Durakken
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Posts
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Joined
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Don't use comicvine though... they get it wrong a lot >.>
Generally speaking there are about 12 issues that come out each week for the new 52. -
Since a little before I started reviewing the New 52 of DC I've been thinking... What's the point of all this media? This thought largely occurs because when i listen to other reviewers I hear about a game not being fun or a movie like "The Room" being so bad it's good. I've never heard someone say a Book isn't a good book because it isn't fun and when I think about art (drawings/paintings) there are things we call abstract art which are graded more against each other than they are as a part of "all art".
Where is Abstract Film? Abstract Games?
Does a game need to be "Fun" to be good?
Can a game be purely about story and not so much about how much "fun" I'm having or mechanics?
Is "Fun" the right words for "Games"? Is "games" the right word for that? And can the medium ever evolve if these words are maintained as the appropriate vernacular to use with this medium?
This has arisen in my mind due to questions about certain games...
Mass Effect 1 & 2...and 3... I'm hearing a number of people pre claiming that the game is "just like 2 except it takes place on earth" as if it were a bad thing... Don't you want consistent game play? If the game is doing it right shouldn't the mechanics be right from the previous 2... so why change it... IE why should a developer be forced to innovate to tell a story? I mean if I like how Pokemon plays, but have a different story to tell why is it a bad thing if I take every thing from it save for those particular elements I like?
Xeno Saga & Gears... One is heavy in dialog and the other in movies. You get that it's more of an interactive story book, but this always brings up people disliking this fact... Same with Metal Gear Solid 3(? or is it 4? I don't play MGS games) why is it that being panned for having long cut scenes? Same with Quick Time events... Yes they are simplistic and such, but is it truly the point to give you something to play with or is it to give you a story that gets you interested in it and the action just gives you another way to connect with that world?
MMOs in general... I have never understood how people skip over the story of MMOs. Is the game play that fun that you've played it for years and years? Seriously? Isn't the world and the story the interesting, exciting, enthralling part of the game? Is it that the game is "fun" that your still around or is it that your friends play it or there is a social aspect to it that is interesting or a story and world you want to keep reading (hearing about as it's now becoming)? There are two things that get brought up time and time again with MMOs and they aren't how "fun" the game is. It is content and community...
So my question is, why are games and film so limited in it's expression to some degree with people focusing on "fun" or "how it all works"... With games and films isn't the point to entertain? Does it really matter if they aren't "technically good" if you find them entertaining? Does it matter if they are "technically bad" but tell a good story that is deep and engaging?
and... Do you think this outlook on games needing to be "fun" and movies needing to be "technically good" restricting them from becoming more fulfilling media?
I don't know if i expressed what I meant well enough...hope you guys understood. -
Lois is level crazy. That's just how it is.
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Is building a character a lost art or something? It seems that in many places it is the case that writers for the various mediums do not know how to build up a character and make them go through an arc, a story, where they grow and become more x or change personality all together... and likewise it also seems that many places don't seem to have consistent characters with a character being really nice one moment and then psychotic the next. Is it just me that has been noticing this a lot lately?
For example...
In wrestling, John Cena at survivors series was in the perfect position and given his character to become a "heel" a bad guy.
In Make it Break it there is a character named Lauren who does some really heinous psycho stuff, but then in the next scene she's all like "we're best buddies" and it's genuine, not faux sincerity.
In Detective Comics we've been introduced to a character that supposedly trained with Bruce and is some sort of real threat, yet we've never heard of him before and we don't really ever see any of his skills. We have no reason to think he's some sort of great fighter or what not...yet since we're told he is we're supposed to assume he is.
Likewise in Deathstroke we have the writer sitting there saying "He's badass" and in Mister Terrific we have "He's the third smartest guy in the world" repeated over and over again but we're never really shown or given any reason to think this is the case and the examples we might are more just things that show the writer doesn't know how to build the character, but is trying really really really hard by saying he does and maybe if i shout it at you enough time it will be true.
On the other hand we also have Batman's new arc where he is fighting the Owl dude which beautifully builds the character and mythos up... we legitimately see this new guy as a threat and yet he has hardly any panel time.
So... character building... is it become a lost artform or what? -
Ummm states don't have the ability to assign ambassadorial positions so this is just Delaware being dumb.
Why can't they give him something like a real award... and why cant reward be something like "For notable awesomeness in the scientific field, the awesome scientist award" -
that's called overlaying... not syncing v.v
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Quote:nyah, just simple flats. It's closer to coloring a coloring book that colors for a picture of any sort.Originally Posted by Comrade Hero
Glorious!
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I'm pretty sure that was dismissed a while ago as the problem was found to be that the miscalculated somewhere
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I got bored so i added some flats since i had it on my HDD already
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Updated ratings ^.^ If I can find a copy of i vampire #3 i'll add it, but I bet it will be D-... also not listed because I didn't JL #1, JL#3 is an A-... it had a pretty good outing this month.... where as previous months it has been meh at best
Batgirl = F- > D > C+
Men of War = A+ > B > C
Green Arrow = D > C > C
Static Shock = B > C- > C+
Batwing = D > C > C
Animal Man = B > B > A-
Swamp Thing = A+ > A+ > A+
Stormwatch = F+ > D > F
Justice League International = B > C+ > C+
OMAC = C- > C > D
Hawk and Dove = C > D > C-
Action Comics = F > B+ > B
Detective Comics = B+ > C > C
Resurrection Man = A > B > B
Demon Knights = C > C+ > B
Mister Terrific = F-- > F- > F-
Suicide Squad = C- > B > C
Green Lantern = C > C > C
Deathstroke = B > C- > C
Red Lanterns = B > C+ > C
Superboy = B- > C+ > C
Legion Lost = C- > B > B
Grifter = B- >B > B
Frakenstein, Agent of SHADE = C- > D > F
Batwoman = B- > B > C
Batman and Robin = D- > D > D
Blue Beetle = B > C > C
Wonder Woman = D > C- > D
LoSH = F- > D- > F
Supergirl = A+ > B+
Captain Atom = C- > C- > C-
Green Lantern Corps = C > C > C
DC Universe Presents = A+ > A > B
Catwoman = C+ > C > C
Red Hood and the Outlaws = C > D > B-
Nightwing = B > D- > B
Birds of Prey = B- > C > C
Batman = A+ > A+ > A+
Aquaman = A > D
The Flash = C+ > C-
Voodoo = A+ > A+
All-Star Western = B/A > A+
I, Vampire = D- > D-
The Savage Hawkman = C > F
Superman = F----- > F
Teen Titans = B+ > C
Justice League Dark = D+ > D
GL: New Guardians = C+ > B
Firestorm = B+ > C+
Blackhawks = B+ > A+
BtDK = B- > C -
Quote:They just get in the way of me seeing stuff... I wish there was a solution but there isn't.... though I think most heroes that have wings also have a way of hiding them so that's kinda reasonable to have some costumes and some with if your character has wings...Originally Posted by BrandX
Also, eh, they did all that work for wings, and I can be off here admittedly, but they don't seem that popular of a character costume option. I'm actually quite curious as the raio between costumes on a character to wings.
I also can't be the only one annoyed by fighting with them. So that has people likely going against them. I came up with a character who's abilities turn the wings into a cape just because I couldnt stand fighting and jumping around with the wings. I state this part because that could easily mean others have 1 costume with wings, and then the other 4-5 without them.
Personally I'll be buying the dog most likely as soon as i get my 500 points this month, but then I also bought the costume transformations ^.^
I wonder why no one has complained about the price of storage in suggestions yet... $5-10 per storage item... -
I'm interested in how GPUs and CPUs will be used by games more than anything else, because it will allow individual parts of the game to have a single processor devoted to it which will be awesome.
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Quote:I would argue in court that the subscription is part of a contract and as a part of a contract the services not being rendered and never having the intent of fulfilling the contract means that it is null and as such the the money was taken fraudulently and as such service must be re-established OR money returned.Originally Posted by BrandX
I don't think we (the players) deserve a guarantee exactly. I do think we (the players) deserve some notification to when the game will be shutting it's doors.
And for a game like CoH were you can pay for your subcription a year in advance, a refund if you end up paying for longer service than you're recieving.
