Gaming

I have played hundreds of video games, thousands of hours. I  don't like too consider myself a “gamer”, as I feel that it just an arbitrary label or thing to be defined as, they way I see it I'm just a guy who likes to play video games. But I would also consider myself pretty picky with my games, I don’t like to play most low-budget indie games and more casual games like a Lego game or Wii Sports. While I appreciate a lot of their concepts and art direction, I find that a lot of indie games can’t hold my attention and I quickly uninstall them and forget about them. With that preface I'll be talking about a game that I hold very near and dear to me called Dark Souls. 

Dark Souls is a Japanese studios take on western fantasy adventure games. You get a bit of story in the beginning then your thrust out into the very unforgiving world. You have to figure out what path to take and discern whats happening in the world. Dark Souls has very unforgiving combat, make one mistake and you could be down to a third of your health in almost no time. Some people might not like that but I kinda relish the challenge, and thats one thing you'll get a huge challenge. Some might call the difficulty unfair and artificial but to me it means that you have to commit to the gameplay, learn the mechanics and plan your moves the reward comes from conquering the challenge. I also adore the approach to story, there are some NPCs that give you vague hints on backstory and other characters but most of the story comes from reading item descriptions and piecing the events together. It does have its faults, some bugs appear and make some places and fight very difficult, the graphics could use polish and there are some pretty obscure things that dont translate well into English but these are minimal.          

Dark Souls is an interesting and refreshing take on video games and if you can handle the frustration you have to pick it up as soon as you can. 

Anime

Im pretty into anime and manga, I prefer to read a manga before watching the anime adaptation but I've only in the past 6 years really gotten into older genre defining manga and anime rather then the more popular ones like Naruto, Bleach and Death Note. I feel that these stories aren't complete garbage but they are very boring, bland and really add nothing to the genre as a whole besides being popular. These are my own opinions I feel everyone is entitled to their own tastes and preferences just like any other film book or movie. But that being said I would hope people would lean towards things with more substance and story to them because I feel anime is much like film, there are some truly great and innovative examples if you find them don't be fooled into thinking whats trending and popular is the standard for what is good. If your favorite manga is Attack on Titan you should look at what inspired the writer and artist to make it. I said earlier that I tend to like older manga that inspired some of the genres seen now. Some of my favorite ones are Berserk, Evangelion, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Fist of the North Star, DragonBall, Lupin the 3rd and so on. Berserk defined the grim dark fantasy aspect of some manga, Evangelion went against typical mecha stories and focused on psychological aspects of teens. DragonBall is the preeminent adventure story, Fist of the North Star is a staple for one righteous man verses impossible odds and Lupin the 3rd is just a great game of cat and mouse. All im saying is to broaden your horizons and give anime and manga respect.    

New Comics

I read Ducks by Kate Beaton for the assignment. Right of the bat I really like Beaton, I read her comic Hark! A Vagrant often, she has great comedic sense and has a very appealing art style, I even follow her on twitter where she draws her doodles and shares her musings. So I was pretty excited to read about Ducks, but then I saw that this was a more serious and less humorous comic and more just a way to tell a story about what she experienced during her time working in a particular place. I enjoy reading about something for the perspective of someone who I dont have much in common with to see how that person reacts and deals with certain events. One of these she showed was when a prostitute who was high on some kind of drug wandered onto the job site and because most of the workers were men they had to nervously ask her to help talk this person down. I though "huh what if it was me? What if the person was black and because I was one of the few blacks at the job they asked me to help?" Outside of the more sombre bit there some funny moments like a worker making a scarecrow out of an unused uniform or someone simply saying that ducks were fucking stupid. I really enjoyed reading this and look forward to more of Beaton's tales from her life.      

Travels in the Disney-Verse

I haven't seen too many Disney films but, my favorite one they have done is definitively The Emperor's New Groove. It is obviously a comedy as most Disney movies are and it follows a classic Disney theme of silliness, growing as an individual and eventual the hero trumping over some kind of obstacle in their way. The only thing about The Emperor's New Groove that bucks the preconceived formula is that out main character starts out as an unlikable person. Also there is no really love story shown. In all the other Disney movies I have seen, Mulan, The Lion King, Toy Story and Tangled the main character isnt as antagonistic as the Emperor is. But all the other Disney main stays and tropes appear, multiple musical numbers, some kind of anthropomorphic character, the big bad, a nice/plucky protagonist and some what bumbling but still good hearted partner or side kick. These attributes appear in all the other Disney movies I have seen as well.      

In class response

Prominent Symbols? From what I could read there weren't any very strong symbols in the story. It was pretty literal in what was said and done except for maybe his double life. His double life and secret identity may have been a weak symbol for his hidden feelings after Professor Incognito was broken up with. But really the story was pretty straight forward.

Connections? I was able to connect with the overarching ideas of a super villain fighting against a protagonist due to the amount of superhero literature I watch and read. And I was able to connect with him apologizing for doing certain things because he was just feeling upset at the time, like when he robbed the museum. Another thing I connected with was the idea of hiding something important from a significant other for the sake of their feelings.

Adaptation? As far as changes to this story for adaptation for some kind of media I would like to go more for a backstory for each character. I feel while this is a good hook for a story it kind of lacks deeper substance in terms of backstory and characterizations for each person mentioned. These could be delved into more if it were adapted into a TV miniseries on AMC. You could do the same changes if you were putting this story into a comic as well. Also if you were making this into a movie I would put more emphasis on to the looming Martian invasion, its only touched upon but I would put lot more urgency into the conquest of Earth.