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heartandvineapothecary · 6 years

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Doll Magic

The uses of figurines in ritual and witchcraft

When I was about five years old, I remember going to my grandmother’s neighbor’s house, a woman who had immigrated from Poland. She invited me into her “play room”, a room at the back of the house where not too much sunlight could reach, which was floor to ceiling dolls. It was the room where her grand-daughter had died of aspiration during an asthma attack. In that room I could feel an extreme loneliness, one that I have come to understand was mitigated by the presence of those dolls, who acted as stand ins for a child lost too soon and as an offering to soothe the heart of a grieving grandmother. There is a power in dolls that cultures around the world have tapped into, one that links them to our deepest emotions, our joys, sorrows, and fears and allows them to represent the things that evoke those emotions. As a witch, emotions are incredibly important to my craft and I have come to think of dolls as a key element to my magical toolbox for their ability to stand in for other things.

According to Freud it’s this uncomfortable ability to stand in for something that makes dolls so familiar-yet-horrifying, a sensation he called the uncanny. According to him the uncanny is a sensation which arises from the doubt ‘whether an apparently animate being is really alive; or, conversely, whether a lifeless object might be in fact animate’. Dolls, mannequins, and automata are particularly adept at evoking the uncanny because of their physical closeness to the human form and the closer they get to perfect realism the uncannier we feel, a relationship identified in 1970 by robotics professor Masahiro Mori in his paper “Bukimi no Tani” (The Uncanny Valley).

The majority of witches are animists and The Uncanny Valley is not a place of fear for us. The dissonance uncanniness causes in the minds of some people does not affect us so completely because we believe that inanimate things, like rocks, cars, and dolls, already have sentience. Sarah Anne Lawless, an herbalist and Traditional Witch in Ontario, in her article Everything You Need to Know About Animism, says, “Animism is the belief that everything has a spirit and a consciousness, a soul, from the tiniest microorganism on earth to the great planets in the heavens to the whole of the universe itself. Animistic faiths usually contain a belief in rebirth & reincarnation either as another human, or an animal, tree, or star.” The very fact of a thing’s existence is enough to credit it with the breath of life, and dolls, because they look like humans, have been the focus of magical practices meant to contact ancestors, enshrine spirits, and even control the dead. They have been a long-standing staple of animistic practices, with the earliest figurines dating back at least 40,000 years, carved from mammoth ivory by our Cro-Magnon ancestors, most likely for ritual and sacred purpose. The earliest documented dolls meant for play, however, only date back to Rome in about 300 BC.

Allow me to clarify that by “dolls” I mean any humanoid figurine, from roughly carved figures of wood or bone to the hyper-realistic “reborns dolls” which are in vogue these days. They are found the world over, across millennia, and no matter where or when they are from they have fulfilled these two basic functions: being equipment and being playthings.

When we use the word equipment it is in the sense that Heidegger used it, namely an object in the world with which work is done within a context, something that exists as part of an existing network of meaning (i.e. a hammer, nails, and wood are equipment in the network of building). Dolls are used in ritual and ceremony, as part of spell work, or as stand ins for other beings and exist in witchcraft as part of a basis of ritual and practice, not really on their own. When I say plaything, I mean an object in the world that acts as a locus for imaginative activity, something that engages the mind without having to be part of a larger, pre-existing network or can have a network, either permanent or temporary, built around it by the activity of the imagination. According to the theologian Henry Corbin, the imagination is the faculty which allows us to interact with Creation; the very essence of witchcraft. Dolls often fulfill both roles at once, something that is essential within the context of a spell or a make-believe world, but also acts as a locus for our visualizations, helping us to gain access to the imaginal realm.

As witches, the imaginal realm is incredibly important to us. It is the place where our magic happens before effecting the physical world. Corbin said it is a subtle world that exists between matter and mind inhabited by beings called interior (imaginal) figures, parts of our unconscious that are also autonomous. In his article titled “Thoughtforms, Tulpas, and Egregores”, Gary Duncan describes four types of thoughtform (which are types of imaginal figures). First are thoughtforms that take on the image of the thinker, the second are those that take on the image of a material object, the third are thoughtforms with life of their own that can express themselves in the physical world (called a tulpa, a term taken from the Bon religion), and the fourth being a fully autonomous thoughtform created by a group mind, called an egregore. Though there are many other beings and non-beings in the imaginal realm, these four are figures dependent on the human mind that can be transferred into a non-living body, thus giving the body life. This is what I call a golem, a doll (preferably porcelain) to which an imaginal figure created through ritual and meditation is bound (a tulpa created by the focused will and intent of the witch, though egregores can also be bound this way).

