Extended Blog Piece - Blockade of Global Progression.

We as human beings are predisposed to copying, it is how we learn. From infancy until adulthood, it is our disposition to learn by example. George Bernard Shaw, a novelist and a playwright said "Imitation is not just the sincerest form of Flattery - It's the sincerest form of learning.". An infant develops through the imitation of their parents, they are natural sponges of information, absorb through imitation of those around them. Yet, if this is the case, why is copying condemned so? Inherently, it is because people love to copy, but hate to be copied.

Thomas Edison, father of inventions and innovation is a prime example of this love / hate relationship of copying. It is well known that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, well, he didn't. He only innovated them in a way that made the commercially viable. The idea and bulk of the work actually belongs to British Inventors Fredrick DeMoleyns, and Humphrey Davy who began working on the light bulb a good 70 years before Edison. However, I am not discrediting Thomas Edison's work, he took the unfinished product of the light bulb and innovated it into something technologically revolutionary. But at the same time, Edison was notorious for bringing up patents on his works blocking anyone from further progression of his ideas. Ironic isn't it.

Now we have to bring this predicament of copying into the modern day and on a global scale. Things have gotten a bit out of hand since Edison. Copy Right law has run rampant and has caused a rift in the progressive cycle. Now we have Samsung and Apple battling it out in court rooms about who did what first. We have people being sued thousands of dollars because they downloaded a CD. Those who refused to adhere to this ban on copying are now referred to as pirates. But instead of wielding swords and a flintlock pistols, they wield keyboards and 5 terabyte hard drives.

The Music industry, the legal iron giants of copyright fight against one thing. Pirates. Pirates who think paying $20 per album of 12 songs is ridiculous, choose to share, download copied material for free. As a majority of those anti-piracy laws come from America and are applicable to United States territory. The Internet Pirating websites are set up in countries such as Sweden where their practices are not infringing upon the law. Pirate Bay, the most notable of the piracy websites are aware of their advantage in Sweden and do not take heed of any misguided legal notices that production companies send their way. you can read their responses to these emails at http://thepiratebay.se/legal/ .

Pirates are portrayed as evil, swash-buckling thieves of the internet. Driven to steal the money from artists for their own benefits. There is no way that piracy could be justified is there? In a study conducted Go-Globe.com, Web Technologies, it was stated that 70% of those surveyed found nothing wrong with online piracy, and out of the most pirated material on the web was pornography.  If the production industries keep functioning as they do. While there is the introduction of social media, MP3. The purchasing of a physical CD has become redundant, but we still expected to pay irrational prices for media. Luckily, there are some pioneers in the music industry that will make the leap forward into a more productive consumer cycle. such as Spottify, which is free with a premium service, allows you to listen to a huge range of music for free, whilst still providing the artists with their cut.

"You're not losing sales by getting stuff out there. When I do a big talk now on these kinds of subjects and people ask "What about the sales you are losing by having stuff floating out there?" I started asking the audience to raise their hands for one question -- Do you have a favourite author? And they say yes and I say good. What I want is for everybody who discovered their favourite author by being lent a book put up your hand. Then anybody who discovered their favourite author by walking into a book story and buying a book. And it's probably about 5-10%, if that, of the people who discovered their favourite author who is the person they buy everything of and they buy the hardbacks. And they treasure the fact they've got this author. Very few of them bought the book. They were lent it. They were given it. They did not pay for it. That's how they found their favourite author. And that's really all this is; it's people lending books.".

There is something to be said when the artists who are supposedly being "stolen" from have no qualms with people copying their music, and in some cases support it. When Industry is too focused on who copied what, we lose sight of what is important to begin with. Progression, which is the main goal of any civilization, and what our future steps are towards globalization..

Ideas have always been a global resource. As Ideas are the by-product of knowledge and circumstance. It has been shown that people have had the same idea at the same time, in different locations in history. Two separate patents were filed for the Telephone on the same day. Who is to say who owns an idea.

