You are in Blue Ink Alchemy.
There is an exit through the Internet.
There is a New Post here.
It is dark.
You may be eaten by a grue.
Does anybody else remember ZORK?
It was something I played briefly in my youth. It was one of my very first adventure games. This was long before anything like graphical user interfaces had made a big splash in computing, let alone PC gaming, so the action and suspense played itself out in the form of lines of text.
My first ‘MMO’ experience was similar. It’s not strictly a massively multiplayer experience, as I have no idea how many simultaneous players the server supports, but MUME – Multi-Users of Middle-Earth was perhaps my first real foray into online gaming, happening about the same time I really hit my stride with Trade Wars.
Speaking of which, I’m still interested in getting some kind of iteration of that thing going on my local server with friends and stuff. I just haven’t had the time.
Anyway, text-based adventuring. These are actually more intricate and deep than you might expect. Instead of relying on glitsy graphics or gameplay powered by a few quick button-presses, the designer has to include common command ideas such as “LOOK”, “GET” and “INVENTORY” while being ready to respond to unknown commands like “RESPAWN”, “SPONTANEOUSLY COMBUST” or “TEABAG”.
There’s also the fact that it’s the player who populates the game world, at least in a sense. By reading the text of the adventure, it’s your imagination that are giving the characters, settings and threats of the world flesh, weight and meaning. This requires the setting to be well-written, with clear descriptions and consequences that matter. It also means that the designers need to lay out a path to victory for the player, with obstacles and misdirects placed carefully so that once the player gets the hang of which commands work, there’s still plenty of challenge to be had.
How might a text-based adventure if it were programmed today, say using a popular IP?
I can’t assume that every reader who passes by here knows enough about World of Warcraft to get all of the in-jokes, but pay attention to some of the longer descriptions. This is well-written, cleanly described and carefully directed work. More than just an exercise in “trolling the forums for the lulz,” it’s a great example of good writing, good design and a fantastic result.
It also had me laughing so hard I was crying. So, there’s that as well.
This morning I read a rather brief guide on Writing Believable Characters from the Young Adult Fantasy Guide. It’s a great overview of what to do right and what to avoid when putting your characters together. I highly recommend you go give it a read if you’re thinking of starting up a new creative project any time soon.
When you think about it, creating characters for a story isn’t really all that different from going through the character creation process in a current generation video game, provided you got the game from BioWare or an MMO studio and they allow such things. Good luck trying to customize Nathan Drake from Uncharted or Issac Clarke from Dead Space. You’re stuck with them as they are, for good or for ill.
Instead of tweaking the character’s race, class and talent build, however, you’re going to be tweaking their background, outlook and personality. Granted, you can do this is MMOs as well, provided such things are supported in the game either with mechanics or community & developer support. Some studios can’t or won’t support such things directly, but that’s a subject for a different discussion.
Background
Your characters came from somewhere. And I don’t just mean the deep recesses of your brain. Unless they’re vat-grown genetically-engineered super-soldiers, they had a family. Parents. Maybe some siblings. Perhaps a childhood bully. How about a high school sweetheart? Who did they admire growing up? Who did they despise? What was their first kiss like? Their first heartbreak?
These are things you can talk to any person on the planet and get a different result. What would the answers be if you asked your characters? Think about it. They got to where they are at the start of your story by coming from the places that’ll come to light when you answer these questions.
Oh, and if they are a vat-grown genetically-engineered super-soldier, how do they feel about it? Are they jealous of people with families? Do they feel they live in a world of cardboard due to their super-strength or whatnot? Do they understand things like emotions, prejudice, philanthropy and zealotry? How are they programmed? Do they want to break that programming? And if they weren’t grown in a lab, do they remember their family? If not, will they remember them later? What happens when they find out about the past they used to have, if they don’t remember it at the beginning of the story?
I should mention that you should be doing this as soon as possible in the creative process. If you go back and fill in a character’s background later, it might make something of a mess.
Outlook
Tied into background is how a character sees the world around them. Like the questions asked of our SPARTAN super-soldier, it’s the sort of thing you can discern from people around you. Who’s in favor of the current state of things in the world? Who wants to see change? Who’s in it for the money? What motivates people, and by extension, your character?
Altruism can surprise people when it emerges. And some people get shocked when they look back on an event and realize how selfish they were. It’s natural for people to veer one way or another from their baseline behavior, but first they need to have a baseline. And the reason it’s called a baseline is that it’s consistent. It will change over time, since static characters are boring, but this is a gradual change, and sudden shifts away from it should not only shock the reader, it should also shock either the character or the people around them. If not both.
Personality
Note that outlook and personality are two different things. The way one sees the world is not necessarily how one interacts with it. People who are just in it for the money have to at least put on a facade of tolerance and goodwill from time to time in order to further their goals. The difference between one’s outlook and their personality can be a matter of inches or of miles. It depends on the character.
