metadigital

Speaking of Freedom Force vs the Third Reich, I am really digging the voice work! They have captured the essence of the superhero characters (including the narrator). Mentor is my favourite.

The severity and numerousness of the flaws is not consistent across the populace.

Hmm. I still don't agree with the predicate of powerlessness. I think it is irrelevant, though I do confess to not seeing the link between your introductory remarks and magic and technology ... Literature is replete with the stuff of our mindscape: aspirations, temptations, frailties, etc. Both these examples are fiction; I think that is the point, rather than the use of fantasy or escapism. There is no reason why Joseph Conrad's prose should engender more philosophical weight. Depends on your definition of SF. I like just-future (or alternative past / time stream), verisimiliar fiction. There is no excuse for clich

This is a very bleak view of society. There is an alternative, positive view that we are in complete control of ourselves. As Eleanor Roosevelt wrote in the August 1960 Catholic Digest: No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Sure, to change the world, it might be necessary to wield power in some magnitude. However it might just take someone setting an example, like Mahatma (Mohandas Karamchand) Gandhi's stand against violence. At no point did he force anyone to do anything, except by the weight of logic in his argument. I don't just read / watch / play SF for escapist purposes. I can also use the work to expand thought experiments of personality and scenario, to investigate traits and discover under which circumstances they are virtuous and when a fatal flaw. (See my reply to your "morality" comment, below.) Technology = Magic, just like Clark said. The only difference is that what we understand we call technology, what we don't we call magic. That was his point. I define magic as anything that does not follow natural laws ... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Like lightsabers? " <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yes. To us, unable to explain the physics behind the technology (assuming it is possible), it is magical. I don't agree technology is egalitarian: ask the nineteenth century Zulus about how fair British munitions were. Colonisation depends on the abuse of the technology-haves against the -have-nots, whether it's the Athenian navy, Roman legions or the US SDI. Magic is atainable by anyone learned in the arcane arts, just like anyone can use technology if they read a book. Don't healing potions used by fighters count as magic? A person of meagre intelligence is just as incapable of understanding rocket telemetry (reality) as nineth level spells (fantasy). The reason I pick your distinction apart is that it is entirely arbitrary. Magic doesn't permit anything to happen: at least not in CRPGs! Further: Yes. In the same way that people of the 1940s wielded atomic weapons without fully understanding their impact, magic is similar (unknown technology). Good entertainment does not rely on magic or technology. That is just a juvenile expression of impotence writ large on the fantasy universe: the poor servant of reality becomes the master of fantasy; the "chosen" god-in-mortal-form for the epic determining battle. Rather, engaging stories involve the interplay of strong, complex characters in a world where their strengths are tested and where supposed weakness may prove the winning ingredient. Where assumptions are challenged. Where intangible concepts like bravery, goodness and hope are explored: is it brave to fight against those who cannot win? Is it good to fight against non-evil for a greater good? What is hope: a rose-colouring, situation-underestimating weakness, or a mental decipline that provides an override for seemingly unbearable deprivation? Or both? Or neither? Was the Roman Empire Good? What about Stalin and his impact of the Soviet Union? Where does the definition of Good bifurcate; how much evil in a greater good turns the phenomenon evil? These are the themes of the epic and the mythic.

I vote Kaftan DMs this game here for us to play, too.

... Did he kill her anyway? In some fundamentalist expression of love for her to prevent her from living in a perpetual state of evil ...

Is that sort of like Neo in Matrix Revolutions?

In the interests of furthering discussion, I shall refrain from answering Shadowstrider's last post line by line. It is reasonable to clarify the situation, however. Firstly, I used Tombraider:AoD as a quick example; taking its specificities as a general tenet is a falacy. I could quite easily cite almost every game made from a film. Then there

Your logic is flawed, once again. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Well, more likely the statement was disingenuous, and it was interpreted (according to the implied logic) incorrectly: At no point is the (implied, but fallacious) predicate "I play lots of console games" made by Magical Volo.

Look, I don't want to argue this ad nauseam, but

Horsies are cute. Horsies in the real world are used for war, only, because they are too expensive to keep and train for just transport. In the imaginary world, they can be used for all sorts of unrelated things ...

Worse than Spanish ...

Mike: No dice rolling and she is dead? This is my kind of DM! ... Crow: If she is so alone, who did she leave the note for? Tom: I am just glad they are not playing Call of Cthulhu! Imagine the body count then! Crow: You know I once had a Call of Cthulhu character that lasted three days! Tom: No, you lie! Crow: Yes it's true! O.K. Gypsy was the Keeper, and I hid some of the dice. But it was three days! ... Tract: Don't be stupid, Debbie... Mike: Slim chance of that. ... Mike: Oh look it is the Wise Old Man

*blows the barrel of his icon six-shooter*

I say "only in America", but the truth is that the home of Eric Arthur Blair (a.k.a. George Orwell) is sleep-walking towards 1984. Already there are thousands of Closed-Circuit Television camera monitoring roads, malls, railway stations, commercial premises, etc, etc, etc. The home is the last place; it only takes one big initiative like this "to protect us", and it'll be too late to do anything. It won't be the government that brings the legislation in, it'll be a latter one, that uses it to suffocate the free society once and for all ... Orwell would be spinning in his smoking-induced, early grave. :'(

That copper must actually read 1984 (or maybe had someone read it to him ...) to be able to make such a perfect Big Brother quote ... ... only in America ... I hope!

I'll hold you to that, Eldar. Okay, I don't mind their right to carry on like total f*wits, SO LONG AS their behaviour doesn't prevent other, less vociferous, more marginalised views from being heard. (All those "more boobies on Superbowl TV" advocates, for instance.) My point was that these clowns are as close to verbal violence as is comfortable. So long as they stay on the "everybody can say anything, even that my religion sucks" side of loonie fascism, I don't care if they believe that Doris Day is Satan and I'm a cross-dressing psychopath who drinks the blood of newly-killed people who drive badly on the motorway. (You are drinking honey mead to celebrate your anniversary? You devil-worshipper! Aside: Catholics aren't devil-worshippers, they're perverts. ) PS Happy anniversary. :meta giving Eldar all the mead he can take, without impairing his ability to enjoy the obligatory consumation rites afterwards icon:

Houston Police Chief Wants Cameras in Homes Posted by Zonk on Saturday February 18, @06:35AM from the would-be-funnier-if-it-wasn't-true dept. An anonymous reader writes "In one of the most blatant and frightening statements made on privacy, the Associated Press reports that Houston's police chief wants surveillance cameras in apartment buildings and even private homes. Chief Harold Hurtt wants building permits to require cameras in shopping malls and large apartment complexes. He also wants them in private homes if the homeowner has called the police repeatedly. So, if you're in Houston, don't call the cops too much, or they might install a camera the next time they show up. And what does Hurtt have to say about privacy concerns? 'I know a lot of people are concerned about Big Brother, but my response to that is, if you are not doing anything wrong, why should you worry about it?'" Reference

But ... I deducted points from Blank ...

I like Activision.

Mandate? Certainly!

Why bother? Just program better graphics! (w00t) Yeah, the gameplay was crap. So was the writing. Or did you think the game's great writing was let down by the poor gameplay? Distraction? Ooo. You're hurting me! Because you know the minds of the game playing demographic. Wait, I know! You're a marketing executive for a big Publisher, and you KNOW how to predict what the Next Big Thing is! No? And even they have no idea? Pull your pants up and give your face a go. You've been blithering on about graphics (and physics) for three posts, now. Just read the polemic you have been writing. Gameplay != writing. Something you don't seem to understand. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Gameplay? Let me say the above again. Let's see, a random quote from one of your previous posts: Seems to me you are saying exactly that. demand n noun 1 an insistent and peremptory request, made as of right. ⇒(demands) pressing requirements. 2 the desire of purchasers, consumers, etc. for a particular commodity or service: a recent slump in demand. n verb ask authoritatively or brusquely. ⇒insist on having. ⇒require; need. ORIGIN Middle English: from Old French demande (noun), demander (verb), from Latin demandare 'hand over, entrust'. Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th Edition Cosmetic changes to what? Boring modules that are boring to play? Don't be a simpleton. Of course people download graphical improvements to the modules. So? Do they download graphics without stories? "I want to play the fireworks mod!"

Is that more than I know (in total), or more than I know about the grrrl?

It's just candy. Some people like candy. Eat it all day. Fortunately they die young.