Quiconque

Text search functions: I think my feelings on these are well-known. Dead trees: Uh. Uhm. Well, I mean, you can do some pretty great things with their corpses, but I'm not sure that improves my opinion of trees being dead per se. Stairs with uneven steps: I've been trying to think of any time I've encountered this, and I can't think of any. This doesn't seem like it should be that hard to find, and yet... am I crazy? Vancian magic: It's hard to get more arcane than this. I support it on that account. Public libraries: A wonderful thing on so many levels. The Mary Tyler Moore Show: As mainstream sitcoms go, there aren't many that are so good on the details. Also, I mean, Ed Asner, come on. Your favorite nonfiction book: I'll rank this one, but it's remaining unidentified, because it's esoteric enough to be potentially personally identifying. Your least favorite bug: Wasps. They're so big! It's just creepy how big they are. The White Rabbit: Gets more appealing with each new adaptation, but in the original, it's hard to feel great about this guy. The March Hare: Equally crazy each time -- in a pretty generic way. The Jackalope: How in the world did we go from coming up with chimeras and hippogriffs to jackalopes and ligers? Yeesh. The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog: Vorpal bunny FTW. The Easter Bunny: Yet another patronizing, paternal, panoptical icon stuck on a holiday. The Harehunter: Per earlier statement, I am not including any members on the list. Dogs Square One Television Alphabets A nonfiction book (identity redacted) Subtle, tasteful symbolism Chrono Trigger Cyberpunk Bilbo Baggins Waving Hands Titus Andronicus Hamlet Lord of the Rings "Zombie" (Cranberries song) Pet Sounds "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" Spirited Away Cait Sith Exile II: Crystal Souls Nethergate Billie Holiday "Nephil's Gambit" Kierkegaard Gilgamesh Slartibartfast The Tarot Deck Madeline Kahn Hades Storm (X-Men) Hugs The deck of many things Seinfeld Egizia Coffee Public libraries Thai food Croissants Les Misérables (novel) Text search functions Bossa nova Disco Jiji (character) Mice Upton Sinclair History File compression Sliced bread Bagels Subways (transit) Sailor Moon (first anime) Marie Curie Medusa P-zombies Ducks Deontology Willow Rosenberg Prossis-Bok Working out Russian literature Simon & Garfunkel Nina Simone Sea slugs Samuel Clemens Ninjas Circular saws Jiji (in Nikki's lap) Inanna Ziggurats Reality TV AD&D 2nd Edition Maggie Simpson Shamhat Ghosts Frankenstein (novel) Tiki drinks Snakebird Ice cream Vancian magic Utnapishtim Juvenalian satire 70's cars Georg Cantor Shanti AD&D 1st Edition w/ UA —Alorael C++ Good grammar Macbeth Cor Blok's Tolkien art Bacon Falafel Fall Black Panther Party Henry Wallace OK Computer Catharism Cookie Monster Minotaur (Knossos) Zombies (necromantic) Romeo and Juliet The Northern Lights The Mary Tyler Moore Show Speedy Gonzales screenshot Saunas Vinyl records Trumpets Chainsaws Linux Sans serif fonts The aesthetic qualities of the Greek alphabet The Queen is Dead Schuyler Colfax Gargoyles Roguelikes Chess Geneforge 1 Lady Gaga Video games Super Mario series Lawsuits Wine A Midsummer Night's Dream Robert Heinlein Heracles Jeff Vogel Ravens Smartphones Whiskey Hydra (Lernaean) Heathers Xanth series Isaac Asimov The Evil Overlord List Arthur C. Clarke Match Game Liches Exile III: Ruined World The Cranberries (band) Bartenders Forum lurkers Black Panther (character) Sock puppets The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog Flamingos Cluny the Scourge The Chronicles of Narnia "Mr. Green Genes" Muppet Babies Paul Simon Penguins TLC Rhinos Civilization (human phenomenon) Beer Frodo Baggins Mexican food Bob Dylan Richard Garfield Ontology Chimera (Lycian) Science museums Achilles Ella Fitzgerald Pelicans BitTorrent Nevermind Tom Waits 70's prog Sliths Rats Avernum II: Crystal Souls Slarty Ranks Everything Ranking lists "...Gottfried Reads Fifty Shades..." Heavy-handed symbolism Princess Peach Elephants Donuts Cats Trombones The Muppets The Eiffel Tower Solidarność screenshot Civ II Helen of Troy Zorro Revolutions Casablanca Avadon series Goldfish (snack) Gilbert Gottfried Football (American) Nephils Star Wars original trilogy James Garfield Jury nullification Avernum 4 Batman Cinnamon rolls Hubble space telescope History museums Pegasus 2001: A Space Odyssey The Beatles Aretha Franklin Homestar Runner They Might Be Giants Sherlock Holmes Tennis Posting games Inspector Peanut Subinfeudation Solitaire Werewolves The Big Lebowski Nelson Rockefeller Goldfish (fish) Art museums King Arthur The aesthetic qualities of the Hebrew alphabet Zeus Windows 3.1 Summer Carmen McRae Richard Cheese Bark spider Spiders Mummies Dolphins Metahumor Nixon's foreign policy Sparkling water Grant Wood Paprika Spam (meat) Cabaret (film) Harry Potter series Peanuts The White Rabbit Standard playing cards Norman Rockwell The electoral college Nick Cave MMORPGs Table saws Horatian satire "This is a Trent Reznor Song" Google Odysseus Xian Skull (item) Spam (e-mails) Running Dead trees Puggsy Checkers Facebook Runtz Pineapple pizza The LP rendition of Slarty's voice Gilmore Girls Hockey Wheel of Time series George Clooney Film noir Abugidas Vitamin C supplements Twelfth Night Blazing Saddles Louis Armstrong Discarded chewing gum Art Garfunkel The Trojan Horse 70's movies New York City Abjads "Lackadaisical" The March Hare Dick van Dyke's accent as Bert "Mr. Tambourine Man" The Matrix GIFTs (Spiderweb) Godwin's Law Poseidon The aesthetic qualities of hierogylphics Russian Bimetallism Beowulf (character) Angry Birds Alf screenshot Jackalopes Pyramids with eyes on them Centaurs Moderate rain all day Korean food Microsoft Phantom stair step (bottom) Word Rescue Elvis Presley Minecraft Galactic Core Bumper stickers Novelty mugs Apple Ferris wheels Mechanical pencils Vultures John Wayne Amazon The post that asks me to rank itself Virtue ethics Roller skates Greek yogurt KISS (principle) Agamemnon Salty liquorice Westerns Friends Getting a triple word score in Scrabble Phantom stair step (top) Turkey/cat video Dieselpunk Life of Brian AOL ELIZA Zombies (infectious) 80's fashion KISS Hipgnosis Expensive wristwatches Salt lamps Cologne My Little Pony Whaling Rudyard Kipling The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom The War on Drugs (band) Queen (band) Fifty Shades of Grey Jane Austen books The Byzantine Empire The Let's Play series Stubbing your big toe Basketball Baseball "Acceptable in the 80's" (song) Halloween Bertrand Russell Cats (musical) Stubbing your little toe Pirates Elfpunk Ennui Charles Dickens "Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros" (song) Hercule Poirot The Easter Bunny Ferrets Soccer Robin Hood (character) Star Wars prequel trilogy Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas the Tank Engine Freefall (webcomic) "2500 things Mr. Welch..." Fedoras Johnny Cash Deconstructivism The Microsoft Office Assistant Steampunk Cyclops (X-Men) Kitten/rat box Athena John Calhoun (politician) Mr. Toad of Toad Hall The Xavier Files BGG Top 10 Ethical intuitionism Sock puppets (fake accounts) Birthdays The Barber Paradox Turnips Anchovy pizza Wasps U2 Wings (band) Fictional names that use a lot of apostrophes Twilight Saga Deconstructionism Final Fantasy VIII "Stuff from the 90's!" (song) The Olympics The Big Bang Theory (TV show) Consequentialism The Crusades King Leopold Handlebar mustaches (i.e., thin and spindly ends)

There are definitely implications of extradimensionality, but it is quite clear that demons (including haakai) were in Avernum before the First Expedition. Sss-Thoss and Sss-Thsss didn't have any humans to fight until then, so while I guess they could have done a bunch of summoning, I'm not sure it seems more likely than "these caves are deep and hot and have lava and are just a place demons like to hang out." There are also demons on the surface, demons in the Vahnatai caves, demons Motrax fought, the Shareware Demon... demons just sort of seem like a fact of life.

I'm going to skip past the arguing here (summary: some of your points are reasonable but you sound like a jerk) and just ask: what are the three games you've done UI for? Also, by "done UI" do you mean you designed it, coded it, created the graphics for it, or all of the above?

