Dishonored Story Playthrough: Mission 0 - Meet The Empress

The point of this blog will be to write about my experiences playing through Dishonored, and what I do in the game, talking as if I am the character Corvo you play as, while also mentioning game mechanics like they actually exist.  I will play through it with 4 completely different play styles, making comments on each.  The styles are as follows:

1)      Explore - explore everything, even stuff you weren’t meant to, and experiment; sneak, knock unconscious, or kill depending on my mood or what the characters say or do to me. 

2)      Kill Everyone – My quest to kill everyone, that includes every main character, every NCP, and all creatures (except rats--in Thief it was spiders).  BONUS:  The dead cannot be moved and must be left where they fell.

3)      Knock Everyone Unconscious.

4)      Ghost – Go through an entire game without touching a single enemy or being seen; don’t kill them, or knock them unconscious.
 

The blog will only cover Play Style #1 – Explore for the first few months, as I don’t plan to play the game that obsessively (yet).  Also, I frequently search out everything, meaning it takes me twice as long to finish a game than a normal person.  Frequent comparisons to Thief:  The Dark Project, Thief 2:  the Metal Age, & Thief:  Deadly Shadows will appear frequently .  Also, this will never be a review.

Mission 0 – Meet The Empress

Play Style #1 – Whatever

     When I woke, I found myself upon a boat.  I have just finished traveling to the other 3 majors cities within this country of ours, and am returning to Dunwall (even though I was born in one of the other 3, though my mind is weary from the travels to even remember my hometown).    My companion for the last 4 months hopes that a cure for the plague has been found while we were gone, but I’m not going to hold my breath. 

     Our boat is ushered into a small alley that is quickly closed off.  Water pours from the side walls like little waterfalls and our boat rises 5 stories into the Empresses’ castle’s boating dock.  I grow impatient and jump into the waters below (and just realized that I am holding my breath), just happy to be home in my natural clean waters, but I almost say under too long.  How stupid would I appear if I died the day I returned?  I start talking to the workers and learn that Sokolov has installed new pumps to make this boat dock work better.  After about 5 conversations, each of the workers grow bored with me and start tuning me out, as nothing I do will make them talk to me anymore.  I have truly returned to a less caring city than the one I left.

I look at the world below as I stand on the edge, wondering what it would be like to jump into the jagged cliffs below; maybe there is a loose platform down there that won’t kill me head on.  Sure, I’d be trapped down there, but I’d show the creator a thing or two.  I guess I’ll try to jump in another life.

    

     Ahead I see from free-floating text in the sky that the Empress is 60 feet away from me.  What powers did I obtain while I was away?  Luckily, I just close my eyes and meditate hard enough; expunging these stupid powers.

     I run into Lady Emily on the way.  She is like a daughter to me, even though the Empress and I share no romantic feelings .  She wants to play, but I’ve just returned home with grave news, and her mother has been waiting for this news for months. 

     On the way to the Empress, I run into world famous inventor Anton Sokolov (responsible for making an elixir that prevents you from getting the plague and stopping it; maybe) painting a portrait of High Overseer Campbell (the leader of the religion in Dunwall) .  If this were a novel, I’d say I was being introduced to all the major characters in my story, but that type of thinking it jettisoned as I steal the bottle from the table, upsetting Solvolk because he doesn’t have it for reference anymore.  Surely no novel would include such antics.

     I talk to the High Overseer and learn he believes that the disease was brought about by a lack of faith in the country, and that faith is all that is needed to overcome the plague.  Right.  At least Sokolov slips in some words to let me know he isn’t a fan of Campbell, either.

     On the way to Empress Jessamine Kaldwin, I talk to every person I see as much as possible, even the maid; come on, I haven’t seen many of them for months.  I then circle underneath the stairs, gaze at the beauty of the city, look in bushes for hidden treasure, and see the remnants of what looks like a few miles long bridge foundation (sans bridge) stretching into the city.  What happened to that bridge?  Why is our castle away from the city and not part of it?

