Blue Wind...

So long, farewell...

2008-08-27T00:23:00.003Z

Well, I'm shutting down this blog, I might post odd things here and there, but since I'm starting Electronic Games Technology in October, I'm starting up a new blog.

http://ryuuzabadge.blogspot.com/

Good luck to all those continuing on Game Art Design.

A new chapter, a new blog...

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A few thoughts as the year comes to a close.

2008-04-14T12:02:00.003Z

So it’s practically the end of the year and what do I have to say?

Suprisingly little.

Once again I’m convinced that my work is done well and that what I haven’t done by the end of this week is things that I’ll just have to let go, but then it’s the same every year, no matter whether it’s school, college or uni, and at least this year I won’t be running around like a headless chicken during the last week (I did that last week).

However, I’m not certain about how high my grades will be. After all, I’ve improved quite a bit (no modesty here for work I’m really quite proud of), but so has everyone else. I finally feel like I’m getting somewhere and yet I’m still trailing the pack.

I’ve really enjoyed the work, the one day projects are a challenge and I only failed to get one finished but I made up for it by doing two models one week. The drawing work has been challenging but I feel I have improved, and my blogging has fallen by the wayside a bit as I haven’t had much to say about the work before it’s finished.

It’s challenging, to crit your own work, and I think that sometimes I can be a bit over generous towards it, after all I’d like to think I was improving a lot, but if I compare my work to others, I can still see there are areas where I can improve and I think that’s the point of all of this.

Hopefully by the end of next year I’ll be more confident and happy in my work.
I’ve noticed something interesting though, all my decent work has been done while I’ve music in the background, even now I’ve got the Smash Bros Brawl OST playing in my ears.

I want that game!!!!!!

Sorry, I will not let it desolve into the same situation we had with Pokemon Battle Revolution.

Anyway, getting off the track as per usual.

I think my point is that this year started off hard and it wasn’t until we had Ben Mathis here, and then Heather, that I saw any real improvement on the standard and speed of my 3d models and I feel that while my drawing work has improved I have a ways to go still.

I freely admit this and will be working on my drawing and modelling over the summer, harder then I did last year and hopefully will come back to uni ready and raring to go, unlike after the Easter Holidays, where I worked so much to get some extra money for uni that I actually came back more tired then when I left.

But then I have more fun to go over the Summer then I did over the Easter, even if I work my butt off. I’ve got this year’s Amecon and my precious Pokemon Tournament, and a week down in Dawlish Warren. I didn’t get to go away very much last year so it’s nice to have a holiday as well as Amecon.

Where did my track go?

I’ve lost it again.
Anyway, suffice to say there will probably be more blogs to come by the summer, but I’m not sure how many more of them will be course related.

Joey

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More critical thinking on my work.

2008-03-11T10:45:00.003Z

Over the last three weeks, in Chris’s classes we have been doing a project a week. These are enjoyable but I feel that there are things that I like and things that I will want to do more on until I am happy with them, especally as these will be handed in for Summative Assessment.
The first week was on Exteriors, and I went, with a whole bunch of others, to the church nearby to take photos, draw sketches and generally look at shape and form of the building. I liked the arches and peaks of the church. It’s obviously old as bricks are worn and parts look like they’ve fallen off of the statues, but that’s what makes the building interesting.

For my digital pictures, I took photos of the area while I was there and took colours from those to attempt to get the colour and the feel right, however, I feel I have only succeeded in one of the pictures as the others feel too bright or the colours aren’t quite right.

I quite like the window picture I did, which was from a photo I took inside the church. It’s colours aren’t exactly right but the way it’s done means you can tell when it is and how it fits in.

I also like the spire picture for it’s detail and for the fact that the sky looks more like the sky did on that day and the colours fit together better.

Last week we had Land, Air, Sea, Yacht as our brief and for some incredibly annoying reason I had the image of a flying ship stuck in my head. I didn’t want to do a futuristic ship like the others (all the ones I saw looked more like fighter ships then yachts), so I went for a more tradional ship, the sort I’d see in the harbor in Bristol when I go home.

This led me to wondering about how it would fly, and Slaney suggested that I shaped it like a vicking longboat which is shaped like an arrow and can reach any speed provided that enough thrust is provided. This decided, I gave it a protective cover, so people can come up on the top deck without getting blown off the ship as it moves at high speeds through fast winds, and so they’re protected from the sun.

I quite like the ship idea, even though it’s a little impractical and sticking two huge engines on a boat wouldn’t make it fly. I tried to get the 2 point perspective right on the ship and I think I was mostly successful, although the patter on the ship isn’t quite right and the back of the ship could be done a little more accuratly.

This week we have to design our own bar and I wanted to look at bars in town before I got going on this project, so I haven’t got much done yet. However, I like the idea of a gaming bar and have used the contrasting colours from characters to make the bar feel bright and airy, and as I work on it more, I will add the tables and chairs and consoles etc, so that it feels like more then just an empty space.

I don’t want it to be one of those bars where no one goes because they enjoy going there, they just go if they’re dragged there. I’m hoping that once it’s finished it will look comfortable and like it’s a pleasure to go there.
Anyway, so that’s what I’ve been working on and thinking about for the last few weeks with the drawing work.

Joey

(P.S. My bar is called Brawl)

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A bit critical of my 3D work

2008-03-04T03:00:00.002Z

It’s been a while since I posted anything course related, so I’d better make up for it now.

So, here comes one UBER BLOG.

We have to be critical of work, both by ourselves and by others, and as such I think I’ll start with my own.

Starting with my one day projects.

Each one of these I feel has gone reasonable well, however there are flaws with all of them.

The animal project was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed doing it, except when it came to texturing the head. As you can probably tell if you ever get to look at the mesh, I had so much ‘fun’ with texturing the head that I actually cheated and need to re texture it because it currently doesn’t have eyes, mouth or nose, however, in an improvement on my self portrait models, it does have a head shaped head unlike one hat had a flat face and the other that I hadn’t gotten round to doing the head at all, as I was busy making the shape right.

The on the vehicle project, I wanted to do a simple model that I could just play around with the textures on and Heather was bored of tanks so I decided to play around with blimps. I ended up doing two variations with plenty more I could do if I wanted to, and it’s rendered onto a sky picture to make them look like they’re flying.

The wheelchair again was pretty easy, and while I’m in the process of re texturing using alphas and things, it was a fun and challenging thing to make, however, I’m unhappy with the squareness of the sides and the lack of correct textures, it’s a little too box like for my liking, but it was still fun to make and I think that I can improve on it by playing around with the polys and things.

The carnivorous plant project was a laugh, creating our own Triffids :D Mine went through about four or five stages, and I thought I was done after every one of them. The first stage was just the stem and the head, with it’s one eye and toothless mouth, then Heather suggested putting the back leaves on and I think they look pretty effective, with the black and green texture. The next stage, of course, was to add the teeth, big, sharp pointy teeth for easily cutting into meat and then finally the little roots, which are alphaed onto plains which are then shaped to fit the huge roots it uses for walking.

Since then I have made a Pegasus, as a Greek Mythical creature, which I’m unhappy with for many reasons, least of all being that it doesn’t look like it should and a item of garden furniture, for which I decided to a bird bath and texture it so it looks marble, and this I’m very happy with because it looks like it should and the textures work like a charm.

I’m reasonably happy with my 2d work too. While I am slowly improving, I feel I will be able to do a lot better then I can currently by the end of next year.

The 2d day long projects we’re doing a fun and they are helpful because they allow us to work on something other then the (insert swear word here) Queen’s Building Project that I’ve done the work I was asked to do for, but is slowly driving me up the wall., and because they get us using skills that we tend to forget when all we’re doing is making 3d models.

Anyway, I just wanted to apologize for the lack of blogging, I just haven’t been able to think of anything to say and here’s a nice big 628 word on to make up for it.

There will be more to come as I do more 2d work on these one day projects and other things.

Joey

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A return to sanity.

2008-02-20T15:04:00.000Z

Fine, after that bout of 30 odd hour lack of sleep insanity, I suppose I’d better post something sane.

But I can’t think of anything.

Hey look a Demonic Duck!

*Has run away*

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Too much hospital and not enough sleep make Joey go crazy.

2008-02-19T10:44:00.001Z

Too much hospital and not enough sleep make Joey go crazy.
Too much hospital and not enough sleep make Joey go crazy.
Too much hospital and not enough sleep make Joey go crazy.
Too much hospital and not enough sleep make Joey go crazy.
Too much hospital and not enough sleep make Joey go crazy.
Too much hospital and not enough sleep make Joey go crazy.
Too much hospital and not enough sleep make Joey go crazy.
Too much hospital and not enough sleep make Joey go crazy.
Too much hospital and not enough sleep make Joey go crazy.
Too much hospital and not enough sleep make Joey go crazy.
Too much hospital and not enough sleep make Joey go crazy.
Too much hospital and not enough sleep make Joey go crazy.
Too much hospital and not enough sleep make Joey go crazy.
Too much hospital and not enough sleep make Joey go crazy.
Too much hospital and not enough sleep make Joey go crazy.
Too much hospital and not enough sleep make Joey go crazy.
Too much hospital and not enough sleep make Joey go crazy.
Too much hospital and not enough sleep make Joey go crazy.
Too much hospital and not enough sleep make Joey go crazy.

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Teeths

2008-02-12T16:11:00.000Z

Does you likes my teeths?

I eat you.

Hi, yes, feeling intelligent this afternoon after my brains fried in the lab while I was working on an all day project. This one for a cariverous plant.
I love these 1 day projects, wmy 3d modelling skills have improved just a little by doing them and doing things we make up is fun and we need fun right now with this damnable Queens Project that seems to have taken over the classroom.

I like but it’s so damn hot that Tuesday afternoons we all feel like we’re baking.
Even when it’s cold outside or we have ALL the windows open.

Anyway, the one above was my plant project, last week we did a veichle and I managed to do two in one day.

And the week before that it was an animal. Do you like my pilot cat?

Don’t have much else to say as I’m still working on things.

Joey

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I've Got a Jar of Dirt!

2008-01-26T23:00:00.000Z

Damn thing!

It’s been stuck in my damn head all day and it doesn’t help that I was stupid enough to download the music which of course landed itself on my Ipod cause I’m bored.

Gah.

I’ve got a jar of dirt!
I’ve got a jar of dirt!
I’ve got a jar of dirt!
And guess what’s inside it!

Joey

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Blue Streak Speeds By… Formerly Musings of a Fire Breathing Girl Gamer

2008-01-24T11:40:00.000Z

Another project, another name for my blog.

And yes, once again, I did make that banner myself.

I think that this time it will stick but then that’s what I thought about Musings of a Fire Breathing Girl Gamer and look how long that lasted and how many banners it went through…

Oh well, I suppose really that I should just be glad that I have time to think about names as I look through my concept work for the group project and think ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

No seriously, I was looking at my concepts and deciding on how they could be improved.

I leave a lot to be desired when it comes to my drawing skills, I know this already, but I’m quite pleased with how my concepts turned out.

There is a reason I’m a grunt and you all know it, so I don’t have to explain it but I like my group, our project is ambitious enough to hold our interest but not so insane we won’t get it done and our leader hasn’t had a falling out with any of our group members.

As regards to ripping apart pictures and saying what is good and what is bad about them in our blogs, I think that’s a good idea, in fact, once I’ve done a pic I’m happy to blog then I will do so.

I might just lay into my Christmas picture.

Na, I’ve done some concepts that I’ve blogged so I’ll lay into them I think.

They’re not great, I’ll be the first to admit that, ideas painted over a photo taken of the area we want to work on, but I suppose, if you want angles and things to be correct, (unless you’re Joel Pigou), you kind of need to do that.

Or at least I do...

Anyway, so I did these concepts for my group and now I look at the properly, I’m not sure I like them, and am contemplating doing more over the weekend because I really think that they can be imporved on by seeing what I can make more like the style we’re going for.

Gah, what a long blog and I’m not done yet...

In other matters, I no longer have a your computer does not have enough memory, *shuts down* problem as I bought myself a hard drive, a 500gb hard drive, yes, it is in fact 7.142857142857142857142857142857142857 (etc) bigger then my laptop’s memory so once everything is transfered over I won’t have to have my laptop throwing headfits quite as often.

On another note, I love LANMA more then ever after this week, but since Mike doesn’t want to know about anime suffice to say that I won one argument I didn’t think I was going to win AND I made the laptop crew look daft as they were all stood outside for twenty minutes and hadn’t checked the back door, which guess what?

Was unlocked.

Stupid people.

Hehe.

Anyway, I’m rounding up this blog with a grin and a realisation that I have to write a 3000 chpater by tomorrow and I haven’t even started yet.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Byes,

Joey.

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Hard wired for creativity?

2008-01-24T11:38:00.000Z

63%

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A music vid

2008-01-22T01:45:00.001Z

A Fan made music vid with my favorite blue hedgehog.

I guess I'm feeling kinda tired and a bit annoyed at my inability to sleep, so I thought I'd find the music trailer I liked and would share it, so here it is.

Now I'm gunna go to sleep.

G'night.

Joey

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Meow

2008-01-22T01:27:00.001Z

First week of the group project and I think we're doing alright.

We seem to be organized and our idea seems sound and doable but I won't jinx it by saying that it's perfect right now cause we still have things to think about.

But the concepts look good so far.

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Celebrity Hijack

2008-01-10T11:54:00.001Z

Hi I logged myself in to Blogger and then left my computer unattended like a clown.

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Welcome to 2008

2008-01-07T03:27:00.000Z

Hehe, something I did quickly over Christmas while my laptop was playing at being a bit of a git and turning itself off.

Anyway, I'm back and as ready as I can be for assessment.

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We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2007-12-18T12:31:00.000Z

Merry Christmas!

Here are the promised photos of our decorations. I don't feel they do the decorations justice but...

Anyway, a couple of stories might go up and I have drawing and 3D tutorials to do, so this is likely to be my last blog other then a few things like speed drawings and things, so Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
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Meow!!!!! A meowing Christmas present!

2007-12-15T23:18:00.000Z

Meet Mischief, my mum's new kitten, isn't she sweet, awwwwww!

She was a Christmas Present to Mum because we lost a cat a couple of weeks ago.

She certainly lives up to her name and you can't leave anything lying aound because if it's food she'll eat it and if it's not it'll get bashed around the house. As you can see from the photo, if it hangs she wants to play with it, if it moves she wants to pounce on it.

Home for Christmas and the decorations are up, you can't see them well in this light but tomorrow I'll take photos and post them to show you how my house looks during the day. I'll get a good outside photo too.

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This creativity blog has left me in despair! - End of Term Creativity Blog!

2007-12-13T12:37:00.000Z

So, last official blog of 2007 and what am I supposed to say?

