Final Novel Blurb - Graphic Novel

Blurb: 
A young samurai named Nagamasa dares to end a war on his own by traversing pitch black forests filled with bandits and feral creatures.  During his journey to speak with the 4 Ancients, he is unwillingly aided by his perky sister, Midori, and utilizes the strength, fighting ability, and wisdom taught to him by their grandfather, Durara. Nagamasa's goal to speak to the 4 Ancients and learn more about the history of the world will not come as expected, as no one who has ever spoken to the Ancients has lived to tell the tale.

Themes:

How much would you sacrifice to protect the ones you love?

What about the ones you love will you remember when you can no longer see them?

What is "family"?

Expecting the unexpected can result in a more independent and inquisitive lifestyle.

Is the truth really worth searching for?

Characters:

Nagamasa - 22, male, 6'0", a Samurai with an athletic build, carries the katana his grandfather taught him how to fight with. When he is not training or exploring he is helping his grandfather fix up their family shrine.

Midori - 17, female, 5'6", Nagamasa's young and talkative sister. Against her grandfather's wishes, she wants to learn how to fight and protect her family like Nagamasa, though she is usually seen gardening or helping Durara with housework.

Durara - 72, male, 5'8", grandfather to both Nagamasa an Midori, homeschooled them from an early age since they live in the countryside (in an attempt to keep them out of the ear torn cities where their parents died). He is often seen teaching Nagamasa how to fight, or helping Midori around the house. Unbeknown to him Nagamasa has been teaching Midori how to fight as well…

Inputs - Capstone

For my next Capstone installment I realized that I should explain the origins of common attacks like fireballs and dragon punches.  These two attack motions have been the staple for nearly every fighting game that has ever been released since its debut in Street Fighter I in 1987.  I want use these same motions in my game since they are so widely used and they are what I grew up on, so in order for others to understand these motion I’ll go into detail explaining them.
                The fireball is known in Japanese as the “Hadouken”.  It literally translates to “Wave Motion Fist/Attack” as –ken means “attack” in Japanese, while “Hadou” describes the type of spirit energy being used.  The motion input for this move is (now keep in mind were playing on an arcade here, so it’s a joystick rather than a directional pad) quarter circle forward, and any of the (usually three) punch buttons.  Quarter circle forward would mean you start the joystick at a 6 o’clock position and swipe it to 3 o’clock position, travelling a fourth of the way around the “clock” that is the joystick. Another way of describing it is “Down, Down-Forward, Forward”, as if you were following written direction where to place the joystick. After this quick swipe if any punch button is pressed, a fireball will come out.  The reason why any punch button can be pressed is because of the light, medium, and heavy version of attacks like previously stated, each button would represent a different strength (usually with Light being on the left closest to the joystick).
                The dragon punch on the other hand is just as popular, but noticeably harder for beginners to do.  The dragon punch is known as the “Shoryuken” in Japanese, again with the suffix –ken meaning attack, and Shoryu meaning “Rising Fist”.  The shoyuken is a popular uppercut move that many characters have because uppercuts are notoriously safe moves with a lot of priority.  This move is inputted by moving the joystick: forward (to 3 o’clock position), down (to 6 o’clock), and then down-forward (to 4 o’clock), and then any punch.  To give a visual idea, you are making a letter “Z” where the top to points of the Z are neutral and 3 o’clock respectively.  Once you get the hang of it down it becomes a very easy command to do, and an important on at that due to its priority. 
                   These 2 motions are important because even though there’s only two different types of movements, they open up ways to do many different attacks with slight variations.  For example, there’s the Hadouken, the backward Hadouken (which is the same input in reverse, so quarter circle backward, or a swipe from 6 o’clock to 9 o’clock), the Shoryuken, and the backward Shoryuken.  Each of these four inputs can either be followed by a punch or a kick depending on the move, so that is 8 different combinations for moves right off the bat.  Most characters only have about 4-6 moves anyway, so not all of these inputs are even needed!  This prevents too much unnecessary repetitiveness and adds a realistic edge to the inputs.  If a character had a fireball attack that involved them kicking out a ball of flame instead of it coming out of their fist, their fireball input would be quarter circle forward, any Kick.  This customizability helps players remember moves easier and helps distinguish characters from each other because of their unique movesets.
                There are other inputs that are not as widely used, such as inputs for charge or grappling characters.  Charge characters do not use simple inputs such as quarter circle forward, but rather, they force the player the hold the joystick backward for a second, and then immediately press forward and any punch/kick.  This style of characters is more defensive, an usually relies on the opponent making a mistake an punishing them with a charged up move.  This same charge style input can be down from down to up, giving these characters only 4 types of inputs available outside of unorthodox inputs like mashing punch to send out a flurry of fists.
                The last moveset belongs to grapplers, and these inputs involve a lot of half circles rather than quarter circles.  A lot of these half circle moves are grabs that have very high priority, so the extra quarter of a distance to travel hinders the usefulness and priority to some of their attacks.  The attack may have more priority, but if the opponent can consistently throw out a fireball quicker than you can input a half circle, you’re going to have to rethink your strategy.   

