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audreycj-things · 3 years

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[𝓫𝓵𝓸𝓰 𝓽𝔀𝓸] My Top Five I.T. Career Choices

Are you a current or aspiring student of the information technology department? Are you having trouble with what job to take once you’ve completed your four years of torture college? If that’s two yeses, you’re in luck because in this blog post, I’ll be sharing with you the possible careers I’m considering on taking after I graduate.

But before that, let me share with you how I became a part of the Computer Studies department in the first place!

A Back Story of My Career Dilemmas

Roughly three years ago, upon approaching my senior high school years, I was dead set on taking the path towards becoming a lawyer. Hence, I enrolled under the Humanities and Social Sciences strand. (I no longer remember why I wanted to take up law though.) A few self-evaluations later, I realized I wanted to become a medical professional, specifically a neurosurgeon. I can attribute this to familial expectations, the many Korean dramas I watched, and my desire to improve the country’s healthcare system, to help people, and to be one of the few doctors with nice handwriting. And so, I shifted to the STEM strand up until I graduated.

During my last few months in senior high, I underwent personal dilemmas on what I really wanted. Amidst my extended family’s career expectations for me, my wise mother constantly reminded me the reality of medical professionals’ work. She emphasized the importance of your college program being a product of your own choice rather than everyone else’s expectations. And so, I was no longer sure of what program to take in college. At this point, I was already panicking, especially after seeing how confident my peers were with what career they had in mind. All I knew is that I was completely clueless of what to become and that I am a fairly versatile individual who always tries her best in whatever situation and opportunity she’s thrown in. (I’m known to be a jack-of-all-trades type of person.)

Seeing my struggle, my mom recommended me to consider the I.T. field. As a college professor and her university’s official representative to local and international seminars, she has witnessed and understood the potential and significance of professions under this field. Although hesitant at first—mostly because I haven’t been too exposed to opportunities that allow me to acquire advanced computer-related skills (not including the ones I learned in my basic education’s computer classes)— I gave her suggestion some thought and decided that I shall take up the challenge.

And so, here I am, enrolled as a Computer Science student in the tech savvy Malayan Colleges Mindanao.

My Top Five I.T. Career Choices

Before anything else, allow me to explain briefly about the I.T. field that I plan to be a part of. This is for you to be able to catch up with what I’m trying to say, especially since there are going to be various technical terms from here on. And who knows? I might spark your interest in giving this career path a try!

According to Computer Science Online, the information technology industry operates across a range of industries, such as healthcare, finance, education, and entertainment. Broadly, information technology can be defined as the use of computing via various components (e.g. hardware, services, software) to develop, manage, transform, share and store information in different forms. Careers in information technology deal with the design, creation, management, and maintenance of the varied components of the system, including software, hardware, networks, systems integration, and multimedia.

[1] COMPUTER PROGRAMMER

The number one thing that I absolutely want to become is to be a computer programmer.

Following Technopedia’s definition, a computer programmer is a skilled professional who codes, tests, debugs, and maintains the comprehensive instructions known as computer programs that devices should follow to execute their functions. Computer programmers also conceptualize, design, and test logical structures to solve computer issues. Programmers make use of specific computer languages like C, C++, Java, PHP, .NET, etc. to convert the program designs developed by software developers or system architects into instructions that the computer could follow. They often refer to code libraries for simplifying their coding and might build or make use of computer-aided software tools to automate the coding.

I’ve always been awestruck of how coding works. It amazes me how a series of words and symbols arranged in a definite order will result to apps, websites, and other various software—even this word document I’m using under Microsoft Office! It’s surreal how each element of this software functions in such a smart and creative manner, especially when you know it as merely words and symbols in its raw form. I want to be able to do this by developing and learning all the knowledge and skills a good programmer should possess. Afterall, one should aim for excellence first; success will follow.

[2] SOFTWARE DEVELOPER

Another career that I would love to have is to be a software developer.

According to CollegeGrad, software developers are the creative minds behind computer programs. Some develop the applications that allow people to do specific tasks on a computer or another device. Others develop the underlying systems that run the devices or that control networks. Software developers oversee the entire development process for a software program, including testing and maintenance. They design the program and then give instructions to programmers, who write computer code and test it.

Admittedly, I prefer doing the back-end job of a programmer. I don’t really love leading a team in a somewhat creativity-based project. However, the idea of initiating and facilitating the coming-to-life process of a computer program seems incredibly fulfilling. If ever I do become a software developer, I would probably create a computer program that will be of use to hospitals and schools. In fact, my mother encourages me to consider developing an enrollment system someday. No pressure.

[3] DATABASE ADMINISTRATOR

My third option is to become a database administrator.

According to Learn How to Become and Wikipedia, database administrators are responsible for establishing databases for organizations in all sectors of the economy in accordance with their specific needs in order to ensure that data is readily accessible for efficient and effective use by anyone with permission to use it. They use specialized software to store and organize data. Their role may include capacity planning, installation, configuration, database design, migration, performance monitoring, security, troubleshooting, as well as backup and data recovery.

A database administrator’s job appeals to my perfectionism. The idea of being in-charge of keeping everything organized is a huge but ultimately fulfilling challenge.

[4] CYBER SECURITY CONSULTANT

Another career I have in mind is to be a cyber security consultant.

