A Sword for Ireland

(Image from:  Warfare History Network)

Most mornings I can’t remember any dreams from the previous night.  But once in a while, something so vivid and coherent will unfold, that it becomes hard-wired to my brain’s memory core.  

I had one such evocative vision when I was still on active-duty and stationed in Asia, over 25 years ago.

It’s stuck with me ever since.

I’m finally writing about it now because, I’ve been dabbling with AI to create art.

Now, through the use of Perchance.org, I’ve generated enough images to illustrate what my mind conjured up so long ago:

It’s sometime in the early 11th Century, and I’m standing near cliffs on the east coast of Ireland.  A striking, red-headed woman sits on a rock in front of me, with the breathtaking view of the cliffs and the sea to my right.  She’s wearing an elegant, full-length, green velvet dress, with a sword encased in a scabbard upon her lap.

She says,  “I’ve taught you everything I know.”  (This was regarding swordsmanship).

I reply,  “Thank you.  I finally feel ready.” 

“What do plan to do now?”

“I intend to join Brian Boru’s army and drive the Norsemen out of Ireland, once and for all.”

She rises from the rock, walks forward, and presents me with the sword and scabbard.

(Image created by author via Perchance.org)

“Here then.  I offer you my family's sword.  I pray it serves you well." She draws nearer and drops her voice to a whisper.  "And brings you safely home--back to me."

Her eyes close, she parts her lips, leans closer, and…

(Image created by author via Perchance.org)

...I wake up.

<Exasperated sigh>.  Another dream cut short, just when the situation becomes romantic or erotic.

Normally, this frustrates me every time.  However, on this particular night, I had a more pressing issue to deal with.  I couldn’t spare time moping about a curtailed kiss from my dream girl.

(Image created by author via Perchance.org)

I sat up, got to the edge of my bed, let out another sigh, and asked out loud:

“What the hell was that all about?  Norsemen? Brian Boru? Who the f*ck is Brian Boru!? And yet, why does this feel familiar to me?”

Fortunately, I lived in a private room, so I wouldn’t disturb anyone with my whispered ravings, and my immediate need to conduct some midnight research.   

(Image created by author via Perchance.org)

I was compelled to find an answer that very night.  Fortunately, it didn’t take long.  I turned on a light, and grabbed a book from my bookshelf, then sat down in my lounge chair.  (The internet was in its infancy back then). 

The book I chose was, The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History (4th ed).

I found who I was looking for in the General Index.  There, on page 1590, was the following entry:

Brian Boru, King of Munster, 270, 315.

Okay then.  This guy was real and not a figment of my overactive imagination.  I wasn’t sure if this was a relief or not.

I turned to page 270, part of which read:

976 [A.D.]. Rise of Brian Boru…He steadily increased his power and domains at the expense of Irish and Norse rivals. 

Then on page 315, I found this:

As the 11th Century opened, Brian Boru was consolidating his position as the leading king of the several Irish kingdoms…One further Danish effort to reestablish themselves in Ireland was smashed by Brian at the Battle of Clontarf (23 April 1014).

(Image from:  Celtic Wedding Rings--History)

Well then.  Finding the answers I needed only deepened the mystery.  The additional research I’ve conducted afterwards improved my knowledge of Medieval Irish History, but of course, offered nothing in the way of a dream interpretation. 

(Image created by author via Perchance.org)

True, I may have read something in-passing about High King Brian Boru, and then forgot about it.  However, I’ve studied plenty of military history since then.  And still, this moment has been the only time I’ve dreamt of an historical figure, or event.

So my questions remain:  How did I know who Brian Boru was?  How did I know that he was instrumental in driving out the Norsemen?  Is there some ancestral connection?

(Image created by author via Perchance.org)

Some years ago, one of my siblings had a DNA test done.  Just over 40% of our family’s genetic origin comes from Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

Maybe, if my siblings and I pitch-in, we can conduct an extensive genealogy search to discover more about our family’s Irish ancestry.

