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Quote:Haha... well, to be fair, from my experiences in America, I'm not sure that most people retire by 65 (as much as they might like to). Still... 97.5% of all statistics are made up.So most people die by 70? What third world country do you live in?
EDIT: Had to look it up after that... according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average age of retirement is 62!
*shrugs* Not in my neighborhood, but thems the averages!
ALSO... I saw something about retired cops have an average 5 year life expectancy after retirement. Maybe all working MMORPG players are on the police force? -
Quote:Thanks and... does this mean that we'll never get boots that go "DINK" with each footfall?Welcome back and thanks so much ^_^ sorry to say I have nothing to do with sound O_O
Quote:Well at least if the chainsaw is silent, stalkers might be able to use it -
Just got back from a long trip and saw the pics from last week last night... Still collecting my jaw from the ground.
This whole set keeps getting more and more amazing.
Awesome job, Dink.
I'll toss my two cents in for liking a chainsaw option with sound... but I understand if it's not a realistic possibility. I honestly was prepared for the blades to not animate, so that's a fantastic bonus already.
Loving everything so far... but the patchwork cape is another great addition that I can see varied uses for! -
Quote:You may want to duck.
That one flew pretty low but it still went over your head.
Haha, but thank you for the other answers, Fireheart!
I was upset that Psychoti didn't say, "I'll be careful...".
What? I don't know that... Aaaaaaaahhhhh!!!! -
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So, I went on a GREAT 9 day trip and just got back... Anything happen around here?
No betas or more I24 goodness opened up, eh? (joking... I see that beta has started and there's even more to I24!)
Any interesting threads that I missed (or what)??
Has GG's right eye opened up?
Did Arcanaville run out of words?
Has Dink ascended beyond mortal capacity?
Has Staff Fighting been released yet???
Did anyone miss me...
What's the new Meme of the Month?
And what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
Also, is the new (and finally officially acknowledged) Sorcery Pool revered, despised or what?
Lastly... Hi everyone (except YOU).
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Some good replies in here.
Many of them represent, very well, the various reasons MMORPGs are successful and unsuccessful.
And the biggest factor in all of this is that these things have become so expensive to make. It's the Hollywood movie syndrome over and over. Budgets and expectations get bigger and bigger (and bigger and bigger!!!) and the investors, more and more, want their investments to be going into proven/sure things. Patterns of success are followed, formulas get introduced, innovation suffers, aspects of success and failure become polarized, poorly analyzed, misdiagnosed... Only there are not as many MMO customers as movie customers. And this is a relatively young platform/industry.
Ongoing, unending games will end up having a great variety of approaches if/when they get the green lights and enough financial backing. Budgets should be scaled back, but then that eats into customer expectations... and the whole thing gets ugly...
Arghh... on to replying:
Quote:While this is somewhat true, it's also worth noting that MMORPGs are actually more along the lines of tabletop RPGs online. And that's not something that will just die out (but, I'm thinking you just meant the "fad" of it in the mainstream will die out... while, hopefully, studios with some money will still be able to kick out games for those who will always enjoy mmorpgs).The MMO boom is just the latest fad. It's like 20 years ago with the Trading Card boom. One gets successful, spawns a thousand copycats, market gets oversaturated, the weakest/poorest/most mismanaged ones die out, the strongs ones kick around, the lesser ones try to re-strategize and then the process repeats til the pool whittles down and the next big fad comes along.
Quote:MMOs are stagnating because they've barely evolved in the past ten years. They're extremely expensive to make, so studios are afraid to take risks. They stick to what has worked in the past, but eventually players get tired of the same old grinding-levels-and-loot routine. It's time for a fresh take.
As with most everything taken up by the mainstream... it stops focusing on what the original intentions of those creations were and becomes focused on how it can be sold to the masses.
Full, detailed, complicated systems get moved aside for quicker, easier and, most importantly, the safe paths that have proven to work.
This goes for anything and everything, unfortunately... Most regretably when it comes to art forms...
Quote:Fresh takes don't work... Funcom tried that with The Secret World and everyday on their forums there are people complaining about it being too different, lack of levelling system, no mounts, no classes, too easy, too hard, lack of content (which I find hilarious, the game is one month old, you can't expect years of content on the onset...) and so yawn and yawn.
