Diablo III
Diablo III is a hack and slash action RPG developed by Blizzard and published by Activision for PC, Mac, and console. Unlike IOTL's game, TTL's Diablo III was designed from the start with both PC and console hardware in mind, and was released on both simultaneously. The game plays much like its predecessors and its OTL incarnate, with either a single player or multiple players attempting to quest through a large series of dungeons and overworlds, killing monsters and obtaining loot to make themselves more powerful. Players are able to map several different commands to their various inputs, allowing for a wide variety of strategies across six different character classes (with two more available through DLC after launch). The character classes include the OTL Barbarian, Monk, Demon Hunter, and Wizard classes, along with a Samurai class and a Werewolf class. The two DLC classes include the OTL Necromancer and the TTL original Painmaster classes. Level progression, stat enhancement, and equipment management are nearly identical to OTL's game, with players having the ability to find equipment, buy it, or craft it, depending on their preference. Enemies come in a variety of different types, ranging from common fodder to elite mobs all the way up to massive bosses. In addition to the game's main storyline mode, there's also Adventure mode, in which players can complete a variety of random objectives daily, or Challenge mode, which allows players to take on difficult tasks for loot and bragging rights. The game's plotline also sticks fairly close to OTL's, with Diablo returning as the game's main villain, with Belial and Azmodan working under him to conquer humanity. Leah, the niece of Deckard Cain and daughter of the witch Adria, is also present in the game, playing a fairly similar role to her OTL incarnation, and she experiences a similar fate in TTL's game as the vessel for Diablo's return. However, there are some key differences in the game's plot, including a more fleshed out Act III and a somewhat lesser Act I, while Act II's plot features a more sprawling Caldeum and more palace intrigue, with Asheara playing a somewhat larger role. King Leoric serves as the final boss of Act I, rather than the Butcher, who instead is the game's first major boss (so Leoric and the Butcher are essentially switched from their OTL positions). Act IV is mostly unchanged, with Diablo leading a siege against the High Heavens, and serves as the game's final boss. Of course, there's also an Act V, released via DLC in 2013. It differs significantly from OTL's Act V, and rather than battling the rogue angel Malthael, the player must instead defeat a coven devoted to resurrecting Lilith. Adria is a member of this coven, and Lilith is indeed the final boss of TTL's Act V, though she's not quite as bloody or as glamorous as the version from OTL's Diablo IV.
Diablo III is released in June 2012 to a major wave of hype, not just for the PC version but for the console versions as well. Its console version would come to the Sapphire and iTwin initially, with a Nexus release in 2013 alongside the game's release on the other next-gen consoles. The game receives excellent reviews, but just as IOTL, its launch isn't without problems. The game launches with a real-world auction house much like the OTL game, in which players can auction off loot acquired to other players, and Blizzard gets a small cut. While the auction house isn't QUITE as egregious as OTL's (the imbalanced loot from the OTL launch is mostly absent), there's still some problems associated with it, including some poor legendary drop rates and the cut that Blizzard takes, which is larger than OTL. Like IOTL, there would be significant backlash, which would lead to the end of the auction house and the drop rates being mostly fixed. Diablo III does release a single DLC expansion in 2013, which hits PC and also the next-gen versions of the console game, which introduces Act V and the new character classes. For the most part, Diablo's TTL performance is fairly similar to its OTL performance, with the simultaneous console launch helping it to sell more copies initially on console than it did at the time of its OTL launch.
