-
Posts
2357 -
Joined
-
Quote:Since when? They were stacking just fine a few days ago.
Their effects don't stack anymore. -
Quote:I don't have time now to catch up with the rest of this, but as far as D&D 4E goes, remember this is coming from the same company that once produced the DB RPG Everway, which was (not kidding) actually marketed as "will appeal to women gamers because it doesn't require math".
So ... they thought women wanted a less complicated game? If I was a woman, I don't know if I'd appreciate that. -
Quote:No need for surprise, everyone does, eventually.
Yes, I JUST AGREED WITH VENTURE. -
Quote:No, you have to get beaten to within an inch of your life first.
And once you summon them all onto the field you form Tyrant, and immediately wipe out all of your opponent's life points.
"...never win a battle till you pull the blazing sword out...." -
Quote:Using the transfer tokens has the same implications as spending points -- those tokens are then not available for transfers, etc.
That's what 2 months of transfers are for. And amazingly enough you get to keep your SG prestige count after you transfer back. -
I'm OK with the recipe drop but not for needing it twice. That's just silly.
-
Quote:The only part of this I agree with is that no one is quoting Derrida or using language only a philosophy grad student would understand. It's definitely an exercise in deconstructionism, reading meanings into texts that aren't there. It is definitely an exercise in feminist theory; that's the basis of the complaint. Saying it isn't is completely ludicrous; subtract the gender distinction and the entire issue vanishes in a puff of logic.
Nobody's playing deconstructionist with the WIR Syndrome - nobody's quoting Derrida, applying post-structuralist philosophy, or engaging in etymological shenanigans with close readings. Nor is anyone dragging in feminist theory or gender studies into this discussion. This is just by-the-book literary criticism.
Quote:Clear criteria for qualification have been outlined
Quote:It's entirely possible to address sexism in literary (ok, comics) criticism without condemning writers as misogynists.
Fortunately I don't have that problem, so let me break it down for you. The people who write superhero comics are writing them to suit the aesthetic preferences of the people who actually buy them, which would be adolescent males. Before the women around here start hurling their copies of The Feminine Mystique at me, yes, there are exceptions but not enough to really matter, thus why they're called "exceptions". Publishers have tried making superhero comics for women; they don't sell. Not enough women want them. Someone upstream mentioned that even Wonder Woman doesn't actually sell well enough to warrant publication. DC only keeps it in print because of their wacky licensing agreement with her creator's estate. (AFAIK: if they stop publishing WW for one year, the rights revert and while her book may not sell she's too ensconced in the DC mythos for them to lose the character.) If you change a superhero comic enough to make it palatable to women it won't be a superhero comic any more, just like if I changed those trashy romance novels my mother reads enough to make them something a man would consider reading they wouldn't be trashy romance novels any more. They'd look like they were written by Mickey Spillane.
This isn't something that can be changed from the inside. DC and Marvel don't set social policy, they just publish funny books. If Ms. Simone wants girls to read superhero comics she should stop writing them and become a teacher or politician or the like. In the meanwhile, feminist culture police and their oh-so-sensitive fellow travelers should get over themselves and move on.
* * *
Quote:When I used the word "deconstruct", I did not mean it in the philosophical sense, though I see why you could have inferred otherwise in the context of the thread. I meant it in the more literal sense of decomposing a story into elements.
Quote:This is, by definition, a deconstruction of the story into independently recognizable, constituent parts. -
Quote:That would be when the wedding pack was announced, and I and others did realize this was where the game was heading and said so. It's nice knowing I was right the whole time...as usual.
Blindly buying in game items got us to the point we are in. The moment the Devs announced the micro-transaction, was the day we all should have realized that this was where the game was headed.
