Speedster Haiku

scarlet and yellow
sudden, faint scent of ozone
fastest man alive


~~~

Character Sheet will resume next week!  Sometimes, when I'm stumped for a thing I want to write about, or I want to write better, I buy some time with a nerdy haiku - although, I actually quite like this one.  Enhance today's offering with Blake Neely's theme for The Flash, and hey...

Run.

Filthy Casuals.

Mobile games, I've played a bit
But actually, too much to mention
I played what I thought looked cool
And dropped most games - little retention

Sorry, I had a weird urge to parody just a little bit of Sinatra.  I'm over it now.

A running theme on this blog right now seems to be "Things that have happened since last regularly wrote on this thing."  I will now continue this theme.

I have had a few of smartphones, and - as a gamer - I have played games on them.  Sims, role-playing games, strategy, clickers - I'm all over the place.  Do you know that many of the classic Final Fantasy games are now available on mobile devices?  I know, because I have most of them.

A few notables:

Monument Valley is a perspective puzzle game with simple yet haunting artwork and story.  There's even a set of expansion levels you can play - good for a few hours.  Not free, but really impressive.

The Simpson's: Tapped Out let's you (re)build Springfield and make your favorite characters do chuckleworthy little tasks.  Micro-transactions allow you to get special characters (who all have their own list of tasks) and buildings.  I feel like I'd enjoy this game much more if I were more of a fan of the show - but I also come back to it often.

If you prefer Marvel superheroes to Simpsons, Marvel Avengers' Academy is...a remarkably similar game where you collect heroes and villains, and build buildings they can interact with.  Most of the heroes are portrayed as if they are in their late-teens/early twenties - think cartoonish CW Marvel.  It's still compelling enough to get me to spend far too much in micro-transactions, trying to keep up with special in-game events.

Alphabear is a word puzzle game in which you can unlock cute teddy bears for being clever with spelling out words on a grid.  After each game, it uses one or two words you spelled in a sentence, and the game makes it easy to share that screen - so you can compete for weirdest bearly English phrases on the social network of your choice.

Slimes - you spend around 2 hours fighting them before starting the real game. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

And I mentioned Final Fantasy above, but...Square Enix has also ported all of the classic Dragon Warrior games under their original Dragon Quest titles!  It's admittedly tougher to play them on a
phone, but a big enough tablet is great, and hopefully I can get them to work on Android TV, too.  Graphics are upgraded slightly, but not too much - they still take me back to my first grindy, turn-based roleplaying obsession.  Both the DQ and FF titles all cost way more than your typical $.99 cent game, though.

Here's the thing, though - with my focus back on WoW's new expansion, I don't spend a lot of time on any of these or the dozen other games I've tried.  The ones that I do spend some time with are all games that I can play for 15 minutes and then drop for the rest of the day.  Mobile games are like snacks of gaming - if I'm really hungry, I'm looking for something else.

Theoretical readers, talk to me about your favorites.  I feel lucky I've found games like Monument Valley - I hope more of those surprises are around the app store.

Clones Needed.

Do you or someone you know have a cloning lab?  Because I may need one in order to keep up with all the beta tests and game updates hitting my computer all at once.

I'm a long-time World of Warcraft player, but recently I've lapsed from playing.  Cataclysm isn't as interesting to me, now, and many of my guildies have moved on to raiding guilds, other games or are taking a break.  But I've kept my account current for the year-long commitment that would guarantee me a spot in the Mist of Pandaria expansion and a free copy of Diablo III.  I check in from time to time so keep my main active, but that's basically it.

And then Blizzard sent me my Mists beta invitation.

Let's take a step back.  Meanwhile, I've been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic (or SWTOR for short) since, well, two days before the game officially launched--I signed up for the early release kind of late.  I've been frustrated by the lack of, and greatly anticipating the introduction of the game's Legacy system--a way to tie your characters together in-game, and earn rewards for playing a variety of characters.

And I've been stopping in to update my characters' costumes and builds on Champions Online--a supers MMORPG with particularly great character creation.

Last week, Bioware finally updated SWTOR and introduced their Legacy system.  The day after, Cryptic Studios updated CO with a major overhaul to stats, equipment, crafting, and a host of other systems.  The day after that, Blizzard sent me an email inviting me to download and playtest the DIII beta.