And who was kissing whom on the shores of Ireland. 

 

Book Review: The Art of Total War

(Image from the book used by New Gamer Nation)

Most computer and video games make me ill.

It's not because of the quality--or lack thereof--of the products.  It's because I'm prone to motion sickness.

Despite my ailment, I've still purchased over a dozen games during the past several years.  Ones that I could play without getting sick.

However, I've hardly played any of my computer games because:

1. I'm too busy with my writing and "analogue games" (as boardgames and miniatures are now called).

2. I suck at playing computer and video games.

One of the game series I've heard good things about is Total War.

I've collected some of the titles in the series, starting with the original, Shogun:  Total War.

They're still sitting on my shelf, unplayed.

However, this didn't stop me from buying a copy of The Art of Total War at Half Price Books.

The Art of Total War is a lavish collection of concept sketches and promotional pieces, along with a short history of the series.

I finished reading the book in less than two hours and flipped through it one more time just to admire the artwork.

Someday I'll upload one of the games on my computer and actually play it.

The developers went to great lengths to maintain historical accuracy in their games. 

But the author, Martin Robinson, admitted they also allowed some Hollywood influence to creep in for entertainment purposes.

(Image from the 1963 film Cleopatra)

Apparently, there's a debate as to whether or not video games are an art form.

I'm no high-brow art critic, but after reading this book I'm convinced video games are indeed art forms.

Either way, The Art of Total War can be found on Amazon.com, with a well-deserved near 5-star rating from eight reviewers.

Product Review: WarCraft, The Roleplaying Game (1st Ed.)

I've probably said this before in previous posts, but I'll reiterate my feelings about video/computer games:

They make me ill.

Oh, not because I'm some sort of 21st Century Luddite, but because I'm so prone to motion sickness that I become quickly nauseated watching the on-screen action. 

However, I still have an ounce or two of Geek Cred, and have been vaguely aware of the on-line phenomena that is the World of Warcraft (WoW). So vague is my knowledge of WoW, I missed the Warcraft film that opened two months ago, and apparently so did many non-WoW fan viewers.

(Image:  Warcraft movie banner)

Anyway, bad movie reviews aside, last year I stumbled across Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game at Half Price Books.  I may not be able to play WoW on-line, but I sure can play this tabletop version.

That is, if my rotating work schedule ever meshes-up with any of my fellow gamers that would be interested in a Dungeons and Dragons (D&D, 3rd Ed.) adventure set somewhere in Kalimdor on the planet Azeroth.

The case-bound, hardcover book is divided into the following chapters:

1. A World At War
2. Heroes
3. Adventuring
4. Magic
5. The World of Warcraft
6. Campaigning

Player characters (PCs) set out on their quest a year after the Third War (the primary setting for the earlier computer/on-line games) and can be any of the following races:

1. Human
2. Ironforge Dwarf
3. High Elf
4. Night Elf
5. Goblin
6. Half-Elf
7. Half-Orc
8. Orc
9. Tauren (Minotaur)

(Image found on:  Henchman-4-Hire)

Some of the races are standard D&D templates.  There's no changes to humans, while Half-Orcs and Half-Elves suffer from similar discrimination as they do in other settings, maybe even more so.

Meanwhile, Dwarves are on a quest to discover the origin of their species, Goblins act more like Ferengi than the malicious second-class cousins to Orcs.  Speaking of Orcs, they're not inherently evil, as has been the case in every setting since Middle-Earth.  Instead, Orcs were duped by demons, and are now trying to get back to their shamanistic roots.  And while nominal allies, the Night Elves, users of divine magic and guardians of the Well of Eternity, can barely tolerate their arcane magic-addicted cousins, the High Elves.

Divine and Arcane Magic can be compared to the Light and Dark Side of the Force in Star Wars.

