Just a quick post, more for my own reference than anything else.
Prone though I may be to bouts of depression I generally try and stay positive. So when I say that many of these post ideas (that will follow) may never come to fruition it is simply because they will be replaced by better ideas or there are just too many for me to get to. Still, I'd like to make a point of recording them just in case. So, once more I will record various ideas and thoughts I have.
- How We Are Trained to Play MMO's: As far as games go there are a lot of things in MMORPG's that aren't easily definable as fun (though that seems to be improving through the years). So why put so much time into a game that isn't fun? Brushing aside that many modern games aren't necessarily meant to be "fun" per se, I believe it's because we were trained or tricked into liking them. (I thought it would be fun to view the MMORPG phenomenon through my own darkly tinted experiences, and examine why I started out mostly disliking games like WoW and Ragnarok online but played them anyways.)
- Cleaning and Entropy: This was more of an idea than a fully-formed article. The thought behind it is that the need to clean is caused by entropy so the act of cleaning is actually an act of rebellion against the forces of entropy itself. That would make cleaning a rather arrogant act and, of course, you would never find any respite from cleaning as entropy is a foe that knows no end. I like the idea but there just isn't much more to write about beyond that condensed bit.
- Borderlands is a Bad Game and I Love It: I've really enjoyed the Borderlands world, art style, and even the gameplay itself despite the fact that it suffers from some really poor design choices. The game really falls short of greatness on several fronts yet I've dumped more hours into the game on PC and PS3 than even Skyrim. "RPG first person shooter" is the sole pillar that holds the game up in a sort of Diablo II meets Serious Sam sort of way. Borderland's greatest strength is that it is unique on several fronts, core among those being the major gameplay mechanics which are old concepts presented in a new way. Despite an alluring new style of gameplay, aesthetics, and a memorable world Borderlands largely failed to live up to its potential, especially in its sequels, and the core gameplay suffers from repetition and a shallow focus on the world and characters. (This article idea is essentially just a review of the game, its strong and weak points, and with a focus on why Borderlands is a 'bad' game in a lot of ways and how it manages to pull through regardless.)
- Handsome Jack: 2-Dimensional Villain or Suprisingly Complex?: Handsome Jack, to me, is a confusing character. It's hard to for me to imagine someone like him actually existing, and not just because Handsome Jack is laughably evil and self-absorbed. As a character Jack seems to be all over the place in personality. The easiest side to identify is also the most flat; Jack as megalomaniacal dictator of Pandora is annoyingly one-sided. The bottom line? If you think that Jack is going to have a redeeming quality or is going to stop being an evil-dick for a moment, he's not. Borderlands 2 and Tales from the Borderlands have many 'gotchas' in that regard. Yet beneath the shallow exterior Handsome Jack has the potential for incredible depth. Brief moments here and there suggest that Handsome Jack actually sabotages his own sympathetic traits by being the universe's biggest asshole. It's as if Jack truly wanted to be liked but didn't believe himself deserving, nor capable of redemption. Furthermore we know that despite his hellacious methods Jack had some noble goals for Pandora. So evidence suggests that Jack was pursuing noble goals with terrible methods, he has a human side that he is trying to cover up, and that despite those things, deep down inside, he is probably also still just a dick by nature. It's hard to tell if Handsome Jack is a poorly written character with accidental depth or a well-written character with hidden depth, but in either case I find him a hard character to read. (This prompted me to want to examine him as a character in the two games I know him from. Unfortunately I don't have Borderlands the Pre-Sequel for reference which could potentially poke holes in some of my theories.)
Prone though I may be to bouts of depression I generally try and stay positive. So when I say that many of these post ideas (that will follow) may never come to fruition it is simply because they will be replaced by better ideas or there are just too many for me to get to. Still, I'd like to make a point of recording them just in case. So, once more I will record various ideas and thoughts I have.
- How We Are Trained to Play MMO's: As far as games go there are a lot of things in MMORPG's that aren't easily definable as fun (though that seems to be improving through the years). So why put so much time into a game that isn't fun? Brushing aside that many modern games aren't necessarily meant to be "fun" per se, I believe it's because we were trained or tricked into liking them. (I thought it would be fun to view the MMORPG phenomenon through my own darkly tinted experiences, and examine why I started out mostly disliking games like WoW and Ragnarok online but played them anyways.)
- Cleaning and Entropy: This was more of an idea than a fully-formed article. The thought behind it is that the need to clean is caused by entropy so the act of cleaning is actually an act of rebellion against the forces of entropy itself. That would make cleaning a rather arrogant act and, of course, you would never find any respite from cleaning as entropy is a foe that knows no end. I like the idea but there just isn't much more to write about beyond that condensed bit.
- Borderlands is a Bad Game and I Love It: I've really enjoyed the Borderlands world, art style, and even the gameplay itself despite the fact that it suffers from some really poor design choices. The game really falls short of greatness on several fronts yet I've dumped more hours into the game on PC and PS3 than even Skyrim. "RPG first person shooter" is the sole pillar that holds the game up in a sort of Diablo II meets Serious Sam sort of way. Borderland's greatest strength is that it is unique on several fronts, core among those being the major gameplay mechanics which are old concepts presented in a new way. Despite an alluring new style of gameplay, aesthetics, and a memorable world Borderlands largely failed to live up to its potential, especially in its sequels, and the core gameplay suffers from repetition and a shallow focus on the world and characters. (This article idea is essentially just a review of the game, its strong and weak points, and with a focus on why Borderlands is a 'bad' game in a lot of ways and how it manages to pull through regardless.)
- Handsome Jack: 2-Dimensional Villain or Suprisingly Complex?: Handsome Jack, to me, is a confusing character. It's hard to for me to imagine someone like him actually existing, and not just because Handsome Jack is laughably evil and self-absorbed. As a character Jack seems to be all over the place in personality. The easiest side to identify is also the most flat; Jack as megalomaniacal dictator of Pandora is annoyingly one-sided. The bottom line? If you think that Jack is going to have a redeeming quality or is going to stop being an evil-dick for a moment, he's not. Borderlands 2 and Tales from the Borderlands have many 'gotchas' in that regard. Yet beneath the shallow exterior Handsome Jack has the potential for incredible depth. Brief moments here and there suggest that Handsome Jack actually sabotages his own sympathetic traits by being the universe's biggest asshole. It's as if Jack truly wanted to be liked but didn't believe himself deserving, nor capable of redemption. Furthermore we know that despite his hellacious methods Jack had some noble goals for Pandora. So evidence suggests that Jack was pursuing noble goals with terrible methods, he has a human side that he is trying to cover up, and that despite those things, deep down inside, he is probably also still just a dick by nature. It's hard to tell if Handsome Jack is a poorly written character with accidental depth or a well-written character with hidden depth, but in either case I find him a hard character to read. (This prompted me to want to examine him as a character in the two games I know him from. Unfortunately I don't have Borderlands the Pre-Sequel for reference which could potentially poke holes in some of my theories.)
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