In this one, I’ve got to round up everything I’ve said and found out about creativity… oh dear… this could be a long one folks, everyone got their sunglasses on for when I bore you to death by droning?

I think I’ll start by commenting on Ben Mathis’s lecture on creativity, or rather a rather blunt and honest take on Ben’s view of the Gaming Industry.

1. He has a rather jaded view but gave an honest account into how art is done in the industry, that concept arts and 3D artists are normally not one and the same unless you’re in a very small group, and that, in his opinion, most Art Directors consider themselves Emperor of Art and like sticking their noses in where it isn’t needed.

He didn’t have that much planned to say because he was supposed to be talking about creativity in the industry and apparently only concept artists get to demonstrate that feature of themselves and the 3D Artists tend to get their creativity out on personal projects…

Like the one we’re working on now, a week project to create a character for a competition and we have to make it in 5000 polys for the model and infinite polys for assets (eg weapons, armour…).

I have plans, I have Photoshop paintings, what I lack is the speed or skill to keep up at that pace, something I plan on fixing over Christmas if I can help it. By the end of Christmas, I am hoping to have finished Sam and have both a Mudbox high poly model and a 3DSMax low poly model that’s textured and looks good.

OK, so, next part of the blog, game review.

2. If you know me, you’ll know just how excited I was about Pokemon Battle Revolution coming out.

It is brilliant, but they haven’t fixed the AI, as it gets to a certain point of the night and the AI decides that it’s had enough losing and sticks Pokemon in your path that you’ve never seen it use before, even if you’ve done this match before and pretty much rips you into tiny little shreds.

I like a challenge, especially in battle, but it gets a bit ridiculous at some points and I feel sorry for Emma and Ray who had to put up with me on Wednesday night as I cursed at it for cheating yet again.

The game itself runs smoothly and gets more and more challenging as it goes on, but there is the cheating factor again and people online do not like losing if they use Ubers or Legendaries. It seems to be polite to share your friend pass with Trainers that you have a good battle with but those with Ubers that I’ve beaten don’t seem to like losing as they don’t do so.

Anyway, in summery, I quote Nintendo Official Magazine from a few years ago – “Nintendo maintain that their games never cheat, we however are not so sure.”

4. Creativity summery.

Wait, what happened to three?

Never mind, I have to get this finished.

Creativity is a wide subject that stretches right across the board, from painting and drawing, to writing and maths. It is not something that can be defined easily and as such it has been something I’ve researched heavily (or attempted to), and have formed opinions about over the course of the last few months. Most of the research has in fact been a major part of my Countdown to Battle blogs that have been going on since the end of November as I counted down until Pokemon Battle Revolution came out.

We were started on creativity by watching a ten minute lecture given by Sir Ken Robertson, discussing if creativity is educated out of people by the school system.

He said yes, and I agreed, having gone through the education system myself and wanting to give it a boot to the head… preferably an ice skating boot… with the blade guard off… anyway, once again I am getting off track.

This led me to think about me and my friends and the various ways that they are creative, I have my Fanfiction, another has their music, another is creative with numbers, none of us use creativity the same way as even when we’re using it for the same things the end product is very different… see Joey Taylor, Robin Moto and Ray Venn Hakubi.

Creativity, I decided, was also drowned in people who were stuck in a dead end, unfulfilling job, as they cannot think properly after an overly busy day and as they’re doing the same thing day in, day out, the creative juices had no spark to get them flowing.

Through my research, I discovered that schools and the education system, seems to view creativity as something that has to be focused into classes and homework and is useless if it’s not increasing the child in question’s grade. There are websites on creativity, on how to make creative things and there’s even a site that gives names and contact details of ‘Creativity Coaches.’

Yes, you read that right.

Creativity Coaches.

Coaches to make people creative.

I have no idea how that works, and in fact I’m not sure I want one considering I’ve always considered coaches to be quite scary people, with the shouting and the screaming and the… unless they mean an actual coach… Ra damn it not again.

Then I found it, the point to highlight just how bad the education system is for creative people. A website, for teachers on how to ‘deal’ with Creativity and creative students, describing creativity as a good thing if it relates to the lesson and a bad thing if it doesn’t and offering advice on how to restrict creativity to lessons only.

This is a very, very bad thing and underscores just how bad the education system has gotten.

Comparing education websites with other websites, like craft ones and such, creativity is considered both the work of the devil and glory from on high.

I suppose that in conclusion, creativity is a great thing, terrible, but great (sorry couldn’t resist, blame Olivander), in the education system being a creative person is something that you will have to fight to hold onto, as teachers will try to fight with you every step of the way to keep your creativity locked in their subject, which isn’t how it works at all and they need a… you know… while outside the system, creativity is a bonus as there are so many things that a creative person can do to keep their creativity going, dancing, singing, drawing, painting, writing, making schools explode, no wait I didn’t say that, joke I swear.

Welcome in universities, Girl Guide Groups and most of life, it’s unwelcome in the education system and dead end jobs.

And that, I think, is that.

A difficult choice of topic, a strange one to summarise, but an interesting one.

Anyway, Merry Christmas to all, and to all… A BOOT TO THE HEAD!

*Runs away*

Joey

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Countdown to Battle - 1 Day to Go!

2007-12-05T16:19:00.000Z

A slightly different Boot to the Head...

OK, I think that tonight I am going to be very boring and just write about what I have read on Wikipedia about creativity.

This would be because of a combination of ow my leg hurts and gah I can't think of anything to say and I want to save any interesting stuff I think of for tomorrow's blog.

So...

Creativity (or "creativeness") is a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations between existing ideas or concepts.

From a scientific point of view, the products of creative thought (sometimes referred to as divergent thought) are usually considered to have both originality and appropriateness. An alternative, more everyday conception of creativity is that it is simply the act of making something new. - Wikipedia

(I found a problem with writing about Wikipedia already...use English Ra damn you! Not everyone can understand technobable!)

I know, I know, I know!

I'll write about what it says about social attitudes to creativity!

Although the benefits of creativity to society as a whole have been noted,[52] social attitudes about this topic remain divided. The wealth of literature regarding the development of creativity[53] and the profusion of creativity techniques indicate wide acceptance, at least among academics, that creativity is desirable.

There is, however, a dark side to creativity, in that it represents a "quest for a radical autonomy apart from the constraints of social responsibility".[54] In other words, by encouraging creativity we are encouraging a departure from society's existing norms and values. Expectation of conformity runs contrary to the spirit of creativity. Nevertheless, employers are increasingly valuing creative skills. A report by the Business Council of Australia, for example, has called for a higher level of creativity in graduates.[55] The ability to "think outside the box" is highly sought after. However, the above-mentioned paradox may well imply that firms pay lipservice to thinking outside the box while maintaining traditional, hierarchical organization structures in which individual creativity is not rewarded.
- WIKIPEDIA

IN ENGLISH - Society says that creativity is a good thing to a creative persons face then laughs about it behind their backs. Firms are supposed to encourage creativity but don't so they don't have staff members thinking creativity about what they're supposed to be doing and wondering why the hell they're either stuck in a job like this or find a way of doing things that messes with the status quo.

Creativity is desirable in Universities most of the time but they're wrong in saying it's well come in all academics because most schools are only interested in grades....

I'm beginning to get the feeling that creativity is found in people who like causing trouble and being different because that seems to be how every site I've come across terms it as 'breaking the mold' and 'free from constraints of society'...

Well, I only have one more blog to put up before Battle Revolution comes out, and that will be on the conference I've got to go to tomorrow morning...

I'll see you all either tomorrow or next week,

Joey

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Countdown to Battle - 2 Days to Go

2007-12-04T01:13:00.000Z

Wow, where are the days going?

Friday soon and then... :D

Ok, yes, it's another Pheonix Wright Movie, but this one links back to one I put on here as few weeks ago...

Ok, insanity over as I try not to bounce all over the place, let the work commence...

I thought I'd try a change of pace today and go over the creative toys on the Mulberry Bush website.

All of the toys listed on this page are good for promoting creativity in children as they are all craft and design related toys, for example the badge art or the bead boxes, even the remote control cars are build it yourself kits, which I think is really clever as it gets children to think as they're making things and gets them to do hands on things that stimulates the brain.

Hmmm, I wonder where and when they deliver...

No, no distractions...

Anyway, it has toys for both girls and boys and have stuff that appeals to both and it's almost all things that (in the girly things at least) I'd consider doing with the Rainbows if the parts are safe for them to handle, or think the girls could handle with their parents.

And that's a good thing, because it means getting the girls to think creatively while they're still 5-7 and expanding their view of the world.

(This is one of the reasons I love Rainbows, they're such fun to make things with, although I swear when we do anything chocolaty or sweet covered they end up with more in their mouths...)

Anyway, just a little one today...

And a battle vid, I personally feel that using that many ubers or legendary Pokemon on a team is a cheap tactic, but he or she was only playing the CPU so it doesn't matter...

Anyway, g'night and see you in the morning,

Joey

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Countdown to Battle - 3 Days to Go

2007-12-03T21:46:00.000Z

Have a video to get us started today...

Right, now that's out of the way (Thank Emma's fiance for that vid), lets get down to business.

Creativity: Method or Magic is my next victim.

This site is basically an essay on Creativity.

Hense I won't go into too much detail because it's written in goobledegook (Essay technobable).
It tries to sum up creativity by saying, what isn't creative, whether it's a trait or a state and by trying to explain how it works.

For example it talks about problem solving and that creativity isn't achievable if 'anything goes' as the creative mind doesn't have to come up with that hard a solution.

Creativity is also said to be shown in improvisation and performance, as creativity has to occur for it to flow and for a performance to work well, you can't just copy a script if you're doing a play, or learn the words if you're singing, you have to be able to show emotions, think on your feet if something goes wrong...

Have you ever seen the last few days of a pantomime?

If you haven't you have missed some of the most creative stuff...

Because Bristol is often the last stop on a panto's tour, by the last few days the actors are tired and sometimes fed up, and you can see it when they mess up their script and then try to cover it by continuing as if nothing has happened, it's brilliant, especially if it's the last day because they will often come out with something completely unrelated and they have to creatively get back to the script.

*Shakes head* Distracted again but so I can see where how it could say performance is creative...

But if I'm brutally honest, I'm no good with essays so I made a mistake choosing this website and I'm now going to run away, far away!

Joey

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Countdown to Battle - 5 Days to Go

2007-12-01T23:08:00.000Z

I will apologize now for skipping day 6, but I was in bed all day ill, so I have a reason.

National Curriculum in Action is my victim tonight.

It's a website for teachers on how to spot creativity and promote it in pupils.

According to them

"A good starting point for defining creativity is 'All our futures: Creativity, culture and education', the National Advisory Committee's report (DfEE, 1999). This report states that we are all, or can be, creative to a lesser or greater degree if we are given the opportunity. The definition of creativity in the report (page 29) is broken down into four characteristics:

First, they [the characteristics of creativity] always involve thinking or behaving imaginatively. Second, overall this imaginative activity is purposeful: that is, it is directed to achieving an objective. Third, these processes must generate something original. Fourth, the outcome must be of value in relation to the objective."

Is this all true?

The first is, as creativity cannot thrive without imagination, the second is mostly true, as sometimes creativity has no real purpose at the time, it can sometimes just be spontaneous, the third again is mostly true, as creativity has to have an inspiration somewhere and the fourth confuses me, because I thought that creativity didn't necessarily have a preordained objective, but then perhaps it's just me reading it wrong after my last day at work.

It seems to me, unless I am reading this website wrong, that they only want pupils to be creative if it relates to their work.

They don't seem to understand that creativity is good in all forms (unless it's creative bullying obviously) and to me, when they describe how to spot creativity, they seem to use a lot of the words my old school would use for describing trouble pupils they couldn't understand or often asked not to put their hand up.

But then should I really be surprised, as this is a 'National Curriculum' website and the National Curriculum is only really interested in getting you through your exams.

(I would like to point out at this point that most of the Teachers Guide for dealing with Creative Students, sorry promoting creativity, seems to restrict their actual creativity by dragging t kicking and screaming into an evaluated atmosphere again and again.)

I suppose I'm not giving this website a fair chance, considering I've been in work for nine hours and am always a little short tempered afterwards but...

I think back to the lecture on does Education restrict creativity and I think it does, more so after reading this website.

Then again, I might just be biased against the Education System up to this point so...

Anyway, sorry for missing 6 Days to Go and there will be a new one tomorrow,

Joey

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Countdown to Battle - 8 Days to Go and 7 Days to Go

2007-11-28T02:41:00.000Z

http://www.creativity-portal.com/

OK, time to give this website a second shot.

Creativity Portal is a good place to start looking for stuff on creativity or creative things.

This extends from comics to creativity coaching.

Creativity Coaching is an attempt to get people to think more creatively and to help people to boost their creativity. Some advice from one of the many Creativity Coaches is things such as scheduling some time just for something that will boost your creativity, in other words a chance to relax or buying yourself something you like that could nurture creativity, buying a single flower and putting it in a glass, get into PJs early and relax in bed, design your own mugs and things by glueing beads and things on and so on and so forth.

There are hands on projects for Christmas, Halloween, Easter ect on another section on the site which could be fun to do with the Rainbows... I will explain that later. An example is http://kids.creativity-portal.com/free/winter.printables.shtml which has winter gift tags.

Rainbows are the precursor to Brownies and Guides, and is for 5-7 year old girls, and run by the Guide Assoisation. Well tecnically, my local pack is run by my Mum and is the pack I went to when I was little. Our pack is about 12-15 girls big and has a waiting list of girls who have yet to reach 5. (For full details see http://www.girlguiding.org.uk/whoweare/Default.asp)

We are in an eviable position in the area.

However having this many girls for so long, you have to try to come up with different things every week to do with them, you can't just fob them off with the same arts and crafts again and again and again, so sites like this are very helpful at Christmas when we need a new craft for the last but one week, with the last week always being the Christmas Party (I'm going to miss it this year! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo!)

Helping Mum run the pack is great, although most of the girls who were there before I came up here have left now :(

It's strange to go back for a weekend or the holidays only to find there are new Rainbows and I don't recognise half of them.

As a Young Leader (I'm old enough to be trained as a full Leader but don't have the time), I have to work with the Rainbows and help them in everything we do, make sure they don't get hurt and as the Leader's Daughter I have to help Mum come up with things to make with them.

It's not an easy job from week to week, we get shitty parents, girls who just WILL NOT behave at all, ever, and some weeks the other leaders can't come and the mums won't help and by the end of it we sometimes wonder why we've done it for so long.

My Mum has been Pack Leader since I was there, that's how much she loves it really.

I was offered a place in a pack up here, but since I struggle for time as it is, I turned it down.

