All posts in Geek

XBox Lives

by Drey on October 18, 2011 in Video Games with No comments

On the morning of August 30th I noticed that my IM client was having trouble logging in to Windows Messenger. Seems the login credentials were wrong. So I went to the Windows Live site and tried to log in there. Hmmm. Maybe I had forgotten the password. So I reset it. When I checked my email for the confirmation message, I noticed a ton of receipts from XBox Live. Either I had sleepwalked and ordered up about $260 worth of Microsoft Points or somehow my account had been compromised.

I felt some panic at first, mostly for my XBox Live account. Was someone out there pretending to be me and hassling my online friends? Maybe they were dressing my avatar in sports clothes! I couldn’t log in to my account via my XBox. So I called up tech support and explained the situation. The guy immediately went into triage mode, calm but urgent. The patient had a few bullet holes, but this was nothing he hadn’t seen before.

It took about 15-20 minutes to give all the details. Fortunately the idiot hacker had left his email address behind. Even so, the guy told me that there was a backlog of investigations and it could be a month before I heard anything. During that time I couldn’t use my Xbox Live gamertag or my Windows Live ID. Fine. I had enough to keep me occupied on other consoles.

A month goes by and I don’t hear a word. Not even an automated email telling me that I had a case open with Microsoft. So I call them back up to see what is going on. Turns out my case was “not escalated properly” and nothing had been done at all. My case had just sat in a file, ignored. The tech told me we’d have to start over from the beginning. I tried not to completely lose my shit on this guy, which I managed to do. Although I did make it clear that I was disappointed with their performance. The tech told me he would add a note to fast track my case as it had been neglected for so long.

Fortunately, that worked. About a week later I received a call that I would receive an email within a week detailing the results of the investigation. Another week later I received a series of emails explaining how to get back online with my XBox Live Gamertag. I was also notified that I would receive a full refund for the charges made on my account. Additionally, Microsoft was giving me two free months of XBox Live. I was able to get back online with my original gamertag and found nothing amiss other than all my friends were gone. I’ll have to add them all back again.

So, other than the massive delay in processing the case, Microsoft set things right in a professional manner and I am pleased with the results.

Fantastic Fest 2011

by Drey on September 26, 2011 in Movies with No comments

As has become the tradition, I will be posting my list of films I saw at Fantastic Fest, roughly in order of most enjoyable to least enjoyable.

Melancholia – Lars Von Trier’s ode to depression. Absolutely gorgeous, populated with real characters. Left me haunted.

The Corridor – I think this movie struck a peculiar chord with me, so I can’t really look at it objectively. I love movies where extraordinary realities invade normal ones and there is no real explanation. But the story isn’t *about* the extraordinary reality.

Headhunters – The show Leverage wishes it could be as clever as this movie. Plus it has Jaime Lannister.

We Need to Talk About Kevin – Oscar-worthy performance by Tilda Swinton. Difficult subject matter perfectly rendered.

Clown – Hysterically funny Hangover-style comedy based on a TV show which I must now track down.

Comic-Con Episode Four: A Fan’s Hope – Morgan Spurlock’s wonderful documentary on Comic-Con. Joyful and inspiring. It restored my love of geekdom.

The Yellow Sea – Up there with Old Boy as far as crazy Korean action/crime dramas.

You Said What? – Inspired by Miike’s “Audition”, a bunch of guys make a movie so their friend can get the girl. Charming and fun.

Extraterrestrial – Once again, Nacho subverts audience expectations and turns an alien invasion film into a romantic comedy.

El Narco – Beautifully shot and plotted. The Mexican Godfather.

Manborg – Homage to awesome/terrible 80s films. A labor of love shot on green screen over several years. Very funny.

Haunters – Reminded me of Unbreakable.

Carre Blanc – Darkly humorous dystopian tale of corporate life.

Borderline – The French movie version of the show “Weeds”.

Revenge: A Love Story – Liked the twists and turns in this one. Plays with audience expectations.

Elite Squad 2 – Kind of ordinary cop drama.

