City of Heroes Freedom Preview

Today on Tap I wrote too many words about City of Heroes Freedom.  Probably not as contemplative as many other things I've written, just a taste of a game that's kept me occupied for a surprisingly long time.

Edited just to add: I should probably mention I do spoil the end of an early in game mission. I felt it was important enough to discuss but maybe don't read if you're sensitive to that.

Speak Out With Your Geek Out - On Being a Grown-Up Geek

This week, bloggers all over the internet were encouraged to write blog posts about their geeky hobbies and interests, in a movement called "Speak Out With Your Geek Out."  I wanted to participate, but of course I write about something geeky every time I write.  I could have, in theory, written a new entry every day on some geeky topic, but, earlier this week, I was too busy:

• Teaching a writing class
• Getting my car repaired
• Playing the Legend of Zelda
• Reading and posting in game related and comic book related internet forums
• Baking the second apple pie of the fall season
• Unwrapping UVs, so many UVs
• Having dinner at the bar with co-workers
• Doing first drafts of a small variety of video-game-related editorials and reviews
• Playing City of Heroes
• Cooking general meals and keeping the apartment clean

...engaging in a variety of both geek-related and non-geek-related pursuits.

I'm in a different environment this fall than I was this time last year. I'm teaching general college students, most of whom are not self-described geeks.  In teaching games in specific, I had gotten used to being around gamer-geeks almost all of my time, but now I'm spending more time around adults (both younger and older than I am) that don't necessarily share my passions.

Women my age sometimes ask me what I do, and I tell them.  What I've discovered is that, when the topic of video games comes up, their first point of comparison is their children - specifically, their sons.  I had one woman mention to me that her daughter likes games. The rest of the women mention male children: either, oh, my son really likes those, or, oh, I don't let my boys play them.  Our point of comparison is something that I do as an adult that translates to something that their little boys want to do, but aren't allowed to do.  The topic of conversation then moves elsewhere.

There's a certain conflation of "geek pursuits" with "child pursuits," and sometimes the line becomes hard to draw.  Is the man, or woman, with a home full of comic book and animation art, and shelves of games and toys, an avid, discerning collector, or a stunted child who never learned how to grow up?  Whichever it may be, that person is me.  Even as a child, I knew I wanted to be a geeky adult, because geeky adults were the cool adults, who liked the things I liked.

But all around the internet this week I'm also finding little pools of disconnect.  Is Ocarina of Time not the world of enchantment and wonder I was lead to believe?  Should we just give up on Star Wars? ...Am I just getting too old for video games?

My geek students were sometimes puzzled that I really dislike shonen anime.  Stuff like Bleach, or Naruto.  I find it formulaic, repetitive, and full of padding.  Of course, the reason they like it, and I don't, is that it's not for me.  That stuff is for kids.  ... And, well.... wait, what?

I believe it's possible to hold the opinion that some things targeted at kids can equally be enjoyed by adults, while other things targeted at kids, I just won't like because I'm not a kid.  Other people my age sometimes are shocked by just how geeky I am, while others are right there with me. Some adults, however, will always be confused by an adult interest in geek things, because of the strong crossover between geek things and child things.  They "grew out of" stuff I feel I'm only now learning how to appreciate.  But whatever your case, balance is needed.  I believe there is great value, still, in geek-like (child like) things, and also value in having the relationships that an adult has.

Finding the balance is something that geeks like myself still struggle with.  Sometimes we even lash out or feel ashamed, justifying to the extreme about why our interests should be valued.  But if you find the balance and are comfortable with who you are and what you like, nerd rage isn't necessary.  And you can probably find lots of common ground with people who don't have the same interests as you, too.

I've found that a few of my gamer friends this fall are doing fantasy football pools.  That kind of surprised me for a little, since I'm used to talking with them about giant robots or video game design.  Compared to that, fantasy football is so... normal, so culturally acceptable, such a regular-guy thing to do.

But kind of geeky.

I'm a Contributor at Tap-Repeatedly

So after my guest editorial at Tap-Repeatedly, I was invited to come back and do more frequent contributions on the site.  This is fun for me, because Tap has a great community of people who are super cool!

http://www.tap-repeatedly.com

That is not to say I won't post stuff here too, but any longer editorials or articles will probably end up over on that site instead, so do check it out if you've liked my writing here so far.  I may also include previews, con reports, or... actual game reviews, which I've never really written before but I will probably be putting my own personal spin on.  Hopefully I'll be able to put up official reviews of whatever game I'm playing at the time. I'm also thinking about doing retro-reviews of some older games I think are criminally under-rated.  There may be some surprises there. It should be fun!

