I couldn't agree more. The experience point/level-ladder treadmill is what keeps me away from CRPGs. Not all pnp RPGs featured this junk (anyone remember Traveller?), but it's tremendously appealing to adolescent power fantasies. When CRPGs grow past this nonsense, I'll get interested again.
Classes, levels? Republican, Democrat? Coke, Pepsi? Whatever
How about niether? The real tedium hardcoded into to CRPGs is the hamster wheel experience/level-ladder nonsense. Dump that and I'll get interested. It's not the only way to run an RPG. "Traveller anyone?"
My brother got caught up in an incident recently where he and some friends had a little too much to drink and decided to go Jet-Skiing naked. Haha, great fun and all, until the local authorities arrested him. They threatened to register him as a sex offender. It took an expensive lawyer to fend them off.
We need to be aware of how authorities will use these kinds of laws to expand their power. Anything they can threaten someone with will be used to achieve their will. We trust that usually that will be "good will", but not always. The constitution recognized this fact and provides a reasonable set of limitations on government power. We should think twice before we trash the social contract that keeps us free.
While I sympathize with the victims of this kind of violence, there are already laws on the books to prosecute and punish those convicted of these crimes.
Actually you've touched on exactly what I liked most about Firefly. The story of Serenity was about 'real' people. They weren't super-heroes in elastic suits fighting rubber suited aliens bent on human genocide. The stories didn't feature bigger and bigger weapons followed by bigger and bigger explosions.... (yawn).. How much of those do we need anyway. Firefly sustained and incredible hour of television drama on the simply premise of a minor engine malfuntion. That's drama.
Admittedly, this draws a different audience than than the boom-boom action adventure stuff, and if anything, that's what Fox didn't get. They tried to sell it as some kind of kiddie show when it is just so much more than that. Look at the message boards. Firefly draws people of all ages, heck even girls like it! Just because this broke the mold on the epic 'splosions that you like doesn't mean it wasn't great, quite the contrary.
For me what made it different, worlds different, than any other TV science fiction is that it actually had decent writing, well developed characters and something more humanly interesting to do than 'save the universe from the forces of darkness'. This was different because it was about an unheralded struggle to get by, something a little closer to home for most of us than the epic space opera we usually see. Not that epic space opera is bad, I'm just talking about what's different with Firefly, and what makes it special for so many of us.
Not lot taste bad you, how come?
But seriously, this show requires attention span and a certain level of linguistic sophistication to appreciate. Yes, it's different but that's..... OK.
Its a shame you couldn't get past your prejudices concerning the accents. The dialogue was actually subtle and poetic, but did take a little patience to get used to. It reminded me of the first time I read "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress". Heinlein's invented dialect was an annoying distraction at first, until I let it fade into the background and it began to work its magic.
If you're not taking this as an insult, you should try a few of the later episodes. There's some really cool stuff in this show. Its worth the effort.
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I couldn't agree more. The experience point/level-ladder treadmill is what keeps me away from CRPGs. Not all pnp RPGs featured this junk (anyone remember Traveller?), but it's tremendously appealing to adolescent power fantasies. When CRPGs grow past this nonsense, I'll get interested again.
Classes, levels? Republican, Democrat? Coke, Pepsi? Whatever How about niether? The real tedium hardcoded into to CRPGs is the hamster wheel experience/level-ladder nonsense. Dump that and I'll get interested. It's not the only way to run an RPG. "Traveller anyone?"
You are funny. I laughed, thank you.
My brother got caught up in an incident recently where he and some friends had a little too much to drink and decided to go Jet-Skiing naked. Haha, great fun and all, until the local authorities arrested him. They threatened to register him as a sex offender. It took an expensive lawyer to fend them off. We need to be aware of how authorities will use these kinds of laws to expand their power. Anything they can threaten someone with will be used to achieve their will. We trust that usually that will be "good will", but not always. The constitution recognized this fact and provides a reasonable set of limitations on government power. We should think twice before we trash the social contract that keeps us free. While I sympathize with the victims of this kind of violence, there are already laws on the books to prosecute and punish those convicted of these crimes.
Actually you've touched on exactly what I liked most about Firefly. The story of Serenity was about 'real' people. They weren't super-heroes in elastic suits fighting rubber suited aliens bent on human genocide. The stories didn't feature bigger and bigger weapons followed by bigger and bigger explosions.... (yawn).. How much of those do we need anyway. Firefly sustained and incredible hour of television drama on the simply premise of a minor engine malfuntion. That's drama. Admittedly, this draws a different audience than than the boom-boom action adventure stuff, and if anything, that's what Fox didn't get. They tried to sell it as some kind of kiddie show when it is just so much more than that. Look at the message boards. Firefly draws people of all ages, heck even girls like it! Just because this broke the mold on the epic 'splosions that you like doesn't mean it wasn't great, quite the contrary.
For me what made it different, worlds different, than any other TV science fiction is that it actually had decent writing, well developed characters and something more humanly interesting to do than 'save the universe from the forces of darkness'. This was different because it was about an unheralded struggle to get by, something a little closer to home for most of us than the epic space opera we usually see. Not that epic space opera is bad, I'm just talking about what's different with Firefly, and what makes it special for so many of us.
Its a shame you couldn't get past your prejudices concerning the accents. The dialogue was actually subtle and poetic, but did take a little patience to get used to. It reminded me of the first time I read "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress". Heinlein's invented dialect was an annoying distraction at first, until I let it fade into the background and it began to work its magic. If you're not taking this as an insult, you should try a few of the later episodes. There's some really cool stuff in this show. Its worth the effort.