SHADOWTEXT'S PROFILE

I'd just like to add TileStudio, for cheap digital artists working on 2D game resources like tiles and sprites. Sovan turned me onto this one and it's just the best I've used.

http://tilestudio.sourceforge.net/

I tend to feel that the best names are the ones believable as existing in the real world, or esoteric names that really do exist in the real world....Ezra's a pretty good one. There are real people named Ezra, some of whom are even historically significant, and it doesn't come off like a contrived, tortured fantasy-style name that I see too many people do. I blame Tolkien.

Even using fairly normal human names is fine, but too mundane can break a player's suspension of disbelief.

I'm kind of fond of androgynous names, and giving people names that are usually wrong for their gender. It's not something I'd suggest as "advice" for other people to use when coming up with names, just a personal observation for the names I find most amusing to give characters lately. So it's purely an element of my personal style.

I agree that names are important, but there's no hard and fast rule about finding good ones I think. I think one of the most important points is imagining having a conversation with someone with that name, and whether you would be able to take them seriously....and how you would choose to shorten it if you became casual with them, if it's not already fairly short. It's an important aspect of the social dynamic that gets overlooked a lot--generally the only characters you see using pet names are the overly energetic, goofy characters, but in real life they tend to be common to whole social circles, at least.

author=narcodis link=topic=1618.msg25635#msg25635 date=1217310350
I remember touching on this subject in a philosophy class I took a few years back. It's basically the "red pill / blue pill" question from the Matrix. Do you want to live your life in an ignorant happiness, or seek the truth for yourself?


We were given a question to discuss as a class. Suppose there is a machine, and this machine, when you are hooked up to it, will suspend you in a state of infinite bliss. You never feel unhappy. You never feel without pleasure. You never feel bored. You never feel sad, lonely, angry, or afraid. You are always happy and content when in this machine.
If you were told you could enter this machine, but never come back out, would you do it?

The general consensus was "I would, if I wasn't made aware of exactly what it did."

It seems awareness really is the key. You can be blissfully ignorant your entire life, until you're made aware of how ignorant you are. You dig?

Would this be a Lotus Eater Machine by any chance?

But yeah, pleasure without pain just doesn't work. The only way you can define that as not being boring is to assume the suspension of consciousness and individuality. Essentially, it would mean death, in the sense that the person you used to be no longer exists.

And at that, I don't think that knowing something is an illusion makes you unable to enjoy it. Humans have a very powerful ability to suspend their disbelief; it's a required component of any form of fiction. If we can appreciate movies, books, video games, what have you, we should be able to appreciate a more permenant illusion.

I think this whole discussion can more simply be boiled down to this question:

"In Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, was Marshe the hero, or the villain?"

That depends on if you guys are going to be available this weekend.

author=Enker link=topic=1558.msg25193#msg25193 date=1216979652
it's a shame, because this would be a really good look for their RPG franchise if it were an elseworlds approach. Making it a cannon entry seems worrying though.

It's not a canon entry. It's part of the same series as Sonic and the Secret Rings, where Sonic's basically in a bunch of storybooks.

So, like you said, Elseworlds.