#also thats not even getting into the 2 decade long nazi problem in the city he lives in

[protectoratenova07]

I will never not get annoyed over people saying that Brian/Grue joining the Heroes was the obvious and easiest choice out there. Admittedly, the WOGs expand more on it, but even with what we get from Arc 4 when he talks about his trigger event, I can't comprehend how anyone wouldn't see the reasons for him not wanting to join the government sponsored heroes.

Basing this off memory, but to sum it up, Brian goes to him moms house after getting a text from Aisha asking for help. He finds her in some poor condition ( I don't think he goes into detail and it may not matter if he did cause he's not telling the full truth here) and when he tries to take her back to his dad's, their step-dad gets in thew ay and doesn't let them leave. Brian proceeds to beat him up, take his sister back, and gets powers sometime in between.

Then, he, aisha, and their dad go to the police the very next morning. They explain what happened and Brian still describes how he almost got sent to jail. Only aisha backing him up and his step-dad missing an asshole anonymous meeting saved him. And he still got some months of community service. Like, in my opinion he did the right thing every step of the way and still almost got screwed over.

Sometime later, (not immediately cause he's 14 to 15 when he gets powers) he decides to try and take care of aisha by being a villain to get enough money/backing to do it.

That's all described in arc 4. Now we get into the WOGs. Again, basing this off memory, but I can try to find them later.

First, Brian lied about his trigger, a little bit. General event still happened, but when he claimed he didn't know who the man was besides being his mom's new boyfriend, he lied. He knew that man bc it was the same boyfriend who had abused him in the past. And his mom brought him back and let him interact with his sister. Add in his mom's other problems and his dad's ("I wouldn't describe him as abusive") there was a fair bit of emotions Brian was going through that he didn't share. But at the end of the day, every adult in his life failed him and his sister. He wouldn't be willing to extend his trust as easily.

Second, a different WOG described Brian getting into crime in a panic bc aisha had done something afterward that led to her needing to get bailed out of something with money (again, going off memeory) so even if he wanted to join the wards he'd be doing it with a record. Presumably he later decided he might as well go all in on it and get aisha into a safer environment than both his parents. He probably thought it may help with keeping her out of trouble as well if she wasn't around two people who didn't know how to raise kids (not that he did either, but he probably thought he couldn't do worse).

Third, by WOG he did actually consider the wards, but after researching them decided they wouldn't be worth it. Admittedly this was moreso bc of his own hangups with commitment. Bc telling the big organization your power and identity then trying to bail wouldn't really work out, but apparently it was still preferable to a career of crime. It's not like the Protectorate would actually have authority to take a child away from their parents anyway without major proof, especially if that kid isn't a parahuman themself.

Fourth, the undersiders were generally a low risk high reward chance until Taylor joined and brought them her bad luck. They operated for a year and only got into some mild skirmishes with Lung and them being escape artist didn't have an issue with him. Besides that, they made a shot ton of money on top of the 2grand their sponsor gave them.

Fifth, I don't think we ever learned what the time table was for Coil helping out with Brian getting custody, especially given how suspicious Brian was of their mysterious boss and his motives preleviathan. Maybe Coil admitted to knowing Brian's problems and offered a solution at the start. Maybe Brian opened up with it as a condition to him joining. Or maybe after a few months of getting 2grand a relatively easy missions Brian decided to trust the boss who hadn't screwed him and ask for the money to be given to him in a legal paycheck for better chance at custody. I say that last option bc Brian is supposed to be the careful pragmatic one who thinks about his choices and doesn't do the crazy option unless bug girl decides to go full throttle and he begrudgingly goes along. And giving his personal details and a sure fire way of blackmail isn't excalty the pragmatic choice.

Tldr: he has to have some pretty big distrust of authority cause shifty parents and probably shotty police and by WOG became a criminal in a panic before going full in on it. Cause he was, again, like 15 years old.

