Game Theories

Christmas at our house was like the "Gift of the Magi," except, not stupid. Hubby and I, we bought each other video games. Two sets of video games, and only one PS3. ::sigh:: Anyway, We've finally managed to play through our respective sets of games, and I thought I'd write some reviews. Maybe one a week. Here's the first and the best.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
If you have a PS3, you need to own this game. You need this game like you need air, food and water, because this is the game your PS3 was made for.

For a long time, video game makers have been touting the cinematic qualities of their games. But in the video game world, "Cinematic Qualities" usually add up to long, talky cut scenes and movies with awkward dialog, and Parappa-style button-pushing sequences that get annoying real fast. But watching someone play Uncharted is like watching an Indiana Jones style adventure where the main character sometimes dies, and restarts the action sequence.

Aside from a tendency to push you into shoot-outs after cut scenes, Uncharted offers a great blend of platforming elements and third-person shooting (which I much prefer to 1st person shooters). The graphics are realistic, yet painterly, the animation is superb, and the dialog and story are better than half the action movies that came through the theaters last year. Nicholas Cage and National Treasure, Eat your heart out.

There are a hundred things I want to say about this game, but time and space are limited today, so I'll wrap up with the following

• Game Play: It's a baby bear game--everything is just right.
  
• Character design--superb! The main character, Drake, is easy on the eyes, and the female character, Elena is strong, capable and so realistic looking. Don't let the tank-top and shorts fool you, she's like the anti-Lara Croft.
• Voice acting--awesome. Really. Nicholas Cage should watch and take notes.
• Environment--beautiful. The texture artists deserve a raise and a trip to an island as beautiful as the one they created in the game. And the programmers who did the water need some sort of medal proclaiming that they have designed the Best Water Effects in the History of Video Games. Evah! I got shot a couple of times because I was distracted by the ocean, or the pretty, pretty waterfalls.
• Chutzpah: This game is a platform shooter about lost treasure, Spanish gold, Nazi experiments, curses, zombies, modern-day pirates and germ warfare. It really has something for everyone, and it juggles every aspect in a most entertaining manner. I can't recommend it enough.
  

more...

Summary only...

Contested!

Here's something I just don't get: RWA Contests. I've heard they're a good way to get your novel noticed--especially when the prize is prime placement on an editor's reading list. But, specifically, the judging seems counterintuitive.

I've heard several stories of writers who entered contests--agented writers, writers who have been published, and writers who IMHO turn out high-quality writing no matter what--and were given good marks overall, but received exceptionally low marks and persnickety, nitpicky comments from one or two judges. And, usually, the judges getting their hate on are unpublished, or have only a couple of publishing credits to their name.

Maybe it's because I'm new to all this organized writing business, but right here is where I start not getting it. The judges mark all these categories and are supposed to judge the readability and saleability of the submission--but how can they do that if they haven't sold much, themselves?

And if the writers doing the critiquing don't have a solid string of sales under their belt, what is their opinion but the opinion of a reader who may or may not like the type or style of story the contest entrant writes? What special insight do they have into the industry that can benefit the contest entrant? Now, if Nora Roberts or some other luminary of the genre were judging the contest, the whole setup would make sense: Experienced, successful expert offers learned opinion and judgment. But otherwise?

If I were judging a contest, my opinion would and should be worth exactly as much as the average reader's. Sure, I'm a writer, but I don't have any great string of credits under my belt. I don't have any experience, except my love of the genre as a reader, that makes me qualified to judge the saleability of a story. And as a reader, I've never quit reading a book over minor details, plot points I think should have been included, or the occasional punctuation error.

If anyone reading this has entered a contest, I ask, honestly, earnestly, humbly, "Why?"

1. Are contests helpful?
   
2. Do you feel like the critiques of the judges are useful?
3. What usually prompts you to enter a contest?
   

more...

Summary only...

Giggled: A Survivor's Tale

First, a confession which may make me unpopular in certain authorial circles: I like Mrs. Giggles reviews. I've read them for quite a while, I've enjoyed almost every book I've read from her "keeper" list and I have, I'll admit, giggled on more than one occasion at her jaded take on certain books.

I can't help it. She's like that older friend you had in high school--you know, the one who seemed so sophisticated because she'd been to Paris, and dated college guys and smoked and drank and done it. It took a lot to impress her, so you were always kinda flattered that she found you interesting enough to hang around with, even if she did keep borrowing money for sodas without ever paying you back--not that I'm saying Mrs. G is a welcher. I'm talking about that high school friend. That completely hypothetical, for-purposes-of-example-only cooler than cool, jaded friend whom you haven't seen since graduation except once in the background of a photo of a party in Rolling Stone Magazine...but I digress.

So anyway, I've been kinda nervous about how she'd review Like a Thief... And how I'd take it. She posted the review today, giving it an 85. She used the phrases "It kicks ass - big ass." and, "these characters are really cool." which makes me feel both happy and a bit like I've dodged a bullet. Not that I'm gonna relax because, hey, there's always next time.

And though there were things I disagreed with (like why she didn't give it a score of 112--and yes, I know the scale only goes up to 100, but my baby is perfect--perfect, I tell you ;o) I have to admit, I giggled at her description of the setting:

...Set about 200 years in the future when everyone acts and dresses like they have watched The Matrix one time too many...

See, I thought it was kinda Kill Bill when I read it through after I finished writing, but I can see where all that black clothing might cloud the issue. And as to the aspects of the story Mrs. G didn't like--the novella-length and characterization? Hey, there's always next time.

more...

Summary only...

"Ember" at Teach Me Tonight

Teach Me Tonight is a blog that looks at the romance genre from an academic perspective. I've enjoyed many of their posts and am just tickled that Laura Vivanco chose to mention Ember in todays post, Beyond the Fairytale which discusses the Cinderella motif in romance novels.

On the subject of re-imagining and retelling fairytales, Eloisa James wrote an article called "My Fairy Godmother, Myself" in which she argues that

Cinderella was never about the prince. It was about the wonders of a magical transformation. [...] That turns out to be the key to rewritten Cinderellas: the heroine learns to honor and appreciate her pre-transformation self, forcing the prince to do so as well.

I'm not really sure if that would be true of Embers, but maybe we can discuss that in the comments.

My first instinct was to post and say that of course it isn't true of Ember. The second paragraph of the story is:

This is no fairytale. The real story doesn’t even start with me; it starts with the Prince.

I would also have added that one of the reasons I wrote Ember was to write a Cinderella story that was not about the cosmetic transformation or the ball or the competition between Cinderella and her stepsisters for the prince, but to explore the line that fairy tales so often draw between good girls and bad women, between virtuous princesses and wicked queens.

But here's my question and the real point of my post: Do I have any right to comment? Would it stifle discussion?

I've talked before about learning to let go of my stories once they're written. And I've talked about how it's important for me that Ember be a free story, since I would not have written it if I hadn't needed some content for my website. But now it seems to me that the biggest part of letting go, and of making Ember free, is letting other people make what they will of it without my input or explanations of what I meant.

And yes, I am aware that this post adds another layer of the very sort of explanation I just decided I shouldn't do. But letting go is a process, people--a journey. I'm working on it. :o)

more...

Summary only...

Seven Random Facts About Me

Ann Aguirre tagged me to blog 7 random facts about myself on Thursday. I'm just getting around to it now. Better late than never, right?

1. I know the place of purchase and price of every article of clothing I own, no matter how long ago I got it. If I bought it on sale, I can also tell you the original price and how much I saved.
   
   
2. I love fabric. I am, in fact, a fabric whore, known to wander the aisles of fabric stores across Los Angeles admiring the color and weave of wares I rarely purchase. Bonus: every story I've ever written contains at least one fairly detailed description of fabric--the material, the color, the weave, the pattern or the dye-process.
   
   
3. I am just under six feet tall.
   
   
4. The reason I use a lot of exclamation points in my blog posts and comments? I really talk that way. Really!
   
   
5. I love false/created spaces. Las Vegas, Disneyland, miniature golf courses, malls built to look like 19th century European or American towns, odd little houses around LA that look like hobbit houses or castles or pagodas.
   
   
6. I'm fascinated with trains. From 19th Century steam engines, to 20th century trollies, to Angel's Flight (Los Angeles's late, and much missed funicular rail line) to subways to light rail. Trains are cool.
   
   
7. I am almost unbeatable at "Connect 4"

Okay, now I have to tag 7 people. I tag Sarai, Isabelle Santiago, Carolyn Jean, Grammar Geek Laurie, Kate Rothwell, Sherry Thomas and December Quinn

more...

Summary only...