https://twitter.com/DanielStrauss4/status/245334369538039808

Discarded chewing gum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVI712f93RQ Your favorite brass instrument: Trumpet, when used mildly and tricksily, as in https://youtu.be/MnpP8sdPVHM?t=1m19s Dick van Dyke's accent in Mary Poppins: Oh dear. Ferris wheels: Pointless on multiple levels, literally. Heathers: So bad. So good. Your favorite superhero: I'll limit these to relatively well-known characters, to save myself a tricky task. That means I'm going here with Storm; and while I admit that some of the reason for this comes from Iona Morris' voice acting on the animated series, I find plenty to appreciate in the nature of her powers, her weaknesses, and her ethics. Your least favorite superhero: Appriopriately -- and I did not realize this would be the case till I'd chosen it -- I'll go here with the one leader of the X-Men who predates Storm: Cyclops. An arrogant, inflexible dudebro-in-denial. C Auguste Dupin: Haven't read. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: Huh, this sounds like, really, not the best rebel nation ever. Kim Stanley Robinson: Haven't read. Ferrets: Oof, I have some bad memories here. Match Game: Funnier that it probably deserves to be, and has led to some great parodies. Forum Lurkers: I think I support lurkers. Your favorite subject in school: Let's say history. Your favorite season (of the year): Fall Your least favorite season: This is a harder call. Your favorite cuisine: Thai food. Your least favorite cuisine: The ubiquity of kimchi beats out borscht and pushes me to say Korean, here. Dogs Square One Television Alphabets Subtle, tasteful symbolism Chrono Trigger Cyberpunk Bilbo Baggins Waving Hands Titus Andronicus Hamlet Lord of the Rings "Zombie" (Cranberries song) Pet Sounds "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" Spirited Away Cait Sith Exile II: Crystal Souls Nethergate Billie Holiday "Nephil's Gambit" Kierkegaard Gilgamesh Slartibartfast The Tarot Deck Madeline Kahn Hades Storm (X-Men) Hugs The deck of many things Seinfeld Egizia Coffee Thai food Croissants Les Misérables (novel) Bossa nova Disco Jiji (character) Mice Upton Sinclair History File compression Sliced bread Bagels Subways (transit) Sailor Moon (first anime) Marie Curie Medusa P-zombies Ducks Deontology Willow Rosenberg Prossis-Bok Working out Russian literature Simon & Garfunkel Nina Simone Sea slugs Samuel Clemens Ninjas Circular saws Jiji (in Nikki's lap) Inanna Ziggurats Reality TV AD&D 2nd Edition Maggie Simpson Shamhat Ghosts Frankenstein (novel) Tiki drinks Snakebird Ice cream Utnapishtim Juvenalian satire 70's cars Georg Cantor Shanti AD&D 1st Edition w/ UA —Alorael C++ Good grammar Macbeth Cor Blok's Tolkien art Bacon Falafel Fall Black Panther Party Henry Wallace OK Computer Catharism Cookie Monster Minotaur (Knossos) Zombies (necromantic) Romeo and Juliet The Northern Lights Speedy Gonzales screenshot Saunas Vinyl records Trumpets Chainsaws Linux Sans serif fonts The aesthetic qualities of the Greek alphabet The Queen is Dead Schuyler Colfax Gargoyles Roguelikes Chess Geneforge 1 Lady Gaga Video games Super Mario series Lawsuits Wine A Midsummer Night's Dream Robert Heinlein Heracles Jeff Vogel Ravens Smartphones Whiskey Hydra (Lernaean) Heathers Xanth series Isaac Asimov The Evil Overlord List Arthur C. Clarke Match Game Liches Exile III: Ruined World The Cranberries (band) Bartenders Forum lurkers Black Panther (character) Sock puppets Flamingos Cluny the Scourge The Chronicles of Narnia "Mr. Green Genes" Muppet Babies Paul Simon Penguins TLC Rhinos Civilization (human phenomenon) Beer Frodo Baggins Mexican food Bob Dylan Richard Garfield Ontology Chimera (Lycian) Science museums Achilles Ella Fitzgerald Pelicans BitTorrent Nevermind Tom Waits 70's prog Sliths Rats Avernum II: Crystal Souls Slarty Ranks Everything Ranking lists "...Gottfried Reads Fifty Shades..." Heavy-handed symbolism Princess Peach Elephants Donuts Cats Trombones The Muppets The Eiffel Tower Solidarność screenshot Civ II Helen of Troy Zorro Revolutions Casablanca Avadon series Goldfish (snack) Gilbert Gottfried Football (American) Nephils Star Wars original trilogy James Garfield Jury nullification Avernum 4 Batman Cinnamon rolls Hubble space telescope History museums Pegasus 2001: A Space Odyssey The Beatles Aretha Franklin Homestar Runner They Might Be Giants Sherlock Holmes Tennis Posting games Inspector Peanut Subinfeudation Solitaire Werewolves The Big Lebowski Nelson Rockefeller Goldfish (fish) Art museums King Arthur The aesthetic qualities of the Hebrew alphabet Zeus Windows 3.1 Summer Carmen McRae Richard Cheese Bark spider Spiders Mummies Dolphins Metahumor Nixon's foreign policy Sparkling water Grant Wood Paprika Spam (meat) Cabaret (film) Harry Potter series Peanuts Standard playing cards Norman Rockwell The electoral college Nick Cave MMORPGs Table saws Horatian satire "This is a Trent Reznor Song" Google Odysseus Xian Skull (item) Spam (e-mails) Running Puggsy Checkers Facebook Runtz Pineapple pizza The LP rendition of Slarty's voice Gilmore Girls Hockey Wheel of Time series George Clooney Film noir Abugidas Vitamin C supplements Twelfth Night Blazing Saddles Louis Armstrong Discarded chewing gum Art Garfunkel The Trojan Horse 70's movies New York City Abjads "Lackadaisical" Dick van Dyke's accent as Bert "Mr. Tambourine Man" The Matrix GIFTs (Spiderweb) Godwin's Law Poseidon The aesthetic qualities of hierogylphics Russian Bimetallism Beowulf (character) Angry Birds Alf screenshot Pyramids with eyes on them Centaurs Moderate rain all day Korean food Microsoft Phantom stair step (bottom) Word Rescue Elvis Presley Minecraft Galactic Core Bumper stickers Novelty mugs Apple Ferris wheels Mechanical pencils Vultures John Wayne Amazon The post that asks me to rank itself Virtue ethics Roller skates Greek yogurt KISS (principle) Agamemnon Salty liquorice Westerns Friends Getting a triple word score in Scrabble Phantom stair step (top) Turkey/cat video Dieselpunk Life of Brian AOL ELIZA Zombies (infectious) 80's fashion KISS Hipgnosis Expensive wristwatches Salt lamps Cologne My Little Pony Whaling Rudyard Kipling The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom The War on Drugs (band) Queen (band) Fifty Shades of Grey Jane Austen books The Byzantine Empire The Let's Play series Stubbing your big toe Basketball Baseball "Acceptable in the 80's" (song) Halloween Bertrand Russell Cats (musical) Stubbing your little toe Pirates Elfpunk Ennui Charles Dickens "Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros" (song) Hercule Poirot Ferrets Soccer Robin Hood (character) Star Wars prequel trilogy Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas the Tank Engine Freefall (webcomic) "2500 things Mr. Welch..." Fedoras Johnny Cash Deconstructivism The Microsoft Office Assistant Steampunk Cyclops (X-Men) Kitten/rat box Athena John Calhoun (politician) Mr. Toad of Toad Hall The Xavier Files BGG Top 10 Ethical intuitionism Sock puppets (fake accounts) Birthdays The Barber Paradox Turnips Anchovy pizza U2 Wings (band) Fictional names that use a lot of apostrophes Twilight Saga Deconstructionism Final Fantasy VIII "Stuff from the 90's!" (song) The Olympics The Big Bang Theory (TV show) Consequentialism The Crusades King Leopold Handlebar mustaches (i.e., thin and spindly ends)

In an attempt to get more strong reactions and fewer "eh"s, I propose including more items of the style of "your favourite ___" and "your least favourite ___". But I'll still accept whatever. ----- Did you rank the 7 dwarves yet? No, and I'm not going to, although it probably wouldn't be hard to guess which one I like best Arsène Lupin: No knowledge. A. J. Raffles: No knowledge. Zorro: Mixed feelings. He provides a sturdy archetype. Ultimately I prefer Cyrano. Sherlock Holmes: Full of wonderful details, but thin, for my taste, on personal involvement and motivation. Hercule Poirot: I agree with Agatha Christie that Poirot is a "detestable, bombastic, tiresome, ego-centric little creep". I also dislike the number of ridiculous leaps of reasoning that he tends to employ in his work. Batman: Not my favourite hero. I appreciate the depth of the atmosphere that surrounds him. I don't love the hyper-masculine I-don't-have-any-special-powers wish-fulfillment element it's taken on. But I suppose you can take Batman in a lot of different directions. "The night is dark and cold. In the dark, the lights of Gotham try to provide some comfort. Some hope in the darkness. The lights of the theater were burning brightly, Zorro’s theme playing through my head. My heart wouldn’t slow down. It couldn’t. I didn’t want it to. I entered the night more than just a boy. I was the masked man people feared, I was their nightmare. I was legend. My parents flanked me on either side. The noise and light of the theater faded into the empty Gotham night. My eyes were still wide eyed. I should have been paying closer attention. Should have seen the clues. A cough. A quite footstep. A stillness to the air. But I didn’t. All I saw was another man’s legend as my own. And then I saw something else. A different man. He was mysterious, dark, as he emerged from the steam filled alley. I couldn’t help but notice his hands, strong, masculine. Yet they revealed so much more about him. A longing, a tenderness, an understanding. They were hands that knew and had seen the world. I locked eyes with him. They were deep. Never ending. A man of a different age. The eyes of an old soul. Then he shot my parents. I was so embarrassed." Werewolves: Not the most interesting generic undead, but not the least interesting either. Vampires: I suppose it depends what variety we're talking about, but... eh. Ghosts: Finally an undead creature that relies on backstory rather than fangs. I also appreciate their usability as a psychological metaphor. Zombies: Already on the list, in like ten different versions (#thanksdintiradan) Mummies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmlwNrA7RfY Liches: Sure, why not. Frankenstein (either his monster or the story in general - you choose): It's a good read with a lot to say. Your favorite muppet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwHsKYJhST8 Geneforge series (collectively or your single fave - you choose): I'll be kind here and pick G1, which was, in most ways, Geneforge at its best: a great setting with some interesting ideas and very rough mechanics. Super Mario (series, don't count spinoffs): There are some highs and some lows, but overall, I have to give this franchise credit for its (1) emphasis on exploration, (2) creativity, (3) high bar for play controls, and (4) being perhaps the most widespread platform that showered children with images of psychedelic drug. Seriously, the original power-ups were 70's style mushrooms and flowers and none of the kids-can't-know-drugs-exist crowd gave them a second thought even in America in 1985. Crazy. Gargoyles: FIREBRAND LIVES Choosing between lightbulb types at the store: I, uh... what? Horatian satire: I'm going off Wikipedia for these. Here the description sounds great, but then I hit the list of examples and it's like, oh, when they say "gentle humour" they mean, like, fabric softener level gentle. Juvenalian satire: The reverse was true here. Menippean satire: ...and here it becomes clear that the categories fall apart, because the list of examples includes items from BOTH previous varieties of satire. Commit it then to the flames! Dogs Square One Television Alphabets Subtle, tasteful symbolism Chrono Trigger Cyberpunk Bilbo Baggins Waving Hands Titus Andronicus Hamlet Lord of the Rings "Zombie" (Cranberries song) Pet Sounds "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" Spirited Away Cait Sith Exile II: Crystal Souls Nethergate Billie Holiday "Nephil's Gambit" Kierkegaard Gilgamesh Slartibartfast The Tarot Deck Madeline Kahn Hades Hugs The deck of many things Seinfeld Egizia Coffee Croissants Les Misérables (novel) Bossa nova Disco Jiji (character) Mice Upton Sinclair File compression Sliced bread Bagels Subways (transit) Sailor Moon (first anime) Marie Curie Medusa P-zombies Ducks Deontology Willow Rosenberg Prossis-Bok Working out Russian literature Simon & Garfunkel Nina Simone Sea slugs Samuel Clemens Ninjas Circular saws Jiji (in Nikki's lap) Inanna Ziggurats Reality TV AD&D 2nd Edition Maggie Simpson Shamhat Ghosts Frankenstein (novel) Tiki drinks Snakebird Ice cream Utnapishtim Juvenalian satire 70's cars Georg Cantor Shanti AD&D 1st Edition w/ UA —Alorael C++ Good grammar Macbeth Cor Blok's Tolkien art Bacon Falafel Black Panther Party Henry Wallace OK Computer Catharism Cookie Monster Minotaur (Knossos) Zombies (necromantic) Romeo and Juliet The Northern Lights Speedy Gonzales screenshot Saunas Vinyl records Chainsaws Linux Sans serif fonts The aesthetic qualities of the Greek alphabet The Queen is Dead Schuyler Colfax Gargoyles Roguelikes Chess Geneforge 1 Lady Gaga Video games Super Mario series Lawsuits Wine A Midsummer Night's Dream Robert Heinlein Heracles Jeff Vogel Ravens Smartphones Whiskey Hydra (Lernaean) Xanth series Isaac Asimov The Evil Overlord List Arthur C. Clarke Liches Exile III: Ruined World The Cranberries (band) Bartenders Black Panther (character) Sock puppets Flamingos Cluny the Scourge The Chronicles of Narnia "Mr. Green Genes" Muppet Babies Paul Simon Penguins TLC Rhinos Civilization (human phenomenon) Beer Frodo Baggins Mexican food Bob Dylan Richard Garfield Ontology Chimera (Lycian) Science museums Achilles Ella Fitzgerald Pelicans BitTorrent Nevermind Tom Waits 70's prog Sliths Rats Avernum II: Crystal Souls Slarty Ranks Everything Ranking lists "...Gottfried Reads Fifty Shades..." Heavy-handed symbolism Princess Peach Elephants Donuts Cats Trombones The Muppets The Eiffel Tower Solidarność screenshot Civ II Helen of Troy Zorro Revolutions Casablanca Avadon series Goldfish (snack) Gilbert Gottfried Football (American) Nephils Star Wars original trilogy James Garfield Jury nullification Avernum 4 Batman Cinnamon rolls Hubble space telescope History museums Pegasus 2001: A Space Odyssey The Beatles Aretha Franklin Homestar Runner They Might Be Giants Sherlock Holmes Tennis Posting games Inspector Peanut Subinfeudation Solitaire Werewolves The Big Lebowski Nelson Rockefeller Goldfish (fish) Art museums King Arthur The aesthetic qualities of the Hebrew alphabet Zeus Windows 3.1 Carmen McRae Richard Cheese Bark spider Spiders Mummies Dolphins Metahumor Nixon's foreign policy Sparkling water Grant Wood Paprika Spam (meat) Cabaret (film) Harry Potter series Peanuts Standard playing cards Norman Rockwell The electoral college Nick Cave MMORPGs Table saws Horatian satire "This is a Trent Reznor Song" Google Odysseus Xian Skull (item) Spam (e-mails) Running Puggsy Checkers Facebook Runtz Pineapple pizza The LP rendition of Slarty's voice Gilmore Girls Hockey Wheel of Time series George Clooney Film noir Abugidas Vitamin C supplements Twelfth Night Blazing Saddles Louis Armstrong Art Garfunkel The Trojan Horse 70's movies New York City Abjads "Lackadaisical" "Mr. Tambourine Man" The Matrix GIFTs (Spiderweb) Godwin's Law Poseidon The aesthetic qualities of hierogylphics Russian Bimetallism Beowulf (character) Angry Birds Alf screenshot Pyramids with eyes on them Centaurs Moderate rain all day Microsoft Phantom stair step (bottom) Word Rescue Elvis Presley Minecraft Galactic Core Bumper stickers Novelty mugs Apple Mechanical pencils Vultures John Wayne Amazon The post that asks me to rank itself Virtue ethics Roller skates Greek yogurt KISS (principle) Agamemnon Salty liquorice Westerns Friends Getting a triple word score in Scrabble Phantom stair step (top) Turkey/cat video Dieselpunk Life of Brian AOL ELIZA Zombies (infectious) 80's fashion KISS Hipgnosis Expensive wristwatches Salt lamps Cologne My Little Pony Whaling Rudyard Kipling The War on Drugs (band) Queen (band) Fifty Shades of Grey Jane Austen books The Byzantine Empire The Let's Play series Stubbing your big toe Basketball Baseball "Acceptable in the 80's" (song) Halloween Bertrand Russell Cats (musical) Stubbing your little toe Pirates Elfpunk Ennui Charles Dickens "Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros" (song) Hercule Poirot Soccer Robin Hood (character) Star Wars prequel trilogy Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas the Tank Engine Freefall (webcomic) "2500 things Mr. Welch..." Fedoras Johnny Cash Deconstructivism The Microsoft Office Assistant Steampunk Kitten/rat box Athena John Calhoun (politician) Mr. Toad of Toad Hall The Xavier Files BGG Top 10 Ethical intuitionism Sock puppets (fake accounts) Birthdays The Barber Paradox Turnips Anchovy pizza U2 Wings (band) Fictional names that use a lot of apostrophes Twilight Saga Deconstructionism Final Fantasy VIII "Stuff from the 90's!" (song) The Olympics The Big Bang Theory (TV show) Consequentialism The Crusades King Leopold Handlebar mustaches (i.e., thin and spindly ends)

