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Geek and Gamer Counseling Alliance

. . . Everything is Permitted

5/18/2016

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So I came up with a new name for Geek/Gaming and Health Days.  Technically it wasn't me, but the support of one of our Allies over at Warp Zone.  So I owe the credit to Nick.  However, I'll be rolling out the new name here shortly.  Get your suspense prepared to rise.

​I was surprised to see the Assassin's Creed movie poster and teaser video last week.  It looked really good to me, and being a long time fan of the series, I'm excited for any more content that might be produced.  As fans of the series might recognize, my title for this post is a part of the actual Creed in the Assassin's Creed series.  My concern comes up, and has been echoed in any of the conversations I've been having about the movie since seeing the trailer.  Everyone comes back with some form of ". . . but movies based on video games haven't done very well.  Hopefully this will be different . . . ".  I agree, of course.  I'm hopeful, but we haven't had a lot of success with video game transitions into movies so far.  We're going to have at least two across the next year with Assassin's Creed being accompanied by the Warcraft movie.  I'm hopeful, but cautiously so.  This led me to wonder what makes media translations so challenging. 

​It's pretty natural in todays day and age to have these cross platform translations.  We have Star Wars movies, Star Wars books, Star Wars comic books, Star Wars video games, etc.  Certainly there's the entire revolution of the Comic Book film, which have found a way to become mainstays in our movie theatres.  And its these that give me hope for video game translations.

​It wasn't so long ago that we had comic book translations that were absolute flops at the Box Office.  It wasn't until Marvel made the X-Men and Spider-Man movies around 2000 and 2002 that we started to see some success with film going fans.  And then real success starting with the actual Marvel Studios films with Iron Man, etc.  I think that we really saw that success because American audiences discovered a need for heroes again (more on this theory in a later post), but also because the movies started to become respectful of the source material.  There's a reason that people gravitate to these stories in the first place, and previous iterations of super hero films tried to come at this source material from some new perspective, using movie writers.  I think that the more emphasis we put on the actual source material writers influencing the writing of the translation material, the better off we are.  So the fact that this Assassin's Creed movie has some strong influence from Ubisoft itself, that gives me hope. 

​I don't need a movie writer to translate the material that I already love into a movie story.  I also don't necessarily need a retelling of the story I already know.  That's what I kind of like about this Assassin's Creed movie.  There would be so much material, and so many choices that I made in the games to try and distill into one compiled story, that I feel like what I love about the games would get lost in the movie.  So this new take gives me hope.  If it works, I'm hopeful that we'll see other stories begin to translate across.  As with the other media translations out there, I love getting more content in different forms.  So I'd love to take advantage of this scenario with my favorite game stories too.  After all, what I show up for is a great story, regardless of the medium.

​Look forward to talking again later, please comment in the section below.  I'd love to have the interaction.  What's your favorite franchise translation?

All the best,
​- Steve


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Wrap Up and Looking Forward

5/10/2016

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We had a great time at Geek/Gaming and Health Day this past weekend!  We nearly doubled our successes from the last event, and look to make even more headway for the next one.  That date, by the way, is October 8th.  We're changing our location to accommodate some of the planned growth we're experiencing.  The new Con will be at the Ramada in Greensburg, which is up on the hill behind the Best Buy.  This will allow for some continued growth without changing locations, as they have several sizes of conference rooms.  Fingers crossed, as we're working out some plans that might lead to some pretty significant growth, so invite everyone you can to the October event!

​I'm beginning to do some work connecting with Twitch Streamers, as this has been a goal for this organization to take advantage of and connect with for some time now.  So if anyone knows anyone out there with Twitch, please let me know.

​On an unrelated note, Civil War premiered this past week.  I'm ashamed to say that I was so busy with all the last minute stuff that comes with event planning, that I wasn't able to make it out and see it.  I hear great things, and I expect nothing less from a Marvel movie.  However, at the risk of sounding like a social subclass that I don't self identify with, I did read the book.  Civil War was one of my favorite Marvel story arcs, and I'm really excited to see it play out in theatres.  It felt to me like a Marvel story that really brought a lot of the super hero story out of the standard 'good guys fight bad guys, earth shattering odds are overcome, bad guys are vanquished, good guys fight bad guys . . .' wash, rinse, and repeat.  Though there have been plenty of comic book stories that make us explore life and death, who our allies really are, what happens when our personal values are challenged, and more, Civil War was different for me.  The idea of really questioning why the heroes do what they do, dealing with ideas like who really deserves freedom, and is safety worth any sort of cost kept me turning pages.  There were some triumphant experiences, sad realizations, and powerful imagery and writing in those books.  I'm incredibly excited to see it play out on the screen.  I'll be checking back in after that.

​What about all of you? What were some of your favorite moments in comic books?  Did they end up on the silver or small screen?  How'd that pan out for you?

​Thanks for reading, and until next time,
All the best,
​- Steve


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Virtual Insanity

5/3/2016

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​​No matter where you look in the gaming world, I feel like there's a complete focus on virtual reality systems.  Now granted, having tried them out at some shows in recent years I can vouch for this, they're pretty awesome.  However, I'm wondering what this means for mainstream gaming culture.  I want to get the shameless promotion piece out of the way early, so. . . .

​WE WILL HAVE A VIRTUAL REALITY EXPERIENCE AT OUR GEEK/GAMING AND HEALTH DAY THIS WEEKEND, MAY 7TH AT THE COURTYARD MARRIOTT IN GREENSBURG!!!!!!!

​Now that I've got that out of the way, I want to go on with my thoughts.  I think that these virtual reality and augmented reality devices (like what you can find on the 3DS or in the previewed Microsoft Hololens, are really great, and an amazing feature that we can get to enjoy.  I'm hopeful that this doesn't become like 3D movies or even previous attempts at virtual reality.  I recall in the distant past, as a child of the '80s, things like the Nintendo Virtual Boy and the Sega Activator that promised to bring us into our virtual worlds.  3D movies were the way of the future even just a few years ago.  Then I felt the pressure of the 3D television, in order to bring this shift in technology into my own home.  Being more in control of my own finances now then I was at say 8 years old, I really thought about jumping into 3D, however, I quickly realized that this was a gimmick that I didn't NEED, even though I WANTED it.  I did fall in love with my Kinect when attached to my Xbox One, and though it's not NECESSARY, I do love the voice command features, and talking to my Xbox in general.  So I can't imagine not having this.  Indeed, talking to our devices is becoming more common, like Siri or Cortana on our phones, and now Amazon throwing their hat in this arena.  We're getting ever more connected and immersed in our technology.

So my musings on this blog are now turning to virtual reality.  I wonder if this is going to be yet another gimmick that eventually fades out, or if it will find its way into the mainstream and grow and flourish.  Really, only time will tell as this tech starts to find its way into the marketplace.  I also wonder what will happen with regard to our relationship to technology and virtual worlds.  I'll leave this document with just wonderings for now, but I'd love to see what everyone reading this thinks.  Where are we going with this?  Are you excited, or afraid (i.e. Skynet)?  What are some utilities that might exist with this technology?
​Definitely stop out at our Geek/Gaming and Health Event on Saturday, and try out the virtual reality experience!  We'll be glad to see you there.
All the best,
​Steve

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