Nerdy Space Game For Hackerspaces - 6 Years Of Development

Space nerds in space is an impressive piece of work most of us will never play. But we get to enjoy watching others do so. And also 28 minutes of looking at the history of the game:

Six Years of Space Nerds In Space -- 2018-11-03

More videos on Stephen Cameron's channel.

This post was retrieved from freegamer.blogspot.com.

Movie Reviews: Black Panther, The Shape Of Water, The Greatest Showman, Darkest Hour, Professor Marston And The Wonder Women, McEnroe Vs Borg, Fifty Shades Freed

See all of my movie reviews.

Black Panther: So far, the only Marvel movies that I think are actually really good movies are X-Men 1, Iron Man 1, and the first two Tobey MacGuire Spider-Mans. I also enjoy the first The Avengers and was at least passably entertained by a few others, in that empty candy calorie sort of way.

That said, Black Panther is one of the better ones, possibly about as good as The Avengers. The most important thing that it does right (and please, please, movie producers, learn from this) is that it doesn't simply present us with a Big Evil bad guy and a two hour slug-fest until one of the heroes finally hits him hard enough. Instead, the bad guy has a compelling point of view; in fact, he is actually kind of right ... except that he takes it way too far. To mildly spoil things ...

Wakanda is an African nation with advanced techology that it hides from the rest of the world for ... reasons? Black Panther's father, the king, was killed in one of the other Marvel movies, and now BP is king, but a long lost cousin battles him for the throne, because said cousin has been living with the black people of the world and thinks that Wakanda's technology should be used to help them out of their oppression.

Ummmmmm .... yes, it should. Not to mention, Wakanda's advanced medical technology could be saving millions of lives around the world, instead of being kept hidden for no apparent reason.

Fortunately for the plot, cousin usurper doesn't simply want to help the world's black people out of their oppression, he also wants to help them kill and/or oppress everyone else, because it's "their turn". So, evil. If they had actually made his goal a little less obviously evil, the movie would have really risen to great. But then how would we be able to end the movie without a clear good guy and bad guy beating each other up in a slugfest until the hero finally hits the the bad guy hard enough?

The movie gets extra kudos for the same reason that Wonder Woman got extra kudos: it proves that a black cast, black writers, black director, etc can write a perfectly good and relatable superhero movie (why this should have had to be proven is still beyond me), which will hopefully lead to many more black characters as hero/protagonist in the future. It also has powerful black women fighters, which is still pretty rare.

The movie revels in a particular version of African culture - drums, clothes, hairstyles, language and tribes, etc. That doesn't speak to me as a white American/Israeli; it didn't bother me, either. I can't speak for its authenticity, as others do, but I guess it's a pretty idealized version of a monolithic idea of what African culture is supposed to be; I'm sure it is as representative of African culture as A Stranger Among Us was representative of Jewish culture.

The Shape of Water: It took me four tries to finish this movie. It is freakin' boring, predictable, and unoriginal. Well shot and acted is about all I can say for it. It is, nearly exactly, one part facile imitation of the movie Amelie - crossed with three parts non-amusing version of Splash. With a dash of gore, nudity, and cursing thrown in. The music is indie French accordion (something like what you heard in Hugo), but if it had any melody I forgot it.

In the 1960s, an American research institute has some kind of weird aquatic humanoid life-form in a top-secret lab - with what must be the worst security ever seen in a motion picture: the cleaning staff and Russian spies waltz in an out of the the creature's room and spend hours alone with it, all with nobody noticing or challenging them until the break-out scene. A mute cleaning women falls in love with the creature who is scheduled to be dissected, so she breaks it out of the lab. The scientists/military are caricature villains, the next door neighbor is a friend/artist who is useful as an interpreter and assistant to the plot. Another cleaner, played by Octavia Spencer, shows up in half of the movie's scenes but really serves no useful purpose to the plot, at all.

I was so uninterested with what was going on that I kept turning it off. And this was nominated for best film? Good grief.

