Character Biography: Joe Vidor

Character Biography

1. Joe Vidor
2. The Caveman
3. Male
4. 19 years old.

12. Joe's home life was pretty boring and stable. Both his parents worked and they had a decent income. When Joe was 12, his parents divorced and he was forced to split time between their houses. His parents were fine, they did take care of him, but for the most part stayed out of his life and let him be. Joe has one older brother, the two of them are almost complete opposites when it comes to many aspects of their lives. They fought excessively until they were about 13 and 16 years old, now they get along just fine, but still don't talk very often.

13. Joe went through elementary, middle and high school with no troubles at all. He excelled at academics but never really got involved with any extra-curricular activities or sports. Joe applied to 5 colleges and was accepted to all of them, even with his lack of extra-curriculars or interests. Joe is doing pretty well in college, has a 3.3 GPA and for the most part never struggles, though some classes do present him with quite the challenge.

14. Joe likes his parents and sibling. He wishes them no ill-will and does care about them. However, he still won't call them, almost ever. He is not exactly attached to them, nor is he to anyone. If his parents or brother call him, they will have a 2 to 20 minute conversation, depending on how long it has been since they last talked, with 3+ weeks being 20 minutes and 5 days being 2-8 minutes.

15. A collection of Christmas eve/ morning memories from when Joe was about 10-16 are the best of his childhood memories. He can't really remember a whole lot about his childhood, as nothing particularly good stands out.

16. Joe's worst childhood memory was coming back to his dad's house after half a week at his mother's to find his aging cat dead on the floor. For a few seconds he just thought he was sleeping, but soon the reality took hold.

17. Joe lives on a college campus, in a fair sized building. He has a single room and doesn't really interact with the others on his floor all that often.

18. Joe goes to college, he studies mathematics and languages for the most part.


19. Joe is taking 18 credits this semester, an increase from last year's 16, and the two extra credit hours are providing him with quite a bit more school work than he is accustomed to. It is a good thing he doesn't keep a job during the school year as he probably wouldn't have a whole lot of time to fit in both school work and job work and still have a minimal amount of time to himself. His schedule is a bit hectic and he doesn't get much of a break during the week.

20. Joe is pretty indifferent to most people. He doesn't not get along with anyone, but this even-ness means that his doesn't really have a clique and no close group of friends. Joe sees his classmates, they are his classmates, he goes to class with them. Over the course of a semester, Joe will get 'closer' to one to three/four of them.

21. Joe has no idea what others think about him. He doesn't ask, they don't tell, for the most part. A few of the people that know Joe better than most say he is hilarious, but Joe usually disagrees with this.

22. Joe has no place in the community. He leads no one, he follows no one. He is alone. Historically, Joe has not been a member of any clubs, but recently he has decided to join one, as it is based on a topic he is actually interested in. Joe is a registered Democrat and extreme atheist.

23. Joe does not have a significant other. He doesn't even have an other.

24. There aren't very many important people in Joe's life, he could count them on one hand, with the extended edition requiring two hands. His parents, his brother, a select few other relatives, and one or two people he knew from years ago. Joe doesn't really have a best friend, but there's about 3 people who could vie for this spot, if he actually spent any time with them. He has no mentors but does respect and admire the intelligence of some peers and professors. He has no adversary; Joe is too even-keel and can get along with anyone(mostly.)

25. Joe is not religious at all, to the point where he hates religion, zealously. If he could bring about an end to religion world wide, he would.

26. Joe likes baseball, hockey, watching movies, listening to music and playing video games. He is not into pop culture / hip things, or fads.

27. Joe has a pet cat. She is very small and playful. Bizzle, as he calls her, is a bulls-eye tabby with a great personality and can be quite feisty. She can be picked up with one hand with no problem and is fine with being worn around the back of the neck. A very trusting cat and Joe cares for her more than most people; she is the one thing he misses from home.

28. Joe hates himself. He doesn't like his looks, but sometimes finds them to be quite interesting. Joe is very insecure and has 0 self-confidence /esteem. He often jokes that he is bi-polar, but often wonders if that might actually be true. He either has or doesn't have crippling depression, but its most likely the former.

29. Joe is probably something that would be called an 'inextrovert,' taking on characteristics of both introverts and extroverts, but leaning more towards introvert. He is very shy and not outgoing at all. He doesn't like crowds and is uncomfortable around people. This discomfort lessens as he gets to know the people, but usually still remains in part. He doesn't really care about his feelings, you could say what ever you want about him and chances are, it wouldn't bother him. One can not effectively make fun of him because Joe just doesn't care.
30. Joe is very easy going and extremely pessimistic. He is the definition of apathy.

