Karen Wiesner: Fiction Series So Big, They Cross Multimedia Platforms: Dragon Age Series, created by Bioware and David Gaider

Fiction Series So Big, They Cross Multimedia Platforms:

Dragon Age Series, created by Bioware and David Gaider

by Karen Wiesner

In this article series I'm calling "Fiction Series So Big, They Cross Multimedia Platforms", I plan to explore supernatural fiction series that sometimes had their beginnings as books but branched out into other types of mediums, like videogames, movies/TV series, board/card/role-playing games, and music. In each individual article that I hope will introduce entertainment connoisseurs to some incredible fiction or components of similar themed stories they might have otherwise missed, I'll discuss the origins of the series elements as well as my individual experience with the various types of media, which will be presented as a kind of review of the series.

In this second installment, we'll cover the dark fantasy Dragon Age Series created and developed by Bioware, a Canadian videogame developer and its lead writer (until 2015), David Gaider. Gaider is credited with the majority of the lore for the setting of these multi-faceted stories. In addition to being the head writer for the first three, main series games, Gaider also wrote two prequel novels to the first game and a follow-up novel to the second game. He was the lead writer on The Silent Grove comic series and it sequels Those Who Speak and Until We Sleep.

In this sprawling fantasy series, the popular videogames spawned novels, comics, graphic novels, multiple webseries, an anime film, gorgeous music, and role-playing games.

Which Came First?

Dragon Age takes place on the fictional continent of Thedas. The first videogame was Dragon Age: Origins with multiple downloadable content additions (DLC) that enlarged the scope of the original story and its memorable characters. Released in 2009, it's widely considered to be one of the best videogames of all times (as are all the installments to this day). The story follows a recent recruit to the Grey Wardens, a legendary order with the mission of saving the kingdom of Ferelden from being wiped out by a monstrous race of subterranean-dwelling beings called Darkspawn. Every few hundred years, these creatures come to the surface and awaken an Archdemon (a corrupted Old God of the Tevinter Imperium in the form of a powerful dragon) to lead them in an event called a Blight--the single biggest threat to all Thedas civilizations. The Grey Wardens and the Dwarves' Legion of the Dead are all that stand between the world and certain annihilation.

Origins was followed in 2010 by an enormous expansion pack called Awakening that takes place directly following the end of the original game, continuing with the main character from the first game in a new campaign set in a whole different section of Thedas. Awakening alone added nearly 22 hours of very enjoyable, additional gameplay.

The sequel to Origins came in 2011: Dragon Age II centers around the eldest of the Hawke family, a Blight refugee forced by Darkspawn hordes to flee their home and settle in Kirkwall, where the character drags itself up from nothing to become a champion of a city in the midst of turmoil and political unrest. In the process, the character influences all of Thedas with decisions made and actions taken. Dragon Age II received six downloadable content packs. In one of them, Legacy, Hawke investigates a Grey Wardens prison overrun with Darkspawn, confronts his or her father's actions in the past, and must face off against Corypheus, a character who becomes central in the third Dragon Age installment: Inquisition, released in 2014.

Inquisition highlights the organization of that name tasked with restoring peace and order to Thedas after being ravaged by a demonic invasion. The Inquisition follows its leader, "the Herald of Andraste", an individual unintentionally given the power to seal Fade rifts that bring the demons into Thedas--the Fade being the realm where corrupt souls dwell. Several adds-ons and DLC expanded the main story. One in particular, Trespasser, creates a bridge to the next installment in the series. Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, the fourth in the series and a direct sequel to the previous game, is currently under development and will be set in the Tevinter Imperium region of Thedas and focused on Solas, who was a companion of the Herald of Andraste in Inquisition. The tentative release date is late 2023.

Several spinoff games (no longer available) included the browser games Journeys (2009) with a tie-in to the first game; Legends (2011), a tie-in to the second game; Heroes of Dragon Age (2013) drew on plotlines from existing games; and The Last Court (2014), which was set between the events of the second and third games.

The fictional world of Thedas--the only continent in the known world--in DA is inhabited by a variety of humanoid races. One of the largest themes in the games and books focuses on social classes, political dynamics, and the power struggles between the races and factions. Humans dominate and have the respect of most of the population. Elves are considered second class citizens living in overpopulated "alienages" within human cities or as slaves of Tevinter Imperium magisters. Some elves (the Dalish), wanting to reclaim their cultural heritage, live apart in nomadic settlements.

Dwarven society centers around the caste system and a form of ancestor worship. Dwarves are divided into two types: The underground variety with access to entire cities they've built below the surface in what are called the Deep Roads, and surfacers who are treated by undergrounders with deep suspicion.

The Qunari hail from far north settlements in Thedas and are a race of tall, large, physically robust humanoids with varying skin colors and sometimes horns. Converts to their civil religion are called "the Qun". Individuals born outside Qunari society are called Vashoth, and those who abandon Qunari teachings become "Tal-Vashoth" (traitors).

