I had to play a few hours of Nier today to get the point where I could talk about its book-like interface system for the dissertation. And I had to play to that point because Nier's endgame (spoiler, I guess?) doesn't really leave things in a state where doing that is possible.
What I found is that Nier is a wonderfully complex game (albeit somewhat graphically low for a mid to late Xbox 360 game), one whose eventual story is set up right from the start, and design choices that contribute to the overall aesthetic in a meaningful way all build on each other. It's an unusually rich, creative game for a JRPG low budget (for AAA, anyway) game.
I never want to play it again.
I felt the same way going back to Ni No Kuni (which is much more diminishing returns than Nier) for its dissertation section; there's a point in lengthy games where enthusiasm is displaced by entropy, and trying to research the game at the same time only makes it worse. Nier's a wonderful game, and I could (and have) written pages and pages extolling its virtues, but I really, really don't want to subject myself to having to go through it again. Ah well; I'm an hour or two in and at the shrine where Weiss becomes a party member, so the end's in sight.
Later Days.
Showing posts with label research. Show all posts
Showing posts with label research. Show all posts
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Game Research
I'm sure I've talked about this before, but it's a topic that's been on my mind of late: how to research videogames.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
A Postcard from Illium
If you think you're sick of these Mass Effect related posts, imagine how I feel. Researching a game is a pretty emotionally draining, time-intensive task. Those book-based reader researchers have it easy.
All right. Here's the sound clips played as you pass from one area of Nos Astra (the capital of the asari world Illium) to another:
-Coming up later today, we release our annual list of Illium’s ten richest people. Are the heavens still bright Asari blue, or have the volus finally rolled to the top? And don’t miss our look at the fashion faux pas at the Commerce Awards held last week. All this and more on Financial Entertainment Daily.
-Illium Entertainment would like to respond to complaints about our upcoming film Blastos the Jellyfish Stings. The Hanar Defamation Association claims that our portrayal of Blasto in sults hanar society, going so far as to call it ‘exploitation.’ We at Illium Entertainment stand by our product, which puts a hanar in a lead role and notes the growing importance of these respected galactic citizens. We hope that you the viewer will decide whether we have done Blastos justice and to allow you to decide, all first day purchases are 30% off. Illium entertainment thanks you for your support.
-Tired of training employees only to lose them to your competitors? Perhaps Indenture-Tech can help. The leading provider of cutting-edge indentured servants, Indenture-Tech can provide high quality labor for any technical area. Contact Indenture-Tech today. You’ve been a slave to your employees for too long. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
-Another difficult development for human expansion as the colony Horizon has been attacked. The Council has pledged to investigate the matter thoroughly, possible indication of the attacks on humans galaxy wide. Investigators in prefabricated complexes are rejoicing, however, as the and rebuilding plans have industry wide.
-The Council thought that Blasto , the first hanar spectre, would play by the rules. This one has forgotten whether its heat sink is over capacity. It wonders whether the criminal scum considers itself fortunate. They were wrong. This one doesn’t have time for your solid waste excretions. He’s got a lover in every port and a gun in every tentacle. Enkindle this. Blasto the Jellyfish Stings available for net purchase this fall, from Illium entertainment.
-By the stars, your skin looks amazing. You’re not using biotics to touch things up, are you?
Actually, I just tried exoderm.
New Exoderm moisturizerizing cleanser. They’ll never know you’ve entered the matron stage.
-Bad luck on the stock market? Debt piling up? Perhaps you need to explore other options. Talk to Indenture-Tech to see if indentured servitude is the right career option for you. Remember, the only shame is enjoying nothing.
-This is a recall notice. All users of Corous-brand medical radiation systems are asked to discontinue treatment immediately. Please return your system to an authorized dealer for a refund. Or for credit, try the new exciting Corel-brand radiation personal defense weapon. Customer safety is important and Corous remains committed to supplying the best radiation-based solutions on the market. Corus: a division of Elcoss Combine.
