Fanime: Draw the Line at Waiting

Before anyone asks for pictures...I didn't take any. I attend Fanime in San Jose with two of my friends. I have never been to an anime related convention. I have been to Wondercon and GDC, but those are a bit different. From what I understand, Fanime is run by and made for fans, hence the name; this could explain their tedious registration process. Had I known that when I arrived at 11:30am I would have waited in line for four and a half hours, I would have registered ahead of time and done a pick up, because that was the longest line I have waited in. Who thought it was a good idea to only have one registration station with about twenty computers when that many people attend? I guess that's why it is run by and for fans. First world problems...

After the grueling wait, we emptied our bowels, grabbed food, and took a few minutes to sit and eat. Next we perused the dealers floor, which was pretty cool. I really enjoyed the atmosphere; very friendly and low key. The artist floor had just a bunch of people who did fan art probably from deviantART. I didn't buy anything, but my giant robot obsessed friend did; not gonna say how much he spent on models.

Of course there were a lot of cosplayers, one of the funniest being Ashy Larry from Chappelle's Show and one of the coolest being a female troll from World of Warcraft. I saw way too many Black Butler and Hetalia (I watched this show on Netflix with a friend and I will probably say this more than once on this blog: WTF Japan Seriously?) cosplayers to count. Anime is hard to keep up with for me, mostly because I am tired of being disappointed with how few writers seem to know how to do a proper ending. I might delve back into some and I am open to suggestions for finished anime with solid endings... That's a difficult task.

Overall it was worth the long wait, even if we did not do any panels, but in our defense, none of the panels were really appealing. I might go again next time, but will register. Anime Expo sounded a lot more intriguing just because of the power behind it; could do some networking down there. I won't be at this year's AX, but I will plan on making a road trip to the next.

I leave you with this...

Diablo III and 1,000 Ways to Kill Haedrig's Wife

I cleared Diablo III on Hell and took a few minutes to see how difficult Inferno really is. Now that I have done that, I hope it will sate me enough so I can focus on story four this weekend. As much as I like the game, I felt like something was missing and although I did one playthrough of Diablo II, there were things that stuck out to me that were clearly missing from Diablo II. This video made me realize what is was I was thinking about. It still doesn't explain how Deckard Cain carried so many fucking satchels and managed to lose every last one.

I will be taking Saturday to hang out with a friend and go to Fanime in San Jose; should be interesting since I have never gone before. I will mock cosplayers quietly to myself and friends if they are hilariously awful; Sailor Moon does not weigh 235 lbs and smell like boiled hot dogs. I will praise good cosplay though...

I don't actually have 1,000 ways to kill Haedrig's wife, but here's a few:
Pummeled with jars of spiders
Crushed with a corpse
Frost
Fire
Exploding armor
Zombie dogs
Cleaved
Run over by a zombie

Pay Off

So I just finished Mass Effect 3 and to any gamer, this series is a must play, solid. I did a few playthroughs of the first two games and got a lot of enjoyment out nearly ever aspect: the game play, the story, the characters, the music, the visuals, the lore...it goes on.

I have loved nearly every game BioWare has put on the shelf and even the games that weren't so awesome, were still good. They know how to do RPGs.

With all that said, though, my endorsement aside... I will join the majority of people I have talked to so far by saying this about the ending of Mass Effect 3: Are you kidding me?

Now, to avoid spoiling it the game for any potential readers, I am sure all two of you have played it, I will dodge revealing content.

There was a whole lot of build up for this series, a whole lot. You end up overcoming insane odds with a rag tag crew of aliens, humans, and synthetics in countless nearly unwinnable scenarios. Each Mass Effect leaves you thirsty for more...except this one. I could rant about this all day or the pretentious philosophical bullshit tacked on, which as a writer I could feel being telegraphed about halfway through. I could rant about the post credit DLC advertisement. I could rant about the post credit cut scene that feels like a band aid on a bullet wound. It was almost as bad as the Knights of the Old Republic II ending, which was actually not done by BioWare, but Obsidian who were not really at fault; Lucas Arts made them rush it... I digress. I'm not going to rant about one game's ending.

However, I would like to point out a trend of Epic Fails in storytelling. Not every ending has to be a Hollywood ending, look at anything directed by the Coen brothers; great work, not always happy. Closure, a pay off...

I'll keep this short by listing potentially great stories that ultimately fall short because of their last act:

The Dark Tower - I have distanced myself from Stephen King books because of his saturation of dramirony (Dramatic Irony) in stories, but this was last straw
Heroes Season 1 - Started off decent, jumped the shark near the end and yet I was hopeful enough to comeback for season 2...which was awful
Mass Effect - Explained above
Knights of the Old Republic - That second game was rushed because Lucas Arts wanted it out by the holidays
Dead Island - Fast forward to final encounter where you first encounter and defeat the villain
Borderlands - This one I will be forgiving on, but also at the same time be annoyed because they fixed the abrupt ending with DLC, that you had to pay for, but was worth every dollar
Most Anime - I think the majority of writers in Japan either hate their viewers or are killed off near the end of their series and replaced
Most Movies - This is an entry for another time...

I could go on, but I feel it is time for some audience participation. Add your own story that falls shorts, but please don't give away the story if the story itself is worth it despite the finale...