YouTube copyright idiots

So a couple of my LP videos have been identified as having “musical compositions that violate” (some sort of) copyright. Clearly, this is bullcrap. I have exactly one video on my channel that could be claimed as that and it has been for years and I haven’t disputed it–they just run ads next to it now I think. But they’ve now identified Half Life 2–part 7 as having copyrighted audio. Which is clearly retarded, since the audio is entirely game sound effects and me talking. Question is, should I dispute it? As of now, it’s not really flagged against me; if anything, they’re just running ads next to it as well. It’s not taken down or blocked. I hesitate to dispute it in case it draws the wrath of YouTube and brings them down on my entire channel; on the other hand, I loathe the fact that some scummy company can claim I’m using their stuff when I’m very clearly not. And I hate even more that I totally found out about this by accident. Really, YouTube? You couldn’t even send me A FRIGGING EMAIL when this was claimed MONTHS ago?

Gah. I hate this system so much. Any advice would be appreciated.

Facebook

I now have one:

Hawk’s Official Facebook

I promise, I didn’t do it because I’m seeking likes or attention. I’m simply looking for an easy way to communicate with fans that doesn’t involve comments buried in a blog, or on YouTube. I want you to know when new eps are coming out, and if/why their are delays easily. I also want you to be able to communicate with ME more easily, whether that’s cursing my lack of updates or having a discussion about Half-Life.

Please don’t stop commenting in the blog or on the videos of course; but I figure this will give us all a way to stay connected much more easily.

SOPA/PIPA

Yeah, I know you’re sick of this by now. But that doesn’t make it unimportant:

Now, obviously my site’s not black–no one would care if it was, frankly. (I know the videos I’ve promised aren’t up yet by the way, but that’s due to an unrelated technical issue. I would never bait you guys by saying I had videos to post, then not post them just to make a political point.)

Now, as much as I like to, I don’t make my living doing this, so my livelihood is not threatened. My hobby, and several hundred hours of my time to date are though–and so is your entertainment. So are all of the video creators I love. (Just look at my blogroll–none of those people would be around if this is passed and enforced to it’s full extent.) It’s well worth your time to write your congressman and even more importantly, to vote in the next election. We don’t just want SOPA gone–we want anyone foolhardy enough to support it gone. Because that means they’re either so technologically behind they don’t understand why these bills are terrible, or (even worse) that they FULLY understand why they’re terrible, and SUPPORT THEM ANYWAY. There are many updated lists of politicians and corporations who support these things. Take note of them, and vote and act accordingly.

In closing, I give you Neil Gaiman and Friends.

Let’s Play Skyrim: Part 1 – Heads Are Overrated Things

You’ll have to forgive the lack of screenshots in the first few entries here; I still haven’t gotten used to hitting the capture button at important moments–I usually get too wrapped up in the game. I’ve gotten better as I’ve gone along though, so you’ll get more pictures as this progresses

Ah, the Skyrim theme. It’s not Morrowind, but damn it’s beautiful. The male choir is gorgeous, and sets the Viking-like tone very well indeed. And so does the scenery as the game opens–trees, mountains, snow…in fact I feel quite at home. I spent four years at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks and loved it, -60F temperatures and all. I immediately feel that familiar chill as the opening scene fades in.

Of course, as is Elder Scrolls tradition, my character is a prisoner. I hadn’t specifically known this ahead of time, but it’s hardly a surprise. I’m not sure I’m a huge fan of this convention–it rather limits the hypothetical background you can give your character–but it is an easy way to get you into (and out of) a tutorial and character creation quickly. As an Elder Scrolls veteran, I already know what race I want to play–a Wood Elf. They’ve always been my favorite. And although I usually play a male (purely because the female versions of armor–especially the light armor I favor–is insultingly skimpy) I think I will try a female this time. The screenshots I’ve seen have shown at least some suits of reasonable armor for female Dovakhiin, so that will be nice.

My fellow prisoners–none, sadly as endearing as my good friend Jiub (whatever happened to him, anyhow? I hope he got released as well)–talk for a bit, and don’t tell me much of anything I don’t already know from Skyrim‘s marketing department. There’s a civil war, and it seems that a small band of Nord freedom fighters and/or terrorists are attempting to force Skyrim to cede from the Empire. As much as I know the writers probably want me to sympathize with the rebels, nothing Ulfric Stormcloak says here convinces me OR my character that he’s playing with a full deck. Maybe this is residual Imperial sympathy from the last two games, but much of his ‘inspirational speech’ sounds like militant Texans demanding their own country. (And yes I AM allowed to make fun of Texas–I was born there.) While I understand his position, I–the player–have far too much love for the Empire after the events of Morrowind and Oblivion to immediately get on the rebel bandwagon.

Everyone, meet my favorite Skyrim NPC!

Meet Temba Wide-Arm, my new favorite Skyrim NPC. If you don’t know why that name is absolutely freaking awesome…well then, Sokath, your eyes remain covered.

InusSonCurtis, this one is for you.

What would you do?