The Greatest Showman: This was a fairly enjoyable musical, probably only green-lit for production after the success of La La Land. Its music was somewhat more forgettable than La La Land's was, but it was not too bad. Dancing and choreography were nice.

This is the sanitized story of how P.T. Barnum began his circus of human oddities and animal acts, with Hugh Jackman starring as Barnum. Barnum starts in poverty and marries a lovely woman Charity before starting his circus. After a slow start, he is successful, but he is mocked by the arts establishment as a low-brow panderer, and constantly facing protest from moral groups and "concerned citizens" (i.e. mobs) as a purveyor of filth (people with deformities and odd talents). He takes on a playwright as a partner and also flies in a European opera performer to try to raise his stature in the arts community with some success, but also some additional trouble. Meanwhile, the circus's "exhibits" are happy to be out of the shadows and be part of a family, while simultaneously upset at not being treated as humans. This last subject is, unfortunately, only given cursory treatment in the movie; also fairly neglected by the movie is anything having to do with US current events of the 1850s, such as slavery and so forth (despite there being at least one black person in the circus troupe).

It was quite fun, if a little overly showy at the expense of deeper characterization. I would see it again.

Hard to understand why the circus didn't get Wolverine as an exhibit, however; wasn't he around in the 1850's?

Darkest Hour: 2017 has several movies that covered the same ground or connected with other movies. This movie is the second of two about Winston Churchill, and it also managed to fit neatly in with Dunkirk; in fact, this movie and Dunkirk could be merged to form one movie. They cover just about the same amount of time and end at the exact same moment.

It is well acted, scripted, and shot, with great visuals and sound. There were a few scenes that crept into the same territory that ruined The Iron Lady - too much acting and not enough plot. Thankfully, most of the movie avoids that, and instead concerns itself with Churchill's coming into power and the enormous pressure he faced to sue for peace with Hitler's far larger and aggressive Germany, particularly since Great Britain was facing the imminent loss of their entire army on the beaches of Dunkirk.

It's a slice of history movie, not as thrilling as Dunkirk, and perhaps a little limited in scope, but still a success. But not one that I would see again (unless someone makes the merged movie that I suggested, above).

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women: The second movie about Wonder Woman from 2017, this one is not starring Wonder Woman, but instead the somewhat true story about the comic author and his weird life, perversions, and scientific theories and achievements. William Marston developed a minor psychological theory called DISC theory, which describes personalities based on dominance, inducement, submission, and compliance. He also, apparently together with his wife Elizabeth and their lover Olive, created the lie detector.

Not surprisingly regarding someone who could come up with DISC theory, he and his wife were into kinky games, and so, eventually, was Olive. All three loved each other, and this was not exactly a relationship that could be made public at that time (or even today, really). After suffering fallout due to the relationship being made public, he created a superhero comic book about domination and submission - based on his theories and his sex life and one of the fetish outfits that Olive had worn. Since it was also the first superhero comic with a strong woman (albeit one who was subject to domination by men, on occasion), it filled a niche in the comic world.

Kind of a far cry from the other Wonder Woman movie that we saw last year.

It's a well-told, well-made movie, a little kinky but not really (less than Fifty Shades of Gray, and it didn't have any nudity). It was well acted and shot, and the script moved well enough. The movie touched on a number of different subjects - morality, kink, DISC theory, lie detection, relationships, societal disapproval. All of these are touched upon, but the only one that really comes into focus is the last one: at least according to the movie, they really did all love each other in a way that was not acceptable by society, and that can be a hard thing to get around.

McEnroe vs Borg: The second 2017 move about a famous tennis match: Battle of the Sexes was the other one and was far better. This one is simply a depiction of the lead-up to McEnroe trying to prevent Borg from winning his fifth Wimbledon. McEnroe, as you know, was young, ill-tempered, and rude in a way that no tennis player had ever been (it was always considered an English gentleman's sport), and Borg was rumored to be an emotionless machine. Screentime is devoted in flashbacks to both of them as up and comers, and to the few days before the match, as well as the match itself.

