The Kametsu Informer: Issue 4

We have new group icons, as you can see under your avatar, and talk of possibly getting a new skin is already underway. Vote with your wallet and let us know if you’d like to see any new skins!

Our previous light skin is slated for a return after a conversion and slight makeover. The conversion has already been funded, so expect to see it some time in the near future.

We’ve also been discussing bringing back regular gaming events and making actual use of the Steam group. If that’s something you’re interested in, hit up the Gaming Realm! There are a few organisational threads floating around already, so you can participate from there or get something started on your own if you can’t find what you want.

I’d also like to take a moment to thank our donators for their support of the forum. I encourage anyone who is able to please consider dropping a few bucks in the tin! Kametsu runs on donations and we wouldn’t be here without you.

As always, the newsletter is seeking writers! More details to follow on the next page.

[ PDF Download ]

Newsletter Changes

“Flexibility is the key to air power.”

I heard that often enough when I was in the Air Force, usually around the time they tell some poor sap they have to come in at two in the morning to chase a mission.

Or when they promise they’re going to fix a problem, but then the “solution” appears to involve taking down the entire unclassified network, rendering us incapable of doing our administrative duties.

Flexibility is key indeed.

The newsletter is, and always meant to be, a flexible publication. We try something for a while, and if it works, it works! We’ll keep doing it.

If it doesn’t work, or it stops working, that’s when we need to take a look at how we can change it into something that does work. Or at least make it work a little better than it did before.

I usually reserve this kind of talk for post-publication write-ups, but I’m uncertain whether people feel the shop talk thread is meant for them, so here we are.

Let’s get into the nitty gritty.

Changes were already made in terms of article length—we will accept shorter articles, with an absolute minimum length of 100 words, provided they still provide enough content to make it worthwhile to readers.

I haven’t decided yet whether to allow for much longer pieces, since our upper limit is already 600 words. If anyone has any strong feelings about this, let us know and we’ll consider raising the limit!

Formatting was also regulated, which should ease some stress on editors and make word counting a bit more accurate.

Since extracting content for all six of our primary categories has been a bit of a chore given our workforce, and after receiving more than a few comments about it, I’ve decided to expand our coverage.

I still would like to focus on having this be useful and informative, but there are definitely other topics that we can cover that stay well within those parameters.

This includes things like recipes, instructional “how to” articles, opinion pieces on hot button topics, and whatever else you want to see in the newsletter.

If you can think of a single person who will benefit from your article, then it’s worth writing and we will do our best to publish it. The newsletter is meant to be a platform for Kametsu users!

I will also try to improve coverage on activity about the forum, starting with this issue.

Again, we’re always open to your suggestions and input. Contact information can be found at the end of the issue and my inbox is always open.

Here’s to many more issues to come!

Characters Wanted

Whether as owner or participant, sign ups are a great way to partake in the creative endeavors of your fellow forum residents.

Bloody Lineage

Location: Art & Literature

Writer: Kinara Uzumaki

The Alaryn and Averyn clans have maintained the balance of the vampire world, keeping numerous clans in order while dealing with the likes of the Blood Brotherhood, a mortal band of vampire slayers, and the Burkiston, a group of feline warriors.

Seventeen years ago, the Alaryn moved to claim supremacy and massacred the Averyn. Unfortunately for them, they left a single survivor--a young girl named Aura.

Participants can sign up as members of a vampire clan, slayer, or even as a mortal. The story is already in motion, but sign ups are still open.

The End is Nigh!

Location: Alexandria Inn

Writer: Multiple

A roleplay run by Dark_Angel13, we’re dropped into a ruined world infested with zombies. The story picks up in Echo Peak, one of the surviving settlements after the apocalyptic disaster.

Participants are given the option of being not only a human, but a mutant. More specifically, a Death Walker. While other mutants like the Cora are too far gone to maintain any semblance of sanity, Death Walkers are the (un)lucky ones who survived the blast of a deathwave with their minds still intact.

The roleplay has already begun, but sign ups remain open.

Kametsu High School Soccer Club

Location: Art & Literature

Writer: RazorDan

Have a taste for the thrill of competition? Enjoy a rousing game of soccer? Perhaps you’ll enjoy watching your character participate in this story, set in the town of Kametsu. Even if you don’t know much about soccer, RazorDan will fill in the gaps for you and find a place for your character.

If creating a student doesn’t interest you, there are limited spaces for teachers, though you’ll want to check in to make sure there’s room for one.

Kamestu Sims

Location: Gaming Realm

Writer: Multiple

With Pinkie Pie heading up the Sims 2 side of the house and Emotional Outlet on the Sims 3 in a consolidated sign up thread, all forum members with the game are encouraged to take advantage of the available profiles and start their own game featuring Kametsu Sims.

Even if you don’t play or own the game, you can still sign up and have your persona featured in any number of gameplay diaries. Sign ups are still open.

Magician Complex

Location: Art & Literature

Writer: Pinkie Pie

Set in the world of Reclaimed Earth, some familiar faces and some new ones take centre stage with a terrifying plot--people are captured and let loose in a booby-trapped building. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the masterminds themselves just might be itching to grab a victim and get a little personal.

Due to the nature of the story, participants are encouraged to submit as many characters as they are willing. Don’t get too attached, though--you never know who’s next.

Rattle

Location: Art & Literature

Writer: DuLake

Not into vampires? Don’t think you’re coordinated enough for soccer? Terrified of having your character killed?

If you’re terrified of having a character killed, Rattle may not be the safest place to go. Your character may not die (immediately), but sometimes the grit and grime of real life can be torture enough even if your character isn’t eventually killed off.

We begin with the Write Club, seemingly a front for people to air their grievances with the world than a place to get any real writing done. From there, we follow the characters into their depths, dank and unsavoury though they may be.

† *Emotional Outlet* · April 30, 2013

Dreaming Anime Reviews: Little Busters

Dreamcastor Rei

I was going to wait on this review until after I completed all the reviews on previous KEY works. Since I watched this fairly recently, I just figured I'd go ahead with this review since the anime is still fresh on my mind.

Synopsis:

When tragedy struck Riki Naoe as a child, he was rescued from grief over his parent's deaths when four other kids "recruited" him for their group—the "Little Busters." Now in high school, Riki and the other Busters are still fast friends, and though their vision of being heroes for justice may have faded, they'd still do anything for each other. Which is why Riki is now on TWO special missions. The not so secret one: recruiting new members so the Busters can form a baseball team. Preferably FEMALE recruits, as the current dude/babe ratio is an inconvenient 4 to 1. The OTHER mission, though... That's the strange one. Because Riki and Rin, the group's singular girl, are receiving odd messages, delivered by cats, concerning the existence of a "secret world" and assigning them tasks they have to complete. Were their youthful dreams of being crusaders not so fanciful after all? Or is there something even more vital at stake? Between steeling his courage to talk to girls, dealing with his own narcolepsy and facing his feelings concerning Rin, Riki may just need the strength of a superhero to solve the ultimate mystery of the Little Busters! [MAL]

Review:

Basically, this anime revolves around five childhood friends. Kyosuke, the whimsical senior, wants to create final memories before graduating and moving on to the adult world, so he decides to start a baseball team called "Little Busters." Riki, who suffers from narcolepsy (which, in layman’s terms, means he uncontrollably falls asleep without warning) is forced to find five more members, preferably females to even out the ratio of girls to boys, after four of the five friends join up.

Plot: [2.5/5]

I was very disappointed in this anime actually. It just didn't measure up to all the other KEY works. To be frank, it was boring and a bit confusing. The plot lacked the impact needed to be entertaining. The only reason it got a high of a score as it did, was because the side stories were amazing and touching, which is a feature of KEY works. All the girls that Riki ends up recruiting each have some sort of trouble that they are fighting and need help with. That is about the only thing that makes the story interesting enough to watch all the way through.

Characters: [5/5]

Even though the plot was greatly lacking, the characters are definitely interesting. Just like with any KEY work, the characters have a variety of types that make it exciting, and most of them have interesting side stories.

Art: [4/5]

The art the KEY put into this was amazing, like always. The only thing that I can complain about is the opening. The opening was just not as amazing as KEY openings usually are.

Music: [5/5]

As per usual, music flows smoothly and voice actors were matched pretty well with the characters.

Awesomeness Factor: [3/5]

It's obvious from the last episode that KEY is going to try for a second season, which I will watch purely for the fact that I'm curious, and I've already watched the first season. Plus, I'm a major KEY fan. So if you're a KEY fan, feel free to watch this anime.

† *Emotional Outlet* · April 30, 2013

Let's Read "Perfect Strangers"
Emotional Outlet

Concept tends to be meaningless without application. As such, I’ll be doing a “Let’s Read” of my first NaNoWriMo entry from seven years ago, long untouched through the years.

As a complete piece I’m probably never going to edit, it’s the best place to pull examples without needing to turn a critical eye towards others.

Remember that what works for me may not work for you and vice versa--I hope by guiding you through my thought processes during editing, you can hone your own creative process.

If nothing else, I hope to entertain with my early attempts at serious drama. My comments will be offset in brackets and italics.

A final note and disclaimer: As expected, there are many problematic aspects to this story. I will mark potentially triggering content where appropriate.

Perfect Strangers

Chapter One

Giggles echoed down the hall of the large house, emanating from the only room in which people were awake. It was a sleepover—seven girls sat in a rough circle, each one doing their own things, appearing to be absorbed in their own business but at the same time aware of each other. The dominant topic was about how soon school was starting, and what their plans were for the high school.

[immediately we run into the problem of “telling”. Rather than let the environment build itself and show the interactions between the girls naturally, I sum it up with a single sentence.

I would cut down the number of characters and start with the “camera” inside the bedroom instead of the hallway.]

“I’m hoping to get a boyfriend,” one girl said, her legs pressed against her chest, her eyes focused on her feet, blonde hair falling about her face. She had never had much luck in the dating world, and it certainly showed in her innocence of certain things like sex and kissing. Her friends made fun of her often, but it was playful, never serious.

[i’m not especially fond of omniscient third-person narrative. I would cut out the last two sentences. She never shows up again in the story in any significant way, making that information extraneous]

As one of the girls began to speak, a young boy ran into the room, screeching at the top of his lungs, “PURPLE CATS AND ORANGE BATS! PURPLE CATS AND ORANGE BATS!”

[i believe this was the result of taking on a NaNo dare, but since I’m separated by a few years from when this was originally written, I can’t dismiss the possibility that I have begun padding the story in the very first chapter in a fit of early desperation.]

“Get OUT of here, Ethan,” one of the girls yelled, throwing a pillow at the hyperactive child. He stuck out his tongue and dashed out of the room before the girl could get up. She locked the door and sighed, returning to her spot on the floor. “God, I hate my little brother so much.”

[Ethan never shows up again as a character of any importance to the story.

There are a couple of ways I could fix this. Ethan’s interruption can be removed entirely without damaging the narrative. His interruption can also be changed to be more relevant and plant some plot seeds early on.

What I would prefer to do, however, is change the location of the sleepover to the home of a principal character, so I can make the interruption plot-relevant without needing to invent extraneous characters.]

———

We’re already off to a great start! We’ll pick up next time and see where this ill-conceived sleepover leads us.

Write It Up

Emotional Outlet

I’m going to talk about something other than grammatical and stylistic choices. Let’s talk about the actual process of writing, of putting pen to paper, hands to keyboard, or face to wall as it were.

We all hit creative blocks, and we all hit them for different reasons.

And I’m saying it’s okay to write garbage. Nothing comes out perfect the first time. Maybe not even the second time. Or the third time. Don’t feel like you’re any less talented because you don’t push out perfect first drafts, much less ones that won’t make you vomit upon reading.

One of the best things you can do for yourself is to create something every day. Even if it’s stupid or small, it’s still something. It puts you into the habit of creating--after all, your brain is a muscle that needs to be exercised. If you never exercise your creative muscles, getting started is going to be painful from time to time. It happens to everyone.

Waiting around for the perfect inspiration, waiting for the plot to fall into place, waiting for the block to just go away--that might work for some people, but in my experience, waiting just leads to more waiting until I finally reach a point where I haven’t written anything more substantial than “my feels” on Tumblr in the past year and a half.

Just like real exercise, you have to start small. Write a haiku or couplet every day. Write down your dreams. Write about how your day went. When creating small pieces at a time become second nature, move up a rung. Write a short story every day. Write a chapter every day.

Like an artist does warm sketches before starting the main attraction, take some time to do some stream of consciousness before tackling today’s scene. Write a stupid fluffy scene, make your characters do something outrageous.

You don’t have to show anybody your daily efforts. In fact--don’t. That’s none of their business. This is all about you. Write something self-indulgent, write something stupid, write something fun. If you take the stairs every day, they won’t be so overwhelming next week.

I like to read about writing. It’s loads of fun, and it helps me think! I also do it because I write these articles. It’s a never-ending cycle.

Still, there’s no real secret to writing. There’s no magic software to use, no magic method or procedure that will ensure your efforts will result in the next bestseller. You can try to cheat creativity, try to come up with shortcuts and pray for a muse that will lead your hand, but it’s okay if you never find your muse. It’s okay to have to work at it, because a lot of people do.

Whether it’s writing for a blog, newspaper, or book, there are people who have to push through these creative blocks because they have to. It’s their job. If you’re passionate about creating, then don’t let these lapses in inspiration kill your passion. Don’t let it cow you into the corner and make you wait until inspiration strikes.

Take care of yourself and push through it. Take charge and be in control of the process instead of letting the process control you.

Realism vs. Believability

Emotional Outlet

We’ve all heard it. You just got out of a movie about aliens, spaceships, and magical rabbits, and there’s that one person who says, “Can you believe that guy survived that blast to the face without even a scratch? That’s so unrealistic!” And then someone says, “There were aliens and magical rabbits, and you’re worried about realism?”

The problem is that they aren’t talking about realism in the context of our world and the laws we’re bound by, but rather realism in the context of the story’s world and the established laws therein.

If a story breaks the rules established in the fictional world, if the events that occur aren’t consistent within the confines of the fictional world--that’s a problem with believability, not necessarily realism. You don’t need me to tell you a lot of fiction is unrealistic, or that fiction is lying you can legally do and get people to pay you for it.

Suspension of belief covers for a lot of things as long as it’s consistent. Current reality dictates interplanetary travel would take forever--which makes going into stasis a convenient trope--and a pretty ridiculous amount of fuel, especially if the planets are far apart.

However, fiction can put reality aside and allow for magic ships that can travel quickly and efficiently enough that interplanetary travel is as mundane as taking the bus downtown. As long as this is consistent, it’s okay that it’s not probable.

This doesn’t mean, however, that people will believe just anything or that you, as a writer, don’t have your work cut out for you. You still have to build the world and set up the structure that makes these unrealistic elements believable.

If your story is set in an alternate Earth where everything is the same except we have magic spaceships that allow for easy interplanetary travel, people are going to balk. Where’s the infrastructure that allows for these kinds of ships? Where did the technology come from? We can believe in the ships, but you have to sell it to us and make us believe.

Some things can be accepted at face value, like the existence of witches and wizards for the sake a story, but to really cash in on immersion, you’re going to have to convince people why they should believe that a hidden society of magic humans would exist--show readers why witches have to hide their existence, how wizards hide their existence, and what happens if they don’t.

Reality, of course, is often stranger than fiction. Despite the fact unbelievable coincidences happen all the time, readers won’t always accept these things in a story. A character who is broke and down on their luck can’t have their situation suddenly reversed by an auspicious insurance cheque, even if this kind of situation has happened in real life.

The problem is because you are the one pulling the strings in the story, people will assume it’s lazy writing. After all, you do have complete control. As such, bear in mind that realism doesn’t always trump believability when it comes to creating an enjoyable story.

Fiction is, for the most part, a balancing act between realism and believability, all the while keeping genre expectations in mind. The balance that worked for one story won’t always work for another. Just keep at it and eventually you’ll find that sweet spot.

† *Emotional Outlet* · April 30, 2013

Flu Shot: Uninstalling

Minseru

Welcome to this issue's Flu Shot!

This week we are going to be discussing uninstalling programs, of all odd things. For some of you this week is going to seem like a walk down Repeat Lane.

However, the reason we are discussing this being that it occurred to me that there are probably people out there who either have no idea how to uninstall programs, or may need help uninstalling a persistent program.

First off, let me explain the difference between removing a program and uninstalling a program.

When you remove a program, Guild Wars for example, from your computer, you are removing the executable file by deleting a folder. That is groovy and all, but you have not actually removed the program from your computer; just some files.

I bet you’re asking, “What does that matter?”

In the case of Guild Wars, when you remove the Guild Wars folder, without actually uninstalling the program, you now have a unfixable file. I had to go back, uninstall, and reinstall Guild Wars when my dad removed it. I could not download a new expansion, reinstall the original game… nothing.

When you uninstall the program, it removes the executable files, the folder, the files associated with just that program, and, more importantly, kills the association to the program. If, at a later point, you wish to reinstall the program, it’s easily done.

So on to how to actually uninstall a program.

Now, for some of you, this may seem a bit backwards, so I will give a few routes to the same goal.

The standard Windows uninstall method:

Go to Start > Control Panel > Programs > Uninstall a Program (sometimes called Add/Remove Program). Select the program you wish to uninstall. Either right-click or hit enter, and the program’s uninstaller will run to uninstall the program.

From the program file itself:

Now, you may not have your file in the C:/ drive, but we will pretend you do. In my case, we will go to:

C:/Program Files/Random Program/Backdoor Folder/Actual Program/

In this folder will be an AP uninstall, which can be used to uninstall the program.

From a program that helps with uninstalls:

There are some programs (CCleaner, Revouninstaller Pro, etc.) that will have tools that bring up the full list of programs on your computer available to be uninstalled.

These are very much self explanatory. These programs may also include the feature to remove the program from the program list without actually removing the program from the computer.

The programs listed will also help when you have virus-ridden programs that cannot otherwise be removed.

This has been your Flu Shot! Thank you for your time and bearing with me this week.

† *Emotional Outlet* · April 30, 2013

Gamers Corner

Dark_Angel13

Today, I thought I’d cover this online game, and give it a nice little review that will likely make you never want to play the game in your life. But here goes anyway.

The War Z was released back in October of last year as an Alpha. It was an alright game back then, and I actually enjoyed my time playing it. But then the developers of the game seemed to get quite greedy, and it’s now been about 6 months since they released the alpha and the game has few differences.

The game is now apparently at full release, and nothing has changed within the game, except you can now rent private servers and there’s some new loot. Nothing the developers promised has really gone into it.

Gameplay

The concept behind The War Z is quite simple: you run around killing zombies and looting buildings and whatnot. It’s a good idea, but the game was not well executed. The game has a hardcore mode, which it’s basically locked into; so when you die you lose everything and it takes an hour for your character to respawn.

The fight system against zombies is really simple: just swing at the head and kill. However, it’s just as easy for them to kill you, which is realistic, I suppose. I have a lot of issues with the gameplay, but I won’t go into those now.

Community

My experiences on the game have been hardly good. I die way too much from people in groups of bandits who literally kill everyone on sight. Sometimes they aren’t even a bandit. They’re just a weary player who doesn’t want to cop a bullet to the head and have all their hard work go to waste.

The community of players are all people who want to hang onto their loot. I’ve met a few friendlies, but for the most part, running into a player usually ends up in a gunfight where you waste precious ammo. Or it’s two players having it out with flashlights over a bag of chips.

Weapons

The game has a wide range of killing tools and firearms, but they don’t spawn enough, so often a player who has found a firearm has a leg up on everyone else, and is willing to use those precious bullets to kill another player, if need be, or just for the hell of it.

Summary

The game isn’t worth the cost, and it’s a game you will find frustrating and not very entertaining, unless you get really lucky within your first moments of the game. This review is a bad one and I give the game half a star out of five because it is trash. And, although I play it, it is only because I’m giving it one last chance after all the stuff I’ve had to put up with.

Starbound

Emotional Outlet

If you haven’t heard about Starbound, it’s something of a spiritual successor to Terraria.

One of the shortcomings of Terraria, for me, was once you did “everything”--beat all the bosses, gather up the best gear, build some sweet homes--it feels like there’s little left to do. There’s nothing else to progress towards, not to mention the limited nature of the world you’re in.

You have a single world to work with that has definite borders and no in-game way of travelling to other worlds. You can certainly take the character to different worlds through the menu, but it doesn’t feel quite the same as actually travelling in-game. This means that, while anything noticeably negative is unlikely to happen unless you literally strip mine the world or have been in the same world for quite some time, resources are definitely limited.

Starbound recently hit a cool million in preorder sales, and the numbers are still climbing. Everyone who preorders the game, regardless of order tier, is slated to receive an invite to the upcoming beta (TBD) and a Steam key upon release. To tide us over until then, it also comes packaged with two soundtracks--one official and one experimental--we can listen to now.

Formally announced in February 2012, Starbound is a 2D sidescrolling game developed by Chucklefish that depends heavily upon procedural generation for just about every aspect of the game, from the planets themselves to weapons and armour. Where Terraria quickly became stale and old, Starbound hopes to keep things fresh and interesting.

There are seven announced races in the game. Humans, of course, are present, but there’s also the Apex, an ape-like race; Avians, a bird-like race; Florans, a plant-like race of cannibals; Hylotl, an aquatic race; the Glitch, a robotic race that literally build their offspring; and the Novakid, a race comprised of pure energy beings, added the game for the $500k stretch goal. The Starbound forum also features a web character creator, though it only features the first six races.

Although it’s not unthinkable a game would take quite a bit of time to develop into a workable state, much less something worth releasing, people have been howling for a beta release--the forum alone has several threads asking about beta.

Fans were previously told to possibly expect a 2012 release, more an off-hand comment than anything solid. Development called for that date to be pushed back, but the damage was done and fans were less than pleased.

Since then, Chucklefish has been reluctant to provide a release date more solid than 2013. A lot of speculation has the beta release slated for the summer, with the game going gold some time in the late autumn or early winter.

On the flipside, however, there are those who think rushing into a beta would be a heavy strike against Chucklefish. They point to the way Minecraft’s beta was handled, where people maligned the game as buggy and incomplete despite it being in beta.

Either way, Chucklefish seem more than aware that you can only release a game once, so I have faith the beta will be well worth playing rather than an exercise in futility. Here’s to a hopefully successful launch, whenever that may be.

Dangan Ronpa Roundup

Emotional Outlet

I recently finished reading the LP for Dangan Ronpa--suffice it to say, the ending was both expected and unexpected. A lot of things were spoiled for me--not for any real spoilers since most of those were edited out, but because the LP format allowed people to speculate and pick apart the game pixel by pixel.

It wasn’t a negative experience, but in case there are any who want to read the LP with as few spoilers as possible, you might want to hit up the archived version and avoid the speculation. Or get your hands on the game itself and experience it in its entirety.

Characterisation marches on as the game progresses. And did it ever march in an unexpected direction. I don’t think there was a single character I was disappointed with by the end of the LP, not even the doujin artist Yamada with his explicit love for 2D girls.

By the the time the game began to wrap up (there are only six chapters), not only were the surviving characters a bit of a surprise, they had progressed quite far from their initial characterisation. Characters I disliked in the beginning became some of my favourites, which, to me, says a lot about the game.

The execution scenes seemed to drop in quality as the game went on. I don’t know if it was desensitisation or if they actually put the most shocking one first. Even the final execution scene felt underwhelming, although it’s to my understanding that they had to scrap their original idea due to some difficulties.

I was definitely interested in knowing what had happened before and after the game took place, so after a bit of a rest from marathon reading, I hopped into the thread for Super Dangan Ronpa 2 and Dangan Ronpa Zero. I only managed to read a few updates before the paywall went up, so my impressions are still premature.

Zero is interesting--it’s mostly prose with a couple of illustrations mixed in. There’s a girl with amnesia and we learn about the school’s background. I literally only read two chapters, that’s about all I got to say on it.

Whether it’s because I’m still hung up on the first game or because I’ve been subconsciously trained to recoil at the thought of sequels, SDR2 isn’t quite as engaging for me. I had to push myself to read past the first update and get to know the characters, something I didn’t have to do with the first. I read over three hundred pages in a single sitting, so it’s not as though size is a deterrent for me.

The design of the new characters aren’t as appealing to me. Part of the issue seems to be that they seem to be a more disparate group of characters--in the first game, they’re clearly wearing similar uniforms, albeit personalised ones. They also seem to be a bit more exaggerated and wild than the first game, but I may well change my mind once I get further in the LP.

I will say, however, the music in the sequel is amazing. While Monobear had the best song in Dangan Ronpa, Usami’s theme takes the cake. I doubt there will be any tracks later on in the game that will blow me away, but I also didn’t expect to fall so deeply into the game’s fandom.

Here’s hoping the game proves me wrong, not only in terms of music, but in terms of its characters and story.

† *Emotional Outlet* · April 30, 2013

Editors

poetictragedy | Emotional Outlet

Feedback

Application

† *Emotional Outlet* · May 1, 2013

Happy Wednesday, Kamehamehamians! This issue is a little short, hopefully that won't happen too much. Little heavy on the admin side of things, unfortunately!

Hope everyone had a great April and that May will be way better than April, because seriously, April sucked.

Dark_Angel13 · May 1, 2013

Good article, I enjoyed it =)

Kinara Uzumaki · May 2, 2013

I really enjoyed reading the Informer Thanks for your support in the Art and Literature section. Hopefully we can keep it going like the other sections.

DrumRoll · May 2, 2013

good work this month:)

† *Emotional Outlet* · May 3, 2013

I really enjoyed reading the Informer Thanks for your support in the Art and Literature section. Hopefully we can keep it going like the other sections.

As long as I see stuff down there, I don't mind advertising. It's like I'm doing the work of the New Content tab, except slightly different.

Next time around should have a good mix of articles hopefully, so I'm not drowning everyone in an endless stream of grammar and writing technique.

lolrawr · May 13, 2013

I uh erm... Nevermakemybed!!! (Jumps off cliff)

Perfect Strangers - Oh cool a let's read. I'm used to just let's plays so this will be a change of pace. :] Aw we'll never know if the little innocent girl gets her man. :< And lol Ethan. He made his point! He stated the fact of Purple cats and Orange bats. He can die peacefully now!

Write It Up - Yeah creative blocks can be a tough thing to overcome. One of my friends decided to test his artistic abilities and make a comic. We all loved it and he did it for a few months, but after awhile he just stopped. He said that after the initial "reserve" of jokes was gone he struggled to consistently come up with funny, original content. I guess in that case it's really dependent on one's outlook on life. One would have to go through the day seeing the humor in things and then make a comic about it later. That's probably how someone would get past a creative block like that.

Realism vs. Believability - From an anime standpoint, I tend to accept things that aren't really realistic. The only time I have a hard time is when say a shonen type show has fighting. Say there is a fighter who has strength that starts from A and goes to C. Character gets to C and has a hard time, but then somehow ends up winning anyway. It makes no sense! Also deus ex machina is another way for me to lose credibility on something. That's a whole other topic though lol so I'll stop there.

Starbound - Yeah I can sympathize with people wishing the beta would have been released earlier. As a game that is similar to Minecraft, having early builds might have been a good idea. I really think the pro's outweigh the con's. The developers get good feedback which can make the final game even better. That's the thing though. The game must become final. Yeah like you said, Minecraft had many bugs and still feels "incomplete" to this day.

† *Emotional Outlet* · May 13, 2013

Haha, I forgot what I had put in the sidebar. I would put holiday stuff, but I'd have to do even more research and I just don't care enough.

===

Doing a LR of my old writing is hilarious to me, mostly because the story itself is hilarious (not on purpose, more like terrible teenaged melodrama).

Anyway, I think it'll be helpful to see what kind of editing process I go through in my head, and there isn't a better candidate--it's my writing so the only hurt feelings are my own, and it's technically a complete piece, so we have plenty of material to go through to see things like characterisation flaws and pacing issues.

===

Comics definitely are hard work, especially if you want to do something like a gag-a-day comic. I see a lot of webcomics rise up and fall off the face of the earth all the time. Not to mention it can be kind of a bummer to have to publish to an empty audience for a while until you're on the radar.

But yeah, I think a lot of people who don't write for a living seem to rely on divine inspiration and muses to get them writing--all the while they're not writing, so inertia builds and it gets harder and harder to get moving. Much easier to start a project than finish it! (I said, with eight hundred unfinished projects under my belt. Takes one to know one, I suppose, haha.)

===

Deus ex machina as a plot device is kind of interesting. It makes sense that the ancient Greeks used it a lot because mythology, and obviously you still see it a lot because laziness, haha.

I can definitely buy a contrived series of events that eventually lead to an improbable, but completely possible, solution for the end of the story. That requires proper setup to plant the seeds and make sure there's a logical progression, so it doesn't reek so much of deus ex machina.

===

A lot of people are still kind of pissed about the "fake" 2012 release for Starbound. The official forum for the game is a little... touchy. There's a lot of threads about "WHEN IS BETA GONNA BE OUT WHEN IS BETA" where people snap at each other and then you have the "SHUT UP ABOUT THE BETA YOU WHINERS" threads where people fight some more.

The roadmap they came out with a little while ago was probably a bad idea, because while it briefly tided people over, they started getting grumpy that it wasn't being updated every minute!! To a fraction of a percent!!

To be fair, though, I don't normally follow the pre-release period of a lot of games, so this probably sounds like old hat to a lot of people. Either way, I don't really care when the beta comes out--I've waited this long already, and it's not like I don't have other games to tide me over, haha.

Sign In

The Kametsu Informer: Issue 4

Recommended Posts

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Recently Browsing 0 members

Similar Content