darth_ender

Didn't take long for a thread devoted to an American holiday evolved into a thread about UK politics.  It's interesting though :)

Tobar said:

Have you read the comic adaption of Splinter of the Mind's Eye? It had some pretty cool covers and the interior art was pretty good too.

I haven't, but that could perhaps give me what I want.  I have it, so I'll have to read it and get back to you.

That article leads me to wonder what bridges exactly did Prowse burn?  He claims to have been unaware of the "I am your father" secret until the film's premiere, yet Lucas supposedly cut off most contact after he leaked that secret.  I know first instinct here is to accuse Lucas of being paranoid, selfish, egotistical, or whatnot, but does anyone really know why Prowse was cut off?  This question probably merits its own thread, but I don't feel like starting one.

Thanks to the Internet, we have a dubious and uncited source as to Mark Hamill's opinion of the PT, plus a deliberate misrepresentation of his meaning in the commentary...

http://www.contactmusic.com/news-article/hamill-slams-new-star-wars-movies

...and all within a 64 word blurb.

Twooffour Revealed to Be Charismatic Cult Leader.  Millions Follow.

Anchorhead said:

chosen1 said:

I believe the expanded universe put a damper on the original trilogy's thunder. It tool all of the fans imagination out of the plot. What's your perspective?

I wanted to address this separately and Bingo has discussed it as well.  Lucas took care of shutting the door on the fans' imaginations long before the EU was anything more than a few late 70s\early 80s novels.  Novels which, at the time, were almost completely unrelated to the original story other than an occasional name-check or reference to the first films. 

Lucas controlled what little EU was allowed so he could control the story. He decided what level of imagination was allowed, not the EU. If anything, the early EU - Foster, Daley, and Smith - was truly an Expanded Universe - new characters, new enemies, new adventures.

 I gotta agree, the oldest EU is probably the best.  George had showed an inkling of the universe, and the early authors had a lot of fun in the remaining vastness of their imaginations.  At times it was silly or cheesy, but it was good old fashion fun.  I wish there could be some sort of EU reboot today, because as Bingowings pointed out so well, the EU contracts the universe rather than expanding it.  What brilliance the earlier writers had, what with the Corporate Sector authority, Mimban, etc.  I would love for someone to even make a fan film of Splinter of the Mind's Eye.  We could have nice look at the completely different direction Star Wars might've taken.

13 Going on 30.  Yeah, it's a chick flick, but I like it.  A little disappointing with the sexual humor (yes, I'm a prude that way), but generally didn't advocate for immoral sexual behavior, and otherwise a cute and sweet movie.

John Carter.  I like watching movies with subtitles, especially films in a new world and therefore with several new words to define races, nations, planets, etc.  Our remote is lost, so I watched this without subs, which made it hard for me to follow a couple of times.  This was compounded by having the volume down 'cause the kids were sleeping.  Nevertheless, I got some enjoyment out of it, and I found the ending to be very thorough at tying it all together.

Willow.  This may be the first film I remember seeing in the theater.  I was 6 at the time, and remember being surprised that Skeletor made an appearance.  Even now I still love this movie, and it's surprising how it's not rated higher on IMDB.  Sure, it rips off Star Wars with parallels for Luke, Han, the Emperor, Vader, the Force, the Empire, the Rebels, theme, etc.  Nevertheless, it still is very enjoyable to me, and George Lucas came up with the story, so I'm not surprised that he reused his own ideas.  Plus, while I enjoy James Horner's compositions, this may be my favorite of his soundtracks.

It saddens me to have learned about ol' OCP.  The first fanedit of any kind that I'd ever seen was Deleted Magic, and ultimately my interest in the material he had gathered led me to FE.org (where I watch, but don't talk much), and to this site (where I talk far too much).  I know why he was banned, and I think it's completely justified, but I can't help but feel a little saddened by it.  Too bad he just didn't stop charging for his films.

ALOL^

My bad.  I did phrase it poorly.  You seemed to still be a subscriber, though today you no longer are.  I'm happy to hear you defending it.  Despite our past differences, I really do enjoy your comments and your passion.

