Actaeon

Ice and Fire has a host of well defined characters, but I think Wheel of Time has the upper hand with pure depth of world (lands, peoples, customs, what have you). Neither of them, of course, are Arda, but then... nothing else is.

Though I am not an AIMhacker (trying Skype D&D soon, though, if anyone's interested), I DMed a time travel campaign once. Despite a strong background in time travel fiction, I found it terrifically difficult to satisfy everyone's expectations. So... yeah. Thuryl's got a point.

I admit, I await the next installment of Isam's summary almost as much as A Memory of Light. Okay, that's overstatement, but you get the point. The scope is where Jordan gets me, too, though I originally picked it up for sheer volume.

Just finished a re-read of Sherlock Holmes, precipitated by an earlier encounter with "Sherlock Holmes was Wrong", an interesting piece I would recommend to those with a French sense of humour. I am currently working on "On the Road". It doesn't captivate me the way it seems to have effected that generation, but that is probably to be expected.

That is the general consensus, yes. But it's become such a big deal to the community that many people want to believe the answer is a little more interesting. I mean, it comes right after the showdown at the docks, and it's written so... mysteriously. If it's Graendal, it lacks any real plot significance, and that's hard to let go of.

Well, darn. I'm glad my bank is usually on top of these things.

As someone who started with the Geneforge series and had to shift focus to play either, I found the Avernum series more appealing. I'm not sure I'd start with the most recent games, as the older engines are more frustrating once you've played their modern counterparts, but if you intend to stick to that plan, I'd got with A6.

Precisely what I was trying to convey by the comparison. In fact, I'd much prefer to be called on my errors. That's what dialogue is all about.

 

Staying on topic helps, too. With regards to this topic, while the symptoms have been discussed, I'd like to hear the prognosis. If SoT is right, Winter is Coming. If he's not... well, it might be a more Ragnarok style season.

 

What are we up against? What are the "problems we've been able to ignore for generations" ?

I'm generally working through one book and print and another in audio, plus whatever I'm assigned for class. That's about the limit of my multitasking.

One of my very first posts was shredded to pieces by Alec. I've crossed paths with TM over at Shadow Vale. My skin is entirely thick enough to handle Slarty's analysis. I apologized because I actually felt off base. After all, my point had already been made more effectively by Kelandon. That actually happens more than you'd expect.

Karoka is likely aware that there is a long tradition of third person reference at Spiderweb that a mere sorceress would be foolish to combat.

I'll risk a bit of a tangent to ask... are we ever GOING to see repeat space travel? The United States no longer has the ability to go to the moon or, for the moment, orbit. It's been more than forty years, and we have yet to establish any sort of permanent structure up there, make any progress toward putting a man on mars, and we're not even pulling our weight in the space station any more. And I just don't see the private sector pulling off something on that scale any time soon. That leaves... the Russians and the Chinese, I guess.

/end rant.

We perceive this method as cheating, but are also amused by it.

It would be rather silly to avoid one part of speech and not its associated terms. However, "us" and "we" include other individuals, and would probably be permissible. As it is as much an interesting exercise as a challenge, it's up to the taste of the poster. One could even dismiss the proposed structure and simply respond to the question of how language and thought are linked.

Uncle Mike (Burgess) once claimed to have spent a week eschewing the word "I", and was embarrassed to discover how many of his statements had "himself as the real subject".

 

This thread, therefore, is intended to experiment with that concept.If any group of people could converse without self reference, it's Spiderweb. Well, not Aloreal, but an exception can certainly be made in that case. If he (she/it...) were to post without a trademark signature, the board would implode and leave a wasteland beyond anything in Dikiyoba's stories.

 

The question, of course, is whether such an endeavor is worthwhile. There have been many movements to change the way things are expressed (E-Prime being a notable one). Thought and speech are, many people believe, a feedback loop. Passive voice denotes passive opinion, and perpetuates it.

 

Others would assert that the artful use of the passive, the mundane, "to be", or even "I" can have great impact. What do you think?

If the series was up for Mac, too, I'd buy them all again just to save the trouble of getting new keys. Geneforge brought me to Spiderweb, and while I like the rest of Jeff's games, that's the source of my loyalty.

 

Edit: It's nice to see a new round of fans here. In case you haven't already been greeted, welcome to Spiderweb, leave your sanity at the door.

Balefire gets a bit more fleshed out as the series progresses, particularly in "Fires of Heaven". Based on what's been written, I think it's safe to say that Moiraine might have overstated it somewhat.

 

The plot point that really amuses me is Ta'veren: it's the ultimate cop-out for "farm boy to general/lord/etc" syndrome. Not that most fantasy doesn't do something of the sort, but just not usually so blatantly.

I apologize again for making a factual statement without checking first, Slarty. I am not alone among my peers in feeling as though the internet has always been, but most of my fellows are probably smart enough not to behave as if they know what they're talking about unless they do.

 

Terms like "internet" and "web" were once specific and well defined, but I admit that the lines are quite blurred to me. I would have said that, if something can be kept up to date remotely, it possesses an element of the internet, whether or not all the data is actually hosted on a server.

 

Regardless, I did not intend one example to make or break the point. The issue at hand is whether and how much progress has been made in recent years. I asserted that, from a day-to-day life perspective, it has been more a matter of superior implementation than brand new ideas.

I should probably refrain from making statements about "the early 1990s", as I was not a terribly aware creature during that period. To me, the internet yields itself to nothing better than the storage and access of knowledge. I see form a bit of research that the idea didn't really come up until late 1993, and that Interpedia never got off the ground. However, I was under the impression that Encarta started some online distribution in that range, and that some private or payed databases had approached a size to be considered encyclopedic.

 

If that is not the case, then it speaks to the innovation of the last decade.

From what I've seen, the last twenty years have taken mostly existing technology and built an impressive infrastructure for it.

 

Our access to the internet has become drastically faster and more mobile, and is practically taken for granted across the generational and financial spectrum. There were internet accessible encyclopedias in the early 1990s, but Wikipedia blows them away with accessibility and content generation. You could shop online, but it wasn't putting whole nationwide chains out of business. DVDs only came out in 1995, and now they're swiftly being replaced by online streaming and distribution, along with music, periodicals and (*shudder*) books.

 

I was under the impression that our economic crisis was less a function of declining technological progress, and more a symptom of the United States' declining role in that progress. I am not, however, an expert, and thus look forward to the continuation of this thread.

It's a separately hosted site, like elgooG or lmgtfy. I particularly enjoy it once the searches start stacking up.

http://mrdoob.com/projects/chromeexperiments/google_gravity/

I have a tendency to shoot landscapes devoid of people, so in an attempt to compensate, as well as give the impression of an active social life:

 

Clavicle |Cowboy | Photographer

I have also noticed that most areas that seem, to me, distinctly "suburban" are largely residential with very centralized commercial centers. No corner drug store or butcher in the suburbs. That could be a vast generalization, though.

I suppose I meant more along the lines of "I've finished Avadon... what Spiderweb game should I play next?". That limits the pool of options, aquatints new community members with the other series (which are referenced often enough to cause confusion in a non-player), and hopefully helps Jeff's bottom line a smidge.

How quick is the learning curve on this for someone who's already quite familiar with D&D 3.5? Obviously this one is already in progress, but the next time you start from scratch, I'd be interested.