Magic-wielding characters known as mages have access to the Fade. Demon possession is a constant concern and those who give in to it practice forbidden "blood magic". Mages in southern Thedas are forced by The Chantry (the fictional organized religion or church of the realm) to train in colleges called Circles of Magi. Human mages are either kept in the Circle or, in Tevinter, are given free reign with the most powerful becoming magisters. Dwarves can't be mages, and the elves who live outside Chantry control are part of the Dalish clans. Qunari mages are called "Saarabas" (dangerous things) and are kept leashed with their mouths sewn shut. The Chantry's military wing is called the Templar Order, and they seek out and subdue "apostate" mages. Seekers of Truth acts as a check against Templars.

In addition to two comprehensive guides that offer detailed lore, character studies, geography, races, religion, magic, and cookbooks of the DA universe (released 2013 and 2015), a concept art volume (2014), the following fiction releases are available:

1)    Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne by David Gaider (2009) is a novel prequel to Origins and tells the story of the Orlais rebel Maric and his unlikely ally Loghain (from Origins).

2)    Dragon Age: The Calling by David Gaider (2009) is another Origins prequel in which King Maric (and his son Cailan from Origins) pushes for the return of the Grey Wardens to Ferelden.

3)    Dragon Age: Asunder by David Gaider (2011) takes place after DA II and follows a rogue mage (Rhys, mentioned in Cole's storyline within Inquisition) trying to clear his name of murders committed within the seat of Templar power, the White Spire.

4)    Dragon Age: The Masked Empire by Patrick Weekes (2014) details the ruthless, fashionable game of Orlais politics and Empress Celene (from Inquisition) of Orlais's rise to power.

5)    Dragon Age: Last Flight by Liane Merciel (2014) follows an elven mage who becomes a Grey Warden and finds a secret diary uncovering the dark side of the Grey Wardens, which led to the tragic demise of griffin riders.

6)    Dragon Age: Hard in Hardtown by Mary Kirby (2018) is written under the pen name Varric Tethras, one of the games' most iconic characters featured in both DA II and Inquisition. Varric is an author within the Dragon Age Series, and his popular crime-noir drama, Hard in Hardtown, is frequently talked about in the games.

7)    Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights (2020) is an anthology of 15 short stories by various authors that cover a gamut of topics, including Grey Wardens, Mortalitasi necromancers, Dalish elves, and Antivan Crow assassins.

There are also several DA webcomic and comic series published, many of them focused on the best known and loved characters of the series: Flemeth, the Witch of the Wilds and her apostate daughter Morrigan (both of whom made appearances in nearly all game installments); Nathaniel Howe (Awakening and DA II), Alistair (Origins and DA II); Varric (DA II and Inquisition); Isabela (Origins and DA II, though she looked radically different between the two games); and Fenris (DA II).

Tabletop role-playing games exist set in the DA universe. An anime film adaptation called Dawn of the Seeker (2012) focused on a young Cassandra Pentaghast (of DA II and Inquisition) and is still available to watch on Hulu. Warden's Fall (2010) introduced the events covered in Awakening, detailing Kristoff's journey to the Blackmarsh. In 2011, the webseries Redemption premiered a day before the release of DA II DLC Mark of the Assassin, in which the character Tallis, played by actress Felicia Day (the voice actress in Mark of the Assassin and also writer and co-producer of Redemption) is sent by the Qunari to recapture a Saarabas. Absolution, a Netflix TV series slated for December 2022 release, will feature new characters set in the Tevinter Imperium.

A Review of the Various Medium Components Available

My first experience with Dragon Age was Origins. My son was into videogames while growing up, and we had this one, though no one really played it much. I tried several times to play the Xbox 360 version but found the controls clunky so abandoned the game before getting very far each time. Then I played Inquisition, which was one of three games we bought after we got our first Xbox One console. Everything about Inquisition is exquisite--amazing characters, story, gameplay, etc. It's a huge game with at least 200 hours of gameplay (compared to about 90 for Origins and 60 for DA II). The sheer amount of things to do in the game can be a turn-off to those who don't like a huge to-do list in-game. I do love that kind of thing because it makes sense that. in an inquisition, in order to gain followers, you need to go into each area you want to ally with and fix their problems. There's a certain logic to it, even if it does sometimes seem like too much at times.

DA games aren't linear, which is a good thing to me. I tend to hate linear games, though hybrid ones that have some linear, some non-linear elements are acceptable. I also love that you can decide what class of character to play (male or female warrior, rogue, or mage) and also decide your race and background (across all of the games, you can play as a noble or commoner human, Dalish or city elf, noble or commoner dwarf, or Qunari). Incidentally, in a weird DLC, The Darkspawn Chronicles, you can also play as Darkspawn…you know, if you don't mind being a traitor to everything! Each class, race, and background are unique and, especially in Origins, the merging of those unique storylines can really show you all perspectives of the story. In each game, you get to customize exactly how your character looks, which is one of the best parts of getting these games started. There are also romance potentials in each game, all usually chosen from your companions, which accompany you on various missions undertaken throughout the game. Who you choose to bring with you (2-3 per mission in each game) can really change the perspective and even the outcome of the quests.

After playing Inquisition, I was sold on the series, so I knew I had to go back and play the others. Origins wasn't easy to get used to, but, once I got past the class/race/background origin story and became a Grey Warden, I embraced the old-style gameplay pretty quickly.

