I did a video review on Terraria

Mystic wanted to make sure Terraria was a review done for his Indie Shot series, but initially never got into the game as much as Minecraft.  I love Terraria and was happy to oblige:

Coming Back to Terraria

I while ago I got Terraria and took a dive in, and totally got into it for a while.  I amazed Mystical because he couldn't understand how at the time I was definitely not a fan of minecraft but I was totally enamored in Terraria.  Something about the 16-bit adorable world along with the already integrated parts of adventuring was more addictive.

As with many games I haven't played it in a while but then yesterday I went back to it... not realizing that is had been updated to the nines with a new crafting system and other cool stuff.  GAH!  My old world wasn't ready for this.

I started a new world with a new character and was finally able to get a friend to join my game.  And fun times were had!  We built a ton of stuff, fought some zombies, fell to our deaths here and there.  We got some essential building done, and got some of the new crafting tools out of the way (like the saw mill and the loom).  Also, seeing our little sprites with the copper helmets is hilarious.  Have you seen those?  Ridiculous!

I had first played the game by myself, which even on the easy setting is a bit of a struggle.  It's a game with a lot of searching and avoiding baddies early on.  It's kind of nice to have two people looking for iron or to have a friend who'll help slice zombies in half while you catch fallen stars.

I will be doing a guest Indie Shot for Mystic sometime in the next couple of weeks for Terraria.  I still have to delve into the new system a bit more so don't expect this to be what I say in my review, but I'm definitely having a fun time with the new mechanics so far.

Finally, a little off topic, be on the lookout for my first video game gender analysis in the next week!

I missed tabletop

In a way, video games are one of the easiest nerdoms to get into, along with TV shows and some books, in the sense that it's something you can easily find and get into.  I think that's part of the reason I devote a lot of time to video games in this blog.  It's something that easiest for me to enjoy after a long day of work.  But I really became a full fledged nerd with tabletop, and now I'm finally getting back to that.

You all got a peak of my character in a friend's Obsidian game Amy Valencia.  I had never really played a truly carefree character before so I decided in this universe I would play one.  She is kind of a ditz following the easiest path of a high power, a high demonic power.  She's not entirely stupid, just entirely honest about her love of drugs, parties and the occasional visit to the masseuse.  It's been very liberating playing her because she is not one to give two shits about most dramatic stuff.  I think the most concerned she got was when a bomb was about to kill her and her group in a tiny office.  Having traditionally played characters that have stressed out very easily, it's great to play one that is not.

I think my experiences with Amy have colored my choices in playing a new character in another game.  I got invited to play in a Apocalypse World game that has been going for some time but had some people playing new characters due to old characters dying off or becoming unplayable.  I came in with Iris, the classiest brainer in the tree town.  Brainers actually can manipulate people with their psychic powers and find out personal things just by touching people.  Usually people go for the mystic in rags look for brainers.  I went a little more fabulous.  She has her kinky hair in an up do and wears a shiny pants suit with a corset.  Still weird, but a bit more approachable.  Like Amy she is a social creature who looks for the fun in life.  Unlike Amy, she strategizes more in the long run.  She's not really book smart but she is definitely world-smart.  If someone has recently become very powerful, you damn well make sure that you are their friend.  Things like that.

On top of those two games I am also running my 3.5 D&D campaign again!  I'm super excited about it.  The last two times I ran the game we had a ton of characters who were honored, privileged and eager to serve a king to the 2nd largest kingdom in the world.  This time I have a lot of hesitant characters who decided to go along merely because is somewhat fulfills their alternative goals, which include siring a messiah and selling potables to whoever will buy them.  The first session happened last week and even though it ran so late I was working on low brain power, we all had fun.  Next session will immediately start with combat!

It's so great to go back to my roots.  I really became a nerd when a friend of mine in high school invited me to play a game of Dungeons and Dragons that her father was running.  I'm not sure how nerdy I really was before then, but after that there was no turning back.  It now feels like I'm really a nerd again, spending a significant amount of time rolling dice and playing make believe with friends.

Happy Birthday Mystic!

I would like to wish a happy birthday to Mystic, the boyfriend.  I won't give away his age, that's up to him.

As one of his many presents, I am asking that you help me help him.  Season Two of Super Minecraft Adventure has started, and Mystic and another friend are now suffering through one of the most difficult fan maps on minecraft.

Mystic is doing this for charity.  Laugh at his countless fumbles and acts of nerd awesome, and then donate to Free the Children.  The goal is $5000 to help build a well in a developing nation.  Please donate!

Here is the first episode of Season Two for your viewing pleasure:

This is how not to discuss representation of women in RPGs

As a nerd woman I'm used to being in the minority and having to fight a couple of battles here and there about how I'm represented (if at all) in my nerd spheres.  The only nerd circle I knew to not have such a disparity is Anime, but let's not touch the plethora of gender issues in the genre.

So when someone wants to discuss the complicated issue of gender representation in RPG art, there is a lot you can actually say and a lot of opinions you can have.  That's the kind of article I expect to read, an article that expresses a concrete opinion.  Not some drivel that merely states I'll draw it because I'll get paid.

Jon Schindehette's article had an opportunity to truly engage with a point of view with someone who had industry experience.  Instead, we got someone who affirmed that he draws what they're given and asking several times for a reader's opinion without asserting his own.  The reason that this is excruciatingly frustrating is that this totes itself about addressing gender in RPG art and then discusses nothing.  Not the history, not the depictions, not even a personal opinion developed from years of experience drawing for the industry (specifically the most well known series that started the hobby).

If we continue to pretend we're having a discussion, there is no resolution.  We're not even sure what the resolution is because the industry has barely ever talked about the problem.  And yes, it can be a serious problem.  I do know at least with my experience, DnD has tried to be somewhat equal, but at the same time there are plenty of other RPG publishers who have gone out of their way to not be because they "know" that they have to cater to a male audience.

What's my opinion?  I personally don't like that the usual archetype for a chick who kicks ass either has to become male in her mannerisms or becomes the incredible eye candy with a gun.  I'm tired of it.  Not all gunslinging women have their tits out, just like not all gunslinging men eat raw meat and smoke 2 foot long cigars.  I want characters to be complex, no matter what setting I'm in and what gender or color or size or whatever the heck physical aspects they are.  That would show some maturity in the industry.  It's getting there, but we do have a long way to go.

The next time that someone wants to write an article, please, for the love of the written word, actually SAY something.

Beware of CISPA

I don't want to ramble on and on about the rights to privacy we as citizens in the United States should appreciate (especially because it's boring to readers not in the U.S.)  but for those of you affected, check out what's happening with this CISPA bill that has passed in the house and is now going to the Senate.  Essentially, the way the law is written now you will not be allowed any privacy to your doings on the internet as long as the government deems you a risk to the internal structure of a site or other net function.

I just want to make sure people are aware so that way if you want to take action, you can.  Things like this easily slip through the cracks.  The time to react is before it's law, not after.

Rewriting the Campaign

They beauty of having a world you invented is that as long as it's not officially published, you can change it.

I have been looking on and off at my notes for the last few days for my first game, and at first I thought I wanted to just organize the notes in a different way.  Something wasn't right, something was off about how I began this... did I just have to retype it in a different format?

Nope, upon further inspection I just realized I had done some silly stuff as "DM porn", where there was a character I was definitely excited to introduce to the PCs, but definitely introduced way too early.  Other structure things... including long times of boring where I was like "Here's a place where you can do stuff!", not realizing that PCs are usually pretty good at letting you know when they're doing something without being given a gap.

Unfortunately only experience would teach me about that stuff.  It'll be interesting as I go on and rewrite this to have it make more sense.  However, the big events are going to stay the same.  I'm not telling anybody those yet, who knows what future players may be reading...

Shedding light on women in video games

For a while I was thinking of doing a series of let's plays for video games to shed some light on games who have good representation of women, but I'm finding that most video games do NOT.  Not even the ones I love.

So instead, I'm planning on reviewing the gender equality in video games I played and play.  There are not a lot of games that get it awesome enough that I want to encourage people to look to it as a great example.  With the research I've done (not a lot but from good sources) I have come with a few tests to see what can be revealed about the gender equality in a video game title or series.

Gender Ratio:  What is the representation of males to females?  Is there a story or technical reason why it may shift one way or the other?  Or is it just poor planning?  This will be rated on the ratio found for the main characters--characters that are absolutely necessary for the gameplay and story.  Having an even balance of background characters will not make up for having only one female lead in the story.  There will be a nod if gender identity is discussed in an intellectual way.

Sexualization Ratio: How many men are overtly sexualized versus women?  This is comparing the representation of a person's sexual identity compared to how much one could expect to see on the street.  How a character is dressed (or more importantly isn't dressed) is not the soul factor of this ratio.  It's how it's portrayed, is that sexuality something inherent to understanding the character in the context of the game?  Is their heightened focus on their attractiveness or prowess in the bedroom?

Gender-Assumptive Dialogue:  How many times do you hear something akin to "She's tough enough to fight with the men." or "He's extremely sensitive, I expect him to have PMS with the ladies."?  Anything that assumes a personality or physical trait that is not sex but gender oriented is marked down.  This is marked by number of times I've noted it during my play.  Again, sex is a scientific classification, gender is a social construct.  Sex is the fact a woman has a uterus, gender is the idea that only women wear dresses.

The Bechdel Test:  How many times can you find two women talking to each other about a something other than a man?  It has to be dialogue that last at least 30 seconds or longer of talking time.  I like to thank Feminist Frequency for enlightening me for this test.

For all of these test, I'm going to account for at least 5 hours of gameplay.  within 5 hours of gameplay of any part of a game you should be able to get a good idea of what the dynamic will be for these characters.  I'll be honest with where I started and stopped, and I won't begin right at the first cut-scene.  I'll start after the tutorial (which tends to be the clumsiest part of most games).

After these four factors, I'll do a qualitative analysis of the overall experience.  No number will truly give a good idea of how gender-equal a game is, but they will help give an honest impression to do the overall analysis.

I'm going to start with a good amount of games I play and know, but then I'm going to branch out to other stuff.  There are some games I'm really interested to see how they play out (like the Half-Life series that I haven't played yet because I'm a horrible nerd) and this will also be an awesome way to replay some games I love.  I'll also need help with multiplayer games I have, so please feel free to message me on Steam or Origin (d20sapphire) and help me conduct my research.

Please leave some suggestions as to what games I should play!