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Topics - Detonator

Pages: [1] 2
1
High-Context Discourse / outerheaven.brontoforum.us
« on: October 27, 2010, 03:27:59 PM »
So now that we have our super-spiffy new server/domain, I feel like we should make Outer Heaven into something bigger than a weekly cast.

My idea is to get a Ustream (or whatever works best) that can be accessed by any member interested in streaming.  We can create the subdomain that embeds the stream, possibly along with the #outerheaven IRC channel.  Then whenever someone feels like casting themselves playing Rambo for the NES or whatever, we can announce it on the boards and people can just jump to the stream page and watch.  Of course we can have our regular scheduled events, but I'd like there to be plenty of room for planned programming AND spur-of-the-moment fun.

Feel free to give ideas for the stream or for sites we can use.  I don't want to use Livestream because the ad breaks are really killer for people who don't have adblocker.  I'm fiddling with Ustream right now to see how much harder it is to cast with.

2
Gaming Discussion / Dragon Quest IX
« on: July 12, 2010, 06:34:29 PM »
Just picked this up, haven't actually played it yet.

The cashier asked if I wanted the scratch protection plan for $4.  I politely declined.

3
Team Fortress 2 / Engineer Update
« on: July 05, 2010, 12:25:38 PM »
No announcements yet, but still interesting.

Check out the TFC photograph near the bottom.  And is the 24 a countdown?

4
Forum Games / VvW VII - Roles and Items
« on: June 14, 2010, 06:52:35 PM »
Because of the increasing complexity of the VvW games, I wanted to make a list of the possible roles and auction house items before the game starts.  If there are some I missed, feel free to add them.

ROLES
Barber: Once per turn, can make a werewolf appear as a normal villager.
Stealth Assassin: Cannot be the target of killings, but only if he doesn't post or vote.
Xanatos: Can kill whomever he wants, but only if he can convince everyone else he didn't want that person dead.
Octopire: Automatically wins the game if all other remaining players have exactly eight letters in their names.
Werepiñata: When this player dies, all other players receive candy!
Garlic Salesman: Immune to vampires, but cannot share victory with the humans because they shun him.
Quadruple Agent: Gets to make his own win condition, but automatically loses if anyone can guess what that condition is.
Tailor: Repairs the werewolves' ripped clothing.  If he's dead, the wolves have to buy all new clothes every morning.
Lunatic: Is made fully aware of everyone's roles as the game begins, but no one believes him.
Fireman: Counters the effects of the Arsonist, and cannot win until he is brought to justice.

ITEMS
Graveyard Duck: Find it to live longer, but tends to waddle off.
Magic Beans: Plant these in your backyard to learn a valuable lesson about trusting strangers.
Macho Brace: Increases the power of fighting type moves.
Cell Phone: Combine this with the Cell Phone Charger in order to call any other player who has a phone.
Raw Steak: Momentarily distracts a werewolf, or can be cooked to create Well Done Steak
Crystal Ball: Used to bash skulls.
Baby Alligator: Cute now, but after several turns it will grow up and eat you.
Nintendo DS: Makes everyone else playing vaguely uncomfortable as you need everything repeated to you because you're not paying attention to the damn game.
Water: You need to drink this every day or you die of thirst.  There is a 1 in 100 chance that the water is infected with Cholera and will kill you.

5
Gaming Discussion / E3 2010
« on: June 14, 2010, 07:25:12 AM »
Let's give the Game News Dump thread a rest for the week and use this one instead before the announcement flood really starts.

6
Gaming Discussion / The Game Review Revue
« on: May 24, 2010, 03:31:10 PM »
So it has come up in other topics that people don't particularly trust game reviews.  I say "people" as a particular subset of the internet that may be particularly paranoid, and may or may not include people here.  The most extreme views from these people state that game reviews are bought and paid for by those who produce the game, and in return they get a very favorable score.

I know such an opinion pisses Sharkey right the fuck off.  I can't blame him, since I wouldn't want anyone to claim that everyone in my profession is a corrupt, money-grubbing asshole, whatever profession that may be.

This may have been part of the reason for Sharkey's new whiteboard, which talks about making reviews and the potential for bias.  I think it sort of ignores the elephant in the room, however, of reviews being monetarily influenced.  Sharkey mentions the potential bias of reviewing games created by people you are friends with, but I don't think that ever comes up as a concern for people.  Maybe from inside the industry, the idea of buying game reviews is ridiculous, while having favorable bias for a friend's game is very real.  It's just that from the outside, the opposite seems more likely.

