I Had Hoped For Questions and Answers...

but I guess I'll have to settle for Question and Answer. I only received on question for this week's Q&A, though I hope that number will increase in the future.

How come you never answer email?
-- David N. Scott

That's a good question, at least coming from David. The quick answer...for the same reason I TiVo things.

The slightly longer answer is that I really only have time to check email when I am at work and I have to prioritize emails. Fifteen minute breaks only give so much time for typing and if I want to rush out a blog post, well I have to push some things down the list.

An even longer explanation is that David's emails to me typically involve attending an event organized at his household. I have been to one of his events and it was a very good time, but two things conspire against my being able to give prompt responses to his invitiations. Well, technically one reason, but two subsets of the same reason. The first is that my wife's and I rarely see each other during the week. Unlike David and his wife Julie, my wife an I work in different towns, let alone different businesses. But that's Southern California for you. I work for a non-profit in Glendora and she works for a writer on the Paramount lot as you can see these aren't next door. But the distance is only a part of the reason I don't see my wife often. The second is that working in the entertainment industry requires a lot of hours. Her current job isn't as bad a William Morris, or when she was working on a small movie, but it is very time consuming. End result is...I make sure to get my daily hour and a half of conversation time with my wife. Sometimes this means staying up late, but it is always worth it.

What about the time I am waiting? I read at the local Starbucks, cook dinner, work on school papers, or watch baseball while reading.

The second reason, an extension of the first as I said, is that I don't know my wife's schedule on a regular basis. Sometimes I don't even know my own. Things can come up at a moments notice and alter our plans. I don't like to commit to events/fun if I don't know if I will be able to or not. Oh, and since weekends are the only time I get to see my wife for more than my joyous hour and a half, I have to see if she can/wants to attend event x with our limited time. She's a nice person and wants to take into consideration all of our possible activities. Thus I can't often answer til the last minute or sometimes not at all due to the whole lack of time thing.

Why is (blank) on the Blogroll? (part 1)

That's a good question. From time to time, I am swamped with email from people wondering why I have selected the blogs I have for my blogroll. The short answer is that it's pretty random. A slightly longer answer is that these are either sites I read somtimes, or whose "users" (that's a Tron term) have visited/linked out site. Some I read for fun, some I read because they are filled with useful advice (hopefully the advice is as useful as that in this Strong Bad Email about Death Metal, some just because.

The longest answer follows:

A Knight's Blog (which I can't get to load today) is on there because it is a medievalist and modern politics blog written by a Dragonlance fan.

Advice Goddess is the blog of Amy Alkon a syndicated advice columnist who Fritz likes to read in the way people who like to yell at the radio listen to talk radio. Amy has spoken at some events I have organized and has prompted some interesting discussions among the students I work with.

Annika's Journal -- I have no idea. It might not be linked tommorrow.

Barone Blog -- Michael Barone's blog, if you can call what is essentially an online opinion column by a Mainstream Media Outlet a blog, especially when it is attached to their formal website.

Blogging LA -- I live in Los Angeles. Actually, I used to live in Los Angeles, now I live in Glendale.

Cathy's World -- If I only linked one other blog this would be it. I read it as much for the comments as the actual posts, maybe even more for the comments.

Da Goddess is there because she is a blogcritics editor and because, at one time, she linked us. Now that she doesn't link us...

Daily Kos -- because it's Daily "I hate Peter Beinart but isn't it cool he recommended my book" Kos.

Daly Thoughts linked us but appear dead in the water.

Day by Day is an online cartoon that is conservative in nature and includes a blog-esque section.

Delicious! Delicious! is my struggling, and hopeful, screenwriter friend Caryn's food blog. She was a classmate of my wife's at USC.

DISContent -- because he is a mad pulp bastard who writes about, and for, the direct to DVD industry and where the film industry is headed.

Fruits and Votes is a very well written analytical blog by a San Diego Professor. His comments on current politics might make him seem liberal, but his ideas for election reform models show a more complete picture. Oh, and he writes about fruits I have never heard of before.

Gaze Theory -- SoCal blogger who used to link us, but who has probably written us off due to geekitude.

Got Medieval is a Medievalist blogger who likes to look at uses of the word medieval in mass culture and then pick them apart.

Okay, that's it for now. Jeesh.

First Time Friday Q&A Solicitation

David Scott, over at Pererro, has a neat tradition going on over at his website. Actually, I think it's his wife who has the tradition, but I like it and I want to adopt it.

So, for the first time ever (dum-dum-duuuum) I will take questions from all comers that I will answer on Friday. You can email the questions to me at imjaygatz at aol.com. You can ask me any question and I will try to respond.

Thanks again.

Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Fhtagn! Movie Based on Lovecraft's Writing Has Trailer on Internet...Madness Ensues.

There have been many movies based on the writings of Howard Philips Lovecraft, most of them lacking the truly eerie qualities of Lovecraft's weird tales. In fact, horror films and science fiction films with little or nothing to do with Lovecraft have often done better at representing the themes Lovecraft addresses in his writings.

Lovecraft fans have had to endure:

Die, Monster, Die -- a theatrical version of Colour Out of Space.
The Dunwich Horror -- Roger Corman AIP Production.
Reanimator -- A cult classic, and fun sure, but not exactly horrifying.
The Unnamable -- The less said the better.
From Beyond -- I wish it had stayed there.

Sure there are many more, but I have seen the films above and they have played their little games with my psyche. Surely nothing could be as Unspeakable as Unnamable

Now Lovecraft fans have Cthulhu. All I have to say is that my first glance at the trailer made me think the film might be enjoyable, but then I saw the madness bringing work of the Old Ones had indeed infected this film. For the film's cast includes Tori Spelling. If that doesn't require a Sanity Check...nothing does.

Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Fhtagn!

The Adventures of Doctor McNinja

It has often been asked whether Pirates were cooler than Ninjas (even on Bones, but we now know that we no longer have to ask which is cooler Doctors or Ninjas. That is because we can read the Adventures of Doctor McNinja!

Who knew?

Ba-bada-bahhh, bup-badda-bah, whooom-whooom: Knight Rider Coming to the Big Screen

According to Movies Online the Weinstein brothers have acquired the rights to produce a big screen version of the early 80s television show Knight Rider.

While there has been a trend of late to turn 70s and 80s shows into films, the current trend has been to make them into spoofs of the original shows. While I enjoyed Starsky and Hutch by the time Dukes of Hazzard came out the spoofing had gone too far. Sure the car chase in Dukes is great, but about 1/3 the movie was unwatchable. I'll leave it to you to decide which 2/3 were watchable. I hope the trend of spoofs doesn't continue with Knight Rider or the eventual Six Million Dollar Man. I know the ideas behind the film are "high concept." Knight Rider was like the Fugitive meets Magnum PI, but with a talking car, and the Bionic Man was superspy with bionic limbs. I know that the shows seem silly by modern standards of production. I know all that.

None of that means that the movies can't be played "straight" or that they may even be better for it.

Trying to Figure Out What to Write Today

While I am waiting for some muse to beam thoughts into my head...I believe I have discovered David Chute's favorite game. David C., as you might recall, hinted that he may not actually have a favorite game. Hogwash!

David C.'s favorite game is Scene It!: The Shaw Brothers Edition. His favorite "game" within the game is when you have to unscramble PinYin sayings and translate them into ideomatic English. He does have the caveat that you must buy the subtitled and not dubbed version of the game. Five Deadly Venoms with wierd New Zealand accents is a little goofy, but when seen in Cantonese/Mandarin audiences can pay attention to the story.

Warner Bros. to P2P Users: Viva la Revolucion!

According to DISContent and the Wall Street Journal, Warner has announced that it will sell and rent television shows and movies using BitTorrent technology.

To see how Warner looks at the situation, let's have them speak for themselves. According to the WSJ:

"We've always known peer-to-peer technology represents a huge opportunity for us," said Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros.' home entertainment group. "If we can convert 5%, 10%, 15% of those [illegal peer-to-peer] users to become legitimate users of our product, it can have a significant impact on our industry and Warner Bros."

Prices haven't yet been determined, but they could be less than physical DVDs. "We're working with a user base that is accustomed to not paying for content," said Ashwin Navin, president and co-founder of BitTorrent, who says TV shows might sell for as little as $1.

World of $$$? -- Legendary Pictures to Make World of Warcraft Film

According to Variety Magazine, the Warner affiliated production company Legendary Pictures has purchased the rights to produce a film based on the popular World of Warcraft massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG).