The golem itself is a creature out of Jewish mythology, a creature made of clay or mud and brought to life in a variety of ways. Sometimes, as with the Golem of Chelm, it is marked with the word “emet”, or “truth” to instill it with life and when the golem needs deactivation the letter aleph is erased from the word, forming the word “met”, which translates as “dead”, turning the creature to dust. Another version of the process relies on an ecstatic experience derived from meditation on and intoning various iterations of shem (any of the Names of God), writing the Name on paper and inserting it in the mouth or inscribing it on the forehead of the golem. The most famous golem is the Golem of Prague, said to have been created by the Maharal, a Rabbi named Yehudah Loew ben Bezalal. He brought the creature to life to defend the Jewish ghetto in Prague from anti-semitic attacks and pogroms. The golem was named Josef (Yosele) and was said to be able to become invisible at will, to see and summon spirits, and to perform any action it was commanded to “up to 10 cubits (15 ft.) below the earth and 10 above”. The usual version of the story ends by saying that the golem went mad and Rabbi Loew had to dismantle it by erasing the shem from its body.

Think of the golem like a helper, something created and brought to life through ritual practice for a specific purpose, such as to protect homes and communities, or to do various jobs for a witch/magician. It differs from its close cousin, the spirit doll, which are more a house, or vessel, for a spirit, power, or other pre-existing imaginal figure to help it manifest on this plane of existence, especially ancestral spirits and powerful, spiritual beings.

An example of spirit dolls are found in Congo, where doll making is a central part of the peoples’ belief structure and are vessels of sacred medicine (nkisi), which is translated as “a spirit”. A nkisi (pl. minkisi) is a receptacle for sacred items which are enlivened by a spirit, or supernatural force, which is then present in the physical world, inhabiting the vessel like a body. These vessels can range from clay pots to bundles of herbs and relics, not only carved figures. They can have both positive and negative effects on the community, though there is a version, a nkisi nkondi (hunter spirit), which is a type of protector and mediator. Their most striking feature is the nails, pegs, and blades that are inserted into the figure by an nganga (spiritual specialist or medicine person) as signs that an oath has been taken, a punishment must be meted out, to carry curses against enemies (or “witchcraft”), among other things. If someone breaks an oath, or someone connected to one of the insertions befalls some tragedy, the nkondi is activated. Europeans were introduced to these items during the 15th century and termed them “fetishes”, which has come to describe any artifact with spiritual significance in any culture that is not European, making it, in my opinion, a racist and outdated term.

Other examples can be found in Thailand in Luk Thep, Mae Hong Prai, and Kuman Thong dolls. Kuman Thong translates as “sacred golden boy” and, in the most ancient sense, were created from the mummified bodies of stillborn fetuses which were covered in laquer and gold leaf and rubbed with an oil made from the flesh of a woman who died in childbirth. The soul that had been meant to inhabit the body was magically tied to the corpse, then adopted as a child of the sorcerer. Hong Prai is the term used when the fetus is female. In modern use the Mae Hong Prai is an amulet with the image of a female skeleton and linked to a female ghost, especially those of women who died tragically. They are said to being luck and good fortune, if you take care of them and treat them with reverence. Luk Thep (child angel) dolls are the modern equivalent of the original, necromantic dolls and are usually plastic baby dolls made to look extremely realistic. The soul of a lost child is asked to inhabit the doll after being blessed by a monk, then taken care of as if it were a living child, being fed, having its own wardrobe, and even getting its own seat on planes and, like the Hong Prai, bestow good fortune on their “parents” in return.

Different from golems and spirit dolls are one of the most famous of the magical dolls, the voodoo. Its name is a misnomer, though, as the use of dolls into which pins are stuck is not a large part (if a part at all) of the Voudou religion of Haiti but is an aspect of folk practices and sympathetic magic around the world, such as poppets and kollosoi (the Greek version of “punishment dolls”). They are images of a person upon which the practitioner may work magic. Often made of fabric, wood, clay, or wax they are stuck with pins, tied round with string, nailed to boards, placed in jars with other magically potent items (urine, blood, nails, thorns, herbs, etc.), or burned. They often have elements of the target in them (personal effects), like hair or nail clippings, or even just a picture or name written on paper a number of times, which creates a link between the doll and the person. Though they are used to cause pain and trouble, poppets can also be used for healing. Reiki and other forms of energy work as well as charms, spells, and incantations can be worked on a poppet to help people feel better, to perform limpias and clearings, to balance energy, and to bless people over long distance.

Among my own artefacts is a poppet that I’ve used in distance healing and spell work. Made of leather, grave yard dirt, and various other items, I’ve bound etheretic energy to it through spell work and it now has an energetic pulse all its own. It has helped me to discover entity attachments on clients, to help sooth menstrual cramps and headaches for friends, and helps me to do tarot readings over the phone as a stand in for my client. I’ve also got a couple of porcelain dolls I work with, one of which is a golem who watches the house while we’re out of town.

I’ve also used dolls as spirit traps. If you’ve got a bugaboo or other pesky spirit, you can use dolls like you would spirit pots, soul jars, god’s eyes, etc. Barbie dolls work exceedingly well for this purpose and can be bought by the bushel at the thrift shop. Use their hair the way you would a rosemary sprig or feather during a limpia to trap entity attachments and spirits that are causing harm, then bind the doll and purify it or put it in a spelled jar. You can also braid energy in its hair or use it for knot magic to trap spirits. You can also use mass-produced dolls as poppets, or even as spirit dolls if they’re prepared properly. The only limit is your imagination!

