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[Little]

I'm not sure if that's a good coping technique Sonerohi.

quick punch to the face and a stern warning to stop being a dipshit.

That's not a good technique.

[Eagleon]

Devil's advocate here. It's negative reenforcement. If it's working for him, great. That said, I'd look carefully throughout at whether it's just discouraging you from doing the activity at all. Could start off well and shift to that without you wanting it to. The opposite works well too - most people aren't willing to train themselves like a dog, but a treat for what you see as an accomplishment can be just as good as a boot to the head in this case

[Yanlin]

There's a reason dogs put up with your shit. It works!

[MoonDancer]

I don't see how using negative reinforcement on yourself could work....unless you were into that sorta thing. *shrugs* Not my deal.

When you put it this way.....

... The opposite works well too - most people aren't willing to train themselves like a dog, but a treat for what you see as an accomplishment can be just as good as a boot to the head in this case

...makes it sound rather negative IMO. Sometimes the biggest problem people have is their own ego...or lack there of. It's not that you have to "train yourself like a dog", but you do have to look inside yourself and discover who you are. To be a good writer you have to be able to use both positive and negative aspects of your personality.

chaoticjosh, I think that if you could learn to control that negativity you could learn how to use it to make yourself a better writer. What path you take is up to you because only you know what will work for you.

***Sorry for sounding like a back to school special. >_<

[JoshuaFH]

It's alright Moondancer.

I had a little spurt of creativity today, and I thought I would would try to write my thoughts down in "creative projects".

I wrote an introduction, explaining how I was trying to overcome my neurosis' and try to write something.

That took 10 minutes by itself.

Then I got to the title, and froze.

Then got upset after awhile and just exited out.

I can't help be feel hopeless.

I'll try again, in the future.

P.S. Sorry for the fragmented sentences.

[eerr]

Thanks a whole lot for the advice guys, it's real nice to know there are people to sympathize with.

I'm a real self-deprecating kind of person, but I just need to get over a lot of the mental handicaps stopping me from doing what I want to do.

yea...
knowing you absolutely have done perfect maintains your faith in your abilities.

thing is, thinking "I don't think I can do this" is a great way to enforce quality of thought, but not high-output.

you need to tone it down a bit so timevsquality and timevsquantity fit the right curve.

also, stupidity(the opposite of what you are doing) Is funny because it's-time efficient. But that doesn't make it any less time-efficient.

It's alright Moondancer.

I had a little spurt of creativity today, and I thought I would would try to write my thoughts down in "creative projects".

I wrote an introduction, explaining how I was trying to overcome my neurosis' and try to write something.

That took 10 minutes by itself.

Then I got to the title, and froze.

Then got upset after awhile and just exited out.

I can't help be feel hopeless.

I'll try again, in the future.

P.S. Sorry for the fragmented sentences.

you're trying to improve by improving your improving.

It needs to be in a format that doesn't require results, but will nevertheless get you closer and closer to improving.
also, allow recursion.

aside from deep thought, things that improve writing:

->READING many diffrent books
->KNOWing about what you wish to write. (examples of written worlds, and what you want to put in the world, including what words to use and what things you need to think of like economy)

minimum use of WORDS
careful use of BIG words.
->for maximum communication of thought, emotion, and whatever the hell you put in the paper.
(compress meaning, the more you make someone think without too much searching, the more powerful your work)


in fact, this is the complete opposite of school, which requires you to "stretch" words beyond any meaning.


therefore: in school, you start with far too few words, and expand them.(<-bullshit, lacks power per word)

in real life, you start with far too many words, and shrink them down.(<- fascinating, easily read and contains GREAT power, perhaps more than 1 ,uh , thought? per sentance even)

[eerr]

It's alright Moondancer.

I had a little spurt of creativity today, and I thought I would would try to write my thoughts down in "creative projects".

I wrote an introduction, explaining how I was trying to overcome my neurosis' and try to write something.

That took 10 minutes by itself.

Then I got to the title, and froze.

Then got upset after awhile and just exited out.

I can't help be feel hopeless.

I'll try again, in the future.

P.S. Sorry for the fragmented sentences.

could we look at an exact copy of the essay?

[Aqizzar]

I'll bet you've written a lot of essays and such for classes.  Show us some of those, they're probably impressive.  I was thinking of doing such a thing myself, just for the interest.

[JoshuaFH]

I'll bet you've written a lot of essays and such for classes.  Show us some of those, they're probably impressive.  I was thinking of doing such a thing myself, just for the interest.

I did once write a fairly long essay for my final at communication class or somesuch.

