John Bullock

CFMP #6 – Now With Added Estrogen

John Bullock — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 22:50:03 +0000

It’s podcast time! Your favourite Minecraft Podcast is back, and we’ve brought the women! Well, one woman, to be precise. Andias steals the intro in a podcast where we talk about what games/events we’d like to see in Minecraft, try to work out what to get the donator who has everything (if they win a competition), and get real deep and mature about the topic of multiplayer age restrictions.

Once again, we’re without Kahr and Sekoj, so joining Qotsa and I for the milestonian sixth show is Andias, Stevetaz, BlockosaurusRx, Oldmanrob, and Shadoxkiller. Big thanks to all of them.

Linky Links

As always, if you’re able, leave a positive review on iTunes. The more good reviews we get, the better listings we get, and the more listeners from outside of the server we can attract.

If you missed it, podcast guests will not be regular. Unless we announce otherwise, the podcast is recorded on Saturday nights at around 10pm. If you want to be on the podcast, be on Teamspeak between 9 and 11pm on Saturday. And many thanks to this weeks guests.

Remade [www.amwriting.org]

John Bullock — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:37:06 +0000

“It burns!” a voice yelled, distant and muffled. “Stop, please.”

The voice sounded familiar, but Sarah couldn’t place it. She was dimly aware that the owner of the voice was in some distress, and that it should matter to her. In some way that she couldn’t fathom, the voice was important to her. She tried to focus on it, but concentrating was like trying to hold water in a sieve. She felt relieved when the voice receded, to be replaced by an oppressive silence and thick, velvety blackness that filled her world.

Sarah stared in confusion at a familiar scene. Of course it was familiar; it’s hard to forget the first time your heart breaks. She knew, of course, that time and experience would beat that soft, sentimental way of thinking out of her, but now, in this moment, she could feel all those raw emotions as clearly and as painfully as though she were reliving them, which, in a way, she was.

She watched herself in that strange way only a dream can allow, as both the watcher and the watched. She was on her way to meet Rob, the love of young life. It had been the kind of romance where the adults in her life had gone out of their way to repeatedly warn her that young love didn’t last. She had, of course, remained defiant. The adults hadn’t understood. No, that was wrong. That was sixteen year old Sarah thinking. She knew now that the adults had been right. Sarah struggled to right her perspective. Every time she started to lose focus, she would fall into her younger self. Start to be her younger self. She fought to remain her disembodied and life experienced self, for she knew what was coming, and she had no wish to relive it in person. Young Sarah turned a corner and stepped into the indoor basketball court.

And froze.

Rob was kissing Jennifer Conlen. Ice crept up Sarah’s spine, freezing her nerves and rendering her unable to move as she watched their hands roam over each other. She wanted to scream at Rob. She wanted to rake her finger nails down Jennifer Conlen’s face and tear out her eyes. All she could manage, however, was a pathetic little squeak that escaped her mouth involuntarily. She still cringed at the thought of that squeak. It was the noise of a meek little creature. It was the noise of prey. She’d never made that noise again.

She forced herself out of young Sarah.

The screaming was back, if it had ever really gone. Sarah became aware of figures around her, though they were little more than blurry shapes. They were speaking but their words were no clearer than their faces. “Stop!” the familiar voice yelled again. Sarah still had the feeling that the voice should be important, but her addled brain had no idea why. She became aware of a slow drawn-out cracking sound. It had a sickening fleshy quality to it, and, though she didn’t know why, it filled Sarah with dread.

So much so that she was almost grateful when the darkness returned.

She was twenty four, and pregnant.

Again she half watched, half experienced herself staring in horror at the blue line of the test in her trembling hand. Since the phage had wiped out most of the human population, abortion had been made illegal, but a pregnancy at this stage of her career would effectively end it. Enforcer’s are put through the most rigorous training of any government profession. So rigorous, in fact, that no expecting woman would be allowed to participate.

No, she was doing it again. This wasn’t happening now, this had already happened, it was a memory. It seemed trivial, now, but Sarah could remember the feeling that her world was ending. She couldn’t abort the pregnancy, she couldn’t continue training while pregnant, and she would be too old to resume training after the birth. She had spent months berating herself for not being careful enough.

