In the blog post “The MASS EFFECT of the Writer’s Strike” the author Pastor James Harleman talks about the effect the Writer’s Guild strike had on him, and his wife. Harleman does not like to watch reruns, but does enjoy a sci-fi action game here and there. Pastor James wrote that he and his wife played the video games Resident Evil 4 and Mass Effect, passing the controller between each other during play. The Writer’s strike forced him to stop watching television and turn to video games for entertainment. I agree with Harleman’s love of adaptive story lines, and action science fantasy video games. After reading this blog post I am now more enthusiastic about playing Mass Effect.

James Harleman wrote about what effects the Writer’s Guild strike would have on current movies and sitcoms, which caused him to search for entertainment elsewhere. I was unaware of a strike formed by the Writer’s Guild at the time I read this post, but was enlightened to read the description and storyline of the video game Mass Effect. Pastor James wrote about how the strike will make television shows worse because they will be running out of material or ideas. Harleman and his wife retreat to the world of Mass Effect for some science fantasy action as the story adapts to the choices the player makes. I have been very interested in Mass Effect since its commercial debut and after reading this post I like the realistic aspects of the game. Just like Harleman I too like the adaptive story in the campaign mode of an action game. After reading Pastor James’s post a few times I came to the conclusion that his title and story don’t match topics. In the post Harleman talks mostly about the video game Mass Effect and very briefly about the Writers Guild strike.

Harleman stated that TV shows like Lost and late night talk shows would exhaust their scripts, forcing a change in the story or improvisations. The author does not consider himself to be a huge “gamer,” he does not own any modern game console or games, but he does enjoy a good story line. Pastor James has friends who are “gamers” and they let him and his wife play a few games with their “Game Cube.” They were good at different aspects of the story line and therefore it became fun for the both of them playing Resident Evil 4 on the “Game Cube”. Shortly after Resident Evil 4, Haleman began to get bored with TV from the effects of the strike, so he barrowed a copy of Mass Effect from a friend and began the campaign. As Harleman played he learned of the adaptive story line and science fantasy rich environment the game brings. It becomes apparent that Pastor James loves this game as he relates the visuals to computer animated films like Shrek and The Incredibles. In short, I can tell that Harleman is thrilled with the adaptive, science fantasy story filled with action and suspense.

At first glance the post looks like it will be a rant from a protest about the strike, but much to my surprise most of the blog post has to do with a game called Mass Effect. Pastor James wrote the first two paragraphs talking a little bit about the strike, and then started writing about Resident Evil 4 and Mass Effect. I like that this post was most likely created as Harleman and his wife enjoyed Mass Effect. I’m guessing that with this post they feel they must share the game, making the focus of his blog post the game. As in the post, the focus is not solely on the game but the writer widened the focus to the strike that lead to him playing the game. The writer does a good job of “showing and telling” in his writing when he made a comparison between cartoon animated movies and the animation in the game. Harleman does a great job explaining the “voice-overs” of the game done by known movie stars and the main character.

Pastor James Harleman wrote a closing statement relating briefly to the focus of the post, this also included a range of the ages and genders of current “gamers” out in society. I think Pastor James should describe more about the Writer’s Guild strike in the closing of the post to make if fit in to the story more. The author did do a good job explaining the game so that others would get a feel for how the game plays and what to expect. The overall effect of this post was to make the reader, hopefully a “gamer,” want to play this game called Mass Effect. The next time I have some free time I will pick up this game and compare it to the descriptions I got from Harleman.