Profile for Slarty
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Slarty |
| Member number | 261 |
| Title | Raven v. Writing Desk |
| Postcount | 3560 |
| Homepage | http://www.stripcreator.com/comics/slartyvsdesk/ |
| Registered | Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
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| Deathmatch Tournament -- Round Two, Part Two in General | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Tuesday, May 6 2008 18:58
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#2 made me laugh a lot. Nice work Jewels. Judge's Ruling on Match #8: Jewels' ability to turn the other cheek will protect her from TM's most provocative attacks, including the insults, tentacle crepe, and DIE!. Her walkthroughs will enable her to navigate his traps and defeat the philosophizing evil bosses. The Baath Party will more than likely persecute an American tentacle creature dressed as Jesus on the cross. Too bad about those rakshasi... but the Baath Party is multitudinous and will occupy the tigers for some time. As Jewels enjoys being tickled by TM's tentacles, and even any weather of questionable hue he might conjure, he would need to resort to his last offense: invoking the King of Kings, he can latch onto Jewels, creating a new katamari. Then TM can roll around madly, trying to find something to smash Jewels into. Unfortunately for TM, his bondage with Jewels only strengthens her maternal abilities; and nothing will drive TM crazy so easily as constant nagging. So really, it's a question of whether he is likely able to kill Jewels katamari-style before being driven nuts and crashing his side of the katamari into something instead. Unfortunately for TM, the time Jewels spent as a Family Circus character has given her some insight into erratic movement on a plane around many obstacles, which gives her an advantage at trying to dodge obstacles. The nail in the coffin, though, is the significant chance that TM's tactics will lead him directly into a deadly obstacle himself, due to the illusion of a rakshasi: either because the megalomanaical creatures turn on him, or simply because he rolls into one intended for the Baath. The winner: Jewels, by a hair's breadth. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Alorael Facts in General | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Monday, May 5 2008 18:22
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I'll compile this in actual list form. —Alorael is Korean and an Eskimo. —Alorael is middle-aged and septuagenarian. —Alorael is a transvestite of indeterminate gender. —Alorael is an angel and a moderator. —Alorael is a chemist, and addicted to skribbane. —Alorael has a gun and snipes pedestrians or pederasts. He also quilts and plays Angband. —Alorael's signature, non-custom title, and PDN are tied to the cosmic balance. What's missing? Keep 'em coming. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| The Hobbit in General | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Monday, May 5 2008 12:33
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Clavicle: Have you read Tolkien's essay "On Fairy-Stories"? You'd appreciate his distinction between enchantment and magic. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| The Hobbit in General | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Monday, May 5 2008 08:25
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Kel, I certainly agree that Titus was in some ways a proto-tragedy for Shakespeare, and its characters are less explicitly complex. That doesn't make it automatically worse for me, though. Titus is not my favourite Shakespeare play, and I'd never compare it to, say, Hamlet; but I prefer it to Othello and some of the others. And actually, I disagree that complexity and emotional subtlety are absent from Aaron. Compared to Othello there is more that is implied, rather than explicitly stated, and this is characteristic of the whole cast. Aaron's speeches towards the end (including, yes, the "Zounds, ye whore" speech) prompted me to go back and reread all his earlier lines when I first read them. Oof, I didn't expect to end up debating this. Idris Anderson would be proud. :P -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| The Hobbit in General | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Monday, May 5 2008 05:33
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I agree about the literary canon. And I believe you're thinking of the fork-shoved-down-the-throat -- oh, Alan Cummings -- though I may be forgetting some incidental violence. quote:I had the same reaction. The moral of the story: don't steal your plot from Ovid :) But that frustratingly irrational behavior is hardly unusual in Shakespeare; I had the same reaction to Hamlet too, and (in about ten different places) to Julius Caesar. The movie is 'overdone' in some sense but I don't think that's a bad thing, in this case. If the whole thing was restrained and sensitive it would be a boring but gory production worthy of its ancient critics. Titus Andronicus is an extremely FLAT piece of writing, with the potential to expand in a flurry of directions, and constantly begging the interpreter -- audience, director, or whoemever -- to imagine upon it. What impresses me so much about Taymor's version is that she builds on the text with all these great excesses, without ever taking away the freedom of the audience to do so. Indeed I think if there is any theme Taymor brought out it is an exhortation to think for yourself in the face of atrocity: with the expanded role of the little boy, and the Croatians in the amphitheater, and so on. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| The Hobbit in General | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Sunday, May 4 2008 20:24
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If the laugh track consists of actual audience laughter and not canned stuff, I think it can add quite a bit. I Love Lucy, for example, has wonderful audience laughter where you can make out individual people who just lose it and crack up completely in different, amusing ways. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| The Hobbit in General | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Sunday, May 4 2008 19:51
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A distinction can be drawn between manipulating emotion and discouraging creative, independent, spontaneous, expansive thought. They often go together, but they do not necessarily. Storytelling in any form may involve some measure of emotional manipulation; Shakespeare certainly used it. Now, he used it more subtly than movies tend to and in ways that left the audience more freedom of response; the result was sometimes beautiful. So the emotional flooding isn't bad even in our movies, unless it is tethered to an evil suppression of freedom. I agree with you about Shakespeare in general, but I was disappointed to see this comment, particularly coming right after a screed about free thinking and artistic vision: quote:It isn't widely considered that, it's widely assumed to be that. It's widely assumed by people who give undue weight to their old professors and teachers, who gave undue weight to Victorian literary critics who condemned the play for its blood and gore. It isn't popular today because it isn't on the short list of ten or twelve Shakespeare plays that are frequently read in school, or performed. But in Shakespeare's day Titus Andronicus was actually among his most successful and popular plays. And having read Titus and half of the rest, I fail to see any way in which it doesn't live up to his usual standard. So when you say "she wasn't able to save it," I'm confused. What did it need saving from, other than T.S. Eliot's fanboys? -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| The Hobbit in General | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Saturday, May 3 2008 17:31
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Sometimes I feel like Clavicle does. Drew's description of blank words on a screen, put out as a joke viewpoint, is in fact exactly what I start wishing for when I watch a production of Shakespeare (whether on stage or on the screen) -- I usually find it unbearably less interesting than the text. But there are exceptions; I've seen a few kickass Hamlets, and Julie Taymor's big-screen 'Titus' remains one of my two favourite movies ever, despite taking far more liberties with the play than most productions would dream of. But Titus follows the spirit of the play wonderfully. I think that's the issue, and what distinguishes the things that make Clavicle and I wish for blank text from the things that make Dikiyoba and I say 'ooh, great storytelling'. When I watched LOTR, I found myself surprisingly untroubled by all the factual changes and omissions. I ended up really liking Arwen replacing Glorfindel at the Ford, for example. But I hated the things that defied the spirit of the books. I hated the things that completely missed the point of the story-world laws that bounded Tolkien's sub-created world (to use his language). To me, it was kind of like it would be if Hamlet broke from the script and told Horatio there's no such thing as ghosts, and ended the play right there. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| SPAM in General | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Saturday, May 3 2008 14:15
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I thought I remembered you saying something that might have qualified you otherwise. But I could be wrong. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Gender and RPGs in General | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Friday, May 2 2008 08:24
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Kel -- you live in Berkeley. QED. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Gender and RPGs in General | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Friday, May 2 2008 06:48
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quote:What, because prostitutes are usually women and drunks are usually men? The fact that a table of drunks are included means women can't take offense at a table of prostitutes? Are you daft man? In our current society, getting drunk is celebrated and being a prostitute is considered abhorrently shameful. Here's another question on the 'real' angle. Does the prostitute table include men prostituting to other men? Because historically, they've been nearly as ubiquitous as the female variety... I agree completely that this stuff ultimately surfaces due to adolescent male sexuality, especially in individual gaming sessions. That doesn't make it any less sexist; and to the degree that it ends up in the system itself, it doesn't make the system any less sexist. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| The Hobbit in General | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Thursday, May 1 2008 21:44
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He chanted a song of wizardry, Of piercing, opening, of treachery, Revealing, uncovering, betraying. Then sudden Felagund there swaying Sang in answer a song of staying, Resisting, battling against power, Of secrets kept, strength like a tower, And trust unbroken, freedom, escape; Of changing and of shifting shape Of snares eluded, broken traps, The prison opening, the chain that snaps. Backwards and forwards swayed their song. Reeling and foundering, as ever more strong The chanting swelled, Felagund fought, And all the magic and might he brought Of Elvenesse into his words. Softly in the gloom they heard the birds Singing afar in Nargothrond, The sighing of the Sea beyond, Beyond the western world, on sand, On sand of pearls in Elvenland. Then the gloom gathered; darkness growing In Valinor, the red blood flowing Beside the Sea, where the Noldor slew The Foamriders, and stealing drew Their white ships with their white sails From lamplit havens. The wind wails, The wolf howls. The ravens flee. The ice mutters in the mouths of the Sea. The captives sad in Angband mourn. Thunder rumbles, the fires burn --- And Finrod fell before the throne. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Thursday, May 1 2008 17:54
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Elaine is going out with Jimmy. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Gender and RPGs in General | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Thursday, May 1 2008 15:48
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The post I was going to make is being replaced by "Hey! Everyone! Go play Pool of Radiance already!" because that's a much more productive post. P.S. You should go play it. That game was awesome. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Gender and RPGs in General | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Thursday, May 1 2008 14:36
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Salmon, there's no way 18 and 18/00 were treated the same for questions of weight lifting/carrying/whatever. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Gender and RPGs in General | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Thursday, May 1 2008 14:10
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I have yet to see any CRPG that allows your male character to lift weights often enough to attain the kind of muscle you need for that stuff. Wait, lifting weights? What's that? With a standard level of RPG technology, NOBODY would be that buff. Just how much are you supposed to be able to lift with 18/00 strength, anyway? [ Thursday, May 01, 2008 14:10: Message edited by: Slarty ] -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Gender and RPGs in General | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Thursday, May 1 2008 13:13
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Admittedly, the chances of actually rolling an 18 for Strength in AD&D are 1 in 192. The problem really is not AD&D, it's the AD&D computer games and the many other CRPGs that were influenced by them. The Gold Box games gave you the option to modify your PC's stats (ostensibly to match those of pencil and paper characters you had) and as the games were fairly challenging, most players just maxed the stats out. The difference between 18/50 and 18/00 was fairly significant -- something like +2 to damage and +2 to THAC0, IIRC -- and females had no advantages. So you basically HAD to make all your fighters men. In some of the games, such as Pool of Radiance (the best one), there was almost no reason to have any character *not* be a fighter or a multiclassed fighter. So to have the best party, you couldn't have any women. Salmon, I think your argument would be more believable if there was ANY part of the AD&D rules that gave a similar statistical restriction to male characters. There are plenty of differences between the sexes that are just as "real" and justifiable. But the only included differences limited female characters. Really, while we're being "real," let's discuss a female restriction WAY more relevant to the adventuring lifestyle, as it affects more than 1 in 192 women: menstruation! But I don't remember any rules dealing with combat modifiers for that... "This is real" would be a decent excuse if it were applied consistently, or even frequently. It wasn't. [ Thursday, May 01, 2008 13:17: Message edited by: Slarty ] -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Gender and RPGs in General | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Thursday, May 1 2008 12:44
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Physically attacked by overzealous feminists? There's a really good story there. (That, or a really bad exaggeration.) -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| What have you been reading recently? in General | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Wednesday, April 30 2008 21:53
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I'd take that over Tess of the flipping D'Urbervilles, which I had to read in high school. Bleah. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Gender and RPGs in General | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Wednesday, April 30 2008 21:51
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quote:This is a very good point. Although Elspeth and company remained in A1-3, there hasn't been any new, gay Spiderweb material since 1996. (Unless there was something in Nethergate, but I don't remember anything explicit.) -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Wednesday, April 30 2008 21:42
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How bout a comical portrait of the good old Olgai Council? You know, Glantris giving Prossis rabbit ears while Elohi scribbles madly. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Gender and RPGs in General | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Wednesday, April 30 2008 15:21
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I think problems with taking on the role of a woman or man have more to do with immaturity (meant in a non-insulting way) than sexism. Gender roles are still HUGELY entrenched in our society; and if gender is less relevant to, say, profession than it was fifty years ago, it definitely isn't any less relevant to social presentation. This is especially true of young kids, who face enormous pressures, both at home and at school, to conform to the looks and actions expected of their gender. Boys don't want to pretend to be girls, when they are under so much pressure to act like boys. But kids are open-minded and most kids these days are taught gender equality. So I bet there are a lot of little boys out there who love having powerful female allies or party members, but would prefer to have their main character be a guy. That said, I do think sexism is alive and well. Spiderweb's games are practically the only RPGs I can think of that don't portray a scantily-clad woman at some point. (Or in the case of the Avernum PC portraits, that portray scantily-clad men just as frequently.) The hugely popular Final Fantasy series is one of the worst offenders. Most have a timid but kind-hearted female character who casts healing spells and falls in love with the main character, who is a super-cool warrior, male of course. Typically, one of the female characters will get kidnapped and the main character (male) will rush out to rescue her. And the last two FF games introduced an entire RACE of scantily-clad bunny girls (literally), the Viera. Something even rarer about Spiderweb games is their tolerance of homosexuality. Elspeth and Nance weren't the only openly gay Exiles; there were enough that I once considered making Category:Gay on EE. Here's an interesting article about the role of women and gay people in video games. (Alex, you'll enjoy this link.) [ Wednesday, April 30, 2008 15:22: Message edited by: Indicative v. Performative ] -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| The Hobbit in General | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Tuesday, April 29 2008 19:23
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Read the part of TLTWATW where they sacrifice Aslan, and tell me if it doesn't sound like Mel Gibson should be playing the lion. -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |
| Future Series - What Would You Like? in General | |
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Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
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written Tuesday, April 29 2008 11:39
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On the up side, though, it had fewer problems. For example, Realmz had something like 30 horribly designed classes by the end, whereas New Centurions only had 8 or so horribly designed classes. 8 out of 8, but still... -------------------- Slarty vs. Desk • Desk vs. Slarty • Timeline of Ermarian • G4 Strategy Central "Slartucker is going to have a cow when he hears about this," Synergy said. Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00 |