Active Time Event

Inventio Per Fabula

Philosophy

  • Silent Hill: The Methodology Of Fear

    Fear means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For some, the anxiety that comes with interacting with anyone else is fear incarnate My long awaited return to Silent Hill has unfortunately not been quite as grand of an occurence as I would hope that it would be, for a multitude… Read more

  • Silent Hill: The Kojima Factor

    I advocate it’s important not to beat yourself up when you find yourself struggling, and to accept that sometimes, doing our best does not look all that great, but it is the best we’ve got at the moment. Quality is all very relative, you see I really gotta just start penning into my schedule: Saturday… Read more

  • Silent Hill: The Grim Reality of Blood Soaked Shades

    One person’s fond memory is another person’s trauma response. Like a first date at a Waffle House, for example I was struck with quite a queer feeling when deciding how to begin opening up my address of the Silent Hill 2 Remake (SH2R), as even though this is my first time playing through the remake… Read more

  • Welcome To Nope City

    When the witching hour approaches, it is appropriate to slip into something a little more…horrifyingly gruesome for the occasion. October always gets me all kinds of hot and bothered… Yesterday was more of a pop-in, just a little hi hello in a moment of respite, after a tremendous amount of energy expended on what ended… Read more

  • ‘Tis The Season To Be Spoopy…

    While I am a big proponent of critical thinking and engaging in the abstract, I’m also a strong advocate of partaking in intense amounts of silliness from time to time. Chase that big Scully energy, y’all September is just about over, and not a moment too soon, as like many, Spooptober is always a delight… Read more

  • Words of Wisdom: Refining Your Range Game

    Patience being a virtue is always a worthwhile idiom to keep in mind. All good things to those who wait… With all that in mind, and acknowledging not everything can be accomplished in a single night, we finally arrive at today’s official words of wisdom, which are “refining your range game“, which is of the… Read more

  • Silksong: The Cost of Faith

    I will always advocate in the name of honesty, no matter how painful the truth may be. The truth shall set you free I’ve often discussed that my approach to the everyday, at least, in my estimations of what it takes for one to be successful at surviving, depart drastically from common wisdom. I am… Read more

  • Silksong: Color Me With Expectation

    I usually advocate for Occam’s Razor, in shaving away all of the excess of complicated theories and leaving the simplest explanation left as the correct deduction. Always trust in the simplest reasoning As I detailed in my last post, I was finally able to reach the first “not true” ending of Silksong, after weeks of… Read more

  • Silksong: Nothing Beyond The Rainbow

    One person’s ending is another person’s beginning, true both in the fight of the every day, and the absurdity of what constitutes the reality of virtual battlefields. What I imagine most Silksong bosses eat for breakfast every morning And…credit roll… Fully aware I still have yet another full act of content to see before the… Read more

  • Silksong: The Homunculus of Hobbyism Theory

    I think that the quote: “Sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes the bar eats you” definitely applies to Silksong in radically wonderful degrees of resounding relatability How I imagine a lot of self-performed pep talks go with Silksong players about to give the boss who just killed them for the twentieth time just one… Read more

  • Silksong: Lauding A Leading Lady Fathomed Fervently From Fantastical Faithfuls

    It pays to know what ones specialty is, as trying to overextend yourself in an attempt to be everything all at once on account of appealing to everyone can come off as being an uninspired, belligerent mess. Something tells me Combo Man wouldn’t be considered for a Fortnite cameo…which is ridiculous, cause they’ll take fucking… Read more

  • Silksong: Do Good Games Take A Longer Time To Develop? Or Do Longer Development Times Produce Good Games?