Penumbra – Did not live up to the hype. Great set up that really doesn’t go anywhere.

The Day – Totally ordinary post-apocalyptic survivor tale.

Angels & Airwaves Presents “Love” – Had a few neat visuals, but it was kind of bland.

Livid – A gorgeous mess.

Beyond the Black Rainbow – Tedious.

Human Centipede 2 – Filth. A cinematic crime. Offensive and disgusting.

See more detailed information about all of the films at the festival.

Boldly Go

by Drey on September 19, 2011 in Music, Symposium, Video Games with 3 Comments

For this month’s Symposium, we had Reed and Isaac from their band World Racketeering Squad share some music with us. It was very “VH1 Behind the Music” as they shared their writing process as well as the inspiration for several of their songs. Isaac was able to describe some of the more technical aspects of songwriting in a way that I, the average non-musical person, could understand. They also treated us to two new songs still in beta. Their homage to Bowie’s “Space Oddity” was well received indeed. After that, Reed and Isaac blew my mind by creating songs on the fly, based on audience input, improv style. It was like a friend suddenly revealing a mutant power.

For the amusement portion of the evening, we returned to the bridge of the Artemis for a few hours of space exploration. This time around, we set up a network of laptops in the office. The laptops were then paired wirelessly with iPads which controlled the laptops remotely. That way we could all stand on the bridge with nothing but a slick Star Trekky-looking slate and play the game.

We had all six stations in play: Captain, Helm, Engineering, Comms, Science and Weapons. It was great to see how quickly everyone fell into using the bridge communication patter we’ve all been trained to use by Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek. Even though the Artemis was destroyed more often than not, everyone seemed to have a really good time.

I’m amazed that Artemis is not more widely known. Thom Robertson could be the next Markus Persson, bathing in money. Artemis is the Rock Band of sci-fi games, hours of fun. If you have a couple of Windows computers, a large screen, $40, and some buddies, I definitely recommend you check it out.

Blarg

by Drey on September 11, 2011 in Board Games, Life with No comments

I admit it, I am phoning it in today. I can’t think of anything to write about. I hadn’t been working on the Dune artwork for a while, so I spun that up today and rendered out another character. The impending release of Rex took the wind out of my sails a bit. I know it isn’t Dune per se, but it has the same game mechanics. Since it is from Fantasy Flight, I’m sure it will be fantastic. The same thing happened when I started work on a custom Cosmic Encounter set. Fantasy Flight brought it back so there was no point in making my own.

In other news, the girlfriend project is going really well. 🙂 I look forward to experiencing even the most mundane events like doing laundry because I want to see what it is like to do them with Bess. I see her just about every day and she isn’t sick of me, which I take as a good sign.

An Embarrassment of Riches

by Drey on September 4, 2011 in Anime, Board Games, Books, Comics, Movies, Music, RPGs, Television, Video Games with 1 Comment

I may have mentioned this before, but there are too many things. And by “things” I mean books, video games, movies, TV shows, board games, songs, apps, and any other media one might experience. Right now, today, there are probably more things that I’d like to have a look at than I have time remaining in my life to do so. And tomorrow, someone will add even more.

I don’t like to leave things unfinished, no loose ends. But now I have this frayed blanket of partially read books, half-watched shows, unfinished video games, barely messed with apps, and board games still in shrink wrap. At one point these things were rare and hard won. As a child I created an impromptu garage sale to fund the purchase of the BattleTech board game, shutting the sale down the moment I could afford to buy. And then I played BattleTech for ages. Now everything is so easy to obtain, effortlessly plucked from the ether. But I feel like it takes a greater force of will to slow down and appreciate a single thing, knowing there are thousands more awaiting my attention. It is like touring the Louvre in a formula one race car.

I’ve decided I need to shift my perception of all this media, or at least to try. I’m trying to see it as another planetary ecosystem, something vast and ever present. In the same way that I do not need to play with every breed of dog on the planet, I do not need to play every game. If I see one I like, I will pet it and enjoy that moment. I’m really happy just knowing that all those things are out there and that sometimes my path will intersect with some of them.

