video games – News on Shuffle

Ska Festivals & Shenanigans

Hello friends! It’s been awhile and I have so many things I want to share with you.

What have you been up to?

Well…. there’s the health stuff, for starters. Migraines are still being a (literal) pain, but I’m currently doing Botox treatments and am playing the waiting game to see how they respond to that. In more fun news, I went to a ska festival last weekend! It was 3 days of music and catching up with friends, and I had an absolute blast. For those not in the know, Supernova Ska Fest takes place in Hampton, VA. It’s usually a cross between bands I love, bands on my bucket list, and bands I never heard of before. There’s acts from all over the world who come to participate. This year they had Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, Bad Manners, Out of Control Army, Adhesivo, Stranger Cole, Hollie Cook, and Sister Nancy – and that’s just the international acts. I cannot properly convey how much fun I had. It was even worth feeling buried in things to do for the next week after I got back.

Am I a music blog again?

Maybe! I at least want to dip my toe back into it. I used to do way more writing about music on this site, and Supernova inspired me to try to get back to those roots. Maybe next year I’ll try doing write-ups on the bands as they’re announced.

What games have you been playing?

I’ve actually been doing a ton of gaming lately. My ADHD doesn’t hold focus on any one thing, but I started FFXV and even posted some short clips on TikTok. I also bounce between being obsessed with FFXIV and dropping completely off it. Lately I’ve been focusing on Baldur’s Gate 3 (like a lot of us I am obsessed, although still in Act 1) and Palia, a cozy online game currently still in beta. I also recently downloaded Marvel Snap on Steam and really like it. The dailies give you a reason to do a few matches in a row, but don’t feel too demanding. And finally, I’m getting back on an Idle Champions kick. They added a couple characters from BG3 and sucked me back in. Maybe I’ll do some individual posts of these games if the mood hits me.

What about streaming? Still doing that at all?

I’ve been on a very long hiatus due to both health and other life stuff. I tried to come back for my affiliate anniversary Sept 20th and had major tech issues. Still, it was nice catching up with everyone before things imploded. I’m hoping I’ll be able to find time to fix whatever the problem was, but I also might need to wait till I get a new headset. The other one gets really uncomfortable. Even after only 2 hours I had a little migraine forming. I currently have a kofi goal to get some stream upgrades. I also have a birthday and Christmas to look forward to. Maybe a guardian angel will smile on me for the holidays.

It’s too soon for Christmas! Don’t skip Halloween!

You’re right, we cannot forget the best month of the year – Spooky Month! I’m building a list of new horror movies to check out and have actual plans on Halloween night. Bringing it back around, it happens to be a ska show. I’m really hyped to get into some good spooky fun this year

Well, that’s all from me for now. I’m gonna try to get back into the swing of things again, but I’m not forcing myself to write every week like I had been. I’d like to be consistent, but I also have to accept that my body might not always cooperate with me. Now, share your favorite horror movies in the comments and pass the pumpkin coffee over.

Dragon Age Day 2019

If you frequent Twitter, you may have noticed #DragonAgeDay has been trending. That is because today is the unofficial holiday fans of the video game series celebrate their love for it and what it means to them. I tweeted a little something myself and have been sharing other people’s posts, but I actually need way more characters to express my love for this series than Twitter will allow me. Which brings me to the rare and mystical blog post you never expect from me anymore. I always say I’m going to try to be better at posting and never do, so I’m not going to do that this time. I’m just going to talk enthusiastically about a video game for a few minutes then say see you again in a few months, probably when the new season of Doctor Who starts.

My Dragon Age story happens a little out of order. My partner and I were looking for games to play together, but a lot of multiplayer games we are into are online and not split screen, and since we live together and share a tv and console that doesn’t really work. He knows I’m super into fantasy (seeing how my other obsession is Critical Role), so he wanted to introduce me to Dragon Age. In an effort to still be able to play together, we have a system where he does the fighting but we make choices together. He started me on DA2 and I immediately fell in love with every single companion I met. The story is great, the banter and dialogue is fun, and the world completely sucks you in. I romanced Merrill and struggled with every choice I made involving her story (I’m going to try to keep this as spoiler free as possible just in case someone hasn’t played the games but I make no promises about my comments section). I’m currently on my second play-through and romancing my pirate queen Isabella this time. No matter what my main story will always be the same – pro-mage until the day I die.

My play-through of DA2 the partner had already played the game, so he knew what happens and just didn’t tell me. Inquisition we both played for the first time together. We experienced every up and down not knowing what would happen. He chose a Qunari because it was the first time Bioware made it a playable race. I’m currently starting my second go round and playing an elf mage. Planning to romance the heck out of Dorian, but the first time I didn’t really romance anyone. Dorian was the only character I super loved, and he only likes dudes, even if my female Qunari was super buff and could kick most guys collective asses.

There’s so much to do in Inquisition it’s hard to focus on anything other than what the collective fandom is obsessing over – that ending and what it means for DA4.

While we all patiently wait for the new game to arrive, I’m just grateful that not only did the series give me something to share with my partner, I was also able to pass that joy up the latter to my dad. I grew up playing games on the computer with him when I was a little girl. He recently started getting into everything Steam has to offer and asked me for suggestions. I immediately told him to go download Origins (which I skipped over, but I promise I went back and played it eventually and yes of course romanced Zevran). This Thanksgiving, while visiting my parents, I asked Dad how the game was coming. He’s still working out some of the fighting mechanics and was stuck on the fight when the Crows ambush you. I gave him a few pointers and helped him pick the best equipment and party possible and he finally made it through. Enjoy hanging out with my virtual boyfriend!

This very long post was mostly to say thank you to everyone at Bioware who made this game that I get to enjoy with my family. Thank you to DA twitter for sharing your art and enthusiasm with me. And thank you, dear reader, for letting me ramble about one of my favorite things for a few minutes. I promise I’ll update you when DA4 finally comes out and tell you who I romanced.

This Is Why We Strike

If you follow me on Twitter (and haven’t been chased away by all the political posts) you know that for awhile I spent a lot of energy talking about the voice actors strike that started in October of last year and is still ongoing. Due to the nature of video game schedules, this is a battle that will probably last a long time before we see any results. In addition to that, we also have another writer’s strike looming. I shared a thread on twitter that in very simple terms laid out why that one is happening. I thought I’d expand on my thoughts and feels about both strikes, why they are important, and what we can do to help.

First, let’s look at the voice actor’s strike. Why is this happening? Simply put, voice actors were renegotiating contracts to include getting better compensated with residuals. They also wanted to include better safety precautions to avoid vocal stress for certain roles. Video games have come a long way from watching a couple dots bounce around a screen. People expect not only better graphics, but to have interactive moments with characters in-game. This is why the hashtag “performance matters” has been the rally cry for voice actors participating in the strike. People expect more in their games, and many gamers would be disappointed if less qualified people tried to bring these characters to life. Voice actors just want to get better compensation that shows how valuable their contribution is to the games they lend their voices to. They also want protection from damaging the most important tool in their work environment (their voice) for games that might require more strain (for example, the various shooter games that the brunt of their voice work is lots of screaming). I don’t think it’s too much to ask these people get properly taken care of in their jobs. Some video game companies disagree, hence the strike. There is currently a petition on change.org that people can sign. I honestly don’t know how much help it will do, but it can’t hurt either.

Next up, let’s look at the pending writer’s strike. Like I said, there’s a great thread on twitter that I shared with the basics of what’s going on here, but I’ll give a brief summary here as well. Remember the last writer’s strike? That one was about how the times were changing and people were viewing tv differently and writers wanted to make sure they didn’t get left with less than they were worth just because cable was seen as a fad and they were writing for a cable show so they were worth less than someone writing for NBC. Obviously cable tv was not a fad, proof being that Walking Dead is on AMC and one of the highest rated shows currently. This is where the problems is, because if, for example, I get paid per episode but NBC guy gets paid more per episode than I do for Breaking Bad or Walking Dead then I’m getting paid less even though I wrote a more successful show. This writer’s strike is just cleaning up a bit and also trying to give pay raises since networks tend to ask for smaller orders per season (13 episodes instead of 22 or 23), so if I get paid per episode I’m now getting less money than I maybe deserve. Since we all saw what happened with the last strike, I think it’s fair to say that writers are important and deserve to be paid what they’re worth.

One thing I will say about the writer’s strike that works in our favor – even though we might have to deal with a season of repeats or terribly written filler episodes, we also might get another Dr Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog. Not literally, unless everyone suddenly has lots of free time thanks to the strike and wants to revisit it. What I mean is, Dr Horrible was a result of Joss Whedon having lots of free time and energy and putting that into this stupid little internet thing just because he could. Who knows what we’ll get with some other great writer’s free time if it comes to that. Obviously I want everyone to work things out before it comes to that, but the possibilities of what side projects could come from this are a bit exciting.

What would you like to see happen if the writer’s do strike and have extra free time? Let me know either in the comments or on twitter/facebook!

PS – bonus points if you figured out what my title was referencing this time