Let’s break down PC game files these days into three main categories. You have your core game files which are rather set in stone. You have your configuration files, for controls and video/audio settings. Then we have our saved game files. The majority of people don’t need to touch their core game files and so they remain tucked away in Program Files somewhere so no one can accidentally tamper with them which is good. However, often people need to copy their saved games and sometimes their configuration files to transfer to a new computer or to not lose them during a reformat. We’ve now hit a grey area. I suppose you could say these are now user files couldn’t you?

Game developers have reached this conclusion as well over the past few years and as such game configs and saves are starting to be kept in our precious My Documents folder. Well that’s a good thing right? Maybe if this was taken into account back in say…the early 2000 era then sure. However, Windows wasn’t designed for that and thus developers have been storing our saved games there for a while in an unpredictable fashion. There’s no standard for how programs should store files in My Documents.

Clutter is becoming a heavy burden emerging from programs throwing files into My Documents at will. Software company XYZ produces game ABC and suddenly you have My Documents/XYZ/ABC. This doesn’t seem like a big deal until you realize tons of programs are doing it. Then you realize you can’t remove these folders without breaking your games. It wasn’t until Windows Vista that an official Saved Games folder was created within My Documents, unfortunately this has come too late and thus very few developers utilize it.

So what? You’re not really into games anyways right? Too bad Software Company #2 also creates some of your favorite programs such as Google Picasa or even Apple iTunes. Those are some pretty big names I’d say and even they are responsible for increasing My Documents clutter. Vista’s new Saved Games folder doesn’t exactly help for non-games intruding on our personal space either.

Before long you begin looking for your files and you aren’t able to find them as easily past XYZ and ABC folders littered throughout the place on your computer that should be yours. Programs forcing clutter make me ask the question: where are MY documents?

So what’s the solution then? I’ve taken a drastic approach and I’ve officially dumped My Documents all together. I’ve created a space I can call my own to feel confident no programs know that my space even exists. I maintain my own pictures, videos, music, and more without any program or game hindrance and I must say; backups and reformats are so much easier. Personally I keep my documents on a separate hard drive which I never need to reformat and remains totally detached from Windows. It’s a drastic solution, yet I feel it’s the best one.

I cry to developers, software programmers, and video game designers to think about what you’re doing. I truly believe that My Documents clutter is a large reason for why people need to reformat so often. You stumble around My Documents for a while trying to find what should be right where you left it slowing you down and this makes your whole experience seem slower.

Users having to delve into Program Files to find their saved games and configuration files is a small price to pay for enhancing everyone’s experience as a whole. Don’t store useless junk in our documents, keep it where it belongs. Saving our settings in our personal space may seem like you’re helping to bridge the gap between system files and user files but you’re only making things worse. Keep our folders clean, I want back MY documents.
Citation:
Wikipedia, Windows 95 release date

Furries are all around us just as many social groups tend to be. It’s becoming commonplace to meet people at schools, especially colleges such as I have, who are associated with the furry community. Simply put,

Someone who says they are furry is generally expressing an interest in anthropomorphic animals and/or creatures ^{(1 Wikifur)}.

Which is a rather good way to describe the gist of it, for more information on the “What” view my sources. My reasons for joining the furry fandom began simply out of curiosity and boredom; which then grew into wonder, fun, and interaction. I found there was a vast close-knit community where friendships formed quickly when they didn’t already exist. From site to site you can find furry groups full of people who typically know one another and often warmly invite the new. These communities are held together by people with all kinds of interests who converge and share.

Remaining active in the fandom proved to be quite simple. I found that I could help individuals by speaking with them about their troubles or by sharing and collecting art. I’ve been collecting furry artwork since I joined the fandom and it’s been a great hobby of mine just as people collect photography, web design, fun wallpapers, funny pictures and other such things. One would jump to quickly point the finger that I’m dodging the bullet by not mentioning erotic furry artwork, however I would simply have to show them my collection of over a thousand entirely clean images of all kinds along with some music as well; some of which you may find awfully familiar and that collection grows as the community shares more.