Lost Boys

by Drey on August 7, 2011 in Video Games with 2 Comments

I’ve discovered a new niche of video games which I shall call “Art Games Featuring Lost Boys Which Make Me Cry.” The past few years have each yielded quite a few passion projects, independent games which come in from the edge of the map without a blockbuster agenda. Call them hoity toity or highbrow, but I love when anyone produces something unexpected, thoughtful and unapologetic. Long after I tire of space marines blowing up aliens, I will still be engrossed in the journey of a young boy across a fantastical landscape.

Braid, Limbo and Bastion all come from a place of perfection in terms of art design, story and game mechanics. I have nothing ill to say about any of these games. Each one drew me in with its own particular style. But what I really want to talk about is the emotional payload of each. I’m going to spoil the ending of each game, so stop reading if you care about what happens.

Braid’s opening scene sets up the classic video game tale: your girl has been captured by the villain and you must rescue her. As the game unfolds, you are presented with a series of interior monologues filled with longing for a girl, presumably a real person the designer was pursuing. They seem to have little to do with the game until the end. The main game mechanic in Braid is the ability to alter the flow of time, moving it backwards and forwards to solve the puzzles. So, at the very end, when you think you are about to rescue the princess, you are instead treated to a shocking revelation: The opening scene of the game was playing in reverse. Now it plays again, in the correct direction, and you see that the girl wasn’t captured by the villain. She is in fact running away from you into the arms of the knight who will protect her, the one she really wants to be with. You spend the entire game so self-assured and self-absorbed that you never consider that the princess doesn’t want you to rescue her. Masterfully done.

Limbo had a similar twist, although a more ambiguous one. In Limbo, you are trying to find your sister and perhaps rescue her. It is never really clear how the two of you came to be in Limbo. The game leaves a lot up to interpretation. You encounter your sister on two occasions. Each time she is sitting in a sun-dappled glade, blissful and in no apparent danger. On the final occasion, the last moment of the game, she hears you approach. She turns and gasps. That gasp was an ice dagger in my heart as I realized that she was probably never in Limbo and now she sees the ghostly apparition of her brother looming towards her.

I finished Bastion a several days ago and it still sticks with me. I want to hear that narrator all the time, telling the story of my daily life. And the music! I bought the soundtrack the day it was released so I could listen to those gorgeous songs again. There are two big decision points in the game. The first one just seems like a Voight-Kampff test to determine if you were human. You can either hold on to this devastatingly overpowered weapon that annihilates your enemies, or you could set it down and pick up the broken form of Zulf, your enemy (who had every right to want revenge), rescuing him. I picked up Zulf and moved, slowly, without any defense or means of fighting, out into a battlefield full of enemies. But they all stopped attacking and stood in silence as I carried Zulf past them and to the exit. It was such a moving scene. The second decision you have to make is to either reset the world so that the Calamity did not occur or to move the Bastion and fly into an unknown future. I chose to reset the world, and, of course, the Calamity happened again and I began back at the beginning.

I think I’m drawn to these games because there is romance in having a singular purpose driving you forward from the left side of the screen to right. And while having a goal is great, sometimes you realize in the end that your goal is not what you expected or wanted. And, of course, appreciate the journey instead of the destination. Once you reach the destination, it’s over.

Thufir Hawat

by Drey on July 31, 2011 in Artwork, Board Games with No comments

I’ve worked out the art style for the Dune characters. I decided on a painterly look with unexpected colors. The character design is influenced by the French edition of the game with a bit of the Lynch film mixed in. Here is Thufir Hawat, Mentat Master of Assassins for House Atreides.

I’m working my way through all of the male characters and then I’ll do the females. Today I rendered out all the images for The Duel and started dabbling with designing each of the House planets. There are still a ton of Treachery cards to create.

That’s all for now.

Symposium!

by Drey on July 24, 2011 in Board Games, Symposium with No comments

A few weeks ago I sat down to write an email to invite people to a recurring movie night. But then I recalled some other ideas I had discussed with some friends about doing a kind of show and tell type thing. Basically I wanted an excuse to get a bunch of friends together to watch a movie or play a game and also have someone do an awesome presentation. So, instead of sending out an email about movie night, I created a group on Facebook. I called it the Symposium, after its Greek namesake, yes, but more for what we called those nights in Albuquerque when my friends and I sat out on someone’s back stoop, drinking wine, discussing geeky things.

Here is the mission statement of the Symposium:

—
“True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.” – Socrates

“He was a wise man who invented beer.” – Plato

Once a month I will host a Symposium which will always include three things: Amusement, Imbibement and Enlightenment (sometimes in that order).

Amusements will consist of games, films and interactive experiences. These amusements will be curated and presented with care by myself and other participants. The back story about why a game or movie is important will be an emphasized component.

Imbibements encompass all manner of drink and edible delectables. Strange wines, mysterious brews and home-made dishes are encouraged.

Enlightenment is the heart of the Symposium. Each Symposium will feature a presenter or topic of discussion. Every one of you has something to share. If you are a musician, you might have a new song. If you are a poet, a new poem. A game designer might discuss their new game or a work in progress. A writer might read an excerpt from a story they are working on. A scholarly presentation of a subject one has passion for is also possible. Alternatively, one may present a topic for discussion and debate. In any case, questions and answers are encouraged.
—

The first Symposium, called Symposium I: I Think Therefore I Game, happened this past Friday. About ten other people showed up to hang out, chat and drink wine. Then Marc Majcher led us through a couple of game poems he had created. A game poem can be described as the thinking person’s party game, or a very short role playing game. Or maybe a structured improv exercise. Each game was designed to evoke and explore a particular mood or concept. The first one was a study in fidelity and betrayal. The second one is a bit harder to describe. Maybe a study of identity and empathy? Both were really fun experiences.

After an intermission, game designer Jonathan Leistiko did a presentation on “Applying Philosophy to Understand and Design Board Games.” Really genius, mind expanding stuff about what certain game mechanics say about fate, the future and reality.

Everyone seemed to have a great time and I felt it was a resounding success. I plan on doing it monthly and I have a number of amusements and topics I’d like to schedule. Mostly I’m just happy to give friends a chance to demonstrate their awesomeness and have fun at the same time.

Is it really all that much to lug around

by Drey on July 17, 2011 in Artwork, Board Games with No comments

I’ve been physically depressed for weeks now. Makes it tough to get much done, even this post. I’ve started logging my sleep to see if I need to make any adjustments there.

Still working on images for the Dune game. I realized that I had completely forgotten to include the cards from the Spice Harvest expansion in my list of components. They are all pretty straightforward, but it is like three more decks of cards to do.

I have several collaborative projects in the works. I’ll see how they go. It is nice to have projects.

Went out with a really pretty redhead a few weeks ago, but she said there was no chemistry. 🙁

That’s all.

Tree of Life

by Drey on June 19, 2011 in Life, Movies with No comments

Tree of Life is a meditation on God, family, growing, the meaning of life, a lot of things. I’m not going to review the film or go into my specific impressions of it as it is something you need to experience for yourself. The film is primarily a series of evocative visual scenes with little dialogue, so it would be like me describing Guernica when you ought to just go look at the painting.

During the pre-show, they showed clips from Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot.” One of his closing challenges was to examine the arrogance of claiming that the universe was created for humans or one particular religion or subgroup.

Asking “Is there a God?” is a very human-centric question that seems ridiculous in the context of a universe that is absolutely not human. Humanity comprises an incalculably tiny part of all existence. Why does it even make sense to ask such questions? We are part of something gigantic, not set above it.

From my point of view, belief or disbelief in God are both necessary. The impact of the belief in God is the equivalent of there being a God, just as the impact of disbelief in God is the equivalent of there being no God. The effects of these beliefs are real and measurable. The questions “Is there a God?” or “Is God real?” are irrelevant.

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