As far as writing has gone this past week... well, I haven't done much. I've wanted to, but I haven't exactly had as much opportunity as I would have liked. The most significant thing I've done is actually figure out why I want to write a particular series. That was done by figuring out what the overall story is. It's important, but it doesn't bring me closer to my target.
The main problem is that I've been spending my spare time relaxing a lot more than usual. That, when combined with exhaustion from a series of sleepless nights (partially my fault for staying up too late when I have to be up early, partially the fault of alarms going off in the middle of the night), has resulted in me doing much less than I'd have liked to.
I'm hoping that tomorrow will help put me back on track, with a couple of things planned for the afternoon and nothing else planned for the evening.
This means I have to avoid the PS3, though. That's been the biggest distraction. You see, recently I came across Tales of Symphonia Chronicles, and, having played the first game a few years ago, I couldn't help but buy it and play it. And play it I have. Constantly. It's not just a nostalgia rush, of course. I genuinely love the game, and I love following the story.
Yes, some of the dialogue is ridiculously cheesy. Yes, the graphics aren't the best. Yes, it's a dated game at this point. But it also has an interesting system of religion at work. It demonstrates the struggle for ideals in equality and peace.
It's a game that helped form the sort of depth I've wanted to include in my fantasy novels. I want to develop a system of religion that fits into the world. I want to create a rulebook for magic users. I want to create a world in which life is actually at stake, but not merely on a global level.
This is why I play games, even when it means not writing. The games that explore religion, and the games that explore the concept of the martyr, they help to create human stories concerned with personal destiny in the wider scheme of life. Colette in Tales of Symphonia has to save the world, knowing it will end her life. The l'cie in Final Fantasy XIII have to make a decision: destroy the world they come from, or die tragically. Yuna in Final Fantasy X has to stop Sin, knowing that the summoner never survives the pilgrimage.
I want to tell my own story. I want to figure it all out before I start writing that book.
Unfortunately, I don't think I can use that as an excuse for not writing the books I've already planned. I have a feeling I'll be playing catch-up on my books for the rest of the 40-day challenge. So be it. But I'll be damned if I have to give up doing something else I enjoy, too, especially on the days when exhaustion takes it toll.
My progress is lacking, but that doesn't mean I can't talk about it.
Showing posts with label games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label games. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Thursday, July 5, 2012
A Day to Myself
In a normal day, I tend to want to do something productive. You know, like write an article or work on a chapter of a book. Today? I woke up after sleeping through the night without waking once, for the first time in at least three weeks. I didn't just sleep - I had a lie in! And it was then that I decided today would just be for me. No studying extra material, no writing things I didn't want to write, no forcing myself to do anything.
This? This is just for kicks. I call it celebrating the little things in life. A day to myself doesn't come very often. I don't let it. I have too many things to do to really afford days like this very often. It was a relaxing day, if not a little boring.
To sum it all up, when I woke up later and had my breakfast, I just played a game on my DS. A Game Boy Advance game at that. It's old school. I drank tea, and I talked to people on Facebook about comic book adaptations, and that was all there was to it.
It was the most easy going day of my summer. No travel, no time scales, no doing things for people that didn't need to be done, strictly. It was nice.
Of course, I missed working on things. I'll be trying to catch up tomorrow. As it is, I took the time to write an email to send out to my list later tonight, just so I feel like I've done something today.
Tomorrow, I've got a whole load of things to do to catch up on the week. Some fiction, some non-fiction, a review, some prep-work. Basically, my whole day is going to be spent working, unless it's not.
Confusing? You betcha!
I'll probably write an article explaining that fully... basically, I take breaks. I have to. My brain won't let me keep working and switching tasks around all day. Even my weird brain doesn't allow for that. No one's does. It's that simple.
Anyway, this has already felt like work. You may hear from this blog again tomorrow, if I actually find the time. In the meantime, take care!
This? This is just for kicks. I call it celebrating the little things in life. A day to myself doesn't come very often. I don't let it. I have too many things to do to really afford days like this very often. It was a relaxing day, if not a little boring.
To sum it all up, when I woke up later and had my breakfast, I just played a game on my DS. A Game Boy Advance game at that. It's old school. I drank tea, and I talked to people on Facebook about comic book adaptations, and that was all there was to it.
It was the most easy going day of my summer. No travel, no time scales, no doing things for people that didn't need to be done, strictly. It was nice.
Of course, I missed working on things. I'll be trying to catch up tomorrow. As it is, I took the time to write an email to send out to my list later tonight, just so I feel like I've done something today.