Outside of that, you basically know from the get go, at some point, whether it be a year or many many MANY wonderful years from now, the MMO is going to shut down it's servers.
This argument can be used with anything on any market in MMOs that are time based... ie if you have to pay for say a bank to have it for the month, the argument works. However I'm not sure about regular items that are not time based. One could argue that since one time only market items have no definite length of time associated with them...just the length of time that the service/account it active then they are under no requirements of refunding because even if the item was bought the day before it was bought with the knowledge that, like you said, one day the service will be shut down and the contract being for until the service shuts down it has honored that contract.
Personally I think a refund in the second case would be the moral thing to do but meh, I'm a nice guy, so I'd do things like that, but I don't see it as necessary... I'm also intelligent enough to know that not doing so is bad business and it is unlikely that someone will buy from you again if you don't refund, but if you do refund you can create a report of honesty and trust which means they are ore likely to do business with you in the future. -
Mookie from Catwoman during No Man's Land absorbs kinetic energy which makes him high... though not sure if he counts i'd love to see him come back and play a comic relief char in a book.
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Quote:I'm more PO'd that they...Originally Posted by Frost Warden
You're right; I didn't read it. Couldn't bring myself to do so, after I saw that they removed her paralysis.
I'm not saying that her paralysis defined her character; it's just that Barbara fought hard to be defined by what she could still do. To just nullify that seems pretty poor judgement to me.
Erased Stephanie Brown
Erased Cassandra Cain
Erased Misfit
Erased Birds of Prey
Erased her time as Oracle
Erased her mastering the escreema sticks
Erased her creating Internet 3.0
Made her like that abomination, Batgirl Special #1
Made her a weak simpering character who's a complete betrayal of her position as Feminist and Handicap icon. -
Quote:GL wasn't hit at all... story wise everything from the modern age of GL happened and because there are no major stories revolving secondary characters and they don't really play role save for existing all pre-flashpoint stuff is still canon... save for they changed GL as one who made all the first contacts with the other heroes rather than Batman.Originally Posted by Kasoh
Because the Bat books and Green Lantern were doing rather well for themselves, they weren't affected too much by the relaunch, you have to see the other titles to see the big differences. Most of my titles were hit, and for the most part I've enjoyed most, despaired others. Superman was hit pretty hard in that DC retconned Lois and Clark's marriage out of existence.
Batman's continuity looks like it wasn't hit, but that's only on the surface and it's the bat family books that decimates a lot of the rest of the universe and the statements that certain events did not happen completely kill off a lot of things and makes the current affairs of the universe completely non-sensical. -
I corrected this image a bit for you so that the inks are clean rather than streaky? is that the word? and the art board stuff is gone.
looked on the artists site...wonder why he doesn't do this as it only takes like 3 seconds
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Quote:That's ok ^.^Originally Posted by Kai
Just an FYI, there is an SG called Soldality on Virtue so if you get any confused Comments on your arc you'll know why
If they are curious as to it I will ignore them I guess... -
Yay Legend's Origins...
:: Legend ::
When man first wrote down historical accounts of great heroes they often spoke of men who were ten times as strong and men of great fortitude that, even if pierced by thousands of arrow they would go on, fight for what is right. Never would they give in, never would they halt their onslaught. The gods held them in contempt, sometimes they were bemused, but deep down the gods feared these men and they had great reason to because these men were hailed as gods by the common man. The gods searched out and killed all these men who would be gods. They were thurough. Each and every one of the great heroes were systematically removed from life and some gods still seek to anhilate them from the afterlife. However, 2 heroes fell in love and had a child shortly before this massacre began. Seeing the events transpiring around them pleaded with the mystics to send their child to a far away place to save it. The was not sent to a far away place, but rather a far away time, still out of the reach of the gods, and still at a great price, their lives and souls.
This child was found and raised in a Dublin orphanage that abused the children. At the age of 14 Legend caught one of the children being ***** by the head of the orphanage. Legend grew angry and brutally beat the man to death. Shocked, he ran away and made his way on the streets of Dublin. When he turned 18 he got his GED and found construction work. After the first Rikti war Legend moved to Paragon City in hopes of helping to rebuild, but soon he realized that he had other abilities as well. -
Here's the Origin of Crypt ^.^ Now i need to figure out his real name.