When the baby had miscarried, Sarah had been suspected of mistreating herself on purpose and, as a result, being responsible for the miscarriage. It had been the darkest time of her life, but she’d been cleared of negligence, and was able to resume Enforcer training just before the cut-off age of twenty five. It all seemed so… dramatic in hindsight.

As the world began to melt away, Sarah wondered what her life would have been like if shehad given birth. Would she have kept the baby, or handed it off to the government? She had never been particularly maternal, but there would have been little else left for her, and mothers held a special kind of status in society.

She imagined herself as a proud mother, as pain returned.

The screaming returned, louder and clearer. Sarah became aware of a pain in her ears and throat, as though the screaming was so loud it caused her whole head to ache. There were other pains, too, and though they were more akin to a dull ache than a searing pain, they had a flowing quality about them, like the first mild surge of the tide washing over your feet, before the tidal wave hits. The pain intensified, and Sarah felt the blackness returning. As it closed in around her, swallowing the world and all that was in it, Sarah just had time to realise, with growing terror, why the scream was so familiar.

It was hers!

‘You gave us quite a scare, Miss Chapman.’ said a voice from beyond Sarah’s eyelids.

‘What?’ said Sarah, wincing at the pain in her throat and wondering at the hoarseness in her voice. She didn’t how long she’d been out, but something told her it was days, if not weeks.

‘We’re still not sure what they hit you with,’ the voice continued, ‘but your life took some saving, let me tell you.’

Sarah forced her eyes open. The light was blinding, and it felt like a lightning storm had erupted behind her eyeballs. The figure beside her continued talking, only now there was worry in his voice.

‘We had to make some… changes, Sarah. No, don’t try to sit up.’

‘What … changes?’ Sarah half said, half groaned.

Her hand moved of its own volition, resting on her chest, and the shallow protrusion of a foreign object in her chest.

‘What are you talking about?’ she said with a frantic urgency.

A strange face appeared before Sarah, and it took a moment for her to realise it was her own reflected in a mirror

‘Technically, Miss Chapman,’ the man continued, ‘you are now more machine than human.’

In the mirror, two eyes stared back from a face that had an unnatural smoothness to it. One eye the natural blue that Sarah had had her entire life, sat in contrast to the other eye, glassy and dead. Both stared back at Sarah as her mind raced, trying to take in the situation. As her emotions began to overwhelm her, she tried to speak, but the only thing that escaped her lips before the blackness closed in once more, was a pathetic little squeak.

CFMP #5 – We’re Hacked Off

John Bullock — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 15:58:40 +0000

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Well, despite recording on Saturday 14th, it seems we didn’t escape Friday’s bad luck. In a podcast fraught with missing hosts and technical problems, we (somehow) managed to put together our longest show yet.

We cover a bit of news, drool over the new CFUK server hardware, and talk about spawn rules, new worlds and Disney Land! Joining Qotsa and I for this Frankensteinian affair was Ohanlon7, Shadoxkiller, Stevetaz, Oldmanrob, and Naske5.

Linky Links

Once again, if you’re able, leave some positive reviewage on iTunes. The more good reviews we get, the better listings we get. The podcast has nearly been downloaded 1,000 times (over all the shows), which means we’re either getting a decent amount of listeners from outside CFUK, or you’re all downloading it over and over. Either way, leave those reviews.

And a big thanks to our special guests on this show.

Except Oldmanrob.

Amazing Times [www.geekti.me]

John Bullock — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:07:24 +0000

Back in the 1900s when I was but a child, I harboured vague dreams of going to the stars. The Space Race was long gone by the time I came into the world, and America was already on the path to shunning it’s former moon walking glory (not the Jackson kind), but enough residual wonderment from the days of Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins was floating around to influence child-me.

Of course, I quickly realised that the chances of getting on a space shuttle for a British child of average intelligence, fitness and work ethic, were next to none. That added to the fact that I was born over a decade after the last manned Moon mission, and there seemed no burning desire to go back there, my thoughts of space travel were relegated from aspirational dreams to daydreams and, ultimately, turned into fiction writing.

Still, that was back in the dark ages of the 1980s and 1990s.

I’m constantly amazed by the promise of technology in this day and age. It seems like every advancement humanity makes in one field or another, is a big step on the road to yesterdays Science Fiction. 3D Printers, Quantum Computers, Augmented Reality. Heck, even tattoos that vibrate when you get a phone call; it’s all amazing stuff, and it all carries with it the promise of more amazing things to come.

