Master Magi & The Elder Sign

There probably isn’t any bigger sign of nerdom than engaging in a game that is essentially an excuse to LARP. Behold a round of Magiquest I enjoyed for my birthday last weekend. Oh wait, there are no pictures because we, a group of thirtysomethings, were far too engaged in our game play to take any pictures. (It’s also not even the first time we have done this. We got to be “returning magi.”)

So, anyway, uh, yeah, I had fun. I admit it.

 

There was also Elder Sign, which I think is properly referred to as “Arkham Horror Lite.” Except in the event of getting a bunch of crap cards at the beginning of the game. All the same, the game mechanics are simpler, which is nice. I’ve never had the occasion to play an Arkham Horror game that didn’t last for the length of a workday (owing to various player dynamics) and as much as I enjoy games, I also need to be able to get up and move around. (I’ve considered keeping a trampoline and jump rope by the table).

And my new achievement of reaching the final stages of Eureka. Hmmm. Okay, look, honestly, the show is something I really do enjoy but my god, it gets so utterly and completely ridiculous that I feel bad for having condemned Fringe for all these years.

Virtual Systems Angst

Community is coming back in another week and a half. Thank God. I say Thank God because I just don’t think I can allow myself to keep rewatching episodes from season 3. Particularly “Virtual Systems Analysis” because that episode makes me so very, very sad. I don’t think that’s the intention at all, because it’s a show devoted to the comedic dissection of its characters (who are real people, of course, but who are characters in a comedy) and not a show that is used to push sadness on its audience. All the same, making the seven study group members and their entourage, truly funny requires making them into real people, and sometimes real people make us sad.

I don’t know anybody else who actually finds this episode to be sad.

For me, I’ve always identified with Annie’s character, albeit as a younger, cutesier version of myself. She’s more romantic and naive  than I would ever presume to have been at that age but her particular brand of planning control freak and uptightness reflects my own so well that we could share time and space. Likewise, Abed’s lack of social grace and confusion over others’ emotions reflects back what I have long felt to be a learning process in getting to be better with other people. (I do not claim to be anywhere near so bad as Abed, though. I just share some of those moments that Abed has in this particular episode, e.g. Why do people have to enter into relationships?) So when I watch this episode, and watch Abed fall apart, I get this feeling that reflects my own fear and concern over where I will end up in life. It actually makes me very depressed, which is ridiculous when you’re watching a comedy.  Then again, how many times did Scrubs manage to troll me with sad episodes?  Someone out there referred to Scrubs as having “whiplash poignancy” [sorry for not recalling where this originated] and it’s just so true. (M*A*S*H did this as well, and the infamous “Jurassic Bark” episode of Futurama proved that nothing is sacred.)  I may need to devote myself to writing out the profound effect of Scrubs on my life, now. Still, with this one Community episode, I felt myself in such agony that I watched the show again just to try to get past it and enjoy it. I just can’t seem to find it as funny as I think I’m supposed to.

This does not seem to be what the show’s crew and writers intended for me to feel. It is, however, what I feel.

So I’m actually very much looking forward to the glorious return of Community to get me off this memory. So “Hunger Deans,” huh?

Eureka’s Fourth Season

I’ve finally gotten around to watching the fourth season of Eureka. I have absolutely no idea what to think of the plot development from here. (I’m four episodes in, I think.) I’ve always touted Eureka as being undervalued, despite its origination on the SyFy (ugh, how that pains me to write “sci-fi” that way) network. But the plot in season four pretty much makes me wonder why I ever said that. I still thoroughly enjoy Eureka despite its failings of silly science (mainly its explanations) and its very monster-of-the-week format, but the fact is, sci-fi already suffers way too much from the alternate reality motif being overdone.

Classic Games in the Save File: Frequency & Amplitude

Does anyone, anyone, anyone at all remember Frequency? And its sequel, Amplitude? (Why there was no Phase is beyond me. Har.) I loved Frequency so much that I actually beat the entire game three times or so before deciding to just challenge other people to make perfect scores on each track. It’s also the game that introduced me to Freezepop. (Whom I once tried to see. Long story.)  I actually had better game performance on Amplitude, which also had a Freezepop song, but I never enjoyed it as much. I think because the tracks weren’t in the rhythm tube. You didn’t flip around in a circle, you just spun the game from side-to-side. This description probably makes absolutely no sense to someone who didn’t play the game, though. You can see some minor examples here and here.

I realized, as I was moving some stuff around the other day, how much I miss those games. I liked Guitar Hero and Rock Band a lot, too, but Frequency and Amplitude were always superior in my estimation because they didn’t require the specialized controllers or three friends to play with me. (I know you can play Rock Band alone, and I know you can do inputs via the standard controllers with those games, but they’re really not designed for that type of play, much as DDR isn’t designed to be played with the handheld controllers.) I also like music, especially the electronic music that was uber present in Frequency. Perhaps most of all what I liked was the fact that it actually “created” the song. If you didn’t turn on the various tracks, you would be missing vital parts of the song. You could conceivably not get the vocals turned on and the song would sound very different, because you were supposed to be playing each of those parts. A minor argument could be made for how these games actually forced people to listen to different tracks (layers) of a song and thereby improve their ability to understand music. I don’t know how functional this argument really is.

Unfortunately, I don’t own a PS3. So I’m having to dig the PS2 out of storage to play the damn games. Oddly, looking at some of the screens of the game, my hands suddenly just remember the controls with what I can only assume is muscle memory. Impressive. Quite impressive, body. Good job.  I miss when you were totally awesome, Harmonix. You used to be amazing. Now you’re just pretty awesome.

The 20th Anniversary of DS9

Happy 20th Anniversary to DS9. You were, and are, the best of the Star Trek universe. You premiered just as I entered adolescence  concluded just as I left it. You will always have an exceedingly special place in my heart and mind. (Right next to the wormhole that is my soul.)  StarTrek.com has a look back at “Emissary” twenty years later. And io9 did the same thing. (The “31 flavors” line in the first article really just called out a Section 31 reference for me.) Also, it’s a perfect time to mention this since Tor apparently wants you to know that Star Trek novels are good for you.

(Yes, of course, I watched “Emissary” as it aired in real time, twenty years ago.)