HOUSEKEEPING'S PROFILE

author=thatbennyguy
I actually like Seeric's ideas very much. I am of the view that we should not all be jack-of-all-trades. Not everyone is good at everything, and I don't think it's useful to try to improve ourselves in our weak points because then we'll just be average at everything. I'd rather be extremely skilled in one area and shit in all the rest, instead of just average at everything.

This might be grounds for a different type of event in the future, but that's why I think that a switch of focus on a single person trying to do everything for their project (which, by the way, is how it normally works), but to have a collaborative event, where everyone posts things that cater to their strengths. For example, a person who is great at making puzzles (like myself) can donate a set of 10 puzzles for someone else to use in their project. A graphical artiste who isn't so good at gameplay can donate a tileset for someone else to use. Someone who is good at making combat systems and enemies can put their project file up for a great mapper to beautify. So potentially we can have this repository where a bunch of people can leave their unfinished works for other people to pick up and add their own little twist to.

I don't know, maybe I'm proposing changing the event entirely, but that's just what I believe we should do to foster a greater sense of community like Liberty said. Housekeeping said that too often people work by themselves, they want to actually get involved with others. But the problem is, working with teams is often really hard, since everyone has their own timetables and different levels of commitment. If there's a free space where everyone can contribute their strengths in a freeform manner, maybe something can emerge from that madness.

This event might be for some people and I'll support those people entirely but I don't think I can commit for the months that it says it should. Perhaps I'll donate a little here and there, but if someone else would be able to use it then that would be better imo.

Just to clarify my own position: I think that learning every step of the process is a good thing. Even if you want to specialize in one area, you should still attempt the other areas--not to master them, but to understand what goes into everything. You'll also be able to better communicate with teammates if you know some basic terminology from different areas and understand the hurdles they're jumping over.

That said, becoming an expert in even one area takes lots of time. I feel like it's taken me a decade to get any good at music and storytelling, and there's still a lot more I can learn to master these crafts. It takes years just to be "good enough." If you're smart, you can cut corners in ways that let you get away with middling work. Yume Nikki, for example, had very little to do in terms of gameplay, but the developer used their aesthetics and sound design to make a gripping experience. Text-based games can use smart gameplay decisions and strong storytelling to forgo graphics. But, all of this is just an attempt to "make something good with what you've got" instead of "make the game that you dream about." If I wanted to make the game I dream about by myself, it would take me another decade to pick up the skills I need, and then another decade to make the damn thing. There's a reason people specialize to make games, and that's time.

But, yeah, this event's still a cool idea to just learn the ropes. It's just mainly going to be for people who are still in the learning stages rather than people who have hit the point where they're really ready to make a solid product. If you can enter any part of the event, then the issues I mentioned with people losing interest won't be problematic. I support the event, but I don't think it'll benefit me personally. I'd love an event that forces me into teams, like a series of random pairings for week-long events to make micro-games or something.

This is a hard one. In terms of replayability, I really, really loved Dungeon Fighter Online, and I've sunk more hours into that than anything. With consoles, I probably sunk more time into Super Smash Bros Melee (though Brawl is definitely the better game) than anything else. For RPGs, my top three are Chrono Cross, Valkyrie Profile, and Legend of Mana. Cross was a beautiful game, but I think Valkyrie Profile has some of my favorite storytelling in an RPG, even if some of the short stories fell flat. Legend of Mana is so underrated it hurts--some of the best systems and aesthetics I've seen in an RPG. I also found a lot of the characters to be incredibly charming, and, even if there wasn't one cohesive storyline, some of the arcs had emotional punch.

Ending with a preposition is technically incorrect, but you have to structure your sentences in almost pompous sounding ways to get around it.

Example: "Where'd you get that from?" should technically be "From where did you get that?" but no one would say that other than grammarians and old money.

I recommend just buying a good grammar book. Sin and Syntax was pretty decent for a book on grammar. It takes some liberties with archaic rules, but it's generally good, and, frankly, that's welcome. I don't like how it recommends using he/she instead of they, though, but if that's the only thing I remember disagreeing with, then it must be alright. If you're looking for online college English classes, I would recommend against that. There may be some decent ones, but my brother has taught for some in the past (though for political science), and they're structured around "how to make money" rather than "how to teach students" even more than regular colleges, which is saying something.

I grade freshman composition, so I'm going to give you my stock advice: improving your style is something that only happens when you're constantly assessing yourself. Take the time to proofread everything you write and keep the mistakes that you generally make in mind as you do so. That grammar book will help, but thinking critically about your writing over time is the best way to improve it. Also, I know you said you don't want to work on plot/characters/etc., but creative writing classes will help your style improve as well. This is because 1) peer pressure will make you extremely self-conscious and 2) you'll be editing other peoples' work, which will force you to constantly look up rules to make sure you're not marking stuff incorrectly.

Anyway, good writing comes from lots of writing, lots of reading, and lots of proofreading. That's my take-home message.

Thanks, Doc! Man, the yellow bats. I was going to say to buy topaz rings in Beriall Brymme, but for some reason I didn't put those in the shop. I'll remedy that in the next update, but for the current build, head to the northeast of those ruins and down the stairs. You'll get a nice accessory there that will make one character a bat's worst nightmare. If you manage to hit 20, Yvette will get her first group attack, but that shouldn't be necessary. The game is designed to be beatable without grinding (assuming you're not a serial runner, which, at 17, you're not).

author=Link_2112
That doesn't make any sense. Pop sensibilities? You pointed out that soul is a poorly defined term and yet you seem to know exactly what it means to me. You're making assumptions based on the opinions of other people who have used the word soul. You've made that fairly obvious.

Music, like art, is subject to personal taste and experience. Having any kind of argument like "who is a better guitarist" or "what is soul" is pointless. There is no right answer. I don't know why you are acting as though you can define things so clearly.

This music feels lifeless. I don't care if you disagree with that. It's simply my opinion. I'm not going to change it because you disagree or don't like the words I use. You may find other people who like to argue/discuss musical opinions, but you'll find that I'm not one of them.

Btw, posting on RMN is hardly mainstream.

I agreed that I wasn't going to change your opinion, so you don't have to convince me that I can't. I'll say, though, that there are some terms that I should clarify:

1) By calling something "soulless" I can recognize that it's not connecting to you because of your sensibilities (forgive me if I'm wrong in this assumption), but, to most people, calling something "soulless" makes it seem as if the composer didn't put any of their own feelings into it. You probably didn't mean it like that, but that's how it comes off, and I'm just saying that that's insulting. This is more of a general gripe that's stemming from seeing the word "soulless" pop up in musical discussions--your post was just the spark that got the fire going.
2) When I said "pop sensibilities" I meant in comparison to academic sensibilities--in other words, pop music is what people listen to for enjoyment rather than critical thinking. So, everything outside of academia. Like, even death metal or jazz is pop music by this definition.
3) RMN is mainstream in its taste for music. By "mainstream" I mean the opposite of academic music.
4) I recognize that subjective tastes are at work here, but there are objective qualities to good music: craftsmanship, nuance, expressiveness, and communication with what's come before it.

Anyway, I hope this post isn't too off topic--we should probably be discussing this guy's work.