A writing post

I’ve been snorting all week over the Miss Snark blog. She’s a literary agent who tells it like it is, and even though she’s stopped posting on her blog, the archives are still good value. Poor lady, she actually gets submitted gems like:

TITLE is written in the spirit of such books as Kerouac’s ON THE ROAD, Milton’s PARADISE LOST and Dante’s INFERNO.

Gaa.

I’ve been reading some of the workshops from the Holly Lisle webpage too, and can’t recommend them enough. The workshop on creating conflict encouraged me to subject a few of my characters to the torture, and it’s really helped clarify some of my ideas.

I’ve also recently joined the kiwi writers forums. They seem like a nice bunch of lads over there.

I don’t know if this is interesting to anyone, but I’ve had a huge rethink on the story (too scary to call it a novel, though that’s what it is), and, twenty-five pages in, I’m scrapping most of what I’ve written, but at least I know what I want to do with the whole first chapter. I’ve kicked off the opening scene with a riot, instead of my protagonist waking up early and making a cup of tea. Yes, the riot scene does involve the tea-drinking character, though I have given her a good kick up the bum and she’s now more stroppy than the one in the first twenty-five pages. Hallelujah!

I’m writing with Scrivener, which I’m enjoying, in the way it allows me to write scenes separately if I like, rather than looking at everything in one blobby document. I think you could go a bit overboard with the planning though, and limit yourself to scenes you’ve already blocked out on the corkboard. That said, my first draft is actually being written in a notebook, so I’m trying to keep things fluid.

It’ll be interesting to see how it works when it comes time to edit. I think breaking a document up into bite sized scenes at least lets you focus on just one area, rather than getting overwhelmed by a huge document with hundreds of pages, that you have to scroll up and down in to find characters, names, places and scenes. Once I’ve finished my basic rough draft of this novel, I’m considering importing my NaNoWriMo novel, breaking it up, and having a bash at making it respectable.

We’ve got a lovely long weekend coming up - Anzac day’s tomorrow. Steve & I are going up the coast to show his house to someone who might be interested in buying. We’re also picking up the Hebel that’s going to make up the surround for the gas fire in the lounge. I have a game to review, that unfortunately from all accounts doesn’t sound incredible: Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters. And I’m going to try and finish that first chapter…

Sims 3 First Look

Hey, so my ‘Sims 3 first look’ preview is up on NZGamer at the moment (here).

Tristan also is going to be interviewing some of the top Sims brass (including Rod Humble!) and asked if I had any questions for them. This is what I sent:

As shown in both sims city societies, and the glimpses we’ve seen of the sims 3 and spore, it appears that there is (and has been) a definite shift away from the number-crunching side of Sim gaming to a ‘fuzzier’ style of gameplay that puts greater emphasis on the communal,social experience. Has this been an intentional change of direction, or is our gameplay style just changing?

Along those same lines, do you see the paths for The Sims, Sim City and Spore games ever ultimately converging?

In previous interviews you’ve mentioned that with the large pool of personality types, players can come up with some interesting combinations that often result in unpredictable emergent behaviour in the neighbourhood. What are some of the stranger examples you’ve seen?

Since the entire neighbourhood will be running mostly without the direct influence of the player, can we expect the AI of other sim families to be more sensible so they can look after themselves (go to the toilet, or even to work) without intervention? To what degree will Sims on a player’s periphery (i.e. ones they’re not playing directly with) behave autonomously?

We’ve just heard that The Sims 2 has hit the 100 million mark! This is great news (Sims fans are going to take over the world someday), but do you find With so many fans, it becomes more difficult to to try and experiment with the model rather than just giving players whatever they want? We really can be pretty rabid at times.

We’ve noticed that a lot of features that came with Sims 2 expansion packs seem to appear in the base Sims 3 game, such as gardens and weather. Are these just artistic representations of the game, or will the base game really have all of this built in? Speaking of expansions, will The Sims 3 expansion pack model be the same as The Sims 1 and 2?

The Sims bodies and faces we’ve seen in screenshots look fantastic, and you wouldn’t believe (actually, you probably would) the number of people who are excited about being able to create fat sims! Unfortunately there didn’t seem to be any vampires, werewolves, zombies or plantsims among them. Will the Sims 3 be keeping any of our supernatural friends, or do you have some other surprise in store for us?

Rabid, fannish-type questions:

The realtime aspect of the game is also really exciting. Have you seen any unexpected ways of playing with this new feature? Would buildings such as hospitals and apartments be possible now?

