Last night was a little different. Normally on Sunday nights I stay at home with my feet up and possibly lacking a pair of pants, and every other week I twiddle my thumbs while I wait for Classholes time to come around. Not last night, though. About mid-afternoon I put on pants and sallied forth… Continue reading Opening The Red Box
Category: Gaming
Extra Credit
A quick one today: if you haven’t already, cruise over to the Escapist and check out a little feature called Extra Credits. So far they’ve proven to be brilliant, insightful and pretty funny at times. It’s a look at what games are made of, how they influence us, what they mean and how we can… Continue reading Extra Credit
Gamers, Fanboys, Behavior and Respect
Since I and others may get worked up over this, here’s a picture of our kitten. I try to keep the contents of this blog focused on storytelling and the best ways to do it in modern media. One of those forms of media is games. Video games, to be precise, and it’s a form… Continue reading Gamers, Fanboys, Behavior and Respect
Story's End
Some of my favorite stories have been ruined because they’ve gone on too long. Even stories I’ve been lukewarm about have taken a turn for the abysmal when more story has been tacked on when it wasn’t needed. It’s so common that it’s been dubbed “Sequelitis” by the Tropers. It’s informed some of the decisions… Continue reading Story's End
The Fine Art of the Catherd
I’ve been in therapy quite a bit in my adult life. You’re shocked. I can tell. One of the most effective pieces of advice I was given by a therapist involved dealing with the internal mechanisms of my brain. Specifically, the phenomenon she called “racing thoughts.” Basically, if a notion came into my head or… Continue reading The Fine Art of the Catherd
Doing Girls Right
Women in fiction can be tricky things for writers, especially male ones. Every individual, regardless of gender, is a creature of nuance, and unless you want your work to be regarded as lacking substance, easily disposable and the sort of thing no publishing house will get near with a ten foot pole, your ladies are… Continue reading Doing Girls Right
Remembering Why I Play
My wife’s paladin: All this and brains, too. I have a tendency to take my games seriously. Like James T. Kirk, I don’t like to lose. I tend to find being on the wrong side of a die roll or an enemy stratagem to be very frustrating. But rather than taking the opportunity to learn… Continue reading Remembering Why I Play
Azeroth is my Gym
Why don’t you come with me, little girl, on a magic carpet dragon ride? I’m going to let you in on a little secret. With a few exceptions, I’m not entirely focused on World of Warcraft when I’m playing it. The aforementioned exception is the dungeons & raids. I stay focused in there. Mostly because… Continue reading Azeroth is my Gym
Return to the Gathering
Art by Kev Walker It seems that lately I’ve been rediscovering old habits. First, it was World of Warcraft. Now, my father has me playing Magic: The Gathering again. I first started playing back in high school. This was around the time the expansion Legends came out. I collected cards steadily until after my years… Continue reading Return to the Gathering
MMORPG Redux
It’s been some time since I’ve discussed upcoming MMOs other than World of Warcraft. Since then, Star Trek Online revealed itself to be rather dull, other bloggers have gotten into the FFXIV beta, and there hasn’t been anything more said about the Twilight thing. Thank the Maker. So let’s see what developments have come along… Continue reading MMORPG Redux
