The Spoken Word

As gamers we rarely see the written word anymore in video games. These last 365 days have been momentous for writing in video games. More than any time in all of video game history, story has become the driving force of change. And yet writers are rarely well-known. Other than a few articles here and there, little is ever written about them. So in homage to the great stories and the writers who crafted them, here is the spoken word in all its glory.

Lincoln

In honor of Assassins' Creed 3. I think we all saw this but if you didn't, the new Lincoln Trailer. It is magnificent.

Lincoln

Party Etiquette

It’s amazing sometimes what people know. You can be surprised by the area and expertise that someone knows about subjects that you have no clue about. I always like to talk to people who know a lot about things I know nothing about; it makes things interesting. I stopped playing Guild Wars 2 last week. It’s not that it isn’t a great game, in many ways its probably one of the best games of its genre, and certainly a game of the year contender. I took a step back and realized that the lack of real story was hurting my enjoyment of the game more than I had realized, plus the play style isn’t exactly my cup of tea so I went back to The Old Republic. Oddly enough though, one of the best things about The Old Republic since I’ve been back is the group finder. I tend to play a lot of MMO’s totally solo. Whether it’s a residual effect of playing Guild Wars 2 or not, I’ve played in more parties in a week times then I did in three months last time I was playing. Speaking of parties, here are my Rules of Engagement for parties:

Credit Where Credits Due

Fringe is about the start its fifth and final season today. It marks the beginning of the end of what will likely go down as one of the best science fiction shows ever made; and it happened on Fox. Without mentioning the one that should never be forgotten (Browncoats rise and rise again!), Fox has stuck with Fringe longer than any network realistically would have against all odds. Fox has taken a deservedly bad wrap over the years for killing shows before their time; but with the rise of CBS' dominance the other three networks have been less quick to cut shows willy-nilly. Things have changed, even high profile flops like Flash Forward and Terra Nova have been able to show their respective series in its entirety; something that used to be fairly uncommon. It’s always nice when change is acknowledged though; no one likes to be shoehorned by the past.

Downtime

Gaming isn't only about maximizing your playtime, sometimes it's about know when you're not in the mood to kill bad guys. For those times, its good to have a back-up plan; a good book, a movie you've been wanting to watch, or if you're near the internet, some internet television. From Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog to The Guild there is plenty of well-known good quality internet t.v.. Here are a few good lesser known ones:

Is the Internet More Than a Human Right?

When a country faces civil unrest, war or revolution, unsurprisingly the  internet is one of the first things to be taken down or severely curtailed. The United Nations has called the Internet a Human Right, with all that entails. But is the internet more than just a human right, is it more akin to a 'Civil Right'? Normally you might laugh, but when your country has limited internet services, the joke becomes less funny. Massively has a great article here. Enjoy.

Silence

I remember that episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, when she learns her mother died. All the times she had feared her mother would be attacked or killed from the danger of being close to her and death came from the simplest of human frailties, time. It set reverberations through television, an entire episode with no music as if the natural death of her mother was so shocking that music was stripped from the show. It should have been hokie, it should have been cheesy but the fans had such respect for the show that it turned into one of the most memorable episodes ever for Joss Whedon and Co.