noGood Gaming

Mark Methenitis posted a good response to the current legislation issues regarding video games.

This, of course, begs the question: Why games? There are a lot of theories about this particular issue, but I see it as a combination of factors: fear of new things, an easy target, unscrupulous politicians, and a largely uneducated public. Legislators love to find something like video games; something they can use to exploit the public’s misconceptions and fears in order to make it appear as if they’ve remedied a great evil without actually having to tackle a hard-hitting or divisive issue. Almost no one opposes legislation ‘to protect the children,’ even if no children are actually being protected.

Read the full post at Joystiq.

I’m a veteran of more than a few MMORPGs and I’ve spent enough time with more than a few roleplaying game systems to know that archetypes really don’t work in today’s day and age. No matter how well structured you want to make your game, the people aren’t going to be happy with just having one role as an option in combat. It was one of the core concepts of EverQuest II, and it quickly went away as the realization that trying to create diversity within such limited confines always resulted in the failure of most of the classes in regards to being able to do their job equally to the few others that excelled at it. And I believe this is a road that the designers of 4e D&D have not truly considered, or just acting about as ignorant as one can get (but, knowing some of the designers and their ideas for game design, I’m going with the former). Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a new video circulating the Internet and everyone seems to be getting a lot of laughs out of it. I’ve posted it below, but let me say my part on this first.

Addictions of almost any type can develop at almost any age and are typically exaggerated by the lack of emotional and societal support. In the case of this video, we have a young kid, not even a teenager, who has developed an obvious addiction to MySpace. It is an unhealthy addiction that may mean that this kid does not interact with others in real life enough and may develop a long history of hiding away on the Internet, looking for anyone that will listen to him. But it’s fairly obvious that he also is not supported by his family well enough to curb the need for the addiction, and in fact may be driven more and more towards the addiction by them and others.

People out there laugh because they think it’s funny that this kid screams when his brother and friends taunt him with sending messages to others from his MySpace account or even deleting the account as a whole, and video tape all of it to publish on the Web. But I cry for the kid who has had to attach himself to a community Web site because his family obviously isn’t there for him, providing for him the friendship and help that he needs. I cry even more knowing that the chances that this kid will try to kill himself has just shot up a ridiculous amount. I cry even more knowing that this kid’s life as it is now will be comparatively ruined by the actions of a family member.

This is why violence occurs in those so young today. Kids take guns to school when people refuse to accept and/or listen to them because they’ve been pushed into a corner and no one has helped them out of it and most tend to push them further into those corners. Kids also take their own lives when they feel they have nothing else to live for and that everyone, even their own family, has turned against them.

To the people that laugh, I say you’re the number one reason I don’t want to bring a child into this world, and that makes me cry the most.

Awesome, just plain awesome.

Bit of background for the uninitiated, these are just normal gamers who record players acting out as their characters in the MMORPG World of Warcraft. The MMOvie is a stab at parodying movies and other popular culture elements using World of Warcraft as the medium. A lot of the elements are specific to MMOGs

If you like what you see below, please visit their site. The popularity of this video and how far it can go is to be determined by the people who take interest in the video from their site itself (kind of like ads on the Web, but just for this movie; the site has no ads on it).

I’m not a fan, but an admirer of Park’s work with Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy. I have yet to see Lady Vengeance, but it is on my Netflix queue. These movies I enjoy for two reasons. First, because the visceral acts of violence, stemming from an unfathomable internal rage. I’m not talking about blood, gore, and the like, but the act itself and the rage that comes upon someone that makes them perform these sort of acts, acts that we normally only imagine when angry or scared. Second, is the realization that these brutal acts of violence are, like most such acts in real life, created from their own misunderstanding. The perceptions of the characters are cemented over time and develop into an almost uncontrollable rage, and yet result in situations that they have refused to see during their spree of violence.

Now, I’ve heard multiple times that Nicholas Cage has the rights to do an American adaptation of Oldboy, and today I just read that Charlize Theron will be staring in the adaptation for Lady Vengeance.

I know that Charlize Theron can handle the acting element of such a movie, she’s proven that in her various roles. I’m sure Nicholas Cage, as well as other well-known actors,  is a fan of Park’s works that go to the next level of expressing rage and the uninformed thoughts behind them. But can these people, let alone the executives behind them, truly remake these movies and get an audience behind them without turning them into your typical horror/thriller movie? Is it actually possible, and if Hollywood said it was, would anyone believe them?

These movies aren’t like Audition, where they prance you around slowly with a subject that makes about as much sense as Superman fighting a giant spider and then finish with some gory scenes of slowly ripping into someone’s body. These movies are the portrayal of the apex of anger and the look at the individuals who are driven by it. These are not movies that I believe Hollywood is capable of handling, but will do so anyway just for the chance of making some more money.

Sorry Park!

Merging the questions from the packing lepidoptera and the formerly Macromedia, now Adobe, web design application.

1. Go to friggin’ http://photobucket.com/
2. Enter your answer to each of the statements below in the search window.
3. Pick a photo from the first page. Or the second page…I don’t give a toss.
4. Put yer pic where your statement is.

Read the rest of this entry »

Probably one of the weirdest news combinations ever, but it’s all movie/television related folks!

The Incredible Hulk

The trailer is online and has received okay reviews. You can also find an interview with the director, Louis Letterier, in which he explains parts of the clip and how it relates to the movie. Personally, I’m really happy with the new Hulk (pictured below), and I’m fine with Norton who at least has down the messy hair complex that Banner and I share, but the Abominations seemed more scary creature from Doom for me than anything else. I’m sure the battle will be a great scene in the movie, but it will just be an effort primarily made by the CGI team, which means that they can make anything happen, but let’s hope they don’t just take it too far.

The Secret Life of Bees

This is one of those movies that come at me from out of nowhere. Based on the great kids novel of the same name, Dakota Fanning plays a white child who runs away with her black caretaker, played by Jennifer Hudson. The story revolves around their time together at the house of three sisters who are beekeepers (Latifah, Keys, Okonedo). I read the story when it originally came out and enjoyed it thoroughly. I expect great things from this movie, and it seems that the co-producer, Lauren Shuler Donner, has a huge investment in the movie being true to book, especially since she obtained the rights to the movie before the book was publicly available:

“I wanted it so badly I didn’t want to lose it,” she said. “It’s based on characters who go on a journey and go through an emotional arc. I thought all that would translate to the screen.”

John Adams

John Adams is a new HBO mini-series based on the book by David McCullough, probably the best historical piece I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author does an extraordinary job of portraying the birth of the new republic through the eyes of one of its founding fathers, and in my opinion one of the few people in history that I use as a reference to what a servant of the people should be. If you have HBO, this is one I highly suggest watching when you can. I don’t have HBO, but I’ll be looking for a way to obtain the mini-series, hopefully available from Amazon Unbox.

Jason Segel Hired For Muppets Movie

I love practically everything muppets, so this just makes me all happy inside and outside. It’s even encouraged me to go watch his recent movie, Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

The Muppets are back back back – and you’re not going to believe who’s behind their glorious big-screen revival.

For it’s only Nick Stoller and Jason Segel – the director, star and co-writers of the forthcoming Judd Apatow-produced comedy, Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The extremely R-rated forthcoming Judd Apatow-produced comedy, Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

But, as anyone who’s seen that movie, with its Dracula musical performed by Segel’s character and featuring Jim Henson-designed puppets, will know, Segel and Stoller clearly have a love for all things Muppet. And when Segel was invited to a general meeting with Disney executive, Kristin Burr, he pitched his concept for a new Muppets movie, and was hired on the spot.