Creating the Dovahkiin

Realistically, this is my first cosplay.

I've dressed up before to go to conventions or nerdy gatherings: I wore my best Browncoatesque Western/Chinese hodgepodge to the premiere of Serenity, with the Chinese character for Serenity painted on my cheek. I threw together a pretty impressive closet Steampunk for a trip to Gen Con last summer that I didn't think would happen. I even went to SDCC in a costume for one of the days... though it wasn't one I was particularly proud of or would have picked for myself.

But this is my first time actually picking a fandom I am passionate about and constructing a costume that replicates it's source material to the best of my ability.

I am not a total n00b when it comes to fabrication and costume work. I have a pretty extensive background in theatre (though I haven't been in that world for many years now) and have a fairly wide variety of experience in arts and crafts. Still, I've never faked armor. Or prop weapons. Or done any work with wonderflex, friendly plastic, or many of the other materials that cosplay costumers use.

Also, I'm generally pretty strapped for cash.

This will be a journey into frugal cosplay. I have a passion for fabrication and look forward to pushing myself into recreating as much of this costume as possible while also pinching my pennies. I don't have a workshop or a garage that's cleared of stuff. I don't have a workbench or many tools (unless I dig through the spider-and-dust-coated-pit that is my basement). But I do have creativity and an intense level of satisfaction when I can macgyver something together rather than purchase it pre-made.

Coming Soon: Chapter 1 - The Helmet

Gen Con: A Love Story

I was blessed with a pass into Gen Con Indy this year. In between shifts at my job nearby, I've been doing my best to check out everything I can from the Con and report it back here, particularly since I was there in part to help Josh do some networking and fact finding for Game Gavel. I feel a level of obligation in reporting about the Con and all it's wonders, but I am now starting to second guess myself in exactly how I want to go about doing it. See, I could just list off the many events and things to see, but simply seeing an itinerary of Gen Con could give you all of that, in more detail than I may be able to provide. Instead, I feel like I really want to communicate what Gen Con is (at least in my experience). I know a number of people who are passionate about their conventions, many of whom have never heard of Gen Con. It compels me to try and capture some of the atmosphere as best I can.

I'm honestly surprised that some people disregard Gen Con as if it was some small get together of nerdy Midwesterners who happened to crawl out of their basements for a change. It's the nations largest annual consumer fantasy, sci-fi and adventure gaming convention. In gaming events alone, this year saw over 250,000 event tickets sold - and getting time at the tables is only one aspect of what one can do at Gen Con.

First off, Gen Con is really well located. It is within easy walking distance of many of the places downtown and is directly connected to Circle Center Mall (where I have my second job. It's nice how that worked out.) The parade of cosplayers that wander past the store fronts seeking the Food Court is quite a wonder to see. There are some stores in the mall that definitely fit the interests of some of those attracted to the Con (Teavanna has been seeing a constant stream of anime-themed cosplayers this year) and it's a relaxed atmosphere in which the initiated can let their freak flags fly among the general public. Knowing glances of people recognizing their common bonds based on t-shirt logos and intricate costumes gives a real sense of community: of being a part of the in-crowd. To really geek out: it's like being a wizard walking around muggles, most of whom have no idea why there are so many brightly colored wigs and guys walking around in full plate armor around every corner of downtown Indy.

'Sup.

Gen Con is, primarily, a gaming convention with a special focus on table top gaming. If you collect D20s like stereotypical women buy shoes, this is the convention for you. Events include RPGs, TCGs, card games, board games, LARPs, video games, you name it - they have it. Merchants sell virtually everything geek-related: pithy t-shirts, artwork, leather armor, corsets, handcrafted hats from all sorts of eras, foam weapons, potion pouches, every type of game imaginable... the list goes on.  

Medieval Collectibles = So awesome.

It's really no wonder that Gen Con is one of the largest and most promminent gaming conventions in North America when you consider it's history. It was started by the Great Gygax in 1968. (If you don't know who I'm talking about... I can only give you a sad look and point you in the direction of Google.) It really is a sizeable event, drawing in between 25,000 - over 30,000 attendees each year. This year it shattered it's previous records with a turnstile attendance record of over 119,707 over the course of the 96 hours of gaming, cosplay, music and more. While the exhibition hall (where I am, for the most part, limited to this year due to time constraints) has structured opening and closing schedules, there are games going on 24 hours a day during the 4-day event. I really look forward to being able to register for a game in the future - so far, that has been the one major aspect of Gen Con that I haven't been able to get my hands on. Even so, without getting a seat at the larger gaming tables, Gen Con gives all who attend a chance to get a hands-on look at the new games and products on display.

 And the gaming is really one of the beauties of Gen Con. Unlike Comic Con, which has gotten a lot of complaints recently about not really being about comic books anymore, Gen Con is for and by the gamers and the geeks. Nerds of every flavor get to come together and discuss their passions, in and out of the convention hall. For example, I had a pretty awesome conversation with a guy that started by me mentioning that a tea pot he was standing near in Teavanna reminded me of a TARDIS. Whether you're a dedicated LARPer or a part-time tabletop role player, or just excited about the gaming mediums on display, there is a genuine sense of community and acceptance there.  Sure, they have their celebrity appearances and seminars, the workshops and the tournaments, but in the end I think the best part of Gen Con Indy is the attendees themselves and the sheer joy they often bring to the table.

 Gen Con has also worked hard throughout the years to turn this celebration of gaming into positive change by helping children and educational programs through a number of charity events. This year, School on Wheels (a group that aims to help homeless children) was the recipient of over $18,000 through events like the Charity Speed Paint and Auction, Cardhalla (where participants build a city of stacked Magic cards and knocks them down on the last day with their donations), and an always-loved Jail and Bail, among others. 100 % of the proceeds went to the charity. Good Karma, guys.

"Gen Con Indy 2011 was simply the best Gen Con ever for us," said Adrian Swartout (CEO of Gen Con LLC)"We had such incredible support from our exhibitors, sponsors, event organizers and volenteers, and of course, the amazing businesses and people of Indianapolis. We are so thankful to have their partnership in crafting the world's finest experience in gaming. Next year, Gen Con has its 45th anniversary. We are too excited for words at the amount of fun we are already planning for next August."

And I can't wait to be there with bells on.

Hopefully I'll be able to get better pics of the steampunkery I threw together on Sunday.

For more information visit the website at www.gencon.com  . For up-to-the minute details, find us at www.facebook.com/genconindy and at www.twitter.com/gen_con .

Future Gen Con Indy Show DatesGen Con has been in Indianapolis since 2003 and has signed a five-year extension with the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association (ICVA) for 2011-2015. Below are the upcoming show dates.
August 16-19, 2012
August 15-18, 2013
August 14-17, 2014
July 30 - August 2, 2015

Next time Eventually, I'll give you a little more detail about the awesome folks who I got to talk to this year.

Crossover Time: MK Edition

When my fiance turned to me this afternoon, he posed this little riddle:

"I know you're not feeling up to it right now, but I want you to guess who the next Mortal Kombat DLC character is. He fits in perfectly with the world of MK and has nine movies to his credit."

Given that I had just gotten home from a job interview on a minimal amount of what may be called sleep, I was not exactly in the mind set required for guessing games. In fact, my brain spent more time trying to come up with the word 'tumbleweeds' to describe my mental capacity than actually attempting a guess.

Then, he gave his final clue: running his fingernails against the side of our CPU. I instantly got it.

Still guessing?

Points for creativity, but no. That's not it.

Check out the Mortal Kombat new DLC trailer (HD) at GameTrailers.com. It's ok. I'll wait.

Holy Slasher, Batman! (Or would that be more like 'Unholy'?) I would have never thought of it, but he's kind of a perfect addition when considering the crossover capabilities of the series. When you can take characters from any universe and move them into Out World, I'm honestly surprised that we haven't seen more franchises making cameos in a long standing series like MK.

Some crossovers are not as successful as others.

Seriously? One hit kill there.

The DC crossover was a bit of a failure in my opinion, partially because DC didn't want any of their heroes killing their opponents. They do know that this is Mortal Kombat, right? It was like they saw Marvel vs Capcom and wanted to jump on board with their own rendition. But while Street Fighter is more about the cool moves and the defeats, MK has always been about the over-the-top brutality and murder. Fatalities are one of the places where the series really shines - so to have characters that don't perform really perform them... it just seems out of place and awkward.

From what I have heard (given that I have MK on XBox, I don't have first hand experience) Kratos was an interesting addition to the series, though he telegraphs his moves too much to be much of a competitor against an opponent who knows their way around the combos.

Even with some not-so-great attempts, I am encouraged by the idea of future franchise crossovers in MK, especially from the horror genre. I think it would breathe some new life into the series - keep things from going stale. Also, I would hope that they use these crossover characters a little better than, say, Soul Calibur, which kind of have their guests show up to the party, but don't try to fit them into the storyline any more than through some slow-as-hell scrolling text. Then again, Soul Calibur isn't exactly story driven, but I appreciate the kind of continuity that the story modes in the latest MK give. Rather than it just being about the fighting, I like that there is a fairly well developed interpersonal and political story behind each of the characters. Some more than others.


Any ideas about who else should make the list?

New Vegas' Fallout

Latest addition to my geeky fan art: my courier from Fallout: New Vegas advertising the determination to get the job done that makes Mojave Express great.

I have mixed feelings around Fallout: New Vegas. This is primarily due to my introduction to the series itself. One day, having no real understanding as to why, I decided to boot up my fiance's copy of Fallout 3. I was instantly hooked. I loved that game to death. I was drawn into the interesting storyline, the compelling characters, the humorous radio broadcasts and the way I could control the pace of the story. I loved that I could be drawn into this personal search for my father but also take as much time as I wanted in simply exploring this new world that was as foreign to my character as it was to me.

As I was playing it, I new that development had started on the next game. Unfortunately, this caused me to really build up my expectations for it. I played Fallout 3 with a slight critical eye, taking notes of the features that I hoped they would improve in the next installment. I was hoping specifically that the animations would improve. It isn't a crucial feature, but I've always found the way Bethesda characters move a little unnerving and it sometimes pulls me out of the story a bit.

New Vegas wasn't a bad game, but I was crushingly disappointed. The story wasn't nearly as compelling as the previous game. For me, taking it out of the context of a personal story, it felt like 'what's the point? Why would my character care who the hell gets this stupid chip thing anyway?' Once I tracked down Benny, the rest of it felt very listless for me.

Also, it was just so buggy. I know the experience varied from player to player, but having the game crash, accidentally walking through parts of the ground that suddenly weren't registering, items I needed to interact with being unclickable; I found these endlessly frustrating, and they significantly lowered my already dwindling enthusiasm for this game.

These problems, though, are not at the core of why I wasn't satisfied with New Vegas in my first play through. Honestly, my expectations did me in. Fallout New Vegas was, in many ways, a repackaging of Fallout 3 but in a setting more familiar to the franchise as a whole. It would have been satisfying if that's all I was expecting. But I didn't think I was getting a game that felt, to me, like a massive mod of the previous one. I thought I was getting the next stage in the game's "evolution," not just it's West coast cousin.

Now that I know what to expect, I'm planning on playing New Vegas through again, now with some new DLC to explore. I suspect my opinion of it will be better this time around. I'll just have to try it out and see. 

Check out each of the images I used in this post over at my DeviantART account. Be sure to leave me a comment if you do!

News Travels Fast v1

Maybe one day I will come up with a better title, but for now News Travels Fast will be my occasional post picking a few bits of news and geekery from the internet that I feel like sharing. Why News Travels Fast? Because I have no delusions that I'm going to be posting these with any particular speed in relation to when the stories broke. I only post 'em as I see 'em.

Talks of a Sequel for X-Men: First Class  
(Source: Screen Rant)

No surprise here, really. The movie was successful, financially speaking, and many critics liked it. As I've said here, I saw problems with it (big ones) but it wasn't a complete load of garbage. Here's hoping they give a little more thought to their thematic structure the next time around.

Or they can just throw a bunch of random mutants in there and call it a day.

LA Noire tech will change the future of Adventure Games 
(Source: Edge)

The old lady in the bowling alley is played by my fiance's godmother. Yeah. That was a weird surprise.

Again, kind of a 'duh' statement, but it's cool to hear Kojima agree with my view of the facial capture used in LA Noire. I really look forward to this kind of tech being implemented in other games. (The idea of Bioware using this in a game similar in style to their current RPGs makes me giddy.)

Are games becoming too easy in order to pander to self confidence?
(Source: The Escapist)

 I love The Escapist for many of their articles like this one. Nathaniel Edwards does an interesting job analyzing how and why difficulty levels in games has been going down. He also compares them to the lack of enthusiasm and willingness to work that his father's middle school students show. I'll give him credit for not saying that video games are the cause of this behavior (after all, these are middle schoolers we're talking about here.) He does make an interesting point about the parallel between game design (aiming to reach the largest audience with an achievable difficulty while giving special challenges and rewards to players who go the extra mile) to American education (not being able to fail a student, so as not to hurt their confidence, and therefore implementing special rewards for those who go above and beyond their peers). While I think it's generally a smart idea for gaming companies to make their games accessible to players of multiple skill levels, I do see it as a large problem to apply the same ideals to how we handle education.

I would point out, though, that a low difficulty does not mean that a game cannot be a rewarding experience and doesn't necessarily sway educational performance to a lower standard. For my own nerdy example: as a child, I loved playing Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego on my old PC. Did I find it challenging? Not in the least.Trust me, there were many games that I outright sucked at. A combination of not a lot of access to a wide variety of games, access to some poorly designed ones, and limited time playing left me believing for years that I was just a shitty gamer. There were many games that I walked away from, frustrated out of my gourd because I couldn't get to the next level no matter how hard I tried or even if I knew the solution. Wishbone, I'm looking at you, you son of a bitch (literally). But Carmen Sandiego gave me a zest for historical knowledge that greatly improved my educational experience in school. My parents were not so lucky when they got me the Math educational tie-in for Sandiego. Yeah. That shit wasn't gonna fly.

In any case, it's an interesting read. Go check it out.

TARDIS arcade, anyone?
(Source: asciimation)

Holy crap. Oh, holy crap. Not only do I love this person, but I also kind of want to rob them.
Someone built a replica TARDIS with a MAME console inside:

Cue the angels' choir, because it is THAT awesome.

Seriously, I want that in my house.

Wouldn't it be cool to have a door hidden behind a TARDIS replica in your house? Like, you'd walk through what looks like a prop piece of furniture into an entirely new room? Just blew my own mind there. I have a thing for hidden passageways.

I scored a 131 point turn in Scrabble on the Xbox the other night.

Now that I've seen it, I need to make one of these for myself.

Okay, so that's not really news. But I certainly felt accomplished. I jumped over the 200 mark while my fiance was still down in the 80s or so. Suffice it to say, he didn't really feel like finishing that round.

The Downside to Boob Armor

Fantasy armor and femininity. Fun topic, huh?

College Humor's recent short on the subject makes for a good laugh. It got me thinking on the subject though, in relation to my endless search for attractive armor.

 

I tend to struggle with armor in games, because I will always play as a woman if I am given the option. I simply prefer to play as a female. (Even when I was a little girl, I'd be wondering why there were only two female Power Rangers, or why there was only one woman I could kick ass with in the original Mortal Kombat, until the second one, where three more were introduced. I didn't want or expect an all woman roster in the shows and games I was into. It just bugged me that they were always outnumbered. Just had to get that out there. Back to the topic at hand.)

Pictured: the Topic

When it comes to female armor, I am almost always at a loss. Games with female armor are usually in one of two camps: the "realistic" or the ridiculous. The 'realistic' essentially believes that women would just put on armor designed for men. After all, even though this is a world in which women fight, why would they want or need anything different than the menfolk? The ridiculous plays right into the hands of the concept of the male gaze. Women are dressed for the benefit of their male companions - most importantly, the player who is assumed to be male. They are there to look sexy to the observer, having armor that is essentially useless when put into a battle scenario.

Don't believe me? Rooster Teeth tested it out with Ivy and Sophitia from Soul Calibur.

 Many of the games I play will give you lots of options in bulky plate armor, but they look huge and awkward on their female bodies. I tend to play as rouges rather than tanks, so I want to maintain the illusion that my character can move around swiftly without sounding like an Everything Must Go sale in the kitchen section of a Bed Bath and Beyond. I want something that is attractive, but obviously functional as armor.

Functional - definition: not this.

Outside of what gender I play, I like having attractive and custom armor. I like mods that let me pick and choose the aesthetics of the game I am playing. Custom eye colors, hair styles, and of course custom clothing and armor. If I'm going to be staring at the outfit for hours on end, I'd like it to be something that appeals to me.

 

Thus, my dilema. See, many (if not most, depending on the game) mods will give you the ability to role play that Battle Stripper you've always been dreaming about, but not much else. I gave up on looking for mods in Oblivion for females, as most of what I found were focused on giving them breasts that are individually larger than their head and next-to-nothing to wear to cover them up. 

Oh, and the argument that it's to maintain their agility is BS. You can maintain your agility while still covering your vital organs and wearing something that won't cause your ta-tas to fall out. Boob flashing is most likely not going to be a very effective form of self defense if the person you're fighting really does intend to kill you. 

Now, I'm not going to say that super "sexy" female armor shouldn't be available - far from it. What right would I have to demand that sexy armor mods not exist simply because they don't fulfill the needs I'm looking for? Hell, I've even contributed to the sexification of female armor in art, albeit my motivations were more out of humor rather than fappery. 

My take on the "mage's robes" from Dragon Age.

I just wish there was more variety. I wish there was something in between the very masculine and the grotesquely masturbatory "feminine". Those designs to exist.  

These armors: Protection + being hotter than you ever will be.

So there. Rant over, I suppose. I guess I just need to take some time to learn to make my own armor mods, so I can kick ass as a woman who doesn't look like she's just there to encourage splooge production.

Casual vs. Hardcore: What Makes a Gamer?

I've heard a lot of discussion about casual gaming - what defines it and whether or not it poses a "threat" to hardcore gamers.

Why would anybody care about the intricacies of gamer labeling? Many times, these arguments are made with the aim of placing one group against the other: the casual gamers aren't "real" gamers and are "posers" for trying to move into a subculture that has been established for years, while the hardcore gamers are people (mostly male) who live in their parents' basement and have no social lives due to their obsessive attachment to racking up the most headshots. Both views are based solely on stereotype and these arguments, in many instances, are aimed at dividing the gaming culture: the true gamers from those who simply play games. 

Let's try to break down this monstrosity. I have heard a number of ways of defining a casual gamer vs. a hardcore gamer. However, most arguments come down to three main factors:

1) number of hours playing

2) type of game being played

3) the difficulty at which the gamer chooses to play

Right away, I see some problems with this.

Let's take this hypothetical woman as an example: She plays Bejeweled with a seriousness and dedication that many would put toward training for a chess tournament. Hour after hour she sits, racking up points. She is always near the top of the leaderboard, meaning she out-performs the average skill level of the average player.

Breaking it down by the numbers:
1) she plays a lot of hours of Bejeweled and is on par with a hardcore gamer who spends the same amount of time questing in World of Warcraft. Does this make her a hardcore gamer?

2)But wait, the game she is playing is Bejeweled, one of the games that almost defines the casual gaming genre with how often it is used as an example by people having this debate. If Bejeweled is the quintessential casual game, then you must be a casual gamer if you play it, correct?

3) Difficulty is subjective. On the surface, Bejeweled is a very simple game. It only has a few criteria that one must keep in mind in order to play it. In that sense, it is an incredibly simple game. It does not require you make a difficult series of jumps and navigate a physical puzzle like many platformers, nor do you have to manage your health bar and eliminate threats while proceeding to your objective. You can lose the game and start over, but you don't necessarily have to approach your whole strategy differently as you would if, say, playing Mass Effect and realizing that the route you were trying to take through the enemy base was not allowing you enough cover and that if you run past the giant hangar and into a smaller corridor, you can funnel your enemies into a much more manageable shoot-out.

I find these discussions problematic because they start to meander into blurring the very lines their argument has tried to create. Does that really help us better understand whether or not we can call this Bejeweled Master a casual gamer? That's not even touching on the subject of the variety of games she plays. If she plays Bejeweled and only Bejeweled, does that make her a casual gamer? What about XXRageKillAholicXX on Xbox who plays hours of Halo? Would he be a casual gamer because he's not playing a wide variety of games, even though he is playing a game that is more "hardcore" than Bejeweled? (Apologies, XXRageKillAholicXX if you do indeed exist. If so, kudos on an interesting choice of gamertag.)

Somehow, I imagine this is what you'd look like.

And this isn't even touching on the subject of gendering the casual vs. the hardcore gamers. I guess I should save that can of worms for another day. Long and short of it: there are women who have long term relationships with their consoles of choice, just as there are men who want to play the occasional game of Tetris on their phone and be done with it.

The "Threat" of Casual Gaming?

Some of you may be wondering what the "threat" is that hardcore gamers are so worried about? In part, with the sudden rise of casual gaming, there is a fear that developers will stop funding projects that are aimed at the hardcore gaming group. After all, if a casual game can be played by both the hardcore and the casual gamers, then wouldn't it financially make more sense to fund the latest iteration of Angry Birds rather than put time, money and a lot of technological investment into making LA Noire, which doesn't tie in nicely to an established, successful game genre and pushes the boundaries of animated character's emotive abilities? Both Angry Birds and LA Noire are great games, but the latter implies more financial risk. There is more time and money invested in the development with a potentially smaller number of gamers who are willing to risk putting down $50+ on a game they may not enjoy.

I fully understand and sympathize with the concerns that casual gaming may bump out games that are more challenging. After all, I'm some where in between the casual and the hardcore gamer, and I regularly struggle with not finding enough games that strike my fancy. I think it would be a serious mistake for the market to focus on one niche at the exclusion of all others. Economically speaking, that would simply flood the market with multiple versions of very similar games, creating too much competition. If gaming companies provide a variety of types of games, then they have a better chance of seeing success.

The one thing I don't sympathize as much with is the snobbery of difficulty levels. It's great that you can beat Dragon Age in Nightmare mode in your sleep. Why, though, were forums lit up with complaints about the developers of Dragon Age II expressing concern that the difficulty was too hard for certain gamers and so they would make sure that the Easy mode they provided before did not set the difficulty so high that it frustrated players who found themselves overwhelmed in the first game? Even after repeated assurances that the game would still have multiple levels of difficulty and that Nightmare mode would still exist, people were bitching and moaning about people having to have a "dumbed down" version of the game.

Now, there are legitimate complaints about the difficulties being unbalanced in Dragon Age II - but that's not the issue at hand. The primary complaint, before the game came out, came across more like "I'm such a bad ass, all you whimps can suck it" as opposed to a legitimate concern for their gameplay experience being compromised.

There seems to be a general disdain for casual and easy modes. I simply cannot understand it. If you don't want to play a game on Easy or Casual, then don't. Most of the games that provide a number of difficulty levels will provide you with at least two, if not more, difficulties above Easy. So what if a game developer wants to make the game accessible to a wider variety of gamers with different skill sets? It means they're more likely to sell more copies of the game, thus making more money and being able to fund future projects. I'm legitimately curious about this - does it all boil down to a dick-measuring contest about what a skilled player you are, or are there real reasons that effect your gaming experience if a game provides a difficulty level below what you play in?

So, what's the point?

Gamers are gamers. If you play games, you are a gamer. The more we try to create these mostly-arbitrary labels for each group, the more we're going to convince the men and women with the big bucks funding game developers that there are only two types of players they need to market to. The more limited we become in who is and isn't a purveyor of fine gaming entertainment, the more limited our selection of games for sale could potentially be.

The gaming world is expanding and changing. It has always been constantly evolving. So, there should be just as much room at the table for the social gamers, the casual gamers, the hardcore gamers, and the rest of us who aren't scared to pick up a controller and kick some digital ass.

I don't pretend to be an expert. Disagree with me? Feel free to let me know in the comments. As long as you keep things civil, I'm all for debate.