The New Comic Thread for Friday, August 22, 2008

Jedoc

Centipede Damascus wrote: »

Nobody appreciates the Seventh Son series.

I think it's Card's best work, personally.

I really like the Alvin Maker books.

Was the Crystal City supposed to be an ending, or is there supposed to be another book coming? I was a little unclear on that whole thing.

Druhim

Defender wrote: »

Centipede Damascus wrote: »

I thought it was a funny name...

It could have been funny if it were intended as some kind of joke or parody. Maybe it can be unintentionally funny. But as it was written, it didn't seem like the author was doing it for laughs.

I agree that Snow Crash wasn't that good and Hiro Protagonist isn't that clever but it's also pretty fucking clear he meant it as a joke.

Centipede Damascus

Jedoc wrote: »

Centipede Damascus wrote: »

Nobody appreciates the Seventh Son series.

I think it's Card's best work, personally.

I really like the Alvin Maker books.

Was the Crystal City supposed to be an ending, or is there supposed to be another book coming? I was a little unclear on that whole thing.

I'm pretty sure it was the last book, yeah. He didn't really make it feel like an ending story, though.

Burning Organ

Centipede Damascus wrote: »

The Diamond Age is still a favorite of mine.

Neo-Victorians all up ins.

I really loved Turings castle.

Rankenphile

Knob wrote: »

y'know i think maybe i don't like neal stephenson as much as i thought i did

cryptonomicon is interesting as hell, but there are so goddamned many things about it that piss me off

you are not tom clancy, nor are you douglas adams

I'm coming around to that point of view myself

these past few weeks I've been listening to snow crash audiobook as I'm driving back and forth moving shit, and yeah the first quarter of the book is fun but god damn, some of the shit is so bad.

the whole "librarian" program was so poorly written. Like every thirty seconds he has the guy say "Sorry, but you dumbshit I'm a program so I can't understand what hyperbole is even though I'm using it constantly when I'm not piping up like a gayer C3PO"

I mean, there's good ideas in there, and Cryptonomicon is a lot of really fascinating stuff too, but it is also about two-thirds filler and crap that doesn't need to be there

Centipede Damascus wrote: »

Nobody appreciates the Seventh Son series.

I think it's Card's best work, personally.

the alvin maker stuff?

I thought it was really good for a while until I kind of just stopped and went "wait this is just like reading a sermon dressed as a mediocre pioneering fable. No thanks."

Defender

Druhim wrote: »

Defender wrote: »

Centipede Damascus wrote: »

I thought it was a funny name...

It could have been funny if it were intended as some kind of joke or parody. Maybe it can be unintentionally funny. But as it was written, it didn't seem like the author was doing it for laughs.

I agree that Snow Crash wasn't that good and Hiro Protagonist isn't that clever but it's also pretty fucking clear he meant it as a joke.

I'll take your word for it. I guess the thing is that I haven't read anything else that he's written, plus he has a character named "Yours Truly" and another character named "Raven" who is described almost verbatim as "the ultimate badass" somewhere in the book. So it's like he presented me with escalating layers of retarded names, such that it wasn't clear that he was joking. Also the bad writing in general makes it look like he's not joking.

Defender

I would seriously like to make a video game that is basically a rewrite of Snow Crash with all the retarded shit and boring-ass filler material taken out. I think that if the story were just pared down to the essentials and cleaned up a bit, you'd have something that's great for interactive media. The main reason, I suppose, aside from the whole thing sounding like a video game, is that I feel like a lot of action-hero-oriented material really lends itself to longer, user-controlled sequences with shorter plots and to-the-point stories. Action movies can't really get away with that, because it's very easy to overload the viewer and bore or numb them, but video games can have a much higher action-to-story ratio, and actually often benefit from it.

Druhim

You're a good guy Defender but I'm surprised even you didn't immediately get that he was being intentionally over the top with those names.

Javen

I was never into sci-fi books

or most movies in fact

Knob

Defender wrote: »

I would seriously like to make a video game that is basically a rewrite of Snow Crash with all the retarded shit and boring-ass filler material taken out. I think that if the story were just pared down to the essentials and cleaned up a bit, you'd have something that's great for interactive media. The main reason, I suppose, aside from the whole thing sounding like a video game, is that I feel like a lot of action-hero-oriented material really lends itself to longer, user-controlled sequences with shorter plots and to-the-point stories. Action movies can't really get away with that, because it's very easy to overload the viewer and bore or numb them, but video games can have a much higher action-to-story ratio, and actually often benefit from it.

cryptonomicon is a serious book with really sporadic and inappropriately placed bits of douglas adamsesque humor

the guy is damn near notorious for putting humor where it doesn't belong

Fallout

I would seriously watch an entire movie like the FPS scene in Doom

Defender

Druhim wrote: »

You're a good guy Defender but I'm surprised even you didn't immediately get that he was being intentionally over the top with those names.

It was presented to me by other guys at college as this awesome book with no mention of humor. It was the only book I'd ever read by this author. Some of the stuff was just below the "obvious parody" line, so that made the stuff that was above the line look like heavy-handed writing, not heavy-handed parody. Plus, when I got through the book, all the other bad parts of it made me question the writer's overall skill.

