“Everyone is born unique, but so many die as copies.”

Happy Friday!  Hope every-one’s had a great week.  Almost everyone anyway (you know who you are!).

So, as if things aren’t crazy enough I had the most disappointing urge this morning to write a book as some odd and probably very boring idea for a story developed in my mind. I let so many ideas evaporate into thin air. I should really make a better effort to save & track them instead of the easy come easy go, forget as fast as it occurred to me way I’ve been going about things, many of them really did seem like great ideas.

So I may keep on this idea and see if I can develop it more.  I’m just as sure that it would bore people to tears as I’m sure I’d have fun writing it, the main problem I see is that I cannot write. I’m not good at much of anything anyway but writing even worse. To top it off I haven’t even read many great books so I’d hardly know how to convey the story properly.  It’s not that I don’t like reading, books or stories.  It’s just such a uni-task. I need to be able to do more than one thing at a time, I have reading narcolepsy (that’s where reading makes you pass out- not where you have to steal books, stupid) and it all too often backfires on me when I try to read my way to sleep. Trying to read my way to sleep has 2 likely results: 1) I get into it and stay up too late 2) I pass out and forget most of what I read.

Speaking of boring people to tears…  Where the hell was I?

Oh yeah, anyway. We’ll see.

In other news, the Project Pitchfork special will be playing on EBM-Radio.com one more time on Saturday at 5pm Pacific time. The interviews are amusing the music is fantastic…

Also;

Have a great weekend!

There’s at least one other crazy prick out there bent all out of shape about Tabula Rasa. His rants here: centerNegative

As with many of humankind’s finest works, especially in the sci-fi genre, Tabula Rasa was shut down on schedule this past weekend. Even worse, they’d hyped up a big event that was a horrible disaster. Enough lag to be a total show stopper, probably because they had taken all but two of the servers offline already.

I’m not even so big on MMO gaming and it’s not like I’m usually able to justify any kind of gaming to spend that much time playing around…  This was one game that had it all, everything I was looking for in entertainment and I probably would have happily paid twice as much monthly even if I didn’t even log in every month.

The back-story was great, the direction was great. Visually is was such a pleasure to play.  The controls, going for the FPS style of play, the way everything worked made it totally a blast.  Not just for grouping up and running missions or instances but even just to hop in alone from time to time and kill some aliens, to fight the good fight to save the galaxy from those who would subjugate it… And for revenge for what they did to Earth.  ;-)

Notice of the termination of the game came something (I think) less than 1 year from launch. They didn’t give the game enough time, complaining that they didn’t have the numbers needed & deeming it a failure. Of course! It had pitiful publicity!

I started in beta, man! I went all in for the expensive collectors edition… Paid plenty out in monthly subscriptions. Had to upgrade my machine, burned out a video card & power supply, upgraded those again… 

So yeah, anyway, there TR went.  The way of Firefly, John Doe, Farscape and others. I look around and I really feel like people in general are losing interest in really good sci-fi (which already had a minimal following after the age of hippies) and I think of an Isaac Asimov quote:

“Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today – but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.”

It’s not just about good writing, quality entertainment, fine acting, social commentary, people yelling “weapons to maximum!”, aliens, special effects, having a moral to the story, some of the most spectacularly hot and adorable women on TV & in Film, epic space-ship battles, nor even lots of explosions. Although being able to get all that and more in any form of entertainment is pretty cool.

Among all the rubble and abused carcases in this uninspired landscape of garbage? Comic book themed stuff. I’m all for it, but it does feel like that stuff is taking over a little bit. I think it’s funny that while killing off Tabula Rasa NCSoft’s comic hero/villain themed games remain, their other fantasy lameness continues… It even seems like geek/nerd cultures are spreading, gaining acceptance and even some understanding. So shouldn’t good sci-fi be exploding?

I doubt I’ll be able to go back to WoW. It is a fairy-crusted, magic-packed, sword carrying, fairy-tale-esque bunch of fantasy that is just old to me but even worse is the gameplay. The actual playability, I’ve just been spoiled… Heck even the graphics don’t interest me.

If I ever want to sit in front of a computer pressing the same sequence of buttons for 5 hours, or until bedtime, someone just put a bullet in my brain.

Seriously folks. You’ve all missed out on something really fantastic – those bastards at NCSoft need to be put out of my misery. The worst part still might be that the trend is growing and what that says about where things are going.

It’s not just losing a great game before it’s time, it’s not just about missing out on what might have happened in a fun TV show. It’s what it says about people and our future.

Absolutely, out-cutes anything I’ve ever seen in my life by galactic leaps and bounds.  Visually stunning.  A big surprise, to me.