SuperOz

I think it's a little from column A and a little from column B myself.

In Felicia Day's defense, she's very passionate about Geek Culture. I've tuned into her live stream with her and some of her contemporaries talking about fiction they've read (it's like a monthly book club thing, and I can't say the name on the forums, save to say that the first part of the name is like Virginia), and she's knowledgeable. And not in a passing way. This is all being shown in an uncensored, unedited way where she's even getting a little drunk live on camera.

If there's detriment to be placed here, it's that she's used her celebrity to further her career, and that's something pretty much every celebrity does, even those whose sole attribute as a celebrity is being a celebrity. I can't really blame her for doing that. Alright, so she's an actor who makes her own web show and parlayed the success of that to get her more acting work. Sounds like someone who's clever to me rather than someone who's ruthlessly exploiting a section of culture.

She's certainly not alone. Look at how Wil Wheaton (who has a lot of varied interests and is very vocal in his own geek leanings) has done the same but with much less fanfare and a broad embracing by the geek community.

The real crux of the issue is here (at least to refrence Johnny B's posts) is the nature of geek culture. Like it or not, acknowledge it or not, but geek culture is now mainstream. I grew up as a fat kid with glasses who played D&D during his lunchtimes at school, obssessively played his Commodore 64, could recite the original D&D rules back to front, and was reading Tolkien seriously by the age of 14. And I got teased and bullied for it.

Now these things are embraced wholeheartedly and largely because the people involved in it are now the people who have given us the Internet and are the movers and shakers in society. They're now as socially powerful as sports heroes and movie stars were, and arguably moreso because there's no one demographic that 'geek heroes' come from.

And the term 'gamer' is mainstream now too. People game on smartphones and Facebook and it's something do as part of their lives rather than as a majority of it when you did indeed have to dedicate serious time to it...but I guarantee you that if I could've played my old C64 games on a smartphone, I would've. Gamers have evolved and changed, really.

The journalist either was drunk or maybe resentful of working on something about her and saying 'oh, this isn't real news and this is so beneath me' or something of that order. He got publicity for his actions, but it was all negative. Internet society is instant and a living breathing thing. You can't make a comment in isolation anymore and think it won't get noticed by someone, somewhere. It was a foolish move and it cost them their job, so if that was a publicity stunt, it was a costly one.

Felicia Day I suspect is what I percieve her to be: a professional making a living out of things she loves doing. So of course there's going to be a perception of her as being phony, because she's making money from it. Can't be genuine, right?

If there's anything I'd personally observe about her is that she doesn't appear to have let her fame go to her head, and she's enjoying the ride.

Hey, I would too.



S.

Development Heck, as the realm of the undead movies are called. A studio would have to pony up a serious budget to do a CoH movie or even tv show because of the kinds of cast and special effects needed. It's still a good climate to make superhero stuff in, but whether it will or not is anybody's guess.


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Honestly, it's just about what makes a good movie and a good story. I have a friend whose relative works in the movie industry, and it's confirmed that Lucas is as ego-driven, eccentric and utterly used to getting his own way as anyone would ever suspect.

It's very much a case that you can be as creative as you want...until George walks in the room and says do it his way or else. It's that simple.

As a result, the prequels are awful storytelling. Sorry to break it to you, GG. But they just are. I know how to write a script and if you can't justify or rationalise a character's actions (like I don't know...wholesale slaughter of a family (with children!) of sandpeople and then have Padme skip over it for no good reason?), then you're breaking the credibility of the story at its core.

Lucas consistently and egregiously breaks his own story time and again, either by having characters robbed of Common Sense or even believable reactions. These are his vision and have absolutely nothing to do with the story. And it's because noone is in a position to tell the head of Lucasfilm 'No'.

And I say all that as a preface to this reading of the films because we as viewers are forced to try and make a coherent viewing of the story that holds up as a story. We shouldn't have to be. We should be in the hands of a competent and consistent storyteller who isn't working in a vacuum, but we are.

And this is a storyteller who openly revises and makes sweeping changes to his own continuity. It lessens his credibility as a filmmaker because to me it comes off as a demonstration of a lack of faith in his own material. He sees it as flawed or not 'his vision' so he must change it. Constantly. It's the same way I felt when Spielberg made digital alterations to E.T. As a creative person, you're making a decision on the set on that day that is one that you should trust to serve your story. If you're coming back to it tweny years later or whatever, then you've by virtue of the passage of time lost your perspective that you had at that original moment.

Either trust in the material as it stands and don't try and revise it, thereby showing your own lack of confidence, or go and make something else. Anything else diminishes you as an artist, the respect of your peers, and more importantly your public. Because if you can't trust your work, how can they?



S.

Go and watch Craig Ferguson's show from Tuesday, where he recounts it as only the Shat can.


S.

This is listed as taking place on 7/12; this is in fact a typo and the event is on the Monday, the 9th.