-History of the Hadouken and Shoryuken are from Street Fighter: World Warrior Encyclopedia by Matt Moylan

A Wordpress Site - Advanced Internet Media

                Some of the most well known websites and blogs in the internet today are hosted by Wordpress.com.  The ease of use associated with this Content Management System sees popularity from novice web designers, but for these sites we get a look at what is truly capable with Wordpress’s features.  One such site is CNN.com, a popular news hosting site and blog that has been the go-to source of worldwide events for some people for years.  I know my whenever I visit my grandparents CNN is the only thing they ever have on, so for some people this is a program that they follow regularly and sometimes constantly.  Because of this their website needs to be easy to navigate, and know how to draw the reader in with the layout of their news coverage.
                I’m going to approach this from my grandparents’ perspective, and analyze why an average CNN viewer such as them could find comfort in the website due to its parallel to the television program. Upon first visiting the site, we are greeted by the signature red and white color theme that is associated with CNN, which is a nice way to introduce a reader to the website.  The Home page displays breaking news, which is a great organization tool because that is obviously what readers are going to be looking for most of the time.  Aside from Home there are two other pages highlighted in a darker red than the rest of them:  TV & Video and Trends.  TV & Video is a nice addition because for those who do not wish to read as much they can opt to just watch a segment to keep up in a similar way to them just watching the program.  I know this is probably what my grandparents would want to use, and they could easily find it sine it’s right next to the home button.  The next page, Trends, features not as popular news stories, but a wide selection.  For those who simply want to read any sort of news available this is another great starting point, and an obvious reason why it is bolded with these other two selections.
                The rest of the pages are laid out in a similar fashion to a newspaper or a magazine, with pages such as U.S. News, World News, Technology, Health, Politics, Travel, etc.  The farther towards the right we look the less serious the stories seem to be, with many of the last pages (like Travel) being slightly unnecessary to the average browser. Still, they include all of these options anyway to offer diversity to the reader, which for a news site Is a smart move.  Each one of these tabs gives a description of what kind of information the reader will find on each page simply by hovering over it, which I think is a great addition.  There is also a separate list of pages underneath of the main one for hot topics that have been searched recently.  Again, this is a way for readers to easily find what they are looking for at a glance.
                The Home page’s actual content involves large pictures with summaries of stories underneath rather than just displaying full stories.  This is a great way to draw people into the site rather than just being able to read everything at a glance.  This also prompts browsers of the site to actually explore the rest of the site as well, a way to get people to learn without even realizing it.  A glance leads to an exploration through this sight, and I think that is a very important quality to have in a webpage.  At a glance the material should be interesting and easy to navigate, but on the inside is where you can sort of persuade your reader into browsing the site further. 