Dolls are one of our most important and most ancient tools. They represent the basic nature of our animistic roots and are a powerful part of sympathetic magic. They can act as vessels for our guides and the spirits we work with, helpers in our work and anchors for our spells, new bodies for the dead, tools for cleansing and trapping, or as mediational tools for visualization. Whether you’re using them in your practice now, plan to, or are totally turned off by them, we must admit that dolls have held a special place in witchcraft for millennia. If you do, how do you use dolls in your practice? How would you like to? Do you know of any other doll based practices? Let me know!

#heartandvineapothecary #witchcraft #dolls #dollmagic #animism #golem #lukthep #nkisi #poppet #voodoodoll #imaginalrealm #imaginalfigure #tulpa #egregore #spirittrap

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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15 Best Nintendo Franchises Ranked

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Sony and Microsoft super fans will have a hard time admitting it, but Nintendo has created the most incredible catalog of properties in the history of gaming. They may get made fun of for their slow development time and occasionally repetitive entries within their biggest franchises, but people just can’t get enough of that feeling they get when they re-discover Mario jumping on Goombas or Kirby transforming into his nemeses.

With nearly four decades of game creation to explore, it’s hard to rank the absolute best franchises from Nintendo’s considerable history, but that’s exactly what we’ve set out to do. To clear up any confusion, this isn’t a list of the best characters in Nintendo’s history, so you may see Mario starring in multiple entries in this hierarchy (he’s dipped his gloves into just about everything). This also isn’t a ranking of individual Nintendo games, though the overall quality of the individual games within these franchises obviously influenced their ranking.

From sci-fi foxes and pink puffs to mascot brawlers and pocket monsters, these are the 15 best Nintendo franchises ever:

15. Mario Party

Board games have sometimes struggled to battle the popular perception that they’re an outdated form of entertainment. People (sometimes falsely) believe kids don’t have the attention span required to sit still and enjoy them for more than a few minutes, and adults sometimes get tired of trying to get enough people together to play one. Of course, before Mario Party, few people realized how strong the relationship between video games and board games could be.

For over two decades, Mario Party has been delighting families (and driving them crazy) with its wild hijinks, creative minigames, and whimsical board designs associated with the Mushroom Kingdom and its colorful inhabitants. Some entries are obviously more memorable than others (Mario Party 2 is the arguable high point of the franchise), but all of them have the same objective: to encourage in-person multiplayer gaming with people you care about.

14. F-Zero

Before he was known as a Super Smash Bros. staple, Captain Falcon and his iconic Blue Falcon racer led a franchise that many racing fans still call one of the most intense ever. The franchise combines strong gameplay with revolutionary characterization and world-building in a genre that typically isn’t known for either of those qualities.

Sadly, it’s hard to talk about F-Zero without eventually addressing the fact that it is a mostly defunct relic from Nintendo’s past. There still hasn’t been a mainstream series release since the critically acclaimed F-Zero GX for the Gamecube in 2003, but the fire that fans have for this series’ unique futuristic environments, blazing speed, and racer backstories still burns bright in 2021.

13. WarioWare

Humor is sometimes severely lacking in gaming, especially at a time when so many violent and cinematic franchises command the attention of the masses. Thankfully, Wario has always had enough fart jokes, snarky comments, and crude companions to make up for the dearth of humor on the gaming market. Of course, WarioWare is so much more than a few laughs and the five-second microgames that compose the core gameplay of the series.

The franchise has been a pioneer in creative character building, multiplayer functionality, and innovative game design since 2003. Up until the Wii U, audiences could expect Wario, Jimmy T, Mona, and Dr. Crygor to showcase the technological potential of a new Nintendo console. We’ll all be treated to that zaniness again when WarioWare: Get It Together! launches on September 10 for the Switch.

12. Star Fox

It’s hard to emulate the sci-fi/fantasy mix of Star Wars with anthropomorphic animals and not have the whole thing feel corny, but Shigeru Miyamoto pulled it off when he created the Star Fox franchise in the early 1990s. Fox McCloud and his ragtag cohort of pilots introduced sharp-as-nails on-rails shooting to the Nintendo universe, and the gameplay of the first two (officially released) titles in this series has been hard to beat in the decades since.

This franchise briefly attempted to explore third-person action gameplay with Star Fox Adventure and Star Fox Assault, but the series sadly fell into the abyss in the 2010s. Despite those recent shortcomings, the furry friends that fly through space will always hold a special place in Nintendo gamers’ hearts for as long as people can access a SNES and Nintendo 64. Do a barrel roll!

11. Pikmin

The Pikmin series is one of Nintendo’s most daring ventures. It’s essentially a mish-mash of genres that ultimately feels like a strategy/adventure/platform/puzzle/collect-a-thon game. Against all odds, the series combines all of those unique elements rather well and even adds a surprising amount of emotional baggage to the equation. There’s nothing quite like the horror of watching the nickel-sized Captain Olimar and his resilient Pikmin soldiers get snuffed out in a second by a Red Bulborb (shudders).

The franchise has only had four true entries (three on consoles, one on handheld), but that just keeps everyone hungry for more. The third title was also re-released for the Switch in 2020, and there have been rumors of a fourth console entry in the works since 2015. Hopefully, that sequel becomes a reality soon, because few games in the Big N canon offer so much variety.