-Antares System has been deeply embarrassed by the recent theft of a new omnigel synthesis prototype. Antares System closed down four points as a result of the theft.
-Illium is the gateway to the Traverse, but is that gateway open too wide? Investment think tanks are noting concerns that new technological discoveries may have set the market balance and cost skilled workers their jobs. Later today, we’ll talk to survey teams discussing the latest technology you won’t be able to live without. And, how much it will cost.
-Nos Astra has recently received an unexpected visitor in the form of a rare justicar, calling herself Samara. Samara denied our request for an interview, leading us in the dark as to what brought an adjusticar to the fringes of asari space. Nevertheless, Illium News is pleased to present a special report on the history and politics of this rare group.
-(male voice, deep) Hungry? Then come to the Fish Dog Food Factory. Tasty varren skewers are just five credits for a limited time only. Or, for the connoisseur, try our grade a tchonka raised steaks. Turian and quarian food options are also available. It’s fun for the whole family. Come to the Fish Dog Food Factory. (different voice, nasal female) A division of Elcoss Combine.
-Are you a quarian or a volus who is tired of being passed over promotions because of discrimination against exo-suit wearing employees? Genetic Paradigms invites you to consider adaptive genetic therapy. Our trained staff hhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifas a success rate approaching 40%. Come to Genetic Paradigms, and come out of your shell! A division of Elcoss Combine.
-Does living in a higher altitude make you more intelligent? Our report may surprise you. New studies commissioned by the Architectural Union has noted a correlation between tested intelligence and height of habitat. The news comes as new homes ranging from studio apartments to studious rooftop mansions enter into open market bidding.
-Bad luck on the stock market? Debt piling up? Perhaps you need to explore other options. (male voice) Indenture-tech paid off my debt and helped me gain valuable job skills. Now, just five years later, I’m a free man again. (original female voice) Talk to Indenture-Tech to see if indentured servitude is the right career option for you. Remember, the only shame is enjoying nothing.
It's clearly different from the previous set. Most of that difference is a matter of context; the previous messages all came from Omega, a hollowed out asteroid with a civilization based around pirates and lowlife types, whereas Illium is a corporate capital of a civilization, based around slave trade and high-level lowlife corporate types. See the difference? So you get more commercials about indentured slavery and commercial products, and fewer about racial genocide on the cheap. Illium is supposed to represent a place where capitalism has run amok to a certain degree. I'm not sure then, whether the similarity of its commercials to our own is supposed to suggest that our own society is similarly bloated, or whether it was just quicker to design ads that appear like ours, but are slightly more overblown so you can call it satire--I suspect it's the latter. It's from the "Grand Theft Auto" school of in-game advertisement writing.
Honestly, there's probably more personality in the Illium sections than anywhere else in the game. You've got miniquests of recovering salarian genetic information, helping an indentured quarian find an owner, and reconciling a racist asari to the truth. And the details similar to the commercials are everywhere from the hilarious (the human/turian/salarian bachelor party) to the touching (the salarian out to create some memories with his asari daughter, because he knows that given his short lifespan and her long one, he won't be around long enough to make much difference in her life. Awwww.) Why Bioware wants to move away from this to more shooty stuff, I don't know. But at least that makes my job easier--not a lot of ethical morality choices in the middle of a shooting fight. Well, not that you can't have those, it's just that Bioware, by and large, doesn't.
I'm losing coherence. Better get back to work.
All right. Here's the sound clips played as you pass from one area of Nos Astra (the capital of the asari world Illium) to another:
-Coming up later today, we release our annual list of Illium’s ten richest people. Are the heavens still bright Asari blue, or have the volus finally rolled to the top? And don’t miss our look at the fashion faux pas at the Commerce Awards held last week. All this and more on Financial Entertainment Daily.
