Busy, busy, busy…

You may have noticed that content has been… sparse again, lately. This is due mostly in part to my efforts in getting DrawGo Radio off the ground, which I must admit has had a measure of success faster than I expected. Not for lack of quality or effort, of course, more due to the simple turnaround time one can expect in pushing anything forward with social media. We’re about to record our fifth episode, covering the Nashville 5K and PTQ weekend, and look for our expansion to iTunes distribution within the coming weeks, if not days.

As an aside, people still ask me why I chose Blip as a distribution channel, when we’re an audio-only podcast; well, we’re working on changing that. Will we be recording the whole show in video? Not likely… there’s just too much editing and too much need for retakes if we have to worry about visual continuity as well as audio. What I am trying to do is, well, learn my Adobe software more effectively; I have to confess, I started out with zero experience in the actual production and editing side of all of this when we started a few weeks ago, and that’s part of the main holdup for any of our technical delays: I’m usually trying to learn how to do something, mostly on my own. I don’t mean that as excuse, but explanation, on why the show is so slow to “evolve”, yet simultaneously can make large jumps in production from one week to the next. So what all this means RE: Blip, is that I do hope to be able to add in some “video”, albeit stills with card images, decklists, etc., while we may also record live video at future events that will be available in the video-only releases at Blip.

What’s the next step for us beside that? Well, actually… I’ve considered a few possibilities. I would like to upgrade our equipment, for one; we use a Sony digital recorder with a single electret condenser for recording, and then I process and edit on my old portable Sinbox. What I would like to have is something more like a multi-channel input with a set of lavaliers… Something to pursue for the future. If you’d like to improve the quality of your experience, of course, you could always contribute via that little Donate button on the right there… But I’d like to find more tangible means of reward for showing support, so I’m not a huge fan of the button. Still, if the spirit moves, have at it; same if you just like what you’ve read here and want to see more.

Anyway… yes. Some links:

DrawGo Radio on twitter.

You can also find us on Facebook, where we will be adding photos and you can discuss the show with me and the other hosts.

From Bloodswarm to Hematophilia

Hematophilia

Creatures
Vampire Lacerator x4
Bloodghast x4
Gatekeeper of Malakir x3
Vampire Hexmage x3
Vampire Nighthawk x3

Spells
Bloodchief Ascension x4
Lightning Bolt x4
Burst Lightning x4
Quest for the Gravelord x3
Terminate x4
Blightning x4

Land
Swamp x8
Mountain x4
Akoum Refuge x4
Dragonskull Summit x4

Haven’t tested at all, probably won’t get to, but it seems fun. Maybe a little less FNM than the previous version, but also clearly more expensive to build. I started off with a Grixis slant, but tilted back over towards a more Sligh build. (Oooooold.)

DrawGo Radio Episode 2 – Austin City Limits

A 5K, a Pro Tour… been a busy couple of weeks, it has. Join a slightly diminished DrawGo team and guest as they review the top decks and singles to come out of both events, as well as take a look at the latest planeswalker Duel Decks.

DrawGo Radio Pilot Episode 001 – We’ll Fix It in Post

The Gates of Rashomon is pleased (dismayed?) to announce the premiere of DrawGo Radio, a Magic: The Gathering podcast covering the spectrum of organized and casual play, as well as secondary market speculation and discussion. The first episode is exactly what it says: a pilot, and you’ll notice a myriad of amateur hour-style mistakes. I do hope you’ll stay tuned, as there is quality content behind the recording gaffes, which will work themselves out in time.

There Will Be Blood… There Will Be a Bloodswarm

I actually managed to play in a Constructed event last night, with a deck I built Thursday evening, played a match with, and finalized before the start of last night’s tournament. So rough, to say the least, and it showed in my play performance; the majority of my losses were directly from blatant play mistakes and oversights from not having complete familiarity with my cards or abilities. RTFC indeed, more than once I missed a Bloodghast on a Landfall trigger (losing a game that was a win otherwise in one case) while it was halfway through the event before I remembered that Quest for the Gravelord grows with every creature death, not just mine (though that was exactly why I added it to the deck, I got caught up in my own death effect interactions I basically transcribed my own creature death as a requirement onto it). And so by the few cards (and the less than subtle title of this article), it’s probably obvious what archetype I was playing: Vampire Aggro.

