C.E. Dorsett's Blog, page 9
August 25, 2014
P:S 555- Lost a Girl, found a Sphinx, Can we Crossplay now?
August 20, 2014
P:S 554- Fandom shame Franchise
If you like this show and the other projects I do, consider supporting me by becoming a Patron on Patreon.
August 19, 2014
P:S 553- Go, go power people
If you like this show and the other projects I do, consider supporting me by becoming a Patron on Patreon.
August 13, 2014
Dominion, Deism, and the Rage of the Angels
Well, I am finally caught up on Syfy's Dominion, and I am not sure I could be more mixed about a series.
Deism is strange with Angels
I had the same problem when Supernatural decided to do angels with an absentee God. It is a storyline that might work if it wasn't connected to a Deity that is by definition omnipresent. If they had used the older Sumerian myths the story might hold some water, but it is nigh on impossible for me to understand how an omnipresent being could go AWOL.
Setting aside that whole in the premise that could have been simply covered by an angry or uncaring God, the motivations of the three main angels is unclear. The best I could understand, they are trying to appease a... disappointed, or maybe depressed God who tipped over the game table and ran.
I feel like I should state that I like Game of Thrones, so I am capable of liking a show built around petty squabbles that cause immense suffering. Having said that, the flip on a dime loyalties and sudden bouts of temper in the show is a bit hard to keep up with.
The acting is oddly sub par from a cast capable of so much more. Christopher Egan was brilliant on Kings, Anthony Head and Alan Dale are both great actors. I can only imagine that the scripts or the directors held them back, or coached them into making some strange choices.
The show has promise, which is good because Vaun Wilmott, the series creator said he is planing a second season.
@domin1on I am hoping and planning on it.
— Vaun Wilmott (@VaunWilmott) July 29, 2014
I feel like the shows biggest problem was that it only had 8 episodes. They tried to tell a story that needed 10 to 12, and mushed it into the 8 they got. If I am right, that would explain some of the inconsistencies.
If they get a second season, and I hope they do, they need to focus more on the characters and less on the plot. They established many interesting characters, and there are a lot of ways the show could go. It could become a great show, if Syfy gives it the chance.
The show averaged about 1.5 million viewers per episode, not counting downloads and streaming, so that puts a question mark on the whole thing.
I enjoyed the show for what it was, I just hope it will get better. If you haven't seen it, it is worth a view. If you have seen the series, what did you think about it?
August 12, 2014
Market Wars: The Female Geek
Over at Club Jade, they pointed out a post over at How not to suck at game design about Why marketers fear the female geek. This is a topic that need some attention.
photo by Guillaume Paumier, CC-BY.
We had a long talk about this at Shore Leave this year in two of the Panels I was on. I've never understood why men in suits prefer to ignore or be condescending to women rather than just treat them as part of marketplace.
Since the majority of my readers are women, thank you by the way, I realize what a powerful part of the market they can be. So why would anyone ignore more than half the market?
Men are easyHot Chick + Nudity (partial or full) + violence + spectacle = work made for men.
While I am not and would never say that women are not interested in these things or their combination, for the most part, female geeks (at least the ones I know), are very detail oriented. It is harder to come up with an interesting plot or characters than it is to follow the man equation above.
I can only hope that this stupidity with end in the not to distant future. Do you have any other ideas why marketers are choosing to ignore women, please share in the comments. This all confuses me way too much.
P:S 552- Robin Williams, in light and shadows
August 9, 2014
Play like a kid, no seriously, do it!
I spent the day playing with my characters like I did when I was a kid.
I love this, and I recommend everyone find something they used to love to do as a kid and DO IT! Reconnecting with that childlike magic is worth the effort.
For me, I used to carry around all these journals and just write in them. It was one of my favorite things to do. It got so bad that in high school, I carried a second book bag around with me that had all of my journals and stories in it.
I forgot how freeing it is to just write and play with ideas without being critical of the words I was writing. I feel amazing.
Join me. What did you used to love to do as a child, and what was it like to do it now as an adult?
May 6, 2014
Awake to Dream, overcoming fear and money to do what you love
With a lot of effort, I have worked through my struggles with perfectionism. The stories will be what they are.
I have even gotten past the horrible idea that my work has to measure up to some illusory standard of originality. My stories will be mine, and my influences will inevitably show through.
Moving forward has been a struggle. I bet a lot of writers go through this dark time, but they label it writer's block. Sometimes that is not the problem at all.
It isn't always Writer's BlockI called my problem writer's block for such a long time. I thought it was an issue with my creativity or maybe my project flow. None of this was true.