Now, scientific breakthroughs are not something you can buy. You can’t just say, “I want a Faster-Than-Light Space Vessel, here’s my cheque book, go to it!”, and expect to have one built in your lifetime. Breakthroughs often happen by accident, but I feel there is a yardstick by which we can accurately judge our technological progress as a species. That yardstick?

Crazy Rich People!

When you hear stories like Richard Branson buying his own island, it’s easy to shrug it off as the kind of thing a very rich person would do, and in today’s world of ubiquitous news coverage, we hear about this kind of thing more and more. Worse still, it has desensitised us to the outrageousness of it all. I mean, seriously, Richard Branson own his own island!

For this reason, I believe we’re not giving certain Crazy Rich People’s exploits the awe and wonderment that they deserve. For example, Two and a Half Men star, Ashton Kutcher, has booked his seat on a future Virgin Galactic flight.

That’s the one that goes to space!

Most of us dismiss this as something a Crazy Rich Person does because their bank is complaining about the stress all their money is putting on the vaults, but think about this for a moment. With enough money, anyone can go into space. No years of dedication, no aptitude tests or gruelling physical training. Just cash. And the cool thing about what money can buy, is that it generally gets cheaper over time. What costs a quarter of a million dollars today might cost a few thousand dollars in ten years time.

Let’s look at another one.

James Cameron, director of such well known films as Titanic and Avatar, took a trip to the bottom of the ocean. For fun! He took a one-man submarine to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. To put some perspective on that, the Mariana Trench is deeper than Mount Everest is tall. Successful and rich Cameron took it upon himself to go and find out what’s down there.

Nothing much, as it turns out.

Still, I implore you once again, don’t write this off as the actions of a Crazy Rich Person just trying to remove some zeroes from his bank account, thus making his monthly statement small enough to fit through the letterbox and think no more about it. Instead, consider the fact that a man with no related expertise can, with enough money, take a trip to one of the deepest parts of the ocean just for the heck of it.

Still not convinced? Well James Cameron isn’t the only one paddling around in the waters. Jeff Bezos, founder of a little website you may have heard of called Amazon, has found the discarded launch engines of Apollo 11. That’s right, the one that went to the moon first. He now plans to hoist them up out of the water like the proverbial Atlantic. Just. Because. He. Can.

We truly live in incredible times. For most of the people reading this article, we live in a country where it is in our own power to make our own fortune. And, in today’s world, our fortune is all we need to make crazy stuff happen.

Here’s a thought to leave you with. Elon Musk, founder of private space rocket company, SpaceX, has said that he would like to retire on Mars. Far from being the crazy guy on the street corner, Musk has his own space company, his own fortune, a lot of drive, and he is only 39 years old! Who can dismiss his dream of seeing out his life on the red planet?

And if he can do that, what else will we see in our lifetimes?

CFMP #4 – Where We Trade a Sekoj for a Jighello

John Bullock — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 09:17:42 +0000

We’re back with the fourth Crazy Fools Podcast, and we’ve lost Sekoj. Never fear, though, because Jighello and Eatturnip bravely step up to fill Sekoj’s enormous shoes! We cover a bit of Minecraft news, get underwhelmed by Notch’s upcoming space game, and talk about what we’d like to see taken OUT of our beloved game.

The News

If you’re on iTunes (or don’t mind getting on iTunes for this reason) please rate and review the podcast (positively). The more popular the podcast gets, the better it will be at bringing people in to the server. We’ve had nearly 400 downloads of the podcast so far, and only 180 of them have come through crazy-fools.co.uk. Get on it, people!

Gaming as Art, and Why We’re all Wrong [www.geekti.me]

John Bullock — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 19:15:29 +0000

Don’t worry, this isn’t another piece on the ending of Mass Effect 3, but, rather, a bi-product of the fallout, and an entry into the perpetual debate of gaming as an art form. There are two camps in the Mass Effect argument (three, if we count the silent masses, but they won’t complain if we don’t). There are those who feel the ending of ME3 is broken, and should be changed, and there are those who feel that Bioware should hold true to their artistic vision. These two arguments fall neatly on either side of the “Are Video Games Art?” debate that has been going on for, it feels like, my entire adult life.

Yes, I’m an adult.

