Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Being A Video Game Journalist is Freaking Awesome

So if you all have been keeping up with my blog then you'd know that I missed class last week to go to Santa Monica, CA (all-expenses paid) for an Activision Press Event. For the uniniated, Activision is the leading third-party video game company (third-party meaning that they don't make a console like Nintendo, Microsoft, or Sony). Activision has a lot of money. I got to see what that money produces.



While I technically can't go into specifics about the games I saw (there's a media embargo for them going off of 9 AM PST on Thursday and another one at the same time on next Tuesday. Check out Nintendo World Report and read my previews and impressions when they hit!), I can detail how absurd these events get.

The first event I went to was about Activision's upcoming Spider-Man game, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. This was low-key. However, the event following it which involved Quantum of Solace, the game based off the next James Bond move, was not.

First, I was taken in a car with another gaming journalist. In the driver's seat sat an "undercover chaffeur" and a Bond girl sat in the passenger seat. We were zipped around the streets of Santa Monica as they told us "we were being chased." We wound up being dumped into a parking lot where someone with a car trunk full of briefcases gave us each a briefcase and told us to put on the shirt inside and read the note for further instructions. We put on our ridiculous suit t-shirts and waited for our driver to come back.

After that, we were finally driven to the actual location of the event where we posed for pictures near an Aston Martin and were handed martinis (shaken, not stirred). We then played the new Quantum of Solace game for about an hour and a half. We were then booted outside around the nice pool area of the hotel where we were treated to an open bar, bikini-clad women, and food ranging from sushi to chicken and waffles.

Finally, after about two hours of bullshitting with gaming press, developers, and the Call of Duty military advisor, we were allowed back into the room where the games were setup. Only this time, there were casino games setup. I kicked back and played Texas Hold'em and Blackjack with a cadre of sober, drunk, and drunker games journalists for the rest of the night.

Not sporting the trademark hangover that half of the journalists at the event seemed to have, I enjoyed the final day of the event as I previewed the latest Call of Duty game.

Then I flew home.

So...what'd I miss in class?

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Distracted by the Abstract

So last week we did some abstraction exercise thing.
It was cool I guess.
Cool in the fact that I began with rage, hit family somewhere in the middle, and wound up with cutting.
The exercise as a whole was fun but it sets up too many rules. You can't write down the first thing that comes into your head, you have to write the first feeling. I did not really suscribe to that while I performed the exercise but I noticed that other people seemed to overthink what they wrote because they were worried of it not being correct.
I could go into a whole long-winded post about the quest to do things correctly instead of doing things your way and how it affects the modern world, but that doesn't really interest me.

I've never been a big fan of poetry but I usually have fun writing it. In my Intro to Creative Writing class I wrote a few poems. Some I liked; Some I didn't.
Here's one of my favorites that I wrote then:

Ode to a Camry

Our affair began some two years ago,
it started roughly, for I couldn’t control
the gristly engine that roared to and fro,
if she gets caught on a hill, away she will roll.

All was well for a great long time,
there was not much trouble that came our way,
‘til one fateful day, defying rhyme,
my ship was lost at sea, it was Thursday.

The heat, she said, was way too much for her,
the key, it locked and the tumbler was bust’d,
for help I waited as time became a blur,
the car, I was told, had become faulted.

So with watery eyes I waved goodbye,
To the only I have ever drived.


So yea, that's that.

P.S. Professor, I will be in California for a Guitar Hero press event (all expenses paid, woo!) from September 24th to 27th. Let me know what I will miss then and I will be sure to make it up. Also, expect a blog post!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Inaugural Post and Favorite Authors

While I did it later than I expected, here is my initial post into the wild world of experimental creative-writing-for-a-college-class blogging.
For the fans at home who are confused, this is for an Advanced Creative Writing class at William Paterson University.
Enjoy.

Cliff Notes: I'm Neal Ronaghan. I'm in my junior year at WPU. I'm an English (Writing) Major with a Philosophy Minor. Supposedly that means I have to go to grad school. I don't want more school. **** it. (Is it cool if I curse?) I work on campus as an STC (the people in the red vests who hand you print-outs) and I also work at Nintendo World Report as a Staff News Writer. While it escaped me at class last week, I actually am working a job where I write blogs. I'm a big fan of the Green Bay Packers. I wear pants occasionally. I live on campus. My Thursdays generally suck because I'm basically going from 9 AM to 9 PM (roughly) but this class should prove to be fun.

I believe we are supposed to start this off with some sort of profession of love for writers. My list will probably be a different one.
While I do enjoy a good novel every now and then, my favorite writers are generally of the graphic novel persuasion. In that sort-of-imaginary realm of not quite novel, not quite comic, there exists the graphic novel. My favorite author in that realm is Brian K. Vaughan who is currently a staff writer on Lost. My favorite work of his is Y: The Last Man. It is a story of a 20something slacker and his monkey who wind up being the last two males alive. I swear to God it's actually good. There's also Amazons, ninjas, pirates, politics, and an adventure that spans practically the entire world. It's really good stuff. Supposedly they're going to make a movie of it with Shia LaBeouf.
Brian K. Vaughan is also responsible for the equally awesome series, Ex Machina, which is about an ex-superhero who decides to become the mayor of New York City. Once again, I swear this is actually good.
I'm also a fan of a few other graphic novel/comic authors, but that's for another time.

As far as novels go, I'm a fan of Gregory McDonald's Fletch series, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Chuck Pahlaniuk (or however the hell you spell it), Offbeat Robert Ludlum, Offbeat Sports Fiction (Sparky Lyle's The Year I Owned The Yankees), The Harry Potter Series (a fan as far as I've read them all), and a bunch of other random books. This list is probably incomplete.

And Professor Quinlan, if you are reading this, I might have the oppurtunity to get an all-expenses paid trip to Los Angeles to go to a Guitar Hero press event. That would involve me missing a class on September 25th. Is that cool?