction (and a host of others), by Thomas Wilde; FF: Legacy (etc.), at Improfanfic. The list goes on.
While I hope I don't sound too much like Piro here, I'm sure that I'm closer to the middle than the top. (Discounting ff.net, anyway.) My writing has many flaws: lack of full description, shallow characterisation, lack of experience in writing action scenes...lack of all sorts of detail. Of course, on reflection, these are things that wouldn't tend to show up as much in the first chapter of an improvisational story.
Still, as hypocritical as it might be, I would like some criticism. There must be some things that I could do make LLAO better...all I'd like is to know about them.
...hmm. I promise I'll make an effort to read other people's stories more critically from now on, too.
Well, I finished Fool's Errand, so I'm free to post again. The ending wasn't that great, but for once the storyline wasn't the thing I was really interested in. (I have noticed that I generally don't care about the challenge of the game itself, as long as it's not annoying. I really just play to see what happens next.) And in celebration, I removed the marquee tag! I guess that's my public service for today.
So...yeah. why was I actually posting again?
Oh, that's right. A link to LLAO is now in the stories section. I'm thinking of posting the site to the list, but I should consult with other people first, and frankly, the quickest way to do that will be to go to Uni tomorrow.
[suddenly notices a link to "bit Theater-8" in Jen's blog]
...what? They didn't change the name while I wasn't looking, did they?
Hmm. Mozilla seems to override the blink with the marquee. Ah, well. I'll fix it eventually, I'm sure.
Anyway, I was going to take apart falling trees today, but then I looked through the Hall of Belated Fame at the Home of the Underdogs and found a game.
A very interesting game.
It's called Fool's Errand. It's very small, around 30k if I remember correctly. As for the concept...remember Eleventh Hour? (And you'd better say yes.) Imagine that after being force-fed word puzzles, mazes, ciphers, card games and a lot of Tarot references. You'll then have a fairly inaccurate picture of this game.
Basically, the first part of the game involves unlocking the story by completing various puzzles. Not sequentially, you understand; just in some random order that somehow makes sense. Then, after having completed the story, you must go through it looking for clues to unscramble a map that you're given at the start. Then, I suspect, you'll have to mark the fourteen treasures that are the actual point of the game on the map. Should be fun.
Anyway, it's weird, it's got a few original puzzles, and it's surprisingly playable so far. (Though I suspect replay is out of the question.) Well worth a look.
I've decided to take some advice and start keeping a few old entries on the main page. This is a good thing, because it means you don't have to go to the archives to figure out what I'm talking about when I say that I forgot the Ragnarok song. How could I forget the Ragnarok song?
Oh, yes. It has also been brought to my attention that the blink tag doesn't work, and in fact has never worked, under IE. How an institution like the blink tag could be so wantonly disregarded, I don't know, but this means at least half of you aren't actually seeing what I refer to in nearly every post. (I missed one, but I'll catch up eventually.)
Because of this, and because of other things mentioned in that conversation, I've decided to include a marquee tag so that IE users won't feel left out. This is entirely interchangeable with the blink tag whenever either are mentioned.
...man, that's even worse than the blinking. But it can be used to emulate...uh...geez, I don't know. A buggy version of Space Invaders?
Anyway, that's my public service for today. Off I go.
Are you watching this space? Good, because you should have been watching this one.
(Why, yes, I have been waiting to use that one for a while now. How could you tell?)
Whee. The main part of the project is finished, though I still have to add a few things. That can come tomorrow.
So I finally downloaded One-Winged Angel a few days ago, a song I'm sure many of you have heard of. (To balance this out, I also downloaded 12th Warrior, a song you're unlikely to have heard unless you enjoyed Amiga demo discs.) It got me thinking that there are a lot of computer game songs that I would really like to be able to listen to whenever I feel like it. Unfortunately, while locating OWA was easy (Google is your friend, even after six pages of nothing), getting the rest would be damn near impossible.
