Emzee

This is about the time when the Game Company fad drew to a close. MeNOL was finally released, and it was awesome, though it only had one level. Unfortunately, free time for -Takua- and Tula began to become more scarce, and there simply wasn't enough time to get an update out. On top of that, there were foundational issues in the programming, and the creators realized that in order for the game to improve, they would like have to start from scratch (yes, I've been there many times myself). In other regions of software forum, we had the laughable rivalry between Biotech and Anaglyph. I don't really want to explain that in detail, since it was so long ago and again, we were fifteen year-olds. Another memorable point in this year was when fandom, having finished it reeling from the massive backlash of 2005. In 2006, they fought back in droves, and the Bionicle subforums changed from complaining about BIONICLE to complaining about people complaining about BIONICLE and complaining about people complaining about people complaining about BIONICLE and... (etc.) Yeah, it was whirlwind. When it all came down to it, it seemed like people just didn't respect each others' tastes. I think we're a little better about it now, but then again, we're also older now. That's pretty much now I remember this year: lots and lots of tension. My 4th year pretty much marked the end of my browsing through general BIONICLE subforums, and sticking mostly to RPG Forum due to all the bickering. Unfortunately, not even the BZPRPG was safe from that though. Stay tuned for tomorrow when I fully explain why I left the BZPRPG, and also go over my huge comeback in game development with the debut of The Legend of Mata Zuto: Fall of the Conqueror.

I thought you knew better than to use the number of comments as a gauge for anything.

Ah yes, my third year at BZP. It had now become permanently part of my e-routine, checking posts in the RPG forum as well as browsing the other boards. The last half of this year mostly was about the 2nd movie - the best BIONICLE move, IMO. I lot of people weren't sure on what to expect, considering the setting was entirely different. All-in-all though, the movie was very well-received (minus a few naysayers, but I will get to them later in this entry. You may remember me mentioning an MNOLG for the Metru Nui saga. Well, a BZPer named -Takua- apparently shared my desire for another adventure game, and the Metru Nui Online project (known as MeNOL) was born. I didn't take part in this, and at first there wasn't really much to show from the project. -Takua- was a beginner, but it was great to see such an ambitious project be started. It also wasn't the only game being created in the Software forum. Since no FCG forum existed, any video game that wasn't an RPG went in the Software Forum, and several other projects had sprung up there - all using the application called Game Maker. Thus, near the end of 2004, the "game company fad" had started. Everyone wanted to start a company and hire strangers off the street to create interesting content, much like people are doing now. No doubt, it was a great way to make new friends, but what came of it? Well, surprisingly, a lot more than you think. Most of these game companies actually were able to release something, and many times they were able to release multiple games. I was truly inspiring to see such interest in fan-created games, and I was glad to see the fade last a long time. On the other side of things though, other parts of BZP and the BIONICLE fandom as a whole weren't doing too hot IMO. Criticism of the line increased exponentially, mostly from people simply entering their mid to late teens and naturally losing interest in such a "childish" hobby like BIONICLE. Granted, not all the critics thought like that, but it easy to tell which side a critic was on by looking at their criticisms in 2004/2005 and seeing if they're actually still around. If they're not, chances are they were just bitter about growing up and not seeing the line mature with them. I of course, loved the line at this point. 2004 was one of my favorite years because of its urban feel. It felt more sci-fi, and thus, familiar to me. BIONICLE was in its prime, and it was disappointing to see so many people refer to it like it was a childish toyline with a cheap storyline. Nowadays, I've just accepted all of that and am content with enjoying my childish hobby, but I was 15 then - you know how 15 year olds are. Stay tuned for next year's summary: when the fandom strikes back!

Oh boy... what is it about second years never living up to the fourth? Beats me... Anyway, between July 23, 2003 and July 23, 2004, BZP's member base grew exponentially. I imagine many of them joined after getting the beta of MNOLG2 (which was programmed poorly, and thus makes it a sucky game IMO). MNOLG2 and Mask of Light were the main foci of this year, pretty much overshadowing the Rahkshi (at least it looked that way to me...) My game, The Saga Continues, sort of fell by the wayside in terms of popularity. This may have been because so much attention was being brought to my next game, The Legend of Mata Zuto: Genesis. The game was an overall success, and it took nearly half the time it took to complete TSC to finish it. I felt compelled to make yet another RPG; a sequel to "Genesis": "The Bohrok Saga". When making this game, I wanted to merge the Mata Zuto universe with the universe established in The Saga Continues (The Infestation is actually an even mix of elements from both TSC and The Bohrok Saga). This was also the year that I wanted to expand my creativity. I began writing epics and making sprite comics - all connected to the Mata Zuto story. I was about halfway through Mata Zuto 2 when I released it for download. My fanbase was booming, and many wanted to help with the RPG. I let a few members take the RPG and work on the next version that was due in a couple weeks or so. They disappeared off the face of the Earth and my topic died since there weren't any updates. Meanwhile, members from all over the web came pouring in (in part because BIONICLE.com linked to us in 2004). This is the year that, with so many new faces, the forums began to lose their community feel. This was compounded by the fact that us, still being tweens and kids, couldn't role-play to save our skins, so the RPG forum was pretty much dead. There would be the occasional "interesting" project that would garner lots of posts from members (this was before the "proof" rule was implement), but eventually, it would die off. People also didn't seem to have the same affection for RPG Maker-made games like they did when I joined. Soon after the death of Mata Zuto 2, I released "TSC-REVISED", the first RPG on BZP to be made with RPG Maker 2003. The very first Matoran Battle Sprites also spawned from that game. It did okay, considering how dead the RPG forum was. After that, I began working on the MZGRPG - a remake of "Genesis" - with a completely different story. This completely tanked and it seemed like the age RPG Maker-made games was clearly over. Fortunately, in June 2003, a BZ Moderator (with the help of Black Six and other members) started up the BZPRPG. This would mark my first role-playing experience, and it help to dull the pain of the complete lack of interest in video game RPGs. This was very fun, but the RPG was too strict in my opinion. Granted, we all sucked at RPing, and god-modded everywhere, but the method of handling it was not like it is today. Though, I must repeat, the beginning months of the BZPRPG was very fun, and a great pastime. It's too bad they were lost. In general, the BIONICLE storyline was cool during this time, but it felt like BZP was getting a tad bit cluttered. This year was also notable for being my favorite year in BIONICLE. Everything was climatic and it felt cool. Plus the urban setting of 2004 was beyond awesome. It's just too bad we didn't get a "MNOLG" for that year...

That does make sense. Yay for never paying attention until now!

I joined on the 23rd, yet I already have my 8 year spinny... ... I'm not even gonna ask. EDIT: Oh right, leap years...

Don't ask why, but I spent a great deal of time in Storyline and Theories. I think this is because that forum was the first to show up on my address bar whenever I typed in bzpower.com (I didn't know how to bookmark at this time), plus every forum looked the same to me so I didn't really pay attention to what forum I was in (yes, I was one of those members). So most of my first few posts were in S&T, with this one being my very first (as far as I know - I got up rather late the next day). BZPower was cyber-attacked in November 2002. The forums were offline for quite a while after that and I was sure the era of BZ had met its end. Fortunately, I was wrong. So, you may remember last entry when I mentioned Flow of the River. That's how I discovered the RPG Forum, which I thought was an odd name for a forum that had computer games. The forum was populated with game project that were doomed to fail (FotR could possibly be included in this, since the game was only half-finished by this point and the creators had gone on hiatus). Still, I checked out the 3D C++ game topic, and many other topics using RPG Maker to make their stuff. I really wanted to believe I could find something to fill that void of no Legends of Mata Nui PC game. Well, since the game projects (most of them at least) weren't going anywhere, I decided to start making RPGs myself. Now to shamelessly parrot from my site's About page: This actually sums up my first year well. The rise and fall of an aspiring RPG Maker. I also enjoyed the luxury of learning more about the BIONICLE storyline and other facets that I would've never found on Bionicle.com. I had gotten used to simply visiting BZPower first, then, if LEGO posted an update, I'd check out Bionicle.com through the link that BZPower posted.

You're still in Dallas, right? Ray and I are only fourish hours from you. Good point. Maybe we can all take a trip to Austin - that's a better city to meet up in.

Man, that's really cool that you two live so close together. It's just too bad I still live so far away... As I've said before: someone bring a webcam to Brickfair. Then I can make my appearance!

I was bored during the summer of 2002. I didn't have enough sets to really MOC, and I didn't have a camera to take pictures, so much of my time was spent on my Windows 98 desktop. My site that had really piqued my interest during this time was bioniclemusic.com. It had a flash application that let you mix several tribal/techno tracks together to make music. It was beyond awesome. Another Bionicle-related thing that I found on the 'net was this BIONICLE flash game, where you would choose a Toa and then battle Rahi in several levels, increasing your score. They had a contest where the highest scorer got a free Manas set (still curious on who was the lucky person). Well, these two sites (along with a painful longing of anything remotely similar to the cancelled PC game) are what ultimately got me started on my quest for BIONICLE multimedia. This being the time before the BIONICLE Media Project or even BZPower however, my searches were not very fruitful. One day, I stumbled across a BIONICLE site that I can't name. Since I can't really discuss it in detail, I'll just say that it was the first fansite that I had ever encountered and was blown away by the set reviews and official BIONICLE images that they were able to put up from time to time. Continuing on... there was another site that Google returned in my search: "Xitan's BIONICLE Corner". I guess Google was not very fast at updating their links, because when I encountered this site, it had been moved to another domain for some time. This domain: bzcommunity.com, would be my second fansite that I encountered. Honestly, I didn't like it. You were greeted with the disembodied head of a maskless Toa with fiery red eyes gazing into your soul, and I barely was able to notice the BionicleZone under it. Not to mention, this being the very first forum I encountered, I simply couldn't make my way around the site. There were links everywhere going to all kinds of different places, with little icons and images strewn about everywhere. It had been the oddest website I had ever encountered, boasting what looked like thousands of webpages with URLs that I couldn't make out. It was through this heap of links that I discovered Brickshelf, where they supposedly hosted pictures of peoples' MOCs and BIONICLE figures. The folders were never public though, so I ignored it and continued on, searching for any more BIONICLE multimedia. Finally, Google showed my Kanohi Power, another BIONICLE fansite that (IMO) looked miles better than Bionicle Zone. Everything was clean and not too many links. I reminded me of the first BIONICLE site, but with less pictures. At the time, I need pictures and videos to keep my interest in anything, so I quickly moved on. However, every time I'd try to search for something BIONICLE-related, I'd generally always find myself at one of those three fansites, and mostly, I just wound up at either BZCommunity or Kanohi Power. I had also managed to grasp what a "forum" was, and consequently had an easier time navigating BZC. I finally just stuck to BZC - the Toa head didn't bother me anymore, and I learned that people were making all kinds of cool stuff in their Creative Outlet, including a 3D BIONICLE game in the works (written in C++ no less!)! As you can probably guess, that particular project fell through. I continued following the discussions on BZC until one day when I saw that BZ's layout had changed dramatically. It turns out it merged with Kanohi Power - that other site that I paid little attention to! Well, that was convenient! BZP then felt like a brand new site (cause it was!). Contrary to what I thought, it doesn't look like I felt the need to post in the FotR topic at all, considering it was almost a week after I joined before I did. I guess I just decided to join just-cause. Anyway, three days later (technically 2 days later, and I joined a little bit after midnight), I decided to sign up. And that's how I found BZP!

*sigh* Work on Influx is continuing, but I've reached possibly the hardest part of the game: AI. I've just managed to get the logic down on paper, and implementing it has been successful. However, since this is a 3D game, Physics and animation have to play a part, and sometimes what I want the AI to do may be hindered by the Physics since the Physics system controls how the character moves. Then, there's sequencing: having one process go after another. This is generally how lines of code are processed, by they're processed so fast that it all looks instantaneous. The challenge presented is that I must have one command cycle through the game loop until it is done, then when that command is completely finished, another command can start. The key is to hopefully do this without the use of hundreds of booleans (or switches, or toggles, if that makes more sense), which right now looks like the only possible solution. Maybe I'll go back and work on the menu. That was fun. P.S. Stay tuned this week for my 8th BZP anniversary, where, starting on the 20th (3 days before my join date) I'll talk to you about what was going on during that year and what I was up to (since very few you know much about be from before 2008/9). I will be funny and entertaining. Promise!

Considering this could easily happen to me in the coming years, I gotta say that entry was 30% funny and 70% frighteningly horrifying. Here's hoping that things improve.

Which one of you broke the server?

You're such an old fogey *hugs* Believe it or not, I ventured through the episodes myself sometime last year and got a significantly different impression. To me, the animations looked choppy and cheaply made, and while the story and dialogue were awesome, the artwork and animation took the enjoyment out of watching the episodes for nostalgia's sake. In all fairness though, this is likely because I myself took apart those episodes in order to make flash movies of my own -- so the mystery of how they created those movies were gone. I consider myself an oddball since my interest in the storyline never really changed through all 9 years; I was never deeply invested in it. The beginning years felt too foreign to me and the later years had less characterization and less engaging dialogue, making the story as a whole less interesting (I only stared caring in 2005 when I could no longer buy sets for myself and gave up on LEGO ever releasing a decent game to play). I think we can both agree that the later years (2006 - 2010 most definitely) would've been much better had they simply maintained the quality of the dialogue and characterization.

Don't forget the Exo-Toa. Probably the greatest set ever! Looking back, Bohrok were okay. At the time though... B)

Yay, America!

*hugs*

... so yeah. If you make a comment in my blog, don't expect it to show up for several days. I generally don't pay attention to stuff like this unless I'm notified about them. XD EDIT: Never mind, I just activated notifications. XD

I've been spending much of my free time working on my extremely labor-intensive project, known simply as Mata Zuto 3D: Influx. Now, I have something new to present to the few of you who are interested. Click here to see the player character unsheath his sword and battle the evil mesh. Also take a look at the interface. The enemy HUD may or may not stay that way. I would like feedback on how you like that panel that appears on the left side of the screen. You can battle up to four enemies at once, and their panels would simply line up on the left side of the screen. The font used is the official Legend of Mata Zuto font. It's kind of part of see clearly, which is why I hope to get a prototype underway, so that you can get a better look at what I'm trying to present. Well, enjoy!

Y'know, I was never really sure how much money one made off those Google ads. I guess I'll Google that.

She scolds everybody, EW. In fact, I think she scolds Andrew the most! But I must ask, what did she do this time? And shouldn't she already be aware that she's great?

I'll just come right out and say it: it was the stuff of nightmares. Remember that XKCD strip where the guy was in class and they had a pop test, and he had no idea what to do, and it turned out it was all a dream? That would be my weekend, except it wasn't a dream. Sure, I knew the concepts, but in Calculus-based Physics, concepts isn't enough. It's the cruelest form of problem solving known to man, and combine that with my (general) inability to solve problems (whether real or conceptual) right the first time... *sigh* I just hope I can still pass.

*Loves*

But... you're already one of our greatest superheroes - you're Dazed, after all!

Nice update. I uh, actually haven't seen Casablanca all the way through (don't kill me please!) Don't worry though, it's on my to do list.