The Trend of Mediocrity

I have a Google+, and I gotta say, it has been rather useless. Of course, the success of a social network is entirely dependent on the number of users and how connected they are, and G+ has been pretty cruddy on that front. But one thing has come of my membership to Google's more or less failed foray into the social networking world: I found a man named Paul Tassi. He writes for Forbes, and you wouldn't peg me outright as a Forbes reader, but he writes about a topic near and dear to my heart: video games, and the business surrounding them. His writings have led me to want to discuss the realm of video games, and my decidedly "meh" attitude towards it as of late.

I've always loved video games. I started playing with an NES back in my elementary school years (Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt being my favorite cartridge) and eventually graduating to a Playstation. I became a Sony die-hard, loving games like "Spyro the Dragon" and "Crash Bandicoot", then when the PS2 came out, games like "Jak and Daxter" and "Ratchet and Clank" (those of you familiar with video game developers, you've noticed a trend by now). I had a demo disk with one of the old Spiderman games, a short bit of MediEvil, an MLB baseball game, and the first level of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. I would go downstairs on Saturday mornings, load up the disk for the millionth time, and play the same level of Spiderman, once again defeating The Scorpion before he could off J. Jonah Jameson. I would always rent NFL Blitz (all the fun of old school Madden with the joys of getting in a late hit once in a while) and Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis (Zoo Tycoon with a whole lot more teeth). I loved these games, and they were a source of countless hours of entertainment.

Then things started changing. Of course, I grew up. My tastes changed. I still loved Ratchet and Clank, but I started trying other things. My parents kept me an arms length away from shooters for a long time, but they couldn't stop me from playing Halo at my friend's house. The PS3 made its way onto the scene, and so too did all sorts of new titles: Resistance: Fall of Man, Heavenly Sword, Warhawk...they all lacked something. They were pretty, yes, and they had all sorts of new gameplay features...but where was the fun? It was a shiny, and kept your interest for a moment, but soon the magic faded, like a short but passionate romance that dies away all too soon. I needed something long term.

I found my way into the realm of shooters with Modern Warfare 2, and with the help of internet multiplayer (a relatively new thing for me) I soon realized that what Cat Stevens said was true: "Ooh, baby, baby, its a wide world/Its hard to get by just upon a smile." I was new to these games, and most everyone else was not. They had been playing them since they were in middle school. They knew the guns, knew the maps, knew the specs, knew the controls, knew the game. I hardly knew aim-down-sight button from pull-the-trigger button. It was brutal, cold, no-holds-barred combat, and I soon learned it wasn't for me. But there was more to try.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The game that changed the RPG genre. With me being such a massive RPG/Adventure buff, you'd think I'd eat it up. I tried. I really did. But the game fell flat. Too many glitches, no depth to the storyline, no real reason to be attached to anything that was going on. Just pretty scenery and a whole lot of quests. And I can say about the same for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Heresy, I know.

Assassin's Creed. It certainly appealed to the platformer-lover in me. But thank goodness I knew better titles were to come in the AC series, because when I tried the original Assassin's Creed for the first time, I couldn't be done sooner. To say the missions were repetitive would be a gross understatement, and you had no reason to cheer for the main character until much too late into the game. I didn't want to see Altair succeed. I wanted to see him trip and break his neck while chasing down the 5th random big bad guy in a massive city identical to the other two I'd just visited, right down to the lead-up quests, annoying street criers, and downright obnoxious beggar-women. Thankfully, I can say Ubisoft has fixed that series and crafted a rather good set of games.

Sports games had become all too complex. You had to know what each formation was just to get a play off, and quite honestly, I like watching sports, and I love the feeling of leading my teams to the championships, but I didn't have the time to learn about all sorts of stats and audibles and formations. I just wanted to play. And games that offered that sort of experience were almost infantile (think the Backyard Sports series. Fun, but aimed at about 5th graders). I did enjoy the "Street" verisons of titles (NBA Street, NFL Street) as they brought a little more of the simple joy of a video game into the experience, but those eventually died out or became far too overblown to be fun. The same sort of explanation for sports games goes for fighting games, such as Soul Calibur. If I didn't memorize lengthy button combinations, I didn't stand a chance.

This brings us to today: the modern age of gaming. We now have Modern Warfare 3, Heavy Rain, LA Noire, Batman; Arkham City, Gears of War 3, Need for Speed: God Knows What, Halo: They Made ANOTHER One?, Final Fantasy: Eleventy-Billion and a Half...the list goes on. But one thing stays the same. Mediocrity. At least, it does in my book.