    Self care is important, and looks like a lot of things to a lot of different people. Whatever it looks like to you, just make sure you keep doing it in times of need With that said, this is going to be a short one today I think, as the mood is quite drab, and… Read more

  • Words of Wisdom: Idealizing Idleness

    Sometimes, you’ve got to slow down, consider your options, and know when to let go. Some realizations are more painful than others Which is why the words of Wisdom for today are idealizing idleness, which might come as a shock to some of you, if you’re at all familiar with some of my own notions… Read more

  • Silksong: Marxist Alienation Inherent In Game Design

    You know it’s a “bad new bears” kind of vibe when people are actively routing for the collapse of the everyday, out of feelings of being totally over it. While there is something to be said about patience being a virtue, another notion in my mind springs forth, and that is “be the change you… Read more

  • Silksong: Clambering For The Climax That Never Comes

    We live in hypocrisy, and are often the makers of our own doom. I’m reminded of this sentiment these days, usually when I’m reading about others who lament the difficulty level in Silksong, as if they are tragically unfamiliar with the very nature of difficulty involving video game design since time immemorial. A lot of… Read more

  • Silksong: In The Land Of The Thoughtless, The Thinkers Rule As Kings

    As I always say: in a recession of shits to give, know how to budget accordingly. If time is money, then proper shit allocation is generational wealth. Yesterday’s post was a bit of an oddball attempt of mine at providing some wisdom in the realm of the strategically practical, with some D.I.Y tips on how… Read more

  • Silksong: Socially Sustaining Such Scandalously Seductive Schadenfreude Sensibilities

    My heart goes out to all of the game developers who put in more hard work than the gaming masses will ever realize, all in the service of making something just for their enjoyment. How I imagine a lot of game developers feel right after launching a game with the crowded masses of fans doing… Read more

  • Words of Wisdom: Doubting Your Doubts

    When in doubt…continue to doubt. No doubt Which is why today’s words of wisdom are doubting your doubts, a simple but radically useful movement within the realm of critical thinking, and the process of becoming. While it’s tempting to dismiss the kind of stereotypical sounding phrasing often associated with pointlessly esoteric sounding wisdom of sorts… Read more

  • Silksong: If Everything is Made Easy, Does Anything Remain Hard?

    Not all will summit Everest. I expounded upon the notion yesterday that many players are destined to bounce off of Silksong, if not before their arrival at the front steps of The Citadel, certainly in attempting to pass the gatekeeper known as “The Last Judge”, who acts as an all important skill check punctuating the… Read more

  • Silksong: The Gatekeeping Contingency

    Yesterday’s post dealt with the reality of game design, and the metaphysical idea of how some games do not necessarily predicate themselves on the notion of fun first and foremost. This might seem positively outlandish to some, or maybe even downright impossible to others, with the idea of video games firmly planted in their head… Read more

  • Silksong: It’s Practice Makes Perfect, Not Fun Makes Perfect

    Sometimes, I address harder truths that make people uncomfortable. Others, involving the observations of these same hard truths, just think I’m either telling some kind of queer, long winded joke, or am just straight up full of shit. The reaction I expect out of the majority of you who quit before articles end rolling their… Read more

  • Silksong: The Polyrhythmic Failings of Player Follies

    The silver lining about forced downtime one is confronted with in games, especially the moments of disappointment after losing to a boss, is that anyone who’s lucky enough to have an animal in their life just got an extra minute to enjoy some fluffy company. I’m imagining many Silksong players with cats have spent similar… Read more

  • Silksong: Democratizing Difficulty

    No one likes a tryhard. This notion pushes some even deeper into the realm of absurdity, as they then double down, and try harder to become the “tryhardiest”…a self-damning effort, if I’ve ever witnessed one I mentioned briefly in my last Silksong article, in what I would consider me half joking about putting out too… Read more

  • Words of Wisdom: Mind the Gap

    Things do not always turn out exactly as we had hoped. It’s important to try to laugh in the face of adversity Which is why today’s Words of Wisdom are Mind the Gap, which helps to remind us that we are often times presented with flaws, problematic scenarios, or less than ideal circumstances, but have… Read more

  • Silksong: Nothing Gold Can Stay

    The Charles Bukowski quote: “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.” seems truer and truer every single day that passes. The saddest of ironies I’ve made the habit of trying to get multiple articles out of any one game I’m… Read more

  • Silksong: The Grace of Skill and the Virtue of Patience

    Some games like to act as little moments of escapism, to grant us some downtime amidst the chaos of reality. Others still just channel the struggles of the everyday into a super condensed format My journey to the Citadel continues, as I join so many others in their arduous pilgrimage through Silksong, every new death… Read more

  • To Do List: Stop Being My Own Worst Enemy…

    Sometimes, I’ll rush an article out the door, and either skimp on the editing due to lack of time, or push something out that is bare bones content, with the rationalization that “they can’t all be winners”, and then it will will either get way more views, than I expect, or people I know will… Read more

  • Words of Wisdom: Island of Knowledge

    The quest for knowledge is never ending, and an endless curiosity to learn more is a wonderful quality to possess. And a quality that I hope is infectious, and spreads wide and far, cause some folks need to learn like…a lot more. To that point, today’s words of wisdom are “the island of knowledge”, which… Read more

  • Wu Wei And The Art Of soulslikes

    Difficulty looks like a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For some, masking with a sense of normalcy and making it through the day without a full on breakdown is difficulty enough As has been the usual case with me for some time now, I am currently haunted by a mid-week… Read more

  • The Winds Of Change…

    Self-care is important these days, no matter what form the healing process takes. Zelda is an excellent form of a personally applied panacea, in my humble purview I feel as if it’s worth prefacing this next statement with a rambunctiously obvious acknowledgement that in no way, shape, or form do I think is ridiculously enlightening,… Read more

  • Virtual Identity and Best Intentions

    Sometimes, it’s the thought that counts. Other times, it’s probably for the best to leave well enough the fuck alone Here I am, at the end of the day, attempting to get something posted before midnight, not necessarily coming in totally prepared with a bunch of gameplay under my belt to reference, nor am I… Read more

  • Words of Wisdom: Zooming Out

    On rougher days, don’t be afraid to stand firm with strong boundaries, for the sake of your own mental health and well being. If people aren’t getting the message, don’t be afraid to hang your sign up and “close down”(emotionally) a little early that day This week has been a rough one, not going to… Read more

  • The MetaNarrative Hallway- Player Interpretation Beyond Fallacy

    Intention is often beyond reason, much like this article, which is not unlike The Narrative Hallway, and something you will understand only in part enough to create your own by the end of reading this. Endlessly finite, to borrow from similar interior design methodology of traversal relevant to the topic at hand With the current… Read more

  • Bonfire Musings and Save Point Reflections

    “Shtay awhile and lishten“ Hell can take a number, I guess. As I struggle to maintain a mood in what feels like a particularly bleak week by personal standards, not even a release of a solid new title or the flurry of Gamescom is enough to elevate my mood. This strangulated sense of whimsy leaves… Read more

  • The Rogue Prince and Existential Self-Reflection

    I’m always of the mind one should have a higher calling than money, and a more virtuous pursuit than finance, but when one is constantly harangued to do nothing but chase a paycheck, the take away of aspiring to be anything but mercenary about life is hard to argue against. The irony of course, ends… Read more

  • Words of Wisdom: Uncomfortable Doesn’t Mean Not Good

    Sometimes, we are not always given the best of options. When all else fails, “Chuck it in the fuck it bucket” is always an ideal last resort In the fairest of realities, we would always have at least one good option, and be able to sleep soundly with our decisions. Sadly, we do not live… Read more

  • The Tao Of Gaming: How To Play

    I want to say I probably think about games more than I play them, which makes sense, when you factor in the notion I not only write about them, but have held jobs and worked gigs that require me to do research on them, interview people within the industry, talk shop with other industry vets,… Read more

  • Doing Diddy (Kong) Justice

    In the realm of video game related writing, I’m never quite sure if my heart is in the right place or not. What occurs in my head every time I sit down to write For anyone that follows Active Time Event on a regular basis, even those rare breeds that have been doing so since… Read more

  • Red Dead? Redemption, Too!