Most people are formatted to a particular model and don't want it to deviate even if it is in a totally different setting. TSW went with a subs only model and everyday there's someone crying for F2P and asking when it's going F2P. People don't seem to realize that F2P is anything BUT free! The amount you spend on micro-transactions compared to a monthly sub with ingame money only stores is ludicrous AND ridiculous. It's fleecing on epic proportions. Couple that with the sense of entitlement and the "I want it nao and I want it all" mentality and you have an ever growing abyssal maw you can never, ever come close to satisfying.
It is easy to forget the part that customers play in the foolish ways of marketing... and that they are generally filled with foolish people on both sides... as most people are rather foolish and so they populate every damn thing on any and all sides.
Most importantly, for MMORPGs, is that the target audience for these games became more and more the people that were not interested in MMORPGs. So, you have the majority of potential customers not wanting what the MMORPGs could best deliver. Long, unending, involved, complicated endeavors for the perpetual hobbyist/player. I'm not saying that these are the only aspects for MMORPGs, as they are not and things can be deviated from that basis, for certain... but all of those core aspects have been largely tossed aside for the non-mmorpg player.
Turning something bitter into something sweet... because there are more fans of sweet than there are bitter... tough luck for those looking for something bitter.
Quote:Also, one of the reasons why MMORPG are losing customers has to do with the economical crisis raging all over the world. With less jobs, more unemployment and job instability it's no surprise people are retracting from expenses they cannot justify when they need to worry about food, housing and, for those who have them, family.
And then there's the jaded feeling: no matter what you come up with, no matter how innovative you think you are or can be, chances are you won't get enough player retainability to keep your game afloat, mainly because today's youth (and, regrettably, the 30 something crowd) have the attention span of a fruit fly gnat and are always on the lookout for the next big shiny thing which they then proceed to devour like a cloud of hungry locusts, leaving a wasteland of detritus behind while flocking to the next new horizon which will never quench their hunger.
Rinse and repeat sweetlings, rinse and repeat...
Quote:Take away the negatives that the colorful language implies, and you're describing non-mmo video games, books, movies... any other form of entertainment that has an ending. If someone spends 10 hours reading a book and moves on, I wouldn't say that they have an attention problem. If someone completes the main arc in a single player game in 10 hours but hasn't uncovered every last easter egg planted, same thing. But only spend 10 hours trying to cover what an mmo has to offer ... you can get the gist of the game but not its full depth and complexity (to whatever extent they exist).
If entertainment needs to fit in that framework of time for a lot of people (say 30 min to an hour per session a few days a week) and provide a good return on time and money, then I think providing a F2P model works well. I wouldn't be out to call the whole genre a failure because of the failed expectations of a mismanaged project with a ginormous budget.
Putting aside all of the vocabulary options I have for this to simply say... It sucks!
Everything different must, eventually, be made the same in order to cater to the mainstream, because "that is where the real money is".
What the MMORPG needs is more approaches akin to the Mom and Pop store and less Worlds of Walmarts.
All this being said... City Of Heroes has long been a very cleverly (if not somewhat accidentally) a wonderful mix of these worlds. It has been run much like a small, intimate, caring ma and pa store and has been extremely casual friendly (you can play small amounts of time and not feel left behind, as one example) while it has kept a decent level of immersion and involved complexity, along with being the only representation of the super hero genre for so long, while it continued to expand, improve and invent.
CoH has a lot to be proud of, in my opinion.
And to say that WoW's success was a large part due to a perfect storm is almost an understatement.
It's a shame, really... there was another game that came out about a year or so beforehand... based in that same far away galaxy that this newish mmo is based in... and it was the extreme opposite of what WoW did (in some ways, in bad ways [buggy], but in many ways, in great ways [phenomenally involved and detailed... even beyond the all father UO - due to Raph Koster's designs]). And the shame of it is... both worlds should have continued and lived on... but the quick and easy and mass appeal won out... and the other facet died off (betrayed and murdered by the dark side).
There's plenty of room in this world for variety and the budgets and plans just have to be focused and reasonable about what is possible.
I suppose that is another reason for CoH's success. They've not over-stretched to reach too hard for far more. Some times we may think they haven't reached enough (this game has been so good, it should be even more popular than it has been), but it does seem like you just can't win over that many newer people with an older game. And I am certainly glad that they haven't sold the old game out for something that is a marketed "can't miss" clone.
Anyway... Yes. Umm... I mean... No. Wait... what was the question? Oh, right... What. -
The comments in that first article are just absurd and not worth a further thought, as far as I am concerned.
