Daniel Cook shared through his Google Feader feed an article about Progressive Signups, which led me to QuietWrite. Might as well talk about some things while testing how it works.
Here goes...
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The PC Cthulu Saves the World Kickstarter project is about to close in a few hours. It very easily reached its target, but donating more than the intended release price will get you some nifty bonuses and a warm feeling of doing good.
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Little info available on the rules for the Plants vs Zombies boardgame (via Kotaku), but if the dice helps determine where a zombie will spawn, I'm guessing that placing either a plant or a zombie on the board will trigger a conflict resolution mechanic that will remove cards from the board (or add 'em). Most likely there won't be a hitpoint mechanic, unless they want this to be a bit complex.
Hmmm, actually, the rules for this could be interesting.
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Speaking of boardgames, am currently casting my dice by ordering David Sirlin's Puzzle Strike and D&D: Wrath of Ashardalon (supposedly out last Feb15) to try on my Catan lovin' friends. I'd really like to wean them into other games, preferably more complex games. Hopefully, the interactivity these games offer is near what they seem to be looking for.
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It's too bad that the current dev version of Puzzle Strike has no "vs AI" component yet. The rules are a tad confusing (turning into an old fart, ain't I? :P ), and some matches against the AI would really help.
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Fortunately, Yomi does have a "vs AI" component on the dev server. Not in too deep yet, but it's promising to be a game I could really love. I now understand the flow enough to know what's going on and to see how each character plays differently, and there's a huge swell of potential in each 54 card character deck. The core RPS mechanic is actually a very simple concept to understand, it only seems daunting due to the amount of info written on the cards. The great thing is there are other layers at play underneath the core mechanic that takes the game to multiple levels.
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Lion-O's personality seems a bit weird in the supposed CG test footage of a supposed Thundercats movie (via Twitch). Not a fan on how he's designed either, but the animation seemed OK. I'm more looking forward to the coming animated series.
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Kotobukiya's Bishoujo Ghostbusters announcement at ToyFair 2011 (via Tomopop) gave us a pic, and it has awesome bursting out of the seams. Kotobukiya's other figs in the Bishoujo line have mostly turned out great. Praying this fig will turn out at least as good as her older sisters.
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After the emo Spidey movie pic, an action pose of the new Spider-Man movie costume (both via Topless Robot) was released on the interwebs. I like the fact that this version of the costume has no silver linings. The movie is now titled "The Amazing Spider-Man", and supposedly he'll be using web-cartridges as well. The direction appears to be a little oldschool, which I kinda like.
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Finally, I'd just like to mention that Puella Magi Madoka★Magica (魔法少女まどか☆マギカ Mahō Shōjo Madoka Magika) is so wonderfully real it's twisted. Imagine your typical Magical Girl anime, frilly costumes, a cute mentor that doubles as a pet, and when the chips are down, the powers from you, your friends, and good in general will save the day. If magic and magical girls really did exist in the real world imagine how wonderfully wonderful life would be!
Well, that is if you ignore real-life issues such as depression, power struggles, desperation, rage, death and suicide. In the real world, $h1t happens.
The show takes the magical girl cliches as its premise and has it face the hard truths of modern life. When choices are made we take the full brunt of the consequences, good or ill. And, we carry these choices and consequences 'till our death.
This is not a happy-happy anime, but I won't say it's a sad one either. It can get dark, disturbing, and personally, more frightening than some horror animes I've seen. This anime shows that choices have consequences, magical girl or not.
I'm hoping the rest of this series (it's only around halfway done) will keep-up with what the show has done sofar.
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Well now, it's a pleasant surprise is that I've written more than I have in a long time. Seems I have QuietWrite to thank for that. Let's see where this will go in the future.
// Originally composed in QuietWrite
Links:
http://www.quietwrite.com/writing/7011/progressive-signup-a-better-user-signup-process
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/744735150/cthulhu-saves-the-world-enhanced-version-for-pc-an
http://kotaku.com/#!5759347/this-is-an-official-plants-vs-zombies-board-game
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/214420000
http://www.sirlingames.com/pages/puzzle-strike-overview
http://www.sirlingames.com/pages/games/yomi
http://www.fantasystrike.com/dev/
http://twitchfilm.com/news/2011/02/cg-test-footage-for-thundercats-movie.php
http://tomopop.com/toy-fair-2011-kotobukiya-announces-ghostbusters-x-bishoujo-17545.phtml
http://www.toplessrobot.com/2011/02/the_new_spider-man_movie_is_amazing_and_i_mean_tha.php
http://myanimelist.net/anime/9756/Mahou_Shoujo_Madoka%E2%98%85Magica