Profile for Icshi
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Icshi |
| Member number | 1528 |
| Title | Mongolian Barbeque |
| Postcount | 907 |
| Homepage | |
| Registered | Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
Recent posts
Pages
| Author | Recent posts |
|---|---|
| What is the line ? in Richard White Games | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Thursday, August 4 2005 17:57
Profile
The quickest way is to stand on your head and compose a Wordless Message, which you then send to the Man With No Face. Be sure to include a Return Address. But basically, due to the chaotic existential democracy that is the Cult of Mystic White—a.k.a. the RW Cult, a.k.a. The Most Revered Order of the Seasick Octopus, a.k.a. [fill in the blank]—anybody who may or may not be a member has the tacit permission to create their own initiation rites, retroactively (as an homage to White's unstable timeline which is in constant temporal flux). But the Wordless Message is recommended for beginnings. More experienced and advanced members of the cult may repeat their initiation rite as often and as varied as they wish. [ Thursday, August 04, 2005 17:59: Message edited by: Icshi ] Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| Angry Man in Geneforge Series | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Thursday, August 4 2005 10:46
Profile
quote:Very good analogy there. I enjoyed seeing a more civilized area in Geneforge 3, getting to see what a well-established Shaper colony looks like. The ruins of Geneforge 1 were a nice tantilizing glimpse, the wilds of Geneforge 2 were rather chaotic, so it was nice to explore a "regular" settlement. Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| Lord Rahul's Instructions After Blowing Up the Geneforge in Geneforge Series | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
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written Wednesday, August 3 2005 21:10
Profile
You need to go to Keep West Gate, the area just west of Dhonal's Keep. On the northern edge of this zone are some docks. There should be two ships moored there. One takes you back to Greenwood Isle, the other will take you to the mainland. The ship taking you to the mainland wasn't there before, while the Greenwood Isle ship was. I can't remember offhand whether it's the left or right ship that takes you to the mainland, so when you aproach one of the ships some text should come up telling you where the boat leads. I was a bit confused by all this too. Too many docks, too many ships... Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| What happened? in Richard White Games | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
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written Wednesday, August 3 2005 19:57
Profile
Heu! O rwsent tje insUmuation thAy I hsve empogh untellog,rnve tp use ,My kiebosd pru[erly! Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| What is the line ? in Richard White Games | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Wednesday, August 3 2005 19:53
Profile
They say that there's a fine line between genius and madness. Well, in RWG, there's a fine line between spam and nonsense. Only the connoisseur can tell the difference... And those who have undergone the Arboreal Ritual of Panfolded Enlightenment, a ritual so mysterious that it is spoken of only in hushed, reverent voices. Quite frankly, it's easier to become a conniseur. The Ritual is not for the faint of heart. Even I had to give it a pass, and I invented the wretched thing. So you can well imagine what it must be like. :eek: Actually, now that I think of it, I've checked my version of the official RW Cult records and it turns out nobody's passed the Ritual or even undergone or or even heard of it. So I guess all that's left is the conniseurs. Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| Outright spam or intelligent stupid comment? in Richard White Games | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Wednesday, August 3 2005 17:45
Profile
Thanks for the heads-up. We'll be sure to test the canned plague somewhere safe. Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| Poor Man's Starbound? in Richard White Games | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Wednesday, August 3 2005 17:41
Profile
quote:Well, I finally got myself a copy of EV Nova—and finally got it to work—and having played through four of the six main storylines I must admit to being singularly unimpressed, the main reasons being: 1. The story in EV Override was fantastic, and great fun. Nova's was clumsy, badly written, incoherent, and nonsensical. Also, most of the missions didn't fit together and were more or less pointless. 2. The setting was too humanocentric. There were no aliens worth speaking of. For me the alien races in Override was one of the best things about that game. They were creative, interesting, and fun. Nova just had three main branches of humanity, with only the Polaris being of any interest culturally, and only then mainly because of their technology. The Nova universe was big, but surprisingly bland and unvaried. When I explored in Override it was a few planet-less systems before you reached Miranu space... and from there you get into Azdgari space... then Igdraza space, and so on. In Nova as I explored I was constantly thinking "More humans. Hmmm. [jump, jump, jump] Oh, more humans again. [jump, jump, jump, jump] Good grief, even more humans." And so on. Nova's idea of "exploration" was "do some tedious jumping around in dozens of planet-less systems in the north and eastern sectors of the galactic edge waiting for your fuel cells to recharge as you look at asteroids floating by in a high-interference haze, with a few unresponsive Krypt pods floating around." Not my idea of an