Ancient Music [Civ V]

I've been playing a lot of Civilization V lately. Originally, I had decided that I preferred Civ V's combat system, but Civ IV's music and diplomacy system. After coming back to the latest installment and actually playing it for a good amount of time, I think I was mistaken about the music somewhat. There is a lot of excellent music in Civ IV, still, but I've actually listened to the full songs from Civ V now and discovered that the developers were using more real music than the previous game did. Nearly all of the leader songs are based on some actual song relating to that culture, and the background music isn't nearly as bad as I thought it was. [The diplomacy is still terrible...]

Anyway, I liked several of the leader themes, but the two that have stood out as the most interesting history-wise are the themes for Alexander [Greece] and Nebuchadnezzar [Babylon]. Alexander's theme in this game is a version of the Seikilos Epitaph. It is the oldest example of a "complete" musical composition that survived for modern people to find it. A short melody that was inscribed on to a tombstone, of all things, is now used in a video game almost 2000 years later. Nebuchadnezzar's theme is based on a Hurrian Hymn dating back to approximately 1400 BC. This is much older than the Seikilos Epitaph, but this Hymn [A Zaluzi to the Gods] is incomplete. I just find it amazing to think that any music surviving that long would still be listened to. Both songs are fairly simple, but quite interesting after looking up different versions.
I like the translation for the lyrics of the Seikilos Epitaph:

While you live, shine
Don't suffer anything at all;
Life exists only a short while
And time demands its toll.

Post Story Depression

::sadmusic
I'm sure there are some people out there who can relate to this situation.
Back when I used to do a lot of reading, I'd occasionally come to the end of a good series or such and be left in a state of semi-depression afterward. [Still happens, I just don't read as often because the internet is an eternal distraction.] 

I remember first noting a story having this effect on me back when I read the Dragonlance Legends trilogy. I was amazed by the depth of one of the characters and his ending was particularly thought provoking. After reading the Hunger Games years later and having a similar feeling, I identified it as 'Post Reading Depression' to myself. Google search tells me that some people have written their own thoughts on such an occasion using the same phrase. One person described it as feeling crushed that a story would not continue; that the characters had nothing more to give.

That description is accurate to a certain degree for me. Sometimes a fictional character can be created so well that you have a emotional bond toward him or her and it sucks for the story to end because it feels similar to a lessened version of losing a friend. That doesn't necessarily mean that I think the story needed to continue [in a lot of cases the story ended perfectly], but there is still a feeling of loss because there will be no further connection.

I named this entry 'Post Story Depression', however, because this feeling doesn't only apply to books. I finished Mass Effect 3 almost 24 hours ago but I can't stop thinking about the characters. This is the end of a trilogy that I've been following for a while now, and while Bioware has always been great at creating compelling characters, this series is their best so far. I knew that there would be a lot of emotional moments in a game depicting a battle for earth's survival against a technologically superior enemy, but the level of compassion I have developed for the characters over the course of the trilogy actually surprises me.

I'm the type of person who likes it when a fictional story, be it movie, game, or book, can move me to feel personally attached. What makes this situation truly memorable for me, though, is that unlike a book or a movie, this was an RPG, designed to make you feel as if you were in Commander Shepard's place. As much as I love reading, I love how well a story can be told from this media with the way video games have evolved. It's not just witnessing the actions and thoughts of characters, it's being thrown along with them. Experiencing all of the conflict with them, and in a true RPG's case, making your own mark on the story with your choices. RPGs can be an excellent story telling format. Movies and books have their uses, but only an RPG can give you the element of being involved. If used properly, it's practically an interactive story, and while some disapprove, I think it's one of the most artistic ways to express the elements of writing that provoke an attachment.

A lot of games over the years have tried to claim the experience of having your actions cause the game to change drastically, but they fall short. And while the very ending of Mass Effect 3 wasn't entirely satisfying [everything until the VERY ending was great] and some actions only had minor effects, I'm eager to see more games that can tell a story as beautifully as this series did. I'm even more interested to see how far this genre of RPG can develop as technology improves, allowing for an even more personalized scenario, perhaps.

For now, though, I'm glad to have experienced the story that this series presented. I feel like I'll be mourning my fictional alien assassin boyfriend for a while.
.__.

Mass Effect 3: First Thoughts

Primarily a response to Kayl's post.
Right, so the game I'm most looking forward to this year is, naturally, Mass Effect 3. I played through the demo a few times the day it came out, I've seen a few trailers, and I've checked up on some of the features and such. I loved the first two games; I'm a huge RPG fan and space travel/aliens has always been an interest of mine, so this series has been one of my favourites.
I failed at keeping this short. [Be warned of minor spoilers.]

First Thoughts::
The new character creation doesn't seem much different than ME2's PC on high settings to me, though they did add a new female hairstyle that looks so much better than all the others that I will probably unfortunately be using it on all my female characters. My only minor problem is that you can't use eyeshadow as dark as the default female Shepard and there is still no way to make an attractive male Shepard without using the default. FemShep looks alright most of the time pretty easily.

The aiming feels so much better, based on playing the demo, that I may actually decide to use the soldier class... However, it has been changed so that all classes can use any weapon, but the amount of weapons you carry increases the cooldown time on your abilities. In the demo you could see that if you're carrying only one weapon, you can spam your abilities like crazy, yet carrying three made the cooldown incredibly long. I like this change, as it makes the ability-oriented classes a lot more fun.

I am not happy to see the two new squadmates are both human, as I think having more alien squadmates would have been more interesting. I am even more unhappy to see that the new female human is voiced by Jessica Chobot, who is pretty much the epitome of fake-annoying-wannabenerd-female, and while I'm probably being harsh, it's disappointing to see that type of person at all, let alone see that BioWare is letting one voice a character simply to get through to her "fans". This video may show a bit of why I dislike her. [She didn't impress during the interview about Mass Effect 3, either.]

I am saddened that the original voice actor for Mordin Solus is not returning. I am also saddened that Cerberus has turned out to be messed up more, but I'm hoping there is some slight redemption for the Illusive Man at some point; he's a fantastic character, despite his methods.

I've heard good things about the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer, though apparently the adept class is overpowered due to their stasis ability working on all enemies. I haven't had the chance to play it due to a router issue that is plaguing a small amount of people. Hopefully BioWare fixes the problem.

BioWare claimed that they were focusing a lot on relationships with crew members, even more than usual, and since I like the stories so much this should be a positive thing for me. [They also added a story-esque mode for people who want to breeze through the combat to see the cutscenes, that may prove useful when replaying it to see different conversation choices at a later time.] You can also make a male Shepard gay now, which is appreciated since the previous two games allowed for lesbian relationships but not male/male. Equality is good.

I've had a look at the list of everything that affects the outcome of the final battle, and I was pleased to see that actions from previous games have an effect, even if it's a minor one, as before this list was released it appeared like a lot of actions weren't changing anything at all. [They don't really change anything plot-wise, which kinda sucks since this is the last game in the series and they could have made things change wildly based on previous actions.] Difficult to say much else on this topic before the game comes out, though.

Anyway, I'm still really looking forward to this game. Hopefully won't be disappointing. The biggest problem with the game so far is that I have to use EA's Origin to run it. Steam is much better. I will have to run Origin THROUGH Steam and then launch Mass Effect 3 to be able to take screenshots.  [Pretty lame.]
Some things I'm really hoping for::
-Illusive Man redemption in some manner
-A lot of dialogue with Legion + more on the non-heretic geth
-Awesome romance subplots [the list of possible romances was released already]
-Taunting the Turian council member who dismissed the reaper claims
-Joker + EDI relationship

Free Ozma.

FREE OZMA::
Every day we citizens of the Internet enjoy many freedoms; we play video games with friends, we listen to music and watch youtube videos for free, we laugh at cats, we can even spend our time making others angry and then laugh at them, too. But every day, one of our own is not enjoying these freedoms.

Ozma.

A loyal citizen of the Internet, Ozma is being denied many of the rights that make us who we are today. Be you gamer or facebooker, admin or troll, this transgression speaks to all of us.

Not long ago, this conversation took place between myself and the Ozma in question.
8:32 PM - (U███?) DemoDemoMerp: shall we parttake in fortress of teamness duo
8:32 PM - ♥ the overseer: yes
8:32 PM - (U███?) DemoDemoMerp: splendid
8:33 PM - (U███?) DemoDemoMerp: come to private
8:33 PM - (U███?) DemoDemoMerp: so we may be priate
8:33 PM - (U███?) DemoDemoMerp: and watch as the flock comes
8:33 PM - (U███?) DemoDemoMerp: also brb spanish cursaders at door

It is my firm belief that these Spanish crusaders are the underlying cause behind this tragedy.

We don't ask for donations or money, all we want is to spread awareness of this cruel injustice.
Someday, with your help, Ozma will be free.




2:56 AM - (UVlad?) Ozma: anyway that song
2:56 AM - (UVlad?) Ozma: will be a song in one the internet's final bosses
2:56 AM - ♥ the overseer: the internet is vera dangerous
2:56 AM - (UVlad?) Ozma: i know.
2:56 AM - (UVlad?) Ozma: but im the hero it deserves

February 14th

Valentine's Day. I always forget this holiday exists, honestly.

A few weeks ago, one of my closer friends told me about how he disliked this day. After all, the nature of the day itself is to celebrate those involved in romantic relationships, I suppose it would be fair for the uninvolved to be less happy. I never noticed it though. The extent of this holiday for me was Elementary school kids passing around silly cards to everyone in the room. I don't think anyone could feel left out in that situation. As I moved on through middle and high school, the holiday just stopped existing for the most part. I think in high school one year some afterschool club ran a silly "matchmaking" test that you could pay a few bucks to see your results, but that's it. I can't remember any people going out of their way to make single people feel bad, or any single people going out of their way to express that they were miserable. I'm sure other schools had things much differently, but here there was pretty much nothing.

In general, it's a waste of a holiday, in my opinion. There shouldn't need to be a specific day to express your feelings to your partner, maybe an anniversary for something special, but Valentine's Day seems too much of a commercialized thing to have any meaning.

The Mass Effect 3 Demo came out today for PC, though. That certainly makes this an okay day this year.

Damnit, Skyrim

[Or Damnit, Elder Scrolls, really...]
And now for a videogame-blog to get away from the seriousness of the last one... Minor spoilers in paragraph three.
So, I got The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim when it came out and proceeded to play it obsessively for a few weeks. Immediately I was pleased with several improvements, particularly the much better appearance of all the characters, both NPCs and the player. I probably spent an hour just making my first character, looking through all the options and tweaking things. I do so love creating characters...

The game had other improvements, of course. Some to make it more realistic. Naturally, though, the unrealistic things in the game are sometimes the best parts. It is quite common in Skyrim for adventurers to barge into the Jarl's room at 3AM and initiate conversation while he's asleep only for him to immediately jump out of bed and thank them for killing some bandits. Putting a bucket on someone's head is an excellent way to avoid attention whilst stealing everything in sight. I frequently assassinate important political figures in full view of their guards only to hear them remarking that it must have been their imagination as I walk away, possibly looting the corpse on the way out. Not suspicious at all, of course.

The only unfortunate thing about this game in my case is that it seems to be falling under the same curse that Oblivion had for me. And that curse is called I make a new character, explore for a while, do the Dark Brotherhood quests, and then make a new character again. Unlike Oblivion, though, I have actually completed a large portion of the game this time. I've almost finished the main quest line and I've finished all the side faction quests, but I'm at the point where I want to keep doing the Dark Brotherhood quests again because they're so much fun. I just seem to like abusing all the stealth mechanics in these types of games. The best moment in the game for me so far was meeting the emperor while on a mission to assassinate him; he was quite a reasonable fellow, very polite, too.

Just briefly speaking with my favourite assassin companion.

Despite my problem getting through the entire game, I'd highly recommend the game to RPG fans. I feel like it's less story driven than a game like Fallout: New Vegas, but it is so ridiculously open that you can really get a sense of immersion and just do whatever you want. The music is outstanding. Really. I sometimes just walked around at night to listen to the music. The graphics are much improved from the last Elder Scrolls game, and definitely improved from New Vegas as well. I can't wait for a new Fallout game on this updated engine... 

Christmas Again

To be honest, a few months ago I wasn't expecting much good out of the holiday season this year. It's never really been a special occasion with us, at least, not since my mother died. She went out of her way to decorate around and outside the house; lights everywhere, just as enthusiastic as she was for Halloween and other events. After she died, though, we never did more than put up a Christmas tree.

Last year at this time, relations between my sister, myself, and my dad were probably at the lowest point they've ever been. Christmas hadn't exactly been much of anything special the year before... we don't really like to hang out as a family, so Christmas had mostly been just a get presents thing. It sounds bad, but we honestly didn't expect much gift-wise. That was just all our dad would do at the time and when we started having financial issues it left nothing at all. This season is supposed to be about being with family, giving and sharing love; all that generic great feeling stuff even if you don't adhere to a religion. But it would've been all too strange for him to start taking an interest in spending time with us.

Last year, though, we didn't do anything at all. No one in the house was willing to bring up the old Christmas tree and spend an hour or so decorating. I suppose we all thought, "What does it really mean? Why should I even bother?" We all knew that if anyone decided to bring it up, they'd be setting it up alone and probably taking it down alone in a week or so. There was no incentive for that. We know Christmas should have a higher meaning, but it's never existed really.
It kinda sucked. Not that we didn't have a tree up, but the whole situation really just beat it in that our family really doesn't... connect. Something we know and always avoid talking about. The lack of the tree that year, the easy to follow tradition that we had never once skipped on, was so very awkward.

I would have expected much of the same situation this year, but my dad having such a serious cancer issue changes things. Over the past few months, my father has, for the most part, been a lot more pleasant to deal with. It seems like he is making an effort to be civil, possibly to ensure that if he dies sooner than he'd like he doesn't leave on bad terms. We had a rather severe argument a few days ago, but it's been the only argument we've had in a while now. It was never resolved, but neither of us have brought it up since, and it's probably better that way. Realizing how short the time you have left with someone is puts things into a different perspective. It's difficult to bridge over a rift that's been untouched for years, but we're making an effort, him included, and that means a lot to me.

Things could always be worse. That's how I respond when people ask me how I am or some other filler question, "Could be worse."
Today, though, I feel like there's a type of progress being made. I hope there are others who can say the same about their own lives.

Merry Christmas to anyone reading this.

Also, thanks to Dashner for making me laugh: