T w e n t y S i d e d

Hey, everyone. I hate to have another non-content day, especially with so many things actually in the works. I took a nap and planned to finish up my weekly post afterward. Instead I got hit with a lot of negative stimuli that sent me spiraling. Thankfully I noticed and arrested the fall, but now I have to re-organize and build myself back up.

I have an analysis of Labyrinth in the works, by the way. My spouse and I thoroughly discussed the overt narrative and distinguished that from the sexual overtones. After reaching our conclusions, I spent a bit of time researching to see how much was intentional…how the sexual stuff got in and related to the rest of it. You can step back and go cross-eyed and it all pretty neatly fits together as long as you can’t see the details that interconnect. And don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying it’s a problem or done poorly (not exactly). Just that there are really two stories, or a big story and a little story, that are complementary but don’t really intersect properly.

I have more Villagers & Heroes content, or at least I think I do. I’m not sure how far this stuff is going to play. The game is *fun,* but there’s also no way around the fact that you’re just playing an abstract version of World of Warcraft. Is there a place for that? I think so. I haven’t really made up my mind.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is testing texture updates for the player character models. Updated higher-resolution player characters have been requested for years, of course; but the reviews of the current efforts on the test server are NOT glowing. Everyone is saying (and showing in screenshots) that the cumulative effect of the update doesn’t really seem to do anything more than make almost every character look twenty years older. Now, if that was a *toggle* that you could flip to reflect that your character has aged that much from the beginning of the game, or maybe a character aging option, that would be fine. Neat, even. As the default? I’m not sure that’s the desired effect, and I have a hard time believing that was the intention for every texture. I mean, there *are* people just now coming to the game and starting out with their own twenty-year-old farm boys and girls, you know?

Connelly was cast at 14 years old to play a character listed, depending on the script you reference, as 13, 14, 15, or 16 years old. She was, of course, 16 when the film was released. Henson chose her after several script revisions, and one of three other actresses were on the short-list, none of whom were Connelly. While specific references are hard to find these days, Connelly was selected after Henson chose to bring out more of the sexual elements of the story (this was after David Bowie was brought on to play the Goblin King.) I can’t find the reference anymore, but Connelly’s rapidly maturing appearance when they started filming *was* noted, and it probably highlighted the sexual overtones a lot more than was originally intended. More on that…some other time.

Paige Francis He/him

Let’s do something new. I watched a video months ago of someone trying free MMORPG’s on Steam, and this was one of the few that actually scored highly. It is, to be clear, a mobile game that’s also available on PC. Of course, so is Genshin Impact, and Honkai Star Rail, and other especially Korean MMO’s that generally pass for AAA game titles…and certainly compete with and even outdo them. But I think it will be obvious as soon as you load the character creator that Villagers & Heroes seems to occupy a place closer to those 2010’s games that were designed for mobile use, and THEN got PC versions. You know, when you blow up the graphics to an actual 1920×1080 (or bigger) monitor, the simplified textures and reduced polygons that you can’t see on a phone screen become blatant.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Cold Opening: Villagers & Heroes”

Paige Francis He/him

I wrote out the prologue of The Old Republic smuggler story a couple of weeks ago. What I left out was the characterization. For all characters, the player is presented with three responses to every dialogue option with few exceptions. There are actually several different characterizations that could be represented in these interactions; they don’t always align to the same three concepts. That’s in addition to choices that can affect your Light Side/Dark Side alignment, *and* the occasional option that can raise the influence level with your companion. Light Side/Dark Side and companion influence choices are *mostly* consistent, but I’m pretty sure every companion has some nonsensical options. And for what it’s worth, former writers and producers of the game have confirmed some of these as mistakes that got missed on play-testing. The remaining dialogue can be used for character-building, if that’s your thing. As a reference, the Imperial Agent can repeatedly choose options that establish her character as (in my case): Pro-Imperial/Bureaucracy, Anti-Sith, opposed to the Empire’s xenophobic policies, in favor of quick, practical assassinations as solutions to problems, independent and dismissive of anyone other than her own subordinates, and supremely confident. And that’s just the subset.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “SWTOR: The Smuggler WAHOG”

Paige Francis He/him