Legendary Pictures is the production company responsible for last Summer's Batman Begins and this Summer's Superman Returns.

No word whether the film will be live action or animated, but one thing is certain...with over 6 million subscribers worldwide paying $14.99 a month, the expected take both in b.o. and dvd sales is extraordinary.

The film will also provide ample opportunity for crossover merchandizing. WoW has already garnered a boardgame and collectible card game and one can only imagine that "when" (not if) special items are offered "in game" to players who see the movie opening weekend the opening weekend will be huge. Combine this with "bonus features" on the DVD and the money will be pouring in. Given the average lifespan of an MMORPG, even one as good as WoW, the timing on the film is perfect.

Why I Love Savage Worlds

Everybody has a favorite game. For some it is Scrabble, others Risk, for Curt Schilling it is Advanced Squad Leader (he loved the game so much he bought the publishing rights). As a person who love games, period, I don't judge whether your favorite game is "mainstream" or "avant-garde." All I care about is whether or not you are willing to hang out, chat, and play a game of (insert game here) some time. That's not true of a lot of gamers, particularly roleplaying gamers.

It is bad enough in the game-playing industry (I was going to say gaming, but since I worked in a casino once the term has specific meaning for me), on the consumer side, we have armed camps around game types. All rpg-ers know that larpers are freaky goths with no life. All ccgers know that rpgers are 300lb. bearded freaks who live in their parent's basement. All miniature gamers know that ccgers are fad of the moment players with no sense of commitment of duty to the "hobby." The list could go on forever, but needless to say the games hobby has its many niches and few are the players who overlap in more than one area. As for me, I have played some in all the areas, but I have my preferences and prefer straight improv theater to larping. Though I do have friends who larp like crazy.

Anyway, one of my favorite gaming milieu is that of the roleplaying game. Like game-playing in general, there are often armed camps in the roleplaying "sector." But I will save a discussion of where the armed camps are aligned for another time, for the present let me merely state that like games in general, when it come to role playing games I have played/read/owned my share. Also, as above, I am a crossover player. There are few game systems I think aren't worth the time of day, though Alma Mater probably makes the list, I like and own a lot of RPGs. The one I play most often is Dungeons and Dragons, for those who lived through the 80s it is the "Devil's Game." Just ask Tipper Gore. But the one that inspires me most and, in my opinion, represents the best of the hobby with regard to enthusiasm and sheer focus on fun is Savage Worlds.

Savage Worlds is roleplaying which attempts to be "Fast, Furious, and Fun!" It also attempts to be a simple to learn, simple to play game which can cover any genre. Not a small task, but one that I think the game does admirably. The game is the brainchild of Shane Lacy Hensley, but it is really the culmination of an interesting developmental journey.

The following are my observations and not the official story.

In the early 90s roleplaying had a quick surge in sales, not as big as the early 80s but substantial. The surge was primarily due to the emergence of some new games which captured the roleplayer/and new player's imagination. I call this era the Shadowrun/Vampire revolution because these two games brought so many new gamers to the hobby that they are almost as important event in gaming as the creation of D&D. Vampire brought in more gamers, but Shadowrun shouldn't be left out of the equation because it did something wonderful it was one of the first successful Hybrid RPGs. Shadowrun combined Fantasy and Cyberpunk, not enough Punk for Chris Pramas (but what exactly punk is would be a wonderful discussion to have with Chris) but Cyberpunk none-the-less. It had a world of elves, dragons, hackers, and machine guns. Vampire, in addition to having great artwork and a subject that Goths adore, contained advice for a gaming style which focused on narrative rather than event based stories. It wasn't the first game to do this, but along with the West End Games Star Wars it was one of the best.

So the early 90s saw a revolution containing both hybrid games and games that focused on narrative interaction. The best, in my opinion, of the games to merge these two new-ish gaming ideas was Deadlands. Deadlands combined horror and the Old West with an innovative game system designed by Greg Gorden (who also designed the flexible DC Heroes System) which captured the genre perfectly. Imagine playing an Old West rpg with dice, playing cards, and poker chips, that's how well it captured the genre. Deadlands had "Dime Novels" which contained serialized adventures with a short story and then an adventure along the lines of the story. The game was furious and fun, but it wasn't very fast. Gameplay could bog down from time to time. But the system was extremely flexible, Matt Forbeck adapted it for Brave New World a Dark Future Dystopian Superhero RPG (roleplaying in a Fascist America), showing that the game system was flexible. It could also be made faster, which Hensley and crew accomplished with the Great Rail Wars Miniatures game, a miniature skirmish game based on Deadlands. If it was Brave New World that showed that the Deadlands system was multi-genre capable, it was Great Rail Wars which streamlined the Deadlands system to be fast.

By 2000, sales in RPGs had dropped down to extremely low levels. The biggest rpg company had almost ceased to exist, was saved by a collectible card game company, and was finally purchased by Hasbro (who make consistent, but not awe-inspiring money from D&D). But that changed when the Third Edition of D&D was released in the Fall of 2000. Sales jumped, but the large boost to the industry was temporary. By 2002, players were already grumbling about the impending release of Edition 3.5 and how Habro was ruining the industry and how there were too many d20 products by non-Hasbro companies that were awful. It was around this point that Hensley noticed another new niche to be developed, Gamers with little time. Those of us who had been able to play all-nighters in college were married, had jobs, and often children. They couldn't play in crazy weeklong sessions. They needed a quick and easy game, with guaranteed quality production values. So he released Savage Worlds a quick and easy system which has a fast a loose style that lends itself to a casual style of gameplay. It is also a game which has the kind of excitement, on the part of the creators, that so many games are lacking today. Oh, and the prices are pretty cheap compared to the marketplace. Shane and crew wanted to minimize the "necessary" purchase to one book and possibly one setting book to play. Combine this with their company's support of the pdf revolution and you have an inspiring company.

I love Savage Worlds because it loves the hobby. I also love Savage Worlds because its settings are still wonderful examples of genre hybrid, but that will be the focus of tommorrow's post.

Women and Gaming Event at UCLA May 8 and 9

Advisory for Monday, May 8, and Tuesday, May 9


UCLA Hosts Workshop and Conference on Women and Gaming



WHAT:

UCLA will be hosting two events, a workshop, “Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives on Gender, Games and Computing,” and a conference, “Girls ’n’ Games,” focused on women’s participation in game design and play, with speakers from Europe, Asia and North America.



WHO:

· Yasmin Kafai, associate professor, UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies.

· Jessica Tams, vice president for product planning, SkillJam Technologies.

· Henry Jenkins, professor, comparative studies, MIT.

· Brenda Laurel, chair, Graduate Media Design Program, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, Calif.

· Morgan Romine, founder, The Frag Dolls, Ubisoft’s all-girl gaming team.

· Daniel James, CEO, Three Rings.

· T.L. Taylor, associate professor, IT University, Copenhagen, Denmark.

· Mimi Ito, Annenberg fellow, University of Southern California.



WHEN:

“Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat” workshop: 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday, May 8.

“Girls ’n’ Games” conference: 2:30–6 p.m., Tuesday, May 9.



WHERE:

“Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat” workshop: 3340 Moore Hall, UCLA.

“Girls ’n’ Games” conference: Suite 104, EDA Kinross Building, 11000 Kinross Blvd. This event will be streamed live at http://www.eda.ucla.edu.



MEDIA CONTACT:

Shaena Engle, (310) 206-5951, engle@gseis.



PARKING:

On Monday, park in Structure 2, off Hilgard Avenue. Pick up a parking pass at the information kiosk for the NSF workshop.

On Tuesday, park in Lot 36, off Gayley Avenue. Pick up a parking pass at the Westwood information kiosk for the “Girls ’n’ Games” conference.



-UCLA-

I really wish I could attend this event, but the fates have conspired against me. Thanks to David Chute for the information, maybe I can watch the second day as streaming video.

Roleplaying in a More Excited Time...

The good folks over at Pelgrane Press (designers of the very good Dying Earth RPG) asked a number of RPG game designers what some of their favorite "lesser known" games were. Actually, being British, they asked what the designer's "favourite" lesser known games were, but that is beside the point. The answers varied and included a great deal of the history of the roleplaying industry, with games like Amber and TSR's Saga System being mentioned by a few. Matt Forbeck's answer, Adventure!, by White Wolf, almost took over the topic of today's article, but that will have to wait until Monday. Instead, I am going to focus on one of the unifying themes of their answers, and bring up some of my thoughts regarding Burgandy Skies comments about "Young Urban Gamers."

You see, all of the game designers were talking about games they thought were FUN. Sometimes it was the mechanics that made the game fun, sometimes it was the setting, and sometimes (and I really have to believe this with the positive comments regarding Amber and Nobilis) it was about the person who was Game Mastering the game. Burgandy, in her comments regarding the overwhelming focus on the Urban in modern D&D, was hinting that the focus on the urban in the modern d20 game was alienating her (and possibly others) and had repercussions into her enjoyment of the game. In other words, "Uncle Monte's" Ptolus, and its influence on designers, has made D&D LESS FUN for her.

I agree with many of her comments about the need for more Wilderness based, or at least the use of Wilderness, in published materials. When you have core classes like the Ranger and Druid who are Wilderness naturals, it seems odd that it would be a neglected adventure type. Personally I think there are two factors combining which are behind the relative lack of Wilderness vs. Urban adventures. There is also a general trend that is affecting Burgandy's fun, but that will be discussed below.

The first factor is that Wilderness adventures are hard to write and provide a good narrative structure. It is no accident that the first Dungeons and Dragons adventures took place primarily in "dungeons." Going room to room killing monsters may not be much of a narrative, but at minimum it allows for some sort of narrative control by the author (GMs can improvise, adventure authors cannot). If you think about even such well written adventures as White Plume Mountain, it is still a dungeon crawl with little focus on getting to, or back from, the dungeon. In fact, the first "White Box" of dungeons and dragons recommended that you buy an Avalon Hill game called Outdoor Survival to use as your Wilderness rules. The Basic Set focused on dungeon adventure and wilderness rules were added in the Expert Set. The first adventure I can think of, which came with my Basic Set, which incorporated wilderness into the narrative was Keep on the Borderlands even then the wilderness sections were secondary to the very large "dungeon." The first module included with Basic Sets was In Search of the Unknown. It was difficult for beginners to use and was entirely dungeon based. As I said, the Expert Set included Wilderness rules and it also included the first real Wilderness adventure. The clumsy, but exciting in an Edgar Rice Burroughs way (don't get me started on the Burroughs/Mystara connection), Isle of Dread. Isle of Dread fully used the Expert Set's wilderness adventure rules, but highlights the narrative structure problem of wilderness adventures.

The narrative problem was largely addressed in the late 80s/early 90s when writers were finally becoming skilled at the "event based," rather than "site based," adventure style. Site based adventures can be fun, especially ones like Ravenloft (which actually a fusion of event based and site based adventures), but are easier for fledgling Gamemasters because the site helps form the structure. Event based adventures require flowcharts and timelines, but they make wilderness adventures far more plausible.

The second contributor to the growing urbanization of fantasy adventures is the growing urbanization of Fantasy writing. Authors like Michael Moorcock, in his Wizardry and Wild Romance, argue against the bucolic idealization of fantasy like Lord of the Rings. Moorcock argues that "important" fantasy is Urban fantasy. He doesn't necessarily mean that the adventures are city-based, but he does mean that they are anti-idealized. All the talk of happy elves, etc., isn't what makes a compelling tale for Moorcock and his opinions of Lord of the Rings are contrarian to be sure. Moorcock, and I would argue Monte Cook and Sean Reynolds, embraces the avant-garde, even gothic-punk, feel of games like Vampire the Masquerade and bring such sentiments to the game table. Like with Moorcock, there is a kind of elitism on behalf of writers like Cook and Reynolds, of course in all these cases the elitism is backed with a heavy dose of talent. Who but Monte Cook, could release "his own" Player's Handbook? Cook is a figure who looms large in gaming, and Planescape and 3rd edition are testiments to his talents, but like many luminaries his shadow may be getting too big. In a way, the City -- like the dungeon -- is an easy way to substitute environment for structure. The city is like a living dungeon where some "monsters" cannot be freely killed. I like Urban adventures, I think of most roleplaying as a form of superheroes vs. supervillains even my fantasy, but I can see the value in Wilderness adventures as well. I also see a need for more discussion/implementation of them. I am not alone, Burgandy Skies isn't alone either, in fact I would argue that "Home Under the Range" in Dungeon 134 is a wonderful wilderness adventure. Even if it takes place underground.

More important than whether adventures are wilderness, dungeon, or urban based is a trend I see in a lot of gaming today. It is the sense of elitism I get from both designers and players. Not all, to be sure, but some. When I read modern "mainstream" roleplaying books, I don't feel like I am being introduced into something fun. It is more like I am being handed a bland tome, but told that "imporatant" adventures/products have been written. Gaming has always been geeky, but now it is geeky and happy with its niche. Gone is the evangelization aspect of the hobby, in is the domination of the niche. There are designers who break the mold for sure, Matt Forbeck is working mainstream games that add elements of the roleplay hobbie, but the fact that Heroscape and D&D in no way share staff/input is ridiculous and indicative of the problem.

When I first heard about D&D I thought it might be fun. The game was about fantasy, like the Lord of the Rings, Narnia, or Greek Mythology. But like most people I wasn't sure what roleplaying was or how it could be fun. That is until I read the foreward to the Basic Set:

I was busy recuing the captured maiden when the dragon showed up. Fifty feet of scaled terror glared down at us with smoldering red eyes. Tendrils of smoke drifted out from between fangs larger than daggers. The dragon blocked the only exit from the cave.

Sometimes I forget that D&D Fantasy Adventure Game is a game and not a novel I'm reading or a movie I'm watching. The original D&D rules are a classic. They gave the first gaming system for fantasy roleplaying and, in my opinion, are still the best set of rules on the market.

Earlier works had similar tones:

Dungeons and Dragons is a fantastic, exciting, and imaginative game of roleplaying for adults 12 years and up. Each player creates a character or characters who may be dwarves, elves, halflings or human fighting-men, magic-users, pious clerics or wily thieves. The characters are plunged into an adventure in a series of dungeons, tunnels, secret rooms and cavers run by another player: the referee, often called the Dungeon Master.

"Adults 12 years and up?!" Imagine how excited I was to read those words at 12. I was an adult! Even the very first edition of the rules werre filled with excitement. As cocky as Gary Gygax often sounded, he always oozed excitement and you could feel how much the creators enjoyed their new creation, the roleplaying game.

But the modern rules are often not as evocative. Minus the ten words of encouragement on the back of the book, the first words a new player encountered when reading the Third Edition Player's Handbook were:

Character Creation Basics: Follow these steps to create a beginning first level character. You will need a photocopy of the character sheet, a pencil some scratch paper, and four six-sided die.

Okay, "That's not fair," you shout, "what about the introduction?" Well, unlike the other editions that came before the introduction, but since you asked.

Welcome to the game that has defined the fantastic imagination for over a quarter of a century.
When you play the Dungeons and Dragons game, you create a unique fictional character that lives in your imagination and the imagination of your friends. One person in the game, the Dungeon Master (DM), controls the monsters and people that live in the fantasy world. You and your friends face he dangers and explore the mysteries that your Dungeon Master sets before you.

Pretty bland. To be fair, there is a list of posible things that can happen to your character that is printed below that paragraph, but the list lacks the enthusiasm and wonder that the first contained. The new rules were written by people for whom role-playing was old hat, for people who had played before, and with an emphasis on how things needed to be "updated." The rules themselves are an improvement, to be sure, but the tone and the execution of the material lacks the magic of the earlier, more purple, prose. Roleplaying has become jaded and methodical and not excited and evangelical.

What about Monte Cook's "Player's Handbook?"

You hold in your hands a book that attempts to express its own reality. It is a setting—not just with places and characters, but with the rules that define how those characters operate within those places. Monte Cook’s Arcana Evolved is based on the idea that the best way to describe a thing is to define that thing. It is a roleplaying game rules set based on a popular rules set, but different in its own ways. It’s fantasy roleplaying taken in a new direction.

The whole, my rules are better than your rules sentiment pours from the words. There is little to excite the reader, rather the focus is on what sets his rules apart and an existential mission statement. No evocative purple prose, not thrilling stories to share, just "this is what I do and this is new, oh and better." Not all games today lack the old charm and excitement, Shane Hensley's Savage Worlds has it in spades, as do other games, but the flagship and the engineers who built the new flagship don't have that inner fire. They lack the impulse or capability to evangelize, they assume their high status is sufficient and that turns off people like Burgandy Skies.

So, I'll leave you with the first words a reader of Savage Worlds encounters:

A mighty barbarian ascends the cold mountains to slay the legendary ice-wyrm...
A group of scholars and gumshoes discover something Man Was Not Meant To Know in the ancient hills of New England...
A band of holy warriors, loot-hungry thieves, and soldiers of fortune raid the lair of a vile liche to end his reign of terror...
A patrol of young soldiers discovers a mysterious temple to an unknown demon deep in the jungles of Vietnam...
A group of heroes blessed with incredible powers created the Justice Guild to fignt powerful arch-villains ben on taking over their city...

These tales and more are waiting to be told in...

SAVAGE WORLDS!

Hmm...maybe I want to play these games after all.

Speaking of Jiang Hu Fantasy Films...

I will most definitely be going with my wife to see The Promise (aka Wu Ji "/Les Legende des Chevaliers du Vant.) this weekend. It looks beautiful, fanciful, and tragic. Ah, to live in the world of Jiang Hu. Do I choose duty? Do I chose love? Either way, I suffer. See, tears are coming to my eyes already.

From the website:

A new epic fantasy set in China's mythical past, "The Promise" is a visually stunning tale of passion that unfolds against a backdrop of war as a beautiful and mysterious princess becomes the object of affection for three very different men - a powerful Duke, a brave general and a lowly slave. As passions spark and egos clash, lives will be ruined and lovers spurned and no one will ever be the same.

Directed by Chen Kaige, winner of the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film for "Farewell, My Concubine," "The Promise" was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. Cinematography and production design are by Academy Award winners for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," Peter Pau and Tom Yip, respectively.

I love me my tragic love stories. It started with Medieval Romances, Lancelot and Gueneviere, Tristan and Isolde, Brynhilde and Siegfried, but too few of these stories had been turned into "great" movies (the exception being the Lancelot and Gueneviere story). Then I saw The Bride with White Hair and a whole world of tragically romantic films was opened to me, that of Wuxia stories, or Chinese chivalry tales. Ever since that day, I have seen dozens of films and even read a couple of novels. One thing is constant though, the epic scale and the beautiful tragedy of the romances.

At first I wondered why I would like tragic romance, is it some kind of schadenfruede? Do I enjoy watching the suffering of others? No, that isn't it. I love the way that unfulfilled romance makes us appreciate the true value of love. When I look at my wife, and feel the happiness, comfort, and joy associated with such glances, after having watched a tragic romance, I come to see how lucky I am and how truly special a love is when it is fulfilled. It also shows me what love really is and not what I thought it was when I was 15 and full of hormones.

Love is worth the tragedy and the tragedy teaches us about the true nature of love.

The Fantasy Lover's Plight

I have loved fantasy ever since I first read Edith Hamilton's Mythology. The tales of the Greeks inspired in me a love of magic, mystery, and metaphor. I have read many great, and many horrible, fantasy novels and short stories. I have also watched my share of movies/television show which run the gamut (it is gamut and not gambit for you vocabulary nerds) from great to horrible to entertainingly awful.

Those of you who have visited Cinerati before know that I enjoy both Hawk the Slayer and Krull (sorry David) as entertainingly bad fantasy films. Jack Palance makes the first one entertaining, and the silly magic boomerang is what gets my fantasy juices flowing in Krull. Though not even I was entertained by the Sword and the Sorcerer. What allows me to even consider watching these, let alone make arguments for their entertainment value, is the absolute dearth of fantasy entertainment in the media. I mean straight forward fantasy, not hybrid fantasy like Supernatural or American Gothic. Even our most recent retelling of the Iliad was devoid of the gods and magic took a backseat. I liked Troy, but if the gods had been active I would have loved it.

It wasn't always so. The 60s were filled with the marvelous fantasy of Harryhausen films. Who doesn't love Jason and the Argonauts or one of the many Sinbad movies. But the 70s were the era of bad fantasy and the 80s the era of cheap fantasy, so the genre has had its struggles. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Narnia are a sea change in Hollywood, prior to their release the best fantasy film in recent times was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon which could lead into a whole discussion of the vibrance of fantasy in Asian cinema. For some reason they can make both slocky and/or classy fantasy without diluting the market. Sure I am overstating things about the dearth of fantasy in American visual media, but it provides a good background for me to defend my latest viewing marathon.

You see...I recently watched 3 DVDs of Darkest Knight. Like the SciFi Original Dark Kingdom, Darkest Knight is based on a literary classic. Unlike Dark Kingdom, Darkest Knight pretty much throws the source material out the window. Dark Kingdom was a clumsy, but very entertaining, adaptation of the Saga of the Volsungs and the Nibelungenlied. Diane Duane, a very proficient author of youth fiction, adapted the tale to have slightly less magic and without the involvement of the Huns. All in all, with the exception of the guy who played Siegfried, I liked the SciFi Original quite a bit.

But that brings us back to Darkest Knight, my most recent three DVD marathon. The show has the following points against it: a) the acting is awful, b) the special effects are awful, even by BBC/New Zealand standards, c) the music sounds like it is played on an old 80s Casio, d) the costuming is...well you get the points. On the other hand: a) whoever wrote the score does know what a leit motif is, even if he/she writes bad ones, b) it has one of the actors from Hawk the Slayer (the dwarf), c) New Zealand is pretty, even if it looks nothing like England (where did those glacier carved granite mountain ranges go?), d) it is an attempt to Raimi-efy Ivanhoe. It is the last point that wins me over. Sure, Darkest Knight threw most of the Ivanhoe narrative into the dustbin, but this is an attempt to create a Raimi-esque series about the ransoming of King Richard. A nice attempt at genre hybrid (thanks Bill Cunningham) if you ask me. It doesn't really work, the ITV Robin of Sherwood (a bargain at ~$150.00 US in NTSC) was much better at fuzing magic and Prince John. Still, I enjoyed the series and am adapting some of the ideas for adventure ideas for Savage Worlds.

Wow...Step Out for a Couple of Days...

I returned to computer access this morning, my PC is very upset with me for installing a new graphics card (turns out the card was bad, not me), only to find that the most vigorous conversation in Cinerati history took place without my participation. To beat all!

To clear the air a little. I keep my political affiliations/beliefs as close to the breast as Fritz keeps his religious beliefs. That is to say that I don't tend, though I might on occassion, reveal the results of any political litmus test I might take. I might have revealed them sometime in the past on the blog, but it is doubtful. For example, when discussing Brave New World, I mentioned what some of my specific beliefs are, but not my general ideology. For me, political affiliations/beliefs have too often clouded conversations and so I avoid declaring my ideology. I don't know why Fritz keeps his religious beliefs close to his breast, but I do know that religion is a deeply personal thing and so I find it an appropriate behavior.

Having said that, David Chute asked an interesting question, "Can one be a Catholic and a Libertarian, or even a libertarian?" I imagine that the answer is yes, but would require some amount of extrapolation. The Acton Institute is a Catholic organization that presents arguments for the justice of Capitalism, which is especially tonic for those who think that Social Justice requires a rejection of Capitalism. I think it would be fair to say that the Acton Institute is also an advocate for "freedom" in the broader, more libertarian, sense.

This is not to say that the organization is libertarian in the sense that David was asking the question. Interestingly, the modern libertarian is often more libertine than liberal. One could defend freedom "rightly understood" and still consider themself a libertarian, but one must also believe in a moral absolute (specifically Catholic Doctrine) if one is an observant Catholic. That doesn't mean that one cannot question Catholic Doctrine, but it does mean that to be Catholic one must defer to the institutions answers to given questions. One may offer new arguments to further the dialogue, but one must (as one has "confirmed" they will) abide by the "results" of the discussion. The wonderful thing about the Catholic Church is that the "results" are offered with a great deal of humility and Papal Infallability is not what many consider it to be.

What the post-Reformation, and Counter-reformation, era (particularly in Modernity) has introduced to the equation is those who profess a particular belief, but say that they "disagree" or think that the "Church is wrong" about certain issues. I would argue that such individuals are not in fact Catholic, rather they are one of either an existing Protestant Church or they are merely protestant in the descriptive. I think many of these people would do well to read Erasmus,Luther, and More to get an idea of how different individuals deal with "issues" within the Church. For the Catholic, not the Christian, at some point there must be acceptance of the decisions of Rome. In America, there isn't even a stigma to not being Catholic. We have a beautiful, rich, and abundantly diverse community of religions. Find the one that suits you and hold to it. It is better to believe in something than to say you believe in something with which you disagree.