As I’ve said before furries are everywhere; as many of you recognize this nearly meme status tune by Renald of vulpvibe in the album Furries in a Blender entitled “John Freeman”. From drawings, animations, and music, to cosplay clothing and fursuits. Some individuals collect, create, and share these wearable artworks to visit Furcons (Meetups). Not only is this an interesting craft and expression but this introduces one of the main reasons why the furry community has stayed strong throughout the years, commissions.

Commissions are a driving force of the furry community which allow for the talented to earn a reputation and sometimes a living while allowing the less talented to integrate into the community and further the art sharing process. Recently my friend and I have donated, in a sense, to the fandom by having a commission done of our fursonas (fandom characters) which acted as coloring practice for myself and avatars for us to use in various communities for a better sense of digital identity. On the internet no one is directly interacting with you, after all, and thus people from the fandom create these fursona characters in a way to form this digital identity.

Having a fursona is about being able to express oneself in a clear and concise way, more than what a simple closeup of your face could accomplish. This is what I feel lies at the center of the question, “Why furry?” because a fursona allows for your interests and core personality to be shown in a single entity. The ways that people express theirselves through fursonas can be really interesting, which makes me feel like humans are just visually boring. I wouldn’t go around collecting images of people wearing different clothes after all.

Expressing yourself through your fursona creates your digital identity and helps define your personality in the furry fandom. Many relationships are formed through the fandom and this is partially due to the hints of yourself shown through this fursona. Who you choose to portray yourself as and how subtly tells a lot about you. From choosing a species, to your color and furr patterns, to your clothing and accessories with more possibilities than you can choose in real life.

The biggest Why behind being a furry may just be because it’s fun. From roleplaying to art creation and sharing to the friendships and relationships that form: everyone is just having fun. Though there will be the few who give furries a bad name that comes with any diverse community. Through all the drama in the end people get over it and just have fun. That is why I am a furry.

Citation:
Wikifur, Someone who says they are furry is…

Long ago in the beginning of HTML even before CSS; tables were created for the single purpose of holding tabular data, it wasn’t for a while that people began using tables to design their entire web layout. Unfortunately many people took tables to a strange extreme that has given them a bad name. It is because of this that some say tables kill web standards, are inefficient, waste bandwidth, and are impossible to maintain.

This is not true.

The web is essentially grid based with few exceptions, every html element that isn’t driven by flash or javascript boils down to being a box, a square. Hence why css web layouts refer to the box layout to understand html positioning and spacing.

Everything is a box and therefore everything is designed in a sort of grid. Even with carefully placed div elements you are just adding more boxes to our two dimensional grid based screen.

While there are many work arounds and methods to create fluid dynamic designs with div’s one thing that is lacking is how they work together. Yes we can intelligently decide which div’s are within the other and how we name them, however they never truly work together in unison. They aren’t directly aware of the other’s presence unless you are using parent and child relations in css.

A well designed table can use, for example, three rows and one-to-three columns depending on your layout. That’s it, for a standard site you are done. It is my belief that when writing a table to manage your design if you need another nested table you are doing it wrong. Use colspans and rowspans, they are very much backwards compatible and easy to understand. When you are done you may find that you’ve created less td (table data) cell’s than you would have created div boxes.

HTML and CSS coding is as much of an art as the design itself is. Look at your web design and think about the barebones of what you need to make the design happen. What people forget is that tables are entirely css friendly. In fact I encourage you to place only the tags with a class or ID in your html code and keep all of your style in an external css document just as you would if you were using div’s. Style your div’s with some simple thought and you’ll be amazed how fast a design comes together because all td table data cell’s and rows work together to create one simple grid defined by you to display your design.

Keep in mind even during the design phase of your website that no matter what you are working with a two dimensional grid. That’s what the web is, and although you can create fancy graphics with 3D and rounded edges when you are looking at the html and stylesheet you are still writing code for a grid. Tables are made to create grids, plain and simple. Think of the columns and rows you will need and don’t overdo it! You can still have div’s, paragraphs, lists, and more inside where your content belongs. If you find yourself creating four or more table rows you may find you are doing it wrong, or if you have four or more columns you are doing it wrong. Keep it simple and make it work, use CSS in conjunction with your tables and allow your cells to flow with eachother in one solid working grid. If you feel you need a nested table, rethink your design and replan your attack. Just know that tables are your friend and when you take the time to understand them they will be a valuable asset to your web designs.