Still, here's a short list:
It seems that this is a bad period for UniSFA in general, with two cars being broken into and large numbers of assignments due. Since I'm pretty bad at generating appropriate responses in person, let me offer my sympathies here, useless though they may be.
Sigh. I must be really tired. Next thing you know, I'll start being frank. *shudder* Horrible thought.
...well? why are you still here?
It's the blinking cursor, isn't it? Stupid hypnotic flashing. I really have to get rid of that some day.
Project still going, but it's getting there. I had wanted to finish it by today, but I seem to have underestimated the length. I'm also losing enthusiasm somewhat, but that happens with everything. Succumbing to my usual philosophical ramblings, I can think of three reasons for this:
(1) Everyday anxiety. I'm always unsure how stuff will be received.
(2) Lack of grand vision. The further I get into a project, the less I can see the original coolness that inspired me. Thus I'm no longer sure that it's worth continuing.
(3) Reality. The implementation of a vision is never as impressive as the vision itself. When I give potentiality substance, as it were, I'm always thinking that it could be much better. I'm sure others feel the same; it is, no doubt, why artists often prefer sketches to paintings. The more vague something is, the more your own mind can fill in the perfect details.
Others don't know the original vision, though, so hopefully they'll hail it as a work of genius. :) I'm now planning to get it finished by Wednesday, so watch this space...
I should update less often, I swear. I daresay no-one's read this since yesterday (unless they're more assiduous than I am, which is always possible), and my archives page is getting silly. I should split it some day.
The secret project is halfway done. Soon it shall be finished...or rather, started. And then you won't have to put up with me being mysteeeeeerious for a while.
In other news, I had a very strange thought the other day about a Neverwinter Nights-style dialogue choice to Jen's cake.
(a) My thanks. It was an honour to serve you.
(b) [Persuade] I went to a lot of effort to get this cake. Don't you think another piece of cake would be in order?
(c) Give me another piece of cake or you won't live to see your next birthday.
(d) The cake is not necessary. I was only doing my duty.
Well, it amused me, anyway. I should have chosen (d), I think. I could use a boost to my Goodness.
Watch this space...
Tell one person something and you tell the whole world, it seems. :)
I wasn't exactly keeping this a secret; I just wasn't telling people about it. A fine distinction, perhaps, and upon closer examination it may prove to be no distinction at all, but I think it proves my point. Whatever that is.
And Jen, considering that the entirety of my master plan was contained in the last rant, you probably don't need to be too concerned. Unless you really hate FF fanfic.
Anyway...I've got another project in the works, which I'm going to take care of before the other two. The subject is a secret, but you shouldn't have to wait too long. All I'll say is that it seems to be my week for dredging up idle ideas.
Not much philosophising lately; time for some more. This week, the subject is conventions.
No, I'm not talking about Swancon. I'm talking about the laws and traditions that surround groups; the "rules of anime", the "rules of society", and the "laws of physics". These, I think, are some of the most interesting things in the world. Not ordinarily, possibly, but when examined...and broken.
What happens when we examine the laws of reality? We get science fiction. And when we break them, we get fantasy. This is the only thing that distinguishes these genres from adventure, or romance, or historical fiction; the rules by which people play are different. On a smaller scale, I've always liked the stories at Improfanfic (as you might have noticed); not specifically because they were improvisational, but because they dealt with a world with its own little rules. Whether it be the magic and monsters that we all love in FFL, or the "Rules of Hentai" in H! Flash, the text-adventure style of Spirits of Hope, or the outright breaking of convention that is Magical Girl Hunters, the thing that all of these fics have in common is their awareness of the rules that bind them. Whether they acknowledge them, stretch them or break them, it leads to an element that can add humour to a story without detracting from the other necessities.
OK, all done now. That should tide me over for a week or two.
Oh, by the way, I think that "But they're not devils, they're Martians!" is one of the funniest lines ever. Maybe it's in the delivery.
...and I can't think of a way to include the blink tag, and that dodge will only work for one rant. I think it may be running out of time.
Hmm...maybe if I start using subjects...
Next 8 entries
Previous 8 entries
Back to the main page