I found the movie to be a big bore. Just watching the actual tennis match would be far more entertaining. You see scenes of them having difficulties and facing them, as well as people booing McEntosh and his young obnoxious ways. But the movie never makes us feel why we are watching them or gives us a reason to care one way or the other about the outcome of the match.

Fifty Shades Freed: Sure, why not? I saw the first one and actually thought it wasn't too bad. The second one was dismally bad. This one was somewhere in the middle. The first hour or so is shots of Anastasia and Christian on vacation with some furrowed brows over how Jack from the previous movie is still angry with them for ruining his life. The last 25 minutes or so is a kidnapping scene and a rescue that was shot and scripted well enough if not exactly surprising. This last part might have worked well as a mid-season episode of a drama show.

Everything about the movie, aside from the last 20 minutes, is dull. Dull scenery, dull characters, dull "tension" scenes, dull sex scenes. In some ways, the subplot with Jack is a bit of a shout-out to the #MeToo movement, since he acts like the perfect example of a sexual harasser, but, honestly, he is almost nothing compared to Christian. Christian continues his stalker ways ever worse than he did in previous movies. At least in those movies he made some moves in the direction of growing out of his obsessive, harassing, and terrifying behavior. In this movie he continues to do things that would make any sane person run screaming in terror from him, but Anastasia simply chastises him and then forgets about what happened moments later. And he hasn't changed at all by the end of the movie. Anastasia is somewhat more into submission by the end, but that doesn't even make sense, since Christian's dominance is shown to be the result of a severe pathology rather than a harmless kink. So are we supposed to be happy now that they found each other? Ugh.

Don't bother. Go watch Secretary, instead.

Storium Basics: Creating A Character / Applying For Games

Welcome back to Storium Basics. This series of articles is designed to help new players understand Storium in general, and be able to get started on Storium games. For those looking for more, see my more advanced article series, Storium Theory.

Today, we're taking a look at the first thing a player will need to do to get involved in a game: creating a character.

Once you've found a game that you'd like to join, whether through the Browse Games feature, the forums, or some other method, what should you expect to happen, and what should you do?

First, a bit about how narrators set things up:

The system a lot of narrators - myself included - will use for open invitation games is to take applications up until about the end of the default two week application period, then look over all the applications and choose the ones they feel will work best for their game. They'll certainly comment on applications before that point and will let you know if the character just outright doesn't work, but you often won't hear a definitive yes or no until the application period nears its end.

There are exceptions, of course - sometimes your character is just so clearly right for the game that they take it right away, or of course sometimes you're specifically invited to a game—but that's how that style works.

Note that some narrators also use the "Open Lobby" feature of Storium or forum topics to let players discuss character options and ask questions in a place specifically set aside for the game as well - I tend to just take applications, myself, but a lot of narrators love using that feature and if one does, you should certainly feel free to ask questions there! Even if they don't, you can usually ask questions via private messaging. Make sure that you understand the world and the game concepts if you're fuzzy on anything.

Remember, though - whether you are talking to the narrator in the Open Lobby, on the forums, through private messaging, or through any other method, do not construe the narrator saying that it is all right to apply with a particular character as the narrator saying that they will definitely approve a particular character. Narrators will often be willing to help you work through applying for a character or iron out a character idea, but until they actually hit "approve" on your character application, you do not have their approval.

Now...how do you actually apply?

I look at Storium applications as…kind of a job application, honestly. A fun one, but still, the idea as a narrator is to pick out people you're willing to be writing with for potentially several months to a year - these games can last a while, even if they sound short to begin with. You want to get a cast of characters that seems like it can work together, and do your best to pick a group of players that seems like it can gel pretty well.

It's in your interest as a player applying for games to look at things from that perspective too. You need to sell both your character and yourself - your character as an interesting element for the story, and yourself as a player who will be active, reliable, and easy to work with.

