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greygirlbeast0. Sometimes I have to quote myself: "Sex is not a pole in a hole. Sex is a banquet."
1. Yesterday, I put nose to grindstone and wrote pages 18-22 of Alabaster #3, and finished the issue. Today, I make a few corrections and send it to my editor at Dark Horse. This evening or tomorrow, I'll begin the new short piece for Sirenia Digest #72, and as soon as that's done, I have to get Alabaster #4 written before my vacation begins on the 15th.
2. And, kittens, please don't forget Question @ Hand #5! Thank ye.
3. As promised, here is the final cover layout for the trade paperback edition of The Drowning Girl: A Memoir, to be released by Penguin on March 6, 2012:
And if you wonder why "A Memoir" isn't on the cover (I think I discussed this earlier), it's because my publisher worried doing so would cause "consumers" (shutter quotes!) to mistake the novel for an autobiography. And knowing how stupid most "consumers" (shutter quotes again!) are, I agreed. Thing is, this novel is an autobiography. It's India Morgan Phelps fictional autobiography, which, in large part, is drawn from my actual life, making this (like The Red Tree before it) a very autobiographical book. A complex, fictionalized autobiography. Also, I draw a distinction between consumers, readers, and smart readers, hence the derogatory shutter quotes.
4. By the way, for anyone who really didn't understand what the whole 0.003¢ hoopla was about yesterday, think of it this way: Imagine you have a job that you work at for nine hour a day. But you're only paid for three of those hours. And, on top of that, you're only paid one third of one third of minimum wage. Ergo, the hoopla.
5. There was a spectacular dream this ayem, and one that was very disturbing, even if I can't explain precisely why it disturbed me. First, I was deep in the Everglades, walking along a stone wall that lined green waters, clear as crystal. The water was choked with eelgrass, especially where it met the wall. A woman walked with me, and we talked, but I have no idea who she was, if she were anyone at all. There were gigantic cottonmouth moccasins in the water, and huge fish, and alligators, and a bizarre aquatic species of babirusas. All that life in the water, astounding. And then the cypresses and Spanish moss parted and we walked down onto Moonstone Beach. A single enormous wave, the bluest wave I'd ever seen (but shot through with foamy white), rose above us. It must have been at least thirty feet tall. We turned and ran, and when it broke against the sand, only our feet got wet.
6. I shall no longer put off the summation of my feelings regarding SW:toR. That is, my feelings as gleaned from my three days at the end of the beta, the impression I was able to form over three days, twenty-plus hours, and 14.3 levels with my Twi'lek Sith, Herazade (the Merciless). And these I will not belabor. If you don't like running, and running a lot, and running a lot over the same ground, this is not the game for you. The running didn't bother me, but that might be that because my first MMORPG was WoW back when you had to make it to Level 30 before you could get trained for a mount and buy one. The only major drawback for me was that the game – while, on the one hand, being generally very friendly to solo players – absolutely requires grouping for "flashpoints" that cannot be skipped (without screwing up your character's progress through the story). And I will never, ever cease to resent and find angrifying the attempt by anyone or anything to require that I socialize. That said, it's pretty simple, grouping for the flashpoints (I only had to do one): you stand outside the instance until someone asks you to be in their group. Even I was able to endure it. Essentially, these are little "dungeons" or episodes on starships. So, that's my One Big Criticism. Difficulty wise, it's a nice balance between, say, the witless grind of WoW and the unfathomable clutter of CoX. And unlike those two games – and this was a big selling point for me – the Sith truly are Evil. They're not the brutish, misunderstood Horde, and they're not a bunch of whining players afraid to get any darker than antihero. You are constantly rewarded (now, this all applies to playing Sith, of course), for being very, very bad. And penalized for the smallest acts of kindness. Though, the game world's techno stagnation still bugs me.
To me, SW:toR plays like a cross between an MMORPG and a good console game. Lots of people have complained about the frequent (interactive) cut scenes – which are present even during those flashpoints – but I like them a lot. Some of this is that the writing and voice acting are both superb, best I've ever heard by far in any MMORPG. As I said before, during these scenes, the animation can fall into the Uncanny Valley, with rubbery faces and all (not in a movie, but in a game), and I was surprised to find that good voice acting can salvage such stiff animation. Actual gameplay animation is quite good, though not as good as Rift**. I had no problems with the UI. That's something else I saw people whining about. Things do get a little complicated when you have to learn to mod equipment and such, but it's pretty intuitive, unlike, say, CoX, wherein forms of convoluted logic unknown to any sentient species are required, and unlike EVE Online, which pretty much requires of its players a Ph. D. in Engineering and Advanced Astrophysics. All in all, I found it a very intuitive game, and intuition is very important to me. I dislike manuals; I like to be able to teach myself. And while SW:toR does require you study the occasional "codex" to learn about this or that, the act of playing is, itself, intuitive. I've only played five MMORPGs, but SW:toR and Rift are, by far, the best of the five. Right now, my plan is to continue spending most of my gaming time on the latter, but to use the former for those times when I need a break from Rift. And that's about all I have to say. I feel like there are people deeply disappointed I didn't hate the game (as I'd expected to), but these are my honest impressions. I had fun. I was delighted. This is the story I've been waiting for since The Empire Strikes back, and I get to play along with it.
And remember, if you're one of the Watchers of the Unseen, tonight is RP night! Oh, and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
stsisyphus, check your email!
Okay. This has grown much too long, and I have email, and work, and I have to go to the bank today (gag), so the platypus says to shake a leg.
Shaking,
Aunt Beast
** By the way, MMO Crunch (www.mmocrunch.com) voted Rift "Best New MMORPG for 2011," as well as "Best Overall." WoW was a runner up.
1. Yesterday, I put nose to grindstone and wrote pages 18-22 of Alabaster #3, and finished the issue. Today, I make a few corrections and send it to my editor at Dark Horse. This evening or tomorrow, I'll begin the new short piece for Sirenia Digest #72, and as soon as that's done, I have to get Alabaster #4 written before my vacation begins on the 15th.
2. And, kittens, please don't forget Question @ Hand #5! Thank ye.
3. As promised, here is the final cover layout for the trade paperback edition of The Drowning Girl: A Memoir, to be released by Penguin on March 6, 2012:
And if you wonder why "A Memoir" isn't on the cover (I think I discussed this earlier), it's because my publisher worried doing so would cause "consumers" (shutter quotes!) to mistake the novel for an autobiography. And knowing how stupid most "consumers" (shutter quotes again!) are, I agreed. Thing is, this novel is an autobiography. It's India Morgan Phelps fictional autobiography, which, in large part, is drawn from my actual life, making this (like The Red Tree before it) a very autobiographical book. A complex, fictionalized autobiography. Also, I draw a distinction between consumers, readers, and smart readers, hence the derogatory shutter quotes.
4. By the way, for anyone who really didn't understand what the whole 0.003¢ hoopla was about yesterday, think of it this way: Imagine you have a job that you work at for nine hour a day. But you're only paid for three of those hours. And, on top of that, you're only paid one third of one third of minimum wage. Ergo, the hoopla.
5. There was a spectacular dream this ayem, and one that was very disturbing, even if I can't explain precisely why it disturbed me. First, I was deep in the Everglades, walking along a stone wall that lined green waters, clear as crystal. The water was choked with eelgrass, especially where it met the wall. A woman walked with me, and we talked, but I have no idea who she was, if she were anyone at all. There were gigantic cottonmouth moccasins in the water, and huge fish, and alligators, and a bizarre aquatic species of babirusas. All that life in the water, astounding. And then the cypresses and Spanish moss parted and we walked down onto Moonstone Beach. A single enormous wave, the bluest wave I'd ever seen (but shot through with foamy white), rose above us. It must have been at least thirty feet tall. We turned and ran, and when it broke against the sand, only our feet got wet.
