From: Lucian Mogosanu Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 11:02:50 +0000 (+0200) Subject: posts: 032, 033 X-Git-Tag: v0.4~8 X-Git-Url: https://git.mogosanu.ro/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=5416a7842f0d6209b2de9ed5f7255a2d3c20b736;p=thetarpit.git posts: 032, 033 --- diff --git a/posts/y01/032-your-worth-to-humanity.markdown b/posts/y01/032-your-worth-to-humanity.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..217629c --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/y01/032-your-worth-to-humanity.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +--- +postid: 032 +title: Your worth to humanity +excerpt: A thought experiment on the Renaissance man. +date: January 2, 2015 +author: Lucian Mogoșanu +tags: asphalt +--- + +We often consider ourselves to be exceptional[^1], in the sense that we have +unique qualities which cannot be found in any individual. Moreover, we are +built this way, this feature is what separates the individual from its society +and we might even say that it is useful in the Darwinian sense, i.e. people +with useful exceptional traits are much more likely to survive. In all fairness +though, most people have two strands of DNA, two hands, two legs, two eyes, a +pair of lungs, one heart and one brain, which is anything but exceptional. + +Having said that, I'm inclined to believe that the reverse line of reasoning +also holds: given an abstract, spherical human, there are those qualities which +hold the essence of his or her humanity and which make them anything but +exceptional. Now, given a concrete human, say, you, what are these qualities +and how many of them do you possess? Uncoincidentally, the philosophical domain +called humanism[^2] studies such aspects as human nature, agency and +rationality, and so the thought of discussing such already well-established +concepts is far from me. + +I will instead provide you with the following thought experiment. Imagine that +a day from now a so-called apocalypse comes and everyone dies; that is, +everyone except you and a handful of children, enough to repopulate the Earth. +Other than that, the planet itself remains mostly in the same state as the day +before, so you have access to mostly everything, so the initial conditions for +the survival of civilization aren't all that bad. All you have to do is educate +the children and help them become humans in the true sense of the word: agents, +not animals, people who will lead the new humanity to its prosperity. + +Given this rather bleak context, you would have to ask yourself, what are the +qualities that make you human? You obviously need more than what's now called +"general knowledge": language, philosophy, history, geography, mathematics, +physics, you need to have a grasp of all these. It's not that you need to know +them[^3], but you need to understand as much of them as needed to ensure that +future generations will use them the proper way, so that they will be able to +distinguish technology from magic, virtues from vices, humans from animals. +We've fallen into the dark ages before, but this time it'll be quick, so how +much of the human civilization can you carry onwards? How much of the *homo +universalis* is there in you? + +In other words, what is your worth to humanity? + +[^1]: Just like everyone else. + +[^2]: Yes, I am discussing the branch of philosophy, not the belief system, not +the political doctrine. These may be relevant in other contexts, but not here, +not now. + +[^3]: I hate to break it to you, but it is in fact precisely that. diff --git a/posts/y01/033-blackwell.markdown b/posts/y01/033-blackwell.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6dcd894 --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/y01/033-blackwell.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,127 @@ +--- +postid: 033 +title: The Blackwell series +date: January 25, 2015 +author: Lucian Mogoșanu +tags: gaming +--- + +

+*So a ghost walks into a bar...* +

+ +Wadjet Eye Games are a small indie game company focused on developing and +publishing a kind of games you don't see very often nowadays, that is, +classical point and click adventures. Surely, I'm a nostalgic prick and an old +fart, but newer titles such as [Broken Age][broken-age] and [The Walking +Dead][walking-dead] don't fit the bill; they're certainly not what I'm +personally expecting from a so-called "classical" adventure game, and that is +less shiny and "immersive" stuff and more storytelling. + + +As far as Wadjet Eye go, I've already played, in a somewhat chronological +order, Gemini Rue, Primordia and Resonance, so I'm more or less familiar with +the quite distinct visual style they employ: most of the games are created +using the [Adventure Game Studio][ags] engine, while the art is pixelated and +as far as I can tell 16-bit, making it very similar to '90s titles. Developed +and published over the course of eight years, the Blackwell games are a very +good measure of the company's evolution in time, as one of Dave Gilbert's +(Wadjet Eye's founder) first creations. + +The universe where the series takes place is a typical contemporary fantasy +setting: events span about fifty years, starting sometime in the 20th century +and ending nowadays, in New York, where, probably not coincidentally, Wadjet +Eye Games are also based. The game's main protagonist, although not necessarily +a playable character, is Joey Mallone, a ghost somehow destined to be companion +to so-called "mediums" whose job consists mainly of bringing ghosts into the +afterlife, but also other epic stuff, as is seen in the game. + + +The game's other main protagonist is for the most part Rosangela Blackwell, the +exception being Unbound, which focuses on Lauren, Rosa's aunt. And thus the +games' story evolves from "look ma, I'm a psychic!" to conspiracies and events +spanning "the universe", fortunately without going into much detail regarding +either conspiracies or "the universe", which would have probably made the story +arcs much cheaper in my opinion. + +One of the interesting things about the games is that they don't go too much +into the main characters' internal issues, although they do subtly emphasize +them: Rosa's an introvert by the way she speaks to people; Lauren's a heavy +smoker; Joey is, or rather was the typical man of the '30s, with his hat and +tie and attitude toward "broads". However, the supporting characters are often +portrayed in an excellent manner: the Deacon is a sinner only because he +himself believes so; Joseph Mitchell is the journalist archetype; Tanya Corsey +is split between her actual and her old self; Lauren's ghost is tired and +apathetic, her soul supposedly crushed by all the insanity and the medication. + + +The Blackwell Legacy, created initially as a free game called Bestowers of +Eternity, is probably the least interesting game in the series: Rosa Blackwell +becomes haunted by Joey and works on her first case and that's all; I'm +guessing that this was created as a starting point for the rest of the games, +otherwise it's not