A Bridge Too Far to Murder Simulation

Click here for an AP article by Christopher Toothaker about Venezuela’s recent ban on violent video games in order to decrease the crime rate.

According to the report, some parents are just ecstatic over the new law. Why wouldn’t they be, as they’re getting official byes for their potential failures in properly educating themselves and controlling access to the media their children access?

Okay, it’s Venezuela… not getting to play Halo probably isn’t high on the governmental grievance list. Still, it’s always chilling to see these bans and censorship of media push through (pun intended). I could proselytize over the reasons why, but it’s a nontroversy that some irrationally still consider a debate, that being that violent video games instill these negative values in children. Personally, my adolescent development was filled with games of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter, but my urge to brutalize my fellow man is less about Ken spin-kicking Ryu in the face repeatedly and more about the persistence of indefensibly stupid ideas as grounded, proveable reason. However, this constant desire is easily supplanted by the fact that I am not psychologically malformed by my media, even though video games were a constant fixture in my life when it supposedly counted most. But don’t just take my word for it; studies that have been cited as so-called evidence have, been repeatedly proven to be non-contextual instances of intellectual dishonesty, or even outright fabrications.

But as Carl Sagan once said (and Donald Rumsfeld more recently made common vernacular), the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. To add a little balance to my spin, we should pause to consider that successfully crossing the uncanny valley just might push us into territory where these fears are credible. The problem I see there is that this adeptly-named “valley” is less like the distance between two locations on earth and more like the distance between two galaxies; it’s theoretically possible, but the visual detail along with the behavioral and intellectual dynamics are so far and away from modern technology that it’s not too practical a contingency to plan for just yet. However, I could very much be mistaken; games like Lionhead Studios’ Project Natal presentation Milo may just be the first of many waystations on the journey across.

Ultimately, regardless of how peaceful or violence-torn your country is, media censorship is not the answer; instead, it’s a scapegoat to distract the masses from an incompetent government that approves unreasonable legislation. It’s a sign of a failure of the people to assert their rights whenever their government intervenes to protect the citizenry from itself; it’s pretty terrifying to imagine living amongst those who actually look to and encouraging their government to behave this way.

Black Flower Music

So I ended up sitting next to someone particularly interesting in my Speech and Diction class (another reason I haven’t published any recording yet, still have a bit of an accent hurdle to get past), and discovered he is not only a long-time blogger, but a regular podcaster as well. Whereas I’m a jack-of-all trades for all media with no significant specialization beyond perhaps design theory, he features attentive detail to video games, audio, anime… lots of things I just knew my audience would likely have an interest in.

And so, I send you his way: Black Flower Music

Left4Dead, Fans4Life

The following article was written late last week for my Advertising and Social Media class journal, and is reprinted from that source.

To borrow Kotaku’s comment on the matter, PC developer Valve tapped into a veritable public relations gold mine earlier this week. Valve, noted for the creation of the Half-Life series of first-person shooters as well as the innovative Steam content delivery system, earlier this year announced the release of a sequel to their successful survival horror shooter Left4Dead. This was a surprise to many players, because if there is one thing that most Valve fans have always found wanting, it’s the speed and frequency of their new releases for existing game franchises, something that the company has faced a lot of criticism over due to the slow drip of episodic content for its Half-Life series of games. Ironically, with the case of Left4Dead, a new title had barely taken a year to reach development, which prompted an inverse of the standard complaints; Valve had promised its users downloadable content extensions for the multiplayer shooter, and many players loyal to the original game feared that Valve would abandon those projects to instead create content for their most recent title in the series.

It’s a long, dark road that leads me back to you.

So, how about that Zendikar? It sure is something. We can effectively counter spells that have the “cannot be countered” rules text on them now! Brave new world.

