KARSUMAN'S PROFILE

our dear friend s4d has been banned (yet again), post some haikus commemorating this great loss.

remember, 5/7/5 syllables each line


example:

farewell s4d

on the ship of stars and dreams

may we meet again

So I was talking to Calunio in IRC about the perception of RM* games today and he brought up a little indie (non-RM*) game named Edmund.





Edmund was released as part of a four week contest hosted by TIG. It is a game about a rapist.

What, you ask? Yes, that was my reaction too. Now, there are two main ways I could have seen this game being handled:

1) Meaningful discourse/observations about (very) rarely explored subject matter.

2) A shock jock-style attempt to garner attention by offering some vague preconception of depth and symbolism.

Now, before you ask (or download it, God save you), it is obvious that the game falls squarely in the latter of these two possibilities. The gameplay is non-existant outside of jumping over a few pits and land mines. You get guns, but there are no targets besides doors and three potential victims, only one of which tries to fight back. The subject matter is handled without subtlety or class, and the dialogue is pointless - not one single line seems to serve a purpose outside of advancing the 'plot' along. I say plot because I hesitate to call what this game offers a story.

And yet it still won TIG's contest. (see here: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=7775.0)

Now, the main point of my rambling, and it is very relevant to RM* because we have had games like this released:

Why does shit like this fly with people? Are people really so desperate to offer depth and meaning in their game stories that they fall to this base level of sick shit, and are we (the players, in general) not fools for failing to notice it? The game tries to appear as if it has something meaningful to say with its split-personality story, vague allusions to Vietnam and grayscale sprites that is reminiscent of something like film noir, but in reality it feels like it was made by some high schooler that laughs at tasteless rape jokes. It is like asking the player to not laugh at Satan's wildly swinging dong in Dante's Inferno or something. It just doesn't work, and you can tell it doesn't if you just look a little.

I am of the opinion that you must approach controversial subject matter with great tact if you want it to be taken seriously. If you want to make your story about rape, racism, religion, war and death believable and strong you absolutely cannot handle the material like a blunt instrument - it must be handled with precision and care. And you certainly can't shove this crap down a reasonable person's mouth and expect them to chew until you have given them a legitimate reason to care about what you are trying to say - if they accept otherwise, they are cattle, and cattle will eat anything.

Or maybe I am wrong about all of this and I am just being a cynical asshole. Not going to discount that possibility, either.

Your thoughts?

P.S: Here's the link for Edmund, if you guys are just that morbidly curious: http://www.paul-greasley.com/Edmund/edmund.zip

Hey jerks. Want to know what's better than using the forums? Using IRC.

Yeah, you know where you can actually talk to people in real-time?

Well, in case you are a total failure at things like downloading and installing software, and breathing, here is a quick and simple guide to getting your ass into #rpgmaker.net using Mibbit, a neat little online IRC service.



How to get on #rpgmaker.net and become an internet superstar

Type 'mibbit.com' into your address box. I have tried Mibbit on a few different browsers (namely, Firefox and IE), but if it doesn't work, either update or change your browser. You should get the screen below:





Click on the 'Start chatting now' button. This page should come up:





Click on the drop-down menu next to the 'IRC:' text...





Drag down to SynIRC (webirc) and select it. This is the server the #rpgmaker.net channel is on. If you try to enter the channel name on another server you might...somehow...find people there, but they won't be us. =p





Now that that's done...click the text entry field next to 'Nick'...





...And type in the user name you desire. If the nick is registered (i.e. taken) you will swiftly get a prompt saying that if you do not enter a password your name will be forcibly changed, upon entering the server. There's a process for registering nicks and such, but that is outside of the confines of this tutorial. Let's focus on getting you on first.





Type #rpgmaker.net in the text entry field next to 'Channel'. This is the channel where you can talk to us. We will make your dreams come true. After that's entered, just press the 'Go' button!





You will immediately get two tabs beside the 'Home' tab. This one below is full of gibberish, most of which you will not understand.





The second tab, #rpgmaker.net, is where you can talk to us, though.





Did you guys know I could see the future?





And that's my guide for getting on IRC using Mibbit. Seriously, if you guys can't get on using this, you are hopeless!

...Or you just don't want to talk to us.

You want to talk to us, right?

...Right!?



p.s. if you want to change your nick, type in (/nick 'enter name here') without the parentheses or emphases.

p.s.s. closing your browser window will close Mibbit, obviously. So don't do that.

p.s.s.s if you want to try downloading and installing IRC software, try these:

For PC:
mIRC: http://www.mirc.com/
HydraIRC: http://www.hydrairc.com/

For Mac:
Colloquy: http://colloquy.info/

Generally speaking, these programs will be fairly similar to Mibbit - you just need to obtain the software. The process for entering #rpgmaker.net should be very similar between all of them. All listed IRC software is also free of charge.

Yeah, probably not daily but I'll try to keep this updated.



5-10 minutes for the ones on the right/center. A bit longer for the one on the left. No reference was used. The aim was for speed over accuracy so they are probably far from perfect.

Cartoonier sketches. Time taken above their heads. =)

Figure I should start getting on the ball again. What better way than to post my art on the forum no one reads? =)


June 25
Doomhamburgerbot
It's geodude's fault. :>



June 26
Bikini babe and loli-bot
Why is loli-bot angry at the bikini babe? Is it because she's in her way? Is she offended by her showing off too much skin? Or maybe...just maybe...she's jealous of her assets? No one knows!