Dragon Age II is very different from the first, the gameplay mechanics much smoother. The first two games have complicated companion scaling systems. Main character's actions, dialogue, and/or the giving of gifts can provide approval or disapproval. When added together, you'll either end up with a friend or an enemy who eventually has to make a choice about continuing to support you or to abandon you and your cause. It is possible to secure the loyalty of most companions (except in DA II, where you do have to make a choice between two of the characters whether you want to or not), but it can be hard to maintain loyalty with everyone, particularly in II where a stacking bad rating could mean a member in your party will rebel against you in the end (and you'll have to kill him or her). All across the board, DA II falls into morally obscure territory, and I've spent countless hours talking about the "ethics and politics" of the events in this story with fellow gamers.

I've now played all unique classes, races, and backgrounds of Origins, DA II, and Inquisition with and all expansions countless times. I love how the DLC for each game, particularly Legacy for DA II and Trespasser for Inquisition, segue into the next main game. In fact, you really won't get the full story any other way, and, as in the end of the main campaign in Inquisition, you're left with almost a false impression of what actually occurred if you only play the main game. Only by undertaking Trespasser following the events of the main game do you learn the true nature of who and what brought about the Inquisition. Crafty of the developers, considering how many people I know who skip the DLC!

For completionist gamers, you can find my checklists, chock full of tips and tricks, for DA games below:

Origins and all DLC as well as the Awakening expansion:

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/5/5/23554234/dragonageoriginschecklist.pdf

Dragon Age II with all DLC:

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/5/5/23554234/dragonageiichecklist.pdf

Inquisition with all DLC:

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/5/5/23554234/dragonageinquisitionchecklist.pdf

I ordered Books 1-5 in the Dragon Age series while I was playing through the games the first time. The writing of each of these was the highest quality, and finding out backstories behind events, characters, and settings in the games was intriguing, really making the whole series feel like a complete world. I'd love to see full games or DLC created for each of the books. Even if you don't play the games (which would be sad because it's such an interactive way to experience the stories), the books for this series are well worth reading for any dark fantasy lover.

That brings us to the music of Dragon Age. While the haunting "Leliana's Song" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efa9Wr5j9Wo and "The Dawn Will Come" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsxE0dwLICU are probably the songs almost everyone who's played the games know best, all the soundtracks from the main games and the DLC contain breathtakingly gorgeous music. Highly recommended! You can listen in here: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dragon+age+soundtracks.

Whether you're a dark fantasy book reader, gamer, lover of TV and movies and music, I highly recommend Dragon Age Series in all its multimedia facets. Each component is worth whatever time and monetary investments you make.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150+ titles and 16 series. Visit her here:

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

The Purpose of Horror

What is horror fiction (whether in print or on film) good for? My parents certainly took a dim view of my fervent interest in the genre, beginning at the age of twelve with my first reading of DRACULA. A familiar physiological or biochemical hypothesis proposes that reading or viewing horror serves the same purpose as riding a roller coaster. We enjoy the adrenaline rush of danger without having to expose ourselves to any real risk. Personally, I would never get on a roller coaster except at gunpoint, to save someone else's life, or to earn a lavish amount of money. I'm terrified of anything that feels like falling and don't like any kind of physical "thrill" experience. Yet I do enjoy the vicarious fears of the horror genre. Maybe real-life thrill rides or extreme sports feel too much like actual danger for my tolerance level, whereas artistic terror feels controllable.

H. P. Lovecraft famously asserts, "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest fear is fear of the unknown." Therefore, horror is a legitimate subject for art, even though he believes its appeal is restricted to a niche audience. We might link Lovecraft's thesis to the physiological model, in that the feared unknown becomes manageable when confined within the boundaries of a story.

In DANSE MACABRE, Stephen King suggests that all horror fiction has roots in our fear of death. Embodying the threat of death in the form of a monster entails the hope that it can be defeated. I think it's in 'SALEM'S LOT that a child character says, "Death is when the monsters get you."

In an interview in the October 2022 LOCUS, author Sarah Gailey maintains that "horror is designed to put the reader in touch with an experience of the body, where that experience is one that they typically would not wish to have." Our culture separates body and mind from each other, while, Gailey says, "Horror serves to remind us that those things aren’t separate. The ‘I’ who I am is absolutely connected to the physical experience of my body and the danger that body could face in the world, and horror does an incredible job of reminding readers that we live in bodies, we live in the world, and we are creatures."

This comment reminds me of C. S. Lewis's remark that the truth of our nature as a union of both the spiritual and the physical could be deduced from the existence of dirty jokes and ghost stories. Bawdy humor implies that our having fleshly bodies is somehow funny, shameful, or incongruous. No other species of animal seems to find it funny just to be the kind of creature it is. Supernatural horror highlights the sense that separation of body and soul, which should form a single, unified entity, is deeply unnatural. Hence we get the extremes of zombies (soulless yet animated bodies) and ghosts (disembodied spirits).

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Emails Are Forever, Forever, Forever

The best line of the week in all the copyright-related legal blogs (in my sole opinion) was that from Charlotte K, Newell who wrote, "Emails, like diamonds, are forever."

