This post’s a little off topic from what I normally write about, but it was so shocking that I think it bears mentioning. My favorite PC store chain, PC Club, just filed for bankruptcy and closed all of its stores yesterday. I didn’t find out until this morning when I tried to visit their Web site. They had a simple splash page that said they had closed all of their stores. If you go to their site now, they don’t even have the splash page up anymore.

While PC Club was mostly a Western US chain, some of you may have bought computer parts from its alias site Club IT. In any event, it’s a real shame the company’s gone. Apparently, none of the regular employees knew this was coming. They just showed up to work one morning and boom their jobs are gone. I’m really bummed because I used to crawl their forums for PC help and I’d like to think I made a few friends on those boards. Now I have no way of ever contacting them. I’ve been following the Digg thread to see if I’d recognize any of the monikers, but I haven’t yet.

More importantly, I liked the PC Club in Riverside, CA because it was a store where the employees knew what the hell they were talking about. They didn’t try to upsell you on garbage you didn’t need. If you had to take your rig in to be worked on, they didn’t just insta-format your hard disk to solve your issues and then blame it on a virus like the Geek Squad does, or so I’ve read. If you’re a PC owner, finding a store you can trust for knowledgeable advice and quality service is like finding a good mechanic: you don’t want to trade up for anything else. I’ve bought parts from e-tailers from all over before. Without fail, there has been something wrong with whatever I bought.

I’ve never had a problem with PC Club, but it was comforting to know that if I ever did, there was a store I could drop the item off at for an exchange or refund, without having to go through some crappy RMA process. With PC Club gone, there’s no alternative.

And that’s the worst situation to be in.

The Root of Dungeon’s & Dragons

Gary Gygax passed away on March 4, 2008. For those who don’t know of him, Gygax was one of the founders of Dungeons & Dragons back in the 70’s. At its creation, D&D was a role-playing game that pioneered the genre. If you’ve never played one, the best way to describe a role-playing game or RPG is “interactive storytelling.” Imagine someone telling you a story, but you have control over what one of the characters can do in the story. That character essentially represents you.

What made D&D cool were the rules. Your character had attributes like strength, dexterity and intelligence, which were represented by a number. In order to see if your character succeeded in a particular action in the story, like, say, picking up a heavy boulder, you rolled dice against the particular attribute that was being tested. There were other stats as well, like Saving Throws, Proficiencies and Armor Class. All of these numbers were important in fleshing you out as a living, breathing character in the game world. More importantly, they allowed the Dungeon Master to assess how the game world would affect and react to you.

The Dungeon Master (or Game Master, for more contemporary games) was essentially god of the game world. He or she told you what happened and how. The DM was also the only way you saw the world, so if you had a crappy DM, your game world was kind of bland. But when you had a smart, savvy DM, you were part of some of the best adventures known to man.

A few weeks ago, I read an article on Slate, by Erik Sofge. He writes:

But it has to be said: Gary Gygax wasn’t a visionary to all of us. The real geeks out there—my homies—know the awkward truth: When you cut through the nostalgia, Dungeons & Dragons isn’t a good role-playing game; in fact, it’s one of the worst on the market. Sadly, Gygax’s creation defines our strange corner of the entertainment world and drowns out all the more innovative and sophisticated games that have made D&D obsolete for decades. (As a game designer, Gygax is far outclassed by contemporaries such as Steve Jackson and Greg Stafford.) It’s the reason that tabletop gaming is not only stuck in the pop culture gutter but considered pathetic even by the standards of mouth-breathing Star Trek conventioneers. And with the entire industry continuing to collapse in the face of online gaming, this might be the last chance to see Gygax for what he was—an unrepentant hack, more Michael Bay than Ingmar Bergman.

I was bothered by the article on many levels. First, it was printed on March 10, just six days after Gygax’s passing. To criticize his life’s work and then call him a hack is simply in bad taste. The article goes on talk about how D&D promotes the slaughter of countless hapless orcs just for a bit gold. I don’t know if that’s meant to somehow have real life ties and merits, but I think the writer needs to keep in mind that this is a game, after all. Lastly, he claims to be one of the gaming nerds, but effaces them and their ilk - like the mouth-breathing Star Trek conventioneers - which has me thinking that he’s not really what he claims to be. Or, more likely, he’s one of those nerd traitors who’s crossed over to the party life sometime in college and therefore has the right to thumb his nose at everyone who’s still hanging on to their nerdiness.