Sometimes these can move closer together, as the hard-bitten out-for-themselves mercenary starts to care about the people she’s thrown in with, or the kindly priest becomes gradually disillusioned with the church and, by extension, the people he’s been nice to for years. These are exciting, interesting changes that can and should be chronicled. It can make a story with very little action, suspense, gore or sex jump off the page and make room for itself in the reader’s imagination. Which is what writing fiction’s all about, right?
How do you distinguish your characters? How will you do so in the future?
Magic: the Gathering is, like many nerdy diversions, something of an expensive hobby.
It’s also similar to things like MMORPGs in that the players are on the prowl for rare items to improve their performance, and that certain arrangements and combinations are ‘best’. In the formats for constructed decks, there tends to be a mentality following this general line of thinking: “If your deck doesn’t use X combination or feature card Y, you cannot and will not win.” And more often than not, those combos and that card are prohibitively expensive. We’re talking hundreds of dollars here, folks.
That’s why limited formats are appealing to those of us operating within the confines of a budget. Everybody starts on a relatively even field, using the same basic resources and their wits to assemble the best deck they can with what they have. In addition to being wallet-friendly, it rewards good analytical and on-the-spot thinking. Rather than walking into the event with a particular combination in mind guaranteed to win games, the player has to think on their feet and make smart decisions.
The ultimate expression of this format, to me, is the draft. Not only is it the least expensive and therefore the easiest to justify, it puts critical thinking skills front and center. It’s rather different from sealed deck events, and in my opinion you get more bang for your buck.
Instead of getting a set number of packs all to yourself, you sit at a table with other players and open each pack one at a time. When you open your pack, you pick one card from among the 15 viable possibilities, then pass the rest to the player on your left. You pick another card, pass, etc. Once that pack is done, you open the next, pick a card and pass to the right. So on and so forth.
By the time you’ve finished you have more than enough cards to build the 40-card minimum deck. But if you just pick the shiniest cards or make choices based solely on rarity, you might not do very well. As you make your choices and see the cards coming by, you need to decide what cards are going to yeild a viable deck despite the randomization based on color, casting cost and the mechanics of the expansions from which you’re choosing.
Let’s say you really like a particular color, or combination of colors. It can be tempting to expect to draft that color and play to your strengths. I can tell you from experience that doesn’t always work. You need to deal with what the military would call “the facts on the ground.” If the person to your right got a really sweet rare card in your preferred color, it’s highly likely he or she will be picking up that color’s more common (and useful) cards to build the foundation of their deck. It’s a preconception that needs to be overcome.
Likewise, if you do aspire to play or compete with those who have constructed decks, you may see a card that would be useful in one of your projects either in a pack you open or passing you by during the draft. As tempting as it can be to grab that card for later use, the competition at hand may have different demands that you need to fulfill, based on your earlier choices.
It was these challenges I needed to overcome in last night’s draft and, for the most part, I succeeded. Apart from some misfortune in the first round, a sleek little black deck carried me to victory in the end. It was a vastly different experience than my first draft, which didn’t net me a single win. I learned from my mistakes, changed my point of view, and found the experience much more rewardiing since my brain was engaged from minute one. I’d probably still feel this way even if I hadn’t done as well, mostly because I think an activity that rewards critical thinking as well as game-playing savvy is a healthy one, especially if it gets one out of the house.
There have been doorstopper fantasies and sci-fi epics that have kept me enraptured for every page. Short fiction has a bigger task, as it needs to grab me, pull me in and keep me in the nuances of its story not with every page, but with every single word. Not every writer can do it.
Chuck Wendig does.
Irregular Creatures captures the madness, the brilliance and the desperation of ten years in a writer’s life. It has pieces long and short, narratives that tug the heartstrings and images that chill the blood. It’s a literary roller-coaster, the long hill of the opener coupled with quick drops and sudden, neck-snapping turns that surprise and confound. Any reader with the savvy and intestinal fortitude to pick this up will not be disappointed, and may ruminate upon the stories within for days to come or longer.
Okay, hyperbole and back-cover-copy aside?
It’s 3 bucks. For 8 stories. That will completely blow your mind.
Scroll back up and click “Buy.” You won’t be sorry.
Disturbed, surprised, impressed? Yes. Sorry? No.
So that’s the Amazon version. Was trying to keep it short for the benefit of bleary-eyed Amazonians just looking for a quick fix to get them through the cold, white months. Hopefully they found it helpful.
Here’s the longer, blow-by-blow version. There are synopses for these over on the page where you buy the thing, so let me tell you how each one hits you and where, and why each of them work on different levels.