Oh, I almost forgot.  After all of this, a Galaxy-wide game event started in SWTOR yesterday.

I'll be posting in the next few days about my thoughts on all of these games and updates.  I just wanted to break the surface and take a deep breath first.



Related articles

• World of Warcraft Lures Lapsed Players Back with Cataclysm Upgrades and High Level Characters [World Of Warcraft] (kotaku.com)
• Deliberately missing the bus (tobolds.blogspot.com)
• Blizzard producer attributes drop in WoW subscriptions to Star Wars: The Old Republic (arstechnica.com)

Blue Collar, Red Cape.

I'm writing about comics again?  You bet--it's an interesting time to be a DC fan.

I read (the new) Action Comics #1 yesterday!  Also, Detective Comics #1 and Batgirl #1 (and Justice League #1 last week).  I'll want to do a lot more reading, too, to make sense of things.  Finding out where the new DC universe stands in relation to the old one isn't a mystery to be solved by a couple of weeks of reading the most popular titles, sadly.

But it's still fun reading.

The individual books are starting really well--they are really what I want from each.

• Detective Comics is a story about dirty, ugly crime and conspiracy.  One man won't rest until the current crisis is over--and the current crisis seems to involve a painted psychopath who kills with no significant modus operandi.  On his side is a crazy amount of technology and resources, and a police commissioner who despairs over the ability of law enforcement to get the job done.  It's dark, it's messy, it's clearly well done Batman.  The man under the cowl is Bruce Wayne, not Dick Grayson, and there seems to be other Batmen around the world (I haven't read more than a teaser for Batwing #1) a la Batman Incorporated, there's no Robin appearing so far, and the Joker seems to be a recent demon, if not precisely new.

Image via Wikipedia

You wouldn't like her when she's angry.
She's got crazy upper body strength, now.

• Batgirl I read because I like legs, and I love the character of Barbara Gordon, and I was Bat-curious to see how she got from the wheelchair back to the Bat-cycle.  After reading, I'm still not sure (she mentions a miracle, but there are no details), but the comic does a good deal of focusing on Babs as a person in transition who still suffers from the trauma that put her in the wheelchair.  She's back on the streets/rooftops, and providing a running inner-monologue that analyzes her every move and exults at being back again.  She flashes back to being shot by the Joker, but doesn't think back to being Oracle at all.  She recalls being Batman's star pupil.  I guess we'll get more info on timelines and relationships in future issues.
• I got Action Comics partially because I don't think of myself as a great Superman fan (besides the two t-shirts, the ringtone...fine, I'm a bit of a fan).  I thought the "reboot" would be a great time to get in on the ground floor.  And it's definitely a ground floor--unlike the other two books this week, Clark is basically just getting started.  There's no painful re-telling of the origin story here.  Superman has been acting around Metropolis in the recent past..stirring up trouble?  This Man of Steel has been using his skills as an investigative reporter to find corruption, and then loses the glasses, dons the cape (no fancy suit yet, he fights the good fight in jeans and the same damn t-shirt design I own!) and goes after white-collar crooks, saves squatters from building being torn down, and generally fights for real truth, and real justice, in an American, middle-class way.  He's a supremely confident, almost smug hero who is proud of his abilities, but is using them to help pull the common man up, and the uncommon criminal down.  He can jump pretty high and pretty far can see an ulcer flaring up, and is often draw with his eyes glowing red, his heat-vision ready to jump out in disgust for the criminals he faces.  His best friend, Jimmy Olsen, works for a rival paper with reporter Lois Lane (who only knows Clark as a rival reporter).  Alexander "Lex" Luthor is a consultant to the military that's trying to figure out what to make of this alien that's shaking things up.  Morrison sticks to basics in this re-introduction, I really enjoyed it.  There is some history here to be explored later--where are Jonathan and Martha?  Is the basic origin the same?  For the most part, Superman is a recent phenomenon.  We'll see how the new Superboy fits in soon, but for now, there's no sign of Supergirl.
• Justice League started out really well for me, too.  I'm a big Hal Jordan fan, and have enjoyed interactions between Hal and Batman wherever and whenever they pop up--because it always explores themes of courage versus fear.  They don't often get along, Hal and Bruce.  And so it's great to watch them work together.  Green Lantern thinks he can handle anything, and Batman, just a man in a bat costume, never thinks like that--also, he hates all the glowing, green special effects that clearly show where they are.  But these two are the core around which Johns is forming the new Justice League--because, if they can work together, then the hard part is done.  This is happening in a world where authorities don't trust costumed heroes one bit--Gotham PD regularly takes shots at Batman, and Green Lantern seems to have some issues with the police in Coast City--those costumed heroes with special powers have never really organized before, and there's a new powerhouse in Metropolis (they say he's an alien!).

So, those are my thoughts.  Like I said, we'll see how things fit together as we get new books and more issues.  Hopefully the lack of context is simply good storytelling and not lack or organization among the writers--it's critical that DC get that right if they want the "reboot" to appeal at all to older readers, who are likely to be upset at losing a world they know.

Me?  I had fun reading this week.  I think things are looking up.  Wait--is that a bird?  A plane?

Related articles

• 10 must-read comics from DC's massive reboot (digitaltrends.com)
• 52 Reviews, Part 1 (graphicpolicy.com)
• 26 of 52: Batgirl #1 (looksat40.wordpress.com)

The New 52 or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the New Superman

Image via Wikipedia

If you dress like this, you necessarily have no fear of heights.

DC's renumbering/reboot of the DCU hits stores tomorrow.

I like the old characters--I like the sheer history of the DCU.  It's why I can catch up to some of my favorite characters in "Justice Society of America."  History and legacy are a couple of big hits for me--"Legacy" is actually the subtitle of my 3+ year Nobilis GWB game (probably ending tonight!).  Being mindful of where you come from, who your heroes, mentors, role-models are, and what you may be leaving behind is powerful stuff.

So, when I heard the news this summer that DC would be doing a reboot, my first reaction was great disappointment.  I didn't want new takes on familiar characters and themes, I wanted the history to continue.  I thoroughly enjoyed the Crises and the big crossover events.  I love the big, cosmic stories because I think the writers and editors of DC do them so well--the universe can change seven ways from Sunday, people hurt, and people make it through, and it works for me.

I know Superman is getting a full reboot, but there seem to be series that are getting renumbered but keeping at least some history around--in the GL-related titles, for instance, where the events of "Blackest Night" intact.  But how does this affect continuity and cross-over potential?  Are there two versions of Superman (again)?  How many bat-mantles are out there, now?  I loved the story of the Robins and how Jason Todd and then Tim Drake took on the mantle of Red Robin, originally a character in "Kingdom Come."  It looks like Captain Atom is back...I try not to be confused with that guy, but Grant Morrison hurts my head sometimes...

I need to finish reading "Brightest Day" and "Flashpoint."  I'm going to do some major web-research about The New 52 today.  I need to get prepared for this stuff, because, as DC points out, this could be a great time to start buying comics again.  Same-day digital copies are a huge bonus for me, a guy who games, chats, reads and writes digitally, these days.

Related articles

• Grant Morrison Reinvents Superman, Can He Rescue DC Comics? (fastcompany.com)
• Off Topic: Red Robin (Tim Drake) from The Rhetorical Gamer (morrisonmp.wordpress.com)

If I Were Super.

I've played this game with a lot of people over the years. Feel free to respond.

If you could have a super-power, what would it be?

Flight. The more I live, biking through the city, catching the bus or rides with friends, the more I walk alongside everyone else living in what can be a horribly banal world, my answer becomes more and more firm--I want to fly. Sometimes when the weather is nice (it happens if you're not paying attention, I swear) I look up into the fair-weather sky--you know the kind, with nothing but wisps of clouds--and I realize just how BIG the sky is. I think about shooting through all that bigness, wind trying to catch me, trying to say, "Hey! Wait! You're not supposed to..." and then I'm gone. I imagine looking down at everything that's familiar and mundane, but from up there it would look magical, somehow--and for the people looking back up at me, it'd be the same. Only one thing changed, one man hanging there in the middle of the sky, but it makes all the difference.

It used to be teleportation. I'm enough of a comic book fan to even take a limit to it, that I could only teleport to places I can think of, visualize in my mind. I'd never have to get up early to get anywhere. I could see anything I wanted, I could make money moving things around, or steal what I needed or wanted. I would be unstoppable.

But, for the sheer wonder of it, flight wins. There's a reason a popular movie used the motto, "You'll Believe a Man Can Fly!"

~j

I'll Get You Next Time.

Good versus Evil is a theme at the heart of a huge amount of stories. Our heroes have been explored—they’ve been around since pre-history, in our myths and legends. Hercules, Jason, Beowulf are important examples of a type of character that we still use in stories today. Heroes have been with us forever. Villains were rarer, until relatively recently. Antagonists were usually quickly and soundly defeated.

At the end of the 19th century, something about the stories we tell changed. Our villains became more clever, more inventive, and more relevant outside of the context of the hero that bested them. French pulp crime fiction birthed Fantomas, a master anarchist who wore a mask—when he wasn’t in an ingenious disguise. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created Professor Moriarty, the mastermind of a large network of criminal activity who only personally appeared in one story about the detective Sherlock Holmes, but whose presence was felt or revealed in a handful of others.

Why do we create these supervillains? We write and read stories about their clever and not-so-clever exploits, and how they inevitably fail by the hands of our heroes and superheroes. The bad guys are constantly trying to change the world disastrously—sometimes for more noble goals, but often for selfish reasons—but, in the end, the status quo is defended. I think that we create these characters and these stories as a safer reflection of our world, that the issues we see in our world can be dealt with in bold colors.

The superhero genre of stories also deals with other issues of our world—from homosexual superheroes and the difficulties and prejudices they face, to national identity and immigration, from the equality of the sexes, to issues of personal identity. Superman and Wonder Woman are constantly reminded that they aren't natives to our society. Yet they've in many ways adopted our ways of thinking, our values (which, fortunately, aren't too far from their own). Wonder Woman has had further challenges adjusting from being an Amazon princess to serving justice in a world where men tend to rule, and where in some places women are essentially property, a mere asset. Batman isn't always sure that Bruce Wayne is the real him anymore--the persona of the Batman seems more real, more relevant, and Wayne is just a facade.

The truly evil characters get caught, their plans thwarted. The sociopaths are brought to justice for their crimes. The terrorists and the diabolical world leaders don’t realize their goals. But those villains are still there, waiting for another story—because those issues and those threats are still there in our world. Luckily, our heroes are often merciful.

~j

Night and Wordy.

Probably not too wordy.

I've got Pandora set with a few channels, and on one of them, Weird Al's White and Nerdy has played a lot. It got me to thinking--yes, Weird Al caused quasi-serious thought--about nerd culture and how so many people like the same sorts of things.

Chances are, if you could think of yourself as a nerd, you're at least comfortable with computers. You probably have some specialized knowledge, like programming. You probably have some sort of web-page dedicated to yourself or your projects. You may have at least tried D&D or another table-top RPG before, not to mention MMORPGs over the internet. You know who Weird Al is. You probably have a favorite comic book, even if you call it a graphic novel. Heck, you probably have a favorite comic book and a favorite graphic novel. You've seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and probably more Monty Python. You've at some point thought about and compared Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon 5, and Battlestar Galactica.

Interesting trends. I suppose other sorts of people have their lists of interests, it just doesn't seem as wide and as specific as the interests of nerds. It may make us easy to identify, yes, but that's a plus, too--we can easily sense the presence of one of our own.

Nerd-dar. Yeah.

~j

Superbad.

I'm writing a research paper about supervillains.

The superhero genre is a huge favorite of mine. I didn't even collect comics as a kid. Sure, my dad sometimes got me one, or let me pick one out, but it wasn't a regular thing until early high-school when I subscribed to Amazing Spider-Man. And even that wore off after awhile. Since then, though, I've really come back to the whole comic book fan-boy life. I've seriously followed JSA, JLA, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, even Young Justice, for crying out loud. I've read Watchmen, Powers, Rising Stars, Preacher, Lucifer, Sandman...the list really goes on. I seem to prefer DC and Vertigo to Marvel brand justice.

The first meeting for this class had us writing a list of ten things that fascinate us. Comics made the list. Then we got a bit more specific. What's interesting about them?

Bad guys.

My paper asks the question "Why do we like these characters?" We obviously do--some of the most despicable just keep coming back for plot after plot. They're stopped, but they're not done--they're jailed, shelved until they can come back out for more mayhem.

The supervillains are usually the ones acting on the world. They threaten the vigilantly guarded status quo. They're bold that way. Some even want to change the world for the better--it's just that the changes risk too much. Some want to rule--to be in charge, to be dominant. Some are just freaking smart. These are all traits that readers young and old can think are desirable.

The other side is that supervillains are the evil we know, and also the evil we know will be beaten. They're terrorists, evil dictators, serial killers and drug pushers--and we know--we're sure, that by the time the story wraps up, justice will prevail. No matter how many issues the story runs, the bad guys will lose. That's at least a little reassuring consciously. Think about how much better it is if you're not thinking directly at it?

Our stories change. Supervillains haven't been around all that long, as far as human history goes. Moriarty and Fantomas are the best examples of the beginning of their new world order. They've never really been limited to the fan-boy limbo of comic book culture, as opposed to their do-gooder counterparts (until recently). So, long live bold, colorful evil. Long live monolouges, cackling, maniacal laughter and doomsday devices.

Long live the supervillain.

~j

Daleks vs. Rikti.

So, as a gamemaster, I can't come up with all the cool stuff in the world for my games. I need inspiration. As a nerd, I know of a ton of cool things that I can include--and since my players are mostly nerds, too, they can appreciate them.

It's the fine art of writing homage, and it works for gaming, too. And I'm convinced that the people who wrote Aliens vs. Predator know what I'm talking about.

Actually, that's a great example, since that completely original idea came out in comics first. Comic books stories are shameless, and honestly, I like some of the stuff they come up with. Vampires, magicians, space aliens and mutants all fight evil together in the pages of comics.

Appropriately enough, a few years ago I ran a super-hero game I called Heroism 101. The setting was a slightly comic-book version of the University of Illinois campus at Champaign/Urbana. The tone was a sort of Spiderman/Buffy, and included characters like the hitman from Gross Point Blank and "Secret Asian Man" who was actually called the Master Thesbian, but the joke stuck. Yes, his super power was acting. As I was playing City of Heroes at the time, the metaplot involved the impending invasion of the alien Rikti race, built to model what they could do in the MMORPG.

All this was fun as hell.

And why not? RPGs are only a few steps from playing with action figures, where Luke and Han join Snake-Eyes to fight the evil alliance of Destro and Vader. We (sometimes) try to create realistic people for our characters, with wants, and hopes--but they have to live -somewhere-, know some people, and do something. In fictional stories we tell together for the fun of it, what's the difference if their surroundings seem familiar because we've really been to that place, or because we've read about that particular Wardrobe a few times?

What's important is to keep the tone consistant in the game--things can get campy quick. Which okay for a campy game, but less so for a game of high drama. You don't want to bring in things that will actually lessen a player's (or another player's) fun. As players, be forgiving as long as the tone isn't violated.

Just don't involve Captain Kirk. It never helps.

~j

Peter Petrelli vs. God

I watched this week's episode of Heroes. It's a thing I do. I like comics, I like the whole super-genre, and the show has been a nice thing to come back to every...whenever they air one.

But I digress. This week, Pete challenged God, in a Catholic church, with prayer candles and in front of a Sacred Heart statue. I was like--woah. Did this show just throw crap in the eyes of "papists" everywhere? I know Catholics--I sort of am one, sometimes (a secret identity of my own)--and I know there are some (read: many) out there that will take offense to this scene. Even if it -was- Peter Petrelli!

Not to spoil things, but...I think the scene is very skillfully included and not at all offensive. The episode ends with things coming together a little for the characters involved--better times are just around the corner, and the footprints in the sand were identified as not Pete's. Probably because he can fly currently.

People question God in hard times. It happens--even the most faithful of the...faithful...do this. The show isn't making a judgement on God, or on the Catholic faith. It's portraying a more realistic character, and even suggesting (with the upturn at the end) that his challenge was wrong--but not Evil, or even Uncommon.

Also, I wanted to put "Sunday! Sunday! SUNDAY!" in the title of this post, but let's face it--Peter is a Monday night kinda guy. God -owns- Sundays.

~Jason