If you’re not quite up on the Gaming as Art debate, it more or less falls into two schools of thought. Those who think that video games are like books, movies, paintings, etc, and those who think video games are like software, services, and toasters. Bear with me on this one.

If gaming was to be universally agreed as art, it would fall into the category that houses such creative consumables as books and paintings. It would make the people who made the games artists, rather than mere developers. It would validate the gaming industry against the big boys, like the movie industry. It would give develop– sorry, artists –an excuse for nudity (though said nudity may require an urn or some fruit to qualify as art). However, if it were more a mechanical thing, like a toaster, or a service you pay for, there would be grounds to complain about the product if, for example, you weren’t satisfied with how it worked.

I have looked hard at what is considered to be art and what is not, and the common differentiator seems to be interaction. You read a book. You watch a film. You look at a painting. These are all passive activities. You do not effect the story or change the image, you simply take it in. Artistic flair can be added to a toaster, but, ultimately, you buy a toaster to make toast. If it can’t make toast, you’ll buy a different toaster. You use a toaster. This is where the blurry line comes from. No, not the toaster; the vague nature of video games. Are they a mechanical experience or are they an artistic medium?

They are both.

You take in the story of a video game in much the same way you take in the story of a movie. Sure, you can often make choices, but they’re limited and, ultimately, you’ll end up with the story that the developers wanted to tell. But thereare mechanics to a video game. There are, metaphorically speaking, moving parts, and those moving parts can be broken. You could make a shooter game that is, artistically speaking, the most beautiful thing anyone has ever seen, that attracts virgin maids and brings a tear to cold hearted … uhm, eyes. But, like the toaster’s ability to make toast, if the shooting mechanic is broken, gamers will buy a less stunning game that isn’t.

We can’t classify video games as solely art because they aren’t. If they were pure art, they wouldn’t be video games because we would not be able to interact with them. Nor can we deny the artistic component to games like a Mass Effect 3 or a Heavy Rain, where the story is such a large part of the experience. In that case, there is undeniable art and the developers should feel some degree of artistic pride in their work.

Here is the problem; human being’s have a problem with fuzzy middle ground. This is why, even without religious baggage, we argue over when it’s too late to have an abortion, or suffer brain melt when trying to wrap our minds around how something like an eyeball could have evolved. We, as a species, struggle to comprehend the idea that things generally don’t “become” in one neat instant. Things are often not black or white, and video gaming is no different.

Do I think Bioware should stick to their guns and stand by their artistic vision? Yes. Do I think disgruntled gamers have a right to say their choice-driven game is broken because there is effectively only one ending? Well, yes. Do I have the solution?

No.

Video games are both artistic and mechanical, and it’s about time we stopped trying to classify them as one or the other. Accept them for what they are – their own thing – and work out how to treat them accordingly.

The Crazy Fools Minecraft Podcast Outtakes Special

John Bullock — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 16:55:30 +0000

In honour of April Fools day, we’ve put together a short “Outtakes” Special podcast to fill in the week between shows. Ten minutes of random for your enjoyment. Now go and enjoy. Now.

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The Crazy Fools Minecraft Podcast #3 – Shhh! The Boss is Here

John Bullock — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 17:21:35 +0000

The Crazy Fools resident mob expert, Sgt Blinky, stops by for a chat about mob spawners, and why being able to mine them ruined our last map. And our very own server admin, Broonie, talks about torturing players.

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Interviewed by Fiona Mcvie [www.inspirationforum.co.uk]

John Bullock — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 21:19:15 +0000

I was interviewed by the lovely Fiona Mcvie for Inspiration Forums. If you can get past my long winded answers, there may be some tidbits of interest in there…

Name: John Bullock

Age: 28, though I’m less than a month away from 29

Where are you from: Bradford, West Yorkshire

A little about your self: I currently live in a quiet little village with my girlfriend of seven years and our baby boy, who turns two years old before I turn twenty nine. My education went as far as college, and was mostly in Computer Studies, and related subjects. It makes perfect sense, therefore, that I have worked the last eight years making safety cages for race cars. I am currently going through the pleasant experience of moving house.

Fiona: Tell us your latest news?

After finishing my first novel, I took a break from long-form fiction and did, well, just about everything else that I’d been neglecting while I was writing. But that phase has passed, and though I find myself now with more none-writing projects than I previously had, I am back on the novel train. I have started what I plan to be next novel, a science fiction story, and have struggled to break off from it for less important things, like work, and caring for my child. Unlike my first novel, I hope to trick a traditional publisher into selling this one for me.
Fiona: When and why did you begin writing?