-Illium Entertainment would like to respond to complaints about our upcoming film Blastos the Jellyfish Stings. The Hanar Defamation Association claims that our portrayal of Blasto in sults hanar society, going so far as to call it ‘exploitation.’ We at Illium Entertainment stand by our product, which puts a hanar in a lead role and notes the growing importance of these respected galactic citizens. We hope that you the viewer will decide whether we have done Blastos justice and to allow you to decide, all first day purchases are 30% off. Illium entertainment thanks you for your support.
-Tired of training employees only to lose them to your competitors? Perhaps Indenture-Tech can help. The leading provider of cutting-edge indentured servants, Indenture-Tech can provide high quality labor for any technical area. Contact Indenture-Tech today. You’ve been a slave to your employees for too long. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
-Another difficult development for human expansion as the colony Horizon has been attacked. The Council has pledged to investigate the matter thoroughly, possible indication of the attacks on humans galaxy wide. Investigators in prefabricated complexes are rejoicing, however, as the and rebuilding plans have industry wide.
-The Council thought that Blasto , the first hanar spectre, would play by the rules. This one has forgotten whether its heat sink is over capacity. It wonders whether the criminal scum considers itself fortunate. They were wrong. This one doesn’t have time for your solid waste excretions. He’s got a lover in every port and a gun in every tentacle. Enkindle this. Blasto the Jellyfish Stings available for net purchase this fall, from Illium entertainment.
-By the stars, your skin looks amazing. You’re not using biotics to touch things up, are you?
Actually, I just tried exoderm.
New Exoderm moisturizerizing cleanser. They’ll never know you’ve entered the matron stage.
-Bad luck on the stock market? Debt piling up? Perhaps you need to explore other options. Talk to Indenture-Tech to see if indentured servitude is the right career option for you. Remember, the only shame is enjoying nothing.
-This is a recall notice. All users of Corous-brand medical radiation systems are asked to discontinue treatment immediately. Please return your system to an authorized dealer for a refund. Or for credit, try the new exciting Corel-brand radiation personal defense weapon. Customer safety is important and Corous remains committed to supplying the best radiation-based solutions on the market. Corus: a division of Elcoss Combine.
-Antares System has been deeply embarrassed by the recent theft of a new omnigel synthesis prototype. Antares System closed down four points as a result of the theft.
-Illium is the gateway to the Traverse, but is that gateway open too wide? Investment think tanks are noting concerns that new technological discoveries may have set the market balance and cost skilled workers their jobs. Later today, we’ll talk to survey teams discussing the latest technology you won’t be able to live without. And, how much it will cost.
-Nos Astra has recently received an unexpected visitor in the form of a rare justicar, calling herself Samara. Samara denied our request for an interview, leading us in the dark as to what brought an adjusticar to the fringes of asari space. Nevertheless, Illium News is pleased to present a special report on the history and politics of this rare group.
-(male voice, deep) Hungry? Then come to the Fish Dog Food Factory. Tasty varren skewers are just five credits for a limited time only. Or, for the connoisseur, try our grade a tchonka raised steaks. Turian and quarian food options are also available. It’s fun for the whole family. Come to the Fish Dog Food Factory. (different voice, nasal female) A division of Elcoss Combine.
-Are you a quarian or a volus who is tired of being passed over promotions because of discrimination against exo-suit wearing employees? Genetic Paradigms invites you to consider adaptive genetic therapy. Our trained staff hhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifas a success rate approaching 40%. Come to Genetic Paradigms, and come out of your shell! A division of Elcoss Combine.
-Does living in a higher altitude make you more intelligent? Our report may surprise you. New studies commissioned by the Architectural Union has noted a correlation between tested intelligence and height of habitat. The news comes as new homes ranging from studio apartments to studious rooftop mansions enter into open market bidding.