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Quixsters: Enter The Maze
Developed by Silver Sail (the first game published by the company as a fully absorbed part of Activision) and published by Activision, Quixsters: Enter The Maze is the sequel to 2009's Quixsters Evolution. Like its predecessor, it's a 3-D action platformer starring a wide variety of energetic youths, who must both cooperate and compete as they have adventures and complete challenges. Unlike the previous game, which had a huge variety of challenges broken up into smaller challenges, Enter The Maze focuses more on a single unifying storyline, and thus has less overall challenge and gameplay variety, though it keeps the familiar "gameplay in short bursts" formula that the series is known for. The primary story of the game has each of the Quixsters getting lost and losing their most valuable possession, which has been taken into an enormous maze by a gang of troublemakers known as the Speedblitzers. The Quixsters must not only find their treasures, they have to find each other as well, while catching and defeating the maniacal Speedblitzers in a variety of challenges and races. The maze itself is a massive, self-contained world broken up into a variety of segments, with the player given a choice of how they want to go about exploring. The outside of the maze features relatively easy challenges, but as players work their way inward, the challenges will get tougher and tougher. The game adds more Quixsters to the familiar mix, keeping all 56 of the characters + DLC from the original game and adding in eight more initially, for a total of 64 Quixsters, including the main four and then sixty more which are unlocked as the player progresses through the game, many of whom must be helped or rescued before they can be recruited. Like in Evolution, each of the Quixsters has their own moves and personality, and Enter The Maze continues the trend of giving each character more development and expanding on the already extensive plotline, continuing the relationships established between the characters. Players are given the choice of starting with Dash, Leep, Spin, or Dive, each of whom has a different section of the maze to explore, focusing on a different type of gameplay. Players will eventually have to give all four of them a spin (unlike in Evolution, there's more of a set path to the game, with a lot more of the challenges needing to be completed by players). As the Quixsters work their way inward, finding treasures and rescuing friends as they go along, more pathways between sections of the maze open up, and the game acquires a bit of a Metroidvania-esque feel to it, something that hasn't been seen in the Quixsters series thus far. Eventually, the Quixsters rescue all their friends and find and defeat the leader of the Speedblitzers, before it's revealed that the Speedblitzers were trapped in the maze and needed to trap the Quixsters in order to make their own escape. The final boss is a character known as the Master of the Maze, a devilish being who traps people and drains their energy. The Quixsters team up to defeat him with a little help from the Speedblitzers, saving the day and the world and making some new friends in the process.
Quixsters: Enter The Maze is released in June 2012, and reviews, while mostly positive, aren't quite up to the level of Evolution, with some fans and critics disappointed that the game is structured more like a standard 3-D platformer than the fun collection of mini-challenges that Evolution was. It's still a high quality game, with great graphics, game play, and voice acting, but not as instantly fun as its predecessor. It's released on the Sapphire, iTwin, Connect, and Gemini (and would get a version for the Nexus later on), and sales are fairly strong early and remain strong for the remainder of the year. It's the last Silver Sail game that would be worked on by longtime producer Carlos Delgado, who would move on to more of a consultant role as a result of Silver Sail's sale to Activision. Thus, the series would carry on with a new generation of developers on the next-gen consoles, and fans hoped it would keep most of what had made it so successful and fun.
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"Activision is said to be 'streamlining' Silver Sail for future projects, which include Quixsters games and spin-offs as well as a brand new IP likely to be announced at a future date. While maintaining certain key members of the company's development team, most of the studio will be staffed with newer Activision employees, in a move intended to 'shake up' the studio, generating new ideas and reducing costs. At the same time, many of Silver Sail's former staff are being reassigned to other projects with the company, some in major roles. John Ballasteros has been promoted from his role as a Silver Sail programmer to being one of the lead developers at Treyarch, where he'll work on a future Call Of Duty game. Sandy Kretchler, who had been working as a writer on both Honest Jack and Quixsters Evolution, is now on the writing team for a pair of upcoming Thrillseekers projects, including the game rumored to be Thrillseekers 3. However, other Silver Sail staffers have been let go, and because they were released months after the initial acquisition deal went through, they may not be eligible to receive the generous severance package given to the workers who were laid off during the merger itself. The shakeups at Silver Sail are the latest example of what happens when a large gaming company acquires a smaller studio, in a tale playing out across the industry with increasing frequency. These mergers have had mixed results, in some cases producing some genuinely incredible games, while others have left shattered studios, dead IPs, and broken dreams behind. It's still too early to tell what will happen with Silver Sail, but in the meantime, its parent company Activision continues to be one of the biggest companies in the entire industry, alongside juggernauts such as Ubisoft and Acclaim."
-from an article on Kotaku, posted on July 1, 2012
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July 1, 2012
Inez Delgado was in a recording studio in Los Angeles, behind a microphone as she performed a few more vocal exercises. At 12, the girl was already a voiceover pro, and in addition to recording a new demo reel that she hoped would get her some more roles, she was also taking some quick lessons from someone who'd been using their own voice quite a bit longer.
"Be careful, you don't want to belt too much... that's pretty much the quickest way to get vocal nodes and then you'll have to stop singing for weeks at a time. I know you're proud of your voice, but it's not about how loud you sing, it's about how clear you sing."
Inez stopped and listened. Whenever Selena spoke, Inez listened.
"Take it from me, I've been doing this for thirty years and I've never had to go to the doctor for vocal nodes, not even once," said Selena, smiling encouragingly at her young pupil. "Just be confident and believe in what you're singing, and you'll sound plenty powerful without needing to scream."
"Okay," said Inez, adjusting the mic. "Should I start again?"
Selena nodded. Inez began to sing.
"Cause I'm dreaming of you tonight," Inez began, a quiet but strong cover of one of Selena's #1 classics. "When tomorrow breaks..."