Regardless of all other factors, his performances were stellar (and absolutely iconic).
It's easy to forget or miss how much acting he is doing when just being Superman... That's because he's just that good at it. And his performances as Clark are both hilarious and amazing. And, indeed, his performance of playing all those roles within one character that we actually believed in so much... Give me a break... "worst" or "9th worst", lol.
Best? Yeah, probably.
Best Superman? Without question. I do like George Reeves, but it's not really close at all.
Also... I know this will sound questionable and/or make people feel badly for me (lol), but I really don't have that much hate for Quest For Peace.
I really don't.
Don't get me wrong... Superman III and IV are bad with capital W, T and F... but I honestly find III to be the worst abomination to crawl out of a movie studio and labeled a superhero movie/sequel.
IV has some terrible... terrible... TERRIBLE aspects, no doubt. Mostly Jon Crier's dialog... WHY OH WHY...
But I, personally, loved the boldness of taking Superman in the direction they did regarding the nukes and there are some okay moments and one last chance to see the real Superman.
Again... it's bad... but if you're capable of surviving III, then I'd suggest watching IV again. Understand what it is and accept that and... Well, I found it somewhat enjoyable. Just flip that thinking part of your brain to the off position... and understand that Jar Jar has nothing on Jon Crier.
As far as I remember anyway... I picked up a four pack of the movie a year or two ago and we watched all four and that's how I felt after watching them.
The specifics have faded a bit... but I'm willing to watch IV again... III? Nah... no thank you! -
Quote:!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!UPDATE
Some more pics of WIP. I got a lot of good suggestions int this thread, thanks so much ^_^
Cornrow Hairdo, you have 3 choices, First choice is without the ponytail and just short cornrows. This is the second choice with the ponytail.
[pic removed]
Third choice is the buns (my personal fave ^_^)
[pic removed]
Golf Bag, moved the arrows down since. I also had to remove the strap as it will cause too many problems.
[pic removed]
And I ported over the welders mask since you asked ^_^ I had to delete the top strap due to clipping and it will clip with some hairdos. It is in Detail 1 since there was no other category to put it in. I also finished the belt.
[pic removed]
I also added another Nail hairdo only the nails go from ear to ear LOL! I'll add pics on next update. I will also add pics of the other back pieces as well as the weapon.
DINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That all looks FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!
First (in chronological order), those cornrows are AWESOME! Seriously, the detail work on all these pieces is fantastic and the hair is right up there.
As soon as I saw it, I thought I'd LOVE to see you tackle a bunch of new hair options. And, as others have said, more along the normal side of hair styles (I don't mean corporate sheep hair, just not Shark and Deceiver and those styles we have, hehe).
ANYWAY...
SECONDLY... THE WELDERS MASK!!!! YESSSSSSS!!!!!!
Ever since I first saw those in game I've wanted those for us. I even posted somewhat recently about wanting those... So, that is flippin' FANTASTIC!!
Quote:Thanks for the comments guys! I love doing hairstyles and try my best to make them look realistic with what I have to work with!
Quote:Mad Grim: I will have more pics next week as my deadline is fast approaching
Let out cheers fuel you onward!
DINK DINK DINK DINK DINK DINK DINK DINK!!!!! -
Quote:Yep.A movie is generally about the same amount of story you can get from a short story.
Getting a full novel, even of the Hobbit's size, with all the appropriate complexity and scenes, is more something that would take a full season of an hour long television drama.
Really, to fully cover the Lord of the Rings would probably take six seasons of hour-long television drama. Assume 24 episodes a season.
That would be almost 4 and a half DAYS, as in 24 hours, worth of material.
I always felt like a BBC series might have been the best way to do a live action translation of the books.
It's not unreasonable to make three movies out of the Hobbit, really. Making the LOTR trilogy of books into just three films was far more of a jarring notion than making three films out of one book. -
Oh, and on the other hand (from my previous post), Martial Combat should be a great powerset for the supernatural martial artist... It'll go wonderfully with so many Primaries.
I totally understand (and usually expect) the leaning towards super powers over more ordinary/natural possibilities.
I still want some sort of more scrapper-ish Blaster Secondary that does without anything on the mystical side of things.
However, that doesn't mean that this is not a great design. I can't think of a Primary that this set doesn't obviously go well with, conceptually... Eh, maybe AR and BR (not to say they won't go well together, but less obvious than the natural elements, archery and/or the Gung Fu Dual Pistols).