Writing is something I have dabbled with on and off since the age of eight years old, though I never really took it seriously until about three years ago. My desire to write is not due to any great love of the medium of books, but rather my desire to create things. Don’t get me wrong, I love to read, and love the feel of a shiny new hardcover in my hands, but if I found making movies as easy as I find writing, I might well be telling my stories on film, rather than (e)paper. I just love to make things.
Fiona: When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I first considered myself a writer around two years ago when, after a year of getting up at 4am to squeeze in some writing time before work, I realised I’d written somewhere in the region of 400,000 words. It was at that point that I decided that, while people can debate on how good a writer I am, no one can tell me I’m not a writer. I write.
Fiona: What inspired you to write your first book?

I feel like I’m repeating myself here but, honestly, the desire the tell a story. There is a little more to it; I’d been writing one novel on and off for two or three years, and, it just never looked like being done. It shows a lack of patience on my part, but I wanted to have something to show for all the sleepless nights and early mornings, and I knew that, if that novel ever got finished, I’d then have six months to a year of waiting for agents and publishers to get back to me, and then there’s no guarantee they’d take on my book. So I decided to put that to one side and start a new, smaller project. The result was The Returners, a short novel at 50,000 words, but it felt great to be doing something else.
Fiona: Do you have a specific writing style?

Yes, though I couldn’t tell you what it is from a technical standpoint. I don’t put any thought into what my style is, I just read what I’ve written and decide if I still like it. There’s a quote from Neil Gaiman that pretty much sums up my feelings on this – “There are better writers than me out there, there are smarter writers, there are people who can plot better – there are all those kinds of things, but there’s nobody who can write a Neil Gaiman story like I can.”

Fiona: How did you come up with the title?

For The Returners, it was pretty straightforward. The protagonist of the story has to contend with zombies, which have been labelled “Returners” by the survivors of the initial rising of the dead. I’d like to stress, though, that the novel is not a “zombie story”, but, rather, a story that has zombies in it.

Fiona: Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

Honestly, no. I’m not sure I could build a story around a message, it’s not the way I write. I’m sure one could be interpreted, if someone really wanted to, but there was no intent to being with.

Fiona: How much of the book is realistic?

Actually, quite of lot of my zombie novel is to do with the characters and their lives. Other than the fact that there dead bodies walking around trying to eat living bodies, their lives are believable enough, if a little bleak. If I’m honest, the zombies are really just a facilitator. If I’d wanted more realism, the monster could have been some kind of mutated bear, but I wanted to write a story with zombies in and I’d hoped to do so before they go completely out of fashion.

Fiona: Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?

There is one scene that is an almost shameless rip of my own childhood, and I mention in it the author’s note, but, other than that, not really. I haven’t found myself in many post-apocalyptic scenarios of late.

Fiona: What books have most influenced your life most?

On a Pale Horse by Piers Anthony is a big one, because it’s the first book I read for fun, as opposed to being told to read it for school. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, and The Brightonomicon by Robert Rankin both deserve to be in here, as they smashed and redefined my idea of the kind of story a book can tell.

Fiona: If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?

Though I don’t think my writing is anything like his, I would name Sir Terry Pratchett as a mentor, simply on the basis that I’ve read more books by him than by any other single author.

Fiona: What book are you reading now?

I am terrible at sticking to just one book. At the moment, I am reading The Truth by Terry Pratchett, the only Discworld novel I hadn’t read, Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve, The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fford, and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins.

Fiona: Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?

Unfortunately, I haven’t had any time to try out any new authors. I have little enough time to read at all, and the pile of books by old authors I have sitting on my book shelf is actually getting bigger!

Fiona: What are your current projects?

Aside from the aforementioned science fiction novel, I recently started making in-roads into podcasting, and will be looking to do more of that in the future. I also have a growing number of sites I occasionally write for, and that will hopefully grow, also.

Fiona: Name one entity that you feel supported you outside of family members.

A friend by name of Roger Saville, who was not only supportive in terms of believing (or saying he believed) that I could write a novel, but also reading through a near-finished manuscript and sending me a couple of pages of critique.

Fiona: Do you see writing as a career?

