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zwolanerd

“I guess I just like liking things”

May 29, 2014 Worlds Collide

I think I’ve recently figured out why I’m enjoying Lego more and more these days, and I think The Lego Movie helped clarify it in my mind: the mixing of properties. If I get the right sets, I can have Batman and Spider-Man team up with Wolverine to take out a Rancor monster and Shredder. Meanwhile, Darth Vader and M.O.D.O.K. have kidnapped Gollum and… well, you see how ridiculous it can get.

legoposse

Marvel will be announcing the new Fantastic Four any day now

It’s fun to imagine cross-fandom pairings, though. I mean, DC and Marvel have given it a stab a few times here and there, and I’m one of the few people who enjoyed DC vs. Mortal Kombat. And how long did people want to see Sonic vs. Mario?  I’m not so sure that Olympics was what people were asking for, but hey. And the Super Smash Brothers series? Total cross-pollination going on there.

“Who would win in a fight, ___________ or ___________?” is one of the time-honored geek traditional questions. Freddy vs. Jason? King Kong vs. Godzilla? Batman vs. Captain America? These have all been “answered,” but not definitively, really. I had my money on Freddy, so I don’t put much stock in how that movie played out.

I love to imagine an actor’s character showing up in another series the actor was in. That was, after all, the whole point of my “The End of Bones” entry. It’s fun and it’s mostly harmless.

What pair-ups or versuses (you can’t really pluralize that word) would you like to see?

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May 28, 2014 Lyn Plays Runescape

 

Price: Free to play, paid membership available for larger maps and more content.
Client: Browser
Get it from: www.runescape.com

Everyone’s heard of Runescape. Unless you’re living under some kind of weird internet based rock, you’ve heard of Runescape. The last time I had anything much to do with it I was working in a library and we’d had to ban it. It’s one thing to type in chat “You stole my gold you jerk!” it’s another thing when people are sitting next to each other and punches can be thrown.

Anyway, that was the original 2D Runescape. I went in one day to see what all the obsessive, punchy goodness was and wasn’t that grabbed with it. It’s all been revamped and cheered up and is now a 3D game. The original 2D version is still available, but only for paid members. I wasn’t even going to play it for this series, but my friend Lizzie told me to and I am nothing if not obedient.

The thing I found hardest to deal with was the movement. I’m a WASD kinda gal, but in Runescape this just swings your camera around madly, the game itself is all click based for movement. This annoyed me, but I suspect it’s something you’d get used to if you played enough. Everything else is much as you’d expect it to be for a fantasy MMO, there’s combat boosts, different weapons, an action bar, armour. All the usual.

It was fun enough to play, but reading the website gives me a strong indication that playing free will only get you so much fun. Consider it a free trial, if you really enjoy the game you’ll be wanting to give them some money for the extra content.

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May 27, 2014 Tuesday 10: Indy PopCon

indypopcon

I am not a person for stepping outside my comfort zone. I like what I like and things I don’t know are weird and maybe terrifying to me. Once you get to know me I’ll talk your ear off, but getting me to talk to a stranger is a Herculean task (though with less slaying off things or cleaning of stables). So when I found out there was going to be a “pop culture convention” an hour away from me, I was immediately filled with two emotions:

  1. Excitement – Hey! Pop culture!  I like that!
  2. Claustrophobia (I’m calling it an emotion and you can’t stop me) – there are going to be tons of people in an enclosed area and I already feel like I can’t breathe

But I went ahead and bought a ticket anyway, because there’s enough stuff going on there that I’m excited about, so I thought I’d share a few of the things I’m looking forward to, with the added note that some of these things I was excited about I am now bummed about because they are happening on days other than Saturday, which is the day I am going.

10. My Life as a Meme (Bad Luck Brian & Mystery Meme) – The Bad Luck Brian meme isn’t one of my favorites, but I enjoy memes in general, so hearing about what it’s like to have meme-ness happen to you should be interesting. Plus, there’s a Mystery Guest, so maybe it’ll be Keyboard Cat (I know it won’t be Grumpy Cat, because she’s at a con in New York or something this weekend).

9. Nerdy improv – There’s a “nerdprov” on Friday night that I’ll miss, but there’s a Dungeons & Dragons improv on Saturday that I’m hoping to see. I love to watch improv, but it always makes me wish I was performing instead of watching.

8. Nicholas Brendon Q&A – I think it’d be fun to sit in on this and hear stories about being on Buffy, but this one’s on Friday so I won’t get to see it.

7. Drew Curtis – I’ve been getting my news from Fark for 15 years. Should be interesting to hear his insights on the biz.

6. Geek Trivia – I don’t know details and trivia like I did when I was younger, but I’m sure it’ll still be fun to see what I know compared to what other people know.

