All Stations Go!

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First and foremost, I would like to thank those of you who are here because you watched Beauty and the Geek Australia and were kind enough to follow and support me and my fellow Geeks (and Beauties) through-out the season. It was an amazing time for all of us, and though I miss the show I am glad to be back in my life doing the research that I had left behind. Now that the show is over, I can revive this site and resume writing short bursts of creativity interspersed with long periods of procrastination!

A lot has happened since I was last able to post on this site, as I am sure you can appreciate. Not only has my physical appearance undergone a radical shift; so has the way I approach my life. I do get a lot of people approaching me on the streets or in the shopping centre, asking me questions and offering me compliments on the makeover. To all of you I offer my deepest gratitude, as it is heartwarming to know that people have watched the show and joined all of us on our respective journeys. To the most common questions that I am asked, here is a quick FAQ:

  • Do you like your makeover?
    Yes, though I must admit it was two full weeks before I started to recognise myself in the mirror. The mansion has many reflective surfaces, and I was constantly spinning around, looking for the strange-looking person standing behind me, only to realise that it was me.
  • Are you going to keep your hair short/your beard shaved?
    Yes, I believe (for the meantime at least) I will be keeping this look, or some minor variation there-of. The short hair is certainly easier to maintain (and I used far less shampoo), though I will have to factor regular haircuts back into my budget.
  • Are you and Kara still friends?
    Absolutely! Kara is one of the most amazing people I have ever been fortunate enough to meet, and I am sure we will remain good friends for a long time. I cannot stress enough, just how happy I am that she picked me on that very first day. Nor can I articulate just how proud of her, and how much I appreciate everything that she has done for me both during the show and since. <3
  • Was it fun filming the show?
    The whole experience was a blast, though there were ups and downs just like every part of your life. The crew were amazing and the Mansion was a lot of fun to live in. And yes, Bernard Curry is a fantastic and hilarious person to spend time with. (Also, yes, Bernard and I did spend some time talking about the LHC and quantum physics)
  • What are you doing now that the show has finished?
    Back to my research! My real world job is both as a science communicator at Horizon – The Planetarium in Perth (come and see me for a show some time!), and as a researcher currently writing my Honours Thesis in Pulsar Astrophysics. Feel free to ask me about my research, but I warn you in advance: sometimes I can get a bit too excited and talk so much that your ears will bleed. I really do love my work! :D

So, what is next? Just as I have gone through a transformation over the course of the show, so too will Anchorage. There are some articles that will start appearing on the site over the coming weeks, but for those of you who would rather listen than read I have some exciting news. That’s right, I am boldy going where many, more-experienced people have gone before; I am starting a brand new podcast! Keep your eyes (and now your ears as well) peeled and join me on this new venture into the world of science, gaming, and rambling anecdotes. Thank you all once more for your support and for joining us on Beauty and the Geek Australia. Subscribe to the RSS feed (big blue button on the top right of the page) and I hope to hear from you all in the future.

Yours Truly

Tim Young

Radio Silence

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Due to a certain NDA I have signed recently, Corsair’s Anchorage will be offline for the short-medium term. I will be back as soon as this “scenario” has come to a resolution, and I promise some very exciting times ahead.

In the meantime, hit the big blue RSS button and subscribe to the feed, and I hope to have a post waiting in your favourite aggregator by October.

#UPDATE#

It is no secret, now that the show has begun to air, that I am in fact a contestant on this current season of Beauty and the Geek. I can not talk about the show just yet, nor can I update this site until I am out of my “online-presence lockdown” phase. In the mean time you can watch the show on Thursdays at 8:30 PM on Channel 7, or catch up with missed episodes and behind the scenes action at the Official Beauty and the Geek website.

Beauty and the Geek Australia

You can also show your support by joining this Facebook page!
(Caveat: I am in no way involved with this fan-page! Information posted on it should be treated as speculation as common sense dictates.)

Yours sincerely
- The Corsair

Defining Shepard – Part 2

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While an interesting point was raised in talking about the emotional bonds that seemed to have formed between myself and the Commander Shepard of my “Mass Effect Universe” as distinct from the individual and separate universes that exist around other the characters created by other people, someone pointed out to me another interesting point. I am going to paraphrase in order to mitigate the implied (though mostly sarcastic) hostility:

“Why do you always play as a girl?”

To save face here I am going to first of all admit that, while I do have a tendancy to create female characters, I am fully capable of playing my own gender in RPGs and in fact do so on a more than regular basis. I cannot deny that female characters make up a large fraction of my gaming avatars; some recent example come to mind*:

From the depths of Ferelden:

Vaera of the Dalish

From the mines beneath Torchlight:

Vela the Vanquisher
Leading the armies of Chaos:

Vaera, Disciple of Khaine

Why then did I chose a female Shepard in a game that is so deeply engrossing and personal? When faced with this question in the past, people often fall back on the argument of:

“Oh, I just wanted to see the Shepard-Liara romance scene in all its intended glory“

This might be all well and true for some people but I have to admit that I do enjoy playing a game with a strong female protagonist. Unfortunately, games designed with a strong female protagonist in mind often fall short of the experience that I was seeking in the first place, purely for the fact that the gender of the protagonist plays some vital and attention-worthy role in the story. In my mind a strong character should be able to stand up on its own as either gender and still evoke the same emotions and responses from the audience/player. This is one of the many things that Bioware games do often and to great effect; one of the reasons that I continue to seek out their games like rare and precious gemstones in oceans of useless soil and dirt.

This does not answer the initial question posed; what is the attraction in playing a character of the opposite gender? I honestly do not believe I can give a satisfactory answer here. Why do we enjoy movies where the lead role is a gender other than our own? I dare say the vulgar repetition of bland male action heroes would eventually render audiences immune to the stories being told, in the same way that a man (or woman) forced to eat a prime rib-eye steak for every meal of his (or her) life would soon crave a breast of chicken like a newborn child craves oxygen.

Yet movies are passive and the adventures that the characters eke out are vicarious at best; gaming brings you one step closer in a way that helps you better bond with the protagonist in question. Furthering my own dilemma as presented here, many of my female characters reside in the highly social realms of Massively Multilpayer Online games. So why then would you chose to indulge in a cross-gendered avatar, especially when social interactions play an important role in the game.

Personally the answer is simple: I enjoy it and I find the change both refreshing and comfortable. I know that some people I play with will flat out refuse to play a female character for the exact opposite of these reasons; ultimately it comes down to personal taste. I would love to hear from any of you in your opinions on playing characters of another gender, both good and bad, and to those of you who emailed me in response to my last post: Thank you and I hope you continue to enjoy my ramblings.

Which brings me to ask you, kind readers:

How many of you play characters of an opposite gender? If you do, what are your reasons, and if not then why?

Comment below or email me at corsair@corsairsanchorage.com

*These are the three games that I could find screenshots for. I feel sorely remiss that I cannot find an image of my Age of Conan character, Ynnifer. That red haired scoundrel :P