    When all else fails (including you), act like the accident involved was meant to happen. Punctuation goes a long way in reframing the narrative I’ve been running into a problem recently, one that’s been kind of hidden in plain sight for anyone who follows the site regularly, and is paying close enough attention to look… Read more

  • The Experience Machine, Video Games, And Hedonism

    So many buttons, and so much time with which to push them… The inverse can be just as regretable, so it really is a pick your own poison scenario, I find. I’m currently at a loss for words, on some non-literal level anyways, as to what was worth speaking about today in the world of… Read more

  • Quick Posit: Morality is Virtually Arbitrary

    Most morality does not differ very much from “this will make me happy” in the moment, not unlike choosing a starter I think video games help to reinforce the notion that morality is virtually arbitrary. Much like picking your favorite Pokémon, you can split hairs all the live long day as to why one choice… Read more

  • Soulslike Players Complaining About Easier Difficulty Options: Touch Grass

    One must find enjoyment where one can, though if your idea of an enjoyable dish in the dinning room of life is a bit spicier than others, do not force peppers into your shared preferred dish of choice when cooking for the entire crowd. Spending time with family is a great example of just how… Read more

  • Words of Wisdom: Hitting the Target

    In how we conduct ourselves everyday, it’s important to remember a seriously underrated point of interest: it’s not about whether you hit your target, but how true your aim was that mattered. Thor in Infinity War is a terrible example of what I’m speaking about. My visual gag is of course a hilarious way to… Read more

  • The Exhaustion Chronicles: Video Games I Slept On This Week

    As I sit here with bloodshot eyes and a sore body, knowing I still have one more overnight shift left to do before my work week is over, mulling over ideas in an attempt to fulfill my self-imposed status quo of writing about games everyday, I catch myself from nodding off right before my head… Read more

  • Today’s Video Game Indie Scene Is Yesterday’s Mainstream-A Deconstruction Of Artistic Endeavor

    Art is a subjective thing: just ask the person who bought and consumed an art piece entitled “Comedian”, which is in fact, a banana duct taped to a wall that he purchased for several million dollars. I mean, it’s one banana, Michael. What could it cost, 6.2 million dollars? Which segways us wonderfully into my… Read more

  • Words of Wisdom: Iteration Salvation

    Winning or losing: they both contribute in understanding what works, and iterating upon it Sometimes, it takes a lot of effort, do overs, and what feels like an absolute eternity of retries to get something exactly the way you want it. Spite is a perfectly valid reason for getting out of bed in the morning:… Read more

  • Words of Wisdom: “Hinging” On Our Expectations Realistically

    Sometimes, our expectations are out of line with the reality of the situation, and how things are likely to turn out. Other times, we’re able to make some fair judgment calls based on reliable past experiencesWhich is why today’s words of wisdom, words that build off of my notion of Appreciating the Spectrum(s), involve managing… Read more

  • Does Katamari Damacy and Shadow of the Colossus help to provide The answer to the age old question: Do Great Games Need Great Mechanics?

    A jarringly simple question…one with as surprisingly complex an answer. A question that I recently posed to myself after reading an article discussing the newest game from Katamari creator Keita Takahashi, to a T, and an exchange that briefly occurred with another famous game designer Fumito Ueda, who helped lead the teams responsible for ICO,… Read more

  • Words of Wisdom: Appreciating the Spectrum(s)

    Beyond the black and white, there exists the grey… Ironically not pictured: a grey (alien) Which is why my words of wisdom today involve “Appreciating the Spectrum(s)”, as I think it’s vital in understanding reality at large, something I was reminded of in my investigation into the cosmic unknown. More often then not, people fail… Read more

  • System Shock: The Metaphysical Interpolation of “Fingerfeeling” Game Design

    Did you get through the title without going crossed eyed or nodding off briefly? Points for trying if you’re still reading this if either or neither case may be, the fact you remain invested in the notion of breaking down what “fingerfeeling” means is what counts. It’s not what you may initially think, I swear… Read more