Selena signaled quietly to Inez, reminding her not to sing out too much on the next few words.
"I'll be holding you tight..." Inez continued, restraining herself from oversinging and instead using her emotions to give strength to the words. Selena smiled and nodded, and Inez continued the rest of the chorus, finishing with a confident smile.
"Beautiful, beautiful!" Selena said, clapping excitedly. "Ahijada, that was so lovely!"
Inez smiled happily, blushing as she stepped out of the recording booth and walked over to her godmother. Though recording music as well as running her own studio and doing lots of other projects kept the megastar quite busy, Selena still made as much time as she could to be a mentor to Inez, who was growing up as fast as her own daughter Crystal was. Though Inez wasn't quite at the level where Selena thought she might be ready to record an album (and Inez herself had expressed no desire to do so, wanting instead to focus on her studies and her voiceover career), she could certainly see the girl doing so in a couple of years if she wanted.
"You remind me so much of me when I was your age," said Selena. "If you put your mind to it, you could absolutely be a singer."
"I do love singing," Inez replied, smiling warmly and leaning back in her chair. "It's fun and it helps me keep my voice in shape, I just don't think I could be a popstar... I mean, I've seen all the stuff you go through, it doesn't seem like it'd be for me. But thanks for giving me lessons anyway... I hope I'm not taking up too much of your time are anything."
"No, no, never!" Selena told her. "I don't mind teaching you even if you don't plan to be a singer... and besides, even if it's just making sure you don't blow your voice out, every little bit helps, doesn't it?"
The two shared a laugh, and continued their conversation, discussing Inez's schoolwork and her latest voice auditions. However, even as the two seemed to be having a good time talking to each other, Selena could tell that something was bothering Inez. She didn't want to pry directly, and didn't want to force the girl to talk about something uncomfortable. However, Inez soon began talking about it unprompted, after the conversation naturally drifted to her father and his work.
"So... mom and dad keep drifting further apart," said Inez, sighing. "Even after he sold off his company, he still spends like 60 hours a week working on stuff. Mom and me barely see him, and even though they don't fight or anything, I can tell they're angry with each other, or at least mom's angry with him."
Selena had noticed her own husband Chris talking about the situation as well... how he barely ever talked to Carlos anymore, and when they did talk, it was almost always about one of Carlos' projects, while Selena herself had noticed Sonora being much less happy and energetic than she usually was.
"Oh, Inez, I'm sure your parents still love each other-"
"You are? Because I'm not," said the girl, looking rather annoyed that her godmother was trying to sugarcoat the situation. "Tell me, have you noticed anything? Like... are they really mad at each other?"
"They're not mad, but... your mother does wish your father would spend more time with her," said Selena, trying to be as honest as she could while also trying her best not to alarm Inez. "But it's not really any of my business."
"I know..." Inez sighed, putting her head in her hands. "I just... I don't want it to be where I'm just spending time with my mom and never with my dad. It's not his fault that he works so much, and..."
Inez took a deep breath, trying not to cry. Selena placed a comforting hand on Inez's back, and Inez took another breath, sighing again and looking up at Selena.
"You probably don't want to hear about any of this, do you?"
"Inez, you can talk about anything you want with me."
"...how do you guys do it? You and Chris, I mean? How long have you been married for?"
Selena smiled warmly.
"Twenty years," she said with a wistful sigh, remembering the day she and Chris eloped like it was yesterday.
"And you're this superstar and he's... I mean he's an awesome musician, but he's not really famous for being anything but your husband, you know?"
Selena giggled, knowing what Inez meant.
"We just... have our love, you know? He goes with me when he can, and when he can't, we just remember each other and the love we have, and we hold onto it, and... well, it's not like we don't have our disagreements. It's not like we don't sometimes feel like we're drifting apart. But we always come back to each other. Some couples do, and some couples don't. It doesn't mean they're bad people, it doesn't mean they don't love each other, it just means...."
Selena sighed.
"Inez, I'm 41 and I still don't know a lot about how the world works. Your parents... they might.... they might not be together forever. But that doesn't change who you are and it doesn't have to be the end of the world. Your father loves you and no matter what happens, he'll still be there for you even if he might not always be physically there. I'm not saying it won't be hard, but you'll get through it, no matter what. In the meantime, you just do what you can do to take care of yourself and make both of them feel loved, and whatever they decide to do, it has nothing to do with you."
"Well I know it wouldn't be my fault, I just... I just don't want to be apart from one of them."
"Life is... difficult sometimes," said Selena. "But you have lots of people to talk to if you need to."