There are few games I truly enjoyed, the top of that list probably being Portal and Portal 2. It was innovative, it was fresh, it was funny, and it was immersive. You cared about the storyline. It made you laugh, it made you think. No, not every single game can do this, especially not as well as Valve has with this series, but that's one gem in a sea of blah. Yes, Assassin's Creed has gotten better. BioShock was pretty darn good, and Batman: Arkham City was quite polished and fixed many of the flaws that were present in its predecessor ("If I have to go through ONE MORE AIR DUCT!") But then you have the Gears of War's, the Call of Duty's, the Soul Calibur V's, the Halo 4's, the Final Fantasy....I honestly don't know what they're on now. XII-2.6b? Whatever. My point is, nothing is original anymore. This is the rallying cry of the creative, from Hollywood to video games to television and beyond, but that's not because it isn't true. The issue is, no developer wants to risk a new feature. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." is the mantra of today's big developers. Why change how things work in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2? The fans ate up the first Black Ops, and that was the same old crap from World at War, am I right? Just make a new villain with a new, more Russian name, bomb some monuments, and make the explosions bigger. Copy and paste the multiplayer, and you've got yourself the next bestselling video game of 2012.

I, for one, am sick of it.

Three?

So I noticed when I logged in today that I got three page views. That comes as a surprise to me, because quite honestly, I don't know what would lead someone to look at my blog. I don't have a whole lot of links to it (though that's going to change), and I haven't told a whole lot of people about it (that's probably gonna change too). But it excites me.

I want people to get into my head. As weird as that sounds, I want people to know what its like in here, cuz not many people do. I want people to get a glimpse into the life of Max Dinan. Hopefully it won't cause them to lose their minds or anything, but I want people to know. Hopefully, if I know more people know me, I can better cope with issues I'm dealing with.

I want people to know my opinions on things. I'm an opinionated person, and I love debates. I wanna talk about what's going on in the world, what pisses me off, what makes me happy, what shocks me, what I truly don't care about (but everyone else does so I guess I'll mention it). I want to get my opinion out into this world and see if anyone cares to hear it.

I've been inspired by the Vlogbrothers, and Craig "Wheezy Waiter" Benzine, and Charlie McDonnell, and Phillip "PhillyD" DeFranco, and Ze Frank, and Toby "Tobuscus" Turner,  and even Hanna Harto and her drunk kitchen (check them all out on YouTube if you haven't yet). I want to make stuff for people. That seems vague and pointless, but I've seen how the Internet allows people to connect and share things they love. I want to provide some of those things, and I want you all to come with me and help me make them.

I hope you guys enjoy this journey.

-Max

Update Regarding the Future

So, my first year of college is about to end. Finals are next week, my choir sings in the commencement ceremony next Sunday, and that's it. And looking back, I realize I didn't do too well with this blog. I hoped to post at least 2-3 times a week, and I haven't posted in months. Its quite embarrassing, really. I created this project (and my new YouTube channel) in an effort to help myself and just get stuff off my chest when needed, but I haven't come anywhere close to achieving that.

With this in mind, I will be attempting to revive this blog (and my YouTube channel) over the summer. If that does not occur, I will instead revive them over the next school year. I know this will be tough, but I need to do it. Too often I say I'll do something, have the best intentions, plan it out, write scripts, etc., and then I just let it slip through my fingers. I need to commit to something and actually go through with it for once. It should do wonders for my self esteem.

Hopefully see you (whoever you are) in the summer.

-Max

Current Emotions

This is gonna be a bit of a rant and/or emotional mishmash, but I just wanna get this off my chest. Here goes.

So there's this girl. Yeah, yeah, one of these posts. Hear me out.

I really like her. And I kinda have a feeling she likes me too. She and I lock eyes a lot in the one class we both have together, and she tends to stand close to me, and I pick up those bits of conversation that make me wonder whether she's flirting or just being nice. But my guess is I'm wrong. She's dating a guy (thank you, Facebook) and their profile pictures are of the two of them together. I'm sure they're perfectly happy together and talking to her about how I feel would probably just result in an awkward conversation that would lead to an awkward friendship, and she seems like she'll be an awesome friend. I don't wanna ruin that.
 
But then the "what if's?" come a -calling.

"What if you two would be great together?"

"What if she secretly likes you too?"

"What if she's been thinking about dumping her boyfriend for a while now?"

It's not like any of that really matters anyhow.

In all honesty, I just want honesty. All I want to know is how she feels, but I know that asking her how she feels is going to mean I need to admit my feelings. And I don't want to risk crushing this blooming friendship.

My current emotions suck. A lot.

Wish Me Luck,
Max

11/11/11...a Few Days Late

Ok, I meant to make this post on 11/11/11 but I was dead tired by the end of the day so I wasn't even gonna try, and then a lot of other stuff came up. So its a bit late, but here goes.

A while back, my brother showed me a video for this thing called The Beckoning of Lovely 10/10/10. If you don't know what that is, I recommend you go YouTube it to get the best definition, but I'll try to give you a bit of a description here. Basically, its an event that this amazing woman, Amy Krause Rosenthal, has been putting together for 4 years now at the Bean sculpture in Millennium Park in Chicago. The idea behind each gathering (08/08/08, 09/09/09, 10/10/10, and 11/11/11) has been to beckon lovely back into the world. 08/08/08 was in conjunction with one of Amy's self-made movies, 09/09/09 was a more solitary affair, and 10/10/10 was moving and stunning. 11/11/11 looked to be another wonderful event. It would be the first Beckoning I would be in attendance for. I couldn't wait.

That day, my brother and I woke up early, got to the train station, and traveled to Chicago. We took the bus to Millennium Park and waited patiently for Amy and the yellow umbrella she carried to every beckoning. We chatted and nerded out with the other amazing people already there, going on and on about Nerdfighteria (more about that in another post), Wheezy Waiter, various other YouTube videos, and just the general awesomeness in the air. Then, 11:11am rolled around, and a cheer started to rise through the crowd as a smiling woman with a yellow umbrella made her way to the front.

The day was amazing. We sang together, wished people happy birthdays, sent out "I love you" texts, watched a marriage proposal, were given free candy, saw John Green (YAY!), and overall did our best to beckon lovely back into the world. This all happened as a feature-length movie titled "The Beckoning of Lovely" was released on YouTube. I recommend you watch this movie whenever you get the chance.

In the descriptions for the event on the website, we were all told to bring white pillowcases and sharpies, but not given an explanation as to why. Amy explained that we should draw a large cloud on one side so if anyone said we were "dreaming too much" and "had our head in the clouds" we could say "You bet." Then, she encouraged us to get people to sign our pillowcase so we could remember all the friends we made that day.

A friend of the project handed out temporary tattoos that had a small yellow umbrella and a little message on them: "Make the most of your time here." This has been a big phrase in relation to The Beckoning of Lovely, and I wholeheartedly agree with it. Its something we all need remember; our lives are short. Much too short to spend them angry or jealous or upset or hating or complaining.

Our world is in a rough place right now, but then again, it always has been and always will be. However, just because the world's constantly going insane doesn't mean our own personal worlds have to be. Surround yourself with people you love and who love you in return. Enjoy fun things, and also find the fun in hard work. Support the ones you care about, and never miss a chance to tell them you love them. Read. A lot. Love the little things. Never compromise, but know when to find middle ground. And never, ever, EVER let anyone define who you are but yourself.

In the words of Charles Schulz that someone brought up that day at the Bean, "Be yourself. No one can say you're doing it wrong."

P.S. - I'm dedicating this post to my friend, J.G. She's going through a tough time right now, and I hope that the lovely returns to her life soon. She deserves it. <3

First College Paper

So, I just had a conference with one of my profs regarding the first paper of the class, which is also my first paper of college. It was an argumentative prompt; you had to discuss how you felt Odysseus acted while he tried to complete his homecoming once he landed on the shores of Ithaca, the slaying of the suitors and such. (Those unfamiliar with the Odyssey or those who need a refresher on this portion: click here.)Was he fair? Brutal? Somewhere inbetween?

I went with the third option and made my case, explaining the things that happened and how they showed Odysseus in either a positive or negative light.

I followed the style of arguing I had learned before. You explain what happened ("By the end, Athena is skewing the suitors’ spear throws and making sure that each of the four spears from Odysseus and his men find their mark.") and then tell what this signifies ("This is quite the advantage, and really, anything that Odysseus did to gain the upper hand aside from having the support of a goddess could quite easily be viewed as overkill.")

Apparently, this is style is too forceful for my professor. He wants me to argue my points, not just say things.

Am I incorrect in saying that argument requires evidence? You give evidence, then you explain your stance. How else am I suppose to argue?

I've always been told you need to be strong in your points. Don't say "this suggests" or "this could mean", say "this means" or "this clearly shows" or what have you.

Arguments are supposed to be forceful. You're supposed to convince the reader, and you can't do that if you're simply handing them suggestions and vague stances.

You need to be clear and concise. What's your stance, and what in the text gives you the validation to have that stance?

I guess my point is that I have a writing style, and an argumentative/persuasive writing style. It worked just fine in all my honors and AP English classes. I got very comfortable with it, and my teachers liked it.

Asking me to completely change this style and fix a paper written in said style by Sunday is gonna be a lot to ask.

Especially this weekend. X_x

Wish me luck everyone.

Until next time,
Max

Hello World

So this is my blog. No idea whats gonna go on here, how often I'll post, whatever, but I figured this would be an interesting thing for me to try. I'm starting my first year of college, a new and scary period of my life, and it'll be handy to have a place to vent and talk and such.

Hopefully I can learn a little bit more about myself, and you all can learn a bit about me, too. 

-Max D.