I haven’t ever done this on the blog before, but sometimes you have to:
RED78910’s “Mass Effect: The Unsung War” is getting none of the attention it deserves, which causes me to haz a sad.
Sads are more likely make me haz a writing stoppage. REVIEW. HIS. WORK. :D
That is all.
Just a curious thing I noticed:
The latest chapter of ATTWN has had 386 unique visitors but only eight reviews. That’s dipping pretty low below the average of about 180 views per review.
Are the last three chapters underwhelming or something? Or do I need to slow down my updates?
Liethr (my beta) had his sister create this completely fucking incredible image of the Kazan from nothing more than descriptions in the text.
I am completely blown away by this. I personally think she should get paid. Feedback welcome!
My personal situation is not exactly getting better, as since I make just enough to not qualify for any kind of subsidies, the cost of insurance, prescriptions and just basic living is eating at my savings.
Thus a lot of the highly disposable income I once had is not so disposable anymore. That means, for all of 2015, I will probably only commission one artwork (either from Armesan or NikitaStewart)
It’s a toss up between three choices:
1) The Wedding of Sara and Liara and the Processional of Blades
2) The Final Moment of Benezia
3) A series of colorless sketches for Dragunov, Branson, Tetrimus, and other characters.
Interested in people’s thoughts.
I haven’t gotten around to final review or posting yet, but there will be two new updates to the OSABC line up in the next week or so.
First up is due to a request from AlsoKnownAsMatt, the ANN Media Archive. This will be mostly story-based interviews (as opposed to Westerlund style, text only transcripts) with Emily Wong and various people in the story as it moves along. The first interview will be that of Emily and Shepard when Shep announces her marriage to Doctor T’Soni. The second will most likely be Wong’s interview with Liara in the immediate aftermath of Shepard’s death.
The other new feature will be the STG Files : Benezia Incident, a pack of STG related stuff — profiles on OC’s and modified minor canon characters, STG backstory and investigations into Saren and Benezia, and some ideas of what Benezia and Saren were up to prior to ME1. Like the Cerberus Files, the STG Files is told from an in-universe perspective, but the writers are not all terrorist racist nutjobs, so it’s far more unbiased than a Season of Sorrows Unending.
If you guys and gals who read this have any more ideas, comment and let me know.
I’m about 65% done with the next ATTWN chapter, and it is almost entirely fluffy. I had a couple of PM’s asking me for more fluff and a couple asking for less, so I thought I would address the issue.
Mass Effect is a game, and as a game it cannot indulge in the things that make up ‘normal life’. A lot is abstracted — going to the restroom, eating, sleeping, etc. That being said, going from A to C and not bothering with a clearly there but boring B is not a sin.
Going from A to X, however, and skipping everything between, certainly is.
A lot of the reason ATTWN even is happening is ‘fluff’. The circumstances behind Shepard’s death, while similar to canon, do not actually follow canon. Namely, the mystery of how the Collectors were able to pick up the Normandy when REAPERS couldn’t, and the sheer stupidity of reviving someone who fell from fucking orbit.
ATTWN has to deal with a lot of fluff to establish both Shepard growing beyond what she was before ME1 (because growth is a criterion of the story, and a CORE CONCEPT that will come up again and again in ME2 and ME3 Premiseverse) as well as preventing massive infodumps.
That being said, I’m attempting to strike a balance between emotional backstory and action. I’m interested in thoughts on this issue.
I have no idea why no one has done this before. Also, All Nighter Productions is awesome.
I have a mad and unthinking desire to try to write awkward Garrus/Miranda romance, possibly along with Tali having to merge the robot-dog with Urz to save his life and turning him into a battle-mount, and a Shepard who both Liara and Ash are in love with, and since he didn’t want to pick between them both got catty and now sleep with each other just to spite him.
There may be something wrong with my brain.
Argh.
Whenever I am stuck on a boring conference call, I will start uploading a crappy sketch of some scenes in OSABC or ATTWN. They’ll be done on a steno pad, so lines are an issue, but hey.
Keep in mind the key word is CRAPPY. I cannot be held responsible if you end up spitting coke over your keyboard or hurting yourself laughing at these images.
Here is the first one:
