@voidofopinion Quote: I find Umbrella in the films is actually a lot more coherent and pointedly evil than in the games. The video game universe of Resident Evil is this madness network of retcons, alternate storylines, official rewrites, unofficial rewrites and a knotty tangle of thread even Capcom can't unravel at this point.
This makes me sad to learn. Portrayed so well in the movies.
Quote: Also, I havent seen anyone mention Army Men in over a decade
The same could of been said about nwn a few months ago, well, maybe
It is Monday March the 19th and it is time for the...
Question of the week!
D&D translates remarkably well to video games thanks in part to it's origin as a war game (Chainmail) and the infinite possibilities of its settings. And yet most D&D video games take place in the Forgotten Realms following the same tropes and adventures.
Question:
What is one thing you would love to see a D&D game do well that always seems to fall a bit flat?
What is one thing you would love to see a D&D game do well that always seems to fall a bit flat?
For me it is adventuring guilds.
If anyone has seen the cult budget fantasy series "Mythica" there is a bar that all the adventuring parties hang out at. Contracts come in and adventurers claim the bounty and bring a token back to the guild were in turn they will get a free drink and a little bit of respect from the guild master.
The Witcher 3 and Dragon Age stuck side quests on a bulletin board.
The Elder Scrolls have you join a guild and then go through a static chain of quests until you are guild leader but still can't affect anything.
In most D&D games an adventuring guild is somewhere you go to rent henchmen or a small story point.
Why would people not make more use of Adventuring Guilds? It seems like a great hub for activity. A place to form rivals, to go on adventures, to get in trouble!
Why would people not make more use of Adventuring Guilds? It seems like a great hub for activity. A place to form rivals, to go on adventures, to get in trouble!
Personally, I would assume that's because most fantasy games have a larger plot than "the thieves guild is stealing some stuff, stop/join/slaughter them." I wouldn't expect the thieves guild to be more important than
"Alduin is trying to revive all the dragons to enslave the world so you need to learn the words of power to stop him (or not, just beat him at level 10, its fine...)", or "Morag is reviving all the ancient slaver lizards to take over the world, so you need to get the words of power before they do to stop them." (When you word it that way, they sound like nearly the same game...)
I imagine a guild-based main quest would be cool in a premium module, though.
Personally, mine is the fact I can't play a lich without custom content or tools to semi-replicate it. Based on my admittedly limited D&D gaming experience with NWN and NWN2, I'm going to broadly generalize the fact that other games don't let you do this. Come on, how else am I supposed to play Rabadab the Bardic Lich, with his signature instrument, the Didgeridoo of Doomididoom, which can be blown to cast either Creeping Doom, Word of Faith, and Animate Dead? Ignore how Leto exists in NWN1 and I can play Rabadab whenever I want if I so desire. I can't do it in NWN2 because every program that's ever been designed for it hates me with a burning rage, evidently, but that's NWN2.
It is Monday March the 19th and it is time for the...
Question of the week!
D&D translates remarkably well to video games thanks in part to it's origin as a war game (Chainmail) and the infinite possibilities of its settings. And yet most D&D video games take place in the Forgotten Realms following the same tropes and adventures.
Question:
What is one thing you would love to see a D&D game do well that always seems to fall a bit flat?
I’m assuming you’re talking about video game D&D. Because the medium is most usually the internet, friendships that might of otherwise formed around some tabletop shenanigans cannot. I played a weekly campaign with the same guys for like 2 years in nwn1 online. It was heaps of fun but once over we went our seperate ways. Fair enough that’s the nature of the beast for some good reasons too but I still find myself lamenting this side effect. In that time we had 1 meeting where like 3 of us met up And had beers. So no clue how you’d fix this or even if users want it fixed. But the anonymity even after spending hours and hours of game time together with team work as a big part is something I lament about the whole thing! This could be done better in my humble opinion.
Not every heroes story has to involve saving the world from some great evil.
Some of my favorite moments in PnP and cRPG's have come about during moments when the scope is scaled back to something more personal.
The "A Towerful of Mice" quest from the Witcher 3 springs to mind.
You are sent to lift the curse from the island.
Discover a tower where horrible things have happened.
Learn the wretched history of the poor spirit that haunts the place.
You hunt down clues and track down the one person who can lift the curse.
Lift the curse.
Bad things happen.
Get taken for dinner.
Someone tries to seduce you.
Figure out what is really going on.
I can relate to those moments. Games are quite good at telling those moments.
However, I have yet to play a video game that was able to convey the same scope available in PnP so I can't help but imagine this epic world to go along with the epic plot and I am always left disappointed it never lived up to its potential.
@voidofopinion I totally agree that you don't have to do a "save the world" plot in order to have a good story. However, in the majority of games the main quest needs to sell you on the whole ideas of the game; NWN has a StW plot because it allows it to take you to a wide variety of locations and show off everything you can make in NWN, since creating your own stories and worlds is pretty core to the goals of NWN. The Elder Scrolls games and MMO's use the StW plot to get you into exploring and going around their world, as the wide open world is a big part of these games, even if the first thing you do is completely forget about it. Also, what other genre can you have fabulous magical skulls trying to catch the planet on fire because he accidentally stole the soul of his/her girlfriend/boyfriend? Not that I think that that's ever been done, but now that I've said it I really want someone to make it.
I will say, however, that main quests with such cataclysmic undertakings kind of drags down the experience for me because I can't bring myself to stop saving the world from being destroyed (or the city from destroying itself) when such a plot implies a time crunch, so no I don't have the time to kill the goblin king right now. Turns out a lot of the OC's side quests have good/funny writing though, so I guess I missed out there. Shadows of Undrentide actually seems to give you less and less side quests as you go along (unless I just missed half of them but it didn't seem like there were many people to talk to), which works pretty well for me because the plot starts kind of low-risk until the middle of the interlude, and then turns into a frantic rush to stop the big bad.
NWN launches. Beamdog have a sneaky something to announce and Jayce is still saving the galaxy from Monster Minds!
I did a writing and world building workshop over the weekend so I am all pumped up to do some high concept detail work! Hopfully I can get the most amount of creativity out of it all before returning to the endless drone of data entry that is most modding.
This weeks question doesn't have to be game related but it also doesn't not not have to be be about video games.
Question of the week:
What is something you are embarrassed about being naturally good at?
Not Japanese arcade "I have played this game for over 1000 hours and can do it blindfold" good, but I can play any new song on Rockband/Guitar Hero on Expert and get 5 stars the first time every time.
Same for Hatsune Miku and Audioshield.
Something about rhythm games just clicks.
However, there is very little you can accomplish in life with a plastic toy guitar held up to your chin as you strum away furiously.
NWN launches. Beamdog have a sneaky something to announce and Jayce is still saving the galaxy from Monster Minds!
I did a writing and world building workshop over the weekend so I am all pumped up to do some high concept detail work! Hopfully I can get the most amount of creativity out of it all before returning to the endless drone of data entry that is most modding.
This weeks question doesn't have to be game related but it also doesn't not not have to be be about video games.
Question of the week:
What is something you are embarrassed about being naturally good at?
I have thought and thought about this one lol. What am I both a natural at and embarrassed about, hmmm. After literally days mulling this over I then had an epithany and suddenly realised that I am a natural at not being a natural about anything. Basically, I suk at everything I don’t spend ages practising. Unless you want to count eating hamburgers or sci-fi trivia, which I love. !!
I don't know if anybody noticed from my profile picture, but I like to draw a bit. I'm not sure if I'd consider myself a natural at it, as my artwork's quality varies incredibly drastically depending on the day, but I'd consider myself decent at what I do draw consistently. However, considering the fact I don't think I'm all that great at it, I get somewhat embarrassed when people (particularly art teachers) gush about my artwork. Its even worse when they don't give you any criticism because its apparently so good that they can't, but you know deep down it isn't as good as they're making it out to be.
What is something you are embarrassed about being naturally good at?
I have to say that I'm really good at not finishing games. Honestly, it's almost shame-inducing, the amount of games that I've never finished. Neverwinter Nights being one of the exceptions, I must add. But then again, I must also add an exception for HotU from that list of execptions. And that means that I've only completed 2/3rds of NwN, I guess. And let's not even mention the Vault content ... so, to make a long story less long, name a game - chances are, I've never finished it!
I'm really, really good at learning how to do new things...but only if I'm interested.