Inez sniffled, wiped her nose, and smiled. She knew what Selena was trying to say. If her parents did split up, there was nothing she could do about it, and as hard as it would be, she'd have to learn to live with it. She was pretty lucky, all things considered. She'd make it work, no matter what happened.
"Okay, I have another question," said Inez. "My dad's friend Bobby is a really cool guy, and he's always been super nice to me and to my family, but I've been reading up on his company and he's kind of a jerk. Should I feel bad about thinking he's cool even if I disagree with what he does with his company?"
"Business is weird," said Selena. "It's like some of the producers I work with, they're super nice at parties but you get them into the studio and they turn into real..."
"Assholes?"
"Language, ahijada!"
"Sorry," said Inez, sheepishly smiling and biting her lip. "They kinda are though."
"The music business, and... I imagine the video game business as well, are really competitive and nasty."
"I wouldn't be nasty if I ran a business," said Inez.
"I don't know about that," replied Selena. "I've been producing records for a few years and sometimes it brings out the worst in me. I try not to be a diva, but sometimes I have to think less like a singer and more like a businesswoman. It's hard."
"Do you try to be as nice as you can?"
Selena nodded.
"I guess that's all that matters," said Inez, standing up from her chair. "Anyway, think we have time to do more recording?"
"We've got the studio for..." Selena looked at her watch. "...another 71 minutes, why not?"
"Yay!" Inez cheered, before going back into the booth. "Think I could do an original song this time? I wrote some things down in my notes, I think we've got enough time to record it."
"Sure, do you need an accompaniment?"
"I brought my guitar," said Inez, picking up an acoustic guitar she'd brought with her. "I need some ideas for the melody though."
"Okay, let's see what we can come up with together."
As the two worked together on the song that Inez would perform, Selena thought about how lucky she was to be in the position to make a positive impact in the world of music, even if she, like a lot of her contemporaries, sometimes had to think more about the business of music than the artistry. She also thought about how lucky she was that her husband was so supportive of her and her career, even with all the time she had to spend away. She imagined that the two of them had a love connection that Inez's parents unfortunately didn't have, and hoped that she and Chris could keep their love connection strong, not just for themselves, but for Crystal as well.
She and Inez had just enough time to record a short acoustic song before their time at the studio was up. If this was back at Selena's studio in Corpus Christi, she'd have had all the time she needed to make a full song, complete with a band accompaniment, but this was just a quick vocal practice session in a studio she had only limited use of. The song itself wasn't one for the pop charts, but it was short, sweet, poetic, and a good display of Inez's budding vocal talent, and would make a fine addition to the singing segment of her demo reel. It had also been fun to record, and Selena valued those fun times with her loved ones, whether it was with her friends or her family, her goddaughter or her actual daughter. She would be recording a new album of her own quite soon, and once she'd started that, would be going on yet another tour. Times like this would be few and far-between for her for the next year or so, and she hoped that all the connections she'd made would stay strong.
After Inez's mom came to pick her up, Selena decided to place a quick call before heading back home.
"Chris?"
"Hey, baby, how'd it go today with the vocal lessons?"
"It was a lot of fun, Inez is really good, we even recorded a song together."
"Pretty soon we'll be recording whole albums for Crystal, you know how much she wants to sing just like her mom does."
"Yeah... just hope she realizes what all of that entails. Guess we'll have plenty of time to teach her."
"I'm not sure we will, you know singers are starting younger and younger these days."
"Well, we won't start Crystal until she's ready."
The two continued to talk for a short time, and the subject drifted to that of Selena's upcoming album and tour. Chris was already getting prepared to spend most of his time with Crystal by himself while his wife toured the world, though the two of them would join her when they could. He'd be spending the whole tour with her, but the two didn't want to drag Crystal around for a year, even with the services of a private tutor. She needed to spend time at home, not touring the world and not out in front of crowds where the paparazzi would be eagerly snapping photos. Chris would miss his wife and Crystal would miss her mom, but they all agreed it was for the best.
"I just hope it won't be too rough on you... being gone so much."
"Hey, doesn't matter where you are in the world, I got you right here," said Chris, holding his hand over his heart while using his other to hold the phone. "I knew when I married you that you were gonna be the biggest music star in the world, and whatever came with it, I was ready. I love you."
"I love you too. I'll see you soon. Mind letting me talk to Crystal for a minute?"
"Yeah, she's in the other room."
Selena spent a few minutes talking to her daughter, then talked to Chris again for a minute or two more before putting the phone away. She felt more loved than ever, and felt a warmth in her heart as she got ready to leave the studio. It seemed like every day she was hearing about another high profile celebrity breakup, and she hoped that she and her husband would never join those headlines. 20 years they'd been married, and she hoped they'd be together always.
She knew they would be.