Now, the argument for him joining the wards is that the Heroes/PRT could have snapped their fingers and given everything Brian would want. And seeing the deal Madcap got I can definitely see the idea behind it, but there are a few problems with that. A) Brian wouldn't know shit about how desperate the Heroes are bc they don't advertise that. B) I'm not sure how much power they would actually have over taking kids away from unhealthy environments cause laws and shit would probably limit that. C) as stated above, he says he almost got jailed for hurting his step-dad so I don't see him liking authority at this stage, no matter how just he was in the eyes of the law for it. D) Brian's own issues and that he's a 15 year old so he won't see the world as a perfectly rational being.

[robertdrozdzunit04]

Research, Holiday Task 2021

Will Wright

Will Wright is a Video Game Designer known for revolutionizing simulation games during the time when he worked at his company Maxis and EA. After 2009 he left Electronic Arts to run a Think-Tank,  Stupid Fun Club Camp, and start working on the Mobile Game Proxi. Will Wright Is most famous for designing the Sims, a life simulation game where you control and simulate the lives of your “Sims”. The Game Involves numerous mechanics to achieve the life simulation for example getting your sims to go to work, form relationships and eat food. the player can also buy, sell and renovate their houses to fit the players style. The Games where inspired by two books, A Pattern Language and Understanding Comics which describe the need for a designer and consumer/user to “collaborate” to achieve a functional design and to get them involved and interested in your creation. The Sims was actually a side project worked on by Will Wright since the heads of the company didn’t think it would be profitable, so he had to work on it on the side while developing SimCity 2000. SimCity is also Will Wrights Magnum Opus, its a city building simulator developed in 1989, the point of the game is to build and design a functioning city, other then that there are no specific goals to complete. the player can build roads, zone areas change taxes and build power grids anything to build the city they desire. the game has a ton of code running in the background changing constantly depending on the crime rate, happiness of the citizens, traffic laws and the player will have to adapt to deal with these problems when they arise. Development started on this game when Will was working on Raid on Bungeling Bay, which he described saying that he found it more fun to design the islands then actually playing the game. Will Wright is an inspiration to me cause he understands the need to create a good design and system so a player can easily pick up and play such complex simulations and find it enjoyable. Will Wright has changed how games should be designed which got me interested in the actual “making a game fun” part of game dev. The actual creating part of what the player will see and interact with. Will Wright stands out to me because every project he has worked on people said that it wouldn’t sell, it wouldn’t be popular and yet he has created franchises and games that have sold millions and has won him so many awards and accolades, just shows the dedication and perseverance he has and gives to his projects.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGqERcLlatc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yLpvhNfoWA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVH9Q8M8eaQ

SimCity 1989, Multiplayer mode 

SimEarth

Ken Levine

Ken Levine is known for developing and designing many story driven First Person Games, leading him to being called one of the “Storytellers of the Decade”. Ken Currently Works at the company Ghost Story Games which he co-foundered. Ken first project was with Doug Church when he helped design Thief: The Dark Project, a stealth video game released in 1998. The Game is set in A Gaslamp fantasy world where players take the role of a master thief that gets involved in a complex plot involving a cult trying to unleash a unnatural chaos. Ken Levine helped design some unique and integral mechanics for the game such has using light and sound for the stealth mechanics, requiring player to alter the environment to maintain stealth. Ken Also helped to design the world and feel of the game, a city on the verge on a transition from medieval to modern. After he finished working on thief he went on to found Irrational Games, which is where he would create many a masterpiece. First he worked on System Shock 2, a hybrid of a role playing game crossed with a first person shooter. The Game is about a solider thats trying to handle a outbreak of genetic infection that has devastated the spaceship they are on. The Game is a blend of an FPS with role playing elements for example the player can develop skills like hacking on psionics. the player has a range of weapons from melee to space wizard attacks allowing the player to play the game the way they want to play it. This Game is also where backstory and lore is told through audio recordings but also a lot of environmentally story telling is used which would be more famously used in Ken’s next game. Another feature that would be used in other games was the research feature, where the player can research specific enemies to get buffs against them. The Most Famous game he worked on has been BioShock, it could be described as ken Levine's Child. BioShock is a game which uses all the elements from ken’s previous games to create this magnum opus. The game is set in a retrofutristic art deco city underwater in ruin. the player must use a range of weapons and powers called plasmitds to fight your way through rapture and uncover the story of this place. The game has a lot of moral choices presented to the player through out the story to change the ending of the story. It is a clear demonstration as Video Games as an art Form. I learned of Ken Levine from watching story analysis videos about bioshock that give high praise to Ken and his writing and direction of the game. which lead me to finding him in other classic games like system shock and theft. Ken is an inspiration for me cause he was able to completely change the genres he worked on and be able to tell such captivating stories, which i believe is the point of every game dev to push the boundaries of what video games are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3__6BknDHc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHWYCfuPQHM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrqfPG4ZcAA

