The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

I have been playing Dragon Age: Origins: Awakening. In this game, you recruit a party member called Justice. He was a warrior. I had been running a two Warrior, one Mage, and me Rogue setup in the original game, so I was needing another warrior to duplicate that. I was glad to pick him up.

As I do because, I dunno, I feel like having a streamlined experience and I am playing on easy anyway, I used the Auto-Level to level him up. He learned some kind of buff, and the computer automatically set up tactics for him to keep this buff up on himself. So far, so good.

Justice casts this buff. When active, this buff causes a tiny explosion/whoosh of air thing to ripple out around him about every three seconds. This makes a fairly loud and annoying noise. He always has this buff up. The only way I could not have him have this buff up is to control him manually or rejigger his tactics so he does not cast it, but if I did that, then he wouldn’t be buffed, and I don’t want that.

I walked around with this noise for like 3 minutes, and I had to remove him from my party. The noise was driving me crazy.

Great fucking job, Bioware! You succeeded in making a character nobody could ever actually use. All because you attached this ridiculous noise to that buff. Fantastic. I don’t understand how playtesters wouldn’t have realized how annoying that noise was. Was the game not tested with Justice in your party?

I don’t know. Mind-blowing stuff, and now I’m down a warrior. Oh well.

People at work keep pestering me as to why I, as a gamer, do not own a copy of CODBLOPS. It was suggested the other day that I “invest” in a copy. I feel like this is a valid suggestion, of course. I’m sure CODBLOPS is a great game, and I do look forward to playing it at some point.

But man, the couple of hours I just invested into You Don’t Know Jack multiplayer were probably more fun than 3 times the amount of time spent in the CODBLOPS multiplayer, and maybe more.

Enjoy what you enjoy, you know? I’m not saying they’re doing it wrong, and I know they’re not saying I’m doing it wrong either. They just want to include me in their gaming sessions, which I appreciate. But it’s just one of those things, you know? It just reminds me of how out of the mainstream I am. There’s no way I could describe how excited I am about this trivia video game, and how it will get my full attention. They just don’t share that particular joy, and I think they would be a little unable to understand why I enjoyed it so much. This is the case for so many things. We often clash in opinions on what movies, shows, and whatnot are awesome as well. They’re all great people I love working with, but their tastes are so, so far away from mine. So far!

It just really shows me how ridiculously broad a concept like “gamer” is. There are key “gamer” experiences that my friends at work will never know. There’s no way they’d ever play a Persona 3, for instance, and I consider that one of the major gaming experiences of last generation. Most “gamers” I actually discuss things with on a regular basis would understand what Persona 3 is and how it mixed things up in a significant way, even if they didn’t play it much or even enjoy it. The people at work, though, who probably play games somewhere close to as often as I do, have no clue. They probably know nothing about it.

I don’t know, it just fascinates me, because, again, neither of us are wrong. We’re both doing it right. Yet, there’s this big game between us, when we have what ought to be similar interests. It just shows me how different people’s worlds really can be, even on this small level. That’s kind of cool, don’t you think?

I got to pick a book to review for the press, as sometimes happens, and so I ended up reading this book called The Right To Be Out, because it has a pretty nice cover and it caught my eye. The book itself is a pretty nice thing. It’s discussing how educators should deal with students and other educators who are gay or transsexual in order to make a positive learning and working environment for everyone. It does this by using legal precedent and case studies to prove that everyone has a “right to be out” and then showing how schools can adapt things in order to make sure that everyone in the school feels that way. At times, it’s a little overly optimistic and very strong in it’s beliefs with its “let’s make sure every single discussion in the classroom includes discussion of LGBT issues!” mentality, but overall I found it a pretty interesting read.

Then I got to the chapter about transsexuals, and I just had to put the book down for awhile. I was getting so angry.

It’s not Mr. Biegel’s message or writing that made me mad. (Although I do feel weird about his use of the term “gender-nonconforming youths” which I feel really sends a message of “these people aren’t normal” instead of what the book is really trying to say.) It was the case studies he was talking about. He just had direct quotes from people who were just being so hurtful that I just started raging. I couldn’t stand the thought of people like that in the world. I wanted to punch someone.

All the rest of the horrible stuff talked about in the book was indeed at least fairly horrible, or at the very least upsetting. However, there was a distance there. Sure, I’m bisexual, but never have I ever felt like that was an issue, or people would look down on me for it. That was never what I worried about, and though I feel bad for these poor kids they were talking about, it’s not something I’ve directly experienced. I think that shit shouldn’t happen. If I saw it happening, I’d do everything in my power to stop it. But it doesn’t punch me in the gut.