Global progression is the true aim. We copy to learn, learn to innovate, innovate to progress.  Copying is how we learn, we copy to gain understanding, a knowledge which we adapt to create new ideas. AS we put up gates around our ideas and technologies, we as a race are unable to progress . This is, in essence why the copyright law are harmful.

Piracy and Copyright are two opposing forces, both are seen just as virtuous as each other. Copyright being the law of the land and the fair treatments of consumers. and Piracy going for the Robin Hood approach of taking from the rich and bloated producers and providing media to the poor and downtrodden of the internet. When peoples lust for wealth gets in the way of global progression of ideas, and technological power houses squabble in the court rooms instead of innovating for the benefit of their customers or even their competition. It is then when I consider Copy Right and Copyright wrong.

References:

Childs, Brian. "Neil Gaiman On Internet Piracy: "It's People Lending Books"" Comics Alliance. N.p., 10 Feb. 2011. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/02/10/neil-gaiman-piracy-lending-books/>.

Ferguson, Kirby. "All Is a Remix." All Is Remix. All Is a Remix, 2011. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://www.allremix.ru/watch-the-series/>.

"George Bernard Shaw." Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5217.George_Bernard_Shaw>.

"Online Piracy in Numbers - Facts and Statistics [Infographic]." Online Piracy in Numbers - Facts and Statistics [Infographic]. Go Gulf, 1 Nov. 2011. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://www.go-gulf.com/blog/online-piracy>.

"The Pirate Bay - The Galaxy's Most Resilient Bittorrent Site." The Pirate Bay - The Galaxy's Most Resilient Bittorrent Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://thepiratebay.se/legal/>.

"Uniform Motion — Release Day Economics." Uniform Motion — Release Day Economics. Uniform Motion, n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://uniformmotion.tumblr.com/post/9659997039/release-day-economics>.

Massively Multiplayer Online Globe

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games(mmorpg), have become a part of our world. Most people you talk to will know or at least heard of one MMORPG, in most cases, this would be World of Warcraft (WoW) which boasts 11 million players. These games provide a persistent fantasy world where you create an avatar of yourself with a unique set of skills and abilities, and then sends you off on a adventure with thousands of other players, who you are free to communicate or fight with.

Though WoW is the most popular and well known of the MMORPG sphere, there are dozens of other MMORPG's out there. Whether they are free or subscription based, there is a huge global market for these communities, there is an estimated 75 million MMORPG players worldwide. While questing within these worlds it is easy to forget that every single person you see running around is another person behind a computer screen just like yourself.

Elizabeth Erkenbrack,  author of the 'Mediated personhood and World of Warcraft: An Ethnographic and linguistic analysis, states that "An MMORPG is a type interactive social media. Ethnographic treatment of this type of media deserves balanced consideration to ensure that it is recognized as  both cultural artifact as well as an actual site of culture and cultural formation (Hine: 2000, 2005)" . This means within globalization, not only do we have our planet to think of in terms of cultural significance, now we have dozens of other worlds.

References:

 Changyou. "The Globalization of MMORPGs - MMORPG.com Blogs."Online MMO and MMORPG Gamelist, News, Reviews and Community at MMORPG.com. Version -. -, 12 Mar. 2010. Web. 6 Sept. 2012. <http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/changyou/032010/5872_The-Globalization-of-MMORPGs>.

Erkenbrack, Elizabeth. "a thesis in Anthropology." 'Mediated personhood and World of Warcraft: An Ethnographic and linguistic analysis -.- (2011): 6. Print.http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1559&context=edissertations

Video Game localization

When It comes to video game culture, it comes from two geographical location. There is east and West. East meaning Japan, as their video games market is huge and innovative, and west, meaning America. You can tell where a game is from just by looking at it. You can see the cultural influences instantly

Japanese games are usually filled to the brim with color and hilarious characters, whichis considered culturally jarring to western gamers.

On the other hand, western video game aesthetics are usually brown, grey and a dreary feeling, going for a post apocalyptic setting. see (gears of wars, fall out, ect.).

How this geographic taste in games differs relates to video game localization. This is the reason we have games come out at a later date in certain areas (primarily Australia).