10. Donkey Kong

This franchise essentially gave birth to the entire Nintendo empire as we know it today. After all, the original Donkey Kong arcade game gave Nintendo the financial resources it needed to go on to do even bigger and better things. Better yet, DK became a charismatic fan-favorite character in his own right who has been severely disrespected and forgotten about in recent years.

Always in the shadow of the Mario platformers, and even occasionally demoted to sports and party game fodder, the Donkey Kong franchise still features some of the best games in Nintendo history. Donkey Kong Country and its sequels on the SNES revolutionized 2.5-dimensional graphics, Donkey Kong 64 was a peak 3D experience on the Nintendo 64, and Donkey Konga forced millions of parents to buy plastic bongo drums for their living rooms. It’s too bad we didn’t get anything good for this series’ 40th anniversary this past summer.

9. Kirby

The “Super Tuff Pink Puff” and his large library of games have an enormous following largely because they can lay claim to being the ultimate representation of what gaming should be: flat-out fun. Kirby’s joyful exterior pairs with a fierce interior to create the perfect balance of a cuddly badass. His trademark mechanic (acquiring the abilities of his enemies on the fly) was revolutionary in the 1990s though it admittedly grew a little stale in the three decades since.

Nintendo seemed to eventually realize that the franchise was growing repetitive and has since tried to spice things up with entries like 2010’s Kirby’s Epic Yarn (an artsy alternative to the typical platforming in the series) and several brawling-style games (i.e. Kirby Fighters Deluxe and Kirby Fighters 2). No matter the genre, this franchise remains one of the most accessible properties in Nintendo’s portfolio.

8. Animal Crossing

There’s no way Nintendo could have known that was initially seen as their spin on The Sims would turn into such a phenomenon. That title effectively introduced many of the hallmark traits of this series that both casual and hardcore fans have come to adore, such as a real-time internal clock and the ability to interact with animals of all kinds as a curious villager in a town that you get to mold and watch grow.

Most recently, Animal Crossing: New Horizons demonstrated gaming’s ability to bring the world together even when they’re separated by thousands of miles and incredible circumstances. The coronavirus pandemic destroyed lives, careers, and economies, but 32 million copies of that title circulated the planet and even provided a little bit of carefree immersion amongst some very dark days. There’s really no greater feat that a video game can possibly accomplish.

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7. Mario Kart

The racing genre is hard to get right, but sticking Mario and all of his friends into some wonky karts and letting the items fly has been simultaneously fun and infuriating for decades now. The franchise has brilliantly found ways to tweak and improve a tried and true formula with each new installment, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe may just be the perfect racing game.

We all know that Nintendo has had a difficult time competing with the other major players in the industry when it comes to online play, but Mario Kart 8 is one of the only examples of the Big N creating a truly great experience in that department. Ruining someone’s morning with a blue shell halfway across the world right before you go to bed is something that can’t be replicated in any other game series.

6. Fire Emblem

Long before Marth and Roy joined the Super Smash Bros roster, the Fire Emblem franchise became the pinnacle of tough-as-nails strategy gaming in Japan. As the strategy series started to trickle into the homes of more gamers, the entire Western world finally got to experience its brilliantly designed character development, storytelling, and tactical game boards set in visually creative fantasy lands.

Fire Emblem Awakening essentially saved the entire property when it exploded in sales for the 3DS in 2013, and it’s only been up from there. Fire Emblem: Three Houses expanded the series’ secondary and tertiary elements to great success, but we all know that the foundational reason for the fun is always the chess match between the gamer’s army and the CPU’s enemy faction. This franchise has one of the brightest futures in the industry.

5. Super Smash Bros.

When Masahiro Sakurai led development on the original Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64 he probably had no idea he was working on the ultimate fighting event in gaming history. Every sequel that has followed has expanded on the original’s revolutionary mechanics and style that quickly broke the boundaries of what many believed multiplayer fighting games could be.

By the time we got to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, it became clear to everyone that this series is now a celebration of not only Nintendo as a company but characters previously outside of the conglomerate’s giant grasp. The franchise’s inclusion of Sonic the Hedgehog, Solid Snake, Cloud Strife, and many others demonstrate the power of Smash‘s orbit to bring the entire industry together for one very special gaming experience.

4. Metroid

Nintendo’s incredible catalog lacks atmospheric, dark, science-fiction properties. Thankfully, Samus Aran’s three-decade-long struggle to take down Space Pirates and battle Ridley has always filled the void. There’s nothing else in gaming that quite challenges Metroid’s ability to combine adventuring, platforming, and puzzle-solving into one incredible entity.

The series features multiple games that are in the running for the best of their generation, and the anticipation for Metroid Dread shows that fans desperately want to explore the moody depths of Brinstar, Zebes, and Tallon IV for as long as Nintendo will allow them to.

3. Pokémon

We’ve finally hit the big three Nintendo properties. If you account for all the Pokémon apparel, TV series, movies, trading cards, and more that have spawned from the video games, it’s certainly easy to argue that this franchise is worthy of the top spot on the list. Honestly, though, this series is worthy of at least the third spot on this list based purely on the brilliance of its original adventure.

