A SPOILER-Filled Discussion of The Force Awakens

Scooter and I went to see The Force Awakens a second time, and while it hasn't quite been two weeks since the opening, I wanted to get down some of my thoughts regarding specific story beats in the film. Obviously, there are spoilers involved, so I am going to hide the bulk of this post behind a break.

My Fandom Awakens [SPOILER FREE]

If you're reading this, you're likely to have already decided to go see Star Wars: The Force Awakens, or have already seen it. But if not, I highly recommend it, especially for even the most casual fan of the franchise.

What can I say? I was not disappointed. I know that sounds like faint praise. But as a part of the generation that saw the Original Trilogy in theaters and then suffered through the prequels, I hope you can appreciate the impact of those words. The Force Awakens is simply awesome. I have only praise for the filmmakers.

Beginning with the script, Lawrence Kasdan proves once again his skill in making the SW Galaxy come alive with believable dialogue. Based on what I have read, I wonder how much of Michael Arndt's (a capable screenwriter) original script remains after Kasdan and J.J. Abrams got done with it. Abrams' decision to go with mostly practical locations, effects, and aliens (along with the selective use of CGI) was perfectly fitting with the OT, giving the film a feeling of physicality that is often lacking in the prequels. Finally, the actors themselves give awesome performances. Daisy Ridley and [John] Boyega are a delight. (I can't believe I just wrote that phrase, but they are.) And they are well supported by the rest of the cast, both old and new.

While I have a few questions the movie doesn't answer, I am satisfied with the story I got. Well, actually, I'm not satisfied. For the first time in three decades, I walked out of a Star Wars movie eagerly anticipating the next.

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The [Spoiler Free] Force Awakens

As are many others, I am a longtime fan of Jimmy Fallon's musical numbers, often shared on YouTube and elsewhere. I'm also huge fan of a capella music. Here we have a mash-up even better than Pentatonix' Star Wars Medley from the AMAs:

And just because it is the right time of the year, here's the one that made me a fan of Jimmy Fallon: Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas Is You" (with Classroom Instruments):

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to this blog. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Rowan l'Artiste

Have you ever heard of Painting With a Twist? I have been aware of the company for a while, but had never really looked into attending a class until a few weeks ago when my stepson suggested that we go try it out. So there we were, Scooter and I, along with her sons, about to have an adventure in pigments. The "Twist" is optional of course; and in fact, our class was full of kids, due to a soccer team post-season event.

Of course, we started with a blank canvas. So much potential.

If you've ever watched Bob Ross, you know that you never paint details onto a blank canvas, there s always a base coat. In our case, that background was black.

Using chalk, the outline of the project begins to take shape. Unfortunately, at this point, we got so busy actually painting that I neglected to take any more in-progress photos and only have the finished art below.

Hooray for Star Wars! I was tempted to add a crossguard to the Sith blade, but went for something a little more classic. I saw one lady use purple and green, and I considered green for my Jedi blade, but thought that might look too Christmas-y. On the other hand, Christmas-y would have been perfect for this time of year.

I hesitate to show the original model painting, but here it is. Scooter and I decided that when we go next time, we'll study the model a bit more closely, so we have a better idea of what we're aiming for.

Eventually, when our game room is up and running, our lightsaber paintings will be hung in a place of honor. But for now, I brought mine to work, where I can show it off above the jolly roger hanging in my office.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to this blog. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Chores and Rewards

Syp has a post up about logging into a bunch of games to get login rewards and do basic "chores" before logging out again. Scooter and I were just talking last night—early this morning, actually—about daily logins and monthly patron/subscription rewards. (On a side note, how is "login" not in the default Firefox spelling dictionary?) Discussing GW2, Scooter didn’t like the idea of logging in and basically leveling a character to max without ever actually playing GW2. Rift has a similar daily login reward system—at least for patrons—but without the leveling boosts, if I recall correctly.

While I am perfectly willing to pickup a reward just for logging into a game, I am generally disinclined to log in solely for the reward. I have on occasion logged in regularly simply to do "chores" like repeatable quests for a larger reward, like during seasonal events. But that's only when I don't have time for more. And I become less inclined to chase such rewards the older I get.

The Hype Train Derails

Meanwhile, and I am late to the party here, the folks at BioWare announced, during the recent livestream, a monthly subscriber reward program.

Thanks to Vulkk for posting that, since BioWare apparently didn't. And GRATZ to my old guild leader Maric (@PaganRites) for getting his tweet featured, among others (top right, starting about 7:02).

I kinda see monthly reward programs as bonuses for playing the game; I would not subscribe to any game only for the rewards. So I have no issue with the program as announced. But as Syp pointed out in his rehash of the December Livestream: "BioWare is the most begrudging studio I’ve ever seen when it comes to its free-to-play model. It has it. It offers it. And it clearly loathes that it’s had to include it." For some people—including me for the longest time—SWTOR's atrocious F2P program keeps them from playing at all, much less subscribing. And if I decide to stop subscribing I lose all sorts of quality-of-life perqs, not just an XP bonus and such. And non-subscribers are limited in how much of the MMO aspects of the game they can participate in, from PvP battlegrounds to group instances. More on that later.

Contrast that with, say, Trion Worlds and Rift, which has just about the most generous loyalty program out there. You can play whatever aspect of the game you like as much as you like completely for free, and most of the patron perqs simply add to that. And the more you spend, the more loyalty points you get. And the loyalty rewards NEVER go away.

Let's Role

A lot of people were disappointed in the subscriber rewards leading up to the release of Knights of the Fallen Empire, and were again disappointed by the already announced subscriber/loyalty rewards relating to the companion character HK-55. I see reactions like, "We already have an HK droid. We already have enough companions." I don't have much of an opinion either way, to be honest. I don't have an HK-51; I don't have a Treek companion either. I saw no need—even before the new, more versatile, companion system—to get another companion when I was likely to only use a couple of the companions I had already anyway.

Seriously, of the stories I've played through, Scourge is the only final companion I've used while questing, and only because I got him after the new system launched, and it's funny to make him my healer. The final companion usually comes so late in the game that I've already established a playstyle with one of the others, and I don't need a new one. If this were more like Dragon Age, where I was forming parties with my companions, I could understand having more than one. As it is, only the new system allowing me to pick my companion's combat role has induced me to switch companions as they join my crew (which means basically, only my smuggler Heliantha).

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic

Getting back to HK-55 (and HK-related stuff, I assume) as a subscriber reward: meh. While I agree that the eightish-month sustained subscription during a specific time frame seems a little much for that extra story (no a la carte option?), monthly gifts are not why I subscribe to SWTOR any more than TSW's monthly gifts were the reason I subscribed there. I subscribe to SWTOR to play the game freely, without restrictions.

Meanwhile, many players are disappointed by the lack of new MMO content in SWTOR. While BioWare has obviously been focusing on the essentially single player Story experience, they have neglected creating new operations (raids) and PvP battlegrounds. These people don't have enough to do, and the subscriber rewards that have been announced are not much inducement to stick around. I do sympathize with them. But since my appreciation of "group content" at this stage is limited to the Story stuff Scooter and I do together, I am not a strong advocate for more raids and PvP. We haven't even done much by way of Alliance building, since those conversations are totally solo. I can't even watch Scooter's confabs, and vice versa. (I assume any missions can be done together.) We're busy bringing up our newer characters to get legendary status. I kinda hope that doesn't bite us in the butt when Ep X comes out in February.

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IntPiPotpourri

And so we come to the end of International Picture Posting Month. I hope this is a strong finish, though it is a bit eclectic. Seeing how as it is #MirialanMonday (for those in the know), I'll start off with a couple of my favorite recent pics. Heliantha (me) and Lulara (Scooter) are toiling away on Balmorra now. It's fun to see Heelee's many faces. Achillea, my trooper and Heelee's older sister, is ever the professional soldier. Heelee, the Smuggler, is a lot more expressive.

In this first pic, it looks like someone stole her puppy. (How about that duster, though? Njessi would probably kill me for putting my green-skinned beauty in a red coat.)

While she's generally a good character, Heelee gets to be a sarcastic butt a lot of the time. (Here, she's channeling her inner Han Solo. I kept her original "scamp" clothes from character creation and just this past Saturday outfitted Risha in the top and boots.)

And don't make Heelee angry. You wouldn't like her when she's angry. At the first sign of a boasting threat, Heliantha's likely to put a blaster bolt through someone. Par for the course in this game, but it felt really cool to take out an entire cantina full of thugs at the opening of Chapter 2.

And then there's Lulara, calm, serene . . . and gorgeous in that white and mint green ensemble she picked up on Alderaan.

Just look at the detail on her tunic. All too often, the costumes in this game seem a little plain, then you see something like this. (In the conversation I got this shot from, Heliantha is speaking. But for some reason, the camera was trained on Lulu.)

If Mirialans are not to your liking, how about some epic space shots? I like this one with Heelee's XS Freighter, silhouetted against a nearby star as it leaves Carrick Station (the Republic Fleet).

A space shot without a player ship in it! The Republic Valor-class cruiser Fortitude returns to its orbit following a harrowing descent into the atmosphere of Deralia.

I've been trying to get a decent shot of Lightspeed/Hyperspace, but it's hard to position my character properly. This one is pretty interesting, I think, with the characteristic streaking stars transitioning into the waves of hyperspace itself. (No wonder they need nav computers.)

This one is slightly more artful, taken by Heliantha from the central passageway of Lulara's Defender.

I've also been making progress on my Knight, Zarzamora. He and Lord Scourge are getting along famously. (Though, in a bug similar to Vector's impeccable imitation of Kaliyo, Scourge does a perfect Sgt. Rusk.)

"Don't cross the streams!"

And lastly, how about a few actions shots? I feel like I should try to take more of these with the user interface hidden, especially now that I have some buttons floating in the middle left of the screen.

But I do love the way the lightsaber effects look. (Don't ask why Zarzamora's crystal is hot pink. It made sense at the time.)

