(no subject)
There's this story I'm working on. I seriously think it's one of the best I've come up with in years - not that I've got an especially crowted field there - and I'm sure that when it comes together, it has serious awesome potential.
Except I can't seem to write it. I've got the story worked out in my head, and a good part of the plot; I just can't seem to come up with any actual scenes. There's a bunch of disjointed dialogue, including about six beginnings that I wrote, kind of liked, but decided I should put somewhere in the middle of the story instead. It's making my head want to explode.
Although, working on it has given me an excuse to delay my Stupid Console Conundrum.
See, I want to play Mass Effect. This has been the case for a while, but after a month of hearing from basically everyone about how awesome Mass Effect 2 is, it's become somewhat harder to ignore. Especially since there just aren't that many space-based RPGs out there.
Trouble is, I don't have an Xbox. This is for very specific reasons. One, I have a PS3, and I don't really do enough gaming to justify two consoles. Two, I have a standing resolution not to do anything that would help Microsoft in its quest to conquer the universe.
That's only partially irrational. I happen to have a lot of respect for Bill Gates as a person, but Microsoft as a company has a way of using how big it is to bully people into buying inferior products with software deals. I happen to see the Xbox's exclusivity deals as an extension of that; and if I buy an Xbox just to play a few exclusive games, then I'm rewarding a business practice I want to see done away with. (It's like voting - Microsoft won't live or die based on my business; but if everyone thought that way, they win.)
I've been considering alternatives. I rented an Xbox a while back, so I could play what turned out to be probably the first two-thirds of Halo 3. But that approach doesn't lend itself as well to an RPG; at the least, I'd need to a memory card, or extra hard drive, or whatever the hell Xboxes use to store stuff. And I've checked some into the possibility of buying a used console, so that none of my money gets back to Microsoft. (I'd also have to buy used games in this scenario.) The problem here is that used Xboxes are still pretty expensive, and the number of games I want to play is still pretty small. It seems silly to spend more on a console than the combined cost of the games I'd be playing on it.
Plus which, I'm not exactly swimming in money; and if my Master Plan for this year works out, I'll have even less. So even if I could rationalize the purchase philosophically, it wouldn't be very smart financially.
In the short term, the problem should resolve itself. Replaying Fallout 3 is helping; and I've got FFXIII on pre-order, so all I really have to do is hold out until mid-March. That, and I really am trying to start writing again, so ideally I'll have less time for video games all around.
Incidentally, the Mac version of Halo 1 can run you up to $129.74 on Amazon. For a used copy. I mean, I know being a Mac user is more expensive, but damn.
Except I can't seem to write it. I've got the story worked out in my head, and a good part of the plot; I just can't seem to come up with any actual scenes. There's a bunch of disjointed dialogue, including about six beginnings that I wrote, kind of liked, but decided I should put somewhere in the middle of the story instead. It's making my head want to explode.
Although, working on it has given me an excuse to delay my Stupid Console Conundrum.
See, I want to play Mass Effect. This has been the case for a while, but after a month of hearing from basically everyone about how awesome Mass Effect 2 is, it's become somewhat harder to ignore. Especially since there just aren't that many space-based RPGs out there.
Trouble is, I don't have an Xbox. This is for very specific reasons. One, I have a PS3, and I don't really do enough gaming to justify two consoles. Two, I have a standing resolution not to do anything that would help Microsoft in its quest to conquer the universe.
That's only partially irrational. I happen to have a lot of respect for Bill Gates as a person, but Microsoft as a company has a way of using how big it is to bully people into buying inferior products with software deals. I happen to see the Xbox's exclusivity deals as an extension of that; and if I buy an Xbox just to play a few exclusive games, then I'm rewarding a business practice I want to see done away with. (It's like voting - Microsoft won't live or die based on my business; but if everyone thought that way, they win.)
I've been considering alternatives. I rented an Xbox a while back, so I could play what turned out to be probably the first two-thirds of Halo 3. But that approach doesn't lend itself as well to an RPG; at the least, I'd need to a memory card, or extra hard drive, or whatever the hell Xboxes use to store stuff. And I've checked some into the possibility of buying a used console, so that none of my money gets back to Microsoft. (I'd also have to buy used games in this scenario.) The problem here is that used Xboxes are still pretty expensive, and the number of games I want to play is still pretty small. It seems silly to spend more on a console than the combined cost of the games I'd be playing on it.
Plus which, I'm not exactly swimming in money; and if my Master Plan for this year works out, I'll have even less. So even if I could rationalize the purchase philosophically, it wouldn't be very smart financially.
In the short term, the problem should resolve itself. Replaying Fallout 3 is helping; and I've got FFXIII on pre-order, so all I really have to do is hold out until mid-March. That, and I really am trying to start writing again, so ideally I'll have less time for video games all around.
Incidentally, the Mac version of Halo 1 can run you up to $129.74 on Amazon. For a used copy. I mean, I know being a Mac user is more expensive, but damn.