Posts made by Arkandel

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/this-fan-art-by-artemii-myasnikov-turns-disney-royalty-into-disney-action-heroes

A kick-ass read, I think.

https://aeon.co/essays/human-dignity-is-an-ideal-with-remarkably-shallow-roots

This probably belongs in the Readers category but screw it.

https://bookriot.com/2018/09/10/best-fantasy-book-series/

Not a link per se but something I ran across Reddit while looking for humanity's redeeming values.

"and then we built robots?

and we gave them names and we gave them brains made out of silicon and we pretended they were people and we told them hey you wanna go exploring, and of course they did, because we had made them in our own image and maybe in a hundred years we won’t be around any more, maybe yeah the planet will be a mess and we’ll all be dead, and if other people come from the stars we won’t be around to meet them and say hi! how are you! we’re people, too! you’re not alone any more!, maybe we’ll be gone

but we built robots, who have beat-up hulls and metal brains, and who have names; and if the other people come and say, who were these people? what were they like?

the robots can say, when they made us, they called us discovery; they called us curiosity; they called us explorer; they called us spirit. they must have thought that was important.

and they told us to tell you hello."

@wahoo said in Good TV:

You can give a producer (and writers. and directors.) $50 mil and expect them to do talking scenes and do them well because that is their job.

Sure, and yet I doubt a producer is going to front $50 mil for a TV show and see talking scenes they could have shot for a tenth of that. It's just now how things are done, even these days with Netflix and Amazon being extra generous with their budgets.

I'm really enjoying raiding so far, and my guild is fun! Some of the mythic+ dungeons have very interesting mechanics, and are more than just a twitch reflexes race against time. Freakin' Overseer Korgus!

... But dammit Blizzard, what is with the Azerite system? Obviously MMOs need their treadmills but getting massive upgrades to your existing items which actually set you back until you grind your ass off just so you can regain the same armor traits you had before is... not the best idea ever.

@wildbaboons said in Good TV:

@arkandel said in Good TV:

Wheel of Time? Gimme. That's cinematic as hell.

That is probably the one I am most excited about... but also the most pessimistic. I'm sure it will be better than the FXX thing, but I'm not counting by much

I think it will come down to the budget and buy-in from the talent involved. It's not even just about money, as you can pay for decent directors, casting directors and even actors but sometimes you get Game of Thrones... and sometimes you get Chronicles of Shannara.

The Wheel of Time is going to be incredible if done right. It has everything - powerful visuals, an easy to understand and depict magic system, humanoid monsters (which are far easier to build fight sequences for on TV than tentacle monsters, dragons, etc, which are a bitch to do on a TV shooting schedule. But a Fade is a guy in a robe and a creepy mask, trollocs are basically orcs with weirder makeup, etc... solved problems for Hollywood makeup departments.

@coin said in Good TV:

I just started reading The Fifth Season though and Jemisin is fucking awesome.

I haven't read that but IIRC it's on my to-read list.

Some material is also... I won't say unfilmable because that's a term people throw around a lot, but definitely harder to convey over a movie or TV show in a way that retains its original scope or focus. The visual stuff can be distracting and action sequences are so cinematic I can see why directors would allow them to take over.

For instance one of the properties in the link is Foundation. Now, I grew up with Foundation, it fucking shaped me. Normally I'd be climbing up the walls about Dr. Asimov's masterpiece becoming more mainstream.

But so much of those books is about esoteric stuff. It's about two adults sitting in a room theorizing about how something might work, tossing potential solutions to problems at each other and then shooting them down using logic; I really don't know if and how well that can be translated to a screen. More so, telepathic 'combat' in general was another thing Asimov didn't spend much time visualizing or even explaining in depth; to him it was about exploring the implications of free will, or examining your own actions and second-guessing your own motivations for traces of subtle outside influences.

But the thing is you can't give a producer $50 million and then expect them to do these 'talking' scenes. In fact they may be right to say it's boring; audiences would nod off. I can read (and have) hundreds of pages about this stuff at the edge of my seat, but would I sit there while two characters resolve issues through logical discourse over half an episode about the Earth's location in the galaxy? Probably not.

On the other hand... Wheel of Time? Gimme. That's cinematic as hell.

@coin I'm not sure where they can go with a billion dollar Lord of the Rings show based on a young Aragorn's adventures. It's guaranteed to at least piss off the loyalists since it'd need to be 99% new material, just for starters.

Also if they can't actually do anything to alter the course of the books, so say... Strider can't meet Frodo, expose Saruman or any of that stuff, then they might as well set it on any other time period (Beren and Luthien? Fourth Age stuff?) or even just ditch the LotR angle and use original material. And I say this as a huge Middle Earth fan.

Double post!

Some of these look neat. Maybe that Conan show will be fun, I do like the concept.

https://tv.avclub.com/game-of-game-of-thrones-thrones-43-big-upcoming-fantas-1828746565

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/08/high-anxiety-how-feelings-took-over-the-world

Disenchanted was really good. I loved the adult humor and actual continuity and story arcs in a Matt Groening show!

First raid in Battle of Azeroth scheduled for tonight!

I'm pretty primed for it, and although I prefer mythic+ dungeons (or large group PvP), the first raid in a new expansion is always special.

@ixokai said in Potential Buffy Game:

@arkandel said in Potential Buffy Game:

@faraday Not that I never debated whether something is legit or not. Only what I think would be distinct and different than approaches we've seen before. I also clearly marked everything with an IMHO tag.

In other words the argument is that a Buffy MU* isn't carefully designed it will end up virtually indistinguishable from a WoD MU*. In my eyes that's a failure, but it doesn't make it illegitimate.

In no ways was I think anyone arguing this at all. Your 'in other words' conclusion is IMHO so completely unfounded its hard to refute beyond saying 'pffffftftftftft---' I've played Buffy games. There's no conceivable way to confuse one with a WOD MU*. Not for half a second.

You'd have to work your ass off and write a lot of theme completely disregarding Buffy history/story/tone/theme to end up with a game which made someone go: Oh this is just another WOD game, IMHO.

Jeez, you guys are playing rough today. I'm stepping out and taking my opinions with me!

@faraday Not that I never debated whether something is legit or not. Only what I think would be distinct and different than approaches we've seen before. I also clearly marked everything with an IMHO tag.

In other words the argument is that a Buffy MU* isn't carefully designed it will end up virtually indistinguishable from a WoD MU*. In my eyes that's a failure, but it doesn't make it illegitimate.

@coin said in Potential Buffy Game:

@arkandel said in Potential Buffy Game:

@coin But I did watch Angel. Those are two very different shows, and they'd lead to (or should) different kinds of MU* altogether.

To me - and obviously YMMV - when we discuss a Buffy game we mean a Buffy one, and if not we need to make that clear.

The thing is, it's clear to pretty much everyone. so far I think you're the only one who's watched both shows and who thinks there needs to be a distinction.

I could be wrong, I guess? But while I do think they are different shows, I think their core is the same, which is why they can co-exist in a MU.

I mean it's possible I'm alone in this, sure. But - again, IMHO - Angel is basically every WoD MUSH ever with maybe fewer politics; good guy monsters fighting the good fight with their friends who sometimes have powers, magic, etc of their own. It would be way harder to create something which stands out thematically so that its players would go "oh yeah, this totally feels different than that City by Night MU* I played a dozen times already".

Buffy is not like that. It could turn generic very easily, mind you, especially if staff aren't careful about the direction it takes but it stands a fair chance of standing out, for better or worse. That's why I'm making the distinction.

If I'm wrong it wouldn't be the first time, or the last!

@coin But I did watch Angel. Those are two very different shows, and they'd lead to (or should) different kinds of MU* altogether.

To me - and obviously YMMV - when we discuss a Buffy game we mean a Buffy one, and if not we need to make that clear.

@ixokai said in Potential Buffy Game:

Oy, personally, nothing would kill my interest more quickly then turning it from a Buffy game into a generic urban fantasy game.

That's the thing though. What makes Buffy Buffy is a very specific blend of themes without which it is just a generic urban fantasy game. It needs the drama, the camp elements, and IMHO the teenage factor else what separates it from being a Hunter MU* is precious little.

In fact unless the game is carefully designed to specifically cater those tropes it would feel very generic.

@ganymede said in RL things I love:

Regarding the t-shirts, there are a lot of online producers and shippers who can probably accommodate. I use Snorgtees a lot, and transport stuff north across the border when I visit the Motherland. So, if you need anything, you let me know and I will see what I can do.

Thanks! And oh I know, and told her as much. She's just not a very internet/computer savvy person so I might need to take matters into my own hands and order something.