Anyway, I've completely lost track of what the hell I was tlaking about so I'll stop here and say weeeeeeeeeee only 7 days to go.

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Countdown to Battle - 9 Days to go

2007-11-27T16:38:00.000Z

BTW the countdown if for this---

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Countdown to Battle - 9 Days to Go.

2007-11-27T14:02:00.000Z

Nine days to go and today I will do something useful...

Today I will blog about this website... http://www.creativity-portal.com/

Creativity Portal is a website that talks about creativity in more then just one form and gives teachers ideas to use in thier classrooms.

Ummm, ran out of time to blog because I was procrastinating so have another vid...

Another Omake from Amecon last year and I will blog properly tomorrow. I will.

Duellist Honour.

Joey

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Countdown to Battle - 13, 12, 11, 10 oops.

2007-11-26T16:53:00.000Z

Wow, it took me all of a day to forget to blog.

To be fair I've been so busy of over the last few days that I just havenm't had time to blog.

However...

Since I'm waiting for a friend, I'm going to sit here and rant about stupid Ra damned estate agents who don't give people a chance to find someone else to live with them next year and decide that they want to show people round without actually warning you because they are complete and utter B******DS!

F******G idiots, I need that B****Y house for next year and I'm going to find someone to share with me and I've tried everyone in second year now and have started asking the first years and I might be in luck but if I'm not fast then I'm not going to have anywhere to stay next year and then I'm going to kill someone.

Namely the bloody idiot who decided that now would be a good time to start looking for people for the houses when most people don't start looking until after Christmas.

They are F*****G Idiots and I hate them all.

GRRR!

DEATH TO ALL ESTATE AGENTS IN LEICESTER WHO WORK WITH UNI'S BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL BLOODY MORONS WHO NEED TO DIE!

Ok, I feel better now.

GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Joey

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Countdown to Battle - 14 Days To Go

2007-11-22T11:59:00.000Z

This is the start of my one blog a day countdown until Pokemon Battle Revolution comes out.

For anyone who has followed my blog, you all know how much I want this game and how much I've been blogging about it, it's even gone in my blog's signature.

So... 14 days to go.

Before I get too serious have a vid,

KINGDOM HEARTS DOES DBZ - HotPinkMidNite

Ok, back to getting on with it.

Creativity...

Creativity is a rather broad subject and I find that everytime I start on research I get so far before I find something interesting and go off on completely the wrong angle.

Is this a creative way of researching or am I just procrastinating? Even I don't know.

Creativity covered a lot of things, music, art, writting, games, modelling, photography and it's even in there with numbers and science wouldn't get anywhere if people didn't try new things.

Where would we be without the wheel?

The fact of the matter is that it comes from the root creatus, which in latin means to have grown, and I really do think that creativity has been expanded to the point where it is hard to pin down.

I have a fun thing to do, go to this site, http://uk.search.yahoo.com/search?p=creativity&fr=yfp-t-501&ei=UTF-8&rd=r1, and have a look at some of the things here.

It is a fudgeing long list, with all sorts, from the wikipedia page on Creativity, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativityto a shop in Sheringham called Creativity. http://www.creativity-sheringham.co.uk/.

This one looked good, http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content2/Creativity_in_kids.html, so I think, since I'm planning a countdown, I'll choose to talk about this one today.

The term "gifted" is often used to imply high intelligence. I would say that I have to agree, thinking back to the gifted and talented program back in my Senior School, which started in my year nine or ten, where those of us with a chance of doing something with thier lives (Sorry. Not...) were taken out of school and shown around universities, mostly the local ones that us going to had benifits for our school, but it was still interesting to see what a University Campus was like and talk to some of the students to see what Uni life is like.

If I remember rightly, the 'Gifted' students were those with high grades in Maths, English, Science, French and all the acedmic subjects, while the 'Talented' ones were the ones who were skilled in the non-acedemic subjects like Music, Art and Drama.

The first time we had a meeting we were given little stickers that were either yellow, red or both. Red for Gifted, Yellow for Talented or both for, well, both.

Being a red sticker girl myself, I found a distrubing amount of red stickers had no real head for anything remotly creative, prefering either to stick thier noses in books, or go out and play football (I suppose football is creative but most of the time they put that creativity into creative ways to dive, which was incredibly annoying), and as such I spent a great deal of my time on trips with yellow sticker people, just because most of my friends were in that group and they had more interesting things to talk about...

Oh Ra, I'm getting distracted again.

Anyway so, I agree with the website on this point.

It's not a long report and I happen to agree with most of what they are saying, including the 'right answer fixation' thing. From a young age you can't be creative with answers because the teachers expect the right answer every time and get angry if you get it wrong.

This is all because of the rediculously early age that tests start, meaning that for a school to do well , they have to be turning out right answer monkeys without a thought of creativite answering in thier head.

This is reinforced by the amount of testing that children of forced into, has everyone heard of the SATs they give at the end of Infant School? I jest you not. That is how bad the school system has gotten.

Ranting. calm... calm... get one with work...

Anyway, I like their list of things that adult can do at home to increase creativity, since creativity is all but squished out of children at school.

Infants is bad, Junior School is worse because they have SATs at the end of year six and most of thier art lessons (or at least in the school I came from) are overly structured and not really creative. Senior School/High School is probably the worst though seeing as they teach you creative subjects, but unless you have a good teacher (Thank you Mr Hulbert), you want to tear your hair out by the end of year eleven.

So a list like this is helpful,

How Can Adults Encourage Creativity?

Provide an environment that allows the child to explore and play without undue restraints.

Adapt to children's ideas rather than trying to structure the child's ideas to fit the adult's.

Accept unusual ideas from children by suspending judgement of children's divergent problem-solving.

Use creative problem-solving in all parts of the curriculum. Use the problems that naturally occur in everyday life.

Allow time for the child to explore all possibilities, moving from popular to more original ideas.

Emphasize process rather than product.

Am I the only one who sees that these could be used in the education system to great effect?

Anyway, for now, this will do.

An epic blog to kick off my Countdown to Battle.

Joey

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PS - I HAVE A PLACE AT AMECON 2008 AND AM NOW LOOKING AT COSPLAY :)

I'm sorry, the lights are home but there's nobody on

2007-11-12T15:56:00.000Z

Yes, I did in fact say that to a customer on Sunday, while trying to wake up enough to work.

Note to everyone, I will be leaving work offically on the 1st of December.

This will give me enough time to do some Ra Damned work.

I will write a serious blog when I get home.

But for now, I have nothing to say because all my mind wants to do is curl up in a ball and sleep.

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Muahahaha Anime.

2007-11-08T15:15:00.000Z

Yes I know.

We're not supposed to talk about anime and manga, however I have to say this one tiny little thing....

AMECON REGISTRATION OPENS SOON!

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry.

But I'm excited.

And slightly terrified since that means I can no longer procrastinate about getting the cosplay sorted for next year...

So while I run around like a headless chicken, here's the short movie created for last year's Amecon which was done by MakenaiTeam.

Yes, I am aware it's random and yes I do think it's funny.

ULTIMATE GLOMP!

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It arrived!!!!

2007-11-08T13:50:00.000Z

It have arrived and it is mine. Muahahahahahaha!

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BTW - Ebay is evil

2007-11-04T01:04:00.000Z

And to be avoided at all costs.

However, I managed to get some bargans.

Like this silver and gold plated necklace, which normaly retails at £100-£70 pound for £40

And I have a new Magician for my deck...

Anyway, that's enough for tonight...

Joey

BTW - I still want

2007-11-04T01:03:00.001Z

7/12/07 hurry up.

I have to pray that with giving up work, I can afford this.

How many Otaku does it take to open a door?

2007-11-03T23:38:00.000Z

A little joke at my own expense, after the events of last Tuesday, when it took a rather large group of us to get the door open to get Emma out of the building because the Security Guard had locked the disabled doors... grrrr.

We finally got to watch the next episode of Genshiken too :D

Anyway, sat at home, watching Cold Case and doing uni work after having the tradtional family firework dispaly and then going to watch Stardust, and I thought I'd mention on here that the next time I go into work, I'm handing in my notice.

This is to allow me to do all my uni work without getting to the point I'm at at the moment which is that my brain would explode, but it doesn't have enough energy and it's only gong to LANMA that stops me from going from Nutcase -> Psycopath.

Anyway, enough of that, creativity.

Is creativity inbuilt or is it something that can be taught?

I've been doing a bit of research on the subject and creativity can be found in anything. Drawing, writting, sports tactics, game playing and many other things.

Understanding this, I kinda guess that almost everyone is creative in thier own way. For example skateboarder's tricks are creative, trying something new with things and in areas that have been around for ages, trying things that others wouldn't. A Duellist is creative in duels because you always have to be thinking on your feet in a match or you'd be beaten easily. Authors are creative becausethey're writting something new and inspired (most of the time) and an Artist is creative because they'e using paints and pens and crayons and anything else that they an lay thier hands on to create something that is slightly different everytime even when they're copying the works of for instance, Van Gogh.

Creativity is often drowned out of people who work 9-5 day in, day out, in officeswhere they're doing the same thing all the time. That's another reason I'm glad I'll be quitting work soon. I don'have time to unwind, so I can't get the creative juices flowing. I think I made life hard for the poor life model on Tuesday, because to help me unwind and just enjoy drawing, I had my music on and was miming the words, while bouncing around a little bit. I just enjoy music, especally from games...

Gah....

Never mind, I just have to take photos of my sketch book and then I can uploadpics for my referances and things to the Wiki...

See u in the week,

Joey

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Sonic Joins The Brawl!!!!

2007-10-29T19:46:00.001Z

The video I was trying to post a couple of wees ago.

:D

Weeeeeeeee!!!!

Not that I'm excited at all...

Phoenix Wright - Boot to the Head

2007-10-29T19:36:00.001Z

To the people of Second Year Game Art, I bequeth... A boot to the head!

I'm the only one sane on the wreak - Week 2

2007-10-18T02:58:00.000Z

Sorry, rip off from pantomime I went to see a couple of years ago, the line was I'm the only one saved from the wreak (or if you were the Dame, I'm the only wreak saved from the ship). Chosen as my title because I was the only sober one last night at the post-LANMA gathering at the pub.

The idea for the logo comes from something the guest lecturer was talking about, you remember? The suits of Gamers? Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds and Spades?

Hearts were social players, Clubs were PKers, Teamkillers and dipshits, Diamonds are the ones who play the game to win, whle the Spades are the game exploeres and sometimes (not nessesserily always), the ones who have to find ways of cheating and/or pushing the game to a new level to see what the can exploite.

Guess which two suits I belong to.

Also do you remember the phrase Aporia and Epiphany?

I love the face that Aporia means impass, and aporas, (which I made up and is my blog name) is Anne's page of running andd screaming....

Anyway, the task...

"Creativity (or creativeness) is a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations between existing ideas or concepts." - Wikipedia

Last week Mike showed us a lecture/speech/etc from Sir Ken Robertson on does creativity get educated out of us.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/66

Suprisingly for a guy who works in education, his answer was in fact yes.

And I have to agree.

When we're in school, all teachers think about is the 'academic' classes, like Maths and English and the Sciences, Humanities, Languages and any other classes are volentary after SATS and you don't always get a choice which ones of those you want to do.

I remember being forced into taking French because I was in top set in the lower years and I really wanted to take Spanish.

And I remember my teachers being unimpressed by my choice to take ND Art and Design at college, they all thought I'd go into something like the sciences or geography.

But I chose Geography because for a long time I wanted to do Game Art as a career, but have a fall back on archeology (Preferably Egyptology). Something that fell apart later on down the line.
The only time in my school that art and music and drama was appricicated were the exhibitions, the school musicals, the Music Festival (Picked four out of five years and only not the fifth because I promised to do it with some others and wouldn't drop them to do it alone) but any other time, for you to go and skip an acedemic class to go to practise or rehearsls and well... can anyone else say shitty teacher alert?

The whole thing is, there are many forms of creativity.

I personally, am a big fan of singing and drawing. I can't dance to save my life but I love to sing, it doesn't matter where or when I am, I will sing along to anything. It's something that helps me think andrelax and just generally get things done better.

Others love to dance and can't stay still for more then two seconds, and instead of bing recognised as people who have to move to think, they're penalised and or sent to the doctor to be prescribed drugs...

Gah.

Another thing is that creativity can be found in anything, I have friends who like the patterns in numbers, the written word is another one where creativity can flow.

I'm going back to music because it's a referance I know Mike and a couple of others have heard, but I've got a friend in America who is studying music in an American 'College'. Up until this point, she was always glared and shuted at for writting her own stuff, and she hated it, now she's able to play how and when she wants to, and she can't get enough. That's a classic example if ever I saw on, of creativity being drained from people.

I sometimes wonder if teachers in schools are jelous of students who are talented in a non acedemic field, because for those who aren't, a lot of work has to be done to keep up with the naturally talented students.

BTW I am now offical Podcaster for Game Art Guest Lectures. (Once I work out how to do it...) So I've spent most of the night converting the sound files from my recorder to MP3s, while reading and thinking about creativity. Gah.

Anyway, I'm sleepy and I don't have admin powers for the Podcast on the Blackboard so I'm going to have to work out where to put the files so I can podcast them.

But not until the morning when I've had some sleep.

Night guys.

Joey

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SONIC'S IN SMASH BROS! SONIC'S IN SMASH BROS!

2007-10-11T11:16:00.000Z

YES! YES! YES!

This is what I was praying for, a chance to finally beat the bloody plumber with the hedgehog!

I am on cloud nine!

This is what I've been hoping for since I heard news of a new Smash Bros game since they include characters who have had more then one game for Nintendo systems and Sonic's been on the Gamecube and the Nintendo Wii.

Yes! Yes! YES!

Sorry, I'm just so excited that I can't help it.

Sonic's in Smash Bros.

I can't wait.

Now I know why Nintendo are taking so long to release it.

They're adding more charactors in.

And Sonic's one of them.

To see - go here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5HPMsEOkTs

or here http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/characters/sonic.html#2nd

Joey

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All Alex's Interwebs Are Belong To Me

2007-10-09T23:40:00.000Z

All Alex's Interwebs are belong to me!

Sorry.

I'm sat in my housemates room, writting this blog while under the influance of cider. I underestimated the potancy of the Old Rosie Cider that they served at the bar I went to after LANMA.

Leicester Anime and Manga Club is held in Leicester University in the theatres of one of the buildings.

We watched two animes, (subbed not dubbed) then had a half an hour break and then watch two that were voted for by the group. (Gunsling Cats, Ruin Explorers and then a break and then Rental Magica and Genshiken).

In the half an hour break, me and others watched as the guy in charge of the laptop made an idiot of himself attempting to play a ROM of a Neon Genisis Evangelion game from the N64.