As a result some areas in the world will never see certain games due to localization issues.

Heather Chandler, the author of the game localization handbook in an interview with Bytelevel.com "From a technical standpoint, ant language that uses a non-western alphabet, such as japanese or hebew, presents some challenges there are issues with UI design and character displat that need to be considered when localizing games for these languages."

While game localization is an issue with avid gamers, it is something that has become less of an issue in recent times, with japanese games being released in the west a mere 3-6 months after their local releases.

References:

Chandler, Heather. "Video Game Globalization: An Interview with the Author of The Game Localization Handbook." Video Game Globalization: An Interview with the Author of The Game Localization Handbook. Http://www.bytelevel.com, 2012. Web. 06 Sept. 2012. <http://www.bytelevel.com/global/game_globalization.html>.

Images: 

http://fallout.bethsoft.com/images/downloads/wallpapers/fallout-wp7-1600x1200.jpg

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20060607105035/egamia/images/thumb/b/bf/Katamari-box.jpg/150px-Katamari-box.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwhFH75OCDs

Hackers of the World

How can we trust what we read, hear and see when one corporation owns a majority of media outlets? Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation are what we refer to as 'news', hell news  is in their name. As a hypothetical, they could publish a story which is completely false, and publish the same story in all of their news outlets and everyone would think it is true, because we as humans have a inbuilt system of "Majority Rules".

When tabloids know what we fear and what we want, they have power over us. They extort our fear for their profit. That is what was so terrifying about the News of the World phone hacking scandal back in 2011. Information is the most valuable resource in the world, people pay millions of dollars to know what type of shampoo people are using, or what telephone provider you are signed with. How valuable is the information about you on your phone. News Corporation aren't the only people who are spying on you, they were just doing it without your consent. When Face book, Google and ITunes are selling your information and tracking your every step in order to sell you items.

So where does one draw the line when it comes to privacy, just because I pressed some button at the end of the huge wall of text does that mean you have right to know everything about me? is that just as unjust as listening in on my phone calls?

References:

Chandrasekhar, Indu, Murray Wardrop, and Andy Trotman. "Phone hacking: timeline of the scandal."Telegraph UK. N.p., 15 Nov. 2012. Web. 2 Feb. 2012. <www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8634176/Phone-hacking-timeline-of-a-scandal.html>.

Blockade of Progression: Part 2

Continuing on from last time. I want to talk about humans and how we develop ideas. The way humans discover and invent things, is that we see something and adapt it. How was the wheel made? someone would have seen a log and noticed how it rolled and improved the design. Well we still do that, with everything. Now if you are noticing a trend between the start of this post and the last, and the title, here it is. Copying is how we learn, we copy to gain understanding a knowledge which we adapt to create new ideas.  As we put gates around our ideas and technologies, we as a race are unable to progress. This is why, the copyright laws are harmful.

Thomas Edison did not invent the light bulb, he just improved it. Bob Dylans first Album was cover songs. This is why we as a species need copying, we learn from it. No one can start from the ground up. It doesn't work like that.

When Industry is too focused on who copied what, we lose what is most important to begin with. Progression. which is the main goal of our civilization, and what our future steps are towards globalization.

so this is why I consider Copy right, and copyright wrong. (see what i did there?)

I urge you all to check out the most eye opening documentary by Kirby Ferguson, it is called 'Everything is a Remix'. and you can watch it for free on his website. Watch it here

Blockade of Progression part 1

this is the first of a two part blog post about the copyright law.

'Happy Birthday to you
happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear readers
happy birthday to you'

You would be shocked if I told you that if I were to sing this song in a public space I would owe Warner Music Group $700 dollars of royalties. The song which was adapted from the original "good Morning to all" which was composed by Patty and Mildred hill in 1893 was used to greet kindergarten students in the morning. The song whilst composed in the 1900's is still considered under copy right due to the fickle nature of the copy right industry.

