Let Us Play

It's funny how much work you really don't expect when you start out Let's Playing. You think, "Hey! I can talk about this VIDEO GAME while playing it for people on the Internet and maybe entertain them in some way!" I think all of us who become Let's Players tend to underestimate really how much work it can be to create a quality LP that keeps people either entertained or informed (some people are good enough to do both).

I only post about this because some people really don't know what we LPers go through in order to release our videos. First of all, you have to make sure your video is running at a consistent frame rate with at least decent quality. Then there's the audio, where you have to decide whether to mix both game audio and commentary into the same track and risk having a terrible audio balance or split the two and then worry about syncing it all up manually. And believe me, audio syncing is one gigantic clusterfuck, especially when editing footage caught from a capture card. I typically do a countdown on my audio track before starting the video so I know where the audio track comes in for the beginning of the video - this way, I can manually sync it up together.

But then you have all these compounding issues that tend to come out of left field and kick your ass to the point where you aren't sure if you're be able to edit and render today's video in time. Your video recording fucks up and skips every time a fade into a black screen occurs, meaning you have to salvage the video and manually sync it back to its correct position WITHOUT ANY INDICATION OF WHERE TO PUT IT BESIDES YOUR FRIGGIN' MEMORY (yeah, i've been annoyed at this problem lately). You stupidly forget that you were recording just footage so you had turned your mic audio off the previous day and failed to remember to turn that feature of your recording software back on. The game audio ITSELF desyncs from the video footage, meaning you also have to sync that back into place... And these are just problems you need to be wary about to make the video "okay" to watch. This is without adding all the pretty text effects, transitions, animations, and basically preliminary graphic art skills needed to make actually GOOD looking material like walkthrough commentaries. Overall, the initial recording session of good spirited fun that only lasted 15-20 minutes turns into an ugly editing session of sometimes even multiple hours, depending on how much you want to put into your videos. There's no "play" in the editing aspect of LPing, yet we have to do it anyway to make ourselves look presentable and to draw other people in to being entertained.

This isn't even half of it though. Even the fun part - the recording itself - takes active effort on your part. It becomes an issue of style. What do you say? What approach do you take? How do you handle reacting to certain events in the game? What do you even CHOOSE to LP? It's okay not to know what you're going for at first. Every LPer was an awkward sonuva bitch at some point with no idea on how to approach commentary. I sure as hell know I was! Ultimately though, you're left with a question in the back of your mind - is everyone suited to LP? Is Let's Playing really a democratic field of entertainment within gaming? Can anyone just pick it up and hope to be a good Let's Player?

My answer is... no. It's impossible. Sorry to say, but it's the harsh truth. Some of us aren't cut out for Let's Playing on a solo level. It's legitimately difficult to come up with commentary when you're the only head in charge and directly involved in the unfolding of a project. On the level of LPing, game skills matter little in comparison to your commentary that bounces and evolves from the gameplay. If you can't create interesting commentary or a flow that interests people, then you won't succeed. That's bare minimum. And people are shallow fucks - aesthetically pleasing elements also play their own role. Your voice will be judged. But even having a great voice doesn't mean you'll be entertaining right off the bat. It's because to Let's Play, you have to become an entertainer yourself. And that can be really hard. I struggled with it myself for months until the middle of my second Let's Play.

You have to ask yourself why you're LPing. Is it for yourself? Is it for others? Is it to share your favorite games and your own perspective on them? All of these questions center around one central tenet... Are you having fun? That's where the "Play" part really comes in... Despite all the work and crap you'll be slogging through - fickle viewers, outrageous editing issues, synthesizing decent and consistent commentary in a quality approach - you still have to have fun. And if you can have fun despite these things, well, you're tenacious and at least have the potential to become a pretty damn good LPer if you keep at it. And after all, you're just playing a video game for the Internet, so despite the effort, your main goal and worry is whether or not you're going to enjoy the journey. And if you do, it becomes an amazing hobby that will change your entire outlook on life even though it seems so trivial.

I'm almost done with my first year. I've actually gained a lot of knowledge in video editing, met some really kind people, had awesome times commentating with my friends, and have developed a style I feel confident in that sets me apart from others. I've been having some of the most fun I've ever had in my life. Why do I bring others to co-commentate on my solo LPs sometimes? Why do I contribute to collaborative projects on both the CounterClaimCrew channel and even my own in the future with Co-Ops and other ideas that I've been broiling over?

Because I want them to experience all the fun times I have. I want to show my amazing friends and my interactions with them to others so that they can have hope that this world has a lot of good and joy to be had in it. I want to show my memories of the games that have touching stories and enriching gameplay, or rather, games as our generation's artistic medium. Most of all, I want to build community within Let's Playing. It's time we stop just merely looking at the popular LPers as if they're the only ones out there worth circling around - some do plenty to help out the little guy, some don't, that's just how it is. Let's Playing is an opportunity to use our hobbies as a way to connect to others and find meaningful friendships and community while having fun in the process. That's why I won't be stopping anytime soon.

The Psychology of Midterms Week, Or Motivation

Day 1:
I honestly do not know what to say since I'm forcing myself to write this - I meant to begin writing this yesterday, but I have not had free time until Thursday, by which I mean only sort of busy. That speaks volumes about my workload, doesn't it? Two midterms and one take-home midterm can be dealt with only a loss of free time. I anxiously want to sip a class or two so I can study more, but then I would lose participation points or fail a recitation or something. I want to just study in class and try to be productive in that way. I'm freaking out - time grows short - and I am sick - sickening dread fights preparation.

Day 2:
[Random chemistry notes since one of my friends is a doofus.]

I'm so stressed that I can't string my thoughts together. It's been a few days since I last wrote the first paragraph of this freaking journal. It's as if I cannot do anything else. I want to do fun things as a break - fun but productive things - but I barely have time for anything. This journal will seem silly, but doesn't everything if you have the time to stop and think about it? I want that luxury - silliness is definitely wanted here, but it is not allowed. It might even save a life or a mind.

Day 3:
Likewise, it's obvious that this part was written on the third day. Now my views will be retrospective but hopefully still insightful. My feelings of stress were compounded into depression and doubt - basically an inability to see that hope driving me along. Determination pulled me through, I find. Even when I had to study for one test solely the day before, I managed to keep myself moving with that goal; I was stressed yeah, but I didn't see the world in a dismal manner. My midterms seemed to be a break from destructive stress and emotion. There I could apply what I know and definitively ease the pain I felt. I set my frustrations aside and had clear thought during the tests. It was the build-up to the tests and the aftermath that ultimately stung. This week is the time that your stress can become a vehicle of something else - it becomes a pedestal. During this week I lost a general sense of clarity, but it wasn't the tests that got to me - it was the stress and the emotion. Something more destructive yet sinister struck - the onset of heavy emotion.

I suppose the stress does make one very susceptible to such feelings. A reduced ability to alleviate stress ultimately hurt my mental and emotional wellness. I was simultaneously cognizant of my ineffective work habits yet it was too busy of a time to fix them. Time itself falls apart during this week, completely hindering any progress.

Even on Tuesday my stress had already mounted upon itself, creating a mountain out of what was an anthill. I walked into a metal doorway on Tuesday and though the pain was notable the psychological impact was much more severe, alerting me to my  latent resentment and sadness. Midterms week - I repeat - did not cause me to feel this way but it provided the stressful backdrop. I'm not sure precisely how a physical action impacts the thoughts of the brain. I do know that I reawakened a part of myself, one that is catalyzed by stress to a degree where the stress brought out part of my "true" nature. As I said, the tests themselves were times of concentration: my motivation is one of the few things that kept me going, that keep me going. After what i must call "The Doorway" I felt everything bear down on me. That is why motivation was the one thing that kept me going. Having the faith and emotional strength to tackle other things is beyond me, especially after that last week. I am drained in so many ways. I want that to end, but I fear my inherent humanity - my will to thrive - is all that governs the continuation of my journey.

.product

Orthogonal,
Lie perpendicular;
the normal gives way to the directionless,
a departure from paths.

A projection is made,
and a crossing happens -
lie in the direction of another,
and swim the ocean.

I Believe It's Called... Happiness

Skyward Sword spoilers be ahead!

There is one character I did not discuss in my first post about how Skyward Sword was overall. This character is with you for the entire journey. She is probably one of the most controversial characters to ever grace the series because she embraces a philosophy prominent in modern gaming that most gamers reject, despise, and loathe. I am among this group of gamers, so I naturally feel the criticism of her character to be justified. She is the ultimate hand holder, never letting up on conveying extraneous and unnecessary information that can be extracted from the player's own wits if they possess half a brain. I believe a video is in order to demonstrate a major failure and regression in gaming:

I may be sidetracking here, but it's my blag post, so nuts to you, buddy! Egoraptor expertly demonstrates in this video the major folly of modern gaming philosophy. However, modern gaming HAS improved over classic gaming, but alas, that is to discuss for another day. I'll let you take what you will from it because I could talk all day about how much the hand-holding detracted from the experience. My commentary during my blind Let's Play speaks for itself anyway.

But this wouldn't explain why I found myself in tears at the final scene in Skyward Sword. Fi bids our hero farewell, forever to be cast in the blade of evil's bane for all of eternity. For all the times I spent suffering at obvious explanations, bullshit statistics, and a non-existent personality, I felt... something akin to emptiness when she departed. Sadness. How can that be? I thought I hated everything Fi stood for!

There's a certain other partner in a past Zelda game that gets similar hate. Navi the fairy. She played a similar role to Fi, but both characters are distinctly different. Navi and Ocarina of Time Link are connected personally; yes, Navi does so because of the Great Deku Tree, but she enters the partnership with high hopes of becoming Link's friend. She chastises him like a mother figure but already opens up by the time the player leaves Kokiri Forest. She lightens the darkness of Link's solitude, revealing the world of Hyrule to him and forging the path to many friendships in his journey. Unlike other people, I actually really enjoyed Navi's character. She is very important to Link, so much that he would explore unknown lands to reunite with her in Majora's Mask.

I feel that Fi is very analogous to Navi, but in a different way for the Link of Skyward Sword. Fi was always there as well. Even if the player feels that she was grating, he or she continues onward. Fi's partnership with SS Link is one of duty, contrasting heavily with Navi's partnership. Everything Fi says or does throughout the game is strictly business and duty set forth by the goddess Hylia. Her entire persona is based on logic and deductions (despite the statistical tomfoolery). She is simply nothing more than a shell carrying out the will of Hylia. Even a mindless robot would fit her description perfectly. And that is why I feel heartbroken.

Even in the end, she was nothing more than a tool of the goddess.

Fi is one of the tragic characters in Skyward Sword. She was bound by the vile word known as fate. At the end, we finally glimpse and see her departure. In the journey, Fi only expected to carry out her duty and purpose. In the end, she got so much more, yet it still became the same conclusion as expected for her. She had found companionship. She had found a friend in Link. Yet at discovering this happiness, it is so cruelly ripped away from her.

Skyward Sword pays homage to the themes of its predecessors. Fi's farewell closely mirrors Navi's from Ocarina of Time, and to a lesser extent, Midna's from Twilight Princess. Wind Waker Link says farewell to the island that holds his family and friends to sail for brighter seas. The words of the Happy Mask Salesman echo through our minds as we witness Fi's departure:

"Whenever there is a meeting, a parting shall follow. But that parting needs not last forever. Whether a parting be forever or merely for a short while... that is up to you."

For SS Link, maybe that departure IS forever in a sense. However, if one considers that Link is merely a reflection of the player... We remember all of the times we wielded the Master Sword before. A Link To The Past. Ocarina of Time. The Wind Waker. Twilight Princess. And we realize that maybe the Happy Mask Salesman was right. After all... Don't we see Fi again and again as we play these titles and pull the Blade of Evil's Bane from its pedestal once more? She has always been there for the player, yet we don't even realize it because of our ignorance in the previous games! Fi represents what is most precious to us... The love and friendship we fail to realize each and every day from those around us. And that may be the biggest tragedy of all.

Zelda Embraces Its Narrative Skyward

I feel like discussing Skyward Sword a bit more, so I'll just do it here. Note that there are spoilers in this, so note that if you haven't beaten the game yet. I'll prolly write more about its strengths and shortcomings later, I'm just thunderstruck about the narrative at the moment as it's just now sinking in for me.

Skyward Sword is an interesting game. Not because it's a 3D Zelda and they're all phenomenal games in their own right, but because it is the most mixed bag I have ever seen in the history of the series. It does an extraordinary amount of things right, yet at the same time it has just as many flaws to act as a counter to what it excels at.

The story and characters are magnificent. I'd even go as far as to say they're the best in the whole series. Every character is endearing in their own right (except maybe Fi BUT THAT'S FOR LATER). I became really attached to Groose, Zelda (...'s face), and the rest of the Skyloft gang even though I sparsely saw them. Every encounter in SS is a valuable thing because you barely ever see the cast outside of sidequests and really, really important main story events that don't happen very often.

What I was most impressed at in terms of characterization was the amount of depth Link (er, Frag for me) displayed throughout the game. You wouldn't think that a silent character would be able to portray such a thing, but Nintendo makes it work brilliantly. The emotions conveyed on his face alone are beautiful things and let the player draw their own interpretation of the thoughts that go on in Link's head. After all, both the player and Link are one in the same, so shouldn't they share the same perspective? SS Link becomes the most expressive incarnation of our titular hero since TWW's, and it works very well. We the player really feel the motivation to keep playing and to explore more of the world below Skyloft and beyond in the surrounding clouds.

The other characters are obviously outstanding too. Groose is the manliest badass to ever grace the Zelda series, initially appearing as a selfish bully vying for unrequited love. By the end, he transforms from such a pathetic state to the ultimate unsung hero of the story, selflessly doing what he can to protect the world and finally acknowledging his close friendship with Link. Friendship can and will be born out of rivalry - Groose accepts romantic defeat and acquiesces Zelda to Link, once again accepting his minor role. Such a minor role actually turns out to be even more major than the "true" hero's, Link. Without Groose, Link would have never succeeded in his journey. Groose is a reflection of all the unsung heroes in the world today, doing what they can for the betterment of others and striving to find happiness in the most perilous of situations.

And who can forget our main heroine, Zelda herself? She rarely ever appears in front of the player, a seemingly unattainable ideal. She first appears quite often at the beginning of the game, letting the player barely grasp at what her personality is and what makes her tick. She turns out to be charismatic and endearing, making it all the more tragic when she's taken cruelly from Link's side. As the player progresses, the few moments we reunite with her are full of joy yet tragic, for both characters walk parallel but different paths. Every meeting is a treasure though, reminding us that the simple purpose of our journey is merely to save this girl bound to fate. Unlike past games, we really become acquainted with Zelda despite the seldom reunions, motivating us to continue in stride despite the hardships of the surface world. The game ends with her rescue and the momentary triumph over evil, signaling that the ideal we've been fighting for has finally come to fruition.

Unlike other Zelda games though, SS has the most bittersweet ending of all the series. Evil still exists. Human greed is merely at bay. Darkness will return yet again. But a momentary respite pervades Skyloft and the surface world, making it all the more satisfying for us. Skyward Sword, you may have your annoying forced motion controls, unintuitive item system, fetch quest padding, limited number of diverse areas, and the widespread usage of a hand-holding sidekick that treats the player like a stillborn infant, but no doubt you transcend these flaws and establish your right as one of the best in the Zelda series. And that's why I continue to love The Legend Of Zelda - because I can forgive it for the flaws it has and learn to embrace the majesty of what it does spectacularly.