'Aint Life Grand?

My little emo

2007-07-16T07:53:00.000-05:00

isn't he SOOOO cute? >_>

Miss Fairytale

2007-06-18T21:52:00.000-05:00

For some reason, this post got deleted, so I'm uploading it again ;)

Name: Cassia Corbalis
Place: 3rd

This contest's story that I created is kind of.... bad. I mean bad. And now that I go back and look at the story, because I copy and pasted a lot of it from word, it looks like I have smiles everywhere in my posts. Don't know if this is a problem for anyone else, but it looks kind of silly.

The last 2 rounds in this contests had some AWESOME pictures:

Miss World: Asia

2007-06-06T22:21:00.000-05:00

Name: Ferah Zafer... aka Anne from Mr. Fairytale ;)

Place: 2nd Runner up (basically third)

This was going to be a gear up for an ANTM contest... I really want to give my skills the ultimate test. *takes a deep breath*. I'm hoping the clarity that I've learned in other contests really comes in handy here.

Not to be mean, but it really surprised me that I didn't win. Of course, you always fall in love with your own work right? Now that I look back, I realise that a lot of my pictures have a wall background which I've realy got to stay away from. The problem here was that my computer really couldn't handle very much at once, so I had to finish this on my laptop. And without photoshop, I had to mail myself the pictures.... and blah blah blah. It took a long time ;)

I really think that this was my best entry yet, so it keeps disappointing me that I never get first. Of course, many of the "greats" say that it took them 10-20 contests to get first... maybe I'm just impatient. All I know is I keep improving.

Darn it!

2007-05-31T19:49:00.000-05:00

Well, some bad news on the sims front. I got a laptop for my graduation gift,, but my parents was to keep my beautiful, chalk full of CC, PC. I checked to see whether or not the sims would run on this computer and it said no... sadly. So I'm either going to be stuck to lurking on the boards or being a judge for 4 years because I'm not going to have the sims anymore.

Speaking of which, this probably means that I'm going to miss the introduction of the Sims 3. Ahh, c'est la vie.

I griduated!

2007-05-22T16:44:00.000-05:00

Woot, so I'm done with high school. It feels weird to come home from school and not feel guilty to be working on my sims contests.... nuts. Well, back to my FairyTale contest. I hope that Pilot is ok ;_;

2007-05-09T20:35:00.000-05:00

This one is just too funny. Made and copyrighted(?) by Mega Tokyo. No stealing.

HOLY MOTHER OF OUR DEAR LORD

2007-05-09T20:29:00.000-05:00

I won my school's People's Choice Award for my art work! It was just so cool that I had to post it here... check out my art!

Mr. FairyTale

2007-04-30T17:03:00.000-05:00

Name: Ian Carding
Place: 2nd Place

Oh yeah. This contest was definetly sappy in the highest degree, but that's all good. I got second place (as always it seems. Am I the only one who sticks around for most of these contests? I swear we end up with three people in the end!) I wasn't satisfied with the ending to my story due to the fact that it all seemed to fit together a little too nicely. Oh look! You got this poem that she wrote on and you realize that the poem is the key to leaving. Just a little too coincidental.

But c'est la vie. The story that I based this on had a lot more magic in it than this one did, so the ending to the orginal wouldn't have fit in this situation.

But 2nd! Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

"In Your Face Photography"

2007-04-11T18:00:00.000-05:00

Name: Urm... I don't remember....

Place: Top Ten. This is a downloadable painting but it won't work for my computer....

I love this picture but I was rather angry when I learned shoulders weren't allowed. He looks so much better with shoulders! The first picture is the one I used and the second was the one that was much better but against the rules >:(

Be My Valentine

2007-02-10T17:27:00.000-06:00

Name(s):Katie Avercine & Xander Clark

Place: None

This really disappointed me because I felt I worked really hard on this contest (REALLY) and I was heartbroken when I didn't even get anything for all that time I invested. I think it was probably because the story was weird and too emotional... but I really wanted to use my french skills (and now that I take a look at my pictures, they were rather bad.) Anyway, it was fun.

Miss Delightful Daring Damsel

2007-02-10T17:25:00.000-06:00

Experimenting with photoshop..... Not bad.... I shudder at the skintone.

Can you tell it was around christmas?

Name: Adrian Knowles

Place: 2nd

My first actual placing! Well.... ok, so there were only 3 people in the contest by the end, but this was one of those practice contests again. As you can tell, her skin tone is one of the maxis recolors... I've since graduated to enalya and ren's skins which are much better. I was kind of still afraid of CC.

Makeover Challenge: Marren Scott

2007-02-10T17:22:00.000-06:00

Name: Marren Scott

Place: None

Did not place in this one, but it was my first contest so I consider it sort of a prelim test for it. Surprisingly, my pictures came out with the sort of clarity that I only dream of today.... that's CC for you! Hair is kinda crappy. I use rose now ;)

Sims Contests -

2007-02-10T17:21:00.000-06:00

I wanted to save all my Sims Contests... so here is my archive....

The future of Gaming?

2006-07-20T12:06:00.000-05:00

Bugs are something we have always have to live with when you are playing a game. One of the best ones was when I drowned inside a building in Mario Kart 64. I did it 3 times in a row and had my friends scratching their heads, trying to figure out how in the world I achieved something that monumentally stupid.

unfortunately, with the market being the way it is these days, bugs are becoming more and more frequent. Take the The Sims 2 for example. The Sims 2 is one of the most popular games for the PC of our time. (At least the most time consuming; I can vouch for that).Nowadays, EA Games is coming out with a full expansion pack every Christmas season and a "Stuff" pack in between each of the full packs. Each of the expansion packs has a patch that comes out eventually to fix the games' problems, which I have no problem with. However, the stuff packs are buggier than a Girl Scout Camping trip

The last pack, "Family Fun" was so buggy, EA Games release 2 patches just to fix all the issues. Many of the players were complaining on their site's boards about how the game had been released way too quickly. The game wasn't tested and coded properly and therefore, should not have been released to the consumer.

Gamers have reached an age of speed. We want our games and we want them now. Are we willing to sacrifice the quality of the game in order to purchase it faster? Many gaming companies are just pumping out sequel after sequel without changing many of the problems that make the games annoying in the first place.

The Sims 2 released this explanation:

"These patches fix about 54 issues in Open for Business, and about 51 items in Family Fun Stuff. That doesn't add up to 105 total issues, because most the issues appear on both lists. My favorite bug fix description is "Bag of Poo will no longer break after installing The Sims 2 Family Fun Stuff."

There have been a lot of questions lately about why the patches take so long and why they are necessary in the first place. As you longtime Sims fan know, the interwoven systems in Sims 2 games are mind-bogglingly complex. In addition, the success of Sims 2 has added to the problem in that every new product we make has to work with a higher and higher number of combinations of previous products. This is intended as an explanation and not an excuse. When you buy a game, you are entitled to a bug-free experience. We are always working on improving your experience, and we have a lot of talented people attacking the problem.

A lot of you Simmers are curious about Stuff Packs. Yes, we are working on additional Stuff Packs. These will be officially announced at the appropriate time. A lot of people ask "Why Stuff Packs? Can't we just download stuff?" It may be hard to believe, but there are millions of Sims products sold to people who don't have access to the same sites that you Web-savvy fans do. These web-silent Sims fans also really like additional official Sims content. The Sims 2 Family Fun Stuff was the #1 selling PC game in each of the first three weeks of its release. Of course, many web-active Sims fans also like Stuff Packs, but we acknowledge that Stuff Packs are not for everyone."

However, I don't know if they can really explain it away. After all, it is up to the producer to provide a quality experience, free from bugs, virus, and *cough* hot coffee mods *cough* Frankly, the gaming industry has been turning to a mass production type of experience... Rather than thinking of new ideas for games (all the sequels that came out lately ringing a bell?)

But then again, I don't make games. I only pay ridiculous amounts to play them and find every little nitpicky secret and treasure for hours on end, posting on rabid fanboards about the latest screen shots of Twilight Princess that have been released. O_o

Happy Gaming!

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/06/21