-Bad luck on the stock market? Debt piling up? Perhaps you need to explore other options. (male voice) Indenture-tech paid off my debt and helped me gain valuable job skills. Now, just five years later, I’m a free man again. (original female voice) Talk to Indenture-Tech to see if indentured servitude is the right career option for you. Remember, the only shame is enjoying nothing.
It's clearly different from the previous set. Most of that difference is a matter of context; the previous messages all came from Omega, a hollowed out asteroid with a civilization based around pirates and lowlife types, whereas Illium is a corporate capital of a civilization, based around slave trade and high-level lowlife corporate types. See the difference? So you get more commercials about indentured slavery and commercial products, and fewer about racial genocide on the cheap. Illium is supposed to represent a place where capitalism has run amok to a certain degree. I'm not sure then, whether the similarity of its commercials to our own is supposed to suggest that our own society is similarly bloated, or whether it was just quicker to design ads that appear like ours, but are slightly more overblown so you can call it satire--I suspect it's the latter. It's from the "Grand Theft Auto" school of in-game advertisement writing.
Honestly, there's probably more personality in the Illium sections than anywhere else in the game. You've got miniquests of recovering salarian genetic information, helping an indentured quarian find an owner, and reconciling a racist asari to the truth. And the details similar to the commercials are everywhere from the hilarious (the human/turian/salarian bachelor party) to the touching (the salarian out to create some memories with his asari daughter, because he knows that given his short lifespan and her long one, he won't be around long enough to make much difference in her life. Awwww.) Why Bioware wants to move away from this to more shooty stuff, I don't know. But at least that makes my job easier--not a lot of ethical morality choices in the middle of a shooting fight. Well, not that you can't have those, it's just that Bioware, by and large, doesn't.
I'm losing coherence. Better get back to work.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Hope you're a fan of games from 2009
It's not often that I comment on my research without giving away trade secrets, so to speak, so... yeah, it's going to be Mass Effect 2 here for a week or so. Sorry. (Although I'm always open to other topics if anyone wants to suggest any...)
Anyway, today's findings:
1)
This is my favorite scene in the entire game. The set-up is a simple fetch quest, of the sort that populate your basic RPG by the thousands. Doctor Chakwas, one of the two crew members in the game who are carried over from the first ship, lost the bottle of brandy she was saving for a special occasion when the first Normandy was... blown up. So you, Commander Shepherd, volunteered to pick up a bottle if you come across one. And if you do... then you get this scene. I think you get a Med-gel upgrade and a few experience points for it, but it's the story that really gets me. It's Chakwas' moment in the spotlight--she was a very peripheral character in ME 1, and she's not really a big character in Mass Effect 2 either. But for one scene, this character, and her connection to you, really shines.
2) In order to collect minerals, you need to do this mineral thing where you approach a planet, and as it rotates, you hit the left trigger to search a small section of the planet. The catch is that while you have the trigger pressed, the rotation stops, and the speed of search box decreases greatly--so greatly, in fact, that it's not even worth doing until you get access to the mining upgrade in the third mission or so. And it's still slow, because you have to wait for the planet's rotation. Only--you don't. Today, I discovered that pushing the left analog while the trigger ISN'T pressed speeds the rotation of the planet (or the fascimile scan of the planet. Whatever) This is at least the third time I've played through this 40+ hour game. And I'm just figuring out how to do this NOW. Sigh.
Later Days.
Anyway, today's findings:
1)
This is my favorite scene in the entire game. The set-up is a simple fetch quest, of the sort that populate your basic RPG by the thousands. Doctor Chakwas, one of the two crew members in the game who are carried over from the first ship, lost the bottle of brandy she was saving for a special occasion when the first Normandy was... blown up. So you, Commander Shepherd, volunteered to pick up a bottle if you come across one. And if you do... then you get this scene. I think you get a Med-gel upgrade and a few experience points for it, but it's the story that really gets me. It's Chakwas' moment in the spotlight--she was a very peripheral character in ME 1, and she's not really a big character in Mass Effect 2 either. But for one scene, this character, and her connection to you, really shines.