Baking? Yup. Cosplay costume work? Uh, huh. NWN custom content? Well, yeah. Gardening? How else am I supposed to get fresh tomatoes for sandwiches?
Most computer programming? Meh. Car repair? Well, I can change a tire. Hunting or fishing? Don't see the appeal. Understanding research papers? I went to grad school...twice...and never got through one without getting a headache.
Critique is massively important for improvement. But it is also subjective and both positive and negative critique should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Unless you are being graded or doing a commission and then you have to adapt your work to your audience.
My wife was doing commissions for her pin up's and after the first couple she decided she hated it because it sucked all the joy and inspiration out of what she was doing.
What art project would you love to do but you have been keeping on the back burner for one reason or another?
I have always admired costume designers. I spent many years in the theater and it always amazed me that someone could take a couple of bolts of cloth and turn it into something amazing. Same with set designers who could take some stuff they found in thrift shops and magically make an 18th century manor house out of junk and spray paint.
Ok, how about this one. James Bond- Daniel Craig played Stormtrooper JB 007 in the force awakens. Prince William and Harry also played Stormtroopers but their scene was cut because one of them was ‘a little short to be a stormtrooper’ it was decided after the scene was shot.
My game guilt stems mainly from the time I spend away from my family - boy, can those kiddos get irate! And almost 1000 games - Great Googley Moogley, man! I'm getting a case of sympathy stress!
@voidofopinion I've continually tried to draw a campfire scene for my main group of characters in my story. I've got a party of eight characters for my core adventuring party when I try to write; surprise surprise, these are the people I draw most often. Usually I stop drawing the campfire scene because the size I try to draw at ends up being way too big for the paper I'm working on, and/or I realize "oh dear how am I supposed to fit the dragon or the giant beetle horse demigod thing in here," and since I draw too dark for it to properly erase I either move onto a new sheet of paper or I just stop drawing for a while. Also I'm lazy as hell so I don't usually get back to it until I have literally nothing else to do. Kind of isn't a productive mentality, but y'know.
Family sharing has alleviated some of that burden as I can now share my library with people so that the other 982 games in my library are not always going to waste.
I prefer smaller homes and moved around a lot so I simply don't have room for a giant games collection. So I started getting into digital distribution Sep 2006 so I have been around for a lot of Steam sales and a lot of indie bundles.
Which I guess doing a little match is 82 games a year, or 7 games a month. Which sounds about right. On average I have only paid $5 per game, so $35 a month for video games is less than most people spend on coffee.
This expenditure was also my wifes idea to get me to quit smoking and keep from picking it up again. At first I would spend all the money I saved on smokes on new games and hardware... But you eventually reach this point of diminishing returns where you have most everything you could possibly want and everything good on Steam/GoG/Fanatical/GMG you already picked up on sale for less a few years ago.
And thanks to most games today being sequels or spiritual successors I find myself saying "Well I could spend $60 for Divinity 2, but I still haven't finished Divine Divinity, Beyond Divinity or Divinity Original Sin."
Here I am 12 years later, still a non-smoker and with a game collection I cant possibly play.
I just cheat by scanning everything into photoshop and resizeing it.
However, I did watch my wife over a period of 10 years ago from drawing a really wonky stool with tiny wheels and a giant leg at the back, to drawing amazing pin up's with beautiful fine detail and generous proportion.
It's a lot of hard work, takes a lot of practice, takes great talent and I don't have time for any of those 3 things so I do it the easy way.
Family sharing has alleviated some of that burden as I can now share my library with people so that the other 982 games in my library are not always going to waste.
I prefer smaller homes and moved around a lot so I simply don't have room for a giant games collection. So I started getting into digital distribution Sep 2006 so I have been around for a lot of Steam sales and a lot of indie bundles.
Which I guess doing a little match is 82 games a year, or 7 games a month. Which sounds about right. On average I have only paid $5 per game, so $35 a month for video games is less than most people spend on coffee.
This expenditure was also my wifes idea to get me to quit smoking and keep from picking it up again. At first I would spend all the money I saved on smokes on new games and hardware... But you eventually reach this point of diminishing returns where you have most everything you could possibly want and everything good on Steam/GoG/Fanatical/GMG you already picked up on sale for less a few years ago.
And thanks to most games today being sequels or spiritual successors I find myself saying "Well I could spend $60 for Divinity 2, but I still haven't finished Divine Divinity, Beyond Divinity or Divinity Original Sin."
Here I am 12 years later, still a non-smoker and with a game collection I cant possibly play.
I just cheat by scanning everything into photoshop and resizeing it.
However, I did watch my wife over a period of 10 years ago from drawing a really wonky stool with tiny wheels and a giant leg at the back, to drawing amazing pin up's with beautiful fine detail and generous proportion.
It's a lot of hard work, takes a lot of practice, takes great talent and I don't have time for any of those 3 things so I do it the easy way.
In the immortal words of the late Eddie Guerrero:
"If you ain't cheatin' you ain't trying"
Not really cosplay but when I was a kid I got into model making and loved sci fi. One day I realised that you could build spaceships out of just about anything. I used to get a bunch of old junk like say a transistor radio case, some electronic parts, pen lids, wheels and glue them all together. Once you painted the thing with Matt grey model paint you’d be amazed at how well it looked like some kind of alien craft lol. I used to string them all up with fishing line in my bedroom. Egg cartons work lol
There is something great about having the idea for an art project and seeing it come to life.
I think model building and sci-fi go hand in hand. It's really hard to appreciate one and not the other considering the vast majority of film and TV sets are made up of spray paint and egg cartons!
Speaking of, I just recently discovered they replaced the enterprise model with CGI. That is criminal!
@voidofopinion Speaking of, I just recently discovered they replaced the enterprise model with CGI. That is criminal!
Sacrilege! Holy cow, I better dump my egg carton shares ASAP!! But yeah, CGI seems to be the way it’s all going now. More and more stuff is being done that way. Although cgi movies don’t seem to be taken all that seriously unless they’re ‘Avatar’ Here’s a mini question for ya. what CGI unknown movie have you discovered that was pretty good despite the fact it was heavy CGI. I’m gonna go with ‘Appleseed X’ pretty sure it’s cyberpunk and part 2 of something but I really enjoyed it aye! Great sci-fi lore and decent story all though some scenes very average CGI wise. I have a personal scale for sci-fi movies as I really like to get into the lore of the advancements. Believable BS level is what I use and it rates pretty high for me. An example of a low Beleivable BS level movie was the latest Star Wars in parts.
The escaping rebel’s flying ‘too fast’ in space for star destroyers to catch them. Did no one think of a hyperspace jump in front of them? Twats. And what about the Mortar like energy weapon bombardment of said cruiser with the arcing trajectories. ?? It’s SPACE lol, there’s no trajectory arcing!
If you want to know what is criminal, it’s what that twat writer did to Luke’s character. So much potential to make a Big Bang ending, that idiot writes Luke out like that. Seriously annoyed over that. I think there’s even a petition going round trying to strike that movie from Being cannon lol.
I just realized my post made it sound like I was shocked they replaced The Enterprise with CGI like... Ever.
...Which I guess isnt far from the truth but yeah they went back and replaced all the practical effects and models of The Original Series with CGI to make it match TNG/Voyager/DS9. I was gutted when I saw it!
And I haven't seen the new Star Wars film so I had no idea they killed off Luke. That seems like such a wasted opportunity considering what a huge role he played in the extended universe. But I heard Disney have no interest in the extended universe so killing off Luke may be there way of ensuring a clean slate.
As for CGI films, I actually had to google what CGI films have come out recently as I am a horror/sci-fi/animation fan and it seems like most of the big CGI films are almost all Pixar style films which I havent seen (because my wife morally opposes them for being emotionally exploitative. So by proxy I havent gotten around to watching them) or action flicks.
I did enjoy some of the Marvel/DC films. Iron Man was great as was Wonder Woman and the first Guardians of the Galaxy but I didn't really care for the rest of the Marvel/DC shared universes. The Pirates of the Caribbean films have also been enjoyable. I havent seen the new one but a good piratey yard doesnt go amiss. Although I guess the Pirates films are a nice blend of CGI and practical effects so they may not count.
The new Star Trek films are garbage and I couldn't get into the new Star Wars films. The first one was a retelling of a new hope and the second was based on a throw away line that felt like a filler movie. Now I hear they killed off Luke so my enthusiasm is very much curbed.
So I guess I am down for a big budget CGI fest summer action flick every now and then but they don't really stick with me and I don't really seek them out unless there is a crossover with another genre I love.
Appleseed X sounds like fun! I will have to check it out.
Although right now I am going through the collected works of Yoshihiro Nishimura so I am all in on practical effects and awful CGI at the moment.
@voidofopinion Silly me I didn’t even think that there are some people out there that haven’t seen the latest Starwars. (Wow, fancy that!!) Apologies for the spoilers. Errr.. Luke may of survived.*cough*
Being such a fan of Star Trek, I’ve got goggles on that prevent me from seeing the latest movies in a bad light. Though there is a little voice in the back of my head trying to change that.
Have you heard of Star Trek discovery? It’s kind of a bit more gritty and how should I put it, “ out there” new series. I’m still waiting for season 2. Set 10 years before Kirk.
If I cared about spoilers I would have seen it by now and honestly I don't understand why people get so bent out of shape over them. Unless the entire film rests on a single plot twist like Fight Club, The Mist or Sixth Sense then spoilers really don't bother me and even then I'm generally nonplussed over the issue.
As for Star Trek:
Don't listen to that voice in the back of your head! It's always a trap!
The New Films are fun action romps with fantastic special effects supported by a great cast!
But for me they feel far more Hollywood than they do Gene Roddenberry. Especially with regards to tone and morality.
It's like if Mr. Rogers got a 2018 reboot where he is armed with a shotgun and has to save a strip club from zombies.
Granted... There is no way I am missing that flick but it is just not going to be the same.
I haven't seen Discovery yet as I don't have live television but I have heard nothing but good things about it!
It is up on CBS and they have a 1 week free trial and Discovery is only 15 episodes so I may do that instead of waiting for it to come to Hulu. Netflix or Amazon.
I loved the reboots, and after watching those, I got more interested in the TV show. I'm about halfway through the second season of the original, and I must say that I like it now a lot more than I ever did during my childhood. Nice that Netflix has 'em, so I can watch 'em as I get the fancy to.
And Star Wars - I loved those ones, too! Sorry, friends, but I have no real connection to the legends canon, so I'm not upset at all about the direction they took. As far as the new Star Wars being inferior to the old stuff, I'm still waiting for the midichlorian counts for verification.
Anyways, take a listen to this interview with Trent Oster and Jonathan Hill by the Dragon+ folks at the D&D headquarters. They retread some old ground but they also talk more about putting a spotlight on the community. This means featuring mods in the Dragon+ magazine, and a desire to reach out to those who want to stream live sessions in NWN similar to shows like Critical Role and Dice Camera Action.
Comments
Quote:
I find Umbrella in the films is actually a lot more coherent and pointedly evil than in the games. The video game universe of Resident Evil is this madness network of retcons, alternate storylines, official rewrites, unofficial rewrites and a knotty tangle of thread even Capcom can't unravel at this point.
This makes me sad to learn. Portrayed so well in the movies.
Quote:
Also, I havent seen anyone mention Army Men in over a decade
The same could of been said about nwn a few months ago, well, maybe
It is Monday March the 19th and it is time for the...
Question of the week!
D&D translates remarkably well to video games thanks in part to it's origin as a war game (Chainmail) and the infinite possibilities of its settings. And yet most D&D video games take place in the Forgotten Realms following the same tropes and adventures.
Question:
What is one thing you would love to see a D&D game do well that always seems to fall a bit flat?
If anyone has seen the cult budget fantasy series "Mythica" there is a bar that all the adventuring parties hang out at. Contracts come in and adventurers claim the bounty and bring a token back to the guild were in turn they will get a free drink and a little bit of respect from the guild master.
- The Witcher 3 and Dragon Age stuck side quests on a bulletin board.
- The Elder Scrolls have you join a guild and then go through a static chain of quests until you are guild leader but still can't affect anything.
- In most D&D games an adventuring guild is somewhere you go to rent henchmen or a small story point.
Why would people not make more use of Adventuring Guilds? It seems like a great hub for activity. A place to form rivals, to go on adventures, to get in trouble!Personally, mine is the fact I can't play a lich without custom content or tools to semi-replicate it. Based on my admittedly limited D&D gaming experience with NWN and NWN2, I'm going to broadly generalize the fact that other games don't let you do this. Come on, how else am I supposed to play Rabadab the Bardic Lich, with his signature instrument, the Didgeridoo of Doomididoom, which can be blown to cast either Creeping Doom, Word of Faith, and Animate Dead? Ignore how Leto exists in NWN1 and I can play Rabadab whenever I want if I so desire. I can't do it in NWN2 because every program that's ever been designed for it hates me with a burning rage, evidently, but that's NWN2.
So no clue how you’d fix this or even if users want it fixed. But the anonymity even after spending hours and hours of game time together with team work as a big part is something I lament about the whole thing! This could be done better in my humble opinion.
Getting old rocks!
So this has pretty much consumed my life for the past few days and it has been glorious!
_______
@DerpCity
Not every heroes story has to involve saving the world from some great evil.
Some of my favorite moments in PnP and cRPG's have come about during moments when the scope is scaled back to something more personal.
The "A Towerful of Mice" quest from the Witcher 3 springs to mind.
- You are sent to lift the curse from the island.
- Discover a tower where horrible things have happened.
- Learn the wretched history of the poor spirit that haunts the place.
- You hunt down clues and track down the one person who can lift the curse.
- Lift the curse.
- Bad things happen.
- Get taken for dinner.
- Someone tries to seduce you.
- Figure out what is really going on.
I can relate to those moments. Games are quite good at telling those moments.However, I have yet to play a video game that was able to convey the same scope available in PnP so I can't help but imagine this epic world to go along with the epic plot and I am always left disappointed it never lived up to its potential.
--------
@MrDamage
That's not just Online gaming anymore.
Thanks to the glory of social media now all relationships are superficial and disposable!
I will say, however, that main quests with such cataclysmic undertakings kind of drags down the experience for me because I can't bring myself to stop saving the world from being destroyed (or the city from destroying itself) when such a plot implies a time crunch, so no I don't have the time to kill the goblin king right now. Turns out a lot of the OC's side quests have good/funny writing though, so I guess I missed out there. Shadows of Undrentide actually seems to give you less and less side quests as you go along (unless I just missed half of them but it didn't seem like there were many people to talk to), which works pretty well for me because the plot starts kind of low-risk until the middle of the interlude, and then turns into a frantic rush to stop the big bad.
It's going to be a good week! ]
NWN launches. Beamdog have a sneaky something to announce and Jayce is still saving the galaxy from Monster Minds!
I did a writing and world building workshop over the weekend so I am all pumped up to do some high concept detail work! Hopfully I can get the most amount of creativity out of it all before returning to the endless drone of data entry that is most modding.
This weeks question doesn't have to be game related but it also doesn't not not have to be be about video games.
Like... Really... Really good.
Not Japanese arcade "I have played this game for over 1000 hours and can do it blindfold" good, but I can play any new song on Rockband/Guitar Hero on Expert and get 5 stars the first time every time.
Same for Hatsune Miku and Audioshield.
Something about rhythm games just clicks.
However, there is very little you can accomplish in life with a plastic toy guitar held up to your chin as you strum away furiously.
Baking? Yup. Cosplay costume work? Uh, huh. NWN custom content? Well, yeah. Gardening? How else am I supposed to get fresh tomatoes for sandwiches?
Most computer programming? Meh. Car repair? Well, I can change a tire. Hunting or fishing? Don't see the appeal. Understanding research papers? I went to grad school...twice...and never got through one without getting a headache.
No one needs Hamburger or Sci-Fi shame.
Although I very much doubt you are not good at anything.
What's some good Sci-Fi trivia?
I recently got into Star Trek shoot videos with Marina Sirtis because she spills all the beans and doesn't give a shi... p.
_______
@DerpCity
Ah, the blushing artist!
Critique is massively important for improvement. But it is also subjective and both positive and negative critique should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Unless you are being graded or doing a commission and then you have to adapt your work to your audience.
My wife was doing commissions for her pin up's and after the first couple she decided she hated it because it sucked all the joy and inspiration out of what she was doing.
What art project would you love to do but you have been keeping on the back burner for one reason or another?
_______
@Atrophiederic
Do you get game guilt?
My Steam library is such that no matter what I am currently playing I have this sense of guilt that I am not playing 5 other games simultaneously.
I think my Steam library is at 983 titles. Very close to that mythical 1000 games and I probably haven't played half of them let alone finished them.
Add onto that all the GOG, PS4 and Vita games that I have going and there are just not enough hours in the day to get through that back catalog.
_______
@TheAmethystDragon
You do Cosplay!?
That's really cool!
I have always admired costume designers. I spent many years in the theater and it always amazed me that someone could take a couple of bolts of cloth and turn it into something amazing. Same with set designers who could take some stuff they found in thrift shops and magically make an 18th century manor house out of junk and spray paint.
What's some good Sci-Fi trivia?
Ok, how about this one.
James Bond- Daniel Craig played Stormtrooper JB 007 in the force awakens. Prince William and Harry also played Stormtroopers but their scene was cut because one of them was ‘a little short to be a stormtrooper’ it was decided after the scene was shot.
Just a beginner. Started last summer with some blue dragonscale armor (yeah, over-ambitious for my first time). Foam shaping, painting, some sewing...
Ah, so that explains where you've been lately! xp
My game guilt stems mainly from the time I spend away from my family - boy, can those kiddos get irate! And almost 1000 games - Great Googley Moogley, man! I'm getting a case of sympathy stress!
I think the best thing about cosplay is how wonderfully 1960's BBC it is.
Everything is made from inventive uses of cardboard and milk bottles followed up with sewing and engineering.
Do you have any pictures of the armor you were working on? I would love to see it!
_______
@TheAmethystDragon
Family sharing has alleviated some of that burden as I can now share my library with people so that the other 982 games in my library are not always going to waste.
I prefer smaller homes and moved around a lot so I simply don't have room for a giant games collection. So I started getting into digital distribution Sep 2006 so I have been around for a lot of Steam sales and a lot of indie bundles.
Which I guess doing a little match is 82 games a year, or 7 games a month. Which sounds about right. On average I have only paid $5 per game, so $35 a month for video games is less than most people spend on coffee.
This expenditure was also my wifes idea to get me to quit smoking and keep from picking it up again. At first I would spend all the money I saved on smokes on new games and hardware... But you eventually reach this point of diminishing returns where you have most everything you could possibly want and everything good on Steam/GoG/Fanatical/GMG you already picked up on sale for less a few years ago.
And thanks to most games today being sequels or spiritual successors I find myself saying "Well I could spend $60 for Divinity 2, but I still haven't finished Divine Divinity, Beyond Divinity or Divinity Original Sin."
Here I am 12 years later, still a non-smoker and with a game collection I cant possibly play.
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@DerpCity
Proportion is really difficult.
I just cheat by scanning everything into photoshop and resizeing it.
However, I did watch my wife over a period of 10 years ago from drawing a really wonky stool with tiny wheels and a giant leg at the back, to drawing amazing pin up's with beautiful fine detail and generous proportion.
It's a lot of hard work, takes a lot of practice, takes great talent and I don't have time for any of those 3 things so I do it the easy way.
In the immortal words of the late Eddie Guerrero:
"If you ain't cheatin' you ain't trying"
That sounds incredible!
There is something great about having the idea for an art project and seeing it come to life.
I think model building and sci-fi go hand in hand. It's really hard to appreciate one and not the other considering the vast majority of film and TV sets are made up of spray paint and egg cartons!
Speaking of, I just recently discovered they replaced the enterprise model with CGI. That is criminal!
Speaking of, I just recently discovered they replaced the enterprise model with CGI. That is criminal!
Sacrilege! Holy cow, I better dump my egg carton shares ASAP!!
But yeah, CGI seems to be the way it’s all going now. More and more stuff is being done that way. Although cgi movies don’t seem to be taken all that seriously unless they’re ‘Avatar’
Here’s a mini question for ya. what CGI unknown movie have you discovered that was pretty good despite the fact it was heavy CGI. I’m gonna go with
‘Appleseed X’ pretty sure it’s cyberpunk and part 2 of something but I really enjoyed it aye! Great sci-fi lore and decent story all though some scenes very average CGI wise. I have a personal scale for sci-fi movies as I really like to get into the lore of the advancements. Believable BS level is what I use and it rates pretty high for me. An example of a low Beleivable BS level movie was the latest Star Wars in parts.
If you want to know what is criminal, it’s what that twat writer did to Luke’s character. So much potential to make a Big Bang ending, that idiot writes Luke out like that. Seriously annoyed over that. I think there’s even a petition going round trying to strike that movie from
Being cannon lol.
...Which I guess isnt far from the truth but yeah they went back and replaced all the practical effects and models of The Original Series with CGI to make it match TNG/Voyager/DS9. I was gutted when I saw it!
And I haven't seen the new Star Wars film so I had no idea they killed off Luke. That seems like such a wasted opportunity considering what a huge role he played in the extended universe. But I heard Disney have no interest in the extended universe so killing off Luke may be there way of ensuring a clean slate.
As for CGI films, I actually had to google what CGI films have come out recently as I am a horror/sci-fi/animation fan and it seems like most of the big CGI films are almost all Pixar style films which I havent seen (because my wife morally opposes them for being emotionally exploitative. So by proxy I havent gotten around to watching them) or action flicks.
I did enjoy some of the Marvel/DC films. Iron Man was great as was Wonder Woman and the first Guardians of the Galaxy but I didn't really care for the rest of the Marvel/DC shared universes. The Pirates of the Caribbean films have also been enjoyable. I havent seen the new one but a good piratey yard doesnt go amiss. Although I guess the Pirates films are a nice blend of CGI and practical effects so they may not count.
The new Star Trek films are garbage and I couldn't get into the new Star Wars films. The first one was a retelling of a new hope and the second was based on a throw away line that felt like a filler movie. Now I hear they killed off Luke so my enthusiasm is very much curbed.
So I guess I am down for a big budget CGI fest summer action flick every now and then but they don't really stick with me and I don't really seek them out unless there is a crossover with another genre I love.
Appleseed X sounds like fun! I will have to check it out.
Although right now I am going through the collected works of Yoshihiro Nishimura so I am all in on practical effects and awful CGI at the moment.
Silly me I didn’t even think that there are some people out there that haven’t seen the latest Starwars. (Wow, fancy that!!) Apologies for the spoilers. Errr.. Luke may of survived.*cough*
Being such a fan of Star Trek, I’ve got goggles on that prevent me from seeing the latest movies in a bad light. Though there is a little voice in the back of my head trying to change that.
Have you heard of Star Trek discovery?
It’s kind of a bit more gritty and how should I put it, “ out there” new series. I’m still waiting for season 2. Set 10 years before Kirk.
It's all cool!
If I cared about spoilers I would have seen it by now and honestly I don't understand why people get so bent out of shape over them. Unless the entire film rests on a single plot twist like Fight Club, The Mist or Sixth Sense then spoilers really don't bother me and even then I'm generally nonplussed over the issue.
As for Star Trek:
Don't listen to that voice in the back of your head! It's always a trap!
The New Films are fun action romps with fantastic special effects supported by a great cast!
But for me they feel far more Hollywood than they do Gene Roddenberry. Especially with regards to tone and morality.
It's like if Mr. Rogers got a 2018 reboot where he is armed with a shotgun and has to save a strip club from zombies.
Granted... There is no way I am missing that flick but it is just not going to be the same.
I haven't seen Discovery yet as I don't have live television but I have heard nothing but good things about it!
It is up on CBS and they have a 1 week free trial and Discovery is only 15 episodes so I may do that instead of waiting for it to come to Hulu. Netflix or Amazon.
I loved the reboots, and after watching those, I got more interested in the TV show. I'm about halfway through the second season of the original, and I must say that I like it now a lot more than I ever did during my childhood. Nice that Netflix has 'em, so I can watch 'em as I get the fancy to.
And Star Wars - I loved those ones, too! Sorry, friends, but I have no real connection to the legends canon, so I'm not upset at all about the direction they took. As far as the new Star Wars being inferior to the old stuff, I'm still waiting for the midichlorian counts for verification.
*Points*
Anyways, take a listen to this interview with Trent Oster and Jonathan Hill by the Dragon+ folks at the D&D headquarters. They retread some old ground but they also talk more about putting a spotlight on the community. This means featuring mods in the Dragon+ magazine, and a desire to reach out to those who want to stream live sessions in NWN similar to shows like Critical Role and Dice Camera Action.
Also anyone have any speculation on the announcement for April 1st with Holly Conrad???