>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:

kceaton1
Wow - and I thought I typed long posts. I tip my helm, sir.
I enjoy WoW for various reasons. It has the solo experience down to a T and you can find enjoyable ways to spend your time doing PVP, or dailies, or solo questing, or PUG dungeons (shudder), or crafting, of achievements, or other stuff. If you're in a fun guild then you can do dungeons & raids for fun as well. It isn't just the 'lewts' and numbers. Yahtzee has it wrong there. Any raider worth his salt will tell you without blinking it is the fun of raiding with friends, and solving what are (essentially) multi-player puzzles.
And you don't have to be 'addicted' to do it. I putz around in WoW for maybe an hour or two in the late evenings on 2 or 3 nights a week after the kids are down & the wife is doing other stuff. I was easily able to get to level 85 in a couple weeks that way (plus a day or two of multi-hour gaming over the holiday). My guild raids one night a week, for a 2-hour stint. Easily doable while leaving plenty of time for myraids of other interests. Moderation. It's all about moderation.


I knew that'd be a long post, but I was trying to include ALL (or almost all) the issues I've had with MMO's and WoW in specific. I felt giving a "summarily summarized" post would be nothing more than noise -- as I've seen my fair share of on "x" MMO forum.

The only reason I posted anything of that length is that I hate to be misunderstood. If there's one thing I've learned on the Internet is that: while being succinct is nice and prudent were it can be used (without compromising your premise and argument), it's a horrific thing to do when you're trying to make useful observations and criticisms. Also, when giving solutions for the target of the criticism. For programmers (and I've been there) the more someone tries to "succinctly critique" a request/argument for you, the less helpful it is, for you. Though my statement may have been superfluous, I did want to cover all my issues with the approach of designers to current MMO design.

Some people read it (as I would assume you read did) and voted it up, so I'd say some appreciate a thorough approach. It's easy to write a lot about this subject for the mere reason that I've played so many others MMOs other than WoW. Each one adds one or two more things to the mix, but there has yet to be a revolution in the mechanics. I, of which, believe that this is something long past due.

The short fact is that I'm someone with programming experience and a slightly higher amount of design experience; that has also played just about every game ever made. Definitely, I've played all the game types. I would just like one MMO to get-it-right!

I also allowed this to be a bit longer to make sure my response didn't sound rude.

But, raids need HEAVY work still. They are VERY much not for an average player -- once again killing MAIN content for 90% of the playerbase. Blizzard needs to take note that every MMO that has gone to a Free2Play model is now back in business, even though they were dying (due to WoW and saturation). Some have seen a quadrupling in profits, not to even mention what happened number wise to the playerbase.

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:

kceaton1
Wow - and I thought I typed long posts. I tip my helm, sir.
I enjoy WoW for various reasons. It has the solo experience down to a T and you can find enjoyable ways to spend your time doing PVP, or dailies, or solo questing, or PUG dungeons (shudder), or crafting, of achievements, or other stuff. If you're in a fun guild then you can do dungeons & raids for fun as well. It isn't just the 'lewts' and numbers. Yahtzee has it wrong there. Any raider worth his salt will tell you without blinking it is the fun of raiding with friends, and solving what are (essentially) multi-player puzzles.
And you don't have to be 'addicted' to do it. I putz around in WoW for maybe an hour or two in the late evenings on 2 or 3 nights a week after the kids are down & the wife is doing other stuff. I was easily able to get to level 85 in a couple weeks that way (plus a day or two of multi-hour gaming over the holiday). My guild raids one night a week, for a 2-hour stint. Easily doable while leaving plenty of time for myraids of other interests. Moderation. It's all about moderation.


Actually, the real danger in paying for WoW is that your money helps line the pockets of liberal videogame makers. Naw, I'm just kidding, Bobby Kotick donates to the Republican party.

But, seriously -- numbers, numbers. What do those pesky imaginary characters remind me of? Oh! I know -- Videosift! Another dangerous liberal hot spot, plagued by an ever increasing need to sift more and MORE AND MORE videos -- but for what?! To gain powers!! Powers? For what?! TO BETTER SIFT VIDEOS!! Muahahaha! Those evil, evil bastards.

kceaton1

Wow - and I thought I typed long posts. I tip my helm, sir.

I enjoy WoW for various reasons. It has the solo experience down to a T and you can find enjoyable ways to spend your time doing PVP, or dailies, or solo questing, or PUG dungeons (shudder), or crafting, of achievements, or other stuff. If you're in a fun guild then you can do dungeons & raids for fun as well. It isn't just the 'lewts' and numbers. Yahtzee has it wrong there. Any raider worth his salt will tell you without blinking it is the fun of raiding with friends, and solving what are (essentially) multi-player puzzles.

And you don't have to be 'addicted' to do it. I putz around in WoW for maybe an hour or two in the late evenings on 2 or 3 nights a week after the kids are down & the wife is doing other stuff. I was easily able to get to level 85 in a couple weeks that way (plus a day or two of multi-hour gaming over the holiday). My guild raids one night a week, for a 2-hour stint. Easily doable while leaving plenty of time for myraids of other interests. Moderation. It's all about moderation.

@dystopianfuturetoday: Yow, I despised A.I. I don't have anything insightful to say about it except that I hated it enough that I had to comment on it.

Brazil and Raiders rock, though, I agree.

The film A.I. started out as a Kubrick project, a project that Kubrick wanted Spielberg to direct, because he felt Spielberg's directing style would best fit the script. The film never got out of the development phase, because the effects technology of the time were not convincing enough for Kubrick's high standards. After Kubrick passed, Spielberg picked it up and made a very dark, beautiful and underrated film. One of his best IMO.

All of them are artists. All of them are entertainers. I dig all three directors. If I had to make a personal top 10 list, it would probably include The Shining, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Brazil. I don't see a reason to beat down Spielberg just because he is more commercial. Most commercial films suck. (Current box office champs: Tron 2, Yogi Bear, Narnia 3) Spielberg consistently puts out intelligent, meaningful films that can be appreciated by people of all walks of life - not an easy task.

That said, Gilliam's last 3 flicks were horrible. I hope his second shot at La Mancha goes well, the released footage from the 1st abandoned attempt looked really good.

The autumn wind is a Raider...

That's viking raider skills right there

>> ^BoneRemake:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wok_with_Yan


lol:

Wok & Roll
Wokking My Baby Back Home
Danger, Men at Wok
Wok Around the Clock
Wok the Heck
You Are Wok You Eat
Wok Goes up Must Come Down
Wok's New, Pussycat?
Wokkey Night in Canada
Stuck Between a Wok and a Hard Place
Raiders of The Lost Wok
Eat Your Wok Out
Moon Wok
Jailhouse Wok
Superior Wokmanship

I think this is from Womb Raider 2.

>> ^Harzzach:

I expected Vipers and Cylon Raiders flew out of the machine after opening it. Great Battlestar Galactica soundtrack


Yeah Im definitely hearing the battlestar galactica beat in this, now we just need the shaky camera action and bad tracking.

I expected Vipers and Cylon Raiders flew out of the machine after opening it. Great Battlestar Galactica soundtrack

Things i noticed:

- Isn't it a bit sexist of her to assume that the robots in transformers weren't their equivalent of female?
- Ditto District 9, though we couldn't pronounce their names nor tell if they were conversing.
- I thought there was a bit in watchmen where older/younger silk spectre spoke about something other than a man - at least for a bit.
- The bourne supremacy has 2 named women talking to each other about old assassination missions and capturing a rogue assassin. As does the third one because it follows directly on from the second. Does this qualify as 'talking about a man'? If so, that is a very arbitrary line to be drawn.
- Isn't wall-e about robots?
- Austin Powers are films lampooning the objectifying of women/the wallflower stereotype.
- The wedding singer has the two named sisters talking about the degree of tongue acceptable at weddings. Again, i say that if you can bend the rules to say that is technically 'talking about a man', then you could equally bend them another way in this and other examples.
- ^ Such as X-men where there are many group conversations involving named women. I'm not an expert on those films so i can't say for sure if there's a clear conversation between 2 named women, but group convo's with multiple named women there are.
- Interview with a vampire has a conversation between the child vampire (who is of course a woman trapped in a child's body, this is a big point in the film) and the woman selected to be bitten to be her mother, both are named.

If you make a film based anywhere in history past 50-60 years ago, you're going to hit the culture factor. You can't just manufacture women into places where they wouldn't have been in a time where women were not considered equal. You may as well complain about racism in a film taking place when black people were used in slavery.
- Shawshank
- Pirates
- Gladiator

There are films with a very powerful and strong female protagonist battling against the odds and coming out on top. Some of these films don't even pass the test - how can this be when it's basically saying "Women can be better/stronger than men?"
- GI Jane (vs. GI Joe) - fights against all the odds and eventually shows people how wrong they were.
- Fifth element - she saves him, he saves her, she saves the planet?
- Alien 3
- Tomb Raider
- Arguably 'Wanted'

^ It almost feels like she's mocking her own theory/criticism by naming these films. "Hey look everyone, even films with a super-strong female character kicking everyone's ass and showing how women aren't wallflowers........................is perpetuating the stereotype that women are submissive wallflowers!"

It's almost like naming examples of where the theory fails to be true. Which ...renders the theory useless?

I do think there's a point to be made, but i don't think it's as bad as they want to believe it is, and i certainly don't think that this is demonstrated by the films listed. Show films like pulp fiction, se7en, etc. even fight club. Those convince me. The others make me think "I don't think these people will be happy until we make 2 versions of every film with the sexes mirror'd."

If they can't value the fifth element, alien and tomb raider as films that fight against a stereotype, when exactly are they going to be happy?

http://tomb-raider-anniversary.com/tomb-raider-anniversary-game/revisioned/

thats the only thing i got when i googled him.

i guess he aint doin new stuff

>> ^netean:
just further confirms that Lucas is a generally crappy writer/director who has just gotten lucky a couple of times.
a couple of times? Star Wars: ok, I'll give you that, crappy diaglogue, badly acted but fantastically good film, what's the other one, Willow, American Graffiti? they're the only 2 other possible contenders. Everything else has been a steaming pile of raped childhood memories.
If you say Revenge of the Sith, I'll reach down my broadband line and smack you so hard!


I thought Raiders of the Lost Ark was ok, too.

Thank God they all died. I've been wishing every night for such a disaster.

Now, let's hope the Oakland Colosseum can implode on itself so that the Raiders will all leave us alone, too.