Blog of Josh Hall

Avoid causing conflict when possible.  ie: once you master rule #3, don’t do the things that other people are going to hate you for.  For example, if you’re going to stop your car in the middle of the street to talk to your friend on the sidewalk, make sure there’s no one behind you.  The least you could do is pull over.

Here’s an example of one of my peers in my masters degree program.  We have our first group assignment, and groups were chosen by the professor.  Granted, there was some confusion on how to use the online system and communicate to multiple people, but this is the email she sends out…

hello all I have made this list for us as I have so many email address’s coming I’m not sure no more who they belong too.

please only use my Comcast  email as I am getting double emails and this is already to confusing .
also please tell me in one email what you need me to do as I have so many emails right now I don’t know which one to use to do the assignment. or what I need to do within the assignment project

That was a big WTF for me.  Even bigger though, was the (seemingly random) image that was attached to it:

WTF indeed.

Here’s another video game idea that actually came to me as a result of a dream.  In the dream, I’m in a big city landscape, being chased down by military and such.  I end up stealing a Gatling gun and taking a bunch of them out at a time and then running away on roof tops and such.

So here’s the game idea.  Think Grand Theft Auto meets Streets of Rage 2.  It’s just a game of survival set in a city with lots of cars, fire escapes, roof tops, lamp posts, etc.  You start off walking down the street, either looking for fights, or fights are looking for you.  Like, you walk by a guy, you can get the party started right there and punch him in the face.  Or even some guy comes and mugs you.  Someone joins in to help him.  Someone else calls 911.  The cops come, they call for swat.  swat comes and they call in the national guard.  helicopters come in.  more and more men.  barricades are set up.

You have your choice of a few characters, each with their own specialties:

• Athletic karate chick – Quick, agile.  She can’t take a lot of damage.  I’m thinking there’s a UI (user interface) for points where she can grab on to.  Like a little “shiny spot that glimmers” on a lamp post or ladder.  You’d have her run at it and jump, she could grab on there and either climb to higher spots easily, or catapult herself at enemies.
• Big strong dude – He can take a lot of damage, but he’s slow.  He can’t fit in cars to drive them around, but he can pick them up and throw them.  He can break off lamp posts and swing them around.
• Weapons expert/PC Hacker – Probably comes equipped with tons of guns and bombs and such, but he/she can also use all the guns of the military and fly their helicopters.  Maybe something like being able to hear where the military is forming and planning next.  Maybe something like being able to shut down the powergrid and fighting in the dark with night vision goggles.
• Rich dude with political/social connections – Whatever you want, it’s at your finger tips.  You can make a call and have the military called off, you can call for someone to pick you up in a helicopter and take you away, you have your own body guard(s) that fight people off.

It’d be an arcade type of scoring, the point is just to get the biggest score/stay alive the longest/kill the most enemies.  The unique things to the game would be the “cooperation” moves when playing with multiple players.  the rich dude can order some awesome weapons that only the weapons expert can use.  the strong dude can throw the weapons dude at a helicopter for him to take it over.  The hacker can broadcast a message for the rich dude to the media to get news copters and reporters on the scene  (that would increase points multiplier as well as change difficulty).

Unique game play additions would be with media coverage.  If you’re on the news, people will come out and fight with you maybe.  You’re also less likely to die in front of a news camera.

Maybe the game takes a little bit of a riot/revolution plot.  Each character has a back story with why they need to fight against the government.  You start riots in cities across the country/globe, unlocking more and more cities until you get to the capital.  Maybe once you get the riots started in the city, you have to sneak away someone to the next city to get it started.

I’d play it.  Sounds like the multi-player would be where all the fun is.

Men should never kiss men.  There are no exceptions.  It doesn’t matter the situation, the place being kissed, or how well they know each other.  No, not even the pope.

“Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.”

– Henry David Thoreau

Travels take me far from here.
But for some reason, my mind stays home.
not that it’s lost or forgotten,
It just decides not to come.