Anyway...

The modern libertarian is often the libertine that is inferred in David's comments, and most certainly is by the standards offered by the Cupid Test. But can we really only trust a test that has the libertarian extreme as the Unibomber, the republican extreme is Pinoche, on the totalitarian extreme Darth Vader/Stalin, and on the "True Socialist" (Marx would have a great time with that if you have read his "German Ideology") side is Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr.?

So "extreme" socialism is no extreme according to their "famous persons" test? Puh-leese!

Heck! The test didn't ever let you say that you neither agreed or disagreed with a statement. A test without such an possible answer is no true evaluation at all. Talk about shoddy methodology, and don't get me started on the phrasing of the questions.

Bah!

New Title Card

I will, over the course of the next few weeks/months, be monkeying around with the blog Title card. The current image will be a part of whatever the end result is, but I will likely add a few more 'toons to the sides.

Just for Fritz..."Our Star...Blazers!!!!"

According to ICV2, who are reporting a Hollywood Reporter story, Josh Kline has been tapped to produce a live action version of Star Blazers. The Scotsman verifies the information, but also gives me enough information to cause me to worry. A quick search of IMDBPro (the more robust version of IMDB) revealed no results for Josh C Kline, who is, according to the Scotsman, "the the longtime rights holder of 'Star Blazers.'

Kind of reminds me of a certain film by Courtney Solomon that came out six or so years ago.

SciFi Original Movies and Haters

Last Saturday, the Kung Fu Monkey John Rogers of The Core and Blue Beetle fame wrote a brief review of the SciFi original movie MAMMOTH. His thoughts were that, basically, MAMMOTH was the type of film that SciFi original films ought to be, namely fun homages to the films of William Castle etc. His commenters, and there have only been a few, have been from essentially two camps. There were those who think that SciFi Network should never make the low budget SciFi Original movies, but should stick to series like Battlestar Galactica and Stargate. Then there were those, like Bill Cunningham of DISContent who pointed out that the SciFi originals get higher ratings than the regular series. Bill has a funny, but smart alecky, sense of humor and likes to refer to shows that have multiple "branches" by ironic titles. My favorites are CSI: Silverlake and Stargate: Cleveland. Bill, by the way, writes direct to DVD movies.

Which brings me to my thoughts on the SciFi original films versus their television series.

As an aside, prior to reading the Uberhaters website, I had mistakenly assumed that these features were primarily for television consumption. I have since discovered that most of these films are released simultaneously (or within close proximity) on DVD and that the DVD versions usually have decent added features and aren't edited for content.

When I started watching the SciFi channel, in the early 90s, it was because they were running reruns of The Six Million Dollar Man and Buck Rogers. A part of me still wishes they would run these series, but in the years since I have come to enjoy many of their television shows as well (Stargate chief among those enjoyments). There shows have been hit or miss for me though and it would be dishonest for me to say that I think all their series programming has been good. I have pretty much hated all of their "reality" based programs, Ghost Hunters schmost hunters, Scare Tactics schmare tactics. Yawn.

My wife and I are also among the small minority of SciFi fans who don't like the new Battlestar Galactica. My reasons are different from my wife's, I still can't narratively understand why the humans ever went back to an integrated defense system when their chief, and narratively only, enemy can easily take such things over. There is more to my complaint, but it stems from the fact that I think the show is all surface and no depth. It is too post-modern. I know people enjoy it, and I am always happy that there is a growth in the number of SciFi fans (yes that's a big Wanker sign to Harlan Ellison) in the marketplace. But like with Star Trek it's "only the original for me."

Back to the movies though. The SciFi original movies have created a wonderful thing, a marketplace for creative genre fiction on a modest budget. Sometimes that means films that are along the lines of drive-in films of the 50s and 60s, like the film MAMMOTH that John Rogers enjoyed (or Alien Apocalypse with Bruce Campbell or as I like to call it "Battlefield Earth, but fun"). Sometimes it means a Terminator redux with a post-apocalyptic future, or a low budget version of the Forever War. Sometimes it means fantasy, like the recent SciFi original Dungeons and Dragons 2: Wrath of the Dragon God Movie, which I thought was a significant improvement over the theatrical released, or the recent made for SciFi adaptation of the Nibelungenlied, Dark Kingdom. Like Roger Corman, SciFi is becoming a work-mill where genre fiction has a place to meet its audience. No one will argue that Death Race 2000 is an artistic masterpiece, but I love it and I think it is well written. Which brings me to a point. When the budget is low, as it is in all the SciFi originals (at least compared to "Hollywood" movies), it is solely the writing that makes or breaks the film. (Hmm..kind of like original Star Trek.)

I like that SciFi does its original films. I was delighted to read that they are profitable. I find some of them unbearably bad, but I find many of them entertaining and fun. Why pay $20.00 (I have a wife) to see Final Destination 4: Because Death Always Forgets to Kill Someone in the Prior Film when I can buy (or watch then buy) Dark Kingdom for the same price and see how Diane Duane and others have adapted one of the great legends of Europe?

I guess you can tell that I like the SciFi original movies, but that comes from me being a pretentiously non-pretentious genre fan. I would write more, but I have to go watch "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra." I know it isn't a SciFi original, but it is genius.

"I'm a scientist...I don't believe in anything! Ha, ha, ha!"

"I sleep now."

Today is Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day

This last weekend I noticed a lot of cars in my neighborhood displaying the Armenian flag. Living in Glendale, I didn't have to think long to determine why so many of my fellow citizens were proudly displaying their patriotic loyalty to Armenia. Today is the 90th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

There is a lot I could write, but I will instead quote Teddy Roosevelt:

The Armenian horror is an accomplished fact. Its occurrence was largely due to the policy of pacifism this nation has followed for the last four years. The presence of our missionaries, and our failure to go to war, did not prevent the Turks from massacring between half a million and a million Armenians, Syrians, Greeks and Jews — the overwhelmingly majority being Armenians. Our declaration of war now will certainly not do one one-hundredth part of the damage already done by our failure to go to war in the past; and it will enable us to render service of permanent value for the future, and incidentally to take another step in regaining our self-respect.

This is not meant to be some hidden message about my opinions regarding current events, rather it is an affirmation of my strong opposition to genocide and my belief that military intervention in such cases is justified.

Ptolus and Young Urban Player Characters

So, I think I finally found the answer to one of my great pet peeves with D&D 3.0 and beyond. If you look through the books there is a general emphasis on urban (yes, urban) game play and, even in 3.5 (which was better about this) a disappointing lack of rules for GMing a game in THE OUTDOORS (gasp!).

Apparently this may have something to do with the fact that the setting (if you can call it that) that they used to play test in was a giant freakin’ CITY!

Yup, a great big piece of urban sprawl. Because you know Middle Ages Europe was just crawling with big ass cities. And all those great epic works of fantasy that take place in cities. Let’s see – There’s Thieve’s World and, uh, I can’t think of anymore.

But it isn’t like you wanted to play a FANTASY game that involved, say, roaming the forest or hunting down dragons in faraway lands, or wandering around on your super cool horse looking for fair princesses (or princes) to rescue? You didn’t actually want to leave the giant urban sprawl of a capital city did you? Of course not. That’s silly. Who ever heard of a FANTASY game that involved THE OUTDOORS.

Now be a good gamer and cough up $119.99 for Uncle Monte.

Comic Books --- The Wall Street Journal Gets It

Cinerati has often discussed, and lamented, the state of the comic book industry. Comics just don't sell at the rate they used to in prior "ages." Combine this with the fact that the target audience has shifted from the developing fan to the committed fan, a combination partly responsible for the decline in sales (not entirely, don't get me started on Jim Shooter and speculators in the early 90s).

Though Marvel and DC have done little to expand their audience to the emerging fan in recent years, if you think they have done a lot we ought to meet for coffee some time, one thing is certain, both Marvel and Time Warner (DC Comics) understand the need to increase revenue from the comic book marketplace. Even as a loss leader the production costs are becoming extremely high. When you combine huge printing costs, due to higher quality paper/printing techniques and smaller print runs, with increased pay to artists/writers you have to find ways to increase revenue flow without increasing prices. After all, the marketplace is too small for much of an uptick in cover price. In the link above, I discussed Marvel's plan to release digital back issues both online and in DVD-Rom is one way to address this. If you don't own 40 years of the X-men, 44 Years of the Fantastic Four, or the upcoming 40 Years of the Avengers, you are missing a great opportunity to read quality comics at a cheap price.

Now Marvel and DC are looking to a new avenue for revenue, actually an old avenue in a new medium. Comics have long had advertisements which often interupt the flow of the narrative/panel design. Now, according to the Wall Street Journal both companies are looking to product placement within the panels to increase revenue. (I would link the article, but you have to be a subscriber.) According to Brian Steinberg, "Las week, DaimlerChrysler AG's Dodge finalized an ad pact that will include product placements in Marvel comics." Combine this Daimler buy with Time Warner's recent contract with General Motors Corp, and the creation of "Rush City," and you have high priced ads which might become fluid parts of the narrative. The idea is similar to what Gaijin Studios did with "The Ride" two years back, with the addition that the cars are modern, rather than classic.

The ad buys are an direct example that comic books are finally admitting who their audience is, "one of Madison Avenue's most elusive audiences: guys in their 20s." As the Steinberg article points out, and we have said many times, "Lately, readers of comic books have gotten older. On Madison Avenue, 'there is a large misunderstanding of who is reading these titles and what they are paying attention to...' fans who kept buying the books have grown older, now reaching into their 20s and 30s." I actually think that even this estimate projects the comic audience too young. I would state that the audience is more in the late 20s to the early 40s, but that still constitutes real buying power. DC Advertising VP David McKillips "hopes to bring in other advertisers seeking an older male. 'You're going to see this year a lot more health and beauty care, shaving cream, razors, alongside the automotive."

Comics are finally realizing who their audience is, too bad that doesn't mean they want to expand the audience from its current niche place in the market. On the plus side, this does mean I will see fewer house ads in the issues I buy. If you saw, "In Good Company" with Dennis Quaid and its conversations about global corporation "synergy," and the film's argument that this is not a desireable revenue source, then you can appreciate my joy at reading that there would be more shaving cream ads and thus possibly fewer ads for movies/video games based on the IP of the company whose comics I am buying.

I hope that the companies will do more to expand the audience. Until that time comes, it is good to see that they are finally trying to bring in revenue from the advertisers who have products that might appeal to the comic reading audience. In television, the equation works from a revenue standpoing. TV studios ask, "Hey, what show will sell X to demographic Y." Comics have been denying who their demographic is for sometime. Comics grew up, but the revenue sources didn't. I wish that comics had been able to grow up while keeping some titles filled with the youthful joy that made me buy comics in the first place.

If you want to read the whole article, and are a WSJ subscriber, you can read the article here.

Palladium Books Facing BK

Palladium Books is one of the biggest independent RPG companies around, and one of the oldest. I've always respected them because they're basically a one-man show: Kevin Seimbeda has lovingly nurtured his world of RIFTS for over fifteen years, and his company for over 20!

As much as I love the phenomenal support offered by WOTC for DND 3.5 and Modern, the fact is that there's something special about Palladium: they're the little publisher that could.

Anyway, check this out here, and read Sembeida's personal appeal. I think a $50 minimum may be a bit ambitious for some, so maybe we should try to collaborate?

Hopefully we can help keep a good company from going under!

Flash Gordon -- Planet of Peril

On January 7, 1934 Alex Raymond forever changed the "comic world" when he created a new comic strip character to compete with the extremely popular Buck Rogers comic strip. Flash Gordon offered all the excitement of the typical Buck Rogers adventure, but with two significant improvements. Raymond's art was far superior to that of the Rogers title and was better able to transate the excitement of "cliffhanging adventure." Second, the Flash Gordon universe was more fantastic that scientific.

Buck Rogers as a title has always demanded a modicum of scientific plausibility. The adventures of Buck Rogers (the comic strip) told of a future America where World War had changed governmental structures and a future China had come to rule the world.
Flash Gordon has never had limitations restricting it to the plausible. Flash was truly the adventures of the mind. Buck Rogers is a character who one could imagine Isaac Asimov writing a story about in adventures filled with political struggles as well as physical. If one were to imagine any classic science fiction author drafting tales of Flash Gordon, the first name to leap to the tongue would have to be Edgar Rice Burroughs. The adventures are too fantastic, too scientifically implausible, to wild, and too swashbuckling for any other author. Flash Gordon shares as much with modern tales of Fantasy as he does with science fiction.

Flash, Dale, and Zarkov inhabit a universe where there are self propelling planets, swordfights, and magic powers and, not surprisingly, Raymond's influence has extended into modern movies as well. A Gordon comic fan cannot help but see honest homage to Raymond's creation when he watches the Star Wars films. Both contain the aforementioned "moving planets" (Mongo vs. the Death Star), evil emperors (Ming vs. Palpatine), and magic powers (the Force and Ming's Magic). Both also contain princesses (Aura vs. Leia), anthropomorphic animistic friends (Thun the Lion Man vs. Chewbacca the Wookie), and roguish allies (Prince Barin vs. Han Solo). The list of comparisons above is far from exhaustive and is not meant to detract from Star Wars in any way. Star Wars easily deserves its place beside Raymond's creation, but the influence of Flash Gordon on a young Lucas is almost undeniable. One of the reasons for the enduring legacy of Raymond's creation was his attitude toward the medium itself:

I decided honestly that comic art is an art form in itself. It reflects the life and times more accurately and actually is more artistic than magazine illustration -- since it is entirely creative. An illustrator works with camera and models; a comic artist begins with a white sheet of paper and dreams up his own business -- he is playwright, director, editor, and artist at once.

It is wonderful that Checker Book Publishing is releasing the strips in a series of collected editions . So far there are five volumes in the series.

As you can see be the illustrations below the artistic quality is higher than one would expect from a 1930s newspaper strip. I think the art speaks for itself today and deserves a place in art history as well as in the history of popular culture.

Flash Gordon quickly leapt from the newspaper page and onto the big screen. In 1936, Alex Raymond's eponymous Polo player/Savior of the Planet Flash Gordon, played by the charismatic Buster Crabbe, first entered the sparkler powered rocket to the planet Mongo. Once there Flash would face numerous dangers and begin his battles against the evil emperor Ming, battles which would last for many years.


Thanks to You Tube, you can watch the first episode "Planet of Peril." Two warnings. First, the file is big so if you want to watch it, you had better have a high speed connection. Second, if you like it, rather than hunting down all the episodes as streaming video, do yourself (and the IP owners) a favor and buy the Space Soldiers DVD box set. I know, why buy when you can download? Well...you might just prompt someone to make a quality film that is a true adaptation of the material. We Flash Gordon fans are in dire need of a good adaptation, I can only watch Sam Jones so many times. Though I can sing the Queen song all day...Flash! Ahhhhhhhh!

Inter-Web-O-Net-O-Sphere Woes

While there are times that I love the interwebonetosphere, there are times when the massive collection of ones and zeroes really gets on my nerves. Take right now for instance. My professional email provider, the one I use for work and official stuff, is experiencing some kind of major meltdown making it all but impossible for me to communicate with anyone for work. Let me tell you, it is more than a little lame to tell someone that you will be emailing them with your IMJayGatz or SwinginTrojan email address. Sure IMJayGatz isn't too bad, if they've read the book, but unless they know you well enough to know that you are a baseball and USC fanatic the SwinginTrojan email might raise some eyebrows.

So... for those of you out there who I work with let me say the following. The reason I am not responding to your very important, and in need of immediate response, email isn't that I am avoiding you or hate you. Though both of those statements might be true depending on who you are. Rather it is because it takes 50 minutes for me to get any email that happens to be in my inbox. If you were diverted into my Spam folder, fahgetaboutit! That has been "hidden" to realocate resources so that email works at all. Bah!

Add to that Blogger will have a scheduled outage at 4pm PST and you can see my frustrations.

Some people ask me why I still have my AOL account, that I've had for over a decade. Well...they have NEVER given me this kind of problem. Of course neither has gmail, but since I am on a couple of media/political newslists on that address the likelihood of me reading your email there approaches zero.

Double Bah!

I Can't Believe I Missed This!

Every year Hasbro has updated their D&D website on April 1st to reflect some April Fool's Day joke. Since it was on a Saturday this year, and I was busy with my wife and friends partying in the streets of Glendale, I never visited the Hasbro site. Figures that this year would be the best April Fool's Day joke ever, at least for humor if not effectiveness.

They announced the release of the most exciting roleplaying game ever!!!

That's right...My Little Pony the Rpg!!! I can't wait for the Massively Multiplayer Online version.



Now, I have only to create a Savage Worlds version of the rules for my own campaign.

Brisco County Jr. Coming to DVD this July

On July 18th, Warner Home Video will release the Complete Brisco County Jr. television series.

From the box:

The world's favorite western/sci-fi/comedy/action cult hit rides again! Here on 8 discs is the complete series about Brisco (Bruce Campbell), a tough-as-rawhide cowpoke, debonair ladies' man and Harvard-educated smarty-britches who roams from Frisco to Jalisco in pursuit of outlaws who killed his father...and in search of a mysterious orb possessing out-of-this world powers. Hot lead and cool anachronisms await Brisco as he and his sidekicks - including Comet, the intellectual equine who doesn't know he's a horse - fight for justice in the way, way, way-out West. Put your boots in your stirrups, your tongue in your cheek and join the fun. Let's play cowboys and aliens.

Brisco was a show released in the early 90s and was one of the first shows which captured the "leftover" stew tastes of the Generation X audience. The invasiveness of popular culture, and genre combination, in the conversation/culture of Generation X gave rise to many shows that combined anachronistic retellings of old pop-culture. Shows like Hercules, Xena, and even more recently Firefly have displayed this distinctive formula. Take an established genre, in this case the Western cowboy show, add humor, metacognitivity (self-awareness), and tropes from other genres to create a show to satisfy an audience that loves popular culture old and new. Brisco was a show made in heaven for those who grew up watching The Lone Ranger, Star Trek, and Batman on UHF.

Hurry up and pre-order the show.

While you are at it, you might want to watch American Gothic while you are waiting. Sean Cassidy's supernatural drama was ahead of its time.

A Rarity in the World...An Original Meme

The interweb-o-net-o-sphere being what it is, it is filled with multiple "memes." Most of them are bland, what are your favorite book/favorite movie type affairs and not so much a viral idea that spreads across the world from one mind to another. I should know, I have attempted to ask such things of our LARGE body of readers (yes, that was sarcasm) in an attempt to measure my ability to infect the minds of the world. This is, naturally, step one of my plan to rule the world.

But questionaire type memes aside, I can think of a couple of events on the interweb-o-net-o-sphere that live up to Professor Dawkin's idea:

1) The Dancing Baby that appeared on Ally McBeal.

2) South Park. Come On! You remember the X-mas special on the internet.

3) The spread of Dungeons and Dragons when it was an obscure box set.

Actually, I can think of a lot more, but most of them aren't of the "chain letter" sort. Though chain letters are in and of themselves a kind of meme.

Needless to say, while reading the blog of an employee of Green Ronin Publications (a wonderful gaming company) I came across the following "blog post meme." By blog post meme, I mean an idea that should be included as a post on each and every blog out there. What is this blog post meme? The Birthday Meme. Thanks to Nikchick for the introduction to the idea.

Go to Wikipedia and look up your birth day (excluding the year). List three events, three births, three deaths, and up to three observances or holidays on your birthday in your journal.

I know it's not my birthday today, but you can figure out what my birthday is by the following:

Events
1877 - Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle with the United States Cavalry (Montana).
1815 - War of 1812: In the Battle of New Orleans Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British.
2006 - A magnitude 6.9 earthquake epicentered just off the Greek island of Kythira hits much of the country and is felt throughout the entire eastern Mediterranean Sea.

Births
1824 - Wilkie Collins, British novelist (d. 1889)
1935 - Elvis Presley, American singer and guitarist (d. 1977)
1944 - Terry Brooks American writer

Deaths
1324 - Marco Polo, Italian explorer (b. 1254)
1825 - Eli Whitney, American inventor (b. 1765)
1642 - Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer and physicist (b. 1564)
(Since I included Galileo's death, I ought mention it is 1942 - Stephen Hawking, English physicist and author's birthday as well).

Observances
Commonwealth Day is celebrated in Northern Mariana Islands.

Where are the UMDs?

That's right everyone- it's your favorite Uncle J.C. Loophole guesting again here at the phenom known as Cinerati. No - not the "dirty old man" Uncle, but the "fun" Uncle who loves to bring Tootsie Pops when he comes for a visit. As you know Wolf Flywheel and I usually sit at the helm of the USS Shelf 1, and recently we have been reviewing and talking about Easter themed films and animated specials. In going through my DVD for the review, I came across my UMD copy of Spider-Man 2. I took it out for a brief spin and remembered how unique and enjoyable it was to watch the movie on the go.

UMD- what is a UMD? I'm sure the regulars know- but for the benefit of anyone who is unawares- UMD stands for Universal Media Discs. If you own a PSP, you know all about those UMDs. In fact, you may have received Spider-Man 2 in your PSP package if you purchased it when it debuted in March of 2005. The UMDs are use for game content, as well as for movies and music. I have actually purchased several in the past when they were affordable. I actually like the portability and the PSP actually packs a good movie experience with the headphones on.
So what's all the fuss about the UMD? Well, it seems as if several studios, such as Warner Brothers and Paramount, are either scaling back their UMD releases or ending them altogether. PC Magazine reports:

"Disappointing sales have slowed the flow of movies on the proprietary Universal Media Disc to a mere trickle. At least two major studios have completely stopped releasing movies on UMD, while others are either toying with the idea or drastically cutting back.
And retailers also are cutting the amount of shelf space they've been devoting to UMD movies, amid talk that Wal-Mart is about to dump the category entirely."

Disappointing sales? Yeah, I'd say so. Just asking several local retailers gives the picture that not only do the things sit and rot on the shelf, but they can't push the PSP as the all-in-one media device that Sony intended it to be. Most people view it as a just a portable gaming device. Even among gamers and local gaming stores, where PSPs are purchased with more frequency, the disc that gets slapped on the counter with it is a game. I myself have several games- and the PSP is a great portable gaming console. I also think it is sold short as the all-in-one media device; the movies and music - and the fact that it also features memory stick that can store said media- and the fact that it can store digit pictures and browse the web make it an attractive gadget. So what has happened?

Further in the report, one of the studio's Home Entertain president states flatly that no one is watching movies on the PSP- "It's a game player, period." That's the attitude of most retailers and industry watchers -but I don't believe that is the real reason. The real reason perhaps lies within the device itself. Remember when I mentioned the memory stick? Well, a lot of people are using software to copy movies from their PC to the memory stick and then watching the movie on the go on their PSP. Think about it- UMDs are generally more expensive than a DVD. In fact it was cheaper to buy the fully loaded Hellboy special edition than it was to buy the UMD version. Couple that with the fact that it would be possible to copy the film to a Memory stick & that the UMD has smaller disc space (which means little or no extra features) -makes choosing the DVD over the UMD a no-brainer. The problem for the studios and retailers is that no one is purchasing the product, but that doesn't translate to "No one is watching movies on the PSP." The real problem revolves around 4 things- 1. Price 2. Accessibility and 3. Variety 4. Image

1.Price: I think I pretty well illustrated the problem of price in the Hellboy example. To further complicate things, it is a new format- and new formats are always more expensive before they hit market saturation and expansion.

2. Accessibility: The UMD movie can only be watched on a PSP. It is a narrow market product. DVD's spent a couple of years building up market base before DVD players became as cheap or cheaper than VCRs- but DVDs also are playable on home PCs and portable DVD players. Who knows? In time and given market base UMD slots might have appeared on DVD players or on your media card section of your PC. It seems rather unlikely, but it appears that Sony is exploring their options in an effort to revive the format. Next-gen application seems to be on the way to allow for UMD playback on televisions. Is it a little too late? If studios are scaling back or eliminating their new release UMDs- will they bring them back if the TV playback feature becomes reality? It will be depend on market saturation and the consumer's willingness to adapt to the format independently of the PSP. Time will tell. With the studios getting set for the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray format war coming soon- it will be an interesting turn of events.

3. Variety: If you looked at the movies available for UMD- the list looks like its geared toward the 18-35 yr old male demographic. It is intentional skewed that way, because that was key demographic that the PSP was advertised to and the main demographic that owns them . Therefore lots of action, horror, comedy and some anime. Few (OK as far as I can tell, none) classics, romantic movies, older animation, etc, etc, etc. The major studios jumped on the bandwagon like ants at a picnic- because this was the demographic that raked it in for them, or so they thought. But realistically, when you've plunked down around $200 for the PSP and another $40-50 for at least one game, what 18-35 year old male or female has the cash flow to shell out $20 to $30 for a bare bones movie disc, that some already have purchased on DVD. The lack of variety plus the fact that the studios did too much, too soon is a devastating blow to the format.

4. Here is another problem. Sony intended the device to be a media onestop- but when it released it in the US, it was pushed as a portable gaming console that could also play movies. It was a way for Sony to enter into the handheld gaming market, of which they seek to own a sizable chunk, with the flexibility to option into other areas later. It's a great handheld gaming device and the games that have been released have pushed the envelope for handheld gaming. Sony has failed to transition and expand the image of the PSP as a "portable media entertainment" device. Even in Japan, Sony's HQ and the most likely place for the transition to be more accepted by consumers, the PSP is falling behind the more popular Nintendo DS and DS Lite. Besides- here in the United States the iPod is the dominant force in portable music and video content, and it seems unlikely that the PSP will be able to overtake them anytime soon.

So, is this the end of the UMD? Who knows? We all can recall tech relics of the past, the 5" Floppy disc, the Beta tape, and even more recently the 3.5" Floppy; but the fact is that some formats that find a niche die hard, until support for it dies or something equitable comes along. Laser Disc anyone? I hate to see any innovation fail, but I suppose that if we can build upon failures it will not be in vain. Either way, I'm not quite ready to sound the death knell for the UMD, and it seems that Sony is trying everything it can to save the format in some way. I have enjoyed watch movies on the device and I suspect that PSP owners in general have found other ways to enjoy movies on their own. And you can bet that if the retailers start marking down the UMD movies, that I'll be there to snatch some up. And I have enjoyed the PSP as a music player and web browser. I like it and will continue to use it.

However I think that the future of media and entertain lies no longer in the confines of formats. While we may see the format war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD play out soon, I believe I am with George Lucas is thinking that the true future in media entertainment lies in the server and media storage. We are really too tied into our physical objects. It's not necessarily a bad thing. Believe me, I'd much rather sit and read a book in it's physical form than try and read on online or on my Pocket PC. But at the same time, it makes it difficult for us to accept all-in-one devices or anything else that seems to do so many things. Heck, I still don't like a TV with a built in DVD player because my mind thinks, "If one or the other break, what will I do with the one that works?" Well, use it I guess or get it fixed- or buy another. My brain has been conditioned and hardwired in such a way that the idea of streamlining etc. is a quagmire rife with difficulty.

It shouldn't be that way. Signs already indicate that we are heading to a home that will have centralized servers that will download everything from movies to specials at the grocery store to the latest sports results, and all in one box. Can anyone guess what this is called? Why yes, Timmy- you are right. The internet. The future is here, folks. And things like TiVO, iPods, Blackberrys, etc demonstrate that the road lies more in how much we can push and get out of our devices and not necessarily how much we can get out of our chips, discs, cards, and cartridges. While there is still uncertainty - will the system crash, will I loose everything I've downloaded, I still want to backup stuff in case I buy a new device- future technology can provide answers and solutions if the marketplace is allowed the freedom to push the envelope. Besides, haven't we all wished we could be like the Jetsons when we were kids?

Thanks to Christian and crew here at Cinerati for allowing me to be a guest blogger. I have vacuumed the floor, put away my trash, and have not eaten all the chips and Easter candy. The Dr. Pepper is another story, but put it on my tab. As always come visit us over at The Shelf. Until next time, have a great weekend!

The views expressed by J.C. Loophole in this post are not necessarily those of the management. In fact, he probably didn't even run them by the management ahead of time, therefore resulting in a 90% probability that he will receive a tongue lashing later. After which he leave work early, stating he has a "cold", and will go by the store, pick up more Dr. Pepper and Peeps and drown his sorrows while watching a season set of "South Park" until he feels better. He will then work the sugar rush off during the weekend and end up getting into work late on Monday morning, thereby starting the whole process over again. We apologize in advance for any distress that this may cause, but let us be honest: we've all been there. So, go get your own Easter candy.

Terrence Malick Has Become William Castle

I never would have predicted it, but apparently Terrence Malick has morphed into a modern day William Castle. Yes, Virginia, there still is showmanship in filmmaking. It appears that Terrence Malick's most recent film, The New World will be shown in Smellovision at a Japanese theater displaying the epic.

Had someone told me that the director of Badlands, Days of Heaven, and A Thin Red Line, who happens to be a former philosophy professor at MIT by the way, would have a film "enhanced" by a scent producing process, I would have told them that it sounds like a John Waters movie. Oh, and before you start yelling, "But Mike Todd invented Smell-o-vision," I can read, I just think that William Castle embodies the showman/filmmaker character. Check out the list of gimmicks he used in movies at his Wikipedia entry, or ask my friend Jay if you have any questions about Castle.

BTW, the effect in his version of Thirteen Ghosts is nothing short of genius. If you watch the film with the ghost revealing glasses, and then once without them, you are watching two very different films. In the first version, the ghosts are real and in the second they aren't, yet the film still works. Good Stuff.

Apparently, according to the blurb that is the article, the idea of using Smell-o-vision is that of the theater and not Malick...too bad, it was nice to dream that some director still valued showmanship surrounding their creations.

On a side note, before you think that the idea of people with advanced degrees in philosophy making cheesy genre films is unlikely, don't forget Wes Craven.

Movie Games for Cinefiles

People like to play games and have interesting conversations. Combine this with the number of people who love to watch movies, it is natural that people would make conversation games about the film industry. When it comes to "movie conversation games" the giant on the mountain is 7 Degrees of Kevin Bacon, but my wife (Bacon number 3) and I (Bacon number 3) aren't very good at the game. Actually it's surprising given how many movies we've seen, but we aren't very good at the Degrees of Kevin Bacon game.

In case you were wondering...my wife was an extra (and director's assistant) on Chumscrubber which has a large number of Bacon Number 2 stars, and she was also an extra in Sister Act with more Bacon Number 2's. I was an intern on Joy Ride with Steve Zahn (Bacon Number 2).

My wife and I prefer to play a game called "The Life of ____." In this game we treat an actor's career as if it were a single lifetime. For example, after learning how to travel through time and learning history Keanu Reeves becomes depressed after his "princess babe" dies he dates a terminally ill Cherlize Theron. Due to her rejection he studies the occult, attempts suicide, goes to hell, comes back and fights evil as John Constantine. The point of the game is to fill in the gaps of how the "avatar" went from one role to another, but as if they were the same person. This can become difficult when an actor, say John Wayne, plays characters who lived in different time periods.

So my wife and I borrowed a note from the Wold Newton Universe idea, a creaton of Philip Jose Farmer, and pretend that the later characters are decendants of the original. The Wold Newton Universe is a fictional universe where Farmer postulates that famous characters from fiction are related to one another as decendants. On of the best uses of this concept was in his book Tarzan Alive which included a fictional geneology for Tarzan, the book was a "fictional biography" that was written as if Tarzan had really lived.

So in our modified game the John Wayne of She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is the ancestor of him in Green Berets. It's even more interesting when you discover wonderful things like that Merlin is the ancestor of Sherlock Holmes and Little John, or that Henry VII is the decendant of Quint the ship captain and Custer.

I'm still trying to figure out if Neo is the decendant of Ted Theodore Logan or him later in life. The whole time travel question adds new dimensions to the game.

80stalgia

Often when I am sick, in bed, at home I flip the channels and pass an 80s classic film. The moment my fingers have found Pretty in Pink or The Breakfast Club, I become overwhelmed with 80stalgia. I become sad wondering where all the people I knew in High School are today.

It is surprising to me how few I kept in touch with as the years passed. And what is even more odd, is that my lack of contact has nothing to do with a lack of desire. I am just too lazy to correspond as much as I ought.

Oh, and before you think that I am like Robert E. Howard, or his creation, and filled with "gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth" due to some crisis or state of adulthood, I have always been this way. I was nostagic for lost friends when I was in high school, and when I was in college. I moved a lot and communicated insufficiently. Most of the time, I am free of any kind of nostalgia, but those darn 80s movies get me every time.