My First Flash Forét

So today I had my introduction to flash, granted, it was not smooth as silk, but still relatively enjoyable.

It all began with a simple request "Could you do some R & D on how to get flash to write XML to a database?", and so it began, perhaps the shortest day (Or so it felt, you know what they say, time flies and all that) i've experienced at this job, it was very programming-centric, which I love, i'm not too keen on the days that involve image editing and stuff, but programming is definitely my bag.

I have to say that coding the action script side of things is really cool, everyone I know hates it, stating it's slow, but all the scripts i've been working with are blistering fast, like, even calling an external PHP file took less than 0.5 seconds, which is hella quick, although it was all locally hosted, execution times could probably be 0.7 seconds on the server, which is still pretty hecking quick.

I don't know what my point is in this post really, other than to say, flash is darn neat, and it's fun to code, so give it a whirl sometime, even if you're not a programmer, you can still use the front-end functions to do the same stuff.

So, yay flash

Graphics do Not a Game make

So I read earlier, someone commented about a game I am, very much looking forward to called Dragon Age Origins, making the comment: The graphics are cringeworthy, the mouths barely move when they are talking.

The video they were commenting on was old, and the graphics have improved since then, however, this is not the point. If they had actually been watching the trailer, they would have noticed the frankly, stellar voice acting (Which is across the board, even minor characters have exsquisite voice acting work done on them). They would also have noticed that animations are incredibly smooth, with transition animations making everything completely seamless, the mocap department really earned their keep with this one, everything is so fantastically animated, couple that with the voicework and the believability of the characters goes up immensely.

Then there is the story, which, from the trailers and video walkthroughs, is simply amazing, there are multiple stories that take place, depending on race, origin and choices through the game, simply in the intro video they showed, there is masses of story, so it really is packed in, and unlike many choice based games, the changes are gradual, so you can't just quicksave before the time comes and then reload if you don't like the result.

Then there is the gameplay, which is good old sword and sorcery, but it also takes a lot from Baldurs Gate (The same people developed it after all). You have your party of 4, which is pretty standard fare, but whats not, is that spells can interact with each other, and from the look of the videos it's a very polished system. Battles look and feel very real, with the grime sticking to your character, and being persistent, and from what i've personally seen, some of the fights are monstrously hard, requiring micro-management of every character to bring them down, not to mention, freakin sweet takedown animations.

So, to go back over quickly, graphics don't make this game, although it's looking very polished now, the story, acting, animation and graphics all work together to make, what looks like an incredibly awesome game, and one which I am looking forward to intently.

Requirement Creep...

This title sort of sounds like a person who stalks for a requirement, rather than for sport, either way, some of you will realise i'm on about a job and contract jobs in general.

Why is it that, no matter what you've already done, it's never quite enough? Take this current company i'm working with, their name shall not be mentioned, but it's not my actual employer, more a sub-contractor, either way, I digress, no matter what i've already done, there is already more to do, and is this charged more? No, there should be limits on this stuff, but there isn't, they just come to me and say those dreaded words "Just one more thing...".

I realise requirement creep is a hazard of the profession, but still, this much work is ridiculous, especially when I don't have time to work on other projects. For example, today they come to me and say "Oh by the way, all these need to have this item on at this cost" without realising that i'm either going to have to go through them one by one, or write a script to go through the few hundered promotions to add what needs to be added, both will be time consuming.

Oh well, I have a couple of other projects, one is looking very nice now, even though it needs a lot of work, and one I haven't started, which will have to take priority eventually, god damn you unnamed company, I have more to be doing than sorting out your crap.

Games are a Waste of Time?

I had an interesting conversation recently, with a person who knows someone who says that playing video games is a waste of time.

Now, if this is true, then that means that any pursuit that is undertaken as a hobby, is a waste of time.

Lets look at it this way, if someone reads a book, or watches a film, is that a waste of time? Most people would say no, it's good, wholesome brain food, however, when the medium is question is video games, it's a waste of time, or it's brain rotting.

There are a few arguments to support them, in that the games that make it onto the news are usually the violent ones (Any sort of first person shooter), or soul destroying, stereotypical ones (WoW). However, it's not true of a vast majority of video games, especially in the booming 90's, when adventure games where a hefty portion of the gaming world.

To me, and to many other people, games posess as much merit as an artistic medium as any other, for when you're playing a game, you're a part of the narrative, you're advancing the story, so not only are you often getting your mind taxed with puzzles, or being told an epic story, you feel accomplishment that you've advanced the story, that it's something you've done, rather than something that has been scripted beforehand.

With games becoming more complex, so do storylines, take the witcher for example, based on choices the player makes, the game can change competely, this is something that just isn't possible with movies, books or music.

Granted, i'm not saying for everyone to drop their books or stop going to the cinema, I just wish for video games to be seen in a less contempt light, so just try it out once in a while if you haven't already, you never know, you might enjoy it.

Bad Movies and Remakes

I lumped these together because they seem to go hand in hand these days.

Why is it that most movies released these days are either, and I use the term ridiculously loosely here, horror movies, or remakes of old films.

Now, I use the word horror very loosely, as most films labelled as it these days are simply gore-fests (see SAW or Hostel or in fact any movie made within the last few years) or so pathetic they could barely be called a movie (See... I forget the game, but nothing happens until the final 5 minutes of this TERRIBLE film).

The only ones that seem to have any creativity anymore are the childrens film makers, such as pixar.

The other annoying trend is remakes of old films, here is a tip movie companies, A FILM THAT WAS TERRIBLE 20 YEARS AGO WILL STILL BE THE SAME TODAY. Even if a film was good, as a friend was saying the other day, nostalgia is often better than the actual article, as in, a film that WAS good 20 years ago, can be ruined by the re-imagining.

Good films these days are few and far betwixt, so, if any film makers ever see this, I implore you, please get some creativity, and stop pumping out remakes, gore-fests or sequels, since as we all know, only one film was consistently good after being rung out for sequels, and that was Back to the Future.

Why do most people hate their job?

This is mainly from personal experience, but there are other places i've heard tell of this as well.

People hate the job they do. I mean, to me it stands to reason that if you have a job you don't like doing, you go out to get that job, but no, most people stagnate and decide to stay in the job they hate, and continue doing it. Why? Is everyone a glutton for punishment, or is it that deep down, really, they love what they're doing, but most people say they hate it, so they just run with the crowd.

I saw an animation the other day, albeit a funny one about a freelance designer talking to a customer, and the customer being completely unreasonable (SAUCE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfprIxNfCjk) which begs the question, if you don't like the client to begin with, why are you taking the job, it just screams to me that they need to ask more questions before they accept, either way, feedback will be welcomed, criticism too.

P.S. I love my job