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So, just to clarify, that contest deadline is midnight Tuesday/Wednesday March 8th GMT (Tuesday 7pm Eastern)?
I thought I knew how to tell time all these years, but this midnight deadline seems to be bringing that into question.

Master-Terraformer wrote:Joel: No worries, man! We knew you'd come around

Thanks to everyone for their kind words. It's what keeps us doing what we're doing!

Happy Gaming, all!

~Craig

You mean Lucious_the_Eternal will come around...

I have always been around!

My loyalty or fanboyness to the D6G shall never be questioned! lol

Joel

Damn, Joel, sorry! Having massive computer issues as school these last couple of days, and rushing to post when there seems like a hole in the new 'security', so more mistakes than usual. Yea, public sector!

Master-Terraformer wrote:Ozy: That's the great thing about the world, right? Although it doesn't take all kinds, we are here, and we all like different stuff Saying I have to have 'heroes' in all my stories sounds simplistic, but what can I say? I'm a classicist at heart. On the other hand, I was watching Cloverfield yesterday, loving it, and then it ended and I was like "Holy crap . . . the 'heroes' didn't win . . . everyone died no matter the sacrifices they made . . . and I like it . . . " So even I'm not as simple as I seem

I don't mean to make it sound simplistic. Have you seen The Social Network? My wife and I watched it last night and she didn't like it for all the reasons you didn't like No Country. So you're right, we all like different stuff!

I would argue that Cloverfield still fits your view of stories you like. There are heroes to root for (unlike No Country), they just all die...

Master-Terraformer wrote:Damn, Joel, sorry! Having massive computer issues as school these last couple of days, and rushing to post when there seems like a hole in the new 'security', so more mistakes than usual. Yea, public sector!

Smart Phones work wonders for these problems.

DragonKnight31 wrote:

Master-Terraformer wrote:Joel: No worries, man! We knew you'd come around

Thanks to everyone for their kind words. It's what keeps us doing what we're doing!

Happy Gaming, all!

~Craig

You mean Lucious_the_Eternal will come around...

I have always been around!

My loyalty or fanboyness to the D6G shall never be questioned! lol

Joel

Mine was but a momentary lapse of faith. Enough, I'm sure, to get me taken away by the Inquisition. I won't expect them, though.

Craig, have you read any books by David Gemmell? They're almost trashy in their formula but I'm willing to lay my cards on the table and say that the majority of his books are some of the best "heroic fantasy" out there. Particularly his trilogy based on the Illiad and the story of Troy.

Craig - Really liked the movie review in "Didja ever notice?" I hadn't figured this movie out. Now it gives me something to think about. Maybe you can talk about Inception next?

jdg

I'm with Ozzy here...Cloverfield definitely had characters acting heroically even though they died with their deaths achieving (essentially) nothing, they still were challenged and went to meet that challenge while putting their life on the line to do so (go rescue a girlfriend trapped in her apartment).


As for No Country For Old Men, I totally understand where you're coming from Craig. The hero dying offscreen at a seemingly random moment in the film, the bad guy getting away essentially scott-free and the other hero (Tommy Lee Jones) not pursuing his 'duty' and trying to find said villain were all certainly designed to play against typical audience expectations. In other words, you were supposed to feel irked that you didn't see the hero die, and you were supposed to feel angry that the villain got away and thoroughly disappointed that Tommy Lee Jones gave up and ran away.

Of course, your point in Did ya ever notice was that you get enough of 'reality' in real-life so you when you watch a movie you want to be satisfied and enjoy it. That of course if your prerogative and I know a lot of people that agree with you and HATE No Country.

While I agree with you to a degree, in that I certainly wouldn't want to have most of my movies leave me feeling and unsatisfied, I do think it is really important to have *some* movies be good enough to flip-flop your expectations and surprise you. If you ALWAYS know that the hero is going to save the day in EVERY movie then there will always be something in the back of your head reminding you that no matter how much the movie is trying to make him seem in peril, he really isn't...you know he's going to succeed.

But as long as there are movies that occasionally come along and challenge this ideal, it reminds you that heroes don't ALWAYS succeed in real-life and that's what make heroes, well, heroic.

So while James Brolin may have seemed like a 'hero' in that he was the protagonist of the film, when you actually take a step back and look at what he did, there were a lot of cowardly and unheroic choices that he made (i.e. an anti-hero, so to speak), not the least of which was stealing drug money from a botched deal that started the whole fiasco...even if the did desperately need it.

So I believe that No Country throughly succeeded in remind us that not all heroes succeed or even die heroically and that not all bad guys get their due. And again, while I wouldn't want to see *every* movie with this theme, I find the occasional reminder very refreshing simply because it goes so thoroughly against what I expect to happen in the movie.

And honestly, if a movie makes me feel any emotion strongly then it is usually a good movie (with a few exceptions). If I didn't care about James Brolin I wouldn't care that he died offscreen. If the killer wasn't ruthless and terrifying, I wouldn't care that he got away, etc. So at the end of the movie when the whole audience moans at their unfulfilled desires, I lean back in my chair and smile and think about the events of the film. To this day, I still think about No Country because of this fact when my memories of so many other 'great' movies have begun to fade.

So I personally totally agree with all the critical acclaim the movie received, even though I also understand why you 'hate' it. Although I think in some ways I 'hate' it as well, I just love that it makes me hate it, and the fact that so few movies are willing to take that stand despite the sometimes bleak nature of reality makes No Country all the more special.

As to whether or not the message being put forth by the Cohen Brothers is that there is no point to being heroic, I'm not sure. From what I understand, the book tells the story in pretty much the same way (with the hero dying 'offscreen' and the villain getting away), so I don't know how much is the Cohen Brothers and how much is the source material. Certainly I think the overall message of the story is what you described in Did ya Ever Notice (there's no point to being a hero), but again I don't think there's anything wrong with enjoying one story with that message and then going right back to another blatantly heroic tale...in fact I think that's closer to what life is: sometimes being heroic is vitally important and other times the heroism fails without any notice.


But anyway, I enjoyed tiyr commentary as obviously it got my mental juices flowing, which is good!

Ahhhhh . . . Social Network . . . dealt with a tiny bit in ep 75 DYEN . . .

Inception . . . ditto . . . (sensing the theme?)

Ozy and Yak, RE: NCfOM and Cloverfield: You know, I've got to say, guys, I agree with everything you guys said, really. I always tell my students that any work that engages you emotionally has succeeded on a fundamental level. I hadn't known about the source material, so that's very interesting . . . however, they DID choose to make the movie based on that material, so they're not ENTIRELY absolved

Grin has churned out 3 more articles based on fantasy novels and 'the classics' . . . and he seems to be drifting a bit off the reservation . . . but that first article DID engage my brain, so I, too, was appreciative!

I know I've read something by Gemmel, but I can't currently remember what . . .

Thanks for keeping the discussion going, guys! Love it!

~Craig

Yeah, Cormac McCarthy wrote NCfOM, as well as the incredibly bleak, post apocalyptic "The Road" (which was a fantastic, if depressing movie), so he's kinda known for dark stuff.

Got an email for 50% off pre-order George Martin new book. Wanted to share the link:
http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0553801473&cmpid=SA_20110309_2

DragonKnight31 wrote:Got an email for 50% off pre-order George Martin new book. Wanted to share the link:
http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0553801473&cmpid=SA_20110309_2

...just keep your fingers crossed that there still IS a Borders when the book comes out!

Following on from the Hollywood Minute, I see Warhammer is becoming an everyday common household name in the mundane world.

Check out this reference in the Daily Mail (a mainstream, middle class, conservative newspaper from the UK - about as un-geekish a publication as it is possible to get!). In reviewing the film "Battle: Los Angeles" their reviewer is somewhat dismissive of the film, saying it is "Less exciting than watching someone play Warhammer"...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/reviews/article-1365118/Battle-Los-Angeles-The-Resident-Unlikely-world-storm.html

Raef, would you please email me next week's lottery numbers?