But I got to this story of his public official who was trying to transition, and literally the entire town was getting onto him for “lying” about who he was and putting his family through this. There was a long block quote from this completely hateful woman, who would not shut up, and I could tell, even just on text in the page, she felt like she was doing absolutely nothing wrong. She felt like she was totally in the right to go on record and help ruin this woman’s life and make her lose her job.

I had to sit the book down and I pulled out my phone and chatted with Brer a bit to let out steam, even though I should have been working.

I am pro-religion. I’ve been lucky, and I’ve been exposed to the good side of religion. I know people who believe, very truly, and who are awesome people, and let their religion help them do awesome things. Religion can be such a force for good in people’s personal lives, and in the world. I would never dream of telling anyone not to follow their religious code and worshiping as they see fit. It’s too important, and it’s so wonderful. It really is.
But fuck, when someone uses it as an excuse to force people to be miserable and make them not able to follow their own heart? Well, fuck that guy. Because you better fucking believe that if you were to criticize that guy’s life on similar grounds, he would be so pissed. “You have no right!” would be his cry. And yet he’d do it every fucking day, and try to manipulate the government to ruin the lives of people who are just trying to live their life because they’re different.

I am asking this question completely honestly: what does anyone get by trying to shut down ways of life other than their own? If two men or two ladies are having sex, what in the world does them stopping or continuing do to a party not involved in said fucking? It does absolutely nothing. My rule has always been, “if you aren’t ruining the fun of others, have fun.” If you are letting others having private lives that you don’t want to have ruin your fun, you are doing it wrong.

Bleh. It just blows my mind sometimes how awful people can be. In my general experience, people are not awful. People are wonderful, and good, and a joy to be around. There is so much good in the world, and let me be honest, the book itself has a lot of good too, as it talks about all the wins for LGBT rights over the years and all the multitudes of organizations and such to help people who are distressed about this stuff. There is plenty of good. But so much wouldn’t be needed if people weren’t assholes.

People of the World: Stop Being Stupid Assholes. Go Enjoy Life, And Let Others Do The Same.

I don’t know why I’m saying that here, because let’s face it, if you’re reading this, you know me, and I don’t know any people like this. I only know awesome individuals. But goodness. The world, huh? This is why I don’t follow current events closely. So much rage. Nothing useful to do with it. Except blog, I suppose.

Snow cancelled my night class, and in the process, killed any want for me to do anything at all. ANYTHING.

Thus, you get this. Internet images. Aren’t you lucky?

There are no words to describe this picture. I can’t even parse it. I mean, obvious what Garrus is doing is indeed Sick-Nasty, but his expression… and his deck… and… man. No words!

This amazing optical illusion was making the rounds the other day. It was doing so because it is amazing. Although one person suggested it could be improved if the batmen were kissing.

Speaking of, if you need some sexy in your day, I even have an image for that. You are hooked up.

Apparently the WoW support team is pretty awesome. This image proves it. Or, you know, someone photoshopped it to make them look awesome, but either way.

I don’t even know what this is, but I can’t stop watching it. Guess I’ll have to deal with it.

Seriously, if you get bored, just stare at that last one some more. That’ll take care of it. I’ll write some more tomorrow.

Bayonetta is a game where I can tie an angel up in chains, bondage-style, and tease her until she cums, which causes her to explode in a shower of blood.

Bayonetta is a game which ends about 14 times, the last one being an incredibly long and detailed dance sequence.

Bayonetta is a game where the main character has her own sitcom-esque theme song.

I love Bayonetta so much.

The entire game is a fantastic ride. It’s constantly getting crazier and crazier. Each fight is more ridiculous than the last, and you can’t wait to see the next crazy thing the game throws at you as you play through. Some games have a problem where you see the cutscenes, and you’re like, “I wish I could do that instead of watch it.” Bayonetta doesn’t have that problem. You can and DO do all the ridiculous bullshit in the cutscenes. It feels so good. It’s hilarious. It’s pro-sex. It has an amazing main character who is so over the top with her sexuality that she goes all the way around from being an object of lust to being simply a total badass. She is every single fetish all at the same time, and embraces them all, and somehow it completely works and makes her seem a stronger woman for it. I have joked about her being a great role model, but seriously, she totally is. She paves her own path in life, embraces and enjoys her primal side, and through it all is a generally good and heroic person, even if she tries to hide it a little.

