Biggs' Zone

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

Tag: Star Wars Page 42 of 45

Why So Much Ewok Hate?

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On July 3, 2013

In Geek Canon, General Cogitation, Star Wars

tumblr_static_7I’ve been a fan of the Star Wars franchise since I was 10 years old. I’ll always love the original trilogy first but I honestly don’t mind the prequels. I get the fact that there are some folks (so-called “fans”) that don’t like the prequel movies, but hey that’s their deal. The Empire Strikes Back is by far my favorite of the six but I had no idea that people hated Ewoks so much.

Again, I don’t mind the Ewoks. I thought it was great when 3PO stood up and they all freaked out and started bowing to him as if he were some kind of god; that was awesome. I suppose I get that people have a hard time swallowing the fact that all the power and might of the Empire was thwarted by fuzzy creatures using sticks and stones, but I think that’s the point. I think its the dichotomy of the two sides that makes the fight interesting and entertaining. The Empire’s overconfidence in their advanced technology was the character flaw and thus why the Ewoks were successful in their assault.

An arrogant enemy isn’t always a victorious enemy.

I liked the Ewoks. I’ll take a thousand Ewoks over one Jar-Jar any day! So why is there so much Ewok hate?? (oh, and the other thing that makes Return of the Jedi great … Speeder Bikes … I want one!)

Biggs On: Star Wars vs Star Trek

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On April 6, 2013

In Biggs On, General Cogitation

Star-Trek-Enterprise-vs-Star-WarsOne of the biggest causes of nerd quarrels is the debate about which franchise is better; Star Wars or Star Trek. While from a fictional perspective these two are vastly different, they do have at least one thing in common. You can not deny that both have extremely loyal fans (some probably border on creepy). Personally, I’m probably a Star Wars nerd and a Star Trek fan.

I’ve loved the Star Wars movies (all of them) since the first time that I saw them. I’ve seen the movies enough times that I can probably recite just about every line. I’ve purchased a years wages worth of collectibles. I’m probably borderline obsessive. The amount of useless minutia I know about the Star Wars movies and universe would paint me in a pretty pathetic light, whereas what I know about the Star Trek movies probably isn’t any more then what I might know about any other movie.

There is no doubt that I do love Star Wars far more than Star Trek and while I will defend the former as the better franchise I admit there is something the Star Trek universe is far better at. The stars from the popular movies and TV series are probably some of the most sociable celebrities on the Internet. You can expect a joke or witty post from George Takei on a fairly regular basis on Facebook. You will see tweets from William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Brent Spiner, Jeri Ryan, and more quite frequently. These folks are often the highlight of my day.

I have to admit, these folks really give the Star Trek name a sense of community. I really wish the Star Wars fans had the same kind of extraordinary ambassadors. Most of the time Star Wars fans are bashing George Lucas (who, despite his faults, is responsible for creating the films and they wouldn’t exist without him) or criticizing one another because they did, or did not, like the prequels.

We definitely need more Shatner’s, Takei’s, Ryan’s, Nimoy’s, Wheatons, etc who are not afraid to connect with their fans. These folks were already icons but by sharing their nerdy enthusiasm I think it further enriches the community. My only ask of these wonderful people is that they never stop what they are doing both socially and professionally. All of you, even those I failed to mention, enrich our culture and our lives.

If Mr. Nimoy would allow me a small liberty I bestow the appropriate blessing, with all sincerity, to “Live Long and Prosper”.

Mickey Mouse is Dead to Me!

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On April 3, 2013

In Fulmination, Soapbox

mickey-mouse-dead-mouse-trap-disneyI started by giving Disney the benefit of the doubt when we all heard about its acquisition of everything Star Wars. The latest news has me wondering if my trust was misplaced.

If you haven’t heard yet, Disney is shutting down the LucasArts division, thereby throwing 150 programmers into unemployment. If that wasn’t tragic enough, all those great Star Wars titles are now a thing of the past, any projects that were in the works (ex: Star Wars 1313) has been canceled, and it leaves me wondering what will happen to existing titles that relied on the LucasArts backing?

This isn’t the first victim of Disney’s chopping block; remember they are ending the Clone Wars series. It’s ironic that the company that is responsible for creating childhood memories, is slowly dismantling mine! I’m now legitimately concerned about SWTOR because I was just starting to get back into that game. The Clone Wars series was highly successful so obviously how well a product is doing doesn’t mean its safe from Disney executives. The tumultuous start of SWTOR might be a blemish Disney doesn’t want to salvage especially now that LucasArts is gone.

I’m angry that all those programmers that developed so many great titles are just cast aside like dirty laundry. I certainly hope it was an issue of redundancy that often accompanies the purchase of another large corporation. As far as the titles are concerned I hope that Disney will absorb them into their collective of video game media and try to keep those titles alive and functioning.

Disney is doing the gamer and Star Wars community a huge disservice. I hope they plan to make it up to all of us but it damn well better be something extraordinary! Something akin to the invention of Mountain Dew and Cheetos!

/end rant

Biggs’ Cinema Scoop: First!

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On March 6, 2013

In Cinema Scoop, Movies

at_the_movies(New category of Biggs cortical cogitations – in these posts I am going to talk about some of the latest noteworthy minutiae in cinema. Movies are my second favorite pastime. I love the movie making process from acting to lighting, special effects, soundtrack and cinematography. If you like movies, I hope you find these tidbits interesting as well.)

First!