In fact, it was so long that I got in trouble because I had something like 7 minutes to present it in, and it took 15 minutes. I had a powerpoint and pictures and material aid and everything coupled along with it.

Fortunately, I have the habit of preserving every little document and picture of my past, so I'll never forget.

Here's the essay in question, it's sort of long, but I don't want to start a new topic for something so trivial:

Video games are art,

This is truth.

Yes, it is the truth, and if you listen, I will tell you why. In my lifetime of playing videogames, I have acquired the taste only someone very experienced in the subject matter can have, and with this I can discern good from bad, smart from stupid, and art from non-art; and videogames are definitely art. No matter what the argument against it is, there are no two ways about it, with the apparent, unmistakable clout videogames have over feelings and ideas, and it is time for society and culture to fully embrace video games as an artistic medium, for the betterment of the entire world.
Video games, in their unique method of exposing the players to an interactive world of the creators choosing, can lead players through worlds and adventures that make players learn of the potential depth of the player characters and storyline, and involve them in epics that can move them emotionally.

The common argument against it is the misconception that games are too childish to be considered art, as they are but games. This but merely shows that the medium is still in it’s infancy, and as games in recent years have shown, video games are beginning to mature as an art form. The problem lies in the echelons of media not maturing with it, and continuously pigeon holing video games as foolish things meant for children, and nerds.

One person not convinced that video games are an art form is Michael Dirda, a book columnist for the Washington Post, who was challenged on the matter, and agreed to play Bioshock. His experience can be found in the link I’ve provided. However, this remarks on the experience Clearly emphasize how game-illiterate the higher ups are, and how little they understand. Dirda himself has very limited experience in the world of video games, having only played one other game (Myst) and that was around 10 years ago, also, Dirda did NOT complete the game, having given up on it after getting stuck on an early level. Would you ask an illiterate to read the Iliad? Would you ask a blind man to offer his opinion on the Mona Lisa? So why would a man so uncultured in the world of games be asked if it were art?

Even more insultingly, during his interview, he said, and I quote “When there's a video game that makes the player depressed, that's when the medium might be onto something as an art form, It's easy to like something that makes you feel powerful in its fantasy world, as games generally do. But would anybody play a game that makes him sad?”, This comment, if heard by a person as unaffiliated with gaming as he is, might agree, but “I” only have one word for this: Aeris.

Yeah, Aeris, anyone remember her? Aeris’ death scene in Final Fantasy 7 is arguably the most remembered moment in video game history. There is nary a gamer that has played up to that point and not been moved. Let me tell you, I CRIED like a baby when witnessing that scene for the first time. And I believe that’s all that needs to be said on that matter.

In recent years, technology has grown to where game creators don’t have to limit their selves to primitive graphics for the sake of performance or memory space. This growth has allowed creators to sculpt characters and environments that may resemble paintings if looked at from a standstill. For example, Ign.com agrees with when I say Okami is a beautiful game, whose stylized art is reminiscent of old Japanese ukiyo-e paintings.

In this world, exist people that, while having good intentions, are nothing but seeds of destruction for the future of video games as an art form.

Executives, the people that run the very companies that make the games you love and enjoy. However, they can and will go out of their way to be extremely intrusive to the creative process. One is hesitant to blame them however, after all, they view it simply as a company, and the goal of any company is to make money, so the ones in power who don’t understand the plight of the industry on it’s quest towards its destiny as an art form, and instead opt to design what demographics and trends say will be most likely to sell.

Jack Thompson believes that violent video games create violent people. So strong is this belief that he has strived to place unnecessary restrictions and limitations on the medium of video games that other mediums are exempt from. While the intentions are good, Such limitations cannot be accepted. Artists must be free to create, or else their art gets nit picked to nothingness, and culture as a whole suffers for it.

Competitive gaming is an unlikely suspect, but such things cannot be underestimated. The world of competitive gaming garners a lot of attention, from both gamers and companies. These massive competitions drives the best gamers of the world against each other, where teamwork and personal skill are honed and exercised for the hopes of acquiring fame and fortune. The competitions help video gaming as an industry, but they do not help video gaming as an art form. As these competitions help the spread of gamer elitism, hardcore gamers are a serious demographic to be targeted by game companies and the games at these competitions receive so much hype that game companies can’t help but strive to make the next halo, the next Gears of War, the next splinter cell. And in this way, the executives I’ve mentioned are encouraged to be imitative even more so.

Let me hand out something, these are Official Playstation Magazines, I’ve had a subscription to these for some years, and so I can say confidently that they are an enemy of art.