Popularity of CMS - Comm 477

                Content Management Systems have seen an exponential increase in popularity as of late – and with good reason.  Content Management Systems have helped turned average citizens into novice web designers, and for the more serious have offered a way for adept web designers to easily and quickly create efficient working websites that please clients.  So just what exactly makes these Content Management Systems so effective and popular? 
                One of the main reasons why Content Management Systems are seeing more attention is their ability to organize a vast amount of resources.  According to http://www.essent.com, Content Management Systems can manage images (including GIF and JPG), audio (including MP3 & WAV), video (including .MOV and .WMV) Flash, Silverlight, HTML and other source files that would normally need to be handled separately.  With this in mind if you are working with a large staff –each working with a different type of file – they can all work simultaneously on the same site knowing that it will easily support everything at once.  But with all of these different types of files and actions going on there needs to be a way to easily manage all of this information in a way that makes sense, and that is another reason why CMS are growing popular.  Staying true to their name, Content Management Systems do a fantastic job of not only accepting diverse types of information but also organizing that information in a way completely unique to the users or designers.  This way everyone working on the site can upload their respective files onto the site and not worry about altering other peoples’ works, which can be a problem when trying to host a site from multiple servers when not using a CMS.
                Content Management Systems are easy to use, and because of their ease they are often utilized when a quick website needs to be created.  www.a3webtech.com explains that when using CMS it is just as easy to create a 1,000 page website as a 10 page website, and the only thing standing in your way is how you want it to look.  That part is relatively easy, with most CMS offering many default layouts to choose from for simple sites.  The ability to create pages rapidly is aided by the ability to make changes on multiple pages at once.  This way all of the data that is being added can all be updated as one unit instead of the author going in and changing every single page (reminds me of my time in Comm 352…)
                Content Management Systems are helping more and more people create websites and learn about web design every day.  The ease of most of these sites (like Wordpress for example) allows for even inexperienced users to create efficient websites that fill every needed role, making CMS an obvious choice for any company using webspace.          

Final Novel Ideas - Comm 343

                My expectations for my final novel project for Graphic Novel are to create a compelling story that uses minimalistic imagery.  After reading novels such as Maus and Essex County, I have come to realize that flashy, over-animated panels are not as important to conveying a story as I once believed.  Both of these novels are in black and white, and feature hand drawn characters that, despite their silly appearances, all do a fantastic job of expressing emotion on a human level.  We instantly sympathize with Lester in Essex County before we even discover his mother’s passing prior to the story.  His lonesome behavior and superhero attire suggests that he has a minute social life that is going unattended to by his uncle, his new guardian.  In Maus, even though all of the Jewish characters are portrayed by mice we are still able to feel the tension and sadness that goes into a story dealing with the Holocaust.  Making sure the characters can convey a message rather than relying on cool and flashy over the top artwork will prove to be what separates collegiate level work with that of a professional.

                My novel takes place in feudal Japan, during a time of roaming samurais working as swords for hire.  Our hero is a young male samurai in his early twenties that is in search of a way to end the ongoing war at hand and therefore keep his family (consisting of his younger sister and his grandfather) from becoming another casualty of war.  Whenever an individual prays for guidance one of 4 voices is heard.  This leads many to believe that there are four Gods (known as the Ancients) who are truly in control, and countless warriors have attempted to meet these Ancients face to face to ask them questions but none have lived to tell the tale.  The story will pick up with our hero already very close to the dwelling when his younger sister chases him down to join him and aid him in battle.  He is reluctant since he has only begun teaching her how to fight, but he is seemingly at ease knowing that he can keep his watchful eye on her.  When they finally meet the Ancients they will discover a secret that has escaped everyone in their attempt to know the truth; however, the truth about the Ancients may cause even more problems for our hero.
                To essentially spoil the ending, our heroes discover that the Ancients are really just one cloaked figure with 4 different rotating masks, each one with a different personality and a different type of advice to give.  When it’s true form has been discovered, the Ancient replies with anger and violence.  The story will end with our hero destroying the Ancient, and therefore the source of answered prayers for the world.  With this lack of a religious deity to fight for the war, many stop fighting as a reaction to their unanswered prayers and concerns about their family, and instead simply go home to be with them.
                The themes present are about family and nonconformity.  For many people who do not have the answers to the world for themselves, they rely on others to give them this information.  If this “other” is some type of religious figure, then your decisions will be skewed by what you are told is right and wrong rather than using your gut to tell you how you truly feel about a situation.  This is a generalization I understand, but this voice of reason is why many individuals choose to fight for what they think they believe in.  My novel will explore themes of individualism while breaking away from conformist roles that society would pressure us into performing, knowing that at the end of the day it is better to please yourself and those you love rather than the world who would probably not do the same for you.

