I think the idea of a virtual world where people can pretty much live out whatever their geek-fantasies of flying around/living in their childhoods was such a strong allure people looked past its flaws (it was a weird example of a book protagonist that felt like a blank slate for people to project themselves into).…

I read an excerpt of it somewhere and entirely too much of the book boiled down to ‘Hey, remember the Last Starfighter guys? Wasn’t that movie really great?’ I guess it’s cute and all, but if we’re gonna make a ‘geek culture’ book, I’d appreciate diving a little deeper than ‘Hey, isn’t being a geek awesome?’ (Similar…

Without spoiling it: it isn’t like that in the books. Think a bad person trying to do the right thing. In fact at one point the book turns the idea you describe on its head.

“With great power comes great responsibility. Or... you know, maybe it doesn’t. You know what? Do whatever you want. Screw those guys, you’re invulnerable and shoot laser beams out of your eyes.”

Linkara from ‘Atop The Fourth Wall’ had a review of All-Star Batman and Robin and said that Batman was so wildly out of character that it only made sense if Batman was killed off-screen by a hobo who stole his costume and the character we really saw was a guy named ‘Crazy Steve’.

Seriously, dude? a 100 comment thread wasn’t enough, you had to drag this drama to the main page?

They’re different pages. Come on, dragging random drama random pages is the kind of shit 13 year olds did on Livejournal. Grow up.

Some A & E show slipped some faux-protesters promoting their new Damien series (basically the Omen TV show).

One could very much make that argument about certain fans. Just replace ‘protesting’ with other behavior.

I don’t entirely disagree with you, but I do think there is value in understanding what drives that kind of behavior, because I don’t think it’s all that simple as ‘They are angry and they want to yell’. These…

You and I have had very different D&D experiences. .

So, this being essentially a staple of SDCC, there’s something interesting at play here I’d like to try unpacking.

This is not a group interested in changing the hearts and minds of anyone going to the convention. I mean, mostly they just get ridiculed, argued with, snarked at and largely ignored every year. So why do…

I do agree, but I’d point out that even D&D settings are fairly ‘standard Fantasy’, often with one or two twists. Forgotten Realms is essentially a straight play on a Tolkein-esque verse. Eberron takes a more Steampunk bent. Dragonlance is it’s own thing but it’s basically rote Fantasy.

You basically described Rat Queens.

I always wonder about what a good Dungeons and Dragons movie would look like. I mean, if we’re being brutally honest, D&D’s world is kitschy and generic with an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to it’s world. Which is by design, because it’s meant to be a well for player-created stories and narratives and…

“he survived cannon shots to the face, decapitation and various other horrendous deaths on the battlefield,”

I pretty much met the announcement of ‘no more fake documentaries with’ ‘...I’ll bet they mostly replace it with breathless retelling of shark attacks that consist largely of talking heads juxtaposed to low-budget re-enactments involving paid extras swimming around intercut with stock footage’. Gotta admit I didn’t…

I personally think Jaws more or less reinforced whatever narrative people had in their heads about Sharks to begin with. You can’t understate how much it (however briefly) affected the consciousness of moviegoers— coastal towns by and large were actually hit pretty hard by this film as people literally stayed off the…

Me too! I got my Barbarian and Witch Doctor to 70, although the RNG is not being kind to my Barbarian so his gear is... a little goofed up.

I can’t play Hardcore mode because I would have an anxiety attack if I lost progress with my character, hah.

Well, assuming Fox gets some kind of cut from merchandise it makes a certain amount of sense, as it essentially bleeds the value of the X-men franchise by that much (since no merch revenue is being generated), setting up for a shot at getting the franchise back. But yeah, it’s mostly just spite.

X-men are not getting…

Now see, it’s all well and good to link that comic, but the thing is MOBA’s aren’t TF2 (in that the medic can’t heal himself and must seek additional support) and they aren’t say an MMORPG (where it’s generally attacks interrupt casting, meaning the healer heals less efficient). Uther can heal himself as well as…

Not a problem. I really like the guide otherwise, I’ve just seen one too many Illidans dive into a healer because ‘kill healers first’ and die within two seconds.