Okay, I don’t think Mindbreak Trap is remotely unbalanced; it’s brilliant, fun, and an excellent design mechanic. I’m still not terribly enthusiastic about the ‘clever’ “You’ve activated my trap card!” or “IT’S A TRAP!” comments we’ll get at the prerelease, but nothing’s perfect.

Finally got to play an M10 draft last night at the local FNM; I had some solid table position and ended up heavily in red; nothing too bomby but a solid pull, I’ll try and post the listing later. It’s surprising too, because I had such good Red in the first pack, and then got cut off completely in the second pack (I would later discover it was the first-time drafter at our table, and he ended up costing me a Lightning Bolt and a Ball Lightning, but still, not too bad). Undefeated except the second round, which was against a Black deck with consistent life drain, early Child of Night (both games) followed by three Gravediggers; I had to completely dominate the early game to have a chance at the win once he could get mana rolling, and I simply couldn’t do it (an early Looming Shade with intelligent pumps can make that happen, keeping me from stacking burn effectively to take it down). Outplayed by a better match-up backed by a skilled player, as simple as that; sometimes it happens.

Had some time to really play Duels of the Planeswalkers, and I have both praise and complaints, but I think that will all wait until a formal review (though if you’ve been following my Twitter account, you’ll probably have seen quite a few of them already).

Another game I’d like to review is Shadow Complex; it’s a great direction for Live titles to take, but I have some concerns with the game itself. Strangely enough, I find it to be one of the most entertaining stealth-action titles currently on the market, which is interesting because stealth is neither a key feature or even necessary to the gameplay. There’s also that silly “controversy” attached to it, but all in due time.

As for reviews themselves, what’s the hold-up? Well, university began again recently, and due to also having employment on campus, I am there at minimum five hours daily (and I don’t mean “business week” daily, I mean weekends as well). Stack that with out-of-class assignments (ironically enough, I have to maintain an alternate blog with two posts each week for one class, but I have enough freedom in topics that you may see some of that content rolled over here) and limitations of sleep schedule (I average about five hours a night at the moment), we have a premium on time. But as I clearly still have some time to play games, I have time I could be using to speak more substantially on them; this is the plan. My Happauge DVR should arrive within the week, and after I receive a replacement for my currently inoperational PC, there should be something to work with. For now, it’s looking like reviews will pretty much be video with voice-over commentary, which I think is probably for the best, as this features the game and its discussion as opposed to, well, me. Some of you may recall that I mentioned getting a video camera as well; this is still a consideration for the future, but it’s been removed from the priority list until we get some reviews in the can. Once I’ve streamlined my editing and post-production process, we can hopefully expand to on-site filming and get some Magic coverage up here as well.

And there you have it; state of affairs, since the last update. I do update frequently on my Twitter feed, usually with one-line thoughts on recently spoiled cards or game industry developments, so head over there by following the link to the right if you don’t see anything new on the front page here.

All quiet on the home front…

Yes, I know, the updates have slowly been dwindling to a crawl recently, and a couple of you out there who regularly check in are sure to be disappointed. But I have excuses!

I mean reasons! Fully justified reasons.

University is ramping up to start again, and that means a new round of loans. And that means recording equipment.

Right now, the plan is to get a fairly cheap (around $200) HD camera and a tunerless recordable DVD player for video capture. This should let me capture video from basically every console except DS, if I get my hands on a GCN Game Boy Player. This includes PC, even, as mine has an S-Video out and I can just input into the recorder.

I have some plans, but I’m still not entirely sure what I want to do first. What I’m thinking about is trying to get a VCR and copy over a Magic Worlds video from around when I was first playing, if I can dig it out of storage. It coincided with the first release of the Pro decks with the gold borders, whenever that was.

I also have another idea for a series that’s more… “about town”, if you will, but we’ll see how well initial efforts work. I may be producing a podcast shortly, not to mention whatever responsibilities my classes bring. On a related note, we may just go really crazy and throw a webcomic into the mix. Why not?

In all reality, it’s about time this was all sorted out; if all goes to plan, by year’s end, we should have some real results. Hope you can hold out for the ride.