Mawd

I am soooooo jealous. Harrumph Fingers crossed for a PC release! *cries*

I friggen love MGS but it'll be cool to see what else he does. I only ever had a demo of Zone of Enders but that was pretty fun. Keen to see what else he does. I don't have much context for Konami beyond MGS. It's sad to see an industry whale beach itself. But if they're going to kill the only Darling I have of theirs and scrub one of the legit few (imo) AAA auteurs' name from the things he's made then I'm going to suspend some of my sympathy.

Spent the entire moving into a new house that's waaay bigger for us (Mum, The Boy, and Myself). A couple of hiccups to start with -the painters hadn't even moved past a base coat and there was wall shaving everywhere!- But by the time the movers came they'd finished -well wacked on a top coat over the under coat- but it's nice to be in a house that has room for everyone and that honestly does have some pretty stunning views and a tonne of flora about the place. It's really special to be surrounded by native birds (well lots of Tui and Kereru) again rather than being surrounded by the concrete jungle.

^ wow I never knew Black Dynamite had a sequel.

Really enjoying this video game soundtrack :3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll2_fPLYriI

As an ex user I find it hard to defend the site. I think that the mentality that made /b/ what it was, wasn't contained in a vacuum and that other boards displayed a similar patterns to a lesser extent. I'd argue that the hive mind confines more discussions than it enriches.

I'm enjoying it quite a bit so far. I think Gorg's characterisation of the show will kinda lessen over time. I'm quite happy to watch the slow evolution of James McGill into Saul Goodman. He did feel like he'd dropped in from another show in BB. I think BB gets the right to be intense early on because it was about WW's descent into enjoying his evil. Saul was a shady guy but I didn't think he came from the type of environment that Walter pushed him into or even quite the same environment that Walt simply assumed he came from. I'm happy with the pacing. This show can earn its crazy moments just like Breaking Bad earned its scenes. I'm also enjoying Vikings and House of Cards.

In between The Pines is kinda like Drive but it has a bit more going on narrative wise which you might prefer. Still a quiet movie. I think it's longer though so take care. Oh the soundtrack is taken in a different direction I think. I really enjoy both films.

I live with my partner. Sometimes we watch tv from a bed at comfortable couch distance (although I would prefer not to have our PC's in our bedroom & chair wise I'd like a comfy office chair with good back support instead of a wooden sitting room chair). If we had to entertain with a tv we'd be better off with a bigger monitor I've lived in plenty of big flats where living room TVs were impractical cob web gatherers heh. Just as I've visited ones where it was central to life. Like I said it feels like a strange thing for/to me personally. Idk TVs are as impractical to me as my hidden VHS/DVD collection.

Maybe it's a generational thing but at this point the tv services are happily filled by my monitor. I would only see extra use from steam linking to a couch or using a console (which I could anyway if I bought the right converter cable for >$15. So I'd be better off buying a comfy couch and chair set with a glorious soundsystem than buy a 52" living room set piece I personally would never really use. If I ever had that kind of money to toss around.

Buying a tv seems like such a strange thing now. Sure I can see some use for it but..

Mangosteen juice drink. Finally checked out the local asian food specialists and found a whole bunch of my favourite SEA fruits in cans. Shame we're about to move. These fruits are sooo good unf.

Our cat has taken up a love of cables. She doesn't yet respect that people's legs, backs, and stomachs are not for climbing. But at least she hasn't pooped in our room for a while! I think she's still a wonderful cat but my partner doesn't want to be too fond until she stops smelling of fart a lot if the time. Speaking of cat related weirdness, anyone else excited for Mewgenics?

Ah so that's what you peeps were specifically referring to. I was thinking of a closer comparison to the other show being sentimental. I enjoyed the feeling of peeling back layers with the show. Seeing how someone as weird as Tobias went about his day or watching Gob implode was a lot of fun with the extra screen focus. Early episodes felt strange but by halfway I was comfortable with the swing of the show. Re: Princess Mononoke I love the voice acting in that. Billy Bob Thornton made that for me. That movie wouldn't be the same without shouty guy either.

The Amazonians and Greeks were completely distinct cultures though. I dont know enough about either but I think their main interaction was through war. Anyway I like the redesign.

Speaking of cats the kitten we've had for almost two weeks now was due to be neutered today but surprise he's actually a girl. Which is pretty funny given how much I kept misgendering kitty as a female and how much I had to keep reminding myself the kitty was a boy. We've still been undecided on what to name kitty so maybe we'll find some new inspiration.

Hah! I really enjoyed Arrested Development's latest (last?) season. But like you its been ages so I can't say much.

: ( I didn't read much of him but I loved Mort. I'll have to go on a binge some time.

I don't see why a small development team couldn't be described as an art collective. Although that's probably beside the point. The dude I was talking about was Pippin Barr.

The film commission grants can go to small indie teams. I wouldn't be surprised if when a game grant is set up there's similar room for small developers. Path of Exile Devs Grinding Gear Games were a small collection of students who ended up working with their university and they eventually snowballed into what they are today even taking on a Diablo 2 dev or two. Though I'm not 100% on the details small weird things can happen for the individuals. I remember reading about this one Kiwi guy who makes small experimental games and writes about games academically. I don't remember if he gets funds for games alone but he's finding work as a solo artist in games related fields to allow him to develop. I'll try to dig up who he is later.

I feel great. My ongoing uncertainties about whether I can pay for my education are lifting a bit now that I'm talking to people in person about part time work. The closest stars that are aligning might have me in door to door broadband sales. Which feels super weird. But the pay is by the hour and the offer is cheap. The jobs co-ordinator (from my campus) and I just have to hear more details first before we put me in touch. Which we'll hear more of by next week. In sillier news my teams doing really well as we practice for the next season of NS2 competition. I'm trying to entice a higher division player into joining our team. He's thinking about it, which is all I can ask. But after last nights games against the second strongest team in Australasia I think we could really go places; last nights games really demonstrated that the team with him in it wouldn't just involve him carrying us which was a reservation we both shared previously. We're playing the best team in our community tonight so I'm hoping for some exciting games. Out of almost a year playing this game competitively we just had what I can proudly describe as our best match.

Doesn't England or Britain currently fund video games that meet a cultural criteria? I think that's an interesting way to judge funding distribution. The New Zealand Film Commission does the same kind of thing for the parts of our film scene not run by Sir Peter Jackson. It changed in the same year I studied it but so long as it had a screenplay and felt culturally rooted in NZ then it was considered for funding grants (for about 30k). About 5 movies a year are made this way. It's the big level tax breaks for overseas production companies that are gross. It made sense at first (although a few kiwis in film felt it killed the home grown scene) to have a big studio come in and fund kiwi production companies and all the side industries involved in film. But by the time of The Hobbit NZ was changing its employment law to disallow contractors from having individual contracts so they couldn't negotiate for employment protections like paid maternity leave. Also NZ GOVT allegedly did some other weird things on behalf of Hollywood but so far no real proof of that. (Kim DotCom claims that he was given permission to enter NZ on the understanding that he could be extradited there; but no proof so far). But other things included winning the right to not have to employ NZ actors & production staff into certain positions which used to be a given with these sorts of deals. NZ political parties on both the centre right and centre left are floating the idea of providing tax breaks to game companies that set up in NZ and I think they already provide limited funding to culturally distinct works. For example there's a phone game called Flutter that has people managing collections of native butterflies and frogs. Although looking back I think it was actually funded by Natural History NZ which appears to be an independent company so that example may be bad although I do think they are probably funded in a small part by govt. organisations like NZ Trade & Enterprise..

I poked my nose in today. But having no experience with IRC I couldn't be sure if I had everything working. I found the room and people's names came up. I guess I caught the room in a lull what with my silly futuristic time zone.

I have no idea what I could do but I would love to be involved in some way. I don't know how much time I could commit either between a big courseload and free time being spent training my team for the upcoming Australian competitive NS2 league. I might just watch from the sidelines and playtest. At the least I could probably talk about game feel; although improvement suggestions would probably help mostly with later projects than current ones. That's just my guess anyway.

After I move I plan to spend a whole bunch of time with Metal Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I don't have Metal Gear Solid and I think I misplaced my psp so no Portable Ops for me. But I do have the PS3 versions of MGS2, MGS3, Peacewalker, and MGS4 so I'm excited. I just hope my time playing it doesn't wholly get eaten up by radio conversations.. ... I'm doomed aren't I?