Infinite Monkey

I’ve written a few pieces about my nephew Connor, but have yet to write about his little sister Keely. Now seems a fine time to remedy that.

Keely is five years old, and super-girly. Her favorite colors are pink and purple, she loves fancy dresses, and she’s already got some very feminine dance moves going on.

As mentioned previously, her brother Connor got a DSi for Christmas 2010. At that time, Keely was given some DS games as well, so she could also get some enjoyment from it. Over the next few months, their parents noticed that Connor wasn’t crazy about sharing, and when he did, he acted as though he was doing Keely about the biggest favor possible. So this year, it was a no-brainer for her parents to get her her own system—a pink one, no less; to match her sensibilities, and to make it much less likely her brother would take it out of the house (his DSi is a manly blue).

Here is Keely, in her Christmas Eve finery, enjoying a game of iCarly 2:

Three things to note here:

• Sparkly dress!
• Delicate leg-crossing.
• Even her left big toe is carefully aligned.

Such the girl!

Two years ago, my brother-in-law—Greg—wore down my sister’s resistance to the family getting a Wii, and he purchased one for Christmas of 2009. Their two kids loved it, especially Connor, the oldest, who was very big on Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort. Over the next year, they continued to enjoy it, so when Donkey Kong Country Returns was released in November 2010, I bought two copies—one for myself, and one to give to Greg for Christmas. He’d played back in the day, and I figured he’d enjoy the nostalgia. I also thought Connor would enjoy it; the game is big and colorful, with great music and whimsical character models.

As it turned out, I had it only partially right: Greg was glad to get the game, and over the holidays, we spent a fair amount of time with it. But while Connor watched us for a while, and tried playing, he wasn’t terribly interested. Now, at least part of that lack of interest was probably due to his having received a DSi XL (and Legos Star Wars: The Complete Saga to go with it) for Christmas. The boy was nuts about that game. Until June 2011, that is, shortly after he had discovered Pokemon, at which point most of his gaming energies went into Pokemon Black. Even as I write this on December 26, 2011, he’s still crazy about it.

I arrived for this particular visit on December 23rd. That night, Connor had me playing Wii Sports with him for about an hour, at which point his father suggested we load up DKCR, which sounded good to me. Shortly after I started playing, Connor started asking questions about the game, and wanting to give it a try. I explained the controls to him, and handed him the Wiimote. Aside from those few minutes the year before, he’d never played a platforming-intensive game, and so he had some problems. We spent about an hour trading off the controller, and then it was his bedtime, so off went the boy, and off went the Wii.

When I first saw Connor the next morning (December 24), he immediately asked to play more DKCR. Fine by me, so we got his parents’ okay, and fired it up, playing for a few hours that day, much of it with minimal assistance from me. He burned through a lot of lives, but he was enjoying the gameplay. And basically the same thing on December 25; while he didn’t much give a rip about the game last year, he’s very into it now.

What a difference a year can make!

As I write, we MFers are well on track to the end-of-year layoffs. Nobody is doing much of anything, and that seems quite appropriate. So folks have time on their hands. Like Colin, here, who’s become quite adept at piloting his whirlybird. (There are other folks flying helicopters, but I don’t have pictures of them).

Our HR department has carried out a lot of killjoy policies, but surprisingly, they haven’t put the kibosh on these helicopters. Which is great, because these little guys are pretty cool!

Jen and I found Matthew in a Crescent City junk/antique shop:

The lady running the shop told us that the doll is connected to a local legend. Apparently, back in the early 20th century, a moderately wealthy family settled in the area — a mother, a father, and their toddler-age son Matthew. One summer day, Matthew snuck away from the house to play in the nearby bay—and drowned.

As you’d expect, the parents were crushed. In an attempt to move on, they commissioned the creation of a doll in Matthew’s image. By all accounts, the doll’s resemblance was uncanny. But it wasn’t enough; a few months after the the doll’s completion, Matthew’s mother drowned herself in the same bay. After burying his wife, the father left town—leaving all his possessions behind—and was never heard from again.

After awhile, local folks looted the house, and over the course of decades, many of those stolen items began showing up in local shops. “Matthew”, we were told, was a fairly recent addition to the store’s inventory.

An interesting tale, to be sure. But neither of us had any interest in purchasing the doll; that thing is fucking creepy.

Found this one morning while walking to meet a friend for coffee. There’s a trailer park on the other side of the wall (you can see a a bit of trailer on the doorway’s left). Which in itself is rather odd, because the area immediately around the trailer park is commercial, and a bit upscale, and the trailer park itself very white trash. Add this door into the mix and things move to bizarre.

I wanted to try the door, but I chickened out.

In 1998, I was living in an armpit. Due to armpit-induced boredom I decided I wanted a PlayStation. The next day after work, I went to the store and got one, along with the first Crash Bandicoot game. I enjoyed “Crash” — the platforming was fun and challenging, and the game had a quirky sense of humor.

A few weeks went by, and I continued playing avidly. I was also spending a fair amount of time reading about videogames online, and when I learned about the newly-released Final Fantasy VIII, I was intrigued. As with the PlayStation, I was quick to acquire it.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’d never seen anything like it before. The opening sequence grabbed me immediately, and many other elements consolidated that hold. Menu-based gameplay was intriguing, as were the concepts of levels and experience points. The Guardian Forces were impressively designed, and their summons sequences blew me away. The junction system was…cryptic. It was this last the led me to set the game aside about a week after getting it—there were things about the game I really, really liked, but my inability to grok the junction system led to great frustration. However, after taking a few days break from the game to educate myself about the junction system, I started a new game and didn’t look back.