The music industry, the legal iron giant fights against one thing. Pirates. Pirates who think paying $20 per album of 12 songs is ridiculous, choose to share and download the copied material for free. As a majority of these anti-piracy laws come from America and are only applicable to United States land. A majority of internet pirating websites are set up in countries such as Sweden where their practices are not infringing upon the law. Pirate Bay are the most notable of the Pirating Websites, and by there name, they do not dispute this at all. You can read all the legal emails and their responses on their website http://thepiratebay.se/legal/

The music industry is too bloated to keep functioning as it does. With the introduction of social media and the MP3, buying a physical copy of a CD has become redundant, but we are still expected to pay irrational prices for Media. Luckily there have been some pioneers in a the music industry to move it forward. Spotify which is a free (with optional premium service) which allows you to listen to a huge range of music for free.

Reference:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080506/1310251047.shtml Masnick, M.2008, Tech dirt

"We paid $700 to say happy birthday. You got to pay for the song." during an episode of her show, "Transcript of 5 Feb 2010 episode of 'The Wendy Williams Show. 5 Feb 2010. Retrieved 1 May 2011.

Definition of Globalization

#ALC215

Globalisation refers to the growing interconnectedness of different parts of the world, a process which gives rise to complex forms of interaction and interdependency. (Thompson, 1995: 149, Theorizing Media and Globalization, pg 7.)

I feel that Thompsons quote on globalisation is all too negative. The words like Interdependency shine a bad light on what globalisation could achieve on a world wide spectrum. I personally see Globalisation as a symbiotic relationship between cultures and people.

Globalisation moves past a national level of interaction and sees the combination of cultures, economies and people. It is a pull and push effect on everyone, not a dependence on one another. Dependence which Thompson uses in his definition is a word that would be seen as weak. That you can’t stand on your own two feet.

As global media consumer and a globalisation and media student, I feel that globalisation synergetic energy that is rapidly evolving idea that boomed during the times of airline travel and most importantly the internet. The internet as allowed us to communicated to nearly anyone in the world at any time, with the simple click of a button. It is a revolutionary application of communication that will inevitably bring cultures together with shared ideas. And a growing international trade of being able to buy things online.

I feel hat Thompsons definition of globalisation is too cold and misleading to what it is and can be. If I were to describe it, I would say that: Globalisation is the growing synergy across the globe, a process which would develop international symbiosis between cultures and economies. 

Extra information on the internet and globalization 

Media and Globalization

#ALC215

As an Australian and Canadian hybrid who grew up in a predominately Asian area of Melbourne, my cultural identity is all sorts of convoluted. I enjoy American television, Chinese films, Japanese cartoons and Polish video-games.  My entertainment is provided to me from across the world,  as a consumer, I would consider myself a global citizen'.

This idea of  being a globalized consumer is becoming more and more commonplace in our society. As a late Generation-Y child, I spent my childhood during the boom of the internet. So in my life the idea of talking to someone anywhere in the world at anytime seems very common place to me. With the way that the Generation Z is going, this global culture is going to be even more ingrained in their life in the future.

My problem with this system of Globalized media is the outdated means in which we use it in. Television and region locks are a thing of the past, and only exist to fuel piracy. For example "“If we look at the top countries where Game of Thrones is downloaded, Australia comes out on top with 10.1% of all downloads (based on one episode),” TorrentFreak wrote on its blog. (article here). As an Australian I understand why this is so, as the show first aired a entire season's difference in time. Whilst the second season aired 4 weeks after America. So the Global citizens of us in Australia need a more accessible and legal way to remain Global media users.

Game of Thrones problems

The good and bad of media globalisation.

Good:

• Steam
• Netflix 
• The Internet
• Spottify
• Louis C.K.

Bad:

• Television
• Netflix (not a global service)
• Cinemas

The Darjeeling Limited Review

The story of 3 brothers, one train and a spiritual experience.

’The Darjeeling Limited’ is a half comedy and half drama (from the director Wes Anderson) about three brothers, one train and a spiritual experience which will be with them for a life time. This Indian rode trip filled with the heart wrenching emotional journey of the Whitman brothers is something to experience, to say this movie is precious would be an understatement.