Assorted Thoughts While Playing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

• I would've bought this sooner if Nintendo had dropped it to twenty bucks sooner.  I don't have "Wiimote Plus," though, so I may have to spring for the Gold Edition of Skyward if I get it.
• Anyway, Twilight Princess.  ...It's kind of Furry, isn't it?  With the "Blue-eyed Beast" pet name, and howling instead of using the Ocarina to make songs?
• Not that I'm discriminating; some of my best friends are furries. 
• And other than that, it's kind of Ocarina again, only updated and T-rated.  Which is fine; who doesn't like Ocarina?
• A re-run from my Twitter yesterday: It's really romantic that Link can ride all night, until the moon sets and dawn kisses the horizon (with a lovely combination of pink and blue light).  But doesn't he need to sleep, ever?  It would be convenient if there was a bed in his house, or somewhere, so that he could sleep there. Not just for Link's sanity, but because sometimes it's night and you want it to be day.  I realized later that this observation about Link's sleeping habits was probably inspired by playing Fallout: New Vegas Hardcore mode and Deadly Premonition more or less back to back.
• A related observation.  There's a Goron character who will sell you hot spring water. It's of limited use, because when it cools off, it turns in to "regular water."  I bought some anyway, thinking, "Well, I'm going out to the desert, maybe I'll have use for water."  So just out of curiosity, when I'm halfway through the desert area, and heat waves are rippling all over the screen, I pull out the bottled water.  And Link just turns it over and dumps it on the ground!  Right on the ground!  He practically gave me the finger.  Link, you are in the desert: drink the water.
• Incidentally, there's a Gerudo Desert, but I don't actually see any Gerudo.  Did Gerudo Moses finally come to take them to the Gerudo Promised Land?
• Life would be a lot easier for Link if he wasn't mute.  Like, instead of having to summon hawks and catch fish and solve all these puzzles he could say: "Hey, Sera, I found your cat; he's down by the waterside."
• Except Link isn't actually mute; he's just selectively mute.  A little ways in you have to explain to the mayor of your hometown what's up, and the screen fades to black, then fades up.  Presumably during that fade Link explained the story of his adventure thusfar.  Why weren't you always doing that?  Man, you'd have saved yourself so much work.
• Of course, no dialog also means I can't flirt with any of the many cute, eligible young women in this game.  This is probably a good thing, otherwise I would be going for the Harem Ending.  The Girl in Reasonable Armor at the bar would be all mine!  And you're next, Fishing-Spot-Canoe Girl!  Not Agitha, the Bug Princess; she is ten. But she is totally adorable.
• And as a companion, Midna is quite well-executed, isn't she?  She's delightfully slappable, especially early on in the game, as if Nintendo finally realized we were irritated by Navi and just ratcheted up the Irritation Quotient by about two-hundred percent.  On the other hand, she doesn't interrupt you unless what she has to say is important, and when you do consult her, her context-sensitive clues are actually useful. Best of all, you can tell Wolf-Link is irritated with her, which makes all the difference.  When he rolls his eyes and growls at her, I feel like we're in this together.
• Though speaking of Midna, why does she offer me the option to turn "back in to a human"?  I'm not a human. I'm an elf, aren't I?  I mean, there's another word for the race but Link is obviously an elf.
• It occurs to me that anything even sort of resembling a human is called a human in this game though.  Ilia, the almond-eyed girl from your hometown, is a round-ear, but her dad the mayor has some kind of boar tusks as far as I can tell.  Is she a... one-quarter orc?  It's nice that the game is equal-opportunity about Half-Orcs and Elves.
• And I know they aren't actually called orcs, but the green things you fight are basically orcs, and that's awesome. It is the most "D&D" of Zeldas in that sense.  Like when you roll up on an entire pack of orcs, and you're firing arrows at them, and spinning around and swording three at once, and then hijacking their wild boar mounts, well, that just reminds me why I rolled an Elven Ranger.
• The game also owes a bit to Shadow of the Colossus.  One boss fight in particular is pretty brazen in that respect.  Nothing wrong with that though!  (Belated edit: wait, I checked, and, those games came out at about the same time?  ... really?  That is quite a coincidence.)