wow, just...wow

while at san diego comic-con i received a copy of world of warcraft from the good folk at blizzard (it pays to be connected…for once). i quite enjoy videogames, but have never really played a massively multiplayer game like warcraft or everquest or whatever. i know a little about such games from the time i spent on staff at korea’s nexon, in their aborted attempt to establish an american beachhead, the way nc soft has done successfully. at least, i know enough to know that the gameplay in a 2d game like dark ages is not fundamentally different than warcraft. but warcraft is much prettier.

and that alone is quite a difference. i’m not a graphics snob, i don’t have the best gaming rig in the world, but as an artist i can certainly appreciate good graphics. hmm, let me put this another way, warcraft is relatively low in polygons, shaders and the like compared to more modern games and upcoming titles in the same genre. however, as opposed to some games, the artists at blizzard have a long-developed sense of style that allowed them to do good things without all the bump-mapping and the like. their sense of color is vivid, sometimes bordering on candy, but is still attractive all the same. It can be really tempting to always shoot for hyper-realism, but if often fails no matter how good your grass textures are.

i’ve heard enough stories about people sort of losing their lives to these sorts of games to have been wary of them enough to never play them before (i’m at 32%; why a dating site runs that last link is a mystery). as i said, i like videogames, and can easily whittle away a day at them if i allow myself (and I rarely do). instead, i shoot for controlled bursts of gameplay at the very end of the day, after a long day of work, if i’m able.

but w.o.w. has managed to accomplish something in creating a game i don’t particularly want to play for 8 hours straight. mainly, the world is huge. from a content standpoint this is fantastic as there is lots to see and discover. on the downside, you spend a lot of time basically walking from point a to b. this invariably causes me to get tired after not too long to the point where i just log off. this of course is in blizzard’s interest in that it keeps my account active longer so they can get their subscription fee (i’m not that well connected!). it also has the downside of probably being the reason i eventually stop playing entirely. that, and battles are unnecessarily slow and sometimes unexciting as a result.

i can’t understand why these things couldn’t have been sped up, or quests made to require less walking. though i’d “get through” the game sooner, i’d be more likely to create a different character and start all over again rather than perhaps just get bored and quit.

in any case, i’m enjoying it so far after a pretty slow start. and it’s comforting to know i can write off my subscription fee!

Back in the Saddle

Fantasy / gaming conventions are strange things. As opposed to literary sci-fi cons, which are an entirely different beast, cons like Comic-Con and Gencon are this strange mix of fandom and trade show, with liberal amounts of absolute surrealism. As an exhibitor, I sit in a booth or behind a table and watch this parade of people go by. I have no illusions--being a painter in one of these things is by no means anything like attending a gallery opening with wine and brie. There is this sort of thrown-together feel to the entire show, and you are constantly talking to people who are everyday folk one minute, and dressed like Superman the next. As a venue for showing art and being an artist, conventions are as down-to-earth as you can get (if that earth were one in which fictional characters came to life). No stuffy conversation about influences and the meaning of your work as it sits within a post-modern context. Nope, instead it's discussing World of Warcraft characters with a lady wearing rubber elf ears, or explaining historical choices made in certain illustrations with history aficionados.

I've been home over a week and am still unpacking the compressed memories. Just when you're starting to feel a little out of place as a group of people dressed as a World of Warcraft guild stand around eating pizza (a lot of Warcraft references at these cons), Samuel Jackson walks by (though I missed him by seconds. Damn my bladder!). And yet, where else can you snap a photo like the one below?

Believe it or not it's just me...and the Greatest American Hero....

I hit the ground running, with plenty of work and new opportunities to pursue. But i think I'm caught up now and ready to continue normal life, with a stress on the word "normal."

Bonus! For no reason at all, here's a little video for you to see, that a friend took at the zoo during the convention. Man, that was me in many an algebra class.