Tomorrow, I've got a whole load of things to do to catch up on the week. Some fiction, some non-fiction, a review, some prep-work. Basically, my whole day is going to be spent working, unless it's not.
Confusing? You betcha!
I'll probably write an article explaining that fully... basically, I take breaks. I have to. My brain won't let me keep working and switching tasks around all day. Even my weird brain doesn't allow for that. No one's does. It's that simple.
Anyway, this has already felt like work. You may hear from this blog again tomorrow, if I actually find the time. In the meantime, take care!
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Magical Mayhem: Venser Battles
Today, I made use of my free time (i.e. I procrastinated) by playing against my brother in Magic. Again. I used Venser's deck exclusively for the morning battles, so that I came to understand a few of the tricks. A couple of cards are extremely useful for doubling up on "when X enters the battlefield" abilities. There are also cards that are otherwise useless, where the special ability is a downfall rather than a way to trump your opponent. Given it's a deck for duelling, and could well be aimed at beginners, it's clear that the weaknesses - although exploitable if used correctly - are there for a reason.
For me, they were just annoying, until I learned not to play those cards for no reason at all.
Venser is a lot more strategic a deck than Koth. With two land variations, and some non-basic land cards, that makes it immediately more difficult to just build up the mana you need. Of course, some of the non-basics made playing Venser more fun. For instance, the deck comes with a couple of lands that grant 1 life point when played. Handy. Very handy. Others allow for scrying, or flying, and a few allow for choosing either Plain or Island mana, or, in one case, both. That helps for the battles, which can be manipulated to last longer with Venser, allowing for bonuses to add up.
A few of the creatures have abilities that come in handy just from an attacking point of view, like exiling, drawing a card, getting +1 power and toughness, and there are a handful of flyers - these are more than effective against Koth's deck, unless the player happens to have a couple of Koth's defenders out.
So, it was a fun deck to play with. I won't go into full detail on it, because that's not quite my style, but I found that when I won with Venser, it was a more enjoyable win than winning with Koth. It felt deserved, rather than just boastful. I don't just beat the living daylights out of my opponent: I do it with style.
We played eight games earlier, before we had to stop for lunch. In those eight games, my Venser deck beat the Koth deck (used by my brother) half the time, losing the other half. What interested me was that three our of four of my losses were a result of Koth actually being played. He's a much more formidable Planeswalker to fight against than I would have thought just by looking at his abilities.
Later in the day, I played games by myself. I controlled both decks, sought to play them both strategically, and two out of three of them Venser won. In the losing match, it turns out I broke the rules while making Koth's turns, so there's no way of telling if the deck should have won. I'm sceptical. I have two defenders that were virtually indestructible, and a planeswalker with 7 defence. My rule breaking got rid of them, but it shouldn't have. Oops!
So, overall, I think Venser is a better deck. At least, it suits me better than Koth does. At the same time, Koth is still fun for just beating people up with, and in playing against him, I picked up a few tricks to make my battles with him much more enjoyable from my end.
Tomorrow, I may be getting more cards. We'll see. I'm still hoping I can get Carnival of Blood.
For me, they were just annoying, until I learned not to play those cards for no reason at all.
Venser is a lot more strategic a deck than Koth. With two land variations, and some non-basic land cards, that makes it immediately more difficult to just build up the mana you need. Of course, some of the non-basics made playing Venser more fun. For instance, the deck comes with a couple of lands that grant 1 life point when played. Handy. Very handy. Others allow for scrying, or flying, and a few allow for choosing either Plain or Island mana, or, in one case, both. That helps for the battles, which can be manipulated to last longer with Venser, allowing for bonuses to add up.
A few of the creatures have abilities that come in handy just from an attacking point of view, like exiling, drawing a card, getting +1 power and toughness, and there are a handful of flyers - these are more than effective against Koth's deck, unless the player happens to have a couple of Koth's defenders out.
So, it was a fun deck to play with. I won't go into full detail on it, because that's not quite my style, but I found that when I won with Venser, it was a more enjoyable win than winning with Koth. It felt deserved, rather than just boastful. I don't just beat the living daylights out of my opponent: I do it with style.
We played eight games earlier, before we had to stop for lunch. In those eight games, my Venser deck beat the Koth deck (used by my brother) half the time, losing the other half. What interested me was that three our of four of my losses were a result of Koth actually being played. He's a much more formidable Planeswalker to fight against than I would have thought just by looking at his abilities.
