My Latest Obsessions- Dec. 2012

Writing another one of these again- don't know if this will be a regular monthly thing or not. We'll just have to wait and see, I guess.

Literature

~Calvin & Hobbes~ 

I freaking love this comic book series... a lot. I recently got back into reading the books that I've had since elementary school. So good! Bill Watterson is a genius. While Hobbes is my favorite character (naturally), I do like Calvin a lot as well as his alter-egos (Spaceman Spiff, etc.). Maybe one of these days I'll get The Complete Calvin & Hobbes edition.

~Call of the Wild & White Fang~

Along with reading "Soul of the Fire" by Terry Goodkind, I have also been reading Jack London's "Call of the Wild & White Fang" combo, and I have really been enjoying it. I think that my initiative to read more of the classics was a very good idea for me- especially since I have quite a few of them on my bookshelf as it is. I like London's writing style and his use of descriptive language, and in a way reminds me a bit of Rudyard Kipling's writing style (he wrote The Jungle Books, by the way). Not sure which one I'll read next, though I am seriously considering either one of Dumas' books (like "The Count of Monte Cristo" or "The Man in the Iron Mask") or "The Lost World" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Games

~Chrono Trigger~

With some of the money I received for Christmas this year, I bought Chrono Trigger for my DSi, and so far I am loving it. It's such a good RPG, and there are elements in it that I wish developers would remember and implement. So far, my favorite things about it are the fact that you can re-name all of the party characters, and the fact that there's no random encounters! Monsters do respawn every time you come back to an area, but if you don't want to fight for some reason, you can choose to avoid most of the potential conflicts. The combat is a refreshing idea for me in the fact that it (unlike most of the J-RPG games I've played) is not turn-based. It is set up a lot like Square Enix made the combat in Final Fantasy XIII.

~D&D~

I am still writing, working on, and fleshing out my D&D campaign. Lately I've been getting a lot more ideas for the main plot as well as dungeon and side quest ideas (otherwise I wouldn't have mentioned it in this post. I would certainly still be working on it, but it wouldn't warrant mentioning.) partially from stories/novels that I've been slowly working on (the world and a lot of the characters are directly out of a fantasy novel I've been working on in one form or another since 2001) as well as YouTube videos of D&D content. Hopefully one day I'll be able to DM a group through this campaign.

~Halo 4~

I got Halo 4 as a Christmas present, and from what I've played so far (basically the first 4 missions), I like it. The multiplayer aspect on the other hand... not so much. I like the fact that 343 Studios has given the multiplayer aspect a story/reason for being instead of the "Hey, let's play a game together and blow each other up" as it has been in past games. That's cool. I do NOT appreciate, in fact I HATE the fact that they are requiring you to purchase an Xbox Live Gold membership just to use multiplayer! It makes them out to be money-mongering you-know-whats! I hate that, and they aren't even the only ones who have done that (I'm looking at you Mass Effect 3 and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood). If you have the option for multiplayer in your game, then you should bloody well make said option available for all players with the purchase of the game. If you want to require another purchase to use/run another feature, then sell it as a separate entity. If I buy a game, I expect to be able to fully enjoy all of it with the already outrageous purchase price of $60 (or around there). That, and they require you to level up unlock your emblem! That doesn't really make sense, especially since there's even less options than there was in Halo: Reach. They're making you get all the way up to SR-21 just to get the ability to unlock your emblem background for goodness sake! Anyway... *getting off soapbox now* At least the single player campaign is good so far. I'm really interested in seeing how it ends.

