This week, William explains the economic intelligence of gendered product design, and we all die a little inside. After that, we talk video games, comics, and superhero movies. Of course. Enjoy!
QUESTIONS:
Dudes, When playing RPG-esque games on PC or console and there’s crafting… (Survival in Fallout NV, cooking in Skyrim)… Do you bother? What’s your favorite if so? — Bloodsparrow
Superheroes are popular but have they jumped the shark yet and what genre do you think will replace them?
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I just recently started playing WoW again after a long time away and am reminded how much I like the professions. I names for the cooking recipes often make me want to really make them–though a bit tough for a vegetarian as they’re all meat/fish based. When I was playing before, a friend and I thought about writing a cookbook (which I’m sure someone has done by now). Like Tony, I really like tailoring–and especially the tailoring/enchanting combo.
There’s a new profession now that everyone can get called archaeology. You find shards of things in the world, you put them together, and then you can keep track of them/analyse them in a journal. And one reward this gets you is that you can read various runes in the world which fill in more of the storyline, and, when you’re doing a dungeon, can get you extra buffs.
One thing in WoW that I experience somewhat as if it’s real life is swimming. If it’s really hot (it was 90+ here yesterday) and I wind up swimming in the game, I feel some kind of “cooling” effect.
I agree about Urban Fantasy. You guys know Constantine’s going to be on TV in the Fall, right?
Disappointed to hear Three Musketeers wasn’t that good. I’ll probably try anyway. I really liked Merlin except the Morgana character made little sense to me after a while.
9/11 effects in pop culture>>>superhero stories, apocalypse stories, zombie stories
Apocalypse stories–I’m really looking forward to “Snowpiercer.”
Marvel definitely benefits from diversity of creators. I think all the DC stuff coming up is going to be Zack Snyder, so you can just write that off for the future.
Oops, that second sentence should say “The names” not “I names.”
Batman: the animated series is great. Batman Beyond I never really watched but did watch most of Teen Titans (note, do not watch the new Teen Titans, Go–it is horrible) which is also a Glen Murakami work. Some of it was, eh, but the Raven arc about her origin was excellent, and Robin’s arc with Slade.
I agree on Dresden. I have gone back and listened to the first books again and they are… not great. At the time I thought they were passable and kept plugging away, now going back its amazing I kept reading. I won’t say they are bad, just not what I have now come to expect from Jim Butcher. I read somewhere once that Storm Front was written in a writing class and as such was crap by his own admission.
Yeah from what I’ve heard Storm Front was written for a class and therefore had to fit in all the genre expectations while also trying to be original which is why there’s such a mash up of ideas. Also it was written 14 years ago now, so he’s had plenty of time to improve.
Carpet & Drapes: Ah but do they match naturally or did you color die one of them?
Green Lantern Movie: Yup, it sucked. I had little/no hope for it after seeing the trailers but watched it at our anyway. Even with my low expectations; I was still disappointed.
Gender Binary Industrial Complex: I don’t know if that’s entirely true, but I’d wager it vastly easier for companies to market a product at specific demographics (gender, age, socio-economic).
BBC Musketeers: I recently saw the discs for this in stores and was vaguely interested. I’m hoping it will hit Netflix streaming so I can check it out for cheap. Especially given that it looked only mediocre when I looked at the packaging.
Skin Game: I’m glad to hear that you liked it; I’ve got the dead-tree edition here but have yet to start it. Part of the reason I’ve not started the latest book is I’m contemplating rereading the entire series but haven’t made up my mind on doing so yet.
The Magical Talking Hat Videos: I’ve got these all in my “Watch Later” queue and plan on giving them a look after I get caught up on the audio podcast… this might take a while.
Crafting in RPGs: Depends on the game, in Skyrim, I had great fun with blacksmithing; while in FNV I hated crafting.
Superhero genre: They’ve not jumped the shark yet, but are likely to in the next 5 years I’d guess.
Marvel vs. DC movies: Marvel understands that people want FUN and the best people to make that happy are fans of the properties. DC keep hiring people who don’t care for the properties to make their movies; this means their movies suck and will continue to suck.