PHEW, this was a big update. Lots of good items to add here. Keep 'em coming. Gilgamesh: A favourite mythic figure. I am mostly convinced that his titular epic, besides being the first such epic, was also the first gay love story. The bevy of subtle (and rarely translated) homoerotic puns are only the tip of the iceberg. At the start of the epic, Gilgamesh is unhappy and is raping women left and right; it doesn't fulfill him, but wrestling with Enkidu does, and that's when his problematic behavior stops. Consider that the primary antagonist is the goddess of love; that she's the antagonist because Gilgamesh rejects her advances; and that she is the one who kills Gilgamesh's "companion" after they overpower and kill the Giant Fertility Symbol of Heaven. Ultimately, Gilgamesh is a great symbol of how negative things can be reclamated when you respond to them constructively, something I give the Sumerian gods great credit for. Enkidu: Doesn't really have much independent agency. As such, not quite sure how to rate him. Utnapishtim: More interesting than Noah, in part because he gives advice, and in part because he is the agent of a rogue benevolent god, rather than part of a detailed and totally unspontaneous plan from a single entity. Inanna: An utterly fascinating goddess due to her ubiquity and to the contradictions presented by her different aspects. Humbaba: Monster (?) that we don't really have enough information about. Gugalanna: It isn't 100% clear that Gugalanna = the Bull of Heaven. Either way, as with Humbaba, there's a pretty limited corpus to go off of. Shamhat: An ironic character, in that she civilizes Enkidu using sex, whereas Enki (Enkidu's creator) is the prototypical culture hero, from whom Inanna (whose temple employs Shamhat) steals powers of civilization, in another myth. Lord of the Rings: Not a series; Tolkien intended it to be a single volume, even though it has often been published as three; and his other work is different enough to rate differently. Anyway, this is a real treasure to me, one of those books that I reread frequently, yet always find new insights in. It isn't flawless but its heights are very high. Xanth Series: That brings me back. I mostly haven't touched this in decades and I'm afraid it won't have aged well. There are bits that I remember fondly, and bits that are creative, and then there's all copious sexualizing -- copious really does seem like the right adverb, there, for Anthony -- and the clearly unintentional, but no less extant, sexism. And that's not even touching all the hamfisted puns. Altogether, hoom, hmm, this is a tough one, but the whole unique-magic-talent premise is a good one, and ultimately I want to give it credit for its better parts, like Imbri and Metria. Wheel of Time Series: I read the first book a long time ago. It seemed extremely generic. Given what I've heard about later books, I'm willing to judge it on that basis. Shannara Series: Haven't read. The Compleat Enchanter: Haven't read. Hamlet: Not for nothing do some people consider this the high water mark of basically everything. There's so much packed into every word of this play. Macbeth: I don't like it as much as many people seem to, but it certainly has a lot to it -- there aren't too many Shakespeare tragedies I'm willing to dump on. Romeo and Juliet: The modern versions are generally very unfortunate, but the play itself is a truly evocative take on a powerful situation. Midsummer Night's Dream: Overdone, and not a play I am generally excited to see, but then again, there is "Lord, what fools these mortals be!" Twelfth Night: One of my least favourite. I think I've seen it performed too many times, and too many of them have fallen flat. It just feels like it relies lazily and boringly on cross-dressing. I *could* rank every Shakespeare play, but that would be silly, so I'm going to stick to those I have unusually strong feelings about. I'll even throw in my favourite, just inching out Hamlet: Titus Andronicus: In the dictionary by "underrated." (And whilst the babbling echo mocks the hounds, / Replying shrilly to the well-tuned horns, / As if a double hunt were heard at once...) Circular saw: Maybe my favourite saw? It doesn't seem versatile but I find that its ease and efficiency end up making it more versatile in the end. Table saw: Ah, the memories I have of wood flying across the shop... Chain saw: Clearly one of the best power-ups in ZAMN. Paul Simon: Clearly talented, though I don't quite understand the people who treat _Graceland_ as if it were _Hamlet_. Art Garfunkel: Sorry for his sanity loss. Simon & Garfunkel: Deserving of their pre-eminent reputation. Hugs: I am much more positive about hugs than I imagine most of you would expect. Games: per my previous statement, I'm not sure I care to eventually include every single SW game here (especially as a lot of them will clump closely together). Sorry Gal! Dogs Square One Television Alphabets Subtle, tasteful symbolism Chrono Trigger Cyberpunk Bilbo Baggins Waving Hands Titus Andronicus Hamlet Lord of the Rings "Zombie" (Cranberries song) Pet Sounds "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" Spirited Away Cait Sith Exile II: Crystal Souls Nethergate Billie Holiday "Nephil's Gambit" Kierkegaard Gilgamesh Slartibartfast The Tarot Deck Madeline Kahn Hades Hugs The deck of many things Seinfeld Egizia Coffee Croissants Les Misérables (novel) Bossa nova Disco Jiji (character) Mice Upton Sinclair File compression Sliced bread Bagels Subways (transit) Sailor Moon (first anime) Marie Curie Medusa P-zombies Ducks Deontology Willow Rosenberg Prossis-Bok Working out Russian literature Simon & Garfunkel Nina Simone Sea slugs Samuel Clemens Ninjas Circular saws Jiji (in Nikki's lap) Inanna Ziggurats Reality TV AD&D 2nd Edition Maggie Simpson Shamhat Tiki drinks Snakebird Ice cream Utnapishtim 70's cars Georg Cantor Shanti AD&D 1st Edition w/ UA —Alorael C++ Good grammar Macbeth Cor Blok's Tolkien art Bacon Falafel Black Panther Party Henry Wallace OK Computer Catharism Minotaur (Knossos) Zombies (necromantic) Romeo and Juliet The Northern Lights Speedy Gonzales screenshot Saunas Vinyl records Chainsaws Linux Sans serif fonts The aesthetic qualities of the Greek alphabet The Queen is Dead Schuyler Colfax Roguelikes Chess Lady Gaga Video games Lawsuits Wine A Midsummer Night's Dream Robert Heinlein Heracles Jeff Vogel Ravens Smartphones Whiskey Hydra (Lernaean) Xanth series Isaac Asimov The Evil Overlord List Arthur C. Clarke Exile III: Ruined World The Cranberries (band) Bartenders Black Panther (character) Sock puppets Flamingos Cluny the Scourge The Chronicles of Narnia "Mr. Green Genes" Muppet Babies Paul Simon Penguins TLC Rhinos Civilization (human phenomenon) Beer Frodo Baggins Mexican food Bob Dylan Richard Garfield Ontology Chimera (Lycian) Science museums Achilles Ella Fitzgerald Pelicans BitTorrent Nevermind Tom Waits 70's prog Sliths Rats Avernum II: Crystal Souls Slarty Ranks Everything Ranking lists "...Gottfried Reads Fifty Shades..." Heavy-handed symbolism Princess Peach Elephants Donuts Cats Trombones The Muppets The Eiffel Tower Solidarność screenshot Civ II Helen of Troy Revolutions Casablanca Avadon series Goldfish (snack) Gilbert Gottfried Football (American) Nephils Star Wars original trilogy James Garfield Jury nullification Avernum 4 Cinnamon rolls Hubble space telescope History museums Pegasus 2001: A Space Odyssey The Beatles Aretha Franklin Homestar Runner They Might Be Giants Tennis Posting games Inspector Peanut Subinfeudation Solitaire The Big Lebowski Nelson Rockefeller Goldfish (fish) Art museums King Arthur The aesthetic qualities of the Hebrew alphabet Zeus Windows 3.1 Carmen McRae Richard Cheese Bark spider Spiders Dolphins Metahumor Nixon's foreign policy Sparkling water Grant Wood Paprika Spam (meat) Cabaret (film) Harry Potter series Peanuts Standard playing cards Norman Rockwell The electoral college Nick Cave MMORPGs Table saws "This is a Trent Reznor Song" Google Odysseus Xian Skull (item) Spam (e-mails) Running Puggsy Checkers Facebook Runtz Pineapple pizza The LP rendition of Slarty's voice Gilmore Girls Hockey Wheel of Time series George Clooney Film noir Abugidas Vitamin C supplements Twelfth Night Blazing Saddles Louis Armstrong Art Garfunkel The Trojan Horse 70's movies New York City Abjads "Lackadaisical" "Mr. Tambourine Man" The Matrix GIFTs (Spiderweb) Godwin's Law Poseidon The aesthetic qualities of hierogylphics Russian Bimetallism Beowulf (character) Angry Birds Alf screenshot Pyramids with eyes on them Centaurs Moderate rain all day Microsoft Phantom stair step (bottom) Word Rescue Elvis Presley Minecraft Galactic Core Bumper stickers Novelty mugs Apple Mechanical pencils Vultures John Wayne Amazon The post that asks me to rank itself Virtue ethics Roller skates Greek yogurt KISS (principle) Agamemnon Salty liquorice Westerns Friends Getting a triple word score in Scrabble Phantom stair step (top) Turkey/cat video Dieselpunk Life of Brian AOL ELIZA Zombies (infectious) 80's fashion KISS Hipgnosis Expensive wristwatches Salt lamps Cologne My Little Pony Whaling Rudyard Kipling The War on Drugs (band) Queen (band) Fifty Shades of Grey Jane Austen books The Byzantine Empire The Let's Play series Stubbing your big toe Basketball Baseball "Acceptable in the 80's" (song) Halloween Bertrand Russell Cats (musical) Stubbing your little toe Pirates Elfpunk Ennui Charles Dickens "Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros" (song) Soccer Robin Hood (character) Star Wars prequel trilogy Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas the Tank Engine Freefall (webcomic) "2500 things Mr. Welch..." Fedoras Johnny Cash Deconstructivism The Microsoft Office Assistant Steampunk Kitten/rat box Athena John Calhoun (politician) Mr. Toad of Toad Hall The Xavier Files BGG Top 10 Ethical intuitionism Sock puppets (fake accounts) Birthdays The Barber Paradox Turnips Anchovy pizza U2 Wings (band) Fictional names that use a lot of apostrophes Twilight Saga Deconstructionism Final Fantasy VIII "Stuff from the 90's!" (song) The Olympics The Big Bang Theory (TV show) Consequentialism The Crusades King Leopold Handlebar mustaches (i.e., thin and spindly ends)