     On the way to the Empress, I run into the Spymaster; every time I hear him talk he sounds like he’s above everyone.  I tell the princess the sad truth that our mission; it was a failure and the other cities will quarantine us and stop their trading to make sure they don’t get the plague.   She is thinking about the next step, when, out of nowhere, she spots people running toward us from the rooftops.  I fight off some of them, but then others magically appear, and another holds me in the sky with his magic.  The Empress is killed and tells me to watch over Emily, but she has been kidnapped.  Again, others appear out of nowhere, only its the Spymaster and 2 guards, accusing me of killing the Empress and kidnapping Emily (even though I can’t kidnap someone when I am still present). 

Continue To "Mission 1 - Prison Escape: My Fellow Guards

Return To "Chapter Select"

Perfect Blue - The Anime Explained

Ok, so I watched Perfect Blue again, and this time I found that the way the movie is formatted and edited gave me a new interpretation of it.  Now, this is going to appear very out there, but bear with me and look at the examples.

In Perfect Blue, Mima gets a job as an actress, and leaves her 3 person pop-idol group, CHAM.  As soon as she does, she looks like she's more relaxed, but she quickly doubts her new career path and starts to see an idolized version of herself--a Mima who is always dressed in her pink dress from her last singing performance (symbolizing how she always wants to be remembered, or remember herself?).

It is at this point that the hallucination she experiences is also experienced by another:  Me-Mania.  Me-Mania and Mima both see the exact same illusion.  In the scene where Mima chases her hallucination, the hallucination goes to CHAM's 2 person concert through the door before Mimi.  Mimi wants to be there, and the illusion leaves Mimi and then is immeidately seen by Me-Mania at the concert; both Mimi and Me-Mania share a psychic connection, or these are the only two people the illusion allows o see her.

Me-Mania listens to the illusion and thinks that the Mima who is acting and posing nude is not the real being because that is what he wants to believe; the illusions can only be seen by those who feel the same way Mima does.  Believing that the Mima who is acting is actually the illusion, Me-Mania sends a letter bomb, runs over the punk who started the fight at Mima's last concert, & kills the TV show screenwriter (though this might be Rumi because the method was a screwdriver). The Producer who is killed, however, is not killed by him, as the movie shows it as being Mima herself (and Me-Mani does not believe himself to be Mima, so it cannot be him), so it is either Mima or Rumi.

someone killed the producer of the show dressed as a Pizza Delivery Man.  When Mimi goes into her closet, she finds the bag of bloody clothes.  It is the same bag she bought earlier (however, she doesn't remember buying it, only that a picture of her was taken buying it on the website - Mima's Room).  This is the point where Mima herself gives into the illusions doubts, as she kills the producer.  In every single instance of illusions in Perfect Blue, the bloody clothes are the only item that DO NOT revert back to normal.  This indicates that

A)Mima did actually kill the Producer out of anger at what the movie/tv industry was doing to her (giving her a rape scene and having her pose nude).  Mima suppresses this memory and the act of buying the clothes she was going to wear for the sole purpose of the murder and then surpressed the memory.  We know she actually bought the clothes because there is a picture of her doing it on the website.  She still doesn't want to believe she has lost her pop idol image and continues to deny it.


B) Mima's illusions possessed her but was not able to hold onto her for long, which is why it then possessed Rumi.

C) Rumi has access to Mima's room, and stole her clothes, committed murder in them, then left the evidence at her friend's place to drive her insane [both her attack at the end and Pizza boy murder are with the screwdriver].

Whichever of the 3, somehow, the illusion either contacts and/or posses Mima's friend (Rumi).  Now, this is the unusal theory.  You see, Rumi feels the same way about Mimi's career that Mima herself and Me-Mania do, and as a result, she is also able to see this illusion, or be susepticle to it's possesion.  The illusion of Mima wants to kill her, but then how would the illusion live?  It posseses Rumi's body.  In the final scene, the illusion never returns; it has now been fully realized and posses Rumi, who now believes herself to be the real Mima.  However, now that the illusion is in a physical form, it also has the same weaknesses as a human.  It can only chase Mimi as a human, and ends up getting hurt and arrested.  Now, the illusion has possesed Rumi, but the ilusion can have no life as Mima because she does not look like Mima anymore.  However, the illusion is now stuck in Remi's body, so it never contacts Mima again.