The real problem was that I had reached an Entrepreneurial Dilemma. I had an idea for stories I wanted to tell, but I knew that I wanted to be able to make money off them, and that paralyzed me.
After years of not caring about my sales numbers, I started to focus on them to the exclusion of everything else. The question of how to monetize my fiction took over, and caused me to forget why I wrote stories in the first place.
Community is more important than money!Over the years, I learned that if I told stories that people cared about, my readers would take care of me. How did I forget this? I decided to expand my craft in a way that cost more money, so I set up a balance sheet. I started asking myself how I was going to make back the investment...
It is amazing how stupid money can make us. I am not saying that I shouldn't have asked the question, but I missed some of the other factors that should have mitigated my concerns.
I love making art. It is fun. If I would have compared the amount I was spending on supplies to how much I used to spend on games and movies, I would have seen the value of what I was doing.
A story that a writer doesn't care about will never move a person to the same degree as a story the writer loved and enjoyed.
As I expanded my job description from writer to entertainment designer, I forgot that my first job was to entertain myself first. Do I have to make my money back? Yes, but if I don't, I spent the money as part of my entertainment budget.
Entertainment Design is a way of LifeI am not saying that Entertainment is not a business. It is, but it has to be born out of the heart of the designers. You have to love what you are doing if you ever want others to love it.
I am sure if I searched my old posts, I would find a place where I said that before, but there is a difference between saying something and doing it.
The stories I have written came from my heart, and the new ones will too. They will find readers if they are worthy. All I can do is my part. Stress is the death of creativity. I will enjoy the road forward, and I hope you will join me on the way.
April 29, 2014
Thoughts on the Star Wars cast
Star Wars.com has announced the cast of Star Wars Episode VII. The list includes names we all expected: Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker. It also added 7 new names.
The Seven New ActorsFirst, I have to say that I don't think it is a coincidence that the announced seven new actors. This feels like a calculated JJ Abrams decision. Seven new actors for the seventh film. So who are the seven new actors?
John Boyega
Oscar Isaac
Daisy Ridley
Andy Serkis | Gollum
Max von Sydow
Adam Driver
Domhnall Gleeson
Predictions
Since Andy Serkis is in the movie, I think it is fairly safe to say he will be playing at least one animated CG character. If this were the movie I had hoped it would be, I would say that he would be playing the Noghri, but I doubt that is going to happen. I presume he will play a number of characters.
Daisy Ridley will most likely play the daughter of Princess Leia and Han Solo, who presumably will be called Jaina, but I think that that is a little bit too much to hope for.
Adam Driver Would make a very interesting Jacen Solo, however it is more likely that he will be playing in Imperial officer. I would love to hope for Thrawn, especially since Max von Sydow would make a great Jorus C'baoth, but he is more likely to play a Moff or a ghostly Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Domhnall Gleeson Is my front runner to play Ben Skywalker or whatever they decided to name Luke's son, or if the rumors are true Obi-Wan's son.
Oscar Isaac will likely play a storm trooper or Mandolorian.
Excited, I am notI cannot get past the fact the JJ Abrams is directing and writing this movie. He demonstrated with the Star Trek films that he is incapable of honoring the legacy of a franchise. I hold out hopes that Disney will force a decent film out of him.
It is also more than a little suspicious that they will not be releasing the film until December 18, 2015. This is a giant red flag. Every Star Wars film with the exception of the animated Clone Wars was released in May. They were summer blockbuster films. This date tells me that the studio is unsure how audiences will react to episode VII.
By releasing the film in December, they are hedging their bet that the film will debut at number 1 its opening weekend. Anything less than the top slot would be perceived as a failure and a bad omen for the sequel series.
April 26, 2014
Disney fires the Deathstar at the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Boom!
Queue the fanboy freak out in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...
No!!!!!!! The Mouse is not my father!
*** Warning, what follows is a RANT ***
So, Disney, ahem, Lucusfilm as owned by Disney, has announced that the Extended Universe never happened (read it here). They are urban legends. Like a good JJ Abrams film or an Ewok that isn't annoying.
While the announcement was polite, and I didn't expect them to canonize the whole of the expanded universe, I thought they would at the very least respect the Thrawn trilogy, if nothing else... I suppose JJ needed his freedom so he could add more lens flare and red matter.
What pisses me off the most about their patronizing announcement is that it feels like this is the decision they had already made, and that they pretended to look into the question in hopes it keep fans like me from freaking out.
Too little, too late. I was done with the Empire a long time ago, and I not really interested in rehashing all this again. I know they are making the films for the mass audience, and they don't give a crap about what the fan base thinks, but this is just salt in the wound JJ cut into my interest in the franchise.
I hope they make a better film than I think they will, but my hope is as dead as Alderaan.