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Stingers are for losers!


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The official trailer for the RIKTI: ANNIHILATION event that will be announced in full detail in the next few days! Stay tuned!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9Sr7...ature=youtu.be




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Bring back to life a thread that had been dormant. Pretty common term.


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I'm not sure if it's the same thing you're talking about Sam, but there's at least two MMO's coming out this year that feature 'mess with the system as you will' character building, and one of them is NCSoft's very own Guild Wars 2.

This is a system whereby instead of adhering to a build as such, you choose a class, but then based on a combination of items (each of which has different effects) you can come up with a mix and match of abilities that best suit you. GW2 intends to do away with the Holy Trinity (something I think is a very good thing and a step forward for MMO's as a whole) and let everyone equally contribute.

I certainly hope the Devs of this game look at what one of their sister games is doing and learn from it, because I do feel the days of pre-set packages and builds is approaching an end, even if I don't know how quickly. More and more games are putting an emphasis on what you want personally as a player and how you go about making that happen.


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Alrighty!

Sorry to necro this thread, but I was sick with flu and related ailments during June (it's winter here in Australia) and this thing is back on track! Inside the next two or three hours, I will be posting the OFFICIAL trailer for the Rikti event, and in the next couple of days, I will be informing you, the Virtue public, and the Community team about this event!

Sorry to all who thought this had perhaps just faded away.



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Aw, Liz Shaw? I really liked her a lot, grew up with her with my Doctor, the Third. Caroline John was a really good actor and she seemed to have a lot of affection for her actual role and her place in Who history.

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I know this is going to sound made up, but one of my best friends has a cousin working on the production in South Africa, and to say this is being called the 'safe bet' after losing money on the two Happy Feet movies (both Miller's work) should tell you what you want to know here.

Miller's tried being original, and now he's going back to what made him a name to begin with. It's just a shame it's being shot in South Africa instead of Australia which gave the originals a real sense of unique character, but the tax breaks must be great there....

And people are right, that car looks stupid. Apparently the future isn't so post-apocalyptic that they can't double decker a monster truck.....

And seriously? The eye candy from the last Transformers movie is an asset to this film? *sigh* At least Theron can act....


S.

I wouldn't mind seeing a variation on a theme on this one, actually. I know a number of players who want to be the detective/espionage sort of character (my own included) and often feel frustrated that the game doesn't have a few more mechanics that support that sort of play, even though I acknowledge that first and foremost this is a combat game.

Now, admittedly I'm coming from a recently biased place, but Rocksteady's stunningly brilliant Arkham City brought a lot to the table in the sense of providing the player with not only one of the most elegant yet simple to learn combat systems I've ever seen in any game, but also encouraged thought and creativity when it came to said combat, along with detection and problem solving. Thugs with guns? Fight them this way. Thugs with shields? Fight them this way. But never once did I feel I was just solving problems with my fists.

A system where instead of 'beating up 15 Hellions to get information' could have a single Hellion in a group of Hellions that you need to get past for that information. Watching for a group of Warriors in a particular part of Talos Island could be aided with the right skill bonuses. The thing is, a system whereby those 'non-combat' abilities wouldn't be hard to implement and would give a player a feeling of having a more direct impact upon the story. The strength of Arkham City was that even though the story was linear, the methods of getting through it weren't.

I'd argue what's coming up in the Summer Blockbuster events are a good sign of that; note that the Casino Heist features almost totally non-combat abilities working in tandem.

DEVS. MORE OF THIS, PLEASE. If everything I read is true and the gap between console games and computer games are closing, then this has to be close to the time to seriously consider breaking that mold. If the Summer Blockbuster proves popular (and I think it will), then looking at the systems behind them, which at least in the Casino Heist portion of the event, could be a long-term investment.



S.

Looking at these pictures, I wonder where the 'average' PC falls now in terms of graphics and processing performance? I know that the 7 and 8 series of Nvidia cards are no longer sold (my last card was a 8600 and I couldn't find a replacement anywhere, necessitating a complete system upgrade in the end) and that base requirement alone (if you want a video card that's available, you nearly have to buy at the least a dual-core system because of the dedicated video card slots most motherboards have post say about 2006) just puts you well above the minimum specs for the game.

I'm on a reasonably tight budget, but I got a good system (admittedly the labor for building was paid for but the parts were selected by a friend of mine with good PC knowledge) for around 700 dollars AU.

Are we now approaching the end of this minimum requirement era, perhaps?



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Such was the power of Enriche that not even Positron knew that he was wearing a fez and not in fact his armor.



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Could be fun, but I really enjoyed Joe Johnston on the first one, who captured that true Cap feeling. Oh well.


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Sorely missed.


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Just ask Paul Dini to head up the Justice League movie project division. All will follow.


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Not to necro the thread really, but I am going to press ahead with this and see what interest I can rustle up. I'll be providing some advertising material to that effect in the next couple of weeks.


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