Diablo III is a hack and slash action RPG developed by Blizzard and published by Activision for PC, Mac, and console. Unlike IOTL's game, TTL's Diablo III was designed from the start with both PC and console hardware in mind, and was released on both simultaneously. The game plays much like its predecessors and its OTL incarnate, with either a single player or multiple players attempting to quest through a large series of dungeons and overworlds, killing monsters and obtaining loot to make themselves more powerful. Players are able to map several different commands to their various inputs, allowing for a wide variety of strategies across six different character classes (with two more available through DLC after launch). The character classes include the OTL Barbarian, Monk, Demon Hunter, and Wizard classes, along with a Samurai class and a Werewolf class. The two DLC classes include the OTL Necromancer and the TTL original Painmaster classes. Level progression, stat enhancement, and equipment management are nearly identical to OTL's game, with players having the ability to find equipment, buy it, or craft it, depending on their preference. Enemies come in a variety of different types, ranging from common fodder to elite mobs all the way up to massive bosses. In addition to the game's main storyline mode, there's also Adventure mode, in which players can complete a variety of random objectives daily, or Challenge mode, which allows players to take on difficult tasks for loot and bragging rights. The game's plotline also sticks fairly close to OTL's, with Diablo returning as the game's main villain, with Belial and Azmodan working under him to conquer humanity. Leah, the niece of Deckard Cain and daughter of the witch Adria, is also present in the game, playing a fairly similar role to her OTL incarnation, and she experiences a similar fate in TTL's game as the vessel for Diablo's return. However, there are some key differences in the game's plot, including a more fleshed out Act III and a somewhat lesser Act I, while Act II's plot features a more sprawling Caldeum and more palace intrigue, with Asheara playing a somewhat larger role. King Leoric serves as the final boss of Act I, rather than the Butcher, who instead is the game's first major boss (so Leoric and the Butcher are essentially switched from their OTL positions). Act IV is mostly unchanged, with Diablo leading a siege against the High Heavens, and serves as the game's final boss. Of course, there's also an Act V, released via DLC in 2013. It differs significantly from OTL's Act V, and rather than battling the rogue angel Malthael, the player must instead defeat a coven devoted to resurrecting Lilith. Adria is a member of this coven, and Lilith is indeed the final boss of TTL's Act V, though she's not quite as bloody or as glamorous as the version from OTL's Diablo IV.
Diablo III is released in June 2012 to a major wave of hype, not just for the PC version but for the console versions as well. Its console version would come to the Sapphire and iTwin initially, with a Nexus release in 2013 alongside the game's release on the other next-gen consoles. The game receives excellent reviews, but just as IOTL, its launch isn't without problems. The game launches with a real-world auction house much like the OTL game, in which players can auction off loot acquired to other players, and Blizzard gets a small cut. While the auction house isn't QUITE as egregious as OTL's (the imbalanced loot from the OTL launch is mostly absent), there's still some problems associated with it, including some poor legendary drop rates and the cut that Blizzard takes, which is larger than OTL. Like IOTL, there would be significant backlash, which would lead to the end of the auction house and the drop rates being mostly fixed. Diablo III does release a single DLC expansion in 2013, which hits PC and also the next-gen versions of the console game, which introduces Act V and the new character classes. For the most part, Diablo's TTL performance is fairly similar to its OTL performance, with the simultaneous console launch helping it to sell more copies initially on console than it did at the time of its OTL launch.