Balancing Defense - Capstone

                Following Jesse Schell’s novel The Art of Game Design once again I have learned more and more about balancing mechanics that I would like to see present in my game.  One of the other more interesting aspects of balance is “punishment” – penalizing the player for making a wrong choice.  At a glance this seems counterproductive, wouldn't we want our players to have constant positive feedback while playing?  The answer is no, and surprisingly being punished while playing a game can make the situation more intense because you as a player are aware that you should be learning the entire time you’re playing.  In fighting games, since each character has a health bar and takes multiple hits to knock out, the ENTIRETY of a fighting game consists of punishing mistakes, which is why I believe fighting games are some of the best genre-wise in developing motor skills as well as thinking improvisationally. 
                Punishment in fighting games specifically increases the challenge for smarter players, as reaction time is crucial to being a successful fighting game player.  Increasing the punishment in relation to a minor or major failure is also a key element because you would not want to punish someone too severely for their mistakes, especially if they are still learning.  Unfortunately most fighting games have a steeper learning curve than most other games, as playing against the computer and a human have completely different feels and strategies associated with each. 
                The punishment factor in fighting games is usually always the same: two people are fighting, one person throws a punch, the punch connects and they must decide which order of operation to continue attacking with, while the opponent (who was punished by being hit) must think defensively of how they can get out of this situation.  Another example is: two people are fighting, one person throws a punch, the punch misses (or “whiffs” the opponent) and they are subject to punishment as they essentially chose the wrong move to do in that scenario, technically speaking.  This gives the opponent a chance to punish the attacker with a move of their own, and their offense becomes the same as previously stated.
                  In fighting games it is common knowledge that being on the offensive is easier than blocking a string of attacks, and for that reason I would add 2 distinct features that could help with players defensively: Burst and Parry.  Burst is a command usually activated by pressing all of the face buttons on the controller or fight pad, activating a “burst” of energy that completely frees you from any attack while simultaneously pushing the attacking opponent across the screen. This burst is limited to usually one per battle, and I cannot think of a better tool for defense that is accessible to any playing ability.  It’s like the perfect panic button.  Your instinct when panicking would be to press as many buttons as possible, and that is why this input works so well, just press all of them!  The burst is instant and completely resets the current fighting stage spatially, which gives you more time to think without the enemy just bullying you.
                The other defensive maneuver, Parrying, is a much more difficult to achieve action but yields a much better reward: complete invincibility.  In Street Fighter 3, a new feature was added where you could potentially parry any attack (or string of attacks) by simply pressing forward as soon as you get hit.  While this seems simple, it is one of the most difficult defensive maneuvers to master.  That being said it has easier capabilities.  Pressing forward puts you completely open to the enemy’s attack, so unless your timing is spot on, you’re gonna get hit.  However with good timing an experienced player could potentially block every attack thrown at him or her, but this is highly improbable.  It’s usefulness can be more easily attributed to surviving in a zoning war (a scenario where both opponents constantly throw fireballs at each other)  Since fireballs are usually a single striking move that travels forward at a set rate, it is relatively easy with little training to deflect fireballs consistently.  This instantly levels the playing field for characters without fireballs, and forces those with them not to rely on them.
                My next field of study is how I plan on using “super meter” for the fighting style I want.  But a good place to start is by clarifying in further detail just how important (to me at least) super meter is.  