Well what is Web 2.0 then? Simply put the concept is to move from static information oriented websites to dynamic communication oriented websites. A great example is twitter which would be entirely empty without considering its web 2.0 elements. Twitter’s interchange of user input leading to communication between users is exactly what web 2.0 is all about. Wikipedia may sound like it would fit the category of a web 1.0 website (static) being that it’s entirely information based with little communication, however Wikipedia is very much web 2.0 as users are able to dynamically alter the information directly on the website itself.

With these examples in mind we can see how web 2.0 surrounds the web in some way or another even if it’s as simple as leaving a comment or updating your status. It’s all about having the web recognize YOU as a user and not just another IP address.

So then, where does the confusion come in?

The confusion comes from websites trying to look fresh and hip by “wearing” a theme that looks flashy and new. What people think are standards in web design become cliché’s. Buzzwords erupt from this unfortunate hole web designers have dug over the past few years. A list of these is provided in elliotjaystock’s presentation fowd-november-2007.

• Vibrant High Contrast Colors
• Special Offer’ badges
• Gloss/Sheen
• Bevelled edges
• Gradients
• Diagonal Lines
• Soft-focus effects (subtle outer glow) and as I’d like to add, drop shadows.
• Reflected Logo

While these are not always a bad thing it’s important in any art field you’re in to understand what is cliché and when to use or avoid them. When overused what ends up happening is your website inevitably looks like everyone else’s.

Somewhere along the line these cliché’s spawned the idea of this look as being Web 2.0. This misconception of what web 2.0 truly is becomes a problem because clients all-to-easily ask for a web 2.0 design and get stuck with the same copy & paste effects everyone else is using. Speaking from a designer’s point of view it’s safe to say that many of these effects are simply to recreate within a few mouse clicks.

I’m not trying to say that simple is bad, however I offer the contrary. Some of the best websites choose not to bevel a content box or reflect their logo. Use these special effects intelligently and sparingly. For example, is it truly necessary to repeat your logo in a reflection directly below the actual logo? And flipped vertical at a lower opacity? If you can’t explain the reasoning behind adding an effect, then most likely it shouldn’t have been added in the first place.

Web 2.0 is a concept not a design aesthetic(elliotjaystocks), however the cliché’s that come with it can sometimes be useful if used sparingly. Knowing the difference between Web 2.0 concept VS aesthetic is a major part of the battle in achieving a good website. Be aware when you ask a designer to create a web 2.0 theme and don’t be afraid to be specific. Learn to recognize cliché’s and request that something more original and relevant to your website’s cause is reflected in the theme itself; that is the designer’s job after all. It’s your job to know what you want and specifically in this case, what you don’t.

My education was unique, my views became unique, and my opinions are my own. They may not all be right but they are mine regardless. Having not grown up through the public school system I self educated myself in the ways of society through my friends and the internet. Such a learning style comes with downsides of course, but I believe I gained some interesting views through my way of life and most importantly I became a constant critical thinker. Which is something probably not focused on enough in schools today.

One would think that living in this kind of isolation, albeit slight, would make someone not as prepared for the big world. Interacting with people I found was actually surprisingly easy when I arrived at college with minimal adjusting necessary. Following in the footsteps of my early peers I was able to dress for respect rather than souly impression, with minimal fear of social repercussions. If it were even vaguely close to the social norm I’d wear my cosplay tail way more often, but even I consider some limits set by society.

The biggest difference I notice is I was able to avoid adapting the stereotypes of race, gender, and other groups from public schools. The downside was I had minimal experience interacting with other clicks and ethnicities, which lead to minor problems communicating, which I have been trying to overcome with time. Still, I was able to freely and truthfully speak to everyone I met with the same attitude not having to hide any discrimination against the other.