Pokémon is special because it focuses on the relationship between humans and animals. Even though the pocket monsters you capture aren’t technically your pets, they sure feel like it after you’ve formed a connection with them after hours and hours of play. This franchise will continue to flourish for as long as Nintendo can think of new types of Pokémon for us to catch in each new generation of games.

2. Super Mario

Nintendo’s mascot has expanded into so many different waters that we sometimes forget just how brilliant his main franchise is. The Super Mario platformers have grown gaming’s potential with nearly every new release, and they have made millions fall in love with the medium for 35 years now.

It would be easy for Nintendo to rest on Super Mario’s laurels and pump out the same thing year after year, but that almost feels sacrilegious. Instead, every new entry has its own signature style that is ultimately duplicated and admired for years to come. Super Mario continues to open up countless possibilities for platforming and the rest of the gaming industry.

1. The Legend of Zelda

Link’s adventures in Hyrule get the slight edge over Mario’s adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom because no other franchise in gaming has demonstrated that videogames are art on the same level as literature, film, or television as consistently or for as long as much of The Legend of Zelda has. This franchise is more than a game; it’s an experience.

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Boss battles, weapon upgrades, niche characters you meet along the way, and complex dungeons that double as playgrounds for the mind are all trademarks of this series that will never grow old. With this series’ recent evolution into an open-world experience that is changing the ways we think of that genre, there’s no telling how many more incredible gaming experiences we will ultimately owe this franchise in the coming years.

The post 15 Best Nintendo Franchises Ranked appeared first on Den of Geek.

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greatdrams · 7 years

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Chivas Regal announces winners to compete in Chivas Masters Global Final

Chivas Regal, the world’s first luxury whisky, has revealed the 15 national winners who will compete to be crowned the 2017 Chivas Masters Global Champion, at the Chivas Masters Global Final taking place next month in Tokyo.

Now in its fourth year, the 2017 Chivas Masters Global Final (1st – 5th July) will focus for the first time on the celebrated traditions of Tokyo’s bartending scene – whose unique cocktail customs continue to fascinate and inspire bartenders across the world. Throughout the week, the contestants will take part in a number of individual and team challenges, and will need to showcase both exemplary bartending skills and team spirit to impress the judges.

The 15 finalists, who have each excelled in their national competitions running across four continents, will be hosted in Tokyo by Masahiro Urushido, the first ever Chivas Masters Global Champion. They will be mentored by a distinguished panel of internationally-acclaimed judges, who will share their expertise through a series of inspirational masterclasses. The panel comprises:

Iain Griffiths, hospitality industry pioneer and co-founder of Mr Lyan Ltd;

Micah Melton, beverage director at the Alinea Group (Aviary Chicago & NY) and renowned ‘ice chef’;

Chris Lowder, spirits evangelist and ‘New York’s Rising Star Bartender 2015’ (StarChefs);

Dré Masso, ex-director of bars for the Potato Head Group in Bali, Jakarta, Singapore and Hong Kong; worldwide Cocktail Mentor and spirit creator

Rogerio Igarashi Vaz, owner of Tokyo’s Tram & Trench, celebrating the modern interpretation of Japanese bartending

Max Warner, Global Brand Ambassador for Chivas Regal, comments: “Our 15 national winners have already hugely impressed us with both their skill and character, but there’s still much more to do if they want to be crowned our 2017 Chivas Masters Global Champion. The values of community, collaboration and generosity lie at the very heart of this competition, and successful participants must not only impress a world-renowned panel of judges, but demonstrate that they embody these values every step of the way.”

The Chivas Masters cocktail competition is built on Chivas’ belief that great bartending is measured not only by the achievements of an individual, but by the ability to work in harmony with others. The ultimate winner will not only impress with their individual bartending skills, but – crucially – will also prove their ability to work collaboratively with an international bartending team, and inspire others to achieve shared success, through the Chivas Masters Collective team challenge.

Max Warner continues: “I cannot wait to put our contestants through their paces in Tokyo, and see who will walk away with the 2017 title – and beyond that, watch as they, together with their Chivas Masters Collective, take what they have learned to further develop and inspire their bartending communities back home.”

The 2017 Chivas Masters Global Champion will be decided on the evening of Wednesday 5th July, and will win an all-access, all-expenses-paid trip to Tales of The Cocktail 2017 in New Orleans. The winning Chivas Masters Collective team will walk away with the pinnacle of the range, Chivas Regal The Icon, presented in a bespoke decanter with customised Japanese glassware.

Meet the 2017 Chivas Masters Global Finalists

Sandra Šalatová (Czech Republic)

Prague’s Sandra Šalatová has already achieved the remarkable feat of qualifying for the final by winning her first ever major competition – the Czech Republic regional heat. Sandra now has her eyes firmly set on a new first, becoming the first ever female Chivas Masters Global Champion.

“So far I would consider my biggest achievement to be reaching the final, competing alongside some of the greatest bartenders in the world. I’m going to go one better in Tokyo, as I hope to be crowned the first woman to win the Chivas Masters.”