Later in the day, I played games by myself. I controlled both decks, sought to play them both strategically, and two out of three of them Venser won. In the losing match, it turns out I broke the rules while making Koth's turns, so there's no way of telling if the deck should have won. I'm sceptical. I have two defenders that were virtually indestructible, and a planeswalker with 7 defence. My rule breaking got rid of them, but it shouldn't have. Oops!
So, overall, I think Venser is a better deck. At least, it suits me better than Koth does. At the same time, Koth is still fun for just beating people up with, and in playing against him, I picked up a few tricks to make my battles with him much more enjoyable from my end.
Tomorrow, I may be getting more cards. We'll see. I'm still hoping I can get Carnival of Blood.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Magical Mayhem: On First Gathering
There's this little game you can play with cards. It's called Magic: The Gathering. Maybe you've heard of it. If you're a 90s kid, think Pokemon or YuGiOh, but actually good.
My first ever experience with Magic was when my brother got a free booster pack in a magazine several years ago. And up until today, it was my only experience with the game. We never bought more cards, we never learned how to play.
Over the weekend, a friend of mine asked if I'd be interested in playing. Knowing that the game required an actual deck, some patience to learn the basics and money to buy even a cheap deck, I should have said, "It seems like too much work for me right now." But I thought back to the awesome artwork, and to my limited experience playing Dungeons and Dragons, and I agreed to play.
Today, I bought my first deck. Well, two. It was a duel deck pack, Vesner vs. Koth. Why? Because I was too shy to ask if they had any Carnival of Blood. Thankfully, Facebook means I don't have to ask sheepishly in person. I just messaged them, mid-writing this post, to ask.
My first reaction to playing the game: this is hard. Then I remembered my friend was a semi-experienced player, with three decks he knew how to use, and I had only just started. So when he beat me in two games, I wasn't too annoyed. Because another friend showed up, who had also played before, and I beat her. Quite viciously, too, I might add. Land cards don't like her.
I've only used Koth so far. It's not that I didn't like the look of Vesner, mind you. In fact, I preferred the look of him. But I recalled reading that blue cards are some of the hardest to use, and I wasn't about to get myself into that mess. So I used a good ol' red deck and got used to powering up creatures simply by having lands to play.
That was nerd talk for: I had lots of one type of card that made it so I could kick ass a little easier.
So, three matches in and I've already agreed to an idea posed by friend #1: we're going to have tournaments. Not big ones with lots of really experienced players, mind you. We're going to just have four players, a €1 entry fee and a booster pack as the prize. It's a simple way to get us all playing and to make it worth winning.
So, I'll probably be blogging about my experience with this, oh so wonderfully nerdy game, for a while. At least until that gets boring. (As if!)
My first ever experience with Magic was when my brother got a free booster pack in a magazine several years ago. And up until today, it was my only experience with the game. We never bought more cards, we never learned how to play.
Over the weekend, a friend of mine asked if I'd be interested in playing. Knowing that the game required an actual deck, some patience to learn the basics and money to buy even a cheap deck, I should have said, "It seems like too much work for me right now." But I thought back to the awesome artwork, and to my limited experience playing Dungeons and Dragons, and I agreed to play.
Today, I bought my first deck. Well, two. It was a duel deck pack, Vesner vs. Koth. Why? Because I was too shy to ask if they had any Carnival of Blood. Thankfully, Facebook means I don't have to ask sheepishly in person. I just messaged them, mid-writing this post, to ask.
My first reaction to playing the game: this is hard. Then I remembered my friend was a semi-experienced player, with three decks he knew how to use, and I had only just started. So when he beat me in two games, I wasn't too annoyed. Because another friend showed up, who had also played before, and I beat her. Quite viciously, too, I might add. Land cards don't like her.
I've only used Koth so far. It's not that I didn't like the look of Vesner, mind you. In fact, I preferred the look of him. But I recalled reading that blue cards are some of the hardest to use, and I wasn't about to get myself into that mess. So I used a good ol' red deck and got used to powering up creatures simply by having lands to play.
That was nerd talk for: I had lots of one type of card that made it so I could kick ass a little easier.
So, three matches in and I've already agreed to an idea posed by friend #1: we're going to have tournaments. Not big ones with lots of really experienced players, mind you. We're going to just have four players, a €1 entry fee and a booster pack as the prize. It's a simple way to get us all playing and to make it worth winning.
So, I'll probably be blogging about my experience with this, oh so wonderfully nerdy game, for a while. At least until that gets boring. (As if!)