Music (and in this month's case, movies as well)

~Les Misérables~

Les Mis is by far my favorite musical of all time. Though, sadly, I have not seen a professional stage production of it (maybe I'll get to one day), I was involved in my high school's student production of it my freshman year (I was in the pit orchestra). This was actually the first time I had ever heard of it, and I quickly fell in love with the story, but more importantly the music. I bought the original London cast recording off of iTunes and I have many times blasted it in the car (when I was alone of course) belting along with the recording... and eventually getting hoarse because most of the male characters are tenors and it gets too high for me a lot. My favorite songs are "Master of the House" and "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables". I bought the new movie soundtrack version, and as with what I did with The Hobbit soundtrack, I don't want to listen to the soundtrack til after I see the movie so I don't spoil anything. I have not been able to see the new movie version (with Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman) because I wanted to take my fiancee with me, but I will as soon as possible! I might even post a review! I'm so excited to see it!

~The Hobbit~

I have been waiting and excited for this movie since I first heard of its existence back in 2010. As you can probably guess from my other posts as of late, I liked it a lot, though I don't think it was perfect (it had some big shoes to fill and expectations to make from The Lord of the Rings films). I bought the soundtrack on iTunes the day after I saw it on the midnight release. Howard Shore did a fabulous job, and I'm excited (and to be honest a little nervous) to see what Peter Jackson and Howard Shore do with the other two films. I'm sure they will be good, even if they're as good as the first one. I will at least give them a chance and see them in theaters when they are released.

My Latest Obsessions- Nov. 2012

Lately I've been trying to write more content for this blog and not just post links or videos of things I think are cool. I hope to be adding more content in the future, and this (hopefully) series is a start. I got the idea for this from Kristina Horner (italktosnakes on YouTube) with her "Things I'm Into" videos that she posts every month. Mine will be set up a lot like hers, but since we're two completely different people (duh!), the content will be quite varied. So, here we go!

Literature *This will include books as well as comics (web-based or otherwise)

~The Sword of Truth series~

As you can probably guess from my "What I'm Reading" posts, I have been reading this series by Terry Goodkind for a while now- and I love it! Yes, the books are ridiculously long, but I think that it's a good thing. Why would you want something that is fun, engaging, and high quality to be really short? The depth that Goodkind goes into is great, and he tackles more complex and sometimes adult issues, and does it in a careful, respectful way. The only complaint I would make about the series is that Goodkind has the annoying habit of reminding the reader of past content... a lot. If I read the previous books, I already know this content you're "reminding" me of, and don't need to hear it again. An occasional reminder is good, especially if you're pretty far in a series and you're referring to an event in a much earlier book. It just seems like it was put there solely for the purpose of growing the word/page count. Honestly, other than that, I really like this series of books, and I would highly recommend them to any avid reader- especially if you love fantasy!

~Questionable Content~

Holy moley, I have spent so much time on this web comic lately, it's not even funny! This comic has been around for a while (they have over 2000 comics- and counting!) and I just found out about it last week. The characters are awesome (Pintsize is my favorite, of course *pictured above*) and the story is engaging. All in all it's a delightful way to use my free time :)

~Dumbing of Age~

This is another recent web comic find from tumblr that I've been getting into as of late. Set on a college campus, and has a wide variety of characters, with an art style that doesn't make me want to gouge my eyes out. By that I mean that I can tell what the heck the author is trying to portray in each frame, it's cleaned up, and the text is large enough and clear enough for me to read. Tackles some intense topics sometimes, and I think that the creator pulls it off- most of the time. Sometimes when religion comes into play it gets taken a bit too far, but it doesn't take away from the comic much- the fact that I still read it proves that. You should at least give it a try! While I don't like this one as much as Questionable Content or the other web comics I read (blog post on those to come), I still really like it.

Games *Video or otherwise

~Dungeons and Dragons~

Back in college, my friends got me into D&D, which I had wanted to play for a while. Now that I've graduated, I haven't really found anyone to play with yet, but that hasn't stopped me from enjoying this awesome hobby! For the past couple months I've been working on creating a campaign that is based in the world of a book I was working on a while back. I wasn't having much success with writing the book, but I loved the world I created (and which I'm still working on), so I decided to make it into a D&D campaign! It's been working out pretty good so far. The main things that I've been focusing on lately have been the plot (main quests as well as side quests) and fleshing out the map. Lots of fun!

