Censorship or Complete Freedom? (part 1)

If you're unfamiliar, Steam is an online game platform where games can be purchased and downloaded from the internet. An announcement was made last week by Valve Corporation—which owns Steam-- that they will no longer have any censorship on the Steam platform. Many are seeing this as a move by Valve to avoid responsibility for highly controversial “games” like a game recently released that simulates being a school shooter. Valve commented that they will allow any game on Steam unless it's “illegal, or straight up trolling.” Their decision to scrub censorship has created a debating firestorm among gamers, with opinions being fervently expressed on both sides of the spectrum. This week, I'll address some of the arguments being made and look at the likely long-term effects of this controversial decision. Even if you're not particularly interested in the game industry and what Steam is doing, this is, in itself, a very interesting social experiment and it reflects an emerging mindset we are seeing in our culture today.

Friday Update!

I've started work on another Comic Short for Youtube, so it will hopefully be ready sometime next week! In other news, yesterday I picked up the rest of the printed demos for Solar Echoes (Operation: Flash Strike), and I'll be shipping them out to Indie Game Alliance today. I'm looking forward to having some of their "minions" play Solar Echoes at other conventions across the U.S., and then hearing their demo reports. This will be the first time Solar Echoes hits other states in physical form. I'm not sure it will ever catch up to the reach I've seen with digital sales on RPGnow.com (which includes sales all over the world, notably to a lot of people in the UK and France), but it's a start. The jury is still out on whether I'll pursue printed sales, but I'll see how things go with the demos through IGA!

Movie Review: Star Wars Solo (no major spoilers) part 4

It's a classic failing of a lot of stories—the writer sets up an environment of challenges that is so massive, it would take a character of extreme power and resources to even begin to make a difference. The problem arises within that hero character, because in order for it to be believable that the character could take on those huge challenges, the character needs to have unrealistic capability or power. Once a character is given these means, whether it is by super-powers, “the force,” or some other allowance, it becomes a precarious balancing act for the writer to maintain believability within the laws he has written for his own universe. The Star Wars Solo movie never felt to me like Han Solo was unrealistically capable, though I do wish some more explanation had been given to his fluency in a particular language and his impressive starship piloting skills. Still, Solo never felt like he outmatched his challenges, and he struggled appropriately when met with them. Perhaps one of the reasons I liked the Solo movie so much was because there was an absence of the magical “force” and it felt like he achieved his victories through human means and skills rather than the unexpected emergence of latent force abilities.

Movie Review: Star Wars Solo (no major spoilers) part 3

Alden's portrayal of Solo as a maverick rogue was very believable, yet he exhibited an altruistic side that governed much of what he did when it concerned his love interest, Q'ira. I think I enjoyed “Solo” more than other recent Star Wars movies because it was focused on a character making his way in the world while he crafted his own way of dealing with the challenges, betrayals, and losses he experienced. Rather than focusing on making a huge change by taking on the Empire, Solo was more focused on a man's struggle to survive and achieve his own goals, which ended up making a difference against the Empire in the long run. I like stories that focus on the character rather than having the character focus on making a story, and Solo never lost its direction in that regard. Without the burden of the character being set up as the only hero that can save the universe, I enjoyed seeing a character developed into a hero simply through the pursuit of his own personal agenda. Maybe it's just my general aversion to the “only one person can save the universe” theme, but Solo felt much more believable because challenges did not have to be overcome by super-human means...

Movie Review: Star Wars Solo (no major spoilers) part 2

I was happy to see that the Solo movie showed competent male characters making their way through an oppressive future ruled by the Empire. Rather than oppose the Empire directly, though, they made their own way of survival—unconcerned with politics and idealism, they merely sought to navigate the existing system rather than try to take it on directly, though in their own way, they did take it on when it benefited them, performing heists without the concern that they were essentially stealing from the Empire. This was a story about survival and gaining advantage to advance one's own goals—a story many of us identify with in our current society. We must live within the system that has been created and find our own way of moving forward despite it. The character of Solo was not just a selfish opportunist, though—his motivations often were driven by devotion and love. Though he'd learned to survive through breaking the law to gain advantage, he was governed by his own passions and goals. It was interesting to see him make decisions that hinted at his later character development along the Star Wars timeline, such as in Episode IV where he returns at the last minute to help Luke destroy the death star.

Movie Review: Star Wars Solo (no major spoilers) part 1

On Friday I went to the theater with a friend and saw Solo—a couple of my other friends had been bugging me to see it because they wanted to discuss it. I admit, after seeing The Last Jedi last December, I was not extremely excited to try another Star Wars movie, but the trailers looked good and Ron Howard was directing, so I had some hope that it would be better. In my opinion, both the Force Awakens (FA) and The Last Jedi (TLJ) had some serious failings, but I did like Rogue One. I would liken Solo much more to Rogue One than FA, in that it was much more on the realistic, gritty side of things with a better written storyline and more developed characters. In Solo, I was also really impressed with the acting and substantive characters—Woody Harrelson as Tobias Beckett almost upstaged Han Solo, who was played by Alden Ehrenreich. Woody did such a fantastic job with his character and really provided a lot of depth for the backstory and character development of Solo. Alden's excellent portrayal of a young Solo, though, really commanded attention and he held his own against Woody's acting experience. More tomorrow...

Digital vs. Physical (part 2/2)

There are several reasons I prefer digital books over physical books for tabletop gaming. From the perspective of a GM and author of Solar Echoes, it's easier for me to put out updates and improvements to digital products. The update notifies all customers and they can download the new version for free. I can go back and improve 5 year-old products with better art and color, add in new goodies, and make small corrections. Another benefit is that I bring digital products to the public much faster, rather than having to wait on print runs to finish and then ship it out to various locations. It's also much more cost effective of course, because printing is very expensive. Another reason I prefer digital is that I don't have to hold back with art and color, while I have to limit color variety in printed editions to keep the costs down. Plus, you benefit not only from all this, but from a lower overall cost—there is no retail mark-up and a mark-up to compensate for distribution costs is also entirely avoided. What's not to love about digital? I am looking into making digital files available to you through on-demand printing services, though, so for those of you that like books on your shelves, that may be an option for Solar Echoes products in the future!