There were actually two explicit Vahnatai references in Exile I (all versions, AFAIK): 1. The "Dark Cavern" dungeon (near Sss-Thsss) has Brethis, a shade, hidden in a secret passage. He introduces himself as a member of the Vahnatai race. (Brethis further identifies the undead in that dungeon as consisting of many debauched Vahnatai.) 2. There is a small dungeon in the Abyss (the same, IIRC, which connects Fort Haledon and Ornotha Ziggurat in E2) which contains a giant, impassable magic barrier along with the self-translating message: "HERE IS THE GRAVE AND HIDING PLACE OF THE VAHNATAI RACE - ONE DAY WE MAY RETURN TO RECLAIM OUR HOME WITH LOVE. UNTIL THEN WE SLEEP."

Sorry I've sat on this. Am meaning to get back to it; things have been crazy. May have some time coming up. Feel free to pile on more things to rank if you like.

What, no Hamsubstantiation?

I mean, they're still quite distinct things. This picture is a serious oversimplification, given that at least 500 years passed between the origin of the Paulicians and the Waldensians appearing. It strikes me that this would be sort of like saying "The Federalists/Whigs/Republicans" -- there are some clear lines of descent there but cmon, lol.

Black Panther (party): An organization created by a forcefully oppressed group to whom other avenues of change had proved ineffective, and which was self-reliant and began with necessary community programs; and which was savagely and racistly attacked by the intelligence community as well as the press. It can't claim total nobility, but it's hard not to be sympathetic. Black Panther (character): A relatively good superhero, mostly free from cliches, and often with good storylines. Not the most personally resonant for me. Black Panther (film): I'm conflicted and not quite sure where to put this. Muppet Babies: Pretty good for what it was. 2001: A Space Odyssey: Fine. Good bits to the story, but a little slow at times, and I think overrated. Paulicianism/Bogomilism/Waldensianism: I don't understand why these are combined? Also, it's hard for me to *rank* all these old movements or sects within Christianity.. I could discuss them but I don't really see much to judge one way or the other. Centaurs: Not the most interesting human-animal hybrid, nor the most pleasant, and that's ignoring the infelicitousness of their appearances in modern internet days. Hydra: A widely applicable motif. Medusa/Gorgons: Now here's a truly powerful image and story, even before we hear Medusa's backstory. Poorly handled and genericized in most modern appearances. Minotaurs: Not quite as powerful a setup as Medusa, but a good one, with another great backstory -- and again, poorly handled and genericized in most modern appearances. O Greeks, you gave us such misogyny, and such compensatory mythological figures! O Medusa, O Pasiphae! Pegasuses/Pegasi: Eh. Also, quit pluralizing singular figures unless you want me to rank modern appearances instead. Cyclops: Or Cyclopes? Eh. Chimeras: More interesting than most such combinations, and it gave us a great word. The Trojan Horse: Implausible and overdone. Odysseus/Ulysses: A cunning and powerful man of privilege. Achilles: A true tragic hero, the carrier of grief and rage; interesting and more than a little monstrous. Agaememnon: It's hard to be sympathetic to this one. Helen of Troy: The feminine object _par excellance_, with a variety of depictions. As is pretty much always the case, I prefer Euripides, and accordingly rate Helen higher than her general reputation might suggest. Hercules: A fascinating figure. Despite his hypermasculinity, Heracles somehow ends up bieng one of the least obnoxious Greek heroes; and despite his persecution from Hera, one of the least problematic in his behavior towards women. Low bars, but still, have to give him some credit. Zeus: It's sometimes difficult to tell if Zeus is _actually_ an asshole, or if he's just that way because the world sucks and he's the nous and etc. etc. Poseidon: Sort of a Zeus minor with no nous to hide behind. Hades: A favourite underworld god, as True Neutral as they come, reasonable and even helpful, with the best bucket of euphemistic epithets any Cronide could hope for. Athena: Leaning In to Olympus, and raking in so much appreciation these days, but an enemy I name her: taking cleverness, wisdom, and might, and using them at the employ of the powerful, punishing the weak, and perpetuating misogyny everywhere. Dogs Square One Television Alphabets Subtle, tasteful symbolism Chrono Trigger Cyberpunk Bilbo Baggins Waving Hands "Zombie" (Cranberries song) Pet Sounds "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" Spirited Away Cait Sith Exile II: Crystal Souls Nethergate Billie Holiday "Nephil's Gambit" Kierkegaard Slartibartfast The Tarot Deck Madeline Kahn Hades The deck of many things Seinfeld Egizia Coffee Croissants Les Misérables (novel) Bossa nova Disco Jiji (character) Mice Upton Sinclair File compression Sliced bread Bagels Subways (transit) Sailor Moon (first anime) Marie Curie Medusa P-zombies Ducks Deontology Willow Rosenberg Prossis-Bok Working out Russian literature Nina Simone Sea slugs Samuel Clemens Ninjas Jiji (in Nikki's lap) Ziggurats Reality TV AD&D 2nd Edition Maggie Simpson Tiki drinks Snakebird Ice cream 70's cars Georg Cantor Shanti AD&D 1st Edition w/ UA —Alorael C++ Good grammar Cor Blok's Tolkien art Bacon Falafel Black Panther Party Henry Wallace OK Computer Catharism Minotaur (Knossos) Zombies (necromantic) The Northern Lights Speedy Gonzales screenshot Saunas Vinyl records Linux Sans serif fonts The aesthetic qualities of the Greek alphabet The Queen is Dead Schuyler Colfax Roguelikes Chess Lady Gaga Video games Lawsuits Wine Robert Heinlein Heracles Jeff Vogel Ravens Smartphones Whiskey Hydra (Lernaean) Isaac Asimov The Evil Overlord List Arthur C. Clarke Exile III: Ruined World The Cranberries (band) Bartenders Black Panther (character) Sock puppets Flamingos Cluny the Scourge The Chronicles of Narnia "Mr. Green Genes" Muppet Babies Penguins TLC Rhinos Civilization (human phenomenon) Beer Frodo Baggins Mexican food Bob Dylan Richard Garfield Ontology Chimera (Lycian) Science museums Achilles Ella Fitzgerald Pelicans BitTorrent Nevermind Tom Waits 70's prog Sliths Rats Avernum II: Crystal Souls Slarty Ranks Everything Ranking lists "...Gottfried Reads Fifty Shades..." Heavy-handed symbolism Princess Peach Elephants Donuts Cats Trombones The Muppets The Eiffel Tower Solidarność screenshot Civ II Helen of Troy Revolutions Casablanca Avadon series Goldfish (snack) Gilbert Gottfried Football (American) Nephils Star Wars original trilogy James Garfield Jury nullification Avernum 4 Cinnamon rolls Hubble space telescope History museums Pegasus 2001: A Space Odyssey The Beatles Aretha Franklin Homestar Runner They Might Be Giants Tennis Posting games Inspector Peanut Subinfeudation Solitaire The Big Lebowski Nelson Rockefeller Goldfish (fish) Art museums King Arthur The aesthetic qualities of the Hebrew alphabet Zeus Windows 3.1 Carmen McRae Richard Cheese Bark spider Spiders Dolphins Metahumor Nixon's foreign policy Sparkling water Grant Wood Paprika Spam (meat) Cabaret (film) Harry Potter series Peanuts Standard playing cards Norman Rockwell The electoral college Nick Cave MMORPGs "This is a Trent Reznor Song" Google Odysseus Xian Skull (item) Spam (e-mails) Running Puggsy Checkers Facebook Runtz Pineapple pizza The LP rendition of Slarty's voice Gilmore Girls Hockey George Clooney Film noir Abugidas Vitamin C supplements Blazing Saddles Louis Armstrong The Trojan Horse 70's movies New York City Abjads "Lackadaisical" "Mr. Tambourine Man" The Matrix GIFTs (Spiderweb) Godwin's Law Poseidon The aesthetic qualities of hierogylphics Russian Bimetallism Beowulf (character) Angry Birds Alf screenshot Pyramids with eyes on them Centaurs Moderate rain all day Microsoft Phantom stair step (bottom) Word Rescue Elvis Presley Minecraft Galactic Core Bumper stickers Novelty mugs Apple Mechanical pencils Vultures John Wayne Amazon The post that asks me to rank itself Virtue ethics Roller skates Greek yogurt KISS (principle) Agamemnon Salty liquorice Westerns Friends Getting a triple word score in Scrabble Phantom stair step (top) Turkey/cat video Dieselpunk Life of Brian AOL ELIZA Zombies (infectious) 80's fashion KISS Hipgnosis Expensive wristwatches Salt lamps Cologne My Little Pony Whaling Rudyard Kipling The War on Drugs (band) Queen (band) Fifty Shades of Grey Jane Austen books The Byzantine Empire The Let's Play series Stubbing your big toe Basketball Baseball "Acceptable in the 80's" (song) Halloween Bertrand Russell Cats (musical) Stubbing your little toe Pirates Elfpunk Ennui Charles Dickens "Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros" (song) Soccer Robin Hood (character) Star Wars prequel trilogy Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas the Tank Engine Freefall (webcomic) "2500 things Mr. Welch..." Fedoras Johnny Cash Deconstructivism The Microsoft Office Assistant Steampunk Kitten/rat box Athena John Calhoun (politician) Mr. Toad of Toad Hall The Xavier Files BGG Top 10 Ethical intuitionism Sock puppets (fake accounts) Birthdays The Barber Paradox Turnips Anchovy pizza U2 Wings (band) Fictional names that use a lot of apostrophes Twilight Saga Deconstructionism Final Fantasy VIII "Stuff from the 90's!" (song) The Olympics The Big Bang Theory (TV show) Consequentialism The Crusades King Leopold Handlebar mustaches (i.e., thin and spindly ends)