Dog-Man and Cat-Bird (A Flying Cat Story) is that long hill before the initial big drop I mentioned. This one doesn’t just tug on your heartstrings, it gives them a hearty pull and then throws you over its shoulder into its dark but uplifting world. It’s a ride, start to finish, a microcosm of the entire work. Even if it weren’t part of an anthology, it’d be a stand-out bit of modern supernatural fantasy/horror. The protagonist is instantly relatable and earnest, the characters are realistically drawn to a one and it never feels contrived on any level. It justifies the entire project in and of itself. It’s no wonder Cat-Bird is on the thing’s cover.
A Radioactive Monkey follows the long drop with a short twist. A good little cautionary tale that still plays with our expectations. Clearly, whatever the reality taking unknown drinks from strange women is a bad idea.
Product Placement takes us to a place that is instantly familiar and thoroughly alien. You may take a closer look at the contents of your nearest vending machine the next time you’re craving a candy bar.
This Guy is you. Maybe. It could be. That’s the hook, the horror of it. The narrator’s an everyday guy, at least he starts out that way. But every day for the everyday guy is and feels the same, and that can change you. It feels like a straight on the coaster before it drops again.
Mister Muh’s Pussy Show feels greasy, dirty, delicious and very much a guilty pleasure.
Lethe and Mnemosyne. It uses every single fucking word precisely. Brilliant.
The Auction brings us back to fairy tale land. With a child protagonist and something that’s two parts Dahl and two parts Barker, we’re in for another wild ride. It front-loads with promise and, like the rest of the tales, does not disappoint.
Beware of Owner is another short that quickly yanks the rug out from under us. You can almost hear Chuck giggling as the full scope of the situation dawns upon us. Bastard.
Do-Overs and Take-Backs rounds out the anthology with another cautionary tale and a fine example of dual plot tracks slowly but surely becoming entwined. It has the horror, the humor, the weirdness and the brilliance of all that came before, and still remains its own creature. (See that? See what I did there?)
So, yeah, like I said. 3 bucks for 8 stories that’ll blow your mind. Basically, we’re robbing Chuck blind. He’s poured years of his heart and soul into this and we walk away with it for a song. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better deal pretty much anywhere.
In the Burning Crusade, Blizzard opened up an entire new world. For Wrath of the Lich King, the continent of Northrend became available. Now, in Cataclysm, a mere handful of new zones have been added to the existing contents. While this makes a lot of sense given the major cosmetic and mechanical changes to Azeroth due to Deathwing wrecking everybody’s homestead, if this trend continues, the next expansion will give us a bit of land about the size of Cuba players will fight over to establish their own banana republic.
Anyway, I recently concluded the quests and exploration of these new zones. Here are my thoughts on them, and unlike certain punditry outlets, I’m going to try and keep this as fair as possible.
Mount Hyjal
Since the conclusion of the Third War, the area atop Mount Hyjal in northern Kalimdor has been inaccessible, due to the world tree Nordrassil being protected by rampant overgrowth. While once this was believed to be a scar concealing a near-fatal wound, the emergence of Deathwing burned the growth away to reveal that Nordrassil had been healing all along. As druids and servants of Cenarius flocked to the site to protect the Tree, Deathwing has called upon his Twilight Hammer cultists and summoned an ally to burn the Tree to ashes once and for all: the Firelord Ragnaros.
If you’re a long-time fan of Warcraft and enamoured with its lore, Hyjal’s a great place to start. While its opening quests feel a bit like the same-old “Kill X amount of monster Y” in a forest not unlike that around the night elf starting zone, interacting with the legendary Ancients and the buildup to the final chain make the questing worthwhile outside of the material rewards. It definitely gets you into the feeling of older Warcraft games in terms of setting and lore, but it also reminds the player of older content best left forgotten. Overall, though, a pretty solid zone.
Vashj’ir
Thrall has made his choice, abdicating leadership of the Horde to Garrosh Hellscream and becoming leader of Azeroth’s shamans, the Earthen Ring. The Maelstrom in the middle of the sea has grown even more tumultuous in the wake of Deathwing’s awakening, and he has called for champions to aid him in preserving the balance of elements. En route, however, adventurers find themselves assaulted by a vicious sea monster and dragged into the cold depths below. With help from the Earthen Ring, the source of this kraken must be discovered, and answers lie within the sunken elven city of Vash’jir.