The dog is too expensive. Most of what's on the market is too expensive. I just deleted and re-rolled (same AT, etc.) a level 32 character because it wasn't worth $10 to rename her. Yes, I have enough stipend points saved up to pay for a rename but that's the same as spending the money, as those points then wouldn't be available for something else. -
Quote:Yeah. Just because medical marijuana is legal in California doesn't mean everyone should be using it....
$6.25 for a vanity pet?
Heh...heheheh...hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha . -
Quote:Deconstructionism is reading a work in such a way as to "prove" it means something other than the author's intent; usually but not always the opposite of that intent. If you have to deconstruct a work to claim it's using a trope, you're wrong.
Personally, I accept the "WiR (Syndrome)" as a trope, where a trope is a deconstruction of any given story to find elements in it that fit a storyline template.
Quote:Deconstruction is a similarly fun but potentially dangerous tool.
Quote:Boy howdy, I'm surprised that wasn't even on the TVTropes page. That was definite fridging. He was introduced just to die in a very chumpy way and motivate Kirk. -
I don't want any of them to die.
I want all of them to die in a fire. -
Best Heroic:
1. A Mosaic of Shattered Dreams #497506 by @Avonlea
2. A Very Special Episode #457506 by @Wrong Number
Best Lowbie:
2) Cole in Your Stocking #474611 by @Venture -
Arc #497506, "A Mosaic of Shattered Dreams"
tl;dr: 5 stars. Nits: ambush heavy, possibly broken objectives
Reviewed on: 11/12/2011
Level Range: 25-54
Morality: Heroic
Factions: Generic, Council, Custom, Arachnos
Architect's Keywords: Solo Friendly, Custom Characters, Mystery
Character used: Amelia Escobar/Virtue
Difficulty: +0x2+B-AV
The arc opens in media res as your character comes upon a burning building. Your contact is Katie Evans, the young child of a social worker you're familiar with who happens to be inside said burning building. Well, you're a hero, so in you go...but this is Paragon City and nothing is ever as simple as it appears.
The dialog and clues are all excellent. The arc pulls you in with a sense of urgency, even though it doesn't use timed missions or the like, and it keeps escalating towards the climax. It also makes use of the "deliberate fail" mechanic to give a moral choice at the end.
There are a fair number of ambushes, some of them large, so be ready with inspirations and the like. Act IV has a large number of "body bag" objectives that give the not-yet message when clicked on, but I never found any way to activate them. I don't know if that's intentional or a bug.
This is one of the best arcs in AE...or the entire game, for that matter. Highly recommended. -
Arc #457506, "A Very Special Episode"
tl;dr: 5 stars. Nits: mobs maybe a little overpowered
Reviewed on: 11/12/2011
Level Range: 30-54
Morality: Heroic
Factions: Nemesis, Crey, Freakshow, Family, Custom
Architect's Keywords: Origin Story, Comedy, Drama
Character used: Amelia Escobar/Virtue
Difficulty: +0x2+B-AV
N.B. this is technically a re-review; this arc was originally published as "Have a Blap, Blap, Blapy Day!" and redesigned.
Blappy, the beloved superhero kids's show host, has gone missing! You must find her! Television says so! But then, you shouldn't believe everything you see on Television....
Techincally the contact isn't Television itself but "An Abandoned Television" in Paragon City, but the dialog faithfully duplicates the canon contact's voice. There's a good story in here about the nature of celebrity and a Behind the Music-esque fall from grace. The humor is low-key but very effective.
The worst thing I can say about the arc is some of the customs have irritating powers. Foot Stomp on a Minion is a bit much, as is Ignite on some of the LTs. There's a mob in the first act with a dubious background but it's easily rationalized with a bit of Fridge Brilliance.
Top marks for this one; recommended. -
Arc #494099, "When the Words Stop"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: what the hell did I just play?
Reviewed on: 11/12/2011
Level Range: 41-54
Morality: Neutral
Factions: Generic, Custom
Architect's Keywords: Complex Mechanics, Non-Canon Story, Magic
Character used: Amelia Escobar/Virtue
Difficulty: +0x2+B-AV
You find a woman's diary on a bookshelf in a Circle of Thorns lair, which leads you on a strange journey of discovery. And by "strange journey" I mean What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made On Drugs?