Francis Whitman (Owen Wilson) leads the troupe of emotionally distant brothers around the beautiful country of India, Francis is the eldest of the 3 and is recovering from a near fatal car accident. Owen Wilson plays this socially awkward brother to par, the characters quirks mesh well with Owens comedic acting style. One of Francis’ lines in the movie "I want us to become brothers like we used to be," is a line that stayed with me through the movie, he is the central character but by no means the main character.

His domineering personality makes him order his brothers food (which they hate), during the entire movie, his face is swabbed in bandages, which he got from a horrific accident while driving, even with this whole ordeal he remain optimistic and unaware of people’s emotions.

Adrien Brody plays the middle brother of the trio, Peter is a grieving son who cares affiliates of his father everywhere, like his fathers prescription glasses which leave peter near blind, the fact that peter wears these glasses frustrates Francis. Adrien plays the wary middle brother who seems to prefer the company of his little brother more so than Francis. Peters a soon to be dad, but completely unsure about the whole situation.

and then there is the youngest of the 3, Jack (Jason Schwartzman) is a man who is haunted by his ex-girlfriend, whom we only really see in the prequel short film set in Paris (played by Natalie Portman). Jack is a man who does not like to get involved, when his older brothers are bickering; he refuses to take part until he is forced to. Jack checks his ex girlfriend’s answering machine messages every time the train stops. Jack also chases after an Indian stewardess as soon as he arrives on the train.

Each brother in the film are there own selfish in considerate person, if Francis is controlling, Peter is woeful, then jack is horny.

This movie is one that I have fallen in love with, the experience these brothers go through are out of this world, this a movie I would love to own and would recommend to all who enjoy quirky movies and sweet story lines.

Needs to be watched

After playing hours of Dark Souls, this is how it's done.

Rates of Pay in the Industry

Another School Task.

Online Writing:
Since the content of websites constantly changes, we have determined the best payment structure is an annual, recurring licence fee. Minimum payment is for one year’s use regardless of whether or not the works licensed are made available for the full period or not. Since it is impossible to come up with a digital equivalent of a print run, the annual licence fee includes a load factor as compensation for communication of the licensed material. The fee does not decrease should the material be used on a limited access intranet.
The fee: Per poem or 1000 words or illustration or part thereof, $350 per annum


Freelance writing:
These rates are based on the 2010 National Freelance Rates approved by the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance and apply to all genres except poetry. They apply to prose (such as articles or short fiction for magazines, journals or newspapers) which is commissioned on a freelance or casual basis and previously unpublished.
• Per day = $878
• Per half day = $585 (2/3 day rate)
• Per hour = $219
• 1000 words or less = $892
• Per word thereafter = $0.89

Australian Writing Groups.

Hey this is just a series of posts that i have to make for a class that i am doing. so bare with me.


Australian Horror Writers Association
The Australian Horror Writers Association (AHWA) is a non-profit organisation that formed unofficially in 2003 as a way of providing a unified voice and a sense of community for Australian writers of dark fiction, while helping the development and evolution of this genre within Australia.
HWA aims to become the first point of reference for writers and fans of the dark side of literature in Australia. AHWA aims to spread the acceptance and improve the understanding of what horror is in literature to a wider audience, and in doing so gain a greater readership for established and new writers alike.

Australian Society of Authors
The Australian Society of Authors is the professional association for Australia's literary creators.
The ASA was formed in 1963 to promote and protect the rights of Australia's writers and illustrators, and now has almost 3000 members across Australia.
The ASA sets minimum rates for pay and conditions for authors and illustrators, and publishes books, papers and lists for emerging and established writers. They provide a contract advisory service, run mentorships for new and emerging writers and offer advice about writing, copyright and publishing. Membership fees are tax-deductible expenses for professional writers.

Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
The SCBWI is a professional organisation that acts as a network for children's authors, illustrators, editors and publishers. There are over 22,000 members in more than 70 regions worldwide. In Australia and New Zealand we have a strong and active network.
In Australia, the SCBWI aims to support professional children's book writers and illustrators by keeping them up to date with industry knowledge, publishers - and each other. they focus on selling our work to both the Australian and international markets, especially the USA.

Facebook Writing Groups

DeescribeWriting Tips and News

 is a facebook group that focuses on a community effort to compile the news of the publishing industry and the latest tips and tricks of writing to help you finish your project. It’s an open group with only about 130+ members. The group in fact seems derelict, as the last post was in May of this year. But there are still some good compiled posts there that some people may be interested in.

Authors, Agents and Aspiring Writers 

is a more established group, with over 2500 members and still climbing, Authors, Agents, and Aspiring Writers: A group dedicated to excellence in writing while nurturing a greater sense of community among all members. They invite all writers of all genres to join us and discuss industry trends, share exciting news, organize workshops, and ask the hard questions.  Though the writing profession may be pleasurable and sometimes rewarding, it’s also a solitary one. This forum is committed to helping writers reach out to one another -- to grow and to share the collective wealth of experience, knowledge, and advice. But our group is not just a vast resource of support; the mission is also to motivate and to let the writer know – you are never alone.

Facebook Writing Groups

DeescribeWriting Tips and News
is a facebook group that focuses on a community effort to compile the news of the publishing industry and the latest tips and tricks of writing to help you finish your project. It’s an open group with only about 130+ members. The group in fact seems derelict, as the last post was in May of this year. But there are still some good compiled posts there that some people may be interested in.

Authors, Agentsand Aspiring Writers
is a more established group, with over 2500 members and still climbing, Authors, Agents, and Aspiring Writers: A group dedicated to excellence in writing while nurturing a greater sense of community among all members. They invite all writers of all genres to join us and discuss industry trends, share exciting news, organize workshops, and ask the hard questions.  
Though the writing profession may be pleasurable and sometimes rewarding, it’s also a solitary one. This forum is committed to helping writers reach out to one another -- to grow and to share the collective wealth of experience, knowledge, and advice. But our group is not just a vast resource of support; the mission is also to motivate and to let the writer know – you are never alone.

Decline of Television

Entertainment media in the recent years has changed dramaticly. From the birth of cinema and television, Entertainment available at the touch of a button, with hundreds of movies and television shows being created every year, each to suit the interests of most demographics.

Recently, film and television has gone through a change of quality. Trading artistic integrity for advertising revenue, networks choose to cancel television shows if it doesn’t meet the revenue requirements. Though. Fantastic are cut before their blossom. Shows like ‘The Ben Stiller Show’, ‘Firefly’, ‘Arrested Development’ and ‘Deadwood’. Many of these superb shows were cancelled, for their lack of viewers for the networks.

As these television shows integrate some remarkable story telling, and deep characters, the majority of shows that are cancelled before their prime. On the other side of the spectrum, certain shows are have far gone past their expiry date. Examples of shows that are guilty of this are; ‘Scrubs’, ’That ‘70’s show’, ‘The Office’, ‘X-files’, ‘Two and Half Men’ and most famously ‘The Simpsons’. These shows have been clung to, straining the writers and then becoming shadows of what the shows once were.

The shows like the Simpsons had characters, which were once  deep, multilayered and reflected the stereotypical American, middle-class, white family have become a bunch of two dimensional characters (pun intended) who become stupider every year. The term invented to describe this transition, is aptly named ‘Flanderization’, Named after the The Simpsons, Ned Flanders, who was originally just a kind, clean-cut and quiet, somewhat religious fellow (contrast to Homer), before becoming the passive-aggressive, religious fanatic he is today.

Other examples of ‘flanderization’ in film come in the form of Yoda's speech in the original Star Wars trilogy, simply swapping nouns and verbs in certain situations in a manner as if it were not his first language. This was exaggerated in popular culture leading the writers of the prequels to invent lines such as "Not if anything to say about it, I have!", which makes the once great wise character, a green monster with a speech impediment

.

