Gromnir

you asked if Gromnir spoke chinese. we answered your question. you not like the additional advice we gave? tough. ask your dad same grammar question and how did he respond? HA! man-up and either take advice or ignore, but quit complain. HA! Good Fun!

if your dad gave you same advice, then maybe you should consider that he and Gromnir know more than do you. maybe not, but the possibility is worth reflection. HA! Good Fun!

Gromnir is flawed it saddens me to say. Old fashion as well. A shame. HA! Good Fun! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> *pats dark_raven on head* maybe when you get older you will understand. HA! got nothing to do with fashion in any case, old or new. folks of all ages do silly things 'cause they thinks such actions/expressions is kewl. fine. no harm. if is a mistake, then you learn and move on... but tattoos is permanent. dumb. heck, you gets drunk in vegas and gets yourself married and you can gets annuled with little fuss, but try to get rid of the that superman logo painted on your kiester and you out o' luck. you loves goth music or picasso... not make no difference to Gromnir. just as bad to get silly goth tat as a the entire Guernica mural on your back. download a tune or buy a print, but turn yourself into walking advert is just foolish. HA! Good Fun! btw, we know you all hang on Gromnir's next responses, but we multi-task... you children gotta learn patience.

no offense to josh, but tattoos is stoopid. you want inner strength, happiness and love? okie dokie. great. why not just get out a permanent marker and write, in english, "inner strength", "happiness", and "love" on your forehead. no doubt more people would gets your message that way as you is obviously not in/from china. sounds silly? write in chinese makes kewl... show ethnic pride and makes an esthetic statement? ... if you is from a culture wherein a tattoo is earned after some sorta manhood ritual then yeah, we get it... gots more meaning than just some sorta fleshy billboard advertisement. otherwise tattoos is little more than a very visible and permanent expression o' the folly o' youth. however, to answer your initial query, no, Gromnir is not fluent in chinese. sorry. HA! Good Fun!

it really ain't a spin on taxation w/o representation at all, is it? meta trys for pith and just kinda misses. oh well. in any event, it is simply good sense to benefit from the labor o' others w/o real contribution, if you can pull it off. such a basic grasp o' economic efficiency is why Gromnir is management. am supposing we could send a nice check to the bbc and maybe a nice letter thanking

am rather lucky. a friend of Gromnir's bought a home 2 years ago and then turned around and sold it after he passed the initial capital gains time limit. the house was... odd. every wood surface in house was hand-carved teak from thailand, though there were some redwood panneling in the living room that were quite impressive as the pannels were seamless +20' high clear-heart redwood. in any event, the house came furnished and all of the furniture was likewise hand-carved teak (though any sort of dresser or desk piece actually had walnut drawers. Gromnir don't know much about furniture, but am told that walnut is a sturdier wood than is teak.) the thing is that our friend didn't want the furniture, and he didn't wanna deal with the sale o' all that furniture (the house is 8,500 sft.) the new owner were gona gut the house and change all wood stuff and so furniture were not part of his purchase. we gots to pick and choose what we wanted. got some very nice stuff. more than a couple items might be a bit over-sized for Gromnir's place as they were meant to be in much bigger rooms, but there were no way we could pass up such a deal. HA! Good Fun!

as has been pointed out, an American already owned that crappy football team, and as for a couple of tv shows with really horrible production values... sadly, there is some english tv that i do like, but it is best to let the bbc produce those programs as their commercial viability is suspect. i still get to watch those few good programs, and no American company has to suffer a financial loss. HA! Good Fun!

there really isn't much in england that Americans want. ford bought aston martin a few years ago and there pretty much weren't nothing left worth buying in your country. if there was, we would probably have bought it by now. HA! Good Fun!