5. John DiMaggio – The voice of Bender! And a bunch of other stuff, but Bender!

4. Ron Glass Firefly Q&A – Ron Glass has always seemed like a super-nice guy, and getting the chance to hear any of the Firefly cast talk about their time on Firefly sounds like a good time to me.

3. Kevin Eastman – Co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  If there’s one guest at the con who I’d like to meet the most, it’s this one. I’ve been a Ninja Turtles fan for almost 30 years. I haven’t the foggiest idea what I’d say to him, other than “I’ve been a Ninja Turtles fan for almost 30 years.” Honestly, I don’t have any idea what to say to any celebrity-type.

2. New Stuff – There will be a bunch of people in a bunch of booths, selling comics and who knows what else. I look forward to wandering the booths and seeing if there’s something I should be liking that I currently don’t.

1. Meeting New Friends – Though I’m missing the official Awkward Twitter Mingle on Friday, I’m looking forward to meeting in real life some new friends I’ve made via Twitter in the last year. This is the most panic-inducing part of the day for me, but at the same time I look forward to meeting these people who I’ve been having conversations with  for months.

I’m sure I’ll have a report on how it went some time next week, but if you’re going to be in the area this weekend you should check it out.

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May 22, 2014 Pop Culture Time Machine: TV Role

I give you a time machine and a role in any TV show ever. Which one and why?

Sometimes I have difficulty deciding on a topic for the day. Some days it’s a “there’s nothing!’ and some days it’s a “too many choices!” Other days it’s an overwhelming melancholy that even Q*bert can’t fix, which I know doesn’t seem possible. On any one of any of those days, I sometimes need have someone give me a writing prompt to spark an idea. The above question is what Lyn asked me and I was surprised how quickly I ended up on an answer. My thought process went like this:

  • Ooh, Batman
  • No, wait – Star Trek!
  • The Original S——- NO, WAIT — got it!

I was seriously surprised by how little time it took to get to this answer but I was in equal measures very, very sure of it when it hit me:

It's the sweet uniform

It’s the sweet uniform

I would totally go back and play the role of Wesley Crusher. No question. And this is from a person who was totally onboard the whole “Wesley is annoying” train back in the day. On my most recent rewatch of the series, though, I found I didn’t mind Wesley, not even a little.  (Alexander, though… UGH).

Here are a few of the reasons I would choose to play Wesley Crusher:

  • I would love to be a part of Star Trek somehow. I know there’ve been many actors over the years who’ve tried to distance themselves from their Star Trek roles, but I think it’d be great. Sure, you might get typecast, but you were part of a unique and loved pop culture universe.
  • Look at Wil Wheaton’s career since then – not necessarily the acting, but the geek voice he’s been able to have because of his role. And he chose to get out of the role early! I wouldn’t do that, but of course I have his history to inform that decision.
  • Any time I see Wil interact with someone from the cast of ST:TNG, it’s always this great scene of camaraderie and friendship and warmth. He was just a kid when he was on the show, but he’s got these lifelong friendships with Patrick Stewart, Gates McFadden, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn… and on and on.  How stinking cool would that be? Very.

Two questions for you:

  1. What TV role would you choose?
  2. Where should I sent the Pop Culture Time Machine next?

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May 21, 2014 Lyn Plays The Secret World

Price: $29.95 to buy/ Free to play. Item shop available.
Client: PC only (I think)
Get it from: http://www.thesecretworld.com/ or download via Steam.

I actually bought this one ages ago, but as it’s a huge file I wasn’t able to download it all at once – just in bits and pieces over a few months. So I was excited to finally get in and have a poke around.

If you’d like to know the storyline – I don’t know. No idea. Stuff is happening, the world is infected with some kind of “filth” and there’s three factions who I think are working to stop the spread.  Those factions are the Templar (fighting evil with the goodly power of goodness), The Illuminati (Sex, drugs and power according to the website) and the Dragon (Chaos, causing and enjoying).  The video shows the opening game play for the Dragon faction – if you’d like to see the other faction openings, just ask and I’ll do them for you (though I bet there’s something on YouTube). It’s fair to say I spent the entire video without having a single clue about what was going on. I think that’s the best way to play.

The reason I bought it in the first place is because it’s a modern world setting, which is still fairly rare in MMOs. You’ve got your wizards and you’ve got your space ships, but “present day” isn’t overly represented. Graphically, I’m in love with the game. It looks gorgeous even on my clunky machine, and I didn’t find it laggy at all. I will be playing more of The Secret World, because it just plays really nicely. I might start a new character though and actually watch the cut scenes.

The game is rated 16+ and I’ll warn you that there’s swearing and also the Dragon opening cut scenes include a sex scene of sorts, so if that’s not your cup of tea then perhaps skip this one.

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