So, two super ninja thumbs up! -
I'm super happy to see these sets coming and I think they're doing a great job.
I have to be honest though and say that this Blaster secondary isn't quite what I was hoping for in a Martial Arts secondary.
I think the main offender for me is the first (have-to-pick) attack, Ki Push.
Don't get me wrong, it's a great idea and should be an awesome power (and many people will enjoy it... and even I will with the right concept).
It's just well beyond (enormously beyond) the "natural" set of powers some of us have been craving for a Blaster secondary. That is my only "complaint" about this. It's not really a complaint though as much as just a slight/tiny disappointment that this secondary is not the secondary I was looking for... move along.
I say this because the attack is a Repel and not a KnockBack... so, it creates this slow, lift and carry away the flailing enemy... I realize now, it's actually a great substitute for Force Choke, hehe...
I just would have preferred something (that you're forced to take) to be toned down for either concept... but they went with the Bullet Time flavor.
Still, I think both sets will be great additions to the game.
Honestly, I love what they've done with the Dominator Assault set and have to admit to wanting something along those lines for Blasters...
Would have loved some shuriken goodness in this secondary. -
Quote:Yes, they showed it (Zwill used it repeatedly, hehe). I'd say it was within the first 15 minutes, or there about... But I'm just guessing.Was Burst of Speed's animation shown in the Coffee Talk? I'll look it up if so when I get home from work. If it was shown and you have the rough time, I'd appreciate it!
They got pretty quickly to showing off the Blaster Secondary. It was the first thing after saying Hellos, stalling and all that. -
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"Two films will become three"... That's what happens when you leave two films alone in a closed dark room...
And Houtex, that was not a bad way to do it at all (well, besides not reading all of them first... hrumph).
We saw all of the original cuts at midnight premieres in the theatre, but always waited for the extended cuts for the DVDs. And each of them lessened (sometimes removed) much of our complaints here and there. The extended cuts are a far better telling of the tale, in my opinion.
Quote:I read a bit from Jackson the other day where he was saying that he wanted these movies to match the tone of the other LOTR movies of his. So, he said that the Hobbits and Dwarves and Bilbo's adventure will have the lighter, fairy-tale tone of the book, while other aspects are going to go more for matching the tone of the previous films (something along those lines...).I dunno. Im mixed about this.
On the one hand, any exploration of Dul Gurdur , the Necromancer, and the Council of Wise is going to be some awesome geek .
On the other, I don't know how well that really plays with the tone of the Hobbit, which is much more of a kids tale than the LOTR was. Are they gonna Grim and Gritty Bilbo? Will the the first movie be a whole half hour of back story with Throrr and such before we even get to bag end?
Meh. As I type this I realize PJ has earned my benefit of the doubt. Ill absolutely give these a chance.
The Hobbit is a strange book, really... The tone of it changes... it starts as a rather whimsical tale of unexpected adventure and climaxes with the grim realities of warfare. I often wondered how he might approach tackling that.
*shrugs*
We shall see... (or not and draw opinions based on secondhand information, haha). -
Quote:Eesh! Maybe that was what the driver was upset about, instead of the damage, lol.Yeah, they can do damage. But what I'll always have in mind with Rhinos?
There's one in the Homosassa, FL preserve. (Go for the manatees, stay to visit everything else - otters, eagles, gators...)
They make it *very* clear to be aware of the "spray area" behind the rhino. The very extensive spray area.... we gave it extra room to be sure.
Since this thread is about rhinos - here's a not very good image of a character of mine:
A number of decades ago, he was a tough thug, who worked his way through crime and became a small time crimeboss of his own, but didn't like getting older and weaker and being out-muscled by some punk he had hired. So, he threw all his money into some experiments to make him stronger than ever... It worked with some unexpected mutations.
Unfortunately, his muscles became so strong and large that his heart simply can't handle the strain... so, he's had to go into the debt of a mad villain scientist that has provided him with a powered suit to help him support his immense frame and keep his heart going.
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I'm not sure new powersets directly before a double xp weekend is a good idea at all.
Oh sure, there are some players that would love it and most would want it...
But that's somewhat like a bunch of children deciding that a giant bag full of free candy, for each of them in the morning, is a great idea.
When, the truth of it is, the majority of those kids will be in head-achy sugar comas by mid afternoon and not plunking quarters into the arcade...
