The Craft of War: Blind

Now, I've liked machinima since right before it got the label "machinima." (Machinima is animation using a video game's engine.) I used to watch RedVsBlue all the time, and still do occasionally. If you haven't seen a RedVsBlue episode, please stop breaking big rocks into small rocks and ask the warden if you can visit the computer room.

Yesterday, I came across something that blew my mind. It's a machinima short made with the World of Warcraft game engine, but... well, it's just incredible. It's The Craft of War: Blind by Percula. Here is his triumph:


The Craft of War: BLIND from percula on Vimeo.

Percula admits he used to work in animation -- it's pretty obvious by the quality -- but says this is only his second creative endeavor for public viewing. (The first is lost forever apparently) He has also said that he's been between jobs for a few months now.

After seeing this video, there is no way that this person will lack for money anytime in the near future.

Grats, Percula, for this mesmerizing video. The music choice and usage were perfect, and your storytelling impressive. Please keep on making these videos. If it's more about the two rogue characters, great! If you plan to do a mini story on each class in turn, even better.

My only request is that you do warriors next.

Thanks again, Percula!

TGAPGeorge
Yep, I'm gonna have to watch it again...
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TGAPGeorge, the Escapist

Woot! Today is a good day. Today I join the ranks of fine authors and video artists at The Escapist Magazine.

I came across the Escapist by way of a post on Digg. It was about the new video review of Army of Two by Zero Punctuation, a game I was thinking about playing. (Never did)

Here's his latest review:


I had never heard of Z.P. or Yahtzee, but one minute into the video clip I almost crapped my pants in laughter.

Since then I have eagerly waited for Tuesdays to read the Escapist's feature articles of the week, and for noon on Wednesdays when they post the new triumph from Yahtzee. So,when it came up, I jumped at the chance to contribute.


So go check out my article Aggro Management at the Escapist magazine. Let me know what you think!




TGAPGeorge
Waiting for server maintenance to be done...
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Heroes Series [Ezra]

Yesterday I came across a story on Digg.com that was about ten months old. It was originally printed in the OC Register, about a ten year old boy named Ezra who had brain cancer. What made the story extra-special was that when Make-A-Wish came round to offer a wish, he asked to go the offices of World of Warcraft game designer, Blizzard. He made this wish because he and his dad had become avid gamers in World of Warcraft.

Now in World of Warcraft, Blizzard created a fantastic game that for 3 years has entertained over ten million people. However, while it's never happened to me, I've heard of many bad customer service experiences about Blizzard. I'm sure that when servicing millions of people, you're going to have SOME mistakes, but unfortunately bad mistakes are quite loud.

In any case, what I read in the story made me very impressed with both Blizzard and Ezra. Blizzard welcomed this little gamer with open arms. They toured the facilities of course, but also opened up the game for him by letting him explore the highest reaches, by giving his character all sorts of great gear, and even let him design a weapon, a quest, and a Non Player Character -- which Ezra voiced himself! They didn't have to do any of that, but they did, and did it very well. I'm proud of you Blizzard!

And Ezra was excellent as well. He was polite, well-mannered, strong, and resilient -- showing far more courage and tact than men four times his age. When he was offered to design the weapon, he didn't create some uber-pwnage god-stick, he simply put together a very cool (little more powerful than average) crossbow. Blizzard wanted to attribute the weapon to him personally, but he humbly declined, not wishing to appear egotistical. A Class-Act all around! (And he looks wicked cool with an eye patch!)

There are many, many people rooting for Ezra's recovery -- myself included. You can catch up on Ezra's story and get updates at the Gadgetress Blog.




TGAPGeorge
Don't make me [MIND BLAST] you...
ShinyPen.com