I know for a fact that there are plenty of poets who log into WritersCo. That the Poetry Dueling Arena is without so much as a message of interest so far is pretty much as irksome as it gets here. Participation is necessary, people, so stop lollygagging and get to it! There are hundreds of writings uploaded here, surely someone must be willing to try something, anything.

Finished Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria today. It's a fantastic game in a sense, and yet still falls tragically short of the first one.

First off... I could care less how many people tell me that the 'Squaresoft-Enix merger' way back does not effect which teams work on which games. The last third of this game was like another damned Final Fantasy game... from the score, to the character interactions, all the way down to the mannerisms in the vast, endlessly long cutscenes. And the ending! It was almost a carbon copy of FFX's, which is perhaps the most hideous insult anyone with a taste for storytelling can hurl. Nevermind the fact that it ruined the excellent plot of the first game by undermining its importance, characters, and so forth.

So much more like a Square game... and that's an insult, too. The first game had three possible endings, all of them providing closure in different ways and conclusively sealing up the story. Its actual plotline revolved around only a few characters, only one of which was in your team for most of the game. The rest of your warriors were given backstory and recruited, and afterwards had very little to do with the plot... this prevented VP1 from switching up your team every other cut scene. VP2 leaves you hanging a lot, simply by having characters leave your party at a rate that was hard to deal with. VP1's obligatory 'love interest' was completely optional... you screwed with it, or you didn't, it was your choice. And it was explained fantastically, unlike VP2's "We've been through so much, let's hug and cry a lot while the world is being obliterated."

As the end of the game approaches, it starts handing you storyline characters as if in a frenzy, almost of all of which it shortly thereafter takes away. Your gathered warriors end up almost useless, as the enemies are at the level of these story characters, who are much higher than your own, and you end up using the story characters as long as you can. Until they leave at the most inopportune time imaginable.

And yes. Two important characters at the end were hit by trucks. Actually... technically, it was five characters, but since three of them were hit at the same time, I only counted it once.

There are no clear villains up until the very end of the game. The place-holder villains have unclear motivation and often act irrationally, in addition to having a great deal of their role in the story left unexplained.

The free-flying map system was removed in favor of a very basic FF Tactics style "Just move your cursor over and click where you want to go" system. This is pure ass, ladies and gentleman, as VP1 was a helluva lot of fun for just aimlessly flying around, and this may actually be my biggest gripe with the game itself.

VP1 had gorgeous artwork with heavily stylistic portraits and backdrops. VP2 has gone the cookie-cutter "Everything's 3d rendered and every move needs a screen shake/light effect/fog effect/voice effect" route. Speaking of cookie cutter, they've replaced the iron-willed, deeply layered main character from the first game, with a 'strong willed princess whose true courage has yet to be seen' type who looks all of 14, and given her a needlessly angsty sidekick.

Next to the ending, the single biggest story flaw in this game is that the gameplay leans so heavily on the storyline. I tend to think that any game should focus on play first, and story second. This felt as if I was only moving from plot point to plot point, again, just like every final fantasy game ever made, with a little battle in between. The entire purpose of the game should be to get the player playing, not to tell some story. Movies and literature are for that, and in my eyes at least no video game should ever be about telling a story over its gameplay.

No game ought to have cut scenes that last in the twenty to twenty-five minute range, either, but this one does in multiples. Or cutscenes that lead to ten seconds of walking that leads to another cutscene. It does that too.

Whereas VP1 had a simple "find the good equipment or make it yourself through earning creation points" system that worked fantastically, VP2 sentences the player to item farming. Square has done this pretty consistently over the years in its various games... basically, you run around and make sure you defeat every single monster several times to acquire all sorts of otherwise-useless trinkets that can be forged into new things. I avoided this wherever I could, of course... RPG's can be tedious enough without having to hope one hits the rare bird monster in just the right spot while lucking out on the odds to receive one of four unique items that one needs to make a new sword.

Though I rant great deal about this game and its ridiculous, oft-contradictory and overdramatic storyline, not to mention an ending so disgusting I felt the need to slap something - anything - Square related, it is still a good game. Whyzat?

The core point of interest of the first game was a unique battle system. Instead of telling each character what to do individually, a player could control each of hir fighters at the same time. Learning to time attacks and creating your own combinations was a blast, and thankfully the designers opted to retain that part of the system. Granted, they felt the need to shackle it with a half-hearted 3d battle-map system, but the mechanic itself is basically the same and wonderfully so.

This is actually pertinent to writing, is why I'm putting it here. The lessons learned from a game like this are many, and are summed up as follows.

Build your characters, and do not move them pointlessly in and out of the plotline. At the end of VP2, I couldn't have cared less about those left standing. In fact, I actively hoped one of 'em wouldn't make it through the ending.

