Gromnir

that's how this all started btw-- somebody told us that that it were objective more fun to play a bard in bg2 than it were to play a fighter. we pointed out that there simply is no way to tell us what is and ain't fun for us... then we added bit about pizza. *shrug* we thought it were kinda funny how things evolved considering our point on the issue. HA! Good Fun!

Actually, 'Tep, vampire stories have always had a sexual element to them. Dammit, Dracula is a love story, unrequited to boot. I've read cultural critiques of vampire fiction, from Anne Rice's Vampire Lestadt to True Blood as analogues for AIDS, BDSM and all everything else inbetween. Dammit, if Christian Grey had fangs then Fifty Shades might have caused the World To Explode. So Twilight, if you want to look at it's subtext as piece of stunningly successful popular culture, actually subverts what was traditionally a dark, adult trope (forbidden, dangerous, otherworldly lover) and dumps it smack-bang in the middle of young adult literature. You can't ignore that cultural baggage. I'm not suggesting the author intended to do anything other than write powerful YA fiction, but you need to know the clay from which you intend to fashion something better than she did. well, she sold lots of books, so perhaps she knew what she were doing, yes? author weren't trying to makes a mature fantasy. she were making a teen romance, so her clay were not same as bram stoker's. ... in fact, just for sake o' argument, Gromnir is gonna assume a more nefarious bent to twilight. there is taboo subject matter for western romance. incest, rape, pedophilia and a host o' other subjects is verboten and just plain disturbing. nevertheless, there is an audience for such stuff. the thing is, if you does a teen romance wherein the female protagonist literally throws self off a cliff to get the attention o' a creepy, stalker, daddy figure... and the male romantic interest is a fifty-year old music teacher from hoboken, you is gonna have parents justifiably concerned. even if the teen girls can see the "beauty" o' such a forbidden love, the rest o' us is gonna recognize that the fantasy is freaking twisted. but guess what, author makes protagonist a vampire and everybody is ok with it... 'cause... *shrug* don't ask us why it is ok, 'cause it is distressing and wrong in our eyes. regardless, by using vampires, the author can inject superpowers and magic into the romance, as well as exploring taboo subject matter. the author, if she were sinister and calculating, were perhaps fully cognizant o' exactly what she were doing... which makes all o' this even more freaking disturbing... and that much more o' a reason dave's fascination with the effectiveness o' twilight romance should concern folks. no, am not saying dave should be insulted, but when dave lauds effectiveness o' twilight, somebody Should voice concerns. somebody Should point out that twilight works precisely 'cause immature readers don't realize how creepy and misguided it is. somebody Should caution dave against using what made twilight effective at selling romance to 14-year old girls and cellar-dwellers to sell bioware romance. somebody should... not Gromnir though 'cause as long as bio romance is tangential and optional, we is satisfied that such stuff won't ever be part o' our gaming experience. HA! Good Fun! ps is actual sad that so many folks don't know real dracula. it were, first and foremost, a gothic Romance. pps what is double-confusing to Gromnir is that the only likable and sympathetic characters from the movie were the human adults. for chrissakes, how does a kid with such likeable parents turn out so freaking wrong? if everybody had such understanding and supportive parents, am betting that 50 years ago we woulda' seen a cure for cancer and we would all be driving "cars" that fly and run on seawater.

This seems to be the main argument from the boob armour crowd that I've seen. Regular use of ad hominem attacks simply makes the remainder of your argument completely irrelevant. am not sure people know what ad hominem means and why it is a fallacy. --Nietzsche? how can you take anything he said seriously? the rat bastard had syphilis. --the main proponent of the new dam project is cheating on his wife. perhaps he should fix his marriage before he tries and fix our community. as far as logic is concerned, is nothing wrong with being insulting. the aforementioned Nietzsche were less than gentle with his less gifted detractors and his barbs in no way diminished the validity o' his arguments. ad hom is problematic when the character insult replaces the argument, or when a person claims that an argument fails because o' the arguers's character flaw. destroy an argument And call opponent a "mouth-breathing troglodyte with delusions of consciousness" is not making argument fail 'cause o' use o' ad hominem. ... in fact, 'cause it is ironic and all, claiming that argument fails just 'cause person X is insulting is an ad hominem fallacy. isn't that funny? well, Gromnir sees the humor. HA! Good Fun!

You right I could have said that and attempted to catch Gromnir out with that logic. But that isn't my intention. I was just raising the consideration with Gromnir that maybe he is doing exactly what Gaider is suggesting. He is disliking Twilight because " everyone" tells him its a puerile series. He is not practicing critical thinking but being more of a sheep. Also I don't think it is fair to suggest that anyone outside of being a 14 year old female teenager that enjoyed Twilight is a troglodyte that lives in a cellar. Especially if you haven't watched the entire series, this goes towards a persons credibility on a topic we used the cellar dweller language 'cause dave did. am gonna also observe that dave made some pretty broad generalizations in his blog post, but we leave for another time. nope, you don't need to live in cellar to like twilight... though we bet lack o' experience with real world would be helpful in appreciating the series. folks with head injuries who has emotionally regressed? is some kinds o' dementia that we believe emotionally retards sufferer. is some folks who simply like childish things and carry that over to romance. heck, we likes all kinda literature made for kids. more than once we has noted that phantom tollbooth, swiftly titling planet, and a number o' gaiman books is 'mongst our favorite fantasy works. the thing is, there is a difference 'tween made-for-kids, and juvenile/insipid/puerile. speaking of gaiman, we liked stardust very much. is a fairytale with romance integral to story. if dave wanna consider source material that can be appreciated by fourteen-year old girls without treating us all as if we is stereotypical fourteen-year old girls, stardust would be a good option. HA! Good Fun!

That's very interesting, so you admit you haven't watched all the Twilight movies but you believe you can offer an informed opinion around the good and bad of this cult series ? Do you honestly think that this type of analysis would be considered acceptable and valid in RL around any other topic or subject that requires critical thinking? I'll leave it at that and you let ponder my words yes. is valid. how many episodes o' breaking bad were there? assume for a moment that we claimed to hate breaking bad. any jackarse that made claim that we should watch all five freaking seasons before making a judgment is nuts, stupid or just obtuse. am recalling that we walked out of a nicolas cage and tommy lee jones movie. how bad could it be with tommy lee jones and nicolas cage? were called firebirds and it were kinda a top gun knockoff... but cage was playing campy and everybody else were straight. 45 minutes were our limit, and no humane person woulda' demanded that we spend another minute watching before we justifiably dismissed firebirds as complete ****. we can go on if you wish. wheel of time books? how many of those were there? a dozen or so, right? each were 400-500 pages. no f-ing way. guess what, no novelist we know would demand that you read 24 chapters o' crap if the first 12 were horrible. we got some experience with this. is artists job to make appealing and not to make you endure. we is fair. not nice, but we is fair. HA! Good Fun! ps we liked breaking bad

is nothing wrong with being dismissive of something. am not sure why you thinks it is bad to be dismissive of... crap. we sat through a couple o' the twilight films. it were physically painful, but we were told by a peer that we couldn't be fair less we experienced... and he were correct. so 2 movies an 1/3 o' a book were limit for us. crap. watch all movies just to be critical? HA! ridiculous. not even dave would demand that of us. what we experienced were more than satisfactory to make a judgement: insipid, puerile, juvenile. is not that twilight were a particular bad teen romance/melodrama. is fact that it was a very predictable teen-aged girl's romance. seriously, what is so complicated 'bout this? twilight is very successful with fourteen-year old girls. which makes sense as it were created to appeal to fourteen-year old girls. Gromnir is not a fourteen year-old girl. and btw, to avoid confusion, we ain't dismissive of 14-year old girls. we is dismissive of twilight. is a difference. HA! Good Fun!

we heard beyonce try and do etta james. weren't painful or pathetic, but it did illustrate just what an inimitable talent ms. james were.

no, we said that sandman were excellent, but we did admit that making death a perky goth/punk girl were a cheese element in sandman. was a recognition that even good comics could has some cheese. HA! Good Fun! ps with very few exceptions, good comic-book is an oxymoron

am thinking dave did do himself a disservice by making that blog post. we woulda' laughed at the situation, or made some kinda joke 'bout it all. the thing is, in trying to explain away the criticisms, he seems to bolster them a bit. "Yes, I get it. It’s funnier to repeat that, how a writer for a major franchise known for its romances might have a burning love for the Twilight series. Especially to those who think the romances I write are juvenile, and how anyone who likes our romances is clearly either a fourteen-year old girl with moonpies for eyes or an emotionally-stunted guy who’s never had a relationship in his life." ok, that's kinda funny. the problem we got is that dave then admits that he wrote the following: "Well, I think Twilight is far more effective with its romantic elements than most people give it credit for. Granted, it has little else going for it— but the romance it does well. I find it a fascinating exercise to analyze exactly why that is." *sigh* dave has gotta be aware that the target audience o' the twilight series is, "fourteen-year old girl(s) with moonpies for eyes or an emotionally-stunted guy who’s never had a relationship in his life." yes, am thinking we all agree that twilight has been enormously successful at selling romance. that is not a fact in question. however, dave's claims that twilight does an admirable job at crafting romance, and that he thinks the series is worth analyzing (presumably to improve his own romances) makes grownups shudder with revulsion... and it makes the trolls dance with glee. the only people who want you to take anything positive away from the twilight romances is the twilight target audience: teen-aged girls and pathetic cellar dwellers. dave, don't you see the damage you are doing to yourself? please, step back and look at what you is saying. you gotta recognize that you is only giving the folks who dismiss your romance efforts more ammo with which to attack you. romance is not universal. romance is culturally biased and travels only slightly better than comedy. also, romance ages. if we were a 14 year old girl, we would probable like the twilight movies better than the painted veil (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0446755/). heck, am wondering if teenage girls even likes the somewhat more familiar melodrama o' atonement (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0783233/). regardless, to hold up twilight as a model for romance is exactly what some folks is seeing as the problem with bio romance writers. dave, help us help you. HA! Good Fun! ps if the target audience for twilight romance were fourteen-year old boys it wouldn't make the romance any better... just shorter and more graphic.

"As to Alan Moore and the most recent League volume, was simply stating dislike of it. Attribute that to a random thought." then ​perhaps you wanna put in a different paragraph or something. brie, or any cheese that needs be eaten at room temperature, strikes Gromnir as peculiar. is seeming that you have many random thoughts that have little bearing on two or three sentences previous. is making your posts less coherent than you intended... and this is coming from a guy who posts as we do. most of rest of your previous post is genuine not worth responding to as is well-tread at this point. we will note that you is making loads o' excuses for your favorite comic... not that anybody could defend sins past, one more day, animal totems, and the other. gonna disagree with fford on sandman. regardless o' your opinion o' our taste, we will note that sandman is the only comic that we can recollect that has won the world fantasy award for short fiction. puts gaiman in company with fritz leiber, joe haldeman, john ford and johnathan campbell and others. frank mcconnell, who were on the pulitzer prize fiction jury numerous times, were a big fan o' sandman... said that "the doll's house" were best published work o' fiction 89/90... didn't distinguish as a comic neither. is awards and opinions o' pundits definitive? 'course not, but sandman got approval from the larger literary community... which might actually be why some comic geeks hated it so. HA! Good Fun!

I didn't say it does. I said it probably could be made to. Hell, you even can sculpt boobs into a solid plate breastplate. It's just detrimental to the functioning of the armor. It's not physics-defying or anything. Scales are rigid pieces of metal. If you curve them, they won't just straighten back out on their own. I'm not saying it's practical. I'm saying it's possible. it is physics defying. *sigh* is actual easier to sculpt b00bs into real metal plate than to make scale or chain sexy. sure, the b00b plate is not functional either, but it can be made to fit some hypothetical person. scale and chain is not tailored like fabric. is not stretchy. you ain't gonna be sewn into it like a model's dress. chain and scale is Necessarily formless... am seeing you ain't looking at this practical. is no freaking way to makes heavy metal scale/chain taper and gather to fit b00b swell... unless it is light and stretchy as is fabrics. josh discussed this a bit, but folks don't wanna remember that part. HA! Good Fun!

just to state the obvious, but a females-only section for the women who is Not posting here is kinda a waste. HA! Good Fun!

well... no. see, scale and chain is uncomfortable for men too. scale and chain armour is a formless metal "garment." you is making a complete non-analogous correlation. josh, whatever else his faults might be, were very candid in admitting that scale and chain armour does not accommodate b00b swell save for in computer games such as poe. HA! Good Fun!

am suspecting half folks wouldn't know we used toaster oven v. brick oven. and your "plopping" and "pie crust" nonsense aside, there is nothing particularly noble or superior 'bout simple... just as complex isn't always great. Chicago managed to take the cracker fare and make a meal outta it. you like a glorified hors d'œuvre, but you got odd pretensions 'bout it and seem offended by such observations. go figure. similar, you got odd way o' discriminating various titles published by dc that don't actual have an internal logic, particular as the vertigo writers worked interchangeable on dc titles... and we still have absolute no idea why you bring up alan moore. am suspecting this is (excuse us for pun) more confusion on your part. do you think moore had some input into tdkr? or is this just more haphazard nonsense? your posts is very perplexing. hell, you throw in ps:t Combat to explain tolerance for particular bad comic story arcs. ... okie dokie. HA! Good Fun! ps sins past and one more day = jms. *shudder*

do we? *shrug* if obsidian makes more popular games, you will see more posters... and some percentage will be female. if the obsidian developers does more to cater to women players and posters, then we suspect we will see some increase in the aforementioned percentage. gaider and the biowarians clear made efforts to cater to female audience. he and other biowarians spent time at the ladies o' neverwinter site, for example. dave went to the women and asked for feedback from them. is effort. can't see chrisA doing that. regardless, this is an obsidian board. obsidian has made some crap games recently. they also made south park, which don't have a strong female demographic. is an obsidian problem to fix... if they see as a problem. HA! Good Fun!

am feeling the same... although we probable fall into the **** category. the thing is, Gromnir treats everybody equal bad. oddly enough, this endeared us to many o' the female posters at old interplay boards. we don't like lack o' fairness, so maybe that strikes some kinda resonating chord. dunno. regardless, am thinking most women ain't as frail as they is frequent portrayed. treat with same respect/disrespect as male counterparts, and female gamers/posters respond positively... for the most part. HA! Good Fun!

... now that is creepy-weird. only kid we knew who had green machine were son o' a guy who ran a chevy dealership. the kid also had one o' these: http://www.midamericaauctions.com/items/1978-corvette-pace-car-go-kart/ we moved away before the guy turned 16, but wouldn't surprise us at all if he traded up to a real vette when he hit 16... though it woulda' been an earlier model than 86. still, is weird. HA! Good Fun!

for the expansion, we want more of what made poe so good. ... wait, that doesn't sound right. HA! Good Fun!

only the rich kids could afford green machine. we had the big wheel with the duct tape covering the inevitable hole in the plastic wheels. 'course, we had a pony... and a bolt-action .22. kinda tough for a kid to complain 'bout green machine when you got a pony and a rifle. HA! Good Fun!

a corvette sting ray is a sports car. by nature it is an extreme complex machine. gonna choose the corvette over your ny big wheel... but you might be too young to know what a big wheel is. *shrug* in any event, you has odd choices o' illustration. as to the pizza, hors d'œuvre as 'posed to meal. gonna choose meal. HA! Good Fun!

have never seen chicago-style pizza served in a bowl. that is amusing hyperbole. though typically it is eaten with a fork and knife, unless it is cold. once the cheese is cold, you can eat with your hands. in any event, is dishes served in bowels inherent less complex? fork and knife foods is less complex? you is as strange as the marvel fan who singles out preacher title. HA! Good Fun! ps ny and chicago is both very diverse ethnically speaking. for instance, chicago got more poles than any city in poland save for warsaw. most large American cities is very diverse.

michael jackson were incredibly talented, and while his "signature" dance moves is mostly bob fosse rip-offs, we were always impressed by the self-proclaimed King of Pop's abilities. the thing is, he became increasingly creepy over the years and it were getting harder for us to complete insulate his antics from his art. oh well. rip, and all that. HA! Good Fun!

"Placing the sauce on top of pizza just wrong way to go about, like driving in reverse or taking piss in sink. Possible to do, just bad idea that doesn't end well." this is of course, insane. even if you have no basic cooking skills, one can see that order of ingredients in a deep dish or stuffed pizza is not only proper, but necessary, and is resulting in a superior pie. clue to the uniformed: stuffed takes longer to cook. duh. this is 'cause it is a more complex meal, as 'posed to an hors d'œuvre. your preference for cracker pizza... which can be cooked in a toaster oven in a few minutes and will only taste slight different than the brick oven traditions, is actually making layering of ingredients less important. go to naples v. rome, and you will see much variety even 'tween those locales regarding layering o' toppings. ny pizza also has such variation, made possible, in part, by the fast cook time. jms introduced weird mystical animal totem nonsense into spiderman, yes? *shrug* regardless, even the best long serial stuff always fails compared to the shorter and more coherent limited run titles such as tdkr. and speaking o' cheese again, jms gave you The Other. maybe you just got a thing for such nonsense. and we don't get your comparisons as they seem so utterly haphazard. compare preacher to tdkr, but then say it isn't actually something you would call a fave. compare tdkr to alan moore recent titles... because? why not compare to dickens serializations, or obsidian's efforts in kotor? well, at least alan moore did do graphic novel work, so maybe that is your connecting point... perhaps? is just so... randomn. and as we grew up at pine ridge, rusty water were kinda a common phenomenon. we has rather extensive personal knowledge o' the "flavor" o' rust tainted water. "Maybe we should continue to argue about balance, boob armor etc in PoE. Adding to that, generally I'm getting really good vibes from the development of PoE but the more I think about it..." agreed. as such we will observe that while Gromnir is more concerned 'bout balance than is mc we is becoming increasingly less enthusiastic about the development. oh, we think it will still be good, and perhaps even great, but like mc, we has noted that josh description o' classes and mechanics would be more appropriate to a discussion o' a modern mmo than an old skool crpg title.... where "old" is a mere 10-14 years ago. as for b00b armour... *shrug* am genuine mystified by the willingness to distinguish scale and chain from plate seeing as is exact same issue. am also curious how josh did a dr. mesmer on the community by saying that reason for b00b scale were to instant distinguish male from female. dunno, is b00b armour better than helping somebody learn that vertigo is just a part o' dc publishing? HA! Good Fun!

tried coffee once in university to try and keep us awake to study before mid-terms... that were ~25 years ago. we still recall the "flavor." tasted like water run through a rusty pipe multiple times. HA! Good Fun!

looks like wildstar will have an open beta from 8th through 18th. am still kinda ambivalent about the title as so much o' the content is non-intuitive and clunky, but the aesthetic has appeal and combat is fun. am curious to see if bugs is getting worked out with release date looming. can't recommend purchasing at this point, but it is free to play the beta. and maybe with 10 days o' free play we can figure out crafting and hobbies without resorting to a guide. HA! Good Fun!