On top of all the craziness and awesome character-ness, you have a really well constructed action game. Apparently it’s very challenging and skill-based at higher difficulties, which is awesome! I’m glad it’s there to appeal to those people! But they’ve also done a fantastic job at making it accessible. I played through it on Easy (Automatic), and it makes the game so fun without having to learn tons of combos and time things just right. Basically, the game will mix up combos from what you’ve learned if you tap out the simplest combo with a button. You still have some control: the weapons all do different things, so you have to think about what you’re equipping, and the punch and kick buttons are based on different goals as well. But just by hitting kick a lot, you throw out a variety of the most badass-looking combos. But the combos if you go punch are different, and you do need to mix and match. You just don’t need to memorize. You feel very powerful, but not in a boring way, as I’ve heard it described. It’s a blast, especially if you’ve ever looked at high level play in these sorts of games and wished you could get things that cool to happen.

Bayonetta is a fantastic game. I mean, I haven’t even mentioned the many crazy pointless Sega references, all of the horrible one-liners… there’s just so much to love. It’s kind of a shame I only got to it a year late, but trust me: it’s an experience not to be missed. It is a fun, fun ride. Play it. Enjoy it.

Little Big Planet 2 just came out!

So, uh, I rented Little Big Planet for the PSP.

I had basically just wondered what the fuck this was. How would it even work on the PSP? It was a mystery! So I went to give it a go.

First off, this game has some seriously technical weirdness. First thing it does is tell me to turn my PSP’s wifi off of “power save mode.” I have no idea what this is, but I have to quit the game to check. I look all over the options, and can’t find anything like that. I eventually just ignore the message, as I don’t know what the hell it meant.
Secondly, this is the first PSP game I’ve ever played that required an update, a process which I had to quit out of the game to do, which was also baffling.

Anyway, it’s kind of appropriate that my PSP was acting even more like a PS3 for this miniaturized PS3 game!
I kind of hate Sony’s tech sometimes.

The game itself, though, is impressive and fun. The built-in levels are all new, and, personally, a lot more fun, because all checkpoints are infinite life checkpoints, unlike the bullshit in the original game. This really cut down on frustration. The bullshit lives were why I never actually beat the original’s campaign.
For the most part, it really looks like Little Big Planet as well. There are only two planes in this version, instead of three, but in some ways that’s actually better, as the levels are much less confusing because of it. I never completely bought the planes thing. When they worked, they worked, but it seemed like so often they didn’t! They didn’t bother me here, though.
The levels themselves are nice and varied as well. There’s a chase sequence stage that’s pretty cool, and some very puzzle-y levels that are quite clever, from what I played. There’s also a ton of “cute” racism! Everyone loves that, right?

I logged onto the Playstation Network to see what kind of levels I had access to… there were some! But the method of playing them was cumbersome. I had to download the files to the memory stick. I couldn’t just pick them and play like on the PS3. I didn’t really try out the building tools, because if I was going to build something, I’d try it on the PS3, you know?

I guess that’s really my thing. It’s a very well done game, but for most of it, I admit I was just kind of wishing I could like… export this level pack into Little Big Planet proper and play it that way, with access to all my costumes and co-op and such. The new levels are nice, but this game isn’t something that a LBP fan needs to have. They already have what they need, you know? I guess it’s for people who don’t have a PS3, of which there are some? I suppose those people exist. But to get the most out of the game, you’d need to be in wifi range, so…

I don’t know. It’s a mysterious game. Not bad. Pretty fun, really. Has all the charm of its big brother. At the same time, I’m unsure who would rush to buy it. I’m not sure who would need it. It’s a strange little game. Hmm.

I’m currently enjoying the shit out of Bayonetta, a game I am a year late getting to. I’m sure I’ll ramble more about how fantastic that game is later, but the more important part is… well… I don’t feel like I’ve missed anything.

I’ve passed that hurdle.

I’m sure I’ve talked about it before here. I really want to be involved in the gaming discussion. It’s something I like to be able to do. That pushed me to buying a lot of games in the past. I had to get this or that game in order to talk about it right when it was happening. I needed it to be relevant.
Because of that, going back and playing older games, like Bayonetta, was always an issue. There was something new I had to focus on, and even if I played it and enjoyed it, there was always an air over it of feeling silly for waiting so long, or feeling pressured to move on to something new.

