According to a post on boingboing, Movie theater copies of Indiana Jones are being peppered with areas of Blank sound in order to "watermark" the film. The problem is that not only does the sound drop out at random moments, it also ruins the enjoyment of the audience. It's a common thing to complain about poor sound quality in a theatre (placing the blame on that theatre), but imagine deliberately marring a blockbuster film to give your company the information you need to pinpoint the theatre where a movie "rip" was recorded. The people who were good enough to pay money to see your film are being punished in order to find pirating sources. One commentor reports that they lost sound during an important section of dialogue.
It's sad to think that I have fond childhood memories of watching Star-wars, Indiana jones, ET, Close encounters and so on, only to have them ruined and abused by the grasping hubris of the people who made them and then grew out of touch. So many times now we try to recapture the special feeling we had when we saw (for example) Star wars in the theatre, only to leave with the suspicion that we were milked for our sense of lost nostalgia. You can say what you like about the depth of the Transformers movie, but at least that was true to the essence of the original content.
It's a weird feeling to know that one of the founders of dungeons and dragons has recently died of heart problems. As a kid, there was a kind of underground "game" called dungeons and dragons. You have to understand that nowadays with the advent of computer gaming, fantasy is simply another genre to select from at the computer store, or the choice of watching lord of the rings on dvd. when I was a kid, D&D was a scarey, possibly soul endangering exercise. The D&D scares of the eighties and the ever present chick tracts warned us of the psychological perils of role-play. The possibility that satan would appear to a circle of nerds eating chips and fondling dwarf and elf minatures was a credible threat to the establishment and our eternal safety. When I was a kid, we had to get parental permission to play at school, it was a red flag. We had to show proof, get permission to use rooms, deal with scared parents, lie basically. most other kids weren't even that lucky. We had one younger kid whose mother dragged him out of an experimental visit to a gaming store because it was full of satanic paraphenalia.
He had to play minatures games using his lego set.
I think if there's anything we should be greatful for, its the fact that he campaigned for gaming for so very long, that the children he got into the game became adults that supported it. It's a fun, innocent, worthy hobby.
My advice for you, is that you check out the episode of "greatest american hero" with dungeons and dragons as a feature plot point, the movie with tom hanks "mazes and monsters", and the famous chick tract to get an idea of the weirdness of the times. Don't be comfortable with the freedoms we have today. It used to be a lot different.
oh and fourth ed is coming out soon. It looks damn good.
I will bring it over the next time I come around, or you can find it on Pirate bay / bittorrent.
Utterly insane, anachronistic, and yet you get a sense of freedom / personalisation in the characters that you make. It's more like a base version of D&D and you could happily just do anything with it.
I think it's going to be something we play for a long time.
for all you Dan Abnett, Warhammer 40k roleplaying fans.
[03 Feb 2008|11:32am]
Black Industries, the role-playing game imprint of BL Publishing, which is itself a part of Games Workshop, initially fielded out the development of Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay to Green Ronin, the same company that created the new edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WHFRP2), before bringing development back in house.
A collector's edition of Dark Heresy, the first release of the game, went on sale on Monday 10th December 2007 at 16:00 GMT. The 200 copies of the game, individually numbered with an accompanying 'signature' of an in-game Inquisitor, sold out in six minutes[1]. The regular edition was released on the 25th of January 2008[2], and a demo booklet was distributed at GenCon 2007.[3] The game shares many design features with WHFRP2.
On the 28th of January, 2008 it was declared that Dark Heresy and all the role-playing games published by Black Industries for Games Workshop were being discontinued. No specific reason was given, beyond a statement that the company had chosen to focus on the commercial success of their novels. (It should be noted this move follows the appointment of a new chief executive and the cancellation of its interim dividend after £192,000 of losses in the six months to December 2007).
Leck mich im Arsch! Laßt froh uns sein! Murren ist vergebens! Knurren, Brummen ist vergebens, ist das wahre Kreuz des Lebens. Drum laßt uns froh und fröhlich sein!
At a formal function, Mullah Nasrudin entered the reception and seated himself upon one of the most impressive-looking chairs at the front. The Head Steward spotted the Mullah’s humble attire and hurried over.
“Sir, these seats are reserved for the guests of honour.”
“Oh good,” replied Nasrudin confidently, “because I am more than a mere guest.”
“Oh, so are you a diplomat?” asked the steward with a raised eyebrow.
“Much more than that!” smiled Nasrudin
“Really? So you are a minister, perhaps?”
“No, bigger than that too.”
“Aha! Then you must be the King himself” said the Steward sarcastically.
“Higher than that!”
“What?! Higher than the King? Nobody is higher than the King in this village!”
“Now you have it,” exclaimed Mullah Nasrudin, “I am nobody!”
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