Balancing Offense - Capstone

                                     In an effort to further my knowledge of balancing and mechanics, I have read even more of Jesse Schell’s novel, The Art of Game Design to get an idea of how these balances should be implemented.  An aspect of balance I had never thought about was the “risk versus reward”  factor:  moments during gameplay that offer little risk yield little reward, and therefore actions that involve high risk would yield a high reward.  A way to implement this is by creating a light, medium, and heavy version of each attack, all with minor changes.

                                An example of this is a move common to fighting games: the command grab.  A command grab is an input that certain characters can perform while directly next to an opponent.  If the grab connects (aided by the ability to go through an opponent’s guard because of its grab status) a decent amount of damage can be dealt.  But with light, medium, and heavy versions of attacks, we can add variety to each attack by offering the player 3 different versions to choose from.  The light version would deal the least amount of damage if it connects, but it would activate the fastest.  It also has the shortest reach, meaning you would have to be right up next to your opponent to activate it.  The heavy version on the other hand is the opposite:  deals the most amount of damage if it connects, has great range, but activates slower.  This means that if the opponent were to throw out a move at the same time as his command grab, the opponent’s attack has a better chance of breaking through because of the lower priority of the heavy command grab.  The medium version is a nice balance of the two for safer players.
                                Another addition to this strategy of multiple versions of attacks is allowing the player to use their a portion of their “hyper meter” (or whatever meter is being used to display special attack energy) in order to power up a normal attack to have essentially the “best” combination of effects.  Using the command grab as an example again, this powered up command grab utilizing a bit of hyper meter might have the damage of the medium version, the range of the heavy version, and the priority of the light version.  This means that the attack is better in every way, taking the better aspects of each version in order to make the “best” version of the attack.  It is up to the player to choose which one of these to use depending on the situation.  It also adds more depth to the fighting because even if a character has four attacks, if they have four different version of each attack then they can stand a fighting chance.  Sometimes the hyper meter versions of moves have effects like projectile invincibility, or home in on an opponent if the attack is a diving kick for example.
                                In my quest for obtaining balance the next topic I need to research is defense.  As a constant reminder from Schell, keeping both players on a level playing field is ideal, so I must find a way to level the playing field even when two polar opposite characters are fighting.  A lot of fighting game rosters suffer from “bad matchups”, where certain characters are just plain not good against others.  Hopefully the combination of defensive and offensive tactics implemented will combat this dilemma. 

Types of Frames - Comm 343

 In the graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegleman, a tale of survival is presented to us in the form of a father's storytelling.  The artistic style of this novel feels very hand drawn and written, and the frames for the most part are always neatly in squares.  The large connection between all of these frames come in a variety of forms in order to successfully tell his tale.  According to Scott McCloud's novel Understanding Comics, there are six main types of panel-to-panel transitions found in comics.  In Maus, I have identified at least four different types used.  The transitions used usually always follow the same pattern, which I will identify!

#1 Moment to Moment

Moment to Moment #1 - most of the scenes where the father and son are talking feature this very  subtle transition.
Since the father an son are talking in a normal speaking voice with no huge action taking place, the changes are small.

Moment to Moment #2 - Again, the father and son talking with little differences in each panel.

Moment to Moment #3 - The father continues to tell his story with small transitions in the panels.

#2 Scene to Scene

Scene to Scene #1 - When the father's storytelling starts to envelop the scene and we start a flashback, a scene to scene transition is used.  Since this entire story consists of flashbacks through storytelling, we see this transition used a lot as well.

Scene to Scene #2 - Where the first three panels make up a Moment to Moment transition, once the flashback is the main point of the stor again we quickly travel through time as a reader.

     
#3 Action to Action

Action to Action #1 - We move quickly through these scenes using the action to action transition in order to make the stories faster and more fluid 

Action to Action #2 - again, the scenes move faster  with the action to action transition.

#4 Subject to Subject

In moments of high stress we see the subject to subject transition used, as it can easily bounce from person to person in  order to give an idea of what everyone is going through.