The races are divided into two general categories.  The Orcs and the Tauren comprise "The Horde," while everyone else is cobbled together into "The Alliance."  But this isn't ironclad, as some individuals have defected to the opposite faction.  Meanwhile, the Goblins out to make a profit.

Had I known this book was published back in 2003, (the second edition came out two years later), I wouldn't be so "late to the WoW party."  While I can't compare Warcraft:  The RPG to the on-line source material, I liked the book overall and have only two minor complaints.

First, the artwork is great, but exclusively black and white.  This isn't a problem in and of itself, but it would have been nicer if the map of Kalimdor was in color.  Second, there are several short-story/vignettes scattered throughout the book.  These are made to appear as if they're written on parchment by some scribe working by candlelight.  The font used in these stories, while elegantly ornate, can sometimes be hard to read.

Copies of Warcraft:  The RPG, can still be found on Amazon.com, ranging from $9.65 to $49.95 (plus S&H), and enjoys a 4.3-star rating.  The sole 3-star rater thought the material was out of date compared to the on-line games.

Undoubtedly it's even more outdated now, but despite my lack of knowledge of WoW, I'll give it a 4-star rating.

(Full cover image found on:  wowwiki.wikia.com)

A Note About My Current Reading Endeavor:

I do a lot of my reading while during my stationary cardio machine workouts, but still have a lot of unread RPG material.  So I decided to remedy this situation and go on a "Fluff" (lore) reading quest.  When I read Warcraft:  The RPG, I skipped over the "Crunch" (game mechanics), which save time and kept me from getting bored.  The RPG books I'll be reading will be hardcover and case bound, which I find easy to lay open on a cardio machine's control panel. 

Book Review: You're Never Weird on the Internet (almost)

After reading several blood & guts-style sci-fi stories and a  military history book, I was in the mood to read something cute & quirky.

And among any gaggle of entertainers, you don't get much cuter--or quirkier--than actress Felicia Day.

About four years ago, my friend Adrian told me about a webseries called The Guild.  Up until then, I've never seen Felicia in any of her TV roles, or in any commercials.  Now I'm not clairvoyant, or even empathic, yet as soon as I started Season One's First Episode, I KNEW Felicia's performance was partly (entirely?) a self-portrayal.

Fast forward to April, 2016, and as I was reading through Felicia's memoir You're Never Weird on the Internet (almost), I was satisfied to see that I was right about her.

In addition to seeing her on The Guild, I subscribed to her Geek and Sundry Channel, and I even had a "Ralphie Moment" when I met her at the Emerald City Comicon 2013.

Felicia Day is funny, engaging and grateful to her legion of fans.  Based on this flimsy idea that I made a personal connection with Felicia, it was easy to imagine her voice speaking the words on the page.  Her prose is often populated with ALL CAPS expressions when she's excited and/or stressed out, along with parenthetical asides for "inside-voice" remarks.

However, if you're not familiar with Felicia Day at all, the book will probably have your wondering:  Who is this ditzy chick?

In fact, a handful of 1-star raters on Amazon.com had this very problem.

So, to fully appreciate You're Never Weird on the Internet (almost), you don't have to be a complete fanboy/fangirl, but you should fulfill a few prerequisites before reading this book:

a. Watch most, if not all of the first season of The Guild
b. Play, or at least know something on-line gaming in general and about World of Warcraft specifically.
c. Watch some Geek and Sundry shows

You're Never Weird on the Internet (almost) has an average 4.7-star rating on Amazon.com, with 84% giving the book 5-stars.

While Felicia is funny on-screen and off, her memoir isn't all laughs all the time.  Most people--myself included--think that once you "made it" your life is on cruise control.  Felicia's story tells us otherwise.  That even when she was a soaring success, her mental, emotional and even her physical health was spiraling out of control.

