TrueGentleman

And this offer caters to the latter while undermining the former. I have no problem with charging for services such as respecs, but the devs put so much work into creating the alignment system and then promoting it that this move cannot be read as anything other than opportunistic.

What next, an Incarnate Token so we don't have to go through the familiar Mender Ramiel arc or grinding iTrials?

Care to wager that you'll be among the 1% of players who take the time to come up with some kind of rational for their characters' insta-switches (even if it's just a Nemesis plot)?

Some things should be worth taking time in game. Special offers with service fees like this carry the implicit message that the devs don't think so.

PS238, in addition to being a fun series, is an interesting experiment with combining regular comic book publishing and webcomics. Aaron Williams first published the comic in physical format and then began scanning its pages for the web. Although the comic's publication schedule is somewhat irregular, the web version is still catching up.

(The previously mentioned Girl Genius is a similar experiment, having begun as a regular comic and now published first on the web. It's also well drawn, extremely entertaining, and highly recommended.)

I specifically used the example of a Batman/Space Ghost-style cowl, a costume element that spans the Golden, Silver, and modern age superhero designs. The plainer version (Space Ghost) would be the base, then additional elements could be incorporated, whether Batrman-like points, ears, radio antennae, goggles, or whatever. The Chinese Dynasty's helmet doesn't look like it could incorporate anything other than the original pieces without running into serious clipping problems at the very least.

So there's a precedent for little-used overly specific headgear. The Roman Centurion helmet is a lot less flexible than the Martial Arts pack's Warrior helmet and consequently isn't chosen as much.

The best strategy for maximum variety with art direction is to come up with comparatively plain basic elements first and then design more ornate details as add-ons.

Actually, I count on the player community's creativity whenever a new costume pack comes out, but there are always limits. The deal-breaker in this pack looks to be the hats. Unlike the helmets from the Martial Arts pack, which sensibly had a very basic, flexible design under more ornate add-ons, these seem locked in to a Wuxia look.

While I myself have numerous alternatively themed characters of all stripes, so to speak, that's hardly representative of the overall player community or the game's fundamental art direction. A Chinese New Year pack, in addition to the Martial Arts one, doesn't make up for the lack of variety for basic masks (mostly, it's just painted-on patterns, not proper domino-style) or the total absence of Batman/Space Ghost-style cowls, to name just two common superhero costume pieces that have been in demand for ages.

Also, as Chase_Arcanum points out, the more specific the design of a given costume pack, the less likely it will "play well with others". The Martial Arts pack was less ornate by comparison, but it proved to be extremely flexible, with players coming up with all sorts of unexpected combinations. This baroque design, although visually striking, doesn't complement the art direction of either the City of Heroes or Villains - unless an upcoming issue is going to feature some kind of new China Town zone (which could be nice, come to think of it).

That's a candid admission, certainly. While there are at least some precedents, this feels like still another themed costume pack that would better fit a fantasy MMORPG.

When will the next superhero costume pack be released?

Under the ever-so-arbitrary new CH/VC forum rules, we can still discuss entertainment properties that have video game spin-offs, just not the video games themselves.

So...

The long-running screenshot webcomic Darths and Droids has just started covering "Star Wars: A New Hope", but it's best to begin at the beginning since it miraculously makes the prequels thoroughly entertaining and the character of Jar-Jar Binks actually funny.

Also worth an archive crawl is its inspiration, the equally hilarious DM of the Rings (maybe its creator will cover The Hobbit, too).

While both series absolutely nail player personality types, from the min-maxer to the munchkin, the real fun for a pen-and-paper RPGer is how well the two comics capture the spirit of DM'ing. In the former, the game is run by a hapless improviser type who can barely keep up with his players, while the latter is a classic plot-on-a-rail campaign that the players are constantly trying to disrupt.

Holy Pay to Win, Statesman! Is this the devs idea of a carrot for when they stick it to the playing community with Super Packs: The Gathering?

NBC hasn't shown any better capability for generating interest in superb episodes as varied as "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons", "Contemporary American Poultry", "Cooperative Calligraphy", or "Remedial Chaos Theory" than Fox did for Arrested Development (and that show also won several Emmys). It's not suprising since network television has been pursuing the lowest common denominator in the mass audience for so long.

In any case, I'm looking forward to "Basic Lupine Urology", not simply because Law & Order is ripe for a parody, but because Dan Harmon & co. always bring strong character portrayals and sharp dialogue on top of their metahumor.

Netflix offers the first two seasons on DVD, and NBC streams several of the most recent episodes on its website.

Incidentally, Greendale Community College has its own website - remember, sign-ups for spring semester begin and end in April.

It's very popular with a narrow segment of the overall tv-watching audience and critics (though not awards ballots), but, let us be honest, it's no Two and a Half Men.

Hulu still has recent episodes up, and Hulu Plus all of them, I believe.

Which is coming back on Netflix. It's possible that digital/streaming entertainment will be to broadcasting what cable was to the medium back in the 80s (and by the 90s, HBO had cemented its foundation and had begun producing some of the best TV shows anywhere). If NBC drops the ball on Community, maybe Netflix or Hulu will pick it up, particularly since the show has excellent DVR ratings.

And even though NBC has put Community on hiatus, it did the same with Parks & Recreation, which has come back stronger. The network is in the process of figuring out what its post-The Office and soon-to-be-post-30 Rock lineup will look like, so it's not going to make any precipitous decisions - unless "Kabletown" spooks it.

Comics Alliance expertly dissects Kelley's epic trollery: "To recap: a performer everyone loves for playing a character everyone loves on a show that everyone hates appearing as yet another version of a character everyone loves (and wants her to play legitimately) on a show that nobody watches and wearing a costume everyone hates from a show that nobody will ever see."

Well, that and the little problem that the pilot was so dismally mediocre that it didn't please any audience segment. If there's a version of Wonder Woman that should have gotten a chance, it's Joss Whedon's, which arguably had a take on the character that was both truer to her origins and a more imaginative re-thinking (neither of which Kelley's was).

In any case, this is what Erica Durance's Wonder Woman costume looked like the previous time she dressed in one:

The Earth is farthest from the sun during winter in the Southern Hemisphere, but axial tilt is the reason for the season. The perihelion of Earth's orbit will occur some time in the first several days after the new year, but unfortunately, nobody but astronomers celebrate that.