Ryan Nightingale (Hong Kong)

Representing Hong Kong, Ryan Nightingale loves the variety of bartending, experienced both through the drinks that he makes, and in the exciting mix of customers coming through the door. With plentiful experience of crafting his own creations, Ryan takes his greatest enjoyment from watching his customers enjoy what he has worked tirelessly to perfect.

“The constant aim for perfection is a cornerstone of the Japanese bar community. I’m heading to Tokyo ready to gain a better understanding of this, which I then hope to express in my final serves.”

Atsushi Suzuki (China)

Having started bartending as a means to an end as a 17 year old, China’s Atsushi Suzuki’s work behind the bar has rapidly developed into a career that has enabled him to travel the world. Runner-up in 2016’s Chivas Masters China heat, Atsushi went one better in 2017, and now has his sights set firmly on Tokyo.

“Teamwork and respect are definitely a must to run a bar well. But for me the most crucial aspect to bar work is the desire to learn.”

Masato Sakurai (Japan)

Masato Sakurai first encountered cocktail-making after the tragic passing of his grandfather, devoting his time to craft his skill as a bartender to help him deal with the grief. As a proud son of Japan, and with the hometown support fully behind him, Masato is hoping to honour his grandfather’s faith in him by being crowned the 2017 Chivas Masters Global Champion.

“I am obviously determined to be crowned Chivas Masters Global Champion, however the greatest experience that I can take away from the final will be the brotherhood that I will gain with my fellow finalists.”

Benjamin Boyce (United Arab Emirates)

Like many of this year’s finalists, Benjamin Boyce’s first experience of bartending was a chance encounter, which has blossomed into a fruitful and impassioned career. For Benjamin, the key to success for any bar team is the application of the three Ts: training, teamwork and trust.

“The Chivas Masters is an amazing opportunity to learn from the experiences of different bartenders, all coming from a wide range of countries and cultures, to experience Japanese culture, and to have a lot of fun while doing so.”

Hyacinthe Lescoët (France)

Parisian Hyacinthe Lescoët thrives amidst the pressures of his craft, providing everyday creativity in a socially demanding and highly competitive environment. But above all else, the greatest value that Hyacinthe finds in bartending is achieving the appreciation of those around him.

“Great bartending is all about passion and sharing. Once those are instilled in your work, the rest will flow.”

Wouter Bosch (The Netherlands)

Winner of the regional final in The Netherlands, philosophy graduate Wouter Bosch’s love for bartending centres upon the memories and experiences that his drinks create. Rather than be the star of the show himself, Wouter’s bartending style is all about letting the drink do the talking.

“Nothing is as rewarding as having people coming up to the bar and telling you that you've made their night. I'm inspired by that, and hope to create many lasting experiences for my guests.”

Adam Schmidt (USA)

Representing the USA, New York native Adam Schmidt enjoys mixing his sense of humour into his drinks. Having previously spent time exploring Barcelona’s vibrant cocktail scene, Adam can’t wait to get out of his comfort zone again in Tokyo.

“What inspired me to be a bartender? As a youngster I had a part-time job dishwashing in a local bar. To me it always looked like the bartenders were having the most fun. I was right.”

Rhys Wilson (United Kingdom)

An actor by trade, the UK’s Rhys Wilson’s bartending style stems from his belief that performance on the stage, and that behind the bar, are not too dissimilar. Rhys is already looking forward to all that he can take away from the experience in Tokyo, especially having the opportunity to collaborate with his fellow finalists.

“A great bar is not just about what's in the glass, it's about the whole show. I love taking care of my audience and putting on a great show for them.”

Aloisek Rodríguez Martínez (Cuba)

Winner of the national final in Cuba, Aloisek Rodríguez Martínez is a bartending purist. The art of mixology is Aloisek’s greatest passion, allowing him to showcase his creativity and share the pride that he has for his culture.

“A great bar team is one in which everyone is working for the same purpose and vision, making each individual bartender a complement of the other.”

Abner Barrientos (Puerto Rico)

Having originally taken up bar work to support his studies, Abner Barrientos’ perfectionist qualities were realised through bartending, soon transforming into a passion for the trade. Abner’s flexible and open outlook to his work has enabled him to embrace new cultures and perspectives from all of the customers that he has served on his bartending journey.

“As a bartender, every day is a challenge, however every challenge should be viewed as an opportunity to grow and develop.”

Patryk Biadacz (Poland)

Poland’s Patryk Biadacz place in the final is the culmination of ten years of hard work crafting his bartending skill. Patryk’s passion for the trade stems from his love for every aspect of bar work, and he is eager to prove that in Tokyo

“Just like the mixing of cocktails, a perfect balance of ingredients is crucial to a great bar team.”

Daniel Huggins (Germany)

As Germany’s representative in the global final, Daniel Huggins’ love for the craft of cocktail-making is cemented by his passion for hosting – forever seeking to provide the perfect experience for his customers. For Daniel, the camaraderie and respect found within bartending is what makes it so special.

