Captions, Writing, and Facebook {Editorial}
Posted Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 5:22 am by Mike
Two weeks ago, my friend offered me the first book of a series that I was sure would be garbage. Today, I stepped out into the blinding light of day, having spent the entire time huddled with the books (and eventually with Adobe reader), my eyes working overtime trying to adjust.
Obviously that is a bit of an exaggeration, but it’s mostly true. I eat, sleep, work, and read… but now that I have devoured the entire series, it is time to return to Twin Skies, a world that has been screaming at me to pay attention for quite some time. I am truly sorry, Twin Skies. That foul temptress will not keep me from you any longer. Lets just forget about the past and move into the future, one that is bright and clear.
In the time since I’ve last written, the Twin Skies team (who I would love to call TST, but some people have an aversion to it… so I will refer to them, however reluctantly, as the staff) have added a ton of new content. I’m not even sure where to begin! Well, that’s a lie… I’m not sure where I -should- begin, really.
I’d love to start with the Caption Contest. In my humble opinion, it looks absolutely stunning. Basically, the point is that there is a picture provided for you, and you place speech bubbles (in a few varieties) anywhere on said picture. The caption you come up with should be witty and humorous, to more people than just yourself and your cat, and should capture the attention of the staff when they look to read it. That means look past the obvious… in a picture with a giant grub, don’t make an “Om nom nom” joke. It’s a little cliche, don’t you think?
The next big thing is the writing contest. I’d really like to go more into detail into this in a future editorial, one where I can talk about the art of getting into character. I don’t fancy myself an amazing author of anything, but I feel that creative writing is one of my strong points. I entered a piece as soon as the contest came out, but I feel that mine was far too boring for them to consider. It went into detail about my character (something I plan to do anyway), but there was no action. I would consider it a rough draft; it’s really no wonder it wasn’t accepted. So yes… future editorial, creative writing.
This leads me gingerly to my next point: character creation! Class development, new classes and races unveiled, etc. As much as I would love to preach for you to create a character and develop it as much as possible, I can’t do that really. There’s a good chance that, somewhere down the line, you will either change your mind about your class or find one that suits you more than your current choice, and you’ll switch. Keep that in mind. It’s something I can’t help but stress. Your character can retain a lot of who they are if you tweak some of their history to reflect their new surroundings. But more on that in the next edition (it is probably going to be a big one).
There have also been a few new games added to the site. Among them are Psijack and Sap Refinery, and the promise of a new game implemented with Facebook.
Okay, quick warning: I am about to rant.
Why is everyone so hung up on Facebook? For the life of me, I can’t understand it. The only reason I didn’t want Facebook before was because I thought it would be the same as Myspace, but that isn’t the case. Perhaps people want their individuality, or something, so they refuse to join, hoping that somehow they become cool by not conforming to the norm. Well, I have news for you: Facebook is amazing. It is a social networking site: you add people you already know, and people that you may meet in the future. It is not generally used to meet new people; it’s just not designed that way. You put down any information about yourself that you desire, and allow yourself to be tagged in photos, if you want.
If you’re worried about privacy, don’t be. Just set all of your privacy settings as high as they’ll go, and you’re completely safe. Just don’t add people to your friends if they don’t seem trustworthy. If you’re still worried about it, put in false information. Facebook will not hunt you down for lying to it, nor will it be upset that you don’t trust it completely. It’s a good thing to be conscious of your internet safety, but it’s another thing entirely to become paranoid. If you’re so paranoid about internet safety… why are you online at all?
I’m sorry about that, but the boards seem to be alive with Facebook pandering.
Back to the point. There will be a new game added to the site. Legend says that it is a massive game, perhaps almost as big as the eventual MMO (does anyone remember that this is supposed to be an MMO? :p), and it will be in conjunction with Facebook. I really don’t know how they plan to implement this. Will it be based completely on the Facebook site itself? If that were the case, it would seem as thought this would be an application of the site; simple bedroom coding. That doesn’t seem the TS way. I honestly have no idea what they plan to do.
On to the more mundane… The staff added new avatars for the boards, which I simply adore. It gives me some hope for the future that some may be quite stunning. Some of the avatars really bug me. For instance, almost all of the circle ones are pixelly to the extreme. It’s rather upsetting, really. They’ve also been mostly boring. I like the new ones that they’ve added. It gives some more depth to the boards without too much effort: more avatars means that it’s more likely you’ll be somewhat unique, and that means you’ll stand out a bit more.
Hmm… what will come to the site next? I really hope they add the third race in the next few weeks (though I somewhat doubt it). I’m getting rather antsy about it. Perhaps a new competition, or maybe the Facebook game will come first. Whichever it is, I’ve been checking the news every day, and will continue to, hoping for more content. Walrus men? -Shudder- I’d prefer something a little more interesting, myself.
October 30th, 2008 at 3:41 am
hahahah I laughed like a loon at this. <3 I’m glad you made it out of your cave alive. xD