Top Universities emphasizes that maintaining cyber security in the modern world has become increasingly important, so a cyber security consultant’s role focuses on understanding the risks to the security of information or data. I would have to analyze where security breaches may occur or have occurred, and restore or reinforce systems against such breaches, to ensure that confidential data is protected. This role could include ‘ethical hacking’, meaning deliberately attempting to hack into my employer’s network to expose any weaknesses. Alternatively, I could work as a computer forensics analyst or investigator to combat the increasing phenomenon of cyber-crime.

I can attribute my attractions towards this career to the movies I’ve watched that portray hacking (or anything of the sort) to be cool. In several action movies, I always felt excited when seeing characters getting out of a tight, life-and-death situation with their cyber security-related skills. Although now I know that there’s more to this job than hacking—which they only do for testing reasons, otherwise it would be a crime—it still appeals to that part of my self that craves for thrill. In hindsight, the chances of coming across serious cyber security situations (like a government cyber security breach) here in the Philippines is quite low compared to other countries, so I guess my thrill-seeking self won’t be too satisfied if I work locally.

[5] GAME DEVELOPER

My last and fifth career choice is to become a game developer.

According to Top Universities, game developers produce games for personal computers, games consoles, social/online games, arcade games, tablets, mobile phones, and other handheld devices. This role splits into two main parts. First, there’s the creative side of designing a game and dealing with the art, animation, and storyboarding. Second, there’s the programming side, using programming languages such as C++.

I fit into the second part of developing game—the programming part. Although I’d rather invest on computer programs that are of use to the community, helping create a game seems like a fun way to apply coding. In hindsight, games are not just limited to the “fun” aspect because they offer more benefits than entertainment, so I guess I’m still helping the community in a way. I play games myself, especially the MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game called League of Legends. I understand and have experienced that one can learn, acquire, and hone skills (like strategy planning, enhanced reflexes, analysis) from playing games, especially complex ones. Furthermore, one can create and maintain friendships with games, as well as improve their self-confidence.

OVERALL...

Computer programmer, software developer, database administrator, cyber security consultant, game developer… whatever my career will be, I hope I’ll love what I’ll do and contribute something to the betterment of the community.

I also hope to prove some family members wrong about IT-related jobs being insignificant, that graduates under this program just “end up in computer shops.” While managing and maintaining a computer shop is a noble job, there’s so much more to the professions under I.T. that are constantly being overlooked and taken for granted. We are literally living in the digital age, yet many people still don’t appreciate this field enough. Hopefully, I’ll be able to enlighten and inspire people to try this career path and be a part of the tech savvy community.

Wish me luck in my journey!

#career #computer science #information technology #blog post

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bluewindsofrestoration · 5 years

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Continued from here:

Innes found himself at a loss of words upon listening to his royal counterpart. Peeking at Eirika from the corner of his eyes, he could sense that she seemed to be awkward after speaking like that to him–that aside, he hoped she was feeling better if indeed it was awkwardness that he detected.

He sighed. However a faint smile brewed on his face as he poured another shot of water for her. Looking at her like this sometimes it was still hard to believe, even for him, watching Eirika to grow into her own woman considering he had known her nearly as long as he knew Ephraim. How many years had it passed? He sure recalled how she’d sincerely ask him to befriend the brother instead of smugly sticking his tongue at him, calling him dumb every now and then even back then. But now–

“Do you think so?” he chuckled lightly, tone as tempered as the expression he was wearing right now. “Perhaps I’ve been being too mean to her these days, hmmm? Is that what you think, Eirika?” he followed the to down some wine himself while Eirika chose water. “A nice person role isn’t fitting for me,” he said quietly after letting the drink sink in his mouth. “If seeing me motivates her to be the better person and a Frelian royal than I am, so be it. I’m contended enough to watch and protect her from behind–or perhaps, in other words, to nag her.”

He wondered where that courage came from; perhaps watching Eirika appearing awkward–yet it was there, and for a moment his hand traveled onto hers.

At that time he couldn’t stop his thoughts from wandering. Her hand felt a bit different compared to what he used to know; to hold and to kiss during formal state banquets when they met as representatives of their respective crown. Eirika’s hand felt a bit calloused now; no doubt she had grown some muscles from her training and all the combat she utilized during the war, and yet–

It is warm. It always is.

“Why the sudden shyness, Eirika? Your tongue has always managed to ground me, inside and outside the court,” he said casually. “I’m glad to hear this from you. I’m delighted to know that you cherish my sister as well.”

Again, he listened to her talking. It was interesting, listening to her jousting her ideas with his despite her being unaware of it. It was genuinely interesting to talk to someone of his own peerage pretty loosely like this. Of course there was Vanessa, ever-willing to help him. But even if he wanted to cut the distance between them she was still his retainer, and she always made it known.

Eirika was Eirika and she had always been Eirika.

“I did not know, honestly,” Innes shrugged casually. “All my life I’m used to… strategizing. Planning. I do not proclaim friendship just on the basis of us talking. … Or so I thought…”

He needed the water.

“… You made me believe that such thing was possible. To just sit and talk like this. And perhaps working together to reach a common goal, for the greater good. … Ephraim, too. Ephraim too,” he quickly added, feeling awkward in return. “And perhaps that what brought Prince Lyon close to you. Speaking like me, I guarantee this–being able to trust another party is by no means a simple matter…”

He squeezed Eirika’s hand. As expected, it was a bit calloused, but the warmth stayed–

“And I thank you for the experience. So raise your head, Eirika, you have done nothing but being a good friend to Prince Lyon, and whatever it was he personally viewed pertaining himself and the throne was not your fault.”

