NaNoWriMo 2013: Complete

While some of you are out Black Friday shopping, some of us are getting non-Christmas related things done. Some of us, for example, have finished our 2013 NaNoWriMo story. This also seems like a prime opportunity to update my Matt's Fiction table of contents. Please let me know if any of the fiction links do not work. Consider this your chance to catch up on some of the worst Matt Fiction available on the Web.

Completed Drafts:

"Emergent Problems" -- NaNoWriMo 2013 Story
In the not too distant future, a private conglomerate, with government and military backing, has launched the Drake, a pioneer class research and exploration vessel set to access deep space. A series of problems plague the Drake's launch, and the crew, both aboard and back on Earth, must find and stop the problems before they doom the ship.

Walking Dead: 400 Days Review & Annoyance

Spoilers below the fold, but first: For a $5.00 DLC on Steam, this was well worth the investment. It isn't very "gamey," sort of like the original five episodes. It is much more narrative in scope. Because of the shorter vignette structure, as opposed to a more cohesive story, it lets us have wildly divergent choices where we're left to imagine the outcome that brings our five characters from the end of their snapshot (if you've played the game, you caught the pun, I hope), to the epilogue.

I'm actually a fan of this style of game, and while a lot of people say you don't get a feel for the characters, I think they're just not paying attention. Vince is a protective leader-type; we're not sure WHAT he was helping his brother with that lead to his story, but throughout his story, no matter what choices you take, he comes across as a can-do leader that both of his companions come to trust.

The other characters are a bit more divergent in their growth, but that is based solely on your final decision. To get into to much detail there is spoilerific, so be warned.

Walking Dead Episode 5

Warning. Below there be spoilers.

Walking Dead: Episode 4 Review

Walking Dead, Episode 4: Review (now that I've played it.) Spoilers. You will be spoiled. Do not go below the fold.

Walking Dead Game Episode 4 Trailer

Telltale's Walking Dead has a trailer up for Episode 4 (warning, below there be spoilers.)

Walking Dead: Episode 3

Spoilers below. Do not click if you don't want to be spoiled.

Walking Dead: Episode 2

I finished my first play through of the Walking Dead: Episode 2 last night. Let me up front say it was a good time. I had some gripes, but by the time I got the game, most of the show stopping bugs seemed to have been gone, or I have a computer set up that is impervious to them. Either way, I can't knock it for failing to run properly. Let me say up front about some of my thoughts below: There will be spoilers. If you want the tl;dr version: Good game. Should buy

The game is plot; it is not very gamey. You will not have fun in the traditional sense. It is more of an experience or an adventure book. You are guiding Lee from point A to B, with awkward action scenes in between. That's fine; it is what I expect from the game. If you want a game though, you may want to look elsewhere. This is, primarily, a story experience.

With that said, it delivers there. Anyway, on to the more spoilerific thoughts.

A Few Random Updates

Not much to post today before I go to be responsible. If you play the Secret World, my character there is Escutcheon. Send me a tell in game if you want to play. If you want a role play Illuminati guild, I humbly suggest these guys. I should be on this weekend and potentially this evening. Have fun. Shoot zombies.

Speaking of zombies, Telltale's The Walking Dead Episode 2 released recently-ish. I totally missed the email or whatever update thingie would have let me know that. Here's a review. I may set aside some time this weekend to play it myself. I probably will not. They promise another episode in August. But, it is Telltale, so, don't expect it.

Oh, and an article from Politico for the zombie tag. I honestly never thought I'd see a headline like that ever written just because, you know, mythical cannibals tend to steal the headline. Maybe next week, we'll have manticores making headlines.

Fiction Update: Zombie Story Rough Draft

The biggest note for today is that the first rough draft of the current story is complete. Here's the link for the story if you want it. If you don't want it, reading on will be kind of silly, since I'm going to talk about the experience of writing it.

He Walked Out The Door (and Out of the Story)

So, as I am doing my page of fiction a day, I reached the point where we stop teasing that something bad is going to happen and disaster strikes. This is pretty good; we thinned our cast during the initial rush of zombies. So, I took a headcount afterwards to make sure I knew what was happening next, since I try to plan things. That's when I realized: "Hey, did I ever bring so-and-so back from the bar after the hero saw him leave the hotel?"

Then I scrolled up and did some reading. Nope. Five or six pages ago this minor character asked if the hero wanted to join him for drinks, then walked out the front door. He never came back, because I did not do my pre-writing and plan out my sequence of events. Technically, according to my rules, I'm not supposed to backtrack and re-edit or re-write sections, though I break that rule all the time.

Also, I liked the current flow of events as it was, and I did not want to add another scene to drag everything down. I notice that with all my fiction a day pieces. They are just incredibly slow! What a useless scene is this: Guy comes back, says: "Yeah, things are going to heck out there. Glad I'm back!" Everyone acts nervous for a page.

So, let's turn this fiction lemon into fictional lemonade. I dislike the amount of closure some stories give anyway, with every character's fate tied up in a nice neat little bow. Sometimes, characters should just disappear without any fanfare or explanation. So, it is on purpose now. Isn't it great when mistakes are useful? Look! I'm following my rules (and it is only partially motivated by laziness!)

Some Zombie Semantics

I felt like the posts were getting a bit too heavy. We've been looking at generals, talking about military history, and then going on about big, heavy books you and I should read. Friends, let's all take a moment to sit back and be silly. So, a blast from my past, originally posted May 29, 2007, when MySpace was still a thing.