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I probably shouldn't bother, but I imagine that a large factor in not mentioning the Joker is to avoid knocking the audience out of the movie immersion. I know that it goes both ways and some of you would say, "not mentioning him knocked me out of the movie immersion", but, overall, the general audience can find it tough to separate an actor's death from the movie experience.
In TDK, the intensity of the script and the acting (and the enjoyment of being taken completely in by the late actor's fantastic performance) was enough to win most people over and the sad reality of his death didn't get in the way of it.
I can totally see any mention of the Joker in the subsequent movie making most people step outside the film, even just for a moment, and think, "Man... I wonder what would have been different if Ledger hadn't died". And/or any mention of the character is going to be an obvious attempt to explain away the reason the character is not present (and we all know the real reason why he was not present).
The people responsible for the movies don't want the audience to be thinking of such things. They wish for them to be enthralled by the movie.
Anyway, I am not trying to convince anyone of anything and I cannot speak for Nolan or anyone else on the real reason(s) why they made the decisions that they made.
All I can truthfully say is that I had no problem with the Joker not being mentioned at all.
My only problem with any of it is that Ledger died. Other than that... I have no real complaints. -
Quote:Silver, I'm in agreement with you and am all for keeping things available, but I figured I'd mention that Zwill and the team have said that the Kirby Dots aura will be given through other events, beyond the Twitter thing.Been subbed but away to accommodate a busy work schedule. I love the costume creator and until now had access to every costume bit (except the exclusive CoV cape) ever made available. I like it that way.
It is a bit disheartening to find out that when I come back after a hiatus of a few months (again still subscribed, just not playing) that two bits I could have used: the Kirby dots aura and the tri-corner hat have currently come and gone with no announced return or wider availability for either.
I think that the action/tower defense game Dungeon Defenders does a much better job. They create new thematic challenge maps for each holiday season and to coincide with steam promotional sales. These are often available for free for about a week. After that, $.49 a piece. In that case, if you want to play a particular challenge map with friends, you too need to unlock the map content for your game. But it is always there, available in the store after the promotional period.
As you say, this on the shelf for free then away and out of reach for months if not years does breed a level of disappointment that though not game-breaking does for me add one more gram to the scale when coming back after a hiatus and weighing, "Do I really want to get back into CoH?"
I know that's not great news or very assuring, but I just figured I'd lend the tiny positive aspect that they'll still give it away for other things (maybe costume contests or random giveaways... I don't know).
Just figured I'd mention that for whatever it was worth.
On a side note...
Quote:I say keep them exclusive. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go use this pitchfork to fling puppies into a portal to hell by the dozens! MWAAAAHAAHHHAHAHAHAHA!!! -
"Stupid Rhino smashing my stupid car!"
That brought me back to an experience I had when I was a child, lol...
My family and I went to Action Park and drove through their wildlife park. We managed to escape the destructive baboons, but we hit some slow traffic near the rhinoceros area. Well, two rhinoceroses were arguing over a water hole (or about DC vs. Marvell, not sure... my Rhinocerese wasn't very good back then). The back and forth got a bit heated between them and, as one charged a bit towards him, the other back pedaled... towards the road.
Not even moving as fast as a trot, the rhino moving backwards smashed into the car directly behind ours! My brother and I, in the backseat, watched in amazement (as my father pulled to the right to get around the car ahead of us). The entire left side of the car behind us was crumpled in. I think it was still drivable and the driver seemed to be okay.
I'll never get that image out of my head... after the rhino dented the side of that car, the driver (a youngish guy, with a female in the passenger seat) just slammed his hand down on the steering wheel exclaiming a curse. Seems a stupid reaction to me too... Umm... drive, fella... you've still got two angry rhinos next to your car... he seemed more worried about the fact that his car just got majorly damaged, lol.
Anyway, more present in my mind was how much damage that rhino did, just by incidentally backing up into that car (I can't remember what kind of car... not a big car, sort of compact, almost like a Volkswagen, but I don't think it was). So much power. Imagine if that rhino really wanted to smash that car intentionally.
So... funny picture!!
And now I know that I saw Deadpool out of costume on a date! -
I agree with liking to see the Joker in that role, but I also think if the Joker were a part of this movie, he would have been a much bigger part of it. I could be wrong, but my mind wandered more in the what if territory of would the Joker have been behind much of this entire plot?
Then again, maybe the Legion Of Shadows aspect was always planned... who knows... There were likely a myriad of directions that had been considered before the final result.