Before The Sims 2 was released, a standalone Create-a-Sim was released. Will you be doing this for The Sims 3 as well?

Will The Sims 3 retain the standard ‘work’ model, or has this been revamped?

Will The Sims 3 see the return of Mark Mothersbaugh? (Please say yes.)

Will the Goth family return to the game?

I’m sure it’ll all be made more ‘flowy’ for interview purposes, but it could be a nice opportunity to find out more about the game and share with everyone. I’ll make sure to post the interview once it’s published.

Hamlet - the text adventure!

Here.

All a bit surreal

Well, it’s all a bit surreal, really, having my first article published on Stuff. Re-reading it, I’m overwhelmed by how rambly it is, and of course, Stuff’s a slightly different audience to NZGamer, in the nicest possible way.

Had a real late night last night, so I’m going to try not to do the same again. Was a bit headachey today.

Things are really coming along in the house - all the wallpaper in the hallway has been stripped, and we sanded the walls down tonight. Father Jack’s room (nickname for the spare bedroom that had horribly stained wallpaper and ceiling, and smelled stale and weird) is going to be next, then we’ll get the firebox ready for its new gas fireplace that’ll be coming down from Taupo at some stage. Busy times.

Aside from that, I’ve been typing up some notes, trying to transfer emails and other documents over from the old laptop, and listening to a spot of music: Beiruit’s The Flying Club Cup, Tokyo Police Club’s A Lesson In Crime, and the ever-faithful Ennio Morricone’s The Best Of. Every time I hear the theme song from Cinema Paradiso I feel a bit weepy. In a good way.

Anyway, time to knock back the tea and collect a sleepy boyfriend for bed. Night.

Sweet!

I didn’t mention earlier that NZGamer is now providing game reviews for Stuff.

Without further adieu, check out my FreeTime review!

The Sims 2 FreeTime review

Just a quick note to let you know my Sims 2 FreeTime review is up at NZGamer. It’s a very cool expansion pack, with heaps of new stuff. I rate it with Seasons as one of the must-have EPs.

Just to reiterate, here’s my list of Sims 2 expansion packs, in order of preference:

1. Seasons (plant sims)
2. FreeTime (genie?)
3. Pets (weresims)
4. University (zombies)
5. Bon Voyage (bigfoot) (gets bumped down the list due to graphics issues I never encountered till I installed it.)
6. Open For Business (robot slaves)
7. Nightlife (vampires)

Of course, they do each introduce their own very cool monster (something that I confess I found a little disappointing with FreeTime, unless someone can point out a way to get a genie to join your household?), which I’ve added to the above list in italics. It’s still my secret dream to get one of each all living under the same roof…

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Sim City Societies Crash Bug part 2

- That is still consistently the most searched for term to reach this blog, which just goes to show how many people are still encountering problems with the game. I’ve stopped playing it altogether. I’m really becoming more and more disillusioned with PC gaming (if the post below didn’t indicate it clearly enough), which seems to just cater to a small percentage of people with the high end equipment. Even my beloved Sims 2 has turned on me. Everything was running smoothly till I installed Bon Voyage, and now - even though I’ve uninstalled BV - I’m still having graphics issues. Maybe it’s the copy of FreeTime I just reviewed. It’s so frustrating.

Maybe the bitterness is just a sign that I need to upgrade. But then - there’s nothing really wrong with my computer, I can do everything else without any problems; it’s wireless, I can surf, write, manipulate photos, send and receive email, listen to music, watch movies… so why do I feel so dissatisfied with it these days?

Perhaps it’s symptomatic of the general state of consumerism these days. No, this isn’t meant to be a rant, but I really do find it hard to put the brakes on the endless, constant upgrading that seems to be expected of us, just to keep up with games, technology, our friends, what’s advertised on TV and the internet. I want to slow down my frenetic pace of buying, wanting. I don’t count myself as particularly materialistic, and yet at times some weird frenzy takes hold, and suddenly I’ve bought yet more books from Amazon, something from TradeMe - it’s all so fast, all you have to do it press a mouse button a couple of times and that’s it.

Lately, I’ve been considering getting a MacBook. In a way it would feel like starting over. No games. Just a clean, fresh start. But would it be, really? Or have I just deluded myself into thinking that spending more money is a way to start over again? Really, if you think about it, the best thing to buy would be a blank notebook. Clean white paper. No games. Now that would be a fresh start.