 

By the way, emails may also be subject to copyright. An alien romance author (or any other genre of author) cannot take other people's emails and weave them into an epistolary novel. Publish someone else's email, and one might be sued just as much as if one publishes someone else's letter.

Slightly off topic, and by the way, the Lulu blog has a really good article of advice to authors on avoiding a defamation lawsuit.

https://blog.lulu.com/the-dos-and-donts-of-how-to-avoid-a-defamation-lawsuit-as-an-author/

The self-publishing school has another helpful article specifically for authors of memoirs --but it might also apply to alien romance authors-- written by Chandler Bolt.

https://self-publishingschool.com/memoirs-avoid-being-sued/

 

This is all getting away from the imperishability of emails, and the reference to James Bond film theme songs sung by Shirley Bassey.

 

Charlotte K. Newell, blogging for the law firm Sidley Austin LLP, discusses the importance of using the appropriate email address for correspondence (legal or otherwise) if there is a future possibility that one might be involved in a lawsuit and need to claim attorney-client privilege.

Authors who have a day job might take note.

https://ma-litigation.sidley.com/2022/11/another-musk-twitter-sideshow-reminds-that-which-email-address-you-use-matters/#page=1

  

The Who -or Whose-, What, Why, and How of intellectual property and emails generated during the work day as regards New Zealand law are comprehensively discussed by legal bloggers Joseph Harrop and Helena Scholes of the NZ lawfirm Lane Neave.

https://www.laneneave.co.nz/news-events/copyright-in-the-employment-relationship-made-by-you-but-is-it-yours/

"In a world where content is king, intellectual property (IP) rights rule supreme. So, a key question in the employment relationship relates to when these rights arise and who is entitled to them. This article discusses the what, why, who and when of copyright in employment relationships."

Write or draw something while at work, on the clock for someone else, and it might not be yours.

The article focuses on New Zealand law, and on precautions that the employer should take, but it is always good to know.

 

All the best,

Rowena Cherry 

SPACE SNARK™ 

http://www.spacesnark.com/   

http://www.rowenacherry.com

EPIC Award winner, Friend of ePublishing for Crazy Tuesday

 

Karen Wiesner: Fiction Series So Big, They Cross Multimedia Platforms: The Witcher Series

Fiction Series So Big, They Cross Multimedia Platforms:

The Witcher Series, created by Andrzej Sapkowski

by Karen Wiesner

In this article series I'm calling "Fiction Series So Big, They Cross Multimedia Platforms", I plan to explore supernatural fiction series that sometimes had their beginnings as books but branched out into other types of mediums, like videogames, movies/TV series, board/card/role-playing games, and music. In each individual article that I hope will introduce entertainment connoisseurs to some incredible fiction or components of similar themed stories they might have otherwise missed, I'll discuss the origins of the series elements as well as my individual experience with the various types of media, which will be presented as a kind of review of the series. Let's start with a particular favorite of mine: Polish bestselling author Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher Series.

In Poland, The Witcher Series has a cult following and is so popular, a garden square in the author's hometown was renamed Witcher Square and a mural (the largest in Poland!) of the main character, Geralt, was painted on a local skyscraper. Americans didn't get translations of the book series for 17 years after the first story was published in Poland (and a couple of them still remain untranslated). The popularity of the videogames no doubt gave rise to interest in the books, which in turn incited the TV series that's become a favorite among fans of the supernatural.

Which Came First?

Sapkowski's The Witcher book series has everything a lover of the supernatural could want with the cool twist of a "genetically engineered" hero designed to hunt monsters of lore using melee combat, alchemical potions and decoctions that would be poison to anyone without the witcher mutagen, and some magical abilities called signs. Geralt of Rivia is one of several other Witchers. In the past, the word "witcher" translated from the Polish was "hexer" or "spellmaker". Witchers are a dying breed, to be sure, in this series, and they're frequently aided by sorceresses like Yennefer of Vengerberg and Triss Merigold (male witches also exist in this world). Bards are popular in this world as well, whether a help or hindrance, especially Geralt's best friend, Dandelion (or Jaskier in Polish, which is what he's called in the Netflix series to much confusion for those who have read the English translated books or played the games).

The series is set on an unnamed continent settled thousands of years earlier by elves who came from overseas. War broke out between the elves and the dwarves who dwelled on the continent. Other beings existing at that time are gnomes, halflings, and dryads. Humans arrived after this time (500 years before the events of the series) and dominated all other races. Humans war amongst themselves as well. Like the author, the main character despises politics and tries to remain neutral, not always successfully. After a magical event called the Conjunction of the Spheres, werewolves, vampires, and a whole host of mystical creatures (taken from existing lore as well as unique creatures invented by the author, or hybrids thereof) spilled onto the continent.

Previously a traveling fur salesman with a degree in economics and a lover of fantasy, the Polish author wrote a short story called "The Witcher" that he entered in a competition held by a Polish sci-fi and fantasy magazine his son liked. Though he waited a year for the results (taking the 3rd place prize), readers of the magazine spurred the author to write more short stories with their approval. Positive reception quickly led him to undertaking a fantasy saga complete with novels. The Witcher Series was published in Poland between 1990 and 2013 while the first wasn't released until 2007 in the USA. Spin-offs include stories (written by other writers) set in the world of The Witcher featuring its characters. Comic books of The Witcher were published from 1993 to 2014. 

Early screen adaptations were an overseas 2001 film and a 2002 TV series (titled The Hexer). Netflix adapted the series to television in 2019 along with an animated film in 2021 and a live-action prequel series is also in the works.

The first Witcher videogame was released in 2007, the second in 2011; and the third and final of the trilogy, in 2015. The games, particularly the latter, are bestsellers and have received countless awards. A remake of the first game is in the works, along with a second trilogy.

In 2001, a tabletop role-playing game based on the books was published. Another was released in 2018 based on the videogames. Board games, available in physical and digital forms, are currently available. Additionally, card games based on the videogames are in circulation.

Soundtracks for the videogames contain breathtakingly beautiful music. A rock opera and a musical based on the series were produced by a Russian symphonic rock band between 2009 and 2012.

A Review of the Various Medium Components Available

I became intrigued with the Witcher Series when I watched my son playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. I bought myself a copy, and my fascination with the series became absolute. I've played it countless times, many times a year, and the Blood and Wine DLC is some of the best bonus game material I've ever encountered. Every award this game won was well-deserved. This game is open-world and non-linear (you can do the quests in any order, for the most part), and much of the outcome is directly based on choices the player makes throughout, which is my favorite kind. As a gamer, I'm also a completionist, so I tend to do nearly every quest available (at least the first time), giving me a good two hundred hours of gameplay with this one. For the similarly obsessive type, I have an alphabetized, complete quest checklist uploaded here:  https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/5/5/23554234/witcher3questskarenwiesner.pdf.

After I played The Witcher 3 (and prior to playing The Witcher 2, which I'll talk about soon), I bought all Sapkowski's Witcher books and read them compulsively, more than once. They're phenomenal. Truly, some of the best books I've ever read. Below, you'll see the titles available in The Witcher Series (presented in chronological order--as they should be read--rather than in publication order):

1)    The Last Wish

2)    Sword of Destiny

3)    Season of Storms

4)    Blood of Elves

5)    The Time of Contempt

6)    Baptism of Fire

7)    The Tower of Swallows

8)    Lady of the Lake

9)    The Lady of the Lake

Next, I played The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. The gameplay is a bit trickier than 3, requiring the player to be prepared and anticipate monster attacks in advance with oils for the sword and potions designed to aid defense and attack (death otherwise, meaning multiple saves are necessary in case you die and need to reload to a previous save state). I'm so glad they changed this in the third game! Witcher 2 also has the unfortunate annoyance of forcing the player to (somehow) know the exact order each quest must be played in order to avoid missing out on anything. I designed my own "ideal order of quests" checklist to ensure I don't miss anything important in the 25 hours plus of gameplay this installment boasts. Gamer completionists can find my fairly thorough console version walkthrough here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/5/5/23554234/witcher2walkthroughkarenwiesner.pdf.

I enjoy this game immensely, though not quite as much as The Witcher 3, in part because it's a hybrid between a linear and a non-linear game. You're forced to complete certain of the quests (i.e., main quests) at a certain time, usually advancing you to another location in the game. Once those major quests are completed in the order they're required, you can settle in for a bit and complete location questions in a more non-linear manner. Again, the player's ongoing decisions affect the outcome of the storyline.

I do own the videogame The Witcher 1 on Steam and computer disk. Though it was supposed to be released on console back in the day, it ended up available only on PC. I find it much harder to play anything but point and click games, like Nancy Drew, on PC. A complicated combat game like The Witcher works so much better, in my opinion, using a game controller instead of a keyboard. In any case, I'm hopeful I will get to play the remake of The Witcher 1 in the coming years, if the promise of it comes to fruition--and that it's available on PC and consoles at the time of release.

Another media component of the videogames for this series are game soundtracks. I fell in love with the incredible soundtracks from each of the games, particularly the one for The Witcher 2. The gorgeous compositions created for the games have carried me through endless hours of writing sessions. Check them out here:

The Witcher 1 Soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFIbVqHOOIU

The Witcher 2 Soundtrack:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=witcher+2+soundtrack

The Witcher 3 Soundtrack:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=witcher+3+soundtrack

As if all this wasn't enough to embrace concerning a series with so many multimedia components, I love the mini-games that are played within each of the videogames. Specifically, Gwent in The Witcher 3 is a favorite card game of mine. I own all the physical decks along with an authentic game mat. I also enjoy Kings Dice from The Witcher 2. I've heard that in The Witcher 1, the player has the option of collecting "naughty" playing cards that are somehow related to Geralt's many sexual conquests. He must have a huge deck, if it's based on that, lol. This is one amorous hero, and the ladies (regardless of their race) love him.

I was thrilled when I heard about the Netflix adaptation of The Witcher Series, but I've found the results mixed, thus far. First, I strongly question the choices for some of the actors in the show, though they're growing on me, despite my qualms, a bit more after two seasons. Also, the first season whipsaws through time shifts so even a veteran reader of the books could easily become confused. The second season changes the series radically from the books with a new vision. I do admit, though, if I didn't consider the books canon, I might like the series more than I currently do. Those unhindered by the books will probably love the TV series. 

Whether you're a supernatural book reader, gamer, lover of TV and movies and music, I highly recommend The Witcher Series in all its multimedia facets. They're worth whatever time and monetary investments made on their behalf.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150+ titles and 16 series. Visit her here:

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Corporate Bullies and Copyright

Cory Doctorow's article for the November 2022 LOCUS discusses the ever-increasing reach of monopolies that prey on the work of writers and other content creators, in terms of a parable about bullies stealing lunch money. If the victims get more lunch money, they don't get more food; the bullies get more money. No matter how much artistic creators produce and theoretically earn, the greed of the rights-grabbers will never be sated:

Structural Adjustment

Doctorow reminds us that only five (maybe, soon, four) major publishing conglomerates exist and that the realms of physical bookselling, online retailing and e-book sales, book distribution, and music production are each dominated by one mega-corporation. "Publishing and other 'creative industries' generate more money than ever — and yet, despite all this copyright and all the money that sloshes around as a result of it, the share of the income from creative work that goes to creators has only declined." In book publishing, unless an author chooses to self-publish (or go with small independent presses, which he doesn't mention in this article), "Contracts demand more — ebook rights, graphic novel rights, TV and film rights, worldwide English rights — and pay less." And of course the major online retailers exercise their dominance over self-publishers' access to markets.

He summarizes in terms of his parable, "We’re the hungry school kids. The cartels that control access to our audiences are the bullies. The lunch-money is copyright."

Asserting, "Cartels and monopolies have enacted chokepoints between creators and audiences," Doctorow recommends a book, CHOKEPOINT CAPITALISM: HOW BIG TECH AND BIG CONTENT CAPTURED CREATIVE LABOR MARKETS AND HOW WE'LL WIN THEM BACK, and gives an example of one of the strategies recommended in it.

While I understand his points and recognize the dangers he often cites in his articles, as a reader (and online consumer in general) I would have trouble getting along without Amazon. It's a great boon to be able to find almost any book, no matter how obscure and long out of print. I value being able to acquire the complete backlist of almost any author I'm interested in. I enjoy having purchases delivered to our doorstep, since the older I get, the less I want to go out searching for items —- especially given the not-unlikely frustration of not finding what I want in stock locally. And I trust Amazon to fill orders reliably and handle credit information securely, rather than my taking the risk of buying from websites unknown to me. As an author, if I decide to self-publish a work, I like being able to upload it for free on the most popular e-book seller's site, plus other retailers through Draft2Digital. At the same time, I realize Doctorow isn't wrong that by embracing convenience and economy, we put ourselves at the mercy of the provider's whims. For one thing, buying a product in electronic form (e-book, music file, movie, etc.) means the seller can make it evaporate from the consumer's hard drive or tablet anytime. So what's the ideal solution? I don't know.

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

DARK PATTERNS, DIRTY TRICKS

Two days ago, tech support deleted two weeks' worth of research with one over-confident, permissionless click of an X in the upper right corner of a tool bar that came up after a restart. 129 tabs were erased and 120 of them could not be recovered. Lesson learned. I should have bookmarked them all! 

So, I return to the deep and dirty well of so-called "Dark Patterns" because they are top of mind, and the FTC is (sort of) on the warpath about them.

In a nutshell, "dark patterns" are hidden tricks that companies deploy to trick users into making choices that they would not otherwise have made, or spending more than they might have intended. 

Strictly speaking, I am not sure if "browsewrap" and "clickwrap" count as a dark pattern, but I came across a doozy this week. A homeowners' association management company has a specialized, automated website that they want all homeowners in the association to join. First, one must click one of those "I Agree" boxes to prove that one has read all the terms of use and other contractually binding terms and conditions. 

That is "clickwrap". You at least have the opportunity to click a link and read the TOU before clicking the box. "Browsewrap" is worse. You are deemed to have agreed to all the terms simply by visiting the site.

The terms on this site included a Miscellaneous Clause that gave the management company the right to change the contract without telling the users, and we users agree to be bound by the contract including by any unknowable changes, and accept full legal responsibility for not knowing what we'd agreed.

Also this week, I spent some time looking at pricey apartments and reading the reviews written by residents (or so they claimed). Somewhere in the very low-starred rankings, a residential whistle blower disclosed that the apartment management gives rent discounts and awards lottery prizes to residents who write glowing reviews.

That is surely shady. 

It would be a whole lot less shady if the residents disclosed --as part of the review text-- that they had received valuable compensation as payment for writing a five star review.

Here is a selection of articles about the FTC and deceptive reviews.

https://www.modernretail.co/operations/why-the-ftc-is-trying-to-crack-down-on-fake-reviews-on-e-commerce-sites/

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/ftc-says-adt-settles-deceptive-reviews-charges

https://www.fastcasual.com/blogs/ftc-cracks-down-on-inauthentic-online-review-practices-what-businesses-need-to-know/

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has published a report titled, "Bringing Dark Patterns To Light" which gives useful guidance to website owners about what sorts of manipulative dirty tricks the FTC might take a dim view of. (Apologies for the non-ACT grammar!)

Link to the .pdf 

https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/P214800%20Dark%20Patterns%20Report%209.14.2022%20-%20FINAL.pdf

Legal bloggers Christine Lyon and Emily Parfitt for the A Fresh Take blog run by the lawfirm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP summarize the report and explain the very interesting, four main categories of dark patterns which are: to induce false beliefs; to hide or delay disclosure of important information; to obscure or subvert privacy elections; and to add on extra charges without clearly disclosing them.

A Fresh Take link:

https://blog.freshfields.us/post/102i0if/bringing-dark-patterns-to-light-the-ftc-warns-companies-against-manipulative-userinterfaces

 

Lexology link:

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=11c1db66-1eea-424f-8f78-1290ad31b62e

 

If you are older, or color blind, you should read the blog article. Some of the examples of dark pattern behavior are truly --pardon the pun-- eye-opening.

Legal blogger Jeff Greenbaum of Frankfurt Kurnit Klein and Selz PC (whom I have probably quoted before, and perhaps even on this topic) shares a strongly worded take on dark commercial patterns and the bad choices that they deliberately (allegedly deliberately) induce consumers to make.  

His focus is not on the FTC report but on the OECD report.

https://advertisinglaw.fkks.com/post/102i0ay/oecd-report-highlights-concerns-over-dark-patterns

 "Dark commercial patterns are business practices employing elements of digital choice architecture, in particular in online user interfaces, that subvert or impair consumer autonomy, decision-making or choice. They often deceive, coerce or manipulate consumers and are likely to cause direct or indirect consumer detriment in various ways, though it may be difficult or impossible to measure such detriment in many instances."

Jeff Greenbaum's blog is worth reading in addition to the Fresh Take blog because it also mentions games and cookies, and lists seven (7) rather than 4 key categories of dark patterns including the use of force... which rather reminds me of the HOA clickwrap... and of "nagging" and sneaking and creating a fake sense of urgency.

For details, explanations and examples, read Jeff's blog.

Why should you, though?

 

If you are an author with a website and a degree of responsibility for promoting yourself and your literary works, you probably want to extrapolate a few things *not* to do. Dark patterns aren't the only dirty tricks in the industry.

 

If you aren't an author, knowing the tricks and ways others try to manipulate you will make you a smarter consumer.

 

All the best,

Rowena Cherry 

SPACE SNARK™ 

http://www.spacesnark.com/ 

http://www.rowenacherry.com

 

 

 

Karen S. Wiesner: Fiction Fundamentals: Writing Elbow Grease, Part 6 Conclusion

Writer's Craft Article

Fiction Fundamentals: Writing Elbow Grease, Part 6

Conclusion

by Karen S. Wiesner

Based on Cohesive Story Building, Volume 2: 3D Fiction Fundamentals Collection

In this three month, in-depth series, we went over what could be considered the grunge work in building a cohesive story. Revising, editing, and polishing require a little or a lot of writing elbow grease to finish the job and bring forth a strong and beautiful book.

In Part 5 of this series, we went over editing and polishing tricks and tips. Let's conclude this series with one last thing to consider. 

The revision layer of a story involves the finishing touches to make your story shine. With these elements, you'll create an extremely strong layer--something that will allow you to send your novel out with confidence to the people who can publish it. However, I do like to add one additional step to the revision process, and this is one I consider mandatory.

The final read-through

Following all the grueling revision we've been doing, many authors may feel ready to send the story out, either to a publisher who’s waiting to release it, or in a submission to find a publisher or agent for the book. A couple situations prompted me to add one last read-through of the story before I considered it done. I think even savvy, confident authors might want to complete this before submitting. We'll go over the whys and wherefores of doing this soon, but first, a couple of side-tracks here.

1. I strongly believe a final read-through needs to take place on a hard copy of the book--in whatever form, a printed version. Yes, I know we live in a digital world. Everything is done on the computer. But the very real and inescapable fact is that human eyes are fallible. They aren't capable of seeing everything on a computer (or something similar to this) screen and, frequently, what you see on the screen isn't necessarily what's in the hard copy--spacing, formatting, and other issues may crop up from one medium to the other. We need the hard copy to truly catch everything that demands our attention (like typos and "Track Changes" errors) in the final draft of a manuscript. Our eyes can only see some of these things on the printed version of the book. This is essential, and I guarantee if you're not getting this hard copy (from your own printer of the final proof after edits, directly from you publisher or from another means like the one I'll describe in a second), you're missing a tremendous amount of issues that readers are going to catch. Do yourself a favor. Get a hard copy to do your final read-through from.

2. Second, the current state of the industry--exploding with indie publishers and self-published authors--requires another stage in which to find the errors that seem to creep into our stories like lice. The fact is, there are very few legitimately professional editors and/or copyeditors working at publishing houses these days, especially at smaller publishers, and authors who are self-publishing their own works may even skip the professional-editor-input altogether. For that reason, it’s even more crucial to have a stage where the writer sees his book in this final form (and this is true even if the book is only released as an ebook without a paper component), where he can catch (probably not all but most) typos. While you can always print a copy from your own printer, I highly recommend utilizing a publishing service like Amazon, Lulu, or any other you like to set up an inexpensive hard copy of your book to serve as an advanced reading copy. In this form, you'll see your book in a state that's close to what readers will see it in after it's published (if a print edition will be made available). That's valuable. This is really just for your own use so try to find a cheap way to do this. You don't need cover art for this copy, but you're there so there's no reason not to, since you might want to access how that comes out as well. I'll also add that I don't recommend buying actually "proofreading" copies from most printers, like Amazon. Those copies can ruin the actual book so you can't see parts of it that you need to evaluate because the printer adds huge banners over portions of the wraparound around cover, covering up the text, etc. below. How ridiculous! I recommend purchasing a regular paperback copy of the book, just like readers will get if they buy it, that's not specifically for what these services deem proofreading copies.