31. Joe does indeed have a sense of humor, however it is very different than most people's. His sense of humor encompass a wide range of attributes; it can be dry, sarcastic, inane, insane, intelligent, dirty, cynical and confusing. Often times when he is joking around, people will have no idea what he is talking about. Sometimes he will explain, others he will not.

32. Yes, Joe has been in love, even though I've called him the least capable of love.


37. Joe is not happy with his current life. His social life is un-fulfilling and lacking and he wishes he had done more things -anything- up to this point in his life. His childhood and adolescence left him unsatisfied.

38. Joe would like to be in a log cabin up on a snowy mountain.

39. Joe fears rejection and failure more than anything. He's not too fond of hornets either.

40. Since Joe has done nothing in/with his life, has hasn't really experienced anything scary.



42. Joe's most precious belonging is his computer. He uses it every day and would be lost without it.

–
43. Joe wants to be left alone.

44. Joe needs a girlfriend.


--
Yes, the numbers don't make entirely too much sense. GTFO.

A Monolouge.

INT. DINING HALL - NIGHT

Two college students sit next to each other at a table
eating their dinners. DAVE wears a black sweatshirt and
black pants. JOE wears a T-shirt and some baggy pants.

Joe holds his glass in his right hand and stares straight
ahead.

JOE
And then like every night its loud
yelling and bad music. Damn
teenagers and their parties. Ya
know, I wouldn’t mind so much if it
weren’t for all the damn noise. I’m
very sensitive to noise, as I am to
light. I can hear my father’s watch
ticking from 10 feet away. But its
odd, he’ll start talking to me and
I’ll have no idea what he’s saying.
Talked to my mom the other day and
apparently I’ve had some sort of
problem with processing noises
since I was a child. That’s
unfortunate. And you know what
else? The inside of my right ear is
disfigured, mal-formed really. Go
put your thumbs in your ears, with
the uh.. palm portion - the feely
side- facing up. Notice that
vertical line? I mean, horizontal
line, wow. Anyways, its supposed to
be a straight line. And with my
left ear it is, but the right one,
that one has a 90 degree angle.
Like, what the hell. That’s not
right. And it makes using ear buds
impossible with this ear. Then
again, they don’t much like the
other ear either but hey. Then
there was this one time last year,
some guy in my class wanted to show
me something on his phone. It was
called like sound grenade. And
apparently he activated it. I
didn’t even realize. He was talking
about how annoying it was and how
(MORE)



2.



JOE (cont’d)
that was a sure fire way to clear
people out at a party. I just
looked at him confusedly. Is that a
word? Then the guy next to us says
to turn the damn thing off,
because, as he had said earlier,
its so damn annoying. He turned it
off. I noticed no difference.
Apparently this sound grenade thing
plays a frequency that just
irritates everyone in the area. And
my ears don’t pick it up. Again,
unfortunate, but you know what, is
it really? This is thee sound to
piss people off and I’m immune. Not
really sure what the reason is,
perhaps I’ve heard too many saw
blades in my time. Eh whatever, so
I’m like both glad and disheartened
by this recent revelation. What
other sounds can I not pick up?
Can’t help but think this is
related to why I can’t ever
understand what the hell my dad is
saying. Or maybe he’s just fucking
with me, cuz I don’t exactly speak
the clearest... as I’m sure you’re
aware... I’ve never been much of a
talker, and I got no idea how you
got me speaking like this, all run
on and what not, that’s usually
reserved for my online a-postin’.
Which I have linked back to my lack
of talking in the real world- gotta
vent someplace, I guess. Mom says I
gotta talk more, but um, yea. I
don’t think so. It’s not my
personality. Never has been,
probably never will be. Can’t
change a man’s personality, its who
he is, so unless I go through some
sort of mid-life crisis type thing,
I don’t see that happenin’.

Joe takes a sip from his glass.

Dave’s eyes are wide-open and his mouth agape. He stares at
Joe in awe.

JOE
Anyways, where were we? Somethin’
about talking... Oh yeah, this uh,
(MORE)



3.



JOE (cont’d)
what we’re doing here, don’t happen
a lot for me. And the other day I
was talking to two people at once.
That’s a big step for me. Two
people’s like a group or something.
This one-on-one is like a uh..a.. a
duo, and that’s how most of my
conversations are. So yeah, two
people. Big step up. And we talked
for like an hour too! Sure, I felt
somewhat uncomfortable several
times during it, but I had nothing
better to do. Was probably just
gunna go watch a movie. Truth is I
probably shoulda been doing some
homework, but I wasn’t feeling it.

Joe drinks from his glass.

DAVE
You need to do stand-up.

Joe chuckles softly for a second and sighs.

JOE
I...I don’t think so.


I wonder how the format will end up.

So, just a let you know.

Hi. Its been awhile hasn't it, my friends?
Since I'm doing no direct video game stuff atm, but rather things related to .. things i needed for the major that never was, I'll post it. Its like stories and scripts and what not. yay.

(You can tell he is filled with tremendous self-loathing.)

Turning Killonw into a Board Game

Well for starters, the transition from video game to board game would see the loss of the F in FPS - really hard to make a flat overhead board something to look as if its playing out in front of you through your eyes. However the mechanics could still stay - shoot things they die, get shot too much, you die. The board game would most likely have to be just one level as compared to the multiple levels in the video game, althought they could have a few levels ...of story mode presented on one board- it would be difficult and the game would be long. Killzone is also primarily a one person game, and that is fine... as long as there is something to do/fight against. One person has not no problem having fun as long as there is a computer on the other end to control his enemies and the gameplay. In a board game, there is no computer, no nothing to control what happens and the enemies movements, so it would be very, very boring. Most likely, a board game version would have to be a battle grounds type thing, where 2 players each pick a side and go at it on cardboard. Each person would have have a handful of figurines/men to control, and die would control their movement on the board and/or their shooting ability. Health would be based on a pre established mechanic, something like 3 hits and that guy is dead. The player with any remaining soldiers once the other's are dead is the winner. Card pickups could be used toe determine what weapons a player has and how much ammo..
That's pretty much it.

What Could Have Killed The Zone.

Things that could have been better in Killzone.
------

There could be a few more maps. The ones in the game are great, but it could have used a few more.. maybe like 150% of its amount.
The same could be said for weapons, though they did cover a lot of the basic gun types, there's only a few handfuls of weapons and they aren't all that creative - bullets, grenades and rockets...

Sometimes the frame rate slows down /game slows down during some of the more intensive things in the game (when a lot is going on) and a slower running game is never good, especially for a fast-paced first person shooter. Occasional frame skips are annoying.

When you pause the game, it takes a few seconds for any sort of menu screen or anything to show up, rather, it just freezes the game where it was for a bit. I do not like this part, as it can sometimes trick you for a half second as to wheter or not you paused the game. Upon unpausing, it takes a lil' longer than it should for the game to return to the play mode.

Things that went well in the Zone.

The Sound- each weapon makes a unique noise, some of the are quite memorable, particularly the shotgun. The explosions and gun shots heard in the background give the game the feel that you’re in a battle zone.

The Simplicity- there are no complex puzzles or overly annoying challenges, which is great for a fps – it’s a no strings attached, get what you expect shoot ‘em up.

The Game-play and mechanics- several short/mid-length missions, can change the difficultly level and it has a clear affect. The pros and cons to each playable character adds a deeper level to the game – your choice can make a difference. You can only carry three weapons at a time and only so much ammo for each, which is much more realistic than games where you can haul around 12 massive guns with incredible amounts of ammo for each.

The look and feel- there are several maps, many of which look different / have different themes – snowy-cold places, jungles, sandy-hot places, urban areas (streets and buildings), a space station. The dirt and dusk clouds add a lot to the atmosphere, give it the feel of being in a war zone.

Victory Conditions.

In Killzone, there are essentially three types of playing- Story mode, Battle grounds; offline and online.

For the story mode, the victory conditions are pretty clear, as they are in the others... The player must make their way through each of the levels, avoiding death and accomplishing the mission objectives in the level. When you beat a level, you move on to the next. For three of the levels, beating it unlocks a character for you to play. Once unlocked, you can choose to play any of the characters at the start of a level. The story levels are pretty linear and each one ends the same way no matter what way you take/ the tactics you use. Get through the levels, moving 'up' a level to the next until you run out of levels to beat.

In the Battlegrounds, there are a few ways to win, usually involving points or kill count. The win conditions are related to setting the player chooses, namely amount of kills required to win and time limit. If a player gets the required amount of kills needed to win before the other one, that player wins. If neither player scores enough kills or points to win before the timer runs out, the player with the most amount of kills/points wins.

That's essentially it, KZ is about as straightforward as they come in terms of games. Its victory conditions are the same as any other FPS out there.