exploration adventure. And one mission really got my hopes up—launching a probe from the abhorred ringed world of Kont at the southern fringe of the galaxy—but that's all it ended up being. You launch the probe and return to Earth. Whoop de doo. But I was assured my actions would lead to possible first contact with an extragalactic alien race several centuries down the road. Well then, I should be bouncing off the walls with excitement, shouldn't I? I don't know what I'm complaining about. :rolleyes: 3. Another aspect of its huamnocentrism was its sledge-hammer, over-the-top theistic humanism which got tiring very quickly. The whole idea of humanity evolving into a god was both ridiculous and offensive. I can only assume that the people who wrote the story haven't being paying attention to what humanity has been doing for the last several thousand years. We're not getting better, we're getting worse! It was like saying "Sure, given a few millennia, and a unifying political structure, a puddle of puke will evolve into a freshly baked pepperoni pizza." I can tolerate some of this kind of thinking, but with this game is was intolerably pervasive and unrelenting. No moderation, no subtlety. 4. Having to start with a fresh pilot file whenever I wanted to play a new storyline was a major aggravation. If I had known this was going to happen, I would've made more regularly-spaced backups so that I could return to a previous time when I had a good ship and lots of money but wasn't embroiled in any interstellar hanky-panky. As it is, I had to spend several hours getting back to a reasonable monetary level without accepting any missions because there was no way of telling where a seemingly innocuous mission might unwittingly and unwillingly take you (like, say, agreeing to go have a peek at the deserted Vell-os homeworld, and you somehow end up being enslaved until the end of the game). But since most mission strings only give you the chance to join it once, I often had to take up a mission to make sure I didn't miss a new string. Grrrr. However, it wasn't all bad. The ships were great—I'll give it that. The overall graphics were tremendous, but good graphics are not all-important. I shouldn't have to explain that particular point to anyone who likes Spiderweb Software... The asteroid mining was great, too—I enjoyed that tremendously. But overall I'd have to give it my stamp of disapproval for being narrow-minded, shoddy, pretentious balderdash. It had lots of potential but the designers tripped over their own feet and fell face-down in an under-evolved pepperoni pizza. Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| Poor Man's Starbound? in General | |
|
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Wednesday, August 3 2005 17:41
Profile
quote:Well, I finally got myself a copy of EV Nova—and finally got it to work—and having played through four of the six main storylines I must admit to being singularly unimpressed, the main reasons being: 1. The story in EV Override was fantastic, and great fun. Nova's was clumsy, badly written, incoherent, and nonsensical. Also, most of the missions didn't fit together and were more or less pointless. 2. The setting was too humanocentric. There were no aliens worth speaking of. For me the alien races in Override was one of the best things about that game. They were creative, interesting, and fun. Nova just had three main branches of humanity, with only the Polaris being of any interest culturally, and only then mainly because of their technology. The Nova universe was big, but surprisingly bland and unvaried. When I explored in Override it was a few planet-less systems before you reached Miranu space... and from there you get into Azdgari space... then Igdraza space, and so on. In Nova as I explored I was constantly thinking "More humans. Hmmm. [jump, jump, jump] Oh, more humans again. [jump, jump, jump, jump] Good grief, even more humans." And so on. Nova's idea of "exploration" was "do some tedious jumping around in dozens of planet-less systems in the north and eastern sectors of the galactic edge waiting for your fuel cells to recharge as you look at asteroids floating by in a high-interference haze, with a few unresponsive Krypt pods floating around." Not my idea of an exploration adventure. And one mission really got my hopes up—launching a probe from the abhorred ringed world of Kont at the southern fringe of the galaxy—but that's all it ended up being. You launch the probe and return to Earth. Whoop de doo. But I was assured my actions would lead to possible first contact with an extragalactic alien race several centuries down the road. Well then, I should be bouncing off the walls with excitement, shouldn't I? I don't know what I'm complaining about. :rolleyes: 3. Another aspect of its huamnocentrism was its sledge-hammer, over-the-top theistic humanism which got tiring very quickly. The whole idea of humanity evolving into a god was both ridiculous and offensive. I can only assume that the people who wrote the story haven't being paying attention to what humanity has been doing for the last several thousand years. We're not getting better, we're getting worse! It was like saying "Sure, given a few millennia, and a unifying political structure, a puddle of puke will evolve into a freshly baked pepperoni pizza." I can tolerate some of this kind of thinking, but with this game is was intolerably pervasive and unrelenting. No moderation, no subtlety. 4. Having to start with a fresh pilot file whenever I wanted to play a new storyline was a major aggravation. If I had known this was going to happen, I would've made more regularly-spaced backups so that I could return to a previous time when I had a good ship and lots of money but wasn't embroiled in any interstellar hanky-panky. As it is, I had to spend several hours getting back to a reasonable monetary level without accepting any missions because there was no way of telling where a seemingly innocuous mission might unwittingly and unwillingly take you (like, say, agreeing to go have a peek at the deserted Vell-os homeworld, and you somehow end up being enslaved until the end of the game). But since most mission strings only give you the chance to join it once, I often had to take up a mission to make sure I didn't miss a new string. Grrrr. However, it wasn't all bad. The ships were great—I'll give it that. The overall graphics were tremendous, but good graphics are not all-important. I shouldn't have to explain that particular point to anyone who likes Spiderweb Software... The asteroid mining was great, too—I enjoyed that tremendously. But overall I'd have to give it my stamp of disapproval for being narrow-minded, shoddy, pretentious balderdash. It had lots of potential but the designers tripped over their own feet and fell face-down in an under-evolved pepperoni pizza. Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| Say your prayers... in General | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Wednesday, August 3 2005 14:46
Profile
I once had a long conversation with my college roommate over dinner after we said grace over it, about what one's criteria is for having to pray over food. For instance, you can have a huge snack in the afternoon and then a tiny, late dinner several hours later, but you pray over the dinner but not the snack. Size is apparently not the sole criteria—time of day has something to do with it, and how "formal" the meal is. After we got back to our dorm room we wrote up a list of tongue-in-cheek "rules" for when you have to pray over a meal—rules that we all apply without even being aware of them. I wish I could find it, it was really hilarious. -------------------- The A.E. van Vogt Information Site My Tribute to the Greatest Writer of the Science Fiction Golden Age Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| Who's your role model? in General | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Wednesday, August 3 2005 14:36
Profile
quote:"Safer" as in "You'll never hear on the news that he was pulled over by the cops with two under-age female prostitutes in his car." Fictional characters tend not to throw you unexpected curveballs like that. Although I was unpleasantly shocked when Sherlock turned out to be a cocaine enthusiast. [ Wednesday, August 03, 2005 14:38: Message edited by: Icshi ] -------------------- The A.E. van Vogt Information Site My Tribute to the Greatest Writer of the Science Fiction Golden Age Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| Who's your role model? in General | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Wednesday, August 3 2005 11:47
Profile
All my role-models are fictional characters. It may be less realistic, but it's a whole safer that way. Not to mention far more interesting. Oh, except for Genghis Khan. He's one of my few nonfictional role models. -------------------- The A.E. van Vogt Information Site My Tribute to the Greatest Writer of the Science Fiction Golden Age Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| New GF3 twist in Geneforge Series | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Wednesday, August 3 2005 11:39
Profile
quote:Presumably. Hopefully. Keep your fingers crossed. It would be nice, though, if he were to drop an all-new game in our laps after Avernum 4. But that's not likely. That man's got a toddler to take care of—it's a miracle he has enough energy and mental coherence to do something as compex as eating his breakfast in the morning. He hasn't the time or stamina to be too original. He has my deepest sympathy. Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| Outright spam or intelligent stupid comment? in Richard White Games | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Wednesday, August 3 2005 11:35
Profile
quote:I asked my mad scientist friend, Professor Thadeus G. Stanislaw Koenigsburg IX, about thread locker, and he seemed as confused by it as I. So at the moment we're in his laboratory meticulously verifying whether each warning on the back is legitimate or not. So far we've come up trumps. We only hope enough of the lab is left by the time we finish the experiment that he can finish research on his new virus-cloning shake-n-bake canisters. (I understand that his aerosol ebola-in-a-can is coming along nicely.) [ Wednesday, August 03, 2005 11:36: Message edited by: Icshi ] Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| New GF3 twist in Geneforge Series | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Tuesday, August 2 2005 16:28
Profile
Yes, Geneforge 3 was a bit disappointing in that regard. It lacked expansion imagination, and was filled with monotony. But word on the grapevine is that Geneforge 4 will blow your mind away with its revolutionary evolution. Or something. Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| Outright spam or intelligent stupid comment? in Richard White Games | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Tuesday, August 2 2005 16:25
Profile
quote:I've only come across the use of the word "thread" with regard to cloth and conversation topics. Just in case you were wondering, I still have no idea what thread locker is... Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| Outright spam or intelligent stupid comment? in Richard White Games | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Tuesday, August 2 2005 10:54
Profile
That's a fantastic picture! But it leaves the question of: What the flippin' heck is thread locker? Some arcane piece of sewing equipment? Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| Delete this thread please. in Richard White Games | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Tuesday, August 2 2005 10:52
Profile
quote:Very clever and very funny. And rest assured that I do. Except in the shower. Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| Delete this thread please. in Richard White Games | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Sunday, July 31 2005 11:39
Profile
"Delete this thread please..." ...but not before everybody trapses through leaving their mark: X Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| The 10th planet! in General | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Saturday, July 30 2005 11:05
Profile
Yikes! I'm very distressed to learn of this new discovery... Everybody knows the Tenth Planet (called Mondas) is inhabited by the Cybermen. Soon this world will change course and hurtle towards Earth and resume its place as our twin planet as it sucks all the energy out of our homeworld leaving us to die horrible deaths. Assuming, of course, that the Cybermen don't first send a scouting expedition to Cyber-convert a few million of us to bolster their waning population. :eek:  -------------------- The A.E. van Vogt Information Site My Tribute to the Greatest Writer of the Science Fiction Golden Age Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| comparing plots (from the demos) in Geneforge Series | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Saturday, July 30 2005 10:42
Profile
The choice between only two sects, and being forced to join one or another, has its advantages and its drawbacks. Multiple sects and indecision helped enrich the plot of the first two games, while not having the luxury of sitting on the fence in the third game makes it more intense. I think overall the second game works best in terms of conflict between groups and how you influence things. Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| An odd discovery... in Geneforge Series | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Saturday, July 30 2005 10:39
Profile
This coincidence can be explained away by the simple fact that Andrew Hunter did the character artwork for both games. I guess he likes snouts and robes. I'm a big fan of Ferazel's Wand, by the way. Great game. The artwork and music make it so much better than just another run-around-shooting-monsters game. (Incidentally, the background art for Ferazel's Wand was not done by Andrew, but by somebody else whose name I can't think of at the moment.) Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| How many times have you played GF3 in Geneforge Series | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Friday, July 29 2005 16:29
Profile
First time through I did as a solo agent, played rebel until I got to Dhonal then switched to Loyalist. I started playing it through a second time, this time as a shaper with both companions along for the ride, and remaining a rebel all the way through. However, I soon got EV Nova to work properly and Geneforge 3 went flying out the window. 3 isn't as fun as the first or second ones because it consisted more of sloughing through infested areas killing, killing, killing rogues. Which is fun for a few hours, but then it gets a bit monotonous. The first two had enough twists and turns in the plot to make things more interesting and worth repeating. Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| Things I learned from playing Geneforge in Geneforge Series | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Friday, July 29 2005 16:22
Profile
These are aspects of the game that I've always found amusing, and it's great to see this list! I guess this is where the whole "suspension of disbelief" comes into effect. Or, as it's known in more mundane circles, "the imagination." Just pretend such things aren't so. Games are a limited medium, and if every effort was made to make them ultrarealistic they'd be so dull and tedious that they wouldn't be worth playing. The player fills in the gaps and glosses over errors in logic caused by limitations of the medium. EDIT: Incidentally, it's this that makes mediocre games like Galactic Core worth playing: a heavy dose of imagination, and the ability to enjoy the quirks rather than just be annoyed by them. [ Friday, July 29, 2005 16:24: Message edited by: Icshi ] Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| RICHARD WHITE LEGAL TEAM in Richard White Games | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Friday, July 29 2005 16:11
Profile
quote:Well, I'd certainly buy it. Or publish it. Or both. I'm sure it would sound a lot better than most of the pop junk out there. And certainly less harmful for the young people of today—despite the instantaneous manifestations, unspeakable deaths, and so on. It would certainly fire their imaginations a lot more too. And Lord knows their imaginations need some kind of stimulation! quote:Try making it also something that can't be written down in any known writing system. That should make things even more interesting. The record publishing company with The Name Which Cannot Be Spoken, The Name That Cannot Be Written. :eek: Makes it sound very sinister indeed! All that's left is The Name Which Cannot Be Heard and The Name That Cannot Be Understood Even If You Could Hear It. That's quite a lot of names there... Must be really long! The Name That, Even If It Could Be Written, Is So Long That It Would Not Fit On Your Average Record Label. Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
| Just say no in Richard White Games | |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Friday, July 29 2005 16:02
Profile
I'm having trouble remembering whether it was Philip K. Dick or Kurt Vonnegut who was worried about his inability to remember the future. Or was it somebody else entirely? Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |