May 21, 2010
Lead Writer David Noonan in Korea
Hello again, TERA Fans! :D Concluding today's newsy day, TERA's lead writer in the west, David Noonan, has posted his first update from his visit to Korea! I love that we're getting to know the TERA team so well :] Check out what his first day's been like below!
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(I'm in Seoul this week, collaborating with our counterparts at Bluehole Studios on TERA’s plotlines, characters, and backstory. In my spare moments, I'll give you a peek behind the curtain. Expect updates to this thread once a day or so.)
Day 1: Arrival
When you’re a gamer and a wordsmith, flying to Korea is the best of times and the worst of times. It’s the best of times because you have 12 hours of uninterrupted quiet. It’s the worst of times because you can’t play anything requiring an internet connection, and you have to manage your power supply very carefully (at least in coach, where you can’t plug in).
My solution: split time equally between a book (Joe Abercrombie’s Last Argument of Kings), some panic-driven Basic Korean, typing up some notes on the last zones we just worked on in the game, and playing Dragon Age until my laptop batteries ran dry.
The City of Seoul
The customs/immigration lines at Incheon International Airport are short and fast. Along the way, I spot a subtle bit of “art director humor.” In the “How to fill out your immigration form” example, the sample traveler is “Hong Kildong.” I happened to read about Hong Kildong last week; he’s the Korean equivalent of Robin Hood. And the sample non-Korean traveler? Would you believe James Brown?
This is my second trip to Seoul, but I’m still amazed at how vast the city is. With a metro population of 25 million, it’s like eight Seattles placed right next to each other. But it’s a city that’s easy to get around in—omnipresent taxis, a comprehensive subway system, and eminently walkable streets. Because Seoul hosted an Olympics and a World Cup, many of the street signs are in both Korean and English. (My Korean is rapidly improving, but I’m nowhere near where I’d like to be.)
I get to my hotel room in the Gangnam district, just a short walk from the Bluehole Studios building, and I immediately crash. It’s about 9 pm local time, but my body (rightly) believes that I’ve been up all night. That’s my solution to jetlag: Get on the new schedule ASAP and exercise a lot.
Speaking of Jetlag…
My plan works…until 3 am, when I wake up and can’t get back to sleep. So I flip on the TV and watch the game channel, where they’re showing Starcraft matches. I know Starcraft is so monumentally huge here that it gets lots of TV coverage, but to actually see it get the ESPN treatment is fascinating. The commentary is going by too fast for my poor Korean to follow, but I’ve played enough Starcraft to know what's happening. I find myself wishing they would freeze-frame from time to time and do a John Madden-style telestrator moment: “You see, the player needs more vespene gas (circles the amount of vespene gas in stock), so he’s gotta send some SCVs up here (draws arrow), trying to avoid the photon cannon here (circles it).”
Even more fascinating than the Starcraft channel is the next one on the dial: a channel that shows go matches with a simple overhead camera. A disembodied hand places a white stone, then a different disembodied hand places a black stone, and so on. Maybe it’s the jetlag, but I find this utterly mesmerizing. And the go commentators adopt John Madden style and then some—they break down key plays, superimpose different stones to show alternatives, and every once in a while switch back to the studio, where the analysts move around stones on a big magnetic go board behind them. It’s both fascinating and soothing—soothing enough that I get back to sleep, anyway.
American Noob LFG PST
The next morning (my Wednesday, your Tuesday), I get up early for a run along the Han River, which winds through the middle of the city. (Like I said—exercise as a jetlag tonic.) On both sides of the river, there’s a fantastic network of running trails. Then, it’s off to Bluehole and our big story summit!
Day 1: Arrival
When you’re a gamer and a wordsmith, flying to Korea is the best of times and the worst of times. It’s the best of times because you have 12 hours of uninterrupted quiet. It’s the worst of times because you can’t play anything requiring an internet connection, and you have to manage your power supply very carefully (at least in coach, where you can’t plug in).
My solution: split time equally between a book (Joe Abercrombie’s Last Argument of Kings), some panic-driven Basic Korean, typing up some notes on the last zones we just worked on in the game, and playing Dragon Age until my laptop batteries ran dry.
The City of Seoul
The customs/immigration lines at Incheon International Airport are short and fast. Along the way, I spot a subtle bit of “art director humor.” In the “How to fill out your immigration form” example, the sample traveler is “Hong Kildong.” I happened to read about Hong Kildong last week; he’s the Korean equivalent of Robin Hood. And the sample non-Korean traveler? Would you believe James Brown?
This is my second trip to Seoul, but I’m still amazed at how vast the city is. With a metro population of 25 million, it’s like eight Seattles placed right next to each other. But it’s a city that’s easy to get around in—omnipresent taxis, a comprehensive subway system, and eminently walkable streets. Because Seoul hosted an Olympics and a World Cup, many of the street signs are in both Korean and English. (My Korean is rapidly improving, but I’m nowhere near where I’d like to be.)
I get to my hotel room in the Gangnam district, just a short walk from the Bluehole Studios building, and I immediately crash. It’s about 9 pm local time, but my body (rightly) believes that I’ve been up all night. That’s my solution to jetlag: Get on the new schedule ASAP and exercise a lot.
Speaking of Jetlag…
My plan works…until 3 am, when I wake up and can’t get back to sleep. So I flip on the TV and watch the game channel, where they’re showing Starcraft matches. I know Starcraft is so monumentally huge here that it gets lots of TV coverage, but to actually see it get the ESPN treatment is fascinating. The commentary is going by too fast for my poor Korean to follow, but I’ve played enough Starcraft to know what's happening. I find myself wishing they would freeze-frame from time to time and do a John Madden-style telestrator moment: “You see, the player needs more vespene gas (circles the amount of vespene gas in stock), so he’s gotta send some SCVs up here (draws arrow), trying to avoid the photon cannon here (circles it).”
Even more fascinating than the Starcraft channel is the next one on the dial: a channel that shows go matches with a simple overhead camera. A disembodied hand places a white stone, then a different disembodied hand places a black stone, and so on. Maybe it’s the jetlag, but I find this utterly mesmerizing. And the go commentators adopt John Madden style and then some—they break down key plays, superimpose different stones to show alternatives, and every once in a while switch back to the studio, where the analysts move around stones on a big magnetic go board behind them. It’s both fascinating and soothing—soothing enough that I get back to sleep, anyway.
American Noob LFG PST
The next morning (my Wednesday, your Tuesday), I get up early for a run along the Han River, which winds through the middle of the city. (Like I said—exercise as a jetlag tonic.) On both sides of the river, there’s a fantastic network of running trails. Then, it’s off to Bluehole and our big story summit!
Filed by TERA Fans News at 1:28 am under Uncategorized Tagged Abercrombie, Art Director, Backstory, Counterparts, David Noonan, Dragon Age, Incheon International Airport, James Brown, Laptop Batteries, Last Argument Of Kings, Metro Population, Plotlines, Robin Hood, Second Trip, Seoul, Split Time, Street Signs, Subway System, Wordsmith, Writer David
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