“I want to be known as a bartender with empathy and expertise, always willing to turn your evening into a great experience.”

Roger Grüter (Switzerland)

Hailing from Basel, Roger Grüter is dedicated to perfecting his craft as an expert cocktail-maker, a dream that he hopes will come true in Tokyo. Roger is looking at the final as an opportunity to enhance his bartending skills, taking away all that he can from the much-revered Japanese culture.

“Attentiveness and authenticity are key ingredients to the cocktail experience. I always work to ensure that my guests leave happier than they came.”

Haydée Barron Flores (Mexico)

With dreams of being considered an ambassador of Mexican bartending, Haydée Barron Flores’ love for her work comes from the creativity that it allows her, and then having the opportunity to share her creations with others and witness the moment that the drinks create first-hand.

“In learning my craft I believe that I have learnt more about myself, my flaws and my strengths. It has all lead me to this moment – the chance to represent my country in the Chivas Masters Global Final.”

The post Chivas Regal announces winners to compete in Chivas Masters Global Final appeared first on GreatDrams.

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dbltapgames · 7 years

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Deus Ex: Mankind Divided – A review and analysis

Foreword

Before beginning this review, note that the language used herein is based on the requirements of an assignment, hence the lack of first-person perspective and personality. The reader should also understand that reviews are always subjective, based as they are on the reviewers experience within the content, prior experiences, predispositions and prejudices. Accordingly, this review is based on the authors experience with the game, albeit an incomplete play-through, and the twenty-eight-or-so hours of play that included. The review will give an overview of the game and define it, breakdown the four core categories to any game: graphics, sound, story and gameplay; and conclude with a summation of the authors opinions.

Spoiler Alert! While the author tries to keep plot-ruining spoilers out of the review it would be impossible to do a proper review or discuss certain aspects of the game without citing specific details from the content of the game. Therefore, if you do not want spoilers skip the story section. You have been warned, continue at your own discretion!

The Overview

The game is a modernized, pocket-world, mostly-immersive sim. This a mouthful of a statement and unless one is familiar with the terms, requires a bit of defining. Modernized is the easiest to define; all that is meant by it is that a new engine was developed to best utilize “modern” technology for rendering, AI and physics. The Dawn Engine was developed in 2014 by Eidos-Montreal, specifically for use in Deus-Ex (Eidos-Montreal, 2014).

Pocket-world is where definitions start to get tricky, open-world games are games that utilize large open spaces, which are far more often than not, seamless. Games that come to mind that fit this genre are Rockstar Game’s “Grand Theft Auto” series which boasts small representations of cities, and CD Projekt RED’s “The Witcher 3”, which features an entire kingdom. In Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (henceforth: DEMD), is set in a miniaturized Prague. The equivalent to maybe a few city blocks worth of real-estate broken into two separate zones which must be loaded individually, and a couple other separate story mission areas (also separate loads), hence the term pocket.

Mostly-immersive sim, refers to a design philosophy described best by Mark Brown on Immersive Sims. In which he defines an immersive sim as containing: agency, systems, emergence, consistency and reactivity (Brown, 2016). Now let us briefly define each of these based on Mark’s video.

· Agency is player freedom. The player gets an objective to complete and has the freedom and means, to go about it in multiple ways based on their own personal play-style preference.

· Systems are the rules the game follows, which are learnable and repeated, based on AI and physics.

· Emergent gameplay is what happens when the player utilizes or exploits game systems to complete their objectives, sometimes in ways completely unforeseen by the developers.

· Consistency means the developers have intentionally tried to avoid scripted events and one-time events or boxing the player into doing one thing, or one thing after another.

· Reactivity is the games characters interactions reflecting player actions and decisions.

The descriptor “mostly” is used here because there are a few things about the gameplay make it unqualified to be called a completely immersive sim. Mainly that time is frozen until certain objectives are met and unlike other games on the market the NPC’s are not completely reactive to the player’s actions. As an example: pointing guns at civilians has no real consequences, except that they may not talk to you until you put the gun away; and rough or rude interactions are practically none existent (running into them/dropping objects on them). So, while the game falls a little short on reactivity, it measures up to the overall philosophy quite nicely.

Graphics

In a word, beautiful. The game takes full advantage of most modern technologies and in an optimized manner. Specifications for the computer utilized in the play-through are moderate. For those with a knowledge of hardware: a first generation i7 processor, with equally aged motherboard and RAM (12GB), a standard SATA hard drive, and an NVidia GTX 970 graphics card. The lowest framerates experienced were in the thirties, with the majority of the outdoor scenes playing in the mid-forties and fifties. Indoors and enclosed areas typically were above sixty FPS.

Only two graphical artifacts were experienced in the twenty eight hours of play. One being a characters hairline not meeting up with the face, creating a see-through area in her skull. And the other being an odd tessellation-sync issue between a table and the objects on it, causing a see-through line pattern in the objects.

The game characters also manage to avoid the uncanny valley effect, which is described as the relation of an object (or in this case, characters) human likeness and our affinity towards it (Masahiro, 2012). Though this may be different per-player, and on a character to character basis. This may be due to the games stylization, the player’s perception of the characters being less than human or the game purposely not striving for human perfection in facial movements; or perhaps some combination of the afore-mentioned.

