Hi, everyone. It is finals week. So I’m currently busy with studying, packing, cleaning, etc. Plus, I plain can’t think of anything to ask in the AYA this week. (If you have any suggestions for future topics I’d be really interested in hearing about those.) After this, I’m not sure how much I’ll post over winter break. I have a few planned posts, but I am pretty busy these days.
I’ve worked a 7-hour day. (Yes, on a Saturday – the joys of the film industry.) That’s why this post is late. Anyway… for this week’s AYA, I asked:
- What hardware do you game with? ie, are you a console gamer or a computer gamer? Which consoles or which computers do you prefer for gaming?
- Do you mostly play single-player games, or do you prefer multi-player? If multi-player, in person or online?
- What is one of your favorite games ever?
- Do you consider yourself a gamer?
My answers:
As always, you guys gave really interesting answers – thanks for participating in the AYA! You readers make it possible :)
In the past, dialogue in video games was pretty much entirely text-based due to hardware and financial limitations. However, it’s becoming more common to find video games that have voice-overs. An example that comes to mind is Portal, which thankfully provides captions and is therefore accessible. However, I’ve played video games that have inaccessible dialogue. I rarely get to a point where I can no longer play a video game because it has become inaccessible, but I’m worried that it will happen one day.
I’m tempted to say that non-accessibility in video games is a new trend. But that’s not true at all. I’m currently playing through SSX Tricky again – it is a snowboarding game that was released in 2001. It has a story mode, kind of, when you play through the racing mode. At the end of many races, other characters say things to your avatar, but none of it is subtitled. It’s not essential to the story, but it’s irritating. Anyway, inaccessibility in video games isn’t necessarily a new thing – it’s been around for at least nine years.
Like I often say, subtitles could benefit everyone, not just deaf people. For example, what if a hearing gamer wants to play video games at 2 am without disturbing the neighbors? Playing the game on mute with subtitles would be the way to go.
I could be wrong on this point, but it appears that there isn’t really a codified standard for accessibility in video games. Without a standard for developers to follow, accessibility in video games is not a guaranteed thing. There should be a standard for accessibility in video games.
Sorry the post is slightly late. I have been busy celebrating finals week, if you know what I mean.
I’m actually curious about computer games & video games, so answer the questions with both in mind.
You know the drill. Go for it.
OK, I’ve officially blogged 30 days. Actually, more like 31 or 32.
It was a good run for me. I learned how to write even on days I didn’t particularly feel like it. Also, in real life, I’m not a very assertive person. Saying things and then posting them instead of just keeping them to myself was really helpful in causing me to be more assertive. Before NaNoBloMo, I had trouble even saying what my opinion on anything was. Afterwards, I’m not exactly gonna join the debate team and I still shrink away from expressing my opinions, but I’m a lot better at expressing my position on issues than I was before. I would recommend that you guys try your hand at a NaNoBloMo if you are at all interested in doing so.
Also, I found your answers to the AYAs interesting. I think I’ll be keeping those on. I’m not sure what I will do about reviews, though. Maybe they will be a biweekly or a monthly thing. And I will update the blog with actual content at least one time per week, though I’m gonna warn you guys that I’m entering finals right now, so I may be MIA for a bit.
Thanks for reading, guys. It wouldn’t have been possible without you.
For this week’s AYA, I asked the following questions about books:
- What are some of your favorite books?
- Do you have a favorite genre to read? If so, what?
- On average, how quickly do you finish books?
- Do you consider yourself a bookworm?
- When you are choosing a book to read, do you focus mostly on the words or do you consider the actual book itself as well?
My answers are…
Favorite Books: I rarely run into a book that I dislike. I end up loving a lot of books but never want to reread them. Examples would be A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess and As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. But there are definitely books that I reread because they are too amazing to read once, and I consider those to be my favorite books. The books that I reread most are Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin, the Circle of Magic quartret by Tamora Pierce, American Gods by Neil Gaiman, and Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov.
Favorite Genre: I go through periods of liking one genre or the other. As a child, I mostly read soft sci-fi and fantasy targeted towards children such as the Animorphs series, the Mindwarp series by Chris Archer, the A Wrinkle in Time series by Madeline L’Engle, the Chronicles of Chrestomanci series by Diana Wynne Jones, His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman, and, of course, Harry Potter 1-4. I also loved choose-your-own adventure books and I reread the Calvin and Hobbes comic collections approximately ten million times.
Then, as a teenager, I became more interested in… I don’t know what this genre is called, but it’s when it focuses mostly on the thoughts and feelings of characters and the actual plot is secondary. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner is an example. I also liked dystopian fiction like 1984 by George Orwell.
Today, I read a mix of generic fiction, cultural criticism, sci-fi, LGBT books, YA books, graphic novels, and fantasy.
Speed of Reading: I was a much faster reader as a child. I think it’s because, when I was younger, I would sit down with a book for hours. I don’t really do that so much anymore. But I tend to read at a rate of one book per week unless I am crazy super duper busy.
Also, I had meant to ask about reading habits. I’m sorry that I forgot that part. But I will answer anyway: I usually read one book at a time. If it’s a collection of essays or short stories, then I will read one or two stories/essays at a time and then start another book.
Am I A Bookworm?: I don’t know. I do love to read and I’m never without a book or two, but I tend to turn on the computer before I open a book. I’d say that books are probably on top of the list of my favorite forms of art to consume, though. They are super portable, you can choose to read them for long periods of time or in short bursts instead of being bound to a specific timeline as is the case with movies, and they are a lot more abundant and accessible than things like paintings.
Final Question: OK, I should have gone back and edited this one before I hit “post.” What I was trying to get at is, are you a print-glue-ink type of person? For instance, do you care a lot about the binding of a book and collect rare books and buy hardcover rather than softcover? Or do you just want to turn on your e-reader and have access to the story?
Personally, I don’t really like e-readers. I tend to forget plot points. In a physical book, it’s easy to flip back a few pages and say, “oh, yeah, that’s who Midge is” and then continue reading. That’s harder with an e-book.
I’m not a geek about binding and so forth, though. If I reread something a lot, I usually buy it in hardcover – like Lathe of Heaven, which I must reread at least three times a year – but otherwise I just do not care. I get most of my books from used bookstores and libraries; it’s rare that I spend more than $5 on a book.
Closeup of Christmas ornament and music
I have a pretty neutral opinion on holiday music as a genre. I don’t find it irritating or cheerful. I wouldn’t listen to it in private, but it sounds alright to me. I don’t mind sitting on my couch at home listening to my mom’s Christmas music CD.
No, the problem is simply that a lot of holiday music is at a perfect frequency to cancel out all other sounds, including speaking. Therefore, when holiday music is on, it’s all that I can hear. In the past, this has led to some pretty sucky situations because people play it in public pretty frequently.
One of the more notable incidents that occurred in the past was the time that I volunteered at a disabled seniors’ nursing home during Thanksgiving. We were in charge of things like handing out dishes, cleanup, and, if appropriate, feeding people. Everything was going okay – until they turned on the music. All of a sudden, I couldn’t hear anything that people said. So someone would ask me to get them more potatoes or something and I had to ask them to repeat themselves a million times. It was a pretty damn stressful situation for everybody involved.
More recently, I was trying to listen to my grandmother. She lives in a nursing home and speaks very softly because she’s too weak to speak loudly anymore. It was a difficult task under any circumstance, but I couldn’t do it when holiday music was playing.
So, yeah, I’ve ended up disliking holiday music. And, come to think of it, it’s mostly oldies holiday music. I have no idea why this frequency-canceling happens, to be honest. If one of you guys happen to be a music theory geek, I’d be interested in hearing your theories.
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