I would like to point out that he sucked at it.

Also beware the lights that come on between episodes of animes. Because if you are caught unawares, you become one of the enmass group that goes "AHHH MY EYES!" as the room's lights come back on.

After the anime, we went to the pub and I underestimated the strength of the cider.

And now I'm here, writing this while pissed.

So I'll leave you here and think about going to bed.

Joey

PS Everything in the world needs more Catgirls.
PPS Everything in the world needs ALOT MORE catgirls.

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Ouch.

2007-10-08T19:32:00.000Z

Why is this year so expensive?

Last week I broke my Nintendo DS and had to replace it (Yes, I did have to, I am lost without a DS), so I now have Pink DS Lite (Like people who know me didn't see that coming), and this week I've just forked out £315 pounds for a graphics tablet.

It's a Wacom Intuos3 A4 Tablet with Pen and Mouse and hopefully once I get used to it, I will be able to use it to do some proper computer art as opposed to trying to create pictures with a trackerball mouse which is what I'm using at the moment.

Grrrrr.

I want to win the lottery on Weds, and then money won't matter.

Joey.

P.S. Before everything went wrong, I didn't win the Clow Cards I was winning in the auction, but I found a set that was in fact cheaper, and new that I brought instead.

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I still want! I still want! I still want! I still want!

2007-10-05T13:18:00.000Z

I still want!

But now I actually have it preordered for 7/12/07.

I will get this Ra damned game!

Some people ask why I want it so much and part of it is because I am a great big Pokenerd.

The other part is that I am interested to see how they have modified the old poly models to suit the new consoles. Somehow I don't see the old N64 or Gamecube models fitting well into the Wii and it's possible level of realism.

Plus, having the new Pokemon to stare and drool at, I can't wait to see if they make the mistake they did with the Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Pokemon which was to over simplfy the models, making them look overly cartoonish compaired to Red/Blue/Yellow and Gold/Silver/Crystal.

Ok, about 70-80% of my rather powerful desire to own this game is that I'm a great big Pokenerd and want to see what they've done with the battles and how the internet battles will work.

Also I can't wait to start winning battles so that I can customise the basic Traier you get, clothes, hair, name :)

Set in "Poketopia," this game promises to return to the days of Stadium 1 and 2, which while some games mags think is a bad idea, I welcome it, as while I enjoyed Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness, both for the Gamecube) the story modes would have been better had they not attempted to put a lame battle mode in on the same disc. I would welcome a new 3D Pokemon Adventure, but not if it ws at the expense of the gameplay of one or both modes.

Pokemon isn't a Children's game, at least not always. If you look at the stratagy, planning and thinking that needs to go into a Pokemon battle. A good Trainer will NEVER go into battle with only one type of Pokemon. It's stupid to say the least as even the strongest of the types have at least one weakness.

Plus, a dual type pokemon like say Charizard (Fire/Flying) or Dialga (Steel/Dragon) will have more advantages and disadvantages then a single type pokemon, e.g. Charmander (Fire) or Pikachu (Thunder), as such, while a team with a lot of Dual Types will hav an advantage over one without a lot, if you're not caeful it is possible to load your team with a disadvantage to a particular type. For example, if you have many Ground/Rock/Dragon/Grass types, your team will hve a disdvnatage to Ice and etc.

Plus, on top of the types, you have to think about your pokemon's stats. If a Pokemon has a higher attack, the Speical Attack, then you'd give it mores that were Physical Attack moves like Dragon Claw instead of Speical Attack moves like say, Ice Beam.

Added on that again, you have the moves that effect your pokemon's status, eg sleep, paralisis, poison etc.

And your pokemon's gender is also important is your pokemon's ability is Rivalry or the opponante knows Attract...

The stratagy behind the game, is the main reason I am still addicted to the game over ten years later, a long way from the days of Red/Blue/Yellow and the Indigo League.

Anyway, I guess I've gone off on one long enough.

I just thought I'd clarify why I'm so Pokemad.

Joey

-----------------------------

This message was brought to you by the Eggman Empire, which is not responcible for it's contents, except this part... *BOOM!*

Cardcaptors, Gigadeath, Virtual Gods and Leeroy Jenkins.

2007-10-02T20:46:00.000Z

(Clow Card pictures from http://www.robertsetiadi.or.id/anm/ccsakura/ccsakura_deck1.htm)

It's been a long time since I first watched Cardcaptors, and now, as I sat there on the weekend, considering cosplays and lookng through Ebay, I found a set of Clow Cards, plus book, for 99p.

What a steal...

So I signed up to Ebay and bid on them, deciding, because the auction still had four or five days to run, that I would set my maximum bid at the highest price I was willing to pay for a Cosplay accessory that wasn't brand new.

Now, with only one day let to run, I am winning at £11 pounds.

Is anyone suprised that out of the fifty-two, my favourates are The Fight and The Dark?

Ok on to talking about something course lelated as opposed to the stuff I've been writting about over the Summer. (Amecon was amazing but I have to talk about something else sometime)

The first week back and on Monday I honestly thought I was in trouble.

With the threat of twelve hours self directed study for Drawing looming, teamed with 3D classes, guest lectures and out of class time to work on oher such projects, I was seriously wondering if I would have to give up work.

However, I was stil able to enjoy most of Monday, even if I was a bit of a wreak at the end of the day, having been trying to contemptlate how I was going to survive, paying the bills, buying food, plus attempting to curb my impulse buys (I bought a Wii and a 360 in the space of a month, you all know how bad I am).

This is where the Gigadeath part of my title comes in. I understand that there could be a war over technology, in fact it wouldn't suprise me, but Hugo de Garis, the expert who used the term Gigadeath had us all in giggles.

The implications of the word itself is not funny, and people who are afriad of the implications of Technology can be extremly dangerous, as demonstrated by Theodore Kaczynski aka the Unabomber.

"Theodore John Kaczynski (born May 22, 1942), also known as the Unabomber, is an American terrorist and social critic who carried out a campaign of mail bombings that killed three and wounded 23. He sent bombs to several universities and airlines from the late 1970s through early 1990s.

In his Industrial Society and Its Future (commonly called the "Unabomber Manifesto") he argued that his actions were a necessary (although extreme) tactic by which to attract attention to what he believed were the dangers of modern technology. The Unabomber was the target of one of the most expensive investigations in the FBI's history.

For his actions, Kaczynski was charged with numerous federal offenses stemming from his mail bombing campaign. In his April 24, 1995 letter to the New York Times, he promised "to desist from terrorism." To avoid the death penalty, Kaczynski entered into a plea agreement, under which he pled guilty and was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.

Kaczynski's moniker as the Unabomber developed as a result of an FBI codename. Before his real identity was known, the FBI used the handle "UNABOM" ("university and airline bomber"), which resulted in variants such as Unabomer, Unibomber, and Unabomber when the media started using the name."

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unabomber)

From this you can see that fear of technology can be as dangerous as the technology itself sometimes.

However, coming back to Gigadeath, the funny side of it was that it sounded like a term you'd find in a game, and that Hugo de Garis actually managed to say it with a straight face.

It strange what you find funny sometimes...

Another term I've heard thrown around a lot in the last couple of days, is the term Virtual Gods.

Because of the way computer games are now, we're not just creating charcaters and backdrops and scenery for a game, we're creating an entire world.

We have a Godlike power to add and to take away from this world, and to decded how it looks, how things react, how the world interacts with our avatars... and as such we have a responcibility to make that world as acurrate in feel and in style as possible.

And if the boys are Virtual Gods, does that make us Female Game Art Students Virtual Godesses?

And finally who the hell put me on the case of Leeroy Jenkins?

I'm sure you World of Warcraft fans out there know who I'm talking about.

LEEEEEEEEEROY JENKINS!!!!!!!!!!

Hehe. Why do I see me doing that by accident at some point?

JOOOOEEEY LAWRENCE!!!!!

Doesn't have quite the same ring to it does it?

Anyway, on that thought, I'll leave you to get back to sanity.

Joey Anne Lawrence

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"This message was brought to you by the Eggman Empire which is not responcible for it's contents, except this part..." *BOOM*

Updates before registration.

2007-09-20T21:39:00.000Z

OK, where in Ra's name are my forms for next week?

I have to get my password reset because i reset it and now it won't take the pasword I put in, tell the uni my new address and find those ruddy forms because I can't remember when I'm supposed to go to registration.

On the plus side, the internet is up and running in my house, I'm fully unpacked and I'm back in work... wait is tha a good thing? And I have discovered a website which is helpful when I want to use the GTS on Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.http://www.pokemon-gts.net/

Also I've already picked my cosplays and my Omake for next year.

Anyone who has played Final Fantasy IX will know it as Garnet's Theme, but the whole song is called Melodies of Life and that is what I plan on doing next year. However unlike last year, I plan on being prepared.

Also, one of the things I made over the summer is this...

Hehe, I haven't just been to cons see :P

Anyway, that's all for now, see you soon,

Joey/Keaira/Kea-Chan

--------------------------------------------

"This message was brought to you by the Eggman Empire which is not responcible for it's contents... except this part..." *EXPLODES*

A funny thing happened during the Summer...

2007-08-26T22:11:00.000Z

:)

Ok, I couldn't wait to talk about Amecon so here I am, blogging about it.

Thursday - (Does a Sonic t-shirt count as cosplay?)

Left Bristol at 9:58 (Train was late, when isn't it?) and arrived in Leicester at 11:50, where I was met by my friend Dave and we checked on things in the house to make sure it was all still there for Sept, and then hung around in town for hours. There was only one problem on Thurs, and that was the girl I was supposed to be rooming with got very, very lost and so I ended up rooming with another Amecon goer, whose badgename was Mangamad. (Thank you very much :))

We went out for Japanese food with a load of Ameconers and that was fun, I got to know a load of people and got to relax after I'd got all stressed out cause I didn't know where I was going to be sleeping cause the Estate Agents refused to give me the keys to the house for more then a day.

Went back to Mangamad's room and talked and I played games while he finished his jacket, and late into the night someone who was rooming next door offered us pizza cause he was full. (Guess what I had for breakfast)

Ended up sleeping on the floor, but it wasn't too bad.

Friday - Kairi (Kingdom Hearts)

Woke up at 6ish and had you guessed it, cold pizza for breakfast and got changed.

Me and Mangamad were miles early for registration, so we were sat outside talking to a Gopher for about an hour and a half, before they opened the doors, and then we were still miles early and they needed help so I offered to give them a hand.

There was a bonus side to being miles early, I was first in line for registering and got my badge, offically becoming Keaira for the weekend. I went up to ops to hand in my CD for the Omake and then found some of my friends from my old college, plus the people I'd met on the forums.

Plus I had a Sora cosplayer shout "Kairi!" and glomp me.

That was the first of many glomps that weekend.

I was looking for the girl I was supposed to be rooming with all morning, but I couldn't find her, so I headed up to the Games room, where they had a Yu-Gi-Oh! Tournament going on, (Mangamad was there) DDR, Nintendo Wii, Smash Bros Melee, Guitar Hero 2 and more, and when I headed down for lunch, my room mate was there,
having been in the Dealer's Room all morning because she had a stall for the weekend.

Having found my room mate I was able to completely relax and kick quite a few peoples arses at Smash Bros, the Pikabitch strikes again muahahaha. (Read earlier blogs to understand this reference.)

I also ran into (and I do mean ran into) a Seto Kaiba cosplayer, who I just had to get a photo of (and yes, I glomped him)

We left the Con quite late, (though not as late as some), and got tea. There was a resonably priced KFC type place jut across the road from our hotel and we got food from there, and then we went back to our room to eat and sleep :)

Saturday - Kairi (Kingdom Hearts 2)

Got up and had breakfast at 8:30 at the hotel (provided in the price).

I think I preferred the cold pizza. It wasn't a bad breakfast size wise but it was a little greasy and though I ate a lot so I didn't need to eat much over the course of the day, I was rather glad that I only had it for Sat, Sun and Mon and no longer than that.

I got to Ame a considerable amount later then I had the day before, but didn't miss much as I joined up with a whole group of Kingdom Heart 2 cosplayers, and spent most of the day with them.

It was brilliant, and I ended up in the Masquerade with a Sora cosplayer which was great fun, except for the part where because of a technical glitch we were made to wait in a boiling hot corridor for an extra hour and a half. Once that was sorted, the fun started and while we were at the back of the Kingdom Hearts group, (something I got a laugh out of since we were the only ones with a Sora, the main character) it didn't seem to take that long once we got going.

There were professional photos taken but we haven't seen them yet because their printer broke down so they couldn't give them to us.

After the Masquerade, me and my room mate and her friend went back to our hotel cause I had to be up early on Sun for the Omake.

I think it was gone midnight by the time we got to sleep as I had to practise for the following day.

Sunday - Yuna (Final Fantasy X)

Sunday I got up, got changed, went down to breakfast at 8:30 which was the earliest they served it. (Again greasy :()

I could have sworn that we were supposed to meet for Omake rehearsals at 9:00, so when I asked what the time was and was told, 8:50, I swore rather venomously and ran for it, luckily having picked up everything I needed.

I made it to the place at 9:01.

And found that it wasn't starting until 10:00.

Grrr.

Rehearsals went fine, checked I'd brought the right CD with me and and had a couple of goes on the stage. Went for lunch, came back in time to see some of the other rehearsals, and then we were all sent out the back so we could get back stage.

What fun that was.

They hadn't given us decentinstructions so every single Omake paticipent got lost on the way because we had to leave the hall and then go down and around and then we had to go back upstairs again...

It was scary, I was fourth in the line and was one of the first called to wait in the line.

When it was my turn, I was called out on stage by badge name and the presenter told them what I was singing, then he vanished off stage and the music started.

I had to make the backing music myself, so it wasn't brilint but I sang as best as could and once Iwas done, I lowered the mike...

And the hall erupted into applause, it was fnatastic, I am definatly doing i again next year.

For anyone who wants to see a bit of it, here's a vid. Somewhere on my laptop I have the whole Omake, but I can't post it here. But it' definatly worth a watch as there were some pretty awesome skits.

Once I'd come off stage, I raced around the back to the balcony so I could see the other skits (Metal Gear 24, Anime ight Live and Cookie :) ftw). I had quite a few compliments as I managed to find somewhere to sit down.

I really wish I could find a picture of Chair-chan.

Someone needed a chair for thier skit and the people running the back started the music too soon, so all that was on stage was a chair.

And someone shouted out, "BEST CHAIR COSPLAY EVER!"

Well that just started it off, didn't it.

I think that had it been left to the people watching, I think Chair-chan would have won the Omake. It didn't matter how good you were, even the winners were outclassed by Chair-chan who was made an honerary memebr of Team Beautiful.