Someone, all 3 people (Mima, Rumi, & Me-Mania) see the exact same illusion [we never see Rumi see it on the film) or figment that is the emotional manifestation of Mima's sorrow and dreams, and the more Mima refuses to believe it, the more power it gains, able to influence and talk to others, eventually gaining sentience and getting Me-Mania to kill for her, and possessing Rumi to become the Mima of the past..

How Not To Make Money In Comic Books - My Self-Publishing Adventure Part 4: 2005 (Wesleyan World)

     In late 2004, I started making comic strips that were 1 page (pretty large) and then I would scan them in with my Lexmark photoscanner and edit them in MS Paint.  I would remove splotches of pencil, then increase the gamma so it looked like the art had been inked, and finally added word balloons. 

     I had already finished 30+ comic strips, but had no way to show them off.  After talking to Rob Baden (mentioned in my first How Not To Make Money In Comic Book post) he graciously offered to host my comic book on his website DownTimeComics.com, where he had created a new webcomic, as well.  And an even greater bonus was that his webmaster even made a logo for me (it's on the Wesleyan World page in my website - http://shawnpmurphy.com/?page_id=1219) 

     The DownTimeComics site was still the same web address as the old one (with the older comics from college now stored on another page called "Old DTC".  Unfortunately, this website no longer exists online or at WayBackMachine's archive, either. 

     The comic would be posted on his website weekly for 3 1/2 years.  I have since put the entire collection of strips (215 strips) on my webiste (http://shawnpmurphy.com/?page_id=1219) seperated by storyline (though half of the storylines are just one-shot strips with a central theme) and individual strip.  If you click on the Story title, you can read the entire storyline on One Page.

     I had fun doing this.  There was no money in this, but luckily, there was also no cost (I did not buy pencils, paper, or the scanner for the comic strips, and will state when I have to buy something for a specific project).  And so, I started working on these comics for years, but about 3 months in, I realized that I had a storyline that was way too dark and didn't match the tone of the comedic Wesleyan World.  Eventually, what spiraled as many strips of a darker saga just became it's own comic book storyline.  I was still doing comedic strips and generating more funny storylines, but what would I do with this serious tale featuring some of the characters (and myself) from the strip?  Find out in the next post.

2005

Total Cost:          N/A
Gross Profit:        N/A
Net Profit/Loss:  N/A

All Years (2002 – 2005)


Total Cost:           N/A
Gross Profit:         N/A
Net Profit/Loss:    N/A

You can follow the rest of my self-publishing adventures here: http://shawnpmurphy.com/?page_id=3473

How Not To Make Money In Comic Books - My Self-Publishing Adventure Parts 2 & 3: 2003 & 2004 (I Made No Comics)

     The year 2003 (spring of junior year & fall of senior year at West Virginia Welseyan College) I spent most of my time at college doing my Psychology Thesis and Writing Thesis and generally just enjoying life.  Though I continued to buy and ready Spider-Man & Transformers comics every month (and could continue to do so until 2011) I never considered doing them in the foreseable future.

     In the Spring of 2004 I obtained my degrees in Psychology & Writing, and still spent most of the semester spending time with friends while working on my final year to earn these degrees. 

     In the fall of 2004, I was starting my first semester at graduate school at Southampton College in Southamton, NY.  During the coming months, I was already misssing my friends from undergraduate college and created a few comic strips called "Wesleyan World" that were just me and my friends messing around at college and going on adventures.  They were one page strips that had a punchline at the end.  However, all I did was draw them and nothing became of them that year.

