Skyrim: "Don't Tread On Me"

Because drawing isn't working for me right now, and I have a lot of free time, I've been grinding in Skyrim. A meaningless goal I have is to reach level 100 before I tackle the end-game content of the main questline, and to pick up a few odd achievements here and there(I'm playing on the Xbox version, which unfortunately means longer load times and no mods).

Right now, my biggest conundrum is whether to side with the Imperials or the Stormcloaks. I'm playing a character who swore revenge on the empire for trying to execute him... but I'm hearing that picking the Stormcloaks is actually worse in the long-run for everyone but the native Nords.

I've already killed the Dark Brotherhood for sending assassins to kill me. I've established my character does not forgive nor forget attempts on his life, no matter the cost... So do I swallow my pride and side with the Imperials for the greater good, or do I ruin Skyrim for a lot of the races in Tamriel just for revenge?


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Love Is Not Selfish

How many of you have heard the phrase: “You have to love yourself before you can love anyone else”? The idea is that if you love yourself, it will naturally lead to caring about others, and not caring about yourself denies you the ability to have meaningful relationships. 


But wait, what about bankers? What about bible-thumping bigots? What about mass-murderers and dictators? What about lobbyists and corrupt police and senators and congressmen and gangs? What about rapists? What about hollywood executives? 


These are not self-loathing people. Psychopaths have high self-esteem. They love everything about themselves and continue to make the world worse because that initial self-love never spread out. Why wouldn’t they? They want everything for themselves because they see themselves as more important and more deserving. Hating yourself is not necessarily always what makes you hate others, so why would loving yourself be the only entryway to loving others?


You do not need to love yourself to love others. That’s bullshit. I hate pretty much everything about myself, and I cared about people. Certain people, at least. I was a humanist for most of my life, and my own self-loathing didn’t stop that. Even years after I should have stopped having any personal investment in the human race. Long after I should have given up on the species, I was still hoping and caring.


If I still care about anyone, it’s not because I had some epiphany or some moment of self-acceptance. It’s because I’m not a psychopath, and love is not selfish!

END OF LINE

~A.H.

Japan's Vanilla Ice

Has anyone else heard about Mamoru Samuragochi, the composer of Resident Evil and Onimusha? Apparently he didn't actually write music, but took credit for ghost-written compositions due to being deaf by age 35(which is now also under question).

Geez. I hope this isn't a common thing. I'd hate to think of some of my heroes of video game music being frauds.

Is there any equivalent to this in movies or television? Granted, the music industry has no shortage of thieves, and then there are cases where "music by X" actually means "music by X and his recording team, sound engineers, etc.". It's clear that not every single note you hear in a Hans Zimmer score was his and his alone, but when you read "Soundtrack by Hans Zimmer", it's to be understood as being a brand more than the individual guy. And even then, he does roll up his sleeves and do the work(...sometimes. Other times he just sort of collects a paycheck when they re-use his themes from a previous movie in a sequel, but just get someone else to score the rest, like in Kung-Fu Panda 2).

But I can't think of an instance where a film composer was outed not only as having taken credit for music, but also accused of faking a disability.

For that matter, does anyone even remember the music in the first Resident Evil? Does anyone even remember Onimusha the game? In any case, this is just what Capcom needed: more bad publicity.

END OF LINE

~A.H.

Whatever

I wish I had more to talk about on this blog. I meant this to be where I dump all of my video game rants and stuff, but I've become so disillusioned with the state of the medium that I don't feel like I have anything meaningful to say. And I just think the entire industry is on course to collapse anyway, and nobody wants to fix it, so...

Meh.

Maybe one of these days I'll get off my ass and finish the Fave of 2013 list. Until then, I don't know what else to say.

"Gears of War: Judgment" Review

by Alex Hill

I... think I like Gears of War: Judgment. But it's not a game that's trying particularly hard to be liked. I'm not sure what it wants to be. It's too big to be DLC for a previous game. The changes are both too extensive to be an add-on, but too grounded in the past to be its' own product. It's too small in focus to be the long-term leveling shooter that Gears 3 was. It doesn't invest in its' characters quite enough to be story-based. If you described it to police, it would be a fat, thin, tall, short, young, old person.



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2013

Last year, I vowed I would begin work on my novel "Alone Together". And I have. Got a big chunk of the first draft written down during National Novel Writing Month, which I also completed for the first time this year.

I lost a lot of friends. A lot of people I thought were irreplaceable, vital parts of my life, when I needed them the most.

I saw people like Mike Krahulik and Gail Simone shit all over their audience and get rewarded for it.

The movie, novel, music, game and porn industries practically collapsed, and I say good riddance. Nothing of value has been lost. There was a time when all of those things mattered, and allowed artists to produce meaningful content. That age died along with them, along with justice and mercy.

I lost whatever hope or faith I had in human beings.

Also, Roger Ebert and Nelson Mandela died.

This year marked the turning point when I stopped mourning for the death of humanity, and decided it deserved to die. I'm glad it's dead. I'm glad there's no hope for this ignorant, selfish species.

But Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead were cool tv shows.

Next year I'm gonna try to upgrade my computer to play all of the stuff I bought during the Steam holiday sales.

I still have a few people to draw belated Xmas fanart for.

I made peace one person who I wronged in the past.

I ran into my best friend at a grocery store for the first time in almost ten years.

I'll see you in hell, 2013.

The Walking Dead: "In The Water"

So, Telltale Games just retconned the first season of The Walking Dead. They’re bringing a dead character back to life. But for some reason they’re keeping that stupid plot twist where Vernon magically became evil for no reason. But it’s okay, because the worst, most insufferable character from the first game is now the main character.

Pre-order now, and the game will periodically inject you with a Mystery Disease!


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