So, here are a few things I've found can help you be more likely to be accepted for a game:

• Provide a character picture.
• Narrators like to see those—it helps show that you've thought about the character more, and honestly just gives a good "at a glance" for the character's appearance and general mood or theme. 
• Don't worry about getting this exact, necessarily - you don't need to go build your character in an art program or get it commissioned or anything. 
• There was a good forum topic a while back where someone - I forget who - said that he looked at it as kind of "casting the part" as though this were a movie or some such - he looked less for an exact appearance match and more for a picture that fit the general mood and tone of the character.
• If you cannot provide a picture for your character - for instance, one player I play with is blind and therefore cannot - then just make sure to state that you could not in your comments along with the application. Narrators will generally be understanding, but it's important to let them know that there was a reason.
• Card art isn't as required, generally, but do pay attention if the narrator specifically asks for it. Narrators don't like having their instructions ignored.
• Take some time on the background - you don't have to (in fact, you shouldn't) spell out every detail of a character's life, but there should still be a perception that you know, in general, who the character is.
• Involve your character in the world. 
• If the narrator calls out particular kingdoms or locations or tribes or what-have-you, consider having your character be from one of those places, or having run into people from those places. 
• If he mentions events, particularly disastrous ones, consider having those events influence your character's background.
• Above all, try to fit your character into the game's world and the game's tone or mood, or be ready to explain why your character can still fit the game despite the differences. Characters that clash with the game's tone or world can sometimes work, but they will make narrators skittish - it is on you to explain how your character can still fit the game.
• A lot of players will submit characters they played elsewhere, and that's totally fine - I've done it myself with old MUX characters or tabletop characters - but make sure to make that character fit into the story's world all the same, likely with the above methods.
• You don't have to be perfect (though there are some sticklers for grammar rules on Storium that will say otherwise), but do take the time to do what you can to make your writing clear. 
• In particular, split your background up into paragraphs (and when you do, hit enter twice to clearly separate them - believe me, it makes it so much clearer). It makes it easier to read, and narrators like to know that they're going to have an easy time reading your posts.
• Take a little extra time with your app - and with your writing on Storium in general. Again, you don't have to be perfect. Just make it clear that you do care about your writing.
• Put things into your background that the narrator can use. You don't have to spell them out as bullet points or anything, but characters that provide the narrator with possibilities are more exciting than those who just are what they are. 
• Leave some mystery in there, or imply that a person that hurt you was involved with some evil force or another the narrator established in the game description.
• Narrators, by and large, love to have little cues that they can find in a character's description or background. It helps them involve the character more in the story, and make the story about the characters, rather than about events that the characters happen to be involved in.
• This is a good thing to use comments for as well - when you submit your character and that little box comes up with additional comments, take the time to just briefly talk about some ideas for how the character might tie in to the story, or call out bits in your application that you've intentionally left open for the narrator to use.
• Take a look at the other existing apps and try to make your character feel different. 
• If other people are choosing a particular nature, strength, weakness, or subplot, it's a good idea to pick a different one. Storium may not have a tactical need to have different "classes" in your party, but narrators like to have characters that are different from each other. 
• Work on differentiating Strengths, Weaknesses, and Subplots as well. A game with three people who all have Agile as their Strength card is simply not as fun to read as a game where those three people have different Strength cards. There are definitely story possibilities with overlap, but most narrators I've seen will prefer characters that differ over those that are similar.
• Write your character as someone who can and will get involved with the story and the other characters. 
• Characters who feel like they'll want to be separate from the rest of the group a lot of the time (loners, "I work alone" types), or those who feel like they won't care about the story or will actively act against the story (for instance, a totally sensible character in a slasher flick game, who won't go to explore the creepy old house) will make the narrator nervous. 
• Remember: You are writing a character for this story. Your character doesn't have to be fated to be a hero or something like that. He doesn't have to be thrilled about what he's going to be doing. But, deep down at the very least, he should be the sort of person that will pursue the activities the story demands.
• If your character appears to be the sort of person who would run screaming in the other direction from the events of the story or otherwise avoid participating in it, take the time in comments to tell the narrator how you'd like to tie the character to the story more firmly - or at least to give the narrator a few ideas for how it might happen. As above, it is on you to explain why a character that doesn't seem to fit can actually fit.
• Pick the starting cards for your character based on what you want to see come up in the story for that character - not just based on what sounds right for the character. You need to pick starting cards that feel like things that would be interesting to you - things you are going to want to play. 
• This tends to matter most for Weakness cards, but can also be a factor in choosing a Strength or Subplot. Pick something that interests you and that you want to see as part of the story.
• I've seen players pick stuff because it "sounded right" or because it was who the character was before the tale, not thinking about where their character's story was quickly going to go and how they actually wanted to portray the character, and it always becomes something frustrating for the player then.
• Finally, for yourself, try to build a good reputation in general. Narrators can, and do, look at your play history. If they see interesting characters, story participation, group interaction, a good attitude, and completed games, they'll look forward to the possibilities presented by having you in their game.

Narrators aren't professionals and we all work a little differently, and nothing's a guarantee, but the above should generally help you be more likely to be accepted to games, and just help you have more fun and help others have more fun when you're in them.

If you would like to know more about character creation and applying for games in Storium, here are a few of my Storium Theory articles on that topic:

• Writing Good Strengths and Weaknesses
• Play Within the World: Making Characters "Fit In"
• People, People Who Need People
• Uniqueness of Ability
• Uniqueness of Cards
• Support the Story
• Building Character
• Choose Cards You Want to Play
• Build Towards Something

Three Gaming Interfaces To Pay Attention To

In this post, I want to discuss some gaming interfaces and user experience features in games. I will use my three favorite games for this present post, but the subject is broader and allows a bigger discussion that I intend to return to, next month.

DEAD SPACE (PS3)

In the horror-fiction game Dead Space, the interface is something to pay special attention to. The character's (Isaac Clarke) main statuses are disposed in a very strategic way: the life meter is located on his back in the shape of a spinal light, the weapon ammunition is showed as a small number when you aim the gun and, finally, the game has an interesting resource that is a luminous laser to help you easily locate the way the character must go (and it saves time in the complex scenario maze).



HERO (Atari)

This one is a relic from the beginning of the video-gaming era. HERO is an interesting case of user experience (UX) and interface with very limited constrols. Atari's joystick has only one button and one directional stick; with only two resources, HERO's designers implemented a wide range of possibilities: when you press the red button in the joystick the character uses its laser vision to kill enemies; by pressing down the control stick the character launches a dynamite do open walls and, finally, when you hold the control stick up the character flies using a jetpack. A very rich interface and UX created using minimal resources.



Entwined (PS4)

One of my favorite indie games Entwined is a great case of interface and usability. All the gameplay is based on how you can manage the two control sticks from PlayStation's joystick. During the whole experience, you must control the two mystic entities by only using circular movements; the user experience is focused on coordinating two different positions simultaneously (a challenge to your dexterity). Entwined is an incredibly created game, using only circular movements in two control sticks, a master class of game design.



On the three cases related in the post, we can clearly see the ideas of how games must strategically use concepts from the user experience field. To finish this conversation I want to share some content from the site nForm about this subject:

"The user experience is not one simple action – it is an interconnected cycle of attempting to satisfy hopes, dreams, needs and desires. This takes the shape of individuals comparing their expectations to the outcomes generated by their interaction with a system. Managing expectations then becomes key to successfully providing a satisfying "return on experience" that delights users and generates shared, sustainable value".

#GoGamers

Chaikin Curves

Sometimes I want to draw Voronoi or similar polygons in a rounded form:

I use a process called Chaikin's Algorithm for this.

Start with a polygon:

Original polygon

Mark the midpoints of each side:

Polygon with midpoints

Then construct quadratic Bezier curves. Each original vertex becomes the control point of the quadratic Bezier, and the two adjacent midpoints become the two end points of the Bezier:

Quadratic bezier curves

Super simple to implement! If you don't have a quadratic Bezier drawing function, you can use the De Casteljau Algorithm to subdivide the original line into smaller lines. Repeat this until you get line segments that are fairly close to the quadratic Bezier.

I used this for this project and this project.

Download Just Cause 4 Compressed Version For 5$

Download Just Cause 4 Compressed version for  5$

| Just Cause 4 [ Uncracked ] | FULL UNLOCKED |

 Platform:  PC

 Size: 50.8 Gb

 ژانر بازی : اکشن

 File Type: RAR

 Game Language: English

 Publisher: Tarsier Studios

 Game Price: 5$

.

  Minimum System Requirements:

OS: Windows 7 SP1 with Platform Update for Windows 7 64-bit✔
Processor: Intel Core i5-2400 @ 3.1 GHz | AMD FX-6300 @ 3.5 GHz or better✔
Memory: 8 GB RAM✔
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760✔
DirectX: Version 11✔
Storage: 59 GB available space✔

Download links

Direct Link

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password: After Payment Is Done

My GaryCon XII / 2020 Games Approved And Scheduled!

I have four games at GaryCon XII/2020 this year! I'm so glad to be returning to one of my favorite events in the Midwest. If you get a chance, come play some games with me!

Friday - 10am

Rescue of Hommlet—A Chainmail/OD&D Game

A discrete summons has reached your ears, for the good people of Hommlet are in fear for their lives! A militia of foul brigands from Nulb have been spotted near the old Moathouse of ill reputation! What evil lurks there and beyond? Find out, brave heroes, using Chainmail (and a bit of Original D&D) as the rules of engagement as we explore this famous Greyhawk setting!

Those of you who are part of the Chgowiz Henchfolk army have seen previous postings on my models and rules for this scenario. I'm so excited!

I'm doubly-excited that GaryCon has invited me to run this game in the "Legends of Roleplaying" room as well!

Legends of Roleplaying is an ongoing series of events at Gary Con that pay special attention to the early days of roleplaying that led to the development of Dungeons & Dragons and the legacy of games created to further expand the hobby.

These nostalgic events bring Gary Con attendees the fun of classic roleplaying games that were a staple during the early days of the hobby and Gen Cons past. The original rules, vintage figures, and authentic accessories will be used during play when possible. Sometimes the events will involve individuals who played, refereed, and authored the games during this golden age of roleplaying. Most events will be taught and so all that is needed is interest to play. This gives Gary Con attendees a chance to experience what it was like to play these games at the earliest Gen Cons and even Gary Gygax's own home at 330 Center St. in Lake Geneva!

So no pressure... *gulp* 

Friday 6pm

Chaos Wars in the DUNGEON!

Go underground in dark tunnels and chambers filled with horrors or treasures! Brave Lawful allies fight against foul Bestials! Who will emerge victorious? Fight in a unique terrain setup using Chaos Wars fantasy miniature wargaming rules and all genuine Ral Partha armies!

I'm bringing fantasy wargaming underground, using my modular tile system and Ral Partha Chaos Wars wargaming rules. I've been looking forward to running this at GaryCon! Instead of a skirmish or small party, bring an army into the dungeon and see how it goes! 

Saturday 7pm

Saturday Night AD&D—The Heist of the Century

It's an easy enough job: Get into the Royal Palace, steal the King's Secretary's Seal and return with it, for a reward worth ten years' wages. But nothing is ever simple, is it? Especially when you interrupt something far, far worse, and the opportunities may be far, far bigger. Come experience the world of Etinerra, a campaign ten years going!

I'm continuing a tradition almost a decade old, of running a Saturday night AD&D game at GaryCon and having it take place in my Chronicles of Etinerra world. This year, I'm doing something different. Inspirations from Ocean's Eleven, the Lut Gholein Act of Diablo 2, my twisted imagination and a game I ran for my wife in her campaign. It should be a lot of fun!

Sunday 10am

Chaos Wars in the DUNGEON!

Same as Friday 6pm game. I like closing out GaryCon with a miniatures game. Sometimes Sunday morning games are very low key and lightly attended, so we'll see how it goes. 

I hope to get some playing time on Thursday and on Saturday. Plus check out the vendor room and drool over the things I'm not going to be able to buy. Ha!

Are you going to GaryCon? What are you looking forward to playing or running?