  • To Do List: Save The Media Dimension While Deconstructing It Through The Lens Of Hegelian Philosophy- Check

    It’s Hegel Time The effort of creation is a difficult, messy process, and has a tendency to produce crazy results when things get out of hand…but hey, as long as you have an audience for it, anything truly bizarre, no matter how insane, can work, right? Has probably already topped the NYT best sellers list,… Read more

  • Words of Wisdom: Sharing in “The Lack”

    Sometimes, it can feel like we are losing control of our own mind, or similarly, that some terrifyingly vital part of reality that makes it all work is just…missing. Not seen here: a terrifyingly vital part of reality missing: I.E. safety Which is why today’s words of wisdom are Sharing in “The Lack”, which is… Read more

  • Gex, Hegel, and the Master/Slave Dichotomy

    In my “first ever” madly paradoxical non-literal preview/review of Gex 1, one of three titles included in the recently released Gex Trilogy Remastered, as always, I designated no score to the title, much like I didn’t go out of my way to comment or scrutinize about every little detail involving the game, as is my… Read more

  • Gex: A Trip Down Memory Lane

    Watching behind the scenes supplemental material of the voice of Gex, Dana Gould, discussing that the writing, jokes, tones, and general riffing of the international gecko of mystery is a good reminder that sometimes, the entire reason someone did something is because they thought it was funny. Mind boggling that with such a simple motivation,… Read more

  • Writing About Writing About Video Games (feat. Postmodernism)

    Sometimes, success can not only be a confusing moment, but a messy one. Just ask the man who invented the reverse bear trap for a good example of what I mean Depending on my mood when I sit down and write, the fingers start frantically tapping, and the words just seemingly fly onto the screen.… Read more

  • Video Game Philosophy: Nostalgia Is A Mad Beast

    Memory can be a cruel mistress, leading us to believe we had something so beautiful, only to stare blankly into the cold face of reality upon a wayward return with the hopeful zest everything would be as we left it, and we are both amazingly correct and terrifyingly wrong at the same time. Not all… Read more

  • To Do List: Video Game Binge Activate

    Time keeps on slipping… …into itself? That’s why today’s post is more of a bite sized tidbit, as it were, best laid plans and all that sometimes leaves one up the creek and without a paddle in the temporal department. I thoroughly suggest to anyone reading this that if you wish to get a new… Read more

  • Words of Wisdom: Resetting to Default

    Sometimes, life can be a lot to handle. We can’t just punch all of our problems away, like Chris Redfield does with boulders he doesn’t like. That’s why on today’s words of wisdom, I wanted to posit the notion of resetting to default, and what that entails. You could think of it as some kind… Read more

  • Words of Wisdom: Framework Thinking

    It’s important to think outside the box and experiment with what works. Even if the trial and error can be downright torturous That’s why today’s words of wisdom have more to do with thinking than self-care, as a healthy brain needs to be constantly challenged in order to continue to grow. With that in mind,… Read more

  • Words of Wisdom: Mastering Disadvantage

    Sometimes, it can feel like a struggle to gain the upper hand. This becomes especially difficult when one no longer has any hands I recently wrote about “What is Playing?”, and I used the phrase “proponent of salvaging some value from any given situation”, and while it can feel impossible to keep a level head… Read more

  • Encyclopedia Muranica: What is Playing?

    The old saying is you should never judge a book by it’s cover. Educated guesses are probably okay though, right? Related to the point, I’ve definitely become more of a proponent of salvaging some value from any given situation: I think normally due to the notion that the every day ends up being a ghastly… Read more

  • Wisdom’s Genesis: The End of the Beginning

    Sic Parvis Magna…greatness from small beginnings. A phrase I became familiar with through my love of the Uncharted series, and one I regularly think about in my own absurdist quest of self-discovery, and one that’s taken me from my own humble origins that started all the way back in September 2012 on the original version… Read more