In my opinion, something as rash as buying favorable game reviews IS ridiculous, no company could ever count on cooperation from the media, and the potential for bad publicity could be devastating.  I do think bias for big-budget games can creep in unintentionally, but not through direct intervention from the games industry.

I made this point before: I think reviewers will give the benefit of the doubt to the big, popular titles that they may not be willing to give to other titles.  I look at the difference between the reviews of FFXIII and Resonance of Fate as an example.

DISCLAIMER: I am aware that these reviews are written by two different people, and that this may be the main reason for the differing scores!  I also have not played either game, and cannot judge for myself of their relative quality.

Reading the reviews, both games seem very similar: RPGs that take many hours to get into, but afterwards are very rewarding and fun to play.  However, RoF gets a C+ while FFXIII gets an A.  The slow start in Final Fantasy is seen as an acceptable flaw which doesn't impact the greatness of the gem, while the similar flaw in Resonance is seen as an obnoxious hurdle which severely degrades an otherwise great experience.  It would be irresponsible of me to claim there was any conscious decision to rate a game higher or lower for any reason, but it really seems like Final Fantasy got a free pass while Resonance was held at the gate.

Sorry to ramble on like that, I just wanted to illustrate how I think reviews can be unconsciously biased without being corrupt.

:tldr: Game reviews, what do you think?

7
High-Context Discourse / Det's Stream-o-rama
« on: May 21, 2010, 03:32:32 PM »
I'm gonna make this its own topic in case it catches on.

I'm gonna start streaming TONIGHT (Friday the 21st) on my Livestream.  The current schedule is:

Street Fighter
SECRET SURPRISE :itsatrap:


I'll begin around 10PM Eastern, but maybe I'll start sooner.  I will post here again when things are about to start for reals.

I would appreciate it if people got the word out on #ff, I think people still go there.

8
World's Most Scientific Institute / What webcomics do you read?
« on: May 06, 2010, 05:03:21 PM »
POLL IS UP, VOTE NOW NOW NOW

I'm curious as to which webcomics are the most popular here.  I'll never think of every single comic out there on the first try, and I don't want to have to repeatedly alter the list and reset the votes (Froctopoll), so just reply with the names of webcomics you read.  Here are the requirements:

-Must be exclusive to the web, or have originated on it.
-Must still be active (updated in the past month or two)

When the poll goes up, I want you to select every comic you regularly read.  I would say that means that you check for new comics at least once a month.

9
Assorted Creations / Game Babel
« on: March 21, 2010, 08:32:24 AM »
This is a tl;dr version of a post I made in the Stray Thoughts topic a while ago.

So, it happens to us all.  We play some old or obscure game, and we have some keen observation about it we want to share with everyone.  The problem is, the topic for such random observations was closed on our favorite dinosaur-themed internet forum.  What are we to do?

My idea is to take all of the good things from such topics, while removing the bad things.

Game Babel would be a completely new website that centers around users signing up and posting "babels" about any game they've played.  A babel would be a short, independent observation about the game, not a reply to someone else's babel. 

The difference is the organization structure.  You don't have to read every post in the order they were made.  A comprehensive database of titles would be integrated, so users can easily find every babel about a game they're interested in.  Individual babels can be replied to, but they are kept hidden until expanded, like a blog's comment system.

Also, babels can be filtered by user, and you can subscribe to the babels of your favorite people, much like a twitter feed.

Babels can be marked as spoilers when posting, and their contents will be hidden until revealed by the user.  Users can mark the games they want to read spoilers for, and the site will automatically reveal all spoiler-marked babels for that game.

I've been kicking this idea around for awhile, and would really like to see it happen.  The problem is that it would be a massive undertaking, and I have no related skills in web design or programming.  That never stopped us before (not immediately, anyway), so I want to know what people think, and how they might make it better.

10
Gaming Discussion / Portal 2
« on: March 07, 2010, 01:47:49 PM »
The Game Informer exclusive on Portal 2 has been leaked.

It's a long read, but pretty interesting to see.  The biggest reveal is that it will be a stand-alone, full priced game, not part of another collection.

Also, they hired Jay Pinkerton, the guy who made those Spider-Man comic edits :profit:

I guess it's kinda dumb to post about a game that's not coming out until the end of the year, but oh well.