You guys should see me at the craps table when I hit 3 "Midnights" ( ) in a row.

PS. The odds payout 30 to 1.

Raef

stonedogs wrote:You guys should see me at the craps table when I hit 3 "Midnights" ( ) in a row.

PS. The odds payout 30 to 1.

Raef

Hee hee, that sounds pretty sweet! Reminds me of the time last fall in Vegas when my sister put a $1 down on the double six, and hit it! We all figured it was due to the fact that it was her wedding night!

Anyway, great show as usual, guys. Sorry I haven't posted recently, I've been a little behind but I'm pretty much caught up now. BTW, I've subscribed to the Lost Chapters, but I'm having trouble downloading anything but Book 4. When I try to DL the older episodes through iTunes, it sends me into an endless log-in loop. Is it supposed to be like this (that is, do I not have access to the older eps)?

Speaking of predictions come true, sadly Craig's prediction of a trajedy strick big time. Our thougths and prayers go out to the Japanese.

Craig, you had nothing to do with the tsunami!! My prayers go out to all those affected by this tragedy.

On to a more fun topic, the interview with Angelo was fantastic. We have 3 La Quintas in my area. I tried emailing the company to get Angelo's email or contact info with no luck. Can you guys get him in touch with me, or me with him? I'd love to invite him to my gaming club if he is in the Pacific Inland Northwest...

I just watched "No Country..." and I thought about the last "Didja Ever Notice." Spot on, Craig. Well done, as usual.

Believe me, when I made that stupid prediction . . . well, never mind. I got my first scathingly critical email recently in response to this . . . but the essence of the message was correct: I'll stick to game stuff from now on. And my prayers are with all those affected by the recent disasters around the world even more now than they would have been, especially all those affected by the recent earthquake and tsunami.

Now on to less serious matters:

That headline was hilarious, Paul. However, having just gone to see Battle: LA yesterday I have to disagree whole-heartedly with the review. Was it formulaic? Yes. Was it blatantly emotionally manipulative? Yes. And I loved it. It wasn't jingo-istic or overly nationalistic. It focused on the alien attack off one city, that happened to be in the US, so it was US forces (Marines . . . and one Air Force chick ) that were doing the fighting in the movie. They did a decent job of letting you know there was fighting going on all over the place. In short, unless you've got an active grudge against the US military, there's nothing here that should offend, I don't think. And so what you don't know the alien's mother's maiden name? Sometimes its the vague menace that's more frightening! There were a few tactical choices that I thought were . . . odd . . . but most of them were at least theoretically defensible, so I rolled with it.

As for getting in touch with Angelo, our newest goodwill ambassador, if folks will email us at info@thed6generation.com, we'll forward those to Angelo (if it's ok with him).

There's plenty of room for debate on NCfOM . . . but my opinion's pretty fixed. And there's been a few comments here and there about Song of Ice and Fire and Cloverfield . . . and I agree with most of those too: Cloverfield does have heroes . . . they just lose . . . which I DID say I was ok with, as long as the heroism was acknowledged somehow in the film . . . which I guess I feel it was, in that film, somehow. And as for SoIaF being nihilistic . . . I don't really believe that. There ARE good guys and bad guys (not always easily discernible, and the good guys are far from perfect, and the bad guys have won some MAJOR victories . . . but that doesn't celebrate the evil characters . . . and I think the books have a lot to say on the matter of two things that are connected to this topic: misunderstood characters (bad for good AND good for bad), and redemption.

Anyway, as usual, thanks for all the kind words, guys!

Sorry for the delay on the next episode . . . I think Russ got wrapped up in his prepping for PAX . . .

~Craig

bbb wrote:Here's a link to the NPR story Raef mentioned. It's interesting stuff.

http://www.npr.org/2011/02/18/133870801/could-gaming-be-good-for-you

http://ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html

Here's her TED-talk.

Really enjoyed the show. As always…

FortheEmperor! wrote:Craig, you had nothing to do with the tsunami!! My prayers go out to all those affected by this tragedy.

I certainly was not implying that Craig had, through dark powers of sorcerous precognition and deep-seated Hello Kitty hatred, summoned forth the tsunami and earthquake (incidentally, that is sarcasm-I know it is often lost in the written word so I wanted to by crystal clear).

Master-Terraformer wrote:Believe me, when I made that stupid prediction . . . well, never mind. I got my first scathingly critical email recently in response to this . . . but the essence of the message was correct: I'll stick to game stuff from now on. And my prayers are with all those affected by the recent disasters around the world even more now than they would have been, especially all those affected by the recent earthquake and tsunami.~Craig

I might ask who the frak are "they" to tell you to stick to gaming things? Are they so wrapped up in the tragedy that they have misplaced their anger? Sure, blaming the messenger is a time-honored instution and they are I guess it is tradition to scream "Madness? This is [wherever the feth they are writing from]! and (try to) flying kick you into the nearest conveniently-located-in- the-town-square pit of death but frankly 1) you were clear to point out that you are a pessimist when it comes to the future-that is part of what makes you you, and the show is what it is because you are who you are and 2) it's a pretty safe bet-something crappy happens every year. You would be hard pressed to find a year that nothing bad happened and if that did occur, we would upgrade something minorly bad into something majorly bad to fill the gap. So without blowing this up any further, you keep on doing what you keep on doing and don't let some person on the interwebz try to tell you otherwise.

Now, following recent thread tradition by going on a tangent after discussing something serious, I fnished Out of the Dark by David Webber. Loved it despite the ending. Would be happy to discuss some place where I would not be giving out spoilers and I figured out the show would be out late when my Droid broke down and started crying from all the Tweets it was getting from PAX. Oh yeah, I haven't seen B:LA yet but anything that has an entire flight of Phrogs pulls my heart strings.

Thanks, Spooks. I'll assume you hit the nail on the head. The first email could have been tongue in cheek, and my response was in kind . . . and then the follow up was pretty accerbic . . . and so I let it go. Never fear, one person blaming me won't change who I am . . . I'll get over it soon anyway

And I've got to say any Marine who likes creepy aliens but doesn't go see this movie is probably going to lose his membership card . . . or something . . .

But once folks have seen it, I'd love to hear someone else's analysis of the 'questionable' tactical decisions . . . the one I'm thinking of, I believe, will occur to any wargamer seeing the film.

But no spoilers, cuz _I_ loved it!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, and I guess anything shifts an entire island nation 8 feet to the left, or shifts the rotation of the Earth several inches . . . qualifies as a major event . . .

Ruckdog wrote:Anyway, great show as usual, guys. Sorry I haven't posted recently, I've been a little behind but I'm pretty much caught up now. BTW, I've subscribed to the Lost Chapters, but I'm having trouble downloading anything but Book 4. When I try to DL the older episodes through iTunes, it sends me into an endless log-in loop. Is it supposed to be like this (that is, do I not have access to the older eps)?

Howdy Ruckdog: If you bought the $2/month subscription then you can't access older episodes, only shows published since you signed up. However if you bought the $24/year subscription you DO get access to the old shows.

If you still have problems email me directly and I'll help you out.

Thanks for supporting the show!

Master-Terraformer wrote:Sorry for the delay on the next episode . . . I think Russ got wrapped up in his prepping for PAX . . .

Oh I see how it is. Get the good folks hooked and then leave them to go through withdrawals.

Finished today, and just saw the next is posted! Yeah!

A few quick points:
1) Thanks for adding the Naked Mole Rat song a few episodes back. My child now loves that song and makes me play it every night. At least it is catchy.
2) I somewhat agree with Craig on No County For Old Men - I still enjoyed the movie, but would have liked it ten times more had it ended more... happily.
3) Survive. Love it. Its up there with Axis & Allies and Acquire as best gaming memories from my youth. I had the 82 version just a few years ago, but was missing a few hexes, which obviously makes it hard to play. Great review.

Excellent episode - now I'm on to the next one!

Mezmaron