Spiegleman utilizes mostly the Moment to Moment, Scene to Scene, and Action to Action transitions in the same type of way throughout the entire comic.  This is not necessarily a bad thing as the familiar setting becomes easy to read as the story becomes more involved and intense.  It also keeps the moments of flashback and present tense separate in order to make the story easier to follow along with as well.  I have definitely come to realize that more is not always better if you're following a theme, this can make your work flow better and have a concrete pattern that is easy to follow whether you realize it or not.  We pick up on patterns easily as humans and this has been an application that has inspired me this semester, along with the importance of simplicity.

3 Novels - Comm 343

            The three novels I have chosen to read for class are The Sandman Vol. 1 by Neil Gaiman , X’ed Out by Charles Burns, and Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel.  I chose each graphic novel for different reasons after doing a bit of research about each of them to find their summaries.  I feel that each graphic novel will assist me in my writing and creative process.
                The first novel I chose, The Sandman Vol. 1, is a New York Times best seller from a widely acclaimed writer.  I chose this in part for its popularity (having never read many American comics before like Watchmen or the Batman series, American comics are still somewhat novel to me) because I will be able to pick up on ideas and aspects of a successful comic that has had positive reviews.  Since graphic novels are such a diverse form of literature, being able to see what makes one so widely accepted and praised will be a good starting point on learning how to make my graphic novel more accessible to all audiences.  In all, I mostly picked this comic so I can see for myself what truly makes what critics would agree is a “best selling” graphic novel.
                The second novel I chose is X’ed Out.  From the little research I did (mostly consisting of looking up summaries that did not spoil any story for me), I came to find that this novel features “adolescence taking drugs and performing risky behavior”, which sounds like an interesting topic in itself.  As a young adult living in a liberal day and age it will be interesting to see an artistic take on these types of actions and use of drugs.  One reviewer commented that this novel was “similar to other works by Burns, but with more hallucinogenic scenes”.  I am very interested to see this art portrayed, and how he interprets the altered mind on paper.
                The last novel I chose, Fun House: A Family Tragicomic is actually an autobiography of sorts from the author Alison Bechdel.  The “fun house” is short for the funeral home that her father worked at, and this story tells of a young daughter living with her distant father and her inner struggle with her sexuality.  As a lover of sociology I am extremely interested in the roles of the family, and in particular dysfunctional families.  This will be a great insight on the communication between characters in a novel, as I am sure that there will be many heartfelt moments and inspiring scenes.  This will truly be a comic that will make me think on an emotional level, which I feel is a nice compliment to the reasons I chose the other two.

Balancing Mechanics - Comm 461

              Aside from the creative aspects of my game (which come flowing naturally like a golden river of honey), I have been very interested in learning how to make my game as balanced as possible.  A common critique of older fighting games (and even some of the more complex fighting games we see today) is that there is a complete lack of balance.  Some games like Marvel vs. Capcom 2 have been revolutionary in the sense that they offered over fifty playable characters.  Even though this game is over ten years old, a roster that size is unheard of even by today’s standards.  Although it grants the players the widest selection of playable characters, it also creates countless difficulties when it comes to actual gameplay.   Even though there are over fifty characters, only maybe twenty of them are “worth using” because their frames, hitboxes, and priorities are just simply better than others.  For example, having a giant robot as blatantly the most powerful character in the game has been a common theme of these older fighters.  It just seems…unimpressive.  I want a level playing field where fire-ninjas are going up against crystal Goddesses, and the battle could always go either way depending on the player’s actual playing skill.  I have taken ideas from some of my favorite games to implement this.
                In Jesse Schell’s book The Art of Game Design, he spends an entire chapter on balance and game mechanics, many of which I intend to utilize in my design.  The first is symmetry, making the playing field even for both players.  This means always giving each player the same “materials” to each have at their disposal when the round starts.  Tools such as “Burst” and “Parrying” have been tools implemented by fighting game designers to give skilled players an advantage despite what character they are playing as.  Burst frees you completely from an opponent’s assault (which is a refillable gauge used by each player) and parrying can completely negate an opponent’s attack with precise timing.  This way a player can concentrate on playing a character that they actually like rather than a character they know is just plain good.
                Another need for balance lies in the difficulty in the game itself.  I find that most retro fighting game creation was not tested as thoroughly with professional players as necessary.  Way too often in modern day fighting games a professional player can quickly find and exploit any unbalance in a particular character, and these game-changers usually are not discovered until months after the game’s release.  This calls for updates, patches, or even re-releasing games which has caused fan appreciation to drop heavily for companies like Capcom.  I would intend to have the game tested heavily and thoroughly by players of all skill styles.  It would be interesting to see if there is a trend in the type of character selected by each type of gamer (from casual to professional).  From there, we would be able to determine if a certain character is too “hard” to play as, or just simply mechanically difficult to use (to a point where the player would have no control over the difficulty).
                All of the balancing issues ten to be resolved by extensive testing, which companies usually cut short due to release dates being so strict.  I will further look into what other options or aspects I can add into my game in order to make it enjoyable for all ages and skills to enjoy. 