He reminds me of the dentist on Seinfeld who joined every religion so that he could crack jokes about them. It’s that “hey, I’m one of you, so I can make fun of you” free pass mentality.

I don’t think Dungeons & Dragons is any worse of a role-playing game than anything else out on the market. Each has their own rules and game mechanics. At the end of the day, it really boils down to how good the storyteller is.

Role-Playing Games Diluted for Video Games

I’ve played D&D in probably every incarnation of itself. I remember when the Armor Class worked with lower numbers being better and struggling with the math when negative numbers came into play. I do remember when Elf was a class in the basic version. Heck, I even had the D&D board game.

Over time, I’ve watched the evolution of the D&D franchise wind its way through the video game media. I played the Gold Box series, which is still highly regarded by old-time gamers. I’ve played the more obscure Dark Sun series, the Xbox Dark Alliance games, as well as the two arcade games (not sure if there’s more). And of course, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the Baldur’s Gate games, Neverwinter Nights games and the offshoot Planescape Torment game.

I realize that not all of those games are really role-playing games. Unfortunately, today’s gamers don’t have the ability to tell the difference. Role-playing games have typically been considered harder to play, because they are more often text heavy and less action oriented. Imagine your average twitch-player who’s honed his reflexes for first-person shooter games like Halo slowing down to read the ponderous tomes of dialog in Torment. It seemed role-players and twitchers were destined to play separate games forever.

Then the game developers began making hybrids, like first-person shooter games that had role-playing elements, like stat building and dialog choices. A prime example of this is Deus Ex. This seemed to satisfy both groups because Twitchers didn’t feel excluded from more cerebral games and Role-players found a little more complexity added to simplistic games. Unfortunately, developers found that they could appeal to a broader audience with hybrid RPGs rather than straight ones. So now the majority of gamers think that games like the Final Fantasy series - which has no dialog choices and only the barest character building - are real RPGs.

I remember the frustration I felt, trying to explain to people why Bethesda’s Oblivion was not an RPG. The entire game relied on the player’s physical ability to play the game, ranging from attacking to jumping. You weren’t playing a role, you were playing yourself within the game. Gamers were trying to tell me how if you play a role in a game, then it’s a role-playing game. Therefore, Super Mario Brothers was a role-playing game because you played the role of Mario.

Ridiculous.

Sometimes - in this case, in particular - segregation through complexity is a good thing.

Life as a freelance writer is easily summed up in one word: temporary. One day a publication may need you to write movie reviews, the next day restaurant reviews. The day after that, they may not need you at all. That’s why you have to keep moving and keep scrounging for more work. It’s like being a shark. If you stop, you die. In this case, your writing career dies and you’re relegated to day job hell.

Anyway, when you’re first starting out, you’ll end up writing for anyone who’ll print your work. Unfortunately, the kind of publications that hire no-name writers are typically new, fly-by-night affairs that don’t pay. It’s important not to get too invested in these kinds of publications, because they rarely make it. You should be doubly wary of E-zines or Webzines, since you’ll essentially lose your tear sheet if the site goes down permanently.

Which brings us to tonight’s story. A while back I found a publication through MySpace called MNZ Magazine. They looked like a low-rent FHM or Maxim, focusing on kitschy nonsense and hiring shapely models: male thinking in a nutshell. In fact, I don’t think MNZ stood for anything. I think the MNZ was actually pronounced “menz.” Anyway, they were looking for movie reviews and I saw this as a great opportunity to get on some studio invites to film screeners. I got myself added to the Warner Bros. list for the 300 screening as well as the invite list of an LA PR firm that handles most movie events out there. I was stoked because MNZ agreed to print my reviews and now I’d be seeing the latest movie releases before everyone else.

Well, to make a long story short, after I turned in my reviews, MNZ stopped communicating with me. Furthermore, they didn’t publish my reviews. Even worse, they printed their resident movie buff schmuck’s reviews instead of mine. And this guy was horrible. His reviews barely covered the movie at all. His review of 300 went so far as to say something like, “You’ll see this movie anyway so I won’t bother telling you about it.” Ridiculous, right?