I want to try a lot of mediums in my quest to create things and tell stories, but I see writing as a large part of that. That said, if I fail miserably at every other medium, yet can make a career out of writing, I won’t be too beat up about it.

Fiona: If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?

The only thing I would like to be different is that The Returners was intentionally a short novel, but the story grew as it was written, and this resulted in and ending that very blatantly leaves the door open for another book. I would have liked to feel like I’d wrapped the story up in one book, but then, I guess that would have taken longer, and the point of this project was to be something short and fun.

Fiona: Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?

I’ve always liked to make stories, and my computer background meant that I already had a respectable typing speed by the time I decided to try my hand at short fiction. It just seemed like the best way to exorcise my creative demons. A few hundred thousand words later, it shifted from interest to obsession.

Fiona: Can you share a little of your current work with us?

I’ll share a little of the novel I’ve started writing, as The Returners is available for free on my website, so I encourage all interested to give it a look.

The novel I’m writing, tentatively titled Sky, is set in the distant future. Humanity has fled an Earth that was void of resources and near-destroyed by humanities exploitations. A series of “generational” ships were built, each capable of holding around 10,000 people, each heading off in a different direction. Advanced propulsion technology meant that the nearest star would still take upward of five hundred years to reach, and so the “Genships” were built to support many generations of humans.

The novel takes place on Genship 5, now nearly a thousand years into its journey. To the inhabitants of Genship 5, Earth is closer to a creation myth than actual history, and people long ago stopped caring about the destination. Crew – the organisation in charge of piloting and maintaining the ship – have become an almost religious entity, revered by the population because of their importance in keeping everyone alive and well.

Fen, a fourteen year old with a talent for technology, unexpectedly gets admitted to the Crew Initiation Program, but soon finds that there is more to Crew than he knew.

This is his story.

Fiona: Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

The middling edits and revisions. I love the initial outlining of a story, where I’m experiencing the plot unfold as much as a reader would be reading the finished story, and I love the final tweaking and polishing when you’re nearly done. The bits in between, well, sometimes they can be a bit of a slog. Like wading through thick treacle. Still, if writing was bags of fun all of the time, more people would be doing it.

Fiona: Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?

The aforementioned Sir Terry Pratchett. The thing that strikes me about his work is the cleverness. Pratchett has a way of twisting and presenting the ridiculousness of the world around us in such a way that makes you laugh… until you realise how similar it really is to real life. It also constantly astounds me to see some of the things Pratchett can build a story from. I can’t remember the exact quote, but he once said, when advocating reading as much as possible, that you could be reading a book on medieval wooden dentures, and somewhere in there, there would be a story to tell.

Fiona: Do you have to travel much concerning your book(s)?

Not yet. Being one book in, and still working a full time job, I wouldn’t have much opportunity to travel, even if there was a need.

Fiona: Who designed the covers?

The cover for The Returners was designed by the very talented Jonathan Shaw. You can find his website at www.digilocker.co.uk.

Fiona: What was the hardest part of writing your book?

You could probably have guessed this from the earlier question about what I find challenging, but the middle editing and revising sessions.

Fiona: Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?

There’s a fine line between calling a piece of creative work finished when it needs a little more polishing, and “over-cooking” it. Possibly, hitting that line is the difference between good and great authors, or perhaps that line is rarely hit by anyone.

Fiona: Do you have any advice for other writers?

The same advice you’re likely to get from any other writers; write. If you write, you’re a writer. If you don’t write, you’re no more a writer than I am an astronaut. We can all say we’re going to do something, but until you do it, you’re just talking.

Also, finish what you write. It may be daunting to stare at a blank page/screen, wondering where to start, but it’s just as hard to push through the previously mentioned middle ground slog.

Fiona: Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?

Thank you for taking a chance on my book, whether you opted for one of the paid options or the free downloads on my website. And, please, leave ratings on your book-buying website of choice.

Fiona: If you were not a writer what else would you like to have done?

I honestly don’t know. As I said, I want to create things, and tell stories, but, ultimately, anything else I might have tried (and, indeed, might still try) would have boiled down to writing at some level, whether it be writing scripts or lyrics or dialogue. I guess, if I weren’t pursuing a career behind a keyboard writing stories, I’d be behind a keyboard programming, or fixing computers.

Fiona: Do you have a blog/website? if so what is it?