So this was going to be the first Skyrim LP post, but then I got the following message from RipOffProductionsLLC:

Cut Beta Quote about the 7 hour war:

“There was an illusion of safety, for a time. And then the Citadels appeared. It happened in a split second, all over the world. A chunk would disappear from the center of a city, to be replaced an instant later by one of these… headquarters for the Combine. Invasion Central.”
-Eli Maxwell (later renamed Eli Vance, after General Vance[whose role in he plot was taken by Barny] was cut)

This also talks about the Citadel’s arrival on Earth, whether or not it’s still cannon is unknown but it makes sense.

Another peace of cut content said that the UN asked Breen to negotiate the surrender of earth, but that is on vary shaky ground.

But now let me ask you something, wouldn’t you do the same? To save the humanity from extinction at the hands(or whatever) of an alien empire? ‘The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.’

Well. For all my blustering about hating Breen and wanting to shove my (sadly non-existent in this game) M-4 up his rear end, I was NOT expecting to be confronted with the moral quandary he faced. I mean, Breen wasn’t a bad guy, or he wasn’t at Black Mesa. He’s not a bad or evil man, although I think he’s thoroughly misguided by this point. Whether he’s taking advantage of the situation or simply being misled by the Combine, I don’t know.

Braaains. (And Skyrim!) But mostly braaaaaains….

So I’m sure you’re wondering why I’ve been even slower than usual in terms of both blog and video update. One of the reasons is that I’m still job hunting, and to be perfectly frank (and a wee bit personal) for the moment, being unemployed when you don’t want to be is difficult, both from a practical and a psychological perspective. It makes it difficult to summon the initiative to make videos even when I do have the time. (The good news is that I do have two almost ready (actually one long play session I’m splitting up.) So be watching for those.

In honor of the place where I stopped the second video, which should be up soon, I should let you all know that there is another reason I’ve been a bit delinquent on my video making and blog posting:

Yeah. I got attacked by a headcrab. Sadly for me, it wasn’t Lamaar, and it kind of decided to take control of my brain. So THANK YOU VERY MUCH to the (amazingly awesome) fan who sent me this alien-spawned brain sucker, and condemned me to an existence of living death and muffled screaming. (I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to out your name on the site, so if you’d like, feel free to take credit in the comments if you are so inclined.)

In other, possibly more important news, I have a situation that I was not expecting: I own a copy of Skyrim. I could never have bought it, but a good friend of mine gave it to me as a Veteran’s Day gift. Obviously I’m going to start playing like, as soon as I finish typing this (and I’ll start recording the playthrough just in case), but I’m not sure if this would be a great LP. Open world games are notorious for being difficult to watch. So, I’m leaving it up to you guys: do you want to see a blind Skyrim LP, even if it involves a lot of me running around being lost and doing nothing? I’m actually okay with it either way. But I want to know what you think.

As an alternative to a full LP, I could simply play with video on and post any actually interesting/funny things that happen. Or I could BLOG about the game, rather than make it a video LP. I do like written LPs on other sites.

Hmm. Right now I’m leaning towards the written LP. I think that would really be the best of both worlds: it would allow you to hear my reaction to the game, while cutting out the boring parts. Naturally, this LP would have several screenshots per post, as well as video supplements.

But, you guys are my audience, so I’m interested in what you think. Post away!

In Like Flynn’s

Last weekend, my best friend and I made a trip up to Disneyland. This isn’t unusual for us, as we only live a couple of hours away. “But Hawk,” I can hear you saying. “This is a nerd blog. Why are you telling us about your vacation when you should be playing Half-Life 2 and/or Portal?”

Because, my friends. Because I have found It. I have discovered my own personal Shambhala–a nerd Mecca unlike anything I had thought possible in this day and age. Now, I know my reader/viewership tends to skew a little young (younger than I am, anyway) because I LP relatively modern games, so not all of you may appreciate this as much as I did. You might find it interesting nonetheless, though–this is, in many ways, the story of where my love of video games came from.

But who will be left for them to rule?

So apparently the Combine have weaponized headcrabs. This is not something I had foreseen. (And apparently some of these headcrabs come pre-stocked with explosives, but that’s another blog entry.)

Aside from just being a cool idea, let’s step back for a moment and think about this logically. When humans conquer something, what’s the usual objective? Power, right? (Not that there aren’t other motives, but we’ll get to those in a moment.) If the Combine is launching zombie-creating headcrabs at people–rendering entire areas inconvenient to reclaim at best–then this means one of two things: they don’t care about humans, or they don’t care about land. (Or maybe they care about neither one.) Maybe we’ll learn which later on–maybe the Combine actually will send troops in to clean out the area. Or maybe they’ll be content to let all the non-City areas become post-apocalyptic nightmares, which is exactly what will happen if they use this weapon regularly.

Set me straight

Alright, I’m usually one for guessing and postulating theories, but this is driving me crazy: can someone (without spoiling me) PLEASE explain the difference between the “Overwatch” and the “Combine”? I’ve heard both in-game, and people seem to use the terms interchangeably to refer to the alien bads. But I like to be precise in my terminology, so what’s the difference?