a very good game standing by itself. Unbound, actually a +prequel, is on the other hand a huge step forward in terms of storytelling, as +it begins the Countess arc, leading to Convergence as a bridge between the +Countess arc and the Madeline arc. Finally, Deception opens an unfinished +conspiracy arc, while Epiphany brings closure for the Madeline arc and the +entire series. I won't go into details regarding each of the stories, but I'll +mention that I've had a sense of continuity going through all the games almost +at once, which made the overall experience pleasant enough. + + +What I didn't like about the story is that, unlike good dramatic art, and more +like comedy and whatnot, it doesn't amount to much. The story's universe +doesn't change fundamentally from the beginning of Legacy to the end of +Epiphany, although, as some of the characters remark, New York is always +changing and it's hard to recognize it from one decade to another; other than +that, we're left with Joey, who's now a human, and without Rosa, and while this +void is certainly interesting, it falls more into the manga-esque open, often +dry, endings and less into the Western drama, which usually leaves us with some +meaning to it all. As far as the universe at large goes, the game returns at +the initial state where the universe at large is an unknown incomprehensible by +the human mind. + +However, I enjoyed the fact that the story remains very much in a "realistic" +setting, without resorting to any crappy mystical stuff, i.e. he's a ghost and +she's a more or less ordinary human, and all the "energetic", "aura" +pseudo-science doesn't matter too much here. At least that's how most of the +story goes, and the story can be brought to an end without caring too much +about the mumbo-jumbo. + + +Finally, I must say that I enjoyed the music very much, especially because most +of it is jazz, but not only that. The songs add quite a lot to the atmosphere +and provide to be a good counterbalance to the less masterfully executed parts, +especially in the first games. As I was previously saying, I can only guess +that making the Blackwell games has in time provided Dave Gilbert with enough +experience so that at least the last two are more than pleasant. At the end of +the day I can't say that I'm left with a memorable piece, certainly not as good +as Primordia or Gemini Rue, but it was one that I'd play again some day, if +only to experience stories of lost ghosts again. + +Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to what other neat stuff Wadjet Eye Games have +to pull out of their hats. + + + + + +[broken-age]: /posts/y00/024-broken-age.html +[walking-dead]: /posts/y01/029-the-walking-dead.html +[ags]: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/ diff --git a/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-01-thumb.png b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-01-thumb.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad0569c Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-01-thumb.png differ diff --git a/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-01.png b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-01.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b676d28 Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-01.png differ diff --git a/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-02-thumb.png b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-02-thumb.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6576cec Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-02-thumb.png differ diff --git a/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-02.png b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-02.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fe1ff2b Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-02.png differ diff --git a/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-03-thumb.png b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-03-thumb.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a628251 Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-03-thumb.png differ diff --git a/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-03.png b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-03.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dfb63b1 Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-03.png differ diff --git a/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-04-thumb.png b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-04-thumb.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e0057b0 Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-04-thumb.png differ diff --git a/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-04.png b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-04.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0bcde17 Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-04.png differ diff --git a/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-05-thumb.png b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-05-thumb.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..be7bf29 Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-05-thumb.png differ diff --git a/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-05.png b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-05.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aabdccf Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-05.png differ diff --git a/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-06-thumb.png b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-06-thumb.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2d4488c Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-06-thumb.png differ diff --git a/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-06.png b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-06.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fae087c Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-06.png differ diff --git a/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-07-thumb.png b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-07-thumb.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e8b8474 Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-07-thumb.png differ diff --git a/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-07.png b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-07.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..157ce23 Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-07.png differ diff --git a/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-08-thumb.png b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-08-thumb.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0f98340 Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-08-thumb.png differ diff --git a/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-08.png b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-08.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d0b79c Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2015/01/blackwell-08.png differ