See Em Es - Comm 447

                Content Management Systems allow for us as web designers to create consistent series of text that is easily manageable.  This technology is also used in blog websites in order to make the blogging experience more streamlined in its pursuit of simplistic information and communication. Utilizing a Content Management System allows for the creator of a site of a blog to focus less on the design process or extensive coding that may take hours of time an effort that could otherwise be spent on actually working on content, so using these systems can be very helpful and not to be frowned upon for being a “shortcut” by any means.
                According to Web Design Land (conveniently hosted by Wordpress), one of the most important aspects of Content Management Systems are their affordability.  Most of these hosting sites offer their services for a relatively cheap cost considering the time that could be speculated to be saved – especially if you do not know where to begin.  For those that simply want to present information or text, this can be a fast way to get started effectively with little problem.  Another way to combat the cost of signing up with one of these CMS is realizing that most of these systems allow for easy customizability of your site at your fingertips.  This cuts out the need for a web developer, and thus an entire extra person entirely. 
                ShiftCMS gives similar praise to these systems.  Since it is so easy to change the layout of your site, you can constantly and easily update the same information for years to come and keep it fresh.  They compared it to a billboard that you can constantly update to meet the chaning desires and needs of your audience.
                SMS really does allow for more freedom while editing a site.  With a site that’s easy to manage the creators have the liberty to edit what’s truly important more frequently.  Not that the layout and design are not important, but the content is what the viewer is looking for at the end of the day, and CMS ensure that you will have one less thing to worry about.

Understanding Maus - Comm 343

Both Maus and Understanding Comics have done a fantastic job of illuminating basic and universal elements of comics.  One of my favorite topics brought up by Scott McCloud in Understanding Comics is the simplicity of the human face as an icon.  We need such a little comparison to the human face in order to make a connection, and he was able to explain this concept very intelligently.  The example he gave where you draw a series of blobs an then simply add dots for eyes also put into perspective just how easy it is to personify inanimate objects that have only a loose representation of a face – because it is what we want to see.
                I noticed this simplistic face mechanic was used in Maus to make these mice more believable as a substitute for humans.  They walk upright and wear clothes yes, but it takes more than that to sympathize with a drawing.  It takes emotion.  What really astonishes me about the artwork in Maus is the facial expressions that are present, no matter how simplistic they may be, all successfully portray their respective emotions.  The simple chancing of the eyes from a dot to a “ ^ “ shape is enough to express joy.  At moments during the story when Anja was depressed, she had dark lines running along her face that make her seem worried, stressed, and ill.  Again, a simple addition of lines to the face can change what we perceive as a noticeably different emotion. 
                The final interesting piece of information I found in McClouds book was the information of the hieroglyphics.  Considering ancient Egyptian writings as “comics” never dawned on me until I read the definition he provided.  Again, their style is the essence of simplicity, at times not even requiring text an just letting pictures do the talking.  But what’s important is that right from early times we realized that sequential images really do work as a means of communication.  This is easily seen in man instruction manuals – tiny black and white images that show a three or four step process that requires no text to any audience. 
                If it’s anything I’ve learned so far is how simplicity is not to be underrated or underestimated.  We as humans see what he want to see in imagery, and I just need to use that to my advantage.

Capstone Expectations - Comm 461

     My capstone project is an idea that has been floating around my head for the past two years or so of my college career.  I am going to create an entire design spread for a conceptual fighting game I have been working on as just a "fun side project".  It's going to feel great to actually make this idea into a concrete an tangible creation.
     My biggest goal is to create a great story that envelopes all of the characters in some way.  There will be a narrative attached to the game, and all of the characters (24 of them I believe) will have a role in the story progression that forces them to interact with one another.  The characters themselves will all have specific personalities, abilities, and goals that set each of apart from another.  There won't be any "palette swap" characters that have the same moves just in different clothing, as I detest this in fighting games.  As a lover of the fighting game genre since I was a young teen, I will be able to take all of the things I have liked and disliked about the games I have played over the years in order to create a game that I think could actually work.
     The characters I have created are all based off of my friends, with some of the characters' careers or abilities being completely parallel to the individual they are based off of.  For example, the character Myriah is an archaeologist that fights with two pickaxes and is outfitted in the beige uniform worn by these scientists while they are out in the field.  This is based off of my friend Jennifer who is studying History here at Shepherd, and her dream of one day being a field archaeologist.  Other inspiration for characters via my friends sometimes come from personal moments or inside jokes that can be made into reality.  My friend Travis is being portrayed by a ninja style character with a Tiger motif - inspired by this gigantic painting of a tiger that he considered his prized possession for a while (which never ceased to make me laugh).  Since my friends are the inspiration for these characters, I also want as many of them as possible to do the voices for the characters as well.  This will include taunts, pre and post match quotes, and in battle quotes that include grunts for when the character takes damage or yells an attack.  I literally want there to be a sound test available to the viewers when they see this project, because voice is such an important factor when it comes to characters in video games nowadays.  It also creates the diversity I'm looking for in my characters.
     Along with characters and story I am going to include stages, game options and settings, and ideas for online support and play.  I literally want to do as much as I can creatively for this game without actually being able to make it.  This is going to be a lengthy process, but I remember Monica mentioning that this project should be fun, and now that I see this becoming a reality this will definitely be one of the most exciting things I have ever done.

Dreamweavin' - Comm 447

               After using Dreamweaver last semester, I must say that I found editing and utilizing HTML to be not as difficult as I initially thought it would be.  Upon first using this program I was reminded of my eighth grade career of editing layouts for my Myspace page.  All of the silly codes like “a href” or “img src” came rushing back to me as I realized that this was something I had actually taught myself a long time ago and just never really knew what I was accomplishing.  This made diving into these procedures relatively easy to follow (“always close your doors”, for example).  With this knowledge I was able to make it through Comm 352 with virtually no serious problems, and the entire class was relatively painless.  It was nice to experience something so meticulous that could lead to such simple results.
               After what we learned today in class, however, I realize that there is still much for me to learn!  Having only inserted codes manually to every page in Comm 352, I’ve become used to this tedious way of writing.  It’s surprising that using these shortcuts like templates, widgets, and…sprys(?) were available to me all along and I went without them, making learning them now incredibly useful, but hard to learn.  You would think that learning a shortcut after knowing a program would make it easier to use, but in actuality I keep looking for the old way of doing things.  I definitely enjoy using Dreamweaver, and since this is the only HTML coding program I’ve ever used I would like to be very fluent in all of its components in my career. 
               I think this class will help me understand both the difficult and easy to use components of Dreamweaver, and if anything my coding should only get faster with more practice and knowledge of these shortcuts.  It is just surprisingly tricky to learn an “easier” route to a code after learning the long, manual version.