Sound

Much of a games mood can be felt through its sounds and music. Every area in the game has different-ish music, all of it built around the areas theme, but centralizing around the games overarching mood; which is dark. As an example, the red-light district has a lot of club and electronic music, both in what is coming from said establishments as well as the games ambient music. While the music is high quality and well themed, it felt underwhelming in certain circumstances and areas, and overpowering in others it probably should not have. Overall the soundtrack gives a cinematic feel to the game.

There is not a lot to say about the sound effects other than they are well done. With the exception of character speech. A lot of the game takes place in a crowded, foreign city. All these citizens talk, adding their ambient conversation to the atmosphere. That being said the majority of the general public is Czech and speak their language, broken English or heavily accented English; with the exception of your co-workers. The use of foreign language in most of these ambient conversations is a brilliant way to keep the average player from feeling as if they are rehearing the same conversations over and over; as well as keeping the theme of the game unified and create resonance (Schell, 2015).

Story (SPOILERS)

There is far too much involved to delve into all the details of the game’s story, but here is the general outline up to the point of writing this review. The player controls Adam Jensen, a secret, special ops, anti-terrorism unit of Inter-pol based in Prague, a hot-seat of “natural” vs “augmented” tensions. During the tutorial phase of the game, the player provides backup to an undercover agent during an operation which is attacked by an unknown group of trained, heavily armed and augmented people. What follows is a series of missions that uncovers a conspiracy, traitors in your midst, being a double agent, the Illuminati (literally) and world control. All through the main story the theme of “natural vs augmented” is a shallow comparison to real-world racism.

What is really impressive is the stories told through the side missions, which build character depth and flesh-out back story. Even more impressive are the untold stories. Those told through the level design with minimal use of verbal or written narrative. Each of these “untold” stories is a macrocosm of their respective side story or the state of the world, and in-turn support the overarching theme and story of the game; again, unified theme theory (Schell, 2015).

While the main story has order, and cannot be played out of sequence, the side missions can be completed at the player’s discretion and are meant to fill in gaps and build the characters and their relationships. Conversely, the “untold” stories one finds are never assigned as missions, a few of them are hinted at as points of interest but are never required.

Gameplay

There are two categories to gameplay and at least two styles for each of those categories. The first category is progression, which we will define as: the rate at which the player carries the main story forward. The second is conflict resolution, aka: combat. There are two styles of progression: quick and explorative. The quick route will take the player along the main story and ignore side missions and extra story, completing the game in a short time. Explorative play on the other hand will take the player through the games many vents and through the many houses and buildings open to the player, revealing those “untold” stories and the games many secrets and Easter-eggs.

Combat has three routes available and can be mixed and matched as the player sees fit. The lethal route: the player makes use of their arsenal of firearms, grenades, mines and skills to dispatch the opposing forces. The pacifist route: the player has a pistol with stun ammo, a rifle with sleep darts, a few incapacitating grenades and mines, and abilities. Stealth: the player may attempt to avoid detection. Evade and avoid: the player may opt to avoid the majority of opposing forces entirely.

The world as a puzzle-platformer. Every area is designed in such a way that there is never one way to any objective. There are ledges and pipes, vents and breakable walls, unlockable doors, hacking, passwords and a number of skills that facilitate most playstyles. Completing missions can be as easy as running and gunning, or as complex as a covert operation. This game’s mechanics complements Schell’s ten principles for puzzle creation perfectly (Schell, 2015).

The Good and The Bad

While the author’s opinion on the game is based on an, as of this writing, incomplete play through of the game, it is none-the-less positive. The gameplay and story are immersive and engaging, there is a mountain of content to explore and challenges a-plenty to find and overcome, in an only you should determine what style of play.

The few graphical artifacts the author ran into were not a detractor, and even the bug he encountered that crashed the game multiple times will not dissuade the continuation and completion of the game. The one major drawback to the game is loading times. Each time the player loads into the game or a new pocket there was a minimum of a two and a half minute load time. There are several missions that take the player between the two pockets of the city multiple times each, all that loading time adds up. Of the total twenty eight hours of play the author experienced, an hour of that may have been in transit loading times.

This review was written based on a play-through done in an exploratory, passive/stealth style. Based on the opinions mentioned above the game ranks at a solid 9/10. The lost point is due to the excessive load times.

References

Brown, M. (2016, Aug 18). The Comeback of the Immersive Sim. Game Makers Toolkit. Episode retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbyTOAlhRHk

Eidos-Montreal. (2014). Powered by the Dawn Engine. Retrieved from https://www.eidosmontreal.com/en/news/dawn-engine

Masahiro, M. (2012). The Uncanny Valley: The Original Essay by Masahiro Mori. IEEE Spectrum. Retrieved from http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/the-uncanny-valley

Schell, J. (2015). The Elements Support a Theme. The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses. Second Ed. (pp. 57-67). New York: CRC Press.

Schell, J. (2015). Game Mechanics Support Puzzles. The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses. Second Ed. (pp. 239-252). New York: CRC Press.

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