2) In order to collect minerals, you need to do this mineral thing where you approach a planet, and as it rotates, you hit the left trigger to search a small section of the planet. The catch is that while you have the trigger pressed, the rotation stops, and the speed of search box decreases greatly--so greatly, in fact, that it's not even worth doing until you get access to the mining upgrade in the third mission or so. And it's still slow, because you have to wait for the planet's rotation. Only--you don't. Today, I discovered that pushing the left analog while the trigger ISN'T pressed speeds the rotation of the planet (or the fascimile scan of the planet. Whatever) This is at least the third time I've played through this 40+ hour game. And I'm just figuring out how to do this NOW. Sigh.
Later Days.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Friday Quotations / Update
"And then, of course, there is the possibility that, though we can change the game infinitely, what we need to be doing is something else altogether." --Bernard DeKoven, "Changing the Game."
All right, it's been a slow post week. Usually, that means one of two things:
1) it's been a really busy week, and I don't have time to post
2) it's been a really boring week, and there's nothing worth posting.
This would be the latter of the two. I'm waiting on my supervisor for progress on a few projects, and while it's been nice to be in a situation where I don't have constant, gnawing guilt for for not working full throttle on the dissertation, it is a little dull. Currently, I've been dealing with the boredom by, well, doing something that's arguably even more boring: throwing myself into the videogame research with even greater intensity. Specifically, I've been reading 100+ pages of a day of the massive 900 page tome, Salen and Zimmerman's Game Design Reader. I've been devoting 4 to 7 hours a day to it, and it's starting to show; I ran into a friend the other day, and I actually couldn't think of a single topic that didn't relate to it. Remember the post a little while back when I claimed I was a little too wrapped up in games? Well, as of the past few nights, I've been dreaming in video games too. Enough's enough.
In other words, as soon as I finish this colossal codex, I'm taking a week off. Not a vacation, no; for once in my life, I've got some good momentum going work-wise, and I don't want it to go entirely to waste. Rather, I'm going to redirect my efforts. I'll focus on outlining my course in the fall (Introduction to Digital Media Studies) and redirect my research attention from video games to another area. Derrida and the archive? Maybe some Benjamin? Perhaps I'll even get to that McLuhan study I've always meant to do. Something different, but useful. Any interesting suggestions will be appreciated.
Later Days.
All right, it's been a slow post week. Usually, that means one of two things:
1) it's been a really busy week, and I don't have time to post
2) it's been a really boring week, and there's nothing worth posting.
This would be the latter of the two. I'm waiting on my supervisor for progress on a few projects, and while it's been nice to be in a situation where I don't have constant, gnawing guilt for for not working full throttle on the dissertation, it is a little dull. Currently, I've been dealing with the boredom by, well, doing something that's arguably even more boring: throwing myself into the videogame research with even greater intensity. Specifically, I've been reading 100+ pages of a day of the massive 900 page tome, Salen and Zimmerman's Game Design Reader. I've been devoting 4 to 7 hours a day to it, and it's starting to show; I ran into a friend the other day, and I actually couldn't think of a single topic that didn't relate to it. Remember the post a little while back when I claimed I was a little too wrapped up in games? Well, as of the past few nights, I've been dreaming in video games too. Enough's enough.
In other words, as soon as I finish this colossal codex, I'm taking a week off. Not a vacation, no; for once in my life, I've got some good momentum going work-wise, and I don't want it to go entirely to waste. Rather, I'm going to redirect my efforts. I'll focus on outlining my course in the fall (Introduction to Digital Media Studies) and redirect my research attention from video games to another area. Derrida and the archive? Maybe some Benjamin? Perhaps I'll even get to that McLuhan study I've always meant to do. Something different, but useful. Any interesting suggestions will be appreciated.
Later Days.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Game Studies: Lost Odyssey
Okay, I've been rather light on blogging of late. That is because I've been busy. Actually busy--actually even working busy. On the May long weekend, I'm going to a conference in Ottawa to give a paper on Text, Image, and Memory in Square Enix's 2008 game, Lost Odyssey. It's a good game for discussing video games and memories because it's about an amnesiac immortal who is slowly regaining his memories. And it's good for text and image for an entirely different reason.
The game is loaded end to end with cinematic segments--it's the inheritor of the worst of the Final Fantasy series' excesses, which means it's got random encounters, ridiculously dressed females, an overly complicated plot, and enough time between some fights that you can make a sandwich and get back without losing much. But it also has something different--throughout the game, encounters that Kaim (that's the protagonist) stumbles on to trigger memories--or rather, text stories that are presented as both memories and dreams. (It creates an interesting conjunction of dreams, stories, and memories, which is a discussion for another time.) These text stories are entirely different from the rest of the game, as they should be, since the people developing it hired a short story writer Kiyoshi Shigematsu to do the stories, and did their own writing on the game proper.
So what you have then, is a game whose story periodically rewards you with tangential stories. The strange thing about the game, then, is that these stories are often more emotionally effective (and affective) than the actual visual-laden interactive real game. The backstory isn't entirely text either, or rather, it treats its text as image: the words and letters appear on the screen at their own pace and with differing effects, creating new emphases in the text that a straight written story wouldn't convey. It also uses shifting backgrounds and music to bolster the effect. So it's extremely multimedia, but almost negligibly interactive. (When one "page" or screen of the story is finished, you hit A to go to the next screen.) What I want to do is a full analysis of both the game and the accompanying short stories, to compare how they work off each other, and how both play to different senses. The memory issue comes in when you consider how both are about memories, in terms of the story content, but both also form memories--Kaim's short stories are triggered by tertiary events (as Stiegler would call them), and after multiple playthroughs, I create my own secondary memories for the game, quite apart from what I force my Kaim avatar through.
The downside is I have to actually play the game to get this experience. Without the constant transcribing, it's an 80 hour game. With it... ugh. I'm writing down the effects and text for each of the text-based stories. (Yes, I could be using Youtube. But if you're not actually playing the game, I don't think I can analyse it in the same manner. So here I am.) Number #6, for example, was 4000 words long, and took me 4 hours to transcribe. I took a break from #7 to start this post. And if you're finding it as tediously boring to read about the transcription process as I do in implementing it, you'd better stay away from this blog for a while, because y'all are going to hear a lot about the next 24 "dreams."
The really annoying thing is that these text pieces are really wonderful, moving stories. They're what brought me to my dissertation topic in the first place. But analyzing them like this is just killing me. The first one was great. The second and third had diminishing returns. But by the time the fifth rolled around, I was already responding to the "Kaim has unwakened a memory locked deep within him" screen with a hearty "GodDAMMIt" as I faced the unpleasant knowledge that I had another 3+ hours of transcribing ahead.
But for those of you who haven't been ruined yet by overexposure, I thought I'd post my favorite story so you could see why I'm so fond of them. This one is called "The Upstreamers." Watch it in full screen for best effect--and when you have 10 minutes to spare.
It's beautiful, isn't it? Less beautiful if you're trying to transcribe them word by word, taking frequent pauses to describe the text effects. ("And now the word "wind" is blown in letter by letter, like an... um... windy thing. It's from the left to right. And the letters sort turn into place. Not all together, but separately." And so on.)
Stay tuned for the quick one-sentence post when I finish Dream #7.
*UPDATE* And at 12:24 (after a break for an episode of Sliders, and another for an episode of Community), I finish Dream 7, wherein Kaim comes across an Alhzeimer's patient on her last day of life who remembers him from a childhood encounter 80 years ago--heartbreaking commences shortly after. And between that and dream 6, and some thoughts on memory and the city of Numeria, I have written 19 pages of notes for Lost Odyssey today. Hurray!
