Random Spewage

Reasons for Absence

2012-10-11T10:41:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

For those of you that used to view my blog and just started getting into it only to find posts stopped updating, I have been busy with a new project.

Details will come as they appear, What I can say is that a few things are under construction:
1 - I am writing a short story and figuring out the logistics of publishing/ self publishing both hard copy and digital.

2 - I am starting a business Called "Beholders Digest" and will be moving everything onto WordPress (As well as learning it)

3 - I am supporting a group called Vancouver Craft and I am doing some MTX design work in order to monetize the server.

So apart from My normal job of the Grand FIFA team and all its projects, I am pretty booked full and seem to have spread myself thin.

will update this blog when I am ready to close it and forward all my users over to my wordpress site.

Cheers,

Ian Torn

New Projects

2012-09-07T11:19:00.000-07:00

Good news everybody!

I am starting up a few new pages to This blog as well as another one I am going to be starting up in the future. I will be moving away from the random, sporadic journal writings and will move to actual posts about politics, gadgets and such.

Stay Tuned!

Sports, Sports, and more Sports

2012-06-12T21:47:00.000-07:00

I keep asking myself: When did I get so into sports?

I've always liked hockey, but I would only watch team Canada games or the Flames games when I could. I found myself watching the entire play off run and found myself watching games from teams that did not have anything to do with me. I would like to point out that my roommate now owes me money because I bet the Kings would win in 6.

And it's not just hockey. Ever since I was acting assistant producer for the FIFA Live Team, I've begun to be engrossed in the sport. From knowing close to nothing, being told that I struggle with football knowledge when one in my position should have it come naturally in order to keep the 'Authentic' feel when making promotions, I have found that I can name a lot of the players by face now, I know the majority of the clubs names in about 11 leagues; I know the major names, the rising stars, and managers/head coaches. I have learned a lot and find myself wanting to watch more. Always more. There has got to be something there that a psychiatrist could pull out and I could only begin to speculate.

I do ask a lot of questions, for there are things out there that I don't know - and thing that I know I don't know. There are often times I sit there, in a wave of doubt, not knowing what I'm doing and have no clue on the direction I need to go. There are times when people expect me to know things, they take for granted the thought that they think I know what I'm doing, but the story of my career is that I've been winging it. I actually got direction today, though I think I gave my superior at work a scare.

For the most part, my over clueless-ness has been hidden by a good working team. All the processes were set up already, all the major hurdles crosses, all I had to do was tweak what was there to adapt and not screw up. I'm great with taking something already there and making sure it doesn't break and the seems are patched up when needed, but when I was put into a place, told to rock that position, and expand - I was sailing in an ocean without wind and a crew. How do I take it to the next level? How do I row a boat? How do I form a crew?

I managed to get this far without knowing what to asking with the skin of my teeth thinking I would understand it all soon. Truth is, I still don't understand, but I got direction on how I could begin to understand. This is something no-one has truly told me, as nobody truly understood my problems, namely because I did not know how to distinguish my problems. After a nice chat with my bosses boss, he understood my problem without me completely understanding it. I was almost scared of confronting him about it as I did not want to be moved off again to another project, lose my job, ect. Something everyone fears. With the problems kind of understood, I have at least a plan of attack for the initial phase.

It doesn't help that throughout my career, I've felt kind of used and pushed aside or just plainly ignored. I try finding new places to work and I have never gotten past handing in a resume, no calls, no opportunities, nothing. While I've been working, I've left a trail of promotions. Every person that I have worked with, worked hard with, and excelled with, has gotten a promotion once I stopped working closely with them. Have I been that bad of a worker? No, clearly I have not been or I would not be in a project manager position. This just put further doubts into my mind to where I have almost given up doing anything in the career path I once so passionately loved.

However, back to my direction. I have one. Kind of. I want to do this as best as I can and expand as best as I can. and if nothing comes from this, I'll know it's time to throw in the towel. I have learned a lot, but somehow I have never become indispensable, instead I've been a visa, or a ditto. I can be put into any situation and do okay in it, but not excellent. I want to be excellent, but for so many that have had support and have grown to become excellent - I have not quite had that support. So I am going to take what I got, keep my energy as high as possible and push this last effort as far as I can go. After this project is over, I'll know where I stand; either I am promoted to the next level or I walk out the door.

This has been quite a long post, I did miss yesterday, I was watching Prometheus and it was a good moving if I didn't think about it. There are so many loose strings and small details that can ruin the experience for anyone. So remember - If you try to put logic to Prometheus, You're going to have a bad time.

I often wonder if anyone truly reads these or if they just flash, see the text and leave. This is essentially my journal. I should break up my blogs into all the different areas rather than random spewage. Like a game/movie critique blog, I have my novel blog (which I found that the rain removes any form of inspiration and want to write from me) A journal page for just my daily activities and anything else. It would probably be far more efficient to have all these different thoughts on different pages. But that is work for another day.

A Weekend of Sports

2012-06-10T17:20:00.000-07:00

I discovered something new this weekend. Watching sports takes a lot of time off the clock.

There has been a huge lineup of sports this weekend, which is why I've spent most of my says watching them.

First was the Netherlands/Denmark game. this was a game that had me ranting and raving at how badly Holland took their chances at net. Everything I have to say has probably already been said and I cannot fathom what goes through their heads when there are clearly 3-4 choices: 1-make a play into the box and score while the defence is frantic. 2-Regoup, keep posession, and keep the pressure to break down the defence. 3-Make a run for it and take a couple more steps when you know you can make the shot. 4-Take the shot from a space when you don't have full control of the ball/no space to shoot/don't know where the net is.

Apparently they thought that option 4 was the best option 80% of the time. How can a team score a goal if they can't hit the net? You can't. So they ended up losing against Denmark, which doesn't bode well for Holland when they still have to compete against Germany and Portugal.

That brings me to the second game I saw on Saturday - Germany versus Portugal. I knew Germany was going to win the match, but I did not know Portugal would come off so strongly in their first game. Both sides had fantastic chances, Ronaldo made some excellent plays, and amazing saves were made. The two sides looked as though they were draw the game until late in the match when Gomez made a very dominant header. This game was much more entertaining to watch.

When my football was over and the Euro matches finished for the day, I turned to my religion, Hockey. It was game 5 in the New Jersey/Los Angeles series for the Stanley cup final. This Series is starting to worry me. I chose the kings to win in 6, but the last 2 games has shown that New Jersey Cannot be controlled. I found my self wanting the kings to just finish the series so the devils don't grow their confidence even more. I fear that if this goes to game 7, kings will choke and lose.

That was day 1 of my weekend. I had nothing I was able to do once I was done watching the matches. Day 2 would show just as un-productive.

The Day opened up with 2 more Euro matches: Spain versus Italy and Republic of Ireland versus Croatia. Simply put, I was completely surprised that Italy was able to score. I was going into the match expecting Spain to just dominate and make sure Italy had no response for the Spanish tactics. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Italy still has some potency. The game ended in a 1-1 draw as neither side were able to take all 3 points.

The second match was Ireland versus Croatia and that went pretty much as I expected. I wanted the underdog Ireland to win or at least draw, but I knew Croatia was going to win. There is just something exciting when the underdogs bring down giants. Ireland let an early goal in, but then dominated posession and ended up scoring around the 20th minute-ish. I was happy and thought that Ireland could keep it up. Croatia showed, however, that they were not going to put up with Irish resistance and finished the match 3-1.

Now I am currently watching the whitecaps game. So much sports and so little time. Hopefully it will not be as disappointing as the Holland game but I will not put my hopes up.

Another Day

2012-06-06T23:18:00.000-07:00

I was going to write about the other publishers at E3, but I've decided against that. I didn't want to spout criticism and such about our competitors and my work.That would just be unsportsmanlike. Instead, I will write about my fantastically magnificent extremely boring day.

You heard me correctly folks; and now you can get this amazing offer for just 3 easy payments of $39.99. But wait! If you call now, we will remove a single payment and throw in a picture of my nipple FREE!

So to recap, you will get the update of my day AND a picture of my nipple for 2 easy payments of $39.99.

Act now and never worry about what I'm up to again.

I think it's worth it. I would get it myself if I was not already me.

But that aside, my day was very boring. I have some action items I need to do tomorrow - but still uneventful. You know what will be eventful though? The battle of Europe is coming! I love football, and when I say football, I don't mean of the American variety.

The best and brightest of the football world will be competing to become the champions of Europe. Hup Holland! I am a proud supported of Holland (aka The Netherlands) I can trace my ancestry there, my Royal ancestry. Anywho I digress. I hope Holland survives the group of death and Portugal stays down quietly, even better would be for Germany to slip up on their face.

Football is infesting the world, but I will always worship the religion of Hockey first. I was baptised in that sport and will forever believe in it. Speaking of Hockey - Canada faces Germany for gold and the number one spot in the top division in the IIHF. German hockey has improved incredibly throughout the years. I am happy more nations are stepping up into the elite category. This shows that hockey is spreading and programs are improving. I want hockey to be as popular as football, but that will never happen. You need ice and a building to play and practice, all you need is a ball to practice football; so it's not nearly as accessible.

Well, that is about as much as I can post for the night, my brain is mush.

The Big E3

2012-06-05T23:41:00.002-07:00

The grand scale event that is E3 is officially over, I've reviewed each of the presentations, and I have come to a conclusion. This year's E3 was a spectacular flop. It was a steaming pile of donkey flop. I have never been so unimpressed with E3 before this year's lack of showing.

I shall start with the Microsoft debacle - it may not have been a bad presentation, but it was not a good one either.

I would like to make my first point - Sports. I'm sure Microsoft has done a lot of analytics and come to the conclusion that a large percentage of Xbox fans are sports fans as well, but that's all the presentation really was; all sports. Sports are all good and dandy if that is all I wanted from the console. I admit the Nike thing was cool, but I don't have enough space in my living-room to ever utilize the thing.

Second point - they were reiterating what well all already knew. They want to integrate everything Microsoft; the console, the desktop, the tablet, and the phone. I thought E3 was meant for new and exciting news about what upcoming products and games. Reiterating what we already knew then acting as if it is new and forcing some for of enthusiasm ruins the presentation.

Third point - the enthusiasm, there was none. They may have been able to sell everything better if they could just look like they wanted to be there. If they had no energy, at least show professionalism.

This transitions into Sony, Sony was very professional almost too much so. But I do think Sony won E3 hands down. Their presentation was clear, unwavering, and all out better than all other presentations.

First point I want to make with Sony - they gave a new IP. I loved how the first thing they open up with is a brand new IP 'Beyond'. This shows that Sony is still dedicated to making games and not just try and force the idealism of the social environment or the need to be fit on us all. Sometime I want to be alone and eat a bowl of Oreos with a heaping glass of milk. That is how I like to unwind. Not only was it a new IP, it looked like a good IP, something I will be willing to get.

Second point - Sony is bringing more console and handheld integration. This is something Nintendo started then went 'fuck it'. I loved how using my gameboy advanced changed how I interacted with gamecube games and vice versa. With Sony integrating the handheld more, I can see a lot of new ways to interact with games and hope developers utilize this. Though this wasn't the best E3 for Sony, they definately were the best.

From there I want to move into the the Nintendo show.

The first point I want to make is,can Nintendo come up with anything new anymore? All is saw were games that should be out and they presented before, Mario, Mario, more Mario, and Luigi. What the hell Nintendo? Did all your developers walk away because of your Nazi submission process? If Mario is the only major thing you can bring to the table, I think you will be going belly up soon.

Second point for Nintendo - Where is the price point? I want to know how much money the Wii-u will cost me and how much money you are going to lose. Lets face it, gimmicky controls worked for you only because of the price point. If the wii cost $400 like the rest of the consoles, you would have been bankrupt long ago.

Third - Nintendo needs to stop lying to us. They keep pushing about how they are doing things to bring back the hardcore gamer then turn around and come out with Nintendo Land. Seriously, if you want to market to children and grandma, come out and say it. Stop the charade, you don't have a hardcore base, you have the casual base - and they bought the console because it was cheap. If the Wii-u costs anywhere close to $400+ you will most likely lose that base as well; or you better continue developing for the Wii.

Fourth - Nintendo's presentation had no soul and felt like uncertainty ran rampant. The majority of the speakers either had troubles saying their pre-scripted lines or felt completely unconvinced themselves. The life, fun, and lively hood of Nintendo has left them completely. They need confidence if they are to be able to continue to compete in the console market. And for god's sake, improve your online experience. It sucks a pile of nuggets.

Nintendo was the biggest flop of the Exhibition.

I could go into Into the Ubisoft presentation, Valve, or EA(which I would say took second) but I would have most likely a biased position on the matter (Working at EA and all) - So I will tackle that tomorrow.

Remember to keep those teeth healthy and strong, because tooth grinding in disappointment are wearing mine down.

3 days gone

2012-06-04T23:17:00.001-07:00

Hi everybody,

it has been three days since I last posted. now I did promise I would update every weekday, but I didn't for a good reason; I was planning and setting up my girlfriends 25th birthday party. It was a surprise event and had to keep it secret and I had to say away from where she could try and talk to me. I told her I was in all day meetings and I could not blow it by going online and writing stuff.

Now you are probably thinking "Well Ian, why not post later that day then?"

It's simply not that easy and it's complicated reason why I did not post anything. The story is far to long and convoluted for me to even begin to transcribe what occurred that fateful day.

(Lame-mans terms: I forgot)

So I write to you now instead. Tomorrow, when I have time, I will write a quick thing about E3 when I finish watching everything. I was too busy watching the LA Kings kick ass and move another game towards winning the Stanley cup; and one step closer to my roommate owing me $10 - $20 if they win on game 6.

I could post some pictures of my day and the party on Friday, but I was too lazy to copy over the pictures; instead I will encourage you to buy this weeks 'Humble Bundle'.

The bundle is worth it alone for 'Psychonauts'. I love that game and it was my friends going though Ai. I suggest you pay more than average as well so you can get 'Bastion' as well. The bundles comes with five games: Bastion, Psychonauts, Amnesia, Limbo, and Superbrothers.

For those of you who don't know the 'Humble Bundle'; A small amount of indie developers put up their games in a bundle and let the users pay whatever amount they want for all the games, even if it is zero. If you pay more than the average, you usually get something extra.

Now be in amazement - I present to you: Banana!

Now this in itself is awesome, but there is an extra bit - some of the money raise goes to charity. The user has the ability to divy up what they pay between charities and the different developers to support them. Go out and get it.You will feel as much regret as the day after a steam summer sale.

Diets

2012-05-31T16:26:00.001-07:00

Diet changes are hard, I'm trying to change mine and it's very hard. Now I am one of those people that don't believe in diet pills or saying 'I'm on a diet'. A diet as most people should know, is 'The sum of the food consumed by an organism or group'. And to that, I have changed mine.

I wanted to change the amount of food I eat and the type of food in the vain attempt to become 'Healthier'. I am also cheap and want to save money where I can to pay down stupid student debt. Eating only the amount I need, never over eating, and eating right are the end means. So far it hasn't been that bad, I don't eat a whole lot of sugar, I have vastly reduced my bad carb intake, stayed away from trans fat; but that is not the issue. I have 1 craving that is starting to tweak my nerves and that one craving is meat.

I have reduced my meat intake to be of rational portions to the fruits and veggies that make up my meals. Before I would eat meat for all meals of the day, all kinds of meat, and lots of it. I tried cutting it out all together before, a few years back, but I found that I would never feel 'Not Hungry' unless I had meat. Going vegetarian for even 2 weeks was me feeling like I was continually hungry for 2 weeks. I could feel my stomach with food in it and all the food just sat in my stomach, it made me want to gorge in order to fill the void of no meat.

This time around, I am keeping my delicious butchered animal remains, but I have pushed the portions down. I now can become 'Not Hungry', but once I eat a small morsel of that animal flesh, I want to keep consuming it. Meat is delicious and I say to all you vegans and vegetarians that you are missing out on some of the most delicious food I call animal corpses. These delicious, dead, delectable treats are tantalizing and should be given a taste no matter what your moral code is. This is why I tolerate apple products and understand the mass of people who consume it.

Back to my main point as I can talk about meat all day. The cravings for more meat are the worst right now. So far, because it's cheapest, I am consuming a serving of chicken for lunch and a serving of chicken for dinner. I season them and cook them myself. It does not matter how delicious I make the chicken, or how not hungry/full I get, my mouth wants to bite into a delicious hamburger, greasy bacon, glazed ham, roasted venison, grilled ribs... The list goes on.

The biggest fight, is fighting these cravings. Beat the cravings and win. That's what I think anyway.
So I will continue to fight temptations, hopefully better than how Jedi's and Sith fight each other in episode 1.

I like 'Insert noun here'

2012-05-30T12:02:00.001-07:00

It's one of those days, you know? The days that feel like days, and afterwords come night. Usually when night rolls around, I'm tired and want to go to sleep. I usually do go to sleep, but something magical happens when I re-awake into the world - it's day again!

My dreams and slumber must be a type of sorcery that manages to turn day to night and night to day, or even a short nap can slingshot me into the future in tiny intervals. I'm a time travelling magician and all I need is sleep. I wish I could do that right now, that way the work day can end and I can go home refreshed and happy.

This is not to happen, my powers of sleep are hindered by a force called 'Work' and I am compelled to do this 'Work'. I am on break now, I cannot combat with work forever for that would destroy me. I am a non-confrontational person and right now I don't want to confront 'Work', I just want to use my special magical and travel into the future.

Normally I would be able to use my sorcery and travel through time until work goes away, but this place called 'The Office' seems to be impervious to magic, void of life, and always demanding. It's almost like a prison, almost, except for the fact that there is no time in the yard. Fresh air would feel good right about now.

Well, 'The Office' is demanding me to confront 'Work' once again - So I shall dawn my helmet, jump into my ship and see if I can finally achieve something with this 'Work' force.

On Fire

2012-05-29T20:52:00.000-07:00

I must be on fire, I totally owned a meeting today when the meeting owner was away sick. I could have done my usual thing and sat back, waited, and let people guess the meeting was canceled - but no! I went in there and owned that shit. I updated project risks, gave people action items, and action-ed on a few myself. Apparently I work better when I know no one is looking at me, breathing down my neck waiting for me to do something wrong.

I did move desks last week, this is what may have given me the energy. Hawk eye's are not staring me down, so I feel a little more comfortable to get shit done.

I have upped my leadership from a little stressed 'yes man'. Now only if I can build off of this, I may be able to do the same when I'm around people watching me. A new 'me' is coming into town, being born from a shell of a weak squish-able thing! Let me play you the song of my people...

I really only wanted the first 30 seconds, but meh this is good to.

On another note, I've gone 2 weeks with blogging.

THAT'S AMAZING!

It's usually 3 in a row and i'm done. I must continue for 30 days and it will become a habit for me, much like how I've gone since march without biting my nails.

Little goals, little victories - That is how I am going to change my life.

Eventually the little things add up into a massive pile of achievements.

Big goals left to achieve:
- Finish my mystery/investigation novel
- Finish designing the prototype of the space battle table top game

I should have a writing marathon, 30 days of me working on my novel and updating on Novel Pending everyday. That may be something I will tackle starting June, once I get past writers block and the urge I have of not touching the book.

Must... finish... things... through...

Most Un-eventful

2012-05-28T23:24:00.000-07:00

Today, today was the most un-eventful day in a long time. At first I was not going to write anything because nothing has happened, but then I decided to post anything, something that came to mind. So I will share with you a bit of good feedback I got today.

I must be learning something at work, which is a good thing, for I action-ed on asking for additional QA resources for our project. This may not be a big thing for most people,but it is a big thing for me. This is the first time I was pro-active on something instead of reactive.

I'm still nervous as this still requires me to leave my bubble, to step up and ask for something needed instead of waiting until my superiors notice and ask me to action on it. Small steps is all I need.

I also managed to speak up and ask questions during both poker planning/ sprint planning meetings today instead of sitting there lost in thought and waiting until later to ask. Next step is to discuss with the Designer of the project to increase the description on the user story criteria so it actually shows design and not ambiguous design hopes. I still have a ways to go to step up/own up and grow into my position.

I have never felt like I have made it into the game industry, yet I have. I still feel like the 20 year old fresh out of college not knowing how to get a job and I think it's because of my contracting company. I never needed an interview, there is really no reward for hard service, the only thing they mostly have to show for hard work is that I get to keep a job.

Until I can get into a place with out being in my current contracting company, is the day I will see myself as a professional, but so far I've been put into temp positions until someone the contractors want fill the position. I guess I feel I will only always be a temporary person. I have the skills to fill the position, but there is something there that people don't want to critique and let me grow. So I sit in a position, do my best to fly a plane, ask how I'm doing, and have the instructor look out the window and say "You're doing good, just keep doing what you're doing" as he hides the fact he is grabbing a parachute and getting ready to jump just in case the real pilot doesn't comeback in time for the crash.

So I find myself filling many different roles, mostly on the same project, never really filling out and growing but pushed out. So it was nice to actually get solid praise, not just a pat on the back saying i'm doing good, but actual solid feedback on exactly what I did that was good. Though I still do not know entirely what questions to ask.

So that is a win for me and that leaves my day a little brighter.

Aquarium Art

2012-05-27T16:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, the skies were blue, and the temperature was in the 20's. That is Celsius for those american folks. We don't need people thinking I'm enjoying a hot beautiful day of 20 degrees Fahrenheit.

With nothing on my schedule but to play some video games, I instead opted to clean and redesign my aquarium tank. As it is a 20 gallon tank, there is not a lot of room to maneuver things - but I do believe I am getting better than my previous attempts. Like every skill, the more one practices and makes it the best their skill can accomplish, they will improve. This would be my fourth attempt at designing an aquarium and I will say that this one is head over heals better than any other one I attempted.

I present to you, the beauty the now resides at the foot of my bed that my girlfriend and I stare at until we drift off into the comforting realm of sleep.

Fantastic Friday

2012-05-25T23:04:00.000-07:00

Well, my Friday was fantastic.

I learned two amazing lessons things today. First I learned that high school set me up to live as an adult.Before you start assuming I had good classes and excellent teachers, I did; but not for the reasons you may be thinking. The final lesson that would propel me through adulthood game graduation night.

That night of drinking, smoking, dancing, and all out awesomeness had awarded me an item that would show the true wisdom of my elders. It took me since June 2006 to figure out this vision of wisdom from my oh so great teachers.

The night of my graduation, you were still able to stand up,this great item was granted to the worthy, yay for I was worthy.

For this prize fits a can of Guinness Draft perfectly.

Is that not a thing of beauty? My school clearly knew what I would need in the future as an adult. Needless to say, it was delicious and refreshing.

Afterword, I learned my second lesson, bubble blowers are still incredibly fun.

I went up and down my street with my girlfriend and a friend with bubble wands creating fantastic bubbles. It does not matter what age you are, bubble can be enjoyed by anyone, anytime. Using my hatlight, I discovered a great picture to take. I shall post those on a later date.

Those are the two lessons I learned today. One a discovery and another an experience.

Now I shall leave you with an amazing exercise idea.

Lost a Day and Diablo III

2012-05-25T11:47:00.000-07:00

I will open up with an apology. Yesterday there was no post posted up on my blog. That is not to say I did not actually write something up, which I did, it was just that I had to remove the page and the grounds of my own stupidity and misunderstanding. I did not know how to fill the void and re-edit the page, so I just took it down.

I was on an amazing rant about how awesome Stumbleupon is and how everyone and their dog should use it, as it is the best tool for a procrastinator.

Anywho,

I shall open up today with a post as well as a post later tonight to make up for the gap.

This morning's post will be about Diablo III and how it urks me. Don't get me wrong, I like the game, I do find it fun - but working in the development of games myself, Diablo III is complete mediocrity.

Now I'm going to set a standard and that standard is 'Torchlight'. Great game and they did amazing things for the budget they had. The game was great, it was fun, colourful, and exciting. For a lower budget game, this took the icing off any cake. I am incredibly excited for Torchlight 2, namely because it has multi-player.

Not only was Torchligh a low budget game, it was developed in 11 months. That is incredibly impressive for any game. The FIFA and NHL franchise can boast the same development time, however, those teams have a much higher budget and far more people to throw at the product as well as a previous iteration to work from. But 11 months for Torchlight to go from concept to release, that is an amazing feat.

The game itself can sell for $20 about and the studio makes enough to live on to create Torchlight 2.

Jump to Diablo III:

The aesthetic appeal, looks just above par to Torchlight.

The player and monster animations look about on par with Torchlight.

The story would be on par with torchlight.

The audio, music and all, would be on par with Torchlight.

The only thing that Diablo III blows every single game in the world out of the water, would be from the cinematics. The skill and amazing detail in the cinematics is absolutely stunning. But put this aside, as this actually hasnothing to do with gameplay or the ability to draw the player in.

Now that Diablo III has been set to just above par, lets look at some of the things that makes this game 'Bad'.

Diablo III was in development since 2001, It was probably shelved a couple of times, but the concept was there in 2001, 2008 the game was first announced; then finally, May 2012, the game was released.

Development Time:

Diablo III - 11 Years

Torchlight - 11 Months

If you actually watch the credits to Diablo III, there were a ton of people who worked on the title, this game's budget was massive.

The game needs to be sold at $60 a unit, minus the collectors edition crap.

Product Cost:

Diablo III - $60

Torchlight - $20

This is starting to look like a common theme. Though Diablo III and Torchlight are amazing games, Diablo III was vastly over budgeted and it looks as though they wasted the money to come out with a game that would be 'Good Enough'. Either that, or the millions upon millions it took to develop the title went into their animators for those amazing cinematics.

I will also put in a big minus for the DRM system they have.

I don't want the argument of "You're on the internet all the time, what does it matter if you want to play single player and have to be online?"

I work on server games enough to know, it's not the user that is the problem. Generally the servers will fuck up, the server will be at fault, and when the servers go down for any reason, millions of people now cannot play the title and enjoy the game. This is an example of a poorly implemented DRM and the people who orchestrated this should be ashamed. This is a slap in the face to any and every aspect of user experience. They get an automatic 0 to the score's average for this mess up.

To put Diablo III to a score using Torchlight as the base of 5, it would be the following:

Diablo III:

Animation: 5

Story: 6

Aesthetics: 6

Audio: 5

Voices: 7

Gameplay: 6

Online: 10

Game Length: 5

Dev Time: 1

Unit Cost: 3

DRM: 0

Final Score : 4.9/10

For this style of game, I will always refer to Torchlight until a new par is set. Until then, my review for Diablo III is a 4.9/10. This game was definitely a flop in achievement and it looks as though they paid way too much much to reach par. That is why Diablo III is a mediocre slosh.

I will reiterate my first comment, I in know way hate Diablo III, I like it and play it and enjoy it. But for the amount of effort that went into the game, absolutely nothing shows for it except that blizzard has an amazing marketing team who I applaud. If this was any other studio, the game alone would have been an utter waste of money and the studio would have had to close, if the project was not already permanently shelved. Thanks to marketing, the fans of blizzard that eats anything they throw, the game is a success.

Now to keep with tradition, enjoy a bit of distraction:

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!

2012-05-23T09:35:00.000-07:00

The title says it all.

The most epic super power in the world, the power to melt butter with the shear strength of FUS RO DAH!
A little something I wanted to share:

Pure Epicness.

On another not, I have consistently updated my blog every day Monday-Friday since last week. That's like 6 in a row after this one.

IT'S A NEW RECORD!

Must continue for 30 days lest the habit be broken.... I know the weekend is saved for other things like games and writing and soccer games (GO WHITECAPS)

For the most part, I just forget on the weekends that I have a blog. But let's just keep that between you and me.

A New Way To Read

2012-05-22T22:29:00.000-07:00

I can start with the situation.

I was sitting there in a meeting at work. Now this was not just any meeting, it was a meeting that did not need me there. People thought I needed to be there, but nay; I did not.

So what was I to do for 2 hours?

Yes 2 hours...

While a was droning and falling asleep, I decided right then and there - I must create my own language and writing script.

And so I started creating the characters which was the basis of what has slowly evolved and grew into grammar and a numerical system. Pronunciations are still being filtered out as what I originally had sounded disgusting and couldn't roll off the tongue.

I have begun to put the entire evolution of the language in a very nifty book.

In this book, I have developed how to write sentence structure, create headings, show dates, and references to nouns. It is still a work in progress.

Here is an example:

Damn the Rain....

2012-05-21T21:46:00.000-07:00

The rain in the Lower mainland is dumb.

Yup...

The explanation is simple, It screwed me over from seeing the eclipse yesterday. All over the west coast of the US saw it, the Midwest saw it, and the Lower Mainland, Canada?

Nope.

It decided to start raining that morning and continues to heavily rain until about the evening today.

I missed a rare eclipse all because the weather had a stick up it's ass.

Yup... Fuck you weather of the Lower Mainland, fuck you.

Here is what I missed and can only see from the inter webs...

The Need for Support

2012-05-18T12:30:00.000-07:00

I've come to the conclusion that I need career advice. I have no Idea as to where I am going and where my heading is. I used to have a goal and a heading, but that was blatantly shot in the foot.

Needless to say, the support group that helped me move up has moved on. Those that had a plan for me and with me have long since left and I am stranded in a position where I don't have my 'Yang'. I am only half as effective without my 'Yang'.

I can clarify about my 'Yang'. That 'Yang' was a co-worker and friend of mine, Mike Palmer. During my early years in QA it was me and him supporting development. We sat next to each other and supported each other. If I didn't know something, Palmer would know and vice versa. We learned our weaknesses and learned from them and so we grew and took on more responsibilities. My weaknesses weren't always my weaknesses as we would share knowledge and fill the gaps in our skills.

Needless to say, he moved into another team and started setting up shop and success there while I moved into a profession completely alien to me. He stayed in his support base and knowledge base, I moved into a position I knew I wanted to go into but had absolutely no idea what I was doing or what was needed of me. I also had no support base. Every mistake was a glaring sore, every under performance was treated and inspected as a bacterial infection. I had no clue that I had no chance and no one took me to the side and told me what I should be doing, well not until it was far too late. I was told I was not allowed to stay in the position then they told me what was wrong and went that was that.

I slaved for hours to the best of my knowledge, being grotesquely underpaid, all in the hopes of being hired full time. This was to no avail. I did what was needed of me then pushed out the door. I moved from QA to Development, then back to QA. I had no real choice. No one was even looking at my resume, I never even got my foot into an interview position. (I can probably blame my crappy networking skills for that.)

I had no choice but to move back into QA, but with my senority and what I thought were my skills sets, I moved into a more project manager position. I may be able to do the job, I like the team, but I have no passion for the position; and this affects my performance. I commonly find myself not knowing what questions need to be asked and sometimes get caught in a reactionary for instead of a proactive form.

Long story short, I need career advice on how to find another 'Yang' or how I can improve without one, because as of right now, I am listless and lost; aimlessly wandering through the position trying not to fail the team. This, some may agree, is not the best situation to be in.

I must remain positive though, and with that note....

laziness or Goals...

2012-05-17T09:43:00.000-07:00

I am trying to set goals for myself and in doing so I've learn very valuable lessons.

1 - If the goal results in me becoming accountable for someone else - Example in the office - I get the objective done as I don't want to let other people down or the team down.
2 - Creating goals for my own personal benefit, I tend to let it slide unless I'm held accountable.

I don't know why I do that to myself, I work hard for other people but can't muster the energy to finish anything for myself. I am not held accountable and I need to be. So as of right now, if anyone reads these, I am writing a book and should be scheduled to be finished (ie. first draft) done by end of November.

I can post my daily or weekly updates about the progress of that novel on my "Novel Pending" blog. If there is no updates, try and keep me accountable and send evil emails at me (iantorn@gmail.com) or my twitter (Ian_Torn) calling me out. If I hate disappointing others, shame me and get me back to the work table.

Now for more distractions before I get my nose down to work and earn my 9-5 pay check.

But first..... Baby Seals!

Value of Social Media

2012-05-16T11:32:00.000-07:00

I am starting to learn a valuable lesson - Social Media is important.

I thought I could get away from that and not have to touch it all that much; I always thought "Hey, I don't need this. Social Media is for Extroverted people who want to blab on about nothing."

Ya, about that... I need to start blabbing about nothing more often it seems.

To those that know me, I am an introvert. I love to think, imagine, and reflect on everything. Those that don't know me, I believe, think I'm just anti-social and a hermit. Now I'm not saying being a hermit is a bad thing, it's just that I'm not anti-social. I just don't like large groups or feel that ranting about nothing is useful.

Apparently people learn a lot from rants about nothing. I'm not a psychiatrist, but some people are or at least have training in the field. Rants tell a lot about people. Probably it says a lot about me when I keep calling them rants, but I'm not sure what.

Going back to my first statement - The value of Social media.

I have been reading a pretty good book recently - A dance of Dragons. It's a pretty good tale so far, I do so love Tyrion.

I have also been reading a fantastic book as well - The Introvert's Guide to Success in Business and Leadership By Lisa Petrilli. I am learning about how social media is one of the best ways to reach out as an introvert in the world of business. This is something that never actually clicked, mostly because I never knew how to properly use it so I threw it off as useless.

For all you introverts out there who wish to get at least a heading on to where to go to move up the ladder, I suggest you pick this book up. I am not yet done this book and already I have pulled some helpful knowledge.

Now I shall end today's post with the biggest and best celebrities on the internet.... Kittens.

Enjoy =D

Beginning Going well

2011-02-14T12:39:00.000-08:00

Well,

Today marks the 3rd short story I've written. They seem to be getting darker and darker.

The first one, Glacial Life, is about the loneliness and the hardships bestowed upon us and how we grown and learn to deal with them. We don't change them, we adapt to them. The feeling of powerlessness and how, from my perspective, we just learn to accept and live how we have always known to live. I find that this not only reflects me, but many of the people I work with and live with.

The second short story, Cycle of Humanity, shows how we grow and learn. Again from my perspective. Many of us learn to resist what is forced upon us. And in resisting and never forgiving, we soon do onto others as was done onto us. This happens even without us even knowing that this is even happening. We try so hard not to become our parents or teachers that we end up becoming them. We lie to ourselves far too many times to be able to see what we are actually doing.

The third story, (Todays post because I forgot to post it yesterday) Deceit, shows how we believe our own destinies and ambitions. It is a bit more risqué, but it does show the point that we believe what we are doing, without a shadow of a doubt, is the right thing. We do not ask enough questions about ourselves and we believe that we will always be doing what the world needs of us. if we accept more points of view and criticism, we will avoid many atrocities that will befall our character.

Three different stories, three different perspectives, all my opinions. This is what I have seen in people and, most eye opening, myself.

As I watch people and learn about myself through this exercise, I'm pretty sure more things of personal nature will arise. I ask all those who read this. Look at yourself and the world around you. Ask questions everyday about yourself and your situation. Answer will arise and you will, for the most part, become better people for it.

forgive everyone, know the lies you tell yourself and strive to better yourself spiritually.

Start of my Plan

2011-01-30T00:48:00.000-08:00

I started my first short story that I will be posting every Sunday on my Novel Pending blog.
(Found here: http://novelpending.blogspot.com/)

I will continue to write a short story, no matter how long, and post it every Sunday of every week. This is one small step in a goal for me to improve my writing skills and habits. I hope this works out. I have a tendency to go for a little bit, then stop cause I don't want to do it anymore. But I will practice a good habit. I have wanted to write for a long time but never took it up. Now is my chance and I cannot be allowed to falter.

So I press forward. On with my dream. May good things come.

~Cheers

3 Blogs, new writing

2011-01-24T23:12:00.000-08:00

I have started on 2 other blogs now to target 2 areas of my life. This will be a lot of work, but it will be worth it in the end.

I will return to my reviews and my randomness in the coming days. Watch out for it. You may even see a vlog. OOooooooo Scary! my face on the internets.

That`ll be something to see.

Cheers,

The Canadian Century: Moving out of America's Shadow

2010-05-25T15:39:00.000-07:00

The book was created as an outlet for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and authored by Brian Lee Crowley, Jason Clemens and Niels Velhius.

http://www.macdonaldlaurier.ca/CanadianCentury/

The book can be found at any Chapters/Indigo store and at amazon.ca, not Amazon.com, at this link.

http://www.amazon.ca/Canadian-Century-Moving-Americas-Shadow/dp/1554702976/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274826238&sr=8-1

I saw this item from the corner of my eye in Chapters. For some odd reason it called to me. The little patriotic voice deep down within me told me to purchase this book. This was a spontaneous purchase that I had not regretted. The message received from this book was one of worry, regret, hope, inspiration and the need for change.

As I settled down and began to read, I was slightly enticed yet bored. It started off with a brief history lesson about the ideals of Sir Wilfred Laurier, a man from the beginning of the century and his vision of Canada, or what will become Canada. His vision was of how the 20^th century would be Canada’s century. His dream was nought, or at least for the next 80 years.

The premise hooked me. The facts and numbers and calculations did bore me at the beginning. However, there was something within this brief history lesson. The small, normally quiet, patriotic soul within me kept pulling me forward. I listened to the voice and to my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Though there are areas of this book I do not agree with and some areas that do not go far enough, it outlines some very solid plans that can make Canada a pretty strong economic superpower. The 3 main messages received were, smaller government, smarter taxation and balancing the budget.

With the discussion of smaller government makes sense. Cut back on government dependencies and stop supporting mediocrity. It goes through some length about the great reforms on welfare and the lack of movement on healthcare. This section hit my beliefs squarely on the mark. Living in British Columbia, I have seen firsthand what happens when government holds the hands of its citizens. They become mediocre, sluggish and lazy. They expect the world to drop at their feet and refuse to pay a dime for any of it. They take no risks or do any more effort than what is expected. They don’t try to the best of their abilities. I am not saying all British Colombians are like this, but from my 4 years in the lower mainland, it is evident what big governments do to the citizens. This of course was brought on by the NDP Party. There is no reward for hard work. I must admit I too am losing some of my work effort seeing as it does not get me ahead.

Smaller government and high incentive to take risks, invest and expand the overall entrepreneurial-ism of the state is the best way to reward hard work. There is too much red tape, taxes and politics in the areas of business and investment in British Columbia. Far too much for a low income person, like myself, to work around and get ahead while being able to pay my rent. This section of the book hit me close to home. It also bled into the second section, smarter taxation.

This book was well informative of all the stupid taxes that are costing businesses money, which in turn they pass the higher prices to the consumer. I too once hated the HST which was coming into this province. Instead of seeing only what the HST was doing, this book showed me what the HST was stopping. The HST was working on making taxes easier to do under one harmonized system. It is an ugly tax because it’s the tax we see every day. But in the long run, it will be a far cheaper and more manageable tax then the hidden tax on many businesses and industrial goods. There are a lot more taxes out there that cause this country and province more harm than good and people don’t care because they can’t see it. It never gets brought up because most people don’t know of their existence. And it is because of these taxes that governments don’t get the revenue they need, thus the deficit spending. The third topic is brought on by this, balancing the Budget.

Laurier didn’t want this nation to do any deficit spending, as it causes the nation to go into debt. With debt come interest payments, the more interest payments made, the less actual money the government has to spend on necessary programs, thus needing to borrow more. This becomes a downward spiral of all three points. Higher deficit means higher taxes which means bigger government and so forth.

There have been great reforms in this country, by the Chretien government and the Provinces of Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan. The whole premise of the book is to keep this nation on Laurier’s plan for the nation. When we follow the path, prosperity comes. When we stray from the path we find deficit and recession. The Harper government, during the recession, tried to hold the ground and keep Canada on the path. But the Dion Liberals, Layton’s NDP and Duceppe’s Bloc we threatening a non confidence vote if he didn’t start deficit spending in the form of stimulus packages. We have now begun to falter from the path of Laurier due to politics and power hungry MP’s.

This book has brought forth many interesting details about the government and how easily people are deceived or mislead. As I have said, there are some viewpoints I do not agree with and some parts of the book that do not go far enough in their thinking. However, I base this book on the ability to make me think and re-evaluate my life. This book did its job and more. It got me thinking “How can I improve some of these ideas?”

The one only drawback of this book is it did not go deep enough. The authors tried to stick to facts and examples without exploring further possibilities and expanding Laurier's work. It needed to speak to the soul a little more to turn the ember into a roaring firestorm. Instead it took the ember and made a nice cozy cooking fire. I did not receive the urgency from which this message needs.

The opportunity for Canada is now and I advise anyone and everyone to read this book. We all need to move toward higher education about all our situations. You will not be disappointed.

A Day In The Office

2009-06-24T15:32:00.000-07:00

Well...hmmm there apparently is this massive time lapse from the last time I blogged.

I am now working as a QA something at EAC (Electronic Arts Canada)

I have no idea what my job title is and I am still at a loss of words as to what it entails.

I've been doing this for a little over a month now.

I'm not entirely hired by EAC i'm contracting to them through VMC.

It's a confusing process which means I have a lot of responsibility and a work load that could kill a donkey with a wonderful wage of $11/hour.

Beautiful I know right?

I'm doing what I can to get a wider step into the glorious world of Video Games.
(And a new computer as mine died as I said earlier I think...can't quite remember and far to lazy to look back and read if I mentioned it.)

I've missed so many funny and care free stories I've wanted to post.
(In funny and care free I mean rip my hair out frusteration and clubbing baby seals fun)

Blogging at work is hard and not recommended. People assume that you have nothing to do so they give you more work and then the original point of the matter is lost.

Anywho with my long hibernating blog fingers, I will sign off for today...

Damn you EA for making me forget my point...

And to think, people other then me (most of the time) do their jobs and work. Why does beauracracy have to work sometimes and not just fail or succeed.