(Actual response starts here because how does mobile work)

She whispered her thanks and considered his question about Tana. The fact that he was in a jovial mood meant that she could play this a certain way. “From what I’ve seen, you have always bossed her around a bit.” She noted he chose wine while she lifted her glass to her mouth. If the wine truly was poor in quality, was it wise for him to drink it? And what would happen if the spymaster were to have his tongue loosened?

“I think you have proven how nice you can be by coming to my aid,” Eirika said. Part of her knew that it is the bare minimum a friend could do, but he had gone beyond it by sharing these parts of himself that he normally kept hidden. “And while my friend has truly matured, does she know how proud you are of that?” She shook her head. “Oh, I do not mean to make it sound like she wasn’t mature before the war, and the kind of experiences we had in war are not desireable at all.” She nodded in the direction of his glass. “Given what I sound like at the moment, I would not drink that if I were you.”

His hand was more comforting than it should be. Lyon’s hands, even in Jehanna, were so soft... Why hadn’t Formortiis taken the opportunity to strike me down? That was probably Lyon stopping him, right? What would he think of me now? He thought himself so weak, if only he knew how I feel on nights like this-

Ah, Innes had said something else, something about shyness and cherishing Tana. “She is one of my dearest friends; of course I cherish her. And if I am quiet tonight, it is because...” She stared at her glass. “It is because of my particular sort of... trouble with a man.” Yes, that was an easier way to phrase it, if not truthful in the most literal sense.

“I must apologize if I did not make it clear in our youth that I held you in high esteem.” She smiled sheepishly. “When you were not competing in some way or another with my brother, at least.”

She has inspired him in such a way? During the latter stages of the war, Eirika had developed a sense of how she inspired people, but she never would have guessed that Innes would be among them. If he looked up to anyone, she assumed it would have been his father. Her head felt clearer than it had since before she had tried to wine.

“I know that deep in my soul, Innes, but it is so much easier to blame myself. Should I tell myself that he fell victim to the Demon King due to chance, and that any of us could have been so tempted had we been the heir to Grado? Should I cast blame on my brother when I could just as easily slap him in the face? Or could I say that it was his, his own...” Eirika couldn’t finish the thought, either in her head or alone. She grabbed her glass, eager to distract herself.

#ferpxforgingbonds #strategematicusrex #(Now off to Deirdre!)#(Edited because it’s kind of ambiguous what happened with the stone in RP canon oops)

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clovercoin · 7 years

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isn't the issue with fetishizing chronic illness just as bad as the thing with stimmies?

THIS IS A VERY GOOD POINT! It’s time for critical thinking with AJ.

AJ, why do you have a stick up your butt about this? Why did seeing Menhera style anime artwork upset you?

(TLDR Version at the bottom of the post.)

I’m not sure where to place my emotions. It was mostly a general confusion of, “Who are these people? What gives them the right to make a fashion statement out of my misery and the illnesses that have quite literally ripped my life from me?” Now you see that and you gotta take a step back.

It’s something I had been stewing on for a bit now. So the longer I went without addressing it or talking about it, more angry I seemed to get about it. Finally the other day I saw it mentioned again as adoptable style and it just made me burn up to the point I made that vent post, great thing I did!

My friend @follyface was extremely kind to leave a comment just kinda help explain it further since it was a lot of her personal interests and she’s been my follower, and i hers, for a long time now. This wasn’t just some RANDOM person, this was another person I knew and saw around on a daily basis. So obviously I’m a lot more motivated to hear her out. You know how when discourse happens, the person who starts it tends to just put their fingers in their ears until they’re done pouting about it. Sometimes it’s hours, days, or waaaay longer. I’m just grateful for me it actually flipped pretty quickly just by talking to folly!

What also helped immensely were other bloggers who reblogged and commented on it to help kinda give more information as to how it became a thing, who uses it, why it’s in use. yaddaya. You know, the whole picture. Not just my gross assumption of, “Why the hell are pretty skinny white girls using my illnesses/disability as a fashion trend?”

I was absolutely wrong. It was an ignorant statement that was just festering misunderstanding and honest? I know better than this. I think I’m emotionally raw and angry right now just because I’m so sick. But that doesn’t give me the right to make those broad statements using harsher tones that could hurt my friends who enjoy that content, or even worse, if my disabled/spoonie followers who saw my statement who very much adore Menhera and use it to make themselves feel better about their own skin and illnesses. I never once even took that into consideration and that was wrong of me.

I know it comes too late possibly, I do want to make more a broad apology to my followers who possibly were hurt by my venting. I won’t remove the posts because I personally believe the content that follows it up is extremely helpful and knowledgeable. It sure showed me, maybe it will show someone else too?

So AJ, what are you going to do differently?

Well… I’m personally going to try to be a lot more open minded to Menhera aesthetic. I personally am not sure how I feel about it, it’s very mixed for me. I know I love seeing spoonies deck out their mobility aids, make charms or accessories representing and helping spread the word about illnesses that affect millions of people. So why can’t I feel that jump start of excitement and positivity for Menhera… I think all this means is I clearly need to research more. I like cutie-fying things, so it only makes sense that this should be something I would enjoy… hmm. Folly has been wonderful and suggested some blogs that I might personally enjoy. If you peepers have any spoonie/disabled blogs that are menhera blogs I do politely ask if anyone would be open to sharing them with me and help me get more accustomed to see it around and understanding it much better. Obv no one here has to help me one or is expected too. I can research and look on my own too and I plan too! I just would love to see other’s personal interested blogs I guess if nothing else. c:

Okay, so what about the stimmies? Why did that subject twist your nipples so bad? You reacted the complete opposite of Menhera?????

