MMO Monday - City of Heroes

My next notable foray into the MMO style of game was with one that was a far cry away from anything else I had experienced thus far. Through Asheron's Call and Everquest, my fantasy tastes had been well satisfied (or so I had thought), but NCSoft's City of Heroes reminded me that there was more to my interests than just dwarves, dragons and magic.

It's sleek, blue, near-future design was very appealing. The HUD and menus all made me feel like I was moving through the pages of a Marvel comic book. The characters around me were as varied as those in the comic universe; there were spandex-clad classic superheroes, like my own Ironfist, but there were also cybernetic soldiers, or clunky clockwork robots, or undead heroes, or celestial-born mental masters, or spirits and ghosts and demi-gods and aliens and mutants. Every team I joined had a vastly different composition, and I learned through this game that MMO's meant more than role-playing.

Changing Course and Setting Sail

No video post this week. Instead you're getting an additional written post, you lucky blog-reader, you!

So if you've read last Friday's post, you'll know that I've been facing some difficulty with continuing The Visitors - Season One. My foray into the science-fiction/suspense field of writing was met with wide eyes and high expectations, but after about three chapters into it, only one phrase entered my mind.

I over committed.

MMO Monday - Everquest

MMO Monday - Part Two

Everquest

While this game also released in 1999, months before Asheron's Call, I didn't experience it until it's first expansion was released in 2000. My closet gamer was salivating over what this game offered, though, when I finally got around to investigating it. Unlike Asheron's Call, Everquest offered a full world to explore, not just a single continent. While that world was broken into multiple zones, complete with loading screens and everything, the promise of adventure from landmass to landmass was too much for me to ignore. Not only that, but it also gave me the opportunity to explore other races besides Human, and races that I had, up until this point, only read about in J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy masterpiece The Lord of the Rings. Wood Elves, High Elves, Dwarves, Trolls, and more were all available to play, and I couldn't wait.

But what drew me in was the cover art for the first expansion, The Ruins of Kunark. Whoever designed that must have known what captured my attention, because this did immediately as I spied the game box on the shelf at Target so long ago...

Writing Through the Wall

Writing Through the Wall

So I've done it. I've done what I've always wanted to do. I've published a book. Not only that, but I don't have any plans to stop now. I, in fact, have three more books planned between now and the summer of 2015. Cybersaurus: The Awakening wasn't exactly a hit (in fact, very, very few people know about it, in the grand scheme of things), but I am certain that the more books I put out, the more I'll start to get noticed, and the more they may pick up steam.

I've decided shortly after finishing Cybersaurus: The Awakening that I wasn't going to visit Cybersaurus Season Two: Revolution until 2015, and that I would take quarter 4 of 2014 and quarter 1 of 2015 to pursue two other novels. Some friends of mine seemed excited for me to begin writing a suspense and horror novel, and so I set out to do just that, titled The Visitors Season One: Quarantine.

Yet it has taken me an abysmally long time to write Episode One of that season, and the entire time my mind keeps wandering back to Cybersaurus. Is this the Wall that every creative mind encounters? Or is it a general disinterest in my own work?

Experience Points Vlog Post - MMO Mondays & How to GM Videos

MMO Monday - Asheron's Call

MMO Monday - Part One

Asheron's Call

With the newest expansion of the world's most successful massively multiplayer online RPG releasing inside a month, it has inspired me to take a retrospective look at how this genre of video games has influenced how I look at gaming, role playing, and the online community as a whole. I've played my share of online games, and tried subscriptions to various MMOs, World of Warcraft being only one of them.

This post is the first in a four post series that will go through the most influential MMOs in my gaming history, and how they have shaped who I am today. So, for starters, we're going back to the year 1999.

Marvel Movie Line-Up

Marvel Movie Line-Up

Assembling the films of Phase One and Two in preparation for a new Age

As we close in on the end of Phase Two of Marvel's Cinematic Universe, and I fell completely short of my planned reviews of each of the Phase Two films (in fact, I think the only film I actually wrote a full review of from the MCU was the original Thor, simply because it surprised me with its quality). So, in an effort to give some sort of recap, now that we've seen everything leading up to Avengers 2: Age of Ultron, I'll grant you an overall round-up of the MCU, arranged in the order that I enjoyed them, from least to most.

Please note that this does not mean that the film listed first is the one I hated. Far from it, all of these films I found incredibly entertaining in their own degree. Those who know me well know that I often judge a film by how well it accomplished what it set out to accomplish first and foremost, since that is the culmination of the visions of the writer, the director, and the actors, not to mention everyone else involved.

Experience Points Vlog Post - Alien: Isolation, Cybersaurus and the MCU

Alien: Isolation - Early Thoughts

Alien: Isolation - PS3 Digital Version

Early Thoughts

For those of you who know me personally, you know my birthday was just a couple of weeks ago. Last Saturday, to honor this occasion, my girlfriend bought me the digital version of Alien: Isolation on the PS3, since I have yet to upgrade to the PS4. Having bought Aliens: Colonial Marines for full price the week it came out, and not to mention AVP years before that, among nearly a dozen other Alien-themed games from when I was younger, I knew that the list of quality Alien games was much shorter than the list of terrible ones.

The only franchise that comes to mind with a greater disparity is Star Wars, and that is simply because there are so many more Star Wars games to begin with.

Anyways, here is a breakdown of my early experiences with the game. Keep in mind I'm only about two and a half hours into the game, and I will refrain from any major spoilers, focusing instead on the game-play and strong tones rather than plot. Just know that, from what I've seen of the plot so far, it seems to hold up well enough, with much more credibility than Colonial Marines's fan-fiction-like story.

Vlog Post - 10.09.2014

New Vlog post for October 9th, 2014.

Weekly Updates? Ha!

My apologies to my readers about not keeping up with the weekly postings. Trying to do anything productive while moving into a new house is an immense task in and of itself. I will make a post, video or text, tomorrow evening, and likely try to pick up my weekly posts from there. Writing a book during this time has been hard enough, so it's no wonder my blog has been slacking.

I love you all and I'm not done yet!

Vlog Post - Weekly Updates, Moving, & Future Serials

Hooray! A new Vlog post. check it out. As always, any questions, comments, concerns or criticisms, please comment below!

Silent Hill finally gets its due

This post contains mild spoilers for PT. To find out more about information on PT, please look here.

Anybody who knows me understands that I have an indescribably infinite love for well-made horror stories. It is my how to one day write serialized horror/science-fiction, and I'm certain that those stories will be incredibly influenced by the Silent Hill franchise, among my other favorite horror stories.

This year's Gamescom saw the announcement of P.T. on the PS4, a playable trailer that raised a lot of questions and sparked a lot f discussion. Upon experiencing it, we find it to be a disturbingly ongoing walk down an infinite hallway, which gets increasingly unnerving with each new loop.

The pacing is rough, or can be, since what little progression exists is based solely on the nerve of the player as well as their ability to spot and activate the nuances of the environment. Three of the play-throughs that I watched all went between twenty minutes and three hours of play, and none of them reached the end, either because they were too scared, or because they were too frustrated with not finding the clues needed to progress to the next version of the hallway.

After finally finding a short video of the final moments of PT, I'm greeted with a very reassuring sight. Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro are collaborating on the next installment of the Silent Hill franchise, entitled Silent Hills. It is also starring the likeness and voice of Norman Reedus from The Walking Dead.

This is an amazing bit of news that has me incredibly excited for a franchise that has done nothing but disappoint me since Silent Hill 3 (although Shattered Memories was an interesting revision). Del Toro's artistic flair and haunting imagery combined with Kojima's knack for breaking the fourth wall (which is displayed in PT), will combine for, what I expect to be, one of the greatest Silent Hill experiences in the franchise long and storied history. And these are high words coming from someone who is normally much more conservative with his excitement.

Guardians Tomorrow!

Totally hitting up Guardians of the Galaxy tomorrow with the girlfriend. The little one is with her dad for the weekend and its been a while since we've been able to see a film -- well, a good film -- in theaters together. Plus I've been excited for Guardians since it was announced. So opening night isn't soon enough!

It certainly gets the creative juices flowing for future stories, after Cybersaurus is finished up. Sure, there's something alluring about a Firefly type story, but I think I'd be more for a universe like was delivered in Disney's Treasure Planet, or Spelljammer from Dungeons and Dragons. Something about steam-like schooners sailing the stars just tickles me.

Writing Warm-Up: Sad Face, Lock & Bridge

Writing Session Warm-Up with Rory's Story Cubes

The time has come for me to do some more writing in my serialized fiction, and that means doing a warm-up to get the creative gears turning. I've decided to utilize my Rory's Story Cubes, recently purchased and yet to see official use, to create a basic outline for a story I may or may not write sometime in the future.

In this particular case, I've rolled three of the story cubes, and I will use those three cubes to come up with a simple outline for a potential piece of fiction.

Rory's Story Cubes

Potential blog post inspiration? I just picked up these little gems after hearing them discussed on Fear The Boot. They're supposed to help with on-the-spot story or character development. I'm excited to use them, on occasion, in our tabletop role-playing sessions. But they could also pose as a good thing to grease the blogging wheels every so often.

You can find out more about them at the story cubes website.

Cybersaurus: Episode 1.5 - Kenneth

Hey readers! Here's a short written about a couple of side characters from my series Cybersaurus. Kenneth appeared in Episode One as a small role in only a single scene, and I had so much fun writing him, I decided to give him his own scene, as well as a potential, minor subplot that could develop in future shorts, or even find its way into the main series! Enjoy!

Experience Points Vlog Post - 06.17.2014

Experience Points Blog Post - 06.17.2014: http://youtu.be/KgQZrQWYMsY

Cybersaurus: Available Now!

My newest book, Cybersaurus: The Awakening - Episode One is now available from Amazon and from the Kory Stories Bookstore! Get it today for only $0.99!

Massive Updates (plus some minor ones, too)

Hey readers!

Wow, two new posts inside of a week? What's going on!?

I've been really busy setting the groundwork for my coming serial releases, and I wanted to share the results of all that work with you, my loyal blog readers. A lot of things have changed or been added, to here, to the Round 10 Website, and to my new central author website, and I would love for you to check out any and all of them. However, for your convenience, this post breaks them up neatly so that you can skip right to the ones that interest you the most.

Lessons Learned in Self-Publishing: Part One

For those of you who only keep up with my blog and don't pay much attention to anything else I do (and why you only keep up with my semi-hardly-regular blog, I have no idea), Elephants in the Living Room part II, and the Complete Edition of Elephants, have both come out. And, if you follow my Facebook page, you know that my next book, an all new series, will be releasing early in June this year. On top of that, my beta reader notes came back for the Round 10 Core Rules, meaning the printed edition will become available soon enough.

So, I've been fairly busy. But that's not the point of this post.

5 Word Exercise - 03.20.2014

Five Word Writing Exercise 03.20.2014

Help me out! Comment with your own five-words, and I'll write out a post of some sort for those. See how your words can inspire me, and help to kick-start my creativity!

Friendship, Hoopla, Unexplored, Melancholy, Autumn

Time-Wasting Research: 

• Hoopla is derived from the French term houp-la!, used as an urgent command to another, oftentimes a child, to move. Houp-la, Pierre!
• Melancholy is often attributed to a gloomy or vaguely sad demeanor, but it can also mean sober thoughtfulness. It was once used to label the state of having too much black bile, which was once considered a cause for depression.
• The first result when Google-searching these words is a Goodreads blog page of author and cover-designer Nishi S. Looks like she has a focus on Young Adult Dark Fantasy, but I didn't delve in too deeply. Check it out!

Five Word Exercise - Outline

For this exercise, I'm going to write an outline, a story brainstorm, that uses the above listed five words to varying degrees. If writing to these beats, the story would be incredibly short, yet could easily be the starting point from which a larger piece could form. I doubt I will explore this any further than this blogging exercise.

Writing, Routine & Resolutions

So the resolutions aren't going great. Some I've made great progress on, and others (like blogging at least once a week) I've let slide. There's a lot of things I can blame it on, but ultimately it comes down to my lack of self discipline.

When I started this blog, I talked a lot about writing routines and how important it is to maintain a consistent habit of writing every day, even if its as simple as a journal entry. With Round 10 moving towards print, I've been trading writing time for editing time, formatting time, and layout time. And so I want to get back into the writing, now that R10 is out to the beta readers and is out of my hands until at least May 1st.

And so I present this to you, faithful reader. Help be the fuel for my writing, the inspiration. I pose to you this offer: comment on this post with 5 words. Any 5 words. They can be nonsensical, an incomplete thought. They could be silly or thought provoking. Just comment with them. I will choose those I find most interesting, and write something based off of them. It could be a short story, a poem, or just a character analysis or set of story beats. But I will write it and I will post it! So comment with those 5 words!

Round 10 on GM's Day Sale!

Check out DriveThru RPG this week to get the Round 10 Core Rules for only $13.99, as part of the GM's Day Sale! Simply click the link below to find out more!

http://round10rpg.com/get-round-10-on-gms-day-sale/

Beta Readers needed for Round 10 Print Edition!

Hey everybody. I know it's been a while since my last Blog Post (oh, the day when I won't be starting a new post with that line), but trust that I am hard at work with my writing and game design.

So hard at work, in fact, that I am looking for constructive feedback on the Round 10 Print Edition of the Core Rules. I am closing in on the final steps of preparing this document, and so I am opening up the Round 10 website to submissions from gamers who wish to be added to the Beta Reader sign up. Simply click this link to learn more!

Don't worry, there are rewards, and tokens of my gratitude, to those who do sign up. So take a step forward with me, help to make Round 10 into the best game it can be for it's release to print-on-demand!

Social Media, Exposure, and GOOGLE

Damn Google, please just let me merge my accounts already.

Anyways, I've set up a Author Nicholas Kory specifically for Nicholas Kory the Author. Check it out if you haven't already, give it a like, give it a follow!

Also, I now have an author-specific email account set up. This email will be for distribution of newsletters, setting up mailing lists, and helping to spread the word about my books and the various deals they have. To subscribe to my Author Mailing List, simply send an email to nicholaskory@gmail.com asking to be added to the mailing list. A bit clunky for now, I know, but hopefully soon I'll get this whole 'connect with your readership' stuff figured out.

That's all to report for now. I know, sort of a lame blog post, but I've got about twelve windows open in Chrome right now, so my most immediate goal is resolving each of them. Anyways, check out the Facebook page, get on the mailing list, and have a great week!

Fiction, Nonfiction, & How My Writing Has Changed

I remember the times when fantasy and science fiction were my forté. I would get home from school, play some video games with friends until the evening, and then sit down and write until the early hours of the morning, before going to bed and repeating it all again the next day. I immersed myself in these original worlds of my own design, filled with dynamic characters and fantastic events. It was what I lived and breathed for. It was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

And then, as high school moved on and I started to phase my writing into modern, young adult fiction, I found fantasy and sci-fi less and less appealing. I wrote the first draft of Elephants in the Living Room... and then didn't write anything of consequence for years. Short stories, essays, film and game reviews, these came easy to me. They were short, required less commitment, and we're fairly easy to push out whenever was convenient for me. It was simple and it was a way for me to continue to exercise my writing while exploring other activities to fill my off-time.

However, now I find the best way for me to explore my writing has become in the nonfiction genre. Blog posts and journaling, or writing the rules and notes for my gaming sessions, were all I did when it came to creative writing. This became very apparent to me these last few days.

I sat down to work on my recent creative writing fiction piece that I had started last November and hadn't touched since the end of 2013. However I simply couldn't find my voice for fantasy fiction anymore. Yet, the events of the last couple of days made me realize that the desire to write nonfiction about certain aspects of my life, aspects I hadn't given much thought to, yet had commanded much of my time over the last decade. And so I'll give myself the opportunity to sit down and at least start writing a nonfiction piece, that will be a fun exploration of how certain activities, specifically multiplayer video games, had impacted my self-image, my career choices, and the general path of my life. We'll see how the project goes, but I'm not certain how far into it I will get, especially with so many other projects in the works so far.

The Candle Which Burns Twice As Bright...

Another play has come up in my area. Not only am I interested in auditioning, but it is a musical, which is part of my bucket list. It only seems natural that I should audition for it, right? I mean, I've hit up every audition that has been available since last April, so why stop now.

Unfortunately, I'm not as excited for this audition as I would've originally expected. So much so to the point that I am not even 100% certain if I will audition for it. While I have no doubts that it would be an amazing experience and it would be truly exciting and engaging, and I would meet new wonderful people and get the chance to work with others I already know and love within the local theater community, I can't help but wonder if I'm filling my plate too full already.

Life, Work, Writing & Balance

Recently, and by recently I mean in about the last week, I've been struck with a new fear. I know, my list of fears is pretty long, but this one is new and immediate and so it gains some additional attention. The new year has started, and the end of the first full week is approaching. According to my count, I've done a total of 9275 words of writing this week, beating my weekly goal by 2275 words. Not too shabby, and a good start to what will hopefully be 52 weeks of consistent writing.

Zimildran Excitement to the Extreme!

I mean, look at that! How can this image not excite you? I guess the dinosaur junkie in me just gets giddy when seeing this image. Ramon is such a talented individual, and seeing him bring a specific, full world of my own design to life through wonderful art is, to me, breathtaking.

Zimildran has been going well, with the writing and development staying just ahead of our weekly play-test sessions. It is the culmination of almost everything that is at the core of my interests; dinosaurs, mysticism, intercultural diplomacy and conflict, with a dash of steampunk, all spread thickly over a thick base of cosmic horror. It feels wholly original, yet also like I've known it my entire life. Its ancient ruins, spiritual essence, and primal wildlife have stalked my dreams and sneaked into my writing over the years, and it is finally coming to fruition later this year. I am literally beside myself with excitement for this project to be finished.

I can only hope that this excitement holds true throughout the production of this book. It is already much larger than I ever expected it to be (130 pages and counting), and only continues to grow with each passing week.

Soon enough, in the next few weeks hopefully, I will post an excerpt of the world of Zimildran on the Round 10 website, giving you a bit more of a taste of the nature of this world, giving substance to the image above and a window into my imagination.

To Kickstart or not to Kickstart

While my personal experience with Kickstarter hasn't been the greatest (two failed projects in less than 6 months), I would be lying if I said I haven't considered using it again. A man with as many ideas as me needs all the help he can get when trying to turn those ideas into reality, and between Round 10, Zimildran, Dreams of a Dying God, and a certain other, unnamed gaming project, I have a lot of opportunities for help. Namely in the illustration department.

Start the Year with some (more) Self Assessment

Well here we are; 2014. Eight years after I graduated from high school, almost nine years since I started working at Target, and going on twenty two years of living in Brainerd. When I look at things like that, it's easy to get a little disheartened. However, with the way things have been going lately, I feel much more inclined to believe that they will only go upwards from here on out.

I am a published author. I am an independent game designer. While neither have been 'successful' from a sales standpoint, at least they're out there. I am a wellspring of ideas, and I find myself having to pull back the reigns when cataloging my aspirations for future projects. I want to start working on all of them right now, and I want to see them all through to fruition. If only I had a team of me's.