However, there are some successful television series that have avoided ‘Flanderization’. Doctor Who, which has survived for longer than 26 seasons and is still going strong. The writing and lore of the show is the key to this, as they can go through characters, due to the fact that when the doctor dies, he regenerates as a new person, new personality and a new face, allowing the creators to change actors and writers, producing some of the best television to date.

While worthwhile television shows being created every year, such as ‘Community’, ‘Modern Family’ etc. there are still some hope to redeem the industry, but the television executives need to learn how to give a new series a chance and to stop older series from stagnating.

Now for something completely different

A fantastic film clip and a great song. Check it out

The Witcher 2: Continued

When I last wrote I had just finished the prologue to ‘The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings’ and I had thoroughly enjoyed it. I said the game was hard and that I had to lower the games setting to easy to even progress. Well, I finally learnt how to play ( and returned to playing on Normal Setting).

Upon learning how to play the game, my enjoyment increased significantly. As I downloaded the game off www.GOG.com  I did not have a manual on hand; as I have heard a lot of the problems I had a game could have been avoided by looking at the manual, an old tradition in gaming that had died out with tutorials. So I won’t complain about this aspect of the game, as it was my fault and I actually respect the game more for its choice not to baby sit me.

In my last post, I had just finished the prologue, so in the first chapter, many mechanics of the games have come in to fruition, such as monster hunting, traps, alchemy/ herb gather, Potions, boss fighting, story changing choices, and character progression.

Monster Hunting:

The profession that the game is named after, a Witcher is a monster hunter, so the game has mastered the art of this hunting. The game requires you to study a monster, to know their strengths and weaknesses so you can fight them adequately. To do this, you must know the monsters fighting habits, how many numbers they come in, what kind of damage they use (Poison, bleeding etc. etc.), and what they are vulnerable to. Each encounter with the monsters of Witcher 2 is unique and challenging, even the weakest monsters can pose a threat to Geralt (the Witcher) if un prepared.

Traps:

                The use of traps in the Witcher is fantastic, each having their own unique strengths and weakness, they can turn the tides of battle or back fire if you trigger them yourself. Your basic trap is a snare, which can be deployed and reset infinite amount of times, allowing you to reuse the traps. Other traps come in the forms of Fire traps, which do high amounts of damage, but can damage you if you get to close and are not reusable, but are fixable and craftable.

Herb Gathering/ Alchemy:

                The herb gathering in The Witcher 2, is very second nature. Unlike other RPG’s the herbs are everywhere and easy to find, which makes the need to go hunting for herbs less tedious then other RPG’s such as the Dragon Age series.

Alchemy is also intuitive, allowing you to replace some ingredients with others to create potions, which helps if you are low on a specific herb. Alchemy of The Witcher 2 is a necessity and the game makes it easy and hassle free which is a blessing in such a deep RPG such as this.

Potions:

                The potion system in the Witcher is incredibly complex, whilst meditating you can drink up to 3 potions (so no health potion spamming in this game, sorry Diablo fans). Each potion has their positive effects, their negative effects, and toxicity. The toxicity of potions limits the amount of potions that you can have at once, you have a limit of 100 toxicity at the start of the game (may be changeable) and each potion has their own toxicity. For example; a health regeneration potion would have 25 toxicity, but a stronger potion would have 30-50 toxicity. The potion system is deep and requires you to drink the right potions for the right fight. I see this being be implemented in future games due to its fluency and customization.

Boss Fights:

                The first boss fight in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is a giant squid monster known as the Kayran (Kraken). The boss fight is hard but as a supporting character is shouting advice at you, it makes the experience a lot easier. The thing about the boss fights is that, as there is no easy way to heal (save for hiding and waiting for regeneration) you really have to be quick and dodge the behemoths large strikes, forcing me to reload the save every time I got hit early in the fight, knowing that my death was inevitable. The boss fight did require some Quick Time Events (QTE) but it wasn’t done to excess and wasn’t a huge part of the fight. I’m really looking forward to some more of these huge fights.