After the Omake, I raced back to the hotel and got changed into a dress andmy last cosplay, which I don't have a photo of. I made ears and tails and wore those with the dress I had to borrow, because the dress I was making wasn't finished in time.

Then I got contact details from the friends I'd made and once the ball was over headed back.

It was easily 1:00 monday morning when we got back.

Monday - (Sonic t-shirt again, not the same one I might point out)

Not much to say, just that I had my last greasy breakfast from that hotel and went out for one last drink with my room mate and her friends, and then got on a train back to Birminham New Street and from there to Bristol.

------------------------------

Well that's pretty much it, I am definatly going back next year and in a stroke of dumb luck, ran into some people who were at Ame and were staying in my hotel when I was in work, who asked if I was going to do the Omake next year and I said definatly. (I hope to be a bit more organised next year though).

Plus next year I have some friends coming with me so it should be great.

Me and Robin are already planning out cosplays for next year, muahahaha.

Beware Amecon 2008, here we come.

Joey/Keaira

--------------------------------

"If you have time to worry, then run."

Amecon!!!!!

2007-08-14T00:43:00.000Z

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

It was absolutly amazing!

For the next couple of weeks I'll be getting photos from others and trying to find out if they've posted the Omake online, since I was in it.

I have so many stories to tell when I come back. :)

Guess who I am in the pic. :)

Hi to Jenny-Chan, Yuko, Rayne, Toad and all the other friends I made. :)

For all my photos (and I don't have as many as I'd like 'cause my camera died) go to... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3738&id=572407780

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"Best Dad ever!"

I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want...etc

2007-08-08T22:58:00.000Z

I want it soooooooooo much.

Roll on 05/10/07.

Last night before I leave....

2007-08-08T22:41:00.000Z

And I'm all packed :)

See you on monday.

I must be bloody mental....

2007-08-01T23:25:00.000Z

Just over a week from Amecon now, and I'm practising for the Omake.

I went and signed myself up to sing...

Now I'm trying to find/make the backing music for 1000 Words...

Ahhhh...

I love to sing, I really do, and being on stage doesn't scare me normally, it's normally the thought of it, ya know?

But still, just over a week and I will be in Leicester for Amecon and a week sunday I'll be singing...

Fun.

I just pray I don't freeze on stage...

I must be mad...

---------------------------------------------------

"1000 words, called out through the ages, they'll cradle you..."

And finally tonight...

2007-07-24T20:43:00.000Z

Kairi from KH1, for Friday.
Kairi (again) from KH2 this time, for Saturday.
Yuna from FFX, for Sunday.
And the ball outfit which is being kept a secret.

My chosen costumes for Amecon, minus my ball outfit which is a secret to most people :)

I have all three costumes ready, it's only the dress for the ball that I have yet to finish.

I even have the Cherry Blossom badge of Team Beautiful, made by Chibi, the second in command of the group at Ame who are dedicated to making sure that everyone enjoys themselves at the ball and there isn't that anyone who is afraid to ask someone else to dance, as members of Team Beautiful will dance with anyone who asks.

It's an opertunity to get people to interact more, if I get the mission statment correctly.

Thanks Chibi :)

This is going to be so much fun.

And the badge is amazing.

----------------------------------------------------------

"One thousand words, called out through the ages."

Potter, Sonic and Turtles :)

2007-07-24T20:33:00.001Z

In order.

I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. But I'm not telling you what happens.

I found Seven Rings in Hand, the theme of Sonic and the Secret Rings, the game I have started since finishing Sonic the Hedgehog for the 360.

And I am watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2.

Woo! Turtles!

I haven't seen turtles for ages.

PIZZA!!!!!!!

...Sorry.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

"Seven Rings in Hand, speed through nights with feet in sand, Seven Rings in Hand, wonders all under command."

Sonic 360

2007-07-24T20:17:00.000Z

Finished it!

I got to fight with Super Sonic, Super Shadow and Super Silver, woot!

Super Sonic :)

But the events of the game didn't really happen...

Space/time problems are confusing.

2007-07-07T23:48:00.000Z

I have a place, I have a place, I have a place, I have a place, I have a place, I have a place, I have a place, I have a place, I have a place, I have a place, I have a place, I have a place, I have a place, I have a place, I have a place, I have a place, I have a place, I have a place... sorry.

I've wanted to go for a couple of years and this year I have a place.

I'm now working on my cosplay, Kairi for one or two days, unfortunatly only one costume... and my kitsune outfit for the cosplay ball.

I wonder how hard it would be to make Kairi's KH2 pink dress...

-------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have time to worry, then run.

Three down, one to go...

2007-07-04T21:40:00.000Z

Sonic the Hedgehog storyline - 100% Complete
Shadow the Hedgehog storyline - 100% Complete
Silver the Hedgehog stroyline - 100% Complete
Last Story - Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Mephiles the Dark killed Sonic!

He can't kill Sonic! He's not allowed to kill Sonic!

We're gonna bring Sonic back and kick Solaris's ass, muahahaha. (Wait, do Sun Gods have asses?)

The only problem with that is to get all the Emeralds to bring Sonic back, I have to do seven mission in a row, with no saves (that's fine I'm used to no saves) and very little life pickups (Oh s**t).

And while I can do Tails, Omega and Knuckles' missions easy, Silver's is a git because his telekinisis is a ruddy nightmare to use to float across things because he doesn't get any extra height and with the time space rifts dragging him towards them, you have to keep hitting the jump button so he edges forward ever so slightly and then he goes and ruddy falls because you lost height when you boosted the button... gah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will do this.

I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will!

Even if I end up pulling my hair out.

So if I come to uni in September bald you all know why.

Oh by the way, I passed everything so yes, I'm sorry to say that you all have to put up with me next year.

:p

Joey.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

2007-06-10T00:11:00.000Z

I want Smash Bros Brawl to come out so I can find out if Sonic is in it. If he his, I'm going to get so good with him that I beat everyone, muahahaha!

I've spent what seems like forever looking and no one knows for sure. This is infuriating.

Roll on June 30th.

Sorry Robin for ranting at you over Skype.

Joey

Does the hide in bed till it all goes away method work?

2007-05-15T12:02:00.000Z

I've decided I'm going to hand in my work and then sleep till the shit that is this year goes away, or at least until September when I come back to Uni.

This isn't to say that I don't want to spend time with my family, I am just loath to spend time with the bloody idiots that inhabit Bristol (No I don't care if you're reading this and Bristolian.)

So far this year I've had family sickness, my Great-Grandmother has died after a huge stroke, trouble at work, trouble with my flatmates and now I find that a man I owe a hell of a lot to in my bowls carrer has had a mild stroke and is in hosptal.

So I'm feeling a little like life hates me at the moment. For ever one or two things that goes right tweleve things goes and pukes up... no worse then that.

Anyway, I've had my moan,

Now I'm going to make sure everything's handed in right.

Then I'm going back to bed since my bloody alarm clock needs a bloody airhorn attached to make sure it does the job it was bought to do.

Anne Joey Lawrence

---------------------------------------------------------------------

This message was brought to you by the Eggman Empire, which is not responcible for it's contents, except this part. *Message explodes*

Sonic Van

2007-05-03T16:45:00.001Z

Self explanitory

You know you know a series or game too well when...

2007-04-11T18:38:00.000Z

Walking down Chedder Gorge yesturday, enjoying the natural beauty of the area with my brother, mum and Aunt Marie, I found myself eyeing up the many different dragon statuettes in the many gift shops along the gorge. (For those who don't know, if it's a dragon, I want it)

A huge redy pink one caught my eye, though I'm out of money, wings outspread, it's tails wrapped around the rock it was perched on, looking to the skies as if awaiting another dragon, or maybe prey. I have to assume it's wings were designed to display earings and other such jewelery, as the grace and beauty of the piece was detracted from by red wire mesh wings. (Not the one in the pic)

(And please, with wings as fragile as wire mesh, it'd never take off.)

Any way, next to the dragon that I really, really, wanted, (not enough reallys) was a huge yellow gem, probably glass as it was only £7.99, but when I saw it, my first thought was.

"That's a Chaos Emerald!"

Sonic the Hedgehog fanatic much?

It's not the first time either.

I've seen red and blue gems cut the same way, and the same size as the yellow one I saw yesturday, and now my brother is convinced that the Chaos Emeralds have come to Earth.

LOST! ONE BLUE TALKING SUPERSONIC HEDGEHOG. IF FOUND PLEASE RETURN TO MY FLAT.

Anyway, I guess the point of this blog is to bring up how certain things from games and TV shows get lodged in your head.

Now, where's my Sonic hat?

Joey.

Bad Guys Lecturing Good Guys on being Good and Bad Guys on the right and wrong way of being Bad Guys...

2007-03-30T01:24:00.000Z

http://www.bolt.com/AlexakaSonicFreak/video/Sonic_X_Episode_67/1094089

Possibly the funniest thing I have watched, and it will make me laugh for quite a while. :)

All right, all right the entire episode isn't completly funny but that one bit is hilarious.

---------------------------------------------------------------

"This message was brought to you by the Eggman Empire, who aren't responicble for the contents except for this part..." *BOOM!* :Eggman (Not this episode)

Miss England regionals

2007-03-29T15:49:00.000Z

Do you remember a while back I blogged about a photo shoot that I was going to as an entrant in the Miss England regional heats?

Well I've been selected as a finalist.

Me.

A finallist.

*Faints in awe*

This is the furthest I've ever gotten before.

*Does happy dance*

And my mum's work have agreed to sponcer me.

Richard Harding Estate agents are awesome!

*Stil doing happy dance*

Let's see how it goes from here.

Week 24 - The final formal blog task

2007-03-22T16:12:00.000Z

It doesn't matter, now, what happens,
I will never give up the fight
Long as the voice inside drives me to run and fight,
It doesn't matter who is wrong and who is right.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

The last formal blog huh?

Awww.

I like the blogs, I've enjoyed writting the task blogs and while the idea of the video diaries kinda died when the internet finally gave up the ghost in my halls, the blogs are still going strong.

This year has been great, I love it, even if I'm beinging to hate this van cause it doesn't want to do what it's told when it comes to the mapping. Gah. I've finally got 3DMax, or I do when the computers have it running. The lack of working computers has been a bane of contention for many.

The drawing classes are really great, but I think we need Chris in more often, I don't think the amount of time that we have with him is enough. Four hours a week, in a class like drawing isn't enough.

Looking at the articals, we need to be well rounded and able to do pretty much anything and everything, and I think we're well on out way to that. We're doing all sorts in 3D modeling and we've had workshops in the ceramics and soft modelling labs.

Something we've got to make sure of is that we can model almost anything, as this will make us more valuable as employees. We can't just be focused on every day objects we've got to be able to do anything.

I've really enjoyed learning how to use Max even when I've wanted to blow up the computers because they crash and mess up the work and am really glad that my work has improved as much as it has.

The blogs are a much better idea then essays because the blogs are do able. If I had had an essay a week to do, I think I would've gone mental becuase I'm not brillient at writting.

This year has been amazing and I'm looking forward to coming back next year to see what we're doing and to get even better. Now I have 3dMax9 I can get on with things over the summer. : )

See ya around,

Joey

Beware the sneaky table.

2007-03-20T13:35:00.000Z

If you're playing Half Life 2 deathmatch against Alex, beware sneaky tables.

Or boats, or filing cabintes or...

Ans especally beware of the mines...

The R Floor

2007-03-16T15:14:00.000Z

After spending the last one, almost two terms wondering what is on the 'R Floor' of the Fletcher Tower, I finally got off on there, yesturday.

Only one of the two lifts leads to the R Floor, so it piqued our interest as to whether it led to a different dimension.

Unfortunatly it's nothing interesting, like the Rabies Floor, or the Rabbit Floor, or anything anyone guessed while trying to work out what the R could stand for, it looks like the Fine Art Floor.

Sorry in all that.

Joey

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

"Great now he's got something else under those hats I've gotta worry about and knowing Yugi it's probably a trap. But wait, Yugi knows me and he would know that I would know that he's laying a trap so maybe it's a monster card instead. But what if he knows that I would think that so it really is a trap card, except if he knows that I know that he knows what I know...ahhh, forget it I'm just gonna attack!" - Joey Wheeler (Joey Wheeler 'vs' Yugi Moto, Duelist Kingdom Finals)

Permanent Game Overs

2007-03-14T14:56:00.000Z

dotHack, which in itself is a good series, four games long, is an evil prick of a series for one small minor detail that can be avoided if you play the game carefully enough.

If you start from game 1, Infection, and play it all the way through to part 4, Quarantine, you can transfer your data from the previous game to allow you to bring your levels and items along with you. A very handy feature.

However, in the game you have the ability to 'Data Drain' from monsters to get rare items or make boesses defeatable, and you can hack into 'forbidden servers', both of which will raise your Virus Meter and when it hits 100% it is Permanent Game Over. You will have to start from the beginning of the disk at least with a new save file.

The smart Gamers make back ups after back ups after back ups just in case they hit that fatal 100% by accident, after all if you're careful enough you can keep the Virus Meter down and/or make it go down by doing certain things.

However one of my friends back home is an idiot.

He has spent the last two years playing dotHack, getting the best levels and the best weapons and Data Draining monsters to get all the right items and all the Virus Cores so he can hack servers.

But he didn't make a backup.

Not a single one.

So, after two years of playing the series, he saves before he goes to fight the final boss of Quarantine, he thinks he's doing the smart thing and that he shouldn't have too much trouble right?

Wrong, he failed to check his Virus Meter...

It was at 99%.

To be able to actaully damage the bosses, you have to Data Drain.

He used Data Drain...

And now has two years of game playing and nothing to show for it.

He had a right go at me this morning when I was on the phone to him while trying to get my purse from my flat after I left it there by accident because I was laughing my head off, but I'd warned him and warned him to watch his Virus Meter, and to make a back up, did he listen to me? Noooooooo.

Muahahaha.

However in hindsight, I've been thinking and there is a few games that I would go mental if they had Permanent Game Over.

The Final Fantasys for example, especially the four disk games.

Thinking about this led me to wonder what games would drive everyone else mental if they had Permanent Game Over.

If you can think of one, please reply to this post and tell me,

I'd like to know what everyone thinks.

Joey

A rant that's been plaguing me for a very long time...

2007-03-11T00:51:00.000Z

How do explain magic and gifts to non believers?

To those who unless touched by magic at an early age lose all their gifts and magical skill.

How do you explain something like the Healer’s Touch? Or the Dreamwalker’s gift? Or the elements liking a person? Helping a person? Protecting a person?

How can you explain to a closed heart that things aren’t always what they seem?

That there are many things beyond the realm of that which is visible?

How do you explain to someone who has already decided that things are impossible, that nothing is impossible and everything is possible if you just look hard enough?