:: Crypt ::
Crypt was born some time in the 1830s in Cockaigne, Maine, a city devoted to developing the bergeoning steam technology to aleviate the common man of the harshness of the peasant life. As the City grew the steam engines required constant looking after and resulted in created a second class that was forced to live on the lower levels of the city, watching after, and mainting the machines so that the upper class could lead a life of luxary. As the abolitionist movement picked up steam many of the Cockaigne's lower class began to argue that they could be considered slave just as much as any african slave. These pleas were largely ignored save for a single steam engineer/scientist who took up arms, using his research, to fight against the rest of the upper class to establish better working conditions in the 1860s who came to be known as Crypt.
This 1 man fight grew to a city wide battle, supporters of maintaining the status quo verse supporters of a new order, until a blunder during a battle between 2 careless units on both sides caused one of the major steam engines of the city to over heat and explode, shutting down and damaging much of the city. Crypt became the symbol of liberation and death as he was looked at as the cause of this destruction, uniting the city in working together to reverse the damage Crypt had done. As the nation recovered from the Civil war and Cockaigne from it's own war, the citizens of Cockaigne rose above their class differences and established a idustrial capital, able to produce some of the most technologically advanced machines in the world quickly and of top notch quality.
Crypt dissappeared after the blast that ended the war, many believing he was dead, and his body lost, but in reality he did not see the need to continue his fight as his goal had been accomplished. He hid himself away and offered up many miracle machines under false names as the years went on, losing touch with most of the outside world.
As the decades past Crypt became a legend, and those who believed he may have survived now believed him likely dead of old age. The city which once learned from the error of it's class stratisfication and worked together to build a better tomorrow fell into the decay once more as did the whole of america as the cities became increasingly larger. -
Knew we shouldn't have installed those cat doors... well just don't get hit by a car.
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Quote:Really? I only used it as a place holder cuz I have a headache and suck at names and didn't want to strain at the moment.Originally Posted by HYBRID_Z
i kind of like the name Force. Crypt is probably my favorite of the 3 i like his look.
Glad you like Crypt... he went through 4 iterations. Originally he was more like Batman and had a Ruin mask and victorian steampunk face... and I couldn't really get it to work but i needed a name so I called him Crypt... then i used CoT hood and skull face with more of the steampunk gear...but it didn't look right. Then I changed things around and tried to make the steampunkchest work and the hood skull work, but nothing I did looked right largely because they removed the reaper detail piece which helps make hoods work better imo, so i removed the hood, threw on the hat and the chaos leather just happened to be something i accidentally landed on and it looked good so i kept it ^.^ -
Quote:I could care less about "the industry." I think the american system of putting out comics is ludicrous and to some degree deserves to fail, but I like good stories, good art, and I would prefer that people be more creative than relying on IPs, but at the same time I want to read about some characters on going.Originally Posted by BlackSun17
D - I will dig into the units sold and $$$ sold a little more as I am curious about this.
However, I have to ask, do you even care that the industry could turn around? I get the impression that you read a lot of DC, however you seem to be rooting for things to fail.
That the main difference with Manga vs Comics... Manga you get a piece that once you find something you like you'll likely have it get better over time in solid, consistent, world that doesn't overlaps with other stories. Comics you get a piece once you find something you like you never know whether it will get better or worse or if anything will ever be resolved all in a massive world.
In other words... Story continuity + Contiguous Quality vs Crossover Continuity + incongruous quality.
I would say that Comics have better overall quality, but that's not true. The vast majority of art styles in comics aren't styles, but rather people with poor drawing ability that don't know the basics. The writing has not been honed for the most part and you are left with people who either have no clue how to write (Mister Terrific, Justice League Dark, Stormwatch, Nightwing) or Overly wordy (pick up any old superman title)... or they don't know the character well or don't identify with them so they get many things wrong (Batman and Robin, Redhood, Teen Titans, Superman) or they are probably a really good writer and get the characters but hate them and/or are forcing themselves to write a 4-6 issue story when it really should be 1 or 2 so they employ a lot of tricks that or spend most of the time ripping on things (Geoff Johns).
I love seeing colors, but they're expensive and most barely can do anything beyond basic photoshopping. Then there are inkers that most have the basics down, but to ask for anything beyond that isn't going to happen... and sometimes they ruin books by blacking everything out.
Letterists are fortunately generally decent, with very few that are horrendous... about the worst lettering I've seen is in the Legend of the Dark Knight and shadow of the bat series when they tried to get fancy while the worst in the new52 right now is in Hawk and Dove #3 which isn't all that bad, which is good, because that's the worst imo.
I don't know why there are editors in for these companies though because I spot mistakes all over the place and if I were paying the prices these guys are I would demand so much more and I'd never allow Bedard and whoever is responsible for the problem with sequential art in Animal Man to be on mainstream comics. Animal Man isn't mainstream and the overall writing compensates for the book's bad art, but Bedard is on a title like Green Lantern and he does things poorly all the time. That to me is unacceptable.
Basically Comics are sloppy wrecks that are expensive to produce and have a poorly thought out publishing system that promotes poor writing, poor art, lack of creativity, and generally do a disservice to the medium.
Their strength is in a contiguous world with characters that grow and change over time as people read through their adventures. You can get away with all the problems above because people are willing to pay for a sloppy product because they grow attached to characters and worlds. When you kill that you're pretty much telling people we'll give you worst quality product we can and you'll eat it up just because you're attached to this IP like an addict. -
Quote:Yes I realized that, but that's what we're supposed to do with that write up. Save for I used units sold rather than $... doesn't make much of a difference as it's reflecting the same rough numbers.Originally Posted by BlackSun17
EDIT: D, your comparison is not working because you are not comparing the same items ($$ or unit sold) across comparable times (March to October change and October 2010 data).
The thing is we're supposed to get out of this is that there has been 30% increase in business due to DC's relaunch and that DC is now somehow better than it was 2 months ago, but given the number and how it's read it just looks like exactly what everyone predicted and there will likely be a fall to pre-relaunch numbers soon enough.
Further, the fact is DC is seeing a boom because people are trying out new comics and people are also getting easier access via the net. As much as I'd like to say this is new readers I doubt it. We won't know that until the long term, because the store ordering patterns haven't changed yet and those numbers are likely based on distributor numbers, not store numbers.
Also with the reports of all the new people coming in it's hard to believe there was a such an insignificant change without realizing these are distributor numbers. What people are making out is that they aren't getting the issues they want because they're sold out and there are a lot of new people coming in. It's not like stores don't take this into consideration when ordering new books so first month is faith that the stores have in DC. Second month is based on how many people came in and how many said they think would come back. 3rd month will be based on how many people came back for a 2nd go. While the fourth month will show a likely drop due to people not buying after the 2nd issue, believing that they gave them two issue to impress them and they either did or didn't...and considering what i've been reading, they didn't.
I'll bet the 4th month numbers are down, but higher than the month before DC relaunch.
And if it is like that then the reason is what we all know it is right now... It's not how easy or hard it is to get into the book it's that the writing/art of most of these books is just garbage with only a few good ones well done or piquing the interests of certain readers. -
Quote:>.>Originally Posted by Lastjustice
Which Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle are you? Watch and decide for yourself.
I personally would say I'm Leonardo, as I'm always the responsible one, and put duty above myself. Raph is my runner up choice as I can see myself beign the crap stirrer and question authority a bit at times. I'm not impulsive like Mikey and terrible with machines so I'm not Don either.
<.<
Raphael is my favorite. Always has been.
Also Raphael doesn't stir up crap... Leonardo has been chosen to be leader, but Raphael almost always knows what to do, what the others should be doing, and is the most skilled out of the 4. He also places doing what's right and what's the best for the team and such above his own good where as Leonardo doesn't and is more about charisma and wanting everyone to get along and doing what he's told.
I would consider it more like 2 axis with Leo and Raph representing seriousness towards getting important things done and Mikey and Donnie representing seriousness towards hobbies... more or less Fun and Work. Perhaps with a 3rd axis on Socializing... Raph is on the far solo end of that social spectra followed by donnie... then Leo and then on the far group end is Mikey.
That is perhaps why Raph and Mikey get along the best and Raph and Leo want to beat the snot out of each other.