This is going to be the most difficult post I think because there is so much movie news I’ve been reading that I don’t know what I want to talk about. I know that if I try to cram it all into a post I will bore you all to tears! I don’t want to do that, I want you to be interested enough to read everything and to come back and read future posts. I will try to limit it to only the most recent movie news I’ve heard.

Angelina Jolie Probably Not Lara Croft in Reboot – The rumor mill has churned out another tidbit; there is going to be a Tomb Raider reboot and it doesn’t look like Lara Croft will be reprized by Angelina Jolie. The producers want a younger Lara Croft and while I thought Jolie fit the profile, I think if they pick the right person I don’t see a problem. Many didn’t like the original movies so perhaps a reboot will be better, it worked a little bit for the Hulk movie (the one starring Eric Bana).

Christian Bale reprising Batman – No, this isn’t going to be another movie in the Dark Knight series. I believe its been confirmed that he will be playing Batman in the upcoming Justice League movie opposite Henry Cavill as Superman. Of all the actor’s that portrayed Batman (excluding Adam West because he’s in a class all his own) I’d say Christian Bale is probably my favorite if not tied with Michael Keaton. As long as the Justice League movie is done right, this will be awesome.

Hamill, Ford & Fisher Confirmed for Next Star Wars Film – Don’t get your Star Wars dungarees in a bunch, they won’t be the main characters of the next film. While nobody has officially confirmed anything, my belief is that they will play secondary roles. In fact the story of Episode VII will probably be focused on Han and Leia’s kids and, in my opinion, it makes sense that Fisher and Ford return to portray the parents, and Hamill as the Obi-Wan-like uncle to provide continuity with the previous films.

Harrison Ford Is Kind of a Big Deal! – Speaking of Harrison Ford, it looks like he has been cast to appear in the Anchorman sequel. I. Think. That’s. Awesome! I wonder if he is going to play the rival anchorman, which I heard was the plot of the sequel. I may be risking my man-card here, but I really liked him in the movie Morning Glory as the gruff, hard-nosed and washed-up news anchor forced to pander to a more lighthearted audience. “A hot pan makes the eggs fluffy.”

All right, folks, I’m going to stop there. Again I don’t want to overwhelm you with too much movie gossip. I hope to be able to keep doing this post so I would really appreciate some feedback.

SWTOR: Gonna Try It Again

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On February 9, 2013

In Gaming, MMORPG, SWTOR

old_republic_iconWell, I’ve decided to give SWTOR another try on the Free-2-Play mode. I am going to try to see if I can get use to all the things that my level 50s are restricted by because of the change to the F2P model. I keep reading everywhere that the SWTOR move to F2P has been a huge success so I guess that means that some of the changes I had hoped they would make are probably not going to happen (ex. allowing us to unlock wallet size and increased commendation count).

It is nice that, as a preferred status member, I can still create up to 6 toons, which means I have 2 open slots still available. I still earn 100 cartel coins a month so I can also slowly unlock the other features though I know I will have to wait a while on some of the nicer items (such as the ability to equip artifact gear). It is also kind of a bummer that I can’t access the new HK-51 questline unless I spend 500-1200 cartel coins to unlock it.

So at level 50 I still feel pretty restricted but I do have two toons that I can level and I can always start fresh with two more toons. As I’ve said in the past, perhaps starting over might be a way for me to get use to the F2P changes/restrictions.

SWTOR: The Free-2-Play Option

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On November 19, 2012

In SWTOR

It has been a while since I have posted about SWTOR. The primary reason, and this may come as a shock, is that I haven’t had an active account. I still love the game but it was fiscal reasons that I had to shut down the account and nothing to do with the immense scrutiny the game has been under since its launch. When the game became free-2-play, of course I was going to log in and see what is different.

I was elated to see that I can still play both of my level 50 characters. While Free-2-Play restricts players to only 2 character slots, if you have more characters created, and of races that are not part of the F2P, you can still play those toons, you just can’t create any more. For example I have two level 50 characters, a level 39 and a level 14. All four toons are available for me to play and all four are races that are not unlocked for Free-2-Play. Additional character slots and races cannot be unlocked using Cartel Coins.

The one thing I think the developers succeeded in doing was enticing the player to want to purchase either a subscription or the Cartel Coins because they have locked down quite a bit of features. If you are someone coming to the Free-2-Play option from having played as a subscriber you are going to really feel the restrictions. In fact I think I am leaning toward renewing for a month to unlock all the Cartel Coins I have earned so I can unlock more features.

What will probably bother me the most about the Free-2-Play is the caps on credits and Flashpoint commendations. I think this was something that Bioware said under their breath. Folks were probably more focused on when the game will be free-2-play and crying about locked action bars (which really isn’t that big of a deal because they can be unlocked very easily, a mere $5). Your credits are capped at 350,000 which is enough to get you level 50 speeders but you will not be able to buy any of the larger mounts (such as the land speeder that ranges somewhere around 2 million to 2.5 million credits). Also, all your Flashpoint commendations (ex: Tionese, Columni, etc) are capped at 40 and your Tionese Crystals are capped at 100. Neither of these caps can be unlocked with Cartel Coins (for now).

I am honestly worried about the future of this game, now. I really enjoy it but I think people are going to be just too put off by what things Bioware has locked down. Knowing Bioware’s slow response time to some of these concerns I don’t think they will make the appropriate adjustments in time to save face. As a programmer I understand that a company needs to make money on their titles, after all a programmer’s gotta eat. I am worried though that some of the items that you cannot unlock may drive players away.

I hope I am proven wrong.

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