How can you explain the range of magickal skills, herb lore, crystal work, healing, protections, hex work, charm work, potions, every single type of magic has it’s own way of working, someone who specialises in Healing and Protection will work differently to someone who works with charms and hexes.

How do you convince those who have been brainwashed by TV and the Media that you can’t just make things happen there and then and that magic doesn’t always work like that?

How do you explain gifts? Dreamwalking, Telepathy, Empathy, Healer’s Touch, Seer’s Gift, and these gifts and more come in various strengths, someone with Seer’s might be able to see the future clearly but another might only have Instinctual Seer’s, the ability to always be able to follow their instincts and know it’s the right course of action.

How do you explain to people who don’t want to see these gifts as a part of nature, but as something to be fears and ridiculed?

You can’t.

At what age does a person’s mind close?

Someone once told me that the mind closed once you were an adult, but when are you an adult?

The law says 18, but I know a girl whose gifts are awakening only now and she’s only just getting used to them, she took in everything I said with only a few questions.

So no, 18 isn’t the point of cut off.

Does it vary for each human?

It must do, for those in my clases back home, who were media soaked idiots, cared nothing for the truth and saw those gifted or magickal talented students as weird and to be picked on and ridiculed, and yet they were fifteen, sixteen maxium when their minds closed, and yet I’ve known people well into their 80s who still have the belief in magic alive and well.

So what closes a person’s heart?

If I knew that I’d be able to tell you.

I have no idea, but something changes inside a person when their heart closes, it’s like a barrier to people, saying don’t even go there.

You’ll find that a lot of people who do not have some form of creative outlet have closed hearts.

I think a heart has to be open to be creative, because once it’s closed you don’t hear and feel evrything that’s around you. The world calls to you differnetly once your heart closes, you see things, hear things, feel things, but you don’t get the full picture, how can you draw plants and tree properly when you’re only seeing them like you would any other object, not as a living breathing plant that has it’s own nuances and colours and shades and textures, it’s own pulse and radiance?

How can you draw a person without being able to feel their aura, you capture their likeness on paper, but the drawing will never seem alive, it will always be a flat 2D picture. Nothing more.

You cannot capture the essence of something without tapping into what you can feel and sence from a thing, there’s a difference between drawing something that’s inanimate and a living being or plant or…

Try drawing a flower, any flower, it doesn’t matter what, and to start off with just draw what you see. Ignore what your heart and your body is telling you, but just look with your eyes alone.

Now try the same experiment, drawing what you see, but drawing what you see with your heart and mind and spirit sees as well as your eyes.

See the difference?

Thought you would.

I can stop...I think

2007-03-10T22:19:00.000Z

Just a memo another week's video up, again with the delay though.... gah, I need a video edititng program... I wish I had a mac.

No more blogging now... putting the blogger down...

New favourate song!

2007-03-10T16:49:00.000Z

I've found a rock version of Simple and Clean from the first Kingdom Hearts and it's awesome, I've got to work out a way of getting music from my laptop onto my blog to put it up... Let's see if I can find a link to were I downloaded it from...

BINGO! http://media.putfile.com/Simple-and-Clean-ROCK

Hehe, I love this song in it's original form but i like this form more.

And no I'm not adictted to blogging I can stop anytime I want.

See I'm stopping any time now...

Now...

:P

Joey

Back home and not ready for tomorrow.

2007-03-10T16:39:00.000Z

Why do I always lose things that I need for important days?

For example, I have a semi-finals photo shoot for a Miss England regional heat tomorrow and I can't find anything.

Make one comment about the state of my bedroom and I will hunt you down and you'll regret it.

Gah!

*Turns already messy bedroom, upside down, back to front and inside out, to find hairbrush, make up and white vest top for tomorrow.*

Help...

Thank you Caz, thank you, thank you, thank you, for taking me tomorrow, and I will give you petrol money.

Many, many thank yous.

Week 22 - GDC

2007-03-10T15:55:00.000Z

How I would have loved to have been in this lecture -

Final Fantasy XII Postmortem
Speaker: Taku Murata (General Manager, Technical Research Divi, Square Enix Co.,Ltd)
Date/Time: Thursday (March 8, 2007) 12:00pm — 1:00pm
Location (room): Room 135, North Hall
Track: Visual Arts
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: All

Session Description
Final Fantasy XII, which has shipped over 4 million units in Japan and North America since its Japanese release on March 16, 2006, is the latest installment of the world renowned Final Fantasy franchise which has sold more than 70 million units worldwide. Taku Murata, Supervisor of Final Fantasy XII, and the other core members of its development team will give the lecture on the learning from the development of the title.

Development of Final Fantasy XII was massive project in every aspect. Taku will talk about the challenges he faced in development process. The title also pushed the envelope in terms of graphics. He will touch upon technical challenges to realize this quality graphics introducing tools created during the development of this title; effect tool, motion tool, and stage editors.

Audience can expect to see a glimpse of the long kept secret of Final Fantasy development.

https://www.cmpevents.com/GD07/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=4600

Unfortunatly I had no such luck. One I didn't know about the conference, two, I couldn't go anyway, and three I was else where at the time.

I bet it would have been very interesting though, as a long time Final Fantasy Fan, I would have liked to have seen how the newest game went through development, it would have been fantastic. *Sniff*

Ah well, I guess I'll never know...

Or not yet at least...

Looking at the huge list of Game Design lectures and sessions, I think I'd need to use the Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Multiply on me just to be able to get to the ones that I find interesting, there's so many! *Faints in awe*

I wonder which sessions the Doc went to and what he'll be bringing back to teach us... :) This could be interesting...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Stupid Fuzzballs! There must be thousands of them!" - Pegasus

"Tens of thousands, Pegasus, and because of the way the Kuriboh attack, you're about to see just as many explosions!" - Yami

(Yu-Gi-Oh! Duellist Kingdom Final Match, years and years old now, and yet still my all time favourate quote.)

First Video post

2007-03-01T01:19:00.000Z

Is now up at mt Youtube account.

...

Joey

Week 21 - Where do you want to go and how do you get there?

2007-02-27T13:53:00.000Z

Since I'm doing my blogs in my lunch hour on a Tuesday since I can't trust my internet in my halls and I doubt I'll be in the mood to do my blogs once I get home for aforementioned reasons, This is last week's blog, week 21.

'What am I going to get out of University?'

As much as I want. I'm finally where I wanna be, doing what I want to do and I'm working pretty damn hard to make sure my work is in and complete and reasonably decent. Admittedly I'm having more trouble then most with the actual drawing side of the course, but then I always have. Computers love me and I like them back, paper and pens sit there and give me the patented Kaiba death glare until I get some form of work done though it's never as good as everyone elses.

Reflection of things is important as it's often on reflection that I find the fault in my mesh and work things out or can write what I need to. It helps my brain get going and allows me to work things out that I wouldn't before.

However it is on relfection that I've decided to do something slightly different.

I'm still going to do these blogs, as proper blogs and answer the questions on here. But because of my dyslexia I have trouble writting what I want to say, so, I've decided that I'm going to do video diaries on my Youtube account, OdetteSwan. There's a link to the page from here.

There aren't any up at the moment but by the time the guest lecturer comes in tomorrow, as long as the internet isn't down in my halls, there will be my first diary piece up hopefully.

We shall see...

Joey

Random quizes

2007-02-27T13:49:00.000Z

I've been taking random quizes on my lunch break, on the 27/2/07.

Here's some results.

Pokémon Fan Test Results
You are a:
85% Gamer. You are an obsessed gamer!
80% Animé-freak. You have a burning interest in the Pokémon animé.
70% Pokémon Know-it-all. You have a burning interest in researching Pokémon.
75% Obsessed. Pokémon is one of the most important elements of your life.
40% Fan Worker. You have some interest in Pokémon fanwork.
70% Pokémon Fan. You have a burning interest in Pokémon.

What Will Happen After Your Death? Choose Your Own Adventure from Quiz Galaxy! ... "You join the most awesome party in Hell for all eternity."
'What Will Happen After Your Death?' Choose Your Own Adventure at QuizGalaxy.com

Joey

Highly Dangerous

Passable

Passable

Passable

Click Here to Find Out YOUR Psychiatric Evaluation
at
QuizGalaxy.com

OK, done with the random stuff now.

Next blog.

Joey

Week 20 - Creativity Part 2

2007-02-27T12:49:00.000Z

Ok, getting on with it.

This is the second and final half of this blog.

'What does creativity look like?' I have no idea. That's my honest responce. Creativity isn't in some brand identity, once that's been designed originally it's done, the creativity is in seeing how the series can be adapted and improved without trashing the whole series, and without losing some of what attracts the fans of the series, *cough*Final Fantasy X2*cough*

Creativity can be found in the storyline and in the graphics of a game, where people have had to think and design and gone with thier thoughts and feelings on the designs and things...

To me, Nintendo has a high level of creativity, as everytime they bring out next gen consoles, there's something new in the systems that wasn't there before. For example the Nintendo Wii's remote system and the Nintendo DS's touch screen. Also thier games graphics have been improving stedily and surely as thye've been going along.

As an author, my creativity is shown in my writting, with my latest piece, 1501 words long, came from a single fact I heard about Ash Ketchum's father being Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket. As an author, the reviews that I recieve show that people read what I write and that my creativity is apreciated.

As a Games Artist, I will show my creativity by hopefully creating great graphics for games. This will be acknowledged by gamers who review and talk about games in shops and on the internet, and though some of this feedback may not get back to me directly, that's how it will be acknowledged.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OK, Blog done...

I think.

Next!

Joey

WOW character

2007-02-27T11:30:00.000Z

I took a quiz from one of my friend's blogs, to see what race and class my character would be if I made the fatal mistake of starting to play World of Warcraft. (It steals your soul!)

And...

Here's the results...

Gnome Mage

Gnomes are strange little things. Fascinated with gadgets and shiny things, gnomes are often plotting and planning - but are pretty smart, despite all the explosions.

As a mage, you like blowing things up. Your favorite bit of technology is anything that goes, 'boom'. You live for that huge front-end KAPOW - but, after the dust has settled, you'll find yourself searching for something else to explode.

Find out your real-life WoW race and class at QuizGalaxy.com

Blogging

2007-02-26T21:43:00.000Z

I am in no mood to blog tonight, after hearing the news that my Great Grandma passed away around 1pm today.

Please expect an unhappy and very short tempered Joey for the next week at least.

Thank you for your patience. I will be back to blogging for my coursework soon,

Joey

Catamerangue

2007-02-20T09:12:00.000Z

To take part in the growing phad, here's a picture of... a cat...

Week 20 - Creativity - Part 1

2007-02-16T21:52:00.000Z

"The problem of creativity is beset with mysticism, confused definitions, value judgments, psychoanalytic admonitions, and the crushing weight of philosophical speculation dating from ancient times." Albert Rothenberg

This topic is a hard one and as such, and because we have been given several weeks to work on it, I have decided to take things a step at a time, and the first step, I've decided, is to look through the links given to us and make some decsions. As well as answer the first paragraph of questions.

Robin found this for me,

creative
adj 1. having the ability to create
2. imaginative or inventive
> creativity n

She also sent me this: -
Robyn's idea of creative;
The rabid plot bunny that decided it would be a good idea to multiply, then attack.

I have to agree with the above statment, creativity is equal to rabid plot bunnies and pictures that want to be drawn and sit in your mind screaming at you until you do them, or models or sculptures that want to be made and give you the 'patented Kaiba Death-Glare' until you find some materials.

As both an author and an artist, creativity is a strong point for me, the only problem is getting it out. But how does one discribe creativity? You can give dictionary answers till the cows come home, it doesn't give your opinion on the matter.

For example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity goes on at great length about explaining how creativity effects different medias and jobs and how to measure creativity but I don't really think that helps to make up your own mind.

I belive creativity is not hindered or enhanced by technical restraints, someone who really wants to see thier plans go through will find ways of working it so what they want to create can be achieved through alternate methods. For example, if you're working in clay and can't fit it all in the kiln as one piece, you do it as parts and find some way to join the pieces together later on.

As regards to who 'does' creativity, really anyone can, writers, artists, anyone who has an idea and can work on it, the art director helps the process along and gah! How do I explain it? Creativity isn't something people 'do' in the manner that most people mean when they say that, it's something that flows out of people and onto paper or into a computer, and it's something that you don't think about, it just happens.

So that's the first paragraph of questions answered, more to come later on...

Joey

Week 19 - Life Changing or Career Building?

2007-02-16T21:03:00.000Z

I don't honestly know the answer to this blog.

It all seems to depend on where you look as to what people are looking for. For example on http://www.blizzard.com/jobopp/tips-gameartist.shtml they're not looking for fine art, but more for the sort of art you see in fantasy and sci-fi today. However other's, for example http://www.datascope.co.uk/jobs_games_artists.html, asks for 'experianced artists' with experiance in programs that we haven't even touched yet. Does it really make that much difference except one has been trained to the point that while thier art is great, they don't always enjoy it, and the others, thier art isn't such a high quality but they enjoy it more.

Huh, I guess I really don't get this blog at all.

But then some of the other's I've spoken to have found this one hards as well so...

Joey

Burninating BT

2007-02-16T20:35:00.000Z

Guess what?

BT was the next to piss me off, so they're the next to get burninated. Though Nintendo was close after the second temple of Legend of Zelda, Twilight Princess, when the hat's physics engine was done badly and looked like it didn't pay any attention to gravity.

BT are being burninated for not fixing our internet properly so it went down a week ago and only came back up today!

Charizard Joey using flamethrower, muahahahaha!

Right, now that's out the way, I can do my blogs.

Hehe.

Pictures say a thousand words...

2007-02-05T02:26:00.000Z

This says it all really.

Copywrite Press Start to Play

Silly Games

2007-02-04T02:54:00.000Z

I've been thinking about games.

There are many different types.

However I think we all know what I'm talking about when I mention two or three particualr games.

1. What sane person has never heard of the why game?

Everyone knows it, it's a game where you see how many times you can ask why before the other person either goes away or trys to clobber you...

2. The Travelling Game.

Are we nearly there yet?
Are we nearly there yet?
Are we nearly there yet?
Are we nearly there yet?
Are we nearly there yet?
Are we nearly there yet?
Are we nearly there yet?
Are we nearly there yet?
Are we nearly there yet?
Are we nearly there yet?
Are we nearly there yet?
Are we nearly there yet?
Are we nearly there yet?
Are we nearly there yet?
Are we nearly there yet?

I think you get the idea.

3. The Game.

The aim of The Game is to forget you're playing The Game, if you remember you're playing The Game, you lose and you have to tell as many of the others who are playing The Game as possible so they all lose too. There is no way to win The Game because if you think 'I've won The Game,' then you've obviously lost because you've thought of it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

These are well known games, here's a few lesser ones invented in College.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. Yawn Dominos.