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Quixsters: Enter The Maze
Developed by Silver Sail (the first game published by the company as a fully absorbed part of Activision) and published by Activision, Quixsters: Enter The Maze is the sequel to 2009's Quixsters Evolution. Like its predecessor, it's a 3-D action platformer starring a wide variety of energetic youths, who must both cooperate and compete as they have adventures and complete challenges. Unlike the previous game, which had a huge variety of challenges broken up into smaller challenges, Enter The Maze focuses more on a single unifying storyline, and thus has less overall challenge and gameplay variety, though it keeps the familiar "gameplay in short bursts" formula that the series is known for. The primary story of the game has each of the Quixsters getting lost and losing their most valuable possession, which has been taken into an enormous maze by a gang of troublemakers known as the Speedblitzers. The Quixsters must not only find their treasures, they have to find each other as well, while catching and defeating the maniacal Speedblitzers in a variety of challenges and races. The maze itself is a massive, self-contained world broken up into a variety of segments, with the player given a choice of how they want to go about exploring. The outside of the maze features relatively easy challenges, but as players work their way inward, the challenges will get tougher and tougher. The game adds more Quixsters to the familiar mix, keeping all 56 of the characters + DLC from the original game and adding in eight more initially, for a total of 64 Quixsters, including the main four and then sixty more which are unlocked as the player progresses through the game, many of whom must be helped or rescued before they can be recruited. Like in Evolution, each of the Quixsters has their own moves and personality, and Enter The Maze continues the trend of giving each character more development and expanding on the already extensive plotline, continuing the relationships established between the characters. Players are given the choice of starting with Dash, Leep, Spin, or Dive, each of whom has a different section of the maze to explore, focusing on a different type of gameplay. Players will eventually have to give all four of them a spin (unlike in Evolution, there's more of a set path to the game, with a lot more of the challenges needing to be completed by players). As the Quixsters work their way inward, finding treasures and rescuing friends as they go along, more pathways between sections of the maze open up, and the game acquires a bit of a Metroidvania-esque feel to it, something that hasn't been seen in the Quixsters series thus far. Eventually, the Quixsters rescue all their friends and find and defeat the leader of the Speedblitzers, before it's revealed that the Speedblitzers were trapped in the maze and needed to trap the Quixsters in order to make their own escape. The final boss is a character known as the Master of the Maze, a devilish being who traps people and drains their energy. The Quixsters team up to defeat him with a little help from the Speedblitzers, saving the day and the world and making some new friends in the process.
Quixsters: Enter The Maze is released in June 2012, and reviews, while mostly positive, aren't quite up to the level of Evolution, with some fans and critics disappointed that the game is structured more like a standard 3-D platformer than the fun collection of mini-challenges that Evolution was. It's still a high quality game, with great graphics, game play, and voice acting, but not as instantly fun as its predecessor. It's released on the Sapphire, iTwin, Connect, and Gemini (and would get a version for the Nexus later on), and sales are fairly strong early and remain strong for the remainder of the year. It's the last Silver Sail game that would be worked on by longtime producer Carlos Delgado, who would move on to more of a consultant role as a result of Silver Sail's sale to Activision. Thus, the series would carry on with a new generation of developers on the next-gen consoles, and fans hoped it would keep most of what had made it so successful and fun.
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"Activision is said to be 'streamlining' Silver Sail for future projects, which include Quixsters games and spin-offs as well as a brand new IP likely to be announced at a future date. While maintaining certain key members of the company's development team, most of the studio will be staffed with newer Activision employees, in a move intended to 'shake up' the studio, generating new ideas and reducing costs. At the same time, many of Silver Sail's former staff are being reassigned to other projects with the company, some in major roles. John Ballasteros has been promoted from his role as a Silver Sail programmer to being one of the lead developers at Treyarch, where he'll work on a future Call Of Duty game. Sandy Kretchler, who had been working as a writer on both Honest Jack and Quixsters Evolution, is now on the writing team for a pair of upcoming Thrillseekers projects, including the game rumored to be Thrillseekers 3. However, other Silver Sail staffers have been let go, and because they were released months after the initial acquisition deal went through, they may not be eligible to receive the generous severance package given to the workers who were laid off during the merger itself. The shakeups at Silver Sail are the latest example of what happens when a large gaming company acquires a smaller studio, in a tale playing out across the industry with increasing frequency. These mergers have had mixed results, in some cases producing some genuinely incredible games, while others have left shattered studios, dead IPs, and broken dreams behind. It's still too early to tell what will happen with Silver Sail, but in the meantime, its parent company Activision continues to be one of the biggest companies in the entire industry, alongside juggernauts such as Ubisoft and Acclaim."
-from an article on Kotaku, posted on July 1, 2012
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July 1, 2012
Inez Delgado was in a recording studio in Los Angeles, behind a microphone as she performed a few more vocal exercises. At 12, the girl was already a voiceover pro, and in addition to recording a new demo reel that she hoped would get her some more roles, she was also taking some quick lessons from someone who'd been using their own voice quite a bit longer.
"Be careful, you don't want to belt too much... that's pretty much the quickest way to get vocal nodes and then you'll have to stop singing for weeks at a time. I know you're proud of your voice, but it's not about how loud you sing, it's about how clear you sing."
Inez stopped and listened. Whenever Selena spoke, Inez listened.
"Take it from me, I've been doing this for thirty years and I've never had to go to the doctor for vocal nodes, not even once," said Selena, smiling encouragingly at her young pupil. "Just be confident and believe in what you're singing, and you'll sound plenty powerful without needing to scream."
"Okay," said Inez, adjusting the mic. "Should I start again?"
Selena nodded. Inez began to sing.
"Cause I'm dreaming of you tonight," Inez began, a quiet but strong cover of one of Selena's #1 classics. "When tomorrow breaks..."
Selena signaled quietly to Inez, reminding her not to sing out too much on the next few words.
"I'll be holding you tight..." Inez continued, restraining herself from oversinging and instead using her emotions to give strength to the words. Selena smiled and nodded, and Inez continued the rest of the chorus, finishing with a confident smile.
"Beautiful, beautiful!" Selena said, clapping excitedly. "Ahijada, that was so lovely!"
Inez smiled happily, blushing as she stepped out of the recording booth and walked over to her godmother. Though recording music as well as running her own studio and doing lots of other projects kept the megastar quite busy, Selena still made as much time as she could to be a mentor to Inez, who was growing up as fast as her own daughter Crystal was. Though Inez wasn't quite at the level where Selena thought she might be ready to record an album (and Inez herself had expressed no desire to do so, wanting instead to focus on her studies and her voiceover career), she could certainly see the girl doing so in a couple of years if she wanted.
"You remind me so much of me when I was your age," said Selena. "If you put your mind to it, you could absolutely be a singer."
"I do love singing," Inez replied, smiling warmly and leaning back in her chair. "It's fun and it helps me keep my voice in shape, I just don't think I could be a popstar... I mean, I've seen all the stuff you go through, it doesn't seem like it'd be for me. But thanks for giving me lessons anyway... I hope I'm not taking up too much of your time are anything."
"No, no, never!" Selena told her. "I don't mind teaching you even if you don't plan to be a singer... and besides, even if it's just making sure you don't blow your voice out, every little bit helps, doesn't it?"
The two shared a laugh, and continued their conversation, discussing Inez's schoolwork and her latest voice auditions. However, even as the two seemed to be having a good time talking to each other, Selena could tell that something was bothering Inez. She didn't want to pry directly, and didn't want to force the girl to talk about something uncomfortable. However, Inez soon began talking about it unprompted, after the conversation naturally drifted to her father and his work.
"So... mom and dad keep drifting further apart," said Inez, sighing. "Even after he sold off his company, he still spends like 60 hours a week working on stuff. Mom and me barely see him, and even though they don't fight or anything, I can tell they're angry with each other, or at least mom's angry with him."
Selena had noticed her own husband Chris talking about the situation as well... how he barely ever talked to Carlos anymore, and when they did talk, it was almost always about one of Carlos' projects, while Selena herself had noticed Sonora being much less happy and energetic than she usually was.
"Oh, Inez, I'm sure your parents still love each other-"
"You are? Because I'm not," said the girl, looking rather annoyed that her godmother was trying to sugarcoat the situation. "Tell me, have you noticed anything? Like... are they really mad at each other?"
"They're not mad, but... your mother does wish your father would spend more time with her," said Selena, trying to be as honest as she could while also trying her best not to alarm Inez. "But it's not really any of my business."
"I know..." Inez sighed, putting her head in her hands. "I just... I don't want it to be where I'm just spending time with my mom and never with my dad. It's not his fault that he works so much, and..."
Inez took a deep breath, trying not to cry. Selena placed a comforting hand on Inez's back, and Inez took another breath, sighing again and looking up at Selena.
"You probably don't want to hear about any of this, do you?"
"Inez, you can talk about anything you want with me."
"...how do you guys do it? You and Chris, I mean? How long have you been married for?"
Selena smiled warmly.
"Twenty years," she said with a wistful sigh, remembering the day she and Chris eloped like it was yesterday.
"And you're this superstar and he's... I mean he's an awesome musician, but he's not really famous for being anything but your husband, you know?"
Selena giggled, knowing what Inez meant.
"We just... have our love, you know? He goes with me when he can, and when he can't, we just remember each other and the love we have, and we hold onto it, and... well, it's not like we don't have our disagreements. It's not like we don't sometimes feel like we're drifting apart. But we always come back to each other. Some couples do, and some couples don't. It doesn't mean they're bad people, it doesn't mean they don't love each other, it just means...."
Selena sighed.
"Inez, I'm 41 and I still don't know a lot about how the world works. Your parents... they might.... they might not be together forever. But that doesn't change who you are and it doesn't have to be the end of the world. Your father loves you and no matter what happens, he'll still be there for you even if he might not always be physically there. I'm not saying it won't be hard, but you'll get through it, no matter what. In the meantime, you just do what you can do to take care of yourself and make both of them feel loved, and whatever they decide to do, it has nothing to do with you."
"Well I know it wouldn't be my fault, I just... I just don't want to be apart from one of them."
"Life is... difficult sometimes," said Selena. "But you have lots of people to talk to if you need to."
Inez sniffled, wiped her nose, and smiled. She knew what Selena was trying to say. If her parents did split up, there was nothing she could do about it, and as hard as it would be, she'd have to learn to live with it. She was pretty lucky, all things considered. She'd make it work, no matter what happened.
"Okay, I have another question," said Inez. "My dad's friend Bobby is a really cool guy, and he's always been super nice to me and to my family, but I've been reading up on his company and he's kind of a jerk. Should I feel bad about thinking he's cool even if I disagree with what he does with his company?"
"Business is weird," said Selena. "It's like some of the producers I work with, they're super nice at parties but you get them into the studio and they turn into real..."
"Assholes?"
"Language, ahijada!"
"Sorry," said Inez, sheepishly smiling and biting her lip. "They kinda are though."
"The music business, and... I imagine the video game business as well, are really competitive and nasty."
"I wouldn't be nasty if I ran a business," said Inez.
"I don't know about that," replied Selena. "I've been producing records for a few years and sometimes it brings out the worst in me. I try not to be a diva, but sometimes I have to think less like a singer and more like a businesswoman. It's hard."
"Do you try to be as nice as you can?"
Selena nodded.
"I guess that's all that matters," said Inez, standing up from her chair. "Anyway, think we have time to do more recording?"
"We've got the studio for..." Selena looked at her watch. "...another 71 minutes, why not?"
"Yay!" Inez cheered, before going back into the booth. "Think I could do an original song this time? I wrote some things down in my notes, I think we've got enough time to record it."
"Sure, do you need an accompaniment?"
"I brought my guitar," said Inez, picking up an acoustic guitar she'd brought with her. "I need some ideas for the melody though."
"Okay, let's see what we can come up with together."
As the two worked together on the song that Inez would perform, Selena thought about how lucky she was to be in the position to make a positive impact in the world of music, even if she, like a lot of her contemporaries, sometimes had to think more about the business of music than the artistry. She also thought about how lucky she was that her husband was so supportive of her and her career, even with all the time she had to spend away. She imagined that the two of them had a love connection that Inez's parents unfortunately didn't have, and hoped that she and Chris could keep their love connection strong, not just for themselves, but for Crystal as well.
She and Inez had just enough time to record a short acoustic song before their time at the studio was up. If this was back at Selena's studio in Corpus Christi, she'd have had all the time she needed to make a full song, complete with a band accompaniment, but this was just a quick vocal practice session in a studio she had only limited use of. The song itself wasn't one for the pop charts, but it was short, sweet, poetic, and a good display of Inez's budding vocal talent, and would make a fine addition to the singing segment of her demo reel. It had also been fun to record, and Selena valued those fun times with her loved ones, whether it was with her friends or her family, her goddaughter or her actual daughter. She would be recording a new album of her own quite soon, and once she'd started that, would be going on yet another tour. Times like this would be few and far-between for her for the next year or so, and she hoped that all the connections she'd made would stay strong.
After Inez's mom came to pick her up, Selena decided to place a quick call before heading back home.
"Chris?"
"Hey, baby, how'd it go today with the vocal lessons?"
"It was a lot of fun, Inez is really good, we even recorded a song together."
"Pretty soon we'll be recording whole albums for Crystal, you know how much she wants to sing just like her mom does."
"Yeah... just hope she realizes what all of that entails. Guess we'll have plenty of time to teach her."
"I'm not sure we will, you know singers are starting younger and younger these days."
"Well, we won't start Crystal until she's ready."
The two continued to talk for a short time, and the subject drifted to that of Selena's upcoming album and tour. Chris was already getting prepared to spend most of his time with Crystal by himself while his wife toured the world, though the two of them would join her when they could. He'd be spending the whole tour with her, but the two didn't want to drag Crystal around for a year, even with the services of a private tutor. She needed to spend time at home, not touring the world and not out in front of crowds where the paparazzi would be eagerly snapping photos. Chris would miss his wife and Crystal would miss her mom, but they all agreed it was for the best.
"I just hope it won't be too rough on you... being gone so much."
"Hey, doesn't matter where you are in the world, I got you right here," said Chris, holding his hand over his heart while using his other to hold the phone. "I knew when I married you that you were gonna be the biggest music star in the world, and whatever came with it, I was ready. I love you."
"I love you too. I'll see you soon. Mind letting me talk to Crystal for a minute?"
"Yeah, she's in the other room."
Selena spent a few minutes talking to her daughter, then talked to Chris again for a minute or two more before putting the phone away. She felt more loved than ever, and felt a warmth in her heart as she got ready to leave the studio. It seemed like every day she was hearing about another high profile celebrity breakup, and she hoped that she and her husband would never join those headlines. 20 years they'd been married, and she hoped they'd be together always.
She knew they would be.
