Amentep

I didn't like it as much as I did Maleficent. It has less...Tim Burton than Alice. Alice is - to me - just a frustrating film to watch; for every good bit there's a bad bit and a lot of it doesn't hang together very well. Cinderella is - to me - one of the hardest fairy tales to sit through just simply because the subject matter. Cinderella does a good job of capturing that but it makes the beginning drag a bit because you have to watch as the plot dumps so much misfortune on Ella before the story can get her to her Fairy Godmother and the Prince's ball (which is a pretty well done sequence in the story and the movie really takes off once everyones goal is to get to the ball).

Yeah that's true. The cost for airmail would probably be around that sum we added for the shipping (for a basic version at least). So I really don't know why chose slower option. Because Paradox is fulfilling the packages in Europe (as I understand it), the sum total of Europe's loot has to be sent to Paradox to ship through Europe. So they're not going to airmail all of Europe's stuff to Paradox so that the orders can be fulfilled. Obsidian isn't fulfilling orders, themselves, that's why they made the deal with Paradox. (This isn't to say you can't be upset with the handling, just that - the way I understand it - this isn't a case that can be easily compared to an individual sending another individual a small package).

That was kind of my point. There's no real need for dock & crop for a pet.

I myself wouldn't but I thought it was a common practice for that breed. Im not sure Ive seen one irl that wasnt clipped but maybe Im just remembering the past. Don't think the US has a prohibition against it, so I think it still happens a lot. And if its a working dog, clipping the tail and ears may help the dog not being injured (a doberman as a police dog would be liable to injury if someone it was set on was able to grab its ears or tail).

If its not a working dog, why would you dock and crop? EDIT: Or I guess, a show dog.

At a guess - and I don't have insider knowledge - the problem could be not just with sending the items out but when they got the manufactured items in. The dock workers slow down/shut down has been on and off for three months. There was a resolution to end the stoppage in late December (with contract negotiations going on) and in February. There's no guarantee that tomorrow there won't be another shortage (unless a contract agreement was signed since the last time I checked). So even if there were cost effective solutions that didn't "break the bank" in terms of shipping rail to the east coast and the boat to Europe, there plans may have been hurt if the products were shipped and then sat on a dock in Los Angeles for three weeks before they could get and sign the signature tier extras.

Well I had to type in codes from the manual every so often in PHANTASIE to keep the game going. This is clearly the kind of mechanics that kids these days need to see since we all faced them growing up. We need to institution a 10% chance that at any time, doing anything the player character could drop dead of a heart attack or stroke. Because otherwise the players will think they can't fail. Or, alternatively, it could make people pay more attention to the story instead of "did I collect 'em all?" hunt and peck minigaming. Speak for yourself (I for one don't give a fig). One doesn't just sell 25 wolf scrotums.

Just a FYI, with respect to the Port of Los Angeles being closed, the actual problems affected most of the ports on the West Coast for awhile. It was so bad that at the height of the dispute in December, McDonald's had to start rationing French Fries to customer in Japan. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/mcdonalds-rationing-french-fries-japan/story?id=27638403 Yes, it was so bad that McDonald's - one of the biggest corporations in the world - had trouble getting potatoes shipped to Japan. The last update I saw was in early February where another shutdown ended - http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/10/usa-ports-west-idUSL1N0VJ1OS20150210 - but a contract was still being worked on. While I doubt this will assuage the feelings of those upset about the delivery issues, the idea that you could "just ship it from another port" wasn't really a going solution; while Obsidian mentions the Port of Los Angeles, most ports on the west coast are experiencing slow downs and shut downs as part of this labor dispute.