I’m not feeling that with Bayonetta. I’m just enjoying the shit out of it. And similarly, I’ve become really interested in Dead Space 2, but I find my general reaction to be “that’s going to be great when Gamefly sends it to me in a month or two.” It’s okay. That’s fantastic.
I don’t know. I’m not completely out of the video game conversation. The games I really, really will want to talk about, I am going to still buy. Like, say, Marvel Vs Capcom 3. No way I’m not buying that, and that is a game I would feel left out of talking about. Most of these games, though, I totally wouldn’t. They’re fun, but they’re not those key games that I obsess over, and thus I don’t need to have them day one. Plus, when I do want to sample, I can sample, and send the games back the moment I am tired of them. It works so much better that way than paying for this stuff.

And now it feels better, too. Fantastic. I’m proud of myself. Well, a little bit, anyway.

We all win at trivia!

Okay, well, we got third. But when first place is the Matt Essner’s Family Power Team, who used to run the trivia night, and second place is the Unstoppable Team of Notre Dame Teachers, well, third place is fucking fantastic.

I didn’t expect to kick such ass. I wasn’t, I dunno, picking strategically or anything. Jonathan, Cara, and Buchhiet were people I knew wanted in. Cara suggested I grab Cole, who brought some sports knowledge and history degree stuff. Jonathan brought in Kenny, who was just a wellspring of random trivia. Essner suggested I grab Mason, and I totally did, who helped us knock the crap out of the movie rounds. Cara had several good obscure saves, and Buchhiet was a powerhouse, working with Kenny on the Sports Maths to make that work, and pulling in all kinds of knowledge like coin collector knowledge I certainly didn’t know he had.

If anything, I was probably the weakest link, and I still caught a couple of them. (And destroyed the category about grammar, because come fucking on. Grammar category.)

We cracked jokes, we had fun, and we dominated most of the teams there. I managed not to get into any awkward conversations with former teachers and such. It was an awesome night, and I am so glad I decided to get everyone together to go and do it. I hope everyone else was glad too.

I’ve had a line in my head all day. It’s a good line. I’m not sure what I’d use it for, and I keep trying different variations. Basically, it’s, “When I’m cold like this, I can’t tell if that’s why I’m shivering.”

I’m shaky.

Have I not been sleeping enough? I’ve been trying to sleep in and rest. I’ve been trying to give myself time to relax while also doing a lot of work. I’ve been trying to get a lot done.

That’s just it, though. I’m always trying, aren’t I?

At some point I will get this shit figured out. I will be solid in what I need to do. I will make it work. Sometime.

Until then I’ll just have songs stuck in my head and be overly emotional with kittens and hide and stuff. I’ll keep that going. I’m good at that. I’ll watch cat videos and not watch the television shows I should and I’ll curl up under covers and that’ll be that.

Also the covers might be warm, so I’ll know why I’m shivering.

I fucking swear, there’s a mind-blowing line in a poem in that somewhere. I’ll figure it out.

Now, if you want a free app worth shit, you should probably look at Textropolis. Parish reviewed it back when 1up was a site worth looking at and I enjoyed their iPhone coverage. I remembered it when I randomly saw it on the free app list, and picked it up. It’s nothing particularly fancy, but it’s a solid way to waste some time, certainly.

The game is really simple. It’s basically a variant of Boggle, where you have a pool of letters and have to spell as many words as you can with them. The twist, however, is that these pools of letters are the names of cities. As you find more words out of the name of a city, the city increases in population, and starts building itself up. You only have to build up to a two-star city to unlock the next, but there is a running count of how many words, total, one can spell, and you can keep working towards that and try to get full stars on each city, if you’d like.

The interface is nothing crazy, but it works. You tap the letters to spell words. As you spell, it gives you a readout on top of what words you’ve already spelled that include the letters in the order you’ve hit them so far, so you don’t repeat. It also has a “Last Word” button after you enter a new word, which is handy to quickly input the plural forms of words after you get the word itself. It’s not going to make you say “WHAT A GREAT INTERFACE” but it’s nicely done.

That’s… basically it? But seriously, while simple, it is a fun game to pass the time with, if you’re a word person. It also works great as a multiplayer experience. Cara and I played for awhile, with both of us tossing out word ideas. It was fun. It’s free. It’s quality. What more to you want?