3. If for no other reason, providing yourself with this final read-through is your very last chance before your editor sees it to make changes. You want her to find the finished product almost perfect, right? 

Back to the whys and wherefores of doing a final read-through of a book before it's considered done. During this final read through of the book, you shouldn't need to do much beyond exterminating typos and formatting errors, and doing that is a great case for adding this step to the process. But the final read-through serves another valuable benefit: It's a neat way of putting yourself in the position of being the first reader for the book. Naturally, this means you want to put as much time as you can afford into staying away from the book and not reading a word of it until you're ready to complete the final read-through (i.e., if you're sick to death of the story, you can't see it objectively). As much as possible, ignore the fact that you have a very personal affiliation with the book and simply read it--both in a critical and savoring mind-frame. Take your time reading to evaluate how the story goes over for you in this state. Do you love the story and your characters? Are you wrapped up totally in their worlds? How are you emotionally while you're reading it--removed and unsympathetic or invested wholly? Have you captured everything authentically? Or do you think you might need to do more work anywhere? Keep a tablet handy during this time so you write any notes you might need for fixing issues.

When I get to this stage in the process, I usually find very little is required and I may not add more than a thousand words during this time, which is still a nice, "gilding" layer. The story is brimming with life and there’s almost nothing left to stumble over or smooth out. Most importantly, though, in nearly every case I come out loving the story more than I ever have before. It exceeds the expectations I had for it when it was little more than the spark that incited me to write the story. Truthfully, I don't consider that conceit. I'd worry if I didn't have that reaction. If you don't love your own work, don't become immersed in the worlds and characters and conflicts contained in your stories, how can you expect readers to?

In the past few months, we've talked in-depth about the "grunge work" involved in completing a book. Each of the stages add a layer of your story--very strong layers that, for career authors, should be the necessary steps in ensuring multidimensional writing. Each time you add something new during these stages, you're creating another vital layer that makes the whole story stronger, richer, and more three-dimensional. Doing so also allows us to see another perspective of our story and can fuse in more and more details to forge three-dimensionality. Don't neglect the crucial elbow work involved in "decorating" your book since it's what makes your story not only a thing of beauty but a source of personal pride.

Happy writing!

Karen S. Wiesner is the author of Cohesive Story Building, Volume 2 of the 3D Fiction Fundamentals Collection

http://www.writers-exchange.com/3d-fiction-fundamentals-series/

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/writing-reference-titles.html

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Living in Alternate Realities?

In Philip Wylie's 1951 novel THE DISAPPEARANCE, an unexplained phenomenon divides Earth into two separate, parallel versions. In one reality, all human males instantaneously vanish; in the other, all women and girls vanish. The all-male world predictably devolves into a violent dystopia, while in the parallel world women have to cope with running society in an era when, compared to today, relatively few females held high public office or were educated in other professions dominated by men.

For a while it has seemed to me that the United States split into two alternate realities in November 2020. Instead of diverging into physically different planes of existence, though, the two realities exist side by side on the same planet while nobody notices what's happened. We talk at cross-purposes to inhabitants of the alternate world under the impression that the other person lives in the same universe, and therefore we can't figure out why they don't see things that look so obvious to us.

This impression hit me afresh during a recent conversation with a person who holds political beliefs opposite from mine. The bishop of our diocese had published a message that, among other topics related to the upcoming election, warned of the possibility of violence. The person with whom I was talking dismissed the warning on the grounds that my party would have no reason to resort to violence locally because they're likely to win the majority of electoral contests in this state, as usual (which is true). And members of his party, he said, "don't riot." I inwardly gasped in disbelief. I wouldn't have said anything anyway, to avoid useless argument, but in that moment I literally could not think of a coherent answer. It seemed we were living in two distinctly different versions of this country, which somehow overlap without coinciding.

The internet and social media, of course, go a long way toward explaining how citizens can inhabit the same physical world but totally disconnected mental universes. Before the internet and cable TV, we all got our news from much the same sources. Fringe beliefs stayed on the fringe; if my memory is more or less accurate, there was a consensus about the general nature of political, historical, and social reality, regardless of vehement conflicts about details. Now, as has often been pointed out, people can stay in their own "bubbles" without ever getting undistorted exposure to opposing beliefs and concepts.

I don't have the skill to write it, but I think it would be interesting to read a science-fiction novel about a world that contains two overlapping dimensions without the inhabitants of those dimensions realizing they're not even in the same universe.

Anyway, on a brighter note, as a former co-worker of mine used to say, "Vote early, vote often."

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt