LadyCrimson

Watched an 11min gameplay vid of Botanicula. Yes, must get. Die of cuteness.. I really like the graphics/artwork on it as well.

I hate Fox-tv mlb blackouts etc. I wanna see the Red Sox, not the Giants. Oh well...WEEI audio on one PC, video game on the other. Plus, it's a nice day, may do some spring gardening. (edit) Yes, I'd like an update as well. I hope Tarna's doing ok.

Too much. Altho if it wasn't for the lyrics on the screen, I'd have no idea what they were singing, outside of the recognizable music.

I never wear high heels, but if I were to do so, I'd have to get me a pair of those. ...Han Solo dancing. Cute. And that song. The thing that makes it weird tho is he's dancing in front of that freezing chamber. Happy to be frozen, Han?

You pay more Social Security/Medicare, because you don't have an employer who matches your contribution (ie pays half or at least part of it). You are the employer and the employee so to speak and must pay in the full amount. You can use that "employer donated half" estimated amount as as a deduction I think, but it doesn't amount to some kind of big savings, at not least in our case. State taxes aren't much.

Sitting around, noticing it's April, and wondering how we're going to manage to pay our exorbitant self-employment taxes again this year. March-June has been quite the squeeze since we bought this little house, what with the economy being in the pits for so long. Oh wait, I'm supposed to be positive because we made an investment into our future. Which I'm sure will turn out to be grand in the long run. Assuming I live that long. ...time for some of those LOLcats.

Oooh, I just saw the vid for Botanicula. I'm not usually into point/click games like that but it's so cute. I may have to get it. Yes, I'm liking GoG more and more every year. I toss money their way every year and hope for their continued success.

Oh, so I was looking at the completely wrong wiki page/game title then... well, doh. ...still never heard of it, tho. But if it's a rpg then it has potential.

Really? Cool. I shall now go acquire it. Maybe someday, I might even play it. ...no speed problem downloading it for me at 1:20pm PST.

I'm pretty sure there's no actual right/left hand requirement for the Vulcan salute, otherwise Vulcan's who have had hand accidents would be out of luck. Probably just a dominant hand thing.

I remember that. Back then it was like "What? Nude mod? No wai, there's such a thing? Must check it out." Hilarious. Going back to culture somewhat, I remembered that the Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom city build game had me looking up more architecture references, because of the monuments that you could build. Like, I knew of terracotta army figures but I didn't know the history behind them. Or just wondering how/why some of those period structures were built (physical construction and history). Architecture is quite fascinating.

I'd never even heard of Kickstarter until this Wasteland thing. I am so not with it. It's been interesting to see the photography/film projects on that site, too. As to the game...yet another one I've never heard of/played, probably because I'm not that into shooters. Did it really only work on Vista originally?

Haven't been overtly depressive in a long time, but I have been having a lot of signs of latent depression. Ah well...such is life. One reason to have a cat/larger pet. They are always good for a feel-good snuggle! Or, for smaller pets, a feel-good giggle at their overall cuteness/silly behavior. Failing that...YouTube funnies. I think one of the best things about the internet has been YouTube funnies. Especially when it's 2am.

I was thinking more about this, and at the risk of over-analyzing myself (heh) I'd say/agree that it's not game format itself per se that won't involve me emotionally. It's just that most games - that I've personally played - do not have the themes or enough of an uninterrupted storytelling flow to latch onto very strongly. There's also the issue that being chronic-depressive all my life I tend to use games as a way to escape from emotion (outside of laughter - I like to laugh), so I focus on the task/humor stuff and may miss the emotional forest for the trees because I don't look for it/want it...eg takes a lot to get past that to make me notice. How's that? hehe Child-killing or other "no-nos" in games...don't care one way or another, generally speaking. I'm not going to clamor for its inclusion because it doesn't specifically interest me, and if the given scenario offended/repelled me, I wouldn't want to play that game, but I have no issue with a game existing that has it. I don't like censorship on principle, so as long it seems "natural" to the plot/environment/world presented, it won't offend me just because it's there. Also, addition re: nudity: The reason I don't find it entertaining or more immersive is because most of the time such mods are, imo, rather poorly done. At least for the males. Most of the focus of such mods goes towards the females, with lots of energy spent on making their boobs look hi-res fantasy awesome or whatever, but not so much for the males. So instead of immersion I'm jarringly amused at these poorly rendered/textured naked men wandering around. They just look better/less artificial with their clothes still on, so far.

The one time I tried a nudity mod, I ROFL and then deleted it soon after. Outside of the giggles, not for me. But I know a lot of people who love nudity/sex mods if they can get them...I couldn't explain why they want them so much, since I'm not into them. But from what I've noted, immersion definitely plays a role, I think. It's not much different from people wanting better textures for roads, eyes, objects - doesn't add to the gameplay, but it does wonders for eyeball immersion. Perhaps for some it's just curious/humorous titillation/outlet, and for others a more serious part of their game...a roleplaying thing, if you will. In terms of vs. porn - I could see that some might perhaps find acting out sex in games more interesting (interactive, an environment you control/may care about) over watching the usual static porn (non-interactive).

I knew someone would mention that. Notice I said "When a game does make me feel emotion, it's given to a party member." This is probably why story-based RPG's that don't involve party members very much (or none at all) don't stick with me that well. But KOTOR did (Atton/Disciple), and Baldur's Gate (Xan, sigh...hehe). Skyrim interested me initially because it was going to have companions. But I didn't end up liking them and the game as a whole didn't capture my attention much either, so it was a wash. For games like Diablo, I don't care about companions that much. They're not designed to even try to be emotionally riveting, just run and bash and loot. Altho it was fun to equip those D2 hirelings and try to keep them alive. Outside of character/story, music is what most evokes emotion for me. Those awesome battles in Stronghold or other strategy games wouldn't be nearly as much fun without the great soundtracks to go with them. (edit - the main thing I like from games is exploration and tinkering, ie collecting loot, alchemy, crafts, strategy. It's a task-obsessive thing, not an emotional one)

Mr. Grey is now an outdoor cat. He likes the sun and the little box home I made for him, but he doesn't wander far from the backdoor. I don't think he's even tried to hop a fence yet. He still refuses to eat dry food tho, making feeding him outside still a chore. But at least he's not peeing/pooping on my carpet/floor.

Dinklage is definitely in top form in this series. He's awesome.

It's rare I feel any emotion while playing video games outside of the action adrenaline rush or strategic sense of triumph/failure. Probably why I've never been concerned/big on "story" in games. I don't feel it, so I don't care. When a game does make me feel emotion, it's given to a party member - you spend time adventuring with them, mimicking "shared experience" in some small, electronic way, perhaps. But NPC's who just appear to give me info I feel nothing for. They may as well be statues. That said, books were much more emotional for me as I grew up...it's all I had. No pc/internet. Difficult home life and wanting escape. Reading, text literally disappears/I'm unaware of "words" as my brain translates them into a movie inside my head. It's that imagination process (turning words into pictures) that can make even the minor chrs. who appear only once in a book more memorable and "alive" than cardboard NPC's in a video game that my brain doesn't have to imagine. So from my perspective, there is definitely a huge difference between books, film/TV, and video games. (Film/TV falls between books and games, for me). By the time I got into pc gaming, I was already in my mid/late 20's with most of my main interests is entrenched. So vid. games were largely about "ooh, computer tech is getting so awesome" and "this sure beats puzzles and solitaire when I'm bored" vs. meaningful influence. Maybe if I'd first played Doom or Myst when I was 9....but since I didn't, I can't say.

Xbox dashboard preview report of Borderlands2. Interview w/Paul Hellquist + game footage.

A little more open than 2W2 then, perhaps. The thing that bugged me in that game was how a lot of things were closed off...so you'd just have to go back again once you got a quest/progressed the plot, making random exploring feel pointless/unrewarding. I don't mind a few important spots being closed off, but more than that and I feel restricted. I prefer it when games let you enter/explore and just don't spawn quest npc's enemies inside until you have the quest. Or just be linear to begin with.

The world didn't look terribly open in the gameplay videos I've seen...is it really that open? I've been observing that my notion of open world doesn't seem to be quite the same as what some games today are calling open world, if that makes sense. Two Worlds 2, for example.

Mm....I'd say generally not. There have been random instances of hunting for game info and coming across mentions of what historical things were an influence to the game, but usually I was aware of those historical culture things already. Not because I'm some kind of super history buff, but because I tend to play games that are set in cultural periods of history I'm interested in...eg Rome. Movies/TV definitely does it to me a lot more, where after watching something (whether fiction or documentary) I may run to my PC and do a search out of curiosity re:known recorded fact vs. subjective fiction or conjectured opinion. Since games are about me manipulating rules/gameplay for a certain outcome (including outcomes that aren't historically accurate at all), they don't tend to move my brain towards that kind of curiosity. Or maybe I'm just too busy playing the game to think about such things while playing .. vs. sitting on the couch watching TV as a mere observer. Not sure.

Hahaha! The last Doom one. Hahaha!!