megaTEN

It's been a while since I've posted anything like this, huh? :|a

( Cut for late night/early morning babble )


So... I guess this is a (WIP) collection of exercises/references that focus on technical aspects of writing:

• Nuts and Bolts: "Thought" Verbs [Tumblr, writing exercise]
  
• "Stops", Or How To Punctuate [free eBook, reference]

So, even though I've said previously in chats that Okamiden is an alright game, I've slowly come to realise that I really don't like Okamiden. Maybe I'm judging too early, because I haven't even hit 10 hours on Okamiden, but this is, what, an Action-Adventure game, not a JRPG. I don't think it's wrong to expect Okamiden to get to the exciting stuff faster than, say, Persona 4.

( Anyway, here is far too much tl;dr about game mechanics + some story things and how these contribute to how I find Okamiden incredibly tedious to play. )

I've been helping mum learn how to use her laptop, and how to use Microsoft Word, though most of the latter she's been learning from online tutorials I printed out for her.

As someone who's used computers for most of my life (I still remember when he had a computer that booted from a floppy disc, and it was one of those 8-inch ones, too), a lot of these things are like second nature to me. Double click to open files. Single click to navigate to this directory. Double click to navigate to this other directory. Stuff that's really simple for me is difficult for mum. There's a lot of complicated stuff in using computers that, as a user who is familiar with at least the basic workings of one, I didn't really appreciate until mum had come to me, confused about a section of the tutorial. I don't notice these 'inconsistencies', but mum does. Stuff that's really simple and straightforward for me, really is not for her. And it takes a lot of thinking to come up with an explanation (a lot of questioning of why) that she can understand and remember.

I think it's a good lesson for when I become a teacher.

( Comparing leadership/friendship/teamwork as presented in DDS with Purse Owner. Some DDS spoilers. )

LET'S BEGIN 2012 WITH CHARACTER ANALYSIS, YEAH? YEAH. Because this is what I do; write tl;dr posts about fictional characters.

I'M. ALMOST DONE WITH THE GAME but apparently I couldn't wait that long to do this. Of course, SPOILERS abound.

( The problem with lineface protags is that it's hard to tell whether they're being dumb on purpose or being genuinely derp. )

ALSO, I MISS THE FIRST GAME'S MANTRA GRID ; A;

On a completely different note, I did an Art Improvement Meme. Now you can see what a terrible artist I was in 2003! I can only thank/blame radio_aspen for the quantity I draw now.

Whoops kind of haven't been around for a while. Been visiting people I haven't seen for a while so I guess I need to catch up on the internet later.

But first, some video game character thoughts!

( Have some Serph analysis. Primarily theorising of why he is considered a good leader when he doesn't appear to demonstrate much leadership in game other than the beginning cutscene. Except I sort of went on to other tangents like comparing Serph with other silent protagonists. Has some endgame spoilers )

WHY DID I WRITE SO MUCH BASED ON SPECULATION FROM THE FIRST 10 HOURS OF THE GAME?? This was supposed to be a 2 for 1 post, but it's way too late for me to be writing tl;dr on Spada's interaction with Ange, which is probably the only part of his personality I find unpleasant in hindsight.

Tales of Innocence is really growing on me and I can't really put my finger on why.

Okay I can, actually. ( Lots of game blah blah blah about constrained worlds, replayability, action games and rhythm, and stupid, shallow, incomplete Spada analysis. And the fact skits are awesome and I wish more JRPGs had them. )

I was in a pretty bad mental state last week, but it's pretty much been better. LJ outages means I can't actually remember what I wanted to post about so instead you get pictures I sketched at some point during the week.

( All Onion Knight! )

I also did some TWEWY theorising on Plurk. Attempted to anyway. Linking them here for reference. Definitely a lot more incoherent than what I write here.
Plurk 1
Plurk 2

I keep on realising when I've been impolite/brusque like, an hour after a conversation ends. i.e. long after I have the chance to correct myself. Dangit! Did better than I was expecting in my exams so I guess I will celebrate with Onion Knight tl;dr !

( Mostly regarding his background and what kind of world the FF3 world is. And then some RP things )

Also, a cool game design related article: http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=293417

OKAY I am not allowed to tweak my Onion Knight app any more. NO MORE. I kind of think it's more scattered than I'd like but whatever, I AM DONE. Except not really; I'll probably tweak the sample a bit more hrhfgh.

I am having a small brain fart though. DISSIDIA PEOPLE I NEED YOUR ETERNAL WISDOM because if I start playing Dissidia to check this I will not study. Do the Warriors of Cosmos Team Cosmos ever find out about the existence of the cycles in the 13th cycle? I don't actually remember if they do or do not.

( relatively short babble comparing Onion Knight brattishness vs Joshua dickishness. I don't think I ever did so much character analysis for Joshua in such quick succession when I first started RPing him. )

But first, Dreamless ended up on the TVTropes fanfic reccs page asdf;lkj. Like, I said I'd love for it to happen but I didn't think it actually would * A*

( Lots of blah blah blah about Onion Knight. Mostly stream of thought (I HAVE BEEN AWAKE SINCE 4AM and decided to type things instead of sleep again) so I don't expect this to be cohesive. I'LL SHOW YOU THAT SIZE DOESN'T MATTER, I mean-- )

STUFF. THINGS. wow I think this is the most incoherent character writeup I've done to date.

Edit: I. Oh god. I didn't think it'd be this hard to actually find icons of Onion Knight being all smug. In game screencaps/artwork aren't very helpful in that regard, and if I'm going to use fanart, I'd really like to be able to contact the artist for permission. Unfortunately, the little bits of fanart icons I do see in LJ seem to be from Japanese artists, and I'd prefer not to go through a middleman to ask permission. I'm especially loath to say 'fuck it' and use their art anyway, because when I do browse Japanese websites, there are some who put up a notice "PLEASE DON'T USE MY ART FOR STUFF" and I want to respect that.

I HAVE SO MANY ANGRY/HORRIFIED/I WILL KILL YOU WITH MY EYES/I AM SURROUNDED BY IDIOTS PICTURES TO CHOOSE FROM, THOUGH.