Don't drop names! VP2 was horrible about introducing characters from the first game and then immediately trying to use their legacy/nostalgia to elevate its paltry characterization.

Try not to build up something and then forget about it. VP2 built up this object called, creatively, the Dragon Orb for the first two-thirds of the game. After that it was barely even referenced until the ending, and then only briefly so. Another, almost entirely separate, plotline had appeared about then and shoved the first one completely aside, leaving more creative casualties than a pro wrestling storyline could ever hope to.

Maintain your characters' personalities. The ultimate villain in VP2 had appeared in the first game, where he was a sharp-tongued, calculating, brilliant, ruthless individual of endless intelligence and ambition. In the second game he is a brooding, quiet, soft-spoken, overdramatic hack whose cold intelligence has given way to evil laughter and villain-isms ripped straight from Square's creative sphincter.

Anyway... I'm done.

Happy Halloween, peepses. For those who celebrate this holiday, be it in its original form ya freaks, or in its current incarnation as a conspiracy between the candy companies and the Dental Union of Malicious Business and Associated Secular Services, please be safe and have a good time. Weird people are out in force today, so make sure you don't do anything ridiculous like streaking in nothing but KISS paint in any place where I can't see you. ^_^

With no bad luck, I'll be going back to college in January. This'll mean some big changes, as I'll no longer be able to stay up till four in the morning anymore... I'm afraid that college will curtail my writing and my art, which is basically all I have in the real world these days. But not going is just stupid. Last time I basically missed the whole college experience, getting into online games, which I have sworn off since then.

Either way, this is a way in advance heads up. I don't know what'll happen, and honestly, have never, ever, felt so lost in my entire life. But them's the breaks.

Next month's WC Monthly is going to have a feature, no matter what theme we end up with, on NaNoWriMo. What I want from you is 'horror/success stories' from your previous attempts at completing the ilustrious month-novel. As always, we need all the help we can get!

In addition, we need

Questions for Ask Mister Saint
Poem nominations
articles (we'll wait on the theme for that, will choose the theme in a day or two)
reviews
opinion columns

and all that. 

Today's match results.

Tito Ortiz v. Ken Shamrock:

Ortiz, of course. Ken is in his forties, Ortiz in his thirties. Ken has been in MMA since UFC 1, there was no winning this match for him. Hopefully Ortiz will fight a real fight soon, instead of against reality show kids, businessmen (he has a match with Dana White, head of UFC, soon) and men who are far past their prime like Shamrock. In December he goes one on one with the lightweight champion, Chuck Liddell, and I'll be paying to see that just to watch Ortiz get decimated by someone who is actually in his age group.

T.M. Saint v. runaway pit bull:

T.M. Saint, but damn, that's a strong dog. He came into my house when my brother opened the back door for something, just charged in like he owned the place, and went for Jinx, who outraced him like the dog had six broken feet. Jinx then hid beside me. So I went in and snagged the dog by his collar (no tags) and held him fast until he calmed down. Then Iz and I dragged him, literally, out of the house. The neighbor woman (out of whose house he had just come) was there, and I asked her for a rope. I clipped the rope to his collar and we walked him home, where I knotted the rope onto a strong section of his broken chain (the end had snapped off). 

The neat thing is that the dog was much more classy than Ortiz, as it was just a big, freakishly strong teddy bear.

With the first issue of WC Monthly behind us, now I can concentrate on... the next, uh, issue... of WC Monthly. Yeah.

Actually I do have some thoughts. We got some support from the WC Masses, and though we are appreciative it wasn't nearly enough.

According to the nifty little buzzer button thingy down at the bottom of mainpage, there are about ninety active members at WC. That means that we ought to be seeing more activity! If you want WC to be of any help to anyone, get active. You don't have to join the crew or even run a wikipage, but you do have to participate! Ninety active members means I want to see ninety votes in the mainpage poll, for example. I want to see ninety nominations for featured writings. Small things like that can help a lot!

I also have something I want to suggest to everyone. If you want your stuff read, read someone else's! Beyond that, though, I urge every single writer here to place a link to the two or three pieces that you most want read at the top of your description, as I have. People can always click your writings page, but by now some of us have so much writing up that it's kind of a chore to sift through it all! So give it a shot, it's not hard, and can only help.

That's it. Bye!

Completed the first mock-interview for the e-zine today and it went swimmingly! Not a single snag or hitch, and it's entertaining all the way through. 

Progress on new WritersCo Monthly: slight! We still require the services of the masses. Allow me to display a list of tasks we still need filled.

Questions for Ask Mister Saint
Opinion columns (about whatever you want, as long as it's written well)
articles (about whatever!)
challenges (not necessarily contests)

In addition, this month of October will feature one poem! Members will be allowed to nominate ONE poem for the featured spot, and may nominate their own writing if they please.

This month's feature will be a fake interview session. We need between one and three volunteers to be interviewed for this position, so get in touch and let me see your interest! The interview will be similar to a brief roleplay, however, you will be playing as yourself with a random quirk. For example... you might conduct the interview as yourself as a rock star, or a poltergeist. It's October, it might as well be a ghoul or something.

We're also looking for the standard literary articles. 

We also plan to feature one CONTEST.

So get crackin'! We want to release this issue by OCTOBER 7th, so hurry quick like! I don't want to have to interview myself!

I thought about it, and the decision came to me fairly quickly. I spent the morning and afternoon working out, playing with my cat, and taking a nice, long, long, I almost qualify as a swimming pool long shower. I just needed to think about it without any distractions.

So I'm good now, and I want to make WC Monthly my priority... though it might turn into a quarterly, but we'll figure that out for sure later.

Attention: any and all members interested in contributing the soon to be revived WC e-zine, contact [Mister Saint] ASAP. I'm hoping to get out an issue for October before, say, the seventh of the month. We're playing catch up here, so the quicker, the better! Here's what we're looking for.

Book Reviews
Movie Reviews
Intelligent Commentary (preferably literature related, but ask if you have an idea you like.)
Homebrewed writing excercises/challenges.
Articles about writing and/or storytelling.

and that sort of thing. We're hoping to give WC something fun to check out and get involved in, try to put some community back into this community. Any takers, give me a message!

If you're tired of coming here and seeing nothing going on, raise your hand! Don't worry, my hidden cameras in all your houses let me know if you are or not. Some people ought to put on some pants about now.

Things have been muddled here for a bit. Everyone's been busy, bad stuff has happened, the cat came back, and so forth. But now it's time to put some spark back into this place and make it active again!

If you have any things you want to see implemented here, let someone know. Even if it sounds dumb, just let it out, we forgive you. 

I've been working a craft booth for the last two days at the "Burnside Catfish Festival", a local brouhaha where people get together and goof off, and sell stuff, and have live music and catfish to eat. This year, unlike last year, I participated in the 'biggest fish story contest'. If I may, a selection of a conversation I had with my Latina sister Divina, to illuminate how it went.

TM Saint says:
I also participated in a fish story contest
La Divina says:
oh?
La Divina says:
do tell
TM Saint says:
*nods*
TM Saint says:
the idea was to tell the biggest 'fish story'
TM Saint says:
or tall tale about fishing
TM Saint says:
my ten year old buddy Lance wanted to participate, but we found out right at the end that he had to be eighteen
TM Saint says:
so
TM Saint says:
I decided to do it, and take him on stage with me as a prop
La Divina says:
hee
TM Saint says:
I began my tale by telling everyone onstage how old we were, and our names
TM Saint says:
"I'm Travis Reynolds, and this is Lance. I'm 23 and he's 10."
TM Saint says:
"Now. The year was 1967."
TM Saint says:
"Off the coast of French Polynesia."
TM Saint says:
"Me and Lance were fishing for grouper, which are fish that travel in groups. What we failed to realize that the ocean where we were fishing, in fact, belonged to ninjas."
La Divina says:
o.o
TM Saint says:
"As we were fishing, sixteen ninjas in full gear leapt from the water and pulled us under!"
La Divina says:
O.o
TM Saint says:
"Lance paddled all three legs, swimming like a dog with three legs."
TM Saint says:
"We fought them all the way to the bottom of the ocean. And then, there was a giant squid who isn't actually in this story."
TM Saint says:
"In the end, we were all swallowed by groupers. None of us survived."

It was a lot of fun. You'll have to forgive the grammar, though. I am a hillbilly by most accounts and the way I speak in real life is a far cry from the way I write-speak.

Today I, along with my brother Iz, received an invitation to go to work for a small pro wrestling outfit working out of this area. Obviously I could not be an active wrestler, as my heart and lung health are less than optimal and I have an aversion to pain, but I will be able to work basically anywhere else I might want. The first options offered were as script writer (yeah, pro wrestling's scripted, everyone knows that these days), manager (not an actual talent manager, but a storyline manager solely there to get involved in matches), referee, or creative team member (writing theme music and such). It's actually not a 'dream' of mine, but it is something that I always thought might be fun. I've requested some tapes of the talent at work, so I can get a better idea of just what this independent promotion is all about, but if nothing else it'll be a hoot to help the guys with. Most of them turned out to people I've known my entire life.