Story Changing Choices:

                Choice is a huge thing in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, everything that Geralt says is a choice by the player. And in the long run there is a lot of choice, I shall not give any spoilers, but you have the choice to help certain groups in the first chapter, and these choices will cascade in to the rest of the games arching story, for example, siding with elves will make the elves a bigger part of the story.

I’ve yet to see much of my choices show through except for my battle worn elven ally. I look forward to seeing more of my choices shine through to personalize my experience of ‘The Witcher 2’.

Character Progression:

                Geralt ‘The Witcher’ goes up in levels as you progress through the game, with each level is given a skill point, you can spend you skill points in The Witcher’s  four tiered skill tree, allowing you to improve you general witcher skills (Health, mana, parrying skills, throwing knives), Swordplay (Extra damage done with swords, countering), Magic (Damage increase, more powerful signs), and alchemy (Trap damage increase, improved potions) there is a lot of customization options given to the player to create their own Geralt.

The Witcher 2 is not without it’s faults though, I’ve had a few AI problems where towns people have trapped me in corners, forcing me to reload saves. But the problems are very minor and easily overlooked in the grand scheme of things.

In my next post I will give an in depth look at the town NPC’s as what I’ve seen is so far is incredible scripting.

Catch you next time readers. 

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (PC) First impressions

As I sat down with my copy of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, I did not know what to expect. I had briefly played the original game, but found the fetch quests a tad stale in a single player RPG (role playing game). With little experience with the story and lore of ‘The Witcher’ I am thrown into the fray upon start-up of the game.

The story starts with Geralt the Witcher, (a monster slayer) being hunted down and captured, awaking in prison to be beat on by guards (so far I have no clue what’s going on). Geralt is then taking to an interrogator and is asked about the events that had happened prior to the start of the game. At this point the only controlling of a character I have had is that of choosing what my character ‘Geralt’ says, which is done quite well, similar to the Mass Effect Radial window, it displays the simplified version of what you want to say, and then followed by the characters voice actor.

(On that note, the voice acting in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is astounding, each character is voice acted very well and the lip-synching has had no errors. And the lines of dialogue that are said can be quite entertaining aswell.)

The interrogator asks you to recap the events of a siege that you and the king were fighting in; you are presented with a list of 4-5 options. I recommend if you read this review before playing the game to start with the first option, as I chose the 3^rd and was confronted with a dragon and some knights when I did not know the controls. The first option you choose is setting up the characters, the recap begins with; Geralt and his witch/companion in bed, she completely naked.I t was a shock to see so early in the game, though it was handled tastefully.

Don’t worry, I will not recap the entire prologue.

The Witcher 2’s visuals are done very well; with cut scenes playing out like that of a fantasy movie, with some great camera angles and well placed slow motion effects, It is a real treat to watch these. I have noticed some graphical tearing, but it has not affected the enjoyment of the game.
The games engine seems to be very solid, I've had no game breaking bugs so far which is a blessing with new release titles these days. The engine is also visually pleasing, for example when I was being roasted by fire from a dragon, I noticed the flames were slowly eating away at the wooden structure I was hiding in, forcing it to buckle.

The Game play of ‘The Witcher 2’ is quite tricky, I started the game on normal and could not take on more than 3 enemies at a time, when it is more common to be taking on 5-6. So I had to lower the games difficulty down to easy (Shame on me). So if you are expecting an easy button mashing RPG, think again. You have to switch between; light strikes, heavy strikes, magic and defence while taking on many foes. It is challenging but very rewarding.

I’ll skip a head a little bit, after recapping the events of this siege, the interrogator leaves, Naturally in most games with a prison, now comes the prison break. The game implores you to use stealth, but does not really teach you how to use such mechanics, so when you’re like me and get spotted, you leave the prison drenched in blood, and a trail of poor olde’ prison guards behind you.

Some gripes I have with the game so far is the lack of a tutorial, it took me a lot of deaths to realise that 'e' was parry.

I’ll keep on updating this play through as I go, but as it stands so far; I think this may be one of the best role playing game in a long time.