~The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim~

If you've read my blog at all- even in the past couple days, you could probably guess how much I freaking love this game. I've been getting back into playing it again after a short hiatus due to mods conflicting with the Hearthfire DLC (which I still have yet to play on my PC copy!). Now that I believe I've fixed the problem and started over with new characters, I think I'll be playing this more often. This will especially be true when the newly announced Dragonborn DLC hits the shelves (I posted the trailer for it on my blog today). I am SUPER excited for this DLC, as it looks to be bigger than Dawnguard was (and I loved Dawnguard!).

~Minecraft/Tekkit~

I think I will always play this game- it only gets boring if your imagination runs out of ideas! Plus, the Technic Pack mod collection adds a TON of new content and possibilities of play. While my ideas aren't the greatest (and certainly aren't very original), it is still very fun to build things and beat up creepers and endermen.

Music

~Lake Street Dive~

I recently heard about this group from a friend of Facebook who had posted a video of one of their performances. I liked it so much that I bought both of their albums and one of their EPs. The lead singer's voice is freaking gorgeous, and the musicianship is top notch. I absolutely LOVE their cover of "Rich Girl" by Hall and Oates! Go listen to their cover of I Want You Back by The Jackson 5 and you'll fall in love with them like I did!

~John Williams~

John Williams is one of the biggest, if not THE biggest name in film composing these days, and there's a reason why he's at the top. I've known about his music for a long time, but I just recently got back into listening to his soundtracks on my iPod. His ability to create wonderful and memorable melody lines is uncanny. I had the opportunity my freshman year of college to see him conduct the San Diego Symphony live. It was so awesome- one of my favorite concert experiences of all time! It would be hard for me to pick a favorite of his, but I guess if I had to, his Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Amistad, and Harry Potter soundtracks would be my top 5 picks. Also, John Williams Is The Man!

Advice For Role-Playing Games

Here's a list of some tips, tricks, and observations I've discovered after my experience playing RPG's. Most of these are applicable to RPG video games (most of those related to Skyrim!), but there are also some general role playing tips as well for use in other styles- like Dungeons and Dragons or other d20 systems.

Do's

• Save often!

Save yourself the grief and frustration and save every time you start a quest or enter a dungeon. You don't want to die (or your console freezes) after not saving for 3 hours.

• Watch where you're going

This is especially true for when there are a lot of trees that block your vision. For some reason, being on horseback exacerbates this issue. Basically, what I'm trying to say is be careful when you're exploring. You don't want to run head-long over a cliff!

• Learn a healing spell

I don't care if you're all fired up to play a warrior- you need to be able to heal yourself when you take all of that damage! You don't even need to get more than the basic healing spell (you get one for free with any character in Oblivion and Skyrim). Yeah, you could buy a ton of potions, but I would rather save that money for better weapons, armor, etc. It only depends on your amount of magicka/mana/MP. Trust me!

• Find a good center of operations

By this I mean find a place where you can get as many of your "errands" done at once. In Skyrim for example, I like using Whiterun because my house (where I store all my stuff), the forge, alchemy table, enchantment table, and shops are all relatively close to each other. Makes things run more smoothly, and you can get back to questing sooner.

• Learn crafting skills

While you may think that it's a drag and it's taking experience you can allot elsewhere, crafting your own weapons and  armor (enchanted or otherwise) & potions saves you a lot of money. Plus, you get more of a sense of accomplishment that way. I like to craft, upgrade, and enchant as many of my pieces of gear as possible.

• Find a safe storage spot

At least in The Elder Scrolls game, no chest or barrel is safe to store things in unless it is in a house that you own. Make it a point to save money early on for a house where you can dump all of your unused items. I usually leave all of my crafting items and special weapons and armor (that I'm not currently using) at home. Why waste your precious space on items that you aren't even using?