Later Days.
The game is loaded end to end with cinematic segments--it's the inheritor of the worst of the Final Fantasy series' excesses, which means it's got random encounters, ridiculously dressed females, an overly complicated plot, and enough time between some fights that you can make a sandwich and get back without losing much. But it also has something different--throughout the game, encounters that Kaim (that's the protagonist) stumbles on to trigger memories--or rather, text stories that are presented as both memories and dreams. (It creates an interesting conjunction of dreams, stories, and memories, which is a discussion for another time.) These text stories are entirely different from the rest of the game, as they should be, since the people developing it hired a short story writer Kiyoshi Shigematsu to do the stories, and did their own writing on the game proper.
So what you have then, is a game whose story periodically rewards you with tangential stories. The strange thing about the game, then, is that these stories are often more emotionally effective (and affective) than the actual visual-laden interactive real game. The backstory isn't entirely text either, or rather, it treats its text as image: the words and letters appear on the screen at their own pace and with differing effects, creating new emphases in the text that a straight written story wouldn't convey. It also uses shifting backgrounds and music to bolster the effect. So it's extremely multimedia, but almost negligibly interactive. (When one "page" or screen of the story is finished, you hit A to go to the next screen.) What I want to do is a full analysis of both the game and the accompanying short stories, to compare how they work off each other, and how both play to different senses. The memory issue comes in when you consider how both are about memories, in terms of the story content, but both also form memories--Kaim's short stories are triggered by tertiary events (as Stiegler would call them), and after multiple playthroughs, I create my own secondary memories for the game, quite apart from what I force my Kaim avatar through.
The downside is I have to actually play the game to get this experience. Without the constant transcribing, it's an 80 hour game. With it... ugh. I'm writing down the effects and text for each of the text-based stories. (Yes, I could be using Youtube. But if you're not actually playing the game, I don't think I can analyse it in the same manner. So here I am.) Number #6, for example, was 4000 words long, and took me 4 hours to transcribe. I took a break from #7 to start this post. And if you're finding it as tediously boring to read about the transcription process as I do in implementing it, you'd better stay away from this blog for a while, because y'all are going to hear a lot about the next 24 "dreams."
The really annoying thing is that these text pieces are really wonderful, moving stories. They're what brought me to my dissertation topic in the first place. But analyzing them like this is just killing me. The first one was great. The second and third had diminishing returns. But by the time the fifth rolled around, I was already responding to the "Kaim has unwakened a memory locked deep within him" screen with a hearty "GodDAMMIt" as I faced the unpleasant knowledge that I had another 3+ hours of transcribing ahead.
But for those of you who haven't been ruined yet by overexposure, I thought I'd post my favorite story so you could see why I'm so fond of them. This one is called "The Upstreamers." Watch it in full screen for best effect--and when you have 10 minutes to spare.
It's beautiful, isn't it? Less beautiful if you're trying to transcribe them word by word, taking frequent pauses to describe the text effects. ("And now the word "wind" is blown in letter by letter, like an... um... windy thing. It's from the left to right. And the letters sort turn into place. Not all together, but separately." And so on.)
Stay tuned for the quick one-sentence post when I finish Dream #7.
*UPDATE* And at 12:24 (after a break for an episode of Sliders, and another for an episode of Community), I finish Dream 7, wherein Kaim comes across an Alhzeimer's patient on her last day of life who remembers him from a childhood encounter 80 years ago--heartbreaking commences shortly after. And between that and dream 6, and some thoughts on memory and the city of Numeria, I have written 19 pages of notes for Lost Odyssey today. Hurray!
Later Days.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
What I Am Currently Doing
Annotating Barthes' Camera Lucida, in painstaking detail. It's slow going, and not just because Word's Autocorrect keeps turning studium into stadium.
Later Days.
Later Days.
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