Already having learned this stuff before, it is still refreshing to learn about genetics and the amazingly complex chemical reactions that comprise replication, translation, and ultimately what leads to a life form.  I fail to see how this could have arisen without a God.  I'm not saying I subscribe to absolute ideas about life (for instance, I am quite open to evolution).  But I do believe that God had a hand throughout all of this.

Incidentally, I've been reading through the old religion thread that twister found.  I find it fascinating that C3PX was such an ardent defender of Christianity (and as eloquent as always, I might add), while sean_wookie dismissed religion so out of hand.  Both, it seems, have had some changes of thought in the past 5 years.  Fascinating.

DuracellEnergizer said:

 

darth_ender said:

Remember, there are no agnostics, non-religious, doubters, or spiritual atheists; only weak atheists.

I hope this was made in jest.

 

I can't link to twooffour's post so I linked to Frink's just above it.  Twooffour had a tendency to define others instead of letting them define themselves.  His know-it-all personality really turned me off, but at the same time, I look back on my interactions with him and laugh.  I was simply thinking about him the day I started this thread, and wanted to make such a point.  So yes, it was made in jest.

Now don't you see how jokes are ruined when you have to explain them?! ;)

TV's Frink said:

darth_ender said:

Someone (TV's Frink?) will say:

tl;dr

:p

RIC OLIE WARNING:

Frink is a jerk :p

Just kidding ;)

Ender in Exile is done.  This was a slow book (in a good way), which honestly did not need a dramatic climax.  Most of the characters were very well thought out and interesting, and it's a surprisingly heart-wrenching human drama throughout most of it.  There came a point where I would have simply ended the book and been satisfied with this as an interquel.

SPOILER WARNING:

This story was also written to tie up several loose threads, including some from the Shadow series.  As I'm following Ender's story first and never completed the Shadow series (stopping at Shadow Puppets), and as I'm going chronologically by the story instead of chronologically by release, there were several details in here that I had either forgotten in the intervening years or was completely unaware of.  Most bizarre for me was the distracting fate of Randall Firth, the "son" of Achilles.  Even in the spoiler section, I won't say much, but I was disappointed how an antagonist who gets so little time or attention through 4/5 of the book has a drastic effect on Ender's long-term reputation and is the subject of the climax.  I think his story would have better served in a separate book, or else the various characters whose stories were being woven into this from the short stories should have actually remained only in the short stories, while Randall got a lot more attention.  I had no emotional connection to him, and his own personal struggles and the influence he garners are simply beyond my ability to believe or care.

That said, it was a worthwhile book.  My favorite plotline involved the Italian mother and daughter duo, Alessandra and Belladonna Toscano, and my greatest sadness while reading the book was knowing that Ender would not end up with the daughter, since I've already read the books that take place later wherein he marries a crotchety old grouch who depresses him beyond belief.

I don't know what s*x has to do with anything.  My kids just turned on Dumbo, and it clearly shows that children come from the Mr. Stork.

Maybe Luke and Leia could come from Mr. Mynock.

Group quits the Church en masse.  This article annoys me.  Frankly, 150 people from 3 states is unsurprising.  I'm sure there are far more than that that disagree.  But this is a somewhat notable event, and so it's not surprising that it would get an article devoted to it.  But this quote is a sign of ignorance.

The Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is known for its culture of obedience, and the mass ceremony was a seldom-seen act of collective revolt.

While obedience is always encouraged, it is never required.  Any church holds expectations, and most any religious organization will encourage obedience to some set of laws or commandments.  Describing it as a "culture" is likely an implication of particularly strict standards (which can be argued successfully) and punishment for getting out of line (much harder to argue).  I'm sure some are ostracized, but there is certainly no official punishment for anything less than severe sexual sin, and any ostracism is strongly discouraged.

A limited EU is best.  I enjoy a few books as canonical, then disregard the rest in my mind.

darth_ender said:

Shogi--Not mentioned here that I've see, this is the Japanese version of chess.  The pieces are flat and pointed, and all of the same color.  What is interesting is that once you've captured a piece, you can turn it around and re-enter it on the board as your own piece!  It really is a fascinating game, and I recommend that any chess lover try it out.