After repeated unanswered emails, I said screw it and just wrote them off. That was a year ago. Out of curiosity, I swung by their home page recently. Apparently, the site’s gone and is now being squatted on by some porn site (the model on the landing page is quite alluring). The MNZ MySpace is no longer being updated as of September of this year. Looks like another publication in a long line of crappy publications has bit the dust.

And the world is better for it.

Since I’m doing my best to get some exposure, I frequent as many social networks as I can. More often than not, these Web sites have an “About Me” section with a sub-section for favorite movies. I’m always fascinated with the common threads that tie everyone together. One film title that I constantly find on female social networking profiles is The Notebook. This appalls me, not because it’s a bad movie, per se, but because the romance portrayed in the film represents both everything that’s wrong in relationships and apparently what women want in relationships.

It goes without saying that you shouldn’t read this if you haven’t seen the movie yet.

OK, so we have Noah and Allie and they’re just two crazy kids in love. We’ve all been there. It’s easy to fall in love over the summer when you’re young and silly and having fun lying in the street laughing at stoplights. That’s why, at the end of the day, Allie’s parents were right in splitting them up. What did Allie know about love? She was 17. She knew everything about passion — agreed — but that’s not love. Love — real love — is loving someone when it’s hard, when they don’t deserve it, when they’ve hurt you in the worst way. Real love does not blossom in the span of one summer.

Noah and Allie find themselves separated for seven years, during which time they live out very different lives and meet new people. They still carry a torch for each other and that’s fine. I still think of girls I knew in high school and wonder what ever became of them. It’s natural, but Allie meets Lon and he’s amazing. He comes from the same background. He’s charming, has great prospects and, let’s not forget, he absolutely loves Allie. She claims to love him back and he has no reason to doubt her since she’s agreed to marry him. This is awesome. This is what every person hopefully strives for when they seek out relationships. Yet the moment Allie sees Noah’s picture in the newspaper, everything that she and Lon built suddenly and completely goes down the toilet. Flush. No floaters.

She tells Lon that she’s going to visit the Old Town, knowing full well that she’s actually going to see Noah. Lon, of course, has no problem with her visiting anywhere because his trust in her is that complete. Allie and Noah reconnect and what happens? She lets him take her to the boneyard. Repeatedly. Astonishingly, Lon, the great guy that he is, forgives Allie and is willing to take her back. Allie declines, opting to be with the guy she knew for a total of three months, hadn’t seen for seven years and has no identifiable source of income.

Never mind that she told Lon that she loved him.

Never mind that she agreed to marry him.

Never mind the entire life she’s built with him.

Allie found “true love” and that’s all that matters.

Everything else be damned!

That brings us to today’s social landscape. Women around the world are watching The Notebook and applauding it, saying to themselves, “Yes. YES! This is proper behavior! My love life should be like this!” This movie tells women that even if they are in committed relationships with men who are good for them, they should cash these men in like a small stack of poker chips in a casino for the chance at passion. Words have no meaning and when you tell someone you love them and that you’ll marry them it should be understood that all contracts are only binding insofar as you don’t run into your ex-boyfriend.

Conversely, The Notebook tells all guys that it doesn’t matter how well you treat your girl. You can offer her financial stability, emotional support and your dashing good looks. None of that matters in the face of true love. And even if you think you’re the one she’s truly in love with, as Lon surely did, The Notebook proves that you’re only right until you’re proven wrong. Therefore, as a boyfriend, you should be as controlling as possible. Don’t let your girlfriend go dancing, grocery shopping or get the car washed, because you never know where she might discover true love. Imagine how embarrassing it would be to have your girlfriend take your Lamborghini to get washed and run into her old high school sweetheart working there. Their eyes meet and memories of remedial algebra crash into their thoughts as suds, love and violin strings swell around them. Hey, it could happen, which is why it’s never too early to become a Muslim Fundamentalist.

The point here is that, as a guy, you cannot rely on your good looks, fine upbringing, good job or wonderful treatment to keep you secure in your relationship. Furthermore, you can’t make the mistake of thinking your girl’s words are worth a damn when she tells you she loves you and that she’ll marry you. NOTHING TRUMPS TRUE LOVE.

The insidious aspect of romantic comedies and romantic dramas is that they make men sympathize with the guy who gets the girl, never with the guy who loses her. Therefore, we naturally think that we are the hero of our own romantic drama. And maybe that’s true, but only until we get the girl. Once that happens, if we follow the rules of romantic dramas, we become the villain. And as we all know, the villain can only lose the girl.

One of the few romantic dramas that I can respect is Casablanca. Rick’s decision to let Ilsa go at the end is the very essence of true love. If Ilsa doesn’t go with Victor, everyone’s lives are going to suck. Instead, they keep the love for each other safe in their hearts, because it’s not something that can survive in the world anymore. So, despite the personal anguish, Rick lets Ilsa go because it’s what’s best for her in the long run.

Heck, that’s better than true love; it’s smart love.

You gotta start somewhere.

As a professional writer, typically that means writing for free. If you’re writing for yourself, just keep a diary and be done with it. For the rest of you, understand that writing is a business. Like any business, if people are gonna sign checks for a writer, they want to get the best possible deal for their money. Sometimes that means hiring a fresh, talented voice. Most times that means hiring someone with experience. And that’s where it seems like a Catch 22, but unlike the film acting industry where you can’t get a paying gig without being SAG and you can’t be SAG without being in a paying gig, the writing industry comes with its own loophole built in. It’s called: Writing for Experience! In short, employers want to know that someone else thought you were good enough to publish your work. I’m telling you, the power of someone else’s opinion is powerful indeed.

Before we jump into that, let me just say that, depending on what kind of writing you want to make a living with, there are many ways to build your portfolio. If you’re a creative writer, you can try submitting your work to journals or magazines and hope it catches an editor’s eye. The problem there is that the work that tickles an editor’s fancy can vary from day to day, so your chances of getting published over the next Joe with something to say become a crap shoot. That’s why I followed more of a journalistic path. Entertainment journalism kept me close to a creative industry. It was non-fiction, my forte. And there were no bones about what the editor wanted, for the most part anyway. I’m sure we can all agree that movie reviews have more in common with each other than short stories or poems.

With that said, it’s easy enough to find a regional, small time rag that just needs content to fill the blank spots around the advertising that will no doubt swallow your article. BUT! It’s a tearsheet any way you look at it. It’s something you can put on a résumé. It’s experience.

Obviously, in this fragile state, you are a target that can be taken advantage of by unscrupulous publications. Unfortunately, it comes with the territory at that stage. The best you can do in those situations is salvage a byline.

Last year, I met up with my power-player photog friend. He’s growing big and fast in the Hollywood industry, holding photo shoots of A-list talent all the time. Photog introduced me to the Editor-in-Chief of bello Magazine during an industry party/birthday. Chief seemed like a square G and said he’d be interested in reading some samples. Since I’d been building my portfolio, I had plenty to show him. They tested me out with some ghostwriting. Chief liked my work so he gave me a battlefield promotion to copy editor. On top of that, he had me write a couple of features under my own name for Issue 171. I was pretty stoked. One thing we didn’t talk about, however, was payment.

This, of course, is a problem for obvious reasons, but I figured, “Hell, Photog works with this guy. No way would I get screwed.” Yes, these are the assurances you tell yourself when you feel like you’ve finally made a breakthrough. Throw caution to the wind! So for the next couple of weeks, I worked side by side with Chief, driving out to LA to meet with the layout designer. Or I’d stay home and they’d email me PDFs of the page to proofread. I knew something was up though when we were nearing completion and I started to bring up money. Chief said we’d have dinner so he could pay me and then kept pushing back the date. Or he’d say that we’d meet at such and such a restaurant, but never tell me the time and then tell me that he waited for me and finally left. Eventually, he’d stop taking my calls altogether. Photog, unfortunately, was equally dodgy, spinning tales about how the publisher was withholding funding to pay the staff and how Chief would eventually pay me out of pocket and then break it off with the publisher.

Nine months later and I have not seen a dime. Moreover, the issue I worked on is riddled with egregious errors on parts that were never shown to me. Of course, no one will know that. All they’ll see is my name sandwiched between the title Copy Editor and a porn ad. Best of all, the newest issue was released today.

So much for walking away from the publisher.