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Wow in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, May 1 2008 22:08 Profile Homepage #8
Hi, I'm Alorael and I largely approve the above message.

—Alorael, who chose for himself the signature, the sniping, and the skribbane. The septuagenarian thing is actually from Jeff Vogel and about his fans in general, not any particular one. The Korean businessman is from Desperance, once upon a time (What's Desp? Another story). The transvestite is a latter-day addition.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Hobbit in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, May 1 2008 21:58 Profile Homepage #35
Claiming that a movie's soundtrack shouldn't sway emotions as a rule is absurd; you can as easily claim that authors ought to write using only bare, mechanical prose, as the situations described should either be sufficient to move the reader or not. In any case, I think it's possible for music to agree with and abet emotional content without replacing it. LotR does that. Whatever else its false, the music is well-used.

Clearly this is a difference of aesthetic opinion. I like one thing and you like another. Fair enough, but that doesn't mean that movies all should conform to your aesthetic standards.

—Alorael, who also happens to like the LotR movies' music enough to listen to it on its own. It's not all good, but enough of it is for it to have independent musical merit. And yes, some of it is moving.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Gender and RPGs in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, May 1 2008 18:13 Profile Homepage #44
quote:
Originally written by Executor Xel'Raga:

Someday, I dream of a kick-ass swordmaster lesbo, who has drawn the attraction of a small, little teenage boy, then rejects it and continues the clee-she love plot, and of course the end of the game smooch.
This seems entirely plausible, mostly as egregious fanservice to male fans.

—Alorael, who at least enjoyed seeing a stupendously powerful (in a LucasArts quirky way) female swordmaster in Secret of Monkey Island. It's a shame about her getting marooned on an island for the next two games.

[ Thursday, May 01, 2008 18:16: Message edited by: Variant Mechanics ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Wow in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, May 1 2008 17:04 Profile Homepage #2
Some of Irony Central is also a decade and a half old. People can change in that much time, although Jeff still is and always will be our fearless Scorched Earth Party leader.

—Alorael, who suspects that no one but Jeff will disregard this topic. He's generally the least likely to read General posts, especially in topics with highly generic names.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
What have you been reading recently? in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, April 30 2008 19:39 Profile Homepage #78
quote:
Originally written by Excalibur:

quote:
Originally written by Drew:

Les Miserables, though my favorite book ever, seems a strange choice for an AP English class. What's next? The Brothers K?
Well, my English teacher also happens to be my French teacher. Nonetheless, she tends to assign us college level material, so...
College level English material, or college level French material?

—Alorael, who is surprised that a class is willing to take the time necessary to read through Les Misérables. That's a doorstop of a book, and every second spent reading it isn't spent prepping for tests.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Important Message About Board Upgrade in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, April 30 2008 19:37 Profile Homepage #10
Based on nothing in particular except making programming easier, I'd guess that deleting members will have no effect on existing numbers and that new members won't fill in the gaps.

UBB.threads has all kinds of nice and all kinds of useless features. We'll probably start with a nice, flat forum and minimal frills and be happy, then tweak from there.

Avatars might return, but they could be here right now and they aren't. Accordingly, I must suspect that the rationale behind not having them (waste of viewer's time and bandwidth) remains in force. At least the new board will, if it's halfway decent allow limits on avatar size so no one will be stuck looking at paterick's abomination.

—Alorael, who might even have to dig out his old avatar for the occasion. It's probably knocking around somewhere on his computer for the occasion despite this being several computers later.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Gender and RPGs in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, April 30 2008 16:14 Profile Homepage #9
quote:
Originally written by Archmage Alex:

Personally, I like to actually role play my characters, and it's harder to really connect with the character and get into the game when the character is the opposite gender.
I've found anecdotally that many roleplayers tend to play a variation or caricature of themselves when playing a character of the same gender. Playing one of the opposite gender creates a detachment that actually leads to more "authentic" roleplaying because less identification means the player is more likely to make the character behave as the character, not as himself or herself.

—Alorael, who on the other hand has a history of roleplaying characters of the same genders precisely to get that self-projection. There is a different kind of fun in portraying a form of "Me, but with a huge sword and able to shoot fireballs, heal the sick, and fly!"
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Gender and RPGs in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, April 30 2008 13:12 Profile Homepage #2
Sexism as a standard of RPGs is on the downswing, although the chainmail bikini proliferation still hasn't quite come to an end. I actually think that RPGs are, for the most part, good about being gender-equal now.

The remaining sexism tends to be an artifact not of the games' roots but of wider culture. People are uncomfortable playing a female agent because it's still not okay to be a girl or be perceived as a girl.

—Alorael, who finds the equality emphasis of RPGs to be a good but unreasonable thing. Medieval society was extraordinarily sexist. So was renaissance society. Putting the modern concept of gender equality into a faux-medieval setting is a funny thing, especially because there are still always housewives but no househusbands. A truly equal medieval culture would probably be too alien to make a good generic setting.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Hobbit in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, April 29 2008 18:00 Profile Homepage #22
The Wood Elves will. It's an excuse to throw in a Legolas cameo, assuming they can get Orlando Bloom for a few days.

—Alorael, who thinks the movie will probably be easier to shoot with all short characters (plus Gandalf). Less camera trickery is needed.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Avernum 1 Dragon Slayer in The Avernum Trilogy
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, April 29 2008 17:56 Profile Homepage #1
It's Demonslayer, and you need to find a smith who can reassemble the sword for you. Boutell in Fort Draco should do nicely.

—Alorael, who hardly thinks your hardy band of adventurers is gifted at the fine art of sword assembly.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Hobbit in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, April 29 2008 12:14 Profile Homepage #17
I can definitely see good films, but I'm not so sure about successful films. Audiences liked LotR, but they're standard fantasy fare (since fantasy tends to range from loving imitation to outright plagiarism of LotR). The Hobbit either requires heavy changes or won't really resemble LotR in tone. And anything from the Silmarillion requires lots of work inherently to flesh it out from a bare history to a full story.

—Alorael, who can see it being done. It's just that there is no LotR but LotR in Tolkien's writings, and anyone trying to produce "another" LotR will either be unfaithful to the source material or disappointing to anyone expecting a repeat.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Deathmatch Tournament -- Round Two, Part Two in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, April 29 2008 09:51 Profile Homepage #83
That depends on your definition of good. Anything with acid resistance or elemental immunity (artifacts and ego items) will resist acid, and no armor is flammable. You can still lose all the other important goods like potions, scrolls, ammunition, books, staffs, and wands.

—Alorael, who has just taken up UnAngband. Ah, complexity! For one thing, he now finds himself frequently lost in the wilderness.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Hobbit in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, April 29 2008 09:45 Profile Homepage #13
LotR is a tale of heroism and good triumphing over evil with only a few token losses. It makes for a good set of movies.

The Hobbit is much closer to a children's story, and the Silmarillion's stories are not really movie material. I can't see a test audience approving the general gloom of Túrin's story, let alone the incest. And the earlier stories rely much more heavily on the Valar and Tolkien's cosmology, which is probably a bit too much for most casual theater-goers.

—Alorael, who really only sees potential for great triumphant battles, and that doesn't leave much. Gil-Galad and Elendil die heroically after a long siege, which doesn't make for a good movie (c.f. Troy). The War of Wrath is too Biblical. Most other wars don't have happy endings. Great films could be made, but probably not very successful films.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Deathmatch Tournament -- Round Two, Part Two in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, April 28 2008 21:33 Profile Homepage #81
Green dragons just breathe poison. I don't think they're very environmentally conscious at all.

—Alorael, who is always careful to fire- and acid-ball the piles of loot left when he has massacred hapless victims by the score. That way he can avoid littering and make sure he can pick out the useful ego items and artifacts!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Deathmatch Tournament -- Round Two, Part Two in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, April 28 2008 19:24 Profile Homepage #79
His stealth is indeed legendary, but he probably shouldn't have decided to attack with a Dagger of Fury. That's just aggravating.

—Alorael, who is far more concerned with the 34 damage. Is that dragon sick? Has he been drinking soap?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Spidweb Keygens in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, April 28 2008 11:38 Profile Homepage #8
This isn't locked because it's only distasteful and it could conceivably be productive.

So to push it along, what would you, BlueRivets, suggest as a way to make the games more secure?

—Alorael, who sees enough piracy of games by big-name companies with serious protection schemes that he's pretty sure any effective means would be prohibitively expensive or difficult. Doubly so if it still needs to leave the game downloadable and playable without an internet connection.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
What have you been reading recently? in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, April 28 2008 10:06 Profile Homepage #71
That would make a lot more sense if his books didn't regularly and regrettably end up on the NYT's list of bestsellers. Something doesn't quite add up.

—Alorael, who still think Mr. Anthony just likes to get more money, and possibly that he lies about it in introductions.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Spidweb Keygens in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, April 28 2008 09:53 Profile Homepage #5
Jeff has explained his philosophy before, and it's (slowly) spread. Make a game irritating enough to pirate, and most people will pay because $25 is worth less than hours and blood pressure wasted. Many pirates don't purchase, either; they either pirate or do without. So Jeff can be angry at people who steal his games, but most of them probably aren't lost sales. They're just irritants.

That said, I'd bet that most players of his games don't register them at all. Of those who register, the vast majority probably do it legally. Remember, most computer users aren't savvy enough to manage to crack his games even if it occurs to them to do so. We on the forums are a minority; we're not even the target demographic!

Ultimately, making the games harder to crack would probably make them more irritating for customers and cost sales, it would take time, and in the end it still probably wouldn't result in a huge drop in piracy or a huge increase in games purchased. Not worth the effort.

—Alorael, who will add only that Jeff is probably paid for his occasional freelance columns of game design, particularly being an indy shareware developer, and that most of his income apparently comes from selling these games. It works well enough for him.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
MicroSoft XP SP3 Is out! in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, April 27 2008 22:16 Profile Homepage #31
quote:
Originally written by Nikki.:

At Kelandon: I am a reader of his works. However:

quote:

Keats and Yeats are on your side
But you lose
'Cause Wilde is on mine.
So you walk on the Wilde side, then?

—Alorael, who thinks redundancy comes with being a Keats fan. Either that or the man was unfamiliar with the symmetric property of equality.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
What have you been reading recently? in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, April 27 2008 22:08 Profile Homepage #69
I have trouble believing that. The man appears to churn out books that sell decently, and most publishers would refuse books that sell terribly if they have to edit and publish many bad ones instead.

—Alorael, who can easily believe that Piers Anthony publishes deliberately quick work to make more money. That would make a lot more sense if he just wants a living (no crime), can sell them (no crime), and doesn't care about literary integrity (no crime, unfortunately).
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00

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