Were his earlier books actually written as serials, or rather as short stories? While those two origins have plenty in common, they don't as far as the characteristics of serialization that are relevant here -- that is, an inflexible length requirement and an inflexible deadline. Short stories published independently of one another on an as-written basis have neither. I think it's the combination of those two requirements that create potential for a problem. Few writers have an unflaggingly consistent stream of output, and it's not hard to imagine the bind the author is in when a satisfying continuation simply isn't manifesting itself and they have 32 pages or whatever due anyway.

Huh. Asimov wrote serials?

What may be notable about Dickens' situation is that the amount he had to write was agreed upon in advance. He might not have been chasing a carrot by extending his prose, but he was certainly chasing an inflexible target. I note that this is not always the case with serials -- as Dickens was serialized in printings that contained nothing else. Serials that appeared in newspapers and magazines had a little more flexibility.

Huh. Interesting, though that makes his lexical profligancy even less explicable.

Isaac Asimov: A great and persistent speculator, certainly. When I'm reading his stuff, I am always nagged by a sense that it seems so implausible: he gives me a hard time suspending my disbelief, I guess. But some of his stuff is perceptive and touching. Arthur C Clarke: I like his ideas better than his writing, but I do like his ideas. The Beatles: I don't care enough about them to rate them individually. Some of their stuff is brilliant; some of it frustrating; but in the end I prefer the Beach Boys. Elvis Presley: I think Elvis is a "you had to be there" phenomenon, and I definitely wasn't. Robert Heinlein: A real Terror's Martyr, a Nietzsche, a real Fire. Accordingly, as I seem to be saying a lot recently, I have mixed feelings. Ultimately, I like him more than not. Rudyard Kipling: Wittier than Dickens, but as long-winded, and even less sympathetic. Upton Sinclair: A writer and thinker I greatly admire. Traveler (RPG): I have no experience with this. Blazing Saddles (Movie): I don't like it as much as everyone else seems to. Brooks is hit or miss for me. Dogs Square One Television Alphabets Subtle, tasteful symbolism Chrono Trigger Cyberpunk Bilbo Baggins Waving Hands "Zombie" (Cranberries song) Pet Sounds "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" Spirited Away Cait Sith Exile II: Crystal Souls Nethergate Billie Holiday "Nephil's Gambit" Kierkegaard Slartibartfast The Tarot Deck Madeline Kahn The deck of many things Seinfeld Egizia Coffee Croissants Les Misérables (novel) Bossa nova Disco Jiji (character) Mice Upton Sinclair File compression Sliced bread Bagels Subways (transit) Sailor Moon (first anime) Marie Curie P-zombies Ducks Deontology Willow Rosenberg Prossis-Bok Working out Russian literature Nina Simone Sea slugs Samuel Clemens Ninjas Jiji (in Nikki's lap) Ziggurats Reality TV AD&D 2nd Edition Maggie Simpson Tiki drinks Snakebird Ice cream 70's cars Georg Cantor Shanti AD&D 1st Edition w/ UA —Alorael C++ Good grammar Cor Blok's Tolkien art Bacon Falafel Henry Wallace OK Computer Catharism Zombies (necromantic) The Northern Lights Speedy Gonzales screenshot Saunas Vinyl records Linux Sans serif fonts The aesthetic qualities of the Greek alphabet The Queen is Dead Schuyler Colfax Roguelikes Chess Lady Gaga Video games Lawsuits Wine Robert Heinlein Jeff Vogel Ravens Smartphones Whiskey Isaac Asimov The Evil Overlord List Arthur C. Clarke Exile III: Ruined World The Cranberries (band) Bartenders Sock puppets Flamingos Cluny the Scourge The Chronicles of Narnia "Mr. Green Genes" Penguins TLC Rhinos Civilization (human phenomenon) Beer Frodo Baggins Mexican food Bob Dylan Richard Garfield Ontology Science museums Ella Fitzgerald Pelicans BitTorrent Nevermind Tom Waits 70's prog Sliths Rats Avernum II: Crystal Souls Slarty Ranks Everything Ranking lists "...Gottfried Reads Fifty Shades..." Heavy-handed symbolism Princess Peach Elephants Donuts Cats Trombones The Muppets The Eiffel Tower Solidarność screenshot Civ II Revolutions Casablanca Avadon series Goldfish (snack) Gilbert Gottfried Football (American) Nephils Star Wars original trilogy James Garfield Jury nullification Avernum 4 Cinnamon rolls Hubble space telescope History museums The Beatles Aretha Franklin Homestar Runner They Might Be Giants Tennis Posting games Inspector Peanut Subinfeudation Solitaire The Big Lebowski Nelson Rockefeller Goldfish (fish) Art museums King Arthur The aesthetic qualities of the Hebrew alphabet Windows 3.1 Carmen McRae Richard Cheese Bark spider Spiders Dolphins Metahumor Nixon's foreign policy Sparkling water Grant Wood Paprika Spam (meat) Cabaret (film) Harry Potter series Peanuts Standard playing cards Norman Rockwell The electoral college Nick Cave MMORPGs "This is a Trent Reznor Song" Google Xian Skull (item) Spam (e-mails) Running Puggsy Checkers Facebook Runtz Pineapple pizza The LP rendition of Slarty's voice Gilmore Girls Hockey George Clooney Film noir Abugidas Vitamin C supplements Blazing Saddles Louis Armstrong 70's movies New York City Abjads "Lackadaisical" "Mr. Tambourine Man" The Matrix GIFTs (Spiderweb) Godwin's Law The aesthetic qualities of hierogylphics Russian Bimetallism Beowulf (character) Angry Birds Alf screenshot Pyramids with eyes on them Moderate rain all day Microsoft Phantom stair step (bottom) Word Rescue Elvis Presley Minecraft Galactic Core Bumper stickers Novelty mugs Apple Mechanical pencils Vultures John Wayne Amazon The post that asks me to rank itself Virtue ethics Roller skates Greek yogurt KISS (principle) Salty liquorice Westerns Friends Getting a triple word score in Scrabble Phantom stair step (top) Turkey/cat video Dieselpunk Life of Brian AOL ELIZA Zombies (infectious) 80's fashion KISS Hipgnosis Expensive wristwatches Salt lamps Cologne My Little Pony Whaling Rudyard Kipling The War on Drugs (band) Queen (band) Fifty Shades of Grey Jane Austen books The Byzantine Empire The Let's Play series Stubbing your big toe Basketball Baseball "Acceptable in the 80's" (song) Halloween Bertrand Russell Cats (musical) Stubbing your little toe Pirates Elfpunk Ennui Charles Dickens "Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros" (song) Soccer Robin Hood (character) Star Wars prequel trilogy Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas the Tank Engine Freefall (webcomic) "2500 things Mr. Welch..." Fedoras Johnny Cash Deconstructivism The Microsoft Office Assistant Steampunk Kitten/rat box John Calhoun (politician) Mr. Toad of Toad Hall The Xavier Files BGG Top 10 Ethical intuitionism Sock puppets (fake accounts) Birthdays The Barber Paradox Turnips Anchovy pizza U2 Wings (band) Fictional names that use a lot of apostrophes Twilight Saga Deconstructionism Final Fantasy VIII "Stuff from the 90's!" (song) The Olympics The Big Bang Theory (TV show) Consequentialism The Crusades King Leopold Handlebar mustaches (i.e., thin and spindly ends)

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (pick a version): 2nd edition, despite its flaws, FTW. Though I also have a soft spot for 1st edition with Unearthed Arcana, despite its MANY flaws. Running (as an activity): I'm lazy and also prefer less jolty versions of cardio. John Wayne: In many ways a pretty decent person, and I give credit to anyone who had an ongoing thing with Marlene Dietrich, but then there's HUAC and that whole "I believe in white supremacy" thing -- and as a cultural icon those things matter. Samuel Clemens: Well, since you know what I think of King Leopold, that's clearly a mark in Clemens's favor. Not my favourite author ever, stylistically, but someone I respect and usually find it difficult to disagree with. Catharism: I think there were a lot of neat things about the Albigensians, as I first learned their name. (Also, I'd prefer to avoid getting into rating any currently extant sects, denominations, or religions, but this is long enough ago that I'm OK with it.) Video games, in general: Uh.... humm. That's a very, very broad category, with some very high highs and some very low lows. Possibly too disparate to rate. I'll have to think about this. Marie Curie: Extreme badass. Also, RETRIOACTIVITY IS IN THE AIR FOR UBB goog, you're not going to stop asking me about Polish things, are you? Rhinos: They've provided some great base material for legends, folklore, and art. Rats: I prefer mice to rats, but I'll throw you some cheese and rate both. Spiders: Now here's an animal that's tricky to rank. Boonful and baneful, crafty and creepy. The Giant Intelligent Friendly Talking Spiders: No. No. No. No. No. You're not cute. The electoral college: I don't hate this as much as everyone else seems to these days. Is it problematic? Sure. Needs an update? Sure. But it originated not in an attempt to create a power gradient (its current impact) but to balance out power for minority interests, something I am down with at least in principle. Heavy-handed symbolism: See The Chronicles of Narnia. Subtle, tasteful symbolism: See... actually this hasn't really made it on the list yet, has it. Well, you can probably guess where this is going. Art museums: It really depends. I like art, but hate a lot of its trappings, the bizarre social trappings around art museums definitely included. Science museums: Again, it really varies. My general rule is that the more oriented it is towards kids, the better it will be, and the more it is funded by industry, the worse it will be. History museums: Well, this is complicated, because the museums are often lovely, but they generally entail artifacts having been stolen by major powers from other countries. Actually, it's the artifact-in-case exhibits that tend to work better, rather than the here-is-a-life-size-reconstructed-diorama-without-enough-context-so-it-looks-sort-of-like-you're-visiting-a-theme-park ones. So, meh. Dogs Square One Television Alphabets Subtle, tasteful symbolism Chrono Trigger Cyberpunk Bilbo Baggins Waving Hands "Zombie" (Cranberries song) Pet Sounds "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" Spirited Away Cait Sith Exile II: Crystal Souls Nethergate Billie Holiday "Nephil's Gambit" Kierkegaard Slartibartfast The Tarot Deck Madeline Kahn The deck of many things Seinfeld Egizia Coffee Croissants Les Misérables (novel) Bossa nova Disco Jiji (character) Mice File compression Sliced bread Bagels Subways (transit) Sailor Moon (first anime) Marie Curie P-zombies Ducks Deontology Willow Rosenberg Prossis-Bok Working out Russian literature Nina Simone Sea slugs Samuel Clemens Ninjas Jiji (in Nikki's lap) Ziggurats Reality TV AD&D 2nd Edition Maggie Simpson Tiki drinks Snakebird Ice cream 70's cars Georg Cantor Shanti AD&D 1st Edition w/ UA —Alorael C++ Good grammar Cor Blok's Tolkien art Bacon Falafel Henry Wallace OK Computer Catharism Zombies (necromantic) The Northern Lights Speedy Gonzales screenshot Saunas Vinyl records Linux Sans serif fonts The aesthetic qualities of the Greek alphabet The Queen is Dead Schuyler Colfax Roguelikes Chess Lady Gaga Video games Lawsuits Wine Jeff Vogel Ravens Smartphones Whiskey The Evil Overlord List Exile III: Ruined World The Cranberries (band) Bartenders Sock puppets Flamingos Cluny the Scourge The Chronicles of Narnia "Mr. Green Genes" Penguins TLC Rhinos Civilization (human phenomenon) Beer Frodo Baggins Mexican food Bob Dylan Richard Garfield Ontology Science museums Ella Fitzgerald Pelicans BitTorrent Nevermind Tom Waits 70's prog Sliths Rats Avernum II: Crystal Souls Slarty Ranks Everything Ranking lists "...Gottfried Reads Fifty Shades..." Heavy-handed symbolism Princess Peach Elephants Donuts Cats Trombones The Muppets The Eiffel Tower Solidarność screenshot Civ II Revolutions Casablanca Avadon series Goldfish (snack) Gilbert Gottfried Football (American) Nephils Star Wars original trilogy James Garfield Jury nullification Avernum 4 Cinnamon rolls Hubble space telescope History museums Aretha Franklin Homestar Runner They Might Be Giants Tennis Posting games Inspector Peanut Subinfeudation Solitaire The Big Lebowski Nelson Rockefeller Goldfish (fish) Art museums King Arthur The aesthetic qualities of the Hebrew alphabet Windows 3.1 Carmen McRae Richard Cheese Bark spider Spiders Dolphins Metahumor Nixon's foreign policy Sparkling water Grant Wood Paprika Spam (meat) Cabaret (film) Harry Potter series Peanuts Standard playing cards Norman Rockwell The electoral college Nick Cave MMORPGs "This is a Trent Reznor Song" Google Xian Skull (item) Spam (e-mails) Running Puggsy Checkers Facebook Runtz Pineapple pizza The LP rendition of Slarty's voice Gilmore Girls Hockey George Clooney Film noir Abugidas Vitamin C supplements Louis Armstrong 70's movies New York City Abjads "Lackadaisical" "Mr. Tambourine Man" The Matrix GIFTs (Spiderweb) Godwin's Law The aesthetic qualities of hierogylphics Russian Bimetallism Beowulf (character) Angry Birds Alf screenshot Pyramids with eyes on them Moderate rain all day Microsoft Phantom stair step (bottom) Word Rescue Minecraft Galactic Core Bumper stickers Novelty mugs Apple Mechanical pencils Vultures John Wayne Amazon The post that asks me to rank itself Virtue ethics Roller skates Greek yogurt KISS (principle) Salty liquorice Westerns Friends Getting a triple word score in Scrabble Phantom stair step (top) Turkey/cat video Dieselpunk Life of Brian AOL ELIZA Zombies (infectious) 80's fashion KISS Hipgnosis Expensive wristwatches Salt lamps Cologne My Little Pony Whaling The War on Drugs (band) Queen (band) Fifty Shades of Grey Jane Austen books The Byzantine Empire The Let's Play series Stubbing your big toe Basketball Baseball "Acceptable in the 80's" (song) Halloween Bertrand Russell Cats (musical) Stubbing your little toe Pirates Elfpunk Ennui Charles Dickens "Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros" (song) Soccer Robin Hood (character) Star Wars prequel trilogy Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas the Tank Engine Freefall (webcomic) "2500 things Mr. Welch..." Fedoras Johnny Cash Deconstructivism The Microsoft Office Assistant Steampunk Kitten/rat box John Calhoun (politician) Mr. Toad of Toad Hall The Xavier Files BGG Top 10 Ethical intuitionism Sock puppets (fake accounts) Birthdays The Barber Paradox Turnips Anchovy pizza U2 Wings (band) Fictional names that use a lot of apostrophes Twilight Saga Deconstructionism Final Fantasy VIII "Stuff from the 90's!" (song) The Olympics The Big Bang Theory (TV show) Consequentialism The Crusades King Leopold Handlebar mustaches (i.e., thin and spindly ends)

FWIW, Spiderweb has been saying this consistently for years: that the first offering after the Avernum 3 remake would be something brand new. Spiderweb has also been talking about remaking Geneforge for a while. Presumably that will happen after the new game. And if old patterns repeat, you'll get alternating new games and remakes (as was the case with the Avadon series and the recent Avernum remakes). Maybe turn down the dramatic all-caps declarations, anyway.

With the list now up to 285 items, its scope has grown considerably. As a result of its growing process being full of spurts, and comparisons inevitably not being made to every other item on the list, it hasn't ended up perfectly ordered, I think. So I've gone through and done some tidying up. For my sanity -- but I think it may be helpful to readers, too -- I've put breaks in between 25 different sections, ranging from "love" to "despise". Items are still ordered within each section, but I think this will make it easier to keep the list well-ordered. Items that have moved up or down are marked in blue or red, respectively. There are more of these later in the list than at the top. Items that moved to up or down to a different section are marked in bold as well. I also noticed that I treated pointer items (e.g., "your favourite ___") inconsistently, so I've expanded some of those as well. Dogs Square One Television Alphabets Chrono Trigger Cyberpunk Bilbo Baggins Waving Hands "Zombie" (Cranberries song) Pet Sounds "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" Spirited Away Cait Sith Exile II: Crystal Souls Nethergate Billie Holiday "Nephil's Gambit" Kierkegaard Slartibartfast The Tarot Deck Madeline Kahn The deck of many things Seinfeld Egizia Coffee Croissants Les Misérables (novel) Bossa nova Disco Jiji (character) File compression Sliced bread Bagels Subways (transit) Sailor Moon (first anime) P-zombies Ducks Deontology Willow Rosenberg Prossis-Bok Working out Russian literature Nina Simone Sea slugs Ninjas Jiji (in Nikki's lap) Ziggurats Reality TV Maggie Simpson Tiki drinks Snakebird Ice cream 70's cars Georg Cantor Shanti —Alorael C++ Good grammar Cor Blok's Tolkien art Bacon Falafel Henry Wallace OK Computer Zombies (necromantic) The Northern Lights Speedy Gonzales screenshot Saunas Vinyl records Linux Sans serif fonts The aesthetic qualities of the Greek alphabet The Queen is Dead Schuyler Colfax Roguelikes Chess Lady Gaga Lawsuits Wine Jeff Vogel Ravens Smartphones Whiskey The Evil Overlord List Exile III: Ruined World The Cranberries (band) Bartenders Sock puppets Flamingos Cluny the Scourge The Chronicles of Narnia "Mr. Green Genes" Penguins TLC Civilization (human phenomenon) Beer Frodo Baggins Mexican food Bob Dylan Richard Garfield Ontology Ella Fitzgerald Pelicans BitTorrent Nevermind Tom Waits 70's prog Sliths Avernum II: Crystal Souls Slarty Ranks Everything Ranking lists "...Gottfried Reads Fifty Shades..." Princess Peach Elephants Donuts Cats Trombones The Muppets The Eiffel Tower Solidarność screenshot Civ II Revolutions Casablanca Avadon series Goldfish (snack) Gilbert Gottfried Football (American) Nephils Star Wars original trilogy James Garfield Jury nullification Avernum 4 Cinnamon rolls Hubble space telescope Aretha Franklin Homestar Runner They Might Be Giants Tennis Posting games Inspector Peanut Subinfeudation Solitaire The Big Lebowski Nelson Rockefeller Goldfish (fish) King Arthur The aesthetic qualities of the Hebrew alphabet Windows 3.1 Carmen McRae Richard Cheese Bark spider Dolphins Metahumor Nixon's foreign policy Sparkling water Grant Wood Paprika Spam (meat) Cabaret (film) Harry Potter series Peanuts Standard playing cards Norman Rockwell Nick Cave MMORPGs "This is a Trent Reznor Song" Google Xian Skull (item) Spam (e-mails) Puggsy Checkers Facebook Runtz Pineapple pizza The LP rendition of Slarty's voice Gilmore Girls Hockey George Clooney Film noir Abugidas Vitamin C supplements Louis Armstrong 70's movies New York City Abjads "Lackadaisical" "Mr. Tambourine Man" The Matrix Godwin's Law The aesthetic qualities of hierogylphics Russian Bimetallism Beowulf (character) Angry Birds Alf screenshot Pyramids with eyes on them Moderate rain all day Microsoft Phantom stair step (bottom) Word Rescue Minecraft Galactic Core Bumper stickers Novelty mugs Apple Mechanical pencils Vultures Amazon The post that asks me to rank itself Virtue ethics Roller skates Greek yogurt KISS (principle) Salty liquorice Westerns Friends Getting a triple word score in Scrabble Phantom stair step (top) Turkey/cat video Dieselpunk Life of Brian AOL ELIZA Zombies (infectious) 80's fashion KISS Hipgnosis Expensive wristwatches Salt lamps Cologne My Little Pony Whaling The War on Drugs (band) Queen (band) Fifty Shades of Grey Jane Austen books The Byzantine Empire The Let's Play series Stubbing your big toe Basketball Baseball "Acceptable in the 80's" (song) Halloween Bertrand Russell Cats (musical) Stubbing your little toe Pirates Elfpunk Ennui Charles Dickens "Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros" (song) Soccer Robin Hood (character) Star Wars prequel trilogy Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas the Tank Engine Freefall (webcomic) "2500 things Mr. Welch..." Fedoras Johnny Cash Deconstructivism The Microsoft Office Assistant Steampunk Kitten/rat box John Calhoun (politician) Mr. Toad of Toad Hall The Xavier Files BGG Top 10 Ethical intuitionism Sock puppets (fake accounts) Birthdays The Barber Paradox Turnips Anchovy pizza U2 Wings (band) Fictional names that use a lot of apostrophes Twilight Saga Deconstructionism Final Fantasy VIII "Stuff from the 90's!" (song) The Olympics The Big Bang Theory (TV show) Consequentialism The Crusades King Leopold Handlebar mustaches (i.e., thin and spindly ends)

Deontology: Generally my preferred approach to ethics, at least philosophically Consequentialism: I am one of those people who believes that the ends do not justify the means. This is probably not a surprise Virtue Ethics: It's like this entire branch is a relative shadow cast by the platonic form of the is-ought fallacy Ethical Intuitionism: May we never be free from G.E. Moore? Deconstructivism: From context it seems likely you meant deconstructionism (which I strongly dislike), but I'll answer both: I am not a big fan of deconstructivism either Ennui: What rating exactly were you expecting here Zombie (necromantic): One of the better versions of zombies, perhaps because, due to the nature of necromancy, there's always some kind of actual motivation behind the existence of the zombies (whether on the part of a necromancer, or past events that stir up necromancy directly) Zombie (infectious): Overdone, generally implausible, and insufficiently undead for my tastes Zombie (voodoo): To the degree that this is actually a thing, it's mostly just a special case of necromancy Zombie (Frankenstein): Not a zombie. Frankenstein's monster was animated, not reanimated. While the other sorts of zombies here have different mechanisms of origin, they all share at least some behavior, but Frankenstein's monster doesn't have that either. Zombie precursor, maybe Zombie (Cranberries): As mentioned earlier, I think this song is a real masterpiece -- underrated, perhaps because it got so much airplay and had such a clear moral message. Zombie (p): I generally agree with Nagel and Chalmers on consciousness and therefore see philosophical zombies as a useful concept i dunno, let's say ziggurats i guess: Ziggurats are cool Sorry guys, I... don't have a ton of opinions about eighteen uses of the word pyramid Pyramids (with eyes on): Gauche, whether or not they are providential Dogs Square One Television Alphabets Chrono Trigger Cyberpunk Bilbo Baggins "Zombie" (Cranberries song) Cait Sith Waving Hands Pet Sounds "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" Spirited Away Exile II: Crystal Souls Nethergate Billie Holiday "Nephil's Gambit" Slartibartfast Kierkegaard The Tarot Deck Madeline Kahn The deck of many things Seinfeld Egizia Coffee Croissants Les Misérables (novel) Bossa nova Disco Jiji (character) File compression Sliced bread Bagels Subways (transit) Your favourite anime P-zombies Ducks Deontology Willow Rosenberg Prossis-Bok Working out Nina Simone Sea slugs Ninjas Jiji (in Nikki's lap) Ziggurats Reality TV Tiki drinks Ice cream The Northern Lights Russian literature 70's cars Georg Cantor —Alorael C++ Good grammar Cor Blok's Tolkien art Bacon Falafel Henry Wallace OK Computer Zombies (necromantic) Speedy Gonzales screenshot Sans serif fonts Saunas Linux Vinyl records The aesthetic qualities of the Greek alphabet Maggie Simpson The Queen is Dead Shanti Schuyler Colfax Roguelikes Chess Lady Gaga Lawsuits Wine Jeff Vogel Ravens Smartphones Whiskey The Evil Overlord List Exile III: Ruined World The last game I played Bartenders Sock puppets Flamingos The Chronicles of Narnia "Mr. Green Genes" Penguins Civilization (human phenomenon) Beer Frodo Baggins Bob Dylan Richard Garfield Ontology Cluny the Scourge Ella Fitzgerald Pelicans BitTorrent Nevermind TLC Mexican food Tom Waits 70's prog Sliths Avernum II: Crystal Souls Slarty Ranks Everything Ranking lists "...Gottfried Reads Fifty Shades..." The Cranberries (band) Elephants Donuts Cats Trombones The Muppets The Eiffel Tower Solidarność screenshot Civ II Revolutions Casablanca Avadon series Goldfish (snack) Gilbert Gottfried Football (American) Nephils Princess Peach Star Wars original trilogy James Garfield Jury nullification Avernum 4 Cinnamon rolls Hubble space telescope Aretha Franklin Homestar Runner They Might Be Giants Tennis Posting games Inspector Peanut Subinfeudation Solitaire The Big Lebowski Nelson Rockefeller Goldfish (fish) King Arthur The aesthetic qualities of the Hebrew alphabet Windows 3.1 Carmen McRae Richard Cheese Bark spider Dolphins Metahumor Nixon's foreign policy Sparkling water Grant Wood Paprika Norman Rockwell Nick Cave MMORPGs "This is a Trent Reznor Song" Spam (meat) Cabaret (film) Harry Potter series Peanuts Standard playing cards Google Xian Skull (item) Spam (e-mails) Checkers Facebook Pineapple pizza The LP rendition of Slarty's voice Film noir Abugidas Vitamin C supplements 70's movies New York City Abjads "Lackadaisical" Puggsy Louis Armstrong "Mr. Tambourine Man" The Matrix Godwin's Law The aesthetic qualities of hierogylphics Russian Bimetallism Beowulf (character) Angry Birds Alf screenshot Pyramids with eyes on them Today's weather Microsoft Phantom stair step (bottom) Word Rescue Minecraft Apple Mechanical pencils Vultures Amazon The post that asks me to rank itself Roller skates Greek yogurt KISS (principle) Salty liquorice Westerns Galactic Core Gilmore Girls Hockey George Clooney Friends Getting a triple word score in Scrabble Phantom stair step (top) Turkey/cat video Dieselpunk Life of Brian AOL Zombies (infectious) Hipgnosis Expensive wristwatches Salt lamps Cologne Bertrand Russell My Little Pony 80's fashion Whaling The War on Drugs (band) Queen (band) Fifty Shades of Grey Jane Austen books The Byzantine Empire The Let's Play series Runtz Stubbing your big toe Basketball Baseball "Acceptable in the 80's" (song) Halloween Virtue ethics Cats (musical) Stubbing your little toe Pirates Ennui Charles Dickens "Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros" (song) Soccer Robin Hood (character) Star Wars prequel trilogy Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas the Tank Engine Freefall (webcomic) "2500 things Mr. Welch..." Ethical intuitionism Bumper stickers Novelty mugs Fedoras Deconstructivism ELIZA The Microsoft Office Assistant Kitten/rat box John Calhoun (politician) Mr. Toad of Toad Hall The Xavier Files BGG Top 10 Johnny Cash Sock puppets (fake accounts) KISS The Barber Paradox Elfpunk U2 Wings (band) Steampunk Turnips Fictional names that use a lot of apostrophes Deconstructionism Twilight Saga Anchovy pizza Final Fantasy VIII The Big Bang Theory (TV show) "Stuff from the 90's!" (song) The Olympics Consequentialism The Crusades King Leopold Handlebar mustaches Birthdays

Ugh. That's still a difficult question. I suppose I can answer visceral hatred though Final Fantasy VIII: Whining Squall. Squealing Selphie. Rich kids at prom. Gunblades. A white mage love interest with "Heart" literally in her name. The franchise low-point for translations of "genju" (as GFs), which is really saying something. A stupid, pointless card game mini-game that for some reason people love. A world with zero internal consistency. And the most anti-climactic reveal ever, that the "big secret" of the game is that all the characters came from the same orphanage. But worst of all is the !#@$@! Draw-Junction System. No please no Roller skates: Difficult and pointless The Hubble Space Telescope: gets a bad rap Elephants: I'm pretty OK with elephants Pyramids: Can you be more specific Dogs Square One Television Alphabets Chrono Trigger Cyberpunk Bilbo Baggins Cait Sith Waving Hands Pet Sounds "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" Spirited Away Exile II: Crystal Souls Nethergate Billie Holiday "Nephil's Gambit" Slartibartfast Kierkegaard The Tarot Deck Madeline Kahn The deck of many things Seinfeld Egizia Coffee Croissants Les Misérables (novel) Bossa nova Disco Jiji (character) File compression Sliced bread Bagels Subways (transit) Your favourite anime Ducks Willow Rosenberg Prossis-Bok Working out Nina Simone Sea slugs Ninjas Jiji (in Nikki's lap) Reality TV Tiki drinks Ice cream The Northern Lights Russian literature 70's cars Georg Cantor —Alorael C++ Good grammar Cor Blok's Tolkien art Bacon Falafel Henry Wallace OK Computer Speedy Gonzales screenshot Sans serif fonts Saunas Linux Vinyl records The aesthetic qualities of the Greek alphabet Maggie Simpson The Queen is Dead Shanti Schuyler Colfax Roguelikes Chess Lady Gaga Lawsuits Wine Jeff Vogel Ravens Smartphones Whiskey The Evil Overlord List Exile III: Ruined World The last game I played Bartenders Sock puppets Flamingos The Chronicles of Narnia "Mr. Green Genes" Penguins Civilization (human phenomenon) Beer Frodo Baggins Bob Dylan Richard Garfield Ontology Cluny the Scourge Ella Fitzgerald Pelicans BitTorrent Nevermind TLC Mexican food Tom Waits 70's prog Sliths Avernum II: Crystal Souls Slarty Ranks Everything Ranking lists "...Gottfried Reads Fifty Shades..." The Cranberries (band) Elephants Donuts Cats Trombones The Muppets The Eiffel Tower Solidarność screenshot Civ II Revolutions Casablanca Avadon series Goldfish (snack) Gilbert Gottfried Football (American) Nephils Princess Peach Star Wars original trilogy James Garfield Jury nullification Avernum 4 Cinnamon rolls Hubble space telescope Aretha Franklin Homestar Runner They Might Be Giants Tennis Posting games Inspector Peanut Subinfeudation Solitaire The Big Lebowski Nelson Rockefeller Goldfish (fish) King Arthur The aesthetic qualities of the Hebrew alphabet Windows 3.1 Carmen McRae Richard Cheese Bark spider Dolphins Metahumor Nixon's foreign policy Sparkling water Grant Wood Paprika Norman Rockwell Nick Cave MMORPGs "This is a Trent Reznor Song" Spam (meat) Cabaret (film) Harry Potter series Peanuts Standard playing cards Google Xian Skull (item) Spam (e-mails) Checkers Facebook Pineapple pizza The LP rendition of Slarty's voice Film noir Abugidas Vitamin C supplements 70's movies New York City Abjads "Lackadaisical" Puggsy Louis Armstrong "Mr. Tambourine Man" The Matrix Godwin's Law The aesthetic qualities of hierogylphics Russian Bimetallism Beowulf (character) Angry Birds Alf screenshot Today's weather Microsoft Phantom stair step (bottom) Word Rescue Minecraft Apple Mechanical pencils Vultures Amazon The post that asks me to rank itself Roller skates Greek yogurt KISS (principle) Salty liquorice Westerns Galactic Core Gilmore Girls Hockey George Clooney Friends Getting a triple word score in Scrabble Phantom stair step (top) Turkey/cat video Dieselpunk Life of Brian AOL Hipgnosis Expensive wristwatches Salt lamps Cologne Bertrand Russell My Little Pony 80's fashion Whaling The War on Drugs (band) Queen (band) Fifty Shades of Grey Jane Austen books The Byzantine Empire The Let's Play series Runtz Stubbing your big toe Basketball Baseball "Acceptable in the 80's" (song) Halloween Cats (musical) Stubbing your little toe Pirates Charles Dickens "Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros" (song) Soccer Robin Hood (character) Star Wars prequel trilogy Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas the Tank Engine Freefall (webcomic) "2500 things Mr. Welch..." Bumper stickers Novelty mugs Fedoras ELIZA The Microsoft Office Assistant Kitten/rat box John Calhoun (politician) Mr. Toad of Toad Hall The Xavier Files BGG Top 10 Johnny Cash Sock puppets (fake accounts) KISS The Barber Paradox Elfpunk U2 Wings (band) Steampunk Turnips Fictional names that use a lot of apostrophes Twilight Saga Anchovy pizza Final Fantasy VIII The Big Bang Theory (TV show) "Stuff from the 90's!" (song) The Olympics The Crusades King Leopold Handlebar mustaches Birthdays

ST archery doesn't actually do more damage than AoE magic in A:EFTP (or A2:CS), unless you are fighting extremely weak enemies, because enemy armor increases more and faster than enemy resistance does, as enemies increase in level. "It may be more fun to play, because your party is too powerful even on Torment" Um. See thread title. This whole conversation presupposes that we are min-maxing.

The best and worst RPGs you've played: Honestly, it's hard to even figure out what these are. There are some names that come to mind easily, but a lot of the games I love or hate I love or hate in a given context. Chrono Trigger _might_ be the best -- and perhaps is, if you mean "best" in any overall sense that goes beyond personal favourites -- but it also might not be. On the other hand, how do I evaluate something like Angband, with all its variants, sprawling and sometimes stunning? Or a game that is a little smaller and more niche, but completely exquisite? And as for worst, well, there's even more competition for that Alphabets: so much potential -- <3 Abjads: Rather than getting into the weeds on this somewhat ambiguous term, I will just say that tri-consonantal roots are such a great idea in theory and such a nightmare in practice Abugidas: Annoyingly unphonetic in writing; I hate to say it but I find syllabaries more intuitive Jury nullification: I have very mixed feelings about this, because it has a very mixed impact in terms of power gradients -- it is a mechanism which supports the populace against the government, but also one which supports the majority against the minority. Historically it seems to be a net positive, so I'll lean that way, but it makes me a little uneasy Tiki drinks: Yes please Stubbing your big toe: Not good, but there are worse things Stubbing your little toe: Potentially worse, because of the nail. (Though that can come up with the big toe too) Les Miserables (novel): This I support Charles Dickens: Hate him. Words should be weighed and not counted Harry Potter: It's fine. You know, there are some neat things about it, and other things that feel a little gauche, like a lot of the spell names. Frodo lives The Matrix (ignore the sequels): I watched this in English with French subtitles and I was pretty bored, but amused by how inaccurate some of the translations were Westerns (movie genre): No interest Film Noirs: A vague genre that has more style than substance Apple: How the apple has fallen. That said, Steve Jobs was always a very bad person. I have stories, I do Google: I have problems with them too (including how they are ruining all their interfaces currently) but I guess they are less dumb than your typical dumb company, and they have done some very neat things here and there, like Google TiSP Microsoft: Sighhhhhhh Amazon: Amazon killed the biblio store Facebook: I wish I could hate them more. My feelings here are complicated New York City: Too extraverted and overlapping for me Felafel: Yummy Bumper stickers: My other bumper sticker is also dumb Expensive wristwatches: Even an expensive wristwatch is right twice a day Friends (TV Series): I won't be there for you (except you Lisa Kudrow, I will totally be there for you) Cologne (fragrance): I find most colognes to be too strong and vaguely unpleasant. Not a scent fan Dogs Square One Television Alphabets Chrono Trigger Cyberpunk Bilbo Baggins Cait Sith Waving Hands Pet Sounds "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" Spirited Away Exile II: Crystal Souls Nethergate Billie Holiday "Nephil's Gambit" Slartibartfast Kierkegaard The Tarot Deck Madeline Kahn The deck of many things Seinfeld Egizia Coffee Croissants Les Misérables (novel) Bossa nova Disco Jiji (character) File compression Sliced bread Bagels Subways (transit) Your favourite anime Ducks Willow Rosenberg Prossis-Bok Working out Nina Simone Sea slugs Ninjas Jiji (in Nikki's lap) Reality TV Tiki drinks Ice cream The Northern Lights Russian literature 70's cars Georg Cantor —Alorael C++ Good grammar Cor Blok's Tolkien art Bacon Falafel Henry Wallace OK Computer Speedy Gonzales screenshot Sans serif fonts Saunas Linux Vinyl records The aesthetic qualities of the Greek alphabet Maggie Simpson The Queen is Dead Shanti Schuyler Colfax Roguelikes Chess Lady Gaga Lawsuits Wine Jeff Vogel Ravens Smartphones Whiskey The Evil Overlord List Exile III: Ruined World The last game I played Bartenders Sock puppets Flamingos The Chronicles of Narnia "Mr. Green Genes" Penguins Civilization (human phenomenon) Beer Frodo Baggins Bob Dylan Richard Garfield Ontology Cluny the Scourge Ella Fitzgerald Pelicans BitTorrent Nevermind TLC Mexican food Tom Waits 70's prog Sliths Avernum II: Crystal Souls Slarty Ranks Everything Ranking lists "...Gottfried Reads Fifty Shades..." The Cranberries (band) Donuts Cats Trombones The Muppets The Eiffel Tower Solidarność screenshot Civ II Revolutions Casablanca Avadon series Goldfish (snack) Gilbert Gottfried Football (American) Nephils Princess Peach Star Wars original trilogy James Garfield Jury nullification Avernum 4 Cinnamon rolls Aretha Franklin Homestar Runner They Might Be Giants Tennis Posting games Inspector Peanut Subinfeudation Solitaire The Big Lebowski Nelson Rockefeller Goldfish (fish) King Arthur The aesthetic qualities of the Hebrew alphabet Windows 3.1 Carmen McRae Richard Cheese Bark spider Dolphins Metahumor Nixon's foreign policy Sparkling water Grant Wood Paprika Norman Rockwell Nick Cave MMORPGs "This is a Trent Reznor Song" Spam (meat) Cabaret (film) Harry Potter series Peanuts Standard playing cards Google Xian Skull (item) Spam (e-mails) Checkers Facebook Pineapple pizza The LP rendition of Slarty's voice Film noir Abugidas Vitamin C supplements 70's movies New York City Abjads "Lackadaisical" Puggsy Louis Armstrong "Mr. Tambourine Man" The Matrix Godwin's Law The aesthetic qualities of hierogylphics Russian Bimetallism Beowulf (character) Angry Birds Alf screenshot Today's weather Microsoft Phantom stair step (bottom) Word Rescue Minecraft Apple Mechanical pencils Vultures Amazon The post that asks me to rank itself Greek yogurt KISS (principle) Salty liquorice Westerns Galactic Core Gilmore Girls Hockey George Clooney Friends Getting a triple word score in Scrabble Phantom stair step (top) Turkey/cat video Dieselpunk Life of Brian AOL Hipgnosis Expensive wristwatches Salt lamps Cologne Bertrand Russell My Little Pony 80's fashion Whaling The War on Drugs (band) Queen (band) Fifty Shades of Grey Jane Austen books The Byzantine Empire The Let's Play series Runtz Stubbing your big toe Basketball Baseball "Acceptable in the 80's" (song) Halloween Cats (musical) Stubbing your little toe Pirates Charles Dickens "Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros" (song) Soccer Robin Hood (character) Star Wars prequel trilogy Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas the Tank Engine Freefall (webcomic) "2500 things Mr. Welch..." Bumper stickers Novelty mugs Fedoras ELIZA The Microsoft Office Assistant Kitten/rat box John Calhoun (politician) Mr. Toad of Toad Hall The Xavier Files BGG Top 10 Johnny Cash Sock puppets (fake accounts) KISS The Barber Paradox Elfpunk U2 Wings (band) Steampunk Turnips Fictional names that use a lot of apostrophes Twilight Saga Anchovy pizza The Big Bang Theory (TV show) "Stuff from the 90's!" (song) The Olympics The Crusades King Leopold Handlebar mustaches Birthdays

You want Lilith to explain why she considered something cheating thirteen years ago? -- Anyway, whether or not you consider it cheating, it's definitely somewhere on the [ playing well -- using exploits -- cheating ] continuum. Being able to freely refresh the item stock to access any item you wanted clearly wasn't intended; the shift-codes were there for debugging. (And in Exile III, where the passage of time has in-game effects, it is *clearly* cheating.)