Oh yeah, if you didn't notice, they changed the ending to Portal 1.  Go check it out or Youtube it.

11
World's Most Scientific Institute / Is Niku A Sexy Hunk Of Man?
« on: February 17, 2010, 11:13:30 PM »
Everybody gets 1 vote per dinner.  Use them wisely.

12
High-Context Discourse / Happy Valentine's Day!
« on: February 13, 2010, 09:42:38 PM »


Since good feelings seem to be permeating the boards lately...

Have a lovely love day, Brontoforumus!

14
World's Most Scientific Institute / Comedy third option
« on: February 02, 2010, 09:15:58 PM »
this poll is serious

15
World's Most Scientific Institute / Who is your favorite female poster?
« on: February 02, 2010, 09:05:24 PM »
oh you'd better believe I'm going down this road

16
World's Most Scientific Institute / Moderators
« on: February 02, 2010, 08:46:34 PM »
who should overmoderate this board?

17
World's Most Scientific Institute / Should this board exist?
« on: February 02, 2010, 08:12:20 PM »
see poll

18
World of Warcraft / Cataclysm
« on: January 23, 2010, 08:23:32 PM »
Yeah I think it's time for a new topic.

Even though my highest level character is 53 or something, I might re-up for Cataclysm just to see the redesigned zones.  Way to go Blizzard, you ingenious bastards.

19
High-Context Discourse / Worstcon 10
« on: October 01, 2009, 03:54:22 PM »
Worstcon 10
Alexandria, VA
January 1-4, 2010

That is three months from today if you didn't realize.  Worstcon will be running in tandem with MAGFest, a Northern Virginia gaming convention that attracted around a dozen of us last year.

The great thing is that we don't have to organize a thing unless we want to.  No one will be hosting people at their homes so there's no limit to the amount of people who can show up.  As a medium-sized convention that's open 24 hours a day, there's plenty to do without arranging our own activities (not that we can't).

I want to encourage as many people to come as possible.  Feel free to bring friends.  I understand that this will be a daunting monetary investment for many of you, but maybe some of the people who came last year can post their travel experiences to put the cost in perspective.  As I recall, the general consensus was worth it.

I'd like to use this thread to answer as many questions as possible (check the official MAGFest site for info first).  I'd like to answer things publicly, so try to avoid PMing me questions unless you have to.  As we get closer to the con, I may put up more topics for any organization we can muster.

Quick info:
Address:
Hilton Mark Center
5000 Seminary Road
Alexandria, VA 22311

Reserve a room.  99$/night is pretty cheap if you split it between 4 people.

The closest airport is Reagan National (DCA).  There's a constant shuttle from the airport to the hotel, so you don't need a ride if you fly in.


The next three months are gonna go quick, so get in gear if you're interested.  I'll see you there!

20
Gaming Discussion / Video Game Music Moments
« on: August 31, 2009, 03:55:47 PM »
So I'll preface this topic by saying that I kinda hate the Video Game Music thread.  Well, to be more specific, I hate what it's become.  The thread is nothing but Youtube links to seemingly random game tracks.  In a picture dump thread, you can absorb everything by just scrolling through the thread.  In video dump threads, videos are usually posted one at a time so you're not overwhelmed with content to sit through.  In the music thread, I'm presented with three tracks per post from games I've never played, and I don't care enough to check them out.  What's missing is contextWhy is this track significant?  It doesn't have to be an essay, just some info about why this track moved you enough to post it in the thread.

I was inspired last night by Paw's Top 9 Music Moments in Gaming (Old School and New School).  The "story" parts are take-or-leave, and the lists are hit-or-miss, but I like the concept behind them.

Video game music, by definition, does not occur in a vacuum.  Even if the music only plays during a non-interactive cutscene, something is happpening while the track is playing, and that makes the track more significant in your mind.

So I'd like to make this thread about the moments in gaming where the music made the difference.  If you can't find any videos to show the context, just describe it.  It's inevitable that most of these are going to be opening or ending tracks, but that's just how it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv_dd7vPssw

One of the all time greatest intros to a game.  I can't think of a better way to communicate "the game you are about to play is going to fucking rule".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8Ao63nmzuE

Oh, right.  Maybe Capcom did it nearly a decade earlier, but both intros do exactly what they should, and watching them again makes me appreciate how it felt to see them as a kid for the first time.

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