Monday 29 September 2014

The Price of Progress - A Mindless Ramble

Greetings friends!

For today's chat I fancied something of a bit of free form chat with you guys if that's ok?

So for starters; I am finally making a bit of progress with my exam. Last week I tried to reach out to whoever is my current tutor (I didn't know who that was) and after lots of to/fro-ing I finally today got a message from my tutor asking me to forward her a small bit of info which I will do tonight so she can send me as much info as I need.

This will be good as it means I get to go over the info she sends me with a fine tooth comb and sort out what is new and what is worded differently to what I currently have. Fingers crossed I can then go on, resit my paper and walk away with AAT Level 2 under my belt.

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So obviously by now you all got the hint and that I'm doing streams on a weekly basis.

- I know, I'm hammering this home, but I can't really put into words how enjoyable Friday's cast was.

I suppose the best way to describe it; you know how when you watch a comedy you might find something funny, but you are unlikely to laugh out loud, but then if you are with someone else you are more likely to laugh out loud? It's almost like a declaration to everyone around that you got the joke!

Well playing Outlast on Friday was like that. Playing with people watching made the jump scares really scary and as I knew I wasn't talking to myself being able to verbalise my inner monologue which went from screaming "leave me alone! Leave me alone" to whispering to myself whilst in a locker "it's ok they didn't see you" or something to that effect, heightened the experience in ways I can not properly express.

It was funny really; I know that while hiding from the crazies that I as a player could talk as loudly as I wanted and that it wouldn't matter. Despite this I found myself whispering as if it was a compulsion. There were occasions when I felt like I would have been unable to speak any louder, even if I wanted to.

Of course we're all familiar with this: "here's the Doc with another wild craze that will keep him entertained for a month or two before he moves onto something else" and yes that is a possibility and very likely. It's like how before I do any skype chats for podcasts I always get super shy and embarrassed and then after about 2-4 seconds that melts away and I start to enjoy the chat, but before hand I am super-on edge often wondering if I don't want to just make an excuse and not bother at all.
- You have no idea how much I wanted to bail on Friday!!

But regardless of how long I keep this up for (as long as I enjoy it) I know it won't be because of me falling out with video games, that's for sure

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Some of you may be wondering what's happening with First Law: Override.

Well that's on a temporary break at the moment.

Working on this game takes a lot of focus and energy, and with my resit planned for the end of October that is focus and energy I just can't afford to divert.

I've got lots of things swimming around in my brain and I do believe that there is room for a game like this in today's modern climate - even if some bits may need to be readjusted**. I mean who wouldn't want to at least try out a CoOperative Campaign based Table Top game where each story series will almost certainly play out differently every time?

**One issue I am very much aware is terrain. I know limiting the board to 2'x2' drastically reduces the amount of terrain needed, but is asking a party of players/player to have enough terrain for the different environments too much?

I suppose there are two options available in this situation: you have the choice of keeping the terrain options and allowing for missions to take place in 2-3 different locations, for example an Action mission where you have to infiltrate a complex, that could be set on any Outdoor map varying from ice world, desert world or industrial city scape. Then an indoor mission could be set inside any sort of interior from scifi terrestrial complex to interior of spaceship where both tiles a la Space Hulk or actual terrain would all be suitable.

Another choice is to drastically limit everything. Maybe all worlds have only a single type of terrain meaning one set would be suitable. Obviously this is far from the ideal resolution as it limits things more than I would like.

Anyway, that's where I am with that at the moment.

It's far from ideal, but as I said earlier; actually moving beyond this stage will require a bit of work on my part and I know if I do that then I'll be taking time away from my needed future studies in the upcoming weeks and I am very reluctant to do that.

What about LoxBotLive I hear you asking! Surely that show will take time away?

You'll be surprised. I spent a bit of time working on the behind the scenes stuff over the weekend, and now thankfully it is to the point where I can do my recording for an hour on Friday, then upload it to YouTube automatically and we're done! Maximum results for minimal effort!

Anyway, that's all from me for now. I hope you all take care and that I'll see you Fringeside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

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