Gaming magazines harm video gaming as an art form. Game magazines print their opinions on slews of games each month. They look at games that are out, and games that have yet to come out, and this is the fundamental flaw. Those that write these are human, and like all humans, are flawed. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but you see these magazines accrue something called a “fan base”, a following of readers that read them devotedly, and the authors of the reviews and previews who play the games in question try to get an understanding of as many as possible, so many low key games get passed over quickly or brushed off entirely. These magazine columnists are also subject to bias, as many people have different tastes, they can portray games that emphasize art negatively for unfair reasons and finally, those writing the articles have very well built predispositions of what to look for in games, and when they write their articles, may skip over or undercut storyline, plot, or messages the game conveys and focuses solely on every other aspect, these writers hold a lot of influence over other gamers and so these predispositions of games get passed to their readers, and when theses writings change the opinions of their readers, they can change their buying habits, and when buying habits are changed, the executives are likely to lean more toward catering to this buying habit by altering the way they make games.

The way I would like to see video games in the future, is a lot like these games, Metal Gear Solid 3 and Gungrave, both games in particular are short games (only a few hours long each) with heavy emphasis on involving gameplay and storytelling. In these games, it is more like one is playing through a story, than a game.

While I could talk FOREVER about this topic, I am finally brought to what I believe is the solution. That game’s be made to be more like movies, shorter, while all the effort in their making them is dedicated towards delivering a worthwhile story and gaming experience, rather than trying to make the longest, flashiest game possible.

It is my sincere belief the acceptance of video games as an art form will not only enrich the gaming culture, but will enrich society and the minds of gamers everywhere.





http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2007/09/13/VI2007091302086.html

IGN.com

Vast Personal Knowledge

It should be noted that my sources were sort of lousy, and looking back, I could have done a much better job.

[Awayfarer]

Re: That essay.

You, sir, have more balls than I do.

I consider video games a legitimate medium for storytelling but I mostly keep the opinion to myself after being berated by a few intellectual friends.

For me, the thing that really drove home the potential in games was the ending of Suikoden 1. Mathiu Silverberg, reluctant military strategist is in his deathbed. He asks of his doctor, Liukan, (paraphrased) "I took this position and made decisions that cost many lives, did I do the right thing?" And before Liukan can answer, Mathiu is dead.

Here's a story where a man dies doubting wether or not he did the right thing. That is an incredibly powerful sentiment and it gets tossed aside because it's "just a game."


One strange, related note: I recently completed my honors thesis and I was able to include in it a snippet of the game Onimush: Dawn of Dreams. Anyone else played that? The main villains are named for characters in Hamlet, and one of the main characters (Roberto) has a copy of Romeo and Juliet.

[Aqizzar]

Okay, I'm only able to skim over it because my brain is fried and I promise I am reading this, but let me ask you on a professional level-

Did you actually write a giant paper as an assignment, and cite one article, IGN, and "vast personal knowledge" as your sources?  I would knock off a letter for that, and I bullshit every source I list.

I know I sound like a dick for levying that at something I asked you to post to build confidence, but I'm kinda stunned.

[JoshuaFH]

Yeah, I'm not so great at getting sources. I searched for a week trying to find articles that pertained to my topic, but I could barely find anything. So I just cited the little bit I did find, and just ran with it from there.

I didn't get an A btw.

[WillNZ]

I had a particularly good Creative Writing professor who tore up my work good... I learned to accept criticism and because of that I got pretty talented at writing.

I suspect you have a difficult time writing beginnings, which, in my opinion, are the hardest to write. You can solve this problem by writing the most interesting parts of your story first, then adding the beginning in later. By that time, you've probably found a much more interesting way to introduce characters, setting and so forth.

[Heron TSG]

I didn't get an A btw.

Weird. I thought it was pretty good, myself.

[Aqizzar]

I have a strange dichotomy with writing, that gets revealed to me every time I have an assignment looming.  I can research and write loads of stuff, but only at the last minute before a deadline.  No matter how much I want to or realize I need to, it's physically impossible for me to start on an assignment unless I subconsciously realize that I have exactly as much time left as I think I'll need.

Case in point - On Friday, I had to give a 10 minute speech at 8AM, and email in a five page paper by midnight.  I knew this for two weeks prior.  I didn't get started on either until Thursday afternoon.

I researched and outlined the speech in the six hours between waking up and going to work, then wrote and practiced the wording and made my visuals in the three hours between getting home and running to the library.  It was one of the best speeches I've given.

I got home from class and started working on the paper at 11AM, having already been awake an entire day, and fuzzed from cramming that speech.  I researched and wrote the whole five pages in about eight hours,and could hardly see straight by the time I finished.  Some of my finest cramming to date.

I think part of why I have such a problem with creative writing is that there's just no deadline.