Posts made by Warma Sheen

@Jynxbox said in Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era):

Does that include you?

Unfortunately yes. I was super excited about this game but have since opted out. Apologies for bailing.

At least until the game is in a more completed state. Maybe after beta is over it might be better for me to go back and be a part of that community.

@Alamias said in Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era):

I'll admit, ARX intimidates me. I've looked at playing it, and looked at the roster and even picked a few characters that look like they could be fun to play, but after that point I just look at all the lore and other things and nope out.

I did the exact same thing. I didn't even know where to start. New is always more difficult to process. I guess it just matters how much time and energy you want to invest into it.

@GreenFlashlight Well, if it helps, I don't think anyone involved in any of this plays on the game anymore, whether through their own choice or @Obie 's, so that might be a good thing for anyone still looking to play.

Not to weigh in on anything specific, but it just generally sounds like everyone would be happier with their funtimes if they let go of 5 year old resentments.

@secretfire I'll admit that I'm not a fan of most of the HRs. But as long as everyone is playing by the same rules, you can find some place within them to enjoy the game in whatever form it is in without much issue. I've learned to go with the flow.

As for Tolssk, it just seems to be par for the course with the flippant, condescending comments and no regard for anyone else. As @Jynxbox mentioned, its like no time at all has passed when dealing with him. And I don't know why, but you have always been his apologist, showing up behind his disasters to try to make things better for him. You never seemed that bad, except that you're always associated with him. It was a shame really.

@Malkleth You are all over the map, dude. Are the HRs silly? Or are they mostly well written? If you knew your character was unplayable, then why did you play him? More specifically, why did you play him the way you did?

That pretty much sums you up as a player, right there.

How you play is completely is completely up to you. If you think it is totally acceptable to cause problems on the game because no one stops you from doing it, then it is no wonder you're no longer welcome on the game. Been there, grew up from that.

Additionally, your character is not dependent on your character build. Your idea of what the game is supposed to be is so basic. This is not a tabletop.

@Obie said in Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era):

Myself, I feel that if I can't pull off a community with that kind of culture I listed above, then I'm OK with it dying off because I dunno about you guys but I find it plenty tiring to be constantly butting heads with other people, backstabbing, and all that just to "win" in a make believe game. It's emotionally exhausting for me, and not worth keeping afloat if this is the reality of things.

Yeah, a lot of us are. But its because we keep running into that kind of person in games. It would be great to have a game where everyone is on board with the vision you have for your game.

Maybe at the beginning where you have to +proceed and all that other stuff, have a step where people agree to that (yes, I know not a lot of people read that stuff) and then again at the end of chargen just before you go IC repeat it just for good measure. It might make people think about it and know that you take it seriously and everyone else is expected to as well.

If nothing else, people can't use the excuse that they didn't know with very much weight.

@Obie said in Star Wars Republic d20 SAGA - (Prequel Era):

Anyways, I'm sure there's more I need to learn to make enjoyable for as many people as possible. I don't aim to make it perfect for everyone, but the intention is to have a community with great vibes, works with each other well to come up with fun stories through collaborative efforts and give and take.

This is great and I fully support it. But the pessimist in me says that's an uphill battle. Especially when you have an era with PCs on opposing sides. Great vibes, possibly, but working well together... that is tougher. I'd like to think that people are more mature now that 5 years ago, but the story told above says 'not everyone' and sometimes all it takes is one to ruin the bunch.

One of the downsides to allowing dark side PCs, as someone mentioned on another board recently, is that dark side PCs have no built in motivation not to kill everything everywhere at all times. I feel for the players that had to deal with Tolssk in that scene, even moreso because of the xp imbalance. I've been there. But ICly he didn't do anything but follow his character. Tolssk kills as many as he can as often as he can. That's his thing. Even if it is other PCs. He's got no reason to do otherwise.

You'd have to find some way to come to an ooc understanding with dark side players that the game is not a free for all to kill everything that moves. And I'm not sure how you do that, honestly. You really just have to count on the integrity of the player to be cool. And I wish that was easy. It should be easy. But experience, even up to what was described yesterday, says that it is not.

However, I hope everyone finds a way to make it a possibility and not let a few bad apples spoil the whole bunch.

ETA: I think making everyone point buy is a fantastic idea. The problem with attributes isn't how high some PCs have certain stats at. Its that only certain PCs have them there because they got a good roll when they made their character. That inequality breeds negative feelings, either towards other players or the character itself. If every PC has 20 in every stat, everyone is still as equally balanced as having every PC at 12 in every stat. Everyone is still on an even playing field. So for those averse to the point buy, maybe an increase in that number will balance that.

@Jynxbox Ha! Sounds like you met Tolssk. You have my sympathies. lol

ETA: But in all seriousness, keeping older characters is a bad idea, but using them to test out systems is understandable. However, if the goal is to test out higher level characters, pitting them against lower level characters isn't the way to do it. And in fact, why limit new players to the lower levels? Let people build Jedi Masters and get a bunch of altxp to spend. Then you can get a real test. Otherwise, its admirable to do the testing, but you're not going to get reliable data on what the actual game will look like.

Well I don't know if Vaapad is @Obie but it is a beta game and maybe mentioning the issue will prompt him to make adjustments. I've visited the game. There's a lot of work put into it. This might be one of those things that just become an oversight. If its bad for the game, they might just make an adjustment and cancel that out. I doubt they want to run off new players, so they might just not realize the impact, even if it might seem obvious to you.

I would hop on and use my mountains of xp to fight for the Republic but the previous staff wiped my character after I left (even though everyone else's character seems to be left in tact). Sorry.

But then again, someone jumping onto the game to influence events and smack around other character just because they spent time on a previous iteration seems to be exactly the problem.

@Jynxbox Its fine. I can see where someone who is in the industry might be super sensitive to the subject. Not that its cool to completely dismiss someone's completely objective opinion, but I can understand where it might be coming from. Its probably the reason that I'm critical of the dancing on the show. I danced. Up until the coronavirus I danced about three times a week. I met my wife dancing. She still teaches dance. She choreographs her own stuff. So my opinion is informed by my own experience too. I get it.

But I also get when @Seamus sees it as part of the charm. Even if I don't agree, I can see where that is coming from. And it is awesome that it made the experience better for someone else even if it ruined it for me.

What I think is cool is that even with completely differing ideas about the dancing and singing itself, most everyone commenting so far has still liked the show. Hopefully it comes back for a second season, but if it didn't, I would understand that too. And I'd pray another company picks up the rights and keeps it going.

@wahoo said in Good TV:

2. With apologies because this term is so stupid: these people are names. Jane Levy is a big name. Lauren Graham is a bigger name. Mary Steenburgen is a HUGE name. Everyone else is also a name -- they've worked before, generally in big roles and in big projects and on network. These are long-lasting working actors with recognizable faces AND track records that advertisers like.

Agree to disagree. We'd be here till eternity debating what counts as a big name.

@wahoo said in Good TV:

Ugh, this is so offensive and shitty-- time limitations are not their fault. That's how network television works. That's how ALL television works: it's fast. It moves really, really fast. You want 22 episodes of tv a year? It's fast.

If you know what the timetable of a network TV show is... shouldn't they? So if they need to hire the right amount of people (for example, more than one choreographer) to make their show work, then that's what they need to do. Would you say the same thing if they had only one set and no props because they only hired one grip and he didn't have enough time to move things around for different scenes? Would you say the same thing if they stood around for half of the show just looking at each other because they hired only one writer and he didn't have enough time to write and edit a full show every week? "Not enough time" is not an excuse.

What they did was go cheap on the signing and dancing and unfortunately it showed in the product. If it doesn't get picked up for Season 2, I would not be surprised. But I do think someone else might be willing to take the option and continue the show elsewhere.

Not to mention the fact that plenty of shows manage to get a full 22-24 episodes done year in and year out (and this show only did 12 episodes).

@wahoo said in Good TV:

@Admiral said in Good TV:

@wahoo So you're saying that quality shouldn't be based on what is accomplished, but on what is intended?

I am. You wanna put together a 45 minute musical in 7-10 days?

Is it okay if it sucks since he's not a producer/choreographer/actor/etc.?

@wahoo said in Good TV:

@Warma-Sheen

I don't know how to answer this. Yes. That's how this business works. In order to get things made, you hire people who are known to the industry. Most of those people are not triple threats. No one is going to hire a nobody.

ETA: MOST people in Los Angeles aren't triple threats. TRUST.

Yes, that is an exaggeration, obviously. But there are quite a few. Are they well known? No. But then again the only person I recognized from the show (and admittedly I don't watch a lot of TV) is Lauren Graham and Skylar Astin. And even they aren't big names. Its FOX. Which is just a step up from WB. The could have and should have done better.

Also, their time limitations are their own fault. Maybe hire more than one choreographer if that is an issue. Again, you don't get a pass for crappy production when your job is to produce a good show.

All the criticisms aside, I just to remind that outside of the heartsongs, I really liked the show.

"They're not dancers and singers, they're actors..." Then why are they in a show built around dancing and singing?

Casting can't find anyone in Hollywood who can act and dance and sing??? Except for every third person in LA... I mean, just throw a rock.

So why would people on this show get a pass for sucking at their job? Yes, they're playing normal people. But the magical singing and dancing of their heartsongs that only happens in Zoey's mind doesn't necessitate that they suck at doing so - as demonstrated by Zoey's dad. That's the magic... of magic.

Its not like the dancing and singing was some curveball that was thrown at them the day of shooting that they just had to deal with. Why were those people cast if they couldn't do what the role called for?

If the show hiring people for stuff that they can't actually do, I'm down to take a role on the show. My acting will be horrible, but I'm not an actor so I don't think anyone should mind.

One of the great things about the SW universe continuing to grow is that it enforces the idea that there are tons of heroes in the galaxy. And there are high stakes in a lot of places. The movies glanced over a lot. But the lives of billions of people on one planet is not insignificant. And there are a ton of planets in the galaxy.

There are countless stories to be told that don't depend on any particular canon storyline.

That said, people want their actions to matter. They want to feel like more than backgrounds in the story. I actually loved that Order 66 happened early in the previous game. It was exciting and it forced people to pick sides and gave a brand new dynamic to the storyline, not to mention gave a lot of force characters a path to survival. And it happened in part due to OC actions.

However... there was a lot of story left to be done in the Clone Wars era that people were really enjoying. And the RP that came after Order 66 was not enjoyable for some. I don't know all the reasons behind why it was done, but I can definitely see where it negatively affected a large portion of the database. That's a big decision and hopefully it wasn't made lightly. Not everyone is good with change and that is just one of those things that will never make everyone happy.

@Cupcake I don't think it is deliberate. There's no reason, stated or implied, for the dancing to be deliberately bad. If it were on purpose that would have to have been addressed in some way on the show.

It doesn't surprise me that they reused this choreo though. I didn't like her choreo on SYTYCD either, so not liking it here makes sense. And I've seen amazing contemporary dancers. Like with music, just because someone is popular in the field, it doesn't make them good. Lazy producers at Fox just keep recycling the same stuff. As with anything, it gets old after a while. Someone get them a bigger rolodex.

And even if you like her style, her range of creativity proved to be way too narrow for a show that should have done as SYTYCD did and have multiple choreographers with different styles - if for no other reason than to give different characters different expressive styles. They are singing and dancing their heart songs. Unless in their hearts all these characters are exactly the same. Except for Mo. No one could ever be confused with Mo!

Add to that in this case you have a very difficult style of dance being done mostly by amateurs, which really shouldn't be done and almost always leaves a less-than-appealing result.

And I know I sound harsh on this. But it is a small decision that kept a good show from being amazing.

@TNP said in Good TV:

@Coin said in Good TV:

I think the choreography is kind of horrible on purpose?

Maybe? It sort of reminder me of this except not as good or as funny.

ETA: Team Max forever.

Yo, that was hilarious.

But for real, I don't think ZEP was horrible on purpose at all. I think they just went cheap with the music and the dancing. You can tell that they did not cast the show with that in mind. Personally, I think each character should have had their own style of dance - or at least the sense of that. Instead of it being very obvious that most of this was all choreo'd by the same person. The singing and dancing seems to be an afterthought to a show that is otherwise great or a gimmick built off Glee roots. But it doesn't need it. Most of the characters and stories are really strong all on their own.

@bear_necessities I guess it just kind of depends on what kind of TV you like. If you don't care about occasionally bad lip-singing to badly arranged music with cheesy, repetitive choreography, the characters are awesome and endearing and the writing, while uninspired, is pretty entertaining.

It isn't something I'd sit down to watch on my own, but when my wife watches it, I'm cool with watching it with her without feeling like I'm wasting my time.

@Coin said in Good TV:

Watched the season finale of Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist and I could swear someone threw a cup of salty water on my face.

I liked the show enough. Loved the concept. The execution was underwhelming for me though, particularly in the musical numbers. But that's the main hook of the show, so unfortunately it wasn't as great as I was hoping it would be.

@Ganymede I agree that it was a bit of a let down. But only because they built everything up very well. It was a fun experience but they couldn't quite take it to another level at the end.

I don't think too much will change based on what is happening now. The number of people who are out of work who view this time as a vacation rather than being very, very concerned is pretty sickening. Check back in a month when things get even worse.

Actually, even then I don't think things will change. I don't have much faith in people. Rich people will continue to get richer by exploiting poorer people. Poorer people will continue to let themselves be exploited and live on razor thin margins without a safety net.