2003 - 2004

Total Cost:          N/A
Gross Profit:        N/A
Net Profit/Loss:  N/A

All Years (2002 – 2004)


Total Cost:           N/A
Gross Profit:         N/A
Net Profit/Loss:    N/A

You can follow the rest of my self-publishing adventures here: http://shawnpmurphy.com/?page_id=3473

What Is A Fake Geek Girl? A Label That Doesn't Exist, Just Like the Word 'Geek Culture''

When I met Felicia Day at the Farpoint Convention in Maryland in 2011, I was excited to meet her because she was the writer of the Guild (the fact that she is a good actress is also cool, though I am slightly jealous of her multiple talents).  When I told her I liked the way she writes the show, she stood up from her table and started talking to me more.  We talked longer than I expected (over 5 minutes) and it was fun talking to her about writing.  However, I did also realize that the line was getting bigger and I was possibly getting looks from the staff.  It felt great meeting  a celebrity who also seemed interested in talking to me. 

I like Felicia Day because she is an excellent writer and the stuff she writes I enjoy.  That's it.  I just recently read about the attack on Felicia during Twitter (Ryan Perez asked if Felicia Day was a glorified booth babe--he was later fired).  I didn't understand how that question and similar ones for females could even arise.

Just today, I read an article where someone accused Olivia Munn as 'being hired as a model to get guys to watch TV when she is not a geek herself' (that is paraphrased).  I started watching G4's Attack Of The Show the same week Olivia Munn & Kevin Perera (?) started and thought they were amazing hosts.  Not once did I think she was a 'model hired host' because she had fun, she was excited about stuff on the show, and seemed to care about a lot of the stuff as equally as anyone else.  It never entered my mind to think of stuff like this.

The only time I wondered this was when I got my Playstation 3, as the Playstation Network's shows were Core & The Pulse; the hosts were 100% women.  I wondered if they were, in fact, models hired so people would watch their shows, but didn't give it much thought and just forgot about it.  It took making me the absolute minority to wonder about it  If they were just models, then they certainly were good actors in that they seemed happy to be talking about video games and actually enjoyed their jobs.

Once thing I think that people don't seem to realize, is that you can like something after being forced/hired into it (though I am not implying that for the Playstation Network women).   For instance, lets say you get hired by a company and don't really care.  However, as you learn what to do and what the company represents, you appreciate it more and even become a unofficial spokesperson for the positive message of the company when people ask you about it because you are proud to be a part of it.  Now, in the real world, you would never be called a Fake Employee for this after the fact, so why should you be labeled this in the 'Geek' Community.  If a booth babe likes her job, is she any less a geek for supporting a job she enjoys (it is the act of hiring booth babes that is negative, not the women themselves)?

This leads me to another word I think has loss all meaning:  'geek'.  Usually, people take the words that are detrimental and make it their own so it becomes something positive.  Now, I am not black or homosexual (being of the male, straight, white, blue-eyed, blond-haired label) so I don't know how successful attempts have been to turn bitterly hurtful words into something positive , but I know the negative words that are used on both have attempted to be turned around to mean something positive (yes, I know Geek is not a sexual orientation or a race of people, I am simply trying to expand on the history of taking words themselves and trying to turn them positive).  Geek has become a sort-of positive word now, to the point that the word now means nothing, but never did to begin with.

Picture this; 2 girls--1 goes to Scott Pilgram Vs The World (the movie) by choice, while the other is dragged by her boyfriend.  Later, they both really love the movie.  Are they both geeks or not?  Was it choice?  Is it not 'geek' because it's 'only a movie and movies aren't geek?'

Picture this; there are 2 girls, and both watch Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (the movie).  Afterwards, 1 likes the movie but wants nothing to do with the graphic novel, whereas the other loves the movie just as much as the other girl, but seeks out the comics.  Are we going to label the comic reader as 'geek' because comic books are traditionally thought of as geeky activities, whereas movies are not?  Are both 'geeks' but for different reasons due to the nature of the property?

Imagine now that both people in both examples above are males.  Does it make it any different?  Also, try both examples above with males and females, substituting the move and comic for "A History of Violence," a property that is both, but one that I doubt anyone considered 'geeky'.

The word 'geek' has no meaning.  It started out meaning "a fool, dupe, or simpleton" in the 1500's, and later in the 1900s was called toward circus freaks in movies and film.  Now, however, the current 2012 definition for Dictionary.com states:

1.a computer expert or enthusiast (a term of pride as self-reference, but often considered offensive when used by outsiders.)

2.a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, especially one who is perceived to be overly intellectual.

3.a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken.

4.  a boring and unattractive social misfit

5.a person, soldier, or civilian of an East Asian country, especially in wartime.

If you notice, we don't consider 'geek' dislikable persons anymore, Geek is no longer a carnival performer, if geeks culture matched the 'boring and unattractive' it wouldn't be so popular now, and we certainly don't use it to refer to the enemy we're combating in war. 

Also, why did the world take hold of the word 'Geek' for Geek Culture?  Why not Nerd or Dork--their definitions, though different in origin, are almost exactly the same?  When was the first word "Geek Culture" actually used, because I've only been hearing about this word the last 5 years?  It most likely was stated by someone in an article, and since we copy and paste other peoples ideas on the internet, it slowly became that word associated with the culture (No reference because this is only an opinion).

Geek, when used on the media, in blogs, on websites, TV, movies, books (and whatever media you own because you're a geek) DOES NOT REFER TO ANY OF THESE DEFINITIONS ABOVE OR ANY OFFICIAL DICTIONARY TERM!  The Word Geek is a new word now and has yet to be defined.  That is the problem with the Anime/Comic Book/Sci-Fi/Etc crowd is that everything is being considered 'Geek' culture without really thinking about the definition, so now people are trying to apply those definitions to the way they think it should be, only millions of people are trying to identify what they think it is.It's easy to find a Buffy community or Star Trek community, but Geek?

This classification of whether or not someone is a geek or not is not something that will ever now be defined.  In fact, it's harmful if you want to get people interested in what you consider to be 'geek' culture, because enforcing rules on how to be a geek, or what makes you a geek, is way to make sure no one comes to the party.  Geek won't be defined by people that want it defined their way because the 'Geek' culture we hear in the media has gone mainstream with the success of films like the Dark Night & Avengers, and TV show like Battlestar Galactica and Lost, before it had a chance to actually be identified.  Now, the media will make it what they want.  Everyone knows what Geek culture means to them, but there is no Geek Society making up the rules to say weather or not Twilight or My Little Pony or 3rd Rock From The Sun or Ninja Warrior is an "Officially Licensed Geek Product."  That will never exist.

By trying to label, we are being really, really naive in thinking that these define us as well.  I just heard Manic Pixie Dream Girl last week, and that is probably the stupidest label I have ever heard of.  It's as if we need a label so we can identify it later, but people are not labels.  

Lets hopefully get around to not being defined by what we like.  I could like Batman & Super Mario Brothers and be a total asshole toward everyone and steal money from people every chance I get.  Or, I could really like Spider-Man & Thief:  The Dark Project and save a kid from being run over in traffic while I was helping my friend carry packages to her car.  Now, replace any of those Geek properties with the term 'black', 'white', 'man', or 'woman'.  Which of those do you think really defined me, the label or my actions?

I'm tired of hearing about Fake Geek Girls & Geek Community; lets stop trying to pigeonhole people into labels and categories.

How Not To Make Money In Comic Books - My Self-Publishing Adventure Part 1: 2002 (DownTimeComics & Demon Heir)

How Not To Make Money In Comic Books – My Self-Publishing Adventure, Part 1:  2002 (DownTimeComics & Demon Heir)

     In this Blog series, I will be breaking down my comic book expenses and profits (ha, that’s a good one) by year.  My hope is that people will see that putting together a comic book requires a great deal of work and a lot of start-up capital; you will rarely see any return in profit.  If you get into comic books, it’s because you want to publish them for the love of it (though hoping it leads to being picked up by the major companies or get a movie deal is a nice dream, too)

     My friend at college, Rob Baden, had been doing a webcomic online called DownTimeComics (http://web.archive.org/web/20050430040909/http://www.downtimecomics.com/dtc/).  He had wanted to expand the website to include others.

     I had an idea about a Demon Hunter, called Demon Heir, that I got my friend RL Shawver to do some art for.  I had already written an entire universe along with 8 major storyline leadinging up to an epic conclusion for the entire series.  The comic strip lasted around 1 ½ months and 8 pages.  I was a junior at college at the time and only 21 years old; my ideas for that story were pretty ambitious and unrealistic since I we were both at college at the time with our own degrees to work on.

     The webpage no longer exists, though you can still see the main page on Wayback Machine.  Unfortunately, none of the comics are available online anymore.   I have now input the old Demon Heir comics on my website (http://www.shawnpmurphy.com) under Webcomics, where you may see the first comic  I ever did.

     That’s it for this year.  It doesn’t start to get more advanced until 2006.  I will be tracking everything, from my website fees, printing costs, artist payment; everything!   If you have an interest in making comics (and you are a writer with no artistic skills) then you will want to follow this.

2002

Total Cost:          N/A
Gross Profit:        N/A
Net Profit/Loss:  N/A

All Years (2002 – 2002)



Total Cost:           N/A
Gross Profit:         N/A
Net Profit/Loss:   N/A

You can follow the rest of my self-publishing adventures here: http://shawnpmurphy.com/?page_id=3473

Amazing Spider-Man: My First Midnight Showing Adventure

I went Tuesday to see Amazing Spider-Man at 12:01am.  I had never been to a midnight premiere before and thought I would relate my experience.

When I first heard the premise of Amazing Spider-Man, I thought, Proto-Goblin (who never shows up in the film) and Peter’s Parents would make a horrible idea for a story.  Then, I saw the theatrical trailer.  The idea of Peter searching for his parents actually made sense, as it would be something that 1) a real kid would do in high school now that they are older, and 2) tell a different story that hadn’t been told in the comics.

When the time came, I invited my friends (and 5 people showed up to a midnight showing; I was quite surprised at that).  I went to the theater 4 days early to buy the tickets so I wouldn’t have to pay any internet surcharge and not have to worry about it being sold out. 

The day of the showing, I arrived at 9:45, expecting there to be a big line; there were only 6 people.  Eventually, around 10, these people were let in to see Amazing Spider-Man in IMAX & Real3D to choose their seats 2 hours early, because nothing was playing in either theater.  Those of us with regular 2D movie tickets had to wait until 11:00pm to even get into the building (as their policy is you aren’t allowed into the building until 1 hour before your show starts).   We were able to loiter at the entrance until too many people for the IMAX appeared and the Theater kicked us outside, where luckily it wasn’t 100 degrees like it was  this late at night yesterday.

I asked at the counter, and found that IMAX was Sold Out; Real3RD was sold out, and 2D was Sold Out.  However, they had opened a 2^nd movie theater in 2D that still had 250 seats left.  I asked if I could go into the other theater instead, even though my ticket was for the other theater.  They said I could.  And, as I expected, none of my friends had bought tickets early, but luckily they had opened that 2^nd theater.

So, as we waited, a line eventually formed around 10:45, until they told the 2D theaters to enter.  We made it into the 2^nd theater, and there was no one there except the 2 people in front of us; we could pick any seat we wanted.  We chose the direct center. 

Then, Amazing Spider-Man started.  It was much, much better than Spider-Man 3 (and felt more realistic than the previous 3 films), and I thought the best thing was Gwen Stacy & Peter Parker’s characters’ and the way they interacted with each other, and their relationship was very cute when they started talking to each other the first time.  Peter really felt like an awkward kid who had no social skills.  That’s all I’ll say on the movie though, because I don’t want to give anything away.  Now I can’t wait for the Blu-Ray, and hopefully a sequel with Mysterio (yes, I can dream).