leafbunk

It's pretty wild how Google has expanded so much. They offer so many different services now, and are working to provide even more. I'm sure the Google team is massive. I think that they've got a good thing going with this new patent search as well. Seems like a pretty spiffy function. Categories and better descriptions would most definitely improve the search.

Isn't it amazing how much we DON'T think about what's out there on a daily basis? It's so mind blowing that there is so much space out there, and that we occupy so little of it. We are so self-absorbed. All of us it seems. We are so small and yet we hold the idea and live our lives like they are the most important thing going on in the whole universe. It'll be a crazy day when we stuble upon other lifeforms. Crazy indeed.

Well, this was a game that WAS actually made. My boyfriend showed it to me. It's a sega game about Michael Jackson, and you have to save the children from men in business suits by dancing. It's such an odd game. I can't quite remember the title of it though, which is a shame.

I think that exposure to graphic video games/movies/scenes/events, etc. changes people's tolerace to violence and graphic imagery. Each individual naturally has a level of tolerance for that sort of thing, and frequent exposure to it causes them to become less concerned with it and more allowing. Of course this is basically true in any circumstance, but speaking specifically about violence and violent behaviour, I think this is a very problematic result. This is probably a stupid example, but my when my boyfriend got the game Postal, I felt very horrible watching it. I couldn't explain this feeling, because in my head I knew it was just a video game, but still, my tolerance level for that sort of graphic imagery was very low at the time. Therefore, I felt uncomfortable with what was going on in the game. Now though, because I've been more exposed to it, I have no problem at al with that sort of thing. I don't flinch or blink or anything really now when I see him going for head shots. This isn't to say that I'm going to go out on the street and try to shoot real people in the head, but I think it has affected me in a way that if I saw something like that actually happen now, I wouldn't have nearly as emotional of a reaction as I would have previous to being exposed to Postal. I think that constant exposure to violence (wherever it might be) pushes us all to a state of "numbness". If we all continue to become more and more numb to the world, it provides for a very unstable future for us all. With the increase in exposure to graphic material, our sense of things like compassion and empathy begin to slip away. I don't know about all of you, but I know I wouldn't want to live in a society devoid of those two things.

People are insane. It makes me so furious to think that there are so many people out there who have no respect for others. It frustrates me so much, because those types of people are so unbelievably self-absorbed that they've no idea the repercussions their actions have on other people's lives. I can't stand either when poeple blame these sorts of happenings on things like "societal views", or "parental upbringing", because that's just crap. They, as an individual, are to be blamed fully for the choices that they make. There should be no escape from that by pointing a finger at such a vague concept as "society". And to hear claims that this man posted several messages indicating he was ready to "take action" against people, and no one reported it or tried to talk to him to understand to what extent he was acting is just unfathomable. If you are in a situation where you think something bad might happen, and you have an opportunity to stop it - DO IT. We all need to step up and become stronger people. Your strength and your involvement might prevent a real tradgedy from occurring. We as individuals can no longer be so self-absorbed. It only takes one person to make a difference, and that goes both ways. It only took ONE person to take all those lives in Montreal, and it might have only taken ONE person to have stopped it.

The thought that there are giant masses like Earth floating around in space is just incredible to me. It's so mind blowing to think that we are so unbelievably tiny in such a big universe. Pluto was just recently kicked out of the rank of "planethood". Any thoughts on that, anyone?

My boyfriend says Metroid Prime has the original Metroid game in it. And he also says the Collector's edition of Doom 3 for the XBOX has the original games in it. Animal crossing had a million NES games in it that you could find. Final Fantasy Chronicles had those lame card games. Those are all he and I can think of for now.

I had a severly disappointing run in with Guild Wars. I just recently bought Guild Wars Nightfall (I had been playing WoW but couldn't really afford to continue subscribing) and was quite excited about the idea of Free online play. So I installed it, got everything set up, started to play and.....then I realized what a big mistake I had made. You see, I'm on dailup. In order for me to get from the tutorial area to the main starting area, it took like an hour to download the information. So, there I sat, for an hour, staring at the stupid download screen. "Oh ok", I thought," Perhaps this is the only time this will happen. It must've had to download quite a bit..." But then it happened again. And whenever I wanted to go to a new area, I'd have to download some more crap, which took an incredible amount of time. In essence, I would play for 10-15 minutes and spend about an hour downloading crap so I could go to the next area. When I tried to go anywhere with another player too, I couldn't because it took so long for my game to download the area and load. Now I could play WoW just fine with my internet connection. Guild Wars though...it gave my connection a good *bottom* kicking. It now has a place on my shelf, covered in dust. I made my way happily back to WoW, and now enjoy playing that game on a ....*cough*....let's just say....not on the official server.

I'd have to say I'd definitly go along the horror route if I were to create a game. I imagine that is one of the hardest genre of game to make because it takes a lot of great planning to keep the gamer interested and totally into the story. That's the type of game as well that has to be very relatable. If the gamer doesn't feel like they've got some sort of connection or can't relate to the story or the characters, their emotions won't reach the same point of fear as they would if they felt a connection with the game. Character design would be a difficult aspect as well in games themed around horror. The main characters have to have a quality about them to which any person playing can relate to, and they've got to look like they belong in the environment that they're in. Speaking of environment, the textures and areas have to look appropriate as well. In my opinion, situations are scariest in movies, games, books, etc. when the event takes place in a very normal environment....one that you might visit on a regular basis, or one that you at least are slightly familiar with. (School, hospital, church, small town, etc) These types of environments tend to be very intimate and therefore are more prone to being eerie. I think games (of the horror genre) are much more effective when they affect the gamer more psychologically rather than visually. Visual aspects are extremely important, but it's people's thoughts and feelings, and their inevitable sense of paranoia that can scare them the most.