Cinderella (2015) - another of Disney's big budget fantasy fairy tale remakes. This one is less revisionist (although it is a little) and is a fairly straightforward adaption of the fairy tale. You'll definitely hate the stepmother by the end (if you don't start there). Night Train to Paris (1964) - Leslie Nielsen in one of his leading man roles, shows a bit of the sense of humor we knew him by in his later career. 2 years after Dr. No, but before Spy-Fi really hit in the late 60s, we get a fairly down to earth spy story. With its moody B&W photography it is part Film Noir, part down-to-earth Spy-Film, part romantic comedy (shades of CHARADE or ARABESQUE), and part Peter Gunn (with its driving Jazz soundtrack). Nielsen is good as the ex-OSS agent pulled back into helping a friend in Europe. Pretending to be a photographers assistant traveling with models in order to deliver a tape to the right hands. Aliza Gur and Dorinda Stevens do well as the female leads who Nielsen can only partially trust. Eric Pohlmann is a solid heavy - the spy killer stopping at nothing to get the tape. While the reputation of the film is rather modest, I think its probably worth a second look. Footsteps in the Night (1957) - the last of the Detective series that saw western star Wild Bill Elliot play a sheriff investigating murder in Hollywood. More Dragnet than murder mystery, the series followed the procedures of the department as they looked for their man. This entry was interesting simply because of how scattered the entire thing was (I would have never guessed how it all happened, even if the show kind of telegraphed who did it). Also fun to see perennial TV Guest star Douglas **** as the wrongly accused. The Case of the Stuttering Bishop (1937) - The last of WB's adaptions of Earle Stanley Gardner's Perry Masons. After Warren WIlliams left the series (two movies ago) the series moved away from the Thin Man-esque boozy, breezy mystery solving and returned to Gardner's original take on the character. All of the pieces familiar to audiences of the 50s TV series are here (in fact, the novel this is based on was adapted to the TV series). Its a fun movie if you like Perry Mason as its a good take on the mix of detection and court room theatrics.

Did you watch the interview? He does say that the world would be a "lesser place" without artists. Now, admittedly my experience with this is fairly limited, but I've never met anyone in an artistic profession who believed their work was utterly pointless. People in finance, admin, clerks, etc? Yeah... Seriously, I was kidding when I wrote that watching it would rot your brain. I guess what I'm trying to get out is that people who think there job is pointless or more likely not engaged in their job more so than their job being pointless.

I laughed out loud. Sooo true! Or they'll invent a bionic male organ. Not sure the world is ready for the bionic sound from the SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN to suddenly emit from men's pants.

Okay so I can't really discuss this in the order you bring it up, so let me try to summarize: A book like Robert McKee's STORY is vastly different than the IGDA supporting something it calls "Best Practices". In my line of work when a body publishes "Best Practice" the intention is for these to become industry standard. Often, there will end up being penalties if you do not follow these Best Practices, including no longer being able to participate in the organization that published the Best Practices because you don't follow their Best Practices. Who do I think its geared for? Its Best Practices. Its intended to be an industry standard. Otherwise it'd be "Some friendly suggestions" or even "Localization: Some Pitfalls You Might Want To Think About If You Like To Do That Sort Of Thing". Sure I may be making a lot of ado about nothing. BUT there is language that I've seen before in other industry standard Best Practice documents in my own line of work so I have a hard time accepting that the goal of the document isn't to become industry standard. And it DOES effect game development. To you in a negligible way, to me in a worrying way that makes me see developers second guessing their ideas so as to not offend some theoretical person "out there".

Arguably any job that doesn't exit to directly provide the essential needs (food, water, shelter) or support the provision of same is BS. Not sure I'd want to live in a world where there were no paintings, sculpture or literature though.

So it is about how you make the games. Its just that you don't see that it's "important". That's cool. I disagree, because again I have a bit of a knee jerk negative reaction with outside influences on creativity. YMMV.

But - if someone actually is offended...will they actually care? I mean if I, for example, were to provide documents indicating that GAME ELEMENT A is actually statistically very likely to exist in the setting of the Game. And that GAME ELEMENT A is important to the story of the game, and therefore relevant to the experience created. And that after much consideration that we kept the element in knowing some people would be offended by it because the context really indicated we needed to keep it. You think that would *matter* to the offended? That they would stop their protests about the game, stop petitioning to have the sale of the game stopped because "Oh well, they explained it, we're all good"? The only way to appease the offended would be to never do anything to offend them in the first place, yes? I'm not sure I agree with your interpretation. That seems like a design level thought, this cannot exist solely at the time of localization.

Perhaps, but the idea that you need to document decisions if someone wants to complain that it was culturally insensitive...? Does anyone tell a writer to document why they wrote something in case someone complains?1 Is it just because people think books are irrelevant? This may be a knee jerk reaction to this - BUT it is IMO very important for creative endevors to not be shackled by things other than the vision of the creator. No one is sitting there telling Stephen King (or even Kingsley Stephens of Pebblebrook Missouri)2 when writing his novel he needs to be culturally sensitive. You just don't think about that with literature (even "low" literature). Why do we accept it with games? Its not like bookselling isn't a business. I dunno, this just bugs the **** out of me, I admit. Maybe its a wrong impression, but man reading that document really did feel like reading a big "We're not telling you how to make a game...but let us tell you how you should make your game." 1Its not like any of the offended cared why Salman Rushdie wrote the SATANIC VERSES back when the fatwa was issued on him. 2You could make an argument that the editor serves this function; maybe its even true. And of course the publisher is not under an obligation to publish a work just because it exists. But this conceptually feels very different to me than what this document suggests.

Emphasis mine: They actually ARE saying that. Not to the plot per se, but being a fat slob who eats and drinks in terrible ways is important to who Homer Simpson is. But here's the point: subsisting only on a diet of donuts is also a textbook example of eating in terrible ways. The characterization is not harmed by the exclusion of hot dogs. Quite the opposite, actually: because in the targeted cultural environment, "eating hot dogs and bacon" signals something different than "eats and drinks in terrible ways", I think it can be argued that authorial intent is preserved by excluding those. But it changes the fact that Homer will eat anything (and has in the show done things like ate leftover lard from a fryer) that he is, in essence, a glutton with no discrimination or self-control.

...I'm honestly confused. Is eating hot-dogs and bacon such an instrumental plot element in the Simpsons that the authorial vision is meaningfully harmed by their exclusion? Not to the plot per se, but being a fat slob who eats and drinks in terrible ways is important to who Homer Simpson is. ...And where does this line of reasoning end? Is anybody who wants to enjoy, say, a Japanese movie, but watches a subbed or dubbed version of it is, mentally, a child? Because, y'know, a fairly huge part of a translator's job is to make the movie comprehensible to as wide an audience as possible, and this, at times, means completely rewriting stuff that makes no sense in the cultural context of the West. BUT...no one is telling the Japanese film maker "Hey if you put this religious allegory in, you'll offend people in country X. So even though your story hinges on this particular take on western religions, you really shouldn't put that in because you need to consider country X which won't appreciate it". And that is what the document is asking for - putting "cultural" and "geopolitical" as 'bugs' to be 'fixed'. There's a vastly different thought process with respect to taking something that exists and trying to relay concepts (or jokes) to another culture in a way that preserves the story and relays the context of the original in an understandable way and saying that before something exists, the creators need to avoid doing certain things regardless of why they might be important to the story because someone, somewhere may be offended.

Speaking of Hotel Transylvania... https://www.youtube.com/embed/9yZEthbVpjY

I'm looking forward to Grim Dawn.

It wasn't. IIRC the WoT project was never even funded, they'd just agreed to work on it with the WoT license owners, correct?

I thought that was unpossible on the internet.

Spring break here too. Which mostly means I can find a parking place at work close to the building this week. Huzzah!

http://www.allspark.com/content/2015/03/cobra-commander-leader-of-cobra-visits-springfield-to-receive-key-to-the-city/ Its apparently a wind up to GI JoeCon 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lkjRc8lgJKo https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3Eq_FDX4nog https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JjFY3gXeQro