*A note to members, new and seasoned, who would like to see more comments and critiques on your writings.*

Writersco members as a whole, including me, seem well intentioned to help the others with their work with reads and critiques. However, rather like giant literary sloths, we more or less have to poked with a stick to get moving. Basically, if you want critiques, make a habit of giving them occasionally! Just don't demand them in return, or even expect them necessarily. By giving a read, you are poking with a stick. ^^

Critique Swap and Comment Exchange are still around, and could use some attention, as focal points for this stick revival.

I finished playing N3: Ninety-Nine Nights for the Xbox 360 tonight. I dunno how many people play Xbox games without the online factor, but I found it to be a nice distraction for a week. It was fun, and I didn't have to research ancient Japanese history to understand the plot. (So that's why this guy was a samurai without any land! Cripes! It all makes sense! Samurai is a marketable term! -- reaction to Onimusha Dawn of Dreams) 

Plus you get to play as a goblin and lay waste to humans. New perspective are always fun.

... I'm actually pretty content. ^^ Things are hard, they always are, but that's no reason to be unpleasant about the whole mess. I had Chinese food today, I woke up with my hair, I have a cat... all good things.

They say it takes more muscles for your face to frown, than it does to smile. That's more work to make a sour face, but always remember that - even more importantly - it takes a lot more muscles to frown than it takes to have your dental work updated via high-speed hockey stick. It could be worse, you know.

Watched V today. Never again will I watch a movie that has the wachowski brothers' name attached to it. Not only was the ending a perfect rip off of the third Matrix movie, primarily in that it was totally counterintuitive to the rest of the film, but the middle of the movie dragged on, and on, and on, and on, and finally became irritating in its endless attempts to be clever and insightful. Of course, it's entirely possible that I went into it with the wrong expectations... I was expecting something in the vein of Batman with political overtones. What I got was an art flick that kicked just enough ass to keep me from munching down the movie disc. ^^  Not that I wouldn't recommend it to people, but I wouldn't recommend to people who don't like slow-paced self-conscious plotlines that exist above the heads of the stereotypical characters who play its endlessly predictable parts. With the exception of the V character himself, who occasionally managed to step off the beaten path, that is. Ugh.

The trend of trying to be thought-provoking is just too all consuming these days... just like when The Sixth Sense came out years ago, and then there was a flood of movies with 'surprise' endings afterwards, each growing more predictable than the last. It's just like the stereotypical 'goth/punk' (leave your judgments at the door, by the by) who tries so hard to be different that s/he actually fits perfectly into a widespread mold.

A couple of things. First off, as a writer who primarily uses the computer to type his work, I urge my fellow geekazoids to BACK UP YOUR WORK! Having lost loads of work to computer crashes and power failures and what not, including an eighty thousand word chunk from one story, I learned this the hard way.

My personal computer's hard drive burned up a few days ago. This time, however, I had backed up everything previously on my handly little jump drive, and hardly felt the loss. So however you have to do it... floppy disks if you can fit the work on them, CD-RW if you can't and don't have a zip drive or jump drive. Seriously, don't let your work be roadkill on the technological freeway.

In other news, everyone who doesn't know, needs to know what a Marmoset is. Observe. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmoset

As for me... I'm learning patience, at some great cost to my life span. I'm getting better, though. This whole personal improvement thing is not so hard once the impossible things are pushed aside and ignored. *whistles*

We rented "V for Vendetta" yesterday. Anybody seen it? I haven't watched it yet, but I'm wondering if it's any good. I have kind of a problem sitting through a movie if I'm not really interested, so if someone could say 'watch it, and your eyeballs will bleed' that'd be wrong, but accepted!

When every day is the same day as the day before, how does one change anything? I always dread going to sleep (not just because there are spiders in my bed, that's why I don't ride on planes. There could be spiders on the plane. You know. Specially bred assassin spiders, working for the yakuza). I dread going to sleep because I know that when I wake up it's going to be the same day again. I'll do meaningless housework, maybe put in job applications that won't earn me anything, get in a fight with someone in my house, play some game, get on the computer, and wait for the whole cycle to repeat again. I dunno how to get out of this, not even where to start.

On the bright side, I've discovered that I've lost about ten pounds. Turns out my boxing and cardio training has been doing some good, after all! What puzzled me is that I've been boxing for months now, and have only lost ten pounds... seemed kinda small. Except, I also noticed that I'm putting on quite a bit of muscle, too. So, on the health front, things are finally going a little better.

Today is my two-year anniversary with my girlfriend. She's really a wonderful young woman, very talented, very... lots of things. 'I love her' just doesn't cut it, but that's about the only way I can say it here without going into it for a thousand more words. 

So yeah. Stuff stuff.