While it was enlightening to see the effects of the price of fame, the author glosses over some aspects of her life.  Felicia mentions a (some?) boyfriend(s) a few times, but almost as an afterthought.  This was somewhat surprising since she writes at length on how her mom manipulated her into having her First Kiss.  One rater commented that "...we're not asking for this guy's social security number..." but it would be nice to give the guy some credit for standing by her through "sickness and in health."

I enjoyed the book for the most part and give it a 4-star rating.

Why only 4-stars?

Well, I hate to sully a book review with politics, but the author brings up her political-social views throughout the narrative.  It is her memoir after all, and fortunately she wears her biases lightly and cloaks them with humor.  Usually, criticism towards others is often followed by a "(no offense/just kidding)" disclaimer.  Unless, that is, you're from the south and/or a churchgoer, then no parenthetical apologies are offered.  She also mentions men who've hit on her and stalked her, but of course these creeps deserve jail time.

And finally she brings up her eventual involvement with the Gamergate Scandal.

Video and computer games make me ill in the first place.

Literally.

I'm very prone to motion sickness, so I can't play most video games.  I'm more of a traditional gamer ("/tg/"), and what I know of video games is based on what my family and friends play.  So before I could continue with this review I had to Google conduct extensive research on what the fuss was all about.

The most even-handed account I found was Erik Kain's Gamergate: A Closer Look At The Controversy Sweeping Video Games, with the most likely suspects being Internet Trolls going on the offensive against just about everyone on all sides.

(Image from:  Know Your Meme)

Felicia's harrowing experience after posting a comment included death threats, doxing, and being stalked.  I'm truly sorry she went through something like that.  It's inexcusable.

But where my impression differs is that I don't see all the trolls as coming from one political-gender demographic--conservative males.  (As an aside, I stumbled across Kukuruyo's Gamergate Life comic strip, which I find entertaining).

Gamergate and political-social biases aside, I still enjoyed You're Never Weird on the Internet (almost), and recommend the book to anyone who's at least vaguely familiar with the topics I mentioned in this review.

GeekGirlCon 2014 Panel Discussion #3: If You Can Write, You Can Make Games

(GGC Logo)

 

Text adventures, or interacive fiction "...are one of the oldest types of computer games..." that are still being played. 

 

Jacqueline Ashwell's one-woman panel discussion during GeekGirlCon demonstrated that (and borrowing from her title) "if you can write, you can make games."

 

(Image:  Jacqueline Ashwell)

This is thanks, in a large part, to programming languages becoming more accessible.

Are you going to concoct an AAA+ game single-handedly?

No, because the "Gold Standard" studios have multiple teams writing code for their games.

But you can write a computer/text version of Choose Your Own Adventure.  You can find thousands of such games on Interactive Fiction Database. 

One of the simplest programs is Twine.  Since we only had 50 minutes, Jacqueline presented a short Twine game she created for her GGC, Walk in the Park. 

For more detailed instructions on creating a Twine game, see Auntie Pixelante. 

Other "Twine-like" code languages are available, such as:  Inkle, Choice Script and Lindum.  Then there's languages like:  Adrift, Quest, Hugo and JADS.

While these games are narrative in nature, as you become more skilled, you can incorporate images and music.  However, with Twine at least, players can't save their games.

If you're wondering who will play your game, that depends on how thoroughly its been beta tested.

So--

--Plan more time than you originally thought you'd need to develop the game.
--Try to cover all the choices a player could make.
--Get friends to check it out.

Some additional resources available that can help get you started or improve your game:

Jacqueline Ashwell's website

The Interactive Fiction Forum

You can even enter your game in any of these contests:

IntroComp

The Interactive Fiction Competition

Spring Thing

The XYZZY Awards

and Shuffle Comp

Good luck!

(Image by Robinson Wheeler)

GeekGirlCon 2014 Panel Discussion #1: Hiring in Gaming

(GGC Logo)

Do you want to work for a computer gaming company?  

The first panel discussion I attended at GeekGirlCon, Hiring in Gaming, touched on the best ways to approach a studio for a job.