• Role-play well

This is mainly a D&D tip. Basically,  I believe that you should role-play to the best of your abilities and to the extent of your imagination. Get into your character! The more you invest in a character, the more fun the game becomes. Avoid meta-gaming as much as humanly possible. Try figure out who your character really is before you start playing, and develop it as you play, both character traits and your backstory.

• Figure it out for yourself

Try and figure out puzzles and quests by yourself (at least the first time). Looking at walkthroughs and game guides detracts from the fun of a game. The game developers made the game for you to play, not for you to do what someone else figured out themselves. I only look for help when I cannot figure it out for myself and have tried to multiple times. This goes for cheats too as many of them are overpowered.

• Play with friends

Games with co-op and multiplayer are meant to be played that way! Granted- most RPG's are single player, but you can still play them with a buddy. One person plays while the other person acts as their "spotter" (just think of them as your personal Navi- only less annoying)- helping you with puzzes, riddles, or finding treasure chests that you may have missed. After a while, switch places.

• Play through earlier games in a series

This is especially pertinent now that all of these Elder Scrolls n00bs are getting into Skyrim, but don't want to play Morrowind or Oblivion. They then ask a ton of questions that would have been answered if they had played the earlier games! It helps to fill out your understanding of the story, and gives you hours of enjoyment, and for those of you who actually care- that means more achievements/trophies.

• Use mods!

Sorry console gamers! Unfortunately, you can only mod PC games. For those of you who do play games on your computer, check out mods for your games! It can add lots of gear, sharpen graphics, add companions, etc. I recommend these sites: Skyrim Nexus, Morrowind & Oblivion Nexus, & Dragon Age Nexus.

Don'ts

• Don't be a jack-of-all-trades

I feel like this is a no brainer, but then I see people playing characters like this: "A warrior who uses warhammers and bows, who is kind of sneaky, but can also cast fire spells" (read this in your best SoCal surfer/Bro voice). If you try to be good at everything, you will end up being good at nothing- only mediocre. There are character archetypes for a reason, so stick as closely to one as possible. Now there are cross-classes, so if you want to use those make sure you're not spreading yourself too thin skills-wise.

• Don't forget to keep potions & poisons on hand

They're useful! Use them to as an alternative to healing spells if you must, or if your magic stat (whatever that may be) is depleted. It's a pretty simple concept.

• Don't start killing or stealing from people at low levels!

You will get pwn'd. If you try to be an assassin/thief starting off at level one, the people you're trying to kill will see you and kill you as soon as they get the chance. Hold off on those urges for a while until you level up a bit and can confidently use your skills. The same concept goes for other classes (I have just noticed this more with rogue/thief players)- don't go trying to kill a dragon at level one!

• Don't do every single quest with one character

This is more from a role-playing standpoint. Why on earth would a warrior do Mage Guild quests? Other than the fact that you're just trying to make more money, there doesn't seem to be a point to it. Pick your character archetype and stick with it! If you wanted to do Mage Guild quests, then make a new character that uses magic!

• Don't try and do someone else's job for them

This is also a D&D tip. There are different classes with different specialties/abilities for a reason. If you're a Ranger, you're good at search/spot/survival. If you're a thief, you're good with traps/sneaking/backstabbing. If you're a fighter, you're good at...well, fighting. Don't do someone else's job for them, especially when they're better at it than you are! Half the party doesn't need to search the room for traps, etc. when the right character can do it faster and better (unless they're rolling luck has run out). Stick with what your class is good at, it helps to develop your character anyway.

• Don't take it too seriously!

This is true for any game, but especially games you're playing with other people. Yes it can get stressful at times, and you may fail a lot, or you may not always get what you want but always remember this: IT'S JUST A GAME! You're supposed to have fun! Yes, what just happened might have really sucked, but in the end, it's not that big a deal. Getting too angry only makes you look like a selfish, whiny jerk, and detracts from the fun of the whole party. Learn to go with the flow.

I hope that these were helpful to you. If you have your own tips or opinions on mine, let me know and leave a comment. I'd love to hear your thoughts!