Defender

Knob wrote: »

Defender wrote: »

I would seriously like to make a video game that is basically a rewrite of Snow Crash with all the retarded shit and boring-ass filler material taken out. I think that if the story were just pared down to the essentials and cleaned up a bit, you'd have something that's great for interactive media. The main reason, I suppose, aside from the whole thing sounding like a video game, is that I feel like a lot of action-hero-oriented material really lends itself to longer, user-controlled sequences with shorter plots and to-the-point stories. Action movies can't really get away with that, because it's very easy to overload the viewer and bore or numb them, but video games can have a much higher action-to-story ratio, and actually often benefit from it.

cryptonomicon is a serious book with really sporadic and inappropriately placed bits of douglas adamsesque humor

the guy is damn near notorious for putting humor where it doesn't belong

OK, see, this is information that would've helped me had I known it when I read the book.

Also, talk to me more about putting it where it doesn't belong.

B:L

Defender wrote: »

I would seriously like to make a video game that is basically a rewrite of Snow Crash with all the retarded shit and boring-ass filler material taken out. I think that if the story were just pared down to the essentials and cleaned up a bit, you'd have something that's great for interactive media. The main reason, I suppose, aside from the whole thing sounding like a video game, is that I feel like a lot of action-hero-oriented material really lends itself to longer, user-controlled sequences with shorter plots and to-the-point stories. Action movies can't really get away with that, because it's very easy to overload the viewer and bore or numb them, but video games can have a much higher action-to-story ratio, and actually often benefit from it.

I call dibs on Snow Crash: The Game: The Movie.

fightinfilipino

i don't know what's worse B:L, that you might have actually made that image to reply to Defender, or that that image was already in existence on the internet.

Skull Man

I didn't see doom

should I

Butler

Naming a character Hiro Protagonist sounds like one of those jokes the author would put in as they were writing for their own amusement and then just forgot to take out.

Orikaeshigitae

Randall_Flagg wrote: »

I really liked Cryptonomicon

also Neuromancer, which may be tangent to this conversation but Stephenson's and Gibson's cyberpunk novels are pretty similar you guys

yeah except gibson actually knows how to write, he doesn't have nearly as much trouble with endings and pacing as stephenson does (although pattern recognition springs to mind as a counter-example)

Druhim

yeah, Gibson's definitely a better writer but even though Stephenson's not as skilled I do like his quirky take on things and he's not as awkward with the pacing in his later books (namely the Baroque Cycle)
at least in my opinion

Shorty

Regarding Snow Crash:

Hiro Protagonist is a joke name, it's not supposed to be taken seriously, he even says in the book that it's not his real name. It's his trade name, and he knows it's dumb. The point is that it's silly but memorable.

Burden of Proof

Skull Man wrote: »

I didn't see doom

should I

it was okay

in a pretty gay way

Defender

Burden of Proof wrote: »

Skull Man wrote: »

I didn't see doom

should I

it was okay

in a pretty gay way

"I gotta take a dump."

No, do not see it. You will not gain anything out of it more than what this clip gives you.

Orikaeshigitae

Druhim wrote: »

yeah, Gibson's definitely a better writer but even though Stephenson's not as skilled I do like his quirky take on things and he's not as awkward with the pacing in his later books (namely the Baroque Cycle)
at least in my opinion

uh the first one was nigh incomprehensible

i stopped reading because none of the characters meant anything and jack shaftoe was dead but maybe not

Metzger Meister

Defender wrote: »

Burden of Proof wrote: »

Skull Man wrote: »

I didn't see doom

should I

it was okay

in a pretty gay way

"I gotta take a dump."

No, do not see it. You will not gain anything out of it more than what this clip gives you.

I cannot help but love The Rock with such a ferocity as to make pale the zealotry of religious extremists.

I Win Swordfights

You guys should see the Rundown

Me Too!

I enjoyed Doom as a stupid "shut your brain off" movie

Muggins

Angry Video Game Nerd is pretty awesome

Knob

not really

he just says lots of swears poorly and mugs at the camera

jwalk

I borrowed the DVD from a friend, took me about 3 tries to get all the way thru it. It's definitely nothing special, but it's ok. The blonde girl is easy on the eyes, even though her character and dialog are terrible. That Mr. The Rock guy is .... interesting.

Mr. Henry Bemis

angry video game nerd is fucking retarded

i am prejudiced though

the person who showed it to me is probably the worst person i've ever met

jwalk

As satire it's pretty funny. People who really act like him in their regular daily lives, or anything close to that, are horrible awful people.

Defender

Knob wrote: »

not really

he just says lots of swears poorly and mugs at the camera

There are many cases where his criticisms are valid. Maybe it's my perspective based on my job, but sometimes I see game mechanics that people set up and I'm just like "WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU DO THAT???"

AVGN has the advantage of picking from a treasure trove of games that are 10 or 20 years old, sometimes more, so there are so many hilariously bad, unrefined game concepts in there that I find it entertaining.

Knob

sure he occasionally makes a decent point, and his criticisms aren't invalid

but he's annoying as fuck

it's like if you had to be stung by a swarm of bees and then punched in the balls before you were allowed to look at metacritic scores

Moriveth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9_3IBSZw2Q

Skull Man

too accurate

PotU

Moriveth wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9_3IBSZw2Q

Love Shmorky.

Mr. Henry Bemis

he's basically yahtzee except horribly annoying and unfunny

Projeck

woah look at that

its a monster face

Dr.Funkenstein

NOOOOO what'd they do to the opening and ending credits to Zero Punctuation?

Defender

Mr. Henry Bemis wrote: »

he's basically yahtzee except horribly annoying and unfunny

I'd say that the situation is reversed.

tehcoolryan wrote: »

NOOOOO what'd they do to the opening and ending credits to Zero Punctuation?

I think they did that because he kept using copyrighted material without permission and they got worried about being sued or something.