The panel was hosted by the following young ladies:

Regina Buenaorba

Susan Elizabeth Thayer

Ylan Salsbury

Amy Liu

All of them worked for ArenaNet, in various capacities (that I forgot to write down).  

(Panelists from left to right:  Regina, Susan, Ylan and Amy)

Gaming studios are looking for folks with the followings skills:  Graphic art, computer programming and program manager.  This isn't an exhaustive list, but it's the "usual suspects" of potential employees.

In order to have a shot at being selected, here are several steps to improve your chances of getting hired.

First:  Have a Solid Game Plan

List the Top Ten studios you want to work for.

Conduct research on these studios.

Start networking with studio employees.

Ask for mentorship.

Focus on being an expert on one thing.  (You can work on being a generalist when you're hired). 

Don't let the job description discourage you, or any lack of formal formal education for that matter.

As Susan Thayer pointed out:  After all, it's entertainment that we're making.

Second:  Write a Cover Letter

Must be only one page long.

Don't cross the line into "Fanboy/Fangirl Territory."  (That is, don't gush on how much you love the studio's games, etc.).

Note:  The cover letter is actually the second item employers read.  The first is--the resume.

Speaking of which...

Third:  Write a Resume

Can be more than one page long, but no more than three to four pages.

Tweak the resume for the position you're applying to.

Make it clean and not too busy.

Have friends and colleagues review your resume five times.

Don't shotgun your resume to every position in the studio.

Most important of all:  DO. NOT. LIE.

Fourth:  Conduct Networking

Make use of social media:  Linked In and Facebook, etc.

Get to know folks in the real world:  Attend game conventions, meet with gaming groups, etc.

Ask for help.  (It's in people's nature to assist others).

Don't be a fanboy/fangirl!

Bring your business cards to events--but not your full resume.

Fifth:  Establish and Maintain a Portfolio

This can be samples of your programming code samples an/or artwork.

Make sure it's your best work.

Ask if your material relates to the studio.  

Be sure the portfolio highlights your best work.

Note:  Do not break any non-disclosure agreements from your old employer.

Sixth:  Remember the Interview Basics

Prior to the interview--

Practice with friends.

Come prepared.

Know the people you who are conducting the interview.

Arrive at the studio parking lot 30 minutes early and enter the studio 15 minutes prior to your interview. 

Bring copies of your resume and something to write with and write on.

Come with the right mindset.

Have questions ready.

Ask about the dress code.  While every day is Casual Friday at game companies, don't overdo, or under-do the dress code.

During the Interview--

Take time answering questions.

If you don't understand the question, let your interviewers know.  

Show some enthusiasm/passion, but keep it below fanboy/fangirl level.

Use this time to determine if this team is right for you.

Ask the interviewers about their backgrouds.

Write down the names of the interviewers--they could change at the last minute.

Keep in mind the studio is looking for someone who will make the place better.

Red flag items, usually in the form of odd behavior, will most likely torpedo your chances of getting hired.

Seventh:  Remember to Follow Up/Post Interview Procedure

Write a thank you e-mail.

Be specific about your experience.

Connect with the interviewers via Linked In.

If you haven't been notified of your status right away, give the studio recruiter(s) 48 hours before you contact them.

It's okay to turn down the job if it doesn't feel right, or pays below the cost of living.

It's even okay to ask:  Can I think about it?

Be sure to have a financial safety net while job hunting.

My Personal Thoughts and Observations

I'm not planning on leaving my current job with Washington State Emergency Management any time soon.  However, one never knows what curve ball volleys Life will fire at you.  Plus I was interested to see how working for a gaming studio differs from a "normal" company. I found this panel discussion interesting and informative. 

Too Much of Good Thing?

A Swedish boy collapses after playing Warcraft for 24 hours.

While I love wargaming as much as the next gamer, I also like to eat & sleep too.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,453447,00.html