The Diploma
So the first half of 2016 was me trying to cope with the disaster that was the latter part of 2015. I won't go into it (well, not in this post anyway), but it was a rather unpleasant experience. So it was during this time I decided I wanted to do something and that something was videos. Having seen so many possibilities, I wanted to have a go and do something beyond just another gaming let's play channel (though they're always a good start). Problem was, I had no experience with video editing, effects, etc. So when it came time to take up some study, all the courses I had originally wanted to do were not mid-year, but a Visual Effects course was. So I took it up.
No it was meant to be part-time due to my health, but sadly it seemed that option went out after I had signed up. Luckily for me, support services have been great and the teachers are (for the most part) aware of my conditions, which has helped a lot. It's nice to have people be understanding when you need a week off to help recover from extreme suicidal thinking, something I'm very thankful for. I'm doing good so far in the course, though next year will be a lot harder. I'm hoping for another cool patch and to get over this current bad depression streak I'm going through (it seems to now be a regular thing that hit every year now around Christmas time), so I can sit down and work on some stuff. Wanting to get a title screen for the Zargooran video page and to work more on visual effects and green screening. I'd love to do some animation work, but we never did 2D and we won't work on 3D till next year. Still, looking forward to in.
Television, Animation and Youtube
It's amazing, but I think I watch more online videos then normal television now. Perhaps it's more entertaining or I find the people on there have more charming personalities (just avoid the comments section if you value your sanity, worst aspects of humanity are found there). I am finding I'm watching less of the bigger channels and more of the smaller ones, though it might be more to do with people focusing on less group content. Heck, it's helped me find some of the more smaller fandoms that produce much more wonderful and respectable content (trust me, I've seen some really messed up shit in some fandoms).
Television saw the return of one of my favourite shows, Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell. It's a comedy show mostly making fun of politics and some of his gags have left me with a near on Asthma attack they were that good. Have you been paying attention was another that still got a run this year, though I had to watch the encore versions as I missed them when they were on (study nights). I find most television these days are either stupid reality shows, uninteresting sports or biased programs with a political agenda. Maybe that's why I've turned to Youtube.
Animation is still going strong. Re-runs of Gravity Falls are nice. MLP is still going (but as I've stated in the past, I don't like the idea of another season or the movie in fear that they'll screw something up) and I even checked out some episodes of Star vs the forces of evil, which I did enjoy. Thinking back, there really hasn't been much in the way of great shows released recently, though once again, there are some nice animated shorts on the internet, so keep an eye out for them.
Movies
I haven't been to the movies in a long time, but that hasn't stopped me from seeing a couple of them. I got to see two movies that were released in previous years. The first was Guardians of the Galaxy, which I freaking loved. The other was Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which I found to be a lot less enjoyable. As much as I'll tick fans off with my opinion on it, I felt it was trying too much to be like episode 4 and the first two acts were rather boring. The writing was off, I just couldn't connect enough to care about these characters. Well, save Rey, who parts I enjoyed watching. For a pass over, Rey is a great character and I hope the next one focuses more on her.
As for my movie of the year, that has to go to Zootopia. A great story with a wonderful cast of characters, the animation was amazing and I just wanted to see more of it (and yes, I've already made my own fan character, a bat cause I haven't made a bat character in a long time). The meanings in the movie I feel was a great way to project the messages and I'd like to see it taken further, perhaps a predator/prey relationship and some of the stigma with that (though a nice happy ending, cause I feel the residence would be more open and more positive about such things in the city then outside it). I was surprised we didn't get any animated shorts, given the way most major 3D studios add them in their release products or released seperatly. What I feel was lacking was merchandising. Surprisingly, there is Frozen still all over the place, yet good luck trying to find Zootopia stuff beyond the movies and books (I did get the Art of book, which was better then I imagined). I like a few display pieces for...well...display. Hell, only found out recently they had Disney Infinity models, but they were so rare to find and only became harder when DI was terminated. Given I have some display pieces like Chip N Dale, I was hoping for some similar display pieces, but I guess Disney isn't interested in that anymore. Shame really (Still not sure why there has been little promotion of Zootopia compared to Frozen, but then again, maybe it has something to do with having a lot more songs to sing along to...maybe?).
Gaming
Well, it's been interesting. Played a few games myself, seen games played by others. I have no great one of the year as most of my enjoyment from them comes from playing with others, not so much the game itself. I was disappointed that Disney Infinity got cancelled, but given what Disney has done with it since shutting the studio down simply confuses me. It's clearly a popular game, so why not give it to someone more trustworthy to keep it going.Given peoples reactions, it seems a shame to do this, especially after that horror called Skylanders Imaginators. Seriously, the story in that game is not only terrible (given they took all that was good and decided to make it into a long episode of that blasted Netflix show and yes, Kaos and Glumshanks are the only good parts of that show), but characters like Flinn and his friends rarely get an appearance and the villain's 180 flip at the end makes no sense nor what happens to him after. DI deserved to beat that damn product. I'd point out the Lego version is overpriced compared to them, but I'm more concerned that Gremlins is an actual product. People do realise that Gremlins was a horror themed film right and Gremlins 2 was more of a horror comedy? Gizmo may be cute, but how many parents are really going to show the first movie to their kids? Didn't think so.
Ah well, nuff raging on that crap. There were some great games out this year and while I didn't play many of them, I am going to try some of them soon. What I am looking forward to are ones like the Civilization 6 and Planet Coaster. I have been playing some Total War: Warhammer and I do hope to get my own little review of that one out soon. I've had some excellent fun with StarCraft 2, it's Co-Op gaming is a lot of fun (so far I've level 15 Kerrigan, Abathur and Stukov, with Stukov being my favourite to play at the moment. Infestation is fun). Beyond all that, I've returned to Warhammer: Age of Reckoning or rather, Return of Reckoning as it is now known. Yeah it's a buggy mess and it needs a tone of work done to fix it, but given those working on it don't have the original code and are merely fans trying to set up the game so people can have fun, I won't blast them for it (unlike some of the player base does). Perhaps I'll do an update on that one in the future too.
Miniature Wargaming
So I'll wrap this whole thing by looking an miniature wargaming for me. Malifaux has had some interesting miniature releases and just recently set up their kickstarter for their larger miniature battle game called The Other Side. Thus far, I'm probably going to side with the Gibbering Hordes. I got a bunch more miniatures done, but still have a lot more to do, so thank you for being patient for waiting as I slowly get them done. I will have something uploaded soon, that much I can promise. I've been opened to a bunch of new games and some of the miniatures look amazing, only fueling my want to paint the odd one here and there.
It would be wrong not to mention Games-Workshop for the year in this. I'm sorry, 'Warhammer' is what they call themselves now. I'm still not buying the reason they gave for the name change, still saying it's to distance themselves from the bad rap GW name has attached. Still, if what I've been told is true, then some new guy at it's financial head is an actual fan of the hobby and if so, that would explain the recent changes. We got classic, long thought lost armies returning to 40K, they put points in Age of Sigmar to make a competitive scene, White Dwarf has returned to it's former glory somewhat and we saw the release of Bloodbowl and shock of all shocks, they plan to support it too. While I'm still questioning if I'll return to AoS, a Bloodbowl team is something that does look interesting. It's a good change for the company and it's a path I fully support.
Conclusion
It's a mixed bag this year. We lost some great people like Prince, David Bowie, Gene Wilder and today (Australia time, this blog uses a different time stamp to me) we lost Carrie Fisher. It's been a sad one. That said, take out politics and stuff and I just realised just how boring my year has been (or was it, I just realised I'm a boring person.....). I think the hardest part is that unlike most end of years going into the next one, this one feels the most uncertain. Fear is more rampant then ever before, but if you step back and look, it's not the ones you think to fear that are causing it. Still, there are plenty of good things coming next year, so here's hoping it'll be a great one in disguise.
Note: I know this wasn't much of an end of year report, I'm not the best at writing these things. Sorry.
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