Jananas

A few weeks back I first saw Repo! the Genetic Opera (IMDB here for a different view) at the Toronto Dark After Film Festival. Now, I’m not normally a huge fan of movies with music but this one had me from start to finish. And to be clear, this is a rock opera not a musical.

• definition of an opera: there is music the entire way through with minimal to no speaking, versus
• definition of a musical: the movie is mainly dialogue with musical interludes throughout

Tonight marked night one of a six night stint at the Bloor Cinema here in Toronto (see the Bloor’s website, including schedule here). We’re lucky, the movie is only showing at eight cities in the US and this is the only Canadian release thus far. A few of us who’d been at the original screening decided that we definitely wanted to see it again so we all made plans to be there for the first night. My friend Caroline had picked up tickets on my behalf, and to thank her I’d planned on playing an Akoha “Thank Someone” mission, however they are currently having some problems with the printing tickets function (and yes, they are aware and are working towards fixing it – thanks for the quick response to the feedback!). Instead, I had a wild mission card with me.

The original plan was to give the card to Caroline as a thank you for taking the time to make sure that we all had tickets (and for paying for them on her credit card) for the first night. However, when I saw Darren Lynn Bousman (director of Saw II-IV and Repo!) at the screening I thought I’d give him the card instead as a Thank You for helping get this movie made and released, and additionally for taking the time to be there tonight at the theatre to see the fan’s reactions first hand.

I was a tad nervous this evening that the movie wouldn’t live up to my initial perceptions of its absolute awesomeness. It did, through and through. It is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but it deserves a chance to be seen and for those of us who don’t want the same old remake to make up our own minds. Darren had a super fun Q&A session that made me believe in the potential for this movie even more. Hell, he was even nice enough to come across the street to Pauper’s Pub to have a drink (or two) with fans and to sign autographs.

(And Darren, if this shows up in your Google Alerts – friends of mine in Columbus, Ohio were super jealous that I’ve been able to see the film twice. There are people out there that want to see this movie!)

I’ve been wondering over the last few days why I started getting so many visits from people coming from the Akoha Community FAQ page. I get the odd person from Akoha based on some blog posts that have made Austin’s friendfeed, etc. I couldn’t find any twitter feed or friendfeed listing on the FAQ page so I was initially all confused. Finally went through each FAQ listing one by one until I found this…

Under the “What’s a starter kit?” there’s a link to “one of their amazing players”, meaning me! They’re linking to the post where I first unveiled starter kit. I took pictures, because I’m an enGadget nerd like that.

So thanks Akoha for spreading the love back to your players.

I got an e-mail today letting me know that the mission I suggested was accepted! I’m pretty stoked. Not only am I a player, I’m also a contributor. So all you folks should go add: Sing Someone Happy Birthday to your decks and spread the glory!

I’ve fallen off the Akoha train over the last little bit for a bunch of little reasons. I played 16 missions and half ran out of friends that I’m in regular contact with that I could play new missions with. I got swamped by school work, and sometimes fun things get pushed aside for a short while in order to get deliverables finished.

And partly because I noticed a trend amongst friends I had played with. Namely that they didn’t play it forward. Its difficult to stay fully engaged with a game like Akoha when you don’t get to watch the cards continue their journey (and read the future stories). In talking with a close friend we were trying to think of ways to get people to keep cards moving through life. Some of our suggestions are below (note, at a cursory glance/to our best knowledge these features don’t exist at the moment – if they do, well then ignore me!):

• Add the ability to “nudge” friends to remind them that they have a card
• Add the ability to reprint cards, just in case they haven’t been played because they’ve been lost (or in one friend’s case pooped on by their newborn)
• Don’t focus solely on karma points, but also add the ability to track participation in the game by the percentage of friends who have also played the game forward. Basically, reward people for bringing engaged players into the game.

I was a bit bummed that I hadn’t played in a while, but the twitter search feature for Akoha reminded me of how awesome the game is. Excitement feeds excitement and I invited some friends out for drinks next week. Mark that down folks – Mission 17 is in the works!

I met up with friends at Java House last night to grab some ginger tea to warm up before walking the streets for Nuit Blanche (which I wasn’t particularly pleased with). I had a hat with me, in addition to my cowl and hoodie. My friend Caroline was chilly, so I decided to play a spontaneous Akoha mission and gave her my handmade hat.