Friday, January 8, 2010
Slightly addicted
I've found I have a few addictions on the Internet. One of them is obvious - the whole of the Internet. As a writer, I'm constantly looking for ways to distract myself, and being on a laptop with a Wi-Fi connection is the best way to do it.
The second one is Twitter. I'm one of those people who can just refresh a page a hundred times over, even at Christmas when I knew no one was online. I'm just weird that way, I suppose.
The third is the cringe-worthy Cafe World on Facebook. Seriously, I can't get enough of it for some reason. I think it might be a power thing - I've hired my friends, I own them as staff, they have to do what I want them to. (subsequently, no they don't... they're supposed to, but then they walk the entire way around the cafe for no apparent reason, with dirty plates and starving customers everywhere!)
The fourth... this! I've found that since I got into the swing of blogging, I just can't seem to stop. I was almost screaming when I couldn't think of anything to say, then I realised I'd blogged five of the seven days of the year previously, so I may as well go for six of the eight! I actually love doing, even if no one's reading. (you are reading this, though, right?)
Fifth... I think it might be that Bubble Towers game on Kongregate.com. I don't know why... I just like it.
Sixth, though this isn't really in any order, is YouTube. I love watching videos, especially new and interesting ones, and listening to music over and over again on it (like my friend Luke's original piano piece!). Then there's the making of videos! I know I'm not really that good at it, but I still like it, especially when people leave comments (and when they subscribe!) I'm just hoping that my Sooper Sekrit project goes ahead (I've contacted a well known YouTuber about it to see if she wants to do it with me - I've emailed her a few times before, but we're not friends as yet; we might be if she says yes and we communicate over the project).
Seventh... I don't know that there is one. Emails I suppose. I love emails. I love checking emails. And then receiving them from actual people, not just spam mail or Twitter updates. Actual email, even if it's just from my cousin Rachel (she's a legend, by the way). And actually, I like receiving actual mail too. Like when I used to be on Twitter for hours on end hunting down free books from publishers in the summer. I've got loads of them now! I loved getting the envelopes in the post and opening it up to see what book it was. I was like a kid on Christmas morning, only it happened again and again and again, and each time it was something different, something I could say, "Oh yeah!" to because I'd forgotten I was going to receive it.
So there you have it, my seven Internet addictions. Some are clearly more substantial than others, but they can't all be good, can they?
The second one is Twitter. I'm one of those people who can just refresh a page a hundred times over, even at Christmas when I knew no one was online. I'm just weird that way, I suppose.
The third is the cringe-worthy Cafe World on Facebook. Seriously, I can't get enough of it for some reason. I think it might be a power thing - I've hired my friends, I own them as staff, they have to do what I want them to. (subsequently, no they don't... they're supposed to, but then they walk the entire way around the cafe for no apparent reason, with dirty plates and starving customers everywhere!)
The fourth... this! I've found that since I got into the swing of blogging, I just can't seem to stop. I was almost screaming when I couldn't think of anything to say, then I realised I'd blogged five of the seven days of the year previously, so I may as well go for six of the eight! I actually love doing, even if no one's reading. (you are reading this, though, right?)
Fifth... I think it might be that Bubble Towers game on Kongregate.com. I don't know why... I just like it.
Sixth, though this isn't really in any order, is YouTube. I love watching videos, especially new and interesting ones, and listening to music over and over again on it (like my friend Luke's original piano piece!). Then there's the making of videos! I know I'm not really that good at it, but I still like it, especially when people leave comments (and when they subscribe!) I'm just hoping that my Sooper Sekrit project goes ahead (I've contacted a well known YouTuber about it to see if she wants to do it with me - I've emailed her a few times before, but we're not friends as yet; we might be if she says yes and we communicate over the project).
Seventh... I don't know that there is one. Emails I suppose. I love emails. I love checking emails. And then receiving them from actual people, not just spam mail or Twitter updates. Actual email, even if it's just from my cousin Rachel (she's a legend, by the way). And actually, I like receiving actual mail too. Like when I used to be on Twitter for hours on end hunting down free books from publishers in the summer. I've got loads of them now! I loved getting the envelopes in the post and opening it up to see what book it was. I was like a kid on Christmas morning, only it happened again and again and again, and each time it was something different, something I could say, "Oh yeah!" to because I'd forgotten I was going to receive it.
So there you have it, my seven Internet addictions. Some are clearly more substantial than others, but they can't all be good, can they?
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