Profile for The Creator
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | The Creator |
| Member number | 112 |
| Title | BoE Posse |
| Postcount | 1423 |
| Homepage | |
| Registered | Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
Recent posts
Pages
| Author | Recent posts |
|---|---|
| In this thread, we have an abstract discussion without befouling pastries of any size in General | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Tuesday, January 25 2005 21:58
Profile
In an attempt to clarify some of my earlier statements, it's my opinion that we are much more the product of our own decisions and effort than our situation. Obviously a kid starving in a gutter needs to be helped. But I don't think it really matters whether or not you went to Harvard. The one who ends up best off is the one who decides he's going to make the best of his situation and goes for it. [ Tuesday, January 25, 2005 22:17: Message edited by: The Creator ] -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| In this thread, we have an abstract discussion without befouling pastries of any size in General | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Tuesday, January 25 2005 21:32
Profile
Thuryl, thank you. Alec, I really don't have the time to have a proper debate, alas. Give me one or two short simple questions and I'll try to answer them. Anything longer and I'll have to ignore it. Sorry. -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| In this thread, we have an abstract discussion without befouling pastries of any size in General | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Tuesday, January 25 2005 19:56
Profile
I suppose it could be argued that there's a difference between "fair" and "reasonable". To answer Alec's question directly: Several reasons come to mind immediately. First, if someone owns something, by definition it is theirs to decide what is done with it. Once the person is dead, their wishes concerning their property should be kept. If someone wants to leave everything to charity and let their kids make it on their own, fine. If they want to leave a modest sum so their kids can survive and get a decent start, fine. If they want to leave a large sum so their kids can set up a business and get a good start, fine. If they want to leave a very large sum so their kids don't ever have to worry about chasing the dollar and can instead devote their lives to something they really believe in, fine. It's not really possible to argue this point without debating whether ownership itself is moral - a whole other can of worms. Secondly, I believe that every child is entitled to the best that their parents can give them. Keep in mind here that by "the best", I don't necessarily mean "the most". For example, while they did do the whole feeding/clothing thing, my parents made a point of never giving me pocket money. Likewise, while many parents might buy a cheap car and/or pay for driving lessons for their kids when they get old enough, mine didn't. Not because they couldn't, but because they believed that by denying me the easy road they were giving me something more valuable. My grandfather gave his kids a decent sum of money to get started when they needed it instead of waiting for him to die. I don't know if I'll inherit anything, but wouldn't be surprised if I didn't. I argue neither that giving large amounts of stuff to your kids (before or after death) is good or bad. I think that's a decision each parent must make for themselves. However, I argue that parents should be allowed to do the best job they know how to do for their children, whether that involves giving them stuff or not. The government shouldn't be allowed to mess with that. So short answer: I believe that person X should be allowed to get more from his parents (whether that is quality of upbringing, education, possessions, whatever) than person y because I think that the amount each person has a right to be given is infinite (that is, I do not believe it's a violation of human rights if someone is not given an infinite amount, but I do believe it is if they are given less than their parents wanted to give them and would otherwise have been able to). In practice, some people will always have more capability, better upbringing, more money than other people, and I do not see this as inherently wrong. I do think that there are those who receive less than is acceptable (in any of those categories), and that efforts should be made to improve their lot. Hmm, that didn't turn out to be a short answer. Let's try again. I do think that one kid getting millions while another starves in the street is a bad thing, but not because of the gulf between them. If the poorer kid has loving parents, a roof over his head and food in his stomach, I see nothing wrong with the situation. Disparity in "starting points" is not inherently wrong, evil, or bad. Having a particularly bad "starting point" (say, being locked in a cupboard for the first 15 years of life) is. Hope that makes some sort of sense. -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| The Contest Winners in SubTerra | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Monday, January 24 2005 22:01
Profile
Congrats all. I think I have a few decent (but unfinished) levels laying around somewhere. It would have been nice to enter again, but I've just been way too busy to think about it for more than 10 seconds at a time. Long story short, I've recently moved to Canberra and am working at a radio station here. -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| What's going on? in Blades of Exile | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Thursday, January 13 2005 17:46
Profile
I thought Bandits 2 had a 4.3? (Not like those numbers mean anything, of course) -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| What's going on? in Blades of Exile | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Thursday, January 13 2005 16:35
Profile
Bandits 2 has finally been placed on the Spiderweb tables again. But not on the Solid Adventures. No, it's now back in Untried and Untested! Oh, and Areni's disappeared. -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| Did I just hear that?!? in General | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Friday, January 7 2005 15:00
Profile
As some people here are aware, I work as an announcer on a Christian radio station. One of the things we put to air is a little thing called "The Word for Today". It's basically a collection of little life lessons or two minute sermons. I don't like it at all, personally. It tends to be quite grating and patronising. But the other day, out comes this little gem. quote:That's a direct quote. Broke my brain utterly. Click to see this in "context". [ Friday, January 07, 2005 15:10: Message edited by: The Creator ] -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| Good ideas and plot, lack of scripting knoledge in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Thursday, January 6 2005 23:30
Profile
Try this. Seems a perfect match to me. He wants a story, you've got a story, and neither of you can spell. :P -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| Good ideas and plot, lack of scripting knoledge in Blades of Avernum | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Thursday, January 6 2005 23:30
Profile
Try this. Seems a perfect match to me. He wants a story, you've got a story, and neither of you can spell. :P -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| Is Plot Important? in Blades of Avernum | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Thursday, January 6 2005 23:27
Profile
Plot is as important as you make it. It's the be-all, end-all of Johnny Favourite, for example. It's a minor ingredient in Adventurer's Club 2. I don't think that every scenario needs to be plot-heavy to be good. I just think every scenario needs to be good in it's own way. There's room for a wide variety of scenarios in Blades. That said, I think the best scenarios will always feature a good story as an important ingredient. -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| Creating New Editors for BoA in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Monday, November 22 2004 18:54
Profile
There are a great many elements of gameplay that are not reliant upon coding. Simplistic coding does not equal bad gameplay. Good coding does not equal good gameplay. And maybe you missed what I said earlier re: Brett? Sure, he's determined. He'll spend hours on that code if he has to. But what if he doesn't have to? Well, he can get it done quicker, end up less frustrated, be more likely to finish, and more likely to start another when he's done. I'll spell it out. As is, I very much doubt Brett will ever make a BoA scenario. If there were some tool to make the job easier? Maybe. And even if you don't get amazing coding, you still get Brett's characters, his dungeon design, his puzzles, etc. And if there's another Brett Bixler out there? We want him designing, don't we? -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| Creating New Editors for BoA in Blades of Avernum | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Monday, November 22 2004 18:54
Profile
There are a great many elements of gameplay that are not reliant upon coding. Simplistic coding does not equal bad gameplay. Good coding does not equal good gameplay. And maybe you missed what I said earlier re: Brett? Sure, he's determined. He'll spend hours on that code if he has to. But what if he doesn't have to? Well, he can get it done quicker, end up less frustrated, be more likely to finish, and more likely to start another when he's done. I'll spell it out. As is, I very much doubt Brett will ever make a BoA scenario. If there were some tool to make the job easier? Maybe. And even if you don't get amazing coding, you still get Brett's characters, his dungeon design, his puzzles, etc. And if there's another Brett Bixler out there? We want him designing, don't we? -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| Creating New Editors for BoA in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Sunday, November 21 2004 18:43
Profile
The Leaving is a good scenario that has very little technical complexity. Also, I thought Malkriss was pretty good, despite being quite simplistic and buggy. Brett Bixler has a decent grasp of BoE's nodes, but that's more through determination than natural aptitude. Most of his stuff is pretty simple. More exotic sequences, like the animation in Quintessence, end up a bit clumsy. All of these would be improved by a visual-based system to help make scripting easier. -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| Creating New Editors for BoA in Blades of Avernum | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Sunday, November 21 2004 18:43
Profile
The Leaving is a good scenario that has very little technical complexity. Also, I thought Malkriss was pretty good, despite being quite simplistic and buggy. Brett Bixler has a decent grasp of BoE's nodes, but that's more through determination than natural aptitude. Most of his stuff is pretty simple. More exotic sequences, like the animation in Quintessence, end up a bit clumsy. All of these would be improved by a visual-based system to help make scripting easier. -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| Creating New Editors for BoA in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Saturday, November 20 2004 22:22
Profile
Seems that some people would like no scenarios rather than ones that aren't "made the right way". -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| Creating New Editors for BoA in Blades of Avernum | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Saturday, November 20 2004 22:22
Profile
Seems that some people would like no scenarios rather than ones that aren't "made the right way". -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| A Hypothetical in General | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Tuesday, November 9 2004 18:07
Profile
Upon further thought, I've decided that I would be willing to kill an innocent person to save X number of others. If the person I was killing knew all the consequences, he'd most likely prefer to be sacrificed than live with the guilt of those x deaths. This is assuming, of course, all those rather dodgy hypotheticals are true - no other option than killing, consequences are certain, etc. -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| The Community Is Criminally Ignorant: A Study in Blades of Avernum | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Tuesday, November 9 2004 17:52
Profile
quote:Not arguing the case at all. I was pointing out that there is a disparity between the treatment of newbies and oldbies, and that this was probably the reason why some of the intelligent newbies were questioning the legitimacy of the banning. You'll notice that I said that it would be thoroughly possible and reasonable for someone to defend this 'policy' (for lack of a better word), which Alec subsequently did. So unless I misread your post, we aren't actually disagreeing on anything. -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| A Hypothetical in General | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Monday, November 8 2004 17:11
Profile
I would be cold-blooded enough to do either, if I thought that it was the right thing to do, or at least that there was nothing wrong with it. But I don't, so I wouldn't. I'd kill Hitler. I don't think I would kill an innocent man to save a hundred others. Depends. I would, however, allow myself to be killed to save them. -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| The Community Is Criminally Ignorant: A Study in Blades of Avernum | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Monday, November 8 2004 16:48
Profile
I think the reason some people see it as unfair is that, though he certainly broke the rules, many oldbies do so as well, on a regular basis. There is a very definite lack of consistency. You could put forward a decent argument that this is a good thing, but it's certainly there and I can understand that throwing people a bit. -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| The Community Is Criminally Ignorant: A Study in Blades of Avernum | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Sunday, November 7 2004 15:42
Profile
They should be. Some of them even are. -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| Next Spiderweb Game in General | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Thursday, October 28 2004 02:02
Profile
He ain't taking the 3rd-party games on anymore. They didn't sell well. That basically answers your question. Personally, I think the key to a good game is good characters. They need to be BELIEVABLE - As you watch them, despite the extremes of their actions, there's that bit inside you that says "Yeah. I know how he thinks. I could be like that, if I wanted." It adds a tremendous amount to any story in any medium. You want to emulate the heros, who do incredible stuff despite being regular people at heart. The villains give you a weird chill, because, as terrible and twisted as they are, you can see things through their eyes, and it makes sense. Watch Collateral. It has an excellent example of both cases. They need to be INTERESTING - Make us think about them even when they aren't around. This depends a lot on the situation they are in. A coward who avoids risks at any cost isn't usually too fascinating to watch... until he's in a situation where there is no easy out and we see how far he's willing to go to save his own hide. Continuing with the example of Collateral, Max is a simple, honest cabbie. Boring. Unless he's forced to drive an assassin to his victims. The situation shows who he really is, and what he's willing to do when the chips are down. How far do you have to push him before he's ready to risk his life? How far before he's willing to die? There's other stuff, of course, but if someone gets that right, I'll forgive almost anything else. -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| So are we really dying now? in Blades of Exile | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Thursday, October 28 2004 01:38
Profile
Newbies come along, maybe see a bit of a flurry of activity, then it slows down and they think BoE is dying. People have been saying "BoE is dying" since I joined the Ikonboard four years ago. Ask Brett or Stareye and they'll tell you people have been saying it virtually since the start. If there was a time to think that it was dying, it was last year. Nine scenarios were made, with only a small handful of genuine quality. This year? Much better. Compare the crop of this year with any other - not a lot of difference. Sure, the Lyceum isn't that fast. Never has been. But it's faster now than it has been in the past. It still continues on, being helpful, doing it's job. We ain't dying - this is normal speed. -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| Cyber Culture/ What is real? in General | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Saturday, October 23 2004 02:25
Profile
Small people are often better fighters than big ones, I think. Reason being, small people have to fight much more often. People will usually avoid picking a fight with someone of decent size. It actually takes practice to learn to hurt someone - the instinctive reaction, even when you are being attacked, is to hesitate. Or to hit them, because that's what you do, isn't it? And then not know what to do next. Um, yeah, topic. I think the internet is a fascinating culture. Since there's pretty much no image to worry about (a screen name, most of which are nonsense anyway), true personality comes out much quicker. I know more about Edwin Thompson or Lucien McMahon than most of the people I went to school with. I don't know how tall they are, what their favorite foods are, or any of that silly surface stuff that we spend so much time on in the real world, but I know a lot of the important things. If I were to ring my mate Mike Naismith on the phone right now to talk about some deep emotional problem I had (not that I ever have those), he wouldn't know how to react. Certainly he wouldn't be any help. If I were to find Thuryl's number and call a guy I'd never met, okay, it'd be a bit weird, but we already have a relationship and enough of an understanding of how each other experiences the world that we could have a REAL conversation - like I've never had with many people I've known in real life for years. So which is REALLY knowing the other person? That said, as much as the internet entices a person to reveal about himself, it also conceals a lot. I know there's a ton of stuff about me - Important Stuff, that would definitely throw a few people here - that most my friends in real life know, but no one here does. EDIT: Just saw the last post. Very interesting point. I'm not really sure how I would react. I don't think it would really make much of an impact on me. But that probably says more about me than anything. I remember learning that a guy I knew fairly well up in Queensland had died of a heart attack, and I hardly felt a thing. I felt worried that I wasn't more worried, mainly. [ Saturday, October 23, 2004 02:40: Message edited by: The Creator ] -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |
| Work Experience in General | |
|
BoE Posse
Member # 112
|
written Saturday, October 23 2004 01:34
Profile
I did a week's work experience at the local newspaper. The work was pretty boring (I like writing, but newspaper stuff isn't exactly creative), but the environment itself was extremely disorienting. There is a front office where people come in, ask questions, blah, blah, blah. Then there's a door to the offices where the work goes on. This door has a fancy combination lock on it. They wouldn't give me the combination, for security reasons. Instead, someone else punched in the code for me. I memorized the combination, because I could. I still remember it. (You'd think, if they didn't want me to have a code, they'd at least make some effort to stop me from seeing them enter it. Like, checking to see if I was looking.) I asked someone what the lock was for. He gave me a funny look and said it was in case someone tried to break in. Which is all quite sensible, except the door was made of glass. And even if it wasn't, you could get into the back area easily by climbing over the front desk. So, it would stop any criminal who was too polite to break glass or climb on the furniture. Basically, it was doing nothing that a "Staff Only" sign wouldn't. I'm inclined to think that it was just there to look flashy. Anyway, it says a lot about that week that the most interesting part was the door. -------------------- Rate my scenarios! Areni Revenge To Live in Fear Deadly Goblins Ugantan Nightmare Isle of Boredom Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sunday, October 7 2001 07:00 |