rugby and some serious gym/martial arts time is where we gets our physical excercise. too much gym time. am not fencing much these past couple of years... 30 minute drive to the fencing club over on folsom blvd is just too much for Gromnir to do regular. am still meeting with some pnp geeks 2x a month... sac, davis, sf... we rotate locations. gotta friend who is trying to start up a movie production company and we finds ourself helping her far too much... 'specially as we don't find her the least bit attractive. we does some pop warner football coaching in the fall. in the past we coached at some local high schools, but the complexity of high school football has increased exponetially in the past 10 years. Gromnir were something of a celeb with our d-1 experience, but now that not count for nothing. just last fall we went to a high school coaching seminar that explained differences 'tween tampa-2 and basic cover-2. 2 days. 8 hours each day, and Gromnir still not got more than a basic overview. am not sure how it happened, but Gromnir's close friend is a big part of the Millions More Movement on west coast. Lord only knows how an Indian guy ends up doing so much stuff for the Millions More Movement, but there you go. am also doing lots of mentoring at inner city schools in the area... and we helps out at Loaves and Fishes, a local Catholic charitable organization, at least 2x a month. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

is not a matter of logic... never is. find a syllogism that proves or disproves that glau can act. you can't. neither can Gromnir. we didn't claimwe could. not used logic. *shrug* 'course if all you want is buffy 2 in need of some psychotropics and a good shampoo, then river is your gal... is just too bad that glau is such a terrible actress. is there some scene you can point us to in which glau elevated the craft? did she has a particular sequence o' dialogues that were so compelling or evocative that you can replays in your noggin? am not asking for olivier doing hamlet or deniro doing jake la motta... but we is honestly shocked that anybody were impressed with glau, even if they did thinks the river/buffy character were kewl. look, we get it that some folks dig on the teen girl superhero bit. not a few women like 'cause it is a s'posedley strong female character of which there once were so few. we get that some guys like 'cause they gots some juvenile fantasy notions. no doubt you got reasons o' your own... but we were honestly offended by that terrible post-reaver battle scene, and river's/glau's performance in general. have seen sock puppet performances that elicited more emotion from Gromnir. some movies can overcome sub-par acting from main stars. matrix is a prime example. keanu reeves? fishburn and weaving and the deceased gloria foster and the under appreciated joe pantoliano were all fantastic in the matrix. the movie not take itself quite so serious as the sequels, and it had a nifty, if less than original concept, and it were visually intriguing. the main character need not be the bestest character. heck, anybody who has read shakespeare's sir john falstaff character is aware o' this truth. glau didn't have to be great, and neither did the guy who played the operative. they didn't have to be great, and in that, at the very least, they succeeded. if all you needs to be satisfied is to see your teen girl super hero kick arse to be happy, then we suspect that you is gonna enjoy the heck out of joss

