Blackened Skull moves!

Ok all. Have now moved this site over to my own hosted WordPress server. Please direct yourselves to the following URL from here on in:

Blackened Skull

I have to thank Adam for the logo design. He accommodated my ideas well and am pleased with the final result.

Cheers all!

A little invention

I went with my gut on this one. I’ve enjoyed blogging this time round so much that I went and took up the option to own my domain name with the purpose of installing and hosting WordPress. I got a good deal on a three-year term, I have a graphic designer working on a logo design etc and am looking forward to developing my knowledge further of CSS.

So what does that mean to this blog? I had intended to transfer these very posts over to the new self-hosted site but I have now decided to leave this version of Blackened Skull as is. IF things don’t work out at the new site then I can return here.

The new Blackened Skull will have a much better vision of what I want; a great theme that I’ve had input into, an artistic theme, fuller and better worked post ideas. Once I’m happy to announce the new site URL, I’ll post a further post here with the link.

Thanks for your support. Please keep reading!

Quote of the day #3

My blood’s type B, which means I can be irritable and impetuous, and my intentions don’t always come across.

(Minister for Reconstruction Ryu Matsumoto)

I belong to the A blood type group so I’d be a good asset in Japan.

Related articles

• Blood type determinism in Japan (boingboing.net)

 

In the moment

Had a brief few thoughts on one of the topics that I hadn’t yet attempted to write about. That topic being, ‘How do games approach the issue of ‘ageing’?’

Most linear gaming models aren’t equipped to pay real attention to the effects of ageing of playable characters within that gaming world. The player is usually contained within the moment even if the narrative describes a passing of time. We don’t normally see time take its toll on the ‘heroes’ we play even if many years have passed between cut-scenes.

Assassin’s Creed III spans 30 years of Connor’s life from the period of 1753 to 1783. I’m hoping that other than the superficial look of the character, I’ll get to see some meaningful maturing and depth of the Connor character.

Scars that don’t heal. Now that’s something I’d like to see worked into a game narrative much, much more. I know by their nature videogames tolerate violent actions to the point of banality. But I’m far more interested in the mental scars that characters could carry. Where previous actions should bear down on perception of present events and age is depth of character and not just adding some facial hair and a drinking habit.

At the Beggar’s Opera

I’ll try not to post spoilers in this or future posts about AC3.

The first hours into Assassin’s Creed III are all about setting the scene before getting to sequence 4 and the first look at Connor. It feels a very long intro to the meat of the game and there’s hand-holding aplenty so that the new control layout sinks in.

It doesn’t bother me that I have to sit through this slower pace and I thought the game had a bright opening at the Beggar’s Opera. Then it seemed some of the writing strength went from out of the games sails. Now looking back it’s easy to think that this was a deliberate plan to get you to the closing of sequence 3. You’ll be believing one thing only for it to be turned on its head completely.