Sunday, December 8, 2019

Destiny 2


So.  I’m writing this to share some news with a few good friends, and I need you to bear with me for a while with a bit of background information.  Many of you might know that I really like video games, but probably very few of you know just how avid I am with regard to the video games I play.  One in particular has been a bit of an obsession for over five years.  You may have heard of a game called “Halo.”  (This is not the game I’m talking about here, but I figure it’s the one you might have heard about.)  Halo was created by a studio that has made games that I love for over 25 years, but “Halo” was probably their most famous.  They sold the Halo franchise to Microsoft some years ago so that they could focus on a new science fiction game, called “Destiny.”  Destiny is now the number one game on the Steam gaming platform.  It’s played on PC, on Xbox, and on PlayStation. Over 15 million people play it, with about 3.5 million online at any given time.  So far over 4.5 million hours have been spent playing Destiny, a bunch of them by me.

Like most very popular things, Destiny has an active fan community online.  This past year saw the first conventions of fans.  There are online comic books, fan fiction sites, and volumes — literally, volumes; three and counting — of lore, history and back story for the Destiny universe.  You can play alone, or with other people, or against other people, or with a team, or against other teams.  There are a lot of options.  There are also lots of options with regard to the kind of character you can play as.  D and D players will recognize the categories of Tanks (big strong fighters), Magic Users and Rogues.  In Destiny they are called Titans, Warlocks and Hunters.  (I am a Hunter.)

One particularly dedicated group of fans and players has worked with Bungie, the studio that made Destiny, to create an animated series based on the Destiny Universe.  The animation is tentatively called “Termino.”  A call went out early in December for writers, voice actors, character animators, and so forth.  Since I play the game every day, I was interested, and submitted an audition to be a voice actor.

I learned yesterday that I was cast in a role.  My audition recording arrived later than most because of some technical difficulties I was having, but the producer/director informed me that even though they had cast most of the major parts already, they were so impressed with my audition that they created a role just for me, so that I could be a part of the project.  This is unheard of, and I am ridiculously pleased by this.

The project is in pre-production now and recording will begin in January 2020.  I’ll keep you posted as much as I can, but I signed a LOT of non-disclosure agreements.  This project has a lot of potential, and a big ready-made audience, and I could not be happier!


Saturday, June 1, 2019

Things I Will Never Understand About Living in Central Pennsylvania

There are some things I will never understand about living in Central Pennsylvania, in spite of having lived here since 1988.  (Also, I grew up in central New Jersey, which you wouldn't have thought was that far from here, but in fact, in many ways it's like night and day.)  Anyway, here's a short list:

• The abomination that is chicken and waffles.  What the serious hell.
• Not using a turn signal until after having begun the turn. Or the lane change.
• Using the expression "a while" when you mean "now," as in a food server asking you, "What can I get you to drink a while?"
• Taking three times as long to make a left turn as it does to turn right.  Like it's a separate career.
• Sauerkraut
• Pennsylvania Dutch everything, especially those coded hex signs.
• The incredibly divisive issue that is Shoo Fly Pie.  Wet bottom, or dry?  Choose carefully.
• The deep south Bible-belt flavor of the area, sandwiched as it is between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
• Holding the State Fair (aka the Farm Show) in January.
• Chicken Pot Pie which is neither pie, nor in a pot, nor does it have a crust.  It's chicken and veggies in a cream sauce with big fat noodles.  At least it's chicken.

This is my home.  I do love it.