I spent hours drawing magic for my party members. Hours. “Force Your Way” is totally burned into my brain.

I carded thousands of enemies, created hundreds of items, converted the entire world to play Triple Triad with Balamb’s rules. I farmed AP on Cactuar Island, and—when I had acquired all the necessary GFs—I gave my characters the passive ability to gain bonuses to Strength, Spirit, Magic, and Vitality at level-up and then took them to The Island Closest to Hell to farm experience. I explored snowy wastes, escaped from a deadly desert prison, discovered a high-tech city amongst salt flats, had an adventure in space, piloted an airship all around the world, traveled in time, explored a huge castle, saved the world from a deadly menace, and spawned a time loop. I did everything.

All of which is a lengthy prelude to this: I’ve been playing videogames for nearly thirteen years now, and it’s been a great run.

But now it’s time for a huge change in my life, and I can no longer afford to let games consume my time—there’s too much to do. And if I kept them around, I’d play them. So as of yesterday, the consoles and attendant games are stored away, and the computers have been stripped of Steam and all the games it managed.

I’ll still be writing about them for a while, I think; I’ve got lots of things to say after so many years. But I’m going to find some other topics, too. Hopefully something more directly tied to my creativity than the link blogging I was doing before I switched to games-only.

Oh, and one more thing: FITHOS LUSEC WECOS VINOSEC

Having beaten Uncharted 2 over the summer, I only had to wait a few months for the sequel, but it felt like longer; “Among Thieves” surprised me with its quality writing, presentation, and voicework—despite having read several positive reviews and being certain I was buying a good game. I guess the reviews hadn’t prepared me for just how awesomely those elements had been implemented. I am especially fond of the game’s writing in general, and its snappy dialog in particular—particularly when great performers bring it to life. You’ve gotta love this stuff:

Chloe : Seems like I am always saving your ass.
Nate : Well, it is an ass worth saving.

Uncharted 2 is one of my favorite gaming experiences, and I was looking forward to the sequel even as the credits rolled. Having now played into that sequel’s tenth chapter, I’m pleased to say that I haven’t been let down. Uncharted 3 is a great game. I do have some complaints, but they’re minor.

Plusses thus far:

• Great dialog, both in writing and execution
• Story is big in scope, focusing on the ring Nate always wears around his neck, his relationship with Sully (including a flashback of their first meeting and adventure), and some nasty business Francis Drake discovered and covered up.
• Naughty Dog seems to be playing a bit with Nate’s presentation—different sorts of views of him, for example a rather claustrophobic tight shot when moving through crevices. It keeps things visually interesting.
• One character refers to another as “tripping balls”.
• Featurettes and concept art unlockable via story progression.

Minuses thus far:

• Nate seems to look around more than he used to; it feels to me that in looking away, he gets a bit harder to control. Hard to explain.
• Two bugs.
  • During a fistfight, clipped through a wall into a “blue nowhere”. No recourse but to restart from last checkpoint.
  • Game froze hardware completely. Had to power-cycle the console.

• No more unlock shop. No more rewards (other than trophies) for discovering treasures. By far my biggest disappointment thus far.

As mentioned previously, I began gaming in 1998, only a couple years after the introduction of Pokemon. In the time since, I’ve played (though not beaten) hundreds of games. Yet prior to the summer of 2011, I had never played a Pokemon game; in my mind they were only for kids, and therefore I had no interest in them. But all that changed due to my seven-year-old nephew, Connor, getting a DSi for Christmas 2010.

I live about 200 miles from Connor, so I really only get to see him once or twice a month, and for the next few months after Christmas, his DSi usage was devoted wholly to LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga. Then in the spring, his thrifty mother made quite a find at a yard sale: a fifteen dollar three-ring binder containing hundreds of Pokemon trading cards, all tucked away into individual plastic sleeves. I learned of this find when I was visiting in June 2011; almost as soon as I arrived, Connor was waxing enthusiastic about Pokemon and showing off his many cards.

A couple weeks before that visit, I’d seen Giant Bomb’s QuickLook at Pokemon Black, and it had piqued my curiosity a bit. Connor’s fascination with the pocket monsters reminded me of the QL, and since I had brought my own DS with me, I headed out to Frey Meyer’s and picked it up. When I got back to my sister’s place, I didn’t tell Connor what I’d bought, but just sat down to check it out; after about ten minutes, the boy wandered over to see what I was playing. Half an hour later, he was telling his Mom “I want Pokemon Black”. Mom wasn’t necessarily opposed to the idea, but her response gave me the impression that it’d be at least a few months before he could have it, and even then she wasn’t promising. I visited again a few weeks later, and I guess Connor had been working hard on his folks, because he had Pokemon Black and was playing it like crazy.

Now, several months later, he still plays it like crazy. It’s taken quite a while to get there, but he’s very close to the final dungeon now. Which to me seems like a really long time, but his DS time is metered, and he also spends a lot of gametime wandering around getting into random battles. He’s rightly proud of his high-level Pokemon, and loves to tell me about them, especially Samurott and Sawk. When I visit I always bring my DS and copy of the game (although I basically stopped playing it after about 12 hours) and he always wants to 1) trade Pokemon, and 2) have multiplayer Pokemon battles.