Speaking of fresh starts, I got up early this morning and went for a run around the park. Not a biggie by any stretch of the imagination, just 2kms, but it felt really good to be doing it. I wasn’t as tired as I thought I’d be either. Now it’s just a matter of staying enthused about it, I’m aiming for every morning for the rest of the week. If I can work up to a half hour run every morning during the week, plus some writing, I’ll be over the moon.

DirectX 9 vs DirectX 10

I think this guy lets Vista/DirectX 10 off a little too easy. While his article is obviously trying to visit both sides to the story, the conclusion “but they’ll never forget that it isn’t easy being a PC gamer sometimes” irritates me to no end. I’ve been a PC gamer for 14 years now (24 if you count early Commodore 64 action) and the so-called advancements in production value and graphics only barely outweigh the hassles that PC gamers are increasingly asked to put up with by games companies.

Every new game title I get to play or review means a trip online to look for new display drivers, a trip to the game forums to find out what problems other players have had before me, hassles with ’software incompatibility’ (read: image-mounting software, all legal), and other fun moments, such as when Windows Live or Steam give you grief because you prefer to play a game while not connected to the internet.

[As an aside: most games these days are so resource-intense that they require you to - and often ask you to - disable all non-core processes running on your PC, including anti-virus software, a move that cancels out any chance of me staying online during that period. Steam's demands that you remain online while playing amounts to virtual suicide.]

Back in the 90s, gaming seemed a lot more fun, and a lot less work.

MUD feature - part 2

Gak! I only noticed the apostrophes that someone decided to add to my title. Hopefully they’ll be removed soon.

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MUD feature

The MUD feature I wrote over the weekend’s already been posted at NZGamer. It’s basically a look at text-based MUDding, and examining what they have to offer today’s gamer.

There’s just something about text-based games that, while they may be a little more work, seem so much more rewarding than their graphical counterparts.

The feature’s up here. Please digg if you like it!

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gaming xmas guide; grades; xmas shopping and the rest…

OK, first things first:

• the NZGamer christmas guide for gamers has just been posted. Talk about a pile under the christmas tree!
• I’m not going for anything electronic this year (uh, not that I do other years either, not really) - Steve and I have decided we’re going to make as many of our presents as possible. We’re going to give things like dukkah and spice mixes, homemade cookies (Snickerdoodles for Dad!), some of my pottery, knitted things (socks), and I’m sending my sis some of my homespun wool. Yeah, a real touchy-feely christmas for all, but it’s actually pretty fun.

In other news:

• I made soap! Yes, soap! I started off with this recipe here, but had to modify it when I realised we got home from our grocery shop and I’d forgotten to get the olive oil! Had to rush down to the dairy but they only had one 500 ml bottle. I increased the amount of coconut  and palm oils to make up for the lacking 500ml. In addition, I decreased the amount of lye used, as I double checked the quantities using the very great Majestic Mountain Sage Lye Calculator. Unfortunately, as MMS can’t send liquids overseas, I had to purchase my ingredients somewhere else - and did so through the very excellent Aromatics and More, for the oils (including fragrance oils), and I purchased the sodium hydroxide (lye) from Go Native. Both sites were very good to deal with - I recommend them wholeheartedly. I also changed the recipe a bit by splitting the batch into two after I reached trace, and gave each a different fragrance (using half the sweet almond oil and fragrance oil for each batch). So I have two trays of vanilla and green apple soaps all curing now in my kitchen. It’s going to be hard to wait for them to cure!
• I got an A for my research essay! I’m still waiting to find out about my final grade (as the honours mark incorporates the work you do in all your subjects, and is just one overall grade), but in a way I don’t care - I put in a lot of work into my essay and I’m really proud of it. That mark alone has made last year’s work all worthwile!

NZGamer SimCity Societies review

SimCity Societies (PC)

Publisher: EA Games Developer: Tilted Mill Entertainment Genre: Simulation

The Scoreboard

 

Graphics		7.5
Gameplay		8.5
Sound		8.0
Value		8.0

8.0 Good

Rating: G

Difficulty: Medium

Learning Curve: 15 Min

“A kinder, gentler SimCity.”

by Jess Nickelsen

 

Since its early days, SimCity has always been known as a good fit for the particular, precise gamer, one who has the patience to carefully place zones, trace roads across town to allow for perfect flow, make careful decisions around the best way to power and water your growing population, all while taking into consideration advice given by your town’s many councilors. SimCity’s a great game, as much of an institution as Civilization, Elder Scrolls and Final Fantasy rolled into one, with a huge and very serious fan base.

This latest version has really ruffled some feathers. To begin with, the idea of the game functioning as a reasonably realistic city simulation has been thrown out the window. These are not tiny replicas of New York City or Tokyo we’re building here. SimCity Societies is bright, colourful, and totally stylised. Depending on what ‘style’ of town you choose your pool of buildings from, you could make it look like anything from Candyland to something out of Snow Crash - and everything in between. The design of each of these different building styles is very good; the cyberpunk style is appropriately bleak, while the ‘fun’ style eventually creates a city where the street lights are all candycanes, and people live in trees or gingerbread houses.

The other sticking point is the other new inclusion to the game: values. In SimCity Societies, you can build a city that focuses on one of six values: prosperity, creativity, spirituality, authority and knowledge – or mix it up any way you’d like. This means you can create a really wide range of different towns or cities, including fun, contemplative, capitalist, romantic, and authoritarian. As your town produces more of any of these values, certain buildings and events are unlocked; your city can even produce special sims that will walk around and affect the general mood. There are heaps of them, including arsonists, cheerleaders, hippies, mimes, street performers and vigilantes.

Zoning is gone, but hey, so is laying pipe and threading strings of power lines all over the show (a personal pet hate). Instead, you can plonk buildings down here or there, with the fishmonger’s right next door to the elementary school, or city hall next door to the karaoke hall. It really lets you take a much more detailed hand in creating your city.

Disasters are still around, thankfully! Storms, meteorites and earthquakes are still very much a part of the build-develop-destroy cycle that is integral to the series. In addition there are external events that can affect the city – everyhing from a global event like a stock market crash, to a tsunami.

All up, I think this is a game that SimCity fans can be proud of. No, it is not the same as the SimCity games you’ve played in the past, and though to a certain extent it is a more stylised version of previous games, I would hesitate to call this ‘SimCity lite’ as others have. What it’s done is added a real human element to the SimCity genre. Where before people were really just another resource to control, they now bring some personality to the places they inhabit. This makes for a much more unpredictable and interesting game, in my opinion.

***

For more gaming goodness, check out NZGamer.com.

SimCity Societies crash bug

If any of you have got your hands on SimCity Societies yet, you’ll probably have experienced the horror of your computer spiralling into the blue screen of death after a few hours’ playing. Luckily this morning I saw this link up on GamersHell - EA have already released a patch.

If you haven’t bought the game yet but are planning to, please install this at the same time.

Oh, the game is great by the way… review to come soon.

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Upcoming reviews

Just a quick note to say I’ve got a couple more reviews in the pipeline: The Simpsons Game for the PS2 (review to post tonight), and… Sim City Societies! I just got the nod from Tristan this afternoon.

*really excited*

Oh, and I’m nearly at 20,000 words for NaNoWriMo! Still going strong :-)

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A real update

OK, Ok, I know I’m pretty overdue for a real update. Here goes.

Things have been reasonably busy at work. Have had a couple of projects stretch out a bit (which means I haven’t got all the info I need to proceed with my end) but it’s not bothering me too much.

Steve & I have been packing, slowly, for our move into our house at the end of November. It’s still hard to believe it is really our house! I’m excited and nervous (and I hope the whole moving house thing won’t impact my NaNoWriMo too much the weekend of the 25th). The garden’s really taking off. So far we’ve planted: peas, beans, tomatoes (3 kinds), eggplants, lettuce, swan plants, chilies (only about 16 plants in the greenhouse!), chives, spring onions, basil, an artichoke and some Vietnamese mint. Awesome! We’ve also found out that we are going to be able to get a gas line piped to the house, which will mean a gas stove-top, an infinitiy hot water supply, and gas heating. Combined with all the ultra cozy wool insulation we’ve put in the ceiling (and are putting in the walls soon), we are going to be so toasty this winter!

Hopefully I’ll be getting my laptop back today. Today, as in 10 hours before NaNoWriMo begins. Talk about cutting it close! I’ve been making plans for my story for the last week or so. It’s going to be a Sci-Fi. I love Sci-Fi, but have never written much of it before. It’s going to be interesting!

Oh, and I’ve been playing craploads of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: And Justice For All. It reminds me a little of those Perry Mason computer games I used to play on my Commodore 64. It rocks!

Haven’t been doing a hell of a lot of spinning/knitting lately, though I have started spinning some lovely brown wool for a sweater that one day I will knit for Steve. Oh, and am finishing some socks for mum (xmas), after which I have to knit socks for dad - everyone for some reason wanted socks for christmas! In summer!

P.S. Oh, and how annoying is it that the NaNo forums are so totally clogged I can’t even hop on? Sheesh.