Bioshock

System Shock 2

Thief The Dark Project

John Romero

John Romero is an Video Game Designer known for pioneering the FPS genre when he worked for id Software, currently its said that John is working on a new FPS game with former ID software co-founder Adrian Carmack. Before ID software was created John met and worked with other co-founders of ID at SoftDisk where they helped create titles like Dangerous Dave. One story is that they developed a Mario bros 3 port for PC with smooth side-scroll graphics, which they sent to Nintendo. Nintendo was impressed by didn’t want their IP to be on anything other then their consoles so it wasn’t allowed to be developed. This port led them to develop Commander Keen and the founding of ID Software. Once there Romero Helped develop Titles like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake. The Forefathers of FPS Games. Wolfenstein 3D was made cause John Romero Suggested to remake the game Castle Wolfenstein a 1981 stealth game with the new 3D Game Engine John Carmack was making. the entire pitch of the game was to be Violent and Fast, a game like no other on the market at that time. The gameplay is pretty simple, just find guns and gun down nazis in grid like levels. and even doe its presented in a 3D perspective the actual sprites and assets are all 2D. ray tracing is used so the player is only shown the stuff thats needed for that level. Probably his most famous work is DOOM, a FPS game from 1993 that completely revolutionised the genre. The game is about a space marine fighting his way through hordes of demons. Doom helped to pioneer FPS Games but it also helped with developing 3D graphics with techniques like ray tracing. The games design was focused on the technology that was being developed at Id software, romero suggested to use the engine to create a fast and brutal gaming experience and that the game should primarily focus on creating a fun experience for the player and not some detailed story. Romero helped to design the spiralling levels that we see in doom, with numerous levels, pathways and non-linear feel to them. The wanted to design a game that didn’t just feel like a flat boxy plain like Wolfenstein. Romero also worked on the Mulitplayer levels of Doom, which he named Deathmatches this would lead to the huge popularizing of Multiplayer modes in FPS games. After the release the Doom and Doom 2 the company started development on a true 3D game that wasn’t just a bunch of 2d Sprites at specific angles, Quake. Quake was the first truly 3D FPS game developed by Id since the game engine could actually do real time 3D rendering, sadly the development of this game was rocky and many prominent Id software devs left after its release, one of them was John Romero. there were a lot of creative differences between the company and romero, romero really wanted to push to capabilities of the game while many higher ups that the project took too long which resulted in a “death march” to finish the game. Romero Soon left and would go on to found Ion Storm which would eventually create the first Deux Ex game. I came to know of John Romero when watching videos on the development of Doom, and the overall history of Id Software and how instrumental he was to all of it. John Romero inspires me cause he takes everything he did in the previous projects and improves on them in every aspects always trying to create the best and enjoyable experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV2vhmtGBqM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P_dic-pSKo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnqLJpgq7jc