Besides World of Warcraft, I'd say that I very much enjoyed playing God of War (PS2) and Fable (XBOX). Other games that are very high on my list of "awesomeness" are Guitar Hero and Katamari Damacy (both on PS2). Katamari is a really silly game with a funky objective and quirky characters. : )

The first one is neat. You've got some nice shapes and colours going on that really make the viewer look at all the different points of your picture. What did you make it in? I'm not too familiar with 3d/rendering programs. For the second one though, did you just add a couple filters in photoshop to it? If so, you might try really expanding your process to add some real, and heart-felt creativity to it. Maybe you could have sketched in a background on your own, or added a really striking border, or...something. I think your first picture is very cool, and it would make a nice entry page or home page background or something on your portfolio site. : )

Hello. My name is Ashley and I'm totally new to this site. I was pleasantly surprised when I stumbled across this art forum. And....even though I feel very, very weird about posting my art up here - (makes me feel slightly narcissistic, which I'm not...) - I thought I'd go for it. I don't generally get a lot of feedback on DeviantArt and view this as an opportunity to get some constructive criticism. So, the attached picture is my most recent digital drawing and it's called "I guess I'll catch you later..." The original size is 1280x800 pixels (I made it so I could use it as a desktop), but I sized it down for you guys a little bit. I used Photoshop to draw it and feel free to let me know what you think - Critiques are more than welcome. Also....I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post a link to DeviantArt or not, but if you'd like to check out my other stuff, go for it. ( http://leafbunk.deviantart.com/ ) If the link is against the rules, someone please let me know and I'll remove it....

I've been a member of DeviantArt for a little while now and I must say that I don't quite get the exposure or feed-back that I had originally anticipated or wanted. New people very rarely stop by my page because the site is so large and because the amount of submissions are just insane. Plus, (sorry to offend any anime fans out there), but there is SO much anime on that site it's ridiculous. They could start a whole new site from DeviantArt that would only accept anime and 75% of the current submissions on DeviantArt would be moved there. Besides the anime, photography reigns on Deviant Art. Not just that though, it's the nude photography that always gets so much praise. I mean, anyone could take a picture of any random person (as long as they're naked in the photo) and get a Daily Deviation. And the poetry? Someone could write: "My heart bleeds - I shall slit my writsts. I am so angsty." And readers would grovel at their feet. "Oh my god your poetry speaks to me. I am an angsty teenager too. Let's wear black together and be emo." So....because my art doesn't fit into the categories of anime, photography, poetry, or traditional, I can't say that I've gotten much from having my work up on DeviantArt. I do digital drawings, mostly just quirky cartoon characters....and....I don't get a whole lot of feedback on those. Check it out (or not) - http://leafbunk.deviantart.com/

I visited your DeviantArt page and left you a...sort of lengthy comment on the picture you posted here. I think your deviant ID is pretty neat as well. Nice work, and I hope you continue to develop your skill. This is going to sound cheesy, but growing as an artist is a difficult battle. It feels constantly like you're fighting with yourself, and questioning your ability at times.....but don't ever become discouraged. Other people's comments and opinions are not worth giving up something that you like to do. It is important that you like to do it, and do it because you want to develop your skills further and enjoy that process. : ) Keep up the good work.

I used to play on Blizzard's official WoW servers, but I felt that after quite a while of playing, I simply wasn't getting what I wanted out of the 15 dollars a month I was sending to them. That corporation has epanded tremendously concerning the amount of "clients" (paying gamers) that they have, and thus their attention shifted from creating a game and a gaming environment that would welcome players, to strictly business. Now, it seems that Blizzard and the WoW staff take no part in the community that they have gathered. Of course though, because they are such a large corporation, they do have to pay extreme attention to the financial end of things, but as far as a gaming community goes, I must say I think they are extremely lacking in that area. As far as hackers and exploiters go, yes Blizzard does by all means have the right to take the appropriate action that they've previously specified for cheating, hacking, etc. You said though, that you think Blizzard has the right to do whatever they please as long as the innocent aren't caught up. Well, the truth is that because they are such a large corporation and have a reputation to maintain, the "innocent" do get caught up in the mix. I've noticed that while Blizzard is quick to ban people for such offenses, they're not too quick to respond or correct themselves when an error has been made. I can only assume that it's because they can afford to lose players on the assumption of exploitation, due to the massive pool of existing and new online gamers they have that subscribe. It seems that most of the time the posts in the forums are not handled by a forum moderator or employee, but rather by a random member of the community, if at all. It is the players that hold that company together and keep it running. While Blizzard provides the game, the updates, the environment in which to create a community, they have no part in it it seems. I have since moved on to a different place and feel that the community is far more important than receiving every update or having every single thing working properly. I now feel like I am an active and important member of this community now, instead of just one person out of a huge number that pay Blizzard to play the game. Within this private community, I know that the poeple in charge are personally attending to matters at hand, and actually have personalities - something that I very rarely observed from any member of the Blizzard staff. I just know that I feel much more content knowing that my 15 dollars stays in my pocket now instead of making it's way into Blizzard's pile of funds.