comic book movies is, 'ccording to most genre listings you find, sci-fi. no doubt simpsons character comic book guy sensibilities is offended by such a thing, but it is true even so. there is sci-fi tech in each o' the comic book movies we mentioned... though we did forget batman beyond, so add 'nother to the list. as to being fixated by river's violent tendencies... we ain't. she were simply a terribly written and terribly acted character. in the series she were the raison detre for a number o' episodes, and she were the Mystary, as is the popular label in these parts, but outside o' 1 episode she were never particularly important as a character... coulda' been off-screen the entire series with the doctor searching for ways to rescue after an initial botched attempt and the series would not have been needed to change much at all. now in the movie, buffy/river and the operative were focal, which required those characters to be compelling. some people claims the operative were compelling for the simple reason that he were atypical. sorry, but that ain't 'nuff. if you is gonna create a character that is so enamored of giving speeches, then you better find somebody who is damned good at those soliliquy things... movie soliliquy. is different from plays. am, recalling a 7-up or sprite commercial in which the actor breaks character of the inner-city basketball player, and announces, "I played Hamlet at Cambridge!" the operative kept telling Gromnir that he to had played "Hamlet at Cambridge." there were no subtlety, and he sure not manage to make empathetic neither. is only partial the actors fault as he did have some terrible dialogue. he were the Mouth o' Sauron, he spoke for the Alliance, and as such joss felt he needed to gives explanations. bah. writethe concept o' the character weren't terrible, but sadly his conversion were predictable and maybe even a little insulting. but river... river were simply awful. as the Mystary she were an ok character in the series, but when she had to do more than looks confused and slightly ill, like some freshman sorority girl after her first campus party, well then, the gig were up for river, 'cause she didn't have the chops. she weren't scary 'nuff or likable 'nuff for us to feel much o' anything 'bout her... and it weren't her violence that made us loather her. heck, we hate uma thurman as an actress, but we enjoyed kill bill, and the scene in which uma tears through the crazy 88s is a bloody masterpiece of camp. unfortunately, when buffy/river leaps into the hellmouth and confronts the reavers we rolled our eyes and groaned, 'cause it were just such a waste o' violence. we already knew that river were a superpowered, so taking on a dimly lit horde o' reavers were less impressive than the poorly choreographed bar fight, and that bit o' comic book art at the end of battle in which river poses for camera, bloody weapons in hand, were on par with vader's "NNNNNOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" from episode 3. river's character were written clumsy by joss, and acted poorly by glau, and filled terribly by... whoever. and truth to tell, the operative and river characters were... unnecessary. after all, the whole movie is a rather heavy handed bit o' preaching 'bout the evils o' government, but joss were so inartful 'bout it. we gets the tragedy o' what were done to river and we is recognizing the terrible nature of a government that needs to have men like the operative, and we sees the over-the-top evil o' a government that would so desire to control its people that it ended up with the mistake o' the reavers, and a dead planet... a terrible secret which the govt had to keeps hidden. ... the good episodes o' firefly let us see joss' jaded view o' tolitarian govt. nightmares w/o bashing us into a bloody pulp. name your 5 favorite episodes and then ask why were they best? 'cause o' the political metaphors, or 'cause of the character interactions? Gromnir LIKED mal and wash and kylie and jane and book... the others were ok too, but ultimate it were the smaller stories we enjoyed rather than the Mystary. oh, and as you might recognize by now, the solarpolitical nonsense were not something we particularly liked 'bout firefly or serentity.... and we liked the series back when nobody seemed to know much 'bout the physics and geography o' the firefly universe. there were all kinds o' threads at the firefly fan sites trying to guess how there coulds be so many accessible planets w/o faster-than-light travel. old west meets space opera were a kewl setting, but we suspect that the main reason for that were it were cheaper to make such a show with black powder fire arms and corrugated aluminum buildings than it were to try and come up with expensive sets. nevertheless, even this indian boy from south dakota is a fan o' westerns, so we appreciated getting so see a sci-fi show/movie setting that owed more to Rawhide than to Star Wars. the main characters o' serenity weren't well written or well acted. the story were more than a bit heavy-handed w/o being original in any meaningful sense. visually the movie looked likes a jumped up tv show, with 1 big space battle tossed into the mix. honestly, am trying to think of what we really did like 'bout serenity, and the one thing we can come up with is that we liked firefly. HA! Good Fun!

come now. if we goes on this point by point kinda basis, then serenity not even hold up well with the first crappy star wars film. episode one had better special effects. episode 1 had better any number of better performances including ewan and liam. episode 1 had much better fight scenes. etc. episode 2 & 3 were better films, both in terms o' acting and visual impact. the first matrix film were better in almost every aspect than were serenity. ai will be recalled longer, if only 'cause o' being kubrick's last project... and 'cause that sixth sense kid really were excellent in it... and so too will spider man and spider man2 and xmen and x-men2 be recollected after serenity is forgotten. the iron giant and a host o' other films that typical gets the sci-fi grouping will all be 'membered, not the least of all 'cause they were all better films. people recalls serenity now, 'cause it is fresh, but in five years it will be nothing more than an obscure trivia question. we liked firefly, but if we is honest we cannot help but recognize that the firefly movie weren't nearly as good as some of the firefly episodes, and that alone should condemn it as a failure. HA! Good Fun!

you may be right, but that not seem to be the case with nwn2, the simple cluelessness of developers that is. our guess is that nwn2 development were bungled from day 1... is reason why old lead is gone and new lead is in place. josh has mentioned on boards that failure to meet initial target date were solely the fault of obsidian, which seems to suggest that the initial target were attainable. also, keep in mind that when first completion date were missed there were a reassessment o' what could and could not be done by obsidian by the new release date... and that is why dm client were initially set aside, and there were some content areas cut from game. .. and it sounded as if obsidian were kinda confident that game would make release date, 'cause we is pretty certain that they didn't think that they were gonna get another extension. now we is gonna get those cut contents back, 'cause somebody finally realized that w/o a robust sp campaign nwn would only be a worthwhile game for the 2 dozen regular posters on the nwn2 boards at bio, folks who didn't even gets disturbed when they heard that game might be only 20 hours. the thing is that obsidian were gonna be working their collective arses off simply to gets the slash-&-burn release of nwn2 that were projected once josh to lead. if obsidian is managing to increase content at this late date w/o cutting other aspects of game, then something has gotta give. this recent extension does not sound like the result o' poor planning or chaos theory or other such stuff that might makes a project take longer than expected. this would appear to be a calculated and informed move on the part of atari... or maybe tak is right, in which case bring in a taskmaster like josh to beat the drones into submission so as to meet targets were simply a cruel thing for fergie to be doing. HA! Good Fun!

serenity got some prety terrible reviews too... so what does that mean? people like/liked serenity 'cause they liked firefly, but the movie not stand well on its own, and in five years we doubt more than a handful o' people mention serentity as one of the best sci-fi films of the past decade. where were the real character development in serenity? the villain got some, and so did river... the rest o' the cast got scraps. the plotting were kinda silly sci-fi fare, but that is ok, but why did a big-screen production looks so damed small. oh, and the LAST classic comic book character we would want joss to get his hands on is wonder woman, 'cause it is just gonna be another buffy/river. he could't resist making river a buffy-sister, and we suspect that he does the same with wonder woman. all that power, but still just a vulnerable girl... 5 years and nobody will mention serenity, which is a good thing... but is just our opinion. we thinks even fin recognizes some of the shortcomings of the film, but he see potential for franchise based on the series. fine. good. but don't try to tell us what great storytelling or filmmaking were serenity. as an homage to a show that deserved to live? sure, but as a movie? HA! Good Fun! ack.

for those of you who have spoken ill of atari as the Villain in so many past game failure tales, you should possibly reconsider. atari is desperate and bleeding and they need money... now. nevertheless, they has given obsidian more time... twice. am not sure who convinced the atari folks to give obsidian another extension, but we is thankful. fergie's "no more than 20 hours" nightmare has been at least partialy banished and nathan, for one, has been saved from almost guranteed ridicule and scorn. congrats to atari for making the hard choice... and whoever played the role o' obsidian's Henry Kissinger in this little drama probably deserves some creit too... even if that is fergie himself. HA! Good Fun!

joss should not have directed the movie. felt like a 2 hour long tv episode... with 1 big space battle thrown in to suck up some sfx dollars... and joss' fascination with teen girl superheroes is just a little creepy. river were a terrible character, and the fact that she got so much screen time in the movie made it less enjoyable for Gromnir. the plotting were pretty pedestrian, but we not expect much from a sci-fi adventure vehicle, but joss really showed directorial limitations with the movie as characters and images were... limited. the show were hit & miss, but we really did like some of the episodes... "out of gas" (might have screwed up the title,) were some excellent tv storytelling. would much rather have prefered that dvd sales had resurected the series, as did family guy, rather than inspiring a half-arsed movie release that had less than impressive sales which pretty much killed real hopes of a follow-up. you got a mediocre 2 hour movie. on the other hand, if you had gotten only another half season out of firefly that woulda been 13 more episodes... and if even half of those were good.... studio screwed firefly the first time, but joss managed to screw firefly the second time around. HA! Good Fun!

how on earth does you people manage to find so many causes to praise or slam a game from a trailer such as the one linked. is beyond our comprehension... though it seems some of you simply sees bio label and draws conclusions... neg or pos. no shock there we s'pose. HA! Good Fun!

Actually I think Gromnir said that no CRPG can feature true roleplaying because of the predetermined nature of even the most complexly written CRPG, unlike a PnP roleplaying campaign where the players are free to do quite literally whatever they want. It wasn't 'It doesn't matter whether or not they're an actual RPG as long as you're having fun.' so much as 'It doesn't matter whether or not they'r an actual RPG because no CRPG will even have true roleplaying and all of them just have greater and lesser roleplaying elements.' Also it'd be nice if you could come up with your own opinions rather than parroting what's already been said. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> actually, Gromnir were pointing out that argue over def of role-play is pointless. brought up fact that Gromnir's personal def of role-play would exclude every sp crpg on the market... but who cares? is you gonna convince us that we is wrong? am fully aware that many peoples disagree with Gromnir, but so what? why waste the effort... 'specially when regardless of what each person's personal notion o' roleplay is, we all seems to understand what developers of a particular title means. if bio or obsidian makes a crpg you gots a good notion o' what kinda game they is making. if blizzard makes an action crpg you likewise ain't gonna be surprised if it plays like diablo. in and of itself the role-play def is functionally meaningless. this is why we brought up the example of a developer claim of increased role-play features. nevertheless, given context it is a useful, if broad, product labeling device. is not worth arguing over the specific def of role-play. even so, we sees even respected developers wasting effort on such pointlessness. HA! Good Fun!

" Must've made you quite mad if you still remember everything in such detail... heh." or it could simply mean that Gromnir has a good memory, pretty shocking for somebody in our line of work, eh? ... feel free to imagine that we added a childish eye-rolling icon if you wish. HA! Good Fun!

people who argue over what is and is not role-play in a sp crpg deserves whatever misfortune eventually befalls 'em. you know what kinda game you is gonna be getting if you buys an action-crpg, or a western crpg, or a japanese-crpg. is genre labels to helps the consumer, so who freaking cares if there is genuine role-play in ff or bg or diablo? Gromnir doesn't believe that genuine role-play is possible in a sp crpg. what fool is gonna spend effort trying to convince Gromnir that he is wrong, and that ff and bg and/or diablo has real role-play? what you gain from such an effort? as long as developers and publishers and consumers all understand what is in box with a crpg label on it, then why does anybody friggn' care what is oris not genuine role-play? if a developer says, "we are attempting to maximize role-play opportunities in our next title," is you gonna be satisfied, or is you gonna wonder what specific features has been added and what design changes has been made by the developer in question? you is gonna wonder 'cause role-play not mean a damn thing in and of itself. bah. HA! Good Fun!

why on earth would you head-butt a guy in the chest? damn dirty french pansy can't even does that right. HA! Good Fun!

... huh? where is we outta character? same bad grammar, same bash bad arguments. and if you think you is gonna be "getting to" Gromnir with a silly soccer argument, you is even more dopey than we previously thought. oh, and to have the entire tourney decided by terrible shoout out thing is just another reason to make us feel little remorse at ignoring the world's sport. HA! Good Fun!

and all you did is repeat what Gromnir just said. we noted that we weren't comparing war to sports, but you simply ignored. we brought up hockey and jousting and even how pansy soccer players use protection, but you ignored and simply repeated your mischaracterizations. we honestly hope you is being silly purposeful, 'cause otherwise... "And no, I said it as a direct response to your whining about the behavior of SOME football players and their magical spraycan." we don't give a darn what your motivations were. fact is that YOU compared euro & American football, and found American wanting in machismo 'cause of extra padding. you brought up and compared, not Gromnir. for chrissakes, you can scroll up a couple posts and see in black & white and you still argue. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

"From what I gathered from your post (can be hard to read) you're still making the absurd comparison between a dark age knight and a US footballer" there is only so much Gromnir can do with people like this. if is being obtuse as a joke, then we will laugh with you and take our leave... but if you is serious then we feels some small 'mount o' compassion/pitty for you and we leave so as to not cause you further injury. *shrug* the australians actually prefer australian football, and in new zealand and south africa, rugby is king. we don't fully understand the rules o' irish football, but it seems more fun to watch than soccer. seems likes many peoples decided that soccer needed improving. soccer gots a wonderful tradition and it is a universal sport, and folks who grew up loving soccer will always love soccer regardless of its shortcomings... much as Gromnir loved baseball until the most recent strike. HA! Good Fun!

am gonna assume that you is being purposefully obtuse. Gromnir did not compare american football to war. we compoared the need for protection in both activities and noted that machismo did not suffer comensurate with amount o' protection. jousting, for instance, were not war. it were a sport. regardless, the point is that knights, whether in practice, sport, or actual combat, wore considerable padding so as to prevent serious bodily injury. clearly the addition o' armour did not detract from the machismo o' knightly pursuits. furthermore, euro footabllers often use padding, but they not need near as much as American Footballers or knights... they gots a little slip o' plastic to protect their shins, 'cause that is all that is required. hockey, whatever its shortcomings, typically does not suffer from a lack o' machismo. lack o' teeth? perhaps, but lack o' machismo? goalies can barely move with all their accumulated padding. again, the claimed relationship 'tween diminishing machismo and increased padding (which were your claim,) clearly has no credible basis save for a a rather milksop attempt at defending euro football. also, Gromnir did not bring up American Football... you did... as a direct comparison 'tween machismo in euro v. American Football. HA! Good Fun!