You go to a place like a McDonalds or somewhere where people line up in queues. Then each player stands behind a different queue and yawns loudly, the winner is the person who make thier yawn go furthest down the line.

5. Coke Cola Russian Roulette.

A non-player shakes up a coke can and puts it in a circle of enough coke cans for one each including the shaken up one. You take it in turns to choose cans until someone gets the fizzy one and loses... (Normally resulting in Cola all over them). You then repeate until there's only one person left in, and they win.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think, that as I think of new games like these, I will edit this post and add them.

But these will o for now.

Muahahahaha!

Joey

Posting... and Week 18 - Game Technology - Sound for Games

2007-01-31T19:26:00.000Z

I just realised how much blogging I've done since I got back...

Towards the end of last term, my blogs were dying out slowly, with the last one before Christmas being where I wanted to burninate Square Enix for thier shitty work on Final Fantasy X, on the 13/12/06.

Since then, there was a blog on the 5/1/07, then another one on the 12/1/07 when I offically became a Semi-Finalist for Miss Leicester... I still haven't found a sponcer...

Then I postsed on the 15/1,twice... Week I'm not sure which, 12 I think - Returning to DeMontfort is about my thoughts and feelings about Leicester and the course btw Doc, which is what you asked for for the end of last term.

Then on the 16/1 I became a mouse tree... don't ask...

18/1 I started thinking with portals...

23/1 was my week 15 task... ok, ok there was a five day delay there... good, I'm not becoming obsessed... oh... I did week 16 there too... and Yami's smirk of doom...

It snowed on the 26/1 and I blogged about it at a rediculously early hour of the 27/1...

The 29/1 was Week 17's blog...

30/1 was all about my Wii and my Xbox 360 and a scary webcam picture... and items built by me in uni... and Call of Duty...

And today, the 31/1 I rediscovered Nightmare City and am writting this blog...

Oh my Ra...

I am obsessed again.

Well at least I'm doing my work...

Now should I do my task now while I'm thinking about it?

K. Getting on with it...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sound in games is blatently important, have you ever noticed that the better Call of Duty players often are wearing headphones so they can hear what's coming or so it doesn't give away thier position? It's similar on Battle for Middle Earth, headphones in to listen to the amazing music and so the other can't hear whjat army you're building or wheather you've just got something like Eagles or Fell Beasts... or worse, if they've found Golum and the damn Ring.

Koji Kondo is possibly one of my favourate composers, since he have basically composed or at least worked on the music for every Legend of Zelda game, and I think all of the songs for Ocarina of Time are some of my all time favourate game sounds ever, especally you know... da, da, da, da!!!! Meh, it's not as cool without the sound... You all know the sound I mean...

Also the music from Kingdom Hearts is great I think, I have the soundtrack on my laptop :D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_game_music (Stupid blogger won't let me link)

Gives a lot of the background history of Computer Game Music, about how it's developed and how it is done now, compaired to how it used to be done.

It tells how once the musicians for a game needed to know how to program and everything to be able to music in games, now music is being played at the quailty as CDs, and possibly if I dare to say it, slightly higher.

I think one of my key moments where the music of a game lead me to keep playing was... you know... I can't think of my first time... but the music creates the mood, you could say have FFIX's battle music with say the scene in the game where *SPOILER*
Garnet sees Zidane for the first time after they've saved the world, after thinking he died trying to save Kuja, his 'kind-of-brother.' The mood would be spoiled and everyone would be expecting trouble to break out.

I think the music in Ocarina of Time and Final Fantasy VIII are probably some of my faves, though if you look on my Ipod, I have the entire Kingdom Hearts Soundtrack, as well as songs from FFIX, FFVIII, FFX, and even a couple from the much hated FFX2, <--- swearword. However I do like the two songs... unfortunatly the music was unable to save the game from the sheer shittiness of the game. I do wish I had more Ocarina of Time music, but a collegue of mine who had the entire Legend of Zelda Music Collection, which came up to about 90 odd songs forgot to let me rip them off the CDs before I came to Leicester. :(

Ummm, ok, I think that's it...

Sorry for the randomness at the start,

And probably see you soon...

Joey.

P.S. Twilight Princess on my Wii is fantastic :D - Copyright Press Start To Play

I don't mind that everything is a lie...

2007-01-31T16:52:00.000Z

As long as you love me forever.

Nightmare City -

Nightmare City Catastrophe -

I love these flash movies, they are some of the best I've ever seen.

You have to watch them!

Thank you YouTube for having them after the old site with them on closed down because, i think, they couldn't handle the amount of viewers...

Thank you joker54king13

Call of Duty...

2007-01-30T14:00:00.000Z

I have just realised that I'm going to have to change my name on Call of Duty.

Whenever I get playing that game I end up laughing maniacly and shooting pretty much anyone and anything, even dead people, lol.

Oh and apparently I have the scariest evil laugh out of the class and it tends to surface while playing Call of Duty.

If I am really evil, then I can't really be Kairi anymore, since the Princess of Heart, and Keyblader, from Kingdom Hearts isn't at all evil...

But what to change my name to...

Items bulit by moi, in uni, showing off slighty :D

2007-01-30T12:03:00.000Z

This was my first work... a wheelie bin of doom... yes, it is of doom because it nearly cost me my place on this course because I couldn't do it to start with... bloody bin... I hate this soooo much....

The second was a house, which was actualy much easier, though it decided to insert polygons where I didn't want polygons and made me rush to finish it....

And now a tree... and this was in fact very easy, and I think I'm one of the first to finish it... makes a change...

Hehe, ok, showing off a little bit, but it does feel good to see that I can actually make things while having fun at the same time...

Joey

Scary webcam picture...

2007-01-30T01:31:00.000Z

Scary webcam picture... so glad my digital camera arrived today... guess who I was on the phone to... my friends should get this right first time :D

Joey

Bad, Bad Joey...

2007-01-30T01:12:00.000Z

If buying things is bad, why does it make me happy?

I have now had my Nintendo Wii for a week, after not expecting to get it until March I had a lovely phone call while I was in work a week Saturday just gone, "Oh Hello Miss Lawrence, I'm just phoning to tell you that your Nintendo Wii has arrived and that you have 72 hours to pick it up."

I was almost late for work the next day because I went to get it before work...

And thank you to Nintendo Offical Magazine for the Decals that now grace my Wii and my Wiimote.

And that's not all I've bought console wise recently...

I'm sure you all remember Joey and friends struggling with a very large bag about a week into term? This would be because Joey - once the biggest hater of the Xbox series ever, has treated herself to an Xbox 360.

Bad, bad Joey...

Week 17 -- Game Engines

2007-01-29T22:44:00.000Z

All hail the hypnotoad.... - Futurama :)

-----------------------------------------------------------------

As far as I can tell, Games Engines are what makes the game work, as the graphics will come out wrong if there is a fault and things will end up miles from where they're supposed to...

Wikipedia says that - "The term "game engine" arose in the mid-1990s, especially in connection with 3D games such as first-person shooters (FPS). (See also: first person shooter engine). Such was the popularity of id Software's Doom and Quake games that, rather than work from scratch, other developers licensed the core portions of the software and designed their own graphics, characters, weapons and levels—the "game content" or "game assets."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_engine

In other words, they used game engines to make creating games easier, and though I haven't yet worked out how much easier it makes it, I'm guessing that since it allows the Game Art and everything else to happen in one space it makes things a hell of a lot easier, allowing Games to be run on many platforms, for example the PS2, the Xbox360, and the Gamecube (though I much prefer the Wii, which I own muahahahaha!)

Game Engines help reduce time and money, which in the Games Industry means a lot, though the licencing of such technology has become very, very expensive indeed, with it ranging from $10,000 to $3,750,000 (Warcraft III), and the Unreal Engine has become very popular, as well as highly sought after and highly priced.

Games Engines are also the reason for strong separation from other types of games design, artists make up 4/5 of a team in a typical game.

It is also sometimes known as Middleware, because it is like a middle man for helping to create games.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On a weird note,

I wonder what sort of Game Engine you would need for the game me and my friends were talking about not that long ago, a Pokemon MMOG, imagine the fun and games that would be, and the expansions that would be released everytime they came up with new pokemon, it would be interesting and cool.

However I wonder, would they do it turn based or RTB? And would they let Trainers fight each other, or make the fatal mistake of making it non PK, well I suppose in a Pokemon game it wouldn't strictly be PK, but it could well be Trainer battles for real players instead of just against the NPC, there are only so mnay ways a computer can use a set of pokemon before you know thier moves inside out back to front and upside down.

And what pokemon would you start with, would you have to start with one of the Starters, Charmander, Squirtal, Bulbasaur, Cyndaquil, Totodile, Chikorita, Torchic, Mudkip or Treekco? Or would you have other ways of getting your starter, and how would it be decided? Cause I'd really like either a Charmander or a Vulpix...

And... wow, I've just realised I've put too much tought into this.

But an MMOG would be a facinating way of moving the pokemon world forward, not that Battle Revolution looks absolutly fantastic, just... I have to wonder, ya know?

Oh and final note to self, buy Battle for Middle Earth 2, I'm fed up of getting my ass handed to me because I don't play enough real time stratagy games...

Goodnight,

Joey

Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God !!!!!

2007-01-24T00:36:00.000Z

It's 12:26 and I have just come in from a snowball fight that has to have lasted a good three quaters of an hour. It was fantastic! And it would still be going if the security guards hadn't been called by some boring fart who didn't like the fact we were having fun. However the fight was fantastic... and so...

It is offical.

Leicester is now perfect!

Joey.

Oh God, I know that smile, we're gunna die!

2007-01-23T20:23:00.000Z

Hehe, ok, yes, I'm admitting to watching the Yu-Gi-Oh! Movie while doing my blogs, but the above look is one that scares even the most hardened of Duellists, it's the scary look and if he gets that look it's game over man, you will in fact get your arse handed to you.

No idea why I'm mentioning this now... but I'm having a day of random Yu-Gi-Oh!

And I love that look, it's so much fun.

And so is the reactions of the duellists he's fighting against.

"This is the toughest move I've ever had to make, but this ends now... Black Skull Dragon... Molten Fireball Attack!" (Yugi vs Joey, Duellist Kingdom)

Week 16 - Gaming Cultures

2007-01-23T18:31:00.000Z

Gaming culture is a very wide subject, after all I don't suppose that I belong to the same culture as some of my classmates, for example, while I could possibly fit into the white female category, I suppose I belong to a whole different culture which would be the gay white female culture, and then do I belong to gay white female RPG fan culture?

Something I have learnt that this university, it's the people of all different shapes, sizes, genders, preferences, all love games just as much, if not more so, as I do.

Playing computer games can no longer be seen something that people who like to hide in their bedrooms never see the light of day do for fun. For example I have been computer games of the quite a long time but then I've always enjoyed going out and having a game of football as well, in fact football is one of the things, in fact no the only thing I miss from my senior school.

Gamers cultures and game playing, I suppose pretty much dominates my life, any one of my friends on the course can testify, as my room is pretty much constantly a tip, however you can always get my laptop and my consoles.

I used to play on online wargames, belonging to Fenrir Alliance, and at one point being one of their top members, however once I got my final major project for college, I felt I could not do my alliance justice and dropped out of the game, although at the time I didn't realise it would be a pretty much permanent decision.

Andy aka Raven, Jamie aka Laser and Robert aka Strike will all people who were also top members of Fenrir Alliance, and though I do not speak to them as much anymore, I do sometimes talk to them to find out how the alliance is getting on.

Yamita, who was me, was quite possibly one of only eight girls in the Fenrir Alliance, and to start with it was admittedly hard to get the respect of the others members of the Alliance. I suppose it's because it's a different culture to to the one I am used to.

I know for a fact, I belong to the fanfiction culture, as I've been writing for over a year now, and do not have the single story that has not been read less than 200 times and some of which have been read over 3000 times. Not to mention the 50 odd reviews of an unfinished story.

Games culture is a hard thing to talk about, there were so many different types of cultures in gamers, that it's pretty much impossible to be able to describe all of them.

I guess that's it from me this week, well until Wednesday that this,

So this is Joey signing off.

"If you want to get to the King of games, you'll have to go through me, the uhhh... Godfather of games, capshe?" (Joey Wheeler, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie.)

Eeep - Week 15 - From generalist to specialist...

2007-01-23T17:31:00.000Z

In the industry at the moment, I can throw my head back and laugh at my friends back home who have always been Nintendo bashers, after the release of two best selling consoles.

The DS and Wii.

Both of which I now own.

Muahahahaha!

And I have to say being a Nintendo girl has never been sweeter, I love Legend of Zelda, Twilight Princess, and Wii Sports.

Currently in the gaming world, Nintendo are easily on top, with Sony and Microsoft a close 3rd. Yes, Nintendo is 1st and 2nd :p

Listening to guest lecturers and reading things on the internet, a single person could no longer possibly match up to games companies, who deliberatly gather Games Artists to work for them, or Outsource thier work to people from either other companies or other countries. A single person would not have the skills nessesary for game art, game animation and game programming, they could at best create a very bad game, and that would take a very long time.

Inside the industry, the passion for making better games and getting more money, I quite like that idea, since the better games side of things means better games for the many many consoles that I own.

Challenges I suppose for the industry is living up to the specs of the new-gen consoles, and the new technology of the Wii, and the PS3, games can be designed to work with motion sensors but it's important for the games to usefully use it instead of using it because it's there, ya know?

This is something people will have to think about in the near future.
---------------------------------

Playtime is now over Panik, it's time to duel! - Yugi Muto (Vs. Panik) (I think it's more Yami talking, this is pre them switching and when they're still merging souls)

Now you're thinking in Portals...

2007-01-18T23:22:00.000Z

I found the clip that the guest lecturer showed us at the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59B_4gIimEk

Are you thinking with Portals?

I am a mouse tree!!!!

2007-01-16T10:11:00.000Z

Don't ask, actually do.

I've been reading a webcomic called Fox Tails, which is about Kitsunes, you know Japanese Fox Spirits, and Kaze, a five tailed Kitsune, was tricked when he was a kit, by Miyo, who used to be a nine tailed Kitsune but now only has three tails, into believing that if he buried the mice he caught they'd turn into a mouse tree.

Hehe, silly little kitsune.

As it is, I now am in love with the phrase, 'I am a mouse tree!!!'

(Copyright Fox Tails)

Check out the comic, it is really good @

http://foxtails.comicgenesis.com/

Week I'm not sure which, 12 I think - Returning to DeMontfort

2007-01-15T22:22:00.000Z

"I gave them the wrong warning, I should have told them to run, run and hide, 'cause the monsters are coming, the human race!" (The Doctor, Doctor Who, The Christmas Invasion, Dec 2005)

Well, I'm back.