BECAUSE AJ IS A HYPOCRITE. REMEMBER THAT. This is an amazing point to bring up anon! Thank you! This is not something I even REMOTELY considered relatable to Menhera, but… that’s… dumb. Of course it’s just like Menhera subject. What in the world makes them any different from each other? all the same subjects crop up.

“This person is fetishizing disabled/autistic people!”

“Are they even disabled/autistic? :/”

“They are making a profit off of disabled/autistic and that’s gross.”

These are all vague/rough statements I saw around Stimmies and my own first thoughts on Menhera. I had an argument for every single one when it was about stimmies, but the minute it was Menhera? I was on the other side of the argument saying, “HEY STOP THAT.” But you know what? That’d not right. I have NO place to tell, even when venting to myself, to do or not do something. Ever.

+ I think I reacted so much to everyone shit slinging cinnabutt for making stimmies for their own enjoyment was because all the insults they tossed at her? Honestly felt like they could just be directed at me too. I made pillowings as a comfort character for myself. I took me 5-6 years before I ever had the courage to try releasing them to the public as adoptables even though people had been asking me ever since I drew missy, the first blue one.

This was my personal aid character. It was made very specifically for me and making me feel better, loved, and not alone. Slowly as I started to open up about my illness and get some of the support I needed, I realized I could give some back. After all this time, pillowing adoptables became a big thing. They sold well, got lots of attention, help pay for all my medical debts when they came up. It was amazing eye-opening experience for me.

To me, pillowings are my personal stim species. I stim constantly in various ways and that has had a huge negative impact my entire life. So when I saw people openly talking about stimming and making adorable squishy creatures that looked so CUTE and beautiful it took me by surprise. “Stimming isn’t pretty…” I was so confused by it. But I loved it all the time. It was so easy to relate too and I could literally imagine myself squishing a rice-filled paws of pillowings, or pulling/stretching a gummy character as it squeaks and smiles batting at your hands playfully…. It… made me really happy to see it. To think that maybe my random erratic movements aren’t just ugly and annoying. That my skin CRAVING scratching wasn’t just gross or weird. Just.. It made me feel nice. Not normal, but nice. It was even nicer to see so many other people relating to them and liking them as well. That’s exactly how I feel about the stimmies and pillowings because to me they are very much on the same playing field I just happened to give my pillowings a different name rather than something as direct as stimmies.

So many people are still upset about it though. Honestly? I get it now. I’m sorry I was rude before about the stimmies subject if anyone felt I was abrasive on @closedspeciesdrama when I would leave comments or such. I see why it makes some people anxious because I literally just had this same thing happen to me and this Menhera gimmick.

However I think we all need to kinda… step back. We need to examine why exactly does this upset us? Why does this make us angry or hurt? “I bet the person isn’t even disabled/sick/autistic…” This was my first thought too. However we need to fuck off with that thinking. Why? Because no one is EVER obligated to share such deep personal / medical information with you or ANYONE. Invisible illnesses are extremely complicated and hard to deal with. Even in the communities of support things like this still happen. Someone will made a rude comment or assumption that someone isn’t as “sick” as they say they are cause of how we see them on a public platform.

Doesn’t matter if all the girls I saw in my very brief google of Menhera are white, skinny, or pretty. They could be sick, they could be disabled, they could just be allies. I have no idea and it’s not my place to rain on their parades because I don’t know or I’m making assumptions about these peoples by only looking at them for .5 seconds. It’s the exact same thing with stimmies. You have no idea who is making them/adopting them and you don’t know why they are. They are not required to give you an explanation as to why this particular thing makes them happy. If they do? Wonderful, kudos to them. But no one ever should be forced to do that.

As for making a profit off of disabled people/autistic people… Everyone deserves to be paid for their time and energy they use to create something new. Be it wonderful or not. If no one buys it, then the creator most likely will move on to their next phase. If people buy it, clearly that means there are people out there, like myself, who need to see things like that in a creative and positive light. That’s how I see it. Don’t like it? Don’t buy it. Plain and simple.

TLDR VERSION:

AJ was wrong for being so quick to judge rudely of Menhera fashion culture/aesthetics. AJ needs to research more on Menhera culture itself to help her understand it better.

Stimmies are great. Representation matters.

Don’t ask people for personal/medical info if it’s not freely given.

PAY ARTISTS IF YOU LIKE THEIR CONTENT.

That’s all. ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

#menhera #csdrama #cinnabutt #stimmies #stim #stimming #chronic illness #chronic pain #disabled #spoonie #spoonies #mental illness #Anonymous #AJask

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nerobombs · 7 years

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Insert Story Here: Ishgard

(Want more? Check out my Writing tag!)

I saw a few posts about Ishgard floating about, and I guess I haven’t actually written that many things on this blog yet, so I’m going to compile some of my writings about a subject I love to hate.

Anyone who knows me or reads my forum posts (a lot of of the content of which will be shamelessly copy-pasted here because what is effort) knows of the disdainful loathing I have for Heavensward’s writing. It’s not inherently bad--at worst it’s merely mediocre, filled to the brim with paper-thin plot vehicles and McGuffins--but the potential for a good story was there.

Indeed, compared to most video game plots and MMO plots especially, the level of coherence it manages to maintain amidst the plague-ridden retcon carcass of World of Warcraft and the slightly suspicious smells being put out by Guild Wars 2 (whose story content used to be totally absurd, but they’ve been getting better) could almost be called admirable.

Almost.

I still don’t like it, though, in the same way that a disapproving father wouldn’t be particularly fond of his rebellious daughter’s boyfriend showing off a condom shaped like the head of a great white shark to his mates at school. It’s not the object itself, but rather the implications.

If you plan on reading further, put some goggles on, because there’s a lot of debris in a train wreck.

There’s also some crude humour and crass analogies ahead too.

First, I’ll preface this by saying that I firmly believe that Heavensward’s writing was restricted by the game design. This forgives certain things. For example, if the design priority is to have the players go to Azys Lla immediately after the Dravanian Hinterlands, then the writing’s job is as simple as coming up with an utterly contrived reason to do so. It’s frustrating, sure, but there’s a reason for it.

That said, I still have several problems.

1). There’s no Ishgard any more!

The things that interested me the most about Ishgard were, well, the things that made it Ishgard. It was unique. Ishgard was a despotic militant theocracy waging a genocidal holy war against a superior force amidst a tumultuous climate of political ambition, religious zealotry, and class warfare. There was something fascinating about the dichotomous nature of Ishgard's politics and culture, being ostensibly built around order and a single-minded goal yet also being unstable without the unifying threat of the dragons and built on the foundations of a lie (or at least, a historical misrepresentation), and all of this was put against a tense backdrop formed by the terrifyingly absolute power of the Church and the Inquisition.

Except, all of that is gone now. Poof.

Ishgard’s not a dictatorship any more. No, Ishgard seamlessly transitioned from a dictatorship to a bicameral republic with absolutely no conflict or resistance in the slightest. Part of the problem with this is that Thordan was absolutely batshit and the story handled Thordan horribly, but more on that later.

Ishgard’s not a theocracy any more. Since Ishgard is now a secular government, the Ishgardian Orthodox Church has been rendered impotent. There’s no war and no enemy, so there’s no Inqusition.

And perhaps most offensively of all, Ishgard’s not militant any more. The Dragonsong War is definitively ended. Yeah, you can try to make some weak justification of “But Nidhogg’s brood”, but if killing Nidhogg didn’t end the war then the stragglers are completely meaningless. The thousand-year genocidal holy war that formed the entirety of Ishgard’s national identity for a millennia is just gone.

That means that there’s no longer any glory gained from slaying dragons. That means the Order of the Dragoon is now completely meaningless. Commoners could become nobles by applying themselves and slaying dragons, but now even that limited and dangerous social mobility no longer exists.

About the only thing that separates Ishgard from the other city states is that they have snow, now. Where it was once an environment ripe for intrigue, it’s now as deflated and as saccharine as any of the other city states.

2). The ending wasn’t earned by anyone

Ishgard becoming a more peaceful state isn’t an inherently bad thing, though. Honestly, that is kind of small potatoes. The problem is how Ishgard got there.

Heavensward’s story had no struggle and no sacrifice. At least, nothing that was meaningful or represented. Literally, Ishgard achieved its peace completely effortlessly.

Why does Ishgard transition so smoothly to a republic? Why is it that when Aymeric says “Hey guys, the dragons said it’s our fault and they’re totally right”, everyone accepts it unanimously? Why does Aymeric manage to take on the politics of the House of Lords and House of Commons so easily and effortlessly? How come Lucia has absolutely no qualms whatsoever about Aymeric’s aide-de-camp being discovered as Garlean? How is it that the Temple Knights and most especially the Dragoons--in which having a doomed hometown that was completely incinerated by dragons and having lost everyone you loved is almost a requirement--accept the peace so readily?

The most that anyone ever suffers is that Aymeric gets stabbed with a fruit knife exactly one time, and some crazy lady in Falcon’s Nest gets shot with an arrow.

And no, Haurchefant and Ysayle most emphatically do not count. Haurchefant was a one-dimensional character whose death was padded to the brim with arbitrary, ham-fisted melodrama, and Ysayle died in a context that was completely and totally irrelevant to her character arc to the point where her death may as well have not happened and literally nothing in the story would have changed.

I'm not exactly advocating for Game of Thrones-esque levels of character death. But even in light-hearted, idealistic stories, there are struggles. There is an ordeal for our heroes to conquer, and the resolution is earned. Can you imagine if, in the Lord of the Rings, Frodo and Sam really did take the Eagles to Mordor and just dropped the ring into Mount Doom? Pop, just like that?

Estinien's struggle over Nidhogg and subsequently over his own vengeance, then dying in order to keep both of those things from continuing to hurt people he cares about. That's a struggle and sacrifice. That's a price paid to overcome a meaningful conflict, because overcoming all meaningful conflict requires a great deal of effort, sacrifice, or both. But Estinien is just fine too. Turns out, all he had to do to kill his most hated enemy was get possessed by him. Huh! More people should try that.

Aymeric could have been a really good avatar for Ishgard’s conflict as a whole. Here we have a military man and bastard son of the Archbishop suddenly become embroiled in politics and trusted to lead the future of his nation. I keep mocking his getting stabbed with a fruit knife in 3.1, but there was some actual drama there: the nobility accused Aymeric of being a patricidal heretic and saw his removing Thordan as a power grab. And the reason why Aymeric seems mostly flat is because the world doesn't give him any consequences to deal with, and even if they do, we never see him deal with this consequences. Ishgard becomes a seamless democracy with no problem. He doesn't care about the Eyes of Nidhogg at all or the implication that Nidhogg might come back as long as they're still intact. Everyone respects and follows him without question. He faces no genuine conflict that reflects upon his character besides "He's a nice guy and does good stuff". Why is Aymeric never overwhelmed by the politics? Why do we never see his frustration from having to juggle the wants and needs of Lords and commoners? Why does he never think about the ramifications of his actions (fucking EYES OF NIDHOGG, ANYONE)? There is a lot of room for serious depth that goes wasted because ultimately, Aymeric is a side character. And the thing is that Lucia can have real depth too besides being Aymeric's arm candy. She's a defected Garlean. We can never tell if her experience as a soldier in the Empire colours her perception of Eorzea or Ishgard. We never see Aymeric really rely on her except as a patsy or a messenger. If Aymeric is busy running the country as Lord Speaker, shouldn't she be in charge of the Temple Knights? Shouldn't Lucia have some apprehensions on being found out as a Garlean and being put in a position of authority? She's devoted to Aymeric and Ishgard, but we never see her be relevant except when she's doing something in Aymeric's stead. Is she ashamed of being Garlean?

Oh well, I guess it doesn’t matter. Peace for everyone, yay!

3). The focus of the story was Fucked with a capital F

Maybe it’s just me, but I am not on board with the game's fetish for the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. I get that they're essentially the "main" characters and the vehicle our characters use to travel all over the place and beat up primals, but the characters are flat and completely uninteresting. I don't care! I want to see Ishgard. I want to delve into a conflicted theocracy undergoing rapid, sudden change. I want to see more Aymeric, more Lucia, more Ysayle and Estinien. Hell, I want to see more of those fucking Fortemps brats more than I want to see the Scions.

This is also where I kind of start to get a little mad.

I get that the main conflict is between the Scions and the Ascians regarding the revival of Zodiark. Fine. I just don't think that the pacing of a far more interesting storyline (the Dragonsong war) should have been completely butchered in order to make room for the Scions and Ascians who really don't even do anything besides show up in the background and remind you that things are going to happen. Not that they are happening, but that eventually there'll be some kind of payoff.

The Scions get a ridiculous amount of screen time considering how little they accomplish and how irrelevant they are to Ishgard, and it is astounding how little effort the game puts in to make us care about them. I don't care about Thancred's missing pants. I don't care about Krile being Minfillia in all but name. I stopped caring about Alphinaud when he had the audacity to tell the Warrior of fucking Light to hand out T-shirts to the Crystal Braves because there’s no Eorzean word for “delegation”.

The Scions are the main characters, fine. This wouldn’t be such a problem if any of them had more personality or dimension than a piece of drift wood. We had the perfect opportunity to explore in-depth this new land of Ishgard and Coerthas, and instead it was wasted on...the Scions.

Here's why I don't like any of the writing for the Scions: they do display a measure of depth, consequence, and respond to consequence, but the thing is that their writing is built on more bad writing. Let's take for example Thancred, who actually has some real weight among the Scions. He felt responsible for Minfillia since he got her dad killed and feels guilt over being unable to save her. He's grieved over Minfilia becoming the voice of Hydaelyn and is much less snarky and less of a womaniser, becoming more stoic as a result. There's some actual development there. Except, the subject of his dramas was a cardboard cutout who was more useless than a DVD rewinder (Minfilia), the whole reason for her death was absurd to the point of raving madness (the entire Ul'dah conflict in 2.5 that started Heavensward...jesus shit), and interactions with Thancred are mostly just exposition. Thancred is always an observer and never a subject. Urianger is about the only Scion I actually like because there is actual emotional depth there that is revealed after the death of Moenbryda and the subject of his affections wasn't totally incompetent. Alisaie got a lot of focus in the last patch, but her character is so transparently a blatant plot device that it's hard to take seriously. She appears and disappears as needed. She had a good arc during Binding Coil where she defrosts but in 3.4 she goes totally Scion-brand flat. And in 3.4, her whole drama was that she wasn't willing to kill a kobold kid who might be tempered. Our teenaged heroine might have a problem with killing children? Stop the presses, Square Enix!

Also, think about this: Moenbryda got introduced in one patch and killed in the next, and she was written way better than most of the Scions, and that was with most of her backstory being delivered via exposition dump. Square Enix can do it, they just choose not to.

4). What is pacing? Can you eat it?

Ugh.

Like I said, I don’t find it especially problematic that Ishgard underwent radical change. I do have an especially HUGE problem with how it happened, though.

If they really had to pull off the "Nidhogg comes back to life" plot device, then Heavensward should have ended with Nidhogg's first death followed immediately by Estinien's possession. 3.1 Aymeric acting in direct opposition to Archbishop Thordan in order to secure peace with Hraesvelgr's brood. 3.2 would deal with Aymeric and Co. working towards securing said peace amidst the chaos about the Dragonsong War, and still end with Vidofnir getting shanked just after a tenuous peace had been agreed upon. 3.3, Nidhogg dies. 3.4 would deal with the conflict of Ishgard's reformation and hint at Thordan’s plans to become a primal, and the expansion ends with 3.5 as Thordan become a Primal in a desperate bid to secure the theocracy's power after peace had been achieved with the dragons.

You can completely write this off as me complaining that the story is bad because I didn’t write it, sure, whatever. But let’s examine what actually happened.

Instead, more than half of the initial expansion story and the subsequent 3.1 and 3.2 patches is spent fucking around with the Scions and watching the Ascians and Warriors of Darkness twirl their bad-guy mustaches going "Guys we are totally still relevant to the story". Then Regula van Hydrus shows up to join the mustache twirling by going "Please don’t forget the Garleans, we put a lot of effort into recycling the Judges from Final Fantasy 12", and seeing Square Enix completely fucking bomb any potential that Ul'dah had to be interesting by not going through with killing off the Sultana.

Side note, what in the flying fuck was the point of the Sultana’s poisoning and the whole Ul’dah thing besides making it so Raubahn now has to put magazines on his lap to turn the pages? If you can legitimately answer this question--and no, getting the WoL to Ishgard does not count because the WoL already had a gazillion reasons to go there that weren’t idiotic--then I’ll buy you a Night Pegasus mount.

I’m going to highlight all of my subsequent issues with addressing the train wreck that is Archbishop Thordan “Wasted Opportunity VII”.

Like I said, I somewhat understand that the writing is constrained by the game design. But that doesn’t really excuse the fact that Thordan’s entire character was completely bonkers.

He locks up Aymeric, runs away from Ishgard, ninja loots the key to Azys Lla, goes to Azys Lla and becomes a primal for about twenty minutes before dying. His entire load blown in the span of a couple of days at best.

And part of this problem is how easily the majority of Ishgard accepts responsibility for starting the Dragonsong War. Thordan's response to Aymeric threatening to reveal the truth shouldn't have been to lock Aymeric up, but to say "Who would believe you?"

The Ishgardians have been the subject of a measured genocidal war that was deliberately transformed into a war of attrition for a thousand years. Are they really such easily manipulated little worms that Aymeric and some foreign wahoo who may or may not have actually killed primals can sway a population from the entirety of their millennia-old tradition and heritage with a couple of speeches?

In addition, the main conflict between Thordan and Aymeric's ideologies in the game is implied to be order versus chaos, except Thordan's idea of "order" is completely batshit and nonsensical.

Thordan's whole deal should have been that Ishgard needs the Dragonsong War, or at least the dragons as enemies, to remain stable and to retain its heritage and national identity. For one thousand years, Ishgard's been throwing themselves at the dragons, and to completely undermine the last thousand years of war would do nothing but sow chaos and breed discontent and destroy the unity that's kept the city together all this time. That is the idea of order that Thordan should have been trying to adhere to: the status quo is god, or ends on favourable terms.

Instead, Thordan for some reason decides that the path to peace is a world of absolute order at the cost of all freedoms and the destruction of anyone who opposes him. He becomes more one dimensional in motivations than Sauron. This is some insane hypocritical thinking since he opens the gates so the Heretics can assault the foundation to fuel the prayers to become King Thordan, and this hypocrisy completely robs him of any legitimacy. There's no escalation. Thordan immediately jumps to fire the nuke that is becoming King Thordan. There's no buildup. And that's most of Heavensward's writing in a nutshell: the pacing is awful, so all these characters either fix things flawlessly in an incredibly short time with no consequences (Aymeric), or immediately become insane (Thordan) to move the plot along.

I don’t trust Stormblood’s content to be compelling at all. Anything that was interesting about Ala Mhigo will be resolved with maybe five lines of dialogue, tops, if Heavensward is any indication. At best, there will be an offscreen resolution that maybe makes sense if you just don’t think about it.

Ala Mhigo has the potential to have a lot of interesting themes and conflict. I just don't trust the writers to actually explore any of that, because who bothers exploring interesting themes and conflict when we can watch Yda be a princess or some shit? Look, Papalymo is hitting someone with Tupsimati! That's interesting, right? Thancred lost his pants again, uh oh! No. The Warriors of Darkness were pretty decent, but the conflict with the Ascians should really be a background thing, a sinister undertone that adds to the gravity of the Warrior of Light going around and saving the world. The instant you shove the mysteries in our face--repeatedly--it stops being a mystery and it takes all the proactivity away from our characters. Here's how we currently handle the Ascians: we sit on our happy asses and wait for them to do something, then react. And maybe we'll save Ishgard on the side if we feel like it. It should be the other way around. We should be proactively going to stop the Dragonsong war as our main motivation. We should be going to liberate Ala Mhigo as our main motivation. I don't think we should be going there with the Scions, waiting for the Ascians, and "Yeah cool the Ascians aren't doing anything, I guess we should liberate Ala Mhigo".

TL;DR i don’t like FFXIV’s story

#ffxiv #rant #heavensward #writing #final fantasy xiv #balmung #ishgard

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daisycantiani-blog · 5 years

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ACE Experience

November 6th, at Watford Stadium took place the Assessment Centre Experience and this is the first year that The School of Creative Arts has participated. During this event, we had to complete a group exercise, an interview and a presentation, with the final written feedback from each exercise on the day from the assessors. They gave us a nice welcome in the Sir Elton John Suite where they explained us everything we had to know like the daily programme, the timetable and the map to the rooms. Everything was very clear from the beginning and this was useful to focused only on my exercises. I felt lucky to be there, in the right place of the world, in the right moment of my life. I must say that the structure and the topic of this course are quite far from what I used to do in Italy, and I was pretty sceptic about it. Now that 2 months of my 5 months here are gone, I realized that I need this more than I think and now that this event is gone, I understood the importance of being part of a group to do this kind of job.

I should start saying that I was terrified from Assessment Centre Experience. Everything seemed to me an impassable wall, until a did the first exercise, the presentation. I was glad to start with something that represented me, in which I felt more confident. I chose to talk about the importance of sound design in films and television, a topic I really care about and in which I’m very interested. For the preparation, I did some researches, saw lots of videos, and listening several examples to deeply understand the difference between films and television. As I’m very interested in sound, I read some texts I already had and others I found on Google Books. To support my presentation, I used audio aids as examples and I did an experiment I saw time ago and from which I remained fascinated. I also did a short video to help me in this: I put three videos together and I’ve replaced the audio of one of them, instead of the right sound, I’ve added an audio recorded from me of something totally different from the image. My mates should have guessed which one the clip with the modified audio was, to find out only after that I put my audio in all three videos. The examiner was very kind and friendly from the beginning and makes me and my classmates very comfortable. As soon as I started to talk all the stress disappeared and I felt like if those endless 5 minutes became too few. The feedback of this first exercise was quite good, I didn’t seem nervous as I actually was and this is important to me because it means I was able to handle anxiety situation. The assessor’s questions were about how I worked for my presentation, how I took to prepare all I needed and which researches I made. The question I loved the most was the last one, it was something like: “If you would have had more time available, how would have you used it?”. I was positively impressed because I would have talked hours about that topic, but I couldn’t and this question gave me the possibility to show something more.

The second exercise I went through was the interview one to one: this is the exercise that surprised me the most. I never expected to be so self-confident in such a situation. The Assessor was a very nice and friendly woman and this is helped me to be ready for the imminent interview. I seemed to her very “smiling and warm”, traits of my character I wanted to be noticed. She saw in me also enthusiasm, passion and expression of creativity: nothing better for someone trying to make art. I’m glad that I was able to communicate this part of me. Unfortunately, I appeared nervous and anxious to her throughout the interview exercise, and this is makes me smile because I’ve never been so relaxed, but I evidently did a bad work with my body language. I struggled to explain some ideas during the exercise and I had some problems with the STAR techniques, for this reason, in the feedback she advised me to work on it. I did some exercises about this technique at home but, once I was there, it became hard to explain. I will work on it for sure. Summing up, I was happy of myself and how a manage this situation, a new situation for me, aggravated by my not perfect use of English.

This problem took me to fail the last exercise, the group exercise. We had to find a way to bring new clients to The Galleria, the main shopping centre in Hatfield. The main outcome of the group exercise was a mobile phone application, with the layout, colours and style of The Galleria logo. We had 5 minutes to read the topic and truly understand what we had to do, 25 minutes to discuss it in group and the last 10 minutes to present the final outcome to the assessor. I’m very angry about this, because the topic we had to discuss was very easy and accessible. I know well that place, I’ve been there dozens of times and I had the possibility to express my ideas, but I failed. Unfortunately, the different language represented an obstacle for me in that situation. I was so concentrated on listening my group mates, understanding what they were saying, thinking a way to say what I wanted to say that I wasn’t able to think to my own idea to contribute to the group discussion. I have to admit I was disoriented and I’m sorry about that, I could have done more than just listening. I had what it took to be a success: the topic was easy and inherent, the working group were friendly and above all, were formed by people I knew, and finally, it was an exercise, I could do mistakes, nothing would have happened, I just had to be brave. I need to learn from my mistakes to do better the next time.

In conclusion I have to spend some reflective words about what all this taught me. In the days before this event, I was very worried, I thought I couldn’t do it and that I would have dried up. Despite this I made my preparation trying to not think about it. When the day came, I decided to be brave and give all my best to have a success. I gave myself a challenge. I learnt which my weaknesses are and I understood how to overcome my limits, I just have to work on them. I was surprised by myself in some situations, and disappointed in others contexts. I’m now very happy that I did this experience, it made me strong and more self-confident, despite all my worries. These kind of experience, in my opinion, are very useful for our path out of the University, they let us know how the work environment is, they let us be wrong to improve more and more, they make us aware of ourselves and of others around us. Personally, I found these exercises very useful for everything concerns the group work, I wasn’t so used to work as part of a group, I did lots and more individual projects in Italy. Learn how to interact with my colleagues and gain more awareness of myself were two of my main goals in this Erasmus. I’ve never been good at selling myself as I’ve always thought that my art should have talked for itself but I was wrong, or better, this is partly true. But what a company wants from us first is our ideas, everything starts from an idea and we must be able to tell it as a story, turn it in an experience for who is listening it. In this sense, doing a good practice work isn’t enough. After this event, I know better how to handle a situation in which I have to be the best and where the words are my artwork. I cannot fail to mention my classmates Tamya, Melissa and Anja, they were fantastic mates and I learnt lots of things from them. Obviously, they have more experience than me, and even if they are still learning like me as students, I had the opportunity to listening their presentations and “steal” some attitudes. Between the exercises, we could share our worries but also lots of laughs to reduce the tension. We talked about our work and preparation and we encouraged each other. Summing up, I’m quite happy of what I did, I could do more and better of course, but I learnt more than I expected, I found out my limits and now I know how to overcome them. Experience that, for better or for worse, I will hardly forget.

Here’s the link to the folder in which are my CV, Cover letter, the feedback of the day, the material’s presentation and the evidences od the training sessions.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1A5aN6KHnMwnVjpP11sZKGxEXFaCitOKO

#Teamworkpractices #ACEexperience #Assignment1

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