When You're Evil

When You're Evil — Blue Ink Alchemy

Russ Pitts' triumphant return as an Escapist columnist prompted me to finally lay down some thoughts on villainy. A little roleplaying in World of Warcraft on my characters reminded me how much fun it can be to write for or portray a villain. My brother-in-law, when running Dungeons & Dragons is described as "an evil DM," always bringing out the malevolence in his NPCs so that the player characters in his campaigns are always motivated to dispense a little adventurous justice. My father's an attorney. I'm surrounded by villainy. There are all sorts of villains, however, and every one of them sees themselves more or less in a positive light, if not convinced that they are the hero. Let's stay with the D&D theme for a few archetypal examples.

Lawful Evil

Some villains actually try to uphold the law. Sure, the laws might be corrupt or warped in some way, but it's still a structure for peace and order. Police states can be peaceful, after all. There are also villains who have a personal code of honor they will not violate under any circumstances. "No women, no kids," for example. Sometimes they verge a bit into anti-hero territory, but for the most part, these villains don't pursue villainy for its own sake - they pursue the law, or justice, as they see it. Take Darth Vader. For the most part, when he is Darth Vader, he's hunting down terrorists and insurgents, trying to stop a full-on rebellion against the established government. His methods are somewhat draconian and he isn't one to compromise or even show remorse, but he's pursing a noble end in the eyes of the Empire's creators.

Some people are motivated selfishly. They want what they want, and that's it. Some are compromised in the pursuit of their desires by their morals or ethics, or the restrictions of society's laws. Others... not so much. They're seen as villains, but in their own minds, they're just getting what they want. Not quite as unpredictable as the upcoming alignment, but not as restricted as their lawful cousins, neutral evil characters are wild cards. They're often as charismatic as they are ruthless, as fun to be around as they are chillingly dominant. They strive to be masters of their domain, and really could care less about things that aren't the things that they want. Look no further than Eric Northman of HBO's True Blood for a fantastic example of both a Neutral Evil character who's also a Magnificent Bastard. Even when he's acting his most vampiric, speaking in cold, dispassionate tones about human beings like they're slabs of meat, there's something of a twinkle in his eye, the occasional twitch of his mouth that reaches for a smirk. We do see other sides of him, especially when it comes to his Maker, but for the most part he's about as evil as Neutral Evil can get.

You have villains who pursue the law or their own code of honor for the sake of those laws or that code. You have villains who just want what they feel is coming to them, even if they have to lie, cheat, or murder to get it. And then you have these guys. Chaotic Evil villains aren't necessarily crazy. They might, however, string you up by your nostril hairs and slap you around with meter-long pieces of rebar if you call them crazy. No, Chaotic Evil villains are motivated by a desire to destroy everything they see so something new can be built up in its place. Or perhaps they've had a vision of Hell coming to Earth to shake the complacent religious types out of their stupor and give them something worth fighting for if their faith is, indeed, true. They have a goal in mind, but the path to that goal isn't exactly mapped out. If it were, the map would be covered in squiggles of blood and crayon. They may believe what they're doing will ultimately benefit the world, in some way shape or form, but for the most part? They just do things. Which brings me to the late Heath Ledger's Joker. Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson and Mark Hamill have all taken turns playing Batman's favorite monstrous clown, but Heath & Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan took the insanity to a whole new level. By removing some of the more ridiculous trappings of the character and focusing on his anarchistic mindset, the Joker came across as a true agent of chaos. He wanted to show people what he felt was their true nature. His goal was to bring down the carefully-crafted artifices of civility and organization some used to hide their deepest desires. He lived out loud, which is something any artist should want to do, but did it in a very violent and very infectious way. It affected everybody around him, as he probably knew it would. He just didn't know how. Nor did he know for certain what he'd do next - just that something needed doing. Name some of your favorite bad guys. Where do you think they fall? How do you think they see themselves? And how might their villainy be perceived as heroism by some? Food for thought.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

When You're Evil

When You're Evil — Blue Ink Alchemy

Russ Pitts' triumphant return as an Escapist columnist prompted me to finally lay down some thoughts on villainy. A little roleplaying in World of Warcraft on my characters reminded me how much fun it can be to write for or portray a villain. My brother-in-law, when running Dungeons & Dragons is described as "an evil DM," always bringing out the malevolence in his NPCs so that the player characters in his campaigns are always motivated to dispense a little adventurous justice. My father's an attorney. I'm surrounded by villainy. There are all sorts of villains, however, and every one of them sees themselves more or less in a positive light, if not convinced that they are the hero. Let's stay with the D&D theme for a few archetypal examples.

Some villains actually try to uphold the law. Sure, the laws might be corrupt or warped in some way, but it's still a structure for peace and order. Police states can be peaceful, after all. There are also villains who have a personal code of honor they will not violate under any circumstances. "No women, no kids," for example. Sometimes they verge a bit into anti-hero territory, but for the most part, these villains don't pursue villainy for its own sake - they pursue the law, or justice, as they see it. Take Darth Vader. For the most part, when he is Darth Vader, he's hunting down terrorists and insurgents, trying to stop a full-on rebellion against the established government. His methods are somewhat draconian and he isn't one to compromise or even show remorse, but he's pursing a noble end in the eyes of the Empire's creators.

Some people are motivated selfishly. They want what they want, and that's it. Some are compromised in the pursuit of their desires by their morals or ethics, or the restrictions of society's laws. Others... not so much. They're seen as villains, but in their own minds, they're just getting what they want. Not quite as unpredictable as the upcoming alignment, but not as restricted as their lawful cousins, neutral evil characters are wild cards. They're often as charismatic as they are ruthless, as fun to be around as they are chillingly dominant. They strive to be masters of their domain, and really could care less about things that aren't the things that they want. Look no further than Eric Northman of HBO's True Blood for a fantastic example of both a Neutral Evil character who's also a Magnificent Bastard. Even when he's acting his most vampiric, speaking in cold, dispassionate tones about human beings like they're slabs of meat, there's something of a twinkle in his eye, the occasional twitch of his mouth that reaches for a smirk. We do see other sides of him, especially when it comes to his Maker, but for the most part he's about as evil as Neutral Evil can get.

You have villains who pursue the law or their own code of honor for the sake of those laws or that code. You have villains who just want what they feel is coming to them, even if they have to lie, cheat, or murder to get it. And then you have these guys. Chaotic Evil villains aren't necessarily crazy. They might, however, string you up by your nostril hairs and slap you around with meter-long pieces of rebar if you call them crazy. No, Chaotic Evil villains are motivated by a desire to destroy everything they see so something new can be built up in its place. Or perhaps they've had a vision of Hell coming to Earth to shake the complacent religious types out of their stupor and give them something worth fighting for if their faith is, indeed, true. They have a goal in mind, but the path to that goal isn't exactly mapped out. If it were, the map would be covered in squiggles of blood and crayon. They may believe what they're doing will ultimately benefit the world, in some way shape or form, but for the most part? They just do things. Which brings me to the late Heath Ledger's Joker. Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson and Mark Hamill have all taken turns playing Batman's favorite monstrous clown, but Heath & Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan took the insanity to a whole new level. By removing some of the more ridiculous trappings of the character and focusing on his anarchistic mindset, the Joker came across as a true agent of chaos. He wanted to show people what he felt was their true nature. His goal was to bring down the carefully-crafted artifices of civility and organization some used to hide their deepest desires. He lived out loud, which is something any artist should want to do, but did it in a very violent and very infectious way. It affected everybody around him, as he probably knew it would. He just didn't know how. Nor did he know for certain what he'd do next - just that something needed doing. Name some of your favorite bad guys. Where do you think they fall? How do you think they see themselves? And how might their villainy be perceived as heroism by some? Food for thought.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

On Lethargy

On Lethargy — Blue Ink Alchemy

This is Lazy Seal. My wife loves Lazy Seal. The entire time we were at Mystic Aquarium this past weekend, that seal didn't move. It lay on that rock, sunning itself, near cool water if it wanted a swim. It knows a human will be coming around eventually to feed it fish. It doesn't have to hunt or defend its territory. That seal's got it made. There are days when we, as humans, feel like Lazy Seal. The humidity goes into triple digits, the temperature skyrockets, oil falls from the sky to kill the wildlife and we question the relevance of our actions. We do this mostly by being unmotivated to do anything significant. We play games. We look for amusements on the Internet. We sit, we sweat, we suffer from lethargy. Unfortunately, unlike Lazy Seal, we don't have it made. (Not all of us do, anyway) We have to work. We have to do something to make money. Bill collectors, landlords and creditors are unsympathetic towards lethargy. So, we need to fight it. We need to get off the couch, peel ourselves away from the leather office chair that faces our monitors, and go out to do something. This is something I could use help with, folks. I've been feeling rather lethargic lately. How do you fight it? What sort of diet keeps the lazy seal feeling at bay? Should I be working out more? Lay some knowledge on me.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

The Elements of Style

The Elements of Style — Blue Ink Alchemy

I only own one copy of The Elements of Style. Some own quite a few. My copy is about as old as I am, the Third Edition published in 1979. I took it with me this morning instead of my manuscript, just to brush up on writing well as opposed to just writing a good yarn. I was reminded why I should make it a point to read this book as often as possible. The Elements of Style for writers is what Musashi's Book of Five Rings is for martial artists, what Sun-Tzu's Art of War is for strategists. It is taut, direct writing on the subject of writing. It doesn't over-complicate and remains on point, and it's conciseness means the book is small enough to carry just about anywhere. This also means there's a bit of self-reflection at work. The book, which discusses good writing in terms of brevity, grammatical correctness and active voice, is written so that the work is brief, grammatically correct, and active. You don't just read the book to learn about good writing, you read it because it is good writing. That's been my experience with The Elements of Style, at least. What are some of yours? How many copies do you own? Is this the first you've heard of it?

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Tips for Returning to WoW

Tips for Returning to WoW — Blue Ink Alchemy

Special thanks to Aron, Anthony and Eric for their efforts over the weekend. I hope you enjoyed the guest posts. If you didn't, well, maybe you'd like to write one for me next time I disappear for an extended period of time. Just sayin'. So the voice of the community, here in the person of Gandalf the White, made its mind known to the king, and apparently Blizzard (Theoden) was able to snap itself out of the money-grubbing stupor. Apparently the potentates of the great gaming company do, in fact, listen the concerns of the people and make corrections when necessary. We must all hope that Wormtongue will take the hint and stop dumping poison in the great king's ear. Coming back into the game after a long weekend knowing this issue's been resolved was like meeting a friend for beers after an unfortunate miscommunication's been cleared up. As I played for a bit last night, I remembered why things had started to feel a bit tedious for me. As with many aspects of my life, I'd been trying to do too many things at once. Hodir dailies, netherwing dailies, dungeons, PvP, hopping on this alt or that one... it was getting to be too much. They were all things that, for some reason, I felt I had to address now. But what's the rush? Cataclysm won't be hitting shelves for a while, so it's better to pace myself. With that in mind, I think I've gotten a grip on how to get the most out of my WoW play-time, especially now that a second PC capable of playing the game is about to be introduced to the Loomis-Piche household. And yes, "Loomis Peach" (that's how it's pronounced) sounds like a cocktail my mother'd really, really like.

Characters have day jobs, too (Dailies)

One of the first things I need to do is stop worrying about raking in as much gold as possible per day. This is supposed to be relaxing for me, not a test of how much repetitive questing I can tolerate before my head explodes. The nice thing about how the gathering of faction reputation works is that there are a few quests one can do per day that not only pay well but eventually yield better rewards. Currently, my main character's working on his reputation with the ice giants known as the Sons of Hodir. Following that I can return to Outland and continue my quest for the staggeringly awesome nether drake, only to come back to the frozen land of Northrend to work for either the Oracles or the Frenzyheart Tribe. However, the key to enjoying all of this is to only do one set at a time. A character can do up to 25 daily quests per day. That is a LOT of dailies. If I didn't have other characters or concerns, I might tackle all of this faction-based work at once. But there are other things I need to attend to. The fact is that no matter how much gold I earn, I can't use it to buy the better equipment I need to stand a chance in an end-game raid. That means going into the dungeons, and I figure that I can do two, maybe three of those per evening. The Random Dungeon system that teleports you instantly between a given location and the dungeon in question is ideal for someone like me, who is doing daily questing in between dungeon runs. The process and somewhat tedious repetition of daily quests is broken up by quick runs into random dungeons. You never know what adventure you'll be heading into until the loading screen appears. Well, it's fun for me, and that's what matters, isn't it?

One Multiple Personality At A Time, Please

I tend to come down with a condition called 'altitis.'

Altitis is a serious affliction that strikes many players of World of Warcraft. Symptoms of altitis include rolling far too many alternate characters, spreading alternate characters between various servers, having a dozen or more characters below level 30 with only a handful anywhere near maximum level and dry mouth. Altitis can severely cripple a player's ability to experience or enjoy end-game content. If you or someone you care about seems to be suffering from altitis, please remind them that dinging 80 is not the same as actually defeating the Lich King. Thank you.

I need to address my alternate characters the same way I do daily quest sources - one at a time. Heirloom items will make leveling them easier, so if I wrap up my dailies and dungeons, then switch to an alt to grind out a level or two, that should make a for a rather complete evening's game play. I know it also makes me something of a sad bastard and takes away from writing time, but I ride the train most days for a reason, people.

Playing is Optional

That said, it's just a game. I don't have to play it. I could write. I could fire up Steam. I could watch a movie with my wife, play with the cats, toss a console game in the X-box. As long as I like it and continue to find ways to get the most out of my monthly subscription, however, I think WoW will be sticking around for a bit longer, now that it's over that embarrassing little bit of bad advice it nearly swallowed.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

The Rise & Fall of Blizzard

The Rise & Fall of Blizzard — Blue Ink Alchemy

Let me tell you a tale, friends. Stay a while, and listen... I tell the tale of a software company that once could do no wrong. They took some time rousing themselves to craft their stories, but when they did, they were epic. I tell the tale of Blizzard.
Blizzard, before the dark times Warcraft. Starcraft. Diablo. Even the nearly-forgotten The Lost Vikings spun a story that is remembered and loved by those who played it. The worlds that Blizzard forged in the fires of fantastical imagination and occasional touches of dark humor were all memorable, but arguably the most impressive was the expansive world of Azeroth. Blizzard then rocketed into legend by inviting players to become a part of that world, instead of simply an aloof sky-dwelling controller of its armies, with World of Warcraft. There was no question that the game broke new ground in the MMORPG market, immersed players in a world they'd only seen from afar previously, and rocked people's faces clean off. Clean. Off. But the good times were bound to not last. With a successful expansion was released and expecting another, top-level executives decided that Blizzard could no longer rule alone. Foisted upon these tellers of stories was the guitar-peddling duty-calling peddlers of software snake oil, Activision.
Activision, long after the Atari days had passed Activision wasn't always the way it was when it began to rule alongside Blizzard. Once upon a time, games like Pitfall!, Starmaster and Kaboom! were the order of the day in the heady bygone age of the Atari 2600. The first few acquisitions Activision made after that, like Infocom and the Mechwarrior license, did not seem to be bad decisions. But Activision could not stop. More and more studios fell under its control, until very little of the original game-creators remained, smothered under big-name franchises and weak sequels. It was not long after this decision that things began to change in Azeroth, as well. More of the game's content seeped out of the in-game realms and into places like the Armory. At first, this was not a bad thing, as players could interface with their beloved characters more often and more freely. However, soon Blizzard began to offer more services and even in-game items with the exchange of even more of the hard-earned cash players were using to maintain their connection to Azeroth. And then, the announcement came that the newly-implemented RealID would be used not only to allow players separated by realms to communicate with one another, but to remove the anonymity of players posting on Blizzard's forums by displaying their true first and last name. It seemed that Blizzard had forgotten who we were.
Blizzard today What caused this change? How did something that started out so heroic, epic and simple become so mired in these changes, these services, this utter nonsense? A full day of rage consumed the Internet, but slowly the truth began to come to light. Playing in an MMO is something of a social activity, and the most titanic money-spinning scheme on the Internet, even bigger than anything Blizzard could ever concoct, was the presence of social media. To produce even more revenue from the already embarassingly profitable world of Azeroth, Activision Blizzard was moving that franchise in the direction of the sort of constant bombardment of advertisements, updates and links that typify the social media quagmire. A little research makes things all too clear. Very quietly, at least to the ears of some (like me), it had been announced that Battle.net, the online service allowing players of Blizzard's games to interact with one another before World of Warcraft ever came along, would be integrated with Facebook. Now we see the truth: Facebook is unsatisfied with its Farmville and Mafia Wars players. It has seen the amount of attention, money and time given to Azeroth and looks upon those figures with envious eyes. It must increase its base of power, and do to so it is slipping into World of Warcraft by any means necessary, bringing those who play it further into its clutches.
Facebook, contemplating its future power How do we stop this, one is left to wonder? Is it possible for Blizzard to shake loose the presence of these vultures, make some sort of return to what made them great and earned them so many fans? Or is all hope lost, the descent of World of Warcraft into a very pretty & Facebook-integrated version of Evony inevitable? The end which I foresee for this tale is too woeful for me to put into words. I wish to hears yours, however. How do you think this tale will end? Are there still good days ahead for Blizzard? Or is now the time to fully embrace the cleansing power of Steam? (And which Lord of the Rings character should represent Valve in all of this?) EDIT: It appears that the crisis has passed. The voice of the people has been heard by Blizzard. The aftermath of this announcement is discussed, in brief, here.

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Blue Ink Alchemy

Tips for Returning to WoW

Tips for Returning to WoW — Blue Ink Alchemy

Special thanks to Aron, Anthony and Eric for their efforts over the weekend. I hope you enjoyed the guest posts. If you didn't, well, maybe you'd like to write one for me next time I disappear for an extended period of time. Just sayin'. So the voice of the community, here in the person of Gandalf the White, made its mind known to the king, and apparently Blizzard (Theoden) was able to snap itself out of the money-grubbing stupor. Coming back into the game after a long weekend knowing this issue's been resolved was like meeting a friend for beers after an unfortunate miscommunication's been cleared up. As I played for a bit last night, I remembered why things had started to feel a bit tedious for me. As with many aspects of my life, I'd been trying to do too many things at once. Hodir dailies, netherwing dailies, dungeons, PvP, hopping on this alt or that one... it was getting to be too much. They were all things that, for some reason, I felt I had to address now. But what's the rush? Cataclysm won't be hitting shelves for a while, so it's better to pace myself. With that in mind, I think I've gotten a grip on how to get the most out of my WoW play-time, especially now that a second PC capable of playing the game is about to be introduced to the Loomis-Piche household. And yes, "Loomis Peach" (that's how it's pronounced) sounds like a cocktail my mother'd really, really like.

Characters have day jobs, too (Dailies)

One of the first things I need to do is stop worrying about raking in as much gold as possible per day. This is supposed to be relaxing for me, not a test of how much repetitive questing I can tolerate before my head explodes. The nice thing about how the gathering of faction reputation works is that there are a few quests one can do per day that not only pay well but eventually yield better rewards. Currently, my main character's working on his reputation with the ice giants known as the Sons of Hodir. Following that I can return to Outland and continue my quest for the staggeringly awesome nether drake, only to come back to the frozen land of Northrend to work for either the Oracles or the Frenzyheart Tribe. However, the key to enjoying all of this is to only do one set at a time. A character can do up to 25 daily quests per day. That is a LOT of dailies. If I didn't have other characters or concerns, I might tackle all of this faction-based work at once. But there are other things I need to attend to. The fact is that no matter how much gold I earn, I can't use it to buy the better equipment I need to stand a chance in an end-game raid. That means going into the dungeons, and I figure that I can do two, maybe three of those per evening. The Random Dungeon system that teleports you instantly between a given location and the dungeon in question is ideal for someone like me, who is doing daily questing in between dungeon runs. The process and somewhat tedious repetition of daily quests is broken up by quick runs into random dungeons. You never know what adventure you'll be heading into until the loading screen appears. Well, it's fun for me, and that's what matters, isn't it?

One Multiple Personality At A Time, Please

I tend to come down with a condition called 'altitis.'

Altitis is a serious affliction that strikes many players of World of Warcraft. Symptoms of altitis include rolling far too many alternate characters, spreading alternate characters between various servers, having a dozen or more characters below level 30 with only a handful anywhere near maximum level and dry mouth. Altitis can severely cripple a player's ability to experience or enjoy end-game content. If you or someone you care about seems to be suffering from altitis, please remind them that dinging 80 is not the same as actually defeating the Lich King. Thank you.

I need to address my alternate characters the same way I do daily quest sources - one at a time. Heirloom items will make leveling them easier, so if I wrap up my dailies and dungeons, then switch to an alt to grind out a level or two, that should make a for a rather complete evening's game play. I know it also makes me something of a sad bastard and takes away from writing time, but I ride the train most days for a reason, people.

Playing is Optional

That said, it's just a game. I don't have to play it. I could write. I could fire up Steam. I could watch a movie with my wife, play with the cats, toss a console game in the X-box. As long as I like it and continue to find ways to get the most out of my monthly subscription, however, I think WoW will be sticking around for a bit longer, now that it's over that embarrassing little bit of bad advice it nearly swallowed.

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Blue Ink Alchemy