And already it's only been a week and I feel like I'm home.

It felt a little weird, coming back here after being home, but I realised that while I enjoyed being home, Leicester is more home to me then Bristol ever will be again, nice for a holiday, but I don't really want to live there at the moment.

As for the course... well, what can I say?

It's fantastic, I really do love it, and though to start with I felt like I'd been thrown in the deep end before I could swim, I'm getting there, and getting much better now, there's still some faults with my work, but I'm only a freshman, I'm not going to become an expert in my first term, for me to expect otherwise would be very very stupid.

Coming on this course is the best thing I've ever done, I have more friends, I enjoy life more, and I'm finally doing something I love.

I'm finally me, more then I have been my entire life, Anne Lawrence, and the Joey who walks through the classroom door are two completely different people, and I love the new me, I love being Joey, who can be herself and be treated with respect and friendship and trust, instead of being Anne, who was always bullied and could never be herself without having the piss taken.
The new Joey is better then the old Anne.

And as for this blog, well, a lot of things that I'm too scared to say in person, or don't want to sound like I'm bragging about, it all goes on here, all my feelings and worries and every... well... almost everything I think is amusing from discussions with friends, hense the Nickname blog a while back.

And the tasks are normally pretty easy to understand, so I'm almost always up to date, because I can understand what I'm supposed to be writting about, and can write my way, in my style, without having to stick to some strick code or write in some obscure technobable that leaves me thinking wtf.

All right, all right, I'll admit to once or twice being behind schedule, I'm unfortunantly good at that, but I have never left a blog more then two weeks, even if I'm distracted by shiny things the course is more important to me then anything else ever...

Except my friends and some of my family... they'll always come first.

Some of my blogs are mine, I'm pretty sure Miss Leicestershire has nothing to do with designing games, but I feel more cmfortable writting about things and the tasks here, instead of having the tasks set as evil essays-of-doom, esspecally since I'm a well known procrastinator when it comes to essays.

Life here is great and I can't wait to deal with the tree, this time things will go my way instead of making me rush at the last minute because polygons appear where they're not menat to! (How my house did that I have no idea, I have a horrible feeling I missed something when I was rushing to complete the texturing), this term will go smoothly and if it doesn't, I'm going to work my hardest to make it do so.

Question, do you like my hat?

And can everyone who reads my blog tell me so I know how many people actually read the stuff I write... pwease?

Anyway, I think I've rambled long enough, so I'll say g'night now,
Joey, signing out.
P.S. My flatmate just told me she's not drunk, yeah right, that's why she's slamming around and screaming, if she's not drunk, I'm the Queen of Sheba!

"Low life" (Sora)
"You're too kind, kid." (Hades) (KH2)

Not much to add till I understand the week's blog...

2007-01-15T22:17:00.000Z

Just the webadress of my new DeviantART page.

http://blaze-pheonix.deviantart.com/

Top 50

2007-01-12T20:18:00.000Z

Wow, I Anne Joey Lawrence, am offically one of the Semi-finalists in Leicestershire for the Miss England regionals... Well, Anne Lawrence is registered as a Semi Finalist. Now I have to wait for the results of the semi finals to come in and pray.

Once that's done, if I make the cut I'll have to get a sponser... or sponsers... eep... Sainburys, Game, E-play or Gamestation maybe... no, not Gamestation I don't spend enough there.

And that's not right anyway, they said I should start looking now... Do I dare ask in work tomorrow?

Dunno, but this a very bouncy Joey signing off.

Post Christmas Bordorm

2007-01-05T09:42:00.000Z

I'm sat in my bedroom right now, thinking. I love Christmas, I love the run up to Christmas, I love the New Year... What I've decided I don't love is the limbo period between New Year and reality kickstarting.

What I have decided I like is the fact I think that over a three week period, I've managed to catch up on the sleep my flatmates were denying me at the end of last term. Unless I've had work this is the first time I've been up early on a morning. Great fun.

Anyway, back to Christmas.

I had an awesome time, I got one over on my aunt on New Year's Day, she was threatening to start her usual complaints about my cousin's fiance. I told her that she'd go out in the garden if she started again, she went all o.0 on me and didn't mention it all day. : )

Christmas presents were mostly things for University, like a new duvay (sp?) cover, nightdresses, paintbrushes, cooking books, alcohol and chocolate. (I would like to point out now that I don't drink half as much as my flatmates).

However one of the best presents was from my little brother.

My first driving lesson. He paid for a two hour driving lesson, I just have to arrange a time when I get back to Leicester. How awesome is that? :D

I'm looking forward to Sunday, coming home, back to Leicester, a day early so mum and dad can bring me back, so by Tuesday, I'll be set up and ready for a new university term.

So I'll see ya Tuesday,

Joey

Final Fantasy X - Graphics faults

2006-12-13T18:58:00.000Z

Charizard Joey uses Flamethrower to allow her to indulge in burninating Square Enix.
Final Fantasy X is an amzing game storyline wise, I love it, I always have and I always will.

But playing the game over the weekend while I was waiting for my laptop to come back with all my new dyslexia software on I couldn't help but notice the faults in the graphics of the game.

Tidus's design is almost perfect, not quite, there is some stretching but not as much as most of the charcaters, however...

The mapping is streched in levels and on charaters clothes, especally Rikku's, there are a couple of places where there are too many ploys in a scene and the renderer in the games system cannot keep up, there is anti-aliasing on swords, and worst of all you can see the anti-aliasing on charcaters!!!!

Square Enix have released Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2 and I love them for that but for Ra's sake, if you are going to release a game will they bloody well make sure they have all the faults worked out before they bloody release it.

What is worse, most of the gamers who play it won't realise, because I didn't notice until I started Game Art Design, and the faults leapt out at me demanding retribution.

So, Charizard Joey has flown to Japan and is burninating Square Enix.

I wonder who will be next to face my Flamethrower.

Joey

"Just one more thing, those we have lost, and the dreams that have faded...

Never forget them." (Yuna, Final Fantasy X)

Week 11 - The elements of Game Design - Gameplay

2006-12-13T18:19:00.000Z

Landing on top of the Fletcher Buliding.

"Gameplay includes all player experiences during the interaction with game systems, especially formal games. Proper use is coupled with reference to "what the player does". Arising alongside the development of game designers in the 1980s, gameplay was used solely within the context of video or computer games, though now its popularity has begun to see use in the description of other, more traditional, game forms. Generally, the term "gameplay" in video game terminology is used to describe the overall experience of playing the game excluding the factors of graphics, sound, and the storyline. The term "Game mechanics" refers to sub-elements of the gameplay, but particularly the primary control and movement features of the game (thus excluding things like level design or AI).

Many current game design theorists from the background of art theory argue that gameplay is a largely meaningless or empty term, superseded by other concepts established in the repertoire of perception, anthropology, and general iversified psychology. Others see the very term as an indication that current game design theories remain primitive and underdeveloped noting that, for example, cinema does not require "movie-watch" nor novels "book-read" in order that these (non-interactive) media be described formally. Current academic discussions tend to favor more practical terms such as "game mechanics".

Despite these criticisms, the term gameplay has gained acceptance in popular gaming nomenclature, as it succinctly indicates a domain of perceptual concepts not readily accessible by other phrases. Some gaming reviews give a specific score for gameplay, along with graphics, sound, and longevity. Many consider "gameplay" to be the most important indicator of the quality of a game. Many game critics feel that gameplay in games is analogous with narrative in fiction, and serves as the foundation to which other elements (for example, story) are added. Those who counter the art theory of game point out that games are essentially playing. Playing is as old as or even older than art in the history of humanity. Therefore, it may not be appropriate to define or evaluate games in the same context as art. In fact, a few Japanese gamemakers have their origins in toy making, the most famous being Nintendo. A notable contemporary play theorist is Jesper Juul who works on both pure play theory and the application of this theory to Computer game studies. The theory of play and its relationship with rules and game design is also extensively discussed by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman in their book: Rules of Play : Game Design Fundamentals."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gameplay

English please. No seriously, some of this would be easier explained in English that anyone can understand, not technobable.

What I think it is saying is that Gameplay is the term for the experiance of playing a game and this doesn't include the sound, graphics or storyline. I think it is also saying that experts belive that the term is an empty one and that it proves the gaming industry is still primative because films and books don't need a similar term.

I think that is complete and utter bollocks.

Gameplay is an important feature in games, to me it implys how much a game emerses you in the world and character of the game, films and books don't need these terms becuase you are not interacting with the book or film you are reading or watching it, that is something completely different, obviously these experts don't understand that differences between books and film to games, they come from a background of art theory, not a games design background, otherwise they would understand the subtle differences.

Many games mags give marks to a game for gameplay, and it is a term which covers a whole range of things in a game, and to a gamer gameplay is important because a game with crap gameplay will not be anywhere near as good as a game with good or excellent gameplay. A game doesn't need good graphics or music, though that helps, after all, the difference between movies and games and real life is that real life doesn't have a sound track. However both the graphics and the music help to improve the game as it helps the player basically mentally enter the world they are watching and interacting with.

It is really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, etc, important in games to have good gameplay as it will attract people and they will pass the word onto thier friends and the chain will continue. Gameplay is not something that can be designed into a game, it's something that is created when a games factors join together to create somethng that totally emerses the player into a world and life of someone completely different and causes the player to forget about the outside world.

That's my opinion, I bet that the rest of the class will have thier own,

And now I'm up to date,

And I know my wings are strong enough to allow me to fly again,

So I will take off from the Fletcher Builidng and look forward to Christmas with my family.

Joey

Week 10 - The elements of games design - story and character

2006-12-13T17:49:00.000Z

Further up in the sky now, using the thermals to glide : )

Week 10 ->

Characters in games have to have personality to appeal to gamers.

Special effects will no longer sell games...

Well it will but they will not sell well because some gamers will buy them because they look good and return them when they realise what a pile of shit they are. They will then buy a game that isn't as astetically pleasing but the storyline and and characters are much more appealing and keep you hooked until the very end.

http://gamasutra.com/features/20060324/cifaldi_01.html

Gives you the differences between the two main characters of the XBox 360 game, Ninety-Nine Nights. One is cold and almost cruel while the other is more caring and empathic. This is importants as it effects the storyline of the game as while you are the more empathic character, you can choose to go another route and this in turn would change the events unfolding.

This sort of character development and story develo9pemnt appeals much more to gamers then that which is liniar and boring, and for a player to really become a character and fully emerse themselves in the game, they have to be able to understand the emotions of that character, and thier personality and traits, what they say and do, and thier body language displays a whole range of feelings and attracts people.

For example, in Final Fantasy X, which I will rant about later, the main charcater, Tidus, is telling the story of how they get to the point that they are at when the game begins, which is in fact somewhere near the end.

To start off with you really can not like Tidus, because he is a arogant stuck up git, but as the story develops we find out why he's like he is and he changes as the story goes on, acting less like an idiot and more like a person. This Character development is important to the storyline, as when he fades away at the end, when the dreams of the Fayth end, we really care, and we feel sorry for Yuna, who doesn't understand and doesn't want Tidus, who is in fact a dream of the Fayth made real by the power of Sin, to leave.

I find fantasy completely irriesitable because 1. I write it, and 2. I get lost in a good fanatsy, learning about the ways and customs and lives and magic and monsters and... lol, I'm going off on one again.

But the story isn't important if we're not drawn into it by an engaging main character.

That's what I would have said had I not got distracted.

Week 9 - Introduction to Games Technology

2006-12-13T17:13:00.000Z

Ok, I am really, really behind for more then one reason so I won't list them here.

This Charizard's wings have been injured for a while, but now she's ready to fly again.

So no witty starts, just the task at hand.

Games Technology is completly different now to how it was back in 1967, I have a feeling that if you'd told people then what games today would be like they'd have called you a liar and disbelieved you. The first video game console to work on a TV was called a Brown Box and was invented by Ralph Baer, originally only released with a 'chase' game which showed two squares chasing each other across the screen.

Now if we want a chase scene we have to think about what the two characters look like, and where they are running and what it looks like and if there are any spectators...

See the difference?

This was controled by a box with knobs that you twisted and the squares changed direction.

Nowadays if you want a dude to change direction on screen you just move a joystick.

I think it's very funny that the gaming industry has come full circle, since some of the earliest games systems (The Atari) were controlled using a joystick.

http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101050523/console_timeline/

Gives a time line of consoles and I have been rather suprised to find that the Playstation, which became a stable part of my gaming diet, came out over ten years ago... very scary. I was seven years old when it came out, SEVEN!!!!! Gah!

It was funny though to see that buttons are begining to fade out, replaced by joysticks and movement sensors. Games now are completly different from back then, after nearly 40 years games have reached the point where the games look practically real.

A long way from the brick of the Brown Box and it's squares.

Ergonomics have been important in attracting new gamers, the PS One, the little white PS attracted more crowds then the huge grey brick that was the original Playstation, the Gamecube's simple looks attracted more then the black PS2 brick that has recently become the PS2 Slimline.

The weird PS3 controller, is not half as attractive as the nuchucks of the Nintendo Wii, how I want one of those.

As regards to which controller was the easiest to use, while I am a big fan of the Gamecube, I have to say that it's controller wasn't the easiest to use, I do love the controller of the PS2, which is simple and really really easy to use, you just havr to love it really.

In looks for consoles, the Nintendo DS wins. The little handheld looks amazing, and all it's features are brillient, touch screen anyone?

I own a pink one, muahahaha.

And a Slimline PS2, and a Black Gamecube, and a PSP (not as good as my DS) and my pink DS.

A joypad isn't a dying breed I don't think, until they can develop reasonable technology that allows for total emersion in the game. I think the joypad has a long life ahead of it.

Quotes of the week -

2006-11-28T15:19:00.000Z

I see now that the circumstances of ones birth are irrelevent and it's what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are. (Mewtwo, Pokemon The Movie)

Life can be a challenge, life can seem impossible, it's never easy when so much is on the line. (Power of One, Pokemon 2000)

Outside the battles maybe tough, but the friends are real. (Misty, Pokemon The Movie 3)

Yes, I do still like Pokemon, :p

And this like has recently been reignited by Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, in whish you get turned into a Pokemon after taking a personality quiz.

The scary thing is though, I didn't get the same questions each time I took the test and yet I ended up as a Charmander on BOTH my versions of the game, and even when I tried to restart my Red Advance Version, I still ended up as one, lol, brave and couragous, I can deal with that... if I'd been a Psyduck however...

But on my Blue DS Version I've completed the storyline, and it's summed up quite nicly in a one shot on my ff.net account, and now I'm no longer just a Charmander. I am Charmeleon and soon I'll be a Charizard.

Then people better watch out, cause this Fire/Flying type will let nothing stand in her way.