On the plus side, the arc has some clever custom mobs and the architect at least appears to have put a great deal of work into the clues and dialog.
On the down side the symbolism is so all over the place that the story could be about practically anything. I could tell you what I got out of it....
Quote:...but gods only know how close that is to the architect's intent, assuming he has one.Originally Posted by rot13Vg nccrnef gb or na nppbhag bs n irel qvfgheorq lbhat tvey jvgu zntvpny cbjref jub, creuncf vanqiregragyl, ohearq ure snzvyl gb qrngu naq gura qebjarq.
4 stars for the effort, but this would benefit a lot if the symbolism was taken down a few notches. -
Arc #459586, "Legacy of a Rogue"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: Idiot Ball, borderline Shoot the Shaggy Dog, gameplay issues
Reviewed on: 11/12/2011
Level Range: 30-35
Morality: Heroic
Factions: Circle of Thorns, Family, Paragon PD, Custom
Architect's Keywords: Solo Friendly, Drama
My Keywords:
Character used: Amelia Escobar/Virtue
Difficulty: +0x2+B-AV
Yes, I'm using a Widow to run Heroic arcs. Come and get me.
Gertrude Bellstaff, once the hero Condor Girl, wants you to take on her old mentor's son Harrier as your sidekick. She promised to help the kid but she's no longer hero material herself thanks to a war injury. An encounter with the Circle of Thorns give the impatient youngster an opportunity he can't resist and you have to deal with the consequences.
The dialog is well-written for the most part, particularly the clever use of the declining-health mechanic to give Harrier some lines during the mission. Gertrude has a tendency to lapse into "repeating what the protagonist is probably saying" mode though, and some of the dialog in act III is spotty. The story is pretty rich, though it does have flaws addressed below.
The kid is a Martial Arts/Willpower LT with Heightened Senses, meaning his agro range is roughly "the map". Non-support ATs may have their hands full trying to keep him alive. The same goes for an ally in Act IV. Act III throws the Idiot Ball, asking the (ostensibly heroic) player to break a criminal out of the Zig. Act IV has an obnoxiously-large ambush in it, and two objectives spawned for me in a transposed order relative to the Clues they dispense. The final battle in Act V has way too much "help" in it. If it wasn't for some impressive character development in some of the secondary characters the arc would be a Shoot the Shaggy Dog story.
This was heading for three stars until the end, when I bumped it up to four. It needs a lot of improvement to hit the top, though. -
Quote:Narcissism.
Oh certainly. He's the archetypical creepy d&d nerd who had never met a woman outside of his testostetone driven fantasies and has constructed his own (very wrong) brand of romantisism. He treats women (and technically everyone else) like objects that solely exist to satisfy his desires. I'm sure there's a word for this (plain ol' chauvanism?), I just don't think it's misogeny. -
Quote:I would. Withholding important information is a tactic employed by hacks.
If I was reading a novel, I would not call foul on being surprised by a reveal because it's a literary medium that took advantage of the fact that for instance I could not actually hear a scene. -
Quote:The point is that the trick only works because of the medium, which makes it cheap.
Which was the point; Shalice recognized him instantly. But I like the fact that someone many of us have seen, fought and teamed with was the 'mystery man'. -
Quote:Jacques Derrida. Michel Focault.
I can just feel Jacques Foucault wagging his intertextual finger, absorbed in the human-condition-ness of it all.
Quote:IMO it's just a hopelessly broad classification. -
Quote:I haven't seen anyone claim that. Here or anywhere else.
I will echo this statement by repeating something I've stated elsewhere: tvtropes may be fun to read, but if one of your rules of fiction is "it can't appear there," then you're going to be constantly disappointed, and your standards are, dare I say, out of whack. -
Best Villain or Rogue Arc:
1st: Arena #456200 by @FredrikSvanberg
2nd: Interdimensional Headache #459592 by @Nebulhym -
Arc #456200, Arena
tl;dr: 5 stars. Nits: corrupt critter issue, ending a bit unclear and abrupt
Reviewed on: 11/9/2011
Level Range: 40-54
Morality: Villainous
Factions: Generic, Freakshow, Shining Stars, Siren's Call Phantom (factions evidenly corrupted)
Architect's Keywords: Solo Friendly, Drama, Romance
My Keywords:
Character used: Amelia Escobar/Virtue
Difficulty: +0x2+B-AV
N.B. this is technically a re-review; the arc was previously published and re-published with a new number.
You've been tapped by Arachnos to provide security at the Arena Gladiator World Championships, taking place at the Giza between the American champion Castle and the reigning champion Pohsyb of the Etoile Islands. Due to the political climate these matches now have a very high propaganda value so you can expect some skullduggery. Even your contact, reporter Amanda Vines ostensibly there to cover the event, has her own agenda.
For those who don't know, this arc is a homage to the musical Chess. It's very heavily scripted; make sure you read your clues because there's a lot going on in there. The architect adapted the musical's storyline to the City setting very well. Some of the dialog copies lyrics from the musical's songs; some might find that jarring but I thought it was appropriate.
There is a typo in Act II's mission-accept clue ("advice"). Act II also appears to have a problem with corrupt critters in Pohsyb's faction. The ending kind of drops the player off a cliff; all the pieces are there but you may have to stretch a bit to put them all together. This doesn't detract from the mission but I'll mention it as a cavaet: there are two hostage escorts, one of them long, so you might not want to use a stealth-based character to run this.
Minor flaws notwithstanding, this one is recommended. -
Arc #459592, "Interdimensional Headache"
tl;dr: 4 stars. Offenses: overpowered ally, hijacks the character, some technical flaws, "just a bunch of stuff that happened"
Reviewed on: 11/8/2011
Level Range: 41-54
Morality: Villainous
Factions: Generic, Custom Group
Architect's Keywords: Custom Characters, Complex Mechanics, Sci-Fi
Character used: Amelia Escobar/Virtue
Difficulty: +0x2+B-AV
Dr. Mafred Ludak of the Arachnos Exploratory Science Division needs your help What could possibly go wrong? Newly-discovered dimension Sigma Tau 6-1 has some OVER 9000 psi energy readings he wants you to check out. This leads to exploration of another dimension and encouters with some unexpected characters from back home.
The contact's dialog is very well-written; slightly affected with some quirky humor. The firs act is very evocative (the later two, less so). There's a lot of triggered activity that keeps the maps from being forty guys pounding their fists in a warehouse.
An objective in act II I was supposed to lead an NPC to was functional before I arrived with the escort. (Yes, I passed the hostage and cleared the path first.) A hostage in act III had the default bio for his rank. Act III also has an overpowering ally hostage. It's optional at least, but I expect at least some players will be forced to take it if they don't have the stealth needed to slip by or a fortunate out-of-the-way spawn location. The arc powerposes your villain as going straight at the end which is likely to disagree with a fair number of players. The enemy factions are all custom mobs, some of which are interesting but the majority are pretty vanilla.
It's a good run and fairly quick (three acts). I'd recommend it for red-side characters with a science-fiction bent. -
Quote:Only if they don't understand tropes.
The problem I have with tropes in general is if you see it happen more than twice... or even more than once... the concept of a trope means you have the right to instantly scream "Hey! It's no longer original so it must be a gimmick!"
As for the OP, I never accepted the WIR thesis in the first place. I do think Alexis' death is exploitive, though, and was not very well-handled. The "negotiation" scenario is really not credible and even without the Liberty Belt she should have been able to at least try to fight back.