I do indeed. My website can be found at www.jbullock.co.uk. On there, you’ll be able to find a number of short stories I’ve written, blog posts, links to all the various articles I’ve written for other sites and podcasts I’ve been involved with, as well as links to all the places you can buy my book, The Returners, or download it from the site for free. All my social bumf is there too, feel free to follow me.

Ending Mass Effect [www.geekti.me]

John Bullock — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 21:11:52 +0000

SPOILERS! Sorry, but you never can be too careful when dealing with geeks and their spoilers. If you haven’t finished Mass Effect 3, and don’t want any details of the now infamous ending, go finish the game and come back. But don’t take too long, this post might not be relevant, come April. Now, onto the spoilers.

Unless you’ve been living under a thermal clip crate for the last two weeks, you’ll have heard the furor over the ending of Mass Effect 3. Perhaps you’re part of it. For those that aren’t familiar with it, here are the clip notes;

Mass Effect, a series that sells itself on the fact that you make choices and those choices affect, not only the end of your game, but the subsequent games the series, effectively threw all of your choices out of the window at the end. I feel it is important to make this part clear, as a lot of media outlets seem to be under the impression that the problem is with the story. It’s not. The problem is that, no matter what choices you make, you will get the same two or three options at the very end as everybody else, and those three options lead to endings that are very similar. It’s not so much that it is a bad ending, but rather that it is the only ending.

This has spawned a number of Facebook groups and petitions trying to get Bioware to change the game, so much so that the company seem to be considering it. Personally, I think if Bioware take any action, it will be to put out DLC that continues on after the current ending. If you’re not sure how they could do that, get on your Googles and look up the “indoctrination theory” about the current ending. However, that’s not what this post is about. This post is about how I would have done things differently.

Because I’m sure you all want to know that!

Firstly, I didn’t think the ending was that bad (let’s face it, all three endings are pretty much the same). The problem it has is that it is the only option. If it had been one potential ending, it would have been great. That’s where we’re going; multiple endings. But what endings?

It seems a given that the strength of your military should have an impact on the final battle. Perhaps you haven’t secured enough tech, or you haven’t sweet talked enough generals to strengthen your fleet. Whatever the reason, if your military size or readiness is insufficient, you’re done. You head to Earth with your meagre forces, shoot your way through London to get to the beam, but, alas, the battle above is lost, and the Reapers destroy the Crucible. Cue scenes of mass destruction and genocide. The Reapers win.

This presents an opportunity for a type of ending that is rarely seen (due to its depressing nature) wherein Shepard and his team realise that defeat is inevitable, and their last mission then becomes leaving some kind of message for the next cycle, as the Protheans did, in the hope that the organics to follow will be able to do better.

Still, you didn’t skimp on the military, did you? So what about your ending?

Assuming the military strength is enough to fend off the Reapers, let’s look at the other asset that is supposedly being developed throughout the game; The Crucible. There are many opportunities to get scientists and resources for the weapon that is supposed to end the Reaper threat. They should matter. Not enough scientists working on the big ray gun? Maybe the big ray gun won’t fire, then. The state of the Crucible by the end of the game should provide the means for at least two endings, and one of them should be the “mega happy ending”. This is also where the existing ending would fit in. Your military may have ensured you get the Crucible to the Citadel, but if your scientists haven’t done the business, you’re going to blow up half of the galaxy when you activate it, destroying the mass relays in the process. True, you’ll have ended the Reaper threat, but was it worth it? However, if you threw every scientist you could find at the damn thing, the Crucible does its job without stranding half of the galaxy’s races in Sol. Perhaps the requirement to get this ending would be high, but I felt there should have been a chance to get ride off into the sunset with your lover of choice.

There would be small variations, also. Perhaps if you brought a bunch of Geth to the party, instead of Quarians, you get some emotional scene centred around the fact that you’re about to kill a big chunk of your allies. And if you have the From Ashes DLC, there may be an opportunity for a touching conversation with Javik, wiping a tear from his left eyes as he watches the light fade from his enemy’s big red eye… thing.

Ah, the possibilities.

I think it would be too much of an ask (technically speaking) to implement these kinds of changes to the game after the fact, but I can imagine. As for the current ending, I have a strong feeling Bioware are going to do something with it. How you feel about them bowing to gamer pressure is a different issue, but, I’ll be honest, I’d probably have bought any DLC regardless.