Vashj’ir is the other ‘starting’ area of Cataclysm’s new content, and it begins with a bang that plunges its players quite literally into unfamiliar waters. Over and above all else, the visuals in the zone are absolutely stunning. The diversity and danger of deep sea life is captured quite well, considering the engine is six years old. However, it’s not all good news beneath the waves. Needing to navigate and fight in three dimensions can be disorienting at first, and even once you get the hang of it, adequate view distance may not be enough to save you from a band of angry creatures diving toward you seemingly out of nowhere. The lore within the area feels tangential to the rest of the content of the expansion, and while the look inside naga society is interesting, the goblin submarine a neat distraction and the cephalopod exploration unique (if somewhat disturbing for some), the bulk of the zone doesn’t really stand out the way others do. It’s not as bad as some people might make it out to be, which shouldn’t be a surprise considering this is the WoW community we’re talking about, but I feel it’s the weakest of the five zones. Which is a bit like saying The Two Towers is the weakest of the Lord of the Rings trilogy of films. Relative to the other two, it might be true, but relative to other films they tend to blow everything else out of the water. So, your mileage may vary.
Deepholm
Deathwing tore his way back to Azeroth and left nothing untouched in his wake. Even the Elemental Plane of Earth was affected, as the pillar supporting Azeroth from below was cracked. While the druids tend to the World Tree above, the World Pillar below threatens to collapse, taking Azeroth with it. To prevent this, one must venture into Deepholm, home of the Stone Mother Therazane. The Twilight Hammer has made beachheads here, and adventurers must put a stop to their misddeds if the world is to be saved. In this place, the cultists and heroes have something in common: they are unwelcome.
Like Vashj’ir, this is a zone that has a lot of eye candy going for it. Instead of making things a uniform gray or brown, color explodes out of corners of Deepholm almost without warning. Adding the characterization of Therazane to that of Ragnaros and Neptulon (the lord of Water, featured at the end of Vashj’ir’s final quest chain and its solitary dungeon) expands the history of Azeroth in an interesting way, and other NPCs make time spent in Deepholm worthwhile. Mylra quickly became my second-favorite dwarf behind Brann Bronzebead. Deepholm is also like Vashj’ir in some moments of tedium, and unlike Vashj’ir, the nature of the rewards from gaining reputation with Therazane means it’s more than likely you’ll be coming back. Still, I enjoyed Deepholm more than Vashj’ir, and I look forward to earning the Pebble vanity pet. Who knew a pet rock could be so gosh-darn cute?
Uldum
The sands have uncovered forgotten lands due to the shift brought about by Deathwing. To the south of Tanaris lies the lost land of Uldum, an ancient desert kingdom used by the Titans for experimentation. In addition to its curious indigenous people is evidence of the Titans’ work, valuable to both archaeologists who would study it and dark opportunists who would usurp it. Finally, the djinn-like beings that have seized control of the Elemental Plane of Air had come to Azeroth through Uldum, allying themselves with Deathwing.
No matter what you seek in Uldum, you won’t be bored. The introduction of the society in Ramkahen deepens the diversity of life on Azeroth even if their presence may feel tangential to some. The quests in Uldum are a particular delight, changing pace and focus quite often in addition to packing the zone with hiarlious references. Individual quests can harken to everything from The Great Escape to Katamari Damacy, and then there’s the long chain that just might have you whistling the Indiana Jones theme. The dungeons in Uldum are a diverse lot and continue the trend of changing up challenges. The only circumstances under which someone might not enjoy Uldum is if they find these sorts of things tedious or just don’t like deserts.
Twilight Highlands
Seat of the Twilight’s Hammer and its leader, the mad ogre-mage Cho’gall, the Twilight Highlands are also the site of a conflict that has not ceased in ages, between the Wildhammer dwarves and the Dragonmaw orcs. Despite the looming mutual threat of Deathwing and his cronies, these two just won’t stop killing each other. While there may not be an end to hostilities in sight, canny adventurers can win some support from their respective if wayward allies and make an assault upon not only the Twilight’s Hammer’s holdings, but also upon Deathwing himself, with a little help from Alexstraza and the red dreagonflight.
The Highlands get off to a good start, tossing the player into the conflict bodily. There are bits of very enjoyable questing here, from the Horde opening to the assault on the Bastion’s gates, but between these bits is some cross-faction conflict that underscores the resurgence of lore-friendly PvP in Cataclysm. As hilarious as it is to set fire to Wildhammer kegs only to see them violently explode – they’re something like 200 proof – I personally felt that dealing with the mutual threat of Deathwing and the Twilight Hammer should come before perpetuating very old grudges. This doesn’t make the content in the middle of Twilight Highlands bad, per se, and it’s a solid zone overall especially in comparison to Vashj’ir. It could also be that, despite being Horde, I’ve always liked the Wildhammer dwarves and I felt a little bad scoping and dropping so many of the amusing and badass woad-wearing drunken brawlers.
There you have it. In my completely subjective and not-at-all authoritative opinion, Uldum is the strongest zone of Cataclysm while Vashj’ir comes up a bit short. However, all of the Cataclysm material represents a high point in Blizzard’s design, a welcome departure from the things that made Wrath of the Lich King so tedious in general. While that expansion had only a few standout zones, every single area of Cataclysm has something going for it.