Tim Cain

Tim Cain is a Video Game Developer and Designer, he is most famous for developing the 1997 computer rpg Fallout. Tim Cain Currently Works at Obsidian Entertainment with many other former members of Interplay. Tim Cain started out as a Freelance Programmer for interplay working on a number of projects like The Bard’s Tale Constuction set. After finishing that game he solely started working on the Engine and Game concept that would eventually become Fallout. The Game was very expensive to develop for the time, costing about 3 million dollars and 3 years to make. and for most of development it was treated like a b project, since it was risky to create such an monumental game for the time. Development at first was pretty rocky since it was a side project Cain was working on in his spare time, eventually gaining access to the GURPS roleplaying game and using mechanics from that board game into fallout. Cain from earlier development designed the entire game engine and most of the features himself, even convincing the company to let him continue development even when the company could of worked on more lucrative projects. Tim Cain designed Fallout to be opened ended and non-linear to feel like you are exploring the world and you are telling your own story not some pre drawn out plan for you to complete. At one point Cain how to completely redesign the GURPS system into the SPECIAL system we see today due to licensing issues and he had only a week to code it, showing the dedication he had for his project. Tim Cain would soon leave Interplay shortly before the release of Fallout 2 which he helped create the main story arc of. after he would found his own company called Troika Games that would develop the cult classic RPG game, Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines, Vampire Bloodlines is a Role Playing game set in a world where vampires are a thing and the player is a recently turned vampire. The Game is extremely open ended, the overall design of the game is every little action and choice has a huge impact and effects things you can’t even see and know about. It really pushed the boundaries of what RPGs could do. sadly even though this game has since become a cult classic, the game did not sell well and caused the shut down of Troika Games. Tim Cain would eventually join Obsidian Entertainment where he would help with Pillars of Eternity and Would direct and Design the Fallout New Vegas spiritual successor The Outer Worlds. I know of Tim Cain while watches videos on the original Fallout game, since i think the first two games are the best in the series and he basically designed all the aspects of those games. They are an Inspirations cause even when the people around he questioned why he was working on a game that wouldn’t sell he continue to work on it and create a true masterpiece of video game art. He also keeps improving and experimenting with game developing making the games he makes even better each and every time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60vqfUQHqc0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOPv4o9Q8Cc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4tiIhZnVqs

Fallout 1

Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines

The Outer Worlds

Warren Spector

Warren Spector is an Video Game Designer, he is known for creating the Immersive Sim genre of video games, games that emphasizes player choice and systems that react to those said choices to create emergent gameplay. Warren Spector actually started out in the Tabletop roleplaying game industry which i believe helped him to create such immersive rpgs later on in his career. In 1989, Spector would join the Looking Glass Games and would be involved in numerous projects from the Ultima Underworld to the more famous System Shock game. All this work would eventually lead him to become the manager of Looking Glass Austin branch. He would eventually leave Looking Glass and go on to work on his magnum opus. At Ion Storm Warren Spector would develop the genre breaking game Deus Ex. A game set in a cyberpunk themed dystopia and it follows the character of JC Denton which the player can control all aspects to tell the story they want to be told. The gameplay of the game is a combination of a FPS game, with a mixture of stealth elements, adventure and role-playing, with all of these features allowing the player to complete the game in whatever way they choose and each choice affects the story, outcome and characters. The game allows the player to go into specific skills to play the game they want to and allowing for unique exploration and character interaction. after a couple of years he would leave Ion Storm and get a job working for a Disney owned dev studio. He headed this new studio called junction Point and would create the game known as Epic Mickey for the Wii. Spector was fascinated with the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Character that was the precursor to mickey mouse and wanted to create a game about him. The Game is a platformer with a slight mix of the immersive sim elements Spector is known for, such as its morality system that affects the world and characters depending on the players choices. Following the Closure of Junction Point Studios by Disney spector would eventually join OtherSide Entertainment where he is currently working on System Shock 3. I know of this person when i watched an analysis video Epic Mickey and how his past games influenced Epic Mickey. This person is an inspiration cause it shows what no deadlines, no budget etc can do for a video game when its just people working on, also he is an inspiration cause he create an entire new genre of video game due to his dedication, skill and creativity as a game developer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLDlDG1q0_o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DViSjLMC-dY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIWAMT2og3M

System shock 3

Deus Ex

Epic Mickey