Though my view of the world seems to be different than others I interact with; I have been adapting to social life while retaining my “self” very well. My unique interaction with socialized friends and the internet seems to have had a beneficial effect on my socialization which is now combining with my new experiences to offer me viewpoints and a way of life I’m not sure I would have received otherwise.

It’s rather obvious that I was addicted to customization; though it seems that these days in the world of Web 2.0 and Linux many others love customization as well. Arguably one of the reasons that Twitter became such a success was the ease of customization it offered by allowing a custom color scheme and a background of your choosing. There are countless websites who offer free backgrounds and give advice about how to create your own from scratch with a simple Google search of Twitter Backgrounds. It’s crazy how something so trivial can spawn such a number of websites.

It’s become an art in itself to try and offer a balance between customization, stability, and consistency. A failed example of this would be MySpace, as demonstrated by this parody tutorial , with its atrocious number of visual hacks that makes web designers want to hurl. FPSBanana was a good example of customization until it literally started to fall apart, more than likely due to a lack of proper maintenance. There were so many unstable visual additions being made as the website grew that the site is unfortunately becoming a virtual grave yard as time goes on.

So where do we draw the line? It’s a tough call; Facebook is running smoothly with minimal customization, yet so is deviantArt with maximum customization. Perhaps it all comes down to the time and effort put into the maintenance process that keeps something running smoothly. Linux distributions have been running strong for many years as many keep appearing but nearly all of them have strong teams who keep the code clean and smooth. Perhaps it’s the community that keeps stability, as set in example by Myspace’s twinkling piles of crap. After all, the main reason I still use Firefox is because of the community’s effort to improve customization while maintaining stability. Finally another thing to consider is the targeted audience and their expectations on the amount of customization they wish to see. There’s probably a good reason why Facebook has minimal customization while deviantArt allows for much more.

It’s a delicate balance that’s hard to maintain. I stopped redesigning my desktop weekly these days because it made my own computer unstable after all. Customization is still very important to me but I use it in moderation; to maintain the stability, consistency, and a bit of my personality I expect to be able to see in my virtual world.

So, to compensate I will be changing this blog to a bi-weekly entry release schedule. I feel like a week can fly by before I know what happened and while two weeks may be a long time it’ll have to do. Besides, bi-weekly updates will be better than zero updates I do believe.

I’m writing up some entries in anticipation for a busy Christmas, stay tuned!

Why would someone put so much time into the same game for so long? It’s a fair question that I sometimes just answer with “because it’s fun”. Yet, there are thousands of new experiences out there to explore so why would I choose to replay the same games over and over?

Perhaps I felt the need to play another round of Left 4 Dead while writing this article because we are creatures of habit. When a new game arrives I am either really excited when it is part of a franchise I know or I’m hesitant to try it. It’s not like I’m losing anything by trying a new game demo or playing something new at a friend’s house but I feel more comfortable playing something I’m already familiar with.

More than being familiar, I feel more confident because of my previous experiences. Especially when playing a multiplayer game I’m sure most would rather have skill than being the one in the server asking silly things such as how to fly. Yes this is partly an internal fear to not spread our wings to something new but I can’t see a problem with that. Experience builds our confidence and confidence is why we keep returning to the same game time and time again.

Counter-Strike has earned its reputation by having a steep learning curve with great replay ability. How it’s so replayable is not so obvious because it’s arguably just a generic shooter, but you have to look past its chrome polish finish to see that. Yes it may be generic, but it’s so finely polished and fun that you keep coming back for more.

Garry’s Mod has the advantage of being a well rounded sandbox “editor” with loads of downloadable content by the public there’s nearly an endless amount of possible play time. Similarly, Grand Theft Auto has become so popular mostly due to its similar sandbox freedom.

Portal innovated with new gameplay and time trials/challenges by incorporating short levels with a short story and challenges, allowing the community to create custom content as well. Most importantly though was its unique portal based gameplay, story, and atmosphere which helped it stand out from most other games making you want more.

Don’t feel bad when you’ve reached your 1,000th hour in your favorite video game. Maybe that game has more you haven’t explored or discovered. Perhaps you found that one game that stands tall above the rest. Your skills could be improving as you build confidence at the game you love. Or maybe it’s just so well polished you couldn’t care if you’ve played the same level five minutes ago, it’s just plain fun. Regardless of the reason that’s what video games are all about right? Game on.

One of the first questions people ask me upon finishing a game is “How long was it?” and rightfully so. We pay upwards of $60.00 dollars a game these days, who wouldn’t want to get their moneys worth? However, the last thing we want is for the gaming experience to become long due to repedative dieing.

Most games (asside from arcades) don’t cost a quarter to play, luckily developers have realized this. Odds are most games released in the last few years have an option to save your game in it’s pause screen or at least checkpoints along the way coupled with an auto save. These ways to save have nearly become standardized due to players understanding them and of course because they work so well.

Unfortionately…some games try to hard to innovate.

Yes I’m looking at you Elika, the Prince of Persia’s companion who quite literally makes it completely impossible to die in the game. The latest Prince of Persia adventure decided to completely ditch any notion of a checkpoint/save system and simply respawn you back where you were before you last failed. Sounds good in theory, until you realize you no longer have the connection to care about your invincible character’s life.

Can one exist without the other? Is it impossible to create joy without difficulty? I don’t know. But Prince of Persia lost something significant ^{(1 Kohler)}.

Let’s stay away from the drawing board and focus on what works, save for me or let me save my own games. I’m a perfectly intelligent human being who happens to have a trigger finger for the F6 quicksave key.

Save systems need as much thought put into them as any element of a game. What each game needs as a checkpoint depends entirely on its own gameplay style. Morrowind and Oblivion had convenient quick and slow saving, however it was arguably too convenient allowing you to bypass the luck of being caught whilst pick-pocketing or in-game gambling. Dead Rising had too difficult of a save system, which tried to put the feeling of fear into the player who didn’t want to die but due to the unpredictability of the gameplay it became too tedious running from savepoint to savepoint.

Games will continue to innovate saving systems such as Resident Evil’s successful typewriter saving but generally games should stick to the tried and true checkpoint, manual save, quick save techniques that gamers love.

Citation:
Kohler, Chris Can one exist without the other…?

Was it the people? The low average IQ of the commentors? Yeah that was part of it but a major aspect of my decision I believe had to do with the lack of progression not gained from scrolling through the seemingly endless pages of content laid out before me.

To maintain the interest of viewers I believe there needs to be a feeling of accomplishment gained from visiting a website. Obviously the core of the solution to giving this feeling to the viewer is having good content, but a simple method is to make the user feel like they know where they are on your/any site. Navigation is of course the overhead and probably one of the most important factors, but the design itself should also be there to guide the user throughout each page in obvious and not so obvious ways.

As I spoke about for horizontal spacing relating to backgrounds the same concepts can be applied to your allotted vertical spacing as well. The vertical treatment of your site has to move the viewers eye where you want it to go. All too often I feel disconnected from the content after scrolling down past the majority of a pages main design and want to either finish the article and leave or quit reading and return to the top of the site where I feel safe.

Designs such as these are wonderful and it’s truly a pleasure to visit, however, if too much content is placed on the page of such a site you find yourself in a void of gray as you scroll down to read. Subconsciously you know you want to get it over with and return to the top so you can see the rest of the site. That’s not what we want at all.

So back to our solution: make the user know where they are. We must think of our goal in many ways. Blogs for example must have obvious beginning and ending points for each entry with, preferably, an expected length. Every page needs a title for a sense of place and each entry should feel grouped together as a solid entity that when you are finished reading you feel accomplished at having read it and hopefully even gained something from it. I went one step further and experimented with a repeating gradient background to give a looping sense of progress as you read each entry. Play around with it, go ahead and scroll really fast and see how it makes you feel. I for one thought it to be rather successful.

There are many ways to fix the lack of progression from generic website scrolling. I’d love to see what your solutions are for this web design problem and if you have made or seen any elegant solutions then post them in the comments below I’d be really interested.