 

I should have mentioned that I played a game of shogi recently.  I have a homemade set that instead of using the Japanese Kanji to identify the pieces, has English letters and illustrates the moves of the pieces rather simply on both sides.  I taught my bro-in-law how to play and creamed him the first time.  The second time I decided to handicap myself by removing the Rook equivalent (The left-side piece in the second, near-empty rank).  I had never handicapped myself in previous plays.  In many ways it is not nearly as drastic to remove a piece from your side as in classic chess because the pieces are overall much weaker (the Rook being the most powerful on the board) and a player can recover the difference with some good play by capturing and reintroducing enemy pieces.  But as the Rook is so powerful, I quickly discovered how difficult it was to recover from this handicap.  I had to play an extremely defensive game, creating a fortress essentially with my pieces to prevent the enemy from penetrating my territory.  He nearly broke through with an overwhelming force, but he finally made enough mistakes to allow me to turn things around.  I dispatched of his strike force, then pushed my own into his territory and checkmated him.  It was a good challenge; he's a decent chess player, but was not familiar with shogi at all.  The handicap made for a pretty even game, but I suspect that he's already gained enough experience that such a handicap would be a guaranteed defeat for me.  I really enjoy this game.  You guys should try it out.

I've never had much chance to try economic games like this, but they seem fascinating.  I am a huge fan of board games, but when it comes down to it, I've never really had the time or a sizeable group of friends equally devoted to such games, and it bums me out.  I would love to try out 7 Wonders and give you a report, if I ever find an opportunity.

And you might be interested in knowing that my wife and I have a history of playing Sorry!  Still a great game.

darth_ender said:

Anytime I see something screech across a room and latch onto someone's neck, and the guy screams and tries to get it off, I have to laugh, because what is that thing.

Anytime I scroll down a topic and pass Monolithium's avatar, I get confused and feel guilt at what it immediately reminds me of because what are those things.

This thread should have never died, but a bunch of Star Wars nerds refused to post in it ;)

As I mentioned in my other thread, I am designing a wargame.  I'd been working on it three or four years ago, but took a break, and now I picked up my in-progress rules and made some real headway in areas that had stumped me before.  Though quite rough in written form, the actual mechanics are all worked out I think.  But since my game is meant for the other thread, I will post inspirations for that game here (though honestly I've not had the time to play most of these other games).

Risk 2210 A.D.  It's good old fashioned Risk, but with more.  Cards are important, and there are sea territories.  It's still a simple game, but complex enough to be interesting.  Of course, I haven't actually played it :(  But it looks good and is in a similar vein to a game I have played.

Lord of the Rings Risk.  It still sticks to the general Risk formula, but again with cards to affect gameplay and obviously with a LOTR theme.  This game almost makes me feel claustrophobic, as there are relatively few chokepoints when compared to vanilla Risk.

The number one board game on boardgamegeek.com is Twilight Struggle, a board game that is even more card driven than the previous two.  It's a Cold War theme where you either play the Americans or Soviets, and depending on your skill in influencing other nations, the better your chances of winning the Cold War.  It's a diplomatic game rather than war--in fact, if you trigger WWIII, you lose.  Still hoping to play, but I've don't even own it yet.

Diplomacy.  The prototypical game of negotiation.  You can't win without help, and it is indeed fun, though I still hold a grudge against a friend of mine who stabbed me in the back about 15 years ago.  One of these days I'll get him back.  I will...I will...I will.

Axis & Allies.  Actually, I don't much care for this game.  It's far too scripted, as the setup is always the same, your allies are always the same, and players use the same formulae to win each time.  But once I played with some other guys, and we attempted to make it more Risk-like by making it every man for himself and equalizing the economic distribution.  It still wasn't truly an even game due to setup, but it sure was fun as heck!  And I got stabbed in the back...by the same friend!!!  Jesus said to forgive, but surely there are exceptions.

A&A Anniversary Edition.  Significantly expanded version of the above game, which could potentially lead to more variety and better simulation of WWII, but still a simple enough game to enjoy in an afternoon.  Haven't played this, but maybe one day.

On some level, I've been inspired by each of these games when creating my own.  But my game is certainly unique enough that it is not a plagiarism at all.  Hopefully I will be able to playtest it soon with some friends and see how it works out.

Ooh, I just found this site.  This map from there is helpful, and at the actual site, you can click on each continent to zoom in and make it clearer.

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