This brings my personal total to 55 pics. It was rougher than I thought it would be. Congratulations to everyone who completed IntPiPoMo, 50 pics in 30 days!

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to this blog. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Lulara the Luminous

We're nearing the end of IntPiPoMo, and I need to make a strong finish. Since late October, when Scooter and I ran through the KotFE content on Glember and Morrenia, we've been focusing on brand new characters Lulara and Heliantha. While I enjoy the flirt and sass of my pigtailed Smuggler, Scooter has taken on the more serious character and storyline of the Jedi Consular, reflecting the Mirialan archetypes Luminara Unduli and Bariss Offee. (All these pics are from our latest trip across Nar Shaddaa.)

Speak softly, and carry a big Trandoshan. Qyzen Fess will not put up with your crap.

While Heliantha hands out free tickets to the gun show, you can see Lulara racing into the action.

Where I might have jumped to Tharan Cedrax (and his holographic helpmate, Holiday) at the end of Nar Shaddaa, Scooter has stuck with her trusty Trandoshan.

"Darth Lulara" has a nice ring to it. Just put on a haughty air and make a few threats.

IntPiPoMo is here! Chestnut has details, but the TL;DR is 50 pics in 30 days. With only a few more days, get to it! And let Chestnut know in the comments on her post.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to this blog. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

A Different Kind of Game

In a bit of a departure—OK, a massive departure—from our typical weekend gaming, Scooter and I had the opportunity to attend a sport almost unheard of on these storied pages: American Football. A local high school we have an interest in made it to the 6A (school size) area playoffs, meaning a trip to AT&T Stadium, the home field of the Dallas Cowboys.

How exciting it was for these young athletes to storm the field in a major sports arena. The stadium will hold 80,000 rabid football fans. Not so many showed up for this high school tournament, but there were still plenty of fans on both sides.

We were rooting for the Greywolves to beat the Stallions. Both teams had dominated their respective local leagues and now were coming together for the first time to compete.

Like many sporting events, American Football (especially in Texas) is steeped in ritual and tradition. Every game begins with playing the national anthem and honoring the American flag, as well as those who defend it. Usually, this ceremony is handled by members of the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC).

Scooter and I got prime seats (we'd never normally be able to afford) in the mezzanine right on the 50-Yard line. We also got a parking spot (normally reserved for VIPs) as close as you can get to the stadium entrance without having disability license plates. Unfortunately, I didn't think to snap a picture of that.

I ended up spending half the game watching spectacular plays like this one on the "Jumbotron" view-screen that sat above the field (also visible in the flag ceremony picture). The only bigger screen in Texas belongs to a nearby NASCAR track, Texas Motor Speedway.

Not only the football teams, but also other organizations like the marching bands, got the thrill of a lifetime performing at Cowboy Stadium.

The Greywolves defense kept the normally high-scoring Stallions to a single touchdown, and the teams were tied at the end of regulation play.

Unfortunately, after a round of overtime, the Stallions came out ahead by a point. The final score was 14-13. Congratulations to the Stallions on their victory. And also congratulations to the Greywolves on their spectacular run this year. They had the best football season in the history of the decade-old high school.


IntPiPoMo is here! Chestnut has details, but the TL;DR is 50 pics in 30 days. Get to it! And let Chestnut know in the comments on her post.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to this blog. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

swtor IN SPACE!

Getting pictures of starscapes in Star Wars: The Old Republic involves capturing a lot of rocket engines. But they are worth it for the beauty. Let's start off with a fairly recent pic, Morrenia's Sith Fury, the Tempest, on approach to the Imperial station at Ziost. The pale blue world was beautiful . . . before.

Our second pic is actually part of a pair. Rowanblaze's (yes, I have a character named thus) Defender, Tranquility, getting ready to land on the Smuggler's Moon over Nal Hutta.

We learn a couple things as the Tempest nears the Vertical City. First, that Imps land at a different time of the month than Pubs, but around the same time of day (or night). Second, Nar Shaddaa is not tidal locked the way our own moon is.

Achillea's BT-7 Thunderclap, Havoc's Honor, moves to land on Tatooine, the planet farthest from the bright center of the universe. (And yet, still pretty bright.)

This is one of my favorite SWTOR pics, and the one that graces the desktop of my gaming rig. This time, Silverleaf's D5-Mantis, Wayfarer, departs the Imperial Dreadnought Tyrant, in orbit of Corellia.

The next few pics show the marked increase in detail BioWare devoted to cutscenes in the Rise of the Hutt Cartel and Shadow of Revan expansions. In the first, Wayfarer plies its way through an asteroid field in the Prelude to SoR.

Here, we find Wayfarer on approach to the Pirate Haven, Rishi, with the Rishi Maze spiraling in the background.

Finally, the Tempest peels off, setting course for Ziost after receiving a distress signal from an old friend.

I hope you've enjoyed this ever so brief tour of the Galaxy. We didn't even have to leave the ship.

IntPiPoMo is here! Chestnut has details, but the TL;DR is 50 pics in 30 days. Get to it! And let Chestnut know in the comments on her post.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to this blog. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.