I forgot to post on Monday about what I was planning to work on with UECA! this week. It just hasn’t been on my mind in a while. It’s been two weeks since I did any significant work on the game, and while I feel really guilty for not putting any time into it, I don’t feel the anxiety I used to feel when I was behind on comics. I’m not entirely sure that I miss the anxiety part.

When I was still doing TMABB, drawing every morning was a habit. I didn’t always enjoy it, but I ground away at those strips anyway, because I generally felt like shit when I didn’t. Yeah, that’s obviously the wrong reason to do something, but it kept me working and I rarely missed updates because of it. That’s a good thing, right?

I don’t have that same motivation with this game thing. There are no deadlines, no obligation to the readers. I don’t imagine many people are offended that I’ve missed a few UECA! posts. Yet, nothing is getting done. It’s retarded. I like doing the work once I start doing it. The only problem I have is the starting. I’ve always been like this. I just have this weird anxiety about getting to work on something. It’s the main source of my procrastination habit. And so here we are, thirteen weeks into the project, and I barely feel like I’ve done a week’s worth of work. I don’t stress about it like I did with comics, sure, but I’m also a lot less productive.

How can I get my producitivity back without reintroducing the constant worrying that came with having a webcomic?

Watch Ray Create Murder Simulators, Watch Ray Purge 1 Comment »

Do you do this? You see it all the time in the blog world: authors who set off their most salient points in big, beautiful boldface. It makes an article easier to skim, a boon to web surfers trying to cram as much content into their information addicted brains in as little time as possible. And y’know what? I detest the practice. It’s like with sitcoms. They either tape in front of an audience, or they dub in a laugh track, so the viewer knows which parts were supposed to be funny. Bloggers do the same thing with Ctrl+B.

I hereby name such writers, Boldgers.

Boldfacing has the same effect as putting up big signs that say, “Here’s the important bit. You don’t have to read the rest unless you really feel like it.” Why neuter such a large portion of your work like this? Instead of hitting a few talking points and then adding a heaping helping of foamy fluff, why not just write a shorter article? Or better yet, why not get your writing abilities to the point where people will want to read everything?

I think I might start boldfacing random sentence fragments, just out of spite. What do you bloggers think of that?

Watch Ray Purge, Watch Ray Think Too Much 1 Comment »

One of those most insightful game-related sites on the Internet, The Escapist, is focusing on sex in games for this week’s set of editorial features. One article in particular stood out for me: Pressing The Right Buttons.

The author presents some mid-to-high level game concepts on how sex might be worked into a game context. He contends that, thus far in games, sex, in those rare instances where a developer is brave enough to weather the political backlash that always follows its portrayal, has been limited to either non-interactive cut scenes, such as in Mass Effect, or timed sequences of button presses, such as in God of War (which is a terrible example, but the best I could think of). His argument is that this removes the emotional involvement from the encounter, furthering the already cheap perception of sex that pervades the major gaming demographic of teenagers and young adults.

The author’s ideas for how to create in-depth gameplay around sex are quite interesting, and I’ll leave those points to his article. What I want to present here is a minor counterpoint to his argument against the way sex is currently presented in games. I say minor because, while I agree with his main point, I want to give a justification for why sex shows up in such a noninteractive context. I don’t necessarily believe it to be right.

Let’s look at sexuality as what all things as emotionally charged as sex fundamentally are: biological imperatives. Just as we get depressed and uncomfortable when we don’t get enough food, so too do we get when we don’t have enough sex. Remember that emotions exist to provide an instinctive impetus for us to perform certain beneficial actions, such as fighting for one’s life, sleeping, and eating. In the case of sex, we tend to form emotional bonds with sexual partners because it increases the likelihood of reproduction (or rather, those of our ancestors who did so tended to reproduce more effectively).

How are biological needs handled in games? You walk over a plate of food to eat it. You click a button to make your Sim go to the bathroom. You choose a menu item to have your character rest for the night. If we look at sex as just another biological imperative, then it makes sense that it show up in the same manner as the others, by viewing the act as given and moving on to the more interesting and less ordinary parts of life.

On the other hand, perhaps the Escapist author’s idea could be applied to other biological mundanities. We could use shoulder triggers to move a character’s jaw up and down while using an analog stick to make the character’s tongue move the food in his mouth around to improve chewing. We could time changes in sleeping positions during the night to optimize the amount of rest the character gets. We could use rhythmic button presses to relax the character’s bowels so he can go to the bathroom. Okay, maybe not everything needs to be a game.

Watch Ray Create Murder Simulators, Watch Ray Purge, Watch Ray Think Too Much Add Comment »

I got a huge raise out of nowhere this week. I was just given the news about two hours ago and I’m still stunned. Starting salaries took a big leap up again this year, and anyone with under five years of service with the company is eligible to be considered for a possible potential pay adjustment to keep them in line with the salary trends. For the third year in a row, I was included, and this year was a doozy; a $7,500 doozy. Taking this raise into account, over my three years with this company, my pay has gone up by an average of about 11% every year. That’s just bizarre. I guess I should be glad I got in while the market was utter shit.

This places me in the position of having to decide just what the hell to do with the extra $95-ish I’ll be getting in my direct deposit account every week. WHAT A BURDEN. It’s been a while since I blogged about money, so I figure I’ll take this opportunity. Where is this money needed?

My biggest financial obligation right now is my home, which, on its own, eats up $1686.12 every month, mostly through mortgage interest. That can be reduced a bit if I can pay off my “second” mortgage (read: not a home equity loan, but an actual, literal second mortgage). Most of this raise should go toward the mortgage.

I need a new car. My infuriating ‘99 Jetta makes even my short 4.4 mile commute to work unbearable. I genuinely hate getting into it. Busted air conditioning will do that. Right now, I’m setting aside $75 every week towards my next car. I wouldn’t mind bumping that up.

My girlfriend and I are saving up for a wedding (even though we aren’t engaged yet). I’m already on pace to be done saving up for it within the next six months, though. I can probably leave this where it is.

I also think I deserve to be able to spend a little bit more. This was an 11% raise, so I should bump up the tiny allowance that I give myself by at least 11%. It’s only $50 right now; let’s make that $60. Even just that is a 20% jump, but you have to let yourself enjoy your money, or you’ll just grow to resent your budget and never stick to it.

Here we go: $60/week towards the mortgage, $25/week more towards my next car, and $10/week more to spend. I’ll take that. A year ago, I would’ve just spent all of it.

Watch Ray Stop Being Poor 2 Comments »

They just came out with a Wordpress app for the iPhone, and I’m just trying it out right now. I guess I’ll have to go over to my computer if I want to link to it. I kinda feel like the mobile admin plugin is better. Plus, this app keeps triggering my Twitter plugin. That’s annoying.

Aww man, mobile admin isn’t compatible with the most recent version of Wordpress anyway. Weak.

Anyway, link: http://iphone.wordpress.org/

Watch Ray Inform You, Watch Ray Purge Add Comment »