6. I shall no longer put off the summation of my feelings regarding SW:toR. That is, my feelings as gleaned from my three days at the end of the beta, the impression I was able to form over three days, twenty-plus hours, and 14.3 levels with my Twi'lek Sith, Herazade (the Merciless). And these I will not belabor. If you don't like running, and running a lot, and running a lot over the same ground, this is not the game for you. The running didn't bother me, but that might be that because my first MMORPG was WoW back when you had to make it to Level 30 before you could get trained for a mount and buy one. The only major drawback for me was that the game – while, on the one hand, being generally very friendly to solo players – absolutely requires grouping for "flashpoints" that cannot be skipped (without screwing up your character's progress through the story). And I will never, ever cease to resent and find angrifying the attempt by anyone or anything to require that I socialize. That said, it's pretty simple, grouping for the flashpoints (I only had to do one): you stand outside the instance until someone asks you to be in their group. Even I was able to endure it. Essentially, these are little "dungeons" or episodes on starships. So, that's my One Big Criticism. Difficulty wise, it's a nice balance between, say, the witless grind of WoW and the unfathomable clutter of CoX. And unlike those two games – and this was a big selling point for me – the Sith truly are Evil. They're not the brutish, misunderstood Horde, and they're not a bunch of whining players afraid to get any darker than antihero. You are constantly rewarded (now, this all applies to playing Sith, of course), for being very, very bad. And penalized for the smallest acts of kindness. Though, the game world's techno stagnation still bugs me.
To me, SW:toR plays like a cross between an MMORPG and a good console game. Lots of people have complained about the frequent (interactive) cut scenes – which are present even during those flashpoints – but I like them a lot. Some of this is that the writing and voice acting are both superb, best I've ever heard by far in any MMORPG. As I said before, during these scenes, the animation can fall into the Uncanny Valley, with rubbery faces and all (not in a movie, but in a game), and I was surprised to find that good voice acting can salvage such stiff animation. Actual gameplay animation is quite good, though not as good as Rift**. I had no problems with the UI. That's something else I saw people whining about. Things do get a little complicated when you have to learn to mod equipment and such, but it's pretty intuitive, unlike, say, CoX, wherein forms of convoluted logic unknown to any sentient species are required, and unlike EVE Online, which pretty much requires of its players a Ph. D. in Engineering and Advanced Astrophysics. All in all, I found it a very intuitive game, and intuition is very important to me. I dislike manuals; I like to be able to teach myself. And while SW:toR does require you study the occasional "codex" to learn about this or that, the act of playing is, itself, intuitive. I've only played five MMORPGs, but SW:toR and Rift are, by far, the best of the five. Right now, my plan is to continue spending most of my gaming time on the latter, but to use the former for those times when I need a break from Rift. And that's about all I have to say. I feel like there are people deeply disappointed I didn't hate the game (as I'd expected to), but these are my honest impressions. I had fun. I was delighted. This is the story I've been waiting for since The Empire Strikes back, and I get to play along with it.
And remember, if you're one of the Watchers of the Unseen, tonight is RP night! Oh, and
stsisyphus, check your email!Okay. This has grown much too long, and I have email, and work, and I have to go to the bank today (gag), so the platypus says to shake a leg.
Shaking,
Aunt Beast
** By the way, MMO Crunch (www.mmocrunch.com) voted Rift "Best New MMORPG for 2011," as well as "Best Overall." WoW was a runner up.
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![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 05:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 05:47 pm (UTC)It was a great relief.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 05:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 05:54 pm (UTC)Exactly.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 05:49 pm (UTC)It's a cover that doesn't suck! Mazel tov!
A single enormous wave, the bluest wave I'd ever seen (but shot through with foamy white), rose above us. It must have been at least thirty feet tall. We turned and ran, and when it broke against the sand, only our feet got wet.
That is a striking image.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 05:53 pm (UTC)It's a cover that doesn't suck! Mazel tov!
I half suspect it was an accident.
That is a striking image.
I have failed to do it justice.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 05:54 pm (UTC)Re: foot travel in SWtOR, that's interesting, as it was a major problem with SW: Galaxies for a long time. We'd often have to set a destination, enable auto-run, and then go do something else for twenty minutes to get anywhere.
When they finally put in mounts, they were barely faster than running. Speeders took I think over a year to be added, and when they did show up, a bug that kept you from being able to store the speeder led to a hilarious clusterfuck of burning/exploding speeders covering nearly every square foot of most of the cities.
Good times.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 06:00 pm (UTC)Re: foot travel in SWtOR, that's interesting, as it was a major problem with SW: Galaxies for a long time. We'd often have to set a destination, enable auto-run, and then go do something else for twenty minutes to get anywhere.
Just didn't bother me, but I was coming from fantasy tradition of run, run, run.
Speeders took I think over a year to be added, and when they did show up, a bug that kept you from being able to store the speeder led to a hilarious clusterfuck of burning/exploding speeders covering nearly every square foot of most of the cities.
That's funny.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 05:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 06:01 pm (UTC)(And my Kickstarter reward arrived yesterday! Wonderful pictures to come home to after a long day at the office!)
Woot!
no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 06:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 06:09 pm (UTC)I approve of the use of Engravers Gothic.
I didn't even know it was called that, but now I'm glad. A fine name for a font.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-29 09:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 06:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 06:38 pm (UTC)Is that a red oak leaf in the water? Nice touch.
Yes. I take it as both a reference to The Red Tree, and as an apology for that novel's putrid cover.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 07:07 pm (UTC)I re-read Onion a couple of nights ago; it remains one of my favourites. I wonder how those white peaches might have tasted? "One good mystery is worth a thousand solutions." I couldn't agree more.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 07:46 pm (UTC)"One good mystery is worth a thousand solutions."
I have my moments.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 06:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 06:58 pm (UTC)Does the game punish Sith for selfish kindness, or just for selfless kindness?
Well, from an evolutionary point of view, I maintain that all kindness is, at root, selfish. So this question is fairly meaningless to me. I suppose would say the game punishes Sith (and anyone on the Federation side, perhaps) for anything that may be construed as the smallest act of kindness.
I’ve been trying to wrap my brain around what a functional Dark Side would look like; too many of the depictions of Sith are intrinsically self-defeating.
At this point in the story, the Sith are more the bearers of a philosophy in diametrical opposition to that of the Jedi. "There is no peace, only passion." Which I rather like. But, ideally, I'd like to see a Sith/Jedi balance, an understanding that both "sides" of the Force are necessary and equally valid.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 08:04 pm (UTC)The background metaphysic in my game is that “sides” to the Force are constructs people are trying to apply to it, and that “the will of the Force” is that Shit Should Happen; the Force is essentially the cosmic principle of “pop some popcorn and let’s see a throwdown!” (This is why the Force will guide people to confrontations when they’re just about ready for it, rather than getting them crushed.)
The notion of a “dark side” or “light side” is just about which emotions you call upon to focus the Force. If you focus with fear, hatred, and rage, they call that the dark side; if you focus with compassion, serenity, and hope, they call that the light side. But what of love? The Jedi are afraid to love because that could test their self-control; the Sith are afraid to love because that could become a weakness. (Jolee Bindo, renegade Jedi and generally awesome character, in the first KotOR game: “Love itself will save, not condemn you.”) There is a path that has neither the addictive power-hunger of the Sith nor the passionless self-denial of the Jedi, but it’s a difficult, esoteric one, requiring the willpower not to get hooked on the feedback loop of “the more I despise those who oppose me, the more power I have!” That’s the sort of path the Gray Jedi follow.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 09:01 pm (UTC)There is a path that has neither the addictive power-hunger of the Sith nor the passionless self-denial of the Jedi, but it’s a difficult, esoteric one, requiring the willpower not to get hooked on the feedback loop of “the more I despise those who oppose me, the more power I have!” That’s the sort of path the Gray Jedi follow.
That's an interesting parallel with the grey witchcraft I practice. If only that were a player option in SWotR. Though I do greatly enjoy being truly, truly bad.
Also, you're a vastly more intense Star Wars than am I.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 09:17 pm (UTC)My friend
Ironically, by the time I had this game ready to run, he’d drifted away from the long-time Saturday game, and I’d moved the Saturday game to Friday nights, and he had a conflict. I have enough friends who want to play in this story that I want to run a second campaign if I can just find the time...
no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 07:06 pm (UTC)I really love being evil in SWTOR. I loved getting yelled at for making slightly merciful decisions. I loved that masters struck down acolytes for not being good enough. I loved getting rewarded for doing bad things.
I'm really happy that the game is made by BioWare. Their handling of character and voice acting has impressed me in their console games (Dragon Age, Mass Effect), and has really thrilled me here.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 07:47 pm (UTC)My anticipation grows by the day.
As well it should.
I really love being evil in SWTOR. I loved getting yelled at for making slightly merciful decisions. I loved that masters struck down acolytes for not being good enough. I loved getting rewarded for doing bad things.
Yes!
no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 07:43 pm (UTC)Also, a thank you for mentioning American Horror Story - we like it a lot. Oddly creepy and T thinks reminiscent of Amityville, but I'm looking forward to new episodes.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 07:48 pm (UTC)I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's the best mass market cover I've seen for your work so far.
Agreed. Though I am fond of the original Threshold cover.
Also, a thank you for mentioning American Horror Story
You're welcome.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 08:17 pm (UTC)and the blurbs are entirely appropriate for a Beast of your stature.
I cannot help but agree. And there are lots of other great ones elsewhere in and on the book.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 08:49 pm (UTC)Also, occasionally I envy your dreams. But only occasionally.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 08:57 pm (UTC)Also, occasionally I envy your dreams. But only occasionally.
yeah, it's a dubious envy. The "brightness" of them can be blinding upon awakening to this dull and shabby world.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-01 09:26 pm (UTC)Still, it's kind of nice that there will be this "extra" piece of info for those that turn to the title page. Something that might deepen the mystery suggested by the cover image.
Well, that's what I would think anyway.
Lovely cover by the way. It rings with a beautiful melancholy.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-02 12:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-02 08:45 am (UTC)March is gonna be a good month for me.
The force tha can be forced-
Date: 2011-12-02 12:46 pm (UTC)I don't suppose you ever tried Matthew Woodring Stover's SW novels? I like his 'take' on the Force and the dark side. His Traitor was a game changer and in Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor he postulated a genuinely anti-Force philosophy based on the second law of thermodynamics: the bad guy basically takes up Agent Smith's belief that the purpose of life is to end.
About the Jedi/Sith, I remember Palpatine telling Anakin that the Jedi and Sith are similar in almost every way. He was right. There's only one difference between em: Jedi value life, Sith value control over life. Sure, the Jedi often control others, but it's only to keep the crap from hitting the fan. So they argue anyway.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-02 07:20 pm (UTC)I don't mind running, and I don't really mind grinding either -- but what does piss me off, and has driven me off every MMORPG I've met, is, as you say, the forced ganging-up. Forced socialization I might be able to stomach, even with non-RP'ing dickwipes, but the mandatory belonging to groups of other players and doing stuff together... fuck that. I can do that in the real world, I want escapism!
Might check it out! Personally, I was charmed by the technologically & socially stagnant galactic civilization...
no subject
Date: 2011-12-02 07:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-11 06:36 am (UTC)